it's evolution (and giveaway!)...

via the evolution store

my shop almost has 500 sales!! it's exciting to think that there are (at the least, but definitely more than) 500 objects made by my hands floating out there in the world. to celebrate i'm giving the 500th buyer something a little extra- maybe it'll be you. who knows. AND i made new books and would like to do a little giveaway here too. (sexy book photos to follow. for now some photobooth vanity...) 

about the book. i love letters and mail and this is a little book/letter to mail, keep or gift. it's "cover" is made of an airmail envelope and has a vintage gummed label on the front. there are 12 vintage, found and up-cycled, lined, school ruled and gridded hand bound pages. whew. oh, and there is a "pocket" in the back. in it to win it? just leave me a comment.

aside: i wanted an image for this post that was somehow imaging "500" or a celebration, as in "kitty stampede" or "500 donuts". it's stange how fast the internet goes to breasts and nakedness in just a few clicks. hence i went with the "Evolution" image above via evolution, nyc. their new website is eye candy. i'd like to think MR is growing....

maharaja....

we love, love, love our new bedding that we got in india. put it on the other night and in the morning it looked like it was glowing. it's some seriously shiny, luxurious fabric. i imagine bug as a little furry maharaja when he's lounging.

elephants became a running theme for us throughout the trip. on our second day we saw an elephant on the road and it caused such delight from all the tourists leaving ghandi's memorial. gasps and laughing and so much picture snapping. everyday after we'd see them on the roads amidst cars and motor bikes, with bunches of leaves and children atop them. so this bedding is a nice remembrance of our time there.

note on indian shop owners: i can't count the amount of times i heard "you like you buy, you no like you no buy" and "looking is free". they know so well how american's love to feel guilty...

introduction to poetry...

 

 stars in the mail and on the way to someone i do not know, but am thinking about.

Introduction to Poetry

Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

unfinished....

via whydjabuythat

i found this vignette of a vintage in-progress piece so visually interesting.  its the hoop as frame, the colors and the fact that it is unfinished, like it is just as it should be (those little blue x's are nice). also if you started working on it you and some other past person would be working collaboratively together. i feel like that all the time when i'm stitching, a little bit like a time traveler. for me, it's a connection to the past when stitching was part of a woman's life...

my new obession....

Cassia & Cinnamon, originally uploaded by FotoosVanRobin.

 

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..cinnamon tea. in india i drank cinnamon tea for the first time and my mind was blown, so for v-day my boo got me some and i'm drinking it as i write this. it said to me, "i'm so good. go write a blog post about it." and here i am....

it was interesting to learn in my internetting that cinnamon in sanskrit means "skin" as in the skin of the tree it is peeled from. (it was also referenced as an "edible wood". is that funny to anyone else but my inner 14 year old self?) it has all kinds of reported medicinal uses, from soothing toothaches to aphrodisiac, but all i know is that it makes the best tea...

a collection a day....

...images from lisa congdon's ongoing project  a collection a day. she explains,

"Since I was a young girl, I have been obsessed both with collecting and with arranging, organizing and displaying my collections. This is my attempt to document my collections, both the real and the imagined....The only rule is that I must photograph or draw a whole or part of a collection each day for 365 days and post the result here on this blog."

365 days of collections, that's some dedication!  i'm going to be checking in on the blog to see whats next...

Happy Valentine's Day

by jackson eaton.

every day the 14th!

hello, where are you?....

it's been snowing all day here and i've been watching kids play in the snow for hours. really, i've never seen that before here in brooklyn, but i heard all this yelling and looked out to see snowballs being flung and kinds slipping and sliding in the street.

so, i got to wondering.... what does it look like where you are?
maybe you are close or maybe you are all the way in paris (wink), but it would be nice to hear......

thanks are due...

while i was away i was ever so kindly nominated by misscrowland and Tara for a poppie award from poppytalk for favorite handmade crafter and favorite handmade housewares . i think i got about 20 votes in total, which is kinda sad/cute, but hey i was playing with the big kids and that's just how it goes.

it was fun and an honor just to be considered someones favorite! thanks to those who nominated me, voted for me and to poppytalk. ALSO astulabee let me know that Faythe Levine, of handmade nation, who was a juror had picked both her and I as contenders and shared all her picks on her blog here. not gonna lie, that's nice and i kinda feel like a winner......

one of my favorite winners is rifle paper co. the hand lettering, color combos and vintage aesthetics have me hooked. have you seen their new website? it's amazing!

see all the poppytalk winners here.

sweets...

sweets for valentine's day. it's close! i remember in grade school we'd have cupcake parties and make cards with glitter glue and doilies. i think my nostalgia for the past is always coming out in the things i make. i'd love to share them with you so i'm having a wee shop sale. Free shipping throughout the shop and a little extra love and care in my packaging for this valentine's day. The cost will be refunded after payment via PayPal.

do you have any romantical or anti-valentine plans? either way there should be cupcakes involved!

cupcake donut....

lets get random. here's some of my weekend...
my love for sweets, especially cupcakes and donuts, runs deep. see text below. we emptied our storage unit. chaos throughout the house and bug now has the largest kitty playground in town. found these a-ma-zing vintage quilt pillows by enhabiten via teenangster. i'm crushin hard on both these ladies, who seem to be equally smitten with each other too! i like that. thats the amazing thing about the interweb. good things to find and interweb friends. hello whoever reads this (waving).
aren't these too good?!

mr. + lady

and few other things i've loved making....
looking forward to new things in 2010, but here's some work i needed to share from 2009...

the other half

new space....
i've been enjoying my new work space of late. space is a luxury in nyc, so i feel pretty lucky to have a place dedicated to making. it feels good and i feel lucky.

while i was away in india the earthquake in haiti hit. i read about it's devastation from the comfort of this new space while eating a chocolate bar i bought in paris, which is about 3x the size of a candy bar here. after experiencing a bit of india and seeing images of haiti its plain to see the contrast of what my life is like here.

i was moved to give to the red cross. super easy process. i just want to urge anyone who, like me, feels like there is not much you can do that it's a small thing, but it's something.

how about too....
doctors without borders
unicef

i'm sure there are lots of ways to help. maybe you know some and can share them with me here in a comment. please do...