being productive by procrastinating

I have a love-hate relationship with notebooks. I use them all the time and have to write out lists and draw diagrams and take notes (I always hated the people in school who could just “absorb” all the knowledge and learning and never took notes. ugh.). BUT, I almost never look at those notebooks after maybe 1 day after writing the notes/list/diagram. It just becomes not important/I don’t look at it so I forget I wrote that down. or I make a new list.

So today I realized I was in one of those situations where I needed a notebook. But I don’t have any that I would want to just scribble some notes or diagrams in.

DILEMMA: need big writing space that is clean, no lines, lots of space, fun to draw/write on, but not expensive/fancy, big, heavy, or clumsy (in size etc).

ANSWER: The Paper-Bag-Notebook!

It is compact and travel-able (with handles even!), economical (free with your groceries!), readily available (it’s all I have around my apartment!), clean drawing space that can be expanded for big drawings or compacted for small lists (or purse-stashing)!!

1. Start with a paper bag (possibly from your super-friendly neighborhood Brooklyn Fare!)

2. tear down the (vertical) seams of the bag to separate the front from the back, but keep the bottom connecting the two big wide sides together. Just look at the pictures not these words.

3. do this on both sides and fillet that bag real good.

4. detach those weird arm piece things. (anyone think of a good way to use these pieces? I couldn’t really think of a good one so I just gave up on them.)

5.  fold the sides down like a giant hotdog. sorta like a hotdog. do this on the top and the bottom.

6.fold the whole not-hotdog thing into an accordion book, fold it into 6 sections so it closes up like a book.

7. how to make the individual “pages” expandable? rip the edges right at the fold of the end of that “page”. rip the seam at the top right of this photo below. If I was sitting next to you this step would be easier to point out. but you’re smart you can probably figure it out.

8. ta-da! see, now isn’t #7 more clear?

9. ok so when you hold up the cute handles, the book falls apart and becomes less compact and travel-able ! bummer.

10. inspect the contraption — decide that you need some fastener in the “spine” of the notebook to keep the thing together and at its full potential.

11. easy solution = paperclip! done!  (but… it doesn’t sit flat when you open the book/you have to not lose the paperclip….)

12. fancy solution = sew a little loop / single “binding” ! (red string/embroidery floss is preferable, of course. and you know you have so much embroidery floss hanging around just taking up so much space with its potential uses and seductive range of colors)

13. BAM! look at that sexy notebook sitting flat and keeping its shape as a notebook!!!

14. ok so here it is! it’s sitting flat, a great drawing surface, expandable for when you need more drawing room, compact-able for when you need to grab it by the handles and go on your important business trip, and has more pages for when you have more lists to write!

It’s also a great raisin snack holder/temporary plate. and those are always temporary because I eat my raisins so fast. Also a great accompaniment to your SPOT coffee Delray Beach nostalgia mug of delicious tea.

OK So great! wahoo! i love this thing really! I’m gonna make so many for all my different projects. or just ideas. have one with you at all times!!

Leave a comment or send me a picture of one you make if you decide to! I really recommend it. This bag-notebook has really changed my life in the 8 hours I’ve used it so far. So don’t wait any longer ok. I know the directions above are not the most helpful but there’s so many pictures, you gotta be able to figure it out.

OK GOODNIGHT FRIENDS!

p.s. I of course made this during the time I needed to be doing other things, but I needed the notebook in order to PLAN those other things!! so that’s another dilemma to investigate into: how to plan and organize more efficiently so that they don’t take up the time I actually have to DO the project….

p.p.s. have you entered the lightbulb earrings GIVE-AWAY (that means they’re free) contest yet?? The weekend / now is really a great time to do that.

lighting-bright for everyone!

I’m really proud and excited to announce a delicious opportunity for you and everyone you know:

if you haven’t yet strolled over to my etsy store and oogled over those dazzling ear-adornments, now’s your chance to get a pair of my hand-made earrings for free!

check out one of my favorite blogs, COMPAI, who is having a giveaway through this week (ending next THURSDAY april 14). Just leave a comment and follow their blog and you’re in!!

So, now’s your time. for some free brilliant earrings! I promise you will get endless jokes and questioning about how and when they should light up whenever you wear them… it’s great.

so go enter right now! click on the image or check out COMPAI blog here.

good luck!
ALIYA

SIDE NOTE!

I first met the lovely sister team of ladies from COMPAI at some indie-artsy-lovely-handpainted-bathroom-signs Craft Fair in Montreal when I went on a French Canadian adventure with my lovely friend Elizabeth. I was inspired and in love with their upcycling life policies and ideas, and their series of “99 ways” books are really some of the best “make this from that” kind of books I’ve seen so far.

SO! I’m very honored to be featured on their blog. THANK YOU!!

p.p.s. isn’t Juliet such a beautiful neck/ear model!?!

let’s go dancing.

hello friends!

let me take you on a journey* through my magical Friday night.

[*NOTE: after careful consideration of the fact that most photo-documentations of concerts tend to be blury low-lit blobs of color and stage-equipment, I decided that I would document the night via drawings of my impressions of that part of the night.]

This journey started many months ago when my good friend Juliet said “OMG ALIYA, I’m coming up to NYC to see my good friends/ favorite band ever PEARL AND THE BEARD play. you have to come see them / I can’t wait to see you.” I said, “OMG AWESOME.” and bought a ticket.

Forgot about it for a while and then bam it’s time to go! Have to admit, I was more excited to see Juliet than I was to see the band, but I mean, she flew all the way up here from Jacksonville Floridaaa so they must be great / why not enjoy myself there too!?

The Cast:

For this adventure I was not only joined by the amazing Juliet, but also by her also delightful friends visiting from Boston, Emily and Brandon. Emily and Juliet had known each other since they were so little, and Brandon had an awesome red flannel jacket. Some awesome facts: Juliet and Emily kinda have the same hair-cut, even though they haven’t seen each other for months! Brandon and Emily are buying a house in June! woah how exciting / congrats!! and, that house is across the street from a CARPETED grocery store. think about that one for a bit.

We ate some great dinner at this thai place. best Early Bird Special ever (especially because according to Florida standards eating at 6:30pm is NOT qualifying for Early Bird Specials) = $15 for tons of delicious food. TAKE A LOOK!

my fav was the pad-thai with “veggie duck” — it was SO GOOD!!! any thoughts on what (fake meat product) I was eating though? (not tempeh)

Then we headed over to the KNITTING FACTORY. nice place. there was a bar in the front of the concert-y part of the place, and there was an adorable baby hanging out with us at the bar. a baby in a bar. only in Williamsburg. It had cute shoes too. (side note: since moving here I have seen an innummerable amount of little kids on razor scooters. tons. i will attempt to photograph them all from now on. this makes me think of the Great Pregnant Irish Lady Count of 2009)

Anyways.

The first band was THE LISPS. They were a delightful fun/energetic/circus-y/self-described-”quirky”/dancy delightful band that I just loved. totally got me going dancing and singing along and just smiling even though I’d never heard their music before. I also learned that they had just written a musical that was being produced by the theater organization which Brandon works at, which is so cool. Fav lyric was from the song “try”: “try to take responsibility for your crappy life, try to eat the seeds, try to peel the skin, try to be in the place that you’re already in.”

Almost as good as their performance, though, was the 3 intense Fans attending the show as well. They were probably the biggest tallest dudes of the whole audience, and they stood in the very front of the crowd, and were so enthusiastic and singing every word and dancing around and punching the air and being excited. They were so adorable I didn’t even care that they were blocking my view. So my documentation of this set is as follows:

A: super cutie guitar man with the curly hair and red pants (who’s totes married)

B: super cutie lead singer / file-cabinet drummer (?) who wore the best dress that had this hemline that was varied without looking tacky and circus-costume-y, and who pulled off the adorable look without looking 10 years old. A beautiful singer

C: super cutie quiet stoic bass man (are all the bass players stereotyped into this category? sorry)

D: super cutie intense drummer man. he used his shoulders a lot to feel the music / beat. i liked that.

E: MY FAVORITE FANS! You just wouldn’t have thought these big guys would’ve been so into this music. I loved it. I’m a fan of them.

Later on in the night, Brandon went and spoke with the band and introduced himself, because he had been the one writing the grant to get them the money to produce the musical. And they’d never met! and here they were! together!! It’s Networking Making Friends Time!!!

OK! Act II was LADY LAMB AND THE BEEKEEPER. Wow. she was just very intense. She was a little lady, beautiful, and totally powerful. She had this presence and a voice that filled the stage and the room and bowled you over.

I drew her filling up the stage with her intensity. Those lights behind her were the only band-mates she needed.

She kinda intimidated me. How can you be so young (and by that i mean younger than me, even if it’s only a little) and so successful (“I’m opening for Beirut next month”) and powerful and sure of yourself? Standing up there in some casual oh-i-just-threw-this-on outfit and just taking the world on! It was inspiring and scary. I want to be like that, and I make all these excuses and distractions and am just not that sometimes. I mean in my own genre, not necessarily with singing. But overall she was inspiring. I need those kinds of people to keep me focused on what I’m really up to, to inspire me to keep being big, superhero, powerful woman out in the world taking all the scary things on. And I know she’s a person too. she probably gets scared too.

AND THEN! Act Three!!! Pearl and The Beard were much hyped by everyone around me and all the opening acts and I still had never heard them. And then there they were, lined up and set up really professionally and just, calmly. That’s how I describe it. Calm and Collected: like, “dudes, we got this. don’t worry. let’s have a great time now”

I loved them! so fun! and powerful and musical and all encompassing. My favorite kind of artwork. They inspired me with their intense/calm dynamic. It was “all cool”, and it was all “super serious” all at once. They were beautiful but not too cutesy. Their music was just very authentic feeling. And I loved how mismatched but also perfect they seemed as a trio. That is my very bad description of what they sounded like. Similar to the way concert photographs never quite capture the visuals, maybe my word reviews can’t sum up the sounds. But anyways.

And then I was exhausted. I woke up at 6:15am to bike to BIKRAM YOGA in the SNOW/RAIN. ohy vey, I’m not in Florida anymore for sure. (It was a great week experimenting with waking up early to work out — but it was a nice experiment. New work out routine for this week!)

but the evening filled me with new inspiration. Some thoughts/ ideas I had that night from being in such a creative delightful space:

• make a line of (non-ironic) crazy pregnant lady clothing. when you’re pregnant i think it must be the best time to wear ridiculous clothes ever. I mean when else is it so socially acceptable to look so bizarre???
• write/make/sing a musical (preferably in collaboration with my super cutie future boyfriend)
• make (real) ginger beer
• a collaborative SINGING PASSOVER SEDER !! (like we find/write songs for each part of the story and then preform them instead of reading the haggadah!!!)
• make a photo-tour of the neighborhood hardware stores with pros/cons/features of each
• make a facebook imaginary-band Page and post weird sounds as my “songs”
• do an interview each week with someone I like/someone I want to get to know/ someone I think is cool or is doing a cool project / someone I’m inspired by.

I leave you all with a quote I overheard at the concert, that sums up a lot about life, really: “I did not want a burrito.”

a warm house

last night lindsay and I had our housewarming party and it was totally lovely. Spent the day being real house-wife-y: cleaning and taking out the trash and sweeping and baking cookies and cleaning the bathroom.

put on my party dress and some sweet tunes. we both painted our nails.

and then the apartment filled up with friends from Hampshire & the Valley, from Elsewhere, from Landmark, from my extended family (woah cousins!), from down the street, and more. Our bellies filled up with cole slaw, potato salad, pasta salad, delicious cheese and bagette, picnic basket wine, ginger-beer, and then later joe’s famous spice cake, my famous macrobiotic jelly cookies, and some brownies with candy-canes in them (I was cleaning the cupboards and found them….). Our kitchen was filled up with conversation and new/old friends, and then our living room was filled up with Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, and other great musicians who I can’t remember because they aren’t vagely ironic but actually make great dance music.

The house warmed up so much I had to open a window! And as Lindsay said, “Aliya’s always cold.”

Thank you for welcoming me so warmly, New York.

Eating in New York

I sum up my experience eating in New York with this series of photos from one of my favs, mr. alton brown:

fast paced, on the go, must be edible with one hand, usually eaten while multi-tasking, wrapped in pastry, includes jam & is toast-able if possible, involves a slightly ridiculous hair-do, varied, delicious & enticing – even surprising!

watch the full awesome video here.