setting the table

How would you like to set your table with these? I would. These lovely porcelain pieces are called New York Delft by Lovegrove + Repucci. I own plain white china with a platinum rim, but I'm actually more attracted to things like this, or vintage china. My grandmother recently gave me the china she received for her wedding in th 1940s. So beautiful. How cool would it be to mix this with some vintage pieces?

$80 for a 5 piece place-setting featuring a NYC taxi, a truck and of course a hot dog stand. They are offering a 10% discount on pre-ordered sets on their website. Check it out here.

street art websites

Thought I would recommend some great street art websites today so you could get your design / art fill for Friday.

Check these out:

http://www.streetsy.com/

(Images above are from this site)

http://www.woostercollective.com/

sale alert!

I love to shop and I love to get a deal. That's why I wanted to let you know that Loehmann's is marking down all of their clearance items by another 40% (starting today). If you don't like to dig, I would avoid this place like the plague. But if you can handle a mess, get yourself over there.

Also, if you like Gwen Stefani's line of less expensive clothes called Harajuku Lovers, Loehmann's has some great prices on her stuff. You can find some on the Loehmann's website, but even more in the store. There are two stores in the city (7th Ave & 16th St and Braodway & 73rd St). Harajuku T-shirts that normally sell for about $36 are $16.99 at Loehmann's. Now that $hit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

Also, if you haven't checked out the latest stuff on the Harajuku Lovers website, here is a little preview...

This bag is perfect to stash your reading material and lunch on the train. ($42 at harajukulovers.com)

And I've been needing a new watch... ($95 at harajukulovers.com)

cheers to pops

I thought I couldn't give a better B-Day shout-out to my dad than recommending a fine beer to my readers. If you haven't tried Brahma, I highly recommend it. It's a light, summer beer that's imported from Brazil. Like a much better version of a Corona. And being the design-freak that I am, I especially appreciate the contoured bottle that easily fits in your hand.

Cheers Dad. I love you.

Also, check out these amazing pieces on the Brahma website, created by Brazilian artist Speto. These are gorgeous. I want one.

emerson on the way to work

There are so many amazing things in this city that are easy to walk by without giving a second notice. I think most New Yorkers tend to put on their blinders, turn up their i-pods and insulate themselves. I understand why...being open can sometimes attract unwanted attention. Anyways, my last stop on the train exits at Hunter College and there's this amazing carved quotation on the side of the building. You can't really see it during the summer, but it says

We are of different opinions at different hours but we always may be said to be at heart on the side of truth.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

terrorist or tourist?

So today I decided to bring my camera along for my subway commute. My commute consists of three subway lines, which means many transfers, which equals many urban observations.

I was a little nervous pulling out the camera for two reasons. First, ever since 911 there has been quite a bit of buzz about photography on the subways. Many people thought it was illegal, and apparently police officers would often tell people to put their cameras away, even though it is not actually illegal.

Just to double-check, I found the MTA NYC transit rules:

Photography, filming or video recording in any facility or conveyance is permitted except that ancillary equipment such as lights, reflectors or tripods may not be used. Members of the press holding valid identification issued by the New York City Police Department are hereby authorized to use necessary ancillary equipment. All photographic activity must be conducted in accordance with the provisions of this Part.

My other hesitation for pulling out the camera was to not be confused with a cheesy tourist. Now, I don't wear a fanny-pack, T-shirt and sneakers to work, but nonetheless there was that little voice in my head saying, "What will that girl with the cool sandals and weird hair think of me?"

Also, after I googled the 'no pictures in subway' topic, I found a cool blog by a guy who takes TONS of great pictures all around the city. It's called Satan's Laundromat.

the throne

Now in keeping with the idea of urban observations, I couldn't resist sharing this piece with you. I found it at the ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) in May. This was created by Ted Nemeth, of Ted Nemeth Designs. He is a local New York City artist.

garden bling

So this blog is about interesting things I observe in the city, and also personal design items that I'm obsessed with. Now that the garden is nearly done, it's time for the finishing touches. What do you think of this fabulous stool/side table in gold? It doesn't exactly match with my funky turquoise and orange mod furniture, but that's kind of why I like it... It's from Jayson Home & Garden and it retails for $180.00. That could buy a lot of clothes at H&M or Target. Decisions, decisions...

garden progress today

OK, so I'm jumping ahead with these pictures. The first picture posted was actually taken several weeks ago when we started the garden project. Today we hauled in twenty-five 40 pound bags of dirt to fill in the final back bed. Gardening is such good excercise and so relaxing even though it is definitely work.

the garden

Today we are going to try and finish up the garden. We've gone slow because a) it's a lot of work and b) dirt gets expensive! I'm going to post some before and after pictures later today. Here is one to start...

thursday night summons

P and I went to the Shepard Fairey opening night party in DUMBO and got stopped by the police on our way home. P rode his bike to work (as he typically does in the summer), so had his bike to bring home after the show. We took the subway, since I didn't have a bike to ride home and riding on the handle bars didn't seem like a great idea in my 4 inch platform Michael Kors clogs. Anyways, we exited the G train at our stop. We walked up the flight of stairs and were heading towards the exit. We ran in to one of our tenants and began chatting with her. We were actually commenting how we like exiting at this particular end of the (very long) subway stop because there is a 24 hour attendant and often times a police officer (or two or three or four). We noticed there was a cop by the exit door, as usual. P was walking his bike next to him, then he sat on the seat and coasted along as we chatted.

When we were about 10 feet from the cop, he yelled out, "I can't believe what you're doing! I mean RIGHT in FRONT of me! I cannot believe this! I mean really! Are you REALLY doing this?!?!"

He scared the crap out of us, we had no idea what we'd done wrong.

Then he yelled again, "I cannot believe you are riding your bike in the subway, don't you know that's illegal?!"

Clearly we did not, as P got on his bike right in front of this man. P apologized, said he had no idea it was illegal. That he was on his way home with his wife, and he was very sorry. Of course he would never ride his bike on the subway if he'd known, especially right in front of a cop! We both apologized, P said he would never do it again, and we expected to receive a warning and then be sent on our way. Not with this man. He was WAITING for some poor souls like us to do something illegal. We just happened to be those suckers that night. So, our answers and reasoning did not suffice.

He took out his ticket book, but first said, "SIR do you have any warrants out on your name?!" "Because I'm going to call you in right now, and let me tell you, if there are any warrants out on you I will take you in immediately!!"

P said "No, no warrants."

While sweat dripped down his cheeks he said, "Are you sure?! Are you telling me the truth?! Because trust me, you do not want to lie to me. There will be BIG problems if you are lying to me!" "I will take you in tonight!"

Again, P said calmly, "No Officer, I do not have any outstanding warrants out on me. I'm a social worker, sir."

And let me just remind you. We did not look like hood rats this evening. I was wearing my cute 4" platforms, chic army pants and a cute tank top I recently purchased from Loehmanns. P had on his work attire which consists of dress pants and a dress shirt. Apparently we looked like MAJOR trouble makers. So the officer proceeded to call in a warrant check on P. Our tenant had left a while before as I looked at her and gave her that oh-my-god-i-can't-believe-this-is-happening look and said please go ahead.

So the cop calls in the check. "Yes 5770 on Bedford Nostrand, I have a warrant check, copy."

Of course the warrant check didn't take long because there WERE no warrants out on my dear husband.

He then proceeded to say/shout, "Look, I'm going to give you a summons and then tell you how to get out of it. You are lucky I'm not giving you a criminal summons because I could! And you'd better listen close, actually I'm going to tell her in case you aren't listening." And he looks at me.

He pulls out his pad, and it takes him about 3 minutes to flip through the code book to find whatever law it is we'd broken. Perhaps the 'do not coast on your bike in front of an angry rookie transit cop' law.

Anyways, he wrote it up and said, "Here is what you do. You mail in the summons and write a letter explaining why you should be pardoned. See the address is right here on the back."

He continued, "This is an old law... some guy was riding his bike like a maniac on the subway platform and hit an old lady and knocked her on to the tracks."

I really thought about pulling the cute girl/wife card and reasoning with this man, but I realized about 3 minutes in to his yelling and ranting, there was no point. He was out to get someone, and it happened to be us. So we took the summons, and wheeled the bike and our defeated butts on out of there (but of course not on the bike).

So here's what makes me the most angry about this situation:
1. The police officer immediately started yelling at us. Why? (rhetorical question here... i know this man has some issues)
2. We own a house around the corner. This is our neighborhood and my hard-earned tax dollars are going to pay this man's salary?
3. I guarantee you three drug dealers walked down the stairs past us to the platform while we got the summons. I mean, this guy really knew where to focus his efforts.
4. Apparently this has been discussed at our block association meetings, but why can't we get some regular cops around here? When I say regular I mean the same cops come back to the same posts. It's different cops every single night. If the cops really got to know who lived around here and who didn't, they wouldn't attack innocent locals.

Sheesh mageesh.