Sunday, October 26, 2008

Two weeks away from the blog makes for a lot to talk about...

Stupid weather. Farmer's Market season is nearly over, which is good, because apparently my ability to gauge whether or not I should set foot outdoors has vanished utterly. I get deluged, stay home on a perfect day, get deluged again, then get my little pop-up sun shade nearly blown over again the week after that.

This coming Wednesday, the 29th, will be the last day for the market. We vendors are being encouraged to dress up and offer candy for Halloween.

It's been a really fun season, and a learning experience all around. I've certainly enjoyed getting my clinically-depressed self out of the house and talking with people, to say nothing of the fun involved in decorating people with little fiddly designs. I've gotten to know some of the other vendors as well, and I really like the way we all seem to look out for one another, whether it's by discounting the price of snacks or helping each other with setup (or packing up in a rainstorm). If you do anything crafty or garden-y at all, I really encourage you to look into applying for booth space for next season. The fee is ridiculously cheap, and the experience is worth every penny.

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With the close of the season, I was beginning to think I'd have to put the henna away till springtime, but it turns out that the local health-food place is once again interested in having me come out on a weekly basis. This makes me very happy for a number of reasons, not least of which is the guaranteed income from all the store employees looking for their weekly "fix" of henna.

If you're in town, I'll be at Nature's Pharm over in Lafayette, near the mall in the K-Mart plaza, every Friday from noon till roughly 5pm. And I will definitely still be taking bookings from anyone who wants to add some henna to their next birthday party, shower, ladies' night, or whatever.

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I haven't posted in the past two weeks because I have been troubled, and hoping for some good news to write rather than the worrisome stuff. Bear in mind, most of my life is operating as well as it always does, so there aren't any tragedies keeping me from the keyboard. No... I'm a little miffed and concerned because this most recent mosaic turned out very strangely. It seems that I didn't mix up the dry bag of concrete before scooping out what I needed for each stepping stone, and this most recent stone ended up getting more sand than cement. It's very crumbly and chalky, and I have a real worry that the whole thing will disintegrate if I set it out in the rain.

This sucks all the more because the actual image looks terrific, and was a pain in the ass to finish (see multiple previous posts), so I REALLY don't want to re-do the whole thing if it can be avoided. Suggestions so far have included applying a coat of concrete sealer, rubbing off the weak stuff till I find the strong bits in the center (assuming there are any), or just chipping the whole thing off of the image and re-casting the concrete.

Anyway, I've been unhappy about the mosaic and haven't been doing anything to fix it, so I didn't want to say anything.

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I also haven't posted because of guilt - why this should stop me, when I've had a lifetime of dealing with guilt trips, is beyond me, but let's not ponder too deeply. I'm feeling GUILTY because I had a commenter ask about the plates I had painted for our wedding anniversary, and wondering where the photos were that I'd promised to upload.

Sigh. Moments like these only serve to enhance my conviction that I am basically unemployable.

However, I do finally have a pitcha for those of you who just couldn't stand the wait... I'm including my imaginary friends and the voices in my head in the list of people who make up my fan base, 'cause it sounds more impressive that way.


Yes, I know it isn't perfectly symmetrical, yes I know the red is a little too pink. I did the entire thing freehand, using only the width of the paintbrushes to regulate the sizes of the lines, so all told, I think it actually turned out pretty well. The plates came out better than the bowls, which I regarded as practice pieces anyway.

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Last but not least, I have made quite a bit of progress on the Laughable Embroidery Project. The front of it is actually looking pretty good, while the back is a mess and the fabric itself is still stitched into the embroidery hoop. Whatever, it will make a lovely bookmark when it's done. Probably a quilted bookmark, since the extra threads hanging off the back make a pretty good padding already.

If I weren't feeling lazy, I'd have photos for you, and maybe even a link to the online sources I'm using for instruction and inspiration... but I don't. Besides, the voices in my head already know what the embroidery looks like, so posting images for them would just be redundant.

Until next time -

The secret to remaining young is to pick an age you like, and stick with it.

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