my time in new york was grand! this is a picture of me and liza yu chen. me and mandara was walkin in the west village and came across her shop "spring garden". what caught my eye was her amazing knitted hats. if u've been over to staceyjoy's lately, then u've probably already checked out liza's site mysticbutterfly.com. i swear the pictures on her site doesn't do her hats justice. they are amazing. each hat is one of a kind. some have flowers and branches in them. others have stuffed insects, spiders, butterflies, ladybugs, etc. i was so happy to meet this wonderful lady. i went to redlipstick and met staceyjoy, liz, and some other bloggers. they were all so nice. and the entries were inspirational. i will definitely enter sumthin next year. i went to knitting hands and bought some tahki magic and some patons bella. folks were diggin my hats. mandara wore something of mine everyday. a lot of business cards were passed out. i experienced my first photo shoot. i really do like being "behind the scenes". lol. mandara's friend is an amazing photographer (garfield hall is his name) and he had this spur of the moment idea to photograph my stuff. in my mind i thought it would b some simple picture taking out in the park. but, um no. mandara had "costume" changes and make-up planned. then instead of being out in the park, he took pictures inside the artsy apartment we lived in. it was cool. i found myself being very quiet and interested in the whole process. garfield was very sweet and explained each step to me. i've always wanted to get into photography, now i'm a step closer. *smile*. hmmm, what else? we went to urban outfitters and i must say that even tho the stuff in that store is hella cute, i was somewhat disturbed. it's like their merchandise has that "hand-crafted/homemade" feel when it really isn't. i felt i could've made everything in that store. i saw crocheted and knitted hats/scarves/belts, quilts, and curtains. i think i wanna do quilting next. embroidery too. i wanna make some curtains too. my apt. needs revamping badly. i made this really cute crocheted earflap hat w/ the patons bella. it turned out to b very thick and somewhat heavy. the stitches were well defined and it fit mandara perfectly. i'm currently into making those extra long scarves that r so popular @ the moment. i'm making more hats like the yellow one down below, and i'm making hats w/ flowers on them. i thought it was funny that winter is almost here and i'm putting flowers on stuff. but eff it, i need a lil life/liveliness during this time. bright colors r my thing too. happy day.