Saintos

I just decided to post these little delights, made for the inimitable Pam Smith to raise a few dollars for her trip to Uganda.
Acrylics and paper collage on canvas paper.

nanowrimo for real

Okay, I am really doing it.  Next month I am tackling a whole novel.  50,000 words, 30 days.  It doesn't really have a plot yet, just characters and a setting.  I am being constantly assured that the plot will come.  I just have to make these people in my head real and they will live out their stories, miraculously, on the page in front of me.  Participant after participant in National Novel Writing Month, November, swears this to be true.  So I'm trusting these complete strangers and I'm making myself do it.    I have a lot to say and I'm tired of being afraid to say it, so here is my chance.  Only six days left to takeoff!
So, what is the novel about?  Well, it's about life, of course, and it's pretentious and high handed right out of the gate, because hello!  It is me writing it.  It's about Emmeline Superior, the niece of my character Bauxie Superior from previous works.  She lives in a fictional Britain and then a fictional-but-based-on-real Seattle at the time of the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exhibition in 1909.  It has some horror, some supernatural, some time travel, some murder and mayhem, but mostly its psychological, about the struggle between free will and fate and our acceptance of each. Kind of.
Intriguing?  I hope so.  But really the writing is about overcoming my doubts and self criticism and being disciplined enough to just keep writing.  A lot.  For days on end.
Stay tuned!

Yes, Yes, Yes

Remember that Jim Carrey movie where he just decided to start saying "yes" to everything?  I actually thought Zooey Deschanel was cute in that movie, though I will never forgive her for "The Happening".  Anyhoo, I am having fun this week trying to say yes to everything.  Generally I have no problem saying "yes" to things that are unreasonable to ask of me in the first place, and things I want to buy. This is different.  I am trying to emulate my darling Jack Jack in saying, "eh, why not?" to everything in front of me.  Red, white and blue day at work? Why not cut the feet off my old red and white striped tights and make leggings to wear under my uniform denim skirt today?  Then why not give Melody the cut off foot for a stocking cap for her kitty?  Why not?
Why not just sign up for Deviant Art (art community and print on demand site) and start getting some of my work out there?  
Why not try soy in my $2.00 afternoon iced drink at Starbucks today?
Why not barbeque at home on the fourth of July and just watch the fireworks on TV?  
Why not order a game from GameFly that I actually want to play and everyone else in my house will be bored by?
These are major, impactful decisions, by the way. They signal a sea change in my psyche. (I LOVE the phrase, "sea change".  For a long time I thought it was "C-change" and I thought it was dumb, like "Change with a capital 'C'."  But it's way more profound than that.)  All these "yesses" add up to a great big NO to that martyr personality that is always demanding to take things over.  

Why not just order myself the perfect birthday present, with Jack's card, from Etsy, and let it be from him?

Yes!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/50631411/circus-circus?ref=v1_other_1

By the way, I want to be this artist when I grow up.  I LOVE her sensibility.  So many lovely things.
Happy birthday, mamacita Lacey!

6 Items or Less

So as usual I am a late in signing up officially, but I decided to do this little experiment on my own.  To see how the "officials" are doing you can check in with them here.  The idea is to wear only six items of clothing for one month.  Exceptions are made for workout clothes, underwear, outerwear like raincoats, and accessories.  I am also adding jammies to my exception list.
Why am I doing this?
I need to simplify the activities I expect my pea brain to handle.  I spend so much time looking for clothes, thrift store shopping for clothes, washing clothes, obsessing over clothes, throwing out clothes, getting new clothes- all accompanied by my daily whine, "I can't leave the house, I have nothing to wear."  Frankly I'm bloody sick of it all.  I am going cold turkey.
Yesterday I packed up all the colorful and useless clothes in my closet into duffle bags and wheeled them into the garage.  I panicked a little when I had to get dressed to go see friends, but I rallied and pulled on two of the uniform pieces.  Felt ugly.  Didn't matter.
So, the month of July on 6 items, plus jammies, swimsuit, jacket.  Here's my uniform:


Black t shirt
jeans
brown skirt
black and white dress
peacock shirt
denim skirt


Embarking on day 3 today.  Panicked when I got peanut noodles all over my black tshirt yesterday, but calmed down.  Other than that, plus warning people at work, I hardly thought about what I was wearing at all.  Which is a minor miracle.

Lacey's Top 4- #2!

I'm on a roll!  Watch out world!

1.  lentils with vinegar and tomatoes, cheap and perfectly, yummily sweet.
2.  my Pilot G4 pen
3.  natural oatmeal soap
4.  classic soul queen Bettye Lavette on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Total class act- and I am totally buying her album, Interpretations: The British Songbook.  Helllooo deep and sexy cover of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me"...

Inaugural Lacey Top 4

I have to get into the habit of writing everyday, so lucky you.  These are my top 4 things of the day.  Things I love.  Things I found.  Things I want you to know.

today's top 4

1.  Johnny Cash leg tattoo- spotted on the 66 bus to work in the morning.  Youngish Johnny Cash, with a pompadour.   Like this:

Awesome.  I want one.  Right on the calf.

2.  Matty Ballgame from the Filmspotting podcast.   Huge audio crush of mine.  Charming, ridiculous, hilarious, melodramatic...have no idea what he looks like; frankly, I don't want to know.   (I actually hope he doesn't look too much like the one on the right cuz that's kind of like my ex-husband.)  I like Adam a lot, too, but as he's married I won't allow myself to crush too hard.  I have been listening long enough now I feel like I know the guys.  Like Ray Suarez back in the day.

3.  changing your cursor in Windows.  Until my buddy Joe at work showed me how I had no clue I could do this.  And it's already through work's firewall!

4.  jungletribe on etsy.  Self proclaimed "steam punk militia" artists.  LOVE this ring:

Right?

Or this:

That's right, a steam punk militia holster.  How have I lived without this?

Oscars fashion review- only 5 days late!

Day 2 home with a spinning head and nausea- Jack and I are thinking it might be a 72 Hour Existential Crisis.   What a nefarious virus.  I am so bored but I can't start anything without my head pounding and a feeling of worthlessness and despair.  A sure fire cure for taking life too seriously, illness or not, is the E network.  In this case, the prescription is the Fashion Police review of the 2010 Oscars.  Which reminds me, I have something to say about the best and worst of the night.  This was the first year I got to watch with my girls and we all three dished about the clothes, although Ava was mostly appalled at my cattiness. 

Best shoes: Zoe Saldana

I don't care what you have to say about the dress itself, those aubergine velvet shoes are tres yum yum. Of course, this pic is not of Zoe herself, because it was the only picture I could find that really showed the shoes.  Plus I love how this runway wraith makes the perfect Zoe look short and chubby.  And in defense of the dress, it looked really pretty bouncing around her ankles as she came out on stage.












Best hair: tie, Cameron Diaz and Sandra Bullock

It is a tribute to the hairstyle that I am even mentioning these All-American sweethearts on my personal blog page, because generally make me ill.  But this Veronica Lake, healthy, shiny hair cannot be ignored.  This is why people become movie stars.  Regular people do not have hair like that- it simply can't be done in a crowded little bathroom with a Vidal Sassoon hairdryer and some Aussie products.  Damn, and the Fashion Police just gave Sandra Bullock best dressed!  Ava will be so pleased.
The flesh or ivory gowns are a little White Wedding for me, and the way Ms Bullock's just happens to match her Oscar so perfectly is, frankly, annoying as hell.  Oh well.  I haven't seen her movie (full disclosure) but it can't be as horrid as the preview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hn5-pxWM6k)
...can it?  Shall I not mention that the truly out-of-the-Hollywood-mold performance by a woman, Gabrielle Sibide's fat, disenfranchised, miserable, triumphant and utterly unique Precious, was overshadowed by yet another kind white folk help the hopeless black man trope- perfectly executed by a blonde, sassy Southern Bullock belle...well, it's bullocks, frankly.

Best jewels:  Kate Winslet

From the Raw Story blog:

Kate Winslet, presenting this year, chose a structured strapless column dress in silvery tones by Yves St Laurent and the most exquisite jewelry of the night: a pendant style necklace of emerald cut white and yellow diamonds by Tiffany with matching earrings and cuff believed to be worth more than 2.5 million dollars.

Mmm, mmm, mmm.  Again, this is why one becomes a movie star.  And check it out- another impossible Veronica Lake do.

Best detail and best all over look:  Carey Mulligan

 Do you see all the little bits dangling from Carey Mulligan's darling dress?  I am terribly sorry, all you haters, but this is the bravest, cutest, most awesome look of the night.  She is so sweet with her Mia Farrow hair and chandeliers, but the dress really is a marvel.  The cut is formal but that cut out hem so we can see her gorgeous strappy shoes makes it unique and cheeky- I just love it!  Bravo, Miss Mulligan! This bricolage artist salutes you.

And, finally, the dress I would have worn: Diane Kruger

And they would have laughed at me, and called me Little Bo Peep, and lamented my boring black and white choices, and even my svelte self would have looked rounded like a fat hen, but I would care not.  In this black and cream Chanel phenomena, I would have said to them, damn it, I am a movie star, I can wear what I want!
I am always a sucker for black and white, no big shock there.  I think that and the temptation of wearing black boa feathers would have proved too much for me.
So sue me.  I know why she picked this dress.

That about did me in.  Back to the couch.

Mighty Girl

Isn't it weird when you add someone to the ole Twitter feed, and then forget who they are or why you added them, then you stumble across their blog and feel like, hey!  I know that girl!  Good for her, she has an awesome blog!  Maybe its just me.
I feel that way about Mighty Girl, a magazine editor living in San Francisco.  Maybe its just her cute little face that made me want to follow her, but her blog is also quite entertaining.  She is currently doing this Mighty Life List thing, like a bucket list, only sweeter and more girly, in a very very good way.  I wish there was a better term for that.  How about...Mighty Girl!  Sorry.

ANYHOO I want to make a list, too, because I am a joiner and I love lists of all kinds.  Don't even know if I can come up with 100...
In no particular order, even though they are numbered so I can keep track of them.  The idea is to accomplish 3 a month, so they all can't be TOO outrageous.

things to do before I move on...

1. drink absinthe in Paris
2. camp in the snow
3. go on a girls weekend with my best friends
4. get married again- in a fancy dress
5. dye my hair blonde
6. get a tattoo of the Little Prince
7. create a large scale (3'x5'?) collage
8. spend time at a monastery/convent
9. go to St Petersburg
10. find my cousins from my mom's side
11. be in Oaxaca for the Day of the Dead
12. learn some burlesque
13. learn to sing some big band standards
14. write to a couple people I wronged long ago
15. spend time with the Schaefers and my godson
16. make a quilt
17. go rowboating on a spring day 
18. have another Westie 
19. go to natural hot springs somewhere
20. have unlimited time to spend in the British Museum
21. go horseback riding on the beach
22. get some Fluevogs
23. have one month off work to do art
24. take a class at Pratt
25. learn leaded and stained glass
26. take a pilgrimage to Iona
27. try some crazy expensive cheese
28. take all my kids to Disneyland for days and days
29. have a summer place
30. stay in Eureka, CA for some extended period of time
31. meet Jack's nieces and nephews and grandma
32. make turkish delight
33. ride an ATV on sand dunes
34. ride an elephant
35. eat a juicy peach in a meadow in the summer
36. see fireflies
37. vacation in New Orleans and spend lots of money there
38. be a teacher
39. write a book about history
40. go to the big museums in New York
41. have pygmy goats
42. have a clothesline
43. grow herbs on my deck
44. own robin's egg blue velvet curtains
45. get or make huge ceramic angel wings to hang on the wall
46. learn to use photoshop
47. read Carl Jung and understand
48. monogram linens for my girls' weddings
49. make and wear a Victorian dress
50. drive 90 miles an hour- just for a few minutes- not with kids in the car...