Sunday, January 25, 2009

#167

Hi there.
Here are our auctions for the week…


Jo tricked me this week. It's like when you pretend to throw a stick to a dog and laugh as he chases a non-existent stick. We said we were going to take time off this week, but every time I looked up (from my search for the invisible stick) Jo was working on more patterns. Then each day just before the sun went down, she'd suggest that we immediately take some out of town trip, of which I was to do all of the driving. I may seem like a spur of the moment kind of guy because of the random things I blurt out to no one in particular, but the idea of driving at night without a clear destination doesn't really appeal to me. It seems like it should be fun… if you get your information from chick flicks. If we were just two dimensional characters in a movie, Jo would "whoohoo" and throw her cell phone out the car window, just before we'd both start singing into a hair brush. Then we'd go clothes shopping and…well, I don't have to explain it. I'm sure you're familiar with the montage.
But it's never really like that, is it?

-Dylan

Sunday, January 18, 2009

#166

Hello, workers.
Here’s the fruit of our labor this week.
I think I mentioned before that I was going to be helping Jo’s dad build a levee this weekend to block the creek from flooding his house. The creek is clear and slow moving most of the year, but in the winter you can’t look at it without imagining the rising brown water swiftly carrying a house out to the beach. Building a sandbag levee is back breaking work. It’s much harder than my last job of carrying luggage up and down stairs all day in the Florida sun, and it’s sooo much harder than my present day cushy job of sewing dolls and shipping art. You spike the bags onto the loading frame, shovel in the sand, cut the bags free with a razor, tuck the flap under and stack them like bricks. Then repeat, over and over again. But I like getting wiped out with a day’s work like that once in a while. It makes me appreciate all the hard working rough necks out there.
Jo and I are going to try and take a little time off this week. We’ve been going full throttle since we were approached by Cloth Paper Scissors in October. But don’t worry, there will still be plenty of our work listed next Sunday. We have most of it done already.

-Dylan

Sunday, January 11, 2009

#165

One…Two…You know what to do…


Our lives have changed completely ever since the article about us was published in Cloth Paper Scissors. I can hardly buy anything with my credit card anymore without being asked for my autograph. The other day, some girl insisted on taking my picture when I was just out renewing my driver’s license. Jo says I’m delusional, but it’s probably just jealousy talking.
We are trying to expand into areas we haven’t treaded on before. It’s a new year, so we want some new experiences. We’ve put out our first pattern, which will be followed by many more, I’m sure. My records are on iTunes and Amazon MP3 now, and I’ve been spending a lot more time in the garage working on a music video. On Saturday, I’m going to help Jo’s dad build a levee, so his house will hopefully stop getting flooded every time the creek swells out of control. New experiences are good for you. They make you feel like a different person, even if your driver’s license photo looks like the same old goof.

-Dylan

Sunday, January 4, 2009

#164

Hiya,
Here’s the art, my friends…


Jo got me a sketchbook and some colored pencils for Christmas, which has led to some new experiences for me. In case you’re not familiar with our artistic relationship, Jo does all the designing, painting, and other arty stuff. I do the sewing, photography, and business stuff. So drawing is really new to me. I didn’t draw much as a kid, and the few times I tried as an adult, I got discouraged at how kidlike my drawings looked. Now, I’ve embraced the odd shapes my fumbling hands can make, and discovered that drawing is quite relaxing. Here’s a drawing I did on New Years day whose perspective is a bit skewed, I admit.
It started out as a rough sketch of a puppet set for a music video I’m currently building that looks like the Rolling Stone’s Rock and Roll Circus. Once the drawing was done, I couldn’t sit still until I had drawn my Dylan puppet, slapped a photo of my face on it, and animated the whole thing. It may take a few moments for the animation to start depending on your internet speed.
Hope you’re having fun too.

-Dylan