ian stevenson has a potty mouth..

ian stevenson has a new print in three color ways that is available at cosh uk. one has already sold out...so if you are a fan, get on over. if you aren't familiar w/ ian's work, check out his website. he's got a great sense of humor, plus the first thing you see on his site is the nicely phrased request: "buy this you cunt." from a happy little blobby guy. how sweet.

the beer and skittles collection subtle circle..

nigel peake and shea'la finch have released their second collaboration, the beer and skittles collection at subtle circle. mmmm, skittles. no two prints or tee are the same. they are moving really quickly and looking really swell while they're at it...so get on over and give the old 'purchase' button the one-two punch.

New Superb Blog Post Ralph Stollenwerk..

I totally fell for Ralph's silkscreen images of his and his friend's bicycles. You will too. Check out the new post I just put up over at Superb Bicycle. Special Thanks to Tara at Wallfarmers.

You Capture Winter

Ready your pitchforks: I love winter

There I said it. I love the cold that chills you to your bones and catches your breath. I love having to pile blanket after blanket on top of the bed just to stay warm. I love waking up in the morning and not wanting to do anything put just stay curled up in the exact spot your in. I love jackets, and sweaters, and layer of clothes. I love how life giving winter is. For one season everything comes to a stand still and freezes. A season just frozen in time, but it gives way to such beautiful life right around the corner.

This year, this winter, hasn’t been easy for us. It has definitely held more downs than ups for our family. I was determined not to let this winter define us and our happiness. So with 2 hotel coupons in hand we took the short jaunt up to the resort town of Park City, UT for the most amazing vacation we’ve had since our honeymoon.

Everything was perfect. The hotel was amazing. The room was amazing. It opened up to this beautiful indoor atrium with tables and chairs, trees, green plants, and the oh so inviting warm pool. We spent the entire weekend just being. Being with each other and loving each other. It made us whole again.

Every time we looked around I couldn’t believe we were there. There is something so magical about Park City. Something that renews me. It’s always done that for me. Sitting in a restaurant and being able to see people skiing down the mountain in front of you is just so beautiful. In Park City I am always reminded of God’s tender mercies for us. Those little things He does to remind us how much He cares. They are all there. In that one place for me.

Nothing captures Winter better than US. Experiencing Winter. Living Winter.Loving Winter.

{ You Capture is hosted by I Should Be Folding Laundry}

trace my face week long sale..

traci edwards the creative force that is tracemyface design is having a week long sale starting today, monday and will end on sunday. traci was kind enough to send an email so i could alert you of the sale. this is her only sale all year, so it's best you get over there quickly! it's a perfect way to stock up on a few of her amazing designs which include gig posters, stationary and jewelry. i just love, love, love the above deer print...and i am guessing you do too.

colleen sanders..

colleen sanders' intricate paintings of locks, braids and hair are breathtaking. the detail is incredible and so lovely. for some reason if i don't size my images here on the blog, they break the layout on certain computers. which is a huge bummer. so sadly you can't get up close and personal w/ colleen's paintings, but i did size them a little larger than normal just so you can get a better idea at the complete beauty that is colleen's work. also colleen is probs well aware of the limit a computer does to her work, so she sent me a few detail shots. i've marked those as details, just in case you are blind or not that bright, you'll know they're details. i still think you're cute though if you missed that.

detail.

detail.

guest blogging a lil' hiatus..

detail of Corey Corcoran piece.

In the previous two posts I mentioned I am handing over the reins to guest bloggers here on the blog. I am going to be away from the computer for a bit and I thought it would be an awesome opportunity to get some new blood in here and kick up the dust a bit. I have asked three fellas (I figured we could bring in a little male steez in here for a wee bit!) and one lady to even it out with some girly vibes. Here is a little intro about them all:

The first guest blogger is painter Dan Szymanowski, he lives here in Boston. I just posted a studio visit with him below, so please check it out, I'm a fan and you will be too, I promise.

Will Bryant, a graphic designer and illustrator, has been featured many a time here on the blog, he's the second...and again as mentioned below, he just did the very first artist designed banner for the blog!

Thirdly is, Corey Corcoran, who works with everything from pipe cleaners to paint in his work. He lives here in Boston and his work AMAZES me. Check out a studio visit I did with him last month and see how intense his work is. The above picture is from the visit.

Alice Saunders the doyenne behind the label Forestbound, will be adding her amazing finger on the pulse, in blog posts everyday, sprinkling her stylish eye to even out all the boy's posts. Alice's work is almost always featured in my I <3 section as she always makes something I am coveting. She will hopefully also be giving us a sneak peek of her shop update...her stuff always flies off the etsy shelves, so stay tuned!

These fine, very talented folk will be around here for a week and a half at the blog. I'm so excited and honored that they would take time out of their busy schedules. I can't wait to see what they post, I have an idea...and so far it's looking RADICAL! I hope you will welcome them, make them feel comfortable and give em high fives and hand hugs and make em feel at home! I'll see you guys in a week and bit! Thanks so much for coming by and being a part of the blog. <3 <3 <3

Pretty, Pretty, Pretttttay Good..

Not much else to say here. if you knit you get it.

found via Pinterest on Heartbeatz.

Art Business Covers Barry McGee Clare Rojas in Bolinas..

I was unable to make it down to Bolinas last weekend for the much anticipated opening of Barry McGee & Clare Rojas' show: Leave It Alone and Together At Last at the Bolinas Museum. Let me tell you I had some serious F.O.M.O (fear of missing out) around that one. But luckily there are many amazing blogs in this city that catch everything that is happening. One of my favorites and often visited is Art Business, Alan Bamberger's site. Head on over to check out Alan's rad images of the what sounds to be an incredibly intimate show, says Alan:

"Museums can often be so impersonal and antiseptic, the art looking almost like specimens preserved in formaldehyde-- but not here. Warm, friendly, delightful and inviting. The best part? Superb art exquisitely organized, nuanced and displayed."

For more images of Clare Rojas' work, check out the post from last month on her show at The Museum of Craft and Folk Art. We They, We They runs through September 12th, 2010.

Above and below images courtesy of Alan Bamberger.

elbow-toe studio video..

check out this great video jetset graffitti posted of elbow-toe, on the street and in his studio talking about his work and process. i'm very excited for his upcoming show at thinkspace gallery with armsrock that opens december 12th. elbow-toe's latest work is coming over super large, colorful and wicked dynamic. that's right, i said wicked.

Elbow Toe Reinterprets Charlotte's Web..

I'm laughing my ass off this morning from the latest image by Elbow Toe. Once again, I don't think I really need to type anything in this post...his work just says it all.

rhythm is a dancer..

i just saw this over on it's nice that, one of my favorite blogs...and it really should be yours too if it isn't already. anyhoodles, i'm still laughing so hard over here. i'm sorry, but throw the running man into anything and i could laugh for days on end.

Kirsten Hassenfeld..

I first found Kirsten Hassenfeld throughher Blueware sculptures, which reminded me of china I ate off of as a child. I contacted her and she linkd me to her latest project. Ummm, incredible! Here's what she has to say about this latest grouping:

"I have begun to look towards unwanted, existing objects as a raw material, thus yoking my interest in our impact on the natural world with my focus on the decorative. The resulting sculptures are built from small ornamental and utilitarian objects, found in thrift stores, gutters and junk drawers, literally piled one atop the other, to reveal complex symmetrical forms, reminiscent of historic turned wood and ivory tabletop ornaments. The bits of matter I employ have outlived their useful lives, and so have been repurposed. Old buttons, bottle caps, old crockery, and the like combine, their past lives in conversation. They exist in remarkable harmony, their individual identities blurred, restless objects now at rest."

See more of this body here.

the birth of a brother, part 1

To fully understand Isaac’s birth story, you should probably know that I had already labored on and off for some 26 hours, but it didn’t work (or wasn’t “real”, but I dare you to come say that to my face).After that experience on Wednesday May 4, I was somewhat disenchanted by labor signs. I had contractions here and there, but paid them as little mind as I could. On Friday I had a midwife appointment, and after all the time spent laboring, I decided to be ‘checked’. I was between 4 and 5cm and 70% effaced.…just walking around, halfway dilated like it was no big deal.My midwife advised that those measurements didn’t mean so much that labor onset would be “soon”, but that when it did start, the combination of being nearly 5cm dilated and it being my second baby in 2 years, things would likely progress quickly.“You might think of not driving too far away.”And so I was served with a delicious piece of eagerness pie while I still feeling jaded and trying to keep my emotions in check regarding the first time I went into labor.Fast forward to Sunday. Add approximately 49 awkward interactions where I had to explain to neighbors, friends, and readers (who are friends I just haven’t met yet) why I still had a baby on the inside. “Wait, weren’t you in labor?” Multiply my disappointment and exhaustion. Throw in a couple hours of tempting, strong but entirely intermittent contractions.I was pretty much a grumpy, jaded mess. Happy Mother’s Day to me!Around 9pm DanO and I wrapped up working on installing the hardwood floors (yes, OBoy can sleep through the sound of a nail gun) and came downstairs for the evening. I was having contractions here and there, but when I decided to pay attention to them, I found that they weren’t consistent, and they even disappeared when I ate a piece of mother’s day ice cream cake and took a bath. I cried in the tub when I realized they were gone. I was going to be eternally on the verge of going into labor.DanO took great care of me, getting me to bed early, doing everything he could to help me relax and cheer up. We got in bed, I laid my head on his lap and we watched a couple episodes of shows online.WHAM. One very strong contraction.10 minutes later, WHAM.8 minutes later, WHAM.Then WHAM WHAM WHAM without stopping. It was 11:30pm. We turned the shows off (I was already to the stage of wanting everything to stop during a contraction), I rolled into the fetal position and DanO re-packed our hospital bags.After Cindy, our on-call friend and neighbor, arrived we were on our way to the hospital. It was around 1:00am. We had intended to leave at 12:30 but I have no idea where that time went. Things felt like they were spinning.(One of these days I’m going to have a baby during the day. I really am. This night time/wee hours of the morning stuff is exhausting.)The thing I most remember about the next 45 minutes from when we got in the car until we were checked into the hospital was the nausea. We entered the ER doors, I saw a stack of emesis bags on the reception desk and promptly asked to have one. This turned out to be wise because one elevator ride later and I was using the bag. They didn’t even make me fill out the paperwork because I was dry heaving into a bag. They just sent me right in.It was about 2:00am at this point. I was admitted and had – get this - the same ‘numbers’ as I had on Friday. 5cm, or halfway dilated, which is great and all usually, but was a bit of a bummer to me given the circumstances.Once the nausea was gone and our sweet labor support Anna had arrived, the labor party started. I got a wave of adrenaline which slowed labor down enough for me to come out of the fog and chat, laugh, and go for a walk. You know, the kind of walk where you stop every 3 minutes and groaning, lean your dead weight against your husband.I did about 10 contractions on a birth ball, a few dozen walking around, and then I was feeling tired. I wish I could tell you what time these things happened but I have no freaking idea.Next we filled up the deep bathtub in my room and while I relaxed in the warm water, DanO read to me from the book we’ve been reading lately. I think this is the part where I turned inside and became kind of dead to the world. I remember this from OBoy’s birth, too, where I would just make decisions and do them – how I wanted to sit, what position I wanted to be in, if I needed to drink/pee/sleep – I don’t remember actively thinking about any of these choices, they just kind of flowed from me.I love that my body has a fantastic autopilot mode. I knew what I was doing despite the fact that I wasn’t thinking about what I was doing. So much instinct going on.It must have been 5 am by now? I don’t know.Once I was nice and relaxed but labor and my contractions were continuing on – strong and close together – I wanted to lay down and sleep. So I did. For 2 minutes at a pass, I slept, then moaned my way through a contraction, and slept again. There’s something so weird about the passing of time during labor. Things that are only 2 minutes long feel like an eternity, and things that are over an hour long feel like 20 minutes. I remember saying that my contractions must have slowed down because I was surely sleeping for 10minutes between them. Nope, my labor support assured me, they were mere minutes apart.**If you’ve read OBoy’s birth story, you are not crazy, this (walk, bath, sleep) is preeeeetty much deja vu. Except the next part. Brace yourself.**The midwives on call have 12 hour shifts which switch on the 6 o’clocks. It was nearly 6am at this point, so a new midwife came in an introduced herself… and those were about the extent of the words we exchanged. I was, how do you say?Preoccupied.This timing I know. At 6:30am, shortly after the shift change, I went to the bathroom. During a contraction I had on the toilet, my water broke in a GUSH I never experienced with OBoy. (You guys, that is such a strange feeling!)“Well that was convenient.” I said, realizing what a mess that could have been.And then the shaking started. And the vomiting. And really intense world-ending contractions. But mostly I remember the shaking coupled with the OMW I HAVE TO PUSH RIGHT NOW SO EVERYONE SHUT UP AND GET OUT OF MY WAY IMMA HAVE A BABY feeling.Yea, that one. Kind of scary, actually.(Spoiler alert: it was only 12 more minutes until I had a baby.)I went back to the bed from the bathroom and my body decided I wanted to be on my knees with my arms leaning on the back of the bed in something of a squat position. My midwife checked to see if I was “complete” – fully dilated - and ready to push.“You’re almost crowning. I guess we’ll call that complete, huh?”From the get-go, pushing was different this time than with OBoy. Really different. I remember the very end of pushing OBoy being so intense that it kind of scared me, but that was after I’d been doing it for an hour already. This time we went from lalala-labor to INTENSE URGE to push in a few minutes flat. At this point I was thankful for both my husband and Anna our doula. I needed to have them next to me for those moments.When I was given the go ahead to push, our nurse held the heart rate monitor on my belly. I pushed through one strong contraction and I could tell he was almost out.“Allison? I need you to keep pushing, good strong pushes. Your baby’s heart rate is dropping and he’s right here. We need him out. Be strong.”I don’t really know what I did or what my body did in the next minute or two, but I know that it was 3 minutes from when my midwife checked that I was complete to when OBrother was born.He was blue.(Obviously, you know that he’s now healthy and beautiful, which is why I am ok with continuing the rest of the story tomorrow morning. This is a blog post not an epic poem.)

Kay Sekimachi via Leslie Williamson..

I stumbled on Leslie Williamson's photography site and was introduced to her beautiful photographs, but also had the pleasure of learning about fiber artist, Kay Sekimachi. Williamson took photographs of Sekimachi and her work for American Craft magazine.

I recently moved into my own apartment here in SF (it's actually my old apartment I lived in 4 yrs ago. Yes, same unit. Weird, I know.). Looking at Sekimachi's home and sculptures sure are inspiring for decorating ideas...not to mention her necklaces just to wear. Gorgeous.

All images via Leslie Williamson's site and American Craft.

Erica il Cane at FIFTY24SF..

Ok, first off I have to tell you that I am writing this at 37,230 feet in the air. Now that is out of the way...I just got a few images from FIFTY24SF Gallery, in anticipation of their upcoming show with Italian street muralist and fine artist, Erica il Cane, entitled, We Were Living in the Woods. A little about Erica:

Born and studied in Bologna, Italy, Erica’s evolution to gallery work has seen depictions of animals in unique, human situations rendered in Victorian-like style illustrations, etchings, and short animated films. The art is often described as imagery from a dark fairy tale, in which animals are shown within the darkness of human nature, focusing on themes of alienation, satire, existentialism. Both gallery and mural work has also been hailed as influential works advocating vegetarianism and animal rights.

This show looks so good...and it sounds like there will be murals happening near the gallery. Here is a peak from the FIFTYSF24 blog of his mural's. I am excited to see what he gets up to. I'll keep you posted. Oh, I am on my home to Boston for a week. I will try to stay on top of posts, but more likely I'll be heavy on the twitter & FB page, come find me. Are you on there?

Interview with Chad Kouri..

Cody Hudson New Website..

Cody Hudson just updated his website with what he's been up to for the past four years...or in his words: "the results of 4+ years of procrastination." Well, it was worth the wait. There is lots to look at from his personal work to his professional portfolio. I'd love any one of those Stüssy t's!

Bacon cheeseburger with a side of cheese enchiladas

I’m a talker.
If you come within listening distance of me, there is a good chance you will know more than you ever wanted to know about my life in a VERY short time.
BUT.. I’m also a complainer.

I learned a few years ago that if I don’t tell people what’s going on, it doesn’t give me an outlet to complain and thus, makes me deal with the situation better.

I didn’t tell ANYONE I was pregnant with Miles until almost 20 weeks. I didn’t tell anyone about my divorce for almost 4 months. And this time I haven’t told many people about my journey to reclaim my body before I start on my 2nd surrogacy journey.

Because doesn’t it always kinda suck to lose weight? And get healthier?? I know I’d WAY rather be a couch potato and eat whatever I want. (Today that would be a big huge bacon cheeseburger with a side of cheese enchiladas.)

I’m a month and a week into this journey. I HAVE TO get healthier before getting pregnant again (in 2 short months). I HAVE TO stay healthier this next pregnancy.

So it’s been 15 weeks since the day I got home from the hospital. I am officially down 28 pounds. (But down 15 in the month I have been ACTIVELY trying to get healthier.

I feel amazing. 15 pounds isn’t that much. But it’s made a huge difference to me. I put on a pair of jeans 4 digits smaller. Just returned 5 new shirts I bought so I could get a smaller size.

I have about 2 full months left before we are on to Surrogacy round 2! Nothing like losing a bunch of weight just to get pregnant again!
So now that you know.. don’t let me complain! :)