And your bird can sing

I got an early birthday present from my old and dear friend Jeff last week. This gift is on the all-time great gifts list. Even though Jeff and I haven't spent much time together in many years, he managed to give me something perfect. How cool is that? I've always wanted a Kit Cat Clock, but I've never found a vintage model nor did I want to buy a new one. Jeff presented me with the best Kit Cat Clock model I've ever imagined.


Forgive my lousy photograph of this avocado green, bejeweled and bow-tied clock. Isn't it fabulous?

I'll be your knight in shining arrrrrr-mor

Tomorrow morning marks the very last installment of my radio show, Emotional Rescue, on KDHX. I really, really need the hiatus from my show, but I am kind of sad that I had to resign completely. I had hoped to get a long leave of absence, but the program committee thought it was too long of a time to keep that slot open. They assure me that I should be able to get back on the air when I get my radio mojo back. Maybe six months or so from now? So, it's a bittersweet thing. I will, of course, miss it, but on the other hand, I'm happy to get rid of the obligation for the time being.

Work is leveling out, sort of. Nothing will change the fact that I love love love the location and that the store is fabulous looking, but the getting to know each other phase is rather tedious. Fitting into a tight knit group is a challenge, that's for sure.

Odds and sods

As part of the stock of needle felted wool pins I took to the Sheldon, I included two of the birds I recently started making. I got an email from the director yesterday saying they had both been purchased internally and could I make some more. It's always nice to have actual demand for your stuff! When I dropped off six more birds this morning I saw that several of my items were already displayed -- and I must say they looked fabulous! Seriously, I almost didn't recognize my things. Not that I don't think my stuff is fabulous, but still! Keep your fingers crossed for lots o' sales.

On a completely different topic, I am often fascinated by the Hollywood casting process and the competition that must ensue between actors (see my post about Colin, Joel and Mark). So here's the female equivalent to those three guys. I'm talking about Lindsay Frost, Kate Vernon and Andrea Roth. They range from 40-46 and all have a similar look. I think Lindsay has had the most exposure in mainstream Hollywood, but Andrea manages to be good despite the extreme misogny of Rescue Me and Kate was perfect as Ellen Tigh in Battlestar Galactica. See what you think.

Mystery Dance

OK, here's a confession that won't be too much of a surprise to anyone who knows me well - I get way too emotionally involved in things that I shouldn't. Despite the fact that I may appear detached and even removed, inside I'm often roiling. It's stupid and causes me a lot of unnecessary agita. I know that, but what can I do about it? The ups, the downs; it's like little mini cases of bipolar disorder. "Don't take it personally" is one of the most absurd things I can hear. I take EVERYTHING personally. It's a curse.

So I expected twirling bluebirds and angels singing on my first day at the new store. OF COURSE I should have known better. And it wasn't terrible, or even bad. It just wasn't great. I am not at my best around lots of people for extended periods of time so by the time I left work yesterday I felt kind of like a failure. It's clear that lots of bonding has gone on and I'm way outside the circle and that makes me feel weird and kind of bad. Oh well, it can only get better, right?

Per my last entry, I found myself immobile when it came to making new paper products for Subterranean. I did manage to make some cute tags and packaging for my Sheldon galleries stuff. Check out their opening this Friday from 5-7p. The boutique will be making its debut that night. Free drinks and food to boot!

Vapour Trail

I'm in a bit of a panic. In the space of about 10 minutes this afternoon I committed to having new blank cards and books for the consignment space at Subterranean Books by next Monday and having all the stuff I want to put in the Sheldon Galleries boutique ready to deliver by Tuesday. I have to really think about the the way my jewelry will be presented to make the most of it. I also think my little needle-felted bird pins will work there too. And I also want to make a new batch of the multi-strand scarves. Yikes. Luckily I have a three day weekend ahead of me to work on everything. I'm gonna need it.

Countdown to the CWE: two more days of work in UCity and then new store on Monday for opening on Wednesday!

Bye bye Pippin

Yesterday Steve came home from work to find that our 9+ year old parakeet, Pippin, had died sometime during the evening. Pippin was a sweet, shy little bird who loved to sing along with the birds outside. A few weeks ago we realized he wasn't singing anymore. A few days ago he let loose with a very short outburst of song and then nothing. I guess we should have figured that something was up, though I'm not sure what we could have done. Her certainly lived a fairly long parakeet life and survived a homicidal mate who tried her best to simultaneously mate and murder. Parakeet sex is not a tender thing, take it from me.

We will miss you and your songs very much Pippin. Who will bite Steve's nose now?

Nothing clings like ivy

Except for perhaps morning glory vines. Morning glory has taken over our front yard, as you can see from these photos. I'm happy to report that I figured out how to download my camera directly to my iBook and even managed to manipulate the photos via iPhoto. I'm still not quite down with how Macs save files, etc. I don't know how to put them in particular places but I think that's part of how Macs work. A primer from Roy is in order. Anyway, this first picture is of our front steps. The morning glory vines have enveloped the rose bush, the garlic chives, the sage, the hearty hibiscus and the railings. Believe it or not, I've torn down the vines a few times this year. They just come back stronger. Unfortunately, the lovely purple blossoms don't show up very well, but it's what keeps them around.



The vines have even entwined themselves around and up a 12 foot red bud tree, not to mention a large rose of sharon bush and my hydrangea. I'm still not sure whether it was the late freeze this spring or the morning glory that prevented even one hydrangea flower from blooming.



This morning Steve and I went to a flea market at St. Mark's in St. Louis Hills. Strangely enough there wasn't a lick of clothing, although there were shoes. Best buy of the day was this four-panel set of barkcloth curtain for $4. The color scheme is perfect for the living room, besides being just beautiful - turquoise, brown, black and (subtle) metallic gold.



In the close up you can sort of see that the repeated pattern is a scenic view out the terrace of an English or Italian villa. I mean, you've seen this terrace in any number of Jane Austen and E. M. Forster movie adaptations.



For $1 I bought a zipper bag full of 'broken' jewelry. Included were these three vintage bracelets, all wearable, if missing a stone here and there.



These earrings were also in the bag -- daisy cages!



And to add to my ever-growing collection, a gorgeous hand embroidered pillow case with fillet crochet trim. For 50 cents!

You said something

Where has this week gone? It's already Thursday, fer crissakes. I've attempted to make an entry every other day this week, to no avail. Nothing to say, not enough time, yadda yadda yadda.

Yesterday was rather more action-packed than my days off from work have been of late. I ran to the craft store to buy lots of sale yarn first, then to buy gas at the northside gas station that has consistently cheap prices (though I was kind of thwarted on that front yesterday), then downtown to have lunch with my former co-worker Erica. I stopped in at the old homestead and said hi to a couple of other folks and am glad to say I didn't get one iota of longing to be back in an office (no matter how crazy my current work life has been). It was great to see Erica, however briefly. Note to self: make more time to see friends! After lunch I headed to the Smiley Urgent Care Center to FINALLY get my legally-required hepatitus A vaccine. And damn if that vaccine didn't use the fattest needle I've ever seen. Ouch. The nurse shamed me by chiding, "I haven't even done anything yet!" because of my tensed arm. I think she was trying to psych me out though, because I'm certain the needle was already in. Anyway, she had to hold her finger over the injection site for a minute to staunch the blood and to "get the vaccine to stay in". What????? I don't think she was lying -- I could actually feel the shit traveling down my arm. And that wasn't a good thing. It felt like a slow ache flowing down to my fingers. My left arm has had just about enough of injections, what with the tetanus shot a couple weeks ago. Sheesh. After the shot I wanted to take a look at my [anxiously awaited] new store location in the Central West End. The door was open and the guys were working away with Soundgarden blaring. The basic construction was done; they were painting and doing other finishing work though there's still a lot of clean up and things to complete. The front counter and back cabinetry was complete and the tiles were down, mostly. Funny how it looks smaller with actual stuff in the space. : )

To celebrate my great sales of the weekend, Steve and I went to Tucker's Place on Tuesday night. When we were more flush with discretionary income, we dined at Tucker's almost once a week. I had been missing it terribly lately, so it was the perfect place to go. So maybe I don't have a lot (or hell, any) experience at the expensive steakhouses in town, but I know a delicious steak and I can't imagine any better tasting sirloin than what you consistently get at Tucker's. And even though they claim to not do anything special to their baked potatoes, they are the sweetest, creamiest backed spuds I've ever tasted. Of course we go to the original Soulard location. Tuesday nights dinner was no exception. Everything was perfectly delicious even though I wavered and chose a pinot grigio instead of my usual merlot and Steve ordered a Smithwick's because Tucker's had replaced his beloved Bass on tap (he was not disappointed, by the way).

Counting today, I have eight more work days left at my temporary location. Or maybe less. I could take a little smaller paycheck for a day off during the week next week. Otherwise I'll be working seven days straight and that isn't my top choice. But whatever. I'm sure I'll miss aspects of the store and some of the people so I may as well get my fill, right?

Now I need to do something useful and work on some new scarves for my next crafty outing, which is putting a bunch of stuff on consigment at the Sheldon Galleries boutique. I feel a bit of pressure about this one...