december view : dec 28.10
i've been trying to walk to &from work
when the weather is good.
mostly boring views, but a small good spot of graffiti
probably the last one of the year
off to texas in 1.5 days! yay!

december view : dec 23.10
off to the city before the Weather comes!
happy hollyDaze, one&all!

december view : dec 22.10
they finally put a pencil drawer under my new desk
but it was too late
i had already brought cans from home

december view : dec 20.10

december view : dec 19.10
some color for yet another gray day

december view : dec 17.10

it has been so frigging dreary here. and COLD (which i don't really mind). and sometimes windy (which i do, a little). so i haven't been wandering at all, even though i am going crazy wanting to make pictures with my iPod Touch and all those damnFun little photo apps. today was sewing day, so i had to do that first, recycling two ugly dresses into skirts and fixing one skirt that was too long. i still have to sew some new buttons (rhinestones!) on to the "fur coat" that the poet bought me for xmas from our favorite thrift shop last weekend and fix the collar on my favorite trashedout denim jacket. and i fixed my newest overalls, that were too long and are sooooo stiff. now i will try to start breaking them in. then i took the girls' little gifties to the post office and crossed my fingers that Bad People won't steal them if they don't fit in their inadequate apartment mailboxes. then i decided to drive around in the alleys on the east side and do some driveby shooting, so i did. it was good. now i am having some red wine and outside is the same color it was when i woke this morning and has been ALL DAY, it seems like forever. i have almost lost my sunglasses. i feel pretty happy lately. for no special reason, just because. that's good!

december view : dec 16.10

december view : dec 13.10

december view : dec 12.10

ironDog, brassElephant & uplandSandpiper feathers
december view : dec 09.10

december view : dec 08.10

photograph by annie leibovitz, december 8. 1980

december view : dec 06.10

sitting place

and now i am finally sitting here. after tearing apart my home all weekend, trying to make it better, more functional, more like ME. finally, after over a year, i think i got it. i quit trying to decorate for a life i don't have. now my space (a huge room with a soaring ceiling over a 3-bay garage) is mostly studio (and bookshelves). instead of having a tiny and timid, restrictive studio stuffed away in a corner, i now have a tiny, cozy, dear sitting area there. i moved the barrier to my sleeping nest (you can't see, but it is behind that bit of screen), which feels a little strange, but i think i will like it.

all weekend i have shuffled my STUFF, sometimes back and forth like a madwoman. the studio was the hardest, and ideally i would have bigger tables, but i made it work. besides, faerie lights make everything better. and incense. and that little cute cupboard i found in the alley for my paints. i wanted to make more pictures, but it became dark so quickly. so maybe more tomorrow. now i am going to sit in my new space and drink this glass of wine and write in my story and be GLAD that i don't have to drag any more crap around and that i can do fun stuff tomorrow like laundry and playing with my iPod touch!! yeah!

a walk on the northside today.
before i started tearing up my house and wishing i hadn't.

onward.

hanky on the table
bygod would you look at that little hipstamatic TTV?

so in October i did my own October project.
that was good.

then in November, i did this:
also, really good - and i'm still working on it, since i consider Nano a jumpstart mostly.


now for December, i think i will do this:

and i'll start with this, since i was a greedy piggy and could NOT wait until christmas for my own little present. i have been really really good about new toys and new boots and everything, it was time to cut loose a little, so i acquired that little iPod Touch i have been longing for since they finally made one with a camera. it is SO MUCH FUN!

my first hipstamatic (tm)

what do you mean that has nothing to do with Thanksgiving????

it does to ME!

it's that old red garage i used to walk by and make a picture of a couple of years ago. probably on this very same day two years ago. when i lived in that crappy student ghetto apartment that leaked all the time and flooded my bedroom and made moldy toxic carpet? see! it has a LOT to do with Thanksgiving, that picture, because i AM SO THANKFUL I DON'T LIVE THERE ANYMORE. ok, that is a small thing, but taking that "nostalgic" walk this morning and making pictures of some of the things i used to see, made me feel very glad to be coming "home" to my lofty and dry garage apartment. i am spending the day alone, my family are scattered and my friends are few. but i am not unhappy. i am baking sweet potatoes and making split pea soup with the turkey ham that i meant to have in my salad, but decided to put in the soup instead and will put some chicken in the salad instead. i have cold white wine and ice cream. i am working on artStuff and trying not to look at my lofty and dry garage apartment, because in the bright sun i can see it is very dusty. i am really not into being holidayish today at all, but if you are, i hope you are having a nice day. i am and i am grateful. for lots of things. not just my lofty and dry garage apartment. but if i were to list them, it would sound very strange...

onward.

since everyone seems to be presenting their book memes this weekend, i guess i can take up space with my long string of fake polaroids! i finally downloaded Poladroid again and played with it. it's hokey but so much fun to see what randomly appears. i even let it crop for me. gasp. such a loss of control! (but i cheated and straightened the images in photoshop first. shoot me!)

last weekend, i convinced the poet to wander in The Bottoms with me. i hadn't been in so long and that is one of my favorite areas in Kansas City. he gave it a good try, but after half an hour or so, there was some fretting over the cold wind and the possiblity of catching cold. argh! i could have stayed for hours, exploring! we also saw The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest and ate indian food and had a lovely weekend as usual.

now i am back to writing like a fool. i will probably finish the word count for Nano this weekend, but i am just not feeling the euphoria of last year. i can't seem to find the tenderness and humor i had for my characters and situations last year. and ... i don't seem to have a real story! just randomshit happening. well, we'll see. it seems like i didn't really get going last year until almost 50,000 words, so i will carry on. it is a pleasure. the writing. that's for sure. but i'm almost missing arting a little, too. last Sunday was traci's glueshitdown birthday party and i managed to make 3 little collages, which felt good. she has glitter glue. i really need some of that stuff.

finally! these buggers are all finished, all varnished, all scanned
and ready for viewing by any interested parties.
click to go if you like!

to see the whole set of retratos de detalles images alone,
GO HERE

now back to writing.
it seems much harder this year.

yesterday was really gorgeous. as was the day before. and the day before. and so on. although the leaves aren't quite as amazing as usual, the autumn sky has been a fierce, bright blue, almost frightening! the air is perfect, not too cold, not too hot. i have been on my butt a lot lately, working at the artTable, writing like a fiend, reading, etc, and really needed to get out for a walk yesterday, so i did. not a big exciting one, just the most winding-through-the-alleys route i could take to the library. but i tried to make it more exciting for myself by taking my camera for a little project.

usually i don't use the "scene" settings, because i think they are a little hokey, but on my cammie, i have to admit that i LOVE the pinhole scene, so i only allowed myself to make pictures using that singular setting. sure it is a little fake-looking, but still, i think it is interesting. even the most mundane scene takes on a certain holiness.

more pictures! what? you thought i would stop or something? nope!

last weekend was the biweekly visit to the city and the poet and i felt desperate to see something besides woods and movies, so we had a short wander in one of my favorite neighborhoods, Columbus Park. my eyes were still searching for ... details. and i find them there. we also had the most awesome pho at a little corner Vietnamese dive, Pho KC. it was a windy and cool day. very gray. we also saw Enter The Void and i don't really recommend it. my poor poet had to sit out the last half hour, because he was just too dizzy and nauseated. i was surprised that *i* wasn't. if i had known how it was to be, i would have dropped meclizine first, to be sure. but somehow i became immune to the stimulation as the film progressed. i was glad when it was over.

what else. writing like a fool for nanowrimo. the october objects are all in the flattening process, between towels and cloths, under books. i decided to go ahead and finish them all the way after all. i'm not really sure why, i must say. the long lonely weekend is coming up. i will write, glue and who knows, maybe even paint. it could happen!

it is becoming cold now, but there are furBoots to be worn, so all is well.

ps. no point in talking about the election, huh? ugh.

retratos de detalles.31

The End of the October Project
including ... The Objects.

only awaiting 2nd coat of varnish and glued-on backings.
(which i will complete tonight.)
and then scan and show. so ...

I DID IT!
(a personal goal. important to no one but myself.)

now i am going to write another book.

so don't look for pictures every day. ha.

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retratos de detalles.29

the project is nearly done!
this morning i was a little cranky about how the objects were coming out,
but worked hard on them today, taking some stuff off and adding
words! ever-important words!
then some shiny gloss varnish.
and now i love them!

and now i guess i must scan.
ugh. not my favorite thing, to be sure

retratos de detalles.28

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retratos de detalles.26

duh bobbi. shouldn't this have been #23? duh?
ok! never mind. i changed it. i'm happier now.

retratos de detalles.25

retratos de detalles.24
it's a good weekend.
the poet's birthday.
1/2price gooseberry pie & organic vanilla ice cream.
walks in the woods.
lots of movies!

and then someone went and hacked my site.
DON'T GO THERE!!

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retratos de detalles.21

i am so glad i had this one marked for today

retratos de detalles.20

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an old old favorite. i wish i could remember where this was...

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retratos de detalles.16

retratos de detalles.15

detail of the serving bar at Berry Austin (froyo! yum!)
on of the most amazing contemporary examples of pique assiette EVER.
the tops is all pale. the bottom all color.