My mailbox was overflowing today with loveliness. ::::gush::::::::::gush::::::::::gush::::::
Giao sent over the most dashing surprise tucked inside a thankyou card, from her shop The Walrus and The Carpenter with one of her infamous initial typewriter key chokers. So Lovely!
Another wonderful surprise came from the ultra fab Yvonne. She is such a sewing goddess. Between her beautiful posts and way too many obsessive viewings of project runway, I've felt so inspired to get sewing again.
I really love the fabrics she chose, they are SO exactly my taste. If I was to see these goodies in a shop they are definitely the kinds of things that would have my plastic flying!
She sent this gorgeous kimono patterned apron. (I was so tempted to wear it out, too fancy for the market?!)
A fantastic piece of fabric, that I can't wait to experiment with later.
And this gorgeous tote...in my favorite color combination of pinks and browns.
Still reeling from all of this goodness, there was a third package sent by Kim from littlesomethings. She is a constant inspiration to me, I was so thrilled to find that she had sent over some of her wonderful creations that I'm always reading about.
She sent the most fantastic array of handmade cards. I'm still in awe of her idea to incorporate discarded paint chips into her design. So genius! I also love the way she bound together the cards with sewing thread like a spiders web. She also threw in some of these awesome bags that she printed from an original hand-carved stamp.
Kim also picked up on the fact that I am a total nutcase when it comes to collecting asian parasols and sent over these miniature ones, now happily displayed in a tiny curio cabinet in my bedroom...and so many other cute bits and bobs I couldn't even begin to list them!
Thank you so much for all of these wonderful surprises. It's such a joy to read your weblogs, having your creations arrive on my doorstep was a divine treat!
My inspiration board is getting filled up with so many wonderful cards, and images from afar too. Some of my favorites include Hope's collaged greeting cards from her Cafe press shop.
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Craftsquad's Forum just launched recently. Great things are stirring over there already, everyone is welcome to join!
To give you a little idea of just how much rainfall we've been having here in Southern California, take a look at these park pictures that I took yesterday. The parking lot and "dry" river bed, had transformed into a raging river (complete with rapids). There was this eerie squeaking noise coming from a picnic table that was teeter tottering with the current, having been swept up in the river and blocked in by a cement post.
Meanwhile at home we've been getting our fare share of puddles too!
The bad weather has had me holed up indoors against my will, which in turn has made me go into "nesting phase 1". I completely pulled apart my office and reorganized it, made a sewing corner, painted a table, re-upholstered our old victorian fainting couch...and baked cookies. Oh my!
This morning I was experimenting a bit with layering all of my different funky papers, and Chinese papercuts together into cards. I was most impressed with the result of this small red handmade envelope (below). It brought back memories of all of the crazy envelopes I used to make and receive in the mail from friends when I was a teenager. They were usually made from odd sources like magazine pages, drawings, and patterned paper bags, whatever materials we could get our hands on.
I'm so thrilled to see so many wonderful photos of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "the gates" art installation in central park popping up all over NY based blogs. These photo collages by Oystercracker are especially stunning.
When I was a senior in highschool I bought a book of Annie Leibowitz's photographs. I was most captivated by the portrait she took of Christo.
His work seems to be following me throughout my life. I remember driving up north years ago with my family and seeing his umbrellas scattered up the hillside on the side of the road. It was so long ago, it feels like a dream. In 1995 I got a letter from a friend in Germany filled with the most incredible photographs and illustration of the wrapped Reichstag in Berlin (see photo below). Then in 1999 I was completely elated when an art class of mine was cancelled, so we could all go watch him give a talk at our university. I really didn't know what to expect. Every time I envisioned Christo, I thought of the Leibowitz photo. When I saw him in person, his persona reflected the artwork...this brilliant imagination hiding beneath his own demure exterior. He rather shyly stepped up to the microphone to introduce himself, and briefly explained his work. Afterwards Jeanne-Claude (his wife) stepped in, with her bright flaming red hair and her gloriously thick accent. The first thing she said was "when you see Christo's artwork, that's just a name...it's really Jeanne-Claude & Christo. We are doing this together". We didn't hear from Christo again, he sat to the side and watched his wife give the presentation. It was one of those moments when you become even more aware that everything in life isn't exactly how it seems.
The simplest things can become profound when there's so much lying beneath the surface.
*** If anyone else has any good links to photos of "the gates" I'd really love to see them.
posted by Liquid Sky Arts at 9:30 AM
2.05.2005
This commercial is a bit creepy yet so wonderfully insane...you couldn't possibly walk away from it without smiling. You'll understand what I'm talking about after you watch Gene Kelly like you've never seen him before. (via vingus.)
The Perception Laboratory's Face Transformer creations have been taking my livejournal friends page by storm the past few days, and since I'm a total sucker for gadgets I couldn't resist trying it too. On the left is what I'd look like as a Modigliani, and the right as a Mucha. I morphed and I morphed, and was up to no good....I even went as far as morphing this photo of Hugh.
Here's Hugh as a Modigliani, and El Greco. Then I went into a mad laughing fit when I realized who his El Greco reminded me of. Yeah, I'm easily amused.
