drive-in spook night.

tonight, aitor and i went to the hi-way drive-in in nearby latrobe after seeing their big readograph that promised a spooktacular hallowe'en experience. it is saturday night, after all. and hallowe'en is our favorite time to be spooked. we were treated to a great night out (after we figured out how to make the radio signal work). it was perfect - canoodling in the car, watching dumb movies, teenage hormones all around. the first movie was a weird little sci-fi thriller called the mist. it was satisfyingly stupid until about the half way mark. then our friend tiffany showed up in the movie! movies always get better when you know someone in them. that's the secret behind home videos. and tiff, you play a zealot with remarkable zeal! thanks for showing up on a big huge screen in the middle of pennsylvania.

the next movie was rob zombie's hallowe'en. i think it was very bad. thankfully, we were charmingly distracted by the costumed teens who skulked around scaring the people in cars. there were not too too many cars, so they just kept circling around over and over. this really just added to the charm. this then degenerated into zombies and monsters just chillin' in clumps around the grounds. finally, one ghoul told aitor he had a cool mustache.

there is a weekly flea market here on sundays. i think we are setting up the tent and coming back.

it's fall.

aitor made me pose for a picture yesterday.

look; it's totally fall.

my tree has something to say to you...

why have i had twin peaks on my mind lately? i'm not entirely sure, but it could have been a harbinger of our current situation.



based on an old fable told to us by our friends pat and al, we made our way from pittsburgh to the raging metropolis of ligonier, pennsylvania, where we had heard tell of a weird old motel that boasted a room with a tree growing through it. it seems that the fables are true. not only that, but we managed to score said 'tree room' for the whole weekend. even more fortuitous is the fact that this weekend marks 'fort days' and the 250th anniversary of fort ligonier.

there are few ways in which the abc motel disappoints (unless cleanliness is a concern of yours). the co-owner, milo, is a character of the highest degree; the room smells like...well, a tree; we have a lovely view of a leafy trail and some parallel bars (presumably to aid the owners in walking); and there's a little black cat that comes by to visit.







after settling in, we turned on the television, watched bob ross paint for a spell and relaxed. everything was perfect. we haven't felt this happy and at ease in a while. we are staying a while and couldn't be much happier about that fact.





oh, and there is a diner next door. heaven.

waking up in indy.

like i said, we got to sleep in the typewriter room at jamie and jerry's place last night. this is a bit of a misnomer, since many rooms in the house have a typewriter or ten in them. i really did think aitor was going to spin out of control. we spent a lovely evening up chatting about typewriters, letterpress fetishism, sewing, sewing machines, roller derby politics and all manner of other minutia.



we also learned some new slang - 'keycutters.' although i like to steer my public voice away from derision within the craft scene, i do have to admit a real distaste for the sight of disemboweled typewriters. in the craft world, this usually manifests itself in the form of typewriter key jewellery...hence, keycutters. apologies to all those i am calling out. i just value typewriters above adornment. and yet we live with animal parts all over our home. i will admit my hypocrisies if you can forgive my judgments. besides, it's a good slur. i put it to my readership to come up with a nasty nickname for button makers.





we left indiana with some fresh picked wildflowers and moved from hoosiers to buckeyes as we pressed on into ohio. if you ask me, these state nick names are all nonsense. but you didn't ask me. i am just full of unsolicited opinions today.

indiana calls us home.

(post title stolen from one of reba's postcards. possibly it has meaning beyond my understanding.)

today was the second day of the indieana handicraft exchange. i will be honest, it was a little slow. but this opened up some great opportunities to chat with other vendors, trade stuff and listen to some twangy folk country.



i picked up some awesome hand dyed yarn from flying sheep ranch - they specialize in historical yarn dying techniques and offer only colour palettes from the 1800's. i also ended up with a diptych of little paintings on wood by jessica sowls who, now that i have discovered her blog, has certainly graduated to hero in my books. i will have to do a round-up of artful acquisitions when i get home. currently, i am most concerned with keeping everything safe in the grimy leaking car.

we also ended up being taken in for the night by jamie and jerry (of jerry lee's western wear...well, he is, anyway). this is the stuff he makes:





when we got to their place, it was like we had walked into a dream aitor was having - taxidermy, antlers, religious art, and, of course, typewriters. in fact, we were pleased to discover that the typewriter room was also the guest room. i kind of thought that aitor was going to explode. or maybe implode into a the sweetest of sleeps. our best friends are strangers once again.

strip mall living.

there is something that has become comforting about settling into a nice off-ramp motel. the one we have found in terre haute, indiana, has about everything we look for - a kinko's, a coffee shop, an office max and a little further off, a kroger.

kroger is the grocery chain which, i have discovered, carries a house brand of unsalted, unsweetened canned beets. these have been keeping me alive on this trip. when we get really fancy, aitor and i mix up some greens, blue cheese, beets, mushrooms and dressing into a monster salad that makes us smile and sets our tummies a little close to right. tonight will be such a night.

je me souviens.

i finally got my act together to deliver my first care package to the souvenir shop, a design-based project that aims to reinvent and revitalize the art and craft of the canadian souvenir. when i met with one of the founders, todd, he filled my brains with good ideas for souvenir buttons that would be in keeping with my personal aesthetic tastes and rules. and, although i am working on some new slow-going projects for them, i started with an old design that i am very fond of.

pictured above are the confusion corner buttons i made to celebrate my love for winnipeg. confusion corner is a real intersection just outside of orborne village, the navigation of which presents a striking iconography. sometimes i like to display these buttons when i travel to see who knows winnipeg. the conversation usually goes something like this:

"hey, are you from winnipeg?"

"no, but i am a fan."

"i know a guy who has this tattooed on his leg."

"yeah, i know ron, too."

for the souvenir shop, i have started packaging these in sets of three. the design was based on a photo provided for me by my friend, michal grajewski. the packaging, as always, was set and letterpressed by nicholas kennedy of the trip print press. and i would also like to thank stacey bode for unwittingly providing me with my profile picture for the site.

the site at large is an impressive time vacuum for me. every time i go there , i seem to find new and amazing projects to read up on. the souvenir shop really lends itself to conceptual projects that are also decortive/populist (ie. just my thing). today's divergences included krystal speck's ghost town tea towels, wendy walgates' 5461 slipcast bird project, and chet domanski's energy bracelet. oh, and for all of those who have commented on the scissor necklace i wear all the time, its maker, allison wells, also has some of her crazy new items up on the site.