Can I get a hallelujah that the Fall has actually come to us! No more constant a/c… cloudy and breezy… I love this change! Yippee! (I knocked on wood, therefore there is no jinx factor! It’s a rule I made up!)
Dang it, I haven’t crafted, or taken pictures or done anything creative in weeks and weeks! Still fighting the cough after the cold and I’m currently unpacking 60 boxes of candles at the store! Which brings me to my next idea:
We’ll be having a GIVEAWAY any day now… definitely a candle or twelve…that and perhaps a Webkinz and something Halloweenie… to get in the spirit!
I’m supposed to be assembling some sort of post card and mail it out for the shop’s 5th annual Halloween party… but I can’t think of anything to take a picture of or draw. I think the cold and large amounts of Robitussin have killed my inner artist! Temporarily, at least.
I need inspiration… the 300 pounds of Pumpkin Pie Candles just aren’t doing it.
Ooh! Something sort of sparked… just now! To the art cave! ;)
and spring one, too…
Since I’m so behind, I’m going to post 5 months worth of pictures… here.
My Mom’s Birthday in Las Vegas. The birthday girl, along with Pam, made US cupcakes for the ride out through the desert, I guess that would make it dessert in the desert. (I never said I was hilarious… or did I?) This one is for ME! See, a “C”!
I don’t know why I thought this was so amusing… a bunch of guys and a TON of beer… being wheeled in on a nice bellhop’s cart. Neat. (Identities have been carefully altered to protect the innocent.)
THIS is what we came to see!!!
We stayed at the Mirage. The entry has a wonderful tropical garden theme going on. Your hard-earned gambling dollars at work.
More lush gardens… “oooh… ahhhhh”. Uh-huh. Where’s Siegfried?
Mirage’s lovely pool. We read that they have the best pool on the strip…
The back side of water!!! You can walk underneath the waterfall (which is quite deafening, btw) to the other side of the pool!
The view from our room
Our little dining companion
Very cool entry…
Okay… just need to say this… I LOVE Cirque Du Soleil. O is amazing, Ka… anything in a tent in Santa Monica, I love it. I guess… growing up with the Beatles and naming stuffed animals after their song characters put a very definite image in my head of each song. Combine that with emotions and love for the boys and bam, you have a recipe for disaster a la king. I expected the performances to be the little stories and animations in my head come to life. Somehow, I figured that everyone saw the same thing that I did and related to their music in the same way. It’s like… take the most magical music, stick the most whimsical sets in as a backdrop, throw in some acrobatics and put them together. You think… out of body experience, right? But… alas… we came to the conclusion that this was more interpretive dance than true Cirque. Moments of beauty, moments of cliche and moments of… “what the…?!?!” If you go in with an open mind, you will love it. I, on the other hand, am a brat. I won’t talk specifics but… all I have to say… lucy was in the sky, and indeed, there were diamonds.
Next…
This is a normal Sunday (when Nathan is not on call) around here. We stop being lazy at about 3:30 then get reaaallly bored. “Hey… what do you want to do?” “I dunno, what do YOU want to do?”
We do that for about another 30 minutes then leash the hound and head out on the open road. This particular Sunday we ended up at Sequoia National Forest. I’ve never been… and with 80 full minutes of sunlight to see the magnificent trees, it made our adventure even… more… errr… abbreviated, yet memorable.
Oh, the picture… cherries on the side of the road on the way up.
The hike down to see General Sherman. It’s not kidding.
I didn’t know trees came in XXXXXL.
And here is the main attraction… the General. Top Half.
Bottom Half.
Moss!
Okay, I thought these only existed at California Adventure. (p.s… I think we should do the gnome-around-the-world gag with our dog)
I didn’t believe the postcards… That’s a truck nestled between those trees.
And an attractive porcelain deer… although, this one is real.
And on to our next adventure in July… LA to Florida to NC via 3 other states…
Our first adventure on this trip was us nearly missing our flight… We had a stop-over for what should have been 45 minutes. I’m not going to say anything, you can just look at the pictures…
Can anyone take a wild guess? But we were up in “vegas” for the second time… ever.
We stayed at the Yacht Club while in Walt Disney World… only my favorite place in the whole wide world. The Yacht Club hasn’t been my favorite resort destination on their property… but I’m glad we got to try it out.
A very lovely shot that Nathan took at the Yacht Club Dock to get into Epcot.
Ahh… Epcot… how we love you so. But, alas… on this trip, we almost had a date with disaster (I’m thinking in the tone of E!’s true Hollywood story narrator).
It was here at the World Showcase Mexican restaurant that the horrifying event occured… (although, this place looks awesome!)
THIS rock was in Nathan’s refried black beans. Holy Frijoles! (there I go again) In the darkness, he thought he had broken his front tooth. It was horrible. We got this mystery solid out into the light and we couldn’t believe it… a rock. This ruined our day. I contacted customer care and got a call back from a guy who… well… thinks mole-hills are still big. “Where I come from, finding a rock in your food tells you that it’s FRESH! So, you know that we use fresh food… although, this was an outside vendor and… **lame excuse here**” I love Disney. I mean… love them. This phone call… well… Disney thinks I’m an idiot. They think Nathan’s teeth aren’t important. This guy must not have any teeth because he comes from the land of quarry-a gratin. My Disney Love… down a few notches. That’s all. And I hope they read this, and that mouse, too.
We still had fun, despite the rock… on the people mover… which is being retired (rumor has it).
We always see the strangest things on or near Tom Sawyer’s Island. Last time, a gator (I need to dig up that picture and share!), this year… a very evil crane! Hard to see him, he’s on top of the wagon o’ beverages staring RIGHT at you in an evil-ish sort of way.
Okay… so we left WDW with all of our marbles and ran to the airport to go to NC. Delta had a pilot, but not a first captain. Then they had a first captain but no pilot. We ended up not having a crew so the flight was cancelled. They weren’t going to guarantee us a flight… only say… “errrr, maybe you’ll get there tomorrow??” So, we took matters into our own hands and rented a car!
“You’ll drive the first half and I’ll drive the second!” I said.
I slept through all of Georgia. I was way too tired to drive, Nathan was chivalrous enough to finish the 8 hour drive. We got to Durham, talked to our friends for 15 minutes then passed out. The day was a blur. And I had pictures from that day but they are lost in camera-land. Boo.
We did, however… have some pictures of our visit with Martha Stewart…. her homes, that is! In conjunction with KB homes, Ms. Stewart designed (or whatever) some lovely homes in the Raleigh area. Do you think she had anything to do with this besides point to that color green she always picks? I’m skeptical, but I loved the houses.
We didn’t get any pictures of the outsides for some reason… but we did get some interior shots…
First of all, this is my Cousin’s little girl, Kate… she should be a little spokesperson for KB because, let’s face it… babies sell. (isn’t she pretty darn adorable?)
I have to admit, the homes were nicely decorated but I hope that’s not why people were buying them. The interiors and floorplans were okay, one was bad (bedroom directly off the front entry). They all had a craftsman-feel inside. And I really only saw three exterior designs: Craftsman, farmhouse and one beachy/cottage-farmhouse. Again… some impressive details but… the planes flying loudly overhead, would have detoured me quickly.
My cousin Allison in one of the model kitchens.
Allison’s 2 youngest… Riley and Kate!
Back in Cary, NC, Mojo the french bulldog was dreaming about… treats and cooler weather.
The Q Shack. How I miss thee. I had some hush puppies, a chicken sandwich and Cheer Wine. Some good stuff. A bit o’ trivia… in the south and south-ish, you have to ask for your iced tea “unsweetened” if you don’t want a sugar syrup in it. By default, your tea will come loaded with sugar. Now you know.
Armadillos are funny. Even funnier when they are right under the menu holding a beer and… stuffed.
Nathan snapped this and said I should post it in the store!
This is how I will remember North Carolina… being lost. Even with our little GPS we couldn’t find anything… but a waffle house (dang it, they are everywhere!). We had a great time seeing everyone and are really looking forward to our second trip out this next week (yes, we missed them that much). We’re staying at the beach for a few days, should be a lot of fun :)
Jiminy Crickets! It’s 5:30 am!!! See, this is why I don’t blog… I get carried away ;) Have a great rest of the weekend everyone! :)
I haven’t been in a blogging mood lately… I just haven’t felt “crafty” or “creative” or like anything I had to share was new and/or noteworthy. I haven’t really made anything, too. Hmmm… too hot, perhaps? The summer… always puts me in a s-l-o-w and lazy mood.
I have a ton of pictures to share… a few stories… do you think it’s okay to post things that are old? :)
I did get some inspiration from Sandy at Art Tea Life… I have no idea where she gets the energy! So amazing and talented! And, she’s only one little town away!
So, let me try to remember that html stuff, sift through my hundreds of photos and I’ll be back soon!
Oh, and we got the webkinz… somehow my one order got tripled and I have to figure out how to get rid of them. If you are a store and want to buy them at cost, contact me… otherwise I need to hunt down my rep and make him pick up these darn ‘kinz!!!! over 400 of them… that I didn’t order… taking up a lot of room in my store. help.
What else… Halloween is up… I’m being daring and putting up a little bit of Christmas stuff this week aaannnndddd…. that’s it!
Lastly… we’re having an ant problem at the shop… I have to flick them off my leg and arm here and there, apparently I look like food. I was sitting at my desk and all of a sudden I see one crawling into my EYE!!! I run screaming into the bathroom… it was stinging SO bad and these are the little black guys!! In a panic, I flushed my eye out with water, still stinging. Finally, I pulled my bottom eyelid-thingy (technical term? I’m too freaked out to look it up) down to reveal that the little guy was dead… I had to pick him out of my EYE with a paper towel! EUGH, GROSS… I had no idea that would hurt so much. Ick. So… feeling defeated, I closed the store up early today, with a very red eye and shaken up quite a bit. I made 3/4 of a pair of earrings and watched a bad Keanu Reeves movie. Oh, the life of a jet-setting artist such as myself, never a dull moment ;)
Nathan (and I, sort of) participated in the 48 hour film project last weekend and went to the screening last night. We had a blast! This has inspired us to do more artsy film stuff. We don’t have a 35mm film movie camera, but we do have an amazing digital still camera… so we did a stop motion animation test using a box of matches:
It turned out quite well, for a 10 minute test with 70-something frames. So… we have the bug. We’re thinking of little stories to animate, both stop motion and 2d drawn stuff. I’m super excited :) It’s good experience for us both, but we are both so short on time, eek! I hope we can pull it off!
I’m convinced that Nathan is the next Spielberg ;) He has so much technical knowledge, it’s sort of humbling. I’m the one with the animation degree, but he knows soooo much more than I do! I like to build little sets, do the staging and come up with colorful characters, but he puts it all together with sound, creative camera angles and editing.
I may be turning the store into a production studio ;) hehe!
Lost… lost in a sea of “Summer Clearance” signs and over-indulging in a jewelry making supply purchase (shhhh…). I have about half-a-dozen posts started, but nothing up and finished… even my major epiphany entry… I love how that works.
I extended our Summer Clearance sale through this coming Saturday so come on up and take a look. I marked many things down to rock-bottom prices… Most things 10-30% off (All fashion jewelry is 30% off!!) but many random 40-50% off items and even some 75% off items. Making room for all the lovely Halloween items we just received!!
So… phew… I finally got the class schedule together…
Coming soon… Halloween Sugar Skull (Day of the Dead) Workshop, Basic Jewelry Design, Assorted Scrapbooking Workshops, Bath Product 101’s, Artist Trading Cards (ATC’s) and much more!
I’m going to put the schedule in flyer-form in a few local Starbucks… any other suggestions? I’m not a marketing guru and I hate going into such places and sheepishly asking to post my advertising. Better yet, you do it and I’ll give you something! hehehehehe…. shameless Tom Sawyer move.
It’s almost 2 am so I’m going to get to sleep, but I have been thinking of all of you in blog-city… I plan to take an afternoon and get acquainted with everyone again soon, and leave comments! ;)
To blog about (this is for “office use only” I suppose, because it’s not going to make sense):
The 48 Hour Film Project (Go Nancy and Friends!!)
Carrie’s Misadventures to pick up clasps and wire… I came home with a bead store
Have I mentioned that I dislike the heat?
We’re going to North Carolina in the middle of July! (what?!?! Whose idea was that?!?)
Looking through ancient Violets are Blue flyers from 1999… awww, look at my horrible layout design
My Mom may be getting her own park! Well, sort of
Happy Birthday Ms. Buswell
Who wants to come dispose of the 2 dozen deflated balloons I have hidden in the back room?
Birthday presents a-flyin’
Ummm… I knew there was more… but… whoa, it’s late!
I’ve been tagged by Wendy at Paper Dreams…. here are the rules…. each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog! Here we go:
I actually think I tell too much about myself in my blog… so some of these may not be a surprise to any of you, at all… ;)
1. I’m not a big veggie eater… I’m convinced that I have the same taste buds that dogs do. Apparently, there was a study that shows that dogs have an unusually large amount of “bitter” taste buds and do not enjoy such foods as broccoli and other bitter vegetables. That’s my excuse, I’m sticking to it.
2. Also, in the food category… I have an aversion to condiments. Yes… that goo you put on sandwiches to make them more “tasty”. That’s your opinion ;) hehe! I can do bbq sauce and ketchup sometimes… but the “others”… aaaallll off the menu for me. It’s strange, I know… someday I’ll figure out where that came from.
3. Overall, I’m a major obsessive compulsive. I’ll spend hours doing something the “wrong” way or the “long” way if I started on one of those paths. For example… if I can’t find the right size paintbrush or other tool, I’ll use another one that’s in reach instead of looking for the proper one because I want the job done RIGHT now (or is that lazy?). Or…. like the other day…. I purchased a PDF of a book because I wanted the book right away. It wouldn’t let me print the book… so I took 3 hours doing screen captures and printing the pixel-y pages in photoshop then I binded the book myself. I still haven’t read it.
4. I love Disney theme parks! I don’t own all the Disney Dvd’s, I don’t collect much, but I love Disneyland and Disneyworld. For a while there we were going to mouseland 2 or 3 times a week! Even if only to run in and go on Space Mountain. It’s my retreat and I have subliminally suggested to many of my friends and family that they purchase season passes. It worked. Disney owes me a fruit basket. But… I will get many of you to go to Disneyworld… you just HAVE to go, it’s SO much fun!! I’m going to report on a trip soon, you will become a follower, too ;)
5. My house is a mess, the store is a mess… but 90% of the time, I know where everything is. Little piles everywhere. I’m a piler and a piler-balancer. It’s my way of filing. It’s not the best, but it’s fast. Paul knows what I’m talking about, so I hear ;)
6. I adore corny movies staring one-hit-wonders or strange pop singers… mostly because they can’t act and it’s hilarious. I own Cool as Ice and subject it to all who come over to my house late at night. We saw “Glitter” in the theatre and now I’ve blanked on the other ones I’ve seen. Duh. I also enjoy corny, yet scary, underwater creature sci-fi thrillers. If there’s a movie about an abnormally large/radioactive/alien/pregnant/displaced amphibian-reptile that is attacking the eccentric locals in a bayou/cave/backwoods river/old lake and a rag-tag team of young scientists/thrill seekers/environmentalists come in to investigate… I’m in.
7. I adore 80’s music and know all the words to most songs. I sing loudly… badly…. on purpose. It never gets old.
So now I’m supposed to tag 7 more people so they can share a few personal factoids and sort of frighten us all a bit ;) hmmmm… those 7 shall be: Graycee, Rachael, Sandy, Deb, Tyn, Lucy and Sandy.
I’ve been very behind on my postings lately… just really overwhelmed with shop “stuff” and a side project. Hopefully, I’ll be back in the game soon… I miss blogging! :) Hope you are all having a good start to June… can you believe the summer is here… already? Not technically, but it sure feels that way! I’m trying to start a Tae Bo obsession. I’m hoping if I start, it will stick and I can form an obsession (works with chocolate, right?). I lost 20 lbs with ease one December… while my soap was cooling in the kitchen I’d pop in a video just to kill some time and get a bit o’ exercise and wow, 20 lbs came off right away. So, I know it works… it’s the commitment that’s annoying. Also, we are planning a trip to visit our friends in North Carolina in July. It’ll be lots of fun to see them but NC… in July. Ewwwww…. We’ll have to go back in the fall to get the well-rounded season experience but we really miss S and A so we’re going sooner than we thought :) If any of you live there… can you point me in the direction of a good beach? Our friend said Myrtle, but that’s SC. So, any tips would be awesome :) And, does anyone know the manufacturer of an air conditioned bubble I can live in while I’m there? I guess California is just as hot… but it is, as you know, a dry heat! (I still don’t get that).
I wish I had a camera strapped to my head, able to take pictures at a moment’s notice in any direction.
Why? you ask…
Because the oddest little man just poked his head in the door of the shop, was examining the bell tied to the door on a ribbon and tried to STEAL it. He looked up at me, I shook my head “no” like I would at our Golden Retreiver (who would GET it, too) and he carefully looked at the bell again, then slowly closed the door and slinked away. I want to name him Rumplestiltzkin… he looked like what I think he would look like… etcetera. Or, Magpie… since obviously he likes shiney things.
What I really came here to blog about is OUR CLASSES! YAY!!! As I type, our first class is in full swing! :) Yippee!
Here is our class schedule (You can also find the permanent link living on the top right of this page)
Whimsical Workshop Class Schedule as of May 17, 2007 – Please check back for updates!
Coming soon… Artful Shadow Boxes, instructed by Joe Carrion and Soap making 101: the basics, instructed by Carrie Hannegan and much more! :)
So, what are you waiting for?!? :) Sign up and meet some awesome people… and have a vintage soda pop! :) We can only accomodate 4 crafters at a time, so space is limited!
So much more to blog about… after I get through paperwork central, I’m SO going to bombard everyone with more stuff! Happy Thursday to all!
What a day! Hit the ground running and barely had time to sit down today at all… that’s a “hit the pillow and pass out immediately when you get home” sort of day.
I spent over 5 hours hanging up chinese lanterns in the art workshop room… I then turned out the overhead lights, took a step back and absorbed the fruits of my labor… The twinkling lights in the lanterns, the beautiful color and playfulness of the lanterns as they sway in the air conditioning… then thought to myself… what the @%#! was I thinking opening this can of worms… I should have left well enough alone, this project has been weeks in the making and from all the ceiling tile shuffling, I got fiberglass and dirt all over everything. It’s semi-enchanting in a smothering, ceiling-is-swallowing-me-whole sort of way.
But isn’t it just that lover-ly? (And it isn’t even done yet!!!! ARgH!)
And the “Art Shelf of Wonder” is coming along beautifully (I can’t take any credit for this!):
Our Sale is well under way… many things in the store are 20% off! The sale will run through this Saturday which is our Anniversary party!
I’m completely overwhelmed, things aren’t ready for our big party on Saturday and I’m behind on my correspondence and paperwork… and little unexpected things keep creeping up… like Midwest sending our entire Halloween order… which isn’t HUGE, but enough to make me want to leave it on the street for someone to take. Susan had a great idea… wrap them up like presents since it IS our Birthday party and it could be really cute decor. Clever… but I like the leave in the street thing since they’d be gone ;) It’s super cute stuff, just… wow…. early. Mental note… another thing to add to your “The Business of Bliss and other Fairy Tales” book… again, kidding. I love that book. But… if you are thinking of going into business for yourself… and you aren’t familiar with running a business… ask at least a dozen people in the field you are looking at going into. OH! And sidenote, I heard Victoria Magazine is coming back! Yayyyy! But seriously, I love a “you go, girl!” book as much as the next person, but as far as day-to-day business(in the retail world, to be specific)… there’s got to be something more “real”.
Sorry, long day… brings out the whiner in me.
“Well begun is half done”… I’ve made a list… that’s a start!
OH! Our classes are coming together!!! We have some AWESOME projects scheduled for the following month with some amazing teachers (most of whom are published and/or had their pieces in an art gallery!). I’m going to be adding a few more classes over the next few days and I may teach a class. I’m thinking bath products 101. Something super easy. And I want to hear from YOU! What do you want to learn how to make? What sounds fun to you? :)
On the next episode of scatterbrain’s blog of mystery:
1. Sandy!!!! I owe you an email!!! I want you to teach here!!! I took pictures of your lovely gifts to Sue and I and want to blog about them!
2. Sue C. is making charms using my cupcake art, you must see!
3. Cathi! I have like… 5 people wanting to get on the torch all at once… hope you have some free time coming up!
4. There’s a little story about us in the local paper, The Foothills Paper! Many thanks to Gayle for her hard work and awesome writing skills!
5. Another giveaway! I haven’t even sent the winning item to the last winner! ugh! I’m just THAT behind!
6. My life-changing epiphany at an estate sale
7. The price of gas is scary, I’m going to buy a scooter
8. Roof dust & fiberglass insulation stings the eyes quite badly
…. and other misadventures!
I’m behind on my blog reading, commenting and email composing… I promise I’ll get to that next week after a long day of loafing as a bumper :)
