luxe

well. i had the ear issue for..okay, well, i still have it. this morning, i didn’t call the dr. because it seemed way better. as the day goes on, it gets worse again. although, in fairness, my nose wasn’t running and my eyes weren’t watering all day.

so, i got up to run some errands and chatted with one of my favorite peeps, gabe and found out that they are still attempting to get a small arts festival in our town going. after talking to him for a while, i kind of realized that i have become so stressed about getting sick and having to ditch out on plans, or leave early (i stopped talking to someone because of that.) in addition to attempting to avoid the people that i dislike, i often don’t do the things that i want to do. or, i make myself so stressed about it that i feel like i don’t really want to do it at all. i don’t want to be that person. i don’t want to be uninvolved in my community. that has never been me. that isn’t me. i am going to try my best. let me go on to say that gabe has been really pushing his work out there and has kept on it and has gotten to be really well known in this area, and for an area not really so open to art…that is something. it really is.

i found an awesome bra at…TARGET! i have been spending at least 40 bucks on bras that are not terribly comfy and not terribly attractive and then saw one there that was 15 bucks and tried it on and it is fantastic! i have big boobs and it is really something to find a good bra. that said, i bought 2 more today. i was actually looking for this dress in a medium, the dress was on sale cheap at my target, but they didn’t have it in a medium, so i went to another target but they didn’t have it either and online it isn’t on sale. although, honestly, it is only 25 bucks. i know, i am cheap. i got the same dress in black with white polka dots and it is really flattering and comfy. i think i should wear this style of dress every single day. i wish i could find em in cotton. i would love that. this is why i need to learn to sew. seriously.

i went to st vincent depaul, my favorite thrift store, where the checkout girl is a retired lunch lady from my college who gives me even more stuff for even more cheap prices. i always try to argue, she never lets me. she used to let me eat meals at the cafeteria even though i didn’t live on campus. she didn’t know. you hill girls remember margaret? such a sweet lady. i got some really cool stuff there…
and there is more on my flickr, so go check er out!

also, i got photos of the two birds i finished…no backstories yet, though.

we have a mohawk on the boy, and his cute tie and then the girl has a little stray feather and a crocheted scarf. cute? i have a couple more of em stuffed but no faces or legs or anything yet, so that will be to-morrow. i also will be updating the luxe.etsy.com store in the next few days. i have a bunch of yarns and fiber. bunch!

i think that about does it. i didn’t sleep last night. literally. i finished the new chuck p. book yesterday and it was fantastic. i will have to read it again. so clever. and i started a book called mappa mundi which is about technology that is supposed to treat mental illness and help people to feel happy and content. it of course falls into the wrong hands and they are working to use it as a mass weapon. it is actually really good so far and her writing is a nice change of pace and fun to read. i am not so good with the words myself, not even to describe it. gah.

mwah!
n.

so, let me start by saying that i put up one new batt on luxe.etsy.com and there will be more tomorrow. as the title suggests…i went nuts with the carder yesterday. i sat on the front porch with a bunch of loose fiber and sparkle, etc, and even though i sat on a pillow, my voluptuous ass manages to get bruised where the bones pole through. how is that fair? how? it should be one or the other! chubby ass, no cushion needed, skinny asses must have a pillow. right? not fair. okay, so the batts. i numbered them all on flickr, so if you see something you like, don’t waste time, let me know. they tend to sell pretty quickly. wanna see? this is not even half of em. i took tons of photos to attempt to get the inside and outside because these have lots of layers of different stuff. really fun ones. a few of them are maybe a bit too tempting…

here is a peek at what the porch looked like but you really had to see the complete coverage, stuff everywhere, batts and fiber and fuzz. i figured i would do it outside so that i wasn’t breathing it in quite so much and there wasn’t quite the amount that is thrown into the air of my studio, you know? it is an utter fiber cluster frakk anyway, but this worked. although, it was insanely hot and humid and i had fiber and dirt and dust stuck all over me. and a dirty bum even though i sat on a pillow. i was wrecked.

so let me tell you a story…at my favorite junk/antique shop i got a dressmarker’s form a while ago. it came with it’s original box that had been shipped to the owner one “dr.effie ireland”, it is postmarked 1956 i think. i was reading the pennysaver and came across a listing for an estate sale today for a “dr. effie dunlap” from the same area as my effie was from. i thought it had to be the same person so i tried to google her and research her. i don’t know if they were the same person, but the person whose estate sale i went to (more about that crap sale) graduated from medical school in 1911! not much earlier had it even been possible for women to go to medical school. i couldn’t find out much more other than where she had gone to school. there were newsletters from her school for those years saying that she had graduated and that she worked in ligonier, but i don’t know what kind of doctor she was or anything else about her. i would kill to see a photo of her. anyway, we went to the estate sale, i was super excited although i did think it might not be good because she died in 1982, so it was unlikely that her stuff was still in the house, although they used her name. jakie woke me up early and we went out and the house was the most disgusting thing you have ever seen. there was virtually nothing of value, clearly, when they had the auction 25 years ago, all of her stuff was removed and in the meantime, other people had lived in the house and wrecked it and filled it with cheap crap mostly from the 70’s i think. it was filthy and smelly and gross. and seriously nothing good. and everythign was insanely expensive. there was a really gorgeous giant colorized photograph from the turn of the century that could have been her…but it was in poor condition and they wanted more than 200 bucks for it. it was so gross you didn’t want to touch anything and literally it was the sort of thing that at a glance you can tell that it is just full of the garbage that no one wanted. anyway, there was stuff out back, so we went to look and there were tons of books, i had been searching for a photo album or yearbooks, to no avail, plus all of the books were rotten and mostly from the 70’s and more recent. there was a bike for two in okay condition at best that they wanted $225 bucks for. c’mon. i didn’t see a single person walk out of that place with anything. for anyone not from this area reading this, around here, we are cheap and can get lots of stuff for not that much usually. and seriously, an old bike in crap condition for that much? sheesh. there was a 1922 packard in poor condition that was really amazing, and then a strange guy looking for old comic books told me that some lady blew out her brains upstairs in the 70’s. so.

we stopped at the farmer’s market after that and then headed home. i did a bunch of new phtos (go see if you like) and got groceries and i think that is it. loaded photos.

oh, also, i have two softies that are not finished. the dark one is a…pirate zombie something…not sure. i spun a really dark not soft yarn up from some fiber (not my work)and put a ton of sparkle in it, not planning to make it a pirate, although they do have bling. i am not sure what to dress him in. i talked to barbe about it already. i imagine a loose blousy shirt and maybe striped pants and a bandana. andd i need to make a hook hand. i think. and the bird is crocheted from laine zinzin yarn i got in the french swap. it needs wings still. oh, and on the line of softies, i sold 3! collette (with the cute little hat), the owl and the amelia, one of the triplets that has no arms or legs. and snarky peeps said they were gross! so there! wanna see the new toys?

i am tired and a bit nauseous. ew. oh, i made a lightbox out of a big plastic container, a white sheet and a piece of posterboard and the photos where great. whenever i can, i will use this method again.

okay. super tired. let me know what you think about the new stuff.
mwah!
n.

hey guys, i am listing two of the crocheted toys momentarily…if you are interested in another, please contact me because i will be listing them everyday as they sell…
up for grabs…
each of their stories are on their pics in flickr…just clicky on em. so pop by luxe.etsy.com

happy 4th all!