katharine hearts home renovation

i owe you posts about road trips, things i didn’t get to do on road trips (Hobo Railroad?!), the TTC tour, and news about other projects I’m working on. i still need time to collect my thoughts and photos. for now, please enjoy my new bathroom.

when we moved into our new home, it was not quite move-in condition. the office was pale yellow, the bedroom mocha, and the hallway had three layers of wallpaper peeling off. and the bathroom, while not quite as horrible as some (seriously Toronto, what’s the deal with all the pink bathrooms?), it needed some work. the worst was the radiator. it’s difficult to feel fresh and clean while looking at a rusty rad.

within our first month, the office and bedroom were painted and we added a cabinet to the bathroom. i convinced the man of the house to paint the bathroom rad once the weather warmed up. and finally, just last week, i was able to paint the majority of the bathroom walls.

 

the ceiling remains aqua out of necessity rather than design. it is out of my reach, literally. but overall, the bathroom looks cleaner and complements the cat that lives in the sink.

katharine hearts kitties #2

this is Vespa.

this is Linnell.

sometimes they can exist rooms apart from each other, in their own little kitty worlds. and sometimes they can curl up in the same room and share warmth and affection.

and then…

don’t worry. they don’t mean it.

katharine hearts cardboard

three years ago, i built a robot. he wasn’t shiny and he wasn’t functional, but he was mine and i loved him. boris was constructed with two cardboard boxes, styrofoam bits, and PVC pipe. most of his parts were rescued from the trash (or under my furniture).

he sat in my living room until the Big Move because we didn’t have enough room for him. boris is currently crashing at a friend’s place, sipping martinis and dreaming of a career as a film extra and rock star.

and he pales in comparison to the work of Chris Gilmour.

katharine hearts links #2

we just returned from a road trip around New England. while you’re waiting for me to put some thoughts (and photos) together, spend some time poking around web zen. through their retro zen a few weeks ago, i discovered my new best friend, Ultra Swank.

katharine hearts colours

while looking for games to put on my argyle laptop, i happened upon a new tool that is sure to be my best friend forever (until i forget about it). Pipette is a eye dropper application that you can use to select pixel colours and get their hex value.

Pipette is a handy utility for digital artists and web designers. It allows you to quickly and easily grab the colour of any pixel on the screen and copy it in hex format, as used in CSS files, or in paint programs, such as Adobe Photoshop.

i imagine this would come in handy for web design or colour matching logos and such (especially if you’re a designer taking over a project from a long-forgotten or MIA designer). this is one tool i’d turn cyborg for.

and although i haven’t tried it out myself, i think Colourlovers will be helpful inspiration for those projects requiring fresh and hip colour palettes.

katharine hearts felt

a few years ago i was felt crazy. everyone i knew received felt pouches for presents. i stocked up on felt, full of fancy plans. then life happened and the felt was put away. but now that i have a few more months of freedom, it’s craft city around here.

in the same day that i carved my Dorothy Parker stamp, i also carved an owl and a pipe. i haven’t done anything with the pipe yet. but i’ve gone owl pouch crazy here.

i also created a drink recipe pouch for the curious imbiber who wants to share personal recipes or an excuse to chat up the attractive bartender.

both pouches will eventually be sold on my Blissfully Bitter website.

katharine hearts making stuff

it’s been a while since i posted one of my own projects, so we’ll play a little catch up.

while sorting through the magazines and catalogs that had accumulated during my school session, i found a Veer catalog with these thumbnails of eyes. because it’s my habit to cut and rip up magazines (i have binders full of inspiration images, interesting ads, craft projects, and a year’s worth of Real Simple’s five easy dinners), i cut out all the eyes.

i put together this collage in an afternoon:

the collage is decoupaged on 5″x7″ canvas board. as is my tendency when creating “art,” i leave interpretations to the individual viewer.

katharine hearts the beatles (and the monkees)

if we were going on a date to Jackrabbit Slim’s, i’d tell you that i’m a Beatles person as opposed to an Elvis person. so it was easy for me to agree to see Across the Universe, the film set to music from the Beatles. there’s always a danger in seeing someone else’s interpretation of music you grew up with (you couldn’t pay me to see Movin’ Out…well, maybe…), but this film didn’t tarnish the music.

the story, set in the 1960s, is really nothing we haven’t seen before. thanks to Forrest Gump, The Dreamers, and The ’60s mini series, we have a general idea of social and cultural atmosphere of the era. but Across the Universe combines the music and imagery in such a way that you don’t really mind going on the long, bumpy trip again. it’s not perfect, but definitely something to see if you consider yourself an artist of any sort. (it’s good to see different interpretations of artistic work, which is what i like about The Five Obstructions.)

to see the movie, you have to let go of expectations and just let the images wash over you. you’ll either hate it or appreciate most of it. if you loved Head (and it probably ranks in my top 20 movies i’ll force new friends to watch), then you may love Across the Universe. especially if you like cameos from famous people (what? no Nancy Sinatra?!) and psychedelia (meh). the end credits had me hoping for a digitized naked Micky Dolenz circa 1969, but i’ll have to settle for this clip of the Porpoise Song.

now if you were to ask me if i’m a Beatles person or a Monkees person, i might respond with the Rutles and run out of the restaurant.

katharine hearts board games

Craftster is holding a challenge to revamp board games. here’s an idea of what i could do with my Uno cards when my boyfriend gets tired of me beating him all the time. i think the Connect Four mod is pretty clever. the Clue purse reminds me of a similar project a friend of mine wanted to make. i don’t know if she ever got around to it.

my potential game project is to make a felt Boggle game, but i haven’t found anything to put in the cubes to keep them from collapsing into themselves. also, i haven’t tried very hard to work on it.

katharine hearts handmade goods

by now, everyone’s heard of Etsy, right? it’s the mega shopping site for handmade goods. it’s like wandering around a giant craft fair without a bored boyfriend in tow.

sometimes i like to browse and look for potential gifts for myself and loved ones. in the past, during the beta testing, the selection for my obsessions and my family’s collections were paltry. now the selection is much more impressive. so much argyle!

this blue argyle hoodie is something that i would wear until it rotted off of me. i would also gladly eat my raisin bran from these bowls. if i were to host a dinner party, this would be my invitation, we’d sip from similar martini glasses, and set them on these coasters.

the up side about Etsy is that it’s one-stop shopping for original, sometimes one of a kind gifts. the down side is that it is not one-stop purchasing/shipping. if you’re making purchases from multiple sellers, the shipping costs can really add up.