Lorain County Fair.

I grew up in Wellington, Ohio. It's a tiny town surrounded in farm land and the most exciting thing to happen there every year is the county fair. I probably haven't been back to the fair in a year or so and I really wanted to take Andrew. The fair is one thing that still makes Wellington feel like home to me.

Bowie.

He is completely ridiculous.

Catching up.

We finally got the internet in our new home so I decided it was about time I got around to sharing some pictures on here. Here's a collection of my favorites from the Feast of the Assumption in Little Italy a few weeks ago. I absolutely loved living in Little Italy while I did...but the Feast, that's another thing...this year I was glad to not be in the center of these festivities for once. But it was wonderful to enjoy for a little while and with some friends. Andrew and I took advantage of the excellent weather and rode the tandem there which amused most everyone we knew. We love that bike.

                    

Only Wednesday.

- Andrew and I paid $1 to see a live Mermaid at the Lorain County Fair Monday night. Although, it looked more like a Merman. (Pictures to come!)
- I saw some really lovely yarn colors at JoAnns and on Etsy lately. I'm getting the desire to make a scarf...in the midst of all of these other projects I want to complete. At least I can work out a scarf in a day or two if I have the time.
- I think I would love to take a class to learn how to spin my own yarn. I still have a load of alpaca fur that I cleaned and brushed a few years back that I haven't done anything with yet.
- While sorting through boxes from my mom's house I came across the diary I kept from 4th grade to my freshman year of high school. Completely hilarious.

A lovely tote.

(via: http://www.tate.org.uk/shop/do/Designer-Products/Cristian-Zuzunaga-Colour-Chart-Bag/product/42459;jsessionid=9A1DC79A1F6D0FC9797415FC8E0DDA75.B)

A little sunshine.

From my sketchbook. Hopefully we will get a little bit this weekend. 

For listening.

David Sedaris guest DJs at KCRW listen and download here: Guest DJ Project.

Rainbow road?

I love how beautiful and vibrant these stairs look against the drab colors of the city around them. That font is making me picture them in a scene of a Wes Anderson film.

Some of the words translated:

love

come together

to seduce

to pine

to fall in love

sympathy

to dance

kissing hands

admirer

exuberant

to get the tinglies / goose flesh

passion

attractive

to flourish

to allow

Craigslist: WhaleMobile *UNIQUE*

This one of a kind "WhaleMobile" is for sale. It needs new tires, but otherwise starts right up and runs fine. Not street legal, but still fun to drive, good for birthday parties and events. A lever inside the cockpit controls the whale tail, and allows some up and down motion. Water pump inside cockpit still works, and will build up pressure to be released through blowhole up top. It has working headlights.

This was a project my grandfather worked on when I was a kid, and it used to terrify me, as I have an inexplicable fear of these evil creatures. I am hoping to sell it by the end of the month, as I owe child support and don't have the cash to cover it at the moment. This was built off of the frame of an otherwise perfect 1986 Yugo Cabrio. The vehicle itself has 38,000 miles on it, but it was badly damaged in a hailstorm and the bodywork was completely demolished. My grandfather got the idea of turning it into a WhaleMobile off of some cartoon, and he took his crazy idea and ran with it.

Serious inquiries only, but all are welcome to come and see the WhaleMobile in action. Please leave the harpoons at home.

(If only I hadn't just bought a new car...)

Stitching.

I saw this image on http://www.sharesomecandy.com/ and it was really inspiring to me. I'm planning on shifting the focus of my work to fibers this winter considering my two biggest project goals are (1) to finish this scrap rug that I've taken apart and assembled too many times and (2) to make a quilt for Andrew and I. I'll be working with recycled/repurposed fabrics for almost every part of these projects and would like to apply that use to some other smaller projects I have planned for my Etsy shop. I had been thinking about incorporating embroidery into my work because it was something I used to do a lot of with both of my grandmas. I have since stopped, but still have a decent amount of embroidery thread that I rarely use. When I saw this image it made me re-think the way I was planning on using the embroidery in my design. I hadn't thought of trying to utilize the embroidery as a pattern. I'm so glad our work space is finally organized so I can feel comfortable working on projects again.

A funnyy.

The weekend project.

Since Andrew and I have very limited counter space in the new apartment we decided to get some sort of cart or island to put in the kitchen. I found this vintage enamel top cupboard on Craigslist for $35 and thought it would be nice to fix up.

Once we got it home we realized it had a few problems besides just the hideous paint job. The bottom board was severely warped and pretty much falling apart. It crumbled when Andrew was trying to remove the nails holding it on. Also, all the hardware was rusted and the latch keeping the main door shut no longer worked. The first thing we did was disassemble anything that needed to be and prime the whole thing. The next day we tackled the harder stuff. I had bought a really cool vintage looking glass drawer pull from Anthropologie a couple of weeks ago which I thought would be perfect to use on this. We got a paint color to match it along with some other hardware to go on the rest of the drawers, a new masonite board for the bottom and a new magnetic latch. Andrew cut the board down to size and reinforced it properly so we wouldn't have problems with it warping again while I got to work painting. Below are pictures of how terrible the bottom board looked.

We're both extremely pleased with the final product and it looks really great in the kitchen. Even Bowie likes it.

Um...

Want.

(http://Samzilla.etsy.com)

AMERICA!

Ironically, this car that resides at the end of our street is an Isuzu.

A slow week.

- I'm too excited for Saturday already. One of my recent most favorite things is the fact that I get at least one full day a week with Andrew where neither of us has to go to work and we can have a slow morning and get mochas somewhere nearby.
- The feast starts tomorrow and for the first time in 5 years I can enjoy it from outside of Little Italy. This means no stress about being able to park within a mile of my house, no Sinatra blaring from multiple sources for 5 nights in a row, no fireworks at all and any random time of the day. Just delicious meatball subs and pastries to eat, It will be good.
- I have a new (used) car but feel guilty for turning my back on the old Volvo that's still sitting in the driveway.
- The house is finally feeling settled despite the few boxes lying around.
- I love that we can ride the tandem bike almost anywhere that we need to go.
- One month and one week until the wedding.

Craigslist: Wanted female tandem bike rider.

Looking for female co rider to take up rear station on my fine Nashbar tandem bike, bike riding experience(you got to be able to balance at least) helpful if not necessary, being at least somewhat athletic is pretty much a given. eventual relationship desirable but a co rider only position is possible. Long term ridership might build eventual equity in bike. Real hard core female cyclist may be a bit too much ( obsessions in other fields of interests might be better tolerated) but will be considered. Some kind of workable relationship priceless. Picture of legs might be useful in evaluating prospects riding potential.

(Last line made me laugh out loud and flag as "Best of Craigslist".)

500 pencils.

Social Designer offers this amazing set of 500 colored pencils. You purchase them in subscriptions that arrive over a span of 20 months and they also offer multiple display cases for your collection. I like the idea of being given a set of colors each month to focus on and create with. I tend to be drawn to the same colors over and over again and while that's not necessarily bad, I'd like to challenge myself to use some colors I'd typically stay away from. I love the way these would look displayed on a studio wall as well. While I definitely don't have $33 to spend every month to get this collection, I may have just thought of a new way to store my current box of old Crayolas and bring some color into the new office/studio space.