Parsnip Goes to the Beach

Parsnip enjoys getting out of the house now and again.

She really does gloat to Cappy when she comes home.

Year of the Water Dragon & Android Jones & My sister's wedding

An incredible bit of artwork by Andrew Jones (AKA Android Jones) is going around the interwebs, especially on Facebook. It's the water dragon, created in honor of the Chinese New Year, that of the Water Dragon. You can download your own large-sized desktop version of this beaut here. I love the zipper mouth. He does lots of digital artwork for musicians, often live art during shows. Here's another piece he did in which my friend, Dusty, is the muse:

In addition to digital art, he is an airbrush artist:

He is known in the underground/alternative fashion world here on the West coast as an artist and make-up artist. Here's a brief article including him on this phenomenon.

Andrew is a dear friend of my sister and her husband. He was the best man at their wedding where I met him. He stencil/painted my sister and Vinny for the ceremony. Best wedding 'make-up' I've ever seen.

Chelsea, 1/2-way through getting painted.

Hands like lace

There he is, after the ceremony, chillin on the zabutons with Vinny & another groomsman.

Chelsea, face and decolletage spraypainted.

Her back was beautiful too!

Vinny's paint up close. Like a bird!

Chelsea's final look.

Andrew roasting Vinny at the reception.

My sister's wedding (2006) was brilliant. Many of their friends are artists, and thus poor, and thus talented. By asking everyone to participate in the creation of an awesome wedding, people were able to contribute without having to spend money. Chelsea spent less than $500 on her wedding (!!!) because of this. Her dress was sewn by her friend Lenna, another friend did her hair, someone made an Indian feast for the reception, someone made the cake, and at the reception people were invited to perform if they were so inclined, to the delight of everyone there! There were comedians, musicians, dancers. When Andrew learned that my mom and I were going to bellydance, he asked if he could do our makeup too. Sweet! Here's that process:

If you still want more, here's a video of his creative digital process:

Under the weather

Alexander Starodubov

I feel like this painting today:

kind of pretty, but under the weather, groggy, and rainy.

DPMI bonfire fun

(DPMI= Development Project Management Institute; i.e. the class I'm taking for 3 weeks). Many of the participants of DPMI convened at Carmel beach on Friday night for some bonfire fun. Chatting, s'mores, roasted hotdogs, beer/wine/juice, photo-taking and light painting in the sand, guitar playing, singing, lit LED frisbee, om circle, power clap and power nap, and one dog Satchmo. Trés fun.

This is the frisbee...

Today's Tonic

Ben's feeling under the weather. Having been asked to create a Get-Well-Potion, here's what I concocted.

Step one: pick several fresh lemons from neighbor's lemon tree. (Thanks, Chris!)

Step two: squeeze lemons with circa 1976 JuiceKing.

Step three: grate ginger into lemon juice, add half an eye-dropper full of echinacea extract, add a tablespoon of molasses, and some water.

Step four: stir. Gulp it down. Good for you. And surprisingly tasty. Wakes you up.

Krafty

The conference I went to in DC in October had continental breakfast with these teeny jam jars. I took five to use in organizing efforts at home.

Which means I had to empty them. Yum.

Last time I was up at the Alameda Flea Market, I bought some old Kraft cheese boxes, thinking they would be the perfect thing to hold my little jars. Also, I was thinking of using them on my craft table...Kraft...craft...get it? (Oh, puns). After several months (I don't eat a lot of jam), I finally washed them all out, and also used some baby food (squash for a pumpkin recipe over the holidays) so I could use those jars in the larger Kraft box.

They stayed there for another month while I finished the semester. But now, here they are in their glory, holding small hardware, beetle wings, sharks teeth, with room to hold a few more items.

How I Choose my Outfits

One of my friends said, "I'd like to be in Alyssum's head in the morning when she's choosing her outfits." So here's what happened this past Wednesday. I woke up looking like this.

Crazy bedhead. For a second, I thought about going to school just like that in a whatever outfit. Then I thought better of it. Instead, I was inspired (by my hair) to wear something ruffly in my wardrobe. I showered and then chose this aprony, ruffly, tiedied dress. It was too cold to wear alone, so I wore a plain black long sleeved tee underneath, and some ruffly green pants and green knee high socks. And, here we are.

I had many comments on this outfit. Ben said I looked magical, like a "special elf." Another friend reminded me of when someone called me "Queen Dancing Artichoke" when I wore those same pants to school. Lots of laughing, bewilderment, and compliments. Here's my interpretation of how all those comments/impressions painted me:

Ha ha.