I am Sorry Elton John.

Living in Southern California means I consistently deal with wild fires altering my life. In the past it had been in small, detail sort of ways but this last set kept me trapped in Orange County unable to get home since every freeway in my area was on fire (which also meant the roads around them were blocked as well.)

It was an interesting experience that led to a night of not sleeping. I realized friends are every where and the world is filled with great people ready to take you in at a moment's notice even if they have just met you (which is the case with 90% of the cast of the show I am currently in.)

And while I could write a lot of sappy/hopeful things about the fires and the way everyone helped each other that night I instead feel the need to write about Elton John.

There was a moment with an acoustic guitar and two boys singing "Crocodile Rock." This moment made it official. It made me regret my many years of saying I didn't really like Elton John. It made me need to announce to the world that I may, in fact, love Elton John.

I know what you are thinking, "Crocodile Rock?...REALLY?!?" But you must understand that this has been a long process for me. You see I'm the type of girl who loves The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. I relate to Janis and Joni, each in their own way. I love Simon and Garfunkel. But Elton, Elton and I haven't always seen eye to eye. Something was always amiss and I think I know what it is.

Radio has ruined some of the greatest artists of all time. No, really. Look at The Beatles. "I saw her standing there" is an AWESOME song but honestly, what makes The Beatles amazing is the vast range of their music which is not displayed when radio only plays "I Saw Her Standing There,," "Let it Be," and "Hey Jude." Mind you, these are some of my all time favorite songs but what about "Yer Blues"? What about "Within you, Without you"? What about "Something"? I could go on forever.

My point comes down to this: I really only knew Elton John as a few songs here and there on the radio that I sort of liked but never could appreciate. Albums are an art. Live music is an art. A radio hit is just mostly something that is well marketed.


So, My Dear Sir Elton John, I am sorry. Everyone who loves me has always been right about you and I was just too stubborn to admit that you are rock and roll. You are, in fact, rock and roll royalty. Please forgive me for not being a true, die hard, all my life fan, and give me another chance. I promise to make it up this time by turning off the radio and turning up the albums.

Thank you for reading this non-sense,
the snail

Help me break this tired old routine

I can't wait for my next avett show. Can't. Wait.

Let's Get Political?

It seems like every where you look for the past, oh, you know, two years, the talk of the nation has been the upcoming presidential election. I understand that a lot of aspects of this election have been beaten to death by the media but I feel the need to clear the air, share my thoughts, and do that all American thing: state my opinions.

You see, I majored in Political Science which I know does not actually give me any more knowledge or wisdom on the subject of this election than anyone else. It just gives me a pretty piece of paper with my name on it. But in studying the Science of Politics we talked a lot about democracy and I feel like I need to clarify a few things.

The United States Federal Government is a democratic republic. This is a concept based on Greek and Roman republics that allow for representative bodies to make the big decisions. Take the Electoral College for instance - the original concept of our Electoral College was that the people of the states elected their city/town leadership, which then went on to elect state leadership (like state senators), who then typically picked the governor (though the practice and logistics of picking a governor varied from state to state), and it was then the governor who picked the members of that particular states electoral college. We were never supposed to pick our own President because the Federal Government was not designed as a democracy - it was designed as a republic.

But the American people became educated, we read Locke and Hobbes, we read the Federalist Papers, we even read Marx. We fought for emancipation, civil rights, women's suffrage, worker's rights and as a people we asked for more and more involvement in our own government.

We fought wars against ourselves with guns, with words, with hunger strikes, and the government had no choice but to give us more liberties. The creation of two hugely influential political parties transformed what the founders had envisioned into a whole new game, and the introduction of mass media and literacy transformed it all once again.

We were on our way, for quite some time, to transforming this democratic republic to a democracy in which we, as a people, elect our own president. We were slowly becoming the kind of democracy where every vote mattered but something happened.

When Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the presidency we let the republic remain by standing down and letting it happen. In a Latin American Democracy studies class I was in my professor turned to the class one day and said, "That should have been the turning point, that moment should have been the one where we came together as a nation and said 'it is time for true democracy in our federal government, it is time for us to be a nation.'" Instead we as a country accepted the founders original concept of these United States.

The founders believed in town hall democracy - that was why they created a series of states and not one giant nation. They did believe that in the town meeting men (and eventually women after a long hard battle that we too often forget) were to stand up and speak their minds (that's why freedom of speech and freedom of the press were so important). But instead, today, very few of us actually vote in our city, county, state, and even our federal elections. Democracy can only exist if we do our part.

This election is not just about Senator Obama and Senator McCain, it is not just about Republicans and Democrats. This election is about civil rights, women's rights, animal rights, economic rights, and the basic core of our democratic rights and liberties.

I don't know what is going to happen this election, I know what I want to happen but I look back to Al Gore and the electoral college, I look back to John Kerry and how little of the nation actually came out to vote, I look at my generation and see so much distrust in our government, and I begin to understand how easy apathy could be.

WE are our government. We the people of the United States of America have to vote if we ever want change. Maybe you're just as scared as I am that in the end the electoral college will determine a different president than the American people - but in all honesty that is a horrible excuse for not voting. Your votes do count, your participation does matter, because we will never be able to change the system if we don't prove first that we are willing to be a thriving, active democracy and not just a pacified republic.

I know, this is one of those soap box posts and I know that almost no one reads this blog but please, read your voters guides, research every side you can, and make an informed decision on every proposition, every candidate, and every issue.

This election matters. Ever election matters.
Go out now and make history, let's make this the largest voter turnout in American history - that's what a democracy is about.
The Snail

Guitars Are For Playing

Let me tell you, I've been playing guitar more than ever before and it is very exciting. All the working was getting to me, I felt a lack of creativity, I felt like I was losing all sorts of ground and getting too old too fast and then suddenly I picked up my old little acoustic and began playing. It was the first time I had really, truly, played in years and while it was pretty rocky at first it was just what I needed.

It's been about two weeks of playing now and I've decided to do something I never, ever, have done before. I am going to do an open mic night. That's right. I am going to be one of those ridiculous performers who does a three song set at a bar to a drunken audience filled with other performers who all know how much better they are than everyone else. It will either be amazing or horrible. There is no in between with this sort of thing.

My life right now is work, work, and coffee. I am addicted. I mean honestly, there are headaches without the daily cup (or three...). I don't think I've ever had an addiction before, there is a first for everything and I figure there are much worse things I could be addicted to (you know, like crack...) but it is still a little unsettling.

But then again, supposedly addictions are very rock and roll. I guess it's a prerequisite now.
The Snail

PS Dusty Springfield sang "Son of a Preacher Man" and This is Jefferson Airplane

Ramona Quimby, Age 8

Being a substitute in a second grade classroom is kind of like being in second grade again in that when a student says, "guess who?", I'm still inclined to say, "Chicken Poo."

Reflections of a Vagabond

Today I watched Don't Look Back and thought about how I want to do something BIG with my life. Sometimes people like Bob Dylan make me think that maybe I'm not really living as much as I should. Then I made an ink drawing of a tree and listened to really great David Bowie and Jenny Lewis.

Tonight Mallory and I went to Carl's Drive In where I had a double cheeseburger and a root beer. Then we went to the library and rented children's videos including Ramona and the Bad Day and a Miss Nelson cartoon which we watched in her kitchen while baking chocolate chunk pumpkin muffins. Her cat, recently rechristened Bruno, fell asleep on top of the television which is on top of the refrigerator which was adorable. Then Pat, Mallory and I played on a playground and went to El Scorcho for trivia night where I thought every blond actress was Sharon Stone and we got a free pitcher of beer.

It was fun.

Because I don't want my secrets revealed!

Music is a major part of my life. I listen to it. I make it. I live it. That sounds cliche, right? Well, it is because the more I look around the world (or, you know, the internet...) I discover that I am clearly falling behind in keeping music as my life.



You can make music in an elevator.



You can make music with all your friends on a bus.



You can make music in the back of a tiny, little, cab.

And yet, every day I wake up and find reasons not to make music. That's just stupid. I know. So, my new outlook on life and music is that I just need to make it because Kurt Vonnegut was right.


There you go Owl, a real post from the Snail. I promise to post more, this two jobs thing is new for me and way more tiresome and complicated than I ever expected but I am so much closer to booking a ticket to see you - it is insane!


Thanks for reading this nonsense.
the snail

I see how it is...

I get it, I get it. The owl thinks she is pretty funny these days with her posting embarrassing pictures of me with big scary humidity destroyed hair. Well, don't worry Owl, I am here to call your bluff.

You see, dearest readers, I have so much to share with you but alas a new job and an inability to let go of the old job has led me to waking up at three in the morning to open that-semi-evil-coffee-shop I work for and then head on over to the Happiest Place on Earth (I'm pretty sure that is a registered trademark - crazy!) to work all day.

I hereby promise to return by Tuesday at noon (Pacific Standard Time) with a real blog or else the Owl is free to post my most embarrassing secret. Don't worry, she knows what it is.

The Snail

Honey Pie

I saw Langhorne Slim a week or two ago on a semi-whim, having only heard his incredible Daytrotter sessions, and been aware of his musical connection to my main squeeze, the avett brothers. In my concert going experience, there are only some bands that I can see, having little to no knowledge of their music, and truly be moved by their performance. When I say moved I mean that unexplainable feeling of connection between oneself and an artist, through some words in a song, and the feeling that you are in the presence of great art. That feeling often manifests itself, in my experience, in silly things post-concert. Things like: the inexplicable urge to buy every album ever created by this person and any other merch that I can get my hands on, the desire to talk to said performer with full knowledge that I will only make a fool of myself, the need to watch every video of them on youtube, the desire to drive anywhere they are playing within five hours of my home, the understanding that I would go to a show alone, if necessary. Basically, I develop music obsessions. I can think, off the top of my head, of four artists that have had this effect on me via concert alone, one of those being Langhorne Slim and the War Eagles. Please don't think me a freak or a stalker, my obsessions have never reached that level of creepy. I just love the music. To paraphrase Almost Famous, I know what it means to truly love some silly little piece of music so much that it hurts.

Here are a few choice Slim videos. Let me know what you think.

"Lord" Black Cab Sessions


"Rebel Side of Heaven" Crackerfarm


"We Love the Animals" Crackerfarm (everything they record is magic.)


Snail, don't think that I've forgotten about you. The pictures will keep coming.

I'm not kidding.

A Plea

Dear Snail,

Please post a blog to tell all of our readers (harhar) about the exciting things happening in your LIFE. Or I'll post embarassing pictures of you.

Love,
Owl.

"The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something."
Kurt Vonnegut - "A Man Without a Country"

I resolve to make art everyday.

Love Love Love

"Always remember there was nothing worth sharing like the love that let us share our name."

And the Livin' Is Easy...

Dear Friends,

According to my pretty new planner, Monday was the first official day of autumn. As you may or may not know, autumn is my favorite season of them all!!! I love the way it smells like the first day of school, bonfires, Halloween, Vienna, and piles of leaves all rolled into one, outside. I love that I get to wear all of my favorite jackets and cowboy boots. I love that the colors start to change from greens to all of the unexpecteds. In honor of this, the greatest of all seasons, I think I will make yet another list of things that I NEED to do this fall.

In no order:

1. Go on a hayride and through a corn maze, hopefully one that ends with a big slide!

2. Learn to bake amazing pies from scratch. (Any suggestions would be much appreciated.)

3. Go to a pumpkin patch and carve a jack-o-lantern.

4. Dress up and do something wonderful for Halloween.

5. Go apple picking and make carmel apples.

6. Go to a haunted house and watch scary movies.

7. Huddle around a bonfire with best friends.

8. Go for a hike at Babler and see all of the trees changing colors.

9. Take a train to Chicago for a long weekend of friends and music and Christmas light admiring. (To be fair, I already know that I am doing this.)

10. Roll down Art Hill.

Go listen to Langhorne Slim,
Owl

PS- Please note our award winning jack-o-lanterns in this picture and the fact that my brother is still obsessed with Batman.

Wien, Wien, Wien

There's this line from this great song that goes like this:

I tried to think of bad times
Good Memories are all I have.

mmm... so true. Two years ago I got to live in beautiful Vienna for a few months. I've been thinking about it a lot today because my Cousin Emily arrived in Wien for her Austrian Adventure today and because I did some delicious cupcaking and H&Ming with my Best Vienna Friend Forever Lauren. H&Ming and yummy dessert eating was something we did quite often in Vienna.

Sometimes I worry that I idealize my trip and if I ever went back it would be disappointing. It occurs to me that I glamorize things a bit when I look back lovingly on things like waiting for the strassenbahn and going to Bratislava. I think that's a normal thing to do when you have such a strong experience with anything.

I miss Vienna. It was a great adventure and it makes me sad to think that it was two whole years ago. New adventures are on the horizon though, and someday I'll go back to Wien, not to relive the good times but to have new ones. yes yes yes.

owl

discover your fashion destiny? Maybe.

Okay, this is going to be a very girly little post I am about to write but everyone can just learn to deal. I have a very incoherent/eccentric fashion sense that tends to border too much on the plain side. I feel like I always play it safe and rarely purchase clothes that really fit my personality. Every now and then something will come into my wardrobe that is the most ideal style but this tends to be few and far between.

Recently, I noticed that there was something magical happening with my Etsy account. Something so wonderful and excited that I have to share it with the world. I am discovering my style without spending a single penny.


You see Etsy has these lovely little things called "hearts" where you can heart an item or a seller and then they are sort of bookmarked and you can find them very easily for every and always (even if these items are sold at some point.) This is the most fantastic thing ever because every time I find something new that I wish I had the money for I just "heart" that item. Now I've been doing this for some time now and I've started to notice some major patterns on my "hearts" page. This is FANTASTIC.I'm always so hesitant to buy certain clothes and make big fashionable choices because I've never really been able to dream up a cohesive wardrobe but through the little habit of hearting things that make me "ooooh" and "aaaahhh"

I am figuring out what my style consistently is. This is a nice little perk for a girl who loves clothes and is trying to make the horrible transition from college junky attire to professional member of the workforce attire.

Lots of Love and Peace,
The Snail

Oh My Such a Carryin's On You Never Did See

Since I don't have a full time job at the moment, it doesn't really seem like summer is over to me. Sadly, all of my friendsies are go back to school/leaving me to begin new adventures in their lives so I am reminded that the carefree friend time of the season is coming to a close. To commemorate this strange but lovely summer, I would like to make a top ten list of favorite moments. Here goes.



In no particular order:

1. Disneyland with Katttttt!

2. Running through the loop in wonderful, warm, POURING rain.

3. The Avett Brothers at the Sheldon with Emily. mmmm Avett-Miracles.

4. The day we went to all the beaches.

5. Super Secret Surprise Friend Day

6. The day we went to the Getty and Santa Monica and had yummy Thai food and that homeless dude thought I was Kat's mother.

7. Soulard and Cherokee with Mom and Emmmm.

8. Project Runway nights with Mallory.

9. Dressing up like a nerd-bomb to see the Dark Knight at midnight

10. Making cupcakes like lunatics.

11. Everyday in California.



Thanks for a good summer friends.



Tomorrow I am going to get lost in the Botanical Gardens and work on some drawings. Sometimes I really love to go on outings by myself. It makes me feel strong and more comfortable in my own skin. I think sometimes you need to be alone to be able to really appreciate time spent with other people.


Let me leave you with this video. Watch it all the way through, bet you won't regret it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTs7IKAmpg4

Love,
Owl (hoot)

Olympics, Getting a Job, and Then Some

I think the Olympics were partially created to make twenty-somethings feel completely worthless and to inspire them to do something with their lives. In other words, every time I watch one of those 16 year old girls flip and fly around the gymnastics floor I wonder how I've fallen so far behind in accomplishments. And let's not even start on that man-fish that America (with good reason) has fallen in love with.

I am thinking of not being a substitute but instead working as a teacher's assistant. This is a tough decision to make since I need to connect with a district in the next year if I want to do an internship and that will be a lot harder to do as an assistant but I also feel that I will get more out of being an assistant than I would as a sub.

Seriously, how does anyone do gymnastics? How do you get your body to do those things? CRAZY!

The Snail.

Resin Day!

Emily and I are making resin today! I can't wait to see how it turns out and sport some new resin jewelry.

I've been sleeping in really late which I should probably feel bad about, but I don't. Yesterday I spent the entire day reading On Beauty by Zadie Smith. I want to go read it now. Also, I took Rascal for a walk in Queeny Park which ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated. There was this one point when we were walking down this dirt road next to a creek and the trees were growing and connected over my head like a secret tunnel. It was like walking through a magical jungle. Later I saw a really big lizard.

I think I decided what I want to do this year unitl, hopefully, I find a teaching job or go to grad school next year. More on that later. I have to prepare for resin day!

Something About Me

I'm terrible at making decisions (big or small. Especially big.) And I don't know how to get better. somedays I wish I were more impulsive.

What I Want

1. Unlimited Izze juice in all flavors except Blueberry
2. An Avett Brothers show every weekend
3. A job that I like that doesn't take over my life
4. Best friends gathered around a bonfire
5. A week in Vienna
6. A house with a porch swing
7. A great record collection
8. To make time for my art
9. A top hat and a unicycle
10. Pinatas at every party
11. In-n-Out in St. Louis
12. A pink Vespa
13. To grow my hair long and then cut it very short
14. Unlimited funds for vintage clothes, music, and books
15. ROMANCE! ADVENTURE! JOY!

"My body if the earth but my head is in the stars!"
-Maude

Very Sincerely,
Owl

The Beatles And Why I Can't Blog in the Summer

This is my attempt at bringing back the blog for like the fifth time. It's not that the owl and I aren't friends it is that we have lives and talk on the phone and play on facebook and get distracted by record stores and get distracted by snow cones and get distracted by sewing projects and then suddenly we realize that neither of us has blogged in months.

That being said I don't really know why I felt I needed to justify the long break seeing as, at this point, the blog has all of two readers both of whom we know personally.

Between this blog and my personal blog I just can't seem to blog in the summer. Why you may ask? I'll tell you why. Summertime means the sun shines until late at night. It means you can drive around with the windows down (or in my case you have to drive around with the windows down since you don't have AC) and listen to the best of the best summer music. It means going to the beach for bonfires and smores if you are in California and it means the delicious treat of snow cones if you are in St. Louis. Summertime automatically makes me forget my age and forget my shoes and remember why I love skirts but most of all summertime makes me remember my deep, unending love of The Beatles and The Beach Boys.

I know you know it, I know you've already thought it to yourself, if you haven't than maybe we can't be friends but The Beatles and The Beach Boys may be the greatest bands of all time. Now, don't start hating because the list of bands in the number two place is varied and long but the truth is there are few who compare can compare to the brilliance of Sgt. Peppers, Pet Sounds, Rubber Soul, Magical Mystery Tour, Endless Summer, and so on and so forth. Maybe you are thinking to yourself that these bands are over rated and if you are then you have probably only been exposed to these bands through the radio which does not do them justice. The happy strands of "Love Me Do" or "Wouldn't it Be Nice" are just good pop if you haven't heard the beauty of one of the albums.

So, if you have never in your life bought a Beatles or Beach Boys album go out and buy a real, honest to God album - not a compilation, not an anthology, but an album and pop it into your car radio (whether through an ipod, cd player, tape deck, 8 track...), roll down the windows, and go buy yourself a snow cone or frozen banana and sit in your car and just listen.

Was this too preachy? Probably. But I figure I will balance out the preachy with the most adorable youtube video ever created just to balance things out.



And now I am going to dance around my house to Rubber Soul,
the snail

I want to sail away to a distant shore and make like an apeman

Apparently I'm not a very good blogger. It took me about ten minutes to figure out how to sign into this thing, it's been that long since I last posted.

Dudes, it has been a ridiculous fast-pased summer so far. Graduating and looking for a real-life job while trying not to freak about stupid things like loans and health insurance has taken up too much of my life. Besides all of that, I've been working hard to have a lot of fun before my few friends who are left in st. louie move too far away for too long. I've got to stock up on all the joy.

Obviously, the highlight of summer so far was visiting Snaily in Cali. I'm afraid I went too earlier in the summer though, now it seems like long ago... It was a very inspirational trip filled with lots of new sights and fun and singing and laughing and general friend-joy. I left inspired to start my newest painting which is also a sort of comic. I FINALLY started it um... two days ago but I'm so excited about it that I might actually finish soon.



In other news, I found fantastic fabric featuring a map of the world that I want to make a dress out of.



That's all for now. OH, has anyone heard Dennis Wilson's solo album? He is my favorite beach boy (admittedly, up until now only because he's clearly the most attractive and the only surfer in the bunch). I just read this fantastic review of it: http://www.buddyhead.com/2008/06/26/dennis-wilson-pacific-ocean-blue-reissued-finally/
and am anxious to own it.



I hope everyone's weekend is full of sangria and fireworks!

Owl

Our New Blog, Well...sort of

The Owl recently came to visit California (as seen above) and we didn't mention the blog once. Then, after she returned to her mid-western home and I began to miss her terribly she called to say we should mix it up - the blog was uninspired in the format we had decided on and we needed to make a change for the sake of the oh-so important blog-land.

No longer will this be a blog solely about crafts. Neither of us are really sure how it is going to go but I am kind of excited about it. I have daydreamed that it will become much like our conversations on long drives about music, art, life, politics, and such. I don't know if we are actually brilliant in those moments or if the sound of The Avett Brothers in the background just makes us high so happy and giddy that everything seems brilliant and wonderful.

When I blog now will I take cues from the fantastic Mindy Kaling (who is one of the great bloggers here) and tell you about my materialistic life? Or will I be more like this blog and try and use this space to inspire change? Or will I disguise a blog about other blogs as a blog about my personal blogging style? (I just wanted to see how many times I could use the word "blog" in a sentence.)

Anyway, I miss the Owl, I miss the mid-west, I miss the beach which is so close and so far, and I am currently in LOVE with my new MiGo mug. Every time regulars come into that-semi-evil-coffee-chain-I-work-at and don't have a reusable travel mug it makes me want to mess up their drink. Don't worry, I never do but the thought crosses my mind: "No sugar free vanilla syrup for YOU!"

Thanks for reading,
The Snail

If I'm a spinster for the rest of my life... My yarns will keep me warm on cold and lonely nights...

Dear imaginary blog readers in the blog-o-verse,

I made a lamp shade. I bought this fantastic lamp approximately one year ago at my favorite antique store in the Maplewood area. For about six months it was shadeless because I could not bring myself to buy a ridiculously expensive lampshape. (Those things are expensive, folks. Especially when you are an art student, some of the poorest of the poor.) For about five months after that, it was shaded with one (far too small for the lamp's grandeur) that I had found in my parent's basement and succumbed to using because I was sick of how bright the plain light bulb was. FINALLY, about two weeks ago, I found the perfect large, white, drum shade. On sale. I lived with it for a while until I decided that the lamp was far too exquisite for such a plain shade. It needed fringe. I went to the fabric store with only fringe on the brain but I found this lovely fabric on sale and was further inspired. Anyway, I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. Please note Lefty at the base of the lamp:

If you want info on the technical side of the construction, let me know.

Man, it's posts like this that make me feel like a twenty-one year old spinster. Oh well.

I love you all.

O-W-L (that's my bloggy alias)

PS- Up next- FELT MONSTERZZZZ!!!

It's the Circle of Life

I've become fond of crocheting circles lately. I'm not really sure why but I just can't seem to stop. When I've crocheted a big pile of circles it always reminds me of those bins of plastic multi-color diamonds they had at toy stores where you could fill a little baggy full of jewels and then take it to the register to pay for it. I loved it because you got to pick which diamonds you wanted; color, shape, etc. And I also loved it because you got to put your hand in a big treasure chest filled with jewels. Now, looking back on all this I realize just how germ filled that fake plastic chest filled with fake plastic colored diamonds was and it totally grosses me out.

Yarn stores feel like toy stores to me these days. I go in and see all the colors and textures and I become a kid again. A lot of times I'll just buy yarn because I think the colors are pretty, I'll have no idea what I want to make out of the yarn and I never buy the right amount for any specific project but I'll buy some pretty colors and then take them home and go from there. I think that is how the circle craze came to be. I kept buying these pretty colors and then I'd have no idea what I could make with the amount I'd bought so I'd just start making circles with the hopes that it would lead me somewhere.

My latest project is all turquoise circles. It makes me think about how I would only pick specific colors from that treasure chest at the toy store. I would always dig and search for the brightest pinks, the most radiant blues, and the boldest greens.

Hopefully this circle funk I am in will either pass or become the next fashion craze because honestly it's all I seem able to make these days.
-The Snail

If It's the Beaches...

I have big speakers. It's not a vanity thing or anything weird. It just so happened that when my stereo was set up I was gifted with some huge speakers with unbelievable sound quality. Seriously. They are amazing.


Sometimes, when I'm feeling low I sit directly between my speakers at the point of perfect acoustic balance, and listen to The Gleam, an EP by the Avett Brothers, with my eyes closed louder than my neighbors would appreciate. And then I pretend like it's being sung directly to me. It is a wonderful thing to do and I highly recommend it.


I've noticed that I go through different phases related to the music I listen to. At times of emotional instability, certain albums seem to carry me through, and often they are all I can listen to. Currently, that album is The Gleam but some others close to my heart are Pet Sounds, Bookends, Blue, and Let It Be. There are just certain songs, you know? They take you to a different place.


Anyway, the reason I'm writing this is because with all the working and schooling and student teaching, I haven't had much time lately for the art making. When I do have time, its usually an hour or two. Now, typically, it takes me about that long to get inspired and in the right mind set. So I've been thinking about how I work and music has a great deal to do with it. When I can connect a good piece of music to a drawing, or something that I'm working on, it becomes much easier to get into the right state of mind. Basically, what I'm saying is I'm trying to listen to more music and make more art but my lack of time management skill is working against me.


Listen to this song and try not to fall in love with the Avetts. (It's nearly impossible...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WotnK7pt7IM&feature=related
(Is there a way to actually post the video in here? If anyone knows, please let me in on the secret.)


And, here are somethings I'm working on finishing.







I'm doing some drawings of combined spaces based on mixing memories. These are still pretty unfinished.






This is my most recent one. The figures are still pretty rough.



















This is a needle felted ocotpus I'm working on. Soon he will have all eight legs. Also, check out my new flower shoes!



What are you listening to?



-Owl

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

I’m not sure how this happened. All I know is that I ordered some yarn from KnitPicks and kept looking at the crochet net stitch and then suddenly I was using the purple and Kelly green to make a shrug that Pat Benatar would be proud of.

I mean honestly, let’s all take a step back and think about this for a minute. I’m pretty traditional with my crochet. I like granny squares, I love perfectly simple scarves made out of rows and rows of treble stitches, and yet you had me two radically bold colors and suddenly I’m rocking out to David Bowie (The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust to be exact) and thinking (oh so vainly) about how good my shoulders look when I cut the necklines out of t-shirts.

So I followed my instinct. I took hold of the purple yarn and my trusty crochet hook and suddenly I could hear Duran Duran singing, I could feel my crimped bangs falling in my eyes, I could see the brightly colored eye shadow: I was back in the 1980’s.


Now that it’s over and done I don’t really know what to call it. I meant to make a shrug and what I like about this shrug is that it’s size and weight allow it to be more than just a shrug. But it’s not just about what this design is, not just the practicality of it. No, this is about more than what this design is meant to do; this is about a style (which makes it ever so hard to find the perfect name.)

And so, Ladies and Gentleman of Blog-Land, I give you
The Bangles Would Love Me 80’s-tastic Something Happened and I'm Head Over Heels Scarf
Happy Crafting,
The Snail

Ode to Donna Reed

Dear Friends,

Like the Snail, I would like to begin my blogging life by admitting to you something that I don't normally share. So here it goes:

I have a confession to make. Despite all of the money I have sunken in to college in an effort to become an empowered, independent, working woman, I have a secret. I truly long for nothing more than to be a 1950s housewife. Honestly. Make fun if you must but I think it is every crafter's dream. Imagine a life filled with cake decorating, intricate sweater knitting, floral-print pastel dress making, and joyous days spent crafting and baking! Plus, all of those cute housedresses you would get to wear! This desire has only been fueled by my interest in the not-so-distant past that I find evidence of in my lazy Saturdays spent prowling around estate sales and my favorite antique and vintage clothing stores. Its always been amazing to me that I can look through other people's things and then take home bits and pieces of this romanticized past and create the collage of time periods that is my present. There is something so exciting and special about finding evidence of a life and a time that I otherwise wouldn't have known about.

To me, the true essence of the 50s housewife is her apron. Nothing says "I'm excited about cooking and crafting!" like a cute, well embellished apron. Even better if that apron perfectly coordinates with her outfit and if it has matching oven-mitts. Seriously. I think my interest in the perfect apron started about a year ago when my grandma gave me her lovely old orange apron with a tiny green and white flower print. It's pretty fabulous in that tiny old grandma way that I love.

When I got a new sewing machine to for Christmas it was only natural for me to begin teaching myself to sew with the simplest thing I could think of. The first thing that came to mind was, of course, an apron. I would make the perfect apron!! So I set out to make a little half apron for my cousin's birthday which, incidentally, was the next day. Now would be a good time to mention that I'm not a very practical person. Nonetheless, the apron ended up being just as simple as I expected to make. (that is not usually the case) I'm really pleased with the way it turned out and am excited to try again. Here's a picture of Emily modeling her new birdie apron. (The bird is also a pocket!)


I think Donna Reed would be proud. Next I'll take on a full apron. I'm pretty sure I can handle it.

Cheers!
Owl

Feelings about Felt

These past few weeks have been so incredibly full of yarn that my mind is having trouble recognizing anything else. You see about a month ago I fell down my stairs and broke my ankle and now all I do is lie around, watch DVD’s, sleep an incredible amount and play with yarn. My latest endeavor involved felting. I wanted to see the difference between my favorite crochet stitch felted and the general knitted stockinette stitch.

I love the pattern crochet makes, I love the freedom of crochet. For some reason knit feels restrictive to me, something about a needle in each hand makes me feel less creative than when I just have the hook and the yarn. There is no logic behind any of it, just sentimentality and a stubborn “but I don’t want to learn a new style” attitude. But I think felting is the one thing that makes me put down the hook and pick up the needles without complaint. The amazing texture and durability that comes out of felting knit goods makes me completely forget my disdain for the needles.

So these past few days have been the felting experiment days. My godmother (who has been taking care of me while I am on crutches) is a batik artist so her washing machine is set to an extra hot temperature. Because of my lack of mobility I decided when felting this week that using the washing machine would be easiest for everyone involved but I really want to use my Godmother’s boil out tubs and a wash board next time just to see what it’s like. The crochet retains it’s design in the washing machine, it is more of a shrinking process than an actual felting but nonetheless it is still pretty and different, it gives me new options for crochet. But the true art comes in the felted knits.

My godmother tells a story about how she was first taught about felting. In art school she learned about a tradition where the felters would take wool and poor boiling hot water over it, wrap it in a blanket and then tie it to the back of a horse to agitate it. I think this would be my preferred way of felting if I had a horse and a lot of time on my hands.

In the end my knitting really paid off with the creation of this felt clutch. I love the boldness of the colors and the strength given to the material by the felting process. On the other hand this is a purse I crocheted and felted and while I still love the colors and style of the purse and I can tell that some strength was added in the process it is nothing compared to the drastic change that occurs with knit.

I need to go finish some projects and enjoy the sun,
The Snail

The Snail Ponders Patterns...

“And thirdly, The pattern is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules.”



I have a confession to make and it is a serious one in the world of all things craft. I hate patterns. Well, that’s sort of a lie because anyone who has ever seen my bookshelf knows that I own too many craft magazines and pattern books and if I really hated them I wouldn’t spend all that money on them. Well, sadly, I buy them mostly for the pictures. I very rarely open to the pages with the actual patterns, only in my most overdramatic moments (like when I throw knitting projects on the floor and call the Owl to tell her I’m a talent-less hack) do I open to those pages with jumbled letters and numbers.



Maybe it was because of the way I learned to crochet; with no books or instructions in sight, my mother just kept moving the hook and yarn from her hands to mine guiding me through every move. Or maybe it’s because I don’t like being told exactly how I am supposed to create things, but when I buy pattern books or magazines I just look at the pictures and start. If I truly can’t figure things out, to the point of wanting to put down the hook and never crochet again, then I’ll open a book or read a pattern but only for the smallest bit of help. Then I just pick up the hook and yarn and let my hands and my eyes figure out what comes next. I love watching the yarn take form into new shapes and designs and never really knowing exactly how, it makes it so I can never truly make two things exactly the same and I like that, I like the adventure of it all.


“Patterns!? We don’t need no stinkin’ patterns!”

Through my eccentric style of crocheting Lefty – the awesome dino – came to be. He was made out of scrap yarn after a strange message from the Owl about dreaming of a world filled with crochet dinosaurs. He’s not perfect and he can’t stand up on his own but he’s the first dino I’ve ever made. I used the single crochet stitch for his entire body and I made each part of his body separately and then pieced them together. I didn’t initially mean for him to be pink and green but that is what happens when you begin running out of yarn faster than you thought you would. Of course my craft life would be much easier if I would just follow the patterns but really, what fun would that be?

Well, I'm off to work on lovebirds, gauntlets, and a felted handbag,
The Snail