i spent the last 4 days in new york with krissy (paper schmaper), and i did my best to introduce her to one of my favorite cities. we stayed at the ace hotel in midtown, and it was a long weekend of awesome eating and drinking, with a little shopping and art thrown in. other highlights:

• lunch with aimee (artsyville) thursday at the spotted pig
• hanging with cindy (town & country) at the moma friday
• seeing patricia (red bow studio) for the first time in at least 2 years and wandering soho on saturday
• meeting julia (red otter creative) and drinking our way up from soho to greenwich village

i think it’s going to take me a week to recover but it was worth it!

i’m in manhattan, it’s spring, it’s friday. happy weekend!

still working on the binding. not quite sure what i’m doing, but i think i’m getting there…

some quotes i’ve savored from recently read books:

hyssop is (as you may know) a purificatory herb that smells like mint from outer space.
– decreation, anne carson

i didn’t really want more champagne, but i wanted him to come back to me.
– revenge, yoko ogawa

all she had consumed all day was smoke, heavy feelings, and chocolate ice cream.
– green girl, kate zambreno

but before this recognition quite a bit of sleeping goes on, or is prevented from going on, in noteworthy ways.
– decreation, anne carson

nobody can judge what goes on between two people. if one can be compassionate, understanding, patient, then the song of the stars begins and love is born.
– i shock myself, beatrice wood

the lakes where his factory has poisoned everything are as beautiful as a brueghel.
– decreation, anne carson

organic seed bombs from renaissance botanical: it might just be spring enough here for these!

photo credit: renaissance botanical

prenzlauer allee
berlin
april 19, 2013
expired polaroid 600 film

i’ve had the rainbow paper for over a year now, and while the original idea for it didn’t turn out, i’ve come up with another idea… more to come soon!

happy weekend!

sunday morning coffee walk
amsterdam
april 14, 2013
impossible project px 680 color protection

this is the painting by gineke zikken i brought home from amsterdam. titled amsterdam zuid, it’s a scene from amsterdam south. i loved the hints of orange and the construction crane.

man house – hombre casa – ceramic brooch by kinska.

photo credit: kinska

i’m on the last color of my blanket!

schönhauser allee (my last morning)
berlin
april 19, 2013
expired polaroid 600 film

lisa daria paints a painting a day, and i hope she never stops because it is such a treat to see new work daily. so far i’ve resisted clicking the “click here to purchase” link but i know i won’t be able to resist for long…

all photos by lisa daria

(rabbit, rabbit.)

green stuff is coming out of the ground!

party animal.

photo credit: hisss illustration

along the amstel river with la ninja
amsterdam
april 13, 2013
expired polaroid 600 film

i flew from amsterdam to berlin on monday april 15. i stayed in prenzlauer berg, which is where my sister lived for a year in college (she and i also stayed there when we went back 8 years ago). first order of business: find a place to sit outside and have a beer. it was about 70 degrees and it felt so good. then i went wandering. i went right to alexanderplatz and was so disappointed to see that all the soviet era buildings in the square had been demolished.

tuesday morning i met stephanie levy for the first time in person, and she gave me a great walking tour of mitte, the neighborhood she lives in. we walked and talked for hours. i’m so lucky to be able to travel and make friends with amazing people!

wednesday started with frühstück (breakfast) outside, then i wandered. i walked to the brandenburger tor (gate), then peeked at the reichstag, then went through tiergarten (berlin’s version of central park) to the neues nationalgalerie to see an exhibition of modern art after world war 2. then i made my way back to my hotel, going through potsdamer platz, and stopping for a beer along the spree river. i’ve since mapped the route out, and it was around 7 miles… i met stephanie for dinner and then fell asleep early.

thursday: more walking and a little shopping. i had my last dinner with stephanie and some of her friends at street food thursday, in kreuzburg. i had a large serving of kase schnitzel, which was yummy but so filling — i had no room to try anything else. but it was a great way to spend my last evening in berlin.

when i woke up friday morning, i decided to take my polaroid camera with me on an easy run. the photos i took that morning are my favorite, and the perfect way to remember berlin. i’ll share them here over then next few weeks.

i miss both cities so much, and i’m looking forward to my next visits.

when i arrived in amsterdam (last friday the 12th), it was raining hard and it was cold. but the rain soon cleared, and i was able to begin my wanderings. i actually didn’t do a lot the first day, other than wander, and end it with reading a book at a cafe while the danish young men sitting right next to me were raucous and rowdy.

on saturday, i met la ninja for a late lunch and we did a walking tour, stopping at the library where we went to the top floor and had a great view of the city from a high vantage point. we later had dinner & drinks and contemplated joining the other 13,500 people that were visiting the rijksmuseum (it was the first day the entire museum was open after 10 years of renovations), but we missed the cut off at 10pm, which was ok, as i’m not a big fan of large crowds.

on sunday i took the ferry to amsterdam noord, and gineke picked me up and took me to her studio. i lusted after her new york painting pictured above, but it was too big for me to take home, too big for any walls in my tiny house, and too big for my budget. (i did bring home a much smaller painting of amsterdam zuid — i’ll share a photo of it soon.) we then hopped into gineke’s car and she drove me even further north and through old fishing villages along a dike that is holding back the north sea. we had lunch in the noord, and then i slowly made my way back to the hotel via prinsengracht. sunday was rokjesdag, which translates to skirt day, and it’s the first day of spring when the girls are wearing a skirt with their bare legs. i love that the dutch have a word for that first awesome day of spring! i’m adopting it and hope to use it this weekend in minnesota.

and then it was time to head to berlin. i would have loved to stay in amsterdam a few more days, but i was also excited to see prenzlauer berg! i’ll write about that part of my trip in tomorrow’s post.

on a break from workshops
phoenix az
april 3, 2013
expired polaroid 600 film

white winged horse articulated decoration / hinged beasts series by emma kidd.

photo credit: benconservato