toil & trouble

not so lazy days of summer~

2010-08-01T14:47:00.000-07:00

doing little things here and there~
and rekindling for good, my love affair with the gym. it feels nice to work on being extra healthy again. i think that the final straw was when my baby sis asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding next july. this means that i would be standing amidst lithe and nubile twenty one year olds and honestly, the thought of me standing out in pictures as the older chunky one just wasn't cuttin' it for me. and besides, i have some super cute sixes and eights hanging in my closet that miss me.
also did this fun little project with my friend heather. they were originally going to be roller shades for her son's room, but after we painted them, she decided that they were too wonderful to be rolled up as blinds half the time. so, wall hangings they became. they were cheapies from ikea called the frukna or tival or something along those lines!
heather drew them up and we each painted one after her son (who is one) had gone to bed. the sea serpent belonged to me!

what i did...

2010-04-25T18:57:00.000-07:00

i took a belly dance class yesterday afternoon with a friend at the local Y.
i wriggled and shimmied to middle eastern beats. i felt a little silly, but happy.
no fancy coin belts or ankle bells for me, but there were definitely plenty to be heard in the tiny room.
we danced in a circle following the instructor.
the hunched little granny to my right used me as her visual guide. she was very cute considering i was probably not the best person to follow.
i made kind of almost figure 8's with my hips and did serpentine arms and that one funky move
where the dancer holds her arms overhead and shifts her neck from side to side.
today i'm sore...

i saw a woman in my neighborhood walking in a burqa today. it was a little disarming. only because while i have seen women in full burqa before, i don't think that i have ever seen one worn in the states and certainly not in my bucolic little hood. and now i'm wondering what she looked like underneath all that fabric and if she minded being so covered while her cute little son ran free. i could imagine that she is beautiful and young and full of hope and is plotting her escape from a tyranical beast of a husband who doesn't appreciate her poetry or know that she listens to dylan, cat power and the velvet underground...or maybe all of those things except that her husband really treasures her and she treasures God and her burqa is a statement of her devotion. i guess that i will never know, just as she will maybe never know the glory of having the sun baking her skin while lolling topless in the sand and the joy of floating weightless and naked with the seahorses and the kelp as ocean waves lap at her skin.
c'est la vie...
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yesterday~

2010-04-18T12:48:00.000-07:00

image from here
i watched a hummingbird chasing a crow.
i soaked in a hot tub and had a posh massage.
i winked at a street punk half my age and then later
i waltzed in the livingroom with my love.
p.s. isn't this song so lovely? it's a new fave. and also, my god, i love her hair.

the dopeness or ode to the boys of '93

2010-04-04T13:29:00.000-07:00

this song makes me think of you. all of you, wound up into a single sometimes confusing once upon a time. no order. for some of you,there are only wisps, through a haze of sunshine, sea spray and sweaty clubs. dancing to burning spear, a tribe called quest and the doors. mostly friends some more some less, but all something.
to grady~how old were you? 19? playing cards with your dad till all hours in my station at the news cafe. that dance to cheryl lynn's "to be real." the way you "borrowed" my dog for walks to look cool...to carlos and alain and that crabby dude with the long hair and the car who moved me and my stuff 10 blocks down. you were my homeys. do you remember watching 90210 and the simpsons all together like a family at andie's? surfer bob too, rest your soul brother, life dealt you a rough blow, but i will never forget you making an icebox cake or whatever the hell it was cuz sorry, it was gross, but you were so proud to contribute to our pot(heavy emphasis here) luck. to alex aka rainbow...baby face. i made you that leather strap braided with coral to keep you safe on your surfing adventures. do you still have it? to tom c., you know i still have a picture of you somewhere. you slept with your head in my lap after that effed up trip to gainesville. where are you? to tony who brought me apples as i sunbathed on the beach. the reason i wouldn't go out with you was because you drove an suv and your hair was too short. and serge, man, serge you tried so hard and i really liked you and you gave me santana and we would liberate books together from the news, but whatever, you still exist in my head and i hope that you are well. to that crazy dude from canada who's first name i don't remember, but somehow your middle name stands out....zoltan. you're lucky you stopped calling me from rebar at 3 in the morning(i usually wasn't home though). to graham...so punk rock and you never knew that you made my heart flutter at least once. maybe twice. to the guy with the long curly hair who was just one of the girls, i still have your library book on charlemagne. it's a little over due. i wish i could remember your name. to mark? jason?brad? you. you and your stupid boy pranks. who reallllly takes a magnifying glass to the beach to burn chicks in bikinis like some sort of mad scientist? april hated that you liked me and not her. i rode the handlebars and you peddled me home. you said my bike reminded you of the one you had in holland. you sent me that letter of yearning from somewhere in the deep south and i pretended like you didn't exist. i'm sorry. and finally, to casey. my heart skipped a beat the first time we met. you were on a bike and had your long locks up in a rasta cap. i was so shy and practically your stalker and you were such a gentleman. in your bottlegreen jag. taking me to class with you at u.m., to the airport in the morning after a midnight swim, to dragging me by the hand out of the vip room at velvet past john cusack, past my friends, past everyone after i told you to just stop fucking with me.
so boys of'93, you are the dopeness...and i dedicate this song to you.
~as inspired after having watched the movie "The Wackness" starring mister sir ben kingsley.

mishmash~

2010-04-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

a soft embroidered lounging robe, a mug of hot tea, a reprieve from a hugely hectic work schedule...
tomorrow is venice beach, an engaged sister with wedding dress stars in her eyes and a talented friend. sunday is too far away to think about...
and then this morning, i heard this cover of a Gary Numan tune while driving to work. it blew my mind.

i've also been voting in Fug Madness, it's going to be a close one. sorry gaga, sorry ling...there's gonna be a new sheriff in town.

floating~

2010-03-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

Lady Grey by Tim Walker for Italia Vogue

in between spaces of work and home and sleep and non~sleep.
having an oppressive right arm that reminds me incessantly that it needs attention. hearing the same tune in my head repeatedly that correlates to my dreams of pulsars and nebulae. engineering tricks for those with the voices of angels to pull off in a 32 million dollar epic. i am soothed by the little things...a boar bristle hair brush that glides through my hair with ease. the softness of marshall's fur on my cheek. sweet peas and poppies growing in my pots.my love's hand resting on my knee. an old horse that arrives in the mail. gummy bunny tummies from trader joes.

cheap date...

2010-02-15T13:39:00.000-08:00

let the record show that i am a cheap date...for only two dollars a game you can play a lively game of mini~golf in bucolic south pasadena. and by lively i mean that it took me 10 shots jus to make this one hole...i suck! there were lots of little kids(there was even a baby toddling over one of the greens) and parents with beers. so the astro turf is a little ragged and most of the "hole" events could use a little sprucing, but we had a blast! there was also a super purdy bouquet of yellowy orange roses and a delicious home cooked Indian meal.

hearts and flowers and mini~golf...

2010-02-14T09:50:00.000-08:00

i'm sipping latte and he is still asleep. i will go to yoga and he will wake up. then huzzah!!!! off to putt around a mini-golf course. hope that you are doing something lovely today...for yourself or for someone else. sometimes, love is all you need...

if i were a hat or my duality...

2010-02-12T23:25:00.000-08:00

bespoke millinery by the genius Philip Treacy for the bright star Alexander McQueen...

an old trip...

2010-02-07T10:26:00.001-08:00

it's been a long time since i've traveled to a foreign city. of the small handful of places i've been, israel is perhaps the most exotic. i was lucky enough to go for work for 10 days a few years back. i would gladly go again. the pictures are a mix of tel aviv, jaffa and jerusalem. i fell in love with the architecture which in tel aviv is a blend of bauhaus and mediterranean which has been distressed gently by time and the elements. i felt so safe here and walked around by myself at night without any worries. the people were always friendly and curious as to why i was there(i don't think that the tourism trade is really kicking right now for some obvious reasons). in jerusalem i was part of a tour group which i liked and loathed. i don't like feeling rushed through my experience, but i was glad to have the guidance through the old city. i did get fussed at for wandering off a bit from the group to buy my god daughter a little embroidered blouse.
and the food...sigh, my god, the food. you have never had an olive unless it has been handed to you by a dreadlocked girl in a market stall and it is dripping with oil and spice and the flavour caresses your tastebuds. also, i don't know why i look so pensive in that first pic. i was elated to be out and about, but maybe i was lonely. the first few days of my trip i spent with a colleague who knew the city pretty well, but after he left i was pretty much on my own. which was fine and i do love to wander. i went swimming in the mediterranean on yom kippur and i had a secret feast(it's the fasting holiday) with israeli rastafarians and watched borat(i had no idea that he was speaking hebrew) but, there is a lot to ponder when you are in this part of the world(or at least there is if you are the pondering type). specifically, this happened in old jerusalem. hearing the muslim call to prayer while you are standing at the front door of one of the most sanctified places in christianity after having just wandered through a mostly jewish market place can really set the wheels to turnin'. it is haunting and so full of the passion and majesty and zealousness of three religeons...and yet, God loves us all equally the same.

my oven's bounty...

2010-01-18T12:24:00.000-08:00

oh delicious bounty sprung from my hands and oven. why haven't i done this before? well, i did once, but that was when i was like 22. the mister and i were in heaven when i pulled this beautiful honey wheat baby out of the oven. no breadmaker involved, just me and my own two hands. the next loaf i want to be heartier with added flax and oats or something like that. toasted with peanut butter and honey it's a perfect match for the monsoon raging outside my window.

Honey Wheat Bread
(Adapted from All Recipes)

Makes 1 loaf

1 cup warm water (110 degrees Farenheit/45 degrees Celsius)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add honey, and stir well. Mix in whole wheat flour, salt, and vegetable oil. Work all-purpose flour in gradually. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead for at least 10 to 15 minutes (I used a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook). When dough is smooth and elastic, place it in a well oiled bowl. Turn it several times in the bowl to coat the surface of the dough, and cover with a damp cloth. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

Punch down the dough. Shape into a loaf, and place into a well greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan (or bake on a pizza stone the way i did). Allow to rise until dough is 1 to 1 1/2 inches above pans.

Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes.

on pins and needles...

2010-01-16T10:47:00.000-08:00

image from here
for a few months now i have had some serious issues with my right arm. this is my do everything arm. the arm that i make my living with. i've tried the other one, but it flops around semi helpfully and really i can only type a few keys and carry a dog leash with my south paw. this problem aka carpal tunnel bka i can't cut anything heavier than hair or china silk syndrome has waxed and waned for a few months depending on what i had been doing at work. somewhere down that road, the pain crept up and over into my left shoulder blade. this sucked. like really. no amount of yoga and stretching could work it out. and then i knew what i had to do. i turned to the mysterious art of acupuncture with an open yet healthily skeptical mind. the appointment was made and it came just in time, because that morning at work i started having crazy shoulder spasms while typing an email. i limped(bring on the melodrama) over to someone who i like to call my pusher man and begged a muscle relaxer. he dug around in his man purse and handed me a little something-something. oddly he popped into my work room about half an hour later just to make sure that i wasn't seeing paisleys or unicorns(what the hell else was in his pharmacopia i wondered).
wow, this story is long. but yesterday felt long. i was counting the minutes until my acupuncture appointment because even the muscle relaxer barely took the edge off my shoulder pain.
i would also like to offer a disclaimer here stating that i generally do not condone slipping into the valley of the dolls to take care of pain(real or imagined). i know i mentioned vicodin in an earlier post, but just try having a root canal with a hidden root. the recovery period is akin to having your head used as a jackhammer. but i digress.
i am sold on this acupunture thing. it is not as relaxing as a massage, but there is peacefulness that i felt while having little pokey things inserted up both arms and then in multiple areas of my shoulder blade. there was no pain. if i felt anything at all it was more like being poked with a pencil in two areas only. the other areas i could barely tell. i lay facedown on the table for about twenty minutes with the needles in place and a heat lamp warming my back. there were jungley-new age tunes(gorillas in the dawn of a new age mist???). i spaced out a little and felt some tingling and then before i knew it it was over. you don't feel the needles coming out.
i got dressed and wait a minute, where did my shoulder pain go? a light ache was still there but the intensity was ebbing. i have some chinese herbs(that kinda look like little blueberry candies or rabbit poop) to take to help with my circulation and i go back on monday for more.
we will also be working on clearing my allergies and revving my lady parts back up for pregnancy.
i can't wait.
unrelated: the mister and i are foraying into the world of home made hearty bread making this weekend. yum.

be still my cut paper heart...

2010-01-10T12:29:00.001-08:00

the oldest surviving animated feature(or in this case, just a snippet).

70's stashes and a happy new year...

2010-01-01T10:39:00.000-08:00

we get pretty wild here at the ol' hacienda. this meant that the mister and i had home made pizza(i made, he ate) and watched this kinda "meh" yet entertaining show called "swingtown" that we got on netflix. i also imbibed in some two buck chuck(that's a cheap brand of wine from trader joe's just in case you are reading this mom) and the last vicodin left over from my root canal 10 months ago. in my defense, i was having some serious achy muscle issues since i just rekindled my love affair with the gym and man, c'mon it was new years eve. back to "swingtown," the first best part is the clothes. i love me some 7o's high fashion. the second best part is the soundtrack( although a bit over utilized, we really don't need a song for almost every scene, i get it, it's the 70's). then there was this song that took me back to being a kid and visiting my dad and stepmom in Cardiff by the sea. my dad had long hair and surfed almost daily and my stepmom was a hostess at a fancy pizza joint. we would walk down to the beach crossing the train tracks and i can still feel that sea grass beach bag scratching my legs something awful. so listen and groove and check out that sweet stash...

oh and back to the new years...the mister was signed up for a poker tourney so we stopped watching before midnight and i started working on a new boat, this one with a wire frame and before ya know it, i was getting a midnight kiss. and then i fell asleep...
i don't make resolutions though i think about what i would resolve if i did make them, but mostly i just decide to do stuff. maybe i'll make a list...i'll ponder that.
after a bit of thought, i changed the post name (from something else that utilized an oft used sometimes derogatory term that is used to define female dogs and made me seem cool and kinda urban) to make it more friendly...a new year's "thought" is to mind my potty mouth.

and this too...

2009-12-28T09:36:00.000-08:00

i didn't get a good complete shot of my christmas cards. this is almost the finished product, except that there should be gold glitter on the star and then the paper cut square gets black photo corners and is placed onto a silver card stock. it was kind of a pain to make them because my glue stick was more icky than sticky and then i found myself uttering curses at the little bits of snow. i apologize to my local family of who no one got one. i just couldn't finish them in time and was suffering from santa's little worker elf traumatic disorder. so i decided to take my supplies with me to cardiff where i figured i would make them before bedtime the night before our family fete, but i forgot the cardstock and envelopes. i had a minor tantrum(done in the car when i was stuck in 1 1/2 hours of traffic just to get out of l.a.), but after three glasses of wine with my beloved step mom i stopped worrying and just let the visions of sugar plums dance in my head.

what i made...

2009-12-27T23:27:00.000-08:00

*delicious gingerbread popcorn(really really very good in the i can't control myself kinda way)
*good lookin' but poor tastin' caramel peach upside down gingerbread (sorry family)
*my sister jessie's favorite green bean casserole
*a mess of my work area in the apartment
*some boats made of a pizza box(supreme combo) and a discarded album cover(jethro tull "heavy horses", don't ask)

maybe i should add that the post it stuck on the frame in photo number one does say "i must not think bad thought x." ummm that's a song. by the band "x." not a reminder to myself to keep my chin up. in fact, i heard the song while driving and it took a lot of focus to get myself to work and not talk to anyone as i dropped off my hobo lunch in the fridge and made it back to my work room so that i could dig for a post it pad to write down the name of the song because i loved it so much. seriously, that takes a lot of focus for me. but then i didn't want anyone to think that i was suffering from pre~christmas suicidal tendencies, so i stuck the post it in my tote bag. i found it a month later. and i can't find the song on itunes.

and...boat inspiration comes from the very talented ann wood. she was generous enough to provide a very basic boat pattern with instructions. i altered the pattern and methods to suit my own needs. i wanted stronger boats, so instead of just doing regular paper mache, i used buckram squares which made for a nice solid hull. i then did paper over the buckram to smooth out the texture as the buckram was a little too gridlike and textural for my taste. i am totally inspired by her and can't wait to increase the fleet(even though these went out to a nephew and a god daughter). the blue boats name is "the sea nymph" and the purple one is "the anemone rose." you should make some too!!!

this has absolutely nothing to do with anything or a brief word from somewhere else...

2009-12-20T16:22:00.000-08:00

i have memory recall that is extremely motivated by music. i'll hear a song and shazaam i'm thrown into a trip down memory lane. anyway, this song popped up today and while i am not particularly a huge Rocky Horror fan, this tune really floats my boat. perhaps it was a highschool ex(and not bongwater boy from a previous post) who used to prance and highstep and bump and grind to this song using his single bed as a stage while i giggled and rolled on the floor in hysterics.
that said, we did not go to prom together...

everybody's doing it...

2009-12-19T13:55:00.000-08:00

yeah yeah, home made marshmallows are all over the place...and they're gooooooood.
vanilla marshmallows dipped in dark chocolate and rolled in graham cracker crumbs. snaaap.
recipe found here.

saturday brings...

2009-12-19T08:49:00.000-08:00

image from here
* a 1 1/2 hour massage at elements(thanks greg!!!)
*an afternoon party(probably will arrive in a state of loosy goosey relaxation and will embarass myself by showing up in a robe or wrapped in a festive sheet because i won't want to get dressed)
*potential hand to hand combat at Target, Macy's and possibly Michaels(which will ruin all benefits of massage) i am so behind in my present constructing escapade. this is compounded because i need to head to Cardiff on the 23rd for the family fete.
i have a history of waiting until the last minute...like when i was a junior in highschool and i put off doing a research paper until two nights before. i didn't even choose a topic, i just avoided it like athlete's foot. i say athlete's foot because there was always this little itch in my brain that i should be working on it in the months that followed it's assignation, but somehow hanging out with my glassy eyed boyfriend and his friends with their homemade bong that smelled like the business end of a goat took presidence(uhhh i never used that bong. it stank).
anyhoo, i ended up doing my research paper on...effects of smoking?home made bong making? procrastination? i truly don't remember, but i used a couple of tattered library books and get this...a whole stack of readers digest. i'm serious! i think this was one of the first times that i used limited resources to finish the race. ok, i'm babbling...my presents will be awesome, but there just might be a reader's digest or two involved, ya never know.
unrelated, listening to Roots Reggae on SKY.FM through my itunes...they make it nice.
and damn you Pandora for limiting the number of free hours that i can partake in your tunes.

baby got bundt...

2009-12-18T18:27:00.000-08:00

marshall and my bake-off entry, a salted caramel banana chocolate chunk bundt. yum...
didn't win, but i'm now in sugar coma bliss and so happy to not have to go back to work until the 4th of january. i do have to swing into overtime at ye olde homestyle christmas workshoppe though.

ha!

2009-12-17T08:32:00.000-08:00

finally finally finally, i sold my first "hallie original" in my etsy shop after months of selling vintage only. thank you artyoneoz in australia who ever you are, you just made my morning!
unrelated...i'm trying to decide what to make for tomorrow's 2nd annual costume shop holiday bake-off.
it will definitely involve a bundt pan and chocolate. more to follow...

not tacky and almost just right...

2009-12-09T08:13:00.000-08:00

the only thing that i don't like about my branch is the vessel that it rests in. right now it is nestled in a really large terra cotta pot with three bricks supporting the balance. i'll have to figure something else out. or maybe it's the gold lame' fabric the i swaddled it in. i've been dragging that fabric around for exactly ten years now and this is the first time it's seen the light of day for exactly ten years.

just a touch of the spirit or i speak for the trees...

2009-12-08T23:08:00.000-08:00

look! it's a snowflake garland made of lace scraps and this stuff called stiffy(how funny is that name?) which is essentially white glue. i made this at work today before deciding that i should probably just go home since i had nothing more to do(a small luxury that i have in exchange for being salaried and having to work many extra hours unpaid during busier times). i found the perfect scandinavian minimalist organic Christmas branch in an empty lot around the corner from me. i almost poked a bicyclists eye out when i was dragging it back home(sorry stranger). i'll have to snap a couple more pics as i can't tell in our dimly lit apartment if i love it or if i made it tacky. no live trees were harmed. this branch has been laying around for a few months and the little pine branches that i tucked in were cast off under bough clippings from the Target tree center...merry thrifty Christmas to me(and the mister who made chicken and waffles for dinner).
addendum~ no live trees were hurt by me, but perhaps i fall into the carrion scavenging category for stuffing the trunk of my car full of left over pine boughs...sigh...i can't win.

Sausage Curls and a Hex...

2009-12-06T11:46:00.000-08:00

please note that i have no true photographic reference and/or evidence for any of this...
yesterday afternoon the mister and i decided to take the curling iron to our respective heads of
hair. his is already curly and mine is straight as a slightly crooked arrow. it was fun. i curled his into antebellum era sausage curls and mine into something resembling a kinked and steamrolled slinky. we were a mostly kind of curly mopheaded couple as we stopped in at the library for him to pick up some anime dvd's and for me to do a drop off. i was thrilled when i spotted an older lady scurrying through the stacks looking like someone straight out of Hogwarts...long hooded cloak over long flowy dress and hair braided and coiled with silvery ribbon. i tried to spy on her in the "S" fiction stacks, but she was onto me i think and vanished herself away. later that night i made the worstest grossest most blech cookies(i truly have no idea what could have happened and how pumpkin snickerdoodles could go so wrong...maybe there is the slightest use of hyperbole here, but really wow, yuk) ever and my luscious almost curls straightened themselves back out...i think she hexed me. oh but we did make some delicious chicken and dumplings even if the dumplings were done in the mister's mom's style(cut into strips and chucked in the pot) and not in my oma's way(batch of bisquick biscuits mixed up and dolloped on top of simmering liquid).

Happily Listing...

2009-12-05T11:21:00.000-08:00

i'm starting to feel the holiday spirit. i think that the mister and i will need to drag the christmas decor out of the garage. good thing that the night time marauder who stole about 12 bags of recycling cans out of our garage was kind enough to not go digging into the giant cupboards that are in there as well(is it wrong of me to suspect my cat hoarding neighbors??).
this year my california family has decided that for our gift giving that we would each select(or have selected for us...thank you Jessie) a single name and give to that person only(except for the little niece and nephew who deserve the king's ransom for just being so awesomely adorable).
here is one of my lists:

Etsy
Buy Handmade
remainsoftheday

the swanbones prints are so hauntingly beautiful and i have been eyeing the little le creuset sugar bowl and hippocampus print for many moons now...
unrelated...i want everyone who reads this to know that i am still taking my prenatal vitamins(man my hair and nails are healthy) and i'm really looking forward to another go in the new year.
and also that i will always and forever love this song. i love that scene in Valley Girl(yea i'm old so what!) when Randy is hiding out in the bathroom at the "val" party and this song is playing in the background. oh! adding this movie to my Amazon list.

The Family Closet...

2009-12-03T22:12:00.000-08:00

photos from my personal collection
every few months or so i type my great great grandmother's name into google. a couple years ago there were a few blurbs and photos here and there along with her
Hollywood Forever memorial. so, a couple weeks ago i was doing some computer dilly dallying and thought that i would type her name. the basic information that is always provided i'm familiar with as it is family history...she was a Zeigfield Girl as well as the highest paid performer on the Vaudeville circuit. her name was a dark cloud over my great grandfathers stiff moral code. her daughter(my great grandmother Florence Tanguay Dufresne) was illegitimate and handed over to her aunt and uncle to be raised in a more "wholesome" manner. my aunt debbie has a stack of old photos and i have a few myself that i hold very dear. but when i stumbled upon some images that had been posted by the Henry Ford museum (that aren't the same ones that i had seen over and over as a little girl) i was blown away with pride. the one thing that i had never heard was her voice. in june i had done a youtube browse for her with no results, but this last time when i found this clip, i almost cried. Eva baby...you're a star.

H is for Hippocampus or Little Ignacious rejoins the stars...

2009-12-02T18:45:00.000-08:00

i'm glad that November is finally out the door. it was a tough month. the first day was beautiful. a joyous and love filled birthday with cake and hugs and family. the second day blew me out of my knee socks and down a blustery barren mountain. on the second day i found out via ultrasound that the little spark of life that i carried inside me had flickered out, packed it's bag and returned to the stars. every day since has been spent in slightly misshapen states of normalcy and emotional repair.
a miscarriage really fucks with you. if nothing more, i am a trooper and i lives to fight another day...that's pretty much all that i really want to say about that.
but i would like to add that sea horses are awesome.

some randomness...

2009-10-04T11:02:00.000-07:00

a date to my favorite three dollar a ticket glorious Academy Theater to see "Inglorious Basterds" last night. it was a hot box this favorite theater of mine that always promises some sort of extra quirky perk.i don't think that they have any heat or any air...or maybe they were trying to replicate the days of yore when people would bring hand fans to keep the air circulating. unfortunately all i had in my purse to use as said fan were some seed packets that i had picked up at the nursery earlier in the day. for obvious reasons, they were a no go. i also tried a tissue without much success. almost as entertaining as the(mostly ok, but a might long in spots mr. tarentino) film was a fellow who had fallen asleep in the back row and was snoring and breathing heavily for about an hour or so. and this is a small theater (as it is oldy timey), so the whole audience were privy to his apnea rythyms. it was definitely more comical than the time the large gentleman in the seat next to me was ahem...pleasuring himself under his coat(i was alone that night) and that was during "Children of Men." nothing sexy about that film aside from handsome mr. owen of course.
i also am so in love with this song right now...

lost in a forest...part deux

2009-09-13T18:12:00.000-07:00

i rode the 5 miles on my squeaky old bike. listening to the Church, the White Stripes and Bowie on the way there. a grove of towering sequoias. a bed of pine needles and an old sarong. sucking in the majesty of the trees and getting my vampire on with Sookie. nibbling on almonds and watching an army of ants bum rush an artery of sap. a beautiful day...

listening to...

2009-09-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

oh this new~ish band takes me back to the days of my teen angst. these lads are lovely in their brooding.
so very Echo, so very Joy Division, so very themselves...

rememberin'

2009-09-07T11:33:00.000-07:00

taking pics for a shop update, eating apple slices with almond butter and Tom Waits pulls up on my itunes. years ago when i was married, my then husband(who liked the drink) decided at about one in the morning that he was going to track down the great Mister Waits' phone number. there were many calls put to 411 in New York City(?)...we were living in Tallahassee at the time. i just remember this drunken slurring of words, "no! thass Tom Thomas Tom Waits heez a musician.why don you know who he izzz? i dunno where he lives thass why i'm calling you."
man, what a drunk...
but, i am snickering as i write this and i definitely still have a fondness for tom waits.

just some stuff on a saturday...

2009-09-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

i haven't been very interested in keeping up with the journal lately. but i'm trying to shake that a bit. i killed my garden errrr beastly hellaciously hot southern california killed my plants. and so did the night squirrrels aka the rats. and then there was the bad ass green worm army that knocked of my woad and nasturtiums. so now i have a dirt garden. it's nice and brown and guarded by a humble gnome with an ax. on the other hand, i am growing a rather beautiful strain of fungus in my terrarium.
i have been sequestered indoors because of the fires burning up the hill. the air stinks. greg doesn't smell it, but he smokes. my sniffer is in sneeze and blow mode. i'm over it. and i want to go running again and i want to turn off the canned air in the flat. i did brave riding my bike to the train on thursday. it felt great to get a little exercise even if every inhale smelled like a smoldering bbq pit. on that ride i learned that wearing a wrap dress to ride a bike is not exactly the best idea. several good citizens of pasadena and little tokyo definitely got a morning flash of my lily white upper thigh. i hope that it gave them a giggle! also on the train was a very odd and slightly off large woman panhandling and talking to her self. people did the bury their noses into their blackberry's in order to not to attract her attention. she plopped herself down into 1 1/2 seats and pulled out a hello kitty notebook and wrote two words. i strained to see what they were and what i could make out looked like:
elasticity pusssy(yes with extra esses)
that made my day!

holy wow...i love this!!!

2009-08-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

i stumbled on this amazing artist, celeste potter, while dilly dallying before work...the song is pretty groovy too. and then i....whoops, almost burned my oatmeal trying to post this.

as a milestone approaches...

2009-08-02T10:14:00.000-07:00

Ms. Christensen you are so absolutely stunning at 40...thanks!
i think that it is so easy at times to slip into feeling a dread or a denial of age.
...for me that it is. i used to always say that i had a dorian grey complex.
and i wept on my 21st birthday for the passing of years.
time is swift and can often be cruel. and now 20 odd years later(yes, for real odd...in some ways and quiet and simple in others) i feel the number forty creeping up the path and i truly don't feel that much different. i mean i don't wander around in a macrame bikini top and a gypsy skirt so much anymore, but the converse are still there. i still loathe cottage cheese and i still love to ride a creaky old bike with a bell on it's handlebars. ok i need to wrap this up...blah blah blah. i could go on and on waxing poetic on the virtues of being forever young as a state of mind. all i will say is that i have something big planned in my year that will be forty...and that i have a slight girl crush on helena christensen because she IS forty and also i resurrected my love for john cusack after watching say anything for the gazillionth time the other night. the end.
photos of Helena Christensen for Odd Molly (via Haus Maus)

go ask alice...

2009-07-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

treasures from wisconsin...

2009-07-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

little treats from my trip to lush and green madison,wisconsin...
*a carousel ride with a very dear friend(i miss you Monica!!!)
*a tiny milk glass pitcher
*a pink pony holding down a mountain of lava
* an ode to dr. evermore
"can i come hide with you in your post apocalyptic garden?
i'll care for your creatures of iron and steel.
i'll sweep out the remains of life as we know it and
bake you a pie of cobweb and thistle
and together we shall be fed for all eternity..."
*my feet catching sun at devil's lake
* the little girl who has stolen my heart
i had a most excellent vacation!

lost in a forest...

2009-07-23T07:53:00.000-07:00

today i woke up after a couple car-azy dreams. dream vignette number one was that i was turning into a vampire. well, i was in the pre-blood phase, so i just had the floating off bed syndrome and the shakes. i know that this dream came about because G and i watched a swedish vampire flick called "Let the Right One In" last night. it is well worth a watch as it is super original(hard to find these days) and heartbreaking...just don't make the mistake we did and accidently watch it in the dubbed mode. i don't know how two film buffs could be such doofusses and not think to check the set up features, but ahem cough cough. so i woke up just positive that it was saturday and so excited because i have a massage appointment. stupid thursday!
but enougha my freaky dreams and wakey uppy letdowns!
this is a papercut that i did for my dear friend and hostess with the mostest Monica's birthday. it's part of my "Lost in a Forest" series.
i really love it.

i forgot something...

2009-07-21T22:12:00.001-07:00

i almost forgot that i have a blog. i've been up to all sorts of things and i have pictures and projects aplenty, i just haven't felt like sitting in front of a computer screen for longer than a minute or three. soon soon soon i will be ready for proper documentation methinks.

onward and forward...

2009-07-02T00:04:00.000-07:00

photo by me...from the most wonderful vivienne westwood exhibit at the v&a several years ago
this has been the first week of my glorious two and a half week vacation and it has been spent in a haze of toothache vs. headache vs. grogginess. i had the second part of a grueling root canal excavation last friday. it started ok with minimal pain, but then by monday, i was really hurting and out of it. i'm really not a big fan of slipping into the "valley of the dolls" with the pain killers, but i haven't had much of a choice. greg gets to chauffer me everywhere and he is a great sport. hopefully, maybe only another day or so of ache...wait scratch that. i want to wake up tomorrow with a fairy tale smile. i have projects to work on, places to go and people to see!

sunday was where it was at

2009-06-22T08:11:00.001-07:00

sunday was beautiful! so beautiful that i had to wear a sunshine-y dress. i was so happy to visit my friend heather and her brand new, just hatched most adorable baby boy in the hospital. i always forget how tiny newborns are...so seemingly fragile and just impossibly amazing. his name is dashiell a name that i love because it is french, it is unique and it is oldy timey.
after my visit, greg and i decided to take marshall up the hill for a hike. i don't normally wear a dress or jewelry when hiking(nor do i carry a vintage bag, but i needed it for the camera) but in my defense, i had just watched 'picnic at hanging rock' the night before and felt inspired by lasses hitting the foothills in their frocks and i was wearing converse.
i also managed to save a drowning bee from some hooligans who were too idiotic to just scoop it out of the rock fountain. there were cheers of "ohhhh she's brave" to which i replied"hmph my father raises bees." they found this impressive and really my dad only just started with bees and is still in the "learning" phase. mostly greg and i figured that the hooligans just wanted the old folks to move along so that they could smoke pot. oh to be young in the summertime...

saturday

2009-06-22T08:07:00.001-07:00

saturday was chilled and misty and made for sitting on the couch and finishing a book. also i made a sort of french peasant stew(no pics, i have yet to figure out the fine art of food styling and my indoor lighting sucks when it isn't sunny) and snuggled with the dog.

friday

2009-06-22T07:58:00.000-07:00

friday was nice with a walk to the cafe for some apple juice, some goofing in a phone booth and the videostore...

bambino

2009-06-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

this is my first little baby from the garden. sweet little lemon cucumber, how lovely you will taste sliced with some feta and sardines...

standin' in the shadow of the stinkiest flower ever

2009-06-19T08:09:00.000-07:00

yeah, i know the shadow picture is kind of played and not so artful, yet i kinda like it. except that i look a little hippy. not hippie as in patchouli wearing, but wide, but i was carrying a big ol' purse and wearing a cardigan and it is an exagerated shadow and...anyhoo, sorry for the hip rant, greg and i went to see the very rare corpse flower. actually, we smelled it waaaaay before we saw it.
it did smell gross. but not like two day old cantelope rind in the garbage can gross or like my cousin russell's week old feet migraine inducing gross. it was a damp and musty and sickly sweet odor that permeated the air and zapped our nostrils. it was most incredible to take in(rare too) the last time one flowered at the huntington was in 2001. i should add that it was difficult to get a clear picture, because old folks were literally jumping in the way of the camera to get a closer look.

check your head

2009-06-17T08:05:00.000-07:00

this is a little summer straw cloche that i am working on. the vintage straw has been repurposed from a crap 80's sort of bridal hat that i found at the thrift store. i just reblocked it with a little steam love and separated and reshaped the brim. i sized the crown with my handy dandy gelatin sizing and voila! i'm leaving the brim unwired to give it a softer shape. it is still kinda mid process and the velvet ribbon will actually go around the exterior of the crown(not just the front, i was feeling lazy for pics). i heart it so. but i may want to list it in my shop. my goal(dare i talk about goals???) errrrr my dream is to do more projects like this ie. repurposing sad and unloved vintage millinery and breathing new life into them. i have another smooshed up old beater that i am just starting to play with. is beater a word? did i make that up??? i think it actually means junky car, but whatevah. k, i'm off to pollinate my squash plants. oh don't mind the self-portrait, that was thrown in for good measure.

sunshine

2009-06-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

photo by me
ha! the "sun" in sunny southern california is finally returning. i knew it couldn't be much longer. i love the grey and all, but it has been pretty chilly. mostly i know that my garden needs some helio motivation. supah shout out to Ben in bucolic Lutterworth(UK) for sending me a zip file full of photos from my first european journey. I should have known that you would have them...my hero for the week! Cheers!!!

a little swap...

2009-06-15T19:08:00.001-07:00

i participated in a secret friend summer swap this week. the idea was masterminded by the talented and inspirational nadia. i think that there were about forty of us participating from parts near and far across the globe. the plan was to put together a mix cd, a couple of postcards(one with a favorite quote written on the back), and a little something extra of our own choosing for good measure. she would randomly give names to people and it is all rather anonymous. nadia gave us links to that person's blog and their mailing address and that is it! the rest was up to us and the postal service. the odd thing was that i put together from my giftee's blog that we had a mutual friend. in fact, someone who is very dear to my heart (of years past when i lived in the south). so what a lovely small yet absolutely freaking crazy ass large world we live in...so very random. i hope that my person likes her things. one card i made and the other is from a trip to paris several years back. i made the earrings which are vintage beads and sterling findings...the music is...well, one never knows how one's musical taste will be received. cheers!!!

the day the pictures stopped

2009-06-13T12:02:00.001-07:00

this is a subject that i am not fond of...the day that all photographic records of my european travels were lost. there were hundreds of them. parisian doorways, an english country church, a glaswegian cemetary, self portraits of swinging high above the grounds at the carnival outside the louvre. i cried once i realized that my little ibook had deleted them at the hands of my own folly. anyway this was about three years ago and it has been hard for me to pick a camera back up with the same vigor and vim. that is one of the reasons that i wanted to start a blog...to wake up my dormant photographic eye. i'm trying!
the three pictures above are all that is left from the deleted photos. i had stuffed them into photobucket back in the friendster days. it makes me a little crazy that i can't enlarge them any more than they are because they are but copies of the originals.
p.s. one of the lipstick kisses on oscar wilde's grave stone is my own...

circus~y

2009-06-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

all pictures were taken in the shop today...
i was bored and needed a break from bingeing on atomic fireball candy. i've had circus on the brain for the past few days. it started last friday when i caught sight of a big red and white striped tent going up in a field. the wind was blowing and the clouds tumbled a bruised grey over the foothills.

dream...

2009-06-08T20:47:00.001-07:00

i want to live here. period. it is southern gothic at it's best.
i look at my own small apartment in sunny california and sigh...
images are from the blog beauty everyday located here.

weekend

2009-06-08T08:24:00.001-07:00

my weekend was filled with thrift stores, shop updates, music, strong coffee, and the pasadena flea market with a friend. i fell in love with the mirror in the top picture. i have been telling people that i stole it from the palace at versailles(re-watched Marie Antoinette last week....guilty pleasure).
greg and i are now hooked into True Blood. we don't have cable so we are patiently waiting for the dvds to trickle into the video store. i want the books now too.i hate to admit it, but i am a sucker(ba-dump-bump) for vampires and sultry southern towns with sketchy inhabitants.

little baby smershalls...

2009-06-04T22:23:00.000-07:00

under the sea...

2009-06-04T21:48:00.001-07:00

i just remembered these pics while i was watching a shark show on PBS. i took them at the monterey bay aquarium last summer.
floating tendrilly blobs of coloured gelatinous goo.
i could have watched them for hours.
~i ate four of greg's freaking amazing cookies

untitled

2009-06-04T20:02:00.000-07:00

lower photo by lara jade
june gloom is upon me. my fingers and toes are chilled and i wish that i had a big mug of cocoa and a fire to curl up in front of...or at least a fancy umbrella. please note that anyone reading this outside of southern california will just not understand.

luckily G has whipped up some chocolate chip cookie love.

i've always been a closet anarchist...

2009-06-03T20:29:00.001-07:00

photo courtesy of apartment therapy
guerrilla gardening...check it out here.

nice...

2009-06-03T01:03:00.001-07:00

last week was new shoe week... the black ones are from miz mooz and the sandals are bandolino.
i have honestly never worn sandals like this, but i am digging them(and not because the kooky lady at macy's said that they looked sexy). in reality errr the reality of last weekend, i let my sister jessie talk me into wearing them to the zoo. it rained. i had "zoo feet" the exotic cousin of "7-11 feet." this is the story that i shared with my boss today after she complimented them. i think i amuse her.

i can't get enough of this song...

2009-06-03T00:54:00.000-07:00

some things...

2009-06-02T22:16:00.000-07:00

i like to do paper cuts. they make me smile. i did these a few months ago.
another thing that makes me smile is ye olde thrift store. i have a special favorite.
it is unorganized. one time an old timer chatted me up about a copper embossed painting of san francisco. i think that he was the root of a dirty diaper smell that was wafting throughout the aisles. while on another day a geezer in wrap around sunglasses tried to get my opinion on a crusty juicer and my phone number in the same sentence. but...they do play some toe-tappin' tunes and if you look past the rubble heap of the housewares area, there are treasures to be found. my most recent most cherished find is "mary under convex glass with ooooold wooden frame." i have a very similar version of this immaculate heart tattooed on my right arm. it was kismet that i found her...lucky me!

my secret garden under the clothesline...

2009-05-25T18:59:00.000-07:00

this weekend was about movies, gardens, bike rides, new shoes, trying to pollinate my own veggies, dog park, books and what the...?...trying to pollinate my own veggies? for real. i am in dire need of some bees but bad. i need to add some special flora love for my little wing-ed friends. also, yes those are pink knickers hanging on the clothes line.
oh and growing in garden we have....
basil(sweet and purple)
thyme
watercress
french sorrel
dill
lemon balm
spearmint
german chamomile
rosemary
chocolate pepper
runner beans x 2
(one is a painted lady variety that was named after the 1st queen elizabeth...it's been around that long)
tomatoes x 3
lemon cukes x 2
patty pan squash x 2
and two lovely lavenders(french and spanish red) that i can hopefully manage to not destroy
oh, and last but not least...
a single woad plant(i am a dyer after all)
fingers crossed and i wants to plant more please!

a birthday and a cake debaucle...

2009-05-10T09:51:00.000-07:00

yay for greg's birthday! yay for cake! yay for three count 'em three different cakes that i made until finally with the third(from good ol dunken hines mix) it was actually edible. about a week
ago i had greg flip through my favorite cookbook "Baked." so...he ended up choosing something that i had been really wanting to try out...their red hot velvet cake. this recipe calls for a cinnamon buttercream instead of the tradional and ahem...nasty cream cheese icing( i hate the cream cheese) so i was all set except that i could not find the necessary "cake flour." so, for cake numero uno i just went for it with regular all purpose flour. not good. it was all wrong. a brick if you will. a note here, i was trying to get the cake prepped a day early. second note, i was off by one day on the date of greg's birthday. he was too. we both had the day of the week mixed up and in my defense, i was still looking at an april calendar at work. i have since torn off april's showers and am ready for some may flowers.
ok, so, since i ended up having an extra day, i decided to redo the cake. so i tracked down cake flour and more red gel food colouring and was good to go. right? nope.
cake number two went together much better, it could have baked maybe a minute or two less, but was looking pretty awesome. then came the damn buttercream. i have no clue what happened. maybe my butter was too soft and my tiny kitchen too small. the recipe is so simple, and i am a competent enough basic baker(i worked as a baker in a cafe in tallahassee for about a year). i should not have even bothered icing the cake with that beast in a bowl, but i did thinking that it would "mellow." mellow it did not and gross it was. after greg's birthday sushi dinner when we were settling down to watch The Money Pit with a hunk o' cake there was a deafening silence as we chewed and pondered what exactly was weird about that cake. the wind was out of my sails as i chucked it into what my 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Bartel used to call "File 13."
that would be the trash to those of you who did not have Mrs. Bartel in the third grade.
the third cake was a hit. a delicious treasure in a sea of dyed red blech. thank you duncan hines for helpin' a gal out who just wanted to let her fella eat cake.

on a train...

2009-04-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

saturday i took the silver and blue surfliner down to oceanside to go to my beautiful and brilliant little superstar sister's 20th birthday. i was worried that i wouldn't make it when my original train got cancelled due to as the amtrak agent put it,"a trespasser on the tracks." i was confused by the trespasser part because at first i thought...what, like a bandit? but then she clarified and said that some miserable person had woken up with a death wish and stepped in front of the train.creepy. sad. most unfortunate. but all of that was forgotten once i was on a later train and rollin' down the track like a johnny cash beatbox. i love trains! they are an incredible way to travel.the trip from l.a. to oceanside is just under two hours and so much more relaxing than dealing with traffic and freeway baloney. if only long distance train travel was more affordable...

what i do at work when left to my own devices...

2009-04-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

photoshoot with gnome, thai purple basil, camellia and peek-a-boo chicky...

happy earth day!!!

2009-04-22T08:24:00.001-07:00

some morning pics of what i am trying to grow on my little patch of asphalt and roof. marshall l-o-v-e-s walking on the roof he feels like king of the castle. he also loves posing for the paparazzi. so this was a good morning for him. not shown were my lemon cukes, chocolate peppers and patty pan squash. fingers are crossed that they make it in this heat.

shadow and light...

2009-04-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

my sweet man
hovering in shadow
your stardust flickers brilliance
i only wish that you would
shave that beard...
xoxoxox

work and such...

2009-04-16T22:37:00.001-07:00

Walkure has been open for a few weeks now. i was so proud of this headpiece, it only weighs about a pound and rests on the singers head by way of a simple headband that is worn more like a tiara so that it doesn't squeeze the ol' gulliver. oh, and it is a millinery wire frame covered in china silk with about 75 yards of organza ribbon draped in loops all over the place. in other news, i ate waaaaaaay too many mini chicken tacos from trader joe's tonite.

scratch my name on your arm with a fountain pen...

2009-04-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

i will never ever grow tired of these gents though at times my heart has strayed...
"This is the last night of the fair
And the grease in the hair
Of a speedway operator
Is all a tremulous heart requires
A schoolgirl is denied
She said : "How quickly would I die
If I jumped from the top of the parachutes ?"
i curse the day that i discarded my once beloved Smith's t-shirt
years ago
on a sunny island
down a dingy alley
my ways too cool for the angst of a previous year...

an interlude of colour...

2009-04-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

these photos are from the "Holi Festival of Colours." it's a Hindu celebration to welcome spring and the triumph of good over evil. what i love (aside from the obvious thrill of slopping pigment all over everyone, their mom and oneself) is the look of absolute joy on everyone's face. i am choosing to ignore the other obvious fact that powdered and liquid pigments whether synthetic or natural can be inherently dangerous in a plethora of ways...on a side note, i am plotting something exciting...

a spraying i have been...

2009-03-28T17:57:00.001-07:00

and seven hours later i am back at home. this is what i was doing. the masks are worn under the hoods. they are set on baseball caps with shortened brims so that they will not muss the fancy make-up of the performers underneath as they are playing multiple rolls. the masks are latex and started out as purchased "beetlejuice" faces. they were coated in an adhesive called pros~aide which provided a surface which my acrylic paints would adhere to. i sprayed the giant cloak using jaquard's "dyna-flow" and my trusty sometimes tempramental airbrush.
as a reward for my labours, i am going out shoe hunting.

a spraying i will go...

2009-03-28T07:44:00.000-07:00

i'm up way too early for a saturday because.........i'm off to work in an hour to airbrush a gynormous cloak to look like the the stony face of a mountain. 6 dancers and one singer fit under it. there will be fun to be had in the costume shop today for sure.
but, before i ventured out, i needed to post these little dolls as seen in the blog of sveta drescher.
very inspiring and beautiful. thanks to Lobster and Swan for posting the link to these lovelies today.

in honour of mister jones...

2009-03-20T23:34:00.001-07:00

i thought that i would rustle up some pics in a salute to Stephen Jones. and then i was a little miffed(ha!) when i realized that my millinery photos are pretty limited. i made all of these several years ago. the first one was for "The Merry Widow" and it is a wire crown and buckram brim.the black bird is quite old and i think that i threw some vintage lace pieces on there somewhere too(there's a lot going on with this hat!!!). the other two are from "The Marriage of Figaro." i was hooked on Philip Treacy at the time. the black one is a black velvet covered wire frame with coque feathers, tulle, fabric flowers and wired rhinestones. the second number is a bridal piece. it is a wire "fontange" style frame with vintage velvet leaves and paper hydreanges(never use paper flowers for a long running opera...most unfortunate). you can't really see the veil, but is has an added scalloped edge with embroidered flowers and then i cut out more little flowers and stitched them throughout the tulle. note to self...take camera to work.take pictures with said camera...cuz these pics are ollllllllllld. thanks for indulging me! stephen jones, YOU ARE AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

oh to be in london and to be a mad~hatter...or, another hero

2009-03-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

i make hats on a fairly regular basis, but this first little film made me a little misty...it sums up very quickly, the hours of labour that go into making one simple top hat. i soooooooo wish that i was in London to see this exhibit.

welcome spring...

2009-03-19T08:17:00.000-07:00

i wish that i could say that this is me, but it's a stolen photo from Graham and Green and Design Sponge's cherry blossom post.

mistress mary...

2009-03-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

mary mary quite contrary
how does your garden grow?
with silver bells and cockle shells
and pretty maids all in a row...

mary is mary, queen of scots and the silver bells refer to thumbscrews. the cockle shells
could be a reference to her husband (and his roving eye) or possibly yet another instrument of torture that would be attached to the ahem(!) genitals. and the pretty maids? maybe her ladies in waiting or maybe the guillotine. ahhh such sweet allegory in a lovely little rhyme...

a gaggle of bracelets...

2009-03-16T22:47:00.000-07:00

buttons buttons buttons
how i love buttons...
"sew buttons"
"button yer lip"
"button down the hatches(k, i know it's batten)"
these are my bracelets that i am offering up to the opera boutique. i'll also be putting together some earring sets. everything is old and the chains,clasps and jump rings are all sterling. i hope they likey!
*apologies for the corniness and the fuzzy pics(still trying to work out my new camera).

"when told that a certain woman would not hurt a fly, i retorted...well, not if it's buttoned up." -Dorothy Parker

"on fortune's cap, we are not the very button."
-William Shakespeare

“biographies are but the clothes and buttons of a man - the biography of the man himself cannot be written”

-Mark Twain

just another hero and a lovely lass...

2009-03-15T23:28:00.001-07:00

50 million ideas and a grey sunday...

2009-03-15T22:24:00.000-07:00

my weekends just don't seem to be long enough to do everything that i want to. it takes me at least a half day to just recover from the chaos of my previous weeks work. i am just counting the days until april when everything will simmer down a bit. i spent saturday evening finishing up bracelets for the boutique. i am pretty happy at how they are turning out, but as i am in such a creatively prolific period right now, i just want to crank out pieces like a machine. unfortunately, i am also easily distracted. this means that i also went thrifting(found a most excellent and huge mirror), poked around the library, played with the dog, broused at the nursery(picked up some mint and an heirloom tomato plant after much deliberation), and experimented with baking macarons(and failed miserably yet tastily!!!).
i also made a second visit to the "rat house." i was so in love with that apartment and i thought sure that it would be ours, but after less than five minutes in the place and hearing the movement in the walls i was running for the door. i had gone by myself this time just to listen and poke around and think about this maybe being the next place that g. and i would move to. scratch scccccrrrrraaaaattttcccchhh. it came from two different sides of the living room. one side being in the vicinity of the fireplace. it was such a creepy feeling...kind of like being watched and i was having flashbacks to watching salem's lot on tv as a kid and how the old scary house had vampires living their undead lives in the walls. spooooooky. vampires and/or rats are a real deal breaker, so greg and i will stay in our smaller apartment..stupid nosferatu...stupid fear of the plague.
i did manage to snap this pic in the mirror of the built-in in the dining room. this was literally seconds before the scratching and shuffling sounds in the walls started up.

took another trip to the huntington today with some friends. it was fun to act the part of bumbling docent and then to just sit on the lawn in a bed of clover and pass the afternoon.

a quiet morning...

2009-03-07T10:08:00.000-08:00

this morning i am moving slowly after a brain numbing migraine yesterday. i have a short list of some things that i really would like to take care of today, but i can't quite move past drinking tea spiked with ginger slices and watering my outdoor potted plants that have hung on through the winter and the scourge of last summer. i was so thrilled to find chamomile and cilantro seedlings sprouting up from the soil last weekend. i figure, if i get an early enough start this year, then perhaps there will be hope of having some happy plants this summer. all i want is a simple little potted garden. sounds easy right? sighhhhhhhhhhh. i have limited space and intense sun. i have tried sunshades and different soils and peat and so on and so on...and so, this year the game plan is just to be an early bird. that's it.

also on today's docket in no particular:

the purchase and application of hair dye from whole foods market
pick up jewelry bits from my supplier
hot soak in the tub
library
bake some scones or maybe macarons...i'm feeling bake~e~licious right now
pick up seed packets to send to my beautiful 2 year old god daughter Amelia

maybe that's it...i would like to see coraline or the wrestler, but i'm not sure how my eyes and head will feel later. it would be nice for greg and i to have a date though.

saturday morning goodness...

2009-03-07T08:17:00.000-08:00

more lovely ladies...

some more bits in action...

2009-03-01T12:33:00.001-08:00

here is another little somethin' somethin' that i had to throw together for the Ring. one shot of the "helmet" in the shop right after i had completed it and another shot of it in action on the singer's head. it is made of three millinery wires used as a basic support for the structure and the rest is ridgeline a very light weight plastic boning. the inner headpiece is a padded band with a fine wire halo that is wired to the outer structure. the whole thing only weighs about half a pound.

two things...

2009-02-24T20:42:00.001-08:00

first we have a tableau in black and white with fuchsia that is composed of

a truly amazing figurine created by katy and sarah (my two favorite frauleins) in honour of Das Rheingold's opening and of course portraying my gal Freia
a mini canvas with a gaff tape eye that was done by Achim Freyer during a fitting with the singer who wears/lugs around the Freia costume case(he decided that the apples should have eyes)
a milk glass puddin' cup that i got at salvation army this weekend...plus two mystery seed pods picked up at the garden
a framed papercut that i did a month or so ago(more on that another time)
a cheapo cut milk glass looking vase w/fading camellia
a signed charcoal drawing that Achim Freyer gifted me with in thanks for my hard work(instinctually, i think that it is Freia, but i dunno...i love it!!!)

nextly, this was my delicious dinner of cheese risotto, roasted butternut squash and a poached egg...yolky goodness and don't forget the parmesan and freshly ground black pepper.

a teaser...

2009-02-24T08:12:00.001-08:00

also...lucky me to have such a sweet friend no matter the miles or the years...

2009-02-22T22:35:00.000-08:00

it was a sweet end to a crabby day last tuesday when i came home from work to find a box chock full o' sea shells and necklaces(also that most excellent news photo of coach bobby bowden used to stuff the box was hot) . thank you meagan, you made my week and i am so happy to have you back in my life. and...i really really wish i could come have some soup. earlier that evening at rehearsal, i was also given a super cute 5o's cardigan with an abstract print of flowes and leaves. this was totally unexpected and came from someone who barely knows me, but knows that i love vintage. thanks mary!!!! you are a doll!!!

a visit to my new "backyard"

2009-02-22T22:14:00.000-08:00

i have become a member of the huntington library and gardens. this was a big decision for me as it is a little pricey to join(well just over a hundred dollars) and nowadays i am trying to crack down on errant money fumbles...but this is so worth it and just a bike ride away!
so today, even with the grey gloom, i wandered around for a bit and sat on a bench by the lily pond(pictured above) and tried to read my darwin biography. i couldn't concentrate though and it was a bit chilly so i walked around and found loads of cherry blossoms and beautiful dried up pomegranite bushes...and then, i remembered the "beautiful science" exhibit in the library. so instead of reading about darwin, i was able to examine some of his and other naturalists of that eras(and before) work. i love the self~portrait of me looking at hand blown glass bulbs that are AGES old and kept in a special box that allows them to be hooked up to electricity but will not drain them of their oldey timey juice. it looks like i am wearing a crown of stars...

valentine my valentine...

2009-02-14T11:56:00.000-08:00

this morning i woke up at kind of a normalish 7 am(normal for work days) Greg was up and when he saw me he got kind of bothered and wanted to know why i was up and suggested that i go back to bed for an extended saturday sleep. i should mention that Greg had not been to sleep yet as he and i are on totally different schedules. anyway, forced back to bed for another hour or three i awoke to banging and clanking in the kitchen mixed with the faint aroma of sizzling pork fat. YUMMY...within minutes the bedroom door was opened and in walked my sweetheart with a tray full of breakfast goodness and one long stemmed beautiful red rose. i don't really put much emphasis on this day of hearts and flowers. i like it for the kitsch factor, but i don't demand(only demurely yearn) sweet cupid's excesses. but breakfast in bed!!!! yes please! pancakes, eggs over medium, sausage and orange juice(with a fizzy emergen-cee bomb). sweet sweet boy...

sweetest valentine...

2009-02-13T08:14:00.000-08:00

gloomy beautiful sunday...

2009-02-08T17:47:00.000-08:00

bless grey days in southern california. without them i think that i could well go off my head. they make me wax nostalgic on my time as a girl growing up in the rural countryside of pennsylvania. on grey spring days i would run through our back field pretending to be jane eyre traipsing across the moors. all i ever wanted to do was move to england. i tried to convince my mom that i should be enrolled in the study abroad/student exchange program. she refused on the basis that she just knew that i would be absolutely positively miserable. FIE on that...
today was also a day for retail thrift therapy. after hitting anthropologie yesterday and being in love/hate with everything(LOVE the aesthetic/HATE the price tag especially when i know what it costs to make these things...), i heard the soft psychic tug of st. vincent's beckoning.
i always have to heed the call. love ya st. vinny's.

sigh...

2009-02-04T08:01:00.000-08:00

this looks dreamy!

le buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2009-02-01T14:27:00.000-08:00

i love bees. i mean really, i love them. i don't shoosh them away when they dip into my personal space. i want them to live and i want them to thrive. it is a dream of mine to someday become a bee charmer. it would be a cherished relationship founded on respect and a mutual love for flowers and honey. i should share that at around the age of 10 i was involved in an unfortunate mishap involving me, two friends and a swarm. we were playing superheros in the woods and had found an old dead tree to push and pummel. i still remember the way that dark cloud looked as it funneled out of the tree. but, those were yellow jackets and not bees.
save the honeybee. save the world.

wrapping up my girl...

2009-01-31T11:00:00.000-08:00

i just had to follow up with some finished pictures of Freia. i actually got a little misty when the singer came for the fitting yesterday. it's kinda silly, but such an emotional release to have something work and to have the singer happy and the designer give you a big hug and say in broken english what a good job you've done and acknowledge how hard you've been busting patootie to get his vision right(not just on this particular project, i don't even want to get into the dwarves).

saturday afternoon at the costume shop with Freia

2009-01-25T12:42:00.000-08:00

in the interest of personal sanity, i am going to try to avoid too much shop talk here. the exception being my efforts in our production of the Ring Cycle (known in some areas of the costume shop as the "rinse cycle"). this is opera history...it will be truly amazing. people are coming from all over the world to see this Achim Freyer production which will probably be his swan song as he turns 75 next month. i really am so thrilled to be part of this.(even if at times i just want to throw up my hands and be done with it). anyhoo, here are some pics of one of my larger projects, the goddess Freia armature. she is built from foss shape, a thermoplastic sort of felt. basically it looks like thick felt, but i heat it and shape it over a carved bead foam mold using steam and pressure and a lot of patience.i call it steam sculpting. she is about 2/3 complete with the back of her head and the rest of the apples still needing to be pulled from the mold. once those are pulled then i will attatch them to the body. she stands about 8 feet tall and only weighs about 8 pounds. when completed, the singer will stand inside and her head will come out at the center of the armatures apple tray. the singer(brave soul) carries this around a raked stage, steps out of it, throws it down at the base of the rake, picks it up and runs back upstage. it takes a lot of abuse. she will also get painted and have stems attatched to the apples.

a Marshall story...or, Marshall's first story

2009-01-25T10:17:00.000-08:00

Kent, this is for you~
About three years ago, Greg and I had been yearning for a dog. We had certain requirements like: not a puppy, not too big(this was hard for me because I had only ever had or wanted big dogs), not a spaz. I stalked dogs on pet finder.com and we cruised the humane society for just the right piece o' tail(sorry, couldn't resist). There were definitely some cutie pie dogs, but something would always happen like someone else would adopt it before us. That happened more than once. It was really disheartening, because it was very important that we connect with the right dog, and that we were doing more of a rescue thing because obviously, we could have easily just paid 500 dollars and been proud parents. We did breed research and narrowed it down to french bulldog, boston terrier, english bulldog, and on impulse, the pug. We then found out about a local pug rescue that was having a pet adoption fair at petco. We went and it was madness! There were about thirty pugs. Some of them were seniors with grey faces and sad buggly eyes, some were mixed and kinda crazy looking(not that the pug isn't funny looking on it's own without even having something like beagle thrown into the mix). Basically, we had to write down the names of several dogs that we wanted to get some face time with. I saw Marshall who was actually named Cranston and thought he was the most beautiful little pug that I had ever seen. Greg bent over into the portable doggy pen to lift him out so that we could take him for a short chaperoned walk and he literally JUMPED into Greg's arms. It was love at first sight.
That was it, we knew that he was the one. We had to wait about a week until the Little Angel's Pug Rescue got back to us(just in case someone else had chosen him too). It was nerve wracking
and then we got the call...he was ours. We still had a home inspection to go through and a three hour training session the following Saturday, it maybe would have been easier to adopt a Russian baby we joked. But he was ours and it was like he was the missing link when we brought him home.

work...

2009-01-21T21:50:00.000-08:00

work has been...let's say intense. definitely a push.you know, anytime i talk about what i do for a living people invariably say," wow, you are soooooo lucky to do what you do. so creative." and...they are right, but sometimes it sucks and makes my head swim. i have to be creative and dream up costume crap ooops i mean costume awesomeness and answer questions and be organized and composed and resourceful and a leader and to be quite honest i make a lot of things up while i do it. somehow it works. after six years my sham still hasn't been revealed...amazing. i'm whining i know. i AM incredibly blessed to have a full time honest to god gainfully employed career in the arts. someone out there in the cosmos has my back...but sometimes i just want to bake pies dammit(or do i mean throw pies????)!

trip to madison in october

2009-01-21T08:13:00.000-08:00

here are some pictures from the incredible dr. evermore's scrap metal sculpture post apocalyptic blowin' my mind garden...

the sepia toned pictures are of the forevertron...it is straight out of a science fiction landscape

bringing the outside in or hobbit jars...

2009-01-20T08:03:00.000-08:00

my terrarium collection:
i am so in love with these little micro-worlds. the large round one has been going since last june and it is literally thriving. the thing with my terrariums is that i like to have them exposed to air and not closed off in the more traditional sense. basically, that just means that i have to mist them lightly almost every day instead of once every week or so. sometimes little snails will sprout up and they are so tiny...smaller even than my pinky nail. i have an assortment of vintage bric-a-brac that i hide amidst the mini forests. i gave out three as christmas presents this year and they were really well received.

random house pics

2009-01-19T13:45:00.000-08:00

our flat is small. although as my brother Jon pointed out when he came to visit last summer,"i thought you guys lived in some kinda tuna can by your description." actually i made the quote thing up, but he did say something to that effect. but it is small. but...it IS in pasadena. and i love pasadena. although i used to despise pasadena before i moved here because it felt like it took three hours to get here from hollywood(site of previous even smaller apartment...the original tuna can).
in fact i try to encourage my friends to move to pasadena...sweet sweet idyllic bucolic pasadena.
to this date no one has complied. suckers. so, here are some pictures of my tuna can(wow that sounds ummmmm yeah...) and one picture of Greg's sleeping feet.

obviously i have nothing better to do than this...

2009-01-19T12:31:00.000-08:00

in the spirit of playing catch up, i am obsessively digging through my iphoto and finding more things that i want to throw into the black hole of cyberspace. side bar:so what IS(notice caps) going on with the large hadron collider these days?

CERN Rap from Will Barras on Vimeo.

anyhoo...two blurry pics. one of a VERY scenic(in the sense of theatre scenery) moonlit eve from the back porch errrrr smoking terrace errrr wooden catwalk that i wish was any one of the former.
my greg. and a vista from my favorite pasadena hike.

My masks hit the big time!!!

2009-01-19T12:17:00.000-08:00

Mad Gregs - Safe in Sound from Small Form on Vimeo.

Happy after Christmas!!!!!!!

2009-01-19T10:46:00.000-08:00

Marshall is the bestest most awesome little lady dog. he's definitely of the Oscar Wilde old school dandy variety.

ahhhh yes the post!

2009-01-19T10:28:00.000-08:00

Perhaps it is only fitting that I get on board with my inner blogger and re-launch myself into the world of cyberspace the day before our new pres. takes the oath...Obama and I together.Nice...i will also have to stop typing with capital letters unless it is for emphasis. i really can't be bothered by hitting the shift key.
also...as it is now 2009 i did not feel it necessary to keep that bumper sticker on my ride. the new one tells the world that "Reading is Sexy." See? caps. add emphasis.

This American Life...

2008-10-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

Finally,

Our first autumn-y feeling day here in Pasadena. Perfect weather to start the great furniture refurb. project of 2008. For now I sip honey laced coffee and munch on toast drizzled with even more honey(gotta support those bees) and listen to This American Life on KCRW. It's about the sad state of our economy and what is really(?) going on. As a full time artist working for a non-profit organization, I am worried...no sickened...no concerned...no, I don't even want to consider that my livelyhood depends on the financial graces of philanthropists and dilettantes...but that is a tale for another day...my life costuming those with the voices of angels. And so for now I plan my project.
mouse sander? check!
particle mask and safety glasses? check!
primer and paint? hmmmm no.
k, gotta get to Lowes. Pics to follow...
Happy Saturday!
H~