Tag Archive for 'NYC'

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ADVENTURES OF PERFECT BUNNY IN NEW YORK CITY

Published on September 8, 2008 in art, delicious, hello, textiles and traveling. 7 Comments Tags: cupcake, NYC, Perfect Bunny.

Hi there, it’s nice to meet you!

Some might say that a pristine white bunny like myself should stay at home, safely displayed on a shelf or propped up on a desk. I’m just not that kind of bunny. I love to tag along and see the big world.

New York City was a fun place to visit, though I didn’t see another bunny the whole time! I made you a slide show of the trip to show you all the places we went.

Now that I’ve been to the Big Apple, I’m hooked on traveling. Where will we go next?

xo PB

p.s. I’m not incredibly detail-oriented, so Karyn is posting the specifics below

Porter
What a treat to fly from downtown Toronto, off the Toronto Island Airport. Porter makes flying seem luxurious again with a swanky lounge stocked with drinks, snacks and free WiFi while you wait for your flight. The small planes have a bit more leg room and serve a nice meal and drinks (including wine or beer) out of real glasses.

Duane Street Hotel
A cute new hotel in TriBeCa. The rooms are compact but comfortable. They leave miniature baked goods by the bedside every night. A good location for quick access to neighbourhood restaurants. Next trip we’ll stay closer to the West Village where we wanted to be most of the time.

DELICIOUS
The food is one of the best things about New York. I love French bistro, so New York is the place for me.

The Odeon
145 West Broadway
Classic New York French Bistro in TriBeCa that never disappoints.

Balthazar
80 Spring Street
My all-time favourite place to have brunch which means Eggs Benedict. Balthazar is always bustling, so reservations are a good idea, especially for more than two people.

Cafe Gitane
212-334-9552
242 Mott Street
French Morrocan food in NoLIta. The herbed goat cheese with Pomegranate syrup and baguette is especially delicious.

BROOKLYN
Brooklyn is a MUST and there are so many great neighborhoods to choose from. We decided to check out the new Brooklyn Flea, which was fun but incredibly hot. There was nowhere to escape the heat in the middle of the concrete school yard. The cute tree-lined streets on the walk from the subway were worth the trip alone.

Brooklyn Flea
Every Sunday from 10am to 5pm
A mix of vintage and crafty, but the snacks were my favourite.

Kumquat Cupcakery
Sweet little mini cupcakes for $1. I got a 4 pack with Chocolate Peanut Butter, Red Velvet and Strawberries & Cream. Delicious!

People’s Popsicle
They weren’t at the Brooklyn Flea this weekend, and I was totally disappointed. I’d read about their amazing popsicles and was dying to try them.

BLEECKER STREET

Marc Jacobs
There are now three Marc Jacobs outposts along Bleecker Street. A great time to snatch up some goodies is during their seasonal sales, the discounts are generous. They had cute wellies for $29 when we were there.
212-924-0026
403 Bleecker Street

Magnolia Bakery
Usually I’ll line up for these 50′s style cupcakes, but I was already toting around my Kumquat cupcakes. Magnolia cupcakes are delicious with a glass of milk late at night.
401 Bleecker Street

Bonpoint
I wanted everything in this French kid’s clothing shop to come in my size. I wish their website was as good as their shop.
212-722-7720
392 Bleecker Street

Earnest Sewn Co.
My favourite denim brand right now. The shop is a treasure chest of clothing and accessories. I’m promising myself a pair on my next visit.
821 Washington Street

Anthropologie
Urban Outfitter’s older more refined sister. I always get lots of styling inspiration from their shops and catalogues.
375 West Broadway

FABRIC SHOPS
The Garment District will overwhelm you with fabric, notions and trims. This is my shortlist of shops to check out.

B&J Fabrics
Their Liberty of London collection will drive you crazy. Gorgeous fashion fabrics like wools, linens.
525 7th Avenue (2nd Floor)

Mood
Make sure you allow enough time to stroll the aisles here. There are two floors of every kind of fabric you can imagine.
225 West 37th Street, 3rd Floor

NY Elegant Fabrics
Very well priced, large shop filled with home dec and fashion fabrics.
222 West 40th Street

MJ Trim
Trim heaven. They sell a dizzying array of buttons, ribbons, fringe, cording, buckles and rhinestones.
1008 Sixth Avenue (@ 37th Street)

INTRODUCING : LESLEY-ANNE GREEN

Published on September 4, 2008 in etsy, introducing, local and stitchery. 4 Comments Tags: Lesley-Anne Green, NYC, Perfect Bunny, Spring Thing Trunk Show.

A few months ago, at the Spring Thing Trunk Show, I couldn’t resist picking up a felt bunny by Lesley-Anne Green. Out of the herd of pristine white felt bunnies, I fell in love with this particular one. I named her, ‘Perfect Bunny’ (PB), because she’s pretty perfect.

I quickly learned that Perfect Bunny loved to travel around and was just the perfect size to fit into my handbag. PB has been begging me to take her on a big trip, so this past weekend she came with us to New York City. While PB is preparing her NYC diary for you, I thought you should meet this little bunny’s talented creator.

Lesley-Anne Green is an artist with two distinct styles. Her felt creatures are as sweet as can be, while her ceramic figures tug at your heart strings in a completely different way. Having a recognizable style is something I really admire, but having two is just phenomenal.

What is your creative background? Did you go to school for it?

Lesley-Anne: I went to Sheridan College and took their Ceramics program. My first semester there I took both textile and ceramics courses…I kind of wanted to do both and was really torn, but in the end chose ceramics.

Your work is quite diverse, in terms of aesthetic. Do different things inspire you for your different types of work?

Lesley-Anne: Yah, it’s funny, my ceramic work and my felt work are soooo different. I think because my clay dolls were so intricate and detailed, that when I sat down to start working on the felt animals I wanted them to be the exact opposite….just really simple and stylized….and cute!

Do you have any new projects or ideas that you are working on right now?

Lesley-Anne: At the moment I am getting ready for the One of a Kind christmas show, so that is going to take up every single minute of my time until the show is over! I also have lots of designs in mind for new felt animals…just no time to work on them…if only there were two of me!!!

Lesley-Anne also has an etsy shop, if you’d like to get a fun felty companion of your own.

Stay tuned for the adventures of Perfect Bunny in New York!

13 DRESSES : DRESS 11

Published on September 3, 2008 in clothing, japanese dress/craft, stitchery and textiles. 9 Comments Tags: 13 dresses, NYC, shirring, Stylish Dress Book.

Stylish Dress Book (available at the workroom)
Dress ‘N’ : Mauve Hyakkaryouran Chrysanthemums

Here’s Dress 11, which made it’s debut on the streets of New York City this past weekend. I love the dappled light under the Ginkgo trees in the West Village.

This is another pattern from the Stylish Dress Book. Dress ‘N’ caught my eye right away, but at the beginning of the summer it seemed too summery with all the rainy weather we were having. Field Guided made a gorgeous version of it in grey linen a little while ago that reminded me to try this pattern before the weather turned cool again.

Dress ‘N’ is very simple to make. When tracing out the pattern, I remembered to add seam allowances in all the right places. There are only five pattern pieces to this dress and no sleeves or zipper, so the dress construction is quick. The pattern suggests doing elastic along the back, but I had to follow Field Guided’s brilliant idea of doing shirring. Without the shirring the dress was quite big, so the shirring made all the difference. I tried to do bias tape along the back, but quickly realized that it was too bulky and prevented the shirring from pulling in nicely, so ended up doing a rolled hem. Shirring and rolled hems go hand in hand. I’ve found that a rolled hem is really the perfect finishing when shirring is involved.

The front ruffle is the key feature of the dress. I think anything with a ruffle is fetching. I chose this dark plummy floral fabric with gold detailing and was really pleased with final result. Sometimes a fabric you never would’ve chosen ends up stealing your heart. I love when that happens. This dress was perfect for kicking around Brooklyn, the West Village and NoLita on a sunny day.

It just might be time for me to make a couple of fall-ish dresses to finish off the 13 dress challenge.

I’ve got lots and lots to share with you from our NYC trip, but I’ll need a day or so to compile it all together. The trip was absolutely lovely in every way and I’m totally inspired with thoughts of fun things to make.

LOCAL : CHOCO SOL

Published on July 29, 2008 in delicious, local and tools. 3 Comments Tags: bread, choco sol, drinking chocolate, ellie, farmer's market, goat cheese, molinillo, NYC, rice cooker, xocolatl.

Xocolatl, originally uploaded by the workroom.

This post is especially for Ellie – Happy Belated Birthday! I hope we’ll share some drinking chocolate very soon.

A few weeks ago I finally made it to the Sorauren Farmer’s Market on Monday. There are so many markets throughout the city, but Monday is my day off and luckily Sorauren is close to home. The one stall that I was immediately drawn to was Choco Sol’s. They sell eating chocolates and drinking chocolates that are horizontally-traded, bicycle-powered and stone ground. I bought a biodegradable container of their Xocolatl, which comes with three discs of drinking chocolate (the ingredients are roasted cacao & raw organic cane sugar) and a molinillo. The molinillo is a beautifully carved wooden whisk that is used to whip the drinking chocolate into a froth. When you hold it between your palms, you just rub the handle back and forth, causing the molinillo to spin and aerate the chocolate drink. I don’t drink coffee, so this has become my new morning ritual. The xocolatl has a rich roasted flavour that I would associate with coffee, I always add a bit more raw sugar to mine because I prefer to have it sweet rather than slightly bitter. I feel absolutely no guilt drinking this pure chocolate-goodness, but here is some scientific research. If you need that sort of thing.

You can also catch Choco Sol at the Dufferin Grove Market on Thursdays and the Brick Works on Saturdays.

My Favourite Drinking Chocolate (hot or cold) places in NYC
Chocolate Bar
Jacques Torres

I also picked up some goat’s milk cheese from Montforte Dairy Company Ltd. at the Farmer’s Market. I can’t resist cheese, especially goat cheese.

Did you know that you can bake bread in a rice cooker? I feel like i should have known that. Check out this photo tutorial by elissabetha. Very cool!

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW

Published on July 3, 2008 in accoutrement and vintage. 5 Comments Tags: grey, neon, NYC, shoes, value village.

New Shoes, originally uploaded by the workroom.

Ayalah asked me the other day where I shop for shoes in Toronto. I had to pause and think for a minute because I do my serious shoe shopping when I go to New York. My answer in the end was Value Village. It’s definitely not something you can count on, but if you are persistent, the twentieth time you check the shoe section you’ll find a gem pair in your size. After I snapped up these vintage tan lovelies at Village des Valeurs on Monday, I ran smack into this ‘just arrived today’ pair of grey/neon runners at Stolen Riches on Queen. I did not even hesitate. When you average the cost of both pairs together, it just makes practical sense. Do you have these clever rationalizations too?

p.s. My fav NYC shoe stores
1. Coclico – 275 Mott Street
2. Sigerson Morrison – 28 Prince Street
3. Tootsi Plouhound – 273 Lafayette Street

MEET "LORELEI"

Published on June 24, 2008 in i heart, patchwork and textiles. 9 Comments Tags: Denyse Schmidt, ebay, fabric, lorelei, my first quilt, NYC, selvedge, Takashimaya, Tom Tom Club.

‘Lorelei’, originally uploaded by the workroom.

This is Lorelei. She is the centre piece fabric in an epic Queen-sized quilt that has been ‘in the works’ for over five years. It is also my first quilt. Now that I’ve got my own quilt and fabric shop, I think it’s time to push this project back to the front of the line.

I first took notice of quilting years and years ago at ICFF in NYC when I saw Denyse Schmidt’s quilts for the very first time. It was one of those moments when a whole new world opens up before you and swallows you whole. I started collecting fabrics for a quilt that is inspired by a couture quilt that Denyse did for the amazing store Takashimaya made from vintage Kimonos. I collected fabrics for this quilt until last summer when I finally found the last fabric to complete the collection… for the quilt top. I’ll fill you in on the quilt back fabrics later on.

Lorelei is a vintage cotton print that I bought off of ebay. Everything about it is perfect. The name, which also happens to be the name of one of my favourite songs by the Tom Tom Club. -love!- The typewriter font notes on the selvedge, which also read “Never Misbehaves”. -love!- The colours and the off-set printing of that sweet floral. -love!-

I’ll be introducing you to all the other fabrics of this quilt in the next little while. I hope you love fabric as much as I do.