#4 Starsssssss with Marie

Today my co-worker Marie came in and showed me the cool origami star she made to decorate one of her gifts.  She realllllly likes making these stars.  She makes them in all different sizes and types of paper.  She had a box of little origami papers with her and said she could teach me how to make them.  SWEET!  So here we go...

Pick out 8 pieces of square paper in any size you want.

Fold each piece in half 

Fold the corners into the center...

...keep folding...

...and folding...

...til it looks like this!

Then fold 2 of the sides in to make it into a kite shape.

Use a glue stick (ideally) or put a dab of glue on the right side of the short end of the kite.

Align the tips on the short ends of two pieces and align the edge of the short end with the glue on the opposite side to the center fold of the non-gluey piece.

Keep gluing around.

One left!

Last dab of glue....

TADA!!!!! STAR!!!

#3 I heart you little pingüino...

I saw these in Martha Stewart Living and wanted to attempt them IMMEDIATELY!

The penguin especially.  I wanted to make about 100 of them and put them in little penguin trains all over the apartment. 

Then I saw them in person at the Martha Stewart craft show and admired them and squeezed their soft little bodies and fell in love even more.  I asked the price-- $50...each.  My jaw dropped :-o.  I definitely need to make them on my own.  Time for another project to get my mom involved in when I go home!

(sidenote: I know my mom loves these projects, even though when I first tell her what we need to do she is skeptical) 

http://www.marthastewart.com/how-to/needle-felted-polar-bear#slide_0

#2 Get Crafty

The mention of craft shows makes the corners of my mouth twitch into a smile no matter how awful of a mood I'm in. I'm sure it sounds ridiculous that a room full of people excited about selling something they are proud to have made themselves, and at very reasonable prices, can make me as giddy as a kid in a candy shop (ok, so, I still get giddy in candy shops...)  Really though, who can resist such temptations??

Surprisingly this is the first year I've been to a craft show in NYC in the 3+ years of living here. I was a little overzealous and attended 4 in the span of 8 days.

Here are the amazing things I found!

my new SPOONMELOVEME tote

Martha Stewart Craft Show:  OMG! it's snowing, OMG!
Gleena- organic shaped petal ceramics
Danielle Spector Ceramics- cozy ceramics
Jones Fife- wooden bracelets
moontree letterpress- really pretty calendar for 2010
pistachio press- beautiful stationary

BUST Craftacular:  (The Treats Truck was here.  It makes my life worth living)
INK + WIT- beautiful graphic letterpress prints
PASTE- wacky t-shirts
Vagabond Jewelry- copper cuffs
SPOONMELOVEME- 2 totes, 2 prints, plain and simply perfect
VERAMEAT- jewelry (for the vampire lover esp.)
photosynthesis-softest t-shirts ever to help you learn science
Loyalty and Blood- geometric necklaces

3rd Ward Craft Show:  Adventures in BK w/ E-beth
Brown Parcel Press- cool letterpress prints of cool random stuff
Gold Teeth- gold pencil necklace-- this one's for you AC
Jeeyun Ha Designs- amazing headbands and feathery stuff
M. Carter- super cute basket print hipsack/shoulderbag perfect for dreaming of summer in the middle of winter.

The last show I went to ended up having most of the same vendors from the previous three shows.  There was one main difference- a large number of people selling pickles...I don't like pickles.  Not once...not never...and that's when I realized I had been to enough craft shows for one holiday season...

...but I was super inspired and made this with my roomate, Iliza, and our friend Jonna:

paper snow

#1 Everything has to start somewhere...

the tree at bryant park

...so, I'm starting right here. I'm in New York City, the epicenter of my childhood through post-adolescent dreams. I dreamed of the lights, the high heels, the magic that it can conjure up in the mind of a child--or someone that has seen it only in movies and tv shows while living in suburbia. In reality, there is even more magic than I imagined, but of a different kind. The kind that is about people and randomness and life and raw beauty.


“Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake...” ~ Francis Bacon, Sr.