Lulu Bonanza

My friend, Michelle (a.k.a. Lulu Bonanza), works at New England Comics in Allston, MA. We used to frequent the comic shop as much to buy comics as to hang out with the super friendly employees. Michelle's enthusiasm is completely infectious, and she always has lots of recommendations for every genre, age and interest. She's never steared me wrong!

I'm thrilled that Michelle has started her own blog to publish her videos about comics: lulubonanza.blogspot.com They're silly and she admits that they're "a little odd", but that's why I love them! She's not doing this because she's getting paid for it, or anything like that. She's just sharing her love of comics, which shines through beautifully.

Go, Lulu Bonanza! <3

Also, she's totally right about Bone, by Jeff Smith. Read it! Get it from your local comic book purveyor, or www.boneville.com.

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Keeping Up With the Johnsons

Our house projects seem to have stalled out for a little bit since we went on our trip, but I'm relieved and inspired to know that other people are dealing with similar projects at this very moment!

Garth Johnson (Extreme Craft) and his wife, Claire, have a fantastic new blog on the ReadyMade website, which is all about the purchase and remodel of their first home. The house is a lovely Victorian in Eureka, CA, (complete with 100-year-old wallpaper) which the two artists are giving a total makeover.


Luckily, we didn't have to peel wallpaper in order to paint our own walls, but we did have to do some minor plumbing work under the kitchen sink, and I loved reading about Garth's similar experience where he used a paintball gun barrel to attach his dishwasher to the garbage disposal. Our house may not have the same character as their classy Victorian, but their story is helping motivate me to keep working on it!

[all photos are Garth and Claire's from their blog.]

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Faking it ever since

While internet-stalking the winner of my lolcat book giveaway, I saw this xkcd comic strip and immediately felt a kindred spirit:


I'm really a very responsible person (just ask all my high school friends who find me to be a total bore now--although, I was pretty boring then too). It just feels really weird to be given the responsibility of owning actual property with an actual building on it. Forever and ever.

In house news, we thought we'd be getting the keys today, but it turns out that we have to wait until tomorrow. I'm so pumped and ready to go, that I've been waking up at 7:30am instead of my regular 10 or so, figuring out our painting plan. I guess that means that we'll get more work done today, which isn't so bad. I'm just ready to pwn this house!!

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FREE LOLcat Book Giveaway!

Everyone knows that I love LOLcats. They make my days worth living, quite honestly. Not only am I thrilled to be receiving a copy of the newest print book to review, but I'll also be giving away a FREE copy to one of my faithful blog readers!

THE RULES: Simply leave a comment on this post with a link to your favorite LOLcat image from the icanhascheezburger site. Oh, and your shipping address must be in the continental U.S. to be eligible (sorry, everyone else!). I'll randomly choose a winner next Friday, Sept. 4th. Yay!

If you'd like to pick up your own copy of the book, you can pre-order them now and get a set of sweet limited edition icons for your computer, or wait until the book goes on sale 9/1. Get more info here.

If you don't know what the heck a "LOLcat" is, then you should probably head straight over here, and continue to click through the site until you find yourself ROFLing. If you still don't get "lolspeak", then here's a wiki page about it.

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My first blog award!

I'm completely flattered to have been awarded the Kreativ Blogger Award by my friend over at Cloth Paper Stitches. How fun! Now I get to share some of my favorite blogs with all of you, as I pass the award along.

Here are 8 Kreativ Bloggers that I think deserve a nomination, in no particular order (see more blogs I read in the sidebar on the left):

1. Lolly-Tots Crafty Goodness
2. LeaKarts
   
3. Do Stuff!
4. Coffee Pot People
5. Eye Pop Art
6. The Garden of Leah
7. Creative Perch
8. All Things Littleput
   

The rules for this award are:

• Add the logo to your blog
• Link to the person from whom you've received the award
• Nominate 8 blogs of your choice
• Leave a message on the nominees' blogs

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Happy customers make me happy!

I got a fantastic email the other day from a man who received some of my mustache rocks glasses as a holiday gift. Not only did he tell me how much he likes the glasses, but he also sent me a screenshot of the glass in action as his avatar at allrecipes.com!

At first I thought, "cute picture!" Then I thought, "wait, I love allrecipes.com!" Then I realized, "the cool guy who writes the cocktail blog at All Recipes likes my glasses!" It was a great day.

I love to cook, and I like cooking interesting things. I don't have an overabundance of cookbooks, since we tend to move a lot and I like to purge the belongings that haven't been used much. Online recipe databases are the way of the future! They're great to browse for ideas (with great photos!), and reading other cook's reviews has become essential. All Recipes even has a great search feature where you can input the ingredients you want in a recipe, plus the ones you don't want included! Brilliant.

[Don't forget to enter to win a free pair of high-ball glasses! You have until Valentine's Day, which is the 14th. Instructions for entry are here.]

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Trade Show Pics

Here are some photos of our Trillium Artisans booth at the Portland Gift and Accessories Show, courtesy of Christine Claringbold of Eye Pop Art fame. She posted more pics and wrote a nice post about the show on her blog here. (P.S. Christine is totally famous. Her vinyl record bowls are in a fancy catalog and one of her record mirrors is being featured on Good Morning America next Wednesday! Woohoo!)

I love how these photos do a pretty good job of showing you how uncomfortable the flourescent lights were in that giant space. It felt like being in a very quiet casino for 6 days. Ugh. Now we're planning a (smaller) Trillium booth for the Seattle Gift Show . Looks like I might go down to San Fransisco too!

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Same LOLZ, New Location

The LOL Arts Show has moved to a bigger venue! (Also, check out my vase all big and shiny on their website... *swoon*)

The new location is Coffee Bar, 1890 Bryant St, San Francisco. Tickets are sold out, but you can still see the artwork online (to be posted after the opening, I assume). You can also purchase the I Can Has Cheezburger book, so you can show your favorite LOLZ to people who don't have the internet.

Oh, and sorry this post was late today. I was busy VOTING! Yeah, Oregon voters are lucky enough to all receive mail-in ballots, so we can vote from the comfort and privacy of our own homes, while drinking our morning coffee. I feel like I did something a little bit awesome today.

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ROFLMAO

Okay, I know that's a really dramatic title for a little announcement post, and I'm not actually rolling-on-the-floor-laughing at all. :)

The big news is that I've been accepted into the LOLcats Art Show in San Francisco!! Yay! I don't know how many artists submitted proposals to I Can Has Cheezburger, but I feel really fortunate to be able to participate.

I'm hand-engraving a reclaimed vase with one of my favorite cat macros, the Interpretive Dance kitteh. I hope it turns out well, since it'll be displayed alongside some other amazing artists' work, and then auctioned off for charity.

Here are some progress shots of the vase, since it isn't finished yet, but should be this afternoon. I get to wear that super-chic respirator too, since I'm working with my face a lot closer to the glass dust than usual with this larger piece. Now you know how glamorous my work really is.

Studio Progress: I'm ordering my sandblasting equipment today (or at least, I'm talking to the saleswoman again), and I'm researching cheap glass kilns. My studio is going to need some rewiring for the voltage these big boys are going to need, but it will be totally worth it. The agreement with Urban Outfitters is coming along nicely, and I'll let you know when their glasses hit stores. Right now, I'm just trying to get all my stuff together for holidays, which are coming up like the pavement after a freefall from an airplane when your parachute doesn't open.

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Cicada Mania

This blog just featured my new Cicada Bottles, and I just had to share the awesomeness that is Cicada Mania! Their post just before my Cicada Bottles is about the Bottle Cicada from Australia. Who knew?

There are some seriously beautiful photos on this blog, not to mention pop culture occurrences and scientific info (including a wedding guide, in case you're worried about insect swarms ruining your big day)!

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Lolcats Art Show

I saw this recently on i can has cheezburger, and just sent my submission in! There's going to be a LOLcat art show in San Francisco, opening October 23rd. The exhibit will feature 2D and 3D artwork inspired by LOLcats. My proposal is to create something etched onto a reclaimed glass vase. I still haven't decided on an image to use (or I could create my own), but I'm really excited about the idea!

Get all the info you need here, and make sure to send your proposal in by Sept. 19th!

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Mustache: The Ultimate Accessory

I just had an incredibly busy past two days, due to some great blog features (including Design*Sponge, USA Today, and Modish!!) so I haven't planned out much to blog about. In case you're wondering, this Mustache Pint Glass is what all the fuss is about. I've been making nothing but Mustache Pint Glasses for the past two days, but I have no complaints. I bought myself a taro bubble tea and a new bike helmet to celebrate today!

The only exciting thing (besides all this great publicity!) that's happened all week, is that I've started eating meat again. That's right. After 15 years, I've fallen off the wagon. I feel pretty bad about it, since I quit eating meat in the first place because I thought it was wrong for another animal to die just for a small meal of mine. I still believe this, which makes it difficult to change my stance on things, except that I'm tired of missing out on all the culinary marvels of the world!



I'm a humongous fan of Anthony Bourdain (tv, novels, non-fiction and all), and perhaps I can credit him for most of my new way of thinking of food. I want to experience bliss in the form of every amazing meal I can have. I don't want to live my life without the benefits of enjoying it fully!

Last weekend, I went to the Portland Farmer's Market and sampled as many interesting things as I could find. I had yak sausage, smoked salmon jerky and hot green bean pickles. I tried things I'd never even considered putting in my mouth before! It was a life-altering experience, and I don't regret a second of it.

My husband, a visiting friend and I brought home a buffalo brisket (and venison pate, among other goodies!), which we proceeded to grill with zucchini and potatoes for a delectable dinner. This video is a good example of my perfect afternoon: lounging in the backyard with a grill covered in farm-fresh food, watching the neighborhood stray cats.

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Cake Wrecks

I got stuck on the Cake Wrecks blog again today, and almost couldn't pull myself away. Some of these professionally-made baked atrocities are so funny, you may forget to feel sorry for the person who bought them!

Although some of the cakes are just plain horrible for their "wtf?" designing (or total lack of design), I especially appreciate the misuse of quotation marks, horrible spelling, and lost-in-translation instructions.

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Speaking of Taxidermy...

I recently discovered the Extreme Craft blog, (whose tagline is "A compendium of art masquerading as craft, craft masquerading as art & craft extending its middle finger") which wrote a feature about a funeral home in WI that has a basement full of taxidermied animal dioramas.

Their Flickr page is completely incredible! There are chipmunks watching a "topless girlie show", squirrels riding plastic horses, and a big fish wearing a monacle. If you're into birds, you might like the uber-creepy Bird Tree, which is filled with birds - some hanging upside-down from the branches.

I couldn't resist posting a picture of this Bucky Badger. Not so friendly-looking, eh? He might be attempting to use that football as a deadly weapon. I especially love that someone has crocheted him a sweater.

http://extremecraft.typepad.com/extreme_craft/2008/06/death-and-taxidermy.html
http://flickr.com/photos/extremecraft/sets/72157605431249252/

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Calling Joss Whedon!

Anybody who is anybody knows who Joss Whedon is by now. Whether you're a die-hard fan Firefly, or you grew up with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or you just heard of him from Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog, you should know that the man is an entertainment genius.


Not surprisingly, Mr. Whedon has a lot of fans in the ever-cool fiber-world, with homages to his characters being stitched up daily. He was recently interviewed on the Wired blog, where he took note of this trend as well:

Wired.com: To what do you attribute the far-flung coverage and buzz about Dr. Horrible, considering there's been little to no press for the series?

Whedon: Fact is, there's been some buzz, but it hasn't reached the places it would normally. Where's our write-up in Crocheting Monthly? (I did a very sexy shoot for that one.)

In fact, the editor of crochet blog, CrochetMe.com, is searching out contacts of the great man himself to conduct just such an interview! If you have any leads, please contact Kim Werker and read her post about the search here.

I'm on my own similar search, looking for ways to contact celebrities for permission to etch their pretty faces on my glassware. I'm looking for people such as Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement of the Flight of the Concords, Stephen Colbert, and anyone from Joss Whedon's projects. Any contact leads would be fantastically appreciated (and adequately rewarded)! Also, I'd love more suggestions of famous folks that you'd like to see on a lovely vase or drinkware!

[Jayne Cobb amigurumi from Geek Central Station]

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Stuff White People Like

In case you're wondering how to befriend more white people, this blog has all the tips you need. If you already have enough white friends, it has some great insight into their predictable habits.

Embarrassingly, I used to work for New Balance shoes (#96), and can claim quite a few of the items on the list as things that I like. Of course, Portland, Oregon is one of the things listed in the Stuff White People Like book, so now I really am a stereotype!

Check out the full list here. It's totally worth your time.

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