Alexander the Extra Ordinary

This is our family Canary diamond Alexander. Alex was born with a rare form of Downs syndrome called Mosaic. He hasn't needed any therapy yet because he has been developing normally, so far. His first birthday is coming up and the theme is going to be Pinocchio/nursury rythmes. I made his invites today from a copy of an earlier Warhol/Pop print we had professionally made of him several months ago.
I'm still working on the favors/decorations.(Wooden Pinocchios, vintage Pinocchio comics from Italy) We're going to have these cute little Pinocchio pasta hats with my grandfathers Sicilian sauce. They were bought back from Firenz, Italy. I'm also thinking of making mini triangle Pinocchio hat pizzas.

Still need the cake and flowers..... This party is gonna kick some ass! It's kickin mine already!

Edna's Faves/ Fafi & Katjes >2<

Fafi is my favorite graffiti artist. She is from France and travels around the world painting walls where ever she can. She has a new line clothing, jewelry, figurines, and books.


Her work is funky, fresh, and
feminine and is the inspiration for my new layout.


The Germans have got it goin' on in the gummy deptartment. I have been addicted to black licorice for five years now. Every two weeks I alternate between Katjes
Kinder, panda bears, tire treads, and cat paws. and

Edna's Faves/ Prada & Pupa >1<

Pupa Cosmetics are SICK, colorful and fun. They are from Italy and come in adorable little kits such as teddy bears, postcards, angels, devils, and pinwheels. Edna owns the Pinocchio kit.

They make cute x-mas/greeting post/cards to send out.


The pinwheel is adorable and would make a cute gift.


These are the new Class of 2005 Prada keychains which aren't as nice as the 2004 robot tricks.
They can be worn with jeans or clipped onto your bag. I clipped mine on my Dickies here last week at my cousin's graduation.

And this is "Rufus" the bot trick.

101 Things To Do Before I Die

A TwoPeas post got me thinking today about this. Maybe I'll start with 25 for now and another 25 for what I've already done.

Things to do before I die or go blind.
1. Go to Kerela, India/elephant sanctuary
2. Adopt from orphanage/sponsor a school
3. Get published, Get published, Get published!
4. Do a documentary or TWO
5. Buy property/ranch w/horses in Santa Barbara area
6. Own an indoor potbelly pig
7. Own a hairless Mexican dog
AND a hairless cat

8. Go to New Orleans and gain 10 pounds
9. Win the Nobel Peace Prize AND an Oscar
10. Go to Hello Kitty World in Japan
11. Get spanked by Johnny Depp....... Continued.......

Things I already have done..............
1. Lifted my blouse in a 7/11 and exposed my TT's for free booze(when I was young and perky)
2. Had my hair cut in Paris done like Joan of Arc

3. Had a fling with my professor
4. Started a scandal in Catholic school by lying that I saw a tear fall from Mother Mary's face
5. White water rafting
6. Visited Marta Becket in Death Valley
7. Snuck into 5 concerts pretending I was an employee
8. VIP Laker's Club Status games
9. Racing horses on the beach in Mexico while drinking beer
10. Volunteered for "Caring for Babies with Aids."
To be continued........

Victorian Hair Scrapbooking

I found this interesting article today while searching for Victorian mourning jewelry from Victorianhairartists.com.
"Jewelry made with hair is dated back to at least the 1600's, when hair bracelets were given as love tokens by both men and women. During this time one was likely to find the hair placed under glass and used as a background for initials or some other personal symbol to the wearer. Hair jewelry stayed popular until the late 1800's. Many people today believe that hair jewelry was made only for the purpose of remembering a deceased loved one. While that was one function of hair jewelry, many pieces were also made for sentimental reasons, as tokens of affection.

Queen Victoria gave pieces of jewelry made from her hair as gifts, many of these pieces were given to her children and grandchildren. Napoleon wore his watch on a chain made from the hair of his wife, Empress, Marie Louise.

Hair was valued for sentimental reasons at a time when there were no photographs. In lieu of photographs, young girls kept scrapbooks of their schoolmate's hair, usually with a name and verse to go with it identifying whose hair it was.

In the late 1800's and early 1900's, postcards and valentines were sent with hair attached. The sentimental sender would glue locks of their hair onto specially made postcards, (a picture of a beautiful woman) and send it to someone as a keepsake.

Today there are only a few Hair Artists who are making this type of jewelry. There are no schools where one can go for instructions, so this art is self taught. An enormous amount of time is spent learning the different techniques. Hair Art like any other art is a constantly evolving process."

Golly Dolls from Harrods. Racist?

Recently, my mother brought me back Golly dolls from Harrod's London as gifts. My gut feeling told me, there's something WRONG about these dolls. I'm just not feeling them. So I did research on them and found out they were created from a children's book by a girl named Florence Kate Upton. She was from the U.S. but moved back to England after her father died.

"The Golliwogg was based on a Black minstrel doll that Upton had played with as a small child in New York. The then-nameless "Negro minstrel doll" was treated roughly by the Upton children. Upton reminiscenced: "Seated upon a flowerpot in the garden, his kindly face was a target for rubber balls..., the game being to knock him over backwards. It pains me now to think of those little rag legs flying ignominiously over his head, yet that was a long time ago, and before he had become a personality.... We knew he was ugly!"From the Museum of Racist Memorabilia.


I'm a little fascinated as to why these dolls are still being produced. Maybe it's time to put "unintentional racism" on check. I can see collecting them as antiques, museum or historical pieces with full understanding of their history but to produce them in 2005! They are made by Merrythought in England and I love their "Cheeky" bears. I think I'm going to email Harrod's and Merrythought about their "Golly situation." I'm not going to tell them, "Oh, you racist bastards! Shame on youuuu!" I'll just inform them that "they are products of racism" unintentional or not, and I find them offensive. It's your choice, you're reputation, or something like that. Harrod's usually has excellent customer service. They always send out handwritten thankyou notes to all their customers. Stay tuned.

Searching for Takashi Murakami

I'm LOVING this T.Murakami wallpaper!!! But it's as hard to find as his Louis Vuitton bags. I've been making mushroom, and smiley flower paper pieces for my scrapbooking layouts. It would be cool if he could also make patterned SB paper. If I could only find his email.



This is half of my "Greg Brady & me" LO inspired by T. Mura. smiley face flowers. It reads, This is Greg Brady (Barry Williams) from The Brady Bunch holding me up in my striped, highwater, bellbottom, jumpsuit with Buster Browns. In the seventies, Toys R Us had promotional celebrity events that featured child star actors and characters from T.V.. Notice the promise ring on Greg's finger. Hmmmm, wonder if that is from his TV mom Florence Henderson? Freaks!

My mentor has died :(

My mentor and art teacher Janet Church has passed. I would consider her one of the pivital and influential people (as Dr.Phil would say) in my life. I met Janet at her art studio in the third grade. She hesitated at first in taking me in as a student because I was so young but I proved to be precocious and artistic at my age. All the other students were adults. Janet was very tempermental (unlike Taro), moody, and demanding and made me cry my first day! She was a type A personality always bursting with energy, usually arriving to class with her long, white, wet hair, from doing laps at the Y pool. She rarely sat or kept quiet for more than five minutes. On occasion an artist would trigger her into a fit of rage. It wasn't uncommon to see wet brushes with paint flying across the studio. But believe it or not everyone still loved her. I learned so much from her. I remember one lesson in particular when I was painting my life size Japanese anime "Candy" doll. She had a bright frilly red dress and Janet was annoyed that I couldn't see "all the colors" in her "red" dress. She screamed can't you see the blue, purple, and green in her dress! I saw orange maybe but not green! I didn't see any rainbow. But I agreed....I wasn't in the mood to have my brushes thrown up in the air. Sadly it took me more than fifteen years to finally figure out what she was trying to teach me! My other influence was Taro Yashima, artist, activist, and Caldecott winner. Taro was a perfectionist and would draw things over 100 times sometimes until he was satisfied! He passed in 1994 and came to me in a dream handing me a red rose. I knew right away he had died and was saying good-bye to all his students. But his books still live on. And Janet lives on in all her students and art work.

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