Neighborhood Snapshots

Brooklyn is in bloom! I brought along my new camera lens on my daily post office walk the other morning, and snapped some photos of all the pretties. It is a pretty walk, and I try to take it earlier in the day (mostly before there are gobs of teenagers loitering about after they get out of school.) Above is my favorite street in all of NYC. This stretch of Guernsey street has this pretty canopy of trees that almost creates a tunnel when they are fully in bloom. It's super-pretty in the Autumn too. Also, it's quiet and the light is always nice. Next time I'll take a photo of more of the doors on this street, because there are some unique ones. 

And some pretty flowers by the park near my place!

Spring Cards

No-bunny Like You

Not Amused

I haven't posted much other than my daily animal blog posts in a long time! I do have some more things to share soon, but I thought I would show a few spring-time/Easter-y cards that I put up on the shop. You might recognize the little angora bunny from a daily animal post! There's a few others that I have made into cards that I'll show soon. Busybusybusy!

Spring Handmade Cavalcade!

If you are in NYC next weekend, Saturday May 5th, please stop by Littlefield, for the Spring Handmade Cavalcade! There will be lots of super-great vendors that are all Etsy sellers from the NYC-area. It will be mega-fun and a great way to kick off the spring/summer crafty season. 

Ah yes, and I designed the flier this year! It's gonna be a fun one. :)

...And there might be some free totebags with my little crafty-girly-fox design on it, for the first 100 or so people to show up...

Spring-loving

This has been a really great week! Last Saturday, Nik and I decided to walk to Manhattan, over the Williamsburg Bridge, to the BUST Craftacular that was going on. It was a gorgeous day out and the perfect temperature for a long meandering walk. We met up with a few friends and took in the craft fair, got some treats from the Cinnamon Snail, and kept walking north up to Union Square. Nik and I had a reservation at Candle 79 later on for a belated b-day dinner, and we were going to be super-ambitious and continue walking north, but I wore the wrong shoes and they were getting a little sore. Still super-fun though! Candle 79 is my absolute favorite, and my tummy and I were happy with the Seitan Piccata and the PB Bliss dessert. 

The next day, I took a bus ride up to Rochester, NY to go visit my family and to help out my Mom, who just had back surgery last week. It was a much-needed visit and filled with some quality family-time. I got to see both of my sisters, my parents, and my Grandma. I planted lots of flower and vegetable seeds for my Mom and made some yummy dinners. Their cat, Bam, cracks me up. He looks like a lion! Super-fluff-ball! 

I rolled back into the city late last night, and there are lots of things on my to-do list today, but I just wanted to share some of my photos of my travels before I got too deep into my list. 

Happy Thursday!

Michelle

Sneak-peek at a new product that will be in my shop in a few weeks!

Vegan Apricot Cheese Danish, from the Cinnamon Snail

BUST Craftacular was hopping.

Pretty sunset in Central Park

Butterfly hanging out at my parent's house

Perfect Rainbow! There actually was a double rainbow there, but you can't see it in the photo.

Bam taking a nap.

I woke his majesty up.

Lion paws. Get that camera outta my face.

In-between seasons

Williamsburg Bridge, view from Grand St. park in Brooklyn

It's been back and forth between spring/winter here for the last few weeks, and dang is that confusing. First I want tea and then I want iced tea, and then I want flip flops, but then I need my fuzzy socks. I'm also in denial about those days where I probably should have wore my winter coat. 

I have been working on lots of new things lately, but alas, most of it has to stay a secret for now. I'm beginning to think about craft show season, that is fast approaching. I have two shows coming up, the Spring Handmade Cavalcade on May 5th, and Renegade Brooklyn on June 23/24. I have grand plans for my booth this year, so hopefully I can pull it off! 

Random: Are you on Pinterest? I am! Follow me here and let me know where you are!

Homemade Spaghettio's of sort.  I had made the tomato soup out of "Vegan Diner" and had just added in the circle pasta. The next day, the pasta had soaked up so much of the soup, that it was just like eating spaghettios! 

Iced tea with a ton of lemons. ARNOLD PALMER for the win.

Kalamata Olive bread, another tester recipe

My Lately

+Pretty blossoms that look like snow...

+Super-fun mugs! (I have a bit of an obsession with strange/unique mugs...)

+Lotsa recipe testing for Celine and Tami's new cookbook, and for Isa's new cookbook. So much yum! I can't wait to share more!

+When it's nice out, my neighbor let's their parrot hang out in the backyard. It's a bit surreal to hear a parrot squawking in Brooklyn...

boo!

There's something in my tea!

Vegan Quiche and a yummy salad

Squawk!

Spring walk

Happy Spring! It's really happening!  Even though it is cold and miserable out, I took some photos with my phone on my walk to the post office this afternoon. Spring is totally happening, whether the weather wants to cooperate or not.  Although, I am totally not leaving the apartment again today!  It is a drink tea, do work, cuddle with my kitty, and listen to The Cure kind of day.  

I can't wait to go visit the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens in a few weeks, for the Cherry Blossom Festival. I'm excited to go during the week, when there will be less people there and I can bring my sketchbook and camera and just spend the day there.  I've been making lots of new pattern designs for Surtex (this is a big print show coming up in May.  I don't have a booth there, but I work with a design company that sells my stuff there).  Cherry Blossoms have definitely been on my mind and shows in some recent prints I have made. Perhaps I'll show some of those later in the week!

Warm, sunny Spring thoughts!

Spring-a-ling

Rain, rain, go away. 

Happy Spring!  I'm going to totally ignore that snow that we got here in New York yesterday, and just go on thinking about blooming flowers and anticipating some green things at the farmer's markets finally.  I've been keeping busy, working on lots of new illustrations and projects, and lots of pie-baking.   I've been contemplating printing some tote bags with some of my illustrations on them...trying to think of more products that would work with my stuff. Any ideas? Things you would like to see?

Some yumminess I have had lately:

Tofu Scramble-cious with some homemade tofu

Raspberry Lattice Pie!  Tester recipe for Isa and Terri's upcoming pie book.

Fake Spring!

Bloom
Print available in my Etsy Shop!
8"x10" Pen/ink and Digitally Colored

So how about that fake Spring? Ha!  67 degrees F and gorgeous out on friday and it is 30 degrees F and there are 3-4 inches of snow (and it is still coming down!) on the ground today!  That's how this time of year always goes, but it is still painful anyways.  All is well though, I've been making lots of spring-themed artwork lately, and it puts me in a good mood.  The snow is really pretty and snow-globe-like out today, so that helps too.

Oh! Also, some really good news!  I'll be road-tripping down to Austin, TX in May to participate in the Renegade Craft Fair down there!  Woo-hoo! I'm super-excited about this. I've never been to Texas before, and I'm excited to see Austin and to visit with some family that I have down there.

Whimsy Birds, Purple/Green Colorway
Print available in my Etsy shop!
8"x10" Pen/Ink and digitally colored

Whimsy Birds, Turquoise/Green Colorway
Print available in my Etsy shop!
8"x10" Pen/Ink and digitally colored

Sketchbook Doodles: Sing it Sister!

So we get a few days of "nice" weather,(sun and everything!) and I start craving spring. Now my head is full of shedding the winter coat, cherry blossoms, bright green buds, fun new things at the farmer's market, warm sunshine in the park, and it being light out when I get out of work. I know, I know, delusions!

I've been a busy bee, sketching away for an upcoming show next month at Fuego 718, in Williamsburg. More details on that later. Hooray!

Hello Spring, Hello Sunshine

Hello Sunshine
Watercolor, dyes, pen/ink on watercolor paper


Hello Spring
Watercolor, dyes, pen/ink on watercolor paper


Two new prints in the shop! I can't take this "hinting at spring" thing that's going on. I put my winter coat in the closet, and dammit, I'm not bringing it out again (of course, this means that I'm freezing walking to work in the mornings in my spring coat).

*sunshinesunshinesunshine*

Picnic in Central Park!

Yesterday was one of those absolutely perfect Spring Days, and Nik, Amina, and I took full advantage and packed up a picnic to take to Central Park. I made an Eggplant and Spinach Muffaletta (From Veganomicon, with olive relish, roasted red and yellow peppers in a fresh sourdough bread) and brought some fruit from the fruit stand. A yummy Avocado Bean salad and marinated Eggplant was also gobbled up, thanks to Amina. I forgot to take a picture of my plate. I was excited because I got to play my favorite card game in the world: Uno! Nik totally sucks at it. Ha!

Central Park is such a great people-watching place, and in the springtime it is especially beautiful with the blooming flowers surrounding you. It never gets old. And even though you know that there a million other people enjoying the park alongside you, it never really feels extremely overwhelmingly crowded.

After our picnic, we meandered around random paths, taking in the lack of traffic noises and enjoying all the fresh blooms and sights. All the Cherry Blossom trees are in full bloom! And we're talking MASSIVE trees here. So Beautiful.

People carved their names with their sweethearts on this tree, as high up as we could see. The higher up you go, the more serious it is, you know.



I loved these leaves. They felt fake! like thin foam core or something. So much detail in them though.



I always remark on how "cute" flowers are. Cute flowers always remind me of Alice in Wonderland. Best part of the story! These flowers most definitely fall into the cute category.



That girl in the rowboat had two shirtless boys rowing her around!


This has to have been the most pimped out bike I have ever seen. We were all mesmerized for a good 15 minutes by this Roller-dancing party we stumbled across. Girls with synchronized dance moves and coordinating outfits; Guys with some serious 12-packs moving in slowmotion around the "dance floor", senior citizens getting down with their bad selves on their rollerskates to the bumping beats. Pretty insane.

This is one of my favorite parts of Central Park; The mall area, with these enchanted looking trees surrounding you. I think I like it because it's hard to see the buildings surrounding the park, so you feel like you are in the middle of grand forest with happy people all around you.