Free Comics Day

Saturday was Free Comics Day, when comic book stores pass out free comics that have been specially produced for this purpose. I took my kids to Isotope in San Francisco, which happens to be next door to Urban Knitting Studio (great placement!) The pic shows some of the unusual decor inside Isotope--evidently, whenever an artist comes to the store, they are asked to draw on a toilet seat (new and purchased just for this purpose). Quite unusual.

lost lace and reward for honesty

Remember that lovely round lace shawl I was so proud of finishing last week? Well, I lost it. I went to downtown Burlingame to meet a friend, shopped a bit, and when I got home, the shawl was gone. I searched, placed a lost&found ad, filed a police report, and distributed flyers. If I dropped it in the street or a store, someone picked it up and took it home--they did not turn it in yet.

In much better news, I received a box full of goodies from Hawaii, sent by the grateful owners of the camera I returned last month (see pic). This is proof that I'm a good person, I deserve to get that shawl back. UPDATE: I did get the shawl back! An employee at Peets called and said she found the shawl in the back room, high up on a shelf. I did give her a small reward when I picked up the shawl. Now it is even more precious to me.

States in the U.S. and countries I have visited

visited 23 states (46%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or another interesting project


visited 6 states (2.66%)
Create your own visited map of The World or Like this? try: Chinese Radicals

My mandala is done

It took months, but my round lace shawl is done. The photo shows it pinned out on my design wall, blocking. I will take it down when it is dry. Lace really needs to be stretched out to show the pattern. The yarn is hand dyed by Lisa Souza and the pattern is Mandala by the Knitting Goddess (Renee Leverington).

My sepia family

I enlarged a couple of old family photos and merged them into one painting--my mom, dad, younger brother and me! There was one pic with my dad, me and brother. The other shot had my mom, brother and me. So together, we get the whole family. They were black and white photos, so I painted them in sepia tones. This is the first time I have tried this kind of thing, and it isn't quite finished, but you can see what I was aiming for.

Color wheel socks

I am still knitting constantly and today I started these socks, using a color wheel of yarns (mostly leftovers from other projects).

leafy or weedy sea horse sketch

I was kinda bored at work today, so I sketched this sea horse (there was a great article about them in the SF Chronicle). I need to bring my sketchbook with me to work and do more like this, I think.

The last camellia comes home

I painted this pink camellia a couple of years ago and just got it back from the framer last week. Somehow, it got misplaced and only surfaced again recently. I am very happy that it finally came home!

Watercolor at the Presidio

Yesterday, I visited the great watercolor show at the Presidio. It's there through May 24 and it's free, so do check it out if you have a chance. There is plenty of free parking and the views are fabulous. I enjoyed all the paintings and especially a display case full of sketchbooks. Next door is a small display of Andy Goldsworthy's work (on our way home, we drove past the Spire he designed that is installed nearby in the Presidio). He made a smaller version of the spire in a closet! I liked it better than the large, outdoor spire. In the morning, I met with the One Sock a Month Ravelry group--the knee socks were made by two different knitters who used almost the same color yarn and the same pattern.

Internet sleuthing, Part 1

Last weekend, my daughter and I found a nice digital camera in Golden Gate Park. I decided to take it home so I could look for the owner. I posted an ad in craigslist, but realized that if the owner is on vacation here, he might not see the ad. There was no ID in the camera case, of course.

So I looked at the photos on the memory card--there are more than 480, starting over a year ago with pictures of his baby boy being born! Lots more pics of family and friends and some shots of military planes in exotic places like Japan, so I figured this guy might be in the Air Force. (Turns out he is in the Air National Guard, based in Hawaii).

My clever husband figured out how to enlarge the photos on the camera's viewfinder and told me what the markings on some of the planes mean--did you know that "AW" stands for "Air Wing"? He also enlarged an embroidered patch on a shirt so we could read the name: Haki Logan. I found the address of the base for that plane, but was not positive I should send the camera there--perhaps the photo wasn't his plane?

Then my friend Pam, who is an Internet sleuthing whiz, found a Web site where Haki and his wife posted pictures of themselves and their older son. The site includes e-mail addresses for both parents. I sent messages telling them that I found the camera, and am waiting to hear where they want me to mail it. I hope the loss of the camera (and those precious baby pictures!) has not ruined their vacation. At least they will have good news when they finally check e-mail. I'll post what happens as soon as I hear from them...

Part 2: Finally got an email from the owner--he is on vacation here and just saw my note. I will mail the camera to a relative of his in California. So all's well that ends well!

Some brand new baby pictures of me

I just found some old pictures in a box in my studio--mostly they are baby pictures of me. Wasn't my mom gorgeous? That's my little brother Ralph with his finger in the air. There are also a couple of etchings of my two aunts, Marjorie and Jeanne (Jeanne was the artist). Enjoy!

Did I have a good time at Stitches?

"Persimmons and gourds" is finished

My new Stitches tote bag

For the big Stitches event coming up next week, I wanted a way to let other ravelers know it's me--so I printed my ravatar on a piece of plastic and sewed it to a tote bag. I tried to use Sheer Heaven paper to transfer the image to fabric, but failed miserably--I think my spray bottle has holes that are too large. The ink began to run almost as soon as I spritzed it with alcohol, as instructed. I also printed one sheet backwards, so that's the one I used on my tote bag--it is the actual Sheer Heaven plastic sheet, sewed directly onto an existing canvas bag. It should last awhile since the image is protected by the plastic. My talented daughter drew this fabulous avatar for me last Mother's Day.

Using up some old molas

Today is rainy, so I pieced together two molas that I purchased many years ago. A quick and simple project.

Persimmon progress

This painting was started in late December and today I made some more progress on it. It's quite large (about 16 x 20 inches) so it's going to take awhile.

Love is a Many Mitered Thing

Here I am, proudly wearing a major knitting project that is finally completed. I purchased the "Love Is a Many Mitered Thing" kit at Stitches West last year, started it in April, laid it aside most of the summer, then decided to see if I could finish it in time to wear it to Stitches West at the end of this month. As you can see, I succeeded. It was a very time-consuming project but worth it, I think.

The quilt bug bites again

Today, I suddenly wanted to make a quilt. These photos have been printed on fabric for about 8 months, waiting for me to use them. I decided combine them all into one large quilt, instead of making separate ones. The design is completely improvisational--I pinned the photos up onto the design wall, then started adding pieces of fabric to hold them together. There are a few wonky seams, but I think they will "quilt out." All of the photos were taken at the Getty Museum and Getty Villa in Los Angeles.

Golden Gate Park Sketchcrawl

Back in November, I mentioned that I met Enrico Casarosa at APE. He is a wonderful artist who also organizes sketchcrawls in San Francisco. This past weekend, my daughter and I participated in one and had a blast. The meeting point at the end of the day was the de Young museum, so we spent the entire day in Golden Gate Park.

We saw the wonderful garden railway with San Francisco landmark buildings made of recycled materials at the Conservatory of Flowers, wandered around in the Japanese Tea Garden, and ate lunch at the Academy of Sciences cafe (very good food but it was packed with people). I have a membership to the Academy, but non-members must pay admission to get to the cafe, unlike the de Young where you can enter the cafe without paying admission.

The pics show the four pages I painted in my new watercolor moleskine sketchbook given to me by my daughter for Christmas, and a picture of a neat cartoon done by Chip Sullivan for the Garden Railway. There is a whole series of his cartoons on display inside the exhibit.

At the end of the day, we met about 200(?) or so other sketchers at the de Young cafe and shared our work. And this post sets a personal record for the highest number of links to other sites!

Persimmons and gourds

The top shot was taken yesterday from the vantage point of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco--we went to see the latest da Vinci and Berlin Museum shows. You still have time to catch them, as they'll be there for another week or two. Today, I started a new painting (last shot), a centerpiece of persimmons and gourds that was on my table for Thanksgiving. The other pics show my daughter's paintings, done for her still-life class (temporarily perched in my bookcases) and her sketchbooks with recent pen and ink drawings.