Bad film - beautiful picture

01, a photo by Alika-Rikki on Flickr.

There are some movies which I love visually and don't like as a story or an idea.
Antichrist by Trier was the perfect example. Don't like story, don't like characters, don't like actors, don't like depression clouded mind of its creator, don't like sadistic exercises, don't like crazy people.

But love some pictures.

More on Flickr

Once a month cooking

Meatballs for freezing, a photo by Alika-Rikki on Flickr.

One of my friends mentioned a book about organizing that she was reading. I love organizing! I'm not so good in maintaining order but I'm absolutely brilliant in organizing and inventing systems in general. So I checked up the book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Organizing Your Life in the library. It was pretty basic and is a nice companion in step by step initial organizing your home and office. There were just few new ideas for me but one of them was quite fascinating!

It turned out that there is a 'cooking once a month' movement. You buy a lot of ingredients, take out all your precious cooking devices and chop,mix, cut, whip, boil, and fry for a day or two in enormous quantities. Then you divide everything into portions and freeze. Now you ready to eat the whole month without mess of cooking. The idea seemed so clever to me!

This is my second time in this experiment. The first one proved itself a huge success. It's so relaxing to know that you have plenty of ready food at any time and a lot to choose from too!

I skipped some stuffed vegetables this time. Peppers became mushy, I didn't like the texture. But made double or triple of what I like - like turkey meatloaf with mushrooms.

Feeling good like a squirrel - but without her unfortunately short memory:)

Painted rock Airedale Terrier

Painted rock Airedale Terrier, a photo by Alika-Rikki on Flickr.

I painted custom portrait of an Airedale Terrier dog recently. Then changed and repaint it several times so it looks more like this breed should be. It was something about ears - they should be more alert and triangular.

This is the first photo session, before changing. I think the old book suits the dog beautifully.

Painted rock Airedale Terrier, a photo by Alika-Rikki on Flickr.

I received a gift!

I received a gift!, a photo by Alika-Rikki on Flickr.

I received a beautiful gift from one of my readers. Two books from my wish list, Japanese vintage set of fan-shaped plates, set of tiny forks and vintage English tea-cup with saucer.

Paris airplane

We had guests from Moscow on Sunday. And I got a gift - beautiful wooden aircraft decorated with Paris theme pictures. Love it!

Volkswagen and Ginkgo leaves

I spotted this beautiful car while visiting the Renegade Craft Fair SF. None of other cars in a row had any leaves on them. Actually there were no trees around parking place. I suspect that it was an act of pure creativity from the owner:)

The Art of Annemieke Mein: Wildlife Artist in Textiles

The Art of Annemieke Mein: Wildlife Artist in Textiles
I love this book by Australian artist Annemieke Mein. She is absolutely incredible as a textile artist. Her large silk and wool sculptured pictures are painted and embroidered in absolutely unique manner.

Book with my illustrations

I have my first illustrated book published!

Just sketches

Tried to make quick sketches from photos. The Sharpie marker is bold and you need to work quickly if you don't want ink building up along lines.

Antiqued book bundles

I saw these antiqued book bundles in the Restoration Hardware catalog and was fascinated! I love how anonymous and sculptural the old books without covers are!
Needless to say I knew what I would pick up on the next book sale in our library. We found bunch of old unwanted books on the table near the door - all free. I chose the yellowed ones and brought a full bag of them home.
The covers cut off - piece of string tied around - and I have my own free version of the lovely book sculptures.

Check out their site - I love, love, love melancholic beauty of their interiors.