workroom heat

in 15 degree temps and too cheap to heat the entire apartment, ann and dabney spent the day holed up in their workroom with space heater on their tootsies dog in front of space heater and residual heat on their tootsies. all warm and cozy, they experimented with illustrator and their favorite xmas present, a wacom tablet, to create some new silkscreen designs for some exciting new mogo products that they have in mind.

here's a sneak peek:

lee press-on phones

ann and dabney are always searching for ways to personalize their mobile phones, the most ubiquitous of digital accessories. they have found that nail stickers seem to work well. they adhere nicely and added plus, they are just the right size.

plastic camera fun

ann and dabney finally developed some old rolls of film taken with their plastic camera. in their digital world, they forget how fun it is to get film back from the store with no clue of what's on it.

shots from chinatown








close-ups










shots around town






texas

god bless etsy

superette is playing host this week to pica, who came bearing the most awesomest handmade gifts - all purchased via etsy.

scrabble stitch markers from splityarn.


wristlets courtesy of ms. dynomite at ultra deluxe.

birthday wrap-up

over the weekend, ann made an adequate enough fuss over her mom’s 60th birthday to steal back the limelight from her archrival. It was an all-tessie extravaganza with with blown-up pictures and a tessie-adorned cake.



the slide show was a hit but instead of inducing tears of joy it resulted in tessie repeatedly exclaiming to the delight of all the guests, “that’s me when I was four! that was me in medical school! look how skinny I was!”

for the birthday girl’s present, ann’s family shared the cost of an elegant crystal covered clutch that’s large enough stow away some gum and a lipstick. she had been hinting for years that this little number was on her wishlist by making an annual pilgrimage to its hoity toity store just to pay her respects. following ann’s silly family tradition of hiding presents within presents (or better yet, pawning off free junk along with the actual gift), the pricey item was hidden inside a bargain table bag just to make things more interesting.



when she opened the box, tessie thought she knew just what was inside but instead found a gawdy silver sequined bag, not the red carpet appropriate accessory that she had dreamed of.

evan, oh evan. what you do to them...

dabney went up to burlington, vermont this weekend with grad school friends diane and becca to visit lucy, the tall guy, and evan. okay, look at this and then note what your uterus does when you see it (if you have one):



you can process your reaction on your own time and in your own way.

sigh. ramble, ramble. sigh.

as you all know, ann is in st. louis defending her honor, which leaves dabney in the house alone - without annie AND without feidler - for the first time in a very long time. when you spend a lot of time with another person, it is too easy to settle into a routine where you rely on said person to provide structure and entertainment for your life (and if you know ann, you know she is completely capable of entertaining you for long periods of time). it usually takes awhile to adjust to being alone.

so, until then, dabney must wonder, "what should i do with myself this week?"

she would say that she'll do an all veggie bonanza, in response to meat week, but that how she lives all the time anyway.

so far, she's pestered ashbloem and the american boy quite a bit. she shamelessly invited herself over for dinner two nights ago, then tagged along with the two of them to a free whiskey tasting last night, even though she really never ever drinks whiskey.

today, in an attempt to do something useful, she worked on something that she's been wanting to make for a very long time: a tooth fairy pillow.



the black gap in the teeth is the actual pocket, which fits a tooth and is just big enough for a quarter. (is that how much teeth are going for these days? a quarter?)

ignore the camel toe puckering in the crotchal region and the odd shiny quality to the fabric. before she made an actual silkscreen, dabney wanted to do a quick protoype to see what it might look like, so she used iron-on transfer paper.

thank god she has plans to go to vermont this weekend to visit lucy, the tall guy, and evan.

60th birthday present

billboard shmillboard... here's ann's gift to her mom that will be presented at a dinner party tomorrow night. top that, brenda!


View this clip on Vimeo
please note: no comments about ann's bad 80's hairdos are allowed.

ann's little green monster

ann just left the house to head back to the airport (again). she is off to st. louis to surprise her mother, tessie, for her 60th birthday. she's going because, in addition to loving her mother, she has to compete with her mom's new "daughter" brenda.



brenda is a local lawyer in ann's hometown who has taken a shine to ann's mom since she moved there several years ago. tessie and brenda spend a lot of time in each other's company; they shop together, eat together.... they even invest together. brenda has come to consider tessie a mother figure in her life, having lost her own mother years before. brenda's daughter even calls tessie "lola" which is tagalog for "grandmother." it's really quite sweet.

when ann first found out that brenda had been spending so much time with her parents, and in particular her mother, she got a wee bit jealous. (having gone to boarding school at a young age, and being the only one of her immediate family who doesn't live in missouri, ann's always had a bit of a complex about her place in the family anyway.) but after brenda, dabney could hear ann on the phone with her sister and friends, trying to nonchalantly question them about whether or not they thought it wasn't just the slightest bit weird that someone virtually her own age would CHOOSE to spend time with her mom, let along ENJOY her.

ever since ann's sister assured her that it was perfectly normal - a good thing even - that tessie has brenda in her life, ann relaxed a little bit, and grew more used to the idea. but she does still keep close tabs on the situation, looking for any clue that she has been replaced in her mother's eyes. it was touch and go there for a few minutes when she found out that brenda had rented a billboard for tessie's birthday, complete with photo and happy birthday message. all ann got her mom was an evening bag.

happy heart day

ann & dabney's best austin souvenir

if you want one for yourself, check out the unemployed democrats company.

austin (part two)

people have been asking ann and dabney how on earth they wound up in austin, texas this month. besides two free plane tickets, they had never been to austin, or texas for that matter, and it seemed like a good enough place to go as any.

plus, austin is a crafty place, which seems to suit its (and ann and dabney's) oddballness just fine. home to the notorious austin craft mafia, it is chock full of creative people and stores that sell handmade things. ann and dabney went searching for all the stores they could, and were lucky enough to meet some great people in the process. and hey! they even crashed a party.



one of their first stops was parts & labour and creatures boutique, located on south congress. lizelle of parts & labour kindly invited them to a party later that night to celebrate the store's second birthday. there, they met the friendly anne marie, carly (who organizes stitch austin), and talena (co-owner of parts & labour).

on sunday, they popped by sparklecraft studio, which opened its doors for the day for a studio sale. tina is so frickin' nice, they couldn't stand it. somewhere this week, they heard that tina is one of the hosts (along with other members of the mafia) for stylelicious, a new show on the diy network. another reason for ann and dabney to subscribe to the channel...

in one of mercury design, ann and dabney gleefully ran into this: the art-o-mat.





an art-o-mat is a converted cigarette machine that now sells art, the proceeds from which benefit non-profit organizations. both ann and dabney had heard mention of such a thing, but hadn't yet seen one in the flesh. so, they gave it a whirl.


View this clip on Vimeo

stuck at the airport (pt. 1)

the airport gods don't seem to be with ann and dabney this week. now, they are stuck in the austin airport for an extra four hours due to their plane's mechanical problems. so, to keep them (and you) occupied, here are some pictures and observations from the past week.

austin is undoubtedly a strange place... in the best possible way. nothing is standardized, over-zoned, or prescribed. people seems to be doing what they want, where they want, in an organic way.

an example of its famous oddballness is places like this. in the suburbs of south austin, one can find, with the help of a map, the cathedral of junk. the cathedral is made of 60 tons of junk collected over 15 years and carefully wired together to make a ... well, you decide.















the artist, vince, had a good point when questioned about his creation, "how often does one get a chance to create a public attraction?" he didn't set out to make it, but it just evolved that way.



and then, lest you get an immediate impression of austin, this house was two doors down. ann and dabney noticed a lot of contemporary architecture springing up among the more traditional houses in the burbs, which, of course, they loved.

stuck in austin (happily)...

thanks to the nor'easter of 2006, ann and dabney got stuck in austin for an extra couple of days. and you know what? they were so happy they did, because that meant they got to go see...

TEXAS WOMEN'S ROLLERDERBY!!!!!!



and to tell you the truth, it was the highlight of their trip. if you haven't seen it before, it's like rugby on wheels with the showmanship of professional wrestling. hilarious and exhilarating at the same time. the actual bout was great to watch, the girls were fearless and kicked ass, there was cleavage, there was heart-pumpin' music, and there was a full bar. ann and dabney have yet to see rollergirls on a & e, but they plan to go see a viewing tonight at the alamo drafthouse cinema. because they are already THAT addicted to the sport.

more photos from ann & dabney's trip will follow.

greetings from austin....

Baustin

superette weighs in from austin, texas this week. both ann and dabney had free airline tickets on jetblue (one of which expired this month) so texas it was. they are spending their time eating mexican food, drinking margaritas, checking out the local craft scene, looking for just the right belt buckles, and contemplating their next career on the rollerderby circuit.

a belated birthday goes out to junipera in seattle. you are very missed.

the photobooth for geeks

dabney's beloved ibook was recently afflicted with a new symptom that warranted a quick trip to her local genius bar. while not fatal, the outlook is disheartening. perhaps the old ibook has undergone one too many tugs on its power cord and close calls due to one 65 lb. little beast with a tail of destruction.

while the ibook was was getting its check-up, ann and dabney roamed around the apple store and played with one of the brand new intel core duo imacs with a built-in isight camera. oh so fun! the best part - the photobooth function that counts down to the *click* just like the real thing. all it's missing is a cheesy curtain backdrop and a dryer. if only ann and dabney had remembered to email themselves the result.


for those of your that love the real thing, click here.

fun-do

on saturday night, superette played host to its first ever FUN-DO party. to be more accurate, ashbloem was the true host and did all the inviting, chopping, melting, and most of the drinking - ann and dabney merely offered their space for the evening. watching ashbloem and the american boy cook in their kitchen felt much like riding in the backseat of your own car; it's an entirely new vantage point. comfortable yet foreign at the same time.

the fondue trio (bread and cheese, meats and olive oil, chocolate and fruit) was a huge hit. unfortunately, both ann and dabney's hands were too busy balancing assorted chopped goodies on the end of skewers to take any pictures. but we are sure that ashbloem and interravision (the biggest blog shutterbugs they know) will have some up soon.

lost and found

see this earring? it has nine lives.



now, see this wristlet? it has at least twenty.



dabney has a talent for losing things. thankfully ann has an equal aptitude for retrieving them.

flashback to ann's college days. one nice early spring day, she was sitting on the grass on campus with an artist friend, who was whittling a small design along the side of a stick. later that day, during a walk off campus, ann's friend hurled the stick with all her might into a knee-deep field of grass.

back on campus a few days later, ann was rushing to a class - surely a few minutes late - when she nearly tripped on that same carved stick now lying directly in her path.

cut to present day. ann's a little grayer but nonetheless just as lucky. you may recall the missing earring that dabney had a cow over a few months ago - little diamond studs that ann's mom had given her as a christmas present. she had worn them everyday for five years when she lost them.

but even before that earring, she lost the wrist warmer. although perhaps not quite as well loved as the earrings, she still wore them all the time. those polka dots just made her happy.

well, the earrings came back pretty quickly. ann found it later the next day in the workroom on the floor. nothing crazy there.

the wristlet waited a little longer to be found - until yesterday in fact, when ann was out walking in the neighborhood. she saw that someone had draped it across a railing. there, apparently, it sat for over TWO MONTHS awaiting a reunion with its owner. it was a little worse for wear, having been exposed to rain, sleet, snow and hail. it now has a little hole.

how it got there, neither ann nor dabney knows or can recall.

weird juju? you decide.