walk along the open road of love and life - surviving if we can.

mmm. I am feeling very at peace with the universe.

feeling so forgiving, I even changed my ex-ex-ex boyfriend's name in my phone book from "Ignorant Slut" to "Loserface." :)

more and more things are falling into place. new job finally came through for me (free coffee is mine once more), I THINK I figured out what I still need to transfer to UTD (just need to get admissions on the phone and apply for scholarships), and post-break-up complications are fading fast.

there was a brief interim of uncertainty on all those points, but just when I was getting worried nothing was going to work out like I wanted, it all turned around. this is why I love life :)

I've been lucky enough to meet some very interesting and inspiring new people lately, and I'm back to teaching artsy kids with the Purple Crayon, so I'm thinking a creative revival is in store for this summer. I threw a few pots on the wheel yesterday (the heat dries them so much faster and makes my lack of bats much less of a problem), and am going to start cranking them out to sell for supplementary income (shoe moneys).

I know I say this every other post, but I really am going to take some pictures of all my crap to shamelessly promote myself in the near future. look forward.


side note: this just solidifies my total geek status, and I'm almost a little embarassed to mention it, but I almost have 50 followers on Blip.fm, and it makes me freaking excited. 48 people appreciate my taste in music. geeeeeeeekgasm.

we could close the curtains, pretend like there's no world outside

For spring break one year, my family took a vacation to Sanibel Island, Florida. This is an absolutely beautiful and relatively un-commercialized vacation spot (i.e. the beaches aren't totally covered with rich, anorexic spring-breakers every year). It's pretty nice. I had been there before, and I'd go there again.

But for some reason, that one year I brought a half a suitcase full of yarn and various knitting needles, and I stayed in the beach house we were renting and knitted. Constantly. The entire week. And had a blast. I didn't bring any patterns and had no access to the internet, so I created an entire line of hats out of my head.

Looking back, my parents probably spent a good deal of money renting the place, and I probably should have spent more time out on the beach taking advantage of that... but hey. It was a nice vacation.

I think that's the kind of vacation I need to have more often. I can't remember the last time I've done that kind of thing without feeling guilty for "wasting time" or stressed afterward from pushing things like homework or errands to the absolute brink of their deadlines.

That's where I am right now. I have a presentation that needs to be basically done by this evening, and I'm still in the planning stages.

And of course, I'm suddenly full of inspiration to spin, knit, carve stamps, go thrift store shopping, bake, draw, paint, throw pots...


Fuck.

quick clay update!

The weather is gorgeous. It's spring. My knitting inspiration is fading slightly (even though I just bought about 9 oz of roving this week), but all my other artistic inspirations are abounding. I'm considering buying a dyeing starter kit and experimenting with that (or I may try the cheap Kool Aid method... no shame in that), and most excitingly, I've been throwing some pots and attempting to fire them.

Ever since The Purple Crayon shut down and I inherited a wheel and a non-functional kiln, the studio in the barn has been set up. Then last spring we got an awesome deal on a WORKING kiln via craig's list... I've just been waiting for the weather to warm up enough so it's comfortable being out in the door-less barn for hours at a time.

Yesterday I threw a couple pots and did a test bisque fire. It definitely worked (the bowl I had in there is bisqued), but the cone never bent, so I guess I either used the wrong cone (05), or I opened the lid too many times and messed things up... I have no idea. I don't know how to use the kiln-sitter, and I think I'll just end up buying a pyrometer to make my life easier. Also, we don't have any kiln shelves (or at least none that I can find), so I can only fire things on the very bottom and I feel like I'm wasting a ton of electricity on just a few pieces.

So I'm going to glaze my newly-bisqued bowl after classes today and see if I can finagle the temp to do a proper glaze fire. Stay tuned.

you've made it through the direst of straights, alright.

it's over.

actually, not quite, I have one last final tomorrow at 11:30, but I'm not worried/don't care. it's going to be breezy. and then it will be done.

last night, while sitting at the bar of my (2nd) favorite coffee shop, it hit me that I had nothing to work on - no tests to study for, no papers to write, no symptoms of depressive or manic episodes to memorize... it was a weird feeling.

it's like the world is brand new, and I finally get to go enjoy it. freedom is so beautiful.

I'm so inspired - coffee tastes better, the air smells crisper, the sun is brighter... I want to draw, paint, build, create.


hopefully within the next few days I'll get around to photographing some of the projects I've done in Design this semester... and then do some more from my own inspiration.

okay, bye. ❤

18.

I'm paying my little sister to finish my art project for me.

Shhhh. Don't tell.

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life... and I'm feelin good.

You guys were so right.

Blocking the hell out of that mitten made it absolutely beautiful. I should never have doubted one of the most basic of the ancient rites of Needlecraftery. I'm sorry. And I definitely haven't taken an after picture, nor have I photo'd the other projects I've been working on. Just trust me - they're all incredible, as usual.


Speaking of incredible.

My many hours spent choosing professors and organizing my schedule have not left me disappointed. Though not actually incredible, thanks to various unrelated, outside factors, my classes have been very promising so far.

Psych of Personality/Abnormal Psych - THANK YOU, RateMyProfessors.com. I took a big risk taking the same guy for two classes, but I'm not sorry. He's so laid-back and casual, but at the same time has a deep sense of professionalism and serious control of the classroom. Annnd he knows my name and looks deep into my eyes - almost into my soul - when I'm talking...

ahem.

And of course there's the obligatory bitch who insists on letting everyone know exactly how disgusting she thinks people with tattoos and piercings are and "lyke, omg, they're so nasty, I don't even knooooowww how anyone could dooo anything like that to their bodies and they must be totally messed up and psychotic to put poison in their bloodstream and mutilate themselves and ZZOOOMG! girl next to me, is that a nose ring??? omigod, what were you thinking, do you really just hate your body that much that you would mistreat it like that??"

On a good day, I want to strangle her. On a day like today, I had to flip her off with both hands under the desk. Hon, we all have our own opinions, and a debate (though on a completely unrelated subject) is actually a great and appropriate time to voice them, but if you happen to be blonde and stupid and have a abnormally squeaky voice, don't sit next to someone with a fever and massive sinus congestion and expect to live.

But, lo; the wonderful Professor L. is quick to get the discussion back on track without offending anyone or allowing any violent fights to break out. Yayy :)


Intermediate Spanish I - interesting class, with a good number of what I presume are "continuing education" students, ages 40-75, and kids who took Beginning Spanish II from the same prof. last semester. La Maestra is rather eccentric, consistently 10-15 minutes late, and tends to mostly call on her pet students from previous classes (I suspect it's because theirs are the only names she can remember). Normally, all these things would seriously annoy me in a professor, but for some reason I don't mind them coming from her. Maybe it's because she's hilarious. Or maybe it's because the only time she did call on me, she gave me a huge ego-boosting complement on my accent.


2-D Design - Ahh. This class awakens the long-dormant artist inside my soul. The first time I walked into the room I gave a huge, involuntary sigh and got a beautiful feeling of everything being right with the world. Artgasam.

The lighting is amazing, the ceilings are high, the tables are rotating, the chairs are comfy - in short, the room alone is the polar opposite of the prison-like image I usually associate with school and academia. The instructor is shockingly young, and probably in her first or second year of teaching. She's only given one lecture so far, so I can't form much of an opinion on how qualified she is, but at least her slight drawl (which normally realllly irratates me - a side effect of growing up with some hardcore rednecks in rural Alabama, I guess?) is more endearning than annoying.

Most importantly, it's giving me some time to actually sit down and create something. I'll be honest - spending two and a half hours in the same class is rather tough, but I've only had to actually stay the whole duration once. I had already finished my project when I came to class today, so I just drew penguins and owls for about an hour, until Teach came over to look at my progress and told me I could go if I was quiet and didn't let anyone see me leave :)


So my education is progressing quite nicely, and I usually get to see a friendly face in or on the way to every class. It's pretty wonderful. Not seeing a whole lot of opportunity for in-class knitting, but I may be able to work something out with my Psych professor.

Voulez-Vous Crochet Avec Moi?

yeah, you do.

This is just going to be a quickie (ha), because I'm seriously exhausted and I have cupcakes in the oven, but I feel like I should update my legions of fans on how my creative enterprises are coming, bi-monthly at least.

I've been crocheting - I found a pattern for an amigurumi coffee cup, and never looked back. I also made an oddly-shaped-yet-adorable bunny, and two freeform bees. Love how fast it goes compared to knitting. Still love the knitted fabric better for clothing, but crochet is sturdier, and better suited to toys (hey, like amugurumi!).

I was feeling hardcore a couple of days ago, so I cast on for Bayerische (anyone have any idea how to pronounce that?)... and those babies have teeth! I'm cableing sans cable needle to make it even scarier, yet admittedly, easier for myself.


Work is actually going okay; I only had one week of insane Tuesday and Wednesday classes while my boss has been gone, and I've gotten a break from them this week and last week. My Monday class is wonderful - it's just four mind-blowingly talented 12-14 year olds who make a masterpiece of whatever project I assign them with little or no help from me. I actually got to paint and draw with them yesterday and made a halfway-decent picture.


iPhone update for iPod Touch? Totally worth the ten bucks. As long as I'm within range of some wi-fi, I can do everything an iPhone can do except make phone calls and use Shazam (no microphone =[ ). Excitement.

That's all - pictures tomorrow, possibly. I'm kind of a picture tease, and I apologize. It's nighttime, and there is no decent lighting in my house whatsoever.

*ETA*
oops, accidentally posted with the date and time from when I thought up the clever title (about a week ago), and just now fixed it, so if this is in your blogroll twice, I'm dreadfully sorry.

Taking Care of Business

Work has been pretty crazy lately. My boss is pretty disorganized (I sympathize - we're artists, not accountants), and occasionally I end up having to pay the price for her lack of foresight. I've become used to having the project I'm going to teach explained to me at the literal last minute, but this week I had to make it up as I went along with two classes - one of which had twelve 6-10 year-olds. And of course, only half the class arrives on time, so I'm constantly jumping back and forth between steps to help the latecomers catch up. Also, during the summer, there are always kids going out of town who want to know when they can do a make-up class. That was so much easier to deal with when we had our own place - people could come in pretty much any time we were open - but now we have to find a class in the next session for them to come to. And these sorts of inquiries are always made in the middle of class, with dozens of noisy kids all asking for help making various parts of a clay monkey pencil holder that I'm making up on the spot. Utter Chaos.

Now my boss is going out of town for three weeks, leaving me to basically run the business. I am, in fact, freaking out slightly. But maybe now that I have all the projects ahead of time I'll be able to divert some disasters (like leaving all our glazes at the other facility when all the entire class had left to do was paint their clay pieces. that was a fun day). My entire schedule has changed - thank God for iCal or I'd never show up at the right place at the right time. I'm also going to have to start dressing a little more professionally so parents will take me seriously. Last week someone asked me what my "qualifications" were, and I was a little taken aback. Am I qualified? I finally decided to call myself an art student, even though I'm majoring in Spanish/Psych/Chem and haven't taken any college art classes to speak of yet. Makes me sound legit.


I've been knitting a little bit, but there are so many things I want to make, that I end up starting a million projects at once and never finishing any. I'm almost done with Hello Yarn's top down bonnet (figure-8 cast on is freaking brilliant), but I probably made it far to small to fit any normal baby. Damn gauge.

I did flickr (yes, that's a verb) some pictures of thank you cards I made for people who sent me especially large graduation checks - here's one of my favorites:



Uniball ink pens = love.

Ink'd. It's "knit" backwards. Minus the T. Plus a D.

Last night, instead of going to sleep early (or even on time) because I knew I had to leave the house at 7:30 in the morning, I designed my next tattoo. And by next, I mean first. And by first, I mean I'm probably never going to get it, but the design's there if I ever need it.



It's rough, and my drawing skills are grossly underdeveloped, but I kinda like it. Remember my grease monkey fantasy? Well I've also had a tattoo artist one for a long time too. Something about making art that is more or less permanent is so appealing to me. Any real tat artists want to clean it up and ink it on my arm?


I've been pretty uninspired in my fiber ventures since the weather's been warmer (I haven't knitted a stitch since spring break. shock.), but I did a little dyeing the other day.

What with? Why, easter egg dye of course. After easter, Walmart had five million little kits for 17 cents each, and I stocked up. Now not only do I have several dozen little egg holders, I also have brand-spanking-new pink yarn!



I used Cascade Ecological Wool, soaked in water for about an hour so the dye would take evenly, heated enough water to cover a skein in a huge canning vat, and added vinegar (about a cup), salt (a couple teaspoons), and 5 or 6 dye pellets.



I stirred it carefully (to avoid felting) until it started to boil, turned off the heat, and let it sit for several hours while I finished beating Guitar Hero III on Medium (still can't get past Slash on Hard). When I checked, the dye bath was totally clear, and the yarn was beautiful and vinegary-smelling.

I still have a ton of dye and bare yarn left, so I'm totally going to dye another day.


In other, less exciting, actually kind of sad news; my cat, Paige, has a tumor. He went under the knife the other day and they got a lot of it out and sent it to a lab to see if it's benign or not. We'll probably find out today or tomorrow. For now, he has a gnarly looking belly and we're feeding him mangosteen juice three times a day.

To avoid ending on a depressing note: I'm graduating in 42 days!

You Spin Me Right Round, Baby, Right Round Like a Record

Hello, Blog.

I dropped (or am in the process of dropping - I just skipped today) my Art History class, so I finally have a little free time and can sleep in on M/W/F until 9. This has increased my quality of life by like 96%.

I really thought I would enjoy Art History; that it'd be a fun, blow-off class for my blow-off senior year. But no. Looking at the syllabus, it'd be more work than Anatomy. Besides that, I'm not really into spending 15 minutes of class doing "art news," which seems to me to be the college equivalent of the dreaded current events reports I had to do for a whole year in 9th grade Social Studies.

Plus, the professor is partially deaf, repeats everything you say twice, and acts like she's scared to death of all her students. Not how I think an art teacher should be.

So as soon as I hear back from an adviser, I'm out of there. I'm keeping the book, though. I'll probably take the class again when my boss's friend starts teaching it at my campus.


So... fiberwise.

I'm spinning! It's pretty much the coolest thing I've ever done in my entire life. My darling mother found the wonderful Miss Cindy in our city's little directory, living less than 10 minutes away, and we went over to her house before Christmas to see her sheep and alpacas.



Annnd we signed ourselves up for spinning lessons immediately. Two lessons later, and I've gotten pretty comfortable with both the drop spindle and the wheel. I think we'll be plying next lesson. Yarn pictures to come!


Weather has been rather freezing lately, so I've been pretty prolific in my knitting.

First, the rather disappointing Headline News.



I used Wool Ease, just because I had it on hand, but I think it was a mistake. With the huge needles the pattern calls for, it makes a really holey fabric that's kind of disgusting after knitting worsted weight socks on size 2 needles.


Next, a commissioned (yay!) space invaders beanie for my friend Josiah. Inspired, of course, by my amazing space invaders tea cozy.



This uses black Simply Soft, and - get this - GLOW IN THE DARK NYLON. I know. It blows my mind. I've been trying really hard to get a glowing picture of it, but I think I'm going to need a tripod and a really long exposure camera. It's not the softest, and it's splitty as hell, but HELLO. It glows in the freaking dark. Unfortunately, my fair isle is not quite up to par yet, and I didn't make it stretchy enough to fit its intended owner. So I'm knitting another one!


Next, a little something I call Roxy Hart, because it reminds me of the kind of cloche Renee Zellweger wore in Chicago.



This was basically me practicing granny squares (my first!), and when I found myself with an alarming amount of them, I slip stitched em together and picked up stitches around the top to make a hat!


I've got a few other projects to post later, but this post has already sucked up an hour of my morning languidity (not a real word?), they'll have to wait while do more important things. Like play Guitar Hero III.