something wicked

lowe4 @ 2009-12-18T01:57:00

2009-12-18T09:57:16Z

Ho Ho Ho.

Where's the kleenex?

On the first day of Christmas a random stranger gave to me One congestive sinus problem with accompanying cough. I would shoot that bloody partridge if I could stop sneezing long enough.

Hack the halls with bags of cough drops.

Crap.
There goes the nose again.
More later.....Much Much more than I ever wanted to know.

lowe4 @ 2009-12-10T21:38:00

2009-12-11T05:38:16Z

Waiting on a package with supplies in it......still waiting...................... hmmm.

Still waiting.

Crap.

lowe4 @ 2009-12-08T00:16:00

2009-12-08T08:16:44Z

In the interest of being normal I must state that I listened to completely ordinary Christmas music all day today. This will be important later.

Being me I was making happy bat ornaments and little voodoo dolls with bat and fir Christmas wreaths held out in from of them in celebration. It makes sense when you think about it, they must be happy little things at heart.

I mean, what would you do if you had been used against your will as the vehicle for someone's bad temper? And then discarded after one use with pins? I don't even want to think about acupuncture and this is way worse.
I think they must be so happy to be free and non curse laden that it would make them natural optimists and generally perky.
So I made a few to be happy instead of being pin cushions.

I think that is what Christmas is about really, simply being happy and trying to be as good as you can be. Sometimes in defiance of how you were made.

lowe4 @ 2009-12-06T16:24:00

2009-12-07T00:24:09Z

And again with the postal service! Why do they make it so bloody difficult?
Grumble.

lowe4 @ 2009-12-02T01:50:00

2009-12-02T09:50:18Z

I take it back.
All of it, every little bit.
I just sold my little brains out.
I wonder what it will be like in a couple of years when I look back and remember how much each sale meant when there were so few.
Of course that presumes there will be more in an increasing trend.
I mean after all I can't just go willy nilly with the optimism.
I would have to have to get a new wardrobe for the attitude.

lowe4 @ 2009-12-01T12:30:00

2009-12-01T20:31:00Z

So far no good, Cyber Monday was a bust.
It sounds juvenile but I feel like hollering into a crowd "Go look! Right now!"
I need to do more add research to figure out how to drive traffic to my shop.
Maybe a cattle prod.
Nope, could get sued.
How about a non electric nudger?
Nudge nudge.

One flaw.....
Where do you find crowds?

A day in the life

2009-11-25T22:07:32Z

A typical day for me involves waking up with a dog on my head, stifling the scream that a hovering sphincter causes, and stumbling for coffee. After the festivities of waking there should be breakfast* and walkies** not specifically in that order. Then we work.

Work is not what it used to be since I got online. I have pictures to take and witty blurbs to write and then if I get all that done I can go make something else to start over with the next day. I enjoy this process as much as an OCD personality in a lint picking factory and for much the same reasons. All of this is leading up to the explanation of how I work. I talk to my self a lot, and the dog, and my tools, and my pieces. You get the picture.

I had several sets of ornaments to photograph this morning to get ready for Cyber Monday. I was engaged in this happily talking away when I heard a strange sound, the sound of an unfamiliar car door shutting just yards away. I had just been discussing with the small dog on my foot, the bad habit of waiting till I had a shot framed and then doing amorous things to my tripod. Feeling the dread of a person who has just done something Odd in front of a stranger I looked up to see the rather shocked face of the male nurse who had come to administer the IV treatment for Grandma. I think it was the phrase "I shall bean you on the bonce if you don't quit yiffing my legs!" Made to thin air for all he knew, or possibly to him from the look I got.

I looked down at dog and she looked up at me, we waved and took the next picture.

I must now go upstairs to change out the wash for another load of my unmentionables.
The washer is in the same room as Grandma and the nurse.
I think I shall be needing coffee when I return.

*coffee, a hand full of pills, and the occasional lump of unidentified food matter that I manage to pry out of the depths of the fridge.

** dragging the dog outside to exclaim madly over her feats of eliminatory excellence. I relish the day she grows out of the need for the poo dance.

Why did I do that again?

2009-11-23T19:50:06Z

In spite of the season and temperature the bazaar went off with only the normal amount of hitches. It is the last one we will be putting on for the foreseeable future and I am kind of grateful for that. The process is much more work than any reasonable person can do by themselves and we always have, of course, selected one person to do most of it. Mom got hit with it this year and it did not improve her temper. Not that I blame her in the slightest.

It is a strange feeling knowing that next year it will be someone's baby and all we are called upon to do is visit. This promise was extracted under threat of having small fuzzy elves embroidered all over basically everything. Maybe in a few years I will have to look into starting my own thing.... No. I just read that and absolutely no. The idea creeps up on you when you don't watch.

Must go watch.

lowe4 @ 2009-11-22T16:35:00

2009-11-23T00:35:29Z

I'm back, I lived, I can't see to type.
More later

lowe4 @ 2009-11-19T11:05:00

2009-11-19T19:05:37Z

I am about to run out the door and head off for the last weekend of the bazaar. I am leaving the shop up and Seth is in charge of everything. Be nice to him.

I posted new things on wednesday and I am quite proud of them so go look. I am not suggesting.

cool new add thingy

2009-11-18T08:14:14Z

lowe4 @ 2009-11-17T15:03:00

2009-11-17T23:03:23Z

Doom.

I have been for a haircut.
My very first haircut of any note.
I quite liked the lady that cut and she did an amazing job with the colors I wanted.
She listened to what I wanted and I watched her in the mirror very carefully and I am still recovering from the shock of realizing that the mirror is not a good way to judge these things.

Dudes it is short.

It is having a breakdown in the car all the way home short.

And it's layered. I discovered just after she put in the layers how much I really hate this. I will be growing this out for two years to get it back to how I want it to be. I lost over a foot of length total.

Good news is I have no splits, breaks, peels, shatters, or weak spots and I will have healthy happy hair if I keep it trimmed just a little every couple of months so. It will grow out faster and stronger and be more manageable.

It's just so much shorter.

Some poor man in the meat department of the grocery store asked how my day was so I told him. He held a poor baby for me right there in the store, a complete stranger. That helped a huge amount and after I got home and really fell apart I started to feel better.

So much of how I view myself is wrapped up in, well, how I view myself and the long hair has been such a part of that for so long that it felt like an amputation. I don't know how much I will be able to absorb for a while. Such a big change is hard for me to accept. I hope the sniveling part is over since I hate that to begin with and it's not like it will change anything.

I love the colors she put in for me, a chunky stripe of red rum with little pin stripes of copper over it. A little flashy and a little spicy and not over cooked. I really liked Christine, and she is good with hair and listens and is in no way to blame for the melt down.

Really.
She's good people.

I think I should go curl up with my dog for a while.

Oh yeay, it's monday

2009-11-16T22:52:33Z

There must be some anthropological reason that the entire world hates Mondays. For me it's just the fact that I have to get up alone, walk the dog in the rain, and no one brings me coffee.

On the up side I have scored a huge victory over the post office by managing to arrive at a time that could not possibly be a lunch break and leaving with all of my packages in my possession before they could find a reason to ship them back. I will wait with anticipation of the next attempt to hoard my beloved packages till I am out of town or otherwise unavailable. Lurk.

The ornaments are proving difficult to photograph and subsiquently may take an extra day or so to appear in the store. My humble apologies. I will be coaxing the rain to cease for ten minuets to try and get a decent photo, I think I may be failing but I will be trying.

lowe4 @ 2009-11-06T15:42:00

2009-11-06T23:46:38Z

Busy today posting new things www.SomethingWicked.etsy.com go look and see.

Finishing some goth inspired Christmas ornaments that should be up next week, think black glitter and bats. Also some good skull and cross bones stuff going on.
I think I glued my fingers together.
Damn.

Oh well, it's Friday and even I take the weekend off sometimes.
Sounds like it's time to pop open that strawberry wine and build a fire.
See you on monday

Say what?

2009-11-05T20:34:27Z

So last night was knit night with the girls(and sometimes the token guy) and after I went for coffee with a friend and then there was the book store...... Long story short we wound up in Starbucks at who knows what time and we saw an opening for the comfy chairs. Naturally we took the spot as soon as we could and settled in for more knitting and nattering since the straight back chairs will have you whimpering after the second hour. As soon as we got over to the nook the person sitting across from us leaned over and said
"I thought it was supposed to be tit for tat not tit for tit."

Silence. Neither one of us had a clue what she was talking about, and assuming it was a crossword kind of thing I said
" It is Tit for Tat."
"Not from here, it looks more like Tit for Tit to me."
Then she just sat there for twenty or so minuets staring at us while we ignored her and finally got up and walked away.

Some time after she left we looked up and said almost together "Do you think she thought we were a couple?"
I have no idea why that woman thought it was appropriate to say anything like that to a complete stranger but I hope the total lack of understanding will clue her in that she needs to either quit or get more specific if she was in fact trying to insult us.

The funny part?..... I think she was annoyed with us both for not being offended.
Snork.

lowe4 @ 2009-11-02T12:43:00

2009-11-02T22:06:54Z

So here we are again with a hungry blog and me with nothing interesting to say. For this very reason God created random Mondays.

1. It was bloody cold all weekend! I will never get all the ice off my extremities.

2. Dad came over with his toys and we did an impromptu photo shoot in the driveway that was fun and had some very good results. I received my new lenses on Friday and got to play around with them and just play. The Macro lens is my very favorite thing right now, it lets me get to within one quarter of an inch from the object I want to shoot. The detail is incredible and I can blow up the images with greater resolution because of it. Thus making my life easier.

3. The black paper parasol has gotten over three hundred hits since the 26 of October. When I think up something to say it will appear here first.

4. Sunday I took the day to have fun, that ended up being a seat in the 3d showing of Nightmare Before Christmas. This was the first time on the big screen for me and it was better in every way. Creepier, more detail, better sound, even funnier since I could see the jokes this time around. Very. Good. Day.

5. Going for more coffee. What else can you say to that?

Feature ArtTales.

2009-10-27T20:18:48Z

When I was about five I had a stuffed duck. It went every where with me, to bed , out to play in the yard, and even in the bath a couple of times. By the time I was eight ducky had a permanent place in my room, sleeping more prominently in the bed than I did. She had a wardrobe of painstakingly stitched clothes that were, in hindsight, a labor of love mistakenly applied as stylish. By ten I had a book in my bed with ducky and by twelve I had several books and suddenly I couldn’t find her. Some years later she turned up in a collection of old toys forgotten in a box at the back of my closet and I held her remembering all the things she had done for me.

I am a grown person now with much less fancy and a lot more baggage but I still have a collection of favorites. A stuffed giraffe with soft fur, a plush turtle (well three actually), and several more chosen for their excellence of design and construction, or sentimental value. This week I added another toy to my ragged band, something I only do once every year or so. The new arrival had to pass a rigorous set of qualifications, she had to be well made, original in her design, and I had to absolutely love her.

Allow me to introduce Chops

She is an “up cycled” sheep made from repurposed fabrics and stuffed with plastic grocery bags. She is very firmly stitched together at all points and passed the well made qualification with flying colors. All of the stuffed toys made by Art Tales are one of a kind original designs based on her popular concepts such as her bright purple armadillo, a collection of stuffed toy taxidermy heads, or a two foot long alligator. All the materials are recycled or repurposed in some way carrying a beautiful touch of ecological responsibility along with pure fantasy.

I highly recommend taking the time to check out Art tales Etsy shop here :
www.ArtTales.etsy.com
She will be having a Black Friday Weekend sale the 27th - 29th and will be offering free shipping.

Readers you have your marching orders, go forth and support the incredible talent flourishing in the world today, but stay away from my sheep.
I have to fit her for her new scarf wardrobe.

new art

2009-10-27T00:32:02Z

check this one out www.SomethingWicked.etsy.com

I just posted it today.
I feel rather accomplished and i shall have another cup of coffee in celebration.

raindrops fallin on my head

2009-10-26T21:36:26Z

October is swinging in at last with the drizzles and outright monsoon style rain Oregon is known for. I personally like the rain and find it soothing and a minor inconvenience. Jasmine finds it to be worse than any other form of torture in the world including a bowl she knows contains food placed just out of her reach. (no we don't do this on purpose but it took a while to figure out she was really too short to get to the floorboards in my car)

Knowing her feelings on the matter as we do it has become a challenge to get her to go out in the morning. She will just stand there looking at you and then run and hide from the wet. No amount of coaxing or bribery will move her, and running her down and placing her outside produces not the expected "cold shock must weee" syndrome, but a shivering bedraggled heap huddled next to the door. This morning she made a huge puddle as soon as we got back into the house. This has been going on for several weeks now and I have had enough. She got the sharp NO! and tiny swat and then she went right back to bed. In light of her untrustworthy behavior lately we have had to go back to square one of house training.

I have never had this much trouble training a dog. Ever. I have also never tried the only positive reinforcement method. I could have told me this before, but the vet is convinced it is the only way to go with small dogs if you don't want a cowery one.

It does not work.

There must be some sort of negative reaction to an inappropriate behavior before you can effectively convince the perpetrator to desist.

I'm a gettin the squirt bottle and settin it on stun.

Tune in tomorrow for a review of the etsy purveyor that made the eco cuddly I am cuddling right now.
There will be awsome.
There will be an advanced warning of a sale.
There will be my covet list.
Be there.

lowe4 @ 2009-10-23T12:52:00

2009-10-23T21:31:23Z

I have now commenced the running of the arse. if you find it lying about forlornly please collect it and mail it back to me.

Another finished item is already sold and I haven't even had a chance to post it to Etsy. Woot!
More networking for this afternoon and then PT with the upstairs, walk the dog, make the dinner, and finish another idea.

I better make another pot of coffee.

lowe4 @ 2009-10-22T12:42:00

2009-10-22T21:10:53Z

Pessimism is my hobby.
As such I seem to be expecting to fail most of the time and barrel ahead to meet that expectation.
Lately I have been hanging out on the Etsy site and doing at least an hours worth of promoting a day. Wandering through the forums and chat rooms and voting on the votables and just in general being seen.

In the last week I have doubled my list of people who saved my shop in their favorites.
Even with the crappy pictures I have to redo and the less than professional sales blurbs.

I am really pumped to be able to see a direct relation between my efforts at socalization and the people it is affecting.
This has been hard for me to understand, but I have to believe in myself before the rest of the world ever will. And what is more I have to tell them so repetedly and not give way to other opinions.
So hurrah for me.

And thank you to all the people that liked what I do.
One click does make a difference.

lowe4 @ 2009-10-21T00:55:00

2009-10-21T07:55:42Z

Squeeeeee!

I have a mutant zombie sheep!

Not really any way to explain that one.....
More coffee?

lowe4 @ 2009-10-20T02:18:00

2009-10-20T09:20:03Z

BATS!!
little fuzzy bats with beady eyes...
Tiny flat bats with pointy wings...
Huge slobbering bats...
bats.......
hmmmm.............

lowe4 @ 2009-10-17T22:58:00

2009-10-18T06:21:03Z

just a peek....

A bit of this and that...

Anybody care to guess?

lowe4 @ 2009-10-16T16:11:00

2009-10-16T23:21:18Z

This is what you get in under five minuets if you have a piece of newspaper and a Boston in the same room.

This is what you get when you have the nerve to mention that you have just swept and can no longer see the nice clean floor.

This happens with cardboard too.

Back to the broom......