excuse me while i wax poetic on the internets

i'm gonna pull a granny moment on you, OK?  i remember when there was no internet. when email was a novelty that you checked once a week - not once every 10 minutes. oh the world pre-facebook, instagram and so many other social media/need to be on sites [flickr anyone?]. i'm constantly inundated with young-ins who know nothing else but this - and it makes me realize how fast the world is actually changing. need to fact check? google it immediately. i'm so so guilty of this. i whip out my phone to check when a store is open, where the closest UPS drop off box is, when the next BART train to san francisco is. in class when i can't remember an artist's name exactly and i have to tell and show the student about said artist - BANG - there it is.

heath

i also remember when the online crafty blog world was tiny. we all read AND COMMENTED on one another's blogs - it feels like the good old days [yes we walked 10 miles in the snow to school]. we drank our morning coffee and said "hello" to each other. we showed and shared meaningful snippets of what we were making and thinking and got inspired by one another - we cheered each other on. in a way this is all still true, but i'd be lying if i said things were the same. as things grew we made friends with our friends friends, and slowly but surely it turns out that everyone now NEEDS a blog. that it has become part of the whole trending and marketing scheme that creatives participate in. it is impossible now to read everyone and everything - let alone comment. sometimes looking online becomes an overwhelming feast for the eyes and instead of inspiring me, it freezes me up - making me think oh i don't know if i can make anything as pretty or meaningful as what i just saw... plus so many of us are so busy now [a good yay we are doing what we love, but life is crazy full busy kind of busy] that we don't have the time to troll around online like we used to. 

but the last week/weekend i got to hang out with people. REAL LIVE people - some from far away and some who live mere blocks from me. and i would not have met these people if it were not for the internet. seriously - every. single. one. of. them. and i constantly marvel at how the internet has allowed me to meet like-minded makers. it still acts as a filter - i just know i will get along with certain people because of the photos they post, the prose they write, the things they make.

miette

i don't think i have ever had a bad first meet up with someone that i've met online. and even more important, many many of these people are my go to people now. they have kids - i ask them mom advice, i've watched their kids grow up before my very eyes. i have drawings, and prints, and photos, and poems, and memories with them. we have collaborated on projects, had wonderful phone chats, ate amazing meals, laughed until we cried. we have shared business advice, material advice, planting advice, they speak to my classes and allow my students into their studios, and there is jam [ok i've never made any jam, but other people have given me jam they've made and for that i am grateful].

what's more if i go to a city - most likely i'll know someone there. or i have more reason to GO places [there are so many places on this list]. so internet, as much as i grumble about you and how you've changed and how yes there are many annoying aspects about things and people online, ultimately i still owe you a big thank you.

most of the photos above were taken with my new 50mm lens who someone [who i wouldn't know except for the internet] convinced me to get. i was at the ferry building and the alameda flea market hanging out with all kinds of people that i only know because of the online world. 

here's my little and hula's big playing together. i get teary when i think about the first time i met andrea i was actually pregnant [but didn't know it yet] and we had breakfast with ava and ezra who were SO WELL BEHAVED and cute. and i have an amazing drawing that ava sent to me when she was about 7? and ezra's cooler than cool monster drawing is on the cover of my book. makes me happy. 

and speaking of online pals. i got to meet up with artist sonya philip the other day - and her studio tour is on poppytalk !