All that you touch....

This is what I've been working on for the past several weeks. They are entirely hand embroidered little colorful dumplings of love. About .75 inches in diameter with 17" of pure sterling silver chain, each "gem" take several hours for me to stitch. I use a giant French knot over and over and over again to make these pieces. All are made with love. I'm going back to basics and spending more time with each item I make, enjoying the repetition it takes to finish one of these babies. I'm offering them in all shades of the rainbow, including black and white. They're available here on my etsy site. (all are also available in 14kt gold chains as well, just send me message if you're interested)

Freight Train Blues

The other night I had the blues, but it was nothing a little white wine, oysters, olives, freshly grilled calamari via the husband, salami, cheese, music and drawing couldn't cure.

Underlined- Woody Guthrie: A Life by Joe Klein

I just finished the biography I've been reading about Woody Guthrie. Makes me a little sad that it's over. I felt like I was livin' right along side him during certain parts. I really like what he said here in a letter to Alan Lomax:

"Music is some kind of electricity that makes a radio out of a man and his dial is his head and he just sings according to how he's a feeling. The best stuff you can sing about is what you saw and if you look hard enough you can see plenty to sing about..."

*photo from here

Tuesday Poetry Post- John Ashbery: Just Walking Around

Just Walking Around

What name do I have for you?

Certainly there is not name for you

In the sense that the stars have names

That somehow fit them. Just walking around,

An object of curiosity to some,

But you are too preoccupied

By the secret smudge in the back of your soul

To say much and wander around,

Smiling to yourself and others.

It gets to be kind of lonely

But at the same time off-putting.

Counterproductive, as you realize once again

That the longest way is the most efficient way,

The one that looped among islands, and

You always seemed to be traveling in a circle.

And now that the end is near

The segments of the trip swing open like an orange.

There is light in there and mystery and food.

Come see it.

Come not for me but it.

But if I am still there, grant that we may see each other.

*photo by Ruth Orkin

Bubble Man

I saw this on Cup of Jo this morning. Love. The photographer's name is Romain Laurent.

Jeffrey Forsythe

I think Jeffrey Forsythe is one of the most talented artists around right now.
Here are a few of my favorite pieces. He's quite prolific so make sure you go to his website to see his entire body of incredible work.

Muuuseeeque

Learning some Neil Young on the geeeetar.

Heart of Gold

I want to live,
I want to give
I've been a miner
for a heart of gold.
It's these expressions
I never give
That keep me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old.
Keeps me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old.

I've been to Hollywood
I've been to Redwood
I crossed the ocean
for a heart of gold
I've been in my mind,
it's such a fine line
That keeps me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old.
Keeps me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old.

Keep me searching
for a heart of gold
You keep me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old.
I've been a miner
for a heart of gold.

*photo by the always incredible Emillie

Mr. Jacobs, again

Oh Marc, you're always doin' it.
Louis Vuitton's Fall ad campaign is making me drool away.



photos from here

Friday Music Muse- Sufjan Stevens: Holland

Holland
by Sufjan Stevens

All the time we spent in bed
Counting miles before we set
Fall in love and fall apart
Things will end before they start

Sleeping on Lake Michigan
Factories and marching bands
Lose our clothes in summer time
Lose ourselves to lose our minds
In the summer heat, I might

*photo of Sufjan from here

It's Alright Ma

Props to Mother Nature for putting on an amazing show tonight. We had major storms. For the first time since I've lived downtown (almost 10 years now) the tornado sirens went off...not once but TWICE. Luckily we were safe and were left with the gift of light.

I easily get obsessed with things/people/songs/food...pretty much anything. My current obsession (well it's been going on for some time) is Ira Glass. I work from home most days, and I listen to This American Life (brilliant) while sewing and drawing, so in my head he's like my best friend that I get to listen to (and sometimes talk to) every day. Do you guys listen to This American Life? Wasn't it really weird when he had a cold last Saturday and his voice was so different? Doesn't Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes sort of sound like Ira? Don't I need to get a life and real friends?

A few of my past fake friends have included:


the girls from Sex and the City
A can of grits (not the grits themselves, just the canister) (don't ask)
Molder and Sculley
Dick Gorden from The Story (NPR)

An old bike trailer that I would pass on my ride to work every morning that was locked up in a different spot in Lincoln Park every day. I got really attached to it for some reason and felt like it was my friend.

Jeremy Roenick (in jr. high)
Ambien
Bob Dylan
Pete Seeger
Woody Guthrie
markers and paper
The Bell Jar
Reeses Peanut Butter cups
Sylvia Plath

I have many many more. I think my new bestest inanimate object friend is my guitar, which I am still thinking of a name for.

Photo credits:

Jeremy Roenick
The Girls
Grits
Mulder and Sculley
Bob Dylan
Pete Seeger
Woody Guthrie
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath
markers
Reeses
Dick Gorden
Ira
Ambien