Oakland Fun

Last night, my dear friend PK came to visit, along with his sister and another mutual friend, Dusty. As the tiny box I currently live in is too small to have 3 guests stay the night, PK made arrangements to stay with a friend in Oakland.

I've only been to the East Bay a total of 3 times during the year that I've lived here, so I decided to tag along. PK's friends live near downtown Oakland, which is a pretty nice little neighborhood. It's right next to Lake Merritt However, getting to their apartment was interesting. I'm not sure exactly where we were (as I'm not familiar with Oakland) but it was amazing how drastically the scenery changed as we got to the outskirts of downtown. Everything seemed pretty forgotten and run down, then as soon as we entered downtown territory it was all shiny metal, and new condos.. weird how that happens, in just about every city I've ever been to.











After we arrived to our host's apartment, we had a lovely little feast of lasagna, salad, and bread. (With wine, of course.) And then proceeded up to the roof to continue drinking, and enjoy the wonderfully mild-weather evening together.










We then decided to head to possibly the coolest bar I've ever seen. (Cafe Van Kleef) Cool in the sense that it was so incredibly decorated with the most random shit you could ever want or hope or need to see in one place. (It poses such an excellent opportunity to rehash long-lost games of ISpy)
Check it out:















By the time we left the bar, it was too late for me to get back to the city. (the BART stops running at like 11:30 or something) so I crashed at my new friend's place, knowing that PK said he would give me a lift back in the morning (they rented a car.) And I'm glad that I did , because while we were circling around for 20 minutes trying to figure out where the stupid on-ramp was to get back to San Francisco (California has terrible signage as far as anything important goes, such as silly little things like interstate signs.. sheesh,) we drove past this little beauty:





Glorious, and for sale! ha.

Finished Illustration

I finally finished the illustration I've been working on over the past 3 days. And I figured since I shared with you an in-progress shot, I can show the finished piece.

This is what 25+ hours of time looks like in illustration form:




heart,
K

In Progess

It's been quite awhile since I've posted anything from the children's book I'm (still) working on. I only have a couple left to go, but they all happen to be the most complicated scenes in the book (lots of people and backgrounds.) I can't promise that I'll post any more from the book, because I want the finished product to be a suprise (and I want everyone to buy it!)

So enjoy!

- Karen

Friday Funday

I realize I've taken a bit of a hiatus from "Friday Funday" the last couple of weeks, and I very much apologize. A lot of (career) changes have happened in the past 2 months, so my lack of posting is entirely due to this transitional period. When I was back visiting Minneapolis, my dear friend, Lil Ric expressed his sadness and disappointment in my lack of Friday Funday posts, so I'm kicked back into gear and have lots to share.

Today I decided to share the Mission district with you. Now, I have been to the Mission many a time, but I've never really stopped to photograph all of it's glory.







The Mission district has changed drastically over the past 10 years or so. It was once known as one of the 'bad' neighborhoods, consisting mainly of lower-income Mexican families. It has been steadily subjugated to gentrification so that now it is a place of hipster bars, clubs, and housing. However, with that said, Mission street is still heavily populated and influenced by Mexican culture.

Mission street is colorful chaos. The sidewalks are packed with people, fruit, ice-cream stands, 99 cent items, etc. The streets feel truly alive. Music blasts from store fronts and cars driving by, and the air is filled with the scent of deliciously decadent Mexican food.










I personally am most impressed by and pleased with all of the signage on Mission street. The only gaps between signs are due to street intersections, other than that, every inch is covered in text and color. I took quite a few photos of the signage, but there is no way I could've photographed it all. It would take days, weeks, years to truly document all of what Mission street has to offer.























I'll leave you with some other random images I gathered today. Cheers!

Bye Bye Minneapolis

I had a fabulous time over the past 10 days spending time with both my family and my friends. Now it's back to work, and back to posting regularly.







I had to share this little gem with you guys. Check out what is hiding inside of the Suncountry flight-emergency instructions.. so you know, if you're about to die, at least you can die laughing. Thanks Suncountry.




heart,
Karen

Hello from 612

Sorry about my serious lack of posts lately. In my defense, I am on vacation in the steamy mid-west.

Here is some love from Minneapolis.

heart,
K

Special Delivery

Thank You Bullets!



heart,
k