Archive for the ‘New’ Category

With a lovely, long holiday weekend what else would you wanna do but sit on a roof top sipping mimosas with friends and shopping for pretty little things. Williamsburg!

Hey it’s Easter so why not start at my favorite  boutique of girly wonders. “Catbird” ! If you love strange, earthly, delicate jewelry inspired by the natural world this is your store. So much eye candy, my basket overfloweth.

I love to ogle the precious gems, sculpted silver and brass things.

The swan earrings and little bird wristlets make me swoon.

Great little plates for just about anything in your boudoir.

I love these little doll arm hooks.

Who wouldn’t feel like a Goddess with this opulent octopus ring on?

Soooo pretty but I couldn’t get the posts to stay in my ears. So I got these little cicadas instead…

Such a sunny cool day, we found a great cafe, Juliette and made our way to the roof top.

So nice to finally feel the sun on our faces…

The food was good, the place was” hopping” with mimosas for all!

After taking communion in the sun we set out to find more curiosities of delight.

This boutique b conte had lots of great silk dresses, billowy tops and accessories galore. This girl was so much fun, showing me around and telling me about the new merchandise.

Ironically, everything was expensive at “In God We Trust”. I liked some pretty little necklaces with messages that made me giggle in a dirty little girly way. They also have a great selection of vintage inspired carpet bags and engraved flasks.

If you Like Vintage…

Amarcord has some great finds.

Monk Vintage : a huge place with a lot of personality. I thoroughly enjoyed these red phone booth changing rooms. What an awesome idea for a boutique.

Then it was Up to East Village to Tokyo 7! My favorite Designer consignment shop.

This awesome  jacket was on the mannequin for a cool $1,800. I was smitten. Turns out it was custom made for Britney Spears, which made it a little less desirable.

I walked away with this really cool scarf instead. I can’t wait to wear it over a tank top and jeans, sooooo rock n roll.

My companion walked away with this wicked cool T-shirt, it’s one  part Rorschach and 2 parts burn out photo x-ray of lungs. I totally dig it. I would have snatched it right out her grubby little fingers if I had any sense about me. Word is, she cut the cap sleeves off. MURDERER! ;P

Those were the highlights of Williamsburg Easter 2012 street style shopping my Samurai Mamas!

I’ll just leave you with this ethereal window decor bathed in sunlight. Meditate on it a while…Do you feel that? It’s Spriiiiiiiing!

It’s spring! and you know what that means!? Time to crawl out of the dark hole you been in and find beauty in the world again. Such a lovely long holiday weekend I took myself to Williamsburg for some shopping and mimosas with the cool kids.

“Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.”

(shopping blog post to follow, stay tuned. I found some pretty little things in lovely little places.)

This post however, is about all the beautiful, ugly, ironic, and just plain inspiring things I saw along the way. It’s Brooklyn, a giant collage of strange and cool. So walk with me if you would…

The Future Perfect…

Don’t Panic!

“Life is Hard, but Not Today”

“The World ain’t always Disney”

“You’re Face to Face with the Man Who Sold the World”

“Not Swallowed in the Sea”

“Helping Hands Will Show You the Way”

“Which Way Would You Like To GO?”

“There is a Crack in Everything,That’s How the Light Gets In”

“No More Pipe Dreams”

“The World Turned on it’s End”

But Everything’s Coming Up Roses”

“You’ve Got Tulips: Speak”

“You’ll Find Home…”

“…When You’ve Found Yourself”

When last we spoke in part 1 , I discussed color and living up your life with it. I hope yall went and got some paint chips and played with some crazy ideas. Cuz now, I’munnah show you how I arrived at the favorite place I call home.

After playing at Home Depot’s paint department I landed on this color selection:

Once I picked these colors, I wanted an idea of what my new space would look like and how I would arrange the color blocks from room to room. Photoshop and a few pictures of the empty rooms and I had a sense of what I wanted to do. What a great invention Photoshop is, you can play all you want without making expensive mistakes “Undo” is a wonderful thing.

I was so excited, I emailed pics to my family… When it got back to me that my uncle commented “I can see why she’s in a hurry to paint, the place looks like a damn circus!” I KNEW I was on the right track!

Once the painting was done and I had finally moved in, it was time to fill in the space with new furniture. Bajeezeees, where to start? I knew I didn’t want ordinary stuff, or those fake out couches that aren’t really comfortable to sit on anyway. So it took a long time and a lot of searching. Then I found this pimped out ride at Raymour & Flanigan.

There is a fourth piece and they all snap together to make a queen sized bounce house. You KNOW how much I love bounce houses? A LOT! I love this couch and the color is so me, RED! It also came in chocolate for all you neutral peeps out there.

I’m a big fan of irony, and I always wanted my space to look like some kind of modern apothecary/art museum. So my bug collection, as well as the coolest urban home accessory I ever found, I named him “Emerson” as in Ralph Waldo. I was going to paint him to match the wall but I really liked the wood color so he remains a naturalist.

In keeping with my obsession of the color red, I proceeded to call my dining room the “Zen Room” this would be an artful area to dine in and entertain. Going high/low with furniture purchases is an easy peezy task with Ikea and the selection of inexpensive basics. My two hutches make excellent storage for all my portfolio stuff, photo reference and fashion swipes. The inspiring Gustav Klimt painting is also an Ikea find. It pairs beautifully with the art prints of David Mack and Andy Lee that I acquisitioned at comic conventions through the years.

That green doorway leads into the kitchen where my other creative juices flow.

How about personal space? The bedroom and the bathroom tend to be neglected and where we leave a mess. Sure, few people will see it, but the clutter and disorder affect you weather you know it or not. I try to keep mine as tidy, colorful and cozy as possible. Since the bathroom is the first place you hit in the morning it should be a happy place where you can easily find your way to the world.

I went with the color purple and a sage green in the bathroom and the cream colored fixtures soften everything into a feminine “powder room”. I love it. It is also a good idea to paint your bathroom in a color that compliments your skin tone. You should always look beautiful when you look into your own mirror, I say.

Girl power originated in the 80’s with “Punky Brewster“,” Jem” and “My Little Pony” so this little ComicCon exclusive rocks my little girly world.

A little nod to “Alice in Wonderland“  cuz that’s how I roll (out of bed). Surround yourself with things that inspire you, even in the bathroom.

The bed room: it should be the cozy, comfy, nucleus of your life. Think about it…this is where you drag your tired bones at the end of the day and seek solace.  Leaving clothes strung about and bits of things everywhere is no way to unwind. But surrounding yourself with the comforts of fabric, colors, and photographs of things that bring you joy are great for this space. I always wanted a canopy bed since I was a kid. I love closing the curtains and waking up with the sun coming through.

Sometimes though, you need to include a work space in the bed room. Though it is not recommended by certain Feng Shui experts, I say, if it inspires you and you keep it orderly (most of the time) Do it!

Fashion is a part of my life and what inspires me. Having my dress form and occasionally, a new design hanging up, makes me so happy to get out of bed and get to work.

Work space! Now you’re probably saying, “Right, all this cleanliness is godliness, how are you suppose to get your artist on if everything has to be tidy? “

You neeeeeed your work space, and it should be a place you don’t have to clean up and move things out the way just to eat your Lucky Charms. But it SHOULD be inspiring and conducive to FLOW.  Find a corner, a closet, under the stairs, in the basement or ANYWHERE that is yours, for your drafting table or a card table or whatever. Pin things to the wall, have action figures, porcelain dolls or whatever you like in that space.

Wall of Inspiration

Be sure and keep lots of books for inspiration and reference. Someone awesome once said “A room without books is like a body without a soul”.

I have a thinking corner which is also my “design” area. This is where I have tea every Saturday and Sunday and plan out creative projects for the day. I journal here and thumb through art books and tear sheets.

Speckled throughout the apartment are little things that I call “Ironic Home Goods” little pieces of art that make me giggle when I see them. Things I’ve bought on line or assembled out of things I have.

This hand is a design by Harry Allen; there are several designs, this one holds my keys at the door.

“Edgar” not only provides skull reference but watches over my thinking corner with his “one eye”, a nod to the “Tell Tale Heart“.

“Thoreau” lives in a corner, quietly content. He was a gift from a wonderful friend of mine.

Fill your life with all the things you love, be creative and live artfully. You’ll experience creative “flow”. A professor of mine at SCAD use to write on the board every day:

” SERIOUS WORK IS BORN FROM SERIOUS PLAY”

It’s a mantra worth repeating in all aspects of your life.

And so my friends, that is a look into the world I live and create in. I hope you are now inspired to make a place for yourselves in which you love to “Be” and “Do” in your own “Artist’s Way”.

A few of my favorite on line places to find “Ironic Home Goods” are:

Unica Home

Uncommon Goods

A&R

Fishs Eddy

Lekker Home

Well Dressed Home

W Hotels Store

Anthropologie

Apartment Therapy

Cafe Press

Kaboodle

Y Living

Dwell Studio

notNeutral

ZIPPERgifts

I’m a big fan of peeping in windows as I drive down streets to see how people live. What colors are the walls? What things do they surround themselves with?  Does it look like a happy place to live? You can tell a lot about a person by the respect they show for their living space.

It seems like everyone has that corner of a room or home, or yard that they just hate to walk by but get use to. I really think that exposing yourself to clutter and unhappy places in your house hinders creativity and well being. It’s just bad feng shui and “You don’t have to take it”!

People often say they want color in their life but are afraid to paint the walls, or buy large furniture in COLOR.  Why not  color your life happy?  I recently moved into a bigger creative space and designed myself a pretty cool pad. So I’m writing this to help you figure out how to decorate your happy place, starting with color!

Enter my coveted issue of Home and Garden April 2000.

How to use COLOR!! I got this issue when I was still in college, and I loved to look at the ideas and use of color in spaces and dream about how I would design my space, post dorm life.

I love this color story, very modern, clean, lively and crisp.

I have always insisted on having the coolest pad I can no matter where I live, or what my budget is. I want to love my space and feel at home in the warmest way.

How about a warm inviting elegant and sophisticated arrangement?

I Love the color red, and I have always been inspired by Ms. DianaVreeland’s “Red Room” It’s so “Moulin Rouge“!

Or how about a playful use of color?

Have you ever stopped to consider green?

Or get really crazy and go with pattern AND bold color!

Soft neutrals don’t HAVE to be boring…

So, think about what colors make you happy, go to Home Depot pick all your favorite colors no matter how dark, bold, or  acid and pretend you could do ANYTHING you want with them.  Once you’ve got a few color pallets laid out, come back here for the second part where I show you how I arrived at a happy place with my wicked cool newish art studio/living space.

There is nothing I hate more than being bored. Holiday traveling always means an excruciating amount of waiting in line, in terminals, in planes, utterly uninspired, to say the least. I’d way rather be painting in my studio, listening to Florence and the Machine. But you know, there is a way not to have to stare at the blank faces of dazed travelers and white walls of sanitarium terminals.

It’s true! it just takes a smidge amount of forethought and some key supply purchases. Check my set up on the tiny plane I took over the hills and through the woods to Grandma’s house…

I got my Florence and Snow Patrol fix with my beloved ipod, (for instant MOOD  just add Cherry Anger play list). The compact watercolor set by Windsor and Newton. My small lil cup o water disguised as a Noxzema 3.0 travel jar, and the best and largest brushes I can afford. Personally, I mostly paint with my Squirrel mop brush and a 12, 10, and 8 round as well as a 1″ flat. A rigger is good detail fun and tons of  paper towels by Viva fo sho.

See, since terminals rarely offer inspirational brain food I tend to keep boxes of swipes and tear sheets under my bed and stuffed in my sketchbook. A fist full of random images accompany me on most trips. I pull a lot from fashion magazines and photos I take around the city. It’s up to you to build your reference library. “Build it and they will come”… ideas I mean. What’s important is to keep the flow.

A very wise professor at SCAD once said “If you’re bored, you’re boring”. So true Cap’n, so true.

Check out this hot bustier and peplum skirt from the 2012 Garrott collection. It’s called “I a Dior You” and it’s a classic. Now available for wholesale and retail contact garrott@garrottdesigns.com for details.

Alexander McQueen is the single most significant designer and influence in my life and career as a fashion designer and artist.  McQueen’s rise coincided with my education from 1997-2004. I recall some of the most significant images and designs as I collected reference and struggled to build my own artistic identity. I can’t begin to tell you how significant it all was and still is, but I can tell you how amazing it was to visit the exhibit Savage Beauty at the MET. ( Showing through August 7th)

Cameras are not allowed in the exhibition, however, the initial crowd was such that I was able to get away with a few shots of my own. (sorry MET I hope you understand) But the book sold at the exhibit and on Amazon has amazing photos in it and well worth the purchase. It has a cool hologram cover that will enthrall you.

McQueen’s impeccable tailoring and draping are unparalleled. No one will ever have access to the education and knowledge he had. The resources, sadly, are disappearing from the world and virtually non-existent in the United States.

Here are a few of my favorite pieces from the exhibit. I love the way he did asymmetrical pleating and draping across the body. It’s definitely a design element I incorporate into my collections.

As well as his use of leather and skins…

A conceptual designer; he told a story in all of his collections with a head to toe look, accessories were as much a part of the design as each garment.

He pulled as much from nature as he did from the technology of his craft…

He could merge culture with tradition, the sublime with the macabre and reinvent the standard of beauty in the doing and undoing of it all. For the first time fashion had feeling not just mood.

It will be interesting to see how Sarah Burton, McQueen’s understudy for over a decade, will continue the house. It will also be interesting to see how the future of fashion is changed by the death of what may be the last of quality and informed genius.

“He created a world for himself where he could do anything he wanted to do, with no constraints, no merchandiser coming upstairs and asking, ‘Where’s my three-button jacket?’ That’s very rare in fashion.” – Sarah Burton

It’s true, the commercial side of fashion will always demand functional, cost effective product that targets a variety of consumers. However, I hope that fashion will continue to value those who put forth a creative and experimental approach to what can be done in fashion. It is an art, and to many, the forefront of personal expression.

Check out this interview with NPR’s Leonard Lopate and the MET’s curator for the show Andrew Bolton, here.

As I go back and forth between my design studio and my art studio there is a persistent feeling in the back of my mind. The voice in my head gets louder and louder until I finally stop and notice. “This place is a fargin mess!” it says.

Eventually, it will cloud my mind and my ability to think straight. It has already begun to slow me down. When I move something, something else falls over. I can’t find my sewing sheers because they are buried under mounds of fabric.

I am surprised I can still carry a coherent conversation with myself.

Sooner or later I am going to have to commit a weekend to cleaning this stuff up instead of making stuff up.

The voice in my head stomps it’s foot and asks “WHEN?!” I set down my coffee, turn up the music and mutter to myself

” not today”