att minnas

well, i know there's a lot of rain, snow and ice out there right now. but i came across liivia's photostream on flickr and must share some of her summery finland photos. i could favorite almost every photo of hers. her photos and her house make me very nostalgic for vallsta. her house isn't actually that similar to vallsta, but for some reason, her photos make me think about kakelugnar, blåklockor, att bada i vattnet, gammla sax, morot rivaren mormor hade, trapporna upp till vinden o ner till källaren, morfar's skrivbord, stora rummet, barnen i bullerbyn, midsommar...

yesterday i was waiting for my friend laurel to arrive at greens restaurant, where we ate a delicious lunch looking out over the bay and the golden gate bridge. so lovely. anyhow, i was sitting outside in the sun and watching people enter the restaurant. many were dressed up for the occasion and it seemed like maybe many were celebrating the holidays there with family. there were several grandmothers in the mix. i watched a young girl (maybe 12?) gently usher her grandmother in through the door after the rest of the family had entered. it made me miss mormor. that kind of love and care. so big and simple at such a young age. so sure.

(ovan: mormor o jag på millesgården. jag tror att mamma sa att vi skulle posera så här.)

special friday flickrs: mav tribute

this friday's favorites are all from maria, aka mav.

mav's (and for a while arc and mav's) blog is one of two blogs that i have checked almost every day since 2005! it's odd to spend part of each day "with" someone i've never met. i am really going to miss the port2port part of my days. yesterday was mav's last port2port post. amazing how just a short visit to her blog offered such a huge amount of beauty and inspiration. her posts made me reflect and see the world differently. i feel lucky that she shared/shares so many of her projects, photos, thoughts and her own inspirations with us. i think her blog is/was one of the most beautiful out there.

i started posting friday flickrs after seeing mav's, so it is even more appropriate that today's faves are photos by her. i don't know if friday flickrs was something she started, but her posting hers certainly influenced many others out there to post theirs. and she has influenced/inspired many art/craft/photo bloggers with her ideas, images, letterpress work, projects and with her grace. i am grateful, she'll still be an online presence with 3191, more, lines and shapes and other projects.

anyhow, here are some of the MANY mav flickr faves of mine in no particular order.

a moment like any other but somehow better
new watercolors
hungry, {really i am}
my breakfast partner
three of my favs
thursday: looking past
a lunch from last week that i wish i had today
untitled
dinner after the storm
evening
going back...july 2006

thank you so much maria!

fin

i'm done with my graphic design certificate program today!
now comes the scary part.
but first some coat silliness.

on friday, a special friday flickrs. ;-)

a pretty, calm, newish to me blog.

lines of thread

it's been a cookie/card workshop in my house today.
made a set of 4 pear cards, 4 lemon cards, 4 leaf cards, 4 shape cards and some random others. lately i feel very shape focused. normally i'm mostly interested in color. it's kind of exciting to be seeing shapes everywhere.

speaking of shapes...

i almost forgot. glad sankta lucia! i have yet to light my lucia candles.

outside/inside

it's finally winter in sf. and the leaves which are normally down by now are finally falling (and swirling in mini tornado fashion). the crunch underfoot is good.

inside, i cleaned to prepare for our holiday party. also mulled the wine to make the glögg. and made some cards while listening to neko case. she sounds especially good on a windy day.

tomorrow the cookies get baked (and sampled). and more card-making! and possibly dancing in the evening if it's not pouring rain and cold.

friday wintery flickrs:
i heart my sorels i love this combo from shari.
three little berries
from maditi

to diana's

my black sheep + diana's lamb. :-)

went for a little studio visit at diana's last night. diana is ever the charming hostess with spiked (and spiced) cider (poured from a big, stout kettle into small, diana-formed cups), homemade gingersnaps, stories and lamb ornament gifts! so inspiring to see her work all out together, lined up in rows and collected here and there in her studio. the shapes and colors and textures and lines!

from last night
and on diana's flickr.

green bits

just some green bits from the house today


i think this is my favorite month from this year's nikki mcclure calendar


my housemate's very tiny dish

some lovely, cozy house photos here, here and here.

gimme an p!

after spending too much time tweaking on my photoshop assignment, i ended up doodling an alphabet. no analyzation required. just used the pens/pencils/highlighters that happened to be on my desk. typed the phrase and drew some letters. then sewed the last letter on. silly and relaxing. it might be nice as a little handmade book....

click on photo above to see other letters.

a coupla links:
lab partners (rad sf designers)
delicious design league (beautiful and inexpensive posters)

red+green

my tomtes are out.

friday flickrs
cosy (my favorite city) by clumsy bird
collection by madelinetosh (can't resist pretty spools like these)
sledging (a perfect winter scene) by hanne
abigail makes incredible sketches. draw...

this weekend is the big lucia celebration in sf. can't wait.

MILK

i'm sure there are tons of posts out there about this, given the hordes of san franciscans going to see it, but here are my MILK thoughts anyway.

i feel so lucky to have seen this movie in THE BEST possible place to see it. the castro theater (for non-SFers) is one of the oldest theaters still in operation in SF, and it is in the heart of the Castro district, where MILK was filmed. not only is it a beautiful theater, but it is a huge theater. and it is packed to the gills at every viewing of MILK. the line for ticket-holders starts forming at least an hour before the movie, and there in line, the excitement starts to build. apparently (and understandably) the castro theater is outselling any other theater in the country with its MILK sales. the atmosphere in the theater last night was fantastic. one huge crying, jubilating and crying mass. despite the tragedies of the story and the fact that we face the same hatred/ignorance today, i felt very hopeful there in the theater.

it is crazy (and sad) that we are indeed fighting such similar battles now. and harvey's criticism of the materials for no on 6—that there were no gay people or mention of gays in the materials—are the same criticisms made about the pathetic advertising for no on 8. (wish we'd learned more from how harvey helped defeat 6).

if you live in the bay area and haven't seen MILK yet, you must see it at the castro theater. it is a beautiful experience.

now i need to see the times of harvey milk again though, because you can't beat the real harvey.

poster + links

CCSF World AIDS Day poster i will add to my portfolio soon.

a photography link oona sent me: olivia malone. tres bien.

new to me blogs
grandma club (my kinda blog)
mieke willems
lilac moon studio (in sf)
made by katrina (in oakland)

some flickr faves as i missed friday's (soft, light colors this week)
color library
hanging
horse ii
from hannapaivik
199

oh, and two leaping dog photos
fetch
ten kinds of crazy.

abundance and revolution

Last night I watched this documentary on PBS about the Karuk tribe of California. They live along the Klamath River. The logging companies and the federal government’s fire suppression policies have almost destroyed the Karuk. The Karuk cannot gather their medicinal plants, make their traditional foods, practice their ceremonies, etc. like they used to, because the landscape, their home, has been altered so much. Fire suppression and the planting of fir trees has almost wiped out many of the native plants in the area. This also affects the river water (fir trees drain the water) and thus affects salmon and other river flora and fauna.

The Karuk believe that the earth provides everything we need. Watching this documentary, I recognized a lot of similarities between the Karuk’s values and those of the Slow Food movement. There is an understanding that ecology and culture are inextricable, and that the only way to maintain cultures is to respectfully and correctly manage the environment. This is also the only way the earth will continue to provide for us. This kind of value system is not an economic one, but a subsistence one.

Now when we’re in this big economic crisis, I think these values are vital for us to ponder. When we don’t trust that the earth and our community will provide for us all, we become greedy and we try to figure out ways to produce/extract as much stuff as possible at any cost. {As an example, industrial agriculture plants monocultures of crops, because in the short term that is the easiest way to produce a lot of food. This ruins the soil fertility however, which will not only make the land unproductive, but also endangers surrounding communities because the soil won’t absorb water. Thus when there is a flood, it is far more devastating. There are tons of examples how overuse like this not only leads to depletion of resources and the obliteration of biodiversity but also makes us much more susceptible to flood, fire, hurricane damage.}

In the book Plenty, the co-author imagines what the part of Canada he lives in looked like before Columbus. The abundance of animal and plantlife described struck me. Our earth has become and is fast becoming less and less abundant because of our incorrect management of the environment, our shortsighted overuse/exploitation of resources and our blindness (or willfull ignoring of) how we are connected to all creatures and plants. In the focus on profit, we (industrial societies) are killing cultures, we are killing plant and animal species, we are endangering lives by making communities more vulnerable to natural disasters, we are polluting water. The list goes on and on.

I worry that in hard economic times, people will look to the short-term solutions that (the agriculture, oil, etc.) industries offer, instead of re-evaluating our capitalist value system. But I hope having a visionary leader (in America) who seems to want us to fight for community and for what is right, might inspire us to work towards just and respectful ways of living on and sustaining this earth and the earth's abundance.

tops and tails

another find from the depths of my closet at my parents' house. this austrian game i would never have remembered if i didn't see it for myself. but of course, the moment i saw the box cover, i remembered many of the various characters/costumes and was eager to match up their tops and tails again. i remember thinking the ladies were so pretty (if uniform given their supposed different origins). the best part is that everyone's tops can match with everyone's tails, like an exquisite corpse, which of course makes for some queer characters.

speaking of queer characters, i just love sisters emma and lisen adbåge's people. here, here, here and here, here and here (swedish).
i feel like i've seen these people before. perfect gestures. they're familiar and funny and endearingly strange.

friday flickrs

in potrero hill today i saw:

a house engulfed by flowers


a colorful eyeball mural.

flickr favorites this week are mostly lovely ladies:

amanda in the underlandet

3 from chelakmaxim
vera
***
dasha

and by the lovely vallmovild, this beautiful, very swedish and very perfect photo, mormor.

procrastination

linda, dolly and emmylou singing applejack.
do you think willie and emmylou ever had a thing? they look so happy when she joins him here. and years later... it's a good song.

i need to stop procrastinating now.

friday flickrs

friday flickrs
yokoo scarves fat and bold
saying hi
a new collaboration
skulle vilja ha några av dem här just nu. yum.

maybe you've already seen this. i hadn't. if you're still celebrating, this is very moving. found through urban preschool. (now to repeal prop 8.)

happy weekends!

grateful

i woke up and 5:30 and can't fall back asleep. so i'll write to say how grateful i am. i am so grateful that our next president is a thoughtful, care-ful, serious, eloquent and humble person. i am so grateful that our next president is an african american. that our country has come this far and that our next president understands racism and discrimination, our country and people in a different, deeper way than any past president. i am so grateful that he expects us to work for each other and not just ourselves. i am grateful that he mentioned gay people in his speech last night. i am grateful that i actually believe he believes our strength is in our people and not our arms or wealth. i am grateful that he understands the magnitude of the struggles we face as a world. i am grateful that we have chosen hope, optimism, unity and love.

puffer says

welcome to shash's new website! let me know if you find any errors, weirdnesses or confusing parts.

puffer was a cat we had (only briefly, sadly) when i was a sophomore in high school. a few weeks ago, when i was at my parents' and sorting through my storage there, i found this drawing i made of puffer. it reminded me of ernie the cat.

happy voting tomorrow! can't wait to celebrate (please let us be celebrating) on wednesday!

a stripey hello

to you. this photo is from last weekend, before the 9th anniversary party (pseudo commitment ceremony {though they wouldn't call it that}) of my friends j & c.

hoping to get back to regular blogging starting tomorrow.
in the meantime. some beautifulness:

coffee is for lovers (just last week she had many more in this set. not sure where they went. :-()
forms (so so so lovely)
purple bits
sandra's print
wish i could have gone to this.
i bought this print/calendar at little otsu.

it's rainy and dark and cozy here. my mom will be glad i finally am posting something, and she will no longer be so prominent on my blog. heehee.

a fika story

ever since i was little, my mom has occasionally taught once a week night classes in swedish at community colleges, in addition to her regular high school teaching gig (teaching german and french and yearbook). now she's retired, but teaching the swedish class again. she was telling me that last night the lesson was all about conversations around coffee.

she made coffee for her students and brought pepparkakor, and then they talked in swedish about things like whether they wanted milk or sugar in their coffee. of course my first question was, "did you tell them about fika?" and she said she forgot! shocking, right?! i love that in this art-craft blog world so many non-swedes now know about fika. ah the wonders of the world wide web.

(my mom will tell her students about fika next week. we don't want them to be completely clueless and deprived.)

quick hello

oh! i'm very excited to get the swedish volume of lines and shapes of course. of course!

speaking of swedes, the above is a glimpse of another work by my talented aunt ulrika lönnå. i think this weaving's from the 70's. it's at my parents.'

while i was at my parents' this past weekend, i was forced to go through my storage there. what a crazy walk down memory lane. found some great + funny stuff from childhood and tons of drawings/paintings. can't believe i used to be so prolific. ;-) so much stuff i don't want in my own house, but could not bear to throw out. so it's staying in their closet a little longer.

flickr favorites will be peppered in my sporadic october postings instead of clumped on fridays (until november). a few fall ones:

more swedishness
meadow from shari
and another from terese whose photos are so intimate and tender

sunday flickrs

friday's flickr favorites are coming at you on sunday.

i probably will be posting very sporadically this month as i'm trying to get my graphic design portfolio together (two months sooner than i had anticipated needing to)! it will be online too (finally) by november 3. i'm saying this more for my sake than yours. to make it more real.

some damp ones:
astrid's canoe
foresty goodness

a pretty and clever gal
an intense and clever boy

love these colors and the type

on friday jenifer hosted an outdoor movie night (just before the rain came) featuring hedwig and the angry inch. hedwig just gets better every time. funny to see all the dogs that live in j's bldg hanging out, and dixie loo dog sleeping beneath the screen, hedwig rockin' above.

anyhow. see you not sure when.

ok

it's a little early for the real thing, but cocktails in letters are nice.
good morning.

flickr friday

fuzzy photo of a poster i designed for the student chapter of AIGA at my school.

my friend oona's amazing artwork and fashion on apartment therapy!

friday flickrs
shari's flowers
datura's apples
mirjan's tree

1, 2, 3

a bit closer

such pretty mailboxes.

that reminds me. did you see feist on the muppets singing the monster version of 1234? i warn you that it will get stuck in your head. (she looks like charlotte gainsbourg here.)

good morning

on this monday.

i was indoors almost all weekend doing homework. i'm looking forward to taking a walk today outside in the beautiful becoming-fall weather. i do have to do more homework, but i feel much lighter today than i did through the weekend. i did manage to watch amelie yesterday. it had been a while. love that movie. a good friend of mine doesn't love it, which i find baffling. how could one not love that movie?! seems impossible.

mav's and stephanie's year of mornings arrived a couple days ago, and it is so wonderful (of course). exciting that sandra and famapa are taking up a 3191 inspired project, how we say hello.

friday flickrs

friday flickrs (early again)

three silvery ones
* (i love the dress pattern)
tumbling hair's
cat nap

you won't find a ton of kids in my flickr favorites, but sometimes....
i really. really like --erica's photostream. she takes beautiful photos of her kids (and in general).
anna on the steps
what i'll remember (pretty amazing, right?)

shapes: green and pink

bingo! some ephemera jenny sent along with this triangle dress i bought (for the fabric).

ug. this weekend i fell into the time sucker of facebook. (or ansiktsboken as my cousin calls it. ha! i love it when swedes translate english words to swedish. so often they just use english words interspersed in swedish, so it's fun to me when they change it up. or spell english words in a swedish way, like emajl instead of email {though i could be wrong about that one}.) it is fun (and weird) though to find high school folks and my cousins on there.

friday flickrs

from terra firma farms, this week's medium box.

flickr favorites (on thursday already!) this week:
all of these
triangles
outside

random

i don't know what is going on with the pink, but here's some more. maybe i just need to give in to it.

these gals seems super cool. what a great trip idea!
funny

graphic links +

night-time neighbors
(only because i didn't manage to take photos during the day.)

RADNESS (click on mossenger!)
bolsadeosos (purse of bears?! the only reason i remember this from spanish is because during the spanish ap test in high school, the picture story i was supposed to describe for the verbal part was all about a bear. i of course panicked at the site of the tape recorder and forgot the word for bear {oso}. so i was saying gran animal quite a lot. i figure that probably contributed to my just getting a 3 on that test. but now i never forget the word for bear, so hey.)
brandon lesley's

saw the movie in search of a midnight kiss this weekend and quite enjoyed it. also saw vicky cristina barcelona a couple weeks ago and really liked that.

friday flickrs

so much pink on my blog lately. strange.

friday flickr favorites:
atlantic
34
jisung and succulents

good weekends to you!

yellow zipper

there it is. the really poorly made pen, pencil, exakto, crayons, scissors, pad o'paper, etc. bag i just sewed while i procrastinated. ehem, i mean while i took a break from doing my homework. the zipper clearly doesn't match and is sewn in all wrong. but it's gigantic, lined with jeans for sturdiness and the fabric is cute, right? so it will do the job. my last pencil case was a cardboard box, so i'd say this is an upgrade. pinky leon likes it.

tendrils and shoots

pretty plants outside of scarlet sage.

i hope this summery weather lasts a little longer, although it does make it harder to do homework.

smoothie chairs + slow food

look, smoothie-colored chairs!


sometimes i feel so proud of sf. above is a slow food festival event in dolores park. what a perfect day for a long table in the park! i wish i had bought tix to some of the slow food events. their festival poster is nice too. i would link to it, but can't find it on their site.

flickr friday

got lots to do today. it is SO hot here.

so just a couple watery friday flickr favorites:
from snowroom
from tomato senya

blooming in red

gould's 'duke of york' carnation, by edwin dalton smith


dianthus cultivars, anonymous illustrations


protea repens by henry andrews

images are from the tiniest of botanical illustrations books (really too tiny @ 5 by 6 in. pages), flora by brent elliot.

when skies are grey, a new to me pretty blog
ray fenwick's new the illustrated guide to a life of mystery
fin foils + crafts (bay area friend's surf/polaroid/projects blog with nice background music to it)

good links today!

art on flickr
how rad are these!?
softie cameras
holy moly. she gives paper dolls a whole new meaning! wow.
shannon rankin wowow.

some loch lomond words:
last night i had a dream
that i was a stripe
running up your arm...

and loch lomond on youtube
bird and bear

furry + flickr friday

pinky leon and his clothed alter ego hank, both showing off their pink toes.

friday flickrs are furred this week:
louie
jack
finlandia

oh, and then my housemate got me searching for faroe islands photos. i love the colors there. and the landscape of course. maybe someday on the way to sweden i can stop off at iceland and the faroe islands.
gjovg, faroe islands (and whole set)
tinganes, torshavn (and whole set)
looks like a fairytale

happy weekends!

leafy again

some leaf earrings i made for my housemate heather. she picked the fabric, which she thinks may be called psychedelic tomato. groovy. they are pretty big, but they look good on her. i'll have to snap a pic of her in them too.

i switched my keyboard viewer to swedish to write an email, and though i've switched it back to english, it won't stick. it keeps reverting to swedish, and then my shortcuts don't work and semicolons become ö's. my computer really wants me to write in swedish to you. så är det! väldigt irriterande. more later. or mer sedan.

good saturday + rant

made this for brunch from the recipe mav posted.

bought some thread for some earrings i'm finally making for my roommate as a trade for a lovely hat she made me long ago.

doing some sewing and relaxing. may also rent the swedish film tillsammans (together). i've seen it like 3 times, but for some reason i'm really in the mood for it today.

rant: i watched bill moyers journal last night. i always get so riled up when i watch that show. it's scary good. last night it was about american imperialism and the wars we're in right now. it was also about how presidents (democratic and republican) and many americans want to believe america will be able to continue to prosper if we can fix the problems out there in other countries. when really we need to change america and how we are living/consuming. we're too dependent on other countries for our imports and oil, and this dependence makes us totally vulnerable. and we go along with it all because we want to consume cheaply. but there are so many horrible costs to the way we consume. basically the guest, andrew bacevich, said we need to change our energy policy and stop being imperialists. but the way he explains it all so articulately is great. you can watch it online.

it's interesting how much of what andrew bacevich talked about, even though he spoke largely about war, relates to these books i've been reading about the industrial food system. seems to me it all comes down to the fact that americans value money and cheap goods more than we value the quality of the food we put in our bodies, more than we value the earth and each other and community. of course no one believes this about themselves, but take a look at how we consume. we turn our backs on the negative impacts (including war, the destruction of soil and water, the destruction of small farms, the proliferation of sweat shops/child labor, the destruction and endangerment of plant and animal species) of the way we consume.

personally i think if we were taxed more and the government actually helped the people of the country by providing universal health care, education, energy infrastructure, public transportation infrastructure, support of small, diverse farms, support of the arts/humanities, etc., then people wouldn't need to consume cheaply because we would not have to worry about paying for all these other necessities. then we could buy (ideally a lot fewer) quality goods and foods produced/grown locally, while supporting our friends and families and living healthier lives. well i could go on and on, and obviously these topics are all very complex, and each topic has numerous books written about them. my point is, the show is good and worth watching/thinking/arguing about.

friday flickrs

thought my posting would be more prolific this week, but no such happening.

some friday flickr favorites:

1. monofobia's
2. maria ek's
3. flint knits'
4. amanda pulley's

my last semester of graphic design classes starts next week. i'm looking forward to savoring it.

delicious books

i just finished reading plenty and was considering which i like most of these food books i've read of late: animal, vegetable, miracle, the omnivore's dilemma or plenty. i really can't decide. they are all terrific, well-written books. they all kept me rapt. they are funny, VERY informative, fascinating and mostly uplifting.

now i just want to keep reading books on these topics of the industrialization of food, global food issues, environmental issues related to food, local food/small farm issues, organics, the appreciation of flavor and food traditions, awesome chefs/cooks and the importance of diversity of crops/seeds.

it seems to me that the way we ("developed" nations) produce/consume/transport food (both in "developed" and "undeveloped" nations) is at the core of so many of the world's problems (hunger, obesity, disease, pollution, oil dependence, the end of thousands of small farms, spiritual disconnect). and as these books all touch on, food is one of the things we in america can control, on an individual basis anyway, to some degree. these books are uplifting because they are about people empowering themselves and their local farmers and food service folks. they tell of ways to avoid/battle/subvert/alter the gigantic, evil corporations and industries that control food production. plus there are mouthwatering recipes in these books.

i recommend them all! i am confident you will find them to be delectable.

have you read any related books i should add to my food book reading?