tonight in atlanta.

photo by stacey bode

just a quick fevered note to say that aitor and i will be at the very first kraftwork hosted in young bloog gallery's brand new space this evening. we are really excited to be participating and getting a chance to check out their new digs.

i have also updated my upcoming shows page, so you can now stalk our travels lightly before they happen.

in other news, our friends at something's hiding in here have a new project that you can involve yourself in. i already did. it's easy.

see you tonight, atlanta!

who is doug dank?

photo by stacey bode

doug dank is an improv show in atlanta that uses real-life monologues from real-life people as its basis. tonight, the real-life monologist will be our very own reverend aitor. come out and see it. it should be fun.

dress up photo fun day in atlanta.

photos by stacey bode

today, in feverish delirium, we all decided to make good on plans to do a silly photo shoot with one of our hosts, stacey. stacey is a pretty rad photographer so i was quite honoured to be posing for her. that said, my brain is so overheated parts of the session are a little blurry.

did i mention i have had a cruddy cold ever since the curtain dropped on the festival i was here performing in? yes, this is all true.



but back to the photo shoot...when i rolled out of bed in the early afternoon, stacey was scraping foamy tape off of some wood panling with a rusty razor blade. this, apparently, is how you make photographic magic (as evidenced by the ensuing photos). we then raided the weird crap in our car and some fake birds of staceys (she apparently has a thing for fake birds in photos). she also ended the afternoon by taking some magnificent photos of my buttons and aitor's art. we shall never be denied from a craft fair again with these!

small press, big logo.

just a very quick note to thanks the lovely folks at the toronto small press book fair for profiling my small press. i know it is not always apparent, but the sweetie pie press started out as a zine making operation that was soon eclipsed by buttons, art and other crafy projects. a profile like this is both flattering and shaming. i have to hammer out some new zines at some time. january? good grief.

i also keep missing the book fair for various scheduling reasons. i will be missing the next one, for example, which is november 1st. you might want to check it out.

athens basics.

today we visited bizarro wuxtry, a quintessential athens establishment. nevermind the dust bunnies, bizarro is full of great comics, zines and buttons. devlin, the manager, also makes 1" buttons (under the name 'inch high'). if you need buttons made in athens, he's probably your man. he has done some exceptional things to push the boundaries of buttonry. with his permission, i will be lifting on of these techniques soon for a new button adventure. but until then, i leave you with an image of the amazing tin ceiling at the grit...

sitting on the factory floor.

yesterday was taken easy. we hardly went out. i made lots of buttons. and in the evening we all sat around working on various craft projects, chatting and watching movies. we also participated in rancho cocoa's weekend wind-down (an activity which results in many lists, so i'm extra down with it). oh, that's nilla up there performing her nonchalant trick of just sitting still like a person.





me, i'm working on replacing tara bursey's cheap dates button sets that were all gobbled up by various stores on our travels. your girls are out there in the big bad world now, tara. and they're multiplying.

missy is working on a big custom order for the local water utility making all these terry cloth drops. well, i call them miss missy's li'l drips - you may have to petition her to change their name. i think missy might also want to consider claiming that they cure dropsy.



today, after much talk of missy's comic strip in the local weekly, i finally went online to look it up. holy man, do people get riled up over some drawings of cute wittew tofus. it's amazing. it seems like the paper gets most of its letters about her strip. the rancho cocoas told us that a few years ago the ire of one athenian even spurred a poster campaign. people are weird. and amazing. i'm impressed with missy for taking this weekly abuse on her $20-per-strip salary.

oh i should also announce that i couldn't help but begin a rubber band ball for the road. if my baby at home hasn't totally atrophied in the summer heat, maybe they can be pals upon my return to toronto.

a little georgian german town.

our first day in athens began as all first days here should - with brunch at the grit, an amazing vegetarian restaurant with friendly service and cures for road gut.

but this was just the first of the wonders we would witness. our gracious hosts, missy and raoul, had planned a great adventure for us - a trip to alpine helen (or helen, georgia). helen is a small town about an hour and a half's drive from athens that is designed to make tourists and vacationers think they are in germany...only with more american and confederate flags sprinkled about.

missy and raoul were looking at cookoo clocks in their mission to cutify their home, rancho cocoa. but alpine helen holds far more marvels than just germanic clocks. there is also a miniature kingdom,...









...strange and wonderful sweets,...





...hosen,...



...and an historic indian mound (with a gazebo built on it).



i'm pretty sure there is a town ordinance that requires all structures to look faux alpine. even the dutch import shop where i bought postcards...and the circle k.

i must say that all of my recent interactions with miniatures have gotten me really excited about taking pictures of them. but i was haunted by the suspicion (and now with the help of some friends knowledge) that somebody has already done this better and firster. actually, i found a few people doing miniature photo projects. and besides, i am not a photographer. i suppose it will just have to remain a hobby.

when we got home, missy was so tuckered out that she curled up on the table and reverted to her natural form: