Hearts and Laserbeams

About a year ago when I was commuting 40 miles south to Mission Viejo every day to a job that was in a less than positive environment, I started doing Fancy Coffee Friday. Instead of drinking the free coffee at work, I’d detour to the Starbucks on the way to the office, get a medium mocha with no whip cream on top, sigh, and pat myself on the back for making it through another week.

Now, a year later, I’ve kept that little ritual going. Except now I’m doing a job I love with zero commute (except for the occasional drive to L.A. for a meeting), and with the prego-ness I’ve made the temporary switch to Fancy Hot Chocolate Friday. It’s nice that the ritual has a happier tone to it now, a more “YAY it’s the weekend!!!” and less “Good god how am I going to do this again next week” feeling.

Do you have little weekly rituals like that, and what are they? Happy weekending everyone!

I sat down to get a couple of things done before work this morning, and I turned the news on as background noise. And thanks to CNN, every news show now has that scrolly bar of headlines that goes across the bottom of the screen.

One of the headlines caught my eye this morning – it was something to the effect of a scientific study finding that alcohol consumption has been found to lessen pain caused by rheumetoid arthritis. And it just really made me laugh, because uhhh… the pain is probably still there, but if the test subject is wasted then the arthritis pain is the last thing on their minds. They’re more interested in where the hookers at.

So basically, if science has taught us one thing, it’s this: have some wine, you’ll be fine.

Here’s a little sneak peek of style guide stuff I’m working on this week – check out some fun apple characters!

AAAAAAA!!!!

Our chickens have officially started laying eggs!! Josh found the first one hiding behind a bush in the backyard yesterday morning, and throughout the day two more eggs turned up behind a rosebush! We prompty cooked up the eggs  into omelettes for breakfast this morning, and they were super-delicious!

Click here to check out some pics - taste test between our homegrown eggs and storebought eggs coming soon!

Ok so last night was a blasty at the Long Beach Museum of Art! They were having their After Dark event, and invited Long Beach Craft Mafia to set up shop to show off and sell our wares and do some demos throughout the night. I set up my merch (which Tamara of Crayon Fawn was awesome enough to sell for me!) and then sat down to an evening of caricaturing.

It’s funny how self-conscious I get about my drawing sometimes, and caricatures is even worse because someone is right there watching you do it… What if you screw it up? What if it doesn’t look enough like them? Good lord what if they hate your drawing?!?

What was different last night, as opposed to other caricature events I’ve done, is this one was mostly adults. And they were just as enthusiastic about my drawing as kids at 8th grade grad nights. So it’s time to stop worrying about whether or not my drawings are good enough. They’re fun, and they’re funky, and that’s all you need to know! I know I’ve mentioned this before, but if you’re in the LA or Orange Counties I am definitely available to draw at your party just email me and we’ll make it happen!

Also awesome about last night – I changed one small technique in my caricature drawing towards the end of the night, and it solved something that’s always been a little bit of a problem for me! Thumbs up for progress and change and practice and drawing! Here’s a few warm-up sketches from last night – I’m hoping my buddies Steph and Ellen will scan in their caricatures so I can show ya a couple of finished drawings!

In closing, I want to go back through all my almost 8 years of blog posts and find out just how many of them start with “ok so”. The end!

(Also, when I research the “Ok so” thing, I will count how many posts end with “the end!”)

I only signed up for one event this summer, because I wanted to take it easy with the little one on his way (good job spending gobs of free time on licensing stuff, Steph!). That one show I’m doing takes place tomorrow night in Long Beach, and if you’re free you should go!

Photo from Long Beach Museum of Art website

Long Beach Museum of Art is hosting After Dark from 6-10pm (with a 5pm early entry for museum members), and it’ll be a blasty. It’s $10 to get in (free for museum members), with drink specials, djs spinning some tuneage, access to the museum’s galleries, and a chance to win a free iPad! Make it worth your while and ride your bike there, you’ll receive a voucher for a free appitizer!

Long Beach Craft Mafia will be there doing crafty demos and offering up some unique handmade shopping – Hearts and Laserbeams will be there sellin’ mousepads, coasters, magnets, pins, little 3″ paintings, hand-screenprinted tees and underwear… AND we’ll be drawin caricatures til 9pm! And the caricatures will be cheap!! I’ll be workin for tips, so whether you can only afford to spend one dollar or 70 dollars, I’ve got a drawing for you! Come get yourself drawn up in a wacky, non-traditional style and be the envy of all your friends! Or some of your friends. Some of your friends might be caricature snobs. Those friends aren’t much fun.

Click here to check out the Long Beach Museum of Art’s website for more details - see you tomorrow night!

Did I tell y’all my sister Danielle is in a new band? She recently started playing bass for Pretty in Stereo, and they’ve got some shows coming up! Definitely take a look at their facebook page for info on upcoming dates and check em out!

I’m not sure how it happened, but they’re opening for Berlin at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on August 28; Josh and I are so there!!! I’m super excited to see Danielle’s new band, but also… I can’t wait to hear that “i’m a man” “i’m a bitch” “i’m a man” “i’m a manatee” “i’m a man” “how come you never come up with anything better than i’m a man” “i’m a man” song!

Discount tickets are available for the Coach House show, too! Again – clicky for their facebook page, details are there. Hooray!

So I recently joined up with the Etsy Twitter Team, and it’s been great connecting with this group of indie crafters to cross promote our work! From time to time I’m gonna share some of my team members shops with y’all, cuz there’s such good stuff to see!

woven paper basket by SewDanish

Sew Danish hails from Europe, and makes lots of great Scandinavian-themed textile art pieces. Things like journal covers, embroidered notecards, and cosmetic pouches. I think my favorite stuff in her shop is her woven paper baskets, though! Check out these pencil holders made from maps of France:

woven map pencil holders by SewDanish

There’s also some cool woven fabric pieces in the shop, like this basket!

woven fabric basket by SewDanish

Click here to check out Sew Danish’s Etsy shop – what’s your favorite handmade item in there?

is it just me, or do short work weeks sometimes feel even longer than regular ones? the work day is over, the swollen prego cankles are propped up, and I’m about to catch up on this weeks episode of work of art while knitting while Josh sleeps off last nights work for a bit. life is good. have a great weekend folks!

We’ve started seeing awesome results from some of our backyard garden! Corn, jalepenos, onions, tomatoes, garlic – it’s all there and accounted for!

I say awesome results from some of our backyard garden because other crops have not faired as well… Chickens, I’m looking in your direction when I say our strawberries and broccoli have met an unfortunate, pecked-at-looking end. We planted artichokes, too, but while the plants have done well we haven’t seen any actual artichokes! It seems like our yellow tomato plant that’s right next to it may be leaching all the good nutrients from the soil, because it’s grown like a monster.

Our buddy Jay has pumpkins starting at his house and he has to thin em out soon, so we’re hoping to snag a few seedlings from him – here’s hopin’ we can have homegrown pumpkins by Halloween!