This Weekend

Indian takeout
Arrival of Elsie Q
Sucked into 40 Year Old Virgin on TV --> we never made it out of the apt Friday night
Bed
---
Yogurt/ Newspaper
Run/Walk around Roosevelt Island
Cafe Bar with Megan and Bonner --> huevos rancheros and sangria
Shower
Crescent Lounge
Leftover Indian food/strange documentary that Carrie Netflixed
Bed
---
Cornflakes /Newspaper
Emails and Etsy stuff
Dim Sum in Chinatown
????? (to be continued)

Another new pic from Michelle:

This is the Cyclone necklace. Up for sale in my Etsy shop and website. Love this one!

Dare we say Spring is almost......

New photos, new Spring styles! Hooray!
(and thanks to Michelle for the fabulous photos)

It's just like easter sunday

I've been neglecting the blog.
Much to the dismay of my four devoted readers.
So consider this it's resurrection.

So I've returned to a semi-normal 9-5ish life. It's only temporary, but still.... The work is fine, but the routine is sooo depressing. I actually uttered the words, "Thank God it's Friday!" to my coffee guy yesterday. Wow.

Still, the 9-5 routine has been helpful in getting other parts of my life back in order. I've been promising Elsie Q that I'd redo her website for a while now, and i finally finished it: www.elsieq.moonfruit.com Heres a collage of images i put together for the website:

The photos above were taken by the ever-popular Michael Borders, as well as a new photographer EliseQ and I have been LOVING lately, Michelle Heimerman. Thanks Michelle for the awesome images!

So, ever since getting back from the CR, I've been totally obsessed with this smoky "salsa" that seems to be ubiquitous over there. I mix it with beans and rice, and douse my eggs in it. I brought home three bottles, but let me tell you that in the course of a month I've already finished off one. I'm already envisioning a return to Costa Rica to stock up.

Here's a shot of my new love. His name is Lizano.

Salsa

Mom rocks!

I finally hung the stained glass piece she gave me for my birthday (in July) and now I'm sitting here admiring it's loveliness. She's so damn talented!

Outdoors is Overrated!

Why does taking a nap in the middle of the day feel so deliciously evil?

Spent last night on the floor of the Ft. Lauderdale airport, where WIFI is miraculously free and the ceilings in terminal 3 are painted to resemble the sky. Elsie Q and I ate dinner at the airport Chilis, which inexplicably had a fake "outdoor" seating area that overlooked the rest of the terminal, which was outfitted with "cobblestone" carpeting. Awesome!


Anyways, after a week in the tropical paradise of Costa Rica, where the biggest dilemma of the day is deciding between sitting on the beach or sunning by the pool, the thought of another month of NYC winter weather is pretty depressing.

Made the front page twice this week! Hooray!


I'm watching "Anchorman" for the first time.... And loving it.

Encourage the impracticle

Haven't been blogging cause Mikey D has had my camera for three weeks now, and I'm usually uninspired to post when I have no pics to share.

So the roomies and i are heading to Costa Rica in two weeks. I get really superstitious before any big trip, and usually try not to think about it or prepare for it until I'm on the plane. Planning for these kinda trips can be really overwhelming -- the hostels, the trains, figuring out how long you're gonna stay in a particular city.... It's easier for me to just get there and then deal with things day-by-day.

For this Costa Rica trip, we're gonna do a tour. It's a small tour company that I've used before. I think none of us really wanted to deal with the stresses of travel this time around and just wanted to have everything mapped out for us. Which can be both a good thing but also make for a more staid kinda adventure.

Anyways, the pic above is apparently one of the places we'll be traveling to while in Costa Rica. All I can say is.... looks good!!!

Never buy Wrigley's "Classic" bubble gum. It was on sale today, so I stocked up, but it tastes like chemicals. Ugh.

Man I wish it was summer. Then I could see things like this:

(In Long Island City)

And I wanna ride my bike out over the bridge that connects Brooklyn and Queens:

I'm crawling back under my blankets till at least April!

A Final Thought

How is it that Dick Cheney looks more and more like Mr. Burns with every passing day?



Seeing Obama get sworn in today was a beautiful sight, but what really brought a tear to my eye was watching Bush get in that helicopter. And so ends a failed embarrassment of a presidency.

Weaz, this one's for you

Karenin's Smile

There's a line from a Guided by Voices song a former boyfriend used to sing to me: "I'm looking inside your brain/And Christ, it's a cluttered mess."

I am still sorting through the backlog of NYTimes that were delivered to me in Queens over the holidays, while I was upstate. For some reason, I can't justify getting rid of these newspapers without reading them first. So, for the past week, I've been plowing through 2 and 3-week-old news.

I rarely read fiction these days, because I always feel so pressed so time that I've managed to convince myself that I should only be reading things of educational merit. Which is ridiculous of course. Especially when combined with the fact that i forget everything I read, so what difference does it ultimately make? For Christmas this year, I asked for a book that had been 0n my must-read list for a few months. Halfway through the book, it dawned on me that I'd already read this book a couple years ago. Am i losing my mind?

Anyways, I made a new necklace that I'm totally in love with:



It's snowing in NYC tonight. The streets are EMPTY.

Throws my hips off kilter

So the woman behind the counter at the post office refused to ship my package today because it was going overseas and I had listed the value at $90.

Finally, after going round and round a bit, she conceded that she could ship it, but "couldn't promise that customs would let it through. And if it doesn't get through, it's not gonna get returned to you."

Well that's helpful.

I go over to the UPS store. The guy inputs every bit of conceivable information into his computer - addresses, weight, phone number, dimensions, blah blah blah. Then he says "$65." To ship a package that weighs LESS THAN 2 OUNCES and is in a 5x7 envelope.

Back to the post office i go. Repackage the envelope -- one piece of jewelry in one package, another piece of jewelry in another --- despite the fact that they are going to the same place. Two new customs forms, another 20 minutes in line, and finally SUCCESS.

Hey, it's not thrilling but its all I got.....

Sometimes I Research

Never in my life had I ever heard of a Blythe doll, and now all of a sudden, they are everywhere I look.


It began when the vendor next to me at Craftacular was selling Blythe.... dolls? clothing? Hmmm, it's kinda hazy.

Then I saw some Blythe stuff on Etsy.

And tonight, more Blythe crap-ola.

Is it a sign that I'm getting older and thus am out of touch with these pop culture toys? I needed to get up to date with the Blythe mystery. So, I googled it and it seems that Blythe dolls were created by Kenner in the 70's and had a resurgence over the last five years or so. Basically, they are these dolls with huge eyes. I searched them on Etsy and sound more than 5,000 items for sale -- mostly handmade Blythe clothes, but also Blythe artwork and photos. Hmmmm.

Anyways, I doubt I'll have much use for this new bit of knowledge, but at least I can rest easy tonight knowing that I'm still down with the kids.

It Ain't Pretty

The gory aftermath of the frenzied last-minute-order-filling marathon that occurred yesterday:




Yupp, my studio is trashed. What can I say? I'm beyond trying to remain organized at this point.

Hung out at Artists & Fleas Friday night, then trucked back to Queens to fill orders till 4am. Up at 7 to finish up, then ran (literally) to the post office. Then out to Site to drop off some pieces. Passed out for a bit, then felt too lazy and groggy to go to Karrie's holiday party. Made a few new pieces to sell at Waltz tomorrow -- my last show of the season.

We're supposed to get hit with a big storm, so who knows what the morning will bring....

In other news, this is freaking hilarious:

I've just added Sarah Haskins to my list of girl-crushes.

Table 108

Still reveling in the adrenaline rush from the Bust Craftacular on Sunday. So much fun!

It was great to see some favorite vendors from past shows, including Megan and Michael from Harrilu, who we met in Austin and Brookadelphia, who hail from NYC and shared in the rain-soaked adventure that was Renegade Chicago.

Equally exciting was meeting some new vendors --- most notably Bunny Butt Apothecary and Lois Aronow Porcelain. I got some awesome soap and lotion from Bunny Butt and let me tell you, I can't stop using it. My hands have been in pretty rough shape these days (getting attacked with a jewelry file day in and day out!) and the delish Masala Chai Whipped Cream moisturizer is nursing it back to health. And from Lois Aronow I got the AMAZING mug I've been lusting after for a year now! I'm drinking out of it right now and it's even more lovely in real life than I could have ever imagined.

As for the action over at the Sprout Jewelry table, luckily Jenny and Mikey D were on hand to help me out. And thank god for Elsie Q, who helped me set up and ran out to Home Depot at 10am to buy a much-needed house plant for my display. Gotta love her for that!!

Oh, here is Mikey D and Ang the night before Bust. They helped me do some jewelry prep, before heading out to the bar.

After all the energy and anxiety that has accompanied my life since September, it's really sad that the holiday shopping season is essentially over. No more big shows to obsess over, no more racing through the airport with a huge suitcase full of jewelry displays. Honestly, I'm pretty proud to say that Sprout Jewelry went coast-to-coast this year and SURVIVED. Hell yeah!!! Now it's time to Rock N Roll in 2009!

It's all like this...

Wake up to the sound of a Golden Girls rerun on Lifetime.
Coffee. Yogurt.
Jewelry.
Jewelry.
Check email. Relist.
Jewelry.
Jewelry.
Address envelopes.
Jewelry. Jewelry. Jewelry.
Shit, it's 4:35.
PJ's off, jeans on. Hat to cover up my unwashed hair.
Bike to the Post Office; it's 4:58.
Ship envelopes.
Fruit from the cheap fruit stand.
Second pot of coffee.
Jewelry. Jewelry.
Email.
Jewelry.
Daily Show.
Done.

Yup, that pretty much sums up the last month of my life. Any takers?

xoxo K

Underground in Seattle

Wow, wow. Got in from Seattle yesterday. Caught the red eye, arrived in NYC where the temp was freeeezing and the subway it's usual mix of madness. Back at 29th Street, i stayed awake long enough to run the stack of credit card slips accumulated this weekend, then passed out on the tiny patch of my bed that wasn't covered in jewelry and random crap.

Seattle was an amazing experience. I loved it even more than anticipated. Mountains, water, pine trees, cool little neighborhoods and still the rushrush of a city.... I mean, what more can ya ask for?

Spent two days being a tourist -- Pike Street, Seattle Art Museum, a walking tour, parks.... Then two days at Urban Craft Uprising. UCU was AMAZING! What a great show. Good size crowds, nice people, and lots of enthusiasm from both buyers and sellers alike.


By the end of the first day, my inventory was reduced to a tiny little pile and i was beginning to panic about what I'd even have left to sell on Saturday. Luckily, an all-nighter in my hotel room (and some supplies from JoAnn Fabrics) got me through day 2.

Left Seattle exhausted but exhilarated. No time to rest though -- onward to Craftacular!