The Inertia before the Ertia

I - keep - trying - to - get - motivated. 

Since I actually opened my Etsy shop, I've hardly done any crafting/arting. I mostly sit and read or waste time on the web. Lots of time, because my old netbook is soooo slow.

I did make some holiday earrings, but so far only two pairs.

Etsy

Etsy

I've got all this other Christmasy material sitting there unused at the moment.

And people keep dumping giving me tins to transform and make into tiny little worlds.

21-tin tower

I have ideas, but I'm lacking the mojovation, the muse magic, the fire in the belly that has nothing to do with sriracha. My brushes and glue pots are dry.

I've been through these cycles before. I think right now I'm taking advantage of the calm before the storm. Our big move back to the UK is still months away, but early next year we'll need to start sorting and cleaning and deciding what to take and what to throw away, and trying to sell everything else. It's daunting and exciting, leaving behind our home here, where I see my mother and sister frequently,

Hand-painted collage I did a few years ago with an old photo of my mom, who grew up on a ranch

but knowing we'll become reacquainted with our beautiful and talented granddaughters.

"Grandma Val - in a mermaid dress!" drawn by Amelie (she wrote her name backwards)

Living in a lazy limbo, I've been perusing Instagram. Without a smartphone, it's a pain to try to add photos of my own (which I wrote about here, near the end), but I'm enjoying lurking and liking. Once we get moved, I'm going to get a smartphone, and a super-duper state-of-the-art laptop, and maybe a kitten (thanks to Bella and Francis making me want a cat again after 25 cat-free years)!

Val

What I Should Have Done

I'm typing this and thinking, wouldn't it have been clever if I had used a Halloween theme for this month's Scavenger Hunt (hosted by Greenthumb at Made With Love)?

I do like having a little bit of cohesion in my otherwise random collection of photos. Well, at least I have that - I got most of my photos during the workday when I go out for walks. As you can see, once I get away from the boring, beige office I'm in a beautiful location, near the university and the river, and there are lots of walking paths.

Ready for the tour? Here we go!

Question

 
Cream and Ring

I really couldn't think of anything else for cream, so here's my creamy opal birthstone ring that I make a point to wear in October.



Number

Phone number? Code? Winning lottery numbers? Number of days before the end of the world?



Lattice

Lush and wet in my backyard, which ties in with the next one -



Familiar

We're finally getting rain after a long, dry summer. I've always lived in rainy places, so this is very familiar.



Today

Actually a couple of weeks ago, but when I took it, it was today.

Down

Looking down from a pedestrian bridge, downstream, at the cairns or inuksuks in the river.



Writing

Writing and wow! This is by the art buildings at the university.



Many

And many more outside the shot.



Broken

Whatever you want

"Is your refrigerator running?"

Finally, I hit the Halloween theme, and also tied it in with my workday! The group I work with decided we'd dress up for a Pajama Party for Halloween, and here we are. (Like I did last time, I'm disguising everyone else since I didn't ask if I could blog them. This time I disguised them as ghosts - you know, for Halloween.) Friday was a day of popcorn and way too much candy, Barbies and teddy bears, giddy excitement, silly games and extreme tiredness at the end - just like a real slumber party!

Val

Flashing hot harridans

In response to one of the best posts from Melanie (hell, they're all good posts from Melanie), I really wanted to join/spread/viralize a new meme she kind of started - Hot Harridans Reading. I love reading, and as I'm typing this I'm feeling a hot flash coming on, so excuse me while I take off my cardigan.

Whew, better.

Here's a picture of me (just turned the fan on, too) reading. So, hot harridan reading, with polka-dot leggings.

The photo is staged because I haven't actually started reading this book - have you read it? Is it good? It's the next book for my book group.

These are the women in my book group. 

I haven't asked if I could put them on my blog, so I'm disguising their faces. They're all funny and vibrant and smart, and I really enjoy our get-togethers.

In actuality, I'm just finishing a book on my Kindle, which isn't as photogenic as a real book. I'm reading The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, which is really good - I wanted to sit up late last night to finish it and find out what the hell happened to Megan, but I needed to get some sleep. Next on my list, after The Tennis Player, I'd like to read the book Melanie is reading in her photo (and she is way more hot than me, except when I'm having a flash) - All Is Vanity by Christina Schwarz.

And if I may be so bold, let me recommend some of my favorite books I've read in the last year - if you want chick-lit type Australian comedy, there's The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. For a supernatural/psychological British ghost story, try The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. If you want an American legal thriller, there's Defending Jacob by William Landay (evidently they're making a movie of this). And for a funny, feel-good story I highly recommend The Revised Fundamentals of Care-giving by Jonathan Evison.

What are you reading?

Val

Red and Pink and Orange

My favorite colors on the color wheel are the reds. They sing to me in a way that blue and yellow never do. I always pick the red playing piece when I play a board game, and my favorite flavors come in red, too - cherry, strawberry, merlot.

I bought a new, red handbag, which I'll show you properly one day. Here I am carrying it and surrounded by red before going out to dinner for my birthday.

Guess how old I am - it's scary! Or maybe I got the math wrong.

Laughing away the years!

I've always loved pink and orange, too - red's kissing cousins. Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I just had my mammo-cram the other day, I got some small pink gifts at the imaging clinic. Whheeeeee! Who doesn't want a pink plastic coin purse and a pink whistle and a pink emery board?

Now that summer's over, my bowling ball - the Pinkster - is seeing some action.

My scores are looking pretty good, too. And my favorite snack at the bowling alley is Cheetos, which brings me to orange.

October IS orange, don't you think? The leaves, the pumpkins, the O at the beginning of both words. Look at your calendar - I bet they used orange for October.

I created a Halloween brooch that has orange in it, along with black and purple. The sticky-out beads remind me of spider legs, and the twisted wires are like cobwebs - although the description I used on Etsy was a little more gruesome.

No matter the month or the color, Visible Monday is on every week, so I'll be heading over to link the pink, and the red, and the orange.

Val

I like big buttons and I cannot lie

It seems like I keep making references back to previous posts. It's a sneaky way to get more clicks, for whatever it's worth. Anyway, remember a couple posts ago I mentioned I was making buttons for this purple velvet jacket?

I did it! Buttons completed and sewn on!

Ta da!

I won't say they were altogether successful, and I'll show you why. If you're not into Mod Podge or resin or shanks, you're excused - go on to the next blog or watch Dr. Who or have a cup of tea or something.

Back to the buttons - I decided to use cutouts from pictures in an old Sotheby's catalog that I got at the thrift store, and cover them in resin. So first I had to seal them with Mod Podge.

 
Then I glued some bits of chain around the edge to help hold in the resin when I poured it. It worked on most of them.

To pour resin on the backs, I wrapped masking tape around them after the first pour had set (a little more than 24 hours). The tape also only worked moderately well at holding the resin in, but I just trimmed off the  excess.

While the resin on the back was still sticky I added shanks from self-cover buttons, which set in the resin.

I did a second pour on the top, which made them rather thick. Maybe too thick, and also blunt on the edges, so they don't slide in and out of the buttonholes easily. That's why this is called an e-x-p-e-r-i-m-e-n-t.

The other thing is that shank buttons tend to droop a lot when they're big and heavy. Lesson two - large buttons should have holes through the middle, and maybe even four holes, so they won't droop under their own weight.

So, not completely successful, and neither were the photos! It was impossible not to get reflections. But these buttons will do until I get around to experimenting with polymer clay instead.

Linking up my velvety Prince-like jacket with Visible Monday!

Val

I'm on the hunt

It's October, a beautiful month of long evenings, colorful leaves, and my birthday. It feels like time to start something new, or return to something old. I haven't taken part in the Scavenger Hunt at Made with Love for quite awhile. But since I went on a Treasure Hunt in September I was already on the hunt, so this ties in perfectly. Here's what I got.

Woven
Off to a boring start. The best I came up with was a woven seat on a restaurant chair in Dubois, Wyoming.

Repeating and Day
This is a building at the University of Oregon, I think for sports or something. Repeating lines, reflecting the daytime sky, and repeated in the pool around the base.

 
Greedy
In a shop in Cooke City, Montana.

Flowers
Hollyhocks in the brisk, bright morning in Dubois, Wyoming.

 
Curly
A petroglyph with curly bits near Torrey Lake in Wyoming.

Adventures
The whole trip to Wyoming was an adventure, but maybe this picture sums it up.

That hill was much steeper than it looks, and the road only got worse from here!

 
Line
A fence line in Sunlight Basin, Wyoming.

edited on Oct. 2 - I'm linking this one up with the TAG Gallery Blog for Wild Blue Yonder. So many wild blue choices in this post!  
Mesmerising
The grass and the cottonwood trees were rustling in the wind, and I was truly mesmerized as I stood there in the peace and calm.

 
Triangle 
This is back home, hanging from a tree near where I'm working.

Dreamy and Whatever you want
Beautiful roses of every color, taken about a month ago at the local rose garden.

That's enough hunting for now, although I can't wait to see what's on the list for October.

Val

PS - I made some fun link buttons for my Etsy shop, Facebook and Pinterest on the right sidebar. Give me a click!

Brooches and Buttons

Hello, all!

The lovely Kezzie has been sharing some of her funtabulous brooches on her blog, and in a comment on my blog she sort of demanded that I do the same. I do have a few really nice brooches, which I haven't been wearing much lately. Summer clothes can't hold up anything that weighs more than a piece of lint. But now that lapel season is on its way, let me show you some of my pretties.

Before I do, though, I HAVE to mention that I just reopened my Etsy shop - click on the link and bring your credit card! Of course, my "chaos" brooches are listed. Please have a look and give me feedback.

Now, where was I? Oh, yes, brooches. I have posted pics of these before, and I'm probably better off using old pictures than the newer ones. This is what I accomplished taking a selfie today:

The brooch is a beautiful blue butterfly I bought from Bella at Citizen Rosebud. Here's a usable photo with a smug smile.

The butterfly was also seen here. Lovely, n'est-ce pas?

--- edited on Sept. 29, which happens to be TARDIS Tuesday, and I'm wearing blue so I shall link up with My Closet Catalogue.

This is one I made for myself using a sticker of an Edward Hopper painting and putting resin over it.

I've grouped it with some buttonflowers from Megan Gann (who used to have a blog but she seems to have quit the blogging life). The little yellow curves in the buttonflowers match the hat in the picture.

Here's a photo from 2012 with me wearing a brooch I got at a charity shop in England.

This is when Mr. S did some photography for me, before we started bickering each time (Me: Hurry up! You're taking too long! Him: You keep making silly faces!). Ah, memories . . .

And here's a micro-mosaic set that belonged to my grandmother's cousin Naomi, who had no children of her own so my mother got them. And now I have them.

 
I know I mentioned buttons in the title, and I was going to tell you about the buttons I made - yes, made - for this purple velvet jacket, which was a hand-me-over from my niece. But maybe that will wait for another post.

Linking up with the longest running link-up on the webz - Visible Monday at Patti's Not Dead Yet Style. Are you going? I'm bringing a cheese ball (his name is Guido - haha!).

PS - when I added my link, it wanted to shorten the title to Brooches and Butt. 

Val