Weekend visit to Maryland.

This past weekend Sal &I went to visit one of my adopted Timmies in his new home in Baltimore. Timmie's adoptive parent Anthony was our excellent guide for these 2 days. Timmie wanted to drive us around but unfortunately he has no feet, plus I'm not sure if crochet tadpoles can get licenses in the state of Maryland. I will have to do some research on that.

Here are some pics from our trip:

I love the illustration! The Seagulls in this area must be super-pissed about this sign.


Timmie in front of Phillips restaurant. We shared some Chesapeake Bay Crabcakes. Very yummy! Thanks to Anthony's family for taking us there!


Timmie by the Annapolis harbor


Timmie taking a rest from touring.


On Sunday- waiting for his chocolate chip pancakes at the Double T Diner in Baltimore.


Anthony wrangling some mozzarella cheese off his pesto omelette. How insane looking is that cheese?! It must be very,very healthy for you.


Timmie in Oriole Park at Camden Yards (best looking stadium I've ever been in!) watching an Orioles Vs. Yankees game. (The Yankees won) It appears that Timmie is experiencing some vertigo in this photo.

Many thanks to Timmie and Anthony for taking us around! I had a great time!

.

m patrizio.

Dear Japanese stationery,

You are so charming.

Love,
M. P.

birdhouse sticker in action

birdhouse sticker in action, originally uploaded by m patrizio.

available here

Oh, Sugar Sugar.

This is a page from the back of my sketchbbook.

Materials: Stolen sugar packets, glue, fabric,ink and eyelets.

M.P. Fun Fact: I stopped adding sugar in my coffee.

and here is where the title came from:

OK, I'm ready for Autumn.

I'm ready for Autumn, originally uploaded by m patrizio.

The coldish weather yesterday made me think about how much I love the Fall! I feel so optimistic at the end of the Summer. I think September is my favorite month of the year! I feel like the air smells fresher and is full with hope. I signed up for a silkscreening class (for November), which I am so eager to begin! Oh, and I bought these tweed shoesies (above) in Hoboken this past weekend, which I think will go great with all my jeans.

weather report from my window:

weather report from my window, originally uploaded by m patrizio.

Smiling Rain Shower, winds from NE at 20 mph
gusting to 29 mph. Leave your house only if necessary- to purchase emergency items such as chocolate,caffeine and general carbs.

M. Patrizio/ So Softies

, originally uploaded by m patrizio.

I now have some of my work available at Magpie in Somerville,MA and at Art Star in Philly,PA.

my latest wall art...

my latest wall art..., originally uploaded by m patrizio.

squid stamps in the shape of "Yay" on an envelope by wadiefong.

This makes me giggle. Very creative.

As per request:

As per request:, originally uploaded by m patrizio.

I have some shirts in womens 2XL, Mens XL and 2XL.
Available HERE.

Now this is what I call ART!

Giant Rubber duckie by Florentijn Hofman! Link + Photos via Wooster Collective

Yay! A curtain

Yay! A curtain, originally uploaded by m patrizio.

I got a chance to use my Shinzi Katoh trim that I had been hoarding away!

It's a better day.

These cuties arrived in my mailbox.

Purchased from Occupied Shoppe + Ebay.

*Special Feature* Timmie goes to Italy and Greece!

This adventure was brought to you by Timmie adoptive parent - Anthony Cipriano!

A. "Timmie reading a great book by the great Bruce Campbell at the airport in Munich...waiting for the plane to take him to Italy and Greece!"

B. Timmie has arrived in Italy and is enjoying a Fanta in Pompeii!

Anthony promises to send over more exciting pics of Timmie's adventure, so stay tuned!

Tip of the Day

Don't buy expensive electronics over the internet. You think I would have learned my lesson after the Scooba fiasco, but No,I didn't. I ordered a lcd monitor off Amazon via another merchant. I stupidly signed for the box without throughly examining it for damage. When I opened the box it was as if the Fed-ex delivery dude had been just using my package in a tag team wrestling match. All the Styrofoam holding in the screen was destroyed into bits and when I pulled out the screen it had two deep scrape marks. :(

Hopefully they will take it back without a hassle.

.

An admittedly very well done copy of my crocodile design found on Etsy.

schoolboys are tasty

schoolboys are tasty, originally uploaded by m patrizio.

Le Petit Ecolier chocolate covered biscuits. Breakfast is served. yumm

YAY! Old but new to me!

This video from Boston Bazaar Bizarre 2006 which has a clip with So Softies !!! Don't blink or you will miss my stuff :P For real, no blinkin'.

you are cordially invited:

.

If you live in the NYC area come check it out, it should be a pretty decent show.

Aluminum (Water) Bottles

I love the polka dots + strawberries! by Cram Cream. Photo from Ebay.

SIGG SWISS SCREEN

love this :)

, originally uploaded by m patrizio.

Surprise gift from Wadiefong!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to Wadiefong for her uber,uber generous gift! I believe I am currently set for life with kawaii! Wadie sent me all these amazing goodies as a congrats for birthing my 100+ Timmies.

I would like to take this moment to sincerely thank all of my Timmie adoptive parents!!! Seeing my little mutant tadpoles in loving homes around the world makes me very happy.

Timmies chillin' in California!

California Sun!, originally uploaded by wadiefong.

I just looove this pic by wadiefong of her Timmies taking in the California sun! I wish I was there relaxing with them right now! I hope they have their crochet tadpole custom-formulated sunscreen on :D

Stuck on you.

Super sweet sticky notes from Sukie + Chronicle Books. Very inspiring!

That's.Just. Great.

I would like to introduce you to the latest in crafty girl fashion accessories- the yucky flesh colored wrist brace! Ever since the turbo-crocheting for Renegade my wrists have been killing me :( . Anyone else having wrist problems?? Let's commiserate.

take

reminder bowl made out of felt and glue. This bowl has successfully reminded me to take my vitamins (almost) every day.

Originally I was trying to make a hat for one of my softies. BTW, does anyone happen to know a good tutorial for sewing mini hats? When I say "good" I mean simple enough for a untrained monkey to be able to do it.

Droolability

Can someone tell this bag from Bungalow 360 to stop saying "buy me!","buy me!"? Thanks a bunch. This pattern makes my heart go pitter patter.

Touring Locally

Little house in Lancaster County. I don't know what these are used for. Maybe storage or an outhouse?

Field in Bird-in-Hand, PA

Amish Buggy Ride


At the restaurant Red

View of Brooklyn from Manhattan.

Sal & I spent the last few days acting like tourists around New York and Pennsylvania.

On Thursday we hit the road looking for some action in Long Island. We didn't find much "action", but we got a chance to taste some L.I. Pizza at The Pie at Salvatore's in Bay Shore. Very good looking restaurant and the pizza wasn't that bad. (Brooklyn's pizza #1) from there we visited Robert Moses State Park, which was relaxing. On the way back home we found a Trader Joe's which was great because we've only been to the one in Manhattan which is usually filled with a mile long checkout line so we always end up running out of there empty handed.

On Friday we had our eyes set on Pennsylvania Dutch Country. When we arrived we were greeted with scorching heat and fake handmade primitive products. I had my heart set on finding something handmade from a local woodworker but all we came across were shops with primitive-style items. I picked up a set of vintage-looking spools and I knew when I saw the "Made in China" sticker on the bottom it was time to get the F outta there. Actually before we high-tailed out of there we stopped off for some more fakeness. We took a Amish Buggy Ride (pictured above) which was such a disappointment because it was so obvious that they were just trying to take advantage of tourist money. It would have been more realistic if the "Amish" dude would have not taken out his CELLPHONE!!!!!! I mean, come on, I felt like Brooklyn was more handmade, natural, organic than that place! Sal insisted on purchasing A shoo-fly pie before we left even after I pointed out that some of the "natural" products had high fructose corn syrup in it. Isn't that bad for you?? I am sure if we had ventured more off the main road we would have found more authentic handicrafts and food items. Maybe. The only positive thing that I took away from the experience was during the buggy ride the passengers commented about how beautiful the land was and the Amish dude said, "The Lord created all of this, we just take care of it". Good job Lord, it really was beautiful.

Did you fall asleep yet from this long post? Well have some caffeine cause I'm only half way finished. Then we went to Philly from Lancaster County. We wanted to check out First Friday, a monthly event in which all the galleries stay open late and the streets are packed full of people. I was very happy to see people really into supporting their local artists. We should have this type of event in New York, it is a great idea. While in Philly we ate at Pizzicato on Market St. The pizza was appallingly bad for a gourmet pizza joint. Good thing we had ordered some entrees which were decent or we would have been crying.

On Saturday we did a little tourist action in NYC. We parked our car in Brooklyn Heights and then walked over the Brooklyn Bridge towards the South Street Seaport. It was a beautiful day out so it was nice to be by the water. After walking around a bit we searched around for an hour to find someplace that looked decent to have dinner. We decided to eat at Red. We had a pretty good meal minus the nail-polish remover tasting pomegranate frozen margarita I imbibed.

And if we didn't sound gluttonous enough... we took the train back to the car and headed back to Manhattan to check out the fancy schmancy ice cream place Grom. We had to wait on a gigantoid line of at least 60 people, which was pretty embarrassing. The passerbys felt free to shout out their opinions of how dumb we all were for waiting on such a big line for a scoop of $5 ice cream. Anyhoooo... I had pistachio, it was pretty good. :D Ok, that's it. Back to work for me.

sketchbook 7.07

sketchbook 7.07, originally uploaded by m patrizio.

Twine from Martha Stewart Crafts

How nice are these colors?! Her design team is fantastic! I love everything they make! Check out more HERE.

café au lait

café au lait, originally uploaded by m patrizio.

full capacity

full capacity, originally uploaded by m patrizio.

Unintentionally looking devastated. I'm not though. Don't worry about me and my overcrowded line. Not even for a second. I have more string and push pins. Everything will be okay.

I have a THING for STRING.

m patrizio.

bench pocket

bench pocket, originally uploaded by m patrizio.

inspired by Lotta Jansdotter's book Simple Sewing. This is the largest amount of fabric I've worked with. I had the dashed fabric, which happened to be designed by Lotta, draped over that bench for months. I finally decided to try to make something functional out of it. I am happy that I was able to use fabric that I already had lying around to make something useful. I think I will use it primarily for holding my mail. Sounds like a plan? yes. talking to myself again? yes.