stowaways.

this morning (and last night) we spent interloping in yet another family. we were sheltered by julie, steve, sage, ella & hazel (and their pack of puppies) all of whom we just met by chance when we were rained out of the art star craft bazaar at the very start of our trip. and how lovely to get to spend all this time visiting right into families. it is exceptionally fun to hang out with the kids (not that the grown up time in the evening wasn't deeply appreciated and full of laughs). after such a short visit, both ella and hazel decided that they should come with us or sabotage the car to make us stay. very flattering, indeed. and thanks for not pouring sugar in the tank, ella. we can't afford any more mechanical work.

below are two special views of the ladies.

#1 - ella's camera face that drives julie nuts and makes sage laugh:



#2 - the face hazel makes when she is trying to arch her eyebrows one at a time.



we are planning a trip back just because we left so much of our hearts with this very special family. also, julie runs the philadelphia independent craft market which we have been wanting to do. next time, we're going to get pictures of sage, too, no matter what he says.

the girls also sent us on our ways with two flower hair clips that they make and sell. i have to say that mine is doing a very good job of keeping my hair nearly in order on this muggy muggy day. i also inherited aitor's in spite of how good it looks on him.



and now we sit in a motel room just outside of baltimore, finishing off the last of the wild arugula soup that jenny made and tried so hard to love but couldn't. we love it, jenny, and feel very spoiled to have home cooking in a motel room. tomorrow holds adventures into one of our favorite cities - baltimore. we are excited. but also...tired. good night!

family time, harada style.

last night we arrived at the lovely new jersey home of our friends jenny and mark where they live with their two little ones, lukas and naomi. it's pretty fun to watch the kids grow with annual check-ins. on our first big craft tour, lukas was only two and the whole family was living in columbus, ohio. i was really excited because he learned to say my name during that visit. now he says all kinds of stuff and hides his face behind toast when we doesn't want his picture taken. he also plays a mean game of zuma.



naomi was just a bump on jenny's belly on that tour. now she is an ambulatory 16 month old who is astoundingly able to get around and figure things out. for instance, here is a picture she took of me:



not bad for just over a year old. i was actually kind of blown away by her cognitive abilities.

here is a picture of naomi with strut strut kitty, a new friend that jenny made and sent us on our travelling way with.



jenny is an amazing plush artist whom i met via the internet a few years back and since fell in love with. with her own little plushies running around the house now, she isn't doing as many craft fairs (too bad for you) but is rather focusing on doing one or two bigger art projects a year. keep an eye out for her work; it's really quite fantastic.

after the kids passed out last night, we went for some walks down to the shore of the hudson to look at new york and chatted about things like geodesic domes until we, too, passed out. now, the little kitty, the reverend and i have moved on and arrived in philadelphia for visits with another family. but that's a story for another day...

coney island adventure day.

there was only one way to bid farewell to brooklyn once again and that is with a visit to a place very dear to our hearts - coney island. we missed it on our last trip through new york and won't be back through until coney season will be almost (if not entirely) over. in recent years, there has been a lingering sense of urgency about visiting coney island as land developers have purchased all the property where coney's boardwalk businesses operate. but more on that later. but first, a to-do list for coney island.

1) go eat some junk at nathan's.
fries, shrimp, corn dogs, lemonade - all good choices.



2) rides.
i am ashamed to say we felt too broke to do anything this time, but the cyclone is pretty amazing. last time we came to coney island, it was with jen and mike (without whom there was a noticeable hole in the experience this time). we all rode the cyclone together and, in a way, i didn't want to sully that experience.





3) poke around.
the is all sorts of weird crap to discover. this tine melissa helped us out with some tips - like the lady who dances for a quarter. shoot the freak was also pretty awesome, but mostly because of the barker's incredibly bored delivery of things like "yeah, shoot him in the head. freaks gotta die".





4) souvenirs.
we actually didn't delve too deeply in the souvenirs of coney island last time we were here, but there are some surprisingly interesting outlets of merch to be found. other than post cards, i don't normally go in for souvenir junk. i mean, there are some notable exceptions like the new york snow globe with a plastic bag instead of snow at the andy warhol museum. but most of the roadside schlock shops we have encountered all have the same stuff. but coney island is unique in the extent to which souvenirs fit it. this time, we discovered an interesting shop called lola staar - a boardwalk shop featuring all the touristy stuff you would expect (shirts, key chains, pins, post cards) but with the distinction of all being independently designed. i kind of fell in love with a lovely screen print there by michael micael motorcycle.oh, and we saw this on the wall:



...too bad aitor won't be around to compete.

we also discovered this interesting installation:

what an amazing project. see? how does this place manage to seamlessly integrate political installation art and the midway aesthetic? this is a very special place. it would a real shame to have it all turned to condos, too. liz who works at lola staar gave us some information on the potential rezoning/destruction of coney island. if you are interested in saving coney island, you can check out the information that has been put together here. if you are a new york resident, you can also feel free to write your mayor a letter.

back through new york.

today we took our time loading the car in the torrents of providence. the rains cleared up just in time for us to say our sad goodbyes to marya and push off towards brooklyn.

i felt very metropolitan, indeed, to have a late afternoon meeting with the lovely christina at etsy about their possible sponsorship involvement with city of craft. we do know that they will be involved in some way, which is very exciting. all other related news will have to wait until it is firmer. after the meeting, aitor and i hung around for a little bit. he drew and i soaked up the wireless signal to do some furtive business and check in on life in the ether.

our constant saviors dominica and marc took us in again. well, marc is away so dominica took us in. i also ate pasta made with beets at the restaurant where she works (amid the many places where she works).



after getting settled, we went on a big mission into manhattan to find our friend melissa. she told us she would be at a bingo night, which we had all but missed. we finally did find the place and her within it as the proceedings wrapping up. it's too bad we missed it, too. it looked like a lot of fun. and it's super cheap.





we managed to convince melissa to come out for a little drink with us after even though she has to get up early in the morning for these professional development classes she is taking on the new new math. i'm glad we coerced her, too, because in all our chatting we hatched a pretty good plan for our hallowe'en on the road. i won't say anything in case it doesn't materialize. but i sure hope it does...

electric connections and misdirections (in other words, providence).

today marya was kind enough to poke around this winding city with me, showing me some of her favorite places and looking for stores i might connect with. downtown was pretty difficult; it is sleepy and slow on sundays. so we went over to wickenden and thayer streets, which were much more alive. actually, wickenden was so alive that as we pulled onto it off the freeway we began to notice an increasing number of people sitting on patio furniture facing the road.

"what is this, a parade?"

"probably."

"then why isn't the street blocked off? why would they let us drive here?"

"welcome to providence."

so we found ourselves face to face with what must have been providence's version of a gay pride parade (which looked very queer, indeed) and diverted onto side streets packed lousy with inept drivers.





when we finally found a parking place a few blocks away, we got out and walked along the parade route to check it out. it was very quiet. we ended up walking into this store we had spotted right before being hit by the parade. it's called the curatorium and is new since my last visit through here almost two years ago. the sense of curation is pretty evident in their eclectic collection of stuff. we chatted with suzi, who works there, like school girls after we discovered that she is a video and performance artist with so many overlapping sensibilities as to make one mad with excitement. the owner was not around, but this is a place i really hope to forge a relationship if possible. you should go there.



after that, we went up thayer street where nothing much happened but i bought knee socks. i also think i saw my first knock-off buttons. i have decided not to name names or go into detail too deeply as i am always willing to give people the benefit of the doubt; it is possible that different people have the same idea a the same time (although in this case, improbable). also, the quality of said buttons was acutely non-threatening. it was actually kind of exciting (not that i am encouraging the world to steal my ideas - please don't) and i am surprised this is my first encounter with thought-theft yet in my three year business.



in the evening, aitor and i had the extreme pleasure of being invited over to deb and alec's place for a homemade dinner. deb is the genius and bookbinding clout behind if'n books and marks while alec is an illustrator, screen printer, sometimes-teacher, ink ape and owner of his own mint. needless to say, their home is a shrine to independent art and design with constant distractions in every nook and cranny. i could hardly hold a train of thought until we settle outside for dinner. deb also makes a breaded and baked tofu that even aitor wanted the recipe for (quite an impressive feat, deb - you clearly outdo me). deb and alec spent the day working on their collaborative project for a show called we = trouble that is being put on in brooklyn by tiny showcase. oh, to be all places at all time. i wish i could go. i also wish i could go to the opening party from craftland, the totally amazing and unique crafty event that deb is involved in running here. really, it's crazy what they do. i've applied for the first time this year. fingers crossed. maybe you should apply, too. you don't even have to be there.

good night providence. you've really spoiled us rotten this time.

short visits to a whaling town.

today we made a day trip to new bedford, massachusetts to set up shop in a small day fair organised by elissa who runs a shop called calico there. it was a very small event with only about six or seven vendors and music all day - some authentic teenage angst rock, some overaged teenage angst rock and some sort of white man rap. pretty charming all around.

although it was a relatively slow day, we enjoyed some recently rare sun, learned how you set up and take down our new canopy, and got some little projects done - packaging buttons for shana logic, organising our show suitcases. marya also scored some great used books on her explorations around the town (i envied both the explorations and the books).

also, we left some buttons with calico, so if you missed us today you can pick them up at the shop.

thank you, new bedford, for being small and nice and easy going and for not raining on us at all today.

whipple world.

this is what i've done to marya's home, or the beginnings of a full-on sweetie pie infestation, anyway.

oh, marya lives in a house that is part of a little community called whipple world. whipple world is located on whipple street and consists of a series of houses owned by a couple who hoard building supplies, put them to use on all these old houses, keep records, research things, aid wayward souls and do other useful stuff. the fences are all knocked out in the back yards and the space back there is shared. marya plants things. sometimes they have fire parties. according to her, there is also an old travelling carnie trailer full of typewriters somewhere and a printing press.

in the olden olden days, twenty eight armenian men lived in this small house and worked in the factory down the street. marya says their energies make it hard for her to sleep late because they all want to get up and go to work. i think she is just not as good at sleeping in as i am. i'm a pro!

today we all worked and worked. aitor got a last-minute illustration job and i have a thousand things to catch up on. for a treat, marya and i went for a little car trip around town. included on the trip was this bargain-basement fabric store housed in an old texile mill...



...where they don't screw around.



marya also introduced me to this amazing blog which i think i will now have to be mesmerized by for days. i retaliated by introduing her to the haunting wonders of chocolate rain, which she surprisingly had not yet encountered.

tomorrow we all head to new bedford, massachsettes, for the new bedford open market hosted in part by the lovely elissa who runs a great shop there called calico. full report forthcoming. but for now, some pins are screaming to be finished.