#141

Hello, friends!
Here’s the art…

You may have noticed on Jo’s blog, as well as mine, that there has appeared a link to “Cart Before The Horse Merchandise.” No, friends, this does not lead you to our familiar spot on eBay, but to our new shop on Café Press. We’ve decided to put images of our artwork on an array of items like mugs, shirts, clocks. There are only a couple of images available now, but we’re working hard at adding a lot more soon. We have a huge stack of CDs that are filled with pictures of our past work, and they have just been sitting here waiting patiently for us to put them to use. There are pumpkins, skeletons, devils, angels, donkeys, elephants, and countless others on the way, so be sure to check back as we update our store.

We went as a family to go see the movie WALL-E yesterday. I don’t know what I expected, but was pleasantly surprised at how original it was. Before the movie started, our son eyed everyone that entered the theatre suspiciously, trying to gauge how talkative they looked. I’m sure he had an exact mental count of how many kids under 3 were in there with us. He comes by this aversion to background noise honestly. Our whole family is spoiled by headphones. We watch TV with headphones, listen to music with headphones… use headphones anytime there is a headphone jack. Our house is usually quiet, except for occasional laughter that seems to erupt out of nowhere, and may even prompt a second person to get out the splitter and plug in too.
A movie theatre with headphone jacks on the armrests is a wonderful idea, don’t you think? You wouldn’t have to wait for the action scenes to open your bag of skittles.

-Dylan

#140

Hello, all.
Here’s what we’ve been working on.

A couple of our customers came out to visit with us the other day. They just called from out of the blue and said they wanted to meet us. Selling our work online has been beneficial in a lot of ways, but it has also separated us from our customers, so it was nice to meet with fans of our work face to face. So thank you, Barbara and Gina, for driving all that way to see us!
If anyone else would like to stop by, we’re working on a number of attractions right here in our home that we hope will be fun for the whole family. We just cut the ribbon on our new petting zoo, featuring a sheltie and a split personality kitten. Our 2 hole miniature golf course is under construction, featuring themed obstacles such as “the messy kitchen” and “the utility closet.” Sadly, our bumper car ride will not be operational again until emergency workers can extract our Volvo from our neighbor’s bathroom.
Strangely enough, there aren’t a lot of our dolls on the tour. We’ve made over 3,000 we think, but they’re all out there with you guys. We’d love to see pictures of them in their new homes. So if you have the time, snap a few shots of them on your digital camera and email them to dylancurry@msn.com. We don’t know what we’ll do with them yet, but if we get enough of them, we’d like to put them online for all to see.
Thanks for reading. See you next week.

-Dylan

#139

We’re back from Portland!
Here’s what we’ve made since our ears stopped ringing…

Our son just finished five days at The School of Rock in downtown Portland. The school wasn’t in the best neighborhood, but I guess that’s where you can turn your amp up to 11 without getting hassled by “the man.” After the first day, our son reported, “ I learned how to play with a pick…and I think I saw a hooker.”
The kids performed at Berbati’s Pan on the last night of the camp. Our son played lead guitar on “Rebel Rebel” by David Bowie, and “Proud Mary” by Credence Clearwater Revival. I wanted to post the video I took of the event, but I feel a little strange about posting video of the other kids in the band without their permission. You’ll just have to imagine it, I suppose. There were lots of sunglasses being worn, odd hats, and white jeans tie dyed a rainbow of colors. It looked like my Junior High yearbook put to music.
We stayed with friends in the area for the week. Our friend, Jim, thinks we’ve become hillbillies because we marvel at how many stores there are in his neck of the woods. So we shopped, went to the movies, and ate out a lot. Our friend, Amy, is a chef at a fine dining restaurant. She sent out course after course to our table without us ever seeing a menu or a check. Thanks, Amy!
But it’s nice to be home with our cat and our dog and our hillbilly ways. We like that there’s only one big road in our town, Highway 101. And in a way, we like that there aren’t any fancy stores here. We don’t need half the things we already have.

-Dylan

#138

Am I early?
Here’s that familiar link for you. Click it now to see this week’s art, and click it again Sunday night to see the new batch.
I’m writing the newsletter now because we are going to be on the road this weekend, along with everyone else, unfortunately. Our son just had his 13th birthday, so we’re packing him off to Rock School in Portland for his birthday present. He’ll be instructed in the fine art of guitar smashing and kicking in TV sets. There may be some musical instruction as well if the disturbing rumors are true.
The other reason that I’m writing now is to let you know we’re trying something new this week. We have the Frida Kahlo doll that was featured in Small Magazine up for sale on Jo’s blog now. Here’s a link if you’re interested.

Our eBay auctions will automatically get posted at our usual time this Sunday while we sit in traffic somewhere on our way to Portland. I know gas is expensive everywhere now, but we’re above the national average here in Oregon. This is partly because we can’t pump our own gas here, so the attendants’ wages are tacked on. Regular gas is $4.36 a gallon here, so I plan on firing my engine up only to go up hills. Downhill is free. That should make me quite a popular obstacle out on the highway.

-Dylan