cig’s Neighborhood

Things are fine.
In Texas right now. Galveston Island to be exact, at the moment actually. Spending some time with my father.
Can't really find a decent internet connection anywhere.
And I hate the fact that Houston doesn't want you to walk anywhere.

The only thing I can think about right now is the fact that I was peer pressured (by Ben J.) into eating dog food. Trying it, tasting it. Not feasting on it.

It didn't really taste like anything. Just bad and bland.
Dogs should have more flavorful food, I think.

Here's a shot from the photo shoot we had for my winter 2009 look book:

Originally published at sixhours.net. You can comment here or there.

It's hard to believe she's almost a year old. I've said it so many times over the last few weeks, but it's true. The squirming little bundle we brought home from the hospital is now a spirited almost-toddler on a mission (we've yet to pin down exactly what that mission is, but from what I can tell it has something to do with stealing the TV remote and eating cat food... babies are strange creatures).

It's amazing how much our lives have changed, but despite the magnitude of this difference, it's not something I can easily put into words. We still go to work, come home, eat, sleep, and we have the added task of baby care--it's the same old life, with more responsibilities. If anything, it's more mundane than it used to be, but somehow the simpler things are more fulfilling. Watching Ellie grow into her personality, seeing her try new things--it's an unmatched thrill. And this is only the beginning!

Just look at that face. All the remote-stealing and cat-food-eating in the world couldn't make her less perfect to me.

Nostalgic moments since Andrea G. said she's coming to visit in January:

Andrea and I (as NAZIRECTIONS) playing in Portland at Reed College.

In retrospect, it really was just drunken noise.
Later that same night I remember falling on my face (not because I was drunk) because I jumped from the top of a staircase (because I was drunk) and waking up with a fat lip. I deserved it.

In other news, last night Ben and I were interviewed (videotaped) and photographed by these young local filmmakers wanting to talk to young designers (I think---it all happened so fast). There were all these cameras positioned around me and people looking at me while I worked. It wasn't unpleasant, just unusual.

Anyway, one of the questions they asked me was if I had any advice for someone just starting out (as if I'm not).

Well, first of all, I had all my words together and basically said that you need to have a plan and goals in mind. And that you need to stay focused and keep good records. You need to know where your money is going! OKAY.

And then I finished it off by messing up my words...
Instead of saying "you need to hang in there", I said: "You need to stick it in."
I guess I was trying to say, "You need to stick with it."
I don't know. But it keeps playing over and over in my head.
I'm not really embarrassed. I just keep thinking how dumb I was. Dumb!

In OTHER news, we shoot our look books on Sunday, which is cool.
We're both really (very) busy with getting samples ready for this AND getting holiday orders out. I leave for Texas on December 16th. So, the last day to order anything from Cubist Literature until 2010 is December 13th!

SELF PORTRAIT THURSDAY!
12.10.09

Last night, my "old-reliable" took a fall that put it over the edge.  After years of abuse including beach trips where it got filled with sand, my attempt to clean it with "Dust Off" which permanently destroyed the screen, sticky fingers taking pictures of beloved pets, getting temporarily lost at Crag Cave in Ireland and fall after fall after fall, my Sony Cyber-shot has shot its last pic.

Goodbye Cyber-shot, it was a pleasure working with you, I have never had such a reliable camera and I will never forget all the fond memories we created together.

On a more uplifting note.  Here is a  picture of the newest U2 Coverband, "The Cuties"

coming soon to a playground near you.

Originally published at sixhours.net. You can comment here or there.

I've been so caught up in family drama and sickness the last few days that I almost forgot about the giveaway! Eee! Today I sat down with my e-mail inbox and sorted all the entries, removing duplicates and checking to make sure everyone was accounted for. The end result was 87 total entries between blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and comments--wow! I plugged that number into Random.org to generate the following sequence:

I then counted back through the entries and matched them to the 5 winners.

The winner of the poster is... JenniferB who said: "I like the numbers print from your Calobee site." Thanks, Jennifer!

The four runners up and gift certificate recipients are:

• Lisa R


• Kiddlebug


• Shannon


• Elsie

I've contacted all the winners! Thanks to everyone who entered and spread the word. :)

The three-ring circus that is Tiger Woods Inc. is causing such a flurry of media attention that even my beautiful 17- month-old niece Lucy is getting in on the action.  According to her agent (who also happens to be her mother), Lucy is shopping this photo around to the tabloids, the highest bidder wins the rights!

All money made will go into a special fund for: purple and green clothing, mid-morning bagels, jewelry cleaner and gloves :)

This weekend was devoted to the loft bed that has been sitting in pieces around the bedroom and apartment. We've been sleeping on a mattress on the floor in an unfinished loft bed frame for about two or more months now. Quite the eyesore. I thought we would have gotten around to fixing up our bed a lot sooner than we had, but when you work a lot, many things suffer. Beds, social life, hygiene, sleep schedule, etc.

The bed was a whole lot of drama we just didn't want to deal with, I guess.
It was given to us. It's from Ikea, but Ikea doesn't make this design anymore.
And as luck would have it, we lost some important hardware that Ikea ALSO doesn't make anymore.
(We found that out halfway through constructing the bed, which is why we were sleeping in a frame.)

Anyway, we figured out another way to make things work.

And here you go:

Cats panting.

I didn't leave the house today.

Originally published at sixhours.net. You can comment here or there.

Phew, what a weekend. Miss Elspeth is fighting an ear infection which has made her pretty uncomfortable, and in turn most of our time has been spent doting on her and trying to distract her from the earache. She's also teething--those first-year molars are mean--so it's double trouble around here. I don't think the antibiotics are doing much for her, so I have a sneaking suspicion we'll be seeing the doctor again soon.

Despite all this, I managed to get a bit accomplished. On Saturday we went out with friends to do some quick family pictures and have lunch. We'd planned to go to the holiday parade downtown, but El's schedule has been out of whack (see the part about ears and teething) and she napped longer than usual, so we didn't leave the house until the parade was almost over. I did get a few pictures of the short time we were there, which I put on Flickr.

On Sunday we woke up to SNOW! The weather went from mild and almost green to winter wonderland in the span of a few hours. The change of scenery got me in the mood to decorate, so I put up some Christmas things. We won't be getting our tree until later this month, but the lights in the windows will do until then. I also did some cleaning, processed photos and listed some new postcards in the Calobee Doodles shop.

All things considered, a very productive weekend. Now I need to go snuggle with a sicky baby.