The drawing I wanted to post yesterday when I was deep in Tax-land: a doodle of one of my dance teachers. Pencil & ink in my sketchbook.
And today’s spontaneous photo captured while walking in my neighborhood. “Mission demolition”…
Happy Wednesday!
Recently, my boyfriend started learning how to weld, and asked if I could make him a welder’s cap. I did research for images and patterns and more time passed between his request and the actual making, but I did manage to bust it out before the end of his semester. For a first attempt, I am very please with final product.
Here’s a great illustration of a welder’s cap and why it’s important. It helps protect the parts of a welder’s head that aren’t covered by a standard face mask – hair, ears, back of the neck. The other requirement for the cap is that it has to be made out of 100% cotton, the least flammable fabric.
Speaking of flammable, I usually work with recycled or leftover fabric, so a lot of times I’m not altogether certain of the fiber content of what I’m working with. So bring on the burn test! I learned about burn testing fabric in university, and honestly, it’s really fun. I found a wonderful visual chart from Ditzyprints.com to update my notes and was ready to burn, baby, burn. The fabric I used was muslin (yes, usually cotton, but I just wanted to be sure since I didn’t actually buy it myself; someone gave it to me) and pants that I had bought in Japan and were worn out in certain areas (yay bike crotch!) past repair. I translated the tag in Japanese and was pretty sure it was cotton, but again, just wanted to be absolutely sure. I mean, this was my boyfriend’s head at stake here! Happily, a burn test proved both fabrics to be 100% cotton.
I found a free pattern for the cap, by SeaminglySimple on Flickr, which was very easy to print and work from. I didn’t discover the instructions until later, and this may explain why the brim ended up on on top of the band, instead of under. It made sense to me while I was working on it, I guess. Oh, my brain…
I know it’s a mistake, but I do like how it turned out. It’s unique! (Right?)
And my boyfriend was really happy with it too, which was the most important part. Pictures!
Last week Matt and I finished our move to our new little studio on Valencia & 17th. We’re still getting settled, but at least everything is unpacked and there are no traces of cardboard boxes to be found!
Then, I had to quickly (re)pack some clothes, and head to Wichita, KS for a weekend with family on my Dad’s side. It was my Granny and my Great-Aunt’s 89th birthday! Also, a new baby cousin was baptized. It was very eventful, and emotional, in so many good ways. It was great to be with my parents and family I haven’t seen since moving to SF (or longer!).
Here’s an excerpt from a long poem I wrote about the weekend:
bitter, tasteless
airport, airplane
coffee
running, running
to family
to the way
hands have
collapsed, squeeze
frail, strong
so determined
“it’s how you keep going”
transitions, changes
life
love
family
from babe
to elderly
how great to live
how great my family
how great
another round of
hellos, goodbyes
airports, airplanes
bad coffee
running, running
so many
heart homes
I had a couple problems with my work space.
Problem 1 is that I believe strongly in “out of sight, out of mind.” Meaning that, if I have a project going, it needs to be out and visible, so that I remember to work on it. Problem 2 is that I always have multiple projects. Add 1 + 2 and I had Problem 3: PILES of PROJECTS ALL OVER MY WORK SPACE! Which ultimately led to Problem 4, no room to actually work on anything, and Problem 5, projects getting buried under each other which ultimately leads us back to Problem 1.
And there you have it – the death spiral of my piles of projects. Please see photographic evidence:
(Please note, this is actually a TON more organized than normal…)
How to solve this? Why POCKETS, of course! Project pockets!
I decided on my dimensions based on the length of my work table (5 ft/60″) and approximately the size of a folder, or slightly larger (12.4″ Wide x 14″ High). Luckily, I had an old bed sheet that was 62″ at one end, so I simply measured down from the already finished edge to figure out my pockets, then cut the sheet. I folded the sheet up and stitched down the edges. I created a seam for my raw edge, but left that end open, creating one huge pocket. Then, I simply stitched 4 lines and created 5 pockets, all in a row.
The fun part of this project was doing the eyelets. I bought an eyelet kit for under $2 at my favorite local fabric store. Eyelets are like small grommets. I wanted them in the fabric so when I hung the pockets and put heavy project materials in them, the fabric wouldn’t tear. It was ridiculously easy! You basically mark where your eyelet will be, cut a very tiny circle, shove the eyelet through, place right side down on the anvil, place the stem against the eyelet sticking out, and then hammer away! The force of the hammer and the stem split the eyelet open and down, making a complete seal. Check it out!
Now I could hang my pockets on the wall. Here they are: 
I created some simple but cute labels for each project pocket using recycled manila filing folders and some bright sharpie colors. Each project has a name and a deadline (VERY important!).
Whew! SO much better! Basically, the project pockets are great because they address all the problems:
1) My projects are still visible, so I can see what I need to work on AND now, with the labels, I have set deadlines for them.
2) I only made 5 pockets. This happened to work out with my dimensions of pockets/sheet/how many projects I currently have, but I think it’s good to maybe limit myself to 5 major projects at one time. Hopefully, this will keep me more focused. (True, I have a couple projects that don’t fit into these pockets (gardening is tricky like that), but still…)
3) No more piles taking up space! I can actually work on projects on my craft table! Look at all that lovely space:
Projects pocketed!
That’s right – I’m just now recovered enough from the holidays to creep from my hidey hole, venturing back into Internet-lands to officially post, “Helllloooooo 2011!!!” There’s too much to recap since last time I posted (November was it? Or early December? Ugh…)
So let’s just have the photo collage from the last couple months speak for me! Enjoy…
There’s no way around it. When you work at a one-of-a-kind trampoline park in San Francisco’s Presidio, you say it a lot.
“I work at a very cool place.”
But I’ll let the images speak for themselves. Here are pics and a video from an event I had hoped and dreamed of since starting to work there:
Our very own, the very first, staff jump night!
We had so much fun! Let’s do this every month!
I feel like from now until January is going to be packed. My To Do list is outrageous (I know, I know, isn’t it always?), I’m working four jobs (freelance artist, WordPress admin assistant, House of Air barista, & Lick-Wilmerding High School dance costume consultant), and there’s going to be travel, guests, & holidays all rolled up into one big ball of awesome. Happily, this past weekend, MM and I were able to take a deep breath and have a little slice of real weekend to start November off right.
On Sunday, we braved the rain, a bus on parade route, and a slightly nutty, totally great bus driver, to get to the Ferry Building for the Larkspur ferry to Marin. We had plenty of time there to pick up a present for MM’s dad, bread (herb slab from Acme Bread Co.) for my House of Air staff event, delicious macaroon’s from Miette, and excellent coffee from Blue Bottle.
We took the ferry across to Marin and were picked up by MM’s mom, who drove us to their house in the hills of San Rafael. I hadn’t spent a lot of time with MM’s parents before, but we had a great time. I got a tour of their house, we had lunch, and giggled over old family albums – which reminded me a lot of my Mom’s size-able album collection. The experience made me doubly excited for my upcoming trip to CO for Thanksgiving – only 2 weeks away!
We drove MM’s car back and he dropped me off at House of Air for work. I was sad to have our day out end, but felt bolstered by the beautiful sunset setting SF aglow. I really do live in a beautiful city!
Here’s to November adventures!
I can’t believe 3 weeks have flown by since the SF ZineFest! It seems like it was yesterday. Part of that feeling is probably because SF really is a “little city, big town” and people I met at ZineFest I’ve seen around (like Ms. Stephanie of nerdJERK at the J-Pop Summit at Japantown a couple weeks ago) or who are lovely and keep in touch – like this fun story I have about the wonderful folks of Beasts of Eden.
Tia and Julia had a sweet little table at ZineFest and I definitely visited them a couple of times. Their whimsical flowers and playful animals are so colorful and touchable. I am in love with their giant squid! We did a trade and they also had the great idea to do a drawing to promote the opening of their Etsy shop and their website. I put my business card in their knitted venus fly trap friend’s mouth, and low and behold – a couple weeks later I got an email saying I had won! You can even see the drawing video on the Beasts of Eden website. I got to pick out an item from their Etsy shop for my very own.
When it arrived, I did a little photo shoot to celebrate. I think I’m going to name him Herb. He is bright pink, pose-able, came with a beautiful postcard from the makers, and has joined my tiny pink elephant parade!
Thanks Julia & Tia // Beasts of Eden! <3
I am thrilled to announce that my story and photos for the amazing blog by Julie Michelle featuring stories by those who live in this city, i live here:SF, went live this morning!
It’s an honest account of how I moved to SF and my experiences living here. I had a great time with Julie doing my photo shoot. She has a warm presence. I’ve always felt at ease with her and her camera. We spent time in my lovely apartment and wandered my neighborhood streets – Hampshire, 19th, Bryant, Harrison, 20th, Shotwell…
I would be honored if you would check it out.
Links:
a yesterday
my first open mic
performance in SF:
Viracocha wordparty
treasures abound in this
dragon’s underground lair
friends and family
bound by poetry
and this city
rollin’ rollin’
runnin’ runnin’
by bus
by bike
searchin’ searchin’
for
balance
bizarre day, really
string of events
threads of coincidence
experimental life
lookin’
leapin’
how do I put it all together?
how do I make my ends
meet?
my spirals intertwine?
my passions unite?
not unravel?
how to be a
successful
focused
Renaissance
woman?
what’s it all mean?
cake and bass
sea cats and beer
typewriter jazz
deep breaths
laughter
talk
words
words
and
quiet
good night!
