Here On the Street Where I Live

I love my neighborhood. If you google 'Carroll Gardens' it is not hard to see why. 

This weekend, after my eight hour Children's book intensive, I walked a new friend to the train. She could not stop gushing, 

"It's like you live in EUROPE!" 

--um...Yeah, I know.

I've said it before, but this is the best part of sharing the best part of New York my home with people. I look at it with fresh eyes when I am explaining its significance in my life.

Today I was going to review a book I bought a while ago on a visit to Community Book Store, but I decided -frack that. Instead I'm going to start by telling you about Community Book Store. I'll review the book later, and you'll appreciate it more, knowing that it was a diamond in the rough.  First, Let's look at this beautiful picture of my favorite neighborhood bookstore, taken in 1972....

LIES.

This was taken two weeks ago.
Have I mentioned that I love it here?If you make it through the front door, this is what you will find: 

This is the sorted part. As you fight your way further into the recesses of the store, things get sordid. It smells like dust and like books that have been well loved.

The part I like best is that you will never ever know what you will find. Like, for serious.For instance, I once found a turn of the century porno. It had a lovely dove blue cover and a letter pressed title. Five pages in, petticoats were being ripped off in hot passion, or excuse me in piquant moments of rapture. It was published in 1902. I've never used the word "score!" more appropriately as when it I unearthed it from a box of dusty tombs.

I have found long forgotten, terribly important children's books from my past here, cook books that fill me with glee (and butter), instructional encyclopedias that later assisted me in the fixing of sink pipes and the kind of monumental beautiful picture books that are made with hand etched plates.

The store is owned and presided over by The Bookman of Cobble Hill. I was going to put a picture that I took of The Bookman here, but Jacob Murphy, always does it best. See the rest of his beautiful series here.

The amazing thing is that even with the chaos and depth of The Community Book Store, The Bookman, knows where everything is. 

I showed up there a few weeks ago needing a copy of 'A Town Like Alice' for a birthday gift. We had one of our typical exchanges:

Me: 'Do you have A Town Like Alice?

Him: "A Town Like Alice, A Town Like Alice... A Town Like Alice............"Nevile Shute?"

The process is ten kinds of wonderful. He will give you a brand new copy, new releases and stuff publishers are releasing now (usually for 10-20% off list) are up front behind his 'desk'.

If a new copy isn't in his possession, he'll climb deep into the store, moving boxes, re-stacking piles of hardbacks, sometimes even reaching behind books in the shelves, they're stacked two deep. Then he'll simply hand you the volume you're in need of. 

A lot of times if I know I want something new, I'll have him order it for me. Afterall, I'm always looking for an excuse to stop by and see what's 'new' on the corner of Court and Warren.

Simply adding to the eccentricity of this dusty shop of horrors/wonders, The Bookman doesn't really keep typical hours.

On  breezy Summer nights you'll find him smoking his pipe on the  open store's steps well into the late hours of the night. Other times there will be a hand lettered cardboard sign in the window saying something like 'Gone until August - Vacation'. That is what I wanted to tell you about the street where I live today.

My Creative Space - This is my desk:

This is my desk on "work".
I've been watching a lot of PSAs lately as I'm studying to get my permit. At 28 I figure it's probably time to learn to drive.

On the fateful day I invented 'Baby Mermaids' the brilliant Sandra Gaddis and I were running on sleeplessness, giggles and hot tea. Apparently this is the exact mix I need for pure genius. It's been years since the spark that made Baby Mermaids, and nothing as creatively spectacular or clarifying has happened to me since, until....

What we will call THE PERFECT STORM (which happened today) I had a semi-lame but acceptable blog post ready to roll and scheduled to go live. I planned to be in bed hours ago, but this PERFECT STORM must be shared, and shared with you now on the evening of its birth.

On Sunday night my friend Sam brought me these.
HAVE YOU EVER SEEN ANYTHING MORE ENCHANTING?

(Incidentally if it's years since this post has happened and my future husband is reading the archives of this blog in our penthouse apartment across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I want you to know I never expect these blooms to be topped, so no pressure)

At one point this rainbow bouquet must have been a bunch of white roses. It seems they were somehow magically dyed to become rainbow blooms. They have been in a place of honor on the windowsill since the fateful day they were delivered. This afternoon after days of not sleeping and pushing myself too hard between job-job and licensing clients and follow up from Surtex (it feels like months since I've had a weekend) AKA PERFECT STORM... I panicked in a way that only happens when you are delusional from not sleeping. What if they were getting too much sun?! I picked them up and moved them to the kitchen table out of the harm of gama sun rays.

In the process one perfect petal fell from its rose and in theatrical Beauty and the Beast style floated to the table....

I was instantly devastated, proof that I need to go to bed. BUT THEN, my eyes did that criss-crossy thing that they do when you are looking at a magic eye poster or smoking crack ;)

In fast non-thinking trans like motions I started tearing petals. One after another.

At 8:00PM - prior to the next creative chapter in my life, my workdesk looked like this.



It's obvious what we're looking at here, right?
.
.
.
.
RIGHT?
OK, if you can't see them, maybe you're a healthy girl who goes to bed and remembers to eat ;)

They're fairy wings!!!
In homage to the masses of UK followers we have here, I thought they would start out sharing a spot of tea. As in, "would you care to join me for a cup of tea?"

They weren't working out exactly the way I had imagined in the moment that I'd cannibalized my bouquet of beauty. Exhausted and blurry eyed I crawled to the kitchen, driven by the power of suggestion to brew a cup of Earl Grey...

PERFECT STORM!

It's going to be hard to sit through job-job all day. I've got fairies to develop! Funny how we're only tired until we're lit up with an idea.

Now spit-spot - Off to Julia's to peek at all the other desks,
you know, the ones that aren't presided over by sleep starved idiots ;)

SO? We have these girlies sharing a cuppa hot tea.
What else do you think Photo Fairies do? I think they go to the beach, for sure.

Cupcake Fondue for Twenty

Early in 2011 a conversation with the duchess took a turn for the ridiculous. We were giggly in that way that is tearful.

"You know what I'm tired of?!," I crowed. I'm tired of fondue. What's so great about it anyway?! I mean if it was less about cheese and more about cupcakes, I could maybe get behind the trend. You know what I want? Cupcake fondue, that's what I want!"

In hindsight it was really just a spoiled Verruca Salt declaration of sorts.

Then the Duchess' 27th birthday rolled around. In essence she stood on top of a golden egg chute and hollered, "Amber I want cupcake fondue! I want it NOW!"

So I threw myself into the creation of this pipe dream of possibility and cake.

This baking invention consisted of both dark devil chocolate cupcakes and rum cupcakes. The rum baked out of the cupcakes a bit too much for my liking and so the spray bottle upon the table is a 'rum spritzer'. In these situations, it's really important to step back and think WWLillyAllenD?

I decided on three base fondues, one was a lemony sugar explosion, by the end of the evening it was dubbed liquid death for it's ability to take a healthy person to a type 2 diabetic in under an evening, another was a liquidy banana pudding, and my favorite was old school dark chocolate. After that I just went crazy and came up with as many small dishes of things to top the fondue off as possible. Since we're in Brooklyn that ranged from bacon to basil, strawberries to skittles, pretzels to pop rocks. It was pretty rad. Plus, it was fun to push myself creatively.

The inagural run of cupcake fondue happened on a beautiful albeit freezing day in the midst of a pretty bitchin' 80s party. I couldn't have asked for a better unveiling. Here are some of my the merry revelers amongst the throng.

In this photo Sean is wearing the world's most amazing velor track suit top of all time. There is an awesome Olympic story that goes with it and for that he wins best true 80s attire of the evening.

Jen Mo models a blue jean bow earring and matching scrunchie,
a commentary on socio-political undertones in the NKOTB era.

Oh the tights! The tights!

My favorite birthday girl of all time. I'd rather rock with the Duchess than Jessie Spanno, and if that's not 80s love, I don't pretend to know what is.

This is a boy from another life. He slammed into my Brooklyn existence John Cusack style this year. Yes, that's a lightning bolt earring. It's bright orange. I wish I were wearing it right now.


Here the duchess blows out candles on three of the worlds most beautiful mini cupcake fondue offerings as invented by Ashley and Rachel. I wish we had a better picture of them, but right after this happened 'You Can't Touch This' came on over the speakers and you know... less important things were neglected.

It's officially impossible to have an 80s party with out a sexy ginger.
Meagan made sure that Molly Ringwald would have felt dowdy at this par-tay.


Hmm... needs more Aquanet.

Ashley not only had full command of the hairspray,
but she rocked my favorite pants of the evening


AND she designed this!

Is it not the most 80s-riffic invite you have ever seen?!
I'm glad I live in Brooklyn, where important things get done.

30x30 - Theme party. Thrown.

A Bloody Good Time

Anytime I see coverage of my Friday morning, the headlines read
'NEW YORK CITY CATCHES ROYAL WEDDING FEVER
AND DUMBO IS THE EPICENTER OF THE PLAGUE'

If the hotbed of the scourge included tea and crumpets -
then yes, that's what happened.

Yesterday I jumped from bed prior to the crack of dawn and started my Wedding Day March. Twenty minutes later I arrived down under the Manhattan Bridge to hold vigil with my most favorite friends (I'm qualifying most as people up at 4:30 am for another harebrained adventure). We sported smiles and our best hats to bid a proper goodbye to Prince Wills and the teenage hopes and dreams we've wrapped him up in since he looked like this:
*SIGH*

Let it be known throughout the land, that on the beautiful Friday morning I came to say 'goodbye' my smile was mostly happy and only a sliver of wistful.

I like this photo for the sun that bleaches my face Britt.

There is no room for the remnant of a Bahamian tan upon my countenance this day. I'd be royally ashamed, as Victoria Beckham should be ashamed.

Luckily, yesterday's event was the perfect venue for The Duchess' royal wave. Years of being rolled out at events such as this has allowed her to truly perfect her light bulb twisting technique.

We sit quite silent as the future Duchess of Cornwall cascades down the aisle. She reaches the Abbey's English garden culdesac. Side note: was I the only one running the Kink's Dead End Street over in my mind during this part? We collectively lean forward, sigh and then raise our arms, free to whoop and holler in the perfect acoustic bell of the Manhattan Bridge's underbelly, far away from the solemn air of Westminster Abbey.

This was one of the half-dozen cheering points that we partook of liberally with our crowd of classy new friends. I had a particular enjoyable conversation with a foil crown adorned, fur coat wearing, Great Dane toting blonde over the ratio of Valium to lace one should consume on the morn of your World Wide televised nuptials.

Of course then it was time to wave the Union Jack.

At this point we're thisclose to forming a receiving line with all our new friends.

It's true what they say, nothing brings people together like a wedding!

Now I'm off to The Duchess' Royal Salon to have my locks lopped off. My tresses are tres' excited. The cut is in honor of the weekend's second wedding which I shall attend on the morrow. I feel a tad guilty about not tending to my hair prior to Wills' and Kate's nuptials. At the same time I am also feeling slightly guilty for the blog post that I probably will not blog and the whooping that I will not most likely not whoop over tomorrow's union. Although, I am sure that it will also, in the words of the queen, be "quite lovely, after all".

Coffee Break

Remember a few weeks ago when I blogged about my daily afternoon constitutional NYC side? Remember when I told you all about Starbucks and my fancy new coffee tumblr?



This morning I got texts from all over the globe alerting me as such:
"I JUST SAW THE STARBUCKS COMMERCIAL. SO RAD!!!"

Now you can see the Starbucks Commercial too!!



AND. AND. If you are reading this and it's still the 15th of April, you can shimmy on down to your local Starbux and get yourself a cuppa on the house, if you're taking the pledge and saving the world, that is, one cup at a time.

A Serious Subject - A Typical Day in New York

This morning at 11:42 AM I recieved a phone call. This call came from my good "friend" Christian who has been MIA from Manhattan for far too long. He called me why? To tell me A) That he loved my NYC - centric post from yesterday and B) That he just didn't believe it.

When I challenged him he airily replied, "Oh, I believe that you saw all that stuff yesterday, I just don't believe that's typical."

-- "Oh yeah, Christian? I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed!"
(Thanks Shakespeare) Seriously, there were probably better things to say but that's my go to when someone tries to throw down. The Bard is often my first defense.

I decided to deny the hunger pains that set in around 1:30 and wait until 2:48 When Christian promised he would meet me so I could recreate the events of yesterday for his jaded eyes.

He showed up and told me that he had to run to 18th Street to pick up a book he'd ordered from our favorite travel store there. He'd already eaten! I was indigent. The nerve! He explained that he was STARVING by 1:30 and he couldn't hold out. Even though he couldn't get to the Flat Iron District before 3, he could get to Chinese food by 2.

FINE.
I called my mom and sulked in the sun while I woofed down my lunch. Seriously, how does lunch taste SO much better at 3:15 than it does at 1:00? My need to win this battle became more acute. OH we'd just see who'd win this one...oh yes we would. (Spoiler Alert - I probably wouldn't blog about this if it documented my defeat).

Coffee Tree Art being meticulously built by Starbucks in the main court in front of the Flat Iron?
CHECK

One of the happy results of going out there to see this again was the baffling progress on it.

Also one of the cute boys from yesterday actually remembered me (score!) and let me look at the grid they were using to arrange these cups. It looks like a gigantic cross stitch grid. Yay for needle crafters.

OH AND he let me get in past the barriers they'd had to put up to keep the crazy crowds from stepping too close to the coffee and cocoa filled cups of color.

I'll admit that if I hadn't been given the chance to get this close to them I might have died. They were the flame to my moth. They will totally serve as prime inspiration for the next set of coffee illustrations I tackle. It was so hard to not touch them.

"Seeeeeeeee?" I demanded of Christian.

--"Yeah, but what about a model shoot. I bet that doesn't always happen here."

I scanned the crowd of late afternoon lurkers. "OH YO, OH YO" I found several small groups of women who were for some reason unable to keep the attention of their husbands/boyfriends/coworkers. Why? Why were these women suddenly powerless? Why did they sound like Charlie Brown's teachers? Why were the men ALL staring slack jawed into space?

Oh I know:

I had to get back to job-job so we didn't have time to go wandering in the park.

On the way back we almost walked smack into Chris March, who I see at least three times a week. He was carrying a huge bag from MJ Trimmings - typical. In a sad display for gay-men-who-hate-stereotypes everywhere, Christian practically fell over in signs of awe amazed worship. "I LOVE the dress you designed for Marlyn at the OSCARS" he practically yelled. I about died. Fawning over celebrities and designers is so not New York, especially when you're just going through a typical NYC day. Sadly for Christian by this point I'd buried my camera in my bottomless BoHo bag.

"Do you think if I come out next week we'll see him again and I can take my picture with him THEN?!"
--"Oh yes, my friend, I'd say it's pretty likely...."

Yay for Spring, Friday, Friends, and WINNING!
Happy Friday! Thank Goodness it's here.

Back to the Drawing Board!

So. Ok. I'm not exactly back to the drawing board.

Well I am, but I'm not really showing you anything new today - I'm mainly doing my annual, 'OH Man, January's over and I haven't posted anything on this blog and thank you for still following me and claiming to love me and not abandoning me as I have abandoned you' post.

I wish I knew how to quit you! It's disgusting how much I think about the fact I haven't blogged when I take an accidental hiatus. I worry about it way more than when I worry that I haven't showered recently enough.

Here's the skinny:

• I played in a lot of snow this month. LOTS. And then a little bit of snow. Just a little bit.
  

  
  

• I threw wax with my friends

This is my annual tradition and it's pretty dang important.
It is one of my favorite memories from my childhood and one I hold onto with an iron fist. If it is New Years Eve wax must be thrown.
Use a double boiler, melt paraffin and take turns tossing a cup of wax into freezing cold water one at a time. The wax makes sharp relief sculptures, predicting your future for the coming year.
Apparently my year will have something to do with a baby-bunting. Let's hope Jen gets bored with bebe and decides she'd rather I take care of him full-time while she pops in on weekends. Would I get maternity leave for adopting? Here at She Sure is Sketchy we never shy away from the important questions.

• I brunched.I brunched a lot.
  
  (This brunch was my yummiest and one of the most fun. Of course it happened with JenMO and Bebe)
  

• With the help two of my amazing besties Tess and JenMO I planned an adult/kid's birthday party of dreams Here was my invite: We ate PB&Js and drank fancy Shirley Temples and Capri Suns. Made Orange Smiles. We drew on the wall. We played Pick Up Sticks and watched Tail Spin.
  
  Ten minutes into the night my camera died. Other than that the night was perfect. We laughed until we cried.
  We sent Slinkys down my brownstone stairs and made up new games with retro toys and gigantic gumballs too big to chew. I was riffling through the freezer for more ice and Otterpops when the entire apartment went dark. It was so sudden and so unexpected that I had forgotten that that is what happens when it is your birthday and candles need to be blown out.
  
  We New Yorkers were SURE the power was out...the collective grown right before my lit cupcake made its way down the hallway to be wished upon made the novelty of candle bowing even better. And yes... that's a Barbie Girl tattoo on my chest.

The evening's perfect pink and violet cupcakes/wish makers were provided
by Rachel, my go to baking genius friend.
(They made the perfect morning after breakfast too)

Here she is with puppet master, Jill. And yessssssss they're both sporting Barbie Girl tattoos.
I told you we partied like it was 1990.

Everyone was rad and we played with vintage toys. My gifts included a Bedazzler for my purse and crayon candles and new sketch stuff and jewelry and a green house full of flowers and a hand drawn Twilight coloring book and beautiful bound version of The Secret Garden and tons and tons of other amazing things that I love and adore and now use all the time.
Since we're bullet-pointing our way thru January:

• I had my birthday.
  It was most awesome. Seriously.
  Under the word 'awesome' in the Marion-Webster there is a reference to my 28th birthday party. It also met a 30x30 - it was a theme party and it was thrown.
  

• Every evening at job-job I watched the Chrysler Building turn pink in the sunset outside my window.Yay for pink.

• I spent three days with the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.Consider my world rocked.

• I am now totally Twitterpated - Check out that shiny new sidebar.
  You can follow me at www.Twitter.com/SheSureis
  
  
• I finished a movie about 'Perimeters' at job-job.
  
  
• I had a Crumbs Cupcake every week but the first during birthday month 2010 28 is going to be just FINE.

• I broke up with this really nice kid who loves reading the way I love sketching. The downside is that when I sketch I can still talk and when you read as voraciously as I draw you don't have time for a life. Also, they were boring books, mostly about Jewish politics. In the words of the Duchess of Justice - Good Riddance.

• I took a three day Latin Dance Class - where it was further proved to me that I am maybe adopted.

• I designed a new line for licensing -ohmigosh it might be my favorite line to date, it's a toss up between Baby Mermaids and this new line - It'll be unveiled in May.

• I wrote a children's book about an Ostrich named Sid. - He's convinced he wants to be a reporter and his family would rather he keep his head in the sand. It's funny. I think it's funny. I'm pitching it as a good book to open up discussion about the world around us.

• I got a two-hour long deep tissue massage at fancy-smancy spa as a gift from one of my clients. I didn't know clients could give gifts like that but I feel like you should know it, especially if you read this blog because you're one of my clients....
  

• I babysat a cat. His name was Miles
  

• I crafted

• Oh and I totally watched Twilight.(maybe twice)

I wonder what birthday-month 2011 will bring!
Raise your glass, loves. Here's to another good year!Alright! I rub my hands together, slap myself in the face and finally, finally
GET BACK TO WORK!
So that's where I've been and now we're caught up.
It's onward from here my loves!
Woot!

P.S. This birthday month catch-up was brought to you by the letter 'A'

for Awesome, Amazing, and All done