Come see my work in person, meet a group of interesting artists, pick up that last minute Valentines gift or just show up for the free drinks. If your in the Portland Metro area this will be worth the trip:

From Salty Teacup
“Mad Hatter’s Tea Party in Wonderland”

February 5th thru 14th
11am to 5pm

COCKTAIL PARTY
Saturday February 6th
5-8pm
Come meet the Artists & Designers, festive attire encouraged

Featuring New Work By:
Aaron M Vandergraeff
A new collection of paintings incorporating collage & acrylics
X-Rayted – Cass & Alecia
Couture Millinery & Jewelry
Jen Bodendorfer
Recycled frames embelished with vintage bits-n-bobs
DK Graham – Kirstan Graham
Hand made glass pendants, art glass lamps & plates
Free Lauren Marsella – Lauren Marsella
Shrinky dink jewelry, handpainted recycled art wear & accessories

We will also be showing lots of new work by our other artists & designers. Valentines day is coming up so there will be lots of creative alternatives to the standard flowers, candy & I love you balloon (check out our other photo albums for a sneak peek). Have a friend with a birthday coming up, there’s something for every occasion & every style.

Free reusable cotton tote bags filled with goodies for customers…while supplies last

Who's watching them?

Apparently much of the country considering the box office take from this films opening weekend. I too was sucked in to shelling out a cool $9.50 to see the latest offering in comic based movies. Having been horribly disappointed by the Spirit I was yearning for comic redemption. What did I get? About an hour and a half nap followed by another hour and a half of actually intriguing plot. That’s right, a three hour tour. On many titles I crave more and three hours is an easy sit for me, but somehow this film managed to bring character development to all all time high in boring factor. The constantly switching internal monologues and convoluted mish-mash of back story was enough to give anyone not familiar with the comic series a migraine. Perhaps the die hard graphic novel fans ate it up, however I must admit I was practically snoozing half way in. And seriously, is Dr. Manhattan’s schlong a credited character? For the amount of screen time Mr. Winky captured that man should get a porn bonus. Having not read the book I have to ask… is he that exposed for movie hype or are they trying to be true to the comic? Wavering blue balls aside, Dr. Manhattan’s back-story and eventual set-up are the most intrigues points in the movie. I think all the actors played well, it just is too long and tries to cover too much in one sitting.

Yes, that IS 2 stories of movies…

When you’ve been collecting movies for more than a decade, a simple DVD case just WILL NOT cut it. How do you store nearly 1300 VHS, DVD, and Blue-Ray disks? Well, your pretty much gonna have to go custom. Luckily these type of bracket wall shelf systems are relatively easy to install and we went with raw unfinished Hemlock boards to span the full 7′ with single shelves. Multiply 7′ of movies times 10 shelves, not to mention the top 3 shelves are VHS that are double stacked… you get the picture. I have a TON of movies. Thank goodness there is a little data base program for addicts like me to track large libraries or I would end up with way to many duplicates. And, yes… it is alphabetical…well, sort of…

When you can live forever, what do you live for?

I just had to toss in a quick book review. I read a TON of books, and every once in a while a new author hits me like a ton of bricks and I can’t believe how good I have it with each delicious page. Stephenie Meyer is that new author for me right now. Granted her books have been out for a few years, having finished the series up with Breaking Dawn just this month, but I hadn’t paid it much mind until I saw the preview for the film version coming this December. Twilight may reside in the young adult section, but don’t let that dissuade you, it is a story so well written that anyone who has ever dreamed of finding something special will fall in love with. Stephenie explores the most basic feelings and emotions of young adulthood and develops characters so real and relate able that it is easy to fall into the story and feel all of their angst, yearning and raw humanity. Luckily I just found these a week before the breathtaking finale, otherwise I’m not sure I would have survived the wait. If you enjoy an engrossing love story full of heartache and triumph with real characters who pull your emotions… then check out the Twilight series!

I watch A LOT of movies and enjoy most of them to some degree, self confessed I’m easily amused. However, Pixar has gone above the stars and beyond with it’s latest release WALL-E. Hands down my new all time favorite CGI film. The captured humanity and sweet emotions of this little tin can are more expressive than most live actors on the big screen. I’ve heard complaints about no dialog in the beginning 1/3rd… I say to this: it was a FANTASTIC change to the general yapping without meaning other than to fill the air garbage of the majority of mainstream pop culture. The two main characters have less vocabulary than a Speak-N-Spell but manage to clearly communicate the pure wonder of discovering friendship, courage and maybe even robot puppy love…

Besides, any movie that makes a cockroach seem adorable deserves at least one overpriced movie ticket…