santa was good to me

Guess who made me something for christmas. It's way cooler than these pictures show. The journal is filled with his lomo pictures...lots of memories. He just gets more wonderful with age.

good journals

many of you have asked me about where to get journals with good paper to create in. Rag and Bone Bindery is the best I have found if I don't want to bind my own. They handbind their books, use high quality paper and as people, they are the best. I got to meet them in Providence, RI when tiff went to RISD there and I was salivating when I saw their studio and their loft that they were in the middle of fixing up to live there. Just the coolest old building I've ever seen. Anyway. you won't be dissappointed in their work. http://www.ragandbonebindery.com/

Don't waste time

I won't say much here because I said it all on my journal pages. Something that I can't stop thinking about.

time for new journal pages

still having fun in my white journal. fitting for the snow outside.

crazy snow action

Tracy and I took the girls into seattle today and as we started to slow down on I-5, we saw the above horrifying scene dangling over the freeway. It had apparently happened just minutes before we drove by. It was crazy. Seattle is pretty scary in the snow and ice because of all the hills.

inspiration

Reenie Hanlin from http://www.materialwhirled.com/ (one of my BFF's) just sent me some links which led me to some other links and I stumbled across the coolest clothes ever... Check out Lodicha, creatieve kleding en accessoires, recycle-design from NL...is that the netherlands?

snow!

Sophie and I woke up to snow and neither of us could wait to go out to play in it.

How to make your own blog

OK...bear in mind, I have the simplest blog available but if you are just starting, do this and then you might want to get more complicated and search out additional stuff.

First, if you do not have a gmail email acct., make one. Go to www.gmail.com and set something up. YOu never have to look at it again but blogger likes it if you have a gmail acct. It is easy. Just follow directions when you get there.

Then, sign into www.blogger.com and click the orange button that says "Create a blog". Fill out the information they request. Then you will see a page that asks for a title to your blog (and blog address). This is like picking out a "store" name. You might want to come up with a "studios" name if you haven't already. For instance, "red ladybug studio" or "joe blow studios" or simply use your name if you want. whatever it is, you'll type it in and see if it has been taken. This is pretty self explanatory once you are there.

The next step takes you to the backgrounds to pick from. None of these look all that great...pick whatever appeals to you the most. It doesn't matter too much because your blog will be about your art...not the background.

Once you have done that you are ready to post your first public blog. So...as you are going through the above steps, it proceeds to take you to a window for posting. Type in a title to the post, i.e. "my first blog entry", then in the main body start typing what you want to say. Perhaps this is a good time to let folks know what your blog will be about. If you want to add a photo, then click the little blue square icon at the top. If you hover over it with your mouse, it says "add image". Click on it and it takes you to another form page. Click the "browse" button which takes you into your own computer documents. Find your "pictures" file...or wherever you keep your pictures on your computer, find the picture you want and double click it. You will see it pop up in the little window. If you want to add another image, click "add another image" and then "browse" and do it again. YOu can add up to 5 photos for each post. NOW...before hitting the orange "upload now" button at the bottom, choose "center" for the layout and "large" for the pictures. You can change this once you know how it all works but for now, this is best.

Now click that orange button and you will follow the link back to your posting. You will see your pictures pop up in your little window that has text. Once you have written what you want, simply click "publish post" and voila...you are now blogging.

As far as the blog header...I can't help you much there. You don't really have to have one but it adds personality to your site. I have my daughter do it for me. She has done it for other people too. She charges a small fee (not sure how much). You would make up artwork that is sized 9 x 3-1/2. I just pasted a bunch of copies from my journal pages together. Then scan in your artwork at 300 dpi and send it to her and she could put it up. email her if interested at tiphoni@gmail.com. She can also help you with your photo of yourself (called an avatar) or you might be able to do that yourself (I did).

So then, play around with your "profile" and personalize your blog. It is REALLY easy. and it's free. and they are good about taking you step by step even with NO computer knowledge.

christmas party - mission accomplished.

so, since I showed this page a couple of weeks ago in the above state...I wanted to show you what I did on it this morning. The page is still not finished but I think you can see how I start transforming it...

Anyway, we had 60 people RSVP for our party last saturday night and 50 showed up, so we were thrilled. It was SO GOOD to get together with a bunch of artists friends and just talk and hang out in our studio. We did a "handmade" gift exchange that was fun and gave us a taste of what everyone did. Also, all 50 brought finger food and we had enough grub to feed a third world country. Besides punch, wine & beer, Tracy decided halfway through to break out some rum, whisky and other liquors and then the party really got fun. A few remained and we were mixing some drinks with a St. Germaine liquor that I recently found. I saw it at the store and HAD to have it for the bottle. It is made in Paris from elderflowers and oh, it is GOOD...especially with champagne. Tastes like a grapefruit that has sugar on it and is placed under a broiler. mmmm.

We'll be doing more parties and seattle get-togethers, so if you want to join in the fun, email me and ask to be put on our seattle group email list.

Tiphoni has now quit Starbucks and is using her talents more by working for me. You can see a brand new front page to my website http://www.teeshamoore.com/ and little by little she is reworking the rest of the site...so stay tuned. I'm excited about the changes and the breathe of fresh air that she is breathing into everything.

So, tommorrow I will be talking about how to start a blog since I was talking to some people at the party who really wanted to know. It is a piece of cake...but I will take you through what I did. It is free and super duper easy. I really think ALL artists should have at least a blog so when people ask you what you do, you give them a card that has your blog address so they can see for themselves. It will propel you much faster as an artist. trust me. And with how easy it is and free...no one has an excuse.

One of my favorite journals

This is a journal that I filled one summer when I was renting a cabin for a week with my husband and girls. I love all the odd sized pages. It was a blast to work in.

tiphoni's favorite music video

yay...thanksgiving is over!

I don't know about you but I'm not interested in eating any more turkey for a long time. We had 3 formal thanksgiving dinners and about 6 meals from leftovers. UGH. I went to our little veggie market this morning and filled my fridge with veggies and fruit. On thanksgiving evening when we got home from the get-together, we were all a little hungry but no one felt like cooking and there didn't seem to be anything in the house except for a bag of tortilla chips. and how can you eat tortilla chips with no salsa? no salsa was to be found so tiffany and I decided to have a 5 minute iron chef moment. We each took a can of tomatoes and proceeded to make salsa out of whatever we could find. I used some vegetarian chili mix & red onion and a little lime juice. Tiff used fresh garlic, a bunch of kimchee, lime and some seasoning salt and threw it into the food processor. We were all afraid to taste the kimchee (fermented cabbage) version but she won the contest, hands down. I made her give me the recipe...it was THAT good. She is obsessed with kimchee, by the way so I always go to Uwajimaya's to have a fresh jar of it in the fridge when she comes home for the weekend.

Anyway...didn't journal or do art at all during the 4 day weekend...too much chaos with both girls home and all their friends over every night.