luxe

i don’t know if you have heard of thishate crime against a junior high student who was openly gay, but it seems like there hasn’t been nearly enough attention paid to it. pop by and show your support.

xo
n.

i had a few bad days, needless to say. you know, the days when you don’t sleep all night and then wake up at 12:30 p.m. and literally don’t have the energy to get up and get coffee or a shower, check email, do anything. and i dozed on and off, and then headaches at night. woot! i feel better now. in honesty, i didn’t feel sick, just exhausted. for anyone who wonders what chronic fatigue syndrome and lupus (et al) mostly do to me is that. you know how you would feel the day after you ran a marathon after partying all night? i think, that is what it would feel like. so. i did do a bit of knitting for gifts, and i have been sketching and working on some mixed media things…here is the proof…the house one needs to be mounted still, i think in a shadow box. i need to figure that out. i have another version in mind that will have the shingles and roof tiles from individual wee pieces of paper. i will go a bit bigger, i think even though i tend to have issues with big projects that take too long. i lose interest, usually after i have spent a ton of time on it. i need to get better at that. and also at pacing myself. i tend to dive into whatever it is i am super obsessed with at the moment and get sick of it before i actually perfect it. so. i really need to pace myself.

one of my only high school friends sent me the link for the yappy yinzers talking dolls. they are actually rather hilarious. make sure that you clicky on the dolls to hear what they say. if you haven’t ever heard a pittsburgh accent before, these dolls are right on. i don’t sound like that. i didn’t grow up here. so. i hope i don’t, anyway.

i applied for two plush shows, one i got the bulk email for, and i know tons of people applied, but still. sniff. the other, for plush you, i haven’t heard anything, which i assume is also a no. i did get a reqeust for some of my mixed media collages to be in a new online and maybe print magazine

jake just rolled over and told me that he just had a dream that he had enormous hair. i attempted to ask him what it looked like, was it an afro? he said it was styled but enormous. hm. he has curly hair, so if he grew it out, it would grow…well, out. up. it would be funny. he did have a bit of a tom waits tousled look for a little while, which i thought was super cute, but as a boy that has spent his life fighting his hair, he has a hard time just letting it be its curly self. wanna see what pavel has been doing to cuddle up with jakie lately? okay….it is dark, but can you see? hogging the pillow?

here is an awesome site i have never heard of before. have you heard of circus hour.com? it is funny. this artist…artist isn’t even a strong enough word…allison sommers work is tiny and otherwordly and so so amazing. it literally takes my breath away. it is so sublime (yeah, i just said that.) i can’t even relate to it. so. look at the detail in the work and then look at the size that they are. insane. there are not many artists who have this effect on me. not just wow…but wooooaaaah.

i have a beast of a headache pumping and i need to finish checking emails and try to go to sleep so i can be productive to-morrow, i mean, today. and it is friday already. woah. i am craving soup and salad from the olive garden where we never ever go because the food is faux italian and is mega salty, but i crave their minestrone and breadsticks for some reason. hm.

mwah. wish me luck that my migraine is not just starting, my ears are aching, my neck is hurting, i feel all funky. off i go. le sigh.

xoxo
n.

so, firstly, here are a few mini-plush/felt things i have been working on. i have done some little doodles to follow, which is not what i usually do. i tend to just get started and see what it wants to be. the pink amigurumi dude, i just don’t know what he wants to be. any ideas? i was bagging bits and pieces spinning fiber bags, so forgive the fact that every picture has a ton of fiber in it. gross looking.

so on to that. i need to finish packing orders, as well as finishing the goody bags for shannon’s cruise, although i did make a good dent in it, so that is something. the orders i was filling from the shop have sections of different rovings bunched together and then a bunch of different bits and pieces of loose fibers, locks, etc, and i was stunned at how huge the bags got. and fast. they are supposed to be 3oz or a bit more. i haven’t weighed them, but they are way over that. when i was first spinning, i would have peed my pants over all of the stuff in there. if you have a carder, it would be fun to run through, but i tend to spin my hat kits and striping skeins right from the fiber. there is so much different stuff, it is insane. here is a non-exhaustive list:soy silk, soy latte, bamboo silk, loose bamboo, tussah silk, silk noils, cotton, camel, ecospun, ingeo (corn silk), 3 different kinds of locks, nylon, sari silk, hemp, linen, angelina, firestar, icicle top (dyed), mohair top, merino top, bits of yarn, alpaca, rayon, i can’t remember what else, though. i know i am missing some stuff. there are more than 25 different fibers in there. weeeeeeeeeee. here is a bad pic of some of the bags set up…

zat is all. it took me forever to get the bags done, and i really thought i would get orders packed, too, but ya know. i woke up with a headache and had a fatigue kinda day that was hard to get up, so i took a pep pill and a pain pill so i could get stuff done and it made me super shaky. like 5 pots of coffee shaky. ya know? gah! due to the headaches lately, which i swear aren’t bad painwise, just the side effect aura type stuff. my vision is all funky, and has been all week, i have been smelling gross stuff constantly. i think that i smell bad. it drives me insane. i shower twice a day and don’t exactly work up a sweat in between, but i have a super snoot when i am not in headache mode, let alone when i am. i also kept thinking that peeps had taken a poo in my room, and couldn’t find anything. drove. me. crazy.

mwah. mwah. mwah.
n.

my good friend and bestseller, the poppy skinny scarf, pictured here, has made it into two treasures! go poppy!
a one and
a two kewl, no?

i spent the day taking photos of fiber. i had to move everything (what amounts to a giant bag of rovings) twice after tagging, but i didn’t weigh them yet, so i still need to do that before i list em. i also need to bag up loose locks and fiber and take photos and weigh, plus make the goody bags for shannon’s stitch n bitch cruise. plus pack orders. so to-morrow i will be a busy girl, again. here are the new fibers…

i was up until really late last night with a mild migraine, the migraine part wasn’t that painful, mainly i was dizzy and nauseous, so i think i took another shower when jakie was leaving, i don’t remember for sure.

i made a note to myself that the craftzine ads were going up for sale on etsy at midnight, and there is no listing of it. i would assume i was remembering wrong, except that i did a sticky note on the mac, usually, they have the ads that will be available and when they go up for sale, which is where i saw it, but it isn’t there now, only the bust ad that is sold out already. gah! i was so obsessed with not forgetting because my memory is such crap, and now it isn’t there! gah. no clue what is up with that.

i did some sketches of wee softies to make into pins i think. i am not sure. i just need to sit down with the felt, etc, and see where it goes. i am super hungry for no good reason, so i am going to have a 12:13a.m. snack.

mwah
n.

check out who has the best ham and chez in america! woot woot! primanti bros in pittsburgh (we even have one in my town, too.) it is a gigantor sandwich that has their vinegar coleslaw, french fries, tomato (i get no tomato) and even an egg on it if you like. these were a staple for before and after going to see a band, or coming from a bar if you needed to get some grease in your stomach. and they are open super late. yum! mayhaps we will get one for dinner. usually, i would share with someone and still not even eat my half.

i finally go invited to ravelry! i am luxe for anyone interested i am rather baffled about how to get my shop listed. i listed some stuff in my notebook under stash, but i have no idea what more to do. i got frustrated pretty fast and fell asleep. i wanted to get new photos of the fiber done, plus weighing and tagging that and other fiber, but it is so dreary out and fiber tends to look better with daylight than the lights. i may end up having to use the lights if it is dreary again to-morrow. i am hoping to do a bit more dyeing to-morrow and will likely do an update then.

i have had this lingering migraine aura that makes me nervous to go get groceries or drive. my vision is a bit spotty and i feel like my head isn’t attached to my body. the florescent lights do bad things to me, especially when i feel like that.

i found stuffwhitepeoplelike.org via my buddy shannon and it cracks me up. there are a bunch of people who got super super pissed off and left comments and it cracks me up. i am doing my very best to keep a bit more caught up with blogs. i got so behind that i couldn’t catch up, so i really am trying. i don’t know how super productive people manage to find new things online, read blogs AND get stuff done. very impressive! my collages went to art stream studios for the valentine’s benefit show, so pop by and see if there is anything you fall in love with (get it? valentine’s day?)

mwah!
n.

one in a series of mixed media pieces that i feel need to be mounted and/or framed to seem done. so i have just left them in my studio. i really love them, though. what do you guys think? tell me, i can handle it.

so obviously, you all know that i have had migraines since i was wee. i never realized that the things i see are things that lots of other people see, too. also, people with epilepsy see similar things before a seizure. my neuro has told me before that migraines have a similar scrambling effect on the brain as seizures do. i know that i have problems finding words after a migraine, remembering phone numbers, it is a strange thing. have alzheimer’s must be like that in some ways, but it doesn’t go away. it must be so frustrating. before migraines, many people have “auras” which means that you see wierd shapes and light or dark spots, or can be blind spots, which i have badly. also, you can smell everything really intensely, often bad smells that may or may not be there. i tend to think that i smell bad and can’t figure out where the smell is coming from. also, any kind of food smell will make me nauseous. minor sounds are incredibly annoying and make your ears actually hurt, like someone clapped you on the ear. i have a lot of these strange sensitivities all the time, actually, certain sounds make me want to hurl…people chewing, the sound of things pouring…especially in a commercial, it drives my insane. oh, here is another really strange one…you know when someone folds a piece of paper and then runs their forefinger and thumb over it to make the crease, and sometimes they do it over and over? that is like nails on a chalkboard to me. and when i worked as a tattoo artist and piercer, i would give instruction sheets for care and while i was explaining it, the customer would fold it and fold it and fold it and i would get so edgy that i could barely talk. not that they listen, anyway.

i can’t use sandpaper. it has a similar effect as the above mentioned. also, i can’t stand people putting a popsicle stick in their mouth. huuuurrrl! i don’t know why. i know it makes no sense. it just drives me crazy. here is this amazing article from the new york times on visual migraines. really interesting.

i have had a mild on again off again migraine brewing for the last couple of days and i stayed home and made jakie go out with our friend because i was afraid i would go out and get sick. he really tries to refuse to go anywhere without me, but i don’t want him to have a boring life just because i do. i hate to try to look normal when i don’t feel good and i had already gone through a few of the migraine symptoms already. and it is starting back up again. so i best get off of the computer and quit bitching about being sick. waa waa.

i did get a zillion yards of an alpaca/silk yarn that i overdyed (it was like tan and cream carder together…boooooring) and it was so nice to spin. it was so much like silk, i wouldn’t have even known what it was if i had to guess. really lovely. it is in purply blues mainly. a bit boring, but ya know. and i rebraided the rovings i dyed the other day and that made them look much better right out of the gate. i need to take new photos because the onesi took sucked. ah well.

xo
n.

here they are if you are interested…i just found out that the way to tell is that there is a gold star next to a list that has one of your things in it.
numba one
numba two
numba threeeee
numba four!

xo
n.

1. i love giving gifts. i get so excited for someone to get it (and love it) that i tend to harass. especially if i think it is a super duper good one. and i can’t keep a secret. as soon as i get it, i have to give it.

2. if i see someone cry…even on tv, a movie…a commercial…i cry too. i don’t even feel sad, it just does me in. sniff. also, i can make myself cry.

3. when i was a kid, i wanted to be a veterinarian. after realizing that i suck at math and all of the sciences except for biology, i thought again. i have a big soft spot for animals. more so than for people. is that bad?

4. i have had pin worms several times as a kid from kissing the dog. i didn’t have a lot of friends cause we moved a lot and honestly, the dogs still would have been better friends. they really listen, you know?

5. i get really bad migraines from msg, blue cheese (even if it was on a salad that i requested to be without it and was removed in the kitchen), most kinds of alcohol, car sickness, being over tired or upset and other things i am not sure of. i have gotten them since i was in early grade school. if we had a party at school, i would gorge myself on doritos and cheezy things not knowing that they were poison to me. by the time i got home, i would be violently ill. i also would take the “accent seasoning” from the kitchen and lick my hand and sprinkle it on and then lick it off. accent is pure msg. yay! fyi, virtually every non-health store seasoning packet or soup mix has msg in it. so don’t try to feed it to me. k thanx. i still have them, but the medications are way better. i get panicky when they don’t kick in right away because i hate nothing more than going to the ER. as my neurologist likes to say “they give you the wrong thing and (gestures cutting throat with index finger)…” which is really true. they never listen.

6. my mom is a musical prodigy, as are her brothers. in south africa, she was a well known opera singer, cellist and pianist. she gave it up to get married and have kids, even though my dad said he would wait for her to go to grad school. the things we do for love.

7. i went to a state college for my first miserable year of college where i was tormented in every way possible for not being like everyone else. seriously. people stole my shoes, everyone whispered my name when i walked into lunch (i swear it. my few friends at school will back me up.) i took an art class at another college and ended up finishing out my education there. it was a women’s college and i loved it. no one wanted my shoes there.

8. for anyone that possibly doesn’t know, i have lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome and fybromyalgia. i won’t list everything else because then i will seem like a hypochondriac. mainly i just get tired out easily.

i got some dyeing done today. i did lots of locks, a bit of soy latte and some other rovings. i used the mixed bottles of dye i always use, except that clearly it was not as potent as it was, so i had to mix new dye for most of the locks. i think i will probably stop mixing bigger batches and mix as i need it. i make a mess anyway. and guess what cleans up dye stains even better than bleach? you guessed it! the magic sponge! i love those things! they rawk! i will probably take photos of my fibers and post em this weekend. i would like to do some more stuff with fresh dyes, too.

have you heard that the bodies exhibit is under scrutiny again about who the bodies are? it is in pittsburgh right now, it is on 20/20 tonight and here is an article in the post gazette. i guess you can buy something like those online. le sigh. it appears that the story that was initially going around is possibly untrue. or likely untrue. they get them into america as a “plastic model for medical teaching” rather than human remains.

off to watch 20/20.
xo
n.

i just had to post this before i forgot (again!). i know i told you all a while ago how amazed i was with the magic eraser. it cleans sharpie off of the floor. scuffs, scuzz, dye, it cleans everything. it seriously does, and without any additional cleaner added. really good. hard water stains? gone. hard water deposits on the shower head? gone. this thing is crazy. anyway, i went on wiki to see how it worked and basically it is an abrasive, but it is so fine that it doesn’t scratch anything. it is really an odd thing. anyway, i read an article about some woman that claimed that she wiped off her little kid’s face with it and it caused abrasions. it is possible, but unless she was really scrubbing, it seems unlikely. however, it gave me an idea. as you know, i walk barefoot as much as possible. my feet are all calloused and beat up due to this. on the upside, i can walk on hot cement and sharp stones, on the downside, my feet look beat up. i hate using the foot pumicey things and other things that don’t work that well. i decided that i would put some soap on the magic eraser and try it on the really thick callouses on my sole. it worked super duper well. i think i am going to market the magic callous eraser! you know how those gross foot files take chunks out of your skin? this just smooths it out. if you scrubbed at normal skin, you would end up really sore, but on super rough skin, it works awesome. you can even hit some of the rough areas that are not super rough and it works there, too. elbows, etc. you just have to take it really easy, a few gently swipes, maybe. so. and if you do this and get hurt, it isn’t my fault. i imagine that the manufacturers would tell you not to do it…or they would steal my idea. who knows?

xo
your softer footed pal
n.

on this valentine’s day, i realize that i have known my jake for almost 15 years. it blows me away. i remember meeting him so clearly, and while he was only 18 back then, (way too young for my 21!) he exuded kindness and generosity, and he was so cute. we were friends for a long time, and oddly, i think other people had idea that it would end up being more. we didn’t see each other for a couple of years and then started hanging out again. he was all growed up! he just won my heart over. no matter how much crazy nonsense i attempted, he was just unshaken. he didn’t get mad. he didn’t get annoyed. he sees something in me that no one else sees. not even me. for all of the flaws i have, and there are many, he really loves me. i never feel insecure. i never feel unloved…or even unliked. in my life, i have never felt that kind of love. and i love him just as much. i am never sick of him. he is never boring. he is adorable. even my granny, who doesn’t even like most of her grandkids loves jake. she couldn’t stop staring at him and told me that i was really lucky to have such a handsome and kind husband. you don’t know her, but that is a BIIIIG compliment. and i agree with her. he is pretty great. nay, not pretty great…he is the most amazing person i have ever had the luck to know. he rocks.

and he is gorgeous (like a moviestar my mom says, who also doesn’t throw compliments arount, believe me. i don’t either.) and has great taste in music, and for me, an utter music nazi, that is important. i have not the stomach for bad music. and he adores our cats. every newborn kitten i have brought home (2 so far) jake has not even made a peep about finding a home for. as soon as he holds them, they are home. they are his babies. he loves them to cuddle up to him when he sleeps, as you see in a zillion different photos. he is a snuggly, huggy, kissy, sweet boy.

happy valentine’s day jakie! everyone loves you, but not as much as i do.

and happy valentine’s to all of you! mwah mwah mwah!
your wifester,
n.

oh, and i wanted to just send this valentine to pavel from his little girlfriend, izzy…