we're going to kansas city, going to kansas city, kansas city here we come...

Braeden and I went to, you guessed it, Kansas City this weekend to visit my friends Ashley and Rob. I met them at the summer camp I worked at two years ago: Ashley was my co-counselor and her husband Rob was in charge of pottery. I hadn't seen them in almost a year and it was great to see them again. Braeden was excited to meet them for the first time (and vice versa) and I believe that everyone was pleased with everyone else and we were all just one big happy family.

Both Ashley and Rob are attending the Kansas City Art Institute—Ashley for fibers (as in textiles, not the food) and Rob for ceramics. Ashley's recently started participating in what's called Yarn Bombing: here's one of the statues that she's sweater-ed (apparently he had a scarf, too but it's been stolen). She told us that statues are different than people in that they don't really have arms (they sort of just come out of the torso at the elbows) so she had to do some finagling when she attached the knit pieces to the actual statue. I think she did a great job!

I would follow this sweater-clad man to the ends of the earth.

She also told us about this group called Knitta, Please! (best. name. ever.). You should check it out. Especially the one in China where someone covered a piece of the Great Wall of China.

She also wove this scarf—that's right, WOVE, not knit—that is at least 10 feet long. I may or may not covet it slightly.

Since I'd last visited they'd gotten another miniature Schnauzer (before they just had Calvin, the lighter-haired dog) and they both loved the Braeden face. As Braeden says, "Braeden is not a dog person, but dogs are always Braeden people. Also, babies."

He looks sort of terrifying in this picture, but not as terrifying as the other picture that I took.

Here we are with Ashley and Rob! I loff them. Also their great new home. (Check out that sweet-a chandelier in the background!)

I love Ashley's face!

Rob showed us his studio on campus while we were there and was super generous, not only letting us glaze some of the pots he's thrown on the wheel (he's gonna mail them to us once they're fired: I can't wait!) but also giving us a whole box of cups. A whole box! What a man.

This one has his face on it.

This one has Ashley's face on it.

Several of them have this great indentation in it that is perfect for your thumb as you hold it: it's one of the things that Braeden and I fell in love with.

And that was pretty much our weekend. Oh! And we went to church with them on Sunday (The Boiler Room). We literally sang for the whole first hour and it was kinda fun: they had a full rock band in front and projected the lyrics to the songs up on the wall. There were definitely times during the singing that I felt the Spirit and I think that's a beautiful thing.

additionally...

I would be remiss if I did not tell the blogosphere about the package that I received just yesterday. I recently won a little gift certificate to the Lugo's etsy shop and redeemed it for this amazing bowl. It is tiny and I love it!

However, as if the give away of one of Rob's amazing creations was not enough, they sent me another bowl also free! These people are really just amazing and I can't say enough nice things about them (and not just because they give me free stuff, although, let's be honest, that never hurts).

project #10: over-due gift

My good friend Ashley Lugo asked me to make her husband a sketchbook as a gift for their first anniversary. I seriously love her and Rob and was so delighted that she would ask me to make this for them! They are both super talented and you should check out their etsy shop and blog. Both.

However, despite the (ample) time Ashley gave me to make it, due to complications in the construction (I tried to make it super fancy and it did not work at all. Sad day.), I just finished it today—no worries, their anniversary was the 17th of last month... Luckily since Ashley and her husband are artists themselves she has assured me that she understands: the muse knows know deadlines.

The cover cloth was custom made by me (the cloth itself I got from my lovely Tess friend, but in order to make it book-worthy I had to iron on some heat-n-bond then tissue paper to back it so the book glue wouldn't seep through).

 The end papers were hand-dipped (not by me) and they're pretty fantastic. I can't remember where they came from, but I've had them for a while and I'm happy to put them to good use. The title page was stamped by a silicone stamp (in the center) and a rubber hand-set stamp with a custom message (lower right-hand corner). I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. It's very different than I had originally planned, but I think this is way better and that is the best when that happens.

 In the back of the book I put a fancy little envelope because I know that I always have stuff that I stick into my notebooks and it's nice to have some place to put it so it doesn't fall out. I got the idea for this envelope pocket after looking at a series of datebooks made by Esther. In the front and back of this particular set she had stitched in an envelope, similar to this one, and on the side of the envelope that doesn't have the main opening she had cut off the top corner to make a little pocket with an open top. So clever!

You can see the envelope pockets a little better in this picture. The closure clasp was made using small scrapbooking rivets and circles I'd punched out of a playing card. The pattern on the back of the card actually works nicely with the endpapers. A happy coincidence. The cord hooking the envelope shut is the same thread that I used to bind the book.

Here's a quick shot of the spine stitching for any of you bookbinding nerds out there. This type of binding is called a coptic binding and is originally from Africa—it's the oldest type of binding we know of, so that's kinda neat. It's also my favorite type of binding. That said, I have to say that the stitching I did on this book has to be one of the best I've ever done. None of the stitches are skewy or missed and it just looks beautiful. Seriously, click on the picture to get a closer look. It will make you smile.

So, in short, this one's for you, Ashley and Rob! May our friendship blossom like tie dye flowers on a pre-washed 100% cotton shirt that's been folded to look like a triangle. (Fun fact: the flower fold was my favorite fold at camp. I believe Ashley also liked it.)

the crafting revolution

Exciting news! Last week I made a series of accordian books for my class I'm taking at Cooper Union, and my teacher (Esther K. Smith of Purgatory Pie Press) said that she thought they were good enough to sell! She suggested a little independent bookstore called St Mark's Bookshop on the corner of Third Avenue between 8th and 9th Street on the east side of NYC, right by where my class is, that sells artist books.

I checked it out yesterday with my amazing friend Tess and sure enough, they took them! They only take 3 at a time, so I gave them 3 (even though I'd made enough so I had 11 with me, no big deal) and the guy said they could probably go for like $3 each. Hooray! I'm going to check back in after my class on Monday and see if any have sold. (Note: They are also now on sale at my etsy store for the same price.) If you're in the area of Greenwich Village I suggest checking out the bookshop—they had a small but pretty good selection of self-published zines and other artist books. I bought 2 small comic zines for Garrett face cuz he loves stuff like that. Maybe he and I could make some little comic books—he's a really clever illustrator—and we could sell them there too. There are just so many possibilities... Also! There was a zine there called Slice which reminded me of the lovely zine called The Slice that my good friends Stephanie, Megan, Jen, and Whitney made our freshman year of college. I still have all the issues on my computer. Maybe we'll have to bring it back and take the world by storm!

After the bookshop stop Tess and I went over to our friend Henry's art show, also at Cooper Union. Henry is our friend from pre-k. That's right, when we were like 4. Henry and I found each other on facebook our freshman year of college and now we are sort of friends again. He's super artistic and amazing and I love his beard. I gave him one of my books and he seemed genuinely excited to get it, which is really nice and flattering because he is an amazing artist and I just pretend. The art at the show was his and another chick's, and Tess really liked the other chick's stuff; she had two pieces with clouds that were pretty sweet. Tess really wanted to slip one into her purse before we left, but I persuaded her that that was bad form. Henry's stuff was great too, lots of work with textures and colors. My favorite of his was a painting of what looked like the view looking up through a canopy of trees, and then next to it a painting of that painting hanging on the wall. The shadow the canvas cast in the painting of the painting was exactly the same as the real painting on the real wall in real life. Very clever.

Later Tess and I headed over to her brownstone in Brooklyn where we talked crafting and made plans to go to some craft shows together this summer—that's right, we're gonna share a booth and sell Books & Bags—and I convinced Tess to get herself some free business cards so she could impress people with her professionalism and shtuff. We also talked about the importance of blogging so she could have pictures of her stuff online so people can see it if they're interested in buying, etc. All in all it was a super successful night! AND so fun! Tess is seriously one of my most favorite people. Hooray for friends, fun, and art. Also independent bookshops.

ALSO! I would be remiss if I did not at this time post a link to the blog of my good friends Ashley and Rob Lugo. Rob is a super talented ceramics guy (potter? sculptor? what would be the word for one who makes ceramics?) and Ashley is just all around creative and amazing. They recently opened up their own Etsy store and have some great stuff on there. Take a look! You might find something you never knew that you couldn't live without.

kansas city...there i was...

Went to Kansas City! Visited two of my most favorite people, Ashley and Rob Lugo, and met up with my loverly boyfriend Jace Face and had a fantastic week! It was finals for Ashley and Rob (who are at art school for photo and ceramics respectively) so we got to go to their end of the semester art show which was awesome! Rob sold one of his pieces (maybe two? I can't remember now...) and another of his pieces was accepted into the school's permanent collection. Yeah, some students spend their whole academic careers hoping for that and Rob achieved it his very first semester. No big deal.

We also went ice skating, ate delicious food, watched a plethora of movies, and best friended one of the cutest dogs ever, Calvin.

Fun facts about the trip:

• Not all couches are created equal in terms of sleeping comfort and levels of coziness.
  
• I want to go to art school so bad and major in everything.
• Jace always picks lame movies. Also Angelina Jolie is really good at hacking computers.
  
• The quilt with my quilt square was not done yet but is still in the works—all the squares were completed in June...
• Brookstone has a jewelry/eye glasses cleaning machine that makes really scary noises and you think it's going to break your glasses by putting them in there and although they are shiny afterwards it is unclear if that is because of the machine or the water in the machine that you set your glasses in to get them cleaned. You have been warned.
  
• I still am finding dog hair (not Calvin's) in my clothes.
• I only took two pictures the whole trip. The important thing is that we look really hot. In both of them.