gray, gray day

Yesterday I went down to Balboa Island and hung out with Amber - we did some ceramics at IFAC and then headed back to Marine Dr. where all the cute shops are. We ate chocolate covered bananas - twice - had tacos at Martin's, shopped for unnecessary dresses, and I discovered the store Art For the Soul. Everything in there is handmade and I WANT TO BE IN THERE TOO. So I talked to the nice gentlemen and lady behind the counter, and they gave me the material on how to get considered. So I now have a new goal - make a portfolio so I can sell pieces there, and somewhere like Fern's Garden on 2nd Street, too.

I have so many projects I don't know where to start so I am futzing around on here, and I played two games of Spider Solitaire also. yay productivity. :P

I should exercise at some point today. It's been a while. I have this whole new bike thing that I should ride... maybe I will ride my bike to Michael's? That would be a pretty far ride. I could take a backpack to hold the yarn. I also need to go to Joann's and get some zippers for my coin purses.

Oh who knows. Usually posting on here helps give me a plan for the day. But I am feeling unmotivated - I have a christmas tree (we got it last night) and a warm house and it's gray and cold out there.

Thanksgiving/birthday weekend

This week has been very, very full. So full I haven't had two seconds to process, much less write on here. Thursday, Thanksgiving, we went to my mom's with my extended family, then to Adam's aunt's with his family, then back to my mom's and then bowling with my family again. I was really proud of Adam and I. Typically, holidays come with a fair amount of stress - from everything from just sharing the mirror to figuring out timing of when we leave one family to go to the other, to feeling neglected or left out at the other person's family, etc. But last year I made some resolutions about getting through what is supposed to be a happy day of thankfulness and family, and I am so thrilled to say it was perfect.

Part of what made it better is that Adam is getting more comfortable with my family, so that helps tremendously. Also, I made a point to not be touchy or sensitive about ANYTHING, no matter how stressed I might be. It felt good feeling almost like I was...outsmarting him. Does that make sense? I don't mean it maliciously, I just mean - it was nice to feel like I had control over how pleasant the day was. I could look beyond my own petty wants, and make everything fun.

Friday was my birthday - I did absolutely nothing all day, then went out shopping with my sister/mom, went to my sister's soccer tournament, and then went out for dinner with Amber, Adam, Daniel and family. It was really nice, really fun and low key - Amber, Rosie, and Roxana got me YARN gift certificates, Adam got me diamond earrings and a BIKE, and my family got me the game Hive, and the coolest blender ever (yes, a blender, hush, I am thrilled). Oh, also Roxana made me the coolest CD of "shower songs."

Then yessstterrrday...I spent all day studying for my psychology test, took that, and then went to the Alamitos Bay Yarn Company and knitted there for a while. I got a needle felting kit, which will be fun to use, and some manos del uruguay and lamb's pride wool/mohair. Very very yummy. After that I went running for a while in Seal Beach, then went home and got ready to go see Tom Russell at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. Adam and I met Linda and John Wilson, and Tracy and Matt there (all the director/co director of the daycare I used to work at and their husbands) at a mexican restaurant, then we went and listened to the absolutely wonderful southwestern crooning of Mr. Russell.

Today I did dishes, half a load of laundry, grocery shopping, finished a scarf and a pair of socks, and am roasting a whole turkey! It's crazy. I've never cooked a whole animal before. :P It smells really good - I hope I don't screw it up. It's got an hour and a half left to cook and I am resisting the temptation of opening up the oven to look at it.

The rest of the day holds finishing laundry, eating turkey, going bike riding or running, maybe going to my sister's soccer game, maybe going shopping with my mom, and then Sunday night tv with the boyfriend. Tomorrow it's back to work as usual.

I've of course been taking photos of all of this - so as soon as I can I will put up the illustrations. :)

How I can make one day feel like three

Phew! Yesterday was a very long, very wonderful day! I have discovered the key to my having a good weekend - going to sleep by 10pm and waking up before 8am! Friday night I went to my dad's house and watched Top Chef with him, and then had along heart-to-heart. I was at home, asleep by about 10:30. I woke up around 7am the next morning, and spent a few hours happily sweeping, scrubbing, cleaning... then I headed over to Amber's house, where we stopped at Whole Foods, and then went to Aardvark's for clay, and then went down to the Irvine Fine Arts Center!

Now -for those of you who don't know, ceramics has been an obsession of mine since I was about 11. It actually started at the Irv.FAC - we went with Girl Scouts once. I loved it (although the first time I went, I was so excited, I went and got a bucket of water, and set it down on the wheelhead. The first thing they said to do was test the peddle. So I did. And water went FLYING. It was so embarrassing, but I survived.) Then, I was at Cypress College when I was about 13, and walked past this door...

I peered inside, and there was Bob Dylan and Tom Waits playing, murals painted all over the walls, the wheels, and the cubbies, and a big flashing sign that said "CERAMICS" and this silver haired woman with the brightest shirt I ever saw going around and encouraging everyone. I signed up for ceramics the next semester.

That class turned out to be so much more than a class for me. I stayed there for 5 years - they helped raise me. Char and all of the lab techs took me under their wings and taught me everything about throwing, glazing, and firing. Les would help me load the kiln, Ducky would show me how to use the power chisel to clean the shelves, and Jeremy let me raku with him. Oh, rakuing. That's a whole separate post. Oh man. My heart palpitates just thinking about it. Greg Morissey was the handbuilding/low fire glazing expert, Jim used to come up to me when I was learning how to center and thump my elbow and say "oops, center it again" so I learned how to center really well and really fast. John Danner and I started the same semester, and stuck together - he ended up making me some incredibly useful personalized tools, Rebecca, Fil, and Tifani started a little later, and when I met them, my life was complete! Rebecca now lives in Utah, but is still doing ceramics out there (and is thinking of opening her own etsy!) Fil lives who knows where, but apparently resurfaces every once in a while, and Tifani is her own fairytale, which I ruined, and is also another post.

My point is - I loved everything about it. I loved the actual act of throwing, loved the smell of clay, loved sticking my whole arm down in a glaze bucket, loved the old film of Paul Soldner rakuing, loved the day when we got to watch the slides of Char's favorite cups, loved the first day of class ("WOW" day she calld it - for "Weed out the Wusses") I LOVED cleaning that big beautiful silver sink and singing, taking breaks and hanging out on the patio by the aloe vera plant with all the smokers, organizing boxes in the clay cage, helping to load and unload kilns...I loved the precision of loading a glaze kiln, but I loved the bisque kiln because it was so big I could stand in it to load it.

Raku - originally a Japanese form of glazing, was Americanized and made popular by Paul Soldner, known as the Father of American Raku. He also happened to be one of Char's instructors when she was in school. He would come and visit, and every once in a while select students of Char's would get to go to his house for parties, potlucks, and sitting in his hot tub surrounded by the bush that looked like a water monster, and 80 different bonsai trees. I lived for the day Char deemed time to raku. At our studio it was a three person process - and my two favorite parts were definitly actually using the tongs and walking into the kiln to get the pieces, and watching the golden-molten glaze lift off in cotton-candy-thread-like pieces if they were stuck to the kiln shelves, and opening the lid of the reduction barrel - and the backdraft and smoke that would happen every time it opened. I actually lost my eyebrows once from that, and lit my ponytail on fire! Arm hair was a thing of the past. ;oP

Char ran an incredible studio. It was, as she always said she wanted it to be, a mini Utopia in a world where it's hard to find a perfect place.

Then she retired. I stayed on as lab tech for a few semesters after that, but it was too hard for me without her, and without most of the people who had been in class with me for 5 years. I moved to Wisconsin for a little while - found a spot where I did ceramics once, and cried the whole time.

Discovered the Irvine Fine Arts center, and I remember that I hated it the first time I went, for the sheer lack of Bob Dylan music and Char's big booming voice. I pretty much stopped doing any ceramics for a while.

But you know what? I couldn't quit it! I don't do it as much as I used to, that's for sure, but every once in a while my hands just ache for clay. I still get Char's voice about technique in my head when I throw, and I hope I am not forming any bad habits, but throwing for the sake of throwing is now just as enjoyable as it ever was.

However, I STILL HAVEN'T RAKUED SINCE CHAR RETIRED.
ohhh woe, woe, woe..

------
wow, I sure left my original post. Okay, I guess that illustrates how much I love ceramics..the point is, getting to go throw yesterday was a very good day for me. Amber and I threw from about 11am-4:30pm when they closed. I had to stop throwing because I ran out of clay, and did handles/trimmed cups for the last two hours. I forgot how quickly I can go through clay. Next time I will be bringing more.
I used Soldate 60 - which was our staple at Cypress College. It takes glaze well, and has enough sand in it that structurally it's fairly easy. Next time I might take some B-mix, just to get some really fancy schmancy glazed pieces.

There was a lady there yesterday that actually knew Char, and we started talking - she said she could see Char's influence in my pieces. I am not sure she meant that as a compliment, but I take it as one - Char was always after my pieces to be more dramatic and have more direction. I felt really good about these cups.

After ceramics, Amber and I went and had some sushi at a new little sushi place in Seal Beach, then got the dog and went for a run on the beach. It's day 2 of week 5 of Couch to 5k, and it wasn't so bad running with Amber. It helped to run on the boardwalk between houses and ocean - I LOVE running in neighborhoods. Imaginging the people who live in each house and looking at their design is what distracts me the best from running. Adam likes the gym so he can watch people and the tv, but that's not distracting enough for me. He also likes the park, which is nice, but I have to retreat really far into my own head for distraction.

By the time I got home, ADAM was also home, which was nice since I hadn't seen him since Wednesday morning. He left at 6am this morning after a good luck kiss for Ventura for his physical exam for the State Parks.

Alrighty, I think this post is now officially four times as long as any reasonable blog post should be. I am going to go get dressed and call Amber - today is a bike ride to the farmer's market, and going to my little sister's performance of And Then There Were None.

roya plus yarn

So these are the adventures of Roya, Amber, and dying yarn with kool aid! We each bought two skeins of 100% wool to work with. In this photo, I am separating mine - I did 5 different batches so I could play with colors. Amber did two really big ones.


The next few pics are the yarn heating up - we mixed the kool aid in cold water first, then added the yarn. At first we were worried that it wouldn't take, because the yarn didn't really soak up the water like we thought it would. We had to scoosh it around with a fork for it to submerge. But then we heated up the water and the yarn just soaked it up. The only issue we had was once the yarn went over the edge of the pot a leeetle too much, and sort of caught on fire...so I have one skein that's now a bunch of smaller pieces. :P
























After we dyed it and rinsed it, I hung it up in the backyard to dry. Pretty cool looking, huh? I like having curtains of yarn outside my kitchen window.
And here are the final products!

perfect sunday

Yesterday was one of those perfect weekend days that you just don't want to end. It started early (for me) I woke up at 7am, and didn't go back to sleep! That was great, because I love wakign up early, I just also love *not having to* - so I watched the new episode of The Office (my personal addition), and hung around with Adam, did laundry, dishes, etc. Then I went over to a friend's house, where I used to live in Seal Beach (while my parent's house was being rebuilt after the fire), and we headed over to Long Beach to go to the farmer's market! I am madly, deeply, ridiculously in love with farmer's markets, and have been meaning to go to this one for ages and just keep missing it (it's over at 1pm and somehow I never get there on time). I bought green beans, snap peas, apples, corn, bok choi, onions, carrots, etc. etc. etc. Then we headed over to Sunset Beach and went for a bike ride with a friend of hers.

The weather was beautiful - clear, bright blue sky - and a WIND like you would not believe. Riding south towards huntington beach, we didn't even need to peddle. Unfortunately, on the way back to sunset, we sure made up for it. I think I am still getting sand out of my teeth. :P

Theennn we headed to 2nd street to meet up with some of her old friends at Legends, then went to Alamitos Bay Yarn company - our local yummy yarn store. We spent a huge amount of time in there watching a lady do some needle felting, which I can feel in my bones is going to be a new obsession one day soon. Then we headed to Michaels to buy some cheaper yarn, and stopped at the store to buy kool aid packets, got back to my house, and..

dyed yarn with kool aid! It was AWESOME. The colors turned out really amazingly bright - we used a few packets of the ice blue lemonade for blue, fruit punch for red, the limeade for the green, lemonade for yellow, and half grape half strawberry for the purple. Each color turned out really vibrant - we mixed it in the various pots, added the yarn, then turned up the heat. The yarn totally soaked up all the color, and by the time we poured out the leftover water, it was devoid of all color and poured out clear. We rinsed the yarn, and hung it up on hangers in the backyard to dry. I will try to post some of those photos soon.

Afterwards I made a stirfry with all the veggies I bought at the farmers market, we ate food, she went home, and Adam and I cuddled and watched our sunday night ritual tv shows. I didn't sleep til about midnight - so it was a long, satisfying, wonderful day, full of good food, good company, art, and physical activity. Hoo-rah.

of course, my kitchen is a mess because I didn't feel like cleaning it up last night, but... ah well. That's what tonight is for.
Tonight I also need to do some reading for my abnormal psychology class. I am taking it online, which is useful, but I am fascinated by this subject and wish I had a teacher and classroom full of students to discuss it all with. The chapters I just read were about anxiety disorders, phobias, obsessive compulsiveness, and PTSD. So now every time my heartrate accelerates I end up thinking about panic attacks, but such is the nature of this class.

I am almost finished with week 3 of tracking my points, a la weight watchers. I haven't lost any significant weight, but I know I am eating better and I am proud of myself for it. The key to my success this time does seem to be making sure I write everything down once a day - no skipping days! Also, I have collected a variety of websites which have done all the point calculating for me, so it makes it easier. It's lunchtime, which is why I am now starting to think FOOD FOOD FOOD. I have leftover stirfry and some tomato soup, and new Manos del Uruguay I am going to knit on my break.

Idyllwild

Yesterday after work I drove up to Idyllwild where Adam was working (doing National Forest Visitor Use Surveys), and surprised him there! I love that drive - once you get to the 243, anyway - and it seems like such a fairytale to be driving up these curvy mountain roads surrounded by hills with no trees, just tall grass and boulders that look like they were just randomly tossed there. Then, once I got up into the oaks and pines the light was getting ready to disappear and it was one of the nicest drives I've ever had. The directions I had actually got me to Adam's jeep and the look on his face as I came up the trail made it all worth it!

We ate dinner at the Good Times cafe (yum, yum, yum - and every single person who went through that door KNEW the owners. I want to live somewhere like that), and then set up our tent at the county site. We lit a fire, I drew with charcoal and sang for a few hours, then when we realized we were falling asleep, we headed for the tent. Sometime in the middle of the night we woke up and after some confusion, realized that our tent was *SIDEWAYS* and we were looking straight out of the top. We had half an hour of giggling madly pretending like we were in a spaceshuttle. Turns out our tent is so little and flimsy, when Rommel scooches up against the side, he can actually turn the whole thing. The light was amazing when we finally woke up again this morning.

My overwhelming feeling since hitting the 243 yesterday was an increase in my desire to live in a mountain town. It made me so sad to head home today - thinking that I had to get in my car and drive two hours just to see trees. Everything was golden and red and crunchy, and the air was - well, you know, the air that you get at 7000 feet, and I couldn't help it but the whole time we were driving through trying to pick out which cabin I would want to live in.

Anyhoo - I am babysitting tonight, and will hopefully get a lot of knitting on Alex's scarf done. Tomorrow Amber comes over, and I'd like to go to the farmer's market.

it feels like fall!

Oh my gosh, this morning it feels like fall. I need to knit myself some fingerless gloves so I can sit in my freezing office at work and actually type. I love mornings like this morning - I woke up so warm and in blanket-nest, and there was pastel sunshine like only fall can have, and I knew as soon as I got out of bed it'd be chilly, but I got to snooze for ten minutes and just scrunch down in the warm and sunshine.

Last night (this morning, technically) around 1:00am Adam and I went running again - this time in the park. We were visited by all three coyotes again - they are getting incredibly bold. Adam now runs with a large stick just in case. I tried for a while, but it's annoying, so I gave up any pretense of badassedness.

We did a 3 minute run then a 5 minute run, twice. Adam says he feels improvement, but I just feel tired. I guess mentally there is an improvement - five minutes does not seem like the end of the world the way it felt the first time we did this set. We made the mistake of looking ahead to next week - the first day are 3 5 minute runs, then there are two 8 minute runs, and then 1 TWENTY MINUTE RUN. Yikes. I am afraid, but also looking forward to the challenge. I am liking the idea of being able to just run and run, even if I am cursing under my breath while we do it.

My coworker just came in while I was writing this and put in an order for an African Kufi for black history month. I am excited. He's been such a huge supporter of my work - has bought 1 birthday present and 3 christmas presents so far from me.

I now need to make a to do list for all my orders:

1. Finish JW's bag - which means

going to the fabric store and buying nice black liner, sewing liner

2. Wrapping JW's bag, SC's scarf and KG's scarf in christmas wrapping

3. Wrapping EL's picture frame in christmas wrapping

4. Take a photo of JW's bag to put on alchemy

5. Take a picture of all of them wrapped for appreciation pictures

6. Make Alex's Andrea's scarf - finish by Nov. 12th!! (I am so proud of this scarf - I taught myself how to do intarsia on this one. I had a picture of a hat to go by, and it's WORKING. It's just going slower than I'd like.)

7. Make Noemi's sister's coin purse with a crown (since she's a "princess") in pink, black, and gold.

8. Finish the 5 bags and 4 makeup bags I have in progress (buy liner, sew liner, attach handles, put in zippers, etc.)

9. List them!

10. Voila.

Meanwhile, I have an abnormal psychology class I NEED to catch up on today, (quiz tomorrow), work, and dishes like you wouldn't believe. Also - my cabbage and lettuce is getting eaten by something and I want it to stop. My tomatoes and strawberries are doing good, but I am afraid for the rest of my garden.

Tomorrow evening Amber will be coming over to knit with me, so I hope to get a lot of Alex's scarf done then.

I have so many things I want to do that I can't decide so I am running around in circles it feels like! Guess it's time to quit dreaming about the things I will do when I get home and get to work.

Today is one of those days where I really wish I was just at my parent's house, hanging out with my little sisters, watching The Office and crocheting. Instead I am at work, wishing that my lunch could last a litttttle longer.

In more content news, a friend of mine came over last night to learn how to knit a beanie, so she knitted and I crocheted, and fun was had by all. I even had time to do some cleaning up, and made a giant taco salald - in between watching Project Runway and Top Design.

I am still head over heels for these granny square bags - in fact, I got one more custom order, so I need to get yarn for that.

OOOH I don't know if I mentioned a very, very cool gift that someone gave me - a coworker that I turned onto etsy (ISO100.etsy.com - go there!) is a photographer, and I was complaining about my lack of photographic skills... so the next day, guess what he brings me?

My very own lightbox! Yay! I am so excited to use this. I took a few photos with it, and I am so impressed by how much more professional the photos look. This picture is one of the ones I took with the lightbox - how cool is that?? I'll tell ya - freaking cool!

Alright. Lunch is over. Can't wait til five. Delivering one of my sold etsy orders after work, and then karate and hopefully some crocheting in there somewhere!!!

I got a lot done on mygranny square bags this weekend - finished emily's, finished amber's - took pictures and posted them. I am really happy with them! I also listed a few new ones, and did the liners for a few more.

The photo is emily's bag... originally supposed to be small plastic handles, we decided on longer canvas ones so it could be an over-the-shoulder bag. I was a little skeptical about how such a large bag would work, but I think it turned out superbly.

The blue bag has been listed on etsy - it wasn't a custom order.

It's been getting colder and colder and colder this week - we actually turned the heater on tonight. I have been thinking about knitting or crocheting some personal items (fingerless gloves!!!) but here it is, 8pm on Sunday night, and I am busy all week.

I am proud of the photos I took today. I managed to get outside while it was daylight which definitely adds a lot. Nothing beats natural lighting, eh?

Okie dokie. That's all for now. I am going to go make progress on something - I crocheted a few flowers for a new bag, so I think I will go work on that!

no time!!!

(This picture - taken on the June 2008 Cruise to Alaska with A2A)


Ack! I am so running out of time every day to do even the little updates on items I want to do. I haven't listed anything on etsy in a week, which is just driving me CRAZY.

Tonight won't be any better - I have karate, schoolwork, and some other work I need to do. Yarrgh. Tomorrow, though - I get off work early and will be heading to Joanne's to see if they have a bigger handle to use for Emily's large pink bag. Then I can finish that, and finish the lining on Amber's - plus do the lining on the cool orangish bag I did a while back, and voila, I'll have things to list again! I also need to finish the handles on two bags that are already crocheted - and then I can add lining to them and put them up. I just need one good weekend of sewing linings and I'll be ready to do some listing!

I want to do the granny squares I am doing, but make them little and put zippers in and make them into coin purses.

No time! No time!


My garden is faring all right - some of the cabbages seem like they are getting smaller and smaller, and the artichoke looks awfully wilted, but I am hoping that they will carry through. I still have about 16 plants that are sitting in the containers from the store because I ran out of soil. Tonight I'll go get more too.

I finally took some time to do some personal mending last night - I can finally wear my favorite pants again (fixed a seam) and fixed a button for my fella. I love doing that. It would really stink to feel like I couldn't sew on a button or fix a tear or something.

I remember having that thought process in Alaska - no one where we were would have called a plumber, or an electrician, if something went wrong. Nope - they figure it out, trial and error, put it together with random pieces and duct tape, and ask their friends. It's very liberating, realizing you can fix those things with your own two hands.

A friend of mine from work actually created their own etsy page!!! YAY Michael Thantrong! Everyone go to ISO100 and take a look at his amazing photos!

what a lovely saturday morning

What a lovely saturday morning it has been already. I slept for a good 8 hours at least, and then we were woken up by the dog who didn't even need to go out, just was bored and wanted us awake. hardeeharhar.

I got up and managed to scramble together a breakfast from the nothingness I have in my kitchen, and then headed to etsy!

One of the egotistical things I always love to do is see how many people have listed me as their favorites. I try not to let it go to my head, but it's a really sweet, thankful feeling when I see someone else has me listed. I do love being validated.

I also have been spending a lot more time in the chat rooms, and today's feedback were to raise some of my prices to be competitive, and to take more pictures outside with natural lighting. So those will be my next two projects. I bought a new camera, I think I mentioned a few weeks ago - unfortunately, I have not acquired a memory card, or the cord to plug it into the computer, so it's basically useless at the moment. The next spare bit o' cash I get I will get those.

I've been doing more of the granny square bags - they are lovely, lovely, lovely. Today I need to go do some errands, and then I hope to get to work on them before going to a friends WEDDING tonight. I am so excited about their wedding. YAY Kj and Lori!

Tomorrow is a big open day, and a friend of mine will be coming over to knit with me. So again, yay for weekends. WOOOHOO.