Here And There

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03/29/2006

Why I love Art Part VII

In the multiple category of What the Fuck?/Somehow I'm Inexplicibly Fascinated I bring you:
Britney Birth Sculpture.

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03/28/2006

Heaven in a pie dish

I made a birthday berry pie for my good friend/boyfriend's band's drummer Mouse. And I'm posting it because it was the best pie I've ever made in my limited experience. Perfect crust via the food processor with this super easy crust recipe. I didn't use a recipe for the inside though, just used two packages of Whole Foods frozen mixed organic berries and coated them with 3/4c of flour and 1 cup of sugar.



I served it simply with some ice cream and people at the party were making food orgasm noises which if you baked, my dear blog, you would know that these noises are the reason people like me bake. Success indeed. Of course, some of these people may have been under the influence of a certain appetite inducing substance but it's all hearsay.

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03/24/2006

Proof that I was really in India

Me in front of the Taj at Dawn.

Luckily, even though my computer is toast, Luna has all my pictures plus her own really fabulous photography. Of course, India and Shuvani are so photogenic its not too hard. She put together a really beautiful slideshow too. I was so lucky to be able to tag along with them. This trip was amazing.
Here is a link to the slideshow.

It is mainly for Shuvani's website. So I'm eventually going to put a slideshow myself up on Flickr with more pedestrian unsuperstar shots. Someday I will prove I was really in China back in September.. but now that the computer god has SMITED me once again!! It will be even longer before I get my shit together on that.

Post on exactly why we were in India and details of the trip later...

18:45 Posted in Travel'n | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

03/23/2006

In which she ultimately loses to technology. Tech - 2, Lisa - 1

First the good news:

My camera is fixed.


My Now Favoritest Coworker fixed it for me for no charge. Apparently it was a common problem in Canons, if something blocks the zoomy thingy (watch out - technical talk here) it won't move and creates this error and you have to take it in and get charged $200. He took it and researched the problem, took it apart, fixed it, put it back together, added a little protecter sheet for the LCD screen, put new batteries in, and cleaned my viewfinder. Such a doll.

But he won't let me pay him!! I'm going to bake him something yummy and try to find something else wonderful. Maybe a photo book because he's into photography. If he weren't a boy I'd knit him something.

Okay now the really fucking bad news (and yes, it requires swearing).

I came home yesterday to hear my 2003 iMac going -"grrr-chunk, grrr-chunk, grrr-chunk". Lets just say, computers don't make this noise, broken cars do, malfunctioning lawnmowers make this noise... not sleek, white fashionable Macintoshes!!!

It is bad. It won't even start up from the OS disk. The hard drive is toast my dear blog. But I backed up..... um, nothing! Sweet! It was all I could do to not sit down on the floor in cry. Okay, thats actually what I did. (Yes I wonder why C hasn't proposed yet! Who wouldn't want to marry me!??)

It's great because I was finally thinking I was going to pay off my credit card debt. (nope) And I officially have NOTHING in my savings account thanks to my trip to China and then India.

I'm starting to wonder if I have the same disease as Laurie that makes you break everything you touch. I mean, in the 4 years that I have worked where I do my work computer has fried THREE TIMES. And no one else at work has had that happen to them once. It's a problem. A problem that would promt smart people into backing up everything they even look at. But me? What is this backing-upy thing you speak of?

For the record though, it was India that broke my camera not me.

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03/22/2006

More Like "Vein of Coal...

I'm reading a book called Vein of Gold by Julia Cameron about reclaiming your creativity. I am trying to get over my personal block against doing anything really creative. And when I say block, I mean really A BLOCK. I am so obsessed with perfection and 'being good' and feeling like everything I do is crap that I literally am no longer able to create ANYTHING.

But I'm going to have to try and change that and I have bellydance to thank/hate for this revaltion.

I knew it was happening in drawing and art, but I thought I could live with that with other outlets like crafting and dancing (knitting, cooking elaborate dinners, sewing, beading, embroidery, music - you name it). Which has been fine until I got to the point where I needed to improvise and choreograph in dancing and....

.... I can't do it.

I don't think it that I "can't" do it, I just am not allowing myself too - same with painting and drawing. And it makes sense. I mean hello? If I can't fill a blank sketch book page in the comfort of my own home, how am I going to create a dance on a stage in front of a bunch of people?

Crafting and dancing are also Art of course, but they aren't always as stressful to me for some reason - I think because there are patterns and choreography to follow and I don't have to be responsible for the creative quality if I don't want to be. I can Make without having the pressure of it being MINE. The problem I've found is that, ultimately, I do want to responsible creatively and that's what makes those things interesting and good anyway.

So what that all means is that I need to revisit these issues once and for all! Because I can't live with this.I really can't. I thought I could. I could take a crappy job that pays well and diddle around the house with little hobbies but it doesn't work that way.

I would love to scrap it all! Whats wrong with going to work, and coming home and cleaning your house, and watching some TV and going to bed? Normal people do that! But I can't, I'm not satisfied with that even though I want to be! It kills me not to make things and I'm always thinking "what if?"

It's in my bones whether I'm good at it or not, whether I want it or not and I have to accept that and find a way to get it out.

Whats so hard about coming home and sitting down and doing a little sketching? Or painting something I've been thinking about during the day? Why be so psycotic? Nobody needs to see it, I can draw smiley faces if I fucking want to! Well, the problem is I don't want to, I want to create the next Sistine Chapel right there on my page of newsprint with my stubby pencil - thats why it's so hard for me. I have created unrealistic, unimportant ideals for myself and I don't know how to let them go.

So I'll try this book before therapy because I'm a cheap ass (also I've been to therapy in high school and I know they will make me talk about things and deal with things that just aren't fun dammit) and it starts with journal type writing in the morning and taking walks and hey! I can handle that. One thing at a time.

Morning pages. Morning Walks. Then maybe some forced daily sketching. Just a little! I'll keep you updated Ms. Blog. Maybe then I'll feel more guilty when I bag it and make a beaded bracelet - or watch some netflixed LOST episodes. Guilt is fun.

20:10 Posted in Mak'n stuff | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

03/21/2006

Goings On

• Well, Rakkasah West is this weekend! Yay, lots of bellydancing and things to buy. I am going on Saturday so I can see Ansuya and the lovely and talented Hannah who I went to India and China with. She's amazing, if you go you can't miss her.

I'm also going to a new bellydance class on Tuesdays at my gym. So far I've only taken one class and it was - not amazing.. but you can't totally judge after one class. Plus Luna is such a great teacher its not fair to compare. And anyway, it's free with my membership (which I'm not doing ANYTHING ELSE WITH!) and its right after a yoga class in the same room so I don't see why not. It's always good to practice. I'm still thinking of taking a Suhaila class though. Because I'm helping Luna now with her Ashkanaz show and maybe also the books at class in exchange for classes which means I'll be able to afford another. Three days a week is maybe more serious than I am though.. but when I do something I always want to be REALLY GOOD at it and thats how you get good!

Plus I love it. But I'm realizing that all my hobbies are a strange avoidance of what I really need to do which is ART. Which I have posted about. But I'm just trying to be more aware of it. More on that tomorrow (exciting! but dealing with this is kind of why I started this blog)

• I've finished the invitations for my friends shower. I haven't decided if I love them but I will post them soon.

• A co-worker is taking a look at the Camera That India Broke for me to see if he can fix it. If he can't I'll take it to the camera shop to see if they can. I hope I hope I hope.

• My Spring Party went well on Sunday. I literally spent all weekend preparing for it. Lame! But of course I loved every minute. I made spring (no not easter dammit!) cookies that turned out amazing! And a Pineapple Upside Down Cake using a recipe from Elise's blog. It was REALLY good and I recommend it. The decorations were potted tulips from trader joes, dyed eggs in my egg cup collection, and paper flowers garlands I made with spring-colored tissue paper and pipe cleaners. It was cute and there was a ton of people and pot luck food. Of course, I don't have pictures because India Broke My Camera.

• Sunday also officially marked eight years that C and I have been together. 8. 8.

• No knitting happening here. Multiple projects are sitting in the basket waiting for me to get back to them. All of them in a tangled mess courtesy of OBK Camille (That's Original Bad Kitty in case you didn't know. Trust me, my bad cat can school yours any day in the Badness) She's also taken to chewing on the internet cord. There are four places where C has had to cut and splice and she has finally broke it in some unseen place and we have to get a new one.

Well, thats the news from Lake Hairball, where the women are psycotic and flakey, the men are exasperated, and the cats just shit on the carpet.

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03/20/2006

Happy Vernal Equinox, Rain and All

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03/17/2006

I don't wear green on St. Paddys

Why?

Because I'm pagan!

I always thought it was just a silly holiday until I found out about the history of it.

There is a lot of confusion about St. Patrick but what we do know is that the legend is he drove the "snakes" from Ireland. Not actual snakes.... pagans. Serpants are symbols in the pagan religions (as well as for the Devil in the Christian religion) so they was used as symbolism in the stories. He was not the first person to bring the Christian religion to the Chieftans and Druids in Ireland but he made the first big impact. He made the first headway for the church to come and abolish the old religion.

And driving the "snakes" to the sea meant a little more than pounding his drum and holding up his staff. It in involved building the first monestaries over holy pagan sites, enclosed sacred wells, destroying pagan statues, and just plain murder. In his own words "to curse their [druids] fertile lands, so that they became dreary bogs; to curse their rivers, so that they produced no fish; to curse their very kettles, so that with no amount of fire and patience could they ever be made to boil; and, as a last resort, to curse the Druids themselves, so that the earth opened and swallowed them up."*

To me the forced conversion of peoples of any religion to another is not somthing to celebrate.

I'll celebrate "All Snakes Day" instead, so pinch me.

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03/10/2006

If Microsoft designed the iPod packaging

If Microsoft Designed the iPod packaging . I found this link on All and Sundry.
It may take a design geek like me to sit at their desk and laugh out loud about this, but if you are one - - - - clikkit.

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03/08/2006

Can I get an AMEN!?

Quark Sucks! as posted by Cranky,

I personally switched to Adobe InDesign this year and AM NEVER LOOKING BACK!

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03/07/2006

Important tip.

So if you are ever, say, going to ride a camel into the desert and spend the night there I have a recomendation for you: put your expensive digital camera with lots of teeny tiny unfixable inside parts inside some sort of case. Or better yet don't bring it at all because it turns out you only take a few pictures with it anyway. Because if you don't......

you get grains of sand in the teeny tiny unfixable parts and when you get home from your trip IT BREAKS. Yeah. Which sucks.

You are warned.

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03/03/2006

Octavia Butler

I just found out that Octavia Butler has died at the all to early age of 58 in February. If you haven't read anything by her I highly recommend it.

http://www.slate.com//id/2137269/

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03/02/2006

The crafters lament

Getting back from a trip abroad is such a roller-coaster. You get home and you are SO HAPPY to see your man, your bathtub, your clean water STRAIGHT OUT OF THE TAP EVEN!

But then the jet lag hits you with it's nauseous, body aching, exhaustion and makes you yell at your boyfriend who you've been missing so much. But can you be blamed? I mean, your body thinks it's thirteen hours ahead of its self.

But not only that, I've just been questioning everything. I guess seeing starving children and puppies for two weeks straight can make you do that. What am I doing at my job? What is happening with my relationship? What am I eating? What am I accomplishing?

Those questions fade a little when I go through my bills (oh thats right...the paycheck), and my boyfriend runs a bath for me, washes my hair, and puts up with my post-trip-hellishness (um.. yeah, catch).

I can't get this restlessness out of my head though. Maybe it's the ADD, and also a little depression from the anti climax that all big trips bring. But I'm no longer satisfied with my big intentions when nothing gets accomplished. I mean, I have an overflowing yarn stash, and fabric stash, and box full of art supplies but hardly anything to show for it. Spending hours and hours at work researching recipes and clothing and knitting patterns and buying supplies for projects that I know I will never try or finish is no longer satisfying. It sucks!

I'm starting force myself to see the reality which is you can only be focused on so many things to be good at any of them. Does that mean I have to give something up? So what will I choose? Painting? Bellydancing? Knitting? Sewing? Printmaking? Embroidery? Beading? Cooking? Playing the piano? How can I give one of these up (even though I don't even DO half of them anymore)

Ah! I can't do it!

I don't know what the solution is. But I do know that I have to start working on the STUFF I ALREADY HAVE. That means, if I'm going to knit I have to choose from a pattern that I've already bought (what? that happens?) and with whats in my yarn in my stash. Or sew something from fabric and patterns that I already have.

But that still leaves and issue of time. I need to start practicing an hour a day if I want to get any better at dancing. I ABSOLUTELY need to start drawing again so I need to practice that and go back to my life drawing class. What time does that leave for the wedding invitations I've committed myself to, and the knitting I want to do, not to mention the books I want to read and the movies in my netflix que, the costumes I want to sew and the clothes, bags, and stitch-markers I want to make.

Damn job that always gets in the way.

I know I'm whining about what every crafter complains about but its really getting me down right now.

I just need a little calming photo from my beach trip...
Ahh. It really is good to be back in California though...

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03/01/2006

Not dead.

Damn, don't you hate it when people don't post for, like, a month!

Whew, well I'm back from India. Life is supposed to be getting back to normal. I need to start bloggin again.

I guess I'll start with the christmas stuff I never posted. First: STUFF I MADE.


This is the bookplate I made for Sally (C's mom). She's a gardener and a nurse so I thought a growing paper white bulb would be appropriate (not that you could tell it was a paper white bulb, or even that it was not an onion)


Guitar pick earrings for my boss and my boyfriend's brother's girlfriend.


Solid perfume I made for all my girls. Contains beeswax, almond oil and essential oils. I made the label too which you can't see because all these pictures are obnoxiously blurry.


See?


Another knitted bracelet for my mum.

Note to self: Don't take pictures of your handmade gifts when you have five seconds to be out of the house and on the way to work. It doesn't turn out well.

Also: some yarny goodness I bought at a really cute place in Anchorage, Alaska called Northern Lights Yarn.


The Cascade 220 is for a requested pair of fuzzy feet for Sally. The Berroco Hip Hop is for a scarf for me, bought by one Boyfriend-Who-Is-Awesome that actually a.) walked into a yarn shop with me b.) proceded to tell me I could get whatever I wanted and he would buy it. *dies*. Lastly the Dune by Trendsetter Yarns in color 86. Used to make wristwarmers that same afternoon.

I received many crazy cool gifts from the family. One of my very favourites is this pyrex bowl set. I have an almost complete set of solids gathered from various garage sales. This TOPS them though.

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