Abigail Sanchez Mock-up

This weekend I finished up a new sample pattern for another stuffed animal. This time I'm attempting to create a stuffed version of a particular dog. This girl is based off of our friend Abigail Sanchez who lives with Ashleigh (see A.S.S. link in Friends links). Since this is just the first attempt to really get a french bulldog down I can see some changes that I need to make. The head needs to be a little bit wider and the nose needs to be bigger. And the ears were sewn on unevenly. But otherwise I think that it's pretty close. If you can think of other upgrades, please let me know since I'm going to try to get another one done soon.

Vandalism Tribute?

My friend Jen took this photo after noticing the "Fafa" spray painted on the sidewalk. The strange thing is that it's literally just feet away from where I used to live in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston. Second house in the photo is where I lived for about 6 years. FaFa is painted right in front of the old entrance to the vacant lot that we used to cut through to shorten our walk to the subway. And it definitely wasn't there when I lived there 3.5 years ago. Not too many people still use my old nickname and most of them that do no longer live in Boston. Is there somebody who just couldn't bear to walk through my old 'hood without paying me a tribute?

Weekend Update

I have all sorts of things happening that I know I should be blogging about, but somehow every evening gets away from me and I don't write anything. Yesterday I took some pictures and will try to post them in the next couple of days. This weekend was a good balance of low-key and eventful.

Thursday night I checked out the art opening for our friends Ricky and Vessela who have work hanging at the Sentient Bean coffee shop. The work is focused on eastern orthodox iconography and is really beautiful. Friday night had my regularly scheduled date with Ashleigh including dinner and coffee. Saturday I worked at the Historical Society library and then spent a fantastic night at home by myself (it feels like ages since I've had a night in alone.) Sunday was a great day - up in the morning to go to the Mutation Craft Fair with the girls and then lunch together and some great conversation to keep me motivated about my own work. Dinner with friends who were down from Atlanta for the craft fair and then home to help Ron organize his studio and get ready for the in-laws visit for Thanksgiving later this week.

American Gods in Rock City

"Would you believe that all the gods that people have ever imagined are still with us today?...And that there are new gods out there, gods of computers and telephones and whatever, and that they all seem to think there isn't room for both of them in the world. And that some kind of war is likely." (pg. 308) After three years of Ron insisting that I read American Gods by Neil Gaiman, I finally picked it up. He was right about it - I didn't want to put it down once I started it.

Even stranger, the climax of the novel takes place at Rock City! So wierd that I just read this after going there and blogging about it a week ago. Gaiman describes it just right:

Rock City begins as an ornamental garden on a mountainside: its visitors walk a path that takes them through rocks, over rocks, between rocks. They throw corn into a deer enclosure, cross a hanging bridge and peer out through a quarter-a-throw binoculars at a view that promises them seven states on the rare sunny days when the air is perfectly clear. And from there, like a drop into some strange hell, the path takes the visitors, millions upon millions of them every year, down into caverns, where they stare at black-lit dolls arranged into nursery-rhyme and fairy-tale diaromas. When they leave, they leave bemused, uncertain of why they came, of what they have seen, of whether they had a good time or not. (pg. 380)

Mr. Moustachio

Here's a photo of my fabulous fake moustache that I wore on our campus fall festival day for my role as carnival barker to lure students into our library booth. I got some wierd looks from some of the preppy kids and some street cred from the theater students. Kudos must be given to Ashleigh who gave me the moustache after she made it last year for a class project. It just makes me happy.

Oh! So inspiring!

One of the joys of sitting at the reference desk is that when it is slow I treat myself to reading the new Art journals. I came across an article titled "House of the Hand-made" on the artist Nathalie Lete from Paris in the October 2007 volume of American Craft. Oh my Lord! This woman's work is so amazing - colorful, fun, ironic. Not only that but she can do everything. She's got paintings, handmade books, wool rugs, quilts, ceramics, dolls.

Sunday Rest

Yesterday I presented at the SEWHA Conference - Southeast World History Association. It my first time presenting the research from my history thesis and the first time that I've ever presented at a professional conference. It went as well as it could have other than that my mouth got really dry from nerves and I wasn't quite as articulate as I could've been. I had been dreading the Q&A session in case somebody asked me about theory or brought up work by a historian that I wasn't familiar with, but instead all of the questions were just about more of the content. I'm really happy that I was able to speak to it all confidently. Now I'll have to really start to consider submitting an article for a journal.

Today though is the only day that I have nothing planned for at least the next 20 days. I'm trying not to be depressed about it and just enjoy it. Ron and I are going to walk over to get a tea and sit around in the sun for a bit. Then I'm going to work on a project for work and then hopefully start to plan out a quilt project. Ashleigh challenged Nora, Dorothy and I to create a nine square quilt in the next 2-3 weeks. We're all pretty excited to have an assignment. And I'm feeling pretty inspired to come up with something that is just for fun and doesn't need to have a purpose. I'm going to try my hand at hand-quilting and hopefully come up with something a little more creative than I've done in the past.