I'm terrible about posting there too, but it's better than my blogging record. Pictures of shiny things abound. 

@elsewherepdx

I am not a blogger.

I love bloggers. They make everything look picturesque while still being funny as hell. 

I'm a bit shit at it.

I am trying to put more things out into the world rather than just making stuff in my hermit glitter den and then NEVER SHOWING IT TO ANYONE.

But I suspect no one is reading this, so it becomes a conversation with myself, and boy does THAT get old fast. 

This is all to say that I have not disappeared, I'm just... a terrible blogger. 

Here's the beginnings. I'm using the pre-existing drawers to form two side supports and am hack-rigging that middle shelf in to create support for the middle. That's a thing Andreas made for Ziggy last year that has been just kicking around, and those fat boards were things we'd used to level the bus for the final show. How lucky that they happened to be the right length! Also, let's hope I'm cool with the bus being not-level....

I should have taken more in-progress shots, but I got wrapped up in the whirlwind of "shit now what?" 

I quickly realized the sliding frame method wouldn't work-- between the width of the original bench and the fact that I had all 1x4's, the slide-out width difference was miniscule. So I improvised some madness. Now it hinges open. So here it is mid-work. The front edge is hinged and every other slat is attached to that back rail. Since this picture, I attached 2 legs on each end that stick up (I pretend they're decorative) and 2 more on that back rail that hinge. This does, of course, create an uneven surface for sitting, but it's going under thick foam so I think I can get away with it.

Here it is folded out. I realized after the fact (oops) that of course now one set of slats is lower than the other. I was going to sand down the sharp edges of the slats the middle, but my foam is so dense I think I can skip it. 

Progress of the past... 3 days? The house walls dried sufficiently and I primed the inside sides... that took a good 2 days. The house is so small to sit in and yet seems to possess INFINITE surface area. I have definitely hit that "oh god what have I done" point.

​I also built shutters for the bay windows and a panel to fit in the large arched window to block it out. It's removable, as I don't want to lose air possibilities from that window entirely, but there needs to be ONE wall without any funny business. ​Or less, anyway. Built a hinged panel for the front window too. Admittedly not the most elegant solution, but adds to the "fort" aesthetic. I'm realizing how much lighting this is going to need during the day now that I've closed all the windows, but as soon as they are open it kind of breaks the spell of the inside paint concept...

Put the house marginally back together, which is going to make painting the inside much less comfortable, but I don't think I can do it holistically without all the edges together. Now there's a tiny house in my basement. It looks rather fantastic. 

Spackled a few of the more obnoxious screw and nail holes... now it's a big white expanse of scary... taking a moment to appreciate the work done before panicking about how much is left and going back to the "WHYYYYYY" mindset :P

Today's progress: Frustrating. Discovered I had bought the WRONG sort of sander at Home Despot and had to go back, which is sort of like having to go back to Mount Doom. Started sanding some of the walls to prep for primer and paint, which mostly made me realize that this wood is not going to dry for a while... DAMN this 100% humidity! Also some of it is a little rotten or mildew-y and currently smells kind of like a fish tank. Grosssssssss. So... Sprayed a few bits with bleach water and left it to stew in its own evil. I'm annoyed and impatient, as I am feeling antsy to get this project going. There's so much to do and so many problems that I won't know are there until I step in them, so I'm eager to get this show on the road. And I don't like waiting for things to dry. No sir.

On another note, I've decided that the words "obsessed" and "hack" need to be removed from the general lexicon. You are not "hacking" your living room when you put teal blue chalk paint on a credenza. You are not "obsessed" with nail art, ombre hair, vegan doughnuts and vaporwave. Just... stop it. 

Now I'm going to sit on my porch and yell at young folks for a while.

Today's progress: A few weeks ago Sam and I managed to get the house that will be the STAR HOUSE taken apart. Happily, it comes apart relatively easily. I took a few pictures of the inside to try to remind myself what it feel like to be inside when it's all together.

​Today I worked on getting it cleaned up... the inside looks pretty nice here, but the whole things covered in filth/mildew/moss, not to mention the MANY spider eggsacs in the eaves (ew.)

Gross...

Post-wash they are looking much nicer. The paint started flaking off, which I expected, but the red color also started coming off, which I didn't. I guess it's a stain? I guess that can scrub off? I have no idea, but hopefully a little sanding and priming will make these into useable surfaces.

​Some after pictures.

My basement looks even more insane than usual. It refuses to stop raining so I stacked all the pieces inside to dry. Despite being much cleaner, it still kind of smells like a swamp in here right now. 

The internet age is so strange...fascinating and insidious all at once. It IS the world for me in so many ways now. I take it for granted-- online is just part of the day. Thinking back to high school, back when I was abstractly planning plotting and dreaming my epic and creative future... I didn't have this thing... I had a phone that plugged in to the wall and had a long curly cord. It lit up with blue fluorescent lights when it rang. Oh the internet EXISTED, but it didn't touch me. It seemed like alien and foreign nonsense. I refused to have an email address--it offended me. I was also sure my future contained artistic glory of some sort... I was sure that all i had to do was get better... be talented, make meaningful work and that the rest would just make sense... I'd be in Vanity Fair in some bit piece about the young and scrappy artists of New York today, wearing beat up engineer boots and faded, black, paint-covered jeans...magically I would have become some waifish Patti Smith lookalike, of course. 

...not that I can blame the internet for things being as they are or are not... and i wonder how we would have had to "sell and market" ourselves if the internet had never happened? I simply find it so strange and sometimes off-putting to feel the need to create "content," to cultivate a "persona" and to put it out there as some necessary aspect of being an independent artist type... isn't it a little strange? 

Well, I'be never been very good at it. I am flakey with all those disciplinary things... regular exercise, yoga, bookkeeping, blogging... all the healthy habits that I feel like I am supposed to have mastered and hold in perfect balance like some tattooed Shiva... yeah I'm not so good at that.

What I AM good at is making stuff... like a lot of stuff... usually with lots of colors in it. And honestly, I like that. I like all these weird, mismatched creations. I Like being surrounded by colors. I have no desire to create a pert little lifestyle blog full of perfect sunny days and well-behaved, charming children... but I do want to celebrate the small things that make me stupid happy. Like this rainbow cake I made. I don't really have the chops or patience to take lots of lovely pictures and make a charming tutorial-- I'm fucking lazy on that front, okay?-- but I do feel like i've done something MAGICAL just to look at the thing. So here's to magic...

Beginnings of @kritzrackerz fancy ass unicorn for her show at the @appliedcraftanddesign studios!

Dan's hybrid unileopargoat is done... Less than a week until the show at the @appliedcraftanddesign studios!

Getting started on Dan's mountain goat/snow leopard hybrid unicorn