Dollyannacowgirl

I love this doll. And I'm not alone. There are kazillions of grown-ups playing with Blythes, which I think is awesome. Why not? Making tiny clothes for her is an activity I love doing! I always wanted to design clothes, and now I have my chance!

Therefore, I present to anyone interested, my new Etsy shop, Dollyannacowgirl. I'll be selling the dresses I make, as well as tiny-sized versions of Pollyannacowgirl jewelry. Hooray!

Also, I look like this now.

Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Penny

Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending the day with ten other East Bay crafters and artists in the Parlour Gallery loft at Pretty Penny, Oakland's favorite vintage shop! Here are a few highlights:

The lovely Monica of Wonderwear. Her work is delicate and really beautiful; just like her! I lusted after a necklace made with a triangle of vintage lace and gems, but foolishly left it behind. My life is a series of regrets!

Lauren Davis of CrookedSister organized the event along with fellow artist Bennykelly; above are Lauren's flowers and bowties, made from all vintage fabrics, many of which came from the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse, a resource that we are SO lucky to have in the 'hood. I got two awesome hair clips, but also coveted her hand-embroidered bags (she does everything by hand!). Here's me with my seashell hair clip along with my bunny earrings and my sexy tank from Queen of Hearts.



A rare tolerable side-view pic!



My space. It was fun to scale down from the previous weekend's monster space to my good old wee table. It was also divine that all my stuff was already packed and ready. If only it were always this easy!



Laureen and John are the proprietors of Volta Press, a printing studio that just had their open house yesterday! Their work is just seriously awesome, and their studio is cute and tidy, with butter-yellow walls and a kick-ass Vandercook letterpress. They take the art of letterpressing seriously and it shows! Dare I say that if I ever get married, I know who's making my invitations.


I fell in love with these earrings from It's Scrap, my booth neighbor to the left. They are made from scraps of bookbinding leather, and printed using the same kind of machine that prints book covers. Awesome, yes? Lara, the designer, is also a poet and a super-cool lady; I never thought that I could find jewelry emotionally touching, but there's something about her stamped phrases that really gets me!



I made a handful of excellent trades, including a gorgeous pair of bottle-cap bunny earrings from Lea of Salvaged Beauty, and two haunting hand-sewn notebooks from Allison of Abeo Bestia. My table was located next to these two hilarious ladies, and their good cheer made my day. Seriously, I have never encountered such a friendly group of ladies; it was a total party up there; we dished about exciting things like business licenses and sales tax and small-space crafting, which was great.

Below you'll find me yakking it up with Bess from Bird vs. Bird, a famous Etsian and fellow container-gardening, tiny-home-living, full-time-working, Yahoo-News-reading Oakland lady. Yes!



I just had the best time; from time to time a young man came around to serve us ice-cold beers, which may or may not have contributed to my epic slo-mo fall into a pile of my own purses. If that isn't a sign of a great craft show, I don't know what is. But seriously, this event was so well-curated and I left wanting to hang out with everyone again soon. I also sold a lot, which is always a bonus. Cheers to Pretty Penny, Lauren, Kelly, and everyone else who made last Saturday rock!

July!

Well, hell's bells, it's been a long time. I'm gonna have to rewind a few weeks, to my 30th birthday celebration in San Luis Obispo. I was lucky enough to spend the day with my family, doing all the things I like to do, which are mostly variations of eating and drinking. Sometimes my hometown likes to torture me with wonderful places and events that tempt me to stay forever; the charming new restaurant Granada Bistro is an example. Housed in an old building marked for demolition next year, Granada's owners created a tiny, ethereal hangout that will disappear before people realize how great it is. They serve international wines and beers at a reasonable price, and the decor is lush and homey. I'm not going to go into flowery detail, because I just read a food review last night that, and I kid you not, used the phrase "snarky watercress" in reference to some sandwich. Really?


That said, I also very much enjoy the food and atmosphere at Buona Tavola in SLO. They serve an olive tapenade with mustard seeds along with an array of fresh breads that is truly the greatest condiment ever. You can buy it in jars now, but it's never quite the same when you're not sitting in a sunny garden patio with twinkle-lighted trees.




Then, Renegade Craft Fair! What a weekend. I met tons of new people and sold my heart out. I also got to catch up with old friends and acquaintances, who just kept appearing at my booth! That was a nice surprise.

A few sweet trades with fellow vendors, including this adorable birdie ring from Beebalalou sitting on top of an apron from Hambone & Jennicakes, filled my shopping urges, so I, too, left Fort Mason a satisfied customer. Exhausted, but satisfied.


Next up: what I did last weekend, in sepia tone!

Not a fast learner...

Remember yesterday when I wasn't freaking out? Yeah, scratch that. I'm freaking out a little. So much to do, so little time! Like, seriously! This is the plight of a life-long procrastinator. I'm pretty sure that there hasn't been an time that I haven't procrastinated, no matter how important the event/assignment/job. I always wait until the last minute. And amazingly, I learn nothing from the disastrous results!

But I miraculously squeeze by every time, which should happen this time as well. I'm also really excited; I have a lot of new products and an all-new display, including my beloved pea-soup green school desk.

When I'm at work and I need to get things done, I like to listen to French 60's pop. When I need to do mindless busywork, I listen to stand-up comedy. Right now, I need to get things done, so here's a Scopitone of France Gall singing "Baby Pop," one of my nose-to-the-grindstone superjams.

I can't tell if this is the most boring video I've ever seen, or the most awesomely nuanced piece of film of all time. I suspect a little of both.

Let's do a vote; whose dancing do you prefer, the girl in the white dress, or the black?

Less than 48 hours until the big days. SO NERVOUS/EXCITED. However, I'm not feeling frantic. I spent last weekend being so edgy and crazy that I think I'm plumb out of panic, and have moved into a resigned (though I prefer to call it relaxed) state of mind. So that's good, right?

Last night we watched some episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation while I cut chain, glued feathers and charms onto vintage plastic hair combs, and ate a chocolate bunny left over from Easter. Multitasking?

Hey! I disappeared there for a while, having a strange, wonderful, painful, eventful birthday weekend. I swam in the ocean, saw Carrie Fisher put on a Princess Leia wig, ate fig & prosciutto stuffed quails, laughed a lot, cried a lot, received many greetings from friends I desperately miss, got my hair did and my teefs cleaned, and now I'm back to face the music, whatever that may be. Mostly, crafty catch-up!

I'm going down to Los Altos tonight to pick up this sweet old school desk for my display at Renegade. I don't like being behind a table; I feel hidden and also like I'm reaching and fumbling awkwardly all the time. So I thought it would be nice to be a little more accessible to customers, while still having flat space for credit cards, wrapping, etc. I've been scouring Craigslist for a good, affordable desk, and amazingly, this gem was still available. Isn't it cute?!

As usual, I'm scrambly and panicky trying to get Pollyannacowgirl stuff made in time, but that's the way I've always rolled, so why would it be any different now that I'm the big 3-0?

By Special Request...My "Tribute" to MJ

I grew up less than an hour away from Neverland Ranch. Whenever anyone saw a stretch limo in the area, we always assumed, "Oh, Michael Jackson," and craned our necks for a peek of the white glove. One of my friends even saw him once, shopping at the Toys 'r Us in Santa Maria.

What I'm trying to say is that Michael Jackson was always there, on tv, on the radio, and in our general kid consciousness. If you're my age, your best memories of him were of his early 80's persona, when you were still too scared to watch Thriller. I remember hearing "Billie Jean" when I was four or five and getting kind of spooked by it; I think I found the synth riff haunting; it made me feel sad. (I also got spooked by the song "Maneater," and any song with a robot-sounding voice. That's the kind of kid I was.)

I don't feel personally sad about his death, because the version of Michael Jackson my inner child remembers has been gone for years and years. But I feel sad about a lot of other things. How does a person get to that point? To live the way he did meant that he had no real friends, no one to say, "Hey. What are you doing? We're concerned about you," but merely an army of yes men willing to prescribe any drug, to keep weird sexual secrets, and who knows what else. Such an odd, dark path doesn't happen without the consent of many outside parties. Also, there's us, the public who loved to watch as his life became increasingly bizarre. "Did you hear what Michael Jackson just did? What a freak!" People love to watch a downward spiral.

It seems like if you magically got whatever you wanted, that things would turn out pretty good.

But if what you want is your lost childhood, you end up with a monkey, a lonely amusement park, and slumber parties that weren't quite right. It's an incredible story, really, and that's what I can't stop thinking about. Not Michael Jackson the person, because we'll never truly know about that, but the fact that his crazy, sad, fascinating story is over. MJ never stopped trying to find whatever it was he was looking for, we never stopped watching him, and that, my friends, is "human nature."

Happy 4th of July!

I know it's the 5th already, but I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I'm at my parents' house, eating as much as I possibly can and playing with dolls. (Which is an ideal weekend for me, obviously.)

I'm going to do this!

I found this little tutorial on Cheekystitch;I'm totally going to do it. If I have my facts straight, Peter went trunk-hunting for me today and found a good one for $15. We'll see what awaits me when I get home!

P.S. This project may require a trip to Paper Source, which is a reason to get started right away! God, I love that place.

Sweater Contest still in effect...

I'm just not so much in effect! All of a sudden I'm working on a million projects. I'll be back later this week with the latest and possibly greatest entrants.

Day 1: The Contenders

I'm not going to offer any commentary in an attempt to keep neutral. That said, here are the first four entrants in the Contest. Keep 'em coming!

World's Finest Sweater Contest

I know that the fugly sweater meme is pretty much played out; Leslie Hall, et al. But when I came upon these sweaters on a search for "granny style" (part of a future post theme) I couldn't help but post them. I actually like them, in a mostly unironic way, I think (it's so hard to tell anymore...thanks a lot, hipster culture!).

I'm in the mood to mix it up around here. So let's have a contest! Send me comments with links to the most remarkable sweater you can find. I'll post the submissions each day. At the end of next week, we'll vote, and I'll crown a winner, who will receive an appropriate prize.

The sweater you choose doesn't even have to be ugly; it just might have a certain irresistible power. Like Mr. Sun up there.

Let's do this!

I made a bunch of new stuff for Maker Faire, but haven't photographed any of it! My own laziness never ceases to amaze me. I did attempt this big clutch recently; it's pretty cool but could use a zipper.


I'm reorganizing my "studio" in an attempt to make the idea of working more palatable. Unfortunately, it's in that stage called "getting worse before it gets better," a fun zone where I like to leave a lot of projects. How do you power through things when you're feeling lazy?

Leisure time!

Let's start things off with a bang! Shop window, Dunsmuir, CA.

Why is there a melted Peep in the middle of the forest?

A tiny egg.

Living the dream.

Roots.

Happy.

A moth's last hurrah.

No explanation necessary.

Mt. Shasta

Fresh and delicious.

Goin' Camping

Tomorrow I'm going camping! I've never been the instigator of a camping trip before, just gone along for the ride, so it will be an adventure. So far I have a borrowed tent, sleeping bags, and those wire sticks that hold marshmallows. That ought to do it, right?

Just keeeding! I'm hitting up Big 5 after work tonight to pick up all the essentials. We'll be staying at Castle Crags State Park (which may not exist after Gov. Schwarzenegger is finished with the Cali budget...sheesh!) near Mount Shasta. I really love Northern Northern California, and I'm excited to do some hardcore chilling and possibly some river dippin'. Quick and important questions for y'all, though:

In order of importance...

1. Will a bear be able to smell my beeswax hair product from outside the tent while I am sleeping?

2. Do you have any easy camp recipes you're willing to share?

I came home from my visit to my parents' house to discover that Peter had bought me a gigantic box of craft supplies, clearly from someone's deceased grandmother. It included crochet needles of all sizes, tons of beads, felt, vintage hankies, and clothespins. So naturally, I looked up "clothespin dolls." This is the first thing I found.

How can I top this? Is there even any point? My heart is swelling with cute.

The site is all in Japanese and I can't tell if these dollies are still for sale, but check it out. Damn. I mean, damn.

Mmmm, Mamety...

I haven't read/seen all of David Mamet's plays, but the films I've seen written by him seem to follow this formula: semi-innocent guy gets mostly screwed by the hands that feed him; psychological turmoil ensues. These include last year's Redbelt, Glengarry Glen Ross, and the Spanish Prisoner, which we watched on Netflix last night. I really liked this movie and wanted Peter to see it, but I had forgotten about one thing: the overwhelmingly leaden performance by Mamet's wife, Rebecca Pidgeon.

Google searches weren't de rigeur in 1997 when I first saw this movie and was blown away by Ms. Pidgeon's bizarre acting choices, but now that I have the world's opinions at my fingertips, I decided to see what other folks had to say.

From my Google search for "Rebecca Pidgeon BAD actress," I snaked this commentary from Fametracker.com;

Most people aren't sure whether Rebecca Pidgeon, wife to David Mamet, is a good
or bad actress, because they've only seen her in Mamet films. She shows up on
cue to speak robotically like Actresstron 3000. The truth, though, is that she's
performing perfectly. Mamet, who's famously wary of actorly flourishes, wishes
that all his actors spoke that way.

From my Google search for "Rebecca Pidgeon WORST actress," I got this:

The worst actor in modern film history, IMO, is David Mamet's wife, Rebecca
Pidgeon. She's hysterically bad, bad to the point that you begin to wonder if
she's kidding.

Watch the preview and see if I'm overreacting. However, aside from WeirdyMcActresson, The Spanish Prisoner is a pretty gripping mystery, especially if you love to hear about scams.

Are there any actors/actresses whose mere existence is like nails on a chalkboard to you? I'll give you a few more of my dealbreakers for inspiration: Leslie Nielsen and Charles Grodin, They aren't even bad actors, I just plain don't like 'em.

Humor and Heartbreak

Since my brush with Bedazzled yesterday, I've remembered that the mid-60's British New Wave gave us a few more similar films in the same depressed guy/fantasy vein. These are some dark, dark comedies, but I love 'em and recommend 'em highly.

First up: Billy Liar, starring Tom Courtenay and a radiant Julie Christie in her film debut. It's a about, you guessed it, a depressed young guy with a rich fantasy life.



Next, The Knack and How to Get It, starring my favorite gangly 60's heartthrob, Michael Crawford. You may know him as the dude who did Phantom of the Opera for like 40 years, but I like to remember him as the clumsy cutie in his younger days. This movie is a bit of a trippy bummer, but is worth it for Richard Lester's (A Hard Day's Night) kooky directing and sharp cinematography. Also, did I mention how cute Michael Crawford was?



All these films are funny, romantic, and genuinely unsettling. Billy Liar will make you want to punch the world in the face by the closing credits, and when you're done watching The Knack, you'll find yourself lonely and confused. Still, it's worth a trip to this strange little pocket of film history.

Bedazzled (no, not that one!)

San Luis Obispo's Sunset Drive-In has been one of my favorite places to go for most of my life. More on that later. I've seen a lot of terrible movies there, including the criminally awful Bedazzled, a 2000 film starring Brendan Fraser and Liz Hurley. And I have a very high Fraser tolerance, so you know it had to be bad.

However, I didn't know it was a remake of a trippy and awesome movie from 1967 starring the British comedy team Dudley Moore and Peter Cook. I know, I know, Dudley Moore is a big turn-off for most people, even more than B. Fraser for some, but hear me out. I caught about 3/4ths of the original Bedazzled on cable at my parents' house today, and I got hooked. It's basically a retelling of the Faust story; a doofus sells his soul to the cunning devil in return for seven wishes.

Peter Cook rocks as the Devil; you may remember him as the priest from The Princess Bride ("Mawwige. Mawwige is what brings us togetha, today."), but his performance as a joyful trickster who slowly gets outed as a malevolent douchebag is not to be missed. I'll be renting this to watch the final scenes, which I missed, but in the meantime, here's the Devil outperforming Dudley Moore with a hell-powered psychedelic superjam.



Addendum: I found an interesting article about Bedazzled's cult status and how the audience response propelled its stars in opposite directions than expected!

Highlights from Maker Faire!

I had a great time at Maker Faire this year, although it was all spent behind my booth, hawking my wares at Bazaar Bizarre! I'd never done a show of this size so I was pretty nervous to begin with; but everything ran smoothly. I made a ton of sales, met all kinds of amazing people, and learned a lot about what I'll do differently next time, which will be in a few short months at Renegade SF. Now for some pictures! I got a super-cute necktie cuff from fellow CCA grad and Oakland lady CC Star, who I hope to chill with in the near future. Mine has wee blue whales on it, but I also love this stegosaurs combo.

I traded one of my birdcage necklaces for a gorgeous ceramic cup with an otter on it made by the delighful and talented Hue Yang. Trading is one of the best things about doing shows!

I got a new Chickenpants from Absolutely Small, who is now taking up residence in my work cubicle.

Katy Kristin and I were suprised to meet the supplier of our German plastic mushrooms; I also met the designer of a polka-dot fabric used in one of my purses.

I met a new amiga, Polly Danger from LA. Aside from sharing a name, we have a lot in common and I was so happy to finally meet her! I'll be using this awesome coupon holder to keep my receipts organized.

The whole Conway family was enamored with Archicraft's product line. My mom bought a crocheted cowl for herself, the below bandana for my brother, a plastic doily, and I purchased a handful of charms and rings made from cast-off plastic architecture models.

Here's little old me surrounded by my stuffs. You can play a fun game called "Find the Giant Cup of Beer" in this picture. What a weekend!