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Mmmmm…Fall is here, time to put on your warm socks, find your favorite blanket and curl up with a good read. Lucky you! My Fall zine is ready for you, just in time!

Volume three of a four-season series, the zine is dedicated to the some of the seasonal celebrations we practice in our home: Ramadan, Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, a 9/11 remembrance, and our communal meal. You’ll also find recipes, collages, and the next saint in my Saints and Sinners collection. The first ten orders will also receive an extra saint card to give a friend.

May the spirit of gratitude that accompanies this season be instilled deep within you!

Shalom,

Rachelle

Oh, what fun it is to see how the Creativity Challenge is going! Have you seen this from inkberryblue, or maybe this from picture this?

There’s still time to enter this challenge…the last day isn’t until the 21st. And remember there’s a sweet little surprise present for one lucky art muckerabouter.

If you’ve already tried your hand at altering photos, there’s other ways you can stoke your creative fire this week. (Ooooo! Doesn’t that sound deliciously naughty!) While you’re waiting for the next creativity challenge you can submit a page of your wrecked journal, take a themed photo, complete an assignment from a superhero, show off your newest inspired couture, or carve out a little time from mommyhood to say Om.

I love the way these gentle “I dare you’s” creates an encouraging synergy for we artsy types who are learning to ply our crafts.

Now, enough web surfing, go out there and do something creative! (Me, I’m going to go make a Fall Zine.)

Thanks for playing!

Maria D. totally made my day when she sent me this fabulous photo of her and her grrls sporting their magpies. Wouldn’t it be fun to see what other people are doing with theirs? Please join in the Summer fun by sending pics of your magpie girl tattoo! I’d also love to see what y’all wrote/sketched/scribbled on the blank pages in Tweet. Go ahead, click here and jump in the (flickr) pool. (Don’t forget to put your blog address in the photo description so we can find our kindred spirits!)

p.s. Don’t have your Tweet yet? Buy one here. And don’t forget to go here and comment-to-win a new summer read.

The girls spent the bulk of their Saturday at the PDX Zineposium dodging the numerous line drawings of phalluses and severed heads in order to find all that is kid friendly in Zine culture. They gathered plenty of swags–tiny buttons, handmade stickers, and this Volume 4, Issue 5 of a zine consisting entirely of identical bunnies. On the 20 minuted drive back across the Oregon/Washington border (the girls rolled down the windows to kiss the Washington air) Cate wrote a story to accompany the pictoral zine.  It basically went “Bunnies, bunnies bunnies. More bunnies and …. Bunnies!!”  After a while it did acquire a semblance of a plot. Here’s how she retold the story later in the hotel room, illustrated with the entire zine. Read the rest of this entry »

Holy Xeroxed pamphlet Batman! It’s Paul’s favorite people-watching moment…the dude from the Denver Zine Library in a homemade Robin suit.

We just got back from a whole day at the PDX Zine Symposium. Let me tell ya, some of the best people watching in the country is right there my friends. I saw some of the best tattoo work I’ve ever seen, which is saying something considering I come from Seattle, which this very weekend is hosting this. One young woman had a intricate and well-executed arm tatt of a giant squid sucking down a pirate ship. Another had a delicate, picturesque scene of a tree with a single swing hung in its branches. There were any number of pierced punks, dreadlocked girls and boys, a whole contingent of vintage-gone-camp babes who quite frankly, could knock your socks off with their yowza factor. But I think my favorite eye-candy was one particularly hilarious dude in an orange plaid jacket, pink crocodile clogs, and a – wait for it – tight red polyester short-shorts. He was wearing a huge button that said “my hipster button is bigger than your hipster button.” He made me laugh everytime he bustled by.

When I walked into the room I said to Paul, “I don’t think I should be here. None of my kids are named ‘Loki’ and I’m not even vegan!” Thankfully the person sharing my table was Kate, a lovely 40 something mom who’s been publishing Miranda for nearly a decade. We chatted the day away while I knit this sweater and she worked on her son’s abandoned scarf project. Most of the zines were of the “comics-of-severed heads-that-I-copied-after-hours-on-the-Xerox-at-my-temp-job” variety, but there were a few well written and/or well designed marvels that caught my eye. I picked up several Rad Dad editions for my punk-rock new-dad bro, and collection of Isabelle Eberhardt’s writings from Eberhardt Press. (Both of these zine makers either letterpress or screen print their covers – very nice.) There’s a very big DIY vibe in the zine making world, which I can totally appreciate, but I still I thought this zine’s suggestions took the DIY ethic a bit too far. Yikes!

I was able to steal a little time with Artnoose to hear about her upcoming move to Pennsylvania. (I wonder if it’s in the town this young blood of a hipster mayor is trying to turn into an artists’ haven? I’ll have to do a follow-up to ask her….) She also gave me the low down on letterpress, keeping a zine going for a decade, and mixing up the writing/artist life. Watch for an interview here in the upcoming weeks.

After selling a few zines, a bracelet or two, and my entire collection of shrinky dink robins, I was ready to leave the shower-free patcholi-rich air of Portland State student union. On our way out Paul took one last look at the workshop offerings for the weekend and said, “You’ve got to love a community who knows they need to hold work shops on how to handle people with undiagnosed mental illness…”

Ah the many wondered world of zines!

This is where I’ll be this weekend, playing in the field of zines. I stumbled upon this collection of misfit self-publishers while surfing just days ago, and my loyal hubby immediately agreed to stop for two days on our way to the Oregon coast. I’ll be shilling my ode-to-summer zine, Tweet, and Jen’s get-inspiried Beginnings, along with a handful of other handmades. I’m also excited to to be interviewing zine mama Artnoose of KerBloom. (”Ain’t no press like letterpress!”) Anyone else in town who wants to have lunch at the symposium?

It’s Thursday and one of the last lovely days of camp, wherein my children are gone from my care for a whopping six hours a day. This means that I can skitter off to my studio and try to make heads or tails out of all the ideas, business cards, and dreams that have infiltrated my being since BlogHer ‘07. Sadly, today I am waylaid by yet another day of killer untreatable migraines. (Day 3 of level 7 pain.) I worked through the pain the last two days, but I don’t think I’m going to make it today. I’m typing in bed right now with one of those old fashioned ice bags balanced on my head. Ice on your head by 9am is not a good sign. I really hope I’m not complete laid out flat by the time Paul gets home from work. It’s so sucky for him to have to be single parent man night after night.

What makes this round of migraines particularly disheartening is that it is drop dead gorgeous outside – high 70’s/low 80’s with a lovely little breeze and sun as far as the eye can see. We’ve been waiting all Summer for this kind of weather, and where am I when it hits? Behind the shades in my attic bedroom wrapped in ice and darkness. Ugh.

Well, the least I can do is jot down the absolutes that have come do me as I’ve let the post-BlogHer idea-fest percolate in my brain:

- I want to be the priestess of special events: weddings, births, coming-of-age, deaths, high holy days, etc. I’d like to make a business of this, and although I already have a master’s degree from a good seminary, I think I may do something like this as well. (Although Jen says I need to do doula and hospice training to heal my inner self from all the trauma of Simeon’s stillbirth and my other two shitty birth experiences. Jen’s attitude is “something healing this way comes.” And mine is, “Yeah….whatever.”)

-I want to get paid to write about these things – though books, articles, and as a paid blogger. (Anyone ready to hire?  )

-I want my writing-and-art-making life to be connected to my spirituality.

In order to make these things a bigger priority, I’ve learned that there are a few things I need to change or do:

-I can’t lead a weekly spirituality group any longer because my energy for spiritual practices is focused on special events, not weekly gatherings…. and because it demands too much of my writing time.

- I do not want to take any ol’ paid blogging gig – only something that has to do with spirituality/soulcare.

Okay, I think those are the big epiphanies. I’ve been all over the map lately, goal-wise, and I feel like I’m starting to regain some focus again. ‘Though I’m sure I’ll remain distracted by sparkly things for some time to come. Oh, and one more idea:

-I want to produce a “small is beautiful” art-zine/guide for small bloggers. (Oooooh! Pretty! And also very soulcare-ish!)

Oh goodie, now the Blue Angels are practicing for their weekend extravaganza by doing fly-bys over my rooftop. How can something be simultaneously so amazing (precision formations! technical skill!) and so depressing (fuel consumption! military recruitment!)?

Well dear ones, do pray for me. Let’s all hope that Jen is right, “something healing this way comes.”

Wedding Mint

The Annette Benning

Doris Meets Garbo

Ooooo! I’ve had lots of time lately to fill up my on line shop with a treasure trove of sparkly things! Stop by and see all the pretty new vintage I have up — most for under $20. I’ve also got a new collection of $5 vintage accessories. Vintage items are now easily searchable by size categories: Tiny Girl, Medium Girl, and Curvy Girl. I especially like this dress and would love it to find a new home before the end of our sunny days!

Brand new at Magpie Girl are my eclectic, kitschy bracelets made out of vintage typewriter keys (customized for you!). I’m also offering inexpensive St. Mair and Lucy danglers for your rear view mirror. Oh, and the last of the Bun Bun litter has arrived in three new colors. And of course, I still have copies of Tweet, which is making its way world wide with a slew of recent orders from Austrailia! (So fun!)

Come on by while the shopping is easy!

heart,

the magpie girl

The luminous Leonie let me know today that my etsy link was broken on my previous post about Tweet. So here you are loves, a fresh path to holding my pretty baby in your own hands!

Tweet @ etsy

My compatriot in all things arty and spirit infused, Christine Paintner, has give my latest venture a peck on the cheek. Oh thank you ever-so-muchly! I need a lot of help passing Tweet along. If any other bloggers out there would like to sing the praises of my ‘zine, I’m totally open to it (and would gladly return the favor!)