Sunday, Bloody Fabulous Sunday

*Stretch & Yawn* What a fantastic weekend! It has been so fun and relaxing. Oh yeah & it started on Friday! I decided to play hooky so I could run around town with my dear friend Kym. We sipped Tea Sparklers from Whole Foods while participating in some shop therapy. Like everyone else, I've been super frugal lately. Not spending a dime on things that aren't entirely necessary. For the weekend though - I said "eff this" & picked up a few things that I felt I could no longer live with out. We hit up Parts & Labour* first where I had to say "no" to an adorable dress from House of Dang (out of Dallas). It was something I knew I could wear to death, but was about $50 out of my price range for the moment. Then we slipped into New Bohemia where I couldn't help but pick up this little rock n roll sweater tank that screamed "Debbie Harry" & was under $20! I will 'wear it to shreds' this summer! In fact - it may be unrecognizable in only a matter of months, because it is so comfy & will totally work in the hot hot weather that has already started to come around. Thanks New Bohemia!
Next we were off to Toy Joy (pictured at the very top) where Kym purchased tons of kitschy little Japanese toys. This place is so overwhelming in the most perfect way possible. I love it for it's over the top whimsy & amazing collection of plastic bugs, dinosaurs & deep sea creatures. They have bad ass board games too. I was ten seconds from buying the Dirty Dancing game when I decided on a flock of pink flamingos instead. That sounds logical right? Finally I felt a little too cross eyed & temped from being surrounded by soo many toys so we hopped back in the car & trucked it to BookPeople, the largest book store in Texas. I walked in with a shopping list, that if fulfilled, I would certainly have gone broke. After shuffling around for a while with an arm load of books I reeled it in & checked out with The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girl's Guide to Handmade Jewelry & a copy of Elle. Which of course I am thrilled with both. Feeling a little 'spent' we ended our Friday shopping spree & headed home to play with our goodies. Friday night I stayed in with my manfriend & studied my readable purchases. Best. Evening. Ever. The Working Girl's Guide to Handmade Jewelry is FANTASTIC! So very creative - it will make you look at literally EVERYTHING as a craft project possibility. I know Jennifer Perkins to be hyper crafty & the book really tips you off to whats going on in her head. She urges you to collect "stuff" & always be on the prowl for things that can be reborn as something wearable & totally unique. Which I appreciate, It helps justify my hording to a degree.

Saturday I stuck around the house to clean & organize things. Geez - I feel like I'm always *trying* to organize things! Anywho, speaking of looking at everything as a craft project possibility... Austin found an old drawer tossed out in someone's yard & brought it home the other day. So - Saturday morning we drank our coffee, spray painted that sucker & screwed it to the kitchen wall, turning it into a most unusual spice rack. Spray paint really is as necessary as duct tape in my world. See our collective crafty work:

It's so perfect! I'm in love with it & I'm so glad that it was Austin's idea. High 5 Austin! Once it was mounted he headed off to work & I continued on the path of cleanliness & order. The pile for Goodwill doubled in size as I went through our clothes.The living room got a mild make over & then I had to stop working on the more "fun" projects & pay attention to the grown up stuff. Doing our taxes this year was a little messy & we made our selves a promise that this will never happen again. Allow me to introduce our new filing system!
Never again will we go hunting for anything. Piles of receipts & accordion file folders that can be moved around - NO MORE! It all has a home now & it's so colorful & organized.
It's hard to believe I did this. But I did! If you too are organizationally disabled I am here to tell you that you can overcome. You can know order! You can know where your keys are or even that receipt from the record store that you can totally write off as "Research". You just have to focus. Use the Force! Don't go to the Dark Side...

Tired of working the left side of my brain I took a trip to Domy Books for some craft fair action & to see Nicole Eriko Smith's Consent to Play opening. It was incredible. I love her work. Mischievous, expressive creatures drawn out with a very light hand & precise detail. If you are in Austin DO NOT miss this show. It will be up until March 14th.

While at Domy I picked up something I've been wanting for quite a while! Hand Job by Michael Perry. I haven't fully absorbed it yet. An inch thick catalog of type - all hand drawn obviously. I think I will leave you now & spend some time in the hammock flipping through this monster!
Hello Inspiration Station!

Have a fantastic Sunday!
xo!
Bonnie Rue

Art Fix

Last night my neighbor left her demon cat out. He is aggressive and picks fights with any other living creature it comes across. No joke.
So, he cornered another cat right outside my bedroom window (thank you very much). The sound of an actual cat fight, makes my skin crawl! AND when my skin is crawling I find it impossible to sleep. So, I lay in bed, hoping my neighbor was loosing sleep too but when I got bored with that I thought about art. Art I want to make, art I've seen, art I want to see... I thought I would share some of this art with you lovely people.
I visited Seattle last summer and my pal Russ took me to the SAM, which was amazing. I enjoyed every moment, but they were showing Nick Cave's (no not the musician) Sound Suits. Have you seen these?! They are incredible! Here, I will show them to you now, but click on the link and watch the video to see them in motion:

As you can see they are made of many many different things. Iron on's, bottle caps, wires, hair, sequins, twigs, scrap metal... It's all quilted / sculpted together. I have no clue how many he made, but each one looks like it took an eternity to put together. Apparently they are called sound suits because of the sound each one makes when it is worn. Yes, they can be worn and eventually were made with the intention of being performed in! Cave says that these suits reflect his experience of being an African-American man and his experience as a human being. I would love to meet this man!
This is a nice thing to think about when you can't sleep, it's not far off from dreaming itself.
As for Art you can see here in Austin, TX - Justin Goldwater opening his one man show "Stupid Answers to Snappy Questions" @ Domy Books on August 2nd.
Be There or Be Square.