these shoes were made for walkin'...

Someone recently pointed me to this site - walkscore.com - and it's pretty cool. Just type in your address and it tells you how "walkable" you are. I leave the math figuring up to the WalkScore people, but it looks like it's some combo of how close you are to restaurants, grocery stores, hardware stores, etc. Not everything is up-to-date, like they left off my fave coffee shop Crest Cafe. But maybe they're just one step ahead of me and know Crest is closed for the next couple weeks. Ha. Of course they're one step ahead.

My design studio scored a lovely 77 on a scale of 1 to 100. 100 being most walkable. My parents in rural Michigan are a whopping 8! I guess that's why my dad's the one with the pick-up truck and my only wheels are my bike.

Happy walking!

eating healthy is trendy

Last week the NY Times had a survey where people could post their big extravagences in life. It was great to see so many people making good food - like shopping at Whole Foods, farmers' markets, organic - a priority. Food makes me happy. Good food makes me happier!

what could you do with thousands of old tires?

Well - one thing is make them into a great big tire pyramid. And make it a public art installation and convince the city to fund it and also properly dispose of the tires when the installation is over. That's what Scott Hocking did. He's one of my fave found artists. I stumbled across his found object artwork at this exhibit several years ago.

Tires are one of those hard-to-dispose-of-properly materials. They've also been used in asphalt, playgrounds, journal covers... among other things. But a big tire pyramid. Doesn't that sound like fun?

summer gets crafty in Michigan

If you're in Michigan this month be sure to stop by these craft fairs:
Shadow Art Fair in Ypsilanti on July 14
Detroit Urban Craft Fair on August 4th



If you go, be sure to give a shout out to our super-fantastic artsy friends Crimewave, Henrietta Fahrenheit, Lekkner, SappyCards, Molly Mast, John Roos, Handmade Detroit, Television Farm..... and many many more. Craft on Michigan!

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.