I’ve Been Mehndi’d
July 8, 2009
I worked at the Patron’s Preview Party before the Edmonds Arts Festival this year. The motif of the party was a Night in India and they had a gal doing Mehndi there. Towards the end of the party I saw women walking by me with glittery hands. The Mehndi artist sprinkled glitter onto the henna paste before it dried so the ladies hands were all bling-y, which is what I was seeing in the dark.
It was so pretty that I had to see if she would do one more. It was a bit dark and the only light she had was a candle lantern but I didn’t care. The glitter made me happy but it comes off once the paste dries. You’re supposed to leave it all on at least 4 hours or overnight. Once it all flakes off you’re left with the pattern.
The first day it’s orange, (OH ANN, you would love it that first day) and of course, it tortured me so… then it turns sort of milk chocolate colored and eventually mahogany like you see here. My pattern lasted for a week and a half.
It looks pretty cool. It would be fun to have it in indigo, too. I do like the sepia tone look though. I know that there are sacred things attached to mehndi, too.
At the arts festival we met a potter that decorates his work with fabric patterns using the mehndi cone to apply paste so that it fires as an embossed pattern. I got a fabulous mug from him and I have to say it’s beautifully made. You can see his work at: www.creativewithclay.com
Something Else My Mother Told Me and More
July 7, 2009
Something else my Mother told me was that I could do whatever I put my mind to. When I was younger, I think I only sort of understood that.
There was a time when women weren’t allowed to do much but take care of others: keep a house, shop for or help harvest food, make meals, clean the children, clean the clothes…clean, clean, clean. It seems that cleaning part hasn’t changed much but other things have: we are allowed to vote, go into bars, be bankers, executives, Doctors, cops and stockbrokers, climb mountains, compete in all sorts of sports and even serve in the military. While those younger then I may think of these things as a given in their world, I do remember differently.
I remember that when my Mother told me I could do or be whatever I wanted that I didn’t really think a lot about it. Now I wonder how hard that must have been for her to tell me something that wasn’t as true for her. It’s sort of like wondering if the Captain of the Titanic cried, (to quote a good song).
On another note, I’ve been listening to a great audio book: ’A Girl Named Zippy’ by Haven Kimmel and it’s incredibly funny. The author is actually reading the story and it’s cute as heck. Her Mother told her that they bought her from the gypsies at one point and she believes it. I know the feeling.
iPod Touch 2G, Part Two
July 6, 2009
One of the best things about it is that it actually took both my calendars: my personal calendar and the one I maintain for the art center and it automatically color coded them. My friend Ann will *love* to know that it coded my calendar with ORANGE (remember she tortures me with orange?) so that’s amusing. May she be tickled PINK (she hates pink!). LOL! Now when someone calls me and asks about a date for a booking, I can have the calendar without my laptop, a major improvement! Even my smart phone wouldn’t take both calendars (very frustrating to me). How smart is that? NOT.
I have an app for it that will stream Pandora Radio, my all time favorite music source online for listening to and finding new musicians and tunes. If you don’t know about Pandora check it out: www.pandora.com It’s wonderful!
2nd day (July 1) – I had a problem with the iPod freezing for some reason. So I took it to the Apple Store and in about 5 minutes I was leaving the store with it fixed, no charge, no trouble, and everything working. SWEEEET! That right there sells me on product: GOOD support. Not pretend support i.e. ”you gotta pay us to support our product support”. Real customer service makes for loyal customers and it makes sense to me why I might be paying more for your product then, too. Don’t nickle and dime me to death when I’ve already bought your merchandise! This goes for you too, airlines…
Anyway, apparently you can turn this iPod into a phone with a headset/mic using Skype and an app called FRING. Zowee. It just gets better and better.
iPod Touch 2G
July 5, 2009
Two weeks ago I got the news that what has been bugging my hand is that I have lost cartilage in my wrist and bones are rubbing together. It took awhile to dawn on me what this means. I’m pretty young for this and even though surgery can be done to grind the bones down so they don’t rub, what does that mean for all the other joints in my person? How will this effect continuing to make jewelry and art? I came up with lots of questions that already have an answer. I just hate to know it so it took awhile for it to sink in: time to do things differently, like not type so much…
Okay, so with that news and my birthday coming up, I bought myself an iPod Touch 2G. Definitely an all out extragance that I didn’t really plan but what the hey, you only live once.
Happy 4th of July: KABOOM!
July 4, 2009
KABOOM! That’s what it says on my calendar at home. That’s all, just KABOOM!
It’s time for BBQ’s, sun, family, maybe some sand or whatever your annual ritual is. Amid the ooooooh’s and aaaaahhhhhh’s I think about the beauty of those amazing sparks of fire and how many centuries it took to refine them into the displays we see today.
Last year we were so close to the small town display that a firework shot into the crowd 3 people over from us. Everyone was okay but it was a little too exciting. Still, all I could do with each salvo going up was laugh. I think I laughed my butt off. It was feeling the percussion of the works going up before they even went off that I find funny when we’re that close.
We don’t have an annual ritual so never know what we’re doing but whatever it is, it will be fun just to have the day off.
On the 4th I always think about how great it is to be here right now, in this moment. The fireworks are so elusive and short lived that watching them reminds that life is like that, too. Strangely most of my life is about scheduling, organizing events in advance, details for things yet to come but whenever I get to be in this minute I always have the best time. Enjoy each moment and have a happy 4th! KABOOM!
Sharky Leaves Bathroom World
July 3, 2009
Sharky has left the bathroom! OH NO! This means that our whole house is game now. It also means that I have to be observant to find out what he’s doing now… Where is Sharky? Stay tuned for the continuing adventures of Sharky Shark!
Airport Carpets and Other Weird Things
June 28, 2009
Well, I don’t know if anyone follows this little blog or not but if you do, you know that I wrote about my study of airport carpets. I travel a lot to teach and so to amuse myself on the “road”, I started taking pix of carpets in airports and anywhere I happened to like the carpet. Since I couldn’t very well take a square of carpet from wherever I was it seemed best to just take pictures.
It started in Seattle when I was on my way to teach at the University of New Mexico for an event called Art Universe some years ago. A friend went with me and it made her laugh when I told her I was going to take pix of the floor. I suppose she’s gotten used to me doing weird things like that. We’ve traveled together before and roomed together at different events, too, so she knows just how silly I can get.

Hotel room carpet is busier then I am! Some day I will do an expose (expos-ay) on commercial carpets. What it will expose is still a mystery but I have discovered that these carpets, though functional, are busier then all get out. This carpet was in my hotel room in Miami 2008 at the Merchandise Mart Hotel there. That was a really lovely hotel but god forbid that you look at the carpet too much or you would never sleep. I spent a lot of time watching planes take off from my window in that room. It was interesting to be that close and not be able to hear anything of the planes. Was it because of the carpet?




