Stamps and Sales

I made a stamp:

And then someone bought a print from my etsy store.
And then I lovingly wrapped my print and stamped my packing with my new handmade stamp.

Perfect for a gift right?

The Loft!

We've finally finished with all the hanging of art and repainting of furniture and arranging and decorating in general.

I was sad to leave my little 20s bungalow, but the excitement of our new loft has eclipsed any remnant sadness.

As predicted, the dishwasher has been a relationship saver, as well as a blessing from the kitchen gods!

But of course, my favorite spot has got to be, my art table.

How awesome is this place?!?

The Eagle Has Landed

The move is officially complete!

We had our ritual "Monday Night Dinner" with friends in the new place. I shot a couple photos (just some digital ones).

I have a more substantial post in the makings, but I just wanted to pop in and let you know I haven't forgotten about you.

Also, the kickass Mac that I was borrowing due to the untimely death of my own laptop, was taken back. So now I'm using Quinn's computer until I can get a new one. It's stressful trying to use someone else's computer. If anyone out there has a Mac they'd like to sell, please let me know!

More Art

Fellatio, X-Ray Style

Awesome!

That is all.

Downtown Los Angeles

So I found a bunch of bathroom tiles that were never used for whatever reason, and I turned them into this:

Photo tiles! All photos by Me

This is a series of downtown L.A. to which few Angelenos venture and will soon be my new home.
A few years ago downtown LA was, for the most part, abandoned. And then the cool kids started moving in and inhabiting the loft spaces and starting up little cafes and art galleries.
As can be predicted, several development companies realized the surge of new life in downtown and bought up a bunch of abandoned early 1900s buildings (mostly bank buildings, office buildings and warehouses) and converted them into live/work spaces and then sold the individual lofts at ridiculous sums.
Now, we're all aware of the recent recession and the real estate crash. So all those lofts that were set to be sold are now being rented at very reasonable rates.

In Downtown's case, I believe this was kind of a good thing. It kept Downtown from becoming Manhattan very quickly and losing all it's young, artistic merits to the Yuppie Culture. It's still a bit dirty and still a little scary to walk around at night, but that makes it cheap enough to be inviting to all the young (or young at heart), starving artist types that made downtown unique and breathed life into it again. Photo by Me

To give you an idea of how very recent this redevelopment of downtown is, only two and a half years ago did Downtown get a real life grocery store.

I am so incredibly excited to be a part of the Downtown community!Photo by Me

Another reason why this move is monumental: Quinn and I will be moving in TOGETHER! Oh lord!
Thankfully our new 750sq. foot loft with four giant windows along the far wall (yeah, that's right), has a dishwasher, so that should cut down on a vast majority of possible areas of contention.
We move on the 15th, so you should know now that I may drop off the blogosphere that week. It's not because I don't love you.
Because I do.

You can see more downtown photos on my flickr

Giveaway!

Do I really need to give people something to get them to read and comment on my blog?

Well I won't do it.

I'm tired of reading everywhere that "people love giveaways", "do a giveaway", yadda yadda fucking yadda!

Maybe in a year I'll send something nice to a couple people to show my appreciation for being dedicated readers of my blog, but I refuse to buy into this idea that I should bribe people into reading my blog. Maybe I'll always have just 15 followers because of that, but at least I know those people are reading because they like me. Or at least I know their not just waiting for another damn giveaway!

I won't do it!

So there.

/rant

Lonely World

I just discovered this amazing stuff called Diamond Glaze and lately you can find me covered in the stuff, furiously creating. In fact I've been creating so much that Quinn surprised me by creating a work station with a built in desk for me. Eeee! I've never had such a thing and I'm over the moon about it!
Here's one of my recent creations I'm calling "Lonely World".I found this doodle in an old notebook. I drew it when I was in Philosophy class a few years ago (I listen better when I doodle, honest). I always liked this doodle more than most other doodles and wanted to redo it in a larger size but I thought I'd lost it until now.

I have a few other new pieces to show you but I don't want to blow my load all at once (gross?).

San Francisco

My dad once bought a teddy bear from San Francisco and gave it to my mom before I was born. She named it Frankie after Frank Sinatra and slept with him every night for years. She slept with him so consistently for so long that Frankie was completely flat on one side. Frankie fit so wonderfully flat against my chest when I hugged him as a little girl.
It seems crazy to me now that at one point my parents loved each other so much.

But this entry is not about that, this entry is about Alex and Quinn, hanging out in San Fran.

As I said before, we went up for a wedding. It was a friend's wedding, so for once we actually got to attend. Unfortunately we were quite pressed for time so we didn't get too many pictures of the flowers. But the party was a good time...

Those Brazilians can dance!

We stayed at two different hostels while in San Fran. The first one we stayed in the dorms and since we didn't specify that "Alex" was a girl, I got to stay in the boy's dorm. ;)

At the second hostel we got a private room for nearly what we paid for the dorm beds and it was only slightly creepy looking:


We went to the Golden Gate Bridge and walked all the way across:
My dad's favorite spot is on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. I tried to find my way there but I was too young when he took me to remember how to get there. When I got to the other side and realized I wouldn't be able to make it, I cried. It felt like a horrible metaphor for my entire relationship with my father. We just can't find our way back to that place when I was little.


Welp! That's basically the trip in a nutshell.

Here are some more photos from the trip taken with my 35mm:

So Many Flowers!

September was a month of weddings. Quinn and I did flowers for three different weddings including one all the way up in San Francisco.

Quinn took some photos of my apartment filled with flowers...Making centerpieces in the kitchen while watching Aqua Teen.


My apartment overflowing with flowers.


Around 3am Lucy gave up and went to bed without me.

And this was the result...

The Winds Bring Change

... and allergies. The Santa Anna winds have started up again and my nose is not happy with it.

Well, hello! I'm back! September has been quite a busy month and there's so much to share. So many things are changing in my life at the moment.
However that is no excse for my neglect. Please accept my most humble apology (Krista I'm talking to you here because I think you're the only person actually reading my blog).

I have lots of things to share with you including some new art. I'm going to break them up into multiple entries over the next few days as to not have one ridiculously long entry.


And here we go...

Fear of Clowns

I have had a fear of clowns since I can remember. It's not very rational and it didn't help matters to find out that John Wayne Gacy (serial murderer) was a clown. I use the fact that I am not alone in this fear to justify it, when really, those nuts who still believe Elvis to be alive are not alone either, so...

This is part of my attempt to get over my fear of clowns.

This is a 5x7 mixed media diorama of sorts. The swinging clown is from an original photo of mine, as is the backdrop. The flowers are drawn in calligraphy ink by me, and the little boy comes from an old black and white photo I found at a garage sale. The picture frame came from a garag sale as well.

She's a Mormon!

I think all of us bloggers can agree that it would be pretty kick ass to have a ton of people following our blog. Though that may not be the reason behind blogging (for some of us) or the impetus to begin a blog initially, if we don't harbor a secret desire for internet blogging fame, we at least would like to think that we aren't talking to ourselves in our own little corner of the internet. After all, talking to oneself is a sign of schizophrenia, is it not?

Why blog if you have no desire for others to hear you? Write in a damn journal. Or for those of you who like to use the fact that you'd rather type as an excuse for blogging, you could easily have a word doc. journal.
No, we blog because we have something to say. Out loud, to the world, and hopefully a handful of them pay attention.

< /prologue>


When I decided to start a blog again (I've been inconsistently blogging for 10 years) it had been a while since I had last expressed my ideas on the internets and I was completely new to Blogger. I took a look around this vast internet community that is Blogger and found some great blogs out there. Not surprisingly, I was not alone in enjoying these blogs and they had a fare amount of "followers".
Following the trail of highly read blogs I came across one that baffled me completely. This blog had nearly 2,000 followers. I figured it must be a great read so I sifted through it, reading short entry after boring entry, filled with mediocre photos of the blogger and his/her partner doing everyday things. I just couldn't see what it was that was so attractive to other people about this blog. It just seemed self indulgent and very hipster. Most photos were taken with a Holga and there was an awful lot of plaid being worn and no shortage of over-sized glasses that were undoubtedly non-prescription.

Maybe I'm just an asshole (it's likely) but it just looked to me like someone being "cool" on the internet and everybody else was buying it.

And then I read some of the comments and noticed a few people talking about, "the church" and Jesus, etc.. So I took a second look at the blog and saw a tiny ad for the Church of Latter day Saints.
And now it makes perfect sense. And the greatest part of understanding is no longer having to read that blog.

I'M NOT CRAZY YALL, I'M JUST REAL !!!!!!!!
(click here if you don't quite understand that last line)

RED

Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue. Those of us who aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we're stupid.
- Jules Feirffer

The draft is white people sending black people to fight yellow people to protect the country they stole from red people.
- James Rado
He liked to observe emotions; they were like red lanterns strung along the dark unknown of another's personality marking vulnerable points.
- Ayn Rand

Men are nicotine soak, beer besmirched, whiskey greased, red-eyed devils.
- Carrie Nation

Bathtime Stories

She always did things for no other reason than her own entertainment.
Others often didn't understand. It had never occurred to her that pasting pages from her favorite book around the shower walls was odd. She loved to read in candlelight and she loved baths.

Flowers!

After a long while of no work, Quinn and I did a small wedding this Sunday at the Adamson House.

Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the reception because we ran out of time, but hopefully we can get a few from the wedding photographer.

In the meantime, here are a few pics of the ceremony flowers.
The bricks we used were found, as well as the wood that Quinn used to make the lantern posts. The lavender, pomegranates, and dahlias were all grown locally, and the wine bottles...well, Quinn and I drank a lot of wine over last winter.

If you'd like, there are plenty more pictures on my website. You should have a look. Most of the stuff I do is very different from the usual floral display.
www.alexsandriadesigns.com