JOURNAL REVOLUTION

soft candy

Thanks to everyone who emailed or posted pictures of the article about me in Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion Magazine! It's so hard not to be able to see it when everyone else is. There was a MEHC spotting in my town but I ran out of time today to go hunting for it.  I do see the article is online now.

Prints of some of the art featured are now available in my etsy shop.

I have more to say but not enough time to say it today.  Tonight I realized that I forgot to buy Halloween candy and that is a problem that needs to be solved immediately! I kind of hope I solve that problem and then no trick-or-treaters come! Oh, hmmmm, I guess I have to buy really soft candy just in case we are left with candy after tomorrow night. Yes, just in case. I forgot that I am limited by the Curse of The Cracked Tooth. I can tell you for sure that I won't be getting more candy corn.
What kind of candy are you giving out or hiding for yourself this year?

stolen

Only a few more days until the magazine is officially out but I've been getting emails from people that they have seen it in stores.  Karen and I are going in search of it. If you have it in your hot little hands, can you take a photo of my pages for me? I haven't seen it yet. I stole this photo from Mary Smilove's blog.

loved

I have absolutely no idea where today went. I thought it was about 5;30, glanced up and it's already almost tomorrow. I don't think I have even mashed my lunch up and sucked it through a straw yet.
I've spent a good part of the day proofing photos for an ad campaign. I shot the photos over the weekend when I was in Palm Springs. While I was there,  I was lucky enough to meet photographer Jayel Aheram and see his incredible work. I can't say enough good things about this guy. The captions he writes with his photos are as moving as the photos.  If you get a chance to see his work up close, you should. I bought one of my favorite prints of his and can't wait to get it framed and up on my wall.

Being in Palm Springs also gave us a chance to spend some time with our brother, Tod, and his wife and their cute dogs! When we were growing up, we had a dog named Sam who was part Cocker Spaniel (like Tod's dogs) but we have very few photos of Sam or us with Sam. Oh how we loved Sam. So, this lazy sunday morning as we sat around in the warm light of the sun, my camera never left my hands. This is one of my favorite shots.

at the moment

Thanks so much to everyone who emailed about my silly tooth situation. Silly isn't really the word I want to use. I want to say fucked up but I am going with silly in the hopes that if I call it silly long enough it will heal itself instead of rebelling more. The second opinion was the same as the first but I liked the second surgeon way better. Way, way better. The cost is about the same and stupid Delta Dental Insurance does not cover implants. I am not a good candidate for a bridge as many have suggested or I would go for that option. The thing is, the tooth is near the front and I am really always smiley and laughy* and the tooth is clearly visible. The good news is the break is on the side to the inside of my mouth and is annoying and sore and makes it so I can't chew on that side but is not totally visible at the moment. OMG, how will I eat Wheat Thins for lunch when Dustin goes back to work on Monday?
So, I am still with the fucked up silly broken tooth and thinking about what to do and how to pay for it.  And I am thinking of all the things I want to eat and can't now. This might end up being a really good diet!
I am headed out of town for the weekend to do a little photo shoot for an ad campaign and to checkout Jayel Aheram's photo exhibit.
If you've got a good recipe for soft food, be sure to share it with me.

*probably very annoying to people.

thought too soon

Yesterday I was doing some stuff around the house and thinking about how my husband is going back to work Monday and how lucky we are that  nothing really expensive happened while he was off work this time. As far as bad things happening during a period of unemployment, this one was pretty good. I figured I should celebrate that realization with some candy corn. It was a good batch of candy corn, nice and fresh. Very soft! I popped a few in my mouth and then felt a POP!!! One of my teeth broke! It wasn't even a back tooth. It was a tooth near the front that broke down really low, of course.  I thought too soon.
I went to the dentist first thing this morning thinking she'd just shoot me up with some novocaine and fix it but I was not so lucky. I thought too soon again. She told me that tooth must come out and an implant should go in. She sent me off to the surgeon for a consultation. I was determined to keep an open mind about the  surgeon even though I had not met him before, but his office is in a building with the worst parking lot ever so I already kind of hated him. Trader Joe's also has a horrible parking lot but they sell really good stuff that makes people happy so I let that slide with them. The implant guy's office was very nice and high tech, his staff seemed pretty nice and there was a computer with XM radio at the foot of the chair I was sitting in. I filled out the paperwork:
List the medications you are currently taking:
1. Armour Thyroid
2. Ambien
3. Topamax (for migraines)
4. Feosol (Iron)
5. Vitamin D

Implant guy comes in and says, oh you are one of Dr. Anna's patients. She is right, that tooth has to come out. Dr. Anna probably told you.... and then I started to not like him. Dr. Anna? What am I, six years old? I bet this guy doesn't like to be called Dr. Firstname. He went on. Dr. Anna says you want to be sedated for the extraction and implant. No problem. I see you are taking Xanax. I can give you something stronger.
Uh, WHAT? He sees I am taking Xanax? Well that is news to me. IT'S NOT ON MY LIST!!
I explained to him that there was no way in hell I wanted to be awake for the procedure where they drill a screw into my jaw. He assured me I'd be out as he rushed out of the room and sent me out to talk to the girl in the office who tells you that the screw in the jaw capped off with a faux tooth will cost as much as a fabulous trip to London with an overnight trip to Florence to see the Duomo. As the salesgirl was finishing telling me the cost and I was trying to figure out what to do and how to say I want a second opinion, she hands me a packet of pills with the instructions to take one at night before the procedure, one the morning of the procedure, then one right before the procedure. I looked at the packet marked HALCION. That's the sedative, she explained, it's better than a needle in your arm. Some people even fall asleep and we have to wake them up to open their mouths. If it wears off you can take more once the doctor starts.
Uh, no, no no. I don't think so. Mrs. Linda wants a doctor who can read and sedates people with IV drugs.

Tomorrow I am getting a second opinion from a surgeon with a better parking lot. Then I think I'll think about packing  my bags and heading to Canada where it will no doubt cost half the price including round trip airfare and include a week with friends who make good soup, roar with laughter and who will touch up my roots and give me the perfect A-line bob while I recover.

gossip!

There's a new interview with both of us up at the craft gossip blog!
Thanks to Sarah Hodsdon for the fun interview questions. She's so cool.

totally googling himself

As I said yesterday, it's a shame I won't be on the jury for that arrested granny. Poor Edna Jester. Oh how I relate to her.

In a TSG interview, an emotional Jester said that she had repeatedly warned her teenage neighbors that she did not want to retrieve their football since, "I'm not a ball chaser." Jester, pictured at right, added that she frequently told the young football enthusiasts that she did not want them on her property and did not want to be bothered while she was reading the Bible or eating dinner.

The dad of the football playing kids seems like a dick. His name is Paul Tanis. We're gonna go out on a limb here and say he probably suffers from other issues related to his dick, too. Of course it is entirely possible that Edna is a mean old grandma (though it doesn't seem like it and we're taking her side) and if that is the case, you teach your kids how to avoid the mean old lady on the street and how to kick your ball in the other direction so it doesn't go in her yard. We always knew who to avoid on our street.
We're sending a letter of support to Edna. If you want to, too, her address is on the police report here. Hmmm, there's also an address for that dicky Paul Tanis. You know he's totally googling himself.

lampmaker conspiracy

Today We're FEELIN' GROOVY about:
~Last night when I was making dinner, a repeat ball landed in the back yard. I'm trying to think of something to write on it before I send it back over the fence.
~The colors of the finally changing leaves, against the clear blue sky
~Overhead lights.  I sure do miss having those; how come no one puts them in ceilings anymore? Is it a vast, lampmaker conspiracy??
~True Blood. I love Tara.
~The chicken salad with grapes and the chocolate cream cheese cake from The Rose Cafe are still as good as they were 20 years ago. What a treat! The homeless people outside are still there, too, that is the sad part.
~I can confidently say now that the SatinyTropical Flawless Secret deodorant does not smell like a deli tray. Go for it.
~Chico's is getting some less ugly clothes!!! A lot of it is still ugly but they do have some cute jackets that are in the cool style of about 2 years ago- fitted, solid color, not lame fabric. This jacket in purple is very cool and if you have a coupon it is even better. I wonder why they didn't iron it before the photo shoot? The purple jacket might be available in stores only.

Our Bêtes Noires:
~Alec Baldwin. He's gross. He's smarmy. He can't act. He couldn't even do that short SNL bit without reading cue cards. And we hated him even before he left those mean messages to his daughter on her voice mail.
~David Duchovny's face on everything. Californication is really extra bad this season (not that it was that great to begin with). Hmmm... is David Duchovny pretty much just playing his sex addict self as Hank Moody?
~I don't think there's any way I'll get a seat on the jury for the poor 89-year-old grandma charged with STEALING THE BALL the bratty neighbor kids tossed into her yard. Granny needs me. But, it is OHIO and there is a chance she's the same old bag of wrinkles who yelled at me for Karen being on a cell phone, so yeah.
~There's never enough toilet paper in public places. When a big crowd is coming, get more than 2 rolls.
~I've been recording The Amazing Race but haven't had a chance to get caught up yet. I can't believe I haven't watched it!
~I didn't snap any photos of the dumpy apartment building Karen and I lived in 20 years go (in the slums of Venice) when I was there they other day.  It looked a bit safer now than it did then. The building is now beige instead of gross green. I'll have to go back and since I'll be in the 'hood, I'll have to eat the The Rose again. Oh well, must be done.

beautiful noise

It's a beautiful noise
Made of joy and of strife
Like a symphony played
By the passing parade
It's the music of life
-----Neil Diamond

A couple years ago Karen and I were in Cincinnati where we noticed that fewer people were on cell phones all the time like they are in LA. It went beyond just slightly noticing it, it was odd to us. One evening, we went to a book store and had a bite to eat at the trendy cafe in the book store. Dining around us was a very loud knitting group who were thrilled with their new yarn, a very loud group of conservative people who were praying for the souls of gays and Jews, a loud group of moms and kids whose kids kept saying mom, mom, mom but the moms never answered, and a wrinkled mean grandma who was sitting alone behind me. I remember  hearing and seeing all of these things because I like to listen to what is going on around me. And, they were all so loud. Even the scowl on grandma's face was loud. While Karen and I were eating our crab cakes, her cell phone vibrated with a call from a client. She'd been waiting for the call and talked to her client while we ate. She talked in a normal volume voice, as if she were talking to me. It didn't bother me at all.  She had to work and I had a magazine to read -and really -cell phone calls are a part of our life. Karen speaking in a normal voice on a cell phone really pissed off scowling grandma with no friends, though, and she came over to our table and yelled at me for Karen being on a cell phone in a restaurant.
Today on Oprah they were discussing rudeness and a lot of people thought cell phone issues like texting or answering calls in the presence of other people is rude. I've never really understood why people think having to listen to a person talk on their phone is rude. How is it any different than listening when they are talking to a friend? Should two friends stop talking in an elevator if someone else comes in? I love listening to other people talk to each other! It's funny! It's the auditory version of people watching!  How is someone talking in a normal voice on a cell phone in a restaurant more rude than LOUD ANTI-SEMITES in a restaurant?! Or  LOUD KNITTERS?!  Or LOUD KIDS?! What is rude about a phone?
I admit that before I got my iPhone, I didn't understand the obsession with texting or emailing from a cell phone, but now that I have one, I am one of those people who is always texting or answering email from her phone. My phone (just like my camera!) is always on the table when I am at dinner, just like the phones of my friends. We're all texting while out with each other and none of us seem offended.  I am wondering if perhaps being offended by cell phones is more of a geographical thing. Or, is it something people think is rude because they don't have an iPhone, yet?

Revived

I have a new print in my etsy shop.

About five years ago, an editor at Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion magazine bought some art from me. At the time she bought the art, I didn't know she worked for my favorite magazine. She eventually approached me about being in the magazine and asked for photos of my cool studio. The "cool studio" I worked in five years ago is the one I am still working in~ a closet. Or wherever the mood strikes me. The  the world is my studio type of studio wasn't as cool as a selling point five years ago and things didn't work out. I had other things going on and it was no big deal. Still, every month when my issue of MEHC came, I wanted to be in it. The magazine was always full of cheery houses with red doors, plates of cute cookies, and lots of art, of course I loved it.
Earlier this year (years later), someone else from MEHC approached me about featuring my art on the pages of Home Companion. OK. It was meant to be. I'll be featured in the December 08/January 09 issue.
Last week came news that the publisher of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion magazine has ceased publication of the magazine due to economic reasons (the current economy!!!). How sad. I feel so bad for all the people who just lost their jobs.  The final issue will be the Dec/Jan issue.  From what I have read, this collectible issue will be on newsstands the first week of November. Hopefully, there will be a new  publisher found and this won't be the last issue forever (like what happened with Victoria magazine).
On November 1st, I will release new prints and greeting cards of the holiday themed art that is featured in the magazine.