flying elephants and sampson in a drawer

another elephant lino print on the way.  they'll go up in the shop as soon as my harder ink roller comes in.

do you ever feel like these elephants (and the one in the boat)?  kinda in between... and kinda alone for it... but deep down you're glad for a different route and a different destination?

in other news, our friends sara and evan gave us their cat due to moving circumstances.  we're pretty stoked about it!  his name is Sampson.

i thought i had lost him this morning until i found him like this, the little goon:

how does he make that look so comfortable?  i love how cats are total hedonists.

soon in the store...

linocut prints... like this one:

3" by 4"

word to the wise journal

whipped this out yesterday morning, seemingly from outta nowhere:

this journal is composed of a handful of vintage vacuum bags

i love when the creativity comes out so crisp and unruly,

and for a couple sublime hours i am very much with God.

see the journal here. 

i want erika's crochet skills

she made us mason jars cozies.

there is nothing cooler than that.

because of this, we had to model them very dramatically.

ian is so cool to take funny photos with me :)

conclusion?  erika rocks the house.

messy

sign of fun.

sweet lorna sue

just published a few of these stationary sets today.

named after one of my favorite women :)

Leeside studio is up and running!

well, FINALLY got my etsy site up....

it took a lot longer than i thought.  very exciting though.

here's the link!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/leesidestudio

do you know what this photo means?

it means two things:

1. i finally got a card reader for my mac.  they're like 8 dollars at office max.  yep, i'm finally stepping into the 21st century (sheeeesh).  no joke, 98% of the photos on my blog were taken by my mac's photo booth...

yeeah.  you learn how to get creative :)  ian caught me more than once holding my poor little mac book up at awkward angles. 

2. it is proof that the etsy store is extremely close to going up.  the above photo is a little, how you say, hors d'oeuvre :)

so now that i have unmitigated access to the photos off ian's camera, lemme show ya some:

snow in july near glacier, WA.  we were so blown out when we took these... we had been in town for like a day or two and then drove up to glacier to go to a family bday party.

ian's hair is never not amazing.

what the heck is that outfit?

ian coming to get us on blake island last weekend.  his mum and stepdad are boaters and they took us along.  we were staying on the boat and had to get to land by dinghy.  he's so cute in his boat :D

natalie

My husband and I were eating at The Kells restaurant in seattle a couple weeks ago and as we were sitting at our table outside a young woman approached us.

"Hey, I know this is kinda weird, but I saw you guys come in and i just wanted to come over and tell you that you totally look like the quintessential northwest couple to me," she said.  You never know what a beanie and certain brands of jacket will bring you up here in Washington.

I had noticed before she came over that she was eating alone, so we asked her name and begged her to come and have lunch at out table.  Anyone bold enough to just come up and say something like that is someone I want to have lunch with.

Shortly into the conversation we found out she was a Christian and we became instant friends.  I liked her before she said she was a Christian, but once you find out you are talking to someone who worships the same God as you, the relation switches to family.

She was flying from Ohio to Alaska, had an unexpected layover in Seattle and was just killing time in Seattle until her flight.

I asked her what she thought we would say to her for coming up to us so abruptly.

"I DIDNT think about it.  I just did it.  I'm glad I didnt hesitate because now we've become friends!"

I think there's a lot in that response.
I think that's what is missing from my faith-walk with God most of the time.
I think ahead to the consequences of the momentary and risky obediences He desires from me and I become paralyzed by fear.  I'm not willing to create any type of awkwardness or have any sort of uncomfortable interaction with anyone.

It's ridiculous when we serve a God who tells us NOT TO FEAR.  We never would have become friends with her if she was not so bold.

gathering herbs and couches

today has been spent with the herbs growing around our house-

lavendar, clover, nettle, raspberry leaf

all cut and washed today for use in tea when winter comes.

i *hug and kiss* washington.

we've also been picking the local couches that grow along the side of the road.  we were very surprised to find this AMAZING designer-esque couch hanging out on the roadside with a "free" sign on it:

(ian is a ham.)

when we figured out how to make the couch lie flat into a bed (a superb design feature in these modern-retro couches), we realized from looking in the crevices that hadnt been exposed to the sun that the couch was actually BLACK at one time.  BLACK.  not grey.

i ended up bleaching the crevices with straight bleach and it made the black look less glaring.

the only drawback to this radsauce couch is that is smells like dog (*shudder*), but that's something i can work on.  

for those of you who know my deal shark nature, it should not surprise you that i think this couch is a blessing from God.  i LOVE this style but i would never pay full price for even a cheap knock off of a couch like this.  

the conclusion?

there IS a God and He loves me.  :D

practice

i've been busy busy busy trying to get my etsy site up and running- ETA on that sucker is one or two weeks maybe?

exciting!

here's some practice in the meantime...

view from the tiny manchester state park (actually, this is what the whole puget sound looks like: staggered islands brimming with trees).

did this with a 2H pencil, so i had to darken it up quite a bit... sorry for the poor quality.

here's a man i drew who was sleeping on the ferry.  he was the perfect subject because as soon as i was done drawing him as resting his head on his right hand, he shifted to his left.  

red huckle, thimble and black cap

those are the names of the berries ian and i picked last night off the side of the road.  this place is so full of bounty.

livin' by the beach

soooo, dont hate me, but this my view when i wash dishes now:

behold the glorious puget sound.

never thought i'd ever get the chance to live so close to the ocean, but thanks to God's sweet love and ians awesome mom and stepdad, these photos are the view from our deck.  unbelievable.  i love this state so much already. we'll be here with ians family until he gets a job.

as soon as we hit oregon ian and i were like, "what the HECK have we been doing in california for so long?!"  the trees, the green, the lack of absentminded drivers... coming into WA was even more beautiful.  i feel at home already.

we had some drama on the way up here, though.  we were somewhere on the I-5 near Gustine, went over a bump and all of a sudden the trailer popped off the ball, hit the asphalt and started melting off part of the tongue going 60 miles an hour.  i was the last in line and it looked like i was driving over bits of flare.  

i thought, "that's funny, why did someone set off a fl... uh oh..."  and that's when we pulled over.

we surveyed the damage, prayed, stepdad got on the phone with AAA and ian took off for the next town to get a new trailer ball.  we were on the road with a better ball in an hour and a half, cruisin' as if nothing ever happened.  God is so good... seriously, people could have gotten killed... i dont even want to think about it.  apparently the nut on the bottom that was holding the ball on had just worked itself off... sheesh.

so we were going along fine and dandy, getting up past sacramento a few hours later and while we were going over a long bridge i noticed i was suddenly driving over broken glass and the camper shell top on the truck was up.  we had to wait to pull over because the bridge had no shoulder, and once we stopped and looked at the truck we realized the tailgate had fallen down as well.  something from the inside of the camper shell had fallen and hit the top and tailgate open.  we still dont know exactly what it was we lost on the highway... i think a small box of ball jars fell... a few other things.

but it's all behind us now, including any movers remorse.  ian and i are so stoked to be here, we cant even see straight.  there are baby bald eagles chirping for food in a nearby tree and the weather is as mild as can be.  a ferry just sailed by.  it's wake will soon hit our close-by beach.  we found berries on our run yesterday.  need i say more?

fun with fam

i got these great pictures from my granny last night as we had a good bye dinner:

rob and i in hawaii.  i think we were 5 and 7 in this shot.

everyone needs an awkward 90's dinner shot.  i'm pretty sure rob is 4 and i'm 6- both of rosy cheeked, eh? :)  my folks on are the left of me.

my beautiful, classy granny (dad's  mom)... love that lady and love this photo.

my 'supermodel aunts,' as i call them (dad's sisters).  these women are amazing- j is the sweetest lady ever, and yv is probably the most talented artist i will ever have the pleasure of personally knowing.  check out her art here.

today, between 3 and 4pm

i drew this:

no joke, this is the base of a magnolia tree growing on the corner of osos and marsh st.  it's HUGE and majestic and writhing... i adore it.  and this is pretty much what it looks like to the best of my ability.

can you see the body shapes in it?  so weird.  i didnt make it up though!

wa-wa-wa-washington!

well, it seems our time in cali has come to an end.  we'll be moving to washington state (near seattle) mid july due to ian's work situation.

it is lovely, lovely, lovely up there and we are so excited!  art and etsy and all these irons in my internet fire are gonna be put on hold for a while, unless i get a wild hair and want to post stuff.

here are some things we will not miss about california:

-deserts (aka, heat)
-bad driving
-people with a specifically californian sense of entitlement
-high rent
-high cost of living, in general
-transitory nature of a college town
-poly dollys
-ians own words, "the bureaucratic republic of california"

here are some things we WILL miss:

-deserts (aka, heat)
-our buddies :(
-fresh year round produce (although washington has things like...o, i dont know, bounties of fish and blackberries... huckleberries... *drool* nettles to make nettle top soup...
-orange trees
-lemon trees
-avocado trees
-going on runs during the winter in 70 degree weather
-montana de oro
-our church
-good mexican food

here is what we look forward to:


-family nearby (for once in our adult life)
-blackberries, huckleberries, salmon, crab, nettles
-bald eagles
-coziness!!!
-luscious views of the puget sound
-the sexy city of seattle
-reasonable rent
-people who are a little more real about things... there are just less distractions up there.  it's honesty, i suppose.  the cold and dark winters will do that you.
-good coffee on cold days
-TREES!  holy crap, there are no trees in slo... not like how ian and i were raised, anyway.
-the fresh scent of a pacific northwest morning.
-room to grow
-long rides on ferry boats

dont you want to move up there too now?  :)

soon soon soon!

i've been scheming and creating...

stay tuned for the leeside studio to open on etsy!

"safety is priority number two...

next to aesthetics."

-marke johnson, the made shop

prototype?  hand bound, wee notebook made up of brown paper grocery bag within and sewn thrift store wallpaper without

stringcheeseallergieeeeees

using this piece of string cheese, i am now demonstrating one* aspect of allergy season that has been of particular concern to my mucous-membrane-inflammation-prone body:

*the other aspect of allergic concern is the issue of my newly asthmatic lungs, but i found it hard to fill my bronchial tubes up with string cheese, thus it unfortunately could not be portrayed in this format

**also, i realize i should not be eating cheese whilst experiencing allergies, but sacrifices must be made for the sake of science.

screen prints

so in case you've been wondering where i've BEEN all this time, this is my answer to you:

my first successful screen prints since the print class i took way back at Chico state.  i want to do more with this medium, including but not limited to opening up an etsy shop, so i've been tinkering away at developing the space and materials and ideas that i need for such a thing.  my sweet friend Jen Ken (through God's good grace) is to blame for most of the blessing the past few weeks has been in this area.

the top print was supposed to clearly show four matroyshka dolls, but the screen kinda screwed me (aka: a flagrant system error) and just opened up a huge area right on momma matroyshka's face, so i just went with it.  i kinda like it though- there's some deep meanings in it i think.

the second print is a drawing i did of a path off a picture i took with my cell phone up on terrace hill.

both printed on brown paper bag :D

so anyway, stay tuned and dont give up on 'ol cas :)