Bugs Scare Me

I was THIS CLOSE to getting a pet gecko when I found out they eat roaches. I really realllly cannot deal with having cockroaches in my apt, even though they're pretty few and far between. Some are LARGE and FAST. So, tonight I googled which animals eat roaches, thinking maybe I could welcome a nice pet into my home and let it loose! The answer is lizards; lizards eat roaches. But you can't let them eat poisoned roaches, and we've been spraying Raid for a while now. Then I remembered a useful resource Planet Natural. This article is so useful for every bug problem solver you can think of, and some of the solutions are just wiping garlic water on your floor, or using basil to ward off insects that, whattaya know, don't like basil! I went with the baking soda and confectioner's sugar solution, so we'll see how it goes.

Nailz: Herringbone

Sometimes I just like to get my nails done with crazy designs, and earlier today I got an idea in my head that I just couldn't shake, once I thought of it. Herringbone nails! They were hand painted and it took about an hour and a half from start to finish, so I decided to take photos of the whole process.

My Trip To The Farm (in Brooklyn)

hot peppers. (the bottom left one is a habanero)

I recently discovered that there is an organic farm only blocks away from my apt. in Brooklyn! It's called Tenth Acre Farms, and today I made myself go check out their farm stand even though it was getting kind of late in the day (it ended at 4pm and I went at 3:20pm).

So glad I went! It's a good-sized city farm that's made up of several rows of wooden units filled with soil on the blacktop behind a building that otherwise wouldn't have been used. They have tons of varieties of peppers, including the Habanero, which I've been told is the second hottest pepper on the planet. I pretty much told them I'd get whatever they were selling today, so I ended up with a bunch of basil, a bunch of sorrel, two bunches of half-sized carrots, a bag of mixed greens of most of the varieties of lettuce/field greens that they grow, and a bag of hot peppers (for NOT me)... all for $6. And did I mention it smells like chocolate there? They use cocoa bean casings(?) to fertilize some of their plants. Bennett and Jordan were the two farmers I met today, and they were really into what they were doing with the farm and getting the word out, since this is their first year doing it.

Lucky for me I caught the last day of the farm stand as located AT the farm, but they'll be selling their crops at The Brooklyn Kitchen on Frost St. coming up. (the details are on the farm's website) Check it out!

Vieques Holga Photos, March 2010

Soooo I finally developed the photos I took in March on my trip to a little island off the coast of Puerto Rico called Vieques. The island used to be solely used for US military purposes, but now it's a sort of secret vacation destination for people who like the beach! Me and a few girl friends went and had a great time snorkeling, swimming, drinking, eating, tanning (WITH sunscreen, don't worry), wild horse stalking, sailing, and puppy petting (they lived next door to the house we rented). Oh yeah and going on a bumpy school bus at night time through the friggin jungle to a pitch black bay filled with 800 species of animals only to jump in and have glowing microorganisms all over my body. It was a once in a lifetime thing, and yes, it legit looked like a sci-fi movie. You could even see where every fish was, because the organisms glow with movement, so you'd see a glowing fish darting through the water next to the boat! For more info on bioluminescence and this particular bio bay tour, go to the bio bay website.
And without further ado, here are the Holga pictures (plus the two bio bay pics that weren't taken by me) Note: these are just the pictures from my Holga, so maybe someday I'll post the 'best of' the rest of the photos from this trip.

oh and did i mention we had to take a plane to get from the
main island to Vieques? It was a cheap 8 minute flight,
but still... it was a SMALL plane.

the courtyard of our rental house

horses hugging

apparently people own these. see any owners? me either.

i really love this picture of Liz for some reason

Sept. 18: Bike Ride to SoHo + Italian Fest

that's my bike in the background!

Last weekend Jon and I rode over the Williamsburg Bridge right into an Italian Festival in SoHo (not on purpose). I'm proud and relieved to say that this was the second time that the Williamsburg Bridge wasn't difficult for us to get over! Third trip we've made over it in general. So we ended up at the corner of Spring St. + Mulberry St., as you'll see in the pictures... I made sure to get a pic of Jon with a giant tomato, AND to make my classic "Italian face."
To be brief, we parked our bikes in the midst of the very very crowded Italian Festival (Feast of San Gennaro), which seemed to go on for blocks as far as the eye could see. Then, we went shopping in SoHo, found a curious shop up a weird graffiti'd stairway, and came back to eat at the festival. Aaaaand then we decided it was too crowded and opted for a cheap place in Chinatown to get a bite... which was AWESOME – Fu Wong, if you're ever in the neighborhood. Here are the pics!

(the guy next to me looks like he's almost about to make the same face)

at the curious shop where everything was numbered

crowded!

Blog Love: Oh Happy Day!

Oh Happy Day is a really fun blog that mostly has to do with party planning, but has plenty of other artsy, designer-y stuff slash inspiration going on. Here's an example. It's a post about animal shaped clutches! so cheeky. I think my favorite is the oppossum (still not sure if that's what that is, though).

I learned about this blog when i discovered they included my french grocery list tote in a post, so i'm just giving them some blog love. keep up the good work! (they're also in martha's circle. how do you get in martha's circle??!! my hero.)

Someone Else's Photos: Kathryn Schoepflin

I am in love with this photograph (and the rest of the photos) by Kathryn Schoepflin. I just stumbled upon her website today completely randomly, not even looking for art! I was drawn to the half in- half out-of-focus photographs. There seems to be a foreground that's in focus with noise and scratches, but the background is the primary subject. Amazing. I've been really into the partially out-of-focus pictures i've been taking recently, too. Although, for me i still feel like i have so little control over it.

Bike Ride to Red Hook

Jon and I rode our bikes to the red hook ball fields to check out some delicious food trucks with south american food that we'd heard about. it was the farthest we've biked yet, in a row – 5.5 miles or so each way. IT WAS SO WORTH IT. i highly recommend that you go visit these food trucks that feature ceviche, pupusas, sour cream and cheese corn on a stick, empanadas, fresh fruit juice, tacos, and more, all for super cheap.

fresh watermelon juice. look at the color!

we chose to get food @ the food truck with the longest line

little boys + big boys baseball games

pupusa

Sept. 10: FNO

On Friday Sept. 10 I went to see a good friend's brother's band, Twitch The Ripper at Highline Ballroom in Manhattan. They opened for a band with quite a following – The Birthday Massacre – so there was a lot of dark makeup and black outfits, some with wings, etc. you get the idea. I, of course, didnt realize this and wore my regular nautical attire. (obv sore thumb) 


Then I headed out to the Diesel store in SoHo to meet my friend Ashley, and there was SUCH a crowd in the streets... spring st., broadway, all the side streets were just FILLED with people. (it was about 11pm)

me + Ashley having an impromptu photo shoot at Diesel

dueling tap dancers at Diesel

surferrrrrrrrock

today i discovered that i think i LOVE surfer rock. i think it's the wet spring reverb of the guitar that i just can't get enough of... and the reason i think that is because i had to google it. in fact, first i had to think of how i could even google "what is that guitar sound common in surfer rock songs where the guitar notes go wonky?"

this all started because earlier today pandora play a surfer rock song on my velvet underground radio station. or something. ehh it might have been my serge gainsbourg station. it was a song by the blue stingrays, and i've been listening to it while writing this post ever since. so, if you like surfer rock or the raveonettes or other stuff with that wet spring reverb, check it out.

Sept. 3-6: the hamptons by bike

This labor day weekend i went out to the hamptons without my bike but with my boyfriend, his sister, Julie, and her husband, Mike. We stayed at a little shack (above) courtesy of Mike's brother, NBD. So, basically on the friday of labor day weekend, you can't take bikes on the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) – and then we ended up catching a ride anyway, so, couldn't take the bikes. HOWEVER (plot turn), on saturday we drove to Sag Harbor and rented bikes – the four of us did. We rode from downtown Sag Harbor, a little village with cute shops, to the shelter island ferry 3 or 4 miles away.
[aside: Jon's bike had issues and he tried 3 different bikes by the time one actually worked, involving a whole issue where some of us had to go back after we had already started our journey and had gone a couple miles, and so on]

so we took the ferry to shelter island and just rode around for a while. not much goin on there. we were really hungry by then and tried to find a food place, but nothing was open (til dinner time) so we basically rode to the one place open which was a gourmet deli called ... readings? i forget, the people were snotty and it was pricey.

then we went back to just relax the rest of the weekend by the pool with MADDIE the dog!
so here's my little journey... downtown sag harbor, the pool, the dog, etc.