keepin' it hardcore

I am lucky to have had the same best friends for basically my entire life. Who else could I possibly ask to be my bridesmaids then them, my flock.  Originally I didn't want to put anyone out by asking them to be part of my wedding party but when I thought about walking down the aisle, I said to them, "I'm not gonna be the first one to get married and do it all alone, you guys are walking first!" I made it somewhat easy and requested only that they wear all black and their only duty will be to walk ahead of me.

For sharing the special day with me, I decided to make them a little something to wear to remind us of a past time we all shared together...being punk rock. Those were the years of my life that left the biggest impression on me and really formed me as a person. A safety pin through our ear was something we all tried and it is a symbol of the way we were. For each of them to wear in their ear on my wedding day, I had 14k gold safety pins made. 

Displayed in a unique box with a current picture of each best friend and a picture on the flip side of me in those punk years over a decade back... keepin' it hardcore with all of them—I love you riot grrrls.

delivery!

I was so excited last week to receive a package I have been waiting for for about three months! I ordered a ton of phantom crystals (130 to be exact) for the wedding (going with a crystal theme). In their fully loaded box, they were all lined up, pristinely wrapped and each one had to be meticulously undressed. I cleaned them all up (with goo gone to remove tape) but still need to bathe them of their old energy and give them a new life. Hosanna told me a glass bowl of water in the sun should do the trick. Happy to hear that I won't need to rinse them in the East River!

Two deliveries arriving at once is overwhelmingly exhilarating—when you've waited so long. I opened the second box that encased this odd rock ball... 

Yes my geode is here!

the untraditional wedding invite

I'm really not the wedding type but... I am getting married. 

It took months to figure out what we wanted to do to celebrate, we decided to throw a party. The party has morphed into what I would technically have to call "a wedding" but we are doing things a little differently.

It starts with the invitation. After being time warped into the 1950's for the film I was working on, I became obsessed with ads from the era. I couldn't stop flipping to this Shirley MacLaine sweepstakes ad in the center of a Spencer Gifts catalogue and decided that was it!

With some play on words and handy Adobe Illustrator, I re-created the mail-in as our wedding invite.

Our theme, crystals.

I was struggling to find the right image for the back of the postcard and I came across this article on a contortionist in another old magazine. I just loved the photos and thought they were so fun, crazy, different and kind of represented how I feel when I think about weddings—they looks like fun but are always a little uncomfortable. Why not bend the wedding "rules" a bit?

A stack of invites, complete and ready for the usps.

Martha's Plaid

We started back up at Martha on Monday after being on a (long) summer hiatus. Day two, arrived the new Martha Stewart line of Plaid craft paint. We unpacked it to get inspired and study the colors. It's a pretty innovative paint line—it works on all different surfaces– you can use the same paint on glass, ceramics, metal, wood, paper, fabric... basically anything! It's a thrill for me to experiment with new products and oddly enough, exciting to be back at work!

The art department took a lunch break stroll on the high line as well and these beautiful  colored glass windows made me want to dabble in gradients of paint colors when I got back to the studio. Color makes me happy... but complete lack of color makes me happy too!? whatever

WOO WOO

Lemmemakeit has been on the back burner this summer because my focus has been on Woo Woo. Like I've said in a few past posts, I art directed my best friends short film titled Woo Woo, set in 1961. A period piece was a challenge for production design but it wound up all coming together and looking pretty lovely. Here are a few photos I snapped from the set with the actors. It was an amazing experience for me, a lot of work but in the end, I know I will be proud of the result. 

The location of the shoot was in Astoria, Queens, New York, at Nicki's Nana's home that she has lived in since the 1940's. Not much has changed structurally in the house but all the decor and interiors have been updated. The whole house was basically emptied out and all the props loaded in and reset to resemble a low income city home in the late 1950's.

A set of bunk beds from the 1950's were by far the most difficult props to find. Nicki and I actually drove 6 hours to Maine to pick an authentic set up. And there are the awesome antique paper dolls that I scored on Ebay that have real human hair!

A lot of the props came from my personal collection, local NYC flea markets, Brimfield antique fair, Etsy and Ebay. Nicki's most favorite prop I bought was the funny looking teddy bear.

Kitchen supplies and decor were probably the easiest to find. 

The antique Mrs. Butterworth container was a definite plus to making the breakfast table look authentic.

Vintage cafe-style curtains were a staple for a 1950's kitchen.

There's the Irish Blessing I made hanging on the wall!

The little actresses were so excited to stick their fingers in the pie which was part of the story line.

I liked the living room area... maybe because a lot of the things in the room came from my apartment.

That thermostat is definitely NOT from the 1950's—don't worry, it was cropped out of the shot!

For more pictures of the set taken by set photographer Lisa Weatherbee, check out my post on thecraftsdept blog!

adirondack mushroom

Did our annual trip to Lake George this past weekend—always a good time and just an amazing place to escape to from concrete to green. I even found some mushrooms in the yard!

quartz\\

Crystals have been on my mind.

urban green

Since I have been technically off (from Martha) and not working, I've had some time to do other things besides art directing Nicki's short film. I was able accompanied my sister to a few showings of the line she reps, WeSC, which were fun min adventures. We drove to Philadelphia to the Urban Outfitters head quarters located at an old Navy yard. The grounds were very cool, slightly reminiscent of a collage campus but a bit more industrial. There were many "green" elements to the design of the spaces and I especially liked the hanging garden in the cafeteria building.

They also had a yummy veg/vegan cafe, floors made from recycled glass bottles and everyone had reusable cups! Oh and I can't leave out the compostable cutlery in the cafeteria and that every other person had a pet dog with them at work! 

five ways to lose weight

The Twistersizer

The Slender Suit

Rubber Slenderizer Suit

The Trim Wheel

Midriff Belt

Kind of amazing, don't you think? I have done so much 1950's research and I am constantly freaking out about the ads from the time. They are brilliant! So many different weird solutions to lose weight. No one ever thought about just changing their diet perhaps?

funny old ads

Mini Paper Cutter

Universal Fisherman Shears

Portable Cordless Vacuum Cleaner

Fish Gripper

Tiny Pistol Big Bang

Flower Carpet

Protect

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