Jeez Louise.

I can't believe it has been a month since I wrote in here. Jeeeez. What a slacker. Well what can I blog about, if anyone is even reading this.

My sister is engaged, so I am going to visit her this weekend. I am really looking forward to it because I will get to spend the whole weekend with her rather than trying to fit visiting with her into whatever else I have planned when I visit Sacramento. I will be on her turf (Santa Rosa) and catering to her whims. I hope I survive.

My house is in disarray, as two people are moving out, me and the other lovely lady are switching rooms, and two new people are moving in. Also the new roommates have a cat! Really anxious for all of this moving stuff to be over so I can settle into having my own room for the first time in almost a year. Crazy.

I recently read The Time Traveler's Wife, and then saw the movie a couple days ago. I have very mixed feelings about it all. The book I liked. I really loved it at first, time traveling, mixed up story line, likeable characters. But then I got a little bored with it once reality kicked in. The trailer for the movie has the most horrible song ever in it, making the movie look extremely over the top cheesy, which is what I was afraid they would turn it into. Focusing more on the Romance than the Time Travel. I guess that's what sells. My biggest problem with the movie was just that, but I went into it expecting that. They rushed through all the parts and aspects of the book that I liked and focused mostly on the "reality" which was what kind of bored me in the book. But overall, I think the movie did a good job of bringing to life a portion of the book, but it just wasn't completely encompassing of the full story. If that makes sense. However, I know that a movie that completely translated from the book would be impossible to make since the book spans such a huge amount of time. I could probably go on and really pick the movie apart, but I won't. I liked it. Didn't love it. The book is way better and way more interesting.

Went to see Julie and Julia with V. Very inspirational and once this heat goes away, expect Mostly Soup to be updated like crazy! Haven't been much into cooking at all in the heat.

Went to the Oregon coast recently with my favorite of favorites, and did not want to come back. One day I will live at the beach. One day.


Ok, that's enough outta me.

P.S. If you haven't already, check out Topical Thursday. Really fun blog with lots of great artists contributing! Sort of honored to even be part of it!

<3M

And repeat!

Hello friends. My new favorite thing to make is repeating patterns, a la pretty wallpaper such as this:

and all the other pretty pretty wallpapers over at Walnut Wallpaper!

After much trial and error making this lovely for Kristin that isn't quite perfect...


I picked up a few tricks and made these which I am totally in love with!



Also, I got a job finally, and summer is here! It is hot and I like it. Weekends are filling up quickly with trips and bbqs and I am one happy girl.

Oh and! Don't forget about my etsy shop... Put some new stuff in yesterday! ShesAGiant.etsy.com!

<3M

Finally.

So, after years of people telling me that I should probably figure out a way to sell my portraits and stuff, I set up an etsy account. For now, there is not much there, but I am going to work on that a lot in the coming days/weeks, as well as redesign my website. Lofty goals, I know. On etsy, I am going to offer Custom Vector portraits, silhouettes, maybe some felt portraits/silhouettes after I try it out, maybe some abandoned vintage clothes here and there, who knows. The sky is the limit.

SHESAGIANT.ETSY.COM!

Please please tell everyone! If they want something custom illustrated, send them my way!

Here is a sampling of some of the silhouettes I have been working on.


The lovely Kristin of HissAndHearse.com, who got this whole ball rolling with her genius ideas.


The extremely talented Jessica M., who has always been an inspiration and muse to me.


People really love bikes. I am going to do a road bike really soon too.


This is going to be some kinda logo for my new site, I think.

Let me know if you have any ideas for things to be silhouetted, or if you or anyone you know might want something done! Babies, dogs, your mom, whatever!

<3

Giants and more

In all the craziness of last Thursday, I went into a little gallery whose name I already forgot, and was wowed instantly by the work of Julie Morstad. I think I might be a little late on this, because some of her pieces look familiar, but maybe I am just dreaming her drawings!






There was a slightly different version of this at the show, it was my favorite!

I am off to Sacramento for a quick weekend trip, ciao!
<3

Gotta get me a bird seed shirt.

So I guess this is turning into a Book Blog. I have been using Goodreads.com to keep track of all the books I have been reading lately. So far, in 2009 alone, I have read 10 books. Last year, I read a total of 8 books the entire year. Crazy how much more time I have to spend on reading since I am not really working at the moment. I love books.

Anyways, the most recent book I read was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safron Foer.



I never read Everything is Illuminated, but I probably will soon. I really loved this book for so many reasons. It is told mostly from the perspective of a very smart, very scared, very curious 9 year old boy. I love stories told from kids perspectives, probably because I really don't remember how I felt about stuff when I was a kid. But what I liked more than Oskar's story was the story that was woven in about his grandparents. How they met, how they felt about each other, how they felt about love, and life, and how they lived. Another thing I liked about the book, is that there were photos thrown in here and there. I wish more books had photos. Not of people but of places and images that invoke a feeling. My favorite little story that was told to Oskar and Mr. Black was from a woman who never left the Empire State Building. The picture posted in that section was just so perfect, it made me feel as if I was there with them, hearing her story. Most of the book made me sad, just because it is a lot about loss and almost all of the characters are grieving, but I also laughed a little, and just really enjoyed every page. Most of all I think this book made me realize that I need to appreciate a lot of the little things I tend to overlook. Not an easy task.

This & That

It has been ages since my last post, and I guess it is because being unemployed, I feel like I don't have many new and exciting adventures to post about. I basically read a lot, walk a lot, internet a lot and do stuff in illustrator once in a while. The last book I read was just so great that it deserves it's own blog post.

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy.


My dear friend Olivia recommended this book to me quite a few months ago, and she has never steered me wrong. I loved this book instantly, and the main character, Sally Jay, was just so adorable and funny from the get go. All the characters are quite quirky and the way Miss Sally Jay describes them all, along with herself, just made me giggle and grin throughout all 200 something pages. I finished the book within a week, and that is because I was trying to take my time so it wouldn't end too quickly. I think this will be one of those books I remember for a long time and re read often, not to mention that I have already been recommending it to people left and right.

I love books written during the 50s and 60s about that time period, and this book was no exception. If only I had a time machine...

Name that book

Yesterday I got a part of a quote stuck in my head, and just found the rest of it. Then I looked through my now mostly defunct livejournal and found some other quotes from books I have read over the years. Made me want to re read a bunch of books. See if you can guess what books these quotes are from!


-"Everything today has been heavy and brown. Bring me a Unicorn to ride about the town." (Bring me a Unicorn, Anne Morrow Lindbergh)

-"I was having a wonderful time and the whole world opened up before me because I had no dreams." (On the Road, Jack Kerouac)

-"Never drink diet soda. It shows you have no nerve. Only drink real colas, caffeine-packed energy drinks, or vitamin water. Hate champagne, because that's what everyone expects you to love. Energy drinks are the best party drinks. You never get tired. You never have a hangover. And you can make fun of all the loaded people who think they're clever but are really acting stupid." (Paris Hilton, I forget the title)

-"We accept the love we think we deserve." (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chobsky)

-“Everything everybody does is so—I don't know—not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless and—sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you're conforming just as much as everybody else, only in a different way.” (Franny and Zooey, J.D. Salinger)

-"Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart." (Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami)

-"There are those whose own vulgar normality is so apparent and stultifying that they strive to escape it. They affect flamboyant behavior and claim originality according to the fashionable eccentricities of their time. They claim brains or talent or indifference to mores in desperate attempts to deny their own mediocrity. These are frequently artists and performers, adventurers and wide-life devotees. Then there are those who feel their own strangeness and are terrified by it. They struggle toward normalcy. They suffer to exactly that degree that they are unable to appear normal to others, or to convince themselves that their aberration does not exist. These are true freaks, who appear, almost always, conventional and dull." (Geek Love, Katherine Dunn)

-"Nobody believes the identites we've made for ourselves. I feel like everybody in the world is fake now - as though people had true cores once, but hucked them away and replaced them with something more attractive but also hollow." (Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland)

-"I thought how strange it had never occurred to me before that I was only purely happy until I was nine years old." (The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath)

-"Hysteria is impossible without an audience. Panicking by yourself is the same as laughing alone in an empty room. You feel really silly." (Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk)


I wish I had documented more quotes that I have liked from books. Need to start doing that.

♥

I woke up today feeling extremely positive and happy and just loving life. Walking around town today was perfectly peaceful and calm. The sky seems extra blue, the sun seems extra bright, and the clouds seem extra dreamy. Flowers are starting to sprout up and every unexpected daffodil I see makes me smile. I am going to miss LOST tonight because I am going to be spending time with my friends laughing and having a grand time and I just honestly couldn't wish for anything better right now. Spring is definitely here and I love it.
♥ ♥ ♥

New House

Soooo this past weekend Jessie and I moved into Vanessa and Holly's house in NE Portland!



The move went extremely smoothly and we are settling in nicely. It is a little odd living in a house that I have hung out at often for the past year. odd but not bad. just still getting used to calling this place home. You can see more pictures of the place here.


on a completely unrelated note, I just finished reading a book called Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro.



I had been wanting to read it for awhile, so when I came across it in V's stack of books I snatched it up. I didn't really know what to expect, but it was an easy read. I liked but didn't love it. I like the way the author didn't really reveal what was going on right up front, but sort of snuck little clues in as the story went along. The ending made me cry just a tad and the main point of the book was pretty interesting. I am glad I finally read this book, but it just didn't blow me away.


Well that's all the new and exciting news I have! Happy happy happy!
<3

Book VS Movie, Revolutionary Road

I was super anxious to see Revolutionary Road, the movie, but decided to read the book first. I sped through it and loved every page. I found it hard to put down and it even made me cry. I saw the movie yesterday. I think it was a pretty good translation from book to film, but having read the book I just felt like I knew way more about the characters than was presented in the movie. Their thoughts and feelings and what they wanted to say but didn't. I think the common belief is that interior monologue in movies cheapens it somehow, but I think it can add a lot sometimes. I mean how were we to know that Shep loved April until he told her so, when in the book that fact is made clear quite early on. I could nit pick this to death, but I won't. Overall I really liked the movie. The dialogue was pretty much straight out of the book and that is what I was hoping would remain unchanged. Also, who doesn't love Kate Winslet? And her really cute outfits! Definitely go see the movie but you should probably also read the book first.

New Project

Someone really awesome told me that I should try to recreate my vector drawings with felt. I tried it, and it was really fun, and it turned out pretty great.


From this:


To this:



Now a couple of questions. Where can I buy Shadow box frames for cheap? and would you buy something like this from Etsy?

V Day

Happy Valentine's Day just a tad early! ♥ ♥ ♥

P.S.Lots more vintage Valentines here.

Springy

20090209_flowers_006
Originally uploaded by Meeshatron!

These pretty little flowers have started sprouting up outside my back door. I know they are just a tease of spring, as the next couple months will probably be really rainy, but these little guys sure do make me smile.

I can read!

I am going to start keeping track of the books I read this year. I always try to do this but end up only reading like 3 books the entire year. I have been doing a bit better but I am sure as summer arrives, I will probably read less and less or maybe I will just go outside and read. In any case, here are the books I have read in 2009 so far.

-Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I had read two of Margaret Atwoods books before this, one I loved (Handmaids Tale) and one that I didn't really care about much at all (Robber Bride), so I was never really itching to read more of her books, nervous about getting into a long book that I wasn't that into. A couple of my friends had mentiond this book to me more than once so when I saw the hardcover on sale for $8 I bought it and started reading it immediately. I really loved how I wasn't quite sure what caused this crazy futuristic world or where the story was going until almost the end. Usually this might annoy me, but everything in this story was interesting and I just wanted to keep reading it. I wasn't totally happy with the ending, but mainly I just wanted it to keep going on. I wanted to know what was going to happen to Snowman next and what became of the Crakers and the ending seemed a little abrupt to me. In any case, I really loved this book.

-Fugitives and Refugees by Chuck Pahlaniuk. I had been wanting to read this book for a long time, but never got around to buying it. When I found it on the bookshelf at Matthew's house I borrowed it, Jessie read it, then finally I read the book in a few days. I already love Portland, but this book just made me love it even more. There were a lot of things in there I did not know about Portland and lots of quirky landmarks etc that I want to check out. Definitely would recommend this book to any Portlanders or anyone else for that matter.

-I am about halfway through Long Way Down by Nick Hornby, and sadly I am just not that into it. I put it down to read Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates before I see the movie, and only 90 pages in I love it way more than Long Way Down. I am sure I will go back to it, but not till I finish Revolutionary Road.

What are you reading? Any recommendations?

Honestly.

Honestly, I am so fucking happy right now that I could scream from the rooftops. I fucking love my friends, Matthew is pretty much the best ever, Portland is amazing and I really am genuinely so happy that the only things I have to complain about are that it is a little bit cold outside and my kitchen floor is dirty. Honestly! SO fucking happy. Life is great.

xox M

Last birthday post, I swear

So what did I do on my actual birthday you ask? Well my original plans didn't quite work out because it was snowing like crazy when I got out of bed. So. Jessie did my makeup and her own and we had a photoshoot!

My look was inspired by the artwork of Sylvia Ji.


Jessie's look was inspired by the artwork of Jessica M.


This was loads of fun, even though it took like 3 hours to get all that makeup and hair put together and Jessie's eye was burning under that bloody mess!


On a much sillier but just as awesome and fun note, later in the evening this sweet boy I know took me out to an amazing dinner where I ate Snapper in Coconut lime sauce with peppers, black beans, rice, and plantains! Oh and did I mention the super fun gifts he gave me such as this? I am totally going to hamburgle some fools today.


♥

old lady

Well, today I am 28 years old. The celebrations over the weekend were fantastic and perfect and so fun. One of the best birthdays ever for sure.

Beach house was incredible. I could barely see anything because of tall dudes standing in front of me (story of my life) but it sounded amazing. Having listened to those songs zillions of times, hearing them so loud and live just made me so so so happy. They played a couple of songs I didn't know, so I am hoping for a new album sooooon. I didn't take any pictures cuz I get too frustrated at shows when the pictures turn out like crap. And I couldn't really see anything anyways!

After the show, we went to a bar around the corner to meet up with Mikey and SURPRISE! Meredith came afterall! those tricksters tried to fool me into believing that Meredith couldn't come.


Saturday morning my lovely friends woke me up with flowers, two kinds of jam from my favorite breakfast place (Jam on Hawthorne) a really pretty coffee mug, and wouldn't let me help them cook a gigantic breakfast. The rest of us played lots of Skip Bo and drank coffee and mimosas until the feast was served. So delicious!


After resting up the rest of the afternoon, we went to V's house for snacks/cake/predrinks.


Then! We went to the Alibi for some sweet karaoke jams. So many people turned out to wish me a happy birthday and I had a great time. Thanks to all of you! I have the best friends ever.

P.S. More pictures Here and Here.

♥ ♥ ♥

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

My birthday is next Tuesday, January 27th. I will be 28 years old. But, today marks the beginning of my birthday celebrations! I have been planning and looking forward to this weekend for months, because I am just kind of crazy like that I guess. My birthday and Halloween have always been my favorite holidays.

This weekend is going to consist of:

Seeing Beach House!!
Friends gathering from near and far to sing Karaoke at one of my favorite bars!
Drinks and drinks galore!
Homemade Birthday cake made with love!
A homemade breakfast feast and my favorite coffee!
Going to a fancy cocktail party!
Seeing Department of Eagles!!
Kisses, hugs and lots of smiles!

Birthdays are the best. I'll post some pictures after the weekend is over.

Giants!

I am totally in love with this entire collection of giants from Pietari Posti.

This is my new mascot.


She's a Giant! Literally! A really adorable one at that!

artsy

Since I am not working, I am trying to be productive as much as I can. Meaning I am trying to get back into making vector art in between applying for jobs. I really do enjoy it when I am doing it for fun or for friends. I am toying with the idea of selling prints on Etsy, but that would mean getting them printed and framed etc, and well it wouldn't be that difficult, I just don't know if I want to do it. Not sure how big a demand there is for these things.

Here are some recent ones I have done in the past couple weeks.






I really love all three of these. Look for more and more and more soon over at Shesagiant.com and a super secret project I am going to start working on soon!

creepy orange fluffball etc

A recent addiction : Making soup.
Last week I got it in my head to make something with Chorizo and kale. It turned out great, though not exactly how I envisioned it. The concensus is that this was my best soup yet. I cannot argue. Each soup I make is better than the previous one!



What the heck is this orange fluff ball supposed to represent in this weight watchers commercial? It just kind of gave me the creeps. I am afraid I might have nightmares of this little thing following me around, counting my calories for me.



Something I don't think I will ever tire of is Photobooth pics. One of the many things that I love about Portland is that a bunch of bars around town have these fabulous machines that silly girls can cramp into and take ridiculous photos. This past friday, some girls and I took these at Holocene.

my full Photobooth pics collection can be found here!

Here is a list of things I would like to buy when I am not feeling so short on cash:
-A guitar or maybe a Ukelele.
-A large assortment of Felt of random colors for a project that is as yet undisclosed.
-A good haircut.
-Workish Clothes : pants/shirts/cardigans/etc.


My birthday is in 16 (well actually 15, since it is after midnight) days. An incomplete list of things I want is here! I am sure to be adding new things left and right now that they have that handy little button that lets you add things from any website.


Ok well I think thats about all the random crap I can fit in this little entry.

Over and out!

Hello Blogger

Well I decided maybe I should start using this thing. Not a whole lot to blog about right now, but just wanted to say hello. Wish me good job hunting vibes!