Crafty Holidays

As Fall starts to wind down into winter we saw our last leaves and had Thanksgiving with family.

Little Miss Francie takes her last Fall ride in the basket liner I made for her. Reminds me of a scene in E.T.

We had traditional and Cuban fair.

I've also been working on all sorts of cold weather accessories like this hat, it has a detachable pom.

My dad had his 75th birthday and we celebrated on Thanksgiving, I made him the card.

Treats from Betty Bakery
Awesome stage design for the Mike Perry final gala at Wondering Around Wandering, Owenand the Eyeballs played.

Lunch at Momofuku ssam bar

Yesterday afternoon, Debra and I met Sewon and Taurin for lunch at Momofuku ssam bar for lunch. We all had the duck over rice lunch set. Sewon order the delicious chinese sausage and rice cake dish, wish was amazing. For condiments they provide crunchy crispy fried scallions too.





I was also extremely honored to receive a wonderful gift from Sewon of her last photo zine form her previous collection with beautiful photos of Shanghai. Look at the pretty packaging and the lovely extras, a kraft notebook with a pocket inside that holds sweet sticks and a bookmark.

A visit with Polkaros

Yesterday was special day for me, I got to meet a fellow blogger friend Ros Lee from Polkaros. Ros was visiting New York for a couple of weeks but unfortunately our wires got crossed and we only got to hang out for day, but nonetheless, I had fun, and hope you did too Ros. We only had a couple of hours before shops closed and I had to run home to my dogs so we had lunch first at Rucola, which has delicious salads and sandwiches for lunch, and the venue is super cute with it's rustic feel. After lunch we meandered around Boerum Hill (where I live) and Cobble Hill and perused the shops. First store we went into was the Jonathan Adler shop with mind-blowing objet d'art for the home and lots of super adorable needle point pillows. We stopped in a quite a few vintage and antique stores which my neighborhood is brimming with. Ros struggled with bringing home a letterpress drawer but the practicality of bringing it on the airplane won out, I on the other will be making a trip back to my neighborhood antique person on Sunday to see if I find one for my bedroom. Another shop we went into on Court street had a little friend waiting for Ros to take home, a Gnome, he was grinning because he knew he was going to go live in Tokyo. Hope you make it in one piece Mr. Gnome. With the Gnome in her bag we needed to find her some bubble wrap to wrap the precious find which we did at the UPS store, where I think my new friend was totally ripped off when they charged her $4 for a yard of bubble wrap!!! But we had no choice the stores were closing soon and she needed to wrap her little garden friend up for a safe plane ride. Next and last stop Flight 001 on Smith street (there's one in Manhattan), a store dedicated just for your cute travel needs, where Ros bought a nice collapsible bag to store her breakables for her flight home. Then I walked her to the train station and said our goodbyes. Have an awesome flight home Ros!!!! See you soon I hope!

Sunset Park Crafty Night

My friend Nancy started up again her weekly crafting night at her apartment in Sunset Park, every one works on a project, it doesn't have to be just knitting or crochet. Nancy's husband is working on a beautiful blanket for his sister's wedding, it's all white, with two trees intertwining branches to represent two lives coming together. The trees are made from cables, pretty amazing, I'm sorry I didn't photograph I'll try to get a pic next week.

Vintage Cuba

My aunt and mother posted these pics of them and my dad and his family growing up and living in Cuba before coming to the States. I just love these photographs so I thought I'd share them here:







more pics here

Back & Forth: Leaving Tokyo behind and Immersing myself in NYC Culture

Takashi Homma

I have one more Tokyo entry but I am saving it for when I get my film back from Chelsea Photographic Services on Friday. So I decided I should start writing about what I have been doing since I got back from Tokyo. SO aside from crying and trying to get my money back for some things like my Japan Rail Pass that I couldn't use, I've done a few neat things. I made use of my NY Art Beat Iphone app and made a list of shows I want to see. The first two shows I've seen on my list were two photography shows, one is closed now, "Minor Cropping May Occur", at the Lombard-Fried Projects gallery, it was really amazing. It was group show with 13 photographers from New York, Europe, and Japan. Most of the shots were of everyday life, just captured in the moment, but a few were definitely staged. Photographers included, Mike Brodie (AKA The Polaroid Kid), JH Engstrom, Carl Johan De Geer, Janine Gordon, Nick Haymes, Hiromix, Takashi Homma, Kitajima Keizo, Motoyuki Daifu, Walter Pfeiffer, Jacob Aue Sobol, Nick Waplington, Rona Yefman. Motoyuki Daifu, a 25 year old Japanese photographer is by far my favorite from this group and Takashi Homma is kinda neck in neck with him for me, I know he's like a super amazing photographers and has received all sorts of accolades.


Motoyuki Daifu


Motoyuki Daifu


JH Engstrom


JH Engstrom


Nick Haymes


Takashi Homma

In the middle of the week we went to see my friend Joseph Burke play as Obfusc at the Cake Shop. I love Joe's music, lovely ambient electronic music which he made even better by showing 8mm footage from his family reels that he edited to go with his music.
Next when the temps went up in NYC we tried out our new roof deck and grill while we sampled my partner's freshly brewed Triple Belgian beer, yum! No weekend is complete without brunch so Debra and I headed into Williamsburg to have a tasty meal at Egg.


Jannese Rojas

Yesterday, I took advantage of the sunny skies and headed into Chelsea to pick up my Tokyo film and view another photography show at the Anna Kustera gallery of Swiss photographer Karlheinz Weinberger. The show, Karlheinz Weinberger, Halbstarke to Bikers, in Color" was lacking even though the subject matter was truly inspiring. Swiss teens and bikers, in their homemade fashions acting tough and proud of themselves, plus soft gay porn which he started as a semi-pro gig for a gay magazine.


Karlheinz Weinberger


Karlheinz Weinberger

Craft Fair, comes see our wares!

Hey all,
Adriana (Saru Saru) and I (Dollparts and Candy) are sharing a table at the Brooklyn Lyceum Craft fair on December 20th and 21st, from 11am-7pm. Stop by, check out our crafty goods, and perhaps make a purchase for that special someone. There will be food, drinks, and a dj, so it should be a lot of fun. Check out the Brooklyn Lyceum's info page for directions.

This is My Grandfather...

and he died today 7.10.07. He was 87 years old. He was at the beach in ,Florida, where he lived and he went swimming and something happened and he died in the water, all by his lonesome. i am beside myself, I can't believe he is gone.