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What’s with the antlers?

That was my question last year when I started noticing the preponderance of antlers in home decor magazines. But they weren’t necessarily real antlers, harvested by some hunter. In fact they were more often manufactured antlers, white plastic or porcelain being the most popular materials.

I don’t get it. What’s the fascination with Bambi and his family? Is it because there are so many more white-tailed deer inhabiting suburban and even urban areas? Are they being used as some kind of totem to protect the owner from a close encounter of the vehicular kind with a member of this species?

Here’s what I’m talking about:

You can make your own Bambi tank.

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You can have a mod antler coat rack, instead of the “icky” REAL ones you see in grand houses in Scotland or the lodges in Montana.

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You can even have a cozy wool rug with antlers on it…but these aren’t cozy; they’re stylized within an inch of their lives. They’re iconic and they’re sterilized, like the silver coat rack above.

I live in a place where people hunt, and pretty soon we’ll be seeing dead deer hanging in trees and in barns after having been shot; you have to drain the blood out of them, you see, as part of the butchering process. I’ve had to clean tufts of fur and splatters of blood off my car after having hit one. There’s a dead deer in the yard of the neighbor I’m cat-sitting for this week. Somebody hit it and shattered its hind legs. It smells like death, and some large animal has eaten big chunks out of it. Deer mean I have to check for ticks after I’ve been working in the garden, so that I don’t get Lyme disease. Deer mean I don’t plant tulips anymore because they eat them all. I chase them out of my lilies and away from my cherry and apple saplings on a daily basis. Deer are a part of my daily life.
I’m (obviously) used to viscera with my deer, so this posh, sterile treatment of what is a very live, gritty, mucky subject is very odd to me. I don’t often spend so much analyzing the psychology of a design trend, but this one is fascinating to me. What does this posh iconography mean to a person to whom a deer is an abstract concept? What does it mean to them to have it on their wall, on their floor, on their shirt? I’m puzzled. Anybody got an idea?

We here in technical services love to celebrate. We are the largest unit of the largest employer on campus; someone’s always having a birthday, having a baby, getting married, or joining or leaving our ranks. We send out an email invitation for any such celebrations. I’ve done many of them, but seem to have deleted all but the latest ones.

My boss left us for a job in Nebraska, hence:

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And Zoe, who is from Hawaii, left us for a job in the Midwest:

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I found the coolest thing this weekend.  There’s store (soon to be stores) in LA where you can design your own print (with the help of a graphic artist) and print it on a tshirt yourself!

It’s called “Fresh Pressed,” and it’s appealing to all those crafty folks who want to “DIY” but don’t have the tools or the experience with silk screening.  I think it’s very cool.

Here’s their logo:

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The founder designed these custom printing stations that look like a cross between a copying machine and a dryer:

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We have done our own t-shirts at home, with a version of the studio chop on them.  You can get kits for creating your own screens at most craft stores. These stations at Fresh Pressed are way cool, though.  It would be fun to play at one!  Will have to wait until they get to the East Coast!

We just got our living room furniture back from the upholsterer. I made Alex send me photos because I’m at work.  I can’t wait to go home and SIT on these chairs and loveseat!

Now, before you gasp at the color of the big chair and the loveseat, let me say that I found this humungous bolt of fabric drastically discounted at a store that was going out of business.  It was $15 for hundreds of dollars’ worth of fabric.  I couldn’t pass it up.  And I knew that it would look ok with the fabric that I bought 15 years ago for the little chair from Grandma Burdick’s front room.

I’m working on a quilt + pillow covers + curtains now for this room.  I’m glad to have some of the fabric back so I can see what I have to work with.  The other thing that will have to happen soon (or I will go completely insane) is stripping the nasty wallpaper border and painting over the light pink walls. The color combo now is just hideous.

In looking for fabric for the quilt I’m going to make for the living room, I came across some fun prints by Heather Ross.  Her “Mendocino” collection is inspired by her time on the beach in CA.  They totally crack me up, because if you look at them from a distance, they look like old fashioned wallpaper.  Up close there are obviously mermaids and octopii, etc.  I think we’re going to have to get some to do something for our budding marine biologist, because every girl needs a mermaid dress.  (Wonder how long it would take someone at her school to notice that she’s got half-naked ladies on her sundress?  Ok, maybe we’ll go with the seahorses.)
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I used to be a NetAdmin for my department, meaning I was on the front lines for computer support for people in our department. We decided we needed a poster campaign to remind people about some basic “best practices.” These are the posters I made for the first campaign. I was working on the “Saints of the Homefront” series at the time, so of course the imagery is from WWII propaganda posters.

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I’m noticing a lot of “trends” in graphics, art and crafts lately, and quite frankly, I don’t “get” most of them. For example, lately everywhere I look on the web, I see cupcakes.

There are bakeries that make ONLY cupcakes. There are blogs devoted to… CUPCAKES.  (and the blog in that link has a list of links to 30 other blogs about… CUPCAKES)

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image from hello_naomi’s flickr photostream, one of many photostreams that include pics of cupcakes.

I opened the most recent copy of Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine and there are two different projects for making mixed media cupcakes. You want to make it out of papier-mache?  Yarn?  Oh, and you can buy cupcake jewelry and doo-dads on Etsy.  You can knit (or crochet) a cute little cupcake hat for your baby.

Now, there are a lot of precious “crafty” blogs and websites out there, written by people who have read every craft article Martha Stewart ever wrote and have taken them to the next level.  There are people making a living in the extreme “crafty” community, just writing about cozy crafty things you can do to make your house look like a “shabby chic” haven…

And I don’t get it.  Now, I like “cozy” as much as the next girl; for crying out loud, look at the image in the header for this blog.  I don’t mean to bash anybody’s scene, but I just don’t get cupcakes.

Maybe a large proportion of the female population really wishes that they could be June Cleaver.  Maybe it’s a reaction to the post-Reagan/Bush years in the US, to the images of the current war, the news of the gas prices and the mortgage crisis. I don’t know what it is, but everywhere I look I’m reminded of rectangular Tupperware containers being carried onto schoolbuses, smooshed icing, and sticky fingers.

Twelve new condos became available in San Francisco today. They are tiny, little masterpieces of modern minimalism and sustainability. The complex is called Cubix Yerba Buena. Here’s the blurb from their front page:

“Cubix Yerba Buena is a contemporary, walkable community located in San Francisco’s world-class Arts and Culture district. The building’s playful use of glass, metal and color in geometric forms creates an exceptional architecture.The modern studio residences at Cubix Yerba Buena are light-filled, stylishly appointed, and possessing all the everyday conveniences. Green building features are incorporated throughout, from drought tolerant plants on the landscaped roof-top deck to the City Car Share pod in the garage.Living is easy with the Epicenter Café on the ground floor, Whole Foods market next door, and the vibrant Yerba Buena neighborhood to explore. Come find your small piece of the big city.”

And here’s a pic from their website of a “typical unit.” Yes, you sleep on the (fold out) couch. What you see is what you get, when it comes to space.

I haven’t found any sq. ft. measurements, but these things sure do take downsizing seriously!

I am sometimes called upon to create images for various things at work; websites, department party invitations, etc. This is the part of my day job that I like best. It doesn’t happen nearly often enough. Sometimes I have to do these things while taking someone else’s ideas into account; sometimes I’m given carte blanche. How do you make interesting images about library technical services when you work with 90 people, all with very different senses of humor? It’s a challenge, let me tell you.

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Here are some of the more FUN images I made for the “rotating image block” on my department’s homepage:

Some people didn’t get what I was saying here; I was trying to say that if a resource didn’t have an online record, the patron wouldn’t find it. Of course someone thought I meant that I was advocating the complete transfer to digital-only assets in the library, that we should get rid of books. Oy.

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We receive stuff from all over the world and have to convert the currency on the invoices. Not a big stretch for this imagery.
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Some people thought I was saying that the people who work in the ordering unit were servants. Sigh.

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Metadata is all about acronyms. No, really, it is. I have to memorize about 10 new ones every day.
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The head of this unit totally gets my sense of humor. He thought this was a great image for the techies. Of course, I love it because of the retro imagery.

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I thought this was funny. I don’t know if anyone else did.

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This was the one that I was allowed to use for the people who deal with huge batches of data.

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This is the one I wasn’t allowed to use. Nobody got it.

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Boring, but colorful.

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Boring, but at least I slipped some more “retro” imagery in.

I was leafing through Mary Engelbreit’s magazine at the bookstore the other day when I came across an article about Amy Rice, an artist whose work I’m starting to like. She creates these wonderful stencils - big ones - and then uses them in larger works. In the work below, the figures of the girls are actually stencils! She reuses these stencil images in interesting ways. Her sense of line and shape remind me of the children’s illustrations of Jesse Wilcox Smith, a childrens’ author from the early 20th century. There’s also something that reminds me of Japanese woodblock prints, as well.

photo from Amy’s website

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I recently bought the book, “Generation T,” which shows 108 fashion-y ways you can modify a regular t-shirt. You can make skirts, halters, even a wedding dress!! But, ever the practical one, I saw an old green t-shirt of Alex’s in my stash, and decided to “repurpose” one of the fashion ideas for a part of The Girl’s Halloween costume.

Dragons are big in this house. And dinosaurs. So check this out:

Looks like a sleeveless bateau-necked t-shirt from the front:

But from the back and the side, it’s got a spine!

With this over some green and black clothing, plus some wings and talons, we’ve got ourselves some kind of critter! She loves Halloween so much… who else do you know who thinks 2+ months ahead about their costume?!?

Sheldrake Point has some of the nicest old houses on the lake (and one of the best vineyards, Sheldrake Point Vineyard). The light was really amazing when we were taking a drive one late afternoon, and I finally got to shoot this boathouse that I’ve always loved.

My friend Mary Beth has the coolest coffee mug. Here in the library, we have to have mugs with lids, in order to reduce the risks of spilling coffee on the collection. I hate drinking out of anything but our mugs, and I especially hate drinking out of paper cups with plastic lids. There’s enough plastic on my karma already. MB found a very groovy, stylish solution to this quest for a funky coffee mug.

It’s made of porcelain, it’s double-walled for insulation, and has a silicone lid. It’s so cool, I wish I had thought of it. I’m willing to drink out of a cool idea, even if it isn’t ours.

As with most of my creative endeavors, I started making mittens because I wanted a pair for ME. I wanted mittens that would stand up to the wind that whips across the field and slams into our house every winter. I can’t knit anymore; an injury I sustained while working as an apprentice housepainter makes it so my hand goes numb and I lose my dexterity when I try to do certain things. So if I wanted dense woolen felted mittens like the ones I was seeing knitting patterns for, I was going to have to be clever, like other crafty gals in the blogosphere.
Lots of people accidentally shrink their wool, angora, or cashmere sweaters, and take them to the Salvation Army. They’re already felted! So I brought them home and felted them some more, and I bought a bunch that weren’t already shrunken and felted so that I could have the fun of doing it. It’s SO EASY this way: Throw ‘em in a hot cycle in the washing machine with an old pair of jeans (for the friction you need for felting) and let ‘er rip. Take them out and put them in the dryer (again, with the old jeans). Repeat until you get them as densely felted as you would like. Cut ‘them out into mitten shapes and sew them. And if you want EXTRA warmth, line them with some polar fleece (remember to allow for the thickness and size accordingly).

People loved the ones I made for myself so I made some for the shop. The “sprinkles” are beaded designs stitched onto some of the pairs. Here’s the sign I made for the shop:

And here are some finished pairs:

One word of advice: get some canned air and/or a tiny vacuum attachment to clean the wool fibers out of your sewing machine; this stuff can clog it up!

Alex played with these images I took:

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Metal sheathing on a “column.”

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Rusty letters

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Fun with filters on this one.

Today I was riding the bus to my day job.  The bus is always a good place to people-watch, but today was very special.  A man got on at the hospital stop wearing an interesting t-shirt.  It was obviously a favorite, because the lettering was starting to peel.  That’s not what made it interesting though.  Here’s what that cracked, peeling lettering spelled out:

I may not be

“Mr. Right”

but I’ll f#@k you

until he shows up.

Um….. Yeah.  Nice.  And after my initial reaction, which was “eewww,” my next thought was, “Somebody actually had to DESIGN and make that shirt.  Somebody had to decide what colors to use and what FONT to spell that message out in.”

Imagine being that… designer.  And I use that term loosely.  What Myrtle Beach t-shirt shop’s backroom do you think that was dreamed up in?

The real icing on the cake was getting to overhear him talking with someone else about his wife having just had to have a c-section.  Someone actually married that man.  And had his child.  Can’t wait to see what baby’s first onesie has printed on it…