Fleet Week 2012

This morning we took a walk down to Piers 7 and 8 off of Columbia Street. For reference, Pier 1 is just south of the Brooklyn Bridge. We strolled on and off of a handful of beautiful ships both sail and military: ETOILE (France), CUAUHTEMOC (Mexico), JUAN SEBASTIAN de EL CANO (Spain) and JS Shirane (Japan), FNS Pohjanmaa (Finland) plus several Coast Guard ships.

All of the ships are open for tours (some guided) from 8 - 5 today and 8-4 tomorrow. Then they start to head out of town up the East River on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Full schedule and more info here.

I couldn't help looking at all the sail material and thinking about all the upcycling potential!

Enjoy the long weekend!

Piled High

Brooklyn got walloped with another snow storm last night which resulted in a snow day today.
I've been dreaming of tropical vacations (like every New Yorker these days!), but I must say, today there's no place I'd rather be than Brooklyn, NY.

I've uploaded a few more photos on flickr

Street Art - Part 2

The Sartorialist
*sigh*

The Fish That Got Away

As mentioned in yesterday's post, there were several nautical decor items that didn't make it into the Shopping With feature that ran in the Homes section of the New York Times yesterday.

I like nautical decor when it's not hitting you over the head (with an anchor). But instead suggests the sea in subtle, yet graphic ways. Here were my additional picks:

OK maybe the wallpaper by isn't very subtle - but it sure is fun! ‘Shore Leave’ Wallpaper ($150 per roll) by Brooklyn based Flavor Paper.

Haus Interiors in Nolita has a lovely selection of modern nautical decor. So much so that it was hard to choose. I can easily picture the Feed Stripe Throw ($178) slung over a couch and I love the Sea Grass Cube ($72), too.

Made from re-purposed fishing line woven with vines around a strong metal armature this Fishing Sphere Chandelier ($410 – 630) from Seaside Inspired evokes a images of sand dunes and surf for me.

Hand-printed organic linen tea towels ($18 each) by Madder Root available on Etsy. I love the graphics and the fact that they are made with organic materials and thread as well as solvent free water based inks.

I chose this octopus pillow ($60) by Utilitarian Franchise, another Etsy seller, also for the great contrasting colors and graphic plus the white eco friendly water based paint that they use in the process.

Down East Doormats by Maine Float Rope Company. Above is a medium hand-woven stripe doormat made from reclaimed float rope formerly used by Maine lobstermen $49.95. great background story on their site - worth a visit.

Barmaid cast iron bottle opener ($30) by Nauti and Co a NY based company looks like an artifact that you might find while beach combing ... if you're very, very lucky!

Brooklyn Renegade '10

Hey, hey! It's the Renegade! The 6th Annual Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn is this weekend: June 5 + 6 from 11am – 7pm in McCarren Park. The fair will go down Rain or Shine.

It's FREE-TO-ATTEND! It's a craft, art, design and DIY spectacular and has over 300 of today’s finest indie-craft talents from all over the nation, free workshops, entertainment + other features!

My booth number is 208 and it's on the Lorimer Street side.

Hope to see you there!

It'll Be Divine

Just in:
I'll be at the Holiday Craft Sale at Divine Studios this Sunday, December 13 from 11-6. Organized by Marcie McGoldrick, a talented ceramist and Editorial Director for Holiday and Crafts at Martha Stewart Living, this event promises a unique mix of quality handmade gifts perfect for everyone on your list.

Divine studios is located on the 6th floor at 21 East 4th Street at Lafayette in Manhattan. View map.



Thanks to Jane at Foxy & Winston for the tip. She'll be there too with her sweet holiday card sets, organic children's clothing and more!

Come by, shop and say hello!

Ready, Set ...

Early load in at the Gifted Market today was a breeze (thank you Brooklyn Flea!). It was great to see old friends, catch up, leisurely unpack and set up. Trust me, this is going to be a great market to come to.

Check out the piece that Channel 7 Eyewitness News broadcast this evening about the market:



Enjoy your Thanksgiving where ever it takes you.

Welcome Back!

Be a part of the official Welcome Back to Brooklyn for the Sloop Clearwater this Sat October 17th. There are a series of events planned that will appeal to all ages:

3-6 pm: The Sloop sets sail from Manhattan at 3pm and arrives in Brooklyn at 6pm. Pricing: $60/adults; $40/members; $20/kids. Reserve your spot and find more info at Clearwater.org.

5pm to 6pm: Start your evening off with a family-friendly rendez-vous aboard the Historic Waterfront Museum, a beautifully restored showboat barge and floating classroom. Catch great views of the historic tall ship Clearwater as she returns to the Brooklyn waterfront. Donations accepted; snacks, music and fun provided.

6pm-7:30pm: Welcome the Sloop to the dock (located behind Fairway), then hop aboard for a tour of the deck and meet n’ mingle with the Captain and crew!

8pm – 10pm: Head around the corner with the crew to Sunny’s Bar, a Red Hook mainstay for sailors for over one hundred years. A suggested donation of $5 or $10 gets you more great music, refreshments, and a warm mug of mulled cider.
Sunny’s weekly bluegrass jam follows close behind, so be sure and bring an instrument along!

See you there!

NY400 and Harbor Day

Spent a fantastic day on the Sloop Clearwater yesterday. Starting in Brooklyn, we sailed in the NY Harbor then up the Hudson River to the 79th street boat basin in a flotilla of historic and modern dutch and american ships. This sail was part of the NY400 Harbor Day celebration commemorating Henry Hudson's first sail up the Hudson 400 years ago.

The weather was outstanding and the water was sparkling. By the end of the day I'm sure I wasn't the only one fantasizing about living on a boat. Ah, the lure and romance of a sail!

More photos on flickr.

Glenn Robinson - NYer of the Week!

Congrats to Glenn Robinson, founder of Bags for the People (BFTP) for being named this week's NYer of the Week by NY1.

'Glenn Robinson used to sell vegetables at the stand in the Union Square and hand them over to customers in tens of thousands of plastic bags.

"We were giving out plastic bags left and right and it just seemed like a problem to me and I was part of the problem, I was actually handing them out," says Robinson.

So five months ago, Robinson started making cloth bags to give to people at the stand. The idea took off and he started the organization "Bags For The People," which holds sewing workshops for the public and in schools.'

With sewing machines fueled by solar panels, Glenn is sewing live at farmers markets. Find the full schedule here. Whether permitting he'll be at Union Square Farmers Market today, Saturday, August 22 sewing from 10:00 - 2:00. BFTP will be sewing and giving away bags in conjunction with the soon to be released No Impact Man Documentary.




BFTP is a non profit and therefore depends on the generosity of people who can donate materials, time and funds. More on how you can support here.

Watch the full NY1 NYer of the Week video at NY1 online

High Line

We walked the High Line Park yesterday and it was a completely wonderful experience. And not just because it was sunny and 75! The park that has been upcycled from the elevated train tracks has been cleverly designed at every turn. With street view gallery, wheeled benches that move on the original tracks, landscape that weaves in and out of the walkway - it's a park that keeps surprising and entertaining. Currently, it runs from Gansevoort Street to 20th with exits/entrances on 14th, 16th and 18th streets. There are plans to extend the park further to the north.



We have vowed to return with our kids when they come back form their summer adventures. This would be a great outing day or night. If you do visit at night you might be able to catch High Line Park Renegade Cabaret held between 9 and 10 pm and hosted by Patty Heffley's fire escape on 20th street. Visible from the park, it's literally a stones throw away. Check here Facebook page for announcements of upcoming performances. See and hear a beautiful audio slide show by the New York Times here.

High Line Park Hours: Open from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM daily.

More pictures on flickr.

Fleet Week and Nautical Fashion

Hey, Hey! It's Fleet Week here in NYC.
In honor of the sailors, Time Out New York is running a story on Nautical Themed Fashion with the help of a very cute octopus!



Check out those super cute shorts from anthropologie and at the bargain price of $4.80 is the anchor necklace from Forever21.

and..


Thanks TONY and Happy Fleet Week!

Check out the Fleet Week schedule of events here.

Sailing on a 10 Speed

A team of 30 representing the Sloop Clearwater will be joining 30,000 cyclists for the largest recreational cycling event in America: The Five Boro Bike Tour. This is an incredible 42 mile tour on routes that are closed to traffic on Sunday May 3rd. (Interactive map here. The tour is now full and has closed it's registration for this year.)

Support the Clearwater and it's educational programs for adults and children on New York's Hudson River by sponsoring Captain Sam! Email her at: capt@clearwater.org with your pledge.

A little or a lot is appreciated. Sample rates are as follows:

$0.50/mile = $21
$1.00/mile = $42
$2/mile = $84

As part of the Clearwater team she is committed to raising over $500, but her personal goal is $1200 (which pays for two months of the apprenticeship program).

The above photo is from the photo gallery of last year's event. More photos and tour info at the Five Boro Bike Tour's web site.

Improv (and Art) Everywhere

Improv Everywhere set the 23rd street subway station as an art gallery. Love the informational descriptions posted next to pieces such as "The Arriving and Departing of Train" ongoing since 1932. The description references Martin Creed's Work No 850 where a runner sprints through the Tate Gallery every 30 seconds. Nice research!

More on Improve Everywhere here.

See Martin Creed's runner here.

MTA subway schedules here.

PS. Happy Spring!

Inspiration and a Library Card - Part II

Part two in the series from the NYPL and Design*Sponge.
I grabbed my notebook and started to list my jumping off points for my next trip to the library. Get your blank page and pen ready!

Featured in this series is Rebecca from Moontree Letterpress. I simply love her work and am excited to get a hold of some at this Sunday's 'Gifted', the Brooklyn Flea's indoor market in Fort Greene. Last time we were there it was so busy, by the end of the day when I got over to her table to purchase she had packed up what little she had left. This Sunday I'm going as a shopper not a seller!!

See part I here.

Back to last minute orders!

Clearwater Brooklyn Revival?

Quite a busy day yesterday - filling orders, stuffing and photographing pillows - planned on a big WIP post today but look what docked at the Fairway pier yesterday! I recognized her from afar and when she came in close I grabbed my coat and camera and ran down.
The Clearwater:





The Clearwater is a Hudson River Sloop that:

conducts environmental education, advocacy programs and celebrations to protect the Hudson River, its tributaries and related bodies of water.

Clearwater’s story began in 1966, when a handful of Hudson Valley residents came together believing that by learning to care for one boat on one river, the public could come to care for all our threatened waterways. And what better boat for the job than a replica of the vessels which were once a much more common sight on the Hudson.

The sloop was launched three years later on May 17, 1969 in South Bristol, Maine. In the years since, Clearwater has traveled to towns and cities along the Hudson, New York Harbor, and Long Island Sound.

Clearwater is a work boat. Sailing from town to town, she models her course after the Dutch sloops of the 18th and 19th centuries. These cargo vessels were specially designed for the variable winds, currents and depths of the Hudson. Their cargoes and crews were the main communication link between river-front towns and outlying areas which now house one-tenth of this nation’s population.

Clearwater’s cargo is people. Her work is making them care.

Love that. My daughter went on a 'Classroom of the Waves' educational sail in elementary school. What a great experience. Check out their site for news, sail schedules, volunteering and membership info. Don't forget the Great Hudson River Revival festival held every year in June.

I got to meet Captain Sue (couldn't be nicer) and if the Clearwater can find a suitable place to dock, there might be a Clearwater Brooklyn Revival.

Back to work: here's a little taste from the pillow photo shoot:

Bustin' Out!

I'm so excited. Reiter8 will be at this years Bust Craftacular! I went last year to check it out and it's definately a one stop shopping handmade extravaganza. 200+ vendors, dj etc. Here are the vitals:

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2008
10:00 AM – 7:30 PM
Metropolitan Pavilion
125 West 18th Street, NYC

Back to making more bags!

Flurries, Inspiration and a Library Card

Been holding out posting about the beautiful Brooklyn holiday cards by moontree letterpress until we were appropriately close to the holidays. My son is adamant that we not speak of Christmas until after Thanksgiving. And we have to have an observe a small pause - no trimming the tree on Thanksgiving night for us. So, yesterdays brief snow flurry was just the excuse I needed to bring Rebecca's work to your attention and still be respectful of the 'other' holiday.

While I was visiting her blog, I saw the first "Design by the Book" video. Its a series of videos by the New York Public Library in collaboration with Design*Sponge which brings a small group of Brooklyn designers to look for creative inspiration at the library.



I remember going to the NYPL branch across the street from the main branch when I was a student a Pratt. They had a image room - thousands (?) of manila folders with images tucked inside, sorted alphabetically by subject ... and a xerox machine. Pre digital, baby. Thankfully they have kept with the digital age and now have digital image collection.

I am looking forward to seeing these artists go through the creative process and to see what hatches.

Where I'm From Tour - continued..

Check it out: The Where I'm From Tour Music Video!



Tristan from Tough Dumplin and Chenel from JunkPrints are the energetic masterminds behind the music and art event that was held at Supreme Trading in Williamsburg this past Sat. The 'Foundation for Better Music' under Tristans direction is bringing emerging musical artists - plus artists from other disciplines - together two cities at a time with the mission of expanding exposure beyond geographical barriers. This past event was Toronto Meets New York.

Featured in the video are many of my beyond talented studio mates! Be patient, stay with it - reiter8 with stills form the (way) past and present is all the way at the end!

Thanks Tristan and Chanel (and Mike) - I had a great time - great event!

Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

This was not my only view as we sped over the Brooklyn Bridge on the 'scooter-cycle' yesterday but I thought it would make a cool picture. Look closely, it's the Brooklyn Bridge reflected in my husbands helmet. I call it a scooter-cycle, because it looks like a scooter but is got 250 cc's and can zip along like a motorcycle. When he hits 60 mph I give him the slowdown squeeze.

Focusing only on the helmet while we rode for a while reminded me the book Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and particularly of the sweet of a moment at the end of book. It's the part when the son stands up a little bit on the foot pegs while he and his father are driving on a motorcycle and he's ohhing and ahhing, because for the first time during his 17 day trip across the States he seeing beyond his father's back.

Have a great weekend and make sure you're taking the opportunity to look beyond.