More time killer

I'm waiting for a client drop off and realized I've been very lax with this blog...
This comes from CJ's blog...


1. What is on your desktop wallpaper?
Shepard Fairey art

2. What is your favorite zoo animal? Monkeys!

3. What was your favorite toy as a child? Hmmm - nothing's coming to mind

4. What food do you eat too much of? Only one? (this was CJ's answer & I'm stickin' with it!)

5. What kind of hairstyle do you have? Long, with a green streak in there somewhere

6. What was your favorite activity in gym? concocting excuse notes

7. What is on your shirt? Mooby's

8. What is the picture nearest you? The Pope & my Plenary Indulgence. (If you've seen the movie "Dogma" it dawns on me the answers to 7 & 8 should make you laugh 'til you pee.)

9. What is your favorite kind of salad dressing? Toby's Feta

10. What is your least favorite food? Cafeteria food (and yet I'm off to a calligraphy conference this summer.)

11. What do you do on Sunday night? What? Are you questioning my American-ness? my love of Portland? I watch "The Simpsons" (Portland, OR, which lends its street names to Simpsons characters.)

12. If you could use only one condiment for the rest of your life, what would it be? Does fudge sauce count as a condiment? (again, this is CJ's answer and I must stick with it due to it's brilliance.)

13. What color are your sheets? Today - fitted sheet turquoise, flat sheet purple.

14. How big is your computer display? 17" on desktop and laptop

15. what pair of shoes do you wear most often? not one particular pair, but they're almost all adidas ;-)

16. What is your favorite game? Rumikub

17. What is your favorite Thanksgiving food? my grandmother's meat stuffing (which never actually stuffed the turkey)

18. What time do you plan to wake up tomorrow morning? Morning?

19. What is your favorite day of the year? Halloweeeeeeeeeen!

10-minute collages

What have I been doing the past few weeks that has kept me from my "fun blog?" I dunno, but I've apparently been very busy doing it.





Part of the busy has been the studio remodel - photos to come as soon as I can locate the digital camera. One of the great things about the remodel is that I know where everything is, everything but the paper & book 1/3 of my studio has been sorted, organized and LABELED (very important part of the process, I'm discovering.) I've got my act more together and it's easier to do fun, quick art...





... like this. Last year for my birthday a friend gave me a very lovely travel tea mug and some very delicious tea. I truly appreciated it but you know paper-geeks, I was almost just as into the wrapping paper & ribbon as I was the gift itself. I put it aside to make some collages for my friend and I and the bag was unearthed this week. When everything's organized and labeled it took me 10 minutes to do both collages - and yes, I put my toys away when I was done - probably the MOST important part of the process.

The background papers are tissues I decorated in the Jacqueline Sullivan workshops I took in February. The upper one is tissues torn and glued down to the little board. The bottom is tissue that was painted on to phone book pages, with a piece of twine stuck in between. The little birds and accompanying leaves are from the wrapping paper, the leaves running diagonally in the corners are the ribbon my present was tied with. Everything's stuck down with matte medium. The pieces are 2"x3" and will go in little black frames. I'll see my friend this week (I don't think she reads this so I'm safe writing about it) and will put one little frame in each hand, put my hands behind my back and tell her to pick a hand. That will be the collage she receives.

I just realized doing this blog post took about as long as it did to do the collages. Here's to organization. Shall I yet again make my Scarlet O'Hara like declaration? "As God as my witness, my studio will never get that bad again!" Hope I stick to it.

What a wonderful way to spend some time

I'm so excited, I feel like a colossal geek.

Several summers ago, while researching what to do with the zillions of tomatoes that were coming in from the farm share, I came across the most delightful foodie blog, Orangette. It was the first blog I followed religiously. Orangette (it was quite awhile before I realized her name is Molly) writes the most endearing stories to accompany her delicious recipes. She's so personable when writing, really, you feel like you know her. I got all teary-eyed when she got engaged and when I read her entry about her wedding I think I cried enough to make a little snort noise.

And now Molly has a cookbook out, "A Homemade Life." It's fantastic, I've already read it from cover to cover and can't wait to start cooking from it (there's a majorly disruptive studio renovation going on right now.) What could be better?

Molly's coming to Portland tomorrow night for a reading at Powell's. I'll see you there!*

*I got a new phone, complete with camera. Hurray!

Happy Day!

Today is day one of Lisa Vollrath's printables countdown for St. Patrick's Day. I'm glad I got to you well before the holiday this time! Go check out her website and see all the great stuff she has available.

One of the things I'm going to try harder at accomplishing is her Make It Monday challenge, found on Mondays on her blog. I'm going to try harder to accomplish a non-work related something each week, Lisa has great ideas so I'm following her lead. Then I don't have to think. Last Monday's theme was Postage Stamps, here's the ATC I made...

Happy Belated Valentine's Day

and Happy Belated Oregon's Sesquicentennial! This year on Valentine's Day was the 150th anniversary of Oregon's statehood. Go us!

Don't Waste Any Time!!

What with company, bad colds, many workshops and (happily!) a bunch of clients, I've totally forgotten about Lisa Vollraths' Valentines Day Printables Countdown. I could wax poetic about how much I love Lisa's website, how Lisa's been a professional inspiration and so much more but you'd lose out on time to download these cool Valentines Day images for next year as they're coming down sometime this week. Please make sure you read the rules before you start ot download and do yourself a favor and check out all the other wonderful things on her websites.

So what are you waiting for?

Unbelievable

There was a posting on the IAMPETH listserv that I just have to share. It's a Discovery Channel segment on a blind painter, Esref Armagan. Drawing is always a challenge for me, I really haven't spent any time studying it so of course it's challenging! As I started to watch this I thought "Well, if he can do it, what the hell am I waiting for?" And in the beginning I noticed the comic-book-esque titling was very much like the TV show Heroes. By the end of the segment I was very humbled. Indeed, the titling should look like Heroes - this man has a real-life "power" that is truly miraculous.

A better picture of Vinnie

It's hard to take a good photo of a black dog. Here's Vinnie sitting on the front porch last April while waiting for his pepere's (grandfather) visit last April.

So sweet your teeth will ache

Vinnie and Andy all snuggled up. And the arm of my sparkly red office chair.

Hello My Dear Winners,

I'm sorry I've been so late in getting out your fabulous prizes. Hopefully they'll be worth the wait.

Mitzvah Mom's job finally got out the door on the 30th, and not a minute too soon as Jacqueline Sullivan arrived shortly after MM left the house. Jacqueline is staying with me until the 9th. So far I've taken the Official Meandering Book and Geisha Shrine Book. We've had an unofficial metal play day. Yesterday was a trip to Powells' Books and tooting around town. Today we're off to experiment with monoline printing with my friend Colleen and Jaki & Russell Svaren. Tomorrow Jacqueline starts a 3-day teaching stint at Collage.

My hands look atrocious. Between cleaning patina off metal and of course playing with paints in my chartreuse/turquoise palette, I can't get the green out from under & around my fingernails. I'm ready for Halloween, but so many months early!!

Wake Up Early!!

Do you know how you're up waaaay too early? (It's 4:45am.)
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Have a lovely day.

Borrowed meme

Hello all!
We've finally gotten thru the snow and the subsequent flooding and we've actually had a week of SUN - we weren't expecting that until July!

I've got a Mitzvah Mom who's driving me meshuge (yes, short trip, I know) and she's been keeping me busy. I'm also doing envelopes for our public classical music radio station in trade for being an underwriter sponsor. Everything I know about classical music I learned from Warner Bros. ("Kill the wabbit...") Good thing there wasn't a quiz so they can say "This program sponsored in part by Alesia Zorn Calligraphy..." and then 15 seconds of how brilliant I am.

That's all kept me busy and off the streets. But I've sworn I'm taking the day off so CJ is keeping me off the streets with her meme questions...

Q What item in your home says Alesia lives here?
All the gargoyles? All the pen paraphenalia and antique pens? My lazy ( ! ) on the couch? Oh! I learned a new ( ! ) emoticon from Judy's daughter Cherie - { ! } cellulite ass. Loving that, although sadly too easily recognize that!

Q What is one thing on your living room wall? The Apostolic Benediction and Plenary Indulgence I bought a thrift store for $5. Sing it with me "I'm goin' to hea-ven, I'm goin' to hea-ven." For the non-Catholics in the crowd, it's a get out of jail, go directly to Heaven card. My Methodist-raised husband points out I'm neither Mr. NOR Mrs. William Lee, the names on the Vatican signed and sealed indulgence. I, the avid Law & Order devotee, reply that possession is 9-tenths of the law. St. Peter's down with that, I just know it.

Q What is one thing you have in your house from your childhood? A battered dolphin statue that I love dearly, no matter how many cracks it has.

Q What are three things we'd find in your medicine cabinet? A large selection of band-aids (we're a clumsy household,) advil and tums.

Q What are three things we'd find in your refrigerator? coffee, half & half and behold, the power of cheese

Q If you had to save one thing from your home, what would it be? Pets. The collective.

Q What is the biggest collection in your home? The aforementioned gargoyles, and many, many, many CDS.

Q What is the most embarrassing thing in your home that you hide when guests come over?
Hmm, clients come to my house frequently so it's usually picked up. Maybe the answer is my husband?!

Q What's the best furniture bargain you ever got? The home which houses our furniture. We bought it 6 years ago, it's more than doubled in price.

Q What CD or artist would we find in your player? In the car, The Pogues. In my studio, The Clash. In the bedroom, a rain and thunderstorm CD (we don't get thunderstorms in Portland.)

Q Do you do any snooping of your own when visiting friends? Nope. I don't want to look at my own dust & mess, I don't need to look at theirs!

Who's next?