Friday, April 28, 2006

solar powered

Scott thinks that I might be solar powered. It was glorious today and I got so much done! I worked in the garden and pulled weeds and prepared another bed for veggies, I cleaned out and sort of organized the shed and I worked on my Munny for an upcoming show, and finished Lauren's sign in Illustrator and started re-painting my studio a nice blue.(When we moved in it was lavender, and then I painted it white, but the white was a bit too stark for me.) Plus tending to the kids and making meals and taking S to the orthodontist and I even did an ebay listing and some sketches.

Now I'm tired, but it was a lovely day.


this week in making







crutch cozies that I made for my little girl, vintage velvet, batting and felt.
vegan spring rolls that I made for the networking group meeting
screenprints for pillows and a t-shirt

Friday, April 21, 2006

photo mosaic

I had been wondering how people were making these nifty photo mosaics.

Like this one:


You can make your own and do other nifty things with your photos right here.

new post on my new site

I have a new post over on the art of finding. I'm finally getting started on that little project! I'll post about it again when I have more content. Also, anyone who is interested in being a contributor to theartoffinding.com, let me know! I'd love to have other people involved.

If you're interested, email me at monstertownart at gmail.com

Thursday, April 20, 2006

quiet and sunshine

The kids have gone to see their dad. Scott is stuck in Mammoth, having encountered some setbacks in his journey home, so I have an entire quiet evening ahead of me and I think that I should paint, or draw, or sew, or make something. Yes, that is what I want to do, but I have been stuck inside for a good long time, and it's beautiful out there. The sun is still out.

Maybe I should ride my bike, or work in the yard.

I also wanted to post the easter eggs that the kids and I made. We heard about this technique on the Martha Stewart website and it worked really well. The kids and I made a step by step photo set that I'll put up on flickr. The basic idea though is that you take old silk ties, and cut them up. You wrap an egg in the silk and then in a square of muslin. You tie it tightly with a twisty tie, and then you put all of your eggs in a pot with water and at least a quarter of a cup of vinegar and simmer them for 20-30 minutes. And then, magically, the pattern on the tie has transferred onto your egg!

You can use the silk up to 5 times.

Look!

:(




You may have noticed that few Northern Cali. bloggers are posting these days and that is because this weather is just too good after so much rain, and I'm guessing that nobody wants to be indoors.

My family is indoors this week though. Zelia sprained her dainty little ankle yesterday while jumping on a friend's trampoline. She is in a lot of pain and is pretty much stuck on the couch listening to Lemony Snickett books on tape and staring out the window.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

my boy is 12!!





I can hardly believe it sometimes, but it's true, I now have a 12 year old son. 12!! 12 years old! He is the sweetest, funniest, kindest, smartest and silliest 12 year old that there is. Also he is now taller than I am.

It's funny, when you have a little baby and older parents tell you that it "goes by so fast" you secretly kind of don't believe them, because when kids are little you are so focused in a way that makes time crawl by and every day seems super long. But really it's true, it goes by so fast and suddenly your little tiny baby is over 5 ft. tall and can pick you up and give you a piggy back ride.

Anyway, we celebrated his birthday yesterday with presents and cake and his cousin spent the night, and Scott's parents dropped by with a nice gift and the family "Birthday Hat" for Sylvan to wear. It was lovely. We'll have a bigger party with friends and school kids in a few weeks after Spring Break is over.

Oh how I love this boy.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

i see...oh...blue skies....

Whoa, funny how Rocky Horror lyrics somehow pop into the brain. Oh well, who cares! It's sunny and there are NO GREY CLOUDS in my field of vision, which is out my open studio door. In fact, there are no clouds at all, and no rain! That's right people, no rain.

I'm cooking up a new batch of encaustic medium and working on some paintings. A new series perhaps? We'll see.

Geez, I had kind of forgotten what a sunny day was like.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

p.s.

It's still raining!

sparkletack


I have a new favorite podcast I wanted to tell you about, it is called SparkleTack and you can download it from itunes, or from the sparkletack website. It's about San Francisco history and I find it pretty fascinating.

So far my favorite episodes are "The Great Diamond Hoax" and the one about the Bella Union, and the one about the Columbarium, and it's caretaker.

Scott and I drove around the city and found the Columbarium on Sunday evening, and we plan to go sometime during the day and take the tour.

Friday, April 07, 2006

orange




another storm coming in over acme auto wrecking
z with orange streak in her hair (and feeling better)
spongebob doodads in a machine at the corner store

Thursday, April 06, 2006

black and white








from top:
Scott's parasol that lives on the tv
the fabric of my new vintage apron
the very strange very risque' vintage hawaiian shirt i found this week
close up of same

brown


miso soup on a tray for my sick girly...she ate a few bites

a pox upon our house?

Zelia is sick again. Some sort of stomach virus I think. When I came to pick them up from school yesterday, she was lying face down on the playground trying to sleep. Now that was heart wrenching! She jumped up and said "oh mama, I've been waiting for you to come!" I guess that she had been to see the nurse and the nurse had tried to call, but I was out running errands.

She slept in the car and then threw up and fell asleep again.

She's feeling somewhat better today, but she's feverish and sleepy and has a bad headache. She had a smoothie and some ice water (she's wanting cold things), and is now back to sleeping on the couch. She wants me right with her. Poor little bunnyhead.

Pictures today will probably be delayed.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

more green




from top:
garden hose
limes
fig tree is leafing out

green




from top
one of my encaustic paintings
garden lettuce
scott's table saw

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

blue







from top:
vintage bedspread
my favorite Edith Heath cup
vintage child's dress
paper lantern in the kids' room
my lovely broom that I ordered from the Berea Crafts College years ago, and it's my favorite broom ever

Monday, April 03, 2006

more yellow




images from top:
some of my encaustic paintings
boxes and tea tin in my studio
curtain that I made from one of my all time favorite pieces of vintage fabric

yellow




photos from top:
yellow concrete block bench in our garden
kitchen door keyhole
Hugh D'Andrade print in the kitchen


Another photo challenge, this time from Shash over at mecozy and Mav of Port 2 Port. I love this one, and it nicely fills the photo project void left over from the end of the 30dayphoto challenge.

beautiful boots

My sister is selling these amazing kids' boots by I Pinko Pallino. You should check them out, they are only $18 right now and they probably are worth hundreds. She also has a really super cute Rebecca Taylor jacket that has no bids!

Sunday, April 02, 2006

rain



It rained for 25 out of the 31 days of March. April is looking like more of the same. More rain and thunderstorms likely through the rest of the week!

sketchbooks


sketchbooks, originally uploaded by monster town.

I made these sketchbooks for my etsy shop, I'll be uploading them tomorrow. This first batch is made from my collection of papers, all of it really lovely. They are small, 32 pages, with a cover made from a three color silkscreen print of some of my artwork. The binding is sewn.

Then I got a long reach stapler so that I could put more pages in, and I made a second batch with 64 pages in each.