Musings of my Mind

Happy Birthday Chewie

artwerx — Sun, 06 May 2012 03:48:59 +0000

Everyone needs a Chewie …

I was never a dog person until I got Chewie. I was intensely afraid of dogs. Every kind of dog… big ones, little ones, even the ‘invisible’ ones. Do you remember invisible dogs? They used to sell leashes on a wire, at the carnivals, and you walked along with this leash that floated along beside you, looking like you had an invisible dog. OMG those were the worst! I mean geez, I was already afraid of dogs, and if there was an invisible dog that might get me, how do I know where he is? Whew! Glad those days are over and I’m in love with dogs now, big, little and I guess invisible ;)

I didn’t go shopping for a dog – actually I was shopping for a fish, and when I was leaving, Chewie put his paws on the fence and let out the most cute sound you have ever heard. I looked over and there was this teeny tiny dog with his tail wagging. I went over and picked him up and he nuzzled his teeny tiny head in my neck and that was it. In about 15 minutes, I was driving home with this teeny tiny dog. I had no idea what to do with a dog – I was a cat person.

He was like a duck that saw me first and imprinted me as his mother. He never let me out of his sight. It was like there was a tether between us, if I got more than a few feet away, he was following me. I was lucky enough to be working from home, so we dealt with the potty training pretty easily. I brought his food dish into my office and he was happy as clam to be my office mate. He is my buddy and totally soothed my baby urges :) Mr. Chewie Monster is my little fur baby. He turned 3 this month!! He’s been 5 lbs 7 oz for 2 years now. He popped into my life at the perfect time, and vice versa. He ended up being very sick – having seizures because he would not eat unless he had someone there beside him. At the crappy pet store where I ‘rescued’ him from, they just left him outside all day and he didn’t eat, became anemic and started having seizures. The vet said he would have died if I hadn’t come along when I did. Although I paid a small fortune for him, I consider him a rescue because the lame store did not look after him. I think we saved each other. I would be lost without him.

March – random fun

artwerx — Sat, 05 May 2012 23:38:10 +0000

We got a skiff of snow!

I learned how etch metal quite a few years ago, but never did anything with it, but now I’m totally charmed with metal jewelry, and am trying my hand at creating things by hand. Below are a few of things I’ve been working on this month:

February – the short & short of it

artwerx — Sat, 05 May 2012 23:06:46 +0000

A short month, and short on news, lol.

I was out of inspiration for photo taking, but got busy in my studio painting. (it’s sold now)

January – in a nutshell

artwerx — Sat, 05 May 2012 22:47:08 +0000

I always enjoy the fresh start of a new year, but instead of blogging, I took the challenge on to do a photo a day. It was the biggest commitment that I actually accomplished, as far as a daily activity. Journaling is not my thing, and blogging has been an obstacle for me too, but I was bound and determined to put my new iPhone to use snapping pics and posting them here: http://shuttercal.com/calendar/artwerx/2012/1/ As I write this (in May – see blogging as has not been my thing), I am loving looking back at my pics. I hope you enjoy this little peek into my life.

back in the game…

artwerx — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 02:00:28 +0000

I have had more than my share of blog tech troubles, but I’ve reinstalled, updated, etc etc and I should be back in the game now :) So rather than recap the past, I’m just going to start fresh.

I worked my shift at the gallery today, and while it was a quiet Sunday morning, I pulled my trusty travel watercolors out of my purse and played around. Of course a weed grew on my page… I’m still in that kick, so I decided to have fun with it and use all kinds of colors on the leaves.

First day of spring

artwerx — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:45:54 +0000

I love the change of seasons. Here in Florence, we don’t have huge temperature changes, but moving from winter to spring means buds on on the rhody bushes are getting bigger and brighter, daffodils are popping up, and the misty rain is full swing, turning everything a luscious green. These two little birds were hard at work getting their birdhouse ready for a new year, and took a rest on my balcony for a few minutes.

Homework never smelled so good

artwerx — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 06:10:45 +0000

I’ve been having a ball in Rebecca Ottensmann’s cooking classes, Sundays at her bakery. We’ve covered low fat recipes, cooking in a wok, a million things to do with ramen, breakfast dishes and the latest one… pies.

The first pie I made as homework was a free-form, rustic apple. It was delicious, but I cracked my pastry without realizing it and the juices oozed out. It was still ultra yummy, but I’ll make another for a photo.

Tonight Patrick and I made another she showed us… a french custard tart. She makes hers with rhubarb and strawberries, but I had apples so ours was a rhubarb apple. My tart pans were also small, 9 inch ones, so the recipe made 2 (she baked hers in a glorious ceramic one that was huge).

The house smells incredible, which is soothing me because there are clouds covering the super moon, so far. I see stars out there too, so I’m hoping the clouds pass by so I can photo the moon. In the mean time, here are the twins out of the oven :)

If you live in the Florence area – sign up for some classes – it’s so fun!

Thank You Facebook Friends

artwerx — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 22:37:27 +0000

I want to say thank you to all who hung in with me, on Facebook, as I went through the most surreal experience. (video/slide show can be seen here)

A usual evening of watching some tivo’d shows when my son Tyler calls to alert me of the earthquake in Japan. We switched to CNN and hoped onto Facebook to find the most horrible live images of a tsunami overtaking Japan. It was hard to believe that these images were real. Burning building being carried along by the water. A fast and steady roll of buildings, ships, cars and debris rolling over the farms. It was terrifying and tears were streaming down my face.I had to turn it off because I couldn’t take anymore…. my stomach was hurting with sadness and worry.

That Japanese earthquake means a chance of tsumani here in Florence. We have been on tsunami watch before, but we watch the internet status sites and they go away without incident. This time was different. I watched the status indicator go from green, to yellow, to orange, to red. By now I’m searching online for any info of what to expect and I’m reading that by the time it hits us, it will have dissapted and be ok. It should be arriving by 7:13 to 7:30am, so I set my alarm for 5am and head to bed with my blackberry. I didn’t get any sleep because I kept in touch with my fabulous facebook peeps on my blackberry, so I decided to get up and check the status on my computer again.

That’s when it went downhill. The phone rang with the emergency evacuation message. Oh – we have never had that before. Then an instant later the tsunami sirens sounded. These sirens go off for testing once a month, on the last Friday of the month, at precicely 11am. Then they quickly followed by the ‘all clear’ siren song. Not this time. It was 3am and they sirens just kept going. I woke up my husband and said “holy crap Pat, we just got a call to evacuate.” We turned on the local news as we dressed and it confirmed the expected time and said our area might get a 3 foot rush of water. Our coastal town has a river that runs through it, so 3 feet, along with the high tide could mess up our cute shops in old town. After seeing a steady stream of cars leaving, and our neighbors heading out too, we decided it was time.

We drove up the coast to where it climbs to cliffs overlooking the ocean and sand dunes that our town is built upon. It was pitch black as we snuggled under blankets in the car, waiting for the tsunami to come.

Finally the sun rose and as it did, the cars starting pulling in beside. Even the news truck pulled in behind the car. I wasn’t sure what I was going to see, but my eyes were fixed on the ocean. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, as time ticked on from 7am to 7:30 to finally 8:30. I shot video of the sand, the surf, and the Coast Guard helicopter that flew back and forth, reading the situation. After freezing our butts of, we decided to come home, as it looked all is going to stay well, thank God.

This was such a HUGE wake-up call of where we live. Right smack in the middle of a tsunami zone. The signs are posted everywhere and it’s something that I guess I have become desensitized to it (after my initial obsession with it years back ago). Well this morning’s evacuation really put it in my front of my mind again. Time to rebuild our emergency kit that we had dismantled over time, and never replenished.

I would have never been able to get through this ordeal without the connection to my Facebook friends who stuck with me through the whole thing via my wall, messages, texts, etc. We’ve connected through our love for art or those damn addicting Zynga games, but there you were – holding my hand through the whole thing. Now I’m holding you all dear in my heart. And thanks to my Mom who hung on by the phone with me, like a trooper.

Wordless Wednesday

artwerx — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 07:54:51 +0000

Etsy tools … what are your faves?

artwerx — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:52:56 +0000

I’m getting a lot more success with my Etsy store since puting some Etsy tools to work for me. What are your favorites? Here are mine:

Etsy Hacks

TONS of great stuff for the ‘admin’ part of your etsy store. You need to use firefox for it, and install greese monkey. It’s easy to set up and all the directions are on the Etsy Hacks site. My faves are: copy listing and fast tagger, but all of them are terrific.

Craftopolis

You need import your Etsy and your Google Analytics to get the most from Craftopolis. When you do, you will love the detailed info that you can get about your shop. It’s set up calendar page style, so you can see exactly day of the month was busy for hits, favorites, sales, etc. Getting deeper into it on the Tag Report page/tab you can see how your tags are working, what people typed in to find you, what page in the search you are on, etc. This is especially good because you see what tags are working for your and what aren’t. Edit express is also handy because you can adjust your prices on one page rather than having to edit one listing at a time.

Etsy on Sale

I just found Etsy on Sale and LOVE it! You can put stuff on sale in your shop, rather than just change the price – which is a really nice touch.

Heart-O-Matic

Heart-o-matic is fun. You can see your shop activity on this site too, and see you if you have made it onto the front page, etc.

Etsy Text

I wish I had an iphone/ipad for the cool etsy store apps to stay on top of my shop, but since I don’t I kick it old school with Etsy Text. I get a text every time I get a sale – what could be funner?

Etsy Coupons

Finally, etsy has enabled coupons. (on the ‘your store’ page) The only drawback is that it’s on the whole shop. I would love to be able to choose what items the coupons can be used on. That will probably come. But don’t forget, if you don’t want to use coupons, you can use the Etsy on Sale.

Etsy Apps

There are lots more Etsy Apps and more to come for sure.

My wishlist is to have one that sent a note to everyone you have featured in a treasury when you make one, rather than convo-ing each artist one at a time.

What are your favorite tools/apps???