have you walked your office furniture lately?

I moved into my new design studio almost 2 months ago and it's mostly settled now. I'm trying to incoporate green living into my everyday life and anything "new" that I need for the studio I'm trying to get either used, vintage, eco-friendly, or make it myself. Which is sometimes easier said than done. I'm also trying not to shop at big, corporate giants and get everything as local as possible.
I've been desperately needing a good office chair, so when I discovered Two Jakes right around the corner from my apartment I was very excited. They have piles of old vintage office furniture and the people there are really nice and actually know some history about furniture. The other challenge with living in NY is not having a car. So while the walk to Two Jakes from my studio seemed quite short, on the way home, with the new/used office chair in tow, it seemed so much longer. Good thing vintage chairs are made with good, sturdy wheels. We had a nice walk home.

Renegade Craft Fair

I had the pleasure of stopping by the Renegade Craft Fair this past weekend which is only a few blocks away from my new design studio. A few of my crafty favorites were screen printed cards by Brooklyn-based Foxy and Winston , the super-fun recycled wood creatures from Everlution, and recycled metal earrings from Anna Built. Hurray for crafty, handmade stuff. And hurray for most craft booths accepting credit cards!

yay summer! yay tomatoes!

One of my favorite things about summer are the fresh vegetables. And there's nothing can compare to homegrown tomatoes.
I recently planted a few tomato plants of my own in my lovely backyard in Brooklyn. It makes me happy to look out my window and see my very own tomato plants basking in the sunshine. And to keep the tomatoes company I added a few pepper plants, basil, cilantro and red freckled lettuce. And that's about all that my mini-backyard garden could fit. By the end of summer I'll have my own salad that I picked myself. Now I just have to figure out how to grow olive oil and some balsamic vinegar.

destination: Demolition Depot

My friend Britten was in town last week from the mitten state. We ventured up to Harlem to check out the Demolition Depot . It was like 2 kids in a candy store... but the kids are really designers and the candy is really a big garbage playground. Why don't more places like this exist? Where does all that fantastic scrap go when buildings are torn down? Well, in Harlem the scrap gets to live on at the Depot. And some of it is even rented out for movies. What a fancy life these vintage things live.

We were mostly playing outside in the land of old telephone booths and empty bath tubs... but then we discovered a whole extra 3 floors of glorious garbage! Layers of doors. Lovely neon signs. Piles of grates. Meat hooks (you never know - bike holder, coat hook...). It sure was fun to play. In fact, it was grate!

Dumpster dive on in!

Hey there! I’m Tiffany Tomato and I’m here to spread some recycling love. I’m the voice of RePlayGround where we take garbage to places it’s never been before.

RePlayGround is a place where scrap comes back to life. Where it’s transformed into new. Scrap is something that should be celebrated, rather than brushed under a rug. Maybe what you’re trying to get rid of can instead become a rug.

Getting that first idea is often the hardest part. Sometimes you just have to dive right in. And once you get going, you might find you can’t stop. Just remember that nothing around here is garbage.