Mad Hat Blog

Tumblin'

2011-06-27T23:13:00.000-07:00

This blog is boring. I have a Tumblr that I will update with lovely things each day.

Not giving up on the blog... not yet. But... eh.

Clickety Click = http://monkeyandmouse.tumblr.com/

Whoa!

2011-06-21T00:55:00.000-07:00

I like finding odd little videos on You Tube. I don't usually share them because they are sometimes very strange and I think only entertaining to me... but this... my mind is blown. I have to have them on my blog.

I mean... what?

And also... can I play?

Today's Robert Pattinson:

(I snuck him in twice this post! I like to cheat.)

Artfest Infused Journal Pages

2011-05-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

Okay so it took me a while to get myself together after Artfest this year. I leave with so many ideas I don't know what to start with first. I've never been so into art journaling before and I'm really loving it. It's helping me organize my brain, among other things.

This is my Artfest Travel Journal. I added in a bunch of great trades that other Artfesters gave me.

Port Townsend, WA has the greatest Art Supply store called Akamai. They have the most amazing stuff. It's packed with everything you could every possibly want and things you didn't know you wanted... which is why my PINK receipt is so long and now in my journal.

This is my new Inspiration Journal. I made it with box board... mostly from cheez its... I like cheez its. The box board is GREAT, sturdy and... recycling, yay! The pages were inspired by a class I took with Ingrid Djikers. (Also at Artfest or maybe Journalfest, can't remember.) This is where I put all my inspiration for upcoming projects. In a related story ... I have something big coming up! Wink.

And this is yet another journal I have where I usually put messages to myself. First, I write a bunch of rambling nonsense, like you do in a diary, and then I cover up the evidence with paint and collage and pull out one thought I want to remember. I call this girl the Fire Princess. I learned how to draw pretty girl faces thanks to miss Suzi Blu.

I think I might be addicted to taking classes. But I'm kind of okay with that.

Here something from my latest class from Teesha Moore that I took last weekend at Urban Craft Center:

Teesha very kindly told us that it was okay to reteach this one so there WILL be a basic tutorial on this and others that I make like it coming SOON! I vow for the thirty-seven bajillionth time to update my blog more often. I should. I've got a lot of stuff to share these days.

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with one final journal page and my FAVORITE!! I visit it often and it makes me smile every time...

Dontcha just LOVE stickers?

Today's Robert Pattinson:

Sitting Pretty!

2011-02-02T02:16:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't take many photos of my first CHA experience because I was a little overwhelmed just trying to take it all in. But I did take some... it was kind of amazing!

Here are a couple of highlights from my Princess Chair make & take:

This little cutie seemed to be having a good time.

Stephanie Girard - and her cool girl scout sash.

The lovely and talented Julie Bergman.

It was fun and even kind of popular. Everybody loves glitter... well... except Ruth Rae, who toughed it out anyway and made her own princess chair. Then she helped guide me through rest of the CHA phenomenon. I'm a still a little overwhelmed, but I'm learning a lot. Next year I might actually network! (Well, maybe. I might have to change my entire personality first, but we'll see.)

Oh and look at this...

Isn't it just GORGEOUSNESS? It was at the Susan Lenart Kazmer booth. I couldn't stop staring at it. Gonna have to try and make one. I'll just add that to the bottom of my nine foot long list.

Well, that's it for now. Wish I had more photos for you. It really was pretty awesome and filled with so many things I wanted to grab and run away with! Looking forward to next year.

Today's Robert Pattinson:

Keep Your Secrets

2011-01-24T18:11:00.000-08:00

I've been working in my art journal again... just because I haven't in a LONG time.

I was never really sold on the whole art journal thing, to be honest. I had been kind of using mine as a testing ground for different things I wanted to try... because I honestly didn't know what to write in it. I don't really think everyday blahbitty is very artistic and I'm not a fan of putting my deep thoughts out there for all to see.

Sometimes, though, you just have to write down a bunch of bile to get it out of your brain. Which is something I did a few months back in a notebook. I was just about to shred the evidence when I had the idea to hide it in plain sight.

So here it is:

I cut up the notebook pages into various organic... uh... blobby shapes and overlapped them.

I covered it up with oil pastels and then some clear gesso. But I didn't cover it ALL up so there's just a peek at my crazy ranting... helped with the mood of the painting I think. You can try to read what it says... IF YOU DARE!

Today's Robert Pattinson:

CHA CHA CHA!

2011-01-21T12:40:00.000-08:00

Just got my badge-y thing for CHA! Who's going?

I'll be signing my book... Mixed Media Dollhouses, along with my co-author, Tally Oliveau at the Barnes & Noble booth - #323

We'll be there Sunday, January 30th at 3pm and Monday, January 31 at 1pm.

Come by to say hello and make yourself a "Kiss Me Princess Chair."

Take it home along with maybe another little surprise or two. You know you want to get your hands in some glitter.

Also, be sure and check out my friend Suzi's live broadcast, either in person on online!

My first CHA! So EXCITING!!!

Hope to see you there!

Oh and... ahem... today's Robert Pattinson.

Blogolution

2011-01-04T13:40:00.000-08:00

I never blog anymore thanks to Facebook and Twitter. I've also not really been working on any art projects to share but I WILL be. Soon. I think.

I don't really make New Year's Resolutions but I do vow to be a more bloggy in 2011.

For now, here's a puppy named Mouse...

A monkeydog named Monkey...

And a random photo of the only bumper sticker I will ever find acceptable: (you might have to click on the picture to make it bigger)

So there you go. Happy New Year!

Today's Robert Pattinson:

Once again, I am ahead of my time...

2010-10-19T06:49:00.000-07:00

Check out Operation Dollhouse! It's a design project from the awesome Curbed blog.

Of course they didn't ask ME to play but that doesn't mean I can't do it on my own. I'm still looking for the basic shell to play with like the one they used...

They really should sell them. It's a perfect blank slate. Uh... I mean aside from cigar boxes, of course. Blerg. I wish I was better with power tools.

Today's Robert Pattinson:

Yes, that's right. I'm not done with this yet.

Teachers Rule!

2010-07-05T13:38:00.000-07:00

This is just about the most amazing thing ever.

The other day I got this email:

"Dear Tally and Julie,
You don't know me, but I teach art in Middle School, Lawndale, Ca. I purchased your book because it looked intriguing and I'm an assemblage artist and thought it looked like a great project. Since I'm also an art teacher I decided to try the project with one class of my students, a mixed 7th and 8th grade class. I decided that "Alice in Wonderland" would be perfect because it had just come out and all my students were familiar with it. Plus, it has a great number of characters so each person in the class would have a character of some kind. I assigned each student a room and a character/characters, and they had to use vintage faces/people as the character/part of the character. We looked at Victorian furnishings, people, fashion, etc. in order to prepare and get ideas. In short, they produced a class house sort of like the ones in your book (except a "kid/Middle School" version). I thought you might find it interesting to see their finished piece and also to see where your inspiration spreads. I consider this one of the best projects ever done in my class!

We are proud of the project which my Principal intends to have on display next year under glass somewhere on campus. Thank you for the book inspiration, I hope I will get to do this project again sometime either with friends, or another class of students. And--let me know what you think of it, I'd love that....

Marian E. Seiders
Will Rogers Middle School, Lawndale"

And here are the photos of the students' unbelievable work. Most of this stuff is better than anything I could have done! I have to say, it makes me all kinds of proud.

Enjoy!

HERE is a link to the book in case you want to try it yourself.

Pure Imagination

2010-06-04T10:22:00.000-07:00

I love absolutely everything about this commercial.

Today's Robert Pattinson:

Fingerpainting

2010-06-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

So about a hundred years ago I went to Artfest...

And I took a class with Jesse Reno...

And I ended up with this...

The coolest thing about this is that I painted it entirely with my hands, except for the wax pastel line work, and I used only five basic paint colors. I think that's AWESOME. I mean... I'm not saying my painting is awesome... just the technique. But I think the painting is a little awesome too.

Anyway, a hundred years and two and a half months later, after a whole mess of stuff happened, I finally have time for my artwork and my BLOG. Oh, hi, by the way. How've you been?

I've been in the studio where I LOVE to be and I've been trying out some different things.

I took a little bit of what I learned from Jesse Reno and a bit from Carla Sonheim's Imaginary Creatures Class... whence I produced these weirdos:

And then I added a little of my own thing because I've taken so many classes in the past year it's hard to remember everything I learned. I really should take notes but that's kind of nerdy, even for me.

Anyway, this is the latest painting.

And I'm really kind of liking it. This is kind of a new thing for me... liking what I make. And the process is very fun and pretty stress free.

I'm feeling a bit like this guy:

So yeah... that's it. I'll have more to show for myself soon, I hope.

And, because for me it's just not getting old, I leave you with Today's Robert Pattinson:

AND THE WINNER IS...

2010-03-15T17:11:00.000-07:00

I put all the names from my last blog post and the Mixed Media Dollhouse Facebook Fanpage into my big top hat...

...shook and mixed the names around a bit and then plucked out:

For those of you who can't read my gnarly handwriting, the winner is Suzan Grissett-Buckner of Huntsville, AL who is a pretty amazing artist herself. You can check out her website HERE.

Congratulations Suzan!

I'll sign the book and get it signed by my co-author Tally Oliveau, then hopefully have it in the mail to you by the end of the week!

This was fun! I'll have to do it again soon!

Today's Robert Pattinson:

Do you like free stuff? Sure! We all do!

2010-03-03T20:42:00.000-08:00

They have landed!

And they have shiny, hot pink spines!

What more could a person possibly want in life? Except maybe to have their very own SIGNED copy... for FREE!

This book, co-authored by me and Tally Oliveau, is the end result of about four years of hard work and play by a handful of very talented and imaginative women. We think it brings a fun new twist to mixed-media assemblage art.

I'm giving away one of my copies of the book to a lucky winner!

All you have to do is click this link...

Mixed-Media Dollhouses - The Book on Facebook

... and become a fan on our Facebook page to put yourself into the running. If you don't have a a Facebook account, just leave a comment here on this blog post and I'll add your name to the drawing... but hey, Facebook is fun. Join us!

Here's a sneak peek at three of my dollhouse rooms:

You'll find more sneak peeks from other artists rooms on the Facebook fan page. So go check it out!

If you think you have bum luck, don't feel like waiting for a drawing or just want to support your friendly neighborhood artists and crafters... there's a link over there in the sidebar to the Amazon page where you can buy this book right now. --->

The drawing is scheduled for March 15 and I'll make another blog post announcing the winner.

(If you're going to leave a blog comment, make sure you add a contact email so I can let you know if you've won.)

Thanks for stopping by and good luck!

Today's Robert Pattinson:

Blue Sky Red Hearts

2010-03-03T01:40:00.000-08:00

A new Print available at my Etsy Shop!

Go and buy it. Or I'll cry.

Today's Robert Pattinson:

Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael!!

2010-02-28T02:25:00.000-08:00

It's on right now... My deep and abiding love for pink (and quirky movies) is renewed.

And I really need this refrigerator:

And that house and that room. And all that stuff.

Today's Robert Pattinson:

My Guru

2010-02-24T18:16:00.000-08:00

Suzi Blu is all wise and all knowing.

And I really want that wax tool-y thingie.

Today's Robert Pattinson: (with a side of KStew)

Book Art

2010-02-24T00:18:00.000-08:00

Okay so I'm getting pretty excited for Artfest... got my tickets and my lovely little cottage (see below) all booked and ready to go.

I signed up to do the fatbook and got it all done right at the last minute! The number of pages we needed to do was 53 (good gravy) and I had this genius idea to make them all original. That took a bit of time as you might imagine.

I did these with Caran d'Ache artist crayons over book text.

Then I carved this little Lady Sasspants.

And here's the final product:

And while on the subject of book art, I made this spread for a blue and white themed book in my little Dream In Color book circle. I hope you like it, Peggy!

I used vintage lined paper from a recipe book written in 1945 (ebay)! There were a lot of blank pages and I love the look of doodles on lined paper. I drew the girl in pencil and went over her in ink. I'm becoming very addicted to using a fountain pen and ink pot. It's a lot easier than I thought it would be. Oh, and the swirl stamp is one I carved a while back. I'm into carving my own stamps because I suddenly feel very strange about putting other people's stamps into my art. It feels too crafty or plagaristic... or something.. I don't know. I just don't wanna.

So that's all for now.

Except, of course, Today's Robert Pattinson:

TA DA!!!

2010-02-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

I have finally gotten my website and the beginnings of my Etsy shop set up!
Click the picture to visit me!

And of course, today's Robert Pattinson:

Want.

2010-01-21T19:19:00.000-08:00

I. Want. This.

It's a lamp, from Anthropologie, with an absurd price tag of $1,598.00. Seems easy enough to make though... right? And maybe not with such an obvious wire running up the side? I say this like I'm a wirework master with loads of time and skill at my beckon call. But seriously... it can't be THAT hard to make, can it? I'll let you know how it turns out... if I haven't poked my eyes out with rusty wire, rendering it impossible to blog.

I've been perusing this delicious blog called Design*Sponge lately as I have decoration on the mind. I'm having work done to the outside of the house and it's time to tweak and update the inside as well. Nothing drastic, but I've got so many little and big bits of art and things just lying around my studio that I might try something like this in the living room:

Normally, I can't abide clutter but this is Up and Out of the Wayish clutter and I really like the way it looks. I might just do it in one corner of the wall near the big teevee.

The problem is, once I make the nail holes I'm pretty locked in so I'm nervous to start. I found this handy tutorial on frame placement but there's no way I'll have the patience for that. Plus, I like the higgeldy piggeldy look in the photo above. I also like the pink wall, but I imagine KF will have none of it. I'll take and post a photo when I'm done if I think the results are worth posting.

And speaking of decorations...

Today's Robert Pattinson:

I miss the fellas.

2010-01-20T09:13:00.000-08:00

And today's mutha flippin' Pattinson:

Look! A book!

2010-01-17T20:41:00.000-08:00

If you go to Amazon.com and do a search for my name it comes up! That's so cool!

Apparently it's available March 1st. Here's a LINK to pre-order!

Today's Robert Pattinson:

UP

2009-11-15T20:36:00.000-08:00

One of the most beautiful movies I've seen in a long time.

Today's Robert Pattinson:

Venice Street Fair 2009

2009-11-15T08:53:00.000-08:00

The End.

From the You Have To Be Kidding Me department...

2009-11-03T02:35:00.000-08:00

I'm doing this...

National Novel Writing Month

...because I don't have enough things in my life that I never finish.

I think I have a good idea for a book... because KF tried to steal it... but I'm already behind on word count... in that I haven't actually started. I have written some words but they're more in note form. By the end of tomorrow I'm supposed to have... uh... 4,800ish words?

HA!

I haven't even read that many words today! I'm in big trouble. The PRESSURE. Still, it's kind of fun. And I like the whole idea of it... a month to write a novel. It can't possibly be a GOOD novel, but at least I'll be writing. I used to love writing but I haven't in a LONG time. LOOOOOONNNGGG time.

It's going to be a Young Adult novel. I enjoy reading them to a ridiculous degree, so clearly my brain is still sixteen years old. YA novels are just more fun. I like fun. Fun is enjoyable.

Yeesh, this is going to be some book.

It's 3am!

Bye.

Today's Robert Pattinson:

Happy Halloween!!!

2009-10-31T15:06:00.000-07:00

Today's Robert Pattinson:

Ye Olde Photoshoppe

2009-10-13T02:44:00.000-07:00

So I sort of I realized that I already knew how to do some cool stuff in Photoshop and had a few unfinished things lying around in files that I finally... you know... finished.

Photoshop is rad, but if you asked me to repeat my steps exactly to tell you how to make the following designs I would be staring at the computer with a blank look on my face for days trying to figure it out. I arrived at everything pretty randomly by messing around with all the knobs and switches. But I like how it all turned out.

Journalfest is coming up! It's all about the art journals this time, so for trades I thought it might be nice to print out some of these digi-collages to be used background papers. I'll print them out probably 5x7ish and then people can chop them up or use them however they like in their journals. That's cool, right? The best thing about this is that all the images are my own photos! Aw yeah, copyright THIS!

This is an older digi-collage I made a while back, but it was always too bright so I decided to rub some digital dirt on it. Now it's finally done. The photo in the collage is of a building up in Artfest country, Port Townsend, WA.

Okay, so I'm up either very early or very late (depending on your POV) due to extreme insomnia and I'm not sure what do do with myself. Maybe I'll try to sleep again. I just watched the cutest little movie from iTunes called Ramen Girl. If you follow the link, it should take you to the iTunes page where you can rent it. I love links. I'm a link enthusiast.

TTFN.

Today's Edward... I mean Robert Pattinson:

You eyeballin' me, boy?

2009-10-11T21:59:00.001-07:00

I've decided that there is no need for Art School with the invention of You Tube. This video blows my mind.

I tried this myself tonight and uh... yeah... no. But I'm practicing!

And I'm planning to finally take a figure drawing class... probably in the Spring semester at Otis. Which KF calls, The Elevator School. I have NO patience for realistic drawing but you can't brake the rules unless you know the rules and blah blah blah. Whatev. I'm sick of drawing like ass so I'm going to attempt to do it right.

Oh and I can't remember how I found it but his blog, Illustrating Stories, also has some great video tutorials for Photoshop. Informative and easy to follow.

Today's Robert Pattinson:

I'm late to the party...

2009-10-08T23:15:00.000-07:00

...Apparently this video went viral a million years ago but I didn't know anything about it until KF told me about it during tonights episode of The Office.

It's just adorable.

I want to have another wedding now.

P.S. I'm updating my blog instead of facebook because when I post videos to facebook I always lose them. Plus, I don't want to neglect my blog anymore. It's just mean.

Today's Robert Pattinson:

Portlandia

2009-10-07T17:13:00.000-07:00

Some of my favorite photos taken in Portland last week.
I have this thing for old motel signs. And don't you just love those clouds?

I love the combo of dark clouds and rainbows. You can even see purple in this one!

This was taken at a RAD place called VooDoo doughnut. And I'm just starting
to wonder why they call them Dough NUTs? What do nuts have to do with it? Anyway,
the pink and blue one was DELISH. But that one with bacon on it scares me.

At the cash register at VooDoo Doughnut. I just thought it was really funny.

Masterpiece Theater at the beach.

These were outside a cool little art gallery.

Old Town Portland. Gorge.

Outside the Portland Art Museum. Honestly the museum was kind of dull,
but isn't this pretty?

You can see the rest of my pictures here if you're interested.

I went for Art & Soul but I don't have any pictures of the festivities there. I mostly kept to myself, and in classes I just wanted to concentrate on the art and learn good stuff. Which I did. I'll show you some of my work in another post. Some of it is gross, so I won't show those bits.

Okay, bye.

Today's Robert Pattinson:

Dis Be A Bunny

2009-10-06T23:38:00.000-07:00

Using a technique I learned in Carla Sonheim's Imaginary Creatures class, I made this here little bunny on Odosketch. That was fun!

Today's Robert Pattinson:

FWOW.

2009-10-05T16:29:00.000-07:00

In honor of the upcoming movie... I have decided to go ahead and be obsessed again for a while.

My Favorite New Obsession Site

Sketchy

2009-09-25T12:07:00.000-07:00

Found this nifty new site:

I haven't really had time to play yet and it's frustrating without my tablet that I never use... not so easy to draw with your finger. But, I love the featured sketches and watching them get made.

eg.

2009-07-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd get all political on your asses.

Digital Collage using Polyvore

2009-05-30T22:46:00.000-07:00

twins by Julie Molina on Polyvore.com

The images on this site are not royalty or copyright free but it's fun to just play and get inspired.

But beware! You can buy almost everything there's an image of because they link to different shopping sites. Luckily, a lot of the stuff I like is only available on British sites that, for some reason or another don't ship to America. But I do have a pair of shoes and a cute hair thing on the way. You don't have to buy anything... but it's so hard to resist.

POLYVORE!!!

2009-05-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

Prettiest Dress Ever by Julie Molina featuring Juicy Couture accessories

Grey & Turquoise by Julie Molina featuring Monsoon

pink tutu by Julie Molina featuring Marc by Marc Jacobs bags

There is no spoon.

2009-05-02T23:43:00.000-07:00

So I'm up at a ridiculous hour. I really don't even know what time it is. But I know I shouldn't be up.

But I've become obsessed with finding a bag I already have. I love this bag...

And I have this bag, in green, but it's all beat up now. I've done patches and duct tape and it's still falling apart.

The only problem is... I can't find it anywhere. No one is selling it anymore.

It's called Guapa Violeta. Isn't that the coolest name?

I was going to try and make it myself but I'm pretty sure it will result in tears.

In other news, I had a Matrix-like deja vu today. I saw the same cat cross the same street twice (in the same direction) in what seemed like less than a minute. *creepy music goes here*

The Scribbler!

2009-04-20T00:10:00.000-07:00

I am addicted to this site called The Scribbler. I remember playing with it a while back but then my computer crashed and I lost all my bookmarks. Disastrous.

But, thanks to my fab friend Kelly's recent Facebook update... I love you, Facebook... I found the site again and yay!

I think I'll make some of these into photoshop brushes. Wish they could be bigger, but I'll take what I can get. I love the webby texture to these.

"You've got no right to grow here." -The Doormouse

2009-04-15T23:24:00.000-07:00

I. can't. wait.

I'm currently not speaking to Tim Burton because of what he did to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I am really looking forward to this. I hope...
I just hope.

NING!

2009-04-12T11:17:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting outside, at my patio table, in the shade, while I enjoy the beautiful day and type this blog.

I've been thinking for a while now that blogs and yahoo groups are on the way out. It's all about Facebook and NING now.

I've been taking online classes from my girl Suzi Blu and loving the Ning Network. Go check it out. It's fricking awesome.

I've just started a class with another painter named Paulette Insall who also started up a Ning.

Follow my links to find artistic happiness.

How genius is it to do an online video class? Genius, I say! I'm sure it's fun to travel and meet new people in the flesh (ew, I hate the saying "in the flesh") but without all the cost of schleping your stuff around, you can charge less for the class and it can be as long as you want. Just saying. I love listening to people talk so I love video blogs anyway, so this is up my alley. (I also hate the expression "up my alley.") I don't know why I keep using expressions I hate. I guess I'm just rusty at writing. Really, really rusty.

In the midst of all the twelve-thousand other things I'm planning to do and currently supposed to be doing and procrastinating on, I'm going to eventually move to Ning. But not yet! Don't leave me yet, those five of you who are still hanging on to this woefully neglected blog.

I'll leave you with some art I've been making. These are actually the front and back covers of a new art journal.

Front:

And back:

Oh and one more thing. I just had to have another Pullip.

Meet Zuora...

Don't judge me. I needed her. And I bought her on Ebay for way cheap. Well, cheap-ish. I don't buy fancy clothes or shoes or bags. This is what I spend my money on. What can I tell you.

Ugh... now I have to go deal with Monkey who can not stop barking at a squirrel who I swear is taunting her.

TTFN.

Artfest and Port Townsend, WA - 2009

2009-04-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

This is the book I made in Pam Garrison's class. I really liked her
and her teaching style.

The Grounds at Fort Worden - Artfest

Martha Brown and her Guerrilla Art Tree Cozy.

Ruth Rae celebrating a birthday.

Catherine Witherell being fabulous.

My trades with NESSIE! I have some left, who wants one?

Coolness next door to my hotel.

The beautiful town of Port Townsend, Washington

Ruth Rae doing demos and book signings at the bead shop in town.

A word about this Escalade... there is no way in hell I would ever rent a
Cadillac Escalade on purpose... especially for an Art Retreat!!! If I didn't
take this monstrosity we would have to wait at least another half hour more
than the hour we already waited to get a rental car. So I took it... and Ruth and I
rolled into Artfest like the pimps we are.

I love these trees.

I got a little lost on Fort Worden and found this by a camp ground.

Awesome little coffee shop in town.

dog purse

frog hat

This woman had an amazing voice. I regret not buying her CD.

These are not Artfesters, they're just girls in town wearing pirate outfits.
Each year they get together and dress in theme. Never asked why.

Beautiful dog. I wanted to take him home.

The ART of Artfest

Student art from Michael deMeng's class.

Student art from Misty Mawn's class.

Dunno which class... but it's pretty.

Deirdre Doan's art from Michael deMeng's class.

I absolutely love this piece from Judy Wise's class.

I love these too, from Carla Sonheim's class. She's such a great teacher.

From Linda and Opie O'Brien's class... Creepy but cool.

Student art from the fabulous Ruth Rae's class.

Student art from Pam Garrison's class. Please do not
compare it to mine.

The art of Carla Sonheim

The art of Katie Kendrick

The toothy art of Keith LoBue

The view from the Ferry on the way back to Seattle...

Next year I want to spend more time in the city because from just the
small glimpse I got... it rocks.

So there went my Artfest trip. I hope you enjoyed the photos.

WOW!

2009-03-12T00:19:00.000-07:00

THIS is just about the coolest thing in the universe.

And SO my next Art Weekend theme for sure!

THIS is also a dream.
Oh I just adore it.

I love the whole blog. The photographs are divine. Check it out:

A Fanciful Twist

Illustration Friday

2009-03-10T22:40:00.000-07:00

I found a new fabulous artist through Illustration Friday.

I don't want to post any of her art without asking her so I'll just give you a link to her blog.

Curiouser & Curiouser Designs

2009-03-07T18:26:00.000-08:00

Absolutely love this.

It's from www.dancingmermaid.com

Secret Misty!

2009-03-07T16:35:00.000-08:00

This just arrived in the mail for me today from Hong Kong!!

It makes me happy.

If it makes you happy too, you can find it HERE.

We can rebuild it. Better than it was before. Better, stronger, faster.

2009-02-24T22:12:00.000-08:00

So my not-very-old-at-all Macbook Pro just up and died on me.

I would say it was unexpected but I had dropped it around five times. It was very large (17 inches) and heavy and less portable than your average laptop. Hence the dropping.

But all is not lost.

It's taken me a couple of days but I'm slowly regenerating (and upgrading!) everything I had on the old computer. Photoshop took a very long time. They're very protective of their software so I practically had to give them a blood sample to prove I wasn't trying to download it illegally.

But anyway, this has been my little side trip from life for the past few days.

The upside to all of this is that I have a brand new computer. It's all pretty. Slightly smaller and more portable. And now that I'm slowly putting my stuff back together it's easier to organize it (and back it up more efficiently!)

This was my Facebook status update for today:

...and making brushes too! FUN!

Blogsperation

2009-02-17T06:53:00.000-08:00

Whenever I need some motivation to get back into art, I wander through some of my favorite blogs. I just added a bunch more links over there ---->

So go on. Get inspired!

And did you know there are millions of great Photoshop tutorial videos on You Tube?

I kind of like doing things the old fashioned way and using my hands and paper and ink and paint, etc. But... when you KNOW how to use Photoshop properly... it's just soooo much fun.

This is my first actual fully photoshopped collage. It not much, but I'm kind of loving it. I took the picture of that building in Port Townsend, Washington during Artfest week.

I'm working on my trades right now. As always, I'm trying to make them too complicated. But at least I've finally settled on an idea.

I want to post pictures of my attempts, but not yet.

I'm taking up carpentry.

2009-02-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

So I can make this!I need this! It's beautiful and HIGHLY functional art! There is no down side. I need it in my front hall. This piece was made by Rob Southcott and I believe it's one of a kind... meaning there's no way in hell I can afford it. But I still want it.

I found it on a site called Poppytalk which just laced with never ending fabulousness.

The photo above originally came from another FABULOUS site called Apartment Therapy. So many great ideas there.

This kind of thing is the reason I barely leave the house anymore.

That and the fact that I'm supernaturally lazy.

Awesome Stuff

2009-01-26T06:13:00.000-08:00

From Urban Outfitters:

Rolleiflex Mini Digital Camera

DIY Eco Speakers by Merkury

Artist Series iPhone Skins

Big-Ass Book of Crafts by Mark Montano

T-Shirt Graffiti Markers

Kidrobot DIY Munny V.4

Peleda Owl Wind Ups

Recycled Metal Letters

Chandelier Wall Decal

Frida Embroidered Throw Pillow

Taj Mahal Fleece Throw

Chalk Candle

Speedball Block Printing Kit

Speedball Screenprinting Kit

Robot Lamp Base

Antoinette Fainting Sofa - Aubergine

Mandala Mania

2009-01-18T23:00:00.000-08:00

Mandala |ˈmandələ; ˈmən-|
noun
a geometric figure representing the universe in Hindu and Buddhist symbolism.

~Psychoanalysis such a symbol in a dream, representing the dreamer's search for completeness and self-unity.

I made these using images of my own artwork on THIS site.

Go make some! It's fun!

Illustrious

2009-01-11T19:39:00.000-08:00

So I thought about retiring this blog since I'm barely posting here anymore. It's all about Facebook these days... even though most of what I do there is talk to people I haven't seen since grade school... which is weird. It seems unnatural, in a way. Don't you think? You're not really friends, yet you're writing little notes to each other. It's all one strange, drawn out class reunion.

Hmm.

I'm not doing much in the name of art these days, either. I guess I can blame the holidays, but really I'm just lazy. I have all these big ideas - things I was going to start in the new year. And here's the new year, just standing here, looking bored. But it's too cold in the studio... there's something good on tv... I have a new Warcraft character... I need to read one of the Twilight books... again...

Etcetera.

So I went looking for a little motivation tonight and luckily I found it.

Here's a look at some of my favorite artists :

Julie West

Audrey Kawasaki

CJ Metzger

Sarah Mensinga

Art & Ghosts (Louise)

Suzi Blu

Lisa Kokin

Anahata Katkin

Anita Mejia ... OhmiGod, she's so good and she's like twelve.

Lisa Kaus

This is only a very short... unfinished list... but I'm getting distracted again. Oooh, pretty colors!

I lack focus. That's one of the problems. I'm also aging without growing up... so, uh... there's that.

I'm thinking of actually getting some decent formal art education. I've been lusting after the illustration program at The Art Center in Pasadena. But it's kind of a hoity toity school and very intimidating. Also I shudder at the thought of more basic drawing classes where I have to find medium grey and draw cylinders and cubes and crap. Bleh. Talk about losing motivation. I'm still undecided. But we'll see.

Meanwhile, I'd better take advantage of this motivation before it drains out of me again.

TTFN.

Music to Move You

2008-12-04T07:07:00.000-08:00

I got this idea from D'Blogala, who got it from LK Ludwig.

You're supposed to post lyrics to a song that moves you. I didn't even have to think about it.

Permanent: by David Cook

Is this the moment where I look you in the eye?
Forgive my broken promise that you’ll never see me cry
And everything, it will surely change even if I tell you I won’t go away today
Will you think that you’re all alone
When no one’s there to hold your hand?
And all you know seems so far away and everything is temporary
rest your head

I’m permanent

I know he’s living in hell every single day
And so I ask oh God is there some way for me to take his place
And when they say it’s all touch and go
I wish I could make it go away
But still you say
Will you think that you’re all alone
when no one’s there to hold your hand?
When all you know seems so far away
and everything is temporary,
rest your head

I’m permanent
I’m permanent

Is the moment where I look you in the eye?
Forgive my promise that you’ll never see me cry.

Have a listen:

He wrote this about his brother who has cancer. I know I'm kind of a freak about David Cook but this song deserves to be taken seriously.

It is off-the-charts beautiful.

A Cry For Help!!!

2008-12-04T04:54:00.000-08:00

Okay so it's not dire, but I just saw this on Decor8 which is one of those favorite blogs that I keep forgetting to visit.

I NEED those button pillows. NEED them. But they're from H&M's new home line which will only be available in February and not in America. *frownie face*

I have been looking for cool, neutral pillows for a while now, since my furniture is decidedly Anti-Neutral.

Don't you think the button pillows would look great?

I'm thinking of making them. There's just a tiny hitch. I don't have any idea how to do that.

What do you think? Screen print the buttons on to muslin or something?

There's a cool screen printing kit at Urban Outfitters that I asked Santa for, so that could help. I just have an unbelievably unsteady sewing machine hand and I don't know if I can sew in a circle like that. It will probably turn out looking like an amoeba.

I guess we'll find out.

Luscious Things

2008-11-30T20:02:00.001-08:00

Clearly, I am no longer in blogging mode these days since it's so much faster and easier to update my trivial nonsense through the magic of Facebook.

But I don't want to abandon the blog entirely so I decided to compile a list of things I currently MUST HAVE... from Etsy.

Cloud 9

YELLOW FLOWERS, GREY CLOCHE HAT...

Monkey

baby prints / rose red and rose white

Someone to Hold Onto- 6x6

I'm moving necklace

Ghislaine 10x8

Multitask Bag with Adjustable Strap - Wood Violet Canvas and Japanese Fabric

Gifties and Such

2008-10-30T16:54:00.000-07:00

I'm just popping in to say hullo and show you all the wonderful gifts that have been flung my way in the past couple of weeks.

First, I had me a little party for my birthday... on which I turned twenty-eight radiant years of age. (Just go with it.) The party was Twilight Themed, because I'm a dorkus, but it wasn't theme heavy, no costumes... just some roses and lots of red.

And I got TOYS!

About a week later, one of my artplay chix, Jen, sent me this AWESOME Halloweeny banner through the mail. I LOOOOVVEEE getting treats through the mail.

Isn't it just gorgeous?? I love the glittery letters to NO ONE's surprise.

And THEN, out of the BLU, I get a beautiful painting from one of my favorite artists, Suzi Blu.

At first I thought it was a mistake. Like someone with a name close to mine commissioned Suzi and she got us mixed up, but then I finally noticed the card that I had tossed aside in my excitement.

YOU GUYS! Thank you so much! It was such a cool surprise and WOW is it beautiful! I hung it close to my desk for inspiration.

Currently, I am wearing my thank you socks that were a gift from Tally and Peggy along with a cool pink keychain and a tag book!

Love my thank you socks. I also got more fabulous art from Jen and Sera, plus candy (which I ate too much of) and adorable Hello Kitty stickers from Sera, goodies and a fabulous lavender-smelling, handmade relaxation mask from Ruth.

Oh here it is:

Sometimes I wear it while I listen to a book on tape. It's quite luxurious. Right now I'm wearing it on my forehead because that's just how I roll.

So you guys need to stop giving me presents now. (No you don't.) It's such an embarrassment of riches. (Gimme.)

I am spoiled rotten.

(Yeah, that's true.)

Whooo, look at me go!

2008-10-15T20:08:00.000-07:00

So two posts in two days! Take THAT!

The thing of it is, I don't feel like I've been out of touch because I've been maniacally updating my Facebook page... almost a disturbing amount. But my writing skills are suffering, due to the informality and brevity of my posts there. But does anyone really care? It's not like I'm not going for the Pulitzer or anything.

So this is what I've been working on of late:

And here it is on the Fresco setting in Photoshop:

I like the second version better for the vibrancy of the colors. It's called "She preferred a stormy sea." I used a combo of Caran D'ache, Acrylic Paint, Vintage paper and colored pencil (For the face, thank you Suzi Blu!)

Here's a new girl I'm working on:

She's obviously rough, but I have decided that she's Bella from Twilight. I can't wait to see where that takes me!

Have you read the books?

OMIGODYOUHAVETOREADTHEM!!

It's been foreva!!!!

2008-10-14T19:32:00.000-07:00

But I wanted to post pictures from my Art Party! Finally! See the amazingly true adventures of Kelly, Mary, Tally, Ruth, Audra, BETH!, Sera, Jen, Peggy on my Flickr page!

From now on, I'm going to try and post little bits here and there instead of being away for so ridiculously long. I think I'm spoiled by how easy it is to update quickly on my Facebook page. I almost forgot I had a blog.

I've been working on many many things that I want to share... but today I'll just go with the pictures from the party.

Hope you like um!

Matriculation

2008-08-27T23:50:00.000-07:00

So on Monday, I took a class from my friend Tally at Viva Gallery. We did prints on a tray of solid gelatin and WOW! I could do that all day. Except maybe I'm too lazy to make gelatin right now. Um, but in class, I printed on this great architectural paper that was available and I loved the way it looked so I kept at it.

This is actually a silhouette Kat Von D. I cut her out of a magazine. The image on the left is the negative print and then I peeled her up and did a positive print on the right. She's got some rays of sunshine coming from her... um... thigh... because the woman who used the gelatin before me used this bit of nature that was kind of a hard, sharp, three-dimensional leaf and it left an impression. I think it still looks cool, though. It's hard to go wrong with this stuff. Lots of room to play.

Here's my experimental phase with lots of different prints and layers of color. I'll probably use these as background papers or something.

This is my little Mad Hat Symbol that I cut out of paper. I really like the marbling effect in the second one. These, I may end up using as Photoshop brushes. I'll show you if I do something cool with them.

I'm also taking an ONLINE class from my Muse and Guru, Suzi Blu.

I'm not even sure how I found her to begin with, but every time I visit her blog or watch one of her videos I am completely inspired. She set up a little community of Suzi Blu followers and is teaching an online drawing class. I'm having fun and finally learning to draw faces that don't look all slanty and weird.

This girlie is not finished. But hopefully she doesn't look all slanty and weird to you. I'm still practicing and honing my style. And Suzi is very good about teaching step by step shading but I'm not quite getting it yet. Well, I understand it, but I just can't seem to make it happen. I keep painting over my progress.

But I definitely think I'm getting the hang of faces in general. I made this drawing tonight and I'm pretty happy with it. Symmetry is the key. Her face is juuuust about symmetrical. And that makes it look so much better. At least to my eyes. So simple but so brilliant!

I learn a lot from Suzi about a lot of things. Mostly how to stop worrying about what everyone else is doing and just being happy with what I'm doing.

She's wacky but wise, that Suzi Blu. And her accent reminds me of being back home in Philly, even though she's a Jersey Girl.

Close enough.

THIS JUST IN: I wasn't planning to go to Artfest this year because the registration kind of snuck up on me when I wasn't looking. (Opens September 2nd!!) But I went through the classes last night and I have three solid choices for each day so I'll be happy with whatever I get. So I'm going to register after all! Yeep!

It must have been the nostalgia after flipping through the fatbook I just received from the girls of Dorm 202. Holla! They sort of adopted me since I stayed in a hotel (and O YES I will be staying in a hotel again this year! I'm not THAT nostalgic.) But it definitely made me yearn for Fort Worden! I'm really excited now! Who else is going?

Le Sigh

2008-08-22T02:42:00.000-07:00

Hello Manchester
Uploaded by mjsbigblog

So, I have to admit that I've spent a lot... a LOT... of time on the computer this summer dorking out over David Cook and finding out what's happening on tour and beyond. For those of you who don't know (very few of you by now) I am totally one of his groupies (band aids) and oh yes I WILL be flying to Tulsa, Oklahoma to see the last American Idol concert in September. (I have already been to two of these concerts and I've met him once. Yee!)

See, Tulsa is where he was living before he auditioned for idol so this venue is sure to be jacked up with David love and I just really wanted to be there. I'm hardcore like that.

Slowly Unraveling

2008-08-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

It's been more than a week since coming back from Art Unraveled and I am just now getting around to posting about it. I have become a very irresponsible blogger, but I'm making a solemn vow to update at least once a week from now on. Swear.

I wanted to finish a few things that I worked on in my classes before photographing them for the blog, but then KF woke up on Thursday and said "Let's go to Vegas." So, not 72 hours after driving home from Phoenix, I found myself headed back into the damn desert.

Well, I'm finally home now and I got to put some final touches on some things last night. So, without anymore rambling, here's a look at what I did on my summer vacation:

My first class was with an artist named Juana Martinez-Neal. I had a lot of fun, met some great people and ended up with this painting:

It's got all kinds of nifty texture, which I didn't think I was into, but I really like it. The texture was done with gel medium and some star shaped bits. Juana was a great teacher and I learned some very cool techniques.

And guess what? I sold this painting!!! To a very kind woman who I met in that same class. We became hanging out buddies for the rest of the week. She tried to teach me how to take a compliment but I'm not sure that lesson will ever stick onto me. Hi Betsy! I hope you start a blog soon so I can link to you!

I'm very proud of this one. This is a painting I made in one of my three classes taught by Judy Wise. She's just an awesome teacher, a great artist with a great attitude. After this class I took a photo of the painting and sent it to KF who responded that I was "getting really good with faces." I almost didn't have the heart to tell him the face belongs to Botticelli's Venus. I just painted over her and added some of my favorite flowy, unaturally colored hair. She makes me happy.

Another great class I took was called "Voice Lessons" with Carla Sonheim. It was the most enlightening, most inspiring class of the week. We did a bunch of little exercises that really helped me loosen up, creatively. I think I need to take this class every year.

These are some line drawings I did that I think are kind of cool.
This guy was a blind contour drawing. You're not allowed to look down at your paper while you draw. My model was a toy alligator and I was so surprised when I looked down and saw something that actually looked like an alligator!

These are my groovy line drawings of a house and guitar. Drawn with a Sharpie because four out of five teachers agree that erasing is for wimps.

Here's a water color painting. I had a lot of fun with her too. Same class. We covered a lot in Carla's class!

And now for Kelly Kilmer's fun class. I don't think I followed the rules all that well on the first one, but Kelly said it was okay... so I'm gonna run with that. Also, this is far from finished. But I just like her little sassy face (a photo I took of my Pullip doll) and her little Monster sidekick. He came about totally by accident because I was working fast and just cutting paper.

I heart him.

Here's another page from Kelly's class. I went a little too orange, but other than that I really kind of like it. The quote is by a man named Arthur O'Shaunghnessy but I know it from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Back to Judy Wise again. We covered so much ground in this class, I had paint up past my elbows. LOVED it.

I sort of... almost... finally learned to stop being so uptight about my visual journal and to let go without ending up with something hideous... most of the time. Of course, I'm going back and redoing/enhancing a bunch of pages, but that's just how I roll, baby. It's all good. (That's me being relaxed and stuff. I'm talking like a stoner from the seventies, but whatever works, man.) This class was mostly all about trying lots of different painting techniques in the journal. Most of the pages I did aren't finished or just work as backgrounds right now but I'll post them when they reach maturity.

My third class with Judy Wise was all about making art into a business. I learned SO MUCH. Mostly I learned that it's hard work and I need to stop whimpering and just do it already. At the very least I'm going to try to get some stuff up on Etsy. I'm just gonna toss some stuff up there and see what sticks. Buy it, don't buy it... see if I care. (Yeah, I'm such a savvy business woman, can't you tell?)

There's so much more to say but this is another ridiculously long blog post.

I'll just say that it was a great week and I'm so inspired to get to work! Watch this space for further developments.

This is Comic Con

2008-08-01T04:30:00.000-07:00

(Believe it or not I cut a ton of pictures out of this post because it was taking a zillion years to load. To see the rest of them, click HERE )

\

KF was off doing work stuff so I ate lunch with Wonder Woman.

Milo Ventimiglia from Heroes. Rawr.

Zacharary Levi from Chuck.

If you're a geek, you'll know who this is. If not, it's Jonathan Frakes from Star Trek.

Girl with super cool hair.

That's KF's dreamgirl in the center. His eyes nearly fell out of his head when he saw her.

This was some weird Dharma Initiative booth. Don't know what was going on there, but it was fishy.

A zombie parade wandering by in downtown San Diego... as I sat there eating a bucket of crab legs.

TOYS!There's a lot of great art at the Con, but this year I was all about the toys. This is a doll by CJ Metzger. I've wanted this doll for a year but she's so hard to get. Her name is Mischievous Maeve. Isn't she prettay!?

I went a little crazy on the toys, but it's only once a year!

And I got this fun art print, signed by the artist, Martin Hsu.

And now I'm nice and done.

This post is dedicated to my good friend Neil Levin, who should have been there.

A Fly By

2008-07-25T01:24:00.000-07:00

Okay I'm going to have to make this quick.

I've been away too long again, I know. But I think I got my art mojo back.
I sort of HAD TO, since I had a deadline for this project... a "fatbook"... that I signed up for with the chix of Dorm 202 (wooooo!) from Artfest.

Here are my pages...
I did this painting on a 10x10 canvas and then realized I didn't know how to do the math to shrink it down for 4x4 copies. The Kinkos people wouldn't even make eye contact, but eventually I figured it out without them. Bastards.

I didn't take a photo of the finished canvas but I will. Promise.

Another reason for me to dust the cobwebs off of my art supplies is that Art Unraveled is fast approaching and I have some pre-homework to do for one of my classes.

At the moment I'm in San Diego. Me and KF came down for the "Nerd Prom" (tm Tigerpants) which, for those of you who aren't giant dorks, is another name for Comic Con. The largest geekfest known to man.

We arrived today and traffic was a mess so we were too late to wander around very much, but even so I saw two Ghostbusters, a Han Solo, a few gunshot victims, a vampire bite victim, several sexy vampires, lots of goth girls, a girl with a big, furry chewbacca backback hanging off of her and of course the obligatory Princess Leia in a gold bikini. Tomorrow I will be back in the mix, this time with a camera... because what I have just listed here only scratches the surface of what I saw today.

It's going to be a lot of fun, but very hectic as there are at least 100,000 people here PER DAY. It's also going to be a little sad because there's someone who should be here but isn't. I recently lost a very close friend, and fellow nerd. It was sudden. It was a freak accident. A pointless, reasonless loss, but I don't really want to talk about it here. He used to post comments here under the name "Gonzo" because of Hunter S. Thompson. Long story. Anyway, he shouldn't be missing this. But I like to think we're carrying him around with us in our hearts. (Okay that was kind of cheesy. He wouldn't approve.)

Anyway, it's late and I need to get a good night's sleep to be able to fight the crowds off with my blow up light saber tomorrow. (I'm not really buying a blow up light saber... but KF might.)

Hey! I'm in a book!

2008-06-27T03:15:00.000-07:00

I didn't want to say anything until I actually had it in my hands and saw for sure but yeah...

Check it out here!

I'm one of the 1000 in this big thick book put together by Dawn Sokol of D'Blogala.

This is the journal spread I sent her and it made it into the book. I'm on page 254 if you're interested but I just showed you the whole thing, so don't buy it on my account.

There are, of course, plenty of other artists in it and some that you'll recognize too, including the lovely and super-talented Catherine Witherell.

You should totally buy it because it is PACKED with really incredible journal art. It'll take you a week just to look at it all! It's quite a pleasant little stroll through other people's minds.

In other news:

I got pink hair!

And I never want to NOT have pink hair again.

And because my obsession demands it... I'll leave you with this:

Thundering Mediocrity

2008-06-20T21:12:00.000-07:00

I've lost the will to blog!

I've been trying to get back on this horse for a few days now. It's been so long since my last update! HOLY MUTHA! It's like... that was a long time ago, dude. OH the pressure to explain where I've been and what I've been doing and why I haven't updated. And I appreciate all the the emails and comments asking what's going on with me.

But the answer is just not that interesting.

What's going on? Uh. Nuthin.

Went to Artfest, came back... went to Puerto Rico shortly after that to visit family... and become a Godmother x2! Went to Philly right from there to visit more family, came back... wandered into my studio... sat down... and proceeded to do NOT a single damn thing. Not. A. Thing. For like... weeks.

Especially not a single artistic thing, up until a week or so ago when I took a Visual Journaling class taught by my friend Tally Oliveau. It was awesome and inspiring and just what I needed to get creative again. If you're in the area you should check her workshops out. Here, I'll make it easy for you... Click it.

Things moved pretty fast in that class. I don't work fast. I'm ridiculously slow. So for me it was scary and horrible. But in a good way? Okay... I'll show you what I ended up with even though most of it is kind of fug, so you can kind of get what I'm talking about.

Here's the first journal page I did:

I know there's really no place for perfectionism in art but this, to me, is a hideous, sloppy mess! GEUGH.

I'm only posting it to show my progression. I'm much happier with my second journal entry... Obviously it's not finished but I like it much better than the first beast. It means something to me... so that's good. Right?

My third journal entry from this class is my favorite. I won't give away the secret teaching technique of Tally's that inspired this, because that was just COOL! Painful, but cool! I'll just let it speak for itself:

It's still pretty sloppy, and keep in mind I'm not showing you the other side of the page that Tally totally forced me to scribble all over, but this page is a perfect balance of what I wanted it to look like and what just came out of me without thinking too hard or agonizing over details.

So, yeah, I like it.

I've been feeling kind of slumpy these days, actually. I feel like... with some distance... looking back on the things I've been doing... I kind of suck at this art stuff.

Okay maybe not suck. I just think... there is a thundering mediocrity to it all. I want to be better... I'm just NOT. I guess it would help if I actually worked at it more instead of spending way way way too much time reading about what's going on with David Cook on the fan forums. (Yes I do and no I don't care if you think I'm a big dork.)

But I just haven't been feeling it and I can't force it.

I am currently working on something for a special project with my Dorm Chix at Artfest. I stayed in a hotel because I'm a wuss, but I partied with the girls in the dorm and now we're doing this fat book project together. I have procrastinated... A LOT... but I think I'm getting close to doing something sort of good and fun... kind of... in a way. I'll show you when I'm done.

And so that's it. I'll leave you with some cool (non-people) shots that I took on my visit to Philly last month. If you want to check out my gorgeous nieces and nephews in both Philly AND Puerto Rico, just check out my Flickr page. Nothing is labeled though. If you want, you can make up names for them.

These are all from an area in Philly basically known as South Street. Very artisic, wild and fun place to be.

TAGGED!

2008-04-25T13:55:00.000-07:00

I am finally updating my blog!

I don't have any new artwork because I haven't done a single thing related to Art since returning from Artfest. I wonder what that's all about?

Could it be my OBSESSION with American Idol and THIS GUY?

Perhaps.

But anyway, I'm here now and I would like to do my tags because it's really been a long time and that's just rude.

So Theresa sent me a tag about writing a SIX WORD memoir. Well, believe it or not, I've thought about this a LOT and the only thing I could come up with was this: Julie was here and still is.

So, yeah...

I've also been tagged by both Kristin and Pamela to write seven random things about myself, so here we go...

1. I'm not a big fan of the sun. I live in Los Angeles, so that's a problem. I love cool, cloudy, windy days.

2. I hate leftovers. Seriously, I can't bring myself to eat food that's been in the fridge more than a day. Issues.

3. I become obsessed easily. And frequently. Much to the chagrin of my long suffering husband. (He told me to add that last part!)

4. My car is a dump.

5. I can't stand to watch medical shows, because I'm a hypochondriac. I also hate talk shows or any kind of daytime television. The View is basically my nightmare.

6. I hate surprises. I like knowing how everything is going to end. I usually read the last pages of a book first or if I'm really into a movie I'll look up reviews to find out how it ends so I can relax. Most recently, I've been reading message boards after the East Coast has seen American Idol so I know what to expect. That's weird, right? I believe the scientific term for this is "Spoiler Whore."

7. I am most definitely addicted to the internet.

I'm not going to tag anyone at the moment. But I still might... so stay sharp!

Finally, I'm very honored to have been given the Arte Y Pico award by Sandee Hyde.

Thank you my dear!

Now I'd better go start making some art!

KF's Big Give

2008-04-17T19:39:00.000-07:00

CLICK HERE! to donate and support mah huzzzband, "KF," who's real name is Jose Molina for those of you who don't know. He's walking for Autism and he wants me to "hit some mofos up" for donations since he's pretty close to his goal of $5000.

So, you heard it mofos... GIVE.

Isn't this JUST LIKE an episode of Oprah?

THIS is an AMERICAN IDOL post...

2008-04-15T02:55:00.000-07:00

Vote for David Cook tonight!

I am so "The Crying Girl"

for this guy!

Artfest in Pictures: Part 1

2008-04-09T00:56:00.000-07:00

I can't possibly describe it in words, so these thousand or so pictures will have to do.

Beach bonfire and weenie roast:

Vendor Night:
(I bought the one on the left! YEEEE!)

Crazy "altered" car:

Fort Worden grounds:

My special lady friends: Janine, Amy Lee and Lisa
Trading frenzy!
Trades and Gifties:
My trades:
Art Asylum Crazy Find:
Dorm revelers:

Art discussion:

Time to dance:

Oh yeah. It's the running man!

Morag, from the UK... and some headless Barbies that were just randomly lying around:

Artfest in Pictures: Part 2

2008-04-08T23:20:00.000-07:00

Painting I made in my first class: Family paintover.Shh... it's a present for my niece, Emily.

Anahata Katkin's wonderful, inspiring, awesome Funky Wallpaper People class:

It's Kecia!

One of these kids is doing his own thing... can you guess which one?
Mine's all short because the top and bottom was ugly so I chopped it off.

Here's the close up.

Dude on the highway with a guitar... very Port Townsend vibe.
Cool Port Townsend Architecture

   Dream House...

   PT BEACH.

   Seattle Airport

Pretty Pink-Haired Pullip

2008-03-24T18:09:00.000-07:00

I'm posting twice in one day over here, but I just had to show you what arrived in the mail from Singapore just a few hours ago:

Isn't she lovely? She's my second Pullip doll. I really don't know what has possessed me to all of a sudden start buying dolls. I think I'm aging backwards... at least mentally... but I just HAD to have them. I've always sort of liked Blythe dolls in theory, but there's something about them that I find a little scary... in a seventies horror movie sort of way. But these dolls are so incredibly pretty.

I first found out about them while browsing Flickr one day and stumbling on to several Pullip photo shoots! Since then, I just NEEDED to own one. Or two... or maybe three. But three is totally my limit.
Probably.

I found my first one (and this latest one) through a great shop on Ebay called Magma Heritage. I get them without the clothing and accessories, because they're cheaper, because sometimes their original clothing is a bit... odd... and because I like to find clothes for them myself. The cute little jumper above came from an Etsy shop called Karlithedark. I bought the jumper before the doll arrived because I wanted her to be decent for the photos I would inevitably take as soon as I pulled her out of the box. There are some really cute things for Pullips on Etsy. But you can also just go get some Barbie clothes and they should fit pretty well.

Except I think Barbie has a way bigger rack.

The new sisters are getting on very well. Telling secrets and borrowing each others outfits. Or they will be, when I get more than two. I didn't realize until recently that I bought both dresses in purple. Don't know what's up with that. I like Purple but... that's a bit much.

By the way, the red head is wearing a wig. (Also found on Ebay) She originally came with overly long orange ringlets and they just had to go. I like the sleekness of her new do. You can customize these dolls for days. You can buy them new eyes and everything. If you do a search for Pullip on Flickr, you'll see what I mean. On second thought, just GO HERE and HERE for lots of awesomeness.

And now... if you find yourself suddenly obsessed with ordering dolls and/or doll-related accouterments from far away lands, I accept full responsibility.

How on EARTH could you possibly resist?

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

2008-03-24T11:14:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to my friend Maija! The paper doll and the treasure egg are on the way!

My next giveaway will have to wait until after Artfest because GAH! There is much to do, much to do! Maybe it will be something I make at Artfest! Hmmmm. I'm sorry about psychotically talking about Artfest. I'm just so excited. Is it superfluous to bring three suitcases for a week long trip?

The Art Room

2008-03-22T16:34:00.000-07:00

I am so excited that people are taking me up on the challenge and posting pictures of their studios. I love to look at them all and I especially love visiting new blogs. My link list over there is growing and growing. I haven't linked everyone up yet but I will! And maybe there is a book in this after all. I'll definitely look into that at some point! Maybe a zine! I've always wanted to do a Zine. Mad Hat Zine. Has a nice ring, no?

It's been kind of a crazy week. Sorry I haven't updated sooner. One of the things I've been up to is cleaning my art room. Yes that's right! I feel like kind of a bastard after I asked everyone to post pictures of their messy studios... but I just had to clean it! I felt like it was giving me allergies. The carpet was heinous! Anyway I haven't done any actual work in it yet. I'm sure it will be a big disaster as soon as I start something, but in the meantime I wanted to post pictures of the clean version... as evidence that it once existed.
So the inside of the drawers are a big old hot mess but at least they look kind of orderly from afar. I got the silver drawer bins from The Container Store and I LOVE them. The drawers can be pulled out all the way and you can take them with you from room to room if you so choose, or just pull them out all the way to organize them, which I plan to do... someday.

The painting on the right is NOT finished. Please don't judge it. In fact, don't even look at it! Turn away! I am a monstaaa!

It's been unfinished for months... I'm not sure what's taking me so long. I guess I'm afraid I'll mess it up. I have that problem.

I'm 36 years old and I shop at PBteen, okay? What's it to you? I wanted a futon because sometimes I like to take a nap... and so does Monkey -- see?

Could she BE any prettier?
On the back of my door is my showcase of much of the art I've received from friends and as trades or swaps. Not all of it is there because I've realized that the two-way tape I was using is sort of permanent and now I'm worried about never being able to get the things off of there without ruining them! So, at present, the gallery is closed for very delicate repairs.

I can't seem to stop myself from defacing my computers. I did it to my last laptop and now this fairly new one was just looking too... un-me. So I stamped it with my hand-carved stamps, but the lighter ink didn't come out so I had to fill in with sharpie. The little hat is a new stamp I carved. It makes me smile.

I'm feeling kind of under the weather at the moment. It was hot today. Hotter than it has been in a while, and I think I got dehydrated. I don't handle the heat very well. But I'm drinking water now and I'm feeling better, so not to fret, those of you who might be inclined.

And don't forget to check back tomorrow to see if you've won the March Madness giveaway. Which reminds me... I must start writing names on bits of paper now.

Ta!

Omega Moo

2008-03-16T05:44:00.000-07:00

My spanking new moo cards have arrived! It took me a while to think of a good way to photograph them. Ended up hiring a spokesmodel: I'll be handing these out with my trades at Artfest. Here's a peek at one of my newest trades: It's one of those origami stars, dipped in glitter and sealed with some type of varnish. I forget which kind. So far I have... uh... this one. You might say I'm a bit behind. There are so many different things I want to do but I'm running out of TIME!! Two weeks away... and counting!! It's okay though, I work really well with a deadline. Meanwhile... as a procrastination tactic... I've been re-arranging my art room for optimal functionality. (Yes, that's what I said.) It's sort of in the mid-stages right now so it's still a disaster.

Hey, speaking of that, I would like to congratulate Theresa Martin and Debrina Pratt for taking the CHALLENGE and being brave enough to post pictures of their studios in less than camera ready conditions. Honorable mention goes to MarthaBrown from Destination Unknown who was way ahead of me and already posting pictures of her realistically untidy yet inspiring desktop.

As for the rest of you...

Gahhh, you're all a bunch of pansies.

There goes my book idea. I was gonna call it Creative Clutter -- or something less dumb. *sigh* (Creative Chaos?)

But I did enjoy looking at the other, more tidy, studio pictures from Suze of Pink Crayon Studio and Heather of Paper Follies... lots of fun taking peeks into people's creative worlds. (Did that sound pretentious? That SO sounded pretentious.)

I'm feeling the urge to reveal more of my dark soul. Are you ready for this?

Okay, here goes...

My name is Julie and I have a Little Plastic Trinket addiction:

I went on this crazed buying frenzy on Ebay and just had to have all of these little plastic bits of stuff. Sometimes I call them "jing jings." At press time, I have no plans to do anything with them. Maybe I'll add some to trades, give some away... make a cute piece of jewelry... but yeah... I really just wanted them.

And now... I have them. Wheeeeee!

The Artist's Mess

2008-03-13T00:37:00.000-07:00

The other day, my friend Kelly of Soul Humming posted a photo of her messy workspace. She said, "i always have a laugh when i see someone post a picture of their tidy well-organized studio. that is just not me. i could wish it to be but it ain't happening today!"

It gave me kind of an idea.

I love to feast my eyes on photos of other artist's studios, because most of the time they are beautifully well organized, stylishly decorated and massively enviable.

I endeavor for that perfection with my own art room... where everything is in it's place and looking fabulous... so if a photographer from Somerset or some other art magazine should happen to be strolling by my window, looking for inspiration... I would be ready for a shoot. The Artist In Her Creative Wonderland. Oh yes, I would be ready... I've got the cute little jars of cute little stuff, my own and my favorite artist's art on the walls, artbooks, sketchbooks and other bits of inspiration on the shelves, stylish yet functional furniture... well, maybe from a certain angle. And, of course, the extremely organized desk and drawers so that I need only to swivel in my chair to find my supplies, categorized by size, color and function... just waiting for me to snatch them up and infuse them with my artistic genius.

Yeah, it would have probably taken me a week or more to get my art room into that kind of shape, but it would certainly be worth it.

A space I can work in with some kind of dignity! Some kind of peace! This is how real artists conduct themselves! I am sure to make the best art of my life now... simply because I can find stuff! Hooray!

And then... approximately fifteen seconds later...

So... yeah. Oh please do click on the picture above to get the full blown version of this fiasco. I encourage it.

And I challenge all of you who are visiting here to leave a comment linking back to your own blog with a picture of your extremely untidy, real life, studio. Or send the pictures to me and I'll post them here!

Oh come on. I know you're out there. And I think looking at someone's crazed, creative mess is even more inspiring than looking at a room that has seen no action, artistically speaking. Know what I mean?

In related news, I am trying to stuff everything I have ever known into two suitcases to bring to Artfest, which is why I'm kind of back into organization mode for the moment. But it won't last. It never lasts.

Maybe that's a good thing?

A Little Something For Everyone

2008-03-08T00:38:00.000-08:00

Okay, first off -- here's the second part of the March Madness giveaway. I know I said that my paper doll would have a purse with goodies in it, but I found this cool egg! It's a little tin egg from Wallgreens of all places. Isn't it luscious?

And inside:A few small, happy, silly treasures. Some of the best stuff isn't showing because they're so teeny, but there are a good amount of those little metal roses, in pink and blue, and some other small charms in there. Click on the photo to make it bigger for a better peep. And feel free to leave a comment for your chance to win! The winner will be getting both the Purple Paper Doll: ...and the treasure egg. I'll be drawing a name on March 23rd, which is Easter -- yawn. But it also happens to be the birthday of my beloved AMN -- yay! Maybe I can think of a long distance way for her to do the drawing. Supa-fun!

So... yeah... what's next? OH! I joined another of Michelle Ward's Crusades !

This one is all about carving your own stamps, which was very convenient because I happened to have a bunch of the carvable stuff from Nasco stuffed in a drawer. I could only find one of the older ones I had made, it's on the far right, but the rest are new. And here's one I made tonight: Because I have Artfest on the brain! I can't believe it's getting so close!!! Yeeep!

Next up is the journal page I made in response to this video from my fabulous teacher and muse, Suzi Blu...

This is my, slightly goofy, interpretation:You can read the text if you like, but it's just a lot of stream of consciousness rambling. I'm having a little trouble writing with the white pen of the gods on top of semi-gloss gel medium. Should I switch back to matte? Does anyone have any solutions? Is anyone still with me? I know this is a long post. I should really update more often.

But I can't go without showing you these last few pictures. I almost forgot to post the adorable gift I received from Chelise of ZNE for the Sweet Little Nest Swap over at Speckled Egg. (Christ, that was a mouthful.) Anyway here it is: Dont you just love that sweet little red tutu?

Here's what I sent to her:

I teased it a few blogs back, but here it is all full-frontal. I made the little bird out of paper clay. I was attracted to the whole no-baking feature. It was pretty easy and I liked the way it turned out! I think I might be one of the only people in that swap not to go vintage, but I 'm just not a super-vintage kind of a girl. Is that so wrong?

Okay this is officially the longest post in the history of the world! No more pictures to upload! Thank the heavens.

Eww... I just had to kill a flying bug on my laptop screen. Ungood.

And now I don't know how to end this.

Um...
Hey! Look over there!

March Madness

2008-03-03T09:24:00.000-08:00

The other day I received in the mail the silliest, coolest thing from my friend Jennifer. Now, I normally don't post pictures of myself on this blog... or anyone else for that matter... but for this I will make an exception, because...

...she made me into a genie! I'm dancin', I'm grantin' wishes... and apparently I'm kind of stoned. Jen, where is that picture from?

I added the snazzy background because my scanner had dog hair on it and I think my paper self, and Jen's pretty artwork deserved a better backdrop.

In a related story, I was having a hard time with this month's giveaway.

What I had originally planned was taking too long and I just wasn't feeling it. Instead, I was inspired by Jen's random act of kindness and decided to make my own paper doll. With a little bit of an LA Ink twist...

Yeah, she's got some skin art. She's a little punk. But she's got a soft side too. She likes pink and sparkles and the novels of Jane Austen. She's multifaceted.

So she'll be what I'm giving away... and she comes with a little purse full of goodies. I don't have them all together yet, but I guarantee that some of the treasures I unearthed in downtown LA will be included in the prize. So leave a comment on any post this month and you go into the drawing.

Happy March!

I'm IT!

2008-02-29T22:45:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged by Deirdra Doan to list seven random facts about myself... this is my very first tag after three years of fairly steady bloggingness.

I. Have. Arrived.

Okay here goes, seven random facts about myself:

1.) I used to write fanfiction about the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer under the pen name, Julbie. Yep. That's right.

2.) I was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA. Met my husband online in an X-files chat room and moved here to California to live with him... which was my first time on a plane, at the age of 25. I've lived here now for nearly eleven years. (Oh my God! That's crazy!)

3.) I used to have a slight Kenneth Branagh obsession. I have seen all of his movies, especially Much Ado About Nothing (about 200 times... I used to work at a video store) and I even read his autobiography. It all came crashing down with the release of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

4.) In third grade, I wrote an essay that won me a trip to the circus. And then later, in girl scouts, I designed a patch that won me a balloon ride with Tug McGraw of the Philadelphia Phillies. But I wasn't allowed to go because I had exams at school.

5.) I am a hypochondriac. It runs in the family.

6.) I used to work in the TV industry. I was a writer's assistant/script coordinator on a about four or five shows. My favorite was a show called Freaks and Geeks, where I worked for the latest comedy rock star Judd Apatow. I am currently enjoying early retirement. I loved the work, but the hours are atrocious.

7.) I call my husband KF on this blog because he prefers an air of mystery. KF stands for Kringlebert Fishtibuns, which is from an Eddie Izzard comedy bit. Check out the video clip below.

Caution: Do not watch if you are not down with profanity... or transvestites... or transvestites who use profanity. But I think you should give it a chance because he's very smart and funny. The Kringlebert Fishtibuns part doesn't come until about four minutes into the second clip... but I posted them both because the first one will help the second one make more sense. And it's funnier.

OH I almost forgot, I have to tag seven more people. So I nominate...

Tally Oliveau of Live Each Day

Kelly Snelling of Soul Humming

Lisa of Blogging Queen

Catherine Witherell of Happy Day Art

Tigerpants of Tigerpants Nation

Kecia of Lemoncholy's Flight of Fancy

and

Annemarie of Me, Him and Him

Okay... GO!

And The Leap Prize Goes To...

2008-02-29T03:35:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Monica Magness of Girl Gone Thread Wild! She is the lucky winner of the trinket box (pictured above) with the secret stash of goodies inside! I made sure to really pack the box... you know, so it wouldn't rattle in the mail.

I chose the winner after midnight because I just couldn't wait. This giving stuff away thing is kind of fun.

Check back next week (or maybe sooner) to see what I'm giving away for the month of March!

The Crusades

2008-02-27T21:02:00.000-08:00

So, I've always been a fan of Michelle Ward's art and I'd heard about her "street team" but I never realized you could just go be a part of it whenever you wanted to for heaven's sake!

Do you want to join an artistic street crusade from the comfort of your own home? Sure, we all do! To find out how and start making art right away, click this link.

I missed the last "crusade" which was a great idea... to journal one of your blog entries. That's definitely something I'm still planning to work on. This latest crusade... ...is called Pandora's Box and it's about making a journaling kit. I really just started journaling and I end up tearing my whole art room apart just to do a couple of pages. So I decided to give this a try, because it would be nice to have a little stash of goodies right at hand... and something to take to Artfest in April. Oh did I mention I was going to Artfest? I think I might have.

Anyway... I wouldn't say I've gone totally portable, but this is what I came up with:

Is it cheating to use ArtBins? (That bumper sticker is left over from a strike rally, by the way.)

Of course I need a box of scraps! Lots of paper, blank and decorative, images and some stamps (torn off their mounts... why have I never thought of that before!?).

Top level of the tool bin. Loads of stuff, including pens, inks, brushes and watercolors.

Bottom level of tool bin. Some glue, a crap load of paints, some letter stamps and a box of...

Dant Dant DAAAAAAAN!

I have this huge tin of Caran D'ache (126 delicious colors) but some of them are kind of repetitive and also the giant tin is fairly unwieldy, so I picked out my favorite...oh... ninety or so... and put them in this little box.

And that's it. Now I want to go make some pages!

TTFN.

"Can I be excused? I seem to have the plague." - Eddie Izzard

2008-02-26T22:33:00.000-08:00

Well it appears that I am getting the flu or some such.

Which blows.

But I haven't updated in almost a week so I'm going to post a few things and then go watch a movie in bed. I've been Tivoing lots of movies lately, which is a nice thrifty alternative to renting... and also you can keep them for as long as you like. One of the movies I recorded is Delicatessen. I started watching it in my art room but I couldn't follow the subtitles while working. It looks amazingly good, so I transfered it to the bedroom and will watch it later with full attention.

I took some photos last Friday when I met up with the ArtCHIXies at the Artbar in Santa Ana, but I believe the lovely and talented Miss Kelly Snelling will be posting those pictures as I sent them all to her. Be sure and check her blog this week for a gander. I'm still trying to figure out the settings on my camera. That's code for... I really suck at photography but I still like to take pictures. It's a little frustrating, actually. Does anyone know of a good digital photography class in the LA area?

Man, I'm cranky.

Okay here's some stuff:I took this on Friday afternoon after having AMAZING Dim Sum with the lovely and talented Tally Oliveau in Chinatown. I think it's some kind of Jell-o type substance. If I hadn't eaten to full capacity I would have asked for a taste, but apparently there is NOT always room for Jell-o. I settled for a photo.

This is my sweet Monkey getting dried off after playing in the rain. Because I haven't posted a picture of her in a while.

This is a foam stamp that I'm too lazy to clean.

This is a little tag I made for a special friend. I know what you're thinking... but no, that is not a baby picture of me. It's a picture of Phyllis Madonna of the Madonna Inn. I bought it as a post card when I stayed there with my mom. I don't know what Phyllis looks like now, but it would be interesting if she looked like me. She also loves pink. Maybe she's my psychic twin.

This is journal page I wanted to do based on a quote that I first heard here...

...in one of my very favorite Suzi Blu videos. Watch and be inspired.

(uh oh, I just realized that this video is not where that quote came from. Sigh. I guess I simply must watch all of Suzi Blu's videos to find the right one. Woe is me.)

And finally... here is my inevitable Heath Ledger journal page. I realize I didn't know him. But I'm kind of still not over it. I guess that's weird. But it is what it is.
And now I must go, because I seriously feel like crud. I'm annoying KF with my whining and he's annoying me with his spraying everything with Lysol.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD!

But the good news is... Trinket Box drawing this Friday!!! Which reminds me, I have to go pack it with secret goodies!

A Peep

2008-02-21T16:24:00.000-08:00

So I had been staying away from swaps for a while, mostly because I can't handle the responsibility. I'm like a child and I leave everything till the last minute and then when I do finally finish something it sits in a box for centuries before I take it to the post office.

It's like this: I love to make things and I love to give things away. But I don't like HAVING to make something and then HAVING to give it away. That's why I don't sell anything... or I should say why I haven't sold anything yet. It's a lot of pressure to have to make something or many somethings that I think are good enough for people to want to pay for in the first place and then be all responsible and mail things in a timely fashion.

Yeah I know. I'm a whiner. But that's why I got into these blog giveaways. (By the way, don't forget to check back February 29th to see if you're a winner!) And that's ALSO why I signed up for the Sweet Little Nest swap even though I have never really done anything with birds, eggs or nests in my entire life.

The great thing about joining a swap like this that I'm getting inspiration to try out a lot of different ideas and to finally use some of the stuff that's been clogging the arteries of my art room for years now. You know, those things that you want to save for later... for a special project, or when you get a better idea for them, or when the queen comes to tea. And then later, when you want to use those things, you can't find them. And then you do find them when you're looking for something else and you think you're moving them to a place where you'll find them more easily next time but really you're just re-hiding your precious little tidbits because they're too good to use. I think you know what I mean. Or maybe you don't and I'm just a freak.

Well, that is neither here nor there, because this time around, I used some of my "special" stuff and tried some things I've never tried before and I came up with something I quite like. I can't show it to you in it's entirety yet because I'd like it to be a surprise for my swap partner, Chelise. But here's a peep:

And now while we're on the subject of precious tidbits...

I decided to take a detour into Downtown LA this afternoon because I had some time and I just felt like shopping.

I'd heard great things about Berger Beads, so I went to finally check it out... feh... I wasn't very impressed. It was a lot of stuff I'd seen before, with the really cool, unusual stuff in boxes along the walls that you had to ask for help with. The ladies running the joint were a little on the cranky side so I wasn't super excited to ask for their help. But I did manage to get a few goodies....

Then I went across the street to a place called Athenian Fashions Inc. where they had all kinds of really cool stuff that you wouldn't find in an ordinary bead shop. And the very friendly proprietor gave me a really nice discount for no reason at all! I didn't even ask. He just went and cut about six dollars off the price for all this good stuff: I was so excited to see those little metal roses I gasped out loud then looked around greedily to make sure no one had witnessed my discovery of the holy grail. Those bags pictured above in pink and blue were only $3 each! And those pretty blue crystal thingies are heart shaped pendants. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them... but look how pretty!!

Then I went around the corner to Bohemian Crystal which had so much good stuff I got kind of overwhelmed and bought things that I REALLY have no idea what to do with...

I bought a veritable crap load of those frame pendants and I thought I'd put some kind of art in the center and seal with diamond glaze or clear embossing powder or something. I guess we'll see. They were SO CHEAP! I just had to have them.

You may find the results of this shopping trip showing up in future giveaways so stay tuned, mammas!

...and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.

2008-02-19T16:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I see that a lot of new people are checking in with my blog and I'm sorry for being such a tool and not updating as much as I should. I promise to be a more diligent updater from now on. I've been wanting to post for days but I just keep getting interrupted. Stupid life.

So... our top story tonight still pertains to Valentines Day because I don't want it to be over yet. I hope you all had a lovely time of it. Ours was pretty interesting, because we had these reservations for Mr. Chow that were made before the strike ended. Oh yeah, the strike is ovaaa, bitches!

(Sorry about the "bitches" comment. I didn't mean you.)

Anyway, the only reservation time we could get was a very rigid 6:30pm and even with KF leaving work way early, the traffic was against us and we didn't make it. Mr. Chow is a snooty, overpriced, shee shee kind of place but their food is magical so I was a little bummed out. We ended up at The Cheesecake Factory for God's sake, freezing our hinders off on the patio because it would have been an hour-long wait to actually sit on the inside of the restaurant. But we still had fun. We ordered a ridiculous and embarrassing amount of food and ended up taking most of it home.

Now... due to the strike and the fact that our present buying has been steadily escalating to terrifying proportions... we had decided that our presents this V day were going to be small tokens of affection and nothing more.

So imagine my surprise when KF placed into my hands a box containing this:

Cue choir of angels.

(This isn't the 5D which I thought I wanted because I had camera envy from reading Dooce's blog. This is the 40D, which after much in depth research that I may or may not go into later, is just as good, comes with a cool macro feature built right into the lens and is almost half the price.)

In addition to the camera, KF got me a whole mess of other photography equipment, including a tripod and an external flash.

And I got him... a tee shirt. That says "Pants" on it.

So... yeah.

Hey! Here's a picture I took with my new camera.

They're a couple of paper mache birds that I'm making because I wanted to see if I could. They look a little like birds, don't they? I'm going to paint them up and maybe then you'll see what I had in mind for them. In the meanwhile, I realize this picture is a little yellow, but that's just the lighting I deal with in my house. And I kind of like it. It's warm. When I try to tone down the yellow, things look too washed out.

I'm eventually going to take a real photography class and learn how to use my fabulous camera. Until then, I shall continue to post mediocre pictures and ask you to please not tell me how lame they are.

Speaking of lame. I'm watching American Idol, and we're only two singers in and it's so cheeeeeeesy. Hey... Simon agrees with me. The third guy is good but now it's MOON RIVER!!! WHAT THE EFF???? These theme nights have got to go. Twee as hell. Geugh.

Oh one more thing. I'm pretty much over my thing about not writing a lot in my visual journal:

But the problem is... it ends up looking like this.

Hmmf.

Drumroll Please

2008-02-15T05:18:00.001-08:00

And the winner is...

Congratulations to Katie from Rustic Stains.

She is the lucky winner of the valentine tin full of pink goodness.

Don't be discouraged if you didn't win, I have another giveaway still active.... the little trinket box filled with small surprises. The drawing for that will be on February 29th.

And then I think I'll do another giveaway in March. Stay tuned!

The Hour Approacheth

2008-02-13T15:00:00.001-08:00

Get your comments (for the OWOH giveaway) in by midnight tonight and watch this space for further developments.

Edited to Add:
The comments keep rolling in! I've got a lot going on tomorrow, so I've decided that the best way to do this is to leave the contest open until midnight tomorrow night and then announce the winner on Friday, February 15th. So you'll have all day tomorrow to leave your comments for a chance to win!

I was going to use the number generator but it seems so unromantic on this, the romantic-est of all holidays. So I'm going to print out all the comments and snip them up into a bowl or a hat or something.

See you soon!

I am a spy in the house of love.

2008-02-12T07:06:00.000-08:00

The title of this post is the lyric I've had in my head for the past two days while working on this journal page.I say lyric and not song because that's the only line I can remember. I don't even know anything about the song except that it might be from the eighties and the singer sounds really macho. Anyway, this page has lots of writing on it, but you'll have to take my word for it, because it's all covered up. I'm pretty sneaky that way.

Hey remember that Connect Four commercial from our collective youth? "Pretty sneaky, sis." OH MY GOD, IT'S ON YOU TUBE!
I used to love that game. I was kind of a dweeb.

So anyway, I like how the above page turned out but I kind of wish it wasn't in my journal because I'd like to see what it would look like all covered in wax. I've been experimenting with beeswax (so cool!)but I don't think it's a good idea to have wax covered pages in a journal. Or maybe I'm wrong. I've noticed that some of the pages already stick together a little bit. Not in any disastrous way, but they are a little tacky. (Some more tacky than others. ...wah, waaahh) Does anyone have any advice on that front? Be sure and let me know.

So I'm pretty astonished by the amazing turnout for my little tin heart giveaway. A hundred and twelve people so far! I've got to start making little name strips to put into a hat. And it's nice to have more new people visit my blog. Maybe I'll have a giveaway every month! Bribe people to read my blog. I'm not above it.

I'd really like to thank Lisa Oceandreamer for coming up with such a great idea. If you've just tuned in, I'm talking about the One World One Heart blog giveaway event. It's just genius. I first heard about it on my lovely friend, Kelly's blog and since joining up myself I've found a ton of other great blogs and I put my name in to win so much great stuff. But honestly, I can't remember what contests I've joined and which one's I haven't gotten to yet. There are just so many people involved in this. It's kind of awesome.

Well, I have to attend to Miss Monkey the dog because she seems to be terrified by a cardboard box in my art room. That chick is crazy.

I just want to show you one more thing..
It's another little postcard on it's way to a special friend. That is, if I ever decide to haul my lazy carcass to the post office one of these days.

Hey I think I'm up to 116 comments. That's four more since I started writing this post! And speaking of that, the tin heart drawing will be on Thursday, February 14th, but I'm not sure what time because there are participants from extremely diverse time zones. Plus I have all kinds of stuff going on that day, as I'm sure many of you do. I'll have to give it more thought.

Febroolous Giveaways!

2008-02-06T23:06:00.000-08:00

In case you care... February is my second favorite month. October is my favorite, because it's my birthday month and... I guess I'm kinda into myself...

But I love this month for many reasons, mostly because of Valentine's Day. Red and Pink as far as the eye can see! Even when I had no KF to love, I enjoyed Valentine's Day because of little paper valentines and big candy filled hearts. I'm not above buying one of those suckers for myself and have done so in the past. But this week KF brought one home for me from the store and I decided that in honor of the holiday, I would EAT all of the chocolate contents of said heart and add a bunch of pretty thingies inside to hold another giveaway.

Now... The heart is a pretty red tin with sparkles, but it had a brand name on it and I didn't know how to cover it, so I used this paper clay that I've never used before and I think it turned out okay. I'm not so graceful with clay. Well, you can be the judge. The tin isn't really the prize, it's just the container. Inside I added a bunch of girlie trinkets to be used with wild mixed-media abandon:
I'll be choosing from the same batch of commenters for this prize, but I'll be doing it on Valentine's Day. I'm doing this mostly for fun, but also to participate in the One World One Heart event.

You should check it out! There are so many other blogs doing giveaways! Really beautiful things!

By the way, I have another giveaway on this blog... for the little "I Love Stuff" trinket box and any comments on this blog will be entered into that drawing as well (unless you indicate that you only want to be included in one or the other.) The drawing for the "I Love Stuff" box will be held on February 29th. Leap day! I think we ought to celebrate it as a holiday, don't you? We can decorate with frogs and stuff.

Speaking of days that should be holidays, did you all have a nice Super Tuesday? I don't really know a lot about politics and I'm especially confused about delegates and why we need them in the first place, but it's exciting to me anyway because this is the first big step toward CHANGE! So yay!

Okay, it's time to go. I need to work on a few things, including some treats I'm sending out to people in the next few weeks. People who have sent things to me in the past and have long been deserving reciprocation.

Here's a peep at one postcard sized thingie: I took the photo of that sign over a barber shop in a neighborhood nearby and I've always wanted to use it. It reminded me of something in a Cohen Brothers movie.

Titans of the Gridiron

2008-02-03T23:14:00.000-08:00

I'm so very REALLY not into football, but the last half of that superbowl was extremely exciting. I went to a friend's house who is a huge Giants fan. He wasn't actually at the party because he managed to get last minute tickets to the game and went with his dad, but we were all there at his house, with his wife, cheering for him... and texting him... and hoping he wasn't having a stroke. It was a good time.

However, in my opinion, the commercials this year were not up to snuff. Most of them were just lame, but so many made absolutely no sense. It's like the theme this year was "surrealist non sequiturs." There were wildly outdated 80's references (The Roxbury Guys?), supermodels doing the Thriller dance with lizards? What was that commercial even for? And then there was that one where the woman's heart jumped out of her chest, flopped onto her keyboard, grew skinny little legs, walked up to her boss, who was at his desk eating a lobster (???) and held up a bloody sign saying "I Quit."

Um... ew?

It was almost as disturbing as the talking baby with the grown up voice. I think some of you may know how I feel about ads, shows and movies using babies with grown up voices. I'm not a fan. It may have been kind of cute back in the eighties with Look Who's Talking when, let's face it, we were all kind of tacky and had bad taste... and before we knew that John Travolta and Kirstie Alley were members of a scary cult bent on world domination... ahh innocence... but now it's just wrong. And not even remotely original. Who's in a meeting getting pats on the back for pitching "Okay, it's a baby, but it's got a grown man's voice. And we make it's lips move with CGI."

"BRILLIANT! But CGI is pricey, just feed it some peanut butter."

"No, you're thinking of horses."

"And dogs. You feed peanut butter to horses and dogs to make them appear as if they are talking."

"I don't think they'll let us feed a bunch of peanut butter to a baby... but I'll check with the lawyers."

"Whatever, we'll make it work. This idea is groundbreaking! Let's go have lobster for lunch!"

And scene.

Uh... I don't know what that was all about. I'm very tired.

Crack is whack.

Sooooooooo....

I made this journal page:It's kind of busy. It's made up of all these bits I have lying around on or near my desk. Tiny things that I really like and don't want to throw away. I'm trying to find my symbolic alphabet.

It's a pretty bad scan, though. The colors are much better in person, I swear.

I'm going through a period where I think everything I make sucks tragically and I want to throw it all away and start all over again and go to art school and learn everything and be fabulous.

I also want to make a clean slate with a brand new blog because this one is filled with nonsense and ugly pictures.

...I really need to go to bed.

Oh but wait! I forgot to mention that I joined this great little swap over at Speckled Egg.
It's my first blog swap and I eventually want to host one myself but I have to get advice from the pros and figure out all the logistics and whatnot. Anyway I'm really excited for this one. I think it'll be fun!

Newest Journal Entry

2008-01-31T21:05:00.000-08:00

So this is my journal entry for Suzi Blu's first assignment.

Page closed.

Page open.

I think I had more to say but I'm watching LOST!!! There's no room in my brain for anything else right now.

Oh but PS! I'm definitely registering for Art Unraveled, but whether or not I have to cancel before the cut off date depends entirely on how long this writer's strike is going to last, i.e. how long the AMPTP is going to continue to be a bunch of greedy little troll men. It could be a while, but I'll hold out hope, nonetheless.

Lost is over now, and it's looking like it might be a promising season. I guess we'll see! I hope we don't run out of episodes too soon!

Want some candy?

2008-01-28T19:53:00.000-08:00

So I'm loving this idea of "Blog Candy" and I thought I'd make a fun little something to give away. It's just a little 2x3 box... decorated in the girly style... with a couple of surprises inside.

Wouldn't yoouuuu like to know?

It's sealed with some triple-thick gloss which means you wont have to be too gentle with it... and also, for those of you who are slightly glitter-phobic, this means the glitter shouldn't constantly end up on you, your face, hair, clothing, eyeballs, etc. whenever you handle it. I am sensitive to these needs as I was freaking coated with glitter during the making of. And possibly still am. It depends on which way the light is hitting me.

This was supposed to be the giveaway for the month of February but I couldn't wait. It's almost February isn't it? Wait? What day is it? Where am I?

Okay, January 28th is close enough.

So how this works is - if you leave a comment on this blog (on any post) from now until the end of February, your name goes into the drawing to win this little box and the goodies therein.

Don't forget to leave your email if you don't have a link to your blog in the comment section. The last time I had a giveaway it turned into a dud because the person who won didn't have a link and didn't leave an email... and I guess she never re-visited my blog because she never contacted me with her info. Consequently, I still have the other give-away item. Maybe I'll do that one next month. It's been like a year now. I think that's an overly appropriate time to wait for someone to contact you over something they won.

Right?

Okay. So. That's that. And now here's a picture of some of my OTHER Artfest trades. These are the paper charms that I came up with, which aren't as fabulous as the little origami stars, but I like them just as much. They used to be Marie Antoinette themed, but I decided to gear them more toward the Artfest theme which is all owl-y and forest-y and naturific. I drew the owl and then shrunk him down to an inchie size. The paper is just dyed with re-inker ink (and some watercolor) folded, glued and diamond glazed. I was going to go with another color other than pink... but... why?

Hey is anybody going to Art Unraveled? Seems like there are a lot of really good classes. But Arizona? In August?

My Christmas Tree is Still Up

2008-01-24T13:23:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's true. And yes, it is a disgrace.

My house is in total disarray and yet I am unable to keep out of my art room... which is quite tidy in comparison... which is very terrifying... but all I really want to do is zone out and play with my art.

Which I guess is where this came from:--my latest journal page.

It actually has an even deeper meaning (Oh yeah, I'm wicked deep) but I'm not going to share that part of it. I'm not big with the sharing.

Which reminds me, I want to thank everyone who responded to my previous post about journaling. It all makes very good sense. I think I'm just not the kind of person to write down or even say everything that I'm really thinking and feeling. I like to hide. I'm a hider. And maybe my art looks all pretty and cute on the outside, which is very intentional... but there are some hidden things there that only I can see. And that's how I like it.

So yeah...

I'm very in love with my new journal. I love the size of the pages, I love that it opens flat. I love the dangly things on the binder... and newly added ribbon... I love to touch it and hold it and throw it around. I like it sitting next to me while I type this blog.

And I'm so excited for Suzi Blu's upcoming journal assignments. She is such a huge inspiration to me. I was even thinking of making a video, but there's just no getting around that whole BEING ON CAMERA aspect to it, which is decidedly less desirable to me. As I said, I am a hider. I used to work in tv, and one of the writer/producers offered to throw me in with the extras for a scene and I told him I couldn't because I was in the witness protection program.

Let's see...

Oh, I'm also very excited for Artfest! which is fast approaching. I have my plane ticket, my rental car, my hotel room, my wallpaper for Anahata's class which I'm crazy crazy excited for... yeep! Now I'm just working on my trades. Which, in case you don't know, are little bits of handmade somethings that you make and trade with people once you get there. So you go home with lots of handmade goodies yourself.

I'm definitely doing paper charms, and I like the ones I've come up with, but then I saw THIS
and I was infatuated at first sight. So I Googled Origami Stars and made some of my own: They're really fun to do and something to play with while watching tv. They're going into the trade pile after I pretty them up a bit and add some wire.

Okay, I have had Project Runway on pause for about half an hour because I was watching it while writing and things were beginning to make no sense. But now I'd like to get back to it and find out who's ugly denim dress wins tonight, and who is OUT. The whole concept of a denim dress is gross to me, so I refuse to believe that any of them are going to be anything other than ugly. So there.

Oh one more thing... I wanted to show you this disturbing photo: I took it in Hollywood last week when we went to see Cloverfield. I highly recommend seeing it in the theater because it's actually more of a ride than a movie and I don't see how it's going to translate well to the small screen. I didn't have this experience, but my friend, Jojo, was a little queasy afterward, so maybe take some Dramamine or something.

That is all.

Edited to add
Please take a minute to go to my sidebar and click on the donate badge for Bernie Berlin's: A Place to Bark. She is days away from the end of a charity challenge for which she could win $50,000 toward her amazing dog rescue. You don't have to donate a ton of money, what she needs is high a number of individual people donating more than anything. Can you spare ten dollars for a very good cause? Check out her blog for more info and for really cute pictures of puppies!

A Real Tragedy

2008-01-22T16:16:00.000-08:00

28 years old. Beautiful. Extraordinarily talented. Gone.

What a waste.

Quickie

2008-01-15T21:51:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to pop in and show you another journal page...
I was watching The Illusionist and I got the urge to make this painting.

I accidentally re-printed some letters with my hand and made it all smudgy, but I liked the way it looked so I didn't try to fix it.

I'm having a crisis, though. I'm scared to journal on some of my pages! I am never at a loss for things to go on about, so there is definitely plenty to write... but sometimes I just want the pictures to do the talking.

I look at this journal as a way for me to find my visual voice. (Is that pretentious enough?)

What I'm saying is that maybe I don't want to do a lot of writing in my art journal because writing nonsense is what this blog is all about. Do I have to actually journal in my art journal or is it cool to just make art? I guess there aren't any rules. I'm probably over-thinking things as usual. It's my first real art journal. I look to the experts for guidance.

Anyone?

The Salad Days

2008-01-07T23:26:00.000-08:00

So way back in the time before the writers' strike, which I am now calling "The Salad Days" because of Raising Arizona, I made a purchase that I have been keeping secret and safe, much like Frodo when he carried the ring into the mountains of Mordor or whatever the eff.

I've been using a lot of my older art supplies ever since cleaning and organizing my art room and discovering that I actually had a bunch of old art supplies, some of which have never even been touched! I am especially using them in my fabulous new Art Journal that I sometimes just want to lie down and go to sleep in.

But this particular art supply was relatively new and untouched because I just couldn't bring myself to tarnish it's pristine glory. Look at that. 126 colors of Caran d'ache, Neocolor II. Don't you just want to run your hand over them with a white glove?

I opened them for the first time the other day to use in my journal. Perhaps fortuitously, there was a mishap and I knocked one of the trays off of my desk. A handful of them broke. It was very sad for a minute, but then I scotch-taped them back together and am now using all the colors with wild abandon.

Here are just a couple of new entries:

This second one is not finished, but I still wanted to show it. The clouds were inspired by some of the tattoo art I've seen on the show LA Ink.

O... M... G. I just found out, by looking up the link, that a new season of LA Ink starts tomorrow!

I know, right? That's like... so completely rad.

I Am A Golden Goddess

2008-01-03T00:53:00.000-08:00

In response to Kelly's comment on my previous post:

Let me introduce you to my Rock Band characters...

Aren't they hot?

KF and I have a rock band called Alec Baldwin. That's KF's character, below, with the long, luxurious blonde hair.

Oh and look! I put dangly things on my Art Journal!

"Two Words: Wilford Brimley" -- KF

2008-01-01T21:58:00.000-08:00

So we were watching the Rose Bowl Parade today, New Years Day... that we Tivoed and watched at a more reasonable hour, of course. I really like the floats, but the awkward cheesiness of the presentation was quite off-putting. Emeril Lagasse was the Grand Wizard (or whatever) of the parade and when they put a microphone in his face, he yelled "Let's kick it up a notch! Bam!" And the crowd cheered. And I couldn't believe it was real. We are, as a country, as a human race, officially willing to accept just about anything as entertainment.

I think Christopher Guest needs to do a "Waiting for Guffman," "Best in Show" kind of movie about the Rose Bowl Parade.

Al Roker and his bland female counterpart were hosting the parade this year and after a few of Al's flat, annoying uncle who asks you to pull his finger type jokes... I asked KF why he was so famous. I mean seriously... I'm not looking for Sarah Silverman to host the Rose Bowl parade or anything, but is it not possible to find someone who is both wholesome AND clever? KF's response was, "Two Words: Wilford Brimley." And I was confused. What did the old codger from the the movie "Cocoon" and the Quaker Oats commercials have to do with Al Roker? Turns out KF was talking about the guy who used to go around celebrating the birthdays of one-hundred-year-old people. Who apparently isn't as famous as KF thinks he is, because he thought his name was Wilford Brimley. What IS that guy's name?

ANYWAY, we didn't get very far into the parade. We're kind of cranky (CLEARLY) today because we're all hung over and tired from last night's party. Which was fun, even though Monkey was freaking out for most of the night. She's got some fear issues. She's such a sweet dog, though. I wish other people could see how happy and playful she is!Right now she's conked out. It's been a stressful couple of weeks for her. Poor poopy.

In arty news, I finally made the art journal I've been wanting to make for months and months. I followed Teesha Moore's directions, which can be found hyah. They're really easy to follow, but the hardest part was cutting the paper to the right size. They still stick up a bit in front, but I'll live with it. Here it is!!
Inside front cover:
Inside back cover:
And my first entry:
And to answer Tally's question from my last post... this is what was in the big box...KF's dream since he's fourteen years old.

And Happy New Year, everybody!

Christmas in Pictures

2007-12-27T00:44:00.000-08:00

The pink tiara is a gift and unexpected random act of kindness from Beth Moran!