The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of creative energy for me. Despite a few stresses at work, I am learning to take solace in “my” time and focus on doing the things that I really enjoy. Last week I had the chance to take a 5 day weekend from work for the President’s Day weekend to just relax and focus on myself.  It was nice to just sit back and do nothing and everything all at the same time.

In that time I had the chance to see my friend Avril’s Alicat Fall 2011 Runway show. Avril is handbag designer who also design all the clothing for her runway shows to highlight her bags. I’ve been helping her develop her website in anticipation of this show so it was great see all the hard work she’s been putting in forth for the show (take a look)

I also had a chance to be an extra in short film for Randy Wilkins. I had the opportunity to work with Randy before on his Osvaldo’s film project, so I was more than happy to be a part of the creative process. It wasn’t until the morning of that I remember that I have no aspirations to be an actor and had no idea how I was supposed to “act” as an extra. Nevertheless, I channeled my acting skills from all the childhood plays I was in (I was the child that could memorize everything & my mother says I was a dramatic child). In reality, all I had to do was stand there but in my head I was acting :)


During that weekend I was also able to make myself some jeans, leggings, and finish the cabled sweater (as seen in the previous post) and a Presidents’ Day apple pie. With all those things finished I was ready to dive into the next set of projects.

This past Friday, I stopped by Purl to pick up some yarn for baby blankets. It was my first time visiting their new space and it was interesting. The space is nice and definitely more spacious. Maybe it’s just me but they definitely give off that “we are the cool kids” vibe now and I don’t ever remember anyone asking me if I needed help even though I had questions. The old space may have been small but I felt like the women that worked their realized you were actually in the store. Nonetheless I bought some Cascade 220 Sport Superwash for baby blankets because I didn’t know of another place in the city to get it. The red will be for a solid lacy baby blanket for a girl and the other colors will be used for a striped boy’s blanket.


I also spent some time working on a pattern dress jumper for myself. If it turns out well I’m considering grading the pattern and making a couple of pieces for sale.

And to end off my weekend I’m making some soup for dinner (and lunch this week). During the winter I really enjoy making soups. It’s a great comfort food and the leftovers are great for lunch. This week’s soup is a chicken potato leek soup. It’s cooking as I type.

I’m off now to enjoy some soup and knit a bit before heading to bed. Happy work week everyone. And if you don’t have to work…..lucky you. I’m jealous.





Over the past few months or so I’ve been looking for ways to stimulate my creative energy.  I used to have a lot of it and I realized it’s because I was exploring new things, reading, going to museums, looking at art, having interesting and stimulating conversation,etc.  I’m getting back into the swing of that.  I’ve been reading more books thanks to my Kindle, as well as, talking more with my friends and getting back into the habit of exploring NYC.  I’ve also been playing around with one of my favorite past times….

I heart Legos…..I really do.

This surge in creative energy has also allowed me to really focus on this cabled sweater project that I’ve been working on for awhile now.

I’m hoping that it will turn out exactly as I see it in my head….and that I don’t run out of yarn before I’m finished.  The panel on the far left is the front and the partial finished panel will be the back.  I didn’t want them to match exactly. Hopefully it will be done soon.  With all this snow & cold in NYC, I’m due for a new sweater.

For your viewing pleasure:  That car in the background is Jay-etta encased in 15 inches of snow.



Despite the fact that I haven’t done a useful or insightful blog post in ages, I renewed my web services for another year. Combined that with the fact that I got a new camera for Christmas and that leads me to believe that I need to start posting on a regular basis. But here’s the thing….I’m not sure what I should be posting about. I’m sort of at my pre-midlife crisis stage of life.

I love fashion and I love making clothes so I quick my lucrative career as a software engineer to do the the thing that I love. All the while not knowing that a recession would hit and affect the fashion market in the worst way. So all the ideas and plans I had for my fashion career were squashed like a bug and I have been reduce to living like a pauper trying to work in the fashion industry. I want to start my own business but, like I said, money is tight when it comes to fashion and investments are few and far between. So I work a job that mental drains me so much that when I come home all I want to do is eat and sleep. Sounds fun right? So I spend my extra time debating if I should go back into engineering (which would probably require a move to another city) so I can make a decent living and live comfortably again, or if I should stick this thing out and live like a pauper until things get better for fashion, or if I should find some new career that marries the two things together.

So why do I tell you all of this….because at the end of the day I should be posting about my exciting love for fashion and all the things I’m working on but my direction-less life is not helping me do that. I haven’t been knitting or sewing much. Or reading fashion magazines, etc. None the less I shall forge ahead and try to bring myself out of the fog ( side note: I got a Kindle for Christmas too and I’ve been reading alot so my speech may start to sound a little/lot more “literary-ish” for a while.) So if you know any good business-minded people or career counselors, send them my way. Cause I need some help getting back on track.

In the meantime, I’ll be blogging my way out of the funk. I’m hoping that it will help me figure some things out. For now I will leave you with a montage of pictures I was finally able to get off my camera phone and old camera.

These cupcakes are from Downtown Atlantic in Brooklyn.  The cupcake in the back is a Chocolate with Vanilla Buttercream and coconut shavings.  It is by far my favorite “regular” cupcake.  I forgot the actually name of the other cupcake but it was good too. Real good!

The Cupcake Stop Truck!  It took me forever to finally find this truck. If I’m on the West Side, it’s on the East Side. If I’m uptown, it’s downtown.  Tasty flavors but the Red Velvet was actually a little too moist for me.


Lego Heads! I love Legos so I was only too excited when I saw this. To and from work, I use the 23rd Street stop on the A/C/E subway line here in NYC and some wonderful soul has taken it upon themselves to express their creative talents by covering faces on subway billboards with these huge Lego head stickers.

Apparently in Cleveland, this is the new and updated version of “The Club” – big heavy chain & padlock.

And finally a fashion related pic. This is a fair-isle dress I spotted in a Japanese knitting magazine at Kinokuniya. What I love is that this magazine was published before or around the same time the D&G Fall 2010 fair-isle collection hit the runway.



It seems every time I get a chance to update here, I’m writing about how I don’t have time to write. It’s a strange and seemingly never ending cycle. As of late I’ve started a new job and been looking for a new apartment which have taken up a lot of my time. Add to that knitting a sweater for another book project due out this fall and doing some sample knitting for a designer company. Busy, busy, busy.

I suspect that after I finish my move at the end of the month I’ll be able to settle in and start working on some of the sewing and knitting projects that I’ve been wishing I could work on for a while now.

Until then….