On Saturday, D and I took a trip on the Staten Island ferry to see the Lumen video art show. The ride was fun and some of the pieces were really interesting. What I loved the most was where it was held at the, Lighthouse museum, literally right next to the ferry pier. Lots of decaying old historical buildings looking spooky in the darkness with projections from videos sliding across them. Pretty cool. Unfortunately, it was a one night affair. But the ferry ride is free with great views of the city and Statue of Liberty plus Lighthouse Museum is worth a look.











Getting there:
Lighthouse Museum
30 Bay Street #700
Staten Island, NY 10301
(855) 656-7469

Take the 1 train to South Ferry Sta., or the 4 or 5 trains to Bowling Green

Otherworldly: Miniature Photography Show, Right Up My Alley!

Thursday night a bunch of friends and I took took advantage one of the great things New York has to offer, pay-what-you-wish at a museum. We went to the Museum of Arts and Design to see the show Otherworldly, a group show of miniature photography. The artists constructed small models of very real environments some of present time, others of yesteryear and some of fantasy. The show runs until September 18, 2011

















Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities features recent work and site-specific installations by contemporary artists from around the world including Matthew Albanese, Amy Bennett, James Casebere, Mat Collishaw, Bethany de Forest, Thomas Doyle, Gregory Euclide, Joe Fig, Peter Feigenbaum, Patrick Jacobs, Kim Keever, Frank Kunert, David Lawrey and Jaki Middleton, Ji Lee, Chris Levine, Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz, Didier Massard, Charles Matton, Michael McMillen, Lori Nix, David Opdyke, Liliana Porter, Jonah Samson, Charles Simonds, Michael Paul Smith, Tracey Snelling, Paolo Ventura, and Alan Wolfson, among others.

Getting there: Take the A or C to 59th Street Columbus Circle
2 Columbus Circle, NY, NY

Handmade Stationery

As promised I made two samples of stationery based on Kazumi Udagawa's book. The first the little bag. I only had white envelopes in the correct shape so I used some MT tape to jazz it up a bit. I think it came out pretty cute. The second is a little house envelope with note card on the inside showing through the window of the recycled envelope. For this project I used an envelope from a bill which has the pretty prints inside to hide checks. I made my on variation of the envelope using the print for the whole house and not just the roof since the type of envelopes used in this project are not often found in the U.S. and I much rather recycle something that will be thrown away. Then I used a little drawing I had to add a resident to the house.

Kazumi Udagawa- Self-Made Stationery

Yesterday I received a wonderful email from Kazumi-san,(Kazumi Udagawa) she loves to read my blog and was pleased to find her books on one of my previous posts. Not only is she a very talented crafter she's sweet to boot! I told her I would pick out a project from one of her books and make it then posts the results on my blog, so here's just a taste of her amazing work, I will be making something from one of the books today and posting it in the next two days (hopefully, my right hand is a little hurty). Ready, Set, Go!!!

Ice cream shop- Van Leeuwen

Those that live in Williamsburg are familiar with the wonderful ice cream shop and food truck Van Leeuwen, but as luck would have it they opened a new venue in my neighborhood this late spring. I have been a repeat customer because they have some super yummy flavors, my favorite is the espresso coffee, not too sweet, very grown-up. I also love the simple, vintage meets modern, look to the whole place. Pre-ice cream, my friends and I also had lunch at Rucola also a new restaurant that opened in April, with the same feel in it's interior and wonderful fresh tasting meals, the menu changes regularly. They serve things like risotto, meat and cheese plates, whole fish Branzini. Here are my shots of both places.












Getting There:
Van Leeuwen
81 Bergen St
Brooklyn, NY 11217
G or F train to Bergen Sta.

Rucola
190 Dean Street
Brooklyn, NY 11217
G or F train to Bergen Sta.
A, C, G to Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sta.