for keeps

sometimes i make something in the duckie uglings line that's just so darn cute, i can't bear to part with it. this is a problem when i'm trying to a. make money at this and b. downsize my apartment. but i always have a few favorite animals around to inspire and encourage me.


i'm not saying that it's easy to party with everything i make-their personalities start to come out and sometimes it's even hard to sew on them-they start to come alive and i worry that i'm hurting them. HA!


here are two recent animals that are just gonna be too hard to send off in the mail. often times these keepers end up going to family members or friends, so i can still visit them on occasion!

about a month ago, i made the cardinal. there's just something about his face or that magical lace, i just don't know.








kazi is named after my godmother's siamese cat, she had a sister named kama that i never remembered, but kazi lived to be like 23 or something. she was an awesome cat!

for now, these two are stayin' with me.

New Birdies

Just posted a bunch of the new birds I've been working on, over at my Etsy store.

I'm very proud of them! They are taking on a much more regular, recognizable look.

I was watching a lot of Cirque du Soleil DVDs as I worked on them, can you tell?

catching up

chicago was lovely, as always. my sister is blissfully happy, and in lurve with a gentle, amazing man. lucky!

yesterday was an awesome day. stayed home from work and made birds all day. then at night, i got to go to the BON JOVI concert, thanks to jason. man, i couldn't ask for a better best friend!

spring has arrived in MN. the thorn trees outside my building at work are full of chirping birdies. as i walk by them, i do a little trick i taught myself when i used to frequent pet stores, wishing i could own a chickadee of my own.

i 'click' at them with my tongue. back of the mouth, curl up the lip. know what i mean?

anyway. i click at them for maybe 3 or 4 seconds, and they INSTANTLY quiet down. i'm sure i'm swearing at them in their language, who knows. anyway. instantly the cacophony dies down, and they are silent. then in about 8 seconds, it's started up again. it's magical. it never fails to make me smile, that for a few minutes anyway, i'm speaking the language of the birds.

i'll try to get video of it so you can see what i mean.

bye bye birdie

This little Eggling is on his way to a new home! Two more remain, and I hope to add a few more when I get back from Chicago next week.
I'm taking the others (that didn't photograph well, but were super cute) to a store/gallery that might pick up some Duckies too. Exciting! And then on Friday, I leave for the Windy City!

arching my spine

once i had finally made up my mind to be a teacher, the universe started offering me other alternatives.

things that had probably always been floating around, but now, that i had chosen another path, they have landed at my feet and started to peck at my toes.

more people seem to be interested in my animals and art, which is absolutely amazing. and due to the bad economy, more storefronts than ever are vacant. i have to remind myself, they are vacant for a reason-and that starting my own store is probably not the best idea.

but sitting at B&N with my friend andrea, planning her wedding flowers, made me realize how much i truly do love art, design, and construction. how can i give that up?

i'm having second, third, and fourth thoughts about choosing to teach. high school. english.

and i'm stuck between hair lengths right now. this photo was taken like a month and a half ago-my hair is now past my chin. i hate this two-month period or so where i have to decide. should it stay or should it go?

New Egglings!

Just made some mini-birds and put them in plastic Easter eggs...I'm calling them Duckie Egglings of course!

Check my etsy site for more info!

DONE!!!

The mural has been done for like a week and apparently nothing has fallen off of it. whew!

Go check it out!

it is (almost) finished

The mural at the coffee shop is *almost* done. If you want to visit it, it's in the almost-finished Dunn Brothers Coffee shop at Oak and Washington on the U of M campus. If you look in the windows, you get a great view of it! You can see images of the install here

I have to go back later today and grout the seam lines and the new corner pieces I glued on yesterday, after it was up. It's so amazing to see it UP on the wall, and how great the colors look with the paint and other finishes that Nikki chose.

The guys that helped me out, Kelly and T-man, were amazing. They ground down the edges to make them straight, and were very patient with me and the piece. I wouldn't have been able to do it without them! However, I did learn that I probably didn't need to leave open edges-in a lot of cases we just drilled right through a grouted open spot. But how was I to know? They also gave me lots of advice on my *next* mural. Anyone need one? HA!

Today I have about a billion errands to run for my show tomorrow. This is the final week for costumes and props for the latest show at the skool, which is going to require me making about 600 fake pieces of mail. And Friday, I leave for Florida with my family! Yippeeeeeeee!

in a strange place

have spent the bulk of the day at the coffee shop, wrestling with microsoft's latest evil version of WORD. i hate, hate, hate it. give me the old familiar version! PLEASE!?!?!?!

but i finally got the maps for the handmaidens show finished. yayy!

my sleep cycles have been screwed up majorly. staying up way too late or getting up way too early. the dude who lives above me has been watching movies or basketball games until 2-3 in the morning. and being a good minnesotan, i am too shy to go up there and ask him to please keep it down.

yesterday i slept maybe 4 hours? i woke up about 4:30 AM and started to read 'a thousand splendid suns', which i finished last night, around 3 AM. it was really good, very touching, and it convinced me in a strange way, that i want to go back to school to become an english teacher.

so yes, the strong interest inventory i took 2 years ago, and tim's consistent insistence were right, it is my destiny.

i've signed a lease for another 6 months at my apartment, but they don't allow students to live there, so depending on the program i choose, i may or may not be able to stay.

my thinking now is that i should rent the cheapest living space possible, and have a separate studio space.

oy.

attack!

(two of my favorite stuffed animals ever! Cat and Crow, both will be available at my sale on the 10th!)

well my fingers have been healing and returning to their normal color since the great grouting incident of aught-eight. they are still really tender and the middle right finger keeps bleeding, but for the most part, i've stopped wearing a million bandaids.

the installation is now going to take place on saturday the 9th. then, on the 10th, is my show at the VFW in uptown. we've gotten over 50 vendors signed up, and i've been adding info to the blog and am going to be making a map for folks to take home, so no one has to worry about their contact information being lost! brilliant, eh?

i'm also making duckieuglings.com buttons for the show. i am going back and forth about selling them or giving them out. each animal gets one attached to their back with the price tag fastened to that, and if anyone buys jewelry i'll give them one too. but should i sell the other ones for like 50 cents or just give them to folks for free? i just don't know!

lastly, i'm bringing two of my gumball machines to the sale, and loadin' them up with M&M's. YUM!

drawing to a close

i spent last night hangin' out with my folks and watching the biggest loser. i've never seen the show before, but jason really wants us to apply.

but then the whole world is going to know i'm fat! (/sarcasm)

well the mosaic has been quite the learning process. i've been working in a roughtly counter clock-wise spiral progression from the lower right corner and back around, and I can see how early on i wasn't doing such a great job of fitting the pieces together, using too much adhesive, etc. but i got a lot better as the piece went on. and now i'm into one of the final stages, grouting.

grouting has never been my favorite process, and it's funny that it's GOT to be last. i am known for leaving unpleasant tasks until the last minute, say cleaning my house right before a party instead of doing it gradually over time. i don't know of anyone who LIKES to do unpleasant tasks first, but it is ironic that you can't HELP but do this one last.

i've got the coffee cups done, but i do have a pretty major gash on my left index finger. as i was grouting little streaks of orange-red kept showing up, i had cut my finger thru the rubber glove, and it was now seeping out into the grout. ish.

i had underestimated the amount of black grout i am going to need so i have to run up to home depot in forest lake or white bear to pick up some more. bummer! i don't want to over buy, but i don't want to have to make another supply run in the middle of the project.

8:30 PM-I have finished the grouting! It looks AWESOME, in my opinion.

i have sacrificed 4 fingertips to the slicey parts sticking up on the surface however, and my hands are stained black, too. But it's worth it!

Now, I just have to screw it to the wall at the coffee shop, cover up the screws, and re-grout the lines between the panels. Another 4 hours of work, and it'll be DONE!

strange....and progress on the mosaic

Well it's been UNSEASONABLY warm here in MN, like 40 degrees when it's normally supposed to be 10-15. Everything's thawing, but I know this is just temporary. There were tornados in Wisconsin yesterday. How bizarre.

I have to resign my lease for my current apartment on Thursday. My goal is to be in a new house next year in March. I hope it happens, there's a lot of financial crap that has to happen before that, though. I'm going to make it a goal this year to make MORE money off art. I made a new stuffed bear last night, then worked on a cat (which I wasn't liking, so I abandoned). I've been doing that a lot more lately, making one leg, then not making the second, making one arm, and then changing the design for the next. Gonna have to make some frankenstein animals for Halloween!

Along those lines, the mosaic mural is coming along well! Although, I'm not feeling this URGENT need to work on it. Today I'm not going into the college at all, my goal was to work on the mosaic all day, and in reality I've only done about 1.5 hours of work on it. First, I smoothed out/removed some tiles from the first large coffee cup, that were sticking up too far. Then I removed the handle off another one, that looked really out of place.

I've gotten to a point where I need to go get more adhesive, so it's a good stopping place, but I'm wondering if I need to re-think the number and size of the coffee cups I have.

Keep in mind, this is a 10 foot long, 6 foot high piece. Below is my plan, it has deviated slightly from this design. Each coffee cup has a border of color, the one in the upper left is totally blue and white. The paisleys in the background are going to be really fun, and I'm grouting them in black for more contrast. The steam rising from the coffee cups is going to be made from mirrored glass.

To see the progress, check out my Flickr.com account.

Goodwill Bounty

Ok these are some of the treasures from Goodwill on New Year's Day.

A slightly cracked Le Cruset teapot, half-off $3.99. The purse was 1/2 off $4.99, and I think the plate was 1/2 off of $1.00. Brilliant!

And here are some shots of my first wool felt pillow. I really like how it turned out. I am planning on making a second one with blue, white, and bits of red, to go with my couches and rug.

startin' off right

starting off 2008 pretty superbly, if i do say so myself. aside from my laptop being confiscated by the geek sqaud for 2-3 weeks, that is. my cold is almost gone, and it feels so good to be not SICK anymore. i cleaned/arranged/moved stuff/washed everything around my apartment yesterday. i think i might have people over this weekend as a motivator to get it TOTALLY clean and spiffy. we'll see.

a trip to goodwill yesterday yielded a wealth of treasures, all at 50% off! i had to pass up the gravity boots, (which, i've never seen in person. WOW) because i can't hang anything from my ceiling, me included.

photos coming tomorrow. i didn't think quick enough to take snaps before i left the house.

i'm starting work on the mosaic tomorrow too.

tonight, i plan on making a pillow to match the one i made last night. i used several sweaters in its construction, i may be offering them for sale in the future, but A LOT of work goes into one of those babies!

on the mend

well it turns out my headache was the precursor to a NASTY cold, one that laid me flat for over 24 hours. today i'm feeling much better, but it hasn't been without a lot of nastiness, including 2/3rds a jar of vicks vapo-rub, a whole roll of TP used as kleenex, and about 5 cans of chicken noodle soup (organic, of course).

i did use the time to make a bunch of new animals though-i'm at the coffee shop right now uploading the photos to my etsy store. click on the photos at right if you want to see more.

i think the key to getting over the hump were the delicious breakfast nachos i had yesterday AM at Bonfire Grill in st. paul. i met my sister and her boyfriend, and my parents, for breakfast and discovered the most genius invention EVER: chilaquiles, breakfast nachos.

i don't have many resolutions this year-except to make MORE of an effort to exercise, keep my apartment cleaner, and eat less crap. more fruits and veg, less pasta and nachos. but the discovery of chilaquiles may hamper those efforts.

Lull....

I've made two more birds, and started a third, but for some reason my creative juices seem to be dry right now. The two came out OK, but I had to remake the wings on the third one, and decided to leave the house without giving it legs, a beak, or wings. Poor little thing.

Gotta recharge after the holidays. Get a normal schedule again. Prep for my mosaic. Oy. that's gonna be tough! A six foot high, 10 foot long mural using pottery, tiles, etc.

Went to the Frida Kahlo show at the Walker yesterday. It was awesome, of course, what a life she had.

I've got a pretty raging headache today. I wonder if it's lending to my lack of crafting enthusiasm. Or if it's the other way around.

Christmas in Minnie

Oh, what a picture perfect holiday it's been.

My sister and her boyfriend are in from Chicago, and my brother and his wife and 21 month old son are in town from Missouri. We've all enjoyed a gorgeous, snowy day out at my folks' farm out in the country.

The food was fantastic, the gifts were wonderful, and the gathering of family has been so enjoyable! I wish every day were Christmas, but then, would it be as special? I tried to give as many handmade gifts as possible, I did pretty well, well over half of what I gave was either handmade or recylced, everyone got some kind of a bag for shopping for groceries, hopefully our family will use fewer plastic shopping bags this year.

Merry Christmas to any and everyone who's reading the blog!

3 yetis and a 'squatch

For Timo! Enjoy!

New Uglings!

Well I had a fantastically productive couple of days here, and I whipped out a bunch of new Uglings.

Visit my etsy.com store and check them out!

Barnum and Bailey, monkey siblings, available separately are pictured here.

What is art?

From Aardman Animation, the wonderful folks behind Wallace and Grommit, and Flushed Away, comes this hilarious video.

Just getting settled, and.....

I've started my more permanent administrative job @ NWC now, it's just a lot of getting to know how the various departments work, where to get a PO from, etc. It's a steep learning curve, but it's going OK.

Our Handmaidens Craftmas show was un. be. lieveable. I had a fantastic response from everyone, and sold all but two animals. I brought along some sweaters to work on small bits if I had time, and I ended up selling polar bears RIGHT off the tree! I hope to bring some more in to I Like You this upcoming week, for anyone who needs a last-minute gift.

I made a new bag for my laptop, with red, black, and red sparkle vinyl, lined with black-n-white dots and with a child's safety seat strap and foam inserts (thanks ax-man) and a new flamingo.

I made my Christmas list, and boy, do I have a lot of work to do before the big day! Got to get to knittin'!

There's some exciting news in the pipeline regarding a more permanent live/work space, but I'll just leave you with this for now. GO BEARS!

A month? Really?

Wow. I have been really busy with Seussical. A whole month has passed since I last blogged, and there's some exciting new developements in my artistic journey!

But first, I'm having an absolutely lovely day. I finished up Eat, Pray, Love this Am, which I started on Friday night. A very interesting book about food, forgiving yourself, and learning to be one with God and the universe. Then I took a walk around my neighborhood and discovered a community garden and a park I had never known about, both within about a 10 minute walk from my house. The garden still had so many vegetables and fruits growing in it, even though we've had several nights of frost. I watched a fat little bumblebee looking in vain for a flower, though he must have missed the last of the roses that were growing just outside the fence.

It's what we call 'Indian Summer' here in MN, which is the last hurrah of good weather before the cold, rainy, sleety, then snowy weather commences. I'm going to soak up as much of it, as I possibly can. A family of little birds has nested immediately above my door though so I can't just prop open the door and let the good air in, as I'm worried I'll have a feathered roommate in no time.

On the art front, I won a mosaic mural commission, co-planning a massive craft sale in early December, and building a website for a friend of mine in exchange for life coaching. All in all, I think it's a good deal for me! Slowly I've been making more and more stuffed animals, they all have their own fun personalities and expressions, it's hard to part with them sometimes!

And, for my birthday in 3 days, I'm getting my very own laptop. YAYY!! I'm so excited to have my own computer, I think it's going to do wonders for my writing, art, and marketing of said art.

bizzay!

well, of course, everyone's busy. but right now, i'm especially busy!

not making things, i tend to spend a lot of time in the car, or in bed.

i hope to have some exciting announcements soon, i've got about 3 or 4 balls in the air right now and just trying to keep them all up means i'm making myself looney......

but i hold out hope that i will get to pick up needle and thread again soon. and not, to make someone's costume.

wish me luck.

productive day

well i've been extremely crafty today. i have gotten three birds, one kitten, and three cupcakes done. but the library is closed, so you will have to wait until tomorrow for photos, my dear readers.

in other news, one of my pumpkin heads was to go to a good friend of mine, but when i pulled Lenny the Lemur out of the bag (see below), she fell in love with him! so i will be posting another pumpkin head doll soon.

and i finished a doll/bird set, a wee pumpkin head riding a crow, and found a perfect half-round cage at the Goodwill for them to perch inside, but i think it's going to be a going away/birthday gift for my friend Ed. we'll see.

i have to teach a class tomorrow on glass pendant making. i generally don't sleep the night before a big event like a class or demo. let's hope, if i can't sleep tonight, that i at least spend the time making more birds. ha!

Pumpkin head and new birdie

Penny Pumpkinhead is available at my etsy shop, and so is Raymondo the Robin.

I'm having so much fun making these little stuffies. I can't wait to get home from work or the college to sew, sew, sew! I am needing to re-stock my sweater supply too, I'm almost out of several colors, and almost through with my favorite stripe, seen on Raymondo's legs.

Lemur and Robin

Lenny and Roxy are available at my etsy shop. Take a look!

yay! a sale!

well, leroy the lemur sold! yayy! that's exciting.

i lost as much money as i made on him at poker last night though. what an idiot.

the spider we've been nurturing at the poker house almost kicked it last night but timo revived him with a hand-fed moth. ish.

i didn't get into no-coast. i'm a little bummed, but oh well. life marches on.
unless you're a moth.

time to go

oh my. i was housesitting this weekend and the home owners came home a day early. whoops! dishes in the sink, clothes on the floor, bed unmade. i felt like goldielocks, in a way.

i'm feeling restless in all aspects of my life. i feel like it's time for a big change, either in scenery, or in career. fight or flight, i choose FLIGHT.

i made a new batch of monkeys and birds, they're at i like you, and i'm dropping a few more off this afternoon. i'm nervous about the no coast craftorama. they are going to let everyone know by sept. 15th if they are accepted. i really, really, really hope i get in this year.

back to databases.

Another day, another monkey (or two, or three)

Well I already sold this little girl to my boss, but I plan to make a few sisters tonight.

And here's Leroy the Lemur, he's available through duckieuglings.com

PORKCHOP!

Monkey! Find him on DuckieUglings.com

another day, another salad

saw my cousins off to the airport last night, but first we stopped by chino latino. I had a few pieces of sushi, a few chips (with not-diet friendly dip) and 1/3 of a plaintain crusted chicken breast with rice, sauteed veggies, and passionfruit sauce. it was to. die. for. delish.

went to check out the place where i'll be art-fairing this weekend, and then hit the bookstore. it's weird to sit at the bookstore without coffee and a sweet by my side, but i'm sure i will get used to it. bought 'horton hears a who' so i can do the research for my meeting in three hours.

stopped at the grocery store this AM and made a nice breakfast salad, i'd take a photo but i've already eaten it. no fat-free dressing at this grocery store so i just used a TEENSY amount of regular. it worked just fine.

turning a new leaf, again

i had just established healthy eating and exercise habits when i got lazy.

i need to keep the mental picture in my head, of me standing in my own store, happy, healthy, and thin(ner).

this giant salad is the first stepping stone on the path to that goal.

thunder, lightening

woke up last night to LOUD thunder and bright lightening. turns out a huge storm came through the cities, dumped a lot of rain (which we needed) but it turned the neighborhood just north and west of me into a mulch-pit. HUGE trees and branches are lying in the street, all the business are closed and the stoplights aren't working, and those poor folks will not have fans or A/C on a day that's supposed to reach 90. yikes.

i'm busy cleaning my apartment and car to get ready for my california cousins to visit, but i needed a quick break for coffee. my 'usual' place had no power, so i had to come back down to the one that's within walking distance, but always too busy. luckily, the computers were free!

last time i was here, there was a guy reading about metaphysics on wikipedia, and muttering to himself. it was quite entertaining.

homo bulla est

reminded again today,
life is short

man is a bubble


trapped under a mountain, a river, a bridge
or laying on the sidewalk
sadly death will find us all


knowing one day, that clock will catch up to me
makes me want to live up the little moments
change direction, better myself


being reminded, it can happen.....instantly
could scare me enough to trap me inside
the apartment i hate to waste time cleaning

i've got to start making a mark on this world

knowing i'll leave behind goodness, art, and love

loving nephew, cousins, friends,

i suppose that's enough

life on the bubble

a rainbow, then....

pop

garage sale

helpin' my folks with their massive garage sale today. didn't make any art yesterday.

just about to leave the wilds of hugo to head back to the wilds of st. paul, to shower, nap, create, play some poker, hang out with a friend or two, eat, and clean....not neccessarily in that order.

hopefully, will post some new stuff tomorrow.

closeup of 'the shape of my heart'

busy nite last nite!

had a bite with a good friend at the birchwood cafe. where i also stopped for breakfast yesterday. we had gotten our wires crossed, and he thought i was going to pick him up. so i called his landline (how can you not have a cell phone these days?) and sure enough, he was waiting for me.

anywhoozle. once he got there, we had a lovely, laugh filled dinner. i'm going to miss him when he moves to beantown.

after dinner, i went home to shower and make a few quick thingamajigs. here's a quick painting/collage that i did, called 'the shape of my heart'.

it's a matte that i picked up at artscraps, then i collaged the background of a piece of rag paper also from artscraps, using newsprint and tissue paper. layered an old piece of map paper from paper source, some thai paper from who knows where, some sparkely gold paper from sample books my mom gave me, and some rhinestones (on the crown). Threw some paint spots down over it. then I made the lower piece, using the same stuff, and a paint chip, stamp, and sheer ribbon that had been accidentally overdyed.

went back in with a pen to give a little more definition to the wings.

i also encased a rabbit in one of the eggs from two days ago. it worked just great. look for some egg-bunnies soon, well, maybe in like a week. i'm pretty freakin' busy with other stuff right now, and my cousins are coming to town this weekend. yayy!!!

then i went to a fringe show. i'll say this about it. i'm glad it was only 28 minutes long.

came home, touched up the paint, and went to bed.

Oh, and my cute-arse kitty

Bein' cute. She loves to chew paper, so she's in heaven right now , as it's pretty much everywhere in the apartment.

Paper Flurry

Jeeze I've been a busy girl these past few days. Here's my table, you can see the buns in the upper left corner. I'd had an idea of putting wee birds and other creatures into paper mache eggs, a while back, and just got around to trying it last night.

First came the hunt for an egg-shaped object/objects to use as molds. After several failed attempts to make them out of plastic bags and crumpled newspaper, and a wild idea to use a potato, I settled on two wooden half-eggs taped together. I also found a few cups and pressed-glass bowls to make larger paper mache pieces which will be nests.

I love the paper mache paste mix-it's so easy and CHEAP. Microwave a glass of water for about a minute, add 2 T of corn starch, and then microwave at 15 second intervals, stirring between each session, until the mixture is the consistency of yogurt. It thickens as it cools, I usually end up adding a few more drops of water to it as well. Sometimes I mix in lavendar oil as well.

I used torn strips of the local free newspaper, and The Onion, which made for some fun reading as I worked. The molds were just perfect for the length of strips I had torn. On the first layers I used a lot of corn starch glue and on the upper layers, not so much. Didn't use a brush until I got to the decorative layers of tissue paper. My hands have a nice blue-green cast today!

Anyway. I molded them, let them sit for 10 minutes while I molded the next one, and then peeled them out or cut them off, and set them to dry on a muffin tin's backside (DIRTY!). 10 minutes in the oven at 200 degrees, and they were ready for a layer of tissue paper. I did re-inforce a couple of the early ones with another layer of newsprint. I added ribbons to the eggs, my plan is once they're totally dry, to encase the wee animals and cover one more layer of tissue paper around the ribbon, so you'll pull the ribbon to release the animal.

I think I need to find a larger egg mold, the wood one worked great but it was just a bit too small. The animals are going to be SMOOSHED in there!


Lastly, as I was going to bed, I decided to cover my journal with a new cover. I used tissue, stuff from the newspaper, a vintage French postage stamp, a snippet of iron-on lettering my mom had made for me a billion years ago when I was in dance (hence, no middle name), and a flower cut from the lace that was in my sister's wedding gown. I wasn't sure it was going to stick with just the corn-starch paste, so I covered it with a few layers of tissue as well.

Just a quick little photomontage of a new bun, and a photo I took last year of a lotus from the rain garden at the Como Zoo.

More tomorrow, I'm going home and sewing up a bunch more buns tonight!

Work from the weekend

Alrighty well I'm going to try to get a personal blog going again. Wish me luck.

I won a considerable amount of cash again at poker, so I went and bought some canvasses at Michaels as well as a book on artful blogging, and the DVD for 300. I basically then just holed myself up in my house (barring the trip to the Uptown Art Fair with my folks) and worked.

Here are two wee rabbits, with painted-lace wings and embroidered faces. They are about 3 inches tall, made from recycled sweaters.

They'll be going to I Like You on Wednesday, along with a few other small stuffies.

Here's the detail from a collage/painting that I did. The bird's wings and bodies were made with bleach-painted construction paper, I used a scrap that was lace-printed for their beaks and legs, and the 'nest' is part of a vintage photo-holder that I got from my gram.

I'm not 100% happy with it yet, but it's getting there. I'm thinking I'll add real branches to the bottom where they're painted, right now, which you can't see in this photo.

Lastly, here's a collage/painting, once again, in a vintage frame. Still needs a title, I'm thinking,

"Muffy the Explorer. Got off the couch, did great things"

Work for Craftstravaganza

Here's some recent work so the good people at the St. Paul Craftstravaganza can see what I've been up to.....most of this stuff has sold but this is the style of what I've been doing lately. Enjoy!

LORETTA'S TREE
This uses a tree branch, coral, crystals, paintchips, a model railroad figure, and sterling silver wire.



BE MY VALENTINEMore of the same.....turquoise, paintchips, old maps, railroad figures, sterling chain and wire, tree branch, and vintage French postage stamp



Paper mache bird, using 100% recycled materials


Necklace using vintage French postage stamp in handmade (by me!) soldered frame. Too many beads to list, but basically I just threw everything blue and green that I had at this mammajamma. I lurve it. My sister has it now.

Ok so that was a lie....

things have changed so much in beccajotown, that it's not even funny. well, perhaps it's mildly amusing.

i have taught myself many interesting things, how to solder being one of them.
see?

but it hasn't freed up ANY more time.

i'm working at a college now, doing costume design for their theater department, and it's super exciting. and now i'm trying to decide if i want to a. open a store, or b. go to grad school and become a prof. ARGH CHOICES!!!!!

watch out internets, i'm back baby!

Well, it's been a whirlwind month. My show, Wonderland at the MN fringe fest was the #1 selling show. There's too many stories to go into at this point, but let me just say it was a wild and exciting ride, one which I hope we get to repeat very soon.

I have been neglecting my body, my room, and my art for so long though, that to do any maintenance on any one of them depresses the hell out of me. I've stopped walking every AM, and am starting to gain back the weight I'd lost. Deeeeepressing.

It's not *so* blasted hot any more, which is good, so I think this afternoon and evening I'm going to do some serious cleaning and organizing in my studio, and go through my closet again. Generous co-workers have been giving me clothes, but they're not always my style and yet I have a hard time saying 'no thanks.'

I'm looking forward to a nice, relaxing fall. Which means of course that it's going to be insanely hectic. And I wouldn't want it any other way.......

ten mile stretch on a nine mile line...

well the new necklaces i posted on etsy have disappeared. i suspect they were stolen. but i'm not sure. i'm going to wait 2 more days, and then de-list them and make all new ones. but not with new material. still trying to use up what i have.

i ran into an old babysitter @ the mall today, when i went to get a cookie at mrs. fields. yeah, i know i shouldn't be eating cookies. eff that. those cookies are worth being fat. yum! anyway. her grandparents built the house i grew up in, and she was in my older sister's grade in school. she checked my ID against my check card, recognized my last name, and we started to chat.

funny how the random fact that i used a card instead of cash meant i talked to her, instead of not.

we held a going-away party for my bro, SIL, and wee nephew matthew. i cried when i left. and a couple of more times on the way home. i'm going to miss so much of matthew's life. missouri is not that far away, but, it is.

it got me thinking on the things that i've passed up in my 30 years. and how fast life really does go.

then i went to the book store, and then to mission improbable 3. tom cruise has only 3 front teeth on the top. i'm glad i'm not the only one with a screwed-up grill.

good intentions.....cause injuries

So remember my traffic accident from a few weeks back? I had stopped for a pedestrian in a crosswalk, which is a state law. The dude behind me did not.
He smashed his truck into my wee car, totaling it. I got a new car, which I like very much (although I REALLY want to paint some flames on it) but now I'm leery of stopping for people at crosswalks. "Sorry!" I shout, as I buzz by.
I went to go get a salad at the local grocery store today, and for unknown reasons they switched the dressing from ladle-your-own, to carafes. Like someone would put on your table, so they didn't have to keep refilling your water glass every 3 minutes. I get a nice healthy salad, all sorts of good veggies and what have you, and go to put a SMIDGEN of bleu cheese dressing on. It comes out in one big glop so I had to go back and add more lettuce and other veggies to it.
I get back to work, start eating it, and INHALED some broccoli florets into my lungs. I started coughing. Then I started gagging. Went to the bathroom, threw up my 4 bites of broccoli. Sweet.

Had the little silver comets in my eyes from coughing and throwing up at the same time. Turns out one of them was actually one of the nasty little millipedes that lives in the bathroom. Ugh. He didn't try to crawl up my leg this time, perhaps he doesn't care for bleu cheese.

Finally! Something New!

I got inspired last night, and instead of cleaning like I should have been doing, I was creating. I stayed up WAY past my bedtime, but I made 6 gorgeous necklaces. One is promised to a charity auction, one is currently on my neck and probably won't be available for sale, but the other four are read-2-goh.

Check them out!

gettin' artsy with the digicam

Unbusy at work and waiting for traffic to pass so I can meet the 'rents at Big Bowl. Yum! Nothin' tastes better than free dinner.


Jeeze I need a brow waxing.

If I was a character in 'A Scanner Darkly', which, I'm not.


New jewelry coming to my etsy shop later this week. I promise!

neglected corners of my brain

well it's been a busy-ass month. highlights and lowlights:

*landlord in hospital for severe pneumonia

*room and studio absolute mess due to low energy/no time

*rehearsals for fringe show have started, only able to attend 1 so far
because....
*got rear-ended by license suspended, apparently uninsured driver. SWEET.

*car totalled

*had a super visit to chicago to see my sister

*decided to go to graduate school

haven't been able to do my creating every day thing, i gott get better at making time for myself. uuuuugh.

creative time vampire

so i'm on a drug for the depression. and it seems to have also conquered what i used to call simultaneous multitasking, but in reality, ADD is prolly what it is.
this is good. it allows me to focus long enough to clean. but it's also bad, because doing one thing for so long wears me out. and organizing is tiring.

also, i'm not remembering my dreams anymore. which is fantastic because my whole life i've had extremely vivid nightmares and unpleasant dreams. i was waking up anyhwere from 6-10 times a night, usually frightened of the demon i was just hangin' out with in the bar, or the dead body i'd discovered under my car which was only the head of a baby and a body of a snail. stuff like that. it'd take me hours to fall asleep at night, and once i woke up, more time to fall back asleep.

so that alone is great. but i haven't had the desire, or the time it seems, to sit down and MAKE. and the days when i don't make anything, i feel a little funny.

i've been seeing some really amazing things out there on the internet that make me feel like a suck for not keeping up with my jewelry and yarn spinning and collage and what have you. so i'm going to try to set aside creative time once again. an hour a day that cannot be spent cleaning, rehearsing, working, eating, walking etc. can only be spent MAKING.

contest! whoopee!

The super cool glampyre is having a design contest. Here's my entry-a kimono style sweater made of lace. I think it'd be gorgeous. I dig the deep colors, and it's unusual to go from light to dark on top. As the pic says, it's inspired by two things I found on Knitty-the Kyoto Sweater, and the Branching Out scarf. Could I knit this thing? Hope so.

rainy days and mondays always get me down

it's monday. it was rainy today. bummer.

we cast our fringe show over the weekend, but then some peeps dropped out.
that's not as bad as the other show i'm werkin' on, where the stage manager, assistant director, and 4 actors have dropped. oh, and it opens in less than a month. whoopee!

the rain seems to have stopped. i'm going on a walk.

oh. but this is the funniest thing I've seen in months.