a day in the city

I had a job at Pier 59 studios in Chelsea which forced me to walk around the old meat packing district. It always shocks me how quickly New York City can change. I shot my senior thesis in this neighborhood when there was nothing but transvestite prostitutes and meat hooks. Now, there are designer boutiques and fancy office  with glass walls. Amazing!

more cold

winter frost

weather

It rained all day yesterday. Finally the skies cleared and today we have brilliant blue.

 I've been trying to make some stock for an upcoming craft fair. I feel like a battered factory worker. But the colors are pretty!

what I'm thankful for

Even though it's a few days after Thanksgiving, I'm still eating turkey so I feel like I have time to get my list in. And while I usually post an image, sometimes only an image, I'll let the words speak for themselves.

I'm thankful for:
-My boy, who keeps me on my toes and always impresses me even when he makes me nuts
-The stinkbugs who have invaded our home since September. Theses guys have forced me to overcome my fear of bugs  because they show up ALL over the place. Today I found a huddle of them in my fabric stash. They stayed very still as if they thought they wouldn't be seen if they didn't move.
- My cat who has overcome last year's laziness and protected our house from the little mice that want to creep in and form their own home in the napkin drawer.
-Pecan Pie that my sister brought from Sweet Melissa's in Brooklyn
- Hair dye because I really can't deal with the grey right now
-My Mom because she hears me when I talk
-My man because he's doing the almost impossible

 Thank you all.

i did it.

I managed to pull it off! It's pretty crazy what a deadline can do for you. These are the pieces I made. Right before dropping them off I realized I didn't have any photos of them so I made little J stand out in the cold holding them so I could snap a few. That explains the over exposure. He was cold. I had to hurry. And I removed most of the dog/ cat hair before dropping them off.

A friend once told me that elephants don't know they're own strength and that they will accept what you train them to do. Elephants in the circus will stay chained to a flimsy pole believing that they are trapped . They haven't realized that it would only take a little tug to set themselves free.


Not sure what these are about yet but I like the direction.

In other news, Thanksgiving was successful! A perfect turkey, and 4 pies for 8 people. That works , right?

Happy Holidays!

ugh

J and I had dinner the other night and I was lamenting how hard it is for me to just make stuff for the sake of making stuff. How I wished I had a deadline of some kind so I would be forced to come up something. The next day I walked into the Beacon Coffee Shoppe where there was a little announcement about a small works art show. I'm learning that you really do just have to put it out there and you will get what you want. So now of course I have 2 days to make 4 pieces.

Here's some inspiration:

Peter Crawley

King Pod

Chad Crouch

Sorry about how some of the images are cut off. You can see the whole thing on the web sites. I'm trying not to spend too much time on the computer world so it takes me a long time to figure this stuff out. Any easy suggestions?Thanks!

More

We've built something with the tinker toys everyday! It came with a little book of some of the things you can make. It takes little j a long time to decide so we spend a lot of time arguing the pros and cons of a weather vane or a ferris wheel. This is a telescope but I talked him into it being a stationary machine gun that swivels. Sold!

I forgot about the winter light! I make my coffee first thing and am always delighted by the light.


I've mentioned Jan Groover before. She's told the story of how she didn't know how to take pictures without content. She was really interested in the formal composition and was trying to rid herself of meaning. Impossible right?. Her husband suggested taking pictures of the kitchen sink. Here's my kitchen sink photo. Not that I'm trying to rid myself of meaning. Just trying to get it going.

not what I made

Maybe you 've realized that I'm trying to post more often. It's challenging because as much as I want to make something everyday ( dinner does NOT count) I'm not always able to. Here's some inspiration.

I was looking at annekata and found a post on quilts. which lead me to this at pojagi studio

This led me to the work of Tom Fruin, a friend we haven't seen in a long time. Here's a piece he recently built on site in Copenhagen for the Royal Danish Library.

These are his drug bag quilts. We used to live in a not-so great neighborhood and we'd walk our dog in the ghetto park where Big J would sometimes collect used drug bags for him . Tom sewed them together for these beautiful, stained glass looking quilts often with leftover bits of crack, heroin or pot.

what I've been doing

These used to belong to me and my sister. They have all the original teeth marks from when we used to have to bite the short pieces of dowels. My mom, who verges on being a hoarder( or maybe she already is one?) saved them. While most of the time her hoarding depresses me, every now and then she comes up with something really great. Like Tinker toys! We built the ship a few days ago and today we built the rocket ship and gantry.

It even has an elevator for the astronauts to use!
And also, as you may know, I've had a hard time getting back on track with making stuff. So I'm trying. Here's a flower pin made of felted sweater, tutorial here
and while these photos are HORRIBLE I had to show off the faux fur vest I made from left over artic wolf costume material. It's really hard to take a good photo when your son NEEDS you to make a new tinker toy and all you're trying to do is take one decent self portrait! Or post to your blog. Sorry, whining and crying has ensued because it is past my alloted 2 minutes I get to do my work. Poor little guy.