Friday Musings

I'm still a Californian because the whole lightning/rain then absolutely sunny skies thing, within the space of a subway ride, still throws me off.

Amy at Greenjeans wrote a kick-ass essay about the history of craft that is essential reading.

There's a new comic book shop down near the store! It's called Brooklyn Monster Factory and I can't wait to go visit. I am still partial to Rocketship on Smith St. as it's nearer to my house but now that there are two near me, I am so happy.

I finally went to Cafe Regular and though I think we pissed off the barista by hauling a 4x6' piece of black foamcore into the teeny tiny shop (long story) I want to go back. Dreamy creamy cappucinos.

The camera is here today so expect to find new teapots for sale on the site very soon. I'm going to put Lena's poster up too to make sales easier.

ICFF/Stationery Show is this week/end so I'll have reports soon.

Muslin

As promised here are photos of the Lena Corwin muslin poster...you can see the speckles and color a bit better from the closeup shot. It is $15 without the hanger bars. I have a few sets of bars if you need them for $15. Please email info-at-raredevice.net if you want one!


Bit by bit we get more items on the site for sale. I am working on it all today and tomorrow. Just in - some new greeting cards by Little Otsu Publishing in San Francisco, the soft and layer-y LA Made tees and tanks, and a few bright printed tops from Talla, also in San Francisco. And teapots - the Beehouse pots are here and I will photograph them for the site this week. The iced tea pitcher is brilliant and has its own diffuser basket, and I have more of the celadon kyoto pots, which will actually make it to the Rare Picks sales page.

Stick to Coffee

For various reasons I have coffee on the brain lately. Things to do: find a good source of whole beans (our fantastic bag of Terroir found in Cambridge, MA is long gone), give Cafe Regular in the Slope a try, and buy a Save Our Steve shirt to raise money for a S.F. barista who had a very nasty fall from a window last month. No, nothing really happens without a T-shirt being printed about it :) but it's for a very good cause.

Now that Mother's Day is over I have been pondering the Father's Day/graduation gift thing and those new coffee presses I talked about earlier are involved. If anyone has other ideas of what they'd like to see let me know. I do not think gender when I buy for the shop but there are some very manly men in the neighborhood, evidently...

Mothers

Happy Mother's Day, we had a beautiful weekend and lots of happy shoppers at the store, who near cleaned me out of vases and teapots and jewelry. I'm home now and as an honorary mom (well, a dog-mom), got to decide what I wanted tonight to eat, so I am going to sit down to homemade carnitas soon. Yum!

Speaking of food, thanks everyone for restaurant suggestions, we are actually going to hit WD50 and have a very experimental dinner. I can't wait to try out all the other suggestions this summer...

This weekend was Brooklyn Designs, next weekend is ICFF and the Stationery Show, and then we're off to a wedding and it's Memorial Day and then it's June. Kind of amazing, really. I am eagerly awaiting some more easy breezy summer clothes to arrive, and Beehouse iced tea pitchers, and for the coffee lovers I am not neglecting you, there are bright ceramic coffee presses on the way, one good-sized press and a coffee-for-one size (with mug!) which is the ultimate luxury at work: make your own French press coffee.

Also - Lena brought some beautiful posters for her show to the party, they are in color and printed on delicate muslin. They are amazing and in a very limited quantity, I have a few left over if anyone is interested, they are $15 and yes I will take a picture.