still running in place, trying to catch up with everything after being away for a week! i really wanted to bring you another installment of last week’s trip today, but instead spent a few hours in a photography studio getting lucy through her first photo shoot! love these 1st two family photos rachel the photographer posted on twitter, can’t wait to see the rest next week!

it’s only 8pm, but i’m gonna head to bed, get a good night’s sleep and post the trip pics first thing tomorrow!

check out the in-depth pics & info in part two of last week’s nature tour: the sunset bay area of southern oregon! this was a trial tour in preparation for the hopefully-to-be backed 2 month anima tour & poster collection! a $25 donation/poster pre-buy will get you exclusive daily email updates like this for 2 months AND a poster of your choice from the new anima collection in time for the holidays. come along with me virtually as i explore the pacific northwest in depth!

this tour was a good trial run. i realized i need two things to post from the field: a portable solar laptop charger, and a portable wifi internet hub!

my week camping was mostly unexpectedly off the grid, but what fun times we had touring the oregon coast for a week! i still have to go through all the photos – watch this blog in the next week for lots of pictures and updates!

while i was gone, cathy posted a great little interview and studio tour with me.

also: just 3 more days to go on my kickstarter campaign! you know you want to pledge $25 to my new anima project and receive a 16″ x 20″ poster of your choice! only need about 600 577 more of you to pitch in!

check out part one of last week’s nature tour: the coos bay area! besides camping and visiting a few beaches, we saw actual elk, and i also got to tour a potential anima nature tour stop!

spent the week nursing miss lucy-the-dog after her surgery monday to remove a few more rotted teeth. today’s been my first day back in the studio, but i didn’t get much done on account of an afternoon mushroom cultivating workshop with my favorite hippies in portland. does that sound insincere? i assure you, it’s not! reminded me to dig out mycelium running, a book i purchased last year during the holiday rush on the advice of a great customer visiting my booth at a craft show.

i’ll take it camping with me next week and actually read it. yes! i’m going camping! a real vacation! but of course, me being me, i’ll bring along my guide books, pens, paper & camera and begin preliminary research for my new anima series & kickstarter project.

the kickstarter project funding is slow going, but even if it doesn’t completely fund it’s helped me secure some amazing places to visit and stay in the next two months! if there’s no funding available i’ll visit these places as I can afford to and work on the new anima series on my own between other jobs i’ll have to procure on top of the ones I already have in place. it will just be a much slower process, and there won’t be mass-printed posters or cards available for you to purchase when i’m finished!

maybe i’ll just keep the artwork to myself until i have enough pieces to publish a book, and then maybe you’d be interested in pre-paying for that via kickstarter? hm, that’s something to think about! although with the hamster wheel life i live at the moment – working a ton to pay for the health specialists that allow me to continue to work a ton so that i can pay the health specialists – that’s many years in the future!

a fun little private client project i worked on for the past few days. the client wanted something reminiscent of barn quilt squares, i immediately thought of gunta stolzl‘s work & used that as inspiration.

so freeing to do something painted and abstract, and to have chickens as company while i worked!

all week i’ve been obsessed with watching small apartment videos on youtube. the nyc shoebox apartment above is all of 76 square feet, with no kitchen and a shared bathroom! innovative use of space, but you lost me at the shared bathroom part…

then there’s the hong kong transformer apartment that has moveable walls containing several different room functions.

the yellow tinge on everything from the one main window would drive me nuts.

the french rooftop legos-for-adults apartment is just my style: one wall full of cabinets that hides everything away…

the pullout bed that lives under the balcony space when not in use…

or can be pulled out a little to serve as a couch or seating for the pull-down table.

the only thing about this one is: the tiny apartment may have been inexpensive, but how much did all that renovation cost?!

inspired by the permaculture workshop i’ve been taking, and my general nerdy-ness about designing spaces i’ve been geeking out with these three books the past three weeks.

found via design milk, these amazing laser cut silk pieces are gorgeous!

i can just imagine how they must move and change when worn!

you can see all of them on sivan’s site here.

live: a sample post for my current kickstarter campaign, based on a hike i took friday! project backers will receive daily posts like this if funding is successful!