She Sure is Sketchy

She Sure is {Sketchy} - Splish Splash

2012-01-28T07:51:00.002-05:00

I stood there in the snow, the sand at my back and grinned.

I take a huge stock in Birthday month. Birthday month is nothing to scoff at. On the last day of that birthday year that I get to spend as the age I am, I sketch like a madwoman and with real intent, my goal to freeze that day in time with a pencil.

This year, I had to decide, what was I to do with this precious window of time?? It needed to be perfect. So of course in the dead of winter, I boarded the F train and made my way down to Coney Island, USA. In the solitude and quiet of winter this part of Brooklyn is a spiritual experience of sorts.

Friends offered to slough the day off of their job-job with me, but I declined. I wanted to commune in the best way I know how, just me, at the aquarium with my sketchbook.

This perfectly perfect day gave me 3 wishes that I have never had filled
in ways each wish was so wonderful that I didn't even know I had it until its criteria had been met.

#1) See an otter bang open a shell. I know we see this on National Geographic DVDs that we all watch religiously....anybody? anybody? There's no way we get to see this stuff in real life. I was standing there, sketching this guy when a gigantic shell floated down from the aquarium feeding gods above. His delight when he caught it with his little paws was that of a boy on Christmas morning. He immediately went to work slamming it against the glass between me the two of us. He'd turn in spirals and then bang it against the nearest rock before stuffing it in his cheeks to gnaw at it. I was so overcome I barely had time to whip out my pastels. I got a few great gestures in. These two were my fave.

#2) See Sea Horses that are happy and not stoic and creepy in that 'pet store' way. I love sea horses, but somehow they always look so sad. The seahorses at the aquarium were CRAZY. When they are properly cared for sea horses are animated, they're silly, they're goofy centers of attention.

I had a long talk with a marine biologist while I was there, she was in charge of counting babies and making sure everybody got fed. How lucky to be there for feeding time! "Hey, I'm a children's book illustrator, what really important things do you know about sea horses from working here?"

-- "Oh they're the best thing in the ocean but they're dumb as hell."
The quotable biologist hipster (who I am currently designing a tattoo for) let me know that if I was doing a book on seahorses, they needed to look stupid, but lovable. I tried my best.

#3) Experience a real life character animators dream. I'm just going to say it. I've never been a fan of seals. Shocking, right? I've been called out on this before, so I'm used to the persecution that comes with abstaining from public mass hysteria for this particular water beast.

Out in the cold for so long, I forgot all about the time. No one was really at the aquarium on a snowing 18 degree day, soooo no one came to kick me out. I found myself there way past closing time. See? I told you, this was a perfect day. I was cornered in a segment that houses seals and not much else. When I least expected it, that's where I fell in love. This particular seal takes the prize for the most human behavior I've ever seen in an animal. It was a birthday miracle come true.

He caught my eye because he was so obviously a teenager. Wet and scruffy around the ears, he looked like a teenager dead set on growing his hair out. It stuck out in strange directions all over his head. I could imagine him running pomade through it while his mother scoffed at his vanity. He was perched on a rock overlooking the water.

When I was in the sixth grade we went on a family vacation to Las Vegas. It was there that my kid brother was formally introduced to two things, swimming pools without closing times, and the indomitable all-you-can-eat-buffet. Two days in and about 10 hours behind his normal sleeping schedule, full of everything he could eat in one setting I thrilled to realize he was falling asleep in his heaping bowl of ice cream. Having been allowed a place where there were no limits, he had become a lost boy. He snored into his strawberry with sprinkles, and to this day, I remind him of it when we are on a great vacation or when he's doing something as simple as splitting an ice cream sandwich.

So there he was. This seal was my kid brother, three sheets to the wind with a tummy full of rocky road. He was the kid in class who is trying with all his might to stay awake. I laughed and laughed all alone in the snow and the cold sketching to my hearts delight until I couldn't feel my fingers.

You know how you're next to the guy on the train who is drifting off against his will? That's this guy. He'd doze off, snout closer and closer to his chest until SNAP! He'd jerk his head up. "I'm awake! I'm awake, guys!" At one magical moment he fell SMACK! in to the water. The panic in his face when he jumped up and looked around was the same as a five year old who falls out of bed. "What just happened!?!?!" He calmed down, curled up in a fetal position in with his flippers interlocked, too exhausted to get up out of the water where he went right back in to his "stay awake! stay awake!" routine. Every once in a while he'd raise one arm high in to the air, the better to scratch his nose with.

It was the biggest delight in all my aquarium years, and you know that's saying a lot. Happy weekend! I'm off to fantasize with people like me at this year's annual Society of Children's book Writers and Illustrators.
This month just keeps on giving! I told you birthday month was serious.

She Sure is {Classy} - Happy Birthday Nails

2012-01-26T07:06:00.003-05:00

The nice part of living in NYC is the stuff that is just par for the course.
You have a birthday, you get your nails did.

That's how we roll.

She Sure is {Sketchy} - Not Dragons, Dinos

2012-01-24T02:36:00.002-05:00

It's almost 3AM, which always seems like the best time for my concept sketches to get me out of bed.

She Sure is {Sketchy} - Lana Jane and the Dragons

2012-01-23T10:24:00.001-05:00

In October I embraced my birthright and returned to the shores of Oahu for the best vacation of any one's life. Seriously, Jasmin couldn't have been happier riding Aladdin's carpet.... um.. that sentence is more awkward than I intended... than I was towel lounging on North Shore sand.

One of the sweet parts of this vacation was of course the fact that we stayed at a house any bedazzled nail flaunting reality star with a poof on her head would have cut you to bunk at. Another sweet thing was I was formally introduced to Miss Lana Jane. Notice the artful bend of that wrist.

This kid always touches paper like she's got two turn tables and a microphone. Naturally, I loved her from the start. During my ten days of "no work no work no work" I was slowly tricked in to a relationship with one of the most meticulous art directors of my life.

On this, the first day of Dragons, and of course, as this year's wax throwing has foretold, definitely not the last day of Dragons, I give you our collective works of fiction, as dictated to me by an ever tanner toe-headed task master in size three shoes.

As I draw Lana perches on the nearest higher plane. "Hmm, Jack is goofy, Amber, his face should be silly." "Oh and he likes to read, but his eyes get tired because he likes the dark too. He's going to need glasses"

"Here Amber, draw him like this! Pay attention to the spikes, k? That's his name, so they're important."

Lana would tear out of the house and then return five minutes later.
"Oh, Amber, Spike is going to need some flip flops, because it's really hot outside. My feet got burned."

Lana was in charge of connecting the feathers on Dazzle's wings, she's an angel, and drawing the eggs that each Dragon came from. Dazzle's beginning isn't speckled as much as striped.

I woke up one morning to the wind breezing across the palms, the sun glinting on the sea and this particular drawing with x' on the 'wing-ears'. I easily picture Lana knees up, my sketches in hand going over them with the attention of the Devil who wore Prada.

As the days progressed we'd do a sketch and she'd start giving me character traits to keep in mind. Lana hand drew each of these scales in shorthand on Hawk's shiny black hide.

I've saved my favorite for last. This was one of the sketches we did on the last full day in paradise. I rationed sketches as it became clear that if I did not we were going to have trouble in... well you get the picture. I'd done this one and then let Lana know I'd color these and make them more artsy in New York. I opened my suitcase when I got home to Brooklyn to find this right on top.
"Smokey is not part of the family." Important, details -- That is the mark of a true director.

Happy Chinese New Year....

Wish for Dragons, and sit tight!

She Sure is {Reminiscing} : My 20s - A Reverse Bucket List

2012-01-19T03:08:00.014-05:00

On this, my last day of my 20s, I grab a sketchbook and skirt out the door. It's a holiday for one. Last night I grabbed a pen and started this New York Minute style Reverse Bucket List. It's been a good decade.

I've learned a lot. I've done a lot. I'm so thankful. So crazily, giddily wildly thankful. On the eve of Thirty, and in no particular order I give you my personal highlight reel.

Spend a summer sharing a two person "just for art" studio that kisses a Great Lake and looks out on the water. (never get over it.

Give Kevin Bacon a one-on-one tour of a gallery (ONE degree people)

Teach oil painting to high school students for a summer.

Spend an entire week sitting on your A-- in a Lazy Boy recliner (Hellllllllo Montana)

Read "The Client" in its entirety to an illiterate basketball team on a Greyhound Bus

Make friends that feel like family.

Learn how to dig for and shuck an oyster. Find it disgusting. I recommend doing it in Montauk.

Fall in love with Butte, Montana.

Dress Up Every Single Halloween

Go to Montreal for a Haircut

Help Plan a Film Festival

Sing your Heart Out with a Girl You Adore and All of Brooklyn at a Sound of Music Sing-A-Long

Smoke a Cigar at a Gentleman's Club (like a boss)

Throw Theme Parties

Nerd Out

Befriend a real and true Coney Island Freak
-- Stephanie, my favorite life drawing model of all time and one hell of a contortionist.

Judge a Dog Competition

Be Part of a Studio Audience - as often as possible

Work in a library

Work a job where 'bloomers' are part of the uniform

Work a job where you're given a clothing allowance

Work a job where you're specifically asked to dress down. (Um... Can You Wear Jeans?)

Boycott something. Go big.

Use a broker.

Get a nickname (a life long ambition, I assure you)

Love your roommates (except for Gaustass, He can Suck it)

Stage murder scenes with them.

Get Snowed In for three days with the favorites (Do Nothing but play board games and eat cheese)

Get crazy dressed up with your best male friend and go real estate shopping for a day

Obsess about the townhouse on the Brooklyn Promenade that you pretend to be on the fence about. Scheme how you can afford a 7K a month rent. Say things like, "Well, it does have three fire places."

Befriend a crazy lady

Find that the crazy lady is in fact just eccentric.When she says "Salvador Dali would have LOVED you, dahling" That it is possibly true since she was his muse.

Attend all her Gallery Shows where she allows you to "walk on her red carpet" and introduces you to men by saying "Amber, this is Ralph, I'd like you to go home with him tonight!"

Race to the Top of the Statue of Liberty's Crown

Have a 75 Year Old Italian Woman Teach You How to Make Ravioli from Scratch

Play Croquet on the Competitive Circuit (That's what Manhattan is for, pets)

Take a Day in the Life of a Museum Curator (back rooms of the Met)

Get a Dirty Look from a Museum Curator When You Cannot Stop Humming The GhostBusters2 Soundtrack. Die.

Spend Ten Years Following a Singer who Refuses to Sell-Out

Have Her Just Randomly Walk Up to You and Hug You at a Show and Whisper,
--GOD! THANK YOU FOR STILL COMING! in your ear.

Feel ridiculously good about that moment.

Wear Red Jeans (at the bride's request) as a bridesmaid in a wedding

Go broke at least 4x to get to a concert.

Live in an apartment with a spiral staircase

Attend the first NYC concerts for people that go on to be famous and win Grammys.

Watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade Live, but indoors

Watch fireworks from a cruise ship on the Forth of July with your kid sister

Swim in a pool of chocolate liquor

Spend the night in the bat cave at the Bronx Zoo.

Swear off milk chocolate... once you go dark....

Learn how to make chocolate at Jaques Torres.

Date a lawyer.

Date a bartender.

Make sure bartender becomes a sommelier.

Date a Restaurateur. Food will never be the same afterwards.

Date a CPA (just not in April, or for sure in April -- Depending on What You're Going For)

Date a single father.

Date a stranger you meet on a train.

Date a psychologist. (This makes everything better.)

Swear off dating.

Date a doctor you meet in the ER

Date a med student. (Drop that like it's hot)

Date a blacksmith. (Thank you, universe.)

Date a clown (because the Universe takes back what it gives).

Date a poor penniless writer (never get over it).

Find a go-to vacation. (Thanks to Rachel and Dave, who let the Duchess and I crash their babymoon.)

Learn a Museum's Collection Backward and Forward
-- I can give you a five page report on just about anything at the Frick

Attempt learning Italian

Try it again

Try it a third time - find it's this time that's the charm

Sneak on to a Movie Set

Walk barefoot in Central Park

Live Somewhere You Love Like Walden Must Have Loved the Pond

Live Somewhere you Hate (if you're in the market, may I suggest Greenpoint?)

Get Good Stories

Give your Compliments to the Chef

Doorbell Ditch Members of Fashion TV

Roll Down a Gigantic Hill in Forte Green

Kiss in the Rain

Walk from The Metropolitan Museum of Art to Clinton Hill

--Walk it in Heels
--During a Blackout

Lose your Gallbladder (Good Riddance)

Finish College

Make friends with a celebrity... Thank you, Gabriel Byrne.

Take a tour of Sesame Street, with Big Bird

Meet a Girl who Changes Your Life (when she's 7)

Learn how to make a horseshoe like no'body's business

Animate a haul of educational vignettes staring a robot.

Own an animal that belongs on a farm

Go abroad

Take Mass at Westminster Abbey

Model for a Life Drawing Class

See the Very Last Night of a Long Running Tony Award Winning Broadway Play
--(I am still in awe of Brian Stokes Mitchell)

Help a bunch of kids open a fire hydrant

Dance in an Open Fire Hydrant

Perfect your Crepes Recipe/Skillz

Free Style Rap on Stage in front of a Huge Audience - (Some of these happened when I was 22 obs.)

Volunteer

Work a Hotline

Stay Up Too Late -- (Every Single Night of your 20s)

Dance in Bubbles at a Night Club (Which is why I came to NYC in the first place...)

Dance in the Middle of the Street on a Double Date at 4 in the morning with your Best Friend...
--While it snows

Eat Yourself Sick with your bestie as you devour 8 kinds of cheeses and two loaves of bread in a four am obsession to discover the very best possible Grilled Cheese (and as a result) best meal possible. Toss up between Havarti on Rosemary French Toast, or .... you call it

Own a Snuggie

Wear a Snuggie on the F train

Wear a Snuggie in a Bar

Wear a Snuggie on Broadway etc. etc. You get the idea.

Experience a National Tragedy
-- Stand at its threshold and feel yourself change

Fall in love for the second time...

Do it again......

How about a once more for good measure?

Ride across the Brooklyn Bridge on the Back of a Motorcycle

Attend a real Hamptons pool party.

Write as a character witness in a Federal Trial

Yell at a Mo-Fo cab driver (x 20)

On an impulse, dye your hair. Leave it like that for the rest of your life.

Be part of a small and intimate 5 person design team.

Get nominated for a design Emmy with those fools ;)

Learn your way around a Forox.

Be so Uninhibited that all the Baldwin Brothers Gawk at You as You Make-Out on a Park Bench.

Learn Some 'effing Manners

Make Friends Belle-style with all the Perveyors of Fine Goods in your Little Town. Know their first names.

Pull your BFF Roomie off a Pool Table (that's no place for dancing)

Become a Health Coach

Design clothes that you see people wearing on the streets of NYC

Freak-Out and Chase them with a Camera

Get Pulled on Stage at a Death Metal Concert

Watch Meryl Streep as she steps from behind stage to on stage (pure magic, people).

Give Directions to the UN to Goran Persson's driver

Tell Your Favorite Story to tell at the Moth's Outtakes Stage

Sprint Across a Battlefield (well a Historic Battlefield)

Stuff Your Fist in Your Mouth to Keep from Laughing in a Packed Audience at the Worst Play to Ever Grace a Stage

Fail

Get Kicked Out of the Theater

Feel Mixed Guilt/Vindication when the Play Closes a Week Later

Ice Skate

Let Your exBoyfriend's Best Friend Kiss You

--you might not regret it

Write a Song in an Elevator with your Best Friend. It's OK if it takes hours. You'll make new friends.

Get Your Heart Broken in Dramatic Lighting, 4am under a Street lamp is good for this Scene.

Dye an Old Woman's Hair Hott Pink in her Hospital Bed

Do Work That Makes You Brim Over with Happiness and Pride

Draw Nearly Every Day, afterall, your life is beautiful

Fill 67 Sketchbooks (This next decade's got a lot of paper to fill)

Travel to Tropical Locations like it's Just Part of your Every Day (The Duchess is my Go-To Girl Here)

Have a Bartender Make You an "Amberlina" a Signature Drink You Can Actually Order at Gramercy --(well on nights when Kavin is working) -- Shirley Temple don't got nothing on this (which is a lie)

Ride a Bike on the Roof of a Grocery Store

Start Your Own Company

Get a Ride in a Police Car

Keep in Touch

Find a Mentor

Make Her Be Your BFF

Play on Playground Equipment (the more dangerous the better)

Fly Half Way Across the Country to Meet Someone Who's Flown Half Way too...
because what happens in Vegas....

Ride a Pop Culture Wave

Catch Movies on their Release Day at Midnight

Make t-shirts to Commemorate these Occasions

Forgive Someone that No One Else Forgives

Stand Up for Them

Commune with Nature in a Fairy Dust Moment on Fire Island with the World's two Coolest Girls

Call in sick to finish Reading a book. "I can't sleep. I can't eat." Valid.

Meet Judy Bloom (gush yourself in to a coma)

Share Lunch with Jane Yolan

Be Friendsies with Kevin Henkes

Own an Original Rosemary Wells

Get Kissed on the Cheek by Jeff Smith

Sit Cross-legged on a Roof and talk with someone until the Sun Comes Up

Kick a Brooklyn Kid's A in Jump Rope

Read Every Book on this List: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Classic_Book_Collection

Make it a Competition with a Hottie

Give Up when You Get to War and Peace.

"Cheat" and let him read it to you in Russian

Work in a building that holds 15 Organs - the kind with pipes.

Work in a building that contains a room that's an exact replica of the Titanic's Ballroom.

Flip a coin to make every decision for an entire day
-- You'll End Up at Storm King

See the Whirling Dervishes Whirl

Make it Through Ten Years in NYC without a Tattoo

On an Impulse Go to Philadelphia with Some New Girls You Just Met

Have them Turn Out to Be Your Life-Long Friends

Stand beside the Double Sided Glass and Pick a Guy out of a Police Line
--(I was thrilled to know this was a real thing)

Start a Blog!

Best of a Decade
Best Vacation: October 2011's Seattle/Hawaii Extravaganza There were Lanterns and Mudslides and Fresh Flowers and Mai Tais and Long Lazy Days. Hands down. Best Vacation Ever.

Best Day Trip:
1.Princeton in 2002 with Angela, Grammy was in Fine Form and We Stayed Up All Night Listening to Records and Writing Music
2. Fort Tyron Park with the Ludlows - the Cloisters with this crew was a complete surprise and a total blast... from the past
3. Connecticut for a Long weekend -- I got on a train and got a hotel.

Best Books:
1.The Hunger Games,
2. 100 Years of Solitude
3. The Alchemist
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
5. The Song of Achilles

Best Shows
2011 - Amon Amrath at Best Buy Theater (totally unexpected, wildly fun)
2011 - Melanie at BBKing
2010 - Esperanza Spalding at Summer Stage
2008 - Matchbox 20 at MSG
2006 - Ani Di Franco at Carnige Hall
2005 - Eminem at MSG (possibly the best show of my life)
2004- Patti Smith at the Bowery Ballroom
2004 - Prince at MSG
2003 - Five Iron Frenzy in Grove City, PA
2003 - The White Stripes at the Aragon Ballroom -- blew my mind
2002 - Bob Dylan at MSG

Best Thing to Do: Go to Accupuncture, Coney Island, the Bowery Electric or ANY Beach

Best Place to Eat: Benchmark/ Joya/ China Grill/ Gramercy Tavern/ The Red Hook Ballparks/ Stacy Giauque's Kitchen

Best Kisses: 1.La Brea Tar Pits - I laughed so hard I almost puked but instead made-out
2.During a Futurama marathon here at the Penthouse at 302 Court
3.The High-line

Best Memories

2011 - Two Words. Royal. Wedding.

2011 - Toys R Us and FAO Shwartz enter a bidding war over my art.
2010 - Jen Mo hosted me and Ashley for Christmas, and gifted us with automatic soap dispensers. Ashley's reaction was maybe my favorite memory of that year.

2009 - Watching John McEnroe Come Play Some Tennis

2008 Olympics - In which I took time off from work and kept the cable running non-stop. People dropped by at their leisure and we ate our weight in Chinese Food for weeks. There was a particular lovely moment where every guy in the room ran to get some dinner plates, because no way you'd really want dishes for hands. Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps.
Every "Normal Day" I get to wake up in my beautiful apartment, roll out of bed and explore my Beautiful Brooklyn
2007 Thanksgiving Day in London in which we were so baller we bought Turkey at Herrods

2007 - The Day Garrett and Scott Put the AC in.
2006 - In the Fall I wandered up to a woman coming out of the cutest little carriage house on that street that runs along Rendezvous Park. I had the weirdest feeling that I should talk to her about my total lack of housing situation. I'd been looking at places for two months and was on the brink of the kind of nervous break down only a New Yorker without an apartment can understand. I had actually flipped out at a homeless man earlier that week. ("YEAH?? I don't have anywhere to live EITHER!") I remember saying "Those houses are so cool and kitchy, do you know who I could talk to about renting one?" She said, "No, but I'm actually a broker... and there's this adorable place I keep thinking is too special for just anyone." There were 13 people looking at it the night we came to see it. Maria's Mother, who owned it at the time, pinched both my cheeks and said "Oh Bella, so beautiful! No gatto??" When I shook my head she hugged me and said "OK. Everybody. You. Leave!" It's the only perfect English I have ever heard her speak. That is how I came to find the Penthouse at 302 Court. Every moment since has been magic.

Things I Didn't Have in my Teens but that I Would Now Rescue in a Fire:
2011 - The year I finally got my Cintiq, which I thought I'd stop dreaming of once I actually bought it. That is not the case.

2011 - The Duchess bestowed me with a framed aireal shot of Coney Island. My eyes fell out of my head.

2011 - Rachel Micheal gifted me an amazing set of drinking glasses. I cannot even describe them, but here's 1000 words.

2010 - Brittany (of grief and high-delight) bestowed this cookbook upon me. I remember looking down at my feet and seeing that my socks had been war(k)nocked off.

2009 - Norton Juster signed a copy of The Dot and the Line for me. It's getting pryed out of my cold dead hands.
2009 - Keith gave me this rose wood sand turner, because it "is your favorite color, and it will remind you of home, and it is animated, it makes shapes you can use for scribble drawing". It remains my favorite thing

2007 - My mom flew to NYC and painted and pimped my office, where I have had countless days of happy living ever since. I'd save the cork board in there. It is the rocking-ist.
2007 - My parents shocked and awed me by sending me a pair of custom earrings (my favorite piece of jewelry) before my first major trade show. These babies are always along for any major life event, and they'd be one of the first things I'd grab.

I'm reading "Love is a Mixed Tape". I dug out all the tapes I'd been given over the last ten years. (Which is where the idea for this post originated)

Best Mixed Tape: I give you Todd Rawson age 23:

Best Lessons Learned:
What Goes Around Comes Around

Ben Folds is just another Human Being

If You're Not Enjoying Something, Stop Doing It

Send Snail Mail

Eat Six Small Meals a Day

Hawaiian Time is Annoying

and most importantly:

DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE!!!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my twenties.
I'm off to live this last day of it, as wild and as free as the day I pulled up to NYC's shore.

Have a day. Make it Good.

She Sure is {Serious}

2012-01-17T16:36:00.001-05:00

I spend more than eight hours a day with my co-workers at job-job. Since they're all the creative type and well read to boot, the discussion is pretty good. Today I started illustrating bits of it on my little break.

She Sure is {Life Drawing}

2012-01-17T10:17:00.001-05:00

Naked at the Society

She Sure is {Sketchy}: Walking in a Wonderland

2012-01-09T12:37:00.001-05:00

This weekend was my kind of Brooklyn winter dayz. We tapped out at 52 degrees and I wore a denim jacket. It felt like the first day of Spring, the thing I always want for Christmas.

I slept in (exhausted after an evening of pure bliss in Gowanus). I danced to Spoon in my pajamas -- A very important part of a balanced weekend. I put on one layer of clothing. I grabbed my en plein air kit and shuffled out of the Penthouse at 302 Court without a stitch of make-up or any semblance of plans. I rambled along Henry. I skipped along Sackett. After a long and ambling time I copped a squat at the park to draw some chillins dressed like JCrew models. It happened fast because they hadn't been unleashed without coats in so long their batteries were on full. These are speed sketches.

I read "my slutty book". In evening time I juggled a bit of nothing and nothing to meet a friend at Zaytoons -- the kind of friend that had a baby and moved to Jersey and craves grape leaves --which means I did not have to even leave my burrough (or my block for that matter) AND I ate Shwarma. Yesiree, never any day better. At the day's end, I danced to Spoon in my jeans. I did dishes. I baked zucchini-nut muffins like a boss. I made terse and hilarious innuendo with K. I took a shower hot enough to melt the paint off a Honda. I got back in my pajamas. I watched Felicity (the one where the Christmas tree catches on fire, you know which one). I worked on my new top secret animation project. I got a phone call. I changed out of my pajamas back in to ONE layer, people. I ran to Camp, for a nightcap where I met a man I haven't seen in many moons.....
oh and there were sparklers. Did I mention the sparklers?

This is Brooklyn.

It is perfect.

She Sure is {Sentimental}

2012-01-04T11:23:00.000-05:00

Mika recommended this after reading one of my odes to Brooklyn.

If you are or have ever been a New Yorker, close the door and cuddle up. You're going to need this:

Maybe you can pass it off as winter allergies.

She Sure is {Getting Organized}

2012-01-02T18:36:00.001-05:00

..........................................

Here's Ashley:
Disclaimer: When lovely Amber asked me to be a guest writer on her blog, I immediately said yes, and I started brainstorming (after I stopped screaming on the inside, of course) all the wonderful organizational ideas I could share with fellow artists. Then it hit me. I am only an artist on my free time. I don't practice my skills on a full-time basis like most of you do! So, aside from now knowing how entirely inadequate I feel, you will also realize that my tips/how I run things may not work for you since I am a twice-a-month artist. But that's okay. I will share tips on how to make it all your own. And that's what being an artist is all about right? Making it your own. So without further ado, here is:

Ashley's Guide on How to Get Your Craft* Room Organized

(*use whatever word you want here that best describes your setup: photo, painting, scrapbooking, shrine-to-ryan-gosling…)

1. Don't be that girl.

We've all seen her. Flipping through the latest issue of Martha Stewart and there is an article about a successful business woman who has six kids, cooks a homemade, gluten-free meal every night, keeps a journal AND manages to scrapbook. And did we forget to mention her craft room looks like this all the time:

Yeah-freaking-right. This is so unrealistic (at least for any artist I know). For starters, they don't sell paint like that. You would have to buy those bottles, pour your paint in them and keep doing that for years. And what if you buy more paint colors? Your shelves wouldn't hold it, that's what. I could go on, but I won't. You get my point. Just don't be that girl.

2. Find YOUR needs:

You will find many organizing ideas on the internet but you need to find things that meet your needs. Having storage for paintbrushes won't help if you are a photographer. So don't be afraid to get specific with your needs. Or get creative with ideas and make them into what YOU need them for.

I use a lot of paper for making cards, mixed media and scrapbooking projects. I LOVE the idea of having baskets with paper products in them. Mainly because I have to hide the madness that is my paper stash. No matter how many times I organize it, it still ends up looking like a paper monster threw up . So I fix that problem by storing my paper in baskets. Here is a large scale example of what I am talking about:

Beautiful. Organized and hides the mess that could be behind those wicker walls. I am also in love with the baker's rack they used on the left for specialty paper.

3. Get things off of your desk

If you are like most artists I know, you need more space on your desk. "But I need all these pens/scissors/paper/paints here though"- you say. Well, you probably have a wall, so hang 'em up!

Pegboard + buckets = genius! You could have a whole wall of art supplies that are easily accessible leaving your entire desk empty all for you. This is one of my favorite ideas for sure.

4. Label

I like to label things. That way I feel like I know where things are and I know where they go. Either use a label maker (I have a Brother P-touch, and I love it), print off labels from your computer and laminate them or good ol' post its work too. Labeling at its best:

My only argument is that the storage is wire so why would you have any trouble seeing what color it is? But you get my point: labeling is fun to do, fun to do.

5. Don't be afraid to keep out what you use most (just keep it tidy!)

You use it all the time don't you? So why should you have to put it in a drawer? I don't care what your mom used to tell you, leave it out! But maybe in a more neat way, like this:

If you are constantly cutting and writing there is no reason you should be putting it away just to take it out again. Find a caddy that will fit all of your go-to items and viola! You have more room on your desk!

6. Get creative! (I shouldn't have to tell you twice)

I like using odd things as storage. We got this weird box from somewhere and it was just long enough for my paintbrushes so that is what I used it for. Don't be afraid to use random things to keep organized. I used an empty Swiffer wet wipe box for my colored pencils. The top is clear so you can see what is in it. It is perfect. So don't feel as if you need to buy the expensive Tupperware that was "meant" for your specific art supplies. Get creative!

Another example: I would take my dad's old cigar boxes to house my charcoal pencils (cause those things can get pretty messy).

Alright, let's get to the nitty gritty: You want to know what my craft room looks like don't you? Yes, I am that self-centered to think you care.

Okay, here is the thing: I don't have a craft room (why did I get asked to write this blog again?!) We have a three bedroom townhouse. The rooms are set up like this:

Master Bedroom- Me and my husband

Bedroom #2 - My sister's room

Bedroom #3- My husband's "office" (read: where he plays video games)

So I do all of my art related things in the master bedroom. It is spacious enough for me to be able to do that but it also forces me to be tidy. Downfall: our two kitties are allowed in there so I can't leave paint supplies out or there would be colored paws on our carpet. Here is a picture of it (click to enlarge):

My desk and cube wall is from Ikea. They always have amazing storage/organizational ideas.

Now there isn't enough space for all of my art supplies so I use a dresser (off camera to the right of the desk area) as storage. It's like my dresser is a double agent. A dresser in a bedroom? It must hold clothes, right? WRONG! It has all my supplies in it! Unassuming dresser:

Let's take a look inside those drawers. First one has some tools, spray for charcoal drawings as well as some materials I might use some day (broken glass and glass squares):

Then we have some blank canvas, paint and glue in the next drawer. I would love to keep my paints organized and well displayed but it is just not realistic. So they are in a photo box. And I am fine with it. I swear.

In the next drawer I keep a mix of things like envelopes, sketch pads, coloring books, greeting cards and a mix of little things that came from previous projects.

If you have collected quite a few of little items and need storage for them, use a desk drawer organizer like I did below. It keeps everything separate but still easy to get to.

Last drawer: markers, pastels, charcoal, and shoe boxes with more supplies

The best part of my dresser-o-supplies? I can close all of the drawers and the mess is gone.

So thats it. Pretty simple when it is written down huh? So here is my challenge to you. Send us (yes I pretend that I am part of the awesomeness that is She Sure is Sketchy now) a video or pictures of your craft/ art area and tell us how you organize it. Or if it is a complete wreck (we won't judge), we challenge you to take before and after pictures of it and get organized for the new year! Come on! Everyone's doing it...

She Sure is {Serious About Children's Books} - There are Cats in this Book

2012-01-02T16:45:00.002-05:00

Buy it Here OR If you are NYC based, make the trip to Books of Wonder (in Manhattan on 18th street between 5th and 6th) where it's $3 cheaper and where you're supporting the best children's bookstore in the tri-state area.
see....

She Sure is {Sketchy} - The Daily Scribble

2012-01-01T23:42:00.003-05:00

My earliest memory of scribble drawing was on a NYC sidewalk with a jumbo stick of pink chalk. The crack in the concrete wanted to be a nurse eating a hot dog. Needless to say this drew a crowd of all ages. I was maybe three. I've used Scribble drawings to jump-start my creative ideas ever since. Here's the first of 2012

I swear at this point in the drawing I heard Ralph Fiennes whisper 'Kill the spare' in my ear.

That's a wrap.

Happy New Year!

She Sure is {Classy} -- Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T14:53:00.003-05:00

Every year, just past the stroke of midnight, from the beginning of my memory, my family throws wax. Since I left home ten years ago, I have carried this tradition to every New Year's Eve bash I've rung out the old and rushed in the new at. Last night was no exception. It is my favorite part of new beginnings - something that never loses its magic and awe. There is nothing like a fortune cast in fresh white relief. 2012 will have dragons, or dogs... or something wild and animal like. Happiest of happy New Years!

Highlights

2011-12-30T11:48:00.004-05:00

Lately I've been thinking about grad school...

This little digisketch came to my fingertips a bit too easily though.
Maybe I'm not really ready for college again.

In Awe Wednesday: Rainbow Ribbon

2011-12-28T11:30:00.002-05:00

(ed) typewriter!

This1938 writing relic has been modified to type in pigment. The strokes make blended paintings!

read all about it.

Pinny Party -- Patterned Pins

2011-12-18T22:02:00.009-05:00

a private feud in which the members of the family of a murdered person seek to avenge the murder by killing the slayer or one of the slayer's relatives, especially such vengeance as once practiced in Corsica and parts of Italy.
any prolonged and bitter feud, rivalry, contention, or the like: a political vendetta.
.....................................................................................

Several weeks ago I set out on a quest.
The task I chose to conquer was seemingly one of simplicity. I saw this on Pinterest (my favorite place to go). Newspaper nails!

I was enthralled. Being great when it comes to using my hands to craft, but small of stature when it comes to crafting on my hands... I started to feel a storm in my brain. My nails might be a bit to nubby for this fun bit of pinterest, but what about using an actual pin?

Several sleepless 'MUST PIN ALL THE THINGS' nights later. I discovered this bit of brilliance from 'The Hybrid Chic' Using a bit of paper and some rubbing alcohal she tagged all her nails striped and called it a day. So I decided this was the answer, and I was going to start crafting. It was going to be so BOSS. Oh yeah, I started on my favorite site of all time, Amber Ink. where you can easily buy patterned ipaper, for $1 (what's that you say??! Just $1??) print it from the comfort of your own home and have it in your hot little hands within the hour for all your instant gratification crafting needs.

...............................................................................

I decided to use their adorable swissdots in RED to make mini mushroom pins. I love me some wild mushrooms. I even have a wild mushroom swimsuit. Thanks ModCloth.

I knew I wanted the pins to be chubby on top and round as little baby cheeks. I broke out the Sculpy and modeled myself some fat and phatt little bitty mushrooms. I took a pin or pea sized piece of bake-able clay and smashed it to the pin's head, wrapping it around the back of the pin, making sure to pinch it as close to the pin part of the pin as I could so that form would follow function. In combing NYC for the longest and best push pins for said purpose, I was happiest with Staples nickel plated thumb tacks.
I took an un-clayed pin and stabbed wider holes in the little berry strainer that my aunt got me for ~~expanding my domestic goddess skills and better providing a way for me to catch me a man~~ crafting. Making sure the tacks fit in the holes of something that can be put in the oven (no plastic ladies) ensures that you don't flatten their little pin heads when you put them in their temporary homes. An all metal cheese grater would work well here too.
Following Sculpy's advice I baked these little buddies at 275 degrees for 15 minutes and only forgot to use an oven mitt to get them out once. A+ gnarly burn mark, A+. Use a hot mitt!

I ran to Kinkos to print off said Wild Mushroom Dots (while my HP7000 is LEGIT - it is also LEJET - and not fit to run with a laser printer). I ran home to put them on my pins. I tried to make it work. I dipped them in rubbing alcohol, I painted rubbing alcohol on them, I sanded them to provide more of a tooth, I nail-polished them, I considered offering sacrifice to the Pinterest gods. I swore. I cried. I started over. I googled 'image transfers'. I bought some solvents. Nothing worked. It was then that the vendetta was born.

I Scarlett O'Hara crumpled on my studio floor. As god was my witness I would make this work. Hence the opening definition in this blog post. There was me and there were these pins. Vengeance would be mine.

Singing "Raindrops on Roses" at the top of my lungs I grabbed a box of Kleenex to dry my tears of rage.
I then turned to stare it square in its square. I wonder.....

In 'Crazy Ol' Maurice' fashion I grabbed a roll of glass tape. I cut it to be as close to the size of the Kleenex as possible. I held it not so very far from the sheet of tissue.

The Kleenex rose to the occasion, static clinging itself to the tape. I did this several times until I had a glass tape surface completely covering the square of Kleenex and smooth enough for a mouse to ice-skate on.

I smoothed out all the wrinkles and then cut off any dangling pieces of glass tape. Using long pieces of scotch tape I secured the kleenex - soft side up, glass tape side down - along each of its sides. Making sure it was completely taped down like this:

Then I ran this badboy through my printer! That's right. You heard me. Was I scared? Hell yes I was scared. Was it worth it. Um... I can print on Kleenex. This is basically the craft version of taking the 'Free Your Mind' pill in the Matrix.

If you need help figuring out whether to put your type paper face up or face down look for this little page icon. If you have a rectangle with lines on it and a top corner dog-earred your printer wants you to put that Kleenex typing paper facing up.

If you have a little rectangle paper icon with a dog ear and no lines, it means put your Kleenex facing down.
You can get this mushroom top collection ready to download and print at www.AmberInk.com

After everything was said and done. I sat face to face with this beauty.

There will be random black smudges on your little squares because the Kleenex is so soft it actually cleans the heads of your printer. Don't worry about them. This process is so easy you're going to get at least six perfectly working squares a pop. Plus, I've found the more I do it the less dirty those print heads are.

Cut the little squares out. Peel the top layer of soft Kleenex from the bottom layer of glass taped tissue. I am dying to try this with 2ply paper towels....

Grab some coffee stirrers- the kind with two little holes on them. Put the thumb tack in the smaller hole. Marvel at how perfectly it fits! Run downstairs to "buy more coffee" from your local coffee vender. Ask him in a little voice to give you as many of those little stick things as he can.

I taped some to the inside of this little glass to make sure that they didn't bump in to each other while they were drying. Now you just paint the top with a q-tip covered in glue. Wipe off the excess glue so it's more tacky than wet. Too much glue is way worse than too little glue. Place the little scrap of the iPaper tissue on the tacky little top of your thumb tack.

Grapple the edges in a little pinched pouch not unlike the kind you'd tie to the end of a stick before jumping in to a boxcar.
Don't touch the top of the paper, ever. It's fragile up there. Just pinch the little bits of paper up under the tack and leave them there until your pin is done drying.
Once the little pins are dry. Cut off their tails using a pair of nail clippers or a small X-acto. Keeping them in their little straw stem, either dip them in to a small bit of epoxy or paint them with a bit of modge podge or clear nail polish.

Voila!

I got ten kinds of excited and came up with some-easy peasy packaging. Staples has foam-core with a grid on the back! Cut some out. Thanks be to my friend, Tim, I have learned you can sand foam-core. It is so boss. I sanded this bit in to a perfect square. I printed a little row of mushrooms and bark.

You can grab it here now, at Amber Ink.

Wrap your foam-core up like a little present. Then press your pin babies in to its fleshy belly.

Get it awesome. I used double sided flash tape to secure the mushroom border to the foam core.

Write a note. The perfect gift for your tween to give her older sister, eh? eh?

Cuteness.

I've put everything I used up at www.AmberInk.com and you can make your own.

Now go start a band ;)

P.S. I did this all for the pinny party!
It's a weekly pinterest talent show over at Amber Inklings. Bring your paper crafts and play!
Come play next week, kk??

Hedgehog in the Snow

2011-12-17T23:30:00.000-05:00

Hedgehogs!!!

I Cut My Heart on Paper

2011-12-14T15:57:00.000-05:00

Never $plurge on something renewable. That is the life lesson I have learned from Sephora. This month of holiday cheer, when I am happier than yesteryear due to our brilliantly warm December weather, Sephora has reached into their hearts and given NYC their own version of a White Christmas. I give you their show-stopping 5th avenue windows.

Paper, Silhouettes, Grand Scale, Birch Trees, Warm light and Girls! Girls! Girls! -- All my favorite things!

Now if I could only justify a life's supply of Hourglass...

Oahu Shore

2011-12-13T08:57:00.002-05:00

Sometimes when The Duchess and I are exchanging pleasantries such as this....

Me: you know there's a taylor swift video, and also an episode of "The Secret Life of an American Teenager' - in which both girls are singing into the non-brush end of their hairbrushes
TheDuchess: yes! totally bass ackwards.
Me: thank you!
TheDuchess: it makes NOOOO sense
Me: totally counter-intuitive and uncool looking
TheDuchess): agreed, kids these days...
Me: you give me peace of mind
TheDuchess: anytime...

I truly feel like we are meant for better things... talk show things... reality television things.... luckily those things (or better things) come to those who wait. The Duchess and I have returned to the East Coast, well rested and tan after a thrilling and long Hawaiian vacation in a house worthy of prime time fist bumps.

If I were in a reality television series I would like to only live in Hawaii, exactly as and where I did for a blissful looong vacation in October. I'm still in recovery mode. What do you mean if it starts to rain I can't just enclose the patio and go back to my People magazine for ten minutes before I open the panoramic doors to bask in the sun and the sand?? What do you mean no one has made me a pre-bed MaiTai??

It's been rough.

I like these photos, even the ones that were taken with a salt covered lens. I look at them fondly from my Brooklyn apartment where I am wearing double socks. They remind me that once, I was truly, wildly and completely baller.

We're back to blogging. Sabbatical over.

Pinterest on a Sugar High

2011-11-23T03:21:00.004-05:00

or, hi! this is what I thought about pinterest today....

I was inspired to create this during a conversation where my mom invented an idea for a pinterest party. Keeping with tradtion, this concept sketch happened in one of my favorite mediums:

So A to be:

The diamond pattern (Alice Diamonds) in the back is some iPaper i designed and that you can download and print for a dollah as always at www.AmberInk.com

Google is having Low Self Esteem Today

2011-11-18T15:20:00.001-05:00

..........................
If I were google i'd make any of those searches deposit you at a "how to have confidence" page. Sheesh.

I know you're wondering... what were you googling?!?!

Well here's what I was googling, blogFRIENDS -- that i have...

HOW TO MAKE A DRAWING 3D!

oh man this is going to be SO awesome.

You will know more of this in April, the month of 3 dimensions

Dog Dayz

2011-11-17T09:01:00.002-05:00

I went to Seattle to visit ~~Beth and Glen~~ Molly.

Like the rest of the Logans, she and I are pretty much kindred. We are kind but haters and energetic but happy to lounge. We like to put on a show. We both felt Flossy the cat was getting a bit too celebrated for day to day living these days. We dog people haz gotz to represent...
These are all done on location and from life.

What can I say? Girl knows her angles.

It's Been Two Weeks

2011-11-16T14:37:00.008-05:00

So I thought I'd say something.

Sometimes something just seems to precious to blog about until I've relived it a million times in my head.

I saw this
<--------------------
thanks to Brittany of Grief and High Delight fame and then repinned it on Pinterest (Where I live in my mind's eye). I thought, "Well that's pretty effing cool". It reminded me of Barbie and tween toys and playing with make-up before I used make-up to cover up the fact that I am no longer in the dawn of the particular digit duo I'm riding out.

Thus, on Halloween (and on the four days leading up to Halloween) I played with make-up and zippers. A few dry runs, like this year's annual pie bake-off... grr... and my annual volunteer gig at Gilda's club Halloween party taught me what I could love and what I did not love about my costume. I learned the best thing to tell people screaming "I LOVE your costume!!! WHAT IS IT??!".

"Oh. Me? I'm Eighties on the inside."

What I loved best about this costume was that on my way to its first unveiling at an amazing Friday night costume gala (3 days before Halloween -- Seriously people, why don't we just make Halloween the last Saturday of the month??) I was the only one dressed up.

There wasn't a single person on the street in a costume. No one. None. I had a zipper gash across my arm, one across my chest, one across my face. Make up and feathers exploded from the zipper wounds that slashed my body in to sections. I was ballgown clad and wearing Keds, gliding down Broadway.

No one batted an eye. People just kept on walking and that is why "I <3 NYC" is so fracking universal. This seemingly simple experience reminded me why I will be a New Yorker until the day I die.

I have been a Misfits Fiend since the tenth grade. I even have the badge to prove it.

On Halloween I did the thing that I wish I had known I would do ten years ago. Being a teenager would have been so much easier if my 'It's a Wonderful Life' fairy godfather angel would have swooped down during Marching Band practice and said. "Don't even worry about it kid. In ten years you'll have tickets to a Sold Out Misfit's show on All Hallow's Eve. Yeah. You're that cool."

On the night of I painted my face to the smashing sounds of Horror Punk's Gods 'Halloween' and anticipated a delicious evening with skeletons and boys in leather jackets. It was so boss. I caught the parade in the Village, swung by a party in NoHo and then headed to Times Square - a place I'd normally rather be shot in than walk through. Oddly enough if you splash a ton of make-up on your face and have people running up to you asking if they can take their picture with you, Times Square is not so bad.

Before long I was swinging my hair back and forth with a ton of dead heads to the melodic chords of Jerry Only. Some guy I met during the show gave me this poster. I was for once in my life caught without a sketchbook and he wanted to write his number down for me. He scrawled it on the back next to the copyright. I'm enjoying dating this kid because I know how much it hurt him to give me this. He loved this and he still parted with it because in that moment he liked me better. In a Sophie's Choice kind of way that makes him all the more endearing. Plus, let's be honest. Boy got taste. Is this not the coolest poster ever?
In nice news I got Jerry Only to sign it... after he signed my chest.... but that happens later....
WHAT? WHAT IS THAT YOU SAY FAIRY GODFATHER ANGEL??!

I slowly made friends as I edged closer to the stage. I made a tremendous amount of show lead when a tall bouncer like boy in skull paint and a leather jacket grabbed me and yelled
"HOLY --- I've been watching you and you know all the effing words to this song!"
I screamed, "THAT'S WHY I AM HERE!"
He cupped his hand to his ear and hollered back "WHAT??!"
Gotta love a Misfit's show....

I thought i heard him ~~yell~~ whisper in to my ear "I'm getting you closer to the rail!"
But like that was going to happen.

Since I'm not built like a bouncer and have a natural tendency to swoon for Clark Kent way more than Superman.... I was not prepared to become a believer. Boy in skull paint made me reconsider my previously thought to be iron-clad taste in 90-pound-weaklings-who-know-how-to-rock-a-skinny-jean while he bowled Misfits fans out of my way like a Disney lumberjack. It wasn't long before I stood there, staring up in awe at the man himself. Jerry effing Only

um... yeah this is the view of the sex god from the underside of a skeleton pelvis.....yeah....OK. Moving on... We got to that part in a concert where the band is sweating. They want a break. They start slapping hands. If you've been against the rail at a show you know you might get to TOUCH their sopping wet hands and then live on that for like a week... It's not guaranteed, but if you get your hand out and up in the air you might get lucky.

When Jerry got to my outstretched hand he touched it. I swooned. He moved on. He came back. He gripped it. What's that, Fairy Godfather??! What?? Then He (yes we're capitalizing that) didn't let go. He pulled on my arm. "What is happening!?" I searched my memory and then recalled. I knew this...
I knew this sensation from years of not being able to haul my ass into a kayak unassisted. I was climbing the wall Neo-Style. I was being lifted up on stage. I closed my eyes. I tried to remember how to breathe. My hand brushed metal. I stood with His spike clad arm around me up on stage.

It was a heightened sensation I can only compare to the blessed few times I have been giving Morphine
(either the band or the drug -- I often fantasize about having these two together...)

Before depositing me back on the floor (only physically, I assure you I was mentally flying the rest of the evening) He said, "You stick around here, you hear?" Homonyms! The inventor of the Devil's LOCK used homonyms on me :) Then he licked my face and signed my chest.

Did I ask him to sign my chest?? Of course not. Someone gave him a Sharpie and he went to town. He was flourishing that Y before I realized what had happened. Apparently when you are a Rock God you can do stuff like that. I however didn't know it was an option.

I left the above photo's persona on the dance floor, where it was coaxed out of me by a set of groupies yelling. "STOP BEING CUTE! THE MISFIT'S EFFING LEAD SINGER JUST SIGNED YOUR DAMN CHEST! YOU GOT TO BE ON STAGE! BE SEXY AND LOOK LIKE YOU DESERVED IT!!!"... Groupies are mean... This was one of the previous and unapproved of photos in this Times Square shoot.

I will be back to blogging as this girl...^ again later this week.
For now I bask in my on stage-sex goddess persona.
Let's go play some effing tunes.

Big Waves... Close Together

2011-11-10T16:46:00.005-05:00

TODAY SUCKED....

and then i turned my head to the left.

Also, at job-job I am designing animal crackers.

In exactly one hour I am going to acupuncture.

How are you holding up?

What's the fun stuff?

Ain't Nothing Like a Brooklyn Girl

2011-11-09T01:33:00.002-05:00

Last year I got some Glittens for Christmas. They're bright ruby-red and they shine like the sun in the sun. I get compliments on them all the time. I was thrilled to pull them out the second we found ourselves in the sixties. They're totally inspirational and so, that is why...

on a beautiful bright morning in October I wrangled a gaggle of my girls, adorned them in kind, and went all Glitteratti on them. The sun shone and we shutterbugged the shine. Here are some of my favorites from the photoshoot. They're rocking out on Etsy, like a boss.

My gramma is the Betty behind these beautiful fingerless convertible glitter glittens (they actually sparkle!).

When I was a kid my parents were obsessed with this book called 'Start Small, Finish Big'. I don't remember anything about it, except the title. Maybe I'll look it up. However, that's exactly how I designed this shop. My gramma Betty handed over the glittens and I designed a logo. I thought I'd try a photoshoot.

That went well....

Once we got a glimpse at the film I realized two things, firstly, Charles Hamilton was right and secondly, our tagline had to pay homage to these brownstone hotties. We fixated on twinkling eyes and sparkling smiles and suddenly found ourselves with a tagline. I designed a banner

It's been a perfect exercise in fearless living. On that note I have some to go do.

Go see! Tell your friends! Dust off those wallets! Rock those manicures. Woot! Rally! Rah!

Stripes.

2011-11-04T09:05:00.002-04:00

Brainstorming.

Still Brainstorming...

This is my second post of the day. Check out some Life Drawing in Revolutionary Costumes.

You Say You Want a Revolution

2011-11-04T01:44:00.002-04:00

Guess what??!!?

I finally remembered I am an illustrator.

Sorry, loves -- It's been a while.

Tonight, my intern extraordinaire and I indulged in some good old fashioned life drawing, that's right -- Revolutionary War style.

There was maybe not a horse. I don't quite recall.

OK. Fine. There was no horse. However, how could anyone with any integrity waste this 'happened on an ottoman' pose on anything without reigns??

The Society of Illustrators provided the light, the glitter, the flocked feathers, the electric live music, the bar, and the gorgeous powder-wigged models who slowly but surely stripped from their 1775 finery down to their diamond pasties at the evening's end.

However, I provided your total raging jealousy with the power of description.
(I assure you it was better than it sounds).

Seattle Days Drifting Away

2011-11-03T13:44:00.008-04:00

It is a little known fact that nestled up along the region of America
nom'ed 'The Greater Northwest' lies an enchanted "Emerald City".

Two weeks ago I spent a blithe four days cozied up with The Benevolent Queen of all Bethtopia. There was dark chocolate to eat, animals to pet, REVENGE to watch and oceanfront strolling to be had for all. I finally crossed Puget Sound, a place I had never seen but have long loved. (Thank You Cynthia Voight

Beth and I spent the first two days of my indulgent Washington adventure with our asses stapled to her cozy little couch and the next two eating every cheese product we could find at the Pike Place Market.

It was wonderful. I couldn't remember the last time I'd been allowed such complete luxury.

We ate out. We stayed in. We talked until our faces turned blue from forgetting to breathe.

We channeled magic and danced in the firelight cast by a glade of lanterns unlike anything I have ever seen.

Once Molly finally deigned to be my friend the couch got even cozier. I totally appreciate her willingness to extend her paw in friendship, even when it was scary to let some one new and unknown in to her doggy heart.

I had the chance to finally meet the famous Flossy. She is even better than previously anticipated. Man that girl can stink-eye. The Kahuku girl in me was impressed. Please, note this picture is taken on a completely different night, although I'm not sure if I had moved from the couch since the above photo was taken.

Oh wait, I take that back. This photo was taken after our divine dinner that we made from scratch. The domestic culinary goddess' that we are created something entirely new, 'Scrambled Eggs and Green Salad'. We ate fresh tomatoes from the garden and reveled in our brilliance. Everything I ate in Washington was a delight to the pallet.
...............................................
I got to see Seattle all proper like too. Beth is a Pike Place market superstar (a boy even hollered her name as we forced down fresh peaches from his cart after eating our weight in lunch-like things). Is it any wonder what with licensing designs like these?!

This first leg of my gargantuan trip of wonder, relaxation and spiritual happiness was exactly what the doctor ordered -- maybe for all of us. It was such loveliness to just be. Beth and I are kindred. I always believe that when you're lucky enough to find the people you just click with you need to force them to spend all day with you for days on end.

This trip was bliss. Special thanks to every member of this little family for making my Washington dreamz come true. Mad props to husband-guy too for letting me come and kidnap his wifey for days and days. That man is so too cool for school (in the best ways).

On my last day in Seattle, i turned a corner and there it was....

and keeping with the theme of my wildly indulgent and lengthy sabbatical...
that wish was a wish that came true too....

I Promise

2011-10-22T02:35:00.001-04:00

Tonight I had an epic night, the kind that shapes and moulds and changes the course of the stream. This might pop up again ;)

Happy Birthday to Mary Blair

2011-10-21T13:22:00.003-04:00

Today is the 100th Birthday of Mary Blair -- she is everything I aspire to. Today google decided to do it right, and I've been staring lovingly at this doodle for far too long.

A few years ago I took a private meeting with an art dealer while I was in California. We discussed a 6x8" Peter Pan original. At the time they were offering it up at 15K. I pretended I was on the fence while staring at it in the only way I have ever been absolutely 'agog.' At that moment I knew, that some day, one of her pieces would be mine, but not today... or probably tomorrow. I have that goal at the proper top of my bucket list though, and I'll keep you up today on the pursuit of such happiness as I aspire to it.

In the meantime I console myself with my 1st edition copy of "I Can Fly". Lucky for you they reissued this a few years ago and you can snag a copy at Amazon

I've picked up and various cards, cartoon ads and popicle packages at estate sales over the last eight years too and those help me sleep at night under NOT an original piece of Blair brilliance.

I am more inspired by Mary than any one else, and that is saying a lot.

Now I will show you some of her stuff that is baller. Enjoy this peek at genius.

The stuff you love and think is Disney, is mostly Mary.

You are now looking at the highest level of performance a human being can achieve:

She was also smart enough to make sure there was enough documentation of her drawing when she was young and hot and sexy. So see, there you have it, shear brilliance

Happy Birthday. I love you forever.

A New York Minute

2011-10-16T06:32:00.011-04:00

Some stuff (the non-new york minute kind) has been going down. Some of it is good and some of it is bad but it is in general overwhelming. I have not been here at 'She Sure is' in weeks. I am beginning to get phone calls and emails and twitter PMs and facebook messages and concerns. So I say 'Thanks, friends'. You remind me to get it in gear. Today I am in Hawaii (WHAT?? WHAT!?), but here is what I've been up to for the last whiles-- prior to my exodus, as always, in bullets.

I had a moment that left me completely out of my element walking terrified through a windy Union Square in search of something that I nearly always have with me. Think Sex and the City and then feel sorry for me.
Then this happened....................................maybe this picture and the previous experience are related and maybe they are not...
I stayed out 'til 3am on a Monday night
I ate out curbside under an umbrella in the pitch dark, with the beautiful and talented Ashley Bryant until the wee hours.
People thought we were drunk. We were sober. Giggles and belly laughs and hand clapping were involved.
I get incredibly clairvoyant during those kind of evenings that take you from one place and leave you some place else entirely
I listened to a hell of a lot of Black Tambourine
I supported a close friend through an evening of Golden Girl's Trivia (of which I watched one episode in 2003) It was very dramatic evening and emotions rode high.
I became all kinds of obsessed with this unique and intricate but simple vintage earring
as sported by the very awesome Cami Bird who I am friends with IRL and on Pinterest -- which I wish were real life.
I partied at a friend's baby's birthday - the big 2.0 (It shocks and awes me that I'm at an age where baby birthday parties are my MO). Incidentally, this birthday marked my first time at their newly bought home. I took a few pictures of el bebe' (who is just as beautiful as can be) but my focus was on the view...
I rode the new East River Ferry - soon to be a normal part of my every day, from Williamsburg to DUMBO from which I can walk home. $4 people, $4!
I had friends over for a rousing game of draw/write/squeal with laughter. I'll detail it when I get back to Brooklyn town, as I am currently in Hawaii -- I wasn't sure if I mentioned that part before....
I went to a BBQ with a bunch of boys on 4th avenue. It was kind of like a frat party. In the beginning it was nice and calm. Then it got crazy. There was a fun time to be had on a couch with a new friend. It was our job to run commentary on everyone coming through the front door. This is mainly a photo of Tim, who does an exceptional job of letting me be 'one of the guys'.
There was an interesting circle story that came in to a round. It goes like this -- I met a boy at a friend's gig last year. I had a crush on him. He had a crush on me -- i thought. Then I went to a New Year's eve party and saw him there. He was kind of a douche. He got drunk as a skunk while I realized my crush was ill-fated. He was none of the cute that I had previously found alluring. He didn't acknowledge that he had previously met me or that he had once rearranged his journey home to ride the train with me to Carroll. He acted as if he'd never tried to peek down my shirt with that sidelong 'I just want to sit next to you' move or that he'd focused a large amount of energy on flirting with me. I was mildly offended, but mostly upset that I had misunderstood his crush. I was also put-out and overwhelmed as I spent the New Year dodging a ridiculously drunk girl who had decided we should make-out. I did that "if i never see that guy again..." thing. I then saw him at several parties. I cut a wide path at each, doing my best to ignore-slash-avoid him.

Then.... I saw him at this frat boy party on 4th ave. He was overly flirty. I raised an eyebrow. He asked my name. I said, "I've met you before." I was fine leaving it at that. I went to get a drink. He cut a direct line to me and said, "Wait, i know where I've met you! I met you at a bar in Manhattan last year! On Avenue A?? At a gig?? Do you remember me? We rode the train home together!" He then recounted the evening to me, called me 'adorable' multiple times and spent a large part of the party tattooed to my hip. VINDICATED - disinterested, but VINDICATED. I didn't have the heart or humility to inform him that we'd met since -- but that he had been a drunken jerk-chicken.
I had a marvelous walk home at 3am right as the Summer turned in to Fall. I love when just walking in NYC can give you goosebumps.
I attended a Fall Dream Music recital where the lovely Miss Rachel showcased her now mad-piano-playing skills. I floated away on a classical cloud. There was even an accordion duet.

As a result I got to be totally inspired by a friend who three years ago decided to try something completely new. She now has a major talent and a gift to share just resting at her fingertips. It made me wonder how I could be growing? It was a fantastic thing to be a part of. I feel incredibly lucky to have scored an invite to such a select listening party.
I invented Fall Booze Cake
It is mainly rum cake -- but with cardamom and cinnamon and pumpkin too. Apparently it has way too much rum in it to be an acceptable addition to a tea party with Mormon friends...
I attended a tea party with Mormon friends...
I went to a silent art auction where my friend Ultra Violet had a her pieces honoring 9/11 featured
I finally bought my beloved cintiq I've been saving for since the dawn of time.
I made a plate to match my couch, because that's how I roll.
I hosted a photo shoot and when it got rained out I hosted another.
I opened an ETSY shop for my gramma, showcasing her totally rad Glitter Glittens -- the reason for said photoshoot.
I stopped the world and developed some illustrations for a card game bid.
As a result I reread The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
I drew the hell out of some Dorothy concepts:
This one was my favorite, but let's face it -- there were lots that were almost my favorite.
I had the time of my life, truly in awe -- you know that way you rarely are after age eight -- at the DUMBO Arts festival. They lit up the Brooklyn Bridge the way it should be every friggin' night of my life, and as it will be every single night in my dreams...

I dropped every single piece of clothing I own at the cleaners.
I stayed crazy-late at job-job, almost forgetting that if I didn't pick up my laundry I'd have nothing to pack for a 5am plane ride on my way to a two week vacation.
I ran home and grabbed said laundry at 9:02PM - barely the nick of time.
I crossed the street to my apartment, eager to leave for my vacation but meloncholy to leave Brooklyn, trudging along under the weight of 25 pounds of fresh clean clothing.
I turned the corner, only to find....
Jenpal! -- wearing a sweater I'd left at her house during our last play date -- eager to return to my belonging. It was the luckiest.
We jumped and frolicked on the corner.
I marveled at how friends can truly make everything a hundred times better.
I packed my bags, trying to keep to my packing list: 2 dresses, 4 T-shirts, 2 pairs of jeans, 2 beach cover ups, 4 swim suits and 2 sweatshirts and not much else....
I got on a plane
I made my way to Seattle (a dream)
I stayed for days of fun in Washington
I got on another plane
I had a Diet Coke spilled all over me.
I arrived in Hawaii for a week of tanning and swimming and sand in the suit (a more familiar but just as wonderful dream)

So that's the ever after you've been missing, more or much less. I am so happy to be blogging to you now, from where I sit, nestled under a sprawling Hawiian quilt, overlooking the ocean as obscured by palm tree silhouettes. I'm fresh from a game of Bananagrams. Mission Impossible III blasts from the TV while the Duchess (who I have missed sorely) attends to her nightly beauty ritual. I am thus left to blog and chill under a kitchy ceiling fan (one of the things I miss most about island life, I assure you). After a day of swimming and sunning and pie, I simply must retire, but only for a bit. My sabatical is over - well as far as She Sure is Sketchy is concerned. I hope this time has found you as good as ever and happier too.

A New York Minute

2011-09-12T10:36:00.006-04:00

I would love to keep a impeccably minded diary. I don't. I keep A New York Minute. Here's this week in bullet points:

I got a fun new Fall appropriate manicure. You know you can't wear white after labor day, but you should know you can't wear 'Tahitian Tickle Pink' either...
I had dinner with Gentleman Psychologist at Prime Meats
It was discovered that Gentleman Psychologist hides a secret: he's a vegetarian
"Um...." I inquired, "If you're a vegetarian why did we come to Prime Meats??"
to which he responded "You wanted to!," (I assure you I did) "I care a lot more about what makes you happy than what is easy for me."
I almost dropped my fork.
however that would have caused me to lose a bite of my peach infused sautéed pork chop so it wasn't an option.
Later this week, while obsessively weighing the pros and cons of New York Times Letterman Esquire to Landscape Architect to Gentleman Psychologist to I got on the M instead of the F train on a late and very stormy night. This has not happened to me for two years which was oddly enough the last time I juggled multiple men... and then prior to that in college when it ahem... happened all the time.
That reminds me, I read an article about a woman's physical limitations when it comes to mentally managing multiple relationships. This reaaaaaaaaaally rang true while I was soaked to the bone and waiting on the M platform above ground for fifty-three minutes
At work I am animating a mixing table and some truly nineties magic.
When I picture a record scratch it's obscured in my memory by a soap machine or drugs. So I asked Google...
AND GOOGLE GAVE WITH BOTH HANDS
My new Pratt Institute intern started her servitude!
We met thrice this week.
Each time we ate crap I should not eat because I am not in college. Nay cutie college intern can nosh on calzones but professional artist can not.
I had the best ever acupuncture appointment
I attended a silent auction. It was SO boss.
I had a talk with the ever stylish Jenny Hamp in which she detailed a horrific nightmare she recently had
I explained that I used to thrash to dawn as a child but that I hadn't had a nightmare that I could recall in ages...
I had my first nightmare in a decade
I had my second nightmare in the last two days
I had my third nightmare this week
I began drafting a "Thank You" note to Jenny Hamp
I again got caught in a torrential rain without an umbrella.
I went on amazon with the intention of buying one of the beautiful umbrellas that I covet on http://pinterest.com/amberalvarez/
I couldn't decide which to buy
I bought both and decided I would return whichever I adored less
I am not a monster. I wanted them both the same...
I decided that this behavior needed to be addressed... and thus
I will no longer be seeing Letterman Esquire or Landscape Architect....
I will be keeping both bubble and yellow pumpkin umbrella
I failed to do much in the way of art.
I am terrified that this is due to infatuation with Gentleman Psychologist
I spent a magical evening on The Highline. Where I stayed on the lower 20. It was about as great as great gets
I made-out like a ~~bandit~~ teenager.
My face has beard rash.
Of this I do not complain
I adventured in babysitting and settled down to snuggle up
with the greatest object of my affection, Julian Rex:

Photo courtesy JenMo
We read books and talked about the moon.
I stepped back in time and spent a delicious sunny morning amongst books and castles in Princeton
I tried to stay dry when it torrential rained on this year's Children's Book Festival
You could hear paper crying....
Incase you were wondering, I did not master long exposure on my camera....
I taught a workshop on color.
I hung out with some awesome people
I was thoroughly impressed by John Rocco, who took so much time with every kid who plopped down in front of him in awe. He looked at kid's dummies, showed him his original drawings, asked questions, gave posters, it was amazing.
I was reminded of an idol I had as a child who I had the chance to meet. I'm not going to name names, but he was a total douche and I sadly, no matter how I tried, I wouldn't ever feel the same about him or his books again...
It reminded me that I used to blog about art and being an artist. In the old days of She Sure is Sketchy I would say this: As an illustrator/animator/artist always be nice to everyone, care about your fans, especially when they are very young.
I lied to get off the phone so I could have a momentary moment of moments with a girl crush.
I had the boy with blue eyes and art therapist over for their first ( but certainly not their last) forray into the GREATEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME... or one of them... Strictly Ballroom.
I had tremendous heart-to-heart with my lovely roommate who makes me smile and love my apartment even more than I would (which is saying a hell of a lot).

Lots of other stuff happened. Those are the things of note. What happened with you?

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Watching: the Original Le Femme (effing badass) Nikita. SO GOOD SO SO SO SO GOOD
Reading: this might be the first week of my life where I've got nothing. Nothing. I don't even know....
Listening to: It's all Elliot Smith up in here
Drawing: Camels
Eating: Peach Porkchops
Learning: Italian
Coveting: this bike in red
Saving for: a Cintiq and an Inkling
Quoting: This week's all......

If you bullet point use an I <3 a New York Minute button and let me know all about it in the comments. Or for the love of all things holy, just recommend a book... sigh

A New York Minute

2011-09-06T09:14:00.009-04:00

I would like to journal. I don't. I New York Minute and you can too.

Here's this week in bullet points:

This week was for friendsies:

I met up with a party of my favorite party/do-nothing/do-everything people to brunch in laund at Benchmark off 5th Avenue in Park Slope.
I brunched upon marvelous brunch with good company in pure delight
I walked through the Ghet-to to get there
When one walks through the ghetto a 25 minute walk can quickly become a 45 minute walk because you have to run in the wrong direction away from rats and kick cans because that's what Pippi Longstocking would do. WWPLD? Ask....
I meandered through BK town "thrifting" with my posse as a result
I purchased two truly awful, clunky and colorful vintage pins which I am in love with and insanely proud of
I had a great time watching Tess try to get out of a very awkward situation involving three sterling silver rings and four dollar bills with a card table wielding gentleman.
I openly mocked Jenny and Tess, freely using a faux pas word to describe their behavior, as they sat on a minibench they found in front of a garden supply on our ambling adventure

I had a truly embarrassing moment, doubled because it was shared with a stranger on the F train from Manhattan. I could tell you about it but then I would have to kill you.
Said stranger and I are now spending a fair amount of time together
I had a delicious late in to the night conversation with Brittany Warnock of grief and high delight fame
I had a truly sad and torturous (for me) funeral for Good Golly Miss Molly, the first casualty of hurricane Irene
I cried
I vowed in grand fashion to never eat poultry again
I had dinner after the private wake at Cafe Lulu --- where Sam ate chicken right in front of my tear-stained face
Maybe it looked kind of delicious -- loyalty FAIL!
I joined a bunch of friends from another life for my friend Mike's book signing at Bergen Street Comics
I welcomed the Duchess (after a full month-long sabbatical in Virginia), Ashleycat, Miss Rachel and Nichole for a girl night of gab and gossip at the penthouse at 302 Court
I had my locks bleached/dyed and chopped ala The Duchess' mad skillz
I had a late in to the night conversation with Seattle
I realized I need to put a night cap on these late-in-to-the-night phone marathons...
I bought some eye cream
I spent Hoverboard money on a plane ticket to Hawaii by way of Seattle
I gave in and decided to use a travel agent because my itty bitty brain was going to burst trying to figure out the damn thing online
Prior to going to the travel agency (I could have called, but where is the fun in that??) I donned a gigantic wide brimmed hat and my polka dot dress. I assume that's what people wear to a travel agency, right??
I was teased ruthlessly about using a travel agency. John told me frequently while deciding this decision that they are only used by "WIMPS WHO WEAR BEEHIVES" -- implying that only a woman would use said service and that that woman would be a dame from the 1950s.
I replied that he was obviously two dates shy of a hate crime and that given Amy Winehouse's untimely death it was just too soon to mock particular hairstyles.
I handed my credit card to the nice lady at said travel agency.
I had a moment of silence for all the experiences I'm allowed because LBH this plane ticket cost about as much as it costs to raise an American child from diapers to diploma. I have not yet elected to procreate so I go to Hawaii. That's math.
My wonderful and loved phone started to spazz out while sitting across the room, scrolling like a mad crazed cat with a lazer light. It would then call anyone's number it landed on
My phone's drunk dials had no discernment for race, creed, relationship status. It had no problem dialing digits with a 'Do not Pick UP!' label upon said number
It started deleting texts
I failed to get a 911 type text from one of my health coaching clients
I realized that my poor phone needed to be taken out behind the barn Old Yeller style.
I came close to crying
I bought a new phone. Its photos so far fail to capture the very essence of your soul as my other camera phone did. It cost hundreds of dollars.
My bank account died
I used a half a gigantic bottle of Jamaican rum to make this cake:

Yes it has gold stars on it.
It was well received.
I ate six different kinds of meat as made by Tim grill-master-of-anything-that-has-a-flank Hanna
I gifted a beer bottle opener ring - the gift that no guy ever has to have explained to him
I had a very enjoyable conversation about marine biology, growing up in Hawaii and sex education with frisbee playing strangers in the backyard
I hosted a 3am listening party - just. like. the. good. old. days. We lounged to Sigur Rós
I learned how to make an accented ó on my keyboard or should I say ón my keybóard - a skill that I now hóld dear
I created a new and colorful thing called 'Refrigerator Salad'
I got in an On-like-Donkey-Kong fight with a cab driver.
"I'm confused. You just took me ten minutes in the wrong direction up to Brooklyn Heights off Tillary to bring me back to State Street? I walk to State Street from my house." I said it in my 'calm reporter Amber' voice.
He turned and barked
--"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU TALKING 'BOUT!" I DRIVE THE CAB YOU SIT IN THE CAB!"
"um... I think if you drive for ten minutes left and then drive for ten minutes right, bringing me to a street I walk to from my home where I have lived for five years..... ," I mumbled in small Amber-child in the dark voice.
--"WHY YOU COMPLAIN?!!?? YOU KNOW SO MUCH - YOU DRIVE CAB?? NO!" I was cut off verbally while Amir, the meanest man in a yellow car in Brooklyn simultaneously cut off an unmarked car with five policemen in it. 'KARMA!' - I thought.
They smiled and waved at him, sharing cheese cake from a red striped box in a rather unsightly fashion.
I decided only I could protect the innocent - me.
"YOU JUST TAKE ME WHERE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO TAKE ME AND I WILL PAY YOU. THAT IS HOW THIS WORKS!!" I hollered in my bitchtastic teenage Amber angst voice
--"YOU THINK YOU KNOW SO MUCH BUT YOU DO NOT!" Amir wailed (I raised an eyebrow - realizing this man in white might be the reincarnation of my tenth grade English teacher, Mrs. Graham)
"YOU SHUT UP AND TAKE ME TO FORTE GREEN!" growing up in the nursery with my brother and sister we would recite 'The Parent Trap' word for word in its entirety as an alternative for going to sleep. This was done in the same voice you might say "YOU SHUT UP AND GET MY MY BOOTS!" while hurling camp supplies at a man's head.
I arrived at Forte Green Place
I tipped Amir a dollar fifty
Amir said "Thank you, Miss - You are very pretty" to which I responded
"Bye. Have a nice day"
--"Oh you too, Miss. You too." -- no hint of sarcasm. Umhum...
Gawd, I love Brooklyn
I watched a stuffed kitchen full of people create a delicious dinner of linguini and such to dress it up fancy dinner party style
I experienced a home without air conditioning piping through the rafters for more than five hours...
I am a fighter.
I laughed and laughed and had fun with people I don't normally hang out with at said dinner party
Someone asked, "Should 'throw out this container of melted ice?" to which I said, "you mean water?" Haahahahahaha Haahahahah
I was adored despite my annoying need to have exorbitant amount of laughter while eating
I had a heart to heart with a boy with blue eyes
I was read all of this awesome book aloud with VOICES:

Which for some reason unbeknownst to me, was never read to me as a child, even though my parents made sure I could quote The Leatherstocking tales before I turned nine....
Most importantly thanks to Incredimombo and Brittany Warnock I discovered Pinterest:
http://pinterest.com/amberalvarez/
Maybe I hummed "For Good" from Wicked to the my pinterest site all. week. long.
Also I made this button:

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Watching: Scrubs from season 1, Wacom's Inkling Video on loop until I can buy one when they go live
Reading: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Listening to: LCD Soundsystem
Drawing: Not.
Eating: Brisket from Tim's BBQ
Learning: Italian
Coveting: this bike in red
Saving for: a Cintiq and an Inkling
Quoting: "All real works of art look as though they were done in joy." --Robert Henri

A New York Minute

2011-08-31T12:06:00.012-04:00

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.

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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...

2011-08-24T01:12:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-22T14:53:00.003-04:00

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.

How did yours go?? Check back next week when we get a badge and you can start doing this on your blogs and linking here every week too. Keep track of your bullet points this week, K? xoxo

Things I Throw Myself in to Thursday

2011-08-18T08:42:00.002-04:00

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

2011-08-16T12:16:00.003-04:00

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)

2011-08-11T08:39:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-10T09:05:00.018-04:00

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

2011-08-05T08:56:00.007-04:00

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

2011-08-04T13:04:00.002-04:00

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.

A New York Minute

2011-08-02T09:33:00.002-04:00

Because I don't journal, and I would like to, I now bullet point my New York existance week by week one little dot on a list at a time.

This week I:

I met with Pat Cummings for a deliciously wonderful and decadent children's book jam session
I snuck away to Bowery Electric for something live and local
Reveled in a cotton candy Manhattan sunset.
I channeled my 100K education and subsequent career in the arts into one transcending moment and thus created this miracle of artistic brilliance in my previously humble kitchen:
I carried said mini baby corndogs aka baby cornpuppies to a monumental event, the going away party of one Duchess of Justice (without tripping)
I placed them gingerly on a high ~~alter~~ table spread with equally brilliant mini treats, because while this fare was small, our love for the Duchess was mighty and great.

Appreciate the mini doughnuts. They were engineered by JenPal and her little family.

Speaking of which... I am hosting my euroimportedfambam this week. (12-15th house guests of the summer!) for days of fun and NYC sun. The sun is due to the fact that it is baking in Brooklyn and that they are jet lagged and up at dawn.
Naturally a visit to Coney Island was in store
I listened to live music at Central Park
I showed off my decade honed ability to find a bathroom in any part of NYC.
I hiked up foot hills and down foot hills at Central Park
I spent a large amount of time with a Jimmy Buffet cover band
Watched a hell of a lot of Modern Family late into the night with my cousins.
I would like to watch more.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching a melt down that was genetically linked to me and actually quite similar to the meltdowns of my youth.
I pretended to not enjoy said meltdown.
I took short showers
I got my health coach website up and running.
I lost two pounds
I got a new wii Power bar
I got schooled
I replaced the coinpurse that has been so near and dear to me, my NYC financial Linus blanket, with a fancy gilt italian leather version, courtesy of my Aunt and her good taste. Was it hard? Yes. However, sadly one can only be teased by friends for so long....

And that's an abreviated version of my New York Minute. I'd write more, but I've got to get to the Bronx Zoo! There's animals to draw a waitin'. Have great weeks. xo, Amber

Obsession

2011-07-29T10:52:00.007-04:00

These days I'm obsessed with helping people live a healthier life.

Afterall, can you think of any bigger reason for a celebration? I for one cannot.

We can celebrate your journey tooooooooo! www.BeThinNY.com

Help me help you, help you. ;) WOOT!

Oh and as a sidenote, lately I'm totally re-obsessed with Morphine. It's fueling my late nights.

Things I Throw Myself into Thursday

2011-07-28T10:23:00.005-04:00

Aka. Why I have not yet found anyone worth marrying.
Many, many moons ago on a fated and muggy evening I fell in love with a curly haired blonde boy as he swayed and jumped in well... synch with a group of obviously lesser men.

Not many moons later (and I must say much sooner than just about everyone else in the free world) I found room in my heart for another love:

Apparently - and this has been market tested, I have a thing for boys know how to lounge. I spent years trying to figure out what it was these two lingering teenage obsessions had that others lacked. Why these boys? After decades these infatuations still burn brightly while girlish crushes on lesser men (sorry Marky-Mark, my apologizes Keanu) have faded to mere memory. For years I have been sure that it's the quality that they each share, of always having a light in their eye.They're the kind of guys who have a hard time finishing a joke because they are boyishly so excited to have you laugh when they get to the punch line that they can hardly keep it together...I've known that part for a long time. Was that all it was?

Luckily, right place, right time I was recently reminded of something that gave me deep, deep
joy last Fall: I invite you to grab a spoon and indulge

Then BONUS POINTS I was given this sparkling gem in my current tiara of inner peace. I had previously gone through life totally unaware of its existence. I cringe to think of the hours spent not watching this on loop that I'll never get back. Oh if you're one of my pet peevy people who have trouble wearing your nerd like a badge, make sure you watch this in private. I spontaneously clapped in delight three times.

So here's where this all comes together in a one-two punch. I've just let go of my third 'maybe' boyfriend of the summer. When asked why I felt the need to clean house, I couldn't quite put my finger on it. PHD Jake was handsome, and nice, and he smelled as men should smell -- like they are masking the scent of a recently exercised stallion by rubbing up against the bark of a mossy tree surrounded by wild flowers... but there was something missing. BAM! Thanks to the History of Rap and this perfect storm of sexy boyish cute and important music from my youth, I can now elaborate on what the boys who have names that start with J have that others do not! Hmm... oddly, PHD Jake was not in this club... This History of Rap could have easily sucked. Right? Right?! LBH, It could have blown.

When I watch it I am impressed by two things. First of all I'm floored at how ~~damn fine Jimmy Fallon is looking in a suit these days~~ much time this must have taken in the practice room. These are two men that could have easily been sidelined in the process of pulling this together by their busy schedules, egos or fear of embarrassment. Memorizing this, collaborating, blocking it, getting it perfectly aligned to go Live took WORK. Lots of it. As all worthwhile things do.

Secondly, in the actual execution of the whole thing you can tell how much fun they are having. They are loving this. This is where they want to be and what they want to be doing. Watching it makes you, the viewer feel great. They don't care if it might get bombed, they don't care if youtube doesn't love it with viral violence, or if their friends think they are total nerds. They have charm and charisma because in addition to their boyish grins, they are willing to OWN it.

There is a serious lack of people out there willing to fulfill even one of these two firstly and secondlys. Sometimes even my favorite people peeve me out cloaking themselves in a fear based 'don't get too excited' mask of indifference. For example, a good friend of mine recently rolled her eyes and explained that her friends were MAKING her go to watch a Ghost Busters' marathon in Central Park. Um.. I did that once. It was THE BEST!

Please. Don't act like you're not invested in something when you are. If you're doing something optional you truly don't want to do, stop. If that's not the case, fix your face. Throw yourself in with passion. You'll be happier. The people around you will be happier. If you're acting less than invested in like I dunno... something you love like cough, cough, your ART - your enthusiasm will make it sing louder and help people embrace it readily. Your audience won't need you to tell them you love it, they'll just be able to tell that it has that extra hard work + enthusiasum-y something JT+JF special when they look at it. Try not to make excuses. I really believe if you want to do something badly enough you do it. So, do it. Work hard and work with passion.

I'm naturally drawn to people who have an energy and spirit that resonates. I'm thinking I'm not alone in this. Remember, everything in life is just a white picket fence that needs to be whitewashed. Be Tom Sawyer.

Sidenote: In the five years since I started She Sure is Sketchy I've had a handful of men contact me to ask me out. If that's the reason you read my girly nothings, Hi, there ;). Embrace this blog post, it's giving you a major edge. I am currently accepting Fall 2011 applications.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a video to watch 30x.

Straight from the Book

2011-07-27T09:29:00.002-04:00

I made a picture book dummy. These drawings are in there. They are fun.

Also, yesterday talking to some of my less thrown together coworkers at job-job I discovered that a couple of them are working on big projects too. This thrilled me. Then I found out that a couple of them are itching to write a novel but didn't know about NaNoWriMo which begins in a mere 96days and 14hours. There was one other girl who said she always wanted to write a picture book, but didn't have any idea about the SCBWI, KidLit or KidLitArt weekly tweet chats. She said she really wanted to be a children's book writer one day but she didn't know how to get the right idea. Of course she had no idea about PbIdMo. It got me motivated to compile a list of resources over the next few weeks. So stay tuned, and grab a tutu.

What are the resources you use to tap into, stay motivated and move toward your big goals?

Now I'm off to get rid of my cough.

A New York Minute

2011-07-25T23:16:00.010-04:00

Because I don't journal and I would like to, I now do a New York Minute to bring you through my week. I didn't get this done last week because I was convinced I was dying. OK. I had a BAD cold. Whatever.

I had a score of infinite giggles and deep dreamy conversation with my very best friends. I can only wish you our kind of joy, the kind that happens over French food in a room bedecked to look like Sherwood Forest. If you'd like that exact experience I suggest you grab the Duchess and my JenPal and head to Robin des Bois' (photo by Johannes Kroemer)
I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge. OK I kind of swam over it. The air in Bklyn has been thick enough to Butterfly through.
The best and most impressive thing is this:
I (along with my biz partner, Pam aka. mom) celebrated a massive birthday event marking our one year anniversary of owning and creating www.AmberInk.com
oh and I created this banner to advertise said event:
I finished the line art for my first official picture book dummy.
I had it looked like by a real life publisher thanks to Pat Cummings and her supportive and brilliant but mega-intense Children's Book Boot Camp.
I busted my Wii power sensor bar that I keep across the room
I busted a picture frame and had glass shatter across my room
I managed to kill the mosquito that I was chasing in the previous two transpired events.
I reveled in a 50% off sale at AI Friedman (I had to buy a new picture frame) I went to the store, because I love it, but you can buy stuff online too. I also love going there because it allows me to run next door where...
I spent another glorious afternoon at Books of Wonder
I sadly listened to a lot of Back to Black
I broke through a 1 inch piece of plywood with my bare hand (don't worry, it was intentional)
I went to Florida to get more...
Health Coach training (I'm getting healthy I figure i might as well help everyone else do it too.)
Speaking of which... I lost 3 pounds!
I made new friends
I invented new friends...
first: gum drop raccoons:

obviously a gateway drug, naturally leading to the invention of
gum drop penguins.

Both are working titles so please, by all means, please suggest names for these soon to be expansive lines.
I came home to my beautiful Brooklyn, and kissed the hard wood floor that runs from my bedroom to my studio.

Yep, that's what happened. Now like my friend Jay-Z says, On to the next one.

Music Saves My Soul: Dancing in the Street

2011-07-16T09:47:00.002-04:00

This is the best thing to ever happen to me:

My friend Chery shows and tells her weekly music obsession at Marcea's. It seemed like the thing to do.

Grand Gesture

2011-07-15T09:34:00.115-04:00

2006 found me at the end of a four year relationship. The breakup left me raw and reeling and years out of the grind that is the NYC single's scene. Dating, the thing I had once been so great at, was now something that had me looking like Alecia Silverstone in bad lighting. My first dip back in the dating pool was with a Brooklyn Heights dwelling lawyer, five years my senior. YES, FIVE YEARS, not twenty, not thirty...

On our fourth date I had decided I couldn't wait forever, things move fast in New York! I gave my bedroom a once over, making sure to gather all my colored pencils and pens. Today was a big day with Lawyer man, today I was going to finally let him...

COME TO THE ZOO WITH ME!

Unfortunately, Lawyer Man had been under the impression that the zoo was a euphamism... Haha, what a funny joke. Undaunted I snatched up my sketchbook and grabbed my metro card, "Let's get a move on, mister!" Lawyer man stood there confused, so confused. Poor lawyer man.

Opening statements were made. Members of the court took the stand. Things got heated, not in a way lawyer man had hoped. In what some may call an overly dramatic move, Lawyer Man raised his arms, waving them about his head and taking off around the perimeter of my home, a little toy helicopter in an ascott tie. It was later revealed that lawyer man thought he was simply presenting evidence to the jury. We at the Penthouse at Court knew that this was most surely his closing argument. Undaunted he asserted this gem,
"Look, I am not your babysitter."

He immediately knew that he was on his way to contempt, mapped by the look of well... contempt on my face. I gladly kicked his $400 pants to the curb, LBH, he was going to wreck them in the Gorilla Keep anyway. On a high-note, I had a great day alone at the zoo.

Flash forward a week and a half and what to my wondering eyes do appear but Lawyer Man, sitting on the stoop at the Penthouse at Court. The jury was not out. This case was closed. I stood there confused. So confused. "What can I do to make this up?"

I refrained from singing "True Colors" opting to instead step back and truly think. What would it take? I hummed the second verse of Cyndi Lauper while crystalizing the blueprint that had started to take shape in my mind's eye. This morning's prompt at Illustration Friday summoned this memory and resulted in this sketch. Needless to say, Lawyer Man never delivered, that is why I own a chicken and not a pony.

Things I Throw Myself Into Thursday

2011-07-14T11:26:00.000-04:00

The thing keeping me afloat this week:

Sick as a Dog

2011-07-13T09:41:00.003-04:00

This morning Con Ed called.
"Can we speak to Amber Alvarez?"
-- "This is Amber"
"Excuse me, sir? I didn't quite catch that."
--nice.
It's safe to say that today I am going to 'stay' put.

The little guy on the lower left is 'VAMPIRE COUGH'. As inspired by Mika, the queen of physical comedy.

On a Boat

2011-07-12T10:36:00.028-04:00

If you squint you can just barely see me and my kid sister eagerly anticipating our turn to board the ship we spent our Fourth of July 2011 on.(JK, this is a film still from 'The Titanic).

Joking aside, watching this movie approx. 20 times the Summer I turned fourteen was the best preparation for the seven hour tour we embarked on that afternoon. OK, OK, Leo screenings were probably the next best -- there were those middle school mornings spent trading my father half hour stints on Gilligan's Island for Saved by the Bell.

NYC has elected to steal our fireworks and instead show off for Jersey.

I don't know if you're aware of Jersey's ever rising prestige on the reality television front but if you are, sit back and ask yourself... "WHERE IS THE HUMANITY?!" At any rate, I had a fun, but relatively uneventful Fourth last year. I spent the evening running through Prospect Park with friends, sure that there was some kind of mistake and that any minute the sky was going to alight. Later we followed up with root-beer floats and the Boston Pops in front of the telly in Park Slope.

I decided to pull an Ursula and take matters into my own tentacles. This year I was going to go on a cruise and catch me some fireworks. I was browsing the internet the way Meg Ryan would in any Tom Hanks movie when I got a gmail alert from my favorite discount shopping site, Living Social.

For half the cost of a normally $300 cruise, you could find yourself sailing on Jersey's luxury Cornucopia Princess on the Hudson for the holiday. Voila! Obviously this was meant to be. That is how (well plus a very shady windowless Time's Square office with ticker tape on the floor and bars on the door) I came to be the proud bearer of two tickets to a prime firework seat on our Nation's birthday.

Note: Later I realized that this Living Social deal greatly spoke to the hilarity of our time at sea. The ship's passengers were widely varied, consisting of people who paid full price, $600 a couple, or in some cases much more for a family intermixed with people who had pooled all their money to afford the half price deal.

There were little hiccups along the way, but what cruise doesn't have hiccups? Sure, we were supposed to leave at 3 and didn't board until 4:15, but we were going to be on a boat, and that was all that mattered.

We were instructed upon boarding to immediately go to our assigned seats at beautifully manicured tables in a grand ballroom. Oh yeah, this was going to be good. "Behind me I heard a "Oh this shit be FAAAAAANNCY!" So that's where you see the note I made about a range of social class start to play out.

By now you have learned that here at She Sure is Sketchy, we have authority problems, and why, friends, would we go directly to our seats when we could climb to the dock and marvel at the skyline?

In the single most intelligent move of the year, April and I dragged an iron-rod table from the back of the boat, where there was no view, to the front of the boat where there was all view. There we sat. Soon other rebels joined us. On our boat, that I would later learn housed close to 2,200 people, a lucky ten managed chairs and tables up on the deck. Keeping with our Titanic analogy, this clairvoyant move is what later separated us from steerage.

We laughed. We felt the wind in our hair. We read. We sketched. It was simply lovely. Meanwhile, down below the deck, things were getting dicey. This is where I would cinimatically pan from an exterior shot above to an interior shot down near the water. At this point we were still blissfully unaware that anything was amiss. It was at this point that I started collecting quotes.

My favorite quote of the evening, and there were plenty to choose from, was issued by a wildly enthusiastic muscle-bound Jersey boy -- complete with sky-high shellacked hair who offered this gem: "My whole life, yo. My whole life, I been sitting in my uncle's balcony on this day every year and watching the boats go by over here, and NOW I am ON a boat! That's right BITCHES! I am ON a boat!" (i wrote this one down in my sketchbook. I wanted to be sure I kept the nuance.)

Slowly people started making their grumbly way on deck, "what bad attitudes," I thought. "Don't they see how beautiful it is here?" Meanwhile, April and I bask in the glory of the sea.

Hunger sets in as the sun sets. Eager to make it back to our primo seats in time for the big show I leave the sissie and head down into the hull, dinner tickets in hand. My animator roots take hold as I descend the grand staircase overlooking the ballroom. A long line circles the dance floor. I sense an overall vibe of seething anger. Also, people are drunk. I went to Pratt freakin' Institute, an art school in Clinton Hill where the five spot used to give you 21 free shots on your 18th birthday. I know the difference between drunk and durnk. These people are the latter. Nor are they happy drunk. They are collectively angry drunk. I wait in line for my food and make "friends" with a grabby boy who likes boys but in his inebriated state is willing to also like my boobs.

The line takes forever. Somewhere in the distance a table is turned over. There is yelling. Hmm... this does not bode well. When hosting my adorable little sister thousands of miles away from her home, my chief concern is to always keep. her. fed. Little miss April can go from strawberry shortcake to the Incredible Hulk faster than I can Scarlett O'Hara blink my eyes. After years of practicing my Vivien Leigh we are talking fractioned split-seconds.

As the line snaked longer, I start to panic. What if she gives up our front row seats to come find me? What if she gets too hungry and loses it? What if there is no vegetarian food left for her when I get to the front of the line?! Take heart, I tell myself, the menu on this ship's masthead was elaborate, organic, gourmet. They will have plenty of.... BURGERS AND HOTDOGS?!

Correction. They will have NO burgers or hot dogs. They will have nothing. They will eat fists. This picture was taken while my gay boyfriend held my place twenty minutes down the line. By the time I got there there was a tub of greasy floating hot dogs (I swear i have never been so disgusted. It was barfaroni casserole) and nothing else. At the end of the line a crustal bowl held a solitary packet of mustard next to an empty bottle of ketchup.

In amazing news, I arrived right when this situation really heated up. I got to witness a punch and a duck worthy of Ralph Maccio. There was yelling. There was crying. It was magical.

Gay boyfriend transitioned from slightly odd to truly crazy. He picked up a cold hotdog and waggled it in the manager's face. "This is frozen!!! THIS IS FROZEN! Feel this!" The manager takes it in his hand and throws it back into the dish. "I JUST TOUCHED THAT AND NOW YOU PUT IT BACK IN THERE!?!? WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU BEEN DOING TO CONTAMINATE THIS "FOOD"."

Seriously, the air quotes GBF was sporting made me wish I had only manicured the index and middle fingers of my hands. I have a problem around people with Southern accents or girls speaking Japanese at the salon. I want to mimic, not to tease but to study. To my right several girls and their ~~pimp~~ cousin skipped their index fingers and communicated in other ways with their hands. I watched a hamburger fly into a man's head hurled with surprisingly great aim from a woman who looked to be in her seventies. To my left, I thrilled at a rousing game of "I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you". Sigh. Good times. For about ten minutes, I thought that maybe I was waiting for more food to be cooked and brought out. No, I was waiting for mutiny on the bounty. There was no "food" (that's for you GBF) to be had.

P.S. Who among us can't help but stare while someone yells "THIS IS ME BEING NICE, ASSHOLE! YOU WANT ME TO GET MEAN, I CAN GET MEAN!" all the while pointing a three inch bedazzled finger nail millimeters from a man's eye?

I soon realized that the reason everyone was drunk was because the ship, in addition to boasting a worth-$300-gourmet-menu also boasted an open bar. In true we're going to party like it's America's birthday form, those who could not eat, made up for the cost of the cruise by drinking. I tip-toed over a fallen reviler and up the stairs to rejoin my little sister on the dock.

Wonderfully, I was met by a smiling kid sister. April had waited, happy as a clam. Thrilled to be out at sea with the wind in her face and Macy's fireworks on the way. "You missed it," she let me know. "People have been going crazy." Tee hee.

Once we realized we were going to be starving until we docked we both tapped into our upbringing. Last week I read an article saying that if you were raised a certain way before 1992 you were raised 'right' and if you were raised the same way today you were 'abused'. April and I are well brought-up children of the 80s. We know that if nothing's going to change you might as well have a good attitude so nothing worse happens to you. We put on our smiley faces and happily inked the petitions that the angered fall-downs were bringing around as written on the ship's linen napkins.

Later it was revealed that the mass of champagne and wine bottles couldn't be opened because corkscrews had been left on shore and things really got intense.

As the night fell, people pulled the table cloths off tables downstairs and busied themselves by dragging forty pound dining room chairs up to the deck to better pad their livingroom forts at our feet. We had a clear view of Manhattan to one side and this to the other:

When a formation of 8 helicopters flew overhead and the mass begin to yell "SAVE US! SAVE US"

April and I caught each other's sober eyes, raised our hands and high-fived. We knew who was winning this holiday. Well, we knew who was winning until the yacht ran out of waterbottles and cups. We are Hawaii girls though, and we know how to deal, eh?

Then the fireworks started and the oohing and awwwwwwwing really got under way. For a perfect twenty minutes everyone forgot that they wanted to 'EFFING CUT THE EFFING MO-EFFING CREW"

The most patriotic moment of the whole day, and mayhaps the entire year came in the gathering of ships in the harbor who leaned on their fog horns blasting Yankee Doodle Dandy and the Star Spangled banner. Their passengers, all merry by the look of them, waved jovially, jumping up and down anscreaming 'HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!! to us. The feeling of Americana radiated the air.

The adorable Juliard trained girl next to me, said, "It is so cool they're playing John Phillip Souza" The guy next to her said, "Who dat?"

And so, on the fourth of July, 2011, I stood hanging over the rail of that crowded deck of the ironically named Cornucopia Princess. I got a taste of what it might be like to be united against a common enemy, forced to take matters into your own hands. Maybe there was no water, not a drop to drink, and maybe everyone wanted to strangle our captors with their bare hands, but in the end we all were able to set aside our differences for the common good, a very kick-ass firework show. Afterall, dear friends, isn't that what this patriotism thing is all about?

Later, as I watched the crew argue with my sister as they wrenched her cup of self-rationed water from her lovely little hands while we disembarked and saw our new friends-in-distress kiss the germ-ridden NYC cement, I looked to the beautiful smokey sky, glad that I had decided to spend our Nation's special day out at sea.

---------epilogue-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the fifth I decided that the true crime was that the ship had sailed away from shore knowing that they A) only had crappy burned/frozen food to serve and B) didn't have enough of either to feed the thousands on board, I decided to call in and let someone know. Livingsocial picked up the phone on the third ring.

"Hello, I'm just calling to register a compl..."

--"Were you on the boat last night?"

"Um, yeah."

--"Give me your name and email address please."

--"The cost of the cruise in full is refunded back to your account. Please accept our sincere apology."

And so I write this account of a topsy-turvy holiday to you, from where I sit in my studio, proud to be an American.

A New York Minute

2011-07-11T08:57:00.017-04:00

Because I don't journal and because I would like to, I now bullet point my NYC existence.
This is what I did this week:

Ate a large and delicious but healthy Cuban brunch on the 4th of July with The Duchess, Jenny, Tim and April on Smith Street and Degraw. Nothing says America like Cuba, right? It was a great time. We talked about JFK and Barry and Shelly (the nick names that The Duchess has given the Obamas as they are now next door neighbors).
I took deep comfort in the fact that the Duchess had bought a plane ticket on July 3rd from DC to NYC to arrive July 4th. She was rather embarrassed about this luxury but I was both relieved and heart gladdened at the ease at which she is breezing between states.
I trip-tropped to Chelsea Piers in my favorite pair of heels that I immediately removed upon arriving on the boat.
Watched all the Macy's fireworks go off from a boat, floating on the Hudson in bliss so intense it almost gave me a coma.
Witnessed complete anarchy and near mutiny on said boat (Blog post to come. Hilarity to ensue)
Went back to the future and had my very first day at job-job, well, my first day at our new multi-million $$$ offices. The air there smells like money.
Toured the Masonic building, where every single historic room houses an organ. Theodore Roosevelt, Cecil B. Demille and FDR used to hang-out there. Now I hang-out there.
I laughed until I cried with my brother and sister in Madison Square Park's shake shack surrounded by fireflies and fairy lights
I some how persuaded an ice cream man to get out of his truck and do me a favor
I fell asleep during a screening of True Lies <-- who does this?
I hosted my kid sister's NYC vacation all week long
Witnessed my first Jewish Mezuzah ceremony.
I pulled an all-nighter so that I could say ...
I finished a children's book dummy
I had a full day class at CBBC
I made a trip to my very favorite children's book store of all time, 'Books of Wonder'

I watched the Brooklyn Bombshells go head to CRUSHING head with the Queens of Pain (who I fail to link because I know my team loyalty and why would I want to encourage you to visit the enemy's roller derby page?)
I made a remarkably stupid mistake and as a result begun a master calendar for the ages. It is the Parthenon of calendars.
On an amazing sunny Saturday I managed to drink 232 oz of water. Take that, camels.
I spent about two hours teaching a very focused and determined five year old how to remove his thumb optical illusion style
I allowed myself a happy "your welcome!" When his mother thanked me for putting something else to terrify his younger sister with in his bag of tricks
I lost two pounds!
I spent a lovely evening with my little NYC family at Jenmo's. Bananagrams were played. Mint was consumed. A rousing round of Catchphrase managed to happen without resulting in blows. A+
I hosted The Duchess for an evening of hilarity and slumber party goodness any brat pack member would be jealous of.

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

Watching: The Jaycee Dugard Interview
Reading: Home by Marilynne Robinson
Listening to: The Cure, Interpol and Death Cab
Drawing: Pammy Kay
Eating: at Cubana Cafe
Learning: Italian
Coveting: this bike in red
Saving for: a Cintiq

Thumb Wrestling

2011-07-08T10:05:00.002-04:00

Yeah, that's about right.

My Etsy Shop

2011-07-07T14:51:00.002-04:00

My oldest and most wonderful friend, Angela, took these amazing photos of her kids. I decided to play with them, and just like that, my new Etsy Shop was born.

I'm having a lot of fun watching it grow, and playing with photo possibilities. It's another fun thing I'm doing while I add to the aspects of creating with other artists, like the photographers behind the photos I'm illustrating on.

So the possibilities in this little Amberbop Etsy shop are evolving. The process is so so fun. In grand opening excitement, Becky Higgins is giving away 3 custom photo print manipulations from my Etsy Shop tomorrow on her blog. All you have to do is stop by and leave a comment to win

Dream House

2011-07-06T09:31:00.001-04:00

The Duchess found my dreamhouse. We are going to buy it and move to Kokomo. On the off chance it sells whilst we are scratching the 16 million dollars that we need to buy it together, I am posting pictures here to remind me of its grandeur. They'll help me when I am having it rebuilt to exact scale and specification.

Hope we buy it as is. I'm picturing it getting very Pharaoh and the Pyramids if we have to commission excellence we'd probably have to demand.

Of course, that chandelier and the curtains will simply have to go. Jonathan Adler will help me come up with something a tad more suitable for the custom in which I am planning to become accustomed to living.

What are you dreaming of to keep you focused and motivated and happy?

Commute

2011-07-05T09:51:00.000-04:00

A New York Minute

2011-07-04T10:39:00.001-04:00

Because I don't journal and because I would like to, I now bullet point my NYC existence.
This is what I did this week:

I packed up five years worth of job-job in building A and prepared for a move to building B
I found http://www.chictopia.com/ A rank your fashion sense site. Life significantly changed.
I met my goal of posting to She Sure is Sketchy every day for one month. Something that hasn't ever happened in five years of blogging my sketchy thoughts.
I started a new 30 day goal.
I managed to move my ergonomic office chair from 24th and 5th ave to the Penthouse at 302 Court.
I applauded my ability to move said office chair
I listened to a lot of death metal and folk music, not together mind you.
I took a long, long walk through park slope to visit the various friends I have strung all along its distances. On that walk I saw this a kid wearing THIS:
"Isn't it awesome?!!?" she crowed. Oh you have no idea, kid, you have no idea... I thought.
In case you can't make it out. This nine year-old is rocking a shirt that says
"The Unbearable Lightness of Bieber"

I spent a full day with the ever lovely Rachel and her beautiful boy at The Morgan Library and Museum, one of the best things New York has to offer.
Thomas took this one himself. Nice composition, kid.
I made a trip to the sketchiest part of Times Square to pick up some event tickets. It reminded me of that planned parenthood scene in Juno.
I totally watched Juno which led me to..
dust off my Moldy Peaches CDs
I caught up with an old friend, for some really important face-to-face
I mani-d and i pedi-d with Rachel and Emily in preparation for Em's impending nuptials.
I moved two of my bffs, one from the East Village to Sheepshead Bay and one from Brooklyn to D.C. In both of these undertakings I was only a participant of the first leg of the transition. I made lots of supercilious jokes, then...
I came home and cried
I booked a ticket to Florida for the end of this month. I'm expanding my health coach training and I'll be there for four days of sun and knowledge, two of my favorite things
I had a full dose of sissy time. Kid Sister flew in on Saturday morning and she'll be here all week, we're gonna have some fun and some fights, but hopefully mostly fun.
I puppysat my good friend Abby Labby for a few days. She came with a beautiful fairy garden. She has a facebook page.
I spent a full day at Coney Island's new extravaganza of insanity (lunacy?) - Luna Park. I sampled all the various options that Coney Island now is. I shed an inner tear for my Coney Island, the old run down eerie place that I wanted my ashes scattered at. Although, that tear dried quickly whipped away by the wind on this new ride they have called 'The Tickler'. It is the jam.
I ate the most amazing pulled pork sandwich known to man as made by Tim Hanna at an up 'til dawn BBQ with good friends, irreverent conversation and an invasion of Sara Lawrence alumni. It was totally boss.
I taught a lesson on developing your talents. What do you want to have in your back pocket? Right now I am working on taking my Italian from situational to conversational.
Art wise I worked on my children's book
Art wise: Inspired by the Lists exhibit I begun tackling
Pikaland's list of 100 things to draw:
I got closer to starting to clean my apartment (winky face)
I danced in puddles but no rain at Rainbow City with my kid sis and an imagination candy jar of balloon people.
Spent a breezy evening romping along The Highline. It was divine.
...................................................................................................
Watching: Ugly Betty from the first episode. It's all on Netflix Streaming, people!
Reading: One Day by David Nicholls
Listening to: predominately Amon Amrath and The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Drawing: Fairies and Little girls with decisions to make
Eating: at Sweet Melissa
Learning: Italian
Coveting: this bike in red
Saving for: a Cintiq

And that's this week's New York Minute.

...................................................................................................