ode to brunch

Ok, not an actual ode. I'm not so good at poetry. But brunch is definitely my new favorite activity. Today's was shrimp and avocado eggs benedict over yuca hash browns with a mimosa. Oh so yummy. And much cheaper than dinner. There are quite a few advantages to living in the East Village but so far my favorite has to be all the restaurants that serve brunch. And the fact that they all have yelp reviews. Yelp really is amazingly useful for finding things. It's found me thai food, eggs benedict, zippers, yarn, and boba so far. I really should contribute some reviews to it myself. I'm really bad at actually participating in the things I use. But it's something I really, as a responsible user of the internet, should too. I should probably update my blog regularly too.

Since this post seems to be devolving into randomness, I'll add that I went to Century 21 again today (oh, the designer cheapness, downfall of my wallet) and got some amazing green/black/tan leather boots for $12.99. You should all go to Century 21 and buy things. Even if you don't live in NY. Just get on a plane. You'll make up for it with the money you save shopping there. Just take a look at their reciepts. It lists all the items you've bought and then, on the bottom in big numbers, the amount of money you've saved. According to my receipt, I saved $121.01 today. It's too bad I already threw it out. I think I should start saving them and make some sort of art piece. I think they say something interesting and complex about the American system of consumption. Hehe.

treasures from the internet

Here's a quick review of the stuff I've dug up from bowels of google in the recent past:

Homeland Security Advisory Tower - Oh, Tom Ridge, I'm embarrassed you were my state's governor. At least some awesome public art got made out of it.

We Make Money Not Art - Yeah, I know I should have been reading this for years now. But I've finally got it bookmarked now.

Pre-Fab at MoMA - That friction-fit house project of Larry's just keeps going and going....I'll be there as soon as it opens.

PC Album Art Screen Saver - Now all you PC users can enjoy staring at your album art slowly flip over for hours and hours

Mandolux Wallpaper - This is some really excellent photography in nearly every resolution to fit even the oddest of desktops.

The Farnsworth Invention - A really good play which, sadly, has very little to do with reality. Oh well. Go guy from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

del.icio.us + Safari - Finally, a button for posting to del.icio.us. I can finally stop using Firefox.

Lego! - Makes me wish I'd brought my collection with when I moved.

NYC Subway for Google Earth - Makes Google Earth useful for those of us who enjoy public transportation.

HousingMaps - A super convenient way to find an apartment.

Subtle Safety - I bet this thing would be great for opening packages.

craft day

I've managed to con my roommates into making a new project with me each weekend. It started with one of them asking me to teach him how to sew. So, out I came with my sewing machine and we made a lovely red maloo knockoff laptop sleeve. It's way cooler than the one I made myself a few months ago. Alas, I may actually have more laptop cases than purses. I just can't justify making myself another. We got to go to Mood Fabrics (of Project Runway fame) to buy supplies. Man, oh, man could I spend my whole paycheck there.





Since I learned to knit last December (although not purl) our next project was to make this really cool scarf thingy. I just finished mine today. Apologies for the clashing shirt.



I'm pushing for some modular origami next.

i'm a winner!

No, really, I am. My zipper bag instructable won first prize in the Homemade for the Holidays contest. So congrats to myself. I've been making lots of these things and, obviously, giving them away as presents. Well, most of them. I may have kept three for myself. You can take a look at them on my instructables page or just scroll on down.

nostalgia

While looking through an old photo album of my mother's before the holidays I found this amazing photo of myself in my all time favorite halloween costume, a blue crayon. I think I'm either 5 or 6 in the picture. My mother and the woman who babysat me would spend days sewing me a halloween costume each year. I've been a dragon, a tiger, Pocahontas, and Miss Havisham (though at the time I did think I was a bride), but none of those compares with my blue crayon.



Discussing this glorious example for my childhood weirdness with a friend led to the unearthing of the following photo of my long lost ninja turtle bed tent. As you can see, I was a great admirer of Miss Havisham's style as child.



I spent hours inside this thing counting all the Donatello's, Michelangelo's, Leonardo's, and Rapheal's. The tent was semi-transparent and there was some really amazing light inside it when my room light was turned on. While I'm on the subject of strange things I loved as a kid, I ought to include my 4th grade presentation on time travel. I actually researched this out and made all sorts of little explanatory animations in hypercard. The original file is, sadly, lost to the gods of floppy disks, but I managed to find a hard copy and make some scans:

well, the title of this blog does have the word redux in it

So, it seems I've only updated this blog once since moving to NY. It's not that I haven't had ideas for posts. Or, honestly, time to write them. I just, er, haven't. But I am now! Prepare yourself for all the stuff I've done in the last 6 or so weeks, coming to you in a shotgun blast of posts.

boxes!

I have finally and at long last moved. And, because of careful planning and many many trips to Target, I managed to bring almost all of the furniture and stuff I might ever need with me in my parents' van. Of course, there's always a couple more things that I just absolutely need. The nearest Target is in Brooklyn and I didn't feel like trekking all the way there for a couple tiny plastic drawers. I almost went to the Muji section of MoMA's Design Store (really, it's not that expensive, you just have to be able to convert inches to centimeters to figure out dimensions). I might go back for their tiny stapler.

The previous day I had come across a wonderland of plastic, wire mesh, canvas and cardboard called The Container Store. It's two floors of every kind of box, closet organizer, drawer, file and other storage media imaginable. I picked up four of these beauties for my horde of makeup and jewelry. Boy do I love translucent plastic. Check out this stuff too:

A tiny version of the lasercut acrylic chandelier

A create your own size bag dispenser

A translucent plastic chair

And, of course, more delicious cube storage