le second voisinage

Last year our class worked on a pretty amazing project:  The Neighborhood.  I documented every step we made, every little thing we did.  I was part roadie, part crazed-fan.

This year, we decided to tackle it again.  In a totally different way.  This year, it was Shadowboxes of The Neighborhood.  And we've been so dang busy I haven't shot a thing!  We are putting together a (inspired by) book of all the storefronts, so we dragged them outside and shot 'em.

(you should see the helmets E. made--they're hanging inside the garage)

They're crazy good.  And these are just the storefronts.  The details the kids decided should be included were unreal.  M. wanted to make little napkin holders out of model magic, colored it silver and black and then pasted a little piece of paper coming out the front.  O., who made the laundrette, made every detail in this overcrowded, old-school, family-owned 'mat.  Right down to the wrapped packages of clean clothes, stacks of newspaper piled on a folding table, and a Buddah statue that rested on the counter.

(you can just barely see the napkin holders in the Mexican restaurant)

The beauty salon has a lamp, hair magazines, a wall of hair-do's you can get and a whole bunch of nail polish made from good ole model magic.

(there was a bit of adult help on this one, A. had to fill a bookstore!)

Most of the kids have finished the project and are waiting with baited breath for the big celebration night with the parents.  Some of the other die-hards come up with a new detail that they just have to add to make it complete.  So, we pull out the hot glue, the model magic, the pens and the paint and get to work, 

again.

Today is The Day

We always joked about it, wait til she's a teenager!
And now, the day is here:  Sofia is Thir-TEEN!
My little, baby niece. 
Can it really be true?!

She's most definitely the coolest cat I know.  And I'm not just saying that because she recently wrote an essay about how much she admires me as her Aunt.  Really.  I've felt this way about her since she was just a tiny baby and I cut her little finger while trying to cut just her fingernail and she didn't cry.  I've felt this way since we used to walk around our West Village neighborhood together and shop-owners would run outdoors to give Sofia gifts.  Perfect strangers would ask to take her photo.  Friends of mine, to this day, having met this dear child only once, still ask about her.

She's kind and thoughtful, a fabulous friend, she takes care of others first and is one of the most easy-going kids around.  I give her parents tons of credit for raising a really beautiful human being, but it's Sofia's inner-nature that we who know her are lucky enough to catch a glimpse of time after time.

 S. rocking out at her b'day last year.  Ruling that arcade game!

Thanks Sofia, for 13 great years. 
And,    Happy 13th Birthday!

Suddeness Happens

I love a typo.

Heck, I love a misprint.

But I really love translations that get us to a whole new level.

I also love a bit of childish humor.

And I love when I have things in common with someone around the world:   My sister and I used to have a sign in our shop window that my dad printed up for us:  We Are Open Unless We Are Closed.

Say no more my friends.  Say. No. More.

morning sunshine by any other name

Today I cracked open an egg that had  two yolks inside.

And I didn't break either one.

RK and I stood there and stared as the eggs cooked in the pan, two perfect little orbs of yellow. 
It felt a little amazing.

"I almost don't believe it."
 And he didn't actually see it happen, so I could tell what he meant.

I saw them emerge and I almost didn't believe it.


For some reason, I took it as a really good sign.
.

A Return

Awww, it was good to come back to work. 
A.  Because I only have about 3 more weeks
and, B.  Because the kids really mist me:  Big hugs, lots of smiles, stories and handmade drawings.

The one above is of D. thinking of me.  I like my windswept hair.

j'adore le clic

One of my favorite new shops in the Big Apple was Clic Bookshop & Gallery.  The presence, attitude and fantastic conversation with the very French, Gilou, made the experience all the better!

Art books galore.  The unusual, the oversized, the out-of-print.  Every photography book you can imagine.  All the while, you're surrounded by this gallery of huge prints that ask you to walk right inside them (and Gilou doesn't dissuade you one bit, au contraire!, she encourages it!).  I'm a big photo fanatic (believing once upon a time that RK and I would be photographers for a living, the love of film still hangs on) and I enjoy talking with others who are, as well.

In this "new" New York, you encounter quite a few "precious" shops that believe their own hype and can't say 'hello' or 'hows it going?' over a pair of those $1,000 jeans.  You're asking to much of them, stop expecting it!

So, to walk into Clic--placed in the hot new extended-Soho neighborhood, housed in a regal looking restored warehouse-- and encounter, not only beauty, but kindness, as well... j'adore clic!

****

And, on the other end of the spectrum, from the world of old-school:  After 34 years of serving NYC, Empire Diner, on 10th Ave, served their last meal on May 15th and they were moving what was left out to the curb.

Cruising down the street to hop on the Highline, my friend Sherief and I passed by the now-closed Empire Diner as they were clearing out the rest of their goods.  We stood around and talked to one of the owners and the original piano player, who played there the night it opened.  As we were standing there, we noticed a table of silver cake stands and ironstone platters.  They seemed strangely out of place and we wondered what they were doing with them.

Ah, take em, the owner said to us, you missed all the really good stuff.

To us, this stuff seemed plenty good.  We could own a piece of history. 
And now I own three:  A cake stand, an ironstone platter, and before we walked away, the piano player called after us,
hey, take this tile too.  it was the original Empire Diner tile.
and a little square black tile.

Stationery Show

Ahhh, the National Stationery Show.
Good times in Booth 1655.
It's always great to catch up with everyone and meet a bunch of new people.   And it really helps to make the time fly when you've got your sister to crack jokes with and friends galore who all stop by.

What really made the show great was getting into some cool new shops:  Pulp in DC and MA, Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, Laywines in Toronto, and Watson Kennedy in Seattle, just to name a few.

And then the introduction of 8mm buttons.  Hello!  Kaari sent out her button making machine and we went button mad.  Happily so.  Everyone that stopped in the booth either made a button, had a button made especially for them, or chose from the varied buttons we'd made to walk out with, being buttoned by 8mm.

And the show also made me think it might be time to get back into business on Etsy.  Many fantabulous, non-wholesale buyers were interested in the work... and I'm about to have the time to do it all, so I may as well!

 here we go!

for the love of animals

Oh, Miss Melissa.

         You never cease to amaze me.

               Your talent is endless.

(and, dang man,)  You get me.

full

Alot of the time was spent staring, I mean, really looking up into the sky at steel and glass buildings where once was the old Auto shop, Untitled, the little Italian restaurant where RK and i went on a date, Grand Street Art Supplies shop, M&R, Evergreen Video, and a billion other old places with memories that existed in those brick walls, tin ceilings and old wood floors you just tore out of there.  At one point, as I was strolling down some seemingly soulless block, large plate glass and silver frames,  I thought to myself  oh my god, if i hadn't moved away, this never would have happened!   {When I recount this feeling to a friend she laughs, totally relating to a similarly lofty action/re-action scenario, which makes me feel all the better for this completely irrational thought process...}

But I also decide to spend my time,  really quite determined, not just in looking for, but actually finding the NYC I remember, even if I have to break thru the steel and glass facades and tear back the wallpaper, maybe scratch a little sheet-rock, just to confirm that old new york I fell so madly in love with (and never really got over) is still there. 

And I totally do.

I found the old shop keepers I knew, in the shops still standing, all with a good bit of time to talk.  I found new shop keepers, with such engaging warmth,  it felt like they'd been here a long time.

I looked for my old city, my old friend. I looked for the familiar, while recognizing some really beautiful new.

Lucky me, I found so much.


I end up feeling like I never left in the first place.  I stay in my old neighborhood, I go to my old shops.  I even stop in the old post office and see my postman, David.  We reminisce about the past and talk about how much has changed.  I end up having this conversation, almost verbatim,  with everyone I bump into or newly befriend:  the elderly woman getting a manicure next to us, the Jamaican cab driver who's off duty, the librarian.  Turns out, it's nice to know you're not the only one.

And still, each one of us could find something we still truly loved about this great city.  Something that hadn't left here yet.  Something that had stayed the course of time.

And some even could fight the good fight for the 'good side of change', the positive change in the city, like The Highline.  It's a new twist on New York's motto for growth: no room?  just keep building upwards.

Something built on top of something else?
There's beauty in even that chaos.

for more new york scenes

it's time...

 another inch grown

 time for a reunion

 xmas

whatever the reason, send a real card.

8mm ideas 

lonely

first prize

 just got married

whatever the reason, send a real card.

8mm ideas

**  We're revving up for the NSS starting this Sunday, but first, on Saturday, my sister , Marcia, and I will be hosting an event all are invited to at Tinsel Trading.  If you're in NYC, come by for a drink! **

 

new job

finally, the leader of the band

in love

whatever the reason, send a real card.

8mm ideas

first dive

thanks for dog-sitting

just got engaged

whatever the reason, send a real card.

8mm ideas