Diana photos from around New York

Yep- I am still banning digital photography. At least as my main "fun" way of taking pictures while out and about the city.

It has been a while since I've posted any of my pictures made with my Diana Camera. So I thought I'd throw some up on here.

I stopped by the Lomo store today actually to pick up some more 120 film. We're heading to Boston tomorrow and I want to shoot while I'm there. More to come from that later.

In the mean time have a look at these...

Rider at Coney Island

Eastern State Penn in Philly

Freak Bar Sign Coney Island

Fun at Coney Island

More Fun at Coney

Eastern State Penn Philly

Waders at Washington Square Park

City Weeds

Elvira and her chompers

I've posted this one before, but I just love it!

Little Fishes Eat Big Fishes

Friday morning started bright and early just like any other day of the week.

Contrary to popular belief I do work on Fridays. Ok- so I'm working from home on art and jewelry- but I do earn a salary from both so therefore I am working. Fun working but still working.

Anyway, I started the day out by hitting up the gym for a little cardio workout to get my creative juices flowing.

Then it was a stop by the post office to ship off some ebay stuff.

Of course I noticed when I got up that I was clean out of drawing paper. So I had to huff it over to Dick Blick (25% off Coupon in hand) for some art supplies. Finally back to the house. TIme is a wasting.

I'm working on a commission piece that I landed when I went home to NC for the West End ArtFEST. A nice fellow wanted me to do a piece based off of Pieter Bruegel's Big Fish Eat Little Fish, 1557. Of course I am to add my own style and twist to the painting.

Read more insight here on the original

At first I was a bit concerned, as this piece is nothing like my normal work. Plus there is a whole lot going on here. I seem to normally paint a larger subject placed on a fairly simple background. But I am up for a challenge!

Also I am not much into politics and this piece is making a statement of how the strong ofter pray on the weak. I wasn't too sure if I could actually get into the piece. But I feel that I have now. Living here in NY the Wall Street protest is all over the news so I've added my take on that.

Here are my sketches of the piece. I plan on using muted shades of  blues and browns to give the piece a vintage look. I'm going to make myself not use a single stroke of pink, my favorite go to color.

Full painting

Once I get the go ahead from the intended  I'll get my brushes a going.

Also over the weekend I got the remainder of my ETSY store up and going. Whew! I added some ear bobs and my tattooed paper dolls. See side bar of this page.

A fall day at Coney Island

It's an 85º sunny October day in New York...

You know where I'm headed. Coney Island!

We had to walk up to the West 4th Street Station. The E wasn't running down at Spring Street. Surprise surprise.

I'm wishy washy when it comes to Graffiti. I think it is wrong, it defaces people's property. Not to mention most of it looks like crap these days. But being an artist I do like seeing really nice graffiti. I really can't say the last time that I saw any was however.

Upon my arrival at the station I was greeted by this lovely lady. She's quite hideous and it has ruined a wall that my tax dollar helped to purchase. But she made me smile anyway. She must have thought she was going to Coney too.

Now I can hardly call this next wall graffiti. It is more of a mural.  A lovely one too. It's been there a couple years and is holding up quite well. There are a few peeling areas but has remained untagged as far as I can see.

I love this! Around construction sites up here they always put up these electric blue walls. Out here at Coney they have decorated this one with another mural.

The artist is Ephameron

Marie Robert's is the resident banner painter for the Coney Island side show. I still dream of doing that job. I think my banners look quite nice as well.

Banners at the Coney Island Freak Bar

My Penguin Girl Banner

My Tiny the Tattooed Tot banner

The signs out here are works of art themselves. Here are a few examples.

This could have quite possibly been my last day to visit Ruby's out on the boardwalk. It was a fantastic day of noticing the artwork, enjoying the sunshine and watching a little dancing! Till next time!

13 Keys to Happiness

On the train to work this morning I was happy. Not for any particular reason. I was just simply happy. I also noticed how everyone around me looked miserable. Not that I was just sitting there smiling out loud or anything. But I found it hard to believe I looked as glum as most of these folks.

I pulled out my iphone and just made a quick list of things that make me happy that I could share with others.

1. Exercise. So hard you sweat and you breathe hard.

In high school I hated running. In fact it almost made me cry I despised it so much. I found it hard (I mean have you seen how short my legs are?) I found it quite embarrassing that I was so slow.

Now I run all the time and I've never had so much energy.

I say do something you enjoy but be sure it is actually giving you a work out. Walking may be good but unless you're really exerting yourself it hardly counts.

2. Don't smoke. 'Nuff said.

3. Go to the carnival and ride a ride. Even if all you can stomach are the hobby horses.

4. Swim in the ocean.

5. Fill your home with art. Whether it is your own, other artists' pieces or just photos you like out of magazines put into frames found in the Goodwill.

6. Get tattoos. Ok, well that might be a little drastic for some. But at the least have some friends with tattoos. They usually are fun to hang with and don't take themselves too seriously.

7. Go to the spa and get a facial. If you can't afford that, go buy yourself some Queen Helene and have one at home. Be sure to light a candle and play relaxing music. Follow up with some potions, serums or creams. Even if they don't seem to work you'll always have the hope that one day you'll wake up with a face that looks 10 years younger. Hope goes a long way!

8. Fill your body with good nutritious food. Then be sure to leave room every now and again to indulge in something you love that is ridiculously filled with calories and fat.

9. Be nice to others... Especially when they don't deserve it.

10. Unplug. Simple. Try it. It'll revive your brain. And this includes the TV.

11. When times are really tough take comfort in the fact that in say 100 years, give or take, you won't even be on this earth any more. But while you are here leave a legacy you'd be proud of.

12. Smile. Start slow. Start by smiling at puppies walking down the street or the feral cat in the bushes. Once you have this mastered move on to humans.

13. Become good at something, something other than complaining.

So what makes ME an expert at the secrets to happiness? Nothing really other than I'm happy. These are 13 of my keys. I'm sure you may have your own. Just be sure to use them on a daily basis, other wise they may lose their unlocking powers.
 

Tom Binn's style punk rock necklace

I have really gotten into this whole jewelry thing. As much as I enjoy my own designs I also have many other jewelry makers that I like and wear.

1. Tiffany & Co. is by far my favorite partly because of the name. But nothing excites me more than that little blue box.

2. Alexis Bittar is also a favorite of mine. For my anniversary I just got a lucite bangle and matching hoops.

Silvery white lucite

3. Tom Binns has been a favorite of mine for a while now. Most of his pieces are out of my price range. I do have one of his pieces he did for the Alice in Wonderland movie. I have the tea cup bracelet.

One thing he does a lot of is mixing safety pins with beautiful vintage looking stone pieces. Here are a few examples of his pieces that I like.

The other day while going through my jewelry I found an old rhinestone pieces that I hadn't worn in a while. So I figured I'd experiment.

I used black safety pins for mine along with bits and pieces of chain that I had for jewelry making that was too short to do anything else with.

Not too bad for my first piece. I have to say have been wearing it a lot. I like that it is fancy and punkish all at the same time.

Elvira is my super model of the day.

I have several more of these pieces I am going to make. My mom gave me some fabulous vintage brass pins and I have some pears to work with. I'll be posting more I am sure.

Lolita petticoat tutorial

Lolita petticoat tutorial
Wow! Your blog was really fun to check out. I really have a thing for petticoats.
Keep up the good work!

Recharging the batteries at Red Hook

Saturday morning time for fun! Well after the gym that is.

Last week's trip home, ArtFEST and jumping right back into work and working out left me feeling a bit drained. The RX? Rest? Nah... a day trip is in order.

A while back I took a hidden harbor boat tour around the New York Harbor and we went past Red Hook which is in Brooklyn. I loved the look of the old Civil War buildings and the decrepidness of it all. So it was on my mental list of places to visit.

IKEA offers a free boat shuttle over to Red Hook since that is where their huge home furnishing store is located. So we hopped aboard- thanks for the ride IKEA!

After checking out the signage to get our bearings we started our journey.

Which way to fun?

The first stop was checking out the buildings I had seen from the boat. Turns out they were pre-Civil War and housed supplies for the troops.

View of the pre-Civil War buildings

As we were walking we found the building housing THE BROOKLYN WATERFRONT ARTISTS COALITION. So we bopped in to check it out. There was a wide variety of work and the setting was awesome.

Next along the way we found some other art living wild out in the elements but quite spectacular.

I called this one "Garden Party"

Another intriguing mural

We walked along and snapped a few pics here and there.

Wild flowers grew every where in Red Hook

I never can resist photographing a fence full of these things

Parts of Red Hook reminded me of a worn out Savannah or Wilmington. It made me feel quite at home but I could imagine in the dead of winter it would be quite a dismal place.

We happened upon the Red Hook Bait and Tackle Bar. Arriving inside I was quite happily surprised! I have a thing for taxidermy and this place was filled with it.

Quite a lovely display atop the piano

What a wonderful life vest holder

They also had just a lovely display of Prize Ribbons. My latest kick.

Vintage Prize Ribbons

One of my Prize Ribbons

Luckily I had done a tad bit of research prior to our trip and had read about some Key Lime pie. Now this is my favorite dessert so we had to find this joint. Steve's Key Lime pies. Turns out they were quite yummy.

Yum yum

On our way back to the boat home we caught a glimpse of a strange black house with stuff hanging all over it. This warranted a tiny detour to check it out. As I took the photo I noticed a man either asleep or passed out in the garage area. Now he must surely be a character!

This house was covered in black paper

All in all it was a nice trip. I will be going back again when the weather is bright and sunny. For now my batteries have been recharged and I'm good to go!