Choral Tribute to Lily Allen by Capital Children’s Choir

Haylie sent me a link to this today. Thanks, sis!  <3

~ A very merry holiday card (set of 10) ~
Send your season’s greetings with the musical merriment
of these talented little characters!

Buy this holiday card set of 10 in the WilloToons shop!

You can also buy this holiday card set on Etsy. ;)

Be sure to check out our Bacon Lover Greeting Card, too!

I love the Etsy community. They’re all about supporting their sellers. Personally, I absolutely love supporting independent artists. It’s so awesome to know that the item you’re buying is made with love (I know, because I put my heart & soul into my products, too)! Buying products that are made with love is like buying organic… good for you & leaves a way better taste in your mouth! :p

If you love shopping on Etsy, please add our shop to your favorites! And if you’ve never heard of Etsy, then OMG, get over there… it’s beyond fantastic! Seriously GO FORTH & BE INSPIRED (and SHOP). :)

I have fallen in love with many of her breathtaking looks, but I think the first time I was truly knocked off my feet was when she wore this gorgeous grecian goddess dress:

For the record, it’s an Oscar de la Renta, from his Spring 2008 collection
(I know, who am I? I’m so not usually into fashion this much)

Look at her beautiful grecian up-do, too! *sigh* So gorgeous.
As a small side note, Nate (played by Chace Crawford, pictured above), is SUPER sexy to me, as well. He could come over & make out with me *any time.*

So, while I was somewhat aware of my huge crush on Blake Lively (and her fashion), it wasn’t until last week’s episode that sent me into full force internet stalking. haha. The dress she wore to Chuck Bass’ big club opening was SO HOTT!! Luckily for me there are major Blake Lively/fashion fan blogs that documented it already. Thanks, internet! :p

For the record, it’s really best that you see her in it, by watching the show.
Photos hardly do it justice. :)

Lastly, I found this one while internet stalking. She’s so smokin’ hot!

It’s crazy, but she’s totally inspired my fashion. Not to mention I totally want her legs! :)

While we’re on the subject of Gossip Girl, I’ll also just say that I’m not attracted to Chuck Bass AT ALL (so many girls are, you can have him). And Blair drives me up the wall. And while we’re on the topic of teeny-bopper shows we watch, I’ll confess: I also watch the new 90210 & Melrose Place, too. Heee!

OK, we will now return to our regularly scheduled blogging about geeky tech stuff, crafts, creativity, business & other excerpts from my rock ‘n roll lifestyle. ;)

Now, as far as browsers go, I actually only started re-using Firefox again this year. I had gone between using Safari & Firefox for long periods of time, but then used Flock for about a year. However they changed some things at one point & I just wasn’t as into it anymore, so I decided to switch back. Now my love affair with Firefox is back & stronger than ever, and that’s hands-down due to how awesome the add-ons are!

So without further ado, here’s my favorite Firefox Add-Ons, that make my life online easier every day:

• Firebug – an absolute must for any web developer, novice or expert.
• Feedly – Do you use Google Reader for your RSS feeds? I hadn’t either until this year (previously I had used Safari, and then Flock), so I’m here to tell you that if you don’t use it currently, you totally should. :) Because THEN you can get the Feedly add-on which is srsly awesome. It turns reading your feed subscriptions into a beautiful, magazine-like interface. I love it! Plus, it adds a little widget to your browsing experience, so you can easily twitter/post to FB or Share it in Google Reader (Shared items in Reader is another reason it’s awesome).
• Email This – Makes it easy to share a link via email with someone at the click of a button. Flock had a similar feature built in, but when I switched back to FF, I missed it so much that I went seeking for an add on that did the same thing.
• ColorZilla – Using an Eyedropper, easily grab the hexadecimal value of any color on the screen. This is helpful again for designers and web nerds, like me.
• Read Later – I sometimes find myself leaving tabs open for days, wanting to make sure I don’t lose the site. Read Later let’s you file it away (dog-ear it if you will), w/o having to bookmark it.
• Aviary – I use Skitch for most all of my screen capture needs, and I even have/used ScreenGrab! for a long time, but Aviary’s “Capture Entire Page” feature is super fast & easy to use.
• DownThemAll – do you want to nab all the MP3s that are linked to on a page? Or just the JPGs? In one click, you can! Very cool. There’s also an add-on called FlashGot that’s similar. I have no idea which is better, though.
• Power Twitter – while Brizzly is still my absolute fav (and yes, I may be partial, considering I was hired to animate & clean up the illustration of the adorable Phineas Brizzly bear), Power Twitter is handy to have around when find yourself actually on Twitter.com.

As you can see, there’s a little something for everyone, when it comes to Firefox Add-Ons. Start with the above, or you can also check out their Fashion Your Firefox site, which recommended add-ons, based on what you like to do online.
Oh & before I go, I have one more Firefox tip for you: I highly recommend setting a master password. I use 1Password for my wallet, identity & password management data, but even if you do that, you should also password protect all the usernames & passwords you’re letting Firefox remember for you. (Click the thumbnail to the right to see where you set this in the Preferences.)

Hopefully you discovered some fun new add-ons in the above. Please leave me a comment with what you think, and let me know which ones you’re in love with, too!

After brunching & hitting the office for a bit, I went over to my friend Cam’s house to borrow some costume fixins (the black wig, hot boots & fabulous white fuzzy jacket I wore last night were thanks to her). We drank wine and had fun talking about clothes & boys – good ol’ fashioned girl time! Plus, I got to snap a few photos of her hotty outfit.

After dropping her off, I cruised over to Glen Park where I walked around trick-or-treating with Todd, Amanda & their neighborhood friends & kiddos. So cute!! I am going to try to do that every year from now on. Seeing all the cute babies, kids, dogs & parents in costume is so fun. Plus it gives such a nice neighborhood feel to this bustling city of ours!

After falling in love with some seriously adorable kids (who at one point literally had me laughing so hard I was crying), and hangin with Todd, Amanda & their fun neighbors (parents of said adorable kids), I swooped home to throw a costume on…which resulted in me being in some type of Annie’s Got Her Gun getup (sans gun). I made people guess all night, in order to come up some better description, but I never got one (uh, I mean, I don’t remember if I did).

This year I heard a lot of people talking about how Halloween is this instant excuse for girls to dress up slutty. (Seriously, I feel like I heard several people talk about that this year, more than ever before), but dressing up last night, it made me realize why that is. First of all, most of the time in San Francisco we either wear t-shirts, jeans & hoodies, or more professional work clothes… so what’s left? All the hot little dresses in our closet that we never have a chance to wear!

Plus, I gotta say, when people are in costume they’re in rare form. It makes for a super fun night & a great opportunity to meet someone new. So hey, why not look hot? I loved this tweet by JayZombie addressing the topic:

Ha! Love her. She was at Andy’s huge house party, too – most all my peeps were, so it was awesome! Sooo many people, so many ridiculous costumes, and so much whisky. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos there (I’ve completely given up on all my cameras, I need a new one so bad!), but I have one in the set Ryan Frietas snapped of me, Kristen & Aubs. Overall it was such a ridiculously fun day. This year really made me love Halloween a lot more. Hope you all had a fun one!

p.s. This post marks my first for NaBloPoMo – posting every day for a month! Wish me luck. If you’ve wanted inspiration to post more often, please do it with us! I was inspired by Karen Hartline.

What is the Church of Craft, you say? Well, you can read the mission statement, but the best way I can describe it is to explain what it means to me. For me, crafting is my outlet. My spiritual experience, if you will. Making time to craft is making time to allow craft & creativity to flow through me. Keyword there is FLOW (if you’re familiar with this premise and/or the book). Feeling in the flow, witnessing & feeling the power of CREATING [something new] can be so powerful. This outlet is different for everyone, too, which is why I think it’s so cool. Could be painting, drawing, sewing, gluing, jewelry making, knitting, quilting, playing music, singing or dancing. (Even though we don’t really do those last few at CoC. Well, not in full force anyway… there’s certainly been some singing & happy dancing here & there!) Suffice to say…to me, and many other avid crafters & artists out there, creativity is a powerful drug.

I also really love the amazing connection it brings me to my self, and (in my words) to Spirit. You can call it what you want, but to me there’s a force that runs through us all, and quite honestly the majority of us aren’t even listening (Are you listening?). When we tap in & create space to listen, amazing things can happen. That amazing thing might be a silly drawing/painting of a cowboy walking his pet monster, or sewing a cute stuffed owl, but what lies underneath is the real gift.

When we’re making something, we don’t quite know what’s going to happen. It’s a little like jumping out of a plane, or rock climbing. You can only plan so much, but it takes taking that first step, and then the next, and then the next, and the process can be fun, challenging and exhilarating. What makes this so exciting is that it takes a fair bit of trust. Trusting the process. Trusting yourself. Listening to yourself, and trusting what your intuition is saying. <– This is the part I absolutely love.

Creating & expressing ourselves can be scary. Granted, some have practiced this listening + trusting + doing thing for so long that it’s second nature, but for many creatives this process may bring up a whole slew of insecurities. What if this turns out looking stupid? What if they (my friends, my family, the internet, the gallery, the client) don’t think I’m very creative? What if this sucks & I’ve wasted all this time for nothing? What if I screw this up 1/2 way through and the whole thing is ruined? (If anyone feels like slewing out some more, go for it in the comments. It’s actually quite cathartic to let all your fears come out & stare back at you on the page.)

The good news is that there is no screwing up. And there is no “perfect.” :)

All we can do is create. Take that first step. And then, another. And then, another. And you know what? If you get to the end of all those steps, and you really think it sucks, SO WHAT!? You’re not going to die. Nobody is going to love you less (I promise). The world is not going to end. In fact, in my opinion, the world has improved a little bit just by you sitting down & opening yourself up to LISTEN. Not to mention that what you create doesn’t suck at all, because even craftastrophes are beautiful in their own right. Take a gander there and rest assured, your creation is quite lovely! Most importantly, it was uniquely and lovingly made by YOU. :)

All that said, I hope that you’re out there being brave and diving into finding your creative outlet, in whatever form that may take for you. And if you’re in the Bay Area (or anywhere, as we’re in cities across the nation) & you like to craft it up with others, please sign up on the Church of Craft mailing list, so you can join us next time!

Thanks to everyone who joined me on Sunday. We were having so much fun we went into crafty overtime… so awesome.

Craft on!

This last weekend was so super fun. Starting on Thursday night, Ali, Corey & I took our awesome friend Misty out for a (belated) girls night out birthday celebration. First to Blackbird, a fun new bar in SF, and then to dinner at Home, where we feasted! We also came up with like 15 new awesome ideas. Everything from new blogs (one of which has already been created, dedicated to our love of meat… two of the girls were former vegetarians!) to a new videocast documenting everything from horrific shoe choices to our new favorite place to get hand jobs. I love these girls. We seriously need a show of our own! :p

Then Friday night, I had two more birthday parties to celebrate (seriously I celebrated 5 in total all weekend!). First, my dear friend Aletha, whom I’ve known for 13 years now! Her friend Barry threw her a shindig at his cute Mission apartment & while I was there I not only got to meet some of her friends, but discovered this awesome performance by Danyl Johnson (YouTube video below). What a charmer, huh?

After spending time with Aletha & her friends, it was time that I head out to Initiative29, aka Eris Free’s top secret, but more importantly, super impressively executed (mailed invitations with laminated party access cards), birthday party at Le Club.

Everyone was dressed to the 9’s – or as someone said, the TENS! – and looked fabulous! It was my first time to Le Club, too. Very swank. The photo at the top of this post is from that party… but you should check out the rest of the album! So super fun.

Saturday started out with a wonderful brunch with Steph, followed by a leisurely stroll through the Castro. It was such gorgeous weather here all weekend! After running some errands afterwards, I decided to take the rest of the Saturday to relax at home before the festivities Saturday night. See related #pantsstatusoff tweet:

Amazing how relaxing weekends can be (when you’re not working your butt off like I usually am! :)

Saturday night we gathered at Sushi Groove South to celebrate our awesome, good friend Manlio. <3!! There I got to meet Ron’s new ladyfriend, Jessica, for the first time (she’s adorable), and sit next to Alba, who you may remember from our Wine Country Camping escapades. Love that woman.

After dinner we all headed to Bloodhound (one of our new favorite bars), where we were able to kill two birds with one stone & celebrate Rob’s bday, too… huzzah! Manlio & Robb had never met, but they conveniently have a TON of overlapping friends, which basically made it into a huge awesome party, completely by happenstance. YES!

That night can’t even be summed up in this post, but hot damn was it fun. :)

I’m going to wrap this one & do a new post to summarize Sunday. That, and I have to head off to a 6pm class called The Success Process. Should be interesting! :)

Thanks for reading all this! What’d you do this weekend?

Alyson Fox’s illustration work can be found in San Francisco and online at Candystore Collective.