Petty Vices

DIY-ing it

Been busy working and getting organized in the basement; we got some shelves from IKEA to help out, which brings me to this funny (via 2modern):
Har.

Places to go and peeps to see in the Emerald City

I got inspired to share my suggestions for out-of-town Seattle visitors on one of my regular-read blogs (Pink Chalk Studio). I'm now wishing I had a week or two off for a little staycation!

Here they are

Shopping

Velocity Art & Design (S. Lake Union)

Bluebottle Art Gallery & Store (Capitol Hill)

Big John's PFI (incredible food store in a random SODO location by the ballpark)

DeLaurenti's (great food store in the market; terrific wines, european imports, fun shopping and looking):

Eating

Queen Mary Tea Room (in U-District area; they have a tea shop and restaurant where they have breakfast, lunch, and Afternoon Tea which is like a high tea)

Via Tribunali (amazing authentic neopolitan pizza on both Capitol Hill & Queen Anne)

Matt's in the Market (this place is soooooo Seattle -- from their location & look to their food -- it was even in one of the scenes in Sleepless in Seattle, when they ate lunch at the market)

Tango (terrific tapa's & Latin-inspired food on Capitol Hill)

Agua Verde Cafe & Paddle Club (In the U-District on Boat Street on Lake Union; awesome tacos and margaritas -- plus you can rent kayaks and go out for a paddle!)

Stuff to do  

Theo Chocolate Factory tour (in Fremont, complete with free chocolate; yum!)

Museum of Glass (Tacoma)

SIFF Cinema (by Seattle Center on Mercer Street under the opera house, they play films from all eras year-round; its nice and close to McMenamins too)

Wine shop tastings (the link lists a bunch that happen all week; I recommend calling them first though because I notice its not completely up-to-date)

Woodinville winery tours (there are sooo many now, its pretty amazing; its nice and close to Seattle, too)

Altered photographs

Just discovered the great blog Pia Jane via Absolutely Beautiful Things and am in love with her altered photograph art. She adds little characters to them and to me, it is like another dimension being represented -- "imaginary" coming to life -- like what happens when Raggedy Anne & Andy are behind closed doors and go adventuring.

I love the idea of drawing right on photos and like the white simple lines she chose. This can obviously make great, frame-up style art, but I think it would be a great technique to use for the front of cards to friends with photos of a trip or of a group outing; I can imagine making great use of this in a photo album or scrapbook; I can see making a gift mini-album for friends or family with a set of photos so altered.

I really do dig the other-worldly feel this imparts -- like a movie with seemingly real interactions with cartoon characters or vice-versa (a la Who Framed Roger Rabbit).

Handpainted roller derby dolls - girls rock!

Loving these roller derby dolls made by Sharp Elbows on Etsy. If I had a little girl she would so have these in her arsenal; unfortunately my friends girls are either too young or too old right now! Grow, girls, grow!

Someday we shall live here

This house is going on the Gina & M inspiration board, dream board, wall of hope...whatever you want to call it. Should I win the lottery tomorrow, I'll buy it -- furnishings and all. It's even got a name (okay, I agree, that's a little pretentious...but I'll still take it!).

Creative flower vases

Emmas Designblogg offers a set of creative takes on party decor; my very favorite is the spice-jars-come-flower-vases...adorable. Or are they tea tins? Either way I love them. I'm keeping the next spice tins I run use up and upcycling 'em. Check out Emma's post at the link for more creative juiciness (the balloon decor is pretty interesting too)...

Miniature canvas art from How About Orange

How About Orange purchased some mini canvases from Dick Blick and created mod and lovely miniature canvas magnets. Tiny works of art for the fridge. I think they're great. Jessica Jones, the artist behind the blog, is a very talented lady. Her portfolio site offers some "goodies" like wallpaper for your computer that I like, too -- my favorite is her orange pods.

I want these outfits please!

Outfits I put together at Polyvore. Click on the pic to be taken to a link with shopping details for each piece, should you want them too! The British flag Steve McQueen bag simply rocks...

Recycled Ts turn into chrysanthemums

I found a great tutorial on how to make pretty fabric chrysanthemums from t-shirts or cotton jersey fabric, courtesy of Natalie Chanin Stewart and excerpted from her Alabama Stitch Book (courtesy of Selvedge). 

I've had her book on my Amazon wish list for awhile now; I think I must buy it.  Natalie Chanin was a successful international costume designer who chose to move back to her Alabama roots and highlight the region's specialty folk art. She hires local artisans to handcraft items using their passed-down techniques; to make it all even better they use organic fabrics and often upcycle or recycle old items in the process of creating something new.

What I'm most impressed with is that she's making so much of it accessible; for example, in addition to all the gorgeous handcrafted art and fashion her company Alabama Chanin produces, they also offer a kit with everything needed to create a reverse applique Stars & Skull T-shirt -- the most handsome skull "T" I believe I've ever seen.

Art from JMCDesigns

Artist Jaqueline Myers-Cho creates whimsical mixed media pieces, like this one titled Traveling Light in her Etsy shop. I would love to create art like this. Her portfolio is full of wonderful stuff, and she's recently written her first book on how to create some projects called Strands.

Vegetable and fruits papyrus

By way of The Food Section I came across these amazing papers, made in Germany from very thinly sliced fruits and vegetables and sold by Hiromi Paper. I think they're beautiful; they're out of stock on many right now but I would like to buy a few and frame them for art in my kitchen. Aren't they gorgeous?

Christine Kane's "Girls Like That"

Singer/songwriter, creative inspirer and all around seemingly kick-@ss lady Christine Kane has a great video of her song (No such thing as) Girls Like That. It's pretty hilarious & true...

I've been following her blog lately and I find it often gives me a little nudge toward optimism & makes me smile. She writes, sings, performs, teaches creativity to the CIA and holds regular retreats for women in the Carolinas. No, seriously. Check her out.

Inspiration for today

1. Burlesque Rockabilly Hair Clip, 2. Hello Dolly Orange - your choice of 8x10 dahlia photos, 3. Creamy Rose and Onyx Necklace, 4. Summer Candy

Damask Leather Wallet

Etsy's Urban Heirlooms has made a chic damask leather wallet; I love the antique key as the closure. 

California SqueezeBurger

In listening to a Splendid Table podcast I have learned of a Sacramento, California phenomenon from the Squeeze Inn, called the squeezeburger (you can listen to their review here). This is a burger that I am considering planning a vacation around! Evidently they take some very good beef, top it with a big hunk of very good cheddar cheese, and then as the cheese melts on the burger patty it melts down onto the grill, and they let it fry and get crispy and it ends up surrounding the entire patty and sticking out of the bun like a little cheese innertube. Perhaps a picture is worth a million words here.

See what I mean? I'll call my holiday The Great SqueezeBurger Trek of 2008. It will be epic.

Political Wordles - Obama vs. McCain

As these Wordle clouds show the words most often used bigger and bolder, I thought it might be enlightening to apply it to some speeches.

I used the Wordle application to generate a tag cloud based on Obama's March, 2008 speech A More Perfect Union.

It's interesting when you look at words this way, isn't it?

Here's one from a June, 2008 McCain speech given at the National Small Business Summit in Washington:

Now lets look at two speeches given by the candidates on the same day, for a bit more of a legitimate head-to-head comparison.

John McCain's speech Strategy for Victory in Afghanistan, July 15, 2008:

Barack Obama's speech A New Strategy for a New World, July 15, 2008:

Quite striking differences, aren't there? Thoughts?

Wordle Clouds

I discovered a fun application called Wordle; it takes words you paste in or a URL and will create a tag cloud graphic.

My randomly generated Wordle:

Art deco house

Even though we just bought a great little house, I'm somewhat obsessed with real estate and go looking at stuff just for fun. I'm a geek. But wow did I find a little gem tonight!

It's too far outside of the city (Seattle) for my taste, but if I had the money for a second home I would surely consider this one; I'm pretty sure M would dig it's art deco styling, too. According to the real estate site, it's Bert Smyser architecture and was a model home for the 1941 Tacoma Better Housing Exposition. It features porthole windows, rounded corners, flat roofs and smooth exterior features. <drooling>

Vinyl, records, turntables -- remember these? Now they come with MP3s.

There's a new record company online, and by record company I actually do mean a business selling vinyl LPs. The slickest, most innovative part of this? When you order an album from InSound, you instantly get to download the MP3s for free. Sounds like the best of both worlds to me. 

Oh, and if by chance you've lost your old record player somewhere along the line, they sell kick-$*! turntables too. These puppies plug into your computer for uploading your vintage collection of albums (or new ones! but of course if you buy 'em from InSound, you'll already have the digitized music). Love it.

New episodes of DIY Network crafty shows!

I'm so excited to have discovered that finally, my DVR tells me there are new episodes of Stylelicious, Uncommon Threads and Knitty Gritty. Whoo-hoo! I'm watching a recording of a new Stylelicious right now, and its all focused on various screenprinting techniques for T-shirts and other clothing; I'm not sure but I think they might even be sewing up a skirt later in the episode & then printing it up. I never know quite what to expect from the crew of crafty Austin, Texas gals.

The Uncommon Threads shows are new to the air, but were recorded last year or something...hopefully the host Allison Whitlock will be recording some "new" new ones soon...

The Knitty Gritty goodness is called Knitty Gritty Knitsters; I don't know if they've permanently changed the name or not. The format, based on the description looks like it might be a little different, but it also looks like a "special episode" so maybe its just a one-off. If I'm a seriously lucky girl, maybe there will now be TWO shows!

I'm so happy at least some of my favorite DIY Network crafty shows are back with new episodes!

Another even happier thing? The wedding planning is really gaining some momentum now, and I'm thrilled to have tracked down an old friend from college who is now a Jesuit priest and who has agreed to marry M & I! It means a lot to me to have someone I know perform the ceremony. He's such a great guy, too. We might have the reception venue figured out tomorrow, too...wish us luck -- we see over lunch! It's going to be a busy day. TGI almost F!

Language and cultural learning for babies and toddlers

My sister is interested in putting my brilliant and adorable nephew in some language classes to get him started early, and asked me if I could find some classes out there for her (I'm a librarian so I'm pretty good at finding info faster than most people).

I was amazed at all of the choices for baby, toddler and pre-kindergarten language lessons; the Seattle area has more to offer than I ever realized. I know we're cool and all, but we're even cooler than I thought. =*)

I thought others might benefit from these findings, too, so here they are (my apologies if you are outside of the area; I hope your locations have as many choices.

 

Sponge Schooloffers classes for babies and children up to 7 years old

Seattle German American School has classes for 3 years+

French Immersion School of Washington offers classes starting at 2 ½ years (when that young they are classes for the child with a caretaker)

French American School of Puget Sound offers Young Pre-Kindergarten classes (or YPK as they call them)

Alliance Francaise de Seattle offers classes starting with toddlers (also with the little ones accompanied by a caretaker, like the Immersion school)  

Beyond Frontiers has Spanish classes for children starting at age 3

Poly-Glot Tots in Phinney Ridge offers classes in four languages to kids 18 months+  

Washington International School offers Chinese classes for pre-K kids

Zoom Language Center in Ballard offers Spanish classes for children starting at age 1

Visually Speaking – an American Sign Language school for hearing children 

Music Works NW is a school focused on teaching children musical skills  & appreciation – they have classes for babies on up .

Music Center of the NW offers early childhood education classes/experiences starting at 6 months

Thrive Art School starts classes for children at 3 ½ years

MoonPaperTent has all kinds of art, theater, storytelling, dress-up…etc. classes for babies on up; Note: they also have a parents night out for kids 4+

My name is a healthcare acronym...

GINA: Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.

Is your name an acronym for something?

Flickr game

Picture mosaic making game inspired by robayre.

1. DSC06589 - Gina spinning a fire hula hoop (San Francisco), 2. Day 106 - I am a librarian, 3. Tunnels Beach, Kauai, 4. pink | red | orange, 5. front closeup, 6. What a wonderful world, 7. David Halberstam 1934 –  2007, 8. 365/123: Crafty Girl, 9. Sneaky 'Justice League' Writers and Artists Strike Again, 10. His Fantasy, 11. Why Choose When You Can Have Both ?, 12. LucyLui Camping

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name? Gina
2. What is your favorite food? Cheese
3. What high school did you go to? Shoreline, Kennedy and Shorewood -- but just used Shoreline for this game because the whole phrase resulted in nada!
4. What is your favorite color? Reds
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Aidan Quinn
6. Favorite drink? Vino
7. Dream vacation? 3 months wandering around Europe with my honey
8. Favorite dessert? Cobbler
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Writer and artist
10. What do you love most in life? Imagination
11. One Word to describe you. Eccentric
12. Your flickr name. LucyLui

The pictures don't necessarily match my answers, but I did try to pick the photo that best described some actual aspect of "me"-ness. I was pysched I found a photo titled "I am a librarian" when I searched for "cheese"...perfect!

Classic with a twist

More design inspiration, this time from CuldeSac( (via Yatzer); I adore this modern take on a classic grandfather wall clock. I want to find myself an actual antique and paint it white...or perhaps a glossy orange? Hmmm...

Night stand brainstorm

M & I have been searching for nightstands, which is tricky because we've got a sort of modern-yet-deco-bungalow thing going on...an ebony framed platform bed mixed with a 20's quarter-sawn oak "gentleman's closet" and 30's quarter-sawn dresser with bakelite handles -- mixed with an Asian-styled Lane chest with a silk print bench (craig's list find)...so...it sounds random but its actually working well thus far...but we obviously must proceed cautiously...

I think I may have stumbled across the perfect inspiration, from Czech designer Hubere Kororo called Drawerment (via the style files).
Aren't these swank? M likes them too. We've already got a trip to the ReStore planned today, so now we'll keep our eyes open for good drawers to re-repurpose...