An open letter to whoever runs Ikea, in Sweden

Dear Ikea person,
I'm writing to talk to you about Billy. Not your son, your line of shelf units and book cases. Recently, you discontinued an item from that collection, and I have to tell you - it broke my heart.
We came to our local Ikea branch a couple of days ago to look for (more) furniture for our work space, to fill with art supplies and (many) art books. At the Billy corner, we found the perfect unit - a medium height corner unit that is deep enough for many an art supply and its top is perfect for hosting both my printer and scanner.
We happily jogged down to the pick up area - and imagine our disappointment: no corner unit in our chosen color (black-brown). We asked your employees if they knew when more units were expected. They said they didn't know.
You need to understand, dear Ikea person, we've been living in our new apartment for two weeks now, and we're still surrounded by boxes of books. We needed those shelves fast. Therefore, we immediately called the Burbank Ikea, which is still close by. They answered politely that not only they don't have the unit, it has been discontinued. Imagine our disappointment, sorrow and despair. And if that was not enough, you never had the extra shelves for the Billy units we already have. We have many many books and DVDs indeed, dear Ikea person.
And then, to add insult to injury - we checked the Ikea website. To our delight, the corner unit was available there, and the extra shelves. All was really happy... Until we got to the shipping charges. $119 for a $60 unit? What could we say? Only "Oh, well..."
We are left with no choice, Dear Ikea person, but to come and visit your store again tomorrow, sad and disappointed, and figure out another configuration for our work area. Sad, sad day...
Please, the next time you get bored with an item and decide to discontinue it - can it not be an essential part of a busy artist who's got too much shit?
Sincerely,
MW and AW
Busy artists who have to much shit

Happy Birthday, my love

Today, my darling turned 25. We had cake, some presents, dinner and a movie and of course - some quality time together at the Carson Ikea (our day wouldn't be complete without it...). The full detail, we'll be keeping to ourselves.
Happy Birthday, my love!

Just a couple of notes

First off, you can see I've finally updated my side bar. It will be re-updated (FOs and such), but whan I can figure out how to have my right brain talking to my left again.

And check out Nat Hat Co.'s appearance on Drawn! It's from a while back, but still good. I'm a vegy, but I will be eating my heart out forever when I get to work with guys like that...

Domestic bliss

Before I even begin this planned post, I'd like to thank all of you guys for the nice comments about my film imagery. This past year and the portfolio review/job fair smashed my self esteem to the ground pretty badly. You guys are terrific, inspiring each wth your own work, and just good friends. Thanks!

***

I can hardly believe it myself, but I actually spent the day resting. Yep. You got that right. We spent the evening-night with friends and ended up sleeping very late indeed. The rest of the day was not action packed either: slouching in my jammies, knitting (!!!), and the highlight - baking. Oh, yeah.
It's my lovely Ant's B-Day tomorrow, and he'll be receiving a Real Food Daily carrot cake with tofu cheesecake frosting. Yep, eggless and dairy-less. To all of you non Angelinos (ah! now I can actually say that I AM... yeaks...), Real Food Daily is a vegan organic restaurant chain of 3, started 13 years ago by Ann Gentry in Santa Monica (on 6th). We had our latest anniversry dinner there and got hooked. They have the best veggy burger ever, and some amazing desserts. And now that we really have a kitchen and that it's equipped (kindly by the folks, thanks!) like a real kitchen - we got ourselves the RFD cookbook which I am now exploring.
Anyway, some domestic bliss on my behalf here, lazing about in my own apartment, sleeping late, knitting and cooking. Ah... that's the good life.
I have pictures I took while baking, but the camera is charging so that'll have to wait. I'll leave you with a picture my sister took on the Big Sur. Thanks sis!

The days are just packed

At long last, we're now (almost) completely settled in, (just about) unpacked and slowly beginning to feel like adults. We just realized that it's only been a month since we submitted our films, became a year older, submitted portfolios, entertained two sets of folks, saw the producers' show, attended the annual Pixar-Castaway party, submitted papers, packed like crazy, bought all of our furniture, put furniture together, unpacked, put in place, graduated and moved down to LA. Phew! And the next thing - adopt a/new pet/s to the family. That is - after much sleep.
And I'll leave you with an image from my film. Just because I need to get back in the game... Anyone has a design job to offer a starving grad?


P.S.
I will update the side bar and even post about knitting (!) ASAP.

P.P.S.
I switched my domain from www.thehomelab.us to www.michalwright.com (which is still empty). If any links on this blog are broken or images are missing, please let me know and I'll fix 'em.

Congrads to the Grads!

As of tomorrow evening, I am no longer a college senior. Well, until my grades come in I'm still a "candidate for graduation", but what the hell? It's still an art school...
It was both a colorful and an uneventfull ordeal. We hugged and kissed our staff, said bye to friends - and took off int the sunset to get... sushi.
This is the last entry for a few days, because it'll take a few to get internet up and running in our smashing new LA apartment. Photos will come later too.
Cheery-ho to yo'll!

Hanging out with the folks

So, long time no blog. To cut a very long story short, we had the department's job fair on Tuesday which took much time and sleep. Then it was papers, and then it was parents. Ant's folks came in
Thursday and mine yesterday, and so between graduating and hanging out with them - very little time is left. But no complaints. Sista is staying with us for a few days, in which we really need to find the time to get her mashed (he he...), and so much happiness is about to be had. Stay tuned for notes of our adventures with her in the big city (AKA LA).
I have comments to make and thanks to give to super kind swap pals, but that'll have to wait. We went to the Castaway Pixar party Thursday and hang out with our buddies N and C last night, and lo and behold - again no sleep. But for a good cause for a chage...

Third update - with ice cream!

In Israel, when you see someone for the third time on the same day (which in such a small country is highly likely) you say "third time - ice cream!" and you're supposed to go and get ice cream together. I almost scored free ice cream from my dean like that once. Yummi...
Anyway, due to the upcoming last-big-thing-before-I-graduate - AKA "the job fair", one short update today - what I discovered while working on the loveiness that is my film:
It's called "Geeks On" and it's a podcast and website "for geeks, by geeks talking about stuff geeks care about". If you want to spend a couple of hours every other week talking about board games, video games, role playing games, films, weird news or Battlestar Galactica - that's the podcast for you. It makes me feel a lot less like a geek, I have to say, but honestly, these are four intelligent men talking about some interesting stuff, even if you really don't care who contributed more to Gollum's performance - you may find their discussions interesting. And if you're married to or dating a geek, tune in to the all girl episode 39.
Enjoy!

p.s.
Please send your congrads to my dear Ant who got into the prestigious Producers' Show!

An Even Better B-Day!

Look what my AMAZING boyfriend got me for my birthday!!! I just can't help but brag, can you blame me?

There's some really pretty patterned paper, chocolate (dark and delicious), the first season of The Muppets Show, a Xyron 510 machine (!) and MY VERY OWN SINGER SEWING MACHINE!!! Am I happy? Can you spell YES?!
We're soon off to eating much sushi and mochi and spend some quality time together before going back to the loveliness of making a portfolio. Thanks for all your happy B-Day wishes!

I'll leave you with some (blurry) closeups of my new fortunes. Ta-ta!



p.s.
And a happy B-Day to the state of Israel - 58 years of independance! And may peace come before she turns 59. Amen.

Happy B-Day!

Yep, it's past midnight, hence it is officially - my birthday. A few hours from now and a few miles to the north and twenty six years ago - I was born. I think we'll have dinner and draw a bunch for the upcoming portfolio review/job fair (which is why update part trois is late, sorry), nothing special. Cake. I'm definitely getting cake this year. Hooray!