Sunday, October 29, 2006

Monster cupcakes. I saw Martha Stewart make them last Halloween and thought they were cute and fun. And they looked super-easy. Of course I couldn't find the same stuff that Martha used. Oh, and there's also the fact that I'm not Martha. Clearly.

We made them last night. They look bad but we had fun making them.

A herd of delicious monsters...

This is one Sam made and he called it, "The bloody eye." Appetizing, no?

We made them for his after school program. They're having a Halloween party tomorrow afternoon.


We did another Martha-inspired craft on Saturday night. The idea was to soak strips of cheesecloth in liquid starch and then drape it over a form to make a ghost. So I bought 2 packages of cheesecloth (3 bucks each for one little sheet!) and cut it into roughly 3-inch strips (that's what it looked like in the picture). Oy vay! What a mess. The strips shrunk up into rope-like shapes. It was almost impossible to flatten them back out. So we ended up putting some dry ones on top and then kind of coating them with the starch.

As of this morning, there were still wet spots. And the dry parts are permanently cemented to the newspaper.

Oh, and there's also the fact that they don't really look like ghosts...

So now I remember why I don't do holiday crafts.

On another note - still haven't heard anything on the job. I was hoping to hear on Friday. Hopefully there will be some news today.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Greatness.

Check out artist Josh Greene's website. I love his explanation of the "Unlicensed Therapy" project.

He also does something he calls "Service Works," where, one night a month, he gives the tips he makes in his restaurant job to someone else to create a project.

This particular project by Helena Keefe is great. You definitely have to listen to the recordings...

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Sam's punkin'. My stepdad actually did all the work - Sam just art-directed.

Haven't heard anything on the job. Hopefully I'll hear something tomorrow.

While Sam was at karate class I snuck out to the new SuperTarget again . Do you think they'd let me live there?

Here's a great public service announcement video.

And this Desperate Mousewives video is kind of funny.

And here's something to give you a chuckle. Oops.

Oh my God! I forgot to post this. It's funny but oh so wrong...

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Stressin'...

I had a job interview today. I'm trying to be nonchalant about it and trying not to care. But it would be really great to get this job - it's a graphic design position on campus. The best part is that it pays like a real job. I could actually pay my rent. What a concept.

Keep your toes crossed for me.

Some fun:
In case you don't want to get pumpkin guts all over you this year, just carve one online...

Sunday, October 22, 2006

My new cards. If you're interested in where I got them and how to get your own, check out the post on my other blog.

Well, I weighed in yesterday - week 10 - 13.3 pounds! Woo hoo! I'm not sure if I'm going to continue with the WW program (as in, paying them to weigh me), but I'm going to keep eating more healthy and try to get more exercise. I know I would have lost much more if I had exercised more... Workin' on it.

Friday night I had my book discussion group. We read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. We all loved it. It was hard to read at times, but beautifully written. It's about a boy who grows up in Afghanistan and flees with his father during the 80's. He goes back during the reign of the Taliban. It's sad but also hopeful.

Yesterday I taught a workshop. I was supposed to have 4 students but one was sick. We had a lot of fun. I've had such great people do the workshops. Such a range of artistic experience. Yesterday I had a painter, a metalsmith, and a textile artist.

Last night I went to the new Mr. Chopsticks location and then went home and crashed. I went to bed at 8:30. An exciting Saturday night!

Today I'm going to have lunch with Marlys and then hang out at the studio again for a while.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Jumping in the rain. He loves to play in the rain...

On Sunday we went to the new SuperTarget. They have black spaghetti. Sam thought it was cool so we bought some. I think the coolest part (for him) was that it's colored with squid ink. It tastes just like regular spaghetti. Except when you cook it, it turns kind of a disgusting grayish color. Perfect boy food.

Last night while Sam was at cub scouts I walked around the neighborhood. I tried to walk for a whole hour again, but it started to get dark and I had to head home. You know you live in a college town when you walk around your neighborhood and hear 3 bands practicing in their living rooms or garages.

Here's a link to the Snapalope Hunting Association of America. Kind of silly. Personally, I like the hunter's hand signals.

I linked this on my other blog, but in case you missed it, the awesome McSweeny's featured this Submission Guidelines for Our Refrigerator Door. They're pretty tough. Especially if you like robot monkeys. Or poop.

On a similar note, here's a critique of kid's drawings. This guy's brutal. Everybody's a critic...

It kind of reminds me of David Sedaris' "Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol," where he (Thaddeus) reviews Christmas plays put on by elementary school kids. My favorite line:

In the role of Mary, six-year-old Shannon Burke just barely manages to pass herself off as a virgin.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Watching the stingrays and turtles...

We're getting some nice rain here today. The kind where you just want to lay in bed and listen to it.

Sam and I watched The Karate Kid on Friday night. He'd never seen it. Everytime he went to his karate class I'd say something about wax-on/wax-off and he never knew what I was talking about. He liked it. I don't know if I'd ever seen the whole thing.

So while Sam was at karate class on Saturday, I went to my studio. He hung out at his dad's for a while after class, too, so I could get some stuff done. I have four paintings in progress right now. I might have finished one. I'm not sure yet.

We hung out at my mom's for a while last night. Ketty came over with some chili verde that she'd made. It was really yummy. Kind of like a pork soup. She gave me the recipe so I might try it. I'll probably use chicken, though. Or just veggies, even. I love to make soup in the winter...

Last night I watched I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, a documentary about Wilco. It was interesting to see the creative process of making an album and then dealing with all the corporate/record company crap to get it out. Jeff Tweedy has a great voice.

So today we're going to watch the rain, clean the house, and maybe I'll attempt to get to the studio for a while.

Here's an interesting video that shows how they make up and then further enhance a model for a billboard photo. It's all fake! Imagine that...

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Link-o-rama!

Check out this fun online game that John told me about, The Sentence Game. It starts off with someone submitting a sentence. The next person draws a picture illustrating that sentence. The next person writes a sentence describing the drawing, the next person draws a picture, etc. It's based on a surrealist game called The Exquisite Corpse. The drawing game is really fun. Kids love it.

If you go to the site, my user name is enchiladaplate. You can view the games that I've participated in. John's is birq. Not sure if he wants you to know that or not...

Guess what? Chad's back for Episode 4! Poor Chad...

Here's a fun video of some adorable teenage boys with too much time on their hands, creatively ordering food at McDonald's. I love how they incorporated the McDonald's theme into their song.

And here's a nice little Miranda July short film.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Cole and Sam...

The aquarium was fun, although it felt like we went through it at breakneck speed. We met Julie and her kids there. I can't even imagine how many times we said, "Don't run!" I guess they were a little bit excited.

Lily liked the manatee...

Lily and Cole and the manatee...

We stood and watched this penguin for quite a while. We kept expecting him to do something. He just kept looking at us. I think he was expecting us to do something...

The flamingos were very loud - colorfully and vocally. Who knew the undersides of their wings were black? Quite dashing...

Saturday, October 07, 2006

I've been neglecting my blog.

No good excuse, really.

Went to Sweetwater last night for Amy's birthday celebration. I'm getting old. I only had a shot of vodka, a glass of wine, and a shot of tequila and I still had a slight hangover. I had intended to only have one glass of wine, but someone bought the shots. I had no choice. It would have been rude to decline. And I had all of that over a 3-hour period. When I got home I already had a headache.

I taught another workshop today. I had 2 students and my studio-mate, Krispen in the workshop. We had fun.

Tonight I met Erin for dinner at PF Chang's. I hadn't seen her in a long time, so it was nice to get caught up. Their wonton soup is really good, by the way.

Tomorrow I'm going to help out with my mom's bookkeeping stuff and then hang out at my studio for a while. I started on a 24" x 24" painting - huge after working 12" x 12" and 6" x 6" for so long. I ordered 5 of that size board, so I'm going to try to get all of them done soon.

Sam's out of school on Monday for Columbus day, so I'm going to take the day off. I think we're going to go to the Dallas World Aquarium. He's excited about it. Me, too, actually. :-)

Biff made a funny video...

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Ketty makes Mango cry.

We got to see my cousin's baby the other day. His real name is Anthony? Something like that. We all call him Mango. It started as a joke. Ketty was asking Cindy what she was going to name the baby when it was born. They were kidding around, suggesting movie star kids' names, like Apple. Mango seemed to stick.

When Ketty's not making him cry, he's really sweet...

This is when I was holding him.

Sam enjoyed taking photos and took a gazillion.

Interesting links that suggest that the media (24 hour news in particular) is ruining life as we know it:

Not fun. The Copycat Effect. Here's a link to the author's website.

Not funny but good - video essay.