Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins: Tiny Cthulhu! Free Pattern

Unfortunately, not mine but SUPER cute! Must make one for my Lovecraft loving baby bro!

My friend Mar has a new blog for her site/invitation company she's called her blog:

the paper martini

I'm so excited for her! This is one of my favorite invites:



My absolutely love her peony invite and what I would have her make for me if I was getting married and inviting people. (husband and I did a private ceremony and had NO attendees)

Remember this little doodle?




well - she made it into the computer and got traced. I'm still having some trouble with Illustrator but it doesn't make me want to pull my hair out anymore, thanks to my dear, dear, patient, sweet husband. It came out wonderfully!! I'm too excited - not really ready to share. I must review with two of my friends who are the first to see anything I come up with. They are fair and objective and love me to pieces. We all share critique on each others work and it's a great help.

Last week was a fun week! I attended Siggraph 2008 and the Pasadena Bead and Design Show.



If you do graphics on a computer, 2d, 3d, or otherwise, Siggraph is a must attend conference. I've been going off and on since 1991. My high school's advanced art teacher happened to finagle us exhibit passes when it was in Dallas (I'll let you do the research to figure out when that was :) ). It's so interesting to see all the creative technology that you know will be available for you to use in the very near future.

VR was the big thing when I went the fist time, as well as, the burgeoning computer animation scene. That's really why us high school students were there - the program at Texas A&M gave us passes, seeing if they could recruit one or two of us.

This year was really cool as well. Here are a few of my favoite things:

1) The new HP Dream color display is amazing - you have to see it in person. It lives up to the hype.

2) the art exhibit - Artist Jenny E. Sabin and the group Skorpions. I also saw some lovely window panes (pictured below) but didn't catch the artist's name.

Pictures of almost all the faves:

Skorpions


Wall inserts by unknown artist


close up of my favorite one


A lot of big companies were there, but I was surprised by some that weren't. Adobe - teh number one graphics company (thanks to their purchase of macromedia :P) didnt' attend!!

Below is the Disney/Pixar booth:


Ok - enough techno stuff - let's talk about the Pasadena Bead and Design Show!!




SHINY TIME!

I went with my lovely friend Diana, who actually happens to be a mutual friend of one my co-workers. The ONLY reason I met her is that she interviewed as a replacement for me in my previous postition (I want to go kick my old boss for not hiring her, btw - she's awesome).

Anyway - I spent WAY too much money on semi precious stones, glass, and shells for one day.

The vendors were varied with BEAUTIFUL stuff. My only disappointment was that there seemed to be so much finished jewelry and I was expecting more supplies than anything else.

You should note - I only took one picture in the entire show. It was of the last room I went in, and only took it as an after thought. That's how much fun I had - I forgot to take pictures!!!



Diana and I called it quits after a few hours when we realized we were starving and had crooked and achy necks from looking down at the tables.

tokidoki X Fujitsu (japanese exclusive)

HOLY COW!! I really really want one of these laptops..

so I've been trying to actually draw, with you know, a pencil or pen instead of on the computer.

A lot of this stuff is drawn from memory/imagination while on the train or waiting for a conference call to start. (I know I mention conference calls a lot - my job entails working with international teams to deploy web products created by the US teams so I'm ALWAYS on the phone to either Europe or Asia. It's not as fancy as it sounds - I promise!)

I think I'm going to switch to only pencil or black pen - those are my favorite drawings.









This one is my favorite - I eyeballed the design shown above and only created one half. I'm not very good at drawing symmetrical designs by just looking and moving my hand. this one will probably get traced into the computer, then copied and mirrored to create the final motif.



Siggraph & Bead show post still to come...

Found via A Little Hut - Custom shoes from Keds and Zazzle! seriously want to try this.... follow this linky for the shoes

Lovely photos and pretty crocheted jewelry from Thompson Family Life - found via Poppy Talk

Cool patterns and graphic design from Art Backwash - found via A Little Hut

Big post coming up for the shows/conventions I went to last week. Siggraph and the Pasadena Bead show.

Mine is a 93 lb, mostly black, German Shepherd. (and before you say anything, I know their formal name is supposed to be German Shepherd Dog but I think it sounds stupid).

I love him but he sheds a lot and I'm super lazy about vacuuming. My poor Dyson is feeling unloved a the moment and my apartment is covered in dog hair.

Husband just sent me this link to the Furminator. Has anyone used it?

On the main page, click over to picture 5 - he looks like he's related to my pup.

etsy fabrics: Art Galleries: dominomag.com


Domino has a gallery of 15 fabric designers on Etsy, brought to all us web surfers by Michelle Engel Bencskos of Cicada Studio.

I even found a couple I hadn't seen before. Go check it out!

Found via the craftzine.com blog.....

Tula Pink is a great fabric an graphic designer I found through the craftzine.com blog this morning.

her fabulous illustrations are posted all through the blog as well as some in progress sketches. see if you can find all the animals in her images!

Really check it out if you have a chance.