Jane's Debut

Hey Jane, you big bunny cutie, you. . .

Listening Is Its Own Reward

And yet, according to one of the fortune cookies I cracked open with the guys who work the garage in the Travelodge on Harrison (I had spares and their jobs are h-a-r-d. They should get cookies more often, no?), I'm going to be rewarded for listening. What a silly thing to be rewarded for. . . but I also have a lot of cool meetings and lunches planned for next week during which I will be listening A LOT. So, we'll see what happens. . .

January 28, 2010

There was bona fide sun yesterday--today, too. But yesterday the sun was doing lovely things to the sky out over the lake. I took pictures so that I could prove it. . . or so, if we descended back into another month of cloudiness, these pictures could tide us over here in Chicago.

Meet Mabel

A new addition to the fivetrees shop. . . little Mabel.


I'm trying to make more complicated and more detailed toys for fun during the long winter months, but I still like whipping out these simpler guys, too. With all the nubs--antennae, rounded nose, nubby hands and legs--they're the perfect toys for wee kids.

If you missed this photo before, this is my 6-month old niece hanging out with (okay, mostly chewing on) one of Mabel's cousins.

Graffiti

The corner newspaper boxes at the corner of Wabash and Balbo on Columbia's campus are a canvas of revolving graffiti artists' work. (don't fret.) is a frequent guest artist. Here are some of his postal faces with a "don't fret" mixed in for good measure.

But today there were also a couple of super cute octopi in the mix (and boo to the not nearly as cool band poster that was covering up a third--not pictured here).

And, bonus, there was sun today.

Tiny Things Are Almost Always Cute Things

What is it about miniatures that are so appealing? I have a friend from high school (hey, Alex) who, while we were still in high school, literally loved all tiny things. Little cars. Tiny kids. Those little bookshelf-sized Aiwa stereos that were all the rage in the 80's. Tiny stuffed animals. . .

So, here's a tiny sweater I made for one of my bunnies. A full picture of the finished product by this coming weekend. . . but in the meantime, why is the sweater, even without the bunny stuffing, already cute just because of its size?

Mousie

new little guy available in the fivetrees etsy shop.

a few other new things coming down the road . . . if I can get decent pictures. I so prefer natural light for photo taking because colors show up so much more accurately, but the sun has not been visiting Chicago.

Stay tuned. . .

Lovely Clusters - Beautiful Handmade Items

Buy and Sell Beautiful Handmade - Lovely Clusters

I'm now featured on Lovely Clusters-- a beautiful curated site of crafters and artisans hosted and curated by Rachel Follett and Vicki Dvorak. Artwork by fabulous artists sorted into clusters by color into yummy collections that delight the eyes.

Super proud to be a part of it--check it out!

Zapruder Point on the Cobb

This is Dan Zapruder singing (Violin -- Elizabeth Lindau (of Canasta). Harmony vocal -- Liam Davis (of Frisbie)). . . and I love this song.

But there's another reason to watch this video if you are from Chicago. For the last few days--when not watching picks from Netflix--I have been honing in on only videos or tv shows that depict skies that showcase the sun. This short film was shot on top of the Marina City Towers in downtown Chicago. Dan and Elizabeth and Liam are awesome. . . but just as importantly, there was sun shining in the city, not so long ago.

It could happen again. . .

Kristen Tracy Reading on KQED

I'm looking for good news lately. It's been overcast in Chicago for what feels like 100 years now. Unending reports from Haiti. A Supreme Court that's making decisions that give Supreme Courts a bad name. Work is hard.

So, any little breath of fresh air is nice--maybe it would be for you, too?

So, here's a possibility. . . Check out my buddy's poetry reading on KQED. Kristen Tracy. I've blogged about her young adult fiction before, but this is stuff for us that are grown.

The Writers' Block | KQED Public Media for Northern CA

Morgan hearts Dogs

It seems obvious to me that, in this picture, Pepper (my folks' giant pointer/lab mix) has licked Morgan and she is squinting under the moment ago onslaught of a tongue that's twice the size of her tiny noggin.


But what the picture seems to be saying is that she's puckering up and my mother is having to hold Pepper back from that enticing offer of love (note: wedge of mother's leg in lower left hand corner of photo holding the beast at bay). If photos are worth a thousand words, this picture makes it abundantly clear that those 1,000 words could be the wrong ones.

WhatIS true, though, is that besides lucking out with a unbearadorable niece. . . the family has also lucked out in having dogs that are brilliant with babies. Both Cincinnati dogs love her to death (note: possibly yours if you move at Morgan too swiftly. . . just so you know).

Sewing Sunday

Sewing teeny fabulous dresses for crocheted bunny dolls turns out to be way harder than I expected.


What's even harder is keeping up interest in anything other than napping or taking a hot bath and reading a book when we're going on our 7th straight day of overcast cold grey days. I'm so bored of not seeing the sun. I'm starting to feel like a mole.

Lovely Critter Idea Sketches

The "lovely" in "Lovely Critter Idea Sketches" is in reference to the new batch of animal dolls I'm thinking about making being uber pretty and a little delicate (not that my sketches are lovely. i'm a little more realistic than that). I will still make my older versions of critters as well, but I think in the midst of this cold winter (brutal winds and hail tonight), I need a dose of not just cute, but also glam. Sequins. Taffeta. Pleats. Bows.

If these come to fruition, they may even get a "line" name.

I'm teetering between "The Ann Line" (after a resplendently fashionable colleague of mine) or "The Bloom Line," because Rachel Weisz's costumes (designed by Beatrix Aruna Pasztor) in Rian Johnson's The Brothers Bloom are gorgeous. And I sketched last night as I watched it. None of those costumes show up in my critter drawings, but Pasztor's work certainly veered me in the direction of that weird and beautiful shift in evening wear during the 60's when some designers still clung to old traditional dress shapes on one hand, but also started to play with the babydoll a-line thing that Twiggy was starting to popularize just by being huge-eyed skinny her in Euro and States' Vogue layouts. So chic and feminine, oddly nostalgic while being super forward looking?

Boat necks on evening gowns? Narrow bodices made of one giant bow over the huge puff of an impossibly giant A-shape? Yes, please.

ok. So I am a little proud of this last little sketch. I think she's adorable and she will be my first project in this "line."
Stay tuned. . .

The Milk

Hot off the crochet hooks! A new little luchador is available at the fivetrees etsy shop.

And that's right, his name is la Leche! Ole!

I have one more luchador doll in the works, just waiting for a name, persona and glittery personalized cape. But then that's it for a short while on luchadors.

I have new plans for an even more fabulous crew of animal dolls (sketches coming very very soon to the blog, because that's usually just the kind of public promise that will keep me on track to making sure that sketches eventually become real 3-D pieces), plus a big old gift to make for dear dear friends.

I love Brooklyn Rehab

I've loved Brooklyn Rehab for a while, but there were a few pleasing things in the Etsy Shop today that made me want to post. Alyssa Zygmunt's brainchild, Brooklyn Rehab makes old things new again and proves that white porcelain can "upscale" nearly anything.



I have a decent number of friends and colleagues who don't buy into the easy divide of boy/girl, man/woman, he/she that so many in the world love. So, I'm torn by these napkin rings. I love love love them, but am I politically allowed to own them? Could they be put out on the table, but people could choose any gender they want and have fun with it in that way? Further subverting this silly dichotomy?

I don't know. . . I just love love love them.



There's a picture on the shop of this being held in hand and it looks like it's just about palm sized. Wouldn't you want to hold it all the time? Would it ever get to actually be a knick knack or would it just become your safety owl, carried with you everywhere you go?



There aren't words for this guy. Yeesh. Lovely.

new duckie rattle

At the Chicago Holiday Renegade, folks couldn't get enough of these rattles. I don't really know if pictures do them justice. . . but they're fun to make.

CHIRP On Air!

My friend Shawn made a radio station and I love it. I love that I have been hearing stories about the trips to D.C. over the last few years to get the clearance to do this--because that's what you do! Or all of the whacky stories about trying to lease the right space--weird stories about plumbing and wi-fi that you don't really think of immediately as "radio" problems.

CHIRP (The Chicago Independent Radio Project) is streaming online right this very second. Check 'em out at Chicagoindieradio.org

And boy does Chicago need this. Ever since WLUW changed format or leadership or whatever a few years back, there's been this dead place in Chicago radio. Thank golly that CHIRP is here to spackle that whole right over!

Thai Shrimp Soup

Geewhitakers, I love this soup.

A kinda complicated stock of chicken stock, shrimp parts (heads and tails), garlic, onion, dried teeny shrimps, fish sauce, chilis, a little yellow bean paste, sugar and white pepper. You cook it until it reduces by a third, so that all of those yummy tastes get really intense, then you strain it so that it's just clear golden tasty broth.

Then you bring the broth to a boil, throw in shrimp and .5" cubes of medium firm tofu and boil for about 3 minutes and then you're done!

The Final product gets ladled over pre-cooked Asian noodles (somen are my faves) and then gets sprinkled with green onions, bean sprouts, and fried shallot slices.

The perfect winter soup--fun to make and has enough heat and spice to warm you to your bones.

from

Takeaway: Southeast Asian Soups, Salads and Stir-fries by Les Hyun.

FYI, though, this awesome cookbook is hard to find. For some reason, it was for sale at the Cincinnati Williams and Sonoma two years ago. But I haven't see it anywhere else and it's one of those third party buys off of the American Amazon site.

zukzuk illustration

I have loved this zukzuk print for a year or two now. A Toronto based artist who makes work that feels at once nostalgic and joyfully celebratory. Check out her Etsy shop or her lovely blog.

And I think in the midst of a cold snowy winter, I am also missing my extended Ohio family. I have a new niece now and I'm very tender hearted towards her. I feel extraordinarily like an aunt and I wasn't expecting this--the love, I think I expected, but the feelings of responsibility towards her are a real surprise. And so being far away from her, makes me feel like a slacker. . .

This print reminds me of my brother, sis-in-law and wee Morgan. And it breaks my heart a little.

But here's another zukzuk illustration for good measure:

Churros and the Ice Fields of Chicago

Any day that begins with churros is a pretty good day, but today was great. We followed with a quick bit of shopping and then on to make L.P.'s day with a walk along the Lawrence Beach dog park. As it turns out, the beach was a bit of sand and then big fields of sandy ice out into the lake.

We walked and played and walked some more.

L.P. is a nut. He'll fetch anything, even giant chunks of ice.

ice berg!

the regal Bouvier de Flanders

L.P.can fly!
(if you click on this picture, you can see that none of his paws are touching solid ground. . . and to the left, you can see the tennis ball he's fleeing after still mid air)

all of this snow. it felt like we were walking on the moon (excepting, of course, the whole gravity thing). Such a strange appearance for a shore we're so familiar with).

a dog and his boy

Curry Laksa

Last week I made Curry Laksa. I've never made curry before. . . Scrumlicious! Coconut milk, curry spices, lemon grass, chicken, shrimp, fried tofu puffs, bean sprouts, cucumber, noodles. And enough left over to make another dinner later in the week.

Blurg I want to make it again already, but tonight we will have a clear broth thai soup.

Look at how pretty lemongrass is when chopped down--pale green and purple.

Trying not to Hang Around the House

Sometimes, the most difficult thing to convince ourselves of in Chicago, in the midst of January (or February. . . or even March), is that our lives could be improved by leaving the house. With high temps of 14 degrees and evening windchill factors of -20 and giant piles of snow that get grayer and grosser by the day, convincing friends or husbands or ourselves that anything outside our front doors could have much in the way to recommend itself gets tougher and tougher the deeper into winter we get.

But good stuff is out there, and the layers of clothes you need to put on to get to those things with minimal pain is worth it.

For example, Friday night, we went to go see our buddy Amber in her 80's/90's/aught's cover band, the Xylenes at McDunna's. And they rocked and the room was warm and dark and the windows were all steamed up and swirling into icy patterns all adding up to a very specific homey feel in a non-home space that I think only happens in coffee houses and bars at night during winter at latitude 41 degrees North and above.


This is not Amber. This is the cool accordionist for the Xylenes whose accordion may be one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. But behind and to the right of the Accordioniest? Amber's hand on the neck of her bass. She plays bass. . . so she's super cool and never shows up in pictures.

And we followed good music with cheap burritos across the street--a habit I think no one in Chicago is too proud or fancy to take part in.

And then, Saturday, we took the fabulous Jill Huntsberger (still in the thick of outfitting her new swanky pad) on a field trip to Ikea and then Mitsuwa (Asian Grocery/cool Asian stuff place/tasty Asian food court awesomeness).

Mitsuwa is worth the cold and the drive. A cavalcade of:

Gorgeous foods that you either photograph intheir pretty rows,

or that gets held up and shown off to you by your husband

or your friend

exclaming "how cute" or "how delicious" or "how weird is this?"

or whose packaging you can't believe in all of its unbearadorableness. . .

Heaven must (oh please oh please oh please) be a little bit like this place, except everything's free and I would instantly know what it was all for without having to look it up in a dictionary of Asian condiments.

But seriously, this is their "Help Wanted" sign. Even that's cute!

Had we stayed at home, we would have seen none of this. . . plus, Dan and I wouldn't be eating homemade Chicken Laksa tonight. . . Lemongrass doesn't grow out of the couch cushions, after all.

In a weekend or two, expect pictures of Dan and I and LP braving a walk at the Indiana Dunes next to the frozen lake. That takes preparation and serious girding in the loin region. But we're doing that, too! BBRrrrrrrrrr!