Super-Star Skiers

Next weekend is that last race of the season for the Buck Hill D-Team and I am going to miss it! I am so sad! I will be making the trek across the upper-midwest to Winter Park, Colorado to watch my brother compete in the USCSA National Championships with the University of MN ski team. Go Kale! Except don't tell him - it's a suprise... pretty sure he doesn't read this... really hope he doesn't...

Anywho - I am missing the last race with my little "Super-Star Skiers" - this is the team name that my group of eight 6-8 year-old girls picked out for themselves. Throughout the season I have grown attached to the speedy little squirts, their toothless smiles, hot-pink ski gear and the hilarious things they say ..."my butt is sweaty Kate!" ..."We went to breakfast at bur-bur king"... "I ski faster if I smile a lot"... I sure am going to miss them!

So, I decided to design a decal for their helmets so they can remember what a fun season it was. I think it turned out well. I ordered 12 on zazzel.com - which seems like a pretty cool site where you can create your own stuff for a very reasonable price - and no minimum orders - nice! Here's the design - what do you think? I think the girls will love it!

Padraig's Place Fundraiser Race at Buck

Well, if there was any doubt about me stinking at giant slalom it was erased last Friday. I raced with team SWAT in the Padraig's Place Fundraiser and had a blast. Too bad the event wasn't slalom. Fortunately, I was the only girl on the team- so a gap was too be expected. Maybe I should have brought the right skis. It was great to race again and the after party included a band, free food, free beer and giveaways! Yeah for Nastar! I think I might have to sign up for beer league next year...

Artist Kristina Lewis

Today's "Artist-a-day" on my google homepage is Kristina Lewis. I really like her sculptures and they are all made from every-day objects. They remind me of microorganisms and sea life and are so delicately beautiful. The link to the site featuring her work is below. I am also pasting the artist's statement...

"Wielded by our hands in daily tasks, utilitarian objects become extensions of our bodies, prosthetics in the service of our desires. Because they can’t act on their own, we fold, compress, hide and stack them. We economize, and then use them unconsciously. If objects are generally used as a way of extending my body into the world, how would they act without my constant imposition on them? Once separate from my body, how would they extend themselves? To begin this inquiry, I deactivate the use-value link that makes objects into tools for me. Once stripped of their “usefulness,” I ask, “how do these objects or materials grow, now that they have lost their original function?” I imagine that the resulting components have their own bodies and through accumulation are intent upon working together to grow an even larger body. As in nature, where specific mathematical principles provide structure while allowing countless variations, I create strict boundaries that insure a pattern, but within which the outcome is ultimately unknown. Through this process, I suspend my everyday experience with inanimate things in order to study the possibility of their animation. "

http://johanssonprojects.net/phpflickr/kristina_lewis.php

I heart Amy Butler

I love lamp.

I love making stuff. All kinds of stuff. This past weekend I decided to make a lamp. I thought I was going to get to use my new drill and ceramic/glass drill bit, but my make-a-lamp kit did not require me to drill a hole into the Ikea vase that I had chosen for my base. I finally got to use the pattern from that pillow on something. I love that pattern, but I just am not a huge fan of excessive pillows all over the couch - so I had to find another place for it. Luckily the lamp we used to have on that stand was ugly, so after some painting and assembling - voila!

Problem solved.

I like this. For some reason it cheers me up right now, which is helpful, since things seem to be crappy all over the place. People losing their jobs, friends moving away, cold yucky weather and a lack of fun in general. Crayons just seem happy and innocent.