Ciara Elend’s I HEART QUEENS design was on another episode of  Ugly Betty! The episode entitled “Backseat Betty” of this current 4th season.

To celebrate, you can save 50% off your entire purchase this Thanksgiving holiday weekend from Thursday November 26th through Monday November 30th. Use UGLY in the coupon code during checkout.

About six months ago, Adam called me up and said he signed us up with our neighbors to do a veggie co-op. You pay so much a year to be able to have pickings from local farms every week. You get fresh veggies and fresh fruit. We have to pick up the veggie box every other week. Adam was very excited because he said he would start cooking and he would be doing the pickups. Well, I was pissed that he signed us up for it without asking and I told Adam “you are too busy to do the pickups, I know I’ll have to do most of them. And we don’t cook!” “No, no, no” he argued “I can do the pickups and I’ll do the cooking.” He was angry that I didn’t want to do it.

Six months into it, Adam hasn’t been around for about 50% of the time so I’ve had to do alot of the pickups. He’s only cooked about one meal a month. Each week, we throw out 90% of what we get because I’m not the biggest veggie eater. I like the basics like broccolli and carrots, but with co-ops you never know what your gonna get. Like you’ll get a box of leeks and 8 zucchini one week, and the other you’ll get 10 cucumbers and squash. And the only fruits we get are apples. I don’t even like apples.  I don’t know how to cook, so everything just ends up going bad in our fridge.

So sadly, every other Thursday Adam gets really stressed about the pickup because of time  and I don’t make it any easier on him because I make him feel really bad about asking me. I’ll stay mad at him throughout the evening, but it goes away by morning. I can’t wait until this co-op thing is done because we are not signing up ever ever ever again or I will divorce Adam. Yes, I will divorce him if he signs us up again. So take heed my husband, my love, my soul-mate. You may end up on the chopping block. Yes, pun intended.

You know how I said in my previous post about how I’ve been pretty bored and haven’t had much to write about. I said that I might pick a fight with someone just so I have something to write again. Well, someone started an argument with me! It was about Chomsky.

Now, I’m a conscientious dog owner. When I walk Chomsky I always take doggie bags with me to pick up his non-so-pleasant dog droppings on the sidewalk. It’s gross when people don’t pick up after their dogs and the poop stays on the sidewalk for days. Now, for the record, sidewalks are public property. The city of New York owns the sidewalk so we taxpayers own the sidewalk. Yes, stores and buildings need to maintain the sidewalk so it’s not a health hazard or unsafe. If the sidewalk cement is crumbling or a tree has uplifted the cement, the city will fix it free of charge. Because once again, the city owns it. Alot of buildings here in Sunnyside do maintain the trees that are on the sidewalk that are adjacent to the building so they look nice. It keeps property values up. But they do not own the tree nor the sidewalk.

So back to my story. Chomsky picked a nice tree to pee and poop on. The tree was surrounded by nice landscaped rocks. A dude, probably the super, of the building said “keep your dog off of there. I spend alot of time making that nice.” I was like “sure no prob, and I’m picking up his poop” then he says “god damn dogs messing it up.” Now he says this as he’s walking away. Stupid coward. Can’t say it to my face. He walking away so I can’t talk back. Then I got pissed because clearly I polite and then I yelled to his “this is public property. you don’t own this sidewalk ASSHOLE!” URGH! So I picked up the poop and we walked again, but I was so pissed so I walked back to the tree, threw my cigarette butt and the poop back onto the rocks. Sigh of relief. I felt better.

When it comes to the gym and working out, I am so lazy. The reason I thought spinning for so long was because I needed to be obligated to show up and work out. Without that, I will not go to the gym. I come up with all sorts of reasons not to work out, so I don’t. But my pants are getting tight and I’m feeling a bit sluggish so I know it’s time to get off my ass and start doing something. I looked through my exercise dvds and all the workouts are about one hour. I’d love to think I can turn one of those one and work out for an hour, but I know I won’t. I need a quick workout. It can be hard but it needs to be short. I went online to find 20 yoga dvds and I came across yogadownload.com.

You can download a variety of audio yoga classes for $0 $4. It’s fantastic! I downloaded several 20-minute yoga classes for free. I am so impressed with the quality of each class. I actually prefer these to my dvds because I don’t have to strain my neck to watch the tv. You just move with the instruction. Seriously you should give it a try if you’re as lazy as me and love a bargain.

One of the best things about NYC is the number of art museums that are located here. Whenever I want to get inspired all I have to do is step out my door and walk or take a train to whatever museum I want. Here is a list of those on museum mile. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design, Jewish Museum, International Center of Photography, Museum of the City of New York, El Museo del Barrio, Goethe House, National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts. And there are still tons around the city plus there are galleries too.

My favorite museum of all is the Met. It houses a fantastic collection from prehistoric to postmodern art, from european want to asian art. Just about everything. And the greatest part is that the price of admission is whatever you want to pay. They suggest $15, but I only pay $1. I can’t afford any more being a starving artist and all. Believe me they have a great trust and many wealthy patrons, so don’t worry about it.

On Thursday I saw the Vermeer exhibit, walked through the Japanese garden, checked out the latest photography exhibit, and spend a few hours in their huge book store. All for $1. You can’t beat that.

WINTER SCHEDULE OF AVAILABLE CLASSES – January to February 2010

INTRO TO BLOCK PRINTING ON PAPER $60
- Sunday, January 3rd, 5pm-8pm
- Sunday, February 7th, 5pm-8pm

INTERMEDIATE: MULTIPLE COLOR BLOCK PRINTING ON PAPER $60
- Sunday, January 10th, 5pm-8pm
- Sunday, February 14th, 5pm-8pm

INTRO TO COLLAGE $60
- Sunday, January  17th,  5pm-8pm
- Sunday, February 21st, 5pm-8pm

CRASH COURSE IN ART HISTORY $40
- Sunday, January 24th, 5pm-8pm
- Sunday, February 28th, 5pm-8pm

UNDERSTANDING COLOR $60
- Sunday, January 31st, 5pm-8pm

Register at www.queensartclasses.com

No art experience necessary.
Minimun 2 people per class. Maximum 5 people.
Ages 18 and up.
Refunds up to 7 days before class. After 7 days, NO REFUNDS, $20 fee to reschedule.

Location: Ciara Elend Design Studio
1031 Jackson Avenue, First Floor, LIC, Queens

Adam and I have Aetna healthcare via Cobra via CBS. In our plan, we have to get our prescriptions through the mail. If we don’t use the mail and use a regular pharmacy, the medications aren’t covered. So each month I get my bottles of pills in a small envelope. I actually don’t mind using the mail because I don’t have to make a run to the pharmacy. There is one medication that I use that needs to be refrigerated so they mail me this medication in a cooler. The shocking thing is the amount of packaging they use to ship a small envelope size medication.

Here’s the inventory of items.

1) 10 x 11″ mailing box

2) 10 x 11″ styrofoam cooler

3) three layers of bubble wrap

4) three plastic ice packs

So they send me this much packaging every month. I feel so guilty throwing these items away that I have a collection of them in our extra bedroom. What the hell am I going to do with twelve styrofoam coolers? I feel like I should donate them to a hospital so they can use them to transport organs! Just kidding. That’s not going to happen.

I wonder why “made in USA” doesn’t matter to a majority of American consumers. I get told all the time that my shirts are expensive especially at when I’m at union sq. And the annoying part is that I’ve already marked my shirts down to 30 to 50 percent to cater to the market there. My shirts are priced as low as they can go. It takes work, time, and the material is high quality. They are pieces of art, they are hand dyed, hand printed and they are manufactured in the US. So they are expensive to make but many Americans can’t understand that quality costs more. Americans just want the absolute lowest price not matter what! If you want super low prices, you need to shop at old navy or forever 21 where the clothes are made overseas in china. And the quality is crap.  The reason that places like Walmart can have such low prices is because they import mass products overseas. And many small local shops are put out of business because they can’t compete with their prices. Local shops create jobs and money for the community. Walmart pays their employees such low wages that workers can barely survive. And the profits don’t go back to the community they go to the shareholders and to the Walton family. Whom by the way, have a combined wealth of billions. They have more money than Bill Gates and Oprah put together. I don’t understand how people don’t put it together. This type of consumerism takes jobs out of the US and it doesn’t help our communities here. I don’t understand why some people can’t understand that quality costs more. Who wants a cheapy shirt that will only one season where mine will last for years? My shirts produce jobs here in the US. I know I can produce them overseas to make them cheaper but that doesn’t help us especially when our local economy is suffering. So the point is buy stuff made here and stop bitching about the high prices of products made here. We all want a nice quality of life here in America and buying American supports that.

I know people hear the words “limited edition” a lot about products and I’m pretty sure most people don’t understand the concept. Which I understand because that phrase is thrown around by brands to get people buy the newest latest products right away. But let me explain what I mean when I say it about my couture shirts. With each season’s collection of designs, they are only available during the season and WILL NO LONGER BE AVAILABLE once the season is over. Right now, I do keep last season’s collection available with the current season since business has been slow and I want to make more things available. But be warned, this will soon change. I get a lot of emails about past designs that people saw but waited to get and they are no longer available. And they are super bummed. Yes, I do have the blocks to print them but I won’t because as an artist I’ve already moved on. And the last thing I want to do is revisit past designs. So here’s my advice, if you see a design you like don’t wait too long to purchase it because it will be gone in a blink of an eye.