Up at 5:30 a.m. Open up the doors to let the days cool air in. Granny’s cat likes to take a look at the world through the screen door. I’m reading things online when I hear a loud rattling sort of screeching. Too loud to be any kind of bird we’ve seen here. Too insistent. [...]

We are living in interesting times. Our consumerist paradigm is slowly shifting. We are doing things differently than we once did. Our expectations of what we should have and what we should want were molded in an earlier world. One that is passing away.  The internet has changed almost everything. Some changes are obvious

Assemblages happen in the Hamilton Street studios of DarcyArts. Everywhere you look there is some little creation, something thrown together. John Keats with tiny plastic top hat and bitty cupcakes. Bob Dylan on a magenta road with and old truck, harmonica, star cookie cutter, Brian Jones in pink and glitter, Kombucha Wond

I have set myself a daunting foodie goal. I want to learn to make the most delicious flaky pie crust. I have three weeks to achieve perfection! Next month, Frank and I will have the great pleasure of joining in an alterna-family reunion. Amazing souls from our early days in the city will gather. We will travel south

I must admit a fondness for change but it often stems from a practical need. In my work spaces I try different things usually to gain more space, have things more readily at hand and, yes, so that things look interesting. I’ve redone the kitchen work space for about the fifth time. This redesign gave me [...]

I have given thought to controlling my buying habits. I’ve done well in some areas and in others, not so well. I don’t buy many things I don’t really need at the thrift stores anymore. It’s part of my current work to buy really cute things. If they are vintage and I can sell the [...]

My Iggy Pop doll is done. He’s got a dog collar, a bare chest and silver pants. His head is a tad large but it’s because his big eyes need a big head and don’t you feel like Iggy is mostly head? Well, and abs and, well you know. You’ve seen this pose before, haven’t [...]

I’m nearly ready to give Iggy a head. The parts are ready to unite. I’ll do a last-minute inspection and then sew them together. Here is how I started: Then I filled in the facial features with embroidered detail. It’s all to balance out those big blue eyes. I may change my mind and make [...]

I have been watching All My Children, off and on, since it started in 1970. There have been years when I did not tune in and I admit that I have little patience with the whole set up of soap opera. I want people to be happy. I like it when couples stay together. The [...]

Life is good. I am busy working on my Soft Boys (and Girls). I am newly married to my longtime love, Frank Miller ♥. I am in touch with the best and brightest people I have tangled with over the course of my life so far, and by in touch I mean Facebook. My life [...]

I’ve been riding the stationary bike and doing yoga in the yard for a few weeks now. I’m very glad to be back to it, glad to be up early and, with our triple digit summer temps, glad to be outside in the cool of the day. I enjoy the wildlife. The blue jays are perky and [...]

I’m developing a new, potentially annoying hobby — sorta silent movies. My first adventure in camera filming recorded granny’s cat Sam sniffing Tibetan incense smoke. The camera work was very shoddy. Spaztastic. My second film is a recording of a spot of light bouncing on the wooden panel that covers the 

While doing yoga this morning I decided I’d like to shoot some pix up the giant pine tree ala Georgia O’Keeffe’s the Lawrence Tree. I pulled my blanket over to a spot in the wet grass beneath the tree. I like The Lawrence tree better . It’s branches are spread more voluptuously. Georgia’s view

I am throughly confused about where I am supposed to post my finished (sort of) Alice in Wonderland doll/sculpture for the Art Dolls Only team challenge. I thought I had it figured out. I’d post it on my personal blog and then, tomorrow, go visit others ADO members’ blogs. Then at the last minute I [...]

Time is flying by this summer of 2010. I am happily working on art projects and experimenting with domestic adornments, recipes retro and classic. Frank and I finished of all available episodes of The Tudors and are impatiently awaiting the release of season 4 on DVD. Season 3 of Breaking Bad is in our Amazon Video on De

Happy Birthday, Frida. She was strong, smart, beautiful, passionate and a great artist. Her power is obvious. She still touches many lives and hearts. Women still look to her to understand how we might unfurl our flags. Oh, that we could be so bold and sure. Oh, that we could light up Coyoacan with our [...]

When Jello calls one must respond. My local grocery store happened to have Jello as a featured sale item. I bought four large packages but only after a visit to my favorite thrift shop to pick up a couple of molds. It’s the kind of thrift shop where jello moulds would almost certainly be in stock.  The [...]

My most recent evil anti-unimaginative holiday blog post gave rise to a fun discussion about Jello creations this weekend. It took place on Facebook, a new holiday gathering tradition. My sister-in-law (that is the first time I’ve ever been able to use that phrase and it’s kind of a rush♥) responded to my

Iggy Pop impressed me before I ever heard his music. I saw his picture in Creem Magazine and before that in my fave teen music mag, Teenset. It became Aum as the 60s got more and more psychedelic. He looked great and you would have caught a whiff of his wild boy reputation even if Raw Power had never thrumbed your [..

Ah, delight on a hot Fourth of July to know that I can stay indoors and experience my own alterna-celebration. Why? Because every day  should be a celebration of life. Anyone who really knows me understands my holiday kink. I can’t repeat the greasy, forced, unimaginative, jello-laden holiday tropes of my forebear

The people who operate Grocery Outlet have really good taste. They get the most wonderful things and the fact that when you see something you like you may not see it again, gives shopping there the thrill of second handing. These beautiful gladioli came in 3 foot stalks, five or six to a bundle. The were [...]

My wonderful benefactor interior designer, Chele McKee, has asked for three “Big” donut pillows to add to her lasted project palate. I am stoked, glad and busy. This “Big” donut order came very close to the custom Mick Jagger for the New Jersey Jordan, my Soft Boys key appreciator. Looks like I̵

He’s done. He’s oddly lanky. It’s that freakishly long  torso. I love The Rolling Stone’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus but dread the Stones performance a bit for Brian looking so swollen, dazed and sausage-like but most especially for being exposed to Mick’s weird torso. I’m stilted,

When I thought about doing it I knew my first reaction would be laughter and I was right. Of course, he’s so easy to cartoonize. His face is easily plunged into caricature. I am very happy with my Mick head. He’s just itching to get his body attached so he can strut like a rooster. I’ll stuff his [...]

Lack of first-time zeal has made this year’s garden less captivating than last year. even though this is the third season, really, not the second, my enthusiasm kind of paled. It’s also partially due to deciding to plant mostly catnip. I use catnip for my squiddie cat toys. It makes sense to grow that crop. [...

A revisitation of  feeling my progress is molasses slow on my latest three projects. I wish there was three of me to deal tenderly with each. Through the last week of June I’ll make the caterpillar and the hookah for for the ADO Alice in Wonderland Challenge.   Choosing which mushroom to use will be the easiest

Monday night my daughter, Jessica, finally got to see Anton Newcombe’s Brian Jonestown Massacre at the Fillmore in SF. This a sacred passage for her, a teen dream come true, the satisfaction of a longing that spread fog-like over years. Brian Jonestown Massacre  came into our lives via the blessed Napster, back in t

I love sitting beneath the huge Pine tree in the yard in my stripey socks on my stripey blanket. I love feeling the cool early-morning breeze, drinking in the light and the scents of the plants surrounding my spot. It really adds another dimension to breathing in and out, relaxing, pulling in the good, positive charge [...

In the last week I’ve returned to practicing yoga. I encountered its beneficial stimulation and powerful help in staying limber years ago in Costa Mesa. My then boyfriend, George R. Cox, an Aquarius with a touch of  Virgo, signed us up for yoga classes led by a guru instructor who taught us in a little store [...]

The sun is up and the breeze is cool. All is right with the world. I checked my computer last night to find that some wonderful person had purchased two of my Soft Boys, hell, my only two Soft Boys — Keith Richards and Joey Ramone. Here they are backlit and looking dreamy. I love [...]

Something must be done about my obsessive tendencies. I’ve been shrooming it up for days now. It’s a simple design and so many textures and colors can be incorporated. This is the most frilly ruffle I have made for this series of shrooms. This material is stiff and gauzy and somewhat irridescent. I really like [

I spent the weekend working out a good mushroom design for my Art Dolls Only Alice in Wonderland project of a hooka smoking caterpiller and his toadstool seat. Feeling haunted by a vision of fantasy mushrooms I collected lots of purple and pink materials all kind of fancy and girlie fru fru. I’ve just started, real

During a quick trip to Grocery Outlet this morning I bought something I’d resisted for weeks — the Eggo Star Trek waffles. They are fittingly odd and on this day irresistable. Captain James T. Kirk, I suppose. You can also eat Scotty’s famous line for breakfast.  These were the last of the waffles. Ice

It’s Saturday, or as I call it this time of year, the day before Breaking Bad. Sunday night is the last episode of the third season. I was literally stunned by the ending of last week’s episode. You think Walt and Jesse can’t get in any deeper but they just keep sinking into risk. I am excited [...]

I don’t know for sure. Maybe they were just visiting, keeping in touch. They seemed pretty friendly. They approached one another slowly not moving too fast. Sort of hanging out. They got closer, checking each other out head to head, face to face. Are you familiar? Do I know you? Are you my kind? The bugs [...]

The mirror is one of the cheapest one could find. It came along after it’s previous owner could no longer use it. It’s nice to be able to see a full length view of one’sself sometimes. Maybe not today. Please disregard these dumpy clothes, my work/photog/gardening casual attire, I’m doing a little

For the last week or so we have seen a heavy dusting of moths here in our Hidden Hive on Hamilton Street. It seems, and I could be completely wrong, that they hang out in, under or very near the car which we park in the covered side porch adjacent to the house. They are kind [...]

Man, o man, the sweet Red Squids are flying out of the DarcyArts shop over at Etsy! The look of  the Giant Red Catnip Squid has been updated a bit — eyelids – and the squid now comes with a little travel-size back up buddy. I love stuffing these guys with organically grown catnip fresh from the [...]

I have finished the custom order I’ve been working on since April, or at least the third part of it.  It’s an ongoing operation. The post office will be an oft visited destination as the letter number pillows are shipped off to Pennsylvania. There may be five or six boxes. Whoo hoo. Look what came [...]

Elizabeth Gilbert’s  description of getting  “there” from Eat, Pray, Love: “So now I have found out. And I don’t want to say that what I experienced that Thursday afternoon in India was indescribable, even though it was. I’ll try to explain anyway. Simply put, I got pulled through the w

I have my prejudices, brainwashed as I am by the ever lingering idea of an outsider life, a rock n roll aesthetic. I picked up a copy of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love knowing it was a memoir that involved travel to three places I’d love to experience. Other than that I thought it might [...]

Here I am, a blogger, telling I-don’t-know-who about my life. Entrusting you, dear readers, with a glimpse into my home, my psyche, sliming you with my drivel. Really, I am a shy person and it is only the semi-closeted, confessional set up of the blog that allows me to share so freely with so many. If you were [...

The sun came out yesterday and I snapped the tiger lilies. They return and look fabulous for a few weeks each spring and I always appreciate them for their rich color. Whabam. They have freckles. I like the bright yellow dandelions, too. I caught a little bug on this one. The gardener hasn’t been in [...]

Having received an order over at DarcyArts for a big red catnip squid, the first since January,  took the opportunity to revamp my red squiddie ever so slightly. I decided to add eyelids in a nice grey fleece. I also am adding the little stripey travel size squid to all big red squid orders. the are [...]

I like making things, I like to bring things into the world that might add cheer, amusement to someone’s day. I tend to shy away from the logic of business, though it is essential to operations and I am now reliant on these “operations” for my living. I am bedeviled by shipping costs. I have [...]

I’m pretty sure If I mention pillows one more time someone will slap me. This evening, wet and chilly for the end of May, I must confess that after a full day’s work on projects mentioned far too often I am reading another interesting memoir. I though this one might be a little Oprahish but [...]

Thank you, dear readers, for your prayers and positive energy. I have been released from this call for jury duty. After three consecutive nights of calling in I am free. That means I have uninterrupted time to finish off my latest list of projects. As if my list wasn’t long enough I have been visualizing [...]

The call to the court last evening let me off the hook until a later time. I’m in limbo now. My group may be needed for a trial next week. I am to call back tonight and see if I show up at a future date or get the free pass. I should have been [...]

In the big build up to half a dozen the latest is a donut with cherry icing and no sprinkles. The color was is pretty and powerful that it deserves to stand by itself. That and the fact that not many bead sprinkles show up well on this intense field. I love this donut. Yes, I [...]