BREAK OUT

As promised, the new things I made for the shop during my all-day Mike Rowe marathon:




My Amazon orders are beginning to trickle in, one at a time. Of course, I'm opening them as they arrive, but maybe it would be more satisfying if I set them aside until everything had come, then ripped everything open at once - second Christmas!

Too bad I don't have the willpower.

DUNK THE FUNK

The Discovery Channel was playing Dirty Jobs all day today. Which meant that I was watching the Discovery Channel all day. Took some time off for a nap, but for close to ten hours, the TV has been on - if I wasn't watching an episode I hadn't yet seen, I was half-watching a rerun. Mike Rowe kept me company while I ate lunch, spent some Christmas money on Amazon, made some jewelry, and ate dinner. My entire day has been scheduled around Dirty Jobs: I only go to the bathroom, grab a beverage, etc, when commercials come on. It's been excellent.

At least I got a lot of things made. Four things, actually - three pairs of earrings and a big MFing necklace. Posting them right now is impossible, however, seeing as I waited until after dark to start working, and I try to never photograph my crap without natural light. It just seems to look better that way. Oh well, another ten hours of uninterrupted Mike Rowe!

APPROACH TO DANGER

Happy Christmas Eve. It rained all day, so the snow is now just heavy snot. Plus, the Paper Brigade hasn't been delivered yet, and I'm starting to worry that it got lost or fell off the mail truck into a snow bank somewhere (maybe the one right in front of the mailbox), and then the snowplow came by, covered it up, and I won't see it until spring. That would be hilarious - in a heartbreaking way.

After about twenty billion separate instances of seeing them on the Etsy frontpage, I decided I want a Tiny City and a terrarium from TheOakLeaves. Apparently, she does trades, which is awesome - but I've never done one before and, aside from not knowing the protocol, I'd worry that the person with whom I'm trading would be getting some sort of raw deal. Oh well, it's just another reason to make some more stuff. I've got a bracelet planned (once some beads I ordered in bulk get delivered), and some ideas for Vietnam-based necklace packages that would include real photos from the war. The ones I ordered on eBay are actually pretty amazing, and I plan on putting them on the wall above my bed, so I might have to order more.

I'm going broke again, but need to buy cheap picture frames from the Salvation Army to fill with collages, like the one I made about Johan and the Apples. Because that shit is fun.

This might be the first year that I'll ever go shopping on the day after Christmas. Shopping is already a hemorrhoid on the anus of my life, so this'll be extra-special. But my mother wants to hit the yearly Williams-Sonoma sale, and because I want Pink Himalayan Salt, I'll put my colon on the line. Plus, there will probably be more male mannequin torsos left at the Dave and Barry's "EVERYTHING MUST GO!!!!!" sale, and I want one of those real bad. Who wouldn't one of those?

For the longest time, "Flowers" by Shane Macpherson was my favorite song. And now I remember why. ("Who Do You Think You Are" is good too.)

PANIC ZONE

For not having a computer for the last three months, I've been functioning rather well. In fact, it turned out that being forced to work on midterms and finals only during library hours helps me avoid procrastination. Of course, enormous New England ice storms don't help - I got home three days after my canceled flight had originally been scheduled. But, once I got there, it was watch parts galore! Plus some old nautical key fobs, military tags, and skeleton keys.

At least I was finally able to ship off the order that had been sitting around since the tenth, and update my Etsy shop with some of the stuff I made while at school. A necklace sold about an hour after being listed, which was pretty much a mind-blow.

So, what did I do? Immediately went on eBay and bought six snapshots of soldiers from the Vietnam War for $7. Because everyone needs more of those.