i finally finished my painting! :) i titled it "Friday Night". sometimes, well a lot of times for me lately- Friday night isn't about going to club- yelling over noise and boozing it up. it's more about coming home to my Cutie, relaxing and maybe going out to dinner and enjoying a nice glass of wine or a cocktail at  home. working on projects that i've set for myself, reading, drawing, etc. i guess i've just gone back to my homebody ways. it's just who i am i suppose.  :)

  

 and well- settling back nicely into my
homebody ways, i've started a new bloggy! my beaton branson blog i feel is a bit of a mish-mash of too many things- so i will keep this blog just for daily babble, pictures that i take around my town and art projects. me new blog: ONE-TWO-THREE-FROCK will be my journey on pattern making and of course- sewing myself up some frocks to wear! :)
i'm going to try to make 1 pattern a week- and then the following week hopefully, little by little- finish sewing it up after work. i will also have current little oddball crafts that i always get obsessed about.. and then i forget about- then get newly obsessed about... what can i say, it happens! :) so i hope to see you guys at my new bloggy and back here too!

hope everyone is feeling crafty around the holidays!

my paint brush had dried up until...

...  i had to finish my painting for the eastside luv art show, thirsty canvas- eeek! i've officially worked on my painting 2 days- the first day i drew and i painted the first picture about 4 hours- the second day was this morning- i painted for about 30 minutes. i have to turn in my painting on saturday- so i better finish this up by then! the actual show is on dec 2 at eastside luv in boyle heights (los angeles). the theme of the show is the glorious classic drink that everyone has drank (and been drunk on) for 1000's of years... vino! well- vino, cocktails, etc.

i decided to paint a girl kind of just being lazy with a glass of wine. she has it proped up on her shoulder, just taking sips as she pleases. i haven't painted in the couch yet, but i think it looks a bit boring right now- so i'm going ot add some texture in the couch- maybe like a little floral print and i have to do more detail on the hair. i want to take up some paint on the jawline area- and i have to finsih the eyes and mouth of course, i don't know- what do you think?  aaaaand i also want to make the background a more rich red... like vino. :)

sorry that i hadn't posted sooner- i'm a bit of a wreck when it comes to posting- arent' i? well- i think i'm going to start a new blog with sewing projects- soon to be a wholel ot more in this coming year- as i'm making myself use all my stash fabric.. y punto! this blog will remain for my field trips, drawing, random pics and my daily babbling. :) i hope to start my new bloggy in mid/late december and focus on patterns and of course- sewing fabulous little frocks for me to wear... and once i get my sewing confidence- perhaps even make some stuff for friends, family, strangers, etc. :)

hope everyone is doing fabulous! :)

HaPpY HaLlOwEeN... said the fox.

ok- first off- i just have to say, that i absoultely love shadow shots- maybe it's because you can make things that sometimes are not real... look real! :) take for instance me and cutie in the picture above- do we not look like cute little foxes frolicking on the streets? :) inspiration of course was the film- The Fantastic Mr. Fox. :) well this is how that came about...

first- we obviously needed ears- these were my first ears that i cut out- i thought they looked a bit like ears and a bit like a strange colored flames... i wanted to be a happy fox- not a fox on fire! :(

here i am unsuccessfully modeling said fire flame ears... those didn't work- so lets move on for now.

me being the mrs in the realtionship- meant i had to get meself a yellow dress with apples on it. hmmm... i did find yellow with apples- but it also had bees on it- soOOoo no. so me being ever optimistic- thought- i could hand paint my own fabric... suRrrRRrrE- no problem!

i bought a piece of rubber and carved out little apple stencil... draped a pattern, then graded it (which i'm very proud of- cos it was my first time grading from a drape to my size and it actually fit first go around! :) - a little snips here and there...

bought some fabric paint and press-o, presto- apple fabric galore! :) i did think the apples were a little large and it reminded me a bit of a teachers art smock- so i decided to stop with the apples. apples on the bodice would do- after all- this is just a costume, it just needs to get the effect of a character- doesn't need to be exaaAaaaAActly, right??? at least thats what cutie kept telling me... and he was right!

and here we are! :) we went to the dia del los mueartos celebration at the hollywood forever cemetary it was faboo! :) met up with some friends and a grand time was had (until i dropped my camera- but i'll leave that story for later. :(

cutie was freaking out about not having ears for his costume, so the ears i literally cut out- hot glued and pinned to my and cuties head five minutes before we left the apratment- they seemed to work. :) people at the cemetary seemed to like our costume- we weren't dressed for day of the dead- but thats ok- i did that last year. kids would smile and wave at us and a man took a picture of us and said he thought we looked great and would put it online... we would see people smile and look at us and we even got- "oh look! the fantastic mr and mrs fox!" :) so the costumes worked! :) i made a little artbelt to carry around my paint brushes- which came in handy cos then i didn't have to carry a purse! :)

after the cemetary we went to theater 68's haunted house- this is run be- of course, actors and they have some awesome special effects as you're walking through- collapings / sliding walls- secret pop out scare holes- holy shnikes this thing was scary!!! EN SERIO! i was holding on for my dear life on to cuties arm- walking along with him as close to him as if we were siamese twins- aheheehe! it was totally creepy! if any of you guys are in the hollywood area- i totally recommend going! :) it's on sunset- $10- google them- it was awesome! my poor sissy came out in a cold sweat poor thing. :( (hehehehe) :) as we were walking (me pushing cutie- trying to run) one of the actors recognized who were were and in a very menacing tone cried out- "you better run fast mr. fox!" ahahaha!

did anyone else make their costumes? happy halloween everyone! :)

this past weekend i went to the glendale paper fair with cutie. cutie can look for HOURS through old postcards- always researching and on the hunt for his blog. i on the other hand- can look for hours through old photgraphs. i like getting to know newly found friends from the past. best of all- i love when i can find pics of a ceratin group or family and see them change through the time. and i love, love, love when my new fround friends have written notes on their pics.

below is one of my favorite little darlings that i found. i found a few pics so i nabbed them all! :)



on the right- you see a cute smiling girl- on he back of the pick it reads, "she's 21. hazel eyes - brown hair- and is 5'10in." hmm.. i thought it was cute. maybe soemone was trying to play cupid and write her info on a pic... sooner or laterit looks like she found a sailor friend. :) she was a looker that would make any man happy.



here are more pics of little miss darling. :) look at the bottom riht hand pic... she is just so cute... and she played the ukey! i bet her voice was like a little birdy. :) girls like htese are the kind that inspired me to get a ukey.. my voice.. ehm... i'm sure my cutie would say it was like a little birdy! (lets not ask WHAT kind of birdy.... :)



and here- we see her with a group of friends. i was able to find some separate pics of her friends in the huge box that i attacked. i tried to kind of match the friends in order. the top right hand friend is on the top. :) the one below is in teh middle- and then litte miss darling is right below herself on the left hand side. :)



and looky here- i found friend # 2. i think she looks a little older and a bti more sophisto in the picture to the right. :)



i didnt' find friend # 1, but i did find another little girly. i like her int eh main picture- she looks very happy to be with this boy. :) i wonder if it was her boyfriend or jsut a boy who she had a crush on and was maybe very giddy to be able to snag a picture with him. :)

there were also many othe rpictures that i bought, but those i'lll post later. OH! at the same show , i bought my self the CUTEST ever little lamps! they are vintage german porcelain and on the stand of the lamps, there is a dancing girl. i found 2 of them- so they can be friends- they are in perfect condition! (thank you mama and papa cress and grandma and grandpa cress- it was bought with their birthday money! eheheh) they will go nicely on my new vanity that i also got for my birthday (thank you sissy!) i'll psot pictures of the lamps once i ahve my vanity up.



what do we have here? one last final forgotten memory... i found this in the same box, i found this western union telegram... perhaps a secret rendevous and it loks like they might've had a few!

do you guys have any favorite vintage pics? are they your own family or also found new friends???

morning sunrise...

saturday morning and the sun isn't quite up yet. i woke up at 430 in the morning and couldn't fall back to sleep. so i'm watching downtown 81. so far, its a bit slow... maybe i shouldn't judge the film quite so quick.

what is this little birdy looking at???

film review- it has very bad tunes and it has some pretty good tunes. mostly the acting is pretty, "meh." debbie harry looks of course like an angel, as she always does. it's on netflix streaming. i like the band who has a tall thin white man singing an an asian girl in red on drums and a few other bands/songs in the film... what do you think?

oh my! this little birdy is looking at you! :)

hope eveyone has a fabulous saturday!

birthday weekend...

yes, yes.. i'm horrible at keeping up with posts- as i read a bunch of blogs- my daily reads- i'm a bit not so great at actually updating my own! so here are a few pictures and a quick little post on how my birthday weekend went... i am now out of my 20's! eEeeEeeEeew!

first off- at work- it was awesome! :) my boss decorated my office, desk and compy with birthday streamers, sparkly birthday garland and all sorts of fun stuff! i was definitely surprised! they had a potluck and 2 yummy cakes! people at work are so nice to me! i got 4 different plants- orchids and mums- cards- baked cookies- gifts, etc.. ehhehehe. and my boss got me the best buster keaton book i had never even seen!!!! (there will be a post on my dear buster later this week). the pic above is me and cutie at the smoke house in burbank. * note long hair* i'm quite the foodie (yes, my yelp account is also collecting a bit of dust...) we got yummy crab stuffed shroomies and lobster tails- not quite what i expected- but still super tasty! :)

then- on saturday- we went to magic mountain- (cos i still technically act half my age most of the time). went with cutie and my sissy lollie- who was VERY excited to be this close to daffy duck! :) after some roller coaster action and some bbq mini-wiches- we were ready to go home... OooOH my achin' feets and hips... :)

sunday- i ran some errands with cutie and went to visit my mama and just took it easy for the rest of the day... and found myself a good pair of scissors...

... MONDAY...

in 2006- my dearest cynthia and i vowed to grow our hair out for peace!!! after being inspired by the documentary the US VS. John Lennon. we grew our hair out for four years!!! during that time- i trimmed it only once- for my wedding cos it was major scraggles! we had discussed cutting it, but something always held us back. we were growing it out for a cause- for peace! :) well- we are far from having any peace on earth- but i decided to finally cut it for a good cause. i grew it out for peace and was able to cut it off for cancer. :) i'm sending my hair to locks of love- i have a whole 15 inches left over!!! i dont' think i will ever cut my hair again and not donate it. i'm excited to send it off knowing it will go to some little girl or boy who needs it more than i do. :)

all in all- i had a fabulous birthday weekend!!! :)

i'm gonna buy a paper doll that i can call my own...

i went to Cinecon 46- a classic film festival in hollywood. cutie and i didn't partake in any of the films but we did go into the dealer rooms later in the evening and i found the cutest paper dollies! :) one of my faves - valentino of course... swooOoon! i didn't find buster keaton (my ultimate fave of the silent film stars)- but i did find norma talmadge. buster did marry his lesser known sister.. so, purely for this buster family connection- i bought it. i'm always peeved when i see things for chaplin and not buster- above is a smaller sized chaplin paper dolly that i found. i bought it... but would've much prefered a Buster paper dolly... i will have to make my own i suppose...

we then went to musso and franks to celebrate Cuties birthday. i did take a few pics- but blogspot is being difficult with downloading pics for some reason. :( i'll have to upload them a little later. :( happy birthday to my Cutie. :)

starting out and an oopsies moment!

ok- above is the first dress pattern that i've started working on. it's a vintage late 60's - early 70's pattern that i bought while antiquing in san pedro. i've never actually worked off patterns and was a little intimidated. sure i can drape a dress and scribble some symbols around and it works for me (not all the time.. ehhhehe) but i was a bit nervous about going off somethign that i think is so ehm.. final???? one good thing about this pattern- since it was used- all the pieces were already cut! :) that saved some time- one of the down sides to this- is well... i'm hardly a junior size 10 by todays standards (and for sure not by 70's standards!).

so after the first go around- i noticed i needed to add some extra to even fit this mock up around my ehm... curvalicious hips (hahaha1). after the second go around- i was now able to wiggle in and zip it up.. but well- the shape of the dress looked nothing like the little fun dress in the illustration- so my third move- which might be tonight- will be to add a bit more to the sides for more wiggle room and a bit more of an overall loose fun flared fit. lets see how this turns out. overall (so far at least) this pattern is pretty easy to work with- although i did have to get my sewing book out to remember some hand sewing stiches...


on to my "oopsies moment"- this is kind of embarassing to say the least... eh! i usually wear a pretty basic uniform to work- some sort of pants- a V or a scoop neck t-shirt and my mockies. i wear my mockies almost everyday. i've been a faithful user of mockies ever since i got my first pair about 2 years ago. there is one problem with mockies (at least in my experience). if you wear mentioned shoe almost everyday for work- they tend to (of course) wear out every 7-10 months. this mornig as i was telling cutie i needed new shoes... and him saying that no- i didn't need new shoes- that i have a load of them in the closet (this is true- but they are not of an everyday work shoe ilk). so i huffed around a bit (as any wifey would do when todl she shouldn't buy more shoes) i get over it and give cutie a kiss good bye and off to work i go!

ok. i'm walking up the steps to my office and what do i see when i reach the top of the stairs??? my big toe- saying hello to me!!! the little leather stitches had become undone- my little piggies wanted to explore and see the mess that is my office and i shoo-ed them away back into my mocky and ran to my office and closed the door!!! i showed my shoe to my co-worker and had told him about my morning convo with my cutie and he started laughing and said- "you SO know he's going ot htink you did that on purpose!" i was so embarassed! luckily, i remembered about some keds that i had thrown in the back of my car one day and thankfully i am able to wear these for the day (not considered appropriate) by my work dress code- but i thought it might be better than walking around with my little tootsies hanging out! and i just love how you can see my little mocky sun tan not to mention you can now see my little hide-away socks- le' sigh! needless to say--- hey cutie! guess who's getting new shoes this weekend! :) hehehe...

flowers for the flower... :)

this morning cutie woke me up to tell me that he was going downtown for some bloggy picture taking. i decided to tag along so we can run down to the flower district so i can buy some fakey flowers. ever since the reception in wisconsin- i've been in love with flower crowns. i had thought to buy one, but figured i could probably make then myself.

well- after walking around olvera street, having some lunchies and roaming around union station, we decided instead of facing the parking mess that is downtown la- we decided to head back home- but, i thought maybe to stop at micheal's really quick to buy some fakies. spent about $20 and home we went.

the only snag i ran into was running out of some of the little pink roses! so i had to run back out to buy some extra to finish... and ta-da! FINITO! :) maybe i can actually make it to the flower district some time soon. :)

summer freckles and some projects...

summer is here- but thank goodness it's hasn't been crazy hot. i've never been one for the heat- for baking in the sun- i don't make a very good california girl... but the sun does bring out my freckles- not many- but a few came about after a day of playing pool volleyball- probably the most summer thing i will do this year. :)

the little book above is my sketchbook for the skecthbook project. :) my theme is "it will be fun, i swear". i kind of wish i had gone with my second thought and done "night time stories"- only because i would be abel to draw my dreams out- cos i usually have very vivd dreams that i remember every morning when i awake. the front cover is simple- but i thought it was appropriate- i like that the shadows are jsut about to hold hands... perhaps not knowing what they are getting into. i have about 6 months to finish the whole sketchbook- crossing my fingers!


and- as always.. i'm taking on way more projects than i can handle... other than teh sketchbook project- i also started a new dolly. :) she is smaller than teh first dolly i made- little hazel. i'm trying to make more detail on her face than what i did with hazel. i'm hoping she looks cuter once she has hair and a dress. :)

and here i have my workspace... office (for the cutie) / craft room (for me). we've fully moved in to our new place now- but i still need to add the finishing touches- aka... pictures of inspiration- all the fun little things i like to look at while i work. which brings about another reason why i took the pic above- i've saved my parents kitchen table!!! :) i took apart my art desk and i replaced it with our families old, heavy, wood kitchen table- if i had not taken it... it would've got picked up by strangers... i couldn't bare to think of it being owned by others- i nabbed it. too many fond memories with this table. from me learning to pour my own cup of milk - my brother making me burst into laughter and spitting out my lunch (not the cutest) :)- to me clearing off the whole table to turn it into a pattern / sewing table during college. a craft table it will be once again- i plan to have it for my children to take when they get homes of their own... hopefully they want it!!! :)

pencil and mc.paint fiddles...

this is what little zins is feeling like this week... why? i'd rather not say. it's defintiely not home or married life though... aRRrRgh- grumble, grumble, grrRrrRr...

>:OP

ginger is on the prowl... sketchbook here i come!

this weekend is a bit strange- i wanted to get some stuff done- but am busy.. ehm... not with anything really. well- other than doggie-sitting- let me introduce to you Ginger. she is a bit of a pampered pup. she gets groomed once a week- has special snacks and when you take her for a walk- if she doesn't like the route you've chosen... she WILL NOT walk- but she has the MOST adorable sad eyes in the world- you just kind of give in to whatever she wants... she ends up picking the route, she is the master... and i end up picking up her doo. this is what doggie lovers do (or dog walkers).

other than doggie sitting- i'm going to pick up my parents from the airport- and am meeting with my best friend trmw- feels like i haven't seen her in ages, can't wait to chat adn catch up with everything.

i need to fully immerse myself in something creative that i love. out of sewing, drawing, crafts, out of all the three- i love drawing the most. i will take pictures as i finish them. this week for sure i have to finish the little girl that i started ages ago. a friend of mine said he really likes my stuff and that he would screen print one of my drawings for me in his class. so i really want to finish her up. i'm not sure why- but i just really like the drawing. i'm atchd to this little girl for some reason. i like both versions of it. i like the actual quick sketch and the real one that i started (but have not finished). i will post it up as soon as i'm done. needs to be finished by wednesday for his class on thursday.

as i've said so many times before- i want to do so much- its hard for me to stop, sit and actually finish one thing. is there a phone app out there that will hold you accountable for finsihing all the things you say you're going to do???

mmmMMMM.. num-nums! :)

well, my little berries are certainly on their way... and i've proved myself to be a little farmette! :) everytime i see some new ripe strawberries, i want to take more pics and share them.. but well- how exciting can strawberries really be.... (well i think tehy are.. but whateva!) but here was teh firs tlittle meal i made for Cutie and i. toast with nutella, peanut butter and my sweet little berries... :) the berries look like heart- cutey num-nums! :)

and below are some yummies cupcakes that i made! my first time making them- they were easy and yummy! i made close to 4 dozen for a potluck at work- everyone gobbled them up.. so now i'm a farmette and a baker! :) i made all chocolate and some strawberry cakey with cheesecake frosting... and just a dash of sprinkles will do ya'! :) all this food talk is making me wish i still had some cupcakies... OooOOh- woe is me for this foodie! :) toodles noodles!!! :)