scenes from last weekend

Disdressed is finally getting a little upgrade! Things are progressing slowly around here, but already I think it's a bit easier to navigate and I'm liking the cleaned-up appearance. Do you agree?

Here are a few scenes from last weekend. S learned to ice skate and loved it so much that we're going again tomorrow. The the rink is located right in our apartment complex this year, and the neighborhood kids all love it and are quickly becoming fantastic skaters.

I took these photos early Sunday morning before New York was awake. I love exploring the city when it's so quiet, like on Christmas day when no one is around, and the West Village is especially fun for window shopping and discovering adorable little hidden cafes and restaurants when you're the only one out.

In other news:

• My dad called yesterday, on his way back to Antarctica after coming home for two days between trips there. Believe it or not, it was easier to come home (even for just that long) than to get from New Zealand (the end of his first trip) to South America (where he leaves for his next trip). He departed for the first trip before Christmas and won't be back from the second one until sometime in April. That's a lot of travel, even for my dad.
• S is fascinated with magic right now, and we're up to our elbows in magic shows. Would you like to see a box of crayons disappear? Please??
• Todd and I went to see this with some friends last night and had a terrific time. I highly recommend it if you come to New York for a visit. I loved everything about it and couldn't begin to do justice to the production. The sets, the sounds, even the smells. Or the bizarre sense of isolation one gets from wearing and being surrounded by other audience members in masks. It was all very sexy and thrilling, and I'd go again in a heartbeat. (Although it couldn't possibly be the same experience the second time around.)
• I really need to stop watching TV shows about teenagers. I obsessed my way through all the seasons of Gossip Girl (the fashion!) and then Friday Night Lights (the writing!). Someone move me along with a grown-up selection? Please? 
• It's fashion week! 

Have a wonderful weekend.

year of the dragon

If you've noticed that I've been absent even more than usual you've probably guessed that my schedule has been a little busy. We've been working on developing a new brand that we'll be launching later this spring, and it's kept me even more occupied than anticipated. I had good blogging intentions, and I've been carrying the camera along with me but somehow never using it. I hauled it all the way to Palm Springs a couple of weeks ago and took only three quick photos. Which makes it even more ironic that when I finally had a chance to photograph something (and time to stand still, no less) I had only the ipod with me. But it was Chinese New Year, and S and her friend were thrilled by the popping firecrackers and the confetti and the many, many dragons. I thought I'd share it with you.

We admired the beautiful women on decorated floats:



I liked the home-made dragons:


and the more elaborate dragons:


the drum carts:


the delegations meeting mid-parade:









and especially the little dragons-in-training:



So happy year of the dragon! I missed wishing you a happy 2012, so let's throw that in as well, shall we? I'm hoping to manage a little blog re-design and a lot more blogging very soon. And of course I'll let you know when our new project is up and ready for its reveal, too.

sweet, again

S and I have a little tradition when we play our favorite matching game. Whenever one of us turns over the bear on a bicycle card, we both do a little freak-out and holler "Bear on a Bicycle!" And of course whoever finds the match does a mini dance. I've got no idea why we do this. Maybe just because we love the illustration so much.

So when Heather Ross told me that Melissa Sweet, the illustrator of our beloved game, would be attending Heather's Weekend Sewing retreat last weekend, I did a larger version of my mini freak-out. I love Melissa's work, and she would be there in person, sewing with us! (And not only was she sewing with us, she was even making up my Lisette Passport Jacket.)

So that was fun. But what we even more fun was learning that Melissa has just published a new children's book, Balloons Over Broadway, which is a story about the man who made the very first balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

As it happens, we were having dinner just around the corner from Macy's one night during the workshop, so a few of us dropped in afterwards to see if we could find the poster and the Macy's shopping bags (!) featuring Melissa's illustrations.

It wasn't an entirely fruitful search. No sign of the shopping bags, but we located a poster before returning to the sewing lab for the evening. I'll go back in a week or so to see if I can find the shopping bags.

S was beyond thrilled to get a signed copy of the book, and she spent yesterday afternoon and evening (parent-teacher conferences--half day of school) happily working away on the fantastic activity pages that Melissa and her publisher assembled. They're amazing! S spent loads of time designing her own Thanksgiving Day balloon, assembling a balloon hat (it turns out she moves quite well like a balloon when she's wearing her hat, thank you very much), and finding the best parade route through the maze. She was busy taping together the finger puppets while I assembled the adorable finger puppet storage box (I'll be making another one for myself, I love it so much). The activities are brilliant and would be a wonderful way to keep excited kids busy while they're awaiting Thanksgiving dinner.

By the way, Melissa will be on The Martha Stewart Show later this week demonstrating what Heather says is "the best project" she's seen for kids in a long time. Guess what we'll be doing on Thanksgiving Day before dinner?

Sweet.

(All these images are from Melissa's website. She's got a great blog, too!)

orange

Last weekend S picked out a new hat on our way to Christie's for the contemporary art auction preview. As soon as we arrived at the galleries we noticed that she coordinated with the Mark Rothko--so well, in fact, that she had to stand to one side so we could see the top of her head!

Then we noticed orange everywhere we looked.

She even coordinated with the noses of the dogs on stilts.

And the creepy tomato-head art. (Can you tell I'm not a fan of Paul McCarthy?)

No orange on this one, but it's one of my favorite pieces by Maurizio Catellan. The tiny elevators actually seem to work, much to the amusement of the two little girls in attendance.

9/11/01

I remember returning to my desk for a moment and being told that a plane had struck one of the World Trade Center towers.

I remember how this news immediately reminded me how, shortly after Todd and I moved to New York, a bomb had exploded under the World Trade Center and my colleague's husband was trapped inside the building. A part of me assumed this was a similar experience that would be over soon. We would recover from it and carry on in the usual way.

I remember a panicked call from my sister, who wasn't sure where my office was but wanted to be sure I was ok.

I remember that someone at the office had a radio, and we were able to get updates from public radio. The announcer sounded almost as shocked and shaken as we felt but carried on with updates and coverage as best he could.

I remember that Todd was out of town on business, and we had trouble reaching each other because phone lines were busy.

I remember seeing from our office windows the smoke downtown and being told we should go home, as we were located just a block from the Empire State Building. We didn't know the extent of the attacks, and rumors were wide-spread.

I remember that, as I waited for the elevator so we could leave the building, someone told me one of the buildings had fallen.

I remember walking home with a friend. The streets were filled with people walking, but everyone was strangely silent.

I remember arriving at Union Square and standing on the street in a crowd, looking downtown together. Where once two buildings had stood, now we saw only one. The street was silent.

I remember arriving home and going up to the roof of our building to look downtown. The World Trade Center buildings were gone. The only thing left was smoke.

I remember that I was taking care of a neighbor's cats while she was on vacation. Since we didn't have a TV, I went to her apartment and watched the images. And comforted the cats. But really, the cats were comforting me.

I remember sleeping, or not sleeping, alone that night and for several nights following. Todd and I were schedule to meet on the west coast for a backpacking vacation and neither of us could get anywhere at that point. I really wanted to be with him.

I remember walking down along the East River early the next morning and stopping in front of a lone fire truck parked along the side of the road, covered in ash and dust. The image still haunts me.

I remember the smell. A friend called and told me to close the windows of our apartment, but I left them open. I needed that stench to know the events were real.

I remember how my dear friend, who lost her office in the attacks, had trouble sleeping for years, suffered depression and anxiety, and was so fortunate to be running late that morning.

I remember passing the emergency room and the posted missing person signs on my way to church the next Sunday. The pain in those signs was overwhelming. The world was changed, and we had no idea what our lives would be like going forward.

___________________________________________________

Until now, I've never written about my experiences ten years ago. As a society, we lost so much on that day, but my own experiences are tiny in comparison with what people with closer ties to downtown experienced. I met an elderly man on a city bus one day, years later, who quietly described his escape from one of the buildings. His life was changed in so many ways as a result of that day. My experiences never seemed worth writing down because I was not directly affected. I was here in Manhattan, but my life was largely separate from the events downtown.

Just two years prior to the attacks, I had worked very near the World Trade Center and spent quite a bit of time there, taking classes and having meetings in or near the buildings. I worked for a brief period in 7 World Trade, I shopped in the neighborhood and met friends there after work sometimes. But then I left the industry and returned to school for fashion design, and by the time of the attacks my ties with the financial industry and the downtown area were minimal.

My story from that day is not dramatic. But like everyone else who watched and was horrified, I'll never forget it. I don't know if we've made sense of it. I don't know if we ever will. Our lives have changed in unexpected ways and have not changed in other more anticipated ways. But I think it's important that we commemorate this day and keep remembering and vowing to make a difference in the world.

renovated

We've just finished some renovations to the studio, and I had a chance to show it off yesterday at Pink Chalk. Kathy is featuring all sorts of great sewing spaces on her blog this month, so if you're looking for ideas or want to share off your space you should definitely take a look.


Now that we've been in this space for almost three years, I feel like it's finally come together. We've just been so busy that I hadn't taken the time to do any work on the studio itself. But I'm really happy with it now. We've put linen-covered homosote doors over all the shelving, and the doors are perfect bulletin boards. I love being able to put up everything I'm working on because I can step back and really look and get a good perspective on the scale and colors and ideas as they work together. It's been very helpful to see how new fabric collections play off older groups, to compare and develop color palettes, and to just spread out and play. I actually think those doors are changing the way I work. The leftover pieces became smaller bulletin boards behind the sewing machine counter.



For a while there I had a cute little whitewashed branch suspended from the ceiling, and it was a great place to hang finished garments. That came down when we built the doors, but I'm still hoping to find a place for it. And I didn't get a good photo of the old library card catalog at the entryway. It's great for storing all sorts of odds and ends and just looks fun.

S and I are out in Michigan right now and returning home tomorrow, just in time to pack for a family vacation. I've had a couple of days with my Grandma, and today I think we're headed to the beach. I can't wait!

July 20

Twenty years ago yesterday I married this guy.


That was a really good idea. (Although when he wakes up tomorrow morning and sees that I wrote this he's going to kill me.)

Twenty years of marriage means that it's also been twenty years since we moved to New York. Just a couple months out of college, we drove a giant U-Haul truck out here with our belongings tied up in a little corner of the truck because it was the smallest vehicle the rental company would give us. We carried boxes and boxes (of books, mostly) up to our tiny third-floor apartment on a very hot, sticky day. A lot like today, come to think of it. We slept on the floor of our un-air-conditioned apartment until our sofa bed arrived a few weeks later. (The sofa bed wasn't much of an improvement from the floor, trust me. Somehow we slept on that awful thing for almost five years until we moved to a larger apartment, and then we went out and bought the most comfortable bed we could find.)

I started my first job a day or two after we moved in. Todd started graduate school shortly after that. We barely got by; but we were thrilled to be married, living in New York, and pursuing our dreams.

Since then we've both made several career changes. And we had a kid. And I've never really talked about it here, but two and a half years ago Todd quit his job and joined me in my business. So it's no longer my business, but our business. Now he runs things (far more smoothly and efficiently than I ever did, believe me) and I do what I do best (which doesn't include nearly as many things as he does), and that allows us both to spend more time together and with the kiddo.

I can tell you that being married and rearing a child and running a business together are far more challenging than either of us expected. Our studio and our apartment are both very small spaces, and sometimes the only way to make things work is to each be in a different place for at least part of the time. We can each be in charge independently that way, at least until dinnertime.

But when I stop to think about it all, I wouldn't want to have done it any other way. We still have fun together. We have similar interests and can appreciate each other's interests even when they aren't shared. We have very different senses of humor, but he can still make me laugh. And I'm ecstatic when I can make him laugh every once in a while.

We were very young when we got married. Many, many things have changed in our lives in that time span. But I'd do it again, given the chance.

I hope we get another twenty (or more?) years together.



And he does look like Heather's illustration of him, doesn't he?

summer

Summer, at long last. New York schools continue through June, so S's summer break started with the Independence Day weekend and we've been busy cramming a lot of activities into our schedule ever since. We've made silly treats like cupcake cones (S liked these) and strawberry shortcake popsicles (I liked these and didn't feel a bit guilty eating them), had loads of playdates, run some errands , and made packing lists for all the trips we're taking.




We've also trying to slow down to enjoy picnics, the hydrangeas (especially since I only glimpsed the field of roses outside our building as a blur, I was trotting past them so quickly every day), and to play some games.



Ah, summer! Why do you go so quickly?

red and white

I had the great pleasure of walking the Red and White quilts exhibit with Denyse Schmidt the other day. Denyse knows a tremendous amount about quilts (of course), so it was great fun to just listen and look.





I love the way the quilts were displayed. The show really took advantage of the space inside the Armory, and the cardboard tubes used to hang the quilts were and ingenious solution to hanging such a large quantity of quilts for a short amount of time.

I could say more about the show, but there's already been lots written, so I'll just leave it at that.

Many more photos here. Excuse the blurry ones--the lighting was a bit tricky, and I was busy looking instead of concentrating on the photos.