I feel the weekend. it is almost here.

A relatively mellow day. Nothing was too rushed and it all seemed to work out. I started by reclaiming five screens, then set those aside to dry. I cleaned the remaining 11 screens of ink and by the time that was done, there was stuff on the other side of the studio to do. I weeded some vinyl, I cut some stickers, I caught a job that has been sitting in the works for a while. Chatted with Jeff. Coated those five screens. I'll need more gas if I am to reclaim those remaining screens. Gas for the pressure washer. Flatulence has nothing to do with reclaiming screens. I got caught up on The Unbelieveable Truth. Ma, did I give you that radio panel show? It just looks like there is Neverwhere and Cabin Pressure in the drop box. Lemme know if you want it, it's pretty funny.

I ran a Safeway errand. That is to say I bought a huge quantity of toilet paper and some Drano and Udon, and other things. When Trader Joe's sells larger quantities of TP and chemicals, I'll probably never need to go out to another store. I put back the candy I was thinking of buying, so I felt good about that...because I already had chocolate covered frozen bits of banana at home.

Anyway. At home I drew up a little something for Ma. Not my best something, but I hope she'll like it. It's in the mailbox now, so it will probably arrive after Mother's Day.

WHooo it's the weekend! And Friday/Saturday I'm going on a little minitrip of sorts with Steve. His parents bought this place and need someone there for these deliveries, so we are going to be the people that are there to pick up the deliveries (his parents aren't there). So I'll be gone doing that tomorrow night. So. See you Saturday! Whooo Friday!

slug lovin' sloth

My sore throat is almost entirely gone. Hurray!

Started the day by finishing a job that has been on the docket for a while. I taped some screens as well. And coated some screens. Always seem to be short screens these days. It wasn't always like that. Or was it? I think some screens are just tied up in jobs that get ran rather frequently, versus reburning them time and time again. Anyway. We finished the day by printing a single color front and back job, that was 600 units. Nice big job. The shirts came in in the morning and are ready to go out by the time we leave. Nice.

At home I modified a tee that was a bit taught on the collar (i.e. I cut off the color and part of the sleeves) and now it is really comfy! Hurray. OH MAN I was going to...errr I won't say what I was going to do. I'll just do it tomorrow. I get home, and I get distracted...time for a to do list.

Oh! When I was reclaiming screens yesterday, I noticed a banana slug but it was almost underfoot, so I made sure to move it to a safer spot.

I spent a lot of tonight reading Hyperbole and a Half. It's pretty good stuff.

Odd Owl's Kickstarter is at $2691!!

TRILL WILL ROCK YOU

Felt a lot better after that long sleep. My throat is still hoarse for some reason, but the rest of me is fine.

Starting the day, we guessed which band would start first on the classic rock station.I guess Queen, Chris guessed Rolling Stones, and Jeff went with Tom Petty. It started on ads, but then the first song that played...BUM BUM BAAAAHHH BUM BUM BAAAAHHH BUM BUM BAAAAHHH BUM BUM BAAAAHHH BUM BUM BAAAAHHH. I heard Jeff in the washout area go "AWWWW" and Chris in the office go "WHAAAAATTT" and the song continued "BUDDY YOU'RE A BOY MAKE A BIG NOISE PLAYIN' IN THE STREET GONNA BE A BIG MAN SOME DAY!". So awesome.

Sleeves were ran. I cleaned some stuff. I taped some stuff. We ran the backs on some stuff. I pressed some hats and reclaimed screens. A nice full day.

At home I cooked up some pasta and settled in for a night, well, in.

Odd Owl's Kickstarter is almost to 2k!

what a sucky monday

My body feels bad all over, and I'm going to go to bed soon. Maybe have some tea before.

My throat felt raspy and my extremities were just sore and tired. It made work a bitch. Hauling boxes. Cleaning stuff. I was moving at half pace, but at least the Boss was sympathetic. Generally I'm busy as a bee, always looking for something to do.

We ran the front and backs on a job and I started listening to Hannibal Rising.

At home I took to sitting but I still don't feel much better. Hopefully a long night sleep will remedy my pains.

Odd Owl's Kickstarter is at $1500!

I could pass many days like this, and be content

Saturday:

Started my weekend at the dog beach with Janet! Had a couple doughnuts. Met Susan and Alicia. And met many many dogs. It was a gray morning, and just a bit on the side of cold, which was disappointing because of how hot it has been through the previous week. After the dog beach, I gave Janet the "Beware of Dog (she is adorable)" print that I bought her for her birthday. She really liked it and said she'd put it up at work (because Joey goes with her to work). Hee hee.

Back at home I had a scramble and watched Doctor Who. In the late afternoon, I packed up and headed to San Francisco. I prefer to tag along with Carmen to the Odd Owl shows, because it is easier than arriving later in the day and trying to find parking downtown/driving back late at night. Anyhoo. I accompanied her to their practice space, which was cool. It's sort of neat to think about a warehouse filled with band practice spaces, and all the bands have their own thing going on. All that stuff going on, tucked away in an industrial area. Anyhoo. We picked up Stephen along the way to the space, and then we went to the venue, Amnesia. And found great parking! Less than a block away. Sweet. Anyhoo. There was unloading and stuff. I took a little walk to this scifi book store, though didn't find that much of massive interest. And I got a burger from a little burger place and talked to Madeline on the phone (the band was doing band stuff). When I returned to the venue (which was a narrow bar with a small stage), it had filled up a bit and Adam, Vanessa, and Phil were there. I bought a drink but it was this ginger licorice beverage that took a while to consume. Ehhh. The other musicians were New Spell, a three piece band, and Anita Stryker who was singing with a wide variety of backup people. Odd Owl went on first and were quite swell. Of course. The venue was packed and everyone was really into it.

Anita Stryker had a voice like she should sing the next James Bond theme. Really lovely. She had a violinist, and a dude on cello. It was all quite nice. New Spell had a funky rhythm and sound that I dug. Because I ended up not paying the cover for the show (what with being with the band) I used that money towards buying the New Spell CD. Gotta support artists! After the show, we unloaded the stuff at the practice space and I crawled into bed (at Carmen & Josh's) at the nice time of 2:30am...

Sunday:

And I woke up at 7:30am, so that I could meet Robin for breakfast. Having gathered directions the night before, I tip toed out of the house and headed to the sort of Tenderloin area of San Francisco. It was a quiet Sunday morning, so I didn't have to fuss with traffic and I found parking on the street by the apartment complex. Hurray! We got tea, and then went to a little bakery place and got some pastries, and then we returned to the place she is house sitting and Robin whipped up some tasty scrambled eggs. Yum! It wasn't much time, but we did get some catching up done. Just a little bit of good company goes a long way.

I left San Francisco at 10:30 and was back in Santa Cruz by noon. This weekend felt long. Maybe because I got up early both days?

Anyway. I took a nap late in the afternoon. Helped Janet install a shelf above the stove. Took it really easy and the time crept past. Now I shall eat a salad and watch Game of Thrones.

What a weekend!

Oh and Odd Owl has a kickstarter that you should totally support. I'll make a full post about it soon, but here is the link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/oddowl/odd-owls-first-album-as-a-full-band

No spring in Santa Cruz. It just went from Winter to Summer.

The weekend is here! And what a weekend! Tomorrow will start with the dog park and then I'll go up to San Francisco for the day & night & morning. Then back to Santa Cruz. Fun fun.

It was so friggin' hot today. High 80's, probably 90. And I was at the end of the dryer, so that was extra hot. I caught jobs and cleaned up stuff and melted. Ran a plastisol job and then some more discharge with lots of this and that. Not a bad day, just really hot. And we got some nutritional freebies from a company we run stuff for. Sweet!

I went grocery shopping and got some cash for the show tomorrow night. And I got some frames. Two for art that I've recently bought, and one for Janet's print. All were 20% off. Don't know where I want to hang my new art though. The frames don't quite match my other frames, but maybe hanging them by my desk will be good?

I did laundry as well. Yay. Clean clothes. I have so many shirts. How do I end up with so many shirts? I just get shirts and then...I get more shirts. I'm a shirt kinda gal, what can I say?

So on Sunday you'll get another double post with all the fun stuff I get up to this weekend. See you there!

Guy Pearce, hubba hubba

Ohhh I went to see Iron Man 3 in 3D. The regular showing was sold out, so I just went for it. Ohhh it was super fun. It had a really awesome cast, with plenty of awesome action sequences. Some people seemed to this the plot was a bit basic, but...it was super fun so I enjoyed it. I was grinning through several parts of the movie. Popcorn and soda became my dinner. Treat yo' self!

So my parents (hi Mom & Dad!!) got solar panels for the house. SO COOL! That'll probably start saving the moolahs as time goes on. Proud of my cool parents for being ahead of the curve like that.

Work was another long full day. Blimey. And I think it will continue like this for a good while. Printed the front and backs on these shirts, then printed the front design and side design. That took most of the day. Then we printed the fronts and backs on some other shirts. That took the rest of the day. I also managed to squeeze in three burned/double coated screens. It was all discharge today, so that was a lot of washing out of screens. My work shirt got a lot of splash back. So now what was a pretty clean shirt is now moved down the work shirt stack to "not so clean". I wear them cleaniest to dirtiest, though the really dirty ones don't really get worn much unless I continually forget to wash my work shirts.

Anyhoo. It was long. And I saw that there was a 9pm Iron Man 3 showing, so I went for it. And there went the rest of my day. But it was a damn good day. I very much enjoyed it.

when Peter met Harriet

We printed those towels and they looked AWESOME. Totally rad. Vibrant colors. No breakdown. No mistakes. Flawless job. I cleaned out the screens and all that, and by that time it was time for lunch.

Finished Godfather of Kathmandu. It was good, but it was sort of lacking....it's a book in the middle of an ongoing series so it just didn't have the weight that a first or final book would have, ya know? But still I dug it. Onto more Lord Peter Wimsey! Onto Strong Poison!

We ran the backs on one job, but the white shirts were an inferior product that were incapable of being printed on. So at the end of all that...I reclaimed 10 screens and called it a good long day.

Had some pasta for dinner. Put my feet up. Though about projects and Star Trek and Iron Man 3. Movie season is here!

It's so busy! But busy is good. Busy is work. Work is money. It's all good in the end.

this week will drag, I can tell

I'm almost at 30k pageviews for this blog! That's pretty cool. Granted, it's the same handful of people checking in every day. Still. Neat.

We finished up the bags. I double coated and prepped a bunch of screens for discharge. Jeff set up the discharge job. Andrew made the ink. Then there was some stuff with the ink not quite working as the color, and one of the screens wasn't quite right either...so we removed all the ink from the screens (can't leave discharge ink in the screens like you can with plastisol) and we shall resume that job tomorrow. Printing towels is fun! I picked up another dozen eggs.

I had a huge salad for dinner, but I put almonds on it and I forgot how farty almonds make me. Yeah. No more almonds for me. My tummy feels all..funky.

IT'S ONLY TUESDAY. GAWD.

Umberto & I

Monday was off to a mixed start. I cleaned stuff, so that was good. It's all ready to go. Though a job we ran will have to be reran, for...reasons. Though it will be ran better this time, because it will be ran with discharge. We started heat pressing some carry-alls. It was my duty to unpack them for Andrew to press, and then to box them back up once they were pressed. Basically halving the amount of time it takes to do the job, instead of having one person take twice as long. The bags came two to a box, and arrived about 7 feet high on five pallets. It was a lot of boxes...a needless amount of boxes because the bags don't fold. Anyway. That was done, and it will continue to be worked on tomorrow. I also unboxed some supplies and burned two screens. Tomorrow there will probably be more set up and stuff. It's looking to be a busy week.

At home, On Ugliness, edited by Umberto Eco, finally arrived! I found a good used copy online (as opposed to the $50 copy I saw in Powell's years ago). Excited to look at all the pictures (and read the captions as well).

I feel very tired, so I'm going to bed. I guess it isn't much earlier than usual but still. Mmm.

canadian cinema & california burgers

Saturday:

Blessed Saturday! And it was a really good one. I slept in. I watched Doctor Who. I had a fried egg sandwich. I went food shopping and finally found where they moved the granola bars to in Trader Joe's. It was also a LOVELY day. In the afternoon, I sat on the porch and solved a crossword puzzle. I say I solved it...actually Janet and Alana helped too, when they saw all the fun I was having outside. And it was solved in record time too. Just the knowledge of three brunettes on a warm Spring day.

I also disassembled my at home exposure unit, because I don't really need it anymore. Still have the lights and the planks, so I could reassemble if need be.

Later on, Steve came down and we got pizza and then in turn ate the pizza, watched Doctor Who (again in my case), drank beer, and watched the very awesome Canadian movie Pontypool.

Sunday:

This weekend's "Brunch with Steve" locale was Walnut Cafe. There was a bit of a wait, so I perused some cards in a card shop. So many lovely cards. We both went for lunch options, and thinking back on it I should have just tried the eggs benedict. My burger was good, but...errr a more brunchy option would have been nice. Steve had some stuff to do, so he left shortly after brunch. I had the rest of the day to relax, enjoy the warmth of the day, and generally be in a good mood.

Game of Thrones was super good, as was Mad Men.

Mother's Day is in a couple weeks....I should make a card or something. Hmmm.

the sun is a comin'

La la la. Friday! Finally! Not that it was a particularly long week, but I want to get some sun and relax a bit outside, ya know?

Anyhoo. We ran the fronts and backs on this job. It looked good. We ran a job on these polyester shirts. The kind for marathons, though not a large run. Still you gotta use a special kind of stretch ink and you have to flash it at a certain temp or it will crinkle. Learning all sorts of things! And we ran some sweaters.

Oh and I learned that Kara's name is spelled Kara! So if I have spelled it Karah or Cara...well that was wrong.

Not a bad day, and I listened to a bunch of my audiobook. It's a good one, though a book about a Thai cop, written by a Westerner, and told from a very "you don't understand because you, the reader, are a Westerner" point of view...is a bit odd. That coupled with the British dude narrating it. Though he is really good at accents. Still.

At home I whipped up some eggs and bacon for dinner and watched the Hannibal show, which was a bit grisly...not the best thing to watch while eating eggs. Don't have any major plans for this weekend. Maybe I'll  try working on a tan or something...tis the season. Of course I'll wear sunscreen! But ya know...get some vitamin D.

back to Thailand

What a day! A very full one. And it was a lovely so. So there is that.

Anyway. We ran a discharge job, and it ran beautifully. I taped up some screens. We ran another job, which resulted on a minor bit of troubleshooting.

I finally finished Plum Island. Just a really longwinded needlessly long by-the-books murder mystery with an ending that was a bit out of place in terms of violence and realism. Anyway. Started listening to The Godfather of Kathmandu. Good ol' Sonchai Jitpleecheep. And wouldn't you know it, but it opened up with a reference to Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. Ha!

Finished the day with coating screens.

At home, the neighbor kids kept loosing their balls over our fence. Cute kids.

Watched Hannibal. Texted and whatnot. Tomorrow is Friday and I am looking forward to that day.

building my art collection, one screenprint at a time

The skies were gray today, but I persisted and wore cutoffs. Just cutoffs AND a hoodie.

It was a solo clean up/prep day at work. 17 screens were cleaned and reclaimed by the end of the day. 9 Screens were burned. One screen was prepped for discharge ink. Almost done with Plum Island. This damn novel is so needlessly long. Like...whole chunks of the story could probably have been massively abbreviated with no real loss to the plot. It's not like it is fancily written! Not sure what I'll listen to next. Insurgent? Hannibal Rising? Strong Poison? The audiobook world is my oytster!

At home I watched telly and drank some tea that Alana prepped. Alana and I chatted about school and Rubik's cubes and the societal pressures to fit in and how being raised with different eating habits can affect your relationship to food as an adult. You know, girl talk.

Any recommendations for good books for me to listen to? Always in the mood to try something new.

Oh, and some Sera Stanton prints I bought on Etsy arrived. I need to get some frames for them. And to find a nice place to hang them. Hmmm! I bought this print for Janet as a birthday gift. I don't think Janet reads my blog...but yeah. I need to get a frame for that too. At least my Stanton prints and that print are standard sizes. Nice and easy! Etsy is such a trap for me. So much art! And really well priced. Though those prints are all that I've bought from Etsy in the past couple months. And the second Stanton print was a special deal sooo.

another day, another dollar

I caught another job that Jeff ran, and all was good. I also trimmed a banner. With that done, I also emptied the trash and cleaned floodbars and whatnot. Listened to more Plum Island, which is starting to feel like the longest audiobook EVER and I really wish whatshisname would solve it already.

Bosses chickens are laying tons of eggs, so I turned in a carton, so tomorrow I should be getting another dozen. Hurray!

Janet made a quiche with some of the previous eggs that my boss has given me. It was a very yummy quiche. Mmm.

I hung out in a livestream all night. A livestream is when someone put a live video feed of the art they are currently working on. It's pretty cool. And there is a chat. So I talked with the other people watching the stream. It's fun stuff.

More Quick Sketches

all sketches roughly 3" x 2" 

micron and ink wash

RÅSKOG

Spent the day catching jobs, as well as helping set up jobs. We ran the fronts and backs on one that needed many color changes. We meaning Jeff and I. Did I mention that Jeff is a new sort of ongoing temp that will run jobs? Anyway, he is pretty nice and has decades of experience. I dig meeting people who have been at this a while and seem to know so many other people. It's a small world, ya know?

Anyway, ran that job and another job and that lasted all day. It was warm and sunny. All in all, very swell.

At home I boiled eggs and put some on my salad. And I watched the new Mad Men and watched some Broadchurch and did some quick little sketches. Having a scanner is really incentivizing myself to draw! I'm very happy with my purchase. Now I need to pitch some ideas and make some money.

But it's only Monday.

Quick Sketches

all sketches are 3" x 2"

brush pen and marker or ink wash

the air is filled with the sounds of birds and kids screaming (in delight I hope)

Had a nice relaxing Sunday. I slept in. Then had some tea and ate my leftovers. I hardboiled a bunch of eggs. I sketched a bit. It was a really nice warm day too. I hope Spring is here, and Summer to follow. Might even go to the beach next weekend. Get some vitamin D. Remember Mom, how you used to make me go outside? Now I do it willingly, AND I eat salad for dinner.

I'm all grown up! Yay!

Junk Drawer

6" x 9"

brush pen and ink wash