Music, Muses, and Motorcycles

Last night at work, Renee came in wearing the Medusa necklace I gave her. It looks stunning on her (probably better than it did on me!), she’s such a lovely girl! She said she wears it all the time and gets loads of comments on it. While we were chatting, she said to check out her boyfriend Jason’s videos on YouTube. I love them! It’s so funny watching people you know in “real life” on YouTube, don’t know why – it just is. But anyway, yay for Jason! Check him out.

I grabbed a couple more of the large sketchbooks from Borders since I had a 40% off coupon – and they were cheap to begin with. I grabbed a darling little journal too. I couldn’t help myself. It was PURPLE! Purple suede! I like that it has lines on one side and the left side is blank, leaving lots of room for drawings and what not. I think I’m going to like this little journal a lot. For the large sketchbooks, I decided that I wanted to paint Medusa on the front of the one I’m using. Then I thought it would be cool to paint a different woman from mythology on each of them. But then I thought I should try to keep some sort of uniformity in the room to keep it from looking like a riotous melee. Okay, how about painting the spines to make the theme of the room for a unified look and have the covers different. Hmm . . . that could work!

I’d been trying to call Mike but all I got was voicemail – and the mailbox was full so I couldn’t leave a message. I finally got through and spoke to Melissa. She told me Mike got hit by a car! He’s okay, just shaking off the bumps and bruises but not back into the full swing of things yet. He was riding along Louisiana Ave on his scooter and a car nailed him. People here seriously CANNOT drive. Turn signals? Who needs them! Rules of the road that apply to every other state in the Union? Not here! When I told my Beloved about Mike, he said “Mike who?” I started to be a smartass and say, “The only other guy who touches my skin.” But he quickly followed with, “The tattoo guy Mike?” Yes, and I forbid him to die – he’s not finished!

I’ve just started to get over my severe aversion to motorcycles, even remembering what it was like to have the wind in my hair as I sailed along astride rolling thunder. If I ever do decide to get back on the horse that threw me, it will not be in New Orleans!

Hope for a New Year

I'm stuck at home again but things are looking up. We found a car for me! Now I am impatiently wearing ruts in the floor waiting for my man to return to shore so we can seal the deal on the car. I sometimes say/think that I would really like to stay home, not work outside of the house. Then reality sets back in. I would lose what's left of my mind if I stayed home. It's fun for a day but then it gets old.

Being at home with no way to go anywhere is like being in prison. Granted, it's a prison with lots of craft supplies but a prison nonetheless. With all this time off of work, I could be getting my big tattoo finished but alas, I have no way to get to town. The weather has been terrible and prevented me from working on some of the big projects I have going. Yep. Not having much fun at all. (*Please note - the tattoo is my own original artwork.*)

Now that a new car is going to be a reality, I need to work on getting a new camera. I never liked the one we had, it takes worse photos than the camera on my phone. That's pretty bad! Even with its horrid pictures, it's useless to me now. My Beloved has dropped it one time too many. I have a ton of projects that I would love to post here but they'll have to wait until I do get a new camera.

I love finding uses for stuff that would otherwise be thrown away. You could call it "green" but I know the truth - I'm cheap. My knack for pulling stuff out of the trash is so well known that at work everyone asks me "Do you want this?" before tossing anything out. I always keep the lids we cut off cigar boxes. I figured I could make books with them. Regular books was what I originally had in mind, the ones with fixed pages. I really need a book that I can divide into sections and have no part of it "fixed." I want to be able to move the sections, move the pages, add stuff, toss stuff, etc. And I need some way of keeping said book closed. I saw a rudimentary version of the book I was looking for and took the basics to make my own. I gathered up stuff I had around the house and off I went.

I couldn't punch holes in the thick cardboard with my regular hole punches and I wanted them a bit bigger anyway, so my wonderful Sweetie made me a punch that would do the trick. It worked beautifully. You can see some of the test holes in this piece of cardboard. I cut off the side of milk jug to make the binding rings, a piece of elastic to hold it shut, and a couple of cigar box lids. An hour later I had a nifty little book just like I wanted.


The elastic band keeps everything tidy. I made sections and pages for the inside that are easily removed or rearranged. I carved out the cardboard where I anchored the rings and the elastic so the papers covering the cardboard would lie flat. It's still a work in progress but I'm happy with it so far.





I saw a cute little blank album at the craft store shaped like a house. Then I noticed the ones that spelled out stuff like "Family," etc. They weren't that expensive but they weren't what I was after that day and the frugal me said, "You could just make it yourself." So as I was tossing some cardboard in the trash on day, it dawned on me that it the perfect size and thickness to make the albums. This is what they look like unaltered. Pretty generic and boring.


A short time later, it looked like this. I wanted a black and white theme. It's nowhere close to finished at this point. So far I just have the cardboard cut to shape and the pieces covered with paper on both sides. I have to cut out the letter overlays I plan to use and apply them along with photos and other embellishments. Then to put binder rings on and then it will be done.

That's it for now. Tomorrow or shortly thereafter I hope to post some of the projects I have going in the Craft Cavern of Doom.