park in bloom {central park}

A quick uptown and run {106th and 5th Ave to be exact} and it's almost like you are not in NYC anymore~ There are these beautiful gardens in Central Park - and right now there are endless tulips, lilacs, azalea bushes and much more in bloom. My mom tells me that it's healthy for your eyes and mental state to see lots of natural greens...I think I'm all set ;) Here are some photos I took...{Although the flowers are amazing, we can't forget about the gardeners - whose presence you see in the bottom photo - who take care of it all~} Have a great weekend!

strawberry macarons

This is from last week but someone brought home the best macarons I've ever had...fresh strawberries {top of the list!}, chocolate and vanilla...bites of pure happiness.

april 2010 {tota press}

You mention April to me...and what comes to my mind are sakura cherry blossoms. The mix of pinks - from really light shades where they are barely pink to a more rich plum pink - is something that can only be seen in the beginning of spring. And although last month's cards were created in the midst of late season snowfall {and rain and rain and rain}, we are now definitely getting a stronger promise that we can say goodbye to winter~ And with that, I bring to you this design of line-art cherry blossoms for this month's cards.

Right now I am visiting the city of San Francisco. Walking around the Nob Hill area, there is a little park that had a few but beautiful cherry blossom trees that are JUST starting to bloom. This reminded me of a few springs seasons ago, when I went to Kyoto with my parents and experienced the real deal in terms of cherry blossoms. We went to many of the old temples that had carefully curated gardens with willowing sakura trees over a pond and sakura trees lined up by a pathway. When we walked around the city, there were also grand sakura trees in the gardens of homes that made me wonder how long these trees have been standing there. In Japan, everything {the schoolyear, new hires for work...} begins in April - it is the equivalent of Septemeber here in the US. So when the cherry blossoms emerge in April, it is not only a welcoming of a new season, but also a symbol of new beginnings. And I love that something so simple and pretty can have such a strong sense of seasonality.

Personally for me, there just happens to be some new beginngings. One of the things is that I'm becoming an aunt for the very first time. So for happy times for our family and happy times for all with a warmer season, I bring to you some cherry blossoms on this month's cards in varying shades of pink, just how they are.


Many much more photos on our Facebook page - April 2010 album »


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tegu blocks

Been away from here a bit too long!

My sister just had a baby girl {hello Sophie~} and my attention is going to kids things! Here are some fun toys from Tegu {that actually my sister first introduced to me}. This is their story...the founder of the company wanted to create something fun that inspires children's creativity while doing some humanitarian good. A company based in Honduras, Tegu is "a creative business founded to address unemployment, under-utilized natural and human resources and the need for entrepreneurship in Honduras..." Look at all the fun things you can create - all with a positive social impact too. Love these toys that is built on the notion of inspiration and will hopefully inspire us all~



{Photos courtesy of tegu}

miette

In the downtown area of San Francisco, the Ferry Building has all these small cute little food shops. And from what I've had a chance to try so far, they are all good stuff. Try a crabcake sandwich at the San Francisco Fish Company...some strong coffee {!!!} at Blue Bottle Coffee Co...pick at some jamon and other pork goodies at Boccalone...and have some sweet bites, like Gingersnap cookies or salted caramels at Miette. I wanted to find some little gifts for people back at home and found the cookie packages here at Miette so cute and perfect. As soon as you walk in the vicinity of the shop, everything smells like good sugar. I pass along some photos of their treats to you here...



{Photos courtesy of miette}

cherry blossoms

I'm in the city of San Francisco right now and over the weekend, I got a glimpse of spring as the cherry blossoms are making their debut. This is in a small neighborhood park in the in Nob Hill area. Sending some sunny blue skies to the rainy east coast...

the little mermaid {sf ballet}

I am in San Francisco right now and last night I was treated to a night out to the ballet. For 2 weeks, the San Francisco Ballet is performing The Little Mermaid, based on the original story by Hans Christian Andersen. Led by Hamburg Ballet Director and Chief Choreographer, John Neumeier, the SF Ballet does a modern interpretation of the tragic story of a mermaid enduring so much because of her committed love for a human Prince. What I loved so much about this performance was the melding of the choreography, stage design, and costume design. The mermaid costume complimented the choreography that resembled movement under water...the minimalist set design utilizing neon lights {I wish I could find a picture!} complimented the bold color palette of the costumes...some of the company dancers seamlessly transitioned from being sea creatures to being supporters of the mermaid...I don't think my descriptions can justify the truly original and unique production they put on. It was VERY modern - choreography, music, set design, everything - but I really appreciated the opportunity to see a full-feature ballet that was quite different from the NYC ballet companies. Check out the video above or here to get a preview and behind-the-scenes look at this performance...


{Photos courtesy of San Francisco Ballet}

threeasfour

I'm working with ArtTable - a leadership organization for professional women in the visual arts - and creating materials for their Annual Award Ceremony and Benefit Luncheon on April 16. This year, Yoko Ono is the honoree of their Distinguished Service to the Visual Arts Award, and so I have had the pleasant surprise of really learning more about her and her contributions to the art world. One fun aspect of her recent work is her fashion collaboration with threeASFOUR, where Yoko Ono's prints were used in their collection {as seen above}. I like their avant-garde creations and then just discovered that OAK is carrying some of their items {as seen below}. Interesting yes? I will keep you posted with the actual materials that I create for this event~



{Photo courtesy of threeASFOUR and OAK}

softest of warmth {natural gas ad}

This ad is AMAZING. I feel as though there is a huge stop-motion trend out there, but this one is still unique, representing natural gas with a cozy knitted textile.

From Ads of the World:

“How to make the invisible visible?” That was the question we asked ourselves when we were conceiving the new ad campaign for Natural Gas, our new client. Based on the client brief, the idea of “the softest of warmth’s” quickly became obvious. Now we just had to find a way to make this visible and touchable. We decided to materialize the softest of warmth’s delivered by Natural Gas, by a very natural and soft fabric: wool. The 35” film tells a very simple story: it shows the moment early in the morning, where a cold house starts to warm up and this way bringing comfort to its inhabitants. The soft warmth spreads around the house and hence we see wool being spread around pipes, radiators, floors, stairs, walls and other objects. ...The result is quite surprising, even poetic.

march 2010 {tota press}

This year, the east coast has gotten more than a full dosage of snow. But as the bright sun shines and the white melts away quickly, there seems to be some signs of spring approaching. With that anticipation in mind, this month's cards are inspired by that burst of light and color that the spring season seems to bring to us.

I've had a few days here and there where I've been awed by the bright sun shining through the trees, off the snow and onto the glass facades of our NYC skyscrapers. It seems to be most noticeable that moment you walk out of your apartment building or come up the stairs of the subway, and I find myself uplifted by the bright rays {even if my boots are still jumping slushy puddles...well, baby steps}. As the sun goes down a tiny bit later every day, I daydream about putting my flip flops on and doing summer strolls through the street while trying out a new gelato flavor~

As a designer, I also know that March and spring are here because my work load includes wedding invitation designs! June brides {congratulations to you~!} are getting their planning underway and wedding invitations are a fun step in the process. I recently completed an custom-designed and hand letterpressed invitation package for a couple getting married right here in NYC in June. As I peruse through websites and magazines for inspriration, my eyes are filled with soft color palettes, light fabrics, garden parties, bright flowers and more.

Winter is beautiful in it's own way, but at a certian point we are ready to move onto less layers and more time spent outside. So I bring to you a burst of yellow on natural craft paper, as well as a sprinkle of lavendar on the classic white paper and share the hope of March bringing some spring to us all very soon.


Many much more photos on our Facebook page - March 2010 album »


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ballet-inspired wedding

I just printed a set of wedding invitations for a lovely couple here in NYC & a few hundred cards for the American Ballet Theater...so when I saw this posting of ballet-inspired bridal fashion on Martha Stewart, I felt like it was everything on my mind. I liked how the bottom dress was described with how in ballet, it's so important to have costumes that are beautiful from all angles. What a great source of inspiration! Top dress by Vera Wang, middle dresses by various {Ouma by Monique Martinez, Badgley Mischka + Lela Rose} and bottom dress by Jim Hjelm.



{Photos courtesy of Martha Stewart}

sun goddess {karen walker}

Check out this ad campaign for a designer, Karen Walker's, sunglass/eyewear line...fun stuff.



{Photos courtesy of Karen Walker Eyewear}

precious

Yesterday were the Oscars - and despite not having had a chance to see a lot of the nominated movies, I watched a good part of the show. {Looks like I need to check out The Hurt-Locker, yes?} One movie I did watch was Precious - and despite it being a super intense and heartbreaking story, I liked the movie. A few weeks ago, I was on a transatlantic flight and spontaneously bought Push at the airport newsstand. I read it in one sitting and was captured by the difficult complexities of Precious's life. On top of that, reading the cover article in the NY Times Magazine, The Audacity of 'Precious', and learning about how the film came about, I had to see it. I think all of the attention the cast and crew have received are super worthy - I love when something totally new can be seen on the big screen. Now on to the other movies~

{Photos courtesy of here}

pulse nyc 2010

Tis the season of the big art fairs in NYC - and this morning I got to check out the Private Preview of PULSE New York. Above are some shots of the space located right along the West Side Highway and Houston. The big industrial space is filled with galleries from around the world representing up-and-coming artists of all sorts of mediums. Photographed below are some my likes. The bottom photo is a "self-portrait" as a camera captured passerbys {me!} and interpreted them into crayon color swatches. PULSE goes on until the weekend so check it out for fun~

taste of 7th st

Over the weekend, Scoop St. had a really great idea group deal called Taste of 7th St. Promoting the idea of "collective commerce"," this deal was a ticket pass to try the foods of some great eateries on 7th Street in the East Village. Below are bad blackberry photos {in the order of my attendance} of the locations: Caracas Arepas Bar, Luke's Lobster, Porchetta and Butter Lane Cupcakes. For $18, I got to fill up on an arepa, mini lobster roll, snack porchetta sandwich and 2 cupcakes. I will definitely be frequenting Butter Lane for their really cute cupcakes where you can choose your bottom cake {vanilla, chocolate or banana brea} and icing {list of 12+ icing flavors including caramel, french vanilla, mint chocolate, etc.} Mmmm....great idea Scoop!

brook&lyn

Check out these super cute things found at a friend of a friend's shop of pre-loved items, called Brook&Lyn. The little mouse is a ring holder and the foot form is a paperweight! She also has shoes, accessories and clothes - and from the selection, a really good eye for rare finds~ {thanks A for introducing...}


{Photos courtesy of Brook&Lyn}