oh, summer...

ive been thinking a lot about summer this week. and about how i feel like im really missing out. ive wanted so very much to be productive with sewing that ive spent most of my time indoors trying to hurry along and finish my bag collection. but its summer... and maybe when it thunders i will resume my sewing. i most likely keep the windows open, lay in my bed and listen to the rain. a good storm is one of few things that actually relaxes me.

i had a whole summertime project planned. i was going to take a class with jack booth, my favorite professor in the world and perhaps my mentor (even tho i dont think he knows it) but the class was canceled and $1800... so either way, that wasnt going to happen. so i could do this project on my own. making magic realism stories into photographs. in my mind i see mateo dressed up in a suit talking to someone. i dunno if borges ever wrote about a dog in a suit... lets hope he did. but then there is the film. i have en entire bag of 220 film sitting in the garage that wasn't used in mexico. but i didn't put it in the refrigerator and the mold from "the floods of '06" probably ruined it anyway. i dont want to look. ill probably throw the bag at the wall with disappointment. using digital is always an option. but when i print, bigger is better and i adore my mamyia 645 afd. it was my graduation present. the pictures always amaze me. i have to use it. the canon 10d is okay. but really, is it there yet? who knows...

then their is polaroiding. i suppose the thing i am most often remembered by photographically. its such a simple simple joy and i suppose my ADD is obsessed with the idea of instant gratification. but again... the lack of money think is kinda of a n issue when trying to buy film.

ive really cooped myself up this summer. badly. im not enjoying it. the thing i enjoy most about summer is midnight bike rides. all alone, quiet empty streets and my ipod. the summer of '04 on my bianchi in the south end were some of the most peaceful nights of my life. i miss it. last summer too.. even tho new york never really gets quiet, i found little streets which seemed dark and calm and i pretended like i was the only one in the whole city. but there is no city in my life this summer. only torn up suburban streets. my bike is sitting in my parents garage. its pretty there. i road my bike there as a kid... it would be the best place to ride at this point. smooth roads... pretty quiet streets. but...

i have Myofascial Pain Syndrome
or fibromyalgia, depending on which doctor you ask... either way, there is pain and riding a bike is about the worst thing for it. i cant even drive my car without feeling like shit. so what does that leave?

ahhhh swimming! amazing for the back, gentle and summertime. but the only pool i have access to is at the parents country club. i hate even the sound of that word. ew. its filled with brats and Lily Pulitzer clad moms. its a sickening sight.

so... summer is slipping away and i am bored. and house season 2 isn't out on dvd yet to amuse me and bit torrent SUCKS.

this isn't a political blog, but...

whats going on is upsetting me too muc not to talk about it.
watching fox news cover the conflict is so funny and shocking that i do not even know how to explain it here.

the quote i heard from the commentator was "Israel's plan is to wipe Hezbollah off the map" hmm... interesting that that can be said about Hezbollah but not about other places (ie Israel). Most networks won't call Hezbollah terrorist, the simply say they are a militant group which is the appropriate and non bias word to use. check the bbc guidelines for non bias reporting and language.

i dont even know what else to say from here. im saddened by it all. but fox... you make me sick.

Up and running!

After the recommendation of a friend, I decided to set up a shopify.com shop. It sounded so easy! Well... it wasn't THAT easy (since of course I wanted it to look a certain way!!) but after some work, Vanessa and I have our bags for sale on shoot-and-stitch.myshopify.com. While the extention leaves something to be desired, it will sooon just be www.shoot-and-stitch.com instead.

I have sooooo much more to add as I am sewing my entire collection right now. Vanessa also has not put her bags up on the site yet so it is still a work in progress. BUT you can shop and purchase and pay all on this site. So its a real, working, online store!

Please check it out and support us. We worked hard, alright? ;)

refocus: its a good thing.

this blog is about totes and photography. nothing else!
so lets keep it that way.

while living in the suburbs it seems that i have had way to much time on my hands and not enough money to work on the projects i care about. the internet can suck you in. and drama is lame. i think i am easily misread too. so i am keeping to what i know. martha stewart like projects, photography, time with my dogs and bike rides. and also, its a good thing project runway is starting soon! vanessa is having a weekly crafts/beer/pr night at her house starting soon. i am thinking about making the trip. it will be good for me!

in the spirit of photography and crafts, heres azim. the little love of my life.

Frames Galore!

It just started pouring here. The perfect cue that its time for bed. I have been frustrated and bored lately and my promise last month of polaroids to come has to be postponed. While at Walmart today (I only went for the doggy pee pad's its the only place in town that carries them!) I came across two 600 backs for $19. It was so tempting but with only around $30 in my account... not practical.

Instead I have been gathering up all of JW's mothers old frames to redo them. Most of which have ugly pictures of roses in them and are from home goods or who knows where else. I bought a can of spray paint and painted them all silver and they look AMAZING! Most of them are going to be used empty. I am painting our foyer "Cherry Cobbler" aka cranberry and since they are all different I thought I would just add them to the wall frame only since many are missing glass. One of them happened to be 16x20!!! so I used it to put a picture of Reilly laying on my bed in boston on a pile of records during a photoshoot that I have been dying to buy a frame for but never had the money. Here are the results. The quality sucks obviously because I'm photographing glass.

I also have new bags coming soon! I need double sided fusiable interfacing to make them and bought the sew-in kind instead so that is going to have to wait just a little bit.

totally off topic, but...

i cleaned my room today and put up some pictures.
it was fun.
and i made a little accessory wall.

woohoo.

whoo whoo

i bought this owl fabric a while ago from www.fabrictales.com for kerry since i know how much she adores owls. i first made her a tote bag with my prefabricated tote bags and made a little k on the outside and then lined it with the fabric. while it was cute... i knew i could do much better with this fabric. since i got the swing bag pattern by amy butler, ive been making a few with that pattern to get used to working with patterns and making things from scratch since i really have no idea what i am doing.

the end result of this little japanese owl tote is very cute. i am sending it to my bff in chicago tomorrow along with a few cute other things. i miss her so much. i hope she enjoys the bag!