Disclaimer: No actual beverages were consumed during the making of this post. All images guaranteed genuine, and obtained on the sly in Chicago's finest liquor stores. No photo manipulation of any kind. Beverages may taste worse than they appear.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
again, ew.
Continuing my occasional series on bad beverage ideas, I give you: clambeer.
Disclaimer: No actual beverages were consumed during the making of this post. All images guaranteed genuine, and obtained on the sly in Chicago's finest liquor stores. No photo manipulation of any kind. Beverages may taste worse than they appear.
Disclaimer: No actual beverages were consumed during the making of this post. All images guaranteed genuine, and obtained on the sly in Chicago's finest liquor stores. No photo manipulation of any kind. Beverages may taste worse than they appear.
Monday, January 26, 2009
congratulations, neil!
Following Neil Gaiman on Twitter is one of the small delights of my day. His dog is sick, but recovering. There's no honey for his "almost but not entirely unlike tea" in his hotel room (quote actually by Douglas Adams, but big love to NG for reminding me about it). He's attending the press junket for Coraline and tweeting incessantly throughout (p.s. I've just seen the 3D trailer, and it's breathtaking). His mind moves like lightning, his spelling is admirable, I have no idea when he has time to write his brilliant books. It's good stuff. And so I was extra pleased to sign into Twitter this morning and find that he's just this very second won the Newbery Award for The Graveyard Book. Congratulations, Neil! Now go demand some honey for your tea; the marmalade isn't going to cut it, and you have interviews to give.Sunday, January 25, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
reno trip
There, Dad. I'm hardly late at all. xo.
These are mostly not great, due to my having to hide the camera from G-Baby if I wanted to get any pictures. He spent the better part of the weekend trying to get it from me while I was trying to shoot extra-cute video of him. I have at least three vid clips that end with him saying, "See me? See me?" and taking the camera away from me so that the film runs out on a blank bit of carpet with my voice saying, "But if you hold it, we can't see you." It's the stuff of film legend, I tell you.
When he's not trying to steal electronics, the boy is mad for puzzles. He's a whiz with a giant puzzle of dinosaurs that my parents gave him; I wish I'd been able to get good film of him putting it together. His other favorite of the moment is a big marble track that got disassembled and reassembled about 10 times over the weekend, and I did get some nice shots of that.
I seem not to have gotten a single good picture of Abby, to my chagrin. There are very few of Tim, all taken on one afternoon. Mostly just Grant. And one inexplicable shot of my breakfast, which I guess I took to show him what to do with the camera. And a scan of a watercolor painting G made for me; he also did a really great picture of a pear that I couldn't scan because the yellow is too pale. I'll see if I can take a picture of that this weekend. I'm under no illusion that it was intentional, but it's hilariously pear-like - a graceful yellow blob with a straight green stem coming out the top, and a quick flattening of the brush into a suggestion of leaf. Very funny.
"Give me the camera."
"Again, I must insist that you give me the camera."
A lovely closeup of G-baby's fingers, taken by himself.
He did manage to take two surprisingly focused self-portraits while pushing the button indiscriminately.
(This one with strawberry waffle-face.)
These are mostly not great, due to my having to hide the camera from G-Baby if I wanted to get any pictures. He spent the better part of the weekend trying to get it from me while I was trying to shoot extra-cute video of him. I have at least three vid clips that end with him saying, "See me? See me?" and taking the camera away from me so that the film runs out on a blank bit of carpet with my voice saying, "But if you hold it, we can't see you." It's the stuff of film legend, I tell you.
When he's not trying to steal electronics, the boy is mad for puzzles. He's a whiz with a giant puzzle of dinosaurs that my parents gave him; I wish I'd been able to get good film of him putting it together. His other favorite of the moment is a big marble track that got disassembled and reassembled about 10 times over the weekend, and I did get some nice shots of that.
I seem not to have gotten a single good picture of Abby, to my chagrin. There are very few of Tim, all taken on one afternoon. Mostly just Grant. And one inexplicable shot of my breakfast, which I guess I took to show him what to do with the camera. And a scan of a watercolor painting G made for me; he also did a really great picture of a pear that I couldn't scan because the yellow is too pale. I'll see if I can take a picture of that this weekend. I'm under no illusion that it was intentional, but it's hilariously pear-like - a graceful yellow blob with a straight green stem coming out the top, and a quick flattening of the brush into a suggestion of leaf. Very funny.
"Give me the camera."
"Again, I must insist that you give me the camera."
A lovely closeup of G-baby's fingers, taken by himself.
He did manage to take two surprisingly focused self-portraits while pushing the button indiscriminately.
(This one with strawberry waffle-face.)
Thursday, January 15, 2009
when i fly away
I'm taking a long weekend off to visit these people.
They look nice, and I hear they have sunshine, and more than 0 degrees, so I thought I'd just drop by and hope they have room for me. Wish me luck.
(My post title is taken from a lovely song by Jason Harrod. Check him out.)
They look nice, and I hear they have sunshine, and more than 0 degrees, so I thought I'd just drop by and hope they have room for me. Wish me luck.
(My post title is taken from a lovely song by Jason Harrod. Check him out.)
Monday, January 12, 2009
interiors
I've been trying to take a decent picture of this lovely studio porcelain tumbler by Non Fiction Design ever since I bought it at the Renegade Holiday show. I didn't mean for these to turn out quite so broody-looking, but I like them; they showcase the stark arrangement of twigs quite nicely, I think. The day after I bought the tumbler I found this perfectly twiggy twig on the sidewalk near my building. With the addition of some chunks of recycled glass to weight the twig down, a beautiful winter-themed display piece was born.
Friday, January 9, 2009
roving reporters of the weird
More phone pics.
This is my favorite stencil art ever. On West Wilson.
Yes, friends, that is a DumDum lollipop plugging the neck of an abandoned half-empty liquor bottle. At least, I hope it's liquor. In front of a Red Eye paperbox, no less. That's poetry.
Kill your tv.
On the menu at Renaldi's Pizza.
This gem is courtesy of Leslie. I found a similar one the Sunday of the Renegade Holiday show that said "I think I'm safe now," but didn't upload it before my cell phone broke. This one's much
better, anyway.
From a tab after a summer breakfast with Leslie.
That is one sweet upcharge.
This is my favorite stencil art ever. On West Wilson.
Yes, friends, that is a DumDum lollipop plugging the neck of an abandoned half-empty liquor bottle. At least, I hope it's liquor. In front of a Red Eye paperbox, no less. That's poetry.
Kill your tv.
On the menu at Renaldi's Pizza.
This gem is courtesy of Leslie. I found a similar one the Sunday of the Renegade Holiday show that said "I think I'm safe now," but didn't upload it before my cell phone broke. This one's muchbetter, anyway.
From a tab after a summer breakfast with Leslie.That is one sweet upcharge.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Best Project of 2008
I'm a long time getting around to this post, but better late than never. I had a wonderful project a few months ago that turned out to be one of the most rewarding and amazing things I've ever done, so I've been meaning to write about it here.
One of my favorite regular customers loved my Loft Earrings, made with vintage cotton pearls. She's a longtime fan of the wonderful artist Michele Oka Doner, and admired a pearl necklace that Doner often wears (you can see it in the picture on her website, although not very clearly), and asked if I'd be willing to undertake a custom order for a necklace made with the cotton pearls from Loft. I adore those pearls; I was definitely up for the idea.
My lovely customer is a fan of my Noir and Urban Seaweed collections, and asked if I could incorporate one of those design concepts into the necklace. Michele Oka Doner is from Miami Beach, and has done a number of marine-themed installation pieces in Miami; in tribute to the original inspiration for this piece, I decided to try to work an Urban Seaweed theme into the necklace. The concept for that particular collection is to incorporate reminders of urban decay and commercial waste into the piece of jewelry. In a classic 2-strand pearl necklace, this posed a definite design challenge. I toyed with the ideas of stringing or looping chains into the design, incorporating some fused plastic, using oxidized torn copper pieces, adding a drop, and a couple of other outlandish concepts. For one reason and another, none of these struck the right note (some of them were just flat out unworkable). So I went back to look at my original Urban Seaweed bracelet to refresh the idea, and had the inspiration that simply using recycled glass beads would work beautifully. The shape kept the integrity of the classic pearl choker idea, the material related to the Urban Seaweed collection, and the rough, organic finish and luminous milky green look of the beads were a nice echo of the idea I was trying to evoke. So in the end, what I made was a classic double-strand pearl choker with the very slightest of twists - vintage cotton pearls and recycled African bottle glass beads. The recycled glass beads are interspersed at irregular intervals, and serve both to accentuate the classic pearly gloss of the cotton beads, and to interrupt the eye with a luminous little reminder that this is not quite your mother's pearl necklace.
My customer requested to have the silver findings oxidized before I shipped the necklace, but otherwise these pictures show exactly how it looked when it was completed. I'm incredibly proud of the way this necklace turned out, and was so pleased and grateful to be able to work on such an interesting project. (Thanks, A! xo)
One of my favorite regular customers loved my Loft Earrings, made with vintage cotton pearls. She's a longtime fan of the wonderful artist Michele Oka Doner, and admired a pearl necklace that Doner often wears (you can see it in the picture on her website, although not very clearly), and asked if I'd be willing to undertake a custom order for a necklace made with the cotton pearls from Loft. I adore those pearls; I was definitely up for the idea.
My lovely customer is a fan of my Noir and Urban Seaweed collections, and asked if I could incorporate one of those design concepts into the necklace. Michele Oka Doner is from Miami Beach, and has done a number of marine-themed installation pieces in Miami; in tribute to the original inspiration for this piece, I decided to try to work an Urban Seaweed theme into the necklace. The concept for that particular collection is to incorporate reminders of urban decay and commercial waste into the piece of jewelry. In a classic 2-strand pearl necklace, this posed a definite design challenge. I toyed with the ideas of stringing or looping chains into the design, incorporating some fused plastic, using oxidized torn copper pieces, adding a drop, and a couple of other outlandish concepts. For one reason and another, none of these struck the right note (some of them were just flat out unworkable). So I went back to look at my original Urban Seaweed bracelet to refresh the idea, and had the inspiration that simply using recycled glass beads would work beautifully. The shape kept the integrity of the classic pearl choker idea, the material related to the Urban Seaweed collection, and the rough, organic finish and luminous milky green look of the beads were a nice echo of the idea I was trying to evoke. So in the end, what I made was a classic double-strand pearl choker with the very slightest of twists - vintage cotton pearls and recycled African bottle glass beads. The recycled glass beads are interspersed at irregular intervals, and serve both to accentuate the classic pearly gloss of the cotton beads, and to interrupt the eye with a luminous little reminder that this is not quite your mother's pearl necklace.
My customer requested to have the silver findings oxidized before I shipped the necklace, but otherwise these pictures show exactly how it looked when it was completed. I'm incredibly proud of the way this necklace turned out, and was so pleased and grateful to be able to work on such an interesting project. (Thanks, A! xo)
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
the next big knitting trend?
The chunky, oversized dog cowllar!Mustang Sally Cowl by the wonderful (and very tolerant) Fringe; modeled by Archy the poodle, doing his interpretation of Blue Steel.
Friday, January 2, 2009
bergdorf winter wonderland
Check out this amazing post by the lovely and talented Annie Wilson of Poetic & Chic:
http://www.poeticandchic.com/home/2009/1/3/roving-reporter-bergdorf-windows.html
These pictures are mesmerizing enough online; I can only imagine how fascinating it would be to see them in person.
http://www.poeticandchic.com/home/2009/1/3/roving-reporter-bergdorf-windows.html
These pictures are mesmerizing enough online; I can only imagine how fascinating it would be to see them in person.
autobabble
Excellent things I've had to type to confirm various internet requests:
nephew law
preston josephus
2 1/4 reduce
pinkos lord
Update 1/3. Best one EVER: a-cussin hereby
nephew law
preston josephus
2 1/4 reduce
pinkos lord
Update 1/3. Best one EVER: a-cussin hereby
never was a story of more woe
...than that of Red Squirrel and his pillow. I'm lucky to have really funny and wonderful friends and family, and I got fantastic Christmas presents. Here, for your coveting pleasure, is a sampling.
Leslie got me the most excellent pillow I've ever seen. It's a page from an old fabric children's book, sewn onto a wool panel. And it's the sad-sackiest page imaginable. Poor Red Squirrel is lame and cannot gather any nuts. Everybody gets there before him - the grey squirrels, the brown squirrels, even the small boys (who, alas, are not pictured).
Leslie got me the most excellent pillow I've ever seen. It's a page from an old fabric children's book, sewn onto a wool panel. And it's the sad-sackiest page imaginable. Poor Red Squirrel is lame and cannot gather any nuts. Everybody gets there before him - the grey squirrels, the brown squirrels, even the small boys (who, alas, are not pictured).
Shana made me a stocking, and filled it with Etsy delights of every kind. My dad got me a great book about the Red Sox (yay!) and the Yankees (boo!), and my mom sent beautiful slate coasters. Matt sent me a signed first edition by one of my favorite writers. My clever siblings made me cards and sugar scrub. How lucky am I? Thanks, sweet people.
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