off again..

i'm off to new orleans bright and early tomorrow morning! i'll be volunteering with habitat for humanity and visiting with an old friend i haven't seen in ages. i can't wait to explore that city and all it's delicious sounding food. not sure what kind of online time i'll have (or if i'll even want it) but i'll be back in a week.

oh and i finished No One Belongs Here More Than You on my way back from chicago- it was a good read. pretty intense, she drills right into the innards of people and it's easy to get pulled in, would definitely recommend it. now i'm onto Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and i'm loving the beautiful prose.

xo

i'm on crafty pod!

i have long been a fan of diane's great podcasts (and her crafts, and blog, and general all around kindness) so i was totally honored when she asked to interview me for crafty pod. as much as i felt like i fumbled my way through it she made me sound a lot smarter than i felt that day. The podcast is all about publishing a craft book and you can listen to it here. Thanks Diane! That was great fun.

bowling back in time

chicago was great fun. my legs are still sore from dancing at the wedding and it felt like i was gone a lot longer than 4 days. one night we went looking for something to do near where we were staying. the guy at the front desk led us to this cheesy outdoor beerfest, we walked through it and turned the corner convinced there would be the perfect dive bar near by. and then we stumbled upon a pink neon sign that read 'bowling' yes! we would bowl!


but this bowling alley was like none we had seen before. perfectly preserved from the late 70's, manual scores were kept and after i had one too many beers i let rana and chip do the score keeping. we played three games, i could have stayed for another. it was beautiful in there.

required reading

thank you all so much for your reading suggestions! some i've read, but a lot i haven't and i'm so excited to have a nice big list to pick from. i thought i'd post it here with links for everyone. i've decided that i'll try to read at least 6 book from this list in the next 6 months. i'll let you know what i'm reading and how i liked it as i make my way through!

i was all ready to bring Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace with me on my trip because his recent passing made me sad i wasn't more familiar with his work and i've long wanted to read one of his books, but i couldn't find it at either of my local bookstores (i like supporting my indies!) so i'll have to read that one next. thanks for the suggestion Cathy. i am bringing No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July because i agree with Jennifer that this one seems like a quick plane read and i think Miranda July is pretty fantastic.

image from a short she made for her book, you can watch it here. i bought a green one, and incidently i'll be wearing a green shirt on the plane!

BOOKS
Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin
A Trip to the Stars by Nicholas Christopher
Miss Garnet's Angel by Sally Vickers
The Love Artist by Jane Allison
M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin and Haimish MacBeth series
Elizabeth Peters Vicky Bliss mysteries
Yes Man by Danny Wallace
Are you There Vodka? It's me Chelsea by Chelsea Lately
Necklace of Kisses by Francesca Lia Block
Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
Extremely loud and Incredibly Close
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
the poisonwood bible by barbara kingsolver
No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
In the Freud Archives by Janet Malcolm
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Zippy by Haven Kimmel
Margherita Dolce Vita by Stefano Benni
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace

AUTHORS
lorrie moore
sherman alexie (one of my all time favorites!)
haruki murakami
sarah vowell

floors you can eat off of (and eat)

my roomate just started eating meat after 12 years of being veggie and we've been talking a lot about the wonders of meat the past couple of nights. i was a veggie for 14 years before i went back and man am i happy to be a carnivore again. so i was pretty delighted when i saw these meat floors on Craft created by Wim Delvoye. That's some serious time and i bet he had some pretty greasy meat hands when he was done.

help! i need a book!

there are a million books i want to read but you know when you go into a record store and your mind goes blank because there are so many different albums you want to buy you can't remember any of them? i need a book for my flight to chicago on friday morning tell me what to read!!!

wee ones.

i like kids. i actually think i would make a pretty good parent, but i don't often feel the yearning to make them. maybe it's because i'm not currently in a relationship and i wouldn't have kids alone. when i'm in a store and i hear a child screaming my uterus retreats. but when i see the little ones of those i love, especially the ones who are related to me, i get it. they're perfect. not stranger's kids, but kids of people i really like. i want to squeeze their babies and hang out with them and read to them and talk to them and watch as they grow and turn into little people. i swear my niece and nephew are the reason i'll eventually move back east, i'd like to be a part of their little lives before they get too grown up and don't care about their old aunt.

my friend sent me these pictures of her twins. these two girls are perfect and lovely and it's been so cool to see them as they grow into who they are going to be. twins yes, but they couldn't be more different. and while the words in the photos may simplify things a bit, it sort of nails it too.

motoring.

i was woken up at the ungodly hour of 5am this morning by my phone ringing, it was my brother and since he didn't call back after i ignored his call i figured it wasn't an emergency and since he's 3 hours ahead sometimes this happens. but i was surprised at how long it was before the voice mail beep went off. there are a lot of songs that remind my brother and i of each other, a result of too much time spent in front of MTV and our parents record player growing up. the reason he called so early, knowing he might wake me up but not caring, was because he heard Sister Christian on the radio which always reminds him of me. i'm a little homesick so don't laugh when i tell you i teared up a little when he held his phone to the radio and let it play for a solid minute before hanging up. in any case i'm certain this will be in my head all day but i highly recommend clicking this link to watch this sweet Night Ranger video it's kind of worth it.

what do you make?

One of our authors at work made the sweet video below called “17 Things I Made“, which highlights just that. During the film she invites viewers to come meet her at Millennium Park in Chicago on 8/08/08 at 8:08 PM. Have a look:



Amy had no idea how big or small the turn out would be and was quite shocked when hundreds of people showed up to meet her and become a part of this sweet experiment. ‘The Beckoning of Lovely‘ is the resulting film which recorded the gathering. It’s a little bit longer but well worth the 7 minutes it takes to view. I posted it over on the work blog. Amy's now working on a feature length film and has put a call out for people to send her something they made, anything. For more info check out her her site. Pretty neat.

netflix oragami

neat idea. instructions to make oragami with your netflix envelopes here. seen via swiss miss.

etsy love

it had been a little while since my last purchase so i was itching to do a little shopping on etsy. i visited one of my favorite shops rag trader (introduced to me of course by JJ) and bought these sweet little pieces:



that wing ring looks pretty perfect next to my turquoise ring, and i love seeing it all day while i type away on my computer. it makes me happy.

she's got loads more in her shop and the prices are so reasonable. i won't be mad if you get the same thing as me either.

See it!

I've posted about Margaret Kilgallen and the movie Beautiful Losers here before and I was thrilled to finally see it this weekend at the Lumiere. It's only in town until this Friday so get your ticket and see it quick! !!

more old friends.. more wallets.

vinyl seems to hold up better than the duct tape.


of course nathan had heard this song and started singing it when he saw chip's wallet.


cara's wallet. this once was a really neat detail of a map.


i love seeing what people stick inside their wallets. i've got some work cut out for me this weekend.... chip's wallet is fine but Cara wants a replacement. maybe i'll try that reclaimed billboard material i have so much of.

western spaghetti

this Pes film is delightful. i can't decide which is my favorite the yarn cheese or the tomatoes!

stand by me, chuck klosterman

one of my favorite movies growing up was Stand By Me. i loved everything about it and watched it on a regular basis.


i caught the last half of it on tv the other day, and while it didn't move me as much as it did when i was young i couldn't help but notice Chuck Klosterman looks an awful lot like Corey Feldman did in that movie, no?



and whatever happened to that Wil Wheaton? Has he been in a lot and i just haven't recognized him?


oh and River Phoenix.. I bet you'd be making good movies still.

crafting again!

it's felt like a little while since i've done any serious making so it was good to spend my monday off working on projects. i was inspired by the fantastic fabric sale going on at Whiz Bang -- $5 and $10 yards until Friday 9/5-- and I've been wanting to make new curtains for the craft room for a while now. I went for a log cabin feel and bought what Helen had left of that great dark wood grain, and some sweet woodland like fabrics to match for pillows.

Here's my before:



and after (i didn't get the best after pics, but you get the idea):



it's a lot darker and cozier than before, the sun still streams in through the dark grain during the day, but it feels warmer to me and just right heading in to the Fall.. you know when it gets hotter in San Francisco? i also feel like maybe the walls need painting to match the darker, cozier feel i'm going for.



Here's some details of the other fabrics.



Jack seems to be happy with the change too.

more east bay love..

who knows when summer really ends and begins here in SF but sarah and i pretended that this weekend was the last real summer one and went to lake temescal again. it was lovely.


and after some scrabble at Kitty's.

i've got to say i'm a big fan of the east bay these days. it's warmer, calmer, and less windy than the city. if i had a car and lots o' money i'd get me a pretty place there.