A field of Black Eyed Susans.

I'm glad that I can walk out the doors of my workplace and take a walk here when I need to. Every summer our park explodes with Black Eyed Susans and it's gorgeous. 

Signs of summer.

Sunflowers and cats peeking out of open windows.

Currently: at my desk.

Playing with color.

Scrap Rug: 3.

You may remember that I started a braided scrap rug quite a while ago. I believe I disassembled and reassembled it a total of 3 times. It's currently rolled up in an un-finished state under the futon in our office. Let's just say the process was not nearly as easy or quick as it appeared to be 

About a month ago I figured out how to make a crochet rug that had a very similar look to it. I took all the remaining cut scraps that I had from the old rug and used them to start a new rug. I added other bits and pieces of fabric that I had, some old sheets, some linens I picked up from thrift stores for the wedding, and extra remnants from Christmas gifts this past year. It came together incredibly quickly. I'm just about finished with it and wanted to share some pictures. Bowie especially likes it. 

Today's listening.

Double exposure.

(I love happy camera accidents.)

On another note, two friends of mine from Indianapolis have started a really great radio show called The Standard Variety Hour. They describe it as "an hour long radio program that focuses on current/local events, miscellaneous happenings in the community as it relates to entertainment/politics/art/culture, and displays underground artists and musicians that aren't typically heard on mainstream radio." While I don't live anywhere that I can pick up the actual broadcast, I've listened to the fist two shows via podcast and I've really enjoyed it. I encourage anyone who loves discovering new music to have a listen. You can find it here: 

http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-standard-variety-hour/id377252541

I'm selling my first love on Craigslist:

I'm not happy about it, but it had to be done. E-mail me if you're interested. 

http://cleveland.craigslist.org/cto/1805887793.html

Charlene Kaye & The Brilliant Eyes.

This is one of the jobs I had been feverishly working on a few weeks ago. Charlene Kaye is a excellent musician whom I've had the pleasure of working with before for her previous CD release, Things I Will Need in the Past. The artwork for this album reflects the new direction she has taken with the latest EP.

Here's a beautiful teaser she posted on Vimeo. 

Charlene Kaye & the Brilliant Eyes EP teaser from Charlene Kaye on Vimeo.

The last days of spring.

This weekend I was lucky enough to get a date with my husband in addition to an entire day off with him. That usually only happens maybe once or twice a month so I was really excited. We spent our date night eating some of our favorite foods and stopping by the beach for a little bit. The rest of the weekend involved watching a band play on the front steps of a house two doors down from us, finding out that Melt stopped serving brunch on the day we decided to try it for the first time, realizing that Father's Day is a terrible day to decide to go to brunch all together, working on our bikes, finding a great little terrarium at a church sale for $2, and attending Andrew's soccer game in which they almost had no substitutes.

Father's Day.

In honor of the day, a picture of my dad and I at Sea World many years ago.

"But you don't have to take my word for it..."

Every once in a while I will buy a children's book because the illustrations, or concept, really stand out to me as being inspiring and different. I think I've probably shared a few of my other favorites on here when I was researching for my BFA thesis a few years ago. Yesterday I spent all day in a bookstore during a brainstorming session for AG and found this gem in the discount section (although I definitely would have paid full price for it.) The book is called Pssst! and it is written and illustrated by Adam Rex. As usual, it was the illustrations that caught my attention first (...and the narwhal...and the sloths...) but the story is so fun and unusual that it really makes a wonderful book. I gathered a few images from the book off of his website and have come to find that he also wrote a story about a whale...looks like I'll be buying that one as well.

(Hopefully my future children will appreciate these books as much as I do.)

Watching the neighbor's cats trying to catch lightning bugs is pretty delightful.

Snapshots of Cleveland.

It's been a busy week full of many projects. I was cleaning up the photo library on my iPhone and decided to share a couple snapshots of Cleveland that I had captured at one point or another.

My best friend's wedding.

Gary is one my my best and oldest friends. I've known him since we were goofy looking "punk" kids in high school and somehow he has tolerated me picking on him ever since then. Yesterday he got married and I couldn't have been happier for him. Emily is such a sweet girl and I've never seen Gary so happy as he has been since meeting her. Here are a couple of snapshots from his big day at the point in which he smashed cake up his beautiful bride's nose and very sweetly attempted to clean it up.

I'm very blessed to have Gary and our buddy Dave in my life. They are my "brothers" and I know I can always count on them to be there. It's hard to spend as much time with them as I used to now that we're all growing  up and starting separate lives, but I'm glad that we're accepting of that and will always pick up right where we left off. 

The Sketchbook Project: 2011.

Meet my new sketchbook:

It's part of something called The Sketchbook Project. I'm responsible for filling it's pages full of imagery and returning it to Art House Co-Op so it can be released on a tour through six U.S. cities. The city exhibitions will be interactive and work like libraries where the sketchbooks can be checked out and viewed by anyone. Each sketchbook is based on a theme. Mine is "I am a scavenger". I picked it because of my tendencies to gather and collect bits and pieces of many things to save and record in my sketchbooks. For now the new sketchbook is empty, but I'm sure I will be sharing bits and pieces of it here once I begin to fill it. 

Cleverland.

I got a package in the mail today from Japan. Inside was some pretty colored masking tape that I had ordered from a seller on Etsy. 

The package was covered in cute Hello Kitty stamps.

And it was shipped to this address.

I had a good laugh.

Ephesians 2:2

"You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live."