summer 2010

another mix! hehehe basically I'm making this because I like these songs, and I can't afford any CDs right now.. so, I just listen to my own mixes on repeat. lame? no.

anyway, I likes these songs, and I think it makes a great summer mix.

I was thinking about doing an intro to chill wave mix.. but I don't think I like this genre quite yet. I'm warming up to it. thoughts on chill wave? nudge nudge, donna. ;)

Anyway, here are nine tracks..



We've got:
Radiohead - 15 steps
Yeasayer - O.N.E.
Passion Pit - Little Secrets
Cults - Go Outside
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Home
Local Natives - Wide Eyes
Toro y Moi - Blessa
Real Estate - Beach Comber
Jonsi - Go Do

enjoyssss

apparently...

I make bags now..

It all started in the middle of march when I decided to make some tote bags for my mom for her birthday.. and then it morphed into me learning how to make pockets and attach clasps:



and then I started experimenting with different styles (still very simple, box-like):

anyway, its been fun creating things.. the architect in me likes making bags because it involves taking a 2d object and making it 3d.. so fun!

I also designed a tag for them using my chinese name stamp. I felt it was appropriate because the name stamp is like a signature and used on artwork.. i dunno 行不行？

I even got Daisy to be a model, which only works if I have a tennis ball in one hand.

Hopefully I will be selling these at an arts and crafts fair on Saturday, so I made some zebra ones too:

Its been a fun distraction.. and as long as my sewing machine that my grandma bought in the 70's keeps working, I'll be set for saturday! updates to follow of course. hehe

remember

back when baby mao bi was a baby?

remember when I made this video of him eating in his red carrying case..

When I got him, I actually got two turtles, who fit into that red carrying case very comfortably..

back when he was the size of an yi yuan coin:

now, he's pretty much quadrupled in size: (same yi yuan coin, about the size of a quarter)

and won't even fit into that carrying case...

so crazy how much he can grow in a year and a half! and I think most of that growing was in the last 6 months... my mom always thinks he's starving.

He's got some weird stuff on his shell that the vet will soon take care of.. but for now, he very much enjoys his life of leisure. He swims and swims and sleeps on his basking rock, and climbs up on the filter and then dives off... he even swims backwards when he gets too excited about food. And he actually prefers to eat out of my hand rather than me drop his food in the tank.

Yesterday, I got him a girlfriend. a felt girlfriend with flowers.

He already had CJ as a companion, so now he has a lady friend too.

art festival

Today, mom and I went to the Woodlands Arts Festival. Her friend from Wisconsin, Jill Schienle, is an artist and travels around the country selling her jewelry.

You can find her work at her website. Very cool stuff..

We also visited her friend Kristin Wornson's (of skipping lilies) booth

She works with her brother outside of Minneapolis and they make these amazing pendants:

photo from skippinglilies.com

You should definitely check out both of these artists' work.. its amazing!

happy one hundredth!

feets one hundredth post! from jena hammond on Vimeo.

ps. thank you stephanie for the idea!

martha foster womack

A few weeks ago I received four, yes FOUR boxes of fabric and crochet that were my grandma's. I have one box full of crocheted granny squares... they need to be stitched together into an afghan or something.. the other three boxes are full of cut squares of this polyester blend fabric. My grandma loved that stuff.. I don't really know why. Nor do I know why they are all cut into squares.. was she planning on making a quilt? out of polyester? (not the most comfortable quilt) And they aren't the most appealing colors either.. I assume most of them are from the late 60s early 70s and feature some awful browns and mustard colors. Anyway, Thank you granny for leaving me all of these projects to complete! hah

Anyway, I spent the better part of Sunday afternoon sorting all of the squares into colors and thinking about my granny.. I decided to dedicate a post to her and let you all know how wonderful of a woman she was and all the little tidbits I remember about her.

She was born in 1919 (side note: I found a 1919 penny the other day!) and married my grandpa, Lounds "Red" Samuel Womack Sr. (Now that's a southern name!) in 1956.

She was TINY! I tried on her wedding dress when I was like, 10, and could barely zip it up...

They had two kids: my mom and my uncle (Lounds Samuel Jr.).

She was the craftiest person I've ever known. She made me all of my dresses when I was little, and when I got an American Girl doll for Christmas one year, she already had a whole wardrobe that matched my own.

When my grandparents had their house designed and built in the 50's she made sure to have two pantries in the kitchen, and two huge closets in the hallway - one for fabric, and one for yarn.

She called the ladder to the attic the "dis'ppearin' staircase." And all little kids we called "Angel foot."

She was a pack-rat and kept everything. When I got her sewing machine, I also got every receipt from every service she had had on it.

She had the biggest sweet tooth and when possible, ordered dessert first.

Every Sunday was like Thanksgiving at her house. She had everything timed impeccably. We would go to church, and within 10 minutes of returning to the house, supper would be ready. I was in charge of filling the tea glasses with ice and mint leaves from the back yard.

She always had a fridge stocked with her newest dessert creation and glass-bottle cokes. Coke was always offered before any other drink.

She had this insane ability to make anyone and everyone feel right at home. She loved to have parties and would jump at any opportunity to have a wedding or shower at her house.. often accompanied by punch with a handmade ice ring (with lemon, lime and orange rinds carefully shaped to look like roses), and dyed sugar cubes in shapes to fit the occasion... hearts or baby booties.

If you ever had a baby born, a birthday, or a death in the family, you could count on my granny to be the first one at your doorstep with a basket of goodies and some handmade blankets or toys.

In the early-nineties, she wrote to Woman's Day magazine and asked for a recipe for cracklin' cornbread. We were eating that stuff for months because letters and recipes from all over came into her house in huge bags. She must have received hundreds if not thousands of letters with recipes from all sorts of people. We kept getting them for years and years, but they finally stopped. Then in 2006, a year after my grandma passed away, my uncle got one more recipe (he lives in her old house).

She made THE BEST chicken and dumplings I've ever had, and anyone who has ever had the pleasure of tasting them will say the same thing. And my mom is still trying (in vain, sorry mom.) to make her rolls rise and her potato salad taste just right..

And, when she got older, and moved into a retirement community in Friendswood, I would go have dinner with her after school. We would sit at the table of the, "most handsome young man" server and she would proceed to try to set me up with him. "He has the most lovely blue eyes." hahah

My dad says that they were so special because they just came from a completely different era.. My grandpa was 52 when my mom was born.. while my other grandma was still a teenager when she had my dad. They loved and lived life to the fullest and would never miss an opportunity to bless others.

on another note, I totally thought this was going to be my one-hundredth post. danshi, I had one unpublished draft in my post archive thing.. making this post my 99th published posting..

therefore...