yes we can!

I went to see Barack and Michelle Obama and Joe and Jill Biden today in Detroit.  It was great! Some reports say the crowd was as many as 30,000!!  We were all crowded together on a beautiful, sunny day, everyone fired up and ready to go!

Afterwards, we went to 7eleven and got slurpees.  

that's the back of my head.  I do not know why I look so blonde.

(the hand second from the right is mine.  Photo taken right before Barack shook it!!)

Barack and Joe's speeches  here.

guerrilla gardening

I am having enough trouble managing my own 1/4 acre, but I love the idea of urban guerrilla gardening.  Richard Reynolds, who wrote the book On Guerrilla Gardening, says it is "the cultivation of someone else's land without permission."  In the 70's Green Guerillas cultivated empty lots in Manhattan's Lower East Side by jumping or cutting fences or throwing "seed bombs" (Christmas ornaments filled with seeds and fertilizer) over them.  

These days some guerrilla gardeners grow food, some take over private land as political protest, and others, like Reynolds, just want things to be prettier.  Were I to be a guerrilla gardener I would have a hard time deciding if I was the first kind I mentioned, or the last. 

guerrillagardening.org

photo from the New York Times.

ok, 8 hrs after posting this I was watching tv and Columbia sportswear had an ad featuring guerrilla gardeners.  weird.

dispossessed

one of the best things about living in Ann Arbor is U of M's  property disposition which is where the university sells off stuff they don't want. I got a 6'x4' real slate chalkboard there that I am using as a table in the studio (slate is great when you're working with ceramics) and I just got a metal cabinet for the studio that I took to have powder coated at Superior Powder Coating.

 
I am having it done in white because everything in the studio is white, but I am really excited about all the color possibilities and can see myself getting addicted because I am already looking around at metal junk and wondering what it would look like powder coated!

 

I'll put up a picture of the cabinet when it comes back.  

and your little dog too!

Because I love them, I will not be putting Gus or Ollie in my new bicycle basket while it is on my bike.  But just look how cute they'd be if I did!  If they didn't jump out of the basket to chase a squirrel  or something and break a leg, that is.

 ok, Gus looks pretty unhappy.  

but Ollie's ready to go!  
 

a tisket, a tasket...

I got home this afternoon and found a box from Design House Stockholm on the front porch.  I opened it up and found this beautiful basket for my bicycle, designed by Marie-Louise Gustafsson.  Steven got it for me just because!    

Not only is it just lovely, but it's really great because it detaches and has a shoulder strap so you can carry it around shopping with you.

maybe I really can carry Gus and Ollie around Toto style! 

Thank you Steven!  I love it.  

double stuffed

There is now one crate in the studio, but the boys don't seem to mind sharing.

  

Gus is in the back, hiding.

for Jackson

Summer heat kept me from finishing a sweater I have been working on for Jackson's first birthday (which was in May!)  but now that nights are cooler I am back at it.  This is what I am making and I kept it gray because just like the baby in the book, Jackson has the bluest eyes you've ever seen! I hope he doesn't out grow the sweater I'm making before I finish it!

This is a sweater I made for my niece Riley this past spring.  

Patterns by Debbie Bliss.

Double Dutch

Everywhere I look on blogs and in magazines people are talking about Dutch bicycles.

I fell in love with them a few years ago when I had a residency at the European Ceramic Work Center in the Netherlands.

I desperately wanted one like this and I still have fantasies about all the stuff I could cart around in one.  Groceries for a week? Gus? Ollie? Gus and Ollie? (Toto was a Cairn Terrier so I have delusions about being able to cart Gus and Ollie around, Wizard of Oz style.)

Some hypothetical future kid?  This is the Dutch royal family.  (why aren't they wearing helmets? and is Princess Maxima (best name ever) wearing high heels?)

Two birthdays ago Steven got me this beauty.

and last year I returned the favor with this one.

They've got 10 year rust proof warranties and back racks that can hold up to 150 pounds.  

Best of all, we have fantastic posture when we ride them.  

(photos taken outside the studio.  it's much nicer inside!)

dead duck

ok, not duck, chicken.

Since I am on a dead bird theme today I thought I would post this slip cast vase made by my dear friend Joanie Turbek. Joanie is currently an artist in residence at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia and she and her work are delightful.

shh, sleeping

I got this lamp a couple years ago and I love it.  It's called the "sleeping bird lamp" but I am pretty sure birds don't sleep that way so it probably should be called the "dead bird lamp".  It was hand made by Esque in Portland.

Every time we have the house cleaned the cleaning people try to turn it over and make it stand on its feet.  I don't think they like it.  

well dressed

I just got this book and decided to do a project from it.

I have never liked the dresser we have in the guest room but haven't had much luck finding one that i like that doesn't cost the lord. For about 7 seconds I thought about making one with my newly acquired woodworking skills, but rethought it when I remembered how good my woodworking skills are (not very). I like this one from Ikea, but it's also kind of boring and hanging out with architects has made me quite sick of birch plywood.
I thought about wallpapering it like this one designed by Piet Hein Eek (whose work I love).

until when leafing through Lena Corwin's book I found this:

and decided to try and do something like it. I'll let you know how it turns out.

lazy

Baby G

hydrangea

I love hydrangeas.  Love them.  So much so I covet these earrings designed John Iversen even though I can't imagine wearing anything that big.

Available from Twist.  

hey there, money bags!

Tomatoes are coming fast and furious these days!  I hope they are good for you because I'm eating them 3 times a day just to keep up. (we're are still getting a zucchini a day.)

Last night I made crepes stuffed with spinach, leeks and ricotta with sauteed tomatoes and grilled tuna.  no recipe, just made it up.

I tied the moneybags closed with a little strip of leek.

delicious!

just in case

if things don't work out as I would like them to I am going to move to Argentina.

I've got a a place all picked out in Buenos Aires.

I think I will be very happy there.

cover girl

ok, not a cover girl but the project we did for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit Store was on the cover of Portico magazine, the U of M college of Architecture's journal.

We made the store in 5 parts on wheels, 4'x8'x8' each that could be rearranged depending on their needs.


MoCAD has a lot of events and needs to keep its space flexible.  We couldn't attach anything to the walls or floor and they wanted to make sure the store was easy to move.


and be moved into other galleries for different events.

more info about the store here.

photos by Beth Singer.

sicily

I was thinking about our trip to Sicily because of the nocino making.

Especially Agrigento, that was the best place.  

The Valley of the Temples (which isn't really a valley at all but a ridge) is there.  It became an UNESCO world heritage site because they are some of the best preserved Greek temples outside of Greece. 

Especially the Temple of Concord.

But before that, some enterprising Sicilian decided it would be a good idea to build a hotel about 100 yards away from the temple.  And he was right.  Villa Athena is the kind of place that would never be built anymore, and would probably be torn down if it were anywhere but Sicily and while the world's treasures are undoubtedly better preserved for it, it was an incredible place to say and I loved it. 

 that's not a postcard, that's the view from our room!

We also went to a wonderful restaurant there Ristorante Gambero Rosso.  After we thought our exceptional meal was over our waiter sat down at the table with us and had us try about 15 different kinds of Sicilian wine and then had his cousin come over to drive us and our car back to the hotel because we were no longer able.