The Twilight of NaBlaBlah Month

well, we made it 30 straight days of posting, which I know is not really too much different than normal, but...with this being the Holiday season I have been stretching myself a bit sometimes.

But, all it well, I think most of the problems I felt with NaBloPoMo, was that the need to blog was dominant and the want to blog came secondary, don't get me wrong, I love blogging but there have been a few days when I knew that I should probably just work, instead of talking about Dancing With the Stars on my blog, right???

Oh screw that I talk about Dancing with the Stars a lot inmy personal life too, so why shoulh here be any different.

SO yesterday was a total cluster f#%k, I spent most of the day waiting for UPS who showed up 3 hours late, by the time most of the nonsense of the day was done my studio was getting dark and I really hate to paint in non natural light, so the day was all but spent, now I really do have a ton to do today, though luckily 95% off my work is packaged and half of it is at the post office now and the other half will be there later today, leaving my weekend free to guard the mean cheese and keep her from being contrary and pulling down our Christmas tree, I have an ominous feeling about the tree, like part of me knows that it will be pulled down this weekend, and I am dreading it.

oh well....what are all of you doing this weekend? We might be having a snowstorm on Monday, yikes....too early, it should snow on Christmas eve, and then it should remain snowy on the ground until January 1....then it can go away, It is at that point I throw my fear of global warming to the wind and just pray for 40 degree days.

This beautiful big old house of ours is wonderful, but cold....so cold, the hardwood floors feel so cold in the morning they feel like I am standing in a puddle of water.

Oh, and onto another topic....is it too early to start thinking about resolutions for the new year??? I feel like I have to plan my resolutions carefully lest I set myself up for failure....so far I am thinking that they will be

1- lose weight
2- take a dance class
3- draw more!!!!!!
4- contact galleries and shops in the city
5 stop being so hard on myself


alright, it's 8:00am, and time I get to working!!!

love you all
j

where my mind has been

sooooooooooooo.......

I am going to make this short today as I have been working on the project shown above, and have to continue working on it, it WILL be finished today, someway, somehow...lol

I was just looking at my calendar and noticing that tomorrow is the last day of National Blog Blah Blah month....and while I have not been consumed and drained by the experience I am a little tired...I will be honest and say this month has had it's rough moments for me, both mentally and physically and it's been strangely hard for me to blog at times.....but on the other hand I liked having the (forced) daily focus on things, you know?

Yet...the blog is just a narcissism-fest on my part so I am not sure how beneficial it is to mental health, do any of you feel like that? Am I just being overly sensitive???

anyway...back to work, I have to finish the commission, package a million things (ok, not really a million), then have to deal with the fiasco that is our comic book order that had to be re-done late last night and still not sent...ugh.

the glamorous life.

ok, I will be back tomorrow, making more sense and hopefully a little more grounded before the mean cheese weekend.

xoxo

Dear (insert Name Here)

Dear Mel B (um...that's Scary Spice for all of you who are not "in the know")


I love you, no, not a lesbian way....but you know, just in an "I love the Spice Girls AND Dancing with the Stars kind of way"

Now, for a long long time, Posh Spice (miss Victoria) has been my Spice Girl of choice, but lately as you know Posh has been looking a little thin, and well...a little odd, and frankly this "friendship" she has with Tom and Katie, well, it creeps me the hell out.

But then I discovered you, no longer were you just the woman who sadly got knocked up by Eddie Murphy (btw, what were you thinking with that one, how did you let him put his "thing" inside of you?). I will just say that for the record, after Jennie Garth, I wanted you to win on Dancing, though you were a ringer, it did not matter to me, you were beautiful up there, all slutty one minute and sort of classy slutty the next.

It was hot.

Also, your partner Maks...um yeah he's hot too, in fact I think you should leave your husband for him, then you two could "dance" whenever you wanted to.

I'm sure he would take care of Eddie Murphy's love child just as well as your hubby can.

oh also.........can you score me some tickets to the Spice Girls reunion??? Seriously??

love
Jennifer Gordon

Once upon a dreary Tuesday...wait, I just did this

Morning.

OK first....I need to say something....(TARA...I am going to talk about dancing, but I am not going to spoil anything)

For those of you who watched Dancing With the Stars Last Night....um did you see Marie's freestyle...I am going to state right now for the record that it is going to be really (REALLY) hard for me not to write yet another faux letter to her this week, though I will admit to being scared as I lost a customer last time I wrote about her....but really. If you have not seen it, I recommend that all of you go to you tube or ABC.com or wherever it is you can go to watch....just to see it, it's like watching a nightmare come to life, and it's the scariest thing I have ever seen.

moving on.

are you all well this morning?? I hope so, me...well I am finding it hard to wake up today, why oh why can I not make money while asleep....can someone please figure out a way to get rich while napping, I swear we'll be bff's for life if you find a way.

Today I am working on a couple more commissions, finishing one and working a little more on the "big commission which "should" be finished on Thursday or Friday....cross your fingers for me.

Oh before I forget....Tara, thank you so very much for the lovely mail, and the ornaments, you are beyond words wonderful in every way. Thank you, thank you, thank you....as I said before, mail from you is like getting a hug.

Speaking of mail....another shout out to Karen Beth, who knows my love of beautiful images from magazines....she also knows my limited shoestring budget, so every so often I get an envelope of beautiful images sent to me....and this my dear ones, is splendid, to see the things that she ripped out with me in mind, so sweet. I get all tingly and feel really special.

So thank you to both of you darling ones.

with that I leave you with a couple "Romeo and Juliet" pieces from my shop.

once upon a dreary Monday morning

morning darling ones.

yup is a dreary day today, it's almost 8:00am and it looks like night, one of those days that you wish it were still the weekend, and you were still in bed with your bubs (note I said your bubs, not that you wish you were in bed with MY bubs)

anyway....did y'all have a nice weekend?? Mine was low key but in a way, spectacular. We "Christmased" up the house, we have 2 Christmas trees and other little wintertime pretties al, over the place. You know what, it's really nice and it makes me feel good and very secure to see it.

what's up with that? Does that mean I am getting old? Seriously I could sit and watch the lights on the tree for hours, and you know what....at one point that is what I did, I curled up with my book and blankets and just relaxed.

It seems so long ago that I was involved in the hustle and bustle of our comic shop, and before that, living in NH and winter being the busy theater season.

It is all so remote, but in a good way.

My life seems simple and profound at the same time, my joy from the "little things" has grown tremendously, I think that comes from really being and love, and well...being poor. Now that I have no money, it really makes me realize what is important and what is not.

Seriously, I came downstairs at one point yesterday and noticed a few small presents with my names on them under our tree....and I almost cried, it made me so happy, not because I would be getting presents soon (though I do love that) but just the fact that my bubs got me stuff and secretly wrapped it already....well it touched my heart.

I don't know what has gotten into me, I am living in sappy city today....maybe it's all the holiday cheer.

So today, is what is known as "cybermonday" the busiest internet day of the whole year, the theory being this is when people start doing their internet shopping for the holidays, and now that they are all back to work, well....that is the perfect time to start.

I guess, or something like that. SO anyway, it's cyber blah blah....so that means I can almost guarantee that lots and lots of etsy shops will be having special sales (I know I am, hint hint), so if you have not started your internet Christmas shopping yet, now is the time for sure.

ok, I'm off...the picture shown today is of two new pieces, one is already available in my shop and the other will be listed later today.

Petite Heights Sunday November 25,2007

back to the haircut saga
(please click image to see larger)
art- keith cousineau
written- jennifer gordon/keith cousineau

OH NO....a Survey!

1. What’s your favorite Dr. Seuss book? I don't remember what it was called, but it was about this pair of pants that chased a guy through an apple orchard, you think they are mean, but no....just lonely. This predates that Sisterhood of the Traveling pants thing by like 40 years or more.

2. If you could live in any home on a television series, what would it be? I liked that big Victorian House that Webster lived in after he burned down their apartment building, or any of the homes featured on the show America's Castles

3. What’s the longest you’ve gone without sleep? almost 4 days, by then end it was hallucination city.

4. What’s your favorite Barry Manilow song? Mandy, all the way

5. Who’s your favorite Muppet? Oscar of course and who doesn't love Cookie Monster, though I like it when he is eating cookies all the time, now he's "A Sometimes Food Monster"

6. What’s the habit you’re proudest of breaking? Cigarettes it's been years and I am still proud, that being said I still miss it though, I won't lie.

7. What’s your favorite Web site? Etsy, specifically my shop http://stilettoheights.etsy.com I would also die without Perez Hilton and Post Secret, as well as the too many blogs I read (you know who you are)

8. What’s your favorite school supply? yes, um all of them except math paper...hated the texture.

9. Who’s your favorite TV attorney? I would say the womanizer from Night Court

10. What was your most recent trip of more than 50 miles? Pittsburgh, but that was ages ago...we don;t need to leave the city that much.

11. What’s the best bargain you’ve ever found at a garage sale or thrift store? for .50 I bought a She Ra Swan still in the box, I sold it on Ebay for $40

12. Where were you on September 11, 2001? contemplating calling in sick from work to go shopping with a friend, also complaining that I did not want to go to play rehearsal that night, I had the today show on, the rest everyone knows.

13. What’s your favorite tree? Weeping Willow (I know, it makes me sound so EMO)

14. What’s the most interesting biography you’ve read? I loved Zelda about F. Scott's wife, it was brilliant and sad.

15. What do you order when you eat Chinese food? Veggie Fried Rice

16. What’s the best costume you’ve ever worn? I was a dead Prom Queen once, that was cool, but my fave costumes are the ones I got to wear when I was in A Christmas Carol, there was one year I wore a deep red cloak....it was stunning.

17. What’s your least favorite word? cancer

18. If you had to be named after one of the 50 states, which would it be? um.....Arizona is nice, but I think I would be more aptly named after a southern state, an Alabama or a Georgia are more fitting to my personality.

19. Who’s your favorite Care Bear? no, no care bears....maybe grouchy bear? But I think that was a smurf or a dwarf.

20. Describe something that’s happened to you for which you have no explanation. stark fear of driving

21.If you could travel anywhere in Africa, where would it be? northern Africa to Marrakesh.

22. What did you have for lunch yesterday? pasta and a grilled cheese

23. Where do you go for advice? medical advice.....Web MD, mean cheese advice, friends and autism sites on the web, other than that my bubs, and my friends (again, you know who you are)

24. Which do you use more often, the dictionary or the thesaurus? thesaurus, I am a word whore...

25. Have you ever been snorkeling? Scuba diving? yes, I saw 1 barracuda and 1 shark and I was out of the water so fast!!!

26. Have you ever been stung by a bee? no, but I am petrified after seeing Maculy Culkin get killed by bees in My Girl

27. What’s the sickest you’ve ever been? 6 days in the hospital in 2001, my lungs shut down, so did the rest of me.

28. What’s your favorite form of exercise? sexy parties, also...bellydancing though I have not done it in years, shopping, stationary bike, and I think I would love ballroom dancing

29. What’s your favorite Cyndi Lauper song? Time after Time

30. What did you do for your 13th birthday? um, no clue

31. Are you afaid of heights? Sure, but FYI survey, it’s spelled “afraid”.

32. Have you ever taken dance lessons? Yes, and I plan on taking more sometime too

33. What’s your favorite newspaper? NY Time, or the Other Paper

34. What’s your favorite Broadway musical? Les Miserables, usually I hate musicals

35. What’s the most memorable class you’ve ever taken? my voice and diction class, really hard, drill Sargent instructor who made us all cry on a weekly basis.

36. What’s your favorite knock-knock joke? I don't know any

37. What’s your favorite commercial? there is one right now with a mean dad and a cell phone, I guess I will go with that one.

38. If you could go to Disney World with any celebrity alive today, who would it be? I would prefer not to go to Disney World, but right now I would pick Joaquin Phoenix, as he is my pretend BF, it would be rude to not pick him

39. Do you prefer baths or showers? Showers, baths=butt soup

40. Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight? what are you implying, my "chewing gum" is none of yours bees wax.

41. What’s your favorite breakfast food? does cake count as breakfast?

42. Who’s your favorite game show host? Joey Fatone, though I don;t watch that show, I am faithful to anything anyone from N'Sync does with their life.

43. If you could have a super power, what would it be? healing

44. Do you like guacamole? yup (you can just call me fatty mcfatfat)

45. Have you ever been in a food fight? no

46. Name five songs to which you know all the lyrics. O Holy Night, Silent Night, God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman, Little Drummer Boy (oh snap....I did all holiday songs for you)

47. What’s your favorite infomercial? I loved this one about learning to "breath yourself thin" it came out ages ago and I fell for it, then it gave me an asthma attack.

48. What’s the longest you’ve ever waited in line? I don't wait in line, I find if you just march right to the front most people think you are important ad let you in.

49. What’s on the cover of your address book or day planner? address book, Superman.

50. Have you ever taken a picture in one of those little booths? hell yes, I am obsessed with myself, what do you think.

The Day After

Good Morning,

how are all of you, tired from gorging on too much food during Thanksgiving??? (for those of you outside the US I am sure you were aware that yesterday was Gluttony day here in the states).

As most of you know, I don't love the whole Thanksgiving deal, but I do like eating and spending time with loved ones, so with most family being 800 miles away, the holidays tend to be quiet.

Since I moved to Ohio, we have spent the holidays with our friends Bruce and Carol, and since Carol's passing last month, I know my bubs and I were wondering what was to come of our little surrogate family.

We were lucky and Bruce did come over yesterday for his second dinner (he's popular like that) and he helped me pass the time until my bubs came home from work, we had yummy food and then later apple sweet cake with ice cream.

Yummy...in fact I just snuck a small sliver of that cake to give me the energy to get through my blog until the coffee kicks in.

So yesterday was lovely, though sorely lacking one person.

:(

We have our Christmas Tree up, though it is not decorated yet, and it really is beginning to feel like the holidays a bit more.

So with Holidays comes holiday shopping and sales.............so, today is what is known as "black Friday" in the US, the "busiest" shopping day of the year....now seeing as this does not really translate well into an online market I decided to have a little sale....maybe entice a few people away from the big stores and into my little one.

so, 20% off your entire purchase today, just write "BLACK FRIDAY" in the message to buyer and wait for a new invoice.

ok, now speaking of shops and what not.....something disturbing happened.

Wednesday I wrote my fake celebrity letter to Marie Osmond, and apparently I offended someone so much that in my comments she vowed to never shop with me again. Now.....I cannot control people and everyone has a right to get offended by anything they want to, but....

I need to clarify something the "letters" are a joke. I know, shocking, right??? They are a joke in the same way that skits making fun of celebrities on Saturday Night Live are, or a joke in the same way that The Daily Show is, or an opening monologue from David Letterman, or even a celebrity roast.

It is a lampoon. Yup, plain and simple. So, for those people who think they are nothing but mean, mean, well I am sorry, and for those of you who now think I am just mean, mean....well hate to break it to you but, I'm not.

So, for those people who find themselves totally offended when I joke about celebrities, please know that on Wednesdays I write the fake letters, and please, if you hate them that much, don't bother reading my blog on that day, come back the next day when I will be talking on and on about some other nonsense.

ok, that's all for now....don't forget, 20% off everything in my shop!!!

A Petite Heights Thanksgiving

(please click image to enlarge)
written/drawn - Keith Cousineau
inspired by - Jennifer Gordon (obviously)

Dear (Insert Name Here)

(don't read this if you don't want Dancing With the Stars spoliers......I'm aiming this right at you Tara!!)


Dear Marie Osmond (week II)

Crazy lady.....did I not tell you that it was time for you to go???? Well there you have it, your rabid sad fans have kept you in the show for yet another humiliating week, and my Jennie Garth has gone home.

why?????

You know, this week you even topped yourself in the giant yuck factor, when you ended your routine by flying into the audience and laying across all your brothers laps...well that was enough for me.

You had way (WAY) too much cleavage going on and your floppy boobs almost fell right out of your dress and onto Donny.

Yes, he would have liked it, loved it in fact, I saw how he was squeezing you when you were on top of them...I mean it looked to me like he was trying to cop a feel, and perhaps get to second base, and you were letting him and loving it.

gross.

anyway this is not a letter about your gross relationship with your brother but rather one about how it is you that is a creepizoid. I feel like you are playing to the fans of the show, to make them become like your zombie doll loving fans you already have....and for the record I think you "fainting" on the show....total crap, you did it all for sympathy and attention, and lucky for you, it worked.

I do ask one thing of you, please please, next week I know there is a "no hold barred" dance, please for the love of God (Mormons believe in God right, they don;t believe in a Robot like Scientologists do, do they?) please DO NOT do that patented Marie Osmond move where you put your hands on your head and gyrate all around, it is far more disgusting than I care to describe, and I am sure that is the real reason your son got into drugs and is now in rehab.

not a fan
Jennifer Gordon

Tag-Tastic!!!

So....I have been officially tagged by Amity, AND my friend Aaron made up a tag yesterday, so I will do that one as well....


so here goes the first is, to name 5 random, or odd things about yourself.

1- years ago when I was working at a magazine store in the downtown section of my old city, I had the door open to get a breeze, it was common to do, most of the shops had their doors open....well, low and behold a pigeon flew into the shop, I was there alone and freaked out....eventually I lured the beast out by sprinkling those peanut butter and cheese crackers in a trail to the door, the ordeal lasted about an hour with the birds flailing about and flying into the windows repeatedly. Ever since then I have been scared every time a door is open too long. that a bird might fly in.

2- I song songs from les Miserables at the top of my lungs while I am in the shower, and I sound great....though outside the shower I am petrified of singing in front of other people.

3- I name all animals I see, whether they are outside or in a pet store...anywhere, for example, we walked into a pet store the other day with the mean cheese, we walk up to the bunny bin which houses one bunny, and I say "Good Evening Lizette", or when I take the trash out and see a particularly fat squirrel on the fence and I say "Good morning Gustave"

4- I am scared of big dogs after being "attacked" when I was small, in reality a neighbor dog came into my yard where I was playing and jumped on me and was licking and pulling at me, but to a teeny thing like me, it was awful.

5- I could have grilled cheese with potato chips inside it for every meal, I love it. Though, I do not really like potato chips on their own, just in a grilled cheese.

ok that takes care of that tag, please feel free to tag yourselves if you wish, I do not want to pressure you.

Here is the tag Aaron made up, which is......5 Names you Rather Have other than your own.

1- The Lady Genevieve McCalister (I love this, it's part royalty, part soap opera diva)
2- Chesty McTitterson (this is a good porno name, not that I want to be in porn)
3- Ophelia Feeny (that's just so sweet sounding)
4- Zalook (this would be if I were a Swedish pop singer)
5- Cleopatra Allen (cleo for short)

again tag yourself if you like!!!

Have a great day!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

morning.

well we survived another mean cheese visit, this one was filled with a "little" less screaming and mood swings from little miss cheese, or miss mean, depending on the day.

so......................I love Christmas, there, I said it.

For years I was sort of a Scrooge, for no real reason, I just was, Christmas seemed like a whole lot of worry too much time being spent frantic and being shuttled from place to place for visiting, Me being overly self conscious and often shy, found these get ups to be rather frightening. My father too, seemed a bit nonplussed by the holiday as well.

You see he and I were always just a tad "too serious" for Christmas.

Sure, we did all the decorations and ate the big foods but there was something strangely tense about it all. Please don;t get me wrong, my childhood is filled with memories of wonderful Christmases with my family, but they still seemed a bit tense, and sometimes a little sad.

By the time I reached adulthood and was involved in my first marriage to that no good hippie, I just about hated the holiday, then my father passed away and it became even worse, where was the light, the joy.....I did not see or feel what anyone else was.

Then in an attempt to build my professional theater resume years ago, I auditioned for "A Christmas Carol" and landed a role (that year I was Belle, Scrooge's love), and something began to slowly happen to me over that production, when at first I loathed the songs and the hoopla, I did them because I had to, because there was a paycheck involved. But somehow the joy began to seep in.

I did the show for the following several years, and by the time the productions were done, I was a wee bit heartbroken.

I had learned to love Christmas, in my own little "England long ago" kind of way.

Then my bubs and I got back together, and low and behold, he loves "everything Christmas" yup, everything, we are already listening to the themed up music, and soon we will be watching tons and tons of Christmas DVDs.

it's infectious.

well, why the long diatribe of Christmas love today????? Well we got our tree yesterday, and for the first time in my life, I am now the proud owner of a "big tree" not huge like we wanted because we could not afford it, but we did get a a tree that is taller than us...

I am aching to decorate it, just aching!!! We have been wandering the Christmas sections of all the local stores and looking at the ornaments, it almost makes me cry, they are so beautiful, and not always but sometimes there is someone so sincere in the Christmas aisles that is feeling this strange joy too....and it both fills and breaks my heart.

It is strange.

ok, this is clearly enough babble for me, I will write more later about Christmas eve, or as I call it "Kissmiss" and why it is so special to my and my heart.

more later darlings.
xoxo

Petite Heights Sunday November 18th, 2007

please click on image to enlarge
art- keith cousineau
written- jennifer gordon, keith cousineau

laziest post in the world

Happy Saturday!

Tonight’s sale lasts until 6:00am EST, please write SNS in the notes to seller section and wait for a new invoice.

♥ ♥ ♥

All Reproduction Prints, Buy 2 Get 1 Free (just write which one you want for free in the message)
Everything else in shop, 20% off!!

FREE GIFTS WITH ALL PURCHASES!

♥ ♥ ♥

http://stilettoheights.etsy.com

original art, aceos, note cards, stickers, gift tags, jewelry, and reproduction prints!

(I know this is sad and lazy, but hell, it fills the requirement for blogging every day.)

the day of the mean cheese

howdy y'all

so tonight we get the little mean cheese, and I really hope she is a happy girl this weekend, you see the past many times we have had her she has been only happy if she is outside playing, the rest of the time has been filled with a 3 day long temper tantrum as she is pulling at the door to get out, not understanding as we try to tell her "no you cannot go out, it's 5:00am", or "no you cannot go out, it's 30 degrees and you are sick" or even, "no you cannot go out, you are wearing only pj bottoms and no shoes" (this last one happened as she escaped while trying to get her into clothes.

the tantrums are no fun, for anyone involved, the poor thing is very clearly upset, but at the same time, there is nothing we can do...nothing, she just screams and screams. All of this has gotten worse since her mother decided to put her on growth hormones, yeah....smart move.

now the mean cheese is hormonal on top of it, no wonder she is miserable, I am miserable when I am hormonal, and I am not a deaf, autistic child....

so anyway, wish us luck this weekend, also there are some other medical things going on at the moment as well, nothing life threatening but there are things at the back of my mind that have me worried.

(I know, me worry??? A shock to all I am sure)

so......................you may be wondering how the studio visit went yesterday, well....it was good, not great but good.

You see they were an hour late and by the time they got here, had to be someplace else in a half hour, so they only staid about 20 minutes. I did get a new buyer out of it and hopefully once she goes home to CT she will be visiting me online to help decorate her home.

but needless to say, I did not get a lot done yesterday, with all the scurrying around and getting my work accessible for viewing as well as creating a little display that they could look through with ease.

and then the waiting, and the waiting....I detest lateness with every ounce of my soul, I am far too uptight a person at times to ever be late, so it drives me crazy.

I am one of those nut jobs who has all the clocks set fast so I always get to places early, at least now I am down to the clocks all being the same amount of minutes fast, it used to be, several years ago that every clock in my house was a different time, from room to room, randing from almost 2 hours fast, to 20 minutes fast....it was like living in wonderland.

ok dear ones, I have babbled at you long enough, I really have to get my packaging done today since yesterday was a wash, as well as some necessary petite heights work to be done as well.

until tomorrow...

xoxo
j

.

first, thank you all for your really wonderful words in your comments and emails to me about the "panic attack" situation, you are all more than kind and yes, it helps a lot.

I really having nothing new to report today, other than I am a bit stressed, as I just received an email from a great friend and very big buyer of mine that she and her sister who is visiting from out of town want to stop by for a studio visit today at 1:30...which is great, as I am crossing my fingers they want to do some shopping......but that also means, um...my studio is a disaster that even I can barely stand, so I need to do a little clean up.

If I don;t you see, it will seem all the more like I am a crazy lady locked away in an attic getting visitors for the first time.

wait....that is sort of how it feels.

lol

also I have a ton of packaging leftover to do as I am going to be able to get to the post office today, and a little bit more work on the giant commission project I have been doing...a little every day, and I am right on track for the last week of November when it's due.

so with that I will leave you....oh wait before I leave.......many of you know I have reproduction prints available in my shop now which I am really excited about, so as an introductory sale, they are all "Buy 2, get the third half price", that means for less than the price of one of my originals you can get 3 prints to hang in a series.

tres cool.

just write "print sale" in the message to seller section and I will send you a new invoice!

Image shown today is my latest print, called "The Bird Watcher's Muse"

Dear (Insert Name Here)

Dear Marie Osmond

I will start off with saying that I am very sorry for the loss of your father, but that does not mean I am going to sugar coat what I have to say.

Um...you creep me out. Seriously you are very close to ruining my favorite guilty pleasure show "Dancing With The Stars" you see when you dance you look like a crazy person.

It's not good.

You do a lot of flailing about and kicking and pointing and making strange faces, it reminds me of the time I saw my mom have a couple glasses of wine and then try to dance at a wedding reception, it was awful and embarrassing all around.

And then when you try to be sexy and shake your "money makers" all over the place, well....it makes me throw up in my mouth, because every time you do it, they always pan to your creepy brother Donnie in the audience who is always smiling/crying/or clapping too much.

If I want to think about inappropriate brother sister action, well I would rather it be Angelina Jolie and her brother, I don;t want to think about you and Donnie.

Also...............I know you are a whacked out religious zealot and that is fine, to each his own, but when you started quoting from the bible the other night, really....how was that right??

I really hope that your following of the sad and lonely vote you off soon, because I swear if Jennie Garth gets kicked off and you remain, I am going to go on an Osmond rampage....

watch your back.

love
Jennifer Gordon

no snappy title

do you ever get in one of those mind sets where you are really close to having a panic attack all the time, well that is where I am right now.

I can't really put my finger on it, it's just there, lurking, ever lurking....then I fall asleep and it's fine, safe secure, all wrapped up with my bubs and the world is far away.

then I wake up and it all starts again.

welcome to panic city.

Again, I am really not 100% on why I am having these borderline attacks....every thing on etsy is good, me and my bubs, um...we're awesome. SO that just leaves me, an inherent flaw in me that makes me panic, and makes me scared.

What if I am not living life enough....will I look back when I am old and think of all the things I should have done, if I were not so scared.

will I???

See, this is the problem I think, and it's an odd conundrum. I love what I do more than anything (except my bubs) but....being an artist being so solitary, well that is where many problems start. Not leaving the house, becomes not wanting to leave the house, and then all I have is my work which I obsess over to the point of just near insanity.

then I sleep, then it starts again.

and so on, and so on.

Ugh, I hate this I am sorry to ramble about unnamed psychosis, but hell, it's my blog and I will do with it what I want.

(much the same argument I gave my parents when I got my first tattoo)

ok anyway, let's get to something brighter, cheerier, all the more lovely. Have any of you been to my flickr account recently? If so then you will have seen that I uploaded all the mini notepads, as well as the three new prints for my shop....in case you are in a rush I have added the new prints to this blog entry as well as my new round gift tags, aren't they dreamy???

ok, in all seriousness, thank you for reading my psycho babble, seriously, it helps just to type it.

xoxo

My Studio is my cocoon!

seriously after a particularly dreadful day yesterday (weather wise) my bubs and I caved in and treked out in the freezing rain to get.....a space heater.

Man, it's seriously the best thing, ever. I want to have it strapped to me always.

Now, yes, I understand that I am using a ton of electricity but really it is a lot cheaper than heating this giant house with our gas heat.

I think this is going to make it a lot easier for me to not leave my studio during the day, before I was prone to wandering the house and turning on the heat, and while downstairs well, I would turn on Martha Stewart and have peanut butter toast, then some cocoa.

You see how that can eat up ones day.

in all seriousness this will help, as of tomorrow when I get a giant order in from Dick Blick...I am commission girl for the next long while, I have three amazing projects that I am working on right now for people, it's been amazing.

also......in more shop news, some of you may have noticed already but I have new mini blank notecards available, I posted them late Saturday and I have already sold almost half my stock of them since then, so snatch them up now while you still can.

I also have a new sticker set, round gift tags, and I am in the process of getting more prints made...oh and another thing. mini note pads, cool idea huh....wait they are even cooler....they are shaped like a giant matchbook. The are about 3"x3" and so cute a great thing to slip in a tiny bag or to give as a stocking stuffer!!!

The gift tags and notepads are not listed as I type this, but will be listed later today, all quantities are limited so get them quick. The note pads are all one of a kind!!

wow, this has been an awful lot of shop talk this morning, which is too bad. I had one of those weekends that I did not want to end, we did nothing spectacular except just hang out, we watched a movie we went to bed early, slept in and had special breakfast on Sunday.

all parts heavenly.

ok, now off to start my day.

how was your weekend??? (see it's not ALL about me)

:)

Petite Heights November 11th, 2007

please click on image to enlarge
art- keith cousineau
written- jennifer gordon, keith cousineau

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

(please note the title, it's brrrrrrrrrrr as in cold, not Burr as in star of Godzilla, Raymond Burr)

sorry, I am filled with nothing but snark this morning I guess. So, it's Saturday...happy Saturday to you all.

it's f-ing cold here in this giant old house, and it's not the middle of November yet, so this really does not bode very well.

All I want to do is sleep and cuddle into my bubs because he is hot, both in looks and in temperature, he;s my little space heater!!

SO anyway, yesterday in my long stretch of packaging things and research for a commission and vintage photo retouching I got so cold, I kept adding layers and layers to my outfit so that by the time my bubs came home from work I was wearing.

1- pair of knee high socks
2- long johns
3- jeans
4- long sleeve black turtle neck
5- baby doll red Shazam t-shirt over the turtle neck
6- little black cardigan sweater, like a naughty secretary would wear
7- my winter hat
8- fleece blanket wrapped around my shoulders like a pashmina shawl

when my bubs looked at me he said

bubs- what the hell is wrong with you, it's not that cold.

me- um yeah it is, come over here and let me put my hands on your skin, they are so cold they feel wet.

bubs- no, no, NO!!!!! You should see yourself, you look like a homeless, homeless person

me- I don't know what that is, homeless, homeless

bubs- like a crazy bag lady who had no home, then she got a giant box to live in and then the giant box got taken away from her, so she is double homeless.

(me looking in the mirror)

me- oh yeah....I do, but it's cute on me, right.

bubs- um........yeah.

me- can I put my hands on your skin??

bubs- still no.

so.....................this is it, this is how the winter is going to be, I can sense it, I will rock the homeless, homeless chic and my warm bubs will walk around being all warm.

even in the few minutes that it took to type this, my hands have gone cold.

sigh, I am turning into an old woman.

happy Saturday.

when is the last time you....

had a day off, I mean a real day off.

Are they rare? Or are people having them. You see I can hardly remember anymore.

For 2 years I owned the comic shop with my bubs, which means we had no time off ever, even holidays we either worked or did something that had to do with work, even if all it was, was worry.

Now that I am doing art full time, I feel like it is the same. Now, don;t get me wrong, I am not complaining at all....but it just got to me today, well really last night, that I could not remember a day when I did not do something work related.

now even on "day offs" before I do still check etsy repeated times a day (by check etsy I mean worry, deeply worry....why haven't things sold, and oh, so many things have sold....) I will also list or renew my listings on etsy just to be seen, and this is on a "day off".

On days that I have no time to create it is usually because I am packaging things etc. Now, this is when I begin to worry what it is doing to my brain, why is it I feel guilty when I am not doing "something", I think part of it is because I feel bad that I don't earn a "real salary" and we can never really count on what I make, as sometimes it fluctuates so greatly.

Last night my bubs and I ate dinner and then zoned out in front of the TV, and it was nice, we were playful and relaxed...I did still dash up to my studio a couple times to do the etsy thing, but I wonder if the night would have been just that much better if I did not run off like that.

what am I saying in this long burst of babble, well....maybe I am feeling a little burned out, not in that crazy dog day afternoon kind of way, but burned out enough to need a day where I do nothing at all, I just watch On Golden Pond and weep, or watch a thousand and one episodes of sex and the city.

I will say, I don;t think this fabled "day off" will happen until after Christmas, and that is fine, but it will happen, I am going to plan on it. The odd thing is, is that I remember having real days off when I had a day job, years ago....I would guilt free watch movies all day or just go shopping and out to dinner. I am wondering if that is what I essentially gave up in order to be able to do the art thing for a living.

so, the question was posed, when was your last real day off, where you did nothing except relax or hang out with friends and be social.

OK...babbling has commenced for the day, thank you for reading and humoring me.

ps- images today are of a new collage in my shop that I just love, I am hoping the colors look right on your monitors, I got a new monitor last week and the colors are way different on this, so I am having a hard time judging what is what online.

pps- um............I am "this close" to reaching 1600 sales, so I am offering 20% off all purchases until I hit 1600, and the lucky one who is my 1600th sale just might get lots of extra goodies!! Just write holiday07 in the message section and wait for a new invoice before paying.

:)

Thursday's Top Five

(I know, it seems a lot of my posts lately have involved lists of some sort)

1- My bubs has recently "winterized" our bed adding tons of "new" (by new I mean out of the closet) blankets and making the room all cozy, you see in this giant old house we are living in well....it's freezing. Normally I am not one to have the heat on yet but I have already turned it on, and the way the vents work, the upstairs just does not seem to be warm...ever, but....THE BED, is now cozy. Truthfully it makes it even harder to leave the bedroom, but in a good way.

2- Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier, after years and years of "meaning" to read this book, I finally am, and it is every bit as satisfying as I thought it would be, every page is filled with word candy and mood. Love it, LOVE IT!!

3- Still watching Scary Movies in November....yup, my bubs and I did not have nearly enough time to watch all the scary movies we wanted to in October so last night we curled under some blankets and watched The Descent....and um, wow......truly frightening, not just creepy but horrifying in so many ways, though really that movie should be called, "Don't ever go into caves, ever, EVER"

4- Surprises in the mail, yup yesterday during a visit to the PO I was surprised to find a large parcel waiting for me...a certain lovely woman dwelling in beautiful Northern Africa, Maryam, sent me a fashion magazine from Marrakesh, as well as some wonderful mags from Paris. I was screaming and screaming. I love getting random fashion magazines in the mail, it truly is the way to my heart.

5- I love my neighborhood!! I have alluded to it before, but really I am in love with this town, every day when we are out and about there are so many very active senior citizens that it touches my heart, they ride bikes, they walk every where, and at sometimes (well, most really) they seem to be living life far more than I am. That at once makes me sad for myself but really happy for them. So they are my inspiration this week, well, and almost every week.

so there you have it, my Thursday top five list....and now because I feel as though I have not shown any work in my blog for a while...I did add a few new collages to this post, for eye candy.

hope you have a fabby day.

Dear (Insert Name Here)

Dear whoever it is that is in charge of not giving the writer's guild the monies, and who might be willing to pay me cash money for my Hollywood ideas and all the while not sully my good name and artistic integrity.

(ok, that is quite a mouthful, I should have just said "To Whom it May Concern")

Hello sir or madam

I am a flegling writer, chock filled with good ideas for TV show, so fear not advertisers no need to go into repeats with me around.

I will start with a few quick breakdowns of ideas I have for some of your best tv shows.

1- HEROES....ok this one is a given, Mohinder gets a girlfriend, her name is Jennifer Gordon, they are wildly in love and have some great make out scenes. She has a power, it really does not matter what it is, just that they are boyfriend girl friend.

2- The Office- ok, the office gets a new employee, her name is Jennifer Gordon, she has a BF already, we will just call him "bubs" for short, they are adorable, she is sassy and he is funny, they are both damn sexy. No one cares about the "Jim and Pam" thing anymore, no, it's all about Jenn and her bubs, America is riveted.

3- Dancing with the Stars - ok I know this is live and "unscripted" (lol) but let's just say that you need some new hosts because the ones you have are sort of lame, and are not ver good at the whole improve thing, so anyway you get a new Host/judge, her name is Jennfer Gordon, she has the people dance the normal dances, but then there is a round where the dancers dance new routines that she herself has choreographed, these dances are all named after hypo-allergenic dogs, for example she would say things like "tonight dancing the "Yorkie" is Jennie Garth and Derek", or even, "tonight dancing the peek-a-poo, Scary Spice and that hot Russian guy"

4- see how good I am with this list, imagine what I could so if you gave me a few minutes in the "David Letterman" zone.

so in short, here are a couple ideas for you to play with, I give them to you in good faith that you will return the favor by sending me monies, lots and lots of monies.

love
writer/scribe/dancing show host/ mixed media artist
Jennifer Gordon

UNION!

lol.....ok, I was not going to blog today, as you know, there is a Hollywood Writers Strike going on, and then I remembered something important.

I am no Hollywood writer, no, I'm not.

Shocking huh?

I bet you all thought I was because of my weekly Hollywood ramble, but no, I do this for free, nary a royalty check in sight.

So that got me thinking, this could be my chance, hell this could be all of our chances, all we need is to lack a little moral fiber, and be able to live with ourselves if we cross a picket line, and hell....we could be writing for David Letterman, or the Daily Show.

sweet huh?

I am already compiling top ten lists to pitch to Dave...though he might be picketing with the others, I'm not sure.

anyway....that is what I have been thinking about.

that and a long and semi sleepless night, I was plagued (overly dramatic word choice) by nightmares last night, some of them were downright horrifying....in one of them I had a dream that I watched a homeless man freezing to death, literally, then when I turned him over it was my dad.

I KNOW....awful!!!! My father passed away several years ago, and every so often I still have a dream about him, I think this one has to do with being reminded of profound loss so much lately.

The other dream I had was that the Vampire beasts from 30 Days of Night were trying to get in my house, and I think this was was about me wanting to see that movie, and probably a bigger part is that my bubs and I were talking about his ex wife reminding us of those monsters.

we are mean, mean people.

:)

ok that's all for now, I know, this is another posts without pictures of new work....I really am slacking now, trust me there is new work in my shop, just the no photos for the blog, but I swear I will get my butt in gear soon.

xoxo
j

Embracing my inner Martha Stewart

Now I will say it once and I will say it again, I really believe Martha Stewart is just better than the rest of us.

No seriously I do, I know she is probably is bitch and yes, she is an ex con....but I don't care. I wanted to hate her for years but lately, well I just can;t bring myself to do it anymore.

Does this mean I am getting older, more domestic...no, I don't think so, but it's hard to put my finger on it.

I find myself in the Martha Stewart section of Michael's and I am just in awe, jaw gaping open like a moron, speaking in breathy tones to my bubs.

me- look at this glitter...it's beautiful
bubs- looks like glitter
me- yeah but look at it, it looks like shaved piece of real gold
bubs- hmmmm (clearly he is not looking anymore but at least he has not walked away)
me- I'm going to buy this
bubs- you don't even use glitter
me- I know but don't you think I should???

and so on and so on.....I have even started to take my "lunch break" sometime during 11-12pm during the week so I can watch about 10-15 minutes of it, oh, the things I see.....

she made a mold to make a candle out of a gord, she made decorative holiday platters using paper plates, a candle stick, and glitter...YES, GLITTER!!!!!

My mind starts reeling, I can do that, can't I??

then the food, the big piles of food on the pretty plates...yes, yes, I want that, I want that life, I want to make the baked goods and have the place settings and the gift baskets, the dinner parties and the sewn things.

It all seems so easy, so divine.

But then I realize... that I am in a Martha Stewart hypnotic spell, that her dark powers are ahving her way with me, I am not one of those people, with the making of the home goods.

seriously, last night I was hungry and and keith was not, left to fend for myself, all I was capable of making was warmed up mash potatoes...that's it, not even a veggie in sight.

I guess baby steps, right??? I mean I did warm up the potatoes on my own, which was a success of the microwave.

(last time I used the microwave I burned popcorn and the house smelled like fire)

so there you have it, lots of babble this monday morning.

it was a rough rough weekend, so forgive the banality of it all, I needed to focus on something other than "real life" for a little while, so instead "Martha Stewart" life seemed better.


ps- My friend Maryam was nominated for a very prestigious blog award (best Middle Eastern or African Blog) so please if you all get a second, if you could go and vote for her here it would be wonderful!!!!!

Petite Heights November 4, 2007

(now back to the Petite Heights epic...."The Hair Cut")

please click on image to enlarge

the unicorn of blogging

or is it Bigfoot, or a thin girl who hates football in Ohio....anyway what I am getting at is this is a rarity.

A Saturday blog that is not solely for the purpose of pimping a sale in my etsy shop

(though check my shop tonight at 5:00pm for the sale- which will be 20% off, just write SNS in the message and wait for a new invoice.)

anyway, yes the Saturday blog, I thought it would happen later in the day as I am on mean cheese duty while my bubs is at work, but you see, the lil monster fell asleep on the couch while I ate Halloween Candy and watched the extras on The Notebook DVD.

sigh, a quiet moment.

it was wonderful, then it got even better, you see the mail arrived and low and behold I received a package in the mail, from loyal blog lovely, Michelle.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

I was expressing to her a certain longing for back home and she mailed me a whole bunch of New England love, some Devil Dogs, sea glass, photos of the ocean, Portsmouth Magazine, and best of all, a whole bag of beauty supplies.

Including......heaven in a tube, also known as "plump lips" I have had the stuff for less that a day but have used it a ton of times already...I am not sure how good for me it is as my mouth is numb, but damn, I look like sweet Angelina Jolie.

so there you have it, a wonderful moment on a Saturday!!!

so, with that I will leave you.

Thank you Michelle for seriously brightening my whole weekend.

love you, and love you all so you don't feel left out.

I am being crippled by the pressure

ok, let me cut to the chase.....I love blogging, I do, and as you all know I usually have plenty of things to say, to blah, blah about...............

but currently at the moment, I've got nothing, nothing at all.

And you know what, I know why...it's this National Blah, Blog month, it's the pressure. I have nothing to say because someone (the Blog Gods perhaps) have told me I need to say something or I will be turned into a troll or something.

SO that's it, someone told me to do something and I won't, like a misbehaving child....I have now turned into the mean cheese, desperate to bring a juice box into her bedroom....why does she want to drink juice in her bedroom????? Because I won't let her.

(you see I caved in once and let her bring the juice upstairs, and all she did was get to her room, then she very spitefully stood in her doorway and tossed the juice box to the floor and looked up at me with a cute/possessed by the devil, look on her face.)

Ok this is good, I am doing a stream of consciousness thing that is working for me. I like this.

Oh..........so yesterday my bubs and I went to the Halloween store (yes,m again...I know I have been there almost everyday for the past few weeks) but this time I was looking for a Wonder Woman costume in a size medium, they had it there and I was hoping to get one on sale...but alas someone else snagged it, and my dreams of wearing the costume to the comic convention at the end of the month are slowly evaporating.

I did on the other hand get a beautiful green brocade dress, prefect for any number of costumes, such as Anne Boleyn, A Pre- Raphaelite, or even if I just go to the Ren Fair to make fun of hippies.

so what are your plans this weekend, me...well...remember that juice scenario from before...well, that's about it. Perhaps there will also be a trek to the supply store in there too.

Oh, and if any of you are looking for custom items done for Christmas, please let me know, as I already have a list of pieces to do (at the moment the list is not that long, but still, it's a list) so let me know what you have in mind ASAP so I can make sure it gets done and I have the materials.

ok, enough of blah blah for today, please enjoy random pieces from my shop in the photos.

:)

well...

Happy November everyone!!

As some of you may or may not know this month is that National Blah Blah month, or as it is really called, National Blog Writing Month, meaning everyone who has signed up has "pledged" to write a blog entry every day.

so here it is, November 1st and here is my first one.

So, I know I have been the world's worst blogger lately but I am sure you all understand there has been a lot going on.

Our party was a wonderful success, and no......I got no pictures, it was one of those things where I never really had the chance to run upstairs and get my camera and by the time I had the chance, well....I was too drunk.

You see my bubs made this wonderful punch, Rum,vodka, and tequila with fresh 3 berry juice to take away the horrible taste of the tequila.

perfection in punch form.

We have also been spending a lot of time with Bruce, which I am hoping has been helping him. Last night was the one week anniversary of Carol's passing, so he came to our place to spend trick or treat with us.

It was good to see him smile at times, but the overwhelming devastation in his face is haunting, purely haunting. I am constantly reminded of how strong he is being, if it were me, well I really don't know how I could go on. Perhaps I am not as strong as I think I am.

So, we watched Pan's Labyrinth which I had never seen...........................I am speechless when it comes to that movie, just awe...pure awe.

It is both wonderful and vicious, innocent, and evil, truly everything your best fairy tale should be.

so, in short, see it if you have not.

also...in shop news. I spent a good part of yesterday at the print company getting my limited edition prints made, our printer is so nice he spent time with me as I obsessed over each piece, saying "does this look too pink, I think it might be, can you make it less pink", and "this one needs a touch more yellow, so it glows more, can that happen, just a little more yellow"

and so on, and so on.

But he did them and they are lovely and I have already listed two of them in my shop and the rest will be listed throughout the day.

Keep in mind that they are VERY limited, only 10 made of each.

ok, this has been enough babble for now, you can see the photos of the prints in the blog entry below this one.

see you all tomorrow.

xoxoxo
j