Jen Bowles Design

NYC in a day: Christmas Edition, Part 2

We pick up the story of our NYC adventure just as we're leaving Central Park and heading to The World's Most Crowded Greatest Toy Store. As if the wall-to-wall people all day weren't enough of an indication, having to wait in line to go into FAO Schwarz was a sure sign that it's Christmas in NYC.  At least the line moved quickly.  Our first stop once inside was another line...for:  the Big Piano.

Aren't these girls too cute?

Oops, I mean these girls!

Ebby was disappointed to find that the $25k Barbie foos ball table was gone, so the girls had to make new friends...

When we hit the streets again after FAO, it was dark and Ebby was beginning to realize that her friend's boots, while cute, make not have been the best selection for footwear for a day a walking in NYC.  No matter, we persevered onto Dylan's Candy Bar.

So many mouth-watering treats...

This display from the rainbow bulk candy wall was my favorite:

Purchases were made by all here, including me who got something for Ebby's stocking ~ right under her nose.  So sneaky!

A stop across the street at Bloomingdale's meant a quick cruise through Magnolia (to check the scenery, no cupcakes this time) for me...

Meanwhile the girls went to find somewhere to sit down for 10 minutes.  #seriously.

Re-energized, it was time to head back downtown--on foot.  Love how the city transforms at night...and I love that woman's leopard print coat.  So New York.

Our final desitination of the day:  Times Square.

 

Our first stop in Times Square was Jamba Juice.  What can I say, we were thirsty.  Out in the heart of Times Square, it was people aplenty. 

For the record, I cannot imagine being here for New Year's Eve.  Actually, I can imagine it and it involves an astronaut diaper, aching feet & neck, and general sensory overload.  We looked up, we saw the Centennial ball for this year.  I'm good.  I'll watch the rest from my couch.

Times Square is an experience for sure.

The girls shopped (and sat) at Forever 21

Saw the ferris wheel at Toys R Us

And took in the, um, unique atmosphere...Kids, stay in school and don't become this guy:

Finally, around 7:30, we emerged and made the final 6 block push back to 34th St. to the bus stop.  It seems however that the crowd and the giant strawberry-banana-orange Jamba Juice did not agree with Ebby.  We had to make a pit stop at Duane Reade for Pepto Bismol tablets, gum, and water.  For a few minutes it looked like Ebby might hurl right there on the streets on Manhattan.  Luckily, a.  I brought a doggie (poop) bag to use as a puke bag on the bus, just in case and b.  she didn't hurl after all.  By a little after 8pm we were gathered at the Bolt Bus stop next to the Tick Tock Diner awaiting our chariot home.

It was a fun-filled whirlwind of a day for sure.  It's always fun seeing NYC dressed up for the holidays.  On our next trip though we might skip Midtown altogether.  Chelsea, SoHo, TriBeCa, and the East Village are calling my name.  I'm going to see what I can do about answering come Spring!

Thanks for stopping by...

 

 

NYC in a day: Christmas Edition, Part 1

A December Saturday in NYC with 3 teenage girls?  When you've got a persuasive daughter, an affinity for the Big Apple, and round trip bus tickets from Boston for only $32, the answer is yes.

Here's a quick peek at our timeline:

• Leave the house at 6:15am
• Leave South Station, Boston on the 7:30am Bolt Bus
• Arrive NYC (34th & 8th, near Macy's) at 11:10 ~ 35 minutes ahead of schedule!
• Walk the streets of Midtown Manhattan: 11:15am to 8pm
• Leave NYC on the 8:30pm Bolt Bus
• Arrive South Station at 12:45am (exactly on schedule, with a rest stop)
• Arrive home at 1:30am

With a loosely planned agenda, we were able to cover a lot of ground in not a lot of time.  Our stops...

1D World near Madison Square Garden

Pretty much a supersized concert souvenir stand selling all things One Direction.  The girls are big fans so it was a must see.  They added their grafitti to the walls but didn't make any purchases.

Macy's

The line for Santa was way too long but Mrs. Claus was just hanging out by some better sportswear.

We looked, but didn't touch, the dresses in the Bridal Salon.

 Ebby had done some research online and picked our lunch spot: LT Burger at Bryant Park.  On the way we checked out the ice skaters and the carousel. 

We got off to a rough start with the service at LT Burger (waitress mix-up meant it took 15 minutes for someone to take our order), but the food was delicious.  We all had The Standard burger, fries and a shake.  $22 per person with the tip, btw.

After lunch we walked by the lions in front of the NY Public Library and up 5th Avenue to Rockefeller Center. 

Last year when I came with Ebby it was too early for the tree to be fully decorated so this was her first time seeing it.  All the girls were pretty impressed.  I think.

 

Next up was my one requested stop for the day:  Anthropologie at Rockefeller Center.  I admired the windows and was duly impressed with the creativity and detail but they weren't my favorite.

Maybe it's because I'm jaded spoiled by the real Winter Wonderland animals we have in our backyard...

I found the interior displays to be more to my liking...

I thought this book page chevron wall was very clever:

 Inside of Anthro I did see what turned out to be my favorite display of the day ~ something so cool it deserves a separate post. Hint:  book wall...

 Onward up 5th Avenue we admired more windows and storefronts and general festive atmosphere.

 

I gazed longingly at Henri Bendel as we walked past.  I did take in the windows at Bergdorf, but again, I liked them but didn't love them--though I'm sure my boys woudld've loved the dog circus themed window!

Our next stop was the Plaza Hotel.  The girls were particularlyenchanted by the sight of Afternoon Tea at the Palm Court.  At $50-$60 per person that wasn't happening (this time), but we kept it classy by posing by the lobby Christmas tree instead.

Luckily you can get less expensive fare in the basement concourse level of the Plaza at the Plaza Food Hall.  It was my first visit here and except for the shortage of women's restrooms, it was a thumbs up.  We wandered around to get the lay of the land and ended up at the Billy's Bakery outpost. 

I've read good things about their cupcakes so when presented with the opportunity to sample, how could I resist??  For whatever reason, I overthought my flavor selection.  I should've gone with something classic like Vanilla or Red Velvet, instead I got Banana Nutella.  Don't get me wrong, it was good, but too banana bread-y for my taste.  Oh well, I'll try again next time.  Such a burden!

On the way to find a seat, this sign caught my eye at Three Tarts. 

They had a variety of flavored handcrafted marshmallows.  Making marshmallows has been on my list for years, but it has yet to happen.  For $1, I figured I'd see what the fuss was about.  I chose a raspberry marshmallow.  It was light & airy, with good raspberry taste.  It would've made a yummy s'more...

Before it got dark, we finished up at the Plaza and headed across the street to Central Park for photos and a brief bit of exploration.  Ah, nature!

After our stop in Central Park, it was around 4pm-- a little more than halfway through our day in the city!  This seems like a good spot to take a break the retelling of  our adventure.  Stop by tomorrow for Part 2 which includes hotspots such as FAO Schwartz and Times Square!

Thanks for stopping by,

MOM Vintage banner

Ah, happy, sunny Monday!

I've been hard at work with my online blog design class and as such haven't been doing much in the way of creating any new content.  One step at a time! 

In the meantime, these photos of the banner I made my mom for Mother's Day  a few years ago seemed appropriate.

Here are a few close ups...

Mother's Day 2012 is less than a week away, I guess I should get started on this year's gift!

Thanks for stopping by,

It's May!

And that means...
I'm excited for the month of May for so many reasons.  Among them...

• Yard & garden projects!  Everything is so green right now.  And manageable and full of promise.  I've been weeding, moving shrubs, planting new plants and even started on my first wine bottle garden border--a bit of a challenge as we are a "dry" household.  Luckily we know lots of lushes ;-)
• More trips to the beach!
• Blog & etsy shop refreshment!  I'm taking an online class on Typepad blog design offered by Elise Blaha--Blog 2.0.  Over the years I've figured out just enough coding and graphic design to make me dangerous but far from proficient.  I'm so looking forward to learning how to make my blog look online the way it does in my head.  While I'm at it, I'm rethinking my whole blog/work/shop strategy.  Look for some big, good changes--hopefully sooner rather than later!

Hoping your May Day is a basket full of wonderful!

Thanks for stopping by,

{May Basket pictured above made by me for Ebby...in 2007}

St. Patrick's Day sign

It was a wonderfully warm and sunny day here in coastal Massachusetts--which means Spring Fever is on!  Before I go full-on Spring and Easter decorating though, I have one more St. Patrick's Day project to share ☺.

Fittingly, this St. Patrick's Day sign is "green", as in eco-friendly. For the base of the sign I used an old game box, Scrabble I think.  I had to cut three pieces because the box alone wasn't long enough and we were all out of extra large pizza boxes in the recycling bin.  I taped everything together and then glued on old book pages.  After the glue dried, I painted a wash of spring green paint to the book pages.

The lettering was originally going to be glittery but I didn't have the patience.  Instead I used a combination of green paint and green Sharpie. 

I wanted to do something a little bit different than shamrocks, thus the rainbow.

You can't have a rainbow without a pot of gold, right?  I outlined the coins with a gold glitter pen to help them stand out.

And there you have it, a green, eco-friendly decoration for St. Patrick's Day! 

Thanks for stopping by,

St. Patrick's Day Door Decoration

When I took down my Valentine's door decoration the other day all of a sudden my apple green door looked awfully bare.

Green door, St. Patrick's Day approaching?  How could I not put something up??

I didn't have anything in my holiday decorating inventory so I decided to make something.  I was thinking some kind of wreath but my materials instead led me to a door canvas.

Inspired by Lisa Kaus' new gift collection, particularly this banner, I got to work.

Here's what I came up with:

Materials:  18x24 studio canvas, canvas paper, book pages, watercolor paper, ball fringe, acrylic paints, gouache, gel medium, charcoal pencil

Some highlights of how I did it:

• painted the background of the canvas
• used gouache to paint book pages, cut out heart shapes
• attach everything to canvas with gel medium
• cut out bottom banner shape from canvas paper
• paint stripes with acrylic paints
• add trim (ball fringe, ribbon on sides to cover up staples)

I thought about adding '17' somewhere on the bottom right but decided against it.  After everything dried overnight tonight I hung it on our front door this morning.

After all, everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day ☺.

Linking up to these fun parties:

 

Hello and...

Happy Valentine's Day ♥

Handmade Valentine Projects: Day 14, Love Monster

Hard to believe, but today is the final day of my '14 Days of Handmade Valentine Projects' series!  Thanks so much for checking in, hope you're enjoying the projects and gleaning some inspiration as well!

One of my kids' favorite sayings is 'Save the best for last'.  While I'm not sure this is my best project, it is the softest, cuddliest and maybe the cutest~a Valentine Love Monster ♥.

And yes, there was plenty of Pin-spiration for this project including these adorable softies:

Source: etsy.com via Jen on Pinterest

Source: emmallamb.blogspot.com via Jen on Pinterest

 

It took me about an hour to put together, using my usual hand-cut, no pattern, learn as you go method.  I had all the fabrics on hand including the pink chenille, the super soft dotted pink minky, and the assorted pink and red fabric scraps.

I meant to stuff the ears but when I turned things inside out I realized I had sewn a seam right along the opening.  Oh well, at least they are right side out and in the right place!  They stick up on their own anyway...

I also used several different attachment methods including fast grab glue, hot glue, straight and zig zag machine stiching along with hand stitching.

I must say, he's awfully endearing, sitting around on the hot pink pom-pom throw, looking all sweet.  He might just need some friends...

Thanks for stopping by and do let me know if you have any questions about any of the projects!

 

 

Handmade Valentine Projects: Day 13, Valentine Angel

Eek, we're almost there--day 13 of 14!

I considered making several different projects for today (mobile, cards, pendant or bracelet) but in the end I decided to make a sweet Valentine angel.

My inspiration came from a trio of angels my mom gave me several years ago when Sarah Lugg had a licensed line of home decor items. 
I love her work. 

For my angel, I started with a cardboard cone from my stash.  I started to draw a face but it didn't look quite right so I turned to my collection of vintage children's books.  Jackpot!  This lovely face was perfect.  It was a black and white illustration, I added color with pencils and glitter glue.  Her halo is thin gauge wire.

Her wings were handcut from scrapbook paper.  The heart she's holding is wooden (painted) with book text.

Along the bottom I painted a row of scallops and outlined them with charcoal pencil.

I find her to be simple, sweet and quite endearing ☺.

Thanks for stopping by,

Handmade Valentine Projects: Day 12, Valentine Word Art

Today's project just kind of happened.  There were a few different ideas spinning around in my head:  the uber popular subway art, Valentine's Day themed song lyrics and using the new, tiny tipped brush I bought for $1 at AC Moore to paint cursive words.  Add that to a scrap piece of plywood and some acrylic paints and this is what you get:

The lyrics are excerpted from The Beatles 'All You Need Is Love'.  I sort of painted them by the seat of my pants, without a lot of thought to spacing or exactly which lines of the song I wanted to highlight.  I started from the beginning and pretty much painted what fit (with at least one word omission) until it became clear that not all I wanted to paint would fit--so I skipped a few lines of the song and finished up with 'all you need is love, love is all you need'.

I'm looking at it as an experimental piece.  It could probably benefit from a darker background color to give more contrast with the writing.  Maybe some sort of mixed media heart in the center instead of just a painted one.  But I do love how the script turned out.  I freehanded all of it, and it took a while to complete but I just sat at the table while the kids did their homework so it didn't feel like a big deal.  I got more comfortable as I went along and by the end was hitting my stride.

Maybe I'll paint another one with a Springtime theme...and a bit more pre-planning☺.
Thanks for stopping by,