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June 29, 2005
...a beastly long blog of renegade treats...
Here are all my Renegrade Craft Fair treats. As I was taking pictures I realized how much I bought. Many things for me and not much for anyone else.
This skirt I have been drooling over for about two years and I couldn't be more happy about it! Jesse from Amet and Sasha makes amazing things.
Look at this beautiful little extra with the contrast stitching!!
I got some super cute shirts from Alison Rose. Her shop is down right now, because she has been to quite a few craft shows. You can check out her journal while you wait for them to come back.
This one I got for the Boy.
This one I think is going to be a gift for a birthday in the fall.
These beautiful silk screen cards that are made by Julie are fantastic. The are bold and colorful, but still really simple. Love them!! Her site etui is excellent.
Heidi from My Paper Crane was super cute with her awesome pink hair. I was very excited to buy things from her. She is famous, at least for me that is!! The block is for me, I LOOVE the tree girl. And the cupcake is for a way past due birthday present.
I have to say I am really really in love with my new necklace. And I found this amazing one from Sprout. All of her things are amazing, but I fell in love with the little owl. Just splendid.
(You are so close to the end. - don't give up now!)
I wasn't sure that I would like the Damned Dollies, but as soon as I passed the table I knew differently. These dolls have tons of spunk and sass loaded into there little faces. Plus this girl is green! No question!
I got a great journal from If'n Books. I love the little birds on the back sitting in the tree. I got mine with graph paper. Like math class in grade school.
And last but certainly not least Stella at momomoggie. I got this wonderful print.
And one of her really cute felt patches. I can't seem to find it at the moment, but trust me it is sweet. Johanna and I camped out by a tree near her table a couple of times because it was so crazy hot. I mean really crazy hot. Some people were melting. Well thanks for making it through this post, I know it was long. But all of the people at the fair had amazing things. I hope to be there as a vendor next year!!
Posted by wendy at 07:27 PM | Comments (4)
June 24, 2005
...hot fun in the city...
This weekend is going to be full of fun!! I can't wait. I am going to the Renegade Craft Fair Saturday and buy tons of things. I figure I can start some major gift buying, (so it doesn't all have to be for me, because I pretty much want everything). It is going to be fantastic. I have a list of vendors that I must buy from. Then there are other vendors that didn't have websites or they were closed to get ready for the fair. I think it will be really exciting to meet all of these people who just live out there in the web world.
A couple of weeks ago I went on location at work. We were painting in the Plaza Hotel, which they are closing for renovations and opening in a couple of years to have long term apartments as well as a limited number of hotel rooms. It was really weird in there. Like the Shinning, but people were totally trying to buy a piece of it. Sometimes not even buying just stealing. We were shooting in the presidential suite and someone had kicked down the door to get in and pilfer. Vultures had descended onto the hotel. They were selling everything. Uniforms, towels. I was on the higher floors where they didn't allow the regular folks to go but Christies was there tagging things they were going to auction off later. I brought the Holga and got some really interesting shots. Some of them didn't really turn out because it was super dark. But there was a room of hangers (that shot didn't turn out) - literally a pile of hangers taller than me-, and a room where the bed was totally pulled out from the wall (trying to see if the printers can make that happen). Scary and weird. The view of Central Park was to die for (those pictures turned out). It was storming that afternoon, so hopefully the ones with the heavy clouds will translate in the photograph.
Posted by wendy at 07:25 PM | Comments (4)
June 23, 2005
...the web & stars...
Actually Cafe Habana is on 17 Prince Street. Delicious corn on the cob. I forgot to say that we saw Danny Masterson from That 70's show sporting an awesome beard. (He was getting takeaway too)
While Aiko was here we also shopped. We went to The Market NYC, which is open, Saturday and Sunday on Mulberry Street. She bought this great jacket from Mia Kim. The style is like the renaissance variety, but the neckline is more open and the jacket is short. I love the great bell sleeves.
I love the art of this guy, but his website is lacking. Something about enlarging a sketch from a matchbook is fantastic. It is delicate and sweet and at the same time you are a bit taken a back because the size is off. Something about it works, I only wish the site worked.
The night we went to Gray's Papaya there was a guy across the street with a big telescope. He is out around the city, not peeping into apartments like J thought, but rather looking at stars. Pretty cool since you don't see many stars here in the city. The city at night gets a gray glow. It never gets dark, just murky gray.
Actually kind of a glowy gray. One of the first places I lived when I moved out here was a residence where you just rented a room, so my room was really really small. It had pretty much only room for a twin bed and a tiny desk. In the summer I was dying. I couldn't handle the heat and the stickiness. It was awful. I was hot all the time and at night it didn't cool down and there was nowhere for me to go. So I would take my pillow and blanket with a sheet and walk up to the roof of the building. I was on the top floor, so I would just sneak out at night. I am sure it wasn't allowed, but I figured if I didn't ask I didn't know. So I would sleep under the stars, but never would see them. It was actually really fun, probably a bit dangerous, but exciting nonetheless. Plus I could sleep. I couldn't sleep in my room, because there was one tiny window with no circulation. It was my only choice. By the end of the summer I found an apartment and the first thing I put in was an air conditioner. But those months on the roof were great. Something about hearing really hearing the city go to sleep was peaceful?!
At work we were talking about the new Guy Van Sant movie Last Day about Kurt Cobain. I found this amazing French website with great flash. The image moves around with you mouse. It is weirdly beautiful.
Everything from the Tirade post looks fantastic! I bought a book from this guy. My In-laws are going to be excited. I want this one too! And this one.
Posted by wendy at 08:11 AM | Comments (1)
June 21, 2005
...dreaming of eating...
Aiko came into town and I can't believe how much we ate. I even had a dream about it!! (We were trying to escape from these soldiers and we stopped in a village and ate. Then the soldiers caught up and we had to escape again.) It totally had to do with the day before when we began eating at 2pm and then pretty much kept eating until 10pm that night. We met up with another friend J. Aiko and J were planning the next place we would eat while we were still eating!! Aiko and I started with hamburgers and fries. Then we went to Cafe Habana on Elizabeth and J got some really yummy corn on the cob. Then we got pizza, and went to Economy Candy right before it closed. We got some take away from Whole Foods. I couldn't even keep up with them. They ended the day with three hot dogs each at Gray's Papaya. I could only do one. Hence the dream including stopping to eat...
It has been pretty quite at work. So I have been working on some paintings that have been on my mind. The Boy is letting me borrow his ipod and I love it. It totally creates great images. I am sketching like crazy. The one below doesn't really come from any songs, but rather with my infatuation with garden labyrinths. I love them, the secrets they can hold. I feel like she is of both the earth and the sky and they are competing for her. I don't really know, but I love her crown of vines.
My favorite bands is Over the Rhine. They have amazing songs, and a new album Drunkard’s Prayer. Linford's lyrics are marvelous! Karin's voice has so much emotion, it hurts. I first their song "Latter Days" (from Good Dog Bad Dog) on Felicity. The first lines of the song are:
"what a beautiful piece of heartache, this has all turned out to be..."
It's hits me like an arrow.
J.J. Abrams has some really amazing taste in music. You can hear it in all of his shows - Felicity, Alias, and now Lost.
Posted by wendy at 08:41 PM | Comments (3)
June 16, 2005
...lucky and inspired...
I feel like the luckiest girl around. I totally splurged and had to dip into my renegade craft fair funds, but I not only bought one of tamar’s great birds I emailed her how much I loved the forest girl and she had one. So I have two now!!
Love, love, looove them. It didn’t really dawn on me that I could indeed get one, until Martha over at naïve kitting got one of the lovely penguins! I live in New York, but it took someone visiting to realize that they are indeed real! I met Tamar yesterday afternoon and she gave me Lily (named by one of her co-workers). She is really great and said she is excited because she has been getting tons of requests (from all of us internet folk)!!
They are really really beautiful. I am totally in love. Plus it is inspiring my new robots. I have one more in the works for the Schmancy event, originally her name way May (trying to make it for month of softies, to no avail), but she has become a very sassy Maude.
I am sort of in love with her. Maude has some little petals coming out of her head, and I have a leaf guy all drawn out (inspired by Lily and a beautiful bag I saw on the Subway on my way to work in the morning). I have tons of ideas to incorporate more earth into the robots. Sort of a nature meets machine, through felt. My brain is really excited about the whole thing!!
A little background on the robots themselves. I am working without a pattern and everything is hand sewn. No really, all by hand. It is a great way to keep my hands occupied when I watch smutty television, which is about whenever I can. I grew up as an only child latchkey kid, so I would turn on the TV as soon as I got home (of course I did my homework with the TV on I mean off?! –pah), so I am sort of addicted to it. But the hand sewing is great because it is silent!! (Perfect for not missing any of Seth’s sly comebacks or Lorelai and Rory super quick and informed banter.)
KC is here and she is not melting!! Little does she know what it was like the day before she came into town!
Posted by wendy at 09:05 PM | Comments (3)
June 11, 2005
...my birth day...
Today I was born!! And I am now the big 3-oh. Ooo.
A fun thing I did when I was 29. I shaved my head. It was hot, summer and I needed a major change! Major. I loved it. I have a great spiral on the right side of my head. Which explains why I could never get the perfect smooth ponytail. (Like all the cool girls had.) How I always wanted that smooth ponytail. No matter what I tried, it would be messy and SO not smooth. Otherwise I have a pretty nice shaped head. AND the awesome spiral. I realized after I shaved my head that I am a twirler. I twirl my hair, ALL the time. So instead of twirling I would run my finger over the spiral. (It wasn't quite the same, but I had that fuzzy soft hair thing for awhile.)
Birthday plans!
I am going to my favorite diner for breakfast.
Then the Boy and I are going shopping.
I want to buy things just for myself. Things that I don't need, only things that I want. It is going to be so much fun! I can't wait.
I also want to go to the Mocca Art Fest.
Then we are going to this super great restaurant in our neighborhood called Lil Bistro 33. Our first night in the new apartment we went here for dinner. The food is fantastic. The space is tiny and amazing. I love it and the Boy will use any excuse to go. My birthday is a good excuse.
Happy Birthday to Me!
Posted by wendy at 09:11 AM | Comments (2)
June 09, 2005
...mad hot...
Mad Hot Ballroom is the most amazing movie I have seen in awhile. I think it is only in limited release right now. But it is wonderful. You cannot help but fall in love with these kids. They are amazing. There is no manipulation, but there is truth. The truth of their desires for the future. A future that is more thought out then I ever had at 10 years old!
The things that they say are crazy and funny and sweet and important. Very important. I have no ideas how to ask theaters to show the movie but if it is not near you, do what you can. Even beg and plead.
Here are two trailers from apple. One. Two. There are also trailers and clips on the main site! If you get a chance to see it you will not be disappointed.
Happy Birthday Johanna!
Posted by wendy at 07:19 AM | Comments (0)
June 08, 2005
...georgi robot...
Robot number two is done and finished. His name is Georgi and he tinkers. With everything. He likes to be able to fix things and know how they work. But sometimes when he puts it all back together he is left with pieces. So he collects them and makes beautiful wind chimes.
You must check out Catia Chien. Her work is amazing and soft with great lines and emotion. I found her from the equally amazing Jamie Zollars. Jamie is also participating in the softie event at Schmancy in August. If you are going to be in Seattle in August there will be great softies from all over the world.
Here is a full body shot of Georgi. He is about half the size of Felix.
Posted by wendy at 07:13 AM | Comments (1)
June 04, 2005
...looking really looking...
I haven't thought like a photographer for a while. Years in fact. I mean I'll have moments when I wish I had my camera with me, but those are the smack you in the face kind of moments. The kind where everyone wishes they had a camera with them. But ever since I got my Holga things have changed. I am looking. I am seeing the little moments. I don't know if I am capturing them, but I am seeing them. And since I have the Holga with me I live those moments. I have a pretty shoddy memory, but if I see something visually whether it is a picture or a place. I can be back in that moment. I can remember the essence of the event.
But thinking with a photograph in mind is pleasurable. I look at all the small moments and relish them. Also knowing that there are problems with the Holga. I don't make any value judgments. Like today I was riding in the train and the conductor was in my car. He had the door open and we were outside and he was watching everything pass outside his window. It was really beautiful so I thought I should remember to take a picture of that. Then I remembered I had my camera, but I just needed to load the film. I did it, missed my stop, but then walked home and took the rest of the film. And old lady saying hello the flower store cat. I tree filled with birdhouses. A cool alleyway. But I never would have seen those things if I didn't stop to look.
Posted by wendy at 06:16 PM | Comments (2)
June 02, 2005
...holga day one...
Here is my first try with the Holga. I was just pushing down the leaver as I walked to the train, but things didn't turn out half bad for going at it blindly. I just got a contact sheet printed because I really am surprised that anything turned out. I wasn't sure how far to forward the film so I over compensated. A couple of shots were way to dark and others were way to light. I love the vignette.
Posted by wendy at 10:05 AM | Comments (4)
June 01, 2005
...first try...
I took my first roll of film with the Holga camera. I don’t have any idea how it will turn out. The Holga camera is a toy camera totally plastic notorious for vignette, flare, light leaks. I just randomly took the photos. Just to see what would happen. I’ll get the film developed today and hopefully I will have something to show for it. We’ll see....
I love to steal photos and the Holga feels like a shoot from the hip kind of camera. I have little notes in my journal when I see something that I really love. Something that I think should be photographed. My dad will be so proud because although I am doing something related to my degree (BS in Art & Design with a Photography Concentration) I am not technically working with camera so much as paint. Here is someone that used the Holga masterfully. These photos of Italy by Craig Sterling are amazing. I a super grateful for Randy and his Holga Mods!
Posted by wendy at 07:08 AM | Comments (0)