my early birthday present

I've been told that I have an uncanny ability to "spoil" my birthday/holiday gift surprises because I always do one of the following: buy myself the thing that's already been purchased for me...go into the garage for the first time in a year only to discover my "hidden" present....or....become single-mindedly obsessed with an item and hint about it unceasingly until LGK just takes me to the hardware store and says "fine".
so now....I have this



and I can make my own holes in my bottle caps at my own table wheneverIdamnwellplease!! (no more trips to the mil's to use her drill press!)

mememe

One of them there meme things...I’m not sure what the implied significance of any of these books might be (or why there is SO much Jane Austen on the list) and at just about half of them read I can’t decide if I am woefully under-read or relatively well-read (typical level of self-imposed mediocrity I’m guessing :o)
100 Books

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.



1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass)
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (I have read many, but not ALL)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (yawn!)
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt (one of my all-time favorites)
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Indiana Jones and the Really Bad Decision

my son, is a genius! look what he made!!!!
I can't wait to see this on the montage of his career when he is presented with a lifetime achievement in film award!
this is just his first attempt - and he assures me there is more to come :)

8 year old wisdom

We've all seen those email fwds that are "from the mouths of babes" "Kids say the craziest things..." right? I've been meaning to share Molly's latest wisdom for a few weeks now...
Molly has a tendency (and genetic inclination) to wear all of her jewelry/accessories at the same time (a tendency that prompted my stepfather on more than one occasion to ask my mother "are you going to let her go out in public like that??!!" )
anyway, she had a couple of pins/broaches on her shirt and had forgotten to take them off when putting her clothes in the laundry. When they went through the drier they melted/came off their pinbacks. So, I decided to take this as an opportunity to teach her a valuable life lesson about jewelry/makeup. I still forget to take my lipgloss out of my pocket and melt at least 2 a year (thereby also ruining many a shirt of LGK's) As I tried to explain the concept of pocket emptying to Molly I said "someday when you wear makeup....." that's as far as I got. "What if I don't want to wear makeup?" she asked sassily. "Well you certainly don't have to" I said, somewhat taken aback. "Because I think I'm beautiful and perfect just the way I am" she declared defiantly - and I rejoiced inside! (One of the biggest challenges I find in raising kids, male or female, is making sure they have positive self image. Despite the best of intentions, we all know that there are inumerable social influences that conspire to make us feel fat/ugly/stupid/unworthy) So I was thrilled that my little girl ( who is gorgeous by the way) knows that she is and I pray that she keeps that confidence!
but then, as she is oft inclined to do...she took it to another level ...
"Besides mom, sometimes sometimes if I make a mistake on a painting and I try to cover it up or fix it..."
hmmmmmmm - where is she going with this??? I said to myself.
"like that zit on your nose that you put makeup on Mom....sometimes when you try to fix it you just make it worse."

that should put the marzipan in your brainpan bingo

A few pictures of some new items (some custom) that will be posted on my etsy soon and possibly "available at a retailer near you" soon too (read on for more)






and this is the first of my palchemy creations (from a few posts back) made out of a French prepaid phone card with Peter Gabriel on it and some findings that I got from Drew for our Palchemy/Trashion challenge (by the way...Peter Gabriel? old. looks a bit like Billy Joel now...when did that happen?????
(there are more palchemy creations drying/waiting for pictures)


Wow! Where has the 4 day weekend gone?!?!? Actually it's been a great weekend...it wasn't even my birthday and LGK played rummy for 2 1/2 hours last night (and he beat me for the first time ever!!!) It was awesome! Market yesterday was uneventful (and unfruitful)..which led to some serious brainstorming and debate about what direction to take this little crafting venture of mine. The idea has always been "exposure" but short of flashing them my naughty bits, I think I've done all the exposure to the local farmer's market types that they (or I ) can handle...I'm seeing a lot of the same folks every weekend, and they're quite frankly coming to market for their lettuce and eggs...not necessarily for their bottlecap jewelry. We did make some new display racks on Friday (Max even got to use the nail gun!! yikes!!) and I don't regret the new racks because I still plan on doing the professional business women's fair and the spring/earthday fairs next year...BUT if things stay this stagnant at market, I'm not feeling compelled or obligated to continue going every weekend.
Anyway, there was much discussion about wholesale/retail etc. too. I've been "meaning" to get out there and hawk my wares to some local shops...now I just need to ride this wave of motivation and do it. I came home yesterday and made a list of stores in the area that might be willing to do consignment and/or purchase a small "starter" package. We're going to get to work on a brochure this week too (I'll keep you posted) I'm thinking about hitting the owner of the bead store up..and the salvage/recycling place heartwood resources has a craft consignment shop that I think will carry my stuff....other thoughts: my friend JoAnne's nursery/gift shop, the "head shop" in Sutherlin, tattoo shops...(any other suggestions are welcome of course :)
I'm also thinking that if I put together a retail "presentation" we can "write off" trips out of town...to Eugene, Portland etc. Maybe I can talk my mom into brokering for me in NM? and what about SL?! I'm thinking blue boutique? Grunts & Postures??
The possibilities are endless! Now I just have to get to work!!!!!

Also had some email conversation with the buyer for karma charms they specialize in accessories for large breed dogs and they approached me about doing a "drop shipment" of tags/charms through their website. I'm sending them some samples which their puppies will "test" for a month or so and then we'll see what happens with that.

On a personal note, we are still waiting for difinitive news on my Oma's "condition" - gotta love all the "inconclusive" tests that they put one through (charging an arm & a leg no doubt for all of them) I've been in every-other-day contact with her this past few weeks though and her spirits are good (as long as the fluid doesn't build up and make it hard for her to breathe) My mum and I are just kind of waiting now to see what happens next and if one or both of us need to go down there and help her out. Those of you who know me, know that I HATE not knowing what's going on (almost as much as I hate brusslesprouts and the smell of boiling chicken) but I'm dealing as well as I can. Thanks to anyone who sent positive vibes my Oma's way
On a positive note, LGK's business is very portable so we'll be able to pack up and travel on little or no notice if needs be. We'd been planning on a trip in September but we're thankfully able to be flexible if the need arrises.

Went to see a matinee of Indiana Jones today. I enjoyed it. Couldn't help thinking of Spielberg and Lucas sitting around talking..."hey, you know what would be cool?" "Aliens!" "Hell's yeah!!" I mean really, aliens? So what if it's a bit out there! what did they have to lose? And it's their movie so I say goforit! Not any stranger in my book than the thought that the arc of the covenant or the grail are real relics. Who's to say that "space daddy" isn't an alien? And another thing...are refrigerators really lined with lead? and would climbing into one save you from an atomic blast??? I'm just curious.

I apologize for the rambling nature of this here post...and the lack of witty. I especially apologize to my reader(s) in Croatia and Austria (yes, I got a sitemeter/tracker!) today's offering is definitely just journally but hey....I do what I want...call me George Lucas!

today, Thursday, is my day off this week (one of 4 days off as a matter of fact! I'm looking at a 4 day weekend!!! except for Saturday which is market day so it doesn't count)
so I'm determined to be productive this "weekend" (especially since I'm hoping we'll take the day "off" on Sunday and go see the new Indiana Jones movie...the young master is (no pun intended) "jonesing" to see it very badly)
anyway, washed the car today (and vacuumed out "most" of the pistachio shells) did a little bit of South-County shopping with Molly (we like to support our local bead store beadmecca and the quilting shop...Molly needed buttons for eyes on her sewing projects)..and I got to work on my "palchemy" projects. As a memeber of the "trashion" street team on etsy, we're doing a supply exchange. Drew at fairytalefibers sent me a selection of old German maps, some findings, brochures and stuff....Molly and I
have been working on collage cards (that we cut out of old cereal boxes) and I'm rolling beads out of the map tonight.

Isn't it ironic?

don't ya think? earlier today I was struck by the irony of how cranky I was that someone (my mil) had the audacity to point out how cranky I could be.... The Noive!!!!! (that's "nerve" but like you're from Brooklyn...you know, like the cowardly lion in Oz?)
Another humbling realization? I've always prided myself on being outspoken, and not bottling things up...and once I blow, I'm almost always "over it"...while I (and my hubby) find this delightfully refreshing...it suddenly dawned on me that other people might think I'm a bit of a b-word...
ces la vie!
and I must correct my post from earlier today...LGK reads my blog too of course, so that makes 3 confirmed regular readers including moi...do I hear 4???

adopt-o-fetus

so many things to celebrate today....it's my "Saturday" - no workee for me!!

some "customers" that have owed me a little bit of moolah have all paid up today and I had a mystery check at the radio station when I went to town today! (for voicework) so I have mystery surprise money! kind of like when you clean out the couch cushions...only to the tune of over one-hundred bucks (I can't remember the last time I found that much in the couch!)

I'm celebrating my friend Paige's graduation from the nursing program today too! (Miss Molly and I had a girl's day, went to the "pinning ceremony" and lunch) The pinning ceremony was long, and a little odd because I didn't technically "know" any of the students except for my afforementioned friend Paige...but the slide show totally choked me up! Watching these people, these strangers, and their two year journey...How far they've come! I'm so proud of you, you adorable strangers you!!! especially you wacky-bald-guy-nurse! and you, skinny-sephardic-nosed-nurse-with-the-bad-bleach-job-and-the-twin-toddlers-that-you're-trying-to-make-a-better-life-for-nurse!
but especially you Paige, and even though I doubt you'll ever read this...I am SUPER proud of you and all the obstacles (albeit self-inflicted) that you've overcome! and i have the utmost respect for ANYONE who wants to be a nurse. I had fleeting aspirations in that area for a while...and nursing? so not for me! But thank the Goddess for these other folks!!!

Talked to my Oma today, and we're waiting for some test results...I've been a bit of an emotional wreck this week, trying to deal with the possibility/reality of my grandma being old and being sick. Dealing with guilt that I live so far away and that she's all alone. She sounded a lot better on the phone today and I'm trying really hard to go with the "no sense in worrying until we get the results" frame of mind (which works great when I'm talking to the kids or LGK about it..but it's an entirely different story in the wee hours of the morning when I can't sleep and I'm trying to figure out how to get work coverage and gas money if I have to hop in the car and drive to SL) Luckily for me I have the best hubby in the world and he's assured me that if that time comes, we'll deal with it and all will be well....so I'm celebrating that she's doing better this week, and hoping for positive results on the tests next week. *cross those fingers and toes with me if you please*

Also "celebrating" father's day this weekend. I've been forbidden to buy any gifties for LGK...see, we were broke on Mother's day so there were no gifties por moi (no problemo) so we're carrying the theme over for father's day (which leaves more moolah for my upcoming birthday!! see it's all part of my evil plan!!!)
This is actually a tremendous relief because at a tour of a local retailer the other day I was barraged with their helpful gift "suggestions" - "perfect for dad!!" - like bbq grilles, golf tees, sponge bob boxers, U of O ballcaps and all-in-one screwdrivers!!! the mind boggles!!! Do fathers really want these things? 'cause neither of my dads or my hubby are this kind of guy. So what on earth do you get them!?!?!?!?!!? In my case...you make muffins on Sunday morning and LGK - he love's my muffins!!!! (I mean who doesn't really?!?!?!?!)

and another thing, on a totally unrelated note (I'm a bit disjointed today, but to be honest...who reads this blog anyway? me, that's who. and I think my mom sometimes. I think that's pretty much it, so I can be as disjointed and discombobulated as I wanna be!)
I adopted a monkey fetus!!! isn't it eerily adorable!?!?!

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I adopted a cute lil' monkey fetus
from Fetusmart! Hooray fetus!

From Trash to Treasure...

that's the grouch way!!!
My "trashion" pal-chemy pal Drew from fairytalefibers
sent me my bag of goodies for our trashion project (fellow artists/etsians/trashionistas send eachother spare goodies/trash and we see what we can make from them...looking for inspiration and trying new materials - kinda kewl) anyhoo...she sent me some old jewelry, leather scraps, some way-cool and old German maps, and some other fidings...the best part of my package though was an awesome Sesame Street book about recycling "everyday" and one of the characters is "Grundgetta" - who makes bottle cap jewelry!! ( she also likes old clothes because they look good with her bottle cap jewelry!!) below is a picture from the book, featuring Prairie Dawn who helps Grundgetta collect bottlecaps...and she is modelling some beautiful pieces as well (I should mention that I have an old tiarra that I plan on "cappin' out")
Anyway, this made my day! thanks Drew
Now I need to get to work making something out of the other stuff she sent me! and I can't wait to see what she makes out of my findings for her (plastic easter eggs, corks, sequins, an old cassette tape, depleted gift cards from the 'bee's....etc.)
(p.s. to check out some of my fellow awesome trashionistas go to etsy.com and enter "etsy trashion" or "trashion" as a tag searchword...our street team also has a blog (check it out on my linky-do sidebar)

I'll post pics of my palchemy creation when I get it done

Mi Familia

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

Can you see my pets too? 'caus they're there...but when I post they disappear...oh well

apparently the fine folks who made this dealie think that the only two possible pets are cats and dogs...no rats/ferrets/reptiles etc. I also thought a big dog vs little dog option would be good...Ringo is as big as Molly, while Ferg is smaller than the cat...

there is no justice in the pre-made cartoon for your webpage world I tells ya!!! (I do think that the likenesses are spot on though!)

some "new" and "custom" designs

these have mostly been for friends and co-workers, and I just took a bulk order for a softball team (their mascot/logo is the "wildcats" raawrrr!) All of these designs are still available. A new design in our "peace line", something for your favorite nurse/doctor, a great baby shower gift idea...even something for your "red hat society" granny.....

look out below...

I'm droppin' f-bombs!!!
(***warning!! there be cursewords in this here post!!!!!***)
gentle readers you may have noted my mentions of my potty-mouth in the past...tis true...and my friend Erin has recently proclaimed that there will be more cursing in her blog too....Huzzah! says I
word is words....parts is parts...
but I gotta share with you my hubby's recent description of my salty-tongue
and I quote:
"Seriously, the woman could make a whole fleet of profanity addicted circus midgets at a Tourett's convention blush, sit down in mute silence, then errupt into an earth shattering chorus of applause until they combust with the frenetic friction of their clapping, jumping, and merrilly yelling "fuckity fuck fuck!"