i've been obsessively listening to ten in the swear jar and xiu xiu lately.



click and print for a jamie stewart coloring page!

i have a friend who really likes the french revolution.

like REALLY likes it.


for his birthday, i embroidered robespierre, leader of the jacobins. i dont know much about any of this, so you'd have to ask him for details. alls i know is this is what he looks like. I traced over it with a sulky heat transfer pen, then put it on some white fabric.

here he is embroidered. he sorta looks like george washington, oh well.

then i stuck him in a shadow box, and put a frame around him about 2 inches in front of the fabric. it creates a sorta peek in kinda look.

anyway, he says he liked it so im glad! im going to make one for me with gregor mendel. ive almost finished embroidering him.

my brother (^) is moving to France. Maybe I'll go visit him.

i made this envelope for a friend from a book called "Baby Animals" nabbed from the bargain section at Barnes and Noble. Giant glossy pages with picture of cute things are perfect for envelope making.

im loving paper cutouts!

here is a rooster in a shadowbox; he's on my wall with a bunny right now.

today was a really beautiful day. at about 12 am, i posted some secret fortunes in the classrooms and outside around my school. 

"i want to meet you"

"you should be a bit nicer to people"

"going to class isn't the most important thing in the world"

"college isn't the only option."

"in 10 years, you won't remember this class, but you might remember this note"

and as i was walking back to my friend's dorm, i saw this sign. oops.

i laid in my friend's bed until 4, and then i came home and slept for a long, long time. i had a dream that someone i was supposed to hang out with that night went out of town.

i met a friend for lunch. we stopped by a bagel store and i saw a girl whom i had read about on craigslist's missed connections. someone has a crush on her but is too scared to talk to her. she matched the description on the post. i knew it was her. i told her about it and i hope she checks it out. maybe ill go back sometime and ask her about it.

and my dream from the early morning came true; the person i had made plans with went out of town!

i got a cute baby squirrel tattoo!

i think it's important to leave your roommate secret notes everyday. the more random, the better. today i went to Foods of All Nations. I was psyched because they have some good european candy. also, they have cadbury mini eggs - the best easter candy ever. not those gross creamy things, these guys have a chalky sugar shell and super good milk chocolate inside. i love easter. yet another sign that i might be jesus. lets add it to the list:

REASONS I THINK IM JESUS
1. stigmata
2. meekly nice
3. love easter (for the candy)

REASONS I MIGHT NOT BE JESUS
1. not jewish
2. dont believe in me
3. dont have apostles - yet.

another reason to love easter is baby chicks. my mom used to get them in her easter basket. this has never happened to me. when i get older and have some money i'd like to have chickens and a goat maybe. you know what always cheers me up? saying PEEP PEEP out loud. go ahead, try it.

here is what's on my wall: it makes me happy
most people have photographs of friends or family. that's kind of boring. mhm.

this was a birthday present - and an awesome one at that - it's a linocut of a man and his bike in Amsterdam. 

i think bugs are pretty cool. i dont know though. if i saw these guys walking around my room i might feel differently. but i wouldnt kill them. no no no.

this is a photograph by my friend ellie (blog link soon!). it's a squirrel amongst nutcrackers. i was really impressed.



this is a shadowbox i made with some of my vintage buttons. my favorite one is the smoking one. resting on it is a postcard of souther salazar. he's amazing.

i'm sorry that i take such shitty photographs. I should learn how to do that...


on another note, id like to say that this weekend has been a pretty good one. i love listening to people talk about what they love. kate, thanks for talking to me about your epiphanies. they're beautiful. chandler, i loved hearing about reed. im so excited for you and jealous! james, hearing you talk about SAS is awesome.

does anyone else feel like going to class is making them dumber? i mean so far i've had only one teacher talk about the subject with passion. and it was an awesome class because of that. genetics and anatomy with pennybacker was awesome last year because he was excited about it.


i know that college is making me less creative.

correspondence

it's important to have stickers of yourself. i put them on my letters so my pals dont forget what i look like. 
this is a letter to my friend kimbles. i drew pictures on the border of my banana pipe, my moccasins (and a cigarette heading towards them), and pb and j. 

this is the cover of the letter. more dwell cut-outs. 

i am very hungry, there's nothing to eat here. nothing looks good to me anymore. i just want seaweed salad from tokyo rose. mmm. 

i made these little envelopes from dwell magazine and glued them onto cards. i was inspired by martha stewart. 

they're for 2 friends' birthdays, who hopefully never read this. i mean does anyone?

i made this stocking for a buddy for xmas. he loves 80s/90s volkswagens. this is a mk 2 gti. i was happy with how it turned out. you may recall the one i made for my friend charlie last year. charlie still has it hanging up in his room. i thought that was sweet. 

i like nice people.

here is what my day consisted of:

1. waking up at 11
2. reading blogs
3. eating banana cake with lemon glaze frosting that my bunny and i made together
4. talking to my bunny on the phone about the redeeming qualities of cycling caps (it may have been an argument) and the merits of backing out or pulling through a rotunda parking spot
5. planning dinner with my dad
6. playing street fighter alpha 2

winter break is lovely, but i think i can stand for it to be over. i need more direction.

a preview of something i've been working on:

i havent been very creative since ive been home. ive been so antsy and i have some nice ideas, but i havent been motivated. oh well. at least i have something to keep me busy...

happy december!
here is a wish list:

a mercier kilo tt. this is my new bike-of-choice. it's more practical (and less expensive) than a keirin. i also want to get it powder coated. i'll probably go with a sea-foam green. or maybe navy.

here are some books i want to read and thus i want to own:








I am literally obsessed with this bracelet from bittersweetsny. i actually think i like a ring they have better. but this bracelet is the epitome of awesome design.


owl pendant for A.P.C. owls are very trendy, and of the millions of owl necklaces i've seen, this is the most unique and cute.


no description needed - just gorgeous.


a 500$ honeycomb blanket from 2modern. so beautiful but more money than i would ever want to spend on a blanket.

what do you want for the holidays?

My boyfriend, Will, turned 21 on Sunday. I wanted to make it a pretty awesome bday - 21 is a pretty big one.


I bought him a Jeff Lewis plays Crass album. It's really good. I saw this wrapping style in a Martha book. Basically you wrap your gift in tissue paper and then wrap it again in folded parchment paper. I just used tracing paper. The folds are very convenient for tucking in notes.


I also got him a straight razor set from Lehmann's and wrapped it in newspaper.


I dropped off a strawberry cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory in the hotel room before I brought him there and at midnight we lit the candles, he blew them out, and then we went to the bar for a drink and to watch people dance.

I got the most awesome and unexpected care package in the mail on Friday.

After "ignori[ng that] part," I found a note with a cute description of everything contained inside.



this picture doesn't include all of the awesome things inside. everything was so thoughtful and perfect.


thanks, Anh!

GOOD WAYS TO CHEER UP (non craft edition)

1. listen to songs about people who feel the same way as you. Jeff Lewis, Spoonboy, and Kimya Dawson have been saying all the things that I can't lately.
2. plan something fun. I've been starting to think about christmas, which is fun because then I can think about being home and being with the people I love. I want to make it a really nice time.
3. lately looking at pictures on Flickr can really cheer me up.
4. call a loved one. will cheers me up.
5. think about drugs.
6. go somewhere alone.
7. when you're bored in class make up stupid stories abotu the people around you.
8. eat great tasting, beautiful food
9. buy something nice for yourself or a friend.
10. take a day! when it's your day you feel great.

Well,
One post during October.
I've hit an all time low!

I feel so uncreative here - but today while reading about el dio de los muertos i remembered my little embroidered day of the dead skull that i have been meaning to make into a bag. then i looked down at my sewing machine (that's right! my very own sewing machine! a belated bday gift to myself), and I looked at my thread, so I decided to get off my ass - and well, get back on my ass - but this time with zipper and 4 pieces of fabric in hand. I didn't have straight pins but it worked well anyway. So I present to you, my DAY OF THE DEAD ZIPPERED BAG, the first product of MY BRAND NEW SEWING MACHINE!





yay!

I need to admit- i was lazy for halloween and did nothing. i'm glad it's over. all the halloween stuff in the stores just made me feel guilty for not feeling it this year.

I plan on getting an early start to xmas. As you may have read, last year I decorated with a cowboy theme. this year it's going to be lumberjack-ed out. lumberjack xmas!! how fun! squirrels, woodgrain, thermoses, flannel, fir trees - i'll keep you updated.

School is going a bit worse. i am really lonely and busy here. but today, riding my bike around some of the most beautiful buildings and gorgeous trees was enough to banish all negative thoughts from my head.

anyway, tell me what you think!

the fabric store makes me happy.

i might be in a craft fair! ill let you know if it works out.

ive been trying to embroider but transferring images onto fabric is hard with a dorm-sized iron,