I just got thirty-four POUNDS of beads.

(Okay, a few of those pounds were packing materials and tools. But mostly beads.)

There was not enough room on my workbench to unpack all of them at once. I've been unpacking and sorting and putting them away for over an hour, and I've only gotten through maybe a quarter of the shipment.

Art-o-mat: it's a vending machine for tiny pieces of art. So very, very cool. I don't have time right now, but I am seriously considering submitting something in the future, because I would love to be a part of this. I'm also going to have to try to track down some of these machines while we're traveling.

I love stuff like this.

I took last week off from working on my sleeve, because I was feeling too tired to deal with it and the previous week's ink wasn't healing well, but we did a good long session yesterday and it's all good. Tanya started shading the fairy wings, and while I'm glad she stopped where and when she did -- the skin there is very thin and sensitive -- a ( Read more... )

I just got my beloved old guitar back from this excellent craftsman. He fixed a very nasty back crack so well that it's nearly invisible to both sight and touch, glued up a smaller crack in the bridge, dressed the frets and the fingerboard, and did a lovely setup that left it playing better than it had in years ( Read more... )

I normally can't stand crossover fanfic and usually run screaming when I encounter it in the middle of otherwise good stories. It's just plain distracting, and while I'm pretty good at suspending reality when I'm reading fiction, I have my limits. Telepathic horses? Enchanted swords? Secret wizarding societies? No problem. Buffy showing up at ( Read more... )

Today's random good things post:

The greenmarket had sorrel on Saturday, and Whole Foods had lovely asparagus. Amy and I went for a walk in the forest on Sunday and I brought home copious quantities of wild onions. These things, when combined with a potato from our Urban Organic box and a can of crab meat (alas, I didn't have a chance to get ( Read more... )

Amy and I went out to explore the Manhattan Greenway today. She bought a pair of rollerblades last weekend, and this was the first time we'd both had a chance to go out on our new wheels together. We took the A down to 59th Street to grab some food and sunblock at Whole Foods, and then headed out to the river. Our original plan was to ride for ( Read more... )

I have chocolate-flavoured lipbalm. Scharffen Berger chocolate-flavoured lipbalm, to be precise ( Read more... )

It's snowing gently outside, and I've lit the candles on my workbench and settled down with a pot of tea and an old mix cd playing. The cats are asleep on the sofa, and it's a lovely afternoon to sit and work ( Read more... )

Amy and I had dinner last night with Heather and her friend Becca. There was very tasty sushi and a lot of giggling and Smut-sniffing and cheesecake which we ate with chopsticks and stories about crazy gay boys and also sushi with stealth cottage cheese in it, but alas, there were no packets of sauerkraut ( Read more... )