Day Fifty-Nine -- Bind My Dreams Up In Your Tangled Hair

So I decided that it’s okay for me to skip a day now and then, but I’m really going to try to not skip more than one day at a time. I’ve been trying to make this not all about jewelry, but it’s hard because that’s the main thing in my life right now. And really, it should be even more in my life. I get too caught up in trying to clean and organize and then there’s moments where I feel scattered and just drift off to space or when I feel ill, also causing me to drift off into space. I really am not making as much as I’d like. There  are a lot of things that I’m not doing as much as I’d like.

I was wondering why I was so out of it all day and now I’m like, duh, I didn’t sleep much last night. I went to bed at a reasonable time (for me) but I just couldn't sleep. Part of the reason was listening to Rob breath while he sleeps. I should’ve rolled him over onto his side. Maybe that would've helped. Another part was because I had a processing cap over my head as a part of an experiment to see how my hair would look the next day.  Not a successful experiment but I know what to do next time.

Today I plugged in my old external hard drive which is 1.5 Terabytes (it’ll never be full), and I saw some old pics of me that makes me want to cut my hair and get bangs. Then again, I think of how long it takes for my hair to grow and I think maybe not. And then I think of how my ends are probably all damaged and cutting my hair might do it some good. I’m going to have to straighten it to figure that out. I don’t know. I just wish I could find the right combination of products to make my hair look its best.

Here's an old pic of me with bangs and a pirate hat!  :-D

Anyway, I’m gonna go to bed now and see if I can get some good sleep tonight. Fingers crossed…

Day Fifty Seven -- Despite All My Rage...

So pretty much all of my day today was wasted trying to figure out how to get my printer to print using refurbished ink cartridges. I searched all over the internet for solutions to my problem to find nothing. So, fuck you HP for giving people no choice but to use your over-priced ink. Yeah, I'm pretty upset about it and left a couple of comments on their site telling them so. I hope a real person gets it and gets back to me.

I think this is going to be a really short blog post tonight. Not much happened today unless you want to hear all about how Rob and I went to H. Salt Fish n’ Chips today. It was pretty good but not as good as I remembered or hoped. I think maybe it’s just that my taste has changed a bit and it is just as good as it always was.

I’ve decided that tomorrow is going to be Pantone day. I am going to forget the fiasco which is my printer and get some work done, all day. I’m going to try to get in all the Pantone colors into jewelry in one day. Most likely it’ll be mainly earrings. That’s the easiest way. Okay, change that. Earrings would be the easy way but I’ll probably go a different direction. We’ll see. I hope I’m feeling much better today because that whole printer thing really got me down. Tomorrow, I’ll be sure to have some coffee early. I haven’t had coffee in a few days so it should help a lot. I’m even going to bed early tonight in hopes of being up fresh and early tomorrow. 

Day Fifty-Six -- Ain't she sweet?

I have a bit of exciting news today. Today I woke up to four text messages from a friend I invited to the movies on the 10^th of March. She was telling me that she wasn’t going to be able to make it because she was going to be out of town but said that she needed Rob and I to go with her to see Rachel Maddow on the 14^th. I had to immediately text Rob to let him know. He probably loves Rachel more than I do… well, we’re about even. We’re both very excited about it.

So far, March looks like it’s going to be a pretty cool month. On the third, I’m going to a back and shoulder release workshop given by a friend of ours, The next weekend we have the silver Lake market, a birthday party that night and we’re going to see Oz the Great and Powerful the next day. Then of course, there’s Rachel Maddow the next week. She will be talking about her book “Drift”. The month hasn't even started yet and I’ve got some pretty cool plans. I feel like it’s only the beginning too. Let’s see what happens. As long as it doesn't cost a lot of money, I’m up for it :-D

I had a bit of special me-time today and did my nails. I used some of the nail polish I got from Stephanie for xmas plus another color on top of it for a cool effect. Sometimes it looks sort of lavender, sometimes green and sometimes gold, depending on the lighting and the angle at which you are looking at it. 

Then Rob and I went to CBTL once he got off work. I perused the latest FMG catalog, circling the beads and such that I want to get in the future. We stopped by Fry’s to get some ink for my printer and then made a couple of other runs. Altogether it was a nice night… until a bit after I got home, but I do NOT want to talk about that. (You don't really want to hear about it either...)

Oh, one last thing. I forgot to share this pic from Friday night. This car is so cute. I’ve wanted an Fiat 500 (especially the Abarth) since they came out with them, and this makes me want one even more! 

Isn't she precious?

Day Fifty-Five -- TV Party Tonight!

So I’m pretty much going to stop mentioning how I start and end my days nauseous and/or headachy. Just assume that that is the case unless otherwise noted. In between time, I’m usually okay. Like there are a few hours in the middle of the day where I feel, just peachy… or almost and that’s good enough for me considering how I feel the rest of the time.

Today, we went to our friend Kristen’s house where we watched the Oscars as well as a few other things, mainly YouTube videos. We got to meet her guy that we’re going to England to visit in 4 weeks. I’m pretty excited for her and want to stow away in her luggage. I would really love to visit there someday. It was so funny because before going there, we specifically went to Ralphs to try to find Cheesy Garlic Bread flavored Lays Potato Chips and we had discussed how the Chicken and Waffles flavor sounded gross. We didn’t find them so we got the old standby, Tomato and Basil flavor to take to Kristen’s. When we got there, sitting on her dining table was a bag of both the CGB and the C&W chips sitting on her table. To tell you the truth, the C&W chips are quite tasty and actually taste like chicken AND waffles.  The CGB was good too.

The Oscars were pretty good, I haven’t seen any of the movies really, but it was still fun to watch with Rob and Kristen, especially because Kristen is so into them. But as I don’t really know much about the movies up for rewards, I can’t really be a judge of whom or what will win anything, but I still occasionally made guesses. I thought Seth McFarland as the host was pretty good though some people were really bashing him on FaceBook. Don’t get me started on people who act so hoity-toity like they are so much better than other people just because they don’t know pop culture references. “You don’t have a TV? Oh! Aren’t you SO special!” …hey! I said don’t get me started. Don’t you ever listen to me? Oh well, to each their own. Afterwards, we chatted a bit and then watched some YouTube videos and laughed so much. I think that exacerbated the headache that I came home with.

On that note, I bid you adieu. I’ll go to bed early and try to have a nice productive day tomorrow.

Oh, I forgot to say that I had planned to make another Oscar Bracelet like I did last year, but I wound up making a few more of the beaded beads I made last week. I have an interesting idea of what to do with them. Stay tuned!

Day Fifty-Four -- Down With The Sickness

Ugh, I think I might be sick. Tonight I’m coughing a lot and my nose is runny. And I have headaches. Luckily, no nausea tonight, but I had it bad today. I finally broke down and asked Rob for some of his anti-nausea medicine that they gave him. I usually try to hold off as long as I can before I take medicine for something. I have to take enough pills that I have no choice in taking. I try not to take any more if I don’t have to. Right now I’m sucking on a Cold-Eeze lozenge. I hate them especially because they make everything else taste weird for HOURS. I wonder how bad the new quick-dissolve ones are. Any way to lessen the misery is great in my book.

I don’t really feel like saying much more since I was feeling yucky most of the day and there’s nothing much to talk about. I’m hoping for a much better tomorrow. Maybe a good night's rest will help.

Day Fifty-Three -- In The Light You Will Find The Road*

So the day started out lovely. Rob woke me up with a kiss before leaving to work. He does this every single morning but I don’t always wake up for it. Today was extra awesome because after, well, in between kisses, he informed me that he went to Starbucks and I have a cup of Blonde Roast waiting for me! (COFFEE!!!) I told him to put it in the fridge and I went back to sleep for a bit. When I woke back up is when things took a turn for the worse.

When I got up to reheat my coffee, a wave of nausea came over me and stayed with me all morning until the afternoon when I was finally not nauseous enough to eat something. It’s like I would get nauseous, it would ease up a bit and then I’d think about eating something and at that point, it would rise up again. Ugh.

The rest of the day was spent trying to complete my to-do list between bouts of nausea. I got 6 out of 11 things done. The eleventh item was added so that I can have another thing to check off, to be honest. Most things weren’t dire anyway so I’m fine with that. We had a baby shower to go to that night and so I made a recipe that I found called Pecan Pretzel delights, but after seeing the price of pecan halves, I decided to make Walnut Pretzel delights.  When we got to the party, they were a big hit. I think this is going to be my potluck dish of the year. A couple of years ago it was the acorns, basically Hershey’s kisses, chocolate-glued to bite-sized nutterbutters with a chocolate chip, chocolate-glued to the other end. They were very cute and very tasty. Everyone loved them. The Whatever-nut Pretzel Delights are much faster and neater even. I take small, traditional-shaped pretzels, place them on a parchment covered cookie sheet, put a Rolo on top of that and place it in a 360 degree oven for about 3 minutes. When I take them out of the oven, I smush a nut down onto the softened Rolo and voila! A tasty treat!

The baby shower was awesome! We got to see friends that we haven’t seen in a long time, had great conversations ate very interesting, tasty food and we did a ritual to bestow blessings upon the baby. I was so happy to take part in that. The parents were so in love with their new adopted baby. They are going to make great parents. They were also surrounded by a wonderfully loving extended family of friends. A very lucky baby indeed!

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring good coats so Rob and I were freezing on the way home. And we come full circle as, on the way home, the nausea crept up again. I am going to put a trashcan by the bed so I won’t have a repeat of what happened a couple of weeks ago.  

*The one of the baby's names means "light"

Day Fifty-two -- Off To Never Never Land

So today was acupuncture day which is cool. I’m really feeling the improvements. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had a lower back spasm (and by lower back, I mean upper butt) and I have been able to bend my knee a bit further than I’ve been able to in a very long time. Although, I was afraid that it might have been re-injured last night when while trying to position the covers with my foot, Rob yanked at the covers, thereby yanking my foot back. I had to yelp from the knee pain that caused. Fortunately, by the morning, I was doing just fine. We worked on my shoulder which had been giving me a lot of trouble recently and that trouble was exacerbated by the fall I took a last month. She told me that shoulders were stubborn. Boy do I know it! Another issue is that my back muscles are pretty tense, as well as the ones in my legs. I don’t know why, but I do notice now and then that I really tense my muscles all over when I should be relaxing. Relaxing is hard.

Speaking of relaxing, I won’t be doing any of that tomorrow! LOL I am  trying to make tomorrow a SUPER-productive day. In fact, I’m going to force myself to go to bed early tonight. Granted, early for me is going to be like 12:30 maybe 1 am (I got to bed at 3:30 last night! I should be spanked!). But I do want to get a lot done tomorrow. Mainly stuff like cleaning and organizing but also making a few things. I’ll probably be finishing a bunch of necklaces that have been waiting to be completed. This will add to my goal to have a certain number of necklaces to add to my collection for the next Silver Lake market which is March 9^th.  I also just realized that I have exactly one month left to do my Pantone collection before Spring starts; that’s another goal of mine. It’s a goal that I have no doubt I’ll meet. Taking the time out to take great pictures of it all is another story. But I’m going to do it this year!

To end this post, I must say all of yesterday’s work to put my hair into twists was in vain because they are coming out tomorrow. I have a baby shower to go to tomorrow evening and I want to look presentable. I’m going to go now and work on a to-do list and a schedule... and try to be done with that before 1am without getting too caught up into watching Kinky Boots, which is coming on in a few.

Day fifty-one -- Give Me Down To There Hair

Sooo…. 1:30 am is a reasonable hour isn’t it? Because that’s when I got to bed last night. I got side-tracked by a Facebook page that had hundreds of great Muse pictures. I found one that I’m using as my cover picture. It looks like they are all looking down at my profile picture. Awesome!

Me in my twisties

Today I was perusing YouTube watching natural hair videos and I found a couple of tubers that looked like they have similar hair texture to mine, which is cool because the ones I had been following before, their hair is so long and gorgeous that I sometimes despair  that my hair will never be anything like that. I’m kinda cool with that though, because I do pretty fun things with my hair with the colors and the few styling tricks that I know. Oh, and the hair scarves; I like those a lot. I discovered that there are several things that I absolutely MUST add to my arsenal. There’s Curlformers, for when I want big bouncy curls and to stretch my hair without the use of heat. I learned that this curl activator gel that I have is part of a line of products, a few of which I would like to try… Who am I kidding? If I could afford it, I’d try it all. Actually, they are so affordable that I’m sure eventually I will try them all. Curlformers, on the other hand, are expensive as fizzuck. It might take me quite a while to get all I need.  Lastly, I’d like to try this brush called the tangle teaser. It’s supposed to be really great at detangling natural hair. I’ve seen quite a few videos with different hair textures and everyone seems to like it a lot. Some even call it a miracle worker.

For now, I have put my hair up in little twists as a protective style. I think I’ll probably wear it like this for at least a week or so, just to give my hair a bit of a rest. In the meantime, I’ll probably be wearing scarves and hats, or just wear it as is if it’s not too cold out. 

Day Fifty -- Living After Midnight

Man, I need to stop going to bed at 4 am. I know why I’m doing it. It’s because daylight savings time is coming in a few weeks and my sleep always goes a little wonky when it’s near.  Almost this whole week I’ve been getting to bed at around 3 or later. That doesn't make for a very productive day. Well, except for when I made all those beaded beads a couple days ago.

Speaking of that, remember last month when I said I was trying to make some earrings but I just wasn’t feeling it? Well, I feel like now I’m going to go back at it. I’ve recently got other beads that I think were the missing ingredients. Now I just need to get some new ear wires and eye and head pins. I’m going to start using silver-filled findings in all of my wares now. Luckily, I found a site where I can order everything form Fire Mountain Gems at their 200+ discount level. 

I’m cutting this short tonight to see if I can actually get to bed at a more reasonable hour…

Day Forty-Nine -- You can do magic

Today was a rather nice day. It started pretty late as it was after 4am that I went to bed the night before. We went to the IHOP in Fallbrook for breakfast/lunch/whatever. It was pretty good and fun to be out. Before going home, I took a quick spin around Trader Joes. I wish I had more money on me but I did get a couple of things I needed… and a bag of TJ’s World’s Puffiest White Cheddar Corn Puffs that I didn’t need. :-D

Later today we went to my mom’s place to pick up a few things. Rob’s coworker picked up a treadmill that my mom was giving away and we grabbed my old bike so that Rob can start using it for going to work. I brought my bag of corn puffs because I knew my mom would like them. Who knew she’d go after them like it was crack. We also got some chicken wings and watched Hubris on MSNBC. While Rob and my mom went to go get the wings, I went into my mom’s workout room to mess with stuff. She has a big hoop and I put it together to try it out. Man I am bad at hula hooping. But then, I’ve always been bad at it. I don’t know why and now the whole hooping trend is going on and it looks fun and like something I’d like to try, but I could hardly get the thing to rotate once before falling to the ground. Maybe one day I’ll borrow it from my mom and really practice with it to see if I can get good. There are plenty of videos online I can watch for tips and stuff.

One thing I did borrow from her is this thing called a Magic Circle by Danskin Now. Apparently, it’s some kind of pilates prop but I think it’ll help a lot with some exercises I need to do. Especially the ones for my inner thigh muscles that are supposed to eventually help my knees. There’s even exercises printed on it for ideas of how to use it, but I’m creative enough to figure it out on my own. I also borrowed some Tazo Tea but she doesn’t know about that… hehehe

Day Forty-Eight -- Up All Night, Sleep (and bead) All Day

So I didn’t get to bed until almost 3:30 last night. The bracelet turned out really nice. Most of the day seemed to shift between me napping and me beading. Rob’s back is still hurting him really bad.  I hope he feels much better by the end of Monday or he’s going to be trashed for work on Tuesday. I don’t have a ton to say so I’m just going to post pictures of some of the work I’ve done today.

Oh yeah! See, I follow this one beader on YouTube, well more than one really, and today she put up a project for decorating earbud cords. I thought they would be really nice as stand-alone beads for earrings, then I expanded it as a pendant/larger bead for a necklace. That got me to thinking that I should make more of the smaller ones to go with the larger one and then transpose the colors… well, here are the pictures:

First, this is the bracelet I worked on last night

These are the first beads I made today,
then I decided that I needed a larger bead to accompany them

This is the larger bead I made from expanding the design

Lastly, here is the completed set of beads that I made today.
I now have to figure out how I'm going to work them into a necklace and earring set

I copied the pictures from where I posted them on Facebook. I think eventually, I'm going to go in and just upload the photos, in case anything ever happens to my FB page.

Day Forty-Seven -- I can see for miles and mile

Tonight, I’ve decided to tackle the double spiral bangle so I’m going to keep this short to see if I can finish it tonight. It was going to be a single but then I started feeling adventurous!

Today wasn’t the most exciting day, although I have to say it was quite beautiful. The sky was so clear that I could practically see individual trees on the hills in the distance.  I discovered this as I went out to get food for me and Rob since he was laid out on his back. The temperature was also quite pleasant though I wouldn’t have minded a little nip in the air.

Rob came home from a day at traffic school with a really bad back. He didn’t know why but I think it was due to all the sneezing he had been doing because of a bad allergy attack that he’s been going through the past few days. So I spent the day taking care of him when he needed it and goofing off on the computer in the meantime. Oh, and a bit of bead tinkering that turned into the double spiral that I’m working on tonight. Hopefully, I’ll have a picture to share tomorrow. Maybe I’ll also include a hair picture. I tried to take one today but the sun was so bright that I was squinty-faced in all of them. 

Day Forty-Six -- Can You See The Real Me

So I missed another day, but then yesterday was so bad that I intended to not blog about it after it was all through.

I think just this picture alone would've worked as yesterday's post.

I went back to red hair today. It’s really more me than anything else, and I wasn’t really feeling the purple. It didn’t look awful, I didn’t hate it. It just wasn’t me. Hell, the green hair was more me than the purple. As for Rob, he LOVED the green hair on me. And he always loves the red. He liked the purple too but he wasn’t very enthusiastic about it. I’ll have to post a pic tomorrow. I washed the purple out as much as I could but the ends look a bit fuchsia. Come to think of it, if the purple came out more fuchsia, I would've loved it.

One of the reasons for the change is that part of what sucked about yesterday is coming to terms with aspects of how I have been living my life has been, to be honest, fucked up and I need to change some things. (What can I say? One’s hair color is easy to control… it’s a start anyway) I can only hope that I am strong enough to make the necessary changes and part of me is very afraid that I’m not. That fear, and a lot of other fears that I have let run my life are a lot of what I need to change. Being hormonal at the time of this revelation is certainly NOT helping. A lot of times, balling up in a corner and crying seems like a perfectly appropriate option, but it’s not really. It also makes me think right now that I really don’t want to hear anyone say things like, “It’s all going to be okay!” “You’re awesome and you’ll get through it” blah blah blah. No disrespect to anyone who feels that way, and any other time, I might really appreciate it… but maybe right now I need to feel sad and maybe a bit angry for a while. That’s enough for tonight.

Day Forty-Four -- Wrapped Around Your Finger

Today was Laundry/Cleaning/Organizing day so not much exciting happened. Oh, except I DID get through the night without taking any pain pills. That was awesome!  On the not-so-good side, I think I'm coming down with something. I can hear it in my voice.

So while I go make new and exciting plans for tomorrow before bed, here's a cute picture courtesy of the IFLS page again:

This is the pygmy marmoset (Cebuella pygmaea), the smallest known monkey in the world.
They're found in western Brazil, southeastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, and northern Bolivia and they typically live in the understory of the rain forest near rivers. Males weigh around 140 grams (4.9 oz), and females only 120 grams (4.2 oz).

They might be completely adorable, but you do NOT want one as a pet. They have very tiny, very sharp teeth and they bite.

Day Forty-Three -- Tea When The Weathers Fine

So as I'm still feeling a bit under the weather, mainly, I have a horrible headache at the moment, this post will be mainly pics... but you'll enjoy them.

Because I said so.

A sip of tea after the first  course of scones. Yes, I did do the pinky thing... just for the photo.

IT was a lovely day for a tea party. The first course was scones. The scones were served with Devonshire (um, I could be wrong about that name) Cream, a nice jam and lemon curd. I didn't taste the lemon curd... I should've.

The menu -- well, the front anyway.

I think I tried 4 different teas. They were all very tasty.

This was my place setting. my cup was beautiful

I just realized that I didn't get pics of the scones nor the desserts. That's a pity because it was all very nicely presented. At least I got the finger sandwich course.

It all tasted as good as it looked, if not better!

reading the menu

One of our lovely hostesses/servers

Enjoying a fruity tea

More tea party guests

Not everyone wore a hat. 

This was taken before we left for the party, but it seemed weird sticking it in anywhere else.

My kick-ass outfit.

Day Forty-Two -- And I Don't Mean Ill Like Cool/Awesome

Yes, forty-two. There is no forty-one no matter how I tried.

So I missed a post yesterday and I almost missed one tonight. But I figured, if I let myself slip for more than a day, it's going to be a downward slope that leads to posts once a month and then a couple times a year.

The tea party was wonderful and I'll post pics of that tomorrow, but tonight I'm so tired that I simply must go to bed and I'm typing this with a bad headache. For the last week or so, maybe longer, I've been feeling pretty ill at night. During the day, I've been okay except for being out of it from lack of sleep at night. The lack of sleep comes from the horrible pain in my shoulder that bugs me every night until I decide to down a pain pill or two (did two once... BAD idea. I write about it in the blog entry that I've warned people against reading) to get a few hours (if I'm lucky) before getting up and starting the whole miserable cycle over again. I'm going to make an appointment with my doctor son to see if anything can be done about either the pain or the general malaise that I have been feeling. Even right now, rubbing my upper arms (because I'm cold!) hurts. At the same time though, it feels good to rub them. I know. Weird, isn't it?

Day Forty - For Those About To ROCK!!!

I feel horrible right now and at first I thought it was due to my girly time coming on the horizon because I’ve been feeling a bit down in the dumps, but now I think I may be getting sick. That’s the last thing I want and I hope it’s just a weird fluke and I’ll feel better tomorrow.. I really wouldn’t want to miss the tea party, especially after I picked out an awesome outfit for it. Rob says I look smoking hot in it.

Even though it was a slow day and I made little money, it was still a good day. Now that I look back on it, maybe I’m just feeling wonky due to lack of sleep. I didn’t get to bed until after 2 am and had a hard time getting to sleep. Then, at about 4:26 am (I think that’s what the clock said) I was suddenly wide awake. It was not in an “OMG I can’t sleep!” frustrated kind of way. It was more like, “hmm, I’m wide awake. Oh well…” I’m sure it was because I was overworking my brain thinking about today, not worrying much, just thinking. I set my alarm to wake me up at 6:10 but well before that, I gave up on getting anymore sleep and just went to bed.

We had some delays, like the side door of the van being frozen shut, but I wasn’t really feeling as stressed out about it as I should have been. All I know is that I wanted to leave more than thirty minutes earlier than we left so I can pick out the spot I wanted to be my permanent spot for the year. When we got to the market, there was no waiting and I got the exact spot I wanted. I took a photo of my booth, especially because it was set up a bit different from the last time. It’s going to be interesting seeing the evolution of my booth. I’ve even thought of a different way I want to do it the next time. I’ll blog about that on the other blog for sure. Another cool thing is that I actually made something while I was manning my booth!

I need to make more of these since I sold ALL of the ones I had before.

Our tear-down by the end of the day was a lot faster than usual, and it was nice to do it in daylight for a change. Oh, forgot to mention how beautiful the day was after last night’s rain but it was so cold ALL day, I hardly ever took off that warm jacket I bought. It did its job well!

The sun finally came out so I posed for this pic, sans jacket.

Now we've come full circle to the beginning of this blog post. I came home feeling like a wreck, but this is the funny way my brain works: I decided to search for what I’m going to wear tomorrow earlier tonight even though I felt miserable just in case what I picked out made me look SO good that I felt better as a result.  It did work a little bit, but not long after, I was back to feeling bad. I decided to lie down for a bit before writing this blog, but now I’ve done it so I’m going to bed.

But before I do, I want all of you who take the time out to read my blog to know that you rock. You really do.

Day Thirty-Nine -- And I Don't Need An Excuse, 'cause I'm Wearing My Brand New Shoes.

Tonight is going to be really short. I almost forgot to post tonight. Well, not exactly. I’ve been thinking about it, but I’ve also been so busy, kinda, preparing for tomorrow’s Silver Lake Market that I just kept putting it off.  Most of the evening has been busy doing a bit of shopping. I have a tea party to go to and Rob, me and his mom, went to a few places to find fancy hats for the tea party. Not one for Rob, of course. He’s not invited. It’s an all-girls/women thing. So Rob’s mom and I are going and it’s being hosted by Rob’s aunt and her daughters. I’m looking forward to it. We went to one before and it was pretty neat and fun to dress up for something. We went to Goodwill first, and found no hats but I got a (men's) jacket for $4.50 and I looked at its original tag that was in one of the pockets (I’m pretty sure it was a new jacket) and the original price was $75. I say that was a good deal and it’s pretty warm.  It’s been so cold lately, that I wanted to make sure that I don’t freeze my butt off tomorrow. So I’m going to wear more layers than found in a flaky biscuit!

After Goodwill, we went to Ross. There, I found a cute hat, nice shoes and a Sharper Image mandolin for ten bucks! I have wanted one of those forever but they usually cost too much. Rob bought himself a set of clippers for his beard and a pair of headphones, the big puffy kind that sit on the outside of the ears. They are pretty neat, but Rob spent most of the rest of the evening singing punk music rather loudly and I was having to text him to get his attention. His alerts vibrate so I knew he would feel it, because he certainly wasn’t hearing me yelling.

I’m going to end here because I need to go back to packing a few last minute things. I’m pretty nervous but then, I always am. I’m glad the weekend is here but at the same time, I can’t wait until tomorrow is over. Isn’t that weird? I love the opportunity to sell my wares but it’s also stressful because I want everyone to love everything and buy everything. It’s also almost like I’m putting myself up for show so I have to be presentable and be more comfortable “selling” myself and my work. I’m sure it’ll get easier the more that I do it.

Okay, so that was a bit longer than I thought, but most of my post are pretty stream-of-consciousness so that’s bound to happen.

Day Thirty-Eight -- Jai Guru Deva. Om

So this is what’s up.

There is a belly dance class going on just down the street for $120 for 8 weeks (one class per week). I think it would be fun, and it’s about time I went out and did something non-jewelry related that I know I would enjoy. And above all, it’s more exercise and the best exercise is that which is fun to take part in. I just need to be able to raise the money to go to it. Which means that I would have to have better sales than usual on Saturday so that I can pay for it while still having enough to pay back my generous benefactor, for without whom, I would not have the permanent booth this year at the Silver Lake Art, Craft and Vintage Market. She is an awesome person and not just for lending me the money. I haven’t mentioned her by name because I wouldn't want people to start wagging their open hands at her thinking that she throws money around everywhere. The transaction was well thought out and I plan to pay her back as soon as possible. Did I mention that she is awesome? Anyway, so, that’s just something I want to put out in the Universe, I’d really like to take that belly dance class.

Well, that’s it for today. It’s late and I have a lot of last minute prep for the market tomorrow. I thought I’d stay up late and do some tonight, but I’m really not feeling it. 

Since this was a short one, here’s a picture for your viewing pleasure:

I'm assuming that lumpy bit is it's face...

 This is Nembrotha cristata, a colourful sea-slug found in the tropical Indo-West Pacific Ocean. They grow to about 50mm in length and have black bodies with a strange luminous green "trim".

Like most nudibranches, they deliver a painful string. They do not produce the stinging cells themselves but incorporate them into their own tissues from their prey, stinging jellyfish.

Thanks to the I Fucking Love Science page on Facebook for that fabulous photo and info! (It turns out that the moderator of the page is obsessed with nudibranches. I, however, just think the name is funny:-D Oh, and excuse the spelling of "colourful". I think she's British. )

P.S. You are freaking AWESOME if you know what song the lyrics in this post's title is from. Or you're kinda neat if you bothered to Google it to figure it out.

Day Thirty-Seven -- Up Where We Belong

Funny thing happened tonight… Nala, our boxer, (well, technically, Rob’s parent’s dog) was lying on the floor and as I just hurt my back, I told her that if she wanted me to pet her, she would have to sit up. So I’m standing there going, “Up! Up! Up Nala! Get Up!” not angrily though. I said it in a friendly, high-pitched voice and with a hand gesture. She just sat there looking at me funny, which was weird because she usually gets up after only one or two “Up!”s. Then I circled my finger over her and said, “Wingardium Leviosa!” … and wouldn’t you know it, she got up. I love that kooky dog!

Day Thirty-Six -- It Takes Two Baby

So I got my M back. Of course it popped off from me trying to get spilled beads out of my keyboard. I get beads in the wackiest places. Today I got beads in the right place and made these:

They are called Bitty Beads, beads made from beads. I plan to use them to make earrings. I have other designs I want to make as well. I'll give more details about them another time, or where it belongs on the other blog. Right now, it's late and I want to go to bed... which is also the reason I didn't edit the photos, not that they really needed it. 

Not a whole lot went on today besides doing some work and a LOT of cleaning and organizing. I decided that I will take charge of my space. I’m getting rid of some things, basically taking them back to storage for now. I’ve also decided that I’d like to sell my old bead storage containers, the stuff that’s no longer working for me. Most of it is perfectly good and should go to someone who could use them. I only did some preliminary work today, even though it was a lot, but the bulk of it will be done next week because right now, I have to prepare for the Silver Lake Art, Craft and Vintage Market this Saturday... The first one of the year. 

Day Thirty-Five -- She Comes In Colors

Today's blog post is going to be brief in the writing department but chockablock with pictures. The main reason the typing bit is short is because my "m" has run away. All the m's in this post is copied and pasted. trying to remember to hit Ctrl+V every time I need an m is a bit cumbersome... I suppose I could've used a word that used less m's there... silly me.

Today's activities ranged from cleaning, goofing off on the computer and dying my hair. I did what I said I was going to do by lightening it and then putting in the purple dye.  talk about fading fast... All I did was do a conditioning treatment after rinsing out the dye and a lot of the purple came out leaving me with what I have now... a weird combo of red and purple.

I kinda like it though.

You can definitely see the purple better than before when I didn't lighten it first.

With it pulled back you can really see the red bits.

This one was added just for laughs. I think I will use it as my Facebook profile picture.

Day Thirty-Four -- She Wants Revenge

Okay, technically, She Wants Revenge is a band name, not song lyrics, but I'm sure someone used them as lyrics somewhere. Still it's a musical reference so the title works for me. But I digress...

I had to post this conversation between Rob and me because I thought it was pretty funny (kinda paraphrased because it happened hours ago but this is the gist of it):

Me: My new rock band name is Black Jellybean Revenge. (I often come up with phrases that I think would make good rock band names.)

Rob: (laughing) Oh, so you found another one?

Me: No

Rob: You will…

Me: I didn't find another one, but you took it to another level and therefore, I must annihilate you.

Rob: As well you should.

…Laughter ensues.

This is the kind of wackiness that goes on between us all the time, almost every day.

Here’s another example:

While at IHOP where Rob and I had a lovely breakfast, even though it was well after 12, Rob had left over mashed potatoes from the side that he ordered. I started shaping it with my fork. Rob laughs and says, “I already know what you are doing and we both laughed as I continued. After a bit of laughter and discussion, we came up with a plan:

One day, when we’re at a restaurant, we are going to order two sides of mashed potatoes not meant to be eaten. We will form it into the shape of Devil’s Tower and on a napkin one of us will write, “THIS MEANS SOMETHING”,  have it sticking out from under the table, and then leave. Rob’s idea is that we place the tip on top of it so they see the quote after they remove the tip, but I don’t know. What if they grab everything and not really see the quote because they grabbed it up with the tip, later to find a napkin in their pocket saying, “THIS MEANS SOMETHING” and not know what it’s referring to. Rob also says it would be great if we had green garnish so that we can make the greenery at the base of the mountain. I said that it would be great to have broccoli to really do it up right. When choosing a mate (yeah, like it’s THAT easy!) make sure you find someone who matches your sense of humor. It’s awesome!

It’s also awesome to be able to share your goofiness with friends. We spent the evening at Kristine and Dennis’ place, Liz was there as well. We riffed on a really bad cartoon and then watched some old Doctor Who. It was a special called, “The Five Doctors” I hadn't seen it before and really enjoyed it. What I also enjoyed, as well as everyone else, was the dinner that Dennis made: Arroz con pollo, refried beans and corn cake. It was fantastic. 

All in all, it was a great day today and the weather was simply gorgeous. 

Day Thirty-Three -- Everything In It's Right Place

Today was pretty cool. We went to have lunch at Coco’s with some of the clients that Rob works with, and then we went to Harbor Freight! There, I bought 5 storage containers. Four of them are for at home bead storage and one for travel. I am very excited to start organizing my beads with them. The boxes each have 24 smaller boxes inside that hold the same amount, plus a little more, as a bead tube that I’ve been having problems with. Now that I’ve pretty much filled them up, I want to get some more. They are so neat, and I mean that both ways. They’re cool and they’re tidy! If I were just to get more for my seed beads, I’d say I need 2 more, 3 at the most. But I’m seriously considering them for most of my other beads as well, except for the ones where the quantities are just so low. Now I feel like I’m going to actually have a nice organized stash that will make it easier for me to use my supplies.

After a quick trip to Joann’s, we went to Starbucks where they were playing old Ozzy-led Black Sabbath. It was awesome. It also makes me want to go buy some. Rob said he’ll probably just get it off the Play Store on his tablet. Once we got back home, I’ve spent the rest of the night putting beads in my new containers as well as watching some old, and I mean OLD, Doctor Who episodes and  also some Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes. Tomorrow is going to be a work day, or at least most of it will be if I decide to go back to Harbor Freight tomorrow for more storage boxes. That place is really neat! Geez, I use “neat” a lot. Maybe one day I’ll do a blog with pictures once I have everything organized. I can’t wait for that day. I’m gonna be SOOOO productive!

Day Thirty-Two -- She's Like A Rainbow

First, a quick observation: Today is the first day that I won't be able to rely on the day's date to remember what day it is in my blog-a-day progression... Now on to the blog entry:

Not feeling so hot today, such a bummer. I had plans to go to Kristine’s for a crafty day and I was looking forward to showing her the beads I got from Dollar Bead and tell her why I’m not buying from them ever again. (I’m going to be doing a post about that on my Ooh! Shiny!! blog soon) Would be fun to see Liz again as well, but I was, and still am, feeling crappy. So tired of that and I wish I knew what to do about it.

Last night I finally did my nails with the Seche products I got recently, and also a couple of coats of Gelous, a non-UV light needing gel coat (as the Doctor would say, I kinda let that sentence get away from me). And I am so happy with the results. I won’t say much about it as I said quite a bit in a previous post, but I will say that I went to bed only about 5 minutes after I finished my nails and I woke up the next morning with not one smudge. And that’s with the Gelous which takes FOREVER to dry on its own if you want to use more than one coat. Oh, and that “lost cause” bottle of Seche Vite, turned out to be just fine. I put a bunch of Restore in it and shook it a bit, then left it alone for a couple of days thinking it wasn’t going to recover, then yesterday I checked it out and it’s like a fresh new bottle!  Okay, enough nail talk or else I’m going to turn this into a straight up beauty blog. OOH! Great idea! I think I’m going to see if I can have a couple different pages on this blog, maybe I can have a beauty product review type blog… that might be fun. That would require me earning more money so that I can buy other beauty products. I can even interview other friends and ask them about their beauty regimes or products they like/don’t like/etc.  We’ll see. Though I am spreading myself kinda thin between this blog and the professional one, though that beauty page would just be a part of this one and they would still count towards my blog-a-day entries (my blog, my rules.)

I did go to Sally’s today and got some new stuff for my hair. I got a new, satin sleeping cap, a cholesterol conditioner and some shampoo samples. I also bought some hair bleach and developer because I want to try the purple again but with lighter hair. It’s just such a shame that purple fades so quickly. I’ve used a ton of different temporary/semi-permanent red dyes that lasted a lot longer. Hell, when my hair was green (was supposed to be blue) the color lasted a lot longer with purple. Now I know why people with purple in their hair lament so. Seriously though, every time I wet my hair even a little bit, the purple was coming out in dark drops. Still, it’ll be nice to have bright purple hair even if it lasts only long enough for me to get a good picture of it. I’m going to work on that next week. Maybe I’ll do that on Monday. 

For your viewing pleasure, above left is my fingernails looking fabulous in black! And on the right is a picture of Tardar Sauce, AKA Grumpy Cat, that I cut out and taped to a jar of Tartar sauce... I crack myself up.