A Good Long February (and some pictures to prove it)

AND HELLO!

Everyday I tell myself "yep, I'm going to update that blog today" and then promptly forget what I had planned to do.  Unless it's work and then, of course, I don't. Anyway, what is today? Today is March 20th, 2012.  My watch doesn't seem to want to accept that leap day happened and keeps resetting the date on me.   I swear I've switched it back a day at least 3 times now... and then the next day when I go to look at what the date is, it somehow has sneaked back up a day!  It's a mystery.  Current solutions include:

• A) My watch is possessed
• B) I keep on leaning on the same reset button and don't want to admit that's the simple solution
• or C) Jimmy is changing it in the middle of the night like the little prankster he is

We're concocting another pizza tonight with the random ingredients we have in our fridge.  Right now I'm thinking of using the olives, sundried tomatoes, onion, mozzarella and barbeque sauce for a change in pace from the traditional pizza... but there is also pesto, goat cheese, parm, fake chicken and red sauce.  Either way it's going to be delicious because we're going to match it with a wine that my thuperduper Daddy-o left in the care of Jimmy and I.

Which obviously leads me to telling you that my parents visited California (a month ago now? whoops...) and it was lots of fun!  Not only did I do more with them in 4 days than I do in 4 weeks but we did things I hadn't even known existed out here until the day before they got here! Just to give you an idea, here's a quick timeline of their visit:

• Thursday evening: Arrived, met Jimmy and me in San Jose and we all went for a delicious dinner at Morocco's (middle eastern food, local jazz and, if I remember correctly, south american wine)
• Friday: Day trip to San Francisco with Mom and Dad action packed with suuuper steep hills, curvy slopes, persistent fog, mermaids and art galleries and then back to Santa Clara for dinner at a nearby Thai place with Jimmy
• Saturday: Mom and Dad met me in Los Gatos at 1pm as I finished up the morning shift at work then off to Santa Cruz for Classic Beachtown, CA, more windy roads, Pacific Ocean, BUTTERFLIES, natural stone arches and tapas
• Sunday: Mom and Dad head back to San Francisco to see even more cool things and erm, buy an amazing painting by Gottfried Salzmann, and then hurried back to Santa Clara to pick up Jimmy and met me in time for Greek dinner in Los Gatos after work
• Monday: I made sure to get the day off and Jimmy made sure to get ahead on his work for the week so we could ALL pile into the rental car for a trip to Sausalito in the morning for yachts, expensive shops and seals and then spent the afternoon in Sonoma, sipping wines and letting Dad buy a few... several... bottles for our small wine "cellar" in Santa Clara. 

And now of course, a few pictures just in case you're more of a visual person:

walking down Lombard St. to get some pictures... before we made Dad drive down

Lombard looking up

jus' being his best dafter in the whole world

on top of telegraph hill, birds will sit on your head if you're not too careful

coit tower silhouette

the infamous fog doing its very best to hide the only bridge worth looking at

lunch and beer at the blue mermaid

POOF! NEW DAY! the boardwalk into the monarch sanctuary in Santa Cruz

mom looking for the source of the little croaking we were hearing

green swamps

mom's artistic eye caught this

butterfly!

and more!

taking pictures of pinecones with dad

the last natural bridge in Santa Cruz (all the others have been destroyed in various earthquakes)

Californians tell me water here is cold. I tell them to go to Maine and stick their feet in that water

AND SWOOSH! NEW DAY! dad driving over the golden gate (at last not shrouded in fog) on the way to Sausalito

tiny coffee intermission

the yachts along the boardwalk in sausalito

THERE ARE SEALS EVERYWHERE IN SAUSALITO! 

walkway right along the water where seals swim around watching the people watching them

and off to Sonoma! this is the view from Arrowood - the first winery stop

everyone heading into Arrowood

Second Stop: BR Cohn Winery and mom telling Jimmy stories 

BR Cohn

Third Stop: Sebastiani. I swear mom and I did not coordinate our outfits. just happened to wear the least common color either of us ever wear on the exact same day.

the front door at Sebastiani

the tasting bar inside Sebastiani

I think he's having a good time

decorative barrel room in Sebastiani

a little blurry but, look who i found!  

YUP THAT'S IT! We look pretty busy don't we?  Those parents of mine are, like, world travelers or something. Wink Wink.

In other, less exciting news, February rolled on at a leisurely place.  I started working at that boutique store in Los Gatos, obviously.  I spent most of my time for the rest of the month working to try to quickly fill in that gap in my savings... but even working has its down moments (see below).  The store is a nice place, even if it is a bit off my usual path.  The girls there seem to be constantly amused that I hate the color pink, prefer cold weather and think tanning is the devil... but otherwise they're a nice bunch.  I already have a few loyal customers who let me plan outfits for them and then drop big bucks to buy everything I pick out.  The Banana Republic actually called me the other day too, just to see if I had any free time to put in a few hours there. It was a little weird honestly and I decided not to go for it, just because I've heard terrible things about the manager and I'm guessing they won't be interested in my help when they find out I'm leaving this summer.

I'm going to end this post with just a few glimpses at the store in Los Gatos and then move on my merry way to make a photo journal post about our camping trip and me cooking more eggs on top of things. READY? SET? GO!

watching time crawl by

playing with mannequins

bizous,
Meg

HELP! PICK OUT YOUR FAVORITES!

HI EVERYONE (WHO IS STILL READING THIS!)

Before I update this with the actually exciting things that have been going on (teaser: mom and dad visit California! Jimmy and I go camping! I make an awesome dinner WITH an egg on top!) I need some fresh eyes.

I've been taking an introduction to printmaking class at the ICA (their thank-you gift to me) and I've decided to give the people who wrote me recommendations for grad school each a print as a thank-you gift.  So I need to pick out the 4 best prints that would be best for gifts that I can pretend my past professors will hang on their walls but probably won't. Anyway, this is going to be mostly a photo blog documenting the journey of Meg learning how the heck to print.  Because it is a very tricky, very weird, very frustrating process.... it's actually kind of cool to look at my transformation over the weeks. I'll let you know which ones I'm considering but I wanted to post them all here, mostly so I could show them to mom.

SO without further ado, here's the first of the first of the first:

#1.

Things went downhill for a very long time after this one. Still one of my all time favorites of all my prints but I don't think I would ever be able to give it away.

#2.

#3.

#4.

I'm a big fan of this one and the second print of the same plate (a "ghost" print as it's called in the biz).  Count this as one of the ones I'm considering for a present

#5.

I also really like this one.  This picture doesn't really capture the light green with hints of blue very well, but I promise the color is very delicate and peaceful in real life. This is also one of the ones I'm considering giving as a gift.

#6.

this was the first drypoint I did (used an etching tool to draw the elephant on a separate piece of clear film-like plasic and then put him on top of the print.) as well as the first stamp I ever made.

#7.

 

But of the two, this ghost is my favorite. The texture underneath the elephant turned out to have a much cooler effect than I expected.

 #8.

This is the first xerox "transfer" I did.  Jimmy says that this is one of his top favorites and I should definitely give it as a gift to someone who would appreciate it.

 #9.

a ghost of the first one.

 #10.

#11. 

 #12. 

this one and its ghost are two more favorites and I'm considering one or the other for a gift.

#13.

#14.

an obvious favorite. I mean, come on, it has dinosaurs that I got to draw myself.

 #15.

  
#16.

one of Jimmy's favorites

#17.

#18.

the beginning of prints made out of my collagraph plate

#19.

#20.

 and a detail of the feather texture in the corner....

#21.

#22.

#23.

adding more feathers on top created a cooler effect than I thought it would. Jimmy really likes this, my teacher really likes this, I'm just not sure.

#24.

the ghost of #23. I like the colors in this one a lot more

#25.

#26.

#27.

last day of class and i finally start working on a longer board... and like it a LOT more.

#28.

#29.

maybe it's the dinosaurs... because I absolutely love this one. I would love to give it as a present but it would have to be just the right person.

 #30.

oh and i also obviously love this one too.

 #31.

my teacher then convinced me to do a parade of all my animals. they didn't all fit but I figured this was a good enough mix. I don't really like the print but maybe paired with it's ghost it would be nice. but i do love this detail of just mr.t-rex and mr.elephant:

#32.

the ghost. I fee like this parade would make a really good cover for a childrens' book.

 #33.

and last but not least, my two favorites. fireworks over mountains. I could part with this one, but not the ghost. I love it too much..

 #34.

ok well that's it for now! I need to hurry off to work. Let me know which ones you think would be best.  I'll try to get another post in by the end of this week with actual updates.