click here for more info...happy almost October!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
a very full day of adventuring
yesterday, the mister & i traipsed about all over los angeles with a good chunk of the family a-go-go. our destination was to see if we could find a good view of the Red Bull Soap Box Races but along the way we made sure to hit all our favorite spots.
first stop...a ride or two (or three) in the elevators at The Bonaventure Hotel. the boy a-go-go has discovered skyscrapers and downtown is the perfect place to wander into one. i only made two rides...those elevators move FAST...aack!
next stop, Grand Central Market for lunch...good stuff!
after lunch we wandered across the street into the Bradbury Building which only made me miss Pushing Daisies even more. sigh.
back on the sidewalk, we trekked ourselves silly across the city to get to the races. it seemed that everyone else was doing the same thing. talk about CROWDED! the energy was pretty nifty and i loved seeing all the people spilling up and up and up to get a better view. there were people on top of walls and fences. people perched on newspaper stands and fire hydrants and even a few people in trees. needless to say the people watching was superb!
the race kicked off with a skydiver and hundreds of people looked to the sky to see his flippity flips.
from then on is was WHAM! BANG! BOOM!....with car after car after car taking to the track. the suspense was great! would they make the turn? would the car survive the jump? would the crash be fantastic? thankfully, the race provided many big screens to view the shenanigans. there was really no way to get a good view of the track. if we had parked ourselves along the route when we arrived earlier instead of adventuring we woudl have had perfect seats, alas we chose to meander which in the end was probably a good thing. we only stayed for six cars...getting out of the race area took us a while (and only one episode of almost fisticuffs).
we took a walk along the cars as they lined up for their turn. wouldn't it be fun to enter sometime?
slowly, we made our way to Disney Hall where the boy-a-go-go got to look at even more architecture and we walked up too many steps and then back down to the subway where our chariot awaited to carry us home.
after many cups of cold cold water and a quick rest for our weary toes, we hopped into the car and ventured out for fresh ice cream and paletas. our flavors ranged from chocolate oreo to pineapple to smoked milk. must go back for more!
back in the car to pick up sandwiches and off we sped to The Observatory for a picnic dinner and some star gazing.
now that is what i call a good day!
first stop...a ride or two (or three) in the elevators at The Bonaventure Hotel. the boy a-go-go has discovered skyscrapers and downtown is the perfect place to wander into one. i only made two rides...those elevators move FAST...aack!
next stop, Grand Central Market for lunch...good stuff!
after lunch we wandered across the street into the Bradbury Building which only made me miss Pushing Daisies even more. sigh.
back on the sidewalk, we trekked ourselves silly across the city to get to the races. it seemed that everyone else was doing the same thing. talk about CROWDED! the energy was pretty nifty and i loved seeing all the people spilling up and up and up to get a better view. there were people on top of walls and fences. people perched on newspaper stands and fire hydrants and even a few people in trees. needless to say the people watching was superb!
the race kicked off with a skydiver and hundreds of people looked to the sky to see his flippity flips.
from then on is was WHAM! BANG! BOOM!....with car after car after car taking to the track. the suspense was great! would they make the turn? would the car survive the jump? would the crash be fantastic? thankfully, the race provided many big screens to view the shenanigans. there was really no way to get a good view of the track. if we had parked ourselves along the route when we arrived earlier instead of adventuring we woudl have had perfect seats, alas we chose to meander which in the end was probably a good thing. we only stayed for six cars...getting out of the race area took us a while (and only one episode of almost fisticuffs).
we took a walk along the cars as they lined up for their turn. wouldn't it be fun to enter sometime?
slowly, we made our way to Disney Hall where the boy-a-go-go got to look at even more architecture and we walked up too many steps and then back down to the subway where our chariot awaited to carry us home.
after many cups of cold cold water and a quick rest for our weary toes, we hopped into the car and ventured out for fresh ice cream and paletas. our flavors ranged from chocolate oreo to pineapple to smoked milk. must go back for more!
back in the car to pick up sandwiches and off we sped to The Observatory for a picnic dinner and some star gazing.
now that is what i call a good day!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
mad monkey skills
psst...just thought i would let ya know that i will be teaching a sock monkey class to kidlets 8 and up over at Home Ec. in Silverlake...hurry...space is limited to six kids!
What: Sock Monkey Class
When: Saturday, October 17 9am-noon
Where: Home Ec. 3815 W. Sunset Blvd, L.A. Ca 90029
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
wrapping my head around it all
aka darn my brain!
i have an attachment to things. be they pretty, colorful, quirky, old, or odd. i can't seem to let go of so many objects because they hold something in them, some memory or some idea or some insight to someone i have loved.
attempting to purge this tiny casa will be a wonderful relief but at th same time i am having the hardest time wrapping my head around the possibilities of things tossed. that said, i don't want to be tossing anything. at least tossing as in putting it into the ugly black plastic bins that get picked up by the growly turquoise garbage trucks only to be hauled off to someplace no too far and dumped into a giant hole only to then be covered with more crap. this, appalls me. and i sit on this thought and i think it and it sinks in and i feel a little ill and i look around the tiny casa and wonder what to do. at some point that gnawing little knot fades enough for me to forget and my day continues on in any number of normal ways.
until, it hits me again like a stealth attack from the witch-baby when she scratches out and lunges for no reason that we can think of. she may be pretty but she packs a mean scratch. and okay, here is where i get all tangly wordy and circular and gobbled and such. it's just me trying to wrap my head around it and it is just me acknowledging how conditioned i am to buy more, to become a magpie when pretty things bat their wispy lashes at me. and how much i struggle with it because i like pretty things but to what end?
saturday morning i ran off to the enormous mall to return an impulse buy before the crowds got there. i'm not a mall shopper anymore save for my target and the jc penneys which are a almost neighbors in the brick behemoth. i park the car near the target and run to the penneys to return the two tops that reminded me of thinner days. from there, i walk the short walk through the mall to the target to get some toothpaste. as i walk the short distance i spy the hallmark shop has its holiday stuff up and wander in for a look and as i'm looking at this tiny store that is crammed to the gills with...crap...my heart sinks and that gnawing triffid of a thought starts bouncing around my belly. there are clever looking things, nicely packaged things, things that compel my hand to reach out and touch and things that make me think "i can make that". there are things upon things upon things and it hits me. they are temporary. they are things people will spend their hard earned money on, enjoy for a mere moment and then discard...i may see many multiples crowding the aisles at the thrift or i may see them broken up and left to die in the middle of the street or i may never see them at all because they will be dumped into a land fill that crappy, shoddy houses will built on.
i continue on my walk and i'm thinking how i am in a mall. a single mall full of stores full of temporary things full of people buying these things that will soon be discarded. i feel like a light begins to flash above my head mocking me...for all my want of simplicity and sustainability, i am a consumer in the most regular icky kind of way. and this happens to me all the time. not this realization of temporary products but of this cape of consumerism that i like to stylishly think i can alter. we are all consumers, i get that. that is how our world works but we are consumers without purpose or without intent (at least i am) and i need to change this. i know i do but do you see the shoes they have here or the mugs they sell here or this or that? aack! make it stop!
i have a tendency to think about how commercials don't make me want to run out and buy products (well except for the titan peeler...i jest...sort of) but the packaging (which is why the orla kiely stuff from target was such a success). the other thing is for me, if it is out of sight it is out out of mind. if i don't see it, i don't need it. which only works if you remove yourself from pretty products. what i need to do, what i want to do is to make more of those purposeful choices i rambled on about here. i think i need to work towards my goal of the handmade pledge. i do a lot of handmade items, i shop at a loft of thrifts but i don't do it exclusively therefore i cannot take the pledge. i make every effort i can muster at this point in my life to shop etsy and other crafty folk but still there are Threadless shirts to be worn or rubber chickens to be sent to the nephew in college. little steps, baby steps. that's my mantra and i'm sticking to it.
i have an attachment to things. be they pretty, colorful, quirky, old, or odd. i can't seem to let go of so many objects because they hold something in them, some memory or some idea or some insight to someone i have loved.attempting to purge this tiny casa will be a wonderful relief but at th same time i am having the hardest time wrapping my head around the possibilities of things tossed. that said, i don't want to be tossing anything. at least tossing as in putting it into the ugly black plastic bins that get picked up by the growly turquoise garbage trucks only to be hauled off to someplace no too far and dumped into a giant hole only to then be covered with more crap. this, appalls me. and i sit on this thought and i think it and it sinks in and i feel a little ill and i look around the tiny casa and wonder what to do. at some point that gnawing little knot fades enough for me to forget and my day continues on in any number of normal ways.
until, it hits me again like a stealth attack from the witch-baby when she scratches out and lunges for no reason that we can think of. she may be pretty but she packs a mean scratch. and okay, here is where i get all tangly wordy and circular and gobbled and such. it's just me trying to wrap my head around it and it is just me acknowledging how conditioned i am to buy more, to become a magpie when pretty things bat their wispy lashes at me. and how much i struggle with it because i like pretty things but to what end?
saturday morning i ran off to the enormous mall to return an impulse buy before the crowds got there. i'm not a mall shopper anymore save for my target and the jc penneys which are a almost neighbors in the brick behemoth. i park the car near the target and run to the penneys to return the two tops that reminded me of thinner days. from there, i walk the short walk through the mall to the target to get some toothpaste. as i walk the short distance i spy the hallmark shop has its holiday stuff up and wander in for a look and as i'm looking at this tiny store that is crammed to the gills with...crap...my heart sinks and that gnawing triffid of a thought starts bouncing around my belly. there are clever looking things, nicely packaged things, things that compel my hand to reach out and touch and things that make me think "i can make that". there are things upon things upon things and it hits me. they are temporary. they are things people will spend their hard earned money on, enjoy for a mere moment and then discard...i may see many multiples crowding the aisles at the thrift or i may see them broken up and left to die in the middle of the street or i may never see them at all because they will be dumped into a land fill that crappy, shoddy houses will built on.
i continue on my walk and i'm thinking how i am in a mall. a single mall full of stores full of temporary things full of people buying these things that will soon be discarded. i feel like a light begins to flash above my head mocking me...for all my want of simplicity and sustainability, i am a consumer in the most regular icky kind of way. and this happens to me all the time. not this realization of temporary products but of this cape of consumerism that i like to stylishly think i can alter. we are all consumers, i get that. that is how our world works but we are consumers without purpose or without intent (at least i am) and i need to change this. i know i do but do you see the shoes they have here or the mugs they sell here or this or that? aack! make it stop!
i have a tendency to think about how commercials don't make me want to run out and buy products (well except for the titan peeler...i jest...sort of) but the packaging (which is why the orla kiely stuff from target was such a success). the other thing is for me, if it is out of sight it is out out of mind. if i don't see it, i don't need it. which only works if you remove yourself from pretty products. what i need to do, what i want to do is to make more of those purposeful choices i rambled on about here. i think i need to work towards my goal of the handmade pledge. i do a lot of handmade items, i shop at a loft of thrifts but i don't do it exclusively therefore i cannot take the pledge. i make every effort i can muster at this point in my life to shop etsy and other crafty folk but still there are Threadless shirts to be worn or rubber chickens to be sent to the nephew in college. little steps, baby steps. that's my mantra and i'm sticking to it.
Monday, September 21, 2009
the week in review: sept 14-20
busy, busy. working on the purge, reading, stitching, thinking, scheming...it never ends...happy almost fall!
Friday, September 18, 2009
dillydilly: the photo book!
with the holidays coming up you just may be ready to start yer shopping. may i suggest my first photobook through lulu? twenty pages of happy-pretty scrumdillyumptious pics by little ol' me. check it out here**order it before Sunday and you can get 15% off...coupon code is AHOY...shhhh...:)
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