Monday, July 30, 2007

Obsessive Compulsive let down


Okay, so I have a few OCD issues, I'll be the first to admit that...and I will definitely admit that one of my current big ones is to check google analytics all day long, every time I am bored, or have a few minutes to kill or come home or walk back in a room...you get the point, well from Sat pm until tonight, the site was broken and not showing stats. I have been going crazy! I know, I know, its sad, but I admitted it was a problem already! They have started to fix it...by morning I should be able to obsess in a normal fashion again...

On the plus side, I received the Fall Adorn in the mail today and took the time I would have spent checking my stats to read it...it was great, go read it.

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Friday, July 27, 2007

Circles


Its already the end of July, I have still not recovered my summer mojo and I'm hot. I woke up this morning exhausted, from what I don't know...but I let myself fall back asleep for a while hoping to shake the sleepiness. I was up for about an hour, feeling like I was in the field of poppies in The Wizard of Oz and then fell asleep on the couch for an hour...I am still exhausted, but I have to accomplish something before I go to the restaurant tonight.

I'm trying to sit still for the afternoon and do some desk work, mainly because its too hot to move and unbearable at my jewelry desk with the lights on me.

Speaking of heat messing with me...the September Sampler will have something different than Bottle Cap Magnets from Manic Trout this month, yippee! It’s too humid to play with the resin right now, resulting in a tacky surface...and thats as in sticky, wise guy. So if you are normally a Sampler subscriber, watch out for something new! If you do not know of The Sampler, go there right now, the ladies over there rock and you should check them out!

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Thursday, July 26, 2007

7 Friendly Lane


I love the house I live in, I loved it for years from a far and the day I got a tip on a fantastic apartment big enough for my studio, would allow my dog and was in my price range I would have taken it no matter what, and then I drove up to the house I had dreamed of living in for years... Mind you, I would have preferred to have the entire house, but as it has been apartments for who knows how long, I'll take what I can get. My apartment used to be the doctors office for the Doctor who lived in the house with his family and my studio is the old waiting room. I adore my apartment, I have lived here for about two years and will remain here until I leave the area. One of my oldest and dearest friends just moved in to the top floor, so its even better now then ever. One of the things that always made me love the house is the huge wrap around porch that I don't spend enough time on and the flowers that bloom from spring until fall. As it turns out, my landlady lives near by and has an amazing green thumb. She is British and a bit older and those two factors help make gardens you would see covering the front yard of a cottage in the English countryside. Every once in a while I wander among the flowers and pretend that I can take photographs, today it is so hot out I am not wanting to do much of anything...so I took some time to wander...

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Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Summer Necklace


OK, summer is half way over and I have not posted the epitome of summer necklaces yet! I was hoping to post this in the next Manic Monday update, scheduled for Aug. 6th...there are a bunch of new goodies coming, I will also update the ever growing press page. In case you forget things, I send a newsletter out on Manic Mondays and if you are not yet on the mailing list you should sign up so you are among the first to know of what's new! The best part is that I also draw a random winner from the mailing list each month and the winner will receive 50% of an item of their choice, woo hoo! So sign up now!

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Sunday, July 22, 2007

I'll just keep 'em coming...one at a time


Another of the wonderful photos from Tara Wing. This one is of the Golden Touch Neckalces, which look so much lovier on people then they do just lying flat.

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Saturday, July 21, 2007

Dragging Along...

I am still so sluggish and uninspired...ugh. I received the last issue ever of Jane magazine in the mail today, what a bummer. I also received a huge pile of white buttons that I scored on eBay. I have been wanting to do a design I have been thinking about for a while and masses of white buttons keep calling out to me...so hopefully I can now get that design to come out.

I decided that I am not doing any justice to my huge amount of fabulous images that the amazingly talented, and my good friend Tara Wing took last week. I will admit that there are so many that I am a bit overwhelmed with choosing which ones to use where, but I do know that I loved this one, so you can have a peek at these photos I keep gushing about.



I can't believe that July is almost over, although to tell you the truth, I'm glad...its been slow on line and even slower in the restaurant and I need to have something perk me up, I detest not being busy...although I did just have a month of crunch time, so the week after a pile of deadlines is always miserable for me, I moss the adrenaline rush, the chaos and the energy of being so busy that every minute of your day counts. Here's hoping things pick up soon!

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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The dog days of summer...

I have lost my summer mojo. Going full strength every day and trying at the same time to have a well-rounded life is wearing on me. I have no motivation to do anything this week. Monday my very talented friend Tara had a photo shoot with Manic Trout jewelry and I have not done anything with photos yet, which is really sad because they are AWESOME! I will hopefully show off some here tomorrow. Ok...enough for now...blah.

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Monday, July 16, 2007

Date night with Harry Potter


Well, the date was with Tyler but after a lovely dinner outside in Rhinebeck we went to the drive in and saw the 5th year of Harry Potter! It was great, although I understood a lot more then Tyler simply because I have read the books and he has not...and I think he slept though one of the movies...but it was still awesome! I also ate popcorn AND sour gummy worms and how can you go wrong there?

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Saturday, July 14, 2007

Summer rolls on by


I have realized recently that I still think of summer in terms of break from school, meaning that then I think of summer form the end of May untill the end of Aug. Well, with that way of thinking, summer is already half over! I have not even been on a beach yet, I have not seen an ocean...where has it gone? So I then decided it was time to think of summer in calendar terms, as in the end of June to the end of Sept. Well, ok then, summer just began. Well then I thought, if I think in terms of design, then fall is already in full swing...and then I decided to stop thinking about how to define summer and try to enjoy some it.

I have been trying to at least go outside and wander around with my dog during daylight recently, and to catch up with friends when there feels like the days will deliciously last forever...which really only happens for me twice a week, because the other five days I have to go to work in the late afternoon, so I always feel like I have no time during the day. One of the main reasons for my being such a night owl is that I have hours stretched out ahead of me to work uninterrupted at night, and I love that feeling. OK I have 15 minutes before I leave for the restaurant, I'm going to take Faye out and see if we can catch a glimpse the parade that's about to pass by my house...I'm serious, its the firemans parade today...

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Thursday, July 12, 2007

My motto is "Be prepared"...

In a past life I must have been a Boy Scout leader or something, as I get older and older I have a need to make sure I never run out of anything. This scares me on many levels, mainly because I think it proves I am getting crazier every year...but it makes it really difficult to keep the spending in check as a jewelry designer. Its bad enough in regular life...for example: I have a large pantry, on one side are jars, cans, boxes etc of food...on the other side is a back up of those items, so if I run out of something I take from side B and then jot it down on the grocery pad on the fridge.

In my "day job" as a bar manager I am constantly getting talked to by the accountant on why I feel the need to always have to have a back up of the back ups. Its not very good accounting to have so much stock on the shelves...so this made me think pretty hard about ordering supplies for fall jewelry.

It was so much easier when I made all limited edition and one of a kind pieces, I would just buy as many vintage pieces as there were and I that was all I could do. Now with wholesale I have to think, hmmm, am I really going to need to order ahead of time all this stuff? Then I panic they will run out, or that something I NEED will be backordered...there are a lot of little worries in there, trust me. Of coarse then I freak out that if one style hardly sells then I have to deal with all of the left over supplies, and that sucks. Hmmmm...this one may take awhile...

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Monday, July 09, 2007

I'm so sad!


I try not to post the same news as all the other blogs I read but this is so sad! It was announced this morning that Jane Magazine will exist no more. The August issue is the last one ever. This sucks. I know that all good things must come to an end, but I have loved this magazine dearly for the last decade, as I grew up with Sassy it was only natural that I would spend my adult years with Jane...and now that time must end, very sad indeed.

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Saturday, July 07, 2007

The Circus is in town!


One of the few perks of living in an idyllic small town is that there are often throwback activities occurring with two blocks of my house. All summer long there is a lovely farmers market with live music, food and artisans proffering their wares every Sat., although I'll admit to walking past it more often then going in, but its mainly due to my getting up so late...well today we also have the pleasure of having the Circus in town! I wish I had a few kids to rent, but as I do not I will be taking Tyler, and enjoying cotton candy in the comfort of a non air-conditioned tent filled with thousands of sticky kids and large, smelly mammals. When was the last time you went to the circus, and one you could walk one block to? Exactly, so off I go...

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Friday, July 06, 2007

We all have our moments


So I was getting all ready to post a blog about my love of coffee earlier...I watched PCU the other night (again) and one of my all time favorite quotes is when Jeremy Piven wakes up and yells "Coffee, Coffee NOW!!!!" I feel that way when I wake up too...although there is no preppy pre frosh in my room to hand me a mug. Anyway I had not had my morning cup of coffee yet and was trying to upload this lovely cup of diner coffee, oh how I love diner coffee...and I deleted the entire folder of blog pics from the server. Yeah, I was thrilled. I had most of the pics on my computer, but recently I have become lazy and will just pop them on my desktop and then trash them after they are uploaded, so I spent the last hour trying to find all of my images again. Well, at least I have them all saved on my computer as well the server now. Well I will now go and enjoy my coffee, which I finally made and have drank a blissful half cup of...

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Thursday, July 05, 2007

Worries, fears and anxieties...

I have been dealing with all of the above for a few weeks now...I have been living in a constant state of stress and basically freaking out because I took a really big step towards Manic Trouts’ success and I am having a hard time dealing with it. I am now on the direct path to where I want to be with Manic Trout, but I am so scared that I can hardly breathe much of the time. These same fears have been holding me back as well and it was extremely hard to overcome them and make the leap I have taken and now that I have leapt I am so scared that I will fail, but I am marching on and trying to conquer all of my self doubts. I have had the pleasure of discovering that as I take each step with Manic Trout and as I overcome each level of fear and anxiety that surrounds that step, that the accomplishment of overcoming what was holding me back felt almost as great as the step its self. So as much as I am freaked out, I look forward to the challenge of getting over the next mental hurdle I have set up in the way of my success...I'm ready for it, bring it on!

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Wednesday, July 04, 2007

An (almost) ideal day!



A few weeks ago I posted about My Ideal Day well I almost had one of those days today, Yay! As it rained here for the 4th and the restaurant was closed, I had a day full of reasons why I could not run errands, hang out with anyone or even talk to anyone. I had a late brunch with Tyler at the diner, and spent the afternoon in my studio, makin' stuff, cleaning up and enjoying myself. Then I figured that nothing beats stress like working out and I never have enough time to exercise as much as I want...so I lifted weight for 90 minutes and then walked Faye in the drizzle for a bit...since then I have been back in my studio makin stuff. Gilly stopped by for about an hour and hung out while I worked, so I even got to fit in some family time today!

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Sunday, July 01, 2007

The obsession continues...

I really enjoyed blogging about my fav photogs the other day, so I thought why not keep going? So I am.


To begin with we have the farm equipment photo from eldphoto which plays into an odd obsession not related to photography. I have collected random bits of discarded farm odds and ends over the years, and when I last moved and had dumpsters at my disposal for weeks I gave in and tossed most of it, in a fit of lightening my baggage if you will. My favorite piece remained however and I have put it to good use on my front stoop as a decoration/door holder...an old metal fan case from a tractor...very sculptural...well this photo makes me love my tractor part even more.


Since we are already on the farm topic I will have to give another nod to Jared from Kansas I love his work and this one is wonderful.


The last photo from CamerasEye has a similar view to the barbed wire, so I most likely will buy them at the same time. The fence line is beautiful, very beach, very idyllic imagery.