Sew Buttons

New York City has something for everyone and can truly be an oasis of unexplored treasures if you ever get around to looking for them. I have been needing to find a store filled with nothing but buttons for months! I need a few replacement buttons for two shirts that I love wearing and yesterday I finally decided to venture out to cross this one off of my ever expanding list of things to do. A button store of this sort has to exist somewhere in Manhattan, right?

Luckily, I found just such a store conveniently open on Saturday afternoon called Lou Lou Buttons (212-398-5498). They're located at 69 East 38th Street right near 6th Avenue and they're open from 10am to 6pm on Monday through Friday and from 11am to 5pm on Saturday. They have loads of buttons! It's a slender little drawer of a shop filled with nothing but buttons. Row after row after row of all sorts of magical little shapes in every color and size you can possibly imagine. It's neatly organized and the guys working there were super friendly.

I showed the salesman exactly what I needed and in less than 5 minutes he expertly pulled out a few boxes of buttons until he found the exact buttons I needed. He filled them into two little plastic bags and I was on my way. Now I just need to find a girl who will sew them all on for me.

Out of Business

This seems like one of those stores that we'll look back at ten years from now and say, "Can you believe that were actually stores that you brought your junk to and they sold it for you on eBay?" Google Maps has a picture during obviously better days.

Nice and Spicey

Don't you hate it when you spell the neon sign wrong and you're stuck with it?

What Do You Want To Do?

You better think of something before it's too late. No time like the present. Opportunity awaits, etc.

Parking Lot Booth

A random parking lot booth on 11th Avenue. It must be kind of boring to sit in these tiny little booths all day unless you have a really good stack of the latest magazines.

Another excellent font choice. I'm calling it Parking Lot Attendant though for all I know it has a worse, but more Swiss-sounding name. Any designers out there know what this one is called?

Rainy Day Rainbow

A rainbow of balloons on the street on a recent rainy day. I didn't even notice the couple sneaking a quick midtown make out session in the nail salon vestibule until afterwards. One of Pee Wee Herman's bikes is parked in the shot too. I kind of want this bike.

Horror Guitar

Either he's got a morbid guitar case or he's walking around in the rain carrying a fancy white casket with a handle. Either way, he's stuck in the city trying to flag down a cab. It was funny to run into him again about ten blocks later trying to get another taxi after his cab broke down in the middle of a very busy 8th Avenue. We had a good laugh about that.

Walk or Don't Walk

Talk about mixed signals. Walk or Don't Walk? You decide.

It's easier to decide who to vote for Mayor.