This is NOT the way I left the equalizer.

Wowee wow wow kids. What a crazy Christmas! There was twin-prop airplanes and eating and good gifting and dark Indiana bars and viruses and a little bit of head trauma (to MY head, of course...). Goodness.

Mr. D and I were fortunate enough to hitch a ride home with my aunt Susan and her gentleman friend, Ken, who rented a Piper Seneca. He's a very thorough, experienced pilot and so I wasn't really worried about the trip overall, but turbulence was pretty bad on the way to Indiana and it was a little scary for awhile. Conclusion: flying in a plane with a cabin the size of a large car is really strange. However, I have to say that it spoiled me...no security, no lines, no germs, no crying babies... just the New York Times crossword and Christmas cookies.

I tried to hand-make a lot of my gifts this year, partly because I'm broke and partly because it is a lot of fun. I wish I had time to do more. I need to start earlier next year.


In terms of gifts, Mr. D. and I made out like bandits. I'm really excited about playing with my new toy, an ice cream maker. I've wanted one for awhile but it's one of those gifts that you don't really think about buying for yourself because it's a little unnecessary.

Yesterday- back in Philly- I got to hang out with Emma, who I haven't seen for years and years. We were roomates in London and I missed her so much. She was in town with her special lady, Kristina, for a conference. We hung out at my favorite old-man dive bar. The juke box was playing Sam Cooke and Janis Joplin and we drank Stella Artois like we did back in the day at the Warrington.



Sidenote: "Risky Business" is on right now...Tom Cruise is seriously creepy.

We met some friends at a skangy bar in our hometown one evening, and I took the photo below in the women's bathroom, which is my homage to Aaron Siskind.

Speaking of Aaron Siskind, tomorrow I get back on a plane (not a private one this time, alas) and head to Chicago for an extra-special New Year's Eve. It will be a quick trip, but worth it.

See y'all next year.

One of my favorite winter-night things: an old quilt, a good movie, and some popcorn. If you make popcorn in the microwave in a plain, brown lunch bag, you don't have any nasty coconut oil cloggin' up the arteries (although, admittedly, I could eat a tub of movie-theater popcorn by myself).

Put about 1/4 cup popcorn in a small lunch bag, fold the top over a few times, set the micro for 2 minutes, and there you have it.

What does this have to do with sewing or crafting? Not very much, except that you should always have snacks on hand.

inspiration

It's just like the #006 bag, only crocheted! Crochet'd? Crocheteded?

in which i get sentimental

Marissa got me thinkin' about the past year when she posted these questions on her blog:

1. How was 2006 for you?
2. What was the highlight of your year?
3. What did you want to accomplish that you didn’t get to?
4. What are you planning for 2007?

Those are some whoppers. First, I'll start with four of my own as a warm up. It's too hard to jump right into those.


1. What was your favorite color this year?
-blue

2. How many heated arguments with public transportation workers did you get into during 2006?
-two

3. How many heated arguments with Pearl Art Supply employees did you get into during 2006?
-four

4. How many times did you stare up at the sky asking, "Am I on TV right now?"
approx. 150

Ok, that was a good warm-up. Now on to the good stuff.

1. How was 2006 for you?

Tiring. Exciting. Bittersweet. One of the most emotionally challenging years of my life so far.


2. What was the highlight of your year?

Well, since I can't think of just one, here's a few memorable moments:

Nearly ripping off the side mirror of our moving truck on a toll booth. Riding 13 hours with a screaming cat and my very patient husband to Philadelphia. Seeing one of my best old friends, Jessica, get married to her sweetheart in Chicago. Finding out Neysa and Stuart are engaged. Celebrating my little brother becoming a doctor. Getting looked up and down by a well-known superstar lady art dealer. Visiting St. Louis, NYC, Miami, the Michigan Dunes and Bloomington IN. Hanging out at the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel in NY. Having someone ask me to go to Greece for two months with him after just meeting him two minutes prior. Running the Shamrock Shuffle 8K with Neysa and Stuart. Doing the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn. Having a cab take off down the street in South Philly while I was half in/half out. Seeing our new apartment flooded with water on our move-in day. Sitting by Lake Michigan with a bottle of wine, saying goodbye to our dear friends. Meeting a lot of great people in our new city. Forming a weekly Quizzo team. Very....trying....work experiences.

2. What did you want to accomplish that you didn’t get to?

Oh my Lord, I can't begin to answer this. Art historian Bernard Berenson once said, “I wish I could stand on a busy street corner, hat in hand, and beg people to throw me all their wasted hours." I feel like that pretty much all the time. I wish I had time to make more clothes, re-design my website, do more needlework, get back into the darkroom, write more letters, organize my photos, do more cooking, join a soccer league, design more patterns, work on a book...can I stop now? This is painful.

3. What are you planning for 2007?

More and more Betsy Ross goodness. More travel. More creative endeavors. More fun. More learning. And all of this done while drinking champagne.

I'm happy to announce that Betsy Ross patterns will now be available on the Sew, Mama, Sew website. I have admired them for a awhile now and am excited to be working with those great ladies. The best thing about sites like that is you can buy the pattern and then also pick up some fantastic fabric at the same time.

Two things:

1.
You can visit my new fabric page to see what I have available for sewing kits. It's a first come-first serve situation, people. Kits include everything you need to make the garment/bag of your dreams and are a bargain at $35. Just buying fabric could cost you that much sometimes. Well, maybe if you're buying fabric made from the finest bunny hair in the world or something, but still.

Order now and I'll do my very best to get those babies in the mail by Christmas. I'll even throw in some goodies, like vintage buttons and stuff to make the merry merrier.

*UPDATE: Black and white leaf pattern is sold out.

2.
You can see what hijinks I was up to in Miami on the Art Hijack website. I "interviewed" for a new position as curator of Art Hijack. Sadly, Trong decided that I was "too sarcastic" during the interview (what??!!?!). I think he might be referring to how I suggested that we set Art Basel Miami Beach on fire and that I am a really good dodgeball player. Ok, I admit, I bombed the interview sort of on purpose. Anyway, I'll be really happy to see what Eric does. He's awesome.

art

Oh yeah, I forgot to include a photo of one of the best things at the NADA Art Fair, offered at Upstream Gallery by Marc Bijl.

Have you ever been to my country, Brazil?

I'm back from a nice long weekend in Miami Beach, where the air felt like warm bath water.

On Saturday I spent a long time at Art Basel Miami Beach. It's a huge, insane art fair. I saw some really amazing things. You couldn't spit without hitting a Picasso or a Basquiat or a Warhol (I know because I tried). However, my favorite things were three great Lee Bontecou pieces at Knoedler Gallery and a James Ensor oil on canvas, although I can't remember where it was at this point. There were a couple of great pieces by an artist bamed Sebastian Diaz Morales. When you finish walking around the fair, you can barely remember your first name, let alone everything you saw.

Saturday evening, I met up with a colleague from work to attempt the usual "Let's see what parties we can sneak into" routine. The first party, for Blackbook, wasn't to hard to manage since we had a (somewhat) legit RSVP. However, what I was really interested in was a party at the Raleigh Hotel where Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was reportedly going to be playing. Sadly, we struck out at the velvet rope and hung our heads as we walked away.

Not ready to call it a night, I suggested we go to the bar at the Raleigh for a few minutes. As I was standing at the bar, I heard the band warming up. I turned around and they were playing right across the pool, just past a second velvet rope. Wow, could it really be this easy? Gate crashing 101: Wait for the guest list guy to get distracted by someone else and slip through. I sidled up to the stage just as they played their first notes. It was like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one. They got through about five or six songs before the City of Miami shut them down. What you can't see in the photo are the pretty palm trees swaying behind the band while they were playing.


The second day I hit the amazing Cisneros Foundation, the NADA Art Fair, Scope Art Fair and Grendel, a collaborative installation in a old, neon green grocery store. What will those crazy kids think of next?

I was fortunate to stay with a friend on swanky Fisher Island. I loved walking on the beach in the morning, taking photos and staring at the ocean.

And now I'm back home and back on the computer. Kicking Betsy Ross orders out and mentally preparing myself for another week of work. Here's a photo of a jellyfish. I have to get back to work.

waaaaahh!

I know you all were thinking of a nice gift you could buy for your friend Aimee for Christmas. So here you go: these amazing peep-toe booties by Fendi. Want them. Want them. Want them.

And after you spent all of your cash on the shoes, you can decorate the package with these free downloadable gift tags by Small Object. Aren't they cute? She's a genius.

I've been seeing inspiring clothes left and right lately and I've been wanting to sew, but the sewing machine has been acting up, I haven't had a chance to sit down and really work on it. I think after the new year I might have some more time to clean it well and figure out why there's 20 pounds of shredded thread around the bobbin-thread feeder.

This may be the best chance you have to learn about fabrics. Make it count.

Well, I'm about to just fall over from sleepiness, but I wanted to get this up and out the door. I finished my fabric guides called "A Young Lady's Guide to Fabric," and the set is now available for sale on my website.

The set includes booklets on cotton, silk, wool, linen and a handy little volume of sewing lingo. They can be purchased individually or on the website as a set. These little guys make great stocking stuffers. Snatch 'em up. They come all wrapped up in special ribbon and I can gift-wrap as well if you're feeling especially festive.

don't stop me now

To steal a line from one of my favorite movies, "Airplane": It looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines. Just kidding. But really. It's a little crazy around here. Next week I'm off to circus-like Art Basel Miami Beach, so I'm trying to get a lot done.



1. There was Thanksgiving at Dustin and Leya's. On second thought, I think I might have mentioned this, but I have to say again how lovely it was to hang out the whole day, watching football on and off, drinking "brown," eating turkey and non-turkey, playing Trivial Pursuit and meeting new friends.


2. Mr. D and I finally got around to having peeps over to the new apartment after the Art Star holiday party, giving me a good reason to clean it top to bottom. Double-win: clean apartment and realizing how many good people we've been lucky enough to meet since we've been here. Our good friends Carrie and Dave just happened to be visiting Philadelphia that weekend so they were able to come over as well.


3. My second attempt at making a pinata went very well. I'm perfecting the technique. This one was for Marissa's birthday. A mutual friend suggested that I make it look like her boyfriend's head. I think you can deem a pinata-breaking successful if something in the house has been smashed other than the pinata- in this case a nice glass. I threw some Japanese marshmallow candies in there and I think they helped to make people forget about the Swedish candy incident earlier in the evening.

4. I have been feeling a little crunched lately. All of my free time has been used playing with my new toy and working on the computer to tweak instruction booklets and labels. However, I had to take some time off with Marissa for our long-anticipated crafty afternoon. We hit the Plaid Pony open house first. I was so excited to find a cookbook that I used to have when I was little called the "Fun to Cook Book." I had totally forgotten about it, but when I saw the book and flipped through it, it made me remember all sorts of things, like specific times I had looked at the book, and making certain recipes for my brothers...very strange experience. Shaking myself from my glassy-eyed stare, I picked up the "Tidbit Tree Decorative Server." You're supposed to put gherkins and olives and salami bits on the tree, but right now it's just an objet d'art on my coffee table. Maybe it can be our avant-garde Christmas tree.





5. Oh wait, where was I? Oh yes, Crafty Afternoon. Well, the plan was to cook something and make something, but after a trip to Ikea and then Superfresh and then Wholefoods, there really wasn't time. Who knew that it takes all of this stuff to make six containers of body scrub?? Ok, truth is, it doesn't. But of course, you can't leave Ikea without two bags of stuff you didn't really need.






Here's what we made:

*Brown sugar body scrub with sweet almond oil, olive oil, vitamin e, and a mix of Lavender, Ylang-Ylang and some other oils I can't remember.

*Salt foot scrub with olive oil, vitamin e and lavender and peppermint essential oils.

*Bath soak with lavender essential oil.

I think I can print up some labels on my new printer and they will make nice homemade gifts for Christmas. They are probably the easiest homemade gifts I've ever made, that's for sure.

I had a great time wandering around shopping yesterday and goofing off! Now....back to work.

speaking of Ikea

Well this is just genius.

This company, Bemz, makes slipcovers for Ikea furniture. After you've spilled red wine all over the solid color one that came with your Angby, you can upgrade to one of these!!