A Prize!

Earlier this year I participated in a photography competition, which, yes, seems a little silly for a non-photographer such as myself. But it was open to anyone, and its allure was its theme, which just happened to be one of my obsessions in life - the alphabet. The competition was hosted by crumpart on flickr, and each week each participant would take and post a new photograph, one for each letter of the alphabet. I chose to take pictures of things in and around my house.

W is for Willow (I'm glad I took this one, since she had to be put to sleep shortly thereafter.)

T is for tiny transplanted tree!

A is for Absolut (obviously)

The organizer of the contest was kind enough to make each one of us a handmade prize. This is an accordian journal. It's really beautiful, and I'm going to have a hard time deciding what to write in it! She has lots of lovely art - here's my favorite listing of hers at her etsy shop.

There were some cool people and fabulous photographs in the contest. See them here at the flickr alphabet shoot contest group. I'm pondering hosting a flickr group competition of my own - stayed tuned for details.

September Challenge

Here's my entry for the PCAGOE (polymer clay artists guild of etsy) September challenge - a piece inspired by a favorite book.

My entry is the Little Prince Earrings. Three beads hang about 2 inches from gold-tone wire posts. From top to bottom, there's the sun, a planet, and the little prince's little flower.

You can vote for your favorite entry at http://pcagoe.com. Thanks for looking!

The Little Prince has always been one of my favorite books. Several other good books are represented in the September challenge, like The Secret Garden, Harry Potter, and Wicked. Also, if you vote, you get entered in a drawing to win a prize pack of polymer clay coolness. One of the prize packs has a necklace in purples and greens made by me!

My Little Prince Earrings are for sale at my etsy shop.

What's your name?

Gakked unceremoniously from the etsy forums...

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Kitters Civic

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Butter brickle Oreo, they call me ButtO

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) A-Pla

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Purple Elephant

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Michelle Harrisburg

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Plaal

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) The Orange Cosmo

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Eldon Albert

9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy) Grapefruit Truffles

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ), Elizabeth Harold

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) Bomgardner Boston

12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower) Autumn Daisy

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) Honeydew Jeansie

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) Banana Ginkgo

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) The Beading Wind Tour

Finally

I finally got a little fabric on wood art from shellieartist. I love it so. I hope that I eventually start making some money in life so I can afford a bigger piece or ten. But this one will do for a start. And when Shellie becomes a famous artist, I can say I knew her when...

situation

So here's what the cards have to say about the situation I am pondering. It's a past-present-future reading.


9 of cups, inverted 10 of staves, inverted 10 of swords
key words: achievement, unexpected trouble, trouble will return
Must ponder.

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I made my very first attempt at a wire ring. It's not exactly perfect (or dainty...), but the process gave me some ideas. Tools would be useful... Fortunately for me, the wine cork I used makes a size 9 ring.

occasionally one does need a greeting card

The time grows near. It's almost here.


Occasionally there's an occasion. And occasionally we all like to send a greeting card for said occasion. But occasionally we're hardpressed to find that greeting card that really expresses the right sentiment for an occasion. And so we let the occasion go by without mention. It's just not right.


So in the spirit of occasions, my new etsy shop, thepaperwhisperer, will be stocked with cards for just such occasions.

For instance, when a friend has a bad salon experience, the friendly thing to do is to sympathize, isn't it? A person shouldn't have to suffer through a bad haircut alone. Let your friend know you care with a one-of-a-kind "sorry about your haircut" card. There's even room for you to write a little blurb about your own bad haircut experiences.

And what about the holidays? Sure there are holiday cards galore, but do they really express how you feel about the shopping and the decorating and the obligatory giving of gifts to people you don't even like and that awful song about the kid trying to buy the shoes that gets played on the radio every 20 minutes need it or not for 2 months straight? For me, this one says it all. So, if you're none too fond of the season, please feel free to order the "ugh" card in bulk. I'll give you a deal.

Many more cards, most way ruder than these, and very reasonably priced, are on their way to the soon-to-be-stocked etsy shop, thepaperwhisperer.

In the meantime, stop by http://divadea.etsy.com/ for polymer clay jewelry and other goodness!

Tarot card of the day

So I pulled a random card, and who should I pull but me! I mean Clem. I mean the three of cups card that is Clem that is the card in this particular deck that happens to represent me.

And suddenly I have a memory of my friend Miss Cathy saying, "The cards don't lie, dude," and it makes me smile. Miss Cathy was a good friend, and an inspiration, and I'm sorry that I haven't seen her in a long while. She's the one with whom I started making clay creations. We perused a couple books and then proceeded to make, well, mostly a big mess. We listened to a lot of Paul Simon. We had many crooked flowers and unidentifiable shapes and canes with two good beads in the middle and a bunch of muck at the ends until we final got the hang of it, so to speak. Of course polymer clay mess-ups can always be recycled, but it seemed whenever we'd blend the clay back together into one color we'd always end up with turquoise. How is that possible? You'd think brown, or actually, as I've experienced since then, gray. But no, it was always turquoise. Once I tried to make an elephant cane. The reduced cane ended up being about twice the length of the table. There was about a half inch of something sort of elephant-like in the middle, and then the rest became, you guessed it, turquoise. Good times.

Anyway, back to the card of the day.

Tarot Card: Three of Cups
Character: Clem
Upright Meaning: Merriment and celebration. Success and Joy. Healing and positive results. A good attitude.
Reversed Meaning: Over-indulgence. Tending toward excess, but with little harm resulting.
Question: What is one thing that you’ve succeeded at this week?
Advice: Allow yourself to relax and enjoy life. Blow off that meeting or task just this once. A little self-indulgence now will lead to a more effective you. Then you may want to participate in a positive healing ritual for yourself or someone else – could be anything from a bubble bath to a reconciliation phone call.

Well, what I take from this is that after a difficult couple of weeks I'm back to myself. Striking that balance between responsible and carefree is hard, but life feels steady and worthwhile when it happens.

What a great character Clem is. He mostly just pursues merriment and assumes everyone else will want to come right along - who wouldn't? He tries to do the right thing, but he gets mixed around sometimes. He's a faithful friend, and he'll help out anyone in a pinch. He's not the prettiest, but he makes up for it with his flambuoyant personality. I do wonder where he got the car...