Monkeys and keyboards aside, one Random + CSS still doesn't make poop.

Jodi Picoult's latest, Handle With Care, is astoundingly, amazingly, mind-bendingly depressing. If Christopher Moore's Fool was like watching someone you didn't know get kicked in the nads over and over, Picoult's Handle With Care was like watching someone you recognize get their fingernails ripped out. And we're not gonna touch the ending.

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I decided to make a maille fringe belt because I didn't want to sew and my results were . . . different. I feel sorta like I need to make the mobius ball sections on the sides more dramatic, or add dangly coins, or maybe some beads onto the yarn so it can hit people properly.

Maybe with the next prototype. Hmm.

Less than two weeks until Tekko and it looks like I'm gonna have to work primarily with the shinies I already have. Egads! Nightmares! :P

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Ebay! My sin, my soul! My pr0nish addiction! Give me t3h pretty pictures, I shall throw my money at you as I whine in a vaguely literary fashion. This is obviously the way things must be. I just wish I could quit you you'd let me get other things done.

I love google analytics. It lets me stalk myself with much more accuracy than ljtoys ever could.


Elizabeth Strong's workshop and show this Saturday were made of awesomeness. Her Turkish Romani dance primer was . . . different. Yeah. :P But by the end, she pronounced us able to take what we've learned to any three-day Turkish Rom wedding and hold our own. (Which begs the question--how many Americans would survive a three day wedding?) The workshop was tough but it didn't completely thrash us. Okay, so the second one didn't thrash us. I talked to Hakan, one of our local tribal fusion guys, who said he'd done the full Sadiqua Iron Man challenge of the day--start off early with Sterling's pretty hardcore yoga, then roll straight into both workshops. My not being there and being thrashed as well was due to it being early morning and not at all to my being a big sissy, thank you.

But I still got lots of video--basics stuff from the workshop as well as a good number of the performances in very good quality. I filled two memory cards and am especially proud of myself--especially with how I might have material to go over at a later date. And yeah--sales were great, the crowd was great, and Elizabeth Strong was super-great. She was really incredibly down to earth and personable--she even asked how I'd done sales-wise at the end of the night. And her floorwork & sword balancing were ridiculous. I like her very much and would highly recommend going to see or study with her.


Now to see how much I have to resize these videos to post or share them. :P And to hunt down a wholesaler or two. I have less than two weeks until Tekko and this weekend wiped me out of a number of items.

. . . Which means I have a new priority: get the third chaptery thing done for the one story before I crack down on maille and necklaces again. That's been waiting entirely too long.

Things seem to be headed in the upward direction again . . . I went into the city on Saturday and tried out Olivia Kissel's workshop, nabbed newageamazon, wandered into Jalsah with a few wheelie things of shinies (where I met Degenerate Symmetry from DA), and came out a couple hundred bucks up with a definite spot in the upcoming Elizabeth Strong show and with a lady somewhere or other who's interested in commissioning some maille & Kuchi fusion pieces--if she's not outright searching for new strange jewelry for her store. Which I think she is--which would be awesome for me, as my wheelie toy is getting pretty ridiculously heavy with strange shiny things.

The shows and cons coming up, though, might mean my wheelie toy will soon get a lot lighter.


This weekend I also ended up turning out four different styles of earrings. TV is weird like that, it seems--put me in front of Torchwood and hand me a box of metal stuff and next thing you know I've got shiny stuff everywhere.


( Pics! )

(Don't ph34r the sneaky linkies, they go to etsy.)

And since I finally cracked into my scale sampler, I've got the last set in all sorts of strange shades: anodized aluminum, bright aluminum, brass, what looks like galvanized steel, and so on. I get the awful feeling I'm gonna end up ordering a few ounces of scales at some point here.

From here until at least mid-summer I have one or more shows or conventions a month--and that means a lot of stuff needs made. Dog help me.

Did I mention that the locals turned the bridge foundation for the closest mine into a community center/amphitheater of sorts? They had a concert earlier tonight. It was too far away for me to hear very well, but I left the windows open anyway.

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True Blood the tv series = silly/messy crack. I'm sending the first two episodes to whoever I can get to hold still. I don't take it seriously (which is good, because it doesn't take itself seriously) and though I (seriously) hate Sookie's brother the series might become something I follow for a while.

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I picked up a huge piece of salmon from Aldi's (the local ubercheap food store), baked it with some old bay & seasoning salt, and . . . still found it utterly & astoundingly bland. I guess that's what you get at $6 for 1.5 pounds. I ate maybe a third of the thing and gave up--and for someone who likes seafood this much, that's damned sad.

So tonight I had a big lump of salmon in the fridge and nothing but a general ideal to aim it at. Bland salmon sucks. I wanted it to be flavorful, heavier, more savory, less . . . plain.

Yeah, you can guess where this was going. A short trip to the grocery store later and lookie! I have something close to a variant on a soupy theme normal recipe!

( Salmon chowder recipe and pic hidden in here! )

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The more I look at my excel spreadsheet for NYAF stock, the more I go all whiny and avoidant. I don't wanna sew, even with the machine. I also compulsively prowl ebay. It's like porn for prospective retailers. I might need intervention.

But as long as I'm still being productive it isn't a problem, right?

( My productivity, let me show it to you. )

BTW: Anyone have any suggestions for these little bell tassel thingies? I've got a bunch and not many ideas. There's only so many people who'd want 'em as earrings . . . I think. They're definitely funnily-shaped for cowry fall or belt additions.




(ohshit it's 3am)

Buying weird lots on ebay sometimes means you get a ring that could easily double as a weapon--if its weapon function doesn't preclude the ring one entirely.



It fits two of my fingers--at once--or my big toe. zen_of_nihilism recommends I tie a rope to it and use it on people.



Ever gotten supremely, violently, curled-into-a-ball-fuck-you-I'm-not-moving sick from water from a just-broken water main? Yeah, I hadn't either. This sucks. ETA: Or it may just be an ulcer. D: ETA2: . . . Na, it looks like it was bacterial. Eew.

So sorry, Lj people. I promised this tutorial forever ago . . .


( V. v. long-winded acrylic yarn dreadfall tutorial hidden here! )

Moderately pic-heavy how-to under the cut. Sorry, Lj people!


( Temporary dreadfall attachments, the Random method: )

I <3 the bellydance community. Their personality blends tend to be reminiscent of hippies vs. ravers--very down to earth, sometimes weird & a little stinky, but for all intents & purposes all about the music (and shinies) and the joy of dance.

( Until you piss them off. )


Now to fight with the sewing machine again, for my next more-than-$25 outfit/accessory. :D Pics may happen sometime this weekend--or maybe even that dread tutorial I've been threatening forever.

Trying out a tribal jewelry repair tutorial thing . . . bear with me, guys. :D

( Lots of pics, lots of rambling. Ph34r!! )