EFTE and the Olympics

I found this great article this morning on the Beijing "Water Cube" for the Olympics. It turns out that they are using some very green technology! Might we see it in the US soon?

In other news, we have officially been named owners of our new house...and I cannot wait to move in! I will have to post the photos of our DIY fix-its...just some basic bathroom, carpet rip-ups, and more re-dos. Wish us luck! (I entered us in to an HGTV show for our horribly pink bathroom...vote for it here!)

Ciao ciao & Happy Blogging!
~ Alex

New York City Sip Some Chianti

When I was thinking of what I wanted to write tonight, I suddenly thought of that song...but I don't remember the name. It's probably by Daft Punk or another techno/digital sounding band....New York City!

Well, anyhow, hopefully someone reading this will think of it...

I was in the Big Apple today and let me tell you, The City That Never Sleeps still reigns. My blood is pumping, my energy is high, and I feel like I could paint the Vatican with blood-orange graffiti. I came home and cooked a wonderful Italian spaghetti sauce, a play on a sauce from my Florence cooking class with the beautiful Sette Ragazze (I miss you girls!). Mmm...was it delicious, just ask my husband.

I headed to Parsons and picked-up some information. I could sit and watch the students pouring out of there all day! Everyone is so stylish...and you can't help but wonder where they are headed in life! I went to Art Gotham and picked-up my blank 12"x12" canvas for their upcoming Arts & Politics "Square Foot" exhibition and I am just TOTALLY excited to fill my canvas! Election 2008...hmm...what does it mean to me?

My glass of Chianti is almost out and it feels like the temperature has dropped with the cool breeze tickling my toes. I guess it's off to bed for this antsy shopper and back in to the city for the MOMA Dali member series tomorrow.

Happy surfing!
(And go to bed East Coasters! Good morning to the other side of the world!)

Ramblin' Sunday Mess

I've created a new banner for my Etsy store and adverts. The business cards I created using it on zazzle came out great and I look forward to passing them out. Hopefully I can either make some sales or get a job! What do you think?

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Today is a day for applying, designing, and then headed to the city to see The Dark Knight in Imax. I have already seen it in the theatre and it was fantastic. So tragically dark and disturbing and Heath Ledger was amazing. I'm looking forward to seeing it on an even larger screen. When I was at the All Points West Festival on friday night, there was a guy with the Joker make-up on. It was a little strange...but the festival was amazing. Jack Johnson is the headliner for tonight and if you can even just go to Liberty State Park, you will be able to hear, and even see a little of the art and music from the shoreline pathway. We saw tons of kids doing it on friday! Great idea - but we enjoyed our VIPness. Here's Duffy:

And Underworld:

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I am now officially certified as a belayer at the New Jersey Rock Gym and all I want to do is climb, but my arms keep giving out after two hours...I love working on the strength of it all, though, and my arms are going to look great for my friends wedding in a week.

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Alright, it's Sunday...time for a croissant and the Olympics. Keep me posted on creative jobs throughout Northern New Jersey and New York City. You won't regret it!

Happy blogging...CIAO!

The Path to Heaven...

The Path to Heaven...
Originally uploaded by MarthaHaskins

Hey Camp Carter staff! Can you believe it? This photo came out great! I've ordered some prints to see what it looks like on paper and canvas and I'll let you know how it looks!

I had a great time (as usual) and it kicked my butt in to shape - I've been applying to jobs like crazy and will hopefully get a few interviews lined-up in the next week or so. We'll see!

Love you, MWAH,
Alex

What can you do with embroidery hoops and stiches?

I'm currently working online while keeping HGTV on (to keep the creative juices flowing) and I just got a great idea! A man just showed the entire world how to paint wooden embroidery hoops and using good tape (or glue) stick them to the walls. Very simple. Very modern - looks great. My idea? Why not stick photos in to some of the circles?! You could create an entire wedding themed wall with white, black, silver, gold, and red hoops and just stick three to five photos throughout to have your own custom wall piece for under twenty dollars!

If you have any questions (since I don't have photos to show a "how-to" yet), please email me (Alex) at MarthaHaskins@gmail.com!

Other embroidery related ideas:

Handmade Detroits' Pirate Embroidery "Canvas"

Sweet Jessie's Embroidery Hoop Office Corkboard

AZE Designs' Embroidered Tablecloth (Pictured above!)

ThreadBangers' Embroidery Hoop ScreenPrinting How-To!!!

I canNOT believe the things you can find online now-a-days. If you have any more ideas - please feel free to post them!

Thanks for reading,

Alex

Artist T-Shirts!

Look what I just found!  So excited!

Free Shipping!

Okay, I have been CRAZY BUSY with our move and vacation coming-up...so I apologize for not writing (if anyone even reads this thing).

So I decided to make up for it by changing my shop to FREE SHIPPING to the US, Mexico, and Canada (and everywhere else with the purchase of two+ items). I cannot wait to add more things for people to chose from - just wait and see what happens when I have an actual studio to work in!

And Dana and Luke's wedding was FLAWLESS - wish you were there....it was just beautiful!

Happy blogging!

~Alex

BOGO Half Off SALE on Etsy!

Check out my Etsy Store! And if you want an even better deal - check out my forum post!

Happy shopping - I cannot believe that I am finally moving! And I LOVE sales! YAY!

~ Alex

Sleep Sleep Anti-Freak

Sleep sleep anti-freak
Bedtime stories wait
Wander through dreams and seams
A cushion in your wake

Secrets linger in your mind
As dreary as you feel
Fill your head with misery
A jacket on your wheel

Find a line to bite your teeth
Jumble up the madness
Assume your tongue will follow through
And sleep, sleep . . . sleep.

By Alex Whatton

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Happy Summer Solstice to all!

CHEEEEEEEEEEESE!

Where do you look for inspiration?

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When I'm having a bit of an "art" block, I can easily look through my old photos or look-up local artisan fairs, but one of my favorite things to do is to head to local food markets! This photo is from Borough Market in London, England when I was visiting family in March. I personally love cheese, but the art that I will create from looking at this photo will last longer than any aged cheese ever can. I'm off to create for now, but I hope to post something soon!

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And if you're wondering...the move is going fine! Our furnished apartment is great and I'm just on the lookout for a new job. Shameless plug: my resume is located on the bottom left of this page! Thank you! Also, the Litchfield Hills Road Race was this weekend! (Yup, during that 100 degree heat wave - it was brutal!) I ran the 7+ miles in 1 hour, 34 minutes, and 52 seconds! I cannot believe that I ran over 4.5 miles in that heat...but I am so proud that I finished it and I cannot wait to try a 5K (maybe in 75 degrees on a cloudy day - that would be nice). Yay!

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Of course, if you are feeling hungry now: check out the Organic Consumer Association for local farms and markets and see whats happening in your neck of the woods!

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Happy blogging!

Get Out and Do Something

I challenge you to get out and do something with yourself today. Plan a DIY project, write someone a letter, sit in the sun with some friends. Do something you aren't doing but want to be and write about it.

Smile...it's YOUR life!

Buying a House and Making it Green

So...we might have found a house in New Jersey! But, there's an underground oil tank.

UGH. All we want to do is buy a house and make it green!

Any suggestions?

Glycogen Storage Disease (GSD)

Do you know what GSD is? Did you know that there are close to 10,000 people with this disease, very little research has been done, and there are no real treatments at this time? Thousands of children have already died...and I had absolutely no clue. Not one little idea that this even existed.

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Until I went to a fundings meeting the other night that my mother knew about. (Okay, I'll give you the basics but read all about it here, on the Feldman's non-profit groups' webpage.)

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GSD (Type 1a) is when a person cannot form glucose since they are missing a certain enzyme. Like diabetes, this can affect blood sugar levels to such an extent that thousands have died. Many parents do not realize their children have this disease since their is no test to find it and both parents have to be recessive carriers to pass it on. Parents have found out that their children have had it after sudden seizures and long hospital stays were luckily (sadly, "luckily"), a doctor has been able to recognize what it might be. And once a parent is told what it is, they realize that their lives will be changed drastically. If their child does not receive Agro Corn Starch (yup, straight from the supermarket shelves and proved to be the best therapy at this time) EVERY TWO HOURS, their blood sugar levels will drop to a dangerous level. And when I say every two hours, I mean that the parents have to set alarm clocks for the middle of the night to go put a mixture of water and corn starch through a tube directly to their childs' stomach just to make sure they stay alive. They can never be late by even fifteen minutes or their child could die.

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I cannot believe that I have never heard about this. They not only need donations to help fund the research...they need researchers! I hope that I have explained it well enough and that you will feel compelled to learn more about it...I know it will indirectly affect me for the rest of my life.

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http://www.curegsd.org/

Get CapoFit!

I just realized that some people may think that this "personal trainer" thing is coming out of nowhere! Well, here's a little piece of unknown history that will make some sense out of it all - I was in a fitness video!

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It all started when I was a sophomore in high school and my teacher told me about Capoeira. (For those of you who know absolutely nothing about it but want to, here's more information. Click on history...and there are videos on YouTube of course!) I didn't actually hear much more about it for a year-or-so until I was accepted into the Center for Creative Youth (CCY) summer program at Wesleyan University for violin. (Suzuki trained...learning a lot about me today, huh?!) Well, the program was not just about mastering your instrument or art, but learning about some other cultures and their arts. You guessed it, Capoeira was offered. For two weeks I got my butt kicked (and learned a little Portuguese...and Japanesse, but I digress) and fell in love with Capoeira. I could not wait to get started - but I had no idea where to look. And like many other teenagers, I soon forgot about this extra activity...what with field hockey, ski team, jazz band, orchestra, applying to college, SATs, blah blah blah - you know the story.

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Well, turns out it wasn't over yet! A couple of kids at the University of Connecticut had started a club. (Look! They even have a webpage now!) I had to try my fair share of other clubs before I found it, including a sorority and Army ROTC, but hey, I got there eventually. In fact, I started getting a little obsessed with Capoeira and stopped nearly everything else I was supposed to be at college for (like English class, apparently). On Thursday and Friday nights a group of us would drive to New Haven, CT to attend Mestre Efraims' school and I even met my husband there!

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Capoeira got me in the best shape of my life, introduced me to my husband, and even landed me in a fitness video with Professor Fabiano Lucas...so you will probably think I am crazy when I tell you that I have not played in about two years! (Yeah, I think I am out of my mind.) But I miss it, so as I move to New Jersey and James and I start our lives together - I am getting back in to it. I just found a few schools to try out and might even see a few friendly faces. I am RE-finding myself and proud of it. Now if I could just find those tight, white pants of mine!

Litchfield Hills Road Race & Featurette!

Woohoo! My best friend and I are off to check out the Litchfield Hills Road Race Trail. This will be our first year running it (7.1 miles) and we want to get a feel for it. Wish me luck! (Thank gosh I still have a few more weeks to train - the womens' record is something like 38 minutes!) HA!
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I've also been featured on Bigib Designs Blog. Read about it here. And check out her store here. It truly is a history!
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Well, that's it for now. Life is crazy busy and I'm off to check out Litchfield!!! Ciao Ciao!