Awesome Bumper Stickers

There seems to be a rash of political bumper stickers hitting our town lately. Most of them are really negative and nasty, although a few are kind of funny ("You keep the change, I'll keep my money" being one of the few I like). I really hate most of them, regardless of what side they are on.
What I really enjoy are the clever, witty and sometimes sarcastic ones I see, but rarely. I have decided I am going to start documenting some of the ones I really like and a couple times a month (you know, when I remember) I'm going to post them. Maybe they'll give you a chuckle.

Are there any out there you like?

I need one of these for my car!

For Trekkie cubicle grunts:

Secret Agent Man saw this one the other day; it's my new favorite!

And this one was just nice to see:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

It's Secret Agent Man's birthday today!
Yea!

Happy Birthday, Honey! I love you!

I have this phone...

...that I really hate. But, as is the way with cell phone companies, I'm not "eligible" to get a new phone until next October. I may have to accidentally on purpose lose mine in a lake or something.
It is one of these, and they look fun, and they look stylish, but it is - in actuality - a giant pain in my patookis.
It is a touch phone. This means that every time I touch the screen (digging it out of my purse, setting it on the counter, trying to make a phone call, pretty much any time I'm anywhere near the damn thing) I accidentally activate something I don't mean to. Sometimes it's a program I didn't even know was on the phone!

This includes the camera feature.
Why do they set the button for the camera right where you always (always!) put your thumb when you pick up the phone?! Consequently, I have numerous accidental pictures. I discovered these a couple days ago when I was looking for one I actually intended to take.

What happened to a plain old cell phone that makes/receives calls? That's another thing! This phone, for whatever reason, often does not ring, so I get all these voicemails from people wondering where the heck I am that I'm not answering my phone...when it's been sitting right there next to me. And then when I grab the phone to find out who called, I take more pictures! Yea!
So anyway, I thought I'd share with you some of my accidental photography, while I'm still trying to finish up some earrings.

I think this is my laptop.

One of my bead boxes?
My bathroom floor.
My car.


(While I was trying to figure out how to email these to myself, I discovered that I have a "task" feature on my phone. ? I don't even know what this is! I may have to investigate further...)

A little personality goes a long way...

Sorry I've been MIA lately...I've got way too much on my plate it seems, and I just can't keep up.

I had a class for work all week last week. It was about personality types (and this chart is really interesting...), learning what your type is (I'm an "expressive", go figure) and how to figure out who the idiots are work with other types ("driver", "analytical" and "amiable") and how to convince everyone else I'm right resolve conflict. I think what I actually learned is that other call centers (we had several participants from around the state) have similar issues and we all love/hate our jobs.
And that all the other expressives in my group wear a lot of jewelry, have their nails done and flip off other drivers in traffic - just like me!
(Although, I probably shouldn't flip drivers off in traffic when I have a Jesus fish on the back of my car... sends mixed signals, don't ya' think? "Jesus loves you, asshole!" Ha!)

Anyway, done with that and back at my regularly scheduled work day.

I have been trying to get some jewelry done since Artbeads sent me all those lovely crystals, but it's not going so well because I just don't have enough time! I need at least 4 more hours to my day. If anyone has some spare time I will gladly take donations, preferably in the form of winning lottery tickets.

Also this coming weekend is Secret Agent Man's birthday. I have his presents, and dinner reservations at a swanky restaurant we had Valentine's dinner at, in this hotel:
This is also the hotel we got married in, in one of their lovely ballrooms, so that's always kind of neat.

And my parents are coming to town. I am going to make a killer chicken recipe for dinner for them. (The recipe is "killer" not that it is made with a "killer chicken"! Wouldn't that be awesome though!) Secret Agent Man thinks I missed my calling and I should be a world-class chef. I'd probably hate it then, though. Or I'd be like that really angry British guy that has that restaurant tv show where he screams and cusses at everyone and makes them cry.

And then, on top of it all, I have to take Ms. FluffyButt to the pet groomer and the (shhhh) "v. e. t."
I think she may have feline diabetes. I feel like such a bad mom. I hope she's just fat and not that she's sick. (Not that that is a whole lot better...) She seems happy, though, so I don't really know what to think.


I have to share, too, that I was asked to partake in a giveaway by Midtown Girl when she re-vamped her blog. She wanted to give her winner a "makeover" as well, via a drawing by me of the winner. Like I did for Otin. A lovely girl named Ali, who has this blog, won! She is all about Carrie Bradshaw and fabulous fashion stuff, so I was inspired by one of Carrie's girlie-girl dresses and drew her like this.

It was fun, and she loves it, so it was a win-win!

While I was over at her blog today I saw she got an award for her "Over the Top" blog. It included a really neat one word answer meme. So I stole it. Here it is, with my answers. I'm not going to use it as an award, and therefore am not going to make anyone else do it, but if you like it you can certainly steal it from me, too! I thought it was another fun way to learn you a little about me. If you decide to do one, too, let me know!

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Your hair? short
3. Your mother? soft
4. Your father? joker
5. Your favorite food? pizza
6. Your dream last night? weird
7. Your favorite drink? Pepsi
8. Your dream/goal? travel
9. What room are you in? work
10. Your hobby? sarcasm
11. Your fear? mediocrity
12. Where do you want to be in six years? elsewhere
13. Where were you last night? bed
14. Something that you aren't? tall
15. Muffins? sure
16. Wish list item? Lexus
17. Where did you grow up? Boringville
18. Last thing you did? work
19. What are you wearing? sweater
20. Your TV? big
21. Your pets? spoiled
22. Friends? great
23. Your life? better
24. Your mood? snarky
25. Missing someone? yep
26. Vehicle? clanky
27. Something you're not wearing? toupee
28. Your favorite store? Nordstrom
29. Your favorite color? black
30. When was the last time you laughed? daily
31. Last time you cried? movie
32. Your best friend? hubs
33. One place that you could go to over and over? Vegas
34. One person who emails you regularly? dad
35. Favorite place to eat? home

New Crystals

So I got my new Swarovski Crystals from Artbeads.com. Remember? I agreed to blog about Artbeads and their products and they agreed to give me free stuff? I love me some free stuff!

I tried some different colors and sizes than I normally would, usually I use about a 4mm crystal (I found out the 3's are way tiny, after accidentally buying a bunch, but I'll figure out something to do with them, I'm sure.) But this time I thought I'd try some larger ones to use more like a bead than an accent, so I got 5mm ones. They are quite nice, and the colors are just like they looked online, so that's a bonus! I hate it when you order something on line, beads, shoes, sweaters -whatever- and they look completely different in person than they did in the catalog or online.
Well, these are great. I'm looking forward to having some time this weekend to make some stuff. I think I'm going to do earrings. I, personally, wear more earrings than I do necklaces. But we'll see where it goes. Sometimes I start with one idea and go somewhere completely different. My drawings often work that way, too.

I do have some time this weekend, too, because Hubby, aka Secret Agent Man, is off to Michigan visiting his folks. I couldn't get any vacation time, so I get to stay home and work. And clean house. And make jewelry!

Here's some pix of the crystals I got this week. They are colors like Indian Sapphire, Indian Pink, Rose, Peridot, Padparadscha, Blue Caribbean Opal (which is interesting and opaque, I haven't used crystals like that before), Jet, Black Diamond,and Silver Shade. In a couple days hopefully I will be posting more jewelry.










And don't forget, all my posted jewelry is available at olivehue2 on Etsy! If you want to buy something, and you include in the message to seller that you saw it on my blog, I will give you a discount and free shipping!

News That's Guaranteed to Make You Mad

I rarely get serious on this blog. It's primarily for art and fun stuff that makes me happy. However...

I saw these news stories yesterday and they really got my goat. And not this kind of goat!

I know that a lot of people don't follow news unless it's the main stream ordinary kind of news that you can follow at five o'clock dinner time. But you really need to start looking at some of the other stuff that "they" don't want you to know about.

I won't get into politics too much here. You, my lovely readers, are my friends, and I really don't care what your personal politics are, any more than you care what mine are. The "they" I refer to can mean Democrats, Republicans, whatever. I kind of think that all politicians are evil, just some more than others. The point is that the people in power positions in this country seem to think they are smarter than, and know better than, you and me.

Here is one of the news stories that pretty well freaked me out yesterday:

Science "czar" John Holdren seems to think that all unwed mothers should have their babies taken away and put up for adoption. Doesn't matter who they are or why they are pregnant. What he really believes that they should be forced to have abortions. And that if they refuse to do so, the state should take their babies and give them to married couples to adopt. He actually says, "It would even be possible to require pregnant single women to marry or have abortions, perhaps as an alternative to placement for adoption, depending on the society."
He goes so far as to state "... neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution mentions a right to reproduce."

Holdren tries to couch his wacko views by stating that these ideas would be necessary under extreme social/economical situations: "...compulsory birth control methods would need to be implemented when 'massive famines, political unrest, or ecological disasters make their initiation imperative.' " But it sounds like he really wants to do this regardless of world situations. He wrote a book in the 70's about it. In that he states that he wanted plans to include forcing single women to abort their babies or put them up for adoption; implanting sterilizing capsules in people when they reach puberty; and spiking water reserves and staple foods with a chemical that would make people sterile.

You think he doesn't still believe that crap? And now he's one of Obama's advisors!
For more info, read this.

The other one that really shook me was this one. The gist is that a mom in Irving Township, Michigan, has been babysitting her neighbor's children in the mornings, for free, and then taking them to the school bus stop with her own child. The Department of Human Services however told her if she didn't stop immediately they would press charges against her for running an unlicensed daycare.

What??

How many people take advantage of this kind of thing? Parents have to work, unfortunately, and personally, if I had a kid that I needed an hour of watching for and my neighbor offered to do it and then get them to the school bus, for NO MONEY, great! I would reciprocate for a date night now and then. But Michigan apparently thinks that this is some kind of crime. And what about paid babysitters? I used to babysit when I was a kid, summers, for a lady who lived behind us. I babysat four days a week for her. Good thing we didn't live in Michigan! Apparently you can't have a babysitter at your home every day after school until you get home, unless they have a daycare license!
Hopefully they will get that law changed. Just another case of Big Government thinking they know better than you and me.

Then there's the one about the 'Safe schools' chief encouraged child sex with older man". Yep. You can read about that here.

Or how about all the wacko actors and film people who are saying that Roman Polanski doesn't need to be held accountable for his 70's drugging, raping and sodomizing of a 13-year old girl. Yah. Fun, huh? I like this article that includes transcript from the trial, where he admitted he did it and pleaded guilty.
The article, which is about Whoopi Goldberg's comments on The View, also states, "...that others, [including] the French, may not agree with harsh punishment for Polanski does not change the fact that in the United States, we punish such atrocities perpetrated against children. Maybe Whoopi would be more at home in a country that does not, and that considers the drugging and forcible sexual penetration of a 13 year old girl something other than "rape-rape."
And you know what? A lot of people turn a blind eye to this kind of thing. What the hell is going on here??

Anyway, there are stories like this in the news every day. You just need to look, because most of the media hides this stuff. The government surely doesn't want the public to actually know about this stuff. They don't want us to think for ourselves. They want us to just "go along". Because "they" know best.

What it comes down to is we need to be informed, people. We need to pay attention. Otherwise we will let "them" walk all over us. We will let "them" make all the decisions. And in the end we will lose everything.