Thanks

This week I have lots to be thankful for.


My father is feeling better after heart surgery last week, and the rest of my family is healthy.

My parents, after many years of not-quite saying the right thing, said the exact right thing to me when I got in the the show. "Heck yeah!"

I have a job- even if it makes me nuts sometimes, it is still a steady job in the arts, and that is more than lots of people I know can say.

I have amazing friends who send me boxes stuffed with plastic bags and dark chocolate :)

I have my health, or at least I can still see and touch my toes, so I guess I'm doing better than about 1/2 of all Americans.

I have the start to a bitchin' craft stash for the Bust Craftacular in 19 days

I have great roommates who will take me to the grocery store when it's cold out and I'm tired. They also don't complain too loudly when I leave sushi ornaments and silk screens drying all over our apartment, or the dining room becomes a plastic recycling factory. They are also willing to let me tag along on their roadtrips, bake bread and generally are some really nice people....even if they don't really like my cat.

I am Thankful Barack Obama is the President Elect, and my reproductive rights have been protected for at least 4 more years.

I am thankful my kitty is feeling better after another ugly health problem. She is not healthy, but the final word from the vet is that she is getting old, and her health problems are a result of her age and not something acute.

I am thankful that my kitty will eat pumpkin off a spoon, and is cute and snuggly even if she is kinda farty from the pumpkin.

I am Thankful my craftshop is almost up to code, even if the workmen have been working in my shop during tech week which makes me wear my shoulders as earrings, and has stopped all work on a show that opens in a week. But I am thankful for the work being done, and the cheerful guys doing it.

I am thankful that I have such dear friends that will travel to see me in a craft show, help me prepare, offer to help set-up, run my credit card machine, and let me stay in their apartments. I am also thankful they will offer me their support and love, even when I am feeling crazy and 'frickin the frack out'.

For all these things, and many more I am thankful.


How about you?

Holidaze!

It's been a while since I posted, so I'm sorry to those of you who are cyber stalking me. For the rest of you who didn't hear already--

I GOT IN!

Yup. I got into the Bust Craftacular. It's been my nerdy-feminist-indie-crafter-dream to participate in this show, and I hadn't applied in the past because I thought I would never have enough product, enough time, and enough whatever to get in. So I applied. I told myself I would just apply and if I got in, fine. If not, fine too. I'd chalk it up to something I should work towards in my future....except I got in. No wait list, no maybe next year, not even a "your the last one we let in". Just in.

AAACK! HOLY MOLEY! I NEED TO MAKE MORE STUFF!

So I've started kicking into crafty overdrive. Luckily I had already conscripted some ladies at work to help me prep, and they are stitching plastic wallets like mad women! *note* I'm keeping my etsy stuff separate from my show stuff as to not break the rules on etsy regarding non handmade-by-me-items* I call them my craft posse, they call themselves the Stack Craft Mafia.....either way they are stitching, I'm cutting and fusing, and we are all busy and happy.

On top of kicking up my stock for the NYC show I've also been stocking up because I'm being carried in a local store now. It's called the Pyramid Arts Collective. It's the community store of a printmaking and paper arts studio. They carry all sorts of work, and the store is mostly run by volunteers who are also showing pieces in the store.

As well as the Bust show, Etsy, and the local store I'm also participating in the Side Project Artisan Market in Chicago. I can't go out this year, but I am sending things, doing the web stuff and did the graphics for the advertisements.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, and there is still a metric butt-load of work to be done, so until I come up for air again here are a couple of links and photos!

The Side Project Postcards- We had them sent out to a printer, and although I've not seen them- according to the people in Chicago who recieved them they turned out great!

The Side Project Artisan Market Website

The Pyramid Atlantic Store

The Bust Holiday Craftacular- the 2007 website, the 2008 is under construction Oh, and yeah. That's Amy Sedaris......she was a vendor last year.

Last but not least...

A Quiz!

Are these pictures of...

A. A very busy, very crafty night with paperclay?

B. Attack of the sushi clones?

C. An modernist representation of a good night at a sushi bar?

D. All of the above?

All I can say is...

Thanks.

THanks.

THAnks.

THANks.

THANKs.

THANKS.


It is all the people who stood in long lines, dug into the depths of their patience and humanity that could allow us to elect Barack Obama the President of the United States. Things here in DC are happier than I have ever seen them. The street parties carried on into the morning, and even the police spoke kindly of the "riotous riots".


Amid all this joy I feel I would be remiss if I didn't mention the defeat to many who are near and dear to my heart. Proposition 8 was passed, thus defeating the rights of same-sex couples to marry in California. Similar propositions were also passed in Florida (America's wang- hey, I grew up there) and Arizona (the glorious state that offered us John McCain of no reproductive rights fame)
I wish we could have won equal rights for ALL our citizens, maybe someday "all men are created equal" will be true. Until then- let's embrace this victory, and work towards the next even bigger challenge- the day when rights are equally equal for all Americans.

Much love to all of you.



Oh, and since this is supposed to be a craft blog----- I'm working on some cool stuff. I'll post more once I get some sleep and can focus on my regularly scheduled programming of crafts, knitting, and my cat.

I only have one thing to say........

GO VOTE!!!!!!!!

IT'S YOUR ONLY VOICE!

THANKS! IF YOU ALREADY DID!

Crtl+Alt+Del

I don't know when it happened. It crept in like dust, or the post-collegiate 15lbs, or maybe like the roommate's boyfriend who stays over "but only on the weekend" then the weekend starts beginning on Thursday, then Wednesday, then one day you find his boxers mixed in with your laundry. However it happened...it did.

What am I talking about?

My horrible-lousy-bad-no-good attitude. I don't know when it happened, but I'll be damned if it's going to stay. I need a restart button.

This has been a great weekend. I got tons, and I mean tons done. I processed somewhere around 100 plastic bags into sheets of upcycled plastic for wallets, I started a website for one of the markets I am participating in this holiday season. I even sent out emails to local shops to get them to carry my work (one replied yes within 12 hours!) and I had 2 sales on etsy. This should have been an awesome, bad-ass, party down weekend. But somehow it was ruined as soon as I got up and left the house today.

The metric butt-load of bags awesome people have sent me to make into wallets :)

I had (by most accounts) a good day at work. I met with a designer about the next show I am working on. She is lovely. Her designs are clear and beautiful and will be fun to build....but somehow between 5pm when the meeting ended and I got home at 7:30-today went to crap.

It started, or rather ended, with a slice thru my finger with a fresh x-acto blade. Not bad enough to need stitches, but bad enough to hurt like heck, bleed like crazy, and send me home without finishing my project. Oh, and why did I slice my finger? Oh yeah, because I was preoccupied with how I just knew this week was going to be a let down after the weekend. (If that's not a PSA for shop safety I don't know what is) So I packed up and left for home. I got on the train....and it was broken. Yup. Broken. Simply-broken. We sat halfway in a tunnel for 30 minutes, when it reached the platform and I got off, it broke again. Instead of waiting for someone to get out and push, I walked to my transfer station about a mile away.

Proof the United States was founded by dudes

The walk was lovely. I walked past the national mall on a clear cold night. I should have been reveling in the beauty of our nation's front lawn...but instead all I could think about was that this was going to be a long week, and my flippin' finger hurt-WTF??! I couldn't even take a moment of joy feeling with every ounce of my being that soon Barack Obama will be the president of the United States (I'm gonna go work for him this weekend to be sure).

Our Nation's front lawn

I got home, my roommate asked how my day was, and it took most of what I had left to not burst out in tears. If I didn't know better I would blame it on PMS, or seasonal affective disorder, or depression, or some other perfectly good explanation....but that would be too easy, and a total lie. In reality- things here in our nations capitol haven't gone how I wanted them to go, and I'm getting caught up in wishing it was something else. I'm not sure how, but I need to find someway to make my time here more than just a stop-over in my life. I need a new way to look at it all. I need a restart button. I need a reboot. Or at least a good defragmenting.

Or maybe just a swift kick in the pants. As a friend in Hartford used to say to me.... Do I need to slap you upside your head? Or are you gonna do it yourself?

I'm working on it.

Enough with the politics!

What about the crafts?????

Okay. Yes. It's true. This blog has gotten rather political and personal and not so crafty. So here is a blog about some of the schmancy new crafts I'm a workin' on.

The Back story (because everything has one) :

I've been working on trying to find something I could make that wasn't sewing related. I feel like I have been sewing at work and home and it is becoming something that is happening sew much (I couldn't resist) that my hands are exhausted and I am slightly bored with myself. So I started looking at other things I could make. I also started looking around my room and realizing I have amassed a small collection of vintage paper goods- with no real way to display or use them.

Then I started thinking about things I do at work and how I could use those skills in my everyday craftiness.

The thing that really sticks out....toxic chemicals. I use them everyday. I do all kinds of stuff that should be preceded with the warning "this is a trained professional, do not attempt this at home". So I used some of that training and started messing with polyester resin.

Note!!! If you don't know what you are doing- this can be some REALLY dangerous stuff. Read: KILL YOU DEAD, or at least make you have a square-headed-baby**. But luckily! I am a trained professional, and understand how to read an MSDS and know there are things you DO have to read the instructions on.....

So I took my craftiness added some vintage ephemera and poured on a heaping helping of resin and voila!

Ephemera Belt Buckles are born!!!!!!!

They will hit the etsy store at the beginning of November, and will hopefully* be making an appearance at the BUST craftacular December 13th in NYC! They are going to range from $35 to $50.

*Oh man, I am so excited about this show. I might be unbearable if I don't get in. I will be unbearable if I do get in!

** Note: Resin is not toxic once it is fully cured. I DID follow the safety warnings, and I would encourage all of you to get an MSDS on all your craft supplies. Only you can keep you safe.

Air Quotes.

This week I've been called a starry-eyed idealist by a few people. I'm sure there are loads of people who are sick, sick, sick of hearing about "change" and listening to me and all the other "starry-eyed idealists". I know there are lots. I've been hearing all about it this week- at work, on the train, in the media, on facebook...

Since I will only have a few more weeks to keep flogging you with my liberal elitism-

I would like to remind you of a few people who were supported by some "starry-eyed idealists" and through movements that started as ripples, then splashes, then waves that have changed many lives.


Martin Luther King Jr.- starry-eyed to many, changed the lives of millions.

Rosa Parks- could have been called an idealist.

Susan B. Anthony- not exactly popular with the status quo.



Other slightly lesser known people who have changed a few lives:


Margaret Sanger- founder of the American Birth Control League, later Planned Parenthood.

Tommy Douglas- founder of the Canadian Healthcare System.

Okay, so the last two had a little problem with eugenics... so not everyone is perfect.

Remember, it's the few who dream big that impact us in the brightest ways. Starry eyed or no, I'm proud to say I've been working/talking/blogging/putting my money where my mouth is for a little change these days....and it's not of the pocket variety.

The debates this week were one of the most eyeopening and informing debates of this election. Seeing John McCain use "air quotes" when referring to a woman's health is all I needed to see to know he is the totally wrong man for the job- I don't care what your views on my reproductive rights are.
You should read what Cecile Richards (of Planned Parenthood) has to say about John McCain. You should also hear what Colin Powell (of Colin Powell is a really smart Republican guy) has to say about Barack Obama and John McCain.

This election is going to change America.

It has to.