something soft

after receiving a 2/3 closed eye head from narae last month, i put her on my desk and all but forgot about the little dear. in a fit of boredom, and seeing that the weather was nice, i took her out to my studio. i really wanted a soft, wisp-like face up, something a bit ethereal. i think she came out rather nice.

i suppose that the only question about changing just the face plate is, "is it now a different personality, or just a different expression of the same personality?". as her face is different, should she no longer be echo but another? hmm, perhaps a new name for this face.

in some cultures there are several names for the different aspects of a certain goddess; the crone, the maiden, the mother. perhaps echo has many aspects. or maybe she is just a nymph who appears differently when away from her source. this could be a tree dryad. lots to ponder!
there are more images of her in my flickr account.

the art of piecing together

i have always been intrigued by quilts; they keep you warm when you're wrapped up in one and when not, they are lovely laid over the foot of your bed. but somehow through the years i have not managed to acquire one. so few of them "speak" to me, at times they may even lack "soul". you've seen them, those sad mass produced ones that follow a pattern and were never touched by hands that love. lately however, i have been coming across some very lively and unique works that inspire me to perhaps work on one myself.

this is one from the tokyo international quilt festival 2008, it is absolutely astonishing in the details and variety of stitches. it is definitely what you would call a master work, i only wish i could see it in person.

here is a more detailed view so you can see the intricacies involved in something like this.

the one above is another from the tokyo international quilt festival 2008. the pastels and limited brights create a striking display of subtleties in overall color. it is warm and loved to me, something that would provide comfort when one is sad. it is like a sunburst and yet earthy at the same moment.

apparently it is stitched pojagi style-a form of korean patchwork.

one of the first quilts to show me the possibility of freedom. i like the looseness, the off-kilter appearance, and the shades of green that are reminiscent of young grass.

let's play a word game...

there's a reason i haven't posted in 12 days. it begins with a "p" and ends in an "s". give up? it's psoriasis! i've been recently diagnosed with psoriasis and i've been spending the missing time trying to figure out what i can do and what i need to change. after some research i come to find out that i may be gluten intolerant as well, and that that is what lead to the psoriasis. so i then had to research gluten intolerance and have been trying to figure out what exactly i can and can't eat. i came across a couple of blogs and some recipes i'm going to give a go when i have some free time. so for now most of my focus has been on psoriasis and also chickens. there will be further posting on that topic later.

it is beautiful!

one of my long running wants from an even longer list of wishes arrived in the mail yesterday. it is even more wonderful in person, and i have not even created any edible wonders in it yet. bask in all of its' icy glory! behold, my new kitchenaid artisan 5 qt stand mixer!

and then there was a coffee table

i have wanted to get a noguchi coffee table for my dollhouse for awhile now, so yesterday i went ahead and bought one. it is very delicate and beautiful. the top is real glass and is made by a miniature furniture maker, warren richardson. i have to say that it is even nicer in person. now if i could get on the ball with finishing the rest of the room.

that tab icon doo-hickey...

you may notice that there's a little birdie in your address bar above, don't worry i put it there on purpose. i learned a new html trick today, how to make and add a favicon to your blog. what is a favicon you say? well it's that little birdie.
you too can have an image in front of your web addy. just create a 16 x16 pixel image in your favorite image editing software and make it into an .ico file here. if you want the icon on your webpage just follow the instructions in the included readme file.
however, if you want to use it in your blog you need to host the .ico file on a separate server and change the code. there's two changes you need to do to the code:
#1. put the http address of the hosted .ico image in front of the "favicon.ico" part.
#2. use a "/" before the closing bracket. so it ends up looking like this:



you then want to go into the layout area of blogger, click on "edit html" and insert this code under the head tag. that's it.

you're welcome.

purple people eater

after discovering all the fun prints on sew, mama, sew i stocked up on some fat quarts. a lot of them were in the purple end of the spectrum as that's where my stock is a little barren.
i have decided to try to spice up some of my older t-shirts, so i choose a purple puff sleeve t that i've had a while. looking at it i decided it needed a purple elephant blowing bubbles.