Susi Rajah

Sock Puppet Portraits (What to buy the person who has everything.)

I think these pictures speak for themselves. (On the left is Captain Smarm, who I'm pretty sure has a substance abuse problem. On the right is Spot, the elusive dinosaur.)

Marty Allen makes the sock puppets and takes their portraits. That is how he spends his time and makes a living. Which makes me think most of us have probably gotten this job/career thing wrong. Why work for an evil corporation when you could spend your days with friendly sock puppets. Or, if you must pay the mortgage, put a sock puppet portrait in your cubicle and confuse your coworkers about what your boyfriend/girlfriend/family look like. Find Marty, and the 27 puppets, at the Union Square Market. They are also all available online:

Click here to go look at Marty's stuff.

These sock puppets have their own MySpace profiles. Some of them have written their own songs.

Click here to see puppet profiles on MySpace.

Some of the puppets are in a sock puppet rock band, which also contains human beings. The band is called UncleMonsterFace.

See a Sock Puppet Band.

Napoleon I

By Napoleon I, I do not mean Bonaparte, the little emperor with the hand up his own shirt. I'm referring to the number one Napoleon pastry I've had. It was the lightest, and the freshest--I don't think I had to chew at all. And come to think of it, it was pretty much the cheapest. When the girl serving me told me the price, I thought it was only for the Napoleon, but it turned out to be the total bill, and even that would've been cheaper than a Napoleon at some pastry stores I've frequented. Where did I find this wondrous French pastry? At an Italian bakery in Brooklyn. (By the way, for the Aussies among you, a Napoleon is a vanilla slice with tarted-up icing on top.)

Caputo Bakery
329 Court St
Brooklyn NY



I'm a Little Teapot

This Tea Ball may not be the most practical teapot in the world but it has to be pretty close to being the cutest. Unfortunately, as far as I know it is only available in England, and unless you, like me, have family members, with taste, who live there and send you gifts like this, you're stuffed. But you can still window shop. There's lots of nice things here, even if the exchange rate does really suck.

Visit FREVD LIVING.