Crafterbation is a blog that offers "a daily dose of vicarious crafting." They recently did a feature on record accessories which included my blue cuff. Read all about it here!
Two of my newest cuff listings, Zanzibar and Blue Swirl, have been featured in treasuries recently! Cool stuff!
I'm always checking out the mandalas and kaleidoscopic designs on Etsy, and here are a few that recently caught my eye.
Tangereen is working on a school "magazine" project, and she wanted to write an article about electric cars, so yesterday we took her to Eco Motion to check them out. (I told her she should submit her magazine in the form of a blog, but she didn't really go for that idea. But wouldn't that be a cool outside-the-box, earth friendly way to create a magazine project?)
The engine is made out of lots of batteries.
They even have electric scooters. Doesn't Chuck look like he belongs on one?
I want an electric car! We figured we could save about $5000 a year in gas, which is about half of the cost of the car. According to the lady Tangereen interviewed, the electricity only costs a few pennies a day. Why doesn't everybody have these? 
Hey, leave a comment if you have an electric car! I'd love to know what you think of it!
Still attempting to come up with some good model shots for my Roman style record cuff...
I wasn't even planning on doing the Art Hop this year, but then Jen made me an offer I couldn't refuse! The teachers from the DIY Lounge were offered free booth space so we were able to do collective selling, which meant I only had to actually be there for a three-hour shift.
I just can't get over how bright these colors are. It was about 90 billion degrees out. I had to keep my stuff in the shade to keep it from melting. It was hot! But fun!
After we set up, since I didn't have to work my "shift" until 3 pm, Chuck and I wandered down to Francis, where we had a delicious breakfast while basking in the glow of this huge mural painted by the incredibly prolific Portland genius Chris Haberman (who is also the singer for Hello Cleveland), in collaboration with Jennifer Mercede. We were like, "Wow! Is that a Haberman?" And it was.
With full bellies (the Dungeness crab Benedict was AMAZING!), we wandered back down the strip (walking right in the street as they closed it down for the Art Hop for the first time this year). We visited the Alberta location of Trade Up Music (I hadn't been there since playing a show there when it was a club called the Medicine Hat - we played a private party there, it was PACKED and insane, and nothing like the pristine music store it is now).
And below you will see tw0-thirds of the Salmon Street Studio family! Their daughter, Zoe, has her own little space where she sells cute watercolor bookmarks that she makes. She was reading a Canadian version of the newest Harry Potter book. She said the only difference is that some words are spelled differently...
So I actually went home and mopped my kitchen floor (yes! I did!), then came back to work the booth in the afternoon. I hung out with Teresa and she engaged in great gear-talk with all the astounded men who were drawn in by my black-and-white painted killer vintage Kramer bass guitar, which Teresa played a bit (she is a bass player too). Look at the beaded cuff she's wearing - that's what she makes. The leather cuffs behind her are by Nicole. Between the three of us, it was cuff city!
Well, as it happened, Cootie Platoon was playing a show that same evening right there on 20th and Alberta, at a newish dive bar called the Know. After tearing down my stuff and loading up my car, I went and had a Coke with Rico and Melle, pictured here with some other punk rockers and of course the classic can of PBR.
I didn't stay for the show, but couldn't miss a photo op with my best friend!
In response to your comments, here are some photos of model wearing black cuff without any other colored cuffs to distract. 
Is this better? Am I getting closer? As always, your feedback is most welcome. Thanks!
I've taken the plunge and replaced the photos of my old stand-by and top selling item, the Basic Black Roman Record Cuff. Some of the new photos are above. Below, you see the old photos that I previously used.
What do you think? Better? Worse? Would you be more likely to click on the new photo or the old? I would greatly appreciate any feedback! Thank you!
Last week, I had the extreme pleasure of attending the Duniway Student Art Show! I love the theme they chose this year, it kind of sounds familiar...
This year, the Duniway art committee has made some great additions - they've switched to using a digital projector and laptop to show art history slide shows, they've created an amazing new website, and they managed to extend the art show to three days instead of just one!
I love the beautiful subtlety of the watercolor haiku lesson (above) and the sumi-e ink painting lesson (below).
The majority of these lesson plans were written by the fantastic, incredible, brilliant Michelle Smit (pictured below with her favorites - the "Picassos"). Michelle and I worked together on the art program for years, and she is continuing to carry the torch and doing a great job along with the rest of the art committee. I'm so proud of them!
My favorites are the abstracts, for sure.
But I also love the more realistic pieces like these self-portrait value studies:
This is just a small selection, I really had to restrain myself to not make this post too long, but I could go on forever! Below are some of the nifty ceramic animals made by 2nd graders:
On April 1 of this year, the Duniway Art Program was presented with a Creative Ticket School of Excellence Award by the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education and the Oregon Alliance for Arts Education. I am so proud and so honored to have played a part in this great achievement.
I know that a lot of people come across this blog while searching for children's art lesson plans, so if that's what you are looking for, I strongly encourage you to visit the new website, www.duniwayart.org. You'll find everything you could possibly want for grades K - 5 - painting, printmaking, ceramics, wire sculpture, sand painting, outdoor art with natural objects, collage, mandalas (yeah!), pop art, wood sculpture, still life, surrealism, impressionist landscapes, and much more, all interwoven with art history and muliculturalism. The lesson plans are all on there as PDF downloads with sample images of finished projects. 
Wait! Is it really mid-May already? Oops. Well, here are some pictures from the Handmade NW event at OHSU on May 1.
They have a really great chef at the Daily! 
Smiling despite the dental pain!
Here's Ryan, setting up her Littleput Books booth, with some of the last of her Scrabble tile pendants - she is quitting the business and actually sold her business on Etsy last week for a reported $7000, wow. She is currently the #2 seller of handmade goods on Etsy, second only to theblackapple - but she's OUT. That must be a strange feeling.
I went for a ride with Ryan and Leah on the tram!
Here's a view of our fair city while riding up the hill in a silver bubble:
Look, it's the other tram, going the opposite direction!
View of the South Waterfront district and Willamette River from the top of "Pill Hill."
I think the tram ride was the most fun I had that day. I didn't sell much. Chuck brought me a bowl of soup, and Sister Diane stopped by with her boyfriend who is a very funny guy - I really enjoyed talking to him.
