finally.

I finally got around to doing what I've been dreaming of for a whole year. I gocco printed on some Moleskines! First off, please admire my new logo stamp!



...and then here are a bunch of them! I am so in love with each and every one of these that its going to be really hard to let them go. I've printed on both lined and unlined books, and of course, they are original Moleskines so each has a perfect little pocket in the back...



...i've got this little wooden platform for displaying them...am also working on some other designs, and this same print is going to show up on this blog again really soon. In fact, printing this design on these books was totally unplanned, halfway through working on another project I decided to just give it a try!



...last shot is of a perfectly burned screen...thanks to the gocco gods!



Alright, I'm off to Chapel Hill, NC for a long weekend...no updates till Sunday/Monday probably! Then I'm back with just one week to go before Adams Morgan Day!

bookbinding thread.

Yes, thats what I knit with in my paintings. I adore printed matter and books, so its an added little connection I like to put in each piece.

Last week I found some new threads to try out at paper source. Some are linen, some are hemp:



Here are some already knit pieces begging to be blocked:



And here is a kitty begging for some attention:


Now go check out the application for Craftland. Looks like fun!
[via Sewing Stars]

Work in Progress

Here are some studio work in progress shots from last weekend:


I heard on npr this morning that tomorrow is going to be hot and humid... ah, the studio is going to be a sauna!

cat pad of the yesterday.

I've got a huge box in my living room...its the tent! I wanted to pull it out of the box, but its way to heavy, so I only managed to get the carrying case out. What is it about boxes and new stuff that makes cats fall in love?



Well, that was yesterday. This morning, they're determined to chew on my knitting needles and sit on my yarn. Alright, I admit catnip is in my knitting bag, so I'm sure my needles and yarn smell great. More on this project later!

I've been roaming the city looking for frames, finally found some I liked, so now I'm stocking up! Next stop, online, I need to get some shopping bags!

Man, getting ready for these art/craft shows is hard work!

makes running with scissors innocent*

First of all, please meet my new logo:



Thanks dear friends for answering my frantic e.mails and helping me decide on one to go with! You all picked the same one!

*last night, I saw a woman walk a whole block, and then cross the street with an eyelash curler stuck to her face! How crazy is that? Hey lady, you'll poke your eye out!

my cat growls at ups*

Another big DC arts event coming this fall: Artomatic! Dates/location will be announced soon!



My brain has been overloaded with all the different details of participating in art fairs. In the past week I've ordered a tent, bought a table, some chairs, some packaging material samples, and figured out my display strategy. My whole life has become an art to-do list!

Here is a middle-of-the-night peek at a corner of my table:



I plan to cover the table with some of Ikea's awesome new fabric. I'm thinking pistachio green on the bottom, and some brown/neutral linen on top.

Some web sites that helped in my art fair display decisions:
:: Make It has awesome tips on setting up at shows.
:: Craftster has a whole section on art/craft fairs.
:: The Art Show Photography yahoo group is a very active forum with a ton of info on displays.

*I've mentioned this to friends before, but today I can confirm that its absolutely true. My little Sword Juggling Veela Bianca growls at the UPS truck. She growls from the middle of the room, far from the door or window where she can actually see the UPS guy. She keeps at it till the truck drives away. I wonder if there are cats in the truck? Oh my, what if UPS is a cover-up for a cat snatching operation!

summery hats.

Here is a set of hats I made for a friend:



Good news is she caught her breast cancer really really early through her own self-exams. A mamogram didn't pick it up even. They had to do an mri on her to find it. Crazy! Bad news is her doctor still wanted her to go through chemo for preventative reasons. So thats why I made her the hats.

Not really related, but could be, here is a link to a list of natural, creative, mostly non toxic cleaning alternatives. Please be warned, cheesy elevator music will play if you go there. [via readymade]

full speed ahead...for another show!

I'll be in Adams Morgan Day this year! September 10! I've quickly switched into crank mode and am working full speed ahead on a bunch of new stuff. I've got 5 weeks till Adams Morgan Day, then 3 weeks later its Crafty Bastards!

Here is my hor-o-scope for August, from CrazyAuntPurl:
PISCES (Feb. 19 - March 20)
Now would be a really good time to start some sort of art project. There's a wide variety of really artsy rivers running through the Pisces world: the obvious painting, drawing, scrapbooking, knitting, crochet, etc. But Pisces has a real artistic-crazy streak this month, that extends to designing items from scratch, cooking up gourmet creations, making cakes shaped like Monopoly games. Don't rule out the more adventurous art-crazy, either, like carving stuff with power tools or making electronic devices, or building a car from scratch. It's your month to go a little nutty in the creative realm, and you should take advantage of it before your inspiration diminishes with the end of summer.

Hmm...monopoly-shaped cake? I dunno about that...but I do hope my inspiration carries on after summer!

Here is peek at some work in progress! Yes...ribbon...I found these last week and instantly fell in love. Contrast stitching is my latest obsession.

Can you guess what I'm making from these pictures?

It used to be blue...

...a month ago.



Here is a photo I took a month ago beside an image my friend Zena took of the same stretch of beach last week. They think it is from the oil storage sites and electricity plant that were bombed weeks ago and are still burning.

The oil spill stretches all the way north at least to the ancient Phoenician port in Byblos, the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. This environmental disaster is something not being reported here in the news. Please check out Zena's blog to read more about this and the actions she is taking there.

The view on the left is from my parents Beirut apartment. It is called Ramlet-el-Baida which translates to white sands. This is the only public beach in Beirut, but most people go to beach clubs further north or south. As our plane was landing we had an awesome view of this beach, and all the kids on the plane started yelling "look! look! Beeeach! ma! Beeeach!"...and the parents yelled back "no, this isn't the beach we go to!" Ah, details.

Here are links to my previous Lebanon photo posts ::
:: Tripoli :: Byblos
:: Tyre :: Sarafand
:: Sidon :: Sea Castle :: Soap Museum
:: My Art Lounge Exhibit
:: Knitting :: Down the Mountain
:: Centre Ville :: Downtown Beirut
:: Mir Amin :: Beiteddine

Photos :: Tripoli :: Byblos

Tripoli was crazy. I had no sense of direction. It felt really really crowded and it felt like we kept taking the wrong turns. We got to the old city eventually, only to find that we had been driving around it in circles the whole time! We parked and just as we walked into the old souk, a woman from a soap shop jumps out and tells us we need to see the soap factory and she will take us there.

So, we met Mr. Sharkass and bought a ton of olive oil soap from him. He is the 6th generation of soap maker and spent a lot of time showing us how famous he was by opening magazine after magazine. A lot of the soap in the Sidon Soap museum was made by him. Now the "Sharkass" name is lovingly stamped on the soap in my shower.




Tripoli is famous for its hammams, but with the maze and all, we had no idea where to go. So, Mrs. Sharkass called over a young boy in the street and he led us through winding alleys. We didn't stay long. It was scary! This is one of the paths we took to get there:



We were all so mesmerised by the souk spaces and thought we didn't get any pictures. But I just found some pictures of the Tripoli souk on my camera!



Next, we found our way out of the winding souks to the crusaders castle.






I was quite happy to leave Tripoli and head down the coast to Byblos, a much more familiar place to me, for a beach party. Ah, the beach. Only a month ago you looked so blue!