Filed under: Life
After a long hiatus from cloth diapering due to some inconveniences posed by our last living situation that I was simply not tough enough to overcome, we are back to cloth diapers. Our stash of organic cotton velour diapers and soft wool covers sat, unloved, in a corner of the last apartment awaiting the day when they’d be back in style around the house. I am a nerd about it, I worked really hard discovering and trying out diapering systems until I learned just what I liked best and then shopped, knit and sewed till we were all stocked up.
Yes, it is good for landfills, healthy for little babies, but ultimately, I only cloth diaper because I love it so much. And if I close my eyes and cuddle Theo in the dark, it’s as if we’re living years ago, on the frontier. A frontier with snaps.
For Christmas Pat and I put together these little bags of homemade stuff for our friends and families in an attempt to simplify: no mall shopping, no gift cards, no big budget. Alas, when all was said and done, I don’t know that we made things any easier or cheaper on ourselves because we got really carried away and ended up including way too much stuff. It was wonderful and I was really happy with how everything turned out. Next year, I would like to be less busy the night before Christmas, though.
Certainly the most time consuming and ultimately the most satisfying of all the projects for me were these. Hand stamped with screen printing ink, hand sewn organic cotton weave dish towels. I love their simplicity, their homespun feel, and their subtle winter theme. I like to think of cooking hot soup and baking bread in a steamy kitchen when I see them. This is the batch I kept for my house, sewn square as napkins instead of towels, on white instead of the red we gave away. Now that my kitchen is chock full of sunlight, I am finally taking some pictures of these lovelies.
I love how the wet ink created a different brindle pattern on each deer.
Filed under: Life
New espresso machine from Christmas + new (very old) kitchen + very old cup with “The Kiss” on it by Gustav Klimpt + Stumptown coffee beans from Satellite + old Ikea chopping block + bright morning =
Filed under: Life
Theo is nearly a year and a half now. Thought I should give him his own little post.
After our basement stint, I’m in awe of all this sunlight. I love, love, love this new home. The sunrises from our bedroom might just turn me into a morning person (they won’t, really). Now I think we’ll go hunting for those monkeyshine balls.
Last night was, again, incredible.
We played our hearts out to a packed house, full of friends, family, and lots of people I’d never met. I’m sticking some pictures up from the night on flickr, but I’m so backlogged it’ll take a little bit. Alas, I don’t have any decent pictures of us playing.
Today I played worm hunter in the dirt with my boys. It was awesome.
And, (I can’t believe I get to type this) after nearly two and a half years of life in transition, working so hard to make our co-housing dreams come true and thinking maybe it was too crazy to ever work, Pat and I are moving with the boys into our dream house. It’s old, little, shared, and perfect and will be our new home on Tuesday (do you want to help us move?).
Here are some pictures of Damien Jurado, Pablo Trucker, and the crowd at New Frontier.
I think this is exciting. Three Imaginary Girls in Seattle gives our Tacoma show tonight at New Frontier with Damien Jurado and Pablo Trucker a teeny, tiny shout. Reading this article makes me feel wonderful.
I like to think that one day Tacoma will have it’s own infrastructure of blogs, newspapers, and various other media which actually reflect what is going on culturally in our town. So many wonderful performances and events go by without so much as a “hey, that was cool” showing up anywhere the day after. Wednesday night I went on a “band field trip” to Chop Suey to see David Bazan and Damien Jurado play. By the next morning, a little google search came up with a review of the night on someone’s blog. That is powerful.
Decent media plays such a vital roll in helping all of us connect and in helping local art to thrive and survive that it nearly makes me want to start a local music review blog. Alas, I have not the time. My mind is brewing up some ideas for talking other people into doing it, though.
It is such a cool site. Are you feeling inspired?
Filed under: Tacoma
I came across this in my inbox this morning. It’s sounds awesome and I will certainly be keeping my eye out.
NEWS RELEASE
Contact:
Ms. Monkey
(253) 222-0716
Ms_Monkey@hotmail.com
600 Hand-blown Glass Balls to be Hidden in Tacoma for Chinese New Year
Tacoma, WA, January 22 – For the sixth year in a row, Monkeyshines, Tacoma’s anonymous glass art project, will be placing hand-blown glass balls throughout the streets and neighborhoods of Tacoma sometime around the date of Chinese New Year. But thanks to a grant from the Tacoma Arts Commission, this year will feature a distribution of approximately 600 glass balls—three times as large as any previous year.
Monkeyshines first became a news item in 2004, when they gave away more than 200 glass balls in honor of the Chinese Year of the Monkey. The next year, in honor of the Chinese Year of the Rooster, 300 glass medallions emblazoned with the profile of a rooster were hidden throughout Tacoma . 2006, 2007 and 2008 saw glass balls stamped with the profile of a dog a boar and a rat, respectively.
In honor of The Year of the Ox, this year’s balls are stamped with an ox’s image. The artworks will be hidden throughout the city sometime aroundChinese New Year, but Monkeyshines won’t give a specific date or time. “The last few years, we’ve had a little trouble with people hanging out on Chinese New Year’s Eve and taking more than one ball,” said a Monkeyshines artist. “This time, we’re keeping the distribution schedule a secret to give more people a chance to find one of these surprises.” For 2009, the new year’s day falls on Monday, January 26.The balls are meant to be gifts for whoever finds them. The artists and participants who hide the balls try to vary the locations to keep the chance of finding one a true surprise. On previous years, the balls were spotted on local beaches, in the branches of trees, throughout downtown, and in clever spots in many Tacoma neighborhoods.
“Oxen are steady, honest, gentle and reliable,” said a Monkeyshines spokesperson. “They’re also seen as a sign of prosperity. I think nearly all of us are really longing for almost everything on that list, making the ox the ideal symbol for the coming year.”In conjunction with the glass art, local poster artists Beautiful Angle created an ox-themed poster, featuring the words, “It’s good and today could get even better,” in reference to a recent front-page News Tribune headline that said, “It’s bad—and today could get even worse.” Monkeyshines representatives want to be clear that the glass balls are meant to be found, taken home, and shared with friends. “This is an art project that is of, by, and for our community,” said one of the lead participants.
Monkeyshines is not an organization. It is a slightly-crazed art project that may or may not occur again. Keep looking in the low-growing branches of trees for more information.
Filed under: Life
Tonight, I don’t know what to say. Playing the Tacoma Artists in the Round with David Bazan on Friday was incredible. I am loving life. I did my art proud and played my heart out to a sold out crowd. I talked to person after person after the show about what our music did to them: how it helped, touched, connected, and resonated with them. I am pretty sure I am doing what I need to be doing. I have no real pictures to share, but they are on their way.
I stayed up late after the show talking to old friends and making new ones. I am learning a little more about what it means to be a spiritual being. I have also spent a good many hours on the phone today with some wonderful artists. I am part of a hurting community. I have to keep doing what I am doing.
Sound vague? This is my attempt at being heard while maintaining some integrity in the online world.
So, talk to me.
Here it is, my latest poster endeavor. This is my third stencil and with each new project I am figuring out my process a little better, making mistakes and learning, and then making new mistakes. I love looking at the stack of finished ones: uniform and yet each a little unique, the result of ridiculous hours of labor. That’s sort of a baby metaphor, except I have made dozens of posters and I think two babies may be my limit.
I don’t actually love the work of making them. The design part is fun, but then the cutting, spraying, typing, glueing, and endless hours in the garage all seem to be the necessary evils before I can look at that nice pile of finished posters.
They are always a little different than I first imagined them. On this one, the color combination came about by mistake as I grabbed the blue can of paint without paying much attention. But I liked it better right away. This particular one that I photographed was not my favorite, but it take a bit to learn how to do them right. There are 24 in this set, 20 of which will be hung around town in the next few days to sprinkle some beauty and raindrops in my city.
So, the big news of this post is that we are playing next week with two great Seattle bands: Damien Jurado and Pablo Trucker.
The small news is that I am living my life and finding beauty and happiness in ways I never really imagined were possible for me.
