special deliveries

My last blog post had me raving about Parcel, the fantastic retail shop...And now this latest post has got me raving about parcels, the fantastic things delivered to my door. It's been a fruitful week mailwise. For a few days straight Aaron's been coming back in from walking the dog holding 2 to 3 boxes or billowy envelopes with delightful and familiar return addresses. It's great when the mailman doubles as interventionist...with his packages he dispels my "infrequent-blogger" habit, thus shortening the often lengthy interval between updates. He's the unwitting accomplice in breaking my bad blogging habit...I mean, when I get stuff like this in the mail how can I just let it sit there in my apartment all alone? It's like the whole 'tree falls in the forest' thing...is great stuff really great stuff, if there's nobody there to see it? 

 

 

 

 

Lets start with the holy grail of cookie cutters. It seems any day of the week I can find this one in the ubiquitous RED. Only one time, long ago, I saw it in this fabulous shade of blue. The red just doesn't work for me, but the blue is perfect. Well, way back when I saw the blue one I guess I didn't realize that it would be years before I'd see it again... it was one of those missed opportunities on ebay. Fast forward to now...I've had my dear friend Anna on the lookout for it. She too seems to only see the red one all the time and never the blue...and if Anna's not finding it then that means it's RARE. Anna LIVES at flea markets! I've talked about Anna before. She's the inventor of the Flat Rate Box Bonanza...it's an artform wherein you must squeeze the ultimate quantity and quality of good stuff into a usps flat rate box. She is the grandmaster. Anyway, she's on the west coast and often shops on my behalf at the millions of flea markets I'll never make it to. I can't thank her enough for this favor. So, I put Anna on the blue cookie cutter case...and sure enough, she ends my 2 year search within a month! I love this little thing and I definitely plan on using it! And, the next item included in Anna's package was a total bonus! This is probably the funniest flea market find ever! And bless Anna for knowing my taste so well. I love this note! And not just in a casual "ha ha that's funny"-way... I mean, I really love this! We framed it instantly, banged a nail into the wall, and hung it smack dab in our entryway at eye level. It's just perfect! We walk past it all day and both of us are always pointing out our favorite details. I love all of the misspellings and crazy punctuation...it's a good thing that it was the P. E. teacher who made little Albert write the note. If  I was his handwriting/spelling teacher I'd think twice about sending the kid home with a note that so obviously shows how badly I'm doing my job. Poor Albert needs some assistance in the grammar department...maybe the boogie wiping is just a cry for help!! And I love the teacher's note on the bottom...her tone is so serious and to the point...she calls it "sad news"!!! I wonder if she was at least smirking when she wrote it...

anyway, funny stuff!!

 

 

 

Ok, the next package at my door was from my very first online friend,  Laurie Duncan. It was years and years ago when she and I first started trading emails. I can recall looking at Halloween pics of Laurie and her daughter Sabrina picking pumpkins...and Sabrina was super tiny! Now she carries little purses! It's so cool. I have years worth of their Halloween photos...Sabrina and her dad Rob, carving pumpkins in the garage, costumes etc... And here we are approaching another Halloween and here's one of the latest Halloween creations from Laurie. First off, I love the wrapping, tied up with one of her trademark little cuties...she is famous for her chenille pixies! And the piece is soooo cool. I just love classic black and white for Halloween. There are so many textures and layers to this...the drawing is excellent! And the piece really couldn't fit my Halloween decor any better. I've got Laurie Duncan artwork to represent every holiday and I've got years worth! Little things like this keep the world at bay. I can look up at the corner shelf above my desk and see years worth of creations from Laurie. There consistency and dependability of her turning out new designs year after year is just so...comforting. It's just a little thing I can always depend on. That's when art transcends.

  Me and Aar feel like we really really know Laurie, Rob and Sabrina and yet we've never met. They're out in Minnesota...a place we've only visited for 15 minutes for a connection flight to New York...so we only saw the inside of the airport and an aerial view from up in the night sky. Maybe one day we can go out there for real and visit...I believe she's not too far from Kari Artsymama!

 

 

Next up is this fabulous little bottle from Michele of This Good Day! Such a happy little addition to our new place at the Jersey shore! Now more than ever I am burning to paint and decorate my new bathroom. It just so happens to be pretty far down on the list of priorities though. Mostly because we just need the backdrop to be the multi colored cabana stripes and we simply do not have the time to do the stripes yet. And so we've got all of our wall stuff in boxes awaiting the paint job. Anyway, this bottle is magical. I love everything Michele does and I was really lucky to have her as a swap partner back when I hosted the Bits and Pieces swap. I totally want more things from Michele. Everything seems...I'm gonna repeat myself because it's the most fitting word...Magical!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, next package I'm gonna mention did not actually arrive yet! I did my shopping just yesterday and I'm awaiting shipment...and when it arrives I'll be sure to snap pics real quick and get them up here. But anyway, where I did this shopping is the important part. I'm thrilled to announce that my friend Tammy Akervold has just opened an Etsy shop!!! I've been WAITING! She is such a sweet gal and her personality shines through her artwork. You can really feel the heart that goes into each piece. I love seeing something right from the get-go...watching the evolution from opening day to several years in business...right now the shop is Brand New! Just debuted mere hours ago, so go check her out at little junk shop. Be sure to tell her that Jenny sentcha! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now here are some pics of our boy Carlos doing what he does best. I swear, Carlos has been the number one beneficiary in this move to our new apartment. He LOVES it here. He feels like he owns the place. You should see himwalking from room to room doing his own thing. In our old place he seemed to constantly be on edge. He'd follow us around with his ears back, all nervous and unsure of himself. Now he couldn't care less about what we're up to. He moseys around the place all slow and lazy...everyday from like noon to 4:00 he lays in the sun beam that's cast on the foot of our bed. And it's mandatory for him to first mess up the blankets a bit...he loves messing up blankets. And you can kinda see the direction we're headed in decor wise. We're just in the feeling things out stage. Putting things in rooms and getting the color palettes down. Not really decorating yet. Just setting a mood in each room to build on. The bedroom will be colorless as far as furniture and objects. The color will be in the bright walls and the items in the room will stay in the sepia/white/black family. Really old and chippy paint, tarnished silver, rust. It sorta reminds me of  Sally Jean's book, which is a good thing! Also for the color scheme I've got a Flickr mosaic for inspiration which I've printed out and I glance at like ten times a day while standing in my bedroom doorway

 

 

 

 

And lastly, just a teeny area above our couch and a shot of Carlos and his daily playdate Jack. (my sister's pup, our nephew...we babysit the little guy while she's at work!)  Again, just the beginning stages. Back before dogs were a main part of our life we had much more "elegant" fabrics...the couch was almost pure white! Now with puppy parties which include lotsof bonies and treats, which seem to always get chewed on the couch, we opted for a dog friendly tan slipcover which is machine washable. Though the color is less than ideal we couldn't have it any other way. Less "elegance" equals less problems...jeez, look at those pups!! they are a riot...Jack always has to maintain the higher ground!

 The room is mostly windows so there won't be much in the way of wall vignettes. We're trying to stay focused on how this placefeels in the summer. It's really a summer town and simplicity is key. We were much more layered in our old decor and I think it's time to lighten the load. We're just happy to havea bright sunny room with ocean breezes coasting through. All of that will change come winter but we're going to try to keep the feeling year round as far as the decor goes. Just simple key pieces. Those lanterns up there we've had for like ten years and just the other day I added the assorted dangling ribbons and trims. They needed a touch of  crafty whimsy. On the shelf which is really an old door header we salvaged, sits Mr. Crow, whom I showed you last year...he's made by the wonderful Jennifer Conway. And that big tinted vintage photo booth pic of a sweet young girl was a big surprise...I thought she'd be wallet size when I bought her online. When the oversized envelope showed up at my door I was psyched! And that mirror has seen a lot of rooms...not just in it's lifetime but in it's life with us...it's moved around a lot. We have to be so careful when we move it...if we lose much more of that silver we won't be able to call it a mirror anymore. And to the left and right of the mirror are what Aaron calls his two favorite pieces of artwork in our apartment...both by the fabulous Danita! 

 

Alright, guess that's it for now. I actually got more packages just today and have not yet had the chance to photograph the contents...so more is soon to come! Thanks for looking again! xoxo, Jenny

 

Parcel or Bust (Part 1)

Warning ... You are about to be assaulted with photographs! The content is harmless but the sheer volume may bury you. And I must confess, not all of them are of the best quality... some are maybe a bit blurry, a couple feature that old standard "red eye" which is mandatory in the world of amateur candid photography, and some require a caption but I most likely will fail to provide one. The best I can do is give you the broad strokes version of the past couple o' weeks. Pretend you're at a friend's house, sitting back on the couch while flipping through their stacks of photos that they just picked up from CVS (or insert here where you commonly develop pictures...I feel like I haven't developed photos in years! forget film...even at one of those machines where you pop your memory card in.) ...anyway,  this post is  1 part shopping trip, 1 part business meeting, and 1 part party. I think I should start with the party portion...not because I live by the whole "life's short, dessert first" credo... I'm leading off with the party because the accompanying photos are probably some of the most baffling that I've ever posted and they need some quick explaining. I've had the pics up on Flickr for a little while now and I just know that many of my Flickr pals are dying to know just who the heck and what the heck is in these pics!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The party was for Bust magazine. I got an email a while back saying that Bust was throwing this huge party to celebrate their 15th anniversary. There were a couple of names on the night's agenda that caught my eye (one name in particular...which I'll get to in a minute!!). I called my sis Missy...she wasn't working on the night of the party, neither was her boyfriend, my little bro Walt was available (of course he's available...he's 18!) ...so we grabbed 5 tickets right away and then, as life goes, we sorta forgot all about it. Next thing you know, we're busy like crazy...weeks pass...our "Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake" painting starts selling like hotcakes (more on that later)...we're already backed up with work...all in all, our plates are full...and then we realize "hey, that Bust magazine party is on Tuesday!!" 

  So we washed the paint off our hands, threw on some lipstick , (well me and Missy did...Aaron, Walt and Charley decided to go au naturale!) and headed off to NYC for a big night out.

  First, a descrip of the venue...  Spiegelworld. A very cool place that is largely dependant on ideal weather conditions...which we had in spades! The weather that night was magically perfect...it was in the low 70's, clear and starry, very light breeze, no humidity, a very rare August night in Manhattan. The place is situated at South Street Seaport...a really touristy part of the city, a place we never ever go. And not because we avoid touristy places (because we don't...we love touristy places and we can't stand elitists!) ...we never go down there because it's so far from everywhere else in the city...it's way down at the southernmost tip and the roads down there are so hard to navigate in a car because of how non-gridlike they are and all the one way streets.

   Spiegelworld is right on the water and is almost totally outdoors except for the performance spaces and the bars which are in big circus tents. All of it's really period authentic...very vaudeville, cabaret, burlesque. You'd love it if the company you worked for threw their annual summer party there. Check out the website, plan a trip to NYC, and go see a show. All sorts of acts play there. The views are amazing. You're right on the water looking over at Brooklyn, all the connecting bridges are twinkling in the night, channel markers are dinging, ferries are passing. And we had a special treat...right now, there are couple of giant waterfalls right off the coast of Brooklyn ( temporary waterfalls...in fact they are art installations. ) I'm not sure if we could hear the waterfalls or if I'm imagining that part...they're pretty far away, but as you're looking at them you "think" you can hear them roar.

   So, we got to the party. We just made the cut off for "first 500 people to arrive" so we got an awesome bag full of all sorts of stuff...books, cd's, tech stuff, fake tattoos, free subscription to Bust, etc. ( I insisted to my sis over and over..."we MUST get there early so we can get the goodie bag!) Of course, as always, we are poor planners when it comes to eating schedule so none of us really ate too much beforehand so once we got inside the party we were looking all over for the free cupcakes which were promised in the advertising. Well we found one of the girls who was walking around with a tray, got her to pose for some pics with us, and while she was busy talking to us we repeatedly grabbed cupcake after cupcake! I mean, they were MINI cupcakes and one just didn't cut it...they were good though. Provided by Babycakes in NYC. Before the performance we just hung around, drank sodas, met some people, and Walt was probably pretty excited because his gigantic gold necklace instantly got some attention. A few different guys toting big cameras, obviously on press assignments to take pics, wanted to take photos of Walt. The one pic of me and him in front of the streetscape backdrop, I found online when I did a random search for Bust Party pics. It was for some online mag called Prefix. The pic is now on Walt's myspace page of course.

Ok, now I'll get to the "one name in particular" which I mentioned above.

 

Sure, Bust is a good magazine...why not go to their big party, get free stuff, cool venue, bands playing, circus acts, a night away from the grind with family and friends ... and the hilarious Amy Sedaris was the M.C. for the evening. But I'm a busy girl and it's gonna take more than that to tear me away from Everyday is a Holiday headquarters. It's gonna take something really special...enter  Leslie Hall!! Yes, that's her in the skin tight, metallic gold spandex jumpsuit with neon fringed shoulder pads. I am a big big big big fan! She's a bit hard to describe. She's a girl from Iowa who amassed a giant collection of Gem Sweaters. "What's a gem sweater?" you ask... well, you've seen them before, and if you go to enough thrift shops or garage sales you'll see them again. At one point in time, crafty women went crazy with bedazzlers, fabric glue, beads, gems and crystals. Among these fabulously crafty women a very popular thing to embellish was a favorite sweater! Anyway, as the legend goes...these garish creations were a wonder to Leslie and she took hundreds of pics of herself in hundreds of sweaters and put them on her website: gemsweater.com.  It became immensely popular overnight. After her site got inundated with hits she was socked with a very pricey bill from her server. She had all this popularity and no way to pay the bill. So what did she do. She got out her Mac, used some basic music producing software, and made a rap album!!! She is now, what you call, a cewebrity! I cannot begin to describe how much joy her music and videos have brought me. Yes, her videos are all over Youtube! I start every day with one of her videos and laugh until I cannot laugh anymore. I tell Aaron all the time that Leslie Hall is my hero! I have all three of her cd's and play them non stop. Her live performances are outrageous. Her stage persona is enigmatic...how she ties mid-west crafty ladies, rap, and Ziggy Stardust style costumes together is miraculous. I know there are many of you out there who share a lot of my tastes almost to the letter. It's probably the way you found my blog in the first place...we're cut from the same cloth. If one could peer into our souls and see visual representations of our favorite things we'd have a million similarities. But right now, as you read this, you're probably saying to yourself "I don't get it...I usually really dig the stuff that Jenny is into...but this just don't sound right...a mid-western girl in gold spandex who raps about gem sweaters, snacks, and zombies, doesn't seem like my cup o' tea."   And you might be right. If it doesn't sound like your idea of entertainment then it probably isn't...and believe me, I respect your opinion. I never claimed to have perfect taste. BUT, if anything you see in the pics or glean from the descrip sounds funny to you then I suggest you look up the amazing Leslie Hall and have your world rocked!

  Ok, so back to the Bust party. Leslie Hall performed first and it was so so so so good. Her group is actually called Leslie and the Ly's (pronounced: lies). They had way too short of a set and should not have been the opening act, but they still brought the house down. People who know her stuff were overjoyed...and people who didn't were simply enthralled at the spectacle. After Leslie, Lady Circus performed. Amazing feats of acrobatics while suspending themselves from long silky drapes twenty five feet up. Then, Murray Hill and the fabulous Pontani Sisters with their burlesque act. Murray Hill "the hardest working middle aged man in show biz" , is so darn funny but there's just way too much to get into. You must check out the link!

   After all the acts we hung around a little bit outside of the performance tent and took in some more of the waterfront view before calling it a night. Walt took some pics with the Pontani Sisters and Murray Hill. And just as we were about to leave I spotted Leslie Hall...out of costume and nearly unrecognizable. I got to spill my guts to her and tell her what a huge fan I am and that I've known of her since like 6 or 7 years ago when she made an e-card of herself  singing about and dancing in gold pants. She was so so nice and we really hit it off and in November when me, Aar, and Missy drive out to Omaha for Silver Bella, we're going to make a stop in Iowa to go see Leslie and her actual museum of Gem Sweaters! I know, I'm a little left of center. Wait, looking through my pics I just realized that I had some shots of Leslie's mom. That's her in the red shirt and gold pants. She is responsible for sewing Leslie's outrageous costumes and she was there at the show with a suitcase full of Leslie Hall merch ... t-shirts, cd's, and random clothing that Leslie herself sewed! She totally ruled and loved my brother Walt...kept calling him an absolute gentleman. Also, since first posting I have added a couple of videos that'll give you a good idea about Ms.Leslie Hall.... 

 

( Read on for Part 2...I was forced to separate my post....darn AOL)

 

 

 

Parcel or Bust (PART 2)

 

 

 

 

Ok, so with the party over lets get to business. And to call our meeting a "business" meeting would be taking nomenclature abuse to an all new low. After countless delays and scheduling mishaps on our part we finally set up to meet with our client/friend Cookie. We had all this custom stuff that we wanted to hand deliver to her because we'd only talked on the phone and through email and wanted so badly to meet in person. We'd done some work for her in the past and we'll be doing some decorative wall painting in her home. We talked so many times leading up to this meeting just trying to set up a time that worked for everyone that ultimately we felt like we all knew each other for years before we even met. Plus, we've seen her in action on television! She's a big time event planner...puts together outrageously huge parties and micro manages every detail...from the color of the napkin rings to getting one of the New York Yankees to show up at a little boy's baseball theme birthday party. She's totally kinetic...a whirlwind of positive energy, and it was really fun to talk shop with her in her fab home.  The stuff we did was for her daughter's room which has a bakery/tearoom theme and is outrageously fabulous. We did a custom wastepaper basket, a tissue box cover, a whole bunch of labels for jars and a really cute picture frame with cupcakes and recipe book clippings. In the pic you can see Cookie in mid celebration for finally getting her hands on the stuff she'd been waiting for! Her daughter Chloe's room is just pink pink pink and the only thing prettier than the room is Chloeherself. Wowie zowie, is she a gorgeous tiny littlegirl. She wasn't there that day though... her and her little brother were at Grandma's, but we were checking out her pictures...soooo pretty! And Cookie was just too awesome. I really felt like we've always been friends. We stayed for hours and checked out all the nooks and crannies of her super old and fantastically unique home. The exterior and all the interior woodwork is black ... but old black, like classic turn of the century black. I'm totally a pastel girl, but I flip for black. There's so much character and depth in it when used correctly. Anyway, The visit to Cookie's was so fun and expect to see more pics from her home in future blog posts. We're not sure in what capacity we're going to work together but we know we're going to collaborate a bunch.

 

So now, the third and final part: The Shopping!!

   The pictures you are currently drooling over are of an amazing shop I've mentioned before but I'll continue to bring it up because it's one of those places that we're all simply blessed  to have in our lives! The name is  Parcel, and it just so happens to be right here in Jersey. I guess it's like 45 minutes from where we live...I didn't time it. Well, this time we didn't drive straight there from our house. Here's the funny part...we went directly from our meeting with Cookie, right over to Parcel. Cookie lives about 15 minutes from Parcel and is also a HUGE fan of the place. We were summing up our get-together with Cookie and the clock was nearing 6. We were terrified that we were gonna miss out on going to Parcel. Despite her dinner plans Cookie offered to get in her car and lead us there along the quickest route she knows. As we sped there on a series of backstreets I called Nancy, the proprietress, and like the sweetheart that she is, she told me that she'd stay open a bit later for us! Well we made it there at about 6:00, which is the actual closing time, but by time we left Aaron checked the clock and it was after 7:00. So so nice of her to stay that late. Me and Aar were in retail, we had a store that we practically lived at 7 days a week...we were the owners and the only two employees. We know how precious it can feel to finally turn that sign in the window from OPEN to CLOSED. So for Nancy to stay an hour late was a big deal and we totally appreciate the gesture!

  Here's another funny part. On the day we went to Parcel we weren't the only representatives from blogland to go. Earlier, that same day, guess who was there??? A super duper dynamic duo...The one and only Hope Wallace from Paper Relics and the incomparable Andrea Singarella from One Hundred Wishes!! How crazy is that!? They are so totally not from anywhere near Jersey! The whole 'small world' thing never ceases to amaze me. They were both in our neck of the woods for the Gift Show up in NYC and decided to swing down to Jersey for a visit to, I'd confidently say, one of the best stores in the nation for the "stuff we all love"! Just take a glance at the pics...I don't think you'd argue that point. Hope and Andrea hung out at Parcel for 4 hours!! Of course, I had to know what they looked at, what they bought. I walked around the shop asking Nancy "what did Hope think of that?...did Andrea buy one of these?"  Me and Aar got to shop for an hour which isn't nearly enough time but it's actually impossible to spend enough time there. Your eyes fail to take it all in. It's not a large shop but as you walk round and round you'll pick out something you didn't catch a minute ago. I guess ideally you'd like to live right around the corner so you could pop in Parcel whenever you get a creative urge. Because that's what the shop caters to. All of the little findings and papers and whatnots are all the PERFECT things you need for that thing you're working on...or hope to be working on. Well that's the way I see it...because in fact, it's way more gifty than I'm letting on. You can also totally just buy beautiful stuff there...and cards galore!  But I guess my eyes were finding all the things I'd just love to use to make even more beautiful stuff. When I create I feel like I'm never quite prepared enough. I'm always missing that certain something that will just magically finish off my creation. I yearn for the day when I finally achieve mise en place. I know all of us do...we're all in search of it. But you know, it's one of those things that are better to crave than to actually have. The crave will keep you going from day to day. It'll be your silent muse. Anyway, in a perfect world, you'd like to just buy the entire contents of Parcel and lock yourself away with all your treasures for eternity. Really, the place is that good. Nancy has a million dollar eye for good stuff.

  This time I got to meet Lucy, who is Nancy's too adorable for words daughter and she was just the most hilarious little thing ever. As I started to snap photos of the place Lucy had all sorts of suggestions for which particular items to capture in my lens. She also offered to pose so that the photos would have a bit of added interest. I think she might've actually used those words! She was saying some doosies! Each comment beat out the last. She was acting like a full grown shopkeep. And she loves the camera. She knows how to instantly turn on that heart melting smile. She told me she plans on being a famous chef when she grows up! We loved her!!

  I took some pics of some of the items we bought that day, but I really did want to come home with so much more. Aaron got a sheet of awesome paper that's a vintage Paris map...the colors are gorgeous. He loves old Paris maps and I think he'd like to time travel so he could stalk Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Joyce, and all those other guys from the 20's and 30's. We're totally going back soon. Not back in time...back to Parcel! If any of you readers are ever in Jersey you gotta try to make the trip. We're all urging Nancy to become a part time blogger...as if she's not busy enough already! But I told her that she can blog sporadically...that she doesn't have to let it run her life. I know anything she does will be awesome!

Ok, That's all. I once again typed waaaaay too much! We're still working on mad orders and getting the apartment organized. Oh yeah, the Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake painting has been a smashing success!! Thanks so much to all of you who picked one up. We're thrilled to have struck a cord with you and we love the idea of them hanging in homes all over the map. I hope everyone hears the message loud and clear!