Reasons to Love New York and Magic Markers
Friday, June 12, 2009 at 03:23PM 
Mystery Girl, corner of Chamber St & Broadway, with her dachsund in the basket
I am so utterly in love with this city right now. The weather is ideal, even the rainy days. I took a bit of a break from drawing on my Mac this week and did some old fashioned artwork with some artists markers that I had forgotten I had and hit the streets with my moleskin sketchbooks and mechanical pencils, plus my camera to record color. I walked and shopped and gazed and sketched, then came home and sat at my kitchen table in the rain yesterday and today and colored. My self imposed assignment: to record things that make me happy in a perfect-bound book. Book of Happy. I just came up with that right this minute. Here we go:
Oh, and if anyone can tell me the name of the woman who rides around Tribeca with her dachsund in the basket of her bicycle, please forward it. would like to give her a copy of this sketch. I saw her for only a moment: and yes, her dog did close his eyes as his ears were lifted by the wind. I think he must have been daydreaming about flying.
I have dusted off my tennis shoes and started playing in the leafy little park near my house, which conceals one of the many lovely public tennis courts in NYC. A single $100 permit gets you court time all season, first come first serve. And on Wednesdays? The same park hosts a farmers market that currently has peonies, freesias, daisies, and sunflowers.
My friend Kerry taught me about garlic scapes. If you chop them up super-fine and mix them with olive oil and salt and spread them on pumpernickel bread with a little ricotta and sea salt? Oh. My. God. Get them now, for a very brief time, at your farmers market.
I have also discovered this wonderful paste, which marks the end of all of those little half-used tins of tomato paste that have always crowded the condiment shelf in my fridge. I have to confess, everything this company makes is so delicious and beautiful, I buy the canned tomatoes and stack them on my kitchen island just because.
Wild and Tri Star Strawberries, actual sizeWhen I was very small I would crawl around the horse pastures and roadsides hunting for wild strawberries. It was a little labor-intensive, admittedly, but they were the most wonderful, most sweet thing ever. Last week Lobo and I were walking around on the Irish Hunger Memorial and came across a few, growing wild in the tall grass. I never expect to see them outside of northern Vermont. Then, this morning, I stumbled across a vendor at the Union Square farmers market who picks them in his own fields and sells tiny baskets of them. He also sells a variety of strawberry called "Tri Star", which he tells me is a cross between the Wild Strawberry and the variety that we get at the supermarkets. I am in the midst of a taste test and will report back. Lobo, for one, prefers the wild.
Reader Comments (29)
This is lovely. I will try your garlic scape recipe, we always get a lot in our CSA box. I can also highly recommend making pesto out of garlic scapes. I use this recipe: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/2006/06/my_friend_the_garlic_scape_1.html
These are gorgeous! Thanks for sharing!
These are lovely Heather!
I've heard a rumor that Far Far Away is to be your last fabric collection. True?
xo
Sandi
Your illustrations are fantastic. Thanks for sharing some more of them. I think Mystery Rider will be thrilled when you find her! And her little dog, too!
I'm hoping to see your new line in person soon. Are any shops in Atlanta carrying it?
What a wonderful way to spend the day. I wish I could sketch or draw or something. You are so talented.
So inspiring! I love how the weiner dog has a kind of zen-like joy in the bike basket. THanks for sharing your lovely sketches!
Awesome, Heather!
Your Book of Happy is making me feel very happy as well. It is also making me feel like drawing and coloring and eating strawberries and pumpernickel bread. I haven't had good pumpernickel or rye since I left Chicago. Mmmmmm good times. Thank you for sharing your beautiful work!
What a great post to begin my weekend with!
You inspire me to take a drawing class because my past attempts at drawing have taken me nowhere!
Do ya think you can make the tri star strawberries into a fabric design. I'd certainly buy it!!!
Also, I'm very intrigued by the garlic scapes! Is it the stems of garlic before it is fully grown?
I love these sketches and the feeling they impart. I now have a vivid picture of a city I love, but am so far away from now. Maybe this will be a new fabric line, "summer in NYC." I would love it!
My husband and I moved out of NYC in 2006 to come back to the Midwest and raise little ones. Some days the yearning for New York is so strong. And this post made me homesick for my apartment near Lincoln Center, my runs in Central Park, my favorite Indian restaurant. All my favorite NYC things. Love it. And love the sketches.
I have garlic scapes in my garden right now. I am going to see if I can get my hands on some pumpernickel bread! I love your sketches. You are so good at what you do. It makes me want to make more time for learning to draw.
Dang, I wish the girl on the bike were me. I absolutely love the sketch. In my mind it is me---but my dog is a large Basset and I don't live in NYC but Ohio. Oh well, we can dream, can't we?
Garlic scapes are one of my favorite things from our CSA. We make pesto and freeze it. Then we just pop some into soups and stuff in the winter.
these sketches are happy indeed! as is that tomato paste - love that stuff.
Finnaly my book arrived! And I was so surprised.... it is much, much, much better and more beautiful than I though. The projects are so creative and the patterns are very easy to understand. I wanna make all the things... and started by the kimono dress. Congratulations.... You could think about making an edition with winter clothes and acessories patterns. What about?!
Wonderful work!!!! Love it!
Viviane Basile
Brasília - Brazil
oh so eyecandy!
I´ve never been to NY, but this soooo lovely sketches are so mouthwatering - I totally fall in love with the bikegirl!
thank you for this nice weekstart
lovely regards from Europe,
Dolores
http://achtungkinder.blogspot.com
I love the Book of Happy and your perfect drawings. Makes me want to play hooky and sketch. Wish there were more hours in the day! I guess you just have to make those extra hours...
I totally agree with being completely in love with the city these days, the weather, the light, the free summer events starting up. Hooray for NYC in the summer~
and I adore your lady on bike with dog in basket sketch, I hope you find her name.
Oh plz plz tell us if Far Far Away is intended to be your last fabric line...it's written up all over the web in a kind laissez-fair way (in my mind it'd be a headline in a huge typeface, BOLD and ITALICS!), and we true blue Heather Ross fans must know the truth from the Master Herself. The sight of those gorgeous strawberries certainly do put me in mind of a new, fruity fabric you could design.
Lovely illustrations!
Your drawings are so lovely and full of spirit! Thanks for sharing!
Great sketches! Can you recommend some markers? The color palette of your set is amazing.
book of happy, indeed!
Your illustrations are vivid and whimsical...adorable and happy! Even that tomato paste. =) You know you could have your own line of cards or scrapbooking products if you wanted with your talent and eye for cute design. I hope to go to NYC someday. I imagine the Farmer's Markets top the wee one we have down near Lake Michigan where I live. It's quaint, but I have a feeling even the berries and peonies in New York top the ones sold locally. I'd love to try some pizza and cupcakes there too! Have fun filling your book of Happy and thanks for sharing with the rest of us.