wow.

I said a dainty 'holy crap' about the 100 dollar bonus. Now I'm not sure I know an appropriate epithet. Check this out:

This is what flat rate boxes are designed for...a billion beaded belts for my Christmas surprise! Cyn Bicker rocks the Christmas season...LOOK at this! I am the luckiest person in the world. Those of you who think you're luckier...show me your Tombstone AZ beaded belt!!

Yup I'm so articulate "holy crap" is it. Thank you Cyn Bicker!

right tool for the right job

A hair dryer couldn't get the air warm enough this morning so I used my handy dandy Darice Heat Tool to melt the ice on the cars block heater cord. Perfect except for the burnt spot on my mitten.

The princess doggie and I went for our morning walk out this morning at our usual place down the insanely icy hill. I left her leash at the entrance road to keep my hands warm (curl up inside mitten) but thanks to Mrs. Bitchy Moose we had to go out the other road. This meant walking on the highway sans leash for about 1/4 mile. The old dog was so proud of herself for walking way over on the side then standing trembling when a big road grader rumbled by! She did her happy dance when I let her go from 'wait'. Love that old dog.

it's alive!

Or at least it has an arm. The sweater with stories is growing faster than ever. I might have to get 2 more balls of yarn, I hope it's not discontinued! I have enough of the black but am thinking not enough white. Brief time out for annoying dog and some yarn searching...

(music plays for a few minutes) Hey wait! I found some tucked away in the shoe thing that holds all those balls of yarn in the cat room! Don't worry story-sweater fans, I think we can do it.

As I was walking to town today I was thinking about this holiday season...realized that the 100 dollars from people I've known for less than a month is my best gift. Nothing from family? Seriously, siblings you really suck.

Oh and sister of mine "You could make yourself a t.v. dinner" for Christmas is really mean and bitchy. You suck extra.

that new job

I quit the market and have been working at the bookstore for about a month, right? Their daughter delivered a card to me tonight...with a $100 dollar bill tucked inside! Holy Christmas Bonus Batman! If you ever come to Haines Ak, stop at the Babbling Book, ok?

elf shoes, an iris and a cat

Knit them huge in 100 percent wool then toss them in the washer and dryer...let 'em dry and you have elf shoes! From the Flint Knits blog... Hers have cool pointy cuff things on them but I left that off for the remain sane option.

After I washed and dried them, they weren't really felted enough so I used the plunger and bucket technique that the Yarn Harlot tried. If you read her next post you'll see it doesn't always work. I didn't use the tennis balls, didn't have a bunch of fuzzy slippers in mine and I used snow for the shockingly cold water after the really really hot water. It worked great. Too well in spots, if you look at my after picture, there are some lumpy areas where the inside and outside of the shoes stuck together...easily fixed with some tugging and shaping after the shoes are dry.


Cat enjoying getting the flash in the face...she was 'helping' with the elf shoe photo shoot.

The post card and the painting...then I screwed it all up trying to add a background. I'm working on a second one. Some of my old water color abilities are coming back, but not many!

Counting birds and stitches

I'm going to join"tens of thousands" of other bird geeks in counting birds for the annual winter bird count! I'm nervous about friggin' bird watching. Thank goodness I'll be doing my section alone so I can spend half the time wondering what the hell the wee brown bird in the bush was.

This is the 110th official Audubon Christmas bird count where people all over the U.S. go out and take a census of the birds wintering in their area. Citizen Scientists...sounds like we need little badges and secret decoder rings. I wonder if I can send away for them, did you see an address on the web page?

Stitches being counted are on some rockin' cool slippers I've made for my sister. I don't think she has any idea this blog exists but if she does, I'm not posting them here. I will say I love them and need to make myself a pair...the shaping is some of the most fun I've had knitting a 'problem' for a long time. I got them from the Flint Knits blog if you want to check it out. If the sisterling does come by here then click that link and scroll down the page...well then I'm caught and will have to keep the way cool slippers for myself!

Again with the sweater?

I started it about 6 jobs, 4+ moves, 2 boyfriends (one a fiance), 3 cars, 1 boat, 2 states, 2 countries,the turn 1 century and the deaths of 2 parents ago, it is time to finish the damn thing!

So I tore out the restarted sleeve so I can do the increases in stripes like on the sides of the body. I'm going to have to cut off the bottom of the hem to reknit it in a smaller gauge so it doesn't curl so much. I am actually feeling good about finishing in the next month or so because my knitting skills are way beyond the start of the sweater from the past. ...add to the time line list up there about 10 pairs of fancy mittens 6 or 7 hats and a couple more unfinished other sweaters.

think globally, shop locally

How far does your 'shop locally' ethic go? My new employer's daughter is a high school sophomore that is an amazingly artistic kid. She wants to some acrylic paints for Christmas and Mom is not willing to buy them on line. There's a local store that stocks a small amount of art supplies.... Overpriced and very little variety (in my opinion). I mentioned Dick Blick to Mom but she was pretty firm about shopping locally. She did ask about shipping so maybe she'll relent.

I have been buying my art supplies from Dick Blick about 30 years, ever since my mom showed me their catalog. To me fresh paints and high quality brushes are more important than keeping a local store owner in the business of selling a few tubes now and then. If he were running an art store, I'd feel differently but it's an office supply variety store where a 10 dollar calculator costs 30 bucks.

More photos and less musing soon, I promise.

Respect

Yesterday at the indy bookstore job, a young woman brought in a box of earrings she's made to sell. Very simple earrings she's been selling at the bazaars for $15 dollars. Very simple. One small bead above one large bead, some times a piece of shell, with minimal wire work, if there's wrapping it's one coil and there are wire ends poking out. $15. She arranged them on a dusty black stand with no cards or adornment and set a price of $17 because it's a consignment situation.

It is very important to me to respect the customer that might buy my product. I don't think the customer is gullible or stupid when they are looking at my work. I think finishing work is very important and presentation is a very inexpensive way to show a customer that I give a shit. I find her display of sloppy work on a dusty plastic stand offensive and disrespectful.

I have to add that I have had previous encounters with this young lady's attitude toward jewelry selling. It went something like this: " I can sell out in a day and completely restock in the evening" ...as she wrapped wire in s shapes with glass beads to make a dainty necklace for sale to my former boss.

After my thrilling day at the November bazaar, I can firmly say this is not a post related to envy at her apparent commercial success. It's just plain annoying that she uses her skills to look so cheap.

do you do this?

I totally changed up the design. The reallysoft leather was too soft so I switched to the interfacing and changed the design. I fussed and fidgeted and wasted a bunch of time "designing". That means moving rocks around on a piece of paper, looking for some other pieces of turquoise I knew I had, getting some coffee, walking the dog and then finally gluing something down.
I just love this cab. It's the fraternal twin of the one I started beading on the reallytoosoft leather. I'm trying to enhance the color of the cab but not get too obvious about my color choices. Trying to emulate the colors of my favorite really big cabcentric artists...trying trying trying to make it perfect knowing that's just silly. I like this kind of embroidery, but keep trying to work more fish in to the whole thing. The carved bone fish is a good start.