Friday, May 22, 2015

wants vs. needs

photo on the right by Bryan, who is pretty much the best.

Etsy and I had a little falling out for a couple of years - they didn't do anything wrong of course, but the feeling of endless amazing goods mixed amongst some (let's be honest) not so amazing goods got overwhelming. Last year though I received an Etsy gift card from my brother and sister-in-law, and thus we were reacquainted. 

...and now I am ALL IN. Every so often I'll log in and click that little heart button like a madwoman. My favorites page has grown quite a bit as a result, but since I'm currently (always) in saving $$$ mode and can't buy everything I will just post them here. It's like virtual window shopping!

p.s. Actual purchases featured above! Wedding band from Lichen & Lychee and the bowl in which we keep our shinies from Revision Design.





Thursday, May 21, 2015

bully for you


Woah woah woah. Two new pieces? In one blog post? That is just pushing the envelope, I know.

I've been hard at work, finishing up a super fun project (coming soon!) and working on a tonnn of new portfolio pieces. Cute stuff like Mr. Rabbit and his garden thief up above and some stuff with a little bit more serious undertones, like this piece below done as a part of a campaign on bullying my agent put out.

It made me really sad to draw this poor guy getting picked on, but since I drew it I also know that afterwards these three talk it out and become best friends. YAYYY!!!


Sunday, May 17, 2015

slam dunk


Sigh, another Sunday passes through my fingers like crumbs to the coffee cup. Where does the weekend go? I donut understand.

....

get it? GET IT? Maybe I made this post just so I could draw a donut and make a donut joke.

Today I grabbed a couple of tasty donuts (green tea, ooh) at California Donut for my first breakfast, had a little rest and then took second breakfast with my ladies over High Lifes and home fries at the Black Cat. This is possibly my definition of living the dream, especially since I get to watch a new episode of Game of Thrones tonight. Fingers crossed we get more Sand Snakes... really if it were up to me it would be Sand Snakes 24/7.

In media consumption, we saw Mad Max on Friday and then finished Grace & Frankie on the same night. These two things could not be more different but they're BOTH kind of my favorite right now, and I didn't want either of them to end.

To end this post I found a very appropriate Grace & Frankie gif. Seriously, if you haven't watched this show yet then stop looking at this and fire up your Netflix ASAP. I mean... LILY TOMLIN.


Wednesday, May 6, 2015

cover to cover


At some point a couple years ago I decided to read more books. I don't exactly remember when, but I e-mailed Katie and asked her for some good ones to start with, as she is The Book Queen. She sent me an excellent list, I put it in the Notepad app on my phone (way back when it looked like this, *shudder*) and I forgot about it.

And then magically, without even realizing it, I was checking books off the list. And then I was ADDING books to the list. IT WAS A MIRACLE, Dear Reader! A book reading miracle.

So with that I give you my List of Things to Read. It is presented to you exactly as it is on my phone: definitely not in alphabetized, possibly with some misspellings, added to whenever I hear about something interesting, read in no particular order, checked off with the emoji checkmark when I am finished. It's a crazy system but it works for me.

CRAZY LIST OF BOOKS:
The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker 
Seating Arrangements - Maggie Shipstead ✔
Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach 
The Red House - Mark Haddon*
This Bright River - Patrick Sommerville
The Leftovers - Tom Perotta 
Dare Me - Megan Abbott 
The Newlyweds - Nell Freudenberger 
Prospect Park - Amy Sohn ✔
Blood Bones & Butter - NF Hamilton
Swamplandia - Karen Russell 
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig
This is How You Lose Her - Junot Díaz 
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn ✔
Dark Places - Gillian Flynn
The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards
The Best of Everything - Rona Jaffe
Fin & Lady - Cathleen Schine
Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell
Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern 
From the Mouth of the Whale - Sjón
Blood Will Out - Walter Kirn
The Vactioners- Emma Straub
The Marriage Plot - Jeffery Eugenides 
Wild - Cheryl Strayed
The Magicians - Lev Grossman
Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel  **
Wildalone - Krassi Zourkova
The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell
The Circle - Dave Eggers 
Southern Reach Trilogy - Jeff VanderMeer (Book 1 finished, Book 2 started)
Commencement - Jay Courtney Sullivan
The Fever - Megan Abbott
The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins ***
Wolf in White Van - John Darnielle 
The Anatomy of Dreams - Chloe Benjamin
Delicious Foods - James Hannaham
The Country of Ice Cream Star - Sandra Newman
The Passage - Justin Cronin
The MaddAddam Trilogy - Margaret Atwood

If you'd like to start your own crazy list, might I suggest checking out NPR's Book Concierge? I got a tonnnn of additions to my list from wading through these great little widgets. Also sometimes a book gets added just because it has a cool cover. I'M NOT SORRY.

Moral of the story: GIVE ME YOUR BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS. If you can't tell I'm all over the place as far as taste goes, so I'm game for pretty much anything.

*I started reading this book over Thanksgiving two years ago, left it in a hotel room in Ohio, paid the fine at the library and never picked up another copy to finish it. The memory haunts me still.

** My most recent conquest, now I only want to read dystopian novels and think about how terrible I would be at surviving in such a world.

***Just checked my LAPL account - I'm currently 696th in line to get a copy of this bad boy, which isn't bad considering when I placed the hold the number of people waiting was seriously more than 1,000.