Cats of the Round Table

I'm having way too much fun with the program Kaleider. I created this kaleidoscopic image from one of my drawings. Do those kitties look familiar??

Flowery Kaleider

I created this image yesterday, and animated it tonight in hopes to post it as a gif file with no difficulty. Boy was I wrong! Blogger disables gif animations upon upload, so I can't post the moving version as of yet. I still wanted to share the kaleidoscope however, so here it is!

I Won I Won I Won!

Ironic, that the quote that won me a prize was the one that states, "You only lose what you cling to"...

Also, ironic that I won a prize at random but just within this past week celebrated my 25th birthday. :)

A Chicago artist and 'soft sculpture' legend by the name of Peng Peng, has been an inspiration to me for over six years now. I have followed her website and blog, always with anticipation of what she sets out to create next. Peng Peng has gained great notability in the field of toy making and teddy bear artistry.


She has appeared in popular magazines, as well segments on the HGTV channel. In addition to the web, her bears can be found for purchase in specialty shops in Chicago and the United Kingdom. I believe they are elsewhere in America, but I'm not sure the names of the shops.

She recently held a prize drawing to celebrate the launch of her renovated website. The contest was easy enough, just submit a favorite quote related to Buddhism or something Zen and the winner receives a one-of-a-kind Buddha Bear figurine (a new, and adorable endeavor of hers). She picked at random the winner's name after everyone had submitted their favorite saying. And wha-la, it was ME!

She will be sending a sweet Buddha Bear my way soon :)

Back in May of 2008, I sent Peng Peng an email telling her how much she's inspired me to seek out creative expression and respect my sometimes wild imagination. I told her about one of the bears I had made, and included a picture. She wrote me back, the sweetest of emails...and then proceeded to put up a wonderful post on her blog about my Little Zen Bear.


Celebrate! I'll keep you posted on the arrival of my new prize!

semi climbing

december 12, 2008
5:15 PM
heading into Chicago

Hotel Swim

Video I just put together. Footage taken with ultra non-fancy camera in Indianapolis during a beekeeping seminar a few weeks ago. The song I used (Sexy Dance Go)is thanks to friend and musical genius Mike Stone of DangerWarningCaution...RESTART...and Provacouture. Who knows just what else. Visit his siteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees to hear full versions of his songs!

Doggy In The Window

I took this in Indianapolis on US 31 while driving home. The sweet dog kept looking at me.

Without Wax, Jane Doe, After Allotment - I Love You

The etymology of the word "Sincere" I've found out, is Sine Quaestio one of the most interesting meanings I've seen in all da history files del mundo. Weren't ya tell me, what fer em I speaken of? (Berkshire accent intended)

The Oxford Dictionary hits heads with the layman's derivation of the word, but I believe in Story over boring academia: those scholars with fine wooden pens up their rumpuses. The boring textbook take is that "sincere" is derived from "sincerus", Latin for clean and pure. All hail the more imaginative version, where Sine, meaning without; and Cera, meaning wax, meld together within the context of human laboring and honesty in the workplace. Sine Cera or 'Without Wax' would have been an indication of whether slaves hired by the Republic of Rome to carve and sculpt marble structures under Roman rule, were appropriately representing them with quality work. If a sculpture was made in haste or handled irresponsibility, potentially causing the work to become damaged and cracked, the artist would fill in the imperfections with wax to present the illusion of a smooth and seamless creation. On the other hand, if a sculpture was inspected and found to be Sine Cera, it was made with utmost care and was a guarantee that the artist was a fine craftsman and could be trusted for future projects.

The next time I use Sincerely as a salute at the end of my letters, I will have to remind myself that I'm making a promise and guarantee to the reader that I have both abstained from lavishly coating my words with pretension, and omitted any falsehoods or outlandish ornamentation of the text therein. So without further adieu...

Without Wax, just...full of cracks

Katie G.

Mike Patton! I Don't Have Any Cake!

Happy Birthday to the ultimate in music...sometimes called "The Master of the Thorax" or "The Man With 1,000 Voices", Mike Patton, happy 41st!

Inuit singer to boot...


His bands: Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Peeping Tom, Tomahawk, Lovage, Fantômas, The Dillinger Escape Plan
Solo Projects: Too many to name
Collaborations: Many bands and movie sound effects
Movies: Firecracker (actor)
Co-Founded Record Label: Ipecac "Making People Sick Since 1999"

Some vids I have been enjoying>>>

Faith No More - "Everything's Ruined"...
this has gone beyond anything I could have asked for right now


Fantomas - "Simply Beautiful"...
dude.


Patton with the Metropole Orchestra in Italy, 2008
and fluent in Italian. Whaa chicka wha.

Newman Must Be Doing Great Things In Heaven

Happy Birthday to late great Paul Newman. I'm sure he's still making a difference, wherever he is. I had the chance to meet his daughter Nell years ago and she was quite a wonder. My mother and I gave her a beautiful rose which she seemed to enjoy. Nell is the mastermind behind the certified organic spectrum of her father's food company "Newman's Own". Without Nell, Pa Newman might not have ever understood the health benefits of Certified Organic on both the public, and the ecosystem. (Not to mention the superior taste of foods grown without toxins)

In the February '09 edition of Vogue Magazine, Nell enlightens the reader of her father's adjustment to this new realm. "He really learned a lot for an old fart who didn't like it in the beginning. It wasn't that he didn't like it, it was just that he didn't know what it was. And, of course, that's the learning curve about organic. You know you've done your job when you've convinced your 70-year-old father that it doesn't have to be heavy and whole wheat, and it doesn't have to taste awful."

100% of royalties from "Newman's Own" product sales, go straight to Paul's charity, The Newman's Own Foundation, helping people all across the world. Seems the Newman family has perfected living out Paul's creed, "A generous spirit is contagious."

How inspiring!

Come and Dress Me in The Blossoms of A Million Pink Trees

Well, it's officially Do-Mi-Do Day, Do-Mi-Do Day (January 25th, my 25th Birthday!!). And you know what I feel like doing? I feel like "Going Do-Mi-Do-ing on a Do-Mi-Do Binge..."

"I want my organdy snood and in addition to that
I want my chiffon Mother Hubbard lined with Hudson Bay rat!"



(Thanks to my new beekeeping friend (and fellow Aquarian...) Zach Mermel, I was reminded of this amazing movie I used to watch when I was younger. It's "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T". The only live action Dr. Seuss film ever made. It's demented, magical, silly, all Seussified and I want to re-watch it. It's been too long.)

bobby junior and jeffy dean

I made a discovery today after watching the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson today. The actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan looks and acts very much like Robert Downey Jr! I'd never before heard of this Morgan character, I guess he's all over tv, but I don't watch tv shows other than Craigy so I'd never seen him. He's a pretty funny and mysterious dude, like Mr. Downey.


"Where's my brother Rob?"


"Stop saying that..."

Update: Or maybe the pic below of Javier Bardem looks more like Mr. Morgan? Maybe I've just lost my miiiind. And does Javier have a Tom Selleck-esque thing going on with his cheeks, or is it just me? Alright...I'll stop.

Designing the Quilt

I created a very basic version of my "Virginia Tears" quilt design, in Photoshop. Me and sister Eva are going fabric shopping soon so we can get this quilt project rolling. I'm going to use all Civil War reproduction fabrics, in browns and blues. Not sure what types of designs on the fabrics yet, that is the fun part of going shopping for them! The best part. Oh I love it. There is a quilt shop scheduled to open in Kokomo soon, but in the meantime I have to drive 50 miles south of town. There is a great place in Noblesville, Indiana called Arbuckle's Railroad Place. It's 'stationed' in an old train depot! Trains + Fabric???!!!! = HEAVEN! If I recall correctly, they serve tea and coffee, and I could just stay there for days. I might!



Get more of a feel for Arbuckle's...meet me there!

"Entering from the southeast, a winding drive brings you past the wool barn and carriage house. Multiple heirloom street lamps guide the way to the main building. A large railroad loading dock hints to the huge inventory housed inside. The main entrance features a unique combination of Victorian styling, railroad paraphernalia and sewing whimsy. Iron hand rails are fashioned from precious treadle table remnants. Salvage sculptures of eagles and old machines adorn the tops of the street lamps. An authentic train station bench beckons from the dock level for husband’s to sit a spell while the gals proceed inside."
-www.arbuckles-rrp.com

A Tactile Heritage

Robert Arbuckle founded the store in 1948 to fulfill people's sewing machine needs. He sold machines and ran a successful repair business, which is still in place today. The Arbuckle team is admired across the nation for their expertise in antique sewing equipment and repair. They even have their own brand of machine. And you've gotta admire their spunk when they claim they are "the greatest fabric show on Earth." Oh wait! They don't claim that they're the greatest fabric show on Earth, customers insist upon it!!!


This picture shows Bob Arbuckle himself with crew, in the year 1965, after having acquired this caboose.

Dad Rockin' Out the AK

My dad Marc testing his special AK pistol that he put together from spare parts. He's got a knack for building guns ... it's like an intuitive sense for him. He just somehow knows how to make one-of-a-kind weapons. thank goodness he'd never hurt a fly! He doesn't even hunt! :)

My MacGyver in shining armor!

Go Fleet Foxes!

These guys make me happy. Healthy beards, mountains, music, harmonies, laughter, come on!

Blue Ridge Mountains - Fleet Foxes

Hold Out Your Plates!

Legend or Fact?? Who Cares?!

In 1890, Popular Science News reported that blood rained down on Messignadi, Calabria in Italy - bird's blood. It was speculated that the birds were somehow torn part by violent winds, although there were no such winds at the time. And no other parts of the bird came down - just blood.

J. Hudson's farm in Los Nietos Township, California endured a rain of flesh and blood for three minutes in 1869. The grisly fall covered several acres.

The American Journal of Science confirmed a shower of blood, fat and muscle tissue that fell on a tobacco farm near Lebanon, Tennessee in August, 1841. Field workers, who actually experienced this weird shower, said they heard a rattling noise and saw "drops of blood, as they supposed...fell from a red cloud which was flying over."

Click The Pic!

Humans around the world take flight!

Can Someone Explain To Me How High He Is?

I just found out that Alex Chilton was 17 in this video. Amazing -rough in all the right spots- voice that he's got going on for being so young...

Just how high are The Box Tops in this video? Someone mentioned online that they seemed to be on Quaaludes. I wouldn't disagree with them :)

I love when the keyboardist shows us the keys and smiles at the camera, like "see? yeah...cool..."

Crumble Town Here I Come

My life just crumbled at my feet. What a pitiful feeling.

YouTube took down my of-all-time-and-into-and-including-eternity FAVORITE video of Ferlin Husky as his humorous alter-ego Simon Crum. Oh my god, for real I don't even know what to say.

or do.


update: I just checked the others, and most have been removed. All the ones I watched daily in order to SURVIVE....

oh Ferlin, now i really DO have to travel to Texas and Missouri to see you ...

here is one though, still amazing, I just hope to Jesus in heaven it stays up



I'll just have to keep Theodore Roethke's "The Right Thing" in mind...and keep on repeating over and over and over and over:

"...Child of the dark, he can out leap the sun,
His being single, and that being all:
The right thing happens to the happy man.

Or he sits still, a solid figure when
The self-destructive shake the common wall;
Takes to himself what mystery he can,

And, praising change as the slow night comes on,
Wills what he would, surrendering his will
Till mystery is no more: No more he can.
The right thing happens to the happy man."

Buzzing About

I'm going to a beekeeping class for two days in Indianapolis. I'll be sure to post pictures when I get back home! I hope it's a stinging good time.

this was NOT day residue

The magic of this extraordinary occurrence I'm about to reveal calls for some Satie...Thibaudet on Satie at that! (the truest kind)


Ok...to explain...

I've been practicing lucid dreaming much more lately and have already had quite a few significant things happen to me. But this one is totally awesome.

The other night I was dreaming on the Astral Plane maybe (?) and found someone very interesting. I didn't catch his name, but we hung out and I watched him and his friends practice teleportation in the park. It was great fun to witness, I'll go into more detail on that later on...

So, tonight after work I ate dinner with family and then sat down to browse YouTube by searching "lucid dreaming" and what did I find? Well, let's just say I found someone!

I watched his video post and my ears were quite delighted and freakishly exhilarated to hear him say that a few people have 'seen' him in dreams. He considered that it was possibly 'day residue', from having watched his videos they were more likely to see him in a dream. But, he explained that there was an exception to this when a gentleman in Australia wrote to him stating that he'd never before watched his videos: that the dream took place first. Just like in my case!

Well, I have written to this guy, and we'll see what he writes back. I REALLY can't wait to see how my dream journal and his dream journal correlate for the night of January 5th...because I was there damn it, and he was too!

Hedgehog In The Fog

I found the classic Russian animated short film "Hedgehog In The Fog" on Youtube. Made in 1975 and based on a story by Sergei Kozlov. Yuri Norstein animates and directs. His illustrations are haunting.


I never knew something could be so scary and hilarious simultaneously.

Saint Augustine Hour

"We shall rest and we shall see,
we shall see and we shall love,
we shall love and we shall praise,
in the end which is no end."


"Too late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient, O Beauty so new. Too late have I loved you! You were within me but I was outside myself, and there I sought you! In my weakness I ran after the beauty of the things you have made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The things you have made kept me from you - the things which would have no being unless they existed in you! You have called, you have cried, and you have pierced my deafness. You have radiated forth, you have shined out brightly, and you have dispelled my blindness. You have sent forth your fragrance, and I have breathed it in, and I long for you. I have tasted you, and I hunger and thirst for you. You have touched me, and I ardently desire your peace."
-St. Augustine

Lucid Dreaming Update

I just remembered I had a lucid dream the other night. It was what I consider to be "Partially" lucid. This doesn't mean that it's not a lucid dream, it is qualified as one, but it just isn't as strong as a lucid dream can be.

A Partially Lucid Dream is one where I become aware in a dream, and begin to take control of the dream world. There are limitations as to what I accomplish, however.


In a Completely Lucid Dream, I have no boundaries (mental or otherwise) to keep me from doing whatever I want to do. If I want to manifest a magical kingdom where clouds will transport me alongside the wings of angels, then it will be. A truly lucid Lucid Dream will have no interference with my 'rational' mind or my ego. If my rational, waking-world mind is involved while lucid dreaming, I might not be able to contain excitement about a particular dream endeavor, thus waking up. Another obstacle it creates is fear, which interferes when lucid dreaming. If you create a world lucidly, and then fear something about it, it creates drama and tension and wastes a lot of time. I spend time trying to rise above and disassemble the fear in a lucid fashion, which is always successful (because if you're truly lucid dreaming you can create ANYTHING, including the antidote to bad and terrible things). Time is of the essence in a lucid dream, at least for me. Hopefully at some point I'll be able to control and sustain the dreams to last a really long time. If my ego becomes involved while in the dream I begin craving selfish things, which throws me off track and into weird and sometimes dark worlds. In the excitement of becoming lucid, sometimes it's difficult to remember what it is you want to accomplish. Before sleep, I try to give myself a 'mission' so I'm more aware in the dream state of what I want to do. I have only on occasion had contemplative moments while dreaming. This was akin to meditating while awake. I think it'd be interesting to practice this more ...WOW...that could result in something incredible. I will post more soon on some lucid dreams I have actually had. I went on a ramble here without meaning to. Time to eat lunch! Learn more at the Lucidity Institute.

*Picture thanks to Armands Auseklis of www.TerraEscape.com

The Big Sleep

I actually slept through the night! I haven't done that in almost 5 months...I'm so excited! I fell asleep, (almost over the phone), at around 11pm last night and woke today at 11am! I hadn't even taken my contacts out, and the lamp was still on when I woke up. That is amazing. I usually can't sleep more than a few hours without waking up and feeling like I can't even stay in the bed.

Could it be due to my consumption of delicious and beneficial Tart Red Cherry extract??? I don't know, maybe!!

Or could it be that I was psychically abducted by aliens? Maybe, yes!!

I'm just thrilled. This could mean great things for me. Lucid dreaming here I come! Oh, and hopefully it means I'll have more dreams about Dinosaurs, like I did last night. I was attacked by a creature that I called a "turtle", but it was NOT a turtle. It was a spikey dinosaur that stained me with a weird substance that it emitted during its attack. I was worried that it was poisonous so I went around the town asking people for help, to make sure I wasn't going to die from it. They all seemed to not be concerned. One woman told me that the spray could have just been paint that someone had put on the dinosaur. Haha. So weird.

Cheers, to GOOD sleep!

IF Submission - "Resolve"

"He'll be like new"

My submission this week for Illustration Friday. She is resolving an issue Teddy has had for too long. His arm will feel much better now!

Don't Mess With Texas, Or This Movie!

Few films today tell stories that I care to hear. Even fewer are those that I treasure and want to share with others. However, there is a film as old as I am that can't go without mentioning. Robert Benton's 1984 drama "Places In The Heart", with Sally Field, Ed Harris, Danny Glover, John Malkovich, and Amy Madigan. This soul-stirring tale of home and survival is set in Waxachie, Texas, Benton's hometown and basis for the real-life incident that affected his family there during the Great Depression.


Ed Harris is one of my favorite actors, if not for his role in this movie alone. Glover's performance is gentle yet unforgettable, Malkovich is deep and mysterious and Sally Field is ... well ... let's just say a little guy named Oscar took her bait.

This film needs to re-visit theaters everywhere. Timeless, universal, triumphant.

Just a Bite! Maybe two!

This post is dedicated to the much appreciated and admired artist behind "Closet Cooking". This man is a maverick of the senses, a wizard of the palate, a genius of the eye! Kevin ... can you pleeeease start a restaurant? I'll go there three times a day, promise!

Kevin's blog was created as a place to share the outcome of testing new and unusual recipes, after he had become bored with his diet. He is from Toronto, and cooks in a closet-sized kitchen. I must say, you'd never know this man had eaten a boring piece of food in his life! I love 'following' his blog, and drooling over his newest plate of wonder. I'm now going to dream a dream ... a dream of Kevin's Closet ...

Here's my order for Friday January 2nd, 2009

7:30 AM - I'll take the Japanese Rolled Omelette, or Tamagoyaki ... with spinach. Mmmmm, what a way to greet the day.



1:00 PM - Pizza sounds good! Roasted Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Pizza with Gorgonzola and Crispy Fried Sage, pretty please with a cherry on top :)



6:45 PM - This is not easy choosing! Okay ... hm ... this looks like a great appetizer. The marinated feta with olives and roasted peppers ...


mmmm, yes that was delicious.

And for the main course? Oh well let's see ... it looks like there's a new item on the menu! Sichuan Peppercorn Tenderloin Steak, Oh wow. Perfectly done.


Now the real challenge comes in finding a dessert. They all look so good! I could use something light and flaky, yet bold with real dimension. What would tha - oh I think I know what that would be! Bulgarian Strawberry Goat Cheese Banitsa, baby!



Well I'm full and satisfied! What a wonderful time. Thanks Kevin!

Visit him for yourself, drool a little drool at www.closetcooking.blogspot.com