angry chicken

photos on wooden blocks

Last week we made some photo blocks. We glued the photos to wood scrap and/or toy wooden blocks with YES paste and then covered them with 3 coats of gloss Mod Podge. Then the sides were painted.

We got this idea from my mom, who made a bunch of lovely photo blocks with family photos and beeswax using Courtney's video. Ours were done spontaneously, we didn't even take the time to melt beezwax, we just used what was in the craft cupboard. The girls used photos from the instaprints we just got. I am so happy I got these, they have already been mailed, altered, and traded, so I probably will not order them as magnets just so they are more versatile. For this last block, I used Maui photos printed from my printer and gave it to Grammie on mother's day.

Unrelated:

• I'm excited to be going to International Quilt Market this weekend here in Portland. That will be awesome.

• I finished The Great Gatsby and am so happy I re-read it. It was beautifully written and now I feel all ready to see the movie, although I know great liberties were taken. I loved Moulin Rouge to death, as over-the-top as it was. I'm also pretty excited for the new Star Trek, which my brother will take me to for my birthday next week, so he can fill me in on all things I miss when watching these movies. I get confused easily. I blame the editing. Like the last one, Red matter . . what?

yarn that I am using as ribbon

I found this amazing yarn that I am getting all crazy about at Michaels. It was on sale, I think it was $1.99 or something insane like that and I just can't stop tying it on stuff. I don't really troll the yarn there, but my middle child needed some neon orange yarn (does this exist? we couldn't find any) and I found this in the hunt. It's called "flaunt" by Loops & Threads.

Unrelated, I finished The Snow Child and liked it so much. It was odd reading it on Maui because it takes place in Alaska. I also did that thing where I read a bit too much about the author right after I finished it. Like seconds after I finished it, dang internet, and so I wasn't able to just sit with the story for a while, which I should have done. It's a quiet and still story and tearing the curtain back to learn all about the author ripped me out of it all too abruptly.

I'm now reading The Great Gatsby, because—well, you know why. I want to at least have a recent framework for when I see the film. I haven't read it since highschool. I remember the story, but not the writing. This was also true for me reading Lolita again a few years ago for a bookgroup. I remember reading it in highschool (not for a class, of course, but on my own) but it may as well been a different book. It makes me want to reread so much.

Happy Mother's Day! I'm having strawberry shortcake right now.

waffle brunch

We had my brother over last weekend for brunch and made a waffle bar-

I made a few different types of waffles. He brought the fake moustaches.

In that special way my brother experiences life, he made the best waffle sandwich ever using two different types of waffles, sausage, chocolate sauce, maple syrup, strawberries and whipped cream. The girls were ecstatic.

I love using these waffle recipes. Everything I have made from King Arthur's site and the cookbook I have has been rock solid. The whole grain cookbook has taught me so much. Like using orange juice to help balance the tannic flavors, and other really interesting hints. I keep going back to it.

And now I want to do this all again for Mother's Day! I need to make a chocolate waffle, pronto.

MIEL and helping with a bigger vision

I pre-ordered the most recent issue of 111O, a journal published by the stellar micro-press MIEL, and it was delivered in my mailbox recently. This issue contains a beautiful set of postcards created by different artists—

and words from different writers responding to the images on the back of each card. It was such a pleasing package to receive, unwrap, and read. The whole project is so carefully executed and crafted. There are back issues here of 111O and I can tell you they are just as special as this one. Éireann (half of MIEL) also sells her artwork in this shop, which I continue to love and look at daily—pinned up around the house.

I've been so excited by MIEL's publishing concept since it's started. This is taken from their website:

MIEL was established in 2011 to promote and publish difficult, innovative, intelligent, and deeply felt writing and visual art. We publish poetry, short prose, photographs, and prints in forms that bridge the trade edition and artist's book.

MIEL is hosting a writers retreat this Fall, and have started a fundraiser to help writers travel there and participate. I am jumping up and down cheering, hoping they meet their fundraising goal to make this happen. This wonderful and funny video explains it all, and of course the words below it do, too. Watching and reading about this and imagining the difference it would make in an artist's ife really moves me. This is just the type of thing that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy about artists and the internet and humans in general. I contributed to this fundraiser and had a huge grin on my face the rest of the day.

maui, hawaii

We just got back from the greatest trip. We were on Maui for seven days and it was magical. We studied the history of the islands for about a month before we left, reading everything we could get our hands on and it really made the trip more meaningful for the girls. Especially the shave ice part of Hawaii. There was a whole lot of swimming, snorkeling, and boogie boarding—my back is so much better. The 5-hour airplane ride was ouchy, otherwise I was pretty much normal, which was such a relief. Pete was cracking me up on the plane ride home reading out loud his google search history based on totally random conversations while we were there:

Who was the Three's Company landlord?

Why are there metal bands on palm trees in Maui?

Can you take nail polish on an airplane?

How do you boogie board?

What was the plot of Bosom Buddies?

What do you put on chocolate macadamia nut pancakes?

another t-shirt for poppy

This is another t-shirt I had made for Pete. This one was for his birthday. Like the one I made before, I used CustomInk and was so happy with how it turned out and how fast it shipped. I did feel a little guilty, like before, that I didn't get all DIY on this and burn my own screen, but when I only want one shirt, it's such an easy way to go. I'm sure there are lots of companies that do this, feel free to suggest some others, this is the only one I've used so far. I think there's a local option, but I haven't checked them out yet.

I had the girls each draw something they know Pete likes, so Liddy drew a rocketship, Sadie a guitar, and Delia drew a robot. I scanned them and made them the same size and then uploaded the art to their site. I did convert it to line art first (in Illustrator) so I could change the ink color to white. I wonder it they could do this for you if you don't have a program that does it? I'm not sure.

Then a few clicks and and a few days later it was here and he loves it so much. We spend way too much time thinking about making t-shirts around here, mostly with sentences that are probably only funny to us. I'm sure we will make another for father's day.

the rock n' roll undies workshop is here, now.

Okay, the workshop is now available over at Creativebug. It's part of the subscription, or you can buy it as a single class. And you can watch a little preview right here. Just click on the photo. Woot!

new class at creativebug—rock n' roll undies!

My newest video workshop is almost here over at Creativebug! It will be up Thursday, April 25th. I'm so excited to have this one out there. I'm showing how to make a camisole and undies from an old t-shirt. I did a similar project years ago for BUST magazine and am thrilled to offer this much more detailed how-to. The cool thing is you make the pattern yourself from your own favorite undies and cami—so no worries about trying to guess your size or anything. I hope you all start digging through your old shirts. The larger the t-shirt the better, FYI. When the class is available it will be right here on my instructor page.

And I am super proud and excited to announce that Creativebug is nominated for a Webby award for best Online Film & Video: How-to/DIY this year!

They really deserve to win. You can vote right here. Please vote! Voting closes the end of the day this Thursday, April 25th. I know I say this every time I mention their name, but I just can't tell you how wonderful it is working with these people and how continually impressed I am with the quality of workshops they offer.

tiny printed photos taken from my phone

I've been pretty slow on the tech front the last few years, so I'm sure most you you are already hip to all this—I just got my first smart phone last year (do people even call them smart phones anymore?) and then because it wasn't an iphone, had to wait to use instagram until it was available for android. I am only just now printing these photos, and it's so fun.

Last year all my phone photos I put on my computer and used them in family albums, but this was the first time I had prints made directly from my phone and they are so stinkin' cute and fun to look through and hold. I'm sure there are quite a few different sites out there that sell prints directly from a phone (Right? I didn't really look, but you'd think there would be.) These are from Printsagram and I purchased the mini 2"x 2" size, 48 total prints. I need to find/make a box to store these in. I'm not sure if they will be placed in an album yet, right now they are on rotation on the front-of-the-refrigerator gallery. I should probably get mini-magnets. I think these would be so swell in pasted in sketch books and as little enclosures with gifts. Thrilling!! The girls love them and I think it's such a great format for their for their photos— to tuck in letters and notes and for art projects, I'm told they are practically fairy sized.

homemade wrapping paper

When we were doing the painting for our paper mache a bit back, a whole new project was invented during the clean up—homemade wrapping paper. With the leftover paint and the scrap newspaper dozens of wrapping paper sheets were made. They left them out to dry, which took up a lot of room. On a nice day, drying outside was better, but I neglected to weigh them down with rocks, so then there was a chasing-painted-newspaper-around-the-yard fiasco. The papers got rolled up tight after they dried and are used for wrapping gifts and other crafts. They really are pretty. I love the modern two-color one here.

I finished Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore (a quick read—not too deep character-wise but very entertaining) and am now reading The Snow Child. Thank you again for that amazing list and even more book suggestions in the comments of that post.

A big thank you so much for all your Facial and Perfume Oil orders. I just got a big batch of them. Alicia, you rock. I am working hard to get them out the door. Right now it's taking me about 4 days to fill the orders—thanks so much for your patience. Also, for those of you that have ordered Facial Oils in the past, I now use a cap on the bottles and suggest you keep your dropper out of the oil for storage, because some of the rubber droppers have broken down over time making a sticky mess. If your dropper ever starts to look funny, take it out and let me know, I will send you a new one.

The bombings in Boston are so shocking and horrible, I'm not even sure what to say about it. But I have to say something. I am sending healing thoughts to everyone in pain there, especially when I meditate. This short video has helped me focus. I really appreciate Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and his books and teachings.