vans + capsule recap + blog/artist meet up

vans + capsule recap + blog/artist meet up, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

pictured above are me in vans & lisa c. in vans....a happenstance meet up with lisa congdon - of course she is just lovely & it was about time we actually met each other! she was hanging out with rena of rare device whom i also sort of semi quasi know through the switchboards forum!

i also met annie of wexford girl - another artist & blogger who has a studio close to me. she does awesome paintings of wrestler girls - i love them!

as well, kati of the super store doe, was out & about at capsule. (where lisa c's show is up with her sister's goodies too) she recognized a few sprout treats i had sent out in a care package for her & her girls organized by susie of boygirlparty. it was very cool to meet her.

and last, got to chat with deb of chicosas for a few; another switchboard gal. even though the weather was crappy & i was freezing, all in all it was a terrific shrinking art world kinda day!

capsule street fair - sprout at the verrrrrrrrrrry end

capsule street fair - sprout at the verrrrrrrrrrry end, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

got in!

got in!, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

so excited to be doing felt club on sunday, july 15th down in l.a. :) we'll be coming in from europe & turning around and driving down south!! busy, full summer ahead!

flickr fav hands mosaic - one more friday treat

friday flickr fav hands mosaic, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

it's all in the quiet gesture of the hand. beautiful no? i think of sally mann when i see these too, speaking about the intimate gesture...of the hand being "just so"...& these all speak to that. i love them all :)

...and then, a little more miranda july

go here and click on collaborate & you'll get another nice beginning to your friday morning (or afternoon)...(or evening...)...

to start off your friday morning:

from berlin: i want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things.

i'll be back a little later with some other good friday things :)

new sprout studio goodies/ felt club acceptance!

new sprout studio goodies, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

quickie newness in sprout studio world. these are for the upcoming capsule street fair this sunday in hayes valley. they will also be making their way to jena with modishoppe and, i found out today i was accepted to felt club's XL summer event!! yay! so i'll be speeding down to l.a. two days after i get back from our europe trek - hello packed summer. sunday, july 15th we'll be clubbin' it with some awesome vendors as well as hanging out with the super duper twospace crew! cocktails & barbecues is what i'm talking about :)

i'm sure we'll be exhausted after all that fun & need to lay down on the beach and "act like vegetables, be still like broccoli." (prize for whoever can name that movie line!)

off to get our eurail passes!

itty bitty vintage owl earrings

itty bitty vintage owl earrings, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

europe itinerary: overly ambitious, sure to change!

june 7th-july 12th. we think it might go something like this: arrive london, stay 4-5 days. paris 6 nights at least (maybe longer if we can't bear to leave). lyon for a coupla days. marseilles to skate for the mister & me to lay on nude beach (do i dare?!) & eat bouillabaise. train to venice for quickie evening/walk around/dinner. definitely budapest - very excited about this. possibly prague (but i'm getting not so excited the more i read - sounds overdone & touristy - am i wrong?). definitely berlin. then if we can squeak amsterdam & belgium in we'd really like too. we leave back out of london. depending on our schedules & what not we'd love to swing over to galway to see a friend, but i'm not sure if we'll make that. i should have booked us 8 weeks for our first time traipsing around europe, not 5 - whatever was i thinking?! (probably about the bank account)

the mister is callin' on unarrived passports today, tomorrow we figure out the very confusing choices for eurail, call the banks so they'll let us have our money while we are over there...do a faux packing so i know if i need to ditch some things. finalize shoe decision - for some reason this has been taking up an insane amount of debate for me...how many? which ones? are they comfortable enough? what if it rains? what if i get blisters? what if i want to go somewhere fancy? what if i just want to lace up some sneaks? what if what if what if...groan.

of course, suggestions are always welcome here! let us know if you have favorites & not to be missed places!

very strict art diet. very strict no spending diet.

i love my mail, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

so we leave in europe in about 2 weeks or so. absolutely no more purchasing prints for me. period. no matter how much i'm smitten & love them. no more. now i keep thinking, do i want this great print, or, do i want to sip some tea while looking at the eiffel tower...do i need to buy this now, or can it wait until after i've stared at the lovely babushkas in budapest...must this come in the mail before europe, or after i've seen the morning light in venice?

well obviously, i need to restrain myself. no more.

still wrapping up loose ends with sprout studio.

xxx.

in the mail

in the mail, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

art doin's to the sad back...

vernissage; SFAI mfa opening show at fort mason, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

last week we got the chance to see miranda july speak at yerba buena center for the arts along with 2 other artists on generosity. it was truly a great, albeit short, chat about generosity in the arts & their perspective on this theme. she relayed a story about a piece she sometimes does. it goes like this: at talks & such, before entering into the room, july will ask for something from your purse or bag that you might be willing to part with - say, some altoids, or a sharpie or something. each person, if willing gives up something. then when seated, she will start an "auction" of sorts and in this rather small setting, bidding begins on these items. strange in and of itself no? to be bidding on someone's sharpie? well, at the end, she collects the money & she asks everyone to close their eyes - and then asks to the audience, with their eyes closed, who among them would this $100 or so, really & truly make a difference to them. could really make an impact in their life -- and whoever raises their hand, she gives it to them...isn't that moving? what an intimate, generous gesture...

on top of hearing her speak, at the end upon leaving, we each received her new book, no one belongs here more than you for FREE! talk about generosity :) she's my art hero for right now.

friday night we went to the MFA show at fort mason for SFAI students. the mister received his masters there so we like to go to the openings & keep up! this was my favorite piece. go check it out if you get the chance.

last, i was supposed to go to the maker faire in san mateo, and i tweaked my back slinging the 50 lb bag of dog food around like it was a baby on my hip or something - thus, all weekend in bed with the heating pad :( boo hoo. but poor dixie loo seriously had no food for like a week. we were feeding her bones with peanut butter & human food snacks because neither of us could make it to the darn pawtrero pet store to pick it up for her. bad owners, such bad owners!

this week entails: calling the passport office because they *still* haven't come - geez louise already. we applied back in february! tying up some loose ends with sprout studio, getting a coupla wholesale orders off & the last of the packages before we scoot out for our divine litte first time trot across europe!! we confirmed our hotel in paris, & the more i read on berlin & budapest, the more i'm thinking we may want to spend a wee bit more time there and less in other places like prague & krakow...we shall see!

more later lovelies! have a great start to your week :)

calling all artists who might need living/work space

momma & me chillin' last sunday a.m., originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

one more quick post for friday; i forgot to mention, that we have lost several awesome neighbors to international moves, home buys, & whatnot in our building. so several of our relatively cool, industrial units are open in the building we live in (dogpatch neighborhood). so if you know any artists that like to combine their art & living space, or just need a good community building to be in - we want cool art lovin' neighbors!!

let me know & i'll give you more details!

belated momma's day song/weekend plans

in case you didn't get your mother's day fix, jenny over at frecklewonder received perhaps, the cutest little song treat ever for her mother's day gift a while back & reposted it here -- go have a listen, and have a sweet grin on your friday face!

i'll be busy sprout studio-in' it for the capsule street fair & then heading out to the maker faire to say hi to friends, do a little shopping, see some demo's, and try not be put-out that they rejected *me* as one of there vendors...ah-hem... :)

oh! & the cutest, sweetest jen of pretty modest did another little write up on my rings & such. thanks for your support jen, as always!

have a wonderful weekend!

thank you indie fixx

thank you indie fixx, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

jen is having a birthday very soon, and she wants some of my goodies! she has her whole list up here! she's got her eye on these little cute birdies!

happy early birthday jen!

mati in her studio door/me

mati in her studio door/me, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

i got the pleasure of meeting this lovely gal, mati on sunday at her studio during the mission open studios weekend. just as sweet as i thought she would be (with beautiful turqoise accessories!). this is when the shrinking blog/art community is such a fun thing!

i look forward to having a fun chat again with mati soon! :)

mati in her studio courtyard

mati in her studio courtyard, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

sprout studio booth set up

sprout studio booth set up, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

i'm getting much more trim/slim quick/slick at setting up my little get-up at fairs. even though i've sworn off smaller shows, somehow i always end up doing one here & there. this one was fun, a smidgie slow, but how nice is it to have people super excited about something *you* made & want to purchase it for their very own?!

i'll have more goodies out at capsule at the end of the month. i hear tell it's crazy windy; which makes me nervous -- i'll need to figure out a way to make my booth cute without everything flying away like a kite. suggestions?

around the home; we are gearing up for europe (leave in 3 weeks - eep!) - we bought our packs yesterday at REI on sale. yay for 20% off sales! if it doesn't fit in my pack, it's not coming with me!

we mosied around the mission open studios yesterday; i'll post some photos later - i met mati rose - so lovely & sweet! & she has an amazing light filled studio building & courtyard...i think the mister shot some photos of that too, so i'll share those later!

xxx.

reminder: maven craft fair tomorrow!

sprout studio news:

maven fair is tomorrow from 11-4; come by & say hi if you are in the neighborhood! i'll be super busy when i get home this evening finishing up new glass necklaces, bracelets, hair pins, updating signage, packing up my vintage totes & whatnot to get ready. wendy with orange button stopped by last evening to pick a handful of glass image necklaces to restock her store. she is by far, one of my most favorite shop owners to consign with. she's going to be out at capsule at the end of the month too. a really good friend of mine is going to also be up manning a booth for her brother that weekend; should be super fun!

the mister & i are going to try to make the mission open studios tonight, & if not, (because i'll start to get stressed with too much to do for tomorrow) we'll make it by on sunday. we've been missing out on a lot of art openings lately via crossed schedules, mis matched calendars, being foiled by not showing up on the right time/day & basically going different ways - we need to catch up!

have a fab weekend folks!

ppo closing/sale

a little bittersweet, but you can get some treats: purple pink & orange shop will be closing its doors very soon. amy is great gal & is moving on to bigger things! go get some goodies on sale!

tutorial: guatemalen worry dolls

close up of the guatemalen worry dolls, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

(all in text though) - i did these with my first graders.

1. choose doll clothespin type (there are several styles out there which really make the face/body look different. there are also shades of the dolls too so everyone doesn't have to be caucasian!)

2. i use yarn for the hair; i put out lots of different styles for the kiddos to choose from. i stress that boys can have long hair, braids, pony tails whatever, just like the ladies can chop all the hair off if they want too.

3. after they choose the hair, make sure you know the style they are doing. ie: if kiddo wants to do braids, i loop the yarn twelve times and then tie it in a know in the middle - thus when it is hot glued onto the head, i take 2 strings each for the 3 stranded braid.

4. after they have chosen the hair & i've looped it and tied it into a knot, they choose 3 different colors of embroidery thread.

5. hot glue hair on with the knot smack dab on top of the head. have kids snip loops of yarn & then help them style whichever way they choose.

6. double knot first color of embroidery thread and start to wrap around the doll - when you get to the second color, double knot again & continue to wrap. when you get to the third color, what you do to get the X mark is wrap second string third string twice around and then pull it diagonally across 2nd band of color. wrap twice in between 1st & second color and then pull it diagonally back between 2nd & 3rd colors & then continue to wrap the third color all the way down. i smear some aileen's tacky glue on the thread to keep it from unraveling.

7. faces are done last with skinny sharpie markers.

8. tell your worry doll everything you are anxious about & stick it under your pillow. voila! worry doll does all worrying for you :)

*my favorite part of this project is having the kiddos come in the next day after getting their worry doll back & telling me how "it worked!! i told my doll all my secrets & worries last night & it worked!!!"

how great is that?!

annual art show - me in the middle

annual art show - me in the middle, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

what have i been up to? alllll this...just got finished putting on the spring art show. wow, i'm tired. but i now have to work on a trade for ms. donna with one little monkey, string up a bunch of new glass piece necklaces for maven craft fair next saturday, get together some button pin packages for needles & pens, & get a little pre summer newsletter together to send out to my mailing list, & THEN, i gotta get myself to REI to pick up a pack for europe & buy our eurail passes & book somewhere to stay in paris among other things!!!!!

i want to be like dixie right now & snooze on the ole couchie. but not yet. not now. must be productive! must go to fun party tonight for our rad neighbors that moved out of our awesome building. (anyone in the bay area looking for a industrial live/work to move into? good neighbors :) dog friendly!!)

gonna grab some lunch, take a short run & then back to sprout studio business for this girl.

happy saturday everyone!