What's Life without Colour and the Handmade?

Ugglebo clogs.

I have become quite addicted to colour over the last few years.  Gone are my Melbourne black uniforms and they have been switched for the crazed impact of colour and pattern.  Colour definitely has a strong impact on your mood and wearing something bright makes me feel happy/sprightly and also seems to make other people around me feel pretty cheery too!

I came home from vacation just a couple of days ago to have my giant box of Ugglebo Clogs awaiting to unwrapped!  I had forgotten which colours I had ordered but I was super happy to see the bright blue, yellow and pink pop out when I unpacked them.  I can't wait to wear them with!

Toimi bag by Marimekko, handmade sock by  me!

While I was away I picked up this gorgeous tote bag from Marimekko in Cambridge!  It's the Toimi bag and features these great colour blocked pockets and a very comfortable leather handle.  As you can see, the socks that I was knitting over my vacation break, teamed up very well with this bag!

There is something so special about handmade socks, they are soft and a perfect fit for my larger feet.  This is the third pair of socks that I have ever made and I am getting a bit braver with them and I'm even going to attempt a toe-up pair soon! If you are on Ravelry, you can find me and my other knitting adventures, I'm misskittym!  I adore the large stripe mix of this yarn too.

Marimekko cushions at Crate and Barrel.

So, does colour and the handmade make you happy?  Or do you prefer to mooch about in a chainstore top and drab colours?  Let me know!  I'd love to hear!

Whirlwind tour of Boston...

Squirrel buddy.

After a fantastic visit to NYC, we headed to Boston for a couple of days to say hi to our friends Bud and Anita.  When you are on vacation, getting on a bus for 4 hours seems like nothing to go and hang out with friends!

Boston is always pretty relaxing for me.  I use the time to chill out, sleep late, hang out in our wonderful hosts house and take in museums and the culinary chowder treats.

I love getting up in the morning at the house, having coffee and looking out to see what animals I can see.  Our first morning in Boston was super warm and there was a solo squirrel sunbacking in the backyard, keeping me company while I drank my cup of Joe.  We also spied some cardinals too, they are so beautiful!  I could watch these little red birds all day.

knit geeking...

I spent my 'spare time' to start knitting a pair of socks with the awesome Knit Picks yarn that I had ordered (and posted to my friend in NYC).  I am such a fan of this yarn now and think that I will be ordering some more before we leave.  A big shout out to the wonderful folk at A Good Yarn Shop in Brookline who always help me out with advice and knitting tips.  Nothing better than knitting while on vacation!

getting snowed on, thankfully I brought my ear muffs!

We were also pretty excited to get some real snow in Boston!  We had a few little flurries in NYC but Boston brought a good amount of snow that meant that there was enough to coat the ground and stay there.  There is nothing more special than running your hand through fresh snow, so soft and fluffy and white, before it gets dirty and ick.

Beautiful Brookline in the snow.

A big thank you to our lovely hosts, Bud and Anita.  As always it was a very comfortable stay with enjoyable dinners (OMG Anita's food is amazing!) and lots of staying up and telling of tales.

Hanging out, knitting a sock while wearing Marimekko... you know!

We have left lovely Boston for San Francisco, where the weather is promising to be sunny and gorgeous!

American Folk Art Museum

The Museum's front doors.

One of my favourite museums in New York is the American Folk Art Museum.  The museum has been going through some financial troubles in recent times and had to close it's main gallery which was located next to MOMA.  This has left the museum based near the Lincoln Centre in a much smaller space but they are still producing fantastic exhibitions and are really engaging with their community.

Everyone loves a folk art cat.

The current exhibition is 'Jubilation/Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined'.  The curatorial theme looks at ideas of imagination and fantasy in folk art.

Curatorial statement by Senior Curator, Stacy C. Hollander:

Life is not lived in black and white: reality may have the tinge of dreams and dreams an air of reality. This provocative tension exists between the experiential nature of early American folk art and the fantastical imagery it often displays—between what is real and what is imagined. 


The same is true of the work of contemporary self-taught artists, which may introduce unique—and sometimes puzzling—expressions that illuminate the iconoclastic nature that is the flip side of the collective American psyche. The viewer is placed in the peculiar but exhilarating position of deciding for him- or herself whether the artwork expresses a disjuncture with reality or an uninhibited embracing of interior life. After all, what is more true, the picture that looks real or the picture that feels real; the observer or the observed? 


These perceptions shift as new scholarship emerges. Often, real-life roots are discovered for even arcane and esoteric imagery that has already influenced our response to an artist and his work: does this disappoint or satisfy the viewer? Diminish or enhance the creativity of the artist? One need only contemplate the culture- and memory-driven gestures of Martín Ramírez, the impressionistic nineteenth-century portraits by Dr. and Mrs. Shute, and minimalist mid-twentieth-century soot drawings by James Castle to render these distinctions immaterial. Instead the viewer is urged to enjoy the permeable fluidity between art and imagination, dream and belief.

One of the aspects of folk art that appeals to me is the inventiveness of the artists.  Many of the works are made using very everyday materials.  Artists are creating with whatever they can get their hands on and this sense of urgency is something that draws the viewer in, though sometimes it can be a little manic!

The works are also made with such heart.  You can feel the artists need to produce and to present their feelings to the wider world.  I was taken with some of the self-portrait works, which also interests me in the fine art world too.  However the self portrait works take on more meaning when made from unusual materials, as if the artists has been compelled to say, "I am here, this is me".

If you get the chance to check out the museum and this exhibition, do it!  It is a wonderful museum and they need all the support they can get!

I Am a Bit of a Knit Geek...

Yeah, when I'm on vacation I love to knit!!! It's one of the only times that I have loads of spare time and I don't feel guilty doing it!

I'm currently knitting some socks... They are cute and stripey!

Oh and I'm in Boston too my blog peeps!

Shopping: Marimekko Style...

Marimekko loot.

Whenever I visit NYC, I always visit the Upper East Side Marimekko store (one of my absolute favourites!). Naturally the first real day of being in town, we did a few chores such as getting our phones switched over to USA sim cards.  Once that t-mobile 'E' symbol showed up on my iphone, I checked my emails only to find a notification from Marimekko saying "20% off sale items from today".  Needless to say, I was on a subway and heading uptown!

Unfortunately I don't have any photos from the loot that I picked up at the Upper East Side store as I had them ship my items to my next destination to save on NYC tax (ah, yeah, I'm a professional shopper!) so you will need to wait for those.  I did go and visit the new 'flagship store' on 5th avenue where I did make some serious savings too!  I think when I added up everything from ticket price to the sale price, I saved over $700!  You really don't get those type of sales back in Australia.

Glowing Marimekko horses.

One of the cute dresses I picked up has these very bold horses on it.  We went out for bingo last night and the black lights certainly made a crazy sight out of my dress!  I had to take a photo of the glowing horses!

Inari dress for Marimekko Winter 2011 Classics.  Print by Maija Isola & Kristina Isola.

And just so you can check out the dress without the crazy disco lighting, here it is!  It has some lovely pink and mauve highlights on it too and will totally go with my Ugglebo clogs.  It's a good thing that I only brought 3 dresses with me on this trip... and yes, they are all Marimekko!  I am a Marimekko Nerd!

Oh Yeah...

a usual sight that comes out of my pocket while staying in NYC.

Oh yeah, if you hadn't heard, I'm back in New York City!  We've been back for a few days and it feels like we haven't left.  The last few days have been catching up with friends, visiting some of our favourite stores and cafes and taking advantage of the President's Day Sales.

walking uptown from our home.

The weather is a refreshing change from the icky heat of Melbourne and Manhattan has been turning on some great cool but sunny weather for us.  I haven't even had to pull out my ear muffs yet!

We are staying back in Soho at a hotel that we've stayed at before and it was lovely to arrive and have the staff remember us.   I guess we have that kind of effect on people.

I doubt many orange trees grown in NYC but the packaging sure is cute.

I'm super slack at taking photos while we are here in NYC, mostly because we visit so much that so much is familiar to us but also we have been doing some speedy travelling and we always seem to be on the run!  So far it has been fantastic to chill out with my man, wander around and enjoy it all.  If only there was some snow...

Music clip inspiration: Arcade Fire

I'm in love with this song and music clip by Arcade Fire.  The song is called Sprawl II (Mountains beyond Mountains).  As a bit of a shopping theory geek, the lines:

'Cause on the surface the city lights shine
They're calling at me, come and find your kind
Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small
That we can never get away from the sprawl
Living in the sprawl
Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains
And there's no end in sight
I need the darkness, someone please cut the lights

These lyrics remind me of feeling lost and completely overwhelmed in large shopping malls in the USA.  I would love to go there alone and just wander around, like a flaneur, absorbing all the information, lights and bigness that they had to offer.

It also reminds me of visiting weird and small towns in the USA and seeing deserted shops and fast food chain stores.  Their decaying aesthetics had a quiet beauty to them.  They were kind of spooky as they were so isolated but I loved looking at the faded signs, just a shadow of their former glory.