fresh air helps.

This past week or two, I seem to have lost much of my card-making momentum.
Sometimes, it is so easy to just allow life to take over and suck me dry of any motivation to create. Sometimes, it takes an art-filled afternoon field trip and the company of a great friend to turn things around. The gorgeous, slightly breezy weather also helped!


This also means that I did absolutely nothing on the card-making front yesterday- and on a prime Saturday, just weeks away from Renegade Austin! I'm glad I went, though--the Brewery art walk did wonders for my eyes and spirit. I always find it very inspiring to see artists' work in the context of their live/work spaces and make the connection between their art and a slice of their personal world. There is such a variety of art and people here, it must be amazing to live in the complex.

I'd been to the Brewery once before, but it was a few years ago and I think it was a much shorter visit. It wasn't until yesterday that I realized how large the place is. Huge! Our feet were tired before we could get through all of it, but we both felt like we saw a good amount(read: lots and lots).

As interesting as some of these studios were to walk through, I generally refrained from photographing the interiors, other than a few shots of a performance and some signage. I suppose that in a way I feel like it'd be invading. Even if they are made open to the public a couple weekends a year, many of these are private spaces. I wouldn't really want random strangers photographing my space, you know?

I leave you with this image from one of the studio entrances (Ahem--mother, if you are reading this, please do not scroll down!). Today will surely be filled with drawing and ink and watercolors. I must put some ideas down on paper before they fade away! There is no more time for screwing around.

morning person

Sometimes something as simple as the early morning light can be so awe-inspiring to me. It's the simple pleasures, I guess. I don't usually get up early enough to be a very good morning person, but when I do have some extra time in the mornings, I try to make the most of them--even if it is a weekend! Today I got to squeeze in a brisk walk to start off the day.


It felt so nice to break out my Gocco yesterday, which had been lying dormant and untouched for months. Poor thing. I'm starting to come out of procrastination and have all kinds of ideas to put on paper in the coming weeks for Renegade Austin!

eco-friendly windows?

I was running errands last night when I passed the window displays at an Anthropologie store. The springtime shapes and colors caught my eye, and when I paused to look, I realized the blooms were made from cut plastic water bottles! What a lovely use of discards, wouldn't you agree?

Now I'm off to the mountains for a couple days of snow, skiing, and hopefully some time squeezed in between to work on new cards! Stay tuned for some news next week!

when we swam

Here's another great tune to help dance away the it's-too-early-for-sunset blues!

I just discovered Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, and love the couple tracks I've heard so far! I love the videos, too! So creative and with great energy! Like it? Check out Swimming Pools for more!

in my ears

I love this new track from Vampire Weekend--it's like the perfect aural antidote to dance away the cold-weather blues.

Ahem. *Not* that I dance. And, not that it's cold here in Los Angeles right now. It was 80-something degrees all weekend! But don't hate me because you're somewhere colder--just have a listen and you'll dance it out and feel better:


Bonus! You can even download the track for free right now here!
Can't wait for the album to come out in January!

another peek

Using my day off to work madly on some more cards for the show. These are actually an older design that I re-worked a bit--one of my personal favorites.




Then I took a break, and went with a friend for some free and lovely jazz outdoors at LACMA. There were so many people there, and it was such a lively atmosphere. Loved it.

We also checked out Your Bright Future, currently up at BCAM. I may be partially biased due to my roots, or perhaps my roots help me to relate to some of the work better. Either way, I thought it was a great exhibit! Do Ho Suh is one of the 12 Korean artists featured in the show--I first encountered his work at the Venice Biennale back in 2001, and he's been one of my favorite contemporary artists ever since. Below is a snapshot of one of his pieces that I took before the guard stopped me, oops.

winter song

Winter Song with Ingrid Michaelson


I can't seem to get enough of this beautiful song lately, by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson. The video is lovely too! Hope you all are staying cozy through the wintry nights.

yes, we can

recycling Christmas card envelopes

...into Valentine's Day stickers! I love using something old, otherwise destined for the trash, and transforming it into something new again!

beautiful inspiration

This afternoon a friend and I went over to the Grand Avenue Festival downtown. Block off streets, offer delicious food for a few bucks, perform live music, and I'm there! It was quite the afternoon, the highlight of which you see above: we got free(!) tickets to a concert by the LA Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The hall itself is beautiful, and I had never been inside it until today. By an amazing stroke of luck, our tickets (which had reserved sections) were for the small section behind the orchestra. It was such an experience to sit as if you're looking over the orchestra's shoulders, and a great new perspective to see the conductor at work. And the music!--they performed works by Sibelius, and it was just beautiful.

Of course we ate to our heart's content, and wandered around the concert hall gardens. The afternoon also included a quick visit to the Cathedral where we heard an organ demonstration. The whole outing was made all the better by having gotten downtown via the Metro subway. It was my first time on LA's subway, and aside from a technical glitch on the ride home, I definitely loved the easy access of the subway. The lines should definitely be expanded to cover a greater portion of our city.

there are changes afoot

Rain, glorious rain!

We needed it so badly and finally it came--the gray clouds rolled in and suddenly the sidewalks were slick with rain that hadn't fallen in months! Here's to hoping it continues.

I have a feeling that this exhilarating shift in seasons nourishing our parched town will also help to jump-start my creative work, and help me to get myself back in to the rhythm of things. I have been neglecting my card-making! There are many, many ideas I am itching to put down on paper and a few will be applied into projects in the coming weeks--stay tuned for shiny new items to appear soon in my etsy shop!

I have been getting back in to drinking mugs of hot teas, they are just so warming from the inside out, and the perfect end note to what was a harrowing week. My current drink of choice is rooibos, full of antioxidants and delicious in these slightly cooler evenings.