EDIT: The wolverine claw grip with keys is a BAD IDEA. Read this article for a more practical self-defense technique EDIT: This comic was featured by Couchsurfing.org, with a link to this page on safety advice. I've received several nice messages from readers who mention that they're gearing up for travels and sick of friends and family raining on their parades about it. They're excited to go abroad, and they just wish people could be excited for them rather than asking several times if they know how to use pepper spray. On the one hand, you've got to remember that it comes from a place of love, and it's nice that people care about your safety. On the other, dagnabbit, anyone over 18 has been hearing this stuff long enough to have all of those nightmare images in their heads already. Knock it off and tell them "Congratulations". They weighed the risks with their adult brain and they decided to do this. Belleville Park is blooming and it's beautiful! I recently registered to take the B2 DELF exam, which tests French language skills. It's good motivation to keep me studying and improving my French while I'm here. I'm preparing for the exam with the TV5Monde online exercises. For anyone else learning French, I recommend the apps "Babbel" and "7 Petits Mots" for vocabulary, and the podcasts "Coffee Break French", "Daily French Pod", and "RFI Journal en francais facile" for listening/comprehension. I went to a vide-grenier ("empty attic") sale this week in Belleville. It's the Parisian version of a garage sale, but rather than one home's garage, it's an entire neighborhood participating in an arranged market day, with booths for everyone who signed up. It was incredible! The stuff you see in American garage sales (old ski boots, vinyl discs, books, clothes) plus CRAZY antiques. I got a copy of Le Perfum and a hat for 4 euros total. My friend found a working record player for 35 euros, and this BEAUTIFUL glass and metal inkwell/pen holder the likes of which I've never seen for 10 euros. Highly recommended for a Saturday morning activity if you visit France in a warm month. You can locate a sale on this site. (I just looked up Paris today out of curiosity and there are 14 sales listed. Wow.) Here's a little life drawing from the OFII offices, where I spent some time this week on visa procedural stuff (you'll be happy to know that I do NOT have tuberculosis, which is the main thing the immigrant medical check-up looks for): Fun with braids! BEAUTIFUL ukulele gift from the bf! Aaaaaaagh I love it! Look at that googley-eyed dolphin bridge! I posted art this week from a few of my recent commercial jobs - these comics for a friend's TV show pitch and these portraits for a friend's upcoming book. I also just finished a new comic book cover, and will post that as soon as it's announced by the publisher. :) I'm grateful that my work can travel with me like that, as long as I have my computer, tablet, and a wifi connection. I've been able to keep working for my American clients abroad, and it makes a big difference in stretching my travel budget. Now if only I could find some French work...I've got the nicest new friend helping me out with that and coaching me on a commercial illustration portfolio for French clients. Fingers crossed! Last but not least, neeeeeew sketchbook doodles! I'm off to Strasbourg this week, and I'll try to come back with new sketches, photos, and stories. :)

If you're a homebody, the struggles of everyday life are real and abundant. The world caters to our needs more than it once did, sure, but homebodies are still pretty far from having it easy. Our special, happy place is at home, where all of our…

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The VCS3 takes up a special place in the history of synthesizers – educational tool come avant-garde studio in a box, highly idiosyncratic and melodically unstable, a melding of technological ingenuity with cost-effective army surplus electronics – it was never designed for conventional music yet its application and legacy have endured. The product of a […]

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John and Mary were homeowners who decided to tackle some home improvement projects themselves. One weekend, they decided to paint their living room. John said, "I'll take care of the walls, and you can paint the ceiling." Mary agreed, and they got to work. A few hours later, John called Mary over to admire his

Hi All! So, here's something I made several months ago that I've been waiting to share with you. This piece was made as a submission (my very first!) to an art show that my pal Ellen was curating in Los Angeles, it was called Home Is Where The Needle Marks. The show was comprised of stitched pieces and textile work, exploring the theme of the word "home" and what it means to different artists. The show has now closed, and was a great success! My piece was not used in the show, but now that the show is over, it can see the light of day because it holds some powerful truths... Are you ready? Can you handle the truth? {snort-giggle!} Oh. Yes. It. Does. Upon submission, applicants were asked to fill out an Artists Statement (yikes!). The following words are my artists statement and the meaning behind the piece... This is kind of an over-share, and I'm a little nervous putting this out here into the big, bad internet, but it's good to be honest, and if I was prepared to share this information with the world in an art show, surely I can share it here with you guys. Home Is Where The Bra Comes Off by Lisa Leggett Embroidery gives me permission to go slowly, one stitch at a time. For a woman who hurries through everything, stitching is a gift of time that I give to myself. A reason to sit still, calm my rushing mind and still hope to achieve something beautiful, funny, or useful; sometimes all at once. Embroidery is my meditation. I try to approach life with a sense of humor, from the best news to the worst; no problem seems as serious if you can laugh at it. Whether what I’m working on is pretty, whimsical or subversive I enjoy a good laugh, and I try to incorporate humor into everything I do. Home is where the bra comes off. Not only something to garner a giggle, but an unbending truth in my life, one which I believe many women can relate too. I haven’t left the house without a bra on since I was in the 3rd grade, I was seven years old. All at once my body developed, and it was no longer ok to go to school or anywhere else, without wearing a bra. I didn’t feel grown up, perhaps the way some girls might, but rather slightly ashamed and embarrassed. My budding boobies must be bundled up, and they must stay that way! That was 30 years ago. Home for me, is where I feel safe enough to be unguarded, to remove that armor and be free of the straps, hooks and wires. Home is many things to many people, myself included, but maybe one of the best things about home is that, home is where the bra comes off. So... yeah... that. I'll be even more honest here; most days I'm dying, literally dying to get home and get this damn thing off. I hate it. Days when I don't put on a bra at all are like a vacation! Please girls, tell me I'm not alone in this? Being rather, ahem, "well endowed", bras have never, ever been comfortable for me. They are a necessary evil. They hurt my shoulders, they pinch, they poke. They are the devils work. Right? Right. This piece was a stretch for me even though it looks simple, I don't do cross stitch very often (oy, the counting!) and don't feel like I'm an artist, so modifying a font to the right size to be seen from a distance, and a developing a border which all lined up properly was a challenge, but one which I enjoyed. I don't know what I'm going to do with the piece moving forward, right now it's just chillin' on a shelf in my craft room... I'm kind of getting used to seeing it there, maybe I'll just leave it. What do you think, girls? How do you feel about your bras? Are they a cage or a comfortable familiar? Do tell! I am always genuinely curious how other women feel about this subject. I'm looking forward to your comments! oxo, Lisa p.s. OH! I've been featured on Craft Gossip! Check it out!

Swedish photographer Sannah Kvist created a collection of photographs entitled "All I Own" where students were pictured with a sculpture of all their possessions inspiring anticonsumerism.

I am a bit of a sucker for any H-shaped floor plans which have “wings”. I’d love a home where the living and bedrooms are distinctly separate via a foyer area. I saw this one pop up and knew I had to add to my huge collection of Floor Plan…