Not because I’m actually going to buy any, it just went hand in hand with the sofa shopping.
Posts tagged shopping
Shopping for clothes
Shopping for couches
I was scrolling through pages and pages of couches online in order to get an idea of what I wanted for a new couch. So, that night, I drew couches. I think this may become a shopping thing.
Ode to felt tip pens
I’ve never lived in a place where getting art supplies from an actual art store was ever easy. Or maybe I’ve just always been cheap. You see, most of the ink pens that I use for my ink drawings are just regular office supply. I’ve learned a lot about these pens – which ones bleed with water and what color of black they are, which ones last the longest, etc.
I was reminiscing about the kind of pens I most liked to find when I reminded myself that the sanford Expresso is no more. These were awesome pens, sold by the box to offices everywhere. They came in multiple colors, multiple tip sizes, lasted a good amount of time, and didn’t fray at the tip like other felt tip pens (erm, like expensive ones from the art store).
I mourn you sanford Expresso, and the last little supply I could get my hands on can never replace your presence in my office supply store.
Bananafish aka Singing the praises of obese consumer giant
I have to tell you how Amazon made me happy today. I am a guilty, reluctant consumer, so you must appreciate how big a thing this is for me to be free advertizing. Yes.
I subscribe to this blog JRock Explosion and on the most recent JRock Fridays post I was introduced to Bananafish. Instantly impressed by the talents of each and every instrument and how they fit together fantastically in deceptive pop style, I wanted some more. I’m used to looking all over for international musics and have ordered CDs from far and wide (why doesn’t amazon-japan have an mp3 store?). So, can you believe how crazy surprised to find out that amazon-us had Bananafish mp3 albums for purchase?!? Holy cannoli, I’m shopping!
Bananafish for you:
These things really work
So, I’m juggling being a work-aholic with caring for family and I got a cold. I tend to stock up on healthy snacks and vitamin drinks when I know I am overtaxed and that’s when I found Belvita Breakfast Biscuits | Biscuits specially designed for breakfast.
I carried them around in my purse for a couple days and ended up shoveling a single serving pack of four biscuits in my mouth during a commute when I realized I’d waited too long to eat. They did the trick, but I didn’t realize how AMAZING they were until I had another pack at work when I got to that point in the afternoon where my cold was reminding me that I should have stayed home. Did I say AMAZING? THESE BISCUITS ARE THE BOMB! Anything that can make me with a cold feel semi-human in the afternoon deserve to be sought out and hoarded.
Apparently they’re marketed for special slow release carbohydrates that can energize you for hours. I recommend them highly. I am going out to get more of them.
SLG and me
Ok, so long ago and far away I took a trip to Emerald City Comics. I was just getting into comics and I found the listing in the yellow pages while I was on my Summer vacation. What I found there was a slightly fear inducing, utterly magical world of tables and boxes filled with stories and pictures. This is where I found ‘Hero Sandwich.’ It was a collection of about six issues that comprised one story line. I fell in love.
I can’t say if this was really in a time before the internet or if it was just a time before I was aware of it. Basically, I had little access to finding more except for that same shop, Emerald City Comics, or the ad for a publishers catalog in the back of ‘Hero Sandwich.’ The ad was already old and I wondered, as I filled out and sealed up the request, whether or not I would hear anything of it. A month or so later, I had mail from Slave Labor Graphics.
I gathered up my meager allowance savings and placed my order for a few titles including Milk and cheese, Library Bonnet, and Pirate Patrol. My comic book collecting was slow in those days and everything got put on hold during the school year. By the time I made my second order, I had found SLG’s online site and discovered Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Rare Creature, and Lenore. Eventually SLG publications started showing up in honest to goodness bookstores, and then in used bookstores. This is how I found Rex Libris. That bowling ball monolith logo was all I needed to see to know I wanted the comic it lived on.
Somewhere in the middle of this I got the idea in my head that I might create a comic myself. I’m not even sure where this initial attempt ended up. I think I can remember it being pretty bad, you know typical Mary Sue turned mutated super hero. It was the idea of SLG’s open submission policy that made me even want to attempt comicking. I was misguided, I know. I have much better reasons for drawing comics now.
MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D Printer Kit
This is a thing of dreams. This is like the on-demand plastic injection parrot figurine machine at Sunken Gardens in St. Pete., FL. I don’t think the machine is still around. Ah! Good memories. But like that if it was hardwired to my mind in a bulbous, seeping Akira way. I really want one of these by the way. This is MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D Printer Kit – MakerBot Industries.
Etsy Indie Comics Haul #2
The first trip was such a success I had to go buy more and then I had to take a really long time to write about all of it. And here is what I got:
Kay and P 00 & 01– Starts the story of Kay – music student and P, her skeleton ?ghost? friend. The story is painted really completely with great detail and a nice way of coloring the background to be a little lighter – accentuating the forward action.
Terka – fabulously conceived world of monsters. I like the city gate and museum settings. The line work is clean, stark and wonderful black and white.
Carnival – is an anthology of short comics about going or being in the carnival. It’s amazing how differently a group of artists can treat a theme. The variety of story alone is fascinating and all of them well done little scenes.
Southpaw – I love the drawings and the style. This is a fabulous little zine. Mostly art zine/sketchbook style with a few comic sequences.
Breathers – What can I say? The whole idea of a semi apocalyptic future where everyone has to have breathing apparatuses when they are outside and yet everything is still normal is great. I wanna keep reading. I’ll have to get the next book.
Red Planet Ride #2 – Just as fabulous and beautiful as Red Planet Ride #1. I had to get it. So, this wasn’t really so untried a purchase.
The Bad-Ass Habit – Nuns, all girls boarding schools, arrows and bear traps. What more could a girl want? And that’s not even spoiling this delightful and stark fairy tale.
Emiko superstar – The dull to fabulous summer story that everyone wishes they had with a healthy bit of apprehension. At least me – totally a story that draws you in and makes you feel part of it.
The Cauldron in the Back Cabinet – Kinetic drawing and excellently rendered gloom and dark autumn days. I love the mystery and the reveal.
Charles & Renfield – Beautiful little mini comic by Kiki Jones. I like the story book style.
Fish Food – little vignettes by Ashley Quigg are like beginningless and endless dream scenes. There is a new twist on every page, and yet they all flow together.
Umbra – Wordless and wonderful. The pictures almost look as though they could be woodblock. Dreamy story line.
Mephistos – The art work is sketchy and spare. The page compositions are genius in a ‘hey this is so pleasing to follow/read/look-at I didn’t even notice why’ kind of way. I really wished the story had gotten further before the issue ended. I guess that’s how I’m going to get the next one.
Oleander and Mint
Back in my first Indie Comics Etsy haul I also ordered Oleander & Mint. I had gone out in search of this after meeting the writer through my husband, and it deserves a post separate from the haul.
It reminds me of Faulkner, or more specifically of As I lay Dying. It is filled with beautiful desolate characters and an almost stream of consciousness narrative, and contrasted with lovely, graphic, and stylized illustrations. I very heartily recommend it.
The web site is fabulous as well. It will tempt you into spending oodles of time there. Buy the book at the Oleander & Mint Etsy Shop.
Honey Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt – Stonyfield Farm
Honey Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt is the most fabulous of all the fancy organic greek style yogurts that I have tried after they flooded the market a year or so ago. Seriously, it was so good I had to advertize for them. The honey was underneath!
HINABN: 4th Dimension Entertainment
Ok, so you know how I mentioned that Hanna is Not a Boys Name was awesome and then disappeared and then I found it for sale. Well, did you get the message? HINABN volume 1 is for sale! Go buy it you dummies! Go make it the first link that shows up in that darn google search! Go: 4th Dimension Entertainment :: Product Details.
10/19/2012 – link correction
4/7/2014 – another link correction: http://shop.4de.com/franchises/hanna-is-not-a-boys-name
Mouk
Le Tour Du Monde de Mouk by Marc Boutavant has been on my wish list forever! I am dying from cuteness. This is fantastic.
Indie comic Etsy haul #1
The Filigree – Martin Øbakke and Celena Cavala create this fabulous fairy newspaper complete with advertisements, classifieds, and photographs. And, as far as I can tell, all the photographs for the stories are of characters they have created in doll form. Do I have to say this is a fabulous idea? and it is fabulously pulled off.
Stone Monkey and Red Planet Ride by Jim Round – These are plane old adorable, and polished and full of color. The environments created within are amazing.
Ghosts of Pineville from CricketPress – I never lived in a place with a haunted house or a ghost story, but I’ve read a lot of books and watched a lot of movies set in towns that did. It’s kind of like the quintessential American mystery and that is probably why the Ghosts of Pineville felt so nostalgic. This is good stuff. Good stuff.
All of Them Witches by Patt Kelley – Tiny short stories and vignettes with a surreal fluid and pointy style.
Grickle things The Hidden – wait…NOT an Etsy purchase, but I must include it in the haul because it’s fabulous and was part of the same shopping spree. Sorry Etsy. This is an adorable story by Graham Annable.
Flesh and Bone – Julia Gfrörer put together this beautiful, painful lump of bound paper and story. Her details and the plethora of line and movement only emphasize a fantastical and tragic story.