So... today I accompanied my brother to the local ham radio festival. (Perhaps 'festival' is too generous of a term. Gathering? Meeting? I mean, there were people... who met in a designated building... at a specified time. They paid a $5 admission fee to get in. So yes, it was technically a gathering. But festival? No. That's an insult to festivals ( Read more... )

This entry is about a bird.

Specifically, a cockatiel.

More specifically, a moody, beady-eyed cockatiel named Wally who has taken up residence in my craft room.

But Helena, you ask, how did a cat lover like you acquire a bird?

What an excellent question. Allow me to give you a brief (haha, sure) explanation.


( Read more... )

I don't know why, but LJ was on my brain today.

Back in the day, LJ was my jam. I kept up with my favorite shows (CSI! SGA! SPN!); wrote fic prolifically (some of it was actually good!); gabbed with all my friends across the world, and cataloged the interesting (and, frankly, wildly uninteresting) aspects of my life ( Read more... )

My family's Black Friday philosophy is this: board your windows, lock your doors, don't emerge until Saturday.

We've never done Black Friday shopping because people are, to quote the popular vernacular, cray cray. I don't want to fight you for a TV. I don't want to get karate chopped because we both reached for, I don't know, the last set of ( Read more... )

I've noticed, moreso this year than any other, that people are getting ready for Christmas early. Like, I have seen at least four houses in and around our neighborhood that had their outdoor lights operational waaay before Thanksgiving. Why? I'm not sure. Maybe it's how their schedule worked out, or maybe it's because T-Day was late this year. ( Read more... )

Another canvas completed! \^o^/

It was composed with scraps and leftovers from past projects. I was aiming for an encaustic look (me = too poor to buy authentic encaustic materials), which seemed to be achieved, especially for a first try.

While working, I like to put on a DVD or Netflix. When Dad walked in, he couldn't believe what I chose to ( Read more... )

One post back, I mentioned a canvas that was just not coming together. But after a lot of painting and gluing and painting over glue and gluing over paint, this masterpiece finally emerged:

At the start, when this canvas was still blank and innocent, I had no clue what to do with it. My crafting skills were rusty. A project hadn't been completed ( Read more... )

Two Fridays ago, around 6:00 o'clock, I was staring at a canvas I'd covered in paper and paint, trying to figure out where to go from there...

...and then came The Noise.

It sounded like this: shiggleTHUNscreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedun. Straight up out of a horror movie. We are talking Freddy Krueger dragging his ( Read more... )

Friday night I participated in a child's birthday party ( Read more... )

Today, I went to church.


The look on my cat's face when I told him where I was headed this morning.My family last set foot in a church during the third Punic War, so it's safe to say I'm no regular. (Honest version: I played in a Baptist orchestra during high school; before that, when I was ten, my parents valiantly tried to Do The Right Thing by ( Read more... )