MONDAY LOVE

san francisco edition

I am all things san francisco this week because of our upcoming trip.  here are some of the reasons I loooove visiting san francisco--and why we go there so often.

(warning: image heavy)

• DOE: a cute little boutique on haight street--they tend to carry a lot of deer, mushroom, red riding hood, and russian doll items...

(source: doe)

• KINOKUNIYA STATIONERY STORE (in japan center): the best stationery store--ever.  it is the place that started my love for japanese masking tape and .4mm sarasa gel pens.

 (source: yelp)

• DOJIMA ANN: there's no reason to miss good japanese food in san francisco. this place is sooo good and close to what we get at home in hawaii, if not better.  we eat here at least three times whenever we visit.

 (source: yelp via mango t)

• AMOEBA RECORDS: we usually visit the haight street location, and I can spend hours browsing.  tons of used cds.  during our last trip I was feeling nostalgic for high school and  picked up used copies of blind melon, the smashing pumpkins, tom petty, stone temple pilots, and violent femmes.

 (source: wikipedia)

• CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES:  this place brings out my inner geek--even more than is already out.

• PRETTY VICTORIAN HOMES:

•  THE FACT THAT THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO THERE: ferry building farmer's market, union street festival, indie-mart, de young museum, fifty24sf, renegade craft fair, workshopsf, san francisco children's art center, etc, etc.

• I LOVE THESE MOVIES AND SHOWS FILMED IN SAN FRANCISCO:  charmed, the pursuit of happyness, the joy luck club, mrs. doubtfire, the wedding planner.

I am getting so excited, which explains why I talk about it so much.  can't wait to share our adventures... and my purchases--I plan to shop till I drop!

MATRYOSHKA

as you can see, I am still working on those hand carved stamps.  here's one of a russian doll.

not much time this weekend for creating, and I am waaay behind on my class journal. I've also been keeping an eye on em jay.  after gymboree class this morning, we were going to drive out to town to spend some time with marc's parents (visiting from maui) and then go out to dinner-- but she started to feel warm, and could possibly be sniffling.  this is not good.  not only did she just get over being sick, we're leaving on our trip soon!  I am praying this is just her allergies acting up.  I guess we will end up having dinner here at our house. more to come later on...

AMAZING

I think this speaks for itself.

SOME EXCITING THINGS TO SHARE

• I just read about the "indie-mart" over at polka dot robot. We're going to be in San Francisco that weekend and I am sooo excited.

•  I also came across these CUTIE paperdolls at babalisme.  Stop by her blog to download the PDF file.  I had been wanting to make some magnetic paper dolls for em for our plane ride to keep her busy-- and these are just perfect. make sure to check out her entire blog for even more wonderful printables!

•  More lovely clip art can be found at one of my favorite blogs-- puglypixel.com.  Katrina shares too good to be true freebies, and takes the most beautiful photos!  you will LOVE her "paper buffet" download. I promise.

•  find the "ultimate collection of paper textures" at best-photoshop-tutorials.  It is absolute heaven.  here are a few favorites:

•  I also came across a super inspiring japanese blog called 8 tokyo. I could spend all day looking through the posts.

• And the new issue of spoonful zine is finally here.  I bought the first issue a while back and loved it! VERY inspiring.

•  Red Velvet Summer Camp is starting real soon.  I haven't signed up yet--but know I will!  All of elsie's classes are wonderful and inspiring.

• One of my journal pages was featured at kind over matter.  it is the page, and poem that inspired this painting. 

• Don't you love songs that you never get tired of...click here, and listen to / watch the most beautiful song ever made. sigh. love mazzy star.

•  I also want to say thank you for reading my blog.  It's a way for me to unwind, and relieve stress, and to push myself to be creative daily-- which is so good for my spirit.  And I'm glad there are people out there who support my creative journey, and actually like some of the things I have to share!  I am honored.  I also plan on doing a GIVEAWAY! when I get back from my San Francisco trip so stay tuned.

• Lastly, here's a funny little photo of "indie emily"...

Have a great long weekend!!!

 

RANDOM PICS AND HAPPY MAIL

happy mail from my sister jen in seattle...read her blog way out, about her adventures in moving away from home.

I just love the woodgrain papers, and the russian doll with a mustache (second doll on left)-- thanks jen!

random em jay pics

INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Grady Mcferrin is inspiring me so much right now...

pretty, pretty colors and amazing patterns...

HOPE

this was inspired by emily dickinson's poem "hope is the thing with feathers"

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all.

made with acrylic paint, hand carved feather stamp, iridescent stamp ink, sequins, and pen. 

STRANGE BUT TRUE

my friend nicole who loves weird, unexplainable stories as much as I do, has a category on her blog called "strange and unusual".  I have my own "strange and unusual" story to share.

Last week I went to Queen's Hospital (in Honolulu) for work.  I got into the elevator on the 5th floor to go down to the first floor.  I'm the only person in the elevator and I press "1".  A second later, the "4" button lights up all by itself.  It stops on the 4th floor, no one gets in--I peek out and nobody is even around.  It's empty.  The door closes and it goes down to first.

Okay, that was strange already.  But, on Monday after work, I had a dentist appointment.  When I got into the building I got in the elevator and pressed "7".  Again, I was all by myself.  The elevator stops on the 4th floor!  And of course, no one gets in--I look outside and the floor is deserted.  The door closes and it heads up to 7.  Kind of freaky.  There must be something about "4"s that I need to pay attention to.

[ALL IMAGES ABOVE FOUND ON WE HEART IT]

KITSCHY BOTTLE CAP MAGNET TUTORIAL

I once scored a huge bag of bottle caps for 99 cents at salvation army. Here's my attempt to use some of them. 

MATERIALS:

• bottle caps
• images (from magazines, books, printed from computer, photos, etc)
• scissors
• circle cutter (or just trace the circle and cut with scissors)
• packing tape
• sequins, rhinestones, or tiny beads
• black permanent marker
• glue that dries hard and clear (glossy accents, diamond glaze, clear resin)

step one: cut out image to fit your bottle cap (using a circle cutter is much easier).  then draw or write on the image (I wrote "hello" on the white space). my images are from shop 66.

step two: cover both sides with packing tape to seal/laminate the image, trim packing tape around the edges.  this is to prevent the image from bleeding or warping when you add the glue later.

step three: rub over the image with a burnishing tool, or popsicle stick to smooth out the bubbles and air pockets.

step four: place image in the bottle cap and cover image with a thick coat of glue that dries hard and clear.

step five: embellish with sequins, beads or rhinestones. tip: I used a needle to guide the sequins to where I wanted them placed. I also used the needle to pop any air bubbles that formed

step six: this is the hardest part-- let dry overnight until clear.

step seven: use a super strong glue to attach a magnet to the backside of bottle cap. Let that dry overnight and you're done!

MONDAY LOVE

just some of the artists I love:

NIKOART:

 See Nicole's BLOG and ETSY SHOP

KURT HALSEY:

See more of his work HERE

ELSIE FLANNIGAN:

See her BLOG and online shop RED VELVET ART

RACHEL DENBOW:

See her BLOG and other work at RED VELVET ART

MY PAPER CRANE:

See Heidi Kenney's BLOG

HEATHER BROWN:

HEATHER BROWN'S WEBSITE