I fought the law and the law won

Many weeks ago I got a speeding ticket in U City on my way to work at the store whose name we will not mention. Because I didn't want any points on my license or for our insurance to go up (again - I got a highway speeding ticket a few months prior), we did the lawyer thing and got the ticket knocked down to some sort of parking violation. It still cost plenty, paying the lawyer fees and the still not inconsiderable fine. I thought everything was fine and dandy and taken care of. So the other night I'm driving home from work at 10:45p and I call home to check in. Steve announces, haltingly, that something must have happened to the check he sent because there is now a warrant out for my arrest for unpaid fines in U City. OK, I know these things are commonplace, but I have never had a warrant out for my arrest and it's kind of unnerving. Today we have to go to the U City court clerk and pay it in person. Of course, since it's "late" we have to pay more. Whole lot of old bullshit and the last thing I want to spend what little free time I have these days.

What if I fell to the floor, couldn't take all this anymore

Here's what I started with around noon today. I thought I'd pull out most everything I have and hope for some inspiration.



It looks more contained in the photo; it felt kind of chaotic, but then my work areas usually are. I'm not a particularly tidy worker. I'm always organized in my own way, I guess. Anyway, five and a half hours later I had made these four necklaces.



I'm pretty happy with them. I wish I could have worked faster and got more done, but alas, I was a slowpoke today.

What I discovered today is that I clearly favor a certain color palate without even realizing it. I most always mix my own clay colors and that was no exception the other day. What I was sort of surprised to learn is that I had beads to match already. Makes me feel a little predictable, but I suppose that's not the issue. More so that I have a color point of view, I guess. I do know I love rich golds and reds and especially blue-greens and turquoises paired with browns.

Anyway, whether these are Ziezo material or not, I do not know.

And this is not our fate

Well, I painted 'em and I like them (well, most of them anyway). But I probably should have left some of them plain. Or not. Success will depend on the necklace portion, I'm guess.

You and I we've been through that

Yesterday afternoon I worked on some new pendants, this time using the gin-transfer image transfer method (yes, you actually use gin) with some images, mostly clipped from vintage children's books. I think I'm going to try to add some color with paint, but I'm not sure I can pull it off. As with the previous pendants, I intend for the necklace part to be beaded in some way. Who knows what I'm going to end up with.






(At least two of the photos aren't terrible.)

Well i'd a danced like the queen of the eyesores

Because I'm sort of wasting time and avoiding making any jewelry, I thought I'd post some photos of the lovely pottery I bought yesterday.


Here's everything. And another view here:



I treated myself to a couple of pieces: the big bowl (which is a more beautiful shade of red than shows in the photo) and the handle bowl.



I got this vase as a gift for my sister-in-law. The green glaze almost exactly matches the color she painted their dining room.


And heck, here's a couple more close-ups of other pieces.





I really do need to get to work here. At least I've gotten these pendants done. I'm not sure if I like them though.

And I'm looking for that free ride to me

How is it possible that Thanksgiving has come and gone already? And with Thanksgiving came winter, full force. It's cold. Real cold. Today was the Craft Alliance pottery sale and I made the mistake of attending this outside event sans hat and gloves. It was freezing and definitely cut short my shopping time, but I still got some good stuff this year. The Craft Alliance sale has kicked off my xmas shopping season for many years now. If only all holiday shopping was so easy.

The week has been fairly uneventful. We celebrated Steve's birthday with a nice dinner on Monday, but haven't really had much time for each other this week. Besides the dinner on Monday I was making paper goods, a task which continued into Tuesday evening. Wednesday I had to make the delivery to Subterranean and then be asleep early as I had to work a very early shift on Thanksgiving morning. I had to work a few hours last night but it was more fun than work as it wasn't at all busy and I got to work with one of my favorite co-workers (who happens to share a wee bit of my Alex O. obsession). It really was more of a social occasion than working - perfect! Now I have two days off in a row and I swore I was going to work on jewelry ideas for Ziezo. Well, it's after 2p and I've only watched TV and sat on the computer. Sigh. If only I could be a crafting machine.

Tonight is the long awaited Battlestar Galactica Razor movie, meant to tide us faithful over until the real season starts in the spring. Yay, BSG! And a BSG that features Lee Adama (Jamie Bamber)!

Going to a Gocco

Today I threw caution to the wind, fear of mistakes and failure went out the door and I broke out the Gocco to make some greeting/note cards to put on consignment at Subterranean Books. I spent much of the day yesterday avoiding the Gocco, though I did finalize a Christmas card design. I was just too afraid to actually use the machine yesterday. Which turned out to be completely foolish because it is so easy to use and get good results. Check out my bird card (which will be further embellished with hand-painted elements) and my guitar design card. Like everyone else who gets one, I LOVE MY GOCCO! I also found this really nice pearlescent card stock, though you can't really see that in the photo.



Now I need to get my ass in gear and into the kitchen to start cooking Steve's birthday dinner of grilled shrimp, salad and portobella cream pasta.

Beware of the bottles that say "drink me"

Mostly getting older isn't so bad. A lot of things are put into better perspective simply with time, I'm kind of enjoying the texture and sheen the greys are adding to my hair, sex just gets better and better, and I've stopped worrying what other people think (honestly, though, on that front I've never cared much). However, some of the physical aspects, not so much. I've had arthritis for well over a decade now (thanks, Grandma A.!), I often feel creaky in the morning, my body has changed shape (I suppose very very vigorous workouts could only slightly alter that), my periods are rather troublesome (heavier and with teenage-stylee [i.e., bad] cramps) and various other aches and pains have taken hold. Lately I have had a weakness and slight pain in my left arm. Today that pain has intensified. At work this morning it was a sharp ache that has now changed into a dull ache with a sort of numbness down my arm. Should I do something about it or hope it goes away, my usual m.o.? I feel sort of like age demands that I pay more attention to these things just in case. I guess I will if this continues. My arms hurts and it's making me a little crabby. At least it's my left arm.

Maybe this will make me feel better. Screen caps from the latest episode of Moonlight.

Can you see the real me, can you?

Work has been way more good than bad lately. I've actually had fun at work; a genuine good time. And as of today, the main source of stress is no longer a factor and I couldn't be more relieved. Even the fact that the ceiling of the store started leaking today and I got a call because the supervisor who came on after me *lost* my till drop bag - the one he insisted I leave lying on the counter rather than dropping it in the safe. Let's hope that one doesn't come back to bite me on the ass. But I am sanguine about it because, mostly, work life is good.

So, I got my vampire, Mick St. John ring from Sterling Silver Art and I'm in love with it. Thank you, Blue! See for yourself:



Yet another crappy picture. The batteries in my camera are shot, I'm lazy and so I only have about two tries to get a decent photo. Not that the above abomination qualifies as decent, but you get my drift. Anyway, I think the ring is gorgeous - it's huge and heavy and shiny.

And so we get to the cheesecake portion of our program.

When I watch you move and I can't think straight

Remember Mazzy Star? Remember their album So Tonight That I May See, a lovely (and perhaps the best) example of dream pop? Anway, here they are performing "Into Dust" from an episode of 120 Minutes.

Nothing much up in these parts. As I type I can smell my delicious turkey meatloaf cooking away in the oven and the potatoes boiling on the stovetop. Hungry! Work has been somewhat uneventful -- always a good thing. The social life has been non-existent mostly. I love my husband and he's going to look really good in his new jeans (they arrived today!) and coat.

Moonlight kind of got on my nerves this week. I really can't stand Shannyn Sossamon much and she was at the forefront. Boo hiss to Coraline storylines. Alex O. looked kind of awful with his 50s pompadour and tropical shirt in the flashback scenes. Clothes and hair often do make the man.

Crawl like the worm from a bird

I placed three online orders yesterday and now I'm already impatient to have the stuff. I ordered some nice, low-rise Levi's for Steve (do you know how hard it is to find cool jeans for a 6'8" man?), a gorgeous wool 3/4 coat for Steve (do you know how hard it is to find cool outerwear for a 6'8" man?), and the closest and most affordable version of the vampire ring for myself. I love and hate ordering online. Love it for the obvious reasons (access, variety, etc.) but I hate to wait for delivery (and I'm too cheap to opt for anything other than the least expensive shipping).

And now I think I'll post more pictures, screen captures actually, of Moonlight and Alex O.

Just being human is so lame

OK, first off off let me say I just discovered a strange, lumpy, itchy bite on the inside of my thigh, surrounded by what appears to be bruising. What the fuck? It's itching like crazy. But that's neither here nor there. Unless, of course, I die from it.

Second, it's been a hell of a long time since I've written. I've spent plenty of time doing useless things on the computer lately, but I guess I didn't feel up to putting any actual sentences together.

My 44th birthday has come and gone. Good times were had at Tucker's that evening. Mostly fruitless shopping was done that day. I still haven't really picked out a gift from Steve, though I'm in search of a particular silver ring, as seen on TV (I'll get to that in a minute). I did get some fab black sheep fleece-lined boots (Ugg style) and some similar clogs with bday money from my mom. Love love love the boots. Will probably wear them for some part of every day until May when it gets too hot for them.

The biggest birthday suprise was from Dana. At the tail end of a really great dinner out at Vito's (plenty o' delish wine and pizza) she presented me with a large gift wrapped box. To my absolute surprise and and GIGANTIC delight, inside was a Print Gocco, a Japanese screen print kit designed to make small designs on paper. I have been coveting one of these for quite some time and Dana had tried to wrangle a couple for us last year. When she cancelled her business trip to Japan this fall, I figured I would just wait till the next time she went. Well, she managed to get her co-workers to acquire the kits and so completely generously gave me mine for my birthday. I was stunned and so completely pleased. Now I just hope I can create some good things with it. I have a Christmas card design envisioned...

In the past few weeks I have become OBSESSED with the TV show Moonlight and its star, Alex O'Loughlin. OB-SESSED. I've searched zillions of Internet pages to find a ring like his character wears, not to mention trolling the fan pages for tidbits of useless information. Seriously, Alex is one of the hottest (if not the hottest) actors I've ever seen. He pushes my buttons, you could say. Check him out for yourself.



The show isn't great, but it has a few things going for it. One is, well DUH, do you have eyes? Secondly, the character played by Alex, Mick St. John, is a vampire PI. I've read a good amount of vampire fiction, seen the movies and have eroticized vampires for a very looooooong time now. (Oh, in how many fantasies have I uttered "turn me, please turn me!" to my vampire paramour?) Third, the female lead, Sophia Myles, certainly isn't terrible to look at. And fourth, a supporting character, a 400 year old vampire pal of Mick's, is played by Jason Dohring, also known as bad boy Logan from Veronica Mars. Jason's pretty much playing the same character, albeit with better clothes. Love him, though he sort of looks like a boyish boy next to the uber manly manliness of Alex.

Anyway, I suppose one of the reasons I have so totally immersed myself in this show and that gorgeous man is that it's a stress deflector. My stupid job continues to stress me out on too many occasions though I am trying to let other people's stupid shit slide off of me. That's never been my forte, but I know I can't do it any other way any more or I'll just be a big pile of upset nerves. Wish me luck, huh?