don't be offended if i knife you for your pizza

The results from my latest blood tests came in this week.

Bad news first: Dr. Cool would like me to do 3 more months of the low carbs.
sigh... oh pasta, i miss you so much... (though i will admit that spaghetti squash is yummy (but does not work for moni cheese at ALL))

Good news next: Guess who had every single endocrine test come back in the normal range? Between the new levels of medication and the total dietary shock my thyroid, pancreas and adrenal health markers have all leveled off.
YIPPEE!


http://pizzatreecomo.blogspot.com/

                                                                                        Now if i can just get this pesky homicidal desire for pizza under control everything will be just peachy. September isn't THAT far away, right? 

 

truth

My BFF sent this to me.
I think she was trying to tell me something.

It's not like i trip on smooth surfaces or fall up steps or walk into walls...
oh... wait...

a lot to live up to...

"All right," said Deep Thought. "The Answer to the Great Question..."
"Yes..!"
"Of Life, the Universe and Everything..." said Deep Thought.
"Yes...!"
"Is..." said Deep Thought, and paused.
"Yes...!"
"Is..."
"Yes...!!!...?"
"Forty-two," said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.

I turned 42 over the weekend.
Ever since i was a kid reading The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy i've expected that at 42 i would indeed know what i needed know in life.
hmmmmmm...
I've got a LOT to do and learn in the next 363 days.

It seemed like such a good idea at the time

I have a LOT of pictures and adventures that i have not blogged yet - i mean, more than i even realized.
 In an effort to keep myself on track I keep my pictures folder really neat and organized, deleting pictures as soon as they have blogged.
Several months ago i noticed that i was on a regular basis ending up in places where there was free internet (like the library or friends' houses) and wanted to do a blog post, but didn't have my computer with me.
The solution?
Put the pictures that still needed to be blogged onto a thumb drive in my purse so that i always had them.
BRILLIANT!
Since i would have the thumb drive at home as well I decided to move the pictures instead of copying them. Such a good idea, really. I was able to get things done whenever the spirit moved me.
Except that somewhere along the line after some time and several posts i forgot that i moved them completely; I thought i had copied them. So i kept checking my computer's pictures folder to see what i needed to do next.
Result?
There are over 75 pictures on the thumb drive of cool things from last autumn and winter that i thought i had already blogged.
DOH!
Adventures with Lydia, farm chores, cooking and over 6 months of jewelry round-up pics.
sigh... 

Piedmonts in the spring

sigh...

i do love when the mountains are lush with green...
 I am in Ohio celebrating National Scrapbooking Month (yes, that is a thing) with my BFF.
The drive was much better this time than my Christmas visit. I am sad, but in no way surprised to report that the "work zone" at 79 in Pennsylvania is still there with NO discernible change in the last 5 months. Way to go PennDOT!

excuse me ma'am, i think there is something on your head

I'm still here, just crazy busy getting ready for cool things this week.

my very own spinny rack

I used to sell my cards at Objects Found, but i pulled them all when I re-opened the Etsy store last year.
Today marked the return of NikCo to Objects Found. This time, however, instead of being on the main card rack next to the register I have a dedicated card rack across from the cash wrap.


I will be adding cards on a regular basis, including holiday specific ones.
By the end of the month I am going to be installing some of my art, jewelry and housewares in the store as well. Plus, i will be moving things into the Arbutus location of Objects Found around mid-May.

note: yes, i know that rack header is terrible, but it is temporary; i need to laminate the real one, but right now i need to go sew a fairy godmother costume cause that is the kind of week i'm having

the answer is light

A friend recently started an Etsy account to sell vintage housewares and has asked me to help her get started. She wants to know how i get my photos to look good, so A. this post is for you.
I could spend paragraphs talking about staging and height and props; in fact, i have so here is the link to that post.
The most important thing to know, in fact probably the only thing you really need to know, is that the answer is light.
 Light is everything.
Finding the right location with the right light at the right time of day is hard, but once you do everything else is a cinch.
My first shoot for Etsy took hours and hours and days. Some things i shot at 3 or 4 different times. It seemed like it took forever to find the right combination, but now that i have, the actual photography takes almost no time at all.
Now all i have to do is wait for the correct conditions. If light is the number one answer, patience is number two. Be ready to wait. These three pictures were taken 4 minutes apart:

too dark

too much sun

ahhhhh... just right

On Etsy you are allowed up to 5 pictures per item so i will take anywhere from 15 to 30 snaps to edit them down to the ones i want.  It is a personal choice that i will not correct, filter or use any effects on my Etsy pictures; every picture on my site is straight out of camera. I do crop them square because that is the format Etsy uses, but it is important to me that customers see exactly what they are buying. I'd rather spend the time going though hundreds of pics to find the right one than spend the time correcting a not-quite right one. But as i said, it is a personal choice.
Be sure as you are taking all those pics that you are changing your angles, perspective and distance. You don't want 30 pics of the same thing, but rather full shots, close-ups, up shots, down shots and even some crazy shots.
As for the question of shooting indoors and using non-natural light, well... good luck to you. I did a bunch of my card pictures indoors and the lighting was too frustrating. I would rather wait for a sunny day then play with white boxes and spots. Some people do really well inside, but not me.
Finally, practice, practice, practice. Don't get discouraged, it gets easier.
To bullet point it for you:
-light
-patience
-light
-volume
-light
-variety
-light
-practice
and, of course,
-light.

Questions?

a new quote

My beloved BFF told me the other day that i HAD to change my quote because it has been up for over a month so i looked and looked for something that spoke to me.
There has been a dearth of new quotes in the commonplace book as i think the last time i read a book was on vacation in February (and don't think that isn't making me kind of more insane than normal).  I had to resort to the internet and finally came upon this gem from Orison Swett Marison:

Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them... they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight.

this is good luck how?

I am working at my friend's store and there is this figurine on the counter that has been transfixing me all day.
It is a Goebel, so the figure looks like a Hummel, but not so terrifying.
It is a chimney sweep.
He has a ladder over one shoulder, a rope over the other and a big pocketwatch/clock in his hand.
And he is riding a pig.

yes...

Andrew swears it is good luck, but i can't get past whether the sweep is really wee or the pig is enormous.

Riding on his pig,

the lucky chimney sweep boy

rides into battle.

why i don't draw

There have been several people in my studio over the last few weeks that asked me if i paint or draw.
Yes, i paint abstracts but not figures and no, no, no, i do not draw.
My mother drew really well, but i didn't get that particular talent.
There are folks who believe that if you are taught the principles of drawing (line, shape, shading, perspective, proportion, negative space, etc) and practice that you can learn to draw.
POPPYCOCK!
Okay, maybe some people just need some instruction and practice, but not me.
I know about the principles of drawing and goodness knows that i've tried, but something happens between my brain and my hand and the paper.
In my mind i can see what i want to draw and intellectually i know where the lines should go, but something happens when i try to put those lines on the paper.

Today i was at Jason and Kate's and had forgotten my notebook so Jason handed me a pad of paper.
Why is the circle at the top empty?
It looks like there should be a cameo there, right?





After i'd been doing some NikCo work i decided to draw in a profile cameo with side-swept bangs like mine. Honestly, i could SEE it; i knew just where all the lines needed to go.

It looks like a zombie lion with a weak chin and a pompadour.
...sigh

there is no such thing as lost...

...there are only unplanned adventures that interrupt what you thought you were supposed to be doing.

Case in point: yesterday i had lunch with fTM Felicia downtown then dropped off books at the Book Thing. It is in a neighborhood that i am not really familiar with, but was pretty sure that i knew where i was going after i left the parking lot.
I was wrong.
At some point i made a left when i should have made a right and ended up in neighborhoods that i've only heard of or that i didn't even know existed.
One of the problems with knowing where i was is that i have no intrinsic sense of north, south, east and west; instead, i use the sun or stars to know which way i am headed. That works great unless it is cloudy and you can't find the sun.
So i just kept making educated guesses.
Semi-educated guess.
Okay, guesses.
Just as i decided that mayhaps i was actually lost i spotted a giant carrot sticking through a building.
Yes, you read that sentence correctly.

So i wasn't lost; i was looking for a giant carrot without being aware of it.

one way to you know you are a science geek

Doctor Cool: The CT scan wasn't conclusive so i am ordering an MRI.

most people's reaction: Crap. Does that mean it is serious? I don't want it to be serious. Where do i have to go for that? Does my insurance cover that? Do i have to drink more nasty crap for that? Do i have to have more weird dye injected for that? How long does that take? Do they have an open machine? Am i gonna freak if it is a closed machine? How soon do i need to get this done?

science geek reaction: Cool! I've always wanted to see the inside of an MRI machine. I wonder if you feel anything during the procedure. Do you think they'll let me take a picture of the inside of the tube for my blog?

Wanna guess which reaction i had?


note:
yes, i needed to have an MRI
no, i don't think it is anything serious
no, you should not worry, if you are a worrier
yes, it was as cool as i wanted it to be
yes, you can feel parts of the procedure
no, i couldn't take pictures inside of the tube

it's all about attitude

Friday night i was in a fender bender.
I was making a right turn and had a green arrow; unfortunately, there was a pedestrian in the crosswalk that i couldn't see because all the cars next to me were stopped at their red light.
Thank God i saw him in time and slammed on the brakes. The car behind me also slammed on their brakes, but slid into me.
When i got out to check my car, the other driver got to check his.
We were both shocked but calm (i think i was so calm because i was so shocked by the whole thing). I checked my bumper and declared that it was no big deal and he replied, Are you sure? and came to check it himself. Then we walked over to his car; there was a crack in his bumper and he said I can fix that myself.
As a bit of the shock wore off i swore, There was a guy in f-ing crosswalk; i had to stop, to which he replied, I know. I saw him, while patting my shoulder.
Then we exchanged the Are you okay?s and the Are you sure you're okay?s. I saw he had some girls in his car so i shouted Are you all okay? to them and they all waved at me.
He said, So we're okay? and I nodded, We're okay.
As i started to step back he reached out and gave me a big hug and said It's okay.
The whole exchange probably lasted 2 minutes.
We both made the right and when i turned left to get to my friends' house, he beeped and all of the girls waved at me.
Imagine how much better the world would be if everyone could be as civilized as that guy.
Thanks random guy.

investing personality into yard art

I was in Florida visiting my dad recently. The weather was cold and overcast for Florida, but on the last two days the sun came out and i was able to take some golfcart constitutionals.
I love to figure out the new trends in yard art. One year it was ceramic snails; another year it was large Mexican-style painted pots. It was rather disappointing that this year there was no obvious new trend. I mean people had replaced or added new yard art certainly, but it was your standard animals, gnomes and super creepy kid statues (man, i really don't like those).
But then - HAZZAH!- i spotted what has become my favorite piece ever:

Look at that grin. He knows something.
What is with the hyper-casual Hey Baby pose?
This is a reptile that is completely at ease and mayhaps a bit cocky.
And the mug? I'm sure we are supposed to think it is coffee, but look at his sorta self-satisfied expression: if that is coffee, it's Irish coffee, but i'm guessing it is probably the first Black Russian of the day.
Are you wondering if his eyes are halogen bulbs that light up the night? I think we both know the answer to that question.
I have never seen this piece before, but he literally made me hit the brakes - and you never have to use the brakes on a golfcart. I had to turn around to go home and get my camera (i know, why was i out on a constitutional without my camera?  i just don't have an answer for that). In the time it took me to get the camera and get back i had figured out his entire life story:

Lyle is that one friend you have that has always been kinda smarmy, but you like him anyway; maybe it's his easy charm or infectious laugh.
Yes, he always hits on the waitress when you go out (he still calls them waitresses, not servers), but he's all talk.
Underneath his veneer of tooth veneers and body spray beats a heart of gold.
He retired to Florida from his job as a disc jockey. After being the morning guy for years in Paloma and then the drive time guy for years in Park City and then the 6-10 guy for even more years in San Diego, the bigwigs tried to move his show to overnight and Lyle knew it was time to hang up his headphones and get out of the game.
Years ago he was married to a great gal, but with his schedule and devotion to the airwaves, plus being so young when they got hitched right after junior college, they just couldn't make the relationship work. He gets a birthday and a Festivus card every year from Linda and her second husband, Smitty; they're happily retired in Palm Springs.
There might be up to 150 of his progeny in the world, but none of them ever call; he doesn't even know how many of them survived hatching. But that was just the way with his generation of males, you let the female lay the eggs in the grass while you went about your business.
Golf courses are his favorite hangout these days, basking in the sun and working on his short game. In the evenings you can often find Lyle with his friends enjoying cocktails and playing Mah Jong for low money stakes and bragging rights.
It's a good life; just look at his smile.
This is Croc-n-Lyle. Don't touch that dial, cause after a word from our sponsors we'll be back in style, rocking the Nile.