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Tattoos? They are not for everyone. But I have eleven of them, and they are so much a part of me that I often forget that other people notice them. Late last year, I did a rare lengthy interview about my tattoos with photographer Caroline Lee, who also took photographs of my tattoos and my former studio in San Francisco. You can read the interview here and see the rest of the photos too.

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Almost a year ago, we lost the great physicist and astronaut Sally Ride to cancer. Ride was the first openly gay astronaut, a brilliant scientist, and the first American woman to enter into low Earth Orbit in 1983. Read more about today’s treasured Reconstructionist here.

{New hand lettered quote, available also as a print in my shop}

As you may recall, I caught the travel bug last September. You may also recall that Clay and I are heading to Paris on June 30 for two weeks. So needless to say, I am feeling very giddy about getting out of dodge again.

I have found myself in the past feeling occasionally resentful toward a few of my friends who manage to leave their home more than several times a year to go on various adventures. They are not necessarily heading to Europe, of course (though sometimes they do), just traveling to the mountains or another city in their state, or to New York or Palm Springs. I see the photos of these friends on Facebook or Instagram and exclaim to myself, secretly jealous: “How on earth do they get to leave home so often? Don’t they work?”

The answer, of course, is that they do work. It’s just that their priorities are different. None of the friends I’m thinking of make big incomes, and many of them have quite modest ones, actually. None of them have kids either. They simply spend what extra money they do have on travel, even if it means not going very far. As Robert Louis Stevenson says, “The great affair is to move.” Instead of resenting those friends, I am now finding myself wanting to emulate them.

The truth is I love being at home too (I am, for the record, smitten with living in Oakland and really enjoy spending weekends in my little house), but I also know that I feel most free and relaxed when I am away from the responsibilities of home and the reminders of my sometimes hectic working life. The minute I am up in an airplane or on a road trip in my car, even before I have reached my destination, my mind bursts with new ideas and everything is possible.

The great thing about travel for many of us is that it both inspires us and makes us happy to return to our own bed in the end. We want to leave, to move, to see new things, to eat new food, shop, take in new sights, find new inspiration, but we are also so glad to come back to the comfort and familiarity of our own environment. The great thing about most travel is precisely that it is temporary.

Have a great weekend. If you are traveling, be safe. If you are home, stay cozy.

{Close up of my t-shirt design for The Teal Cat Project}

I’m so excited to have designed the latest t-shirt for The Teal Cat Project, a fundraiser for cat rescue groups started and run by the esteemed and completely fabulous vegan cookbook author and cat lover, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, who happens also to be my friend. The Teal Cat store sells, well… Teal Cats, of course (teal spray painted vintage cat tchotchkes, currently all sold out) and also (bing!) t-shirts. My t-shirt design is the latest edition, and it’s limited, so if you want one, I recommend purchasing today.  A must for cat-lovers! Here’s the women’s design:

And the men’s:

They are going fast. Get yours today!

Happy Thursday!

{New 11×14 print}

I am happy to announce that my Etsy Shop is now open again, this time with some new items! I will be closing again between June 26 and July 17 while I’m away on my honeymoon, so if you need something before the end of the month, order now. I’ve got loads of new prints and new tea towels too! Enjoy.

Happy Wednesday.

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When Clay and I moved to Oakland in February, one of the first things that happened was that our cat Margaret went missing.  The first person I called was my good friend illustrator Wendy MacNaughton. You see, Wendy and her partner Caroline Paul lost a cat several years ago. And they made a book about it (written by Caroline, illustrated by Wendy). Their book is called, well, Lost Cat, and it’s a story about stopping at nothing to find their cat Tibby when he one day disappears for five weeks, and then after he returns, fat and happy, their obsession to find out where he’d been. I read the book early last month, and I loved it so much that I wanted to share it with you.

{My favorite illustration in the book}

Losing cats is a relatively common phenomena. Cats who don’t normally go outside sometimes get out and don’t come back for days, if ever. When their owners move, cats sometimes get confused and try to go back to their former homes. But what was different about Caroline and Wendy’s story is that their cat Tibby, who was an indoor/outdoor cat, had never disappeared before for more than a very short time, and nothing had changed about his life that might cause him to leave.

{Fear about Tibby’s well being took over when he was gone for five weeks}

Eventually Tibby returns. And while some owners might shrug and just be glad when their cat returns after five weeks, Wendy and Caroline had to find out where Tibby had been and what drove him to stay away for so long (where he was clearly being fed). They begin tracking him with all kinds of technology, and that’s where the story gets absurd, but also oddly compelling. If you love your cat, you’ll relate to their story.

{Imagining why Tibby might be and what he might be doing}

{Tibby donning one of his tracking devices}

In the end, Caroline and Wendy do learn a lot about where Tibby has been and what he does when he leaves the house. In a way, this is what makes the story so satisfying to read — their crazy attempts do give them some answers in the end. It’s also incredibly silly and touching all at the same time.

The book is funny, and it’s also heartfelt. What most people don’t know is that the book is also a love story. When Tibby went missing, Caroline and Wendy had just started dating, and Caroline had also recently been in a serious accident. The stresses that would normally have caused a relationship in its early stages to crumble only cause Wendy and Caroline to grow closer and more devoted to each other.

So back to my story: where was Margaret? Wendy (now lost cat expert) told us to get some cat food and take it in and around the house, calling Margaret’s name as we held it out for her. Sure enough, we heard a meow. Margaret had crawled up into the fireplace chimney. We managed to coax her down. Covered in soot, we put her in the tub. No GPS needed, thank goodness.

Get Lost Cat here, or like I did, at your local bookstore.

Happy Tuesday.

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This week’s Reconstructionist: groundbreaking journalist, Nellie Bly. See an archive of all past Reconstructionists here.

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For nearly 5 years, my friend Christopher Hall has been photographing vintage cars he finds sitting in front of San Francisco and East Bay buildings. “I started noticing how cars interplay with their background and how cars seem to match up with trees and colors of houses. You see lots of vintage cars in San Francisco and Oakland. So the series began,”  he says.

Christopher, who lives in the SOMA district of San Francisco, goes out to shoot nearly every weekend and posts his finds on both Instagram and Flickr. “I also carry at least three cameras with me at all times,” he admits. He’s always ready if he sees the perfect shot, even on a weekday when he’s commuting to or from his job on Market Street. Christopher has a huge camera collection, but mostly shoots with a Sony NEX5, which is a small camera on which you can use Leica lenses. He also uses two different vintage Rolleiflex cameras, among several other gems. And, of course, he also shoots with his iPhone.

I met Christopher back in the early 2000′s when we both swam for the same swim team. We quickly learned that we both had an interest in photography and became fast friends. For a period of about a year in about 2005, we periodically explored (er, broke into…) abandoned buildings in and around San Francisco together to shoot in the natural light. I learned a lot about photography from hanging out with Christopher.

Below is a small sampling of Christopher’s gorgeous car photos, of which there are hundreds dating back to 2008. To see more, follow him on Instagram or Flickr.

Happy weekend.

{Photo by my dear friend Jon Rendell)

As many of you know, I got married to my partner Clay on Saturday. Not legally (yet…c’mon US Supreme Court!), but with a ceremony and a huge party with 100 friends and family in attendance. The photo above of Clay and me pretty much sums up the day. It’s not the most beautiful or flattering photo, but what it does show is the absolute unbridled joy we both felt that day. For me, the joy was not just in reciting to Clay in front of witnesses how much I love her (and in all the ways that I love her) and hearing her do the same for me. It was also about being surrounded by so many people we love — and having them be so incredibly happy too. With our guests, we hugged, we drank, we ate, we listened to tear-jerking toasts, and we danced the night away.

I have more to say about the whole experience of getting married, especially as someone who spent most of her life thinking she wouldn’t — but I am still processing all of it, and it may be awhile, if ever, before I can write it all down here. Suffice it to say, though, I have never felt so totally whole as I did that afternoon & evening. Sure, I was a little nervous before the ceremony — I felt a little bloated in my dress and was overly worried about my bra straps showing. But all of that disappeared the moment the processional began and the unimaginably beautiful evening unfolded for us.

It will take several weeks to get our official wedding photos back from our photographer (we worked with the inimitable Bonnie Tsang; she is so wonderful). As soon as they are ready, I will share my favorites here with you. In the meantime, you can see a few photos taken by me and some of our friends and family on Instagram — just search for those labeled with the hashtag #clayandlisa2013.

Happy Thursday, friends.

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I was thrilled to find out last week that my illustrated version of Gertrude Steins Tender Buttons, Objects was listed as one of seven “Best Illustrated Tomes” in the June issue of Elle Decor UK (see details, above)! If you are not familiar with the book, you can read about it and see examples of many of the illustrations here. I wrote about the making of the book here for Chronicle Books (the publisher).  Several of the original paintings from the book are still available in my shop.

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For those of you who are wondering, our wedding this past weekend was pretty magical and without a doubt the happiest experience of my entire life. I’ll be back either tomorrow or Thursday with a couple of photos and some reflections. Stay tuned.