18 posts tagged “baubles”
So the weekend wasn't a complete loss. I did get all my laundry done. I watched several crappy movies on Lifetime. I cleaned the dining room. AND, hah hah! I got the new bits of jewelry uploaded over at my Etsy shop. This time it's Barcelona, guitars, mandolins, strawberries and other fruit. I'm gleefully excited about these. I think the next bunch will be in a similar vein, and then I have some other obscurities in mind for the future. Nw if only the actual warm part of spring would arrive, so I could do the toxic resin casting outside.
Continuing what seems to be a trend, after a fairly unproductive weekend, I got a shit-ton of stuff done yesterday. I guess I should just face it, no matter what I think of Saturday and Sunday, Monday is really my getting stuff done day. All laundry is done, I got a bunch of new jewelry made--not as much as I wanted because the muscle movement needed to wrap wire turned out to be fairly painful on my scabby tattoo. Talked to my mom who recc'ed some movies, as she does, and did not sound at all thrilled that I got another tattoo, as she also does. Finished and uploaded a website for work. Cleaned my room and put away the clean laundry. Watched Scrubs.
This morning I stopped at the good store to stock up on snacky and lunch-like things for work. I got whole grain rye crackers and hummus instead of potato chips and mayo-dip. Am feeling superior about my recent eating habits. Now if I can just remember to drink a river's worth of water today I should be in excellent shape.
My mood so far is far cry from yesterday's hormonal destructomatic. I updated my Pandora station and it is giving me all love right now. So barring any work absurdity (which is always imminent) I should be a-okay today. (And if I can manage to continue to ignore the cold, beating wind and dreary grey. Go away, winter! I don't want you!)
And now for something completely different:
Why I will vote Ralph, an essay by Miss Adventures in the 37206
Ralph Nader has tossed his hat in the presidential ring again. I am not ashamed to say that I voted for him twice before and if he comes up with the cash and is on the ballot again, I will cast a third vote for him. I can already hear all my friends, the good Democrats among them anyway, declaring that I am either throwing away my vote, or worse that I am damaging the party's chance of winning. So let me explain, right here, why no matter how strong the argument, I can't be swayed from my opinion.
I love my country and to some extent I love the political process here. But I am very much and idealist. Obama's idealism does appeal to me, as do his emotional speeches. However, the political process here has become very limited by the strict two party system, choked with party platforms that I am not wholly behind. Both parties I find crooked and not representative of your average American. So while the Green Party does not necessarily entirely represent my beliefs, the idea of a system containing more parties/points of view is so important to me that I will back it every time.
Politics are incredibly corrupt in this country. Perhaps it's necessary to get things done because of the size of the country. I don't know. I do know that I am more interested in what is good for the American people, the average worker, the new immigrant, the elderly, than for corporations and already rich white guys. From my point of view, Nader speaks more to that than any of the other current candidates. He is driven, he does have an agenda, but I hear in his words that he cares more about individuals than about money and power.
It's an exciting time to be alive. I am genuinely thrilled by the prospect of our first female or black president. However, neither candidate has in any way shown me that if elected they will really change our country (more than the obvious advancement for women's rights or racial equality). As I said, I am an idealist. I want change. Academically I have a strong education in movements of extreme change. Revolutions. France. America. The former Soviet bloc countries. It does seem impossible and potentially dangerous in modern day America, but we need change, we need to shake things up. I declare myself completely unsatisfied with the current party choices, with the current party system, with the way things have been done in the last 25+ years, with the way beloved country is slowly being driven into the ground.
My voice is small in this huge nation, but it still works. All I can do is use it to say, no I don't want this, I want something different. Right now, Nader is my choice for that. Ron Paul is that man for many people, and I respect that. I encourage it, in the sense that I hope people will stand behind someone they feel really represents their beliefs, ideals and needs. If Obama or Clinton is that person for you, great!
I know the potential consequences of my decision and I stubbornly stand behind it. If you're interested, there is a great interview with Nader here. I'd like to definitively say that this isn't an arguable point for me. If you feel differently than I do, I fully support you in that, so please respect my choice. My mind can't be changed. If you know me at all, you know how stubborn I can be.
And hey, no matter what you think, go vote, it's the loudest voice you have, no matter how you use it.
And in the vein of every single little thing in this entire post, here is a song for you--
More pendants up on the Etsy site! A few more of the scrabble tile book binders and book sellers charms and a handful of my first attempts at resin casting. I'm pleased with these (especially the one with candy in it). I can not wait to make more of these. I've been stock piling tiny things to put in resin. I made a bunch with tiny pints of beer and shepherd's pies in them for the Family Wash, and I'm happy with those too. They are kind of time consuming though, just because the resin takes so long to cure. I hope make a bunch more this weekend.
Pint and pie keychains:
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I am off work two hours early and gleeful at having gotten so much done tonight. Although I was exhausted and so drank a Coke at the start of work and now I am home and WIDE AWAKE. Will not sleep well tonight. What should I do with my time? Maybe I can think of more crafty things? For sure I need to go put on jammies and giant fuzzy socks because it's literally freezing here again and my toes are cold. Hmmm. Maybe I'll take a bath. Or read in bed. Endless possibilities!
Alright, my babies, here they are!! It took me WAY longer to get these up online than it took me to make them (mostly because I did NOTHING last weekend and everything that needed doing got pushed back a week). But there they are, not much, scrabble tiles with bookbinders' and book sellers' imprints on them. But I think they are very, very cool and I know you, my nerdy, bookish friends, will think the same. Go and love on them. You know you want one.
67°F!! In February! Granted it's grey and raining, but hey! Not complaining over here. Wooo! When I got home last night it was warmer outside than it was in the house (and it was still tolerable in the house).
I started my new jewelry project last night. It's awesome. Everyone will think so. Okay, not everyone, but literary nerds will. And as far as I know, there's a bunch of those. I also bought new shoes last night to comfort myself after car fiasco. Now, admittedly I have a lot shoes already, but these are new everyday shoes. Which means, for me that they will get worn approximately 27 times more often than all the rest of my shoes put together. I hesitated a little in buying them because there was recently a conversation in a friends blog about mary-janes not being work appropriate, especially for women over 30, but you know, after having given it way too much thought, I think they just aren't the little girl shoes they once were. I mean sure, in some styles they can be kind of fetishy, but I think we've sort of taken that power away from them by wearing them so much in so many configurations. Plus, I'm not much of a fan of shoes that lace up and I like my shoes to stay on my feet, so mary-janes are the most practical. Can be worn with a skirt or jeans, blah blah blah, justified. Also regular readers will remember a few years ago when I was waffling over buying brown shoes. What would I do with brown shoes? What would I wear with them? Ha! Things have now shifted so much that my new everyday shoes are brown, as I couldn't get black because they don't really go with much that I wear now!
Wow, holy shoe sidetrack! Anyway, last night I also made chicken salad, so I have some for lunch today. I make great chicken salad. And you know, I don't even like chicken salad and mine is awesome. Or maybe I don't like it because mine so superior? I don't know. I'm having it for lunch with baby spinach, for the healthiness, but really it deserves nutty whole grain bread, spring lettuces and a side of pickled beets. Man, what I wouldn't give for a close by, Seattle style, hippy dippy, bistro-y sandwich place. It's all well and good to recreate it in my kitchen, but it just isn't the same.
For the Lenten season I am giving up nothing because I am not Catholic. Although I like the idea of it (Lent, not Catholicism, well kind of Catholicism, but, oh never mind).
And now for the picture portion of our show.
Every day shoes, super cute skirt. And yes, I do realize that wearing knee-high socks and an above the knee skirt with mary-janes completely negates my "mary-janes aren't little girly" argument. Such as I am, full of contradictions.
I'm crafty! Charms made of old bookbinder's imprints, vintage bookstore logos and publishers imprints decoupaged on to Scrabble tiles. These will become a series of pendants and bracelets and other incredibly cool things. There's also going to be a few with old stamps and postmarks on them. Hopefully these will done and all by this weekend.
Hols and I were let down by the Depots today, both the Home and the Office. I hate nothing more than ineffective errands. But then we had brunch today with my best girls. Champagne cocktails and Heath Ledger movies. Damn good for a Sunday. Especially since brunch didn't end until almost 7pm. Then I worked on my new jewelry project. I'm hopeful about it, but we'll see, it could still fail miserably. Now we're watching Hope Floats, which is really depressing. Except, who can resist Harry Connick, Jr.? Where is MINE?
I think I had a bunch of smart interesting things to write about. I'm sure I was thinking about them earlier. Who knows what they were. Instead have a random conversation from my day:
friend: "Oh, you are not..."
me: "Yes, I did bring cupcakes for brunch."
friend: "Yes, yay! But I was going to say, 'You are not wearing a t-shirt that says I recycle boys!'"
other friend: "Oh my god, you are!"
me: "I am!"
friend: "That is so awesome."
Though as I told Hols, the shirt is really only appropriate for teenage girls, and then not even really. Like How did this shirt even get made?
All in all a good day. With a teeny tiny dose of family drama, but I'm currently being utterly avoidant about that. I've had a bunch of people crawling out the woodwork lately and Jami's sure it a sign of good things to come, life changing and otherwise. If there's good things in the future, dealing with the nutjob jackassery on the fringes of my family life is small price to pay, right?
The view from my bed. I sometimes think of it as The Altar of Music and Jewelry. Such is my life.
So I've been complaining to anyone who will listen this morning about how I need something to finish a craft project, can't buy it anywhere locally, have to get it online, blah blah blah. But seriously $5 item, $7 shipping. ARG.
I haven't been listening to anything but Bree Sharp and Nick Drake for a week now. That's not strictly true, I have slapped the old iPod on 'shuffle' a bit every morning while I get dressed. It mostly gives me Tom Waits and sad country songs, neither of which is emotionally acceptable to me at the moment.
As always, I want to share:
I did, in fact, spend a good portion of the day being crafty. I'm all out of sorts now though because usually when I do that I have shiny things to show for it and today not so much, as things are still drying and all.
Yes, I did get teeny tiny pie tins and little glasses. And I baked little bake clay pies and then painted them to look like shepherd's pies, and filled the glasses with little different kinds off beer. Well they actually are filled with paint and glue, but I hope they look like different kinds of beer. I guess I learned today if all my other crafts fail, I can take up painting miniatures?
Also I learned that coffee beans float in epoxy resin, which might turn out to be a problem for me, but I have some ideas about how to overcome it. And if I keep being this crafty I can take pictures of my craftiness and not be at a loss for pic-a-day subjects. Just so it's on the front of your mind, if you should win the lottery, and decide to buy something for everyone you know, well, I could really, really use a Dremel.
Now I will sleep the sleep of the mostly accomplished. Hopefully I won't die in the night from all the crazy fumes I inhaled today.
