just got back from pdx for the turkey holiday. saw so many amazing, wonderful friends. it felt so good. like a cool drink of water. i felt really good, too, so much more relaxed and like myself, than i have in TWO years. crazy. we've have tremendous, wonderful friends here... but the west coast vibe is so familiar...and different than where we're living now. just a preference, i guess.

i'll post photos and more later.
oxo

good lord, this town is wacky.

and speaking of wacky. kris kristofferson didn't pass on, did he? i mean, the tribute album is amazing, as is mr kristofferson...but i'm a little confused. ok ok, i'm googling right now.

holy moly, it's chilly this morning.

i have so much catching up to do, in terms of halloween and trick or treating stories. and gil's art show. and our anniversary. but i want to post a few shots of our dia de los muertos alter right now, so i guess i'll just work backwards in time.

chloe really wanted yaya and grampa to have the popcorn from her trickortreat stash, so she popped it in the microwave for them - just from her. the frog's leap wine is my mom's favorite. the corralejo tequila for gil's pa. a portland oregon brew for elliott smith...tons of other items mostly for my mom and gil's dad. russell added a crossword for his grandma and a tennis ball for his pup. couldn't get my hands on marigolds so patricia helped with the flowers and now i know for next year she can get them with a week or two notice. it kicks up a lot but it also feels really really good putting it together and sitting with it over the few days. you know.


oxo

hmmm...i just said about four words in front of the biddeford city council. that's all i managed before i blanked out. i'm not built for public speaking. didn't say half the things i meant to...gil wanted to go but he's teaching tonight. alas. oh well. down with merc.

lovinganvil.etsy.com -- check out the greetings from biddeford cards.....

wow. it's chilly this morning. or at least that's what the thermometer says...i actually did pretty well getting out of bed this morning. i mean, it didn't feel particularly cold. all the insulating gil has done to this 1880 home is making a difference. altho, he says he's always impressed by how well it's built and that it has a lot of insulation, already. so cool. or warm. whatever.

but REALLY what i sat down to write is gil sold a painting at milling around again! we've very happy. it's a beautiful painting. i'll post a photo later. he's starting to work on a series about el paso, tx. i love it already.

so it was a good weekend and feels like it's going to be a good day, knock on wood. i couldn't sleep much last night...just lots of ideas whirling around...so i am a little extra sleepy...but good.
oxo

soooooooo....really. what do you make of this. i heated up a tortilla on the stove...and can you not see the skull image burned in? i mean, it's not la virgen de guadalupe...but still! ok. so we coated it in a glossy fixative and will preserve it for pilgrimages...or at minimum, later artistic use.

today, i taught a class at the portland studio. kind of INTENSE. teaching is hard. all the information in your head you have to get organized enough to impart it to other people. i don't know how i feel about the whole thing. right now, gil's teaching his biddeford art class. it would be cool to get the barn ready and just bring our teaching gig in house. weird how administrative it can quickly get going thru an institution. once again, probably old hat to everyone but us.

we have two art openings this saturday, which is very cool...they are related. both biddeford mill scenes. a couple pieces at the union house show and then a two day show with a slew of artists at the northdam mill. very cool. gil will have a solo show at union house in november and i'll have a solo show in february..around valentines day. i'm not going to jewelry for the union house, tho. which feels liberating...as much as i love jewelry. it's hard to remember that my first experience in art interest was drawing and painting. seems like another life ago.

also, we're set to be in brooklyn at the bust magazine craftacular this december. the 7th or 9th. i'm a bit confused right now. but i'll figure it out and i'm sure write lots about the prep in the time to come.
oxo

oh good lord. check out www.themusehotel.com and click on reservations and then on specials and packages. i was checking the site, planning a trip for us to go up for the bust sale at the start of december. imagine my surprise. all we can think of is the stock photo shoot we participated in a BUNCH of years ago in pdx. or maybe staying at a kimpton hotel in the past. but WOWIE ZOWIE, that was a weird shock.

two years ago today, abraham peck killed my sweet mom. so if you find yourself sitting in one of his lectures, maybe you should ask him about it.

holy moly, i've got to say my 36th year is starting remarkably well. had an AMAZING day, got lots of sincere bday wishes from people that are very important to me...including some folks i didn't expect to hear from...kristen and jeff, who bought our home in pdx remembered. tammy and russell brought over a rockin chocolate cake. (and a bottle of good tequila). sweetness from jan, as always. my pa, my sister -- linda, camille, my motherinlaw. finally made contact with tsunami tattoo and i'm psyched about that.
we had an amazing dinner at the jewel of india. biddeford is really trippy...some incredible cuisine just tucked away here.

but mostly, what i sat down to say is that it's taken me 36 years...or 29 at least, to figure out how to make a slinky spring down a whole flight of stairs and TODAY I DID IT TWICE. this is totally an accomplishment for me. no snags, no double springs. but i figured it out. you have to kind of propel it down the first step and it carries the momentum. it totally rocked.

oxo

stripey did it!!! she's a butterfly!

we came downstairs yesterday morning and there she was, all black and golden and flexing her wings. amazing. with big ol antennae waving around.
so we took her outside to the garden and set her on a sunflower leaf and watched her for a while.










gil checked on her a few times during the day and finally reported that she had flown the coop. we are all SO proud. and amazed. what a cool experience. holy moly.

wow. it's been a while. things have been busy, for sure.
but also september has been SPEEDING by. crazyweird. next weekend is the thing in falmouth, so i'm scrambling making as much work as i can for that. tiggam bought the orbit ring on etsy!! i'm so excited, and relieved that there are others out there with the same rockin good eye for design....;)! so i'm also working on sizing it up this week a bit. and then got another order off our our website so that feels amazing. i think -- hope -- a box of stuff made it to pdx to be photographed in a spread for the next issue of the livery (theliverymag.com)

OH and stripey went chrysallis last week!! it's very exciting. he has these beautiful irredescent flakes you can kind of see thru the cocoon. i had a dream last night that he finally emerged. we also have a BIG pumpkin growing in the garden. and we're getting lots of pinto beans! it's hard to time picking them, kind of. need to go look for more ready pods today.

ok. just a quick update.

oxo

wow! i'm on etsy.com 's front page right now. very cool. knock on wood rings. which rocks because i really love those rings.

and i am just figuring out all of the cool resources on etsy. i need to investigate further. there's a spot where you can list your fave picks and others check them out. this is probably old news to everyone ...but me. i also learned while cruising etsy lists that other...ahem... people are watching rockstar supernova and we're not freaks. i'm totally hooked. and could actually talk about it a lot.

on that note, if anyone has any cellular phone suggestions. we have a verizon contract...i guess it's up. but i know if i trade in my old gimpy phone for some new whizbang thing, i get a credit off the price, but also another two year commitment? any new verizon groovy phone recommendations?

so we have this caterpillar that started out super tiny and now is almost two and a half inches long. and eats a ton of milkweed. and while i'm sure there is milkweed closer to us than the middle school...that's the only place i KNOW there's milkweed so every two days i'm driving across town to pick a few leaves for stripey (named by chloe) with a VORACIOUS appetite. dang. he is cute, tho. or she. s/he is cute, tho. antennae waving around and all that. i know more about caterpillar poop than i ever thought i would.

and we got a drill press. i'm psyched. i set out to put it together myself. the directions were to macho nacho to just tell me how to put the bolt bits together so i had to wait until gil got home and ask him what i did with the weird little split black ring. he said it was a locking ...nut? or locking washer? i can't remember now. at any rate, i had it all headed the right direction so it would have worked out ok.

GIL is at the high school, teaching his first class!! drawing. very cool! he described to me what he'll be covering and it sounds like a really amazing class. very psyched and proud. i'm teaching a one shot class kind of thing at the portland studio tomorrow. to nine year old boys. six of them. the elected to learn how to make silver rings. i'm not sure what nine year old boys are like. either solo or in a group of six. i'll let you know how it went.

oxo

ok. so i've been looking for these bumper stickers for almost two years now. finally found them in a filing cabinet by the computer. looked there a millions times before but whatever. i don't want to put them on this car anymore, but hopefully we'll be able to trade in for a hybrid soon, and put them on there. i guess. i just really like them. i've never put bumper stickers on my car so it's all very exciting to me.

the mug in the photo is full of hot water, oranges and scotch. before that i had benedryll. before that, sudafed. intermixed in all of that, major doses of multi-vites and green tea. i'm totally sick and the mediation with the lawyer is tomorrow. i feel like i'm in a fish bowl. the timing is an outrage. or just related, i guess.

chloe did the most amazing drawing today. she drew a stick person...or a head with arms and legs. can most three year olds do that? i remember doing that when i was five. i was so excited i sprinted across the whole hog farm to tell gil. which made chloe even more proud.

it's a couple days later from when i started this posting...still have the cold but it's getting better. chloe rode with gil on the little tractor yesterday to help mow the lawn. she LOVES to drive. we have a crazy big yard, especially for being in town. kind of hate the fact that we have a sit mower...but it would be five hours of mowing otherwise. it is really funny to watch gil do the thing, tho. he puts it in it's highest gear and hauls tushie around the yard at high speeds. it's kind of a chaotic mowing experience.

starting to work on some hair accessories, and getting together a few items to send out for a photo shoot in pdx. just trying to update everything. and recover from the past couple weeks. i'll be teaching classes at portland pottery and metalsmithing in ...well, in portland. excited about that. not sure if the biddeford ed. class is going to go...which is fine either way. things are busy enough. gil will start teaching right after labor day. kind of crazy getting everything ready.

so more updated shots of the garden. it looks a lot lusher in person, with tons of sun flowers blooming now and marigolds and other random flowers from the seed mix. i haven't posted any work related shots in a while...but i'll get a few things done and here long enough to shoot. i thought i was going to write a lot more of relevance...if i remember, i'll write more later.

wow. a busy day. checked out a couple of preschools for chloe. i have a lot of emotions around the whole thing. we'll see how it goes for her and for me...! and gil, chloe and i stopped by the new school (http://www.tnsk.org/comcourses.html) to talk about the classes he's teaching there. very cool. one amazing thing is we got a killer organ from the kennebunk montessori school!! she didn't want it and couldn't believe how into it i was. so we went this evening and brought it home...heavy and awkward to move, for sure. i don't know if it's just getting older and loosing strength or a center of balance thing, but i could NOT get out of it's way while gil and i were carrying it...my shins and knees will be all black and blue for sure. but it is WILD. all these pedals and buttons and keys.

the corn is just getting better and better. chloe is so psyched to eat it which is adorable, as i've already said. and she's totally gotten the hang of how to eat around the cob, not just right through it. when we were first picking it, it was a little too early so it was crazy tender. and she could just chomp down the whole way. oh, here's a photo she took of me. she loves the tripod and digital camera and snapping pix. she took a whole series...it was hard to pick a favorite from this one. but she kept telling me "smile, sweetie." she was having a blast and i was just melting in bliss.

oh, so gil's teaching at the new school as well as biddeford ed, and then i think i'm hooked up for teaching metalsmithing in portland as well as thru biddeford ed! which is outstanding. the unsung designers page looks amazing. thanks to grace -- i guess i'll have a bio and all that fancy stuff up after a conversion that's happening in september. i didn't do anything with the etsy competition, which is fine. there turned out to be quite a few cool entries so that's fabulous.

so ...the day we end up running errands in kbt, are illustrious prez arrives for a vaca. yeeeeeeeesh. we were going to grab lunch in a deli there...couldn't figure out why we kept passing parked cops at all the intersections...and then sat in traffic for WAY too long. finally put it together and decided to flee the scene. remembered that tin tin buffet just opened here in biddeford. it totally rocked. one of the most surreal places i've ever walked into. chloe had a BLAST, picking out food and escorting gil and i around the restaurant...checking out the trippy blue lights and chatting with the waiters. it was really fun.

a good day.

i am LIVE on unsung designers TODAY!! already selling, too!! i am so pround of that and LOVE what grace and all the folks that way are doing. and now, i get the designer discount so i'm psyched since i've had my eye on more than a few things....

www.unsungdesigners.com

whew.

chloe's finally asleep and gil's watching brazil. i do really like that movie, but it also seriously gives me the eebie jeebies, and i just don't feel like putting myself thru it right now. so. so i won't. i posted a few things to etsy. kind of thinking about the etsycraft competition they have going on. but i don't know how well my style fits in with what's been submitted so far. i guess that's no reason not to do it...but i'd have a hard time not being at least a little tongue in cheek about it. we'll see.

MANOMAN, corn. we are growing the yummiest corn! and it's so beautiful. from the huge deep green with white veined leaves. and the green-to-maroon cornsilks...and they layers and layers of husks...and the bamboo-like stalks. and all of this doesn't compare to the incredibly fresh tasting treat of offthestalk corn. i had NO idea. i've never been a real fan of eating corn...but this is a totally different experience. and then chloe is so painfully beautiful and sweet eating the corn...pulling of the husk and the "hair" and just chomping away totally content. it's the most amazing thing i've ever seen. she loves the whole concept of eating ANYTHING that comes out of the garden since she was such an integral part of starting the seedlings and transplanting them, and planting seeds directly in the ground and feeding and watering and she even did a LOT of weeding. figuring out really quick what should stay and what should go. and looking at the progress every morning. it's just beyond amazing.

ok. the garden pic is from a few weeks ago...i didn't take one today. but you get the idea. everything is just taller and greener and vegetable-ier.

oxo

our friends bought this old building dtown biddeford and are remodeling it. these are two very cool cats doing very cool things. they painted it a fabulous orange color a few days ago...i think it was a somewhat stressful day for them, not knowing how the community would respond. it worked out really well, and gil and i think it totally rocks.

raja still smells like skunk. actually, the skunk might be living under our barn...or it died there. i think the odor is just starting to fade from the yard. what a fiasco! the area under raja's nose is all raw -- he's had a hard go of it. he's lucky he's so damn cute.

posted a few new things on etsy, and really enjoyed taking the snappies of the work with chloe's help. today gil and chloe are going to the park while i work in the studio. right now she's got him playing "dora house." i should go down and take a photo but i don't want to interrupt their groove. my pa came over for dinner last night and that was really nice. it was fun hanging out. ok. i should shake a tail feather.

oxo

pinche raja. he just got skunked. goddamn it.

it happened so fast, already it's cooler in the mornings and evenings...is summer over? it's still the first week of august...i can wear my glasses in the studio again, tho. so i guess that's a plus. just about ready to send off some things to unsung designers -- thanks SO much for your patience, grace. damn.
listening to son volt right now. pretty perfect with my cup of coffee...well, that just ended and now it's the standard. moody. reminds me of portland. oregon. i put on steve malkamus (sp?) and the jicks last night in the studio and it sounded awesome. i've also been listening to a lot of lupillo rivera lately. gil says the tuba player rocks out all iron maiden-esque. totally cracked me up. i just went on a little etsy shopping spree...the coolest kanzashi from marissajoannaroja.etsy.com , a matchbook size notepad for gil from covetablecuriocities.etsy.com and a frida shirt for chloe, (rekon.etsy.com).

ok. my sister and my nephew are coming over today so i can watch the pipsqueeks while ness goes to a meeting.

it's supposed to be really really hot today. maybe i'll take chloe to the beach. it is really humid -- where you can't find any fresh air to breathe in. i was working in the studio last night, POURING sweat. i don't think i've ever just dripped like that. it was weird...i couldn't wear my glasses because when i looked down, they would fill with little pools of perspiration. so... i couldn't see anything i was doing last night. hope it turned out ok. and the resin on the knock on wood pieces are havng a hard time drying.

got a special order from etsy - thanks sue! very cool ring and it was fun to make...even tho i couldn't wear my glasses while i was working on it. ahem. oh, and my thumb isn't has horrible as i was imagining it was under the dora bandaids. i hit the left...third...? so not all of the area underneath the nail is purple and it seems like two of the three sides are hanging on. and it doesn't really hurt to put pressure on it anymore. so you know. ...

gil and i will be involved in another group show this october...!! at the union house and associated with the twin cities creative council. and gil will start teaching painting and drawing classes soon, thru the new school in kennebunk, and biddeford school system. it's good and exciting and hard to keep up with everything.

my motherinlaw, rose, sent chloe one of those crazy blue pools, which has actually been really fun to have. even got papi in it once. chloe LOVED to see us both in there for some reason. thought that was pretty funny, maybe? but it's perfect to just sit in if the beach seems like too much hassle. ok -- chloe's trying to entice me to play ponies (as in mylittleponies) so i should do that.

out of the twelve years i've been pounding on metal, i've never hit anything as hard as i hammered my thumb yesterday. it bled and turned really purple. i haven't looked at it much -- just put a couple dora bandaids on it. ick.

before i smacked my thumb, chloe and i found a BUNCH of cucumbers in our garden!! considering how i've neglected the garden this year i really wasn't expecting to grow anything, so we're totally psyched. and surprised. gil worked on adding a deck to the side of our house while chloe and i got rid of a ton of tall grass growing in the garden. i think we'll get a bumper crop of tomatillos -- the corn looks better than i thought, none of the chili or green pepper plants made it...i think there's watermelon and pumpkin and bush beans and pole beans...i'm not sure anymore. then there's always the monster rhubarb, which we don't do anything with. i think it's as old as this house, the rhubarb.

hmmm. ok. i guess the article is kind of confusing the way i have it posted...so i just uploaded HUGE jpg's to the freshlowtech site. check it out here...

www.freshlowtech.com/trib.htm

happy pup. not that he has much to do with this posting except that it was a good day, and he looks the part.

so, continued from yesterday's post, the tribune didn't have a digital version of the article...and i thought jpg's would be too nutty to post and read thru, so i saved each page as a separate pdf file...four in all. they're at www.freshlowtech.com/trib.htm and i'll also list each page here:

page one
page two
page three
page four

it was a lot of fun and beatrice wrote a great article, pulling in a lot of information. today we went to the heart of biddeford's (heartofbiddeford.org) celebration for becoming a Main Street Maine Community, which is all about revitalizing downtowns and is part of the national trust main street center. so it's just all very exciting to be a part of and involved in and it only makes sense. this is a great town and really good things should happen to it...and the folks here. i'm babbling. it's late...and hot....and humid. and i should get into the studio for an hour or two.

it is so frustrating that it takes me a while to figure out how to log in to post. i think i've got it now, tho.

this will be the last time i start off rambling about my lack of blogging skills, ...i hope. this is a pic of miss c.v. standing near a couple of gil's paintings hanging at the union house show. i've been meaning to post a few shots from it. it's hanging for the next few weeks, and the opening was last weekend. that was amazing.

it's been really busy! which is great. i'll be carried in unsungdesigners.com very soon, just a matter of getting some work to them so that's exciting. and then gil and i were interviewed for a story for the journal tribune last night -- it was published today. it's a really great article -- a lot of gil talking about biddeford and merc -- (that's gil at the union house) i'll post the article tomorrow. probably on his website, scanned and posted. i'll check if the tribune has a digital verson. and it shows the cards we developed, greetings from biddeford. if anyone looking for them finds this, the cards are for sale at our etsy site... lovinganvil.etsy.com

so it was a great turn out, lots of support and interest, and i sold my piece! it was incredibly hot and HUMID, our miss c.v. steadily became more and more unclothed as the night wore on. very funny...

good morning!
so, actually, i post at eastern time and my blogspot time zone is set at pacific time. i was too nervous setting everything up so i couldn't deal with editing it. i'll change it later.
this is a pic of chloe, gil and raja hanging out in gil's part of the barn...he has the top level for a painting studio. we're still working on the studio space...but it feels good even not really set up...

gil, chloeviolet, rajabear and i went to cambridge this weekend and stayed at the hotel marlowe there. it rocked. really nice AND they take dogs. raja's stayed at a kimpton group hotel in seattle and san fran, so he knows the drill. i've been to boston a zillion times but never to cambridge. it was really inspiring and lots of good energy. and reminded gil and i how much we miss diversity/urban living. oh well. then we took chloe to the aquarium, which was very cool -- but chaotic, and then we went to ikea which was just plain chaotic. yeesh.

about to send out word bands and heart cigar bands and an assortment of knock on wood stuff to seaplane (www.e-seaplane.com) so in the studio for that. and for unsungdesigners.com which i'll be up and running with soon. that feels really good -- i was dreaming about one of the rings i'm working on last night, that a chunk of the wood fell out just as it was almost finished. anxiety dream. gotta have em, i guess.

oxo

ok. let me try this again. i was midpost and my browser crashed.
which is ok in some ways, since all i was saying is i was having a hard time posting. i shouldn't even bring it up now. i think i've learned a lot in the past ten minutes.

hmmm. but i really don't have much to say. i mean, i do. but it's hard to organize my thoughts.

well, if you're in biddeford or close by GO TO union house coffee. it rocks. the coffee is amazing. the people are great. very cool art work. it's exactly what biddeford needs. hellsbells, it's exactly what southern maine needs. in my opinion.

i just started to sell at ferdinand in portland maine. munjoy hill area. very cool. and favela chic in kennebunkport. it feels good to be in the studio again after a long hiatus, post cross country move and trauma.

i better publish this before it crashes again. just in case...