Alphabet Soup Print

New in the shop today: alpahbet soup print. I made this as a gift for some one-year-olds in my life, and thought others might enjoy it too. This is a new attempt at digital prints in my shop -- will still be goccoing, but the printer has been working lately (knock on wood!) so I thought I'd put a few of these up. Check out the shop for more details. Custom colors available, too.


speaking of custom colors... do you have any designs you want created? I'd be happy to give it a try for you, just e-mail me!

a bit of spring greening for the planet

tomorrow is Earth Hour!!

"Earth Hour will bring millions of people around the world and across the United States together on Saturday, March 29, 2008 to make a bold statement about climate change. Together they will turn out their lights for one hour—Earth Hour—from 8 to 9 p.m. local time.

While the lights are out, people are encouraged to replace their energy-wasting light bulbs with new, energy-saving compact fluorescents and think about how they can help slow climate change and trim carbon dioxide emissions at home, in their neighborhood and city, and at their workplace.

Earth Hour will show the world that by working together, each of us can make a positive impact in the fight against climate change."

think

A haiku written by John Maeda, found at the Flickr Inspiration Boards Pool -- definitely worth a check out if you haven't ever (or lately).

Also, for a bit more inspiration, please do yourself the favor of listening to the HayHouse radio show "you can have what you want" with Michael Neill -- you can get it via iTunes or from hayhouse which is a free web radio thingy which appears to be all about self-affirmation, as new-agey as that is, how bad can it be? as sheryl crow says, if it makes you happy, it can't be that bad.
:)
(super plus, he has a great voice and is pretty funny. seriously.)

a week in pictures

I miss you, St. Augustine!
Florida is a great place to visit -- I highly recommend it!

coming back from Florida

ok, I was sure that I left a note here about my trip to Florida this week, sorry! I was in Florida! well, actually, I still am. Our flight leaves in an hour and it has been a great time of fun and sun!

I will post some of my own pics later this week, when I get back into the swing of things.

It's 7:22 and still sort of dark here, which is pretty odd. But it stays light longer and was sooo much warmer than 'the north' -- we had a super fun time visiting friends Courtney and Gerrit (and Sadie-dog) in Gainesville and Jaclyn's family in St. Augustine. Everyone was so nice and welcoming, and it was waaarm and sunny. I might have a sun burn. :) but it felt good to get some vitamin D, and swim in the ocean!

blog love

One of my creations was mentioned on another blog -- this time on sooziebee cards and illustration -- She bought a set of my orange gocco thank you cards. You can get some too, in the shop.

Sue makes lovely little stitched watercolor paintings, which I love!

(thanks, Sooziebee!)












Also, Perfectbound mentioned my print again, this time in a post by Kathryn (there are two fab ladies who write this blog), who ended up buying one of the prints. Thanks Ladies!!!

quoting from awesomeness

spied over at the Extensis Community Blog:

In honor of the International Day of Awesomeness, I’m happy to officially pronounce that you are awesome. You, yes you, because of everything that you are, and everything that you do, you are awesome.

So, take some time today to revel in your awesomeness. You deserve it.

Just remember that no one’s perfect, but everyone can be awesome."

couldn't have said it better myself.

miracle, indeed

I just finished the audio-book of Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver et al. It was GREAT. I highly recommend it. seriously.

She notes that if you are listening to (or reading) it in the cold of winter, to put it aside for a little while, because it's virtually impossible to eat locally through winter without a lot of pre-planning -- but even though I was doing just that, I found myself looking at the food in the grocery store a lot differently, and though I will probably still continue to eat the occasional bananna, I might just think a little harder about what it took to get it to me.

Their website is www.animalvegetablemiracle.com, and it has lots of tasty recipes, including a sweet potato quesadilla we made a few days ago and it was delish! Nothing there is too complicated, we even learned how to make our own pizza dough using 4 ingredients. Of course it's that easy, but we didn't really ever think about it. And it doesn't have to rise for a long time, so, as Martha might say, that's a good thing. ;)

Maybe next we tackle making cheese? could it be as easy as she says?

oh my

My Mod Spring Birdie Gocco Print has been featured on one of my favorite blogs! Perfectbound likes my print! (thank you!)to get your own visit my etsy shop.

'nother little drawing

Word Bird 2008

might try making this into a gocco print, but I'm still trying to master the multiple color thing, which is pretty challenging on my little basic machine.

I may also put them in the shop as a digital print, but I need to get my printer fixed. It's always something, isn't it? :)

in amongst my research

starting a new project this week for my typography class, and I came across this little smile-maker among the random design research I was conducting. (you might want to click on it to zoom in)
enjoy!

spring might be on its way

I just heard a little bit of honking outside, but not the city-cab-car kind, rather the country geese-returning from warmer places-kind. It is so inspiring and heart warming, to think that we might just rise up from under our ice-sheets and snowbanks and twisted-on-the-ice-ankles. Might it actually happen? the sun is out today, which helps. and it rained yesterday instead of snowed, so I think we might be in the home stretch. that is not to say that we won't be getting another nor'easter or two, but maybe we can see the light at the end of this cold, dark tunnel.

(no, i didn't take this one...nice tho, eh? yeah, i found it via google images)

OH! and i put a few new things in the shop: a few cards (that didn't quite come out how I'd envisioned but I'm learning and they're cute enough) and a few new photos. Hopefully will be doing some more gocco prints soon, as long as i can get my homework done.

In other spring/birds related news, [do not read on if you're feeling squeamish!] our cat Jane is a cold-blooded killer, srsly. She has spent all winter sitting inside watching the songbirds visit the feeder on our deck, and on this first nice-ish day she decided to watch from outside. no sooner did I look away, but she had a sad little finch in what seemed to be a death-grip. I will spare you the gory details, but let's just say I'm disturbed. I have never seen her do anything like this (ok, the occasional mouse, but not often or recently). I'm so sad for the little birdie -- I really hope this was a one time deal. Then she tried to bring it inside! I decided she'd stay outside until she stopped trying to bring it in, which thankfully she eventually did. How can such a sweet cuddly animal do something like this??

Yeah, she's evil. The soft, pretty fur is just a disguise.

mini break

...as sweet (yet zany) bridget jones would say, I'm off on a mini break this weekend. well, actually today. I'm headed to New Hampshire to visit my dear friend Sarah, where she has just moved not too long ago. I'm excited to see her new place, and help her figure out how to nail pictures up on the wall which are proving impossible to penetrate. (any suggestions?)

We are going to go see the little folksinger, ms. ani difranco herself, this evening in Concord. I'm really excited, though (embarrassing fact alert!) I've seen her approximately 11 times already in my little life. But she keeps on playing and I keep on listening, so it's a symboitic relationship, really. :) I think it will be a great time. It's been a few years since I saw her last, in which time she had a baby girl, who I hope she talks about at great lengths. who doesn't love babies?

Then I'm off to Somerville, near Boston, to see darlings Jaclyn and Vanessa, for a rockin' Leap Year party and possibly some rollar skating. I will attempt to get some more homework done in the time between these wonderful events. We'll see how that goes.

Oh and if you did, thanks for buying one of my new prints over on Etsy -- I've sold a few now, which is really encouraging. I will continue to create some more fab gocco goodness, as I'm really enjoying it and people seem to like what I'm cranking out, so it's all good.

new print for sale

birdie print 3, originally uploaded by Crafty Maven.

new gocco (screenprint) for sale in my etsy store. This little mod birdie is helping us look toward spring, standing amid 5 robin's-egg-blue eggs and a big mossy green leaf. It's spring-in-a-print, and would look great on your wall!

(I love to gocco) Did i mention that I love my gocco? :)

spring colors

ok, I lied when I said I needed more spring color -- I do have some lovely forsythia branches growing in the kitchen, brightening every day here in the cold, old farmhouse. I really need to get back outside and cut some more, because they are doing so well, and the bush really needs a haircut anyway. The first winter we lived here I tried the same thing and nothing happened, which was kind of depressing. But after John gave the whole shrub a good trimming that spring it Popped the next year around, and now I'll always know I can get a shot of yellow in the dead of winter.

My mom also bequeathed to me a huge pot of amaryllis which I am just hoping, willing to grow, but they're not as happy here as on her windowsill, I can gauruntee that.(john took this shot of me and Jane enjoying the yellow flowers and a nice mug of hot chocolate. She really likes to get cuddly when you're trying to work, especially when you're writing or working on a computer.)

Geeking out on typography

hahaha!

no really, it's funny!
this was posted by one of my classmates, and cleverly created by Ironic Sans; you can buy one if you want, or even buy one for me. ;)

did a little drawing

narcissus on my mind?

i need to find something more colorful to bloom in this, the depths of winter, though. I made up the color of the pot, the one I actually have them in is very much the same color as the blossoms, which looks nice in person, but not in this drawing.

maybe i'll make it into a digital print on a card? or a gocco?

well, regardless, enjoy the thoughts i'm sending of almost-spring!

David Berkeley

I just re-found this great musician (singer/songwriter, folkskinger?) David Berkeley. I downloaded his album The Confluence, and it's super lovely. you will like it, promise. I discovered him way back in San Francisco when I was gently dragged along to a seemingly impromptu performance in an odd little space that appeared to be the first floor of someone's house in, oh, Western Addition maybe? The Haight? I'm really not sure where it was. but i remember the room and the amazing music and the good company like it was yesterday. I was with a bunch of people I had just met, and one good friend from the shire who was living out there, too.

I have to say that it was a pretty magical night-- one of those 'times' that are just like you might imagine living in San Francisco is supposed to be, at least wonderfully streotypically, not actually really like that, at least not if you have a job (or three, like i did). Anyway, we walked into this big little room (maybe it was an old storefront, actually), with some crude sound equipment, lots of pillow and maybe 5 chairs? We all sat around leaning on the walls and one another and listened to the really wonderful sounds of David Berkeley. And everything was good. on into the night... :)

Mass MoCA

this saturday we took a trip up to Williamstown and North Adams to absorb some Berkshire culture. The Williams College Museum of Art is always free, but in my mere 27 years living in and out of the berkshires i haven't actuall set foot inside, so I decided to change that. My favorite parts were the giant warhol in the stairwell (below) and a pretty aaaaahhhmazing set of marble (?) slabs from, oh, 5,000 years ago with Sumerian Cunieform pressed into their surfaces-- one of the earliest form of analphabetic writing. this was particularly exciting for me because it is pretty much the first graphic design, ever. astounding. and they still exist for me to look at. no i can't read it, but who cares how many barells of grain one old dude sold another old dude? (channelling bill and ted....)

the eyeballs watch you as you come and go from WCMA...
and meanwhile, as i sneakily took pics inside Mass MoCA...


this piece is by Spencer Finch-- pretty cool.



this exhibit was pretty great, too-- tho i think i'd like it better if it wasn't moving. the text was projected in a rotating fashion around the room, and you got to sit on these giant HYPERCOLOR (yeah, i know, we're lucky!) beanbag chairs to view it. Helvetica not really used to it's best, though.


blurry, but super neato icon of North Adams these days-- the upside-down Maple trees. They even sell syrup tapped from them....

and then, behold, winter wonderland once again-- this is from yesterday, Sunday, just down the street from our house. ('On account of that frosting....)