recap from the arthouse coop sketchbook opening!

dude, last night my sister michelle came over to hang out and after we ordered delicious chinese food from mr. chens, we remembered the opening reception for the sketchbook project show with art house coop was going on in atlanta!

and that they were webcasting it!

AND we are both in it!

so the first step was to get onto facebook and twitter to adjust our statuses to alert the masses that we were attending the opening via the webcast!

step 2 was to be told repeatedly by the art house website that they could only let 50 people into the webcast area at a time! being patient stinks!

so to pass the time we ate delicious chinese food! orange chicken, wantons and steamed rice, and don't skimp on the woodchuck!

we finally got into the chatroom with 40 minutes left in the reception! woo!!!

i'm leanin in for a closer look, and we're plottin all the hobo jokes that we will later tell the group in the chatroom!

beer and the internets is a winning combination, by the way!

we finished off the night with fortune cookies... and let's just say michelle's may not have really fit her persona...

all in all we had a really fun night! after the art house show closed, we spent time on youtube watching world war 2 era disney cartoons and the redubbed gi joes including my all time fave, and oh dude i finally saw dr. horrible! you must watch it! i will always and forever be hopelessly in love with neil patrick harris, the end.

and also tonight is roller derby night and i'm super jazzed! but i'll say exactly what i said last game, i wish mila minute or laura palm-her were skating, but i'm sure it's gonna be a kickass game!

pow!!!

best. job. ever.

the winner of "best job ever" has got to be my sister danielle, who is currently interning on the kevin and bean morning show here in l.a.

if you need proof, click here for the link, click on "kevin and bean" on the left sidebar and watch the kevin and bean tv video called "beermug eats prison cheetos". my sister danielle, rockin' a green shirt and short hair, shows up on the left side of the screen a few times as she follows the djs directions on how to make a prison recipe for cheetos.

lemme say it again.

best. job. ever.

argyle for everyone!

so last spring i had started this dog sweater, and for whatever reason about 20 minutes away from finishing it i put it in the closet and forgot about it for almost a year!!! wtf! busted it out again this week at stitch n bitch and i totally finished that shit! i think it turned out pretty awesome and jimmy doesn't totally hate wearing it. (he know he gets all kinds of special attention from other people when he wears clothes so he's pretty tolerant)

if you didn't know, jimmy the greek has a celebrity page on facebook and you definitely should become a fan - write a note to him on the wall, he ALWAYS answers his fan mail!

also, have you heard about the sketchbook project? it's a great show being put on by the art house cooperative, and the travellin show starts today! artists from all over (including me and my sister!) all drew in a CRAPLOAD of sketchbooks and mailed em in. these fine folks are takin the show on the road and will be exhibiting the sketchbooks at nine different places - if you're east coast you may be able to see em in person! check out the show dates here!

AND if you're not east coast, you can see a live broadcast of the first show tonight! i believe it takes place from 7-10pm eastern time, so look sharp!

night off for good behavior!

i was gonna blog tonight but then josh was all "hey you wanna go get snacks and beers with me?"

and that my friends, takes precedence tonight hooray!

i will tell you though, that i've started work on more pieces for the underwater critters line, and there'll be some great paper products like sticky notes and bookmarks and cards soon!

have a good one, be back with a real post tomorrow!

let's get buck wild up in this piece!

ok here's a cycle that happens constantly in my life:

i'll pass a store that looks awesome like five million times thinking i should go in, and never get around to it. then the store closes. then i get sad for never having gone in.

i cannot begin to tell you how many awesome places i've missed in long beach because of it - that totally sweet antique place that was a block away from the 4th street ralphs that always had one of those 60s egg-shaped chairs out front? never went in. that cool retro-antiquey-kitschy shop in a house (i think it was called blast from the past?) on the corner of 4th and redondo? never went in.

so guess what, it was all set to happen again, but this time the cycle's been broken!!! another place that i have eyeballed litterally a billion times while driving by it on long beach boulevard (it's just south of where the 405 crosses long beach blvd) is closing, but this time we've stopped to check it out!

it's the buck wild dollar store!!! it's literally THE BEST DOLLAR STORE NAME OF ALL TIME!

and if you didn't see the sign on the street, looking at this parking sign it looks like you might be at a strip joint!

josh recreates a classic photo i took of my bff jenn at walmart years ago - you can see the original here!

the sad thing about this dollar store adventure is that they're closing. but the good thing is that meant everything in the store was 50% off!!! and while it's totally typical dollar store fare, there is some good shit! all kinds of fun kids crafty and school supplies, and just lots of little odds and ends.

but lookit all the stuff we scored for 18 bucks!!!

i highly recommend if you live in the area getting your ass there asap! they're located at 3090 long beach blvd, long beach ca 90807. tell em large marge sent ya!

hearts and laserbeams book report: sew darn cute

ok i have to tell you i'm a total fan of jenny ryan. number one, she's the brains and brawn behind felt club. number two, she's super duper nice. these are two huge things in my book, so you better believe that when i found out she wrote a sewing book i preordered that shit post haste!

and look how cute the cover is!



hearts and laserbeams book report: sew darn cute by jenny ryan

ok i aint gonna lie to you, this book is chock full of super cute fun projects; all of which would be great gifts for friends or family and cover a multitude of occasions! housewarming? check out the embellished kitchen towels or recycled coasters! baby shower? check out the spumoni quilt and squarebears!

these patterns aren't written to be followed strictly as is and i love that - there's pattern pieces to be sure, but there's plenty of encouragement to branch out and make your own remixes. everything's written in a very welcoming friendly style, like you're sittin and chattin with jenny ryan over a cup of coffee. if you're familiar in your sewing skin, you can skip the intro pages and get right to the nitty gritty but if you're a beginner there are LOTS of awesome helpful sewing tips to get you started!

i decided that since this isn't really a reading type book, more of a how-to book, i'd do one of the how-tos as part of my book report - i chose the reversible headband, mostly because i didn't feel like searching through my oodles of supplies to find the interfacing or stuffing that's needed for a bunch of the other projects!


i decided on this totally sweet multicolored bird fabric i got at michael levine months ago, and a clean off-white fabric for the reverse side.


i also decided my dog jimmy the greek should join me in my crafting endeavors!


got all my pieces cut out, and did some sketches on cute embellishment ideas!


started stitchin some outlines of stars onto the birds side while watching the bachelor (my secret guilty tv pleasure!) check it out, someday i'll teach you how to airbrush a supremely shiny forehead in a photo... you totally can't even tell i had one!


check out my flying fingers of fury!!


i ended up with a bunch of stitchy stars on the birds side, and some fun felt flower appliques on the reverse side! i had so much fun just messin around the other day i just kept adding more and more little tiny stars and french knots to this thing and i love how it looks! i'm a big fan of retro-y stardust effects!


sewing the pieces all together! lookit my face, this takes serious concentration!


and voila! the finished product! i love how it turned out, but if i could do it over i would've taken a liiiiitle more time attaching the ties to the main piece... they didn't quite match up just right... but on the upside the way i normally wear headbands that part'll be hidden by my hair.


modellin one side,


and the other!

basically this book is just as awesome as its author, and you should get your copy immediately!

ratings
5 hearts: love love love all of the projects and the book design! jenny gets extra points for calling me "shitlips" in her autograph to me from the book signing the other night, too. FTW!!!

0 farts: nuff said!

revenge of the reinbeer!!!

ok check it out, for xmas this last year, our buddy gayle gave josh and i a couple of these awesome reinbeer!



and for whatever reason, the beer in our house is always slow to go. i don't know if it's because it's on the bottom shelf of our fridge and it just kinda weirdly gets forgotton? so anyways, here we are at the end of february and those little guys STILL hadn't been drunk! something i'm not proud of!

on saturday night i was hanging out with gayle and her buddy wes, and we were at the pike and having beers, and she ordered something deliciously hoppy and i got my wussy ladylike wyder pear cider, and she point blank asks me "have you drank those reinbeer yet?"

and in my head i was like OH SHIT. and in my mouth i was like "uh yeah! totally!" cuz i didn't wanna be rude and say no i always forget there's beer in my fridge because the rum is right at eye level!

i'll tell you what i TOTALLY got called on it!! the next thng out of her mouth was "cuz the last time i came over (which was recently) they were still in your fridge!"

and i had to fess up. and i had to dedicate a post to gayle, the reinbeers and her delicious HOPS HOPS HOPS!

and i also had to prove that one of them is now gone!



also fun for today, i got featured on found handmade! check out the link and let em know what you think!

imagonna stitch the shit outta it!

today was all kinds of fun! drove up to handmade galleries in sherman oaks cuz the crafty chica has written a new book and she was havin a book signing slash crafty demo, and it was just really cool getting to sit with some of my fave crafty peeps chattin and sewing and laughing and we just had a blasty!

this was my first time meeting the crafty chica (aka kathy cano-murillo), and she was just SUPER nice! her demo was puffy appliques, where you cut a picture from one piece of fabric and applique it to a contrasty piece of fabric - stitch around the edge, add some polyfill inside, and pow! adorableness!

i wish i had thought to get my camera out and snap some pics of the cool stuff people were doing; i was just so into doin my little embroidery thing i lost track of the photodocumenting! it's always kinda fun to just go with the flow without having any sort of plan - i sat there for 3 hours just adding more and more to my piece and here's how it turned out:



and i also picked up a copy of her new book AND 2 little bottles of glitter because i heart glitter like no ones business!



and also, jenny ryan of felt club fame had a book signing on friday at reform school which i also went to and it was ALSO faboo! stay tuned, in the future i'm gonna do a book report on her book, too!

book reports for everyone!

and now i'm kickin back and watchin the oscars!

guess what i like pancakes!

ok, just in case you haven't heard...

i'm obsessed with nannerpuss.

have you seen nannerpuss? he was the star of a dennys superbowl ad, and he is AWESOME. you can see for yourself if you click on this link. you'll recognize him on the page as the yellow octopus-like chap sitting jauntily atop a pile of delicious pancakes! deeeeeelicious i tell you!

my favorite part of the commercial, is if you watch real close he actually rips one of his eyes off half-way through. THAT is how committed he is to selling you hot tasty dennys breakfasts!

anyhow, i am cleaning up for an open house this morning, sat down for what was supposed to be five minutes to answer a couple of emails, and ended up making this:



the question for you the public: what do you think of nannerpuss and wouldn't you like to see more of him? comments please!

TOTALLY AWESOME UPDATE!! oh and also you know i'm totally entering my pic in this contest!

guess who's wickedly chic!

i was ceremoniously dubbed wickedly chic's "reader of the week" this week, and to celebrate i will now eat a hamburger covered in chocolate!

oh i'm sorry that's wickedly gross, not chic.

uh... this is awkward.... lookit the pic they used, i love it! it's from josh and i's honeymoon at the fanciest wendys ever in st thomas.



(that totally makes it sound like we honeymooned at wendys, and maybe we did. we just really heart frostys, don't judge us!)

my finished poster entry...

just uploaded my entry in the flight of the conchords poster design contest; cross your fingers for me! there's some really great designs on the site!

whoop whoop! shop news!!

hey folks, two things that you simply must know!

1) if you're cosidering placing an order for that special someone for valentine's day, you besssst get crackin! it's comin up on saturday, don't you know, and you need to order by tuesday night to make sure your goodies get there in time! don't forget to let me know if you'd like a special gift message enclosed!

all orders placed before tuesday night will ship us postal service priority mail wednesday morning and that should be enough time to get anywhere in the continental u.s. of a by saturday!

2) this one's a biggie! from now on hearts and laserbeams will ship your order worldwide for FREE!!! wowee wow wow!!

3) my sister danielle told me today she got the dream internship she was tryin for, with the kevin and bean morning show on kroq - you should tune in on tuesdays and thursdays starting next week cuz you might get to hear her from time to time! and she's awesome! congrats danielle!

4) i almost never stop at 2 things when i have 2 things to tell people, the end!

5) odd numbers always make for stronger layouts so let's end on five. i'm working on a poster design for the flight of the conchords poster contest - will be sleepin on it tonight and revisiting tomorrow, and if i still heart it i'll share it with you!

this weekend in long beach!

whew!!

ok this was the busiest work week i've had in a lonnnnnng while, but all work is done, files are turned in, and invoice sent so hooray for a few hours of breaktime! and by breaktime, i mean i'll be bustin out some tasty 1" buttons to hand out at some upcoming shopping events that you should check out if you have the time!

tonight!
6-9pm - sip and shop

a bunch of cool stores at redondo and broadway in long beach will be having special little things going on for you to check out - here's who's participating!

BABCOCK AND COOKE - Gifts & cards for that special person
DDR PROJECTS - Give the gift of Art
SASHA'S-LIVING WITH STYLE - Gifts for the Home & Gifts for Her
SOMATIC - Piercing, Jewelry & Beauty
SPA SIDNEY - Everyone loves to be pampered
SHORE BOOKS - Time to read a new book
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT - "Make & Take" Cute Feather Accessories with Jewelry Designer Wendi Grant
THE OUTFIT - Mini Beauty Bar with Christy Funk from Belly Sprout

make extra sure to pay a visit to ddr projects (they just opened up next to the kids are alright at 3403 East Broadway), where the long beach craft mafia will be showin all kinds of great arts and crafts! and free craft mafia 1" buttons while they last! pow!

aaaaaand this sunday i'll be sharing a booth with my sister michelle of mickmunk13 at the rose bowl flea market! make sure you come to the arts and crafts section to see all of our rad valentines for your valentine! (or for you, we're not here to judge!)

rose bowl flea market
9am - 3pm
1001 rose bowl drive
pasadena, ca 91103

hope to see you there!

pow!!!