Thursday, January 21, 2010
Jason's letterpress work
I'm always trying to talk Jason into drawing some things for me to letterpress. I stole this drawing off his stack of papers and made a plate out of it.
Pretty cool, right? Again, not exactly my look, but that's what's cool about it.
I asked him if he wanted to sell them in our Etsy shop...he says "Yes. For one dollar." So I might just do that--list it in the shop for $1. And ship it in a standard envelope for 43 cents or whatever a stamp costs these days.
Now, everyone leave a nice comment so I can motivate him to draw more.
Labels: jason, letterpress, printing
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
the Beth and Jason Co-Lab
This is the second edition of the Beth/Jason collaborative painting series (see the first episode here).
To say we have two totally different artistic styles is an understatement. Jason= zombies, bloody beasts, ninjas, etc. Beth = flowers, leaves, Tuscan scenes
But we have one thing going for us in that he likes to draw, and I like to paint. 
This is Jason's drawing, on super heavy watercolor paper. Notice the mushrooms. That would be a detail I probably wouldn't have thought of.
Here is my first layer of paint. It was like coloring in a coloring book! This is the best part as far as I'm concerned.
After I was done painting, Jason went back with some pens and watercolor pencils and added details.
Ta-Da! This was Jason's mom's Christmas present. Last year, Jason painted her a robot with a machine gun (link here), so I'm thinking she might like this better. Although, she did laugh when she first saw this, so I'm hoping that's a good thing. . . ?
Thursday, January 14, 2010
New Fabric up in the shop!
I've put up the newest fabric in the 1canoe2 shop!
We have Scissors.
We have Hexes. Wouldn't this be cool to quilt around the shapes? Maybe in a pillow or something?
We have Kitchen fabric. This pattern is pretty big, so we're selling it in 1/2 yard sizes.
All of these fabrics are 100% high quality cotton, and are washable in warm water. It's just like REAL quilting fabric! It IS real quilting fabric!
Please let us know if you would like a different size than what is listed. We'd be happy to cut a different size and set up a custom listing.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Watch this! Or: it's about the simple things
Jason gave me a really great watch for Christmas. It's not this one. I took the one he gave me back (feeling bad, but I'm just really picky about watches) I got another watch--the only one I liked in all of Macy's, which I also took back because it wasn't just right either.
I ended up with this beyond simple Timex. It cost $150 less than my original watch. I have a terrible fear of things being out of style. I just wanted the most simple, as timeless as possible time piece. I just love the straightforward feel of it. It's no frills.
Friday, January 08, 2010
Random cooking from 2009
Over the New Year's weekend, Jason and I got some weird hunch to cook all kinds of random food we wouldn't otherwise undertake. I think we were getting a mild case of cabin fever!
Here is Jason making his first batch of cookies ever. (Monster cookies. The batch of dough was so huge that we didn't have a big enough bowl.) What? That's right. He didn't even know about the creaming the sugars and butter concept. This may not seem terribly strange, but for a guy who likes cookies as much as Jason, you would think he would have tried this out before. And check out his house slippers! And that manly stance. I think he was trying to tell the universe that he's still a man, cookie making or not.
I tried my hand at homemade donuts. Not worth the effort. First, a huge vat of oil is a giant mess. Second, after you eat 2 donuts, you're done, and then we had 20 left! The don't exactly keep very well.
I seriously burned the first 3. I like that you can see the progression.
The donut holes in cinnamon sugar were pretty good. That might have been better than the whole donut. Jason enjoyed them! After the donut session was done, the next day I used the oil to make fried cheddar bites. Also a rounding failure. I think my deep-frying days are through. Wait. I still want to try to make a funnel cake.
Here are some random photos from our holiday celebration. Food is so much more fun to photograph than people or presents, right? My cousins Erin and Paul made the delicious desserts for our "shooters" style holiday feast. Everything came in bite sized amounts! Buffalo dip, seven layer dip, meatballs, all in tiny shot glasses!
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Actual STITCHING!
I took advantage of the long holiday weekend to do some long-awaited sewing. I know. There was a time this fall when I thought I would never turn on my sewing machine ever again.
I've been meaning to so something with my very own fabric!
And I thought this was the perfect opportunity. Originally, I was just going to make a zippered pouch, but of course I got carried away. I still want to make a zippered pouch, but maybe I'll use my garden fabric.
I'm still trying to figure out how to sell these pieces of fabric. They're so expensive for me to purchase! I have a few pieces in my shop, and need to take photos of some of the others.
And I have plans to make so much more fabric! It's just a matter of having the time. It's always about having more time. Doesn't help that I most cooked random food and watched movies for the 4 day weekend I just had. Hey. Sometimes you just need to veg.
I have so many unfinished sewing projects hanging over my head! A states quilt which I did work on, and a round robin mystery quilt for quilt fest, and 2 unfinished quilts that are even sandwiched together and need quilting. I just don't have the time. Maybe the craft fairy might help me out. Hmmm.
Friday, January 01, 2010
The last good picture of last year.
If I wasn't such a baby, I would have stood out here all night and driven all over farm country to get a better photo. But it was windchill of -5. Probably. And it was too dark for my camera to focus.
I did have the advantage of my giant trash-bucket car, though, because I actually had my tripod in the back seat.
Just because I'm me, I'll feel better if I admit what's wrong with this shot. Here are the things that make this unviable as a cover photo:
1) ISO way too high=grainy
2) there was probably a better vantage point somewhere, but I almost got my 2 wheel drive car stuck getting to this point, so I wasn't feeling brave
3) It's a little soft on the focus
There. I just needed to say those things. I was thinking that it would be great cover potential, but alas, I was too cold and hungry to stick it out.