On Saturday my five-year-old nephew Julian took the train into the city from Long Island with my mom, and I met them at Penn Station. Our very first stop was Toho Shoji, where we picked out special beads, chain and charms to make ornaments, and colorful Lucite leaves to make earrings for his teachers. Julian told me, “This store is cooler than Superman!” (and I swear I didn’t prompt him or anything… he’s just a natural-born jewelry designer). We spent about an hour oohing and aahing over all our favorite stuff, like the feather boas and the lockets. His absolute favorite section was the chains, which I have to say is pretty tempting — Toho Shoji is my favorite chain store in New York. We wished we could bring the whole wall of spools home with us.

Next we headed to M&J Trimming, where Jules picked out one special ribbon to wrap Mommy and Daddy’s present. At Tinsel Trading I found some pretty little red-and-white vintage mushrooms, and then it was time to take a break and get some drawing done at the Mid-Manhattan Public Library. The second floor has plenty of nice desks set up for non-messy art projects, so we drew a pirate’s treasure map — oh, and his spider and skull-and-crossbones tattoos are from a Starbucks run with Uncle Andrew earlier in the day, in case you’re curious. Last, we (and most of Manhattan) walked through Times Square on our way back to the station.

Today we’re making our surprise ornaments (one down, four to go) and our Christmas cards. We also got to make a super cool good-luck charm with all of Julian’s favorite beads and buttons on a big star keychain. I love everything he picked out!

On Tuesday, I have time for one last Fashion District run before I leave the city, and Metalliferous will be my first stop. Sadly, Julian has kindergarten, so I’ll be shopping without him, but I’m sure I’ll find a few cool things for our next crafting session, scheduled for December 26 at my mom’s house — it’s so much fun to have such a super crafty nephew to hang out with!