PUPPY LOVE (an art show)

Featuring the work of over a dozen Chicagoland artists

Curated by Amy Rowan of Art School Girl and hosted Amy Doehla of Willow

908 N. Damen Ave.
Friday, February 13th, 2009
6-9pm

10% of all proceeds will be donated to the Chicago Canine Rescue

we basically got rained out at renegade this year. for the un-local, it rained pretty heavily and steadily all weekend, although i think it finally stopped around 4pm on sunday. saturday we set up and it seemed ok for a few hours, but after the wind picked up it was impossible to keep our stuff from getting wet (our booth was at the end of a row, and our makeshift tarp walls weren't long enough to shield us). then we ended up lending one of our plastic tablecloths to a neighbor who had no walls at all, meaning we had one wet unusable table... not that there were any customers browsing, anyway. so we packed up and went home. sunday we just couldn't face setting up given that it was raining even harder and the tent ceiling kept filling up with water. a lot of other vendors stuck it out, so we probably look really lame for giving up, but we figured it was better to cut our losses and avoid having a lot of soggy product. i feel really bad for the organizers (there seemed to be some misplaced hostility in that department too, since a lot of us payed for electricity and it was so wet that they couldn't turn on the generators for safety reasons -- i'd rather not get electrocuted, thanks, and it's not like the rain was anybody's fault.) on the upside, we have a head start on stocking our november fairs (we are doing art vs. craft in milwaukee and hopefully get into renegade holiday) and hopefully we can add some stuff into our sad neglected etsy store.

oh, and i bought stuff, of course :P i finally met jessee from art school dropout in person and had a little spree buying jewelry and barrettes from her, and got some amazing halloween decorations from owly shadow puppets.

kind of half-watching the opening ceremonies of the olympics...

can i get some of the fabric used for finland's outfits?  so pretty!  i suppose i'll go check out the marimekko site and see if they have it...

with money tight and large purchases looming (i need to buy a computer and renew my trainer sessions at the gym, plus i still need new glasses) i've finally gotten around to putting stuff up for sale.  i am going to sell more doll stuff soon, but i just got done listing some craft books on etsy and i'm in the middle of putting shoes up on ebay right now.  (for some reason it doesn't show anything if you just search for my seller name, so i'm linking you to one pair and you have to surf on from there.)

i just uploaded a few more textile designs to flickr. i'm getting frustrated because most of my ideas really need more talent and skill than i have (in terms of drawing, or knowing how to use photoshop and illustrator) so i decided that maybe i should make some really basic things like stripes and houndstooth. i made them in photoshop -- i don't want to know how much faster it would have been in illustrator.

the other advantage to simpler prints is i can have an easier time using them. i can totally see the stripes as the basis for the long-awaited revival of the qylaar townhouse totes, for example.

next up... fabric for the dolls, hopefully.

sixapart, which is the company that owns livejournal, is giving away free $30 "gift certificates" which can be used to make donations to students through the donorschoose.org website.  the lj-biz post that explains it is here.  basically, you email donorschoose@sixapart.com and request a certificate.  then you can go to donorschoose.org and select the program(s) you want to donate to.  each program is a proposal by a teacher, requesting specific items they feel their students need (for example: beanbag chairs and carpet to turn a corner of a school's library into a "reading nook" to encourage kids to read).  the catch is that you have to request the certificate by 5pm pacific time today (10/1/07)...

james sent me an email with the following text in giant letters:

ELLEN ALLIEN, APPARAT
Smart Bar, 9/3

although i think i must have missed it; surely it is tomorrow already in greece :(

oh well. i am working on uploading something for you but my computer is not cooperating quite as fast as i would like it to.

i have been perusing fandom_wank off and on today, because this morning i needed to spellcheck "my hed is pastede on yay" in reference to some stuff that happened on my favorite show last night (i hope that's vague enough not to be a spoiler?). man, i forgot how entertaining this stuff can be.

if you've no idea what i'm talking about, check these out:

i didn't even know people were _that_ into smallville.

lord of the rings nuttiness and the origin of the "pastede on" thing above.

and then, finally, the whole victoria bitter thing, which i have tried and failed to explain in a "short version" to people before. so this link is handy. it's kind of the best ever, as it includes both LOTR and harry potter, multiple personalities, magical gender switching, hobbit reincarnation, and conartistry. just amazing. (and eternal thanks to commonreader for talking about it, like, two years ago, or i'd not know about it.)

so the next time some doll drama explodes, just know that it could be "worse."

finally some photographic evidence of edelweiss. my delay being mainly because she is so wonderful that i have been afraid to try to capture her wonderfulness on film. that and i totally suck at doll hair. but, this is a start, anyways.