silkscreen totes & prints for sale!

i haven't exactly been the best about keeping up with my etsy shop ("you have an etsy shop?!"), but i've recently added some new silkscreen prints and cotton totes that i'm pretty proud of. i was able to crank them out with the help of the parsons printshop, so check out my shop here and tell all your friends!

summertime in the city

ahh where to begin?! i think this past week has been especially summer-like. lots of great music, delicious food and good company. last weekend, i went to a cookout at dear daniel's (old roommate) new place. while he put on quite the spread (as usual), i left with more than just a belly full of swiss cheese-stuffed hamburgers and grilled veggies... he passed along some great new music from a uk band called stornoway ("zorbing" is a personal favorite).


we ended up seeing them play last wednesday at union hall in park slope and fell in love... hard. they're brilliant storytellers whose songs bring an enormous smile to my face every time i hear their album. the show was electric, and i get the feeling brooklyn gave them just the reassurance they needed while testing the waters stateside. when they opened with "i saw you blink," their faces lit up as the crowd joined in singing all the words. it was adorable. i'm sure they will be equally as enchanted/ing when they return to nyc in november :)

i also caught bear in heaven at the south street seaport last friday as part of the river to river free concert series. such a stellar show! seriously hypnotic (strobe light aside). their energy was contagious, and the whole experience totally exceeded my expectations (which were already high to begin with). "you do you" and "lovesick teenagers" are my jams, but the entire album is amazing. i think they're touring this summer, so everyone should try to get in on that action. you certainly won't be disappointed.

summer's only half-way over, so there's a lot more good music to come i'm sure. the jelly pool parties started up this weekend, so those will become a summer fixture throughout july and august no doubt. man, summertime in the city is pretty great.

crafty brooklyn

mccarren park (williamsburg) was home to the sixth annual renegade craft fair this weekend. while i adored a lot of the booths (from hand-printed stationery to hand-thrown pottery), i particularly loved thief & bandit. i walked away with this neat native american-inspired poncho. while i'm not sure i'm the greatest at pulling off the crop top/poncho look, my native american infatuation is satisfied for the time being (i blame my dad with his arrowhead and dream catcher collections!).

(im)pressed

if i could re-do my entire college experience, i would major in printmaking. since i don't like having regrets in life, i'll settle for continuing ed classes. i love letterpress more than... almost anything, so i'm looking forward to trying my hand at it in the near future.

here's a little something that caught my eye recently: a lovely little calendar from linda & harriet. i want!

the most evident utensil

everyone knows a good pen is hard to find, and some of us can be pretty particular when it comes to choosing our preferred writing utensil (ballpoint vs. ink well, etc.). so, when i saw that seltzer goods now carries a seven year pen, i breathed a sigh of relief. there's nothing worse than getting into the rhythm of using a certain pen only to have it poop out on you after a day or two (this coming from someone who does her fair share of inking up college admission applications). rest assured i've put in my order for one of these little guys to test it out for myself. i'll report back on the validity of their seven-year claim after, well, a couple years, i suppose. you have to admit the pen designs are pretty adorable...

manhattan

thanks to an old episode of mad men that i watched recently, i've just fallen even more in love with ella fitzgerald (and new york, of course). ella covered a song called "manhattan" on the album ella fitzgerald sings the rodgers and hart songbook in 1956. it's truly a gem, and makes me smile (like ella, billie holiday and sarah vaughan normally do). give it a listen and tell me it doesn't make you wish you were dancing on the brooklyn bridge with gene kelly... just me? ok. well, listen regardless :)

go do

i had completely lost track of the sigur rós side project of lead singer jón (jónsi) birgisson until my friend jake reminded me the other week. i bought jónsi's new album sunday night and haven't been able to stop listening since! (i'm sure my neighbors are really angry that i've been playing it so loud lately, but that probably makes us even for their loud... talking.)

the first two songs on the album, "go do" and "animal arithmetic," are my favorite and make me want to dance so hard. if i wasn't listening to them on my ipod on a crowded train to work in the morning, i would be dancing up a storm for sure! my friend jean and i are going to see jónsi play the second weekend in may, but until then, i'm going to watch these videos on repeat:

"go do"

"sinking friendships"