Saturday, November 28, 2009

gourd vases


Squash is the best. Martha agrees.


Friday, November 27, 2009

airmail

My closed-wallet vow has not done so well. Also went to JAM Paper and Envelope on 5th Ave. today and got fantastic envelopes! Send me your addresses, suckas - I needz to write letters and make you cards!


Both styles were 25 for $3. Pretty decent, I thought.

And map envelopes! Can't wait to do this with old guides and atlases!


My cousin Lillian (who just updated fatso pictures!!) advises that I should have waited for the never-ending cute stationary in China. I couldn't resist though - too charmingly old-timey to handle.

emilymock@gmail.com. , sweet blogger babies!

I've done a horrible thing

I was walking around outside Saks waiting for my uncle to get off of work, (e)milling around and through the hordes (absolute hordes of people, my god), and eating my dry, smokey and overpriced pretzel.

Some French douchebag backed into me and my lump of coal/dough fell to the floor. I picked it up and started looking for a trash can. Why there are no trash cans in Rockefeller Center, I have no idea, but I saw a trash can-height pile of colorful trash-looking things and tossed it in.

It was a baby carriage. Thank buddha it was devoid of Baby, just shopping bags and squishy toys. I would like to apologize to all the baby mamas and nannies who read this blog. Baba's too I guess.

SF, any day

I have hurts-so-good blisters from walking from Midtown to Uptown to Downtown and back to Midtown this morning. Went to ABC Home, teary eyes blinked amorously at everything, then to Fishs Eddy across the street. Got the cups, of course!

It's impossible to highlight everything in that space, but two similar pendant lamps from ABC Home:

Beat Lights, Tom Dixon


Drum set. Not a particularly original design, but isn't this series of pendant lights beautiful for the hand-beaten brass interiors juxtaposed with matte black patinated exterior? Not liking the tall shades too much, but mm! for the wide, flat shades.

The Beat Lights in the Shoreditch House, a private members' club in East London. Oooh!:


And a similarly black and gold pendant lamp in a simpler silhouette:

GE Pendant Light, Kartell, designed by Ferruccio Laviani, £120

It's kind of cheap luxe while not actually being a cheap buy. I suppose this is a defining characteristic of a good deal of modern/designer furniture. Design Within Reach, anyone? A very limited use of the the word "reach."

A less expensive alternative might be Ikea's Kulla pendant lamp, which is steel rather than plastic (for which Kartell is known). Maybe you could gold foil or decoupage the interior?



So I've been sitting in the Rose Reading Room of the NYPL for a while. Beaux-Arts, incredible, tall windows and gorgeous, but all this ornamentation really is too distracting. An art history professor claims that every girl has an Art Nouveau phase - loving long, sinuous lines and depictions of flora/fauna. If this is true, I think I'm over it. Likewise with this Beaux-Arts building - I've hardly swooned for historicism in architecture all day (but did so for the very modern wide Tom Dixon Beat Light). What is wrong with me

Photo: Peter Aaron/Esto


I've really enjoyed hanging out with my uncle's family (not to mention the best non-turducken turkey I've ever had) and walking around this city. Love the logical grid, Flatiron Building, and probable excess of museums, but every assertion of Manhattan-ness that I see, I counteract with growing nostalgia for SF. In other words, NYC faces a huge burden of proof for a very very biased person - I would choose San Francisco, any day!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

All my Christmas gifts will be handmade

After getting into NYC, I realized how empty my bank account must be. I think I need a job that is not doing the Smith Phonathon anymore.

Not sure if I should even spend money on museum admissions!!!!!!!!!!!!
So my plans while here: sit in the library on 5th Ave. and 42nd St. writing papers... wait for my uncle to get off of work... take the subway back to Brooklyn.

Definitely not spending any money. Unless Fishs Eddy has cute cups on sale. Which - I just checked online - they certainly do. Dammit.


Anchor & Rope glass, Fishs Eddy, 2.75

Bird in Tree Cup, Fishs Eddy, 3.98

Saturday, November 21, 2009

feeling a bit decrepit

L’Hospice/The Nursing Home. Gilles Barbier. 2002


Know what I mean?


via ArtInfo of "Medicine and Art" at the Mori Art Museum
Gilles Barbier: Documentsdartistes. L'Hospice/The Nursing Home. Gallerie Vallois.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Smith College Campus Center

"Imagined as an en-route passage through the campus, the building is defined by interconnecting paths that challenge the boundary between inside and outside. These paths converge into a long, curved, skylit gallery that forms the core of the design. Spaces along the gallery house exhibition areas, performance spaces, dining facilities, lounges, mailrooms and a bookstore. A series of outdoor terraces connect the building’s communal spaces with the surrounding campus grounds."
- Weiss/Manfredi Architects

Photo: Bilyana Dimitrova via Yossawat

Photo: Bilyana Dimitrova via Yossawat

Photo: Weiss/Manfredi

I mention this because Eric Mabius from Ugly Betty was there for a photo shoot with The Boston Globe. Peeps who saw this happening said that they stuck to the Red Room and the balcony above it that houses the grand piano. Not surprising - the room is always warm and completely penetrated with so much natural light! Fireplace in the center of the room - so toasty! Nap-prone Emilys should not be doing reading here.
Our mahd-ohw should have a shave, yes?


Heh heh hehhh yup that is exactly how I sit in those rocking chairs.

Eric Mabius photos: Cheryl Senter for The Boston Globe

Slash + stilts

Headed to New York for Thanksgiving Break! I can see that most of my time will be spent on papers, but I am definitely going to check out the Slash: Paper Under the Knife exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Design.

The Story of Art, by Georgia Russell, 2006

by Andreas Kocks

Eddy, by Mia Pearlman, 2008

Peaceable Kingdown, by Lane Twitchell, 2007

A Space Odyssey, by Ferry Staverman, 2008

Really makes me want to make something with my own X-Acto.

Also at MAD is the Fade-Out Chair by Nendo (of the Cabbage Chair!) It's clear acrylic painted over with trompe l'oeil wood grain such that the pattern fades away to create a floating impression. Too startling to be functional? How depressing - "I have no foundation."



Reminds me of one of Le Corbusier's Five Points. Pilotis: stilts of reinforced concrete that served to elevate the living space, create more space underneath the building and encourage ventilation.

In his Villa Savoye, 1927-8:


And Unite d'Habitation:, 1946-52:



I wish I could be in SF for the upcoming breaks. No Thanksgiving...two days in December...China (SHOES!) But still... :(

Slash photos: Wallpaper

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

reflective centerpiece

You know those aged nickel cream+sugar holders that are always sitting on thrift store shelves? Those would be perfect for this project. Maybe with some dark dark peonies? Mm!!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Browsing The Beholder

Guess who can't sleep because of two accidental naps/is avoiding Tuesday's assignments by doing reading for the rest of the week. I really like The Beholder because it's a bit more reigned in than Etsy. Sometimes you just don't want to have to browse through The Fugly.

"Ostrich" by Catherine Ledner

Ah man I love this one. I'm not so sure about her background colors. It's an ostrich! - a ridiculous/terrifying animal and luxe feathers. Needs a backdrop that is likewise ironic and luxe. I wish she did this on concrete floors, a gold wallpaper as background and a spotlight. The ostrich's head angle is perfect though, yeah? What a sallow bitch.

Suzanne Husky. I love her work. The first time I saw the Neon series, I had a dream in which I was attacked by her fluorescent jellyfish-succulent creations.

"Kogepan 6" by Suzanne Husky

"Kogepan 7" by Suzanne Husky

"Untitled 1" by Suzanne Husky

"Untitled 2" by Suzanne Husky


"Opening" by Jennifer O'Keeffe

Besides smirking/being annoyed, I'm not sure what to think about this photograph. Too common of a theme. Do you feel a bit inundated with all of it?
Also, Lowell to Tressle Path to Stonestown parking lot, Lowellites?


There were bats in our house (dorm) again. Apparently they travel through fireplaces... I used to be so happy that Lauren and I had an original 1892 fireplace in our room. Now I'm too scared to crouch down to see if it's sealed. Definitely going to be a cocoon-blankets night!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Super fine

Pens are the perfect things to buy when you are out+about and unwilling to commit to a "real" expenditure. LOVE colored fine-tipped pens for writing in books/notes. Too many visits to Guild:

Stabilo point 88

Definitely the cutest packaging. I have this in several colors and have gotten the most use out of the light gray one.

Marvy Uchida Le Pen, 2

Pen? No! Le Pen! Oh oh hokay.

And they have these Squishy Scissors on the Marvy Uchida site:


"Squishy Scissors are what dedicated paper crafters need. The handles are so squishy and comfortable that cutting becomes effortless...Helps reduce calluses, fatigue, stiff fingers and hand cramps. Squishy Scissors have a pointed tip for precise and accurate cutting."
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM in blue/brown or orange/pink!!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

East Coast Glory


There are these hugemongo leaf piles all around school that I've been itchin' to jump in/am now itchy all over from jumping in. Just as I walked outside to take a picture, the leaf-collecting truck was driving away. Sweet, sweet junk in its trunk.
So I added some friendlier faces to a Flickr picture :)