Get Your Own Chair!

This morning around 9 AM, I was outside on my back porch where I can see my neighbors’ window. This window is just about four feet from the edge of my driveway, in that sort of no-man’s land of sideyard my neighbors never really use. My neighbor, let’s call him B, came walking up my driveway – not an uncommon thing as we chat and hang out sometimes. I said hi and he apologized for my patio chair being broken.

I said, “What?” and looked over at our brick-paved patio. Indeed, one of the chairs was missing the upright to the arm.

He seemed surprised I had no idea what he was talking about. I agreed I apparently was not in the loop. And he told me the story.

My very kind neighbors’ house was broken into last night… while they were home sleeping. How scary is that?!

The burglar was probably walking by casing houses and saw B’s window open. You can see it from the street right up my driveway. B’s window was only open that night because his air conditioner is on the fritz. So the burglar took my patio chair to climb on to get into the window. He got B’s credit cards and a bottle of booze before waking B up who was sleeping right there on the couch. B’s wife, kid, and the dog were upstairs.

B’s eyes adjusted to the dark, realized a person who was not supposed to be there was, and jumped up screaming in fear/anger. The burglar was as surprised as B. B ran toward him as the burglar made his way back to the window.

B practices martial arts and delivered a very powerful kick to the burglar’s ribs, which sent him crashing into the window frame, possibly breaking the ribs that were kicked and the opposite ribs that hit the window frame. The burglar took a head-first dive out the window and right into the patio chair shattering the arm-upright, which really would be the hardest part to break like that. The he took off through my backyard and over our fence. (I am secretly hoping he got a giant, dirty step into our compost pile.)

Cops called. Yadda yadda. They showed up quickly with the K-9 units who had some good leads but ultimately found no one. Our neighborhood has a lot of fenced yards. I imagine if someone were familiar with them it would be simple to mount a getaway quickly.

The cops dusted for prints. It was impossible for B to get a description. It was dark. The burglar was wearing dark clothing and had his hood up. It all happened too fast.

As B was telling me this I could tell he was still very jazzed up about it. I can’t blame him. He literally saved his family and protected his property with his body. His martial arts training. That will set off some adrenaline that may take a bit to get over. But they are safe and that is what matters. That and the bottle of booze was recovered - as evidence.

I couldn’t stop hugging him and thinking about his wife and kid. I want to stop writing this right now, go ring his doorbell, and hug him some more if it helps.

He has a dog, too!! What a doof she is, though. No one is surprised she did nothing.

And I'm sick over my property being used as an accessory to a crime that happened to them. I love these people!

He keeps saying he will replace my chair. Good grief! He better not dare! I will throw it right back through that window! :)

We live in a quiet suburb of Rochester. Not one without crime, but we have a good police force here. I feel safe enough to walk about at night in my neighborhood.

Now I am not so sure.

I'm told this happened around 3:00 AM EDT. I heard nothing. Not even police sirens. I was asleep, drugged from a day of migraines and vomiting.

I am so freaked out. I have a little personal security problem. I've been obsessively checking window and door locks, assessing potential house security issues, and asking Mr. M to be better about closing the (detached) garage door. We rarely open downstairs windows so that makes me feel a little safer. But I am jumpier than heck now so don't creep up on me.

Sheesh! Mean people suck.

I hope you are having a much nicer Labor Day than I am!! <3

- Vickie

I'm A Heat Refugee

As the temperatures here soared last week so did my inability to cope with being overheated. Our air conditioner couldn't keep up with the demand. It overclocked itself and formed a big chunk of ice in and around the tube the moves air or something (I know not how these air conditioners work) into our house to cool it off.

Ice! Outside! In 90+ degree temperatures! That didn't melt! What is it? Ice 9?

Ice, ice, everywhere. And not a bit to cool off my house!

Everything sounded like it was working, air was blowing from our vents, but the house just kept getting hotter. By late Monday of last week it was about 80 degrees in my dining room. Upstairs, I am sure, was about to just burst into flames.

Not cool. Not cool at all.

My house was now uninhabitable to me. Some of my meds make it hard for my body to regulate its temperature or sweat properly. I overheat quickly and dangerously. The heat makes this throbbing chronic migraine absolute torture. Mr. M rescued me and drove me out to my mom's apartment where it was cooler. I have been a heat wave refugee at her place for a week and a day!

Mom and I made my Great Grandma JoJo's Oatmeal Cookies

During this adventure Mr. M has tried to get the air conditioner (AC) fixed. At first it seemed possible to melt the ice and get it going again. Our handyman is very talented at actual fixing rather than just outright replacing so we gave him some time.

Long story short: Delay. Delay. Delay. Work halted as unprecedented power loads caused a power outage in our area = no work for 1.5 days. One day was our handyman's birthday = no work. Days were lost to waiting for ice to melt. Yesterday as he put in the new AC he discovered the old AC was too small for our house. More of the furnace had to be replaced than he expected. Parts need to be ordered. Delay. I am *told* it will be done today. (crosses fingers)

I got overly optimistic that the new AC would be running and went home yesterday as work was piling up in the studio. I got overheated again and had to come back to my mom's. FAIL.

My mom's ridiculously gigantic geraniums

Rochester, NY set record high temperatures on Thursday, July 21st at 98 degrees F. We had at least three days last week where we had 90+ degree temperatures. That's unusual for us, and I believe constitutes a real "heat wave" on the books.

I've never seen so much brown, dead grass here. It reminds me of when I lived in Texas, and of days when I could actually go outside in the heat. I'm not doing outdoor craft shows for In My Head Studios because I cannot sit under a tent for three days if it gets over 75 degrees. I feel like such a wuss!

Mom and I have been having fun though. We get along famously! We babysat my adorable nieces for two days. Fun crafts were made. Cookies were baked. I've been teaching Mom all the really cool stuff she can do with her iPod.

But I miss my house! I miss Mr. M!! I miss my art studio! I wanna go home!

- Vickie

Where To Start? What To Say?

Hello again. I’ve totally been avoiding blogging. But I’m not avoiding you. I have wanted to talk to you, but I don’t quite know what to write. You see, a lot has been going on. An overwhelming “a lot” to be accurate. An “a lot” that has often defied words. So I won’t mince words because there’s no way to sugar coat it. 

My father died. 

Yep. He did. It’s true. As much as I don’t want it to be true. It is. My dear, sweet, beloved daddy is gone.

I’m still in shock and it has been 26 days. He died on New Year’s Eve morning at the young age of 63. It was sudden and unexpected even though he had a second aortic valve replacement surgery in October. He was healthy and perfectly fine when I last saw him on Christmas. 

I am the one who found him at his house. I was too late. There was nothing I could have done. He had clearly been gone for several hours. But I still tried. I sure did. I called 911.

He had been vomiting for a few days (flu?) and my sister had been bringing him fluids and aspirin. She had seen him the night before. But that morning she had her three year old to get to preschool and her job to get to and she was running late. She called me to go check on him, as he was not answering his phone, which is not really unusual for my dad. So Mr. M and I hopped in the car and drove the ten minutes across town to his house expecting to find him sleeping upstairs where he couldn’t hear the phone. 

But he was not sleeping unless you consider it The Big Sleep. We do not know the exact cause of death. We can only guess. It did not look like he suffered at all. 

I had to make the calls to my sister, brother, my mom (they were divorced), and my dad’s girlfriend. Then I had to call his three younger brothers. Oh, my goodness. Those were calls I never want to make again. Ever.

Family and friends arrived a few days later. My brother, his wife and two kids came and that rocked. My three uncles came and that was so awesome. I have not seen two of them in over 10 years. The service for dad was great. So many people showed to pay their respects. It was so nice to meet his friends whom I had only heard stories about.  

So this is the thing that has me very preoccupied. I suppose it’s not something y’all want to read about a ton. I will try to spare you the grief process posts. But you will be getting a great big tribute to dad post as soon as I can stop crying when I try to write it. 

Dad was also a maker of things – particularly antique cars and hot rods as well as model trains. Much of what I do as a craftswoman I learned from him. He taught me how to use almost every tool I own and then some. So naturally being in the studio right now is really hard for me. Everything reminds me of him. I come in here and just cry if I try to work. Most projects are on hold. (My shop remains open, as everything is ready to ship.) 

I’m trying to stay busy, but all of this has caused a flare in my fibromyalgia and I’ve been in a lot of pain. And it has dropped below 0 degrees F here too much and that isn’t helping. 

My last few posts about taking in the love seem so poignant now, don’t they? So many lessons learned about love these last 26 days. Being able to be receptive to love right now is holding me up through this. But I think that may have to wait for another post by itself.

If you do anything at all today, I highly recommend you make sure to hug your loved ones and tell them what they mean to you. You may only have today to do it. 

My bloggy friends, I love you! xoxo

- Vickie

It's About LOVE, People

I know I already gave y’all the craft show update from the St. John’s show on October 11th. But I left out a very big part of the story, as that post was getting long. And this part needed to be separate anyway. You will see why.

It’s no big secret that I’ve been going through a lot lately with pain, intractable chronic daily migraines and now hemiplegic migraines, which brings occasional sudden paralysis to my right side and with it an inability to make art. To say the least, my emotional state has not been great all the time. This has been difficult to accept and get through sometimes. I get mad. I cry a lot. Much lamenting is done about wanting to just quit all this. Yeah. It’s bad.

Last Monday was a big smack in the face about why I keep going despite all this suffering. It’s about LOVE.

I already told you about how I got sick Sunday night and my mom, Heather and Mr. M packed up for me and did the set up Monday morning. That was about LOVE. Specifically their LOVE for me and their belief in my work. Then my LOVE for them deepens because they totally didn’t have to do all that but they did and I LOVE them even more for it.

Fast forward to around noon on Monday. I finally make it to the show. I’m there with my mom and Mr. M at my booth. Lots of people at the show are commenting on how beautiful my work is. People are buying. More LOVE.

Then something strange started to happen. People started to show up just to see me. My twin sister came with her 2 small children; my father arrived; my friend Christi came (who works 70 hours a week and I never get to see her so I was so happy to see her); my good pals Heather and Maggie (who really helped a lot to get me ready for this show); my new friends Jack and Lorraine (who were old acquaintances and now are good friends thanks to Twitter and Facebook); a friend from high school who I have not seen since 1993 (who we caught up with through Facebook and through which he was spammed by me about the show); a totally random coincidental meeting of a youth group leader from when I was maybe 14 or 15 who lives in Charleston and was visiting Rochester and happened to be at the show; and (finally) my mom’s very helpful neighbor who came to help us pack up as Mr. M had left to go to work.

Including my mom and Mr. M that is 14 people total. My booth was a rocking party all day long. People, food, laughter, hugs. LOVE. One person would show up and go and then another would show up so it was spread out all through the day.

Then add all the people who stopped to just look and/or buy my work. And add other vendors who knew me and my work through other people or being online who wanted to meet me. That was weird. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Throw in a couple 55-gallon drums of validation while you are at it.

I was starting to wonder when the “This Is Your Life” cameras were going to pop out from behind a corner. Seriously. None of the other vendors were having loud reunions with friends all day. I wonder if we got to be annoying after a while!

I am getting all misty just writing about this. I think The Universe may be trying to tell me something like, “Good grief, woman! Don’t you feel all this LOVE? You can’t off yourself! Imagine all of these people at your funeral. How could you do that to them? They really really LOVE you!”

So I feel the LOVE. I feel it in my chest so much that literally my heart aches with all this LOVE. And, yes, now I am crying full blown tears as I write. Wah. This isn’t going to appreciate itself, people!

How did I get so lucky? What set all this good in motion? Me? How on earth could that be?

There are not words in this language to accurately express the depth of my gratitude to have this kind of LOVE happen in a time of such suffering and desperation from a loss of hope that this pain will ever go away and I will get my life back. But then again this LOVE has been around me all along. It just happened to kick me in the pants all at once in one day last week. Quite powerful stuff!

Yes, Universe, I am listening. I am spinning string made with this LOVE and how it makes me feel safe, valued and needed and I am weaving it in and out through my ribs and around my heart so I won’t forget it; so it will be my light through the yucky dark places.

Go share some LOVE!

- Vickie

Upcoming 2010 Shows

Saturday, October 23, 2010

St. Rita’s Craft Sale

9:30 AM – 4:00 PM

St. Rita School

1008 Maple Drive

Webster, NY

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Mayday Underground

10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Village Gate Square

274 N. Goodman St

Rochester, NY

The first 50 shoppers will receive a free swag bag!

Mayday Underground Flyer

maydayunderground.wordpress.com

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Irondequoit High School’s Arts & Crafts Sale

10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Irondequoit High School

260 Cooper Rd


Rochester, NY

Can You Feel This Now?

Yessiree, It has been one heck of a week. But still at the end of last week and as this week begins I am not losing hope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Not losing hope!

I’m having more troubles with these migraines. I had two migraines last week that caused what looked like a stroke. I could not feel or move my right side. My hand was all clenched up and shaking. So was my leg. Totally scary situation. I spent four days confined to a hospital bed because I could not walk. I needed some pain relief and a lot of hydration.

Right now, a full week later, I have limited use of the right side of my body. I’m hobbling around on crutches. I am learning how to walk and write again. My rehab plan for my right hand and arm is to draw and type as much as possible. So far, so good. Thank goodness for Twitter to keep me busy! Such love and support from all my peeps!

My hand and foot occasionally start to cramp, lock up or get really weak. But it’s improving every day. Last week I could not feed myself. Now I can make a pot of coffee! Going up and down stairs is still difficult. I’m going to have quite the buff left leg for all the weight it’s supporting! Lying in bed is strange. If I lie on my right side I can’t feel the bed under me, which causes me to feel like I am falling out of bed.

My Mr. Man has been waiting on me dutifully. He brings me food upstairs so I can hang out here in my studio instead of being bored on the couch. So we have the art studio on the second floor and the food downstairs. Hmmmmm.... which floor did every one think I would choose to stay on? (Both floors have full bathrooms.) We have worked out some details of getting food myself once Mr. M goes back to work. He bought me a big, shiny thermos for my coffee so I can lug it upstairs without splashing it all over! Pre-made things like bowls of cut fruit and PB & J sandwiches will be in the fridge when I want them.

All of my family has rallied around me during this difficult time. Mom went to the store and cooked dinner when I got home from the hospital. She is a nurse so she made sure that I received top-notch care at the hospital. She was there as was Mr. M most of the time. Someone was always near by.

As frightening as this has been I am not going to let this beat me. Even though it seems like everything just got 1000% harder I am maintaining my stubborn goal of thriving – not just surviving. Yes, I will admit I have had several United-Nations-Meeting-scale pity parties. Who wouldn’t? So just call me “Peg Leg” for right now!

Take some time to tell your working arms and legs (if you have them) that you love them unconditionally and you would marry them if you could. You won’t miss them until they are gone.

Did You Say “Earthquake”? Huh?

We had some excitement in the form of an Act of God on Wednesday here in Rochester, NY! Many of us in the area experienced an earthquake around 1:40 PM. Yes. An earthquake. Here.

Mom and I were in the studio on the second floor of my house. The whole house started shaking like a rickety shack. It creaked and grumbled and shook like a Polaroid picture. Lamps rattled, water on my table rippled, the blinds swung.

We looked at each other quizzically. My brain quickly ran through several possible causes. Is that a big truck driving by? A plane? A train? High winds? I’m not sure how far down the list “earthquake” was but I can tell you it wasn’t really on my radar. Then my brain shouted, “Earthquake!!!!”

Since it feels like it all happened in slow motion I'm sure it didn't really last as long as I think it did. It lasted long enough for me to say, "Maybe run?" to my mom so we scooted down the stairs and right on outside to the driveway. We didn't want the house to fall with us in it. And since there was no way to know just how bad this might get or how long it would last, we got out. It was over by the time we got outside, which disappointed me because I wanted to feel the earth rumble under my bare feet in the grass.

The weird thing was that none of my neighbors came outside after it. Mom and I stood looking up and down the street. No one in sight. So we kind of shrugged and then went about eating the fresh red raspberries growing by my driveway that are utterly irresistible. (We are drowning in raspberries at the moment out there.)

Mom thought to turn on the radio in her car in the driveway so we could hear the news. It was maybe close to 10 minutes before we heard anything about an earthquake on the radio. However, I fired up my iPod Touch right away in the driveway, got on Twitter, did a search for "Rochester earthquake", and got instant accounts - some from trusted news sources - from a wide surrounding area about the earthquake.

Interesting Observation: My mom went to the “traditional media” of radio and television. I went right to social networks (knowing full well that the info is not always true) and to various online news sites. All of the local websites had info before radio or TV reported it.

We do not have earthquakes here like this one. Close to never. I've not felt one in the total of 24 years I have lived here.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake occurred on the Ontario-Quebec border region of Canada and was a magnitude 5.0. It could be felt in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York. That’s pretty crazy to me. It was only a 2.something here - have read too many reports with different figures.

This experience reminded me just how suddenly and unpredictably our lives could change for good or for worse at any moment. We got lucky with good. A little scare and a lot of adrenaline, but we are all fine. It was quite an interesting experience that I think I could do without feeling again. Ever.

So I am grateful that the ground is staying still. I am taking the opportunity to tell my loved ones that I love them before the ground swallows them up whole.

She Gets Me

The other day my mom and I were chatting about art and my recent passion for all things art journal. She and I spend a lot of time together in the studio. Out of everyone I know, she knows my creative process the best. She gets to see it. And she totally "gets me" like no other human being on this planet does.

So she shows up last week with her sketchbook in tow. I got excited immediately that she did some artwork and wanted to show me. I’ve been trying to gently encourage her work because she has talent. After all, I get my creativity from her. She starts talking about how excited she gets for me that I have passion in my life in the form of art. And she got all teary eyed. Then she showed me what she made…

It’s a tribute to me. My mom made an art journal page about me! Isn’t that the coolest thing ever?! And she wrote such lovely things about me on it. It makes me cry every time I look at it. It has taken me a full week to be able to write this post without bawling my eyes out!

Yes, that’s me with the crazy, curly hair and sunglasses. (My chronic light sensitivity warrants the wearing of sunglasses all the time or I get migraines from the light.)

I know this image is probably too small for you to read what she wrote so I’ll tell you:

“You dare to dream
You believe in your art
You dare to try (‘It’s only paper’)
You bravely venture forward
You push your limits
You hunger for art knowledge
You dig deep for answers
Your beautiful soul shines
Your hope is strong
Your mind is beautiful
Your strength is amazing
I admire you”

She took the time to include a bunch of things I love like dominoes, art journals, pens, stamps, cloth, scissors, paper, tags, cards, paint, ribbon, and a domino pendant. She even drew my art journal and wrote “I GET YOU” on one page!

She said she had a vision of this page and wasn’t sure she would be able to get it out of her head and onto paper. But she was thrilled to say that it came out exactly like she wanted it to. I’m so proud of her! She and I don't really hold our feelings back from each other. We’re kind of a touchy feely family that way. We don’t hold the kisses and “I love you”s back at all. Life is too short.

I’m still kind of speechless to describe what this means to me, as I’m sure you can understand. This will be something for me to look at in my dark moments when I’m in pain and feel I cannot go on. It gives me hope. It makes me feel so very loved. If this is what my mom sees when she looks at me then I might not be so bad after all.

Thank you, Mom! I love you more than I can express! xoxo

I Don’t Want Wings with My Hairdo

My sister just called me. She had a hilarious story to share and I thought you might get a kick out of it.

She woke up last night with something nestling around in her hair. It was dark. She didn’t have her glasses on. She’s really blind at night. So all she could see was a small black form. Then, when she sat up and looked back at her pillow, it was gone! She immediately jumped up and started screaming to her hubby, Blaine, that something was in the bed! He heard wings flapping. My sister, Valerie, didn’t hear that part because she was busy screaming. So they had a BAT loose in their bedroom! Ack! Scream! A bat!!!

It flew out of the bedroom into the hallway when Blaine whacked it with something. It lay stunned on the stairs. Or playing dead. And she had the where with all to snap pictures!


They whispered madly to each other, ”What do we do?! What do we do?!” while trying not to wake the kids. Valerie got a garbage can and clapped it over the bat.


They somehow managed to get it into a garbage bag from there. But it woke up during this process and was flitting wildly around in the bag. Just as Blaine was about the leave the house to let it go it got loose from the bag and went into the basement. So there they are in the dead of night hunting a bat in a huge dark basement. Insert more screaming!


They thought it got trapped up in the drop ceiling, but Blaine heard it move around in a box. He snapped the box closed and finally made it outside with the bat. As he let it go another bat came swooping down from the sky and the two bats flew off together.

They still have no idea how it got into the house. They checked the attic for holes but found nothing.

I cannot stop laughing every time I think of my sister standing in bed screaming! Oh, it’s made me cry twice! I really needed a good laugh today. I feel bad for laughing about this, but c’mon! She’s a hairdresser and she had a bat in her hair!!! Eeeekgad!!

What makes this a little funnier is that my hunny, Erik, caught a bat in a hallway at work recently. Feel free to commence with the Batman jokes for the men in my life!

Birthday Flowers Never Die

Eleven days later (!!), the flowers Erik gave me for my birthday still live and are flourishing! I've been carefully maintaining the water. The lilies were closed when he gave them to me and the show as they unfolded and opened has been amazing. Now the whole house smells like flowers!

Chippy the Hamster

Meet Chippy the Hamster whom I took care of the week before Christmas before she was gifted to my nieces. Isn't she cute? How could I not miss her? I come downstairs in the morning now and I think, "Oooh, man! Chippy isn't here and I'm lonely." Insert sad face.

I think I might have to get my own hamster now! But I know Erik won't really go for that at all. He kept calling Chippy a "rodent" in a disgusted voice. Scrooge.

It sort of did me good that week to have something tiny and cute to take care of and love. I know I can always pop in to my sister's and visit Chippy since she's only seven blocks away. Maybe it's time to revisit the pet ideas with Erik. He wants a dog really bad and so do I, but it's snowy now. Will a puppy go potty out in the snow to housetrain it? I'm doubting the ease of those training sessions. Plus there's a ton of stuff in the studio that a puppy would rip to shreds in a heartbeat. It would be nice to have some company in the studio though. I am torn on this topic. Lately my brain has refused to be decisive so this may be on hold for a while longer.

Harry Potter and the Spider Plant Babies

Erik and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last night. I thought it was good. Except for the part about Dumbledore – but I won’t spoil it for you. It’s been so long since I read the book that I forgot everything. It was all news to me. My memory is stinky like that. I think they maybe played up the teenage angst-ridden romance a bit too much. Many events probably occurred other than the hormonal teen longing they portrayed. But I’m hard pressed to list that stuff off because my brain betrays me.

Unfortunately, I went to the theater without having dinner and ended up eating a hot dog, a bag of Twizzlers, and popcorn. Too much junk food! I sure can put away the candy! It’s a rare occurrence to go to the theater because of the constant migraines, so I will just call it a good night out and not worry too much about my waistline. Enough said.


When we got home, Erik started work on planting some of the literally hundreds of spider plant babies from the plants in the living room. They had begun to take over like Tribbles. He could hardly get to the plants to water them! I think his plans are to set up a table in the front yard and sell the babies. “Sell the babies”… that doesn’t sound good. I think people get in trouble for doing things like that.

It’s All Green, Baby

Spring is springing here in lovely Rochester and where I am in Irondequoit. The trees have filled back up with leaves. Hostas are sprouting. Lilacs are blooming!

Plants are making their way up in my flowerbed in the backyard. This is our first spring in our first house so I have no idea what is “plant” and what is “weed” just yet. I’m letting it grow wild until I figure it out. Never really had anywhere to do any weeding or planting so I’m actually looking forward to getting dirty out there. Mr. M says his duty is the grass and I should tend to the other plants outside. Fair deal.

Mr. M bought me the tomato plants I asked for. And he got me surprise strawberry plants. I must find a way to keep the voracious and abundant squirrels here away from them so I get to eat the fruits of my labor.

The raspberries I told you about last year are also coming up. There are more plants this year on our side of the fence! Yay!! Our neighbor who owns the plants has Crohn’s so he cannot eat them anyway due to the little seeds. The berries won’t be out until July I think.

I adore this time of year here. Life is retuning to abundance instead of cold scarcity. My soul thrives on the green lushness around me. We got so lucky to have tall trees in our neighborhood so they can surround me. I love trees. They’re magical! I’m known to literally hug trees.

Now I need to convince Mr. M that I need a laptop so I can work on the patio and enjoy my lovely weather and deciduous companions!

Just Got Dark In Here

Our roof needs to be replaced. The crew is here doing it right now. They have covered about half of the outside of my house with a blue tarp. Now it’s really dark inside and everything has a blue cast to it. They tell me this should take a few days. Ugh.


It sounds like we are under siege. Maybe I am going to my mom's house for the afternoon.

And We’re Off!

This is an old photo of my twin sister and me in our playroom taken when we lived in Plano, Texas. She is the one with the adorable smile in front. I have the goofy face in back. We spent countless hours making things and playing school or office in there. Our mom always made sure we had enough paper, markers, glue, pencils, and projects to work on. She is awesome that way. She still buys me art supplies! And my sister and I still do craft projects together some 30 odd years layer.

She tells me she still has the black tape dispenser in her house. And the Smurf on the top shelf holding a cake. She also has the shelf but it is painted red now. I have not found anything in the picture that I still have except for the giraffe note holder my grandfather made.

I’m also not sure when this picture was taken. It’s sometime between 1982 and maybe 1986. I’m not good at telling how old I am in old pictures. It’s sometimes miraculous if anyone in my family can even figure out which twin is which in most baby photos! Some we will never know who is who. I often wonder if maybe we got switched at some point and I am really named “Valerie”.

Will You Take a Quarter for That?

Yesterday the phone rang at 8:00 am. Wrong number. Very nice old lady though. But then I could not get back to sleep. So we went to garage sales! I love garage sales. My grandparents financed their winters in Florida for 15+ years on garage sales, antique shows, co-op sales, and flea marketing. Their garage was eternally set up for a sale. You could never park a car in there. It’s in my blood to get good deals. And yesterday I did!


I bought a bike for $10 even though it was priced at $15. As I’ve said before, I am tiny. To find a nice looking bike that is not hot pink and is made for an adolescent girl is difficult. But I found a 16” bike for my tiny frame. (I had a bike but it was a 24” frame, and I kept falling off it because I could not reach the ground with my feet at all while seated.) I rode around the block twice on it and it works great! I’m so happy. Now I can ride the 7 blocks to my sister’s house! Who would have thought that at 33, I would be ecstatic about buying a bicycle!

I also purchased a working electric typewriter for $1.00! How cool is that? I’m going to use it to type out words and phrases for my collage work. It may need a new ribbon soon. I hope I can still get one.

Other assorted things we bought: Scrabble game (for the tiles for collage), dominoes/chess/backgammon game set (for the pieces for collage), a book in French, a Chinese to English dictionary (both books for collage), an old yellow Tupperware canister set like my mother owned, three book ends (what am I going to do with the odd one?), two silver demitasse spoons (for a project), and an original etching that was only $2.00. I’m going to look up the artist to see what it may be worth.

All in all, a very good haul. Plus we got a nice tour of our new neighborhood and surrounding areas. I can now confidently drive all over town without worrying about getting lost! Bonus!

But I gotta’ go now because there’s a bicycle calling my name.

Origami Night!

My sister stopped by yesterday to ask if I had an origami book. Apparently, the origami boats piqued her interest in more paper folding. I had to dig one up from the boxes still filling my studio. My guess was lucky as I got the right box on the first try. We then headed over to her house to see her kids, eat pizza, and fold paper.

We made lazy susan’s, a paper ball shooter and goal hoop, bangle bracelets, a Frisbee, and pop open boxes.

(Click the pictures to see more in my Flickr photostream.)











Her four-year-old daughter got a big kick out of the paper ball shooter. We played with it for about 30 minutes. I wish she were a bit older so we could have taught her some origami. Frustration would have been the only outcome tonight. But she watched and drew pictures for us. She stayed up an hour past her bedtime! I am sure she is going to show it to her dad and they are going to play with it a lot today.

Toy Boat, Toy Boat, Toy Boat

My twin sister phoned me the other day from work inquiring how to fold an origami boat. I found instructions online and walked her through it over the phone. (We have such a “twin connection” that my hunny joked that I only thought the instructions, and she was able to make the boat.) All she told me was that she had a puddle to float a boat in and, obviously, some downtime at work.

She is a hairdresser. The salon where she works is really nice, although there is a bit of a water problem in the basement. Condensation from the air conditioner collects behind a wall and pools at the bottom of the stairs. This is the “puddle” she was referring to. She sent me the following picture, from her Blackberry, of her three boats.


I think she was trying to make a point to the salon owner about the conditions in the basement.

My hunny got his haircut by her shortly after that picture was taken. She sent him home with one of the boats for me. Being the good sister that I am, I made her a boat in return.


(This picture isn’t as great as I was hoping it would be as it was also taken on my sister’s Blackberry.)

It has a bamboo skewer mast, a paper sail that reads “i love you to the moon and back”, portholes made from eyelets, and is named “USS Shake It!” which is her new catch phrase from Shear Genius.

Since we now only live 7 blocks apart I can just pop over to her house anytime I want to without the hassle of driving far. This opens a whole new world of (harmless) pranking possibilities! My big plan was to get her husband to unlock her car for me so I could surprise her with the boat I made by leaving it in her car. But he was not home when I called to arrange this. So I just went over there and dropped it off to her. We had a fun impromptu evening of goofing around. It was really nice. We watched Shear Genius and worked out some new business card designs for her salon. Fun was had by all!

Fruitiness

I picked these about an hour ago. More were ripe, but why be gluttonous? This has to be about 40 raspberries! I had to fight the bees for them. I foresee a tummy ache by day’s end from eating too many of these juicy, red jewels.


With my bounty, I made a huge fruit salad for breakfast. Strawberries, blueberries, peaches and fresh, wild raspberries. Delicious!!

Yummy Raspberries

Our neighbor to the west has raspberry bushes along his side fence. They grow through the chain link to our side by our driveway. Before I knew they were raspberries I was going to cut them back. But now they are full of ripe yummy fruit! They can stay.

He says we can have as many as we want. He should be careful or I will eat them all! I love fruit of any kind. These have been great in my morning bowl of fruit and yogurt. Best part: they are free!

Cubes to the Power of Ten

One of the priorities of setting up my new bigger art studio in our new house was getting more storage for my supplies. The old apartment was filled with my supplies in every nook and cranny, even under the coffee table. The studio frequently overflowed into other rooms and the attic. Where did all this stuff come from? Yikes! I needed a very customizable solution.

A. C. Moore had a 50% off sale on the storage cubes I have been eyeing for some time. I went all out and bought ten of them to get my mess in order. In truth, I have wanted a big unit of these things for years but never had a place they would fit. My studio now measures 10.5 feet by 15.5 feet so there is more than enough room now! And it’s filling up surprisingly fast. Two work tables make it possible to have different projects going and keep the pendant soldering and sanding mess relegated to a spot away from where I make things. My computer desk also fits in the studio. I like my Macintosh PowerMac G5 to be near me so I don’t have to run to a different room to hop online, check email, do layout design in Photoshop, or listen to music.

The ten cubes are comprised of six different modules. I got two of some of them. There are two paper stacks (one is vertical to hold books and magazines), many drawers, one cabinet with a shelf and a door, and two units with drawers and spots for paper or books. I am unpacking boxes right into the cubes. It’s starting to look like Martha Stewart’s studio in here! Never have I been so organized! Once everything gets unpacked I plan to utilize the label maker to slap up some pretty labels. Otherwise I’ll be looking through every drawer for things. I really like labels. I think it comes from my love of how words and letters look. I love sticking words into or onto my art or décor. I’ll probably post another picture once all my supplies and paper are unpacked and labels are made.