Well, who's this little fellow with the charming ears and the reluctant goofy expression? Why, if you guessed "David Michael!" you are correct! He may look innocent in this picture, but he probably just finished burning a house down or something.

Nudibranchea

Hazel has invited me to join a comic fair held at Meltdown in December, so I am trying to pump out some books to sell. I am finally going to realize the long postphoned Nudibranch book. I made 16 or so illustrations of these tiny sea slugs and never got around to finishing the project. David Michael is making me eggs and toast on a beautiful poppy plate. I am very lucky.

Lovely Lovely weekend

We stayed 2 nights with my sister back home, and it was really nice to get in some family time. We got our little Christmas tree fresh from the farm, the farm wasn't supposed to be open for business until the next day, but those nice ranch people helped us anyway. Another thing I miss about living in smaller populations, a casual kindness and not minding to help out a stranger. This is David's first ever visit to a tree farm. After that we visited my folks a little and met Laurel, Justin, Amber and Chris in Buellton to go to beer and wine tasting at the respective Firestone brewery and vinyard. We got a tour of the vinyard and tasting in a private room, fancy.

I loved the visit, but it was time to go home in the morning. Laurel was going to attend her 10 year high school reunion that night, and had lots of preping to do as she is on some kind of committee for it (nerd). We drove home and the traffic wasn't bad for once - but we got a crazy view of the fires in Malibu - huge orange clouds taking over the sky. At home David put up the tree so I could decorate it with birdies! Poor Elwood faces a squirt of the water bottle every time he tries to catch himself a birdie, or eat part of the tree, but he's really happy we are home again.

We had a nice time over at Mark & Tiffany's new condo - Moriah this will kill you, they live like 2 blocks from Disneyland. They can go on the roof to see fireworks at night. We drove past it to get there, and I thought it was sort of cruel for David-Michael to take me so close to Disneyland and not take me in, but that's how it is. The condo is really pretty and they are making it lovely inside. The rest of the family came over and we all went to Buca's for a pizza feast. I spent Sunday back in my craft room, happy back on the Xmas Present wagon.

Thanksliving

David and I woke up at 5:30 am to make a traffic-free coast to Lompoc. We hit Buellton by 7:30 and stopped at 7:30 for pancakes at Ellen's, a Danish pancake local restaurant. We carried on to Orcutt, to Laurel & Justins. I helped her a bit with food prep, and had a great time relaxing with the family all day. Justin broke out a 1000 piece puzzle that everyone jumped in on throughout the day and they are still chugging away on right now. I have to say, Laurel did an amazing job with the food, everything was delicious and revamped a la Rachel Ray / Martha Stewart style twists on classic dishes. It's not even 8, and I'm super sleepy. I made an apple almond tart from the Everyday Foods mag, and it turned out well, despite my lack of a tart pan.

3 years ago...

November 28, 2004

Thanksgiving was nice. I stayed at Laurel’s house so I could paint her mural. It’s a tree with pink flowers in the entry to her house. It took two days and came out really nice. Laurel was painting the kitchen red and it was relaxing and fun for the two of us. We just painted the days away, listening to Ani and Bob Dylan.

Post-work Post

Yes, I am home from work on monday, and doing internet things while Mr. Pudding and I do our cuddle time. We have a very necessary 10 minute cuddle after work. If I try to put it off, he puts me in check, climbing in my lap and I hold him under my chin while he face rubs whatever he can reach and does his paw-flexing and making air-muffins. If I don't let him do some nose kissing I'm going to get bit under my chin. Better pay attention to the munchkin.

Me oh my i love pie

This Saturday Joel had a birthday picnick in the park, and as a gift I baked him a cherry pie. It came out ok, but in my opinion, the crust was a little too flaky this time. But it was really cute and lovely. This weekend blew by so quick, in a flurry of errands and ornament making and birthday party and suprise visit from my lovely Tiny and our Souplantation + DWS date. At least this week will be short with a Christmas tree waiting at the end of it!

Tweet tweet

This evening I am going to start working on my tree ornaments, I am sewing little birds out of small fabric scraps to stuff with more scraps. It will be instant gratification crafting! Also, to add to my girly time, I am watching The Bridges of Madison County. I love this movie, oh do I ever love this movie. Every time, when she's sitting in the truck in the rain with her hand on the door handle, ready to bolt and unable to give in, I cry. Come my little birdies, lets go watch.

Shleepy

Krisen came over to work on her Christmas cards and we chatted and had Black Currand tea and the last of the cookie bars. When i went to bed, super sleepy, Elwood curled up next to me very close to my chest, he ususally sleeps at my feet or the back of my neck, this was really cozy and nice. Poor David was up all night working, he needs a vacation.

Oh Stinky

I came home today to the toxic odor of paint. We had some water damage in the bathroom ceiling, and today they repainted the bathroom and hallway, and no one left any windows open, so by the time I got here I choked on a wave of fumes. I seriously am feeling very ill right now, and I've opened all the windows, so not only is is smelly, but it's so cold I am like an icicle. Thanks repair guys, thanks a lot. AND there was a big wet globule of white paint waiting for me on the toilet seat, along with assorted white paint smears, and a cloud of paint dust in the toilet paper. Pretty!

Big Time Crafters

What a fun crafty time was had yesterday afternoon at our little apartment. Some lovely ladies came over to enjoy pots of tea, cookies and orange zesty blondies. We stiched and sewed and embroidered while Elwood paraded around romancing the ladies. David gave up Sunday football for us and joined to work on a knitting project, 'twas delightful. Christine was working on a really cool yellow hoodie that she's embroidering a peacock pattern on the back, Lindsay worked on hankies, Agata put a cute felted little girl with a balloon on the back of a tiny sweater for her niece. I was making coasters and dishtowels, Rachel was crocheting a big striped blanket, and Krisztianna made a silly stuffed kitty, adorable! Yay Ladies ;)

Tea for me

I have to thank my first ever roomate, Emily Glotch, for converting me to the world of tea. On late stressfull college nights she wooed me with big soothing cups of Ginger Peach as I came down off of rediculous Form and Space projects. Although coffee and I flirted sleeplessly, I found it too jittery and overpowering in the long run, tea, my heart belongs to you. This is the lovely cup I enjoyed last night, Assam Gold Leaf, in the lovely glass given to me by Agata to make a snow globe out of, which I lazily never got around to. On Sunday I'll be hosting a cookies and crafts session at my apartment at 1 pm (anyone invited who loves to craft!) and I'll be making chunky thick blodie cookies and brewing up a big pot of Lompoc flower tea. It's a fancy black tea mixed with dried flowers from the local fields - and it smells & tastes wonderful.

Tonight we're going to see a midnight show of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas at the same place we saw The Big Lebowski last week.

Dear Kristen,

you are so crazy to go to Malaysia by yourself on vacation and have this amazing time and take so many amazing pictures. I wish I could travel to these crazy places and see the glorious sites, especially small monkeys running around the street and licking spilled soda off the pavement. I can't wait to see you and hear about your adventures. Sigh....

Thanks a Latke!

The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming is hardcover, foil-stamped, and full of colorful illustrations, well-suited for giving, receiving, or clutching selfishly in trembling hands. And it's mine, all mine! It's the second book I've received by mail thanks to my McSweeney's Book Club suubscription. What this pic doesn't show is the beautiful foil stamping on the canvas surface. The story is by Lemony Snicket, and illustrated by Lisa Brown. I can't wait to read it, I've paged through and seen several illustrations of said Latke, screaming.

Pleased as Pleats

Last night I made my first ever pleats!
Yes, if you know anything about sewing, you know that pleats are really very easy and not a big deal, but I was feeling pleased and triumphant as I learned how to make them and managed to sew over them and not make a fabric disaster.

It's getting colder every night, I got out blankets from the closet last night and added them to the bed. I left my quilt at my folks the last time we visited, and I'm counting down to Thanksgiving to get it back ;)

Tonight I'm going to watch Ten Canoes, the first full-length feature made entirely in Indigenous Australian languages. I hope it's good, it looks pretty interesting.

Hello

Good Morning, Monday, and here I am at another work week! I had a nice weekend though, lots of sewing and a trip the the fabric store that I got some really great new cotton prints from for cheapy-cheap. I am gearing up for some slightly more complex sewing projects than I've been doing, I'm going to try and make the Amy Butler apron from her In Stiches Book. Last night i washed everything I bought after dinner and pressed it all neatly, so glad that I don't have to iron clothes regularly. David spend the whole day into the evening working on the How She Move site, editing music contest entries for profanity and uploading dance clips. You can go to the site and see all the entries uploaded so far to understand what our sunday sounded like. There are all these goofy people who entered the Unsigned Dancer contest, and they all chose really interesting places do do their sexy dances, like, Mom's living room. The Kitchen. A 2X2 foot hallway. Outside, at night, infront of car headlights. Well, I guess this is the age where everyone is getting their 3.2 minutes of fame. Thanks to the magic of ONLINE.

Art School Crap-adential

Yesterday was perfectly lovely!
I began the morning with tea and letter receiving/writing. I got a wonderful letter from Warren (in Brooklyn now and from the tone of it very happy) and I wrote him back on some of my awesome J. Paul Getty Museum daguerreotype cards with the wonderful thick stock envelopes. The rest of the day passed with me humming away on the little sewing machine. I've decided it needs a name, thus I christen her Emmaline. I have a list now of my gift receipients and am checking them off as I go, and stacking them up in a cozy pile of presents. Since I am mainly tackling small, kitchen-type items, it's difficult to think of sewing presents for boys :( The wonderful thing is, knowing how accident prone I am, every time I jam Emmaline, or break her or wedge fabric in her in some way I can't fathom how to disentangle, our savior, David-Michael swoops in and creates resolution, fixing her and saving my poor projects. Three hoots and a hollar for David-Michael, fixer of things!

In the evening, we had some tacos, and went to the Brewery where his friend (and also once-teacher of Cypress college) Paul Paiement had an opening in a small gallery there of his (in his own words) "fresh ones." He does a long running series of insect bodies morphing into electronic devices, based on the shape of the insect and the object. These were all insects turning into small handheld objects like sidekicks and ipods and cellphones. His work is really cool, and it was odd to me that the show out front of his space was this crap-tacular display of the worst drawings I'd ever seen. It was like something out of "Art School Confidential" only not as funny. I've posted my 2 favorites, this guy that looks like Cousin It, and ET with a kitten in his eye. ET was my favorite, and it did make me laugh, but it's still terrible.

Please see more of Pauls work here!

I'm A Lebowski, You're A Lebowski

Tonight, we're going to a midnight show of The Big Lebowski at the Regency on Beverly and Fairfax. I'm excited, if only I can say awake that long. Maybe some White Russians before would help....

The Edge and Beyond

Well, this year I didn't make it to any Halloween parties nor did I get a costume together, so I am a Halloweenie downer. David made it to a Halloween Oktoberfest, wich I also missed out on because I didn't want to be the only girl at a guy beer-fest in what is essentially a large parking lot for hours and hours. However, when I saw his photos I knew I had missed a really good time.Last night, the reall Halloween, we stayed home and watched a scary movie, Point Break. Wow, it was really horrible. I make fun of Mr. Reeves as much as everyone else, but I'd never seen this movie and I think it must have been the height of his inability to act. There were so many terrible lines and overexaggerated moments, and 30 foot waves happening 24 hours a day at the beach in LA, i was having a great heckling time. We are planning to attend the live production so I thought I'd better see the original first.