Bunny honey.

Now I've seen some great latte art, but how incredible is this?


(courtesy jollygoo, one my favorite blogs)

Let it snow...

We're anticipating the first snowstorm of the season here in NY tonight, so I'm hunkered down, warm and safe at home. I'm planning to finish off a couple of holiday gifts for my family, make some progress with my first attempt at circular knitting (a cowl scarf in charcoal heather wool), and pore over the newest issue of Lonny magazine.

Looks like I'll be starting with Lonny, as it's the easiest to check off my list and is filled with articles on holiday gifts, a winter garden party, J. Crew's Women's Collection store on the UES, Kate Spade's Fifth Ave. shop, and loads of other beautiful and stylish things. What a great way to spend a snowy night!

Please stand by...

...for new posts (hopefully in the very near future). I recently started a second part-time job with a local "fashion jewelry" manufacturer. Between this and my existing PT job at a local museum reproduction/ nature-inspired jewelry manufacturer I have been working seven days a week and can't really think clearly enough to create any interesting posts. I hope those of you who've visited my blog in the past will check back for new material soon!

Getting crafty.

Stay tuned... later this week I'll post about my visit to Saturday's Martha Stewart Holiday Craft Sale at her NYC headquarters. I had such a great time!

Liberty for all... really!

Since I was on the wrong side of the pond for Liberty of London's September sample sale (talk about alliteration!), and I am a major fan of their products, I was extremely thrilled to discover that they will be collaborating with Target on a line of merchandise, set to launch in March! I'm hoping they'll have some great women's oxford shirts in classic Tana Lawn fabrics, like this. So many designers have put the fabrics to great use... Cacharel, A.P.C, J. Crew... fingers crossed that the Target line will be one to remember!

Gimme shelter.

Like so many, many others, I was so sad when Domino ceased publication. It was a unique, fun, creative, stylish shelter mag. I'm so thankful I hoard magazines and have a full set of the issues. I enjoy looking through them for inspiration and to fantasize about living in such beautiful spaces.

Now, in the same vein, comes Lonny. It features folks from the Domino team and is just as stylish and creative. My only complaint is that it's only digital; I am someone who will always chose turning the pages of a magazine or book over reading one in the glow of my computer screen or an e-reader. The trade-off is that it costs nothing to read now; maybe one day they'll get the funding to produce Lonny in print form.


PS: I am planning to have my Etsy shop up and running shortly after Thanksgiving. (Not that anyone was worried or anything.) Just thought you might like to know.

Pigs must be flying.

11/17/09 Update: Shop coming very soon... I promise!
I have been intending to open an Etsy shop for almost as long as I've known about the site. Somehow I have allowed an embarrassingly great length of time to pass (measured in years, not months) while continuing to say, "One day I plan to sell my jewelry on Etsy." I don't know if I was waiting for pigs to soar past my window or the devil to wear ice skates, but the time has finally come... almost.

I figure if I post about my plans I will feel obligated to actually get my Etsy shop going very soon. I'm going to shoot some new photos of my work over the next few days--as you can see from the two examples below, I really need to reshoot! I hope to have the shop go live sometime before the end of next week. I'm going to start with some jewelry, but plan to expand to some of my photographs and possibly a sampling of handprinted paper goods. Stay tuned for the launch announcement, and I hope that you'll find at least one thing you'd like to own!

Rule Brittania.

Ever since I can remember, I have been an ardent Anglophile. As a child, I used to dream of stowing away in my friend's luggage when her family went to London every summer. I watch every British show and film I can find and read every British magazine and every book that I can get my hands on that takes place in England. I finally made my first non-armchair traveler journey to the UK in my early 20s and felt like I was dreaming. It was even better than I could have imagined! I was lucky enough to go back twice in the early 2000s while my very good friend was doing a Doctorate at Oxford University (I KNOW--super smart!). I even got to stay "on a staircase" "in college" (love those archaic terms!). It was in a 17th century building next to the college's chapel, located in the Chapel Quad (how veddy British!). It was heaven (no pun intended).

Sadly I haven't been back in well over five years, but my reading and viewing help me remember my visits. Even the food products from the UK make me happy. I've made trips to Myers of Keswick in Greenwich Village to stock up on Walker's Crisps (Prawn Cocktail is my favorite, followed closely by Cheese & Onion and Smoky Bacon) and Tunnock's Caramel Wafer Biscuits. I was so happy when my local supermarkets began to carry a moderate selection of British foods so I can get my PG Tips (on their site, check out the hilarious commercials featuring a sock monkey and his human) Cadbury Crunchie, and Branston Pickle right near my home.

So I am really loving hwayoungjung's Flickr set, British Things. It's a group of fabulous drawings of more than 100 food products from England. She (I think she?) has also written interesting little histories of each product. I don't think I'll ever get tired of looking through this set, but I just saw that she drew additional sets: American Things, Scottish Things, French Things, and Italian Thing (as hwayoungjung wrote, "just 1 for now"). I guess I'll have to expand my interest in culinary drawings... I'm looking forward to her coming additions to these sets.

Mmmm... another one of my favorite treats (image copyright hwayoungjung)

An Education.

I can't wait to see this film. The plot sounds really interesting and I am in love with the costumes and scenery. Nick Hornby wrote the screenplay, based on Lynn Barber's memoir. Superb cast, including Carey Mulligan (below), who is just too adorable.

Heartfelt thanks.

Many thanks to all of you who've sent me your words of support and advice. I know this time will pass and I look forward to when I am again gainfully employed with being underemployed (I've got a very, very part time job) as just a distant memory. I never cease to be thrilled by how supportive and generous all of the bloggers out there are. Not to mention talented and creative! Again, thank you all :)

Long time, no post.

Sorry I haven't been posting lately. I normally don't discuss my personal life here but have made an exception for this post.

For some time now I've been putting a lot of energy into my quest for a full-time job. Warning: Sob story ahead... I just passed 7 months since I was laid-off, and I'm really feeling the itch to get back into a full-time job. It's been a roller coaster of emotion lately. I miss having a daily routine and destination, not to mention having a steady income and benefits. I had hoped to find something before the end of the year but have revised that... I now hope I can find a job in my field(s) (museum/arts administration, jewelry production, archive assistance) before I get to celebrate one year of unemployment.

I promise some new (and more cheerful) posts very soon.

So many great blogs and e-shops, so little time...

Update, 9/18/09: I WON!!! I was thrilled to see that I won prize #2 in Zoetropa's giveaway. I can't wait to share it with you when it arrives!

I just discovered Zoetropa, Pam's fabulous shop and blog, through Elephantine, Rachel's fabulous shop and blog. If you haven't already, please be sure to check out both ladies' sites and to enter Zoetropa's giveaway by noon EST this Thursday in celebration of her second blogiversary.

I never cease to be amazed and excited by how many terrifically talented folks are blogging and selling their creations on the web. It's a wonderful and ever-expanding community, and I am honored to be a very, very small part of it. I hope that with time more folks will come to enjoy my blog and (once I eventually get it up and running) shop as much as I do theirs.

Happy 2nd blogiversary, Pam!

Shore to shore.

To start off Labor Day weekend, a longtime friend who grew up with me on Long Island (a.k.a LI) brought two of her friends from New Jersey for their first ever visit to LI. I joined them for what was a fun-filled, beautiful day. We started out at the Sands Point Preserve on the north shore, hiking paths that traveled through lushly overgrown woods down to the shore of Long Island Sound. Bits of the shoreline reminded me slightly of the Northern California coast.






The friends from NJ were impressed by the beach, but were blown away when, after a scrumptious Jewish deli dinner, we headed down to Jones Beach State Park, a beautiful 10 mile long stretch of sand and sea on the south shore of the Island that's celebrating its 80th anniversary this year.





Walking along both shores in one day reminded me of how lucky I am that my home is close to so many beautiful sites here on Long Island.

Liberty for all... almost.

Oh, how I wish I was in London this weekend. A Liberty sample sale; up to 90--that's NINETY--percent off? Lucky limeys (no offense). Sigh! I guess I'll just have to dream about it and satisfy my cravings with frequent visits to their blog instead.

Made in Japan.

Ever since I can remember I have had a fascination with anything related to Japanese culture. When I was a teen waaay back in the 80s my family went to Orlando. I could have spent the whole trip in the Mitsukoshi department store in the Japan Pavilion at Epcot. Then one of my friends spent a year working in Tokyo after college. She introduced me to the Kinokuniya bookstore in NYC when she returned; I have been in love with the store ever since and visit as often as I can. So I was thrilled recently to discover uguisu, a wonderful web shop with a great selection of treats from Japan (or "Japanese Goodies" as Hiki, the owner, calls them):

paper goods



washi paper masking tapes



beautifully printed linen towels



hanko stamps



magazines & books including one of my favorites, ku:nel



Hiki lives in Tokyo but has very reasonable international shipping rates. I now have a very long wish list of "goodies" I want to order from this great site. Be sure to also visit Jollygoo, Hiki's fascinating blog. Oyasuminasai!

Houses in Motion.*

I am in love with these tiny houses... so colorful and fun!



Images courtesy Sarah via The Small Object Stenopad

*Ten points if you get the title reference. Anyone? C'mon, give it a guess.

Stormy skies.

Friday afternoon clouds began rolling in until the sky got so dark, it looked like the end of days. I was at my current part time job (underemployment is only slightly better than unemployment) and had to step outside to get some photos. There was something beautiful about the many layers of clouds that seemed to be flying quickly across the sky. We kept waiting for the inevitable downpour, but it never came. Summer storms on the East Coast are highly localized, so though we stayed dry my friend about 15 minutes away had not only heavy rain but jumbo hail. A lucky miss for us, don't you think?

Forever young.

This has been around for a while, but I had to post about it because I think it's so damn hilarious and adorable (not to mention that they used a great song--the perfect song for this, in my opinion). If you want, you can visit the special site Evian's got about the commerical. They've got an interesting video about how the commercial was produced... it's amazing the amount of time and money it took to pull it off.

Latest creation.

I was dabbling a bit last week, and here's the result. Sterling silver with freshwater pearl, serpentine, labradorite, turquoise, and chrysoprase beads. The holder opens so I can change out the charms as the mood strikes me.

Anthro windows redux

In January I snapped some photos of the window displays at Anthropologie in Rockefeller Center, which were really ingenious and creative (as are most of their displays). They all had a bird theme, but the ones that most appealed to me were those that centered on a pile of discarded plastic carrier bags. They made it appear as though some of the bags were picked up by a gust of wind and then formed themselves into birds soaring through the sky.





As I said, ingenious and creative. Also beautiful.

...Two Potato.

A few more pages from the book in this post... too many good things to fit into one post (click on photos to enlarge)!



This page is one of my favorites... reminds me of a Paul Klee painting:

One potato...

Last year at my public library's used book sale some really fun old children's arts & crafts books decided that they had to come home with me, and seeing that they were such a bargain I couldn't argue! One of the books was "Potato Printing", written by Susan Strose. It is part of the Little Craft Book Series published in 1968 by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. This post reminded me that I wanted to share the book with you. I do hope that I am not infringing on any copyright permissions by sharing these page shots (click on photos to enlarge).







Thanks to Caitlin Mociun, I now not only want to try potato printing on paper but also to make a stylin' top or dress. Stay tuned for project updates.*

*Knowing the way I work, don't expect to see an update for MONTHS. Seriously. It takes me ages to finish a project.