this friday

1st Friday Poetry Series

New Venue!
St. Paul's Cultural Center
2215 W North Avenue

Todd Heldt
Kristy Bowen
Scott DeKatch
Kurt Heintz

OCT 3
8:00-9:30 PM
Free Admission
Donation Appreciated

new & pretty things

I've begun listing the charm bracelets the last few days, as well as some new glasses. I'm still working on more in a all sorts of colors, so stay tuned.

Yesterday at the antique market was glorious weather, lots of browsing, and quite a few sales (mostly earrings it seemed..)Today, however, is rainy and cold and I fear late summer is finally gone for good. Last week was a bitch, having started my having out rather organized and productive, and ending with the whole wicked alice issue and apparently losing my work/spare keys somewhere between Thursday night and Friday afternoon, not particularly catastrophic problems, but pains in the ass nonetheless. Also the rushing to finish up notecards and a thousand little details for the market. Today, however, I am doing much of nothing besides adding a couple of things to the shop, reading my newly arrived Foursquares, drinking tea, and playing with the kitties whilst waiting for my grocery delivery (seriously, it's disturbing how much glee I get from those things that come to me withut my having to leave the house for them (Peapod, Netflix, Drugstore.com).

saturday

(click for larger)

My sister discovered this neat little site and made the above image. But a warning, she says it's addictive...

the perils of electronic media

Apparently the entire sundress.net shebang was hacked and I will now have to upload everything again to get everything back online at wicked alice. I do not know how long this will take, and when the archives will be back up and running, provided I have time to a) find the files on my computer at work and b) determine what edits I made to them after the saved versions, which tend to be alot...) I hope to get at least the last issue back online in the next couple of days. And of course this comes possibly the worst possible moment, so you might be witness to a serious meltdown in the coming week or so...or on the bright side, perhaps a fresh start entirely...

weekend projects

These are a slightly larger, shinier, version than the old cases (which I couldn't find anymore on ebay..)



It's been a paperweight making frenzy. I always used to think these didn't really sell and I just liked making them, but actually the bird ones usually sell pretty quickly...I'm always having to make more..




I finished a bunch of these charm bracelets Friday..am just waiting on the toggle clasps..they all have adorable book charms on them..so I'm thinking of calling them "bookish bracelets" or somesuch. Some have little typewriters on them, and so far rabbits, mermaids, squirrels, teapots, and birds..I'm also going to be doing children's versions as well....


I also worked on some christmas ornaments involving wood bird cutouts, old map pages, and german glass glitter, but I ran out of glue and daylight, so I'll show you those later...instead you get a kitty (Zoe) on the verge of disaster (luckily I saved the votive holder..)

I am working on so many things its making my head spin. First there are still a bunch of orders from the summer sale and just general purchases that need to go out tomorrow for dgp, as well as the subscriber copies on the last three chaps. Add in another 10 copies of one for a bookstore, another 10 copies for an author, and possbly 30 for a class--all on books that seem to be constantly out of stock..Tomorrow, thankfully, I'm in the studio all day long and I might be able to get them, as well as more of Kristi Maxwell's book to ship out to her done by tomorrow night..(I am working Saturday all day so that's a wash). Sunday I must clean house..and put away alot of stuff that I've just been piling on the dining room table and floor the last couple of weeks.

In addition to much going on there, I need to get stuff made for next weekends antique market, which means making paperweights, flasks, cigarette cases, and other various lovelies. I've been working on new collges and some ACEO's for the shop, as well as lots of new necklaces made from old watch parts that just need chains as soon as my clasps come in. I also have beaucoup supplies for some charm bracelets and christmas ornaments I'd like to get started on. And of course, I need to restock the notecards, as usual, plus I'm planning some samplers and box sets, sort of like last year's gift boxes..

Argh..it's exhausting...

now available from dancing girl press

Elsewhere & Wise
Kristi Maxwell
dancing girl press, 2008


get it here..

my inner martha stewart

was ridiculously happy to find the shop had been featured over at the Real Simple blog. For those you who don't have an inner Martha, RS is one of those delightfully guilty pleasure magazines where everything is neat and beautiful and orderly..and oh god, why can't life be full of impeccable closets, linen sheets, and french doors (for anyone who knows me, the prospect of french doors produces almost sexual frenzy, as do really good hardwood floors)... Anyway, I pick it up whenever I can and drool over the pages accordingly. Then of course shove it under the bed with other samples of decor porn--old issues of Elle Decor, Domino, and several Rachel Ashwell books I've had checked out way too long from the library...

That little deer box sold, but there are more in the shop. (I have a couple more deer figures salvaged from what is now known as the Great Woodland Massacre of August 2008, in which an entire box of vintage S&P shakers took a tumble from the top of the fireplace and at least one of each pair was busted. I never figured out which kitty was responsible for the carnage, but it was terrible..bunny ears and broken squirrels everywhere...

monday obsession: vintage suitcases

I try to have a bunch of these in the studio to store all the chaos in. My favorite is actually this one I bought a few months ago, but here are few of the more lovely etsy offerings I was perusing this morning..



from SamariaProject, $80



from ReadySetGo, $39.95



from atouchofvintage, $44

no rest for the wicked...

I have spent the morning weeding through the morass of the wicked alice inbox. It's scary in there, and since we've been closed to submissions all summer, I hadn't really ventured in very often, if at all in the last couple of months or so while I've been struggling to keep my head above water over at dgp. I did manage to whittle down 350 submissions to a mere 39 in the final batch, but I've had some of them since February, so I imagine the poets are getting angsty about them..I hate to be one of those journals that takes 6+ months to respond, but alas, the press runs me ragged...though I don't feel quite as guilty as I would if we didn't take simultaneous subs and were tying up people's poems indefinitely.

The next task, chapbook manuscripts...though I'd better wait until I'm in a better mood...

new south

I've finally got some time to page through my contributor's issue and there is some awesome things in there (well, besides me of course with what is I swear the only remotely funny poem I've every written..) Also in this issue, the winners of their Poetry and Fiction contests, which I had the pleasure of judging earlier this year...check it out...

sunday @ womanmade gallery

One Planet, One Experiment

On Sunday, September 14, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Woman Made Gallery, 685 N . Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, featured poets Kristy Bowen, Susanna Lang, Lauren Levato, Johanny Vasquez-Paz and Rachel Contreni-Flynn, will join host and curator, Nina Corwin, in reading original poetry in conjunction with the One Planet, One Experiment exhibit currently showing at the gallery. Invited poets will interpret the theme as broadly as they like, including, but not limited to writing related to the environment, cosmology, science, travel, global cultures and conflict, experimentation of all sorts.

new and pretty things

rabbit paperweight, $8




Jane Austen inspired earrings, $15




sweet little pewter acorn necklace, $18

rain

There seems to be alot of it the past week of the all day, no letting up kind. Several times I've been soaked even with an umbrella. No doubt, the chilliness is a definite sign of fall. Already I notice the waning daylight, and last week, an entire singular tree on my walk to the bus stop seems to have lost it's leaves in the wind overnight. I am not ready at all for colder weather, and since I still feeling off-kilter, and have been since May, it does not bode well in the mental health department. Winter is always hellish, and somehow I worry this one will be moreso. That whole house of cards feeling feels particularly threatening lately. I can only dig in and hope it passes...

I must have slept for 13 hours last night with all sorts of strange dreams about the library computers crashing at peak times (yesterday was a little stressful and draining), weird camping scenarios involving being captured by cannibals, and a strangely erotic dream involving a male poet/blogger/editor I once met at AWP and probably have only talked to one time. But I think I'll go to my grave without saying who...;)

Otherwise, I am hiding from the world this weekend, since the next few (actually well into November) are booked solid between readings and working and other things I want/have to do.

wednesday obsession

Though I'm a terrible typist when it comes right down to it, ever reliant on that friendly backspace key, I still love old typewriters. Nothing can compare to the feeling of finality with each key stroke, that satisfying clacking, the impression on fine paper, the ding of the carriage return...



vintage Hermes Portable Rocket, Moxiethrift.




Polka Dotted Laptap Bag, $45. TrackandFieldDesigns



cast metal type writer pendant, $22. boygirlparty



her story will never be written - 12x18 print, $40. sixhours

three day weekends

I am just now beginning to feel a bit more like myself after my hellish 9-5 last week, but, alas, will finally be back to having my mornings free once again (if not my evenings, but those are no good if I'm tired as hell and non-functional anyway). This weekend, I devoted to finishing up a few projects, making some collages, dying some slips, and general organization. I listed about 40 new things in the shop, including all the thrifted goodies from my vacation and some new jewelry.. I suppose it's officially fall, a time when I get a little bit of clarity and a renewed sense of getting things done, at least in terms of my own writing which keeps getting pushed aside for other things. I want to get the kissing disease in some sort of order. Not sure what to DO with it afterwards since I'm sort of soured on contests and submitting in general. It has crossed my mind to just self-publish a couple years from now, completely in the realm of possibility...the new book will be out soon, girl show next fall, so I have a while to decide.

Of course, Labor Day weekend has alot of ghosts, and they've been kicking my ass this weekend.