No Excuses

I've been remiss. I can't be bothered to take photos of the things I do, if I even bother to do things. When I do photograph anything, it never makes it off the camera. However! I've just signed up for Daring Bakers, so starting next month, you're guaranteed at least one post a month, and a delicious one, at that. Get hungry.

Very Nearly Always Awesome

Last year was bad–wicked bad–and not just for me. It seemed like one terrible break after another for a lot of people I knew. The award for the worst news of all went to Tim. Last spring he was diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's, which was a blow for everyone who loves him, too. In classic Tim fashion, though, rather than being depressing and grim, the story since then has been upbeat, hopeful, sometimes funny, and always sweet.

I could tell you more about the trials and triumphs, but I'll let Andy Coon and Blake Faucette do it instead. Their documentary web series, Often Awesome, about Tim, his wife, Kaylan, and their life since diagnosis is currently on its seventh episode and just won outstanding achievement awards at the LA Webfest for the Documentary/New Series category and the category for Documentary/New Series Theme Music (by Filthybird, who you can listen to here). Do me and yourself a favor by watching the latest installment below, and catch the whole series at oftenawesome.com. From there you can follow the series on Facebook, get more info about ALS, and SHARE these videos about my amazing and often awesome friend.

Getting There

A few more snapshots from around the house. First, here's the platform bed that Anthony built. It's working out great.

And the wall of our "dining room" (which, you know, is just part of the living room.) I want a lot of pattern in here, so we decided to paint one on the wall. We drew it in white chalk and then painted it in regular latex wall paint. Time consuming, but totally worth it.

Last but not least, Link is chilling on the door to my studio, being my little mascot. I just put some decorative paper in there as a place-holder, but I'm looking forward to switching it out with...vacation photos? Link at the pyramids? Water park? Club Med?

 

A Milli

A million projects. Really. Like Weezy, but with projects instead of dollars. We moved two weeks ago and though none of the rooms is totally unpacked and finished, I'm excited about how everything is coming together. Anthony built a bed based on these plans, which we're also using to build a daybed/sofa. Pics to come once they're in a photographable state. The same goes for everything else that's in progress, so I won't spoil the surprise by trying to describe the crazy/amazing things we're doing. 

There are a few small things I can share, though, like this thrifted lamp (above). It was originally painted a weird mauve. I sprayed it flat white and added a shade and a finial and suddenly it was amazing.

Anthony built this sweet and simple stand for the tv and stereo. Just five pieces of 1" luan plywood (which I got for $5 from the scrap cart at Lowe's) and some deck screws. I've thought of a bunch of ways to paint/embellish it, but for now I'm digging on the bare-wood-and-screws look.

Last but not least, more lighting. Since the place is a rental, we couldn't paint the chandelier like we wanted, but then I remembered a post I'd seen on Design*Sponge and decided to try it out myself. I rolled some pretty paper around the outside of the tubes that were already on the fixture (which just slip right off, btw) and glued it to itself with rubber cement. If you wanted to get fancy, you could use PVA, but this worked just fine and is a lot more forgiving. Bonus for the fact that, seeing how a sheet of scrapbooking paper generally costs less than a dollar, I can switch it out for something new whenever we get bored of this.

Printing, Binding, & Lil' Wayne

I disappeared over the holidays for several reasons. One of those was that Anthony and I were working on the most amazing project of all time. We compiled all of the hip-hop tracks from the Billboard Hot 100 for every year from 1993 to the present. Getting all of the music took forever, then the track and artist names had to be formatted. I also went through and tagged all of the songs for easy organization in iTunes. Massive undertaking. But that's not all, folks. We also screenprinted posters for a few friends. The background text is (most of) the track and artist names from the compilation. The main copy is the title of the compilation, but more importantly it's how we feel about our friends. I was thrilled about how the project turned out, and so happy to send these little packages out to people I love.

This was my first time screenprinting on paper or with multiple screens so Anthony's experience was clutch. We printed on a craft paper, which I love the look of, but came with its own set of issues. Not only was the paper uneven, but it came off of a roll, so curling was a big issue (I ♥ masking tape). The first layer was originally intended to be a vivid turquoise acrylic mixed with screen printing medium (a method that allows you to get a lot of colors you can't otherwise get, and more cheaply than buying some of the nicer screenprinting inks). The ink ended up on the thin side, though, and as it was the middle of the night and we really needed to get printing, we changed colors. The heavier body of the white we switched to made wrinkles in the paper less of an issue.

I'm really looking forward to more screen printing projects, but I think I'll wait till I have a little more space to dedicate to the activity. Doing it all in someone else's house without a proper studio was not ideal. So in the meantime I've been working on some smaller scale paper projects, including different sized portfolios based on one that caught my eye at an art store last week. The largest one I'm working on is for 11"x17" paper. Above is a half-sheet (5.5" x 8.5") test run that I did prior to starting on the big one. Digging it.

Moleskine Re-Pimp

Say "hello" to my (re)refreshed Moleskine. The spine of this little trooper was threatening to give out so I gave him a facelift. Plus it gave me an excuse to trade out the green endpapers (from last year's fix/pimp) for yellow ones. Pantone^® may find it passé, but I'm still about it.

This was my second attempt to fix this particular issue, so I'm extra proud that it turned out so fly. On the first go the book cloth refused to adhere to the cover. This time I scored the cover along the perimeter of the to-be-recovered area and (carefully) peeled away the black plastic-y stuff, leaving exposed book board. Problem solved. Moleskine pimped. Fresh as fuck.

Photo Log

Walter totally got me a friggin' panda hat!

Anthony couldn't sleep in one morning, so I woke up to this berry tart for breakfast.
I'm stoked on life.

Holy crap! Tim and Kaylan got married! Kat Lamp gave me permission to use the portrait she did of the two of them on buttons as mementos for the wedding guests. Radass.

A fresh haircut for 2010.