brief hiatus

Hello friends, family and curious passers-by,
   I will be taking a brief hiatus from the Nikiverse.
How long is brief?
I have no idea.
Be sure the Nikiverse is in your RSS (or is it RRS... hmmmmm) feed so that you will be alerted to the return of the fun, frivolity and haikus that is this space.
Have a Merry Christmas if you celebrate that, Blessed Solstice if that's more your speed and a Happy New Year.
Remember, one minute after the solstice we are halfway out of the dark of winter.
Love,
Niki

what i found waiting for me at work this morning

UPDATED!

Ho Ho oh No

Aaaaaand have a good day.

Breaking news people: i just SOLD that giant santa head to a gentleman for his youth group's White Elephant Christmas exchange on Wednesday.  Some local teen is going to end up with this monstrosity.
teehee
And yes Sheryl, it does indeed light up; we checked

yep, it is December

LOVE twinkling lights

and chilly nights. Less amused

with being ice bound.

what the what?

It is rainy and cold in Baltimore today so no one is coming into the store; seems like a good time to clean out my purse because:

yikes

I actually do this on a pretty regular basis as my purse is always with me as i travel from place to place and things get stuffed into pockets every day, but even still i will sometimes find things that i do not recognize at all.
 For instance, what is this?

Sure, it doesn't seem like that much of a stretch that i would have something purple and shiny in my purse, but i don't know what it is or where it came from: it isn't a button, a bead, a sticker, an earring, a jewelry part and i swear i've never seen it before.

Do you think there are little creatures that leave things around just to confound us?
Are they relatives of the sock-stealer spites or the move-your-keys-when-you-are-running-late gremlins?

OMG: i am not making this up:

Just as i was proofing this post and about to hit publish i turned my head because there was a weird sound outside and spotted a wee figurine on the counter right next to me :

Hand to heaven, that creepy guy was not there when i opened the store this morning. It is only 18-20 inches away from me; i would have noticed.
I concede that my boss was in the store about an hour ago and probably set him there while i was doing something else, but how crazy is it that i am typing about things appearing just to confound you and BAM creepy, half-naked asian dude with an ax and no legs shows up?

one of THOSE days...

You know the days I mean: everything you touch seems to come apart.
Nothing truly bad happens.
Glassware breaks, things are left at home, lunches can't be found.
It isn't even bad enough to be the work of the thwart-hog.
It is more like an annoying anteater lumbering through your life, knocking things over with that huge furry tail and licking everything in sight with its crazy tongue.
Yes, I'd say my day in covered in anteater spit.

original image at aazk.com

because my middle initial -S- stands for subtle

I love striped clothes;
they offer so many accessorizing options.

For instance, last week I was wearing this long sleeved, stripey shirt under my styling sweater vest.
A girl could choose a great blingy brooch in blue or purple or yellow

or you know, all of them.

what to do with Thanksgiving leftovers

Eat them.

we're cooking with gas!

Yes, you are still small.

But you are bigger and WORK

So I can't complain.

Welcome to my new stove. Just in time for the biggest cooking day of the year. Of course, I am going to friends' houses tomorrow so that is besides the point, but I am sure that there are some important casseroles to be cooked in my future.

in which i give the paparazzi what for

I'm having fun editing the pictures from Amy's and my adventure to Elioak Farms and integrating them with mine to tell the story of the day.
Rea and I maintain that we need staff photographers to capture our lives so that we can be IN the pics instead of just behind the camera.
Looking at Amy's pictures of the day reinforces that thought because there are a jillion pics of me to choose from: me with goats, me with horses, me with giant shoes, me with alarming bears.
There is however one snap that makes me wonder if I would actually like having my photographer:

Wow.

I look super unamused.

Funnily enough, I don't even remember looking up at this moment and Amy had been there the whole time so it isn't like I was suddenly Why can't you vultures leave me alone on my day off? Can't you see that I am having a moment with these goats? Go earn an honest living that doesn't involve barely legal stalking!
Plus the whole day was fun, fun Laughing-ville so I was never actually this unamused.
It does however give me a good avatar to use when I need to broadcast utter disdain with an undernote of incredulous.

Don't you even...

i love people!

Festival season has been great so far, but I am spending a LOT of time alone in the studio so I am trying to make a concerted effort to spend time with actual people.
Last week I went to see fTM Erin three days before she was going to the hospital to birth son #3.
She couldn't quite bend over to finish packing her hospital bag (I tried not to giggle) and I stayed with the boys while she went to her last doctor's appointment.

Caleb Henry was born late Friday night after a long, somewhat tricky labor.
Congrats to the whole family.
And good luck with three boys under the age of 4.






Last night fTM Felicia and I met for yummy quesadillas and then went to a deep water running class.
Yes, all you moms out there, not only did we eat before exercising, we ate before jumping into 12ft of water. Good news, neither of us died.
Deep water running was a much better workout than  I was expecting. You wear a floatee belt since an hour of treading water is too much for anyone, especially while you are doing jumping jacks and cross-country skiers and crunches. Yes, crunches. And there was some weight work as well. My shoulders are still sore.
Tonite I am taking a class on a new stamping product.
Wait, did I mention that I am now a Stampin' Up! consultant ?
I am not planning on actually doing any parties, but got a REALLY good deal on ink that I needed to buy anyway.  If you need any SU! stuff let me know because I will be placing one more order in December and am happy to share my discount.
But between now and then, fTM Amy and I are getting together for tea and to exchange pictures from our adventure to Elioak Farms. Hopefully that means a blog post about it soon.

in my opinion

randomly catching up

The festivals/ craft shows every weekend continue to go well and i thank all of those who have come out to say HI to me. However, continuing in the grand tradition of my first ever festival, the thwart-hog continues to plague me with the sorts of illnesses/injuries on festival days that only seem to occur in the Nikiverse.
I woke up with my jaw locked at 4am for the Hereford Festival; given my handling of broken metal daily tetanus didn't seem like too far of a stretch. Good news: as with many Nikillnesses after  a few days of handling symptoms - odd swelling, shooting pains that came and went, a hole in my lip that may or may not have been related - everything cleared up just as i decided that I needed to see a doctor.
Getting ready to leave for the OMHS craft fair I managed to catch my foot on a mirror that is up against a wall and slice the entire webbing between my third and fourth toes. Mind you, the mirror is flush to the wall and I walk by it 10-15 times a day. Ever tried to bandage between and under toes while bleeding profusely? Take my advice: don't bother. Dump on peroxide, wad in a bunch of sterile gauze, tape the toes together and pop two tylenol. You can be out the door in under six minutes, pain-free and without a blood trail. Viva Frontier Medicine!
Last weekend, the Browse and Buy was mostly incident-free so maybe we've broken the chain. We'll see this Saturday for the Emanuel Lutheran holiday craft festival.

When do you wash out your salt and pepper shakers?
I needed to do a refill on my table shakers -blue flower corelle ware from my childhood- and the cooking shakers -tall Tupperware cylinders from everybody's childhood. With Maryland humidity you add rice to the salt to keep it from clumping and normally I just pour more salt in since the rice doesn't come out during use, but this time I decided to get new rice as well. Dumping  the little bit of salt/rice mixture left in both shakers into a bowl I could make the right rice/salt ratio to put back in the shakers and as I reached for them it occurred to me that I never wash my salt and pepper shakers. They get low, I add more, they get low, I add more, over and over again.
In fact, I couldn't recall ever washing them or seeing anyone was them. Ever.
Salt and Pepper shakers are never empty so when would you wash them? Weird.
So I dumped the pepper left into a bowl as well and then soaked all of the shakers and caps. In fact, I emptied my light bulb pepper mill and washed it up as well. Everything is now shiny clean and filled with new salt and pepper. That should suffice for at least another 20 years, right?

Dr Cool basically told me that I needed to do a routine eye checkup before I saw her again or she was going to beat me. Not really, but she did shoot a stern and disappointed look in my direction which is the equivalent of a physical threat to my people-pleasing heart.
Though glaucoma runs in both sides of my family my eye pressure is fine.
But, I am getting old.
My visual acuity is down to 20/20.
sigh...
I know all of you glasses-wearers out there have no sympathy for me at all, but you need to understand that at one time I had 20/13 vision. fTM Brian used to call me Eagle Eye; now I am just Human Eye. It doesn't have quite the same ring, does it?
In fact, my lazy, slacker right eye is way down at 20/25. Sub-par and unacceptable right eye. In fact, I will need 1.0 reading glasses within the next couple of years.
sigh...
In brighter news I think I have found a new look for myself and perhaps the next breaking fad:

Even on a completely overcast,  rainy day my freakishly light blue eyes have to be covered when dilated (look closely and you can see the tiny ring of blue). These disposable UV blockers really work with the shape of my face; I think you will be seeing them on the Milan runways next season.


On the way to the eye doctor a guy backed into my car; I mean, we were on a one-way street, he stopped, put his car in reverse and backed right into me despite my frantic honking.
There was no damage, but what the heck?
He claimed he didn't see me (or apparently my entire freaking CAR).
The doctor commented that a lot of accidents do happen in his parking lot because he is an eye doctor after all, but it actually wasn't in his parking lot.
Do these insane things only happen to me or am I just the only one to admit it?

Speaking of crazy, I took this picture three days ago.

These beautiful blooms were in the midst of naked trees and brush.
They look like something in the azalea/ mountain laurel family which are spring and summer flowers respectively.
Does anyone know if there is an autumn blooming version?
Mayhaps it just bloomed late.
Or had enough energy for a second blooming.
Or didn't get the winter memo.
Regardless of how it was heartening to see this last burst of life.
 
Spontaneous generation has been disproven for centuries, but I can understand why it seemed so reasonable for millennia.
Last week I bagged up all of my trash to go out and then got distracted by something -probably shiny- so it sat in the kitchen. Two days there were tiny flies buzzing around alerting me to my oversight.
It is winter, the doors and windows are closed and there were no flies just 2 days earlier.
Where did these freaking flies come from?
Took the trash out, but the flies remained so being proactive I bought some fly strips.
They are ugly, but effective.
The directions say pull the cord and unwind the strip like a ribbon which sounds easy enough. I don't know what kind of ribbon is familiar to those direction writers because it was all stuck together and then a crazy tube and then in my hair. After 15 minutes more than it probably should have taken my fly strip was ribbon-like and hanging. Despite the difficult installation it did indeed catch all of my magically appearing flies and has been properly disposed of in a trash bag  that went immediately to the curb.

The Browse and Buy last weekend was at the Catonsville Historical Society again this year.  Arriving so early on Saturday that I was locked out of the building where NikCo was set up, I took the chance to wander the grounds.

Last year I only went around the side and saw the giant railroad crossing sign, but I went all the way around to the back where there is a nature walk.
This cool, old rail runs to right before the start of the trail.
I love how it looks like the track has been abandoned and nature is reclaiming the space with plants and rocks.
Wait...
What is going on with that one rock at the end?

Now THAT is random.

come see me this weekend

2nd Annual Objects Found Browse 'n' Buy Rain or Shine Flea Market

Join us for a weekend of deals and savings; get in your holiday shopping before the madness of Black Friday!

When

FRIDAY, SATURDAY and SUNDAY NOV. 8th, 9th, and 10th, 2013 From 10 am to 3 pm

Where

CATONSVILLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1824 FREDERICK ROADCATONSVILLE, MD 21228

Our stores in Arbutus and Catonsville will still be open!  All items in our Catonsville store are 20% off; all items in our Arbutus store are 50% off THIS WEEKEND ONLY!   NikCo will be on hand with Quirkees and handmade cards. Also, I've done a thorough studio purge and have a lot of good materials -paper, beads, charms, embellishments- to sell at yard sale prices.

not still in the forest

Soooooo, when your dad calls you because you haven't updated your blog in 7 days and he isn't sure if you ever came back from your trip or are mayhaps laying dead in a ditch, it means you have been off-line for too long, right?

sometimes you just have to

Earlier in the week I had my day planned:
LabCorp for quarterly bloodwork,
bank,
gas,
library,
blog post,
finish earrings that are designed and wired,
draw blueprints for new display,
Lowe's, and
build displays.

I finished and marked off the first two just fine and was putting gas in the car when I heard it.
A tiny voice.
A beautiful voice as familiar to me as my own.
A voice that has been silent for far too long.

It was the road.
Blue sky, bright sunlight, crisp autumn air and the road calling to me:
What's a girl to do?



I ran home long enough to grab my GO bag and camera batteries.
[What do you mean, What is a GO bag?
I always have a little backpack packed with sunscreen, bug spray, almonds, dried fruit, bottle of water, clean socks/undies, deodorant and toothpaste because you never know when you might have the opportunity to GO]

My favorite regional park -Black Hill, near Clarksburg- is a little over 40 miles away, through some beautiful countryside. Windows down, radio up and cruise control set to a reasonable speed instead of how fast I want to drive, it was a lovely drive.

I spent the afternoon writing in the sunshine
and taking pictures of sugar maples.


And those displays?
They'll get built soon enough.

Thanks to Sheryl i am changing our quote

This morning when I went to moderate comments I found a one from Sheryl saying that I inspire happiness for her.
sniff... sniffle... that is perhaps the greatest thing anyone has ever said to me!
Gosh, thank you Foxy.
It made me think of this quote from Mother Teresa that is never far from my heart:

Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.
Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.

I fall short all the time, but I try; I really, really try.

quickly random

I am so excited by today's jewelry that I couldn't wait until the next jewelry round-up to share.

I found this crazy bow with a cascade of pink berries a few years ago. Having never seen anything like it before and it being the just-right Niki price of $6 meant that it had to come home with me.
The intention was to wear it in my hair, but the right outfit never came along.
Last night I decided that i wanted to wear this super soft burgundy sweater for the first time this season - i love, love, love sweaters and welcome each one back joyously when i put it on for the first time - and thought the pink button-down and jeans would compliment it nicely.
Then realized that this was the right outfit finally for the crazy pink berry pin. I am so happy to finally have a chance to see how cool it hangs that i actually got up earlier than necessary to get dressed.
So happy.

Yesterday i trimmed my hair and added some more layers.
It looks pretty cute, but the cutting was prompted by a philosophical conundrum. The cooler weather has really made it nice to wear bouncy,  haphazard curls -yes, i am probably the only person who purposely makes her hair look haphazard- but a few days ago something crazy was going on with my hair. One side was perfect and the other was a train wreck.
I mean, what was i supposed to do with that?
Just average my head?
After thinking about that for a while i decided the easiest course of action was simply to cut my hair.

Is there anything cuter than wee, tiny baby animals?
This ginger kitten was less than 10 days old and could barely open its eyes.
Love it.
It took a lot of will power not to adopt him .












Speaking of love, have i ever mentioned my affinity for polishing silver?
No?
That is probably because i hate polishing silver.
As a kid i didn't really like it.
But then i decided that it was cool to watch the glean emerge from the grime.
Well into adulthood i liked polishing.
Until i worked at an antique store where i stupidly admitted to liking it.
Guess who polished all the time?
For hours on end?
Now even the smell of polish makes my hands itch.
Blech.

Wanna guess what i am avoiding right now by writing this blog post?

because i am right

An optimist's life is not as easy-going as her attitude.
People are always trying to convince her that the world is a terrible place.
Well, no duh.
Of course the world is a terrible place. I am an optimist, not an idiot.
However there are moments that validate everything.

This is Emily and Kristen.
They were shopping in the store today and asked if I knew how to get to the ice cream place. I am not from Arbutus, but remembered that fTM Amy gave me and Rachel & Jen directions to the hidden ice cream cottage. I sorta half-remembered what side of town it was on, but it called the hidden ice cream place for a reason, so I gave them my best guess and sent them off with a mazel tov.
Why do you care about this?
See that ice cream in Emily's hand?
It is for me.
They walked all the way back here to give me this homemade peach ice cream because "you were so nice and we like your store." They were all shy about telling me and I squealed with delight when they finally told me that they bought me ice cream.

Take that pessimists!

the comic strip that most accurately captures my personality

some random Friday thoughts

We have discussed how I talk to myself even more now that I spend so much time alone in the studio. It has escalated to arguments.
This morning I was choosing a purple tank top to wear under my cardigan (how AWESOME is it that it is cool enough for a cardigan?). Obviously I have more than one -because, purple- and I said out loud Do you want sequins today?

At which point I responded -out loud-
Of course I want sequins. What kind of stupid question was that?
The scariest part?
I was actually indignant with myself.
Do you think I need to get out of the studio a wee bit more often?







Do you remember that i was putting together a silent auction for the Soroptomist Anniversary and Awards Dinner?
Wait, did i even tell you that?
Well, i had the opportunity to organize and stage a silent auction for the first time.
It was quite the experience.
There were 30 items, many of which were baskets or vignettes that i designed. It was a very different way to utilize my creativity. I liked doing it, but am glad it is only once a year.

Last month I was having a conversation about dreams -no, not with myself; I just can't remember with whom I was speaking- because I remember my dreams every day, which is sometimes very cool and sometimes not so much.
Anyhoo, during this conversation I realized that I have never had one of the most common dreams: that I can fly. Everyone else in the room had, but as hard as I tried I couldn't remember even one time that I had dreamed about flying without mechanical help.
So last week I dreamed that I was at a museum/movie theater/mall/science center/school and if I needed to get quickly from one place to another i'd fly instead of running. A few other people were flying too, with wing suits or special capes, but I could just naturally fly.
Oddly, i can still remember exactly how it felt to fly -kind of like swimming, but different- so i have caught myself a few times recently  thinking I should just fly up to the library.

A few random posts ago i posited that a true football fanatic would drive an RV with goal posts on the front.
I'd like to add that if you turn your trucklette into a giant purple shark, you also qualify.





I recently had KFC and the colon box is no longer being used.
 Do you think someone finally realized?

My stove has been a source of deep consternation since i moved 7.5 years ago. Yes, it is an apartment stove, but it is from like the Korean War Era and is an odd size -19 inches- that they don't even make anymore. The oven is so small i use quarter cookie sheets and 8X8 casseroles. Cooking, which i love to do, is a chore.
In May i finally asked my landlord for a new one because the oven has started to act up, but no new stove yet. A few weeks ago it simply would not heat up. The pilot light was going fine and i could hear the gas turn on, but nothing was catching so i banged on the center fire pipe in frustration with the closest metal implement i could find (a ladle in case you were wondering).
Good news: i didn't blow up.
PSA: don't bang on the center fire pipe of a gas stove that is turned on because that is simply dangerously dumb.
So after not blowing up i asked my landlord again for a new stove and it seems that there is a small chance that i might actually get one.
For those of you who have listened to me whine for years about my stove, but haven't seen it and think that mayhaps i am exaggerating about the suckage, here:

Hereford Fall Festival

Well hello there friends.
No, I was not kidnapped by aliens; I have been crazy at work in the studio getting ready for this weekend's Hereford Fall Festival in scenic northern Baltimore County.
Do you like wine tasting, cool farm equipment, hay rides, festival food, crafts, chain saw carving, helicopter rides and/or baby pigs? Then this is the event for you.
Taking place on Mt Carmel Rd, off of I-83 the festival runs both days.
Come say hi at the NikCo booth!

because you need to know

If I had a unicorn, i'd call him Eddie.

chicken, chicken, cow

My BFF is having a farm-tastic giveaway over on her blog.
Jump over and leave a comment on this post and you could win one of these fabulous Quirkees:

and some yummy homemade peach salsa.
If you convince a friend to enter you get another chance.
Contest closes at midnight EDT on Saturday, October 12th.
Good Luck!

Quick Quotes 10

This morning, on the phone with Rea, The best defense is a strong offense if you're a near-sighted rhino.
I dare you to try to come up with the conversation we were having to illicit that little gem.
Here is a helpful hint: she had mishearing something i said as "a hot hippopotomus".

GO!

Indian Summer

ahhhhhhh, Maryland...
Just when i am excited about getting out my fuzzy blanket you throw a week of sweltering temperatures at me.

Nice, then way too hot.

But today was just lovely.

I like October.

teal for TN (warning: not a happy post) (though it is at least clown-free)

Trigeminal neuralgia [also prosopalgia or Fothergill's disease] is a disorder in which the largest cranial nerve -responsible for the motor function of chewing and facial sensations- is damaged, often but not exclusively from swollen blood vessels scraping the protective sheath of the nerve.

Because the trigeminal nerve runs from the temple to the jaw and across the cheek in three branches the pain associated with TN can strike almost anywhere in the face leading to frequent misdiagnoses. Some patients experience symptoms for years, often undergoing unnecessary dental work before receiving the proper diagnosis.

Symptoms include sharp, intense pain described as "stabbing electric shocks, burning, pressing, crushing, exploding or shooting pain that becomes intractable" and has been called one of the worst pains known to medicine.
Sometimes attacks are triggered by talking, eating, brushing your teeth, wind, loud noises, touch or high pitched sounds; however, sometimes there is no apparent cause.
Episodes can last anywhere from a few seconds to hours and sometimes occur in clusters of up to a hundred attacks in a day.
All of this cheerfulness has led to TN being nicknamed the suicide disease because, well, okay, that's self-explanatory.

If you've made it this far in the post you're wondering what in the world this has to do with The Nikiverse.
In January of 2012 my beloved BFF was finally diagnosed with TN after having pain so bad that it would incapacitate her and she'd fall down repeatedly at work for several months. Of course first she was treated for sinus infections, ear infections, some other stuff that has all blurred together and checked for seizure disorders and brain tumors.

My soul's twin, the one I have loved since we were toddlers, has the suicide disease.
That isn't the kind of thing that could keep a girl up at night; nope, not at all.

Treatment is a combo of anticonvulsants and pain management. In some patients with  specific blood vessel swelling there is a medical procedure that can be up to 70% successful. There is also current research being done on using healthy nerve cells to repair the damaged ones.
However, in many patients it is a chronic condition that often worsens over time as the nerve degenerates.

I haven't shared Rea's condition until now because it is her story and her decision about who knows.
Today is finally the right time to share the information with all of you because Monday, October 7, 2013 is the first internationally recognized Trigeminal Neuralgia Awareness Day.
Here is an article about how awareness is being raised around the world, as well as a PSA.
I'm not gonna ask for contributions or anything like that; I know we all have limited resources and causes that are already dear to our hearts.
I just wanted to do my part to spread the word that this disease exists and strikes 1 in 15-20,000 people (hard to pinpoint the exact # as it is so often misdiagnosed).

On Monday I will wear teal -the designated TN ribbon color- for my Rickki; that and prayer are the only things I can do to help her.
        It would make my heart happy if you would too.
You could also drop by her blog on Monday to let her know that she isn't alone.

[I will share her email privately, if you ask]

can corn salsa?

No, this is not a food post.
Yesterday I went out to lunch with Diane B and after dropping her off back at the museum I was behind this truck on Key Highway.

Do you see it?

Look at the ear of corn.

Is it just me?





Okay.
Here, let me enlarge that for you:

It looks like that corn is dancing, right?
As soon as I stopped at the red light behind the truck I started laughing at how all the other produce was just sitting there, but the corn, oh the corn was gettin' down.
In fact, it took a few seconds to realize that those green arms and leg aren't actually supposed to BE arms and a leg, just artfully peeled husks.
You see it right?
I'm not nuts, right?
Right?
Okay, maybe I am projecting because I love corn and music, but I swear that ear of corn is doing a happy jig.
And why wouldn't it be happy?
I'm sure it is on its way to a party with great music, food and friends and lavishly decorated with balloons, streamers and corn-fetti.

Feeling So Random

Went to see Thirty Seconds to Mars last night and ended up on stage this close to the drums.

Will share the story, but realize that I need to tell a story of a story to get to that story because.. well.. i'm me. Keep an eye out; mayhaps all 3 stories will get posted by New Year's.

Sitting here working on another Etsy update - Pink Ribbon earrings for October. They are a mix of cute ones from last year and awesome new ones so there both new and old pictures to go through, but I am really distracted by the fact that my chest smells like tacos from a wee lunch incident.

Had dinner Saturday at fTM Miriam's new apartment; she lives in an actual Baltimore rowhouse.

It is beautiful.

She made Lydia's Stuffed Squash, so named because Miss Lydia had it last year and loved it so much that she has been asking Miriam to make it again.

Stuffing of quinoa, onions garlic, carrots, cranberries, apples and walnuts is cooked inside of a roasted acorn squash.

It is autumn on a plate.

As my first experience with acorn squash like this I am delighted to report it was yummy.

And yes, Lydia joined us for dinner because how can you have Lydia's Stuffed Squash without her?

Last week the hardwood floors in the foyer of my building and the steps going to the upstairs apartments were stripped and sealed. We couldn't use the front door for several days, but they do look incredible.
The down side?
It smelled like varnish and decay, with an under note of natural gas.
I slept with the windows open, fans on and several extra blankets but I think there might have been some long-term brain damage. I mean, nothing that smells that bad can possibly be good for you. Plus, I spent so much time around flammable chemicals  the last 20 years that I was in a state of heightened awareness on the lookout for a non-existent chemical leak.
For three days.
 It was exhausting.

At the Parisian Flea one day I saw this box -Beaver Finger Ring Cutter- and was like what?
Those words make no sense in that order.
Opening the box I found a truly alarming looking instrument:

Beaver. Finger. Ring. Cutter.

Pointy, circular bladed, sharp hooked, wicked looking thing.
Does it cut fingers?
Where does the beaver come into the picture?
I ask Andrew and he told me that it is for when someone has a ring stuck on their finger.
WHAT?
MENTAL MORSEL:
It cuts the shank of the stuck ring so that it can come off of the finger and it is made by a guy whose last name is beaver.
Even knowing the answer I am still a bit confounded every time I see the box.

Earlier I was on the phone with fTM Erin arranging to go visit tomorrow when she uttered, No Collin, you can't be naked in that rocket. I just imagine her 3 year old being like, Well which rocket can I be naked in? because that was my first thought. When I stopped laughing that is.

Jewelry Roundup 7

Yes, a year has indeed past since the last jewelry roundup.
Working alone in my studio doesn't really inspire me to wear a lot of jewelry, but I recently rediscovered a full set of jewelry pictures from the picture kerfluffle so it seemed like a good idea to get back in the habit.
But as with all things you gotta be sure to stretch and start slowly so as to not pull anything so i'm gonna do commentary in the photo captions:

adding a little peep of blue sparkle with a 50 cent clip-on

speaking of clip-ons, I found a way to use clip-on hoops
by clipping around a rolled layer of whimsy hair
 

on Opening Day even Niki will wear orange and black
highlighted with a heart bought in New Orleans
made of recycled costumes and electronics

giant enamel/metal flowers are a must even in shorter hair
the white flower was worn a few days after the first hair cut

Trying to get back in the habit of wearing jewelry even if I was staying in the studio I'd challenge myself to pick non-matching pieces.
This day I picked the wee double heart scatter pin and the fabulous $4 thrift store earrings.
To bring them together I wore a gold chain belt fastened at my hip with a larger heart. I jingled all day; you can imagine how much joy that brought me!

one of my favorite rings because of the shape
discounted to $4 because it is missing some of the seed pearls
but that is what I think gives it character



plenty of character in this pin worn in my hair

this pin was bought for $5 specifically to be worn in my hair;
in fact, as soon as I saw it I imagined its swirls
against the swirls of an upsweep just like this

this Monet butterfly was a bit expensive for me at $10,
but it makes me smile and reminds me of Gma Craig

brooches on V-neck sweaters appeared on a regular basis
after my hair was cut;
all bought in the last 4-5 years, each for $5 or less

this day was a personal matching triumph for me
I bought the pastel multi-stone heart pin years ago
my stepmom bought me the wee pastel multi-stone earrings for Christmas 2 years ago
finally I had a pale pink button down with which to wear them
highlighted against the black  cardigan
I was happy all day because of the matchey-matching 

a hanging brooch from the 80's that belonged to me, then Rea, then me again
look at that amazing whimsy hair
some days I really miss my hair