Catching up at the end of the year...

You might have noticed a flurry of posts, updated knitting blog, more stuff on Flickr... and finally catching up with things at the end of the year!
- CD designed
- Some illustrations in a magazine
- Notes from our NY trip made (and drawn)
- Two websites designed and launched (more on them soon...)
Phew...
Hoping to see in the New Year with a clean desk!
:)

sniff...

Wednesday
Rainy wanderings around SoHo, visit the Housing Works bookshop then head home to pack.. goodbye drinks at the place with no name.. :(

Chinatown & Cream cheese

Monday / Tuesday - Philadelphia
Take the Chinatown but to Phila. to visit M & S in their house in Queen Village.... walk lots, then dinner (and chat) at Gnocchi's and drinks (and chat) at a bar nearby... Walk along the Delaware river (cold and bleak) then head up along South Street for coffee and a bagel (with cream cheese of course!) at the bean cafe... lots of people drawing and free pictures pinned to a board, fortune cookies and men knitting :)
Further along come to the Magic Gardens wich have spread all over to include even a garden shed! Visit the Loop shop here (for research!) and then meet S and visit the Mütter Museum.. leave feeling a little queasy and head back to Manhatten.

Ho-bo-ken or Hobo-ken?

Sunday
Meet M and J and their new baby O at Coffee Shop on Union Sq.. take the train to Hoboken in NJ to visit the girls at the craft fair and check out Patricia's Yarns (super friendly lady).
Meet D uptown for the most amazing Korean vegetarian food at Hangawi...yum!

under the BQE

Saturday
Back to Williamsburg to the Read Cafe for breakfast and newspapers... check out the Bust Holiday Craftacular on Driggs Ave. The venue (The Warsaw) is amazing, as is the craft fair; but so so so busy we had to leave w/out really seeing too much in detail..
Meet J and all his records on the L and go to the Boulevard Tavern for his and M's DJing thing... Meet C and M and lots of their friends.. a good night :)

Tubas!

Haven't written anything up here about NY cos was going to do it all when I get home, with pics..
But.. Last night we went to see M play tuba in his band.. Not just any band, but RUDE: Mechanical Orchestra.. A bonkers radical marching band (about 14 musicians, a flag / baton twirler, band leader w/ fancy hat and megaphone.. And dancers!). Any band that can include Mano Chao, Salt'n'Pepa & Le Tigre into a marching band format gets my approval :)
They played at Dumba*; a queer art collective in Dumbo (they filmed Short Bus there) it felt very similar to the old days of Cooltan :)

*eta: M has put up his pics up from the night at Dumba

Tuba (return)

Friday
Have to do some work for Sotheby's so make use of the free wi-fi @ Cake Shop and more coffee & bagels... :) walk downtown to Battery Park and check out the Skyscraper Museum (much tiner than I thought it'd be!). D has people over to the flat for her birthday and we have to duck out for a while to see M play tuba in his band..

coffe and bagels

Thursday
Coffee & bagels at the super lovely Cake Shop (152 Ludlow) and then head down to the Tenement Museum - very interesting, as is the debrief we took part in afterwards... v American with lots of 'sharing' and 'facilitating', but had a good chat / discussion with the other visitors about the visit...
Another office suite, another hidden away place; this time the Lark theatre (or Play Development Centre!) to see D in a play by her friend; The Danger of Bleeding Brown Blood. Meet lots of theatre people and D at the Vynl Diner (Hell's Kitchen) for Vynl-tini's after...

Buttons and babies

Wednesday
Partake in the NY ritual that is doing laundry in the basement... quite weird, but quite comforting too.. it's warm and has clean smells, and some kind people have left lots of books to read...
Visit Tender Buttons (143 E. 62nd St @ Lexington Ave - more about their Chicago store here) and am overwhelmed by the choice... love their framed button 'pictures' though so might use that as an idea..
Take the subway down to Brooklyn and walk through Prospect Park (love it!) to Brooklyn Museum of Art.. see Rob Mueck's amazing people.. can't stop 'watching' them to see if they move :)
Uptown to meet M and watch a taping of the Colbert Report - good fun, but v. short.. I guess once they put in all the ads it makes up a half an hour slot, but really it was about 12 mins filming!
Go to the Sidewalk Cafe (94 Ave A) for dinner and watch the bands... a strange British sound engineer makes announcements them in a 'scream-if-you-want-to-go-faster style that is a bit disconcerting...Pink Margaritas... :)

Christmas glitter

Tuesday
M taking pictures for Sothebys on York Ave.. walk around freezing cold Central Park then meet J for lunch near his work on 6th and 55th. Do a bit of Christmas Shopping at the Folk Art Museum and Moma Design shops. Walk down to Times Sq and Macy's and get maximum sensory overload of lights, Christmas songs etc.. (quite like it!)
Eventually find School Products in an office suite on Broadway... go nuts for Brown Sheep yarn (cannot believe this is up to £11 in UK and am buying it here for £3.50).. meet girls who have a stall at a craft fair in Hoboken on Sunday.
Meet D and go for a beer at Otto's Shrunken Head