sunny saturday

coffee, newspaper, flowers, sun - a good start to the day


a fresh round of mindless word fun in progress


the little waiting area at the casbah market deli


one of the ten thousand barber shops on mass street (it looked too 'mayberry' to pass up)


artsygirl had fun with the camera


and drew a picture of me with a little alien in my shoulder


and in the mail came a surprise, a gorgeous drawing from thoughtful aris - her work is quiet yet so powerful. she drew this one especially for me and that makes it even more of a treasure. i LOVE it. thank you aris! :)

so the day is nearly done - we had a sun-filled afternoon with mudpies and water balloons, the girls are exhausted, and now i'm going out to the front porch with my glass of wine for the rest of daylight to spy on the party across the street and listen to their *really* bad live music. they are having a good time, though, and that counts for something. ciao!

wonderland

the prospect of devouring everything the world has to offer is tempting, but the truth is that i get overwhelmed and desensitized by too much at once. i prefer one flower, one chocolate, one conversation with one good friend at a time.

this weekword was chosen by lea. other participants this week were: cecilia, jenna, fruenswerk, trinsch, alexandra, chelsea, kristi, sandra dieckmann, aris, anairam and thereza.

now, i'm off for my morning espresso and to chase the song wonderland by xtc out of my head...

rule flouter

my track record at responding to tags properly is distressingly spotty, but stephanie was kind enough to tag me anyway. i still wound up flouting the rules, though - i had limited doodleminutes today so i tackled just a few of the questions....






...and now i will leave the tag open to anyone who wants it. be sure to pay stephanie a visit in germany to get the full list, and prepare yourself for a eurofeast of art, culture, travel and food when you arrive. her world is a complete delight and so is she!

corner view

thanks to jane of the awesome spain daily, and head honcho of the corner view, for letting me hop aboard. i've been admiring corner views all over the world for the last few weeks, including here, here, and here, and thought it would be fun to speak up from my little corner in the middle of nowhere, united states. i'm a little early (normally everyone posts on wednesdays), but this week if it isn't early, it will be late. the theme this week is cityscapes, courtesy of cele, and here is my corner view of lawrence, kansas today... (oh ... and just now i noticed that for this one i was supposed to go the the highest point of my city for this cityscape... but i'm not sure i can get to the top of the campanile with a jogging stroller, so eye level has to do for this week...)


we kicked off the day with a short circuit around the 600 and 700 blocks of massachusetts street, stopping first at la prima tazza for a jolt - they make it motor oil thick - i LIKE that...



said hello to liberty hall, our little downtown cinema and concert hall...


my sidekicks - motor oil and birdiegirl...


a message on the dumpster - i'm saying this a lot right now, as school is almost out for the summer and i'm seeing my doodletime rapidly dwindling...



then we found this sweet little piece of origami floating from a mailbox...

and now i'll hit publish, as i've just been alerted to five cobs of corn and a container of strawberries tumbling out of the refrigerator. the toddler is foraging again. i'll spare you that corner view. enjoy your day!

kitschy clipboards

a friend of mine is collaging her entire dining room table with pictures of food, and seeing her creative explosion in progress gave me the bug to pull out my never-ending kitschy clipboard project. i've been working on it piecemeal over the last couple of years - every few months i flip through a bunch of vintage magazines and add a little more to the series. two clipboards are totally finished - i have one recipient in mind for each - and three more are in the process of being cheesed up. i love getting lost in those crazy old mags - i wonder if people 50 or 60 years from now will look back on our magazines and cackle as much as i do at these. fun fun!

home

alexandra chose the weekword HOME, and i figured since she cheated and posted an old photo, i could too. these are two memory pieces i painted last year of our minneapolis home, which i tearfully left in 2003, and our dallas home, which i cheerfully left in 2006. the other weekword participants this week were: cecilia, jenna, fruenswerk, aris, sandra, nathalie, andrea, esti, kristi, thereza, valentina, and lea.

loose cannon

having an energetic doodlemorning in kansas city - i am on my second loose cannon (coffee with espresso, nothing else) and strong allergy meds so i am a bit of a loose cannon myself at the moment. when i arrived, my art goodie bag opened before i was ready and my stack of inked backgrounds went splat on the floor - just like this, a little fan of colors. so i got sidetracked for a moment taking pictures of the floor and got some raised eyebrows from corporate folks holding meetings here and mom groups gabbing about whatever it is they gab about... finished lettering a doodle based on one of my tags for the shop... realized i could use one of these scores of bracelets i've made as a little cozy for my coffee...and just noticed i've had headphones in my ears for the last hour and haven't been listening to anything. now fixed: zoot sims... and now i'm going back to visit fruenswerk yet one more time to look at her hilarious and brilliant photostory. hope you're having a great thursday wherever you are... :)

*****

update: a marvelous surprise package from london just showed up this afternoon, full of thereza's gorgeous prints, postcards and mini moo cards...many of my favorites are in here, especially the yellow one about the delusional self talking nonsense... that's all me. thank you thereza!

just arting around

it's been a gorgeous week so i've taken some outdoor adventures in between lots of doodles and chasing squirrels off my front porch. finally it's time to break out the summery dresses, gaze at the neighbors' flowers that i couldn't grow if i tried, and bring back the white wine - i had coffee with the fabulous pam taylor from present magazine a few weeks ago and she recommended this delish argentine crios torrontes by susana balbo. the stencil of evolution was an interesting find - someone painted it on the doorstep of a religious bookstore. i like that about this city - different beliefs and lifestyles coexist here without much of a ruckus. you can even wake up with a little hangover and people will still give you the benefit of the doubt. and i was delighted to find this flying moo cow, which was part of a tornado scene painted on the coffee drive-thru window. i was on the way to kansas city and needed a cuppa for the road.

a little weekword update: alexandra was the wordfinder this week and it is HOME. if you'd like to join us, swing by her world, let her know, and post your interpretation on friday. now, i'm just polishing off two ice cream sandwiches and i think that is a fine way to end the day.