Blue Plate Special

I got a little burned out on making jewelry after my mad frenzy to make a zillion clay pieces in time for Gypsy Caravan and the opening day Tower Grove Farmer's Market. Sadly and frustratingly, I sold next to none of them. (Their biggest fan was my most supportive and encouraging friend, Dana. I hope she knows just how much I appreciate her ongoing cheerleading.) I still love all the pieces and hope they get their breakthrough at Strange Folk in September and then [hopefully] at December's Rock 'n' Roll Craft Show. Anyhoo, I haven't had a desire to make jewelry in several months, except for a couple of fitful starts and failed attempts. Actually, all I've wanted to do is crochet. So when I saw a book about crocheting jewelry, it seemed like a natural progression. Most of the projects in the book are too frou-frou for me, but the simplest project is a winner (boy, my famous last words!), tweaked slightly from the book's instructions. Basically the necklaces are made of multiple crocheted chains of wire with gemstone chips and/or beads worked in. I think they're lovely.



You can't get a great look at them here (click on the picture to get a really nice close-up view), but they are delicate and bold at the same time, I think. I'm going to do more more more with bigger beads and chips and maybe try some with a more center-pendant structure.

They are sitting on my latest cast cement plate, made from an elephant ear leaf. I think it's perfect and my favorite so far. Now I have to find a way to poach a bunch of these leaves from somewhere. Anyone have the scoop on some wayward elephant ear plants that won't miss five or six leaves? I got this one from a parkway nearby, but I'm afraid nosy neighbors might stop me the next time. There are a few plants in Tower Grove Park but I'm not sure if it's illegal or not to take a leaf or two. Is it?

I'm not sure why the plate, our front steps and the general atmosphere looks so blue in the photo, but I like it. It's lovely and cool outside, particularly on the front porch and if I had to pick a color for what it feels like, it would be just that shade.

The big question for the day is: After a day at work, will I feel like socializing at a BBQ with a bunch of people I haven't seen in a long while? I love the host and miss him very much, but I will be solo and it's not always easy for me to approach an ongoing party alone. We'll see what happens!

More quilt! More Olive!

She's still enjoying the quilt.

A Pittance for a Quilt

While I have had no luck whatsoever finding wearable work clothing at the thrift stores of late, check out the [crib-sized?] vintage quilt I found yesterday for a mere $5. As always, Olive had to be the first to try it out. Nothing gets put on the floor that Olive doesn't at least attempt to lie on.

Strange Folk Festival!

Handbags and Gladrags

So, quite a bit of time since I last posted. Most of that time (including the last entry) was spent without a computer and/or Internet access. I didn't miss it as much as I thought I might.

The heat has finally let up a bit. We actually removed the AC from our bedroom last night and enjoyed the fresh air and mid-60s temperatures. It was lovely to wake up with the window open. I don't suppose the hot weather is over, but surely it won't be so bad from now on.

All creative energies (such as they are in the face of extreme heat and not much down time) have been spent getting some stuff ready for the Strange Folk Festival on September 22. It's gonna be great, so hie on over to O'Fallon, IL for the fun and arts and crafts that Saturday. It will also mark the re-emergence of Dana and Mail Order Bride Vintage on the craft scene! I can't wait to share booth space with her again! Anyway, I've been working on some simple, but kind of flashy scarves. This picture doesn't necessarily do justice to anything but the colors, but you kind of get the idea.


Other than that, not much happening around here except work work work. Steve has gone full time at Euclid plus he has a ton of freelance work on his plate. I'm working around 30+ hours a week, but it feels like more, maybe because it's rather stressful at work lately. Lots of no-shows resulting in under-peopled shifts which equals way more work for the people who do show up and extra stress for me because I feel like it's my responsibility to get everything that's supposed to be done completed even if we are short. Sigh. A definite dysfunctional family thing has hunkered down there. Countdown has begun to the new store, though. Construction has started, as I learned by pressing my nose to the front window on Friday. A little less than a month and I should be there! Huzzah!

Someday in the not too distant future I'll maybe feel sociable again. As it is, I get just about enough of humanity at work so I just want to snuggle in with Steve at home (for what little time we cross paths these days, anyway). And, oh yeah, I'm putting in for a loooooong leave of absence from my radio show. Or maybe resigning entirely. Still to be determined.

Summertime and the livin' is queasy

There is nothing romantic, picaresque or pleasant about the heatwave we're currently living through. If you could call this living. Basically we just count the minutes until it's late enough to retire to the one air conditioned room in our house, the bedroom. The animals lay sprawled on the floor all day long, listless and exhausted. Even little hairless Harry is affected. We can feel his hot, exposed skin sweating. Foxy Brown is miserable, panting and planting herself in front of a fan all day long. The cats barely move before dark. Seriously, when's this gonna end? To make things even more unpleasant, our computer conked out this week and then once it was fixed we no longer had internet access. Thus, this dispatch is coming from the air conditioned comfort of the Carpenter branch of the St. Louis Public Library.

Speaking of the STLPL, I was at the Central location last weekend, having a pile of crocheting books fetched from the mysterious Stacks. Well, mysterious to me anyway. I had envisioned them to be all underground, but the ladies at the front desk disabused me of this notion; there are seven floors of books back behind that massive information desk. Seven floors! And do you know what? The actual floors are made of transparent glass! Glass, I tell you! How has there not been a thriller filmed in a library with glass floors???? Or has there been? Anyway, I was sad to hear that the wonderous glass floors from 1912 will be replaced in a near future renovation. In the meantime, I'm going to schedule myself a tour of the stacks in all their current glory. Glass floors! Guess the lady librarians can't wear skirts! Wonder what they did in the miniskirted '60s?

And I'm sure everyone (ha!) is dying to know about my work life. Still a roller coaster. This week I've had a REALLY TERRIBLE day, two great days and one fairly annoying day. Let's hope it calms down. I did find out my real store has an opening date, October 3, so I do have an end in sight to my temporary assignment. Thank goodness. There are some great people there, but I need to get to where I really belong. Tonight I work my eighth day in a row and I am burned out. I need a break. Tomorrow night we DJ at the Royale (yay) and I hope to get out of working Saturday and blend my Friday and Sunday off into a three day weekend. Wish me luck.

I'm just wild abour Harry...

More more more! He's cuter every day!

See his funny curly whiskers?

More Harry!

Still not great photos, but you can see how cute he is nonetheless.