I Heart You, Porkins

Sigh. Ok, geeking out alert! I don't know why, but I am having some nostalgic Star Wars withdrawals. I guess watching Star Wars used to be a pretty common occurrence for me; my roommate and I both loved it, she had it on DVD and I had it on VHS. You know what though? My roommate moved to Sacramento and took her DVDs with her, and we got rid of our VCR and all our (my) VHS tapes when we moved. For the first time in probably 10 years or more, I do not own the original Star Wars trilogy! I can't just watch it whenever I want, which is pretty sad. Something must be done, or my once formidable store of Star Wars trivia will dwindle out of existence. I'll have to check out netflix and see if Star Wars is one of those movies you can watch on their website. Probably not I guess.

Anyway, enough of that geekery! Sorry for that. So, oh my gosh you guys, we have so much catching up to do! Obviously, I failed at NaBloPoMo, but that's ok, because while I was doing it I had so much fun. I have total faith that next year I will succeed! I'll be training all year. The awesomeness of the Jens Lekman show was enough to make up for my failure. It was sooooo good. I am so glad that I was able to go, and that I got my tickets early because it totally sold out! I recommend to all of you, if you get a chance, go see his show! He sounds awesome live, the energy is so high, and you can tell that he loves music, and the joy is infectious. I don't want to go on too long, especially since I don't have any pictures to share, but I will post this link to a song from his new album, and I hope you'll all click and listen to it. Click Here Y'all.

In more "music" "news", I am seeing two more shows next month! Both are at The Great American Music Hall, which is a super awesome venue that is only a few blocks from my house! First is Jonathan Richman (love love love) and second is Stephen Malkmus. I am a little leery about the SM show. Pavement is my all time favorite band, and I have been known to embarrassingly, drunkenly call Stephen Malkmus a genius, and I love the first SM solo album to DEATH....but I kind of hated the last two albums. So...it's kind of a shaky proposition. I hope it doesn't suck. And Steve is going to go with me! Even though he never goes to shows! I'm going to be keeping my fingers crossed. I know Jonathan Richman will be awesome, I saw him once before, actually twice, and I'm sure this show will be even better because it's not at some douchey bar in the Mission.

Let's get to the crafting, shall we? After all, this isn't a music blog, dude! There is some exciting crafting stuff to discuss, first, I made a sale! Very surprising, because I hadn't listed since the beginning of October and I was sure no one was even looking at my shop. I guess I was wrong. People are looking at my shop a bit now, because I finally posted new items! Two new notebooks, take a looksie:

Well, people aren't really looking that much. I have a bunch of new notebooks just waiting to be listed though! I'm really excited because I haven't had new stuff in so long, and I'm really proud of these notebooks, I think they're really cool and well made.
In case you were wondering, things are coming along very well with my homework. I'll post a picture when it's done, so y'all can let me know if you think it sucks.
love ya!

mel

SuperOrange

All right, I think I am seriously addicted to Orange-Carrot Juice. For a while I was having it everyday for breakfast. Then I stopped for a while, because I am lazy to walk to Jamba Juice from my office, but I was thinking about it ALL THE TIME. Now I'm back. It's just soooo good. I don't know what it is, there's just something so refreshing, yet slightly creamy about it...it's really flavorful and satiating. The way they make it at Jamba Juice it gets all frothy....yum, just thinking about it is making me salivate. Anyway, the point is that I'm a little worried that having the same thing for breakfast everyday is not good for me. Also, I am a little worried that I might turn a little orange, even though, really, I know that won't happen. But still. So I tried having yogurt and an apple for breakfast but it's just not the same! I'm going to try the yogurt thing for a while though, because I bought a TON of yogurt, and maybe eventually I'll be as obsessed with yogurt as I am now with Orange-Carrot juice. It could happen.

It seems like I am finally starting to feel creative again. Unfortunately, so far it seems like I'm feeling most creative while I'm at work, where there is nothing creative to do but doodle. Like I've mentioned before, I've really been inspired by this collage project we're doing in my drawing class, and by the Joseph Cornell exhibit at the SFMOMA. In fact, I went to see the Cornell exhibit again last night, with my boyfriend, and I feel like I wouldn't mind at all if I were going to see it again. I loved it so much. Last night I wanted to walk across the scary bridge they have on the top floor of the museum. The walkway is metal, but the floor is kind of a grid (they call it steel truss), so you can see through it. The walkway is on the fourth floor of the museum, and you can see all the way to the ground floor. And these are gallery floors so I they're a bit taller than normal floors I think. If you get a chance to go to the SFMOMA and you are not too scared of heights, you should definitely do the walkway. It is so incredibly terrifying. But fun! Really! It's indescribable. I was giggling in terror for like five minutes after. But I did it twice! The real point is that on the other side of the bridge was the Olafur Eliasson exhibition, which was also super cool. It was all about geometry and it was organic, but it had elements of collage as well, but used in a totally different way than Cornell used them. It was a really interesting contrast.

The museum lobby and the bridge with Eliasson's work "One Way Color Tunnel." Unfortunately, it doesn't make the bridge look very scary. Sorry.

So, yes, very inspiring. But it doesn't really mean anything unless I make myself sit down and get to work. And now I'm thinking about doing the Holiday Shopping Fair at my work. My coworkers have been on me about it all year, asking me if I'm going to sell my scarves and hats. I want to because then I would get to basically take a half day off work, which is always awesome. But it also means that I would need to start cranking out the knitwear like NOW. So, I guess I'll have to see what happens.

mel

countdown - tomorrow

Sipping on the Sweet Nectar

mel

countdown - 2 days

Ok, I'm real tired, but I just wanted to let y'all know: I am so excited for Jens Lekman! The show is day after tomorrow! I'm so so psyched.

It's going to be so awesome! In the meantime, check out these pretty flowers my boyfriend sent me at work.

Aren't they so pretty? I hope they're still ok, I was homesick from work today and I think they probably really needed their water changed. I love looking at them, they're so vibrant and so unlike the rest of my office, I find myself just staring at them for really long stretches. I'm thinking I should always have flowers on my desk.


I'm off to bed, but I'll leave you with a pretty crappy picture of the last book I made. I know, I finally made another book!

Nighty night!

mel

blogs y'all pt. 2

1. my love for you is a stampede of horses - Ok, first of all, I just love the title of her blog. So romantic, huh? The author, Meighan, has a great eye for art, jewelry, and fashion. I have been introduced to so many innovative and unique artists through this blog. When I started reading this blog, Meighan was living in San Francisco, and in a section called cutiepies I could check out what all the cool kids in my town were wearing. Recently she moved to Boston, so I'm excited to start seeing how the cool kids in New England are gussying themselves up.

2. Wooster Collective - On the Wooster Collective site they have the most amazing collection of street art I have ever seen. People send in their photos of works from all over the world. If you are ever feeling a little rut-ish, Wooster Collective is a good place to look for inspiration, you will be awed by the art, trust me. Here's an example of one of my favorites, from London.

3. little doodles - This is Kate Wilson's blog. Kate does the most adorable illustrations of little birds and the most drool inducing fashion drawings. She makes clothes and (especially) shoes look even more delicious than real life. For the last few days she's been putting her impeccable taste to use making holiday gift guides for her readers. Looks like a very stylish Christmas.

4. typewriter - Here is a fun blog out of Canada. It's written by the mastermind behind KiwiPunchDesigns, where you can purchase lovely hand stitched greeting cards. She often posts her works in progress, but the blog is definitely more personal journal than all business. Which is fine by me because she is quite the winning writer; she is funny and cheerful and sweet. Also, I love reading blogs and feeling that something isn't quite right, and gradually putting the pieces together to find that they are writing from some where outside the US. I just love blogs from foreign lands! That is one of the cool things about typewriter, I feel like I really get a sense of Canadian life.

Lunch Break Musings

Sigh. Why is the weekend so short? I have somehow broken through the wall that did not allow me to sleep past 8 am and, let me tell you, I am NOT happy about it. I used to think there was nothing lovelier than sleeping in past noon on a Saturday after being up all night on Friday. That was way back then, when I would have weekdays free to go to places that are open during the day only. Now, I have but one day to do things like go to the post office, or the museum,or a matinee, or, god forbid, the bank: Saturday. Waking up at 8 made it possible for me to do all that and still feel like I was having a nice relaxing weekend day.

Like I said before, I got a big, fat NOTHING done this weekend. But, sitting here at work, I'm starting to get a little inspired! I'm thinking about something cute to do for Christmas ornaments that is kind of 2-dimensional, yet sculptural...I'm being inspired by that Joseph Cornell exhibit I talked about, so I want to something in collage. I hope I won't be too tired when I get home from class tonight to work on some stuff.

Okay, so I have to give a shout out to an awesome Etsy shop, Bradli. A little while ago, I purchased this facial soap and it was soooo awesome. I had this little rough patch on my chin (that I am praying is not psoriasis, as that is something runs in my family) and I couldn't get it to go away; I tried exfoliating and moisturizing, different facial washes and nothing was working. The Bradli face bar was the only thing that made the rough patch COMPLETELY go away. It's amazing. As long as I use the bar, no rough patch. As soon as I stop, the patch comes back. So, there it is, my ringing endorsement of Bradli's Luxury Facial Bar with Avocado, Cucumber, Clay, Chamomile etc., etc.,...

...which, I just saw, is no longer in Bradli's shop. Bradli! Please! This is my plea to you: bring the luxury facial bar back! I don't just want it, I need it.

mel

boo hoo pt. 2

I hope things work out better today! I don't know what happened yesterday, my post just kept getting deleted. I guess, technically, I've now failed at NaBloPoMo. Boo. It shouldn't really count though, because I was trying to get a blog post up yesterday! It wasn't my fault! I guess I should have tried to post earlier. I think weekends are going to be the hardest because on weekdays I'm at my computer all day, so it's not so hard. On weekends though I'm usually out all day. This is definitely going to be a challenge.
Anyway, this was another unproductive weekend. I don't know why I've been so uninspired to work lately. I hope my passion will reignite soon and I'll get some cool new books made. I am excited about my art class, we're doing photo collages and then blowing them up and drawing them. I already made my collages, they're pretty neat, but it's going to be hard to decide which one to use in my final project. If anyone is thinking of taking a drawing or printing class at CCSF I would definitely recommend taking one with Robin Kaneshiro, he is really really great teacher. I love this class so much.
Along with the NaBloPoMo, this month I am also trying to cut down on the amount of times I eat out. Right now, we eat dinner out almost every night, and I eat lunch out at least half the time. It's really bad! So, we're really going to try hard to cook more. I cooked tonight and last night. Both times it was super delicious. Last night we had a kind of tamale pie/taco casserole thing and tonight we had miso chicken and mashed potatoes. Yummy. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I can sustain!

mel

boo hoo

things are being weird, my posts keep getting deleted. check back tomorrow to see if things are improved. i'm going to go cry myself to sleep now.

Soft

All right, this is some exciting stuff here folks. Courtesy of the Etsy front page, today I discovered that there are items in Lizette Greco's shop! Her shop was on my personal favorites before I even really knew what Etsy was. I can't remember where I first heard about her, but I guess that doesn't really matter. All we need to know here is that she is amazingly talented. She creates plush dolls and other sewn items based on drawings done by her two children. I'm not exactly sure how old they are, somewhere in the four to six range. Lizette recreates the drawings in 3-d with an accuracy that is almost magical. I fell in love at first sight. Look at this rocket bag!

If I were richie rich it would so be mine. It's so cool. Another cool thing to do is to go to her website where there is a link to her flick page where you can look at all her work next to the drawings her kids did so you can do a little compare and contrast for your very own self! Neat, right? You should totally check it out

Tonight I am seeing Lars and The Real Girl, so, I gotta scoot. As Neal Cohnan would say, bye bye.

mel

NaBloPoMo...JoShmoDadeedadowhaddayaknow

So, I am participating in NaBloPoMo....which is National Blog Posting Month....which means I have to post on my blog everyday! For the whole month of November! Even saturday and sunday! This is for sure going to be a challenge for me, because I am one of the laziest bloggers I know. I'm excited though, I hope I find some really cool stuff for y'all to read about.
That being said, I unfortunately have very little to say today. I am sooooo tired. I actually had to do real work at work today (as opposed to every other day, when I don't) and it really tuckered me out! I had this really awesome dinner planned to, but now I'm almost 100% sure that it's not happening. Which is sad, but, whatever. I took a shower though, and I feel fairly refreshed, so don't worry about me.
Oh! I thought of something cool to talk about. On Saturday I went on a little field trip for my drawing class to the SFMoMA to see an exhibit of the work of Joseph Cornell. I wasn't expecting too much, but I was really blown away. I can't believe I had never heard of Cornell before. I was totally entranced by his work. He created amazing, ethereal collages on paper, but what I found most interesting were his "boxes" which were like 3-d collages. He was influenced by movies and starlets and birds and surrealism. His work is so intricate, but they have a childlike feeling of wonder and innocence. I'm not sure if this exhibit is touring, but if it comes to your town you should definitely check it out. I found him to be so inspiring, I'm going back this weekend (maybe). If you live in San Francisco you should FOR SURE go, like right now. The museum is open until 8 or something on thursdays. Click here for more info.
See you tomorrow!

mel