still life

a PSA

at the request of the (very well fed & spoiled) critters of the studio house, we would like to post this for critters everywhere . . .



moar humorous pics

thank you very much.

update

my mother was admitted to the hospital yesterday with a fever (102.5) and abdominal pain. they were concerned that she had Diverticulitis, so they ran a CT scan. this morning her temperature had dropped to a normal range, and the doctors don't think that she needs surgery. they did however confirm that she had Diverticulitis, so they're keeping her in the hospital for a couple of days for IV antibiotics. she's doing well. we tried to get her flowers on the way over to the hospital yesterday, but that turned out to be a small disaster seeing as it was Valentine's Day. this morning I got her some roses and took them to her hospital room before I went to work.

thank you to everyone who has been praying!

sunday afternoon

sunday morning

I thought I was fine until I walked into church yesterday morning.

or had it together anyway.

since we've been in the new building, there is a period of time before the morning service when we have open worship & prayer time. the songs are a little softer, and if you want to talk you can step out into the cafe area and find a table. well, as soon as I walked into the sanctuary the waterworks started. but that's the thing about our church - it isn't the place where you have to try to save face by pulling it all together or acting the part, it's the place where we all come and love each other when we're a mess and life hurts. it didn't used to be so much. then years ago this pastor came in and God gave him a vision of what we wanted from that church. he got a lot of grief for that. people got mad, people left. why? because people who looked different started showing up and getting their lives changed. some guy with dreads would be sitting next to some guy in a business suit. Chinese students who barely spoke English would fill rows and anyone could walk in wearing jeans and a t-shirt. interracial families came in and joined the church. I sometimes forget that this still isn't normal.

when contact shakes you out of your supposed composure and lets you work through your hurt into healing, that's love and friendship, and most of all that's God showing us just a little of how much He loves us.

please pray

something really really bad happened today. I can't really talk about it, except to say that it has to do with my family. so if you read this, please pray for us. I wish I could tell you more but I can't right now.

thank you.

local knitters

Main Street Yarns put out a (partial) list of local knitters who blog. Check it out:

• Carrieoke
• Jodi's Weblog
• Lotus Knitter
• Studio Bleu
• Wool and Words
• Pixie Purls
• ChickChick Studio
• Inside a Black Apple
• Hissy Knit
• SouthBork
• Woofgang Pug
• Famous Steve Knits
• The Knitting King
• The Chickengoddess Knits
• Fibermeister
• Knits4Bears
• Casting On... and On
• Knit and Purr
• iPurrl

concept sketches

they are really rough, but I'm working on layouts for the new banners in my Etsy shops.

props

I ordered a couple of tools from some ebay vendors friday. well, they were waiting for me at my house yesterday when I got home from work! that's the kind of service that makes monday a little better. :-)

(no, I didn't have a "case of the Monday's")

people who have their numbers blocked

shouldn't leave messages saying to call them back when they don't leave a number. or a name.

just sayin'.

ugh

I'm going to go ahead and say it . . .

I am not happy about Valentine's Day.

whether by coincidence or not, Valentines Day and I have had a very bad history. something goes wrong, something that usually has absolutely nothing to do with pink & red hearts, flowers, or chocolate. things like a four and a half hour drive taking seven. so from about the time they start covering the shelves in merchandise to Feb 14th, all of this red and pink kinda puts me in a funk. I have nothing against the holiday, or the sweethearts, or any of it. it's a really sweet little day. or I'd really like to think so anyway.

I just really wish it was the 15th already.

knitting update

Main Street Yarns & Fibers (my LYS) just sent out their latest newsletter, and they mentioned my blog. awesome! but I've been keeping up with my projects over on Ravelry lately, and not here. oops! well, here's an update (and I'll post more projects soon!) . . .

socks, socks, and more socks . . .

I learned toe up on circulars (oh GASP, the audacity! according to some) and I love it! it's personal preference, but I like a smooth toe. I just do. also, not so fond of pattern going down the back of my heal. nothing against it in general, but just not a favorite on socks that I wear. so to each their own, but I like the short-row heel for this reason. I also tend to go for thicker socks, like this pair that I made for my dad as a Christmas present:

it's an organic cotton/merino blend by O-Wool, with ribbing going up the cuff. my one complaint about this yarn is that it gave me lots and lots of SPLINTERS. i know, that's what happens when fibers are minimally processed, but it was still painful. other than that it was pretty good, even for a cotton. and the heathering in the yarn is lovely.

there was also a second pair of socks that I made for dad's Christmas present - also a simple toe-up pattern with ribbing up the cuff. did I mention that ribbing isn't my favorite thing? I must have forgotten when I planned these.
the yarn is a hand-painted bamboo blend by chick chick studio. really lovely, and nice dimension in the solids. dad seems to be enjoying both pairs!

I'll update you more in the next few days, but for now I've got to get back to setting up my metalsmithing bench again.

it looks like this at my parent's house quite a bit:

moar funny pictures

The Birds 2

first, please accept my most sincere apologies for not having my (shiny new) camera in hand when the the story I am about to tell actually happened. second, I am very happy to be working for an educational institution which shuts down on major national holidays (I had yesterday off).

as I've probably mentioned before, I have a pair of lovebirds ("lovies" as they're called in some circles), which are by nature little feathered clowns. if they will stay still for long enough, I might post a decent picture of them sometime. however, Bitty is alarmed by most anything inanimate that is brought near him, and flies away with a high-pitched call of alarm. Pip is quite the opposite. well, over the weekend I had the lovies out quite a bit to play - Bitty seems to think he is actually a help when hanging up clothes for some reason. well, Bella (the cat) decided to observe. she's learned that the birds are off limits (although she still isn't left alone with them), and after dragging a cage over on top of herself once, she doesn't bother that either. well, the birds aren't so passive. they decided to fly down to where Bella was curled up and began chewing on her. ears, whiskers, fur - it was all fair game. almost immediately Bella tried to get away from her feathered terrors, so I stepped in, but it was still quite a sight.

the lovies seemed to wonder why their "toy" had been taken away.

I also cleaned cleaned cleaned, cleared out more things I don't need, clothes I NEVER wear, etc. I'm trying to avoid a major purge cleaning, because I usually end up throwing out things that I really need to keep, and that's no good. I also needed to clear some space for the new tumbler that I ordered last week. I had been putting off making any chain (jewelry) because polishing without a tumbler is at the very least problematic, and at the worst at the cost of one's limbs (literally). seeing as I like my hands attached to my body, I needed a tumbler.

oh . . . it snowed over the weekend, only none of it stuck. however, several Georgia reservoirs are back up to normal winter levels, and some are even at regular normal levels.

what happend?

so yesterday we got some snow. SNOW! big soft white flakes and clumps of flakes flying every which way (but mostly down), and they even stuck in a lot of places. lovely. and then it started sleeting. and then it started RAINING. so all that was left this morning was patches of slushy stuff here and there . . . *sigh* . . .

at least it's January and we have time for more. last year there wasn't ANY.

oh, and there were predictions of a warm, dry winter . . . HA!

happy moment

moar funny pictures

new year, new things

I'm beginning my second week off of sugar, and it's AWESOME. no, I'm not kidding. I've done this before, and it worked, but I stopped probably because I didn't know enough about body chemistry. or whatever. so how am I feeling? awesome! and a little wired, which I wasn't expecting. but I FEEL so much better, and my skin is loving the break because it looks amazing. it's actually not that hard, and I'm finding that I don't even WANT sugary stuff. now I might enjoy a slice of Cecilia's chocolate cake, but I don't want to waste my time on a ring-ding. no thank you.

I've been looking at tumblers lately (for jewelry polishing), and I think I'm going to order one by the end of this week. it's all part of the "get-the-business-full-time" plan. and I found a non-toxic acid pickle solution (for cleaning metal). score!

more new stuff happening, so more later . . .

on St. Nick

Relevant did a piece in their 850 Words newsletter, and here's an excerpt:

The original Saint Nicholas was a Christian bishop in 4th-century Myra, geographically located in modern-day Turkey. As an adult, Nicholas gained a reputation as a generous man and the protector of innocents. These saintly traits largely arose from two horrific legends, both of which eventually led to his canonization.

The first is said to have occurred during a terrible famine. A local butcher, in need of something to sell, lured three unsuspecting boys into his shop. He killed the boys, chopped them into pieces, then stuffed their remains in a brine tub, hoping to cure them enough that he could sell the parts as ham. Nicholas was visiting the afflicted region at the time of the crime. Somehow Nicholas became aware of the butcher’s wicked deed. He visited the shop, uncovered the crime, and hastily reassembled the three boys. They came back to life, a bit salty but otherwise in good health. Despite the happy ending, it’s not exactly the kind of story that gets told at the Christmas Eve candlelight service.

In the second legend, a poor citizen of Myra had three daughters, but not enough money to afford a dowry for them. No dowry meant no marriage, and unmarried women in those days generally had one career choice: prostitution. The father was less than thrilled by this possibility, but too proud to ask for help. Nicholas discovered the family’s predicament the night before the first daughter came of age. Not wanting to embarrass anyone, he approached the family’s house late one night and tossed a bag of gold through an opened window. He did the same thing the night before the second daughter came of age. Both gifts were enough to cover the dowry, and both girls were spared the consequence of their poverty.

Before long, the third daughter was ready to marry, and the appreciative father wanted to find out who was behind the lavish gifts. When the time came, the father hid next to the window, hoping to catch their anonymous benefactor in the act. Nicholas learned of the father’s plan and improvised: Instead of lobbing it through the window, he dropped the third bag of gold down the chimney.

It wasn’t long before people began to suspect that the kindly bishop Nicholas, who had inherited money from his affluent parents, was behind these mysterious actions and a great many other secretive gifts to the poor. After he died of old age on December 6, 343 AD the people of Myra continued providing for those in need. In fact, they made a practice of giving gifts anonymously, always attributing them to the late Bishop Nicholas.

Before long, the bishop — who had worn liturgical robes of red and white — was canonized as a saint. Saint Nicholas became venerated as the protector of innocents, the patron saint of children, and a secret giver of gifts.

Of course, the traditional American idea of Santa Claus — along with his British/Canadian counterpart, Father Christmas — originates in the stories surrounding Nicholas of Myra. As far as saints go, St. Nick was especially venerated in the Netherlands, where he became known by the Dutch variant Sinterklaas. When the Dutch came to the New World and settled in New Amsterdam (today’s New York City), they brought with them the story of the now-anglicized “Santa Claus.”

hahahaha

ok, let me preface this by saying that I am a HUGE fan of sci-if & fantasy. I even enjoy some of the stuff that's not even that well written. that said, I hated the Golden Compass trilogy. I wasn't aware of Pullman's atheistic tendencies, or his pure hatred of all things Narnian & C.S. Lewis. whatever. the books were just horrible.

then comes the movie.

for months nothing but barrages of ads (and the awful pop-up floaters) for The Golden Compass. ugh. granted, it was the best of the three books, but that's still not saying much. AT ALL. this morning the news reports were listing weekend box office grosses, and while the GP was No. 1, it only grossed about $7k a theater. Juno, on the other hand, grossed about $60k per theater. that's hilarious.

Prince Caspian

the teaser/trailer is out.

see it here.

ok, I had to come back and edit this post. you know the weird Scifi Channel commercials where the things pop, turn into something else, etc.? well if I was one I'd turn into an explosion of happy little firework sprays that go dancing all over the place because I'm that happy/excited about the newest Narnia movie.

insert perma-grin & happy dance.