gub set up a facebook page for our blog. you can find the link over on the right side bar. i think we now have our social networking covered.

– ryan

i recently found some time-lapse projects i thought were lost in one of our robberies. here is the hand.craft.it festival that i curated with gub and our friend kristen. i filmed the event from start to finish to try and portray the amount of work involved in a one-day craft festival.

– ryan

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i filmed the snow melting on our back deck after the recent snow storm. the camera went for 3 days and i put together this time-lapse piece from the footage.

– ryan

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last december we went to our friends doug & lizzy’s wedding in florida. it was a nice celebration with our good friends. doug is currently studying organic farming in england and lizzy recently graduated from edinburgh college of art. so sadly, we rarely see them these days. at their wedding, we enjoyed meeting a lot of their great friends from england, scotland, ireland, and germany.

many of the edinburgh folks either worked for or played in bands at the wee red bar, which is the bar/club on the grounds of the edinburgh college of art. my brother and i worked for the club downunder, the campus bar/club at florida state university, so it was interesting to hear about the scottish equivalent. the wee red bar has been open for 20 years and is a happening venue in edinburgh. they feature both local bands and national acts, art brut and green day have played there.

the wee red bar recently put out a dvd called the art school dance. it was filmed over two days during edinburgh college of art’s centenary year and features twenty live performances by students, graduates and friends of edinburgh college of art. both the dvd and its packaging are really great, be sure to check out the trailer below.

– ryan & gub

wee red bar

edinburgh college of art
lauriston place
edinburgh EH3 9DF
united kingdom
+44 131 229 1003

if you’ve ever lived or travelled on the east coast, you’re sure to have come across south of the border, or at least seen it’s wacky billboards on i-95 from florida to new jersey. it’s this strange bright tourist attraction on the border of north and south carolina that’s been open since 1949, predating disneyland by 6 years and disney world by 22 years. originally, south of border was just a bar which catered to the dry north carolina counties bordering to the north. over time it expanded into a thriving town full of hotels, roller coasters, and crazy tourist shops.

as a child growing up in virginia, south of the border was this sort of mini disney world our family stopped by on the way to visit relatives in florida. there were roller coasters, shops with game rooms and toys, and these bright concrete animals all over the place. what child wouldn’t have fun there? later in high school, i remember stopping there on numerous band trips. we would try and impress each other by drinking spicy blenheim ginger ale.

as campy and touristy as south of the border seems, it is still a unique and interesting part of american roadside history. the fact that it’s captivated children and travelers and stayed in business for over 60 years is quite impressive.

we like to tease gub’s mom because as a child she dreamed of having her honeymoon at south of the border! check out this link for some amazing vintage south of the border photos. you can picture how her honeymoon might have gone.

– ryan

ryan and i are beginning to plan our very first vegetable and herb garden. we’ve been composting for over a year and have planted a few vegetables here and there, but this summer we’ve got big plans. we carved out a sunny 16′ by 10′ spot in the middle of our backyard, found some helpful info on the uga center for urban agriculture website, and we’re off!

we need to do a bit more research, come up with a planting schedule, and finalize our vegetable and herb list based on our garden space; but here’s our wish list:

we took some before photos and will post updates as the summer progresses. the garden will be under the blue tarp you see in the photos.

– gub & ryan

a few weeks ago i mentioned that gub and i really enjoy paint by numbers, especially vintage ones. i gathered some of the paintings from our personal collection to display.

two of the paintings are cutouts in the shape of the usa, made by stephen & shauna from something’s hiding in here. they were on display in the hand.craft.it festival gub and i curated with our friend kristen. the exhibit featured 16 of these paintings in a grid, which looked really awesome. we ended up buying a couple of the paintings when the exhibit ended! be sure to check out their etsy store for great goodies!

– ryan

we had another snow day in atlanta! twice in a month is quite crazy for the south. gub and i tried to stay warm while enjoying the beautiful scenery. i ended up taking a ton of photos and filmed a time lapse of the snow storm.

– words & photos/video by ryan

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gubby and i were recently admiring a lebowski fest sticker with a silhouette of nixon bowling. it got us wondering about the nixon poster hanging in the dude’s apartment in the big lebowski. was it just a joke? did nixon really like to bowl?

after a little research, it turns out the white house has had a bowling alley since the truman era! the original two lane alley was a birthday gift for truman in 1947 and was located on the ground floor of the west wing. although truman did not like to bowl, his staff took full advantage and had a league. in 1955 the lanes were moved to the old executive office building. the space was needed for more important needs, like becoming a mimeograph room and later the situation room.

the current white house bowling alley is located in the basement under the north portico, which is the fancy front entrance to the white house. it was built in 1969 by president and mrs. nixon, who were both avid bowlers, hence the dude’s poster. the one lane alley was supposedly paid for by friends, but who knows with nixon. you can’t help but feel patriotic knowing the president has a private bowling alley!

check out a bunch of great photos of the white house bowling alley!

– ryan

gub and i have always had an appreciation for paint by numbers. we love the look and style of the paintings, especially the vintage ones in their original wooden frames. i have also always enjoyed working on paint by numbers. i find the process extremely fun and peaceful. i try to work on them when i have free time, although it’s been awhile since i finished one. i have a stack of half finished paintings waiting to be completed.

over the last couple of years i got into making what i call “partially painted” pieces. it’s basically painting only certain images on a paint by number so the lined background is still visible. when you fill up the entire canvas you lose the cool design element created by the lines and numbers.

be sure to check out this great history of paint by numbers!

– words & paintings by ryan