One woman's trash...

...is my idea of shopping! The only thing better than looking through my local antique/art/junk/consignment store is looking through their garbage. Look what i found: What am i going to do with a broken glass lamp and the world's ugliest oval painting? you say. I have no idea! But that's the fun part.

Felt Frenzy

If you're hip to the crafting crazes, you know that using felt in paper arts has been hot for awhile. I've resisted thus far cause i don't really get the appeal - it just feels so 70's to me. So imagine my surprise when last night i was working on a pile of November cards (Happy Birthday Zachary, Ron, Colleen, Christina, Matthew and Glenn) when i thought This could use a little 3D swirl; maybe i'll use some felt. I sat down to try a few cuts in a few different colors and when i looked up, i'd done this: That's a lot of felt shapes to use for a girl who isn't sure if she likes felt shapes! So don't be shocked if you receive some felt from me soon!

Making Murder Art

Saturday night was Open Space Arts' annual Gala Fundraiser. This year former TSPer Annie wrote a murder mystery set in 1955. We all came in retro evening wear and had a fabulous time. In fact, we were having so much fun talking, eating and looking for clues that i forgot to take any pictures of us. The plot involved the moderately drunk and majorly detestable coat-check girl turned actress Angel Von Tassel being poisoned at a party hosted by Charlotte Rose for the 1954 Best Actress Oscar-winner, Cassidy Peacock. There was intrigue, infidelity, blackmail and the best line of the night, "There's been a little death. But I see no reason for that to ruin the evening." Plus it is always great to see former TSPer Thom in a tux as the head of the studio. I've wanted to host a Murder Mystery for ages (i was a bit too young to get in on it when it was all the rage back in the 80's) and this really makes me want to do it. Anyone have New Year's Eve plans, yet?

Bliss

One of my croppin' cronies - Anne- secretly eloped last year. She and her husband, Dale, didn't want to tell anybody until they were able to tell all of their kids, which took almost a year. On Saturday they had a wedding celebration. I went expecting a party, but they also renewed their vows and had a blessing. Since they were alone at the civil ceremony it was really important to them to have a Christian ceremony with their family and friends. Held at Dale's brother's house in Annapolis it really was a family affair as we gathered in the back yard - there were 3 generations of Anne's family, 4 generations of Dale's, friends, dogs and kids playing on the swing sets. Even the 2 pastor's from St. John's are married to each other. It was laid back, but very sincere and lovely. There was a lot of laughing and crying, as there should be at weddings. Congratulations to the Crutchleys and may they blessed all of their days!

Fashionista

There are many words that could be used to describe me, but clothes horse (technically a phrase, i know) is not one of them. As a child of the 80's there was a time that such things really did matter to me. Now, if i am showered and my clothes match I consider myself presentable. However, i realized that i randomly had 2 posts about appearance and figured i'd put them together. Firstly, i have mentioned to several people that i cut 7 inches off of my hair resulting in picture requests, so here ya go: Yep, that's a lot of hair gone. (if you're wondering why i'm looking to the heavens in the picture it's because i took the picture right before i started cleaning the studio behind me - yikes) Secondly, i don't buy shoes very often. In fact, i generally don't get that worked up by shoes. But WOW did i get some bitchin' shoes last week. Thank God that flats and ballet shoes are back in style. These shoes were buy one pair, get another pair for $1 - that's right, just $1. Soooooooooo, since i haven't bought myself shoes in... ummmmm... let's go with months, since i can't actually remember the last time i bought shoes, i bought four pairs! They make me happy.

It's Alive!!!!!!!!

Sanity-impaired biologist tableau brought to you by Yakko Warner (no brother or sister to be found)

Origami Madness

Somehow Kate C (nee H) has become the freshman advisor at her school and the freshman class' theme is Japan. How and why would I know this? I received a slightly garbled message on my voicemail late last week instructing me to make as much origami as possible and place it in a bag today. Cryptic. Stacey investigated and found out that Mrs C. (as her kids call her) is planning on decorating the entire Freshman Hallway with hanging origami. (current team member Felicia is a Howard alum and commented "that sounds good. The Freshman Hallway always sucks") I am not one to shirk from a challenge and owe Kate big for favors she has done in the past. On Sunday i checked four origami books (Origami for the First Time, Easy Origami Animals, Step-By-Step Origami and Origami Birds) and an origami DVD (DaVinci Kids presents Origami with Leonore) from the library. I read all the books. I suffered through the DVD (someone should tell Leonore that if a DVD is for kids it should not suck or at least it should be interesting). I meticulously cut paper into various size squares. I tried and tried, only to find out what i already knew: I SUCK AT ORIGAMI. I don't know why. I LOVE paper and really rock at other paper crafts, but origami just escapes me. It must have something to do with my spatial relation skills, but i don't get it. I managed a butterfly (ended up using scissors and some glue), a hamster (not sure what's going on with his tail) and a big duck (who looks good, but can't sit up on his own; he isn't attacking the hamster, just propping himself up). I found one fish pattern that i could do because it uses the same folds as a squash book, which i have taught before in my journalling classes. This week was crazy busy, but i did manage a small school of 17 fish. Late last night i was working on a pig that ended up being so disturbing (if Satan had a pet pig i now know exactly what it would look like) that i ripped it into tiny pieces (no coming alive in the middle of the night, thank you) and gave up on the origami challenge. I delivered my paltry 20 creatures to the high school and can only hope they pass muster. Kate has promised pictures of the project when it is done. I hope her other friends and colleagues have better paper folding skills than me!

TV spot

So how did the TV spot go yesterday, you are wondering. Well, i will say that i definitely prefer performing to an audience instead of a camera. My ear bug had a short so every time i moved my head i lost the studio link so i couldn't hear what the anchors were saying. I had to be here at 6:15am. I felt like a stuttering idiot. I forgot to have Felicia take pictures of the event. Basically it felt terrible. But, the experiment went well and apparently the morning show people talked about it for the rest of the show. I guess that means it went well. The "after" picture of Oscar kinda says it all.

Cupcakes for Everybody!

Today we are celebrating Cupcake Day at work. Technically it is National Bologna Day, but the senior staff thought that would be harder to celebrate. They set up a classroom with a bunch of cupcakes, frosting and toppings and everybody just went to town. Since i was on the road, Annie and Wendy made me a cupcake and left it on my desk. Happy (almost) National Cupcake Day!

!!! PUNKINS !!!

I freaking LOVE pumpkins. Love them. The only thing better than carving your own pumpkin is carving multiple ones for work! On Wed Oct 24th I will be on Fox 45's morning show at 7:10am to talk about "Halloween Around the Harbor" and to do a fun experiment which needs a Jack-O-Lantern. I had to run some tests to figure out the correct size needed so i bought 1 fake and 2 real pumpkins and got to carving. Here are the real ones whole, drawn and carved. I decided to go with one scary and one cheerful: The fake one worked the best in the tests so i think he is the the one i am going to use on tv. His name is Oscar. Guess this means i have to find a home for the other 2. How about my porch?!?