Mod Mischief

While we were fortunate enough to get tickets to Burning Man this year , I'll be watching the Man burn from Whitehorse. Chris and I made the difficult decision to skip Burning Man when we found out I was pregnant and our home renovations suddenly had a looming deadline. I'll be watching the live stream and wishing I could be there on the playa with my little brothers and all the other crazy burners while the Man goes up in flames. But honestly, I'm a little relieved I'm not stuck out in the heat and dust in my current state. Next year will be awesome!

  They sold out in only 45 minutes, but we got our tickets to Burning Man 2014! I can't wait to go home again! We had such a great time on the playa in 2012.

Me, with big things! Bébé Bon Temps Brûlée , Burning Man I-80 Lincoln Monument, Laramie, Wyoming Buffalo Bill, North Platte, Nebraska Giant hipster? Omaha, Nebraska Fountain pen, Johnson County, Iowa Pencil, at the same rest stop as the fountain pen!

Our Burning Man tickets have finally arrived! In less than a month we'll be back home on the playa.

I've been an absolute wreck, waiting for the Burning Man ticket lottery. I was having nightmares about getting the "sorry you didn't win" email. Photo from the Black Rock Yearbook Today I was on pins and needles all day. I feel like I must have refreshed my inbox a million times. But finally I got the fateful email! We've got 2 tickets to Burning Man 2012! Our camp is still short 6 tickets, but no one's gotten the official message that they're out of the running. I'm in a much better mood knowing that we don't have to scramble to get all the tickets in the final sale or through the after market sales. Keep your fingers crossed for us! Hopefully we can find those last 6 tickets. This is the year I want to introduce my little brothers and some of our closest friends to the wonders of the playa.

  After being gone for a month, Chris and I were eager to see all our friends again and tell them all about our travels. What better way to show them what we saw on the road than to subject them to a slideshow party? With the help of a borrowed projector and gifted screen, we projected the best of the 1065 photos we took on the way to and from Burning Man onto our living room wall. What we ate: Since we were already feeling a little nostalgic about our vacation, we served foods that reminded us of the road trip. squeaky cheese curds in honour of Wisconsin diy ice cream in a jar (we used soy milk to make a vegan & lactose-free option) chips and salsa - a major part of our Burning Man diet Most popular drink: Thanks to Duty Free we currently have a very well stocked bar, so we were happy to serve up some potent mixed drinks for our friends.  Chris and I discovered the awesomeness that is a Black Rock City Pickletini after one of our bikes broke down and we spent an...

Confused? This may help.

I previously posted that Chris and I were making Superman costumes for Burning Man. In honour of the Metropolis theme, a world record breaking gathering of people dressed as Superman was scheduled for noon on Burn Day and we didn't want to miss out on the fun. On top of our own costumes, I was making S shield patches to give out to anyone who may have forgotten their superhero outfits at home. Unfortunately, I didn't buy the iron-on interfacing for the patches (and read the instructions) until I had already traced and cut out a couple dozen red logos . Only afterwards did I realize that it would be much easier to iron the interfacing to the red fabric before cutting it all out. So I started over. Luckily I had plenty of free red t-shirts to use and many many hours of riding in Bertha to spend cutting. I ironed the red shields onto a $2 yellow sheet in our hotel room in Reno and then added another layer of interfacing so the patches could be ironed onto shirts. Since...

Peering into our finished diorama Remember when I said we were participating in a group art project for Burning Man this year? Despite a few little hiccups along the way,  our finished box made it to the playa to be part of a very awesome installation. not much to look at yet Circumstances prevented us from completing our diorama in time to mail it to Team Tiny , so we took our 12 x 12 x 8 box on the road with us. craft time in Edmonton By the time we were ready to leave BC, the diorama was mostly done, but I was still working on wrapping it in white duct tape when we pulled into Vancouver, Washington, to hand our box over to the tiny artist who generously offered to deliver it to the playa for us. progress in Kamloops After setting up camp at Burning Man, we were very eager to go see our diorama in place, but were disappointed when we discovered that something had broken on route and our box was not lighting up. emergency on-playa surgery Fortunately, we had tools back ...

do as Superman does! That of course means we needed superhero capes for Burning Man this year. I whipped up a couple capes from a skirt I wore on the playa last year and the free t-shirts Chris and I got from volunteering at Bluesfest. If you'd like to see how I did it, I've made an instructable for it here . For gifts I thought it would be nice to make people Superman patches from the remainder of the red t-shirts. I've cut out what seems like million S shields, but I've still got to sew them to a yellow backing.

When I first saw this diy tutorial , it sounded too good to be true. I immediately thought of Burning Man. Could we really bring the gift of ice cream to the playa without power and with little more than a few everyday ingredients and ice? It turns out we can! We tested it out tonight and were rewarded with a delicious treat. Step 1: Fill jar with coarse salt and ice. Put cream, sugar and vanilla in a ziploc bag in the jar. Step 2: Shake it like a polaroid picture! Step 3: Remove bag from the jar. Step 4: Enjoy delicious ice cream! Now we just need to collect a bunch of jars so we can share frozen dessert with the citizens of Black Rock City.  If we have enough time, I'd also like to decorate the jars so they are more likely to become useful containers and not moop .

While we wont be able help our welding friends from Toronto with their incredible Heart Machine , Chris and I are excited to be participating in an honorarium art installation at Burning Man this year. We've signed up to create a diorama for Tiny Tropolis ! I love tiny little things (as I've mentioned before ) so I can't wait to get started on our little scene. I'll be sure to post pictures of our work in progress, but in the meantime, here's some small scale, miniature inspiriration: Thomas Doyle The barrage lifts Thomas Doyle's work is so interesting. His website is definitely worth checking. Mad's Hobbit Hole Maddie Chambers made an incredibly detailed miniature version of Bag's End . She's currently working on the Prancing Pony which promises to be just as impressive. Mini Modern Clearview Dollhouse by Elaine Shaw via AT Eames Loungers and Ball Chairs, need I say more?  finally,   Modern Miniatures on Flickr Close ...

We've got tickets to Burning Man 2010! Photos from Camp :D's photobooth

The walls of my new office are painfully bare to the point that my coworkers have been complaining about it. I've been struggling to come up with something to put up that is both work appropriate and something I want to stare at all day. When I saw this photo by Scott London I knew the search was over. I've ordered a 20x30 print and I can't wait for it to arrive. Part of the proceeds from the sale of his Burning Man photos goes to charity, so if you're in the market for some pretty pictures, you should check them out .

Hi Mom! Photo taken at Burning Man Today is a very special day. It's my mom's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! matching outfits on the Shuswap Today is also my best friend's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTY! Photo taken at Burning Man I am so lucky to have such amazing women in my life. I love them both and wouldn't be the same person without them.