A New York Minute

I would like to journal, but it's something that never seems to get done. Instead I now bullet point my New York life, one minute at a time (well, kind of)

This week was all about Before and After.

This week I....
At the beginning...

• Took my bookshelf from this:
• To This: 

• Saw my most lovely-of-all people-in-the-history-of-the-world-Acupuncturist who makes me happier than any person with the exception of Santa Claus, The Duchess, Beth Logan and Mary Blair. You can see her too: http://www.yelp.com/biz/tomomi-tanaka-new-york <--This is me giving you a hug wrapped in life balance, wrapped in therapy, wrapped in a rainbow and tigerbalm.
• Survived an Earth Quake. Well, kind of... All this stuff fell on the floor! MY SUNGLASSES! MY MEGAFAT SHARPIE I USE TO WRITE ON CARDBOARD! Let me tell you -- It was an ordeal. I was at work. If you have not seen my work, this is a picture of my work:That's the view from my desk. In essence I work in a NYC box. This winter it will be clear that I work in a snowglobe. Everywhere you look you see NYC. You can sit at your robot animation and see from the Bowery to the Cloisters. You can walk to get a drink of water and see the Statue of Liberty. On your way to lunch you see Macys. That is how we roll at job-job. So it's where we were all sitting when the earthquake happened. I felt the desks shake. I felt the windows shake. I saw the lamps swing. A few things fell. Small kine things. All my coworkers, aka. 'East coasters', having never been debriefed in an earthquake before, rose from their desks and ran to the larger than people windows without a hitch. They craned against them to see WHAT WAS HAPPENING!! It was amazing and... 
• I loved it.
• I read the Outsiders. 
• I watched the Outsiders.
• I openly awwed at several cimematic details. I have my BFA in film so I can say things like 'Oh woah. Patrick Swayze looks SO good' on repeat. It's critique and so I can say it again. In case you were wondering... Patrick Swayze looks SO good in this movie. Matt Dillon's got some pretty sweet acting chops -- who saw that coming?  You were of course destined to love Ralph Maccio forever. Tom Cruise sucks and is a complete over-actor. 
• I formed an odd little club with Miss. Rachel in which we read a book and watch a movie and then blast on the movie. Next up...??
• I shared an amazingly perfect middle eastern dinner at Zaytoons. It is the best. That is not debatable.
• I lost a half a pound.
• I had a crafty skill to the wall night with a bunch of girls. We shellacked plates with this weird epoxy concoction. I have no idea how this is going to turn out. It will probably be a monstrosity. Next week there will be pictures.
• I had a deep and late-into-the-night discussion with my gal Ashley. We just 'get it' because we both understand the pressure of being overly talented strong female leads and future millionaires bajizillionares. Also we are totes humble.
• Then this hurricane came and it was this is this and that is that... 2 points if you know I am using Flounder's voice to relay this story.(Ok that link is not to Flounder's voice but it is to the best voice in the whole perfect thing)
• I tried to buy batteries, but New York went crazy and ran on batteries and water. I realized that I could just take them out of my stereo if I needed them.
• I laughed at NYC's preparation for a natural disaster. Everyone freaked their faces off for something that was as common for me as a snow day was for them growing up. (Incidently snow days still really spazz me out) Awww look the boutique downstairs taped their windows. Presh.
• I was promised that when I woke up on Sunday morning everything would look like this:
• It did not.
• It looked like this:That's another before and after and the thing we're microscoping would be my anticipation.
• After the storm was over the electricity went out
• 'The apartment' had an influx of boys this weekend. 
• Nothing like a storm and some chinese checkers to keep things interesting
• I sat in the dark with the boy and listened to Johnny Cash because NO way in HELL was I butchering my stereo's juice just to have a little bit of flash light
• I made everyone take a minute to appreciate Irene. Was she a hurricane? No. She was a tropical storm with purpose. Did she still accomplish a lot of what she set out to accomplish? Were people scared into shutting down mass transit, evacuating thousands, and crying in the streets? Did my roommate still make enough rattatouli to feed an army? Did I skip a shower and instead bathe in a bath full of freezing cold water on Sunday night that I'd drawn just incase?? Yes. She did it her way. On her terms. That's kind of cool.
• I LOST MY SH*T when the tinsy leak that I thought was fixed (perhaps because I was promised it was fixed after it plagued me for eight months while fighting my landlord to fix it) split open in Irene's wrath (which let's face it, after collecting four inches of rain water INSIDE the theater my house was really minor in comparison to mine).
• In that moment of complete crazy and weakness with water pouring down in my house and Irene shaking the windows I may have been talked in to performing Britney's "I'm a Slave for You". sigh. Here's where you get the benefits of this being my version of a journal... because I'd never admit this otherwise.
• I documented said rainwater. Here we meet yet another before and after:ewww... gross. OK I know what's happening here. I went to Pratt. This is a bowl of clear water from the roof sitting on a yellow chair. So the water looks yellow. It's an illusion. I'll fix this...
   um. yeah.
• I still have this bowl of branch water. I got rid of the others, but I want my landlord to see this with his own macho eyes. I know that a) he will not care and that b) the amount of anguish I have keeping this bowl around is just stupid and I should toss it out but I also know c) that is not how I roll.
• The minute the storm was over I ran to Wyckoff  Street to visit my eighth favorite thing about my neighborhood:
• This mosaic house was one of my chief concerns when the wind was winding. In nicey-nice news the artist's husband was out cleaning branches and such from the tile and we had an 'everything is fine' chat. Irene made off with a few loose tiles and some sprinkled sequins and glitter but that is all. Celebrate.
• I went to brunch with my favorite girl to write-letters-to/consume-calories-with/fantasize-about-kidnapping-a-child-from... JenPal 
• Brunch happened at my favorite place to brunch so double plus. Seriously. Be jealous.
• I went on a looooooooooooong walk with the boy. We saw this: 
• Maybe we added something..
• Ok , OK we added the bike... It left me wondering. Earthquake? or Hurricane?
• I got some pretty bitchin' fabric samples back from spoonflower.
• I finally saw 'The Help'. I pronounced it good. Sometimes this BFA in film plagues me. I wonder if you have similar problems. Is there something you love LOVE love (in my case movies) that you persued higher learning in (be that college or other) that you now enjoy a little less for not being able to enjoy it without intense focus on details or things you would change??
• I watched 'Walk the Line' with my Brooklyn version of Johnny Cash.
• My roommate and I are becoming extremely well versed at using obscure music and movie quotes as a sole means of communicating. 
• I realized that I cannot let these New York Minutes go longer than a week. It's been a week and two days and it took way too long to pull this together. Those extra two days make this post craaazy. So expect something Monday from now on. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------

• Watching: suggest something. I'm out.
• Reading: Excuses be Gone by Wayne Dyer and Grief and High Delight by Brittany Warnock
• Listening to: Britney's Femme Fatal on loop
• Drawing: Penguins
• Eating: In love with pickles at present
• Learning: Italian
• Coveting: this bike in red
• Saving for: a Cintiq and a plane ticket
• Quoting:
  

In the meantime, I'm dying to know, what do you have to say?? How was your week. Spill like a two foot slit in a ceiling.

Things I Throw Myself in to...

When I came home from work, the earthquake from this morning had thrown two innocent books, that I had known were perching on the edge of my shelf onto the floor. They sat there on the carpet, mocking me. I took one look at my messy bookshelf that's been plaguing me for weeks and literally rolled up my sleeves.

This is part of an epic undertaking as inspired long ago by Baker at Man Vs. Debt.

It started off as an innocent ploy to get my bookshelf back to his former magazine photo-shoot ready glory, but now everything is more gory than glory....ish

Here's where I started the evening. UGH! What a MESS!

What my workdesk currently looks like at 12:52 am...

Now I think I'm going to figure out some place to sleep....

I am sure that Julia and the Crew are doing much better. Run along and cheer them on!

xo and heavy dreams of books, Amber

A New York Minute

Because I don't keep a journal but would like to, if I had that skill, I now bullet point my life weekly, one New York Minute at a time. Try and keep up this week ;)

• I installed a ton of Spanish Rosetta Stone learning CDs for my dad
• I reconfirmed my position as Goddess of Pancakes -- Don't worry, I'm designing myself a badge
• I sat next to a hacker on my flight SLC --> JFK 
• I didn't think he was the kind who killed people, just the coughing kind who didn't have a momma who taught him how to cover his mouth when he coughs. I ask you dear friend, when you are elbow to elbow with a man for five hours on a crowded plane, which is worse??
• REALLY hurt my thumb on the unbearably hard to turn knobby-knob (technical term) attaching my tray table in the upright position on the dude in front-of-me's seat back
• Perhaps felt a tinsy bit too sorry for myself in the previous two situations
• I blissfully tricked my coworker into thinking I had snagged this bag she wanted on Etsy.

• Here's how it went down:

--So that was fun.

• I lost a tinsy smidgen over two pounds!

--So that was fun.

• I signed a new licensing contract!
• I got my 90s on and headed to a Saved by the Bell party. There was no Zac Morris, but it was fun anyway
• I spent a terrifically fun evening cooped up in my little apartment listening to the rain beat down screaming people in the street while I watched copious amounts of Ugly Betty and...
• Got back to my coconut oil routine
• Went through old files and started prepping to have an out of house scanner scan about six pounds of sketches I have been meaning to scan myself
• **reaffirmed my affirmation that sometimes it's better to pay someone to do something that you are not going to learn to do, or do yourself this is the opposite of 'if you want something done right...' Know yourself, people
• I learned a very nice way to make a chicken dinner, curtsey of Moosewood cookbooks
• I spent a lovely evening with Miss Rachel in her brand. new. apartment
• I came home to my lovely apartment a little jealous
• I started looking up deep clean maids (WHAT??) See earlier affirmation**
• I made some gingerbread ice cream with cardamom and homemade snickerdoodles for a friend who is knocked up and inventing things in her head that don't really exist
• On a totally unrelated note I got some more health coaching stuff done
• Researched multiple versions of Alice and Wonderland for job-job
• Coveted this white rabbit tattoo that I found while doing said research: 
• OK maybe I coveted the shoes too. So sue me.
• Designed some new soon to be unveiled at Amber Ink. iPaper that's all kinds of diamond pattern-y as inspired by aforementioned research.
• Stayed up til three re-reading S.E. Hinton's 'The Outsiders", as borrowed from Miss Rachel

That's my week in a New York minute.

Things I Throw Myself in to Thursday

This week, fresh from my Las Vegas/Utah whirlwind
I take heart, throwing myself headlong in to the epic planning of a trip to Hawaii this October. I'm reconnecting with old friends from high school and 'other life'. In that process I get things like this sent to me:

I cannot even wait.

A New York Minute

I would like to journal, but I don't. Instead I now bullet point my life on tiny dot at a time. This week in a New York Minute I...

• I searched high and I searched low and I searched again for an out-of-print book a friend let me borrow last Spring that I let see the worst part of a NYC commute.
• I let panic set in when I couldn't even find the book on Amazon
• I finally found said book nestled among 8 miles of books on Broadway and 12th, just as it should be
• I bought one of my rocking'ist friends these totally banging chopsticks for her birthday
• I rang in her new year at Two Boots, where Italy meets Louisiana, over good conversation and a phenomenal plate of Dixie chicken
• I started keeping intricate track of my sleep habits 
• I had to let that fly out the window when
• I packed for a who-knows? trip via standby and well laid plans
• I took a cab ride driven by the most hygienically annoying man I have been in a car with since the tenth grade when an ill-fated lottery draw put me next to Eric Kokkonenon the world's longest field  trip in recorded history
• I spent part of  my day considering the facebook de-friending of a boy who once interested me romantically and is now engaged
• I laughed with the Duchess over the fun of delivering such messages via social media
• Later that night at the airport Karma caught up with me when I not only ran into said boy but...
• Had to pretend not to know he was engaged (damn you, facebook!)
• Got the standby shaft from Delta while he did not
• I grabbed my suitcase when I did not make the flight to Atlanta and trained it home
• I had my fortune told in some weird kind of way by a very mystical Delta desk employee at Lagurardia  which led me to change my ticket to fly out of JFK instead
• I got a mere 3 hours of sleep and trained it back to the airport, thrilled that this time I'd be able to ride the air train and thus wouldn't need a cab...
• Tried to cope with the reality of the Air Train being broken
• Rode the sad excuse for the Air Train express bus instead
• Hated on every single employee of NYC's transportation machine, with an extra dose of Haterade saved for TSA and their monster employees
• Took the first available flight out of NYC and landed myself in Las Vegas, Nevada

Photo by Jason Ludlow

• Walked and Walked and Walked down the strip until I...
• Figured out the over passes to the best of my ability
• Decided to waste my life's savings on a hotel room at the Bellagio 
• Arrived at the Bellagio to find that every. single. room. was. sold. out. 
• Thrilled to know that at least somewhere our US economy was doing its job
• Ended up checking in at the MGM where I happily 
• jumped on one of the most luscious beds I have ever known
• Met up with a good good friend
• Met up with another good good friend (this one refused to take pictures that didn't make our heads look siamese-twinned)
• Was flattered at the number of comparisons that were made between my ultra posh hotel room and my apartment at 302 Court, 'it feels the same', I like the way you painted your walls better, etc. etc.
• Partied into the night
• Swam at the pool
• Met some awesome new people
• Walked and Walked and Walked
• Laughed at everyone who complained about walking so far
• Pathetically missed NYC 
• Got dragged to the NYC hotel to try to make me feel better
• Laughed until I cried
• Pocketed $20 given to me by a guy who had a wife who was anti-gambling
• Screened a new game show for CBS
• Brunched
• Water sported
• Won $40 in a hand of poker
• Lost $40 at the slots
• Watched True Lies on my not movie theater television
• Didn't order steak for room service
• Fielded text after text after text reporting the torrential rain I am missing East Coast side
• Revisited the spot I first fell in love with Las Vegas when I was ten years old, The Excalibur
• Got in a car and drove hours and hours with my BFF, Brittany, of Grief and High Delight
• Had the best time and didn't even get car sick
  
• Marveled at the still open space of the mid west
• Arrived in Utah to realize that
• My cell phone charger just couldn't say no to the 'what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas' slogan and had decided to stay at the MGM
• I realized I couldn't blame him, I'd have happily lived in that hotel until my dying day
• Surprised my Gramma at my timely arrival in her living room
• Went 'shopping' in my mom's vegetable garden 
• Got the grand tour of the now brand new backyard. A+ mom, A+
• Enjoyed a delicious meal as made with the team effort of my parents while overlooking the garden
• Rebooked my return flight because, I don't know if you've had anyone text you but planes aren't getting in to JFK because it's kind of raining or something...

So that's this week's New York Minute. How did you life go topsy-turvy this week? What did you do that you love? Who did you see you'd been dying to? Fill me in.

Things I Throw Myself In To Thursday: High Station(ary)

When I first came to Brooklyn, I was already coveting high-ball glasses, Japanese tea sets and square collared dresses, but I had no idea of the wealth of yesteryear that awaited me across that two tiered bridge I'd so readily call home. My blatant pursuit to keep things modern with a 'tinge of vintage' has been well served here on this side of the river. 

My first year here, that first boy-of-my-dreams did me one good. He gave me a handmade card, something I've long discarded for the sentimental karma it was vibing on me, and he gave me this, blank and pure as the mind that designed it:

"I wanted to give you two, because I bought that one and then I thought maybe you'd want to keep it fresh for your card box*.... so I made you another one."

*card-box was something my mother had kept from me my entire life, withholding but also indoctrinating me with this phrase, 'When you are a grown up you can have your own card box. This is mine'. My first order of business upon arriving at Pratt was to pierce my lip but then I immediately grabbed a shoe box and carefully placed the six 99 cent cards I'd selected at the Bodega on Hall Street in its tissue lined void.

I chided the boy at the time, reassuring him that I would have loved him to scrawl upon its blank space, time will always tell. I now appreciate that I didn't have to burn it in a Pantas Hall dorm room trash can on Myrtle Ave. along with an oversized sweatshirt, a matchbook full of concert passes, and volumes of sketches he'd made for a tattoo I luckily never got. OK but that's neither here nor there, let's return to the thing. Afterall, the play's the thing. This single card incited a riot of emotion in me, and thus began my vintage collection of paper love.

Over the last decade I have gleefully thumbed through boxes at estate sales, in  friend's basements, vintage shops on the Bowery and dusty tombs of warehouses to expand this collection of paper. Here are the first few I grabbed off the top. I was going to show you my entire collection. I have roughly 50 cards that I have deemed worthy to enter my stores, but we'll save them for later, and in the meantime,
GADZOOKS!

When it comes to this collection I prefer for things to be whackjob weird. I love this bit copyright 1970 1950 featuring a magical mixer man and his bong water stew. Haha, seriously though, WTF? I love that this is a nod to the acid parties 27 Nadine surely huffed blow at two decades later.

Initially I only collected cards that had been preserved and never actually bestowed upon anyone. Now I relish cards that were given on special days. I thrill at cards that simply ready 'to: mother' or 'your favorite brother, Paul' I think they bring good-good karma into my little Court Street Penthouse.

One such card, totally enjoyable to me is this, which reads,

'Dear LuAnna, I hope you like the dress if you you dont and it dont fit you can give it to Bettie that is if it is to small or some thing love Gramma'

I love the stories that you can imagine coming with them sixty years ago. I have always wanted to see that dress. Was it awful? Beautifully handmade? Did Bettie get it or would LuAnna rather die than see her younger raven-haired half sister don its folds? sigh.

I own my own stamp company and I am lucky to have clients with infinite amounts of talent that they use to design their own brilliant cards. The intricate things they manage to make floor me and my childlike sensibilities. Oddly the thing that impresses me about my vintage collection is how simple it is. Like most in the box, this entire card is just one cotton mesh piece of paper. Somehow and some how it's managed in fairly great condition since 1952.

This card is of course my favorite. It's this style that best inspires me as it's totally Mary Blair and what more could you want in an object you own?

I sometimes marvel at the production budgets for these babies. As a licensing artist I'm hard pressed to find clients that actually want to die-cut a simple paper card. This one is so much better for it! However that talk could just be the face in the center of this flower luring me in. If faced with this little flower girl at your local Woolworths how could you resist?

Sweet.

Sitting smack on top of my vintage *card box were a sampling of the collection of 'Cards to be Given at the Coming of Age 12' Apparently there is no greater thing that can happen to you in 1955. Turning twelve is a catalyst.

There are even more of these 'Now you are 12' cards to come. They almost universally picture a cute blonde boy in some way administering to a lovely little girl at the threshold of womanhood. They make me think maybe we're not all growing up so fast after all. ;)

This one really hurt my heart and I thought it would be nice to end today's
show and tell with a somber nod to sympathy.

NOT. <-- I know that the decade of Wayne and Garth is over but I refuse to let it go...
This draw-a-tear painting is a BIRTHDAY card!

Having been working to find a foot hold with American Greetings for the last four years and being told on one occasion that they love my work but that it's just 'too cheery' I have to thank goodness that the person in charge of their Occasions department in 1962 isn't running it today.

So that's the first dip into the *cardbox. What did your mother have that you coveted. What do you have now because of it? Or, can you remember the reason why the year you turned 12 was so HUGE?! Or any other wisdom you wish to impart on me. xoxo
Happy Thursday.

A New York Minute

I would like to keep a journal, but I don't. Instead I now bullet point my life in NYC dot by little dot. Here's this week on the grid.
Disclaimer/Warning this post contains mustaches and nudity (incidentally if you are uncomfortable with either you should scale back the blogs that you read by people who live in Brooklyn)

•  I took a day off from job-job (running out of these) to join my European Fam Bam at the Bronx Zoo! 

• I realized that when it comes to one of my most vain personal goals, a manicure is the difference between sex kitten stems and tiny  finger nail crescent nubs
• I subsequently returned to Amy at Court Street Nails for a manicure. Now I'm ready to shake hands and get biz done again
• I rediscovered this go-to of my youth
  <--------------------------------------
   I had to search high and low at multiple establishments before I found these. I thought it was for naught. Fifteen minutes in to the pore process I remembered how it used to be before I lived above a spa and became a NYC version of myself. I once loved this approach to clean skin. I loved it the way I once adored fifty cent tacos, Troll Doll earrings and Kriss Kross. The entire experience was very montage-y to me. To cap it off...
• I shed a lone tear for the time lost without this once true friend (also because tearing these things off hurt like a mother)
• I had two of my favorite friends over for a lovely gab session about long term goals. I'm going through a personal renaissance these days. It is wildly reassuring to have friends to share the things nearest and dearest to your heart
• I watched my very favorite cartoon {Phineas and Ferb} with a new friend (I'm trying to fill the gaping hole left by the Duchess' exodus J/K J/K) for just the right amount of time (read: hours).
•  I listened to a hell of a lot of Adele, and I'm not just saying that because it rhymes
• I started reading 'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett. 
• I subsequently and accidentally have started to slip into speaking like Aibileen. She is my favorite. 
• I done gone buy the greatest baby shower gift you ever saw. I can't tell you what 'cause baby mama done read my blog, but I can tell you where, one of my favorite NYC paper shops, and that is here: Papel
• I lost a pound and a half
• I was conned into going to see 'Friends with Benefits' with platonic but sneaky friend Mike. That movie is porn - If it were less porn-y and more story I would have liked it very much. As it was I am embarassed to admit that I liked it anyway.
• I supported a friend and attended a class on chastity. Pretty sweet weekend combo, eh?
• I was propositioned by the cutest cab driver I ever did see. He makes $1200 dollars a week and wanted me to know he could take care good-good of me. Somehow this was not at all creepy, just hilarious.
• I hung out with good friends until 4am in a backyard garden snuggled in Bed Stuy where brownies were noshed, plans were landscaped and guts were spilled. It was very Breakfast Club.
• I was a goddess in the kitchen and proved it at a tiny impromptu dinner party in a friend's kitchen only using the things he had on hand. My skills sported marinated pork chops and veggies roasted in a lemon/garlic rub.It was delicious. While the food was absolutely divine, it didn't quite compare with
• The steak and eggs I brunched on at Prime Meats
• I loved my standing acupuncture appointment more than most this week
• I laughed until I cried over a friend who snapped at me to chide 'eyes up here, Amber' when I became momentarily catatonic staring at his power tie
• I got very serious about scheduling everything down on my google calendar
• I also started using the Pomodoro technique. I'm going to blog about it next week for sho. So mark those google calendars
• I scheduled walks and outside time into my normal breakneck work schedule.
• On one such walk in my beloved Brooklyn I happened upon this:
  
• I promised a friend that she could have my new-to-me torn 9x10 autographed Burt Reynolds glossy
• I fretted and regretted that choice
• My roommate Kayleigh and I again discussed what the apartment wants when it comes to our lives that run parallel. Kind of spookly, kind of magical
• I took a plethora of late-late-late night phone calls
• I got overly frustrated by a bad cell connection with a witty friend who lives out in coyote town USA
•  I realized the bouquet of late-late-late night calls contribute to the things that keep me on a 4-5 hour a night sleep schedule. I'm ditching that ish. To prove it...
• I set this week's major goal which starts today and is this: I'm not taking phone calls after 11pm. My Hawaii/West coast connections are going to balk 
• I ate at Chipotle. This might not seem of note to you, but it was a beautiful experience, and I'd like to remember it.
• I recommitted to She Sure is Sketchy's regular posting schedule, didn't you love how breezy things were here in the month of June? I know you did. You said so.
• I sent personal snail mail x4
• I opened a new business bank account to save my dollars for my top secret.
• I managed to work myself all the way to the beginning of the last season of Ugly Betty on netflix streaming. Finishing the series is going to break my heart in two all over again
• I anticipated the breaking of my heart as caused by the all too near future end of Ugly Betty
• I solicited you for other great series I need to watch... tell me in the comments.

That's my week, the long and the short of it. I liked it. 
What did you do this week that you L-O-V-E-D?

Nichole's Day

Was less than perfect.


A quick-quick wiki-wiki color study at the beginning of a story of absolute hilarity that my friend told me last night.. I want to ratchet up the perspective and I'd most likely take it to the paints, because right now it's just a first stab, and we all know, first stabs are rarely models of perfection.

Zooriffic

I played hooky on Tuesday (best decision of my life)and headed to the Bronx with my imported EuroFamBam for a full day of sketching, shutterbugging, hiliarity and searching for the park's bathrooms.

There were touching stories of mothers who do that annoying thing to show that they love you, you know, where they use their spit to smudge dirt off your face?  There were friends who overstep their boundaries. It was great. A microcosm of what makes the world go round.

We covered mad ground and we rode the monorail. I, for the second time in my life, laid eyes upon the red panda, so yes, it was perfect. Oh and I drew some stuff too.

 

pig nosed turtle. yep. nailed it. 

That's our day at the zoo.