blogs y'all - pt. 1

Well, I haven't been crafty in a while because I have been supa supa busy supastar! And that means no blogging either. Sorry. But whoa, whoa, that just won't do, so here's something fun and easy; riding on the coattails of others' craftiness! This will be a regular feature, popping up whenever I am having a bit of the ol' "crafter's block." So, without further ado, the first six (in no particular order) of my very favoritest blogs!

1. jenslekman.com

This is first on the list because I am sosososososososososo excited about the Jens Lekman show I'm going to next week! I am super psyched about it. Jens Lekman is a totally amazing Swedish popstar singer/songwriter. When you read his blog, you can almost feel what it's like to be Swedish. Also, he talks about music he likes (usually it is awesome; afrobeat or more Swedish pop) and he sometimes puts some rad mp3s up from his EPs or mixtapes that he makes. My favorite thing about the blog is that Jens is not shy about his fondness for Paul Simon, which, hey, that's kind of a brave stance to take! Paul Simon is, I think, generally thought of as not very hip.

2. jezebel.com

Jezebel is my current favorite celeb gossip type blog. I have been reading the gossip blogs for a few years now and I've had my favorites, but Jezebel is, I think, really the best of the lot. They have the most pertinent gossip without going so in depth that it gets boring, but they also have actual news sometimes, and political news and clips from the Tyra Banks show and fashion and it's REALLY funny. And it's pretty rude. Sometimes it may be NSFW, depending on how conservative your office is. My favorite regular feature on Jezebel is the "Crap email from a Dude" which is basically emails guys sent to break up with girls. Oh, they are so cringe-inducingly awesome.

3. gofugyourself

This is my favorite blog of all time, as you may know if you are a regular reader of this blog. It's hard to elaborate on the basic premise: pictures of celebs and wannabe celebs wearing ridiculous clothes with commentary on just how ridiculous the clothes are. Sounds a little dry, but the Fug Girls are probably the funniest girls EVER. I laugh out loud at least once a day at gofugyourself.

4. Ace Jet 170

If you are a typography nut you will looooove this blog. If not, guess what?, you will probably still love it because it is just sooo stylish. The author is British, and that definitely comes across in his writing. It's like he writes with a British accent. It's all about type and design on Ace Jet 170. My favorite feature is the Found Type Friday, where he posts pictures people send in of writing in public places; signs, labels, graffiti, etc. Oh, and he talks about maps a lot. He has some of the neatest things I've ever seen. I am super jealous of him.

5. My Folk Lover

This is the blog of the amazing artist Catherine Campbell. She draws the sweetest pictures of things like bunnies and girls sailing in tea cups. Her blog is just as sweet as her drawings. She posts about works in progress and life in Australia. Often, she features other artists that she likes, and I almost always like them too!

6. Things I've Bought That I Love

The main author of this blog is Mindy Kaling, a writer and actress on the American version of The Office. I have never seen the American Office, but now I may have to watch it because if the show is even half as funny as this blog then it is HILARIOUS. I am seriously in love with Mindy Kaling now. Hello, this is a blog about buying really expensive things! And it's funny! Mindy seems like the coolest girl in the world. Hi Mindy, let's be best friends, ok?

mel

Boner!

I was thinking today, what with Halloween right around the corner and all, about these cute dangly skeleton earrings that my mom had when I was a kid. This innocent bit of nostalgia led, of course, to an Etsy search! and, once again, Etsy does not disappoint.

First, these Dancing Skeletons by TeaCupieShop

These are probably the most like the ones my mom had, but these don't move. Mom's had limbs that were connected by little metal rings so they would dance around when she moved. Like these by emmbob


Ah, reading the description of these Skellingtons, emmbob says they are "articulated." That's the word I was looking for. It means awesome, right? Ha ha.

Those two pieces best embody what I was looking for, but the great thing about Etsy is you always find something you never knew you wanted. Like these Pygmy Skeleton earrings by Dionythicus
and these Evil Green Glowing Skull earrings by whatshesaid which, Bonus!, are on sale!
Scary!
These Spine Tingle earrings by TillyBloom are definitely different, and soooo beautiful.I was trying to pick my favorite pair of earrings by JessicaFink that I came upon in my search, but I just couldn't choose only one, they are so cool! So here they all are
Day of the Dead Skeleton earrings




Fire Skeleton earrings in neon yellow, neon orange, and neon pink.

And, because I just can't resist, her adorable Monster earrings in yellow and pink.



Because monsters are for Halloween too, right?
I hope these amazing earrings will inspire you to come up with some great spooky outfits for your forthcoming Halloween parties!

mel

Frustrated at Everything

Okay, so remember the buttons I was so excited about making? Well, the supplies I bought to make them are totally janky, as in they don't work. So, I am gluing buttons. IT IS TAKING FOREVER. Also, sometimes I have to stop and be sad and frustrated, which is really time consuming.
And I realized I haven't seen a movie in a very long time.

mel

Strangeness

Hi, I am back. Back to blogging. I've been out of town for a week. I've seen some people I haven't seen in ages and ages. It feels very strange to be back home. Everything is a little bit surreal. I figured, what better way to get back in the swing of things than to do a little bloggity blog bloggy? So, what is up with me, you ask? Well, things are going better than I ever expected. My notebooks are selling surprisingly well. Tonight though, I am not working on notebooks, I'm working on buttons. The Sampler is doing a new thing called City Sampler where they feature products all made by artists from a certain city, and the first city is San Francisco! Since I've lost a week, I really need to get to work so I can make the deadline for submissions. I'm really excited about this because I had been planning on getting something together for the next Sampler anyway, but it will be much cooler to have my first sampler be a San Francisco sampler.

Other than that, I am just relaxing, trying to get ready for the shell shock of going to work tomorrow. I'm downloading music by Mika and Mickey Avalon; my sister introduced me to their music while I was away and I liked it, which is odd because my taste in music and my sister's generally do not overlap. I guess I'm just feeling the dancy trashy stuff these days. Also, I am shopping on Etsy of course! I'm really considering buying jewelry from one of my very first favorite shops, Marshatoh. All of her pieces are so gorgeous, I'm just worried that, if I were to buy something, it would become another of my jewelry casualties, because I almost never wear jewelry. For some reason I am super self conscious about it. But just look at these, how can I not obssess over them?

So pretty, right? I just love the lariat necklace. I like the polished wood, it makes the pieces look so light and cool. Decisions decisions....

mel

Lithium: The Lightest of All Metals

So, hooray, the lithium solution worked! I popped those babies in the digicam and; presto! Worked like a charm. And here is the evidence: two new listings on my etsy page! A cute lil' Kris Kristofferson notebook and a larger than normal Jane Fonda Workout notebook. How do the pictures look? With the Jane Fonda book, I used this lightbox that Steve made for me. I think they turned out pretty well. Oh, also, I have to give credit to Steve for the lithium idea, he is the author. Sorry for being misleading in my last post.

I can't remember if I mentioned this, but I joined a bookbinders' street team on Etsy! It's called BEST for short, and it is awesome! Here is a link to the blog. I am psyched to be in the company of so many awesome etsy sellers like myhandbound books, comfortableshoes, operationpapercut, and lots and lots more. There is a list on the blog, and I highly recommend taking a look at all the shops. You should also take a look at the BEST treasury on etsy...because I'm in it! Yay, I love being in treasuries.
I'm hoping to make this a big crafting weekend; I have a few plans, like going to see Lawrence of Arabia. It's playing at the Castro Theater (which is pretty much the most awesome theater in San Francisco) as part of their 70mm series they do every so often. L o A is one of the films they show all the time, they also always show Ghostbusters in 70mm, which is SO awesome, but I've never seen L o A before. I was going to rent it through netflix, but Steve told me to wait. We'll see if it's worth it, because I think I'm even going to have to pay for it! Also, I think we might go bowling, which would be awesome, and I am supposed to go to a game night. Sounds pretty action packed, huh?

mel

Whither the Weather?

I'm being a very lazy blogger. I have two excuses: one, I have been having busy exciting days recently, seeing as how I have sold six items from my etsy shop! I am beyond thrilled, honestly. It's like a giant weight off my shoulders. Unfortunately, excuse two has put that weight right back on; my new camera has not worked since I replaced the batteries two days ago. I have been spending a lot of time whining about that. Tonight Steve and I conjecture that perhaps I need to put in lithium batteries, which is the type I was using before, instead of regular batteries. Hopefully that will prove to work because I have made some really cool notebooks and it is just killing me that I cannot list them on my shop right now!
I've just had an aha! moment. I was feeling like I had gotten some sun today, my face feels all sore, but I couldn't figure out why. Now I think I know, it was the crazy wind today. It was seriously insane wind, especially strange because it has been disgustingly hot (for San Francisco anyway) here lately. Then today, cold and insanely windy. Tonight there are supposed to be thundershowers! That is truly the one thing I hate about public transportation; having to use it while it's raining. It's just the pits.
In other news, I have had my first feature on a blog! It's a cute little thing called Treasure Trove, all about featuring DIY artists. I have a feeling I am going to be in some pretty awesome company. Check it HERE.
I have seriously got to get to bed y'all. Hopefully tomorrow I will have good camera news!

mel

Craft is Back, Baby!

All right, so the general consensus seems to be that readers of this blog (all one of you) have had enough of my spotty fashion week coverage. Well, that is fine with me because I am kind of tired of it as well. I enjoyed writing about it, don't get me wrong, it's just that deciding which pictures to post and then actually posting them and getting them positioned right; what a pain that was. I guess at the current time I'm just not cut out to be a big time web editor. If you want to see/read more about fashion, I definitely recommend checking out the Show & Talk blog from New York magazine, I think it is the most fun and comprehensive coverage of fashion week on the interwebs. And, of course, it is the fashion week home of the Fug Girls.

On with the Craft! I have been lagging a bit on my crafting lately, it's been tough with my evening class two nights a week and an obligation on tuesday night (pub quiz is very important to me, ok?) to find time when I'm not exhausted. And my crafting area (our coffee table in our tiny living room) is super super messy right now. I did manage to crank out two really cute notebooks last night though, because on Wednesday night I cut paper for a couple hours. It really helped! It was so nice to have all my paper ready to go. I think this will have to become a regular thing. Anyway, like I said, the notebooks are super cool. One is made from a Supremes album cover and I used insert as the inside cover lining. The other is made from a New York subway system map from the seventies. I'll post pictures and have those up in my shop later this afternoon (I hope).

The other thing I'm excited about is this awesome roving I bought yesterday! I've been thinking about making felt beads for a while now, I love how they look, so yesterday I bought this:

Isn't it pretty! It's merino wool and the name is orange creamsicle...yummy, no? I bought it from etsy seller alittlequacky's shop, A Knitting Duck (ha ha). She has so much pretty roving, it was hard to choose, but I like this to start. If all goes well with the felting, I will definitely be buying from her again. I'm tempted to already because it looks like she posted a bunch of awesome new lots today! Look at this one:

I really love this, it's called duck pond. How cute! It reminded me right away of Duck Hunt on NES. Heh.

Just a quick note, I hope to get started soon on a weekly post featuring etsy sellers, sometimes with interviews. So, be on the lookout for that.

mel

Critical Jacob

The rad gals at Jezebel have a roundup of critical mouthing-offs about the Marc Jacobs show. Read.

Marc Jacobs Misses His Youth

I know I promised Vena Cava like a million days ago, but I have to talk about Marc Jacobs right now, and if I have time, I will get to more. But more likely, the other shows will have to wait again. Now, here's the thing about Marc Jacobs: I kind of love him, and I kind of hate him. I love his logo, I love his perfumes, I love the bottles his perfume comes in, I love the mouse shoes, I love Marc by Marc Jacobs with the cute totes and tshirts, I love the enamel apple clock pendant...but I hate the majority of what he puts out on the runway, I hate his advertisements with Dakota Fanning and Sofia Coppola and I hate his obsession with the 1990s. I get it, Marc, you were THE grunge designer, whatever. It's too soon to bring it back. He can't just let it die, though, so we get this: And this:

Nice midriff. Anyway, I read a few places that this show was supposed to be inspired by Grey Gardens. I've never seen that movie, blah blah, but I felt that the show was a little more Jackie O on crack. Witness:

What I do have to give Marc Jacobs credit for, which is also the reason, I think, that I am still a Marc Jacobs believer, is that he really has a great eye for color. Look at this:
Okay, please ignore the skirt (what is up with skirts this season?) and just focus on the color combinations. Red, turquoise and seafoam green? I never in a million years could have imagined this would look so hot. It's the perfect way to take advantage of how good green and red look against each other without coming off all Christmassy. And the shoes, even though I can't see them that well, I am totally coveting them. This is the look that made me fall in love with Marc Jacobs all over again for the first time. With the first few looks I was sad because I felt like it was really over for me, I was definitely done with him. I just can't parse with this:
Or this:

But then he blows me away with this:
Again, please focus on the colors. Yellow...and yellow-orange! Who know they'd make such a great team? I'm having heart palpitations here, I don't know if I can even handle the addition of the navy blue/turquoise handbag...it's all almost too much to bear. Ok Marc Jacobs, I can forgive you for this:
And even this:Yipes, almost. (Please god, don't let see through lounge pants be the new hot thing this year) But this may be your very last chance.

mel

"A Truck For A Truck"

Hey y'all, I nabbed another treasury on etsy! Take a looksie: roska's awesome treasury

Fashion Week Part Deux

As promised, I will now be showing you my hits and misses from the adam+ eve show. The designer is Adam Lippes, who was previously at Polo/Ralph Lauren and Oscar de la Renta, and it shows people. I found most of the stuff to be very fun, luxe but still effortless and casual. Refreshingly different from the couture shows. I wish every show were sportswear!

The really great thing about Adam+Eve, were the models! Attractive models! How novel! Although, someone had this bright idea:

Why the doorag, Adam? While I love this shirt (perhaps stripes are in this season, hmm?) I simply cannot get behind the headgear. Luckily, this gal was spared the indignity:

And, bonus!, she got to wear this beautiful dress. I am so in love with the dress, it's killing me. I'm so glad yellow is still in. This shade is much fresher though.

We get some boys strutting their stuff here too. Let's see, this is a yes:

Oh, sorry, this is a definite no:

Black sneakers with your crisp white pants? For shame! Also, you kind of look like Richard Kiel...I don't know how I feel about that.

Yes, it wasn't all good...here's a better view of that doorag:

But overall Adam+Eve is my favorite show so far. It doesn't have such stiff competition however. Take Erin Fetherston for instance. I've been hearing all kind of buzz on her, she's the next big thing blah blah blah, so I was very excited to view her show. Well, oh my:

Here's your show opener. A turban? Look, I know y'all are trying to bring the turban back, but I'm afraid (read: I hope to god) it ain't gonna happen. And y'know, if you're going to try, you might as well do it right and put it on a model whose head can handle it. Lord knows it's not this girl.

You may notice that this model's eyes look kind of weird. I was seriously disturbed by this because it turns out to be a reoccurring theme and I couldn't really believe that it was done purposely. But it was! These girls have their eyes covered in powdery white! Here's a close up look so you don't get all freaked at further pictures like I did:Sorry, I know that model's neck is terrifying. So, are models doing coke through their eyelids now, is that what's going on? Christ. Enough, back to the clothes.

Snoooooooooze....God it's so boring. And ugly. Ugly and boring. And don't forget dreary!

I did have my favorite though, this little swimsuit inspired number:

It's pretty and fun, everything the rest of this collection was not. It's flirty without looking like it was made for a child, like this dress:

Sigh. The highlight for me though, was this model:

I think she's absolutely stunning. I had to keep going back to look at her. I don't know who she is, but I will be definitely be doing some research because she is practically a vision. Anyone who can outshine these clothes has got some chops.

Tomorrow, Vena Cava and more!

mel

Fashion Week

Yay! It is fashion week. I love fashion week, I must admit. I really really do. I love knowing what will be in, even if I never use that knowledge in my real life. It's just nice to know, in case it comes up. Something to talk about at parties, and all that. It's funny, one of the first things I read was that this season was all about the belt. Um, hasn't it been all about the belt for like, three years now? Anyway, on with the meat of this post. These are the shows that I was checking out today:

1. L.A.M.B. - Ok, so let me say this first, I get all of my fashion week news from the Show & Talk blog of New York Magazine, which is the fashion week home of the fug girls. I absolutely love the Fug Girls, I worship at their feet. They are the best. The point is, I follow where they go, and where they went today was the L.A.M.B. show. Gwen Stefani has done little to impress me in the past. I am, shall we say, not very fond of her. I don't want to get into right now, but I will say that I don't hate her clothing. It has definitely been hit and miss however, and her new line is no different in that respect. For the most part, the clothes are a little more low key than in the past, although there are some crazies:

Um, nice hat? What is going on here? Much worse though, is this:

Oh my god. It's giving me an epileptic seizure. And didn't we do out with formal sneakers a decade ago?

I have to say, before we go on, that in the L.A.M.B. show I noticed something that, disturbingly, seems to be a trend at this fashion week. These are the ugliest models I have ever seen. I know models aren't supposed to be "pretty" but these girls look like something that crawled out from under a rock. It's very disconcerting.

Anyway, back to the clothes. Gwen seemed to fare better with mod getups like this:

Or this:

But Lord, it's all a little yawn isn't it? Don't let it be said it was all a miss. Gwen hit the mark a few times, with clothes that looked like she made them but were, amazingly, still wearable.
I like the colors here, the sweater looks gorg, but my god, I cannot get past that model. She is terrifying.
I wanted to include this because, although, yes, I realize what is going on with the skirt, from what I can see the shoes are great but mostly I covet that sweater. See? Keep it clean and simple Stefani. It'll all be right in the end. Oh, except not at the end of this Fashion Show, when Gwen was lookin' a hot mess:



























Um, Gwen, are you ok? Did Gavin eat you neck? Have you been hitting the thighmaster a little too hard? Are you secretly Harvey Firestein in drag? Yikes.
That will have to be all for now. Coming up will be Adam + Eve, Vena Cava and Erin Fetherston.
Kisses!
mel

Check ChCheck ChCheckChCheck it out

I made a treasury on Etsy! Look at it!

Who Doesn't Love Geek Craft?

I know I love geek craft, especially when it's done subtly and beautifully. That's why I was excited by a post on the Craft blog today by Becky Stern about her CAPTCHA paintings. CAPTCHA is that text you see sometimes at the end of a transaction on the internet that you must enter correctly to continue. You know what I mean. (If not, here's the Wikipedia Page) Becky's paintings are really cool, this is such a neat project. Check them out at Sternlab.

A Disturbing Discovery

This morning I picked up an english muffin with egg and cheese at Lee's Deli, as I do every so often, because they are crazy delicious. And I mean real crazy. Like, I was always in awe at how delicious they were, so much more delicious than any other english muffin with egg and cheese I had ever had. But I never suspected anything out of the ordinary going on. Well, today I realized Lee's dirty secret....they load about half a pound of butter on those little egg sandwiches! Not that I didn't know I was being unhealthy, but I didn't think I was being that unhealthy. I'm very disturbed.

Native American Summer

I've been a bad blogger! It's this hot weather, it makes me lazy! Not only have I not been blogging, I haven't been doing as much crafting either. I've really slacked off on my books. I've made some buttons, because those are a little less time consuming, and more knitting. Actually, I'm more excited about knitting than I have been in a long time. While I was in Sacramento, my mom showed me real quick how to crochet, which is something I've been meaning to learn forever. I love granny squares! I think I might also be ready to try to learn to knit in the round again. I want to make tote bags, and I really want to make a crazy quilt, to use up my stash. The other thing I would like to do is make hats and blankets for charity. If that is something that interests you, here is a link to some programs in the San Francisco area http://www.imagiknit.com/charity.html from one of my favorite yarn shops in the city.

I went to the art store today, which was actually kind of embarrassing because I had just been there yesterday and I saw the same people working there, and I don't really know why that is embarrasing, but it is. I was picking up some drawing fluid and screen filler. I had read about tusche in this really cool old screenprinting book that Steve got me for my birthday, and I thought it sounded like a clean, easy way to make screenprinting screens. Unfortunately, tusche is hard to find, and when you can find it, it's pretty expensive. Today I was looking at the Make It! blog and she was talking about drawing fluid, which I had never heard of before. I looked it up and wikipedia and, ta da! it is like an even cleaner, more modern type of tusche! I am really excited to try it out. My adventures in screenprinting so far have been more like misadventures.

I have to work on my homework before it's time for pub quiz. I have to draw one room in my house in partial blind contour. Ugh. I hope it takes less than an hour.

mel

Adventures in Knitting

Oof, it was really hot the last few days. It's been making me super sleepy. Too sleepy to work on books and too sleepy to blog. I've taken up a bit of knitting again, because it is a more lying down friendly activity. I'm making someone a birthday present! and it is coming along much more quickly than I had expected. I always forget how much fun knitting is when I don't do it for a while.

Yesterday I was in the Etsy forums looking for some advice on how to better my cruddy pictures. As expected, everyone was super helpful. But I tried a makeshift light tent, and I tried natural light, but still nothing was really working out for me. I think I need to get some of those clip on lamps. I did get a few that I think turned out ok:

This is a book I made out of a Bay City Rollers record cover that Steve got for me at Goodwill. These guys really liked plaid, they were fully decked out in it, and, guess what? turns out they're from Scotland! Unfortunately, they were not that cute so I had to feature their awesome kicks instead of them.

These are some buttons I made out of an old First Aid book, also purchased at Goodwill. Graphic, aren't they? I made nine buttons like these, all from the wounds section of the book. There are so many more awesome illustrations, just waiting to be made into buttons. I really like the colors. I think I'm going to sell these in sets of three.

I'm very excited about these pictures because these are going to be the first two items I'm going to list in my Etsy shop! Steve is helping me figure out what I want to do about pricing and shipping and all that stuff, and then I'm doing it! So please check it out and let me know what you think. Here is a link: roska.etsy.com

Tomorrow I'm driving to Sactown to visit with my mom and sisters, because it is just not hot enough here. I need it about 20 degrees warmer. Ugh. I always forget when I plan to go there just how damn hot it is. Hope you stay a little cooler than I will be.

mel