Hidden Gems in New Hope, PA

New Hope Pennsylvania is home to many specialty shops filled designer shoes, clothes, accessories, and “chachkes,” as my Mom calls sophisticated junk.  The price range is fairly high due to the influx of tourists and wealthy residents.  While most bargain hunters would probably stay away from New Hope for that fact, I look at it as a HUGE plus.  The second-hand consignment and vintage shops are filled with expensive, high quality fashion for very cheap prices.  And yours truly has supplied you with a list of the hidden gems.

Remember though I’m only supplying you with the name of the stores, it’s up to you to find the bargains!  Follow @ElleMagazine for fashionable trends, or @Andreeeam or me of course, and head to New Hope!

First up is Night Bird Vintage Clothing located at 12 W Mechanic St New Hope, PA 18938.  This store has 60s and 70s style vintage clothing and accessories.  The prices are very reasonable for the type of clothing and where they originated from.  For the most part shirts are $20, hats $15, dresses $45, and jackets for $70 which is an UNREAL deal for the quality of the jacket.

New Hope Apparel, located at 124 S Main St. New Hope, PA 18938 is a great spot for sweaters, leggings and accessories.  They used to carry a lot of American Eagle and Abercrombie and Fitch but I think they’ve caught on to the new trend and looked to start bringing in more unique accessories.  They carry Yoki and Look at me as well as CC Exclusive… for cheap!!!

Fred Eisen Leather is a very unique leather store that sells high quality products (bags, briefcases, shoes, belts) at pretty fair prices.  The owners are extremely friendly and the store has a warm homey feel to it.  My favorite piece in the store was BearPaw boots for $110.  I also bought myself a one-of-a-kind leather bracelet for only $8!

Thirteen Vintage lives by their motto “a lifestyle boutique.”  It has to be one of the most unique stores I’ve ever been in.  There is childrens’ clothing and accessories such as Hello Kitty, CDs, vinyls, books, magazines, and a lot of Punk and Indie t-shirts.  The clothing selection is unbelievable – too much to choose from!  My favorite is the shoe and jewelry selection.  They have a lot of trendy earrings and necklaces and so many vintage necklaces….at really great prices!!  And then there are the shoes.  Extremely fashionable and very large price range.  My favorite are the khaki boots with white fur on the inside.  Perfect for the cold weather!

My most favorite shop in the New Hope area is definitely Greene Street Consignment in Lambertville, 14 E. Bridge Street.  I receive compliments on all of the clothes that I have purchased from here.  This definitely is the hot spot for designer clothing!!  These wealthy women don’t know what they are throwing away!  They have the best prices around (the shoes pictured below, $22) and the shop is so cute… the dressing room is my favorite part.

Rices Flea Market held on Tuesdays, Saturdays, and select holidays is located at 6323 Greenhill Road.  There are many chachkes, take-offs, perfumes, infomercial type items, trendy clothes and accessories, and just some weird junk.  My favorite stands allowed me to photograph their products (obviously because it is real stuff.  The women selling the take-offs were very angry at me for trying to photograph their items).

Photographed below are items from The Element Collections.  They bring in jewelry from Manhattan and Philadelphia.  Their prices are extremely reasonable…. they even have a $10 section (bottom photo).  And sorry folks, I bought the ribbon gold necklace!

Junk or some serious finds??  I’ll leave it up to you, but rings and necklaces for $5 each?  And a very friendly retired old man who fixes watches and rings for free just “to make people happy”  Hey, I’ll buy from him.

And finally we have Milan.  Garments from all over the world, Italy, Spain, Egypt.  BCBG, Michael Kohrs, Dior, Free People.  VERY GOOD PRICES.  And remember, this stuff is real because he allowed me to photograph it!  Get to rices!!!!

Social Networks and the Peer Socialization Change

Steering away from my photography for a second and examining a piece of literature that influences my work and impacts everyone, Why Youth Heart Social Network Sites by Danah Boyd…. WhyYouthHeartSocialNetworkSites

When I first joined MySpace in 2004 I didn’t know anyone; I friended strangers and they friended me.  We were the pioneers.  Even though I used it as an escape from my day to day life filled with “real” relationships,  I posted true information and began to find people with common interests.  Once it began to gain popularity, I stopped friending strangers because it was coined as weird, or as a “MySpace whore.”  I deleted MySpace and joined Facebook where I limited my social networking only with people who I knew in real life.  Soon I began to use Facebook only as a tool to share pictures and stay connected with old classmates.  Today I have come back to friending strangers, not on MySpace but on Twitter.  These strangers have contributed to my knowledge of current events, new trends, and have encouraged me to promote my passions.  They have helped me to brand myself in a way I never could have before.

Social network sites like MySpace and Facebook deem to be the a new public sphere to hang out but since the invention of Twitter, they have veered away from the socializing with strangers and classmates to a more efficient way of receiving personalized information.  The rate in which teenagers read and interpret information is much faster than teenagers of any other generation have ever experienced before.  As generations change, so do the norms; the social network phenomenon may play a large role in the peer socialization change.  Teenagers in 2010 have found a way to effortlessly integrate their virtual presence with their interpersonal manifestation.  Boyd states:

“The process of learning to read social cues and react accordingly is core to being socialized into a society.  While the process itself begins at home for young children, it is critical for young people to engage in broader social settings to develop these skills.”

But if the new “sphere” or “society” is on social networking sites and no longer in the home, then it is time for parents, doctors, and specialists to let go of the idea that teenagers will be scarred from online interaction.  Every age group is experiencing the revolution of the Internet at the same time, therefore masking the true meaning of “normal behavior.”  It will continue to shape old and young minds for the better and the worse whether parents try to monitor Internet activity or not.

www.senseoffashion.com/sunnyandandrea

Throughout my academia, I have had many professors that have required the class to come up with entrepreneurial ideas.  Assignments like this have always tickled my fancy.  I just love having the freedom to do whatever I want, however I want.  And my favorite part is pitching the idea to my audience because my passion just flows out of my mouth without the help of my brain.

So recently I decided to implement one of my ideas.  This isn’t a unique, new idea like Facebook (I’m saving that idea for when I graduate.)  But anyway, my friend Andrea @andreeam and I now offer an online refurbished vintage clothing store.  Andrea and I purchase the clothing together, she styles the outfit, and I photograph the model.

www.senseoffashion.com/sunnyandandrea

Pumkin Pickin

My idea of relaxing after a week of JPMC, classes, and homework….is pumpkin and apple picking.  I went to Abbott Farms in Baldwinsville, about 15 minutes from Syracuse to find that the apples came two weeks early this year, so there would be no picking.  Instead I helped myself to one of the five barrels filled with apples.  One red and one green.

Andrea, Sean, and I spent a lot of time in the pumpkin patch.  At times we were too picky, ditching the deformed ones, without a stem ones, dirty ones or too heavy ones.  But without a doubt we found two perfect pumpkins, plucked them from the ground, held them like babies (not by the stem!) and paid for them according to size.

And of course we couldn’t leave until we saw some real live farm animals.

1960s

About four years ago I had no interest in fashion.  My daily attire consisted of baggy sweatpants, usually branded with a UNC or Syracuse logo and a water polo, lacrosse, or basketball tshirt from my high school.  But after meeting and becoming best friends with my current roommate Andrea, I soon became enthralled with clothing and accessories.  It’s funny that an IT gal and a fashion major can be such good friends.  While I get assigned to set up a wireless infrastructure for a non-profit organization in downtown Syracuse, she gets to style and photograph a 1960s photoshoot. Definitely jealous.

She styled each outfit and chose the location accordingly; Elizabeth was photographed by Andrea in Beverly MA and Sean was photographed by me in downtown Syracuse.

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The Gorillas have escaped

I’ve always had a love for animals.  I remember back in Kindergarten when asked what I wanted to be I answered with vet.  And although today I don’t want to be a vet, I still have an interest in animals.  I’ve always photographed my cat Bella (because she is gorgeous and the best kitty ever) but while in Australia, I gained an new found appreciation for animal photography.  I took pictures and videos of emus, koalas, dingos, kangaroos, bats, wallaroos, wallabys, and my most favorite was fish underwater!  Most of this passion-finding took place on my Spring Break to Cairns, Australia.

Being back in the States (Syracuse, New York) isn’t only a drag, but very uninspiring!  After waking up with a desire to photograph some animals, I resentfully went to the Syracuse Zoo.  It is hardly comparable to the Philadelphia Zoo, because it only has about ten interesting animals including Asian Elephants, endangered Red Wolves, Red Panda, Specataled Bears, Snow Leopards, Lynx, and Penguins.  While it gave me a chance to practice animal photography, my friend Sean tried to scare little kids by yelling that the Gorillas have escaped.

New York City Getaway

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Some say living at the beach for the summer is the best, but it definitely can get old, especially after a break up.  I decided to go from seagulls to doves, sand to pavement, and martinis at the sandbar to….well martinis on rooftop bars.

New York City…..

Passion.

I had a pretty big realization today.  Actually it wasn’t a realization, because it’s blantantly obvious.  It just made me think.

You can do anything you want to do.

I always thought that was just a saying but the more years under my belt, the more I see how it really is true.  When I was younger I was fascinated by electronics.  I would tell my mom I was going downstairs “to play” but that really meant hacking into my brother’s old computer from college  and connecting our house telephone line to the internet port.  Once I figured out how to upload my own pictures, I spent hours online adding them to photobucket and myspace.  The next hobby was the video camera.  I used this to film and edit family vacations, as well as my high school’s varsity boys basketball team’s games.  And in class I edited short films, documentaries and commercials.  Multimedia had become my passion.

As I began applying to college, I felt a little discouraged because there was nothing that I was strongly interested in.  I didn’t want to be a lawyer, a doctor, or a businesswoman.  I never thought it was possible to do “my passion.”  A hobby can’t be a job!

Right now I am on the brink of an amazing opportunity involving multimedia.  I cannot wait to learn and finally put my unique skill set to use.

I couldn’t contain my excitement so I searched for some multimedia editing software for my macbook pro and came across Aperture.  It’s picture/video/sound editing software that seems usable because it allows you to incorporate different modes of communication.  Love this video, so inspirational.

http://www.apple.com/aperture/action/frakes/