tashina knight

There won’t be a lot of posting for a week or so while my mom is in town. We’ll be going down to San Antonio and maybe wandering the Hill Country a little. Will try to get some photos. Hope everyone is having a productive week.

Introspective today.

How you know when you are home - in a world where people move and change jobs so frequently? I guess I’m feeling a little out of place. I lived the first 22 years in the very same house. Went to the same elementary school for 7 years, the same junior high and high school all years and then did my 4 years at University still living in that house. Since then I’ve lived in San Diego, London, San Francisco, East Bay Area, Temecula, and Austin. In the last 5 years, if you count places I stayed for at least 2 months, I’ve lived in 5 places, including 6 months in 2005 in the Extended Stay America Austin in the photo.

Actually, that Extended Stay America was quite a nice place to be. Very free-ing. As my husband was moving several months after me (job transfer), I was able only to bring with me what I could fit in my car (along with my husband and small dog). I had one box of books - choosing all the juicy ones I’d been hoarding forever, 1 box of clothes for the Texas summer, and 1 box of art supplies plus a few canvases. I learned that I can live and be happy with very few items around me. I missed my stuff in a sort of distracted way like I might miss a box of memorabilia stored in my attic. I thought of my stuff fondly, but without any real desire to have it near me all the time.

We’ve lived in Austin almost 2 years from now and I don’t feel I’ve gotten to know the city very well. It’s very divided into districts in my mind, SW Austin, SoCo, downtown, etc. SoCo is where all the “hip” stuff happens, live music, eccentric shops. I’ve been there a few times, but it’s a very small not-so-me version of Melrose Ave in Hollywood. There’s nothing wrong with downtown Austin except that it doesn’t feel like “my” downtown. How long does it take to feel at home in a new city? If you don’t feel it after a couple of years, is it time to go elsewhere?

We’ve been cleared to move to any of 10 places around the country and are considering (North) Dallas. It’s supposed to be flatter and more conservative than Austin. (I’ve never noticed any city in particular being conservative or liberal - I don’t much talk to the neighbors about their voting habits.) It looks like it has a much better library (important to me) and a great chess club (great for my husband). I suppose we’ll have to drive up there and spend a few days and see what we think. I don’t know anyone there but then I haven’t met too many people here yet besides some of the neighbors. I’d like to feel settled, but I’m not sure what that would take anymore. Stay in one place for 5 years? Just have a “feeling” about it? Have some friends I wouldn’t want to leave behind?

I feel like a leaf, resting someplace for a few moments and then being gently floated in another direction.

Yesterday was Stitch, Austin’s statement to the fashion world. Here I am all ready to go.

The show was in downtown Austin and consisted of 75 vendors, a fashion show with 18 designers showing 4 looks each and a couple of bands playing. (I unfortunately missed seeing the band Irving which was half the reason I went because it turned out that they didn’t play until 1am and I turn into a pumpkin at midnight.)

When my husband and I arrived, we headed upstairs to get an overview of the floor.

I overheard more than one person suggest that the lighting could have been better and I would agree with that. The quality of the clothes at the booths was good and they ideas were very creative. Handmade Julz gave me a free button – excellent advertising! (Mine is #53s). Her images are very representative of what I saw at the show on t-shirts and jewelry and bags. Birds and deer were everywhere. Next to the stage was a little display with the show posters, which I quite liked.

I had originally thought that Irving was playing at 8pm, which is what their web site said, so we were standing right next to the runway waiting for the band to start. People started stacking up all around me. After looking at the handouts (which I had stuck in my purse upon arriving) I realized that I had the schedule wrong and that the fashion show was going to be in another 45 mintues. We went ahead and stayed at the front and it made me wish for a better camera than my old utilitarian 3.2 megapixel Sony.
We had such a great view. (Funny note: The stage was about neck level, so as the models came over and stood in front of you, you had to avert your eyes or see more than the models wanted to show. It was the first year in that location and maybe they hadn’t thought of that.) I’m going to put these in the order they came on the stage. I will try to add in designers when I figure them out (leave a comment if you know any). I couldn’t watch and write at the same time and I wasn’t familiar with any of the designers before the show.

This one may be Laced with Romance.

This model gave us a little show of her pantaloons. She was having fun.

I thought this was quite interesting although it’s one of the only pieces I couldn’t imagine wearing. Note the audience member at the other end of the runway with the pincushion head band.

The next model came down the runway with what looked like a cape on and as she got to the end she flung her arms wide.

The next one is Lawless Revolution Wear.

The next two are by the mother and daughter team (one paints and one sews) Hot Pink Pistol with jewelry by Naughty Secretary Club. The designs are hand painted. Beautifully done and my personal favorite.

I also wanted to show you the monsters at my favorite booth. They are by Miss Monster. 

This one was guarding a little refreshment. Would you have dared to take it from him?

And it’s only two weeks until the Armadillo Christmas Festival in the same location. Hopefully, I can get some photos there too.

If you’re in the Austin area, don’t forget that  STITCH is tomorrow evening. A bonus for me is that the band Irving will be playing and I’d pay to see them alone.  There will be vendors and a runway show. It’s my first year going because I’ve been in Austin only a little more than a year and didn’t know about it last year.

I am planning on going to more workshops and such in the New Year. If anyone knows of Texas craft events, please let me know. I’ll definitely be going to the Houston quilt show which I missed this year. And I wouldn’t miss the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar (in the same building Stitch is held) which was lots of fun last year.

I’m thinking of some classes at Southwest School of Art and Craft although some of them are weekly and I live a little to far away to commute to San Antonio every week. I also will be headed to my home town of San Diego, maybe in the middle of the year. I miss my favorite Japanese bookstore! I’m not much of a traveler and hate to fly so I generally stick close to home. I read about the fast-paced lives of some bloggers, in New York one week and LA the next, and think I probably wouldn’t enjoy that. I traveled some when I was younger and lived in London for 7 months, but now I’m much more of a homebody.

I’m finally settled in the new house. I feel like I’ve been in limbo for almost 2 years. I moved out of our house in March 2004 and into a temporary corporate apartment for 1 couple of months. Then we went to another apartment that was nothing special where we stayed for a little over a year. Then I was in a hotel room for 6 months. Now I have SPACE. I’m working on painting the house inside right now. Sage green master bath, light grape for the master bedroom, buttercup foyer, navy and celery library. I’m having fun!

I’m working on a large painting for above the fireplace. I know sometimes people choose a painting and build a room around the painting. I chose a color pallete for the very open 1st floor (library/living room/dining room/kitchen all open to each other) and then I’m making a painting to bring all the colors together.

The above painting is a watercolor I made just as an experiment. I’d never done a large watercolor. I just did a quick drawing and filled it in with paint. I need some practice, but you have to start somewhere!

Here’s a game to drive you insane - just start hanging things and see if you can make them balance.
Here’s a new-to-me blog with a talented illustrator.
And here’s my favorite book so far this year.

My self-imposed exile lasted longer than I had planned!

First, Illustration Friday had a series of weeks where the themes were amorphous like wisdom and death and I’m more geared to topics like flowers and frogs. THEN, I got news that we were moving and not only that but that I was leaving in 3 weeks to move half-way across the country. Add to that the fact that I was then told by my husband that I couldn’t mention it in the blog until it had been properly announced at work - which took 6 WEEKS, and suddenly I couldn’t discuss the most important thing going on in my life. I had no time to do art, no time for anything but packing and planning and finally here I am.

Where? Austin, Texas. I lived 30+ years in San Diego and a few in the Bay Area. Except for a 7 month stay in London after college, I’ve never lived outside of California. So this is quite a shock to the system. I’m so happy to be here though. I lived in San Francisco for 4 years in the late 80’s and although it’s a beautiful city, it just wasn’t MY city. I like it warm in the winter and hot in the summer. So I moved back to San Diego never intending to go North again. Then my husband got a job offer that he really wanted to accept in the East Bay and since he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse (he would work, and I’d stay home and do art) we moved. We had been hoping to transfer whenever possible to somewhere warmer and when they offered us Austin we jumped at the chance.

I’m staying here in a hotel until our house is completed in November. My husband will join me in October, but luckily we booked some cheap flights for him to visit in the meantime. We meant to buy a resale house - I was going to look around for a month and get to know the area, then go into escrow, close, and fix the house up a bit by the time M moved here. But life never quite goes as planned and we found a new house we loved here in South Austin.

So here I am in a new place, just trying to figure out where I fit in. It’s beautiful here. I’m so used to California which is so dry and brown in the summer and here it is green and beautiful with stunning sunsets and clouds and thunderstorms. There are pretty bridges, stunning views, and the people are wonderful. I’ve been here a little over a month now and I don’t think I’d ever move back to the coast. San Diego will always be my hometown and I’ll want to go back and visit, but my heart now belongs to the hill country.