And Another Thing . . .

More Seashells

2010-03-02T05:42:00.002-05:00

This is for a framed piece I'm working on. I found some great square frames that hang from a ribbon at Michael's the other day. I also found some great 3" square frames for which I was working on those pieces I posted yesterday.

~ ~ ~

Vaguebooking is an Urban Dictionary word for posting an intentionally vague Facebook status update, that prompts friends to ask what's going on. What I'm about to say is not that. I really just don't want to rehash how horrible yesterday was. It started out being a cluster of bad decisions on my part and ended with becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy because I was hyper aware of other stuff piling on.

Here are two lowlights:

I ran out of gas in Steve's car and had to call AAA to bring me some. Who does that?? I'm 53 years old, not 16! Idiot! (There were extenuating circumstances, but ultimately - I'm an idiot.)

I got teary at the pharmacy counter in Wegmans because I'm so tired of dealing (for weeks now) with my new high deductible health insurance and my expensive Effexor (I could write a volume). I got teary because I was finally waited on by a highly skilled, effective, customer-service oriented, my-new-best-friend employee who fixed everything. I even wrote her name down so I can send her a thank you note and write to her boss about her. That good.

Here are two highlights:

My Prius is back in my life. Simon's been driving it for the past, I don't know, two months, because his car has multiple things wrong with it and he didn't have the money to fix it. This is actually a lowlight within a highlight because he didn't quite have all the money so I did loan him the rest, something I swore I wouldn't do, but I'm sick of the inconvenience of having to carpool with Steve. I need my independence and my Pretty Red Prius.

I received notification that I was accepted to the Riesling Festival in Canandaigua, in August. I participated last year so it wasn't exactly a surprise to be accepted again, but I'm happy and grateful to have received my first confirmation of the year for a multi-day festival.

Thank goodness today is a new day. I got the best night's sleep last night. So did Reggi, or Sneezy McBeagle as we like to call her. She's had a cold which was first a cough then turned into a head cold, poor girl. She's on the mend now though.

Couple of Things I'm Working On

2010-03-01T06:37:00.003-05:00

2" Diameter

3" x 3"

Oh no, Ohno!

2010-02-25T18:09:00.004-05:00

You asked for it, Gretchen. There! That oughta hold you. (You wish.)

Between the Folds

2010-02-25T05:23:00.006-05:00

Gretchen turned me on to Between the Folds, a fascinating study of the science of origami. She had Tivoed it but I found it on Netflix. Steve worked late last night so I had a lovely Stefani Evening of watching this video while eating dinner, then stitching.

I've seen a lot of photographs of very intricate origami because I'm fascinated by it. But I guess I never gave much thought to how it was created. It was so beyond what my mind could imagine, I didn't try. I never realized that wet folding is how such soft shapes are made. And I really never imagined that a lot of these shapes are drawn and mapped out before folding.

I highly recommend this video - and I thank you, Gretchen, for telling me about it. It's brilliant!

And here's something similar to what you'll see in the documentary. I love this!

Origami In the Pursuit of Perfection from MABONA ORIGAMI on Vimeo.

Grocery Groove

2010-02-23T20:51:00.006-05:00

I think I've found a way to spice up my grocery shopping trips!

Diane Rivers

2010-02-21T08:07:00.004-05:00

I'd like to introduce you to my talented friend, Diane Rivers, who builds creative birdhouses and angels from recycled pieces of lumber and found objects. It's my favorite kind of art - creative and functional. Diane builds the birdhouses to the specs of specific types of birds so these can be mounted outdoors. But I suspect lots of people use them as decoration inside their homes.

The angels are made from chair spindles!

While I have not yet been to her adorable shop in Wallace, NY, I have seen Diane's work in person because her husband used to work with us at my day job. Doug used to sell some of Diane's work to our employees. Before these one-of-a-kind birdhouses and spindle angels, she used to sell flowers. My dad still talks about the black (dark, dark purple) irises he had me buy from Doug for him years ago.

I thought I had written about Diane before so I had to look it up. Check out the look of her shop back in 2007.

She is very talented and has been doing a bang-up job lately getting the word out about her work, like this excellent blog entry by Kay Thomas. Kay is a far better writer than I, so I'll let her tell you Diane's story. (I bookmarked Kay's blog for future reference - she writes about the beautiful Finger Lakes region and some of the interesting people she has met.)

Diane's work can be found online here: 100Birdhouses.com.

Monogram, of Sorts

2010-02-19T06:30:00.004-05:00

Brenda suggested a monogram-to-order type of center embellishment when I posted this new design the other day. I like the idea but I think it's the kind of thing that could drive me crazy if I offer it for sale at shows.

My first thought was to make a plethora of Sticky Notes with a variety of letters - single letters, not true monograms. I'd have more "S" notepads than "Qs", for instance. But I know this is the type of thing that people are going to say, I need a "T" but do you have it in this pattern and in blue?

Then, to get back to an idea I've been percolating on for a long time, is to have bowls of embellishments and a good selection of "blank" notepads and I could glue them on the spot, to order. It seems a little crazy but I think it would be do-able. I sometimes have a line in my booth, but not usually. And at these bigger shows, I'll likely have someone working with me - so she could handle other customers. I glue pretty fast. But under pressure? How do I glue under pressure of someone watching and waiting??

I ran the idea past a few customers at a couple of shows last year and it was met with positive response. (I know, what else are they going to say? Though people are surprisingly honest too, I've found. Some people are not shy about offering suggestions!)

The key is, now that I have the Groove in full service - this crazy idea seems even more do-able in terms of preparation.

I think it would be pretty interesting seeing the combinations that people come up with. Especially with the letters - maybe they'd make their own monogram, if there was room.

~ ~ ~

I received an application yesterday for the Mendon Station Festival. The chairwoman approached me at a show last year but I had a conflict that year. I'm considering doing it this year - still thinking about it. It's two days in September - seems to be largely an equestrian event - being in Mendon and all.

And I received my application for the Junior League of Rochester show yesterday. It's the weekend after Letchworth so hopefully I'll be accepted for that and will have to skip the Jr League show this year. Their choice of vendors was a little disappointing to me last year - but like I've said, they bill themselves as a "Holiday Market", not an art show. I'm not too upset about missing it - but I'll hold it in reserve in case I don't get accepted at Letchworth.

Speaking of shows, again I invite any local craft business owners to join our Yahoo Group, Rochester Crafters. We're a growing little group who shares information about area craft shows and resources.


Click to join RochesterCrafters

Reggi is doing great!

2010-02-17T08:09:00.003-05:00

Dad called me at work yesterday to ask how Reggi's visit with the vet on Monday went. I then realized I had not posted the results here yet.

She's doing great! The chest x-rays were the best the vet has seen for her. He's almost positive that white blobby thing was just a swollen lymph node. He found all her lumps, aspirated them and they showed no sign of cancer. He said her cough is probably due to the dry winter air or dust mites or something. He even complimented her silky coat, all filled in now, from the last spot-shaving he'd done for lump removal.

Best $100 ever spent.

He said we can now wait 6 months to do the next chest x-ray. (This recent one was 3 months after the previous one.) Because she has had cancer and it tends to metastasize in the lungs, he said we should continue with chest x-rays.

Dr. Hines then went to get Reggi and this time carried her in and put her on the table so he could show us where the lumps were. Normally he walks her in on a leash and once she sees me, she skids around the corner on two wheels, she's so excited. "Mama!! You came back for me!"

This time, on the table, plus Steve was with me, she was whining and squealing so loud, we couldn't hear the vet talking! He had to stop for minute until she calmed down.

Our girl loves us and we love her.

I Can Do Oval?!

2010-02-15T06:33:00.006-05:00

This is part of a new something I was working on a lot this weekend. It's tiny, only 1-1/2" x 2"". More to come!

I never seem to get to the things I intend to do on the weekend. Join the club, I know. I intended to embellish dozens and dozens of Sticky Notes. Instead this new project I wasn't even planning on working on, took up lots of my time (and I learned a new function on the Groove!) That must have used up the major portion of my brain because here's what else I did this weekend:

I drove home from the gas station with the gas cap dangling and the little door wide open. (In my defense, I received a call as I was finishing pumping and I was intent on grabbing my receipt and getting back in the car because it was windy and the music was kind of loud at the pump and I knew that would make it hard for the other person to hear me via my Bluetooth.)

I didn't run the water long enough after putting a bunch of unidentifiable food from the refrigerator down the disposal and now both sides of the kitchen sink are clogged - for about 24 hours now. (It's happened before, we'll keep working on it. But now it's Steve's responsibility because he has today off and I don't. And the dishes are piling up.)

I finally got around to hemming two pairs of jeans for Steve and as I was working on the 2nd pair and I cut on the WRONG side of the ruler. So now his choice is to wear denim (insert here: capris, pedal pushers, clam diggers) or we'll cut them off to be shorts. I feel way worse than he does. Sigh.

To quote Dad: Good or bad, it won't last.

To quote Mom: This too shall pass.

~ ~ ~

In other news, Reggi goes to the vet today for another chest x-ray. I'm pretty worried because she's been coughing a lot lately - that inverted sneeze, the vet calls it. It's usually due to allergies so unless there's something going on in the house with the heat being on so much lately - I'm worried that white blobby thing is back and pushing on her trachea. And she has at least 3 new lumps but two feel benign (unattached and squishy - sorry, were you eating breakfast??)

So this means no food or water after midnight last night so I haven't fed any of the animals this morning and they are meandering around me like I've lost my mind and forgotten the morning routine. Even harder is not doing one of my favorite things with Reggi. Every morning after she eats her breakfast, we play a round of hide and seek with a treat. She sits and stays in my studio while I go hide. Then I call her and she runs around trying to find me. It literally makes me laugh out loud. I'm not sure who has more fun with this game, her or me.

I know they are just animals, not children and Steve will feed the cats in about an hour after he gets home from dropping off Reggi at the vet's. Actually, I do usually feed the cats anyway, even if I can't give Reggi any food. But I guess I couldn't bring myself to do it this morning. Those puppy dog eyes kill me.

So I'll call the vet after 2:00 today and make the appointment to pick her up after work so I can go hear the news from the vet with Steve. I hope I'm over-preparing my mind and it's not bad news.

~ ~ ~

I was so looking forward to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics Friday night. I understand they had to go in a completely different direction than last time because the Chinese set the bar so incredibly high with their precision human movements. But I thought it was dull and slow this year. It's weird, I love computers and graphics and color, and there were some amazing effects - but overall, it bored me. And each act/section went on forever! I liked the music - love barefoot k.d. lang and the fiddlers and tappers with their feet on fire. But could someone please tell the other female singers to lose the ugly contortionist cloddy shoes??

But Apolo won a silver! I admit, I got to know him from Dancing with Stars - but I'm glad I did. Cute as a button he is. During one of the first heats, when he skated at the back for almost the whole time, then pulled ahead by a large margin, at the end - fantastic!

And so . . . I'll leave you with a little beefcake!

CraftEdu.com

2010-02-11T06:01:00.003-05:00

My Facebook friend, Donna Kato, invited me to become a fan of CraftEdu, which led me to the website here. Go watch the presentation of work by the teachers - it's breathtaking!

Donna has a blog about how this got started here.

Donna doesn't really know me - she invited all her Facebook friends. She is an internationally known polymer clay artist. I used to watch her on the old Carol Duvall show. She makes very artsy (as opposed to cutesy) clay pieces that sometimes don't even look like clay. Did you know you can polish polymer clay to look like jade or marble, for instance? She's amazing.

Speaking of Carol Duvall, the other day I received an email from Ankara Designs, which is Ann and Karen Mitchell, two more very talented polymer clay artists. They were asking for support for a new web show with Carol Duvall. They said the show has financial backers who are interested in how many people would watch something like this.

The website doesn't seem to be up yet but I did send an email to that yahoo address. I think these web shows are absolutely the wave of the future. I love my Tivo - but these you can watch any time, any where you have an Internet connection - on your lunch hour at work, on your iPod, in your studio while working.

This is why I love the Internet - such a great way to connect with like-minded people!

New Sunflowers

2010-02-08T06:26:00.003-05:00

First, please excuse the blurriness of these scanned images. No time before work this morning to get the lightbox out and take a proper photograph. But notice how in-focus the button is here!

These sunflower images are rubber stamped and the way I used to sell them included no stitching. So I was going to discontinue them because I want everything I sell to have hand stitching on it. But people really like them. So I spent a good bit of time last year trying to figure out how to add stitching the flower. I finally decided don't fix what ain't broke.

This year, almost by accident, it came to me how to add stitching around the sunflower, rather than on the sunflower itself. I'm very happy with these. I'm sure having the Groove in service this year is what helped me - my mind thinks in a whole new way these days.

I had planned to rubber stamp the center of the flower on brown paper and cut it out with deckle scissors as I always have when it came to me to do a little spirelli action in the center. Sweet!

As I was assembling 125 of these yesterday, I remembered I have ladybug buttons too. I have about 7 different shades of sunflowers and a larger variety of stitched background colors and notepad covers too.

And the centers of about half of the sunflowers have points, which was Jen's idea. I didn't like them as well as the rounded centers but I know if I give myself time to get beyond my first reaction and look at it again the next day with fresh eyes, I usually like stuff. Now I think these are my favorite centers!

The amount of stress I feel every single day about not updating my Etsy shop or finish setting up my 1000 Markets shop is really eating at me. Instead of beating myself up over it I've started to think of new ways to accomplish this. Ideally, if Steve or Simon would do it for me, for free, would be my first choice. But they are both busy and have zero interest.To hire anyone outside this house to do it would entail getting product to them to scan or photograph and just not worth the trouble. I want to clone me, that's really what I want to do.

Today though, as I was having trouble scanning the bulkiness of these Sticky Notes, I did consider getting out my light box and taking a photograph. But my craft table, while not the messiest it's ever been, doesn't have enough room at the moment. Then it dawned on me. I need a smaller lightbox! All my pieces are small. If it wasn't such a production to clear a space to set up my big light box I might be more inclined to use it more regularly. Or have a permanent set up for it even.

Ooooh! I think I have a place to put it, as I think out loud here. A kitty-free location. I think. You know how snuggly a box can look to a cat. :-)

New Square Design

2010-02-04T06:20:00.004-05:00

Here's a new square design I've been working on, just for something different than my usual round designs. I fiddled about with different things and settled on the old standard layered points - but I like it. I've been working on a new butterfly for the center but I'm not happy with it yet.

Funny my last post was about getting my mojo back, then I promptly lost it. I've been feeling pretty crappy mentally but I couldn't tell if it was PMS or maybe I really did just hate the world. Probably a bit of both, as it turns out.

Yesterday, I was getting pretty worried about me but I couldn't decide if I should see a body doctor or a head doctor. I started figuring out what I would tell someone about how I feel, and I figured out my problem.

I'm annoyed because I'm not getting to do what I want, when I want. Saved myself a co-pay!

Simon's car is on the fritz again (whole list of things, I can't remember what). He's saving money to get it fixed so we're sharing my car in the meantime. You've heard this story before. Steve and I work minutes from each other so we carpool but that means I have to go to work an hour earlier than I want to, which cuts into my Pine Tree Designs time in the morning.

At work, I've been doing work I don't find fun or fulfilling. Plus I'm really mad about a situation that was supposed to change but hasn't yet and probably won't for a few more months. (Sorry to be so cryptic.)

It doesn't sound like much when I type it out, but it kind of snowballs sometimes I guess.

In the good news department, I filed my taxes last weekend, in January! That's a first for me - I always shoot for February, but end up getting to it late March or early April. And I've been applying to craft shows, figuring out that schedule for 2010. This weekend I'm going to make a list of product I want to always have on hand and get super organized. I love lists.

Click to join RochesterCrafters

Speaking of craft shows, just a reminder that our Rochester Crafters Yahoo Group has a pretty comprehensive list of upstate NY craft shows with contact information, fees and due dates available for members. It's easy to join. Email me if you have questions, I'm happy to help.

Return of the Mojo

2010-01-26T06:05:00.003-05:00

I finally got my January Change Fresh Slate Mojo! (Turns out it was the Illinois Sales Tax Audit at work that was blocking me. But that log-jam is finally breaking free.)

Some people count sheep when they can't sleep. I rearrange furniture. I've done it 3 times now so it must be my pattern. In my studio, all I did was switch my desk area with my work space area. I say "all" but it took me hours. There weren't all that many pieces to move but I had to deal with a mess on both sides before I could begin to move things.

This all came about because my printer died. Before setting up the new one, I decided to switch the TV with the printer. (The printer is to the left, outside the photo.) I tend to Tivo more stuff than I watch, then I have to delete stuff to record more stuff. So maybe with the TV more centrally located, I'll watch more. Dunno. I like to work in silence too.

I love those 2 units with all the drawers but when I upgraded from smaller units to these you see here, they blocked so much of my window view over the back yard and the neighbor's Christmas tree farm, all I had left was a little 6" x 6" peep hole. Unacceptable! So Sunday morning, while trying to go back to sleep, it dawned on me to switch the two spaces. I love it.

The only downside is the cord from the Groove (located to the right, outside the photo) doesn't reach my laptop gracefully - has to reach across my chair - not good. For now I've been moving my laptop to the workspace when I want to cut something. But I think a longer cord that I can tack up under the MDF counter is definitely in order.

Flames

2010-01-25T06:14:00.003-05:00

I finally got my new all-in-one printer/scanner installed. I gave up on waiting for Simon. Between work and enjoying his break before school starts up again today, it just wasn't going to happen, even for money.

This Epson is wireless and I got it connected to our network okay but I haven't been able to open the scanner software so I can scan from my laptop. I can scan from the control panel of the Epson but I can't adjust any settings there. In that case, it takes 3 minutes to scan one card - in super high resolution, which I don't need or want for most stuff.

I've downloaded the latest drivers, software, uninstalled, reinstalled, rebooted, etc. The messages I'm getting are that the laptop and scanner can't find each other, but clearly they can. I'll ask Steve or Simon to take a look - maybe fresh eyes will find the problem. To scan the above card, I plugged in the USB cord and then all is well.

I can tell why this Epson was only $150 - it's definitely cheaper than my other one. The plastic parts are pretty flimsy, for one. But it serves it's purpose and I won't feel bad when it gets worn out. Hopefully it will last at least a couple of years. The quality of items I've printed, copied and scanned all seem good - prints photos beautifully.

Scrabble Bulletin Board

2010-01-20T05:22:00.002-05:00

I think thisScrabble Bulletin Board I saw at ReadyMade is very cool, but I know it would bug me after it got lots of pin holes in it and started looking kind of grubby. Clever idea though!

Rochester Crafters

2010-01-19T06:04:00.006-05:00

Click to join RochesterCrafters

Last year a fellow craft business owner told me she was thinking of starting a group of eastside crafters to get together to bounce ideas off each other, share resources, etc. and would I be interested in joining? Absolutely!

But the more I thought about it, it seemed ideal for a Yahoo Group. When I suggested that to my new friend, she liked it too because we're all busy and don't really have time for meetings. She wasn't familiar with Yahoo Groups so I offered to set it up and she said to go for it.

I explored name possibilities last fall but didn't really want to launch it until January. We wanted the name Me, Myself and I - since we're all one-person operations but that was taken. I poked around forever and ended up with the generic, all-purpose, self-explanatory Rochester Crafters.

I know what you're thinking - just what I'm thinking. Do I really have time for this?

Probably not but I've been percolating on the idea for months and still really want to do it. I honestly have tried to talk myself out of it, but I can't. I was born to organize. :-) So without any expectations, I worked on it last night and emailed invitations to 37 women business owners that I've met over the years.

One of my biggest goals for the group was to store a file that lists area craft shows and the contact information for each. Because I list my show schedule online, I get calls and emails fairly often, from people asking for just that information.

So we'll see. I've been a member of these Yahoo Groups before and they can be really good or really bad, in my opinion. Really bad equals total socializing with no real content.

Secretly though I must have high expectations because last night I dreamed I invited 50 people and 38 accepted immediately. Then again, I also dreamed the large table in the middle of my studio was cleared off and usable. Dreams....

It's Up to Me

2010-01-18T05:42:00.005-05:00

My new Epson all-in-one is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow so here's another golden oldie Sticky Notes cover. That circle is a leather-look paper I had - probably a report cover I recycled I bet. Wish I had more!

I had kind of a downer weekend. I "wasted" almost all of Saturday trying to come up with stitched heart designs. Nothing worked satisfactorily. I later remembered I had this problem last year, although I didn't have the Groove to work with last year. Last year I decided to go with my strengths and stitch some of my original circular designs in Valentiney colors. Yeah, that works.

Maybe I'll even get those Christmas cards in my Etsy shop replaced with Valentine's Day cards. What?? It could happen.

Sunday I decided I needed to erase that failure feeling by designing some new circular designs. I came up with several, which I'll be able to show you when my new scanner is functional. So see? Go with your strengths!

I also did some paperwork, in particular, I updated the two mailing lists I maintain - my own and the Brighton show. I cleaned up my workspace a little. I've been feverishly working on finishing up assembling piles of Christmas pins but I've decided I must put them away in favor of spring designs. I have applied to 4 shows - more about that at a later date.

~ ~ ~

In mid-December I found myself actively waiting for the new year to start because I love the fresh, clean slate it brings. Then I guess I found myself waiting for our Vegas vacation. I realized in the shower this morning, that I was still awaiting that January feeling. I thought it happened automatically! Bummer. You mean I have to do something about it?? Fine!

I think part of my problem is that work remains the same - no change in sight just yet. The Illinois sales tax auditor returns tomorrow and I still owe stuff to the New York sales tax auditor. And the other situation I can't talk about remains stagnant. But I purposely took a nice break between mid-December and now, doing more of my actual job, fulfilling stuff I like to do. That was nice. This other stuff will end at some point so now I'm ready to help push it along.

I've been thinking I'd like to rearrange my office or my studio in some way but I'm not sure that's do-able. Still pondering that. See what I mean? I'm craving change!

Moving On

2010-01-15T06:04:00.004-05:00

This is an older card but it represents that I've got hearts on the brain, working on a new stitching design for Valentine's Day product.

My beloved Epson all-in-one has pooped out on me. I got a message a few weeks ago that some parts inside are nearing the end of their life - please consult the manual. Oddly (ha!) the manual has no mention of this message. So I consulted my usual source, Google. I learned this message means the waste ink pad is full. I found lots of places to download a utility which allows you to reset the printer sensor so it will think the waste pad is not full. But I never really found a satisfactory explanation of how to actually clean the waste pad.

Epson suggests you buy a new printer! Genius!

I asked my favorite go-to-engineer at work about it and though he was not familiar with my particular model, gave me some hints as to where to find the waste pad. I found it, but didn't seem to be able to remove it. I downloaded the utility but that kind of annoyed me - to be able to fool the printer into thinking it was good-to-go, but not really cleaning the waste pad.

Yesterday, the error message became serious - I can no longer print, scan, no nuthin'.

I bought my Epson in 2006 and even the engineer said they aren't built to last forever. Harrumph. So yesterday I looked online, just to see.

And then . . . I bought a new Epson all-in-one. What?? It was only $150 - no tax, no shipping, shipped same day. And they got me hook, line and sinker, by inserting the word "Artisan" in the name of the model. I was powerless. It's not my fault.

Ain't she sweet?

I remember when I went from my previous machine, a Brother, to the Epson, the improvements were mind boggling so I'm expecting some improvements with this new one too. While I hate giving up my current Epson after only 4 years - I really use the heck out of it - printing brochures, postcards, etc. I'll bring it to work to send to our electronics recycler but ultimately, most of it will end up in a landfill, which bothers me - - - but I'm excited about my new machine!

In a nice bit of irony, this morning I stumbled upon a demonstration on You Tube, of how to clean the waste pad. I never thought of looking on You Tube for that. It was a different model than mine but I might have figured mine out. It looked a little more complicated than I thought it would be. And I did consider bringing it to work to have the engineer work on it for me.

Oh well, now I'm stuck with a new machine! It was only $150! It's called an Artisan 710!

Vegas - Day 4

2010-01-13T13:49:00.004-05:00

As per my assignment from Ann, we went back to Tiffany's on Monday so I could photograph the paper art in the windows. I'm still undecided if it's truly hand cut by Jeff Rudell or some other artist, or mass produced by Tiffany's for all their stores' windows - probably the latter.

That top photo was to whet your appetite. Look at these two windows! I think they are just breath-taking. The mitered frames around the windows are gray leather. It's Tiffany's, of course they are.

Tiffany's is in the street of shops at Bellagio, which also featured this atrium area. I love the burst of color of these lanterns (or seed pods) - not sure what they represent. There were also very large pots of sand sitting around, each holding a dozen or so giant burning incense sticks. Each was about 1" in diameter, about 18" long. (But not smoking as much as you'd imagine, it was very subtle.)

Then there's this dude.

I was kind of taken with these gold coins because artists use these (normal sized!) for embellishment on cards and as collage elements.

Before our trip, we had strongly considered renting a car and driving to Red Rock Canyon and Hoover Dam as I mentioned in a previous entry. Then I got the wild idea of driving to a California beach because I've never been to the Pacific Ocean. I did a MapBlast search and it seems like it would have been about 4 hours. I thought if we left the hotel at 6:00 AM, we'd get there by 10:00. We could hang out for about 6 hours, then drive back, arriving at the hotel by 8:00ish. (We never really slept past 7:00 any day we were there, try as we might.)

I wasn't totally convinced it was a good idea - that's 8 hours of driving for 6 hours of unguaranteed fun. But I floated the idea past Steve while we were eating lunch at New York New York, awaiting our room. He was moderately receptive to the idea.

Then we got our really cool suite and said screw any plans - let's just hang out and relax. So Monday after breakfast, we walked down to Bellagio for the above photos, then went back to the room, read for a while and napped for a while. Then I stitched for a few hours, watching Michael Jackson's movie, This is It, which honestly wasn't as good as I thought it would be.

Steve decided that would be a good time to go play some video blackjack. The movie was well over and he wasn't back yet - I was hoping that was good news. :-) I thought about going downstairs to find him but the casino is so big, it was likely I would miss him if he headed up to the room at the same time. (Duh, I could have called him on his cell phone.) When he came back to the room I asked if I should call our respective jobs to give notice. Nope, darn it. He'd played 3+ hours on the same $20 he started with! Guess he got his money's worth of fun out of that 2o bucks.

We walked around a couple of hotels trying to find just the right place to eat dinner. We ended up at a steak place in Excalibur. Truthfully, I only had French Onion Soup and a salad because I'd had a pizza pretzel mid-afternoon. Steve enjoyed his steak though.

This is the view from one side of the suite, during the day. You can see that crazy roller coaster track. Beside the rollercoasterness of it, add in alcohol - how much puking you think goes on, on that thing?? Ewww. It went until 10:30 at night (I think it was) - we could hear the screams faintly from our room. You can also see the Statue of Liberty in the lower left. It all looked so big from the ground.

Mom, I thought of you often, in our big fancy hotel room on the 32nd floor. There were specific elevators to specific sets of floors so the higher floors didn't have to stop at every podunk lower floor. That thing zipped so fast, it just showed XX for the floors it was skipping! (It was beautiful inside, all inlaid wood looking.) You would have hated every minute of it.

Same view at night. Not bad for photos taken through windows.

This is out the front window, overlooking the strip.

Same view at night.

This is the sun setting over the mountains in the distance. We didn't want to go to bed because then vacation would pretty much be over but we got to bed at a reasonable time. Good thing, because we both slept like crap, waking up a lot. Must have been the anticipation of the alarm and getting showered, packed and to the airport by 9:00 the next morning.

I watched most of two mediocre movies on the plane, Fame and Post Grad. I even stitched while watching because we had no one with us on the aisle seat so Steve moved over and we put the tray down between us to hold my stitching things. I was so afraid I'd drop a spool of thread or my scissors and not be able to pick them up because everything is so cramped, especially with the seat in front of me reclined. On the way to Las Vegas, when the seat in front of me reclined, I could no longer hold my book out far enough to read without my glasses. I asked Steve if he would mind holding it for me out by the the aisle, but he politely declined. :-) I could read okay with my glasses on but it's kind of weird because I never do and I had to figure out just where to look through them.

A fine time was had by all.

Vegas - Day 3

2010-01-10T22:11:00.000-05:00

We moved from The Luxor to New York New York today, Sunday. We upgraded to a corner suite with a Jacuzzi in the room. We were blown away when we walked in and saw how big it was - with spectacular views of the strip! This is what $70/night will get you in Vegas in January. I know the website says $120 and up but I've seen our bill. (This photo is from their website - there was no champagne in our room.)

We even got to check in a few hours early so we just hung out in the room then wandered around in the hotel casino for a while. We'd had lunch at ESPN Zone so Steve could watch the football game.

We split some loaded fries (cheese & bacon sprinkled on a mountain of fries) that we didn't finish. Steve then ordered a burger and helped me with this sundae but we left a good third of it. I should have put a basketball or something in the photo for reference. It was huge and delicious and way too huge for human consumption.

We went back to the room, read and napped and we couldn't bear to think of food again. We did actually go down and get a NY pretzel quite a bit later, then watched another movie in the room, Whip It. It was okay, not great. We've been wanting to see another Ellen Page movie since we watched Juno around Christmas time when Steve's sister was staying with us.

O.M.G. I knew Juno had won awards and was a good movie, but man, oh man. I cried my eyes out - at Jennifer Garner's character, who wanted a baby so badly and was afraid the adoption with Juno would fall through. I adopted Simon 22 years ago but in an instant, I was back in those feelings of my own. I literally couldn't breathe. Poor Steve and Barb, not sure what to say or do, other than wait it out. My complete over-reaction (heaving sobs, people) must have had to do with the holidays or work stress or something other than the movie. Because pulease.

Around that time, we also watched the movie, He's Just Not That Into You - which I liked a lot. Steve liked them both too, though probably not quite as much as I did. We watch a lot of crime shows, so it was nice to watch some romantic comedies.

The weather has been perfect - sunny and in the low 60s. When we booked this trip back in October, we read that the average temperature at this time of January is usually in the high 50s. I was looking at the 10-day forecast today - it will be going down to the mid-50s soon enough. Vacations just always work out for us (except for rainy Maine).

Vegas - Day 2

2010-01-09T22:45:00.002-05:00

I meant to ask - is this a known thing that happens? Yesterday, on takeoff of both flights, as soon as we were airborne, I got so sleepy, I couldn't keep my eyes open and had to take a little nap. Is that an altitude thing? Weird.

In spite of trying to sleep in, we were both awake at 5:00 am, having had 8 hours sleep. We had a delicious breakfast in the Pyramid Cafe in The Luxor. But pretty early in the day, we were over the jet lag/time confusion thing.

I don't gamble.

Not!

Simon will be pleased that I can no longer say I don't gamble. "Who does that, Mom?? Who goes to Vegas and doesn't gamble?" When I got out of the shower this morning, Steve was watching the Players Network on TV, where different games were explained. I was kind of taken with Roulette, I gotta say. That's because it is literally a game of chance. All the other games require more brain power than I'm willing to give in order to give away money at lightning speed.

So we did a little casino hopping and ended up playing roulette at New York, New York. We had the table to ourselves and the dealer was a young kid, very personable and helpful to us. Turns out his wife is from Rochester and he used to visit his grandparents in Utica. We joked later that he pulled those city names from his dealer database to suit the players. For the next set of tourists, his wife was from Nashville, TN and he visited his grandparents in Memphis.

When I say I gambled, I should be clear, that I gambled with Steve's money, which turns out to be not that hard to do. :-) At one point I considered whipping out my own cash but couldn't quite do it. Guess I haven't totally gone over to the dark side. Too much tightwad in me to ever have a gambling problem.

We walked around different hotels for hours. We drank smoothies and milkshakes at a Haagen Dazs place. We went to see the lions at MGM and this time there were cubs there! Two years ago there were trainers playing with adult lions. This time there were three young women throwing balls for two cubs. They were like little kittens with balls of yarn except the balls were 18" in diameter and chewed to shreds. And the kittens had paws the size of my head. Still, cute as hell, we could have stood there all day.

We walked around one of the new hotels, Aria - just opened in the City Center a few weeks ago. That space was a big construction zone when we were here 2 years ago. This is a 4-ton, 19' tall typewriter eraser sculpture by Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen. They are known for all sorts of "pop art" - large sculptures of everyday objects.

Here's another sculpture - bunch of boats stuck together. It's, um, colorful. By Nancy Rubins.

There was other glass art that I saw through a window - but I can't find it online now to show you. It was very cool - in a gallery, I think. But the art that really blew my mind was some white cut paper art in the windows of Tiffany's. I don't know if it was by Jeff Rudell, but he is who came to mind immediately, because I know he did some unbelievable work for Tiffany's in New York City a while back. I saw these windows as we were walking back to the hotel after a show and was kinda of tired and didn't think a photo through the glass would come out too well at night. I can't find it online anywhere. I explained to Steve that Jeff Rudell's work is the holy grail to us paper artists, a big deal aplenty.

Heck, it might have been the work of Molly Jey - the style was very similar to hers.

We went back to the hotel after a while and read. I soon got so sleepy that I ended up taking a nap. I mean a good solid in-my-nightshirt, under-the-covers nap. My cell phone rang, medium-high with vibration, on the table next to my head and I never heard a note.

At 7:30 we went to see the Cirque du Soleil show, "O". Unbelievably wonderful! It's all set in and on top of water. From the moment the audience files into the auditorium and there are performers hanging out in the audience doing bits - to the way the curtain is removed - not even parted, but removed creatively, you know you're in for a mind-blowing experience. So much happening at once, so much to see.

You may recall we saw Cirque's "Love" last time, set to Beatles music. I had high expectations and they were exceeded but Steve didn't know what to expect so he was completely blown away. Even though by now we're both experienced, this show was nothing short of outstanding.

Dave Taylor writes a great review with lots of pictures. He has also written a piece about behind the scenes, which I'm off to read now. You can't watch one of these Cirque shows without wondering about the logistics of such a performance.

A good, long day. Lots of fun.

Vegas - Day 1

2010-01-08T06:38:00.003-05:00

Our hotel, The Luxor, in the foreground. That beam of light shooting out of the top can be seen in space they say. Whatever.

"All Continental flights have been canceled."

Those are the first words we heard when we got out of the car at the Rochester airport departure zone at 4:30 am. We sent Simon to wait in the Cell Phone Parking Lot while we went inside to sort things out. They put us on a US Air flight that left only an hour later than our scheduled flight. So I called Simon with the okay-to-go-home call and we were off on our adventure!

In retrospect, I think it's good we didn't check our flight before leaving for the airport. I have visions of getting stuck in a queue on the phone forever awaiting help to switch us to another flight. Since our alternate flight left only 50 minutes later than our original, we would have to hustle to the airport anyway. I'd rather be there, checked in and relax & stitch until boarding time. But that's me. :-)

Our new flight went through Philadelphia instead of icy Newark (the reason for our canceled flight). Both flights were uneventful other than the plane was uncomfortably hot, even with the air blowing on me. I slept and read, didn't even try to stitch, though I stitched in the airports.

Oddly, I have been so screwed up time-wise this trip. I don't remember the 3 hour time difference being that big of a deal the last time we came here. I think it was because of the flight change, not that the flight was an hour later but because we talked about the time so much, figuring what time we'd arrive, etc. I tried to stay hydrated throughout the day. Dunno.

We checked into our room in The Luxor, both surprised to see we'd booked a room that had a Jacuzzi in it. This is where middle-aged absent-mindedness is a good thing - it was a pleasant surprise - oh yeah! Look what we did!

We rested for a bit, then went to dinner at the highly recommended Burger Bar at Mandalay Bay. Thanks John - the food was outstanding! We walked around a bit and I bought a Mandalay Bay shot glass for Simon. He has a bit of a collection, mostly provided by me in my never ending effort corrupt his morals. I only bring him shot glasses from hotels or cities in which I've stayed overnight. Yep, I have rules for even that. (I don't think I bought him one from Mandalay Bay when we stayed there 2 years ago or maybe he'll have 2 now.)

We made use of the Jacuzzi and boy, I was ready for bed! Except it was 6:30. Steve wanted to watch a movie so I begrudgingly gave in. We found a movie we'd wanted to see in the theater but never did, Pelham 123. What a good movie! I can prove it because I watched it start to finish, without stitching. I never do that! Denzel Washington is always excellent and John Travolta played an excellent bad guy. As I'm writing this, Steve is watching a football game and there was a commercial on just now for another movie with John as a bad-ass. As I said to Steve last night, "Who would have ever thought that Vinnie Barbarino would have turned into such a good actor?"

We slept like babies.

Let's Get Musical

2010-01-07T05:20:00.003-05:00

I was really, really going to start my 2009 resolution to post no product here unless it's for sale online. But it's been a cuckoo week and I haven't gotten this Sticky Notes cover posted in my poor pathetic shop and I'm dying to show you because it's so different from my usual round stitched designs.

I filled out the application for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra biennial Designer Showcase House boutique and I remembered the woman who approached me at the School 46 show about this opportunity mentioned they like music oriented things in particular. I'm SO glad she said that because I'm not sure I would have thought of that. I know, duh.

This oval center lends itself to so many other designs, I think. I can see a stemmed flower there, or a snowman, or . . .

~ ~ ~

So I've been going in to work early this week, trying to cram lots into 4 days because we leave for Vegas at the ass-crack (as Simon would say) of dawn tomorrow. And believe me, he's thrilled about driving us to the airport at that hour. I'm taking my laptop so I'm pretty sure I'll be posting some while I'm gone. And stitching on the plane and in the hotel.

I saw some photos on a friend's Facebook page yesterday of her and a friend in Las Vegas, one of which was enjoying the nightlife. I started thinking that some people might think it's a waste to go to Vegas and not go out at night. We could stay in and watch TV or movies at home. But it's so not us, going out. I can't even imagine it. I mean we're out at night, we're not "clubbing" is what I mean.

Here and There

2010-01-04T07:57:00.002-05:00

Snowy Rochester, NY: 13 degrees (feels like 6!)

Sunny Las Vegas: high 50s and low 60s! We're staying at The Luxor Friday and Saturday nights.

We're staying at New York, New York on Sunday and Monday nights.

We're seeing Cirque du Soleil "O" at the Bellagio Saturday night.

Yep, Steve and I are going to Vegas again. We'll get there noonish on Friday and return Tuesday. The trip kind of just happened. In October, a few weeks after his mom died, I said, "Steve, you really need to get away and just relax for a minute. You've had so much on your plate with your mom for the last couple of years, plus the uncertainty of your job, it's been so much for you. You need to get away - and of course I would need to go with you. Even if it's just a weekend in Vegas, or anyplace, really, I th..."

"Okay, let's do it!"

We were going to go just for a weekend literally but decided that's too much flying in time and money for a short trip. Plus, they are practically giving the rooms away during the week. So it would be silly not to stay for 5 days and 4 nights, right?

It still cracks us up that we enjoy Las Vegas. It's so not us in our real life, but I guess that's what makes it interesting. Steve said the other day, until 2 years ago, he couldn't imagine himself ever going to Vegas, let alone enjoying it and going multiple times. (It was his idea to go 2 years ago, just to see, I was fairly skeptical - but we're both on the same page now!)

Last time we went in April and it was in the 80s but very comfortable. So it won't exactly be outdoor pool weather when we're there but we thought we might rent a car this time and explore the area, like Red Rock Canyon.

Garland of Ringlets

2010-01-01T19:40:00.004-05:00

Somehow this December 2009 project by Jeff Rudell escaped me! I love the tediousness of his projects. And that he uses the same tiny glue bottle I use. He's a paper craft rock star. (Click on his name in the linked article for his other projects, many of which I've posted in this blog from time to time.)

Steve and I made no attempt to stay up until midnight. I turned off my light when I was done reading in bed at 11:00. We got up around 7:00 and went in the hot tub for a bit. I made blueberry bread for breakfast and we started our year quite leisurely, hanging out on the couch, reading until almost noon. Nice way to ring in the new year.

Best wishes to all my family and friends for a happy and healthy 2010!