renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco! 2 weeks away!

I know, I know, long time no post, but here you go---


Make your plans to go! 150 hand picked vendors. Some from way out of the area, like Boston and Chicago.
Ochibo and Skeletal Dropkick will be there, selling the wares. so Go! Go! Go! Go!

Ochibos at the Indie Mart this SUNDAY!

Drinks, art, music, what more do you need?
IndieMart

Mongolian Death Worms!

Yes, that is right, then Mongolian Death Worms are arriving at Ochibo. The Ochibos are a tad nervous, since these guys could swallow an Ochibo whole, so they are laying low for a while, desperately avoiding the lightening from the worm's tail.

renegade Craft Fair-Holiday!!

Yipee! Skeletaldropkick and Ochibo will be at the wonderful Renegade Craft fair! Hanging with the kids from Wear Yeti. WHat more can you ask for! I, for one, am quite pleased :)
Keep December 19th and/or 20th open!

Ochibo Painting!

Ochibo just received the absolute-coolest painting ever. Seriously, it is so amazing. And it was free. The Ochibos liked it so much that one Ochibo has decided to go live with the artist, Ali Spagnola. He leaves today for his new home, he is so excited!

New spider pattern at OCHIBO

New Pattern at Ochibo!

So danged cute! These little guys are perfect for keeping mosquitos out of your house. And, of course, since they hang out with Ochibos, they are extra smart!

Sequoia National Monument

A couple of weeks ago, Ochibo got to go to the incredibly amazing Sequoia national monument.

This luck spider got to check out the ferns on the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River

Hang out next to the campfire

Play with the LichenMan

And visit crystal caverns

SPIDERS!

Here is the latest hatching of Microchibus Aranea. Now waiting for placement at the Ochibo Storefront!

Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco!

Yep. WE went and had the BEST time! So much cool stuff to look at and so many great people to meet. I met a couple of people whom I had met at the maker fair and a few more whom I had sold to online and got to see in person. The Ochibos were so very happy to meet everyone and could hardly contain them selves. This one was trying to steal my muffin when I had breakfast at Townsend in SOMA... Sneaky little thing!

And here we all are before the doors opened...

The Ochibos happily shared booth space with Wear Yeti who are working on an etsy page... Go Yetis Go!

renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco!

Come see the Ochibos frolicking in person!
All go to the Renegade Craft fair in S.F. this weekend! Lotsa fun, craft and music! GO! GO! GO!

Squid-Mobile

This is a great little Lego boat made by the youngest of the Ochibo keepers at our house. I think the squid is eager to to see the oceans and visit aquatic tourist attractions. Look a the way he grips the steering wheel in anticipation!

hot days of summer...

As the temperature reaches over 100 degrees F here where the Ochibos are currently residing, their fuzzier, four legged friends are starting to lose their fur. This little ball of fur was found wondering lost outside. The Ochibos, always empathetic, decided to give it some eyes and invite it to stay with them.

Jumping Spider!!!

Ochibos LOVE jumping spiders. Especially when they scare grown men!

Ochibo eats!

Mmmm.... crepes!

Ochibo got to go to one of their favorite creperies in San Francisco a little while ago, Squat and Gobble! This little Ochibo had a great time devouring a crepe all by itself! Hungry little pup....

Indie Mart in San Francisco=fun and successful

The Ochibos enjoyed a nice infiltration of San Francisco and are eagerly awaiting their next chance to pervade the city....

So! the Mission Indie Mart (which, oddly enough was in Potrero Hill)was a lot of fun. Here is a picture on the keeper of Ochibos before the crowds hit. Look out for the random hand under the table! Gaaaahhh!!

Next up: Renegade Craft Fair!!

The world famous Renegade Craft Fair is coming to San Francisco!
Everybody goooooo!!!!

New pattern at Ochibo!

Introducing a new pattern over at Ochibo! What else, but a squid? I know, why do we need another squid pattern? Well, my squidlet is anatomically correct. Yep. that is right, mating/feeding tentacles and all. Cover the kid's eyes....

Bat For Lashes!!!!

Ochibo went to a Bat for Lashes show last weekend at the Great American Music Hall in S.F. We must report that Natasha's voice is amazing and crisp and beautiful not just in the studio, but live as well! :D IF you get the chance, she comes highly recommended!

Esao ROCKS!

Esao Andrews, one of the Ochibo's favorite artists, allowed an Ochibo to pose with his incredibly cute Boston Terrier for a picture! Go check out his site and see his absolutely Fantastic art and an Ochibo precariously balanced on the short snout of a very patient dog!

Ochibos at the Meteor Crater!

About 50,000 years ago, mammoths and (my favorite) giant ground sloths were wondering around peacefully through the woodlands in the middle of what is now known as Arizona when, from the very sky itself came a nickel-iron asteroid, 50 meters (162 feet) around came crashing through the trees and blew a 4,000 ft diameter hole in the ground. Poor sloths, I imagine they never even knew they were hit.
Oddly enough, the crater is privately owned and not even named a national monument.
PS. Nasa has a great site called "Astronomy Picture of the Day" that has amazing photos. Even one of the http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap971117.html!

Indie Mart in San Francisco!

Yes! Yes!
All go to the IndieMart!
June 21st, 12-7pm!
17th and Wisconsin Street!
It will be fun, loud and rockin'! Many great crafts and extra cool people! Ochibo and Skeletal Dropkick will both be there!
GO! GO! GO!

You really should go to this. It is amazing, inspiring and fun to see what everyone can make. There will be Ochibos galore and I will be throwing clay at 11am and again at 4 pm. I will also be showing people how to make a slump mold bowl at 4:30 PM each day. I will be in the Expo Hall (marked on the maker map as "Maker Made Stage"), booth #276. I will be throwing 2 times a day and demo-ing slump molds 1 a day. Yipee! If you can make it, you really should go, the fair is freaking amazing!

Handmade Parade in Sacramento this weekend!

Ochibo and Skeletal Dropkick will be at the Handmade Parade this weekend, May 23rd from 11am to 5pm at Giovanni Hall at 1333 58th street in Sacramento. Many vendors and a lot of fun! Be sure to go!

The coolest Cauliflower EVER!

This amazing cauliflower was procured at our local Farmer’s Market. The Ochibos insisted on getting it since it matched so perfectly to the purple Ochibo. You can see him walking amongst the purple cauliflower trees. It was delicious, being a bit stronger in taste than the white cauliflower and it turned a lovely shade of lavender when it was steamed.
It comes from the family that contains wild mustard (like broccoli, brussel sprouts and romanesco), Brassicaceae. I know it is too late this year, but get them for next year’s garden!
Cauliflower is totally loaded with vitamin C…. who knew?

Moss!

How freaking cool is the field of genetics? Some scientists in Zurich have figured out how to insert mammalian genes in… moss. Really, moss! What does this mean for us? Well, now we can get the moss to grow our mammalian proteins for us. Therapeutic proteins (such as insulin) that until now have been very expensive to culture due to the fact that they could only previously be made mostly by mammalian cells.

Lizards!

You know how you see little cool lizards out basking in the sun? For about forever, we figured it was solely because they were trying to warm up. Well, it turns out that they are also getting themselves a vitamin D boost. Smart little pups!

Bats!!

Bats species represent ¼ of all species of all mammals on our planet. Really! They do! Pretty freaking cool.. Bats are also responsible for pollinating, planting new rainforest trees and keeping insect populations in balance. They do a great job as bug -eaters, keeping our crops happy and they are freaking CUTE! They are also, as are many species, under threat. There is a great organisation called, Bat Conservation International, that I just recently heard about who have worked diligently and selflessly to help repopulate our bat populations. If you harbor any irrational fear of bats, please learn more about them. Go check them out and learn about the cool bats!

What to do about the car fuel dilemma

It doesn’t look like we have the answer yet, but it is looking more and more like biofuels are a bad idea. Firstly, to use precious agriculture land to run our cars instead of our bodies is very creepy. If there is a drought, which do we sacrifice first? Do we tear up the land and destroy precious topsoil just to be able to drive around? Should we be tying our food to our cars in such a fundamental way?
And now there is a study about the increased risk of crop pests if we were to plant all those crops. Apparently it will increase the amount of pests to the point where our food crops will be affected. By increasing the populations of these pests, we are not only posing harm to our food supply, but to entire ecosystems.

WORMS!

Do we often think of worms? Wriggling away in our soil, eating detritus and pooping our nutrients for our gardens and food crops? Well, if you don’t you really should. Not only are they cute (at least I think they are), but they are a basic and profound part of recycling decaying matter into useful nutrients for our friends the plants. So here is something really cool about worms, Caenorhabditis elegans in particular. They actually have a genetic response to being well fed, changing their body’s metabolic response from merely maintaining, to growth. (unlike humans who just store food away as fat). They grow! Very handy since they spend a lot of their time in scarcity and don’t often get that opportunity. What does this mean for us? Well, now that we know a bit about this worm’s genetic response to being starved or well-fed, we can likely take that knowledge over to the parasitic worms that wreak havoc on human populations to help find a way to deter them from using us as a host.

While you enjoy the picture of the good friends of Ochibos, the cephalopods, as they bask gleefully in the sun in San Luis Obispo, Ca. Check out a bit about our incredibly amazing oceans.

There are large areas in our oceans that are super low of oxygen called "dead zones". They occur naturally and most fish just avoid them. Here is the problem. They are increasing in size and prevalence according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. How? Our oceans suck up most of our atmospheric CO2. As more and more atmospheric CO2 become oceanic CO2, it  is making marine animals need more oxygen, shrinking the space in which they can live (or, if you look at t conversly, growing the dead zones). Just so you know, about 33% of the CO2 being absorbed by the oceans is from human use of fossil fuels. What does this mean for the fish? Deep-sea fish are going to have a harder time breathing and reproducing. And before you start thinking, well, who needs angler fish anyway… Tuna are deep-sea fish. Think about that as you drive your 10 mpg car 3 blocks to the store…

Running through the vetch!

TPCRed out in the field with the foxtails and the vetch. Mmmmmm... Pinocchio (It has to be the original, by Collodi) never liked vetch, but I guess he never tried this vetch, because TPCRed looks really happy in it...

Ochibos in school!

TPC and little Microchibus krabbus are all ready for Biology to begin! They brought their bookbag and are ready to learn.

More from the Science Building at Sierra college

Ride TPC! Ride!!! The Cthulhus are right behind you, RIDE!Scraptopus enjoys playing with her aquatic cousin!

To the Science Museum!

This time, the little guys went to our local and very small science museum. The red toilet paper cozy was kind enough to hold up the scraptopus and the Microchibus orbis so they could look at the neat bird skulls.

The first day out for the toilet paper cozy...

He got to go to a local school and play in the playground. I think the slide was his favorite, but the store provided hours of entertainment as well.