Monday, November 24, 2008

christmess coming

'all the lonely people/where do they all come from?'

'you talking to me?'


i have to find ways to make christmas okay.
i think because i've worked retail in previous lives - my body goes into instant adrenalin trauma mode because of unexorcized cellular memories.

but it's really okay!

i love many things about it. i like egg nog lattes. umm...alot.
(reduced fat ones..i do try and only smalls and only once in awhile).

coral is my red for christmas. and a single mitten stocking with a bunny hiding inside.
(coral and lavender look nice - an unusual combo. I used to think that red and lavender should be outlawed till i saw it together one day).

plus it is magic. no matter. i think that everyone's heart is far more open in december than any other time of year.
I don't know what that statistic is for world population of who even cares.



i just discovered www.playlist.com last night by accident.

woah yeah. hello! it rules as much as it can rule.
come be my friend and share playlists.

(my playlist is a mess right now and kind of guilty pleasure messy like an embarrassing *obscure* song by HOLE from the 'any given sunday' soundtrack..that oliver stone football movie cameron diaz al pacino, ann-margret, crazy cast (not that i've seen it or plan on it but i wouldn't put it past me) the song is called BE A MAN from 1999. The Video Is Scary. The kind of thing i watch w/ my mouth slightly agape. Sociologically speaking. I'm 100% wtf courtneylove?

"Be A Man" this is a weird coincidence b/c i'm doing alot of writing on men cliches using 'mad men' (DON DRAPER) as reference..plus a song came out of that too on a bike ride home one night in the pouring rain after a pink mountaintops show (steve mostly alone playing). i make up songs while i'm riding my bike around (and promptly forget most of them but if i remember when i get home i sing it into my computer for reference for a secret project i'm working on).

but back to playlist.com

it's better than downloading. there are more songs available...i was able to find more Unwound and other slightly obscure..well.. you know. i'm re-listening to old music i haven't heard in years. it's fun. i love unwound. sometimes it is the sound inside my heart. (especially 'corpse pose').

i have to curate my playlist.

why is everyone GenY all helvetica? playlist.com is all helvetica too. (plus a million dumb ads) do they think we are so removed from cursive now that the serifs will further confuse? too extraneous. i dunno. it sucks b/c i used to like helvetica. now it's just boring.

kids won't even know how to handwrite in the future.

they'll just type a post-it note on the computer.
mind you, i can barely pick up the phone anymore. i'll email someone in the same room as me.

xo

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Office Art/WHAT IS THE ARTIST TRYING TO SAY?


possibly most favourite collaboration of all time..well, top 5. What you see here and below is a collage of photographs i took over the last month - lisa smolkin and i did an art room at the Gladstone Hotel. We hung hundreds of lisa's paintings in..4hrs. 4 of us gunning it. me on 2 hrs sleep/jetlag/insomnia. it was great. So lisa brought the salt lamp and i spontaneously threw the pointe shoes in my bag on the way down. Grant Heaps works for the Toronto Ballet and has been saving shoes for me! i have an amazing collection. They are gold to me. So we threw down the salt lamp and the cord was in the way and i'm all: someone's gonna trip on that so i covered the cord w/ the shoes...it's so beautiful. the colour scheme. those lamps are marketed as HEALING..and interestingly..all those shoes/soles/in agony/in a row/ leading up to/ some salt lamp heal-age. Heel.
some of the other pics are from a mini art tour w/ Dark Hand And Lamplight. FUN!
i'm making a poster out of this. Found @ London Museum in their art office. This explains All Art Ever Made And To Be Made(inthefuture). i'm really into offices and i'm into making art in an office and i'm into making art out of office supplies. i'm still into The Office. Much of my art is organized in an elaborate filing system - just like..an office. I used to work in an office when i was a post-teen.


my art
Living Legend
shareballs taking the lead. she did 5 times more work than we did.


My precious laptop. so full i fear 'SONNY' may blow up. this was taken on the canzine day. i laughed hysterically at the d-listed 'these belong in hell' expose on the CROC snowboot 'ugg' wannabees. wtf? it's hard to see. that foto is too po-po-mo (post-post modern) I could not stop laughing.
some of my favourite pieces were text-based: "Fuck the Government" and "I Am Not A Christian". alright lisa!

Robert Dayton in one of his kitten sweaters. he has a collection of cat sweaters.

i'm doing an online market right now through Poppytalkhandmade. Go have a look see! It is a virtual online streetmarket. who'd a thunkit in 97?

ETSY CUSTOMER OF THE WEEK!





ETSY CUSTOMER OF THE WEEK!

first things first, my etsy store:
www.makeitawesome.etsy.com


Ayumi! She resides in Tokyo with her new black bunny. Here is a photograph she took of BB in his new crocheted swing! and with her cat!
Ayumi says:
I am a housewife who loves my family(my husband and my cats), music(a big John Mayer fan) and anything sweet&natural&handmade.

(john oscar mayer weiner)

Obvs Ayumi is perfect.
She special ordered a custom bunny today - a white furry one that is more childlike. She's so amazing she went through my etsy store and noted the different grades of angora. she was able to detect the angora content! WOAH. Why don't i just move to japan? this is stupid. Details-oriented. highest of quality. cares. all day. all night.

plus she signs all of her emails: Your friend, Ayumi.

She also took note of the eyelet skirts i designed...she noted TUCKS :
(see first photo. why can't i stick the photo in here? does anyone know?)
I am sorry....seems I made a mistake! The apron I mentioned was the lacey 'skirt' as the mummy bunny is wearing. The lace braid is very pretty and the skirt is sophisticated with its tucks not gathers.
I just noticed that the mummy bunny was also made of white angora as well but looks somewhat different from the touque bunny's angora. Have you a lot of angora sweaters? The touque bunny's angora might go well with the child bunny. So if you still have that kind of fluffy angora in stock, I hope you will make the child with it. Thank you!
Well, it is very windy now but very sunny, lazy golden afternoon......

AND she noted how much WORK it looked like i had done for the etsy store..as in: made all the bunnies, photographed all the bunnies, edited the photos in photoshop, uploaded all the pics...etc.

i need to be in japan.
i want an onsen tour (public hot springs/baths), constant karaoke, kyoto, my friends who live there, my favourite store, sushi trains, ice cream lamps/lit up cones, temples, gardens, zen gardens. you name it. all.

etc.

i need to do more work on my blog. i realize that. i need to make time for this. i am very busy like an octopus lady. anyways, if you want to be linked or have any Blog Betterment suggestions can you please email me?
Also I am looking for people who would like to buy my bunnies. People who appreciate Steiffs and other handmade special doll and toy items.
Maybe they are in Germany? Maybe in England. Not sure yet. Maybe because I'm German/British and Japanese.

sonja.ahlers@gmail.com

thank you!

xo
Post script: i am completely into The Office. As in: the American One. wtf? i vowed. i said. i said. no way man. i'm a purist. it's UK or nothing! not this watered-down biznazz. i guess i got swayed for a few reasons:

1. my friend lisa smolkin made me take a pact to watch it six months ago. i did nothing.
2. listening to cbc last week they kept going on about a special episode where Michael Scott (steve carell who i used to strongly dislike. i was wrong. he is *TALENT*) takes a business trip to WINNIPEG.
3. I finished Mad Men and i need to be 'watching' things while i sew those bunnies you see above.

This show is hilarious.
PLUS i see that gervais/merchant are involved in the project,so it's all good.

speshul thanks to sydney vermont for introducing me to SURF THE CHANNEL DOT COM

i'm also into late 90s 'horror' movies...i just watched Scream and watched the poor man's Scream: i know what you did last summer (really bad. opening scene w/ a late 90s mall 'intense' cover of SUMMER BREEZE by seals and croft) the whole neve campbell..i guess cos of party of five..i was watching that for a moment. the show that 'defined a generation'. is this the show that kicked My So-Called Life off the air????
what???

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Howling Hex




omg i'm so bored.
i'm at home simultaneously making bunnies and writing a grant and PROCRASTINATING. i am The Worst!

Hi Lady Friends. i'm selling a limited edition giclee print thru my etsy store. i only have 40 left from the edition of 50. it's a top quality german etching paper and top quality print job. this paper absorbs the ink in a surreal kind of way. it looks like a watercolour - vibrant and nicely saturated.
It is 8.5X11" in size.
I am selling it for $45.
As added incentive - an original piece from this series just sold for $1,000 in an art auction. I want to help you start and/or add to your art collection.

here's the link:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17170009

things i like right now:

NETTLE TEA
MAD MEN
soft black licorice from australia
piles of white angora sweaters. ANY pile of angora
Old Man Ray's beautiful long-haired white cat 'Whitey' who lives below me
a perfect pink porcelain lady leg i traded w/ Boyle
'cock sucker' art from Smolkin
dennis wilson's album 'pacific ocean blue'
john masters organic beauty products ('blood orange and vanilla' body lotion, et cets)

i went to a reading at a laundermat last night. i couldn't hear anything for the washing machines and people getting change so i had to leave.

that's all for now, folks!

basement studio with monster hiding in the corner

basement studio with monster hiding in the corner

Ahlers

going on about Random Avenue, friends, art (maybe), rock (sometimes), movies, current events, childhood memories & other things like bunnies