Tokyo on Foot

Tokyo on Foot is the most amazing book I've seen in a long time. This book is by Florent Chavouet, a wonderful artist that while living in Tokyo for 6 months documented everything he saw and did in his sketchbook. The book is full of beautiful and comical color pencil renderings, of buildings, people, parks, maps, plus the notes and bits of story are really funny. Here are a few pages.


Tokyo on Foot by Florent Chavouet.

Two Beautiful Photo Zines

I recently went to St. Marks bookshop in the East Village and they carry a nice collection of zines. I picked up two photo zines. The first one is by Lucie E. Kim, and its a collection of photos from her time lecturing at Parsons in Japan, My Orb helped put this one out. Next up is another photo zine called Hotels also by My Orb is a series of Hotel rooms from all over the world. Both are lovely.
Lucie E. Kim:

Hotels:

Blog Award

Yesterday I was so please to receive an email from my blogging friend, Kelly at Kelly Zarb Style that she was awarding me the "Very Inspiring Blog Award". Kelly's blog is truly inspiring with her lovely sketchbooks and collage work, she has very sweet Japanese inspired style. Her drawings are lovely and always make me smile. She also did a wonderful interview about me in her first installment of Love+Space+Work, thank you Kelly. Give her a visit.

Rules for the "Very Inspiring blog Award." Please read carefully:

1. Display the award logo on your blog.
2. Link back to the person who nominated you.
3. State 7 things about yourself. (see below)
4. Nominate between 10 (originally 15) other bloggers for this award and link to them.
5. Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award's requirements.


7 fun facts about me you may not know :
1. I am a professional accessories designer.
2. I am of Cuban and Spanish decent.
3. People wonder how I have time to do all my projects, I freelance for work so I can manage my time easier.
4. I'm a collector, I collect anything from stationery to vintage cameras.
5. I've always been obsessed with bike riding so I try to ride my bike even in the winter, except today when the national weather advisory issued a frostbite alert!
6. I started sewing when I was 16 years old, photographing when I was 14, and painting when I was 5.
7. My favorite all time band is the Clash.

Here are 10 fabulous bloggers who I feel deserve a nomination (I am biased to great photography):

1. Jollygoo- Lovely Hiki's photo's are always a pleasure to see. Her photos bring life to Tokyo all the away across the oceans.
2.Polkaros-Ros's lifestyle products are off the hook adorable and super sweetly designed, I found her because I was looking for pics of Jiyugaoka after returning from the earthquake. I was fortunate to meet her on her last trip to NYC. She's a doll!
3.My Life As a Magazine-Sweet Jenna, who I had the pleasure of meeting during the holidays when she and her husband visited NYC. I love her blog because its everything I love about Japan and crafting, fun, vibrant, and creative.
4.Maps and Fragments-LOvely Sewon's blog s inspirational in soo many ways, but I can say without a doubt her photography is flawless and makes you want to participate in any she took a picture of.
5.WTWS- Beebee has amazing taste and has the pulse on all great stationery and baked goods, especially Japanese.
6.Bonjour Johanna-Johanna,is such a talented artist and lovely to boot. Her ceramic and textile work is simple, elegant and beautiful to see.
7.l'inventaire'de l'esthetique- Marion's photography is one of my most favorite of all, she has the same love for her camera and taking pictures that I do, it doesn't hurt thta I lot of her subject matter is located in Paris.
8.Schorlemaedchen- Maria is also a great photographer, her photos a daily meals and Australia are to die for.
9.Sokokashiko Natsumi has wonderful pictures of her home in Japan and other wonderful pics of places she's traveled to.
10.Kado hiromi Kado-san's artwork is inspirational and I love all her photos of her daily life in Japan.

Ok, that's really hard, but worth it, you should totally check out these folks you'll fall in love.

Sunday

Missing the Summer

It's 26F (-3C) degrees out today and I am very much missing the summer, here are some pics of this past lovely summer.

Leather Minis

A lot of you know that I am a professional accessories designer, but I have generally stayed away from leather crafting myself. Recently I thought that I should take a stab at making my bags spring to life so here are two of my first.
First is the Olive Super mini wallet on a chain. This bag is only 2.5 x 1.75", it's meant to be worn as a necklace, but you can carry a bit of coin inside too. Gold leather. Will be in the shop soon.

This one is, the Arwen wallet on a chain (chain is on the way). This little bag is 100% soft leather, perfect to wear out dancing. You can throw some money and lipstick in it. Hand stamped in gold.

Birthday Wishes

My birthday is rolling around the corner, really its over a month away, but I like to pre-plan get-togethers with dear friends, and gather stuff I like for gift-giving ideas for said friends ;)


Julia Paul Pottery, tea cup

marimekko teapot

vert cerise notebooks

Emily Green

Ashley Percival

Donna Wilson "Grace" plate

Annie Larson knit hat

Uppercase magazine

Brooklyn Zine Fest 2013!

image via brooklynzinefest.com

Usagi Por Moi will have a table at Brooklyn Zine Fest this year! I will be sharing it with Sewon from Maps and Fragments. We both will have new zines and some of the classics. I will have on hand the Tokyo Travel Guide plus new craft and Japan photography zines.
Please mark it in your calendars!

Sunday April 21st, 2013 at Public Assembly (70 N 6th Street) in Williamsburg. More info to come soon.

Black & White:The Weekend

A Good End and New Beginning

I've been fortunate enough to have a lovely end and beginning of year. First up, D and I tried the new Danish restaurant in Tribeca, Aamanns-Copenhagen a smørrebrød shop by Danish chef Adam Aamann. They prepare delicious tiny smørrebrød (you'll need to get two), an open face sandwich, with combinations like roast beef sirloin with, crispy onions, remoulade sauce and freshly grated horseradish. They also make their on aquavit. Afterwards we walked around Soho for a bit, such a lovely area of NYC.
Next up, I great night out at Village Yokocho in the East Village, a fun izakaya, then drinks at Decibel a wonderful Japanese Sake bar, reminiscent of bars in the Golden Gai. Lastly, we headed to St. Marks Place for a sweet treat at the Spot, a Korean dessert place where I had an amazing green tea tiramisu.

On Monday I had a great surprise I met up with lovely Jenna and her husband, from My Life as a Magazine. We had tea at Cha-An, my favorite Japanese teahouse and we walked around a bit in the EastVillage. Jenna also gave me sweet gift, a copy of this months Frankie! She knew I had a digital subscription but there aren't any hard copies to be found in NYC. Thank you Jenna, it was lovely to meet you.(that's tea smoked salmon on toast)

Yesterday we started the year with a great art installation at the NY Armory on Park Ave by artist Ann Hamilton. The show had beautiful silk sails floating in the middle of the room and it had swings attached to it with cords and when people sit and swing it creates a dance of fabric. The only part of the show I found disturbing were the poor pigeons kept in tiny cages that are released at the end of the night into the armory at the end of the show. The pigeons seem distressed and I don't believe animals should be used in any art, they're living beings not objects. But other wise the show was pretty spectacular.