Flea Market Finds and Wasting My Time.

Well this week has certainly been busy.  I haven't found a few spare moments until now to really sit down and work on a post.  I never thought I could keep myself so busy in NJ, I was really reluctant to move back home, and I'm still sore over the situation that led me to going home.  I guess I'm never really going to get over that in my mind so I'm just going to let it simmer on a back burner until it evaporates away... or explodes.  Anyone who knows me knows of my infamous cooking skills so the issue is more likely to catch on fire than anything else.  I finally had a Sunday off with nice weather!  This means flea market time!  I was looking for a bird cage, something I could turn into a lamp shade for my swag light.  I put a plant light over my plants in order for them to stop growing sideways, but the paper lantern I have absorbs too much light, so not enough is getting down to the plants. 

Me being silly.

Well, I did find a birdcage, but it was big enough for me to sit inside it, so that was a bust.  Funny how the universe/ karma works right?  I think really hard about finding a bird cage and the universe delivers in a way that doesn't help me at all.  I'm sure there's a cosmic lesson in there somewhere but I'm really not grasping the message.  I'm more annoyed than anything else. 

I've got a peg arm X3

But I found some other little bits to use.  I found a bracelet display arm thing.
I happen to really like it, and I've been waiting for the spring months so I could acquire some air plants. 

Bulbosa (via bing.com)

I like the Bulbosa.  I think the hand would be a great air plant stand since it has this great flat area in the palm to support a plant. 

It's made of wood!

Then there was the Ouija pointer and I found deer antlers (to go with the legs on the wall).  The problem with the antlers is that they smell really bad and on closer inspection there's still bits of flesh attached which are moldy.  Didn't see that at the flea market and couldn't smell it due to high winds. It's also a really crappy mount, I'm gonna bring it down to the taxidermy place a few miles away and see what they recommend.  I knit another short cape!  It's longer than the first one and therefore it puffs out more.  Not terribly thrilled with it.  I'm now drafting a different pattern so that I can make a lace one instead of a cable knit.  I think it'll have to be worked in 3 pieces instead of 1 big piece.  This means 3 needle bind offs.  Woot.  Note my lack of enthusiasm.
So I literally just got called in to the store to cover some hours, huzzah for 10 hour weeks.  I'll bitch about work on facebook this is not the place for it.  But I will say that when I get four boxes to unload and no hangers to hang anything with, my manager had better not think to blame me. 

7:15pm
Wow.  Just wow.  I can't even describe the aggravation.  This job isn't worth it.  I really do not want to make a habit of talking about my jobs on this blog so that's all I'm going to say about that.

Anyway, the Whale is progressing.  Slowly.  I need to color match some beads and pick up the right tones to complete the whale and give it a three dimensional look.  Once the whale is completed I will continue on the background.  Unfortunately I have to work the piece this way.  I need to make sure the buttons don't
interfere with the beading on the whale. 

I should think more on the toilet.  No seriously, I had this great thought about the Brain.  I rushed out of the bathroom just to write it down before I forgot it.  I wrote, "I was thinking, about the amount of control I exert in my pieces.  The Whale is extremely controlled, down to the last button.  But then there is the Brain.  I control the amount and frequency of the stitches, the mathematics are mine to manipulate.  The form however is wild, organic and chaotic.  From my efforts to exert control on my art, comes a chaotic and free-form shape.  There is a juxtaposition inherent in the piece, the logical pattern of stitches and the illogical form which results from it."  God I miss MICA.  My mother sees the Brain and says, "Why don't you use that yarn to knit an afghan?  Wouldn't that be nice?"  See my frustration here?  I feel like this almost every time I try to talk to my parents about art.  At least my father will smile and nod even when he has no idea what I'm going on about.  I need to move out of the house.

Finally finished The Offspring by Jack Ketchum.  I do not recommend it.  There's a movie based off of the book which seems to have gotten some good reviews but the book was not scary in the least.  It's about a small town in Maine besieged by a tribe of wild cannibalistic people.  The viewpoint of the book jumps between the characters, from the cannibals, to the police and the various victims.  I found it to be rather bland and I held no sympathy for the characters.  For me, I need to feel some form of empathy for the characters in the book, or at least feel something.  The one scene I found interesting is when the divorced couple end up the in cannibals lair and the jack ass of an ex-husband tells the cannibals that if they want answers, they should torture her by biting her.  The wife is horrified that he'd betray her fear of being bitten to these people who will have no problem exploiting that weakness.  I actually felt something for the wife, I felt betrayed an her behalf, that was a rather crappy thing to do and I really hoped the ex-husband was gonna get it: which he eventually does.  Overall the characters were not that well developed.  The female characters were two dimensional and annoying, and the men are either weak or jack asses.  I found it hard to identify with any characters and immersing myself in the story of the book was a challenge.  So like I said before, I do not recommend picking it up.  Next on the list is Obit: Inspiring stories of ordinary people who led extraordinary lives. by Jim Sheeler.  I'm about a third of the way through it, and so far I'm enjoying it.  It's kind of morbid in that everyone who is written about is dead, but the stories are, like the title said extraordinary.  Will write more when book is finished.  The book list is so long.  I've got 42 books to read and that's just the ones in my line of sight.  I think Sex With Kings will be next.  Actually I may put Obit on the back burner just to read Sex With Kings first.  What can I say, sex sells. 

Urban Spectacles

Anyway on the art side, I stumbled across this artist based in Chicago who makes custom spectacle frames at Urban Spectacles.com.  I.  Want.  A.  Pair.  They are gorgeous.  The artist: Scott, hand makes wooden frames and each one is different.  He inlays different woods, bone and one pair even had crystal inlaid in them to create a specialized design for his clientele.  I want a pair similar to the one pictured on the left.  I love that inlay and the modernized cat eye look.  One day, when I have money to burn, I'll order a pair of these and wear them every day of my life!  Although getting prescription lenses is going to be a pain in the ass.

I can't think of anything else to write about and this post is long enough as it is. 
See Ya'll Later!