Confession

I LOVE the new Britney Spears album. Who am I kidding? I love all of Britney's albums.

I especially love If You Seek Amy (so clever with the sound alike words spelling f.u.c.k. me) and Unusual You. You should download or buy the actual cd.

I also really enjoyed her documentary on MTV. She breaks my heart a little bit. She wonders why some stars are able to go to the grocery store and she can't. And clearly she cannot, I see the 15+ cars waiting to follow her every move.

Busy

That is what I am. Busy working 10 hour days. Busy making holiday orders. Too busy.

Change

A new day.
A new beginning.

Brewery Artwalk Fall 2008

I'll be in building 624!

Dia da los Muertos

This year's Fall Brewery ArtWalk is on November 1&2. I am taking full advantage and doing lots of fun skull art.

6x6 panel with a rough sketch of my skull. you can see some of my color palate off to the side.


Flowers play a big role in Day of the Dead festivities and most skulls have flowers for eyes.

This is step one of many to create the flowers. I chose a hydrangea flower.


The classic "Skinner Blend", a perfect transition from hot pink to purple.


Next up is a sparkled blue. In the background you can see clay in various states.


The beginnings of a flower.


It is really hard to picture what you'll end up with, but you just have to have faith and picture things in a different dimension.






And finally, petals! Sorry for the crappy quality image.


Almost a flower.


Eyes and the early dental work.


Say cheese


I'm don't totally love the nose, but sometimes living with it is better than debating.


Finished? I'm still on the fence about doing my traditional swirly sparkled clay in black in the white areas, or I'll just paint it white. I'll probably try the clay and see if it is too much.

I like the way it turned out. It has lots of texture and is really sparkly, I do love the glitter.


Sugar skulls made out of clay.


Resin bottle cap sugar skulls. Some are magnets and some are pins.


my drawings for the bottle cap pins and magnets




And the Obama logo! Thanks to A Patchwork World for the DIY on the resin bottle caps! I want to encase everything in resin! I also did some YES WE CAN.

I love that Obama has all his logos and catch phrases on the site in high res. Make some Obama art of your own! I plan to make funky Obama shirts to wear both days of ArtWalk. Fun Fun Fun!

6 years

Matt and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on Sunday. Modern tradition calls for candy. Chocolate is candy, right?

Off we went to the 90210 to get chocolate.

We started at www.edelweisschocolates.com, we waited a long time behind a fancy old lady who bought $75 in chocolates. She comes every Saturday to buy chocolate. Lucky! She was the typical old Beverly Hills actress, perfectly coiffed and wearing fancy jewels. Too bad I don't know old movie star types. We got some chocolate peanut butter bars and marshmallows coated chocolate and rolled in nuts.

We continued to walk throughout Beverly Hill seeking out www.teuscher-beverlyhills.com . This was a totally different vibe, new innovative and hip. Here we got the signature Champagne Truffles and a few other small, small pieces of chocolate.

We ate the marshmallow chocolates in the car, they were alright, nothing great. Once home I cut the 3 pieces of chocolate from Teuscher in half, one for each. OMG this is amazing chocolate. I've thought about it frequently since. YUM. The Edleweiss was only ok.

For our dinner out we went to a place that I think looks cool from the outside. We had no idea what we were in for, fortunately it ended up out great. The Next Door Tapas Bar, no sign outside, just a valet parker. No clear entrance you kind of wander through the dining area to find the bar. On our first venture in we backed out and wondered if we were entering the right door. I pulled Matt in and into the darkend bar with big funky chandeliers. I suggested we stay for a drink, especially since the valet parked our car. Midway into the drink the other couple sitting at the bar ordered some sliders, not listed on the menu. So of course we also have to order the sliders. They were great! We proceeded to order tuna ceviche, carpachio with roasted artichokes and some fancy ham from Spain. The pigs roam free along the countryside in Spain eating acorns, dreamy. We also lucked into pepitos fritas, the computer crashed and the kitchen got the order twice, that was served with a spicy cheese sauce. For dessert I had a honey caramel pastry thing and Matt had a coffee something. Again super good!

It was a fun weekend. I'm a lucky girl.




I also got some flowers!

Kitler

Cats that look like Hitler.

This little baby kitler is available in my neighborhood. He is especially adorable, I love him already.



For more kits that look like Hitler visit
www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com

This is by far my favorite.

some new art

I really like this style. I keep coming back to it. It feels 60s mod.


9 oz. Flask


Bowl




faux abalone flask

Trashy tv

Fall TV!

On the DVR for this week

The Amazing Race
Mad Men
Sunset Tan (shut up)
Family Guy
The Hills
90210
Fringe (we haven't watched this yet)
Project Runway
Top Design
America's Next Top Model
Survivor

Good times!

vacation

We are planning a grand Mexican Riviera vacation. We're debating between a glorious fancy all-inclusive or a funky little hotel.

I'm normally anti all-inclusive since you don't get to experience the true local flavor. But some of the all-inclusive resorts are so very nice that it is hard to not want to eat in their 5 star restaurants and swim in their saltwater pools with a swim up bar.

I suppose one could have more difficult decisions to make...

Online Glasses

I've discovered the joy that is glasses for under $30. No reason for not having glasses to match my shoes. And since I already have an online shoe obsession.... Many thanks to the blog!

bread

I think I will try making the dilly bread again today. I realized about 45 minutes into the first rising period that I forgot to put in the egg. So I mixed it in and set it in the warm oven to rise. It never did double, but it was close enough.

After stirring down and putting it back into the oven to rise nothing happened, nothing. A lump of dough. It did smell wonderful and we did eat it. It tasted great, just like mom's. But it was not light and airy like bread should be.

And really, there is never enough for toast the next day... So I'll make more today and hopefully it will be more successful.

Weekend update

Matt has a new contract job. He is the guitar tech for a major pop star. So far everything is going well and he likes everyone in the band. He'll meet the star tomorrow. The stars don't show up until the day of the show for sound check. This will keep him busy through at least October. It could be extended to include a world tour! World Tour!!! I'm a total mix of emotions. Happy for the opportunity and experience, sad that he'll be gone, and jealous that he gets to see the world without me.

I don't have anything nearly as exciting going on. Today we are having flank steak and dilly bread for dinner. One of my most favorite meals since child hood. My sister has also blogged about the meal (2/14/08). I'm not really sure if we have the right cut of meat, it is skirt steak not flank. But it will work nonetheless.

I've been really good about exercising. I try to swim laps for an hour a day, I've only missed 3 days out of the last 15. This morning I swam laps for 45 minutes then did a 50 minute deep water class, I am beat!

I think I will hire a personal trainer. I need someone to tell me what to do and make me do it.

I have a bunch of artwork to do. Unfortunately I'm missing some inspiration and drive.

FREE

I was released from jury duty! No 10 weeks of jury service for me. Hooray! The judge told us to watch for the case in the news.

The Candidates

Only 59 days to decide who will be our next president. Since I had to drop out of the running, you have to pick from one of these....


John McCain and Sarah Palin

Barack Obama

Adventures in Game Shows Part 2

Monday I am a contestant on Trivial Pursuit - America Plays!

I went to the audition last night and they call me for Monday today! I don't know much about the show other than it is based upon Trivial Pursuit.

Exciting!

Sarah Palin

I love all the internet gossip about McCain's VP candidate.

Did Palin fake her last pregnancy and claim the DS child as her own when truly it is her daughters? News broke today that her daughter is currently pregnant!

Clearly abstinence only sex education works, always has always will. It works so well that your 17 year old daughter is pregnant, potentially with her second child.

Awesome.

I find this much more salacious than Obama the conservative rumors that Obama is a Muslim born in Kenya.

It is a Lifetime movie in the making. One step up from Mother May I Sleep with Danger?

Jury Duty

I reported for jury duty last Thursday. Early in the day my name was selected and was told to report back today.

Luckily I didn't need to report to court until 1:30. Matt came home yesterday after few days on the road with a band. so we had a nice morning together. Actually, he slept in late and I chatted with my dad on the phone.

Jury duty usually provides great people watching, so many weird and interesting people. While sitting in the hallway waiting, the famed attorney Mark Geragos walked down the hallway. I got really excited for a minute that perhaps he was the defending attorney. He is one hell of a snappy dresser! I would love to hear him argue cases, but alas he walked into another courtroom. In case you don't know who Mark Geragos is, he defended Scott Petersen, Michael Jackson, Winona Ryder...

Today consisted mostly of paperwork. A multi-page questionnaire. They'll now review and pick the perfect jury beginning in September.

So at least for now, I'm free to go about life as usual.

Costume Party

We went to a Song Title Costume party last night. Lots of fun! It was especially fun to try to guess the different songs, some were really hard, others super easy! A great effort by all.

Me, You (Ewe) Light Up My Life by Carol King



Matt, Monkey Man by the Rolling Stones


Creepy sheep


Interspecies Love




Our Hostess, One Eyed, One Horned, Flying Purple People Eater - Rose


And host, Or as Buffalo Soldier

Little updates

We leave for vacation on Saturday. We'll be hanging out with Matt's dad and wife, our nephew Rob and seeing a bunch of other family. I plan to do some reading - Eat, Love, Pray - sTORI Telling (!!!) and the book about shoe addicts my mom gave me for my b-day. We'll spend lots of time on the boat fishing. Relaxing!

Hopefully I can get over my new allergy to sunscreen. So far I've tried 4 different kinds each time I get a really bad rash and hives. Awesome. Next up to try is some Aveeno baby stuff.

Matt left his job 2 weeks ago. It just wasn't the right job. I can relate to that and sometimes it is just better to end it in its early stages then stay and be miserable. Sadly, the economy has this self perpetuating message of doom. I love NPR, but come on enough with the doom and gloom. Plenty of things are AOK. Entertainment is one of them. People still go to concerts, they still want to go see their favorite bands. They want to escape the economy doom and gloom for 2 hours. For Matt it's just a matter of finding the right gig.

That gig may have presented itself today. It is a fantastic opportunity for Matt to go out on the road with a band for 2-3 months. I don't know what I'll do with myself without him for that length of time. I'm pretty dependent upon him. I miss him when he's just gone for the day. We pretty much do everything together. But it is a great gig, he'll do a great job and it will be awesome to add to his resume.

Maybe I'll blog more if he isn't home!

It's about time!

I haven't blogged much. No reason, just preoccupied with other things.

I spent pretty much my whole day Saturday at the eye doctor. They are trying to fit me back to toric lenses. I wore torric my whole contact wearing life until about 3 years ago when the switched me to soft lenses. Finding the right fit has been a challenge. About 7 hours of challenge. Including 4.5 hour at the eye doctor on Saturday and a prior appointment a week and a half ago. Saturday's appointment did not bode well for my evening plans. A or B, B or C, C or D always gives me a headache, so unfortunately we skipped out on evening plans.

Last weekend we went camping at the beach. I randomly pick weekends throughout the summer to go beach camping, in January. They book up within a week or so of becoming available. I happened to pick a perfect weekend it was easily 109 here and 95 at the beach.

For the first time ever we took Emma in the Honda FIT with all our gear. Everything we needed easily FIT, we flipped up the double back seat and she ends up curling up and laying down. It worked perfectly. Loads of room for both us and Emma. She was a lot less crazy, I think it is because she can't quite see outside.

We had a great time. We drove around a bit looking at sod farms and strawberry fields. The strawberries smelled so amazing while driving down the road we had to stop at a roadside stand and get some. Super tasty!

Camping was great, the moon was full and bright and the stars were out in full force. We even drove down the Pacific Coast Highway a bit to find the perfect spot of beach to call our own and play in the ocean's wake. Even Emma had a great time.

Next time we go it's over the meteor shower weekend in August. I have jury duty the next Monday.

Banner Day

Today is about equality. May all the newlyweds today and tomorrow and beyond enjoy their lives as a single union. Equal to a man and a women, equal to a couple in love, just equal.

Happily ever after.

A day trip to Catalina

We took the boat over on Matt's birthday. It is a quick hour on the boat each way.


After eating a bunch and walking around we finished off our time on the island at lover's cove watching the tide come in.




Look what the waves washed up on to the stairs at lover's cove! A heart shaped rock.

Triumphant Return

We were watching Scott McClellan on the Daily Show when we heard the flapping of wings. One of the adult birds was returning to the nest. Then we saw the baby bird flapping behind. They both landed on top of the feeder and the parent fed the baby then they snuggled up to each other and settled in for the night.

Thank goodness. I like to think that it was the baby that I rescued. He must have been just sitting on top of the ledge above the window and the momma bird came to his rescue and they'll spend another night together.

He missed his first day of bird school and hopefully he'll get a good lesson tomorrow.

Pictures and video

dinnertime

I couldn't get this to post in the last post.

Flying the coop

The baby birds have been preening their feathers and flapping their wings for the last few days. I knew they were just minutes away from flying away. I've tried numerous times to capture the preening and flapping on camera but they freeze when ever I would stick my camera out the window.

You can imagine my surprise today when I came home from work to find the nest empty. Well, not so much that the nest was empty but that there was a baby bird INSIDE my apartment on the window sill looking out at the nest/bird feeder on the OUTSIDE. Poor baby bird.

I tried to take some pictures but my media card was locked. I didn't have time to play around and figured it was more important to get the bird safely outside. As much as I've loved watching the birds, I don't want to live with one in my apartment.

I found a box and cornered the bird on to just one section of the sill and captured him in the box. I then went outside to the grass and set him free. He flew up into the tree right in front of the nest/feeder and has set off to make a new life. I don't know if the birdies will come back to sleep or if that is it. I will keep you posted. In the meantime a slew of baby bird pics. And a pic of the poop left on my heater and window sill.

ps. While walking Emma I spied the baby bird on the ledge above my window. I hope he finds his way without his parents to guide him. I put out some pine nuts on the outside window sill just in case they come back hungry.

Yum, let me puke in your mouth
'

Maybe if we crouch low enough she won't see us


Hanging out


Look I have a wing


Poop


Empty nest


The first time they were left alone