the semi-triumphant return of the photo

I busted my camera beyond repair the first week of july hence the lack of photos here. i'm uh....borrowing one. i'll leave it at that. hopefully i can replace my sony after i, you know, get paid. wow that's going to be nice.
anyhow, i've been working like a fiend for crafty bastards so here's a sneak peak...

a new painting called "put up your dukes". the line is from a shadow from a window mullion.



This purse was something I've had for a while. it's a bunch of wooden beads strung together (i bought it at a thrift store) but I taped out a skull design and spray stenciled it on.



another thing i'm doing is trying to make a bunch of small "paintings" with a magnet on the back so you can put them on your refridgerator or filing cabinet or whatever.



and lastly, here's one of my bucket 'o dolls.


I have a little cold, but this cold medicine has made me strangely focused. I also made butternut squash soup this afternoon. i've been productive!

tomorrow!

Art romp is big and great. you should go check it out if you can.
tomorrow is adams morgan day.i'm nervous and excited. i'm happily sharing a tent with colleen and we're renting a zip car since my car decided to get sick last week and i haven't had a chance to take it into the shop. i'm shooting for monday am (super ridiculously early) so everyone, think non-transmission thoughts if you would.

oh please let it be a fuel problem....please please please.

If you want me, you can find me:

I'll have a painting in ArtRomp 20 (the final one!) At the Warehouse 1019 7th st. NW DC
Opening is September 7th.

Sunday September 9 is Adams Morgan day I'll be on Belmont Ave. with a bunch of other phenomenal folk selling stuff and then the biggie:

Sunday September 30- CRAFTY BASTARDS.

Yikes, i gotta get sewing...

alternative etsy options?

Does anyone recommend alternatives to Etsy?
Not that I don't enjoy the site, because I mostly do.

I've just found 2 people copying my stuff which bummed me out because their stuff is actually selling.

I think i'm pretty done with etsy in general. I'll leave it up through crafty bastards and after that it's going away.

The Big News

Ok, so the big news is that I have a new job!
Starting the 27th, of August, I will be the new coordinator for the Art Bank program with the DC commissison on the arts and humanities.

My boss is completely freaking out.
But with the state of the theatre and how they're choosing to ignore working conditions and storage/space issues there's no way I can stay.

So, good bye Shakespeare Theatre. It's been fun. Sometimes.

I will miss having good stories about what idiots actors are to tell my friends.

I have big exciting news that i technically can't talk about here until probably this afternoon.

although if you're a friend, you already know.

but wow, this is killing me.

also killing me: so much driving in the past week....baltimore and back, philly and back, west virginia and back. this is the final week for fort reno which is good. i've been too tired (and busy) doing other stuff that i'm barely ready for adams morgan day which is now less than a month away!

YIKES

Hello Baltimore!

I dropped off a few dolls at a soon-to-open store called Earth Alley in the Hampden section of Baltimore yesterday.
Eva is the owner and is about as nice as can be.
There's a blog here: http://earthalley.blogspot.com/
The store opens on September 1. And i think i'll get to do a workshop with kids where they can design a monster and articulate it into a 3-d monster.

I am so thrilled that I have some dolls in Hampden. And I think Earth Alley is going to be a *really* great store!

I've been trying to work on some color tags for the shippment up to Boston. I don't think it's going to work.
i might make these images into pins.
we'll see.

Back from Chicago

Wow i'm exhausted. 3 days of rock at pitchfork (saw: Slint (astounding), Gza, Sonic Youth, Grizzly Bear (meh), Battles (killed), Mastadon (super killed), Of Montreal, Steven Malkmus (adorable and engaging), Sea and Cake (awesome new stuff), New Pornographers (less-awesome new stuff), Jamie Liddel (annoying), Clipse (really great), iron and wine (meh).
Part of me regrets not seeing De La Soul, but my feets are tired. they still are.
My favorite moment might have been seeing Brian McMahan all but swallow the mic at the end of "Good morning captain"
I wish tina and aaron had been there.

Now i need to switch gears and start making stuff!
Also, look for a small-ish interview with me in the Washington Times on Friday about the X in DC event. I'm everywhere!!!

meet me in person! or not....

three exiting things for Magpie DC-
1) if you're in Boston, there's a store called MAGPIE (no relation) who will have a small amount of Baddie dolls.

2)On September 30, I will be taking part in the Crafty Bastards craft fair in Washington DC
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/craftybastards

3) can't wait that long? I'll be at the Adams Morgan Day Art on Belmont festival too.


I'd better get sewing!!!

new art!

today I made one new small painting:


and i listed it as well as three other works in my etsy shop:



hopefully something will sell before i leave for Chicago.

someone outside is setting off firecrackers.
i hate this time of year.

Pro Photos

Allow me to pimp my friend Pete Duvall of http://www.anythingphoto.net

He took super pro photos of my dolls. I think they look lovely

baby batty

baby batty
Originally uploaded by tigersscareme

This is a baby proof version of the Batty for my friend eric's kid's first birthday.

I hope it doesn't scare him.

Make new friends!

Be friends with the Baddies!

Join Astro-NOT! and Zee Handsome Devil
While they await their friends Fun Gus and Batty and Bruised Ghost.

Thank You!!!

Thanks to all the incredibly nice people at X in DC tonight.
WOW!
I thought i was going to be an old indie rocker in a sea of young hip electronica kids, but I genuinely loved everyone i met.

Everyone was so kind and encouraging. It was really great and really fun, and holy crap, how 'bout those Pop Rock martinis?
yum!!

pictures sometime soon!
if you took some, please send 'em my way!!!

today is the 88/X thing.

I am incredibly nervous. As I always am before a new event. I'm just wondering, should I bring a book?

Ikea has an ingenious new-ish thing- it's a little metal rolling dolly that you can stack individual drawers on.
I bought the trolley and one drawer yesterday on an ikea trip with my boss.

I can't find pictures of it on the website, so i'll have to assemble it and take pictures and post it here, because if you do craft shows and carry 4 boxes of stuff, this might be for you...

ok, i have to water my garden, feed the cat, make a few more things and shower..
oh! and get ready for this thing too..
yipes!

this is how it goes

when i get tired, i lose things.

Friday was the epic losing of the keys (12 hour search)
Sunday night/monday/tuesday/now I have lost my cell phone.

i am due for an upgrade anyway i think...i've had that phone for a little over 2 years. i love that phone 'tho.

Have you seen me?

Astro-NOT on myspace

My brother's girlfriend brilliantly said "you should make a myspace page for each baddie!"
So I totally am.
here's astro-NOT
http://www.myspace.com/astronot9

be his friend, won't you?

on deck

I'll be at
here on June 19th. It looks pretty slick and I'm afraid I'm going to be out of place with my messy little felt dolls. But who knows...

I had a second interview yesterday with a store that sells paper and Gocco supplies. And it's lovely. And the people who work there are lovely. But the pay is incredibly bad.

I would start at what I made 9 years ago basically, and lose 1/3 of my income which is scary.
It might be too scary to make the leap.

Here are some +/- of the situation.

+ cute store
+nice area (probably wouldn't find dead hookers, used condomns and human feces-smeared socks outside of the store. All of which have been found outside of the prop shop. Hey, both places have the initials "PS".)
+learn skills like letter press and book binding
+there would be opportunities to grow and take on to earn more money.
+hours are from 10-7
+they have air conditioning (the work room at the prop shop can get up to 103 degrees in the summer, and this winter with one heater down, it wouldn't get above 54 degrees)
+probably wouldn't be as tired when i got home.

-if i chose to bus, then metro, then bus it would take about an hour and 20 minutes. which means if i work until 7, i won't be home until 8:30 and having dinner at 9
-i would absolutely have to take on at least one more part time job, and i wanted to get out of the job i have now so i can work more on my own art stuff. and i'm not going to sew on the bus. i'm sorry, but i'm just not.
- no sick days. limited health insurance (no vision...which i don't need, but i do enjoy a good sick day every now and again)
-i am by myself. i have no one to fall back on if i get behind in bills which i am barely making right now i would be completely screwed.

which i think maybe sums up what i need to do.
there's no way i can cut $10,000 out of my yearly pay and still live. there's just no way.
I would never see my friends, I'd be constantly worried about money that I would do nothing but work 24-7. Is that the kind of life I want?

But do I want to work in a 100 degree work room in the summer....

oh lord, help?

ceiling ian

am i the only person that when i see this:
thinks of this:

in!

I've been invited to join this motley group of crafters:

http://www.craftmutiny.com

bye bye artomatic!

here are some photos from my installation.
I'm going back tomorrow to finish taking it down. i am really going to miss it.
I would definitely say that this has been my most favorite artomatic yet. i got an email from an online webzine about showing my stuff on their site. it looks like a cool site too, so i'm excited. i hope it really happens.

man, i have to get to work. i have a lot to do before monday...i don't know when i'm going to get everything done.

I'm about the business

In case you haven't, I really urge you to go to itunes or the mp3 purchasing site of your choice and download at *least" "chuck baby" by Chuck Brown.
At least do that. It will be the summer jam for sure.

Do it. Do it now.
I'm not lying.

prop pod

also, in a show i'm working on, there are 3 ipods. hamlet gives ophelia a big pink one.

that they throw on the floor every night.
i'm not giving those asses a real one when they can't even keep their hands on a 10 foot length of rope.
so i made this.

(it's a chunk of plywood that inset a piece of plexi glass, and then photoshopped a screen and copied it onto acetate and laminated it to the "pod" and then coat the whole thing with "triple thick" varnish.

I have to say, it looks really good.

the song choice? "you're my miss washington DC" by nation of ulysses....naturally...

new painting

i made this little guy saturday.
i'm pretty in love with him

great sunday

I would have liked to have spent today with my mom, but i got to spend it with rania and sean and colleen at art o matic.
i also got to see the most awesomest kid that ever awesomed:
that's him with my collection of monsters. i hope his mom brings him to fort reno this summer. as you can see, he's the coolest and most adorable 6 year old ever.
he told me all about the monsters that he's going to create- i can't wait to see them at the next artomatic.

it made me think, this time around, artomatic wanted people to do little workshops with them....maybe i'll do a monster one next time...

oh my god, what's happening? i like kids???!?!???!?


also, here's my table


and lastly- look at the size of this fucking poisonivy plant!!!!



i am beat but i need to unpack the car

but i just heard 3 gun shots, so i'll wait to go outside....they vertainly didn't sound like they were outside. but still....kinda close.

oh well...

win some most, lose some.

didn't get into pile of craft. i'm sure sean and rania will, so i can at least go visit them.

there's a few more shows i'm going to apply for- CB, adam's morgan day probably.

I think if i don't get into either of those, i'm going to pack it up.
i'll leave my etsy page up until that stuff sells, but really....

i have no business trying to make stuff apparently.

SHOWS!

This Sunday I'll be back at the Marketplace at ArtOmatic.

http://www.artomatic.org

In june i'll be here: http://www.xindc.tv/

They asked if I wanted to partake, and i think it looks pretty cool! it seems a little ultra-cool/slick so i'm honored to be asked.

I think tomorrow is either the deadline or announcement of acceptance for pile of craft. so fingers are crossed for that.

coming up:
i have to post pictures of the GINORMOUS poison ivy plant in my back yard.

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by miss moogan of moogan creations, to spill 7 little known things about me.

I kinda feel like there's very little to not be known about me but here goes:

1) The reason I feel like there's little to be known about me, is because I've actually been "blogging" since february 1999. I don't know if blog was even really a word then. It's funny and humbling to read entries from when I was 25. It's mostly embarassing- particularly when i check the stats and see what/who people googled and found me. I don't tell people about that blog, since that's where I vent about my job and boys and music and whatever. although i know a lot of them know about it. i don't mind. it's kind of nice, really. like a diary that talks back and offers advice

2)I'm a chronic incompleter. i have so many half-finished projects that are just gathering dust. I'm a ditherer. A dillatante.

3) I tried skateboarding when I was in junior high. Mid throes of a crush on Mike McGill. I sliced my leg on a slide which started me on the path of worrying about hurting myself. Until then, i rode horses, did tricks on my bike (i called it bike ballet, where i would stand on the cross bar with one foot and then hold the other leg out at some weird angle. actually, there are pictures of this from college too)
I also use to be more brazen with powertools. I've ripped entire 4x8 sheets of luan by myself when i was in college. The key was having a good run-off table.
Now you can not get me near a table saw.

4)Speaking of scars- I was born with a hernia. It ruptured and started to turn gangerous when i was in kindergarten. I remember skipping across the room and then falling down in pain. When I was taken to the hospital, I remember an asian doctor pressing on my stomach and asking if it hurt and i croaked out a "noooooooooo" and my mom smacked me and said "tell him if it hurts!" i had to wear a bandage on my stomach for three weeks and i remember the doctor saying that the scars would fade by the time i was married. the scars haven't really faded and i'm not married. i wonder if it's related.

5)When I was little and we went away on vacation, i would make sure my room had nice displays in it, so if anyone ever broke into our house, they would see these magical arrangements of Byer horses and ceramic dogs and horseback riding ribbons and go "this looks so nice! i can't mess with this" and develop some weird empathy and leave my room (and hopefully my house) alone.

6) my great grandma Cad died when i was 5 or 6. i inherited a bunch of her costume jewelry. i thought pirates might try to steal it (apparently i had a lot of issues with theft when i was little) and buried them in the ground. with some star wars toys. a few years later (3 or 4) i was convinced i was going to get a pig (i had just read charolette's web) and was trying to ready a part of the yard by my playhouse and found the storm trooper.

7)I'm apparently completely un-hirable anywhere but where I am now. So i play the lottery every week to see if i can hit a portion of the jackpot so i can go back to school and learn some skills to get me out of here. I'm really good at my job, but i really *really* don't want to be in theatre anymore.


I don't even know if anyone reads this thing, really, so i'll tag:

rania
selena
sean
tina
beck
colleen
*you* (if there's someone reading this i don't know)

shazam!

I was at target earlier this week and found some kinda brilliant plastic pegboard. and some 2-prong hooks. I thought it might be a nice way to get some stuff up off my table if (when?) (if?) I do really start doing craft shows.

hahahahah....i'm pretending like people are going to let me in and i'm going to do shows and people will buy my stuff.....hahahahah.

I've applied for Baltimore's Pile of Craft. and in the fall is Crafty Bastards.

this sunday is another art-o-market. I'm helping Rania set up, and hopefully selling some things.

I know at the very least, two people want to buy dolls.

Tonight is meet the artist night. i'm nervous, but i'm going.

I'm going to be logging a lot of hours this week with art-o-matic.
Tonight and saturday I have my remaining 5 hour volunteer shifts, Friday night is meet-the-artists, so I might go to that and sunday is the Market.

Whew.

Must remember to wear comfortable shoes. The new cute slip-on airwalks from payless weren't doing it sunday.
but look how cute they are:


go here if that photo doesn't load which i think it might not.
i'm embarrassingly bad at this whole computer thing
http://www.payless.com/Catalog/ProductDetail.aspx?&TLC=Womens&SLC=WomensAthletics&BLC=WomensAthleticsTrendy&Width=Regular&ItemCode=55667&LotNumber=053846&Type=Adult&Popularity=309&DescriptiveColor=Black

also file under "bad with technology": I got the name wrong of the girl the guy at artomatic mistook me for.

she is http://www.mypapercrane.com
ok, that should work now.


last night i cut out and stitched the bodies of 5 Astro-NOT's. It took about an hour and a half, so maybe that's ok. I still have to stuff, sew closed, and then embellish them.

It probably takes me about 45 minutes to make each one at this point. I'd like to see if I could get it down to more like half an hour. Probably with practice sewing will be easier.

Art-O-Market

Yesterday at the Art-O-Market was fun.
I think my favorite part of these are meeting the other vendors.
And bartering!
I got an amazing little book from the adorable Bookwurm...oh i don't have her card on my so i can't post her site.

I met two amazing kids who said they were "big fans of your work downstairs".

It made my week. month. year.
almost enough to make me want kids.

it was so much fun that i'm helping rania of goshdarnknit fame set up *next* sunday too.

another person asked if i was the woman that makes the smores dolls. i said no. i may have said no too quickly because he appologised and i felt bad. it's a huge compliment to be compared to her (www.papercrane.com)
I had to look at her shop again because then i became worried my stuff was too much like hers, but it's not.

i mean, i guess the tone is similar but subject matter/execution is totally different.

i think....

anyone?

Yesterday I was honored to be the featured seller on tina seamonster's blog
http://www.ilikeseamonsters.com/

which was awesome. I also had a shift at Art O Matic where I sold a doll (someone contacted me about buying one after the show opened and sent her sister to fetch the doll)
so that felt nice, i think. That was the first astro-NOT i've sold. I've sold a few batty's and one ghost at a previous craft show and etsy. No one has yet to buy handsome devil. maybe i need to make him more debonair?


Sunday sean of scenic artisans has put together a market so I'm going to try to sell some gocco prints there as well as finish some more dolls. They don't seem to be selling on etsy, so I have to unload them somehow.

Tell-tale signs of spring

My first tell tale sign of spring is that i always always ALWAYS get poisonivy on my chin. Always.
This year is no exception.
I think sadie must find it and then bring in the oil on her fur, because she does like to rub against my face as i'm trying to sleep, watch tv, do my taxes, what have you.

Art O Matic is open! And i think it went fairly well. I've had at least 4 people contact me about my dolls, which is nice. I do think they probably represent better in person than on etsy.

I'm not sure what to do about people actually buying the things in person. We can't remove them from the installation prior to the show closing...that I understand. But I kinda feel like I need to have some assurance they'll actually buy the thing before I mark it sold so i'm not missing out on a sale, just because someone may have had three beers so my stuff looks good then, but they're not really serious about buying.

Anyone with more experience want to help a girl out? What would you do?

With taxes done, Titus and Artomatic open, I need a new deadline....
Goal for this week: Better Etsy photos! And hopefully list one or two of the gocco prints I've done.

photos from my corner at art o matic












here's a close up of the bear



and this is the guy kc and i saw at the stooges show

new painting

worked on this the last two weekends.
i call it "narcoleptic cowboy".


i have to re-do the face.

Nice tin

It could be the fact I'm so tired, but I was in CVS buying some stuff and looked down and saw this tin and thought "that's a lovely design"

(um whoops)

i made some gocco prints tonight.
even 'tho i have grant and taxes deadlines looming.
the grant is due tomorrow. yipes.
the prints came out only ok i think. i tried to switch colors on the screens and ended up fucking the screens up a bit. i don't have the hang of it yet.

i started white (and used way too much ink which sucks since that stuff if hard to find now)
and then tried to make it darker.
i should consult rania who is a genius with that thing.

but I feel pretty sure that I have at least two of each that are show worthy for art o matic.
meanwhile, my dining room is a disaster

be glad you're not my roommate.

sadie was underfoot through some of the process and sums up the evening by yawning as i was trying to ake her picture

she is now lying next to me snoring.
while i'm being lame and blogging about my cat, here's this picture too. she likes to burrow under the covers and play.

A day in the life in pictures

three weeks ago, I purchased a little tiny greenhouse from Ikea. Last week I planted some seeds (mostly left over from last year, mostly zinnias, two morning glories, some basil) here they are now:
there was a small mushroom looking thing growing in the big pot of basil, but today when i returned from work it was gone

then today at work, I had to sew a different head on babydoll. the doll's body needed to be lightweight (i'll explain later) but the baby needed to um...not be white. , so i introduce you to frankenbaby


the reason the body needed to be lightweight, is because i needed to make it squirm on its own, so i found a remote control toy to take care of the motion. in hopes to strengthen the radio wave reception, i sewed an antannae to the baby's belly


another project of mine was the meat pit titus feeds to tamara which has her boys inside.
the pie in question is a 20" diameter pie with a thermal plastic crust

which breaks away to reveal



here's a close up of one of the faces

growing

something in my room smells like clay.
i can really only smell it when i'm laying in bed.
i almost don't want to investigate what it is because i love the smell of clay since it was a big part of my childhood.


i bought a small greenhouse from ikea and started some seedlings. I'm kind of amazed how fast the little seedlings grew in the house.

My tuplips outside look weird and stunted. Most likely from the super mild January.

glimpses

a glimpse into my home:

a few weeks ago, i was late to work because i saw someone throwing these shelves out:


super cute, no? they were super skanky and dirty and do admittedly have a little water damage, but they were totally what i was looking for. now i need to reconfigure the stereo (maybe swap out the body for just a cd player/tuner) so i can keep the record player and a small portion of my records in my living room.

a glimpse into my work life:
i have to make two heads stewed into a pie. we didn't have the time or money (you'd be surprise how expensive it is to cast a head) (or maybe you wouldn't....i don't know) so i'm building these two from the skull up. they actually turned out pretty well. more finished photos later:

contests!

I entered the WaPo's peeps diorama contest. deadline is today.

Mine is the Birth of Peepnus

signed up

I signed up for Art-o-matic today.

Because apparently i enjoy entering my work into places where no one buys it.

batteries

I got home last night ready to photograph and list two things on etsy, and my camera was d.e.a.d.

so i bought new batteries on my lunchbreak today, so tonight i'll post some stuff.

wireless internet is so addictive. nice cozy warm laptop on my feet. it's nice.

new job

if anyone in the dc area, philadelphia, chicago, or kansas city missouri know of any public art management jobs, be a dear, and let me know?

please?

as i evesdrop on my boss and his assistant about the new season and my stomach churns acid and i grind my teeth down to nothing.

i have to remember to post new stuff on etsy tonight.

new uses for dried flowers

these petals
are now this necklace


i think i may have rushed the lamination process too fast, and the petals blanched out under the heat.

I have another stash of petals and i'm going to make sure they're high and dry before i laminate them.

found!

I found a super cute set of shelves in the garbage thursday morning.

at first i wasn't sure if it was trash or an eviction, but the more i think about it, i believe it to be the latter.

especially after scrubbing the shelves for a good half hour with oil soap. they were *filthy* and obviously kept somewhere dank. there is some water damage, but i'll post a photo soon 'cause they are *ADORABLE*