"…the water comes down like a curtain thrown from the top of the mountain. It does not seem to come down swiftly, as you might expect; it seems to come down very slowly because of the distance. And the water does not come down as one stream, but is separated into many tiny streams. From a distance it looks like a curtain. And I thought it must be very difficult for each drop of water to come down from the top of such a high mountain. It takes time, you know, a long time, for the water finally to reach the bottom of the waterfall. And it seems to me, that our human life may be like this. We have many difficult experiences in our life. But at the same time, I thought, the water was not originally separated, but was one whole river. Only when it is separated does it have some difficulty in falling. …after we are separated by birth from this oneness, as the water falling from the waterfall is separated by the wind and rocks, then we have feeling. You have difficulty because you have feeling, you attach to the feeling you have without knowing just how this kind of feeling is created. When you do not realize that you are one with the river, or one with the universe, you have fear. Whether it is separated into drops or not, water is water. Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact we have no fear of death anymore, and we have no actual difficulty in our life."

- observations while visiting a waterfall in Yosemite by Zen Master Suzuki Roshi

Top ten random unrelated things

just spent my savings on a Nikon D60.... so hopefully I'll be doing more designs to post.  In the mean time...

top ten list for December:

1. Betty Crocker's 1963 Cooky Book

Just bought an old copy and now I'm that much closer to fulfilling my dream of creating a three tiered cookie display at a holiday party wearing a themed apron.

2. Emma Peel

      

Diana Rigg's awesome wardrobe as sexy Emma Peel in The Avengers, a British TV show from the 60s.  My dad bought the series and I'm loving it.

3. I got a new tattoo

I think binge drinking has finally lost its appeal... I'm moving on to new self-destructive activities or at least more expensive vodka.

4. Globe Cigarette Holder

...speaking of which.... look at this vintage globe cigarette holder (cigarettes pop up when you open it).  found it on ebay, will undoubtedly finish at a bid past my price range... but still

5. Not just for crazy people and super heroes

   

I'm going to attempt to sew a cape 

and work up courage to wear it in public

6.  Hello Cupcake  

oh hello there ...adorable little penguins and some of the best cupcake designs I have ever seen.  Click the link for the book.  They even have april fool's day cupcakes that look like corn on the cob, mashed potatoes and crispy chicken legs.  Guests might feel awkward eating something you spent hours meticulously decorating but that's what photos are for.

7.  Forget me knot ring

Even though Fredflare takes advantage of people either too lazy or unassuming to type the name of a product in a search engine and buy it elsewhere for a lot less, this is adorable.

On second thought. Any place trying to sell $300 gold retainer necklaces deserves respect. 

a lesson in Dada bling: If you let a piece of gum harden and drill a hole in it and wear it as a necklace you are dirty. If you buy a necklace that looks like a hardened piece of gum with a hole drilled in it but is really a piece of metal you are the coolest kid at Pratt. 

(state school really hardens an art major)

8. A Muppet Christmas Carol

I'm looking forward to forgetting my unemployment blues, snuggling beside a fireplace with cocoa and regressing back to a time when I had less responsibility.

9.  Going back to school (fingers crossed)

If all goes according to plan I'm going to Arcadia for art education Spring semester. Then if I load up on classes I could be student teaching Fall 2009.  Downside: I'd have to student teach full-time, unpaid, so I'd still have to live at home.

10.  Pleo

Finally, a robotic dinosaur that cuddles. If I didn't buy that camera I could have two of these. Click the link to see him in action.

Some photos from the Etsy site Veronika and I put up yesterday to sell vintage clothing. Still have to put up the banner I worked on. I took for granted school access to SLR cameras, something to add to my Christmas list... right next to 15k for teaching certification.

In related news... I quit my job at a publishing company after 2 weeks.

I was working at my desk but actually thinking about an apocalyptic disaster and a giant cloud of fire and toxins eradicating everything in its path and then I started thinking about the probability that I would be at work given my 10 hour shift. The thought of dying instantly while plugging stock images into a magazine template was really unsettling.

I'm thinking about teaching and designing for local businesses and social causes on the side. I don't know what I want to do anymore but hopefully when I figure it out there won't be the same sense of impending doom.

OR maybe this is just the early onset of paranoid schizophrenia.

lovebirds

something I worked on a little today, original line drawing taken from a vintage embroidery pattern



thought it might look cool on a shirt - probably more subdued than this. I think I may want to invest in a silk screening kit sometime in the near future... I know I'll be disappointed with the limits of it though.

Some Things

I found a funny old cookie jar, the hat says "COOKIE BEAR," also he's hiding a cookie behind his back. I'll probably use the two red deer on the ends of a really simple wood plank shelf.



I was really hoping to find a princess phone, but for a dollar, I like the Genie phone better than Sculptura donut phones, it's sort of a fusion between the two. Gold and red.



1960s heaven. A Teak Wood Tulip Lamp with colored glass shades. Usually this style has spun plastic shades so they might have been replaced but I doubt it. It also came with a matching end table/lamp but I'm one globe short so I need to find replacements which will be difficult. The base is really weird too, it is some type of clear polymer filled with what looks like tiny little pearl shell pieces, really neat and a pretty tall lamp. Definitely my best find to date.

Pretty Songs for Falling Leaves

and a collage (click for larger version) - still not sure about the colors

1 Yo La Tengo - Autumn Sweater
2 The Magnetic Fields - The Book of Love
3 Glen Hansard - All The Way Down
4 Cat Power - Sea of Love
5 Iron and Wine - Sodom, South Georgia
6 The Velvet Underground - Stephanie Says
7 Nico - These Days
8 Neutral Milk Hotel - King of Carrot Flowers Pts 2 & 3
10 Elliott Smith - Needle in the Hay
11 The Beatles - For No One
12 The Magnetic Fields - Sad Little Moon
13 Mazzy Star - I've Been Let Down
14 Rufus Wainwright - Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk
15 Wilco - I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
16 Joanna Newsom - Peach, Plum, Pear
17 Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
18 Ivy - Worry About You
19 Coldplay - Sparks
20 Cat Power - Baby Doll
21 Nick Drake - Road
22 Mazzy Star - Wild Horses
23 Magnetic Fields - Epitaph For My Heart

Troggs, Vampires and Greyhounds

My video pick:



Just finished reading:



The Road

A good book leaves you crying on a greyhound bus, staining the last pages with mascara tears wondering if the person next to you thinks you are an unstable mess. This was a good book. I think it paints a pretty believable landscape of a post-apocalyptic world. Somewhere between Mad Max and the Great Depression. Not sure this will translate well into a movie though....





Twilight
Bonus: I'll admit the vampire love story concept is sexy and if nothing else this book gives me confidence that writing a hugely successful novel is within my reach-- or anyone with a thesaurus and a GED. Downside: the concept is sexy, the execution is horrible bordering on unreadable. I'm not sure this book deserves any dissection as a fantasy romance trash novel, actually I'm sure it doesn't. But there is something to be said about the sheer number of people reading this ...If you want a frightening look into the female psyche I would start here.

let me offer a random excerpt instead of trying to explain:

Edward (Vampire) to Bella (heroine/rag doll): "If I was too hasty...if for one second I wasn't paying enough attention, I could reach out, meaning to touch your face, and crush your skull by mistake. You don't realize how incredibly breakable you are.

Lesson: Hemorrhaging from the brain is a turn on. Go crack your girlfriend's skull against a wall and tell her you are battling your inner urge to kill her...women like brooding, conflicted men.