Friday, December 28, 2012

...and now I can make skirts!

I've been hesitating to put clothing that I make up on my Etsy shop.

I think it's because it's really hard to model and photograph at the same time...
and I really didn't want to model.

But there I am.
On the internet.
For everyone to see.
I suppose I can't keep all my secrets forever - I sort of enjoy being a bit anonymous - but I do feel a little bit better about modeling my skirts when I can keep my face completely hidden.
(It's not hideous, I just can't control the expression on my face!)
Right when I took this photo (self-timer, I've never loved you more than right now) my face was saying, "Holy mackeral! I'm tired of putting on skirts and running around, pushing buttons, sitting still, and pretending to fix my hair!"





Instead, the viewer thinks I am just enjoying a good book.

And you know what? I DO love that book.  But I certainly wasn't reading then - I was just listening for the faint click so that I knew the photograph had been taken.

Maybe it's acting skills that I lack.  :)

craft fair




Way back on December first, I went to a craft fair up the street from where I live.
But when I say I "went" ... I really mean that I sold my wares.
The first photo shows my table at the fair.
And when I say "up the street" ... I mean I just walked there with my suitcase full of scarves and postcards.

Pretty cool, huh?
My favorite silk scarf that I made is the red - orange- yellow- ultramarine blue chevron striped one in the photo.  I was surprised no one bought it that day!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Taco is a cat

Taco is a cat.  Well, our Taco is a cat.  Other capital T tacos might be other things.

He is adorable, which helps him get out of trouble.  For instance, he just stuck his paw into my teacup.  That's pretty annoying.  Especially because I wasn't done drinking that tea!

I try to draw him sometimes, but he looks even goofier on paper.  That postcard I'm holding up is pretty good evidence.

Other things you don't need to know:  That is my absolute favorite yellow nail polish.  It is surprisingly hard to find a bright, flat, non-metallic yellow.  But it's called "lightning" and it's awesome.  I'm happy every time I look at it.


Sunday, October 21, 2012

hexaflexagons ...an inexplicable obsession


First, I will explain this photo.  It was my friend's birthday, and I made her a TEENY TINY BANNER that made me squeal with glee.
I love things in miniature.
I have no idea if it affected her in the same way, but at least I tried.  Some of her favorite colors are purple and silver.
Yeah. Silver. Made it all shiny, didn't I?  I'm surprised at how well a crayola colored pencil works, sometimes.
(And, oh yeah, made some brownies with dark chocolate icing. Drool. It was drool-worthy.)

And now, on to the secret topic of this post: the hexaflexagon.

Here's a video to explain all the ridiculous I can't even contemplate.

This woman makes my brain pound with the possibilities, which dissipate harmlessly into the night, usually, because I'm not even sure what to do with these thoughts.

It's all math & geometry & then UNEXPECTED TWIST OF DOODLES EVERYWHERE - and I don't know if you guys were like me in high school, but I definitely did my my fair share of doodling during my math classes.

It's good.  I promise.  Watch this video, then hexaflex your life away.
Also, check out the poster's other videos about doodling.  They're fun. She's all "Fibonacci series makes your pine cone drawings look real!"  Not that you were worried about your pine cone drawings.
But I was.
I just didn't want to say anything until I knew how to help.
Fib!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

crustaceans & cephalopods hanging out on a postcard

Sent this out last month as part of a mail art exchange.

I have to say, I really like a good octopus now & then.

will send fake vegetables through the mail

I taped on a piece of paper with an address (and my return address)
and then I kind of just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

I haven't heard about it...but I also don't want to ask, "Hey, did you get a carrot in the mail? Because that is the reason why I started laughing maniacally when I bought those fake vegetables at the thrift store."

It would give away the surprise.
Definitely can't do that.
I wonder if it is still sitting at the post office.
Next time I'm going to have to get delivery confirmation on my plastic food.

happy halloween...it's a gravestone

Went to the graveyard with my friend Kim, who is a photographer, and into creepy things like graveyards.

This is obviously the least creepy gravestone there. 
I think his parents didn't love him enough to give him respectable initials.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

levitating drill

Back in June, we needed the internet guy to come over and build us a new connection. 
So he drilled a hole in the wall.  That's normal. 
But then he walked away, leaving the drill to keep itself occupied.

There was never a point in my life when I thought I'd be excited about power tools being stuck into the wall and left there to hang.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

orange sunrise

Not really.  I lied. It's not a sunrise.

It really looks like a fabulous sunrise, though!

Anyway, I took this picture at about midnight, on a very foggy evening. 
That weird orange glow is either a spaceship landing (fingers crossed!) or the light from a street lamp.

This is the view from the back porch.

Monday, October 8, 2012

have strange love of friendship bracelets

I mean, I love friendship bracelets to the point where I like to collect more than I can possibly wear. 

And I also have a pile (an actual, scarily-large pile) of friendship bracelets that I made.
They weren't even for anyone in particular, I just like making color combinations.

But anyway, I came across this comic and thought I'd share.

http://poorlydrawnlines.com/comic/friendship-bracelets/

Friday, October 5, 2012

Play-Doh and typewriters

I've been too busy with Play-Doh and typewriters to post anything good lately, but don't worry...

there's a big stack of sketchbook to photograph and post.

 
Also, isn't this the most beautiful typewriter in the world?  It's an olivetti underwood studio 45, made in Barcelona, Spain, sometime in the 1960s.

I'm a sucker for that teal color.

But it works! Well, honestly, I broke it within five minutes of changing the ribbon (an unrelated incident, probably due to shipping silliness) ... but my sweetheart's a dear and a half and had it working again - better than before - in like ten minutes.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

how to refill a sharpie accent liquid highlighter

Shhhh...
Don't tell anyone, but I know how to DO things.  Secret things, silly things, fun things.
I decided it was well past time I shared some knowledge with you.  So today I am going to show you how to refill a Sharpie accent highlighter with a bottled ink of your choice.

Supply list:
empty Sharpie highlighter
rubber jar-opening grippy thingie
gigantic nail or screw
ink syringe
ribbon OR twine OR string OR yarn
nail polish remover (optional)
cotton pad OR paper towel OR tissue (also optional)
But you probably want a sheet of paper towel on hand, just in case of an inky explosion!

First let's take a look at an empty highlighter.
I will - guiltily - admit that I drew all over paper for fifteen minutes today just because I realized how close to empty this puppy was!

Next up, let's look at the terrible thing that I did during my experiment.  You don't need to try this at home, folks.
I ripped out the tip of the marker, thinking that I could pull out the entire feed system (that's the ribbed gray piece of plastic still inside the body of the pen).  Whoops.  Turns out my stroke of genius was entirely unnecessary.  DON'T DO IT!!  There's a much better way to get inside this marker.
At the non-business end of this pen, you'll find a colored piece of plastic with a conveniently placed hole.  I strung a ribbon through it (because I am so fancy!) tied it to a chair leg, braced my feet against the aforementioned chair leg, wrapped a rubber jar opener around the body of the marker (to improve my grip), and gave it a mighty pull.
Much to my surprise, the blue plastic piece popped right out. Hooray!

But that was when I found out that this pen is a bit tricky.  The ink chamber does not take up the entire body of the marker, and there is another plastic barrier that's we'll need to bust through.

But don't worry, my little chickadees, all in good time.

Next up, I wanted to remove that ugly advertising on the side of the pen.  Girls, break out a cotton pad and some nail polish remover!  (Guys, make a dash to the dollar store for some nail polish remover!  Non-acetone remover will work.)
It took a little elbow grease.  I scrubbed it for about five minutes.  You can see it start to crackle up way before it really comes off.
Anyway, now you can see the remainder of the blue ink forming a line in the middle of the body of the tube.  That's the second barrier that we need to pierce.
Ready?
Go find a gigantic nail or screw.
Stick that nail in the tube.  You'll feel a small depression in the center.  Push the nail in, and turn. Really push.  Really turn.
I was considering getting a hammer to drive it through, but I didn't want to risk any unexpected thumb injuries.  This method worked out pretty well anyway, since you only need to make a tiny hole.
I took out the nail when I saw a small bit of plastic break off inside the ink chamber.  Then I stuck a toothpick in the hole to double check that it's the right size.
It was a snug fit - which is perfect.

Then I took my ink syringe, stuck the needle right through that tiny hole I just made, and filled up the ink chamber.
Never seen an ink syringe?  You're looking for something like this...(click me!)

Now seriously, make sure not to overfill that lower chamber, because it will drip right out the marker tip and make a fine mess of things! I might know from experience.  (I caught a terrible case of Smurf hands!)
Here's the last step:  Keep the open end up, and snap that colored plastic piece right back where it started.  (It's the blue piece, on this marker.)
I didn't even need to break out any tools for this one, I just used my thumbs to press down on it.

You're done! You've got a refillable highlighter!  Pat yourself on the back, because that was so d.i.y. it hurt!
(Here I am, accidentally drawing on the window sill.  Whoops.  I'm glad I was using water based ink.)

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? 
Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail me at
chewytulip (at!) gmail (dot!) com
I have ink suggestions, but I wouldn't want to be too long-winded today.  :)










Tuesday, June 19, 2012

art house project

I participated in the mystery project back in May,
and they sent me a yellow brush tip prismacolor marker to use for it.

The prompt was something about people, places, and the things they use.

So of course I left a little love for the mail lady.


This week was bananas.

We got seven bananas, and labeled them with the days of the week.  Then we took off for a road trip. 

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

I always promise rainbows and unicorns

http://www.etsy.com/listing/91861517/smoking-unicorn-postcard-set-of-two-with?ref=sr_gallery_1&sref=&ga_search_submit=&ga_search_query=smoke+the+rainbow+unicorn&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade


Yeah...of COURSE I made this one into a postcard.

black and white garden scene


Here's a behind-the-scenes look at what happens in my sketchbook BEFORE I cover it in paint.

cool grizzly owl confusion


I'm always the cool one. It's settled. :)

No, actually it won't...bird


And thank goodness it didn't.
Sometimes if you have to work reallllllllly hard for something...it might turn out that it wasn't what you wanted, after all. It's good to let go.

okay, bird

screen printing ideas and recycling

apathetic bird head dress

I was disgruntled that month. There are more birds to follow up on this.

bird postcard

hand carved block prints
with some hand drawn lines thrown in for good measure

I'm pretty sure I did this for a printmaking swap I hosted on swap-bot.

Ami's working on her sad face again

creatures of the night

card games gone awry

nuts

I like the cocoa-dusted ones better than the cinnamon ones. Just sayin'.

snake plant

low tech ways to keep me entertained before the sun goes down

New Jersey natural disasters 2011

Monday, January 30, 2012

wet pizza contest



Veggies for the win!

line dry

secret table

For clandestine lunches.

picnic table

Our potato chips always blow away in the breeze.
The breeze is clearly in cahoots with the seagulls.

grill master

barf


It was barf-tacular.

sea-themed wreath

upholstery in chenille

oh, vanity

juice. dust.

lamp fish

"Ring...ring..."
"Hello, lamp? It's fish. Wanna go for a swim?"