Zahraism Studio

October Baby

2012-10-03T11:57:00.000-04:00

It's my birthday month :-) The birthday invites have been sent out... and I'm beyond excited for what life has been the past few months and the year that's ahead of me. 27 on the 27th... it will be epic.

As per the verbiage in the invites: "...It was of course a crazy year for me. It was full of moments I adored, moments I found beyond amusing and others I found downright annoying, if not distasteful.

I was a good sport, I smiled through most of it, and def rolled with what came my way. Ate a lot, drank a lot, worked a lot, made a lot of new amazing friends, and consumed a lot of everything with all sorts of people. This is how you become wise and blissful :-) ...nothing but goodness.

Staying true to events that are nothing less than absolutely delectable, I'm throwing myself 3 parties surrounded by EVERYONE I love..."

xoxo,
Z

Mayor Bloomberg

2012-10-02T11:40:00.000-04:00

I was invited to Mayor Bloomberg's tech party at Gracie Mansion yesterday...and as far as life goals...I'm just one step closer and a thousand times happier.

I've always admired Bloomberg. His love for technology and New York... his expansive knowledge of anything and everything. His never ending desire to make things better. And he's funny.

Funny is important. Smart is important. Class is important. Ambitions are important. Always striving for bigger and better is important. Making things is important.

xoxo,
Z

Notre-Dame Basilica

2012-09-24T11:36:00.000-04:00

"I knew that I had come face to face with someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself." -Oscar Wilde

Singer Castle/Dark Island

2012-09-21T11:27:00.000-04:00

It's a maximally undone take on remaking a "castle" based on a book. There are secret rooms, and walkways and little holes to peek through to other rooms. And most intriguing of all, for only $200 a night... you can spend the night as the king of the castle.

The owners were tennis players and skiiers... so naturally, I felt like I knew them. There was also that little thing called the Singer sewing machine, which I'm proud to say I've owned an original since I was born... courtesy of my grandmother.

Smarten Up!

2012-09-20T10:34:00.000-04:00

It's a fine romance... It moves. It makes me think. It's becoming the story of a successful month of design, which began with movement, and was amplified by a nod of approval.

A few months ago, which seems like a lifetime ago now, a friend of mine told me "if you're devoted to one person at a time...in New York... you're doing it wrong."

It's a fine romance. Pockets full of stories and smiles.

xoxo,
Z

Saint Lawrence River

2012-09-18T10:33:00.000-04:00

From beautiful 1000 Islands! Finally some wind and chill to validate wearing an argyle sweater. The water, the islands, the food, the people, everything is a heightened level of magical to where I almost dread having to leave to go to Montreal and it makes me fear missing things. So I try to blink less, and sometimes I don’t till my contacts start hurting my eyes...

One consistent factor of this getaway? Surrealism and unpracticality.

xoxo,
Z

Be a verb, not a noun

2012-09-17T15:34:00.000-04:00

It’s imperative to envision yourself as the master of your future.

xoxo,
Z

Learn a little something about romance...

2012-09-14T15:12:00.000-04:00

1000 Islands. It was somewhere around the 40th Island, just past Boldt Castle and WAYYY before Singer Castle... we found ourselves staring out into the river, our eyes flickering from island to island much the same as they had been just flitting from person to person, looking for something, an imperfection, an inconsistency.

I suppose it would be nice to own an island somewhere between free healthcare and the land of the free. And of course... the never ending advertising of "This Island is for sale...the one right back there is for sale too!!!" And all for such good prices. But then something happens, as you're counting your money in your head, like my very first attempt at programming, all lines of code and words that had until just a few minutes ago made some sort of cohesive, logical sense...how do you get rid of your trash?! What happens if I crave gelato in the middle of the night? What do you do after a few days of bliss? How many times can you ride out your boat and visit your other island neighbors. How many days can you live in the seclusion of this beautiful world before you get completely bored with it all and decide to shoot yourself?

I wonder when I'll stop seeing life outside of the city, as anything more than a vacation...worthy of no more than a few days.

It's so beautiful, romantic and grand... it breaks your heart just being surrounded by it. But to live it?! All summer long? Where are the intellectuals? The artists? The shows??

Although I am completely sold on spending winters there... driving your car on ice to go from Island to Island?! Just a crack in the ice away from complete annihilation?? It teaches you a little something about romance... which is... pure magic. :-)

xoxo,
Z

Fam[ily]

2012-09-13T17:36:00.000-04:00

The most complex person in a room is always you. And every problem avoided is a problem doubled.

xoxo,
Z

Canada

2012-09-12T17:31:00.000-04:00

Feels like the first day of school minus the school part.

Shatter your beliefs

2012-09-11T17:11:00.000-04:00

Knowing things and knowing the REASONs behind them are two completely different things. Asking Why is the simplest and most powerful act of connecting that you can make. It's important to learn lessons from other peoples motivations and mistakes.

Also, Tesla Boy... my new fave Russian.

xoxo,
Z

Beekman::Yacht::Sneaky Sound System::Gigamesh::Tesla Boy

2012-09-10T16:18:00.000-04:00

Today I was thinking about how badly I've been wanting to free myself, but secretly convinced myself that day would never come. As it turns out: I'm smiling!

There was all the new people that came and stayed. And then the ones that stayed for only a little while but taught me amazing things and made me feel magical and made my heart melt in every way imaginable. All the new experiences, and how good life turned out to be once it was over.

But the more important thing is, I have found new passions, new ways of expressing myself and new lovers and friends to share it all with.

This whole thing taught me something important: You truly cannot please everyone…there's no such thing as one true love and life in nyc is way too exciting to want to chase permanence.

Evolve.

Fast forward a few months later, I'm happy.

xoxo,
Z

I won't promise you the stars...

2012-09-07T17:12:00.000-04:00

“I was discovering that not all of the promises would be kept, that some things are in fact irrevocable and that it had counted after all, every evasion and ever procrastination, every word, all of it.” — [Goodbye To All That] by Joan Didion

What we got on our hands is a dead shark

2012-09-06T13:39:00.000-04:00

I feel fall weather creeping in.

It was just past midnight when I put my iPad down and sat up in a hurry. I told him I wanted to buy a unicycle. He said he had seen it coming. The unicycle was an excuse, I just needed someone to talk to. He propped himself on his left arm so he could stare at me. Really stare at me. I talked about big ideas. Really really big ones. HUGE ideas.

Finding a space for the new business in Manhattan before the year ends is proving to be harder than I had anticipated. And I just needed to bounce ideas around. Then he said "...losers have goals, winners have systems".

The random lines he throws at me are my favorite. Like relics in a museum, never on display.

xoxo,
Z

Inadequacy vs. true love

2012-09-05T13:25:00.000-04:00

Summer 2012. There was a lot of learning new skills while working in the creative industry. Meeting anyone who is worth knowing in the ny startup world...mingling with Grooveshark, Etsy, Gilt, CraftCoffee, Vice, GA people. It's an exciting time to be in New York and the tech world.

One of the advantages of my kinda work is being at the bleeding edge of innovation. And keeping up with all the new trends, software, lingo, etc is at the epicenter of being successful while innovating.

There's no shortage of amazing sites and blogs and books and apps and people that can keep you up to date with whats going on and what is yet to happen...and thank god that we live in a time where getting as much or as little info as you require is nothing more than a choice.

It's also very ambiguous, what I do. Really. Thats the thing about creative and digital jobs, and creative abilities...ambiguity. Which makes being able to sell yourself in what you claim to be an expert at that much more fun.

And just like that, summer’s over and NYFW officially begins.

xoxo,
Z

You can't go [home] again.

2012-09-03T13:28:00.000-04:00

You will notice that what we are aiming at when we fall in love is a very strange paradox. The paradox consists of the fact that, when we fall in love, we are seeking to re-find all or some of the people to whom we were attached as children. On the other hand, we ask our beloved to correct all of the wrongs that these early parents or siblings inflicted upon us. So that love contains in it the contradiction: The attempt to return to the past and the attempt to undo the past. -Woody Allen

Maybe I'm just a little girl...

2012-08-31T09:32:00.000-04:00

Girls should be girls.
They can become women slowly.
Women of substance.
Your friends will change.
So will you.

I've come to love video txts. There's something very creepy and ridiculously intimate about them... especially when they come sporadically and surprise you with their contents. 50 shades of exciting is what I'll call it from now on. He's my own Christian Grey...without the money.

xoxo,
Z

Old dog – no new tricks.

2012-08-30T11:53:00.000-04:00

Listen to Johnny Cash’s I’ve Been Everywhere to understand how things are wonderful right now. One of my friends had her bridal shower last weekend and her life path is forever in a different direction than mine. Next stop bachelorette party!!

This weekend is the last one before back to real life, work, etc. I'll start teaching. Looking for a space in Manhattan for the new business. Big event at Beekman/Gov Island...last show my friend Tiff is putting on for these venues. It's all so overwhelming and so wonderful! Life's moving along you know? And this weekend... family ROAD TRIP!! We haven't had one of those...in...a...really...long...time. :-)

No, we’re not dating. I’d love to. But Hank’s damaged. Broken, really. Old dog – no new tricks. -Carrie (Californication)

xoxo,
Z

Work out what you want, so no one can tell you what you need.

2012-08-29T14:01:00.002-04:00

Os Gemeos at the ICA, Boston -- Fave new artist. :-)

"Sometimes I wish I could turn it off, flick the switch that reads, “not interested in potential loves-of-my-life, thank you very much,” and walk home from the grocery store without head-over-heelsing about excellent eye contact from someone with the bluest eyes. And sometimes I’m glad I’m human so that when I go home and post on craigslist missed connections and actually receive a legitimate reply, I have the leeway to decide: no, I had the perfect moment of the bluest eye contact right there on the sidewalk. It doesn’t need to be anything else. Because at that moment — I could love you." - Sarah Brady

Even the biggest egos shrink.

2012-08-28T11:44:00.001-04:00

Have you noticed how uncomfortable people get when you look them straight in the eyes and hold it there for more than 10 seconds? They quickly look away or point to something or say something to try and distract you from staring deep in their soul.

It's not a sensuality thing, its about holding peoples gaze. It's uncomfortable to look at someone for a long time, but when you catch a professional gazer at their own game...it can be witty, deep and even eloquent.

Fashion Week in New York is coming up... and no one wants to be a non-factor, and sometimes egos start to shrink.

Happy Tuesday!
Z

It's about falling in love...

2012-08-27T17:20:00.000-04:00

...with yourself.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life. -Derek Walcott

Driving farther than 15 min in New Jersey typically strikes terror into my heart. So maybe I need to seek some counseling? Or a life coach? A friend was visiting from Australia this weekend...and as the conversations got weirder and funnier it became apparent that having a life coach, an astrologer AND a therapist are the it thing for 26-28 year olds these days. So maybe I'll look into one of those soon?

But back to driving to South Jersey... this time the driving got me a little further on my quest to getting what I want when I want it. I loved it, it was just different enough and exciting enough, plus the playfulness is exactly what I needed.

It was charming, and mysterious. Why it needed to be farther than I cared for it to be I can't quite fathom. But it felt good.

Moral of the story, get yourself an astrologer, if nothing else...and then take a drive and surprise yourself!

xoxo,
Z

For me it’s also Freudian...a little.

2012-08-21T14:40:00.000-04:00

I just told him I'm auditioning for a new Woody Allen movie and I half meant it. Except I don't know how to act... so that might be a minor issue. He took me seriously and smiled.

Even though being somewhere in between is literally embedded in my DNA, I'm loving my path to rediscovery, Woody Allen jokes and all.

I was going to edit Boston photo's today...but then I realized I didn't want to.

xoxo,
Z

Attitude of Gratitude

2012-08-20T23:58:00.000-04:00

Photo, compliments of my beautiful friend Nisa. Quote, I found on twitter. Image, made for my Facebook Cover.

Our phones died early in the night trying to Instagram, Foursquare, Tweet and Facebook everything we were experiencing which in turn let us focus on existing instead.

My childhood love ended up successfully introducing me to more of Boston friends and we hung out drinking, talking sports, photography, validation, panama, ibiza, tiesto, doctors, contraception, persian kitties, djing, being successful and every single beautiful thing we've experienced around the world until everything got absolutely blurry and beyond perfect.

It was a weekend of going back to the experience of connecting to people on a genuine level. And today, it stands to reason, I am a luxury item and I've been lucky enough to meet, befriend and surround myself with other luxurious items -- my childhood friend being one of them. And at this point, there's no denying that if you focus on debt your debt will grow bigger, if you focus on hate, your hate will grow bigger...if you focus on love, your love will grow bigger.

Dreams come true. I want [this] with my whole heart and I'm going to create it. No more and no less.

xoxo,
Z

A growing absence...

2012-08-13T12:51:00.000-04:00

It’s perfect. It's dream-like. It's still hurts. But it's perfect. So it hurts less, at least here...it hurts less. I forgot, I guess.

Walking around East Village in the late afternoon, after a long and eventful work week was like everything good about all the summer's of my life pleasantly bashing me in the face every three seconds, so I secretly mourned the day ending, because it had to be ending.

It's irrelevant that these conversations and these new people, or the other one's from thursday night...or even the one's coming up this week will in no way fill up the absence... it's irrelevant because they fill up the time with nothing but smiles.

Because he is now asking questions like “why do you find pig disgusting?” or "that wine is from Lebanon?"... so I think I'll start to plan my next adventure.

It's perfect.

xoxo,
Z

It's like he's saying everything I'm listening to!

2012-08-10T12:41:00.000-04:00

The Russian behind the food? Yea, it went down exactly the way you imagine it did. With Class.

D and I are about 30% sure that he offered me a lukewarm water after stuffing me with food, because I must always have my water...

I’m very distracted by how much fun I had at the [End of Summer Soiree] last night, despite the less than stellar beginning, so Happy Friday!! And enjoy your weekend and take lots of pics my loves, cuz how else will you remember?!

xoxo,
Z