new years in brooklyn

I spent New Years Eve and Day in Brooklyn again this year with my friend Tess and her family. Her friend has a tradition where you throw hot wax in a bowl of ice water and then how it freezes is supposed to tell you something about your future that year. This was mine:

Any thoughts on what it could mean....?

may day!

Today is May Day AND the first day of my "31 Projects in 31 Days" challenge. This was thought of by my lovely friend Tess as a tradition she usually keeps during the month of January. She uses it as a way to finally get around to all of those things that she's been meaning to do but hasn't quite gotten around to doing yet. Inspired (and supported) by her I've decided to take the challenge myself and both of us are dedicating May of 2010 to 31 Projects in 31 Days. I'm going to use it as an excuse to make all of the books that have been floating around in my head for who knows how long so that I can finally feel like I've accomplished something AND create some inventory for the many (?) craft fairs that Teresa and I will (hopefully) be selling at this summer. Phew! We'll see how it goes.

Additionally, we would like to invite YOU the reader (and devoted fan/friend/lover/former-lover/distant and not so distant relative/stalker/etc) to join with us in our quest! I'll be posting my projects here for you to see and in turn, if you email me {cassandra (dot) elton (at) gmail (dot) com} pictures of your projects, I'll post them as well! (Also feel free to just leave a comment on the blog as a way to avoid having to photograph your work which I know, for me at least, is the most daunting part of the whole thing.)

As a side note, I went to May Day at Dingo Dong Lounge today and was lucky enough to spend hours upon hours working the Purgatory Pie Press booth (and later stuck in the subway) with Esther's daughter Georgia. She is one of my new favorite people. I was a little worried about spending so long with someone I had never met before (or maybe met once when I first met Esther at the Books Art's workshop she taught but it could have been her other daughter I can't really remember...) but we got along splendidly and I'm so glad that I was able to rearrange my schedule so I could make it out there (thanks, Wendy!). I got some cool stuff, including some embroidered cards, a CD, a collection of short stories & poetry, and a whale painting, all of which completed me. Perhaps I will post pictures of the goods later, but, as aforementioned, photographing things is always stressful for me, so I make no promises. In closing, despite the heat, the loud music, and one crazy guy who we were afraid was going to spill his beer all over our table stocked with first edition, one-of-a-kind, signed copies of lovely books and book-like things, it was a wonderful day.

Happy May Day to all! And to all a good night.

the crafting revolution

Exciting news! Last week I made a series of accordian books for my class I'm taking at Cooper Union, and my teacher (Esther K. Smith of Purgatory Pie Press) said that she thought they were good enough to sell! She suggested a little independent bookstore called St Mark's Bookshop on the corner of Third Avenue between 8th and 9th Street on the east side of NYC, right by where my class is, that sells artist books.

I checked it out yesterday with my amazing friend Tess and sure enough, they took them! They only take 3 at a time, so I gave them 3 (even though I'd made enough so I had 11 with me, no big deal) and the guy said they could probably go for like $3 each. Hooray! I'm going to check back in after my class on Monday and see if any have sold. (Note: They are also now on sale at my etsy store for the same price.) If you're in the area of Greenwich Village I suggest checking out the bookshop—they had a small but pretty good selection of self-published zines and other artist books. I bought 2 small comic zines for Garrett face cuz he loves stuff like that. Maybe he and I could make some little comic books—he's a really clever illustrator—and we could sell them there too. There are just so many possibilities... Also! There was a zine there called Slice which reminded me of the lovely zine called The Slice that my good friends Stephanie, Megan, Jen, and Whitney made our freshman year of college. I still have all the issues on my computer. Maybe we'll have to bring it back and take the world by storm!

After the bookshop stop Tess and I went over to our friend Henry's art show, also at Cooper Union. Henry is our friend from pre-k. That's right, when we were like 4. Henry and I found each other on facebook our freshman year of college and now we are sort of friends again. He's super artistic and amazing and I love his beard. I gave him one of my books and he seemed genuinely excited to get it, which is really nice and flattering because he is an amazing artist and I just pretend. The art at the show was his and another chick's, and Tess really liked the other chick's stuff; she had two pieces with clouds that were pretty sweet. Tess really wanted to slip one into her purse before we left, but I persuaded her that that was bad form. Henry's stuff was great too, lots of work with textures and colors. My favorite of his was a painting of what looked like the view looking up through a canopy of trees, and then next to it a painting of that painting hanging on the wall. The shadow the canvas cast in the painting of the painting was exactly the same as the real painting on the real wall in real life. Very clever.

Later Tess and I headed over to her brownstone in Brooklyn where we talked crafting and made plans to go to some craft shows together this summer—that's right, we're gonna share a booth and sell Books & Bags—and I convinced Tess to get herself some free business cards so she could impress people with her professionalism and shtuff. We also talked about the importance of blogging so she could have pictures of her stuff online so people can see it if they're interested in buying, etc. All in all it was a super successful night! AND so fun! Tess is seriously one of my most favorite people. Hooray for friends, fun, and art. Also independent bookshops.

ALSO! I would be remiss if I did not at this time post a link to the blog of my good friends Ashley and Rob Lugo. Rob is a super talented ceramics guy (potter? sculptor? what would be the word for one who makes ceramics?) and Ashley is just all around creative and amazing. They recently opened up their own Etsy store and have some great stuff on there. Take a look! You might find something you never knew that you couldn't live without.

the magical number 23

So, on Monday I turned 23! Certain ages bring with them certain magical new abilities, like getting your license at 17 (in NJ), becoming a legal adult at 18, being able to legally buy and drink alcohol at 21, etc. With 23 comes the lovely event of being kicked off of my parent's insurance. Hooray for the privatization of health care! At the moment I'm flying uninsured, but soon enough I'll hopefully have my very own health care plan. (The contracts are in the mail or being processed, or something...)

Anyway, to celebrate my policylessness, today I threw myself a Do-It-Yourself birthday party! What does that mean exactly? It means people come over and we all make dinner and decorations together, then eat and enjoy them and each others' company. Afterwards we played picture telephone and flirted with the idea of playing our own version of Loaded Questions, but then people had to leave and we just sat and talked. It was really fun. I love all my friends,  it is true. Even those that couldn't make it because they were far away and thus not invited. You know.

Additionally, Matt wrote me an ode! For years and years I have been planting this idea in people's minds but people have just laughed at my heart-meant suggestion. But, happily, I can now say that at least one person has taken up my challenge and actually done it! The fabulous ode goes like this:

Cassandra, Cassandra, Queen of the day.

Invited us all to this delightful soiree.

With decorations and food, and lazy friends such as I

It must have been trying to put this together on the fly.

So if I, perchance, fail to honor her well

I can only expect her ire to swell.

So I speak these stanzas to celebrate her birth,

To stave off her anger, and fill the party with mirth.

Pretty cool, huh? Happy birthday to me!

new years in brooklyn

I spent New Years Eve in Brooklyn with the Nelsons, some of my favorite people ever. We ate delicious food (homemade tomato soup, bread, cheese, grapes, pie...the list goes on), played games, and basically partied. About ten minutes to midnight we all put on our coats and trooped up to the park for midnight fireworks. We made it right to the edge of the park when they started and proceeded to walk down the middle of the snow and ice covered road to the middle of the park while the fireworks continued to intermittently light up the path. Someone commented that it felt a little bit like it was the end of the world and all of us there walking in the park were the only survivors making our way toward the safe zone. And it did feel like that a little bit; the feelings of unity and triumph were in the air.

But the part I remember best was right as we were entering the park it struck midnight and we all pulled out little zip lock bags full of twelve grapes we'd packed at home and began to stuff them into our mouths. We finished, then began to chew them, almost choking on the juice as it ran down our throats, then waved our zip lock bags like flags triumphantly in the air as we walked in a line into the park.

Later we threw wax to tell the future for the next year. You melt down wax in a double boiler-type way, then take a ladle and pour it into a bowl full of ice water. The idea is that whatever shape the wax takes will in some way be connected to what will happen to you in the new year. I'm still not really sure what mine looks like. Any thoughts?

road trip day 1

First of all, last night my friends came over to say good bye and then they stayed to help me pack! I literally could not have done it without them. If Tess and Nate had not packed my car with their amazing Tetris-like skills I would most likely have ended up sitting in the middle of my living room floor in tears instead of on the road at 10 am—my entire life is in there and I honestly have no idea how it all fit. They very truly saved me. Plus Autumn stopped by and helped box (and re-box), Dave helped lift the carrier on top of the roof (then disappeared to find a motorcycle magazine to feed his obession) and Megan cleaned my room. True friends indeed.
This morning I said good bye to Megan. It was a tragic tale of granola and separation.
On our way down south we saw these windmills that I've seen at the base of the hills from campus and I never thought I would see in person. I love alternative energy.
Lots of bugs got stuck on the roofbag. Claire thought they looked delicious. They were not.
We are in Colorado and so are our feet! (Perhaps Aleisha's own feet once trod this very same trail...?)
I was coughing. Coughing out my voice.
...while Claire frolicked and tried to avoid the cacti. 

Today we drove through Utah, Colorado, and Kansas. We left Utah at 10 am and arrived in Hays, Kansas at 1:30 am Kansas time. Driving across the country is the best.

brooklyn!

On Saturday, June 13th at exactly 12:14 pm MST I received a text message that reads as follows:

From: Tess Nelson

Hey, are you in utah? Cuz i am.

I was so excited that I immediately texted her back to find out if she would be in Provo while she was here and finding out that she, her mom Janet, and her sister Emily would be in Provo that night I called them to invite them over for dinner and when they asked if one or all of them could also spend the night I said, "Of course! Yes! All of you!!!" in complete disregard of the fact that we don't really have enough sleeping facilities for everyone who would be staying; I knew that it would all work out and it did. While we have 3 couches in our living room (enough for the 3 visiting Nelsonians) one of them was presently being occupied by Stephanie who was visiting for the week from Nevada because it has been raining a ton there so they have to wait until next week to cut the alfalfa so it won't mold. Normal things. She, like I do, knows the Nelsons from when we all lived in Brooklyn when we were just jellybeans. (Janet told me that she and my mom have been friends now for 25 years. That is a quarter of a century for those of you who like fractions.) I called Stephanie to tell her the good news and her response was, "Cool." In Stephanie language this really means, "What?!? Awesome!!! I haven't seen the Nelsons in like 5 years and I just love them!!!" She was really almost as excited as I was.

I had been walking home from my friend Aleisha's apartment when I got the text so as soon as I got home Stephanie and I planned dinner (BBQ chicken with smashed potatoes, salad, fruit salad and chocolate zucchini cake for dessert), made a shopping list and went to the grocery store to purchase the necessary food items. All the while I kept turning to Stephanie with a big smile on my face and saying, "I am so excited!"

So, why was I so excited that three of my friends (four, if you count Stephanie) dropped by almost unannounced for food and shelter my last weekend in Provo, just days before finals when I had about a billion other things I should have been doing instead of entertaining them? Well, because I love them. I love everything about them. I love that every time I see Emily her hair is a different color (earning her the nickname "Hair" in high school) and that Tess always has a different purse that she has made herself that is awesome and that I can talk to Janet late into the night about anything and everything. And I love that they proved my linguistics professor right when he taught us that women speak slower than men but that women from New York speak faster than men from Texas (as illustrated when Nate White—from Texas—came over and occasionally interjected into our speedy after dinner banter) and that even though I haven't seen them in months we are so comfortable around each other that we pick up right where we left off and everything is the best.

Also, I love that we can illustrate AT&T's motto of "More bars in more places."