Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Crazy Sexy Cancer

This lady to my left, Kris Carr, is incredible. She has cancer and made a movie about how she is kicking it in the ass and is embracing her life to the fullest. How cool! It's called Crazy Sexy Cancer and it debuts on TLC tomorrow night. Set your DVRs!

I love it when someone takes a bad thing and makes a good thing out of it. When I first heard the name of the movie, I thought I was hearing things. Most people wouldn't associate cancer with anything fun and sexy. Cancer sucks, right? It's not a fun thing. I'm one who fantasizes about a world where illness and death is not such an uncomfortable topic, so I ran to my computer and googled these three words. When I learned about Crazy Sexy Cancer I was refreshed. What a strong girl! By putting herself out there in such a positive way, she is helping cancer, and all of it's associated suckiness, to be just a little more approachable. Oh thank goodness.

I am so inspired. Seriously. The quality of shows on cable TV is amazing. And no I'm not serious about that.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Fun Design Job

I'm stoked to share with you that I was hired to do some graphic design work for an absolutely fabulous non-profit in town called Girls, Inc. They are a national organization completely devoted to empowering girls. Their motto is "Inspiring all Girls to be Strong, Smart, and Bold."

My job is to design marketing materials for girls ages 8-21, inspiring them to join Girls, Inc. and become members. My designs are naturally youthful and fun, so I am a good fit for the task. But I realized recently that I have no idea what is cool to girls these days! I know what I would want for them to think is cool, but that wouldn't necessarily make it appeal to the 13-year-old of 2007. Any ideas? I'm challenging myself to think outside the box of flowers, hearts, and swirls, and give this some real substance. This project will be a lot of fun.

I'm honored to be on board with Girls, Inc. and I wanted to share my news and also bring the organization to your awareness. I'm also using this as an excuse to share the link to my online design portfolio, which I'm quite proud of. Take a peak at it. (Click to enlarge an image.)

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Good Stuff


My friend Sarette is so crafty. Look at these pants she sewed for herself!

Today I discovered the most fabulous new store in Portland that is only a bicycle spin away from my house. It's called Twisted and is has yarn, crafts, classes, and tea. Yet another reason why I love this city! Not only does Twisted have a weekly movie night, where you do the craft of your choice with other fun ladies (or strong men), but the two girls who just opened it are really nice. I'm hoping they decide to do some hiring soon.

Which reminds me that the other day, while shopping with Sarette, I discovered another store which is equally blogworthy. Saint Cupcake is a fun little boutique on Belmont Avenue. It's full of handmade things that you don't need at all, but you just want so badly. It's a great store to waste time in. And just when you thought this store couldn't be more scrumptious, at the back of the store, you'll find that you're actually shopping in a cheerful little cupcake shop! What's more fun than that?

Portland has a huge craft and DIY (do it yourself) scene and it is about half of the reason why I live here. I'll tell you more about that another day.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Movin' & Groovin'

Last weekend was a whirlwind! Not only did we transition from Seattle to Portland, but I personally shuffled from one music festival to another. The craziness started last week, when we packed up our stuff into a U-haul in Seattle, drove down, and unpacked it into our new garage. Then I drove out to the Gorge for the Stevenson Bluegrass Festival and played a dance set with Deadwood Revival on Friday night. (Yes, it was called a "dance set". And boy did they dance, thank the Lord.) Then, On Saturday I drove out to Hornings Hideout and met up with the Ziegman for the big String Cheese Incident weekend. In the meantime, we homelessly stored all of our stuff in our new garage. The move was chaotic, but the whole weekend was planned out and worked seamlessly!


String Cheese is a big jam band that puts on a huge camping festival every summer on beautiful grounds outside of Portland with a lake, a creek, and lots of forest. The stage area is a huge natural bowl-shape ampitheater that is perfect for thousands of people. Many people feel very at home at Hornings Hideout.


The weekend is not only about the band, but you see lots of costumes, dancing, workshops, and crazy circus-like hoopla. On Saturday night, they cleared out floor and put on a big theatrical show while the band jammed in the back. We were at the front of the crowd for this. I loved it! But also I was glad that we did not all go up in flames.


While frolicking in silliness with our friends Amy & Sean, we passed by a beautiful collage made with scrapes of random fabric pieces and glue gun. In the collage are images of flowers, water, animals, hills, etc. This is only part of it to show the detail. In my already blissful state, I thought this was pure luscious eye candy. Seeing this now makes me want to stop this unpacking nonsense and start crafting NOW!


I mean, could this be any more CUTE???


We are very lucky in that we are part of a huge community of friends in Portland called "The Visitors". Here is the group photo from the weekend. I, of course, was lost in my own world hula hooping at the top of the hill and missed the whole photo. But Zieg made it. He is the big guy in the lower left side with the scarf on his head.