for whom the snowman bell tolls

You know when you are busy - head down, shoulder to the wheel, getting it done, etc - and you suddenly look around realizing that you have somehow ended up someplace ridiculous?
I am sure it happens to most people, but i think it might happen a bit more often here in the Nikiverse because of the nature of my job.
Okay, and mayhaps because of the nature of me.
A jewelry station of sorts has been fashioned on the breakfast bar of the house i am currently watching so that i can get finished several commissions that are due this week. It is not ideal, but a girl's got to do whatever to get things done.
This morning it occurred to me that i have one more festival this weekend (Saturday at Margaret Brent MS for those of you in Southern MD) and am almost sold out of Christmas and winter Quirkees: YIKES!
A quick trip home to the studio to grab some appropriate charms, beads and bells later, a hodge-podge of merriment has been added to the already questionable work space.
    It is a splayed mess, people.
Anyhoo, i am intensely focused figuring out how many Quirkees i can add to this week's schedule and where to lay them out in this chaos when i hear myself say, Come on Nik, you don't have time to make everything. Santa penguin, Santa cardinal or Santa bluebird? Penguin, cardinal, bluebird, penguin, cardinal, bluebird - they are all birds and all Santas, just pick one.
That is the moment when i had to pause, to reflect on the serious tone of such a ridiculous question.
My life is currently all about choosing an anthropomorphic holiday bird to make into earrings.
Wow. This is not a place i could have imagined for myself.
It isn't a bad place, mind you.
Just a weird one, worthy of a haiku moment.

Bells. Birds. Birds, bells, birds.

Reindeer, snowflake, Santa hat.

Oh my strange, strange life.

Festival Season

Create. Pack. Load. Drive.

Wares on display. Joy for sale.

Whimsy is my job.

October 22nd show at Arbutus Senior Center 10am-2pm

inventorying - what fun

Sort. Count. Repair. Make.

Preparing festival stock. 

This might take a while.

Fun in the Summertime card

Today is the August Card Hop, going live at 8 pm on the NikCo FB page.
Here's a l'il taste:

shakin' and bakin'

Well actually, shakin' and stampin', but that is a not a fun post title at all.

I am involved in a Facebook hop with other SU! demos this month.
      We all did a project involving a shaker box and have the posts linked so that you can click right through to see them all.
Here's a wee bit of mine:

Now clickity-click right here to see the whole thing on the NikCo FB page.

it all has to GO

Just in case any of you lovely readers aren't following my store - NikCo - on FB, i wanted to let you know that i am having a crazy 40% off sale right now to quick-sell older inventory and make space for the new sparkleys being created in the studio.
Take a virtual stroll over there and use the code MAKINGROOM to receive 40% off of all orders over $10.

Beautiful. Classic

Love them all, but it is time.

Buy. Buy. Buy. Bye-bye!

pssssstttt... why aren't you following us on FB?

 https://www.facebook.com/NikCo-361111847309832/?ref=hl 

bullet point bulletin

• Despite the rumors that you may have heard, i am not laying comatose in a lab at a secret military installation immersed in a brain wave study to discover a renewable energy source that will have the power to save the Earth and mankind: boon to civilization that will inevitably be weaponized and show harmful side effects after 30-50 years. 

• I could not tell you if i was involved in said completely hypothetical situation

• My winter visit to Ohio was extra long and i got to spend lots of time with my mom, go shopping with my sister, meet my nephew's girlfriend over Christmas dinner (which i got to cook - yay to my mom having a better kitchen than me!) and visit Rea's farm. 

• I did however learn that cows are quicker than you think.  When i pulled up in my car there was only one cow near the fence; by the time i got out of the car, there were four!  How did an 800 pound creature just appear like that?

• The fabled studio redo is almost done, finally.    It has been a long time coming, but Rea and I set-up an 8 week challenge through December and January to get things organized, purged and rearranged in our respective houses with a scrapbooking retreat together as a reward at the end so I was really motivated.    I have seriously sorted and purged things, getting rid of supplies or pieces of half-done ideas that have been cluttering up my studio and my mind for far too long. There are 7-9 more boxes/bags to be sorted, but i have all of the new shelving and storage in place so it is only a matter of deciding what to keep and putting the other things into the correct space.

• Tonight is the greatest night of the entire project: Labeling Night! Suzanne is coming over after work and we are going to label every box, bin, case, drawer and shelf in the studio, including relabeling anything already labeled so that all of the labels match.   MATCHING LABELS, PEOPLE! Clear, concise organization really makes my skirt fly up.

• The newest addition to Nannie Niki's menagerie is an 11 week old terrier mix named Sasza (pronounced like Sasha) and she is a cutie-patootie, reminding me of my beloved Chang.

• New Year's cards are done production and i am working on addressing and getting them in the mail. Watch your box.

• Though winter is mostly a fallow festival season, don't forget the Annual Jewlery Show at Objects Found over Super Bowl weekend. More info about the event will be posted here and on the NikCo FB page, which you should go Like right now, in case you haven't already.

• It has now been half of a year since my dad died and we have made it through the major holidays (except my and my brother's bbdays in May) without him for the first time. In no way i am through grieving, but i can feel some of the depression clouds parting.

• I continue along with the 101 Goals in 1001 Days, doing very well on some and miserably on others. Once we return from our retreat at the end of the month i have plan in the works to invest time in a few of the languishing ones, including getting back to writing on a regular basis

when a bead is more than a bead

When i launched the ReWearables line in 2012 my main motivation was to have a creative outlet that rescued broken and discarded beads, gave them new life.
It wasn't a business yet; it was actually just an item on a ToDo list.
A lot (i mean A LOT) has changed in the past 3.75 years, but i continue to relish saving pretty things from being discarded.
However, yesterday i had an experience that brought into focus for me that the work i do to pay the bills can also be the work i do in an effort to positively impact the world around me.
Whenever someone gives me jewelry or items to use in my studio i offer to make a custom piece -or they can choose something from my stock- as payment.
Viva the barter system!
Kalisha offered me a basket full of  jewelry and she asked me to make a pair of bracelets for her mom's best friends.
Her mom, Stella, passed away last year; in fact, her one year angelversary is rapidly approaching and Kalisha wanted to share something special with these two women.
She supplied one of her mom's favorite necklaces and some pieces for me to use.

If you are looking at that badly lit picture and thinking,
Wow. That is a motley mish-mash of things,
then you are right where i was last Friday. They are nice pieces, but i could not get any sort of vision of how i was going to get them to work together in not one, but two bracelets.
Saturday i cut everything apart and sorted the beads and bobs so that i could get a fresh perspective. In doing so, i noticed that the focal necklace i was using had several pairs of beads, not singles, not groups, but pairs. Just like i was making a pair of bracelets.
A-HA! (that makes me think of the music group; here is one of my favorite a-ha songs)
The two bracelets would feature the same three beads in the center, one bead for each of the friends.

The round lavender beads were the only ones that color on the whole necklace, so they were Stella.
Similar in size and importance, but different in shape and color a pair of puple beads and a pair of pink ones became her two friends.


After a quick consult with Kalsiha i decided to make the bracelets matching, but different: one would be a sleek linear design and the other a chain of dangles. Some matching beads were included on both, but there were also different beads on each because i figured the three friends would have shared experiences, but the details of the each of the ladies' relationship with Stella would be unique.

The only thing i added (besides the hardware of course) was a tiny pair of angel wings as the matching dangle detail on both bracelets to symbolize that one of the friends had moved on, but was still a beautiful part of the remaining whole.



If you are wondering why the pictures are sub-par, it is because both pieces were completed to my satisfaction less than 2 hours before i was schedule to give them to Kalisha so i had to shoot them at my desk as it was rainy and grey yesterday.
She seemed to like them and i told her that i was going put their pictures on the NikCo FB page as an example of my custom work, but that i would wait a few days so that she would have a chance to present them to her mom's friends.
That was at 3:45pm.
At 5:20pm i received this text

If you'd like (to) share as early as tomorrow I was in here crying like a baby so we met up shortly after you left. Both ladies loved there (sic) gifts and said they felt my moms spirit with them "Stella is looking down on us" is what Liz said!

You just know that brought a tear to my eye.
Some days, especially lately as i meander through my own grief, i feel like how i spend my time has no real meaning, no impact on anyone around me (i am sure we all feel like that sometimes) so it was a welcome surprise to realize that i can use my creations to help people and touch their hearts.

Cyber Monday 2015

IT IS CYBER MONDAY!

Time for online deals, people.

Everything in the NikCo Etsy store is 20% off when you use the code:

CyberMon15

But it is only good until midnight tonight.

Quirkees were updated, card sets were shuffled and new ReWearables were added.

Go. Enjoy. Spend.

the most Baltimore wedding card ever

I was asked to create a wedding card for two local sports fans:

Yes, it IS an oriole marrying a raven, wearing matching silver glitter accessories.

note: more pictures on the NikCo FB page 

image credits: oriole-Terry Sohl; raven-unknown; sentiments-Stampin' Up!

HI HI HI

HELLOOOOOOOO NIKIVERSE!
Oh my gosh, how much i have missed being here.
The last week has been all about NikCo: a card set update on Etsy, first show of the season, May/June class list.
Busy with work is ALWAYS good, but it doesn't leave much time for hanging out at the library to share completely random things,

like this tortoise yard art 

that for a moment, 

from a distance,

 i thought was real. 

Until i remembered i wasn't in the Galapagos. 

BTW, since i mentioned it, be sure to have a gander at the new card sets on Etsy here; they are an eclectic mish-mosh of useful, but interesting, much like me.

Happy May to you all! 

It is indeed my birthday month so every day is a reason to celebrate here in the Nikiverse.

Yesterday was Star Wars Day, today is Cinqo de Mayo and tomorrow is International No Diet Day. [no, i did not make that up] 

Enjoy every day of May, people.

And now for a random beauty break:

April tulips, with Great Gma Weber looking on

One wee bad thing about May is that it marks the end of National Grilled Cheese Month.

We all know that i love grilled cheese.

And that i love the Grilled Cheese & Co.

At the end of last year i was able to introduce my friend Suzanne to the wonders of the GCC:

capturing her first bite; can i tell you how PLEASED Suzanne is that this is her first photo in The Nikiverse?

Her first experience was my go-to fave, the Blue Ox, while i tried the holiday special, The Gobbler:

mmmmmmmm... roasted turkey, gouda, apple butter, potato pancakes, and arugula on pumpernickle...

Thanksgiving dinner in a sandwich, except hold the arugula because yuck.

Speaking of specials, the most recent special at GCC was the Mac Daddy.

I will give you a moment to just behold its majesty.

Yes friends, that is a grilled cheese filled with mac-n-cheese and pot roast.

A MONI CHEESE GRILLED CHEESE, PEOPLE.

Words can not capture even a portion of its awesomeness.

Unfortunately, the Mac Daddy's time has passed, but we are at least back to one of my favorites, the Santorini.

Last week i walked into the living room to the sight of my salt shaker on the floor, balanced perfectly on its top.

When did it fall?

How did it land exactly on its top?

What is it even doing in the living room?

Most importantly, how am i gonna pick it up without salt pouring out all over the floor?

Not only is it bad luck to knock over salt, it is impossible to sweep up.

After much strategizing, i went with flipping it over as fast as possible with the hope that centrifugal force [yes, i know it isn't really a force so much as an effect of inertia, but force is the common word used, so...] would push the salt against the walls of the shaker.

Nope.

Nope, it sure didn't work that way. 

Yes, salt went flying everywhere in a lovely arc.

So much for strategy.

Finally, a popNikiquiz:

What is Niki's favorite string instrument?

Go ahead and call it out!

Did someone just say dobro?

Wow,  that is a wild-a** guess; though points for originality.

Most of you, of course, said the cello.

Enjoy some cello.

even more random than normal

The first official class in NikCo Studio - Collage Creations - happened two weeks ago and was a success. I have posted a few pictures on the NikCo Facefook page, but here is a collage of some of the fun that was had:

Suzanne and I met for Ice Cream for Breakfast Day back on March 21st at Coldstone Creamery.
She had Coffee Lovers and i created my own mix of Oreo filling ice cream with caramel, Reese's cups and rainbow sprinkles. Yes, i did say my ice cream tasted just like Oreo cream.
It was ridiculously good.


On the same day we celebrated Dash's fifth birthday with a minion themed family party.
It was a really good time. though you might not know it by looking at the cake picture:

That kid hated having the birthday song sung to him.
I am not sure if it was the actual song, the attention or the off-key singing, but he held his ears through the whole song and while he blew out the candle.
These are the sorts of tales and pictures i am collecting for the rehearsal dinner at his wedding.





A few days ago i received some REALLY GOOD news and some REALLY BAD news a few hours apart.
Have you ever been so happy and so sad at the same time that it short-circuited your brain?
I retired to my heated bed, but couldn't fall asleep to nap.
Couldn't nap? 
That is serious because i am a champion napper.
 All i could do was lay curled under my fuzzy blanket, stare into space and wonder, What is the difference between a faun and a satyr?
 Mr Tumnus from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was half-goat/ half-man and called a faun; whereas, Grover from the Percy Jackson series is half-goat/ half-man and called a satyr.
What the what, people?
[And we won't even get into how faun and fawn are homophones so when i was little i kept expecting baby deers to show up and couldn't understood why they never did,]
All afternoon i racked my brain, trying to ferret out any little piece of forgotten mythology that would answer the question, to no avail. So today i looked it up.
MENTAL MORSEL: The interwebs cannot agree, but after reading waaaaaayyyyyy too many articles about both this is what i have gleaned:

•  fauns are originally from Greek mythology, followers of Pan, forest-dwellers, have attributes of both goat and man and are generally depicted as fun-loving, joyful, music-playing scamps
•  satyrs appear in both Greek and Roman mythology, followers of Dionysus or Bacchaus (Greek/Roman), have attributes of both goat and man as well as horse and are depicted as lustful, hard-partying hooligans 
•  as has happened with all Greek and Roman mythology over the years, fauns and satyrs have been confused, combined and used interchangeably so that now many consider faun to be the Greek name and satyr to be the Roman name for the same creature

Phew...hope that cleared up the confusion.

Finally, i have finally updated my 101 List to reflect what i have done over the last month.

why doesn't this post have a title?

This morning i briefly woke up between dreams, barely opened my eyes and saw a sweet black kitty curled up just a few inches from my head sleeping that really deep sleep that only cats, ferrets and teen-aged boys seem to know.
Flooded with affection i rubbed my forehead on the top of its head and drifted back to sleep.
Except that it occurred to me that i don't own a cat.
Opened my eyes: sleeping black cat.
Closed my eyes really confused, Did i get a cat? Am i dreaming?
Opened my eyes and turned my head to a different angle: crumpley pillow in a dark flannel pillowcase.
A-ha.

Speaking of being in my bed, i love my bed.
I mean, i really love my bed: the cool iron headboard, the perfect mattress, my heated mattress pad, my pillow that i've slept with for 40 years, my fuzzy warm blankets.
Ahhhhhh... my bed.
Sometimes when it is time for my afternoon nap i don't even sleep. I just lie in my bed reveling in its awesomeness.
How much do i love my bed?
Rea sent me this video because in her words, As soon as i saw it, i thought of you and your bed.
[though i would like to point out that i generally don't go to bed with my cheek pouches full]
Bikke the Chip morning stretch

If you are wondering how i can possibly have the time to lollygag about in my bed, it is because i am self-employed. I am more creative at night so it makes sense for me to nap in the afternoon so that i can stay up.
Self- motivating is not my greatest strength so my BFF -who is also self-employed- and I talk once, twice, three times a lady... i mean once or twice a day to help each other map out goals, check progress, celebrate accomplishments and goad each other on.
A few mornings ago i was sitting at the dining  room table talking to her and realized that i was drinking yummy Earl Grey tea directly from the pot. The spout kept everything neat like a straw and i didn't have to wait to go get a cup.
I wonder if i have a caffeine problem...

 Spring means spring festivals for NikCo.
May 2nd and May 9th are already booked and i am deciding which Strawberry Festival i want to do.
Since a lot of festivals are harvest themed i have been looking for fruity beads for Quirkees and finally decided on these polymer ones:

Excited to sort them and start making earrings and bracelets, I got right to it after taking this picture and realized quickly that my idea of fruit and the maker's idea of fruit are a bit different.
There were the obvious ones, thank goodness.

Apple, pear, watermelon, strawberry and kiwi.
Orange, lemon, lime.
I am even okay with the pink apples and strawberries; even though they are not 100% realistic, it is obvious what they are and who doesn't love some pink?

Then there were these dotted ones that i had to stare at for a while before i decided that the top ones were longitudinal cross-sections of apple, and pear and the bottom ones are pomegranates, maybe.






And then there these random babies:
Obviously they are supposed to be citrus sections, but pink peel/pink flesh, lime peel/teal flesh, yellow peel/bright green flesh and dark bluey-green peel and flesh?
Where does this bead artist go shopping?
Finally there are the three beads that i cannot figure out for the life of me.

These are fruits, in theory.

Anybody got a guess?

Anyone?

what's in my brain today?

My new favorite misspelling of my name is Nickie.  It is so random.
A very nice lady wrote that on my Christmas card.


Kathleen Turner suddenly jumped into my brain last night as i was falling asleep.
Whatever happened to her?


Last week i took a broken chair to the dump and saw this:

It was only 4 days after Valentine's. 

Someone hated it enough to take it to the dump, but loved it enough that they just couldn't throw it in.

You know there has to be a good story there.

I am a lot older than i think i am.
I have now known most of my friends for 20 years or more.
In my head i am really not old enough to have known people that long unless we met in kindergarten.

Speaking of fast time flies, last spring Dash and I went to the library after school. There is a brick divider wall in the parking lot and i had the idea to put him into the "decorative" openings to take a picture of him peeking out of it.

Two weeks ago when we passed the same wall leaving the library, he said I want my picture taken in there. He could almost climb into it himself, but then needed i little help because he barely fit:

 Andrew took me to the Gem and Jewelry Show.
I was expecting gems and jewelry.
There were plenty of both, but he didn't warn me that there would be BEADS FOR SALE, dirt cheap.

Oh, so many pretty beads. Some of them had to come home with me.
Also, this lovely, understated purple ring came home with me as well, thanks to Andrew.


What happens to those beads?
I think we all know the answer to that.
It sounds so impressive to say, I worked hard all day and got 80 pairs of Quirkees designed, plus another 60 pairs pulled for design.

The picture doesn't make it look that impressive though.
That's the problem with creating little things.








In case you didn't realize it, i have been updating my 101 progress every week.


Learning never gets old; i love the tingle of new neural pathways being forged in my brain.
Last night i was reading a book and came across a word i'd never seen before: gainsay. From the context of the sentence it seemed like it would mean " to agree with" but in fact it means the opposite - deny or contradict.
Let's all try to use gainsay in a sentence this week, shall we?
And in case you are wondering, yes, gainsaid is the past tense. That makes me smile and i don't even know why.


There are no pictures for it, but i did use one of the neglected kitchen gadgets that is on my 101 - the electric skillet.  It has not been plugged in for at least a decade, but it provided a nice, evenly heated surface for the pancakes i made over the weekend.
One down, three to go: immersion blender, bread tube and my pop chef.

brain dump

The jewelry show this weekend went well - meeting new customers and catching up with previous ones. 

It was fantastic to put a newly remade bracelet on its owner. 

She had some wooden letter beads from a broken bracelet that she wanted me to salvage so i added two sizes of jade beads randomly, creating a double wrap that she loved.

Last night while i was brushing my teeth i suddenly realized that the ABC Song is to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. 

Did you know that? How did i not notice that before? 

I stood in the bathroom, mouth full of foam singing both of them to verify my epiphany. 

Incidents like this convince me that i should both have a personal photo/videographer to capture the insanity and that i should never ever let anyone see what i am like at home alone. Not sure how to get both of those things to exist simultaneously. 

42 days into the 101 challenge and i am already happy that i have over 2.5 years to get some of this stuff done. It has focused me, but there are still daily/weekly things that i haven't managed to work in yet. It is nice to know that i have the time to ease into some of these things.

Speaking of the 101, #77 is Blog caught up, which doesn't sound hard until you consider that i have two whole vacations to do, as well as pictures ranging from last week to last year to four years ago.

Ridiculous, Niki.

So i am going to aggressively try to clean out the A BLOG photo folder by doing random posts like this one, combining several small posts into one larger one.

Jason loves BBQ - i mean, that boy loves barbecue - so last year he was stalking a local food truck called The Smoking Swine. 

a picture of Kate taking a picture of JP and DJP

When it was at  Catonsville ArtVille the family went to try it. 

My pulled pork was very good, but the stand out was the Slap Yo Mama Mac and Cheese. Three cheeses, two noodle shapes, a touch of heat and goldfish on the top add up to a moni cheese that easily makes my top 5 list, possibly my top 3. 

The only disappointment was that the prices were seriously jacked up for the festival, not even close to the advertised prices online.

The older i get the more i appreciate what a fine job my parents did raising me; I was blessed to have both my mother and father actively involved. 

Recently i have been dealing with people that have no idea how to be adults; self-absorbed and clueless, it is obvious that their parents were indulgent or clueless themselves. Both personal and professional activities are conducted with only their best interest in mind and with the maturity of a high-schooler.

Don't get me wrong: in no way do i think i am perfect. 

Please, on a good day i am scattered, nuts, judgmental and vain-glorious (though honestly, who wouldn't be if they were me?). 

But there are good parts as well and i can see that they were created or nurtured by my parents.

The more i realize how much of me is a reflection of them, the less angry i am with these ridiculous people i encounter. In fact, i kind of feel sorry for them because the entitlement and resulting inability to cope with reality didn't come from out of the air: someone fostered it in them.

So if you are reading this Mommy or Daddy, good job.

This hunk of blue glass was in a garden that was the setting for a party i attended last summer.

Does anyone know what it is, how it was made, where i can one?

I am intrigued by things that defy my explanation.

Does anyone remember the slice of carrot cake that defied explanation? 

It was from The Pub in Gettysburg. Ron and I ate there again during our stay at the Lodges in August. This time i ordered a calzone.

It was the size of a small house.

Anytime something is served with its own gigantic knife you know you are in for an experience. 

Gosh, it was good.

 All four meals that it took me to finish it, it was good.

The Dessert of the Week was Fruity Pebbles Cake.

You read that right.

It also was fantastic and lasted for three days, being the densest cake i have ever eaten. 

As well as the pinkest.

 

3rd Annual Browse and Buy

For the third year in a row i will be participating in Objects Found's Browse and Buy at the Catonsville Historical Society.
NikCo will be on-site with Quirkees, plus there will be a LOT of quality arts and crafts materials for sale uber-cheap.
Yes, there will be glitter and sequins for sale.
This weekend i will be there Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 10am-4pm.
Stop by and say HI!

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.

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!

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!