cookie crumbs

New Blog! New Blog! New Blog!!!

2010-10-25T08:23:00.000-07:00

Folks!

I have a new blog!

Sorry Blogger, but you just weren't working out. It's not me, it's you. You can't upload my images for jack. I don't know what your problem is. And truth is, there's somebody else now. Wordpress. He knows how to treat a young lady.

Please visit and link to my new blog: The Chelsea Rose.

Thanks guys!
xoxo
Chelsea

a gentleman's style

2010-01-13T20:07:00.000-08:00

I can't take credit for the witty caption for this photo, "A Gentleman's Style." This comes from a blog that was introduced to me today by my friend Mandy Kordal, The Catorialist, a fun take on our dear friend, The Sartorialist. If you need an uplifting minute, check it out.

Also, please let's not forget our dear friend, icanhazcheezeburger
(aka where all my time goes before bed).

2010 2010 2010!

2010-01-10T14:36:00.000-08:00

It's 2010! Thank goodness. 2009 was a rough year; so was being 23. 24, in 2010, is gonna be so bangorang! I rang in the new year with my sweet friends at Ginnybranch's. She made sweet little party hats (I'm not donning one because I'm wearing the glitter crown she made me for Christmas instead).

Mollie rockin' the confetti.

Confetti everywhere!! My champagne! (...I still finished it, raspberries and all...)

merry christmas!

2009-12-25T10:13:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, everyone!! Here is my little photo essay on my holiday experiences to live up all the fun pastimes of the season!

My Gramma Dorothy and I made this gingerbread house. We broke all the rules on the recipe for how to bake it...even though I had to bully gramma into doing it! Grampa John helped me hold everything in place while I icing-ed the pieces together; ever the carpenter, even in gingerbread! Thanks Grampa! We made the house for a gingerbread house competition and it won 1st place in the adult category and grand prize!

Then came back to New York and trimmed the tree with Jason, Mollie, Trevor, and Eric. Trevor helped me cut out all the doilies into different sizes to make snowflake ornaments. ...and then helped me wear the leftover donuts as bracelets...

Trevor made himself a doily earring.

Up go the snowflakes and glittered pinecones! This is our recession tree, we spent no money on ornaments. Pinecones were from last year, doilies are going to be part of our living room chandelier...

Ta DA!

Ginny Branch suggested a sledding day and then couldn't join! So sad. But Meggs, Haylie, Mollie and I went and thought fond thoughts of her.

My camera battery died so I've actually borrowed these photographs from Haylie. It was so wonderful to be in the park with all these people sledding and squealing and having such a blast! These are people I would normally just bustle right by on the sidewalk, but here we all were, rolling in the snow! Pretty magical what a bit of H2O can do.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

erica and chet

2009-12-22T19:10:00.000-08:00

Halloo, world! So, I have just found that blogger doesn't drive me absolutely *bonkers* with refusing to upload my images if I resize everything to 72dpi first (ala Photoshop action tool). I've tried uploading this post multiple times with no success, and the same goes for many fallen posts of yore, and yore has been a looong time on this here blog. But! maybe I'm back in business; I have ideas for a really efficient Photoshop action tool that will make this easy peasy despite everything blogger.com does against me! Ha!

Here are photos of Erica and Chet's beauuuutiful wedding. Erica commissioned me to make her wedding dress, the specifications being that it needed to be flowy, empire waisted, and have lace that didn't have flowers on it, and bridal buttons. I'll have to admit figuring out a pretty system for bridal buttons on chiffon was kind of a challenge but I was happy with the results! I got the "renaissance" lace at Sposabella lace here in the garment disctric, and the rest of my odds and ends at Brooklyn Mercantile, easily one of my favorite stores ever. The lovely photographs are by Our Labor of Love, I think they did a wonderful job of capturing the wedding between these two young architects.

ginny's wedding

2009-08-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

Recently my best friend and other half, Ginny Branch (now Ginnybranch Stelling!) just married her middle school sweet heart in undoubtedly one of the most beautiful weddings of all time. I wasn't going to post anything about it because it got so much coverage in the wedding world, but since Gramma has friends that read my blog that might not necessarily read all my friends' blogs, I had to make sure ya'll didn't miss this. Because it's too good to miss. I've got some of my snapshots of the event below, but the best thing is this video by our friend Josh Goleman, an amazing filmmaker and photographer who documented the whole thing. This was so much fun, and I loved how all of our friends really got into the theme. Not a modern one in sight! We really are blessed with wonderful, fun, inspiring people in our lives.

These are all of Ginny's outfits for the weekend. Dreeeamy!

...and this is my friend, the baby goat. we fell in love.

betseyville

2009-08-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

Gramma Dorothy has requested that I post about my new wonderful job at Betsey because, as she reminded me, she's not the only one who reads my blog. ...which I do forget sometimes. So! I work at Betsey Johnson now, who has always been one of my all time favorite fashion designers. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Betsey, she is known for punky, wacky, vintage inspired clothing. If you look at styles that she created thirty years ago, and compare them to her most recent shows, you wouldn't really be able to tell a difference. I've put some images from style.com's archive of her most recent shows on here. I think that it's easy to see why I love her stuff. Also, she is a wonderful person. I abosulety adore her and her business partner, Chantal. They are both genuinely kind, exuberant, firm but fun businesswomen; they have quickly become my fashion idols for when I have my own business.

I fit into Betsey as one of the new "technical desginers." Which is a broad-reaching term here. What I actually do is keep the charts and boards that we refer to up to date. Every day things are changing--this is shortened; this is going to a different factory; this is going to have pink contrast trim; this style number is changing; this fabrication is changing--and everyone needs to know about it. Besides that, I sort of fill in everywhere. For instance, recently I have fixed the sewing machine, I made the collars smaller on some samples we got in, I sketched some garments we were missing sketches for, I trooped through the garment district to find rubber buttons (close to impossible!), and was consulted on the creation of an intranet line sheet publishing website (in which I made *very* clear that I am anything but a webmaster!).

This is Betsey and her granddaughter:

And this is some of her stuff:

cute lil' animation

2009-07-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

lights in the sky

2009-07-11T06:34:00.000-07:00

Boy, the Thais sure know how to throw a celebration. This is a really short clip on BBC but I think it is just a beautiful image (I also really love the chubby lady at the beginning holding on to the edge of the balloon--she is *so* excited!). I really love the idea of a group of people creating something beautiful to celebrate a seasonal change. I'm thinking some extravagant celebrations in Prospect Park to mark the next full moon might be fun...

from old books

2009-07-01T10:42:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful resource I just stumbled on! I need to share it with all of you...

This website is fromoldbooks.org, and it is just full of free images, in a variety of file sizes. They get really large so that you can actually use them for projects! Liam is the kind man who buys old books, creates high quality scans, and puts them up on the internet for us! While you are on the site you will also see links to other sites that have free art, but most of it seems to be stock image photography. Anyways, you should check it out!

http://www.fromoldbooks.org/

nothin's gonna get me like the old times

2009-06-25T18:54:00.001-07:00

Raymond just showed me this video and I love it. It reminds me of Ginny and Ed.

mrs. moon

2009-06-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this is going to be my second witchy woman post. Why is it taking so long for my personal wardrobe to actually reflect these collections that I think are so beautiful? Miss Anna Sui's latest collection is just so star-studded that I can't resist. I am going to have to own a star crown headband, even if it does hurt my wussy head and give me a headache. This all reminds me of a story in my favorite childhood book, Hubble Bubble: A Book of Withches and Wizards, by John Patience, which I think--along with Glenda the Good Witch--sparked my life-long interest in being a witch. The story that it reminds me of is about a witch that lives next door named Mrs. Moon who listens to 70's records and bakes delicious fresh bread.

I want to be Mrs. Moon.

noah and the whale

2009-06-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

I really feel like it's important that I share this deliciousness with all you guys. This is my favorite song currently, "Five Years' Time," by Noah and the Whale. Here's a little video on youtube (I love the song even more now).

painting the roses red

2009-06-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

Haylie bird, Amy Merrick and I finally got to go to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens last Tuesday. We almost got rained out; we had planned to go early in the morning and all watched the sky grow darker through our windows as the morning progressed into torrents of rain. But! The clouds parted, the sun came out, the birds sang, the bunnies hopped (there are real live bunnies! oh my god ohmygod!) and the roses, well...

post it love

2009-06-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

circus of dreams

2009-06-09T06:33:00.000-07:00

As my sweet Gramma Dorothy pointed out, I haven't posted anything about the wedding dress I made for my friend Halligan. This is mostly because I didn't take any photos! I was so good about packing my camera, my battery charger, and the battery in my duffel bag, and then brought the camera--sans battery--to the wedding. Typical. So, thank you Kyle Fisher, Afton Waring, Ken Brenner, and Katie Miller for these photos I have swiped from Facebook. The requests of the bride for the dress were that it be short, poofy, and simple (no lace, no satin). So I added a little detailing by creating this inverted scallop ruffle, the technique taken from this wonderful book The Art of Manipulating Fabric that I...borrowed from Ginny, semi-permanently...

Oh, and here are some much better photos on Once Wed.

um, this is me

2009-05-12T20:30:00.000-07:00

I want to take this bird with me whenever I go to a bar so I will always have someone to look silly with.

the tables of spring

2009-04-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

When will it finally feel like spring in New York? I've been displaying spring-themed tables for months now and it's starting to feel a little foolish! It's cold and rainy! Some people from San Francisco stopped in the store today and were telling me all about the lovely wonderful super fantastic weather there. Phooey. At least hoping for spring gives me pretty things to look at while I relax on my couch.

Here is my current spring table top. The birdie and her nest were gifts from my adopted family, Laraine and Nikki from one of my favorite stores, @home vintage general. They know me so well and always give the best gifts. They were a cheer-up gift for the loss of my Grandpa Tom a couple of weeks ago. This has been a rough six months for my grandparents. But he was a devotedly faithful man, and in a lot of pain towards the end of his struggle with Alzheimer's, so I know he's in a better place. His funeral was beautiful, and it was so nice to see the family together to say good-bye. Things that will always remind me of Grandpa Tom: soft serve ice cream, koi fish and Japan, horses named Jack, American Airlines, the Christian story of the rainbow as a gift from god to signal the end of hard times.

This was the spring table I had before the nest. I'm not so good about keeping the daffodils alive in the tea pot, so the nest came right in time! The tea pot was an acquisition from my recent trip to Gramma Dorothy's house...

shiny sheep

2009-03-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

the shots of fat sheep running around covered in lights are so beautiful and silly, so basically, right up my alley...

adorable!

2009-02-25T19:14:00.000-08:00

Trevor Dunaway showed me this artist today, Kate Wilson, and I have fallen in love! Fat birds with things on their heads! Oh! Could it be any better? And her craftsmanship is so wonderful, she has so many beautiful drawings. Please look at them at her Flickr page and at her blog, and if you find yourself wiping a little string of drool from the corner of your mouth like I did, let me know so I don't feel so weirdly obsessed with cute fat animals...

gloomy winter, thinking ahead

2009-02-04T19:52:00.000-08:00

I funnily found myself kind of sad tonight that winter is beginning to end. I went to open my window to let some cold air in (my radiator is out of control! my room goes from 60 to 80 in five minutes when I turn that thing on!) and thought how in the summer I will have to work so hard to keep cool. Wet washcloths and Tshirts! Also, the snow is beautiful, especially the one last night. That was the glitteriest snow I've ever seen, it looked like the whole world was some wonderful creation of Brian Froud and Jim Henson, Labyrinth/Dark Crystal style. I have some weirdly tender feelings towards snow, I guess because of how ephemeral it is. It's such a short-lived thing, I feel like it's very sweet, like it's always got this childlike quality to it, some sort of innocence. Now, the ice that comes from the snow I have no tender feelings for. That is a malicious force of winter, *especially* for clumsy goofs like me.

...then I found these pictures I took of my park in the

summer when I was on a walk with Joe.

I can't wait for summer!

On another note:

Haynes Riley came to visit me! So long Haynes, good luck in the big world, I'll see ya around when the weather changes.

don't be fooled by this picture...i haven't practiced in FOREVER.

over the hills and through the woods...

2009-01-27T21:12:00.000-08:00

...to Grandmother's house we go!

Why I love visiting Gramma Dorothy and Grampa John:

Everything is a fairy tale. Is this a Baroque painting or what?

I can feel like a princess walking through curtains of vines over trellises. I helped Grampa build part of this structure a few years ago. Grampa was always happy to let me help with big projects, and taught me how to use a lot of big, scary tools when most adults were protecting their kids from anything minorly sharp or anything that made a whirring noise.

One of Gramma's favorite stories about me was because Grampa let me help him build things. I guess I was about five, and we were putting plumbing into the cottage at the bottom of the property, and Grampa told me, whatever I did, not to touch the pipe. So I touched it, and broke it, and, apparently...said a bad word and ran over with a wheelbarrow of gravel to cover it up. She was tickled by my blunder, especially by me cussing at five.

Gramma stocks everything in abundance.

Every nook of the acre and a half is full of treasure, like these pods Grampa will harvest for seeds...

...or like these old letter blocks Gramma will sell.

Garden-grown apples, so tangy and crispy!

Antique silverware makes every meal like a treasure hunt. Which spoon will I choose? Can I find one with my initials on it? Or a rose?

My Gramma has a spirit from the Olde West.

Grampa and I picked the flowers from the gardens for Gramma. I drank the tea while we sat and talked, and mom stripped the huge bowl of elder berries from their stems to make jam. My stepfather brought them back for her from one of his hunting trips. The jar of jam is in my fridge now. Deeelicious! Old broke-back horse lives with me now.

Grampa's greenhouse

Quaint: back view of the house, with the rock wall and little seat Grampa built.

Door to the secret garden...

Presents from Gramma. She knows me so well!

Junking in front of the shed by the cemetery.

My patio bedroom, complete with flowers Grampa picked for me from the garden.

sairawinn

2009-01-02T19:43:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite girls from middle school in Austin, Texas has just finished her thesis! Saira Schutza was always so inspiring to me, and even though I haven't seen her since we were 13 I can tell she still carries the spirit of that young girl who wrote moving and soulful poetry, played the guitar, and drew women in the most articulate renaissance style our school ever saw. I have already purchased two paintings from her etsy site and I encourage everyone to check out her stuff!

thanksgiving on 8th street

2008-12-13T06:33:00.000-08:00

I had more pictures I wanted to take for this post and so was putting it off, so here are just some pics of my apartment around Thanksgiving, with my little Fall table.

3 cheers for the british punk witch

2008-11-10T21:35:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness. Emma Cook, amazing Emma! I've been following her collections since I saw her shout-out in Sample (published by Phaidon) and have pretty much loved every one. But this one, reach into my heart and pull out all that witchy fringy encrusted lacey goodness! I just think that these are some of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, in any art form. This level of elaborateness is something that I was steered away from in school and so somehow feel is "bad," but look at Emma go! She just wallows in it! She just gets down in all those organic edges and beads on stars on lace and swims through it!

tears of joy

2008-11-05T12:08:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to stop crying, I've been watching videos on CNN all morning and afternoon, video after video of people all over the world celebrating--riotously celebrating--Obama. How amazing, how totally awesome is it, that the whole world loves this man? That the whole world is rejoicing in his election? When has this *EVER* happened before? People are not normally concerned with other countries' elections, they'll find out during the week who won and okay, so things probably continue as they did before. But this time, people were glued to the news, holding their breaths, counting state by state (again, not just Americans--all over the world!) screaming and jumping and yelling and blowing whistles and crying and hugging and signing when they found out he won. He inspires the world to be better and I think, just like the American Revolution sparked revolutions around the world, bringing down kings and installing democracies, Obama will spread change, cooperation, and righteousness around the globe. He has energized and brought hope to the human race. I am proud to be an American again.

Obama win overwhelms Africa

Obama on papers in Beirut

Obama bigger than football

Americans in the streets!

Kenyans in the streets!

Obama around the World

...and just becasue it's fun, Obama dances on Ellen! two of my favorite people!

let's go everyone!

2008-11-02T23:35:00.000-08:00

See you at the voting booths!

Pin by: Grace, the West Village Starlette

happy halloween!

2008-11-02T22:30:00.000-08:00

This blog is all about the wonderful costumes I saw from my friends this Halloween. I love that the people in my life aren't too serious for outfits, and that they create the most wonderful hand-made ensembles! Not a store-bought costume here!

Frances, the New Jersey Flower.

Here we have Annie Hall and Pretty Baby

There was a whole troop of SCAD girls. The girls were the best thing to come out of SCAD.

Look at how creative and sweet these young ladies are!

Now everyone, I am just a lowly squaw.

I had no aspirations for Pocahontas or anything so regal.

Daisy Duck and the Diamond of Arkansas

The Miner of the Diamond and the Gold of the Nativity

Ruthie explored her newfound sexuality as a Catholic school girl...

Welcome to Port-o-land!

2008-10-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

Pen on left (always a challenge for me, all my mistakes get to hang around! eek!) Pencil on right

This summer I took a weekend to go visit the love of my life in Portland, Oregon, where he was doing an internship with Periscope Studios. Portland is...eerily perfect. My favorite thing was the blackberry bushes growing literally all over the city, up the buildings, down the hills, next to the roads. Also there were crab apples donated to me by neighborhood trees on our morning walk to the trolley (the Portland trolley is like what the NYC subway systems are when they go to heaven).

The beavers were a joke for Ginny, gnawing away at her desk.

This is really what the streets in Portland look like. I mean, really and honestly, this is a major road in Portland. What?!? Where is the traffic? Where is the trash?

There are lots of bridges in Portland, like New York.

But they are all so...not quite quaint, but not intimidating and huge.

granola-grunge

The most relaxed and contented I can remember ever feeling:

lying on the cool grass in the shade of a maple tree in the state park,

next to my boy,

making a clover chain.

ahhhh....

Japanese gardens, so peaceful.

I was sitting on the bench drawing the waterfall when I was

overcome by how green everything was. There was so much green.

Oh, also, I found my new home.

Moss covered shingles, covered in flowering plants, I'm there.

california, here i come!

2008-10-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

This summer I took a short vacation to San Diego to meet my new niece, Syerra. Dad took the twins and me out for lunch and to poke around the Point Loma lighthouse, one of my favorite childhood pastimes. I have detailed memories of organzing hermit crab races on the rocks with my older sister and cousin, discovering sea cucumbers, and flustering thousands of anemones by sticking my finger into their soft tentacles.

Wouldn't you know that southern California has a blue and white color scheme?

Tide pools! They are such beautiful, magical little lagoons of sea creatures, little miniature oceans.

enter the Little Mermaid

This is where the pirates hid the treasure...
...and we are going to find it!
well, maybe they dropped it down here by accident.
I found my treasure! I love sea rocks and seaweed. I discovered pretty early on that you can't take seaweed home...it starts to stink. So I have to just admire it in its habitat.
Point Loma lighthouse. I harbored many fantasies about living in this house, making sea grass dolls, chasing Victorian ghosts, collecting sea shells to cover mirrors and boxes, cooking earthy stews with wooden spoons and iron kettles. (and you know what, I still harbor those fantasies!)

Look at their banjo!
Oh, please let me live here!

Okay, well, to be practical, I probably wouldn't enjoy having to feed the fire to cook. But I would love to have a gas stove next to it that I could cook on, and the wood stove to boil water for tea!

Dear Grandma Jean,

2008-10-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

I'm not even really sure how to begin writing this, but I just wanted you to know that I think you were an amazing woman, all the way from your Kansas farm girl roots to your California teacher career, to your adventures as a world-traveling photographer, to your quiet and constant life as an ever-loving, ever supportive, ever happy grandma. I guess everybody always regrets something when they lose someone, and what I regret most is not making a point to make you feel special all the time, and I hope that you always felt special. I took for granted that you would always be there, in a good mood, and never really stopped to do anything showy for or about you. I hope that when you see this silly little gesture of me blogging about you it makes you feel special. Thank you for the birthday present check for my bedroom. I bought not only a bed but new sheets, a cozy reading chair, a wardrobe for my clothes, and a shelf for my books. So yes, it was plenty enough to cover the price of a bed! We will miss you so much, from all over America and all over the world.

I love you,

Chelsea

raspberry picking

2008-10-08T09:11:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, sorry about the long blogging delay (again). Now that I have my *sweet* new iMac, I can hopefully post all the updates I've been working on that my tiny old MacMini couldn't handle uploading, lord bless it.

Frances turned to me at work one day and sprung this delightful question, "Hey, do you want to go the New Jersey with me this weekend and pick raspberries at my parent's house?" Well, who would say no to that?

Obviously, I accepted.

(before) Look at this perfect little grouping of raspberries!

(after!)

France's bucket filled up much quicker than mine. I kept sampling.

Look at how magical New Jersey is! Who knew? I kept waiting for a hobbit or elf princess to pop out of the ferns, but I guess they were all in their cozy burrows and tree houses, eating raspberries as quickly as me.

Aren't they just so beautiful and strange? They look like little glass beads, and their casings look like fuzzy stars. I want to wear raspberries.

One at a time...

...oh who am I kidding? This is more like it.

"Once upon a time, there was an enchanted village where the clover on the ground grew raspberries, and the boys and girls in the village would fill their cheeks with the tangy, fragrant fruits until their lips were red as rubies in the sunlight."

a dream is a wish your heart makes

2008-08-28T06:21:00.000-07:00

I'm not even sure how to begin this blogpost really. It starts so long ago. I have had so many people asking delving questions that I guess I'm just going to start from the beginning, so prepare for an essay!

Ginny, Pete and I were all in the same senior collection class at SCAD with Prof. Jackie Kueler, who began teaching at the same time as architecture Prof. Laraine Montgomery. Jackie and Laraine became friends through orientation and eventually decided to work on a collaborative project between the senior fashion students and junior architecture students. So, that's how Laraine came into our lives, by bringing her classes to our class, and Pete, Ginny and I fell in love with this incredibly passionate lady. Laraine approached us and said that her 13-year-old daughter was going to be a fashion designer one day, and would we maybe tutor her during the summer to give her a head start? So, with all enthusiasm, Ginny began tutoring Nikki in drawing/design, and I began tutoring her in sewing. My boyfriend, Joe, now tutors her in drawing. We really are all part of the same family now.

Unfortunately, during this time Nikki was diagnosed with a lymphatic cancer. We thought that it had cleared up over the course of the first treatments, and were hoping that Nikki could come visit us at some point during her summer break (maybe NYC for their school's trip?), but the school went to Atlanta and so Nikki never arrived. Then we heard that Nikki's cancer had come back, and she was going to have to go through a whole new series of surgeries and radiation treatments at the end of summer. Ginny, Pete and I agreed that we would split the cost of a plane ticket to fly Nikki up to New York on her own so that she could have a little get-away before she began all this testing.

So now the challenge: plan a fashiony, fun-filled itinerary with all of New York available. Creative us, all we could come up with was the Met, the garment district, and maybe shopping some stores where we couldn't actually afford to buy any merchandise. A little blue bird heard about our creative predicament and swooped in to take charge. She not only paid for Nikki to fly up, but for Laraine too, and because this little bird is very well-loved, she set up the most heart-stoppingly amazing itinerary for Nikki, better than any Make-A-Wish trip (I know, because I remember being in a very similar situation!) and didn't let anybody else lift a penny. If you'd like to see the full itinerary (which you should, it was amazing), Ginny posted it on her blog. Pete also posted an in-depth log of the trip. I know our friends have heard this story over and over again and probably don't want to see the itinerary one more time.

My favorite part of the trip was going to see Hair, oh my. Sweet little 14-year-old Nikki at Hair! If you've ever seen it, then you'll understand why during the second song Ginny and I were laughing so hard that I honestly thought I was going to throw up my gourmet dinner. At the end of the show Pete led the way for us girls to dance on stage with the cast and crowd, how exhilirating! It was so much fun. I've never enjoyed a play that much. Below are pictures from our dinner together the first night Nikki arrived. I can't wait for her to come intern in New York this summer so we can see her and Laraine all the time!

Sisters!

Nikki receives gift certificates for $500 to Lord and Taylor
from each owner of the stores.

So excited! This was another really fun part of the trip,
like a reality TV show:
spend $1000 in Lord and Taylor in 45 minutes before dinner!

Sweet Su'thu'n Belles

Family!

I'd really like to thank Nikki's little fairies at WWD/W (it reminds me of Disney's Sleeping Beauty, with the three fairies flying around helping the princess), and most of all her anonymous fairy godmother at the same company. Thank you to all the designers who gave Nikki your time and attention and dresses and jewelry and bags and perfume and scarves. You have really reminded everyone that the world is full of good people, and are inspiring everyone who hears the story to do something amazing for somebody else.

Nikki's battle against cancer continues. The latest diagnosis from her biopsies after the trip is that her cancer is a particularly malicious one that does not respond to chemotherapy, so they are giving her tiny body as much radiation as it can handle. The cancer is slow-growing, and so can be present and undetected at any time. This may be a chronic, life-long issue for Nikki. Please, everyone, make a little wish for Nikki one more time for continued strength, because this sweet, smart, creative, beautiful young woman still has to become a household fashion name!

thank heaven for little girls!

2008-07-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

After ten years of trying to get pregnant and running into problem after medical problem, my sister finally had a little baby girl! This child is a miracle baby, this was the last time they were going to try after several very expensive invetro attempts came to nothing. Her name is Syerra Sanya O'day, and she has the sweetest temperment. My sister's middle name is her mother's first name (Sanya Nipha O'day), so they continued with that. Sanya is half Thai--she was born in a little village way up in the mountains of Thailand, and Syerra is still 1/4 Thai, 3/4 American...which means she's gonna be a cutie!

lingenberry "yam"

2008-06-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me knows that I like warm, colorful homes. My ideal house is a fairy tale cottage with diamond stained glass windows by the ocean covered in flowering vines with an herb garden, a vegatable garden, and of course, flowers and cobblestones and christmas lights and fruit trees. It would probably be crammed with old books, paints, paper, buttons and ribbon, clothes and clothes and clothes, sewing machines, things I can't seem to stop picking up around the world like crowns, dolls, parasols, and wooden painted animals, fabric, feathers, clothes, plants, drying herbs, cushioned furniture you disappear into, antique jewelry, spices, cooking pots, glass bottles and jars, beads, glitter, quilts, masks and fairy wings, and clothes. All this gets very cluttered and hard to keep orderly. I've been looking at the blogs of some northern Europeans and am enamored with the simplicity of their lifestyles. I'm drawn to their eco-conscious modernness that inherently carries a sense of folk tradition. It makes me want to have a living room furnished with just a striped couch and a coffee table and decorated with nothing more that ferns and shells and driftwood. Also my favorite teal-gray color seems to pop up often in their photographs.

Liivian Talossa

Fine Little Day

Ullabelluna

everything i ever wanted in a birthday card

2008-06-19T12:35:00.001-07:00

Found this living among the debris on our sewing table while I was cleaning today. Nikki is so talented, she's going to be so famous when she's all grown up. My favorite birthday card I've ever received.

the best day off ever

2008-06-17T00:08:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, on my last bona-fide day off where I wasn't promised to any special projects or extra jobs, I had the most amazing day. It was Amy's last day at work, so we had a special breakfast at Cafe Cluny with Frances and Ginny. Amy made us all beautiful terrariums with our own special spirit animals. Then we went shopping in the west village and I got some cute shirts at Housing Works. I walked the long way home down streets that I only normally see at night, when things are hidden and all boarded up. 7th street is my new favorite street.

I stumbled into this magical Harry Potter in Diagon Alley shop. There is no signage that I could see, just wonderful junk in the window, and a huge pendulum in the doorway that you have to twist around to get through. I wasn't even sure if people were welcome inside, so I had to ask if I could come in. Turns out it's owned by a very sweet Santa Claus man named Anthony, who has been repairing watches there for over thirty years. He has the most inspiring collection of junk I've ever seen, and is just the sweetest guy--I adore him.

Thompkin's Square Park finally bloomed in full, no more bare branches. Everything is green and full of life. I loved this white pigeon on the pavement, she looked like she was hopping through a sky of stars.

Even the trees were given necklaces of flowers. I felt like this place was overcome with vitality and joy, everything and everyone was just so happy that winter was finally, finally over.

These two guys were fantastic! Pianos and drums in the park? That's some serious set-up. They played "Jealousy" by the Killers, "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby," "You Spin Me Right Round," "Fidelity" by Regina Spektor, and "Just Go Ahead Now" while I was there. They took a break at one point and one of the guys hanging out in the park sat down at the piano and performed a jazzy little song, I don't know what it was, but he sounded like Louis Armstrong. Then the pianist started playing frisbee with random people walking (or skateboarding) by. I would have stayed all afternoon, the weather was so lovely, but I had to get home to eat my goodies I'd picked up along the way and work on my bathing suit.

I finally stopped at the cheese shop on 2nd(?) Ave. The cheese I got is the most delicious cheese I've ever had. I don't remember what they're called. The top one has truffles in it, and the bottom one was everything I've ever wanted from cheese, with a sweetish nutty aftertaste. Oh*my*god soooo good. My mango was the perfect amount of crispy-tart, my raspberry tart from Veniero's was delicious as always (best bakery around, so cheap, absolutely delicious, run by the same family since 1895, 11th St. and 1st Ave), and I am officially converted to Fizzy Lizzy pomegranate soda. What a perfect end to a perfect afternoon.

Then I started sewing....

steam punk (or) shopping with mollie

2008-06-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

Mollie Little of Pretty Interesting introduced me to this amazing new-to-me concept, "steam punk,"which is sort of...industrial revolution collage. So beautiful! These first pieces can be found at edm.designs.

These are absolutely THE most magical necklaces I have ever seen, how could you not just feel a little witchy wearing them? I want them all. (Except, of course, the one with hair in it.) They are by Madame Fortuna, who also has items on Etsy. Her designs are kind of chunkier and more prohibition-gypsy inspired than the steam punk stuff above.

One last steam punker, keys and memories.

valumtimes

2008-06-06T10:43:00.000-07:00

Two months after ordering it, I still haven't uploaded images from my camera to my computer, and I'm feeling silly having generated all this hooplah about having a blog and then only making one post. So, I'm posting pictures of valentines that I made for my family this year. The idea for this project came from Amy Merrick (I feel like she is going to be a star player in my blogging). We watched Harold and Maude and made a big mess on the floor of her amazing apartment. I got the images from some Dover books I bought at the Strand--best bookstore ever. I photocopied them and cut them out and remembered how fun construction paper is.

portrait of a lady

2008-05-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, finally, finally, I am posting on my blog. This is my most recent project, a portrait of my dear friend, Amy Merrick, who is stepping out into the world of Creativity. She is incredibly brave and creative and talented, and I wish her luck, not that she needs it, because I have full faith that she will do wonderful things, and have a wonderful life for it.

So first, this is my sketch of her.

Then I did some test patches, which (turned out) was good thinking because after not having painted for a year (oh my god it's been a year since school) I was really rusty. I knew that you had to paint skin with blue and yellow and red, but I couldn't quite figure it out. I thought the second patch was a total gonner until I added some burnt sienna (a color my professor forbade us from using) and it ended up being my favorite, even more so than the final!

Here is the final, which I painted on my super fancy arches paper. I actually don't like the way this paper took the paint as much as the cheaper paper I used for the tests. It was...too nice. It blended too perfectly, there wasn't as much evidence of the act of painting. But I gave them all to her, so she can pick which one she likes best. Lots of love to my Amy Merrick.