Currently: August 28, 2002
I saw this bracelet in an issue of InSyle and I love it!
I am not a jewelry person, in fact I don't wear any. But somehow I think that I would wear this if I had it. On Friday I received a Fire Mountain Gems catalog in the mail and I spent the whole weekend looking for little charms and such that were similar to those you see above. I love beads...I don't do anything with them, I just like to hoard them and take them out every now and again and look at them. That bracelet looks easy enough to make don't you think? I was also trying to think of something to make with Green Girl Studio beads. But again, I would have to make something that I would actually wear, and that's hard. Necklaces and earrings are out, so that pretty much leave bracelets. I am so hard to please sometimes. I was also trying to think about using the beads on sachets or little bags I could make as Christmas presents. My problem is that I need to see something in order to visualize it and I don't know what other people do with beads besides turning them into jewelry.I can't believe there are only 2 episodes left of Sex and the City. Sob. However...it's just in time for the new Soprano's. Have you seen the preview? Man oh man...
Megan from Not Martha talks about popsicles today. She links to these lovely Williams-Sonoma molds, which in turn link to THESE Williams-Sonoma molds:
These remind me of the frozen Push ups that the Schwan Man used to sell us. Oh the Schwan man...what memories. My grandma had a "Make your own Soda" machine that she bought from the Schwan man waaaaayy back in the day (okay, early 1980's.) It was awesome...you could get all sorts of flavored syrups like 7-Up and Coke, and the machine had a carbon rod you inserted into the old fashioned coke bottle filled with water. It was noisy and I loved it.
I was very excited to turn on Martha this morning to see Susan Hable of Hable Construction demonstrating silk screening. There was mention of a new store opening in NYC. I will definitely have to put that on the list when I visit my friend Carrie now that she is a New Yorker. I assumed that they made the screens themselves using the photo emulsion stuff, but she mentioned that they had their screens made for them by Standard Screens. I will have to investigate places in my area that would make me a screen. It may be worth the price to not deal with the screen making hassle. Not that it is hard, it's just involved and I am lacking the space.
Guess what I made? Chai. Yes...I did it. I actually made my own chai. I ended up using the recipe from Get Crafty with a few modifications. I did not have orange peel, but I will add that next time. The only thing I am going to take out is the Star Anise. I hate that stuff. I don't know why I put it in there....I didn't even put the whole 2 tablespoons and it's still to much. Barf.
Wow..I didn't realize it's been so long since I posted. I guess not much is going on! But..check THESE out:
Aren't they the cutest little felt stuffed creatures? I love that little banana on the monkey's head. There are more to look at. Warning: It's in Japanese. You may want to translate it and then read it..it's pretty amusing. Link via S. Britt.
Inspiring posts from Ugly Green Chair and Photogeek have me thinking about marble magnets again. I never did make any. Surprised? I did, however, buy some snazzy large marble blobs sort of like the ones in this tutorial. I had bought one of those fancy and expensive circle punches, and in my punching frenzy I ended up dropping the damn thing and it ended up in a permanent state of "punch".
Command + Shift + 4 is on of my favorite things to do. Whenever I see something l like, I take a "picture" of it so I don't have to remember where it was, or bookmark it. Consequently, I have a bunch of "picture" files on my hard drive named "Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3...." Every so often I clean them all up and rename so I know what they are. Over the weekend I found this picture I completely forgot I took:
A Scary Stories wallet! I found it on eBay, and it is made by Paul Frank. That guy collaborates with the coolest people.
I got a new issue of Metropolitan Home in the mail over the weekend and there was an article about a restaurant in Larkspur, California (north of San Francisco) called Roxanne's. For some reason, that food was so fascinating to me..it's all raw! The chef/owner Roxanne hasn't eaten cooked food in six years and nothing is heated over 118 degrees. Suffice it to say, it's all vegan. I wish you could see the pictures, the food is stunning. At least the pictures of the food are stunning. Next time you are at a news stand, check it out. Luckily, the magazine comes with some recipes. I am definitely going to try them. Asparagus Soup with White Truffle Sour Cream...I know someone whose name is written all over that.
I have been fairly busy lately...last week was CRAZY! The main crisis was finding that my cat had peed on my bed, or IN my bed rather, right between the pillows. I do not have a mattress pad so I now have a pee-soaked mattress. Damn cat..he must be pissed at me..he he he. Thank goodness for Nature's Miracle.
I also found this artist in the newest issue of Vanity Fair. I love his paintings!
So my morning started out with the hugest, hairiest, spider I have ever seen hanging out in the bathroom folding my clothes for me. Okay, he wasn't actually folding my clothes, he was hiding in my T shirt. I screamed as soon as I saw him and promptly dropped the shirt on the floor. I expected J to come to my rescue after hearing my shrieks of terror, but instead I see him race into the bedroom.
"I heard a strange noise outside!"
"Um. No...that was ME! SPIDER!"
J is very Buddha about spiders. He is one of those people that scoop them up in a glass and toss them outside to frighten another unsuspecting person. I am not like that at all. I have a multi-step approach in dealing with the monsters. Phase One consists of spraying the spider with the closest available "spray-type" item. Hair spray, tile cleaner, Windex....whatever. This is to stun the spider in preparation for Phase Two: Bashing the hell out of it with a shoe. I have a steel toed Doc Marten that is fabulous for this. Phase Three is taking multiple layers of paper towels, enough so I don't actually have to feel the spider, and tossing it in the toilet or garbage. I once saw a horribly ugly black huge spider climb up the wall one night while I was soaking in the tub. I should have just left in alone, since I was in the tub and it wasn't anywhere near me. In my mind though, this would have meant the spider would be free to crawl across my face and up my nose later that night while I slept. I used the only available weapon I had at my disposal and that poor spider died a foamy, menthol-scented, shaving cream death. Consequently, I am always getting bit my some bug or other and J tells me it's my bad spider karma coming back to haunt me.I first heard about this artist, Margaret Kilgallen, in an issue of Juxtapoz. I was drawn immediately to the article because I loved her art. Then I read on to find out that she had just passed away at the age of 33 from breast cancer, only a few weeks after giving birth to her baby girl. What a tragedy...this past issue of Bust had an article (page 11) about her also, since she was a featured artist in the Whitney Biennial art exhibit. And then, the third issue of ReadyMade (page 15) had a snippet about Tokion Magazine's Neo-Graffiti project. This third installment of the project has "artists turn their characters from their work into action figures." I recognized the Margaret Kilgallen action figure as soon as I saw it. I purchased one this weekend I can't wait to get it.
Take a look at this fancy new page! Yes, I re-did most pages, along with a new "home" page with some fancy flash buttons. Make sure you roll over them to see them animate! There is a bio page, a new links page, a new portfolio page with two (here and here) somewhat new pictures. I have not yet spent the time to hook up all of the archives to these new pages, maybe this weekend.
