A Menagerie

I made up this petite pincushion for a friend who loaned me some much needed white embroidery floss one Saturday afternoon! I was working on a deadline and White floss was V.I.P. and I was with no car that day!!! She came to the rescue even though her home was in disarray with wood floors being put in and old ones being refinished! VERY SWEET!!! After all it was just floss! Thank You Mary Kay!!!

I actually had to think of whom to ask for floss. There is not alot of crafting of art projects going on around me. I first went to visit Amy. Her daughter answered and was not quite sure what embroidery floss was and thought that her Mom was not at home. Disappointed and worried (over floss!), I walked by to my home to say good bye to Caitlin, who was off to work... taking the only car left at home. sigh. I am VERY fortunate in that JoAnne Fabrics, Hobby Lobby and Michaels are all within several miles of me. TOO hot to walk. Oh I needed that floss! Amy to the rescue! She called back to say that she DID have it! She in fact used to cross stitch way back!!! She brought out her stash, all still organized on cards! Wa La! The perfect shade for my project! But alas, no white! That is when I walked down to visit Mary Kay!

Her is the petit pincushion that I made for Amy!



Well, hers is the little one in the left, foreground, above photo, and on the left in top view photo below.



If you click on the photo you can see better detail of hers. I think they turned out pretty good! I am happy!

I will let you know in a few weeks about that top secret project that I so desperately needed the floss for. I love how it turned out! Does it just not bowl you over when you finish a project that you have been working so hard on, finally really stand back and take a look and are truly amazed! Like: "Who Made this?"

WEll, I have been absent, I know. Now we really get into the menagerie!



This cat came by the other night.... Do black cats ever look friendly. WEll, of coarse when they are kittens. We did have a kitten we were fostering once that we temporarily named Henry. His had wild eyes like this cat. Not in color but in CRAZY..."I am going to have some F-U-N!" And then he would run around after the other kitty, pouncing out of nowhere. Funny thing about Henry the very adorable "LOOKING" grey kitty... he and his sisterr were adopted by the most Adorable two little girls and very nice Mom and Dad. The girls re-named them of coarse from Henry and Babette to Ernie and Bert... poor Babette! So I digress from the stray cat, but you have to admit that Babette is a great name for a pet!

Back to Pierre`! Might as well call him that. Hobbes saw him from the door and began to hiss a bit. Not as much as usual... hm, But this cat was a big cat. Not a kitty, so I was not about to go pet this guy.



He kept eating...



and Eating...


and sat up after emptying the bowl as if to say, "How about dessert!" This was actually breakfast. I had fed him dinner the night before and he left. But when I opened the curtains in the monring...like 6a.m. he was already there laying in the flower bed as if he owned the world! Well I hope he still is in the world for I have not seen him since this photo shoot!

Our Hobbes is doing great! His face is back to normal again, handsome as ever and so sweet! He is now back to waking me up wayyy too early! :)

I hope that your summer day is going wonderful!!!

Hugs,
Mary

A Menagerie

I made up this petite pincushion for a friend who loaned me some much needed white embroidery floss one Saturday afternoon! I was working on a deadline and White floss was V.I.P. and I was with no car that day!!! She came to the rescue even though her home was in disarray with wood floors being put in and old ones being refinished! VERY SWEET!!! After all it was just floss! Thank You Mary Kay!!!

I actually had to think of whom to ask for floss. There is not alot of crafting of art projects going on around me. I first went to visit Amy. Her daughter answered and was not quite sure what embroidery floss was and thought that her Mom was not at home. Disappointed and worried (over floss!), I walked by to my home to say good bye to Caitlin, who was off to work... taking the only car left at home. sigh. I am VERY fortunate in that JoAnne Fabrics, Hobby Lobby and Michaels are all within several miles of me. TOO hot to walk. Oh I needed that floss! Amy to the rescue! She called back to say that she DID have it! She in fact used to cross stitch way back!!! She brought out her stash, all still organized on cards! Wa La! The perfect shade for my project! But alas, no white! That is when I walked down to visit Mary Kay!

Her is the petit pincushion that I made for Amy!



Well, hers is the little one in the left, foreground, above photo, and on the left in top view photo below.



If you click on the photo you can see better detail of hers. I think they turned out pretty good! I am happy!

I will let you know in a few weeks about that top secret project that I so desperately needed the floss for. I love how it turned out! Does it just not bowl you over when you finish a project that you have been working so hard on, finally really stand back and take a look and are truly amazed! Like: "Who Made this?"

WEll, I have been absent, I know. Now we really get into the menagerie!



This cat came by the other night.... Do black cats ever look friendly. WEll, of coarse when they are kittens. We did have a kitten we were fostering once that we temporarily named Henry. His had wild eyes like this cat. Not in color but in CRAZY..."I am going to have some F-U-N!" And then he would run around after the other kitty, pouncing out of nowhere. Funny thing about Henry the very adorable "LOOKING" grey kitty... he and his sisterr were adopted by the most Adorable two little girls and very nice Mom and Dad. The girls re-named them of coarse from Henry and Babette to Ernie and Bert... poor Babette! So I digress from the stray cat, but you have to admit that Babette is a great name for a pet!

Back to Pierre`! Might as well call him that. Hobbes saw him from the door and began to hiss a bit. Not as much as usual... hm, But this cat was a big cat. Not a kitty, so I was not about to go pet this guy.



He kept eating...



and Eating...


and sat up after emptying the bowl as if to say, "How about dessert!" This was actually breakfast. I had fed him dinner the night before and he left. But when I opened the curtains in the monring...like 6a.m. he was already there laying in the flower bed as if he owned the world! Well I hope he still is in the world for I have not seen him since this photo shoot!

Our Hobbes is doing great! His face is back to normal again, handsome as ever and so sweet! He is now back to waking me up wayyy too early! :)

I hope that your summer day is going wonderful!!!

Hugs,
Mary

New kit, new tag and a freebie!

Hi there,
I'm back with some news.

I have a new kit available for sale in both versions, taggers and scrappers.
It's called "Fresh". There are 14 papers and more than 70 elements in the kit.

You can purchase the taggers version from Designer Scraps or from Tantrum Scraps.

You can purchase the full size version from Living Large later today.

Previews:





There's also a new tut made by Harley with my "Sweet Harmony" kit. You can find the tut here:
http://dreamgirlproductionz.com/tutorials/harmony/harmony.html

Beautiful tag! Thank you Harley!!



And finally the freebie! It's called "Funny girl".
There are 12 papers about 50 elements in the kit.
You can download it from here or directly from Tantrum Scraps (under freebies or Cinnamon Scraps).

Preview:




Have a beautiful day!

John Phillip Law (1937-2008)

John Phillip Law - star of Barbarella (1968), Danger: Diabolik (1968) and The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming! (1966) - passed away this year after battling cancer. Despite appearing in Hollywood films like United Artist's The Russian Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming! and Columbia Picture's The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), Law was always primarily a cult actor, with many of his films still not available on video or DVD (for example, it's doubtful anyone has ever seen his role as Stash, the doe-eyed hippie idealist in Otto Preminger's 1968 oddity Skidoo, which is a shame). Fortunately, my fave cinema blog Cinebeats has an excellent tribute to the tall, impossibly good-looking cult icon. That's where I saw this cool video tribute to the man that looks to be a trailer for something called "The Swinging Lust World of John Phillip Law":

JOHN PHILLIP LAW VIDEO MONTAGE


Related Links:
John Phillip Law 1937-2008 (Cinebeats)

Young and Done?

All Bling, No Zing

For some reason (numbing inertia?), I sat through two sets of dull tennis last night, watching the Tennis Channel's Cincinatti Open first round match between Frenchman Gaels Monfils and USA hopeful Donald Young (picture at left). I had heard a lot about the "promise" of Young (especially from fan John McEnroe), a 19-year-old African-American prospect who, like the Williams sisters, is coached by his dad. He was an unseeded wildcard in this tournament, but as a Yank playing in Cincy, he would have the crowd behind him and hometown advantage had he shown anything. But after watching him lose 6-1, 6-1 to a listless, obviously ailing Monfils, I've concluded that other than being a lefty, there's not much to Young. He just doesn't have any obvious weapons other than his natural athleticism. He lacks a big serve and isn't patient when serving. His forehand has lots of topspin, but no pace and he can't hit it for winners. His backhand is two-handed and strictly defensive. And he's a baseliner who can't hit hard or deep with the big boys and isn't comfortable coming into the net.

Worse, he's chosen to crack the ATP instead of refining his Not Ready For Prime Time act on the Futures or Challenger Circuits (I would question his decision-making as much as I would Michelle Wie, who has floundered playing against men when she probably could have competed well against her female peers). He has a lifetime 8-26 record in the ATP, where - amazingly - he took a set off Novak Djokivic at the 2006 U.S. Open. Even more unbelievable to me is the fact that Young was briefly ranked the #1 junior player in the world in 2005, when he was the youngest male to win a Grand Slam Event, winning the 2005 Australian Open Junior Championships.

But at 19 it's time to get your act together. Michael Chang won the French Open at 17. Pete Sampras won the U.S. Open at 19. But Young is no prodigy in their class. Watching him, I found myself turned off by his immaturity and court attitude. Like a young Agassi, he has the surface bling - both ears studded with earrings, the rope-a-dope necklace, his hat painstakingly angled askew in the current hip-hop fashion - but at least Agassi had game. No one hit groundtstrokes like Andre, even at that age.

My advice to Young: don't dress the part, be the part. Put the bling and accessories away until you've earned the right to be confident and flashy (try winning something!). If ever a match was gift-wrapped for you, it was against Monfils, a clearly superior player but one who looked like he was suffering from a 24-hour bug or food poisoning.(Why is it the fittest-looking players seem to be the ones most plagued with injuries? Monfils has a long list of ailments.) On this night, Monfils was gasping for breath and sweating like he was in a hot yoga class from the first game on. I think the only reason he didn't retire early was because he knew all he had to do was stand on the other side of the net and let Young self-destruct with his poor serving and unforced errors. Not a lot of intense volleying going on, in other words.

Young looks to have a long ways to go before he gets to Monfils level. The only thing the two have is common is the fact that both are former top junors. The 35th-ranked 22-year-old Monfils was world No. 1 junior in 2004 when he won three of the four junior Grand Slam events (Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon) and this year made it to the semifinals at the French Open before losing in four sets to eventual runner-up Roger Federer, 2-6,7-5,3-6,5-7.

Kraut Funk

Raw Funk (2000)
"Various Artists"
Hotpie & Candy Records

I got this 10-track compilation CD out of the library recently and I've been listening to it while commuting to work ever since. It's easily the blackest, baddest, funkiest, sweetest soul music I've ever heard. But here's a poke at me, I'm a total dummy: it's by the whitest of whitebreads - Germans!

Hotpie & Candy was a small German label (a subsidiary of Soulciety Records) that released a series of singles between 1992-1995. All of these releases were by a band from Munich called The Poets Of Rhythm whose members included the very un-soulful-sounding Teutons Jan Whitefield, Max Whitefield, Boris Geiger, Till Sahm, Malte Müller-Egloff, Wolfgang Schlick, and Michael Voss. This German funk band (consider that oxymoronic term: German Funk!) recorded under various pseudonyms (Bo Baral's Excursionists, Bus People Express, Karl Hector & The Funk-Pilots, Mercy Sluts, The, Mighty Continentals, The, Neo-Hip-Hot-Kiddies Community, New Process, The, Organized Raw Funk, Pan-Atlantics, The, Polyversal Souls, The, Soul Sliders, Soul-Saints Orchestra, Soul-Saints, The, Syrup, Whitefield Brothers, The Woo Woo's), releasing albums in the guise of "compilations" by "Various Artists" between 1992 and 2002. Ha! Don't be fooled like I was. Despite their tighter-than-James-Brown sound, the Poets remained relative unknowns outside of Deutschland until they were discovered by DJ Shadow in 2001; Shadow helped bring them to the attention of London's Ninja Tune records, where their Define Discern release reached a broader Western audience.


Poets of Rhythm

The minute the first track played I realized I owned this CD (and probably still do, though I've since lost it in the pop cultural dumping ground that is my domicile). In fact I used at least two of the tracks, by the Whitefield Bros and The Woo-Hoos, on the first season of Atomic TV. The Whitefield's funk groove provided excellent accompaniment to a classroom scare film about fire safety while The Woo-Hoos riff was used to illustrate the monthly cycle on the Atomic TV menstruation episode, "It's Wonderful Being A Girl!"

This stuff lives more than lives up to its "raw funk" name and passes the colorblind test. Never in a million years would you suspect that rigid Krauts - from the land of clockwork-precision and Kraftwerky robotic rhythms - were kicking out the smooth grooves. After all, Germans aren't exactly known for having natural rhythm, in fact they're more renowned for possessing a Negative Funk Factor - more likely to be found goose-stepping than getting down on the good foot. There go all my musical preconceptions!

Essential in any music library.

Related Links:
http://poets.solesides.com/
http://www.myspace.com/thepoetsofrhythm
http://www.ninjatune.net/ninja/artist.php?id=40
Live in Limerick, Ireland (YouTube)

new tags

I have some new tags to show you off =) both using my latest kit, Sweet harmony.

This is made by me and you can find the tut here:
http://www.cinnamondreamz.com/tutorials/im_just_me.htm



And this is made by Marissa. You can find the tut here:
http://www.lavishdreamz.com/sweet-harmony-7-28-08-t334.html

Thank you Marissa!!

quick note

Just to let you know that "Harley" and "By the sea" kits are now available in the full sized version at Living Large

Baltimore Farmer's Market

Baltimore Farmer's Market video

The Baltimore Farmer's Market under the Jones Falls Expressway at Holliday and Saratoga Streets is now one of my favorite places - when I manage to get up early enough (Farmer Hours Style) to venture down there. Also known as the JFX or Fallsway Farmer's Market, the huge outdoor market happens Sunday mornings from the crack of dawn until Noon-ish from May to December. I also like the Saturday morning one in Waverly, but somehow I never manage to make it down there (and when I do I also manage to stop into Normals Books and buy books instead of food!). I also think I prefer the JFX Farmer's Market because of its aesthetic landscape - spread out under the concrete overpass of the JFX, it's like a scene out of one of J.G. Ballard's sci-fi novels (in which architecture and urban landscapes are the main characters), Riddley Scott's Bladerunner in broad daylight, or the visual imagery of John Foxx's Ultravox lyrics.


Ballard would feel at home under the JFX

For the longest time I resisted the Farmer's Market because of the early hours and the simple fact that I don't cook. But lazy bachelors rejoice - you don't have to cook to enjoy the place. Be like me and go down there for a hearty breakfast and people watching! (And there's lot of people to watch - up to 8,000 on a good day and 200,000 annually, according to the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts.)

I usually head straight to Zeke's for some great piping hot coffee (yes, even in Summer - the sweat that pours from my forehead manages to cool me off!) - the line for Zeke's coffee is always the longest at the Farmer's Market - or mosey down the corner to get eye-opening Thai Iced Coffee and steamed buns, shrimp dumplings or Pad Thai from the Thai stand.


The Thai Stand has great food

This is probably my favorite spot in the whole market. Run by two cute and hard-working Thai women (Narisa and Neela), with occasional assistance by their farang friend David, they serve up really good Pad Thai and the best steamed buns I've ever had (fillings include chicken, pork, custard, and red beans) and the ladies politely indulge me while I bore them talking about Thai cinema.


Thai Steamed Buns

Having recently screened Wisit Sasanatieng's Tears of the Black Tiger (aka ฟ้าทะลายโจร, or Fah Talai Jone, 2000) at the Enoch Pratt Library, I asked if they were fans and they told me they were. In fact, I learned that the film was based on a famous Thai novel. One of the ladies was also a fan of Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Last Life in the Universe (aka Ruang rak noi nid mahasan, 2003), probably my favorite Thai film - if only for beautiful actress Sinitta Boonyasak. But that's food for thought. For food for consumption, head on down to the Farmer's Market!

Related Links:
Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts link
List of Farmers and Concessionaires

new kit - taggers and full sized versions

Hi,
I have a new kit up for sale.
It's called "Sweet Harmony" and it's available as taggers size and as full size.
There are 14 papers and more than 80 elements in the kit.

You can purchase the taggers version at Designer Scraps and at Tantrum Scraps.

You can purchase the full version at Living large later today.

Preview:


Hugs!!

New layouts and tags

Hi,
hope you had all a great weekend!
Mine was quite relaxing. I also had a little time to scrap and I have a new kit almost ready and it will be available as tagger size and also full size.

But first i want to show you off these beautiful layouts made by Bobbie using my "Serenity" kit!
She has 2 beautiful little girls and... here they are! Aren't they cute? =)

Thank you Bobbie!






I also have a new tags to show you off!

This is made by Marissa and you can find the tut here:
http://www.lavishdreamz.com/fairy-song-7-25-08-t323.html

Thank you Marissa!

This tag is made by Dawn. You can find this tut here: http://lollipopscandyland.com/tutorials/waiting/waiting.html

Thank you Dawn!

See you later!

Constant Rider Omnibus (****)

Stories from the Public Transportation Front


Constant Rider Omnibus
by Kate Lopresti
Microcosm Publishing, 128 pages, 2007
Cover illustration by Kalah Allen

I came across this book while perusing the Graphic Novels section at Daedalus Books & Music and was instantly intrigued by the its concept: a journal devoted to documenting a woman's adventures riding public transportation in Portland Oregon and other diverse destinations. The woman, Kate Lopresti, mainly travels by bus, but sometimes hops a plane or train, and those journeys are documented as well. This anthology presents issues #1-7 of her zine Constant Rider, in which Kate records her aisle-side observations of "fights, intoxicated passengers, fellow travelers' reading choices, and even impromptu bus stop singers." She also has a website: www.constantrider.com

I have long been fascinated by people's horror stories about riding various bus routes in Baltimore City, so I picked it up and found it a very good read. Kate never tries too hard to write the be-all social psychology masterpiece: these are just everyday observations of both the plain and the (admittedly more interesting) unusual people and events that she's encountered riding public transportation. I did like her checklist of inappropriate conversation starters on the bus, my favorite being middle-aged men asking young women, "Are you a student?" That's creepy, fellows! Better to keep queries like that to yourselves - or the letters column of Barely Legal magazine!

Now I just wish someone would start a local version about Baltimore bus rides - or even a D.C. zine devoted to riding the Metro. I have many fond memories of being accosted there by hyper-aggro homophobic drunks! (Mental note: never be accosted by this demographic while clutching a Kennedy Center Ballet Playbill!)

Flower Drum Song

Flower Drum Song
USA, 1961, 133 minutes
Directed by Henry Koster
Songs by Rodgers & Hammerstein
Cast: Nancy Kwan (Linda Low), James Shigeta (Wang Ta), Benson Fong (Wang Chi-Yang), Jack Soo ("Sammy" Fong), Juanita Hall (Madame 'Auntie' Liang), Reiko Sato (Helen Chao), Miyoshi Umeki (Mei Li)

I wanted to love this film because it was the first musical with an all-Asian cast specifically aimed at an Asian audience. Never mind that the story, based on a novel by Chinese-American author C.Y. Lee, had a number of Japanese actors portraying Chinese characters - that's because there was a limited pool of Asian or Asian-American actors to choose from in Hollywood, and it still beat seeing Caucasian actors like Boris Karloff (Fu Manchu), Peter Lorre (Mr. Moto) or Myrna Loy portray Asians. But the bottom line is, the songs are pedestrian - "Grant Avenue" is the only halfway decent song - and despite its Asian affiliations, it was still written by white men, lending it an inescapable sense of appropriation and inauthenticity. In other words, even with its Asian source material and cast, it ends up stereoyping. In terms of examining Chinese-American identity, it's a long way from Flower Drum Song to Wayne Wang's Chan Is Missing (1982) - the latter film featuring the superior Pat Suzuki version of "Grant Avenue," by the way. (Suzuki had starred as Linda Low in the 1958 Broadway version of Flower Drum Song before getting passed over in favor of Nancy Kwan for the film adaptation - in which Kwan's voice was dubbed by singer B. J. Baker.)

Still, you get the beautiful Nancy Kwan, fresh off her starring role opposite William Holden in Richard Quine's The World of Suzy Wong (1960) in the first role that put her dancing background (she studied dance with England's Royal Ballet) to use. Unfortunately, she suffered the fate of many ethnic minorities in Hollywood - scarce opportunities for A-list quality roles. That said, Kwan's jiggly-wiggly high heels-and-bath towel dance number "I Enjoy Being A Girl" in front of a dressing mirror remains one of the visual highlights (schwing!) of FDS.


Nancy Kwan enjoys being a girl

And you get Jack Soo (Goro Suzuki, pictured right), the sleepy-eyed character actor best known for his later role as Detective Sgt. Nick Yemana on the 1970s TV sitcom Barney Miller (Soo has the film's best line when, after he flip-flops on his marriage proposal to Nancy Kwan to become engaged to another woman, he tells Kwan, "Baby, nothing's changed." When Kwan responds, "You're getting married to another woman!," he responds "That's the only thing!") Jack Soo got his big break in Flower Drum Song after he was spotted working as an MC at San Francisco's famous Chinese-themed Forbidden City nightclub, which served as the model for the film's Celestial Gardens nightclub. Forbidden City has been called the Asian-American version of Harlem's Cotton Club.


Forbidden City: The Asian Cotton Club

Unfortunately, you also get Academy Award-winning Japanese star Miyoshi Umeki (Best Supporting Actress for 1957's Sayanora) starring in a role that propagates the stereotype of the meek, humble and subservient Asian female, a role she would continue to play as housekeeper Mrs. Livingston in American television's The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1969-1972).

Personally, my favorite actress in Flower Drum Song was Reiko Sato as hard-luck "other woman" Helen Chao, the seamtress who secretly pines for male lead James Shigeta (who barely notices her) and gets to sing and dance the surreal, beautifully choreographed "Love Look Away."


Always the Bridesmaid's Seamtress, Never the Bride:
Love looks away from Reiko Sato

And yes, as her name suggests, Sato was yet another Japanese actor playing a Chinese character in Flower Drum Song! Though she later appeared in Marlon Brando's The Ugly American (1963) and had an uncredited appearance (as "Charlie's girl") in Sam Fuller's House of Bamboo (1955), Sato was best known for her roles in Space Giant (Supa Jaiantsu, aka Starman), the Japanese sci-fi film series starring Ken Utsui.


Supa Jaiantsu (aka Super Giant, Starman)

In addition to appearing alongside Brando in The Ugly American, Sato enjoyed a close relationship with the enigmatic American star; though they never married, they were together for 20 years and following her death in 1981, her cremated remains were "spirited away" to Brando's private island.

Flower Drum Song was revived on Broadway in 2002 with a new script by socially conscious playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly).

Related Links:
Flower Drum Song (Wikipedia)
Forbidden City (Media Maxi-Pad review)

Randy Pausch... an unbelieveble teacher, parent and human being!

An amazing professor who taught us a great last lesson.



In the lecture Mr. Pausch urged his students and colleagues to live life to the fullest. Among his words of wisdom:

• "Never underestimate the importance of having fun. I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day because there's no other way to play it."
• "We can't change the cards we're dealt, just how we play the hand. If I'm not as depressed as you think I should be, I'm sorry to disappoint you."
• "Good teaching is always a performance, but what Randy did was in a class all by itself," says Andy van Dam, co-founder of the computer science department at Brown University, which Pausch attended as an undergraduate. "His students responded to him as athletes do to a great coach who cares not only about winning but about the team players as individuals."

Randy Pausch, died Friday of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 47. He died at his home in southern Virginia.

Most felt condolences to his family, friends and students.

RELATED: Professor Pausch's life, 'Lecture' go from Web to book

VIDEO: See 'Last Lecture' on YouTube

PHOTOS: Randy Paush's life in pictures

AUDIO: Hear a clip from 'Lecture'

Source: USA Today

Artscape on "Artmakers"

Pan and Scan: Hsuan-Yu Pan captures Artscape 2008

My very talented friend Hsuan-Yu Pan was in town over the weekend to video highlights from the 2008 Artscape Festival, including the annual Art Car Parade, Dan Van Allen's art car "Annabelle," and the Load of Fun Gallery's Erotic Arts Festival. Hsuan-Yu has an Internet TV show called ARTMAKERS (http://artmakers.blip.tv) that's hosted on blip.tv. Check it out!

ARTSCAPE 2008: EROTIC ARTS FESTIVAL

Suzannah Gerber, curator of Load of Fun talks about The Baltimore Erotic Arts Festival in Artscape.

ARTSCAPE 2008: ANNUAL ART CAR SHOW

Artscape is America's largest free arts festival and Annual Art Car show has been around for 15 years. Artscape happens in Baltimore MD every July.

ARTSCAPE 2008: DAN VAN ALLEN'S ART CAR

Visionary artist Daniel Van Allen talks about his art car, "Annabelle," and introduces the Art Car Parade at Artscape 2008.

More Hsuan-Yu Pan Links:
Check out Hsuan-Yu's YouTube Channel: Hypannet

Sale!! and new tags

Hi there!

There's a sale at Designer scraps and Designer Scraps Living Large this weekend! =)

www.designerscraps.com

www.designerscrapslivinlarge.com


Don't miss it!!




And I wanted to show you off some tags made from some veeeeeery talented Ladies!!

This is made by Tamie. You can find the tut here: http://www.addictivepleasure.essenceofcreativity.co.uk/tuts/laura.htm

Thank you Tamie!!


This is made by Yvette. You can find this tut here:
http://www.essenceofcreativity.co.uk/tuts/tutorialsa-f/beautifullylaced/beautifullylaced.htm

Thank you Yvette!




This is made by Sugar. You can find this tut here:
http://www.thrusugarseyes.com/tutorials/strangeville/strangeville.htm

Thank you Neats!



And this is made by Chelle. You can find this tut here:
http://www.weescotslass.co.uk/Tutorials/CherishedWithLove/CherishedWithLove.html

Thank you Chelle!

Have a beautiful weekend everyone!

Laura

Seeing Stripes

Laundry room! Yes, It is still in progress. Sometimes, I have learned, that not "everyone" is on board with design choices that I make. Usually in these instances nothing happens. A stalemate, I am just realizing. Stalling. Not a good thing.

Since, hmm late 90's, when I saw a magazine spread of a Chicago condo, I have wanted to have a light grey, horizontal stripe. My plan was not quite as bold as the designer/owner accomplished in one of her rooms. A softer version would be nice. While the laundry room mechanics were being redesigned by the hubby, my opportunity was forming in my mind! The longer, empty wall that needed a design element that literally took up ZERO space. OOO, my striped wall!!! Like I said, not everyone was excited, well, at least in the positive direction! After all the hubby did have a lot of work into the room as well as myself. I designed the floor from the stone, size, pattern and even which stone would go where. The later was not my idea but the hubby's. I assisted in laying the stone ( i stress assisted) and even wiped down the stone after grouting. We both loved our results! But to think that I was going to throw him another curve ball was a little too much for him. But now I LOVE it and so will he.

The top photo was a distraction choice I toyed with... white walls with a large pink horizontal stripe(~8") with a small pink space under it with a 2 1/2" gold stripe under that. That would be the repeat, about four times. I decided to go with what I had been wishing for for sooo long.

The bottom photo is the actual light grey stripe, horizontal, in progress:



The stripes for our wall are 10 5/8th". We adjusted ever so slightly for the wall socket to be within a white stripe. We also taped off JUST the one bottom grey stripe and went ahead and painted it, took the tape off and looked at it for 24 hours... to see if "I " liked it. This was the hubby's idea and it was a good one, as many are. Oh, we also started with freshly painted white walls and all moldings were off.

Well, I loved the one stripe and was excited to go forward. However: Caitlin, who also loved it,and myself were worried that it may actually close the room in. After all, the floor pattern went the width of the room while the wall stripes went in a "railroad" pattern... opposing directions.

I forged ahead, willing to sand and re=paint if necessary, after all the paint was all ready paid for and I had plenty of white paint left to re-do the wall. I did not take a full look at the wall until each stripe was painted and the tape removed. (we went ahead and taped the remaining 3 stripes and painted them all at once). We looked at our results together and I loved it. I am very very happy!!! IT ACTUALLY OPENED UP THE ROOM!!! Happy, happy, Happy! If you want to do a horizontal stripe I highly encourage it!!!

Hobbes is having surgery today... they have already called to say he came out with flying colors but they will keep him until after 4. As much as I would like to see him, I am thrilled that THEY are going to be watching him for th majority of the day. After all they are the experts! I was worried about the anesthesia, but all seems good now :)
So, I may be busy this weekend caring for him and finishing a furniture project for a friend. I will definitely see you Monday!

Hugs,
Mary