unlisted #8

Another set of items occupying my mind grapes - from the edible to the legible! Previous versions: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7

bloodline | We were hurting pretty bad, TV-wise, after finishing House of Cards AND The Jinx in short succession. I love a good crime drama, true or fiction. After two episodes of this show I'm thinking it's exactly what I needed. Doesn't hurt that  Kyle "America's Favorite Coach/Police Offier" Chandler is in it.

korean bbq pizza | There's not a lot that can tear me away from a classic red sauce on a piece of pizza (I'm looking at you, white sauce- you have no right being on my pizza), but this recipe made me think twice. I'll admit, I was lazy and got a premade BBQ sauce from Trader Joe's, but they had this new sriracha kind and I really want to try it. Also I used premade dough too. No regrets.

myth, magic, and millennials | Usually when an article uses the word "millennial" in the headline I roll my eyes and go back to checking instagram while I drink my kale cold pressed juice. I KID I KID, but also not really. Anyway, this piece was actually really interesting and kinda hit the nail on the head for me.

good luck bar | After living within walking distance of this place for an entire year we finally made it over to Good Luck Bar to have some tasty tiki drinks. Of course, nothing holds a candle to Psycho Suzi's when it comes to tiki tastiness, but I definitely enjoyed my rum concoction.

the southern reach trilogy | I got the first book in Jeff VanderMeer's "sci fi" (if you could call it that and I still don't really know what to call it) trilogy from the library, and it so captivated me that the next day I ran out and bought the whole collected series. It helped that I'd seen the cover making the interweb rounds for quite some time and thought it was gorgeous and perfect, but really it's this weird/strange/gross/scary/beautiful story that got me so excited.

newpon | I follow two different rabbits on instagram. One of them is this fella.

power up

HEART EYEBALLS! I have some new work today that I made for Pollen, a super awesome website and community for super awesome people who want to share ideas. If you can't tell, my assignment was to depict women in various workplace situations for a discussion female leadership. Minnesota folks: you can still sign up to check this amazing event out! Follow the link above for more details.
Also if you want to see even more great illustration work happening on Pollen you should definitely check out this article with work by my "illustration husband" Bill! Ahhh look at that little pint of beer! SO CUTE.

random encounter

Hey blog! I've got a few fun things on my plate, hopefully soon they'll end up here. In the meantime I've got some RANDOM THINGS!!! to keep you company! We did a little dog sitting earlier in the week for an adorable little wiener dog named (get this) Emma. She was a wonderful guest, but this girl had the most amazing adorably sad sparkle eye thing going on. Even when she was happy HER EYES WERE FILLED WITH THE SADNESS OF A THOUSAND SOULS.

So clearly I made a gif of her.

Also I did a little piece for the adorable Inconnu magazine - for an article about YOUR FAVORITE PAIR OF JEANS. My favorite pair of jeans are super cheap forever21 jeans. The material is like tissue paper but dang do they make my butt look good.

unlisted #2

Yep, I liked my little hexagon layout from the last time I wrote up the ubiquitous "list of obsessions", so I'm sticking with it.

This time around:

-tattoos. I keep thinking about them. This one is of Caroline Loosen shot by Stefan Khoo. Though Ms. Loosen seems to not have this tattoo in real life, it is my perfect floral tattoo. I keep coming back to the florals, and then get scared away from them. I'm also still not sure I want color. Luckily I'm waiting till Bill and I finish up the neverending project of boomboom $$ to splurge, and as this project is neverending .... well, I have some time to think about it.

-fun reads. It is almost impossible for me to click onto The Hairpin and maneuver myself away from it in less than thirty minutes. I tell myself I'll only read one article, and then I stumble upon the personal bests archive and it's all over. I may have read several articles just now when I went to get the links for this post. These are some of the funniest females (and sometimes dudes too) that I've ever had the opportunity to read.

-future diys. I'm definitely planning on taking this cute kid's playroom storage idea and spray painting the animals gold and filling the jars with cookies and giving them out as holiday gifts. YOU CAN'T STOP ME, THE CRAFTING WILL HAPPEN.

-wishlist additions. Gosh, is it almost Christmastime ALREADY? Oh no I will have to write a Christmas wishlist and OH NO, I will have to put The New Domestic's newest offering, the Bon Journey Bag on it. Woe is me!

-gift ideas. Speaking of the holidays, it is finally time for a new issue of Gifted Magazine from Creature Comforts! When the first issue of Gifted Came out last year, I was so thrilled to find a gift guide that actually had good recommendations, and this year's issue is no different. I already found something for my notoriously hard to buy for mother (whom I love sososososo much), what will you find? Also it's pretty to look at, which is generally a plus.

-fancy nails. I am terrible at painting my nails, but the tutorials on the beauty department have given me hope. I feel like maybe I can cover up how bad I am at this very important aspect of girldom by simply doing crazy designs over all my imperfections! I already tried my hand at black and gold nails, I'm thinking gold and pink next.

What's on your list?

vitamin e

OH HEYYYYY! Remember that fab weekend I had? And that extra fun Paper Darts party I went to? Well, I didn't want to jinx it but I totally got stopped by the super awesome Ellen Dahl Lawson (of the minneapoline fame) to do a little outfit photo for vita.mn's fashion column, and the photos are up today! Was that enough links for one blog post? SORRY FRIENDS, I'm just excited. Nothing like feeling like a minor internet celebrity (as fleeting as it may be) to brighten my day.

Also, check out that extra hottie next to me! Regan is one awesome lady, and she looked awesome that night. Big congrats to her for being amazing in all aspects of life!

Okay, excitement over, go back to your regularly scheduled blog reading.

shipe shape

I think I may have found something that my brother and I could collaborate on. The thing about my little brother is that we are mostly opposites - he is very tall, good at math, excels in music (trombone! sousaphone! piano!), and actually went to college for something that will make him money.... NAVAL ARCHITECTURE AND MARINE ENGINEERING. (The only reason I remember this incredibly long and difficult sounding major is that you can shorten it to NAME.) There's little overlap in our fields... except for DAZZLE CAMOUFLAGE


Dazzle camoflage was created by a British marine artist that, instead of making the ship difficult to see, made it difficult to determine the size, speed, and direction the boat was heading. If I was a bad guy and I saw one of these things comin' towards me I would also surely be terrified by my enemy's excellent taste.










Dazzle camo has also been used for personal ships, including a yacht designed by Jeff Koons and the amazing DAZZLE LASER SAILBOAT whose name I may never get over.

So Jacob: lets design a floating modern art museum/ cruise ship. It'll be great, I promise.

action packed

I'M BACK! Oh my gosh, phew. Hold on. Let me catch my breath. Could someone bring me a water? I'M DYIN' HERE. Seriously, though, I was gone for three days and there was hardly a dull moment. Wine shopping, grocery shopping (twice), listening to lectures about boats, parties, waking up early, waiting in an impossible line surrounded by pro-life crazies, sitting in a stadium with 92000 other people and seeing (1) my brother graduate and (2) the president!

Needless to say, I am exhausted. It's nice to be home.

salt of the earth

"Wouldn't it be nice if that oak tree would ever reach my remains, and the tree would take nourishment from that? And it's kind of like I never died, really."

I read this article on NPR awhile ago and thought the whole thing was marvelous. So romantic, an illustration was just begging to be made. It also particularly makes sense that this woman is from Michigan - I met plenty of people who probably felt the same way as her growing up in the mitten state.

This is the work in progress so far... but something feels unfinished. Since I can't go to class and have my peers all in one spot anymore (curse you art school! critiques were so helpful!), I'm going to ask for YOUR advice. You. yes you, with the coffee in your hand sitting in your favorite chair. Or you, surfing the internets at work while waiting for something to do. You know who you are.

p.s. while I was making this illustration (specifically, placing all the flowers & fauna) I was listening to the This American Life about Sinatra and now when I look at those flowers all I can think about is "My Way " or "That's Life". BRAINS ARE WEIRD.

check one off the list

thanks to ben thompson and with his mixing skillz, i have finally made some linzer stars. this recipe is what my mom uses when she makes HER linzer stars, but for ours we used strawberry-rhubarb jam, which is my fave.

on a completely unrelated note, here is an article/obituary about the late H.M., a famous medical study who had profound amnesia. I heard about this story first on NPR on the way home from work one day and thought it was very interesting. I also can't imagine how hard it would be to not be able to form new memories. I'm working on an illustration about this right now.

tiny bubbles

has anyone noticed the amazingness that is pop cans as of late (diet coke, coke, pepsi)? Here are some people who have:

+jon berry
+amnesia blog

miss white in the hallway with the crown molding

I was trying to find interior shots for The Shinig, given that I'm watching it right now and wanted to speak of its beautiful interior design. Along the way, however, I came across this article in the Times. It's kind of like a real version The Westing Game or Clue... without the whole "dead guy's will" thing. Basically a rich family hired an architecture firm to redo the interior of their apartment, but the designer didn't just redo their interior. He put a giant, complicated puzzle literally into the woodwork. How weird would that be to come home and be like "hey honey, how was work? mm, yes, good. well, how about we go solve the next leg of the puzzle? I think there might be a clue in the kitchen cupboards."


JUST IMAGINE.

p.s. J.J. already has the rights to the movie