yeesh, falling behind much?

well other then the fact that i've been massively spoiled by audi for my birthday and freezing my everything off working on sarah's car. i haven't been up to much the last few days laying around Omaha while sarah's at work. i figured i would make an attempt at phsydo productiveness and make a blog post. after i logged on a realized how bad ive been about posting after Novembers ridiculousness and figured it was high time i get back in the saddle... so to speak. i haven't actually a saddle to sit in while i blog.

yet.

any how i figured id just do a quick photo post. so here goes :)



trying to not post un finished work, but whatever, here is a fish in progress :)



after working on that i met up with my mom in her quest for total Christmas shopping domination.



though Christmas with her and the rest of my family was slightly delayed because i drove to little rock to spend the 25th with sarahs family. im pretty sure i missed a snow storm when i was gone, upset as i am about that it was still pretty fun.

along the way we stopped at this burger place and everything made me thing of my friend zombea --see side bar links. all the posters/ containers were people eating food very zombie-esk



after driving all night i spent the next day napping on sarahs lap with her dog cosmo :)i think he' sa boxer/ pit mix. very smart, very nice, very protective haha.



she didn't seem to mind.



since my birthday is the 24th she made me this AWESOME birthday cake. its a rainbow of colors inside topped with a lemon frosting i love :) AND she bought me tickets to James stinkin Taylor in march. so awesome. so spoiled :)



:)



it wasn't a total cute fest, i did go mess with some nitro fueled all wheel drive remote control cars with her younger brother. i took the body off for this shot obviously. i was just marveling at how so much is going on in such a tight space!



oddly enough didn't really take a lot of Christmas pix at my parents house, though i did snap this one of my new candles/frames/Buddha after i put them in my room at the studio.

it was a super tight year but we had a great time and ended up with presents i think we will all enjoy together. namely the new cable internet/ wireless/ wii/ netflix aspect. i cant wait for a huge snow storm. mother nature don't let me down!

in case you were wondering, yes i loved all the snow last year.



for new years we headed over to a friends house for a little party/ get together. Cam9000 was there.



along with the ever stylish and awesome Audi

www.audikuiken.etsy.com

:)

you should all check her stuff out, very cool.

anyhow, had a great time with cam, audi, sarah, meg and mike bringing in the new year watching Scott pilgrim vs the world.



spent the first day of the year in sub zero weather working on sarahs car while she slaved away making coffee in mall land, and had a great dinner out at PF Changs. it was our first time there but most definitely not our last.

that's not even close to all that has been going on. my brother came home for a week or so and we saw true grit with our dad, he brought his 6 month daughter over and she was beond epic cute. but i think this is enough for now, hope your new years was great and im sure ill see you all down the road!

Worst super hero names ever.

Man, time just flys lately. Sit down, look up and it's dark already!

Any how today went pretty well. Actually in retrospect it was a great day. Some times I forget how much better my days are then a lot of peoples.

This morning I loaded up a new end table for my room with a cool marble top and headed to the shop. Got there early enough to unload and set it up and start cleaning for the day when the rest of the shop rolled in. Our friends at the House of Q opened there first permanent location today so we all decided to close the doors for a quick BBQ break.

On our way out the door I noticed my best friend Audi and her partner Cameron walking down the sidewalk. They were in town to get tattooed, not to put off some good Q they joined the trip. Well, cam did, audi had some running around to do.

The BBQ was awesome and when we returned to the shop I had some people come in looking for me and set up a full day of getting tattooed later on. Really love getting the walk in clientele up.

Any how I worked on Cam's tattoo for a few hours and then Audi's piece in progress. Having a good time in general and enjoying seeing each other. Something we don't get to do all that often between distance and generally busy schedules.

And now I'm watching how I met your mother, sketching fashion line ideas and organizing some more items to bring into the shop tomorrow. 

Yeah. My jobs pretty right ;)

There's a picture hanging in the back of my head...

Day off numero 2:

surprisingly I've been having a good couple of relaxing days doing a whole lot of nothing. Generally I haven't been fairing so well at the 'relaxing days of nothing' I don't actually have anything to do in my days off lately and though id like to just relax all the further i get is antsy. like the set on of cabin fever after only a few moments. i think this is in part to my change of days off going from tues/weds to sun/mon. the days feel so different, and my weeks go by so differently starting them on the slow days of the week instead of ending them on the slow days. Also add to the fact that I'm generally elbows deep in some series of projects and i hav'nt really anything in the works right now. I'd set up to start sewing and what have you but forgot that my machines were whipped out in the flood and the move to the new shop costing so much i haven't been able to afford to find replacements.

Either way they've been nice, maybe its the change of setting that helps? today I headed down to the old market area and wandered into some shops and stores that i haven't been into before or at least in a very long time for some of them. partially because i haven't really anything better to do. partially to make a mental list of what is available were. I'm always keeping my eye out for some trinket, or christmas gift. hating malls this is about the only way im going to find things, and being a man i want to get in there buy my stuff and leave. more so when there are x-mas sized crowds around. so i always try to remember were things are in advance.

while i was wandering around i took a minute to stop into drastic plastic and see my best friend ever Audi :) we live a bit further apart then we normally do and we're both super busy all the time so we don't actually see each other all that much anymore so i try to pop in when i can to see her. if you knew some one that awesome you would to!



wandering alley's i found this wall, i thought it was interesting to see all the contrast. the red windows, pipes and vines against the building. the round windows and curving vines along with square windows and angular pipping. any how, thought it was worth a cell phone pic at the least.


after doing all the wandering i could manage i headed back to sarahs to check out some food blogs and checked into http://twentysomethingandstarving.com/ a blog my friend Diana had recomended. full of tasty things :)

i think this week ill try to cook some of the things on that blog and pack them as lunches for the week, its money saving and something fun and creative to do.

on the creative side I've been thinking up more ways to get my creative friends together and thought maybe a every other month or so get together were we get together and draw/ paint/ sketch together. I could maybe set up a bunch of tables/ easles in my basement and studio for us to sit around. we could watch movies and have a meal. it sounds like fun and a little more managable for those friends further way then a weekly ordeal. I'll put it out there and see what comes of it i suppose.

guess that's about it for today. I'm going to have dinner and head north tonight so i can get up bright and early to pay bills in the morning :S

short and sweet...

well maybe short and tired. im exhausted.



tomorrow "should be" our first official day open after our health inspector visit in the morning. im super ready for it. ive been painting and hanging things or orginizing this stuff until im seeing all blur lately haha.

but its been good.
after my last day at the old shop i met up with my freinds matt and raina and road tripped to see my brother jon in colorado and then onto boulder for another super great hason show.

along the way we checked out a few bike shops because matts all about pedaling everywere. they were preety cool, alot of the buildings were realy old so the existing structures repurposed was preety rad to look at while he chatted to bike people.

ill post more pix when im less beat, but for now figured this would work.

oh and i test drove a new vw 2011 gti. it was awesome. but im currently poor from the shop move :P no gti for me. i will however start piano lessons soon and dust off my harmonica as well :)

now pix

old and i found a cool nash for sale.



first sittin on daves rad neck tatto based on some cool flash @ the shop



my new room at the studio pre epic over haul



seeing the bff's on my way to colorado, we were hunting for a venue for bea and i's split art show. more on that when im less tired.



yup, we are in fact preety amazing, its ok to be jealous



the gti in question, droooool



feeding carp somewere in nebraska..



and like 3 koi



totaly out of order but here are some of the bikes in matts shared workspace. preety rad :)



no post production matt is actualy being beamed up into space right here.



the nash, smaller drool



most bizare hardware store ever.



yeah thats old cameras the shelf up from bear and fox traps above a shelf of old school photos?



and a few records in the plumbing section..



me looking impressive in front of a rad old old bar back... also at the hardware store haha



first bike shop. work space porn. droool some more. im gonna need a mop haha.



second bike shop, to much hipster for one room. but it was a neat room.



idk what theses guys were upto but they had matching jumpsuits and one of them was covered in some slime?



an awesome reason for a 12 hour one way road trip. hanson! it was great great great.

they covered marvin gays 'lets get it on' and the doobie brothers 'with out love'

fuck yea hason :)

ok im tire and have to clean up all the drool.

These roads, too hard to walk

With the things you've been saying, I don't even want to talk

hey guys, had a few appointments cancel and seeing as its expected to rain up to 4 inches today , whoa, i figured id have some free time for a post.

After time and time again of checking jinxi's blog and seeing what i read as posts saying 'quit your job and be happy' i quit my job a while back. monday is my last day at my current shop and im proud to say i will be now working with my friend Jason Solomon at a brand new shop he is opening in the morningside area of sioux city! 'addictive tattoo' kinda got a nice ring to it eh?

its a brand new shop and ill be working with people ive known, worked with, and gotten along with for quite a while. im really looking forward to it. Im sure ill be posting a ton of photos when im all in and set up, but right now walls and floors are all torn up and its a bit of a mess. but with an opening date of oct its being taken care up in a pretty swift manner!

along with the new shop im starting to compile work for my new printed/ bound / updated portfolio to print at the beggining of the comming year. i havnt updated anything not online in quite some time so its diffinantly over due.

so, with that said. hers some photos and rambling of whats been up :)



i've been trying to put almost double the amount of prep time i normaly would into my tattoos lately trying to push them a little further even if i dont like the idea, or its sorta simple. if i can behappy with a simple tattoo that i dont like then im sure to like my larger more involved work that comes from it. sadly enough it makes it preety heart breaking when you do all that work only to have them want you to trace there scribble and tattoo it on them verbatum. like the stenciled skull/waves/ pirate ship above that didnt happen at all.

but it made a cool photo,so oh well. its not my arm.



that being said some people are awesome, like my client Fish. here is a piece of hers in progress :)



epic sunsets make my happy for my drives home, and make me wonder with beauty like this how any one can question a divine being being involved. but i still love you even if you do question or disagree. :)



on the note of good looking things...haha. sarah has been putting up with me for an offical 1 year so i took her out for the evening. you cant see much in this blurry photo but we look preety snazzy. trust me, haha



we went to a preety fancy restraunt with an epic sounding menue, like the cheese and blue crab dip above. but over all it was preety bland. i was preety bummed out at the lack of really any flavor. id rather have bad tasteing food then non tasting food. but at least my view from my side of the table was good.



the next day my best friend Audi had her fashion runway show as part of Omaha Fashion Week. you should good it, or check out audis etsy pages on my side bar.
i figured a sundried tomato bagel with vegi cream cheese and capers couldnt be a bad way to start the day off.



i helped her get her garments from her giant studio to the venue/backstage. this is just a glimpse of some of it on the racks. so amazing! her work is always inspireing.



and picked up my ticket, how offical is that!



after getting everything to were it needed to be i met up with sarah and headed to California taco, as seen on tv's dinners, drive inns, and dives! for a little pre fashion madness dinner. their re-fried beans are soooooooo good!



sarah prefers the potato ole type dish.



getting ready to go!
honestly so inspired and rilled up by her show that ive dusted off my machines and sketch books and am diving back into designing garments. hopefully ill be productive and have my own show at O.F.W. 2011!



sarah and i, post show. you can see the dress shes wearing better over on her blog. located on my side bar under sarah baker doing crafty things. she designed and knit the entire thing!



Audi and I, homies for life!

all excited for sewing and creating i headed home.



along the way my brother sent me a picture of his growing baby girl, and his growing fall beard. both preety awesome.



when i got to work i turned around to see a whole string of stock model A's cruising down the street. i didnt get a good look but one of them had a flyer on it. im asuming its part of some sort of orginized drive. the model A's clubs will occasionaly have a drive across the state or even just the local area's. some have a scavenger hunt set up, some just cruising and others are poker runs. preety great either way to see them out putting around.



once inside i saw that our spread in savage magazine was framed up on the lobby wall.preety snazzy if i do say so myself.



mike stoped in and i got a healled shot of his owl, and did a few teeny touch ups on the roses.



i also threw on another diamond for him, gotta have the bling i suppose.



he ran home to grab something and got in a minor car incident but he and his g/f were fine and she sat threw her second sitting on her koi. its a little distorted in this photo because of the way shes standing. but for only having one teeny other tattoo shes seems to be sitting like a champ! really looking forward to seeing this one finished.



last sunday was down right brisk at around 40 degrees so before work i loaded a couple cords of wood onto the front porch and told my dad i expected a fire in the fireplace when i got off work. i was not disapointed!



this week i also started tearing down painting supplies in my studio and re-setting up for the next year or so of sewing madness! it took me nearly an hour to un pack stored fabric, and i even lost about half of it in a basement flood a few years ago :O here is my new shelf i built out of a giant oak door that is original to the house i live in, and my pre existing shelving units. it ended up creating a little cave hide out under neath also.



here is Buster testing the cave out. looks like it passes inspection.



it took a while but i unpacked my zippers, nearly 1000 if not more of them! im always welcome to yardage of fabric, piping, zippers, buttons, skulls and sea shells as tips. heck i keep them all on the same shelves as seen above!



moving all the stuff around i ended up taking over the ajecent hallway to store paintings so i would have room for dress forms etc in the future.



just stacken em up, haha. you can see i also will accept spools of thread as a tip.



figured after that we needed to relax a bit, so we started digging out old matchbox car tracks and launchers and putting them together.



and then about an entire delivery pizza later anda jug of coke we started connecting them together, awesomeness!