luxe

first, i came across this amazing artist’s work, repairing spider webs. so kewl! woot! nina katchadourian. wow.

i did a bit of dyeing today, just some silk sari yarn i had from ages ago and a 3 batches of superwash merino top, one for a custom order. they came out purdy…wanna see?

also, i finished this bug, frances, last night, i need to interview him and find out his story. i haven’t had the chance, but we did have a small photo shoot while he checking out the flowers in the backyard. so. he is a cutie though.

i am feeling really sleepy and headachy as usual, so i apologize for the brief post.
xo
n.

so, my sales on etsy have been kinda bad in the last month or so. i was out of town for a week, my mom was here for a week and i assumed that slack 2 weeks were the cause…i looked on the forums to see what other people were saying, and from having other businesses in the past, i know that this is a bit of a slow time for any business except ice cream shops, but it said that…

RevolvingDork
Etsy Admin
RevolvingDork says:
Hi all,

On thursday night night we got caught up with all of the older listings that were not appearing in searches and the categories. After that, however, newly created listings were only appearing several hours after they were listed.

This is due to the system receiving far more listing updates than it can handle in a short period of time. We’re still working on optimizing this system so the delay between listing and appearing in searches is shortened, but it may take a few days. We hope to have it done sometime this week. Unfortunately, it’s a very complex problem, and as such is difficult to estimate a completion time.

In the meantime, listings will only appear in their categories several hours to several days after they are created. Please note that they will still appear in real time in your shop, the time machine, and listing tickers, and all other flash applications.

The site copy on the listing process has been updated to reflect this new delay.

Because the search cache is not being updated as quickly as it should be, you may see sold listings coming up in search and browser results. This is caused by the same problem, and will be fixed when the system is back up to speed.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused, and we will post updates as we make progress towards shrinking the lag between listing time and “searchable” time.
Posted at 12:35 pm, June 20 2007 EST

i am annoyed. for example, difference between items listed one day apart is 353 views and 40 views. and it bums me out because usually i get tons of views and things sell. there are some gorgeous yarns just sitting there. anyway, i am going to contact some of the yarn stores that are interested and clear out some of the stuff i have listed, so if you see something you want, it may not be there for long. well, it might be somewhere else, anyway. i also have listed more spinning “kits”, including one to make some of the snowbride yarns, luscious creamy superfine merino (21 micron!) and your choice of colors sparkle and novelty yarns. plus some other kits, too. i am going to put up some flower ones that have soysilk, merino, loose sequions, sparkle and handbeaded handpainted felt poppies to add in for yourself after you spin it up. i did look at some of the other shops that are alway busy and/or sold out and they had lots of stuff still in their stores, so i know it isn’t me. i will take the time to work on some of the softies i have been making, and after doing a big flower skein and plying it, i worked on some collaged frames, boxes and mattes due to a bit of mental block on artsy things. i have tons of stuff that needs to be framed, plus all of the plates i have collected (i really need to take photos, including a jesus dinner plate that looks to have been used…a lot. odd? isn’t that sort of thing for display?) i am going to glue hangers on the back because the wire plate holder thingies are downright shady. i have had them pop off a plate just sitting on a table, so i don’t want to hang anything with one of those.

so that was my day. it went by fast, rather solitary, but in a nice way. so on to my newest addiction…when jake was in brooklyn, he stopped at a nice market and got some good chocolates. we are into the good stuff. hee. anyway, he got this stuff that is from modica, italy and area very famous for its chocolate and candies and pastries. the chocolatiers were influenced by the spaniards that came to sicily who had been influenced by the mayans who didn’t make chocolate with the milk and the heat and cocoa butter oil, etc. basically, the grind up the cocoa beans into a paste (think turkish coffee) and add pure sugar cane crystals which crunch in your teeth…ooh it is amazing. and hardcore. like the most amazing coffee/chocolate you have ever ever had. when i first ate it i didn’t know what i thought, but it really grows on you. incredible. and it seriously gives you a rush. if you are a big coffee snob, you will go nutso over this chocolate. it isn’t creamy or melt in your mouth, it is a whole different beast, but oh my! and! it is really hard to find it in the US, but it is available through amazon here it is 6 bucks for a bar, but it is a big bar and one piece of it will knock you on your ass. they are also made into squares that are ready to add to warm milk or water for the best hot chocolate ever. they have pistachio (good!), plain, cinnamon, vanilla, chili, and bergamot. needless to say, i am buying some. big time.

whilst serching for this stuff online, i cam across this cool website, 101cookbooks.com that has recipes from famous cookbooks reviewed. the one on the link is for sweet pistachio butter. are. you. kidding. me? ummmmm. um. um.

i am working on another fuzzy amiguri. he is just a head and arms and legs, i imagine it will reveal itself to me, as the others have. i don’t tend to have a clear idea of what i am doing. i tried to do some sketches last night, but i was uninspired, although i did come up with some that have a head at each end, or have a teeny upper body and big fat lower body. otherwise, dunno.

okay, “traveler” is on, so i am off to watch that. too sleepy to do more than one thing at once. other than crochet and tv. although the crochet will likely look like poopies.

xo
n.

clearly, he needed to be linted. sigh. story of my life. anyway, he is not yet finished, i am not sure what to add to him. i was going to give him yarmulke, but it didn’t look right, so i didn’t. hm. i also wanted to give him wire legs so he could stand up, but without a whole internal skeleton, i duno how i would do that. nothing can just be simple with me. ever.

i woke up EARLY this morning, 6ish, i think and felt much better, peppy, almost. i got my orders packed, went to joan’s to buy some safety eyes for amiguri, although ms barbe gave me the option of ordering eyes from a supply place for taxidermists, there are some cool ones. i ordered a catalog. it might be interesting to use with the amiguri. i got some cool yarns that i think would work well for it that were on sale, and i got some new crochet hooks on sale. they are the kind of actual hook that i like best that have a really nice deep head on them. clover hooks have a wonderful handle, but the hook is blund and not very…hooked. grrr. here is the yarn i got:

i got this super cute postcard/invitation to my good friends john and diana’s baby’s 1st birthday party. being that it is on the opposite coast, i don’t think we can go, i wish we could though. i cannot believe she is a year old!

i would love to get some kind of something done today that isn’t packing orders or grocery shopping, but i am falling asleep on my feet. sheesh. we had an insane thunderstorm here and the rain washed away the insane heat. ooooh i love the rain in the summer, it just smellllllls wonderful. i love it. i would love to sleep in a screened-in porch or something. amazing.

okay, too sleepy.
mwah. mwah. mwah.
n.

Your Drag Queen Name Is:

Pussy Galore

i saw this on barbe’s blog, so i had to do it. and let me saw, i don’t really have pussy galore. i have the little girl sort. yeah yeah, too much information. now you have another strange fact about me. sheesh.
and here is a piece of me you may not have seen. the plastic is my pain medication patch, a source of embarrassment, so i always try to hide it somewhere…
anyway, i did not much of anything today. literally. i forgot my meds last night and fell asleep at some odd time, woke up at some odd time feeling out of sorts and wretched. so. i had a bad day. tomorrow, i aspire to having a good day, getting lots done, including making some handpainted boxes and props for a couple of amiguri. i made an owl yesterday, he is very cute, but i would like him to have feet that can support him, he is a little guy, but i am not sure how to do that. i am thinking of making a tree stump for him to live in as his display. any ideas? i am thinking that i will maybe do boxes for each one, so when i sell it, it is a whole art piece and you can display it. cause what else do you do with it? i am more apt to buy things that i can display and are ready to hang up. yeah? plus i love em, so they won’t be cheap and i am sure the box and props help to justify the price to people. dunno. we will see. we all know that the softie, plushie, doll crew want their doll. so.

nothing else to say. out of it. poopy. need to get stuff done, so i will take my drugs tomorrow, because i need to get things done. period. somehow i am sleepy. lazy woman, i am i am. i will show photos tomorrow.

mwah.
n.

okay, so firstly, i will be udpating some NOICE stuff on luxe:
and that is just a teeny taste. a teeny teeny taste. so. go. check it out! here! each yarn order will come with gorgeous handmade stitchmarkers from my buddy katrina, as well as all kinds of fun stuff that i usually wrap up with the orders. go on, spoil yourself!

what else? well, i have a new amiguri princess for you to check out. her name is collette. she is really cute and she knows it. she was born fuzzy and his a lock of pink curly hair. she is a bear, but has no tail, oddly enough.

she aspired to be a chiropractor, her specialty being fish, birds and snakes, but realized that chiropractics and these sorts of animals are a deadly combination. deeply discouraged at the animal carnage, as well as the destruction of her dreams, she turned to gambling.

she has a gambling addiction, her game of choice? yatzee. she is a poor loser, going utterly nuts when she loses, curses, accuses everyone of cheating and throws the dice across the room. ironically, she herself is a cheater, has magnetic dice and is really poor at math so most often, she loses anyway. additionally, when she wins, she dances around, shakes her fuzzy butt and acts snarky. it is difficult for her to find anyone to gamble with her, so she frequents old age homes and rips off septegenerians and older, taking advantage of their poor memories in order to cheat and get extra turns. how wrong is that?

she eats nothing but scharfenberger chocolates with at least 85 percent cocoa, and dissolves this in her triple espressos. i know. crazy stuff. especially when you are only about half a foot tall. hardcore.

her favorite colors are pink (like her hair) and purple.

additionally, i spun some loose mohair singles that are just amazing to do some amiguri with. i am curious to see how they will look, but i think, judging from how good cheapo fun fur feather stuff works that well that mohair would look amazing. i have something on my hook right now and then the mohair will be next.

yesterday our friend jason and his girlfriend came down for dinner. we grilled out (of course) and grilled pineapple (my fave) which is amazing if you haven’t ever had it. it is awesome alone, but would rock on icecream or custard. so good. just slice em as you like and lay em right on the grill. i also cut some zucchini lenthwise and marinated it in balsamic vinegar with some salt and pepper and a bit of oil and it was really yummy. we went for icecream at rita’s after that and my stomach had started to really hurt by that point, and yeah, i ate a kid’s cup anyway. we got home, i was trying to upload photos, but kept falling asleep, so i had a headache and couldn’t see right. i took a shower. whilst in the shower, my stomach started to feel bad. really really bad. i spent the next hour and a half (i think) sitting on the toilet with the garbage can in front of me trying to talk myself off the puking fit. fortunately, i didn’t blow out my bloodvessels in the eyeballs. i woke up with a sore throat and a funny stomach. not haha funny. gah. i think i just can’t eat pineapple, as much as i love it, the acid does bad things to me. i have such a lame stomach. sheesh.

off to update. go…now!
xo
n.

i hope this image isn’t too big…okay, so i made him from a feathery fun fur yarn i had on hand and wondered why i had even bought it, but it looked fantastic. i did a freeform pattern, gave him really long arms and no legs, i am thinking of building a little wheelchair or cart for him. i made teeth out of some moonstone (?i think) chips i had, although as you see in the last photo, which was him before i added the nose and mouth, i wasn’t sure if i should have added teeth or a snoot. i will do another without the mouth i think. and then i made the little vest and cuff from felt i dyed myself, and plan to dye more to sell, i keep meaning to see it and then i use it. i trimmed the fur around the yes and mouth and hands. i really dig him.

so, wolfgang is a parapalegic. he lost his legs in the war between bears and smurfs of 1983. for this reason, he hates anything blue and due to his shell shock, will go crazy if he sees anything blue. so be warned. additionally, he has a severe drinking problem…nehi grape. he drinks so much that he is now diabetic. don’t try to talk about it to him. he will call you a smurflover. he loves listening to mozart on his “cans” or giant headphones, because that is his namesake. he plays the triangle in a local softy orchestra and teaches reading to illiterate housepets. he loves playing with matches, so be careful. he loves to burn matzo. he says he loves the smell.

i meant to blog yesterday but was exhausted. i woke up feeling wretched and tired and decided that i wouldn’t do nothing again, so i took one of my prescription “pep pills” and got into overdrive. i spun 3 skeins of crazy yarn…

i did a scrappy one with fabric and scraps of yarn and sparkle, i did 2 crazy scrappy ones with bits and pieces of fiber and sparkle and then i have one that is 3 commerical yarns spun into supercoils. it is really fuzzy, vegan, and nice. what else?

here is my first amiguri.

i have no name for him. he is a cat, if you wondered. any name ideas? he is incredibly lazy, i think he might have sleep apnea because he snores like crazy and is tired all the time. he claims to be a soapbox derby champ, even though he has only existed for a couple of days. he says he is in a “acid” bluegrass band, playing the triangle and zither (?). he is on a macrobiotic diet. he uses cute overload.com as pr0n. creepy, eh? he claims he dated miss piggy “when she still had her figure”. whatever that means.

also, i got my hair done (finally!) and got rid of the blonde…i fear it is too dark. what do you guys think?

ms. peeps has a urinary tract infection or kidney stone, i fear. still the pink pee, but now, she goes to pee and only a little bit comes out. she doesn’t seem to be in pain, but i see her go to the box to pee and nothing happens. i feel dumb that i didn’t just take her to the vet when i saw the pink pee first. i thought it was the beets in their food. as someone who has had chronic UTI’s and kidney problems since i was born (i was jaundiced when i was born and in and out of the hospital as an infant) i should have taken her sooner. i feel like an arse. anyway, she has an appt at the dr. this afternoon. i am sure she will not be happy about it. hopefully she will be back to pissing all over the house like usual. sort of.

i best go do some work. i was just too tired to blog last night. oh, does anyone have any good amiguri links or books to tell me about? i don’t tend to follow patterns, but i do like to see how things are done so i can learn how to do things. anyone?

mwah.
n.