Prolific cat

Beatrix was exhausted after working hard on the rewrite of her new play. (She's highly competitive and is clearly competing with me, silly cat.)

Crazy humans

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo

Frank sent me this video yesterday and I was like, wow, yeah, look at those crazy guys. But I think my dull reaction is because I've been knocked flat with a nasty cold all week. I've had a passionate interest in nothing other than tea and my tissue box. But I must be getting better, because I woke up this morning and thought WAIT A MINUTE. WERE THOSE GUYS...well, just watch the video. You'll see what I mean. (And yes, this is real. No joke. Real.)

Also, I forgot to mention, the reading of my new play went great. I lucked out and got a great cast, thanks in no small part to Sonya's slick handiwork (thank you, S!). The very next day, the wonderful actress who read the lead for me, Birgit Huppuch, won an Obie. How cool is that? Congrats, Birgit!

A really cool pile of trash

Aw, man. I wish I had been in L.A. when this show was up so I could have seen it. Now that's some creative sewing.

A day in the park

I've been busy. Busy, I tell you!



I finished a first draft of my new play a little while ago and then dove into a bunch of sewing projects while I bided my time until its first reading, which is bang! coming up this week. Hooray! Hearing talented actors read aloud, for the first time, something I've been working on for the past few years is a trippy, giddy, frightening, and all sorts of other hard-to-describe feelings, thing. YIKES, in other words. My writing has always been the most important thing in the world to me, so big and onerous that no sewing machine, fabric, nor innumerable colored pencils could quash my passion for it. (Passion being a word defined as 1. the state or capacity of being acted on by external agents or forces, 2. an outbreak of anger, and 3. suffering as well as 4. ardor and 5. enthusiasm, don'tcha know.)



So it was with great relief that I could distract myself from my upcoming reading with a drawing project given to me by none other than a dude with the initials DPE IV. The assignment was to draw something, anything, for an assigned date, in my case May 2, on May 2. It's for an arty datebook that will be published without a year distinction, so anyone can use it, anytime. So I drew this scene on May 2 and sent it off last night. I meant to also work in a pogo-sticking dog but ran out of time. And I was horrified to realize I left a tail off one of the cats, until P told me the running cat is obviously a tailless Manx cat, many of whom have particularly round heads. Well, of course.

Some bad-ass hats

I woke up from a nap this weekend to a message on my cell phone: "Hi, Jocelyn? You won! Your hat won the contest. Please call—." I thought I was still dreaming and was all like, "Dreams are so fun sometimes." But then I remembered I did actually make some hats and enter them in a contest. Last week, the ever-creative and industrious Nina invited me, Emily, and Laura over to make some chapeaus for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. The combination of a good cause combined with a use for my mountains of scrap fabric inspired me to knock out three of them before I even got to Nina's. O.K., enough talk. On to the images!

This is the one that won. It's a reversible head topper with long ties, made using this ingenious free pattern (thank you, Judy Danz!). It's really easy to make, and it's cozy and cool and inspires people to vote for it and give unsuspecting sewers prize money. Here's one side, with the other side's ties facing up; the other side of the ties match the flowered fabric, of cawse.



The extremely cute Emily finished her hat before everyone else and graciously became the model of the evening. Which was a great thing, because a couple of them hats didn't fit on my big head, don'tcha know.



Here it is in reverse.





I also made a plaid hat with a bow in the back for those who enjoy a more androgynous look.





I can't really explain the purple polka-dotted one. There must be someone out there who would enjoy it. Right? It's soft and won't fly off your head in a windstorm thanks to those burgundy ties.



Emily gives this hat more distinction than it might deserve, I think. Damn, you're good, Emily.



Then, while I was at Nina's, I sewed some ribbon with hearts and silver rick rack, etc., onto a black hat...it turned out O.K.



While Emily, Laura and Nina made their own jaw-dropping head toppers. Here's Emily in her own design.



Now that's more like it. Beeyootiful.



Nina's and Laura's were no less impressive, but I shall stop foisting pictures at you now. Nina, post yours and Laura's on your awesome blog! The organization that hosted the contest is called NYCreates, and the hats all went to the super cool Heavenly Hats foundation. If you sew and have a yen for it, make a hat! It's way faster and more satisfying than many other wacko sewing projects, in my humble opinion.

The kid likes to draw

Here are two of Hazy's drawings from her recent visit. The first is of a dragon named Scaly and Deby, a cat (I lovvve that cat). The other, of bears swimming at the beach, shows a frightened woman (in yellow) who drops her bags and screams when she sees...



BEARS!!! BEARS AT THE BEACH!!!



I don't know, lady, those bears don't look so scary to me. Why don't you relax, maybe the bear in the water will lend you his goggles and you'll make a new friend or two. Dang.