Progress

There comes a time when procrastination hides it's ugly head and progress pops in to say hello. Recently I've just been trading one for the other on any given task, but as far as all my wedding stuff goes, there has been a huge success! Save the Dates are done! And I don't just mean the design, I'm saying they're tucked away into their shiny brown envelopes and just waiting for postage, then it's see ya later, get outta my life, time to move on to bigger and better things.... like invitations and RSVPs. Ugh. The agony of figuring those out is yet to come. So for now, I present my simple, handmade, completely unique, nobody else has 'em, custom designed STDs (that's Save the Dates in wedding-speak)! And when I said simple, I meant it. Also, my typewriter has no exclamation point, so everything that comes out of it is pretty matter-of-fact, which I'm rather fond of.

Honestly though, if you have Photoshop and a printer, you really don't even need artistic skills to make your own invitations. Although I can't imagine why anyone in their right mind would, it's really annoying and time consuming. But artists aren't known for their sanity.

Tiny Dress Factory

I don't care much for children really, they're messy and loud and have complete disregard for anyone else's feelings or obligations. But boy are their clothes cute! There is something about a dress or a pair of pants that is just so much better when in miniature form. So in light of this, I've turned my sewing station into a one-woman factory of tiny dresses. Of course holding a full-time job, looking for new employment, planning a wedding, and being an all-around awesome person does take up most of my time, but I've managed to squeeze out four of these little adorables so far, and I don't intend to stop anytime soon. They will soon be sold at a store in San Francisco, which I will disclose the location of once the dresses are actually in-store, but until then, or during or after, I am selling these for $65. The second dress in line is refurbished from an old button-up plaid shirt I no longer liked to wear, or perhaps never wore at all. Point being, if you have an old shirt you don't like the fit of, but love the fabric... I'll turn it into a baby dress for you!

New Things, Old Ideas

Every now and then we all feel as though our lives have been turned upside-down. This has been one of those months. Apparently when my life is on it's head I travel at 1000 miles an hour, feeling as though there isn't enough time in this life to accomplish all of the things I need to do. And, of course, when you're trying to do everything at once, it seems as though nothing really ever gets done. BUT, I've managed to accomplish three things this week!

The first, which was really the second, is a tiny little dress for a tiny little person who hasn't poked her tiny, yet completely disproportionate little head into this world yet. If she grows like most little girls, she should be able to wear this dress at around 4-6 months or so. And it even has a little pocket for her to put things... like car keys and a cell phone.

Secondly, which in real time was finished first, is the fourth painting in my series of Haitian women. I'm not titling any of these, I want their feelings to speak for themselves, or for you to speak for their feelings on your own. Whichever. I've really been enjoying painting these ladies, I'm kind of sad to move on. Maybe if I'm lucky another natural disaster will occur somewhere in the world and I'll be able to paint about it. Oh a girl can dream.

And thirdly I ordered new business cards! No visual though, just in case they don't turn out the way I hope. It's not superstition, it's ego.

Distressed

I thought that since I'm successfully putting off all production of wedding business, due to a severe case of procrastination, I'd share some of the paintings I've been working on. I have been extremely moved by the images I'm seeing coming out of Haiti recently, after the earthquake to be specific, and I thought that I'd probably like to take advantage of the people who are taking advantage of the distressed people there. If you know me at all you know I cannot even think of a painting not containing some sort of winged or furred animal, so I've incorporated an indiscriminate sort of bird into each piece to tie them together; as if the theme of distressed Haitian women isn't cohesive enough. One, or possibly two more paintings are on the way. When I'm finished I'll paint a chicken, then I'd like to have a showing somewhere. I'm leaving that in the hands of someone more skilled than I at public relations.

Hopefully soon I'll resume production on wedding junk, because we all know how quickly 13 months tends to fly by when you have way too many things to do. I'd also like to learn how to play golf, because I'm fairly certain I'd be good at it.

Key Words

I'll make this brief today, I have things to do.

I'm working on a series of paintings inspired by the earthquake in Haiti, so of course I'm spending hours searching through thousands of photos posted online of various Haiti-related things. I type into Google "haiti woman covering face"... and among other images, I am presented with this.

Neither is this woman Haitian, covering her face, (that I can tell) or relevant in any way to the subject matter of which I am searching for. But I guess they got one of the key words right. I've gotta give Google credit for that.

A Productive Day

Recently I purchased a huge box of scrap fabric from a wonderful little boutique in North Beach. At the time I was thinking that I may have paid too much for it... until I looked through it! I've struck gold! This box contains the finest silks, wools, linens... it's a treasure trove of amazing fabric. Some of the pieces are smallish, too small to make a dress or a skirt out of anyway, so I've made these terrific brooches! Here are just a few of the brooches I've made today, two of them already have homes, but they're so fun and easy to make that I'm sure I'll have an army of them by the end of the week.

Lesson learned today: Scrap fabric combined with mixed bag of buttons = AWESOME!

Another tiny creation as of late is this little dress I made for a 1 year old. Fun, stretchy fabric combined with snaps at the shoulders to accommodate giant baby head. And buttons of course.

Bits From a Mini Vacation

We did it! My fiance and I finally got out of town last weekend, for a mini vacation in wonderful wine country. Here are some bits... because we didn't manage to take many photos, they're all from one (of many fabulous) dinner.

I wish we could escape like this every weekend...