So...spent the day in Renton. It was actually a pretty enjoyable day; I spent most of it sitting at my little table and reading. A steady trickle of people came by, and for the most part, said nice things about my work, and then walked on. Some stayed to chat a bit; that was nice.
The best comments: one lady looked at the kind of odd variety of subject matter and commented, "You should narrow your focus." Shrug...yeah, probably. Smile.
One lady asked me if I made the table and chairs I was sitting at. Uh...nope, bought those at Fred Meyer (I wish I had the metalworking skills to make folding table & chair sets!).
And the best part: one very nice lady bought something! It was my "Morning at Pike Place Market" piece, and I was really happy to let it go to her. She really admired it, and finally drove off to get cash. I think it's going to a good home.
So, an interesting day; I got a lot of reading done, and felt gratitude that I have a day job. If I'd been trying to make money to live off of, I probably would have felt very stressed.
I'll be showing a few pieces at the Renton Artwalk tomorrow; I have six framed drawings and paintings, and a handful of mosaic pieces. This should be interesting; most folks I've mentioned it to respond with, "Renton? Where's that?" Yeah, that's a good question (except that growing up in Kent, I happen to be familiar with all those backwoods, down-south towns).
So, worst case scenario is that I'll hang out in Renton and read for a few hours as people stroll past. Best case: someone actually buys something. I won't hold my breath; instead, I think of this as practice for future shows, and a good experience.
These are some of the pieces I'll have at the show:
I finished this box, finally. And started on a new one, that I quite like so far.
In the meantime, I'm so glad we got some rain last night and today. And in the afternoon, we even went on a walk.
It's going to be a tough week at work, so I'm glad to have had a nice, recuperative weekend!
What a week; again.
First, check out this very thoughtful video called Fat Rant. I like this gal.
She's got some great things to say about self confidence that apply to not just the fat, but anyone who worries about how they appear to the rest of the world.
Anyway...I've been teaching at SVC this month, and it's the first real classroom teaching gig I've ever tried. It's
still weird to me how much I enjoy it! I get nervous for much of the day beforehand, but driving home after class, I feel energized and almost giddy. I can see how this might be addictive.
I'm also registered to display some art a local "art walk." This is also making me nervous, mainly because I'm completely unprepared to actually display art. It's not that I don't have anything to show, just that I don't have all the things needed: no easels, no brochures, no chair to sit in all day while people look at my three or four little pieces.
I'm thinking about bringing mosaics. I've thought about teaching mosaics...hmmm.
I guess I'll see how I feel. In any case, it's Friday after another long week, and I am so very grateful for that.
I did finish the little box, and will grout today; then I'll paint the inside and add some little details. My thought is to sell these boxes, and the votive holders I made last weekend, perhaps on Etsy or at local craft shows.
It looks to be a cloudy, grey day today; perfect for another day in the basement. Yay!
My friend Galen says I'm addicted to information, and I freely admit it. I love to have constant input...when I'm driving, I usually listen to NPR, audiobooks or podcasts. Rarely do I listen to music in the car anymore. When I'm in front of a computer, which is all day at work and 1 or 2 hours a night, I monitor 2 email accounts, 98 RSS feeds in Bloglines and another dozen feeds and news sources on my Google homepage. When I'm working in the yard, drawing or working on a craft project, I listen to podcasts and audiobooks on my iPod. I have to read for at least half an hour every night before bed; I go through about a book every week. And we do watch a little TV; mostly HBO series and movies from Netflix. But hardly ever am I awake and not getting some kind of mental input. And I recently added Twitter, Ning, LinkedIn, Facebook, and a handful of other social networks to my daily ration of data.
I've always been like this, though; as a kid, I was a voracious reader, and would fill almost every scrap of free time with a book. The internet was just an incredibly fortunate event in a life spent craving words. I'm aware that not everyone is like this (though apparently there are millions who are); so often you hear people say, "Oh, after sitting in front of a computer all day at work, I can't imagine doing it at home, too!" And I think, "I can't wait to get home to use this thing for what it's really good for!"
And I'm in my 40s. I know that under-30s are all over this stuff, which makes it a little weird being the old lady at the party. But on the internet, no one knows you're middle-aged. Except the 20-year-olds I work with who are also my MySpace friends. Well, at least some of my fellow oldies are on staid old LinkedIn.
I just cut out my own stitches. Nail scissors, antibiotic soap: snip snip snip - done! Why pay a doctor to do something so simple? It was painless, and I have antibiotic ointment, which I applied after the job was done. I used to be such a medical coward. This is what comes from watching House.
That's what I'm in this weekend: Maker Mode. It's been creeping up on me for weeks now: an urge to work in three, instead of two dimensions. That's how I started, way back in 2000: after years of using all my creative energy on the computer, I decided to try and create something in the "real world." I took ceramics classes and loved it! Then I happened to try mosaics, after a co-worker and I took a mosaics class together. For about 3 years after that, I was addicted to mosaics.
But lately, I've kind of been missing my days of working with glass and tile and other tesserae. There's something really satisfying about ending up with a real, 3d object that is either practical or decorative, or both.
So yesterday, I spent a happy chunk of time in the basement, finishing up an old project and starting a few new ones. It was great! I plan to do the same today.
I know, I know: it's a beautiful day out and I should be outdoors weeding, working in the garden, washing my car, or something like that...but having to keep my right hand clean and dry because of the stitches conveniently forestalls any such plans. Oh well! I'll just have to work on something purely fun today. Heh.
What an odd day, yesterday. An uneventful trip to the periodontist, after which I came home and decided to hand-wash the few glasses that were in the kitchen sink. As I was scrubbing the inside of one, it broke apart in my hand, causing a big gash in my thumb. Oh, great.
I wrapped a dish towel around it to staunch the blood, noticed that this was a pretty bad cut, and realized, after a moment's thought, that I had never needed any kind of after-hours medical care since we'd moved to this area. I had no idea where to take my bloody hand. My hubby was at the Mariner's game; it was just me and the cats. With the towel wrapped awkwardly around my hand, I Googled up a local medical clinic with late hours.
When I called and explained why I wanted to come in, their response was immediate: "Uh, can you hold a sec?" Click.
Sure! Just bleeding to death here, no rush.
After what seemed like a really long time, they came back on and informed me that I should probably just go to a hospital. Fine. But what hospitals are near here? And why had I never taken the time to find out in the past? Sigh.
Google led me to the nearest one, so I drove my poor bloody hand over there, careful not to bleed on the stick shift.
Oddly (for me!), I felt calm and collected most of the time; I just thought about all the medical shows I'd watched. After all, a trip to a real ER would be interesting. When I got there, it was quiet; there were just two other emergency cases; one, a woman holding a bloody paper towel to her arm, actually changed her mind about seeing a doctor and left.
I didn't wait long, and when the doctor heard my story, he assured me that glasses breaking in the sink were a very common cause of cuts. Avocados and bagels are also major culprits in home accidents, apparently.
So, long story short because I'm typing with one-point-eight hands: numb the wound, rinse the wound, sew it up, tetanus shot, ok bye now. It was quick and relatively painless! Sadly, no one that I asked was a fan of "House." One nurse did say he watched "Scrubs." Ah well.
Moral: know where your ER is before you get hurt.
