Fashion Heroes

Did you know that the Library of Congress has a flickr stream? Well, they do. And it is pretty awesome. If you find yourself with nothing to do and a few hours to spare, browsing through it is a lovely way to pass the time. I do this every so often, and today I've decided to pull out to share with you. Here are my fashion heroes for this week.

mel

Thursday...it always feels like Friday

I know, I know...I have been a really terrible blogger lately. Actually, I kind of can't believe it's been almost a week since I last updated...I feel really awful about that, sorry. What that means, though, is that I now have loads and loads to share with you. Like the photo above? That's from a new notebook I made that I'm pretty excited about. I'd love for you to check it out right here.

Besides making a bunch of books (that you can see in my flickr stream if you so desire), I went to Oakland last Sunday to check out the Birth of the Cool exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California. The exhibit focused on midcentury modern design in a wide variety of mediums; architecture, painting, animation, music. And of course lots of Eames designed furniture. We went on the very last day of the run, so you can no longer catch it in Oakland, but if it comes to your town I highly recommend stopping by.

We walked around a bit in Oakland, through Chinatown to the downtown business area. Before I had never had an opportunity to spend any time exploring Oakland, and it was a lot different than what I expected. I guess I thought it would be more like San Francisco, but more industrial. Really, it was like San Francisco but sleepier and quainter without that stress that sometimes hangs in the air in San Francisco. The Chinatown there is so different from the Chinatown here in San Francisco! The streets were so quiet...and there are a lot of really gorgeous little houses in that area. Oh, and I can't forget the school playground with a pirate ship! So awesome. Yep, Oakland is ok with me.

mel

PS - If you are in Oakland in the Chinatown area and you are hungry for some tasty vegetarian Vietnamese food, Golden Lotus is super delish.

Picnik

I am feeling a little under the weather today, friends. I think it may have something to do with a combination of a late night and a large hot sake and a pint of beer, combined with a chillier than normal (at least lately) night and an open window. But who can be sure. The point is that I am dragging a little bit today and am not exactly at my highest mental capacity. But! I edited some photos on flickr today using picnik! I had attempted this before, but for some reason could not get a result that I was happy with. All my colors came out garish and everything was overly blurry or overly pixelated. I had kind of given up on picnik, but decided to give it another whirl today, and I am very pleased with the results. I used the photos I edited for a new listing in the shop, a very pretty golden throated warblers notebook.

Also! I attempted a bit of weaving last night with the portable loom provided in the current issue of Craft. I got a very small piece of fabric made before my yarn broke. It was frustrating at first, but I was starting to get the hang of it towards the end. I am excited to try again, with some modifications. First, the tutorial instructs you to pass your yarn pieces through the loom card first, then tie the yarn to a stick. I'm going to try tying the yarn to the stick first, that way I can more easily ensure the yarn isn't twisted. Second, there is a cardboard piece provided to wrap the yarn you will be weaving into the loom around, I think it is called the shuttle, but I can't remember. Anyway, I found this to be too bendy to be handy. I will have to find something more rigid to replace this. I don't know what yet, I'll have to do some experimenting. Lastly, I will have to choose some yarns or threads that will be less likely to break. (Sorry if this is confusing or boring, I'll try to have pictures up soon to help explain what I mean). Anyway, I'm still really excited about it!

mel

The Plans Laid Bestly

So, nothing went according to plan last night. It's ok though, because that meant that I was able to take pictures of the books I've made. Finally! They'd really started to pile up. I haven't had a chance to list any in the shop yet, but I did manage to post the photos on flickr. Unfortunately, I uploaded the wrong folder, so ALL of the photos I took are up there, instead of just the ones I edited. Oops. I'll have to take care of that later today. Also, another plan undone, I did not start weaving last night, but I did read up on it and am still really really excited! I will definitely post pictures of my attempts when they occur.

mel

Globe Thistle

, originally uploaded by gregw.

Let me tell you, last night I was a crazy book making machine. I have a bunch of totally awesome new books now, I am so excited and I can't wait to share them. It's strange when inspiration strikes, I don't know what causes me to be stuck in a not caring rut all weekend then suddenly be unable to stop creating on a monday night. And now I am super bummed to have to be at work because I want to be at Goodwill scouting out more awesome records and looking for supplies for a new project I came up with last night (which will be a secret for now because I am not sure that it will happen). Such is life I guess. Well, my life anyway.

Oh, and about the globe thistle, one of my awesome birthday presents from Steve is a gocco (!) which hasn't arrived yet, but I am trying to be prepared for when it does so I am thinking about what I want to print with this amazing machine. I was reminded of a drawing I did some time ago of a flower I thought was a globe thistle, but google and flickr searches are turning up images which, while very lovely, are not the flower I drew. I'll try to get a scan of the drawing to post, then maybe y'all can help me identify it. Thanks!

mel

Rosy Finches

I just listed this Rosy Finches Notebook in the shop. Aren't they pretty? The birds pictured above actually are not rosy finches, those are red finches and gold finches. The rosy finches are on the back cover, and they are really pretty, so you should take a look at them. You can see them and other new (super cute) notebooks that are not yet in the shop on my flickr page.
mel

Etsy Find of the Day: Lucy Player

68, originally uploaded by lucy rose.

So, I have a neat Etsy find today, which I originally found through her flickr page, which is so awesome. I was really taken with her sweet line drawings, so of course I was really excited when she opened an etsy shop. The name is Lucy Player, and it features the aforementioned line drawings as well as screenprints and linocuts, many on nice, totally reasonably priced greeting card sets. I think her shop is really going to take off! My personal favorites are featured below.
No. 1 - Geranium Greetings Card
No. 2 - My Cat Likes to Sleep Like This - Greeting Card
No. 3 - Triangles Screenprint on Grey
mel

3 pm

All right, so I updated my flickr account to pro today, pretty exciting...I guess. We'll see, I'll have to take some time to play around later today. I got ten free moo cards with my upgrade, which I will use to...I don't know what, I still have an almost full box of moo cards from when they had that deal with etsy. They are nice little cards, I used them as price tags for my books at the Christmas Craft fair last year but that didn't go so well. I guess I can use them as business cards when I run out of my regular business cards.
I did a little extra time at work on monday and got to work pretty early today, and the result is that I get to leave at three today! I'm so excited, I cannot wait for 3'o'clock to come. I have so much I want to do, like go to paper source to get more PVA, go to the art store to get some different ink for linoprints, go to the post office and take pictures of new notebooks...and of course make more notebooks! I'm really excited by the possibilities.
I wanted to share this with you too, stolen from the Turtle Travel blog, it's super neat, animals found in the map of the London Underground! The animals are so cute. I'm going to have to check out the SF Muni maps now (especially with their impending revamp) and see what's lurking and hiding in there! Ha ha, probably not much, our underground lines are a little less complicated. I suppose if you took into account all the bus lines, maybe you could have something there.
mel

meh

Mel, originally uploaded by Difusa.

This is the first day in a while now that I haven't been super eager as soon as I got up to blog about something exciting. I think I am just unexcitable today. The only slightly interesting thing going on with me is that I've hit the 200 uploads mark on my flickr account, so I suppose I'm going to have to upgrade to a paid account. Anyone with a paid account want to weigh in with how awesome it is (or not)?
Anyway, my day hasn't been going super well from the moment I woke up this morning, but I'm hoping that a delicious burrito dinner will cheer me up. In the meantime, let me try to get in the spirit of things a bit and share the above adorable kitten with you. Hello, it's name is Mel! Just like me!

mel

h@bl

Frühstück 16.06.08, originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/haebl/.

Today I went looking for a group on flickr where I could share the photos I sometimes take of my lunch (when it is especially delicious looking) and I came upon the group yummy in my tummy, which is where I found haebl (blogger won't let me spell it right). I can't tell if he is German or French (or Austrian?) because I don't speak either of those languages, but I do speak clean, retro-modern, and so does he. His photos are equal parts gourmet deliciousness, 50s automat, and perfect lighting. The above photo is my favorite, but he has many equally as lovely. Please discover him for yourself!

mel

under arrest

under arrest, originally uploaded by wickedfreshie.

For some reason, this photo is massively popular on my flickr page. Well, not massively popular like compared to someone who actually has a popular flickr page, but massively popular for my flickr page. Right. Anyway, I'm not sure why, but there you go. It's a picture of my pal Steph and her bf Louie, in line for the Matterhorn at Disneyland. I need to take a moment to reflect on how much I love the Matterhorn. It's such a great ride. Matterhorn, don't ever change.

secret dreams

secret dreams, originally uploaded by topa mi.

My secret dream is that one day I will be "pouncing" on etsy and my shop will come up.

New Listings!

All right, I have been super motivated lately; I don't know what it is, but I've been making books like crazy! The proof? Two new listings today! First, this Barbara Streisand Renewed Album Cover Notebook:

And second, this cute little owl notebook:

I'm excited to finally be putting new stuff in the old shop. I guess I was just in a big rut after the holidays, but I'm starting to snap out of it. Don't you just love the owl notebook? It's really different from the notebooks I usually make; for starters, it's much smaller, only 3.5" by 4.25" and it only has 46 pages. Also, the cover is just a page from a book, it doesn't have any sort of hard backing. I'm interested to see if/how people respond to it.

I'm trying to make myself do more with flickr these days, everyone always talks about what a great tool flickr is, and I really haven't done all I can to take advantage of it. Maybe it's just me, but I don't find it to be the easiest site to navigate, and my computer at work is very slow at opening it for some reason. But I will give it a chance. I've been uploading pictures to it almost everyday, so if you'd like to see what I'm working on, that's a good place to look.

One last thing; look out for upcoming interviews! I have a couple done that I'm really excited about. They're all ready to post, so look for them in the next day or two!

mel

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