so, i went to a really cute boutique in shadyside to show my wares to the owner for their upcoming trunk show. things went really well and once we were about to get ready to go, a woman asked me if i made knits because she was a buyer for "bo-tiques" (that was how she said it and i thought it was really cute) in a few states and england (i really really badly want to sell in europe. the teenaged me would've been proud of me for that) and t.j.maxx (imagine her wardrobe and accessories!) and could she get my card and info. hopefully i will hear from her.

in other news:i got another treasury!

not much else to share at the moment. i do have some new things that i need to take photos of still. and of course, i have been updating the luxe.etsy.com shop just about daily. so pop by often.

pav and i

mwah!

n.

i overdid it today. way overdid. i had dyeing to do for some custom things, got kind of lost doing what i was doing and had to run out to the farmer's market to pick something up and had to go without cleaning up, so i looked gross and was covered in dye. it is kind of funny to see people acting like they don't notice, though. the people that knew me found it hilarious, however. i am attempting to type while pavel is putting his weight on me in order to groom himself and i keep trying to scoot him off of my arm and he just readjusts. i am his headboard, i guess. so here is some of what i did, which is outside drying still, so don't come over tonite and steal it. i will be pissed...

look at this and
i got in an awesome treasury! everything is so gorgeous, i am so flattered to be included. sniff.

here is the almost finished tutorial for making a paper tape (like you use on packages, you have to wet it) mannequin or dressform. you have to put a tshirt underneath it because after the tape is dry, you will cut the form up the back and pop it off and then put it back together. all that you need is the tshirt, some tape to strap down the shirt well (i used clear packing tape) some water, a rag and a big roll of packaging tape. i want to build up the layers more and then once i cut it off, i will add a bit of upper arm and maybe a head. not sure yet. it is fun though. it takes quite a while to do. here are the pics...


i have a whopper of a headache, so off i go. i have been listing new warm fuzzies and yarns on luxe.etsy daily, so make sure to pop by.

mwah
n.

so after i did my post about where all of these bizarre slang racist, sexist, etc, terms came from, i started to stress out that you guys would think that i was the sort of person to use words like that. i assure you, i dislike everyone equally, i really do. leave me some comments so i know that the lack of comments was just a lack of interest and not that people think i am a big asshole. no wait, i have been called many bad names, perhaps accurately, i just don't want anyone to think i am that sort of arsehole, ya know? i always wondered where the terms come from because they make no sense. being jewish, kike really always baffled me, although i wonder if my dad knew what it meant being that he speaks hebrew and yiddish and i no longer remember much of anything at all. ah hebrew school. the main thing i remember was that i hated it and that this obnoxious kid always picked on me and always brought his baseball stuff with him to class and one day had a big orange and hit it with his baseball batt and it exploded all over everyone. bizarre. anyway, so i felt compelled to say something, so say something back to me so i feel better about it.

what else? migraine city. that is where i live lately. i was a wreck last night, i took a shower late and i think another even later. jake sat in the bathroom while i showered because i was all dizzy. also, i have a mask i got from butter's sissy's shop...i think that name is right and i kept going back downstairs to nuke it because it really feels awesome on a migraine head, and i went toddling down the stairs in the dark all dizzy and on meds and migraines. i reckon if i fell, it would be like a drunk falling and i would just collapse and not get hurt:) or not. i have been really lucky that way. when i was younger, i wasn't good at spotting the symptoms of a migraine and also, more often than not, it would hit me full force out of nowhere. beyond that, until the last 5 years or so, the migraine meds kind of sucked, and i knew i would have to go to the hospital when it was that bad, because it wouldn't go away on its own when it was like that. now, with the new generation of meds, if i get a super bad one, once i take my meds, i might still feel crummy, but i mainly just have to sleep it off. that might end up being an entire day, or two days, but i (know on wood) haven't ended up in the ER in years, which is a fantastic thing.

the other day i watched marie antoinette. it was a visually gorgeous movie, i loved the soundtrack, but the acting was not so great, the story was not so great and the bizarre choice of accents drove me absolutely bonkers. rather than to either use the accurate accents or just have everyone use the same accent, there was a horrible mixture of everything. it made no sense. also, it was as though they stuck to a lot of historical information, but then had a bunch of random stuff that wasn't accurate, or was not of the period, but it really seemed random, like accidental. i assume it wasn't, but i dunno. i loved the costuming, the sets and historical buildings...wowza...the hair and makeup, so i didn't feel mad that i watched it or anything. i knew a bit about her, just from my art history stuff, but all of those royals are so convoluted and intermingled that it is very hard to keep it all straight and remember who is who and who is married to who, what their title is, etc, etc, etc. when i looked up some of the characters and many of the much more likable and interesting people were not mentioned or were painted in a different light. one of the really interesting people was the kind's mistress who had an amazing life and really had been more than a prostitute, as well as the court painter, who was a woman and was working as a professional portrait painter in her early teens as well as getting accepted to the academie, which is a remarkable accomplishment for anyone, let alone a woman in that era. and she was gorgeous from what i have seen in the portraits of her. marie antoinette was not so pretty from what i saw. her surviving daughter was very pretty, though, and had a pretty impressive life.

well, i am getting spacey. i had a whopper of a migraine today and didn't get to see butter and lauren for supper, but i told jakie to go. i couldn't stand the idea of smelling the food. i did want to mention this blog that was kind enough to mention me, and check out her gorgeous etsy shop, fancypicnic.etsy.com. seriously, several of her pieces are just...wow. lovely. so thanks charlotte! i am so happy to meet ya!

oh, and on another etsy note, first, i have been listing things daily, so make sure to check in. next, i happened by this really cool new(?) store on etsy that sells kit wheels(similar to a louet single treadle, but with a sliding hook!) and a spinning wheel that has a bike wheel! the bike wheel one is double treadle. the kit wheel is only 150 bucks! you have to put it together, but only need a screwdriver i think. pretty cool! i would love to try one out. so cool. and the bobbins are fairly big, too and only 9 bucks each for extras or 25 bucks for 3. how cool?

i have a bridal shrug made from a sparkly single almost done, i need to spin a bit more yarn to finish it, but it is super pretty. i will probably put a satin tie closure on it. it is so pretty already.

oh! one more thing. i keep doing that. i plan to make a mannequin for display that is crocheted. cool? i am thinking either squeaky yarn, because it is so firm and sturdy, or maybe cheapo peaches and cream yarn or even a heavy cotton twine if i can find any of those things cheaply and in a large volume. i actually have a lifesized person-shaped red and cream striped sculpture that i never got around to stuffing. if there was a heavy weight paper yarn or something like that i could use, that texture would be amazing, but to spin it myself, or prep it and have enough for a torso and head would be an endeavor. i can't think of any other material that would work and wouldn't feel horrible on my hands and tear me up. the cotton twine might work well. if anyone has a few cones of something heavy worsted or heavier, and you wanna swap or sell it, let me know and i will mull it over. the other thing i plan to do is to make a torso with a head out of papier mache or something like that. there are all of those tutorials for making a dressmaker's form by putting on a tshirt and wrapping duct tape around it thickly, cuttin off the shirt and then joinging it back up and stuffing it(if you want more specific directions, google "how to make a mannequin or dressform" and it will pop up. i will probably do some version of that, maybe with the plaster imbued bandages i have or duct tape, but i will just use my vintage dressmakers form. when i was doing my artist apprenticeship before i graduated college, i worked for this artist named adrienne heinrich (amazing artist, has pieces in the national gallery permanent collection!!), she had a sketch for a woman's form with a birdlike head that was made out of woven wicker strips. i had to build it for her, and it was built over a 1800's dressform she had and was incredibly cool. if i knew wehre to get the wicker strips, would make one for display. i have seen those kinds of displays for sale and they cost a fortune. it is hard to find something interesting or sool that has a head on it and a body, too, and for a lot of the neckwarmers and scarves and hats, i want people to be able to see what it looks like all put together, right? plus, i am the only female live model i have acess to, really and it would be a bit tricky to take pics of myself that way, right?

okay, headache kicking, feeling goony, apologies for any crazy spelling. i will most likely fix that to-morrow.

xoxo
n.

i listed some new toys and fiber and yarn on www.luxe.etsy.com and trolled for a bit to see what else was being listed under toys. so. i found lesley anne green's fine art, masquerading as dolls. amazingly gorgeous in the total lack of realization that they are not gorgeous at all. wow. and via her site, i found scott radke's work which is just...wow. wow. floored. did i say wow?

i had a dream about where the pieces i have been messing around with will be going. the phallic things will grow, and will be stitched and patched and puckered and have banners and junk. and they will be BIG. that is what i mean when i say grow. i also dreamed of a similar piece that is more figural, but with no limbs, no facial features, and will be striped burgundy/red and a dirty white or cream color. i plan to make one the size of a small child...i few feet tall and see what i want to do from there. the two big big ones (i already have two of the pointy ones that are a few feet tall that need to be stuffed and tormented) are crocheted. i need to figure out if that is realistic or not. i have always had an affection for obviously labor intensive work. i don't use faux finishes. if it looks like there are 10 layers...there are probably actually 20. i have always felt in my own work that it doesn't seem genuine otherwise. i am not sure why i feel this way. so much of art is fooling the eye. i, however, am a 3-d person. if there the work is flat, i feel like it isn't finished, that it needs some other dimension. for my own work, i just love it to be a mixture. that makes it feel like a part of my world, rather than something i just look at.

i guess because of my spacial issues, i don't do more than glance, even if i want to. but when the piece has more dimension to it, i feel like it is a being. a part of my world, rather than just a thing to look at. does that make sense?

so, i packed orders, spun a bit of yarn and then ran out to joann's to get the cheapo big skeins of yarn for the striped sculpture, although, as i said, it really might end up being sewn. we will see.

also, i worked on some legs for the bird softies. i got round nose pliers, as barbe had gently suggested, rather than using random pliers from around the house, and i was stunned how much easier it was to make what i envisioned. whoa! i just need to see how it works out to attach the legs. and then...woo!

i haven't been sleeping lately, literally just not. last night anyway, i kept trying to no avail. so i am tired. my skin is a total wreck. my hormones are crazy, i think.

as i was leaving the house to run errands yesterday, i slid my foot into my pretty beaded flip flops and they were wet. i look down to see that peeps (no one else pees all over the house, well, excpet for me, anyway.) had peed on my sandals. it got on the bottom of my vans but that was it. she is something. and if you attempt to ignore her to punish her, she goes nuts. she all but does the highland fling to get you to look at her.bad monkey.

okay, well, here are the new softies that are listed, so pop by and buy em whilst you can!

here
and here
and here, too.

mwah!
n.

i have a hideous hand cramp in my right hand and arm that my brace isn't helping with. so this will be short. as you can see, kahlo said she would type for me, but she just types whatever she wants.

341 people heart me on etsy! how cool is that? do you heart me? do ya?

i had to ship an order from the luxefibre website and i couldn't access it. i guess that there are some updates going on in the software, so until i get it updated, no dice. everything on luxe.etsy.com is fine, other than not showing up quickly in the searches. if you go to my actualy store, everything should be there...no worries. i will be doing loads of dyeing this week, so prepare for that, and with the summer weather, i will be forced to do the vibrant bright wildflower-a-rama, so they will be gooood. for sure. i spun up some of the fiber i dyed last week, in a pink and yellow, there is still a few bumps of that left which will be listed, but it is such a happy yarn. i hope to ply it tomorrow if my hand feels better. i am planning to do the hot pour method of dyeing, where i will heat up the fiber in my roaster (maybe even outside!) and then put the dyes in, where they will strike immediately, so things don't really mix. i am eager to see the different result. i will try to document for ya.

oh, also, that bulky mohair yarn that i spun for an amigurumi, i made the body so far, i will post photos to-morrow. i do have the rest of the skein left, so if someone wants it, you can have it if you just pay the shipping. leave a comment. it is really pretty and soft (kid mohair) hand dyed by me and is enough for a small project. here is a photo...
okay, off i go. gah.

so, my sales on etsy have been kinda bad in the last month or so. i was out of town for a week, my mom was here for a week and i assumed that slack 2 weeks were the cause...i looked on the forums to see what other people were saying, and from having other businesses in the past, i know that this is a bit of a slow time for any business except ice cream shops, but it said that...

RevolvingDork
Etsy Admin
RevolvingDork says:
Hi all,

On thursday night night we got caught up with all of the older listings that were not appearing in searches and the categories. After that, however, newly created listings were only appearing several hours after they were listed.

This is due to the system receiving far more listing updates than it can handle in a short period of time. We're still working on optimizing this system so the delay between listing and appearing in searches is shortened, but it may take a few days. We hope to have it done sometime this week. Unfortunately, it's a very complex problem, and as such is difficult to estimate a completion time.


In the meantime, listings will only appear in their categories several hours to several days after they are created. Please note that they will still appear in real time in your shop, the time machine, and listing tickers, and all other flash applications.

The site copy on the listing process has been updated to reflect this new delay.

Because the search cache is not being updated as quickly as it should be, you may see sold listings coming up in search and browser results. This is caused by the same problem, and will be fixed when the system is back up to speed.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused, and we will post updates as we make progress towards shrinking the lag between listing time and "searchable" time.
Posted at 12:35 pm, June 20 2007 EST

i am annoyed. for example, difference between items listed one day apart is 353 views and 40 views. and it bums me out because usually i get tons of views and things sell. there are some gorgeous yarns just sitting there. anyway, i am going to contact some of the yarn stores that are interested and clear out some of the stuff i have listed, so if you see something you want, it may not be there for long. well, it might be somewhere else, anyway. i also have listed more spinning "kits", including one to make some of the snowbride yarns, luscious creamy superfine merino (21 micron!) and your choice of colors sparkle and novelty yarns. plus some other kits, too. i am going to put up some flower ones that have soysilk, merino, loose sequins, sparkle and handbeaded handpainted felt poppies to add in for yourself after you spin it up. i did look at some of the other shops that are alway busy and/or sold out and they had lots of stuff still in their stores, so i know it isn't me. i will take the time to work on some of the softies i have been making, and after doing a big flower skein and plying it, i worked on some collaged frames, boxes and mattes due to a bit of mental block on artsy things. i have tons of stuff that needs to be framed, plus all of the plates i have collected (i really need to take photos, including a jesus dinner plate that looks to have been used...a lot. odd? isn't that sort of thing for display?) i am going to glue hangers on the back because the wire plate holder thingies are downright shady. i have had them pop off a plate just sitting on a table, so i don't want to hang anything with one of those.

so that was my day. it went by fast, rather solitary, but in a nice way. so on to my newest addiction...when jake was in brooklyn, he stopped at a nice market and got some good chocolates. we are into the good stuff. hee. anyway, he got this stuff that is from modica, italy and area very famous for its chocolate and candies and pastries. the chocolatiers were influenced by the spaniards that came to sicily who had been influenced by the mayans who didn't make chocolate with the milk and the heat and cocoa butter oil, etc. basically, the grind up the cocoa beans into a paste (think turkish coffee) and add pure sugar cane crystals which crunch in your teeth...ooh it is amazing. and hardcore. like the most amazing coffee/chocolate you have ever ever had. when i first ate it i didn't know what i thought, but it really grows on you. incredible. and it seriously gives you a rush. if you are a big coffee snob, you will go nutso over this chocolate. it isn't creamy or melt in your mouth, it is a whole different beast, but oh my! and! it is really hard to find it in the US, but it is available through amazon here it is 6 bucks for a bar, but it is a big bar and one piece of it will knock you on your ass. they are also made into squares that are ready to add to warm milk or water for the best hot chocolate ever. they have pistachio (good!), plain, cinnamon, vanilla, chili, and bergamot. needless to say, i am buying some. big time.

whilst serching for this stuff online, i cam across this cool website, 101cookbooks.com that has recipes from famous cookbooks reviewed. the one on the link is for sweet pistachio butter. are. you. kidding. me? ummmmm. um. um.

i am working on another fuzzy amiguri. he is just a head and arms and legs, i imagine it will reveal itself to me, as the others have. i don't tend to have a clear idea of what i am doing. i tried to do some sketches last night, but i was uninspired, although i did come up with some that have a head at each end, or have a teeny upper body and big fat lower body. otherwise, dunno.

okay, "traveler" is on, so i am off to watch that. too sleepy to do more than one thing at once. other than crochet and tv. although the crochet will likely look like poopies.

xo
n.

okay, so firstly, i will be udpating some NOICE stuff on luxe:
and that is just a teeny taste. a teeny teeny taste. so. go. check it out! here! each yarn order will come with gorgeous handmade stitchmarkers from my buddy katrina, as well as all kinds of fun stuff that i usually wrap up with the orders. go on, spoil yourself!

what else? well, i have a new amiguri princess for you to check out. her name is collette. she is really cute and she knows it. she was born fuzzy and his a lock of pink curly hair. she is a bear, but has no tail, oddly enough.



she aspired to be a chiropractor, her specialty being fish, birds and snakes, but realized that chiropractics and these sorts of animals are a deadly combination. deeply discouraged at the animal carnage, as well as the destruction of her dreams, she turned to gambling.

she has a gambling addiction, her game of choice? yatzee. she is a poor loser, going utterly nuts when she loses, curses, accuses everyone of cheating and throws the dice across the room. ironically, she herself is a cheater, has magnetic dice and is really poor at math so most often, she loses anyway. additionally, when she wins, she dances around, shakes her fuzzy butt and acts snarky. it is difficult for her to find anyone to gamble with her, so she frequents old age homes and rips off septuagenerians and older, taking advantage of their poor memories in order to cheat and get extra turns. how wrong is that?

she eats nothing but scharfenberger chocolates with at least 85 percent cocoa, and dissolves this in her triple espressos. i know. crazy stuff. especially when you are only about half a foot tall. hardcore.

her favorite colors are pink (like her hair) and purple.

additionally, i spun some loose mohair singles that are just amazing to do some amiguri with. i am curious to see how they will look, but i think, judging from how good cheapo fun fur feather stuff works that well that mohair would look amazing. i have something on my hook right now and then the mohair will be next.


yesterday our friend jason and his girlfriend came down for dinner. we grilled out (of course) and grilled pineapple (my fave) which is amazing if you haven't ever had it. it is awesome alone, but would rock on icecream or custard. so good. just slice em as you like and lay em right on the grill. i also cut some zucchini lengthwise and marinated it in balsamic vinegar with some salt and pepper and a bit of oil and it was really yummy. we went for icecream at rita's after that and my stomach had started to really hurt by that point, and yeah, i ate a kid's cup anyway. we got home, i was trying to upload photos, but kept falling asleep, so i had a headache and couldn't see right. i took a shower. whilst in the shower, my stomach started to feel bad. really really bad. i spent the next hour and a half (i think) sitting on the toilet with the garbage can in front of me trying to talk myself off the puking fit. fortunately, i didn't blow out my blood vessels in the eyeballs. i woke up with a sore throat and a funny stomach. not haha funny. gah. i think i just can't eat pineapple, as much as i love it, the acid does bad things to me. i have such a lame stomach. sheesh. i thought it could have been the hamburger i ate, but i fed the rest of my burger to the cats and it didn't make them sick. and it would have, for sure. it was seasoned, so i wonder if it may have had msg in it. hm.

off to update. go...now!
xo
n.

wooo hooo! i was so excited to be contacted that i was in again, i guess the people will rotate for the next wto days, so it might be different when you get there...linky? okay...heeeeere! a lot of my new yarns are gone already, but a few pretties are left and i am waiting on one person to see if they wanted a second skein of one, if not, i will list it to-morrow...

xo
n.

still sniffing. i got spinning done today, in addition to pulling apart silk flowers to spin in, and then stringing them, getting them all hopelessly tangled, tearing them apart, restringing bits of shell and vintage sequins instead, and plying them in. now that way easy! no problem. grrr. i have found that spinning in flowers that are shaped irregularly is a bad idea. across the board. bad. also, i have found that if you are doing something fancy, trilobal polyester sewing thread is amazingly strong and comes in loads of colors. especially if you are a newby having a hard time using thread, this would be a good one to start with. it is really hard to break. how do i know this? i attempted to break it with my hands and hurt myself. granted, i am a wuss, but still. it hurt.

to-morrow...root canal. i am getting a bit anxious about it. so wish me luck, people. i am proud to say that i actually sold some stuff on my etsy update yesterday. i know from all of my fellow sellers as well as the forum on etsy that things are incredibly slow right now, so i am really thankful that i sold some stuff. all of the henny penny batts sold (i think that 4 oz of crazy batty goodness for 21 bucks is good, no?) and i listed a new one just now, and all but one of the fuzzy targhee batts sold, i have a couple more to list, probably to-morrow. they are a pleasure to spin. all of the batts come with additional angelina on the side because i like to spin it over top of the single so it is sooooooper sparkly. too much is never enough. or as new order said, its never enough until your heart stops beating. right? right. i have tons of novelty yarns and threads and pompoms and flowers, so i am thinking about putting a few crazy kits together for those of you that don't save every piece of crap, lint or anything else that crosses your way. i do keep all of that, including but not limited to: dryer lint, cat hair, fabric scraps, yarn scraps, ribbon scraps, thread scraps, felt scraps (lots of these things are fabulous strung onto thread) and then all of the good stuff from the licker on my drumcarder, i save that for myself. and i have loooooots of it.

i have been drawing and sketching and doing little paintings and collages everyday. they are ugly, but ah well. i want to do some bigger things, but i find that i don't have the time. i have been so tired lately, i am very aware of the limited amount of energy i have to expend, so when i feel up i try to do as much as i possibly can. today, after i did some work, i got the chills and conked out for an hour or so. i don't know why it happens. i swear i am a cat.

last night, i was looking at the etsy forums and found this link for sellers that are willing to do trades. how cool is that? they tell you how to sign up if you are interested and then people will contact you if they want something you have. i think it would be a good idea to have a feature on each sellers info page saying that you are open to swaps, if you wanted to so people could see right away. anyway, check it out if you sell there.

flickr is having a massage (why can't i?) right now, so no photos. sorry. i feel crappy not doing photos. i am super behind on my blogreading to the point that i don't want to read any at all, so maybe i will spend 30 minutes doing that before i go to draw. maybe that will be more manageable. jason told me before that when he gets behind he just refreshes it so they are all read and starts anew, but most of mine are people i know and like (to some degree-know, not like to some degree, if i think you suck, i don't read your blog, so there!) so i worry that i will miss some horrible thing in their lives. you know?

okay. gonna do some catching up. wish me luck on the root canal. i am taking knitting, you can be sure. in fact, maybe i should skein some really nice handspun to treat myself. oh wait! i bought some gorgeous kid mohair singles from sheep and wool last year that have just been sitting. while i would not likely wear mohair of any kind, i would knit it and they colors are amazing. hm. armwarmers mayhaps?

smoochies
n.
xoxoxoxo
n.

so, i was wondering why i hadn't sold all of my yarn (it is REALLY good, i am telling you!) and was attempting to look at barbe's etsy store and the link wouldn't work. i tried someone else's, didn't work. tried my own. no dice. and then, tried just etsy.com. no. dice. grrrrrrr. i don't know what is up with this shite. my tivo won't work. etsy won't work. i have a headache.

just quickly here...i have a few questions for ya...lurkers...delurk yourselves! there might be a little something in it for one of you that answers...savvy?
1. do you listen to podcasts? if yes, which ones, and why.
2. what would you like to hear in a podcast?
3. what sucks? what annoys you? what do you wish people wouldn't do?
4. any other suggestions?

you know i am a short attention spanned person and i haven't found any podcasts yet (okay, i have only listened to a few) that weren't either really really boring to me or really really annoying to me. clearly, it is just me, since loads of people love em. as i have gotten older, i have really gotten to be more and more flakey. i can't stand seeing movies in the theatre. i used to see them weekly. i can't sit still. when people cough, i feel like i want to scream and run away (let's hope that doesn't get worse. yipes!) i have to pee 5 times, i get bored, i fall asleep, i am fidgety. if i am listening to a cd in the studio, i often have the tv on with the sound off and am spinning or working on a painting or whatever. or talking on the phone. or all of the above. seriously.

i just get bored really easily, so i need it to be really really good, interesting, fun, no stupid voices, bad music...so any suggestions?

if you are a spinner, you might get some handpainted top, if you are a knitter, you might get some handspun yarn. so post an answer and i will pick one or two people. make sure you have a reachable email attached to it. okay?

i am going to sew jump rings(if i can find em) onto my poppies for easy attaching to yarns. and maybe read a bit. oh wait, it is 1:30 already. this photo has my felt poppies on jakie. hee.