Road Trip

I've been back from the road trip on the 28th, but I took a really long break from the computer, I did not look at a single blog while I was away and I did not miss it. But since I have a blog and I need to know what in the world are we living in, I am back to my old self and going on 30 blogs a day!

About my road trip, it was really fun, and I enjoyed every moment of it, Chad my husband was the driver who never complained the whole time we're on the road! Here are some of the highlights of the trip, I regret not taking as many pictures, especially in Nashville, if I wasn't sick to my stomach most of the time I would have (thanks to the chicken parmigian dinner in Maryland!).

Day 1- We left Brooklyn for some antiquing near Shartlesville, Pennsylvania. We made a stop at Cabela's- the super store for hunting gear, woohoo! For a lifetime city girl I was very intimidated, actually a little frightened, but the taxidermied wild animals won me over! The place is HUGE, I could have spent hours on looking at camping gear and cookware! In Shartlesville we went to Roadside America, the place I most looked forward to, it's a miniature village of all things you'd see in the Northeast of American roadside. It's basically a room of about 3000 square feet with lots and lots of miniature houses, animals, farms, and trains. All the the trains there work and some can be operated by the visitors! You can read all about it here and see more pictures here. It was really too many cool things to look at in one place, I'm seeing new things in these pictures that I didn't pay attention to while I was there!

We drove for another 3 hours and decided to call it a night and stayed at Cumberland Maryland. We were gong to Lexington and Roanoke Virginia for more antiquing, but we were expecting a huge snow storm there so we took a different route.

Day 2- The storm hit Cumberland as well, we got more snow than expected so we were snowed in for the day. It was actually a blessing in disguise because I was pretty sick from the dinner that I had the night before (that chicken parm!!!!), so it was nice to relax and lay in bed all day. We actually had fun watching corny holiday movies all day! Day 3- Back on the road and on our way to Kentucky. The snow stopped and the sun was out (for a short short time!) The snow made all the trees even more beautiful and Christmasy! We did not do much that day because we had to catch up on the drive in order to make it to Nashville our destination the next day. There's a mom in that town who could not wait to see her son!

Day 4- We spent an hour in Louisville, Kentucky. We did pretty well antiquing there! Our original plan was to go to Dollywood before heading to Nashville, but we realized that it's more of a theme park with roller coaster rides and it was probably closed anyway, so I guess I won't be going to Dollywood anytime soon. A few more hours of drive, we made it to Nashville!

Day 4 - 8 I don't have many pictures of Nashville because I got even more sick while I was there... but here are some things that caught my attention at the antique malls.

Day 9- We left Nashville really early for Roanoke Virginia. It took about 6.5 hours to get there and we got some pretty good stuff at the antique mall, so it was well worth the trip! We drove for another few hours and we spent a night in Winchester, Va. We did pretty well with time and not too worried about returning our rental car tomorrow night!

Day 10- Off to Pennsylvania again! We went to Fayetteville and Allentown for more antiquing (yes the roadtrip was all about antiquing for our online store CHetCH.com), by the time we made it to our last antique mall we were pretty much done with our shopping and done with the trip. We headed back to Brooklyn, but not without being stuck in traffic at the Holland Tunnel entrance for 1.5 hour!

I must apologize for this super long post, but I doubt that many of you have made it to this line. This post is to make up all the days that I have not blogged. I will try to post more soon, and will try not to talk about myself too much!

Gone for the Holiday

Chad and I are going on a road trip to Nashville, his hometown. We usually fly down but this year we are driving because we'll get the chance to stop by all the great little towns in Pennsylvania and Virginia! Great antiquing and lots of fun places to go, we are really excited about Dollywood, I hope it will be more than just an amusement park! Another place that I really want to go is Roadside America in Shartlesville Pennsylvania that our friend Jenna told us about. It's a 6,000 square feet miniature village representing small-town America, see more pics here. The place looks strange but amazing! Let me know if there are places that I should check out in PA or VA!

I will be back before the New Year and I hope to share some highlights with you then. Have a happy and peaceful holiday!
photos: www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com

Russ & Daughters

I'm not Jewish but I have many friends who celebrate this holiday, so Happy Hanukkah! I looked up Russ & Daughters' website because I LOVE their whitefish salad on my bagel, and wow I was impressed by how great looking the site it! The logo says everything about them, what a cute fish!!! Look at the potato latkes, the smoked salmon, and I want to get that caviar just for the packaging. Everything on there is to die for, and that is why it has been in business since 1914, you must go to the Lower East Side store when you visit New York!

white fish salad on bagel

bialys

potato latkes, smoked salmon and caviar

photos: russ & daughters

Owlette in Action

As you know I've made some laser cut felt ornaments for the holiday, I love them but we don't have a tree at home, so I am so happy to see my little Owlette in this close-up tree shot by Clay Wood & Cotton in Beacon, NY, they carry some of my stuff there! It's a new store run by a couple of very nice ladies, one of them, Kristen, is actually a Clinton Hill neighbor. I also have a special connection with Beacon because my favorite gallery Open Space where I have shown in a couple of group shows is on the same street as CW&C (well ok, Main Street is a pretty long stretch but it's only a 10 minute walk from each other). I've been working on a print for this year's group show, hope they'll like it, and if I have time I will work on a couple more, will post pics soon. Think we might go on a day trip to Beacon next weekend!

I also want to mention this great shop where I got some nice flowers from called Stem, I can't believe that it is only a block away from me in Fort Greene, the selection is really amazing too, plus it feels good to support small local businesses in our neighborhood. Have a great weekend guys!
photo: CW&C

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a safe trip home and eat lots of great food! My favorite thing on Thanksgiving morning is to watch the Parade (on TV!) Here is a picture of Tony Sarg blowing up a balloon. Sarg designed some of the most iconic balloons for the first Thanksgiving Day Parade- Felix The Cat, the elephant (above), dragon, and toy soldier, you can see them and more vintage pics here.
source: www.designrelated.com

Brilliant Cards!

Been spending too much time looking at greeting cards today, here are some them that I really love:
Assorted Biscuits card by a Japanese company called Buono Buono. They look so real and delicious, and such a smart and simple design!
Present & Correct is definitely one of my all-time favorite giftware site, they carry new and old products from designers all over the world, but I am a die-hard fan of their own designs. Here are some of the cards that I absolutely LOVE: (picture on top) my favorite Cute As A Button card, Tree or Snowman decoration that is also a card (below), and X'mas Stocking Thaumatrope card (second one below).
sources: http://matomeno.in/products/item-667.html via ffffound, presentandcorrect.com

CHetCH

I am really excited about the launch of my new web shop with my husband Chad, called CHetCH.com. It went live today! It's still a work in progress but we want to sell a few of our favorite things for the holiday season, in the coming weeks we will be adding more new products.

I did a little jewelry line called "The Plastics", it's really fun to do something with bright colors and bold icons. That ampersand necklace is our logo that I designed, we'll be using it on a lot of products.

The jewelry line is just a small part of the store, we carry products designed by very talented friends that we know, like knit accessories by Siu Yin Chau. You might have seen her cool knitwear before, I'm really in love with the iPurse and the little red riding hat, the best thing is, everything is hand-knitted and made to order!

As you guys know, we love skulls and we have quite a collection here, our friend Faiyaz Jafri has done this absolutely amazing skull print for our shop and our wall! It is available in black, red and blue, each one is a very limited edition of 25.

Holiday Fun- Free Cards with Purchase!

I just released my new holiday cards and felt ornaments, you can get them on Etsy now. I am extremely happy with how they all came out, especially the Rejoice card, I should always use kraft paper! The holiday icons card is great too, the gold is crudely printed and off registered because that's what I love about vintage cards, flaws and all! I will post everything on my wonting shop next.

I am giving away a couple of free cards with each purchase of the ornaments and holiday cards (any holiday cards in my shop), while supplies last. I did some cards with a company in the UK last year and they gave me a ton of them so I might as well give them away and spread the love!

I've been working non-stop these days on a bunch of different projects, tomorrow I'll have another big announcement, so stay tuned!

Work In Progress

This year I'm doing 2 gocco holiday cards and 2 laser cut felt ornaments, I was going to make them as ornament/card, but the felt is very thick and won't look very good in an envelope, so I'm selling them as ornaments. As you can see the dove card and the ornaments are 99% done, the brown card is missing 2 layers but is already looking really good, it makes me think that I should always print on color paper. Everything will be available on Thursday in my shop and Etsy.