Catalog Christmas Day 8: Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2012 everybody. May your lifestyle choices be easier on you than Little Peter's are on him.

Catalog Christmas Day 7: Searching for Santa

Happy New Year's Eve everybody. Here's one last Santa card, since I figure I can't really get away with them anymore after today.

Catalog Christmas Days 5 & 6: Creepy Santa

This is hands-down one of my favorite cards I made this year. 

 Seriously, you don't want to eat that.

Catalog Christmas Day 4: Turkey

I got these bitches a turkey.
Bitches LOVE turkey.

Catalog Christmas Day 3: Thankful

She just looks so ... deviously self-satisfied ...

Selections from Occupy Seattle Weekly Issue 3

Issue 3, 11.20.11 - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Effective Marches, the Messy Business of Camping, and the Pepper-Sprayed Face of Dorli Rainey

The Good

This week was filled with fantastic events and demonstrations:  

• Tuesday night’s extensively pepper-sprayed and photographed march in Belltown
• Dr. Cornel West’s rousing speech at camp on Wednesday
• Thursday’s labor-led march and occupation of the University Bridge
• Fridays’ march to the Police Accountability Office with speeches by two of Seattle’s new pepper spray icons, 84-year old Dorli Rainey and Reverend Rich Lang
• and the “Rise and Decolonize, Let’s Get Free!” concert and rally hosted by Hip Hop Occupies in Westlake Park on Friday night.

These peaceful rallies and direct actions kept Occupiers and allies motivated and square in the media limelight. Keep it up everybody!

The Bad

While Occupy Seattle’s demonstrations have been effective, camp hygiene has not. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported on letters issued by King County Public Health and the Chamber of Commerce regarding the public health hazard they perceive that the camp has become.  The list of issues can be found here, but main groupings of concerns are: 

• food borne illness risk factors
• communicable disease risks
• unstable structures with limited fire safety planning or access
• reports of drug dealing and illicit drug use
• sewage and waste water not properly disposed of
• waste water disposal into storm drains
• no effective hygiene facilties
• uncontrolled dogs defecating and urinating
• rodent activity
• discarded/used syringes and needles on the ground

Some of these issues are almost impossible for OS to address – where else can water be poured out in a camp on a street corner but down a stormdrain? And how on earth do you build proper hygiene facilities without access to water main and sewer hookups?  

That said, there are plenty of things on that list that Occupy Seattle can take care of. It’s totally doable to create better pedestrian access into and out of camp, ensuring dogs go to the bathroom outside of camp and their poo is picked up, and do daily sweeps for trash and discarded signs.  Even though some of these issues (like needles and rats) already existed before Occupy Seattle moved in, it’s in OS’s best interest to take care of them for their own sake.

In the letter addressing the Occupy Seattle encampment, Michael Wells of the Broadway Business Improvement District and the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce writes:

“While many of the businesses are sympathetic with the Occupy movement (75% of Broadway BIA members are small, locally owned businesses) these sanitation and safety concerns are very troubling…We would like to see occupy Seattle address the health and safety concerns around the encampment immediately.” 

Occupy Seattle should also find these health and safety issues very troubling: not only are they bad for the neighborhood, they’re bad for the campers.

11/17 - Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes is preparing to file 1^st degree trespass charges against five protesters arrested during an Occupy Seattle takeover of a Chase Bank on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, November 2^nd. (Publicola, Capitol Hill Seattle Blog)

11/19 - The State Attorney General's office drafted an emergency rule that would create a 120-day window for removing the Occupy Seattle encampment from the Seattle Central campus.  The draft says the college needs to take action because of unsafe conditions at OS camp, including syringes and needles on the ground, drug and alcohol use, lack of hygiene facilities and other risk factors near the college child-care center. (Capitol Hill Seattle Blog, Seattle Times)

The Ugly (But in the end, also good)

Josh Trujillo of the Seattle PI’s now iconic picture of Dorli Rainey just after she was pepper-sprayed by Seattle police at a peaceful demonstration

Seattle’s mace sodden Wall St. March earlier this week seemed to be a culmination in local police’s willingness to use extremely painful but so far nonlethal force against peaceful protestors. However, this pain and conflict brought with it a boon – the picture of 84-year-old lifelong activist Dorli Rainey’s pepper-sprayed face, and story about police brutality so blatant, well-witnessed, and unprovoked it was impossible to ignore.

This picture was soon followed by images of a young woman being sprayed directly in the mouth with pepper-spray by the Portland PD and a peaceful sit-in of UC Davis students assaulted with mace by police called in by the dean. Images like this bring desperately needed attention to the twin crises of police brutality and the suppression of 1^st amendment rights, problems common to Occupiers across the country.

In Seattle’s case, we got another gift – an excellent spokesperson. Not only does Dorli Rainey appear to be a nice old lady, she’s also quite eloquent and has been an activist since she escaped from Nazi Germany as a girl. Thanks for that, Josh Trujillo and the Seattle Police Department.

Selections from Occupy Seattle Weekly Issues 1 & 2

Issue 1, 11.5.11 - While We’re Giving Banks a Hard Time, Let’s Think of the Little Guy

Since demonstrations and actions against unjust and destructive financial institutions will continue into the near future, I feel it’s important to do something nice for all the 99%ers that happen work at those places.  There are a lot of lower level bank employees caught up in the crossfire between the Occupy movement and Chase/BofA/etc. upper management. 

I’m making it my mission to bring flowers and a condolences card (sorry about your bosses destroying the economy, we know you’re the 99% but sadly your bosses aren’t) to at least one Chase bank location on Capitol Hill before Black Friday.  Maybe I’ll add a little note about how it sucks to live in a world where we all have to live with the consequences by some ill-considered risks taken with other people’s money.

What’s not to love about an action like this? It’s inexpensive, dispersed, easy to recreate and propagate, doable with groups to 1 to however many can fit in a bank, not likely to bother the SPD, (hopefully) genuine enough to apologize to our fellow 99%ers, and quirky and whimsical enough to want to post to Facebook. If you think I’m right about this, then go out and do it, post it to the internet and tell all your friends.

Issue 2, 11.13.11 - A Question of Numbers

The Seattle PI sez; “The city’s price tag to monitor the entrenched Occupy Seattle protest ballooned to $529,609 this week, which includes last week’s pepper-spraying and arrests of protesters in Capitol Hill.” Occupy Seattle organizer Jesse Mulert sez right back: “How is it that that 50-300 peacefully assembled citizens warrant such a concentration of resources?” (Seattle PI). You have to wonder how OS got pinned with a half a million dollar bill that’s largely for police time. It’s almost as if the City of Seattle thinks the problems reported in and around camp didn’t exist before Occupy Seattle showed up. 

Will Capitol Hill and the City of Seattle suddenly be free of fights, drug use, vandalism and encampments of the un-housed if Occupy Seattle disbands? Maybe the concentration of those particular issues will decrease on that block, but they won’t really go away – they’ll just spread out through the city and the neighborhood again. It feels a little like the City is blaming the victim. For what are these things but symptoms of an economically unjust society and a massive wealth gap? The 99% didn’t create the disease, but it sure can get blamed for it.

Also: Who caused the Great Recession that tightened the city and the police department’s budget? The banks and financial firms whose actions led to the mortgage crisis. This cascade of economic disaster eventually led to the creation of the Occupy movement.  Why isn’t the city challenging these banks with this half a million dollar bill?

Welcome to the neighborhood, Occupy Seattle

I am totally and unqualifiedly thrilled that Occupy Seattle is going to be my nighttime neighbor at Seattle Central Community College starting tonight. I haven't been able to interact with the Occupy movement much with being in grad school and rarely passing through downtown. But now they're going to be in MY BACKYARD! Yay, big social justice sleepover! Hot cocoa and equity for everyone! So excited!!

In the midst of my enthusiasm, I am still aware that there are logistical issues that may not make this feasible in the long-run: OC HQ is presently downtown, hiking up and down the Hill everyday isn't practical for everyone and bussing may not be affordable. Then there's the fact that SCCC is a very reluctant host.

I know it might not work out. SCCC might telling the kids to get off their lawn, SPD might flip and start teargassing right next to my window (I am right next door), and Occupy Seattle folks might not live up to their good-neighbor promises. All this is totally possible. But for tonight, I have a bunch of new fun neighbors, and I am super excited.

Rules of Avoidance: Restaurants

These are just rules of thumb, and can sometimes be ignored to your great gastronomical enjoyment. But once I thought about it a little (once I was done laughing), I find that they have generally held true in my experience.

{My S.O. thought these up, so as a note to the interested digital archaeologists of the future, the credit for this blog post goes to John Sepulveda.}

When considering where to eat, one should avoid:

1. Restaurants with "hut", "den" or "shack" in their name. "House" is also suspect. I have never heard of a restaurant with the word "slum" or "tenement" in its title, but if I had I would not want to eat there either*.
2. Restaurants whose names include their primary menu attraction, such as fish, BBQ, sandwich, or lobster.
3. Restaurants named after a person who has, in all likelihood, never set foot inside the establishment named after them. Linda's is fine since it is named after local entrepreneur Linda Derschang and she does not yet have so many restaurants that she is not able to go and visit all of them. Marie Callendar's is not.

A hypothetical example of a place you probably don't want to eat is "Bob's Lobster Hut", unless of course Bob is right there in the kitchen boiling the fresh caught lobster and he has an ironic sense of humor.

*Though a place called "The Delicious Apartments" might be pretty cool, especially if it specialized in tapas that you could pick up out of little cubbies connected to the kitchen.

The summer that wasn't

This year started with a cool spring that coasted into a summer of meh. If wanted to be completely accurate, I would call this the summer that came late, but I wanted a title that also referenced how little I've blogged this summer. I could blame the lack of sun, but the real culprits were grad school induced lassitude and sheer laziness for the first month and a half and the 12th Avenue Neighborhood Festival for the month after that. In August and September summer finally arrived, so I was busy rejoicing with the rest of the city and enjoying the late start of circus folk season in Cal Anderson Park.

I will try to make up for my lack of blogging with a flurry of slideshow updates before school starts. After that, it is up to the will of the professors, but I live in hope.

Cheap Date: Opening Night of The Great Puppet Happiness Machine

My boyfriend and I were fortunate enough to catch the opening night of The Great Puppet Happiness Machine by Puppet This! at Annex Theater. We had seen the posters go up last week and decided it would make a good event for date night; wandering in on opening night last night was just our good fortune. Our decidedly peculiar ideas about what makes a good date paid off - The Great Puppet Happiness Machine is ridiculous and well worth $10 ($5 for students).

There are basically two premises to the show: 1) a bunch of puppets decide the best way to make their sad puppet friend happy again is to visit a mad scientist and 2) improv. Improvisational comedians running around a blackbox stage with puppets on their hands does not sound like a recipe for success, but it works. Watching puppets gesticulate and flop around is way more interesting than watching the people behind them (pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...). It helps that the crew of Puppet This! are pretty funny, even when things don't go quite right.

The BF and I agree that the show was a little rocky: some of the song numbers stuttered when the puppeteers couldn't make up lyrics fast enough, and the crew was still trying to figure out who should chime in when. That said, this was the very first show of the run and my BF was so enthused about the whole thing he wants to go back again. I admit I'd be interested in seeing how the show changes over the season, and would find it vastly amusing to watch my friends discover the puppet-y wonder of "The Great Puppet Happiness Machine".

[TGPHM shows Wednesday nights at 8pm through May 18th]

PS This makes me really regret missing Manos: Hands of Felt.

2/26 - More cheap fun: Saturday University @ Seattle Asian Art Museum and Yoga in Volunteer Park

Saturday University: World Little Known

Central Asia, its Histories and Place in Today's World

The Silk Roads: Central Asia in the Wider World

February 26th - 9:30am-11am

Prof. Daniel Waugh, University of Washington

Seattle Asian Art Museum (Volunteer Park), Stimson Auditorium

Central Asia played a crucial role in cultural and economic exchange across Eurasia along the many routes that made up the historic "Silk Road."

Come early to stretch! Yoga classes offered by 8 Limbs Yoga at 8:30 am (beginners welcome); pay by voluntary donation. Please bring your own mats.

==

From Silk Road travel to contemporary social and political challenges in post-Soviet republics, this series investigates the region from Uzbekistan to Mongolia. Cosponsored by the University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington. Teacher clock hours available.

Other lectures in this series:

Mar 5: Crafting Culture in Soviet Central Asia: Writers, Actors and Ordinary People

Mar 12: Religious Pluralism of Central Asia

Mar 19, Part 1: Central Asian Nomads Today: Musical Storytelling

Mar 19, Part 2: Esoteric Buddhism in Japan: The Lineage of Shingon

Mar 26: Colorful Ikat Textile Design and Central Asian Aesthetics

Apr 2: Women’s Work in Central Asia: Past and Present

Apr 9: Struggles of Central Asia Since Independence

Apr 16: Creating Community Solutions to Rural Issues in Central Asia

Questions? Email Gardner Center for Asian Art and Ideas: gardnercenter@seattleartmuseum.org

Tickets

(buy them here! by phone: 206-654-3121 or email: boxoffice@seattleartmuseum.org)

Series

Members: $40.00

Adults: $80.00

Individual Lecture

Members: $5.00

Adults: $10.00

2/26 - Free "Plan Your Veggie Garden" Workshop by Howell Collective P-Patch

The robins are chirping, the crocuses are blooming - spring is on its way. Despite the fact that it was sleeting today and may snow tonight, it's time to start planning your garden for the year. In case you're a newbie like me and could use some guidance, Howell Collective P-Patch has got you covered with its "Plan your Veggie Garden" workshop.

Plan Your Veggie Garden

February 26th, 10am - noon

Madison Market (16th & Madison/ 1600 E. Madison)

FREE WORKSHOP!

This class will help you decide what to plan, when to plan and where to plant. Learn where to find organic and heirloom seeds, how to decide where crops should be placed in the garden and create a plan so you can be harvesting fresh veggies all year round.

Please RSVP by emailing registerhc@gmail.com, including your name, neighborhood, and how you found out about the Howell Collective P-Patch.

Belated snOMG 2010 slideshow: views from North Broadway

All photos courtesy of me (see above, in fuzzy hat) on 11.23.10, taken with Metrix Create: Space's amazing shopcam.

Dueling Plant Events: John & Summit Bedspread Party and Native Plant Salvage

This Saturday there's double the plant fun with a mulch and bedspread party at John & Summit Park and a Native Plant Salvage down in Black Diamond. Details below:

John and Summit Bedspread Work Party

When: Saturday December 4th, 9AM (Rain, snow or shine . . . we're working!)

What: Distributing organic coffee chaff, chocolate mulch and leaves into the garden beds, then covering it all up with our burlap bedspreads

If you have small tarps, please bring them. We have everything else you'll need to help.

We really need your help! Come and bring your friends, too! We'll be moving soil in rain, snow or shine.

Delicious coffee and treats are being provided! Please RSVP to Barbara at gingergooddog@gmail.com so we know how many to expect.(Even if you forget to RSVP, come garden with us!)

King County Native Plant Salvage
Join other volunteers digging up trees and shrubs from this site scheduled for development in the morning. In the afternoon, we’ll be potting up the salvaged plants so they can recuperate before going to King County habitat restoration sites. Once replanted, these native plants will help reduce erosion, shade streams and provide habitat. Special thanks to Yarrow Bay Holdings for providing the salvage site.

When: Saturday, December 4, 2010

Time:
9 a.m. to 12:00 p.m: Salvage plants
1 p.m. to 4 p.m: Potting at Holding Facility

Where: Black Diamond for salvaging/ Issaquah for potting

Directions to the Salvage site: From I-405 near Renton, take Highway 169 past Black Diamond. Turn right onto SE Green Valley Road. Go approximately 1.5 miles and watch for sign on right. Turn right into site on gravel road. Volunteers who dig for King County from 9:00 to 12:00 are eligible to dig plants for themselves from 12:00 to 2:00.

Not a morning person? Volunteers are also needed at our Native Plant Holding Facility from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. to help pot up the salvaged plants. Volunteers who help with potting are eligible for free native plants.

Directions to the Native Plant Holding Facility:

From I-5 or I-405, take I-90 east to Highland Drive exit (exit 18) in Issaquah. Stay left on the off ramp to continue onto Highland Drive through several lights. Turn right onto Issaquah–Fall City Road. Just past Endeavor Elementary School, stay straight onto Duthie Hill Road.
The Holding Facility is in Duthie Hill Park (on the right) at 27101 Duthie Hill Road. Drive to Nursery at the end of the road.

Notes: A parent or guardian must accompany volunteers under 16 years old. Dress for the weather and be prepared to get dirty. Sturdy shoes or boots are recommended. We’ll provide gloves, tools and light refreshments.

Please call Cindy Young at 206-296-8065 or email cindy.young@kingcounty.gov if you plan to participate.

{And yes, I've been hearing "da dah ding ding ding ding ding ding ding" in my head ever since I thought up the post title}

Burlap Quilting Bee for John and Summit Park!

There is an important 'burlap coffee bean sack quilting' get together tomorrow, Wednesday, all day and evening (9am to 9pm) at the nearby Seattle Presbyterian Church.


Unpaving Paradise will be amending the soil at John and Summit Park this Saturday with rich nutritive greens and browns. When finished UP will put the soil to bed for the winter by covering it with mostly pre-assembled quilted-together burlap coffee bean sacks. UP wants to give a 'nice look' to the garden for the local community to admire over the winter months. Therefore getting the 500+ coffee bean sacks stitched together in shapes mirroring and custom fitting the designed plots is important. Not only for appearance but to quickly and deftly cover the soil without walking on the soil and compacting it.

The plan is to have pre-measured template patterns on the church floor and then to quilt together the coffee bean sacks to fit the patterns. Many of the sacks have been already stitched together in strips so as to save time on Wednesday's assembling project.

The stitching is simple and requires no previous experience. We will have all materials ready for you. And feel free to be creative by sewing in thick colored yarn!

Please come and help out even if only for an hour. There are two volunteers so far who are coming. Consider lending a helping hand.

They have free church parking on the north side of the building and you are allowed to park for free from 7 to 9 pm in the pay parking lot just across the Street (Howell). The Church (located just behind the Seattle Central Community College) is a block south of East Denny. The quilting bee will be in the downstairs Fellowship Hall; entrance thru church's north side parking lot.

1729 Harvard Avenue
Seattle, WA 98122-2227

Sledding Mayhem on E Denny Way or An Ambulance Arrives at the Sledding Party

This evening I repaired to the spontaneous Son of Snowpocalypse sledding party down on Denny and Bellevue with Mark Atwood. I went down the hill twice - once in a turned-over recycling bin with two other fellows (one of whom was Rob, a frequenter of Gamma Ray Games) and another time on a borrowed baking tin. The first run went very quickly and very well. The second time was fine until I got hit in the back by two goths on a table. It hurt, but I stuck around awhile longer until the ambulance showed up.

Maybe ten minutes after my 2nd run, two groups of sledders in recycling/trash bins went drag racing down Denny. They were doing fine all the way down, no tip-overs or collisions, just one successful dismount off the back of the right-hand bin (I was very impressed).

Then a four-door sedan came cruising up the obviously closed E Denny Way. One of the sledder-filled bins hit the car and made it spin. I heard from another onlooker soon after that in the collision/spin, the car rolled over a sledder's leg. The ambulance came to pick up said sledder soon after.

Recent Events: SteamCon II and Son of Snowpocalypse

It has been an exciting fortnight. I got to spend a week home sick, got well enough thanks to modern medicine to work at SteamCon II, and now it's snowing like mad in our fine city of hills.

At SteamCon the 2nd, I mostly admired other people's costumes and helped them accessorize further with the wares of Realms of Regalia. RoR mostly sells the extra fiddly bits - pins, feathers, ribbons, lace, cords, applique, jewelry. You can imagine our booth was extraordinarily popular at a steampunk convention. I'll have another post with pictures and stories to follow.

As for snow...wow, what a fitting start to the beginning of steampunk season: the more layers the better! I was delighted to wake up this morning to a fine view of our winter wonderland. I only have to commute to UW and back (Evans School, whatwhat!) so when evening classes were cancelled, it only took me two hours to get home. Steve, the driver of bus #2384/ the #48 this evening is to be commended for his commitment, skill and dedication to duty. Even though we crawled along more slowly than an arthritic hamster, Steve got bus #2384 up the back of Capitol Hill. This is way more than the drivers of the 10 or so cars we passed on the way up can say, that's for sure.

After a couple of hours of excited tweeting and Desert Bus viewing, I made my way down to the inevitable sledding party on E Denny Way. See next post for details.

(sledding picture courtesy of David Lichterman)

Nightlife: Report from August Capitol Hill Community Council Meeting and Reflections

This last Thursday night, James Keblas, Director of the Seattle Music and Film Office, came to the Capitol Hill Community Council meeting to talk about the Seattle Nightlife Initiative. Before I go on, here are the bullet points of Mayor McGinn's Nightlife Initiative:

1. Code compliance enforcement
2. Flexible liquor service hours (This links to the Report on Flexible Hours, created of the City of Seattle by the Responsible Hospitality Institute.)
3. Noise ordinance enforcement
4. Security training requirements
5. Precinct community outreach
6. Professional development
7. Late-night transportation alternatives
8. Targeting public nuisances

Ok, short explanations first. "Code compliance enforcement" and "professional development" are about the city working with nightclubs and bars to make sure they're doing everything they're supposed to to be good neighbors, like helping a nightclub figure out where they should put baffling to keep the noise down. "Security training requirements" requires clubs to send their security staff to Seattle Police Dept. security training classes at a cost of $90 per employee. "Precinct community outreach" is the SPD talking to and getting feedback from the community about nightlife. I'm not clear on if the City plans on adding to the SPD's outreach budget or if the Mayor's office just threw that one in there to remind everyone that the precinct already talks to the community about safety issues already.

As you might expect, "flexible liquor service hours" got a lot of attention; allowing some bars to stay open and serve alcohol longer is controversial here, even if it's not in other places around the country. There wasn't a lot that Keblas could concretely say, since that's the part of the initiative that will take the longest to roll out. Every other Nightlife Initiative plank can be taken care of within city government or between the city and nightlife businesses. Flexible liquor service hours is dependent upon the Liquor Control Board, who isn't beholden to the city and has the whole of Washington to worry about. What Mr. Keblas could say is below (quote courtesy of Cienna Madrid, but it's pretty much what I remember him saying, too):

I don’t want to get too far ahead of the process now...but here’s a hint of what we think would happen. It would be a privileged license with a tremendous amount of conditions attached...You have to be able to measure it, in order to do it successfully. Measure SPD calls, drunk driving issues, economic impacts. Set these measures in place, say 'here are the numbers right now.' Then we'd grant something like 200 licenses spread among numerous neighborhoods, and build it up intentionally over time.

Mr Keblas also said something interesting about the Liquor Board's reaction to the Mayor's office's proposal of flexible liquor service hours. It was that the Liquor Board will be willing to have a conversation about flexible liquor hours if the City can show they have the people of Seattle onboard. Hmm. This could be interesting.

"Noise ordinance enforcement" is about making sure that noise complaints about clubs are valid, and when validated that those complaints are pursued by warnings and fines to the clubs in question. Validation entails an enforcement official taking a noise measurement in the dwelling of the complainant with all doors and windows closed. I thought that sounded kind of weird until Mr. Keblas explained that someone wasn't going to show up on your doorstep to do a sound measurement at 3 o'clock in the morning. Complainants would need to make an appointment for the enforcement official to come by and take the measurement, presumably sometime in the evening.

"Late-night transportation alternatives" are stuff like taxi stands, drive-u-home services, and being able to pay the parking meter till 10am the next day. This all seems like commonsense to me, and really, it's weird that we don't have any of this already. Sadly, there is no money to extend bus hours til the wee hours of the morning.

"Targeting public nuisances", aka the asshole ordinance, has already been put in place; said ordinance was passed about a month ago. It lets police officers ticket noisy, stupid drunk people instead of having to wait for them to commit an offense (assault, destruction of property) and then taking an hour off the street to arrest them. On the face of it, it sounded great, because nothing sucks more than some jackass yelling their head off at 3am. I totally want those people fined for being noisy idiots.

The problem is that it can be used in a discriminatory manner, like loitering laws. I was also concerned that a ticketing a noisy jerk might also be used as probable cause for a search, like a traffic stop. While I'm happy to have someone have to pay up for being a pain in the ass late at night, I don't think it's cool for them to have their pockets riffled through by the cops in the process. I checked up on this with Mr. Keblas, however, and he said that the police wouldn't be able to use the ordinance in that way.

UPDATED: Craft Pretty Things at Metrix: Create Space

Because our manager's out of town, I've been working a lot more shifts at Metrix. Which makes me work on projects more, which means that I end up here every day of the week even when I'm not working. I've been missing out on some nice sunny afternoons [):], but I have been getting an extraordinary amount of sewing done and finishing a lot of purses (for me, anyway). And the shop is a lot cleaner than usual...

Below are some pictures of my favorites:







I am extra proud of the messenger bag. I figured out how to make a working strap and how to line it all by myself! Hurray for perseverance and reverse engineering!

MORE PICS/UPDATE BELOW: