round and round she goes

I think I'm buried under paper and pixels. I've been working on a lot of new illustrations for cards and other paper things (like another birthday calendar, perhaps?) and I've really been having so much fun. My hand seems to be cramping under the strain, but I've got the very scary One of a Kind show coming up in October plus another craft fair or two for the holidays, not to mention my etsy shop. All of this on top of my day job and I even managed to squeeze in a trip to visit my family back in Ontario. Phew! Where can I get off this merry-go-round?

But I am managing to take a few breaks. The other night we started watching a dvd that we got from the library: Cinema 16, short films from Europe (the US ed.). Not all of them are amazing, but most of them are pretty great. I LOVED the short film Wasp by Andrea Arnold. Every note was brilliant, perfect. You can watch a it on YouTube here. Roy Andersson's World of Glory, Lynne Ramsay's Gasman, Toby MacDonald's Je t'aime John Wayne, and Run Wrake's Rabbit also fit into the awesome category.

must have been a busy week!

I can't believe that I have ignored this blog for a whole week. Work has been keeping me busy lately and when I have any spare bit of time, I'm scoring and folding cards in preparation for Got Craft in May. Also, Cornelius and I have been seriously at work redesigning our website. It's been a half-assed "coming soon" page for over a year and we now have a design finalized and are working on content. Ugh, so much work!! Why is it so much harder designing for yourself?? Regardless, today I'm off to the local print shop I deal with to get more birthday calendars printed up.

But, enough about work...above is a print that I love from The Cloudy Collection which is available for $35 + free shipping in the US & Canada...and that's for 7 prints!! Amazing. It is my birthday coming up....

front page news

Sometime this afternoon, one of my cards made it to the front page of etsy. I received a ton of hearts, a few sales and a crazy amount of views. Nice!

It's been a busy day, work-wise. A tiny bit of design, a lump of coding and so much freaking testing. I was a bit of a spaz by the time it was all done. But I also got to go out into the sunshine and pick up my new cards from the printers. And stop off at the newly designed & relocated Nuba for a lemon cauliflower sandwich. I took it home (plus a falafel for C) and it was a nice break to the day.

i love my sigg

I hate to get all mushy about a product, but man, I do love my pretty Sigg bottle. The best part is not only am I drinking water like nobody's business but the lip around the bottle is just perfect. No hard butted plastic or scratchy edges. Just a round lump of loveliness. Awesome.

As you can also tell by the lack of posts lately, I'm busy busy busy. Work is eating me alive. At least I have delicious green grapes and lots of cold water by my side. I'll be back soon.

hump day

My new holiday cards were featured over at one of my favorite blogs, Poppytalk as part of Jan's 2007 Holiday Card round-up! There's lots of great cards featured, including this rum & eggnog card over at pinecone + chickadee. Awesome.

It's a busy week. Not only do I have my own design work to attend to, I'm putting on my corporate graphic designer suit and working in a real office for somebody else. I'm covering for my old collegues since someone is out for vacation this week. I don't mind it too much. It means coffee breaks and socializing which is always okay by me. Luckily, my commute is pretty good...I've decided to walk to work rather than bike it. I turn up my iPod loud and I walk really speedy and make it to the center of the corporate office universe in about 25 minutes, door-to-door. And hey, it's almost Friday! Whoop.

busybusybusybusy

Work is busy and my blogging time is going out the window. I'm sure I'll still find windows of opportunity but I'm finishing old projects and beginning new ones and there is no end in sight. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining one bit! Isn't it great that I love my job?

And just so that I post something relatively worthwhile, here's a list of all the movies that I've seen so far this year. Only one of them was seen at a movie theater...the rest were all dvds from the library. Free library movies, I love you!

Last Days. Better than I expected but generally too random for me to get behind it. I hated the mumbly-ness of the lead actor. He'll be starring as one of the thugs in Michael Haneke's remake of Funny Games. I think I kind of hate Michael Haneke for wanting to remake his own movie for American audiences.

The Asphalt Jungle. A fun noir caper film starring Sterling Hayden. I liked a lot of the characters in this film, especially Hayden's long-suffering gal pal because she was just so damn kooky, like a lovable meth-head. A very young Marilyn Monroe has a bit part that is total sexy. Enjoyable on all fronts.

Christiane F - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo. It's funny because I remember the poster for this movie hanging outside the New Yorker Repertory Cinema in London, Ontario when I was in grade 6. It totally drew me in. Pretty girl, sex, drugs, David Bowie, big city equalled excitement to this small town girl. But because you had to be 14 to see it, I could only wonder what excitement lay beyond the doors. When I noticed that the library got in a copy last month, I put a hold on it. It's a gritty little film about heroin use and the life of teenage junkies. Unfortunately, the dvd doesn't come subtitled, only dubbed into English, which makes the drama slightly cheesy, but I liked the film regardless.

A History of Violence. I really wanted to love this movie. I thought it could be very much like a Haneke-style film and I was quiet disappointed that it wasn't. Good but not great.

The Constant Gardener. Based on a John Le Carre book, I was expecting a good espionage flick, a "taut thriller" (back of the box). In parts it was pretty gripping, but on the whole a let down.

Children of Men. Really intense with some great long takes which really added to the intensity, but the story was kind of weak. But we saw it at the Rio Theater on Broadway near Commercial and I loved it. It's now my 2nd favorite theater next to Tinseltown. Seats were comfy and new, the sound was awesome and it's an old single screen which is nice. So while I can't really say the movie was great, I fully recommend the Rio.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Watched this many, many times before. This time, we watched it with commentary. Enjoyable.

The Clash: Westway to the World. I was pretty excited to see this dvd after seeing the extra dvd footage on the London Calling cd that Cornelius brought back from the library a few weeks ago. This has a lot more footage of the Clash in NYC during the 80's when they were very influenced by the hiphop scene, graffiti culture, and breakdancing. I really like the Clash, what more can I say?

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. This was seriously bad (I know, what was I thinking!). The "hot Greek guy" the Gilmore Girls chick falls for? Dude, he was Russian and wore turtleneck sweaters. The music was horrible and the whole thing fell pretty flat for me. Want a good coming of age movie? 13 Going on 30. Seriously.

All About Eve. It's taken me ages to see this movie. I don't know why I hadn't seen it before now. Bette Davis is awesome, she's got a lot of great lines and it's a pretty good story. Marilyn Monroe has a bit part and what can I say, she's a foxy number and a bit of a pastiche, but throughly enjoyable. Recommended.

Thieves' Highway. Run right to your library or arty video store and get this dvd now. It's filled with working class strife, truck driving, sexy french/italian hookers with a heart of gold and...apples. It's well paced with lots of action and a wonderful setting in post war San Francisco's marketplace. And hey look, the title has the correct punctuation!