Where do all the hippies meet? SOUTH STREET! SOUTH STREET!

Spent the afternoon with my niece Janet visiting the Philadelphia Magic Gardens on South Street in South Philly. Took lots of pictures with my Lensbaby Composer lens (with Sweet 35 optic). Did some thrift store shopping on South Street, then had dinner at the Melrose Diner. Overall great day!

Photos can be seen here.

Mosaic artwork by Isaiah Zagar. Photo © Kathy Hand Spear 2012.

A Very Merry Crafty Weekend

Niece Janet invited me to the Art Star Craft Bazaar yesterday at Penn's Landing where a fine time was had by all. I splurged on the following purchases:

Juliet Ames (The Broken Plate Pendant Company) makes pendants, earrings, cufflinks, and other cool stuff out of -- you guessed it -- broken plates. Visit her web site or her Etsy shop.

Heidi Roland creates "daring earrings for women who dare" ... dare to wear photos on their ears, I guess. She creates earrings from her own original photos as well as from feathers, shells, metals, and other materials. The earrings show actually contain 4 sections of the same photo. (Sections 1 and 4 are on the back.) You can see more of her pieces at her Etsy shop.

iTunes is currently playing: I Feel Pretty from the album West Side Story- Original Broadway Cast by Carol Lawrence and Marilyn Cooper.

Is she really the best model ...

... to connect with women who need to lose a few pounds?

iTunes is currently playing: More Today Than Yesterday from the album More Today Than Yesterday by Spiral Starecase.

I love love love ...

... receiving packages from China. Chinese characters are so beautiful. They remind me of snowflakes.

Do you think that the characters circled in pink mean "United States"?

I also love Hello Kitty. And I love the bag I got from Hannah in China. Very reasonable. Very well made. Perfect handbag for traveling.

iTunes is currently playing: Visions Of China from the album Live in Tokyo December 1982 by Japan.

What would you expect to learn ...

... from a candy bar hotline? [Thanks, Nan!]

Call the Nestle Crunch Hotline at 800-295-0051. When you are asked if you want to continue in English or Spanish, just wait quietly for about 10 seconds and you will smile. Promise! Keep going and press 4. Listen to the options and then press 7. If you aren't smiling by now, check and make sure you still have a pulse.

iTunes is currently playing: Candy Everybody Wants from the album MTV Unplugged by 10,000 Maniacs.

A big improvement? You be the judge.

I love my new door!

BEFORE:


Our original door was much larger than a standard-sized door and had a big round doorknob the size of a grapefruit on the outside.

AFTER:


Target checks out the new door. The installer had to build a frame around the door because the old one was so big.


Here is a close-up view of the stained glass window in the door.

iTunes is currently playing: This House (Album Version) from the album Hoodoo by Alison Moyet.

Evian Roller Babies

I feel as if I am always the last person on earth to learn about a cool commercial or video or performer or whatever. Has everyone else known about Evian Babies for a while??

iTunes is currently playing: Have You Seen My Baby from the album Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman by Randy Newman.

If I hadn't seen this ad ...

... with my own eyes I'd swear it had to be a joke. It isn't bad enough that we are bombarded by rap music ringtones everywhere we go. Soon we will be assaulted by PERFUME emanating from laptop computers, too!






iTunes is currently playing: Girls Just Want to Have Fun from the album The Essential Cyndi Lauper by Cyndi Lauper.

What I want to know is ...

... does anyone actually deposit checks like this in his or her bank account? (Yes, that is a check for FIVE CENTS.)

iTunes is currently playing: What Is This Going To Get Us? from the album The Man I Love - Past Perfect, Disc 7 by Billie Holiday.

One of the few things I'll miss ...

... about NJ is cheap gas. In PA we pay 30 to 40 cents more per gallon for self-service gas than folks in NJ pay for full service. And I must admit I didn't expect to see gas at this price ever again, even in NJ.

iTunes is currently playing: Driving from the album The Language Of Life by Everything But The Girl.

Another adorable SmartCar

This one was spotted in a Smart showroom in Naples, Italy.

I love Smarties. I love Hello Kitty. I love this car!

iTunes is currently playing: My Sanctuary from the album Join the Parade by Marc Cohn.

Jay Leno test drives "the car that makes people smile".

I want one. I want one. I WANT ONE!!!

iTunes is currently playing: Short People from the album Little Criminals by Randy Newman.

How to hold down prices ...

... without alienating your customers:

From the L.A.Times (11/9/08):





iTunes is currently playing: Slippery People from the album Stop Making Sense: Special New Edition (1984 Film) by Talking Heads.

I do not need a new car.

BUT I WANT THIS CAR!!

iTunes is currently playing: What is This Thing Called Love from the album Portrait: Past Perfect - Disc 10 by Billie Holiday.

R.I.P. Acres of Books in Long Beach, CA

Oh, my, the hours I spent there! Happy trails, Jackie and Phil.





[L.A.Times] After 74 years in business, the independent bookstore giant with an inventory that topped 1 million volumes is closing down to make way for a redevelopment project. The two-story brick building will be transformed into a mix of housing and art galleries as part of the city's plan to connect downtown with its East Village Arts District.

Acres of Books opened on Pacific Street in 1934 and moved into the current building in the 1940s, taking over from a country-western bar and dance hall. Back then, Long Beach Boulevard was a hot spot for the Navy, packed with bars, tattoo parlors and mom-and-pop shops.

Founder Bertrand Smith and his son, E.P. Smith, worked more than a year to move into the site, shuttling hundreds of thousands of books in the back of a pickup. Over time, the downtown strip, starting from the shoreline, has given way to an arts renaissance and a 21st century economy of condos and Starbucks shops.

"We knew eventually it would catch up with us," said Jackie Smith, 68. She and her husband, Phil, plan to retire and travel. They've had time to say goodbye to the store, after selling their building to the city for $2.8 million three months ago.

Smith said she and her husband searched for months for a new location but didn't find one that met their needs for a large space on a modest budget. Once they sell their inventory, which in less than two weeks has gone from 700,000 to 500,000, they will join the list of independent L.A. area bookstores that have been ousted by sluggish sales or redevelopment.

"I hate to see it go," said Smith, whose husband inherited the store from his grandfather. "If we would have been able to hold on, we would have probably been here until we turned to dirt. But that's not possible."

iTunes is currently playing: The Book I Read from the [bootleg] album Live at the Sun Palace (Tokyo) by Talking Heads.

Cool new chess set

... is currently playing: I Feel The Earth Move from the album Tapestry by Carole King.

This item is available from a web site called JourneyEd.com …

... which sells computer stuff at academic discounts. But don't worry! You don't have to be a student or teacher to buy one!







iTunes is currently playing: How Could You? from the album Billie Holiday: Portrait by Billie Holiday.

If you have ceramic tile in your house …

... hurry to Linens and Things and buy a SONIC SCRUBBER while they are still available.



Use it with Comet Soft Cleanser Cream with Bleach ...



... and watch what happens. This thing is amazing -- and worth every penny of the $12.99 price tag.

You're welcome!



iTunes is currently playing: Rest For The Weary from the album The Rainy Season by Marc Cohn.

am i a bad pet owner?

I was wandering around in a drug store the other day and I saw this in the pet department:



There are many things that can be purchased in either "stylish" or "boring" versions, but I didn't think a cat litter box was one of them.

I didn't buy it.

iTunes is currently playing: Walls Come Tumbing Down from the album The Singular Adventures Of The Style Council by The Style Council.

magic wrinkle remover ?

i just bought an ironing board from Target that hangs over a closet door. i thought i might be more inclined to iron the things that need to be ironed if i just had to pull the board down rather than drag a (larger, heavier) model out of a closet and find someplace to set it up.

i almost didn't buy it because this was written on the package:

"there's something rather magical about ironing. you take your rumpled up life. spritz a little water on it. run an iron over it. and presto. everything's new again. the wrinkles of yesterday have vanished right before your very eyes. and there you are. looking fresh. feeling sharp. ready to take on the world."

they actually paid someone to write that crap? clearly, it was someone who has never ironed, because anyone who has will tell you there is nothing MAGICAL about it or any other form of domestic drudgery known as housework.

hmmm.... could the field of marketing possibly be dominated by ... men??

iTunes is currently playing: We Work The Black Seam from the album The Dream Of The Blue Turtles by Sting.