These were a major score at the animal shelter thrift shop down in Brick. My favorite by far is the Burda mag featuring lots of sewing patterns for “young fashion”. Though I don’t knit or crochet, I am very glad to have found all of these old homemaker craft mags, particularly the ones from the 1940s and mid-60s.
Polka dot fabric, and white woven shoes complete my happiness.
The hallways of the school where Rock Camp is held. Brooklyn, NY.
Backstage at the showcase yesterday at The Knitting Factory.
The vintage suitcase held lights I never had to use.
This week at the Liberty Humane Society, we have a fine selection for you:
Dynasty.
A pretty, brindled pit whose name I cannot recall.
But what I was most excited about, and keep in mind that I’m biased (big time) were these two german shepherds. They are both going to get good homes right away, because they are just so beautiful. I know I’ve mentioned before my entire family is obsessed with shepherds, so this was a real privilege to photograph:
Vaccinated and passed the food aggression test.
Enjoys playing with toys, good dog for an active family.
At the perfect age for obedience training.
The best part of a german shepherd is the nose in your face.
And this part is good for scratching.
Muffin: around 5 years old.
Also vaccinated and passed the food aggression test.
Social and curious, needs a home with breed experience.
Needs daily exercise.
I tried to convince my mom to drive up here tonight and get her,
but our shepherd Naomi would really sort of not be cool with that
right now because she’s having trouble walking (Naomi is about 13 years
old–ancient for a german shepherd!)
Please visit Liberty Humane Society for more information on these darling doggers, check out events, and find out what kinds of everyday household items you can donate to the animals.
Today I’m heading out to photograph at the Music Hall of Williamsburg (ex-North 6th) for the first girls rock camp showcase of 2008! Campers will be performing original songs with the bands they formed while at camp for the past week or so. I’m so excited to see this in action!
Okay, so I know that I’ve mentioned already that I am going to be helping my sister by designing and printing her wedding invites. We met this weekend to go over some preliminary ideas, but the first step was for me to jump in and try printing on my new Gocco machine, which I purchased on ETSY a few months ago.
My first screen did not burn properly and I thought I was going to cry. A bad screen means that I’ve wasted bulbs, the screen, and test ink, which all means money down the drain. I got very cranky and started poking holes in the screen with a safety pin. Finally, I just gave up and burned a new screen.
The second screen turned out alright. About a quarter of the image was meant to have more solid areas and they burned very poorly, picking up the texture of the sticky pad on the machine below. What I ended up doing was covering that part of the screen and just printing the rest of my image: a set of tree branches. The inspiration was this drawing I did on my sisters’ closet doors about two years ago. Her wedding is going to be incorporating birds and bicycles, so I thought it was a good place to start.
Honestly, I kind of loved it. There is something magical about printing something that comes out of your own head. I decided the image didn’t look half bad on the face of an envelope, and so I raided my stash of stationery to pick out different sizes and colors and experiment.
I mixed gold and black ink just to play around (why not?) and it was kind of fun. I’m happy with most of them, even if they aren’t as I intended. Even the smudgy ones are kind of neat.
Here are some envelopes drying in the rack:
I will get much better at this with practice, but overall I’m happy with my first attempt. Next to figure out exactly what she wants each piece to say (save the dates, invites, thank you cards, etc), and play with more colored inks.
I don’t know exactly what to say, but I have this huge announcement to make. This will be my last week working my full-time job at Columbia University. I’ve given my notice, and decided to take the plunge into freelancing and working for myself! This is extremely scary for me, but I have prepared for this step for the last several years of my life. Its time to dust off all my notebooks full of ideas, intentions to write and sew and photograph will have to come to fruition, no more excuses.
I am thrilled and terrified at the same time. I am deathly afraid of paying for health insurance and socking away 30 – 40% of my income for the government… but I am bravely stepping forward because I have been praying and planning and asking for a way to do this and it presented itself in a very clear way.
I have accepted a permanent part-time freelancing gig that I am extremely excited about, and this is going to pay my most basic of bills, as well as allow me to do the writing and design work that I should be doing. I can’t wait to get started!
Hopefully you’ll notice this blog as well as my etsy shop starting to spring to life in the coming weeks. If not, it probably means I’ve shot myself in the head.
The summer seems like its going to be over so soon with all we have planned in the next few months! Rory is traveling to Singapore to talk at a conference. We have several weddings and baby showers to attend and help plan. I am going to be photographing at the Humane Society and for Willie Mae Rock Camp’s girls and ladies camps. Family from far away are planning visits. I will be randomly traveling for my new job. Friends from the West Coast are coming to stay over and I’m planning two shows in Jersey City. I’ve been on a search for a new church to attend and that promises to be amusing if not downright adventurous.
There is just so much to look forward to.
Working with these images for a project I’m working on.
I love both of these images. So much.
Just in case you weren’t aware, my roommate was born on the Fourth of July, and every display of fireworks is held in her honor. This year in celebration we got several free pairs of tickets, and recruited a group of friends to see Sonic Youth and The Feelies play in Battery Park. I am always impressed by the River to River summer events, because they are usually well organized and the sound quality is amazing, despite the noise of the city surrounding the event. The Feelies had a really nice, lush sound, and Sonic Youth were given a great mic setup, so drums, baseline, and walls of mind-splitting sound were all perceptibly distinct and just awesome. We should have packed a picnic for this event, but we were scared off by the threat of having to throw out certain things for security reasons, as if we were getting on an airplane. Next time, Kim Gordon, we will bring you some magic cookies.
Next we hopped back on the PATH and got off near Exchange Place for amazing Mexican Food at Baja. I’ve never been there and didn’t know it existed, despite having lived in Hoboken and Jersey City for two years now. Baja is like Disney Land in Mexico… it was a total escape from reality because the decor was amazing, and the food was supremely satisfying. Allison pointed out they were playing Brazilian Girls, which was brilliant.
Finally, we took a tip from what we learned last year on the Fourth of July: why hike to the waterfront when we could see fireworks from the roof? Don’t tell our landlord, but we climbed the fire escape and were able to see both Jersey City and a tiny corner of the Macy’s Manhattan fireworks right from the roof! If we didn’t love our apartment before, we do now.
The rainy, hazy weather made it impossible to capture any fireworks on film, but here are some shots of the street below:
My sister and her fiance recently got this gorgeous german shepherd puppy named Gretchen vom Alpenhof aka “Riley”. She was born from Gerro vom Kirschental at Alpenhof, a highly respected breeder. She is smart, plushy, behaved (except for bouts of puppy behavior), and really sweet.
Probably one of the most intense thing about having a german shepherd puppy is how fast they grow. Just about a month ago, she looked like this, and now she looks like this:
My family grew up with german shepherds and we all have the bug. In fact, my older sister who lives down in Florida also just rescued an older german shepherd dog named Malcha, probably because she coudn’t resist after seeing such cute puppy pictures!
Anyway, it was great having my sister and her dog over to the apartment this weekend. I am going to be working on her wedding invites, and some custom Gocco prints, so she came into Jersey City to go over design elements –and to run over to Ibby’s for falafel and hummus!
While we were out, Riley was really well behaved, except for an accident on the floor (under Rory’s desk, haha) and the fact that she literally jumped through a window from my bedroom into my office. Instead of being angry, we were amazed. You have to be a german shepherd lover to really get it.
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