ny gift fair and my favorite things

image courtesy of John Derian

Gift Fair

Robert and I attended the New York International Gift Fair yesterday at the Jacob Javits center. It's so much more corporate than the sweet Stationery Show, but interesting nonetheless.

I was very much in love with the booths by Swallow, Saturn Press, John Derian, Rupalee and those fine letterpress printers at Yee Haw. Equally of interest were the typography coasters by Heather Lins and the clever valet and ornaments by Jonathan Adler.

image courtesy of Swallow

image courtesy of Rupalee

image courtesy of Yee Haw Industries

These are the big leagues - the who's who. You name the company and they are represented - from Sferra to Marimekko to Umbra and back. I might stop by the Piers today with Robert again. It is fun being a buyer for the sweet printshop - we're excited about the possibilities.

My favorite things

*the sound of rain on a taut umbrella - the pitter patter sound is absolute heaven. My friend Samantha wrote to say that she was enjoying the rain back home in England. What a lovely sound.

*birthdays + gifts - it was my father's birthday and we got him great presents and had the best time partying at his home. also, my best friend Sandi's daughter turned 3 - woo hoo! and next week is my other best friend Aimee's birthday - she, her husband and our goddaughter stopped by the printshop to visit and choose their baby announcements...so much fun.

*being in love - my esposo is one of a kind and we can tackle anything together. for this I am unbelievably grateful.

will write again about the gift fair - ta ta!

Losing A Friend

This past Friday I lost a really good friend. I am not alone in this loss. There were so many people that my friend Barbara touched. She was so funny and cool and I never had a dull moment with her. One of the best things is realizing how many people she knew and affected.

If I ever needed to track something down for a styling job, Barbara knew it. If I had a question about a restaurant, Barbara had been there. We shared friends, a love of old school hip hop, margaritas and so so so much more.

The last time I saw her (last Tuesday), I brought my iPod with a playlist created for her. I plugged it into my Muji speaker and played her favorite song "Set It Off." She smiled and said "Let's get this party started, right?"

I love Barbara and I'm so grateful to have been her friend. She was lucky enough to make sure that she told everyone how she felt about them. In the past two years, I've been a bit more reserved with my feelings and love, but that's coming to an end. We are here on this beautiful Earth for a finite amount of time and I will continue to enjoy it all.

Things I will miss about my friend:
*Taking Uma to Fort Greene Park and calling Barb to see if she could come over - she lived across the street, so she'd peek her head out the window and 9 out of 10 times, she'd come out. Uma would be soooo happy.
*Calling Barbara to see if she'd heard of a new restaurant. Just last night I read a review about The General Greene and almost called her, (sigh).
*Watching tv shows with Barb when we had sleepovers
*Fresh fruit margaritas with Barbara and the girls at El Rey del Sol to celebrate summer
*Driving with her from Manhattan to Brooklyn - she was a navigational genius
*Bowling in Port Authority with the whole gang - we all had bowling aliases (Snackho, Cash Money...) . My favorite time was when we competed on that Dance Dance Revolution video game
*Recounting silly stories and chistes with her
*Silently sitting together and just enjoying each other's company
*We once worked on a Gourmet magazine shoot together and logistically it was a hot mess. Of course the shots were beautiful, but that doesn't tell the story. We were in Charleston and because we had so much to do, we almost never got to eat with the crew (hello, the story was for Gourmet, so they were gallivanting around the city eating at the best restaurants - we had dinner at Appleby's - yuck). Between one broken tooth (a fossilized Jordan almond found at the bottom of a styling kit), heat exhaustion ("Pull the car over!" "No, I'm fine" while retching out the window), my first driving experience (sans license in a mini van, picking up antiques) and a good taste of boiled peanuts, she'd always make fun of me for losing it on an airline representative over the phone. Geez, it was fun.

Enjoy your friends, don't shy away from the good experiences and never feel embarrassed about telling them that you love them!

Thanks Barbara Anne!

(photo courtesy Mr. Small)