window shopping

it's valentine's week on bleeker street and i just had to try to capture the lovely windows at marc jacobs. i don't think the detail totally comes across in the pics but these are full on walls of (silk) flowers, happily carrying over to each of marc's now 4 local stores.


which sit just down the block from the mail boxes at juicy and tommy hilfiger's rather stately pink wooden accents...



happy valentines window-or-other shopping!

japanese fabrics at purl

for any lover of fabrics, purl is a must-shop when in new york. fortunately, the little store is so close to my apartment that i can stop in and do whatever you do with your local stores -- buy things you didn't realize you needed. one of the first purchases i made was this bird fabric that turned in to a curtain for a closet with no door.

ah, and now i see the etsuko furuya upholstery weight line is getting bigger, happily in the same color family with some logical options for curtains and pillows:




away from the heavier weights, purl carries a line of super-soft cotton fabrics, kokka nani iro. the watercolor-like prints don't show nearly as well here as they do in person. suffice to say, this top pattern made the lovliest napkins for my friend elizabeth's birthday.



no idea what i am doing with these two, my recent purchases. the top one looks so valentine-sey. i may have to do cocktail napkins for holly's girls' party that night.

magnolia, '08 resolution

just so you know, it's not been cool in the hood to eat magnolia cupcakes for some time. and standing in line with the sex-in-the-city touristas is downright shameful. but, since i live just around the corner, there are times when i will walk by and there will be practically no one in the store. just rows of those rather dry and over-iced cupcakes. given the constant weekend and evening frenzy there, it's hard not to feel like i just have to take advantage of an opportunity to indulge. alas, this is the season of resolution so i'm putting my foot down. (remember, i have been recently called "soft" at the gym). the last time i set foot in magnolia was in '07 and i'm going to see how long i can make this last. don't be afraid to ask about my progressive day count here.

haute chocolate

one of the grooviest places to snack in the west village has to be chocolate bar on hudson and jane. as a fellow vintage rock fan, i have to admire how owner alison nelson twists retro-rock graphics and makes them work, with, of all things, chocolate. just note -LOVE!- the cbgb's/ramones style logo. and her full-on commitment to orange and brown as a color combo. nice.

apparently there's an outpost at bendel's uptown as there are some great pictures of the interior on her site, but really, you couldn't pay me to go to midtown, especially not at this time of year. suffice to say, another good stocking stuffer. i'm just feeling so gifty lately, right?

what a week

halloween week is definately one of the pivitol ones on the new york calendar. the west village is positively overrun by paraders. this year's theme "wings of desire" (who comes up with this?!) inspired such looks as:




and i thought i took my craftiness too seriously. more notables, my personal favorite being the zombie tour bus...

where is perry street anyway?

i love this illustration that i've swiped here (without permission exactly) from the nice people at hable, across the street. perry extends from the west side highway to greenwich ave just east of 7th ave. while "the village" refers to a lot of territory, i'm a bit of a snob about our little nook west of 7th, and particularly west of bleeker. away from the nyu scene and union square, it's usually more quiet over here. the people are so nice it's positively small-town. i have to confess that while i have lived in new york for several (ok, 15) years, i've only lived at my current address for the last 2 of those. my neighbor, melinda, has been in our building for 47 years and can account for most of them pretty well. so i look to her for local tales and history, invariably delivered with her signature strong opinions.