Supper Club Numero Uno.

To celebrate the completion of Queen Frida and my psychedelically colorful bathroom, I decided to make the theme of the first Supper Club party "Unibrowed Mexicans Take Brooklyn." I had 10 people over on 10-10-10 (Happy Birthday Brian!) for a taco bar extravaganza.

I made taquitos, chicken, fish and 3 kinds of salsa + trimmings for the taco bar. Friends brought chips, guacamole, mole, churros, corn, Coronas, rice pudding, ice cream, and...mustaches!

I went all out. I made paper flowers and cut paper flags and place mats. 

 This was the perfect occasion to put my extensive hot sauce collection to use. I have about 15 kinds of hot sauce. 

 

 I made corn/bean salsa, tomato/pepper salsa, and mango/tomato/avocado salsa

 Paola kindly provided the mustaches which easily doubled as unibrows. 

 10-10-10!

My Psychedelic Bathroom.

When I moved into this apartment 3 years ago, I quickly slapped a coat of paint on the bathroom walls and I had not touched it since. I actually really liked the color but I was getting tired of how boring it looked.


I knew I wanted to paint or draw a pattern on the largest wall, but I was conflicted over the direction in which to go. I'm attracted to patterns that are very repetitive and geometric, but the lopsided angles of this 110 year old building would have made for a lopsided pattern, which would have driven me crazy.

I probably looked at over 10,000 images while searching for inspiration for my bathroom. I pondered for 3 days weighing the advantages/disadvantages of having a light, dark, neutral, or colorful space. Finally, I came across this amazing Missoni print, and I decided to use that as my inspiration.


I'm quite happy with the way it turned out, but I have to admit that for the first 2 days, I found the colors dizzying. You'd never guess it from looking at my vibrant portfolio, but I consider myself "allergic to color." I only wear black, white, gray, and dark blue so this paint job was quite shocking to my corneas. The main color is Benjamin Moore's "Passion Plum" #2073-30

Fancy dinner party.

I got such a hugely positive response when I made dumplings that I thought it would be fun to share the wealth and have a fancy, springtime dinner party. I have been completely swamped with work from my 5.72 different jobs, but with my dearest friend, Neelima, coming to town, I figure it was as good a time as any to get everyone together for a nice evening of food and drink. I don't entertain often, so I really wanted to put some effort into this dinner. It was a ton of work, but I enjoyed planning, cooking and organizing sweet little Asian snacks in symmetrical patterns on a platter. Though my neck and shoulders are still tense from wrapping 300+ dumplings. Why do I do this to myself...

I'm sorry I wasn't able to have all of my NY friends over at once due to space constraints.  I'll have an encore party one of these days, I promise :)

The white plates are my everyday dishes, the blue-rimmed ones were hand-me-downs from my former roommate, Wendy, and the soy sauce trays were only $.95 from Chinatown!


I contemplated whether or not a seating chart would be a good idea, and Peter suggested having everyone sit with strangers. I was hesitant at first, but the mix of old and new friends ended up producing some really hilarious conversations.

I made 4 kinds of dumplings:

Scallop & chives

Pork, shrimp, & chinese celery

Tofu, mushroom, & shrimp

Spinach, tofu, & mushroom

For dessert we had sticky rice balls covered in sweet sesame powder, mango mochi, and the most amazing fresh mango I've ever eaten.




Thanks to all my lovely ladies for facilitating a rapid and efficient clean up effort. Thanks to Terry for the music, and thanks to everyone for coming! It was an exceptionally lovely evening and I can't wait to do it again.

Apartment Therapy's Big Book of Small Spaces.

After a year-long wait, the book that my bedroom will be featured in is finally coming out on May 11th! I mentioned last year that my favorite blog, Apartment Therapy, came by and took some pictures for their new book.

Check out that entry here.

The book is done, and it looks like this! I've seen a few pages of the book and it looks amazing. This is not helping my obsession with tiny space planning. After it comes out, I'm going to do a full post on my tricked out mini-bedroom. (The photo on the cover is not my place)

You can buy it on Amazon or if you want to preview the book, visit the official site.

Exciting News! (Late announcement...)

I'm going to be in a book!

Last winter, I found out that my favorite blog, www.apartmenttherapy.com, was having an open call for submissions to be in their next book about small spaces. I submitted my photos, and I was selected! A couple weeks later, the founder of Apartment Therapy and a 4 person crew packed into my house to professionally photograph my tiny little room. I'm super excited to see the final product, which comes out next spring. I'll keep you guys updated!







I have about 9 square feet of floor space in my room for walking. Needless to say, it was a very very tight squeeze.








April 2010!

The Evolution of my Bedroom.

My room is like Madonna. Always evolving, for better or for worse. I wish I had photos of my room before 2000. I don't remember exactly what it looked like but I do know that I was really into purple, tigers, and splatter painting.




I was REALLY into collaging for a while. I cut out thousands of words and images from magazines and stuck them on binders, boxes, furniture, and as you see here...lampshades. Oh, I also had a Precious Moments collection of piggy banks that were my prized possessions at the time.


I can't believe I don't have photos of when my room was plastered in n'sync and Backstreet Boys posters. (Maybe one or two of 98 degrees too. Remember them?!) We would buy those teen mags, and rip out every single page and wallpaper our rooms with them.

Check out that PC! Oh how far technology has come since then. I had SO many photos of friends in middle school and high school. Maybe that will be my next blog posting ;o)

Yes, that's Ricky Martin. I had a calendar that I bought for the pictures. My Chinese uncle introduced me to his music. Vuelve is still a great album. Oh look! That's Justin Timberlake on the bottom right. Sweet.

I started collecting VERSACE ads when I was 11. I loved the simplicity of them. That is, until Donatella took over and the aesthetic changed. Wow, I think that black and white thing is my attempt to put a zebra print on my lampshade. Glad that phase didn't last.

I eventually got into spray paint and glitter. Everything I made for about 1.5 years was mirrored, sparkly, gold, or silver.

When I was 17, I had the idea to make my room some kind of "exotic retreat." Everything in my room that used to be white went purple, burgundy, and gold. I'm still influenced by a multicultural aesthetic.