I am crabby. I prefer cooler, wetter weather, but I *hate* when the weather changes, because I always get The Crud. It’ll only last like a day or two, then go away for a day or two, then come back. Lather, rinse, repeat. It’s pretty annoying, and sometimes it manages to make me feel pretty rotten, instead of just kinda crummy. Ah well. Welcome to North Carolina/my sinuses/global warming. Take your pick.
What have I been up to lately? Not much. Well, not much that’s really interesting and/or can be posted here. Working, sleeping, Crotch Rocket practices, tons of secret crafting (which is still going on, so I can’t post what I’m working on, bah). Crotch Rocket – looks like we have a keyboard player, which lets me off a big hook (learning to play keyboards and then being able to play and sing at the same time), but puts me on a smallish hook (now that I won’t be standing behind a keyboard, playing, I may have to be a better frontlady, hm, we’ll see). What else.
Skeeter’s been sleeping alot lately, or it seems like more than usual. I’m a little nervous about it, but he seems fine, and cats sleep alot anyway. Plus, he’s getting older (he’s five now, almost five and a half). Plus, it’s October, which is when we put Daoine down, so even though it was several years ago (um, like…about five, actually), I think it’s aggravating my anxiety, since all that shit started with Daoine sleeping more than usual. (But she was two, not five; her eyes dilated to different sizes because of the neural problems; and she was constantly puking up nothing but saliva. Also, she went from totally healthy to clearly not in about a week. Skeeter’s just slowing down a bit in his old age, and even then – like, when people are over for D&D, he’s still his normal, attention-seeking self. All up in our faces.) Plus, the weather’s changing, and I think they both get more sleepy and snuggly in Winter. But I know all this, and I still worry a little bit.
Yesterday, I stayed home because the plumber came out (with his assistant, who had to go into the crawl space four times, poor bastard, because he kept dropping stuff down there through the holes in the shower/wall) to fix our shower. The valve needed to be replaced – apparently that’s what was causing the leak in our faucet and the leak that was running behind the wall. I am super glad we didn’t try to fix it ourselves, because it turns out our walls are plaster. Well – the plumber claims our walls are total plaster. It actually looks to me like two layers of sheetrock with a top layer of plaster, and not plaster all the way through. Regardless, it is a *bitch* to cut through, and I’m glad it wasn’t me who had to do it. The Crud was also being particularly miserable yesterday, so it was nice to stay home and rest. (I did take a nap later, after the plumbers left. I felt like it would be kind of rude and/or a little weird to just go to sleep in the bedroom while they’re were still there. What if they needed something? Like, to be shown where the crawlspace was? Which they did. And I’d be in my pjs, because I can’t sleep in my jeans unless I’m really sleep-deprived and desperate. Anyway.)
Oh, and Greg and I went to the dollar store recently, and I picked up an angel. So that I can do this with it (once I’m done with the secret crafting):
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You may remember those from October of last year. Well, they are still fucking rad, and it looks like I’m finally going to get around to making one/some.
Here’s our swanky new shower door (new-ish, since we actually put it up a while back, but I never posted the pic):
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I don’t have pictures of the new faucet/showerhead/etc from yesterday yet, and I didn’t take any before pictures. And that’s all for now.
Dear Susan,
I am SICK, you asshole. I edited more than a hundred pictures. Do you have any idea how long that takes? I have about a hundred left. I posted three, with a little explanation of what they were, and took a nap. EAT ME.
Haven’t posted in a while. Ahem. Have just spent several hours editing photos (while plumbers are here fixing the shower), and my throat is sore as hell. Oh, and I think I’m about halfway through with all the photos I have left to do. Yeah. So I am going to post three pictures of recent finished projects, and call it quits for now. I made these for friends, through a deal on facebook where I basically said I’d make people stuff for free if they “paid it forward.” (Actually, now that I think about it, the deal was, someone else was doing this thing, and I said, “Oooh! Make me something!” and then posted offering to make other people stuff to “pay forward” for what I was getting. Which I never got. Which is fine, because I like making stuff for people in general, and particularly had fun with this stuff. I’m just now remembering that, ahem, someone reneged on the original deal. I don’t think I care, though, because…well, I think I probably wouldn’t really have wildly loved what I got anyway – I mean, I would have liked it, but I don’t need more tchotchkes cluttering up my craft room. Well, I do and I don’t. You know.) So, I made a crocheted dalek, and some shirts. I’m super excited about the shirts, because I used a Sulky iron-on transfer pen – and discovered that they are pretty damn easy to use, and rad as hell! I will definitely be using these some more. The picture of the weeping angel shirt didn’t turn out super, but that shirt was hella difficult to photograph, so this is what you get.
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I’m not that familiar with Jim Carroll’s work, but I just read this quote of his over at Coilhouse blog, and find it very resonant:
My voice has a quiver.
A quiver is where you keep arrows until you shoot them.
–Jim Carroll, “The Child Within”
So, RIP, Jim Carroll. I think you just gave me an epiphany that my therapist has been trying to get me to come to for several months, and in just two sentences. Thanks for that.
LOVE these Totoro shoes:
Personalize Shoes with Acrylic – More DIY How To Projects
WANT! (Time to dig out the old Chucks, I guess, if I still have them somewhere and haven’t tossed them.)
Up WAY too late: 12:40am. Yeesh. Just got carried away making my silk flower hairclip for the bellydancing performance Sunday. It’s cute, turned out well I think (considering I was really winging it and hadn’t done it before, really). Possibly too big, though. (Or, really, is there such a thing? When you’re getting all dolled up for tribal style?) Pics and vids and a tute to come later, in case anyone’s interested in making their own. It’s pretty easy (I just got started way late tonight – probably should’ve gone to sleep instead of making it tonight, but sleep is for babies). (Shit, wait: *I’m* a total baby. Damn. Should’ve gone with sleeping.) Anyway, this leaves sewing up the hip scarf and attaching the loose ends of the elastic straps on my sweet, sweet, vegan ballet slippers. And then I’ll be set for practice on Saturday and performing on Sunday. I probably ought to practice the choreography more, but that ain’t happening tonight. I’m not too worried, since I’ve finally managed to remember all the choreo bits in my head, and hopefully that means I’ll be able to *do* them. I practiced a bit last night, and my biggest problem was thinking too much, and then freaking out when I couldn’t immediately remember what was coming up next, and then had to stop and start over. I need to chill out, trust that I know what’s coming up (because I do), and just let my body take over on autopilot, and all will be well. And also, practice some more in the meantime so I can get to that autopilot state without thinking too much.
BUT NOT TONIGHT! IT IS BEDTIME! BEYOND BEDTIME! ZZZZZZZZZZ………
The skirt is more or less finished. I may need to tweak the waistband just a smidge to make sure it stays up while I’m dancing, but I’m going to practice in it and see how it goes. I finished the hem with ribbon – it looks pretty, but sweet christ is was a pain in the ass. I always forget how damn slippery ribbon is, and you sew it and it keeps scootching over. Ugh. But so pretty. (The last picture, I’m holding my hair up because I’d just finished practicing, and was sweating balls.)
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And then, on a roll, I made the necklace to go with the outfit. I don’t have alot of experience making jewelry, and have never really used jump rings before, but it was surprisingly easy, and I loooooove it.
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Now all I’ve got left is to make the hair decoration (remove the stem from a silk flower and slap it on a hairclip, basically), sew up the hip scarf (which hopefully will be nowhere near as much trouble as the skirt – I love the skirt, but every estimate I made about how long a step would take, it actually took at least three times as long), and sew the elastic straps on my ballet slippers (they’re attached at one end only, so you can adjust them yourself so they cross over your arch; so, you have to sew the other ends down). I’m pretty sure I’ve worked out how I’m styling my hair and what makeup I’m wearing, so…yeah. Psyched. Just need to finish getting the actual choreography down. You know, just a tiny thing. (Yeah, right.) I’m getting there, but the very last bit has a lot of turning, and it’s still too easy for me to get hypnotized and want to keep turning with the same move when it’s time to switch to a different turning move. Also, some of the parts I still have to count out the steps – I really want to keep that counting mental, and not have my lips move, too. Not that I really do that. Much. No, really, almost not at all, but I’d like to make the choreography as automatic as possible, so my body can just go on autopilot, and maybe I can smile out at the audience even, instead of concentrating so hard on not fucking up. 
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Blurry, because I was shooting through the window and not close enough, but there it is: a hummingbird.
