In the past few weeks I have come into possession some rather fine periodicals – ranging from interior decoration to German Rolling Stone, some issues of German Vice and Another Magazine. These were procured from a party at the Michelberger Hotel, a free box right beside my favorite craft store in Schöneberg and than a good deal of  thanks is due to Elizabeth for the majority (and most colorful) of the donations.

After I finish sizing, cutting, folding, gluing and weaving of the bracelets, I coat them in two layers of water-resistant glaze. Time intensive, sure. But sure fun to do while watching a movie…

Hearting the results:

The bracelets are currently available for purchase at Tender Loving Empire in Portland and online on etsy.

Hello old news! Yes, all the way back when spring was beginning to sprout its first leaves and petals were sprinkling from branches, I shot publicity shots for Wild Ones, hands-down my fave Portland quintet. So lush! So pretty! Is that about their music or their photogenic qualities??? Let’s say both, so even if it is old news, it still remains good news and I’m going to share it now…

We started the Monday out near my mom’s apartment in SW. A band in SW. Unthinkable! I had been hiking down a SW trail a week prior and discovered this fabulous little cove on someone’s property. Would that be an issue? Nope. So just as the rain was beginning to sprinkle (and then start to pour in a matter of minutes), we careened down the path and over a bridge into their yard to sit beside a creek. My original idea had been to have them seated upon the log, soaking up the sun in a pristine spring moment. Since the weather had other plans, the staging ended up differently, but I was still able to frame them using the surrounding foliage. The sun did end up peeking out, after everyone’s hair was wet of course…

We then headed over to Oaks Park after grabbing alcoholic drinks to go at Lucky Labrador in Multnomah Village where Nick works. Clayton, a former resident of SW, knew a short-cut from there to SE, so within minutes we were over the Sellwood Bridge and figuring out our way into Oaks Park which was closed for the day for filming of the TV show Leverage. At first we snuck around, but given that everyone on the crew seemed to know Clayton we felt we could easily pull a “we’re a part of this production” rouse. Still, we remained alert. Kind of hilariously. The owner/manager walked by – producing the looks seen in the very top photo – a real Sandlot, whimsical adventurous moment. Would he catch us? No. He just smiled.

Our last location of the day was a wooden railway bridge located in Milwaukie. It had some severe burn marks of certain beams. Cue joke about burned bridges in ode to the band’s history/formation. The trek out was quite intimidating (low-lying beams threatening to plunge into in the creek with one wrong step), but so worth it. So fun! Great day! Great shoot! Great band!

Wild Ones official site
Wild Ones on Facebook
Wild Ones on MySpace
Wild Ones on Tumblr

My Death by Pop gallery can be viewed on the Death by Pop site here:
http://www.deathbypopclub.com/2011/08/new-party-photos-blood-arm-great-white.html

The gist? The talented Travis Meinolf is the purveyor of a super fun way of weaving – real loom, real warp, real real real – except instead of being on a stationary wooden loom, you can hang it from a branch or really any old thing and weave your project as it is attached to your waist. The class started at 6. The project? A scarf. I turned up at 6:30 because girlfriend does not leave the house before 6pm (I know, I know), but I welcomed into the fray and quickly began my project while surrounded by fellow weavers with accent from far and wide.

The first step? Cutting 40 threads of yarn to compose our warp. We measured these against the bottom of a chair and then sat around, threading it through.

Then the weaving began! You could look around and see the weaving attached to the Kjosk bus, bamboo pegs that lined the stairways and other areas of the lot.

Travis Meinolf

It took me about two hours to complete my scarf. I totally fell in love with the process, oh maybe five minutes into it. I’ve woven before. Back when I was entering middle school I took a craft class at Multnomah Art Center where we wove thing with yarn on cardboard looms. very elementary. And then in middle school we had a textile class. i wasn’t it, but was able to play around with the tools anyway. Oh, and then there’s the failed experiment of getting a beading loom at some point in my childhood. That definitely didn’t work out… But this did! it was such an easy concept to grasp (with the helping hands of Travis and the woman assisting him) and just so do-able. I wanna make more!

Here’s my finished product:

Parting views of the Kjosk atmosphere:

"Weaving until Kylie Minogue comes!"

Laser looms for action weaving action can be purchased from Travis via his Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/actionweaver

It’s on my wish list! I hope to get one in the coming weeks!

Did I spend it exploring? Soaking up the sun? Looking at flats? Not quite. First of all – it was quite overcast, secondly I was locked in. From the outside and without keys on the inside. So what did I do instead? Watch the remaining episodes I had left of Mad Men Season 4 and bead, bead, bead.

It’s been quite some time since I last caught up on making bobby pins. I purposely prolonged the act knowing all my supplies were portable, so while in Portland, I focused on sewing, sewing, sewing – the sewing of fox scarves and canvas totes. Anyways – I completed something like 50 butterflies and pairs of pins while trapped inside, so the day wasn’t completely lost. It’s funny though – I’ve made a conscious choice to take it a lot slower here than I did during winter. In wintertime, I felt an urgency to go out all the time and soak up what I couldn’t find anywhere else – Berlin nightlife. This time I’m looking for a balance. The indoor crafty time that makes me happy and the parties that bring me further to life.

Luckily Elizabeth gave me some info about locksmiths (this being Germany where everything is in German and my limited language skills do not extend to locksmiths) and then people subletting Olga’s room came in for a brief moment at night (I wasn’t sure there was even someone staying there), so I was able to go out and get food later in the evening. They gave me their keys to use when they left Berlin the following morning. And I wasn’t entirely without Berlin adventure time as Elizabeth and I had gone out for some tasty and crazy cheap Indian food the day before after I arrived at the airport and dropped my stuff. I then spent the rest of the day sleeping.

So yes, so far my time here has been spent sleeping, crafting and relaxing and that’s fab by me. It feels like a vacation! My final weeks in Portland were spent on overdrive trying to fit everything in, so ’tis nice to unwind!

*Also, let’s note the orange packet in the upper left hand corner of the above photo. That’s Uncle Ben’s. I’m afraid I may have become addicted after having it at a dinner party with Francesca, Danielle and Whitney before I left.

Before I left Portland for Berlin, I had some busy days doing drop-offs at local stores and mailing out items that had been purchased on etsy and via Facebook/Paypal.

First I hit up the US Post Office to mail out a Portland on My Sleeve Canvas Tote Bag to Paris on behalf of Simon, stylist extraordinaire (most recently to Dita Von Tesse and Audrey Tautou!) who I met at the Dior Homme afterparty during Men’s Fashion week in Paris earlier this year. I’ll probably post those photos soon. So how much does it cost to send a canvas tote bag overseas? Way more than I had expected – a whopping $11!

What else needed to be sent out? Why only my first etsy sale! Let us please acknowledge the item description on the cashier check that the buyer sent to me:

That’s what the item’s official title is and I LOVE that he spelled it all out rather than just write “fox scarf.”

Here’s what was left:

I felt like I filled Tender Loving Empire up to its brim with my drop-offs – enough stock to last the next three months. There were fox scarves, a couple tote bags and new scrabble tile collage necklaces.

In those piles? 9 scrabble tile necklaces, 2 or 4 tote bags and 7 fox scarves. I’m curious to see how long those last. Hopefully not long! Since introducing the scarves in May, they’ve since sold-out twice at TLE. Score! Especially psyched because “summer” isn’t a time I usually associate with scarves. And yes, those are quote marks around “summer” since speaking of it requires air quotes. It was raining the day I dropped these off as can maybe be seen by the drops of rain on my items in the header photo and umbrella in the corner of the next. Oh Portland!

Following these deliveries, I ran 6 bags over to Powell’s on Hawthorne. Another win! In my absence my mom has been doing drop-offs on Mississippi and in NW, plus a mail-out since the etsy sales have continued. Whoo!

Hark! What can now be found at Powell’s City of Books downtown??? Portland on My Sleeve tote bags!! Why yes, prominently displayed in the gift section of the orange room are the tote bags that I make. Dream dos accomplished! Air high-five!

Of course this has been a goal from Day 1. When I returned to the Rose City this spring, I set about trying to accomplish it. Told to check back in in a couple of months when there’d be more space and budget, I faithfully waited for the calendar pages to elapse from April to June and when they did, I sent out my feelers to the buyer again, now bolstered with that trusty Oregonian article to boot  And and and she so fabulously placed an order for a dozen bags! I dropped them off in the green room after grabbing a cardboard box from the book-buying desk:

And now they’re out for all to see, touch and buy. I LOVE how they’re displayed with their handles turned-out to reveal the different fabric lining each carries.

More shots:

A real live barcode!

I hope they do well! Powell’s is such a key and central location for all Portlanders and those that come from beyond. When I was doing Portland Walking Tours, we used their map as our guide and tool within the tour to illustrate certain points and story lines to the tourists. Recently I’ve been volunteering at Hoyt Arboretum and again, it comes up time and time again as the premiere destination. It’s an honor to have my stuff repping the Rose City at Powell’s!

Bonus shot of Miss Alley accompanying me when I went to creep the display:

Whoo-hoo! A few weeks ago something so magical happened on the way to the races. What races? I don’t know – it just sounded fancy, but anyways – the Oregonian ran a feature on me and the Portland-themed canvas tote bags that I make! So psyched!

Running both in the paper and on the web, this is such a thrill! An absolute thrill and a dream/goal accomplished for sure!

I’d met with the reporter Jim a few weeks prior on a fine and dandy Thursday morning. Over drinks at Starbucks we chatted about the bags and my other creative ambitions while he took notes by hand. We then jogged down to Tender Loving Empire to have a gander at my bags and some of my other products. We traded a few stories – namely about his kids and their various pursuits in the arts and business and his awesome tradition to renew his vows with his wife every five years. They’ve been married for 25 years and every five, they decide/reevaluate whether they still want to be married to each other. What an idea – I think that should totally be a book! I can already see the Dr. Phil guest spot or something tied to the OWN network.

Anyways, the ever lovely Brianne of TLE alerted me to when the article got published online (she got a google alert) and then the following Saturday I got a text from Miss Megan Cullerton telling me that it was in the Saturday paper. So pleasing!

It’s sparked some interest too and I’m pleased to report that you can now find the bags at Local Goods on East Burnside. Rad!

Read the full Oregonian feature here: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/06/southwest_artist_creates_portl.html

Wednesday night was a night of firsts. How so? Well, Miss Nilina has a brand new camera and Wednesday night marked her very first night of putting it to use. Not only putting it to use, but even turning it on… ahahaha…

Last week an email arrived in my inbox. Actually they do everyday, but this particular message carried an assignment from Spin – whoo! I have very much transitioned into portraiture from live photos, but I’ll put my live photographer hat on in a quick second if it’s for Spin.com. The assignment? Shoot A Perfect Circle’s tour kick-off at the Schnitz.

I trekked out at 8 to Arlene Schnitzer concert hall to capture the performance. Difficult lighting? Check. Lead singer veiled on a platform in the background? Check. So it kinda added up to a bit of a tough shoot, but whatevs. I was able to kick out some shots and they’re now available for viewing on Spin.com. Note how the written review even talks about the low light.

Review and photos: http://www.spin.com/articles/perfect-circle-kick-six-week-tour

The crowd was rabid in a good way (mostly – there was so much devotion present and there wasn’t anyone phoning it in. Everyone was very much there to be THERE. Rad! But I did have a bizarre interaction with a girl who tried to convince me not to take photos during the first two songs based on how much the band “hates it” despite that I wore an official photopass arranged by the publicist and provided by the band. Okay…

I capped my night off at Red Cap singing karaoke with Alley and Chris. God damn did we have fun!