Monkey!

So a lovely Etsy seller, "2nJoy" contacted me a while back about my "M is for Monkey" alphabet print. Her son likes sock monkeys, apparently, and she bought a digital file from me to use on a mug for him.
It turned out way cute!

I have to say I never even thought of doing something like that...I might have to look into that a little further. In my opinion, you can never have too many coffee mugs! Especially cute ones.

Anyway, she agreed to let me put a picture up on my blog:




Also, while you're at it, check out her shop. She makes jewelry, too, completely different from mine. It is very pretty. I love these earrings!

Tuesday and Home Sick

While I am waiting for another shipment of promotional stuff from Artbeads.com to play with, I am going to rant. I have been absent for over a week, and here's why:

It's been hell week here. Secret Agent Man came down with something nasty about half-way through Thanksgiving Day and now I have it, so I'm home sick today and blogging.

On Thanksgiving we had my brother here, with his wife and 3 kids, and one of SAM's single friends from work. It was a nice day, but goodness! I think the dishes multiplied when we weren't watching.
(It sounds so bad...but I think we finally got the dishes all done last night...)

Then Thursday night SAM says his throat has been hurting. By Friday morning he was down for the count. He felt well enough to go to work yesterday but was going to come home early -however, it was not to be. Too many meetings and TPS reports...
And about half-way through my day yesterday...I thought I had just talked to one too many crazy persons and was starting to get a headache, but no...by the time I got home my throat hurt and by about 8pm I knew I had "it"...whatever "it" is. So I'm home today so I don't spread the love to everyone at my work.

On top of all of this fun stuff, it has come down the pike that the Government (which has turned into the nastiest of 10 letter words in my book) has decided they don't want to pay for the contracts they have with SAM's company anymore. They want to take the jobs from the guys who actually know what they are doing and give them to low-paying government flunkies instead. So they are eliminating hundreds of jobs. I'm sure they will count the jobs they give to their government guys as "new" jobs that "they" have created, and never mind the guys they just put out of work.

(As an aside, did you SEE the story on the news about how the Government (recovery.gov) HAS FLAT OUT LIED about how many "jobs" have been created (a little bit of an "accounting error" my ass) and that their numbers are off base by THOUSANDS but they are NOT GOING TO FIX IT!!?? What a crock of reindeer dung!!!)

So anyway, SAM's been dealing with a lot of crap over the past couple weeks. His shop is undergoing pretty big changes, not the least of which his job is being eliminated.
!!!
Yep. So, he's either going to take a demotion, including a big pay cut (thanks so much Mr. Obama), and then demote his guys on down the line, or have to take a job elsewhere in the company, which will still be a demotion and pay cut, most likely.
Merry Christmas, eh?

But I am thankful that he still has a job. For now. Who knows what will happen once the Government really sinks it's teeth into companies like this. You need to start paying attention to what's going on around this place...they are not only messing with things like health care and education, giving away money and houses (yes, they are!) to illegal aliens, screwing the American-born-job-holding-tax-paying citizens right and left, taking money out of our pockets to give to the uneducated (often by choice), drug-using, welfare abusing, lazy layabouts, but they are also making this country one very unsafe place to be by messing with our military and our contractors like SAM's company, who do stuff you can't and don't want to know about, to keep us all safe in our beds at night. It makes me shudder. And maybe throw up a little. (Although I'll admit that could be my cold...)

So we're feeling a little overwhelmed here.

But -
-we have tried to put things into perspective. At least SAM has a great education and would be able to find another job somewhere, if all else hit the fan. And we have played the "what if" game and done that "what's the worst thing that could possibly happen and what would we do" thing...and figured that we would be able to survive it regardless. So it's ok, I guess. I still don't understand how we, as a country, got to this place, that thousands of people are losing their jobs right and left and the economy is going into the toilet and still so many people are wearing their blinders and ignoring the real problem: Our government sucks. I don't care what party you think is to blame, or what party you back, or what you are "for" or "against". We are in some real trouble here, folks, and it's only going to get worse.
Wake up! Before it's too late. We as a people, need to figure out some way to get back on track. If anyone has a great idea, especially a feasible one, I'm all for hearing it.

In the meantime, hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. I hope you and yours are happy and well. Thanks for letting me rant. And if you've read this far, I promise I will be funnier, nicer, and/or more artsy tomorrow.
Really! :)

Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves....

Come on, people! Sing it with me!
"Gypsys, tramps, and thieves
We'd hear it from the people of the town
They'd call us Gypsys, tramps, and..."
No?
Well, you are no fun at all.

That's ok, I'm gonna show you a "pretty" anyway. 'Cause I love ya. And that's the way I am.

This is a lovely "gypsy" bracelet I made for a friend of mine.
I used some of the great Swarovski crystals I got from Artbeads.com that I had left and some dyed pearls. Then I added two "raw" rubies for luck, one on each end.

She needs the luck, since she recently fell off a ladder and broke her back! Augh! But she's mostly better now and back at work with me, so it's all good.

It's really quite festive! I may have to make some more...


(And, apparently, now I have to disclose that I "received the 'products' free of charge from Artbeads.com and that I am honestly reviewing the products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received." Hmm, yah, well I'm okay with that! I still think it's great they found me and asked me to participate!)

Christmas Cards I'm Working On

I know it's a little early...but I may put them for sale on Etsy.

An Unexpected Call

Wednesday morning, aproximately 9:30.

Me: “Crime Check, what are you reporting?”

Heavily accented Indian male voice: “Yes, my name is Sanjay*. I am calling to you from Mumbai* about your advert.”

(*I couldn't understand what he actually said...)

Me: “I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong number. This is a non-emergency number for the police department.”

Caller: “Yes. I am calling to discuss with you a possible proposal for marriage.”

Me: “Sir, you have the wrong number. This is Spokane...Washington State?”

Caller: “Yes, I know I am calling to Washington. I am calling because I like what I saw in your profile on-line and would like to talk to you about possible proposal for marriage.”

Me (trying to be patient): “Sir, you have the wrong number.”

Caller: “Yes. My friend gave to me your number and I look up your profile and your picture, and I like what I see. I want to know if you would be interested in meeting at some future date.”

Me: “Sir, can you understand me?”

Caller: “Yes, yes.”

Me: “Sir, this is the po-lice department, in Spo-kane, Washington. This is not a dating service. I think you have the wrong number. What number are you trying to call?”

Caller: “I don't know, my friend in California gave to me this number.”

Me: “Well, sir, I'm afraid he is either playing a joke on you or you wrote the number down wrong; this is the police department in Spokane.”

Caller: “Oh! Well, I am afraid that someone maybe has been putting me on! I am so sorry! This is the number I was given to call. Who are you? You have been so nice to me, what is your name?”

Me: “My name is Tera (because we are required to give it if people ask)" and for good measure: "with 911 and the police department in Spokane, Washington."

Caller: “Is there another number that I can call you at for maybe a later time?”

Me: (pause) “...I'm sorry?”

Caller: “Yes, I would like to call you for another time to discuss a possible proposal for marriage.”

Me (not trying too hard not to laugh): “I don't think so. You really have a wrong number, sir. I need to hang up now.”

Caller: “Yes. Thank you. I am sorry. Have a nice day.”

click

***Keep in mind this is an abridged version of the conversation. It actually took about 15 minutes. I couldn't understand him at all at first and it took a bit before my ear figured out the accent, plus I was trying to sort out what kind of emergency or issue he might have. I almost got a translator on the line until I figured out what was going on. Then there was about twice the amount of back and forth while he talked to me about the "website profile" and the "proposal of marriage". The sad thing is, I think he was serious! ...maybe I should have asked for a picture first!?

Veterans Day 2009

Thanks to all our past, present and future service members. We are forever in your debt.

New Stuff for November

So I finally got around to making something with some of those lovely Swarovski crystals I got from ArtBeads.com! Well, actually I made them last "weekend" (my weekend being Thurs/Fri) but I was also sick and by the time I got to feeling better I had to go back to work. I just got around to photographing them today.

I really, really like the briolette crystals. The color is called "Silver Shade", there is just a little bit of silver color to them and they are far more gorgeous than my photography can do justice to.

I made a set of earrings and a necklace with them, and the 5mm bicone crystals in Indian Sapphire (a nice, soft grey blue color) and Black Diamond. I wanted to make something that would look fancy when worn together but could be worn separately to dress up jeans and a sweater or something along that line. I wanted a sort of chandelier earring, but not too complicated. After two attempts I wasn't happy with I finally got something I really liked!
Here's what I came up with:




Then I also made a set of drop earrings and a necklace out of some Swarovski I bought a couple years ago. They are lovely fall colors. I used an olive green round, an olive and a lighter green bicone and some orange-y diamond shaped ones, along with a lovely olive green drop pendant.
I really like this set, too, and it is also one that looks much fancier when you wear the pieces together.




I really wish I had more time to do jewelry, I really enjoy it. I'm going to try to do more soon. I still have a lot of lovely stuff from ArtBeads.com (thanks guys!). I think I'm going to try and make a colorful bracelet for a friend of mine who likes "gypsy" jewelry.

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I have also been busy with some new art. I'm trying a new style, something a little more "loose". Sketchy.

I call this series "Laundry Cat". 1, 2 and 3: