Monday, August 28, 2006

Notebook Personality and Other Revelations.



I was going thru all my notebooks today and realized, out of all the dozens of cute Japanese ones, Urban Outfitters ones, Pearl Art Store ones, home made ones, my all time fave ( the one I've been using steadily for at least a month) is the one from my Dad's office that my Mom gave me! It's purse size, but not too small, spiral bound, durable plastic cover and back, and has graph paper pages! Pure perfection! I've realized that graph paper is perfectly suited for writing notes and drawing sketches. Anyways, that was todays revelation. That and that Fiskars makes a PINK cutting mat!!!

Farewell Sweet Weekend...




It's 11:59 pm and Phil and I are desperately trying to hold on to the weekend. We go thru this pretty much every Sunday at this time. That feeling of not wanting Monday to come, not wanting our creative energy that comes on the weekend to go away... Well, I managed to work on a Birdie Tote that I've been thinking about for a long time. It's two sided and has a magnetic snap inside. Also, I am planning to work on this flower pillow pattern that my mom gave me - it's from 1968!

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Sabado Gigante Part 5 or something..

My purchases from the Reform School - the pic won't load right for some reason

A Hearts Challenger sighting finally!!!!


My twenty-five cent yard sale find - resin bouqet!

For some reason, Phil and I woke up this morning with that strange and wonderful Christmas morning feeling. Like we had nothing to do but watch cartoons and eat breakfast and stay in our PJ's all day. Maybe it's because we've been so busy lately with work and other things - we are gonna just do nothing today!!

Sunset Junction was pretty fun yesterday. We got there around 1:30pm and parked way up in one of the surrounding neighborhoods. It was cool because a lot of the locals were having yard sales, knowing there would be major foot traffic in their neighborhood. We got a little resin bouquet and a vintage Star Wars pillow case - both were twenty five cents each, but Phil insisted on giving the guy $1 for each. Still a great deal.

The actual street fair was cool, I got to see the Hearts Challenger ice cream truck! My mom and dad came down too which was cool - they wanted to see my stuff! There were tons of street vendors - incense, buddha and ganesh statues, tie dye tees, etc. - and carnival style rides, 3 music stages.

My items were being sold at The Reform School. It's a really cool space - I bought a couple of pocket mirrors, one for me, one for a gift. I was excited to see my purses and pencil pouches hanging there next to Jill Bliss totes, and Lisa Congdon's beautiful artwork and fabric cuffs!

We stopped in the Giant Robot store and got Phil a hat. Also got to see the great Jen Corace exhibit in Junc Gallery. Then we all headed to J-Town for lunch at Curry House. A fun Saturday - but I took a two hour nap when we got home. :)

Friday, August 25, 2006

I'm Sew Tired...........

3-Ring Binder Pencil Pouches

Tie the Knot Purses


Belted Pencil Pouches

This is just a smattering of what I made for the Sunset Junction event this weekend. In total, I made 48 pieces - I had some late nights this week! But Phil stayed up with me watching Wolf's Rain and drawing this new Magneto. Hopefully it won't be too hot on the Boulevard tomorrow.

My bro and his wife are going to the Battlestar Galactica Convention Sat. and Sun. My mom and I finished a big chunk of their outfits last night and she's putting the final touches on them tonight. I'm sure he'll be sending me some funny picture messages all day!

Oh, I just dream of a weekend that I can spend leisurely starting/finishing a crewel project, finally begin work on my Wee Wonderfuls put-together book project (I'm gonna do the Bunny), make some owl candles, experiment with some glass etching cream, organize and back-up all my digital photo files, watch my 4 disc Pippi Longstocking (orig. Inger Nilsson version)box set that arrived a while back, proceed to copy all the aprons she wears in the movies, and lastly, make myself a tanktop/shorts sleep set out of this. Maybe next weekend......

Monday, August 21, 2006

busy bee..


vintage paisley fabric (cut off the bottom of a smock dress i got a couple weeks ago)



wow. what a busy weekend and busy start to a busy week. we had a great luau this saturday - the tissue holder party favors went over well! i will post pics of all that once i sort thru them all. there's other news about the luau that i'll post later...

i've been sewing up a storm getting ready for Sunset Junction. i have to have everything ready ready by Wednesday or Thursday. i was doing pretty good with just my totes and stuff, but then came up with this pencil holder. each one has its own little "belt" with these vintage belt buckles i found the ther day. anyways, the pattern took me a couple of tries to finally get it right, and now i wanna make like 10 of them for the street fair. i work best under pressure....

Saturday, August 19, 2006

To sleep, perchance to dream...

I can never resist star-shaped beads! I'm thinking of sewing them all over a tote - maybe a landscape with stars in the night sky. There are some cool flower ones in there too. I got them at The Bead Factory in the Trim District a couple blocks away.
A pinky/coral colored Anthurium

Some cool vintage cameos I found at my favorite haunt - Berger Beads. I've been going there as long as I can remember (at least 20 years) and those ladies still have not warmed up to me. Ah well, no skin off my nose.

Well it has been a busy week! I got another purse off to The Kids Are Alright, we've been preparing for the luau, and just trying to fit some sleep in in between. I actually fell asleep at 9:30pm last night!

Today Phil and I got up early (9am) to go to the LA Flower Mart. We got several bunches of orchids, a few bunches of haleconia and greens, and a couple of anthuriums - all for the luau tonight. As we were parking in front of the Mart, we had a very funny interaction with a homeless man we now know is named Andre. More about him another time......

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Tissue Tuesday


Well, we had a fun Sunday down at Nisei Week again. This time, we waited til evening to go out there and have dinner. There was an Anime Costume Contest during the day in the Village Square, so there were a lot of people walking around in these crazy costumes. It was pretty funny.
I just finished 40 tissure holders tonight. There's a big end of Summer Luau at my parents house this Saturday and these willl be the party favors. My mom is making some also and we're gonna display them in a big basket by the door. There are some Star Trek fabric ones in there for the boys! They each have a little hanging loop sewn into them too. We're going to put a little "Mahalo" tag on each one.
Now, back to brainstorming for the costumes I'm making my bro and his wife - they're going to a Battlestar Galactica Convention at the end of the month - yes, as Starbuck and Apollo of course.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Nisei Week Part 1

One of the many performers for Nisei Week!

Some finds from my favorite J-Town store Bunkado. A vintage animal stamp set - the stamp pad is in a tin case! And a couple of Japanese iron-on patches.


A Taiko drumming perfomance at the Tofu Festival.

The entrance of the Tofu Festival



Our reflection in the bank window as we were standing in the ATM line.

It was a fun and full day today as Nisei Week kicked off! It was cool to see 10 times as many people than we would normally see on a Saturday in J-Town. First, Phil and I went to get some lunch at Nijiya market. We stood in the Village Square for a moment and watched what can only be described as the Japanese Beach Boys perform. Then off to our usual Anime shops, gift shops, and cruising around the various booths at the Tofu Festival.

More tomorrow....

Tetsujin Morimoto!!!!!


More buttons from my mom! I love the two at the bottom with the tri-leaf designs in them.

So glad it's Friday!! Phil and I had a nice dinner at Oomasa tonight. Just a little cleaning up and relaxing. Tomorrow, we're spending the day in J-Town again - the Nisei Week events begin! Music, shopping, food, Karate/Kendo demonstrations, etc. The Tofu Festival is part of that too which will be fun. And, Iron Chef Morimoto will be there , woo hoo! There will also be an Anime Festival and a theatre will be showing old black and white Samurai flicks!
Happy Weekend everyone :)

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Buttons, Bugs, Bundts

Apple bundt cake my mom made tonight.
This insane caterpillar my mom found on her tomato plant. So of course we put it in a jar and looked at him all night with a magnifying glass. That thorn-like thing is on his back end. My little cousin Fernando named him "Senor Nibbles".

My finds from looking through my mom's buttons. This is the shank button group. My favorite is the heart shaped pearl one can you spot it? I got a whole bunch of others too, lots of vintage Japanese ones which I'll photograph later.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

A Fun Monday

Mochi from Kinokuni

Monday, Phil and I went to my parents house around 9pm to wash his car in their driveway. It sounds weird but we have no other time during the week or weekend. My bro and Mari came came over too and it ended up being a really fun night. Above is my parents new dining room table. Phil is drawing and my brother is looking at his new Battlestar Galactica game.

My dad made the best shave ice ever. It was rootbeer float style with vanilla ice cream in the middle! We all ate shave ice and talked and laughed and played with Zero. It was a fun change to have a weekday gathering and not feel stressed - like I have to get home and work or clean up my stuff, etc.

But today however, I had an unexpectedly long workday which sucked. Luckily, Phil was already home when I got here and we took a short nap, had dinner, and watched An Evening With Kevin Smith borrowed from my bro. Awesome!

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Trees, Tea's, and WIP's

Work in Progress: more pencil pouches for Sunset Junction

A vintage store find in J-Town last night: faded paisley smock dress!!


Black tea with lemon



A tote idea I've been kicking around in my head for a while: a button tree. I don't love it, but I've been wanting to do my family tree so maybe I'll embroider names or initials next to them and just turn it into a wall hanging. I think it's the color of the tree. After I cut it out, realized it looked like a piece of coral. I normally like coral, but that was'nt the idea I was going for so it kinda just took me out of it. But I've decided to FINISH every project I start no matter what. I just don't want to have a bunch of half finished things lying around. That's my goal anyway.

Boy, after that last post, I realized how crummy my penmanship can be. Well, at least it's legible I hope :)

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Wednesday contd...

A new stash of fabric from Reprodepot arrived today. The tiny giraffe and apple prints are jersey! I have such a hard time finding printed jersey with patterns that I actually like. Very exciting!
I better make some tops with them quick. It was a lovely and cool 75 degrees here in Los Angeles today, very gloomy and grey, and it even drizzled a little! Fall is only a month away.

Some awesome buttons from my mom!! :)


Another rad thing from my mom - an owl candle she made from a mold that she's had since at least the 70's. The mold has started to crack so we're going to re-cast it. There are many owl candles out there, but we have never seen one that looks exactly like this. It's got a very cute, stockier shape to it. We used to make so many of these when I was little, and we're gonna start again - maybe sell some on Etsy.

Wednesday Dinner

Zero and Me = BFF


Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Battle Beast!!

I just had to show you all the lovely work of my Philip. He just finished this Battle Beast character this weekend, even with a pinched nerve in his drawing hand!
Battle Beast is a character from a comic book called Invincible which I have mentioned before. This piece will be published in the Invincible Handbook within the next year or so. I'm so proud of him. It was one of those projects that had been hanging over his head for a while and he was not only relieved to have finally finished it, but he was very happy with his own work :)