happy halloween!

i ended up making the cupcakes for the family, and a cake version for the school :) yummy, but i am sugared out already! i bought far too much candy for the trick-or-treaters on purpose so well, you know, i can take care of any leftovers ha ha. the big kid is in charge of giving out candy this year, and there are some scary movies to be watched all night. i love halloween, always have. it does have bitter sweet memories attached to it that i like to remember too: my first marriage was on halloween, and the passing of my best friend. my first marriage ended in divorce, that was cool and i like to remember what good there was at first...but kelley dying was not cool. i can't find too much sense in her death, and tomorrow i am going to set up her little alter like i do every year to remember her. day of the dead. i miss her.

reverse it

extreme close up of the reversed colors of my newest scarf. today i am cleaning up after the weekend and also starting on a custom order of scarflettes. only three to start but hopefully more will be needed soon. i also got the information on my first trunk show at motokitty today, i will have the dates as they come but i love the idea and hope that if paired with the right person (two artists per night) it would be a great and cozy event. as this month grinds to a halt and i look forward to november i see that i better get thinking about the shows sooner than later. there would be no less than two in november, thankfully at the end of the month. so i have time, i just know me and how i like to uh...procrastinate. :)

anyway i am also making a vampire bite cake and cupcakes for the school and home. it is a simple and fun idea (i can't remember where i saw it to give credit but it is out there somewhere!) where you frost the cake white and put two 'puncture wounds' with the red gel bleeding out for blood. i love this idea and hell if the trashy accidentally vegan vanilla frosting wasn't on sale today so i bulked up on it and cupcake papers. so even if you don't have kids make yourself something sweet and trashy for halloween, ok?

poppies & sky

just listed this finished scarf called, appropriately the 'never felt better' scarf! i am making a red one with blue poppy next and it is fully customizable. i think i love it a lot :)

union break!

feeling dizzy from too much bending over picking up barbie's and barbie parts from the front room right at the moment...time for a good old union break. i printed some new moleskines this morning and a few cards to see how they look in red ink. i like them, and will probably incorporate them into our families xmas cards this year. :) other than cleaning and finishing half-finished projects around my workspace we are having a nice dinner tonight with friends and i can't wait. yummy vietnamese vegan style. *drool*.

i updated my websites banner today. now, this was no small feat. i had to contact the web designers to see where in the hell i even started. i had to go deep into the programming, but now that i see where that all is kept on the server it isn't such a mystery. i don't know why it is showing up so small here, but it is full sized on the site. anyway, i like it. it was an hour pain in my ass but i am pleased that i know just *a little* more about web design that i knew this morning! that ftp or whatever was just a tad confusing to the untrained person. :) just a tad. ha. feel free to visit and tell me what you think.

let's see, what else. oh if you are in the portland oregon area here is where you can find me in november and december:

November 2007~

11/16/07 - 6:00pm to 9pm
11/17/07 – 11am to 5pm
The Pretty Girl Holiday Sale
The Pretty Girl Holiday Sale is in its ninth year of featuring all
local artists and designers selling a wide variety of handmade art and
gifts for all. A small portion of sales will be for the benefit of The
Egg art collective where the sale is located.

Location:
The Egg, 534 SE Oak Street (at Grand and 6th)
Portland OR

village free school craft bazaar
11/25
12-4pm
The Village Free School (a non-profit, private school that creates a
self-directed and democratic learning environment for students ages
K-12 - visit www.villagefreeschool.org).

Location:
Liberty Hall, located at 311 N. Ivy (one
block south of Fremont, one and a half blocks west of Vancouver)

December 2007~

12/2/07 – 12pm to 5pm
I Heart Indie Holiday
I Heart Indie Holidays is committed to remaining true to the ideals of
the DIY Revolution! We strive to unite the NW crafting community as
well as give NW customers even more reasons and opportunities to shop
Indie!
We've set aside a casual men's TV area in the upstairs balcony so the
guys don't get caught in the crush of the holiday shopping frenzy!
While relaxing in the balcony, stop by the "all-ages bar" for juice,
soda, hot cider, or hot chocolate!

Location:
The Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell
Portland, OR 97212

12/09/07 – 12pm to 5pm
Rebel Rabbit Craft Fair
Come shop for handmade gifts by local indie designers. Buying handmade
for the holidays is way more fun than fighting mall crowds any day.

Location: Hipbone Studio, 1847 E. Burnside

12/22/07 – 8am to 4pm
PDX Etsy's Winter Solstice Last-Minute Holiday Shopping Sale!
PDX Etsy Street Team gathers at PSU along side of the Winter Solstice
Farmers Market for a last minute Holiday SALE! Sponsored by the PSU
Women's Studies Department.

Location:
PSU Smith Center Ballroom/ next to Farmer's Market

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

there is one more place i will be showing, more info to come on that. a couple years ago i did a gallery exhibit for wearable art in sacramento. it was weird, i sold a bunch of little felt pins like burnt toast and crazed bunnies. but this year they have a wearable art/glass catagory and my glass pendants would be perfect. :) i love having my stuff in sacto, but not *actually* having to be there. what a great trade off!

hello autumn

some views from our front window...check out all those wet leaves! i just know one of these dry weekends shawn will be leaping out of his chair to be on raking duty. i just know it. ;) it has been raining pretty steadily for the past day, but tomorrow is the pumpkin patch and by the powers of greyskull i say it will be dry...muddy, but dry. (at least that is what the doppler radar forecasts because i am not really in charge of the weather....)

and i finished one and a half scarves last night, this being one of them. working on some kidlet sized ones for lyric's school's craft-bazaar, and also to make up for selling two this week. woot!

peaceful pig

i made a cutie pie block last night during ghost hunters :) and tried out the print on these little moleskine journals. she us holding a laurel branch. i made some for myself, too. i mean i NEVER have personal paper to write on with these two girls. i go through printer paper like crazy because *someone* sneaks them for her comic book. anyway, so it would be great to have some thing to write on in the car and in my bag. jotting down ideas on the back of receipts gets a bit old, you know?

today is weird. it is cold (the heater finally kicked on thank god), but still. and all the weather forecasts are saying windstorm of the century this afternoon so i keep looking out the window to see when the shit is going to start flying around. unfortunately for me it will be about the time i have to get to the school for a big meeting. should be interesting, there is an emergency over internet usage and video games. i can't wait to weigh in on that one!

a really great day!

and just in time since it has already started to cloud over. literally and figuratively ha ha :)! we found a forest like park in north portland near the skate park, and had a great lunch...good times, good time.

i am not a rockstar

but i can drink one. i have a secret: i have never bothered to drink one of these and i have only had a redbull like, once, years ago when they first came out. i hated the taste. but shawn brought home some 'juiced' rockstars and this one ain't so bad. it is guava, sort of. but i can drink it without barfing so this is a good thing. hey, whatever gets me doing laundry with a smile is another good thing.

simon the kitten has now grown to ginormous porportions as you can see. he has also become the softest cat known to man. and he is *my* best friend, unless he is tripping me on the way to his cat food dish. that i can do without, mainly. ;)

i listed a bookmark today, and will work on some later on after our drive. we are kinda lagging--i have a load of laundry drying and refuse to go anywhere with no underwear, sorry. but we have a river drive on the menu plus hitting up some downtown features while the weather is so nice out. it is supposed to get nasty this week, so we have to take advantage of the dry day and sun.

read before it becomes illegal

made a bookmark this afternoon after going on a cleaning binge. i feel sick--i don't think i ate enough and the coffee is sitting on my stomach like a brick. but i like the new bookmark. and 20 points if you know which book it was taken with. :)

elescarf

finished up a tan fleck number today, pinned the elephant patch to it to up the cute factor and still stay utilitarian, you know? a hair under 4" wide by 74" long.

woot! going to start another scarf tonight whilst i enjoy a new ghost hunters :) yeah yeah...shut up i believe!

waiting on some patches to dry up, and am wondering if i should keep them like they are, or sew a felt backing on them and make them more substantial. hmmmmmm. i will ponder this while i hunt ghosts and make some tomorrow to see if how they would look. i have a bunch printed up and a pile of fabric swatches.

lino block reprazentn!

i got a new account up in seattle's sidecar pigs for peace, washington's only vegan grocery. so, i am coming up with some new vegan themed stuff for them and beyond (if i can scrape up the funds for veganfest i would love to vend there again in november for sure, but it is looking bad at the moment). i made my first attempt at text today on a lino block and it turned out great. i used my font from my website, and i will make some patches, bookmarks and scarves with the patches on them for them to choose from. i think those are great, gifty and can be made again and again for them. the red ink was just my first try to see if the lines were good, and this afternoon i am running over to the craft store for some fabric ink/paint for the patches. i am really excited! this was just the kick in the butt for me, i have been kinda up in the air about stuff this last weekend--poor sales (but lots of hits and stuff in people's carts on the site so that is good that they are at least LOOKING right now, right?) and general lack of fundage for things is getting me down. but i do believe i am on the up and up :)

some new pendants

what did i do on my friday night? soldered. didn't get everything done like i wanted to, i think my iron is about to crap out--i need a temperature gauge to maintain the proper heat. it kept cooling down and making it hard to get a good flow. mreh. i think i have to make a trip to the stained glass supply store and price out how much it would cost to replace what i have.

this morning, i fought with the fire and it won by not staying lit. we have to take a trip to home depot for a new filter for our heater anyway so i will pick up a small bundle of wood until we can have some delivered. not too many listings on craigslist this year yet, so we will have to make due. i don't want to have to run the heater yet, but it was tempting this morning. CHILLY stuff. the fire took the chill out of the air, and went out late enough so we got some benefit from it. we need an axe, too to split logs that are too big. that may be some of the problem--too large of pieces and not enough smaller tinder. either way we have to deal with it soon. like right now! *shivers*

pretty soon we will take our trip out to the pumpkin patch. i love that so much--the fresh veggies at the general store, eating corn on the cob, picking out the pumpkin, riding the tractor to the outskirts of the patch for the perfect pumpkin. LOVE it.

cooking follies in the nfb kitchen :)

had a huge craving for caramel dip for my apples late yesterday afternoon so therefor i whipped up some vegan caramel which turned out totally delicious if i don't say so myself!

other than that i cleaned up outside: sweeping and raking some leaves from the porches that are getting tracked in. there was even a leaf in my tub...i think the cat carried it in there. note to self: next house must have a mud room! the one thing i hate most about the wet winters is that there is no place to shake off the cold and water when you enter my house. blech...i don't even know why they bothered to carpet the little entryway.

i crocheted a little during ghost hunters but that was it. not feeling so inspired at the moment for new projects, but i do have some pendants wrapped and ready for soldering i really ought to get around to tonight at the latest. everyone is feeling a little blah over here...wonder if we are fighting off a bug. :(