it's officially official

I'm now officially a featured artist at The Rare Bird!!! Check out my lovely bio here.

or...

Emily Coker

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Emily Coker is a self taught multimedia artist living and creating in Oakland. Inspired and intrigued by all things vintage, Emily creates unique handmade journals from repurposed wood and vinyl records. Noticing the slow demise of old practices, traditions, and routines in this soft copy world, Emily wanted to create a tactile hard copy medium for all to enjoy. Each page of her journals is torn by hand to lend a rustic feel that evokes something familiar in the user. The books are versatile and can be used for many things,  including journals, guest books, or even photo albums.

When not making books, Emily curates and runs an art event called Oakland Under $100 in an effort to pull together the Oakland community through the arts.  She is honored to be showing at Rare Bird, which facilitates that very idea for the Oakland art community.

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I'm super excited and truly honored to be apart of The Rare Bird and also the opening which is August 18th!

please follow link for more details:
http://therarebird.com/category/events/

book madness

this whole posting everyday business is gonna have to wait till after Monday. I've been in the studio hardcore trying to get everything together for my August show. And yes.. I'll post more info on that as we get closer to the opening and fully in August.

Not only have I have making wood journals but vinyl journals as well.

 The book below is one of my favorites so far. Every once in a while I make a couple books that I feel are gems, they are hard to get rid of. Something about this one is so dear to me, I think it's the size and color.

 Originally I bound the vinyl books with wire but they are to much a liability, as in they might get cut by any sharp edges and what not. Lovin' the book below, I will definitely be making more 7" books.

The one below is made from a lovely Robert Goulet album. You may be wondering how I pick the albums I destroy.. no rhyme or reason really. If I'm going to play the album a ton then I won't cut it up. I do try and find vinyl that is already damaged if that helps you stomach it.

 I have been so busy that I'll I do is work, work, work.. I think I'm going mad.....

aaaaaarrrrrggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Repeat offender of my ears lately in the studio:

and...

both so good.... yummy!

I also watch lots of movies and tv shows while I work. I've been watching True Blood, The Real L Word (such drama), Bridesmaids, Six Feet Under, Big, Ghost Adventures (so dumb) and the list goes on and on!

cross your fingers I don't lose my mind over here.

I know, I know..

I've been neglecting you. As you can tell from previous posts I've been very busy having fun during my birthday month.I'm slowly digressing back into my normal patterns which translates into wearing many hats.

One hat in particular is school.. which I'm pretty much done with. I presented my final on Thursday and am just coasting through next week. Then I get a break for a month and a vacation back home and to Yellowstone.

Another hat is my art hat... I know I've been super quite about this for a while now but as you can tell I've been busy, busy, busy. A little while back I mentioned that I'm selling books at The Rare Bird in Oakland, remember?
Well I was surprised recently when they asked me to be a featured artist in August. I immediately responded with a YES! What does this mean? It means I have a lot of books in the making and am in crunch mode in the studio.

I'll post more about the opening soon.

and yes.. I promise to get in the habit of posting more.

more July birthday madness

Went to a street fair.. this was before my birthday but it was all part of the July playing

 The only time I truly enjoy beer is on a hot day in the sun.

 Had a family birthday dinner, it was great. There were so many candles on that things you could feel the heat from miles away.

My sister gave me this little necklace type thing called "the wine yolk". It allows you to be hands free when at wine events. I think it's one of the silliest things ever.

 In between all the partying and fun I found time to hide away and enjoy some quite time. I so loved being the only one here reading Jack London in the corner.

I took this last Friday off work and started it with my sisters seeing the new Harry Potter (amazing) (and yes.. I totally geek out to that stuff). It was so lovely to not only see the movie with them but to have lunch and do a little shopping.

That night I went to the A's game with my bud Amy. We had fantastic seats, some of the best I've ever had.

Here we are enjoying the fun! It was a pretty good game and we of course over indulged in bad food.

I sure have been busy playing so far this month. I really must get back on track with all other aspects of life.. but boy has it been fun! A birthday not to forget!

my birthday

was yesterday and it was awesome!

now 32 and happy.

july shenanigans.. in rare birthday month form!

I sure have had fun so far for my birthday month... check it out.

Some of my favorite regulars came in with this and gave me a glass... uh can you say yum!

now I can say I've had 300.00 champagne.

Then I went out with my friend and enjoyed a lovely lunch in the sun at Quin's 

 the view

so lovely!

I also went to the Alameda 4th of July parade with family and friends, then to work where a customer brought me sparklers!! which are totally illegal here (duh)

I made everyone working with me that night go outside and light one up to celebrate!

I also went out to karaoke.. I didn't sing for fear of making peoples ears bleed...poor innocent people. I do like watching people get into it though.

and also capture great pictures like this.

THEN... my friend took me to the fair!!! it was so much fun!!

greasy 18" corn dogs..yikes!

 Look at this funny thing.. people go in the balls and try to get around like they're in some huge hamster ball. I could think of several people I'd like to see in one of those.

holy BBQ pit.

 Yarr!

 gay raccoon vs. cotton candy

 I won a stuffed animal and got to have a fried twinkie.. can't go to the fair without eating something fried.

 wee!

I've had so much good/bad food so far this month.. it's awesome.

today I was surprised by a package when I got home which contained this:

I know you may be thinking.. what the crap is so special about that? Well, it's some of the best mustard ever! My mom sent me this from when she was last at the cabin. It's Nine Fingers Mustard from Montana.. so yummy and makes me want to be Yellowstone.

So as you can see... so far the birthday month has been awesome and it's just getting started..stay tuned.

summer garden

Lookie, lookie at what I pulled out of the garden.

sadly.. the radishes were eaten through by some damn bugs.. so I didn't eat them. This furthers the the push to weed and take care of the bugs. I just hate slimy bugs in the garden.. gah.

This whole gardening thing is something I really need to get over, I am working on it though. I almost feel like I have to get a nice buzz on (yes,  buzz ...as in drunk)  before gardening.. it helps dull the concern that I have about dealing with all the creepy crawlies.  One of the last times I was out there I stepped on a worm and about died. Not because I care about the worms feelings.. but because I could feel it squirming under my shoe. I think I have a heightened tactile sensitivity. I so wish I didn't care at all.. like eff you bugs.. you're dead to me.. squish... or get the eff off my food jerk snail..swoosh.. as I throw it over the fence.

A perfect world would be getting deslish organic veggies without the hassle of maintaining it.

alas... that is not going to happen.

My whole goal is to have a garden oasis that I can sit in and sip ice tea, read a book and have my feet up.. while I enjoy the beautiful flowers, veggies and plants all put in their place artistically. Uh yeah... when that will happen is unknown to me. After rereading this post... I find myself just wanting to go shopping and not do any gardening... maybe I want good clothes and not good garden grown food.

While lounging in the garden I will listen to this:

Does certain music remind you of summer?

10 days to my birthday

but who's counting..

zza's summer window display

I am now the "creative director" of the display window at Zza's.

I cleared out the old menu and what not and this was my starting base. And looky here at what I created... 

I have yet to see it at night but I can bet you it's awesome!

 proud wine drinking artist...erm.. I mean display window creative director.

Lovin' the summer y'all.

I didn't think they boys at work were serious

until I saw it for myself... 

Yep.. that's the dented up old fender from my car hanging on the wall at Lanesplitter. Why yes, that's a Miller High Life sticker on it as well.

Here is another blurry night time shot of it.

I have to admit that this is pretty funny.