*Lyrics from Texture of my Blood from Dillon. A strange little album, with a voice that reminds me of Lykke Li, and melodies that remind me of Fiona Apple and Feist. An interesting listen, and one that I’m still listening to.

Sunset at IKEA harbor. Kidding, it's not IKEA harbor. But we were at IKEA. And that was the view.

Last week my tiny, 4-month-old niece (oh, and her parents, too) moved to California. Boo. Hiss, hiss! Who but the cruelest of the cruel would force me to put ‘visiting California on the regular’ on my to-do list? I’m kidding, of course. Sort of. I lived in California for a brief bit of time during my late and not-so-great 20’s (yes or no the apostrophe here? I can never remember) and while it is undeniably beautiful it’s just not for me (plus, I really, really hate to fly). But, I suppose a visit now and then can’t hurt, right? Give me a few years and I’ll probably be thanking them for moving away (and giving me an excuse to visit warmer climes). But for now it’s just a drag.

However, before they left we headed down to NYC to bid them a proper farewell. We had dinner, watched a few episodes of The Twilight Zone on the computer (on the floor – their furniture already well on its way back to Cali), and snuggled with the tiny girl before they headed for warmer, and greener pastures (even if that irrigating water comes all the way from Nevada). And we visited with other members of the family, too (which was delightful). I also got to wander around a little while Jeff continued to work like a madman (no, not Mad Men, though that’s starting soon!), even though it was colder than cold, windy and raining for much of my visit.

One of the other highlights from our mini-trip was watching my sister perform in her karaoke league. That’s right, you read that correctly. League of Karaoke. It was pretty fun to see her up on ‘stage’ (a 6″ tall platform counts, right?), and extra fun to laugh along with the audience as they staged an awesome mash-up of Vanilla Ice’s Ice, Ice, Baby with David Bowie’s Under Pressure (while acting out a stage play where pre-ice-age humans were getting frozen by a giant, rapping ice cube). But, while I was at the karaoke bar/club, I noticed the cool wall treatment: decoupaged photos of music celebrities, album covers, newspaper clippings all layered and glued by hand. I was impressed and at the same time grossed out by the obvious reduced clean-ability that such a treatment gave to a wall. It actually felt like glue, a bit (oh, I sure hope that was glue).

Olivia Newton-John, I used to worship you.

I don’t know that I’ll do this to a wall anytime soon, but if you should, let me know how it wears. I suspect that these walls are constantly being added to, which makes them living art, in a way. And, speaking of living art, look at what graffiti looks like now:

I enhanced this pic a little since it was so grey out, and I was just using my phone, but it was in fact that colorful.

Nothing like a little wander around NYC to refresh the design senses, give that little jolt of urban electricity, and remind you (ok, me) of the humor, daring, and boldness that is design, when done well. The photos, all in one place, for your perusal. Enjoy! xoxo