quit work make crafts

RAWK.

I ♥ Art in the Park.

Now, I sleep.

In the madness that will be the next few days, do not forget to:

* scout around for a bulletin board
* bring pics of previous work home from the office
* print copies of Art in the Park flyer to spam neighbours with
* assemble pattern/inspiration books and worden pamphlet for potential customers to look at
* check into how exactly to use those freaking credit card slips
* make checklist of stuff to bring, including sample box

Ugh. Tired. Don't feel well. Not Friday yet. Should be working on glass.

However: antique store in the market where I had inquired about old window frames called yesterday. Today I am the proud owner of a lovely 10-light window that will be perfect for covering in stained-glass ivy. Probably can't do anything with it in time for Art in the Park anymore, though. Oh well.

Also: seller of this lovely set of furniture may be willing to hang onto it until mid-July, when we will have space for it. Niiiiiice. Making arrangements to go check it out.

Snack, then studio. Bleh.

Man, watching a season of BSG episode by episode instead of all in one shot is awful - the suspense is going to kill me, except it had better not, because then I'd never find out how this damn show is going to end. I wanna know what happens next, dammit!

It is really a shame that last night was the last performance of The Pirates of Penzance, because it was hilarious and I would totally have recommended that everyone go see it.

Finished the first painted nude today. It didn't turn out half bad. The paint didn't seem any the worse for wear for the flux and solder, at least. I don't know if it turned out quite as mind-blowing as it should have considering the amount of fucking work that went into it, but whatever. On to the next one. Need to test the purple glass to make sure that paint is actually going to show up on it...otherwise I'm going to have to find a substitute colour.

Didn't get any of my other grand glass schemes accomplished today, though. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time kicking my ass into gear. I think part of it is my work hours having switched since last year - I can't just drop by the glass store after work anymore, which means I either have to send Corey on an errand during the daytime or wait for the weekend to roll around so I can stock up on whatever miscellany I'm missing to continue my project. Opaque white glass and zinc came are on the list right now (and of course I forgot about both when I was there on Saturday to get neutra. Dammit.)

We noticed half a duplex go up for sale in the village this weekend, so I poked my nose into MLS out of curiosity. The same place was asking $275K within the last couple years. Now it's up to $315K. Sweet merciful crap. The listing says they've done a lot of upgrading, but even so. I guess it's a good job we bought where and when we did. I think I'd be surprised to see anything listed in the village for less than $300K unless it was a knock-it-down/gut-it-and-start-over special. And there aren't even a lot of those left...I think my studio is located in one of the last few.

Played squash with Corey both yesterday and today. My hips are a little sore from my constant lunging after the ball, but otherwise I'm not too badly beat up. I am a very bad sport when I feel outmatched, so I'm lucky Corey is such a good one; he actually managed to teach me enough this afternoon that I scored a few points against him before being abjectly defeated.

Sigh. Bed, followed by Monday. Bleah.

AUGH so behiiiiiiiiiiiind

Today, following Cora's breakfast, I will:

* Finish chopping out morning glories
* Finish firing painted nude #1 and do final coat of paint (well, except for the one piece that I forgot about in the kiln, accidentally fusing it into bubbly globbiness, and will therefore have to redo - goddammit)
* Chop out moons from spiffy $20/sq-ft uroburos glass
* Design tree to make out of gorgeous kokomo glass with deep ripples and streams of green and pink, which cries out to be a flowering tree of some kind (oooh and with the remaining kokomo green-gold from last year I could make a fall tree to go with said spring tree YES IT WILL BE AWESOME)
* Design magnolia mirror

Raspberries and bacon will fuel my genius. Up, up and awayyyyyyyyy!!

I have ingeniously managed to blow a fuse at the studio, thereby screwing myself out of an evening's worth of work. No soldering, no grinding, no firing, and not even any chopping, because the one project I have ready to cut needs the lighttable, which is likewise out of commission. Dammit. Note to self: there is a REASON why they told me the kiln should be the only thing on the circuit.

So instead I will bake and foil bevelled stars. I need to make cookies to send with Corey to my former boss in Montreal, whom I need to thank for a recent reference and general helpful awesomeness while I was jobhunting. And since Corey is hilariously making intensely kahlua-ful chocolate icing to go on the last couple squares of my attempt at amazon_syren's fantastic chocolate cake, I think maybe I will make another cake to go with it.

Spent a very nice couple of hours in the studio tonight. I had trouble making my brain shut up - grinding, like knitting, is so tedious that it's not very helpful that way. Nonetheless, I am resolved to spend more time there now that I've zombied my way through January. Especially now that Art in the Park is set for June 7 and 8, and registration is underway - must get cracking!!

So tomorrow, I foil with movies, and also my mom is supposed to come over and help plastic the windows in an effort to prevent another $500 hydro bill. Also I will call Wallack's to find out if they carry the brand of matboard I was looking at before, and make haddock with vermouth and mushrooms and delicious cheesy rice for dinner. And I'm going to try to start doodling some of the designs I've been thinking about.

Wow...when they said "massive winter storm" they weren't fucking around. Getting to work tomorrow is going to be a joy. I kind of wish this had held off until tomorrow - then it would have generated an actual snow day instead of just being a big fat pain in the ass.

Glass chopping is 90% done. Ahahahahahaaaa! I will return tonight to finish up and start grinding. Meanwhile, my book is calling me.

Well, real estate madness is cancelled for today due to tenant's family emergency. Possibly to be rescheduled tomorrow, although if it's later I won't complain, because it will be that much closer to whenever I hear results from that competition.

So what am I going to do with myself instead? Cook and finish neighbour's lamp, I guess; I will go to the glass store and get a harp so as to gauge where to put the spider. Also must get groceries. I am going to try bringing sandwich makings to work and see if that might stop the $$$ I've been hemmorhaging on lunches.

I just had an awesome mirror idea. I made a little spiral mirror this summer; if I make the background green and string little leaves on the wire curlicues, it could be super cute. Maybe I will also go to Sassy Bead and see how much they want for leaf-shaped bead thingies.

Bleah. I feel very lazy though. Mostly I just want to sit here and blither on LJ.

Not very productive today, for all that I've been trying. Had enough solder to do the outside seams on one candleholder, but got a goddamn heat crack for my trouble; poked at painting one suncatcher, but screwed it up and ended up washing it all off. At least I finished attaching the jewels to the trees, which are looking pretty cute. I will go back later and cut/grind that other tree I've been meaning to do, and then I will polish the lot of them later tonight. Other than that...bleah. Having trouble staying motivated. This stupid show has really taken it out of me. I think I will finish my neighbour's lamp in the next 10 days or so and then take a couple weeks off before launching into christmas projects.

In other news, we will be telling our landlord when we go pay the rent that we will be switching to month-to-month in order to hopefully buy a house in the coming year...how freaky is that, I ask you. Technically speaking we could start shopping now, since closing dates are already into February and March judging by what I see on Grapevine. It just wouldn't really be the path of wisdom. There's always the chance we may have to haul ass to some other city for Corey to find work, and even if we stay here both our salaries will hopefully be going up substantially in the next 6-8 months (which makes a big difference to what and where we can buy).

I dunno. Much like thinking about having kids, thinking about this makes me feel dumb. Like I'm playing house or something. I'm not sure what to make of that. Do I feel ill-prepared? Am I just self-conscious because so few other people seem to be making the same plans? Am I defensive because I expect other people to think I can't handle it?

Well, regardless, one of the things I got to thinking about while puttering around this morning is what kooky projects I could get up to in a house of our own. I could make an honest-to-god stained glass window, fer instance. Or transom/sidelights around the door. Or put stained glass in all the cabinet doors and add backlighting. I would love - LOVE - to have a suitably period house to do such messing around in, like that gorgeous little arts and crafts cottage on Britannia Road that backs onto the conservation area. God only knows how much that thing would sell for, even if its current owners did have a fit of insanity and put it on the market.

I adore arts and crafts architecture, it strikes this beautiful chord between rusticity, elegance, and warmth. E.g.:




If I couldn't track down and purchase such a thing, given dream house funds, I would track down some period plans and build it from scratch.