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Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Malort is flavoured with a unique botanical


Last night, Dillon and I attended [for free!] an appearance/reading/performance by the illustrious David Rees and the writer erstwhile cheesemonger, minor television personality, John Hodgman. Despite living in Chicago for almost 4 years now, it was our first experience with the Second City. We had an enormously entertaining time; even now, the mention of the phrase "noodley biscuit" sends me into spasms of laughter.

Plus, we were introduced toMalört, which makes me feel like the world is a richer and more beautiful place than I could have ever imagined. I did not try any Malört at the performance- a wise decision because it turns out that Mr. Hodgman has space herpes. Not to worry though, the disease only activates in space. If you are so lucky to live in a city or town that Mr. Hodgman is visiting on his book tour, I heartily recommend you attend one of his readings.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

This is Halloween

full bag display 1I love Halloween which is no surprise to anyone. Any excuse I can get to make a costume or buy stuff with a gothic bent to it, is completely fine with me. I try to keep an eye on the contests section of Instructables [a website featuring a bunch of DIY tutorials for all kinds of things] because they offer sweet prizes. Plus, I enjoy the instruction writing process. It makes me feel like Martha Stewart should hire me or that I could have my own show on PBS and it would be so much better than that horrible Katie Brown show. [She probably a nice person, but the projects that she and her workshop construct make my gorge rise. I present these as examples: vase covers and a party sign. Oh god.
But I digress...

I've made a couple of Instructables for their Halloween contest. For the more in depth one, I chose to show everyone how to make cute little treat bags. You could use the instructions for making any sort of gift bag, really. Then, as an add on, I explain how to make your own Halloween-style Easter grass.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Art House


A couple of months ago, I participated in the Collecting Objects project with Art House. The project was a lot of fun for me- it involved collecting things that represented myself and my life and putting them into an accordion folder which I then mailed off to the Art House gallery for exhibition. Being an enormous pack rat, I had no problem collecting and sorting all sorts of things for them.

A couple of weeks ago, the bigwigs of Art House sent me a nice email about a section of my submission. I had used some Evidence tags to identify pieces of my entry and they wanted to know where they could get their own. There was a little emailing back and forth, but it was decided that I should make some for them for the next collecting objects project: The Time Line Project . Now, people who sign up will receive 10 of my specimen tags to use. I'm loving everything that Art House does. Please come play with us!

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Winter Craft Season

I survived Renegade Craft fair and came away from it only mildly water damaged. Fortunately, I wrap everything in plastic; so none of my goods were ruined. I have an application in for the Renegade Holiday Show in December as well. That show is indoors; barring any ceiling mishaps, I think it'll be okay. This is a picture of what my studio/kitchen looked like while I was preparing for Renegade. I didn't get it posted up here because I was.... that's right, preparing for Renegade. I am going to be at the wonderful DIY Trunkshow on the 22nd of November, right before I get on a plane that evening to head home for Thanksgiving. I'm always busy over here!