craft | W O R D giveaway

hello, hello! the handmade community is not short of wonderful artists who are blessed with a perfect combination of talent in art & business. i first connected with jen of painted fish studio through aimee's blog artsyville and couldn't be happier. i've been lucky to meet jen in person a few times during her visits to new york and she really gets me thinking about the possibilities.

jen's wonderful handmade prints, journals, cards and magnets are available in her shop (sale this week) and she has just self-published a book of polaroids from her two-year collaboration with another fabulous jen of scissors paper glue. the book is called W O R D and available through their site and amazon.

now, the good news for you guys is that the jens have offered a copy to give away right here and you will love this book. just leave a comment telling us your favorite color before 12.4.10 and we'll announce one winner on saturday (be sure to include an email address so we can contact you). good luck!

xo, cindy

ps it's not about me, but you'll see one of my butterfly garlands in the book ;)! how cool is that? word.

fun | deal 'em

i'm a winner and have proof!

hello, hello! family gatherings usually involve playing crazy eights at some point. scott's family loves to play cards while mine goes along with it to be polite. well, we start out that way because before you know it our competitive spirits come out and it's us against them (war!). beating charlie is always high on the list (he breaks our chops!) followed by scott (he 'makes' us play!). so, imagine my delight when i won with my brother in second. yes, thanksgiving gave us a lot to be thankful for - simple pleasures, plus some good grub, too ;). hope yours was great and enjoy the weekend!

xo, cindy

ps on tuesday we'll be having a fabulous giveaway just in time for the holidays. i'll not say a w o r d about it yet, but here's a hint!

thanks | to the ladies

hello, hello! we recently saw the wonderful movie made in dagenham about the 1968 strike at the ford plant in the uk staring sally hawkins (love her!). with a singular goal for equal pay, 187 women sewing machinists walked out ultimately bringing all ford manufacturing in the country to a standstill (40,000 employees) and leading the equal pay act 1970. the movie is very similar to the terrific norma rae and a great example of what can be accomplished with some grit & moxie.

i'm thankful for the women before us who have paved the way for new opportunities & fairness. see you saturday and enjoy your thanksgiving to all who celebrate. we're always thankful you visit our little corner of the woods.

xo, cindy

ps the photos were taken in the soho shabby chic store - i love the inspiration board. rachell ashwell's company (another brit) had some financial woes last year, but worked them out and is thankfully back in the game. more store pics here, including some flirty prom dresses.

craft | pretty things

hello, hello! living in nyc is great because when people we've met through blogging visit we can sometimes connect in person. michelle of blue moss and her husband, scott, visited over the summer and it was terrific to meet them. if you can judge people by the company they keep, then we'll take it because scott and michelle are really nice and she is so talented.

my love of vintage is no secret and michelle makes the most wonderful jewelry using unusual vintage elements from keys to watch straps. when my scott saw the bracelet michelle sent for my birthday, he said it was perfect because i love bracelets and it was so delicate. her handmade journal using vintage papers is also perfect because i'm often reluctant to actually write in a journal for fear of messing it up, which i usually do, and this one contains removable pages so write away i shall. happy tuesday!

xo, cindy

garden | a painterly touch

fujifilm instax | new york botanical garden

hello, hello! one thing i like about the fujifilm photos is that sometimes the images look like paintings. one of my favorite painters is winston churchill. his work has a wonderful painterly quality and i suppose his mantra issued during ww2 - “never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense” - can also be applied to creating art. enjoy your weekend!

xo, cindy

ps as some of you have already noticed, i've been playing around with a blog re-design using a template called the 'simple' layout, which is far from it! i've also been experimenting over here. what do you think?

garden | fall colors

we visited the new york botanical garden this saturday to see the fall foliage. it was a golden day as joyce would say.



a tree was in the shape & colors of the sun and there were roses in the middle of november in the northeast!



majestic redwood trees planted in the 1950s were favorites and thank you mother nature for the prop styling ;). it was a good day!

xo, cindy

craft | special treasures

hello, hello! one of the wonderful aspects of the handmade community is being able to have special pieces made just for you. an added benefit comes when they are crafted by special friends.

the collage was created by dawn of lovely paper for our recent wedding anniversary and i love looking at it over my desk each day. i told her about some of the things we enjoy and i think she captured our relationship beautifully, including the little dog that currently resides in our imaginations.

the gorgeous album was handmade by julia of red otter who is very special to us. she frequently sends notes to charlie and i've loved her journals for quite a while. i was hoping to have one to accommodate my best photographs, so we collaborated on the pattern & colors and i love it. special commissions are no longer just for wealthy art patrons, they are available to regular folks, too. enjoy the day!

xo, cindy

nyc | get on track

fujifilm instax | cool cars in the veterans day parade.

hello, hello! i'm going to attempt to maintain a regular schedule on our blog with posts on saturday, tuesday and thursday. that's all i know, so far ;). happy weekend, again!

xo, cindy

life | simplify

fujifilm instax | union square farmer's market

hello, hello! juggling two cameras to take lots of photos like i did last weekend (and often) equals one camera too many. i read a post on seth godin's terrific blog this week about doing more vs. doing better and i think better sounds good. i'm challenging myself from this point on to try to take his advice. happy weekend!

xo, cindy

ps i previously mentioned a band from iceland called for a minor reflection and they have a free download of their wonderful new song dansi dans available here.

life | veterans day

hello, hello! spending the day with our favorite veteran who we think is tops. thank you to all veterans near & far, this day is for you!

xo, cindy

ps notice how charlie seems to be protecting his 'package' during his little nap while watching football? he'd be better off protecting the china cabinet cause that's where i snoop around ;).

nyc | marathon

fujifilm instax | nyc marathon

hello, hello! we didn't really have any special plans this weekend, but ended up having a lot of fun with an unexpected visit to the 2010 nyc marathon from a fabulous vantage point in long island city. we were pretty quiet at first, but when we noticed people had their names written on their shirts we cheered until we were hoarse.

i'm really glad we didn't have to look for anyone in this race because it's stressful when they don't seem to come or you miss them (my brother was in the race like 9 times or was it 11?). it's about 1 pm and this kid was giving high-fives, but the runners were starting to look kind of tired. notice his shirt ...

right behind mr. high five was this young rock band - ntor (noxious total overdose of reality). they were really FANtastic and the runners loved them. sorry to the bass player who was killing it, but i had to edit you out of the photo because there was groupy (mom/manager?) next to you ruining my shot. hey, i'm an artist, too ;).

it was pretty cold and we were beat. cheering takes energy, so we hopped in our ride to head home with a police escort. blogarazzi! not really - the car probably belongs to the band or will some day ;). more like we hopped on the subway and headed home. hope you had a fun weekend.

xo, cindy

nyc | downtown

thinking this photo of the staten island ferry looks familiar, you're right. i jumped the gun and included it in my orange post, but it's my favorite, so please forgive me.


i wonder if these two planned on coordinating their shirts? i waited for everyone to clear the deck on the ferry for the second shot.


the southern tip of manhattan from the staten island ferry, which is free and a lot of fun. for the best views of the statue of liberty, stay on the starboard (right) side of the stern (back) going to staten island, port (left) side of the bow (front) on the return trip.


the sphere by fritz koenig survived the attack on the world trade center and is on display in battery park.


these three weren't together, but they should have been.


take the escalator up two flights and you'll find the elevated acre.


i missed the best shot of the brooklyn bridge because some-body (scott) was pointing at the heliport, which is really loud by the way. no problem, this is a very cool garden and i'll go back.

good luck to everyone in the nyc marathon tomorrow - go runners go! my brother was in the race about 9 times or was it 11? something crazy! happy weekend!

xo, cindy

ps the video today is from the girls with glasses show and features their tour of nyc set to the classic song downtown by petula clark.

fun | new toy

fujifilm instax | farmer's market

hello, hello! ms. polaroid herself, jen, strongly encouraged me to get a fujifilm instax mini 25 camera because i really wanted one ;). i'm glad i listened to her because i can't tell you much fun it is to have these little photos print out right away. each photo costs just under a buck, so i'll take my time, which will be good for my digital photos. plus, that softness is kind of nice. the film comes in iso 800 and i always shoot on 100-200, so maybe i'll increase it once in a while. there's a few more here. happy thursday!

xo, cindy

ps union square farmer's market & madison square park

fun | saipua bouquet

hello, hello! if you follow me on twitter you know that friday was kind of crazy. i spent most of the day with charlie while he had a medical test at sloan-kettering and was there just in case. i saw a lot of people of all ages who were either about to begin cancer therapy or after they've finished. it was sad and i realized, and not for the first time, that i worry about a lot of stupid things. it was a wake up call of sorts because just like that things can change.


when i got home, i found out i won this gorgeous bouquet of flowers from saipua in sarah's just because initiative! she delivered them herself and it was really nice to meet her. i took photos of them everywhere and wanted to do it well because i love sarah's photos. here they are in our living room with some vintage birds from ethanollie and a classic gardening book by vita sackville-west, in your garden.


in our bathroom with our saipua saltwater soap nearby.


in our bedroom.


and, in my death grip, which was inspired by the movie bright star - those ruffles. thank you so much, sarah! even though i said it just last week, you reminded me that the sun does come out. the saipua just because initiative continues each friday, so check it out here.

xo, cindy

ps charlie did ok in the test. he had a similar one in the summer with a different doctor, so we know what the results will be. it's just too bad that doctors don't seem to be willing/able to share test results to avoid duplication, lost time and extra $$. oy!