springtime at the union square greenmarket, nyc

cherry blossom

I know it's almost summer, but Happy Spring!!!

I love a good farmers market, so when I was up in New York city last, I went to the Union Square Greenmarket with my friend Maria. She goes every Saturday, but it's open Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays also.

forsythia

pussy willows

wheatgrass

A new Yorker's substitute for a lawn.

Healthy stuff!

Hmmm... did not know this.

Not so heathy stuff.

Ok, the bread gives it away- we were there on St. Patrick's Day, so I'm a tad late with posting these.

I'm in the mood now to go explore an Amish market a little closer to home... stay tuned!

store crush: purl soho

On my window shopping trip to SoHo last weekend, a friend reminded me about the Purl SOHO store at 459 Broome Street.

I was already familiar with them from their blog, the Purl bee. Finally a chance to go there!

I used to be a sweater designer & knitter, but I got burned out on it after doing it too long. For the first time in a long while I was tempted to knit something...

They are not just a knitting store. They also have a nice selection of modern craft supplies like the good kind of felt: wool.

And the best quilting cottons from the Denyse Shmidt, Kokka, Moda, and the like.

Embroidery hoops: what a cute way to show off their fabric selection in the entryway.

Oh, and there are the Liberty prints too. I just drooled over the selection. Liberty cottons are not cheap, though- something like $37/yard. But at least they are 54" wide, not 44" like most. We know we're not here for bargains, anyway. Just the best.

Purl is fully stocked in all things embroidery too, from floss to needlepoint wool, to books galore. Books on everything and only the best, most enticingly designed ones.

Definitely worth the detour!

window shopping in soho

Spring has sprung in SoHo!

L'Occitane

On my recent fabric shopping trip to NYC, I took a detour to SoHo for some window shopping. It's a cool high rent area famous for it's lofts and industrial past. The former factory buildings and warehouses look like tall wedding cakes to me. The don't make 'em like that anymore!

SoHo is short for "south of Houston" (pronounced How-ston- don't give yourself away if you're a tourist). It is bordered on the South by Canal Street where Chinatown starts.

click to enlarge the map

There didn't used to be so many chain stores, but all the shops make an effort with their window displays down here. I managed to snap a few with my suitcase full of fabric in tow (not recommended).

BCBG

BCBG at 120 Wooster: full-on spring with bright color and scarf pattern prints.

Lucky Brand

Lucky Brand

Lucky Brand at 38 Greene Street: Bright fuchsia balanced with neutrals and cheetah print thrown in. Love the macrame bag!

JNBY

JNBY at 75 Greene Street: I guess tutus are here to stay. The bright yellow + khaki + white is unexpected. I like it.

Tibi

Tibi at 120 Wooster: pastels made sophisticated by tempering with tan & black.

Kate Spade

Kate Spade at 454 Broome Street: as always, crisp, bright, & fun. It's hard to see, but the mannequins have tennis raquets in their hair ;)

Giggle

Giggle, the baby store for überyuppies at 120 Wooster: irresistibly cute & modern baby stuff.

Giggle

Giggle carries Jonathan Adler's baby bags, Dwell bedding, Tea company clothes, and the latest in high end strollers and gear.

Wink

Wink at 129 Prince: embracing the bright accessories!

Crew Cuts

Crew Cuts in the J.Crew store at 99 Prince Street: the kids collection can seemingly do no wrong. They are so good at their styling and modernizing preppy.

Club Monaco

Club Monaco at 520 Broadway: soft transitional colors that are perfect for right now, but I'll never do the sock + sandals thing.

 Liberty print at APC at 131 Mercer. That one's a classic.

Ralph Lauren

And finally, Ralph Lauren at 379 West Broadway, doing navy & white for early spring... again... but he can get away with it I guess. Still want to be her.

My next posting will be all about my new store crush in SoHo...

making sewn valentine's day cards

We are officially ready for Valentine's Day. For once I got a jump on a holiday and  had the kids make cards a little bit in advance. We tried something different this year: sewn cards. You can sew perfectly fine through card stock, so that's what we did this year. I found these scalloped flat cards at Staples (sorry, couldn't find the cards on their website). They come in maybe 8 colors with mix & match envelopes.

I am nothing if not well stocked with fabric scraps, so the kids went to town picking fabrics to cut into heart shapes. I tried not to interfere with their choices. The more naive, the better with these cards.

I had them cut out hearts freehand, some with pinking sheers and some with standard scissors.

Both of my kids like to use the sewing machine. There is nothing special to sewing on the paper and any crookedness makes them better, I think.

I'm not a scrapbookin' type, but I recently got this set of vintage-style alphabet rubber stamps from Etsy. Lots of supply shops carry them, but set your search to "shop local" (ie. USA) if you don't want to deal with overseas shipping. They are perfect for finishing off the cards and, well, scrapbooking too ;)

Happy Valentine's Day!

test driving iron-on vinyl

January is my month for decluttering and sprucing things up around the house. I've been working like a dog on everyplace but my office and studio, but at least the kids' art room is looking good. It's not really a room, more of a breakfast nook that got taken over by the rascals and is furnished with the last remnants of my husband's college furniture. Since the furniture isn't precious it's ok that paint gets on it, but it's January and I'm feeling anal. I can't stand the sight of these dirty seat covers another minute. And I'm over that floral. The original cane seats are long gone, replaced with plywood topped with 1" foam and they've been recovered over and over with the help of my trusty staple gun.

Well, I'm recovering them again, but this time might be the last because I'm trying out a new product that I think is gonna be my new favorite: iron-on vinyl! A few years ago, I looked into having fabric laminated for these chairs and it turned out to be something like $20 per yard with a 5 yard minimum, so I didn't pursue it. Then I came across this Therm O Web iron on vinyl at JoAnn's and bought some to play with.

It comes in matte or shiny & I got the matte. It reminds me a lot of the laminating stuff you can get for paper at the office supply store.

It has a waxy paper backing that you peel off to reveal a tacky side.

You place the vinyl tacky side down onto the front of your fabric and then smooth out the bubbles. You can still peel it back up at this point if you notice a wrinkle or a thread stuck in there.

Then you take the backing you just peeled off and use it as your press cloth. The directions say to do the ironing on a firm surface like a table, heat on medium. There's no toxic odor like I was expecting either.

After it cools, peel back the paper and voilà! Vinyl-coated fabric!

And my favorite part: the stapling...

Instant gratification!

ins and outs 2012

floral new year card by thevysherbarium

Out with the old! I grew up in the Washington DC area and always looked forward to the Washington Post's in & out list on January 1. I don't now how long they've been doing it, but it's been a long time if I can remember it from childhood. Here is the famous Post list and a few others just for fun:

The Washington Post  (ie. OUT: Pippa's bum/IN: Kate's uterus)
Food Network
WTOP radio
Travel Channel
Mercury News

It's gonna be a good year, I think, even though the Washington Post says Etsy is "out" and Art.sy is now "in". Gonna have to check that one out...

block printed christmas wrap project

This week, I don't know what happened, but I was seized by a fit of craftiness à la Martha Stewart. Maybe it was residual inspiration from my trip to Galbraith & Paul a couple of weeks ago. I corralled the kids and put them to work on making some Christmas wrap. I had a couple of rolls of kraft paper and some other supplies, it was raining, and I just didn't feel like going out to Target for the store bought stuff. The kids wound up having a blast with it, so it was a win-win. And I do think it adds a nice handmade touch to our gifts.

To do this project you will need:
-package of sticky-back foam sheets
-scissors
-pen
-washable kids' paint such as Crayola
-paint brushes
-plastic plates to use as palettes
-small foam rollers (optional)
-wood scraps such as from a 1x4 board
-roll of kraft paper

The foam self-stick sheets we picked up at Michael's were on the thin side, so we doubled them up before cutting our shapes. Thicker is better for clear prints. Simple shapes work best (the bell/toilet plunger shape didn't make the cut). The most complicated shape was the Santa had because it requires 2 colors of paint.

We didn't have any rollers on hand so we used the spread & dunk method. Spread the paint fairly thin with a brush on the plate and dunk the stamp in it.

Coverage should look about like this- not too goopy. If you have rollers, roll on the paint and it will give a similar effect, more even to tell the truth, but we let go of our perfectionist tendencies for this. Or you can use a paintbrush to apply the paint thinly to the stamp.

Then stamp away, reloading between each stamping.

Hours of fun for the kiddos, especially if you have your Charlie Brown Christmas cd playing in the background and Christmasy junk food to nosh on.