The Senakams | Corgi + 3

Hello from Windy City

Like I mentioned in my last post, I'm here in Chicago for the week for a company meeting.

I got up at 4 in the morning to catch my flight here, because my east coast home office colleagues have no idea how far San Francisco is in relation to Chicago ("Yeah, let's start at 2 p.m. so that'll give you plenty of time to get here"). Yeah.

Now, finally back in my hotel room at midnight, my body tells me it's time to hit the sack, but my head is still wired. I'm in a total jet-lagged funk.

One of the things that's burning a hole in my head in the last couple days is what I'm going to do for the gocco swap I wrote about. I just got this e-mail yesterday, confirming that I am "officially" signed up for the swap, and now I have 11 names of REAL people that I have to send a set of my gocco'd cards to in 3 weeks. And I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to print. Did I really sign myself up for this?

And guess what, surprise, surprise, the person who persuaded me to sign up ended up being one of my swapmates! I guess this is a case of "be careful of what you wished for" (so sorry you're stuck with me!)

Unrelated to gocco'ing- this is a photo I took of some paper and silk fabric and stuff on my craft table this past weekend. They turned into a lovely little pile of cards in an afternoon (with hubby's compassionate help for the disabled). I was a happy crafter. Maybe if I stare at them long enough, I'll get some inspiration for my gocco cards. *sigh*

  

Brunch with Bryson and Gang

It's been such a hectic week, I can't believe it's only Wednesday! Let's see what's going on...

I'm getting ready for a work trip to Chicago next week; trying to communicate (emphasis on the "trying" part) with my family which is scattered around the world in Seattle/ Hong Kong/ Boston about a family trip to Maine in October; and re-embracing my creative life, by signing up (finally!) for the Gocco swap among other projects that seem to have sprung up all at once at the same time from out of nowhere. Whew! I feel tired just typing it all out.

So, looking back at these photos from last weekend when things were all fun and relaxed, it somehow feels like centuries ago.

This past Saturday there was a fund-raiser for an animal adoption agency, so my friends and I thought it'd be great to take our pooches (plus Picasso, who was staying with us) to grab some brunch and go do some good deed for the less fortunate pooches. Yes, that's 3 chicks + 4 dogs that want to go in 4 different directions simutaneously.

In the end, we were able to get them under control, and actually ended up enjoying a great day out, doing lots of eating and shopping (and a little bit of fund-raising- oops, got a little carried away). I'm already in need of the next weekend :)

Sit for your treat (and no stealing, Xena)! 

I may seem like a psycho sometimes (especially when the car stops moving), but I do have a tender, loving, adorable side :D

We're starving! Where's our eggs benedict and mimosas?!

I miss my friends...

Check out our Flickr album for more photos of the day.

New Lens! Test Photos

I finally plunked down the cold hard cash (uh hmm) and got myself the 50mm f1.8 portrait lens!

Backtracking a bit (rewind, rewind...). Ever since I got my first SLR last year, I've been contemplating "upgrading" to a more specialized lens. But then I was shocked to find that there are as many choices on the market as there are riders on a Japanese rush-hour bullet train. And they're advertised with all different kinds of bells and whistles with big price tags to match. I've since gone into a analysis-to-paralysis state.

But recently talking to someone in the know, who has also kindly let me play with his 50mm lens (a f1.4 one) which yielded photos like this one, I'm instantly sold! (The $85 price tag of the one I got didn't hurt either)

And now I got this hot little piece of lens in my hands, we got to try it out today! I obviously still have a lot of learnings to do and adjustments to make (e.g. realizing that you have to constantly move back and forth with a lens that doesn't zoom, which I have conveniently forgotten about).

And even though photography has gotten a bit more aerobic for me, judging from these preliminary results, I'm ecstatic :D

 

Check out our Flickr album for more test photos!

Field Trip: a Berkeley Print Shop

You probably know that I'm still taking my weekly letterpress class, even though I'm not horribly productive lately due to my grim prognosis from Blackberry-itis.

So, I was relieved that for last weekend's class, instead of having to call in sick again since I can barely hold a pen, that we're going on a "field trip" to one of our teacher's fellow printers in Berkeley.

But since I've missed so many classes, I have no idea where we're going, except that this is also where our film (for our photopolymer plates) come from.

And there I thought, Great, we're going to watch someone make film in a dark room for 3 hours... whoopie doo...

So, imagine what a pleasant surprise it was when I realized our destination is this lively printing studio with 30+ years of colorful Berkeley-an history; and right at the door greeting us were owners and printing world celebrities, David Goines (of Saint Hieronymus Press) and Richard Seibert (of Letterpress)!

Geez, do I feel stupid now thinking we're going to watch film dry...

And as soon as we stepped in, our excitement continued to bubble as we laid eyes on the studio lined with all sorts of working presses and printing paraphernalia, smelling fondly of paper and ink and grease, and packed to the gills with the most fantastic lithographs and printed work as far as the eye can see. 

 

David and Richard are the most gracious hosts, taking us gaggle of students all around the studio, explaining their artistic approach and their preferred printing process (David does mostly lithograph, whereas Richard does mainly letterpress), and answering our endless questions patiently. They've only resorted to an ever slightly menacing tone when asked how their apprentice program works (well, suffice to say I'll never be accepted here, ever).

 

We were fasincated by the work produced through the years here, many of which are immediately recognizable, including posters/art work for the internationally acclaimed "Mother of Californian Cuisine", Chez Panisse, the logotype of Acme Bread, Ravenswood Winery, and business cards and logos for countless businesses big and small that share the common theme of having their roots here in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

We had such a wonderful time that we didn't even realize we're at the end of our visit till we had our hands shaken and were kindly shown the way out. But not before we were each handed our own goodie bag, packed with parting gifts and wisdom from Richard and David!

What? You got a goodie bag?! You lucky bastard!! What's in it? Uh hmm. Can't tell you, or you'll die with jealousy! *evil chuckle*

I'll just say that what we've received today will enrich and inspire our printing endeavors for many years to come.

P.S. Oh, and yes, we did get to watch film being processed. And yes, it would have been painful if we had to watch that for 3 hours.

For more photos of this fantastic field trip, visit my Flickr album.

Gocco Swap

OK, I'm feeling like a total uninspired slacker now. I haven't done anything creative since this project. My craft table is gathering dust. My etsy store is sporting cobwebs.

My right brain is practically atrophy-ing as we speak. Bleh.

I partly blame that on this nagging tendonitis on my wrist. It started a month ago when one morning I was awaken by this intense pain in my wrist, followed by a realization that I couldn barely move my thumb at all. In other words, I've been inflicted with this common ailment known as Blackberry-itis.

There are days I have to resort to wearing geriatric-ish elastic waist pants coz zipping up my jeans just gets too darn hard. Yes, I'm pretty pathetic.

Well, you may ask "What the hell are you doing typing this when you could have saved your wrist, you dummy?!" The answer is compared to the amount of typing and powerpointing I do for work, this is really nothing. And writing the blog helps me decompress after long work days. So there really isn't a choice.

So imagine my mixed emotions when 2 of my blog friends invited me to join in on this Gocco love fest, aka the Art of the Note Gocco Swap?

(Remember, my cautious little gocco experiment on New Year's Day?)

I really like the idea of promoting the art of the handwritten note, practically a lost art these days.

How the swap works is that each participant will be paired up with 10-12 other Gocco-enthusiasts, and each member will Gocco a set of note cards, then send each other 4-8 of their own cards and in turn receive these goodies from their swap-mates.

I am torn if I should join.

First, there is the tendonitis. Then, there's this this fear that those who're unfortunate enough to be paired up with me will feel totally jipped!

I mean, just look at the quality of some of the work produced during the last round of the Mid-Winter Swap! These are beautiful work and clearly not produced by rookies like me. Remember this is what I've done (smudges and all):

OK, maybe it doesn't look that bad, it's just not as "clean" as I'd like them to be. Maybe I just need to read the darn manual one more time.

Or, maybe I just need to get over that eerily perfectionistic over-achiever altered ego coupled with an insane insecurity complex and just give it a try.

But heck, I can totally blame that on being Chinese and therefore bred with over-achievism in my blood. In our family, you're either an over-achiever (aka "barely OK" according to your mom and dad) or a complete loser. (Family: you can totally attest to this one)

Anyway, that's a totally different topic that I can go on about for hours. But for now, I'm gonna rest my wrist, in case there's some gocco'ing to do in the near future.

Lazy 4th Weekend

Hope everyone had a good 4th of July weekend! We had all kinds of big plans, but with the crazy work schedule last week, we ended up abadoning all ambitions and just had a lazy (but even better) one.

For Friday and Saturday, me and my girlfriends were supposed to have a movie/spa/slumber party. But by Thursday, we realized we were kidding ourserlves to think that we'd have the energy to plan for anything (other than the slumber part, perhaps). So what did we do?

We shopped till we dropped (look at these shoes!), ate spicy Korean Tofu soup (yummm), drank a few bottles of good wine, chatted till we were incoherent, and fell into a deep slumber. Woke up the next morning still buzzed, nursed that with some strong coffee and greasy breakfast, and shopped some more. In other words, we had a perfect 2-day girlfriend get-together.

So glad I found these this weekend at Jeremy's! Aren't these the cutest and funkiest shoes ever? Reminds me of an old bathroom mat we used to have when I was a kid.

Then, on Sunday, Hubby and I got an invitation to take the 45-min drive out to Half Moon Bay to hang out with Brian, Rita and Picasso, who're spending some R&R time at this picturesque coastal town (which you may be familiar with if (a) you've seen American Pie 3, that's where Jimbo and Michelle got married at, or (b) you're a surfer and know what the Mavericks is).

We had a grand ole time at the Miramar Beach (near Half Moon Bay), where the dogs could run around the beach and play in the surf. I don't think this beach is officially an off-leash beach, but seeing that most every dog is sans leash, we figured we have safety in numbers (or we can run away really fast).

 

Crazy cross-eyed Bryson- life is tough when your mommy's luring you to pose for treats while the surf is looming dangerously close!

 
Bryson and Picasso in a mid-surf hug, just in case the other got swept away. "Duuuude, I'll miss you..."

(For more photos of the beach boys, check out our Flickr album)

After frolicking at the beach, we headed over to the famous Half Moon Bay Brewery for a microbrew and beach food. By this time the fog finally burnt off, so we could hang out on the sunny patio and not freeze our tushies off. This place is super laid-back and dog-friendly (think surfer-chic), there're probably at least two or more dogs under each and every table. We stuffed our face with ceviche and fish stew, and washed it down with pints of the most delicious amber ale. *BURRRP* 

Abadoning earler plans to continue down the coast to Santa Cruz after lunch, we made a sharp U-turn, drove our lazy asses home, and took a looong nap. Life is good.

Test Your Travel IQ!

I've been glued to my laptop this whole week, slaving away at project after project; but thanks God I have the case of red wine we got last week (there're still a few bottles left, I swear), plus this awesome Travel IQ test on tripadvisor I just discovered to keep me sane! (Yes, it's great to work from home, hmm...)

Click on this link or the screenshot below to launch your own test and you can see if you're as savvy a traveler as you think you are!

But don't say I didn't warn you, this is highly addictive and may cause drowsiness (after you've spent half a day trying to set and break new records while competing with your spouse who just won't admit you're the smarter spouse, har har!).

Do come back and tell me what your Travel IQ is! Can't wait to see if you know where Timbuktu is... :D