Just Random Rambling...

Been a long busy week ( with two more days to get through before I can enjoy a day off ), in a month full of endless MONDAYS. Seriously... everyday things keep happening and people keep saying that it feels like a Monday.

Today's biggest 'Monday' fail didn't hit me ( knock on wood), it hit a coworker. She'd just finished making a tray full of  chocolate pudding cups and was taking them to the freezer... when she dropped half of them on the floor. We all laughed it off since we've ALL been there before, and it takes experience  and or cheating, to get that long skinny tray packed full of pudding cups into the awkward  freezer. I say cheating, because I've learned the easiest way to do it without losing any, is to load them onto a bigger tray for the trip, and then transfer them over to the little tray INSIDE the freezer. Anyhow, since none of us told her any of that before hand, or even thought to warn her... splat. We joked, and since she'd mentioned 'camp nicknames' in a previous conversation, I suggested we change her name to Dropsy.
She manages to get the surviving pudding cups into the freezer and the not so lucky ones cleaned up.. and I pass her as she's carrying a few forgotten ones back towards the freezer a few minutes later. I'm at the oven when I hear a little noise followed by a heavy sigh.. and I yell back ' tell me you did not just do it again.' ... no answer, so I thought I'd just imagined it. A few minutes later I look over to see her heading back towards the freezer with a handle full of paper towels and this resigned look on her face.. yes, she had dropped them again lol.

This sort of thing has been happening EVERYDAY this month, to SO MANY people around me, including myself. I've just reached the point where I just do my best to get through the day without it collapsing on top of me, and find a way to enjoy the humour in these things while I can.

I have a few Halloween 'projects' on the go - a repaint of my ugly old trick or treaters bowl - it used to be grey and purple with skull-faces around the outside. It's currently been spray painted a solid black and is waiting for me to decide what to do next. No matter what I decide on... it'll end up looking better than it started. I'm also doing a repaint of a skull goblet. It was in a bag full of goodies from my brother and sister in law a year or two ago for my birthday, and it was full of candy ( they got it at the Dollarama but I don;t remember seeing them in the store this year ) It was originally white and black and rather cartoony looking... it too is now completely black... and no, I have no idea what I'm doing to it next... we'll find out when I do it :D

I may have mentioned an awesome blog called Epbot. If you've never been, CHECK IT OUT! Jen and Jon are just great people, with amazing gifts when it comes to 'creating'... everything from cool little steampunk ray guns, to amazing  cosplay costumes, to insanely talented interior design. Seriously, they do it all, and they are funny and just way too cute :D

Last year Jen posted a tutorial on an eyeball wreath she made for Halloween, where the flowers of the wreath all had eyeballs for the centers. I made my own version with little skulls in the center of my flowers - a design I plan on redoing when I find a better wreath base.  This year, she made this and I have all of my bits and pieces to make my own :)  I wanted blue lights, but all they had there at the time was orange or purple... so PURPLE! I got my skull at the Dollarama before hand, because I didn't remember seeing any that big at the Dollar Tree, and plain hollow plastic skulls have been hard to find this year... so aside from a slightly different skull and the purple lights... I might actually be sticking closer to her tutorial this time. Maybe. We'll find out anyhow :)  I think we all know how I am with following directions ;)

I also have another project that has been keeping my kitchen door propped open in the cool weather, and  Bowie sitting in the living room  barking and twittering at me ( did I mention all critters inherit a dose of crazy when I take them in? It's true... any normal they had before hand , whoosh, gone ). I found these bags of 'sea' glass at the thrift shop, there was six or so of them, but I only bought three ( yes I know, I'm still kicking myself over not getting them all ). I knew right away I was going to use them to make some windchimes for xmas gifts, and got busy sealing all of it and making it sparkle.... and then immediately regretted sealing ALL of it since it would have looked better to have had a mix of frosted and clear... so... I might be sanding off some of the clear coat. Nothing like undoing your work because you got the idea too late *sigh*.

My kitchen/painting studio is even a bigger mess than usual because I have my halloween craft stuff on the floor in front of my easel, along with my halloween treats, ( no pumpkin yet though) and the case for my mini aircompressor... that I need to figure out how to get working properly so I can get the airbrush  and do some painting with it... Too many muses making too many projects.. and it's only a week or so until November and I still haven't nailed down a plot for this years NanoWrimo novel! ( I have done one every year, but I never got around to adding the last few to my nano account... I decided I'd add them once my word count bet my previous best... two years I never got that far, and last year I did but I forgot all about it since I hadn't updated anything there for a while >.< lol Maybe I should start a new account... I distinctly remember having my ghost book listed and previewed on the site, but it's not listed among my novels, and I don;t have any record of having another account aside from the combo one me and my honorary lil' sis used the one year we won... two of us writing together, so we doubled our word count form the normal 50,000... and reached it :) and the stupid story wasn't even finished at that point either and it has since settled in beneath the dust of ' still needs a massive amount of work done to it before it's finished' along with most of the rest of our nano's.

As for jewelry, hey I DID start an owl themed bracelet :) It has the chain, the clasp, and the owl all attached together... and I have plenty of little 'charms' and dangles ready too... just need to sit down and tackle the job of attaching them all.

Just not feeling it tonight.

Tonight I'm just watching a bit of tv, writing this post to keep myself on track, and beyond that I haven't decided. Think it's a hot chocolate night ( for the record, the past few nights have been hot chocolate nights ), but tonight's hot chocolate needs to be special.. like, my Mexican Leprechaun kinda special ( for those not on fb, that's a drink I created for St. Paddy's that my local coffee shop shared -  mexican hot chocolate with a helping of Bailey's irish cream. It's really good. Since it's autumn, I could shift it to a pumpkin spice latte or cappuccino with baileys, instead... hmmm.... yup, that sounds like a plan :)

Go make yourself your favorite hot drink and snuggle in to watch movies or tv, or read a book...  I'll catch you next time  WITH PHOTOS of some of the things I mentioned this time :)

Catching up Part 2

Yes, after SIX ATTEMPTS... my emails to myself finally made it through. Well, just the one email... several copies of it are still in limbo.

At any rate, I now have photos to share! lol

So, as I mentioned, I've had mentions of interest in owl themed jewelry lately... so I printed out some Michael's coupons ( a miracle in itself since my printer was possessed LONG before the ipad was and rarely cooperates), and headed up in search of some owls.

I already had a few, but I was out of my itty bitty silver ones... Michaels has two different styles of itty bitty silver owls... one was gorgeous but expensive... and I decided my coupons were better used on others, so I got the cheaper, not so awesome ones. I'm keeping an eye on the sales though.. just in case.

So, now that I'm armed with owls, ready to see all of the owl jewelry I've made?

Well tough toodles, because I haven't actually made ANY owl stuff yet >.< LOL  I have the beads, and the designs, and all the bits all ready to put together... but I was distracted... first by SKULLS...

 

two pairs of skull earrings for ME :D I've had the skulls for ages now.. the top pair is green sea glass skulls that I got from Znet. 

The little gold skulls were part of a gift from a friend a while ago, and have just been waiting for the right beads to go with them.

For the record, I have an entire bag of skull beads, clasps, and charms, of all different styles and materials... at least a third of which were gifts. They're all just waiting for inspiration to strike for me to create with them... although I've been debating on making a display case to show them off until I do lol

 Here's a picture of the green glass skulls where you can sort of actually SEE the skull's features.


And then, once I'd satisfied the need to be distracted by Skulls....

................ I was distracted by these gorgeous peacock beads I bought, and the need to make this...

I went with a brass chain, and used up a bunch of little swarovski crystals to make several little chain dangles. It hangs high, just shy of being a choker, and a very simple design, but I love the way it turned out.

So maybe I'll be able to make some of those owl pieces now :)

In non jewelry creating, I've been doing some painting lately, and while I've started plenty, I've only finished one...

That's a 16 x 20.. something or other.. canvas... and it's all done in splatter paint... with a toothbrush and a nail brush. The black was super quick and easy... the green  took forever and my thumb hated me for it. I'd envisioned bigger splats, but ended up with a fine mist that could be mistaken for an airbrush... so I'm nabbing my brother's old airbrush for any future designs like this lol I have the small compressor and the adapter for it should be arriving monday or so... I'll try not to let the new toy distract me fomr the owls for too long... unless it's to paint them... Ooo... owl painting.....


damn it >.< lol  first the muses won;t speak up, and then they won;t shut up... lol


I'll share some more jewelry pics in my next post, but for now I'll end this with a wee video clip showing you all... my new phone. this was taken at my mom's house where we tried it out lol... I still have to clear off my cabinet to make room for it.

Catching up Part 1 & 1/2.. aka... the haunted ipad

Yeah... the haunted iPad...

 well... iPad Mini.

I'd planned on this being some more photos of recent work, and few of my older pieces that I can't remember if I shared or not... BUT...

... the haunted ipad had other ideas.

Some of you might be in an FB group called 'Fans of Epbot' ( and if you're not, you probably will be once you go read some of the Epbot blog... it's FABULOUS ). If you are, then you might remember a comment made concerning my ipad and some of it's hi-jinx. At least, I'm fairly certain that was where I mentioned it.

Anyhow, I shall 'introduce' you  to my new 'friend'.

My brother repairs phones and ipads and such, and while he's cut back to just doing phones now, while he was doing ipads, I managed to get one from him. He'd been planning on fixing it up and giving it to me for my birthday, but I ruined his plans and bought it off of him first.. very cheaply. For just over the cost of  new screen, I got my ipad mini. No clue about who originally owned it, or what they did to it that they traded it or sold it to my brother, but it was now mine and it was great.

... for awhile.

Or at least, I didn't really notice anything out of the ordinary until about a month or so ago.

I have my google docs app on it and do some reading and writing on it while I can, as well as fb, and couple little time wasting games, including WordTrek ( which my dad constantly takes over whenever I visit).
I noticed it first with WordTrek... the letters would suddenly start to 'type themselves', or the screen would flip up or down as far as it could... or go white. And I kept finding websites entered into the browser that no one had entered. THAT I'm fairly sure was just my dad accidentally hitting the ads at the bottom of the screen while playing... same as at least half the 'white screens'. 

The letters typing themselves and the scrolling up and down... no clue. My only idea on it is a messy or screwy screen...?

Then it started doing in when I was in docs. I'd be editing or writing something, and all of a sudden random letters would be typing out and the cursor would be zipping all over my screen... the page would be scrolling wildly, or zooming in and out.

Incredibly irritating, let me tell ya.

It even started doing it on fb, although it seems to be focusing mostly on my writing in docs - which I should point out is supernatural in genre, and my favorite, and current main character.. is a necromancer. Coincidence? Eh.... the screwy screen theory isn't so good when it's only happening occasionally in just the one program... when the majority of the content concerns ghosts and such...

Anyhow, you're probably wondering what that has to do with delaying the blog post. First, no, I do not write my blog posts on my ipad, or post them from my ipad... I wouldn't have a clue how to even begin figuring that out. HOWEVER, I do take photos on my ipad, and need to get those photos onto my laptop so they can be added to my blog... and everyone keeps saying to use the cloud... I do use a cloud, I use the google docs cloud all the time... but the icloud is a different one and I have no desire to have to figure out how to juggle various things between different clouds...

.. and that sounds very strange if you don't know what the kind of cloud I'm referring to is... but oh well.

My method of transferring photos between ipad and laptop? email.


... although it just dawned on me now that I USE THE GOOGLE DOC CLOUD ALL THE TIME... just like I said... I could add PHOTOS to my docs and then save them to the laptop from there >.< *headdesk*

Sorry, it's been a slow/off brain kinda month so far...

where was I? Oh yeah.. emailing my blog photos to myself.

So, worked fine last time. No problem.  This time... they have become lost in the vastness of the interwebs...

For some reason, my email account when used on the ipad, offers an autofill for my one gmail account... with the 'nickname' of Holidays in Canada when I click autofill. It's MY email address, fully and completely, no misspellings, or differences at all... aside from the odd 'holidays in canada' nick that I have no clue where it came from... my account has the nick of 'Skye' attached to the email addie, so...

When I sent the first three emails to the autofill one and they didn't arrive... I sent them again without clicking the autofill.... and they still haven't arrived....

So when /IF they arrive, or I figure out how to add the photos into my docs app and share them that way, I will continue with 'catching up part 2'.

In the mean time, I think I'm going to write a story where my necromancer exorcises a possessed ipad in hopes that my little gremlin will get the hint and leave my emails alone, at the very least.

 I may also need to decorate my plain ipad cover appropriately... skulls and ghosts...
.... maybe the anti-possession charm from Supernaturals...? I haven't watched the show in forever... hmm... nah, I'll stick with my skulls and spooks... maybe a gremlin or two... Might as well make it feel at home, right?


I'll catch you all again later... my turkey stew is smelling wonderful and I need to go eat some of it.

...and if you're reading this on your ipad... keep an eye on it... just in case it's contagious ;) buwhahahahahaha :D

Catching Up part 1

yes, you read that right...PART 1.

Hey, it's been two years... even doing next to nothing requires some 'updating', right? lol

I had planned on doing this post on Sunday, but I didn't have time between work and heading to my parents place.

 Monday came, but I decided to wait since I wanted to add some photos.. and it was overcast and 'rainy' ( although I use the term loosely.. it was more of an all day mist than an actual rain).

Tuesday arrived... and I forgot all about wanting to take the photos and write the post, so here we are. WEDNESDAY .. and I've taken the photos only to realize that I took way too many to stick in one post... and don't want to risk getting lost playing with picmonkey or one of it's 'cousins' by making collages. It would've been posted this morning, BUT my ipad was giving me a hassle about moving the photos, and then I was having issues with the blog itself... I'm blaming my mom's internet connection...>.< lol

Maybe for part 2 I'll collage some... we'll see. I may end up doing this in 3 parts... two for jewelry catch up/ review, and 1 for painting... not that I've accomplished much there aside from 'starting shit'.... I'm really good at 'starting shit'... lol

So, how about a 'me' update to start? Yeah.. that works... here's me now :D Well, actually it's year or so old now, but I still look the same anyhow...

I'm still a baker, although now I'm the head baker, and am learning management crap alongside the actual management trainee. I turned the management position down, and yet... I'm still getting the training anyhow. 

Back when I was posting regularly, I had a couple cats and a bird.

 Xander the youngest cat, I gave up because he'd started picking on my older cat. Just shy of a full year later, my older cat, Pit, passed away due to kidney failure. About six months after that, my bird, Jo passed away as well... just one month shy of his 30th birthday. 

My place remained critter free until a few months ago when Bowie moved in. 

Bowie was originally named Joey, but since I'd had MY Joey for 29 years, I couldn't bring myself to call this one by the same name... so since he's a big music fan, he became Bowie. The fake green bird in the background there is Buddy... he's a motion sensor that chirps... and that Bowie alternatively cuddles up and twitters to... or beats the crap out of, depending on his mood. He's become very talkative, and imitates crows, dogs, and squeaky toys... Seriously... he makes a very believable squeaky toy noise that has made my dad's dog Sissy, very unhappy with him... she thinks Bowie stole her toy and is hiding it in his cage.

The issues I was having with my joints, especially my elbows, wrists, and fingers, have cleared up, but then I haven't been working with my tools much, which means less strain. I'll need to make sure I don't over do it now that I'm back to making jewelry.

Speaking of which, I did mention that I'd finally made a bracelet - the first complete piece of jewelry I've made in... hmm.. over a year anyhow.

A mix of blue glass and stones, and silver charms. I don't know why it ended up being all blues... usually my 'charm' bracelets like this have at least two colours in them, plus the metal... but this one insisted on being all blues.

I'm afraid I didn't take a finished pic of the owl set I gave my friend, but I did take a pic of a similar set when it was finished. These were probably the last bits of jewelry I made, aside from my vintage button earrings.

and here are some of the vintage button earrings I made. I made a pair with blue and red drops, and a knotted rope motif on the button itself, but I kept those for myself :)

Well, hopefully, I hadn't posted about any of that before I 'went off the air', so to speak. Hate to repeat myself, but I'm too lazy to backtrack and see what I did or did not cover back then >.<

I'll post up a collection of some of the other things I've done, or am doing, in the next post :)