the broome street clutch has a big sister

i'm sure you are so tired of me posting about new bags, new designs, new colors and all this business.  but i can't help myself, i want to share my happiness in making new things....
the broome street clutch has a big sister now! i think you would love to have a sleek, medium sized hobo that can certainly accompany you during anytime of day while you wear many many different outfits.  it's not too big, not to small, it's got restrained hardware, it's not too flashy, it's got a quiet something going on.  it's in my shop!

new in my store!

it's big, it's pleated, it's cranberry!

GIVEAWAY and NEW DESIGN!

ok kids! so today i will announce the winner of my giveaway, it'll be very soon......
in the meantime lay your eyes on this - announcing THE SUPER PLEATED CLUTCH!!!!

YAY!!!! this has been in my head ever since i designed the super pleated tote.  it's the perfect sibling!  it's super sized with gorgeous side pleating and it has a zippered closure.  take this baby out for a spin! get yours here.

new design - the broome street clutch!

i am so excited tonight.  it's been my mission to make some classic designs for bungaloe that could be my staple, signature designs.  so far the super pleated tote is one of them - the next addition to the bungaloe family is: the broome street clutch!! named after the street my mom grew up on in nyc.

i love the design because it's pretty classic, just straight up sleek.  it's made from reclaimed leather, has a flap with a hidden snap closure, riveted detail and you can stick your finger inside the strap for easy access.  it's very large approx 8.5" l x 12.5" w.
i have this obsession with making clutches that are perfect for going out with: on a date with your man or a new date, for a nice lunch or dinner with friends and i think this one fits into that category perfectly.  get it here!

winter 2010

NYC finally had a real winter this year.  no more wimpy snow flurries and fake ice storms of the past couple years.  we had honest snow storms, the ones you used to ooh and ahh at from you window as a child.  glittery fluffy snow.  this year it snowed on my birthday, not only did it snow but we had a really butt kicking storm.   here are some pics:

this was the big storm at the end of feb that the weathermen on the news were losing their minds over. meanwhile it wasn't as bad as they thought.  

that brings me to my next thought: this past weekend leaves me wondering maybe the weather men should be paid according to how close they come to the actual weather then maybe they wouldn't sit around in a studio horrifying the general public into spending hundreds of dollars in emergency food and products while sitting on the edge of their couches waiting for their roofs to cave in.  why? why would i say something so terrible? BECAUSE! here in NYC this past weekend, they sat around in their studios and said 'we'll be getting non eventful rain this weekend until monday'.

that's all i heard and anyone i know heard about the weather for this past weekend.

so explain to me why all the sudden on saturday i wake up to 60 mph winds and coastal flooding?!?!

they didn't see a nor'easter coming for NYC???!?!?!  people are still without electricity, heat, water....there was flooding all over, the wind ripped a piece of our house off, huge trees flew right out of the dirt!  so where were the weather men the couple days before this storm?  they way they usually carry on about storms i would've thought they'd be there flailing their arms in the studio and running around like chickens without heads.  where were the reporters who are usually interviewing people boarding up their windows and running out of supermarkets with $400 worth of water and canned goods? NOWHERE!  you and i both know how mental they can get us all when they start hyping up a storm.  now the time when we needed a warning they lay down and go to sleep?

there was not a single word uttered on the news about a nor'easter, they said rain.  and people were totally sideswipped by it.  so i can't help but ask? should they get paychecks for last week? what did they do? maybe i'm mean....

i'm on a mexican whoa ooh radio

i don't wanna be one of those people who says they loved something before it was mainstream but i did - i loved and still love the temper trap song "sweet disposition" before it was on a coke commercial - ok maybe it was only about a month before i saw it on tv but still:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxKjOOR9sPU

this brings me to think about how much i miss the station WDRE 92.7 and my feelings about radio music in general.  this song is so reminiscent of the music i grew up listening to in the '80's.  WDRE played a lot of  new wave music, ie: the cars, talking heads, the waterboys, the english beat.....it once was WLIR here in nyc and long island.  if you'll indulge me i'll go into my musical history a bit and how i am turing into my dad.  while my dad was the perfect age to be a "hippie" or "baby boomer", when i was little we listened to WLIR/WDRE and i knew nothing about music from the 60's & 70's, classic rock, disco, grateful dead, the beatles or trippy LSD music.  my dad has always been very in the moment. 

once i got to high school and started idolizing my bro who listened to classic rock and heavy metal i kinda fell into that a little.  i was totally all about alternative music when it came out too, alice in chains, nirvana, red hot chili peppers (well, still love rhcp) and to this day still love pink floyd.  i asked my dad why he didn't still listen to the music of his day, how come he didn't expose me to the bands from woodstock, he said 'because i am SICK of it!!!'.  well the apple doesn't fall far from the tree! i can't stand listening to any of the stuff from the 90's or what i listented to as a teenager anymore! except pink floyd. i am just totally over it - i'd rather listen to a blender sometimes.  it grates against my soul........and i really just hate the way the radio dj's play EVERYTHING out.
like, seriously, there are other songs by led zepplelin besides d'yer maker! come the f on already! if i have to suffer thru touch me by the doors one more time i'm going to pour hot lava in my ears. get with it.  dj's totally destroy songs at least play a lesser known song by these bands. makes me so angry i start yelling obscenities at the radio - people in the car next to me are scared for their lives.

another sign i am becoming my dad besides wanting to take a screwdriver to my radio is that he used to listen to independant radio when he lived in ny.  i would be like 'dad wtf are you listening too?'  well here we are and 90.7 and 91.5 are locked into my radio.  independent radio is amazing for the obvious reasons they are not sponsored by anyone but donations so they can play whatever the heck they want to play, they don't have to answer to anyone.  the morning show on 91.5 is awesome it's independent music, some better known bands mixed in there.  sure sometimes you will tune in and hear indian music, but sometimes i liek listening to that too.  it's just different it's stimulating to the mind.  let's hear it for indie radio stations!

91.5fm
90.7fm

i am nauseated by the slim pickings on the dial.  i bet dj's would play more experimental music if they were allowed to, but unfortunately they have advertisers to answer to and i'm sure there are politcis that are involved that i know nothing about or care to know.
you could say to me that i should get satellite radio and i say to you NO!  i don't need another freaking bill!!!

so my point is that:
a: i am turning into my parents
b: i am thrilled with the resurgence of all the new wave influenced bands that are mainstream
c: i love pandora
d: i need to get an ipod
e: nyc dj's should get it together
f: still have a lot to learn about finding music to my ears..................

p.s. i just skipped blind melon's no rain on my pandora radio because it crazily thought i wanted to hear that played out song.

new design - super pleated tote

i featured this style tote a couple weeks ago but didn't have the time to talk about it much, so hear it is:

i love this tote!!! i first started making hand bags with the intention of one day making a bag like this, i didn't know what it looked like in my mind years ago. it's been a process for sure. it's the fruition of everything i've always wanted in a bag for myself but couldn't afford or find.
the super pleated tote bag is a design that you could use everyday and feel like your carrying your belongings in something special. i love pleats, but i wanted to use them in an unexpected way - they are on the sides of the bag in a scattered pattern to create movement and scrunchyness.

the pleating created a really cool shape for the bag. the handles are riveted on. i wanted to keep the overall look simle by leaving out o rings and d rings and buckles.

the inside of the bag has 2 pockets. the outside is made from reclaimed leather and the interior is made with organic canvas.

more new stuff!!!

just finished this fold over clutch a little while ago!!!!

i never know what name to give my bags, i end up just naming them after the techniques i use or what they look like. some people give them girl names, some people name them after cities, i think i better start getting some names together.

i'm back!!

the holidays kept me pretty busy this year. but here i am to share some news. my trunk show was fun and successful even though i didn't get many visitors. i think i will chalk that up to the fact that i didn't really promote as much as i should have. but one really amazing lady did almost all of her shopping at my show. she bought 8 items! her husband dragged her out before she spent another dime at one point and then she came back.
christmas was awesome, we got a gorgeous tree. i got a nintendo ds FINALLY!! so exciting!

and below take a peek at some of the new items that are in my etsy store right now!

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.

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!

pardon my absence

from your life. I have been undergoing much thought about bungaloe, where it's headed and what i like to create. i finally got the faux leather i ordered about 2 weeks ago just in time to make something new and exciting for the Henri Bendel "open see" which was held on Oct 23rd.

well things just weren't going the way i thought they would, i didn't go. BUT i am not too sorry. the last two weeks have been again filled with doubts and questions about what i am doing and what i WANT to do. i spent a lot of time knitting - which is another creative outlet i really want to explore - and just letting things come. here's my newest design it's part of my 'fleather' line of bags and accessories.

that's it for now! i have more designs in the works, one of my other dilemma's is how to change my esty store, stay cohesive and not freak people out because i am completely changing direction.........

take me to delicious town

i drove out to meet my bff in bklyn one night to pick up some stuff. after blabbing about whatever we decided to have something to eat. i remembered her telling me that there was an Ethiopian restaurant nearby when she first moved there. i really wanted to try it but there was also a BBQ place nearby (i heart BBQ, we both do) so we decided to scope out the Ethiopian joint and see if it was something worth giving up the precious space in our tummies that could've been filled with BBQ madness otherwise. there really wasn't much to debate it looked amazing, we could get BBQ anytime.

photo courtesy of Bati's website

the place is called Bati, located at 747 Fulton Street in Bklyn. it was really good, it's the only Ethiopian food i have ever had (yet), so i am no aficionado of African cuisine but we had an amazing time. it had the prefect amount of lighting, i hate eating in really bright places, i like ambiance, it was byob which was cool, our waiter was awesome and the food was great! i loved eating communally with my bestie and tearing off the injera to scoop the goodness into my face.

so i have been a little obsessed with our meal that night, for one thing, i'll eat meat, (the chicken stew was spicy goodness ) but i don't really like to eat too much of it. they had a variety of lentil, pea and chick pea dishes that i really liked and the collards were amazing! i needed to figure out a way to spice up my lentil and legume dishes so i started a search last saturday to find out more about Ethiopian dishes. i found out that there is a spice blend called berbere. i really didnt feel like going on a mad search to find all the spices to make a mix myself - i know laaaaazy! and cheap! hey, i am too busy sewing to be tracking down spices and grinding them up to make my own spice mixture. could i find it online?? could there be someone cool enough to make this blend on etsy?? oh there was!!!!!

step in emburke, a great spice shop i found on etsy: freshly made berbere!! and you get a really good amount i was scared i wouldn't get enough but it's a generous portion sure to keep me busy. smells amazing. put some on my tongue tastes amazing. now i just have to obtain some recipes.

faux leather and me

in trying to keep with a mostly eco product, and maybe someday all eco i am considering getting some faux leather. using organic canvas is awesome and i would like to keep using that plus some hemp. but adding some faux leather to my designs would be just splendid.
after months of research i have found two spots to get a more eco faux leather. although the best choice would be if they would start making it from plant cellulose. i couldn't find any like that.

turns out polyurethane is a better choice, but i also have found some that is produced in a less harmful way, which is a plus: no voc's and polyurethane breaks down and degrades unlike vinyl and pvc based pleathers. pleather sounds so uncool anyway. so what is the point of this early morning eco diatribe? i can't wait to dig into a new material and see what is possible, so far i have no idea how to sew faux leather, this could get messy.

printing elbow and much more.....

my elbow is killing me. i can only think that it's from a print job i did for a local church here. 200 shirts in one day all by myself, woe is me (it took me a couple tries to spell woe).

in other news, i'd like to share the process in which i make new screenprints. as you know they are mostly if not 100% inspired by my surroundings and in keeping with that here is the story about building houndstooth:
i really love the houndstooth pattern. i have a pair of flip flops from reef that are houndstooth patterened and they rocked, super rocked. but one of them broke......le sigh.
so i created a new pattern, it's houndstooth but the shape for the pattern is made from this picture of the dayton towers building in my town of rockaway:

so from here i used my trusty computer to create a houndstooth design and cut it out from a spot on the picture:

the next step was to take this and turn it into a pattern:

after that i printed it out on transparency film, and used the film to create a screen, which i used to screenprint this design onto my fabric and then i sewed my fingers to the bone to create bags like these:

and that's that!

rest your pretty little head

i had a lunch meeting with my business manager (aka my bff since kindergarten) complete with arroz con pollo lovingly made by her mom. we decided i need to simplify things a little. taking on too much is making things confusing for me. there are some super women who can work, cook, clean, make stuff, run a small business, etc. without losing it - not to say i've lost it - but i need to maybe be a little less complicated with my offerings for the time being.

as anyone who has been reading this smut may be aware. besides sewing, i also have an affection towards screenprinting, so lets smash the two together to produce some items that are useful and pleasing to look at.

starting with throw pillows, maybe not the most original idea, but too bad cause i like them, so whatev. it's like having a little piece of artwork on your couch.

this is my first attempt, a screenprint of and old school train with the atomsmasher from playland in the background. printed on a handsewn pillowcase i made with unbleached cotton canvas.

stay tuned for more designs and shopping details.