Turn This Mutha Out

Naturally, I started with the most tedious watercolor first.  I must turn 3 muthas out by next tuesday.  This presentation for Town of Buckeye is pretty much a big deal.  Today I finished painting tiny I-Beams all day and now *well actually not now, you should be so happy I waited until after I beat myself into a sweaty pulp before posting this* I am applying the pencil lead to the back of the second sketch.  I am really excited to start the second. It is zoomed into the action.  My shadows will be big and triumphant.  I can put detail into the rusted corrugated metal and the head gate will be stokin good.  Seriously, everytime I am working I sing to myself 'turn this mutha out' duh duh dah duh duh dah dah dah *did I add enough duh?*.   Then when I am really on auto pilot *this is usually while I am multi-tasking the crap out of 30 minutes*, my brain will mix in shit like "you got the best of my love - whoa whoa", Whitney Houston.  I know.   

Elvis pumpkin *a must for this season*.   Today it looks like a Honda cycle peeled out on my desk.  Are there Honda cycles? Man I hope so.  Did I tell you my brother called himself Honda once when we were crank calling yesterday.  Well the lady on the other end called herself Jaguar.  Orange leather for handbags, pattern pieces for a runner, Frank Lloyd Wright water color, sharp blades, and everything else I cannot find like Skibu.

Ween Ween. That's supposed to be the Honda. 

This Helmut is Heavy...I Like It

U.S. Surplus Corp. Phoenix, AZ where there are no refunds. Drop and give me 20!  I was on the hunt for camo.

This helmut felt like I had a bowling ball on my head.  Really, not kidding, it was that heavy!  I should play tennis with this helmut.  It would probably give me some fierce neck muscles.  I could really grind it! GRINDAGE!   

I bought these jackets for $5 bucks a piece.  I will cut them up and use them for my bag interiors. I threw in some socks for a shredder accessory for ME.

Orange leather for the outside of the bag.

Next stop was to visit with my girl Sherrie at H&R Fabrics.  I always love seeing her.  She helped me take Sam Harvey to the next level of coolness with her sweet suggestions to use metallics.  After that I dashed off to my pre-proposal meeting. 

I pulled into the Sojourner Center which provides temporary shelter for abused women and noticed the tall imposing gates and hard slump block exterior that had super high if any windows. There was a large semi unloading what looked like charitable items. Yeah, this has to be it.  I entered through the 2 sets of security gates, I was then escorted down a hospital like corridor.  My body started to tingle when I heard children screaming, laughing and talking.  When you have children of your own you become sort of mother of all children.  I knew this was going to be hard.  In the conference room there were some familiar faces around a long ugly table with rolling office chairs dated from the 80's with marker scribblings on the arms.  As we introduced ourselves I noticed that the guy next to me was what I call a Phoenix good ol' boy architect.   I just hadn't seen him in so long. He didn't recognize me either.  Many people don't since I grew my blonde out a few years ago. 

I could do wonders with the place.  Oh the colors I could paint.  Shall I go on? It felt so great to be sitting in a pre-proposal.  For the first time I felt like one of the good ol' boy architects.   I love being a girl competing for projects with men that could be my dad.  There is no end to the fun. 

  The hard part was touring the facility.  The hardest part was seeing the artwork on the doors of each room where a mother and her children were living.  My eyes were welling with water.  Inside I was trying to get a grip so I just took out my camera to give myself something to literally focus on.  Little notes like "I love you Mama." written inside a little construction paper heart.  My Lily gets emotional if I just scratch myself.  I just wanted to run home to my babies and hug them.  My heart started to grow bigger while I walked the halls.  One mother came out of her room and invited me in. The group was ahead and so I went inside.  It was a masonry painted room with hard floors and metal bunk beds. The children were jumping up and down so I told them to smile while I took their photo.  I thought of how my children can just open the door at their home and turn on the hose and just play in the yard. These children were locked away.  

At the end of the tour a good ol' boy came up to me and winked and said "Hey, why don't you send me a copy of your photos!".  I turned to him and chuckled so sweetly and then said "NO WAY IN HELL!" Then I chuckled so sweetly again and said "Later". 

I won't show any photos on this post because the nature of competing for public projects is super competitve.  I want this job.  This project is meaningful in so many ways.  I will have to prepare a statement of qualifications now.  I will eat my competition for breakfast.  SEMPER FI DO OR DIE!

Now I really should have bought the helmut!

My Brass Babies Have Arrived

SAM HARVEY toggles

SAM HARVEY buckles

SAM HARVEY clips

SAM HARVEY grommets

SAM HARVEY buckle and clip

I was riding my bike tonight along this dark path sidewalk through the desert.  The moon was full, there were the city lights ahead, dark desert to my left and dry mesquite beans that I target to run over.  Then there was the coyote that I saw creep into the desert.  I rode faster like he was chasing me but in reality the dog could not stand me singing  to The Cure.  I was plugged in with my Ipod and the Bicycle Chase came on from E.T. it is usually a song that I fast forward but tonight it was perfect for how I felt about my hardware finally arriving after waiting what seemed to be an eternity. I ordered the hardware in Janurary!  I feel so lucky right now.  I really do.  I feel like my bike is flying through the air.

Accept I don't have a boogery alien in my bike basket.   In my bike basket I have all my handbag inventory from last year boring blah that I am going to chuck into the forest down below.  Yes, that is right, I dumped all of my inventory last weekend at Salvation Army.  I am starting over.  A fresh look.  I will be updating the website soon.  I will still be making some of the favorites don't worry now.  I will be taking out bags like Mustang which is a dark brown linen bag. Who in the hell wants a dark brown bag.  Boring.  I mean if I do a brown bag it will have sexy hardware and be made out of leather or something.  It won't look like a potholder!  I am excited about adding an orange leather bag for fall.   I am so excited that I have my brass babies now.  Tomorrow I will be cutting out pieces for new bags to sew together.  Mostly, the metallics which are really exciting and fun!  

Onward and upward. 

How Bout Them Apples

I really like to water color because it is so unpredictable.  You never know what the paint is going to do.  You can try to control it to some extent just by knowing your brushes, the amount of water to have on the tip and mastering the color mixing.  My watercoloring probably started when I was too young to remember.  Playing with my spaghetti and rubbing it in my platinum blonde hair and having my Dad laughing at me encouraging me to add more meat sauce. 

My first water color was in Architecture College with Professor Albanese a million years ago.  I will never forget how smug he was *because he would bring back all these perfect watercolor paintings from his Greece trips with students*. I mean they were really epic. Ok, I hate epic too. Sorry. How about they were really CHOICE.  Well he told us to paint a still life so there I was with Jeffrey in the study room of our dorm.  Well the lighting was shit but there was the green apple and a red apple and I was just studying the light and painting exactly what I saw.  It turned out amazingly good.  When I posted my painting *no not on the internet, there was no yahoo back then* on the grey homosote tack board wall of the studio. Albanese was all ready to dole out his criticism of all these rookie painters.  Then he came across my apples and he was quiet.  There was that quiet knowing again.   I am a natural. I love to watercolor.  This is what I have been up to this week. Sewing machine is taking a back seat until our client who wants this house his own special way is satisfied.  I hope he is this Saturday morning when Jeffrey and I reveal the finished painting and floor plans.  I still have many layers of paint to go.

Take 2 asprin and soak the watercolor paper in your tub and then staple to a strong homosote board before you go to bed. Watercolor dreams.

A Quiet Knowing

McDonald Drive is a road in Paradise Valley that is has a speed limit of 25 mph.  Once I turn onto it I am forced to slow down.  Camelback Mountain is on the right and it's shear mass blocks out the whole city.  The Sanctuary Resort is tucked along this wall of sculpted decomposing mass of earth tones *like that?*.    The entrance is a quick right and if you are scanning for Alijandro or applying lipstick, you will miss the turn so pay attention!

Paradise Valley, Phoenix

This patch of mod mansions, each fitted with requisite infinity pool, sits nestled on the steppes of Camelback and Mummy mountains, framed by giant saguaro cacti.  Unpretentious and sporty, its year-round residents tend toward WASPily low-key golf obsessives.
Famous Neighbors: Author Clive Cussler; Cambell Soup heir Bennett Dorrance; bungling former veep Dan Quayle
$25 Million Buys You: A 10,000 sq. ft. abobe-style desert compound on North 64th Street with every conceivable amenity. - The Official Filthy Rich Handbook by Christopher Tennant, page 35.

Today's meeting at Sanctuary was the bomb.  I was totally confident with the runner.  I looked and felt amazing.  I had my new Tory Burch heels on and thats all that mattered.   I have been working with Vance for a year now.   I will never forget the first cold call I made to him.  I was persistent.  I told him I made these handbags that had Asian print and that they might go really well with the whole bamboo zen-ness at his Spa. I guess it was enough for him to grant me our first meeting. OMG.  Our first meeting was like wearing braces on your first kiss. It was clumsy and rough.  I brought like 20 bags with me in these gray industrial plastic bins.   I knew at that time he was in observation mode.  I remember sensing that I had a long journey ahead of me.  He told me these things take time.  Did I leave out the part about how the valet guy had to take my gray bins in a golf cart for my initial meeting in the courtyard.  It's like showing up with a mini U-haul and moving in. Like I was setting up a damn circus tent.

A year later. Oh today *actually yesterday now, i am still working on this one* was so smooth and effortless. The cool thing is that the runner was Vance's idea.  I think he should change his name to Vance. He looks like a Vance.  He gives me all the credit but it is really a co-creation.  Once he saw the completed runner today, his eyes sparkled and his face beamed.  I felt like I had played this role so many times that I didn't need to be there.  We decided to take the runner to one of the treatement rooms to see how it looked.  You have to leave the restroom, lounge, locker area to go back outside in this hidden courtyard.  The treatment rooms are along an outdoor cooridor.  It was really awesome to see the runner on the massage table.  Then I sank a little when I saw that the runner did not hang down on either side of the massage table.   Easy fix.  The coolest part was watching Vance handle the runner.  He placed it diagonally and then straight.   He owned the moment.  He was contemplating how the new wall finish could tie in the with the fabrics.  He admired the SAM HARVEY logo that was sewn in the seam. He wants his clients to see the label when they come in for a massage.  Can you believe this?! 

Choice ball basket.  This is what I really wanted to do at Sanctury yesterday.  Oh yeah!

The difference between now and looking back at this time last year, is that I have a quiet knowing. 

Do Rattle Snakes Bite Through Denim Pants?

My phone is smaller than yours.

My meeting at Sanctuary Resort and Spa in Paradise Valley, AZ with Vance is next Tuesday. I am so excited to show him the runner for the massage tables.  If he digs this, then he will want a minimum of 15.  Do you know anybody that likes to sew and lives on a mountain near me?   This is such a huge opportunity for me and well you know Sam Harvey of course. 

I am so proud of how I finished the runner.  I went to a sewing lab at Bernina Connection in Phoenix last Thursday because the trim really looked hanus.  It was well worth my time.  There were other sewers there who had other projects.  One woman was hemming her husbands pants.  Whatever.  Most of these ladies were sewing these laptop bags that made me want to use one to hurl into.  But I was so quiet.  Like a mouse in the corner with shitty fluourescent lighting taking out my billionth stitch.  Cecilia was the instructor and she is amazing!  I love her! She showed me a simple way to do the mitered corner that looks totally professional.  It was like 9ish by the time I got out of there and was so starving I drove to this Pita Jungle place across the street and ordered a spicy chicken pita that was not spicy.  The thing was as big as a  sack of new flour.  I didn't want to stay there and eat it. I mean I still had my Lara name badge on.  I looked like a train wreck so I just took it in my car to eat it. While driving.  Have you ever tried to eat something that big while driving?

 Well it was fire hot and so i just opened the huge thing to let it cool off.  But I was so hungry I had to have a bite at the next light.  I couldn't see what I was eating.  I mean there was brocoli in this thing.  I just decided to pull into a Burger King parking lot and eat the mother.  So there I was eating this wamping burrito thing in Burger King parking lot.  I was so happy.

Jet Propelled Clubs and Dark Stuff

For some odd thing I have been craving the viewing time of Harry Potter.  Not just any Potter, but the first one.  I went out of my way to get the movie at Blockbuster.  Turns out they didn't have the first one titled  Evil Doer of Nescafe or something. It is always the same plot you know that!  Well I picked up Chamber of Secrets.  When I was checking out, the young kid behind the counter was like "Harry Potter Aye?".  I was like "Yeah, this movie is due back next year at this time."  

Why I can't stop thinking of Harry Potter, I don't know.  So far I think it is Hagrid.  I like how he tells little Hermionee that everything is alright and she need not even think about worries.  I also like how Hagrid has tons of bird cages, old boots and cave dweller stuff hanging from his ceiling.  HEY, maybe he is the modern version of Captain Caveman. 



Do I remember correctly that cavy would jet propel himself with this club thing?  We just accepted this as normal.

OH CAVEY!

You knew I couldn't just leave now.  Tracy would not be pleased if I left this thing untied.  Tracy is my genius, talented and hilarious friend from high school. She lives in my head and tells me when I need to insert things.  Sometimes I listen.   

I think I want to escape to the Harry Castle because it is dark and mysterious.  I am sick of color to be quite honest.  I cannot wait to wrap myself in dark browns and blacks for fall. Yeah! That must be it.  NO! I don't want the Harry scarf.  You are so hilarious.  I am also totally into forest green for this fall.  I am going to cake myself in greens.

 

Crinkly whites.  I bought this Theory dress shirt that is crinkly and well, awesome.  Here is the lineup. Ready.  After this you can sleep.  Ok Alejandros.  Still ready?

Chocolate brown pencil skirts

Crinkly white dress shirts - only Theory will do

Little cute sweaters from LLBean Signature *young bloggers cringing*

Dark brown chocolate heels, Tory Burch *goldie things around the edges. Tight!

Takes my breath away.  Ok, probably my pink jacket Cindy White gave me too.  Oh and my caveman club. CAVE MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!

View Textile View Magazine Issue 90

Deliciously Weird Light

I just got back from practicing my serves.  Well at basket number 4 I told myself I just had to let it rip.  Amanda, my coach is telling me my swing needs to be fluid.  I can be fluid.  Now I have a set routine like Nadal. Except I don't go HHHHHHHHUUUGUAHHHH! I simply bounce three times and then put the ball in the triangle part. My toss seems more consistant.  I was standing on the right corner for doubles and the groove I had was just famous. All my serves were about 3' above the net and they were screamers, landing on the serving box line and with a kick.  The light from the yellowish street lamp just outside the dark green chain link seemed to shine brighter.  There was silence even having the rookies in purple shirts playing beside me in the next court. It can be strange when you are at a park at night with swings and basketball courts and there is nobody there.  Amanda says I will be ready to re-join the meetup tennis group in the fall.  She wants me to be all heavy weight champion and come in all bad ass and skilled.   I will be like Agassi when he made his comeback.  My chest will be puffed out and I will definitely be wearing my trademark white head band.

Cosabella tank and youth Target shorts. 

This is why I don't have that french manicure shit.  Being crafty yesterday.   I had to finish the runner for Santuary or I couldn't live with myself.  I must admit it is not perfect but ready for my client to take a look.  If you saw it you would think it looked fine. 

Old Skool.

Bet you never heard of a sleeve booster.  The gray stuff is called horse hair canvas.  It is used to make a firm little bump at the shoulder seam.

I taught myself how to make shoulder pads.  It is like cut and fill in civil engineering. Totally.  There is a natural hollow just below your shoulder on your chest.  Feel it.  This pad fills that in so the coat looks really tight and puffed out like a quail in heat.  Oh yeah, that is Enzo's old dog brush that I used for fraying out the edges so I didn't have this hard edge on my chest.  Details.

 The shoulder is together.  Look how sharp it is. Before this, I thought shoulder pads were just cotton danishes you snapped to the underside of a coat.  There is no going back.  I want all my clothes made with this kind of detail.  I feel so good when I wear my own stuff.  I want to wear this jacket to the airport next time I go to Washington and look bad ass. 

This is the other side I haven't finished yet. See the difference. This side doesn't have the shoulder pad.  It is all shlumpy and sad.

What is going good with you?

Hendrix was Obsessed with Dylan

Jimi Hendrix spandex flame suit*i mean really what would you call it? and beige loafers taken at Experience Music in Seattle.

I had taken lots of other photos but why show Cobain's bashed to hell guitar when I can't stand his music?    There was this child that couldn't sit down.  I was trying to watch Eric Clapton talk about Hendrix but this little boy was standing next to me on this catepillar modular seating.  He was very proud of how he arranged all the seating this way before Mom and I came in to the ongoing video documentary about Hendrix.  I love how Jimi played the crap out of his instrument.   I like how he didn't think he could sing in the beginning.  He used to carry around Bob Dylan music wherever he went.  Hendrix was obsessed with Dylan.  Then he thought to himself that if Dylan could make it with a weird voice then he had just as much of a chance.  During Hendrix's initial trip to England the only thing he could talk about were his concern for having the right amps for his gig and meeting Clapton.  The guy was hard core!

I read and looked at as much of Hendrix's life as I could in the Music Experience in Seattle.   Then Mom gave me the look like she does when she doesn't want me to take part in something like riding motorcycles.  

Then I annoyed her by snarling out Purple Haze lyrics just as she was trying to go to sleep that night.  She kinda liked it I think. 

Why You Do Me Like You Do?

Where was David Sheflin when I needed him?  He would have really went nuts over these vintage Supremes show attire exhibit. 

Music Experience, you must go.  I cannot cram it all in or I will be up till the wee morning with Lucky Charms.  Here is some goodies for you.  Honestly, I just wanted to finish Catcher in the Rye tonight.

Funkalicious. 

Let's meet here and have a jam session.  Play it like you just don't care!  What instrument are you going to rock when we get there?

We Just Found A Man Carving A Log. Really.

While Mom was waiting to 'pick a daisy' she found this event on the bulletin board of Pegasus Coffee House. If you don't know what the hell I'am talking about then read the last blog.  It was the socks. Remember?  Mom and I looked at our map of Bainbridge Island, Washington like two geeks holding sparklers during a 4th of July parade in front of all the locals. We wanted to find out where this craft fair thing was at Blakely Harbor Park.  According to the note on the board, it was over in about 45 minutes.   I told you I was going to navigate with Mom.

So Mom was driving naturally.  She is my Mom.  She is so cute.  Anyway, what were we talking about anyway. Gawd.  Well, it was so gorgeous that it was hard to just be the navigator.  Damn it all!  I was rubber necking big time over all the pine trees.  See the photo above?  It was like that except we were going around the harbor through a narrow 2 lane road.  We were off the grid.  There were houses tucked away in the mature trees with people out painting what ever they could before it rained again.  It was easy to spot the houses because of the bold color choices.  As we found our destination, all we could see was a narrow trail leading into the thick forest.  This wasn't a craft fair.

 

Well it was far from a craft fair.  It was the coolest thing.  We spoke to this lady sitting on a log in a clearing as to which way we should take.  She was oiled up on something because she just smiled at us.  We picked a "Art On The Trail" pamphlet and started our journey down this 2" wooded trail. OK, it was 3 inches wide.  Gawd, you would correct me.   We were both delighted to find the artists still at their nature stations doing their thing.  I mean when was the last time you just came upon David Franklin carving a log in the forest?

Kathleen McKeehen drawing botanicals along the pathway.  Melinda West, a basket weaver had left, but it was really cool to see her organic creations just sitting in the forest.   I felt like we were playing Swiss Family Robinson and I had to take my baskets to find coconuts.  It was fun walking ahead not knowing who we would bump into next.  Mom and I were so impressed with ourselves for finding such a cool happening in the forest.  I kept looking down at my cool socks too.

This is Ellen Wixted wrapping up for the day.  I cropped out the tree of her subject. Sorry...  Ellen camped out by the Generator Building.

The juxtaposition of this sublime Generator Building decaying in this idyllic bay setting is just too good. Don't you think?  I didn't take the pic of the whole building because honestly, I wouldn't want to build my dream home in this area because of it, but I loved the heavily tagged parts.

Cha Cha Cha window.  Yes, that is a Chia Pet reference.

My 6 year old Lily now thinks she is in control of what I post. She insisted that I post Brite Futures, Sophisticated Pony Tail.  It is a forshadow of the next post which completes the final leg of the Washington trip at the Music Experience downtown.  Don't miss it. 

The heart shaped pattern of rocks in the foreground is by artist Diana Liljelund she is into mixed-media sculpture.  The house in the background I want.  I want to be the person in the boat paddling up to that house to get s'mores ready for the evening.

Did I just hear something?  You want to see what she made don't you.  You just like to wind me up!

Pretty cool aye?