Shoot From the Hip Feature

My Bambi Flask (below) is featured in a Storque article on Etsy.

You can check it out here.

Thanks to Mary for including me!

Yay Me!

Still not art, but oh so pretty!

Burned Out

You'll have to forgive my lack of posting. I spent most of the last two days doing/recovering from this and more of this.

Regular posting, including pictures of projects, should resume this week.

The Old Switcheroo

Re-arranged. It may still look pretty rammed with stuff, but believe me, there is so much more space in this room now.

Take a look. Now that the working environment is up to par, there's no excuse. Time to start working? Agreed!

Below you will see that I'm stitching up a suede-lined portfolio according to a very old Tandy pattern kit. Giddy up. The Pony Express is coming through.

Also getting ready to start stitching up a country guitar strap for some wild woman out there. I used oil dye for this and I'm extremely happy with the result. The colour is rich and uniform and the dye goes on so much more easily than the Eco-Flow I've been using for a year.

Down sides include the stink (thoughthat's what windows are for, no?) and the fact that this stuff seeps right through the sheep's wool I use to apply it, which means it gets all over my hands without my realizing it and ends up on my face. For days. Because it's not quite as washable as the Eco-Flow.

Small price to pay.

Mr. Clean

Every so often I am overcome by a panicky desire to clean the house and get rid of stuff.

Today it was brought on by an inability to function in my studio yesterday. I'm overhauling the place.

Pictures to come.

Buy the Cow, Get the Leather for Free

It's been a while since I visited Tundra and spent some serious money, so I rewarded myself by visiting Tundra and spending some serious money.

My new toys include, but are not limited to:

- An entire cow's worth of hide - half my favourite chocolate brown leather and half a good heavy tooling leather.

- Silver conchos, silver buckles and brass buckles.

- Some Feibing's oil dye, which I'm going to try my hand at because I can't handle the inconsistency of the Eco-Flo stains anymore.

- Purse, bag and portfolio patterns.

Take a look. Things are in the works. Probably too many to have started at once, but this is the way I work. Spastically and in ten different places at once.

Crazy Heart

How could there not be wicked leather in this film?

A Dude-inspired strap is on its way - my first full-on traditional western piece of leatherwork.

It Can't Rain all the Time

I have been bad at posting this week, but come on - it got really amazing after a long stretch of crappy weather.

A long stretch that is going to continue starting tomorrow if the weather network is correct. I had to get out and enjoy it. You shouldn't even have noticed I didn't update this thing because you should have been out enjoying it too. Quick! Go! There's still a whole Friday afternoon to soak up! We'll talk as soon as it gets depressing out again!

Quick update - my Canadian Geographic piece is in and edited. I'll link as soon as the issue comes out.

Also, my friend Douglas Paton just had another of his books picked up by Scholastic Canada. Yay Doug!

Techno-Test.

No real news here. I'm easing into this video blogging with what may become a cyber collector's item for its rarity.

Pat on the Back...

I don't do it often, but I will congratulate myself today - on cookies. Mine are awesome and I'll tell you why:

It's not a special recipe.

It's nothing to do with super-specific, by-weight measurements.

There are no secret ingredients I'm "forgetting" to tell you.

There's no right or wrong way to put the pieces together.

It is as simple as not wasting your time with mere chips.

Rule #1) Start with a huge ass hunk of chocolate and let it guide you.

Oh World!

I'm on pins and needles waiting to find out about a hundred things! I wish I could just curl up in a cave, like a bear outsmarting winter, until all the news arrives.

Instead, today I'm working on a little writing and a lot of fooding. It's time for more groceries, more bread-baking, more cookie-making, more using up the 10, 000 tomatoes I have in the fridge. Ooooohhhhh what delicious responsibilities!

I'm also doing a bit of thinking - FANCY THAT. My wrists have started to ache for want of hammer-holding. The post-Hillside hiatus is coming to an end and I'm ready to get back under the leather. I came up with a bunch of ideas while I was swimming today, only one of which has anything to do with water.

I'll keep you posted (via posts and pictures) as things unfold...

It's an upset!

What an ending.

In other news, last night's Crawl was a wet one. I completely forgot I had my camera with me until it was too late, so all of these are from The Brain at the end of the night. More Crawl than Art.

There is a little art by Christie Sealey - probably my favourite portrait of all time. It's so beautiful and so sneaky! Oh it's just a coffee-drinking Heather chilling in a stripe of stripped paint.

Enjoy!

Art Crawl!

Even when I'm not hosting/helping host an Art Crawl event, these Friday mornings and afternoons disappear so quickly and I have no time to get my act together before 8pm.

Lots of good stuff happening tonight. In lieu of creating a sweet post today, maybe I'll take a camera along and give you some photo footage of the evening tomorrow.

Delivery!

Packing up a new crop of earrings and necklaces to send over to White Elephant.

Other than that, I just had a few writing projects dropped in my lap and am working, working, working on finishing them up by tomorrow.

Speaking of which, here's something - I was just invited to a travel journalist's conference in Nevada. I know this is no special invite and I'm one of many to be asked, but still...pretty fun.

I'm a Lady Now!

Between not wearing heels (unless they're on cowboy boots), being hopeless with eyeliner (and most make-up for that matter), having my bike mechanic/computer nerd boyfriend cut my hair every six months because it's cheaper and easier than going to a salon, and feeling a little like Frankenstein whenever I wear a dress, I've never been much good at the whole "girl" thing.

Until today.

Line me up a point in the "lady" column because I think I just executed my first grown-up girl move. I spent money I shouldn't have on a serious piece of jewellery.

I love turquoise and have been looking for a nice slice of it for ages, but have always backed down because of the price. The stuff's not cheap. With good reason.

When I saw this ring in Sunny Rising Metal -a shop run by California's multi-talented and incredibly sweet Allison Sattinger- I flipped out. What a perfect mix of stone, setting and sentiment! A ring that keeps the outdoors with me at all times. Even when I'm housebound on a snow-scraped streetscape with no end in sight!

This little piece of beach came to me in a beautifully pakcaged box today -on a cold, dim morning when the weather leading up had me believing spring had sprung- and I am thrilled to my toes to carry summer on my fingers even in the dwindling days of winter.

Thank you Allison! I looooooooooooooove it!

Jimmy Olsen's Blues

Or in this case, Hollie of White Elephant Blues.

Here are some shots of the sweet old Kodak camera case I'm fixing for her. I should have taken pictures of this before I started in on the repairs, but it's too late now.

Anyway, the strap on the one side broke. It had an old brass grommet holding it in place and my first thought was just to snap another one in there. However, after getting some tips from Tundra, I scrapped the notion of grommetting. The exterior was so cracked and brittle where the snap had been, putting a new one in there would have A) mangled things and B) busted again in a couple months.

Instead, I cut the strap an inch or so shorter and stitched it back on to itself.

As well, I'm stitching up a bunch of the trim where it's cracking away from the body. Tough going because there are so many layers of bag to get through and I'm worried about breaking some of the more fragile parts, but we're almost there and it looks pretty darn good so far.

Bonus - it's given me an itch/idea to start making wicked leather camera cases for photo nerds.

Not to Alarm Anyone...

...but spring is here. I don't care if that's premature. I am so ready for it. This increased sunlight is making me spring crazy - my mood is va va va voom. I want to go camping!

I guess I'm kind of taking a break from art right now to focus on writing (does that sound like the douchiest statement ever? Kind of, eh? Pretentious? I don't care. I'm not). A week or two of nothing but words.

After that, maybe the sting of Memphis' pricey illness will have faded enough that I can go buy a side of hide and start on some purses I have in mind...

Cross Your Fingers

I just mailed in my application for the Hillside Festival.

I believe the competition is much steeper than for the winter festival, so cross your fingers for me. I should find out in the coming weeks.

If accepted, I start the mother of all leather prep.

Wright, Right, Write, Rite

Not very image-heavy today I'm afraid. I've been working away at writing, which = boring on the blog at least until publication.

A hundred new ideas have come into my head in the last couple days and I'm trying to find the time to turn them into pitches while simultaneously working on the writing I've already netted.

What can I rustle up for your daily eye candy...how about my messy, messy desk and the most perfect loaf of bread* I have ever made?

*Photo may not accurately represent actual loaf. It's about half that size now. Mmmmmmmm.

Awesome

This has nothing to do with my own work, but it is an awesome and extreme mix of nerd and art. I can't get enough of these guys.

I'm Sailing Away

Below, please find the Sail the Seven Seas necklace. Hand-tooled and painted on a stering silver chain. Wear it as a reminder that you chart your own course.

Speaking of steering ships, I've taken a hard line with myself at work. Management hereby finds my wardrobe unacceptable.

The daily pyjama uniform has got to go.

I thought it would be pretty awesome to work from home and never have to get dressed - couldn't understand people who work from home, but wake up every day and treat the in-house office like a real one. Isn't that part of the golden glow of the home/work environment? Every day is casual day! You can hog the coffee! You can pick through the Timbits for your favourites and leave the old-fashioned glaze and plain to go stale! You can take dog-walking breaks whenever you wish!

And all of that is pretty great, but I'm starting to see how, no matter how much one actually accomplishes in a day, one can feel like a sloppy bum unless one takes care to at least pull on a pair of pants in the morning. I was starting to feel like more of a spazzy shut-in than I'm comfortable with and the sight of myself in the bathroom mirror was becoming unsettling.

So I've selected outfits the last two days. I mean, they are jeans and they are the same pair I've been wearing since last week, but still - it seems like a step in the right direction.

If I keep this up, maybe I can beat Memphis for employee of the month in March.

Storage System

I mentioned this, but I don't think I ever posted a picture of it.

This was my birthday present back in August - a canvas storage system that Sean made with his own two hands.

We just moved it downstairs last night and it's finally (almost) fully organized for maximum output.

So awesome. And it still smells like freshly cut wood.