so this is the new year

Oh hello. I'm back. I kind vacated this space for a bit as I often tend to do, and missed the boat on wishing you all the various happy fall and winter holidays. And now. Somehow we have already blown through the better part of January! I hope that you all had lovely holidays with those you hold dear. I know I did!

Well, at least I am in time to wish you a happy Lunar New Year! It's coming up in just a couple of weeks, along with a great event over in Chinatown, for those of you who are in the LA area.



I will be participating as a vendor for the LA Craft Experience market that is happening in conjunction with the Lunar New Year festival. So if you are in or around town, come by and say hello! There are a ton of events scheduled for the festival in addition to the craft market, so come down, hang out, and ring in the year of the rabbit! Hope to see you there!

library day

It was such a gorgeous day out yesterday, and I think today might be more of the same. This is the kind of weather that makes me feel lucky, as if I've won a pass to enjoy the sunlight and my city as I wander about over the weekend. And wander about we did! I had some research to do yesterday and decided to go about it old-school and visit the library with my cousin.

The Central Library downtown is probably among my top ten favorite spots in LA. Yesterday my research took me to the children's department, which is an especially lovely spot in the building--to reach it, you walk through this rotunda:

Gorgeous, right? Apologies for the mediocre image quality, I had actually remembered to bring my camera, but when I pulled it out it was just out of battery! Oops. This one was snapped on my phone.

I fell in love with this place one summer as an intern years ago, working in the photo collection that makes its home in the depths of the building in the history/genealogy department. The photo collection is just one of the library's many special collections, and I remember going through archives of glass negatives from long-defunct local papers, sorting photographs--there were so many files! Rooms full of them.

The library building itself is so lovely, with its garden and unique architecture (there are more floors underground than above).

While interning here, my boss's love for downtown and the library were infectious, and my time with her and at the library instilled in me a deep sense of appreciation for all the history and culture--and food!--that was surrounding us. Come to think of it, that summer is probably also when I first fell hard for downtown in general. She made it a point to show me many of the area's historical gems, and I recall so many lovely long lunches, walking several blocks at a time for some great Chinese food, historical Clifton's Cafeteria, or for gorditas at Grand Central Market. Those were good.

Imagine my delight, then, when as my cousin and I were walking out of the library yesterday, we run into said former boss walking in! It was even more of an odd coincidence, as she had retired recently and is no longer working there. She just happened to be arriving for an event that afternoon. It was so great to bump into her and catch up. What a perfect way to end a library field trip!

Renegade Los Angeles

Apologies for the absence! I seem to have gone through another phase of forgetting about this little online space that I have. It may be a bit akin to how bad I am at keeping my plants alive and watered. Proper maintenance is a bit of a challenge for me sometimes!

So it has been a lovely summer so far, including a great Renegade show here in LA a couple weeks ago. It was at a much better venue this year, and so much more fun! I loved being on the grass and outdoors. A huge thank you to all who came out!



See that garland up there? It wasn't so difficult to make, but it did take some time and a bit of craftiness.. I then almost gave up on it when it responded to being finished by promptly falling off my workspace and into a tangled heap onto the floor--the night before the fair, of course! Let's just say that sewing thread is quite difficult to untangle. I'm glad I worked through it though, because I think it added the perfect touch to my booth and I just loved how the breeze made the circles twirl. Fun!

I loved meeting my booth neighbors, and everyone that came by my booth was so friendly. I bought a couple of jewelry pieces as well, and a birthday gift for my brother. All in all, it was an exhausting but fantastic and inspiring weekend.

breathing room

It's been almost a week since I got back from Austin, and I just unpacked my craft fair suitcase yesterday! And by unpacked, I simply mean that I emptied the suitcase and put it away. All the stuff that was inside it is now just sitting on my coffee table, in need of being sorted and organized in preparation for Renegade LA!

I had a great time in Austin as usual, and was only able to pull it off with the help of a dear friend who pretty much gave up her weekend (and her air mattress!) to put me up, help me out and hang with me at the fair. Thanks, friend!!

It's always great to see people's feedback to my work, and I learn a lot from each fair that I do. It gets a bit easier each time, I think. Plus I love the idea that I am spreading my cards out into the world, and with that, encouraging people to write more handwritten notes!


My cards are something of a hobby that I do in my spare time, not my livelihood, so I have great admiration for fellow artists and vendors who create and sell their creations for a living! I enjoyed walking around and was proud of myself for behaving pretty well, keeping my spending to a single necklace purchase from Olaria Studio.


After several weekends of craft fair prep, today was a nice breather of a Saturday, with simply gorgeous weather to boot. A couple friends and I walked over to a lovely brunch, and though the service was a bit spotty, the coffee and food were dee-licious.

Later on in the afternoon I went for a field trip to Griffith Observatory as part of a friend's birthday celebration, and the sights (of the city below) and sounds (of all the visitors) just emphasized the lovely spring weather for me.


I greatly appreciated the fresh air I got today. I so needed it.
I hope you're enjoying some this weekend, too, wherever you may be!

fresh air helps.

This past week or two, I seem to have lost much of my card-making momentum.
Sometimes, it is so easy to just allow life to take over and suck me dry of any motivation to create. Sometimes, it takes an art-filled afternoon field trip and the company of a great friend to turn things around. The gorgeous, slightly breezy weather also helped!


This also means that I did absolutely nothing on the card-making front yesterday- and on a prime Saturday, just weeks away from Renegade Austin! I'm glad I went, though--the Brewery art walk did wonders for my eyes and spirit. I always find it very inspiring to see artists' work in the context of their live/work spaces and make the connection between their art and a slice of their personal world. There is such a variety of art and people here, it must be amazing to live in the complex.

I'd been to the Brewery once before, but it was a few years ago and I think it was a much shorter visit. It wasn't until yesterday that I realized how large the place is. Huge! Our feet were tired before we could get through all of it, but we both felt like we saw a good amount(read: lots and lots).

As interesting as some of these studios were to walk through, I generally refrained from photographing the interiors, other than a few shots of a performance and some signage. I suppose that in a way I feel like it'd be invading. Even if they are made open to the public a couple weekends a year, many of these are private spaces. I wouldn't really want random strangers photographing my space, you know?

I leave you with this image from one of the studio entrances (Ahem--mother, if you are reading this, please do not scroll down!). Today will surely be filled with drawing and ink and watercolors. I must put some ideas down on paper before they fade away! There is no more time for screwing around.

sunshine.

Oops, guess I haven't stopped by here in a while.
Just enjoying the last bits of summer.
Hope y'all are too!


Hope your day is as delicious as this pizza was!

another peek

Using my day off to work madly on some more cards for the show. These are actually an older design that I re-worked a bit--one of my personal favorites.




Then I took a break, and went with a friend for some free and lovely jazz outdoors at LACMA. There were so many people there, and it was such a lively atmosphere. Loved it.

We also checked out Your Bright Future, currently up at BCAM. I may be partially biased due to my roots, or perhaps my roots help me to relate to some of the work better. Either way, I thought it was a great exhibit! Do Ho Suh is one of the 12 Korean artists featured in the show--I first encountered his work at the Venice Biennale back in 2001, and he's been one of my favorite contemporary artists ever since. Below is a snapshot of one of his pieces that I took before the guard stopped me, oops.

springtime loveliness

Just wanted to share a bit of springtime with you. Such a lovely Saturday afternoon! I hope that this weekend you are able to go outside and enjoy some of it too!

air quality

Okay, so the above photo is another shot taken from my Argentina trip, but the blueness and clarity of sky so perfectly captures how I felt while driving through L.A. this afternoon.

There's something about the post-storm skies that is so clean and refreshing. It's like the air has been temporarily scrubbed clean above town. I just spent some time hanging out with a good friend in Little Tokyo and was heading back home--and was really just loving my city during my drive back, as I thought about the diversity of food, people, cultures that all mesh together here.

I did put up a couple more cards in the shop for Valentine's Day. They're not new designs, but I really did like them from last year. I should have some more food love favorites up tomorrow, too!

dark and stormy

Quite the rainy weekend this has turned out to be! Last night, some friends and I went to see a great line-up at the Improv in Hollywood, and followed that with some dessert at House of Pies. Laughter and homey desserts turned out to be a great way to beat the storminess outside. Until, of course, I came home to a blackout!

But today is a new day, the electricity is back on, and I am eating breakfast for lunch again--for the second day in a row! And I am actually loving the much-needed rain! It's nice sometimes just to make oneself cozy at home and curl up with the Sunday paper and a hot cup of tea.

Oh, and a small shop update! There is a new Valentine's Day greeting, be sure to check it out!

beautiful inspiration

This afternoon a friend and I went over to the Grand Avenue Festival downtown. Block off streets, offer delicious food for a few bucks, perform live music, and I'm there! It was quite the afternoon, the highlight of which you see above: we got free(!) tickets to a concert by the LA Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The hall itself is beautiful, and I had never been inside it until today. By an amazing stroke of luck, our tickets (which had reserved sections) were for the small section behind the orchestra. It was such an experience to sit as if you're looking over the orchestra's shoulders, and a great new perspective to see the conductor at work. And the music!--they performed works by Sibelius, and it was just beautiful.

Of course we ate to our heart's content, and wandered around the concert hall gardens. The afternoon also included a quick visit to the Cathedral where we heard an organ demonstration. The whole outing was made all the better by having gotten downtown via the Metro subway. It was my first time on LA's subway, and aside from a technical glitch on the ride home, I definitely loved the easy access of the subway. The lines should definitely be expanded to cover a greater portion of our city.