just a tiny thought

I was just bidding on some NikCo supplies on EBay and had an epiphany.
I like to sort by "ending soonest" and take my chances placing my maximum bid when there is less that 1 minute until it ends. There is that 2-3 seconds where your brain is like Am I going to be the highest bidder? Will the message come up green or red?
It is the same feeling that you get when you pull the handle on a slot machine.
EBay is just like going to a casino except that I end up with stuff I actually need and here in the library no one brings me Long Island Iced Teas.

inexplicable aloha

I have done several yard sales to purge studio overstock culled during this huge studio revamp NikCo is currently undergoing.
[side note: anyone need glitter? anyone?]
Generally i have done an excellent job not looking at or purchasing other people's stuff.
Sure, i dropped 50 cents on a metal palm tree that i am going to refashion into a dragonfly and i bought a rubber stamp set that i have been eyeing for months and happened to find at 60% off, but that isn't really so much compared to how much stuff i have been able to off-load.
However, i did i have a moment of buyer frenzy at the SIA yard sale. You see, many of the members donated items to be sold, with all if the proceeds going directly to the club.
Margaret has been joking for months about a fabric Elvis she was bringing to sell. What is not funny about a fabric Elvis? It is exactly the kind of thing one would hope to find at a yard sale. Every time she mentioned it i envisioned a black velvet Elvis and was secretly excited to see it, but knew that it wouldn't be in the Niki price range (free to nearly free).
The SIA table ended up directly across the parking lot from me; after the first few hours of setting up and taking care of customers (would you like glitter with that?) i was able to take a little break and noticed Elvis propped up at the edge of their canopy.
Not a black velvet painting at all, he appeared to be a poster sized tapestry of the Aloha From Hawaii concert.
Oh, dear.
I have a real soft place in my heart for the Aloha From Hawaii concert.
It was the first satellite simulcasted concert, you know. Back in the early 70's that was a big deal.
We owned the double album. When i was in kindergarten it was only half-day. My mom would pick me up at lunch time and we'd listen to records while making lunch. Elvis was in heavy rotation in our living room, especially that record. We'd sing along while she let me stand on a chair to help stir the soup or watch the hotdogs boiling away. To this day it is my favorite Elvis album.
And there he was in all of his fabricky, spangled, leied, white jump-suited glory.
Since it was bigger than anticipated i was sure it was out of the Niki price range.
Time passed and i couldn't stop staring.
It is impossible to explain. I felt mesmerized, like i had been put under a spell.
One side of my brain was all business and practical:
Niki, snap out of it!
You don't have any poster sized space left anywhere in the apartment.
You can't afford it.
We are here to get rid of stuff and make money.
The other side was all:
 ELVIS!!! I LOVE YOU, ELVIS!!!
Margaret came over at one point to look at all of the crafty goodness i was selling. Though she did not bite on any supplies, she was interested in some Quirkees. While conversing i casually asked about the price tag on Elvis so that i would stop thinking about it.
I have it marked $10, but would consider any offers, she replied.
TEN DOLLARS?!?!?!?!
She really liked a pair of owl earrings with water tourmaline that were $8 so i suggested an even trade - the owls for Elvis - and she agreed.
Elvis was mine and i didn't even have to pay for him!
I mean, yes, technically he cost me $8, but there was no real cash exchange as Margaret just gave the SIA table the money.
After she finished looking at all of the other tables, Margaret picked up Elvis and brought him over to me.
As she got closer he got bigger. And bigger. And bigger.
Holy Schnikes!
Elvis is not poster sized at all.
He is basically life sized.
Oh my gracious, where am i gonna put that? and Mine, mine, mine, mine! competed in my head.
Much like the birthday glitter, Elvis was equal parts delightful and terrifying.
But i have no buyer's remorse.
Oh no, i am happy as a clam, people.
I just need to find a place to put an Elvis that is almost bigger than me.

tie me up pretty

I was recently part of a bulk wholesale buy on ribbons and acquired quite a few ribbons of various sizes, colors, patterns and types.

That picture really needs a size reference, doesn't it?

Here is my jazz-loving Pillsbury Doughboy attempting to walk through the ribbon pile.













So many, many, many ribbons.
sigh...

Anyhoo, the deal on these ribbons was really awesome, but i needed to buy more than i can personally use to get the best price, so i have ...ahem.. several to share. All the ribbons are precut in one yard lengths and i am gonna sell them 3 for $1 at my GIANT CRAFT YARD SALE next month. So if anyone out there in the Nikiverse would like some ribbons, just let me know in the comments or via email.

more info about the YARD SALE to come

and now my life is complete

I didn't even know that I needed this mash-up to exist until I saw that it does.

I wonder who thought this up and if it was after a fever dream.

I try to imagine the pitch meeting and subsequent memos.

I wish I knew where to send a thank you note.

pick a pearl

note: pictures from October 2010

 

About 10 years ago I decided that I wanted to buy jewelry as my souvenir on trips.

I usually get an inexpensive fridge magnet to have something touristy with the name of the place, but then save up my spending money to get a nicer piece of jewelry than I would normally allow myself to buy: a watch in Durham, sterling earrings in New Orleans and so on.

On my way back to the hotel after outrigger canoe surfing at Waikiki I walked through the huge street marketplace and was accosted (in the friendliest way possible) by a sweet girl hawking coupons to the Pearl in Oyster kiosk.

I was tired from rowing and punch drunk on sunshine and the ocean so I thought what the hey? After all, one of my favorite charms is the pearl I got from the Japanese diving pond at Sea World Ohio with my grandparents Craig back in 1908 (okay, maybe it was 1982, but it sure feels like 100 years ago).

With my purple 40% off coupon in hand, I carefully poked through the oyster bowl until I found the one I wanted.

I took the tapping very seriously

I've heard that other pick-a-pearl places you have to shout out some crazy phrases, but she just had me do the traditional three taps on my oyster before shucking that bad boy to reveal my lovely black pearl.

 

Even knowing that it is cultured (perfect natural pearls are even rarer than you think) in no way detracts from how beautiful it was after she cleaned and polished it with salt.

 

Now for the expensive part: finding a setting.

You don't have to buy a setting, but after seeing how gorgeous the pearl was, I knew that it had to be my Hawaii souvenir. There were some sterling cages for charm bracelets, but I just wasn't feeling them. My other pearl charm is actually on a necklace bail so I asked to look at necklace settings. There was a simple silver curve that reminded me of a wave which seemed fitting since i'd just come from the beach; it was perfect.

Next comes drilling (glad that isn't my job), gluing and setting. 

 

While my pearl was becoming a pendant, I got to pick another oyster and found double pinks. They however came home in a little bag as my pendant turned out to be a bit more expensive than I anticipated (about 3 times as much) because we looked at so many settings that I ended picking a white gold one which I thought was sterling. It was still within vacation souvenir parameters, but there was nothing left in the fund to make pink pearl earrings.

 

Flash forward more than 2 years and my beautiful, expensive pearl pendant (which an appraiser told me has a little diamond chip at the end of the wave that I never noticed) still had not been worn because I didn't have the correct chain for it. I knew that I wanted something kinda long - between 24 and 36 inches- and would prefer a snake or box chain.

While doing NikCo supply shopping on EBay I found the perfect chain for $1.99!

[to my amazement and disappointment it turned out to be sterling silver when it arrived; I know that should make me even happier about the deal, but it means I have to polish it...yech]

I wore my Hawaiian black pearl for the first times just a few weeks ago.

 

It makes me really happy.

 

Mental Morsel - the oysters people eat are not pearl oysters; in fact they aren't closely related at all

 

ps-hey Rea, look: it's a Hawaii post!

Bastille Day sale

UPDATED

I spent the entire day sorting and pricing vintage jewelry at my Thursday gig -
The Parisian Flea in Hampden.
sigh... so many lovely, sparkly things

Bastille Day is Sunday

and the store is celebrating all this weekend.

The kickoff tomorrow night will feature

champagne and fabulous deals.

 

Andrew hasn't announced all of the sales yet, but I can give you an inside scoop that costume jewelry will be on sale and that there are a lot of pieces for sale that haven't been seen before.

A LOT of pieces.

Trust me on this one; I think I touched more cool jewelry today than I have in the last two months.

Go say HI to Andrew, have some champagne and for the love of Pete

 buy some jewelry -

I have to put away any of the stuff I got out today that doesn't sell.

source

  Here is the list of what's on sale this weekend;
 I think Andrew has lost his mind.

 

flat out alarming

Picking around random antique stores and junk shops leads one to encounter all manner of wackiness.
Generally, i am in favor of wackiness and the unexpected, but there should be a limit of how many flat out alarming things can be in a given area.
How else will we hold on to our sanity?
Case in point:
I am walking along, minding my own business when suddenly i am confronted by a clown - and not just any clown, mind you:

A creepy clown doll that looks like it was kidnapped from the normal dolls in the middle of the night, dressed in rags, painted with blood and forced to play cursed bongos to lead all of the other toys to their certain, inevitable doom.
Someone made that for children.
Someone bought that for children.
Do they hate children?
All one can do is screech, do a quick that-thing-is-freaking-me-out dance, poke at it a little, take a picture and move on.
phew...
No problemo.
Until...
... not even four feet away I was suddenly faced with this:

What the heck IS this?
It looks like Santa Claus.
But what is going on with his MOUTH?
Is it even legal for this to be in a public place?
Ohhhh... it is supposed to be a birdhouse.
A birdhouse?
Like some bird is gonna be like Hey, living inside that fat, old elf's head seems like a great idea. I'm pretty sure that generally birds avoid flying into predator's mouths.
Then again, it is ceramic so mayhaps it isn't meant to be used practically.
Which can only mean that someone thought a disturbing Santa's head birdhouse was decorative.
Right.
Either object would have been horrific alone, but confronted by both in a span of 3 minutes nearly set me off of my feed. Really, i can't even tell which is worse.

There should be a law, is all i'm saying.

they're selling what?

Yesterday i went with co-worker Jami to a huge restaurant supply and wholesale grocery store to get supplies for work when we turned down this aisle:

Thank goodness, they have them.
If i need to pick my toots or want guests at a party i am hosting to be able to pick their toots, this store sells toot picks in various styles by the case.

back porch chat

Hello old friend.
Pull up a chair.
I'm so glad you came to visit.
Let's relax here on the porch and catch up some.
Can i get you some sweet tea?
Would you like crushed mint or mayhaps some rum in that?

Did you hear that there is a new thrift store in Catonsville?

It's called Just In 4 U and is right behind the Papa John's on the Old Edmondson spur.

The store is pretty small, but i like that they have not only regular clothes, but petites, plus and maternity as well. The ladies that run the store seem nice (as a bonus they are from Catonsville and want to invest in the community) and one of them has a thing for shoes, so there are plenty of good shoes to be had for cheap.

But you know me; shoes are not my addiction. 

Hello lovelies  

I thrifted 2 great pins the day i visited.

The cat in the washing machine made me laugh out loud when i saw it. The pearls as bubbles are a fab touch and there is no solid backing so you'll be able to see through to whatever it is attached.

I once considered collecting pearl-heads; they are so weirdly ugly that i like them. I had a great cowboy in jeweled chaps who unfortunately lost his head when he went through the washing by mistake. sigh So i couldn't pass up this $4 ballerina.
When i went to Just In 4 U they didn't take credit (cash or checks), but it was in the business plan to add the machine as soon as they could. Stop by for some good local thrifting.

Do you realize that Dashiell turned one in March?
 Is it my imagination or is time speeding up every year? I swear that i just posted the first pictures of him and now it is already a month since the fun filled birthday party.

Of all of the pictures i took that day, this is the one that makes me smile the most because it captures all three generations of boys in one frame, plus you can see the picture that Jason's dad is taking at the same time that i am taking this one.




Have you ever been to the 8X10 in Federal Hill?
I went there for the first time
to see TM Adam
play keyboards
with the John Mancini Band.
I guess you'd call them a jam band with a jazzy flair.

Normally a quartet, for this local show John Mancini's dad joined them on stage playing the trumpet for a few numbers.

mother, sister and wife all snapping away

It was a family affair all around as not only did the entire team come out to support Adam, his family came up from Virginia. Even his elusive wife Rachel -whom none of us had met yet cause she is interning at Sinai- managed to have the night off from the hospital.

Though not particularly a fan of jam bands in general, i thoroughly enjoyed their set and highly recommend the new John Mancini Band's new CD, Sun King.



It is a well known fact that i am also not particularly fond of reggae. I mean, reggae is fine one song at a time, but after 3 songs i feel like i'm just listening to the same thing over and over again.
After Adam's band there was another band on the bill called Yellow Dubmarine.
Yes, it is a Beatle's-cover reggae band.
What?
Obviously i had to stay, just to satisfy my curiosity about what in the world this band could be about; especially after i saw the stage crew set up about a jillion mikes on that itty, bitty stage.
 There were eight band members always on stage, but that number went up to 10 or 11 during different songs as there were 2 guest vocalists and a PR/manager/friend guy who'd show up to do percussion and raise sing-a-long signs.
This is a tight, well-rehearsed band. They had some arrangements that i really enjoyed and others that made me cringe (who the heck slows down Help?), but either way they sounded great. It was certainly a different experience so i'd recommend going to see Yellow Dubmarine if they are playing a gig near you.

After the personnel shake-up at work I decided to rearrange the Happy TSP Corner. We needed to utilize the space better, I wanted a meeting/work table and frankly i couldn't stand to look at the empty desks where the rest of my team used to be so over 3 days everything got moved and cleaned. We also took out all of the cubicle walls.
At one point a desk was moved and we found this:

ummmmmmm... ew! There was detritus down there from every person that has ever had this desk, including me and i moved over to The Big Desk 10 years ago. And let's not even talk about little buggy corpses  or that snarl of cordage.

Yikes.
I highly recommend that if you haven't rearranged and cleaned your office recently you might want to get on that cause goodness only knows what might be lurking.

On my trivia team it is understood that i can not do anagrams. My brain just doesn't work like that. I'm great at puzzles and patterns, but not mixed-up words. That's why i suck at Scrabble. In an effort to exercise that part of my brain and to do something new, i decided to do the Jumbles in the newspaper (yes, i still get a newspaper; how else am i gonna have coupons?)

My Grandma Craig did the Jumble every day after finishing the crossword and i was always amazed cause it looks incomprehensible to me.

So one night after reading the funnies and working the Sudoku i tackled the Jumble. I worked that mother like a dog after a bone, determined to not give up. Even though they were short words it took me almost 30 minutes to solve all 5 of them, but by jiminy i did it
 and having finally accomplished this mind expanding exercise, proving to myself that i am capable of conquering it, i feel compelled to never, ever do it again.
It made my brain hurt.

Blech.

The team will simply have to count on Karen and Kate for those stupid anagram questions.

Speaking of Team Marge, here we are at our fourth Trivia Bowl

Cricket, Karen, Chris, Kate, Nancy, Jason and the goofball in the front

As i'm sure you can tell, the theme of this Trivia Bowl was sports. Not that the questions were all about sports (that would make me stick pins in my eyeballs), but the prizes and decorations and music was all sports themed. Jason outfitted us in jerseys, Karen gave us all hilarious hockey nicknames and we put together a lovely hockey-themed centerpiece. The Chalmers even outfitted our mascot Aloha Hello Marge.

How did we do? you ask.
Fifth place.
Again.
You might recall that there are money prizes for first through fourth places at the Trivia Bowl. You might also recall that we finished fifth last time. And the time before that. Yes, we have been out of the money by 1 to 4 points THREE TIMES IN A ROW.
Sorry to shout; it is a sore point.
There was some discussion about changing our team name to G*ddamn Fifth Place, but cooler heads prevailed. Team Marge continues on. However, they will be answering questions about vice-presidents and kicking butt without me for a little while. I am benching myself for half a season to save money and devote some time to other projects.

Which brings us to the Second Annual Catonsville Art Exhibition.
You know this is happening, right?
You know i am exhibiting again, right?
You know that i am in charge of promotions this year, right?
It's May 15th; your calendar is marked, right?

Gosh, its been nice to catch up.
I've missed you.
We should do this again.
You bring the nachos, i'll bring the watermelon sorbet.
Before you go i wanna mention that the quest to try and do new things has become a way of life. Just last night a had lobster ravioli (good, but i wouldn't order it for myself) and anchovies (dear lord was that repulsive) for the first time. Even the things i don't like are cool for being new.
Thanks for stopping by.
Be careful leaving the porch, that third step is a little wobbly.
Take care.

knock it off

I'm not really a designer-label, brand-name kinda girl.
I will only buy Bounty paper towels and I will only use Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup in my green bean casserole, but besides those two i don't care about brands. Generally, i buy what is on sale, as long as it works.
Also, i usually don't really mind knock-offs.
Sometimes, companies work so hard to avoid copyright and trademark infringement that the resulting product is downright hilarious, like when TM Amy bought the Transmogrifier, Starholler at a convenience store.
I do embrace that there might be a cheaper version of something for those of us in lower tax brackets. BUT, a girl has got to draw the line somewhere.
 
What is with these Hello Kitty wannabes?
 They have a slightly different shaped head, a pink nose instead of yellow and wings: tiny, blue wings.
Ridiculous, i say.
The worst part is her name,
Angel Cat Sugar.
I don't know why that name bothers me so much, but it really rankles my nerves. I was aghast, people, just aghast. Until I found out that Angel Cat Sugar isn't exactly a Hello Kitty knock-off; she's from a line of toys designed by the original Hello Kitty creator, Yuko Shimizu, introduced in 2002 whose popularity in Europe has apparently increased in the last two years.
So she's like Hello Kitty's younger, European step-sister.
I don't know if that makes me less agitated by her existence, or more.
One question remains: what in the world was she doing in the discount Christmas aisle of my CVS?

off-topic note: Happy 1-11-11!

Here in Waikiki

Waikiki is the touristy/resort/beach area of Honolulu. After the conference i moved to a hotel a few blocks off of the beach in Waikiki called the Maile Sky Court.

Like many of the buildings i visited, my hotel had an open air lobby, reception area and lounge
with a water feature right on the street
yes, those are koi right next to where i sat and read travel pamphlets to chart my plan of tourist attack. I really liked that the common areas were open air because you could have fresh air and breezes without worrying about sunblock or rain.
All of the rooms were in an enclosed high rise tower and my room was on the 26th floor. Because i was so high up i could see the ocean even though it was several blocks away: real view and zoom
Though certainly not as nice as the conference hotel (which i could never afford on my own), my room was neat, clean, welcoming,
pick a religion, any religion
and in an older, slightly less touristy part of Waikiki.
It was nice to take leisurely walks on the stone sidewalks under a canopy of various flowering trees

that i couldn't even begin to identify, enjoying the peace and exploring the local history.

There are signs and markers pretty much every two blocks plus lots and lots of statues:

there were statues of famous Hawaiians, statues of royalty, statues in parks, statues by restrooms, statues in front of stores, statues by the beach and of course, statues by the police station:
(though i prefer this picture of those totems)
The only thing that there were more of than statues in Waikiki were ABC Stores!
Every touristy/beach town has its own convenience/junk store and this is Waikiki's. You need souvenirs for every person you've ever met and you're on a budget? ABC. Looking for shell necklaces? ABC. Leis? ABC. Water/soda/snacks? ABC. Sunglasses since you left yours at home cause it was cold, raining and 4am when you left? ABC. Water wings/rafts/personal flotation devices? ABC. Breakfast sushi with Spam and seaweed? ABC. (i wish i was making that up) Honestly, if the ABC doesn't have it, you don't need it. There were also plenty of little shops featuring nice Hawaiian art and merchandise, even a ukulele store.
One block off of the beach was the International Market Place
where, sheltered by giant trees

there were shops and stalls and restaurants of every type you can imagine.
The Market Place was several blocks long and wide so I could cut through it to get from the beach to the hotel, perhaps doing a bit of shopping along the way.
Like other high-end resort towns, Waikiki also had stores that you don't see very often:
Coach, Tiffany's Bulgari, Hermes, Gucci, Yves Saint Lauren, Cartier, Ferrari, Tag, Chanel, BOSS, Rolex, DKNY, and plenty of others that where i didn't feel like i could afford to even window shop. I mean, Fossil was the low rent district of this stretch of stores.
But of course, what would a beach town be without the beach?
Resorts lined the water
edged by white sand,
stretching towards Diamondhead.
There was so much to see and do in Waikiki -there was an aquarium and a zoo that i never made it to- that i will hopefully have a several more posts about it, but here are two random things about it that make me smile:
there were huge torches lining the streets of Waikiki and one night i saw this person walking along lighting them, like a Victorian lamplighter; and, the free spirits that call Waikiki home have figured out how to entertain and make money from every type of tourist- here a group of guys are taking a free running lesson.
I've never even heard of free running except for in Casino Royale and here you can take lessons!
Cool.