i've had the time of my life...

all right dude by now it's old news, but patrick swayze passed away today. i'm really sad about it - that guy made both the best and the worst movies ever and now you gotta sit there and listen to me talk about it!

number one, like most preteen girls in the 80s i LOVED the dirty dancing movie. had the soundtrack, had the second soundtrack, saw the movie about 8 billion times between the ages of 10 and 32. (lemme share with you that in the back of my head, i always thought it was kinda weird that johnny and baby hooked up because it was like the gabrielle carteris thing in 90210 - i could not get past the fact that swayze looked way older than the early 20s or so character he was playing)

yeah, i liked ghost all right when it came out. (SAM WHEAT!!!) but for me, it was all about coming out - one of my fave swayze movies ever was to wong foo, thanks for everything, julie newmar. PURE COMEDY GOLD.

no wait, what's better - patrick swayze as a drag queen or patrick swayze doing chippendales dancing with chris farley(r.i.p.) ?!? crap. this may take some thinking.

while i still haven't seen point break or roadhouse all the way through, i did get to see a chunk of roadhouse once a couple of years ago, and one of the best lines ever is "you're too stupid to have a good time". also, a couple of years ago the huzzz and his brother introduced me to the classic red dawn. that shit is intense and fully awesome so you should probably rent it. rumor has it they're working on a remake. rumor also has it they suck.

so back to swayze! true story, a couple of halloweens ago josh and i went out to south carolina to see our savannah friends for halloween, and when we got there our buddy trav had carefully placed a huge dirty dancing poster on our bed, complete with fake autograph from johnny castle himself saying "thanks for the great time at kellermans this year! i truly was the time of my life".

i think it was shortly after that, that josh and i found his older than dirt typewriter. we started writing random silly letters to the savannah kids. i don't know who got our patrick swayze letter, but it started as a fan letter to patrick swayze, and then slowly devolved into creepy fanness, and then joking anger that he may have pushed jerry orbach (r.i.p.) down the stairs. and i think it was the last line of the letter where we wrote "i hate you johnny castle".



which we later made into a shirt design that we sold via hearts and laserbeams for a long while.

also, one year for our anniversary i spent about 10 seconds photoshopping (badly) josh and i's faces onto the dirty dancing poster.



that's not all the reasons i love johnny castle, patrick swayze, vida boheme, the whole kit n kaboodle, but it's a lot of em. and that's all the reasons i'm wishin i had a watermelon to carry in mourning.

WOLVERRRRRIIIIIIINESSSSS!!!!!

all kinds of fun news!

i am chock full of art news today!

yesterday i found out that my art school savannah college of art and design was looking for people that went there to contribute paintings for an upcoming project. so i email the gent, and send him to the paintings section of my etsy shop. he wrote back telling me that my flipping bird painting would be perfect and could i get it out to new york by next tuesday?



um, yes please thank you! even more so when i asked for more details about the project. apparently, scad's working on revamping studio 54 and will be styling a dressing room for an upcoming carrie fisher 1 woman show. and my painting will be in her dressing room.

my painting.

will be in her dressing room.

carrie fisher.

there's talk that hgtv will be covering this project and that us weekly, usa today and other press outlets have made inquiries, and that is awesome. but i'm completely bowled over by it being for CARRIE EFFING FISHER!!!

want a little piece of hearts and laserbeams history? prints of this painting are available!



in other exciting news, my candy corn party fabric design is part of this week's spoonflower halloween contest - i am currently getting my butt kicked by another cute design so please PLEASE consider a vote for hearts and laserbeams! if i win there'll be a great big sale to celebrate!

who wants to see something new!!!

this here is a photo of the huzzz josh cutting open one of those heineken minikegs with his dremel tool. lookit those sparks fly! there was a rattley noise coming from inside the empty keg so he wanted to see what was inside - i predicted an even smaller keg of beer! unfortunately getting inside this thing is hard work and we don't have access to a chain saw so the project was abandoned.

and that's not the only show and tell i've got for today!



check out our dog jimmy the greek on a brand new coaster set! 50% of the price of these coaster sets will benefit the humane society, cuz we're huge fans of helpin out the homeless animals!

there's all kinds of new stuff in the shop today, including mousepads, coaster sets, stationery and personalized easter plates!



order your easter plates soon soon soon, cuz it takes a little time to get em made up - unfortunately there's not quite time to get them if you're international, but U.S. orders can be placed until march 22 with guarunteed easter delivery!

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!

happy new years!!!

omg i am awful, it's already a week into the new year, i've been home from vacation for like 3.5 days now, and i STILL have not updated anything on the blog!!

i'll keep it short and sweet, but the holidays were a blasty! was bequeathed with a spanky new buttonmaker that will greatly expand the amount of stuff i can make for your artsy fartsy enjoyment, keep an eye out for all kinds of new designs soon!

a big ol group of us went to savannah to stay at the farm for a week and it was amazing. lots of good times all around - if ya wanna take a gander at our shenanigans, go here! if ya wanna see what celeb paid a visit to the ol' farmstead, go here! if ya wanna see actual for real pics of our farm, go here! enjoy!

i did a crazy amount of reading on the trip out and back, so in the next couple of days i'll have new book reports for you!

pow!!! it's great to be back!

plopcorn for everyone!

hope y'all had an awesome thanksgiving! ours was cool, nice and chill and good times all around ending with a ton of tasty food and me conkin out on the couch by 8pm! it's because i'm an old fogey, you see.

so there were some amazing deals out there for black friday, so much so that josh and i actually got up at 430am on friday to go to target! we got there by about 545am, and the line was HUGE. and really, honestly, one of the biggest reasons we went (aside from sale cameras!) was this:



josh had seen this popcorn maker at target a few weeks ago and fell in love. he's been wantin an air popper for a while cuz he hearts popcorn like no ones business and who knows what's in the microwave stuff!



here he is waiting oh so patiently for his first batch of old-timey-popcorn-popper-air-popped popcorn...



here's a shot of the popcorn popper's hole... yuk yuk yuk...



and the moneyshot!!! this popcorn maker's awesome, it shoots the kernels out pretty violently, like they bounce outta the bowl onto the floor sometimes! but oh so delicious! (the popcorn from the bowl, not the stuff from the floor, you understand.)

best thing about air-popped popcorn? you can put all the unpopped kernels back into the air popper for round 2! hooray!!!

also awesome about this weekend, i've been workin on 4 new paintings for the january bird show at cactus gallery - stay tuned for pics! on that note i gotta jet, caddyshack just came on ye olde television and it's totally beckoning to me!!!

notes from work - the thanksgiving edition!

ok so with tomorrow being thanksgiving, i have like a billion things on my to do list today - i thought i was being smart, and tried to get a bunch of it done before work. which left me running late to the office, as usual.


and of course, strangeness from the moment i get to my desk.


who the hell would leave a frozen turkey sitting on my laptop?!!?


i mean, there's all kinds of water, ice, condensation, things that are generally BAD FOR COMPUTERS!!! almost everyone here at hearts and laserbeams headquarters is pretty competent, so there's really only one person it could be--


and JUST as i was thinking that, guess who's boss comes breezing in.
"HI!!!" she says brightly... too brightly... i couldn't help thinking to myself what the eff is going on?!


i guess she could read that all over my face, cuz the next thing outta my boss's mouth was "what's your problem?" so i ask her what this thing is on my desk.


"mmmm, looks like a frozen turkey, genious," she says, "you oviously can't work like this why don't you go home early?"


"what are you talking about? i just got here," i tell her.


"whatever, happy thanksgiving, give me a hug and get out of here! but be here before 4am on friday, i'm going to kohls to buy gloves on sale and i want someone in the office just in case."

so... do i win because i got to go home early, or do i lose cuz i have to be here at 4am friday? i dunno... i'm just thankful my boss isn't a jerk ALL the time. have a great holiday folks!

notes from work: halloween costume contest

omg guys, i love halloween!

y'all know i'm working full time at hearts and laserbeams now; i was so excited to hear that they have a halloween costume contest! hearts and laserbeams really knows how to treat its employees well, and 1st prize in their yearly contest wins a bottle of wine and a nap on company time. these are both things i feel very strongly about, so i knew my costume had to be tops.

a couple of weeks ago i was looking through a thrift store, and i found it. the winner. perfection. as soon as i saw this polyester blue dress, everything in my field of vision went to soft focus and i heard a heavenly voice say "these have always brought me luck".



it was that moment i knew i absolutely had to be liz taylor circa the white diamonds commercial for halloween.



so this morning, i got to work bright and early and started checking emails. i brought a bunch of rhinestones to spread around my desk for effect, and was feeling very, very sure of myself that this contest was in the bag.


that is, until our receptionist came by my desk to drop off the latest issue of craft magazine.


i couldn't believe it - our new receptionist, steph, had THE EXACT SAME COSTUME AS ME.


"what the hell is this?" i asked her.
"i don't know what your problem is," she replied, "white diamonds liz taylor is huge this year."


"like have you seen steph the janitor?" she asked, "she's liz taylor, too."


"and so is steph in I.T., and our accountant steph," she continued.


well this just sucks! turns out our jerky bosslady's got a penchant for ol' lizzy, too. effing wonderful.


"what the hell you want?" my boss asked "you know i'm tryin to watch people's court."
when i reminded her we were supposed to be having the contest first thing in the morning, she told me to get everyone together so she could judge it real quick during the commercials.


"hmmmm.... this is pretty tough," she says, "you guys all look so... lame."


she continued, saying "yeah i can hardly even tell who you're supposed to be."


she whips out her bottle of white diamonds and yells "obviously my attention to detail means i win, suckas!"


"and lemme just say, i wanna thank all the little people... i couldn't have won this prestigous award without you all looking like crap and i really appreciate that."


with that, she drank the whole bottle of wine and passed out for the rest of the work day.

as soon as she was unconscious, we all stole from her wallet and went home for the day so i guess in the end, everybody wins!

happy halloween everyone!

pick up your copy of this week's the district magazine!

i am so jazzed that the district weekly interviewed me for this weeks' "best of long beach" issue - i got to tell them all kinds of great things about living here! the issue hit stands today, so keep your eye out and pick up a copy!

fyi though! i have a bit of a knack for being wordy when i'm excited, so my entire interview isn't in the print edition - for that, you'll have to visit the article online!

the magazine is available pretty much everywhere all throughout long beach for the next week and it's FREE! if you're out of the area and would like one mailed, email me at heartsandlaserbeams@gmail.com and i'll get one out to ya!



in other news, put a slathering of stuff that's been in storage back into the shop between yesterday and today - custom 1" buttons are back, along with cool things like tiny watercolors and outlet covers!

most exciting, i just designed a couple of new plates for the holidays that are fully customizeable - pick either santa or a reindeer, pick your colors, add your own personal message, and pow! a fun gift for any little one (or big one, for that matter)... check em out:





thanks for lookin, stay tuned tomorrow when i tell you all about today's jury duty!

thank you for being a friend!

i just realized like last week that etsy has "appreciation" photos that you can upload as part of your feedback, so i created this today to pass along to customers! once my workshop is up and running again i'd love to redesign these as thank you cards, maybe as a 3 color linoblock print.

new design work is on the horizon, with awesome new holiday items, so stay tuned!

dear sees candy...

dear sees candies,

i heart your candy like no one's business, and have all my candy-eating life! my awesome mom-in-law sent us one of your fancypants candyfilled easter baskets for easter, and i just have the tiniest of bones to pick with you.

sees candies, i think one of your chocolate egg decorators is a drunk. i present to you, exhibit a:



look how that little sugar flower is practically falling off the side of the egg. and it's not even a whole flower! this dude isn't even trying to hide his illness anymore, he's just having his buddy jose cuervo phone it in while he stumbles around the flower-making machine in a stupor.

i'm not saying the egg wasn't delicious, i'm just saying maybe this dude needs help. and maybe you should send me more choco eggs to make up for it. i think like 50 should do it.

thanks so much, you're a peach!

steph

lets all jump on a trampoline! it's thanksgiving!

happy thanksgiving, chumos!!! i'm thankful that josh was able to get the day off! now instead of hanging out at home working on painting all day and then eating with him when he got home from work, we're actually doing thanksgiving style plans, goin' out to see his aunt and uncle and cousins in riverside for the day, hooray!

what this means for you is we're putting the shake and bake turkey on hold. maybe we'll cook it up for xmas? don't be sad homies, there IS a shake and bake turkey on the horizon, it's just a question of when.

other news... dates were set for my painting show! and i'm 3/4 done with the paintings for it! i'm hoping to finish the last four over this long weekend, and then it's just framing and hanging! pow!

aaaaaaaand if you're in the l.a. area be sure to stop by the handmade for the holidays show at fairfax high school on friday and saturday, it's gonna be awesome!

happy thanksgiving!

hoppy easter, yuk yuk yuk!

hope y'all are havin a lovely easter!

today's been fun - started out playing a few rounds of our new family feud computer game, which could possibly get a little addicting... and then, and this is what you came here for, josh and i loaded jimmy up in the car and headed to 2nd street for the annual easter dog parade!

it was so awesome - we weren't sure how our dog would react cuz he tends to get overly excited around other dogs. he was really super good, though, just chillin out, happy to be walkin around and getting petted by bazillions of people and smellin tons of butts. i think they have another one for halloween, so we'll probably try and come up with some kind of outlandish costume for him for that... there's some stiff competition, you know? people go ALL OUT for this shit!

anyways, check out the pics and hope you and yours are havin a great day!

also, this weekend's theme seems to have been let's do new stuff that's there to do in long beach - josh and i went kayaking in the long beach marina yesterday and it was AMAZING. saw a bunch of moon jellies, a stingray and some sea slugs. so glad it's almost summer and they're open all the time because i really think i'm gonna wanna go lots more.