wanna laugh?

this is my cat chaz, hiding under the sheets of my bed. he's actually also hiding from the sheet but that's another story. anyway, he's really just mood lighting. i gotta show you something. but first, a warning: i didn't write this. i kinda wish i did. my dear friend jeffrey (who used to be my house-mate jeffrey) sent me the link and when i read it i laughed so hard i almost peed. for real. enjoy this link.

certifiable

yup, i'm certified. fancy schmancy, as my Grandpa would say. Ranger U rocked my block. seriously, best time ever. it was so wonderful to be in student mode. to play and learn and experiment and to be in the company of other artists with the same mission. the scope of talent in that room was freaking amazing. stampers, scrappers, stamp-manufacturers, lawyers, creative directors, teachers, designers- and each one of them with this insane talent. folks from all over the world (love me some british and autralian accents!) and all over the country (michigan, missouri, oregon, philly, maine, california, you name it...) it was flipping incredible. i'm still kinda high from the whole thing. can you tell?

robin beam and tim holtz are a great team, they have fantastic chemistry- a real friendship and respect between them, which is so fun to see. you can totally see how they inspire each other and push each others creativity. i can not freaking wait to see the new stuff Ranger is coming up with, because of these two. and they are the coolest teachers- smart as hell, creative and funny and professional and kind. working with them was a pleasure and an honor. their enthusiasm for my work is something i will return to for strength in moments of doubt for probably the rest of my life. i feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to learn from them, not just about inks & embossing powders (though ask me about inks and embossing powders- i know so much now, i got info coming out my ears!) but about designing and teaching and working in the industry and working a room. and holy bananas, the product we got. it was like winning the inky lottery. miss kristi-cakes, get ready to invoke- i got some serious new toys for us to play with! i also got tim's new book, Distressables 2 (frigging amazing stuff, for true. and i like that he legitimizes my craft for my guy/punk-ish friends) and an awesome new book from Design Originals called Ink Essentials, featuring a whole bunch of robin's work (she's so freaking talented, she blows my mind.) and also some other awesome artists like erikia ghumm, who does amazing things with color wash. spent the whole train ride curled up with those two. then i realized that my dad who had taken care of mr. chaz and miss lil for the weekend, well, he had taken my huse key with him to pennsylvania to visit my brother joe at college. so i had an impromptu day at my dear friend jared's house and it was so fun. we rearranged his living room furniture. well, i barked orders and made design choices. he rearranged furniture (car-busted arm doing better, but not furniture-moving-ready. at least not yet.) . and then jeffrey and i went grocery shopping together and then we all cooked dinner and made dessert and watched the Simpsons and it was just the homiest day, being in my city and with my boys, and i just loved it so much that i was glad my key went to pennsylvania by mistake.

oh, the chaos

it's been a wild few weeks. i spent the afternoon of tuesday, september 12th being hit by a car crossing the street near my house, and dealing with the aftermath of such an event. i'm ok. bruised up and banged around, but i'm alright. that's important thing #1. but i was in a lot of pain for the first week or so. i slept for days, was out of work a week. spent time in a sling that looked like a fancy jock-strap. now i'm chillin', if a little weak on the right side. still going for electricity in my muscls and getting adjusted like the good little holistic chick i am. i have a scan on wednesday to measure nerve function. we'll see how it goes.

in other news, i went to see Little Miss Sunshine tonight with my friend karen. we were the only people in the theatre and it was so fun. that movie is freaking amazing. the most wonderful costuming, and amazing photography and the characters- oh, i don't even have words for it. best thing ever. go see it. i think i'm going to to see it again tomorrow. this is the kind of movie i think i should maybe watch once a day every day. you too.

not for 2peas

i made this layout this evening after clearing off my table enough to have a flat orizontal surface large enough to actually lay down some paper. it's exactly what i had in mind when i bought this postcard at a little shop in the west village. one of the twisty little streets off seventh, i forget which. i'm feeling this ambivalence about making public my political scrappage. true ambivalence, as in being pulled in opposite directions. because the point of this art is revolution. because what is the stuff for if not to be made public, to create opportunities for thought or conversation, why make it if not to make it known. and yet, in the back of my mind (and the warnings of some well-meaning folks who are true in their concern and must be considered if not heeded) there is the issue of a paycheck. there is the issue of marketability, selectively showing one's work to create the most widely likeable image. there is the fact that i am lucky enough to at 26 years old to be making a living from being a scrapbook artist. granted, i have to wear every possible scrap-related hat to do that, but i consider that a learning experience. eventually i'll narrow my hats, but right now i'm counting my lucky stars, overjoyed that i am able to do this for a living- to make art out of my life, to scrapbook and teach others how to scrapbook. to share my passion for this art-form, this history-making. to learn about this industry from every possible angle. i feel so lucky to be on this path and i don't mean to jeopardize that but i also don't mean to be anything but myself, no matter how professional i am supposed to be. see, being a rather girly sort of dyke, i run the constant risk of being 'passed' by straight people- that is, they assume i'm straight like them, until i tell them otherwise. a few years ago, after breaking up with a long-time girlfriend whose constant presence ensured my consistent public outing, i went through a phase where i wore a rainbow at all times, carried a messenger bag with a rainbow strap, went to a lot of trouble to out myself non-verbally. still love rainbows & the symbolism & all that, but i'm no longer theme-dressing. yet now i find myself in this industry where there aren't very many out queers and oftentimes the norm seems very, very white-middle-class-christian-girl. it's overwhelming to be so in the minority, especially after spending the last few years in new york city academia, which is a very queer place. i am finding myself having to come out quite constantly. it's rather tiring and also quite satisfying in a remember-harvey-milk sort of way. it's mildly maddening that i couldn't post this layout on 2peas, but i know it would offend on several accounts. but that's also why folks like me have to make such stuff, say such things, and make them public by any means necessary. just to be clear, the handwriting says: to every Queer proud enough to march- strong enough to be and live Out- and wise enough to claim your place in history- THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. dm 2006.

fell in love with a new paint

this stuff is called lumiere like the singing candlestick in the walt disney version of beauty and the beast and it is my new favorite thing. it gives even those of us who can't draw for shite the power to wield a paintbrush with considerable flair! i started running a make & take with this stuff and two people in, i couldn't stand demo-ing on little pieces of chi[board so i bought this awesome maya road binder book adn demoed on that all day. and now i have this book in progress and i'm loving playing with it. i've been having fun with playing technique lately, partly spurred on by all the rangerrific activity in my life, and partly because of the upcoming scrapbook expo in town. we're not going but we're having reps from lots of the companies come to our store instead to do make & takes and stuff so i've been running around designing stuff for that and also just playing and oh, it is so good to play with new creation tools (even if what i should really be doing is playing with new organization tools). tomorrow is the first day of school in this town and i'm mostly still in denial about the coming fall and i'm at the nearly-unworkable stage of messiness in my studio again. i shall have to clean one of these days. ugh. i'd rather play.