holiday trunk show!!!!

during the holiday season i usually like to partake in various craft fairs but money has been a little scarce. the good news is that this has made a little fire under my behind to finally plan a holiday shopping extravaganza of my own. i am having my own holiday trunk show!!!

in my quest to offer a diverse selection of fine handmade goods i have taken up jewlery making, hammered pieces to be specific. i really like working with metal, it just another extension of all things beautiful to adorn yourself.

so, come on down!!!! december 12 from 11am - 5pm
it's the holidays, time to celebrate and shop. come by to mingle and find contemporary handcrafted items for the special people on your gift list.

sterling silver jewelry, knitted hats, reclaimed leather clutches & special guest homegrownheavyz: maker of deluxe sized skateboards!!

drink SHOP & be merry!!

next up

after lunch at randazzo's in brooklyn yesterday, i drove to cedarhurst with my leftover fried clams drenched in medium sauce, happily cramming them in my face at stop lights. the mission was to pick up some leather coats at the thrift store on central avenue for my reclamation process.

while absorbing the mindless exchange a lady was having with her bluetooth device shoved in her ear, i found a huge black trench coat - it had shoulder pads maybe i should keep them in case this '80's comeback gets really out of control - and a dusty mauve metallic jacket. pretty good score!

so today after cutting pipe for boilers - oh that's right, a little part time plumbing never hurt anyone - i got to dismantling the jackets.

so i have some work ahead of me.

delicious town

in my ever lasting crusade to stay healthy and lose a few lb's i try to come up with belly filling low-cal dishes. salads are a fun but mostly an unbearably unsatisfying meal for a true food addict such as myself. (i usually fill them with hearty additions.) with the days getting colder i have a need to bury my face in something substantial. i have no picture of this dish - sorry i know i am a super visual person so i'm sure this is truly annoying.

step in my recipe for vegetable stew:

butternut squash (i bought the pre-cut version from trader joe's)
onion - 1 whole small or half a large
carrots - 3 or 4
celery - 3 or 4 use the heart of celery with the leaves this has the flavor!
zucchini - 1
olive oil - enough to coat bottom of pot
salt - 1/2 tsp
pepper - 1/2 tsp
oregano - 1 tsp
cumin - 1/2 tsp
adobo (non msg version) - 1/2 tsp
paprika - couple pinches

very simple:
heat the olive oil on medium in a large pot - toss in butternut squash get a quick braise - chop up and add onions, carrots, celery and zucchini - sautee together until everything softens a little and add the spices - cook a little more and cover the veggies with water with until a little bit of the veggies are still peeking out - cover and simmer the pot for a half hour or until the stew thickens up and the veggies are all soft - serve and be happy.

i like.....

new jersey

this handmade button brings a smirk to my face. smirking is fun.
get one at ugly kitty's etsy shop.

oh YEAH!

most of the time i am a terrible procrastinator. i mean really really bad. i will walk by a pile of clean clothes 20 times and not fold them. it's really not cool at all. shamefully i will tell you that at times the pile of clothes will be on the bed and we sleep with them in the bed. gross.

it is a SHOCK that only yesterday i mentioned reusing leather from previously worn garments to create some of my clutches, and here is one already! amazing.....
i am keeping this one cause i think i should. take a look at my etsy store for more clutches.

eco shmeco

i hate that saying 'go eco', 'be green', 'save the earth'. call me a self hating hippie if you want. i'm happy people are being more considerate to the earth because we only get one, but bandwagoners are annoying. what do i mean by that? i don't know, my vocabulary is limited these days. it's not the sayings or that people are now being enlightened so much as what those sayings bring to mind that bothers me: tree-hugging, slow and low speaking, flowery people. yeeeeah duuuuude save the planet. stop it. just stop. do people actually behave that way or do they think that's how an earther is? i made up the word earther. it's another word for hippie.
maybe it's the ny'er in me but i tend to gravitate towards the loud, obnoxious and funny but educated earth lover. maybe that's going too far. i may not want some colossal sized guy junked up on wheat grass jumping on my table to tell me about his vegetable oil run ford van either. i'd push him off the table and laugh.
you might be asking yourself? why? why talk about this? cause this is a double pronged rant.
a) my dad is a hippie and he is a funny, sarcastic, joyous man. thank the stars. maybe not a full fledged off the grid hippie but we did what we could, mostly we tried not to make garbage. we recycled way before it was cool and had a compost heap.

so b) i'm faced with this issue all day when i make stuff. sometimes i look around and wonder am i just making another piece of junk that will end up in the trash? i think i might also start looking into buying old leather garments and ripping them up to make new stuff.

you know reduce, reuse, recycle duuuuuuuuude!

faux get about it!

new stuff in my store: