Gullywasher.

Snails in rain, courtesy aliette via Etsy.

It has been raining like mad all day today, and I even heard thunder last night, which is a rarity in Los Angeles. (Although my upstairs neighbors might have been dropping bowling balls on the floor again, like they do sometimes in my dreams...)

I blame the rain for my sleeping in later than planned, and it also kept me from going farmers market-ing. Ah boo. But I did take a walk today...

A walk in the rain? Yes, a lot of a walk in a LOT of rain. Maybe it is corny, or eccentric, or sort of masochistic, but I love walking in the rain. In Los Angeles months and months pass with only the slightest changes of temperature, so something different, (whether a singing-in-the-rain kind of rainstorm, a sudden drop down to a chilly 58 degrees, or even a sudden heatwave when all I can stand to eat is frozen grapes and sparkling water...) um, it is something different, so something worth noting and experiencing.

I can't wait to live where there is real weather!

So I put on my ol' $8 goodwill trenchcoat, some boots that I swear used to be waterproof, and took my black-and-white polkadot umbrella down the road, over the fast-moving LA river, to the Village Bakery. I bought sourdough bread, coffee, and a cookie for later. It was a wonderful adventure 'til the wind picked up and started threatening my umbrella, and my boots became soggy inside. I swear, they were fine in the West Virginia snow, but couldn't cope with LA rain.

Lame.

Well.

Well. Here we are well into March. Well, well, well.

I have been working hard: teaching, making books, printing, drawing, and going through everything I own. My home has been in a crazy sort of disarray lately. I keep the windows covered quite often, so no one will see in and think a crazy, reclusive, card-board-box collecting book binder lives there.....


ehem.

I will be relocating in a few months. Good. Exciting. Scary. I have a little fit of anxiety every weekend. Although I have a lot on my mind, and a lot of variables contributing to bizarre dreams, I'm actually coping really well. Rather than dealing with my anxiety and nervous energy by eating, or sleeping too much, or just freaking out in every direction, I am channeling my energy into obsessive, efficient book binding. I'm very excited about the Renegade Craft Fair in Austin.

I've also been taking many long walks around Los Feliz and Atwater.

For now, here are a few more things I have been considering:

Where Everything is Everything.

This vintage illustration available from TheFancyLamb via Etsy.

I really liked my horoscope this week from Free Will Astrology:

"You are usually conscientious about attending to the details. It's one of your specialties to take care of little necessities. You often know what to do in order to fix mistakes and messes caused by the imprecision of other people. For now, though, I encourage you to take a break from all that. In my opinion, you need to regenerate and replenish yourself, and a good way to accomplish that is to let your mind go blissfully blank. At least consider it, please. Give yourself permission to space out about the intricacies. Steep yourself in the primordial ooze where everything is everything."

I have had an anxious, exciting few days...in a boring sort of way. I started teaching, and am looking forward to a good, exhausting semester. I'll have early early mornings, (which feels great when I get used to it, and a sunrise improves the commute...) and I'm teaching three printmaking classes, back-to-back-to-back. The good news is they are of a good, better, reasonable size, and I have a lot of excited returning students. hoopla!

So, that's that. On my first day of the semester, after meeting all my students and talking a mile a minute for hours, I went out to my car feeling satisfied with my 'performance'....and my car battery was dead. very dead. I got a jump start from the University police, and headed straight over to pep boys, holding my breath the whole way. Got a new battery and an oil change, which took an astoundingly long time. So much for beating traffic.

Then I headed home, starving and sleepy. And of course there was an accident on the 5 freeway. Of course!

Finally made it home, ate dinner and went to sleep. Early. Ah....

My smoke alarm went off at 4:30 am. LOUDLY. I woke up, fell out of bed and waved my pillow at it, like you would if an alarm went off while cooking. But wait, I was sleeping, not cooking. And there was no smoke. Then it stopped.... Then it went off again. I heard my upstairs neighbors get up out of bed. I have very tall ceilings, so I had to move a damn dresser to stand on, to take the thing down. which made it go off again. And I took the battery out. And it went off again...

Egads. So it just needed a new battery, but is not the kind that 'chirps' subtly for a few days before. No, it just threw a damn tantrum.

I finally did go back to sleep, uneasily, on the couch. I dreamed my neighbors came down and yelled at me, then the ceiling broke open and flooded my studio. What? And bad dreams about Doctor Who monsters. et cetera.

I made an Etsy treasury the other day. Take a look:


In addition to teaching, I am working on a big new crop of books, printing a lot, and working on opportunity-hunting. hunting-and-gathering. Last night I was struck with an impulse to make some simple valentines out of scraps. Some of them may end up on Etsy in the next few days. And why not.

Snailoftheday, Papernstitch, toomanykittens.

Say, I was feathered, (wait, I mean featured) as the Papernstitch shop-of-the-day today. Nice! I am an "Artist to Watch," seemingly.

Watch me.

Next on the agenda is a trek across town to Hiromi Paper in Santa Monica, to get some supplies for the killer-diller bookbinding workshop I'm teaching Saturday in Bakersfield. Odds are I'll indulge in fancy paper for myself too!

I worked at Sante D'Or this morning, and there are now 12 kittens hanging around in the back room there. And of course they're cute, and funny...but they also sort of weird me out. I am more comfortable with the grown cats. There are also two little dogs and a remarkable lot of bunnies. Come adopt someone. Or at least come give 'em some love.

Last week a nice couple came in with a hat full of newborn barely-open-eyed kittens they had found abandoned in Griffith Park. Fortunately they were able to take them home and foster them. Makes your heart hurt, right?

Update on Snails and Art.

So, there's finally work to look at in my Etsy shop, and I have my work on good ol' Papernstitch this month as well.

This coming Saturday I will be teaching a little bookbinding workshop in Bakersfield at Surface Gallery. I love my Bakersfield people, so I'm looking forward to running up there for a minute.

Here's a painting by my pal Vikki.

I am very fond of snails.

Wednesday Morning, 6am in Los Angeles.
I recorded a two-minute video of this snail commuting across the sidewalk (with cars speeding by in the background) but I am having difficulty uploading it. But you probably have other things to do with the two minutes it would take you to watch it...

I woke up at 2:30 am, and was unable to go back to sleep. Serves me right for trying to go to bed early.

I've been drawing all morning, and noting how I breathe differently when I draw. It is nice. I like the drawing-breathing.

I have overhauled my studio, and am quite organized at the moment, and have a plan. Well, a few plans.

I also have a stack of pieces I intend to share on this blog and on Etsy...quite soon.

Yesterday I planted some seeds, including "moonlight" nasturtiums and "flying saucer" morning glorys. (glories, maybe?) I have an outer space-y garden.

My plan for the morning is to walk over the 5, over the River to Atwater Village. I'm going to have breakfast at the Village Bakery (I have only tried their scones, and their scones were acceptably yummy.) Then I will work a shift at Sante D'Or Animal Rescue, with my lady Sabrina and the gang.

In conclusion: snails, drawings, breathing, outer-space flowers, cats, bunnies, scones, and coffee.

I have no particular complaints today.