Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Random funny story #2

This memory was resurrected at work tonight:

A friend of mine (I won't name names like DAVID) SWEARS that when he was in high school, his coach didn't want to discriminate against disabled kids and forced a boy to wrestle a kid with no arms and no legs.

Random funny story #1

Recently, I told Husband that I am going to take his shirts to the cleaners because I don't have time to deal with ironing them. I work full time, I am taking three classes, and I have lots of hobbies, which I think I deserve to do in my spare time.

He didn't like this idea and said it's not worth the money. I told him that it's worth the money to me because it is, after all, my time involved and my effort. He offered to pay me, and always being in need of money, I gave in. It's actually worked to my advantage because he handed me a $20 to iron a couple of shirts.

But then one day I said, "Remind me again why you can't just learn to iron your own shirts?"
He growled strangely and ran away. I take that to mean he has no good answer for my most excellent question.

Happy Birthday to me!

Have you been feeling like "Lost" would never resume? Me too! But it's about to start again -- on my birthday! I can't think of a better gift. Thanks, ABC!

I got into "Lost" during the second season and became addicted. I bothered my co-worker by constantly asking for help understanding the plots, and she finally brought me season one on DVD. I got so hooked that I begged Mark to watch it. I told him that if he'd just watch the pilot, he could decide if he wanted to continue. After the pilot he said, "That show's dumb." (Quote paraprhased.) So I said, "OK, I guess you don't want to see anymore." He panicked and admitted he MUST have more "Lost."

I am certain that when "Lost" isn't on, which is most of the time, that things are still happening on that island. I'm just missing out, and it drives me crazy. One thing that makes me feel like I'm not a "true" fan is that no matter how much I try, I can't memorize "the numbers."

Mark and I initially agreed that we hated the Tailies. We only liked the original cast members. And when an extra would pop into a scene, we'd yell at them to get off our show. But I have always been fascinated with the Others, so when this season delved deeper into their lives, I was really excited. Mark's just annoyed. He wants to go back to the beach now, which is where it's apparently headed when it starts up again on FEBRUARY 7!!!

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Everything I know about New Mexico I learned from the movies

Have you ever been to New Mexico? You're probably about to say, "I drove through there once, but didn't stop." I heard that a hundred times when I lived in California. It's so weird. Everyone says that word for word. Why doesn't anybody stop? I think I might have the answer: The movies.

Have you ever seen a movie that takes place in New Mexico that doesn't make us look like the creepiest, most backward place? Ever? As far as Hollywood is concerned, the state consists of nothing but tiny, tiny towns with dirt roads and dilapidated trailers full of creepy people that remind you of the family in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." We all have chickens running around in our yards and sit around with scary toothless grins and glazed-over eyes. We're the kind of place where if you go to jail, you're in even more danger because the cops are a bunch of inbred freaks who want to kill you and feed you to Grandma.

Case in point: "The Hitcher," at a theater near you now! It takes place in good ol' Torrance County, N.M. Actually, I think Torrance County is kinda full of dirt roads and broken down trailer homes, come to think of it. And maybe there ARE some toothless people. Hmmmmm. I'm not so sure anymore where I'm going with this blog entry.

OK, well if you drive through New Mexico, stop in at Albuquerque. We won't eat you! We might shoot at you, but we definitely WON'T eat you.

Those silly kids

I visited my best friend, Tamara's, third-grade class today to talk about being a copy editor. On my way, I stopped by the paper to grab some copies for the kids. As I handed them out, they were so thrilled that they acted like I gave them all Xboxes or something. I was so happy to see them get so excited about a newspaper.

I admit that I was kind of worried about what I would say to take up time. I wondered what could be more boring to a bunch of 8-year-olds than a lecture from a copy editor about double checking your work and being careful about spelling.

These kids were so full of questions that I never really even had time for that stuff. They had a zillion (yes, a zillion) questions about the paper and how everything worked. They were incredibly curious.

Some of my favorite questions included:
"How much do you make?" (I figured I should be honest; they're just kids)
"Well, how much is that a DAY?"
"How much does your husband make?"
"Are you the boss of anyone?" (No)
"Oh, so you're like the lowest person..."

One boy said he asks for the newspaper but his mom won't get it. She probably can't afford it, but I felt bad that he really is interested in reading the paper at that age and he can't get his hands on it.

Several teachers also attended and had lots of questions. One of them had a daughter in journalism school.

I had a lovely time and was thrilled that these kids were so interested in the newspaper and how it works. I felt like the most popular girl in school.

First sale!!!

I sold my first item on etsy.com after a month and a half! It's a pillow, the rectangular copper one below.

I'm also on my way to teach third-graders about being an editor at my friend's classroom!

Monday, January 29, 2007

Sunday, January 28, 2007

This is my blog and I can say what I want about myself no matter how stupid.

I used to work out religiously. This all started when I lived in Bakersfield and had no friends. This is so sad, but the thing is, my days off seemed like an eternity. I didn't have interactions with other humans and I thought my days off would never end. So I started working out like crazy as a means to occupy myself for the weekend. I reached a point where I had to force myself to take time off. I wouldn't say I looked amazing, because I didn't do enough cardio and I still had more body fat than I wanted, but I had really well-toned muscles.

Fast-forward and I'm engaged. Wedding planning took over my life for a year. If you haven't done it, you probably don't understand how it could possibly be so time consuming. The worst part is, this is the time when people want to really lose weight. You just don't have time to work out if you are planning a wedding AND have a job. Lucky for me, I discovered that stress just makes me skinny.

After the wedding I jumped from 103 pounds to 116 in no time. I'm small boned, so a 15-pound weight gain in a few months seemed obvious to me. I never did get back into the work-out mood. I would eye the skinny, tall girl at work (Carla, I'm talking to you) with envy while reminding myself that she runs all the time and eats carrots all day. I, on the other hand, didn't exercise and ate McDonald's way too often.

I reached a point where I felt so down on myself. I tried to tell myself that I couldn't look that bad if I fit in a size 2 still, but I still felt my jiggly thighs rubbing together. Now, don't even go there with the eating disorder thing because as I said before, I ate plenty of McDonald's. There are two things I can't stand in life: being hungry and throwing up. I started thinking about the movie "The Sweetest Thing" where Christina Applegate starts shaking her arm and asking where that jiggling flab came from. I felt like that. I'm too young to let myself go. All of a sudden, your body is changing in little ways and it's so unfair. I think, "I only have so many years left that I can look hot, so why am I wasting any of them?"

Anyway, I ran for the past three days in a row and it's so amazing what a difference it makes in how you feel about yourself. I know it hasn't changed anything about me yet, but I feel like I look good now anyway. Every day I remind myself that I can spare that 30 minutes of my day because it's worth it for the confidence boost it gives.

I also owe a shout out to Willie J., who has so many kind words for me when I'm down on myself. You're a good man, Willie J.

I suck a little less than I thought

Good news! I showed my dreadful knitting to an experienced knitter and she said it was perfectly normal. The reason it didn't look like the photos below is because it's all knit rows and no purl rows. In the photo it's alternating knit and purl rows. Phew! Not to say it still doesn't look like doodie because my tension is off, but I feel better now.

Desperate attempt at a sale

Valentine's Day sale and new items posted!
Click to visit store:


Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Branching out into new territory

As I said before, I'm going to make some other, less size-specific items for my shop.
This is also a good way to use up leftover material.
Tonight's projects:

black eyelet pillow with pink lining and pink piping
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Brown brocade bolster with contrasting end pieces
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Brown brocade throw pillow
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Fashion time machine

Remember the days when everybody dressed nicely all the time? When jeans would never be seen at a wedding? Neither do I, because I was born in the '70s and grew up in N.M. Everytime I look at clothes from the 1970s, I want to cry because it's not fair that I came from that time. For 10 entire years, nobody looked good.
But in the 1950s, and early-'60s, people always looked good. At least it seems that way, since I wasn't there to witness it. I liked that women always wore high heels and dresses, although I don't believe they really wore them while vacuuming and cleaning bathrooms like on TV.
For my draping and flat pattern classes I have to think of a project to design. "Dreamgirls" really inspired me to do something modest, ladylike and elegant. I want to update it by not having an overly full skirt. I'm thinking a combination of these things (bad scans):


Yes, I hate to admit that I'm finding inspiration in a Payless Shoe Source ad. I'm going for the pleated skirt and the fitted bodice with a v-back and modest front.

Don't be expecting a sweater any time soon

I have given myself three knitting lessons so far. I bought a book that looks really great on the outside, but doesn't explain things very well on the inside. It's called "Knitting." That sounds like a book that doesn't mess around.


It's so much harder than I expected. The book doesn't really explain exactly what to do. I mean, it has to be very precise and "loop the yarn around" doesn't quite get me there. This is what I ended up with, and no matter which way you turn it, the stitches don't look anything like the stitches on the book cover. Maybe they shouldn't look even and perfect yet, but they should have some resemblance.




(bad pictures, as usual!)

Friday, January 26, 2007

Inspiration discovered right here on Burst of Happiness

I spent the last week previewing shops on etsy.com. I did this as an advertising opportunity for other sellers. I have a shop on etsy that has yet to sell anything, but I'm waiting patiently.
If you haven't figured it out by now, etsy is a place for crafters to sell their handmade items. The handmade rule weeds out all the crap that's sold on eBay. It can be hard to sell on eBay when there is so much really cheap, mass-produced junk on there. Plus the fees are awful.
Anyway, my etsy store features skirts, but doing these profiles of other sellers has inspired me to try other things. Not only am I trying knitting, which is much harder than I expected -- harder than crocheting, in my opinion -- but I'm also going to make some cute pillows and pouches (like makeup bags). I might also do some purses. I think this will help my shop because these things aren't size-related and therefore can appeal to more people.

It takes a while to make things, especially with school going on, but I'll get there.
www.burstofhappiness.etsy.com.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Don't hate me just because poems suck

First things first: I think I just made a blog discovery. Apparently when you make a blog and then save it as a draft to publish later, it publishes under the date on which it was written. I was featuring Etsy.com sellers this week and I wrote them up the other day and was posting them one by one. Well, I noticed some of the later ones got buried because I guess they posted for the date I actually wrote them and not for the date I hit "publish." Sorry to the sellers for not getting the top of the page!

Anyway, today was the first day of school. It was mostly short classes -- no real work. I worked till midnight last night and then watched "American Idol," of course. Then I couldn't sleep worth a damn and tossed and turned until it was time to get up at the crack of dawn (7:30!). I drove the hour to Santa Fe, attended an abbreviated first class from 10-10:30. Then my next class was at 5:30. Not wanting to drive home and back, I went to see "Dreamgirls." I think my expectations were set too high with all the Academy Award talk. Don't get me wrong, it was good, the singing was amazing and Beyonce is to-die-for beautiful, but I wasn't blown away. It was a semi-musical. I only occasionally like musicals because it's just annoying when they have to break into song every 5 minutes. You get 5 minutes of movie and then 5 minutes of song, etc. I just feel like, "Get ON with the story."

That's kind of how I feel about poems. They are just a way to beat around the bush about what you're feeling. Just SAY what you're feeling plain and simple. Don't make me guess through a bunch of metaphors and fancy-pants words. I'm sure I'm the only person on Earth who actually admits they hate poetry. Fine, I said it. I don't like poems.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Confidential to My Computer:

10100001010111101010111010101010000001010111111010101010100000001110011000101110101010001010101010101. 0111101011100010101111101000, 01111010101011111010000011111001010001001!

Back to school!

School starts tomorrow! It means long, long Thursdays. I have to work late on Wednesdays (till midnightish) and then get up at 7:30 (yeah, yeah, well it's hard for ME) and drive to Santa Fe. I have class from 10-12:30 and then again from 5:30-8. Then I drive home. I have a horrible gap in there, but I think I can keep occupied with homework, my freelance work and attempted knitting. I can also read! Tomorrow, though, I figure there won't be any homework yet, so I will take the opportunity to see "Dreamgirls."

I can thank David for that. At last year's Gala, I was being photographed on the red carpet (see below) when I was informed that I had won movie tickets.
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I haven't had much time for movies, so I still haven't used them. The time has come!

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Check It Out, part VII: Abacus

Today's featured www.etsy.com seller is Abacus. Abacus makes colorful, beautiful, feminine jewelry. The purples and blues jump out at me, particularly. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the colors of this one:


Abacus is self-taught and started making jewelry about 10 years ago for herself. She ended up with so much jewelry that she couldn't wear them all (I know how that goes. Hence MY etsy store!)
Abacus hit the craft show circuit "in order to finance a growing bead addiction. Love to find little bead stores where ever I travel. Can't resist acquiring something I've never seen before. It's led to a pretty quirky and eclectic mix in my bead stash. I work with beads of stone, wood, metal, glass, shell, pretty much anything that strikes me. My own taste runs to small beads and dainty, classic pieces but every once in a while I like to break out and try something 'out of character.'"


Abacus discovered etsy through her daughter, whose store on etsy is www.cascade.etsy.com. She says an online store is "oh-so-different from what I am used to at craft fairs. I've only sold one small item, but I'm in the most crowded category so I'm trying to be patient and meanwhile learning as much as I can from fellow etsiers who are incredibly generous with advice."

"I have joined a fantasticly talented and motivated street team, EJA (eclectic jewelry artisans) dedicated to improving our visibility and success on the site. The team has its own Web site: www.eeja.org.
I plan to continue craft fairs but see etsy as a way of expanding my horizons and extending my selling season. My etsy shop serves as a convenient gallery when I apply to juried shows and allows me to accept credit card sales (too expensive for me otherwise)."

If you're looking for something pretty and completely unique, pay Abacus a visit at www.abacus.etsy.com.

Check It Out, part VI: Why Not

Martha, aka Whynot, says she mainly does crochet, but also does notecards "when the inspiration hits me."
OK, if this isn't the cutest thing I have ever seen ...



"I prefer projects like baby blankets and sweaters, because they make adorable gift items. I'm in NJ except for August, when I'm in Puerto Rico."
She welcomes custom orders, which is perfect for gift giving.



Here is an example of her cards, which are just as cute as her crochet work:

If you know someone who is having a baby and you want to get them something they'll keep forever, visit www.whynot.etsy.com.

Check It Out, part V: athaclena

Today's featured etsy.com seller is athaclena. She lives in Israel, and is 25 years old and a mother of a baby. She's Israeli and Jewish ("orthodox, so weird religious practices"). Athaclena makes cards with cut-outs and does bead work. She has neat square items with geometrical shapes.



"I used to make all sorts of patterns at school when I was bored, some of those same patterns are now being used for my cards, others are new ones I still create.
I still love beads but have less time for them - I get the feeling it's not worth getting them out unless I can bead for over an hour at one sitting.
I'm thinking about new and different things to do all of the time and also getting better at what I do."



"I'm hoping to sell and make more things for my shop and for my own enjoyment, and would like to make custom orders (it sounds like fun)."

Valentine's Day is coming up, and here's a cool card for your sweetheart:


www.athaclena.etsy.com.