blogslacker

well, i've been quite the blogslacker this week, but not because of the holiday. thanksgiving couldn't have been more stress-free. we went nowhere, outsourced our entire dinner and stayed in pajamas for a good portion of the day. it was amazing. the reason i've been slacking off is that i've been busy. sorry to get all businessy on you, but it's been a super week in etsyville and i've been printing, packing, and dancing off to the post office. many of my sales came from you and your referrals and i cannot thank you enough! the other reason i've been out of blog commission is that i started working out again with a 30 day killer, and i hurt. since i missed out on NaNoWriMo this month, i'm calling my challenge KickYoAssMo. i'm on day 4 and yes it is kicking my ass.

earlier this week ricë and i had a fun chat about creativity/blogging and motherhood woven into it all - you can listen to the podcast here. i'm fairly sure i didn't offer one shred of useful information but selfishly i just love talking to her. i'm not a phone person so that is saying something. gee whiz, i love this lady. she didn't even make a big deal that i made her audio all wonky because i was sitting in a parking lot at latteland in kansas city with the wind whipping my car all over the place. she's doing an artsyville giveaway, open until sunday, so hop over to the voodoo lounge if you want to put your name in the hat. be sure to check back to see if you win or she'll send the irritated cat after you.

enjoy the rest of your weekend and i'll try to be better about making time for my blog. it brings me a happiness and joy that a few years ago i couldn't have imagined. you all are a big part of that. thank you for making it so much fun for me.

mixed messages

the groovy doodle magnets are finally in the shop! many of the messages cancel each other out, but oh well. i decided to offer the spicy word magnets through special order, so if your situation requires something more than an oh my gaaaaaaaaaaaa then just send me a note and i'll give you a list of the naughties.

a few shop updates: starting today through december 31 i'm doing free shipping on orders over $25. i'll also gift wrap orders and write gift enclosures for your recipients - just let me know what you need in the notes to seller.

thank you all for the jolly commentary in the last post - still laughing!

o coffee bean

i've felt a dramatic ode to the coffee bean coming on for a long time, and all the pieces came together this week to make it happen: a devotion so fervid that yesterday i stopped for a shot of espresso on my way to get coffee somewhere else. a remark from pixie about wanting to apply the stuff topically and pour milk over the beans. katy's choice of listless for the weekword. an urge to shout in the vocative case. o coffee bean! i'm not sure what i'd do without you.

a couple of weekend treats for you: a delightful interview at artists who blog with thereza rowe (the genius behind tiny red), the jealous curator (featuring the fabu aris moore), jenn's itty bitty journal pages (the trash can mishap is priceless), and krispiecandysurprises (rice krispies + marshmallows + butter + leftover halloween candy). you'll have to come to my house for those. they are going fast.

sunny day, go away

we've had a spate of biting weather this week, and it was about time because these new boots were getting tired of waiting for the sun to take its business elsewhere. i have to admit it, every once in a while i like a string of cold, dark, rainy days. i tend to create more, i don't feel the need to fly all over the place in manic bursts of energy, the kids get snuggly, go to bed early and easily, and i can catch up with my favorites around the world:

> susie is on the mend and making me laugh again
> terri is making me laugh just as hard
> jan is giving away one of her fabu calendars
> christine is giving away a copy of her new book Scraps
> thereza illustrated these sweet little clothespins
> carmen just signed the contract for her book Seeking Artistic Style
> aris painted a beautiful series of lessons
> alexandra painted a painful one
> and i'm loving the work and words of pixie campbell

the forecast is threatening sun for tomorrow - please send good vibes for ugly skies so i can wear these boots again...

a workshop at KU

i'm always up for teaching something i don't know much about because i've had a lot of practice at it. in my days as a corporate dweller i was constantly called upon to transfer my lack of knowledge to others, so much that by the time i left grad school my MBA degree should really have read as Master of Bullshit Administration. so when this lovely, talented lady asked me to speak to her typography class at the University of Kansas yesterday, i was not going to miss the opportunity, especially since this time i got to talk about something that i have a deep passion for: the process of creating a letter by hand. i could have yip-yapped to the moon and back about how much i love hand lettering, but i kept my talk short and turned it into a workshop instead. we gave the students 3" x 4" pieces of paper and asked them to design on the spot: a wine label, book cover, coffee logo, something, anything, as long as it was composed of letters drawn by hand. i brought prints of my doodles, my favorite go-to books for lettering inspiration, and folders for them to take home with lists of resources and ideas for lettering exercises. at the end of the class they brought their hand drawn labels to the front of the class and were most gracious about letting me take a photo of their collective work. as you can see, their styles were all very different and that's why i prefer hand lettering to simply typing a message: it reveals a lot about the individuality of the person behind the pen.

i enjoy teaching this way, making a class interactive and spontaneous rather than prattling on and provoking glazed stares. this way topics come up that i would otherwise miss, and it gives the students the chance to share what they know. i believe that no matter what the discipline, students have just as much to teach as instructors do. if i did it over, i would have asked even more questions of them because most of these students have been designing and illustrating and playing around with the technical aspect of it since they were children. i asked how they did their hand lettering. many of them like me drew on paper and scanned it; another was firmly attached to the mouse and a handful were wacom tablet devotees. one student pulled out her laptop and let me play around with her wacom tablet while she worked on her labels. they were a super group to work with and it was an honor to be there. thanks, amanda and students, for the great opportunity.

now if i could only teach my children how to get ready for school in the morning! the interactive workshop idea has been a spectacular failure in my own household and it is undoing me. it does not matter what we lay out the night before or how early we get up in the morning, our house nearly always folds in on itself in the half hour prior to departure because they suddenly turn into immobile robots. if you have any suggestions on how to motivate these kids out of the house without a histrionic performance, i'd be grateful for the lesson...

my music lesson

usually i'm the one barking the orders in the house, but today i was the student. my artsygirl came home with a note from her music teacher offering all students the opportunity to be the music leader for a day if they practiced the lesson she sent home. my daughter took this task to heart. she set up her class in our living room which once again has dirty floors, recruited my younger daughter and me to be her students, and she directed us through school chants, songs, dances and scales. when we didn't stay in our proper places, she ripped up a papertowel and marked our spots with a sharpie to keep her class in order. birdiegirl continued to be a troublesome pupil and was eventually sent to the principal's office, and i was in danger of a timeout in the red chair when i took this photo. in the end i recovered my standing, learned the chants and songs and scales, and earned a prize.

it was a change to see her take on the role of a leader and enjoy it so much. usually she's the dreamer - reading in the sink, writing stories, ringing the doorbell wearing speedo goggles and identifying herself as an orphan from minnesota in search of a new home - basically just lost in her imagination, which is her most endearing quality to me. but i think i often just see her through that lens, and it has shut my eyes to the fact that she can step away from the dreamer and do other things, too. it surprised me, in a very good way. it certainly made up for yesterday's surprise, when birdiegirl piddled a river all over herself at 7th and kentucky and i didn't have a shred of extra clothing with me. (another lesson, i guess.)

other lessons i've been digging this week: 1) cecilia's tutorial on how to make patterns, 2) jen's polaroid journal made from glassine envelopes, 3) jan's painful reflection on hauling too much crap down the stairs, and 4) jennifer's brilliant article on the struggle between art and ambition, the dilemma of putting your passions on the market, and that tiresome question of "what do you do". and of course, please visit alexandra, who chose this weekword and always has wise (and funny) lessons of her own to share.

favorite dish

most of you know my opinion on food prep - i could go out for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day with nary a regret. when pressed, however, i can make a big ass burrito bowl, curry lentil soup and grilled cheese. when times are desperate we toss anything in the house onto tortilla chips, heat the oven to 400 degrees and cross our fingers.

see jane for more inspiring dishes and aris for more of my bad word magnets. happy wednesday!

monday love

good morning! it was a rare weekend in the 70s here so we spent as much of it outdoors as we could. i dragged the girls on a walk around KU and we found this delight peeking out of a seedy and weedy yard just north of the university. a shed? garage? tornado shelter? something else? who knows? love to you all and have a great week!

holes in their stories

here are a few pieces of overheard conversations to kick off your weekend! i dropped everything to get the dirt on the duet, but no luck on that or any of the others. our imaginations will have to fill in the holes...

meet me in st. louis

i found my dreamer! it was in st. louis, of all places - wandering through the japanese screens at the art museum, going up and down staircases, doodling and writing in little cafes and shops, taking a long walk through the central west end, staring at peppers and purple things at a farmers market and even getting tangled up in a halloween parade full of dressed-up doggies. until this weekend st. louis had always been a conduit rather than a destination for me. but this time i got to explore rather than blow through it on my way to chicago or indianapolis which is usually the case. WOW, was i wowed. it is a beautiful city. most if not all of the public attractions are free, it has the feel of boston and chicago without the honking and congestion, and the people are genuinely friendly, which cannot be said of every city in this fine country. i'd go back in a flash.

the magnet winners, picked randomly, are lori v. and linda b. i handpicked a third, aris, because of her heartrending comment about needing one of those magnets for her property tax bill.

now i'm off to tend to the dreamer before it escapes again. happy monday to you!

in the mail

nothing makes my day like an artful surprise in my mailbox.



i ordered a print from francie, and she included this gorgeous felted and beaded bracelet. i want to eat it, but i won't.




a year ago i got hooked on painted fish studio when jen went on a rant about these 'stupid little pumpkins'. i reminded her of it a few weeks ago and she threatened to send me a bag of them if i didn't shut up. i didn't, so she did. despite her choice of packaging (look closely), these i WILL eat. or my kids will.




and this card appeared from my dear, sweet friend alix the other day. she and her little one were sick earlier this week, and before my inner critic could warn me that i might poison her, i made one of my Big Ass Burrito Bowls and took it to her house, along with a beer, of course. so she drew this awesome little recap of the scene, including my daughter hanging out the window in the driveway waiting for me.

thanks to your public support of my lazy beer and burrito phase. the doer has finally returned and has kept me busy most of the week. so to make up for my lack of blog visits, i'll do a little giveaway. tell me about an art surprise you've sent or received in the mail lately, and on monday i'll draw two names for a bundle of my groovy doodle magnets. you can have good words, bad words, or both! meanwhile i'll be off searching for the dreamer...

watching from the sidelines

(painted windows at au marché)



(drawings on priority mail stickers, found next door to the mad greek)



(fancy stuff at sarah's fabrics)



(the last leaves falling)



(and a little girl writing)

i've been impressively unproductive and at a loss for compound thoughts for nearly a week. after a few days of moping and even getting a bit frantic over it all, i put the histrionics aside and decided to give in wholly to being an observant lazy ass until the moment passes. for now i will just watch the world around me, with a beer in one hand and a burrito in the other. the doer and the dreamer will return when they are ready.

susie sent me this spectacular poem.

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

mission complete

and the ketubah is finished! i did this one in watercolor and ink on hot press illustration paper. the lines look wavy, but that's just because of the crappy camera angle. i assure you that i spent many pre-inking hours grappling with my t-square to make sure that this blessed piece, so to speak, had even lines and some sort of symmetry to it.

i started by ruminating about it for about a month and looking at the paper for another two weeks. then i took a deep breath and trimmed the paper to 16" x 20", a standard frame size (remembering a good ricë rant from a while back about what a pain in the ass it is to frame non-standard-size artwork), then did the watercolor wash and measured the borders.

the next part, which absorbed the largest chunk of time, was lettering the text that the couple provided for me. since there was no room for error, i penciled in and proofed the hebrew a million times before starting it. i even took care with the english part because it would have been ever so easy to miss a word in that sea of letters.

once i finished the lettering i relaxed and totally enjoyed the illustrations, all symbols of jewish life: family, holidays, life and love. if you have any specific questions about what each of them mean i'll do my best to answer. from start to finish (not including the pre-trimming rumination) the process took about 50 hours.

go here to see another handpainted ketubah, a beautiful one designed by susie - as well as a great story about how she got started as an artist.

now i'm in that post-major-mission flailing phase, trying to get myself organized to embark on my next secret agent project. first step: strong coffee. have a great day!

this week in history

this week i watched the goofy event unfold as a film crew captured fuzzy socks walking across our clean floors



and turned our crazy little house into a set for a TV commercial.



this week i also chased toddling feet



avoided laundry



had a few befuddling moments



and made caramel apples with my artsygirl.



this week i found a colorful surprise from michelle in my mailbox



and watched her beautiful art block and magnet land magically on david hockney in today's times.

all memorable pieces of this week, all now part of our history.

a document of love

here's my latest secret agent project - for the last few weeks i've been absorbed in making a ketubah, a jewish wedding contract. it is a tradition that goes back thousands of years, a very early form of a pre-nuptial agreement. in those days the documents were very transactional in nature, but over time the ketubah has evolved as an art form, much like illuminated manuscripts, and modern text reflects marriage vows between the couple. just a few more touches and this one will be finished. once the happy couple has seen the final piece i will share more pictures and the process i used to get to the finish line. making things for other people is not my strong suit, but bouts of frequent panic helped a lot. ultimately, the honor and satisfaction of creating a document to unite two people is what has seen me through. love indeed conquers all.

see jane for more ♥ around the world, and i'll be back soon with a report from my floors!

a night of light

a quick hello to share a few scenes from an unforgettable evening! thanks to a thoughtful friend we had the honor last night of attending a celebration of diwali, the festival of lights and the national holiday of india which celebrates enlightenment, love, togetherness and hope. it filled my soul with good vibes - i can feel the energy coming through on the final touches on my project, which represents another cultural tradition of light and love. back to the doodletable and i'll see you wednesday for corner view!

p.s. and after that i'll be back with a report of the goofy event requiring clean floors in my home. it is not a sleepover although that is a very good guess :)

hibernating

it's been a little quiet around artsyville lately, mainly because i've been waist-deep in a lettering project that requires accuracy and measurement and other things that make my brain do gymnastics. but i'm really happy with how it's turning out, and i'll show a few peeps of it here when i arrive at the finish line. i'm on track to come up for air in a few days, just in time to deep clean this messy house for something rather goofy that is taking place here next week. let's just say that i need to make sure the floors are really really really clean. and then i'm going to take a nap.

please join us over at carmen's spill it! workshop - there's still time to sign up. have a great weekend! back soon!

(drawing by my artsygirl)

there's no place like home

finally back in the corner view saddle this week, just in time to show a few souvenirs of our fine state. nothing makes my day quite like a truly cheesy souvenir, and as you can see, i had no issue scoring a few tacky postcards and magnets to remind me that there's no place like home. i had my heart set on a dorothy snow globe, but no luck. there MUST be one out there. i have hope.

a few updates from around blogville - sarah from PaPaYa! e-mailed me about a fun creative challenge going on over in their world, anairam gave me a huge smile this afternoon with her word creatures, and susie is having a buy one get one sale of her gorgeous watercolors over at mishmish market. i have the owl and the cat and i loveeee them! :)

the ultimate treasure hunt

what lurks under your sofa cushions?

see l'atelier for treasures that are surely more valuable than what i've unearthed. cindy has chosen the next weekword and it is TWILIGHT. if you'd like to participate, swing by quaint handmade and let her know. happy monday to you!

p.s. you can get a preview of my bad word magnets at tiny red and drop your name in the hat for her illustration giveaway while you're there... alexandra has one going on, too, if you're willing to tell a story. and don't miss her continuing art as business series. chock full of good info!

the ultimate germ carrier

it figures that illustration friday would pick the disgusting topic of germs the week i decide to jump back into it. what's more, it only took me about ten seconds to come up with my idea which shows you how close i am to the gutter too. now is certainly the time of year to dwell on it, when school and germ exchanges are back in full swing. birds and cows and pigs may cause panic in the media, but let's face it - children are the ultimate germ carriers. nearly seven years into having mini humans run around our house, my husband and i are still astonished at how two sweet little girls can so continually and regularly knock us out of commission with the clouds of germs that follow them home. fortunately we love our germ carriers very much so we keep them around.

cough.