Cold season

The pilot light on our heater is out. I just called the electric company and the soonest someone can come to turn it on is Friday, which is four cold days from now. But there's another thing that happens when it gets cold outside, besides getting cold inside. That's right, it's Christmastime!

I love Christmastime! I know commercialism is terrible and all that, but I really like making cookies and seeing snowmen and making cards and eating feasts. I'm not really a huge fan of presents. I hate surprises, and I like giving things to people when I want to, not because I feel obligated to do it. And I really don't want any more stuff. So I asked for boring stuff, like a kitchen knife and books for my upcoming classes, which will be nice to have, but not too exciting to play with on Christmas morn. Luckily there will be a tiny baby (not Jesus) to play with. And ice skating, if there is an ice skating place in Memphis.

We went to the Oakland Christmas Parade, which was really good. So good that we're still talking about it a week later. There were karate kids breaking boards, jump-ropers, tap-dancing Christmas trees, little kids dressed like presents, Taz riding in a convertible, and huge balloons of various cartoon characters which had to be dramatically lowered to clear the tree corridor that was just beyond our curb-seats. Gregg has lots of good pictures of the action, including one of the devastating effects of my Santa fever. Best parade ever!

We decorated the miniature city instead of decorating the whole apartment, because miniature decorations are so much easier! Plus a reindeer lives there, so it seemed like an obvious choice. Of course it's all exactly to scale. Maybe if we weren't going out of town for actual Christmas I'd want to decorate more. I don't know. I think I'd be more excited about it if anyone besides me and Channing were likely to see the decorations. We still haven't exactly "decorated" our apartment for daily use, so we're probably not ready for seasonal decorations anyway. Taking them down and storing them seems like a hassle, too. We might actually get around to painting our hideous living room over Channing's vacation, so that's another good reason not to decorate.

We did invest in some white LED icicle lights, but those are more for mood lighting than for seasonal decor. We rearranged our bedroom, so our bed is wedged into the closet that used to hold a murphy bed. It makes for a magical forest-tent-like sleeping experience and opens up a lot of space in the bedroom. Or it will once we find places for all of the stuff we took out of the closet. Finishing stuff is hard. Also, our closet has fake stained glass windows. There's something really nice about sleeping in a little cubby nook thing, especially when it has fake stained glass windows.


Channing made Christmas pizza today, with pomegranates and spinach and pears for toppings. It tasted a lot like regular pie. And we had hot cocoa with it because it's really cold in here.

I made elaborate Christmas cards, which we addressed last night. So I guess I won't post a picture of one just in case they get mailed at some point and one is coming to you in the mail. You'll just have to wait. Soon I'm going to make some Christmas cookies. I guess I should make a whole lot so we never run out.

A cat with the tail of a beaver! And more!

I made most of a giraffe for the Golden Retriever movie. He's very tall, but not so very fat. Giraffes aren't really fat, but this one should definitely be a bit fatter. I ran out of stuffing.

Here is his inside-out neck, when I was pinning the mane(?) in:

Here is his cute inside-out body:

I realize that you can't actually tell what anything is. I'll post a right-side-out picture when I finish stuffing him.

I still haven't finished the beaver puppet, because I don't have any suitable brown fabric for his body. Mr. Tusks' body is not very beaveresque, but here he is, delighted to model a fine beaver's tail. 

Clearly I need to make a trip to the fabric store very very soon. 

Thanksgiving was really good. I was nervous about being in charge of the meal, but it turned out fine. I think it was easier than I expected in part because we've been cooking meals from real ingredients so much more often lately. When I was growing up, cooking things that didn't come from packages pretty much only happened on holidays, which probably made it even more stressful for my mom when those days came around and she felt like she had to not only cook, but cook something extra-special.

We didn't have tiny pies, just a regular-sized one. Tiny pies are all the rage around here ever since I figured out you can make pies in a muffin pan. I meant to make them as portable lunchbox desserts, but both times I've made them we've eaten all the pies too fast for any of them to make it into a lunchbox. As you can see, I didn't even have the strength to take one photo before I ate two pies. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't have time to make them for Thanksgiving, because I thought Channing's mommy would have quite liked them. But the next day they went to Chinatown, where they saw tiny pies for sale in a bakery. 85 cents a pie! What a deal! 

I'm looking forward to Christmas. We're going to Memphis for a few days. My mom already spent an entire day putting lights on the Christmas tree. I get to see my niece again (she'll be 3 months old on Christmas) and this time she'll probably be dressed like an elf instead of a pumpkin. I'm dragging Channing to The Nutcracker (which I'm pretty sure he's going to like) and I'll probably make him watch at least five Christmas movies with me. And hopefully at some point I'll get to go ice skating in my holiday elf cape. And we get to make gingerbread cookies! And wear mittens! I'm going to make Mr. Tusks wear mittens! Wooden mittens, so he can't scratch me. And read the Christmas stories, which are banned during the rest of the year! And giftwrapping! I love wrapping presents. And Christmas cards! Sighhhhh. Christmas is so great. 

gettin' into scrapes

The title is actually a pun, and this post is probably really boring because it's about scraping paint, not about mischief and injuries. 

After a few months of being disgusted by the paint either peeling or chipping off of or layered globbily onto various surfaces in our apartment,  I finally started scraping. The more I scrape the more I want to scrape. Not because it's fun, but because it really looks terrible. I don't understand these people who did all of this painting. None of them ever thought of stripping the old paint, they just covered it up. I understand when you're moving you don't want to do all that hard stuff, but the cumulative effect is ridiculous. There are between nine and twelve layers of paint on the cabinets in the dining nook. There are a few colors in there, which I understand might not be to everyone's liking, but mostly it's just layers and layers of white. I'm scraping down to turquoise because the layer on top of the turquoise isn't really sticking to it. And I like turquoise well enough. To make matters worse, the people who did this painting didn't understand the concept of not painting hinges and clasps. A lot of our cabinets don't close all the way, so hopefully my scraping will solve that problem. Too bad it's not enamel paint. I would like to have some fordite in my rock collection. I would like to make the wood actually look like wood again, but I doubt that I'm going to have that much patience for scraping. 

But here's a part about injuries after all, as a reward for reading this far: I got a paint chip in my eye tonight and it hurt a lot. Channing fished it out with a q-tip, which hurt more. Channing broke his arm a week ago in an altercation with a bear. I was going to make him a leafy green mitten and paint his cast like a tree trunk, but it turns out he doesn't have to wear a cast because the break is so close to the elbow that if he didn't move his arm his elbow would fuse itself together. Which is kind of cool. And I'm glad he can do the dishes and take showers. But a tree arm would have been cool, too. So if you happen to break your arm, get a brown cast and I will make you a leafy green mitten for your fingers. I wouldn't suggest breaking your arm on purpose just so you can have a tree arm, because a broken arm seems to hurt a lot.  

Beaver Background Update

They are done! Almost. I just have to adjust the length when I get the actual song from my dear friend Keith. Here is a preview dam:

And they're stop-motion backgrounds, so there are 300 more just like that but slightly different. Exciting, huh? Also, logs. Whatever. 

Next step is Beaver Puppet! I don't have any idea how to make a beaver puppet, which means this is the kind of project that I want to do most. I like the ones with thinking. 

I'm tired. 

I spent almost three hours going grocery shopping today. Most of that was getting to and from the store, and most of that was because I decided to walk two miles to the train instead of waiting for the bus. Too bad the store I like is in San Francisco. Usually I don't make the trek, I just suck it up and go to the store where Channing got called stupid by the cashier for buying organic toothpaste. But today I had nothing to do, so I spent all day going to the store to get bulk spices and loose tea. Also, we got our CSA box yesterday so I've been planning menus to use all the foods that I don't usually eat. This is partly why we joined the CSA, so we would be forced to break out of our ruts of getting the same vegetables every time we went shopping. This week's box had broccoli, broccoli raab, bok choi, salad mix, onions, pomegranate, butternut squash, and tokyo turnips. Our plan worked, because the only things in there that we would usually buy are onions and pomegranates. I would get broccoli, but someone who I live with and eat with at nearly every meal refuses to eat it without making gagging faces. Unfortunately it turns out that this plan is also a lot of work what with the finding recipes and shopping for extra ingredients and cooking the food and everything. I guess it's worth it, but sometimes it seems like I spend more energy making the food than I get from eating the food. 

A Serious Message About Voting

Pillow and Pillow would like to point out that being an informed voter is very important. They would also like to add that it is your civic duty to thoroughly clean your monocle or pince-nez before entering the voting booth so you can see the ballot clearly and mark the appropriate choices.

While voting for president is fun and exciting, you actually get to vote on lots of other things, like propositions and measures and whatnot. But, since reading about all of those things takes so much time, perhaps you could vote based on recommendations from someone you trust. That's right, Mr. Tusks has carefully researched all of the candidates so you don't have to do it yourself.



As you can see, Mr. Tusks is very serious and responsible. Here is a closer view of his recommendations:



It seems that Mr. Tusks plans to write in his own choices, which he is allowed to do, assuming he is registered to vote.

THEE DOGSUIT!

I just found these photos on Channing's computer, so now you may see it! It's made of what was once a heavy velvety curtain. 

This was from the first stage of construction: the chicken nugget stage.

"Roooooo!"

Here I am with ears, about to attach the nose, practicing panting. 

 
And, finally, pretending the nose is attached so I could see what it would look like. 

After this I added the paws and tail. As you can see, in these photos the dogsuit is all bunched up so I could use my arms. After it was completed it covered my entire body, much like in the chicken nugget stage, but with paws. 

I will eventually get a still from the movie so you can see the whole outfit. 

beaver backgrounds

I've decided that I shall complete the stage set for the beaver's song next. Here is my inspiration:

But with more logs.

A rant about money

I've always thought it would be cool to get paid to make the things I want to make. I've had very limited success in selling things I make, especially the movies. I sold some (like 10) at the zinefest, but that's all. And even though I make most of the things in my movies out of trash or cheap things from thrift stores, the expenses still add up. I think I spent $4 (and 4 months) on making Snowfakes, but just buying and developing the film for Dreamboat cost probably $200. Maybe more. With travel expenses and craft supplies added up, this golden retriever movie is bound to be the most expensive yet. So obviously I can't expect my friends to support these movie-making ventures by buying a dvd for $7, because it's not happening. Not that I expect all of you to buy one. I totally understand that everyone is broke and unemployed. I too am broke and unemployed (although I start my job on Friday) and wouldn't really want to spend $7 on anything. I'm glad that people enjoy my movies even if they don't want to give me money for them. And even though I've gotten recognition from galleries and even a museum and have been honored to show my work at such places, I haven't made any money off of it. (Unless you count $2.50, which was made at a fundraising event. Round trip bus fare is $3.) But, unfortunately, money is something I need in order to make movies. So... maybe I can get a grant? 

Last weekend Channing and I attended the first part of a fundraising and grant-writing for artists workshop.  The first part was fundraising, this weekend is the grant-writing portion, which we're also planning to attend. I left the workshop feeling really enthused about finding grants to apply for and immediately looked up a bunch of grant opportunities. Almost as immediately I became pretty discouraged. There are thousands of grant opportunities out there, and most of them are really specific about what they want. That's good, because it saves you the trouble of applying for one that definitely isn't going to fund you, but bad because it's hard to find the ones that you do qualify for. Especially for me. 

My art isn't about social issues or women with cancer or multi-culturalism. It's just about making people happy. If there are grants that want to fund things like that, I have yet to find them. It does seem like there should be such things within the thousands of grants that exist, so maybe I just need to spend more time investigating lists of 19,000 grant opportunities to find them. 

I'm also having a problem, as someone who has essentially never been paid for or spent much money on my artwork, with the idea of requesting what seem like huge sums of money. When you're seeking funding, you have to include "artist's fees" in the amount you request. Which is really cool, because it means you get paid for the time you spend making art and that you get to pay the people who help you. That's what I want. I understand that my time is valuable, but it's the kind of thing I don't know how to put a price on. One bag of stuffing and a yard of velcro, $7. One dvd, $7. One joke book about sea creatures, $1. Those are easy. Three days spent painting a cigar box to look like a black lacquer box with golden bone details? I have no idea. 

Another difficult aspect of applying for funding is the timing. I enjoy making plans. I wrote down almost the entire sequence of Snowfakes before I took a single photo. But then I started taking photos the next day. After applying for a grant it generally take 6 months to hear whether they've decided to fund you or not. Knowing generally what I'm going to do before I start work is not such a big deal, but making a plan and getting all excited about it and then waiting  six months before working on it seems almost excruciating.

But obviously, I'm going to try it. Because maybe I can get $10,000 and make the best movie ever!

Goals...

I'm experimenting with setting deadlines for myself. I wasn't sure if it would work because it's not like something bad will happen to me if I turn in my work to myself late. But I told myself that if I really want to take my movie-making seriously (or to ever finish) then I have to be serious about actually working on it. And it's going pretty well. The first deadline (and only one so far) was to complete Pillow and Pillow today! TICKTICKTICK! Time's a-wastin'!

But I think I can do it. It's only almost 4pm and I'm almost finished. Only a little stuffing and some monocle-making remains. They might not get eyeballs today, because I think I want googley eyes, which I don't have. But those will only take a moment to attach, and there's no way I'm going to the art supply store today. 

On a related rant: why doesn't Oakland have an art supply store? I don't understand. I've heard tell that there are more artists per capita here than in any other American city, or something like that, so why do we have to go to Berkeley or Emeryville to get supplies? It doesn't make sense at all. 

So, dear reader, what should I work on after today's deadline? Cat puppet? Giraffe puppet? Beaver puppet? Emily puppet? Maybe I should look and see what kind of fabrics I have before I decide. I also got a job! Hooray! So I should probably find out how many days I'm going to be working before I set my next deadline. 

But for now, back to work on that monocle. 

Pallin' around with the Pillows

Thanks to one of my bed pillows for modeling the moustache for the non-completed Pillow. Doesn't Pillow look nice? Channing thinks he's horrifying, and that Pillow's gaping mouth is likely to bite him. This is probably true, but since his mouth is made of cardboard I doubt it would hurt very much. Hopefully he'll be less scared when I finish adding the rest of the facial features. UPDATE: Channing is slightly less scared now that Pillow has a moustache. 

I also finished a very rough cut of the beginning of the movie! Hooray! 

A Heck Of A Team!

This is what I'm going to be working on for the next forever. Making the hosts is the first step. 

If you're interested in writing a song to possibly be performed at this vaudeville show, let me know and I'll give you more info. 

CELEBS!!!

We were in LA for the weekend. Here is an artist's rendering of us having fun at a fancy event:

We also saw some other celebs:

Air Bud!!!

I talked to them for a while about being golden retriever superstars and I learned a lot. Mostly that once you're a golden retriever superstar you get lots of curly rawhide treats. Which I guess is good. Maybe they're an acquired taste which I will learn to love when I become a golden retriever superstar and can afford such luxuries. 

I also got food poisoning, barfed in a parking lot, and spent most of the weekend in bed. I did make it to the Tokyo Nonsense show, which was the reason we went to LA this weekend. Channing's friend Antonin (Digiki) got flown in from Tokyo to DJ at the opening, and he graciously allowed me to sleep in his hotel room while he and Channing went to the Getty without me. We really enjoyed the show, especially the video pieces. It's pretty unusual for me to enjoy video art, which might seem strange since I'm a video artist. It just seems like so much of the video I see is just boring. I get really angry when I see videos made by people who seem to think that no one has ever seen something in slow motion before. I don't think making a video slow makes it art. It just makes it boring. And, in case you haven't been to the same galleries and museums as me, there are a TON of videos like this. I like seeing things that are unexpected and witty and creative, and most of the videos in this show fit that description exactly. But you don't have to take my word for it... (cue art gallery rainbow theme)

My Summer Vacation

Oh yeah, summer is over. I forgot.

We didn't exactly end up shooting the town scenes. Instead we shot some backgrounds and are hoping we'll be able to piece them together with the action using amazing bluescreen technology.

By the way, remember that lovely bathmat I made? Mr. Tusks has taken to peeing on it. He's never peed on anything else except for his litter box. Why must he be so bad?

Here he is being helpful:

I sewed the velcro (which holds the legs together) while he was sitting on the other end of the dogsuit. 

He has a tiny fluff of retriever fur on his nose because he'd just finished sleeping with his face buried in the it. He always wakes up when he hears the camera turn on. In case he might need to follow me when I go into another room. 

Sorry I don't have a picture of myself actually wearing the dog costume. You'll see it eventually.

Even though this whole flea thing happened

we still had a really good time this weekend. 

These are at the South Yuba River, after we finished filming the panning for gold scene. It's really nice there. I wish it had been possible for us to get there a little earlier so we could swim, but the sun was starting to go down when we finished, so it wasn't warm enough for my tiny body anymore. Plus our swimming costumes were back at the hotel. But I guess people still pan for gold here and all around this "Gold Country" region. 

Also, I couldn't wear my dog costume here because we didn't bring a leash.

Blood on the sheets

I'm in Nevada City, CA. It's 4am, and I'm not awake because I've been enjoying the exciting nightlife of Nevada City. I think we actually went to bed at 10 because we wanted to get to sleep early so we could wake up before sunrise to shoot scenes in town. Unfortunately we didn't actually sleep at all because of the mattress being stuffed with fleas instead of comfortable cushiony stuff. It seemed comfortable at first, but it turned out to be just a huge rectangular block of fleas bound by a fitted sheet. After tossing and turning for however many hours, getting up to take a shower, and being baffled by the fact that I was obviously suddenly allergic to poison ivy (which somehow must have gotten inside of my dog costume), and trying to go back to bed, I finally trapped a flea. Then stripped the covers and saw the streaks of blood and trapped 19 more fleas. Mostly fat guys.

So, yeah, not going back to bed. 

Yesterday we shot in the woods, and it went really well. And the Yuba River, where we shot the panning for gold scene, was incredibly beautiful. I'm not really sure if shooting is going to continue as planned in a few hours. We're awake, but both of our costumes might be filled with fleas. Even if they aren't I have so many bites on my back that I'm dreading the thought of putting on my dogsuit. We'll see.

The paws that refreshes

It's the one on the right. 

Mining Tools

I whipped up this pickaxe last night. Still needs to be painted.

When I was in 10th grade I made a model of half of the Globe Theater out of cereal boxes and tape and a broom (for the straw roof) and paint. Maybe I also did a layer of papier mache. It was probably one and a half boxes high and four boxes around, so big enough that it was really awkward to carry. When we presented our projects we were supposed to say what was difficult about what we made, and I said "it would have been easier if I had used stiffer cardboard instead of cereal boxes." The teacher looked confused and asked why I had decided on cereal boxes as a building material, and I said it was because I happened to already have some cereal boxes. This is still the way I almost always go about making things.

I did actually have some real cardboard to make the pickaxe out of, but I didn't use it because it was hard to cut. I used posterboard instead. It's stuffed with the styrofoam packing from my birthday present that I already opened, so it's slightly less likely to get smashed. I also made some other things out of that packing material, so none of it is getting thrown away. Not yet, anyway.

I got a dress form for my birthday. I was allowed to open it because I bought it for myself (although technically my mom is buying it for me as soon as she sends a check for it) and because it arrived in a box that had pictures of the contents on the outside. My birthday is Monday! I have a job interview on my birthday! I hope this year is less disastrous than my past few birthdays. If I get a job, and my niece is born, and my pie (peach and raspberry) turns out well, it might make up for the Balloogna incident and etc. But at this point I'm kind of dreading what terrible things might happen on my birthday.

My dogsuit is at the point where I look like a dog instead of a corn-dog or chicken nugget.

Whenever I start working on things, I think of more things that I want/need to make. Good thing there's still a little more than a week left to work on movie things.

By the way, even though we're filming the gold mining parts in a few weeks, the movie won't actually be finished for a long time. There's another part which I haven't started working on yet and which will require a lot of work.

GOLD!

I got this gold cellophane stuff from SCRAP for making gold props. It's only gold on one side, so to make a gold chain I had to cut long strips then fold them in half and glue them shut. Then I glued the folded strips together and finger-crocheted the chain and taped it together at the end. Of course there is an easier way to do this. It's called getting a fake gold chain from SCRAP instead of a sheet of uncut wine label cellophane. Or/and getting a cat who doesn't have gold-batting fever. But I guess they didn't have those when I went.

I made gold nuggets and bone using a covering of the same cellophane, but it was decided to be not quite shiny enough. The nugs looked a bit like chocolates. So now I'm gluing gold sequins to the entire surface of each item. I don't think I'll do the chain because the sequins would probably just fall off. Maybe I'll get some glitter glue or something if it looks horribly un-shiny.



I also made the prospector hat and beard, neither of which are entirely finished yet. The beard needs more hairs, and the hat needs to not be purple. But Channing looks pretty prospectory, right?

Today I'm going to focus on the dogsuit. Definitely. I've been procrastinating on that part, and I really shouldn't wait any longer because I haven't decided exactly what direction I'm going with it. And it's like the most important thing! Eeek!

sewings

I've been getting cranky lately about my wardrobe. I've had most of my clothes for a really long time (like shirts from 4th grade) and am getting tired of wearing the same things after 15 years. Plus they're starting to wear out. Noooo! When I go shopping I just get more cranky because everything in the store is too big or too expensive or both.

Luckily, I know how to sew. So yesterday, instead of being cranky and refreshing the job listings on craigslist 1000 times (like I did the day before), I decided to do some sewing. I made a skirt out of an ill-fitting shirt that I never wore because it was too big.

Before:


After:


I got the idea from the CRAFT magazine blog. I didn't actually look at the tutorial until I was finished, but I did basically the same thing with the exception of the puffy front pleats. And I moved my shirt's pocket onto the back of the skirt. I think mine is less puffy because the shirt I started with was 100% silk instead of whatever stiff fabric men's shirts are made of, not just because of the different pleats.


I also finished the nose for my retriever costume. Here it is 3/4 of the way complete:



Today I'm going to work on the paws and tail. The filming got moved back to the weekend after my birthday because someone neglected to book a hotel before everyone else who wanted to book a hotel in Nevada City. (Who are these people?) I would have been more enraged, but it's actually good because it gives me a little extra time to work on everything.

Last night Channing asked me "what did you learn today?" and I said "I learned that I'm much happier when I'm making things than when I'm looking for a job." Which I guess I already knew.

The only appropriate way to celebrate

is with more pretending to be a bear and mauling! Hooray!

And hooray for face cut-out things!

Some of my hobbies

Holding hands


Celebrating holding hands through pie


Pretending to be a bear


Mauling



Celebrating pretending to be a bear and mauling through.....?

More details coming soon!

Hooray, I did things!

I am waiting for my ex-landlord to call and tell me when she's going to do the walk-through on our apartment. She told me to call first thing in the morning, which I did. Actually I called about 18 times because her phone was busy forever. I finally talked to the guy who works in the office and left a message for her to call me, after Channing left two messages this morning on the answering machine and her cellphone before the office was open. But now it's 1:30 and I still haven't heard back from her.

Aaaaughhh! But I suppose I am taking advantage of not being able to really do anything to get small things accomplished. I posted dvds for sale on etsy. People don't really seem to use etsy to sell dvds, so we'll see how that goes. Maybe you should buy one! You know someone (besides me!) has a birthday coming up.


Yesterday we finished unpacking everything! And finished a few decorating projects.





I made my own bathmat, which took forever. I used a fabric that was likely to fray if I left rough edges, so I had to sew 28 five foot long tubes and turn them all inside out before I started weaving. But, as an ex-Bed Bath & Beyond Employee (circa 2000) I know that buying a bathmat that's long enough to go in front of our super long tub would be both expensive and boring-looking, so I think my effort was well-spent. I'm really happy with how my mat turned out. It reminds me of a mermaid.






Mr. Tusks really enjoyed the weaving process, but he wasn't too bad because he was pretty tuckered out after going outside for the first time ever and trying to befriend the other cats in/around the building. Actually he's sleeping in pretty much the same position right now, except he hasn't even done anything today. The sunbeams falling on the bed are pretty hard to resist.





We hung these picture frames which I painted to match our turquoise and orange (it's not as bad as it sounds) kitchen.





And found a temporary home for the movie set I built but am not going to use for a long time. It's like Babe, Pig in the City, but with huge non-porcine animals. So maybe it's more like Godzilla. Godzilla probably liked sponge painting. We, however, are planning to cover it up as soon as possible.

For the rest of the week I'm going to be doing a lot of cooking. Channing's birthday is tomorrow, and I'm making sugar-free pear pie! I know that doesn't sound great (because it says sugar-free) but I have a magical cookbook which has really great sugar-free recipes, so it probably will be. Then on Saturday we're having a housewarming/Channing's birthday party, so I'll be making lots of snacks for that. Mmmmm. I love snacks.

movovoeomvoemomoemvoemomevmoemv

So, we moved. Yesterday we finished cleaning the old apartment and brought the rest of our stuff to Oakland. It was heavy, but luckily Channing was tough and carried five bags while I carried one. Ok, that was only for the last block, but it was still a shocking display.

I've been hard at work on decorating, but I seem not to have actually completed anything. I guess most of what I did was actually unpacking and deciding where things go, not decorating.

Three weeks until my birthday! That's when we're going on a mining adventure to film the first scenes for the Golden Retriever movie. I have lots of work to do before (and after) then. I started on Channing's beard today, but I still haven't finished my Retriever costume. There are only a few finishing touches left on the dogsuit, but they're important ones, like the nose, paws, and ears.

Here is a preview of exactly what we will look like when our costumes are completed:




JK!

finally posting some things on etsy

I finally got around to posting some more zine-items on etsy. Rainbows Are Not People (coloring books) and More Funny Jokes about Sea Creatures (joke books) are now available for cheaps.

I guess I will post dvds on etsy soon, as I don't really have another place to sell them. If you want a dvd of Dreamboat or Snowfakes, I have them. They feature special features. Any other video artists out there want to give me suggestions on what to do with my videos/where to sell them/where I can show them? I hate for them to be languishing unwatched after I spent so much time making them.

I'm moving to Oakland in nine days, and am trying hard to be excited about it. If you want to tell me any great things to do/places to get a job in Oakland I would be much obliged. I will be living pretty near Lake Merritt. My new apartment has a table and benches that fold out of the wall to make a retractable dining nook. I'm excited about that part.

post-zinefest euphoria

Ok, maybe not euphoria, but I left zinefest feeling really good. I made a profit, which I wasn't expecting, and met lots of cool/friendly/talented people, which I was expecting. I also ran into some friends I hadn't seen in a while, which is always nice.

If anyone I met at zinefest is trying to find things to buy from me, please be patient. I will post more items either on etsy (but I'm not sure about etsy since all of my listings recently expired after I suspect that no one even looked at them) or here in the next day or so. You can also email me if you want something specific, and I will hook it up.

Ok, I woke up four minutes ago, so that's as in-depth as I can go about anything.

Getting ready for SF zinefest

This was before he pulled 50 pins out of the shirt I was sewing. I tried to trick him into sitting in his bed by putting it on the table, but he refused to sit anywhere but on the shirt.



Lots of projects.



Snowfakes packages are finished.



Representing CoMO, sweet zines by Gary Lard (AKA Bob Dynamite).



Ashley Brown's contribution. She only made three, but each has an original drawing on the cover. I think these are worth at least $27 each, but I probably won't sell them for that much.



The sequel to Funny Jokes About Sea Creatures is finally done! The illustrations in this one are much fancier, and feature cute animals like the manatee and sea otter. So maybe you will like them even if you don't think the jokes are funny, WHICH THEY ARE!



Not helpful, but, to be fair, I did teach him that paper bags can be fun toys.



I hate making copies, because I always make mistakes and put the originals in the wrong way and hate asking for help. But at least I'm not as bad at it as the good people of Juice Paradise. However, if not for their atrocious window displays, would I still love Juice Paradise? Definitely not. But I've also never purchased anything there, so I guess my affection isn't really doing them any good.

Back to folding and cutting.