« April 2006 | Main | June 2006 »

May 30, 2006

Meat and Fire equals good times

You know I love BBQs and since we always lived in an apartment, we were never able to have our own BBQ and I was always sniffing around for BBQ invitations. Well, Elke and Oliver were nice enough to invite us to their Memorial Day weekend BBQ at their place in LES. They don't have a backyard but a nice large patio area.

Love this silhouette

fire! fire!

Coronas tasted good!

delicious pasta salad

aftermath

pretty flowers

Posted by luluvision at 05:38 PM | Comments (0)

May 28, 2006

New addiction

I've been wanting to try Silver Art Clay for the longest time. I don't work with polymer clay because I am just too lazy to do all that work even though the results are really pretty cool. But I was willing to try silver art clay because I love silver and it didn't seem as time consuming. I finally found a class for it at a Park Slope art store, The Artful Place. Fuji also holds mosaic and beading classes and her brother teaches drawing and other fine art classes. Here is my first ever silver piece:

I added the green glass bead later on. I just love it! I'm sure Fuji probably thought I was a pyro because every time it was time to use the butane torch, I'd get excited. It was just that Yves was so adamant that I do not work with fire in the house. Here are the earrings I made:

First I made the bottom squares and I wasn't happy with them because they were so small and kind boring. So I thought of making a longer piece to go on top. I think it worked out well! I was so excited when I got home and starting looking for supplies on the internet. I think I was able to talk Yves into letting me work with fire. As long as there is a fire extinguisher close by.

Posted by luluvision at 10:51 AM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2006

2 Days in the Desert again mix

Last night's mixer was at Lucky Jack's. It's a cute bar on the LES with 2 entrances and a pool table. This month's mix is a 2 CD set of all the bands I saw at Coachella. The inside cover is a montage of all the photos I took.

Posted by luluvision at 11:56 AM | Comments (1)

May 23, 2006

Micro crazy

For the past week, I've been really getting into making microscope slide jewelry/hanging pendants/decorations. I made my very first one for Bobbie in IN because she was the one that sent me some to use. The edges were quite rough and I had redone it once. I didn't have time to do it over a second time because I wanted to send it to her for her birthday. I told her not to wear it around her neck unless she wants a bloody neck. LOL.

Griffin and Lainie

I got way better on the ones I've made after that! This one I made for my sister in law.

Maia and Elianna

Then I made these because I like the images.

I was having trouble with getting the jump rings on cuz they are so small and it's tricky. Then I saw a That's Clever segment of a woman that makes these too. She uses a clamp to hold her pieces upright. Wow! Lightbulb! I went out and bought these clamps at the 99 cent store. I haven't tried it yet but I imagine it will make things so much easier!

I stuck the clamp in a coin counter to keep it upright.

Posted by luluvision at 04:49 PM | Comments (1)

May 22, 2006

Camera heaven!

Jackie, whom I know from the toycamera website, was getting rid of some old cameras. I bought this shitload of cameras from her for a very good price and picked them up from her yesterday. She's in Brooklyn, too. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with most of them.

Posted by luluvision at 04:08 PM | Comments (2)

May 17, 2006

I love KEXP

Wow, I'm actually posting something that happened today! I woke up extra early to go to Gigantic Studios in Tribeca because KEXP is in town this week and me and Pete signed up to see French Kicks and Ambulance, LTD. I would have signed up for We Are Scientists if I knew they were playing but I got to see them anyway! We met at 8:30 at Bubby's for breakfast and headed over after. Fk had some technical difficulties so they didn't start until 10:30. Each band played for half an hour, way too short, in my opinion! After their set, we walked around for a bit and stopped into this flea market type place and discovered this gem:

It was overpriced at $100 or else it would have gone home with Pete. We went back into the studios and Ambulance, LTD played on time. They were actually done in 20 minutes! Darn it! The wonderful KEXP lady said I could come back to see We Are Scientists! Yay! After grabbing some bubble tea with Pete, he went off to meet a relative at MOMA and I went to meet Tammy for some soup dumplings (which, btw, was not up to par today).

I went back to see WAS and they started on time too. From the promo pictures I've seen of them, I knew they were going to be cut-ups, they were funny and entertaining and really awesome! Definitely my favorite of the day. The light was hitting Chris, the bass player, perfectly and was the only picture of any bands I took today. They played a full 30 minutes and I was happy all the way home. Why, oh why doesn't New York have a station like KEXP???

Posted by luluvision at 08:55 PM | Comments (1)

May 16, 2006

Greenpoint

Yves and I went shooting in Greenpoint in mid-April, a couple of weeks before the 'suspicious' fire there.

Posted by luluvision at 09:28 AM | Comments (0)

May 15, 2006

Happy Mother's Day

I made these cards for mother's day.

for mom in law.

for mom.

for grandma.

We went into Queens yesterday for family dinner. That same restaurant on 38th Avenue. The food was ok, they were extra slow with coming out with the food because it was so busy. The portions seemed smaller too. On the way back home we got stuck on the Van Wyck, a car had caught on fire. It must have just happened as we got on. We had to go on the Jackie Robinson Pkwy. We got off Woodhaven and went home from there.

Posted by luluvision at 09:41 AM | Comments (1)

May 12, 2006

Puppy cut and Piddleloop

Yesterday I took Skippy to get his hair cut. With summer coming and having a warm spring so far, we decided to get a puppy cut for him. Basically it means cutting all his hair off. He looks so cute, he reminds me of a chihuahua. His hair is so short you can see his little pee pee! LOL!

And today in my mailbox, I received my order from piddleloop! After resisting her super cute pouches and buttons, I finally relented. I did work 2 days this month, so far!

I bought 3 pouches from her. The orange one with felt monkey is mine, of course! And the other 2 are for presents so I'm not going to show that as a close up. I also ordered 2 bunny buttons from Jen. One with a moustache and one without. And she gave me extra goodies! Yay! I love extra goodies and I think any good company should do that! I got a nifty tissue pouch with a cat lounging fabric (much like my cat!) A neat fabric flower pin with some of my favorite colors, orange and lime green! and extra buttons from the moustache factory. And super cool monkey notecards. Yay!! Thanks Jen! And shipping was super fast too!

Posted by luluvision at 04:39 PM | Comments (2)

May 11, 2006

Bodies

Yesterday, Tammy and I went to see the Bodies Exhibit. I totally went into this blind, I mean, obviously I knew it was about bodies but I didn't know it was real bodies! Yves couldn't understand why I wanted to see it, he thought I would probably find it gross and I did. I just didn't know it was real bodies. So the beginning of the exhibit was pretty interesting, seeing whole insides of bodies and complete forms of blood vessels and veins floating in liquid. When they started showing the bodies entact but cut up and sliced up, gross!! I didn't even find the diseased baby room that bad. By the time we were done with the exhibit, we kinda had a queasy feeling in our stomach and promptly went home. Later, Tammy discovered that there was this big controversy about the exhibit. Apparently, they are not sure if the bodies were used with permission! And I know me and Tammy were joking during the exhibit that the bodies looked Chinese. They were! And also, they think these bodies came from that Fa Gong (?) camp, you see those people wearing yellow demonstrating all over the city, protesting that China are torturing people for practicing Fa Gong. I told Yves this and of course he had heard about it a while ago. He said they are investigating the guy that brought it over. Huh! And I gave money to see this!! And kinda steep too!

Posted by luluvision at 09:12 AM | Comments (1)

May 09, 2006

Orange and Yellow swap

I participated in the May colorific swap on flickr. The theme is orange and yellow so how can I not join? I made these things for the swap, my favorite being the domino pin. I got the dominos on sale for 25 cents for a pack of 7 or 9 with stretchy cord to make a bracelet at AC Moore. What a bargain, I should have bought out the whole stock!

THe reason I made it 3 tiered was because they already had holes in them so why waste the holes by just making one?

I painted this wooden box (and made the pebble magnets inside) and glued on the flower on the lid. I love these flowers and used them on the mother's day cards I made over the weekend, which I'll post next week.

My least favorite item, I traced over this fish with the fake leading and the orange is acrylic paint since the 'stained glass' paint didn't have orange and I didn't have enough red to mix with the yellow. I initially was very unhappy with it and was going to cover it with an orange bandana but then thought it had a certain charm to it.

Posted by luluvision at 10:56 PM | Comments (0)

May 07, 2006

Where the Streets Have No Name

We ended our trip by going to Joshua Tree National Park on Monday. After Tammy and Mark dropped us off at the Palm Springs airport so we can rent our own car for the day, we drove up to Joshua Tree. It was further than we thought. I guess it took about 1.5 hours. Joshua Tree is really cool! It wasn't as breathtaking as Grand Canyon or Red Rocks but it certainly has it's charm. Here are some pics.

Posted by luluvision at 10:48 AM | Comments (1)

May 04, 2006

Coachella part 2

Day 2, Sunday, April 30, 2006
We made it in time to catch the last song of the Magic Numbers so I can't really tell you if I liked them or not.

The Magic Numbers from the UK

Phoenix are from France. I heard a rumor that Thomas Mars impregnated Sofia Coppola.

Metric formed in Brooklyn. I saw this band years and years ago, they opened for somebody I can't remember. I liked them enough to buy one of their label-less cds. I'm glad they are doing well.

Matsiyahu-Brooklyn by way of PA. He was a lot of fun, as I expected.

Jamie Lidell from the UK. Although I just saw him last week, I liked him enough to stay for his whole set, which unfortunately was cut 15 minutes short for reasons unknown since he was playing when I arrived. But he did not disappoint!

Wolf Parade from Montreal. I really enjoyed them.

Sleater-Kinney from Washington State. I'm not a big Sleater-Kinney fan so only stayed for a song or 2.

This guy climbed up this metal sculpture. Not sure how high it was.

Gnarls Barkley are Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse. I really wanted to stay for more than one song but it was mad crowded and I wanted to see Stellastarr really, really badly. That Cee-Lo is a crazy dude!

New York based Stellastarr. I stayed for their whole set, it was easy to get up front, probably because everyone was over at Gnarls Barkley. I was really happy that they played my favorite, favorite song ever, Love and Longing. I took video of the song but I was standing right in front of the speaker so it came out distorted. Oh well. I definitely have to see their show next time they play.

YeahYeahYeahs are from New York! They were pretty cool, stayed for a few songs.

Seu Jorge. I couldn't get a really good shot of Seu Jorge. I only stayed for a song or 2.

Editors are from the UK. They had a really good set and stayed for more than a couple of songs. I wanted to get over to Madonna.

It was crazy over by the dance tent, people were climbing on top of the portopotties. It was after 8:30 before she came on when she was supposed to start at 8:10. This was as close to her as I got, a tiny glimpse of her on the big screen. I left after her first song, Hung Up.

The Go! Team are from England. They were FUN!! I was really feeling weak by this point with getting sick and being in the sun and using up my energy for Jamie Lidell and Stellastarr or else I would have been dancing up a storm like everyone else around me.

Art Brut from the UK I love Art Brut! They were great! Fun and campy and just a riot. And the last band.

It was a madhouse getting out into the parking lot. They closed one of the exits we used Saturday night so it was a big bottleneck to exit at the main entrance. We all got separated so I waited by the campgrounds for Tammy and Mark, who was waiting for Joy who didn't even get out into the parking area yet. Plus, they took away the parking lot balloons so we couldn't find the car right away. I was just feeling really miserable and weak by that point. We didn't stop at In and Out this time, stopped by a 7Eleven but didn't see anything I wanted so we went back to the condo and went to bed.

Posted by luluvision at 12:19 PM | Comments (2)

May 03, 2006

Coachella part 1

Coachella kicked my ass this year, I'm sick! I was reminded that I got sick last year too but I was able to nip it in the butt by the end of the trip. Not so this year. Right now I could breath but my throat is sore. Anyhow, I'm posting up pics in the order I saw the bands. I was really running around this year (more so on Sunday) so it's no wonder I got sick under the desert sun. Here we go...

day one, Saturday, April 29, 2006
Unfortunately, we missed Lady Sovereign so CYHSY were the first band we caught at 5 pm.

Brooklyn/Philly's own

San Francisco's Deerhoof

Kentucky's My Morning Jacket

a bunch of dorky fans catching MMJ

Brooklyn's TV on the Radio

UK's Imogen Heap, also in Frou Frou. My favorite picture so far because of the palm trees and mountains in the background.

Crazy folky Devendra Banhart. How can you not love a guy that's drinking Verve Cliquot during his set?

Scotland's Franz Ferdinand. They are always fun! Since the sun went down, I started dancing.

California's own Eagles of Death Metal. I wasn't sure what to expect with them but I actually liked them and plan on buying their album. They were fun too. Or maybe I was just in a fun mood after Franz.

Depeche Mode What can I say? I love these guys and they did not disappoint. I think they only played a couple of new songs, which is good because their old songs really pumped the crowd. I was singing and clapping and dancing throughout their whole set.

Last year we made it a tradition to stop by In N Out after the show. this time we went inside and ate to properly compare the In N Out burger with the Fatburger we had last weekend. No comparison, Fatburger all the way! It wasn't crowded at all like last year either.

There will be more tomorrow with day 2 and then Joshua Tree!

Some notes about our trip while I remember.

We scored an upgrade on our car again this year, probably because it was so late. We got a Jeep Commander, it was pretty sweet but not as comfortable in the back when there are 3 people.

The stupid rental agency didn't give us directions from their office to their condo and at 2 am in the morning, it was pretty annoying. We managed to find the place, surprisingly! The condo was cute, a bit bigger than last year's condo with 2 bathrooms. Tammy and Mark's room had an Egyptian theme, our bathroom was nautical and the whole condo was sort of 70's.

Mark's friend Rob got totally lost on Saturday trying to meet us at Ricks for breakfast. He's a New Yorker that just moved to Los Angeles.

The coffee at Ricks was not as strong as I remember and the Cuban coffee is too sweet.

I liked the nifty little trays at In and Out burger and asked the cleaning guy if we were allowed to take one home. Of course he told me no but when we were outside waiting for Tammy in the bathroom, the guy came out and asked if I really wanted one and when I said yes, he gave me one! He said not to tell anyone or else he'd get in trouble so shhhh!

Posted by luluvision at 11:58 AM | Comments (1)