Month: October 2009

Sometimes I forget

That there is the Pacific Ocean. Photo taken yesterday afternoon during a bout of playing hooky from my responsibilities.

Sometimes, I forget the ocean is right nearby. I mean, I live within about twenty minutes of those rough rolling waves.

How can I forget that?

Sure, I know the fog that creeps over the hill is there because of the ocean. But daily ensconced in my suburban life, doing what I do, I forget that I live so damn close to the gorgeous and perplexing Pacific Ocean.

Needing to clear my mind, I took a drive on a sunny day to listen to the waves and do some real hard thinking.

Due to all the storms we’ve had this week and last, the water was very high and the waves were crashing. There wasn’t even room to walk on the beach, the water level was so high.

So I had to content myself with this little discovery. Someone, I’m guessing a child, put together a lovely little collection of shells.

I inspected every shell in the collection, some nice finds, but left the group where it was. The collector would want it that way.

So, disappointed with my inability to walk and think on the sandy beach, I turned my attention elsewhere.

Half Moon Bay, where I took my jaunt, is a prime grower of pumpkins. So this is high season in HMB.

Man, when I pulled off the road to the pumpkin patch, the light was just perfect. A photographer’s dream. I didn’t get to shoot any of the pretty little starfish that grow down by the sea, but I was content to shoot bright orange punkins grown large by that healthy sea air.

They had big punkins, medium, punkins, some round, some flat, some tall, some squat.

They had a box of little bitty punkins too. And the sun was so beautiful.

Man, that orange is the color of Autumn.

Well, looking at all that fleshy punkin glory, you know I had to buy one!

This guy will become our jack-o-lantern about three days before Halloween.

I don’t often admit it, but I kind of love Autumn. At least while it’s still warm and we’re still on daylight savings.

My tune may change in November.

Today I’ve got that “been to the coast” mellow meditative vibe going.

Much needed.

All photos by Karen Fayeth

Oooh, that’s troubling

Last evening, I was heating up some soup on my electric stove. I managed to drop a bit right in that space between burner coil and the stovetop.

So, stupidly, I stuck my finger down in there to wipe it out. I was thinking, at the time, I don’t want that bit of soup to burn and smoke up the place.

Predictably, my finger accidentally touched the now hot burner coil, and instead of burning soup, I burned my skin.

I leapt back then turned quickly to the sink to run the burn under cold water.

As I rinsed the burn, I thought, “hmm, my food sure smells good!”

The soup was still on the burner, beginning to warm up.

Only problem was, the soup was tomato, and the smell I was savoring had a more meaty tone.

I turned to look, and saw a little smoke rising from the burner from under the pan. It was then I realized that the little bit of skin I’d left behind from the burn was now cooking, a little tomato soup on top for seasoning.

Let me say that again. What I thought, “ooh that smells tasty” about was my OWN SKIN cooking.

I’m now a little skeeved out at myself.

It’s like meeting a really great guy at the party, only to find out he’s your first cousin.

It’s how Luke Skywalker felt when he found out that the woman he’d been perving out about was his twin sister.

The Good Man does, occasionally, refer to me as his “tasty little morsel.”

I just never knew that was also true pan-fried and served with a side of rice.

And a nice chianti.

: shudder :

Life lessons from my craft table

I spent much of Sunday afternoon working on various art and crafting projects. (Check out my Etsy store if you haven’t already!)

So while I applied Mod Podge to glass ornaments and shook out glitter and painted and spilled and generally had a heck of a time, I got to pondering.

I’m a ponderer, donchaknow?

“Iiiii’m the kind of gal who likes to think around, oh I’m the ponderer, oh I’m the pondereeeer!”

Sorry. Ahem, random bit of silliness.

Anyhow, while waiting for glue to dry, I thought about the lessons for a better life that I have learned during the art of crafting.

Here’s a few I quickly jotted down:

  • Angry crafting is not good crafting

    • Oh yeah. I’ve sat down at the table, madder than hell about something, and stabbed paint on things, smashed glue into corners and hastily applied decorations.

    End result? Unpretty.

    To me, creating requires a certain letting go in the mind. Almost a meditation. Not to get all Buddhist or anything, but you have to be in the moment with the paint or glue or papier-mâché or whatever medium you are elbows deep into.

  • Sad crafting can sometimes rock.

    • So very stereotypical to say that you have to be sad and depressed to really create. In fact, I pretty much hate that this concept has become so ubiquitous.

    But, I do have to admit, sometimes, when I’m really down, and tired of feeling down, exhausted from the sad, I turn off my brain and let the paintbrush take over (or the keyboard if I’m writing) and I find that in that non-thinking space, I make some of the best stuff.

    Then again, I can be crazy-ass happy like a chimpanzee and make cool stuff too.

    It all comes back to where your mind is at. Not to put too fine a point on it.

  • Tipsy crafting is a no.

    • Yeah. Worse than angry crafting. You *think* you are doing a great job, but then you wake up the next day and see big gaps you missed, stuff is crooked, left the glue pot open, etc.

    Not that drunk crafting isn’t fun, it just isn’t advisable.

    There’s letting go the mind and there is letting go of your faculties. Know when to put the glue gun down!

    This was a hard lesson learned after sharing a small pitcher of margaritas with The Good Man over homemade enchiladas. Yum!

    Should have chosen singing out loud or playing the guitar instead. Will still come out crappy, but no lasting effects to remind!

  • A rhinestone or other well placed embellishment can cover a multitude of sins.

    • When I was learning to drive, my mom always said, “If you miss your turn, just turn around and try again.” And you know what? She’s always been right. Flat right. Don’t panic. Don’t freak out. Don’t give up on the whole thing.

    Just, be calm, and fix it.

    Look, they say what makes a book great isn’t the initial writing, it is the editing. I think what makes art great isn’t that you make something perfectly the first time, but it’s about all those “happy accidents.” Those goofs you didn’t expect but show you something more profound or deeper or more meaningful than you first imagined.

    Then sometimes there are just those “oops, my freaking thumb got in the way and now I have a huge ass smudge.” That’s when you slap a big rhinestone or a button, a milagro or SOMETHING fun over it and smile, because then only YOU know there is a mistake under there.

    Everyone else thinks you meant it that way.

    Crafting has made me give up on trying to be pefect and learn to welcome those “hey what the!?!? Oh, heeeeeey…..” moments.

  • And finally, as much as you may love your pets, and believe me, I LOVE my pet a lot, don’t craft with your pets nearby.

    • Let’s just say this…I was covering a wooden item in glitter. Glue went on, glitter covered the item in a big pile.

    I got up to wash off my glue brush. As I stood, the Feline was fast asleep nearby (on the table actually).

    I walked from the room, turned to check, yep, still asleep.

    Returned in about two minutes. I find my Feline with glitter ALL over her face and the glitter spread *everywhere*.

    Seems she’d taken a sniff, inhaled a bit o’ the Crafty Chica Nova Blue, and sneezed.

    *sigh*

    Also, I got weary of constantly picking cat hair out of my paint and glue and did I mention she likes to sleep on my paint rag?

    Feline doesn’t get to sleep on the craft table anymore.

    So, just exile your pets from your art space. Believe me, this will save many headaches.

    Unless pet hair is your medium, then knock yourself out!

All right, enough pondering. Time to get back into my Zen space, pick up my purple acrylic paint, and get back to crafting.

(not my craft table, but might as well be!)

Oh my…how utterly delicious!

Found on the internets, beatiful, stunning, precious and semi-precious stone Dia de los Muertos rings and pendants…from….

You’ll never believe this….

Dior.

Oh sweet pretties, from the “Coffret de Victoire” collection available on the Dior Joaillerie website.

I note the site doesn’t list prices. Er, sure.

But you know, if anyone has any piles of cash laying around they’d like to blow, I’d sure love this first ring (skull crafted in coral) :

Or, you know, I’d sure take this ring (skull crafted in turquoise) :

Sure wouldn’t refuse this ring either (skull crafted in mother of pearl) :

Or how about a stunning pendant? Again, in coral.

But gee, I sure wouldn’t like to have this one.

Yeah, not really. Just trying to be modest. This pendant is *gorgeous*!

I’ll be looking for all five of these baubles to show up under my Christmas tree this year….

In, uh, Karen-Fantasy-Christmas-World!

A girl can dream, can’t she?

Rock on, APD!

Today, in need of wasting a little time, I found myself surfing the Fail Blog.

This is a blog, brought to us by the same good folks who publish I Can Haz Cheeseburger, with the same sense of humor.

It is a freaking hilarious blog. They post photos and videos of, well, the big and little failures that occur in the world.

So as I was catching up on what I’ve missed over the past several weeks, I was ever so proud to see that my ol’ hometown has shown up strong.

Congratulations, APD, on an epic police fail.

Good stuff!

Source.