Adorn Me

Finally made something this week: a lace applique tank from this great and easy tutorial from Ruffles and Stuff (a fantastic blog, LOVE!)  That's also the necklace by Lauren Haupt that I posted about before.  I always make things when I have the least amount of time, like Christmas and Valentine's and Easter, guess I like the pressure, so I've been zipping all over town gathering trimmings and adornments for a work project (and fitting some exploring in at the same time):

The flower market is just bursting with peonies lately, I've been in awe.

And saw this little, pink pouf, not sure what it is, but it was pretty cute.

Then I headed to Beads of Paradise on 17th Street, which I mentioned in my first resources post.

Their selection is really quite varied: so many colors and sizes and materials and all different price ranges, my thanks to the very patient staffer who helped me!  My search also took me to Beads World, Inc. on Broadway between 37th & 38th where they have a huge array you could pore through for hours:

and close by on 6th Ave to Toho Shoji where there were even more beads, beads and more beads!:

I also found CJS (Crafts, Jewelry Supplies) on the 2nd Floor of 16 West 36th Street -- piles and piles of boxes all being unpacked and organized, who knows the treasures that could be all around.  This was on my way to Gettinger Feather.

I learned from Dan Gettinger that they only supply feathers from farm-raised fowl, not from the wild, and we chatted about the different feathers from different kinds of birds, fascinating!

Over at M&J Trimming there are walls and walls of lace, appliques, ribbons, threads, tassels, fringe, braids, rhinestones, sequins, amazing....and a whole room of buttons! 

The saleswoman who helped me was so sweet even though I had no idea what I was doing, and she happily cut me 1/2 a yard each of two styles of black Venice lace.  

Got a little lost on 37th Street on the way to my next stop, but passed Stretch House, Inc. (now I know where to find spandex!) and Kiki Riki (I'd like to make a pastel pink mini skirt!)

But finally I made it to Mood Fabrics, THE go-to-place on Project Runway.

SO inspiring: all of the colors and textures and materials, solids, prints, stripes, shirting, weaves, silks...I had so many questions!  I eyed the fancy lace:   

but ultimately was there for a more sheer fabric and decided on 1/2 a yard of silk chiffon.

I made sure to pet the shop's adorable dog, who I've loved since I saw him in this tutu pic.  I was also looking for fusible to meld my lace applique onto my tank top and the very nice staff directed me to find double-sided fusible at Steinlauf & Stoller, Inc. just 2 blocks uptown:

And they have a fantastic supply of sewing notions, threads, needles, zippers and more.  So, at last I had enough of a haul to head back to the office:

Yep, that's a real ostrich egg with real feathers: different sizes come from different parts of the bird.  And we needed gold and black beads so I had a bunch:

And at home I looked over my findings:

Might not look like too much now, but I have some nice plans for these things.  The tank was adorned in just minutes and I was so happy that I wore it for yet another day of work today.

Ahhhh...

Such a lovely, relaxing weekend and then...Monday...
but just look the rainbow in this fountain in Washington Square Park and think of the upcoming extended-Memorial-3-Day-weekend.  I've always loved the water and fountains relax me (and leave it to Martha Stewart for a tutorial on how to make your own).  So, here are some that I like, kicked off by the tiniest, most adorable baby ducks ever down at Nelson A. Rockefeller Park: click to watch it as a video until I figure out how to get it to work correctly ;-)

The courtyard at The Frick Collection

The New York City Waterfalls: installed from June through October 2008 by Olafur Eliasson

7 World Trade Center

Down by South Street Seaport

Over by Bryant Park

Hudson River by Christopher Street

By City Hall

620 Loft and Garden near Rockefeller Center

A fairly new one by Canal Street

And one from the west coast: outside San Francisco's Ferry Building Marketplace

Calming Calendars

I've been all about the recaps this month since there's been so much to do. 

I stopped by a photo shoot for the new cookbook by Allison Fishman, cooking school founder and host of Lifetime's Cook Yourself Thin, where I also met Abby, the designer of Institute of Dress and I love the dreamy, drapey style of her clothing,  

next was a celebration of paper creativity from event designer David Stark's new book and installation of THE (purely paper) FLOWER SHOPPE at West Elm,

then went to a launch party for Apartment Therapy's Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces at the Clic Bookstore and Gallery, 

and saw "No Man's Land" by Christian Boltanski,

an art installation at The Park Avenue Armory (through June 13th: I highly recommend it), attended Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation, and yesterday did an event for hundreds that took all day to set up, so I'm definitely TGI-Fing today.

When the going gets tough, I get planning and organizing calms me down so I've been making calendars. I made my first batch back in January and I'm so excited (and relieved) that summer's almost here.  For June I used my Martha Stewart eyelet lace punch-around-the-edge set.  I've been noticing in Martha Stewart Living each month there have been 40% off coupons for Michael's, nice!

There are quite a lot of birthdays to celebrate this summer, especially in July and August, including Martha Stewart (8/3), Julia Child (8/15) and more than a few fam and friends, so I have to get crafty.

And not to think too much about it yet, but when summer's over September's probably going to be a killer work month once Fashion Week hits, so I strung 30 seed beads like an abacus to remind me that each of the 30 days will be different, but they too shall each pass in their time.

Crazy Catch-Up Post

This is a shot I took in Soho after seeing Exit Through the Gift Shop, the awesome documentary about street artists Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Space Invader, Mr. Brainwash and others and how far they would go for their art, very funny, very cool.

May I say that May has been a crazy month so far: 11 days and it's been 4 holidays (Fete du Muguet, Cinco de Mayo, Korean Children's Day, Mother's Day), 3 marketplaces (Hester Street Fair, Limelight, Brooklyn Lyceum Spring Food and Craft Market), 2 movies (Exit Through the Gift Shop, Kick-Ass), 2 store openings (Nordstrom Rack, David Yurman), 2 nights of celebrities and 1 museum gala.  So, here's how some of it went.

First up on May 1st was The Brooklyn Lyceum's Spring Food and Craft Market

There's my boyfriend on his way in.  I fell hard for the adorable drawings by Kristiana Parn, we had Korean kimchi hotdogs from Mama O's Kimchee and then he bought me...

a beautiful necklace by Lauren Haupt, which I wore the next day when we....

went to the Hester Street Fair

which was lovely, but it was around 90 degrees that day so we went to see the street art movie.  Fast forward to the next weekend and we went to check out Limelight Marketplace:

and the site that was once a church and became a club has been reborn as an amazing marketplace of beautiful and unique shops, a gourmet food gallery and outdoor green market.  Restaurants and wine bars are also moving in soon!

I love the cakes at Butterfly Bakeshop, tiered cake chocolates at The Little Candy Cake Company, adorable kitchenwares at Whisk, decadent, fascinating flavors of brownies at Mari's, truly tasty oils and vinegars from Carter & Cavero (we bought fig balsamic), wonderful soaps from Soapology (in lily of the valley and almond!) and the beautiful home designs at Brocade Home.

So, it was a great place to shop for Mother's Day.

I also made my Mom a little tissue paper carnation corsage with this tutorial from Folding Trees

and now there are only 20 more days of May and so much more to do...!