last summer when i drove to lawrence to meet aimee (artsyville), jackie (smoothpebble), and melinda (my purple crayon), i borrowed 2 plates from aimee for serving cheese in my hotel room. at the end of my stay, i popped the plates into my suitcase, fully intending on handing them back to aimee when we said our goodbyes. when i got home and unpacked, i realized i still had the plates. aimee said “toss ‘em!” but i couldn’t throw perfectly good plates away! so the unloved plates went on tour. and over the last 12 months, aimee has received photo postcards in the mail of the plates’ adventures:

photo by jenn

the plates started their travels with a visit to the lyndale park rose garden here in minneapolis last summer. rumor has it it’s where aimee got married.

photo by me

then they made their way to new york for a fall weekend, where they got to see the empire state building.

photo by anna

back in minnesota, they went on a walking tour of saint anthony falls. it was unseasonably cold that day for october.

photo by tracy

vegas! vegas sun is so much better than october in minnesota! (i made tracy walk 3+ miles to the sign. i thought it was only a few blocks from our hotel, and we were both very hung over, so i babbled on and on to keep tracy from focusing on how much she hated me for making her walk to the stupid sign. i think i also bought her egg mcmuffin when we stopped at mcdonalds for grease and caffeine. once the photo was taken, we flagged a cab back to the hotel.)

photo by martha

the plates then rested a bit - it was a busy fall! but immediately after christmas they traveled to seattle, and they were photographed during a great afternoon photo-walk with one of my very first flickr friends.

photo by me

then up to michigan’s upper peninsula in february, to see lake superior’s icy shore. brrrrrr!

photo by kristin

summer has been fabulous in minnesota, so a photo at one of aimee’s favorite minneapolis lakes — lake of the aisles (with a view of downtown minneapolis!) — was a great way to end the plate’s tour.

and that’s it! the plates have retired from traveling.

read aimee’s perspective on the plate silliness…

it’s a 3-day weekend for us, and i’ll be avoiding the interwebs until next week. happy weekend!

when in new york in may, i stopped at the impossible project space on broadway. i decided to treat myself with some px 100 silver shade for my sx-70 polaroid camera. i pictured gorgeous black & white polaroids of manhattan, so gorgeous that people would demand i provide prints by the handful. that’s not how it worked out.

it was really exciting to use the film. and i knew that it was very sensitive.

my polaroids never came out black & white, but more of an orangey-sepia tone. it didn’t help that it the temperature was in the low 80’s and humid while we were there. heat is not kind to px 100.

and i was constantly moving, and no matter how hard i tried to shield the exposing film from light, it was difficult when walking down a busy street.

a few weeks ago i received an email from the impossible project about the attack of the killer crystals: crystals are forming due to humidity. and it has been humid here, and i have no a/c, so the crystals are starting to show up. and the images are starting to deteriorate even further.

they are barely recognizable now.

i have high hopes that the impossible project will some day be able to produce color film. despite my current disappointment, i hope, i hope, i hope…

saturday was a doozy.

out the door at 6:50: ran up to central park and around the entire perimeter and back, 9.25 miles. it felt great. after a shower i rounded up the girls and we set out for brooklyn to get a bagel. my sister used to live a few blocks from terrace bagels in prospect park, and every time i’m in new york i get a bagel there. the wonderful patricia of the new red bow studio met us out front, and we did a bit of shopping in park slope: sweet charity, cog & purl, sweet melissa patisserie. then we all headed back to manhattan for the afternoon.

ok, this part is wild: i was walking down bowery to meet jenn & patricia. i walked by a couple as they were entering a building, and i thought i recognized the blonde woman. could it? really? then i looked down at her mongoose shoulder bag and knew: yes, it was the heather of skinny laminx. i almost kept walking, but then i remembered we have exchanged a few notes here and there so there was a chance my blog name would ring a bell. so i did it: i said “excuse me? are you heather moore of skinny laminx?” i think she was a little surprised at the question, but then i blurted out really fast “i’m-jen-[last name]-of-painted-fish-studio-and-something-something…”. i think my blog name did ring a bell and we chatted about our trips, blogging, stuff. then paul offered to take our photos, and there we are (above) but i hate having my face up on my blog so you only get a small taste.

how crazy is it, in a city of 8+ million people, to run into a blogger from south africa?!

then i met up with jenn & patricia at the sweet life. we boutiqued, we had a glass of wine, then checked out john derian dry goods. had more wine at gemma, where we were joined by lisa. we headed to prince street for dinner, and as we walked along houston, we came across the new shepard fairey mural. we said our goodbyes to patricia at a subway station, and then met anna & rebecca at il corallo trattoria — another favorite that my sister introduced me to. i think it was one of the best meals i’ve had, but it could have been the wine! after dinner we walked the 20 blocks back to the hotel, and we drank more wine.

sunday morning came early and hard. i decided the best way to feel not-so-shitty was to take a long, hour-long walk to the guggenheim. i was a little sad that the malevich exhibit was just 6 paintings, but did not regret the trip. i took the train back to the flat iron district, walked around a bit, then talked jenn & lisa into a slice of pizza before we left for the airport. and then the trip was over.

we really did pack a lot in. and i’m ready to go right back and do it again. but i think i’ll stay home for a bit. happy weekend!

i slept in friday morning, while some of the girls went to the today show (cameron diaz!), followed by $27 mimosas at the plaza (i’m happy i slept in!). once up, we made our way to chelsea market, to meet the wonderful cindy of quaint handmade. we were a little late, and i felt terrible, but i think she forgave us, and was such a great sport because there were quite a few of us converging around her. she took us up to the high line, which was amazing. i hadn’t been there yet, but really, the best part was getting to know cindy. we have refined tastes, that is for sure, but we love trashy reality tv gossip. thank you so much, cindy!

after our time with cindy, we split off. amy went to the met, lisa went up to harlem, and jenn, anna, and i headed to soho for a bit of shopping. we had dumplings for lunch in chinatown, and we split again: me to the impossible project space (more on that later!), jenn/anna to purl, where i caught up to them, and didn’t buy a single thing (amazing!). a quick tour of droog, and then we split up again: jenn and i walked up broadway with stops at the strand and union square (where we bought goods from kristiana). then a nap for me…

next: jenn and i went to h&m, where i forgot to use the 12%-off coupon from the hotel, danggit. then we all met at the moma. we didn’t realize it was free friday night when we originally made our plans, and the crowds were a little overwhelming. but i was able to see the artist is present, some henri cartier-bresson,  a wall of typography posters (i think the new typography exhibit was a little over-hyped), and some of the permanent collection in an hour. a drink at the museum bar, and then we were off to the smile for dinner. i had walked by it last fall and was intrigued. it received a great review in last week’s new york (timely!), we somehow got reservations, and it was an amazing meal. highly recommended.

the rest of the evening was low-key for me — i had a long run planned for saturday morning and didn’t want to over-do it.

days 3 & 4 tomorrow!

see also: jenn’s etsy finds in new york city, anna’s day 2

last weekend is a blur, but i’ll do my best to remember what we did!

the 5 of us arrived in manhattan late thursday afternoon. we met anna’s friend rebecca at the hotel, and then set out on foot towards kinokuniya. but first: a libation! we stopped at the first bar we could find, a little touristy-trap on the outer edges of times square. we sucked our drinks down quickly, eager to get our weekend started and learn more about each other. then kinokuniya, where i did some damage. i can’t help it - i love books (if you’re ever in the twin cities, come on over to my library!). then… then we walked down broadway in search of basta pasta. on our way there, rebecca pointed out event horizon, an artist installation of 31 bronze life-size statues that are perched atop buildings around madison square park. apparently when they were first installed, there were a couple of panicked calls to 911 about jumpers… many blocks later, we found that basta pasta wouldn’t seat us for another 2 hours so we jumped into the next eatery on the block: blt fish, which was spendy (i didn’t see the entree prices when presented the menu prior to seating, oops.). so we ate apps, and relied on the liquor store around the corner to keep us nicely tipsy while we watched rhonyc back at the hotel (yes, we are wild ones!).

day 2 tomorrow…

see also: anna’s day 1, jenn’s quick food tour of new york

we arrived safely yesterday, tired and poorer, happy to be home. i have lots of photos and stories to share, but i need a few days to get my bearings and figure out real life again… happy monday!

today jenn, anna, lisa, amy, and i leave for new york for manhattan meetup in may! i am excited to get outta town and see the big apple with some amazing women. and while it isn’t the meetup that i had originally envisioned (i.e. lots of bloggers converging to meet me/us), we’re still meeting up with some wonderful people: friday morning i’m/we’re meeting cindy from quaint handmade at chelsea market, followed by more tourist-y activities along the high line. and on saturday, patricia of my cosmopolitan diary is coming to the city and we’re going to drag her around like a tourist, despite the fact that she knows the city like the back of her hand!

there’s a lot we all want to cram into the next few days…

after cross country skiing all morning on saturday (and into the afternoon) while the snow melted around us, we went into downtown ironwood (michigan) to pick up salmon for the grill. i did a u-turn when i drove past the sign: i think the concept of a wig shop in a small, economically depressed town is wonderfully odd. wigs sound so extravagant! unfortunately, glorias (note there’s no possessive apostrophe) wasn’t open, so an afternoon of trying on purple and pink wigs wasn’t in the cards.

and so it goes, monday rolls around and here we are again. we are in a full thaw here, and it is glorious (glorias?).

i met jenn for lunch on monday at cupcake. i had a greek salad with dressing on the side and a cup of green tea and no cupcake. being healthy is boring.

but the conversation was lively: we talked about her recent trip to a warm locale, we looked at sewing books and talked about projects, and we talked more about manhattan meetup in may. yesterday we booked our flights. if you want to join us in new york city in 4 months, leave me a comment!

happy new year! i hope the holidays treated you well. i’m happy they are behind us! my coping mechanism was to run off to seattle for a few days:

within an hour of arriving at my hotel, i met martha, aka sew fab martha, and we did a 5-hour photo walk along the waterfront, through pike place market, in and out of antique shops, and around downtown seattle. we ate fish and chips at ivar’s, and for dessert, she took me to the wall of gum (it’s as gross as it sounds). we made fun of the people in line at the original starbucks (because there are at least 8 more within a 5 block radius). she introduced me to the monorail, and we were horrible adults and raced to the front of the train to get the front seat, leaving a bunch of kids in our dust.

my afternoon with martha was so much fun, and it was like we have been friends forever. we’re still trying to figure out how exactly we met — martha says i’m one of her first few flickr contacts from around 19 months ago, but i’m still not sure how we found each other!

i also got to have coffee with chandler of anagram press and the tailor (aka her husband) at macrina bakery. i met chandler a few times before she moved from minnesota, and it was so nice to see her again, and to meet the tailor, and to learn more about the history of seattle and learn more about each other. she and the tailor gave me a ton of great ideas for the rest of my stay, and i couldn’t do them all so i’ll just have to go back. twist my arm.

one of their tips was to hike up a big hill to bhy kracke park: the view rivals that of the space needle, and the hike is free.

as you can see, the sun is out. it was out for the 3-1/2 days i was there. i think the “it rains here 99% of the time” thing is just a means to keep the riff-raff out.

and lastly, one of the main reasons i went to seattle was to meet and spend time with my sweet friend evalynn. we ate puerto rican. we met for coffee in the mornings. we ate sushi (it was so cheap! and yummy!).

we shopped at the daiso japanese dollar store (i had to ship my booty home - there wasn’t enough room in my suitcase.). we went to the seattle art museum to see the calder exhibit. we took the underground tour and learned that prostitution saved seattle. we walked up a massive hill to eat cheese and have a glass of wine at bricco.

i was very sad to leave seattle, because that meant returning to minnesota cold and ice, and going back to work. but the trip was a great way to end 2009. and i’m looking forward to what 2010 will bring!

you are invited to join me in for a weekend in manhattan next may 21-24, 2010!

after having an amazing weekend (alone!) in manhattan earlier this fall, i decided that i need to go back soon, and i’d love to have people meet me there. so let’s do a manhattan meetup! a few thoughts:

• this is a meetup for those that love nyc, and for those that haven’t been.
• i will not be providing an itinerary, but i will provide you with ideas on how to fill your day.
• i will not make hotel reservations for you, but i will provide you with a list of hotels that are in the flatiron/chelsea neighborhoods, so we are all staying in the same area. if you would like to save money by having a roommate, let me know and i will let you know who else is looking for a roommate.
• i will not book your flight, but i will help you with figuring out transportation to and from manhattan.

a little more: i love traveling alone. in fact, i prefer it (friday, saturday, sunday). and while i will not dictate that you do everything by yourself, i want this weekend to be about you, doing the things you want to do. if you want to go to see [fill-in-the-blank], then go! have you ridden the subway alone before? it’s safe, and easy! have you savored paintings in a gallery alone before? no?! this is your weekend. when was the last time shopped alone? it is heaven not worrying about people waiting for you. the best bagels? they’re in brooklyn and i can get you there…

i’ll help you figure out where everything is. and if you don’t want to do things alone, then i’ll help you find others in our group that want to do similar things. but i do want you to step outside of your comfort zone a little. even if that means traveling to meet people you’ve never met — that’s a huge step! i want this weekend to be about you.

the only requirement: at the end of the day, we’ll all gather for food and drink, and talk about what we did, what we saw, what we photographed…  and we’ll talk about what we all plan on doing tomorrow. journaling will be encouraged, and i will provide the means to do so.

are you in?! if you’re in, let me know in the comments. and then i’ll send you more information about how much it may cost, when to arrive, when to leave, etc… and i’ll set up a little site for specifically for us, with more detailed information. i hope you’ll join me! i would love to see you!

think about it over the weekend. really, please do.

vegas, oh, vegas. the things you do to me…

last weekend my friend tracy and i flew to vegas to celebrate erika and dave’s wedding. they met in vegas, they married in vegas, and whooooooooo boy did we celebrate vegas. that’s probably all i should say, lest i lose the respect of my peers (but man, i still hurt.)

i wish i could say the trip had some redeeming cultural value to it, but not much to report there (the bellagio charges an entry fee to see the art collection. and really, if you’re going to charge me THAT MUCH for a bloody mary, i should be allowed to see the art for free!) — we were in vegas to celebrate 2 amazing people and the odds of them finding each other in a gamblin’ town. and that is better than any museum any day.

i didn’t gamble a single penny, but we did enjoy some sun and 90 degree weather. and tracy and i schlepped about 2 miles down las vegas boulevard on sunday morning to take picture of the welcome to *fabulous* las vegas sign.

enough about us! look at the beautiful bride and handsome groom! and how happy they are! i wish them love, happiness, wedded bliss…. and dave, when you move here from the united kingdom, bring a few of your friends with those lovely accents, ok? irish car bombs are on me.

i’m in las vegas. i’ll be back tomorrow!

sunday was my last day in manhattan. i got up at 8, grabbed a latte, and walked to the met: from 25th street to 81st. it took about an hour.

i saw vermeer’s the milkmaid, and then wandered through the modern art collection, trying to find robert frank’s the americans. i finally found it, and wow, it made me miss my grampa. the photos were taken in 1955-56, when my grampa was in his prime adult years. i missed him and felt it physically…

i ate a pretzel on the steps of the met, then walked a few more blocks to the guggenheim to see the kandinsky exhibit. decided i love his earlier work more than his later work during the bauhaus. took this polaroid.

after the guggenheim, the plan was to take the subway to soho and do a little more window shopping. but it was sunny and warm — a beautiful day! — so i decided to walk to soho. 80+ blocks. i had to stop and rest my feet a few times, but really, is there any better way to see a city? i figured i walked about 10 miles sunday. which helped justify a giant slice of pizza.

and then… it was over. time to make my way to the airport.

it was hard to leave.

. . .

so a question for my friends:

if i was to pick a weekend, say, 6 months from now, and find a few hotel options within a 10 block radius, would anyone want to join me in manhattan?

it would not be a pARTy weekend. rather, it’d be a weekend for exploring the city and meeting other creative people. any interest? leave a comment. ask questions.

happy weekend!

saturday was shopping day. but first, i took the f train to brooklyn for a bagel. i went to my sister’s old neighborhood (prospect park) to get a whole wheat bagel with tofu veggie cream cheese from terrace bagels. yum.

let the shopping begin! first stop was muji in chelsea. i bought a few little things, mostly gifts. then i walked to soho, and got in line to enter uniqlo. yes, a line. it was a madhouse inside, and the line for the dressing room was as long as the line to get in. and the line to pay was as long as the line for the dressing room. i spent a lot of time there, for just a simple skirt and jacket. as i walked out, it started to rain, so i dashed into the moma design store, hoping for a bathroom. no luck. starbucks bathrooms are awful in manhattan… i dodged rain to get to madewell, and fell in love with $300 boots. i could not spend $300 on boots. i’ll just get the $40 pair at target. last stop in soho: pearl river for a few treats.

i had a late lunch of veggie udon at a little deli on 19th street. perfect for a rainy day. dropped off my purchases at the hotel and rested my feet a bit. then i walked to times square and went into my 5th h&m, and tried on 7 things, and didn’t like any of them. but i did buy some purple tights in honor of martha’s new fall/winter line: g l e a n i n g. (speaking of which, the uniform natural shop opens today around 1pm cst.) i explored times square a bit, and then went back to kinokuniya, um… to get a gift for a friend. and ok, one more book for me.

evening: more wine. more stein. and debate internally whether or not i should invest in an eames molded plywood lounge chair.

my flight arrived @ jfk @ 10am friday morning, and it took me almost 2 hours to get to my hotel in the flatiron district via the subway. i dropped off my bag, then walked up 6th to the whitney museum, stopping for a brie baguette on the way. upon entering the georgia o’keeffe exhibit i made eye contact with a very attractive man. and as i looked at him, he looked familiar. and then i realized he was jude law. i blushed, and looked away, feeling like a gawker, and rushed through that first room of the exhibit, otherwise i’d be checking him out and not the art, so i moved along.

after i had walked through the rest of the whitney, i started the walk back to my hotel, with shopping stops along the way. i stopped into the gap’s concept store, merci, which really wasn’t that exciting. bought a few things at h&m… dana left me a comment on facebook: ogle all the sewing books in Kinokuniya for me, ‘k? kinokuniya? i looked up kinokuniya on my iphone, and discovered it was a japanese bookstore on 6th and 40th, just a 15 minute walk from my hotel. and i bought 5 new japanese craft books. and ended up shipping them home, so i could lift my carry-on into the overhead bin…

while at the whitney, there was a piece in the steve wolfe exhibit that referenced gertrude stein. and i decided that i wanted to spend my evening reading (a rare treat for me!) gertrude stein and sipping wine. so i walked to union square, picked up stein’s paris france, a bottle of wine, and salad bar to-go. not the most exciting friday night in new york, but it was exactly what i wanted.

i arrived home from my trip to nyc late last night. my weekend was perfect.

this is a crazy week… hope to share more about my trip with you soon.

happy monday!

houston street, nyc. april 2006

i’m taking a flight to new york this morning for a 3 day weekend. it’s the same flight/trip jenn and i took last october. this year she has a 6-month-old at home, so i’m going solo. if i had a happy baby with big cheeks, i’d find it hard to leave, too. but i don’t have one, so off i go!

i’m going to shop and i’m going to see exhibitions. and hopefully i’ll walk enough to justify eating bagels, pizza, black & white cookies, candied almonds, lattes, baked goods…

i’ll tell you more next week. happy weekend!

visiting jen in california was so much fun. we’ve known each other for well over a year now, and have collaborated on a few projects… it was wonderful to finally meet her in person.

jen made me feel at home. that seems like such a simple thing, but it really is not. i felt so welcome, as if i’ve been there over and over.

on monday we had sushi for lunch. tons of sushi. so much sushi that i walked out in a daze and left my credit card there.

i hung out with two cool kids. jen’s kids are so much fun and smart and creative,  i wanted to pack them up and take them home.

mountains! i’ve been to california a few times before, but for some reason i remembered it as being pretty flat. (um, yeah, the hollywood sign sits on a mountain side. i know/have seen that. i just seemed to forget about the hills.)

on tuesday, jen took me to marukai daiso japan, in san diego. it’s a japanese “dollar” store, and almost everything was $1.68. and omg, it was so damn cool: i started grabbing things left and right… stationary, notepads, stickers… then jen handed me a basket. and more stuff went into it. coasters, dishtowels, origami paper, green tea soap, candy, more notepads, gum, erasers shaped like food, gift bags, and on and on. i actually ended up putting some items back where i found them (really, what would i do with it all?!), but i still managed to walk out with 2 big bags of goodies. (and this is where i realized i left my credit card at the sushi place the day before.) THEN we went to a japanese bookstore in marukai market, and more damage was done: japanese craft books are seriously addicting. and so are wasabi crackers…

and then we went to mission beach, breathed in the ocean air, got sand on our toes, and took a ton of polaroids. well, jen took 3 packs. i was really stingy.

and before i knew it, it was time to leave. and jen was a rockstar and drove like a maniac to get me to the airport before my flight left (we shouldn’t have stopped at starbucks, but i needed caffeine). a quick hug, a panicked 15 minute wait in the security line, and i was one of the last 5 onto the plane. whew! and one last look at the ocean before i was home…

thank you so much, jen. let’s do it again some day.

why is it that i decided to be stingy with my polaroid film when i go to visit my polaroid collaborator?! i was looking for only perfect shots, and took about 10 total. but now i wish i had taken more…