It Got Better... Way Better

Today kind of started off in “meh”-mode. Just could not wake up today and focus. I reserve these days for goofing off.

“How can you tell?”, you ask.

Don’t get smart.

So I answered emails, edited photos, and poked around in the mess on my work table. I tweeted. A lot. Maybe too much. But can you blame me? Today, the local paper listed me as a Rochester Young Professional “Tweep” To Follow (in the slideshow). Yeah. Uh huh. I’m a big deal on Twitter. That’s right. Make way.

Then the postman rang our doorbell (just once) because he didn’t want to leave a big box on my porch (for once). It was my new digital camera, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS6. Joy! Alas, I was too excited to open the box. Seriously. I was all thumbs and knew I would either rip one of those thumbs open with the box cutter or drop my new precious the moment I got my sweaty thumbs on it. Trust me, I know all of this from experience. I made Mr. M open it. And oh, it’s so shiny and pretty. I finally own a Leica lens!

The day kept getting better.

My artsy pal Kelly (aka @craftyb) met her Kickstarter funding goal for Once Upon A Time. I adore the work she and Larry Moss do with balloons, photography, and illustration. I donated because I want to see the amazing they are going to make.

I had an awesome phone call with my friend of about 13+ years, Christi (aka Rain). We seem to be on some parallel/crossing/same paths lately in a woo woo, get-out-of-my-head way that I am thoroughly digging. So we pow wow a lot about it. Today was nothing short of a powerful pow wow.

Christi knows everyone in town. You need it, she can find it. Arts, music, poetry… She knows who you need to know or can point you there. She is an extremely talented poet, musician, singer/songwriter, and visual artist. She invited me to her performance Saturday night. Mr. M and I planned to attend and to meet the organizers as Christi thought these events would be a good fit for my art. I wanted to promote Christi so I sent a short Facebook message to the organizer about needing a higher resolution image of their poster to put here on my blog.

Then The Universe stepped in.

One of the female artists they showcase Saturday needed out and they needed someone. I was just in the right place at the right time. Or The Universe shoved me into the right place. I don’t know. But it’s woo woo, right? Luck? Hard work paying off?

I am nothing short of thrilled to be asked to be part of this show! Woo hoo for female artists!

Please come down to the delightfully charming

Tango Café

on

Saturday, May 7, 2011

from

7 – 10:30 PM!
389 Gregory Street
Rochester, NY

I’ll have my Tiny Works of Awesome in case you missed us at Mayday Underground! Your pre-sale $10 ticket ($12 at the door) gets you a glass of wine and admission to another reHatched event (every first Saturday through September) in addition to the rocking awesome music, art, poetry, food, and wine! Tickets can be purchased through local participants, at Tango Cafe, and also through the Local Visionaries website (www.localvisionaries.weebly.com)

If The Universe is bringing me there I think you should pay attention, too! Be there! Bring your molecules where my molecules will be having a fun party!

- Vickie

It’s Been A While…

I’m sad to see that I have not been blogging. I have been really busy. It is fitting that Picture the Impossible is the last thing I blogged about as that is the thing that has literally taken over every waking moment of my life for the past month and a half.

There have been web games everyday. There have been photograph challenges, video challenges, and recipe challenges. My sister and I have spent countless hours doing weekly scavenger hunts and deciphering documents from The Watchmaker. I have learned so many things from this game like reading source code for websites, making, editing, and uploading videos to YouTube, solving very cryptic puzzles and clues, and reading Morse code. This game has brought me closer to the city I live in, and I have learned a lot about its history. Most of all this game has taught me how to picture the impossible by being so very challenging. It has forced me to be open to any possibility. I have come away from it with a better sense of myself and my strengths and abilities.

This photo is my entry for the "Rochester Innovations" challenge. The photo had to include things that were invented in Rochester, NY. My entry included the reclining shampoo chair, Gannett newspapers, a box camera, French's mustard, and roll film. Did you know that bloomers, pipe cleaners, Fanny Farmer candies, copy machines, and Ray Ban sunglasses were also invented in Rochester?

It’s not quite over yet. There is still a week of puzzles. But the points are cut off for the big prize on Wednesday night at 6 pm EDT. The big prize is that the top 150 players get two tickets to the Gala on Halloween. It’s a semi-formal/formal masquerade ball. I’m making my own mask for the Gala! Can you say "feathers"?!

I am currently in 38th place. This is only because I was late doing two puzzles and lost points for it. Otherwise I have completed every single challenge placed before me from making a PhotoSynth of a horse (to which I cannot find the link) to making a seriously silly video theme song to the tune of Y.M.C.A. with two total strangers who are also playing this game.

Picture the Impossible has taken over such a huge chunk of my time that I am going to have withdrawal from it when it’s finally over on Friday. I don’t know what I did with all my free time before this game started. Oh, yeah, I did things like make and list items on Etsy, kept up with housework, saw my hunny, and had a sense of sanity. So it will be interesting to see how things go starting on Sunday after the Gala. My brain could use a break.

In the midst of all this business I also had to get ready for having three craft shows in the span of two weeks. One was on a Monday and then I had one on each of the two following Saturdays. The last show at St. Rita’s in Webster, NY was our best show total EVER. I’m thrilled. People bought my dominoes, Scrabble tile pendants, and domino ornaments. They liked my stuff. I’m on cloud nine. It’s so very validating to have people like what I do. My sense of purpose is renewed. Also my "To Do List" is filled up because the shows emptied out my Etsy shop. Several custom orders were also placed at the last show that I have to get going on.

Ok, I have written a short novel here to try to get you caught up on my doings and what nots. I hope the rest of your day is fantastic!

Check out my newest creations at my shop at InMyHeadStudios.etsy.com. I have some Halloween pendants that you can still get in time if you order today. They have free shipping!

Yard News and Garbage

If you saw my tweet at Twitter yesterday then you already know we had the yard aerated. This means that a guy basically pokes big holes in the dirt for the grass roots to get some air. This is after they roll a 1200 ton (I’m exaggerating… a little) roller over it to make it more flat and compact. Now it’s all flat and compact. It needs air! So he rolls this medieval looking thing over my yard and out pops all these little plugs of dirt that measure about three inches long by a half inch round. It looks like hundreds of little dogs pooped in my yard now. And I think this is funny because, well, poop things make me laugh. Yes, I'm that grown-up.

I was going to give you a photograph of the dirt poops but it snowed last night and now we cannot see them. Lucky you!

My grandfather used to have an herb garden. He grew mint, oregano, sage, parsley, basil… you name it, he grew it. He would dry it all, crumble it up into a bag and call it Grandpa’s Garbage. We would season everything with it and it made all food no matter what 100% better!! After he died I found a big glass jar in his basement with the recipe for it on the jar in his handwriting. I cherish this jar. It calls for amounts of each herb that can only be had by growing it yourself. Anyway, just after he died I took some mint plants from his yard to savor his memory. We kept them alive very carefully in pots inside until we bought our first house. Now we have them planted out back in the yard. I’m telling you this because the darn 1200 ton roller nearly rolled all the new spring buds of mint down. And I nearly had a heart attack. But you can rest assured our future mojitos are safe. And a batch of Grandpa’s Garbage may be mixed up by summer’s end!