today i am running away to the U-P (michigan’s upper peninsula) for the weekend. it will be a weekend of rock picking on lake superior’s shore and reading in the gazebo (i’m bringing binnie kirshenbaum’s history on a personal note). i will be avoiding the interwebs as much as possible, and enjoying a slow — but quick — weekend getaway.

i made my hosts a mobile with drift wood picked from the shore during a previous visit — you’ve seen it all before, but i never get tired of the circles…

happy (and safe) holiday weekend!

i’ve put some wires t’s in my etsy shop. for now, i’ve only got women’s, and they are made to order… i don’t want to make the mistake of buying a ton of t shirts and then having no sales, so production may take up to 10 days. colors for this particular design are red, gray, and black. men’s t’s to be added in the next week or so. get them here!

the tenth of twelve polaroid collaborations between me and the fabulous jen of scissors.paper.glue. we alternate picking a word, and on the last day of the month we each share our polaroid interpretation of that word.

june’s word was summer.

jen: the edge of summer.

me: toes in the grass. toes in the sand. toes in the water. my toes love summer.

(seriously, we have no idea what the other is taking a picture of until the last day of the month. the similarities between our shots over the last 10 months is wacky… )

this is just so dang awesome: smoking nurse handpainted mug from etsy seller house of harriet.

i went to an office supply store last friday afternoon to get some envelopes, and while there i realized i needed to do more printing on everything i could get my hands on. clipboards, binders, tags, envelopes… so i did some printing this weekend and created some packaging for the wires t’s. they should be in the shop before the end of the week!

this is the journal i made in lawrence, with jackie & melinda, during our friday and saturday night pARTies. i picked up the paper at bomo (bohemian modern), a boutique on mass street that aimee knew i’d love. i think this journal i’ll keep for myself.

the trip was so much fun, and i hope to do it again next year! the friendships that got me in the car for an 8 hour drive are more meaningful now that we’ve met in person. i’m a lucky girl (who’s short on words today). thanks so much aimee, jackie, melinda!

happy weekend!

friday

friday night pARTy. the pictures taken after this shot? not good.

saturday

fabric shopping with melinda at sarah’s.

pouring soap at aimee’s.

bouquet for aimee from melinda.

soaps!

lip balms!

aimee’s.

sewing the coptic bound journals. before wine consumption.

i didn’t take many pictures on sunday, the day i left. i think it’s because i really didn’t want to document my departure.

thursday

wind turbines in iowa. i think they’re beautiful.

first photo on massachusetts street.

friday

aimee and i walked with birdiegirl to the kansas university campus.
this is patrick dougherty’s stickwork project.

pink bathroom at the spencer museum of art.

lunch at in•gre•di•ent.

joe’s bakery is no more.

jensen’s: the aisles were about 2 feet wide. there’s no order to the wine rack.
and i loved it.

melinda and jackie picking paper for our coptic journal pARTy.

more photos tomorrow…

on saturday, aimee hosted a pARTy at her house, and invited her creative and fabulous kansas friends. one of those fabulous friends is heather smith jones, and while her name was so familiar to me, i, well, i wasn’t up-to-speed on her work. i had the opportunity to chat a little with her, but i was busy making soaps and lip balms, and frankly, a bit hung over, and feeling a little introverted,  so my interaction with heather was minimal. dammit! because now that i’m home i’ve been to her etsy shop. i love everything within.

yesterday heather and i exchanged emails, confessing our shyness. she realizing that i might know other people in the twin cities that she knows, me realizing that her work really rocks and she’s someone i’d like to know better. so we’ll work on that a bit, and maybe next time i’m in lawrence, we’ll have more to say to each other.

back to the shop: i am in awe of heather’s work. and loving this piece: i fell down and broke but then you picked me up (pictured above). and the letterpress pieces… swoon-worthy.

i am back home, after traveling to lawrence for a long weekend. i am still overwhelmed by it all: meeting aimee, jackie, and melinda… exploring lawrence/mass street/spotting the local crazies… driving for hours… waking up groggy at the crack of dawn (damn internal body clock demanding i rise with the sun) after lots of wine… making new friends… eating, eating, eating… getting teary when leaving…

i need a few days to download my photos and get my bearings. until then, you can read aimee’s post about our saturday pARTy. and here are a few polaroids from the weekend:

thursday: gas stop in pattonsburg, missouri

friday: dinner with jackie and melinda. the electricity went out after we placed our order, and the cooks did their thing in the dark over a gas stove. and it was a good meal (but a bit stuffy without the a/c running).

saturday: polaroid shots with melinda on massachusetts street. there are so many older buildings that have retained their old facades… lots of old theatres. unfortunately the varsity now houses an urban outfitters.

and thank you all, for the shared excitement about the wires t! i will be placing a t order tonight, and am ordering a few extra for my etsy shop. if they’re a hit there, i’ll keep adding them. give me 2-3 weeks to get them done…

pARTy is going on the road! as you read this, i am driving to lawrence kansas, to bring pARTy to my friends jackie (smoothpebble), melinda (my purple crayon), and aimee (artsyville). i’m so excited!

the plan: arrive thursday night, find some wine. go for a run friday morning thru lawrence, see what it’s all about. maybe meet aimee for coffee/tea, then maybe a photo outing with jackie and melinda followed by dinner and wine. if we don’t drink too much wine, we’ll do some bookbinding (and maybe some screen printing!). then on saturday, aimee’s hosting a pARTy at her house and we’re going to make soap and lip balms. more wine! then i’ll drag my sorry ass out of bed and drive home on sunday.

while i’m not looking forward to driving thru the entire state of iowa, i know it will be worth it! i’ll have pictures for you next week… happy end of week!

oh, and welcome home to my little sis! she’s coming home today from her 9-month-long honeymoon/road trip around the states. and i won’t be home to greet her, cuz i’m finally getting outta here! welcome home.

here it is, the finished product! (wires w.i.p part one, part two)

as i mentioned in earlier posts, i have a few wire/transformer polaroids that i wanted to do something more with. my first idea was to do pen and ink drawings of them on paper, and while i do need to work on my drawing skills, the idea didn’t wow me. but last week while walking the dogs, i pictured this polaroid in white on red. at first i thought it’d be a screenprint on red paper, for a book cover, but then it evolved to a red t before the dogs and i made it home. and after a few false starts (lines not thick enough on the first screen, buying t-shirts that were too small, printing too close to the neckline, not using enough ink), this is exactly what i had pictured. and i love it.

inquires on how to get your own wires t’s are welcome! leave me a comment (maybe i’m being too confident in thinking this idea kicks ass). i’ve also had requests for a tutorial on burning screens, so with the next polaroid i’ll document the process. and i may do some polaroid albums as well…

circa ceramics has lots of fun little porcelain pieces, reasonably priced. i love the fishy cup… but my favorite is this itty-bitty cylinder creepy cooper (avocado). love the green, love the cooper.

over the weekend i finished re-creating my wires polaroid digitally, and had a transparency made. i burned the screen, and dang it, my lines are too thin. you can see them on the screen (above), but when i print they barely show. so. yesterday i thickened up my lines, had another transparency made, and burned a new screen before i went to bed. this time it looks like the lines are thick enough. printing will commence tonight…

one last bits & pieces.

this was a crazy week. i’ve been ignoring flickr, blogs, facebook… i hope to visit more with everyone soon.

happy weekend!

i’ve been wanting to do something more with some of my wire/transformer polaroids, and an idea came to me earlier this week. i’m in the process of digitizing this polaroid (sans chair), and if all goes well, i’ll show the finished project next week!

a friend asked me to make a her 2 burst journals, but scrapbook-size. i cheated a little and used scrapbook refills in the inside — it was so much easier to use the pre-cut and drilled papers. but i still had a few mishaps: the screw posts i had in stock were too large and i had to buy new ones, and one of the finished cover boards obtained a spot in the book press, so i started over last night. sigh. but the one that i was able to finish looks pretty good.

local etsy shop crafterall handmade works has wonderful paper topographical pieces that i ache to run my fingertips over. postmodern topo in olive no. 2 (above) is my favorite, but postmodern topo in aqua no. 5 is a close second. kinda makes you want to go home from work “sick” and play with paper and an exact-o knife…

the weekend was cold and rainy, so i stayed indoors and worked on a custom order of photo folders. last night i did venture out (with jacket and scarf) and tried ethiopian for dinner. verdict? very yummy. and here we are, it’s already monday again. boo.

how was your weekend?

the ninth of twelve polaroid collaborations between me and the fabulous jen of scissors.paper.glue. we alternate picking a word, and on the last day of the month we each share our polaroid interpretation of that word.

may’s word was distance.

jen: long distance love.

me: the distance is not as great.

happy weekend!