See you at the Baz Biz!

christmas time is here...happiness and cheer...

So happy because I just finished building my display for Bazaar Bizarre. And to top that off, I fashioned these nifty card racks too. So incredibly productive today! Who am I all of the sudden? [there's that scene in "Best of Show" where the guy with two left feet, literally, makes a joke and the gay guy says, "who are you all of the sudden?"...love it] So I'm still plugging away at getting my lot together. Feeling good, though. Don't think my table will be empty. And THAT'S a good sign. Mostly, though, I'm excited to see all the other vendors that will be there at the Bazaar Bizarre. I love the calendar from Lemonade Maid. And Katy Kristin looks real fun. I'd love to get something from Bauden Foss for the house. I'm not even scratching the surface here...so stay tuned for an update once I've seen all the wonderful goods for myself.

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AHHHHHHH!!!!!

It's the HOLIDAY SEASON!!!!!

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Decorated the tree last night. Purchased a beautiful tree from this christmas tree lot down the street. I mentioned to my husband how I remember buying our trees from that lot every year when I was little. How I imagined that these people came out from the mountains once a year to sell their trees. So, instead of going to Walmart (eek!) or Home Depot this year, we went to the christmas tree lot - still run by the same people who ran it when I was little. We talked a little with the wife half of the tree lot team, and low and behold...they're from Oregon and come down this time of year every year to sell their trees. So my imagination wasn't that far off at all. And you know we probably spent like $10 more than we would of if we had gone to Walmart. Money well spent, I think. I'd rather give my extra ten bucks to the little guy than throw it all in to the corporate money mongers.

feeling rolly polly olly

This is what I'm baking up today...
Well, not really baking, but the oven serves as a perfect drying rack for my freshly printed notecards.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day feast. I'm sure, like us, that everybody's fridge is now packed with leftovers. I myself just ate stuffing for breakfast. God I love stuffing.

The Vendor Gallery for the Bazaar Bizarre is now up for all to window shop. There are several crafters that I hope to do some Christmas shopping from while I'm there. You can bet I won't be out there with all the credit card carrying, bargain seeking, gonna-save-a-dollar after thanksgiving day shoppers. No sir. We're dropping Mr. Munchkin off with grandma while we sneak in a movie. It's probably been about 9 months since my husband and I have seen a movie together. (maybe even longer because I can't even remember what movie it was we saw last) Wish the drive-in theatre was still around. That's the only way we'd be able to catch a movie together with a 2-year old on a more regular basis.

simple schmimple

Lot on my little plate right now. Big TWO birthday party this weekend. Paycheck work. Baz biz projects. Why couldn't I just stick to my initial promise to keep this birthday party simple? I've got all kinds of finger foods in the works. AND, because they're the birthday boy's favorite, I'm making black-and-white cookies (a la New York) to wrap up and give out as favors. So, you could say that simple has flown right out the window.

fresh off the woodshop work bench

busy little crafter

Cutting, sewing, printing, drawing, brainstorming, measuring, snipping, clipping, gluing, painting, tracing and ~hmmm, let's see, what else?~ creating!

Time to start some silkscreening. This little drawing is what I'll be printing on t-shirts. Need to run down to kinkos to get my negative printed. But that would require actually changing out of my pajamas and slippers. Ah, the sacrifice!

what i've been up to

Someone I used to work with thought it was so funny to ask, "Working hard? Or hardly working?" Every day..."working hard? or hardly working"...then a wink and a smile.

Don't know why that just came to me.

Paycheck job has been eating up a lot of my time. But Bizarre Bazaar looms over my head like a little black raincloud and my mind has been ticking away to keep my head in the game with what I need to get done. (and now, I can hear Winnie the Pooh singing, "I'm just a little black raincloud hovering over the honey tree...") Worked out a concept for my display, and in true architect fashion, I generated sketches, then floor plans and finally a 3D model. Need something high to hang mobiles from, something to hang bags from and a stepped surface for displaying smaller free-standing items. Now I need to get out there and build it! Soon as Mr. Munchkin wakes from his nap and I don't have to tip toe around like a mouse.

Just finished cutting all the wings for the critters on my mobiles. My hand is cramped and I'm sure a blister will be developing on my knuckle where the scissor handle hits my finger when cutting through something thick.

I've been meaning to post pictures of the mobiles I'm making for the bazaar. But in typical Dawn fashion, it took me 2 days to plug my camera in and recharge the battery. For 2 whole days I knew it would only take like 5 seconds to plug the thing in, but for 2 days I'd look at the camera sitting there on the counter and pass right on by it thinking, "I'll do it right after [insert meaningless task here]." So now that the camera is charged, it will probably be another couple of days before I actually get around to taking the pictures I've been meaning to take for nearly a week now. Not really sure what to call this bad habit of mine. Procrastination? Laziness? ADD?

Major things on my to-do list:
1. get business cards made (any suggestions on some good online printers? everyone out there is making such beautiful cards for themselves...i'm totally inspired)
2. silk-screen shirts & onesies
3. gocco notecards
4. build display

I heart...

I Y this collage.
Right on point.

See more great work by
Scrapatorium

(also Y Google image search - it's how I found this image)

fabric!

Finally broke out the stamp accessories to my gocco print kit. Made this fabric last night. Now lets see if I can get something done with it today.

It's official. I've been accepted and will participate in the Bazaar Bizarre. Yikes! I've got a busy month ahead of me!

Halloween Project

I made these ghosts to hang in the tree.

Here's how:

Bought some cheap $2/yard white billowy fabric and wrapped it around a freezer bag filled with stuffing. Then I painted the faces on with black acrylic. On Halloween night I thought I'd stick a glow stick in the freezer bag so the ghosts would glow. Ooooo...spooky! Should work (fingers crossed) since the bags are clear, the stuffing is pretty transparent and the fabric is lightweight. Another idea is to buy some small battery operated flashlights. That would definitely make them glow. But the greenish glow of a glow stick would be ideal.

I love the way they blow in the wind. The faces ended up kind of square after the fabric was stretched around the stuffed freezer bag - but I kind of like it that way! If you make these, be sure to paint faces on both sides. They tend to spin around a lot and I think it's the face that makes them what they are.

memories of NYC

IY
NY

with a body like that she obviously wears her chocolate instead of eating it

*Self-Portrait Tuesday*
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Over the weekend I noticed that my website and all photos on my blog were down. I hoped it was just a little glitch that would fix itself. Checked all my billing info for my domain/hosting renewal. Still down. Crossed my fingers that it would fix itself. Still down on Monday morning. So I called (I hate making phone calls). They're SO SORRY it was just a screw up on their end everything will be back up in 24 hours no charge to me the renewal was processed but not recorded properly SO SORRY. So now everything is back up.
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Ah! New York City! We had a WONDERFUL 3 days after 2 days of rain. It was beautiful! So...can now check off my list of things to do - Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. I've always loved the Brooklyn Bridge. The whole story of it's creation - a true labor of love. Its gothic towers and the spider-webbed cables. Beautiful. AND, we had the most amazing pizza in Brooklyn at Grimaldi's. Delicious! I can still taste it. After our pizza we walked back across the bridge and all the way back to Times Square. That was a little insane. But that's the best way to see the city. Walked through Chinatown, through Greenwich Village, past the Flatiron, up Broadway and into the glittery Times Square. Being back home, everything seems so still.
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Speaking of New Yorkers...we went to this crazy birthday party on Saturday night. It was thrown by my husband's friend's New York fiance. It's fair to say that she probably spent more money on this birthday party than we spent on our entire wedding. Open bar, entire top floor of a club down in the Gaslamp reserved, band ("Sam Champion" - pretty good, reminded us of early Wilco) flown in from New York and the theme, being chocolate, was extravagantly displayed in towers of chocolate bars, a chocolate fountain, truffles, chocolate mousse and chocolate martinis (I had THREE). I kept saying how beautiful the fiance was. My husband thought she wasn't dressed appropriately. I said if I had a body like that I'd dress that way too. Well, I think my husband wins the argument. After we left, the beautiful fiance apparently jumped out of a huge cake dressed only in a chocolate bikini. She proceeded to sing "Pour some sugar on me" while giving the birthday boy a lap dance. And, as you can imagine, a chocolate bikini can only withstand so much lap dancing. I can't believe we missed that!

rain rain go away

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Hello from a very wet and damp New York City. I'm stuck up in my hotel room after a lot of tromping around in the rain. After a few hours of pushing a stroller with one hand and manuevering a disfunctional umbrella with the other, I decided to call it quits.

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Though the clock here reads 6:23, the clock on the laptop reads 3:23 and this wine tastes good to my inner time clock that thinks it's the middle of the afternoon.

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I've been craving rain and now I've got it. But it makes it hard to be out there. I should just break down and buy an umbrella from a guy on the street. One that doesn't have one metal rib that's bent and gets stuck in my hair. One that doesn't flip up when a gust catches me off guard. One that doesn't have a hole somewhere that drips on my forehead when it gets burdened with too much water. It seems wrong of me to be sitting here though. I want to be OUT THERE. Out in that city. But Mr. Munchkin doesn't like being in the stroller sheathed with it's plastic rainguard. I don't know what he's complaining about. I'd love to be pushed around the sidewalks of New York in my very own little protective bubble. But it was good we came in - the little bubble only covers so much and baby boy's sneakers were soaked, leaving tiny toes very pruny and wrinkly.

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Don't know why I'm yawning. It may be starting to get dark outside, but come on body - it's not even 4:00pm at home! Haven't been here long enough to adjust to the time difference.

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Will have to find something to do tomorrow - rain or shine. Didn't fly all this way to sit in a hotel room. (even if it is a very nice hotel room). For now, think I'll plop into the massive bed (two queens pushed together) with it's big white fluffly pillows. Or maybe a bubble bath? Ah yes - wine and a bubble bath. Why not? I submitted my latest project this morning - no revisions required that I've been alerted of - that's cause for celebration.

in love with west elm

So, awhile back I had all these posts about some rocks I found on the beach with holes in them. Here is a groovy picture I found from a catalog that uses rocks very similar to the ones I found ~ though these are probably "encouraged" to have holes in them. Though I didn't quite collect enough rocks to be able to assemble anything close to what's shown here...it's a nice idea. AND...West Elm has them on sale! Click HERE for the details (while the sale lasts).

On a similar note - I just love West Elm.

While I've yet to purchase anything from them I'm extremely close to ordering the following:

Chandelier Shade (somewhat similar to THIS, which I will never ever be able to afford but will always *LOVE*)
Chairs
Dishware

lost links

because, admittedly, i am quickly becoming a freak on the subject...
here are some interesting "lost" links:

The Dharma Initiative video can be viewed HERE
Dharma Industries (nothing much here now, but *maybe* some hints will materialize?)
Good recaps at Television Without Pity
Podcasts and great watercooler talk at TV Squad
The Hanso Foundation (what?!?)
Interesting conversation at The Fuselage

more theories

the un-official fansite

The Third Policeman (insight by writer, Craig Wright) Is this a clue?