2013 Week 34: Potter-twee

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Leigh

Rhoda, the famous black pug of Paper Doll

Did some wedding decoration shopping @ Logan Hardware’s new location. Cinchel @ Whistler. Takito with Jen & Stacy. ICNC boat tour @ Navy Pier. Sold @ Bucktown Arts Fest! Post-BAF dinner @ Chicago Diner.

I feel like some of the fine arts crowd at Bucktown Arts Fest literally turned their noises up at my work. I tried it twice, but next year I’ll be going as an attendee and not a craftsperson. Thankfully, I had awesome booth neighbors. Gone to Pot Art Studio made such beautiful ceramics. Jeanne is the potter and her husband Eric does metalwork display stands for her large pieces and made their booth display shelves. Watching them set-up and tear down was an artform in itself. I am thrilled with the two small bowls now in my VERY wee pottery collection. Denise Feltwerker was next to me and we had some great shop/show talks. Somehow we did not melt. It was so hot that my corn plastic card sleeves shrinkwrapped themselves in the sun – that was a first!

Films watched 34th week of the year:

Crying Ladies ** [ Philippines ]
Butterfly *
The In-Laws

* documentary
** foreign language

Even though I feel like I am a hippie at heart, I laughed out loud at some of the interviews in Butterfly. I stand for her cause, but the documentary was poorly edited and sometimes seemed like an SNL spoof. I *loved* Crying Ladies! Hiring women as professional funeral criers was a new concept to me and I loved the storyline. Very sweet little movie that felt always New Zealand-esque in its moments of extreme wackiness and I got to hear some Tagalog in film!

2013 Week 33: Buck(town) up, kiddo!

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Leigh

Me, Steff, & Heidi outside Margie’s Candies

This week: Continuation of ACA tradeshow. Wednesday & Thursday were visits to customers of my dayjob. Z picked me up Thursday night and we went straight from Midway Airport to Dimo’s – whoa my gosh mac & cheese pizza. Friday dinner with Z, Dave & Megan @ Greek Islands. Spin Saturday & The Canyons @ Facets / Trader Joe’s. Sunday I biked to an estate sale and yard sale. Brunch @ Takito with Kimmi. Dinner with Heidi & Steff @ Quesadilla and ice cream @ Margie’s Candies.

Hopefully I’ll be back to blogging regularly on Sunday. Traveling for work threw my schedule out of whack for a bit there. This weekend on Saturday and Sunday from 11am – 7pm, find Rhymes with Twee at Booth 25 at Bucktown Arts Fest! I am excited to be doing this show again!

Films watched 33rd week of the year:

Beauty is Embarrassing *
The Canyons
Touki Bouki [ Senegal ] **

* documentary
** foreign language

Beauty is Embarrassing is one of the best documentaries I’ve watched this year. Wayne White is an AMAZING artist/puppeteer/musician/storyteller and I cannot believe I had not heard of him before. Sure, I LOVED Pee-Wee’s Playhouse when I was a kid, but I never knew anything about the artists behind it. This documentary sat on Z and my Netflix instant queue for months and months and I kept skipping past it because I had watched a lot of “art” documentaries at the time. This eclipses all of them. Wacky, inspirational and worth many watches!

Speechless at how incredibly terrible The Canyons was. Picture The Room without any funny parts and even worse acting and you’ve got it! Mostly, I was offended that the “film” wasted 99 minutes of my life. Z feels even worse than me about it because he kickstarted the gosh darn POS.

I am starting to dig deep looking for countries I’m missing from my different country each week new year’s resolution. Touki Bouki was this week’s pick from Senegal. Young person angst set against a Senegalese background. Good watch, but it lost me a bit at the end when it started getting dream-sequency. You can actually watch the entire film here!

2013 Week 32: Fokken youthful!

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Leigh

Decorations @ Rani & Mark’s wedding

Second fitting @ Mignonette with Kirstie/Dinner @ Northdown. Rani & Mark’s wedding in Detroit on Belle Island. Drove from Detroit to Midway and picked blueberries in Sawyer, MI on the way. Indian food @ Kohinoor Dhaba with Alex/Cocktails at the Majestic Lounge in Del Ray Alexandria. The cocktails are stellar and they have A+ beers on tap. We had an awesome bartender named Sarah who just ruled. ACA tradeshow @ National Harbor.

It was really hard to be home without Shadow there. There was some solace found in my brother Steve’s dog, Little Jerry, who was amazing, but Shadow’s presence was severely noticed. Each day I’d come down the stairs in the morning and remember the brutal truth that she had passed. It’s been two weeks and my parents are still really tender. We’re all really tender.

Films watched 32nd week of the year:

Meet the Fokkens * & ** [ Netherlands ]

* documentary
** foreign language

This was the only time I’ve used one film to meet both of my film requirements. Because we left straight from Detroit and then I was my work trip, I was not able to watch another documentary. There are many weeks I watch multiple documentaries, so I’m still OK. Luckily, Meet the Fokkens was worthy of filling both spots because it was hugely enjoyable. It’s about twins who have been prostitutes for years upon years and decide it might be time to retire. There is some excellent footage of them in their younger days. There are scenes where they are servicing clients and they are LOL-funny. They have such positive attitudes and inside jokes and I just loved this film. Absolute must-watch.

2013 Week 31: Shadow’s shadow – b. April 20, 2002 d. August 1, 2013

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Leigh

Leigh & puppy Shadow

Shadow with Emo Leigh

Shadow being her adorable self

Me, Z, and Shadow at our old apartment

When we went as a family to the breeder to visit the Berner puppies, I picked Shadow out. My mom explained that we couldn’t fall in love with her because there were other families who would pick before us, but I knew that she would be ours. It turns out she had a “defect” of a kink in her tail, which disqualified her from show quality, but that defect made her all ours. Shadow passed away Thursday night. She was a Bernese Mountain Dog and she lived to be 11 years and 3 months, which is a ripe old age for a Berner these days. For the last couple years, whenever I was home in Alexandria, VA, I would hug her real tight knowing that her time was coming to an end. I had hoped I would get to see her one last time before she went, but she died 9 days before I went home and it crushes my soul more than a little bit. It will be so hard to handle being home this weekend without her there. Shadow passed away on the anniversary of Hoggle’s death, so hopefully she’ll find him wherever she is.

My dad sent this email out to family and friends who knew and loved Shadow:

“Shadow succumbed to pneumonia last Thursday evening at South Paws. She was very weak, and her passing was natural and peaceful. The staff at South Paws was wonderful.

We canâ€™t imagine a better, more eager to please friend and companion than she. We have so many happy memories of day-to-day life with her and on trips around the country. We miss her greatly.”

My mom told me right before Z, LCB, and I headed out to Reza’s Andersonville to scout it as a rehearsal dinner location and when we got to A-ville, Puppet Bike was out. Puppet Bike always seems to be there when I need it most. Thank you, Puppet Bike – that is why you’re my favorite. To distract myself (and because we have a lot to do), I threw myself into wedding planning over the weekend. Z and I met with Reba (Rar Rar Press) and we picked out type together and she handset the type for the RSVP card and printed it. Reba had a plate made of our invitation and she printed those afterwards. They look fan freakin’ fantastic. I know most brides probably say that about their own invites, but seriously, ours are the best! I do not know what we would do without our incredible friends throughout this wedding madness. Danelle & Joe [ Florence Oliver ] lasered us custom stamps with our wedding image and return address. Sunday night Z and I packaged up all the invites and they went in the mail this morning. Serious shoutouts to all friends who are helping our wedding come together.

Call off the vintage sheet hunt! After ~3.5 hours of searching at Kane County Flea Market and not finding a single vintage sheet, I gave up and decided to just buy tablecloths and then re-sell them on Craigslist. I ended up getting tablecloths for our 27 tables for ~$250. The Kane County Flea Market was not a total bust for our wedding though – I found an amazing pink doll case that we will use as a card box and some vintage fluted white plates for the Cookie Table. Next time I go to this sprawling flea market, I’ll bring some healthy snacks! Also accomplished: photographer found in our friend Nate Lanthrum. DJ lady friends Les & Beth. Things are happening.

Also this week: Tilda training. Lunch with Alison @ Upton’s Breakroom [skip the tempeh, more like tempmeh]. Card drop @ Paper Doll. Native Foods with Megan & Jess & Nick. Jason’s Bday @ Emporium Arcade. Took Katniss to the vet because she kept losing quills – her mites are worse and we’ve been given Ivermectin (usually a no-no for hedgehogs) spaced out over 4 oral doses along with a special shampoo to bathe her with weekly.

Films watched 31st week of the year:

Identity Thief
Stoker
Mongol ** [ Kazakhstan ]
Tchoupitoulas *

* documentary
** foreign language