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Hello dear ones.

well, I was very very close to taking a mental health day today, but I am going to post what's in my head anyway.

So....last night Keith and I found out that a good friend of ours is going to die very soon, she has been battling and struggling with cancer for the past several years, but her battle is almost over and there is nothing left to be done.

I am heartbroken for her, for her poor wonderful husband who has become the surrogate father I needed since mine died...I feel bad for her Mom who should not have to bury her child, and for her son who in his way will always need his mom.

I am overwhelmed with the fact that of all the people in the universe this is a person that should not have gotten sick...bad things should just not happen to good people.

I'm sorry, I am very down today, I don't like to bring that melancholy here to my blog but sometimes I have to, I have to open the door so you can see what is inside, and you see dear friends, what is inside is a bit of a mess right now.

I am feeling very Victorian and melancholy today, the rain is not helping at all, as it still looks like night out, and it's making my knee hurt so bad I can barely walk.

sigh....

in other brighter news...

I promised a bit of a little shop announcement and here it is. Withing the next several days I will be listing the most adorable mini blank note cards. The measure 2 inches x 2 inches and would make lovely little gift enclosures or gift tags, the best part about them is that they will come with lovely little handmade envelopes, all made with antique papers.

I could just die....little cards and little envelopes....breathtaking. You know my love of stationery, so those should be soon.

Also.................this is still maybe a month or so away, but definitely before the holidays, I will have a small collection of reproduction prints available in my shop as well, all made with copyright free images...very Victorian and lovely (well in my head they are, you see I do need to get my butt in gear to get these done) but I have talked with a printing company close to me and have seen some samples and their fine art prints are lovely. I am hoping that I can charge around $10 for an 8x10 print...hopefully.

ok, well that's it for today, the images listed are a few of my current pieces that are all still available and listed in my shop, also coming later on today are more of the American Cancer Society Donation cards, as I have been sold out for a couple days.

xoxoxo

a little of this and a dash of that

hello strangers

how are you all today? have you all gotten your senses back from our weekend long slumber party???

I will say with all seriousness, that I had a lot of fun, as you all know since moving to Ohio a few years ago I have been all consumed with work all the time, so making friends and "having a life" has sort of been low on the priority list...so this past weekend was a most welcome distraction, it was also fun for me to "introduce my boys" Aaron and Ben to my world of mad cap internet divas!!!

Oh, and for those of you just watching from the sidelines who didn't participate....please do next time, even if it's only a comment....

I know who some of you are.......Michelle (Manxxie), Debbie, Clemencia and on and on...don't just be silent stalkers!!!

lol

oh, now to get back to the "real world" or as real as my world gets these days, I feel as though I am so very dreadfully behind on things, though I know I don;t have a schedule to really adhere too.

My shop on etsy had very few items in it at the moment, far fewer than I have had since before Christmas, but I am not stressed about that at all, I have some wonderful small pieces that I will be listing today.....I am so excited about them!!!

Oh, and yesterday I got to my 700th item sold mark...crazy......

ok so yesterday my bubs and I were able to gout for a brief bit and grab a bite to eat, again there was just an overwhelming attack on my senses by just being out of my little cocoon of a work space and house...

I was just flabbergasted and left wondering...what is wrong with people????

don't they have mirrors??? I know, I know....I always go on and on about the same thing, why are people wearing their jammies outside, why are they all disheveled....why, why why?????

Well yesterday I see this young mom, with her babies daddy and she was wearing these giant rubber galoshes / boots and they were bright pink, with like ducks and stuff on them, and they matched her baby bag perfectly....

they were like the boots your moomy forces you to wear when you are just small and can't fight back.

well she was wearing these things and carrying the baby bag and I noticed...she had no purse with her, assuming then that she held all her personal things in the baby bag, so lip gloss, cell phone, wallet, powder...all in the same bag with the baby butt pants.

now, I am not a mom (full time) so I do not claim in the very slightest to understand how how hard it is (and I KNOW it's hard, we have the mean cheese for 3 days and I fall into a coma of exhaustion when she is gone)....but is this what happens...when you have children, you just stop carrying a purse all together and start wearing galoshes???

I'm sorry but you never see Angelina Jolie wearing galoshes...what about Sarah Jessica Parker...galoshes and no purse...nope.

oh and you have to understand, that there was no reason to be wearing bad shoes yesterday, I was wearing 4 inch heels on knee high black boots...and it was fine.

ok, sorry...I had to get that out....I guess I am just so into having cute purses and shoes that I can't imagine forsaking them like that, I mean, purses and shoes have always been there for me...

ok, moving on.

So did you all see the collage I featured on yesterdays hot boys blog??? I believe that will be the collage that the beautiful Gillian will be using in the "corset project" for the upcoming "Ooh La La Burlesque" exhibit.

I am ridiculously excited that she asked to use on of my pieces in her corset, she will be printing the collage onto leather and making a corset out of it....

Oh my god...see to me, this is a dream come true, fashion and art....oh, and England and a lovely costume designer.....

I wish I could fly there for the exhibit...in my mind I am jet set enough to do that, and by jet set, all I mean is I would have enough money to do it.

So thinking of costumes and everything got me thinking about when I was doing a ton of theater in New Hampshire, and it got me in my head reminiscing about my past...and you know what is strange? Besides a few people in particular the only things I really miss about "back then" are all strangely material, or they are places.

Like I miss the Thai place down the street from the Palace Theater, and I miss going to classes at the NHIA, and the Currier Museum, and I miss the old mill buildings...but I also miss some of the stuff I used to own, 98% of which was left behind in my mad dash away from the ex, one thing in particular that I miss was the beautiful gold velvet ornate chair that I git at a thrift store when I moved into my first apartment in 1995....I got the chair for a mere $5.

I have no photos of it, but when looking through a stack of old torn out images I found one that was similar so I did this piece with it...very different than usual, but I think it still tells a story.

It is called Diary Of This Room, and I have it listed in my etsy shop.

Swoon...and a thank you

this is how I spent the rest of my weekend....watched Justin on SNL, watched Inventing the Abbots, listened to some Chris Isaak...and of course, painted a little....and made a bunch of stuff to re-stock my etsy shop.

(check out how hot Joaquin is in that picture...)

Tomorrow (monday) there will be no blog from me, as my bubs has the day off, and now...so do I.

thanks to everyone for making this slumber party weekend a total blast....we will do it again!

love you all, lots and lots.

xoxo

Morning sunshines

You will not believe it...it is SNOWING again, damn it....

luckily I have all of you to keep me company....

speaking of that...we have more blogs that are feeling the party...including...the BOYS....

Aaron and Ben have jazzed up the blogs...with photos, and let me tell you, they both brought alcohol, just what kind of girls do they think we are?????

Also, lovely miss Vanessa has also joined in the fun.

also, make sure to catch up on the rest of the blogs too, Gillian, Aimee, The Artist (formerly known as Cindarella's Revenge, and Karin Beth are all slumbertastic too.

here's the complete list, I will be back later, perhaps with photos of me in the snow...

aimee
aaron
gillian
ben
evil kate
tara
michelle
vanessa
karin beth
jungle dream pagoda
rebekah
Kandeedo Bandeedo the artist formerly known as Cinderella's Revenge

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxo

the day after and the day before

good morning darling darlings

off to a late start again today, I blame cursed beast of a poodle that the Lord and Lady Ghetto have....though wait, I take that back, I swore to myself that I was not going to think bad thoughts about them, as yesterday morning my poor bubs was stuck in the ice/snow and could not move he was stuck half in the street and half out, Lord Ghetto in his fur coat and snazzy zippy work out pants came to the rescue and pushed him back safely into the driveway.

so, trying very hard for no mean thoughts.

On the other hand the hillbilly's on the other side entertained me with their quarrels yesterday....sometimes I feel like we are in the eye of a storm, or that we are just the kindly neighbors of the people that they always show on "Cops"...and yes I watch Cops, but only because when we have the mean cheese on the weekend and she demands that the TV is on all the time....

plus, I think she likes it, as the people on Cops look like her Mom and her mom's boyfriend...oh, so very mean of me.

So, did everyone have a nice Valentine's Day???? Comments were few and far between on my blogs yesterday so that leads me to believe that you were all having wonders...or you were all falling into depression, to that I say...snap out of it (like Cher in Moonstruck).

This weekend is slumber party weekend!!!!! Menaing tomorrow morning I will post getting ready for it, if you can make a little mention in your blogs about it.

so far the guest list includes...

aimee
aaron
gillian
ben
karin beth
rebekah
tara
vanessa
Evil Kate

I know there are more....but my brain is not working correctly, I am hoping the lovely risa will pop in too, as well as many many others.

ok, so yesterday was nice, though lonely for most of it because the bubs was at work, but once he got home...well there was niceness, just the us time that we both crave, sometimes I feel like we will never catch up on being together, that the 12 years apart will always make us miss each other all the time...even when we are just apart for a couple hours.

Other than that Iw as super busy yesterday in my etsy shop, I believe it was a record breaking day for me (special big thanks to those people who might very well be lurking).

I also hit a scary milestone, I got to 666 sales and 666 hearts (people that mark me as a favorite) and it happened within a few minute time window....creepy huh? (see Aaron, you were right Valentine's Day is a scary holiday).

I guess maybe my grandma was right about me all the time, I must be a "deviled girl"...she used to say this as she handed me platter of deviled eggs with red sprinkles on them (red sprinkles...I think it's paprika...not sure) she would say "deviled eggs for a deviled girl"....sounds sort of mean yes, but I knew that the red sprinkles on top meant she loved me.

And you want to know something adorable...now my bubs puts the sprinkles on my food too...sure I had to ask at first, but now he does it and says "see, I added sprinkles....

so cute...

Oh, the piece I have featured today (The Simplest of Moments) was the piece I did for this weeks creative challenge, the theme this week was to create something Valentine inspired....so instead of thinking of romantic love, I decided to do the love I have for all of you out there in cyberland, and those of you who are very far away and I miss so very much, so this is inspired by that...I hope you like it. It is available for sale in my etsy shop.

I fancy myself the one in the passenger seat, as I would be singing, and as many of you know me and driving, well that's just a really bad combo.

I think truthfully I am meant to live in another time period, when there were no cars...though in my fantasy land, that time period might not have cars but it does have electricity, running water, makeup, fantastic shoes...and stolen black market handbags that I could buy at the Foreign run mall....though they would of course be less expensive...

I will leave you with that...don't forget to let me know if you will be popping in over the weekend for the big party...I will update the list.

xoxoxoxoxo

(ps, one of the pieces I featured yesterday "Becoming Imaginary, has now sold....Becoming Alice is still available though...)