NYC Trip - Brooklyn Book Festival Haul & MUJI drawers!

Oct 2

Hello!

It's been awhile since I've posted anything. Quick life update, if you read my Fitness Haul post you'd know that I had injured myself earlier this summer and had to go to physical therapy. This past month I actually had to do another round for my shoulder which is a flare up from an old injury which again took a lot of my time and energy away from being able to post. I am currently knee-deep in creating my calendar for the rest of the year so you can expect consistent content in all books, beauty and lifestyle posts.

Today I'm going to share with you my recent long-awaited/much needed mini NJ/NYC vacation where I went to the Brooklyn Book Fair and did a bit of shopping with Saudia (The Drowsy Reader).

Brooklyn Book Festival

This was my first opportunity since May that I went out of town for fun. I worked all summer and actually coordinated a youth program in Philly so I was not able to travel. It was an incredible 5 days of catching up, shopping and watching Parks and Rec. I expect no less obviously since as of last month Saudia and I have been friends for a decade.

We went into the city Sunday for the Brooklyn Book Festival. We took the train to Penn Station had breakfast at Andrew's Diner and then took the 2 to Borough Hall. This is our second year attending the Brooklyn Book Festivals which by the way is free if you live near the city. The day started out quite dreary. We kinda knew it was going to rain and there was renovation going on at the park where the festival is held so there were significantly less vendors this year.

So as I mentioned, the day was not as exciting as we originally had planned but then we found this other are of the festival after the construction area and that was when the day turned at least for me. There was a Penguin Audio book stand with a prize wheel and my spin landed me a free audiobook of my choosing. There wasn't that many to choose from and I don't listen to audiobooks very often and if I do I would use audible and not a physical cd. They were kind enough to let me trade it for a shirt.

As we were waiting for the prize wheel I actually had a peek at the next table and I had a feeling I was going to spend some money because I saw the penguin classic mugs that I've been wanting for ages cause I see it all the time when I'm at the Library of Congress. It's actually an independent book store with the Jane Austen Society of North America and Penguin apparently allowed them to sell these Austen classics for $15 and with that $15 purchase you get a Pride and Prejudice Classic Penguin mug ($18.99 on Amazon) and little notebook ($7).

Since I have a copy of Pride and Prejudice I decided to get Emma. The illustration on this book is absolutely beautiful and on top of that I got my mug and notebook. I also ended up with a tote bag from Windham Campbell Prize and received a copy of The Past by Tessa Hadley who signed the book.

We also went to the Amazon Publishing Fiction Imprint - Little A where there were a selection of novels we could pick and I chose Midair by Kodi Scheer. I also picked up London Review of Books tote.

MUJI

I have been wanting to get my hands on the MUJI 5 acrylic drawers but could not justify the $38 price tag attached to it. I've gone to T.J.Maxx, Amazon, Homegoods, container store, etc and I just couldn't find one that would fit what I need and want. It just so happened that for some reason the MUJI drawers were only $10 and MUJI has 5 locations in the city but only one had it and they were low in stock. I managed to get whoever was on the phone to allow me to buy two over the phone so I could pick it up the next day. I was so incredibly pleased with this purchase. Definitely $20 well spent. This is also the reason why I didn't want to go overboard the book festival because I knew I would have to carry this back to NJ and then to Philadelphia as well. It survived the journey and I will write an update post on how I store my makeup.

I also picked up the 3 in 1 pen. This ended up costing more than what I thought but I do love it. MUJI stationary are really well made and their regular pens and notebooks are what I use daily for work and blog planning.