The Other Side of Somewhere

Waving the White Flag

I'm waving the white flag and throwing in the towel.

I'm done with NaBloPoMo.

NaBloPoMo is a great idea and hopefully it encouraged lots of people to write in their blogs, but I just find it a chore; a struggle to think up clever things to write about (and I'm not sure I've succeeded with that!  Hee hee).  While I believe when you commit to something you should see it through, blogging is a hobby-ish kind of activity for me and hobbies are meant to be fun.  When any of my hobbies become a chore, I step back and reevaluate: if it's not fun why am I doing it?

NaBloPoMo is not fun for me, so I'm done.

I've learned I don't need the context of a group activity to post in my blog.  I was doing just fine with it before.

Good luck to all the other participants. 

Happy blogging!

Lazy Sunday

It is difficult to blog about a lazy day.  It doesn't make for interesting visuals.

Here is a photo of me in my glasses, sweats, and cupcake slippers.  Here is a photo of Mr. P. and me sitting on the couch watching football.  Here is a photo of me teasing the cat.

See what I mean?

Because Mr. P. will not be here for Christmas, we are celebrating in little ways now.  I refuse to put up a tree or lights until December (in my family, we didn't do anything until December 15th and that always worked well for us) and Mr. P. isn't so into that whole aspect of things anyway, but we did go out to dinner last night the way we usually do on Christmas Eve.  Not only was the dinner superb (as it always is which is why we go there for special occasions), we had a fabulous waiter - Gaston from Rome! - who was so attentive, engaging, and funny I didn't want to leave!  He made it all the more special for us.  Thanks, Gaston.

As I write this we are waiting for batch of homemade butterscotch toffee crunch candy to cool so we can break it into pieces.  This is something we usually make and give away to the neighbors during the holidays.  This is a going-away batch for Mr. P.

After I post this, we're going to settle in for a movie.  Probably a Christmas one. 

Seriously, the holidays are going to be all out of whack for us this year. 

Day Eighteen: NaBloPoMo

Autumn Photo Shoot

My backyard is a-flame with leaves in all sorts of dizzying colors.  **swoon**

Took my long-neglected girls out for a photo. Contrary to the rest of the country which mentally seems to have completely glossed over fall and Thanksgiving, fast forwarding straight to Christmas, we are still savoring the wonderful-ness that is AUTUMN!

Except for reducing the size for the blog, these photos are "as is" from the camera.  No photoshop.

Owen (1972 vintage Kenner Blythe)

Scout (Rosie Red Encore Blythe)

Gracie (Prima Dolly Saffy Blythe)

Day Seventeen: NaBloPoMo

Prairie Girl at Heart

I picked up a cute book at the bookstore today, called: The Prairie Girl's Guide to Life (How to Sew a Sampler Quilt & 49 Other Pioneer Projects for the Modern Girl) , by Jennifer Worick.

I was smitten with the idea of this book, as Little House on the Prairie (both the books and the TV show) was a major influence on my little girl self.

Besides most of the Little House books, I have The Little House Cookbook which was written by a woman who wanted to recreate the recipes in Laura Ingalls Wilder's books for her own daughter.  The book includes recipes for Molasses-On-Snow Candy (which I am determined to make if we ever get a big snow.  As a child growing up in hot climates where a snowflake would've been as alien, as, well, an alien, I longed to make this treat.  Now I actually live in a place where making this treat is possible).  The author also includes a recipe for the heart-shaped cakes topped with white sugar that were wrapped and placed in Mary and Laura's Christmas stockings and which left both girls in awe. 

**happy sigh**  (I love those books).

The book I bought today is kind of a sassy take on pioneer traditions and is meant for the indie crafter and homemaker.  There are instructions for taking a sponge bath, whittling, making a quilt, rolling your hair in rag curlers and making a rag rug, recipes for bread-and-butter pickles and rhubarb pie, and even a foot diagram for how to dance a waltz.  I've only paged through it; it's a book with a cute premise and worthy intentions, but doesn't have the charm of The Little House Cookbook and the original Little House books.  Still, I think it will be a fun book to add to my prairie collection.

Day Sixteen: NaBloPoMo

Less Waste

Kermit Villa Borghese
Originally uploaded by click77

I signed up for a cool new service that monitors and removes your name from mailing lists and plants trees. I despise junk mail and I like trees = perfect!

It's my experience that change (big change or little change) begins where you are at this moment with what you have in front of you.

I'm starting with junk mail.

I don't like reckless waste - it makes me cranky. Plastic grocery bags and all of the packaging on the products we buy disturbs me. Lately I've started declining bags at the grocery, drug, and craft stores when I go in to buy one or two items I can easily put in my purse (and whoo-boy you wouldn't believe the looks I get from cashiers when I do this). I keep forgetting to put my canvas bags in the car, but aspire to bagging everything in my own reusable bags. I'm not doing this because I think it will "save the planet" necessarily, but because I want to reduce unnecessary waste. If it happens to be good for the environment, that's swell.

Back to the junk mail.

In the last week the Peregrine Household received over 5 pounds of junk mail. I don't know the exact amount because my scale doesn't read past 5 pounds. 5 pounds a week x 52 weeks in a year = 260 pounds of junk mail waste in a year.

*blink blink blink*

Wow.

Signing up for Greendimes this morning was easy (their server was kind of slow which was annoying, but maybe they had a lot of traffic). Not only was it easy, it was cheap; I signed up for less than $20. For the service they provide, that, my friends, is a steal.

They say it takes about 3 months to see results. I'll check back in and let you know how it's working.

*Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with this company nor being compensated for writing about it. That goes for anything I write about here.*

Day Fifteen: NaBloPoMo

Random Bits

Thanks to my cable provider, I was unable to post Day Thirteen of NaBloPoMo.  Hard to post without an internet connection.  Grrrrr. 

I can't be too mad, because this daily posting exercise is much harder than I thought it would be.  I'm struggling to come up with things to write and share.  Maybe it's just timing ... my world has narrowed quite a bit, we're now zoom-focused on Mr. P's deployment and that doesn't make for good reading or writing (it's just going around in circles and I'm not much for merry-go-rounds).

Still, I signed up for the daily posting commitment and I want to see it through.

For Day Fourteen, I offer a smattering of random bits:

• Project Runway **finally** returns tonight!  I. Can't. Wait! 
• I love this artist's work so much! 
• And this piece by another artist.
• Registration for Art & Soul (Hampton, 2008) opens tomorrow ... (my internet connection better not abandon me or I really will be mad!)
• You can now see a few of my etsy shop offerings in my blog sidebar.  It doesn't show all the items available so you'll have to click over to see the rest.  This is about as "billboard-y" as it's going to get for now.

And that's all she wrote for today.

Day Fourteen: NaBloPoMo

Recap

Yesterday's Handmade Parade was amazing!  And such a learning experience for this craft show novice. 

The day started with a trip to the gas station to get a newspaper as the Norfolk Craft Mafia was featured in an article; I was told one of my pieces was photographed for the article and - yep - there it was! That set the tone for the rest of the day; many people came by my display, mentioned the photo in the paper, and offered compliments and congratulations.  It was quite humbling and touching.  To say I am not used to this kind of thing would be an understatement.  I'm kind of shy (I know this is a surprise to some of you, but it's true!).

I didn't take many photos at the event and the ones I did take are so fuzzy I can't share them here.  The photos were snapped prior to the opening of the show and they are so fuzzy and blurry ... I know I was shaking.  I was, ahem, just the merest bit anxious.  :)  Oh wait, ... Cassie has some great photos here.

But there was no need for anxiety ... as soon as the doors officially opened there was a steady stream of eager customers and it was a lot of fun.

There were a few things I didn't consider.  Prior to the event I spent a lot of time worrying over my display and my wares and not as much time thinking about sales transactions.  I was stupefied when people started buying things - lol - I got completely frazzled every single time (how embarrassing).  I would stand there and gape for a minute, unsure of what to do, and then I'd try to conduct the transaction quickly.  I forgot how to calculate.  I forgot I had a calculator.  Oy.  How embarrassing!  Thankfully Mr. P. was there to help.    

The other thing that was, er, challenging, was figuring out whether and/or how to engage customers.  We started the day chirping "Good Morning!" as people approached the display and while some people responded, most were focused on the display and on their shopping.  It was difficult trying to balance an expression of no-pressure-neutral and hey-how-can-we-help-you.  We didn't want to scare anyone away by being too in-your-face or too aloof.   I hope we found that balance, at least most of the time.

All of this was quite amusing to both Mr. P. and me. 

It was so great to meet other mafia members and vendors.  In particular: Charmaine, Cassie, Sloane, and Alison and to have my friend and gallery owner, Angelia vending there as well.   It was great to have friends of both Mr. P. and I stop by.  So so so much fun!

The event would not have been nearly so successful for any of us without Amanda and Amber who did such a fabulous job of organizing this event and pulling it all together in a fun and creative way, that I'm pretty sure they should be running the entire world. 

The day was great fun and deserves a firm check mark in the "success" column.  I can't wait to do it again next year!

But for now, I need a nap!

Day Eleven: NaBloPoMo

Telegram

Handmade Parade was amazing!

Stop.

Met so many wonderful people and reveled in all the creative energy swirling about.

Stop.

However, resident artist is now exhausted.

Stop.

If you are stopping by for the first time, thank you and welcome!  Please do take a look around.

Stop.

I believe this meets my obligations for NaBloPoMo.

Stop.

Until tomorrow then ...

Day Ten: NaBloPoMo

Handmade Parade

Handmade Parade is marching into Norfolk tomorrow, Saturday, November 10th.  All of the particulars are here and here.

The mosaic above show samples of some of the items I am offering: fabric collages, altered beer can sculpture, collages on canvas in a variety of sizes, beeswax collage, ornaments, greeting cards, charms, buttons/magnets, and reproduction prints.

If you stop by the Boodzoo Studio booth tomorrow, please let me know you are a reader of my blog - I'll have a little somethin' for you.

Hope to see you there!

Day Nine: NaBloPoMo

I'm Title-Less

Very little time for much other than last minute work on my items for Handmade Parade, but Mr. P. took me to the bookstore this afternoon for an hour wandering the stacks.  Just being in a bookstore fills up my creative well, but it is hard for me to leave a bookstore empty handed.  Especially hard to resist a good art technique book.  Looking forward to delving into a bit more once the hustle and bustle of the craft show is over.

Prepping for this show has been such the learning experience for me.  One thing I've learned already is that it is nearly impossible to explore and experiment with new ideas and possibilities while trying to make a good quantity and variety of wares for customers to choose from.  Knowing this will help me should I decide to do this kind of thing again.

Really excited about the event.  We're doing some set up tomorrow and then the parade comes to town on Saturday! 

Day Eight: NaBloPoMo