She Caught Me

My life is changing.  Not in a bad way, at all.  I'm not done blogging either.  

I just have to figure how it all will fit together.

I've been having tons of fun.  I've started a website for our business.  I'm actually really proud of it because I know NOTHING about coding.  It was very confusing and weird but it doesn't look completely embarrassing.  

RustedThread.com

There's still more for me to do but at least it's a start.  

Yesterday, my daughter and I went to a "Drawing Jam" run by Lynda Barry, who is amazing.

That's her brain on the left and mine on the right.

It was a blast.  My daughter got to discuss her drawing with Lynda Barry,  

Here she caught me taking her picture.

I STILL haven't finished the last square of my quilt top but I'm close, just as close as I was last time I posted.  Today I finish our chicken coop, tomorrow I kayak.  

I just need time to sit down.  :)

At First Blush

I had a little too much fun writing this Etsy post.  I just thought I'd post it here too because it really made me giggle.  I think I want to write more things like this.

It was the last photo they took before he broke into tears and ran out of the room yelling, "I hate you, I hate you all!" Her face hurt for a full week. 

At first blush, you might want to place the blame on the photographer. He was unrelenting in his pursuit of the biggest possible smiles. He cajoled, yelled, laughed manically all while taunting their, at least to his eye, dour expressions. 

The day had started off on a pleasant note. Surely, this couldn't take more than an hour or two. They were consummate professionals. This was not their first ride on the record cover photo shoot pony. Hell, they'd been cranking out records to the tune of two a year since joining Decca. 

But this time was different. The photographer had received news that if the smiles of the dancing couple weren't the biggest smiles on any record cover to date, he would lose his job. Even that wouldn't normally be enough to shake him, after all, the record cover photography business has always been cut throat. But on this day, the photographer had just incurred a huge gambling debt to Billy "The Knee Splitter" Johnson. Also his home wife has found out about his away wife. 

Actually, you could totally put the blame on the photographer. He was a real tool. There can be no surprise then that the photo session ended in tears and in two divorces and a hospital bill that would make anyone weep. It's surprising that it didn't have a worse end.

You can enjoy this record, if you really want to, by turning the volume down. It's pretty boring and no one explained to me why a record of happy songs has "You Always Hurt The One You Love" on it, but has no skips that I heard. It's got a great picture and ridiculous title. If you need more reason than that to buy a vintage record off of the internet, how about the fun copy on the back that explains why the "growth in suburban living" has caused the rise of "happy music" or the great little pictures of other related re

Not Much To Say

Playing around with Zentangles

 

and macro camera settings.  

Logic Is So Overrated.

Look how tidy!  I just had to brag a little bit

I did empty this  - two glasses worth - and today my stomach is mad at me.

I found this which I had totally forgotten about.  It was a learning piece from Subversive Crossstitch.  

I also added a doorknob to this cheap little dresser I picked up.  It was missing a drawer pull. I have plans to paint it at some point.

 

Look, I made an unintentional face.

So now I can move on to some of the million and seven things I want to work on.   I started to work on the journal idea I'm all excited about.  

I cut out the guts of this book.  It's the perfect size for pages that are folded in half regular paper.

I want to add some regular printer paper, pretty paper, some cool looking pages and some random inspiring quotes and bind it all in there. I'm stuck at the quotes part. I know how I want them to look but I think the idea needs to marinate a little bit before I make my quote pages.  I do have a collection of quotes in two separate Pinterest boards with content that overlaps quite a bit.  

Logic is so overrated.  

Plus Life

  

I wont get too much more done today.  I just brought in some wine, it's there on the right.  

 Ugh.  No matter how long I ignore it, my mess doesn't clean itself up.  Remember how I just did a big clean up just two short months ago?  The room did not keep itself tidy.  I know, you're as shocked as I am.

Check out this cool carousel display rack.  For the next craft fair.

 Today I'm trying to tackle it a little bit while making room for paper stuff.  I now have enough paper supplies that I have to acknowledge that I like making things with paper.  The paper needs it's own area.

I'm trying all my collage books in here but I have to many, I think.  I actually sorted pens today.

There are, of course, so many other things I want to do.  Just right up front, I want to do some zentangle drawing.  I want to make some art to mail.  I have some journal ideas I am really excited to try out.  But first, I need to find homes for all my paper and put away the blown out craft sale stuff. 

Plus life.   :)

Blown Out

Well, I had hoped to share pictures of our awesome both set up at Elver Park for the Fresh Air Craft Fair today.  But we got blown out.  Literally.  The vendor agreement said that the fair would go ahead rain or shine; it did not say that it would go ahead with crazy, gusty winds.

So here's our booth part way through being taken down.  That's when I remembered to take a picture.  It looked great and we actually held out longer than the people around us before the big wind came through.  The secret:  Attach the canopy to cinder blocks.  We were helping someone else keep her canopy from blowing away when the wind knocked everything off our table.

Look at the poor gourd lady.  This is when they cancelled the fair.  It was a bummer to do all that prep work and then have it cancelled but, ya know, shit happens and we met some nice people there.  Also, the wind distributed many of our new business cards far and wide.  

So on to planning our Etsy Shop opening.  It's May 21st  and I'm too superstitious to make a crack about the weather not being able to affect that opening.  

Chaos Slowly Becoming Order

Check out that crazy mess.  I've been collecting Mail Art supplies for months.  I knew one day there would be a reckoning.  One day, I would have to organize them all.  

Yesterday was my day of reckoning.

This picture was taken at about the halfway point.  And this is only the stuff that made it to the table.  I'm not a natural organizer and often will ask my husband (who is very organized) to help me figure out where to put things.  But I got through it on my own yesterday.  (Of course, there are, like, five messy piles of paper in my studio but let's not talk about those.)

Chaos temporarily contained.  

This picture isn't of everything, It's just the stuff I'm bringing to Osh Kosh, where my friend/business partner and I are running a couple of workshops.  We so love helping people make stuff, love helping them find their creativity.    

Love it!  It's really exciting.

It's way worth spending a whole day organizing paper scraps.  

One workshop is Mail Art and the other is Making a Piano Hinge Bound book.  

They books are really cool.  You don't use any glue or any stitching.   The binding is woven with sticks.

These workshops are part of a private function. But teaching people how to make stuff and helping them to open up their creative side is something we hope to do on a larger and more public scale as Rusted Thread.  

We're still in the planning stages and it's not unlike the process of organizing my big mess.  

It's like chaos slowly becoming order as we narrow in on what we want to be and how we want to be it.  Exciting stuff!

Halfway and counting down...

I'm calling this the halfway point.  I emptied the shelves and put lots of stuff into bins.  We'll be moving these shelves into the next room and then putting in some way deeper shelves.

Gotta find a sunny spot for my table.  It all looks so spare and tidy now 

But this is only some of what I have to put back in an orderly fashion.  

Actually, I'm going to cal it the thirdway point.

There's more here.  The quarterway point is starting to feel right.  I'd better get up and get moving.  

A Monkey On Uranus

 I've just made some postcards to send to a friend who needs some cheering up.

I have a mail art blog but I think I'll delete it since I don't make as much mail art as I used to.  You don't mind if I post mail art here sometimes, do you?

Front

back

 

I took this picture after I stapled the hidden treasure inside.  

You'll just have to trust me when I tell you that it's a monkey on Uranus. 

This is my favorite.  Like Virginia Woolf counted calories. 

I'm off to play with a GIANT pair of jeans I found at the thrift shop.  I'm envisioning a scarf made of denim.  "Hope that's not too weird" said the woman who put a monkey on Uranus.

Super Secret Surprise Revealed

I got the OK to share the book I made for my friend.  

More than an OK, I got a "PLEASE post this on your blog".  Because she's so nice.

She also said I could use her name but I hadn't considered that possibility so I didn't take a picture with her name showing. 

It's an ode to a woman who knows her mind.

Every rule here is one of her actual rules for life.

They are all wise and wonderful.

They are all Rule # 1 because they are all the most important rule.

Her kid said that I could have made it much longer and he's right.

 

 

This is my favorite one.  Following this rule has made my life so much better; so has knowing Jenina!