giveaway/belated birthday

well, it has come to my attention that i have missed my blog's birthday. whoopsies! anyway, i realize that this is a perfect opportunity to have a giveaway! when i screen printed that shirt for brandon the other day, i had to test the printing first, and did so on a piece of grey fabric. after the print came out well, i thought hmph...this is too cute to just throw away! i decided to mount it on a canvas, and here is the result!

you, my blog followers, help me stay motivated to keep on making, so i've decided to give this little guy away as a thank you, if anyone is interested. he is on an 8x10 canvas which is 1 3/8" deep. there is a cut in the canvas (it came that way--boo!) so there is one small air-bubble looking thing, but it's very minor.

please email me at: minimarsh6@gmail.com if you would like this very first screen print to be yours! shipping is on me. if there is more than one person interested, i will use random.org to randomly choose a name. i will choose a recipient by monday evening (feb. 16). to clarify, don't feel bad if you know me--this isn't necessarily intended for internet strangers (although i'm certainly not going to rule any out). i'll let you in on a little secret--most of my blog readers are family and friends (and it's a small community) so most of the people who see this are friends with me in real life as well. thanks for sticking with me through this year, and thanks for your comments! i love comments, so feel free to leave them often.

resolution, part two

well, another part of my new year's resolution was getting in shape and running a half marathon, today i officially registered brandon and i for the santa cruz half marathon. i'm nervous but excited--the goal is just to finish. i can work on speed in future races, right?

adélie and the orca

remember my resolution at the new year? overall it was to stop being lazy, but included in that was beginning an etsy account and i'm proud to say we're finally up and running! from the title of the post, i'm sure you can guess our shop name--it's adélie and the orca, which comes from my sister's and my favorite animals. we only have a few things up in the shop, but feel free to stop by and check us out! stop by often as we slowly update...

in addition to this, i've finally done my first screen print test! prep and cleanup are about 90% of the process, but i know i'm going to have a ton of fun. brandon has wanted this graphic on a t-shirt, so we decided to use this as our first test print (we will not sell this design because it is not our image, but we have just created this one shirt for our own use)

the graphic looks a little blurry in this photo, but that's actually because of my picture-taking, and not the design. the edges of the design are actually quite crisp! slightly shaky because i did this using the screen-filler method (which is hand-painted, as opposed to the photo emulsion method), but crisp edges.
and now here is brandon posing in the shirt--he thought he should pose with the cats, to make it look "even cuter."


here's my favorite--the double head-tilt

claire's dedication

today was claire's baby/parent dedication at jen and josh's church. congratulations, claire!

and yes, she still is lacking in the hair department, but she couldn't be cuter.

she was so good and didn't cry at all! no melt-down on stage for claire.

glorious saturday

saturday morning started off with a lovely friend date at the de young with one of my oldest, nearest and dearest friends. we have been attempting to see the yves saint laurent exhibit at the museum and finally got around to it. we started out with a long chat at the cafe, and then we wandered through the many pieces in the ysl collection--it was amazing! it was a perfect saturday morning. i hope to have these dates much more frequently!
if you can't tell, the rain went into hiding for the day.

after the de young, i went home for a few hours and then headed back out for a dinner party with some other friends. we cooked a delicious meal, but afterward brandon and i were exhausted and we had to get up early today so we decided to head back home. on the way, we passed city hall which was feeling a little green, apparently.

i guess many of the monuments around the city have been lit up with green lights in celebration of the arrival of the play wicked.

friday rain

so we are FINALLY getting some winterish weather again. thank goodness because all the little plants in san francisco need the water!

i know i complain about the weather a lot, and i happen to live in an extremely desirable climate, but this time i'm jumping for joy at the rain. i love this cozy weather!

serious art lust

so today on one of my favorite design blogs, design*sponge, i saw a piece of art that i want. badly. it is called ratp carte intégral by antoine + manuel and it is amazing. this piece combines a sort of ryan mcginness-like icon art that brandon and i love (remember our bathroom art project?), the place i constantly feel homesick for (paris), and a map--i love maps, ESPECIALLY those relating to transit lines, as this one does. i feel like this was made for me specifically. now i just need to see if i can purchase it anywhere...

image courtesy of antoine + manuel

saturday afternoon

saturday afternoon was beautiful, sunny...not a cloud in the sky. while brandon helped our friend adam move, i met up with sara for a long overdue (and much anticipated) mojito at our favorite mojito place, the orbit room.

it doesn't get much better than this.

cat fight

my cats enjoy having cat fights occasionally, and i mean that in the way that is usually directed at two girls slapping each other. they get up on their hind legs and, well, slap each other. it's hilarious.

flying cat

saturday morning ben was having cat dancer fun and i snapped some shots (after i get tired of flinging cat dancer around, i string it up for a bit and ben jumps at it...he eventually reaches it and pulls it down, but it occupies him for a few minutes)...

and here's ben just hanging out