Our Buttons On Glamour.com

Perfect For Valentines Day

Perfect For Valentines Day

 

We are dead chuffed to announce that our beloved buttons made it to the interwebs in the biggest way to date when they appeared on www.glamour.com. (Click the image for the link to the article. Come on, you know you wannnnna!)

These have been blogged about by private individuals many times ( and we’ve loved them all! Often they appear in wedding blogs after the magic day, photos of the buttons next to wedding rings and bridal bouquets…squee! ) but it seems like we hit the big time this Valentines Day.  It’s wonderful to know that they’re still working their super cute magic. Huzzah! We’ve sold dozens to new etsy members and we assume they found us via the article, so Thanks Glamour, we appreciate the props and the biz. Kissing during the recession seems to be a most popular activity!

I’ll blog soonish with some awesome new stuff…maybe even later today. For now,  I must away to get started on some Thai Coconut soup for lunch. Yummy!

Au reviour World,

A~

Moira’s Nocturne

moira's nocturne

 

Got the painting all finished last night, thought I’d get it up here for a little comparision looking. It came out fine…kinda dreamy, like I like ‘em.

We’ve been quite busy in the button world. We via our smooching buttons,  were featured in the etsy gift guides a few times and in the etsy blog as well. Tis the season for smooching!

We’re keeping up the winter running and doing pretty well at it. I’d like to add some clicks to get up to a 10 k run on Sundays but  we’re kind of busy on Sundays so I need to do some planning to get it done. Well see…if I can get lunch ready early I think we can manage it…time will tell.

Ummm…I’ll try to check in later this week with some new cards and a rant about the freakazoids at Riso and how they’re discontinuing Gocco supplies. 

But we’ll save the insane muttering for a later date.

It will be insane, be sure to check back.

Happy Thursday Dear Reader.

A~

Work In Progress

Lucinda

 

It’s hard to believe that January 2009 is almost behind us. It’s been a busy month that has been peppered with blah days of uber dullness.

I did not know that the term Blue Monday referred to the 3rd Monday of every January for the sad feelings one may suffer from at this time of year. I admit, I was feeling like a honeybee trapped in maramalade for most of the week, but I’m shaking off the cobwebs and getting on with It. It includes donating some cool schwag to an MS fundraiser, making some new and exciting new buttons, running 5 km in -20 degree weather ( seriously…it’s true…and, until one gets warmed up, it’s fairly brisk!) and sketching out the painting you see above. There have already been some changes to her forehead ( It’s enormous here right? Well, not any more thanks to a bit of black paint and a few spare minutes.) I’m hoping to get this one done in a week or so, before the next step of Get Off The Grid Life 2009 gets into full swing.

What’s that you say.

Get off the grid?

Yep, we’d like to be living as much as possible off the sun before we swing into next winter’s blahs.

 But time will tell.

The work looms ahead of me, but in a good way.

I think.

Heh heh.

And with that, I bid the world a good evening and we’ll catch you all later, mon gators.

A~

So Long Mr.Bush.

wmd1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, if you’re reading this blog, congrats, you made it!

Holy Buddha in A Magic Handcart, was that a waste of 8 years or what?

I thought I’d pull up an old picture, taken before I had the button photographing down pat,  of a classic original buttonempire button.

For those of you desperate to forget 2005, Bush and Co. kinda changed the WMD record midway through the show. They stopped trying to make America poop it’s pants with the WMD bull cocky and started up with the “Saddam Hussein was a bad man who destabilized the region and we had to take him out, that’s the real reason why we invaded Iraq”  song and dance.

Oh.

Yeah.

The region is  sooooooo much more stable since Saddam went to that big psychopathic  palace in the sky. *sarcasm, you sustain me in my darkest hours*

Anyhoo…where was I?

Oh yeah, this button was a rarely punched, limited edition treat done up in the “I Remember Pearl Harbour” style for those peeps who were still having to inform ignoramousii that there were no WMD’s in Iraq. For a while there, if memory serves, almost 50% of Americans asked thought they had found WMD’s. It was a crazy time, a time when a 1 inch Tecre  buttonmaker was this girls BFF.

And so, let us all lower the curtain on those stupid, wasted, expensive, depressing and deadly 8 years and move onward with just a fraction of Hope for something more thoughtful. Maybe a little foreplay, maybe the occasional love note, maybe an unfolded but thoroughly read newspaper left carelessly on the couch in the living room of the little house of Hope that I keep in my heart.

Hold on.

Talk Amongst yourselves.

I’m getting verklempt.

On that note…Best Wishes, Dear Reader for a peaceful, smart, and happy 2009.

A~

Capitol Record Club

Magents of Awesomeness

Sometimes, in my never ending hunt for cool vintage materials with which to make cool schwag I come upon something that makes my heart beat a little faster. That happened this afternoon when, at a site I can not disclose for purposes of hoarding and greediness, I found an magazine from 1968 in which there was a cherry red and like new ad for the Capitol Record Club. In less than an hour I had cut and buttoned and photographed these very sweet magents into being.

I know these will sell. The last ones (made almost a year ago…these ads are SUPER rare!) sold really quickly…I still miss them. I’ll miss these too…but they’ll go to someone who adores them I’m sure. Why? Because, they are so freakin’ cool.

It was a weird, overcast day here today so we rented a schwack of foriegn/indie/documentry films today. We enjoyed “Fido”, a colour saturated zombie story with a difference and “King of Kong” a really interesting documentry about the Donkey Kong world record and the politics and shenanigans and odd bravery surrounding it’s rightful owner. I loved that film. If you can find it I’m giving you the ok to rent it.  It’s worth the time out of your life.

On that note, we’ll check in soonish with other stuff to say and show.

G’Night World,

A~

New Works

Anna K

I’ve been super busy in the last couple of weeks.

Buttons sell well during the holiday season, even if it is a recession, so I’ve had the punch out quite a bit.

No matter what people love to declare their smooching wishes and President Obama freakin’ won  the election (huzzah!) so we had to make a tonne of those babies.

available on buttonempire.etsy.com
Besides button business, I’ve been trying to keep the very small quarters of the empire workable, but let’s face it, we need an extra room. I miss our SK digs like crazy. And yet, somehow I got the painting bug this week and made the first piece in this post and the all following pieces as well…
MirabellaLiviaFloraHoneyAngel
I’m doing a sort of homemade scratchboard technique here.
I’m using acrylics because they’re easy to clean and therefore easier to use in a small space.
I paint the surface flat black and then work up from there in colour and then I scratch and scrape down into the black using various pointy objects.
Finally I burnish the surface with a palette knife so there is a lovely gleam while maintaining a textured surface to hold the viewers interest.
I love the dreamy visual look I get from this process.
These are small squares on masonite so they’re affordable galore, easy to ship and easy to frame up on the cheap.
I’d love to be doing larger, more complicated works but that will have to wait until the summer.
(*le sigh* as Pepe Le Pew used to say.)
With that, I’ve got to go do a quick Friday clean up, make a homemade pizza sauce and beat down the yummiest homemade herbed pizza dough made this side of Italy.
Then, I need to get my Lehrer Newshour/wine drinking in, sit back and sup while I see how far down the tube the world went since I woke up this morning.
Oh.
And I need to use the Wii Fit.
Do not forget, fellow Wii Fit owners, that thing is watching you…
and me…
and Bruno.
Damned Wii…it’s a little fitness narc!
Later Gators,
A~

A Standard For Elliott Smith

A Standard For Elliott Smith

 

Somehow I missed discovering Elliott Smith when he was alive. It was just one of those things. Our paths didn’t cross until, upon watching Good Will Hunting for the billionth time, I decided a huge part of it’s attraction was the beautifully gentle music that ran through the film. One google later and I had the artist’s name. Elliott Smith. I retrived the songs from that film and listened to them over and over again, living for almost a year with just those songs. Because I was afraid. I was afraid to look for more. I had a very strong feeling that something bad had happened to Mr.Smith. Ignorance is Bliss and I didn’t want to know.

Then one night, I decided to google the man and I found out that I had been most correct in my bad feeling. No longer bound to this place by life, Elliott Smith was gone from this mortal coil. His heart fatally injured in what some people still believe might have been foul play.

I don’t know.

Life is Hard. Feeling is Hard. Loving is Hard.

Life is Hard.

The only good thing about finding out that he was gone was that I could go forth and hear all I could find by him. Thanks to the internet I have some amazing live shows, but I also heard some awful gigs as well. Gigs where the drugs are running the show. Gigs that are just too heartbreaking to stand.

He’s one of those people who I wish I could’ve taken in and made lemonade for. Kept him safe in a guest bedroom, got him running in the mornings and eating awesome vegetarian food for lunch and having a good glass of merlot while we watched the news and then played some Wii before he pulled out his guitar and made me Love him all over again.

Maybe in Heaven…

Maybe.

Happy Tuesday World,

A~

Kittens Against Stephen Harper

Artists Rendering of True Events

Artists Rendering of True Events

K.A.S.H

K.A.S.H

Kittens everywhere resent being used to make you look sweet Mr.Harper.

In addition, Ordinary Canadian Kittens support supporting the Arts.

They also think you should stop trying to manipulate the Canadian electorate by calling early elections because you think you can get a Majority government.

They strongly dislike your slime ball tactics in running, not just negative attack ads, but negative attack ads when there isn’t even an election on.

You ruined their Christmas holiday last year with your creepy anti Dion ads shoved in between ads for tasty kibble and nifty remote control toys.

And do not even get them started on how you lied about taxing Income Trusts.

Basically, this button says it all.
You do not have the support of Kittens.
Stop forcing them to appear with you.

Due to copyright laws, I cannot use the photo of the poor ginger Kitten being held by our Dead Eyed PM, but I have done a quick artists’ rendering of the horror of a Kitten trapped in his arms.

Peace Out,

A~

bride and groom identification buttons

cute cute cute

 

Hot off the press are these two fresh pinbacks for the guy and gal who plan on jumping the broom.

They’re pretty sweet and still available in the etsy shop. That’s www.buttonempire.etsy.com.

Fierce.

Anyhoo…we’re both hard at work, as always.

Got some of the pieces we made in our time off framed up and they look great.  

Bruno has some pretty exciting irons in the fire, but I’m not going to elaborate until we get confirmation. 

Let’s just say,  buy his work now. 

 It’s a great investment.

Ummm…the world seems a bit nutty right now, does it not? 

I’ve really come to enjoy the SNL 3rd American debate skit, if you’re seeing this blog via my Facebook page, that bit is emedded on my page and I think you should watch it.

Joe the Plumber.

You can’t make that shit up!

On that note, my ear hurts and i’m off to bed.

Pax Out.

A~

Travel Broadens The Mind…

New Plain Pin

New Palin Pin

Travel Broadens the Mind…And Sarah Palin may be living proof of that notion.

If you catch my drift.

Look.

I get how Palin has what I think of as “The Ear”.

Having “The Ear” means you innately pick up on verbal tone, structure, colloquialisms et all. People with “The Ear” do well in their High School Drama class without trying. They draw crowds at parties. They do a nice job of reading their kids bed time stories. In Palins’ case I wouldn’t be surprised if night time at her house includes her dropping the g’s and adding some Heck ya’s to Revelations as she lulls her little one’s to sleep with stories of the Armageddon .

Anyhoo…the point about Palin having “The Ear” is that she can charm some birds out of their trees. (If those Birds still can make the payments on their trees that is.) The peeps that she charms don’t necessarily need content or context, they most likely need a six pack ( Hey Joe!) and a gun or two.  I don’t think those peeps give much thought to her foreign policy abilities (or any other abilities any one might need in order to lead our increasingly insane world) even though, thanks to the aforementioned peeps,  she might end up in the White House answering the phone at 3pm.

Gosh darn it, I hope it’s not Eye-ran or Eye-raq callin’. 

Anyhoo…I made this bitter little button when we were still out East and finally I have the high speed to make uploading it a cinch. Yay!

Ciao For Now Kids ( Ciao is an Eye-talian salutation Ms.Palin.  Eye-taly doesn’t need you to nuke them, just so you know. They’re not in the Middle East.) 

A~