Straus Home Ranch

yesterday i went with a couple of friends to the Straus Home Ranch in Marshall, California. we took the day off to get out of the city and visit some cows. the day started off a bit rainy, but by the time we got to the farm, it was clear and sunny.

the Straus family is quite amazing. they were and continue to be pioneers of organic dairy farming. if only all the gigantic farms could become small farms and use sustainable farming and energy to produce food that helps sustain the environment. food that is far healthier and yummier to eat! we got to sample the new Straus mint chip ice cream and coffee ice cream - DEElicious (and available at Whole Foods and Berkeley Bowl, among other places).


the herders

links AND it's not christmas, but...

this tomte arrived from my mom in the mail:



she got him on her trip to Sweden last month. my mom has a great collection of Swedish tomten and is helping me start one too. here is the new tomte with the old (last year's) tomte:



right now i'm listening to mr. roy orbison. my parents got me hooked on him a long time ago. crying is the greatest song. (also great are leah and it's over.)

some links soon to be added to my links page:

crafty blogs: hop skip jump, naiive knitting, twine and postage, yvestown, red current, my little mochi, crazy for fiber, and the daughters of crazy for fiber mom: bird in the hand, mama unraveled 2

photographer linked from andrea: david nightingale

illustrator: laura heit

creatures: whitewall toys, esserini

blogs: counting sheep, ever so humble

licks

went to see juliette {lewis} and the licks last night. what a fun show! i can't really say how good they are, since i was a bit too tipsy and since i was starstruck by/crushed out on juliette lewis (she is so hot and fun and energetic!). but i do think they were actually good too, despite my bias.

in other news, the mecozy shop has been updated with some new scarves and cozies.

and i dragged out this mini quilt i started a while back and never finished. i'm not sure how i feel about it, but am thinking i'll quilt it finally. maybe that will help it somehow. any suggestions for quilting patterns? it kind of seems like it should be quilted in a V shape with parallel lines fanning out??



i got my first postcard from the postcard swap, from Hanna in Sweden! it's great! i'm going to wait until i have one or two more postcards to post them.

Bird's Eye

so i finally went to Scout, the store in oakland that i've been meaning to visit and share pictures of with you. to my surprise, the space scout occupied is now occupied by Scout and Bird's Eye. Bird's Eye is in much the style that Scout was, and Scout is now more of a bath and flowers store i think. i ended up taking pics of Bird's Eye, now owned by Ari. even though the space is rearranged and different now, i still love the colors! check it out. the first pic is of both stores.













after going to the store with Laurel and her little one, she modelled my newly completed scarves for the mecozy shop. they'll be up on the site by monday i think, but here's a preview. (when i've taken pics of myself in the scarves, i've had to take like ten to get one ok picture. but with laurel, i just take one pic and it's perfect! she's like that. thanks Laur!) i love those hanging yellow flowers too.

portraits of trees

i find keri's april 15th post, "connections," helpful in response to my last post on disappointment/anger.

also helpful is to revisit my grandmother's brother's art (does that make him my great uncle?). i love his portraits of trees. he painted a lot of trees in Italy and i can feel the heat coming off of the pictures and relaxing me. i want to eat the lush paint and feel the leaves against my face. he writes of painting trees,

"Ur dess (fargerna pa palettens) kaos och ur naturens outtomliga rikedom maste jag finna den ordning som ar bildens. Men jag hoppas att bilden bevarat nagot av det oavslutade och ogripbara, levande kaos som jag utgatt ifran och som for mig vittnar om naturens oovervinnerliga kraft."

here are a few of Torsten Bergmark's paintings. (unfortunately the scanner distorts the colors a lot. i'll replace these with photos when it's light out.)


Det Sista Mandeltradet, 1991

Djungel, 1987

Olivtrad och Lianer, 1985

Tack Torsten for dina fina malningar.

shash's anger management

today was one of those days when i realized how glad i am to know some dogs and cats. and to have some good friends. and to have good friends who will stand up for what is right, alongside me. it was one of those days when some people in positions of power in my life did some FUCKED UP SHIT.

i don't know why it continually surprises me when people i have respected betray me or those around them. i guess i would prefer to still be surprised, because if i wasn't, i'd be perpetually depressed and disgusted with humans. i know this particular disappointment will pass. i just have to figure out how to let go of my anger, to stop shaking. i think i will be doing a lot of hard swimming this week. speed swimming. kicking the water with all my might (in my bathing suit that is way too floral compared to all those navy blue speedo swimmers in the pool).

at times like this i think about how privileged i am, and how people who have less power in society than i do must experience so many more abuses of power, on a daily (or almost daily) basis. how do these people keep from dying inside? how do they trust? how do they keep the dream of justice alive? i guess maybe they know some dogs and cats and have some good friends too.

pincushion

crazy pincushion flower:

i don't think i'll make it to the Oakland this weekend to take the pictures of my favorite Oakland store. i was going to combine that trip with taking pics of my friend Laurel modelling the latest scarves to go in the mecozy shop. but i keep buying more yarn and thinking i need to wait to take pics of all the scarves at once. it's gone from three scarves to five or six, and i don't think i'll finish them all by tomorrow. we'll see.
i got my list of postcard swappers from Myra. i am excited start working on my cards and to start receiving cards! thanks to Myra for organizing the swap. check out the cute button Tania made for it.

yummy fabrics

i may have to make a little quilt with these fabrics

pinky "helps" me sort through the mess that happens

store fantasy

Although I love being in my room, sewing, drawing, knitting, I think it would get lonely if I did this full-time. Even though I’m an only child and like to be alone quite a bit. Right now I create at least one day a week and work an office job four days a week. I am trying to figure out how to balance that out more, like work somewhere 3 days a week for 5 hours a day, and then do what I want the rest of the time. Unfortunately, Pinky Leon the cat is not out there pounding the pavement, so I don’t think HE’ll be supporting me in this balancing act.

Sometimes I dream of opening a little shop, maybe with other artist/crafters and all working there various days of the week. We would sell our wares and the wares of other local crafty folks. I am partial to (recycled!) paper goods and little mysterious treasures, artwork, knits and some houseware kinds of things. There would also be a bookshelf stocked with the favorite books of those who work there (I know I have a list of books that I think should be required reading.). And it would have to be cozy of course, with at least one green wall. Maybe a little mural in a corner near the ceiling, something whimsical. Maybe a plate of "cookies of the day" every so often. Like Thursday cookie day. I get the sense that it would be hard to survive as a retail store, but one can dream...

Venus magazine has a “Store of the Ish” that is usually inspiring. In the current issue, the store is Ferdinand owned by Diane Toepfer. “Toepfer likes to think of Ferdinand as not only a shop, but also a meeting place for crafty people. She helps out with an indie crafts bulletin board…sponsors openings for local artists…is active in Spindleworks, a Portland org. that connects the disabled with arts.” I like the idea of incorporating the community into the store and vice versa.

Another store that was featured in Venus is SF’s own Needles and Pens.

This weekend I plan to visit one of my favorite stores in Oakland to take pictures of it for you (if they’ll let me). I go in there and I feel like I’m transported to another time and place. It’s like entering a piece of art or a story. This store definitely has like its own spirit or soul or aura or something groovy like that.

SF sunny day walk

so, frequently i have these urges to move somewhere far away. to a small town or to the mountains. to Oregon or to Sweden. someplace where i can, at some point, afford to buy a house! someplace greener or friendlier or something-er. dissatisfaction. today i was thinking about moving, and decided i should snap out of it and take a walk in the sun of SF. take my camera and notice the good things. here are lots of pictures of some lovely SF Mission and Noe Valley houses and some funky stuff (a window full of shoes and a dino-lizard car-protector. the shoe window unfortunately was very reflective, so it's hard to see all the fancy shoes.)

yellow trim

pink detail

hot pink door

bursty flowers

minty

turquoise

shoe window

dino-lizard car-protector

Svenskar: Craigslist Stockholm CHECK IT

wow. i guess my CL wish was granted. just like that. got this message back from CL:

"hmm, let's see if i can knock this one out real <> 04/08 16:28:33
quick... *poof* Craigslist Stockholm DONE! They do that sometimes - once it has more posts it'll get linked to the main page. Enjoy and tell your friends. :)"

which confused me at first. but it's for real!

mina svenska vanner: check out stockholm craigslist and start using it!!! yippeee

ps. nar bara en stad i ett land har CL brukar alla i landet anvanda den tills flera CL finns i det landet.

linkage and Swedish Craigslist!

Just added a bunch of new links to my links including the below (many of which you may already be familiar with, and many found on Camilla's blog)

Photographers: Loretta Lux, Kathleen Connally
Blogs: Something to Say
Illustrators: Banjo
Clothing: Bird in a Skirt
Swedish blogs and blogs by Americans in Sweden or Swedes in America: Tuula, Bara Jenny, Astons Sida, Stephanie, Stavfel, Give Us This Day Our Knackebrod, and Francis Strand.

Francis Strand captures the idiosyncracies of Swedes, Swedish stuff and Sweden, and does so with hilarity. He writes about things that I’ve sensed or experienced in regard to Swedes/Sweden, but have never been able to articulate this well. He’s like the David Sedaris of Sweden (you know when David was (is?) living in France with his Frenchman. Sorry Francis if this comparison has been made before.) I’ve only read about three months of his blog, and I CAN'T WAIT until I have time to read it from the beginning.

To all the Swedes and Swedish Americans out there: Please ask Craigslist to start a Stockholm Craigslist! I want a Stockholm CL so that I can find sublets and interesting events when I visit Sweden.

You should want a Swedish CL because Craigslist is a GREAT, free resource for finding all sorts of things. In San Francisco (where CL started) almost everyone has used CL at one time or another. It’s great for finding housing (roommates, rentals, temporary rentals, real estate), jobs, for finding activity partners and selling and buying things (furniture, tickets to concerts, etc.) Kolla Craigslist.

CL existerar nu i stader over hela USA och i andra lander (du kan se alla stallen CL finns pa hoger sedan av karmen nar du oppnar deras websida.) Tydligen for att starta CL pa ett nytt stalle, tillrackligt med folk maste begara det av CL. CL ar jatte latt att anvanda ochsa! Prova. Snalla!

powerlines and crafting

soon to be scarves in the mecozy shop...

the green and pink yarns have cashmere in them and they're very soft and light. nice to knit. lately i've been making long, skinny scarves with patterns. i had to use some bright, springy colors to counter the muted or "earth-colored" cozies i'm currently making. here is a preview of two of them.

and here are some powerlines at dusk. i think they're burying powerlines on my street now. PG & E is up to something loud and slow and dirt-producing anyway. in case the lines go away...


and here is the lovely Anya (a friend since elementary school). she sent me this picture of her in her mecozy scarf.

hyacinths

i finally put some pictures up on the studio section of my site.

books and weather

it's an amazingly beautiful day in SF today. just got back from Valencia St. where i bought four new books. there goes my paycheck. i got Unless, by Carol Shields, Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, Woman, An Intimate Geography, by Natalie Angier and Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart, by Alice Walker. i love having a stack of books ready for reading. the first three were recommended by Canadian librarian, Amanda, on her site etc. you can read her reviews of the books she reads. her site has all this cross referencing and indexing (the librarian in her i guess). check it out. lots of good recommendations.

here is the view from Mission, SF back steps this morning. downtown is not as far away as it looks here.

the trees are sprouting/growing leaves like mad these days.
my plan was to do some sewing today, but it's so beautiful out, i might have to go out again.