zine sine wave

yay for zines. (and giant library cards)
it was fun, and overwhelming in a good way. i barely had money to spend, but i got some free zines, two compilations, a zine about the beach boys and a bobby dylan paper doll for abbi. yay. i'm already excited for next year.

sad news: my watchband finally broke... so i'm thinking of what to do. i've had this watch for sooo long, like 5 years? and it was its second band and so i kind of feel like maybe i should just buy a new watch, cuz it's certainly had a good life, and is all beat up looking.

exciting news: recording is going super well. yay! we added accordion, two guitar parts and a glockenspiel part, so we're almost done with the first song. and lately i've been talking to the few songwriters i know and getting advice and just having conversations about arrangements. it's been really helpful and interesting, cuz i don't know what i'm doing, and it's good to hear lots of opinions and ideas from different people. and yeah, it's been soo fun to record. i'm so thankful it's happening.

today i listened to mixes and worked on getting 3 casio shrinky dink wristbands ready for future selling. i knit 2 today, and had one that i'd knitted earlier, and i sewed the casios on. the PT-80 looks a little sloppy, but the VL-tone and MT-40 look really good. and i'll probably make another MT-45 because i'm keeping the other one cuz i like it.

and i knit more on the baby blanket this weekend, so hopefully i can work on that more. i'm not sure when the baby is due, but maybe soon...

weekend

tomorrow is the zine symposium
hoooray. i went in high school, and barely knew what a zine was... so i'm excited to visit. i wish i had money for zines though.

and i just found out about knittn kitten which is sort of like scrap, where they resell stuff. but it seems to be mainly fabric and yarn and quilts. and they donate money to cats.

and i'm working on a mix tape of random moments i've recorded. and i'm excited cuz i made the covers today and started making tapes.

and i've been re-reading the chapter about beat happening in "this band could be your life" by michael azerrad... it's cool, cuz they just did stuff, and made music, drank tea, stuff like that.

i'm kind of working on too many projects all at once so it's hard to get stuff done:
knit baby blanket
cassettes for friends/fans
embroidered patch (which i hope to sell eventually)
casio wristbands (i've made the shrinky dinks... they look soo good)
a knitted cassette cozy (it's knitted but i need to add the details)
reading two books
researching portland crafters online
learning more about etsy stuff

plus stuff i've started a while ago and need to get back to:
wire bag i was knitting
magnetic calendar
finishing/hand sewing on a sweatshirt, and 2 t-shirts
heat setting 3 pillowcases
making recycled books

and always in the back of my mind waiting to record more, and always thinking about options... and hoping things will go well and that i'll get a few songs done before school starts.

gloves

hooray, i've finished my first big commission (that i can think of, at least...)


4 pairs of half-finger wool gloves... and i bought the yarn on july 15th and have worked on them off and on since, and i finished the last one this morning.
i wish my camera was better...

i'm still hoping to start up an etsy site soon... so i should work on more things for that.

and ps: we started recording last night, and it went well and i'm really excited!

sun tea

supposedly it's gonna be 102 tomorrow... crazy. it's been hot enough today.

i've been reinventing some t-shirts and altering some so they fit me better. also mending holes... i have a big bag of shirts for mending. so i started working on them yesterday, cuz i don't have money for the thrift store. two of my friends in high school sewed a lot and helped me learn how to cut down t-shirts and make them fit. so over the years i've resewn a lot of shirts. they sometimes turn out a little weird, but it's usually better than them being huge.
favorite shirt. it was getting holes around the screenprint, so i made a patch and sewed it on another shirt. i wish it looked better... sigh. oh well. it was from a church rummage sale originally.

this one is smaller. it's all painty but i like it. i think i got it for free once?

this shirt was originally an off-white color and too huge, so i wore it a few times in high school. i dyed it earlier this summer. and then finally resized it. and now i'll wear it. hoooray!

i spent most of the morning working on a tank top i made up. it took a while to figure it out, but i really like it. plus it's made up of two of my favorite shirts from high school... sigh. it's so hard to get rid of awesome old shirts... i have some handsewing to do to finish it. i'm pretty good with a sewing machine but it doesn't always do what i hope it will do...

bobby

so in basic design back in '04 at PCC, we had to do 3 value studies with toned paper. so this was mine. it's tricky, deciding what should be what value, when you only have 3 to work with.

and here's the original photos by daniel kramer. oh 1964...

3...

it was a really fun day! hooray!
and check out everyone else's at the newwww website!!!

songs

the last two days (and weeks..i guess) i've been trying to sit down and work more on my music. the plan is to hopefully record soon. so i'm trying to get all organized and make decisions about my songs.

so far i have 11 songs that i'm planning on including on my first album.

i've had a lot of these songs for over a year or two, and have never made decisions about certain things. and i have many demos for several songs, so now i'm trying to find all my demos (which are saved in weird places on my computer-so i keep finding things i haven't heard for 6 months or a year) and sift through them and decide what i want for the recordings.

i know that once i'm in the studio, with some extra instruments i don't normally have (and friends helping), experimentation will happen and things will change. i'm excited for that part. but looking through all my songs, i've just felt kind of overwhelmed and like there's so many directions one could go, but i'm not sure what to go with. and since i'm trying to have as clear a picture as possible so i can help explain how i want things it's tricky.

writing songs on a casio with 8 tone options and 8 beat options, and then trying to think about real instruments and all the other possibilities is sort of daunting, in a weird way. like i've rarely thought about drum beats or other instruments like guitar or bass... so i'm trying to figure out a nice balance between casio and the rest of the musical world.

but it's been good to talk to musical friends who've recorded before (and my friends who are going to help in the studio). my songwriting teacher is always helpful, especially at being a 2nd pair of ears for my songs.

it's really exciting because i've had these songs for a long time, and they're important to me, and i know i've done well with my demo recordings for how little i know about recording things. but i'm excited to work with some friends, and learn more about recording.

i love hiss, and have had a lot of it with my Voice of Music microphone from the 50s, but being able to hear things a bit clearer will be nice. like more intended lo-fi would be nice.

i'm really thankful to have a summer off school and work to focus more on music, but at the same time i'm worried about paying for school, and my parents thinking i'm a good kid. haha. so it's a toss up, but for how stressed out i've been the last 4 years, it's been really amazing to let some of that go, and i've been keeping busy.

we haven't started recording, but i can't wait for it to happen. i'm kind of nervous about it, and i'm excited about it.
i never knew 3 years ago that i'd be at this point, or have people who like my songs, or have played 2 shows, or anything. so i'm really thankful it's happened this way and that i have encouraging friends who have helped me get this far.

it will be really nice to have recordings that i'll feel more ready to share with people. like a cd i can actually mail to someone. and i've been wanting to work on some new songs soon, but i feel like i haven't done justice to my first ones yet, and these are all the classic upsidedown cat songs... so i'm really excited about it.

hooray! and i'm really excited about the album art. i can't wait!!! yay!