Holy crap, do I want this piece of furniture. Lovely, lovely. I don't usually fall in lust with inanimate objects this easily, but LOOK at this thing:




Each drawer holds 95 LPs. You can also get drawers for CDs, 7"s, etc. Sadly, we would need almost 4 of these to house our collection (JUST the vinyl, mind you. CDs would still be left to fend for themselves), and they're over $12,000 each. So for close to $50K I could finally have attractive, protective storage for the vinyl that consumes our life. Or, you know, a down-payment on a house.

HA HA HA HA HA!!!! Ha! Heh. Sigh.

Hey, IKEA! Get on this, will ya? The Expedit isn't cutttin' it anymore.

So, I just talked to the card buyer for MOTHER-EFFING WHOLE FOODS and yes, folks...they are picking up our line for the regional stores.

They've already reserved 28 slots in Newtonville and 20 in Framingham. If they ordered even half a dozen of each card, that's 288 cards. Our average order for other retailers? More like 60 cards.

::THUNK::


It'll be a while before we're in most of the stores; we'll start out at a few and see where it goes from there. That's really good, because it'll give me time to find some smelling salts.

Holy. Shit.

ETA: There must be something in the water. I just got an email from "O At Home" magazine, asking for card samples. That's Oprah Winfrey, bitches. GET OUT OF TOWN.

And thank GOD it wasn't mine.

This absolutely wonderful event planner I work with on a regular basis made the WORST mistake I've ever heard of on a wedding related printed piece.

The reservation number she gave me? To print on 200 very expensive, custom-designed save the dates? DIALS TO A PHONE SEX LINE. She was off by ONE digit, and instead of "Vermont Vacations" you get sexy chat time.

Oh my GOD. What do you even DO in this situation? How do you break that news to your client?!?

For those of you I don't know in the flesh (which is almost all of you, really), you have a rare chance to take a peek into my house. Design*Sponge, a blog devoted to all things design/art/furniture, has done a "Sneak Peek" on the houses of myself and my business partner. Pretty exciting stuff, folks. As noted in my previous post, this website gets 30,000 visitors Every. Day. Whoa.

Here's my house:
http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/08/sneak-peek-carrie-of-two-trick-pony.html

and here's Laurie's:
http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/08/sneak-peek-laurie-of-two-trick-pony.html#comment-43791

Please disregard the dust bunny under my white sideboard. I thought I Photoshopped that out...

This weekend I finished up one of my favorite custom invitation jobs of all time. I think this invitation is only beat by the save the date for the same couple...


Afterwards, we drove out to Littleton to visit with some friends at their folks' house. We went swimming, soaked in the hot tub, and then went for ice cream at Kimball's. I haven't felt that relaxed in ages, and it reminded me of summers as a kid, going to our teeny tiny cottage in Central Michigan. I miss having a quiet place to go; I told Jim on the way home that some day, some how, I'd love to have a tiny place some where - preferably near a body of water - where we can go to remember what it's like to see a million stars at once.

I'm not typically inclined to read petitions or to proselytize about politics (or anything else, for that matter). However, I am genuinely concerned about the Orphan Works Bill of 2008 and feel the need to post something here...in addition to heavily spamming my personal email list. Heh.

This bill would radically modify existing copyright laws, leaving artists open to infringement with little recourse to regain control of their intellectual property. As it stands today, copyright law defaults to the creator of any work; this bill would shift the default to the general public. Potential infringers would have to perform an as-yet-undefined "reasonably diligent" search before using the illustration/music/film clip/photograph in any manner they choose, including any and all commercial use.

Please take a moment to review the information at www.owoh.org and consider signing the petition, writing to your Congressional leaders or at the very least alerting to any artists or musicians you know. Most of us in creative fields rely on licensing for our livelihood, and it's crucial that our rights are protected.

Oh, dear friends of mine...it's been so long. As most of you know, I've been trying to get this little card company off the ground, and it seems like it's finally taking flight.



In other, completely insane news, Design Sponge has requested pictures of my and Laurie's houses for her "Sneak Peek" column. Every Monday, she does a little photo tour of some designer's house or studioand she want to feature both of us. 30,000 people view this site every day. That's not a typo. Thirty THOUSAND people are going to see pictures of my cheap-ass couch. WTF. Little do they know, my house is a complete shit-storm right now. When you're trying to keep up with working AND heavy drinking, the dishes kind of fall by the wayside...

Two Trick Pony, is featured on Poppytalk Handmade this month! There are loads of fabulous artists, so it's worth checking out. We're selling cards and some large prints - exicting!

Any money we make here will go directly to buying more screens for printing...we're almost doubling our product line for the Stationery Show this year. Whoa. I spent the whole weekend with L sorting out what cards we're keeping from last years collection and which of the new designs make the cut. We (ink jet) printed everything and taped them up all over our studio, then pulled out the ones that suck. Difficult choices, difficult choices...

In other news: I have no other news. Paper is consuming my life for the next 9 weeks.

CHECK IT OUT.

The delightful and charming Uncle Beefy has posted an interview with Laurie and I! I am so, so excited. I've been working hard to promote our card line in various avenues, so it's extra rewarding to have it pay off in the form of a loooonnnnng interview. God bless you, Uncle Beefy.

Read it! Read it now!!! :D


remember, remember, remember...

Actually, no...don't look, ma.

There's a giant photo of the Boredoms/BOADRUM performance in the new Vice Photo Book. You can not only see Jim rockin' on the edge of the spiral, but you can see me in the crowd, proud on-looker. Of course, both of us require 20/20 vision or a magnifying glass to be spotted.

Too bad the rest of the book is filled with half-nude teenage hookers doing blow in American Apparel.

In other, slightly less offensive news, there's an interesting short video about the event here. Just to clear up any rumors that my husband was involved in a hippie drum circle. Apparently there's also a full length movie in the works - woot! Theoretically, it won't be full of junkies (un)dressed in 1970's kiddie porn outfits. +2 pts.


x-posted to my super sweet myspace blog

**edited for massive html FAIL.

So, I just saw a link for this print on Design*Sponge: 



I might have to have this. Or I might have to get this for a certain someone I know that's having a behbeh.

It kind of reminds me of when I was younger and gothed out, and I used to fantasize about having a baby I could dress in stripes and walk in a black vintage pram. Heh.

You can get this print (or a handsome mustachioed man) at Ashley G.'s etsy shop here.

Okay, so...last night after my initial iMac orgy, I started getting a migraine. I chalked it up to a.) staying up too late, b.) drinking too much caffeine yesterday or c.) finally coming down from the stress of my family stuff lately.

However, this morning I'm feeling the tell-tale signs again - swimming vision, total lack of balance, hot skin. Is it possible that my new baby is giving me migraines??? Please, god...no. And please let the Imitrex work quickly.

Oh, my sweet baby Jesus. I have FINALLY stepped into the modern world. I've just purchased and set up my first ever iMac. I've spent the past 5 years working every day on an eMac, and just dealing with the fact that I had to quit InDesign to run Illustrator, and had to quit both if I wanted to run Photoshop properly. And forget about running iTunes to casually listen to music - never happened, my friend.

I cannot believe that I've spent so long with only 256 MB of RAM and a 40 GB hard drive. Seriously, folks...what the hell? I may as well have been carving glyphs into stone all these years. God.

I am going to have SO MUCH TIME now to actually get work done. Look out, Boston brides...your invites are going to designed before you can finish telling me your color scheme.

In other news - I'm totally late to The National party, but I just borrowed "Boxer" from a friend last night. It's pretty darn good so far. It reminds me of some of my favorite bits of the Tindersticks without being quite as grim. Two thumbs up. I also borrowed St. Vincent, "Marry Me" which I heard only in passing last night. Seems interesting, and I'll have to give it a solid listen to form an opinion. Oh! And my friend B gave The Hubs a copy of The Focus Group which I've been DYING to get my hands on. It's just as good as I expected, all the way through. I'm psyched because I've been in a music rut since the fall, and I really needed some inspiration. The Hubs guarantees there's a constant flow of new music into the house, but he goes through some pretty obsessive phases and I don't always follow his lead. I'm glad to have some things for my own listening pleasure.

And now, time to use Photobooth to take pensive looking photos of myself for MySpace...har, har.

I must say, Christmas this year turned out much better than I hoped. Christmas Eve was pure delight - 8 friends over for a giant ham (B + K, wish you were here!), homemade pies, and Belle de Brillet 'til the wee hours of the morning. Holy crap, that stuff is insane and may become a staple in my house. Heh. At any rate, since Ning will have to work the day after Christmas for the next few years, I think I may make this a holiday regular. Kids, mark your calendars and warn the family - you're coming to my house next year.

Christmas Day, Ning and I slept in late, opened presents, then watched "Daisies." Who knew I would be so enthusiastic about Czech New Wave cinema? Must do more reading about this topic  as I'm painfully illiterate in this department. I do know that I also love "Valerie and Her Week of Wonders," so I need to get learnin'.

Also? Need to go shopping for little A-line 60's sheath dresses and cut hair into bob with bangs. Do men have a similar reaction to the fashion in films they like? Do they watch "Harold and Maude" and then crave brown courduroy? Curious.

Oddly enough, the only thing I've been able to enjoy lately is Middle Eastern music. Coming from a girl who was raised in MI and FL, and who's ethnic heritage is about as white as my bangs (Danish, English, misc. Scandinavian), this seems a little off-kilter. I've been incredibly worried about my brother (and my mother. Oh, and my father, too), and this particular "Classical Music of Iran" CD feels like the only thing that soothes and keeps me going. What gives, Music? No Cocteau Twins to remind me of the breezy days of my youth? No St. Etienne to make me feel like I'm skimming along in a silver convertible with a jaunty scarf to keep my hair in place? No Bonnie "Prince" Billy to encourage me to wallow in my misery?

Nope. More oud, please. Thank god Ning has the Music of Islam box set, or I'd really be fucked.

I had to change my journal background because the spooky trees and graveyard were ironic until it actually became Halloween season. Then I just looked like a total douche. I'll also be donning a reindeer sweater for Christmas eve.

I have all but abandoned this journal, haven't I? It's tough to write when I realize only karaokefiles is likely to read it (Hi K!) and I should just send her an email instead. However, I've set up an account on Pandora, and it has inspired me.

My "post-punk" station just kicked up an old tune from Radiohead's Pablo Honey album, and you know what? It sounded good to me. It reminded me of several things:
1. I listened to that album endlessly my first year in college, much to the consternation of my roommate.
2. My friends and I drove 2 hours to Orlando to see them on tour with Belly (where the eff was that show? Visage? or The Edge?)
3. We hung out with them after the show, because my friend had -ahem- a "press" pass based on writing music reviews for our college newsletter. Thom was not talkative, but Colin complemented me on my overalls.
4. I wore overalls with leotards. Can I go back to forgetting that?
5. Tanya Donnelly drinks Corona.

So, whatevs...Pablo Honey is not widely regarded as one of their finer moments, and Radiohead kind of blows in general now, but I LIKED IT when I was 18 and I'M NOT AFRAID TO TELL TEH INTARWEBZ.

Just don't tell my husband.

I'm thinking it's a little early to take on that title. Especially since I don't have much to say - YET, okay? - and mostly just wanted to play around with backgrounds for my journal.

The whole journal template situation has been a little annoying, frankly. I just spent all this time merrily scrolling through the "Expressive" section (naturally, as I'm an "artist" and we artists are "expressive") only to realize later that my options are limited since I'm only a basic user. Pooh on that, LJ. I fell in love with "Modernist Birch" but had to choose between the absolute basics, some seasonal options, camouflage, or cityscapes of other cities. I settled on Poe, because I think it adequately displays my disapproval of the other choices. And also, I like black. I suppose I'll eventually switch to one of the more basic settings, but damn it...the lure of fake wood grain was strong and now I'm pissed.

Well, I've exhausted my language skills for the day. Maybe I can build up to writing more...like the Couch to 5K program K was talking about. Couch to 5 ¶?