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maybe a polka dots and diamonds week is coming on, if i can manage to take photos during the workdays...
i need to change things up in my rooms. hang some (camilla, sandra and maditi) art i bought/received for xmas. been holding off on buying frames, but maybe they'll just hang from clips for now. it's been so long since i've rearranged. my rooms need a jolt. also feeling cluttered, literally and otherwise.
alan clarke graphics (thanks dp for link)
swedish textiles in the uk: new house textiles
i really like the new LOVE stamps.
i don't know these people or what the hell they're doing, but they make me grin.
sky and ocean and trees combined / all the things i am not saying / swirling out into above / out into below / into feathers flying / i watch them like birds from a window / startled and then drifting / and beautiful clouds ache a little, without edges or endmore photoshop doodles
listening to an orbital song that i don't know the name of. wish i did. it's 9 minutes and 29 seconds, if anyone knows...
from josh whitelaw exactly!
pony
saint vincents
from brown cardigan
soon i'm going to get some holgas developed. excited for the ever surprise.
i feel rich when i look at the contents of our weekly produce box. compared to a lot of people in the world i am rich, but compared to people in SF, i don't have a lot of money. aside from rent, i spend my money mostly on food. but to me, that feels right. food is important and delicious! look at all those red jewels—cherries (so sweet), strawberries (so ripe i was forced to make yet another crisp) and peaches! i have always been more interested in veggies than in fruit, but when it comes straight from the tree and is twinkling its shiny sides at me, i do fall for fruit. in fact it's hard to resist eating it all at once! (i just got the culture club i tumble for ya song stuck in my head.)
ps. even though i am rich in food, our csa box is so reasonably priced. i get all the organic fruits and veggies i need for about $13.00 a week.
i usually get very nervous about going to bigger social events, but the ccsf aiga opening reception on friday night was so fun, i barely felt nervous at all!
between mounting and cutting labels and running around in general on friday, i went to some stores to look for something fun to wear to the opening. i didn't find anything, so resorted to the seldom-worn, back-of-the-closet items. recovered this skirt that my friend amelie's mom sewed for me in 1992! and since i didn't have a black (or otherwise matching) purse, i ended up carrying a polka-dotted bag that was my mormor's. she often used it when she went on errands. it's a bag she must have received when she attended a women's conference in seoul, korea in 1990. (it says the conference name and date on the bag.) (that would have made her 76 years old on that trip. my mormor traveled all over the world as leader of the women's baptist union. she was not the kind of christian who gives christianity a bad name. she was peace-, justice- and human rights-promoting, forgiving, kind, generous and open-minded.) i think i felt armed with love in my somewhat cobbled together outfit. some photos from the show here.
happy mothers day! ♥
the top photo, and even painting the rose, was inspired by this by heather smith jones.
i used to paint a lot more and have been getting back into it lately. i need to buy some real watercolor paper.this friday, come here!
these talented svenska tjejer are at it again. so fun and lovely. so many stories. pretty blogsone day. i may have linked here before.plainmade. here too.
a poster i made for a fictional event. it's simple (and a little bit too rave-y), but i like the colors.
there is a venue near where i live called make-out room, and i think it's a fun name for a venue. i called the fictional event kyss mig, which means kiss me in swedish and is pronounced something like shiss may.
although i could probably use an advertisement for kissing, i will not be at the make-out room at 9:00 this friday. ;-)
some flickr faves of late
yes please
from o l y
from amalia
131
from todd fisher (ha!)
romy and charlie
a bigger one.today (as usual) there was a crowd of people waiting for the little mission sfpl branch to open. i went up to the new arrivals section, which is where i go when i don't have any particular book i'm looking to check out. a thin, very old lady with frothy white hair perused alongside me. i found several books to take home, including the learners by graphic designer chip kidd. i didn't know he wrote fiction! and judging from the first 30 pages, he writes very engaging and funny fiction. at first i was like, oh god, the type is so small—typical graphic designer! but it's true what they say, that readability depends on line length and leading as well as type size, because i'm not having a problem reading it, even with the 9.5 (or so :-)) point type. this civil eats post led me here: the migrant project
i'm glad you're blooming in the backyard. shining in the night. the hot nights and the cold ones. i hope your first spring bloom lasts longer than it did last year.
first rose photo this year is a no flash nighttime one! i like how you almost can't see it. and how gold it looks. jeff sent me this link. it put me in a trance. as did listening to the pultizer prize winner for poetry, william stanley merwin, reading his poems on fresh air.
i spent about three hours walking back and forth across town today. it was a good day for walking. and for finding these. there were sisters of perpetual indulgence all over the place, dressed to the nines of course in easter egg colored (and every color really) petticoats and gigantic (i'm talking biggest you've ever seen) lacy parasols. plus people dressed in all sorts of sparkly, shiny, skimpy wear. on part of my way home i was walking behind this compact guy in tight black jeans, boots and a mesmerizing shimmery, chainmail-ish, gold blazer-wrap thing. no shirt. very glam. his was maybe the subtlest costume, but still compelling. (maybe it was the strut.) apparently there was a hunky jesus contest too in dolores park. i didn't see any of the hunky jesuses however.
at home sick today. eating oranges and listening to the royal tenenbaums soundtrack (checked out from the library).also reviewing adam lambert's beautiful mad world. and the tears for fears version of mad world. (please see the sweet dancing starting at 2:27 seconds.)
the above photo is a follow-up to this post. (i forgot to take a photo before eating lidia's eggs. hers are pointier than the other eggs.) so far henrieta's are winning the taste test, but i have yet to try gracie's.
oh my. i just listened (per jen's recommendation) to the fresh air interview with antony from antony and the johnsons. i love him. gentle, articulate and beautiful! his songs and his words are so moving. i cried through almost the entire interview. here it is.late friday flickrs:bits of nature
sea fan
from ana ventura
stormy dayanimal cuteness
from molly
five stones and a dog
goat family
thank god the tenenbaums are ready for me at the library. i really need to see them. it's time for my circa tri-annual the royal tenenbaums viewing. i should just buy the movie. it's the only movie i see regularly (although sex, lies, videotape and amelie and the science of sleep are very repeatable too). did you participate in bench monday? it was kind of strange to see all the benches/legs in my flickr contacts' photos. strange, but fun. i had to join in. now i'm finding myself making mental notes of potential bench photo shoot locations out about town. there are a lot of cute benches in this city.
just one friday flickr from sirigood weekends!
making some covers for cd mixes. bigger/different views over on flickr. fun to watercolor on colored non-watercolor paper.
i like using highlighters with watercolors.thursday flickrs
from a watercolor queen: 1.01.09from terese, queen of quiet moments filled with tendernessimmeubles parisiens: beautiful greys
crazy beautiful out today. been riding my bike lately. riding my bike reminds me of living in santa cruz and lund, sweden (the only places i've lived where i rode my bike regularly).
in santa cruz, i rode my bike most when i lived off of emeline street. in the summer before my last semester in college, i worked on the porter paint crew, painting dorm rooms and hallways. i would ride my bike to the bus stop and put it on the bus. (the road to campus was very steep.) that was such a fun job, mostly because we painted in teams, carrying a ghettoblaster around with us. there were about ten of us on the paint crew and we didn't know each other beforehand. somehow painting beige walls and trim eight hours a day, wearing the same paint-spattered clothes all the time and listening to scratchy tapes invites silliness, practical jokes, mayhem and fast friendships (and bad paint jobs). {i ate my first (of three in my life!) pot brownie on the paint crew. it had no effect on me other than to make me giggle hysterically for about ten minutes.} after a day of physical work and silliness, and of breathing paint fumes, riding my bike ride down the hills and over to my house was perfect—cleansing and invigorating.
in lund, i rode my crap bike everywhere sans helmet. (i don't remember anyone wearing helmets there.) when i arrived in lund, i learned that most people got their bikes at these bike auctions. almost all the bikes at the auctions were junky (and stolen i'm guessing). i had know idea which bike to bid on because one couldn't get up close to them or test them out, so i bid randomly. i think my orange, rusty junker cost about 40 bucks. it had one speed and was rough riding, but it had a comfy seat and a basket in front (important features!), and it got me around fine that year, over cobblestones and through snow and darkness.
what is my point? no point. just funny how memories rest in certain movements/actions. and it's time for new sf bike adventures!
i smelled the jasmine scent about ten feet from this yard i was about to pass today. i (somewhat frantically) whirled around looking for where it was coming from. i need that! upon spying the bush behind a low fence, i ever so casually snapped off a piece. when i got home i went a bit bonkers photographing the little stolen sprig. rynke: SO nice
jen, sarah and i visited a friend and her chickens in the outer sunset today. it was quite chilly out there, but lydia, gracie and henrietta were scooting around the backyard and didn't seem bothered by the chill. they were gathered under a large, billowing, fragrant rosemary bush when we arrived, but they came out for snacks and to cluck at us and do some laps around the yard. their clucking is remarkably reassuring. it really feels like they're chatting like little old ladies or something. not about anything life shattering. just harmless comments to make the time pass and be social.
that brown beauty with the pea comb and with her eye on you at the bottom is gracie (i believe), and she seems very curious and funny. she is my favorite.
anyhow, in our backyard community garden dreams chickens roost. but it looks like that won't happen in my yard because my landlord probably won't allow it. but it will happen in jen and bob's near future yard! i can see it now!
since i recently finished a (primarily print) graphic design program, i've been looking for graphic design jobs. it's a pretty rough job market right now given that many talented and experienced designers are being laid off. and most of the jobs available are for higher level designers or web/flash designers. so i've been considering other jobs in the interim, but it's so hard to know what to look for. i used to do administrative work and editing. and while i wouldn't mind doing this part time, i would rather not do it full time.
i keep mulling over what i really like and what i like to do/think about:
books
sustainable agriculture
reading fiction, nonfiction, blogs (you might think this would fall under books, but for books, i actually mean the physicality of books and the design of books.)
writing/editing
hanging out with old people
sewing/making
taking walks
organizing gatherings (this one is a bit odd since i'm an introvert. but i'm an introvert who likes to be social {in spurts and as long as i can go home and turtle after}. i'm just realizing this lately, that i like to organize little events—well i suppose i like the planning more than the hostessing.)i wish there was a way to combine my interests in craft, design, writing and sustainable agriculture. i'd like to do design work for CSAs and for programs/blogs/organizations that support alternatives to industrial agriculture. (check out this great program i read about on civil eats. i want to design for them!)i (less seriously) think about doing a wwoof internship or applying to a sustainable agriculture-related master's degree program at uc davis.
i think about starting a green design studio with fellow classmates and artists who are in a similar position.
i think about dropping the class i'm taking, after our current project is done, and offering pro bono design services to my own csa, terra firma farms. it just seems like a better use of my time (both for the csa and for my own learning).
although it's terribly scary, it seems like now might be especially the time to dream bigger and not choose the safe route. though at the same time, i really need money asap, so i may have to go the safe route temporarily. all of this is alternately exciting and overwhelming/depressing/debilitating to think about. being unemployed is a roller coaster and it's really starting to wear me down!
i just can't get enough of these mailboxes. they are so pretty. i like the way people stick numbers on them, and the numbers fall off. i like the paint and dents and stickers and rust and chipped off bits. the flower shaped ventilation holes (or whatever those holes are—maybe they're so you can see if you have mail without opening the box). the missing doorbells, the missing nametags, the missing key hole covers. so beat up and so beautiful! i imagine it's pretty hard to get a lot of bigger envelopes in there though. these were clearly made before the advent of junk mail.
tonight, handmade nation!
too much time in front of the computer this weekend.
time to go out into the beautiful weather.
it's about time to start an alemany farmers' market set.
the precita eyes murals (and the diversity of farmers) make this market one of the most beautiful places in the bay area in my opinion.
i love how certain sellers seem to choose their stalls based on the mural.
i actually don't need to go to the market so much since i subscribe to a fantastic csa. but i go to spend time with friends and to experience the market and its saturated colors. i also like having something i do regularly on saturday mornings. (foods i do buy at the market include olive oil, honey, nuts, dried fruit and the occasional non-csa treat {asparagus today}).
i am constantly forgetting/remembering how fun drawing is. k + p made a wonderful drawing last night that should definitely be made into a commemorative (of their sf visit) t-shirt. they also, along with erica, helped me with a homework assignment. some day i will share the results of it here maybe. it involves the adventures of a shaggy-lipped, teddy bear centaur.
last night i had the first restful sleep i've had in over a week i think. i feel both rejuvenated and tired. i had been running on some weird nervous, distracted, excited energy there for a bit.
k o p, vi ses i sverige snart hoppas jag.
by my cousin karin, peter and myself. we doodled while sitting for a long time at it's a grind cafe.
peter grew up over there on the left hand side of the drawing (near the bottom), in the orange house that is sparkling like a gem. that is the road one takes to his house, past the track field. many people miss that last stretch of road and just follow the dotted lines.
there was a reindeer in the forest nearby where he grew up of course, with a candle for a tail. or that carried a candle around on his butt. you know it gets dark in northern(ish) sweden. (at first i thought that the reindeer was yawning/showing his mouth, but i think that's actually his velvety nose. which is it peter?)
not having any siblings, i am finding it very comforting to have karin and peter in sf for a few weeks. i like just knowing that they're over there on polk street. i will miss them when they go.
