daemon

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

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

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

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

'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

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!

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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

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

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!

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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!

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

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

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

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

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!

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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.

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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!

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

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

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.

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

ATTENTION!!!

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

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.

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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!