Mz Model

She's finally in the shop. What took so long is. well. I always seem to push the limit of successful plaster casting. Its so easy you almost have to be creative to find ways to mess up. This time I did not seal the plaster waste mold well. and. Blew tons of time vs the few minutes it would've taken to nicely seal the mold and cast the silly thing. Ah well. In one picture she is modeling the "Cool Tree Pendant."

The Inescapable Dictates of Fate

I go out to contemplate the carnage, occassionally, beer in hand. I sometimes go out to further the carnage, shovel, chain saw, or clippers in hand. While yard work has its moments, I would say digging out a yew hedge is not one of them. I've dug out boxwood hedges, small maple trees, a not so small crabapple tree, brambles, honeysuckle, and rose of sharons. I've plants rose bushes, transplanted rose bushes, transplanted hydranges, planted hydranges, planted a cousa dogwood, plum tree, dogwood, 2 lilac trees, and a small eastern redbud. I've dug out bushes and planted bushes. I've dug out a wisteria, and won't ever plant one. But nothing amoung the perinials or annuals of my small yard has ever inspired in me such an urge for contemplation, or recognition of.... destiny.

To dig stuff out, you have to dig around the thing, as close as possible. Clipping and sawing roots as you go. Maples aren't as tough as you might think. There is the mother root... shoot off from the parent, and the tap root. Roots seem generally to be softer. The exception being the yew bush. Hence, the chain saw.

My parents built a house when I was a kid. (They didn't do it themselves... they hired a contractor, architect, and whatnot.) And the house was cut into the hillside instead of being built on the hillside. (Stuff happens.) Anyway, we ended up with a devastated yard and a drainage problem. With 4 kids, that's almost a solution to another problem. We built culverts everywhere. Wheelbarrows, large rocks, clay earth, topsoil and shovels are my most basic connection to that time and that place. (Well, and the workroom. The workroom was GREAT.) One time I remember us taking a wheelbarrow down to the end of the street... approximately a city block away... to collect our irises that had washed away in a storm.

What I'm saying is... I can't help it. Like a duck, there's imprinting and heredity to consider. If the yew hedge wasn't there, I wouldn't be doing this. But stuff happens.

Etsy's Own Personal Shopper, KarmaRox!

Big round of applause please. The Personal Shopper created by KarmaRox at etsy.com, has been one of the most entertaining features of the Etc section of the Forums. Alas, it was sentenced to the Promotions sections and has since ceased to exist. I have asked Karma a few humble shopping questions and this is what she responded with:

1. For the gal who needs a new life.....how about something to jot things down in that bother you....nothing cures that better than a lovely journal!
Whitecupboard.etsy.com http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6732671

2. For the person looking for a clue....ha ha ..... I don't have a clue but I did like the board game when I was a kid so here's your clue!
StillLife.etsy.com http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6423861
3. Need a new face? Well Halloween IS around the corner! I found this for you: ('Miniature Masquerade Mask Pin')
lilacgrove.etsy.com http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6726407
4. Your attitude is what it is so just live with it and get this from Etsy.com:
Cassiscreations.etsy.com http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6722199
5. Well brains are hard to come by but Etsy has this which I personally would love to own! Hope you like it! Foodpainter.etsy.com
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6644860


Thank you so much Karma! Brilliant. If anyone has any shopping questions for Etsy.com, I may try to host Karma the Amazing again so just include the request on the comment page.

Once again, Ones!

Reasoning Reasons

Okay. Yet another explaination.. of the title for "Fluff" this time.
(I like to wax philisophical, as it were. To lean back in a comfortable chair, clutch a cold brew, and to fuss at the universe with a teaspoon of not so well intellengized reason. But occassionally I find I have less inclination or time or fatigue or there's strong web of preoccupation entangling the small rodent that is my brain...)
Anyway, that's my excuse for not updating my blog for a while. Thought I'd get that explaination out of the way first...

Now as to "Fluff." The first reason for the title is: I like it. And of course, in my small hemetically sealed world, that is most important. The second is something I've seen a couple of times in my anemic purusal of the art/neo-art/art-a-fart... wanna fart... (where was I?)... ART world. That is, the motivating force of vengence.

Years ago, a lady that is (I'll assume present tense) a wonderful repesentational watercolorist talked about motivation... She said how when she was starting out... she painted a couple of watercolor paintings, and through a fluke, they were fantastic. A gallery expressed interest and asked for more work. Her subsequent work stunk. She spent 3 years relearning how to paint, and why those first couple of paintings were so good. During that time, whenever someone made a disparaging remark, she put them on a list. When she was in a small show and the guy that hung the show put her piece back by the trash cans, she put him on the list. The list was for her first one person show. And that guy hung the show.

Another artist was told the material she used was "cafty." As in, not good enough for art. Or something like that. Who knows what he was talking about except that he was disparaging in a unengaged abstact I'm-just-bad-mouthing type way. That artist is now fairly successful using just those "crafty" materials... (will print name after okay.)

Now to "Fluff." I showed a ring I'd carved to a fellow employee.... his response was "fluff." He didn't know it was mine... But. The fellow has made my list... (not that, actually, I think "fluff" negative. Neither is "crafty" for that matter.)

Such scheming and whatnot requires... success. "Getting yours" doesn't count if, well, you don't get yours. You can clutch your shopping cart as vehemently as you wish but if you are homeless.... people will walk around you. (Though. they still might not wish to be on any list of yours.)

I'm up to fifty-two cents in my lottery-retirement wanna-suceed with-change-off-the-street fund. Somehow it all hangs together... I think....

Fluff

Advice

Okay. What was your best advice given/got? I don't remember any big moments myself.... but the fog that clutches my feeble cranium is at the moment not allowing a blinding moment of revalation to shine forth from my fumbling past... I do remember a 10th grade teacher to whom my parents made me appoligize to (for being chronically late to class), I remember her saying, "If that's all you've got to worry about you don't have a problem."
Which wasn't advice. More like a recognition of, well, the relative importance of things in different people's worlds.

http://qbranchltd.blogspot.com is featuring me this week... And one of the questions was, do you have any advice. What I came up with was have a great time, life is short. But didn't feel that sufficient. Something more must be said... some veil of darkness pulled back with the utterance of a few well chosen monosylables....(as the sides of the hood sway lightly about the shrouded figure... maybe this is why Belichick wears a hoodie.) So I asked in the forums. A few times too! It was like pulling a yew hedge out of the ground! (I've never pulled teeth.) The results:
HerRoyalMajestyBags: (something about lots of undies...)
LalenaHays: Your thoughts are your reality so choose them wisely. (my response.. oh dear.)
KarmaRox: (something about brushing felines...)
KealaLegacy: Love it or leave it, but don't be rude! (I like that.)
FireChickTick: never lick a snow shovel (ewww)
RoseBrown: Avoid the clap. (ewwwwwww)
BlondezillaBeads4fun: Don't be afraid to try something new.
KarmaRox (again): Don't titter in a room full of strangers. (though I may be misquoting her here...It may be best to just say *titter*)
Pandys: A clean house is overrated. (and something about cool whip but i don't wish to misquote her so I'll just stop there.)

Thanks youse guys! The world needs a bit more wisdom!