Monster Town

Crafters Needed for the Handcar Regatta!

2008-08-07T07:47:00.000-07:00

I have been hard at work, helping to plan the first annual Great West End and Railroad Square Handcar Regatta and Exhibition of Mechanical and Artistic Wonders. A new festival in Santa Rosa that will have kinetic sculpture races on the railroad tracks, music all day, art, costumes, fun, sideshows, food and all kind of things.

There is also a craft show as part of it. We have several amazing crafters signed up already, like honeylux, treatzone, atelier choklit, Sarah Dungan and many others. We're also sponsored in part by Make and Craft magazines, which is very exciting.

We are still looking for participants. The vendor fee is $65 and we can provide a white pop up canopy if you don't have one of your own.

You can get the necessary forms here. And if you have questions you can email me.

And please spread the word on blogs or however to all of your crafty friends.

the garden in june

2008-06-18T11:53:00.000-07:00

artichoke gone to flower

figs are coming in

santa rosa plums ripening

zucchini

mix of lettuces

We have been busy in the garden, there is lots of work to be done.

We lost a lot of plants in the heat wave, and due to my stingy ways with water.

Our main veggie patch is two strips that are 3 feet wide by about 20 feet long. This is the area where the previous owners of the house grew their veggies too. The soil is lovely, but the only thing is that it is a bit too shady for optimum veggie growth, due to the two plum trees and the fig tree.

We have planted

10 different kinds of heirloom tomato
12 pepper plants (that aren't doing too well)
farmer's market blend of cut and come again lettuces
6 heads of romaine
6 heads of grand rapids lettuce
zucchini
pumpkin
spaghetti squash
butternut squash
2 kinds of cucumber
bright lights chard
2 kinds of corn
carrots
3 kinds of beets
kentucky wonder pole beans
dwarf italian bush beans
dragon tongue beans

reworking my store

2008-03-31T11:47:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a new version of my vintage store, Appleseed Vintage. I'm hoping that I will be able to make it look and function the way that I want it to. It will probably be a week or so before it's done, but it's been a long time coming.

I'm starting with freshening up the logo. And I'm switching it over to big cartel, because I don't really want to mess around with web design and a shopping cart and everything and big cartel has the clean and simple look that I am shooting for.

I have let the store languish unattended for far too long, and I have so much wonderful inventory to share.

peek!

2008-03-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

Hi. I have been working busily on the house and garden, and mothering my kids and trying to come up with more steady streams of income, more befitting a homeowner with a million expensive projects. I got a part time job, working at Ray Modern, and I love it. Those Kartell ghost chairs are more comfortable than you would think.

We made it through winter with no illnesses more serious than the flu. Oh and my friend Heidi and I got a grant from the Arts District Downtown Santa Rosa for a fun public art project that we proposed.

In not so good news, I have completely lost access to my flickr account due to computer troubles. I can't for the life of me remember my yahoo ID and so I can't sign in. I tried the prompting help things but I must have used a made up birthday or something and I just can't remember. Sigh. So now I have to start all over again. I have been a member of flickr since the start. I'm very sad about losing all of my contacts and photos.

happy new year!

2007-12-31T19:56:00.000-08:00

I hope that you all have the happiest of new years. I'm very eager to get started on 2008, just as soon as I get a full night of sleep and maybe a back massage.

It's been a busy and tiring month. We had two weeks of working on the house alongside Scott's folks, who worked like champs and really moved us along, and fed the whole crew each day to boot! Scott's Aunt and Uncle even drove 6 hours down to help us for a few days. It was really nice to get started on the house with family.

We primed and painted all of the bedrooms and the hallway. We pulled up the rust colored carpet and pads and found lovely wide plank oak floors underneath. We installed a tankless water heater to replace the existing one from 1971, and we updated some of the original electrical system of the house. And we put washer and dryer hook ups in the garage and installed a gas stove in the kitchen. Oh, and we demolished the wall between the kitchen and living room and removed the kitchen cabinet doors and shelves to get started on sanding, priming, and painting them. And then we started moving our things in.

We knew before hand that we have an overwhelming amount of posessions, but jeez louise, it is truly unbelievable. It took us a full two weeks, working every day, to move out of that house and clean it. We rented a truck two times. It was really disheartening to both of us, and now our pretty new house has a garage and carport piled high with boxes and furniture that won't fit in the house!

We had a big house full of things, a shed full of things, my studio with all of my paintings and art supplies and fabric stash and paper collection, and then my vintage store and ebay inventory, which is a lot bigger than I thought! ( I should have a sale!) And we had Scott's workshop full of tools and projects. I think we might literally have a million things!

We hope to get rid of 60% of what we have currently and really only keep things we need and truly love and respect.

But that's a job for 2008! We're ringing in the new year very quietly. I have a cold, and am curled up on the couch with tea and a blanket. We ordered pizza for dinner and we're going to play Mario Galaxy and maybe some bowling on the Wii. I'm hoping to be in bed before 10pm!

house painting

2007-11-27T12:44:00.000-08:00

new house photos

2007-11-21T08:04:00.000-08:00

Every time that we drag our realtor over to unlock our new house for us ...again, we get so excited that we forget to take photos. Scott said he thinks we have taken our worst house photos ever of the place.

But we finally got some pretty good ones. These are sort of reference photos for us as we think of the work ahead. As you will see in the photos, there is a lot of stuff left on the property. Lots of cans and jars of mysterious toxic fluids, lots of wood and tools and just junk. But we are fine with it. A few days of clean up, several trips to the dump. We expect we will find some really neat things too.

Here's a link to Scott's photos.

we're buying a house!

2007-11-06T07:40:00.000-08:00

I still can't believe it's actually happening, but we are buying a house. They accepted our offer on Sunday night, and now things are moving forward! It's a little bungalow with three bedrooms and a huge beautiful yard with lots of fruit trees and room to garden and play and it also has a greenhouse!

It needs a lot of work, but I think it's going to be great for us.

Since I will now be in full on house obsession mode, I am starting a new blog about houses. More details soon.

happy halloween

2007-10-30T12:08:00.000-07:00

z's costume
s's costume by day
and by night....he is a painting with moving eyeballs

i like this

2007-10-22T09:20:00.000-07:00

open studios is fast approaching

2007-10-05T10:01:00.000-07:00

I'm working on new paintings and gathering strength for open studios. It's my favorite event of the year. I'll be exhibiting again at Compound 21 on the corner of 21st and Harrison. October 20-21 from 11 am - 6 pm.

This year's participating artists (as far as I know ) will be:
Mati McDonough
Hugh D'Andrade
Tania Ketenjian
Susannah Bettag
Heidi Iverson
Will McCollum
and me

maude show photos

2007-09-12T16:45:00.001-07:00

DSC_0333.jpg, originally uploaded by ScottyJ.

Scott took this lovely series of photos of the show. I asked him to shoot it before it got dark, so these were actually taken before people showed up to see it.

If you want to, you can see the rest of the photos here.

many thanks

2007-09-09T20:55:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much to everyone who came down to see the opening on Saturday evening. And a great big thank you to Jess and Stacy from Maude.

whirlwind

2007-09-07T21:09:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy and exciting couple of days! We're looking at houses and thinking about houses and talking about houses. And then back to school nights for the kids and finishing, framing and hanging the show, and orthodontist appointments and just lots going on.

Also, I broke the lcd on my camera. Frackersnappit!!! It was on the tripod and I guess the legs were wonky and I spun around and my camera fell and smashed a really cool ironstone pitcher and the lcd screen broke.

I hung the show at Maude this evening and it looks good. Jess and Stacy were really positive about it, so I feel less nervous than I sometimes do!

I hope to see you there tomorrow evening from 5:30-7:30. There's a show at Boomerang the same night that looks to be really cool so you can take in two shows.

feltmaking classes

2007-09-05T10:38:00.001-07:00

I am going to be offering two feltmaking workshops in September. Tentatively scheduled for September 22 and 29. Students will learn the fundamentals of soap and water feltmaking. We'll make a flat felt project and a resist project. With those two techniques in your pocket you can make everything from scarves and rugs to pouches, bags, seamless slippers and hats.

The class will be 4 hours long and includes materials and a light lunch in a beautiful garden setting in Santa Rosa. Cost of the workshop is $60. If you are interested, you can send me an email using that pretty little button there on the side that says email me.

Later I will teach an advanced class and a needlefelting class, and maybe one for kids because kids love making felt and it's really fun to do classes with kids!

Yeti Loves Seamonster

2007-09-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

I have joined in with a new project called Yeti Loves Seamonster, it focuses on etsy sellers who make things for kids. There is a blog and there will be artist made coloring pages for download. I'm going to work on mine after my show.

Look at this cute thing, and this one!

finishing up

2007-09-04T08:29:00.000-07:00

I'm finishing up work on my show. Framing, editing out pieces and seeing where I have gaps andwhere I need different pieces. I'm out of practice. But I am loving the long hours of studio time and I'm trying to figure out how to organize myself so that I can do more art work, spend more time and really say the things that I'm trying to say.

I sent out a mailing through my email newsletter last night. If you are on the list and didn't get it, just let me know, and if you're not on the list, you can sign up here.

boys and girls

2007-08-31T10:25:00.000-07:00

more bowie goodness on merlin mann's kungfugrippe
Today i'm listening to early Bowie while I'm working.

And for girls...check out these beautiful bicycles. I think I love this one.

and here's life on mars, just because it's so good.

maude show details

2007-08-31T09:13:00.000-07:00

I used up all of my printer's ink making pretty cards for the Maude show. They are supposed to be blue, but the last ten or so came out pink! Oh well.

The opening is Saturday, September 8 from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m at Maude.
133 1/2 Kentucky St. Suite F
Petaluma, CA

I have lots of new paintings, and if all goes well I will have some new prints too. I really hope that you will be able to make it.

making things helps too

2007-08-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

My friend Spring dropped by with a need and an idea for an artsy new accessory for an upcoming event that she's attending. I used to teach feltmaking, and when she told me her idea, I got out the wool and showed her what to do, and we made a very cool merino felt collar.

95 degree August weather maybe isn't the best for feltmaking, but it was worth it.

Maybe after my show I'll make a feltmaking tutorial. It's really so much fun and it's not hard.crazy bright roving, all laid out
hot water and soap
Spring, fulling the scarf on a washboard
She even let me take a photo of her in the finished product. Well, almost finished, just needs a button.

you know what helps?

2007-08-30T09:47:00.000-07:00

so on a morning where you are rushing to get the kids off to school and feeling overwhelmed with work and lack of money and you accidentally start a small fire in your kitchen before you have even had tea, it helps to play old beastie boys really loudly after everyone is gone.

"got a peg leg at the end of my stump-a....."

that is all.

new tags for etsy items

2007-08-29T11:48:00.000-07:00

I made these tags yesterday for my t-shirts and other items. I screenprinted an all over design on some heavy paper from SCRAP, and cut it into strips, punched a hole and voila! tags!

printed peels?

2007-08-29T11:37:00.001-07:00

I keep a little bowl on the counter for vegetable scraps and things that go out to the compost. I noticed these peels from an asian pear (from our tree), and they looked as though they head been printed with beautiful dark stripes, like in an engraving.

Pretty, don't you think?

first day of school

2007-08-29T11:33:00.000-07:00

My daughter started school today. Her first day in a new school. My son started last week at a different school because he is in 8th grade now! (eep!). This is their first time going to school five days a week. I homeschooled them for the first several years and then they went to a part time school, part time homeschool program. Big changes for all of us.

Here's Z with a happy face on. She woke up so eager and excited today. I hope she feels the same way when I pick her up this afternoon.

sewing

2007-08-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

I've been having fun sewing lately. I'm making lots of these little crayon roll ups for kids.