that rosebud girl

i got a spinning wheel!

after much hemming and hawing and drooling over a wheel for the better part of a year (maybe a year and a half), i finally broke down and decided to purchase an ashford kiwi spinning wheel.

i bought it on ebay, it arrived rather quickly (as in less than three days), and when i heard the doorbell this morning, i was quite giddy.

so this is the box (yes, with curious kitty sniffing around):

i was admittedly a little intimidated. marie said it took her four hours to put her wheel together. damn. i hoped it wouldn’t take me nearly as long. a drill would have helped — if i had remembered to charge the batteries two days before.

d’oh!

anyway, i figured it would be like assembling ikea furniture, which i have tons of experience with.

and here is the finished wheel.

it didn’t take four hours. more like two. but i was down to one last damn screw on one of the pedals and it wouldn’t cooperate. i damn near stripped the thing. finally, after a fit of frustration and lots of yelling, ed came and fixed it. bless his heart.

i can’t wait to spin something with the wheel!

holiday = illness

i don’t know what it is about the holidays, but that’s so true. i was sick on my birthday (yes, that is a holiday). i was sick the day before thanksgiving. i was pretty sick the day after christmas (and couldn’t even get to work).

damn antibodies. failing at the wrong time. or maybe it is stress?

at any rate, i’ve woken up past noon the last three days. that kinda sucks. and now, i have all sorts of graphic work to tend to.

being out of commission sucks big-time. oh, well.

a greeting …

ganita says merry (insert holiday you celebrate here)!

just a wii problem …

i’m probably way behind the ball on this, but marie turned me on this site:

wii have a problem

that stuff is crazy! people impaling their tvs? black eyes? broken bones? damn.

i defintely fall into the category of people who probably shouldn’t buy a wii. because i’m a total klutz, you know? and the thought of breaking our big-screen tv scares the living daylights out of me.

(well, i did want a 360 anyway …)

but i was over at marie’s today because i had to give her a present — and she got me one too! i hung out for a little while because i wanted to see her new spinning wheel … and i noticed her new wii. so i asked if she could demonstrate the wii. it was pretty cool. and that’s when she told me about that website.

i have to admit, it looks cool … and it’s really really cheap. but i don’t know. i wouldn’t want to break anything.

and i still want to play geometry wars.

dammit!

should i be worried by the neverending cold and the fact that my head feels like it’s going to explode constantly?

grrrrrr.

have i mentioned i still have 15,000 things to do for the holiday? and that at least one person isn’t going to get her gift until february at this rate because i haven’t had the time to start making it?

triple grrrrrrr.

i hate feeling ill on my days off because it makes me feel … unproductive.

holiday hecticness …

i’ll admit it: the holidays and i usually don’t get along. i find christmas to be a lot of hassle (you know, trees and lights and presents and spending of money i don’t really have and such), and it’s not like i wasn’t busy enough already. but i try my damnedest not to be a scrooge, and hey, i do actually get people presents.

still … the holidays are a biatch.

it is a week before christmas, and i have a feeling that many folks are not going to get their gifts until january, if they’re lucky. oh, well. fault me for trying to be original and giving out handmade stuff. i still feel bad, though, because some people will actually get their gifts around christmas, and then i have to look over at someone’s cubicle at work and say, “sorry, dude, i haven’t finished making my gift to you yet. my bad.”

and then there’s the money thing. i keep telling myself i won’t buy anything for me. and then i do. *sigh* i bought me a bag and an ipod cover. i’m stoked because they look cool. but i won’t tell you how much they cost (because it’ll make me cry).

i also bought lots of wool. danged knitting/spinning/crochet habit.

at least i am supporting indie business!

my wishlist is still full of wickedly expensive stuff that alas, i doubt i will ever be able to get my hands on. like:

- an xbox 360 (damn you, sac city graphic comm folks, for turning me on to geometry wars)
- a spinning wheel (damn you, handpainted wool, for being so soft and fluffy and colorful)
- storage thingy from ikea (damn you, closet, for being a disaster area)

and a few more things i can’t remember.

sometimes, i sit down and think about how much i’ve spent on other crap and think, dammit, i could have bought some of this stuff already. like the wheel. i’ve wanted one forever. grrrr.

danged holidays.

editors are human, yes we are.

this was passed around the office today:

the impotence of proofing

at least they didn’t have any swear words on the page.

and i can’t tell you how many times this has happened in my journalistic career … sometimes with swear words! (but we were fartzing around at the daily trojan … that probably doesn’t really count.)

flashback city …

thank you, pete, for making my day …

those were the days, back when i actually cared about the nba and the knicks were good. john starks. charles oakley. derek harper. charles smith. patrick ewing. man, what a collection of players. hard-nosed and thuggish. (and oh yeah, don’t forget about anthony mason.)

that was serious nostalgia. and how can you beat the old-school nbc graphics?!

sobo = great fun.

my craft show tour is over, and finished with a bang on saturday.

i was at sellout buyout (sobo) here in sacto (woohoo! an actual local show!), and it was pretty awesome. tons of people, despite the relentless rain. and i did pretty well. i sold lots of hats. and got inquiries from people. and passed out cards. and wound up buying from my neighbors — i scored some really nice bracelets (read: xmas gifts) and a sweet screenprint tee at a discount (um, for me, of course). the really nice lady i bought the shirt from bought a hat from me. i gave her a discount, so she gave me a discount. score!

karma is nice, eh?

i was so pleased with how i did that i’m probably going to do at least three of the four sobos that go on every year. (it’s a quarterly thing, usually coinciding with second saturday and the art walk in downtown sacto.) i’d probably skip the summer one since that’s near recital time … and i don’t exactly make summer stuff anyway.

the best sale i got was a guy who walked up to my table and picked up this baby pink hat. he went to try it on. he proceeded to try on a couple other hats that were pastel-y in color, and his buddy says, “i think your instinct was right the first time.” so after some hemming and hawing — he called my hats “psychedelic” — he bought the pink hat. and i ask if he wants the tags removed, and he says yes. i hand him his tag — there’s the care instructions, you know? — and he says, “oh, i’m just going to keep wearing it until i get tired of it.” and he walks around the gallery with his pink hat. nice.

i also saw some folks from work. and someone i knew from sac city. man, the crowd was insane.

how very sad.

if you’ve been following the news the last few days, you may have heard about the kim family — james, kati, and their two children, penelope and sabine. they went missing shortly after Thanksgiving and as it turned out, their car had gotten stuck in snow, and they were lost in the oregon wilderness.

kati and the kids were found on monday, but james didn’t make it. read the story here.

many folks have been moved by this story. a lot of the crafty community in the bay area knew kati because she ran a couple of boutiques in SF, and was very friendly to the indie crafty community. so many crafters — including myself — have decided to donate items for a gift basket that will go to kati and her kids.

if you are not crafty, you can donate money to the family at this link.

this is a tragedy, and so close to the holidays. do give if you can. if not to them, then something to another charity. ’tis the season, indeed … open up your heart and do it.

and remember that life is precious … and you should be thankful for every day that you’re alive and healthy.