Say it, don't spray it!

Hawk Vs. Hummingbird. Rattlesnake for Lunch

Wow. I don't understand how my dad even finds shots like this. What is the deal?? Bird Whisperer.

The Modofly Moleskine Revolution. You're Not Cool if You Don't Own One. Period.

The cat's outta the bag, folks. The big secret I've been hinting at for ever so long is finally here, on this fine day in May. Do you remember my story about the UNICORN? In which I purchased for my hubby a certain Unicorn-inspired birthday gift as a mean and nasty trick, even though YES, this IS the coolest unicorn you have ever seen? Oh, I never showed it to you, did I? Well read on, and you'll get to see the Unicorn which has possibly won the hubby over to at least accepting that there is the slim possibility of a wee shred of awesomeness to be found in the wonderful world of Magical Creatures...

Here's why: Two most magical creatures (who happen to head up MODOFLY) have gone and done something crazy cool. And if you are an artist, you might be able benefit from the magic that is MODOFLY, like my hubby will do. Behold this weeks' giveaway: two new Modofly Moleskines featuring my hubby's artwork. Two books, two winners. One heap of total coolness.

 

CLINT & THE HAIRCUT are now gracing the covers of two of MODOFLY's new collection of artist collaborated Moleskins in a super badass way. And they can be yours. A place for you to scribble a masterpiece or pen a bestseller. You know what to do! READ THE RULES! Write a HAIKU about the interview!

The Magic of MODOFLY - Meet the Masterminds Behind the Coolest Artist Collaboration EVER: 

Tell us the story behind the name MODOFLY.
Well to be honest…like naming your child or your boat, it wasn't easy to think of a word that felt like it fit. We took a deep look at what we were doing (burning books with, in many cases, hacked images) and
realized that in a way we were modifying two things to make one really cool thing—one really super fly thing!  And before we knew it, we had morphed it into MODOFLY. There it was. And we liked it. And it felt good.

Who is behind MODOFLY? How did it start?
Jordan and Kevin are the founders. We have had several people egging us on and giving us encouragement, but currently it is just us two. This will probably change as there is growing interest.

It started more as a fun idea, just to see if there was enough market interest to sustain working with other artists on this particular medium.

About Jordan:
Working hard to have dabbled in as much as possible in this short life, Jordan has attempted to master always taking on new experiences.With a sincere interest in learning, and a mind that tangents
exponentially, Jordan has managed to study and practice architecture and design, work with wood and metal, start several businesses, and has talked to more people than names he can remember. He is deeply interested in free culture, open source anything, collaboration of all types, idea generators, and just about any kind of computer numerically controlled device. He longs to own many.

 

About Kevin:
Having spent the last 10 years moving from place to place in a quest never to get bored, Kevin has honed his skills as a design ninja. Earning his black belt in architecture, illustration, and graphic
design, he currently resides in Charlottesville, Va with his dog Phoebe, who has faithfully traveled in many of his quests.  Kevin's uncanny (borderline neurotic) ability to focus on every last bit of minutia, slowly refining it until it has been aged to perfection, is the Yin to Jordan's tangential Yang. Check out some of Kevin's illustration and architecture at: www.kevinmatthewscott.com

How long have you been creating your fantastical Better than Plain & Boring Moleskines? Give the world a little background.
We've been burning these for a couple years now, and since more and more people kept asking us to make them one, it just seemed perfect to see if there was really a market. We had also stuck just about
everything else in a laser cutter and were bored with blank books. Before we knew it, we had created real envy material.  It's addictive, you know.  Once you have one etched moleskine, you'll never settle for
a plain one again.  Why do you think we've got over 70 different designs now, plus we've made countless custom books!

How do the Moleskine people feel about you?
We wait by our phone every day and check our email every 3 minutes hoping the president of the company will call us and tell us that they think we are cool. We would hope they would shower us with even more discounts since we are on the road to pushing some serious product for
them...hint hint...Moleksine company...are you reading this?

We HAVE been posted on the Moleskinerie (http://www.moleskinerie.com) site which as of January is owned by Moleskine—so really we have no choice but to assume they like what we are doing.

What inspires you?
We would have to say everything inspires us. Seriously.  One of us has an extreme rabbit chasing mind and the other can take anything and turn it into an object of beauty and desire. Inspiration is not the
problem for us. Time is.

Do you have a personal design philosophy?
We sure do.  We have two, in fact.  And while more similar than different, it's still enough for us to squabble on a regular basis. What brings us together, however, and what permeates both of our work
is a strong sense of moral obligation to do good for man and planet. I think it's safe to say that we both fall into the tree-hugger category.

Where is your work sold? Where can people find you?
Our website and Etsy

What's your bestseller?
Hands down, The Unicorn.  It was inspired by Mark Frauenfelder's (http://www.boingboing.net/) unicorn chaser which he always posts after putting up something you want to clear your mind palette of.  We also thought it would be an awesome book to march into a corporate business meeting with while wearing a suit. You pull that off without smiling, and we will be extremely happy. In fact, send us a picture!
The Train may in the long run be a much bigger seller as it has the stamina sales.

How are you so cool that you have a laser?? Tell us about your laser if it's not some sort of secret.
Well, we started off using sharks with laser beams on their heads, but the feeding really took our overhead to a new high. We also had some mildew and mold problems so we re-worked our business plan, and are currently using a Universal Laser System.  There were a few other options that would have cut our payback period (and stress) by about 50% but we really wanted to support the local economy so we went with the ULS.  It's a sweet, sweet machine.

Describe your biggest artistic disaster to date.
Wow. Finding out that if you burn too close to the spine, it breaks. Or worse, if you aren't careful about the density, the books wants to flake off. It's been a learning experience. We expect to run into more
of these because we are not going to stop experimenting.  You should see the heaping pile of snafus we're saving to photograph.

What's your favorite piece that you've ever done (and is it still for sale)?
Hmmm. Hard to say.We LOVE the fly. Its one you have to see for yourself. It REALLY is amazing. Lets see. We adore the train, but these are only ones from our last series. There are a ton of super new
cool ones from artists that blow away anything we have ever seen. We are not going to play favorites here, but seriously. Go look. WOW.

What's one bit of advice you wish someone had told you when you started?
"Your going to be slammed with orders. Order more books now, because they will not come to you as fast as you need them. Back-ordering is a reality. Deal with it."

What's the best advice you can give someone starting out?
Ask us that in about a year. It will be different then now. Find something you think is cool and then make sure 30 other people say it's SUPER cool before you try and sell it. Everyone's baby is amazing, so you need to ask others to find out if it REALLY is amazing. Never stop experimenting. Don't be afraid to totally fail in an experiment. You learn more in those than nailing it the first time.

Looking ahead a bit, what's upcoming for you?
Currently, MODOFLY isn't just two guys anymore, but an artist collaborative. We're beginning to work with clients and artists from all over the world and it's truly invigorating.  We can't wait to continue developing more moleskines as well as bring the world our next big secret weapon. We're trying not to grow too fast though—for right now, we're just ecstatic to be able to get others' work out with
ours to gain some attention. We currently have a multitude of amazing artists lined up (Chelsea's husband Nate for one. Yay!), and are excited to see what happens.

What else do you want the world to know that I didn't think to ask?
Kevin is older and taller than Jordan (by six weeks and three inches), and they both have the letter M as a middle initial.

In your quest to work with other artists, what types of illustrations are you looking for? I notice that your current collection has a very vintage vibe. Will you be heading in crazy directions as you add new art to your pieces? How do you feel about that?
We will try and go where we need to. We love old illustrations. We really do, but the beauty of having artists is that the feel will not be a constant one. In design, like architecture, when there is a competition, you are all given the same requirements, but the end product from all the teams never look the same. That is what we want. We believe in evolution and adaptation in processes, and we need
outside stimulus (other artists) to make that happen. Our biggest hope is that as we work together, we'll inspire one another, and in turn change and better what we do.  We were both having a randy ol' time
with our first round of books but this time around has been exponentially more fun and rewarding.

Recommend three artists the world should know about (but doesn't).
Wow. Hard. Three people we are currently working with that we totally adore their work and genre's are Dan Hillier, John Golden, and Nicholas Kole. We recommend checking out all the artists we work with
though. They ALL are amazingly cool.

And finally, what are your favorite words?
KS: Timeless
JP: Adaptation

Thanks Modo-guys!
I hope everyone who reads this will visit your awesome website RIGHT NOW and find the Moleskine of their dreams. Shouldn't be hard with the plethora of choices and artistic styles! Congrats on your new venture, and thank you for choosing my hubby to be a part of this exciting collaborative!

And the Winner of COY is....

Jan. Here is her awesome haiku:

Coy? You are all wrong.
Read the big silver word, man.
I. Am. Hormonal!

Better send me an email, Jan! Coy is all yours. Even though you're hormonal. Maybe winning this will help with that. Maybe I'll send you my last chocolate to go with. NOT!

Congrats to you, and thank you to everyone who played, and especially to those of you who played by the rules. Emily, your haiku was gorgeous. I loved it.

Happy Mother's Day

My mom sent this to me this morning. I thought I'd share it with all of you. Have a wonderful Mother's Day with your babies and your mamas.

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said,
Speak to us of Children.
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love, but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness:
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.
~Kahil Gibran

Rambling about Religion and Crafting and Blogs.

Okay, here's the deal.  I have an AWESOME giveaway happening over on WIN CRAFTY. This is where my interviews/giveaways will be from now on. Same fun haiku format, but new home. This here blog is going to slowly morph into more than you ever wanted to know about MOI.

But I'm really excited about WIN CRAFTY because I am a philanthropist at heart. If I'm not doing something good for people, I'm miserable. My mom was getting on my case this morning about this. My mom. Who has donated a really good portion of the hours and days she has been on planet earth to her church. Is this really so different? I have had a tough time really ever wholeheartedly choosing a religion completely and totally, mainly because I find that at the heart of all religions is the same message, and all the other stuff, the rules and regulations, just tweak me out and cause unnecessary guilt and confusion.

So that doesn't mean I'm snubbing my nose at anyone's religion, I think whatever works, to each his own. I really like to seek out and celebrate individual creative spirits, and find out more about them. The part in the bible where God made man (and woman) in his image means that we are all creators. And I have made some pretty awesome creator buddies here on my blog. This is a blessing. Humanity is my church. I like to give back to the creative world in some way, and for now, what I can do is gather up all the online crafty giveaways, and post them in one place. I hope that this will have a bigger impact on the artists that I feature each week, financially speaking. Or gathering of new customers speaking. Or reaching a wider audience. I think having a home for all the giveaways will draw a bigger crowd than my wee bloggy would do on its own.

Right? Am I rambling? Holy crap. sorry. I really haven't slept in like three days. The POINT of this post now that I remember way back to two minutes ago when I first started typing, is that you MUST get your pencils ready and write a haiku about my latest interview, which is with sculptor, Colleen of loopy boopy.

I love her stuff. I hope you will too. I am commissioning a loopy doll of my own, I can't wait to see her.

Visit the giveaway! Write a haiku! Win Sally!

The Morning After

So I was up most of the night. Not only wigging out on my new blog, and pondering my existence in the universe, but Cyrus kept me up with his coughing fits and the allergy season has set in, on top of the cold. Not for me, for hubby. He is so afflicted that he barely sleeps at night due to watery eyes and itchy throat and all that lovely stuff that goes with terrible allergies. I happen to be a really light sleeper, so when he honks his horn in the middle of the night, I am awake. And it usually takes me at least an hour to fall asleep. Sometimes more. So do I feel chipper and fabulous today? Not so much.

BUT, someone just adopted KEEPER this  morning, and that is pretty exciting. I'm happy to see it go to a good home, though I was laying there in the wee hours of non sleepedness contemplating keeping all of my pendants and shutting my shop down completely. For a while anyway.

I also received the first listing on WIN CRAFTY! that is not one of my own, so that's cool. So far, people seem to think this might be a cool idea. I hope the word spreads fast and it can help some artists get seen, know what I mean? If you've ever wanted to do a giveaway, now would be a good time!

Here's another thing you can do: Swashbuckle your blog. Who doesn't want a sassy pirate on their blog? A sassy pirate that leads to a place where you can win free stuff. Really cool stuff! AND meet really cool artists? Nice. Here's the button. Link it to http://wincrafty.typepad.com

I haven't figured out how to do the little deal where I write the code for this thing. Because, although I'm a geek, I'm not that kind of geek.

I feel better now. After careful consideration, mainly the sadness in Emily's comment, I have decided to be diligent about ONE thing on this blog. The bird pix. I know that everyone enjoys them so much, and so do I.

I considered jumping right into this separation of my blog vs. business blog, but I think I'll take it easy on you folks. I don't want to scare anyone. Chances are very likely that I'm about to go all ADD and change the look and feel of this blog realllly soon. Sorry Charmaine. I know you get tired of my short attention span.

Hope you guys all have a fantastic Friday and please do spread the swashbuckly word about WIN CRAFTY! I really think that blog could be cool for the art community!

Things Are Weird. I Quit. Sort of.

Well, it was freakishly silent on 88words today. Like, I have gotten hardly any emails all day. Maybe this has something to do with you, my faithful readers, boycotting me for never visiting your sites... I don't blame you. I'm trying to accomplish so much lately, I don't have time for leisurely activities. Ahhh but I wish I did.

Here's a big friggin' bummer that's making me feel like I need a month off in the Bahamas living on a diet of nothing but fresh fruit and vegetables: I got a flipping head cold. Cyrus started it, and I honestly wonder if this is part of that nasty flu, because my mom ended up with a cold right after she finished with the stomach plague of doom.This killer germ has had totally randomly different effects on everyone, and the timing of it all has made no sense whatsoever. So it could be that the cold part has just taken it's time to arrive for me. All I know is, this better be the last of it. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.

So I'm at the annoying stage of this cold thing where I can't sleep at all, my brain is just roiling with all these random obsessions. And then this morning, as I'm tossing and turning, contemplating my existence on this planet, my reason for being, if you will, I take a long hard look at what this blog is doing for me, and I have an epiphany. The blog doing nothing, actually. Not for me, anyway. I've helped a lot of other folks get their goods out there. I've given away some cool stuff to some lucky Haikuligans. I've shared my dad's birds with whoever has cared to look at them. But it has done nothing for me personally.

I thought maybe the blog would give me a reason to write everyday, but I find that I spend so much time just formatting and cropping and photographing and conducting interviews and just trying to keep up with it all, that I can't even pay attention to writing in a witty or compelling way. I just ramble. Like I'm  doing now. Which sucks. For both of us. For you, my readers, who deserve to be entertained. And for me, who would prefer to leave my mark in the blog world as someone who at least writes crap somewhat worth reading about. For God's sake. I'm failing us, people.

In the mean time, my poor laptop, my Dell which is about to spontaneously combust, because that's what Dells do, they overheat and then go up in flames, has been sorely neglected. Yes, I've been sick, yes, I've been out of town. But this is no excuse. The truth is, my writing time is taken up by frantic blogging. The writing that I need to be doing every night if I' ever going to complete that trilogy and those eight novels.

In an effort to get a grip on my life, I am no longer going to do two giveaways per week. I am no longer going to bust my ass to post something interesting each day, which we've already agreed isn't happening anyway. I will possibly continue to just write random crap around here, if you are so inclined to read it. I may or may not post birds every week, as the  mood strikes me. I'm sorry, Emily! In short, I'm going to kick it down a notch, and become an unprofessional blogger. I'm not getting paid, anyways, so what's the point?

FYI, I will also possibly never be making any more of my wordy pendants ever again, as there is a problem with the molds that doesn't seem fixable. It seems as though the only way to get them to come out clean and sweet is to mill the waxes out every time. Not cost effective. So if you've had your eye on a pendant, you better grab one, because they could be the only ones in the world. Hormonal, that one is MINE. I better go get it out of my Etsy shop.

Part of my 5:30am epiphany was this: I really enjoy helping artists an craftspeople get their businesses seen and heard. I was trying to figure out a way to continue with my giveaways in a way that could gain hoards more traffic than my lonely blog has. The answer came to  me, like an answer from God: Seriously, loud and clear in my head this morning were these two words: Win Crafty! So I came downstairs, and like I said, I had no email whizzing through my inbox today. None. Usually: HUNDREDS. Today: five or six.  I thought this was freaky by about 8am, but by then I already had a good start on my new blog, and I just rolled with it. Usually that ding! of the email coming through is pretty distracting, but all day, it was silent. So by the afternoon, I had worked out the design for my banner, and by early this evening I had the whole blog set up and just about ready to rumble. Behold: Win Crafty!

If you visit blogs who do giveaways, please let them know about Win Crafty. I'm still tweaking stuff, as I am wont to do, but there are people already sending me giveaways to include. So maybe this will be a good thing. Okay. I'm wicked sleepy.  Go check it out and don't forget to Swashbuckle Your Blog while you're there. Sorry for the typos. I'm just too tired to care.

Ta ta for now. I love you guys.

From Priscilla

My  mom has this friend Priscilla, she lives in the UK. She emails me all the craziest forwarded stuff, some of it I know she doesn't dare send to my  mom, because my mom has a pretty prim and proper sense of humor. This one made me giggle:

Taking a wee break from the golf course, Tiger Woods drives his new Mercedes into an Irish gas station. An attendant greets him in typical Irish Manner, unaware who the golf pro is...

"Top o' the mornin to ya".

As Tiger gets out of the car, two tees fall out of his pocket.

"So what are those things, laddie?" asks the attendant.

"They're called tees," replies Tiger.

"And what would ya be usin 'em for, now?" inquires the Irishman.

"Well, they're for resting my balls on when I drive," replies Tiger.

"Aw, Jaysus, Mary an' Joseph!" exclaims the Irish attendant. "Those fellas at Mercedes think of everything."

She's Not Dead, She's Resting.

New readers might not know that today is Bird's the Word Wednesday.

Every Wednesday I post pictures of birds, (and the odd alligator) that my dad shot the previous week. This week's pictures totally blow my mind. Hummingbird resting on a rock fountain. Whaaa? And the leaf one? But the one on the rock?! Kills me.

I hope you will enjoy these wee birdies, they were shot in Charlotte's garden in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. With a camera. A big one.

Rasbelli, Rasbelli! Juicy and Sweet!

What is Rasbelli, you ask? It is my sister's new Etsy shop. She is in Cancun right now, enjoying her honeymoon. Whilst she is away, I have decided to bestow upon her a crazy ass surprise wedding gift. An Etsy shop! Crazy, right? Here, have a business! Good luck with that!  But wait! 

My sister makes jewelry, and has been doing so for years and years. She is amazing at creating intricate, stunning pieces with beads and wire. Both of us have plenty of wire wrapping and beading experience, we have both worked at bead shops (she still does) and we KNOW what's out there. There are about ten zillion beaders with shops on Etsy, it's probably the most saturated category in the whole Land of Etsy. BUT, My sister's stuff is really unique and just stunning. After she designed these gorgeous necklaces for her bridesmaids, I knew it was time for her to finally just get her butt in gear and open her own Etsy shop. I also know her well enough, that chances are if I didn't set all this up for her, she may not have ever gotten around to it. Maybe because she didn't want to bother with all the setting up part? That's what I'm banking on, at least!

So I've done all that fancy stuff for her. Came up with a shop name, designed her banner & blog, and started both. Without her knowing. I am hopeful that my wonderful blog readers will visit her blog and give her some words of encouragement to come home to. There's nothing like total strangers eggin' you on. Because for some unknown reason, the family members don't seem to count.  We've tried. Plenty. For years.

If you like this:

Please visit Sarah's blog and let her know! I'm hoping that she'll do a line of these necklaces in a zillion different colors. My prediction is, if she does this, they will sell like hotcakes! I get crazy compliments every time I wear mine!

Thanks Haikuligans, you're the bestest! Click below to visit:

SARAH'S BLOG
SARAH'S NEW SHOP