Sunday, July 31, 2005

Oregon & Washington


I am getting ready for a trip up north. To be specific...our final destination is the Hood River area of Oregon (right on the Oregon/Washington border). Wondering if anyone has any reccomendations on things to see or do? I will have my almost-2-year-old along. I've found the Portland Children's Museum online...so we'll probably try to visit that. AND...we'll be taking a little excursion up to Seattle...so there's always that to consider as well (probably ALL kinds of things to see/do in Seattle ~ how's the Rock & Roll Experience?).

I suppose what I'm asking is this~~are you from the area? Do you know the area well? If so...are there special artisan/craftsman type shops I'd be completely enamoured with? Yarn shops I couldn't live without? Any neighborhoods/communities I'll love? I do love the town of Hood. I remember going to several wonderful shops last year - one called "Red Feather Mercantile" (sorry...can't seem to find a website to share). This is a little excursion my parents take ever year and this is the second year we're tagging along. We had so much fun last year...mostly for the sake of seeing the unique landscapes of the redwood forests and rugged coastline. But I just don't want to miss anything - so that's why I'm putting this query out to you.

Please share!

Friday, July 29, 2005

aloha from alani lani

Your Hawaiian Name is:

Alani Lani

for sale: glue gun art


Still playin' around with a little felt version of one of my boggies. This one is strung on some yarn with mini felt clouds floating above it. Maybe they need to be a little bigger. If they were bigger, they'd also be easier to sew.
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I'm hoping to be a participant in the Bazaar Bizarre this winter, so I'm trying to come up with a few things to develop. I did a holiday street festival last November and just broke even in sales with what it cost me in fees to participate. And it's not that it's all about the money - but after all that work and effort it would have been nice to see more people stopping by my booth. To be fair to myself, though, I don't think it was the right venue for hand-made crafts. My booth was sandwiched between one that sold sculptures made from motorcycle parts and another that was offering free massages. Right behind me was a couple selling dog mugs and t-shirts (commercial stuff). I think it might restore my faith in humanity to participate in an event that is entirely crafty. Especially one that is "...not your granny's craft fair" (the Bazaar Bizarre motto). Not that I have a problem with crochetted toaster covers and tissue box holders decorated with shells...it's just that my stuff doesn't fit too well with all that. Someone coming to a fair looking for a silk flower wreath isn't gonna want felt baby booties. Well, we'll see.

there's only one good thing about a small town


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Not sure where I'm going with these stuffies...
but I feel like it's been so long since I've posted anything about something I've been working on. And the truth is - it's been taking me weeks to finish anything lately. I would blame the weather - because it's been heating up - but I always feel like an idiot when I complain about the weather here in California.
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It's just not right for me to complain. Yeah it's hot, but it's not humid. And yeah the temperatures sort of drop in the winter, but it's not freezing (literally anyway). So I promise I will never consciously complain about the weather. Could be an urban myth, but it's been said that sometime back in the '60s or '70s there was a piece on 60 Minutes about our oh so beautiful (~sarcastic tone~) town of Vista as being the *nation's climactic wonderland*. Another urban myth is that it actually snowed here, ONCE! That one killed me when I was a kid - I would have done anything to have a snow day! Also on the list of myths is that John Wayne once ALMOST bought a house here. Oh, and here's another one...our friend claims he stood behind Brad Pitt in line at the Shell station buying cigarettes about a year ago. Who knows? Mr. Pitt himself recently bought a house down in La Jolla (about 30 minutes from *beautiful* Vista), so you never know - he could have ALMOST been my neighbor! It's funny growing up in a small town. I had the same History teacher as my parents. My husband and I went to the same elementary school but didn't really "meet" each other until senior year in high school. We're always hearing from our elders..."oh, I remember when Vista had only ONE stoplight!". Makes me think of a Lou Reed/John Cale song:
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(from Songs For Drella...aka Andy Warhol)
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When you're growing up in a small town,
You say no one famous ever came from here.
When you're growing up in a small town,
and you're having a nervous breakdown,
and you think that you'll never escape it,
Yourself or the place that you live.
Where did Picasso come from?
There's no Michelangelo coming from Pittsburgh
If art is the tip of the iceberg,
I'm the part sinking below
When you're growing up in a small town,
Bad skin, bad eyes - gay and fatty,
People look at you funny,
When you're in a small town.
My father worked in construction,
It's not something for which I'm suited -
Oh - what is something for which you are suited?
Getting out of here!
I hate being odd in a small town,
If they stare let them stare in New York City,
as this pink eyed painting albino,
How far can my fantasy go?
I'm no Dali coming from Pittsburgh.
No adorable lisping Capote.
My hero - Oh do you think I could meet him?
I'd camp out at his front door.
There is only one good thing about small town,
There is only one good use for a small town,
There is only one good thing about small town,
You know that you want to get out!
When you're growing up in a small town,
You know you'll grow down in a small town.
There is only one good use for a small town -
You hate it!
and you'll know you have to leave.
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Ha ha ha.
I love that song. I think the last time I listened to it was when I was going to college and was planning to get out of here.
And we did...
for awhile...
but fate or destiny or whatever
Pulled Us Back In.

hfa (holiday freaks anonymous)

Okay...let me just admit this now...I am a freak.

That said...now let me tell you about a really great website for freaks like me:



That's right...OrganizedChristmas.com.
And if anyone is mumbling to themselves, "but it's JULY for chrissake!", well then you'd better just stop reading right now. Because I love to do as much as I possibly can around the holiday season, I NEED to start planning as soon as possible. And by everything, I mean: baking cookies/breads/desserts to give away (I'm the one in the office that brings cookies wrapped in special packages for everyone in the office...which doesn't seem generous to me...it's necessary...and NO I'm not doing it to kiss up - so shut up), decorating the house (inside and out), sewing stockings to hold gifts, wrapping wrapping wrapping, singing to my christmas playlist as I work (the Carpenters' christmas album is the bomb), any kind of christmas craft, painting those little ceramic tree ornaments, and making (yes, making) christmas cards. I'm not so much into the shopping frenzy that the holidays bring on - just all the other home-based type stuff. And every year I tell myself I'm going to make all my christmas gifts and every year I either don't finish and end up going out a couple weeks before to shop or I'm up all night long christmas eve.
But now I have OrganizedChristmas.com. Starting August 28th, I will begin the 16-week planner and countdown to insure that I have a very organized christmas. Hee hee hee...this makes me so giddy!
So there you go.
My name is Dawn and I am a holiday freak.

Monday, July 25, 2005

pinky swear

Okay, so a few weeks ago we were at a friend's house for dinner (a fantastic dinner I might add) and I couldn't help but notice this very detailed spreadsheet posted on the fridge with a heading that read:
My Goals for 2005
And I must say I was quite impressed and inspired. Why don't I have a list of reminders posted up on the fridge to keep ME moving in the right direction??? Well, I'm going to. It's time to finally do a few of the things that are posted on the "goals" list that resides in my head. But I think I'll start at a smaller scale - let's say a new list a week. To start...goal #1 is to actually consume all the produce I bought over the weekend rather than find myself cleaning out a slimy, mushy, moldy mess a few weeks from now. And with blueberries now at $0.99 a basket, I have no excuse to not start the day right with a blended berry smoothie.
I'll go work on my goals list now...so stay tuned! But right now I've gotta get up from my seat because my son is attempting to bite my toenails. Ever since painting them red yesterday he's been absoultely obsessed with them!!!

Friday, July 22, 2005

hello there, my name is...

Jeez louise! A week has gone by without me knowing it. Sheesh. Well...in response to this post by birds & nests I'm gonna do a little introduce yerself right now...

Here I am this month, celebrating my 32nd b-day with my little bugaboo:


So, obviously, that makes me 32 and my name is Dawn.

I like making things - love tinkering with wood, sewing, baking, and just about anything that gets my fingers all sticky and covered with glue. My day job is architecture, mom, wife, house cleaner, taker of 2 cats, 1 dog and 5 koi fish. By night (well, maybe not so much night because I get sleepy...but by any hour of which I am awake and have a free moment to spare) I like to think of myself as an artisan, a crafter. I believe in poor man's pilates (a.k.a. "gardening") and attempt to tame my little plot of land on a regular basis. I think my soul is Hawaiian. I know I don't look it (I take after my dad's side of the family), but my maternal grandma was born and raised on the islands. Everyone tells me I have such a calm personality and I think that's the Hawaiian (the "aloha") in me. You'll often catch me listening to hawaiian folk music - I don't understand the language but I think I understand it's jibe. I try to get to the islands any chance I get. God, I love those islands. What's most important, though, is the love I have for my son of 1-1/2 years and my husband of 5 years. Without my two guys, my clock just wouldn't tick.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Go(!)cco



This is even better than I thought it would be. So much easier than silk-screening! So glad to have my gocco now. And I was very pleased to see how well it printed on highly textured paper. I picked up a sheet of this woven-bamboo-reed paper and cut a small sample to run a test. No problem! Now I just have to figure out what I want to print on it...didn't really figure that part of the equation out before making the purchase. It was such a neat looking paper - didn't ask questions, just bought. But I had a gift card to my favorite art supply store, so it was just mad money. That's what gift cards are for, afterall. Spend it on something you wouldn't normally spend your own money on - right? Gosh, it's already 11am and I haven't even started working yet. That's the problem with working at home...there are often other things I'd rather be working on (*fun* things like gocco printing). But, time to unroll these floorplans and open up autocad. Today I'll be drawing details that illustrate how those fabulous toilet partitions are hung on the wall. Hmmmm...I wonder how those would look printed up through the gocco? Might be interesting!
Happy Saturday everyone!
Aloha!

Friday, July 15, 2005

como se dice "speak english!"

Finally going to break in the gocco kit I got for my birthday!


I don' t know why it's taken me this long to sketch something up and take it down to the copy place to get it copied. But I finally did, so now I can move onto step two. I was so incredibly grateful to come across a very informative tutorial by The Small Object. I was reading the instructions that came with my kit and after reading the following few sentances 3 or 4 times, I finally came to the conclusion that these must not have been originally written in english:
The separating sheet on the pad is adhesive.
This is to prevent the prints from sticking onto the
master when printing. This is
naturally not necessary when making
masters. The original must stick onto the
master. That is why such a piece of paper is
placed between the pad and the original.
Furthermore, this sheet can be used as a trial
print in the beginning.
Well, maybe it will make sense after I make my first master and print. But right now, those instructions seem to be telling me that something that is sticky is used to keep something else from sticking to it because it's not really necessary since the original must stick so you put a piece of paper between it and the pad to keep it from sticking. Hmmm.
Mucho props to The Small Object for her muy muy bueno tutorial.
Tonight I Print!

like a kid in a candy store here

Fun Fun Fun
to be had -

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

this is nice...

you can be the shadow

or you can be the shine


(originally posted by tusenoch)

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

more talent in her little fingertip...

an artist i'm completely fascinated bt these days

see more of her work here:
audrey kawasaki

bouncing buffers!

Nothing makes you want to get up off your ass and really try to do something with your life more than seeing someone you went to school with doing something really cool, and being successful at it.

There's a guy who was in my graduating class at the UCLA Architecture program who's making these groovy wall decals.

Check them out: Blik Surface Graphics

Damn - what am I doing with all my time?!?

Friday, July 08, 2005

so LOLO


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For my birthday, Josie & her haole hubby gave me this excellent set of pidgin vocabulary fridge magnets. And I've been trying my best to learn the language. Lovin it!
Shakka bra!

Thursday, July 07, 2005

the dream is over

What is the story going to be 10,000 years from now? I imagine it will have something to do with the way a civilization imploded iteself into extinction. I don't want to say that infamous Rodney King line about "getting along"...I don't want to point my finger and make political accusations...frankly, all I want to do is hunker down and never leave the house. I don't understand why it is that we can't all exist as the same human beings making a life for ourselves on the same planet. Maybe it's just not in our nature. Maybe survival of the fittest is so deeply embedded in our instinct that we seek it by any means possible - even by turning on each other. I just wish it weren't so. I think John Lennon said it all...and I think his insight is why he's not here today.


God is a concept
By which we can measure
Our pain
I'll say it again
God is a concept
By which we can measure
Our pain
I don't believe in magic
I don't believe in I-ching
I don't believe in bible
I don't believe in tarot
I don't believe in Hitler
I don't believe in Jesus
I don't believe in Kennedy
I don't believe in Buddha
I don't believe in mantra
I don't believe in Gita
I don't believe in yoga
I don't believe in kings
I don't believe in Elvis
I don't believe in Zimmerman
I don't believe in Beatles
I just believe in me
Yoko and me
And that's reality
The dream is over, What can I say?
The dream is over, Yesterday
I was dreamweaver
But now I'm reborn
I was the walrus
But now I'm John
And so dear friends
You just have to carry on
The dream is over
If we spent as much time and effort believing in each other as we do our individual religions, politics, cultures, races, genders and economies (the very things that separate us and put us all on opposite sides of this grand game), what wouldn't we be able to accomplish?

Monday, July 04, 2005

4th fun


Hope you're enjoying the holiday! Here's what we'll be feasting on after the barbecue. The sun is beginning to peak through the morning clouds and I'm sure the entire county is beginning the trek to the beach. We'll be making our way over a little later.
Have a great day!