Beat The Heat

Today was SOOOOOOO HOT...at one point, the thermometer read 105º....ONE-HUNDRED AND FIVE DEGREES! Holy cow. Luckily, we were prepared...inspired by our recent trip to Chapel Hill and LOCOPOPS, Missy made her own batch of GOURMET POPSICLES last night. She blended together frozen bananas, orange juice, blue berries, and a little bit o' honey and poured the mixture into popsicle molds. The popsicles set up overnight in the freezer and, by the time we got home, they were ready to be devoured...

Nilla Ninety-Three

Nilla and her new felt mouse I sewed., originally uploaded by sugar-cookie.

I made Nilla a new pink and yellow felt mouse. I filled it with catnip and fluff, plus I put some liquid catnip spray on it, too. She has not played with this one as much as her old, ahem, ratty mouse toys I sewed a while ago. I thought it was about time she needed a new one.


She thought about the new mouse but decided to take a rest in her cardboard box.

Papernstitch and Finger Puppets

I just wanted to show off my finger puppets I am working on, but first I have to tell you about papernstitch! Papernstitch is a great gallery of handmade goodies! It is a one stop shop for cream of the crop! So please check out my papernstitch gallery page, as well as all the other wonderful things there. Some of my favorite artists have galleries there, too!


So here is the progress on my finger puppets! I embroidered all the faces first and added cute embellishments. I made them have a little cut out face with a running stitch around the face. I think it makes it look like a little costume or maybe even a mask.


I even made some piggies while I watched the movie Penelope! I just love that movie. I love her clothes and her bedroom!


Here are some of my finger puppets that I completed! I made some kitties, bunnies, piggies, and bears. I used all kinds of felt. We had lots of scraps of felt from when Raoul sewed his pouches. It is nice to use up some of these scraps!








And I have lots more to make!

Island In The Sun

So, my whole family, minus me and Missy, recently came back from a two-week-long vacation in the PHILIPPINES. They asked me what kind of souvenir I wanted and I told them, "Just bring me back a BARREL MAN"...they got me a UKULELE instead!

I didn't just want to blog about my awesome new uke - I also wanted to share some images from their tropical vacation, because it looks like we missed out on a doozy of a trip. Dang! So, I stole some photos off my sisters' FACEBOOK PAGES. One thing I can definitely say about the DE LA CRUZ clan is that we like to travel...



The family took a small prop plane from the main island to the resort island of BORACAY...they look kinda BALLIN' coming off the plane on the tarmac! (cue appropriate hip hop track) From left to right: my youngest neice, LILLIAN, a.k.a. LILY; my brother-in-law, SHAWN, a.k.a. BIG DADDY; family friend, ARIANNA, a.k.a. FRIENDY; my oldest neice, JULIA, a.k.a. J-LA; my youngest sister, CYNTHIA, a.k.a. CYN-TAX (because she does taxes for a living, see?); my mother, MOM, a.k.a. MOMZ; my nephew, EVAN, a.k.a. JUICE MONSTER; and my father, DAD, a.k.a. DJ SHOP-AT-HOME (my older sister, BELINDA, a.k.a. BOOM BOOM, took the photo)...





Lillian tries to adjust to the tropical humidity while her brother, Evan, looks on. She said, "Yeah, it gets hot in California, BUT IT'S A DRY HEAT"...



My neice Julia brought home a PONY from the Philipines! (she wishes)...



Another hot car ride with Belinda (there she is), Julia, and Lily...



OBAMA gets love all around the world, even in Boracay...their tag line should've read "STEAK YOU CAN BELIEVE IN"



Holy crap...they went to a bar called THE HOBBIT HOUSE...that was run entirely by MIDGETS! (I was going to say "little people", but when you've got a bunch of them working at a bar called The Hobbit House, we've already gone way past the point of being PC)...



A beautiful SHRINE atop some rocks, accessible only during low tide...





Everyday they were in Boracay, they enjoyed POSTCARD-PERFECT SUNSETS...yes, I'm totally jealous that we missed out on this trip. But it certainly does whet our appetite for the next time they plan a vacation there...

Nilla Ninety-Two

Nilla does her impersonation of a BELUGA WHALE / BANANA SLUG...

Cloud Drawings - Beluga Whale And Slug

I have always enjoyed looking at clouds. I love looking for hidden pictures in the sky. I have been thinking about my Puffy White Clouds zine lately and how I could show you what I see in the clouds. At first glance, the cloud looks very ordinary. We saw this one on the 85 North on our recent trip to Chapel Hill. You can read about that trip here and here, complete with photos!


On first sight, this cloud looked like my favorite whale, a beluga! I love how belugas always look like they have a permanent smile. They are so graceful, too.


Then some of my friends said this cloud reminded them of something different. Katy said it was a slug. Since she lives in Paris, France it should be in French - "une limace." My friend Jamie also said it looked like a slug, but more specifically a banana slug.

Candy Swap!

My friend Gemma and I just did a Candy Swap! Here are the lovely candies she sent to me all the way from the United Kingdom! Oh, there was also a Crunchie, which is a favorite of mine, so I ate that first. I have been trying to "savor the flavor" and take my time trying them. I think next will be the Cadbury Dairy Milk or Freddo for sure. Freddo!


Gemma is a fabulous artist, one of my favorites! Here are some adorable postcards she also sent with this package.


This one reminds me of Nilla and me! Up next - Tea Swap and other sachet drinks!

Katzenzungen

Got us a box of milk-chocolate KATZENZUNGEN ("CATS' TONGUES" in German) from the EUROPEAN DELI in town...love love love Eastern-European packaging design...Nilla does too!

Weekend Wind-Down #108

(can you spot Missy?)

The morning we got back from our weekend trip up to Chapel Hill, two huge TREE LIMBS came crashing down in our yard, barely missing LORD FOCUS, my beloved Ford Focus and the roof and front of our house, RANCHO COCOA. Actually, what we think happened is that a huge limb from one tree (possibly struck by lightning the night before?) fell off one tree, hitting another huge limb on another tree on the the opposite end of our front yard, bringing it down with it. The end of the first limb that fell looked blackened and charred, leading us to suspect a lightning strike. I had heard a loud THUD that morning and thought that it was Missy accidently slamming a door somewhere in the house. When we stepped outside on our way to work, we were taken quite by surprise. We're quite lucky that nothing worse happened! We're hoping some tree maintenance pros can come out this weekend to finally chop up the limbs and take down any other tree limbs that look "dangerous"...







FAVORITE MOMENT OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - Seeing Unrest was good!
RAOUL - Teenbeat 26th Anniversary at the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC!

WORST MOMENT OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - Having to walk the Atlanta Gift Show.
RAOUL - Leaving Chapel HIll...wish we had an extra day or two to hang out and explore.

FUNNIEST MOMENT OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - Cracking wise on "DC Cakes"...it's a horrible knock-off.
RAOUL - Meeting Karim Rashid at the Gift Mart was pretty unexpected...

WORD OR PHRASE OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - "He's rockabilly, so we call him Billy"
RAOUL - "I'm not a baby, goddammit!"

FAVORITE MEAL OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - My grilled cheese sandwich.
RAOUL - Gelato at Sugarland.

WORST MEAL OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - All these sandwiches lately...it's too hot to cook.
RAOUL - Lunch at the world's stickiest IHOP somewhere in North Carolina.

ALL-TIME FAVORITE UNREST SONG?
MISSY - "Cherry Cherry"
RAOUL - "Cath Carroll"

ONE SONG YOU WISH UNREST PLAYED AT THE SHOW BUT DIDN'T?
MISSY - "Bavarian Mods"
RAOUL - "Yes, She Is My Skinhead Girl"

PERSONAL RESOLUTION FOR THIS WEEK?
MISSY - To try and get better sleep.
RAOUL - To actually complete a Weekend Wind-Down during the weekend (I'll miss out again this weekend, dang).

PERSONAL SOUNDTRACK FOR THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - Unrest, Mark Robinson, Kristen Hersh, The Receptionists, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down.
RAOUL - Unrest, Mark Robinson, The Rondelles, Cotton Candy, Caribou, Bossanova, True Love Always, Somerville Speakout, Girls, Best Coast, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol, The Clash, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, The Thermals, Teenbeat Records' "Number 1 Record Label" comp.

Occupational Hazards 9 - Summer Gift Mart

There are a few folks out there who think that Missy and I make a living off our crafts and TOFU BABY comics - WE WISH! We actually pay our bills with careers in the art department of a company that produces and distributes "balloons and coordinating gift items". We work together! Missy is a PRODUCT DESIGNER and I am the department's research/reference/resource LIBRARIAN. Missy gets to do all the fun designing stuff while I get to handle the not-so-fun stuff like copyrights and licensing. Anyways, a couple of times during the year we have to attend the ATLANTA GIFT MART - a giant convention center complex consisting of hundreds of company showrooms spread out over three multi-storied buildings. It's pretty intense. We were there this past weekend to check out our showroom and to observe market and product trends. At our company showroom, we were SUPER EXCITED to see the new line of HALLOWEEN products that Missy designed. It was the first time we saw all the actual pieces displayed together. Don't they look cute?

Above are a couple of FELT BANNERS (the stars have twinkling LED lights when turned on) and below are a collection of FELT BAGS for collecting candy...







Missy also designs ceramic pieces like this CANDY DISH and CERAMIC CONTAINERS...







One of the few perks of being at "The Mart" is all the FREE FOOD and PRODUCT SAMPLES to be had. We were resting our feet for a moment when someone came by handing out free BEN & JERRY'S ICE CREAM...and then soon after that, some one came by handing out PLASTIC LEIS and SUNGLASSES...





There were STEEL DRUM performers throughout the Mart, entertaining all the attendees...



We stumbled upon superstar designer KARIM RASHID (in his signature pink suit, no less!) in front of a showroom, handing out free samples of his BOBBLE - re-usable plastic bottles with built-in filters that he designed. We could hardly believe it...of course, we had to add a couple of autographed Bobbles to our little stash...





Back at the hotel, we tallied up our swag: 2 autographed Bobbles, an autographed cookbook, a pair of scented candles, a pair of cheap plastic sunglasses, and a hawaiian lei: