Pink Graffiti

almost one year later...

2012-02-14T14:13:00.000-05:00

we have a baby!!

James Lawrence Robinson

born on January 18, 2012 at 11:17 pm

6 pounds 11 ounces

18 inches long

happy valentine's day, with hugs and kisses, from the Robinsons!

more projects to come soon!

my first project

2011-02-17T19:01:00.009-05:00

well, technically this is not my first weaving project, but it is my first project on my very own rigid heddle loom!! how excited am i?

my first project will be placemats!

choosing the yarn is so satisfying. the coral yarn i dyed myself, and the lime green will both be used for the warp, and the deep plum will be the weft.

winding the warp (left). [[i would really love to get into the entire process of weaving, but i will gladly let Wikipedia do it for me!]]

the warp is all ready to go! (right)

with a little help from my husband, the warp is on the loom, only one more thing to do before i can start weaving!

and that's tying on. let's weave!!

it has definitely been a learning process, but i am so in love with it. i don't even want to get into how many times i had to undo what i was doing and start over, but i had enough yarn and the color combination is really nice. i started weaving this past weekend and it's been trial and error. i'm sure it will just take a little bit for me to get my rhythm back.

i'm not too crazy happy about these edges, but i'll get it right.

more updates soon!

weaving is happiness

2011-02-05T11:50:00.031-05:00

i learned to weave in college. from the first time i sat at a loom, i knew i had found a true love.

[[tapestry projects from college]]

there is something so meditative about the entire process of weaving. choosing the yarn combination, the pattern, preparing the warp, setting up the loom. color and weave, and tapestry are my favorite methods.

[[my first tapestry sample decorating our "hallway" on the left. i found that embroidered piece on the right in a thrift store. it almost looks Indian in origin]]

when i graduated almost 5 years ago, i left weaving behind. looms can be a bit expensive and quite large, not very practical for a small NYC apartment.

[[a weaving and dying project, using a shibori technique. aka resist dying.]]

my brother wears a scarf that i wove in college.

a few weeks ago, i found out that one of my favorite online stores for yarn, KnitPicks, is now selling rigid heddle looms. i bought one immediately! the great thing about this type of loom is that it is compact and can fold up for easy storage and travel, even in the middle of a project. weaving can be done on a table top, or a stand.

putting it together today.

the finished product!

i can't wait to start a project, what will i make first?

treasures

2011-01-29T08:53:00.005-05:00

it's been a long time since i opened the etsy home page on my computer. the lack of work to list there was almost a bitter reminder that my shoppe has been dormant for such a long time. not that it's really a bad thing, but my day job has just been so demanding, and my husband uses the studio/study much more than i ever would.

in other words, i have fallen in love with etsy all over again. not realizing how many changes they've made to the website, i've updated a few things and started surfing through my favorite places.

inspiration.

one of the changes that i really love about the new etsy is that anyone can make a treasury! when i first started using etsy, over 4 years ago, one had to wait for a slot to open up, and that was just too much work. so yesterday, i made my first treasury!

for you, my love. (click on the image to view it larger)

really made for the hopeless romantic husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, lover, looking for the perfect gift. i'm working on another one right now. the idea of a treasury is to create a collage of favorite items based on a theme, either by subject matter, color, gift ideas, etc. no two items can be alike, and no one seller can be featured more than once. i love to use color and theme together, so focused on pale pinks, deep reds, white and gray but also trying to find items from my favorite sellers that could make wonderful valentine's day gifts.

you can visit my treasury by following the link above, "for you, my love".

what are your treasures?

happy new year!

2011-01-17T17:16:00.001-05:00

the Robinsons wish you a happy new year from new york city!

New blog!

2010-11-13T11:51:00.004-05:00

Hello family, friends and fans!

It's been awhile, I know. Crafting has been on the back burner for me since last winter, as my husband needed the second bedroom for his study.

[Brian in his study!]

I was realizing that this blog was turning into more of an everyday blog for what was going on in the life of the Robinsons! Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I decided to start a blog dedicated to just that!

[The Robinsons outside our apartment in Queens, our lovely new VW Jetta parked next to us]

You can see it here:

Meet the Robinsons

Stay tuned for more crafty updates!

not for the vegan hearted

2010-05-29T20:23:00.012-05:00

memorial day weekend brought with it plans of relaxing.

plans of starting a garden in our apartment.

of roasting a whole chicken.

little did we know that some of these plans would not work out quite as we hoped.

or expected.

the garden is perfect!

it was the chicken.

using a recipe from a "Real Simple" magazine i bought a few weeks ago, i decided to roast a whole chicken, something i had never done before. on my own at least.

roasted with potatoes, onions, organic carrots and an entire head of garlic, i knew this was going to be fairly simple. the preparation was, and i really enjoyed it.

everything was ready to go, oven preheated, ingredients combined, chicken stuffed with fresh herbs from my windowsill garden and lemons. so i put the glass dish filled with yummy things in the oven to cook for the next 90 minutes.

an hour passed.

i decided to take a look at the chicken (by the way, i didn't smell anything cooking, and i was planning on removing a fully cooked chicken a half hour later). the chicken was still completely raw. not even warm.

ugh.

our oven was totally busted!

we called our Super to see if he could fix it. luckily he lives right next door and is such a nice man. he looked at it and realized he couldn't fix it and thanks to the holiday, we wouldn't be able to get someone in to fix it until Tuesday evening at the earliest. ugh again.

all seemed lost.

then, our Super was so nice to offer the oven in his apartment! we took his offer and ran the glass dish filled with a 4 pound chicken and veggies to his apartment in the building next door. i will admit that i felt a little strange about doing this. i didn't want to interrupt his schedule, and it seemed so out of reach! but we put it in his oven, and went back to our apartment to wait.

patiently.

about an hour and 25 minutes later, after running over to his place, we came back to our apartment with a beautifully roasted chicken.

and it was so delicious.

new look and more of a break than i thought

2010-05-26T20:15:00.000-05:00

hello my faithful readers!

i have been a bit MIA with the crafting since the holidays. they seem far away and yet really almost 6 months ago!

i've been taking a much needed break from sewing and making and creating, as the holidays were a very busy time for me. needless to say, i got a little burnt out and decided to let my listings on Etsy expire and start fresh! a new year, a new start. (that sounds familiar)

i have a lot of ideas rolling around in my head, most involving the decorating of our apartment. it's become a project and has taken over! the studio was going unused, and i was looking at my husband working day and night in our living room, distracted by my silly TV shows and knitting projects (yes, i still have those).

so i decided. to give him the studio to make into his study. a little moving around, a little organizing with plastic bins (i love plastic bins), putting them in closets and wallah! the clutter was gone and B has his own space where he can close the door and work quietly without hearing vampire slayage in the background (no, i'm not going to tell you what silly TV show i'm referring to).

see before as my studio. (what a mess!)

and after as B's study (B has a much hipper chair now).

this actually was finished quite a few months ago, in February, ugh! have i really been gone that long?

---------------

in other news, i really have not been crafting. other than knitting, i have been craft-less. my sweet mother who lives in Michigan visited the week after Mother's Day, and she stayed in the study. the sofa you see in the photos is actually a convertible sofa, and turns into a nice size double bed for our overnight guests. also quite comfortable i hear.

my real reason for posting today was to tell you about my "windowsill garden" that i've started in our apartment! i have recently been longing to live in a house, to have a backyard to call my own, to grow things. i read an article in my new favorite magazine, "Body + Soul" (which is changing their name to "Whole Living" from the website by the same name), a Martha Stewart publication. it was about a woman named Rosalind Creasy, a landscape designer in Northern California. she is known for her "edible landscaping." i was so inspired that i called my dad immediately to tell him about it! (my mom and dad are amazing gardeners, see my dad's blog here, he talks a lot about their garden, and my mom's blog here, she always posts beautiful photos of flowers and such)

(newest issue on the top)

i thought to myself. just because i live in an apartment in New York City, with no backyard to call my own, doesn't mean i can't grow fresh ingredients! i bought a basil plant when my mom was visiting, and it is the first plant in my new project. basil on the kitchen windowsill.

so this weekend, i think i'll venture to the local farmer's market in Union Square and get some edible plants that will thrive indoors! luckily this window gets a lot of sun during the day!!

i know i can be happy with this.

in the meantime

2010-03-16T13:19:00.010-05:00

long time no blog!

i have a post in the works about what is going on in the life of lesley and Pink Graffiti, but in the meantime, take a look at some pretty things.

Brian's cousin Molly is getting married in June, we are so excited to take a vacation to Fort Worth to visit the family! but of course this was an excuse for me to buy a pretty floral dress (pictured below). i must say that the fashion and clothing in every store very much resembles what i see in the Anthropologie store windows, but for much more affordable prices! take Charlotte Russe for instance.

Floral Poplin babydoll dress

just one of many many dresses i fell in love with at Charlotte Russe. i even bought matching turquoise sandals to wear to the wedding!

Gorrill gladiator sandals from Aldo.

pretty shoes, pretty flowers and very very pretty colors. i think i even have a necklace to finish it off.

bubbles cluster necklace from Old Navy.

what are you wearing this spring and summer?

featured artist : Padmaja

2010-01-23T12:54:00.027-05:00

Pink Graffiti is happy to feature artist Padmaja Chaluvadi! a wonderful textile artist and surface designer from India, Padma is a New York resident, with a studio in Brooklyn. a fascinating person that i am lucky enough to have met and call a friend, she is traveling in India at the moment, painting and visiting family.

Padma working in her studio. her Etsy shoppe currently sells clothing, home decor and accessories, all hand painted and printed in her Brooklyn studio. we actually met through my mother and her friend, Rauf, who lives in India.

Padma was kind enough to answer some of my interview questions:

Tell us a bit about yourself, your shop, what you design/create!

Well, I am an Art director/advertising by profession but always been drawn to fashion and textiles since childhood. So now my work has the mixed influence of advertising, fine arts, as in having an idea/concept/thought behind the patterns. As well as cross cultural iconography, indian motifs with a western twist, a western motif with an Indian subtext.

When did you start creating things?

Five years ago, one Fall day, just for fun, I enrolled in an evening class of experimental screen printing at FIT, and now forever got hooked on the tactile medium. The interplay of the substrate is simply addictive.

How do you like selling on Etsy so far? Would you like to start selling anywhere else?

I just started, and I like the venue very much, but all the sales I made so far are from my friends and family :). So, That's not exactly true measure of sales... Yes, I want to try other avenues, high end boutiques, museums and custom orders.

What kind of materials do you like to use? What are your favorite tools to work with?

Natural and eco-friendly materials. I really try to be a fair trader and use low impact resources in the production process. My favourite tool is a loaded brush:).

Do you enjoy any other crafts or hobbies? What do you do when you're not crafting?

A lot of photography (my main source of imagery), a lot of reading, 'looking' and painting.

Where do you look for inspiration?

Everywhere... Nature, literature, and new york city streets.

Any tips for other artists starting a craft business?

Don't give up on your dream, and don't give up on your day job until your dream becomes real/possible. Personally and surprisingly, I am more creative and productive when I know my bills are getting paid than being a full time Artist and I am a 24/7 worry knot.

Where do you see your business going? Any future plans?

I want to enter home furnishing and interior design market and explore custom designs for fashion houses.
Anything else you'd like to share?

Thank you Lesley for your time and interest.

thank you Padma, we are so excited to hear about your work! Padma and i have had lovely conversations about design and combining interiors and fiber design. we wish you so much luck and a wonderful, enriching time in India!

you can also see her beautiful hand-painted and silkscreened designs here: http://majastudio.carbonmade.com/

i'm featured on a blog!

2010-01-08T10:45:00.006-05:00

oh how exciting! Felt-o-rama, a wonderful Etsy seller, and crafter, has featured me and Pink Graffiti at her blog!

see the interview here.

thank you so much, April!

---------------

the holidays are over, and i'm slowly getting back into crafting, i have so many ideas in my head! one of my biggest inspirations, a lovely necklace from Anthropologie.

another year, another decade

2010-01-03T11:20:00.008-05:00

merry christmas and happy happy new year!!! welcome back everyone, and i hope that all was merry and bright.

the husband and i stayed in NYC this year, just the two of us. it was quite relaxing and a blessing not to travel, but we missed our families dearly. here is our christmas corner, after opening presents and watching Christmas Vacation all day while we prepared our dinner feast.

i started cleaning and setting up the dinner table. candlesticks from my aunt and uncle from our wedding shower, bottles and vessels from our wedding, red beaded placemats from Kmart on sale, paisley napkins from Crate and Barrel, ornaments and gold leaves and berries from Michael's.

i spent the afternoon baking a cherry berry pie, which was so delicious. cherries, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. very simple recipe actually. i topped the pie with the Texas state, in honor of Julia, my sweet Mother in Law. here is what i did:

-Pillsbury pie shells
-Cherry pie filling in a can (i recommend using 2 cans for a 9-inch pie pan if you want ONLY cherries - i only used one and had to improvise)
-Mixed berries, frozen

prepare pie pan as usual, with one pie shell on the bottom, cut to fit the pan.
place cherry pie filling inside first.
let the mixed berries thaw to room temperature before placing in pie.
add 2 T of butter. place second pie shell over top, fold in as usual.
you can use any cookie cutter shape you might have that would be fun! i was given this Texas cookie cutter for my bachelorette party last summer, so i used the remaining dough (after cutting to fit the pan), rolled it out and used the cookie cutter! this could be very fun with a star, or snowflake shape around the holidays.
bake as usual! yum.

the menu for the evening's feast:

-top sirloin steaks from Whole Foods (see Brian below grilling in the apartment)
-sauteed green beans
-baked potato
-crescent rolls

we love this grill. one of the gifts from our registry, both an indoor and outdoor George Forman grill.

our table set up for dinner, with our ware that we registered for at Crate and Barrel. thank you to our wonderful parents who sent us another place setting for christmas gifts, we are almost complete!!

finally, the dinner is ready and we feast.

we missed everyone so much this holiday season, but we were so happy to receive so many cards and photos. they are plastering our refrigerator. many happy wishes and may all your resolutions come true this year, this new decade.

it was a ___ weekend in astoria

2009-12-14T10:35:00.032-05:00

"have yourself a merry little christmas"

the song runs through my head, played by Chris Botti on the trumpet. very jazzy. i write this as i listen to a Christmas station on Slacker Radio. memories of this past weekend, filled with the holiday spirit and hundreds of people dressed up as Santa Claus, running through the streets of my little neighborhood.

what is this? a parade? an audition? a mind trick? no. it's Santa-con, as we found out later. this image was taken from our kitchen window, looking out on our street! i was working in the studio when Brian called out to me. we sat waving at all the Santas for about 20 minutes, and they kept coming! from the subway station, we think, which you may be able to see in the distance. there are too many websites about this "convention".

this was Saturday, which i spent in my studio, preparing for Winter Blast. the craft fair was on Sunday, and i had been preparing for a number of weeks [[perhaps even months]], and had some last minute preparations to do.

sunday.

Sunday brought with it hopes of a day full of meeting people, showing off my work, and i was crossing my fingers for some sales. from reading a lot of forum posts about craft fairs, and some blog posts from crafty friends who have sold at fairs, i had little to no expectations about the day, it being my first craft fair and i had no means of comparison.

Brian and i woke up fairly early for a Sunday morning [[7:30am]] and started loading up the car. it was like a very good omen that the car started immediately! we had given ourselves some extra time to heat up the car [[long story short - the ignition for our Saturn Ion needs to be heated up via heating up the key on very cold days]]. we got to the hall to sell in good time and started setting up! i had brought a mish-mosh of table cloths, what i had in the house, but i loved the multi-color feeling of it. [[more on this later]].

my table right after setting up.

the show started with no real organization, people started coming in the doors before a lot of the sellers were done setting up, including myself! but by 10:30am my table was ready and Brian and i were manning the booth! excitement coursed through my veins as i anticipated meeting my customers face to face, different people looking at my work, being surrounded by fellow crafters!

11:30am

12:30pm

1:30pm

still no sales. i was beginning to be disheartened. Brian and i started coming up with every excuse in the book why we weren't selling.

1. the downpour of rain that day.
2. bad advertising
3. weird location
4. rain

2:30pm

by this time, i started writing down some trends i was seeing, what was selling, what was popular, what other sellers were doing. i walked around a bit and talked to some other sellers, i wasn't the only one there selling for the first time at a fair! i wasn't the only seller disheartened by the poor turnout.

popular vendors:

-knitwear

-beaded jewelry

trends:

-solid tablecloths, to make the product POP!

-a lot of the vendors didn't have a sign with their shop name - strange

-donating an ornament for the raffle was a good idea, even though it didn't bring many sales, it did bring people over commenting on how they liked the ornament!

3:30pm

Brian was such a great support. if it weren't for him, i wouldn't have made it to 4pm with no sales.

4pm

my first and only sale! a fellow craft vendor bought an ornament, which i unfortunately don't have a photo of. at this point i was offering 10% 0ff everything at my table. "end of day sale"

4:25pm

we started packing up. i left without talking to anyone, or saying thank you, because frankly, i was very disappointed. i really don't know if i will do an event with this company again, and i'm definitely not going to do another craft show until i have a more cohesive look and more stock. [[more on that in a later post]]

if anything at all, Sunday was a great learning experience for me. i feel it was money well spent [[$80 for an 8-foot table]] and despite the extreme exhaustion i felt in preparing for the show, i am happy that i was able to participate in something, spend a lot of time in my studio the past few weeks, showcase the work that i'm proud of and get feedback! there were quite a few people that stopped by my table, and even though they didn't purchase anything, some signed up for my mailing list and most took a business card! so who knows what will happen. i'm staying positive.

the vendors across from my table. the jewelry lady and i liked to make fun of the DJ when there were no customers around.

-----

news for this week and the weeks to follow!

update :: Pink Graffiti will be hosting a giveaway at my blog! keep your eyes on the blog, the giveaway will be starting this weekend! sorry about the mix-up, i am a bit under the weather this week.

Pink Graffiti is also going through some changes, which i will go into greater detail after the holidays. i'm going to be taking some time off from crafting to go back to the "drawing board", so to speak. lots of sketching, new ideas, retiring some current items, etc.

happy holidays and i wish everyone luck with all their preparations! [[this image and the first are of our Christmas tree]].

dear...

2009-12-08T15:27:00.009-05:00

i would like to thank Gordon from Ohio for purchasing a pair of my puzzle piece earrings from my Etsy shoppe.

dear Gordon from Ohio
thank you for visiting my shoppe
thank you for loving something so simple
dear Gordon from Ohio

dear Gordon from Ohio
i think i know how you found me
or at least how you found the item you found
the one you loved enough to buy
dear Gordon from Ohio

dear Gordon from Ohio
maybe you don't know, or maybe you didn't see
the other earrings waiting ..... waiting....
dear Gordon from Ohio

dear Gordon from Ohio
thank you for an email sent
for sharing your plans with me
a small gift for your wife, waiting in her stocking
dear Gordon from Ohio

thank you, thank you, dear Gordon from Ohio.

how i named my blog

2009-11-30T20:38:00.012-05:00

so my mom has quite an amazing blog, which she calls "Synch-ro-ni-zing". she writes about many different things, like her poetry, her photography, her politics, her likes and her dislikes. she is the most incredible woman i know.

a few weeks ago, she posted a not-so-contest contest on her blog, asking her followers to write about how they named their blogs! "How I Named My Blog". so here i am, telling my story.

Pink Graffiti.

remembering. flipping through my sketch book. i found something.

about 2 years ago, i was starting up my Etsy shoppe, my business, my craft. i wanted a name, something different, something that had meaning to my life, to my work. but i also wanted something that was significant for me. at the time, this was back in 2007, i was meeting with a small group of women. we all wanted to be business women, entrepreneurs, mogulettes. they helped me to brainstorm ideas and thoughts.

i was really loving a poem that my mom had written about me, called Pink Grapefruit. inspired from a hat i knit from yarn i dyed from Kool-aid (which you can see in this post). the poem is so beautiful, and it inspired me to name my shoppe! PINK is such a rich color. it can be so stereo-typed, but used in the right context, it can lose its meaning completely. Pink Grapefruit, although a lovely name for a color of yarn, or a meaningful poem, was a bit too descriptive to name my craft shoppe.

but the words were so seamless. there was something about that combination. the sounds of the words together, the syllables playing off each other. [grapefruit photo from Google]

when i was living in Detroit while going to school, i was always fascinated by the constant graffiti i saw on every building, some magically artistic, some amateur. i started thinking about my work as graffiti, embellishing something that is already there, already has a life of its own. giving it new life. new meaning. i think graffiti is that for some people. their stamp, their trademark. something to remember them by.

Pink Graffiti.

the pink no longer holds any meaning. i look at the two words as a whole. representing my work. [photo from Google = literal representation]

my graffiti.

[i wonder if i ever told you any of that, mammas.]

i would love to hear how you named yours! leave it as a comment or give me a link to your blog post about it!

birds birds all for the birds

2009-11-20T12:20:00.006-05:00

i have birds on the brain. it's intoxicating me! it's all i'm thinking about.

i'm a vendor in my first craft show! Winter Blast in Astoria, on Sunday, December 13th. mainly focused as being a holiday fair, i'm mainly going to be selling my bird ornaments! i have a few at my Etsy shoppe, all one of a kind and in all kinds of different colors.

the most recent bird ornament listing on Etsy. there are a few in this felt, which is not recycled, but recycled felt samples from my Interior Design job.

i mainly like to use Eco Felt, which is made from 100% post consumer recycled plastic bottles. pretty cool material, and so many bright colors!

like this bright green ornament! i have a huge stash of vintage buttons and gorgeous floral fabrics, so each one is a little different. they speak to me, the color and combination of buttons, the fabric backing....

Pink Graffiti was also featured on the Astoria Events blog, as i'm donating one of these ornaments for the raffle/givaway at the fair!

i'm trying to make at least 30 ornaments and possibly even some brooches for the fair, i have about 20 at home ready to start sewing and stuffing! last week i took 10 to Candy Plum to sell there, so i'm crossing my fingers!

i have so many beautiful colors of felt, thanks to Feltorama! i love custom orders, so if there is anything special you'd like to see, let me know! i can also embroider and applique words, so ideas are welcome! just send me an email or conversation at Etsy. pinkgraffitishop@gmail.com

stay tuned for a tutorial!!

Featured Artist - Sweet and Dirty's Emporium

2009-11-08T09:40:00.010-05:00

this month's featured artist is Sweet and Dirty's Emporium!

Dave and Logan's shop, i found them through the front page of Etsy, the brooch pictured above was featured, and i immediately fell in love with the colors, fabric and contrast! i interviewed Logan to see what she has to say about her work and the shop itself!

interview:

Tell us a bit about yourself, your shop, what you design/create!

Well where to begin… A little about myself.. I am a mom and wife. I’ve got a sweet husband who is my biggest support system in all that I do, and we are brand spanking new parents to a 10month old little ladywho calls all the shots. We also have a house that holds a dog and three cats.. Its crowded for sure…but warm and cozy.

I went to school for art, and after getting a degree in painting I spent a good two years at a job I hated. Finding out I was pregnant was just what I needed to get me on the path towards doing something I enjoyed. After some tweaking, my husband and I decided we could cut some corners and let me be a stay at home mom. My friends and family have always been on the receiving end of all that I make. With lots of encouragement and the desire to work for myself Sweet and Dirty’s was born. The shop is a joint effort, my husband helps me navigate the business end, because he is a more patient person than I am .. And he makes jewelry when he feels like it. He is also the ‘dirty’ to my ‘sweet’.. they are lovely nicknames from amazing friends. I do all the sewing and picture taking, usually around naptimes and bedtimes. I tend to focus my attentions on bags of all sizes, and recently I’ve begun making pins. I’ve found that the pins can be made during the baby’s awake hours…so its nice to be able to play blocks and sew at the same time, besides she loves the button jars!

When did you start creating things?

I’ve always been into making things…. But I haven’t always sewn. Sewing happened all by the encouragement of my husband who always saw my frustration with never being able to find the right sundress. Some questionably constructed outfits later I got the hang of it and became addicted to my machine. Now I am swallowing our house with fabric bins and buttons. It’s nice to know you can make what you need. I’m still working on my knitting….

You sell your creations on Etsy, how did you get started doing that? Do you sell your creations anywhere else?

Etsy had always been suggested by friends… and it honestly took the motivation of having a baby to make it happen. I loved the notion of doing what I enjoy and raising our daughter all from the comforts of home. So I just leapt into it from there. Its been so amazing being on Etsy, an entire community of artists with so much talent is so inspiring. I love it. I don’t have anywhere else that I sell permanently. I have sold locally and within the past year have engulfed myself in indie craft fairs, mostly in Asheville. Also this past summer we did our first music festival, which was amazing.

What kind of materials do you like to use? What are your favorite tools to work with?

Ive never met a material i didn't like... but mostly vintage fabrics, felt, and buttons. I've always got my trusty machine and needles and thread, so i suppose my favorite tool to use is my hands...

Do you enjoy any other crafts or hobbies? What do you do when you're not crafting?

I am a thrift store addict… its where I find almost all my fabric. Its so exciting to find hidden treasures on the cheap. I’m trying to become a better knitter… I have yet to make the perfect ending to a scarf. When I’m not making things I can be found on the floor with building blocks and a spunky little lady trying to walk. I spend the majority of my time with the little one and my husband… seeing what we can get into. My husband and I get one night a month to be grown-ups.. we tend to devote those to good beer.

Where do you look for inspiration?

Everything I make is all inspired by color and textures of fabric. I like bunching and shaping fabric into shapes and seeing what happens. Putting fabric together can take me forever, sewing is the easy part. I get really involved with color selection. I’ve always been a fan of Eva hesse and her use of color in her painting and drawings. I can't plan out what I make.. It all just happens… when I plan it ends up looking too tight and silly.

Any tips for other artists starting a craft business?

Just stick with it. There is always a market for anything and everything that gets made, just do what you enjoy and it will happen. My shop was slow going in the beginning and its just now picking up… you have to put yourself out there.. Its really rewarding in the long run. ☺

Where do you see your business going? Any future plans?

I hope it keeps chugging along… with a bigger inventory and whatnot. I’d love to have my own little physical shop one day too.. But we will see how that goes. The plan is really to just keep making the things I love and adding to our family…. All the while seeing it grow.

Anything else you'd like to share?

Im sure I could go on and on.. But I just want to say thanks so much for letting me be a part of this!

end.

thank you, Logan! we loved hearing about your process and your work! you are truly inspiring to me, i wish you the best!

photo of Logan and her daughter. all photos provided by Sweet and Dirty's Emporium.

you can follow Sweet and Dirty at the following:
Etsy Shoppe
Facebook Fan Page
Blog
Flickr

check back next month for another up and coming artist from my favorites!!

sneak peek - holiday ornaments

2009-11-05T22:29:00.005-05:00

i sit at my PC (which has been much neglected these days, thanks to our brand new Macbook Pro), while slowly tweaking my photos in Photoshop (ugh this is taking forever), but my heart feels happy to be sitting in my studio late on a Thursday night. i definitely don't do this often enough, especially after a long day at the office.

tonight was different. there's nothing quite like laughing for over an hour to get the heart rate up, your mood boosted and those smile muscles working on overtime. two words. Ricky. Gervais. he is utterly hilarious!! we saw him live at Carnegie Hall tonight, part of the New York Comedy Festival, hosted by Comedy Central. he made the audience fall out of our seats by reading us a book from his childhood about "Noah" and his ark. he was his usual self. he ended the night by coming out for an encore with Elmo from Sesame Street! not what i expected. but hilarious nonetheless!

(((i love the piano in this HTC commercial.)))

inspiration in the studio. i'm preparing for the holidays, more ornaments! these are ready to be sewn and stuffed. these were made with the eco-felt that i bought from Felt-o-rama! and the fabulous vintage fabric used for the backing was given to me by my aunt and my cousin. their grandmother had all of this lovely fabric, buttons, ribbon and lace stowed away in an attic, not being used at all, and instead of throwing it away, they gave it to me! i was, of course, happy to take it off their hands.

it is difficult to part with some of these buttons.

the eco felt is actually very easy to work with. i quite like it.

this fabric looks hand-drawn. i wish there was more of it.

check back this weekend! i will be listing these ornaments on Etsy and taking them to local boutiques!!

so little time

2009-11-04T22:22:00.002-05:00

i have so many ideas in my head, but not enough time in the day to accomplish.

my shoppe feeling buried lately, trying to get my head above water.

spending more time online than in my studio! but i have found some useful tools.

Unique Art Pendants, a very cool Etsy seller, posted a thread on the Etsy forums, very helpful! very long, but so inspiring. at the time she had her 2,000 sale, quite amazing really. she has some great advice for Etsy sellers especially, but it could apply for any crafter or business person out there, trying to get recognized in an endless sea of shops.

Etsy has really become quite overwhelmingly huge. with over 200,000 shops, you can read this blog for more statistics. Timothy Adam is an amazing artist, who sells on quite a few online marketplaces, but he also has a huge following on his blog! he has Etsy tips galore, and i have started reading his blog quite regularly for advice.

i wish all Etsy sellers luck, it is a tough world out there right now to be selling handmade, but i know a lot of sellers are still doing very well.

-----

in other news, i am still getting lots of inspiration at work! since college, i have been following a company called Material Connexion, a library of innovative materials for architects, designers, and more. they are based all over the world, but the only physical library in the U.S. is right here in New York! they hosted an event tonight, called Bits and Pieces, which showcased a traveling display that incorporated the digital age with modern design. i invited my co-workers, and my boss even wanted to go! i've been chirping in her ear for over a year about this company, and she finally showed some interest! let's hope we can use this resource more often.

-----

curling up with a blanket on the sofa, watching the Yankees game. tomorrow we see Ricky Gervais at Carnegie Hall.

autumn sale at my Etsy shoppe!

2009-10-27T12:55:00.003-05:00

check out my Etsy shoppe, all summer fabric earrings are 30% off! this is my first official "sale", i am trying to get my shoppe ready for the holidays. have some new ideas brewing, and did some work in my studio this weekend. more on that later...

some of my favorite shoppes of late:

ArtLab - based in New York, way hip clothing with lots of frills and ruffles

White Owl - based in Detroit, lacey necklaces made with vintage lace, so inspirational. my favorite is the peacock sequin necklace.

Adelaide's Homesewn - based in Kansas City, vintage-inspired clothing.

Odds & Ends Couture - based in Raleigh, NC, hand-felted accessories. simply amazing.

lace and felt

2009-10-22T09:23:00.004-05:00

inspiration for the weekend.

vintage lace (image found on Google). i have piles of vintage lace in my collection now, including lace ribbon.

recycled felt (photo by Feltorama). this stack of gorgeous colors is made from post-consumer recycled plastic bottles, with the look and feel of felt. and is currently sitting in my studio, just waiting to be made into ornaments and jewelry. Felt-o-rama is a new find for me, and i am ecstatic to have found a supplier who sells recycled felt! more on that later.

combining the two. the possibilities are endless.

falling into autumn

2009-09-30T16:57:00.006-05:00

autumn brings such warm feelings to my soul.

i feel re-born, the cool air and crispness, the leaves changing into such brilliant colors, everything is an inspiration to me.

the past weekend brought some cool weather, and so i spent a lot of time in my studio, cleaning, organizing, and actually crafting!

i have a lot of old sweaters that i don't wear anymore, so instead of donating them (again...i bought all these old sweaters from thrift stores), i am making them into shiny new things! i am keeping this one going, one of my best-selling items: leg warmers.

these are bright red cabled leg warmers, with a light Graffiti blossom applied to the top for a feminine touch. The blossom is embellished with bright yellow thread, and a vintage button, compliments of my Aunt Sally and cousin Lauren, who graciously sent me boxes and boxes of amazing vintage buttons, ribbon and fabric!!!

i've sold two pairs similar to these, but all have been one of a kind. what makes these interesting is that they are actually made from the sleeve of the sweater! the way the sleeve bells at the shoulder makes for the perfect bell at the top of your favorite pair of maryjanes.

close up of the embellishments. i just love the buttons, i have never seen anything like them.

----------

in other news...

i have started a list of "Things to be Happy". basically made up of random things to start, new projects, or just plain fun things to do. here are a few of them:

-new knitting projects - i've currently started a test of making a cowl

-using our NEW CAR (it's actually my brother's car that he's loaning to us while he's in Hawaii on another cruise) to visit apple orchards and pumpkin patches

-learning new recipes - i'm currently obsessed with Fresh Direct, which has some recipes from different cookbooks and magazines! we order our food from them sometimes, as it's a pain to drag our cart full of groceries 5-6 blocks once or twice a week. can't WAIT to have a car!!

-decorate our apartment for the holidays!

what are your lists of fun things to do?

also in other news, i finally went and stood in line for an hour at the Social Security office to change my name to Robinson! not my first name...although that would be an interesting one!

stay tuned for more updates!!

new featured artist - fglass knits!

2009-09-05T09:17:00.018-05:00

there was a time in my life when i would spend hours upon hours perusing the glorious shops at Etsy.com, i was completely consumed by it. that was before my job started picking up and i started planning my wedding (although when that happened, i was perusing Etsy for all things wedding!). now that things have calmed down a bit, i find myself again drawn to Etsy's main page, which changes featured artists and treasuries fairly often.

the other day while taking a break from space planning at work, i saw an interesting item on the front page of Etsy. it was a very large knit cowl, something i was actually planning on knitting myself! fglass knits, a shop run by a wonderful knitter named Laura, completely blew me away with its creativity and interesting photography. she knits with large gauge wool yarn, all natural, and uses over-sized wooden buttons for closures that she finds at another Etsy shoppe.

this is Laura, modeling one of my favorite pieces. she also takes all of her own photographs.

the Etsy community is really one of a kind. i have found that most Etsy sellers are not only trying to sell their own work, but also very encouraging to others and their work as well. so, for Laura, instead of buying buttons from her local yarn or fabric store, she is supporting another handmade artist, it's just wonderful. All buttons in her shop are made by WoodenTreasures on Etsy.

a very original scarf design in one of my favorite colors, with more wooden buttons.

Laura has taken knitting to another level, it's modern, it's minimal, it's feminine. she likes to use bright colors, which stand out against the gray and white wall which she uses for her backdrop. she uses embroidery to make her knitwear one of a kind and interesting.

a capelet, designed by Laura. what a perfect accessory to wear to brunch on the weekends in autumn!

a simple button cowl with cherry blossom embroidery, another one of my favorites.

like me, Laura has a day job, but i think, like me, that she would love to knit all day long and sell her wares. it's sellers and crafters like Laura that inspire me to keep making, to find new ideas and follow the latest trends.

all of fglass knits can be found at her Etsy shoppe, see the link below. she specializes in custom designs, as well as the items she stocks regularly. good luck to you, Laura! thank you for the inspiration.

Etsy
Buy Handmade
fglass

marketing

2009-09-01T12:32:00.003-05:00

since getting back from the wedding and honeymoon, my main focus has been organizing our home and especially my studio space. i feel that when my space is completely organized, and i have a place for everything, i will really be able to start making again. in the meantime, i am trying to find some unique websites and craft marketplaces! there are so many out there, it's really a matter of which ones are right for ME and my crafts.

my shoppe has been on the back burner for almost a year, since we were engaged last August, and i am ready to start making some new things to sell. i have confidence that once i have some new goodies, things will start to pick back up again!

a few of the marketplaces and social networks i've found are ArtFire, Indiepublic, and of course, Etsy. ArtFire is brand new for me, through which i've found Handmade News, which looks to be a great resource for crafters all over the world! even though i've just started, Twitter seems to be a great place to market.

blogging is also a great way to market, which is definitely high on my list. new ideas, new trends, special artists that i fall in love with, great ways to organize my studio, new knitting projects. there are so many possibilities. i can't wait to start marketing myself more, and meeting new crafters out there!

New York is a great place to be, there are so many resources. in my spare time, i hope to really take advantage of them.

post-wedding-productivity

2009-08-31T15:28:00.007-05:00

hello out there! we are back from our honeymoon and still loving NYC! the wedding was amazing, out of a dream!

our official wedding photos have been posted at our Bella website, if you'd like to take a look!

i am on a complete organization kick right now, and i feel that after i / we get everything organized, i can get my head into creating new things for Pink Graffiti! i have some new ideas clunking around in my head, getting a lot of new inspiration. i'm so excited to get some new items in my shoppe! i just hope that i can keep up with the new trends.

i have also joined Twitter, at last! trying to find new marketing tools, to get my shoppe going again. it's more interesting that i expected! following some fun people, like Martha Stewart, TheKnot, Etsy, Al Gore, and more. i recommend!

look for new goodies!

all photos by Mihaela Avasiloaie.

random photo of the week

2009-05-15T11:55:00.005-05:00

preparing for a big furniture presentation at work, i'm searching for images of furniture pieces for the renderings that we're preparing.

this image came up under a search for a "wing chair". (it was a bit more specific than that, but still)

wing chair.....to FF skateboarding in a rad pair of Nike's? (photo courtesty of blog.myjemz.com)

awesome.

happy Friday!

finally 2009: the year i'm getting married

2009-05-11T10:21:00.010-05:00

welcome to 2009, she said as she updates her blog finally. it's been wedding mayhem and chaos at work and i have no more excuses. the weather is so gorgeous outside, and my excitement is growing as our wedding day is closer and closer.

inspiration for our DIY farm day wedding! my parents are helping so much, with ideas and actually making the farm so beautiful for our special day. i couldn't imagine getting married anywhere else, and thankfully Brian was totally gung-ho about it too.

this is kind of a bad photo, but this is the stem of all my inspiration for the look and feel of the reception! a display at Anthropologie last year, i love the idea of long, rectangular tables, with the mis-matched chairs (although that idea sort of blossomed into something completely different and wonderful!)

lots of glassware, bell jars, old glass bottles and wildflowers! (photo courtesy of TheKnot.com)

lovely burlap tablecloths (unknown photo source).

i haven't been making a whole lot for my Etsy shoppe, mainly focusing on the wedding - still lots to do. this month, we're finishing up the invitations, escort cards, and purchasing miscellaneous items. it's been quite an adventure planning this entire wedding (which will be at my parents' farm in Michigan) from NYC, but i've loved every minute of it.

this month's distraction: ICFF - International Contemporary Furniture Fair, held at the Javits Center on the west side of midtown Manhattan. it's this week! and there are tons of parties all over the city, for us savvy designers.

to post soon: i'm knitting my mother a shawl for her to wear at our wedding, to go with her oh-so-couture BCBG dress! photos soon.

daemon

2008-12-15T17:14:00.007-05:00

i've been reading the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, by Phillip Pullman.

i'm in the middle of The Subtle Knife right now, actually, i'm almost finished with it. but since i started, i've almost been obsessed with thinking of what my daemon would be. the animal entity of my soul, living outside my body. he talks to me, and reads my thoughts.

after weeks of pondering and discussing with brian, i've realized this is what my daemon would be.

a lynx. (photo courtesy of http://kritterkorner.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/canadian-lynx.jpg)

brian would be this.

an owl. (photo courtesy of http://photoramas.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/barred-owl.jpg)
how wise and philosopher-like of him.

can you imagine a giant cat-like creature and an owl crawling around our little apartment??

what would your daemon be? read about them.....here.

merry christmas and happy new year

2008-12-12T22:30:00.006-05:00

we decorated our first christmas tree tonight.

we almost didn't get one. but i couldn't resist the small, white 3' tree.

the "yard" tree. as brian calls it.

our first ornaments. matching chuck taylors. brian's is black (like the pair he wears on his feet). mine is white.

and we even made a little star out of copper wire. maybe next year we'll have one that glows too. like the twinkle lights.

merry christmas. we'll be in michigan soon.

uplifting treasury

2008-07-29T12:49:00.006-05:00

i just flew back from Texas....and boy, are my arms tired!!

it's always amazing when i'm in a sort of creative slump and i get featured in an Etsy Treasury!

my entire creative soul has been focusing on work so much, that when i get home, all juices to make anything even remotely functional or fun is completely gone from my system. BUT this is no time to complain! i am still doing what i love, and trying desparately not to let it drain me.

(those are my felt earrings at the top center!)

i thought i would give a quick update, since i haven't posted since May! it is such a beautiful summer, i'm having so much fun travelling (Texas this past weekend, and Michigan in one week!), spending time with friends and my special one. we are going to meet my family next week!! we were in Texas meeting his family, which is not quite as large as mine. hmmm....

i miss knitting! i have a few projects going on, but my hands have been worn out from over-usage on the computer at work, and plus my hands don't like holding the wool in the summer. but i've gotta finish sewing up el babe sweater for little Eden! or she'll be too big for it! ah! plus the ladies have been travelling so much this summer, it's been difficult to get together for some quality knitting time.

more to come soon!

homeward-bound

2008-05-22T16:08:00.004-05:00

isn't that the name of a movie? starring 2 dogs and a cat? with Michael J. Fox as the voice of a mangy old pitbull??

in my case, it's the wonderful news that i am again venturing to the mitten state for some well-needed stress relief on the farm. 5 glorious days of rest, relaxation, hot tubbin, ice cream eating (oh wait that's what i'm doing right now), beer drinkin, inside-joke-laughin, movie watchin, game playin, kissin, and huggin.

enough said.

sunshine keeps me on steinway

2008-04-26T15:48:00.012-05:00

'we met through a queer twist of time' - Frida Hyvonen

had a wonderful pampering day. bought some new gorgeous spring shoes, a few new pieces for my professional wardrobe, and had a spa pedicure and manicure done. dark nails to grab attention.

it's amazing, i love living in astoria. conveniences around every corner. the manicure place is seriously only a few blocks from my apartment.

with this beautiful weather, i haven't been getting as much work done for my shop as i've really wanted to. i have a few projects started, but you know. i've actually been focusing a lot on my knitting, as the babies are being born as i speak!!! they'll be needing new hats and sweaters to keep them warm!

speaking of babies, many thousands of congrats to my best girl Michelle and her husband Tim out in Idaho, on their new baby girl, Eden Grace!!! i am ecstatic!! i only wish i could be out there with her. in the photo above showing my current knitting projects, the bright lime green yarn is for a sweater for the little girl!! my first sweater project. i thought i'd start with a baby size. a bit easier, right?

the other olive green is a hat (for who is a surprise!). i used a nice textured stitch that looks like argyle.

so before i start knitting, i was turned on to this hilarious site, Simpsonize Me! of course i had to make myself into a Simpson's character.

try it! it's absolutely way too much fun. i think this does actually kind of look like me!

saturday look.

last but not least today, i ordered some lovely handmade stockings from a seller on Etsy, Sans Soucie, who works out of British Columbia.

all hand-dyed and pieced together for a custom order! i simply emailed the artist, letting her know what color combination i wanted. so original.

her business card. very elegant. will model them soon.
happy spring!!!

listen to your breaking heart

2008-04-12T22:41:00.004-05:00

the moon was a sliver of lemon last night. i could see it through the clouds passing by. by now i've realized how few stars i can see at night here in the city. it's better living in queens, at least i can count the number i see on my hands. maybe my hands and feet.

my new leg warmers! photo above shows a detail shot of the Graffiti Blossom embellished at the top of the warmer.

here they are in their entirety. another pair made from an old sweater of mine, headed for the salvation army! this was definitely one of my favorites, the simple black and tan stripes. these sleeves made for especially wonderful leg warmers, creating a nice big bell at the bottom. these are also being featured on an Etsy Treasury! called "Use, Abuse and then Re-use". genius.

today is another day filled with lots of crafting. i have many more leg warmers in the works, and also more tees for my spring line. excitement!

---

in MORE excitement! my brother Peter's band, Meridian, just released their full-length album, Listen to Your Breaking Heart!!! it is amazing. i seriously have not been able to stop listening to it. they've been recording it for awhile, but finally ended by getting it mastered here in NYC by George Marino at Sterling Sound Studios! you can have a listen at their Myspace site:

http://www.myspace.com/thebandmeridian

or you can head down to the bottom of my blog site to purchase the album through SnoCap.

i highly recommend!!! Murder in a Small Town is my favorite song (Peter on the far left).

(photo provided by Meridian)

quickly

2008-04-04T14:07:00.002-05:00

i went to an amazing party in my neighborhood last night, at SITE, a great little boutique shop carrying vintage and handmade items for the home! i met some lovely people who live right in my neighborhood, and also got to talk with one of the featured artists of the evening, Amber Zezeck of Brookadelphia! she makes unique necklaces cut from acrylic plexi, i actually bought the green grass necklace.

i did feature some of my jewelry there at another party almost a year ago. so last night was a bit more laid back.

on another exciting note, i am featured on the Etsy Trashion blog! they interviewed me a few weeks ago, before i left on vacation. i love this street team!!

returning

2008-04-01T22:42:00.010-05:00

we have returned! Amsterdam was amazing and brilliant and cold and snowy and full of wonder. i love the culture shock, and seeing another world. the people live so differently and i drink it all in.

bicycles everywhere. we even rode them! a cute bicycle rental place near the train station rented two red cruiser bikes to us.

this is a mega short post about it. if you'd like to see more photos of our glorious trip, you can visit my Picasa web album!

---

in other news, i may have mentioned that my friend Tiffany and i were trying to get into the Bust Craftacular this spring. alas, we were not one of the lucky 50 to get in to the fair, which will be on April 27. but we are going to try to get into the Renegade Craft Fair, which is in the summer time. good for me, i'll have more time to prepare and get some product out. goodie.

becuz of my long absence from Etsy and my world of craftiness, i made another felt Graffiti Blossom brooch this weekend. i realized after making it that the colors are very similar to the first brooch i made like this. but the felt in the foreground i made myself, to mimic a sunset.

it's backed with a great fabric remnant from a discontinued upholstery sample.

i love the coi fish. so classic.
coming soon....an artist featured! stay tuned.

vacation time!

2008-03-17T20:30:00.008-05:00

i almost feel like i'm ready!
C and i are going on a trip to Amsterdam tomorrow, oh joy! to visit my dear aunts Boots and Donica, to see another part of the world, to leave our lives behind for just a little while.
head to work for part of the day, and then we leave together, to venture to the JFK airport, which i have never been to.

C is taking his laptop, so i'm going to TRY to post a few times while i'm there! if not there, then definitely when i return to the states.

before i leave, i will leave you with a small part of this past weekend. the Spring Fever Yarn Dying party! my second dying party (you can see my first party here), with all the ladies in my knitting group. i love that they ventured into Queens, as most of them live in Brooklyn or upper Manhattan! i am currently transferring all photos that i've been storing on my camera onto my computer so that i have a nice, clean memory stick to take with me to Europe. there are photos on there from a year ago! how lazy am i. but yes, i did take quite a few photos of the splendid party! here are a few for your enjoyment before i leave to finish packing.

the spread. oh my lands we had WAY too much food. and wine. but we ate it all. and drank most of the wine and champagne.

the ladies! Casey, Monique (wearing my apron to protect her new adorable dress), and Rachel kind of, you can see her hair and elbow. i love that Mo just dove right in and stuck both of her hands into the kool-aid! three of us ended up with very strange-looking hands.

woah! my hands were the orange in the front. i had to scrub the heck out of them yesterday as i had a very important presentation at work today...yikes! i just painted my nails and my hands looked completely normal.

Rachel embellished my tomato (which was a complete mess thank you Rachel!). and my new haircut!

that's it for now! more to come soon. enjoy St. Patty's and Easter and i will wave to you from the plane!

dear etsy

2008-03-13T10:52:00.005-05:00

i am distracted at work today
fighting off illness with airborne and checking the Treasury at Etsy.

i love it when i see a little yellow star next to one! that means that an item from my shop is featured.

you can see my GreenBlossom tee there on the left! treasuries are wonderful little showcases that any Etsy member can put together. i have never done one, they are difficult to grab. a lot of these treasuries can make it to the front page! which is great exposure. the member who put this treasury together is actually one of my favorites on Etsy, what an honor! Salt and Paper, a beautiful shop located in Brooklyn. she specializes in jewelry, especially jewelry made from polymer clay. gorgeous, and very original. i was eyeing these buttons for a long time...maybe i'll have to make a custom order.

more to come soon! i'm thinking about starting an "Artist Feature" section of my blog, where maybe once or twice a month i feature a favorite artist.

another sale, another knit night

2008-03-04T21:51:00.004-05:00

a successful knit night! thanks to Mo in my knitting circle, we went to the cutest cafe near Union Square, called 71 Irving (good mention of it in this blog). it's actually right around the corner from The Player's Club, where my cousin Nate married his wife Nancy...actually where they had their reception. same difference. it brought me full circle to my first visit to this big and gorgeous city. a young woman even approached us and said how jealous she was because she loves to knit but has no friends to knit with! so we invited her to join our circle. what a friendly place. i think we found our venue!!

i am so looking forward to my next yarn dying party! Spring Fever!! i'll have lots of photos to share. i'm actually holding it the weekend before Chris and i leave for Amsterdam! exciting times. i am so looking forward to some serious time off, traveling through Europe, and seeing my lovely Aunts Bootsie and Donica. who are so amazing and letting us stay with them!!

in other news, another Etsy sale has me tickled!

an Oklahoma resident took a fancy to these beauties and took them off my hands. i love it when other people enjoy the odd and the weird and the funky. which prompted me to list another pair...similar but different.

excellent.

sometimes i feel like i need to hire a marketing person. the amount of time i spend every week is getting to be a bit much. but i love it. i've joined a new group called Indiepublic, where crafters and buyers alike can advertise and see what else is out there! it's a great way to connect with people and see what other interesting things are being made. my site is: here.

also, my dad just started his own blog! i'm so excited for him. my parents live on a farm, and are finally going to have some animals (besides Bishop the barn cat) roaming the fields! check it out, A View from the Green Barn. he's going to raise chickens! i will hopefully be traveling there for Memorial Day weekend to help my dad build the chicken coop out in their big green barn. and meet the new babies of course. it's funny, i only ever lived at this farmhouse for 3 weeks before moving to NYC, but i feel so at home here.

too late for a school night

2008-02-26T23:44:00.006-05:00

so i had a $1 latte at Dunkin Donuts tonight at 7pm.
this will explain why i'm WIDE awake at quarter to midnight.
argh.
well at least i got some work done.

more puzzle piece earrings! these actually fit together perfectly!

so we had a crazy knit night adventure. there are 5 of us in the knitting circle that broke off of the Stitch n Bitch i used to go to. we've been going to Knit New York, and although we love this venue, it's decided to close early. we are all night owls and love staying out until past 8pm! so we've been trying to brainstorm places to go to be able to sit quietly (or loudly in our case), knit, chat, drink beverages, maybe eat some dinner.

our first thought was some other knitting place...every other venue closes at 6pm on weeknights! they're obviously not catering to the local 9-5er. the next thought was....the New York Public Library! so we all met there tonight, at the usual time. only to find out it closed early as well. the rain did not discourage us! we must have trekked around for blocks, into an H&M to ask for the nearest coffee shop, and all we got was a Dunkin Donuts/KFC near Grand Central Station. even the Starbucks were closed for training! can you believe this.

it turned out to be completely glorious. they were practically GIVING their coffee away! which is genius considering the Starbucks down the street was closed. so we sat in a fast food booth, drank our coffee, ate our well-deserved donuts, and knit our hearts out to smooth jazz playing in the background.

honestly not sure if we'll go back there, but it was an adventure in knitting we will never forget.

lacey sweater cardigan thing

2008-02-21T21:22:00.008-05:00

i finally posted it! it's been done for awhile now, but i was a bit angry with my camera for not taking proper photographs. these will do...for now.

yes yes yes, i am happy with this sweater. i mentioned it in my last post, what you saw on the sewing machine! the blossoms are made from individual lace flowers cut from an old lace skirt of mine.

one of my favorites. i retired it because the lace was just giving out. cutting it apart was my first solution. now two old things were made into new!

detail shot of the blossom. embellished with bright red thread and red beads. there are three blossoms total on the sweater. two on the front and one on the back.

spring is coming!! you better be ready!

--

the results came through. i didn't make it into the fabric book through Lark Books. alas! i am not disheartened. no! it only forces me to make myself better. so! i joined the EtsyTrashion street team! what is a street team you might ask? it is a group of crafters (people) who are all interested in the same thing. that's my definition anyway. you can learn more about it....here! my friend Tiffany's company was featured on their blog recently, RePlaygound! fascinating.

--

new recycling project::

what to do with all those pretty carpet samples? don't leave them lying around the office, don't throw them in a land-fill, make them into perfect welcome mats!

with a little bit of velcro (or double-sided tape), voila! instant welcome mats that are perfect for those rainy days. these are basically two 2x2 carpet tiles that a carpet manufacturer sends to my office when we request samples. very effective for getting an idea of what a carpet will look like spread throughout a room, but also very wasteful. always good to be resourceful. most manufacturers will take samples back that we're not using, but it's so fun to make use of them at home.

new computer, new me!

2008-02-10T15:06:00.001-05:00

the wind and cold keep me inside today, making and reading and wishing i had leftovers from last night's dinner.

my computer was totally rebuilt last night! what a long process, i really had no idea. but we made a night of it. i made an asian dinner, consisting of stir-fry veggies (broccoli, yellow squash, asparagus and snow peas), white rice and broiled tuna steak, marinated in an amazing wasabiyaki sauce. with banana bread from scratch for dessert.

as he worked, so did i. i have so many new projects going on, there are piles and piles of old clothing, fabric, and yarn all over my studio. piles of cut-up sweaters for my new leg warmers project, my latest knitting on the very top. (for who this is, i will not tell!!!)

speaking of leg warmers....

these i finished today and just listed on Etsy! made from an old sweater of mine (that is just too big and baggy for me now). as opposed to taking it to the nearest thrift store to donate, i thought, why not make something pretty out of it! i love the brown, tan and orange stripes, the colors together are just divine. i added maroon felt flowers with a vintage button for a feminine detail.

i'm also almost finished with my next sweater project.

a sneak peak!! this i'm making out of both a recycled sweater and skirt! you see it on my sewing machine above. i'm ready for this cold to be over, but i love the excuse to stay inside and make things all day. especially with my new super fast computer!

sweet sweet fabric

2008-02-03T20:51:00.000-05:00

shuffling through my itunes, i can't seem to find any music to listen to.
think i might buy some Feist.

what does this have anything to do with what i've been working on today? well nothing really but it is helping to mask the sporadic screaming i hear in my neighborhood as my fellow new yorkers show their support for the Giants in the super bowl. there is nothing better than a woman with her piano, serenading me.

you were wondering what the sweet embellished floral fabrics were for?

i'm feeling spring!! this is my latest Etsy listing, as well as the next project proposal for Lark Books. i took this square embellished fabric:

and wrapped it around recycled bottle caps! for some reason i felt compelled when i first moved here to tape bottle caps to my wall. now that i've grown up a bit, i have removed them and putting them to better use!

using craft/fabric glue, i wrap the fabric around the bottle cap, then backed it with commercial felt, which i sewed on by hand.

new on the Pink Graffiti scene! i've finally broken down and acquired a domain for my website! currently under construction, i'll post it when i've accomplished a bit more. i've also decided to start a myspace page...good for marketing i hope.

in other news, i hope that changing my blog name hasn't caused too much confusion. i do apologize for any incurred.

keep making!!

trip to wall street

2008-01-31T21:37:00.000-05:00

here is the adorable young lady in her new hat!! it's a little too big for her, but honestly i'm glad. she can grow into it. she likes it! in return she made me a lovely piece of art. which is on display now in my studio so i can look at it every day. next to my star wars action figures and other original art.

she said the O looks like a target. oh how i love the way a child's mind works.

this is my co-worker Nikki's daughter, and with her husband they make the most adorable family. a beautiful apartment in the Financial District, they took me on a royal tour! up to their roof....where i got a perfect view of Ground Zero.

digging. you can see the covered PATH train (to New Jersey) entrance, the future site of a glorious sculpture by Santiago Calatrava. one of my favorite architects.

photo courtesy of www.calatrava.info/. new PATH train entrance coming soon.

--

i've uploaded tons of photos to FLICKR! will upload a few more tonight.

ATTENTION!!!

2008-01-29T22:30:00.000-05:00

i am changing my blog name!!!

for promotional reasons, i have decided to change the name of my blog to Pink Graffiti, to match my company name.

please be sure to note this change!!!

the new URL is:

http://pink-graffiti.blogspot.com

now read the next post. thank you!!

cabled hat in the air

2008-01-29T21:50:00.000-05:00

i knit another cabled hat, for a friend's 5 year-old daughter, Macy.

this third time knitting this particular hat was definitely a charm.
of course after knitting the same thing multiple times really helps one perfect the garment.

i call it the Macy hat. i get to hand-deliver it to her this week! she is the sweetest little girl. and has the same size head as me! the details include cables, ear flaps, a pom-pom with both cream and pink yarn, and floral embellishments with pink yarn [[pictured above]].

multi-colored mohawk pom-pom.

ear flaps with i-cord strings for tying. i picked up the stitches for the flaps, rather than knitting them separately and sewing them on by hand. much better construction than my pink hat, seen here, with braided strings and ear flaps sewn on.

i call this pink grapefruit, inspired by one of my mother's poems. i still adore this hat. the pink yarn accents in the cream Macy hat is from the same skein this pink hat was knit from. dyed with koolaid by me. i prefer to wear the birds on the left side. i wonder which side Macy will want to wear her flowers.

--

this past weekend!!! it was an exciting crafty Sunday! a good friend of mine, Tiffany hosted a lovely crafternoon at her apartment turned studio. it was grand fun, and i got to gaze at her amazing storage solutions, endless supplies of recycled goodies, and fun inventions.

so organized i can't even stand it. you can see the box there to the side. her current project is making a quilt out of recycled sweaters. brilliant! Tiffany owns a company called RePlayground. an excellent vision, all about making functional and fun products out of recycled goods.

the ladies. thanks to Tiff for the photos.

RECYCLE!!! it's to this glorious idea that i owe a lot of my future products and projects. coming soon!

ps - i started a Flickr site! will be uploading lots of photos to promote my Etsy shoppe! check it out!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinkgraffiti/

promotion!

born on a monday

2008-01-27T10:54:00.000-05:00

this past week has really been filled with excitement.
exciting event #1: my cousin Nancy gave birth to their new son, Riley!!
and i was lucky enough to meet him when he was only 4 days old (now he's almost a week old!).

i held him and hugged him for all of my family far away. he was quite calm and sleepy for most of the evening, but he did open his eyes to check out the situation.

on daddy Nathan's lap. he's like the size of a burrito from Chipotle, which is pretty big for a burrito, but pretty small for a person.

it's going to be amazing to be in the city with them, watch him grow up, start smiling, walking.

exciting event #2: a new bicycle!!

i've been wanting a new bike for awhile, as my european Puch is quite heavy and i almost dread taking it up and down the stairs to my apartment as i usually hurt myself in the process. it's also more difficult to ride...blahblahblah. this is a [vintage?] Cannondale, bought through Craig's List by Chris...as he's been looking for awhile for me. it's the perfect size for me, and i looove these colors! so this photo above is the BEFORE. yesterday, C and i took the entire bike apart, washed it, scrubbed it, and he replaced all of the parts for me! amazing. new seat, new pedals, new tires, new tape on the handlebars. it's going to take me some getting used to riding a road bike, but i think i'll love it.

and still making things.

embellished fabric for one of my new projects. more later.

new experiments

2008-01-24T21:41:00.000-05:00

at the beginning of this week, i vowed that i would spend at least 2 hours every evening in my studio. luckily for me, my week has worked out nicely that way!

the outcome.

this is my latest experiment: Fabric Bubbles Brooch.
my sketches come to life in 3D! seriously, i know that sounds kind of silly, but i'm constantly drawing circles in all different sizes. the circle fascinates me. but sometimes a flat circle can be so dull. so i took some cotton fabric, stuffed it with poly-fil and called it a pin! well, it was a bit more complicated than that, but you'll have to buy the book to find out how to make it.

that's mostly a joke, but kind of true. i've been really experimenting because i want to be a part of a book being published in 2009 by Lark Books, a publishing company that publishes many amazing craft books for the average person! they're calling for entries right now! the book will be called, The Art of Jewelry: Fabric. and YOU can apply here! they're also accepting submissions for the gallery section of the book. very exciting!!

i just posted this brooch on Etsy tonight, so i hope to get some good feedback.

i'm also making earrings! another submission for the book. you can see one on the left, next to the brooch i just posted on Etsy. no earring hook attached yet, but it's identical to the pin, just with a felt loop instead of a pin in the back.

hours spent on brooch (experimenting included): less than 3 hours.
this will of course be much faster now that i've done it once. the earring took me half the time.

more colors to come!!

--
on another amazing note, i am going to meet my new baby cousin Riley tomorrow evening!!!! i will give him many hugs for all of my cousins and brother and aunts and uncles and mom and dad.

i think it reached below 20 today

2008-01-20T17:15:00.000-05:00

or at least it seriously felt like it
the sunshine was quite deceitful today, shining in her brightness
but the wind claimed any warmth it could have brought to my small neighborhood in new york
still i ventured out to run some needed errands

after deciding that i didn't really need to do laundry, i spent most of the day in my studio
(still in here for a bit actually)
drinking green tea (a bit wired)
experimenting with new ideas
new glasses

i still adore my green walls.

still in the beginning stages of a lot of experimentation, figuring out what the best way to craft, learning new techniques and getting used to the time it will really take to make these projects work. sometimes this really tries my patience, as i wish i had more than 2 days off a week to really experiment to the degree i want to.

new shirt in Etsy! this is another quite like one i listed last year, but i've added a few different features.

a pocket in the front, and a few extra petals in the back, makes for some interesting layers.

also listing a new bracelet tonight. so go check it out!!

happy new year!

2008-01-03T22:55:00.000-05:00

i welcome 2008 with open arms.

2007 was an amazing year, full of endless possibilities and ideas, only making this year that much better. starting fresh feels great and everything, but let's look back at a happy happy year.

Pink Graffiti at ETSY! yes yes, this was the year it all happened. thanks to the lovely ladies of Mogulettes in the Making, i had the inspiration and encouragement i needed to come up with a business name that i love to this day. technically i started my Etsy site in 2006, but really didn't get it going until 2007. 2007 was also a great year for Etsy in general! read an enlightening article about it, here.

met my c. invisible arms cooking delicious fish.

started my full time job doing interior design! two red chairs as you enter my office, with a small chrome table with treats for clients.

started sweater collections! even sold a few, altho i haven't sold this one yet! this particular sweater was recently featured in an Etsy Treasury, with other red recycled goodies.

set design for Sampaguita. i will never forget that experience.

my first full year in New York.

New Year's was a blast! i wasn't in the city last year, so this year we celebrated with a bang! c usually goes with Time's Up on their yearly bike ride through the city. starting at around 10:30pm, hundreds of avid riders meet in Washington Square Park, equipped with lights on helmets and party hats. we took about an hour to ride up to Central Park to watch the fireworks at midnight! unfortunately, no photos. a bit difficult when trying not to run other riders over and keeping up with friends. great great fun. it wasn't even that cold!

altho i miss my family and friends in Michigan dearly (and all of you who live outside of Michigan), i feel like i'm in the right place.

to decorate a tree

2007-12-15T17:57:00.000-05:00

merry christmas and happy holidays to all!

i venture to michigan again for the holidays, and bring lots of bird ornaments with me.

everyone have a wonderful holiday and may it be bright and cold and snowy. or not if you live in a place where it doesn't snow.

all packed and ready to go

2007-11-20T22:21:00.000-05:00

ahh the farm. the joy of sitting, conversing, reading, playing games, laughing, watching movies...all with the people i love the most. [mom and dad you see above, with little me in the middle]
my flight leaves tomorrow afternoon, but i'm going in to work for a few hours in the morning.
the excitement is all mine as i fly to the mitten state to see my lovely family.
haven't seen them since August, when i went there for Farm Day.
this will be quite different, as all the leaves are most likely gone from the trees, the hot tub is [[hopefully]] all warmed up, and i'll be seeing a lot of my dad's side of the family. joy!

---

in other news, i finished the lacey scarf!
this was a great pattern, easily memorizable [i think i just made that word up], and long enough to wrap it around my neck twice!

the yarn was a gift, hand-dyed a gorgeous pale blue, with hints of green. i added fringe, with tan and brown ribbon for an accent.

i think this took me around 2 months to knit. maybe a bit more.

and i wear it.

it almost looks like i don't have bangs in this photo.

---

ok, now for some Etsy news. in case some of you don't know, i've started a Google Group for my Etsy shop, called Pink Graffiti.

THANK YOU for those that have already joined!!! i've sent out quite a few invitations, but if you didn't get one, let me know! i'd love to add you! i created it primarily as a mailing list, but also to stay close with my buyers and market myself. i also looove feedback, so that's another great reason.

another custom order this week! a lady commissioned me to make 7 bracelets for the bridesmaids in her wedding, how cool is that??

yes, one brown, and six tiffany blue. it was fun to track down the colors, which i was almost afraid i wouldn't! i must say, this bracelet is my most popular item. i'll be posting more soon. RED ones!!

ok, happy thanksgiving everyone!! i'll be in michigan until Sunday, so until then.....

my weekend with mr. henry hudson

2007-11-12T21:24:00.000-05:00

he is small.
he is feisty.
he is cuddly.

i had a mini-vacation this past weekend, as i stayed at my cousins' apartment on Central Park West to watch their sweet puppy dog, Henry Hudson. named for the English explorer who also named the river flanking the west-side of the island of Manhattan. not sure if he was the one who named it....but it is named for him.

not important. they live right on the edge of the park, so Hudson and i walked and walked and enjoyed the crisp autumn air, the changing leaves, being outside all day.

we walked around the park for a few hours.

then ventured to the streets, to explore the neighborhood a bit. to think, all of New York is in a 10 mile radius of me, and there are still so many parts of it i haven't seen.

we stumbled upon this gorgeous park, where a giant statue stood in the center. it looks like a fountain, but i don't think it was. behind it you can see the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine. i almost felt like i could be in Europe. there are a few amazing churches like this around the city. we couldn't go inside, so just stood and gawked at the facade.

and then we rested. and i knit.

and now here i am. back to my normal life. in queens. watching pride and prejudice the A&E version and working on another custom Etsy order. joy.

on the up and up

2007-11-05T21:29:00.000-05:00

after a nice week of sales, i'm ending my monday with a new item in Etsy!

thistles embroidered into striped fabric! i couldn't stop thinking about my dad when i was making these. his favorite flower. i'm starting a floral fabric earring series, inspired by the Flowers book i bought a few weeks ago. i've learned about so many new beautiful flowers from the book, and have already started my next pair.

i'm trying to build up my product, as i want to visit Subdivision (a boutique in Long Island City where i sell some of my jewelry consignment style) sometime in the next week or so, and bring them some goodies. you can see another pair of earrings i listed this weekend in my Etsy shop. i bought a new puzzle!

so perfect for the autumn season! i made about 9 pairs, and hope to make a few more pairs this week. C suggested that i add some 'metal' for extra durability, and of course, he was right. they look much more professional. i even added some gloss varnish to the back and sides for extra strength! i love these earring hooks. make the earrings interesting.

and in other great news, i ordered some fabric labels from another Etsy seller, JennifersJewels! i sent her an image of my logo, and she printed them out for me! great deal, and the labels are fabulous. i've been recommending her all over the forums! check it out.

i applied my first label to a sweater i sold last week! how exciting. to make things even more interesting, the lady who bought the sweater is from Michigan, and now lives in Brooklyn! so we met for a little brunch and i got to hand deliver the goods. what a treat, to see a reaction from a real live buyer.

happy monday and enjoy your week!

happy halloween!

2007-11-02T18:23:00.000-05:00

bicycle shadows in the morning light.

i know, it's a few days late, but i finally have a few minutes to post my halloween photos!
invited to a party on halloween night, i decided to dress up. after all, it was a costume party. so i came up with a costume pretty last minute. trying to think of what i have lying around the apartment that i can use, spend as little $$ as possible.

a black kitty cat tangled up in a ball of bright green yarn! the cat costume was so easy and of course i had some extra yarn lying around that i didn't really like all that much. i think a few people got it.
face after painting my eyes and nose.

face after adding black lips and nail-polish. [[still wearing that...nails that is]]

and then the party! my friends own a bar in Brooklyn, you can see them here, with C. K was a saucy pregnant nun, and her husband J was a bishop. pretty hilarious. C was just his engineer self, holding my ball of yarn that i played with throughout the evening. we didn't stay for the costume contest. unfortunately i had to work the next morning. but it was still a blast! i'm glad i at least dodged the insane parade.

--

currently working on a few projects. still knitting my lacey scarf, added a few new things to my shop this week!

more fabric earrings. working on a new flower series at the moment, following illustrations from the Flowers book.

more to come....hope you all had a happy scary tricky halloween!

autumn kool-aid dying party!

2007-10-29T20:45:00.000-05:00

so this past Sunday (aka yesterday) i had a wee little autumn yarn dying party at my apartment with my knitting (and non-knitting) friends!
it was a serious blast.
when i was in college, i experimented a bit with all different kinds of dying, but my favorite by far was dying with Kool-Aid.
one of my friends taught me, and i've since learned that it's a bit more common than i thought. especially here in the city.
but all of my knitting friends had never done it before! so i decided to have a party and teach everyone that wanted to learn.

i baked halloween treats, and had snacks to munch on while dying. in the back there, you can see, i set out all the yarn i've dyed with kool-aid, and my sketch book, which has all of my recipes hidden away. and my batch of kool-aid of course.

so first was the hard part, choosing the colors. it took awhile, but eventually everyone had their favorite combinations and was ready to dye. some were mathematical and precise. some were more organic and free-flowing (my personal style). some had a very specific color in mind.

for those of you who have never done this, or don't know the process, i will enlighten you. kool-aid dying is a simple process. you need a skein of naked yarn made of an animal fiber (such as wool, silk, etc.), a clear glass or tupperware container, preferably large, kool-aid of all colors and flavors, water and a microwave. put one (1) skein of yarn into container, add water. squeeze all excess air out of yarn, make sure yarn is completely submerged. add kool-aid. to achieve desired color, use at least 10 packets of kool-aid. can be different colors. blend as desired, or simply create patterns. place container in microwave. start with 10 minutes. nuke that yarn until the water is clear (or after about 30 minutes). rinse and hang to dry. you've got beautiful yarn!!!

all in all, everyone was very satisfied with the outcome! let's see.

R#1 was first, and you can see her stripes! this is a shot of the yarn in the microwave after 10 minutes of heat. she chose 2 shades of orange and lime green. she doesn't like to knit, but wanted to learn to dye! so i'm going to knit her something nice with this.

her colors blended soooo nicely.

L was next. she chose the most brilliant fuchsia. it was gorgeous! she used my method of free-flowing and mixing. it looks a bit orange next to her magenta shirt, but it really was so nice and pink.

R#2 decided to go with bright orange, how festive! she was very mathematical with her application. must be the engineer in her. she added a tiny bit of dark red and tan, you can see how nicely it blended together with the orange.

and S went last. she was so determined to get her awesome shade of mustard yellow! isn't it gorgeous?? her yarn was a bit tangled when it came out of the microwave, but she was so happy with her color it didn't even matter. who would have thought kool-aid could make such a nice muted color!

i was so busy playing hostess that i didn't get to dye anything until after everyone left! that's fine with me, i was so happy to see my friends having fun and enjoying each other's company. it was the perfect day.

if you have any more questions about dying with kool-aid, you can visit KnitPicks.com for the dying recipe and amazingly cheap naked wool!

holiday ornaments collection

2007-10-20T11:56:00.001-05:00

i'm starting a new collection on Etsy!
i was inspired by a project sort of commissioned to me by one of my co-designers.
i've just noticed how popular birds and animals are right now.
so i thought i would participate a bit.
see what kind of reaction this received.

bird ornaments!
i'm also going to make earrings and brooches to add to my autumn and winter collections.
this one i just listed on Etsy today, and i hope to be listing many more by the end of the weekend!

i'll be sure to bring some home for the holidays! since i was very young, my brother and i have been receiving ornaments at Christmas time. every year it was something new. most of the time we got to pick out our own, but sometimes it was a surprise to open. i think the worst year was when our tree fell, and my favorite ornament broke. the crystal ballerina. RIP.

i was walking through the craft store this morning, looking for some supplies, and yes. believe it. Christmas music was playing overhead. before i even realized it, i was humming along. i figured it was a good time to start selling holiday decorations.

and please check out this Etsy treasury! my brooch is again featured!

front page!

2007-10-18T08:30:00.000-05:00

it was pure chance that i happened to come home from dinner with my wonderful cousins, Nathan and Nancy, and walk right into my studio to check my Etsy page. at that exact moment, one of my pieces was showcased on the front page of Etsy!

here is the screen shot. you can see my item there close to the bottom, the brooch i posted about on Monday!
i had spent about an hour at the Etsy forums, mainly in the Crafting and Business section, to do a bit of shameless self-promotion and see if i could get any help with my shoppe. it was the best hour i could have spent. i learned so much about the best ways to run an Etsy shoppe, advice from buyers and sellers alike, and just saw what other successful sellers are doing.

as a result of this, i was asked to participate in a craft fair in Park Slope in December! this will be my first craft fair, so i am extremely excited.

more goodies to come!

featured items

2007-10-15T18:03:00.000-05:00

happy monday all!
another lovely weekend come and gone.
visions of October hanging over my head as the month is already half over.

happy birthday to my sweet brother who turned 25 yesterday!
i felt such a void not being able to be with him, eating lots of crab legs and hot fudge cake til i burst. heaven.

my mother did a beautiful post for him yesterday. so here is my part of it. this so describes our awesome relationship to a TEE. dad's old tractor, me driving, pete crackin me up.

in other news, check out my Etsy shoppe! i'm featuring my farm animal goods this week, so check them out!

i've also had time to post a few new items, and added an "Accessories" section! joy!

a pin or brooch, perfect for your fall jacket! i just love these colors. mustard yellow and a deep brown with a hint of purple. been so inspired lately. new ideas all the time!

enjoy your week.

weird

2007-10-07T20:15:00.000-05:00

so i made these new earrings.
they are super weird, but i actually really like them.

oh yea. they are also huge.

just posted them in Etsy tonight.
what do you think? would love some feedback.

adventure weekend

2007-10-07T16:58:00.000-05:00

the weather has been perfection this weekend
especially for getting out on my bicycle.
luckily C has been wanting to ride a lot more lately, so we've had a couple adventures this weekend.

starting yesterday.

C standing next to our bikes. mine is the green monster and his is the purple crazy dutch koga-miyata. we rode around Queens, and decided to go to this new outdoor mall. i seriously felt like i was in florida. so weird. your typical stores, Starbucks, Border's (which you can see in the background there), Claire's, Halloween Adventure. C and i were debating what was going to be there once Halloween was over. i said maybe Thanksgiving Adventure, and he said Talbot's. i think his guess is better than mine.

we had some nice iced coffee from Starbuck's, free of charge, thanks to my dad's gift card he got from his kids for xmas. yay dad!

beautiful fall flowers. the colors are truly inspirational. these were in front of the 'Amish Market'. yea right. more like 'Over-priced Grocery Store'.

total miles yesterday: 5

then today we decided to take advantage of the beautifulness early! heading out at 9am, we made our way to Manhattan via C's route to work. this was exciting, as i had only seen his route through a car or bus, not while riding a bicycle.

going over the Williamsburg Bridge, from Brooklyn to Manhattan. i took this while on my bicycle by the way. this is a very popular bridge to ride/walk/run/jog over. very enjoyable i must say.

C took me for breakfast at his favorite restaurant, Atlas Cafe, on 2nd Ave in the East Village. great food, vegan/veggie friendly, and outdoor seating. always a plus when watching bicycles locked up.

yum.

after breakfast, we rode over the west-side highway to look at the water and ride on the bike path. we weren't on here long before we started heading back to Queens. pictured above: C riding ahead of me. and. the new Frank Gehry building which i just love. his first building in New York actually! pretty amazing.

total miles today: 26.3 (that's right folks, marathon style. by far the longest i've ever ridden in one day)

--

in other news. this is what i'm obsessively knitting.

from the same book where i got the pattern for K's scarf (the red one i finished awhile ago). i love lace.

sweater finished!

2007-10-06T11:18:00.000-05:00

today is a beautiful day for a bicycle ride
i can't believe it's 80 degrees outside tho
i've been inside all morning and am just ITCHING to get out there
but first...

finished and listed on Etsy!
the newest addition to my recycled sweater collection. if you will remember, last week i posted my process of making this sweater.

here i am modeling it. i added another piece of the same fabric to the front, to create a nice flow from front to back.

i am very excited about this piece, and hope to make many more like it.

but for now....it's time to get outside! i'll bring my camera, i promise.
have a wonderful saturday! hope the sun is shining in your part of the world.

recycled sweater applique tutorial

2007-09-30T12:43:00.000-05:00

i find all different kinds of sweaters at local thrift stores
but i've found the best ones in Michigan.
each sweater speaks to me.
different languages for different colors, materials, styles.

today it is the purple angora lambswool gap sweater i found at the VOA in Lansing. [best thrift store ever]

a few years ago i found a few yards of this beautiful printed chiffon at a fabric store. the entire bolt was on sale for incredibly cheap, so i bought the entire thing, which turned out to be about 2 yards. it's been sitting in my fabric bin, and i have found the perfect thing to do with it.

applique to purple sweater. here is my process.

after cutting the parts of the pattern that i want to applique to sweater, i pin it and baste it before sewing with the machine. basting is very important, as it makes it easier to sew with the machine, keeping the fabric from moving and shifting.

basting is simply sewing the fabric by hand very loosely to the garment, temporarily of course. you can also baste with the sewing machine, if you want to save a bit of time. setting the stitches as far apart as possible. i personally prefer to baste by hand, i find the stitches easier to take out afterwards.

materials for pinning and basting. cheap cheap white thread [or another contrasting color for visibility purposes], pins, small baby scissors.

after basting, you're ready to use the sewing machine! choose your thread. i chose brown so that it would blend in with the chiffon, but it's always fun to use a nice bright contrasting thread!

how you sew the piece to the garment is completely up to you. i chose to follow the pattern as closely as possible. because this is such an interesting print, i want to go back and outline it with hand-embroidery. chiffon comes apart very easily, so the stitches are very close together. i like the straight stitch, but the jagged stitch is also very effective, if you want that look.

be sure to secure the thread on the inside of the sweater, after sewing with machine. if you went back over your stitches, then you can simply cut the thread. otherwise you can bring the thread in front to the back using a seam-ripper. tie them in a knot to secure.

after sewing the fabric on with the machine, you can cut out the basting stitches. using a seam-ripper or small scissors. i prefer small scissors, especially when you have delicate fabric like chiffon. cut in increments. less pulling and tugging.

i cut the fabric around the stitching, for a nice clean finished look. please be careful when doing this. i like to use my little baby scissors [very sharp and precise], helps me have more control, so i don't accidentally cut the stitches or sweater. big clunky scissors = big no no.

i hold the fabric that i'm cutting. makes it very easy.

finished product! i'll be adding a bit more to this sweater, so stay tuned for updates!

any questions?

perfect fit

2007-09-29T20:48:00.000-05:00

ode to summer. this beauty is across the street from my house. i do not know what this is growing all over the balcony. mama?

sitting in my studio
fairly early for a Saturday night
listening to Aimee Mann [singing along]
after a fun day of play and great finds
lately i've been doing a lot of research for my products
finding inspiration and original ideas
flowers have been my main inspiration for a long time
i can't seem to escape it
so rather than try, i am embracing it, broadening my mind and my creative energy.

i stopped by my favorite thrift store today, to rummage around. lately i haven't been finding anything, but today i hit the jackpot.

two books, "Flowers" and "The Forgetting Room". Flowers was printed in 1950, and is absolutely the best find. all full-color illustrations of American flowers. i've already found my favorites. The Forgetting Room is a collection of prose and poetry and collage by Nick Bantock. can you see the prices? what a steal!

fabric and yarn, delightful colors and textures. i love that mustard yarn, great for some of my new lace projects.

a few weeks ago i walked around my neighborhood, hoping to find some inspiration. these flowers are all over Astoria!

so i looked it up in my new Flowers book, since i didn't know what it was either.

Trillium? is that right? so lovely. [mom, you're the expert here.]

--

in other wonderful news, more sales on Etsy! thanks to Heather and her custom orders.

the finished product! embroidery to match the hat i had posted on Etsy, which Heather also purchased.

both cabled, both hand dyed with kool-aid, both hand knit by me.

i'm really loving the new Stitch 'n Bitch i've been going to. since i'm always knitting with yarn i've dyed, a few of the gals want to learn, so i'm going to have a kool-aid dying party at my apartment in a few weeks!

current knitting projects: lacey scarf for myself with beautiful light blue yarn i received as a gift.

i'm also working on knitting graphics with different colors. equipped with graph paper, colored pencils and as many colors as i can carry behind my work, i embark on the adventure of working with color. please attempt with caution. do not begin as i did. this is a sample of course, so i thought it might be fine if didn't wind the yarn on separate bobbins to carry behind my work. it's definitely making it difficult. the graph paper is needed to count the stitches, to know when to really change the color. otherwise, you're knitting blind.

this is going to be a cute little sample that i get to keep. but i really like this little tree, so i'm going to make a baby hat out of it! that orange for the background is actually the same yarn i used to make Heather's cabled hat. the other yarn i purchased, with color already added. i especially love the lime green Butterfly yarn. i bought 5 skeins of that when i was living in Detroit, and i'm so glad i did.

it's funny to me how pixelated and nintendo-like the original image is on the graph paper, but when knit, it becomes organic and smooth.

time to knit in front of a cheesy movie.

new listings!

2007-09-20T20:36:00.001-05:00

autumn is upon us
altho the weather doesn't quite seem to want to cooperate, as it will be in the 80's again this weekend. i've begun to dive into my fall wardrobe, only to find myself a bit uncomfortable on my lunchtime walks in the sun. maybe only really from the tights.
i want to wear my knee socks. my brightly colored tights. my doc marten boots in comfort.
goodbye hot sticky weather.
helloooooooo crisp dry cool air and crunchy leaves under my feet.

with a few projects rolling around in my brain, i listed a few new items this past weekend! fabric earrings. i love wearing the pair that i made (which i featured a few posts ago), which were made with the same fabric you see here. these were hand-embroidered, using a simple common backstitch. shown here are the front of one earring, with a Graffiti Blossom stitched, and the back of the other earring. i love formal embroidery stitches. they're really worth learning, as they look so clean on the wrong side of the work.

i also listed this pair, which i machine-stitched. these have a clean edge, as i sewed them inside out, then did a top-stitch to flatten them out. these earrings are a great solution to all the scrap fabric i have in my studio. this particular fabric was included in the package of one of my Etsy orders from DearPony. she's printed a crow onto this adorable polka dot fabric. you can see most of the bird on one earring, while the other only shows part of the beak.

i love asymmetry.

i'm seriously thinking about getting some colored eyelets! how fun.

--

knitting. i finished the turquoise pair of gloves i had shown last week, and sent them off to my best girl M for her birthday. i added a button for a nice detail, as well as a way to keep the gloves together when not being worn. a string of yarn fed through the bottom of the opposite glove, then wrapped around the button works well. then finished them by stitching bare branches with red kool-aid dyed yarn. (Heather, this is very similar to what yours will be! altho the stitch details will match your hat.)

here is Heather's finished left glove! a lovely purple dyed with kool-aid. and very toasty warm. i couldn't resist posting that second photo. my roommate collects the funniest objects, and this is a very fun 70's paper weight which sits on a platform with a light that shines through the bubbled glass. so psychadelic!

--

i held a very small baby this evening. visited my old boss from the cafe where i worked all last summer, who just had a baby! only 5 weeks old, he was so calm and sleeping and precious in my arms. made my night.

--

i highly recommend listening to April March. she is bound to make anyone's life more exciting.

gloved piano fingers

2007-09-12T21:53:00.000-05:00

i have been back to work this week
feeling much energized and enthusiastic
a glow has filled my inner being
maybe it's the set of my mind changing
purposefully
maybe it's the fact that i have taken all pressure off of myself
or maybe it's this.

the photo might not say much to you. but it means the world to me. to have a place where i can spend moments immersed in what i love doing the most.
my refuge.
my atelier.
my studio.

two rectangular work tables, procured from the Depot at a small affordable price (for a poor gal paying her student loans). pieced together with a lovely corner desk piece left by the lady i'm subletting for (of which i am so grateful). makes for the most efficient work space a girl could ask for. these photos were taken a few days ago, i've spread out a bit since i first took these. new projects, old projects, inspirational books. and my new toy.

it makes me almost sad to say this, but it has been over 5 years since i have lived with a piano of some sort. it's about time i had one! a nice man in Ridgewood, Queens was nice enough to sell me this Yamaha PSR-172 for $35 (Craig's List!!). it is absolutely perfect! i had to take like 5 trains to get there from Manhattan (not really only 2) and then 3 (yes, really 3) to get back to Astoria. how crazy is that! but totally worth it.

and oh yes, you can see the finished gloves there!! i ventured down to the West Village last night, to go to the Stitch 'n Bitch party at The Point Knitting Cafe . what an inspiring group. i just sat and sipped my minty jasmine tea, met some new interesting people, and touched lots and lots of yarn. i finished my gloves there, and one of the men knitting there (yes there are men in that group! makes me happy) couldn't help himself but to try them on! i almost gave them to him, they looked good and seemed to fit. that's the nice thing about knitting. it stretches so very nicely. i will definitely be going next week. my friend L might even come! my knitting friend.

my sewing machine, Jewel the Janome, under her cover. henna, cowboys, indians. lots of embroidery floss. the window in my studio looks out onto our balcony. i like to talk to my roommate while she's tending to her garden.

my knitting/reading corner. all i need is a little extra light, and i'm good to knit for hours. my supply basket, with recent projects, scissors, needles, etc. my pink cloth bin full to the brim with yarn and wool fleece. maybe this is a sign that i can stop buying more yarn. problem is, i only like to knit with yarn that i dye myself now.

--

Heather's gloves are started! i decided to make it easier for myself and just dye the yarn instead of trying to find the perfect color to match the hat. you won't be disappointed. they're still purple!! and they'll smell like grape. with a hint of cherry.

thank you for visiting my studio. i play a tune for you, and goodnight.

sick days knit days

2007-09-06T19:26:00.001-05:00

called out sick for the past two days
ho hum.
life could be worse than laying around on a big black leather sofa all day and night, watching HBO movies, good and bad. but it's no fun when coughing and sneezing.
ho hum again. don't mean to complain. i'm feeling much much better, and will be going back to work tomorrow. good thing i picked a short week to be sick.
i did get some things accomplished while lazying about. i finished lacey scarf for K! there she goes, gone to Ireland for a few weeks, but it will be ready for her when she returns. as i'm sure the cold weather will be upon us as well.

you can see me modeling it above. i added some yarney tassles/fringe for a nice finished look. it's not super long, but i'm satisfied with it.

again, i used the lace pattern on page 126 from The New Knitting Stitch Library, by Lesley Stanfield. a wonderful book full of original and inspiring stitches for the avid knitter.

knitting knitting and more knitting. i have 2 projects going, now that i just finished the scarf. another is a pair of fingerless gloves for myself. AH! i haven't knit anything for myself in awhile.

this pattern i got from Knitty, a great website with amazingly wonderful and free patterns. my first gloves! i chose fingerless to make it a bit easier for myself, but wanted some difficulty, hence the cables. the left glove is done, still working on the right.

you can see the lacey scarf underneath. this lovely turquoise cotton yarn i bought from a lady selling some of her stash outside her apartment before she moved. i was riding my bicycle in Williamsburg, Brooklyn after getting one of my tires fixed, and i had to stop and ruffle through her yarn. some i bought she actually spun herself! trying to think of a project for that.
also, in the very left corner of the photo, you can see the other project i'm working on. a hat made from merino wool i dyed with kool-aid awhile ago. another project for a friend. this is an interesting hat. i'll have more photos of it soon. can't give away the secret just yet!

exciting things going on! i joined a Stitch n' Bitch group, which meets in the West Village on Tuesdays! excitement. i'm also researching getting a tax ID number to start selling my goods at street fairs and flea markets! first things first. i've gotta get my studio going, then kick out the products.

Pink Graffiti on the streets! here i come!

threads for dreads

2007-09-03T20:08:00.002-05:00

hello again!

labor day weekend come and gone
and here i am in my apartment, finally with internet flowing through my sparkly clean computer.
thanks to my wonderful and able C, my roommate and i have internet, stress-free.

i am currently milking a weird cold/allergy thing goin on. but was still able to paint my studio!
after a mini-adventure last weekend to the Depot (Home that is), i found 5 quarts of unwanted paint, all different colors ($1 each!!!). 4 for the walls, and 1 for the trim (semi-gloss of course). excitement ensued as i imagined this tiny little guest bedroom/studio (of mine!) in pastel blues and greens. how bright it was in my mind.

after 2 days of pretty intense labor (pun intended), it's done! i am so happy.

walls 1 and 2. the shelves were there, i like them so much. decided to keep them. i took these photos just tonight, so they're a bit yellow with the incandescent light. it's difficult to take good photos during the day, with the light pouring in the window. so yes, you can see wall 1 is a nice light olive, while wall 2 is more blue/green. the trim is a light sea foam green. the lacey curtain you see courtesy of my roommate J.

walls 2 and 3. wall 3 is very similar in color to wall 1, just a little lighter.

walls 3 and 4. looove that blue wall. another cute shelf for goodies. weird thing, as much as i love color, i'm becoming somewhat of a minimalist. my parents are going through a lot of their stuff, and becuz i moved here on such short notice i ended up leaving a lot of my stuff there. the more i think about it, the more i just want to give away or throw out. in the year i've been out here in NYC, i've barely acquired anything. all my belongings still fit into one room.

--

later this week.
buy some work tables for my studio. (2) 4' x 2' folding tables. very useful when we have guests over and can fold up for sleeping room. J and i are going to pitch in together and get an inflatable mattress for such occasions.

on this note. goodnight.

almost autumn

2007-08-28T09:07:00.000-05:00

....and with it brings excitement and adventures!

i have been quiet lately. something in my computer seems to be broken, and not letting me log on to the internet at home. i thought an explanation would be nice, as i have at least (4) posts to do!

as i do not have any photos taken recently on my computer at work, i shall post this of my mother and i, from my visit back to the farm in Michigan a couple weeks ago.

oh how i want to see the farm in the fall!

work is brewing at the homefront. i'm sprucing up my studio! decided that i'm staying in this apartment for at least another year, so i'm painting and making it my own. for as long as i have it. photos!

coming....Montauk trip, continuous adventures in NYC, new office, and stu.stu.studio!

songs of brother

2007-08-02T22:06:00.000-05:00

another night in this city, and instead of going home right after a long day at work, i went to a rooftop party on Madison Ave with my friend Martha. she's great, my friend M. always invites me to interesting shindigs.

her friend Jonny from London is a VJ [video jockey], does very interesting things with video and sound. using equipment that mesmerizes me. i went to a party a couple weeks ago with Martha, where i first met Jonnny, got to see some of his work.

M is a freelance photographer. she grabbed my camera and took this shot of the video equipment, tv on the right. the same images were projected onto the ceiling. if you squint you might be able to make out Jonny somewhere on the left.

the roof had the most amazing view. the sky was so open, not a lot of tall buildings. except for this one.

Empire at day.

Empire at night.

there were quite a few nice people at the party.

my new friend Zac on the right, also a video jockey, who's from Chicago.

ended the evening with a walk in Bryant Park, my favorite. another beautiful fountain. behind the fountain you can see the movie screen that HBO puts up every summer for their film series. i went to one this summer, to see Wait Until Dark, with Audrey Hepburn. everyone sits on the giant lawn, on blankets, eating and drinking and watching. gives me chills just thinking about it. the movie and the experience.

this was such perfect timing because i had a bit of a rough week last week, and have been craving some adventure. i'm actually taking a train out to Montauk with M on Saturday! i was hoping to take C there, get him out of his apartment and outdoors, but he is acquiring a new bicycle and will be picking it up that day. i do hope he can ride it soon.
my real fascination with Montauk is from the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. there is a lighthouse, beautiful beaches, just pure loveliness. the train ride is about 3 hours from Jamaica, Queens, so it'll be a nice day trip. excited to leave the city for a few hours. put on my bathing suit.
so i'll have some nice photos next week!

--

TGIF. moved my office this week. the space is just lovely, but what a headache. glad it's over with. here's a quick preview before we started unpacking.

my desk is the one at the very back, by the windows. cork flooring, all of our material binders are on the red wall shelves, including carpet and wall covering books. can you believe we have so many to fit on those shelves? it's a bit ridiculous. a photo to come later showing more of the finished space.

hope all is well with everyone. my love to you.

washingtonsquarefilmforumharrypotter

2007-07-21T00:44:00.000-05:00

it all began last weekend
seeing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in the theater.
of course my obsession returns.
all craftiness in me is geared towards this. transferring my energy.

so to distract myself, i took a walk in Washington Square Park. Sunday (July 15) was the perfect day for a movie. no, not Harry Potter (saw that last Saturday). but Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman, at the Film Forum in the West Village. i decided to venture into Manhattan a bit early to wander, since i don't do that enough.

(photo: fountain at Washington Square Park)

Washington Square Park is just wonderful. full of tourists and city-dwellers alike. chess players enjoying the heat, children playing in the fountain. steps leading to the fountain create a haven for visitors relaxing, dipping their hot feet into the cool water.

children cooling off in the pool. i watched them for quite awhile. they're having the most interesting conversation. i wonder what they're talking about.

the fountain of youth, a drinking fountain in the park. i feel younger and younger wandering around this city. so much to see. so much to learn. about myself. about life. about other people. society.

after wandering around for a few hours, it was off to meet my friends (Carmina and Ina [[EEEEna]] from the business women's meeting i used to attend) for a cold drink at the Grey Dog Coffee on Carmine Street, right around the corner from the Film Forum. a very quaint cafe, serving delicious sandwiches and coffee and tea. pictured above, the brick walls are lined with paintings of dogs, Walter's Dogs. We caught up (since i hadn't seen these ladies for a few months), brilliant conversations about business.

the film was quite long, but an eye-opener. a bit. definitely directed toward the single woman living in New York City. it really could be applied to single women everywhere, but it was worth watching. i did learn a bit about myself, and maybe a bit about my friends. the world is so different now, isn't it? the role of the woman has changed. for the better i think. it's just a matter of really going after what you want.

(photo: i am enjoying a lovely conversation with Carmina and Ina on the bench outside of the Grey Dog)

---

so the whole point of this entry.

HAPPY HARRY POTTER #7 DAY!!!!

went to a party tonight in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, with my friend K. she and her husband own a bar right across the street from this small hole-in-the-wall bookstore. they had a nice party, with a trivia game, free food, sangria, and then sold the book at 12:01. i was in Hufflepuff house for the trivia game, and we tied with Ravenclaw! the two houses LEAST represented in the books!!!! bloody brilliant.
---

receiving my book in the mail in less than 12 hours.

i
am
stoked.

fabric earrings

2007-07-08T13:16:00.000-05:00

hot weather makes lesley a motivated girl.

spent a lot of this weekend indoors, making new things, sketching new ideas. sometimes it's difficult for me to be motivated in the summertime, what with all the outdoor activities, hanging out with friends, grilling, etc.

so i had a bit of an anti-social weekend, except for spending some time with my gentleman friend, multi-tasking like nothing else. i couldn't make up my mind! i have a knitting project that i just adore right now. for my friend K who may be leaving for Ireland for a few months in September. now i say 'may' becuz she may NOT end up going. but even if she doesn't go, she still needs a scarf to keep her warm.

[photo: lacey scarf for K, knit with yarn dyed with Koolaid. cherry blast for your neck! this same yarn was for sale on my Etsy site for awhile, bit i decided to put it to good use. the pattern was taken from the book you see, The New Knitting Stitch Library by a woman with my same first name. brilliant. you can also see my little stitch counter. very useful.]

after looking through the Etsy site for awhile, comparing my ideas to what's already out there [also very useful and inspiring], got some great ideas and started sketching/making. didn't get too far, but came up with these!!

fabric earrings dangling from my ears! 2 layers of fabric sewn together, and then quilted-like with a machine-stitched graffiti blossom. added an eyelet for a finished touch, and voila! instant earring! i'll keep these for myself and make some more elaborate ones to sell.

front and back of my new pretties.

making has been a bit difficult for me lately, as i jammed my middle finger on my right hand rock climbing a couple months ago [i am right handed, doh!]. so i've finally decided to keep it in a brace permanently for at least 2 weeks. this is a bit counter-productive for me, and makes it hard to knit, sew, type....you can probably imagine.

and now to teach myself how to knit continental style. thank you YouTube! be sure to check out this tutorial if you'd like to try out a new way of knitting. they say this is better for those of you with arthritis [mama! i'm not sure about carpel tunnel, but it may be worth a shot!]

inspiration today

2007-07-02T21:56:00.000-05:00

i am fortunate enough to live in a city of endless possibilities and resources. sometimes i feel like i take this for granted. and then other times, like today, i realize the possibilities, and i grab them as fast as i can.

i decided to venture down to Brooklyn again, to the Etsy Labs, for a free workshop talk with Antonio Gould, about creating a global brand, yet keeping it at a less-than-corporate level. this of course was just what i needed to start my creative juices flowing. while taking notes, i scribbled down ideas, sketching, looking at the artisans around me, wondering if their minds were as occupied as mine. knowing they were.

[please excuse me. i'm reading a Dan Brown novel at the moment]

after coming home, ideas flowing, i decided to do a post on my inspirations. to compliment this, i will be posting some of my older work. constructive criticism always welcome.

1. FLOWERS
i wish i could scoop them up into my head and create a garden. everything i do i think of flowers, floral, botanical, organic. there's so much life, so much love in it. the colors are abundant and forever glistening.

[photo: hand-woven messenger bag w/ embroidered abstract flowers. hand card-woven strap. double reinforced for structure and stability. approximate labor hours: 80]

2. TEXTURE
anything i can touch, see, taste. fabric especially. brick walls lead to concave metal rails leading into darkness and i wonder what it would look like as a woven tapestry hanging on my wall.

[photo: taken in nyc metro subway station. just look at that concrete. you can see how the gravity plays with it. approximate labor hours: .125]

3. GEOMETRY
really i know this is a bit like the opposite of organic but organic can really only make sense if it's paired with geometry.

[photo: i am modeling a cabled hat i knit from yarn dyed with koolaid. this was my first attempt at a cable hat with ear flaps and a pompom top. birdies embroidered also with koolaid dyed yarn. approximate labor hours: 35]

4. ABSTRACT FASHION
i know i know, what does this mean? only in vogue.

[photo: fashion project, sophomore year at CCS. inspired by Russian fashion, both old and new. installation included dress with muff, 2 old doors found on parents' farm hinged together to create room, all scrap fabric used during project, an inspiration board, and the word 'RED' in Russian. pronounced, 'kraksnie'. my outfit of my own making as well. hair using felt remnants by Diana Jellinek. approximate labor hours: 100]

5. DOT TO DOT
drawing is something i push myself to do. embroidery is drawing with thread, which is much much more exciting than a pencil.

[photo: embroidery on felt. approximate labor hours: .5]

some of my favorite projects [felt embroidery aside] are so labor intensive, i find it difficult to duplicate and sell. but they can be inspiration to me. and they are.

morning bike ride

2007-06-23T16:43:00.000-05:00

this photo hunt of sorts is especially for my mother.

leaving the apartment at around 9:45am, i set out for Madison Square Park in Mid-Town Manhattan, in the FlatIron District. meeting a friend there, to eat at the Shake Shack [amazing burgers and shakes].

rode my european bicycle from Queens to Manhattan, taking the Queensborough Bridge [59th Street Bridge]. a view from the middle of the bridge. some construction is being done, hence the need for wrapping. i like to pretend it's Christo, or some other artist making a statement.

getting into Manhattan, i rode down Lexington Ave. to get to 25th street. these brave soldiers, having lost the use of their legs in one war or another, were out on their arm-driven bicycles. it makes me happy that they can still experience the amazing power of the wind on their faces from riding a bicycle.

arriving at the park a bit early, i noticed this building on 25th street. lucky guy, gets to look at the park all day.

at the park, i locked up my Puch and felt myself being drawn to the fountain in the center. this park is very small, but attracts a number of people for a number of reasons. it's quaint dog park, where dogs of all sizes can run loose and play, the interesting metal sculptures of trees and rocks [sorry no photo], and of course, the Shake Shack. yum.

the railing surrounding the fountain. the photo at the top shows baskets of flowers on all sides of the fountain.

this has been a very pleasant second summer in the city. so far. perfect weather today. no humidity, sun shining, nice cool breeze.

miles ridden: 10

burgers eaten: 1

alcohol units: 0 [so far]

lyla grace

2007-06-18T19:56:00.000-05:00

my family you will always be.
and i will love you forever.

as i love your mother forever.

i love you michelle and tim.
my heart is with you.

sampaguita part II

2007-06-17T19:00:00.000-05:00

after the first show back in March, we continued work with Sampaguita.
the goals were to show in a theater near Broadway, with a real set, as a real play, not a workshop [as the first play had been].
i took this project on not really knowing the time i would be putting into it.
but it turned out being a great experience, and i treasure my time spent with the everyone involved.

the 45th Street Theater is the venue.
seriously blocks away from Broadway, right down the street from the theater showing 'Curtains', this was an ideal location for Sampaguita Part II.
you can see the poster, which was designed by a colleague of the director's. phenomenal design. the color scheme of the set was very much based on this.

now you must understand that the set had 2 phases. the beginning of the play, act 1.

with the storyline, we enter into an apartment of a man recently widowed. this is the living room area of a loft apartment in SoHo, in the lower part of Manahattan. on the left you can see part of the kitchen/dining area. behind these areas are three fabric walls, creating a doorway into the bathroom/bedroom areas, which are not meant to be seen by the audience.

the dining/kitchen area.

fabric walls. to the left the bathroom, to the right the bedroom. this also created a changing area/backstage for the actors.

as the play moves on, the apartment gets cleaner and cleaner, as we transition from past to present to past again. the main plot line shows two time periods, moving from a present to a past memory. this was depicted using different lighting. it was quite fascinating to watch.

act two set, with lighting set to flashbacks.

--

thus ends one of the busiest weeks i've had since i graduated from college. i don't know if i'll pick up another set design project in the near future. it was very stressful, but to see the end result is so satisfying. a feeling that nothing but a finished project that i'm proud of can bring.

we all wanna be somebody

2007-05-29T19:17:00.000-05:00

memorial day weekend. how glorious to have an excuse to run around like a crazy person for 3 days.

Saturday: Coney Island with friends visiting from Michigan.

oh i use any excuse to go to this lovely beach/carnival/hot dog stand/freak show.
i certainly loved going on the day the beach opened. luckily it wasn't too overly-crowded.
walked on the flaming hot sand.
bare feet in the freezing ice water [where people and naked babies were actually swimming!]
nathan's coney dogs with onions and mustard and chili cheese fries.

ice cream, teeshirts and best of all.
riding the cyclone!

i think is in fact one of the nation's oldest rollercoasters. built in 1927. quite amazing that it's still running and quite one of the most fun rides i've ever been on. and i've been to Cedar Point too many times.

while waiting in line. i had one seat all to myself and was sliding around. it definitely added to my excitement.
D and i on the boardwalk. you can see the parachute landmark in the background. it is beautifully lit at night. too bad i missed that. we were both afraid of the sun that day. so glad when i meet someone else who covers up as much as i do. it was so hot and a scorching 90 degrees that day. yikes. can you see the smog?

and that was my coney island adventure. don't worry. i'll be back soon sweet dirty coney island. i love you in all your glory and grime.

tees in Etsy!

2007-05-09T22:26:00.000-05:00

with a flat tire on my bicycle and a hectic week,
i decided to stay in tonight
and make a tee to sell on Etsy.

this is the second of its kind.
the first was made for my good friend L for her birthday
[still waiting for a photo to show]

the design is very similar.

side view.
blossom petals appliqued on the front and back, with vintage buttons details.

i found a button that matches the aqua pin striped fabric perfectly.
so i sewed it into the top left shoulder of the tee. (see item on Etsy)
balances it well.

button details. fluorescent colors are so in right now.

this is the first of many tees i hope to sell. check it out!

--

my Harry Potter obsession has returned.

wine country

2007-05-06T12:31:00.000-05:00

my good friend N is visiting from Idaho this week
so a big group of us went out to Long Island to visit wine country
we ended up at a winery out in the middle of sod farms, about a mile from the Long Island Sound.

2 cars
each packed with 5 people
my car also included a dog. Bean.

Bean inspects the unsuspecting gargoyle guarding the cow barn.

the first photo is a barn on the winery property.
i was throwing a frisbee around with a few of my friends, with cows mooing in the background.
i think i accidentally set off the security alarm in the barn as i wanted to visit with the cows.
it was a bit strange sitting on picnic tables in the middle of a large farm, drinking wine, in the middle of the afternoon.

Martha Clara. one of the only wineries we could find with complimentary wine-tasting.
we ended up buying a couple bottles anyway.

i love this group of people. i rarley spend any time with them, something i'm hoping to change.

--

today. taking my bicycle down to Prospect Park. may end up joining the same group of people for a BBQ in the park.
must take advantage of this beautiful weather.
[[no worries Rauf. i always bring water and my helmet. ]]

riding in new york

2007-05-05T10:31:00.000-05:00

i love to ride my bicycle.
i have been loving it even more lately, as my boyfriend is nuts about his bicycle. it's quite contagious actually.

his bicycle. there is pink on it.

this month is Bike Month in NYC.
so there is something to do every night of the week, including a bicycle fixing workshop for women. i will be taking advantage of this. put on by Recycle-a-Bicycle, i get to fix someone else's future bicycle, and take the knowledge home to my own.

--

heading out to Long Island now.
more photos later.

buttons in Etsy

2007-04-14T22:00:00.000-05:00

a lake in the middle of Central Park from my excursion last weekend.

New York was beautiful today. i couldn't stay inside for long. i took Puch out for a ride and ended up on Roosevelt Island, an island in the middle of the East River. there's a river walk that goes completely around the island, with views of Queens and Manhattan. directly underneath the Queensborough Bridge. so close i could see the rust on the steel beams of the bridge.

i was aching to get outside so badly that i forgot my camera.

i am ready to graduate to the next bicycle. i'm sorry to say it, but Puch is a bit too heavy and difficult to ride for me now, for the kind of riding i want to do. we're all in agreement then? good. maybe i can trade it for something a bit lighter. i wonder if the boys in Brooklyn would have something.

--

new earrings in Etsy!

all of a sudden i wanted to make jewelry.
a gal on Etsy had a little contest in her shoppe, and i won the cutest magnet!

tinaseamonster.etsy.com

it says, 'sometimes i worry about zombies'

so as a token of my gratitude, i sent her a pair of puzzle piece earrings. i only hope her ears are pierced.

i was inspired.
on the floor in my newly rearranged bedroom. i haven't wanted to leave it all evening. all nice and clean. the lady i'm subletting for is in town tomorrow, staying at our apartment. so i wanted my room [aka her room] to look nice.

a corner of my room, with my new chrome Target shelves. a gift from my gentleman friend. it was his suggestion to put my enormous yarn collection in my suitcase, which you can see to the right. genius.

tomorrow: rain. lots of rain.

daffodils and forsythia

2007-04-08T16:22:00.000-05:00

i spent this holiday Sunday in Central Park.
this was part experiment, part exercise, part urge to be among nature.

despite the bitter almost freezing cold, the flowers marking the beginning of spring still manage to show their faces.

2.5 hours of walking later, here i am trying to keep warm in my apartment, wishing the weather was a bit more forgiving so i could still be out there reading my newly borrowed book.

forsythia for my parents. it's their 29th wedding anniversary today. how i'm so happy you two found each other.

lamp post

2007-04-05T17:49:00.000-05:00

this photo was taken a few weeks ago, when the weather was beautiful and it really felt like spring was here.

this weather i wish for with all my heart.
blue skies.
warm sunshine.
birds singing.

i was walking around Forest Hills, a neighborhood in my burough of Queens. at the end of R line, which i take to work everyday [towards Manhattan of course]. it has quite the strip of shopping. a range of stores, from Barnes and Noble Booksellers, to Banana Republic, to Diesel, to the smaller boutiques selling one-of-a-kind items.

also a stop on the LIRR [Long Island Rail Road]. the Tudor-style architecture drew me in. these photos were all taken within steps of the train station. you will notice the lamp posts, the beautiful brick and terra cotta rooftops.

this clocktower is under some renovation. apparently. i like to think it was some sort of art statement, wrapping it in this mesh fabric.

walking under the bridge where the train passes over. you can tell it had been cold. the icicles were all melting.

i leave you with this cobble stone street.

look me in the heart: part II

2007-03-29T22:18:00.000-05:00

i felt i needed some new spring clothes since i started my new job, so i bought a few shirts from some amazing Etsy sellers.

MuttsyWonder
made this beautiful shirt
a very successful Etsy seller.
she was at a show when i ordered, and for my patience she included some great pins and stationary that she also made.
this print was screened onto a gray tshirt. she has a few different patterns, all a bit floral.
so beautiful.
i will definitely be buying from her again.

i also bought from DearPony
who also screens onto clothing, i love her designs.
these tunics are floral and lovely and i couldn't help myself.
they're both very long, and i can dress them up or down.
also a successful Etsy seller.

i am just so impressed with so many sellers on Etsy.
so much talent.
so inspiring.
i find myself on that website for hours.

i never need to enter a mall again.

look me in the heart

2007-03-29T21:58:00.001-05:00

it is my good friend's birthday today
we celebrated on Tuesday of this week, and i made her a shirt using my Graffiti Butterfly pattern.
the applique was a bit different than my sweaters, being a tshirt, i felt it needed a bit more interest. the two petals twisted from the front to the back. i used the new fabric i bought, the white with black and gray seeds speckled on a black shirt, with black buttons and bright neon blue thread.

of course, i didn't take a photo before i gave it to her.

hopefully one of these days i'll see her and take one of her actually wearing it. but i believe it is the beginning of a few things.

(1) a tax ID
(2) tshirt embroidery/applique
(3) visiting boutiques with my designs

i've just got to do it. i'll go with one sweater and one shirt, maybe some of my jewelry, and see if i can sell anything.

i did list a new sweater! i did have this one listed, but didn't like the way i had appliqued. so i changed it using some of the new fabric i bought last weekend.

using more vintage buttons. i added a few one of my favorites to the front.

the large green button. it is so one of a kind. you might not be able to tell from the photo, but it's a bit sparkly, and just wonderful.

magical.

new fabric store

2007-03-24T22:39:00.000-05:00

the sun was shining this early afternoon
so i took advantage of it and rode my bike over to Woodside, Queens
in search of a fabric/quilting store, called A Quilter's Notion.
i hadn't been to that part of Queens yet, so it was a little adventure.
what a quaint place!
the store was great. i had a field day and found some great fabric for some upcoming projects. i decided to take one of my sweaters apart [the white cardigan for sale on Etsy] and re-design it.

fabric layered for me gaze at. i usually like to buy vintage fabric at thrift stores, or use old garments and tablecloths. but these were just too beautiful to resist.

--

new necklace on Etsy!
i was rummaging through my buttons the other day and found this pendant.

i painted a Graffiti blossom on it, and attached a nice sterling silver ball chain to it. i really want to do more of these, in multiple colors. there are so many amazing bead stores in this city. in fact, i walked by a few the other day just wandering down 6th ave. to Bryant Park after work.

tomorrow: new sweater.
for the white cardigan re-design, i'll be using the fabric at the bottom of the pile. it's a beautiful sort of plaid, cream, light rose, olive green and a deep turquoise blue.

butterfly trend

2007-03-22T23:31:00.000-05:00

new sweater posted on Etsy!
she is embroidered with hot pink thread. my favorite part.
i've included a matching pin on the front of the sweater, since the majority of the design is on the back.

i've been so inspired lately, but have been so exhausted every evening this week. i have many more ideas, so keep a look-out. i'm sure i'll have more goodies next week

[after this nice warm weekend yea right. i'll be outside all day on my bicycle]

--

in other non-goodies photos.

i ventured out to Jamaica, Queens last weekend to look through the basement of my friends place of work. i wish it was for personal use; it was actually for Sampaguita. yes, i'm still working on the set for this play. i actually found all of the set pieces [and have yet to put together a prop list] in this junky wonderful basement. i also found some amazing photo opportunities. Jamaica is a ways out in Queens. actually the last stop on the F train.

my wrist aches from too much computer work.
enjoy the goodies!

snow fall in new york

2007-03-18T09:50:00.000-05:00

i never really believe the weather report.
so when i heard that we were getting a massive snowstorm on Friday, i put on my turquoise cowboy boots thinking nothing of it.

next time i will not underestimate the power of the [force] weather.

my balcony yesterday after gigantic storm. i was actually walking around in it on Friday evening. this is after all my good neighbors shoveled and chopped up the ice. see, it wasn't so much snow, as ice. pelting my face so i had to raise my mittened hands to block the ice chips. i've heard it's the same sensation as riding a motorcycle in the rain. that's comforting.

my doc martens are sufficient for such weather, but i think next year i'll invest in some nice lovely warm snow boots. good investment. maybe even napolean dynamite style.

in other news.

i sold a sweater! to the same lovely woman who bought the bracelet [aka my first sale].

detail of applique and embroidery on back. before sending, i added a button in the center [where you see the swirl] to finish it off. and a hand-embroidered label w/ pinkgraffiti logo.

of course inspired, i started another sweater yesterday, a small one for all you petite women! it fits me, but is a bit small for my taste. similar design to this one sold, but w/ different fabric and on a red sweater. here's a peek.

it's a bit altered from this photo since i started sewing it. 2 different fabrics, one layered on top of the other. the first layer [underneath] is a sparkly silver, while the fabric on top is pink and purple striped. i've been waiting to use that fabric. i had very little of it, so thought this would be perfect. it will also come with a pin on the front of the sweater, which will match the design in back. for a finishing touch, a red anchor button on back, and on pin. this will be finished today [more pink stitching to do], and hopefully listed tonight!

happy sacred sunday!

finally the sweaters

2007-03-15T19:25:00.000-05:00

ok so i finally listed the 2 sweaters on Etsy.
you can find them in my EtsyMini sidebar.
i am most happy with these.

latest sweater, seen here modeled by my gentleman friend [also wearing my pink wig...can you see his beard?].

i embroidered a Graffiti Blossom onto a piece of aqua felt that i purchased at the most lovely fabric store of Haberman's back in Royal Oak, Michigan. oh how i miss that store. once i really start exploring this city, i'm sure i'll find its equal...maybe even more its equal.

selling price: $25.

~

[i thought i just heard thunder]
we're supposed to have a gigantic snowstorm [probably on its way over from Michigan].
quite unfortunate. i so enjoyed these past few days.

more to come. i'm feeling so inspired lately.

EtsyMini

2007-03-13T21:40:00.000-05:00

i recently discovered the EtsyMini. please notice it in my sidebar!
it is a mini version of my Etsy shoppe.
if you click on an item that entices your tastebuds, it will take you directly there.
excitement!
what a grandious idea.

my second day of new Interior Design job : success.

i even feel enough energy to do a little bit of sewing before i crawl into bed.

i know i know, i haven't listed the new sweater yet. but i will tomorrow. definitely.
i'll actually have 2 to list!

meeting tonight with the Mogulettes! [see blogs sidebar] these women are amazing. my business affiliates. my mogulettes in the making. my startup sistas. we meet every week to keep each other accountable with our dreams of working for ourselves. i am technically no longer a freelancer, as i have a full-time salary job, but i still qualify with my small Etsy shoppe. and i still have high hopes of one day working for myself. the life of an artiste.

favorite/featured item in shoppe this week:

Red Lipstick. the horse pendant. i decided to add a chain to the sale. a pretty ball chain. i want to wear her every time i leave the house.

current music: pinback.

in Etsy tomorrow

2007-03-10T22:38:00.000-05:00

another sweater done. this is my third. and definitely my favorite so far.
minimal.
butterfly-esque.
but more importantly, a style of the Graffiti Blossom.
like a Georgia O'Keefe reference.

the design is primarily on the back, with tiny bits of the embroidery spilling onto the front.

this will be posted on Etsy tomorrow hopefully. if i can wake up early enough to catch some good daylight before my first day of work. the photos i took yesterday are just too dark for my liking.

on a more amazing note, my first sale on Etsy was a great success! i only hope it can bring more. this great buyer wants to commission another bracelet to match her tattoos! how adorable. i threw in a pair of Playing Card earrings that i also designed and made, because she was my first sale. she was so appreciative and left great feedback for me. it makes me so happy that i could give someone a good first Etsy impression.

wednesday: in manhattan again

2007-03-08T09:49:00.000-05:00

another manhattan adventure yesterday. taking more and more advantage of my time off this week.

i met a friend at the post office near Madison Square Gardens/Penn Station before walking all around Manhattan again.

i saw this building and had no idea it was a post office. that is, of course, until i saw the signs that said United States Post Office. oh. right. that makes sense. you can see Channel Thirteen building in the background, where my friend works. as i was waiting, i ran into the post office to catch a glimpse of the old bicycle and elegant decor. the ceiling is so beautiful. i didn't stay in there for too long. just long enough to take this in. and get a photo of the bicycle.

and across from the post office....

Madison Square Gardens on the right, with a huge poster of the new Will Ferrell movie. ice skating? hm. and the Empire State Building in the background. a lot of NYC commuters take the subway to this station to get the Long Island Rail Road and the Path Train to New Jersey.

we walked to the Empire State Building, which was lit green last night [St. Patty's Day?], then down to the Lower East Side again., stopping at a quaint diner along the way. Bon Vivant Diner. i think that means Good Living in French. how fitting. but i walked by this hotel again.

i had no idea the sculptures protruding were lights! how beautiful. how inviting. looking up the height of the building, we noticed there was a small one at the very top.

our destination was Mug Lounge, where every Wednesday they host a performance art night, sort of like an open-mic night. real artists, interesting folk off the street, anyone can perform. but when we arrived, there was no one there! how unfortunate and disappointing. i was excited about that. it's supposed to happen every week, so i will just have to catch it again sometime.

peaceful celebration

2007-03-06T22:17:00.000-05:00

i have been celebrating joyously, as i have a full-time job! starting next week, i will be interior designing full time. these past few weeks have really been spent in contemplation, as i've been seriously thinking about my 'business'. as much as i would love to make and sell things full-time, it just doesn't seem possible at the moment. but i am trying to be patient with myself, and in the meantime, i can still make things and be inspired and have lots of ideas.

i tromped around Manhattan today, in the freezing cold wind chill, to follow in the footsteps of my great grandmother, Olive Bennett, to go supply shopping.

i found the most amazing jewelry supply store, Metalliferous. i went a little crazy. i definitely could have gone a bit crazier. self-control. i found some great little bracelet cuffs to paint on.

i painted this graffiti blossom with pink nail polish. for sale at my Etsy shoppe! crossing my fingers.

EDIT: this cute little bracelet was my first sale on Etsy! not even two hours after i listed it. joy!

bikes and trikes and old abandoned warehouses

2007-03-01T13:22:00.000-05:00

i've been taking serious advantage of my free time this week.

Etsy Labs [located in Fort Greene, Brooklyn] : an amazing place for artists and crafters to connect and meet people.
every wednesday they host a Tea Party, giving a tour of the space, drinking tea and coffee, eating cookies, making envelopes from old science books and just chatting.

i decided that, instead of taking the subway, which i knew would take me at least an hour [taking at least 3 train changes], i would ride my bicycle. she was a bit dusty, having been cooped up in storage for the past 3 months. but i put some air in her tires and she was good to go!

it's definitely at least 4 miles down to this place from my apartment. at least. but what a ride! it was absolutely amazing. i saw areas of the world i never would have seen from a subway train.

the Polaski Bridge connects Queens to Brooklyn, more importantly, Long Island City to Greenpoint. most definitely the best view of Manhattan. most definitely.

cars speeding by as i peddle up the bridge. you can see the Citibank building, the only real skyscraper in Queens [besides all the lovely high-rise apartments going up by the river].

i came home, incredibly inspired to make make make! so i posted these in my shoppe on Etsy.

cowboy earrings. i seriously love them. please visit my Etsy shoppe, here!

monday in new york

2007-02-27T21:56:00.000-05:00

yesterday.
i had an amazing day in new york.
i mean, it's been one adventure after another since i moved here, but yesterday was very memorable.

it started with this.

i run up stairs and down stairs at the subway station nearest my apartment. these are the stairs leading down to the Manhattan/Brooklyn bound trains. i stopped in my tracks when i saw this mess. my first thought. who would do this?? my next thought. what are these papers?? i soon found out. at least the answer to the second question. Chase Bank deposit slips. this photo reminds me a bit of Amelie, how almost every frame was tinted green, especially in the metro subway stations. this is a bit more yellow. it's my own yellow.

the train came shortly after i took this photo, and took me into Manhattan for my last day with the Residential Designer i've been working with since November. 4 hours of work later, i was heading cross-town to meet a friend, and we walked all around Manhattan, from Midtown to the Lower East Side to Washington Square Park. this loverly tower also stopped me dead in my tracks, found in a local community garden in the L.E.S.

i saw the arch in Washington Square Park [think When Harry Met Sally] from a distance, and practically ran there! my first time there. i felt like such a tourist. what made it even worse, i was taking a photo of the arch, and a girl was walking by and asked if she could take a photo of the two of us [my friend and me]. we wanted to make a joke and tell her we were actually New Yorkers, but pretended to be tourists anyway.

i thought you would like this especially [mom], as it is pretty much an exact replica of L'Arc de Triomphe. which i will hopefully see in person someday. i imagine it pales in comparison. but maybe a close second?

we must have walked 3 miles that night. ate some wonderful vegetarian food at Kate's Joint, the cutest little hole-in-the-wall. i ate a glorious veggie burger on a bed of brown rice with veggies and tahini while listening to The White Album.

my legs weren't even that sore this morning.

embellishments and earrings

2007-02-25T16:15:00.000-05:00

as we speak, i am putting this hat for sale at my online store. as i put the finishing touches on it, i realized that i really didn't want to add the ear flaps. even tho it's very 'flapper' style.

another cabled hat. the yarn i dyed with koolaid. it turned out to be the exact color i wanted. of course i dyed some samples first, but i am so happy with the outcome. the floral embroidery is also koolaid-dyed yarn. and the vintage buttons i bought a long time ago at the most amazing antique store in northern Michigan, near my family's cottage. unfortunately, The Potato Been is no longer open, but i have hundreds of these amazing buttons to remind me of it.

i knit this with double pointed needles, meaning there is no seam.

so please visit my shoppe! and tell all your friends. i will be adding much more, including yarn, more hats, jewelry and small gift items.

i also dyed some more yarn today, which i will be putting up for sale later. joy!
my fingers are red and taste like sweet sugar.

if you could have a cabled koolaid dyed hat, what color would it be? what kind of embroidery would you love to have on the side? do you like the buttons?

please visit: pink.graffiti

off off broadway

2007-02-23T22:51:00.000-05:00

one of the [many] joys of living in this city is that there is something to do around every corner every single minute of every day.

i traveled down to the west village tonight for dinner and a play with a friend [also know as director of Sampaguita] to support another friend Marisa [also known as writer/producer/actor of Sampaguita] who is acting in a play.

Land O'Fire.

i love these off broadway plays.
simple set.
silly costumes made of cardboard.
puppets.
very very good humor.
and Marisa was phenomenal.

what a beautiful, memorable, simple set. there were 7 actors, and part of the dynamic was to move the chairs about to be used as dining chairs, coach seats, pews.....

"Based on the story of two voyages of the HMS Beagle to Tierra del Fuego in the 1830's, Land O'Fire is the story of South American Fuegian Indians plucked from their home and transported to England to be christianized. Told from the point of view of the Indians, Land O'Fire is a timely work, hilarious yet always insightful in its examination of life interfered with and forever damaged by association with a 'superior' culture."

what happened to this warm weather i was wishing for? the wind is almost unbearable here. i'm so happy to be in my pjs almost in my bed.

bryant park

2007-02-20T21:16:00.000-05:00

i got my wish.
new york is amazingly warm today. almost 50 and it felt so good to wander around the city slowly rather than in an insane hurry to get to anyplace warm.
i even wore my lovely blue autumn long coat. it's always a special day when i get to wear that.

i started experimenting with a bag i designed.
i wanted something on the larger side, like a tote, that i could carry books, knitting, documents, with ease, but over my body like a messenger bag.
the design needs a bit of work, but i'm happy with the bag i finished today. it's definitely usable for me.
and i used my favorite fabric. my parents brought it back for my birthday the first year they went to Paris together [for their 25th anniversary]. found at a flea market [that i hope to visit myself one day].

i've been so reluctant to use it. i cherish it. it is precious. but now i can carry it with me wherever i go.

..

the play goes on. a production meeting tonight brought me to Manhattan. to Bryant Park. one of the small beauties. right behind the Public Library [think Ghostbusters], filled with gorgeous Sycamore trees [think Paris]. the best part: they flood it every winter for ice skating. a friend of mine works right across the street [where the meeting was tonight], and he skates there every day. what a dream. here is the back of the library, framed by the Sycamores.

this is the same park where i saw "M.A.S.H." this past summer, during the HBO outdoor film festival of sorts. a giant screen was set up at the front of the park, and hundreds of New Yorkers flocked to the park, lining the sides until the lawn opened, to run and retrieve the best spot with their blankets. this was quite a sight to be seen.

flooded park. with city backdrop. the red restaurant behind the library.

my favorite part of this park are the chess tables placed around the perimeter. New York has a lot of chess players. apparently.