New mugs

Some projects happens because i plan them in my mind for a while until they ripe and I go, get supplies, make the time to work on them and follow my plan step by step.

Some project happens because I found something inspiring or a cool new material or just cause my hands were bored.

I guess this was a combination of both, I had the idea of making a tea or coffee set with a bunch of cups and not just one or two and have them all with similar pattern but different colors. Somehow it looked like a too large project and I never got around to it.
Then a few days ago, I was in the salvation army store getting some cloths and idea for a shoot tomorrow, I found a set of 5 large mugs, each was 79 cents! I just couldn't leave them in the store. They very rarely have matching pieces, so I was happy to take advantage of those.

Then it was just about putting the time into it, so yesterday, in the first work days I had since I got sick I just set all day and made those. I really couldn't be happier with how they came out! secretly I hope that one person would decide to splurge and buy them all, I love how those look together.

Passing Time

This winter we've been spending so much time at home and having a pretty regular day routine, most if it would be within 2 or 4 blocks from the apartment and includes me and Ned spending a lot of time together and making a lot of art and stuff.

Yesterday we had a big meeting that require spending most of the day out, then today, we had to drop of a CD at a modeling agency, Ned went to therapy, and I went to buy my sister a birthday present, then we surprisingly met a friend and went out for lunch.
After that we rushed to the upper east side to pick up Ned's parent's car which we said we'll take to have the oil changed.

We dropped it of in some garage in Brooklyn that works till midnight and found ourselves having some really bad coffee and some really tasty doughnut at dunkin' doughnut, which is my favorite junk food. It felt like that was the first moment that day I got to sit down.

We set there for an hour, listening so some old guy bitching about Madonna, her husband, tattoo artists, celebrities, famous people who don't act nice, sports and how he can't smokes cigars in public anymore and just waiting.

I don't get to just pass time like that a lot. I don't like waiting, but after all this long day, it was actually nice to do nothing.

New coffee shop \ studio

Everyday when Ned go to the gym, I go out, sit in a coffee shop and do some drawings, sometimes it's stuff I later sell at the etsy store, sometimes it's stuff for the sketchbook. I listen to an audio book and focus really hard on drawing, usually, I don't even notice when Ned comes into the shop until he sits next to me or touch me.

In the summer, I usually went to the blackbird parlor, on Bedford street, which though pretty crowded, we eat at quite often, so I didn't feel so bad about hogging a table for 2 hours while only having one cup of coffee, but since it got colder and darker, I can't really sit there after 4:30 or so, it just get too dark and the place, though lovely with it's romantic lighting, isn't really practical for drawings and paintings.

So, I was out to find a new place around the neighborhood where I can work in. And while looking for one, I tried to comply a list of demands from a coffee \ studio space (surprisingly enough, good coffee isn't so far up the list).

1. Need to have good lighting!
2. Need to have more then 3 or 4 tables, or I feel too guilty about taking other paying costumers.
3. I don't like it when the tables are on the way to the counters so that any person passing by can look into my sketchbook - it's a little strange cause I like drawing in public places and I don't mind an occasional look or question - but when it happens all the time I feel too strange.
4. It's great if it's one of those places where other people sit with laptops or work, and then I don't feel so strange about sitting on my own.
   
5. This is a bit of a pet peeve but I'd rather not have to drink from paper cups.
6. Also, counter service is better for working environment then table service - I put all my socializing effort in the beginning and then I feel OK about not talking to anyone else for the rest of the time.
7. If possible - I don't like those huge American coffee mug and rather drink from a smaller cups - it's more a matter of aesthetic then anything else, but still...
8. and last - good coffee is always nice!

So today, giving a new spot a chance - the top 6 things on my list were fulfilled perfectly, I think I've found my new office, I might have to talk to the person in the counter to give me coffee in the cappuccino cups, but it was well lit, full of working people, and even had cool music and nice people, and I met an ex urban rustic waitress that I really like, so I didn't even feel like a stranger.

Also, it's really cool that the name of the place is El Beit - the home in Arabic.