Hart 2 Heart

A Happy Day

The day started with my dear Andy bringing me gorgeous flowers. I'm a sucker for bright, contrasting colors.

We got gussied up and made a short drive to The Sky Room in Long Beach. We'd never been, but had heard about it for years. It's legendary in these parts, and sits atop the historic Breaker Building.

We began the evening with a girly cocktail for me (the "Flirtini") and a lovely beer for Andy.

So much for my low carb diet. . . anyway. . .

This was an amazing starter, the Tomato Caprese Salad.

Followed by the most delicious Crab Cakes.

It was getting a little dark at this point, so my Sauteed Shrimp with angel hair, red and yellow bell peppers and tomatoes, in a white cream sauce, did not photograph too well. But it was scrumptious! 

Here we are. The happy couple, after 26 years of marital adventure! Thanks for sticking with me honey!

 

This and that. . .

The Hometown Fair was fantastic! The weather was perfect, surprisingly, since we set up Friday in blustery wind and rain. All in attendance were so kind and supportive. I really can't express enough, my gratitude for everyone who shopped with me. 

Are you sick of seeing my booth display? I only share because I think this is my best set up yet. It is an art you know, and I have so much stuff to display. Clothes take up a lot of space, and then there are the multiple sizes to deal with. After 10 years, I think I may have it figured out!

This is the new design I wanted to show you. Andy and I collaborated on the "swamp monster." The pants are corduroy. I was so excited about this outfit, thinking it would just fly off the rack. Saturday, there were no takers. But then on Sunday everyone was checking it out and I sold most of them! You never know. I'll be making more and putting them in my web store next week.

My next show is on Friday, at The Power of Pink Women's Wellness Conference in Torrance (CA). It's such a great event. If you're in the area and would like to attend, you can register here.

And now a word from Lanky. . .

"I love my daddy. . . and my couch."

 

A few ramblings between the chaos

It always happens this time of year. I get REALLY busy, have tons to share, but have no time. Throw in a new puppy, a little drama with the teenage boy, and I have a little trouble breathing. So I thought I'd check in on a Saturday night (do I know how to party or what?) and share a little bit.

First off, the puppy. That's why you tuned in, right?

It's a bit tricky getting a good photo of the little dude. He's feeling so much better! He's chasing the cats around, eating a lot, and chewing on everything. So we got him a little rubber chicken to gnaw on. 

Lanky loves his daddy. 

He's put on a lot of weight since I took this picture a week ago (the puppy, not Andy). At his sickest, he weighed only 4.5 pounds; now he's at least 8.

Speaking of cute animals. . . these polar bears were a special order for the principal of a local high school (it's their mascot).

Then there were these for a nine year old boy's birthday party.

And these for an aspiring young actor's birthday.


And I've been making lots of fall cookies, on sale now at Nosh and the Corner Store.

Of course it's not all about the cookies. . . there's been lots of sewing and shows and boutiques. I've sadly neglected updating the events on my sidebar. I just can't keep up with it all. On the off chance that someone is reading this in Pacific Palisades. . . I'll be selling my wares at the Junior Women's League Holiday Home Tour and Boutique:

Sunday, November 14, 10 am to 5 pm

Pacific Palisades Recreation Center
851 Alma Real Drive    
Pacific Palisades, CA  

That's tomorrow; unless you're reading this on Sunday, then it's today; or yesterday, if you've logged in on Monday. Maybe I should give you a little more notice. I'm just not keeping all of my balls in the air. 

 

 

San Diego Bound

I'll be heading to San Diego Saturday for a new (to me) event. The Coronado Art Walk sounds like it will be a great fair, at a great location. 

So, the fall show season has begun! I did two small fundraiser boutiques already this week, which were awesome. Tuesday, my friend Sharon hosted a fundraiser for ovarian cancer research, in honor of her mother Linda, who passed away from the disease. All in attendance were wonderful and generous. I kept the van loaded up, and spent Tuesday at another sale put on by Vistas for Children. Great people, supportive shoppers. I think it would be a great idea if everyone shopped for the holidays at events like this. Not only are you helping charities, you're usually supporting local and small businesses as well. All good!
 

Somehow I have to create inventory for all these shows, so when I'm not selling, I'm sewing. What are all these stray parts, you ask?
 

Why, owls of course. This is my new owl applique to go with the cutest fabric I scored a few weeks ago.
 

 
Here you see the fall portion of my show display. Sorry the photo SUCKS! The window glare didn't help. Anywho. . . the owl outfits are there on the right. I'm doing a baby dress version with pants, and the skirt set with a tee. They will be available in my web store next week. As will better photos! 

Better photos? YES! I'm getting a new camera. Actually, I have a new camera, but it is in Australia with my husband. He is lecturing at a design conference in Melbourne. He bought the camera for me before he left, but highjacked it for the trip. So yes, this has been a crazy week. 3 shows, husband on the other side of the world, Emmet starting high school . . . which reminds me, I didn't get a first day of school picture of him. Maybe you don't do that for high school? Sheesh, I can't keep up.
 
 
 

 

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's day to my dear old dad, and my dear husband, father of our sweet Emmet. And all the dads out there for that matter!

This photo was taken the day of Emmet's Culmination of eighth grade (not called graduation in these parts. I think mine was called Promotion. . . anywho. . .). One of the things I love most about Andy, is how much he loves being a dad. These two adore each other. And I love them more than they know. 

 

Culmination was chaos. 600 kids in Emmet's class! Sheesh. What were we thinking sending him into that? It's over now, and we are all relieved.

 

This is what he plans to do this summer. Maybe not in a suit. We're all headed to the airport in about an hour. Time to finish packing! 
 
 
 

Craft or Art

My beloved Andy has an issue. Well maybe more than one (don't we all), but today's issue is the word "craft", or "crafter" or "crafting" or even worse, "crafty!" You see Andy is a designer, illustrator, artist. I think the word "craft" conjures up images of crocheted toilet paper cozies, and latch hooked pillows for him. Not that there's anything wrong with such creative endeavors--in my opinion (who am I to judge?!). But these things seem to make him cringe. 

The reality is that Andy is actually VERY crafty! His latest project involves wood, nails and yarn. What could be more crafty? And when he needed "thin yarn", who did he come to? HELLO! 

I happened to have the perfect color and weight of crochet yarn in my stash, and yes, those are my scissors. His hammer. This is a potential board graphic for Chocolate Skateboards. Check out that craftsmanship! It's one of Andy's best qualities. I'll try to dig up some pictures of some of Andy's past craft projects. 

Sorry honey, YOU are a crafter. 

Happy Monday

I can't tell you how happy I am today. Well, I can try. We picked Emmet up from his skateboard camp on Saturday (5 hours round trip). We were all sooo happy to see each other. Two weeks was way to long to be away from my boy. Once back home, it was time to gear up for Andy's art show opening.

We arrived early so Andy could be interviewed for something or other. I'm not the best photo journalist, so I didn't capture the excitement of the evening. But Carrie, master blogger that she is, did a great job.

Her husband snapped this photo of us. Aren't we cute? It was awesome to see her and her whole family at the show. Our friend Shari also came, with her whole family, all the way from Orange County! 

Even Paloma came with a bunch of Pedro people. 

Michael Sieben was another of the 5 artists in the show. He had a couple amazing 3D cardboard creatures on exhibit (below).

So much thanks to those who came to the opening. If you couldn't make it, the show runs through September 19th.

Mark Your Calendar!

My beloved Andy has been preparing for an art show for the past several months. Besides his day job as art director at Girl Skateboards, he works on his fine art projects in the kitchen/studio of our home.

We bought this place-originally a duplex-so that we'd have more workspace, mainly for my business. We live in the upstairs unit, and I consume most of the downstairs. Andy is relegated to the kitchen area. We removed the stove and washer/drier, and left the fridge for liquid encouragement (beer and energy drinks).

He's made pretty good use of his space, don't you think?

Some works in progress. . .

If you are in the area, come to the opening reception of "Weekend Pacifists" .

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

8 - 11 pm

Subliminal Projects Gallery

1331 W. Sunset Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90026

Andy, part 2

I wanted to share more of Andy's recent work. Girl Skateboards has been collaborating with RED on a very cool project. If you're not familiar with RED, check it out. It is a very worthy and well run charity organization.

The above boards were done with/for Girl Skateboard team member, Mike Carroll.  The finished product came out great. Here is the original artwork Andy did for Mike's board.

It is collage on board, with drawings, with about a gazillion tiny nails hammered into it. Really, a gazillion. You can count 'em.

There is a great video here about the collaboration with another of the Girl team members, Eric Koston, and Andy, for the first RED board project. 

Happy Friday the 13th. Hope it is/was a great day!

My man, his art

I've talked a bit about Andy here on this blog. Generally speaking, he is the best guy I know. He and Emmet (our 12 year old) are my life. The best thing about our life is that we share everything we do with each other. He has a busy day job as Art Director at Girl Skateboards, and coaches Emmet's baseball team; I'm the team mom. We work together on my/our business, and raising Emmet has always been a team effort. Not that we don't drive each other crazy. That's just a part of it when 2 creative people collaborate on anything. After 22+ years though, we still enjoy each other, and cheer our mutual and individual successes. Let's just say, we have each other's back.

AND, he makes amazing art.

Currently his work is hanging at Hibbleton gallery in Fullerton (California) in an exhibit entitled "Spare Change." The show was curated by Russ Pope (below with Andy) whose work is behind them.

I like the direction Andy's going with these pieces. It's a bit of a departure from his past work. He's always done a lot of collage work, including bits and pieces of our lives, but these are more subtle and serene. The three of us attended the opening, and got to see some great old friends.

My boys. Aren't they cute? There's more I'd like to share, so I think I'll do an Andy part 2 tomorrow, if you don't mind.