missing new york

H and i have been missing new york lately. our cramped apartment, endless walking day and night (as woody allen says in annie hall, "The country makes me nervous. There's ... You got crickets and it-it's quiet ... there's no place to walk after dinner"), and excellent sushi and thai food.

honestly it took me a while to miss new york because i was so eager to get out of there. by the time we moved, i was completely exhausted with my daily routine and ready for the beach. i'm still glad we moved, but there are some haunting moments that come up and remind me how much fun it was to walk in central park, no matter what time of year, to walk from the east side to the west side of the city, to stumble across a great restaurant then eat there until we were sick of it, and to see random subway and street performances every day.

or to pile our bookshelves to the hilt... i miss those bookshelves. they were super cheap and fake wood, and you can see the shelves bending under the weight, but it was really my favorite nook in our apartment. when i took these pictures i was toying with the b&w and sienna features in my camera. who knew i would look back on them with so much fondness and nostalgia?

this was the sum total of my painting space in nyc - those little white crates held most of my paint and brushes (and collection of "mysteries" - i have a fondness for found objects - another thing i miss about nyc). i will always remember the look of panic on H's face when i reached to pick something up off the street. then he'd start a strange mixture of grumbling and ranting about dog pee and who-knows-what-else being on whatever took my interest. fortunately for my health i listened most of the time :)

here are our shadows and H's foot on a gorgeous day when we walked from our favorite hamburger place (the shake shack!) all the way past the empire state building, through central park, up 5th avenue, and back to our apartment on the upper east side. you might not realize it, but that's about 5 miles of walking! and certainly not the first time we did it :) lots of fun that walk.

if you are ever in new york, you MUST go to this place in madison square park - the hamburgers are incredibly good, and they have this insanely thick and rich frozen custard. D-lishus! my little heartstrings are being pulled! oh the pain! i must figure out a way for us to have a long working vacation in ny. and boston. my grand scheme in life with H is to live for several months at a time in lots of different cities. that way i can rest easy knowing it's temporary, and he can have lots of city time. plus we would get to enjoy lots of different cities in a non-committal type way. awesome says i! now if we could both find creative careers that would allow for that sort of city-hopping we'd be set. any ideas?

happy valentine's day <3

i hope everyone has a wonderful, love-filled day tomorrow! i'm headed to visit my parents, then H's parents for the next few days - lots of love!!

ps - here are some great vintage valentines.

pps - now i'm really in the mood for popcorn!

wedding quilt

here is the first and only quilt i've made so far. this was my wedding present to H, which i forgot to give him on our actual wedding day - ahee. i didn't remember until after the honeymoon!


this is modeled after a quilt my mother made. the quilt. i judge all quilts against hers. it is everything a quilt should be - comfy, warm, colorful, sentimental, and falling apart with years of loving use. it was a tied quilt, so i made mine that way too. she really let us run wild with it when we were little, which was so much fun! it was even eco-friendly - she used recycled fabrics from an old shirt factory - how cool is that?

my original vision for this wedding quilt was a bit "out there." i wanted a burning heart image at the center (like from romeo + juliet), and radiating beams of fabric extending out - each a radically different weight and texture. H is very happy i went with the more traditional patchwork quilt. i collected random fabrics from my local store, used scraps of tapestry-weight fabric i found in a thrift store in italy, and any unclaimed fabric in my mother's sewing cabinet.

it still didn't seem colorful enough, so i ripped upholstery samples out of a few wallpaper books, which ended up being some of the most vibrant patches in the quilt! i was SOOO happy to have found that resource - i highly recommend it. it was free, and eco-friendly.

aren't they preeeeety? i had to use a few sentimental scraps of fabric, and the oldest by far is the tiny patch of pale lavender terry cloth on the bottom corner:

it is a scrap i saved from my all-time favorite childhood shorts. i used to call them my "popsicle" shorts since they reminded me of my favorite treat, grape popsicles. i would wear them on the first of june every single year for as long as i could fit into them. june first was the official start of summer for me, and summer has always been my favorite time of year.

as i mentioned before, the sheet i used as a backing had a big hole in it, so i patched it with a big paisley heart and embroidered "i love you" in brown. my mom's raggedy ann dolls always had a little heart on their chests with "i love you" embroidered, which was such a sweet detail :)

H and i have been using this quilt for the past few months, and it has kept us toasty warm. i just recently switched to a more springlike bedspread however in an effort to rush the season along... summer can't come soon enough!!!

things i want - doe san francisco

i thought i would share my wish list from one of my favorite websites, doe san francisco. it's a boutique in sf with gorgeous clothes and nick-knacks. they seem geared for artful comfort - i am in love with half of their store!

wouldn't these look fantastic with some skinny dark jeans and sandals?

and i love the lacy sleeve on this one:

inevitably, i'm always drawn to the children's department of any store or any website i visit. i suppose i enjoyed my childhood so much that i cannot stand to grow out of toys.

i laughed out loud when i saw that cat flashlight - how perfect! they also had a series of adorable stamps, like the little red riding hood one on the top left. they also have little teapots for one, and a sweet little pepper grinder that reminds me of a matryoshka doll. they also have a great selection of jewelry and some men's and baby's clothes. very cool site :)

short and stout

here are the other christmas goodies which i've only now gotten around to posting. incidentally i've decided to channel e. e. cummings and see how writing in all lowercase feels. my "square" self is having paroxysms. my "hippie" self feels rather cool...


this little beauty was created by my multi-talented sister. she is MUCH better and more inventive than me at hand-building ceramics. i find myself at home on the potter's wheel, but i just haven't gotten into a groove with hand-building. at least not yet - it seems too much like a chore. if i hang out long enough with pooky brains (aforementioned artistic hand-building ceramicist sister), her enthusiasm just might rub off!


look at the little curly-q handle! it's just so cute!!! every time i see it, i am transported to a proper woodland tea party outdoors. i've just got to come up with a use for this thing - soy sauce dispenser? no?

it has found quite a happy home on our little cafe dining table. it's the perfect simple decoration between holidays.


when i was at summer camp in my very first ceramics class, i was determined, determined i say, to make a teapot. it is one my biggest creative failures that i have not been able to make a teapot yet. it is the whale to my ahab.

lastly i want to show off the gorgeous magnets she made! don't you just love the seashells? the tree? the artsy heart? the sweet little leaves? these have raised the artistic value of my refrigerator considerably.

soon i want to show you some sewing i've done and haven't posted about. most of it is pretty old, but it's still fun to share :)