urban market

Last week, my mom, cousin and I went down to the Urban Market in the Heights. It was reaally muddy, but fun nonetheless.

There were a ton of booths selling antiques and interesting things.. one place had a bunch of random stuff in jars.. like these sea creatures:

I got to take some fun shots with my fisheye!

crazy cool coral..

I bought some upholstery fabric from this bin.. should be able to make a Ton of bags from it..

I wish we had more opportunities like this in houston... I miss Urban Ore like CRAZY and wish wish wish I had one around here.. there probably is one, I just haven't seem to have found it yet.

guest

I'm guest blogging over at Stephanie's blog today, i ate everything! go check it out!

junip

guess what?!

Junip just released a new EP, titled Rope and Summit. Only 4 tracks, and i've only listened to it once through, but so far, i'm in love. Junip is Jose Gonzalez' Swedish band. If you haven't heard of jose, you should definitely check him out.. or at the very very least watch the sony bravia commercial that made him famous.. here. (that's the best quality version i could find..)

Anyway, you can dl the new EP for.. FREE if you join the mailing list.. which I was already apart of..

I am pretty bummed that they won't be touring at all in Texas this year.. but then I remembered I've already seen jose gonzalez.. I got to see him in SF on my 22nd birthday.. Even though I was thoroughly sleep-deprived (hadn't slept in about... 40-some odd hours due to studio) it was a very enjoyable evening, and I slept like a baby. All in all a great way to start my 22nd year.

art in the park

so, as you guys know.. maybe.. I participated in the First Annual Art in the Park in F-wood. My mom, our friend Carrie, and I shared two booths and sat around all day on saturday trying to sell stuff.. I was the only one who sold anything.. hah

My mom has started making custom headboards for kids.. and Carrie whipped up some paintings the week before to sell. Because this was the first one, I don't think the people who attended knew what to expect or that there would be stuff to buy.. and I don't think they quite got the custom headboards concept.. but live and learn eh?

We hung old gates from our house in Galveston to make walls, and we put the bags and paintings on them...

This particular bag was a huge hit:

Two of the three bags I sold were of this pattern!


I made little owls to match the lining of each bag. Also, I got my grandma's old cursive typewriter and made all the tags with it.. love my $1 stamp I got from Michael's hahah

On the table, I set up little photo clips.. I had some ladies buy them for their cubicles.. and even though I only sold 3 sets, I made a $6 profit! awesome

Mr. Owl (help me name him!!! or is he a she? Henrietta? ) made an appearance, and got quite a bit of attention from the ladies..

Anyway, 1st goal of the new year completed! says the one who never makes new years resolutions...
I thought it was fun, and I know what to do and what not to do for next time.. if there is a next time.. for now, I think my sewing machine needs a break and needs to be cleaned out.. so she'll be out of commission for two weeks.


In other news, Gregor totally hooked me up w his professor at UHCL and it looks like I will get dark room access for the summer!! woooo hoooo so be on the lookout for some fun jena-printed originals. I have 8 rolls of film from the past 3-4 years that have been sitting around.. so I am pretty anxious/really nervous to find out what is on them... ahhhh I know one of them is from New Orleans 07.. so that should be fun

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.