More ways to keep your pants up

Been on a roll painting belts.  Market starts up again in a few weeks, and I want to have a nice collection of new things for my loyal customers.  I also have discovered the joys of having a steady stream of British murder mysteries on hand (thanks, Netflix!), which gives me the ability to sit still long enough to work on these things.  Both belts, and many others, are available on my Etsy site.

Speaking of Wingtips, I'm excited to announce that I have a show lined up of my hand-painted shoes!!!  At the Finger Lakes Wine Center, in the month of May.  That's right in downtown Ithaca...going to be a fun time, and I'm excited to show the shoes in a more formal, gallery-like context.

And speaking of shoes (one thing leads to another in my thought process), I was not chosen for the Fluevog contest.  But then again, a whole pile of Really Cool ads came in at the last moment.  I will use this as impetus to do something better next time.  It's good practice.

Space-based eye candy

This is the coolest ever.  Cooler even than the giant railroad trestle (although I am aware that I'm one of only a few people who think that's cool).  Check out the thunderstorms, and the northern lights, and the crazy glimpse of Italy....so beautiful.

My local history obsession

Once in a while, something can really capture my imagination and not let it go.  Ever since I saw these photos years ago, I've been somewhat obsessed with the idea of a gigantic railroad trestle that once went across the Brooktondale valley.  This is my quiet little hometown in upstate NY, in a valley formed by a largish creek.  I've driven down the main road through town easily 1000 times in my life, and there's a small historical marker next to some trees under a very empty sky that stands where a large railroad trestle once must have dominated the landscape.  I can barely imagine this gigantic thing spanning my little town's valley.

The wooden trestle was built in 1875, and lasted until 1894, when it was replaced with a simpler, sturdier steel structure.  It was part of the Lehigh Valley train system, connecting Elmira and Ithaca and then on to points north and east.  Tiny towns, little stops along the way.  Trains ran through this route until 1935, hauling passengers and mail and milk and coal.

Today there are still beautiful little train stations scattered around, which have been turned into gift shops and B&Bs and history centers.  The train tracks are gone, but the right-of-ways are still there.  Two of my favorite running trails are built on the former tracks.

(I hope these photos are in the public domain, I apologize if they aren't.)

Still life, with tulip and cat

A friend who works in a greenhouse gave me a couple of gorgeous tulips yesterday, with the condition that I either photograph or paint them because they were perfect in their last throes of exuberant color.  I love tulips, they speak of spring and simple elegant flaming beauty.  Nebraska is pretty cute, too.

Put a bird on it!

I know I'm coming to "Portlandia" a little later than the rest of the hip world.  But then I came to Netflix a LOT later than everyone else...and the combination of this factors brings me to share these clips with you. 

Portlandia is a show about Portland, OR, organic hipster central.  I live in Ithaca, which is a smaller, east-coast version of this phenomenon, home of the bumper sticker that says "Ithaca, NY: 10 square miles surrounded by reality."  So let's dive in.

First, the free-range chicken sketch.  I find this particularly apt, as I am a member of the farmers' market AND a server at a pub that serves really tasty, very local food.



And one more.  I'm completely guilty of this!  And, it WORKS, people love birds on things.

$1000 worth of shoes

Writing from the comfy chair by the wood stove while avoiding freezing drizzle again.

I'm ready to unveil the frivolous project that features the kimono lady from the last post.  You see, when I need some online distraction, I either shop for airplane tickets for dream vacations or stalk the Fluevog website to check out their fabulous, expensive shoes.

And, well, Fluevog offers the occasional ad design contest.

And, well, I'm a graphic designer.

Who likes shoes.

In a moment of weakness I downloaded the design brief for their latest contest, and decided that my graphic design skills may as well come in handy for fun projects as well as work.  I could win $1000 worth of shoes if my ad is chosen, which obviously is exactly what I need.

Here's the ad I designed, to their specs and with their copy and shoe photo:

After some hesitation and fussy tweaking of details, I uploaded it (well, why not), and you can see it in their gallery of other submissions.  You can also read there about the reasons for the imagery I chose: half moon, Chinese garden moon gate, tall wooden shoes, etc.  You can vote for me if you wish (that's not a link, it's a subliminal suggestion), and if I end up in the top four, well then you can vote for me again.  If I win, I promise to post photos of me in my fabulous new boots.

Distraction

Ok, so I was supposed to be working on a newsletter, or perhaps on finishing up a painting, or something actually useful.  But it's a day that features "freezing drizzle," an Ithaca specialty, and even after having breakfast with the Happy Light (TM), I ended up in front of the wood stove in the comfy chair, working in a very desultory manner on whatever it was that I supposed to be doing.  So instead I started playing on my computer on a completely unrelated project, and then got really into the Photoshop (also TM) zone, and ended up with this lovely kimono lady.  If that Completely Unrelated Project (not TM) comes to fruition, then I will post about it more thoroughly later.

Electric Eel

New boots!!!!  Not for me, unfortunately, but for some lucky Etsy shopper perhaps.  I just finished these lovelies and posted them, and am so pleased with the colors and details and everything that I have a brag a moment and put them on my blog too.

In which I am a movie star once again

I gave an interview last fall with a couple of students from Ithaca College, who were asking about why I continue to make and sell notecards in this age of emails and text messaging.  Found the results on youtube today, and I'll share it because I don't look or sound particularly dorky.

What do you mean, you don't want to sit under the fan?

I had another amusing dream last night, this time a classic waitress stress dream.  So you know I work a night or two per week at a local pub for cash and socialization, yes?  Well, this dream outlined pretty much everything that could go wrong.

It was a slow night, with no customers, I was literally playing hangman with the bartender to pass the time.  Then a table of four came in (hurrah, something to do!), and I seated them and quickly realized that there were extra bits of paper to hand out with the menus which took an extra confusing few minutes.  When I finished that, I realized that several other tables had filled up with customers seating themselves and then looking extremely impatient when no one had brought them their menus.  The other server was all like "you're in charge of seating everyone, you figure it out, which tables are mine?"  Then we realized that there were no more menus.  Sooooo may as well bring them water while the menu issue is being sorted out, right?  Turns out that the faucet and ice machine were waaaaaay back in the suddenly labyrinthine kitchen, and one can only bring one pitcher out at a time and its going to take for-ev-er.  But in the kitchen there was someone laying on the table with a massive gross head injury being attended to by all the kitchen staff.  Avoid that, realize no food is going to be coming out any time soon.  Heading back into the restaurant, I saw that the table of ten with the reservation had arrived and were seated, and the rest of the tables were also full with increasingly-impatient customers.  No way I can get to everyone since they all arrived at once.  Then the table of ten starts complaining that they want a different table because they don't want to sit under the fan.  There are no more tables to move them too because all the other tables are full of people waiting to be served.  The manager gives me the stink eye when I say I need some help.  THEN....I realize this is a dream and I can wake up and actually not have to deal with any of it...

Things to think about:
1) Remember, tip your servers well, because if nothing else they are getting paid $5 per hour to have dreams like this.
2) How long will I last at this job if this is the kind of dreams it gives me?
3) I wonder if the fumes from priming the bathroom prior to repainting had anything to do with my dreams?
4) I recently listened to a fascinating Radio Lab podcast about lucid dreaming.  I'd like to know more about that, since I sometimes have dreams where I can realize I'm dreaming and change them or make them stop.

Florence and Pauline

There are two hens left in the coop these days, Florence and Pauline.  Anyone who thinks that blogs that mentions chickens is dull, please skip ahead.  But for anyone who has been jonesing for a livestock update, here they are basking in the sunshine yesterday in their dust bath.

 

And here are today's eggs.  The little one is unusual, and very amusing.

Ghost chickens and blue paint

No snappy photos for you today, sorry!  I thought about posting a shot of the bleak grey and brown world that is my driveway and view from my window, but am choosing not to.  If it's not going to be snowy and bright and ski-able, I'm not going to acknowledge winter.  Instead I am inside basking in the glow of my gorgeous new Happy Light (to combat SAD...clever name, no?), trolling online for cheap tickets back to Hawaii, and cranking up the wood stove until it's 75 in the living room.

I've had a couple of fun and interesting dreams lately.  First, a few nights ago I dreamed that the former garage at my parents' house (now converted to my Dad's country store) was suddenly a chicken coop.  And SURPRISE, all my chickens that have gone missing over the years were there!  Including the three who were eaten by a phantom fox or abducted by aliens a few weeks ago, and also Harold the rooster had come back to life. 

Second, last night I dreamed I was wandering around London, over in the northwest neighborhood where I used to live when I interned at Kew Gardens.  I had a bucket of blue paint, and I was painting over all the yellow paint on the curbs.  Somehow having this bucket of paint was my disguise to fit in and look purposeful, because I was actually a little lost and trying to find my friends Dave and Ann's house, which in my dream was a few blocks away (rather than in Cumbria) but I didn't quite remember how the streets went because it had been a long time since I lived there.  There was also a big football (read: soccer) game happening in the park.  Random, but interesting.  I do like blue paint.