This morning on True Up, Kim posted a picture of the most adorable dress from the Coppenhagen-based company Bang Bang…

available from the Buisjesen Beugels site. So after browsing the rest of the site, I found some of the COOLEST kids stuff.

Like the BROWNSTONE DOLLHOUSES!! Made by Our Children’s Gorilla.

You can build your own little Brooklyn!

AND A WOODEN ROBOT NAMED GARY!!!! Also from Our Children’s Gorilla.

Go to the Buisjesen Beugels site to find these and other super cool things for kids. And some pretty hip stuff for grown ups too.

(image from TONY article)

Jenny Yuen, owner and creator of Miss Lonelyhearts, has recently been featured in Time Out NY and in NY Magazine, and both posts mention I Like You As A Friend Jewelry!!!!

(image from NY Magazine slideshow)

Visit the Miss Lonelyhearts store to see I Like You As A Friend in person!

250 Broome St between Ludlow and Orchard Sts (212-253-0560)

Once again, I’m attempting to handmake as many holiday gifts as possible. I did pretty well last year- giving things I made, handmade things I bought from etsy, and giving materials for others to handmake their own projects!

I got started early this year- my New Year’s Resolution last year was to knit and sew a specific number of items each month, and a lot of those have been holiday gifts, so I’m pretty far along already! But here’s some other knitted items I think would make AMAZING gifts…

Toilet Roll Cozies!

A Greek Deli Cup Cozy!

Headphone Cozy!

GIANT scarf!

Knitted Blanket with Arms! (aka snuggie/slanket/wrap-ghan/etc)

(click the links for where to find/purchase the patterns!)

It’s finished!

Hopefully Carly will send photos and won’t mind me posting them. I can’t wait to see it on!

And then for little Avery… Max feet!

Sorry the photo isn’t the best (my camera was dead so I used my phone), but hopefully Kate will take pictures of Avery in his whole costume??

Happy Halloween!!

The forecast was for snow and rain and cold, but we went anyway! It’s the best weekend of the year. Right up there with Christmas.

NY State Sheep And Wool Festival in Dutchess County, at the Rhinebeck County Fairgrounds.

After stuffing ourselves full of maple cotton candy, kettle corn, soft pretzels, hot apple cider, and all sorts of delicious farm fresh treats and petting each sheep at least 3 times and touching hundreds of different yarns, we went to the Ravelry Party!

I’m very excited about knitting up the yarns that I got- especially the yarns that are so hard to find in shops- Socks That Rock, Shelridge Farms, Brooks Farms.

My friend Carly asked me to make her Halloween costume for her… can you guess what she’s going as?
The muslin:

The ingredients plus one nearly finished component:

In other news, Chris and I went to the American Museum of Natural History. I love how they set up the animals like they’re posing for family portraits.

And one of my favorite tote bags was this free one I got with a Japanese magazine. It’s falling apart from over use, so I copied the shape and made another one out of old vintage fabric…

Something happened after Anya Hindmarch made her I’m Not A Plastic Bag: conserving the environment became fashionable. Clothing started being made of organic materials, hip and trendy companies started making composters and gardening tools out of recycled materials, every store you go into has reusable shopping bags for sale, and suddenly every cosmetic line is paraben free and organic. Hopefully, unlike other fads, being green won’t go out of style.

Growing up in California, we were taught in school from about kindergarten to abide by the 3 R’s- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. My mom had canvas bags in her car for grocery shopping. As kids, my brother and I collected and sorted recyclables to take to recycling centers, and the money we got was ours to spend. When I first moved to New York, adjusting to the lack of public recycling bins and everything in a paper bag in a plastic bag with 14 napkins and styrofoam cups was really hard for me. I’ve had a little folded up tote bag in my purse every day since I arrived, use my travel coffee mug and Nalgene from college every day. Not that I claim to be better than anyone else, just luckier. Adjusting to a conservatory lifestyle isn’t too hard for me since it was ingrained into me since birth. Chris and I have recently been watching some really interesting Sundance Channel shows on our instant Netflix queue- The Lazy Environmentalist demonstrates how to change your life to waste less without compromising your comfort or convenience, and Eco Trip- which follows production of everyday goods and examines their environmental impact. I just queued Big Ideas For a Small Planet as well.

We’re now taking on a new challenge: The No Impact Project Experiment. It’s an experiment to train yourself to consume and waste less. Conceived by Colin Beavan, who went for 1 whole year living a zero-waste lifestyle with his family in New York City, it’s a challenge to get people to live zero-waste for one week. The week of October 18th, to be exact. I still haven’t decided if I’ll just post our progress here, or if I’ll post to the official community site… Click here to sign up if you want to participate in the official week.

I should know better than to knit at a bar by now, but I guess I don’t. Sunday night, after work at the bar, sitting outside on a step, I was chatting with the security guards while working on a lace shawl when some guy drunkenly stumbles up to me and says, “HEY! WHAT ARE YOU NEEDLEPOINTING??”

I went back to looking at my work and didn’t look up for the rest of the interaction with this guy.

Me: “Uh, no. This is knitting.”

Drunko: “NEEDLEPOINTING. KNITTING. WHATEVER. SAME THING! ARE YOU MAKING SOMETHING INTERESTING? WHY DON’T YOU COME INSIDE AND HAVE SOME FUN! HAVE ANOTHER DRINK!”

Me: “No thanks. I’m busy.”

I mean, it’s bad enough when people tell me knitting and crochet are the same thing, but needlepoint??

I decided to start an email list in case of the event that I ever update my shop!

And be sure to keep an eye on the i like you as a friend blog for updates and to join that mailing list!