It's a good friends anniversary today so I designed a little card for them...so wishing I could letterpress it — wouldn't that be lovely. While looking around for inspirational quotes I came across these and since I use my blog as memory storage...

You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.
— Chinese Proverb

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.
— Chinese Proverb

Use those talents you have. You will make it. You will give joy to the world. Take this tip from nature: The woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except those who sang best.
— Bernard Meltzer

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
— Maya Angelou

Technorati Tags: illustration

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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Right on founding fathers! [ uh "men" meaning people and of course including bunnies ;) Want to read more?

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No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.
- Henry Adams

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Technorati Tags: art, bunny, illustration

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It's such a nice day...makes me want to watch the sun set.

Technorati Tags: art, bunny, painting

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Technorati Tags: art, bunny, painting

Posted by big bunny at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been having a good time getting to know my new [ok, not "mine" exactly since it's employer sponsored] MacBook. I'm so excited to be able to take quick pictures with the big brother camera installed on every new mac. I dig the warping effects in PhotoBooth, and love that I can make quickie films and email them with iMovie and even record my voice with GarageBand. So as long as I can find an internet connection at some point on my travels — I'll be able to send "me" home in words and pictures. How cool. Leave it to Apple to be even more innovative yet again. If I really had it together I'd figure out how to blog while away — but I doubt I'll have enough time to eat and sleep let alone spend an hour blah blah bloggin'. We'll see.

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Follow along with this kids site to make an origami crane or try here for simple pictures of how to make a crane. Read Sadako's story and listen to her song.

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So I'm standing by the color printer waiting for my print outs. Then around the corner walks Frank with his finger stuck way up his nose. He sees me seeing him in this taboo act. He laughs aloud and says "ah, you've caught me picking my nose." I smile and laugh too and then say in a sarcastic tone, "well you know I NEVER do it." And then he chuckles and says "well, I would know if you did." Huh, I'm thinking that's a strange reply. Meanwhile my prints were out and now Frank and I are quickly cruising down the hall in the same direction — both probably hoping this awkward exchange will end. Still puzzled by his last reply I say, "So what, are you psychic nose-picker guy?" and he says "No, I'd just know if you were picking my nose." Tee hee! Good one Frank!

Well, well, who knew there would be an entire wikipedia entry dedicated to the art of nose-picking? And such boogerish detail too.

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Here I am proving that you can't get too far in the world of knitting without swatching. Since I don't know stitches per inch or rows per inch I can't really map this out. However, I have roughed out the proportions I'd like and I think I can start doing the math on figuring out how to get from X number of stitches to Y number over Z number of rows once I make some swatches. I remembered that hubbie got me a roll of pattern making paper a few years ago that's been in the basement gathering dust (from the days when I thought I'd design and sew some of my own clothes, but uh not so much has happened) so I'm thinking I can use that to graph out the number of stitches and add any design details.

My main problem is that once I get home and get Max to bed, say by 7:30 or 8 p.m., I'm usually too tired to concentrate on a project. These last few weeks I've been so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open let alone focused past 9 p.m. I wish I could go home this eve and give it another attempt, but I'm taking a class. I signed up months ago for Platen Press II, another letterpress class at SFCB. I probably won't get home until 10 p.m. tonight and I'll either be starving or too tired to eat, having dined on an Odwalla bar and water. I'm hoping to get a renewed sense of letterpress excitement since the Platen is a manageable size letterpress machine — one I hope to own and operate some day in my art barn dreams.

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I'm feeling pretty inspired for a monday. Being the little 'ol novice knitter that I am can you believe I'm thinking of writing my first pattern!? Ha, this should be interesting. I've been inspired by the sock monkey, amigurumi & other japanese crafts, Max's crib full of ugly dolls and Jess Hutch's knit toys. Combining all these ideas I've come up with beastie bunnies. I'm thinking of knitting in the round starting from the top down. I guess leaving a big open seam on top will work so I can then go back up there, pick up stitches and knit the ears. ya and I can use that open to seam to stuff the bunny. Hmmm. The legs look like fairly straight-forward tubular knitting. I'm thinking of making all the arms in a 2x2 rib pattern and attaching them afterward so they are nice and floppy. I think you can sculpt and shape the body when stuffing so they can end up squarish? Here I go experimenting...I'm sure my first ones will be wonky, but this should prove fun and a true embracing of my bunny and knitting loves and left over yarn.

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uh oh wasting time again playing with bunny images and went a little 80s crazy, tee hee.

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Must gush, just can't help meeeself. Max is way beyond cute and off into the he's so sweet it's causing tooth decay category. He's so desperate to communicate with us it's overwhelming and somewhat all consuming. My husband got this nabaztag rabbit from France [of course it's French it's so weird and yet strangely engaging, though I would have said the same if it was Japanese]. Every morning, evening, well all the time really, Max gets screechingly excited and signs that the cuckoo bunny clock thingee is chiming, glowing, and speaking to us in its finest British accent saying it's eight, nine, or ten o'clock. Max seems to have no idea that we hear it too. During our newly committed every other weekend family trip to Costco, Max was beside himself with joy when he recognized a picture of a cat on some packaging. I'm thinking, yeah, let's spend ten minutes crawling and walking over and around the cat litter crates what fun. But he was so cute I could have stayed there an hour signing and saying "yes Max, that's a cat". Over the weekend I taught him how to sign baby and birdie to add to his repertoire of "milk, cat, and more". He's now hugging himself, then chirping his fingers, then poking the top of his head and then pulling his whiskers signing "baby birdie bunny cat" over and over in rapid succession. In my finest French accent "j'adore".

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Last weekend Mr. & Mrs. took a lil' nibble out of the delicious Big Apple. He took us there in style and for this I am most appreciative as I've been feeling less than stylish as of late. We wisely brought our own air fare- a delicious creamy pate, d'affinois cheese and slices of proscuitto to spread on Semi Freddie’s hearty olive bread accompanied by apples and peaches all from our favorite little San Francisco grocery, Bi•Right. Plus he had surprised me the night before with Citizen Cupcakes so we brought a couple of those too, good lord let the weekend of feasting begin... The flight was unremarkable, thankfully. The film? A stupid, yet I managed to cry anyway, "Jersey Girl" blame the hormones since I cried watching the in-flight film on the way back as well, "Fifty First Dates" how embarrassing. I managed to wipe my eyes and sob silently over the death of J-Lo and the amnesiac accident of Drew Barrymore. I’m hoping I went unnoticed. Pathetic.

We arrived via taxi to the Hotel Gansevoort. Turns out we are staying in THE HOTSPOT of the week. The hotel has just opened and has a chic roof bar with a 270 degree view of the city and a skinny, shallow, not open at night swimming pool. Think NYC's version of LA's The Standard Hotel. The line to get into the hotel was down the block as I waddled my 28 week preggo belly by the hordes of gorgeous scantly dressed twenty somethings. The five streets that intersect in this trendy meat packing hood were also filled with an endless array of beautiful city people as there are about a dozen hot bars and clubs in a block radius including, Pastis, Spice Bar, APT, Cielo, Meet and PM. I'm thinking great, I'll belly up to the bar for a stiff double ginger ale eh?

Our room turned out to be quite lovely. It was No. 1007 on the 10th floor and it best feature was a huge square-shaped bay window that went all the way to the ceiling showing off the river and the New Jersey skyline. It was beautiful and given that over the next few days there were scattered thunderstorms it was breath taking and quite romantic to lay in bed and just gaze out the window. After we freshened up (aka took off squishy comfy clothes and shoes) we headed out for a late night dinner. We got a few recommendations from the concierge, who my man wasn't so happy with due to her lack of actually knowing restaurants in the area and of the ones she did vaguely seem to know she wasn't sure if they were open or if they took reservations, uh hem?! Obviously the hotel staff is really new and doesn't have their act together yet. We headed out down 14th Street and a few blocks later settled on Bistro Cassis. My feet were starting to really ache since I choose to be oh so summer evening sexy trying to fit into the scene by wearing a strappy kitten heeled sandal. My feet were swelling by the minute due to the heat, humidity and the extra 24 pounds I'm lugging around aka "The Bean." I ordered a typical bistro special coq au vin and hubby had the lamb shank. Both were yummy, the waiter was sweet and the wines by the glass he suggested were perfect with the meal. Sitting outside just below the sidewalk on a warm New York evening is quite lovely. Of course we managed to turn the conversation into HEAVY career discussion meets OH MY GOD we are going to be parents and how the hell are we going to do this, panic??!!

Friday am we perused the roof top breakfast buffet at the Gansevoort but since it was unremarkable I talked him into heading over to this darling Belgian waffle shop filled with Tin Tin books and posters we had passed by the night before. It wasn't a hard sell since he worships Tin Tin and his little dog Snowy too. Turns out this location of Petite Abeille was only going to remain open for a few more days. Their evil landlord wasn't renewing their lease (I'm sure it's because of how over the top trendy the rents have become - what with Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney having huge boutiques across the street how's a cute little waffle shop to compete?) During breakfast it began to rain. It was fairly light so we thought no big deal we can still cruise around the streets and make our way through the village towards our lunch appt. HA! Do not under estimate the rain capabilities of NYC. Fortunately we each had our own umbrella ( thank the Gansevoort for providing the accessory) as my husband is 6'4" and when he holds the umbrella I still manage get thoroughly wet.

Continue reading "a nibble of the big apple" »

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I’m still on the fence about the ongoing debate over whether technology is really advancing society. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no luddite (I needed to work that word in since I love it so). There are plenty of good arguments on both sides. Sure I’m thrilled about the fancy machines that save lives, the ability to map DNA and figure out which genes are wrecking someones health and other such medical marvels. However, when it comes to my job I seriously wonder most of the time if the good old days of paper and pen would be more efficient and secure. The odds of the office burning down are far less than that of my machine crashing or corrupting itself or someone hacking in.

That said, I’ve recently been immensely pleased with technology. Each morning when I’m just about ready to leave the house to catch the MUNI’s J train I check NextBus.com to see precisely when the train is coming (or in the case of MUNI – not coming). It shows me the next three trains arrival intervals ie. 3, 10 & 25 minutes. It’s ridiculously accurate too. Apparently all trains are connected to a GPS satellite so the site knows exactly where each train is at all times. It’s so fun!! I can continue to lounge about in my lovely warm kitchen knowing that the train won’t be there for another 10 minutes. I keep marveling at how lame the olden days used to be when one would just walk to the train and simply wait. I used to gamble waiting for the J train at the end of my alley against walking the three blocks to the underground where I could take any KLM or S in-bound train. At least fifty percent of the time I would choose to walk the extra blocks (having already waited five or so frustrating minutes) and of course half way there the J train would roll by mocking me for having made the wrong choice yet again. How I love NextBus and yes, how I love the Treo 600 that my man gave me and programmed a bookmark for the in & out lines so I know whether to run or saunter down the alley (or give up on MUNI altogether and take BART). Thank you Markie Mark, xoxo.

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We had another sonogram this am (06.30.04 @ 24 weeks). This one was supposed to be a quickie just to check my cervix since it’s on the cusp of being incompetent (did you really want to know that?). I assumed it would be an in and out appointment and wouldn’t be the big ordeal of the last sonogram. Of course Markie Mark being the ultimate smartie pants on such occasions had suggested that I drink the 8 glasses of water and follow the sono-rules. I, however, being the ultimate rebel on most occasions followed along with my assumption and didn’t drink the water. So low and behold, the first question from the technician is “How full is your bladder?” I confess that it is not at all full (and I am therefore quite comfortable, thank you) but she says ok fine then we won’t be doing a full sonogram so you won’t be seeing the baby. My heart sank with disappointment. Really? Wah! My assuming and rebellious self has spoiled my fun?!

So we do the measure thingee. I’m silently pouting. Turns out my cervix is small but bigger than the last technician measured, so no more worrying about that. Then the technician (really wish I had asked her name, she deserves kudos) asks if it’s a boy or a girl? I tell her we think it’s a boy. She says “think?” "You weren’t sure what you saw last time? Who did your last exam?" She starts flipping madly through my chart. I tell her that the last technician only gave us one photo of the baby’s profile and though we think we saw a penis, I really can’t be sure what I saw anymore. Then I mention that we recently heard from Man Bun’s cousin that they were told they were having a boy but out popped a girl. Hearing that story had of course made me doubt how believable my last exam really was.

My now favorite technician rises to the challenge and whips out the belly sonogram. She doesn’t hesitate to squeeze a load of sono-goo on my belly and starts searching for genitalia. She immediately finds the baby penis and scrotum and starts doodling white contour lines around the screen. Her onscreen drawings were fabulous and really helped us see through the black and white sono-fuzz. She asks me if I do yoga. I say "yes". She says "well so does your boy" and proceeds to show us his downward dog pose. He looks as if he is about to poke his eye out with his toe. Ok, fun over," get dressed," she says, " meet me in the office."

I dress, we go into the hall and run right into her. She then whips out photos. How excited am I that I get more pictures of our boy - a constant reminder plus visual evidence that he really is a boy. Then I get sooooooo tickled when she shows us what she drew on the back of the pictures.
See drawings... How darling are those sketches?!!@$! I just love her visual explanation of how he is sitting right now. I’ve truly had an amazing morning.

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