Saturday, August 27, 2005

mobile - working out the kinks


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I'm just not sure.

I liked where this project was going when I was working on each individual critter. But now that I've hung them all from a "cloud" I don't think I've got it quite figured out. And like with any project, you just KNOW when it's right and when it's not. This one is definately NOT. Hmmm. And these photos don't even catch each boggie - it's hard to get them to all face front at the same time! Misbehavin! Couple thoughts: hang them individually so there's more space between them OR cluster several of the same guys together. (all pigs, all elephants, etc.) Well, this one is still a work in progress.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

i need to do me some readin'

One of the stories that caught my ear on NPR today was about the Penguin Classics Complete Library made up of 1,082 titles. You can hear the story for yourself HERE. Then it hit me...I NEVER read. Sure I read books here and there. (the book I just finished was Ya-Ya's In Bloom by Rebecca Wells...yes...those infamous "devine" ya-yas) I call these kind of books, "vacation books". Unfortunately, all I've been doing year-round lately is reading "vacation books". So I'm really intrigued by this list of classics. Granted, it's a collection put together by a publishing company hoping to make an extra buck off naive twurps like me - BUT...it's a good start anyway. HERE is the complete list of books that made it to the Penguin Classics Complete Library. No, I do not intend to spend $7,989.50 to purchase the complete 700 pound volume (oh, but shipping is FREE! - what a deal!). But I do intend to make it my lifetime goal to make it through that list. #1 on the list is Adam Bede by George Eliot. I shall make it so! Hey...there are worse things I could do!

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

color, my favorite

These are just a few pages from my first Artist Trading Zine. The theme that was given was, "Favorite Color". These pictures give you an idea of how small these ATZs are. When I read the description with the page dimensions being 2.5" by 3.5" it didn't really occur to me how small that was. And I worked out my pages on the computer, so even then it didn't occur to me how small these were. They looked huge on the screen! But when I printed my first page I thought something had gone wrong. Sure enough...it was right...and I had to re-work a few pages because the print was just so tiny! Now, I don't know if it's a symptom of simply not being able to make up my mind or if it truly is because I love all color, but I decided to title my zine, "Color, My Favorite". This edition was, obviously, all about color. I even included a color wheel on the inside of the front cover. For each color, I included a "My Favorite Color Recipe". Additionally, I drew up a litle comic about a baby girl who is swathed in pink from the moment she is born but who rebels and seeks out blue any chance she gets when she gets older. And there is a little written essay that includes my thoughts on color. So that's it! I suspect I've taken this in a completely different direction than the other ATZ participants this month. From what I've seen so far, everyone has chosen one color and made their zine about that color. Well, we'll see! To each their own, right? Different folks, different strokes. (don't know why I just love that phrase and use it any chance I get...ha ha)

Monday, August 22, 2005

artist trading zines


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These are my first Artist Trading Zines. I'll post a few pictures of some of the pages a little later. I think the next ones will be easier now that I've worked out some of the kinks in layout and binding. These were made for an exchange with a livejournal community called atz_club. This month there were seven others participating. I'll be mailing my seven zines off this week and will soon be receiving my seven zines from the other artists. I'm anxious to see what others have done with the theme, "Favorite Color". It's also nice that two of the participating artists are from abroad (one in England and the other in Spain). I'll be sure to post pictures of the zines I get as well.

everyone's waiting

I am haunted today by that last scene of the last episode of Six Feet Under. Just found the song that played during Claire's drive.
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Sia * "Breathe Me"
& you can listen to it HERE
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I know I'm going to be melancholy today. Thinking about life and how quickly it goes by. Thinking about those I love and how quickly their lives go by. Thinking about my son and wondering where his quick life will take him.
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I really want to be able to say something profound here. But I think I'm still sorting through those emotions. Before I went to bed last night I took a good look around. Looked at our home and the little details that makes it our wonderful home. All the toys on the floor made me smile. Tucked the little one in but was quick to bring him into our bed when I heard him cry out in the middle of the night. Held my husband's hand as we fell asleep. I want to hold onto all this so bad. Yes I want us all to grow and experience life. But I don't want to let anything go. And inevitably when you reach for one thing you consciously or subconsciously let go of something else. Even if eventually I intend to let go, right here right now at this moment I don't want to let go of a single thing.
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I need to live healthier...become a vegetarian...give up fried food...stop drinking...something. I want to live a long time.
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Dawn Marie Buettner Huntington
1973 -

Saturday, August 20, 2005

like i know i shouldn't like be watching this...but...?

Yes! Just turned on the tube to find that Laguna Beach...The REAL OC is on. Oh God! How pathetic does this make me? It's got to be a symptom of all those years watching Beverly Hills 90201 (aka "bev hills niner" in this household). What is it about watching pretty little rich kids have fits over showing up in the same designer trucker hat as their arch nemesis? I recently started watching this show for the first time. So I've missed quite a bit. I don't know who's dating who or who hates who. I honestly don't even know everyone's name. But watching this show has a way of taking me out of my world. Good for those moments when you want to veg out. Which isn't what I should be doing today. It's a drop dead gorgeous day out for heaven's sake! Ok. I won't figure out who is pissed because that blond chick is sending flirty text messages to that tall guy. We'll have to save that for another waste-away day. Have a nice weekend you pretty little things.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

drink more wine!


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I finished up my contribution to September's SAMPLER. Above is a photo of the project in the works, and below is the final product...a magnet cork board! Can you believe I had all those corks lying around? Let's see...I made 30 boards at 2 corks each...so that's 60 bottles of wine! Yikes! Yes, we love our vino in this house. Trying to remember when i started stashing those corks. It was a while ago, but still - 60?!? And I still have a handful of champagne bottle corks - but their size/shape didn't really work well with this project, so I'll have to save them for something else. Hmmmm.

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Next I'll be working on an ATZ (Artist's Trading Zine) for the ATZ_Club. The theme this month is "Favorite Color". All kinds of ideas are swirling in my head. Now it's time to work them out. My deadline for that is QUICKLY approaching. Stay tuned for some sneak peeks of that.

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Is it really already the middle of August? Where has the summer gone? I feel like I should be going out and doing some back-to-school shopping. God I miss that! I used to LOVE buying new school clothes...imagining that this new wardrobe would completely revamp my image and make me the most POPULAR girl in school. Ha! Like that ever worked. So funny to think about how I wasted my time on stupid things like that. I suppose I still waste my time on stupid things even today, and twenty years from now I'll look back and think to myself..."why did I spend so much time worrying about THAT?" But nothing can compare to the concerns of a 14-year-old girl getting ready for her first day of high school. Ah geez! But I survived. By senior year I spent most of my lunches in the art room. But I survived!

Monday, August 15, 2005

happy happy joy joy happy happy joy


Here's the loot...so many wonderful treasures!

♥ Hand crochetted tote from Hook Me Up! Crochet
Beaded necklace from The
Starving Artist Bazaar
Pin cushin from Uplifting Arts
Bee charm from Amy Peters' Studio
Hand-stamped glass magnet from CarryBoo
Beaded keychain from Frosty Lime
Button from Whammy!Buttons
♥ Button from Heyday Fashion
♥ Orange magnet from Orange County Crafters
Zine from Croq
♥ Button pin from Lauren Urban
♥ Notecard from Glamscience
♥ "Girls & Robots" Stationary from DeMarco Designs
♥ Mini painting from Fern House Studio
♥ Handmade soap from Naikid Inc.
♥ Felt cat hairpin fom Copacetique
♥ Stickers from JLR Fashions

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

I will call you if anyone anywhere gets drunk

I’m sitting here watching the movie “Almost Famous” for what is probably at least the 20th time. Don’t know what it is about this movie. Comforting.

Maybe it’s because part of it was filmed in San Diego? In the beginning I see bits and pieces of what is supposed to be a sixties S.D. and it makes me smile. (I want to be a groupie, sorry…”band-aid”…at the sports arena!)

Maybe it’s because the director, Cameron Crow, came from S.D. and really became something? This is the almost-to-true life story of his being a writer for Rolling Stone when he was in high school.

Maybe it’s because I remember when they were filming downtown? At that time my husband (then boyfriend) and I had just moved in together and I had my first “real” job.

[“Iggy Pop…A Men!] ~ lines from the movie popping out

As I was saying…My husband would drive me to work because his big gas-guzzling car wasn’t guaranteed to make it. We’d drive through downtown and see the signs that read, “Untitled” with a big arrow pointing one way or another. Having just come from finishing school in Los Angeles (completing school, that is, not Finishing School…ha), I knew these signs were pointing movie crews to their filming locations. And, my husband (being the film buff who is always in tune with what’s going on) knew Cameron Crow was filming a movie that was at the time being referred to as “Untitled”. We’d see these people walking around wearing brown polyester suits and sideburns and big ol’ shades…total seventies style.

[“It’s just an industry of cool…The war is over, they won. And 99% of what passes for rock-n-roll these days…silence is more compelling.”]

It just makes me happy thinking of those mornings. Driving in together and starting off the day laughing. Spending my lunch hour walking around hoping I’d catch a glimpse of what we were sure was going to be a great movie.

Or maybe it’s just because it was a time when sex, drugs and rock-n-roll was in. God…what a time that must have been.

[“Your guitar sound is incendiary!”]

This movie just can’t get old with me. Kate Hudson as “Pennylane” is the girl I wish I could have been but know I never could. I want to know who the REAL Pennylane is. Is she/was she real? What happened to her? She’s probably not Nancy Wilson, so that means William Miller didn’t end up with Pennyland…which in my Hollywood brainwashed mind is exactly how I want to think things ended up.

[“It’s not what you put into it, it’s what you leave out. Listen to Marvin Gaye…the song ’What’s Happening’…there’s a single ‘wooo’ at the end of the second verse. You know that ‘wooo’, that single ‘wooo’? That’s what you remember. The little things. The silly things. The mistakes. That’s what you remember!”]

Okay. I could sit here quoting the movie all afternoon and into the night. But it’s time to wake the munchkin up from his nap. Time for me to clean up. Time to try to catch up with the laundry. Because, alas, I am not a “band-aid” and my life is not a rock concert. Just one more from Penny...


["I always tell the girls to never take it seriously. If you never take it seriously, you never get hurt. And if you never get hurt, you're always having fun. And if you ever get lonely, you just go to the record store and visit your friends."]

hey - recycle that!

I realize that some of you may be starting to think that the only thing on my mind these days is the SAMPLER because here is yet another entry about it (and, well, let's just say that the Sampler is ONE of the several only things on my mind lately). But I've been mulling over what I could make for my next contribution - and as one fellow contributer so poignantly stated...it is indeed addicting and I've only done it once! While throwing ideas back in forth in my head, I kept coming up with things that don't necessarily refelct what I'm trying to do with Out of the Box*California and, more precisely, the Buzzing Bog. Then it hit me...why should it? And it occurred to me...use this as a platform for doing something completely different. And so...I will be introducing a new element of Out of the Box:

Out Of The Box california
* R e c y c l e d *


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This is my second contribution in the works. And if you haven't put two and two together yet - here's the deal: my contributions will be fun projects where I create objects from everday, common bits. I've always been fascinated with re-using interesting materials in a new and original way. I wish I had a picture of the CD shelf I made from the throw-away cardboard tubes that paper was held on in the architecture firm where I used to work. Why throw good material like that away? Seems I have boxes and containers all over the house filled with little bits that I was incapable of throwing away. Now they'll be put to use! And when that supply runs out...my next favorite medium source...Home Depot! Love walking through those aisles imagining different uses for hardware, pipes and other supplies aimed at construction not crafting. I'm going to put together a new little page on the site and really have some fun with this endeavor. Now I have to get to work on those corks. Only ten days until I need to submit to the Sampler! I'll be sure to show a sneak peak soon.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

they're starting to buzzzz


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I like how these little guys look hovering in this tree. Makes me think that my drawings are coming alive! I'm working my way, one by one, through all 5 boggies. The end goal is to arrange them together in a mobile. Not completely happy with the rabbit - so that one may take some reworking. But the first 2 (elephant & giraffe) just came out right the first time! They were just meant to be little felt stuffies. I used a felting needle to work the wool yarn into the wings. I'll have to take a close up picture some time to show you what I mean. I'm wondering if I should add some shimmering sequins to the wings...or would that just make it look tacky?
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In other news...I got my first SAMPLER package yesterday! How exciting is that? So much fun. Made me feel like I was 10-years old again and getting my first mail order parcel. I had this book (like I'm sure most everyone did in the pre-internet days) that had all these things you could send away for for less than $1. I'm racking my brain now...can't even remember what you sent away for. Oh! I remember one thing - you could send away for a free paper making kit. What came back was this cheep little mesh screen that you were supposed to dunk under water filled with shredded tissue paper. I don't think I ever got that thing to work quite right. It would be years later before I mastered that technique. One summer I went through nearly page of that book hoping I'd get something in the mail each and every day. I was a mail order machine! Remember when you used to be able to save Bazooka gum wrappers and send away for little trinkets? I once sent away for a string of pearls. I even wore those to a Homecoming dance once I was in high school. But then the paint on those "pearls" started peeling off and now what sits in my jewelry box is a string of plastic beads. Can't get myself to throw them out though. Oh the joy they brought me when they arrived via the post! My Sampler package takes the cake though. So many wonderful treasures! I will work on photographing its contents to share with everyone.

Friday, August 05, 2005

today's project


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So today I put together this sandbox for my little (I'm actually pausing here trying to come up with the right word...I'm tempted to say "terror" but I'll be nice and say...) munchkin. I had this ellaborate redwood sandbox complete with bench and cover in my head, but finally accepted the fact that by the time I worked out the design and got around to building it the little one would not be so little anymore.

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Supplies: a metal tub, 3 swivel caster wheels, nuts & bolts and a sheet of plywood. Just screwed the wheels to the underside, drilled a hole in the bottom and covered it with fabric to keep sand in and water flowing out, cut a plywood circle for the cover and attached an old kitchen cabinet handle I had in my keep-this-it-will-be-good-for-something stash. And the little (uh-hem) munchkin was having a ball playing until, for some reason, he completely turned on me and started pinching and throwing anything in my direction that he could get his little hands on. And saying "NO!" only made him laugh. So that explains my current attitude toward my "little angel" at this particular moment. Spend all that time tryin' to do something nice, and what do I get in return? Rough housed! So we're inside now. (like that's going to teach a year-and-a-half old anything!)

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

a little bit of this & a littla that

hawaiian clouds, beach, magnolia bloom, ocotillo, box of japanese cookies...among other things

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These are just some random picture files I had. Think I need a shot of ginseng or a couple dozen Red Bulls to get me back in production mode. I've been spending a lot of time gardening - which is good because the yard really needs it and it's nice to be creating some comfortable outdoor spaces for ALL that extra time we have for just hanging out in the garden (ha ha). Maybe I should snap a few pictures of all the work I'm doing outside to post here. Then perhaps I'll start to feel like I'm actually accomplishing something.
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Something I read last week was absolutely 100% spot on:
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"We've been experiencing some technical difficulties around
here, not the least of which is my inability to function at all in the
heat. I've seen that others in the blog community share this
problem. Let's just say it puts a big sweaty damper
my creativity and good spirit. "
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and then a few days later she wrote:
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" I admit I was in a a bit of a funk this past week,
brought on by the heat, various technical problems,
and just the day-to-day struggles of parenting. "
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Ah yes, the "day-to-day struggles of parenting". I understand that all too well. As well as the "big sweaty damper" on my creative well-being. And since this post is already such a grab-bag of bits-n-pieces, here's another line from Realtoads:
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"Adulthood crept in behind my back and set up
camp at some point. I didn't martial the forces of abstraction
and whimsy and fight to preserve my happy-go-lucky
youthful spirit--I just kind of settled in and let it happen."
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I'm always telling my husband that I need to pull it together, stop wasting time, do something with my life. And he "harumphs" me and tells me that chasing a kid around all day and keeing this house working like a machine on top of trying to squeeze in some hours of drafting isn't exactly the equivalent of me sittin' on the couch, eating bon-bons and watching the soaps. I know. I know. But I'm still not satisfied. But I suppose that's a good thing...because where would I be if I WERE completely satisfied with my accomplishments? Bored? Probably. And that's something I can say with conviction - I'm definitely NOT bored!