seventyeight: xmas presents

below are some new pieces i made recently. i think most of them will be given away for christmas, so beware you may be looking at your christmas present. the pictures are not great. since i have moved i have not been able to figure out the best way of taking photos. i have also been lazy and not wanted to put the time/effort into taking good photos.
i went to a show put on by students at the corcoran college of art and design. i noticed that each of them had websites and business cards. i don't know if this is something that the school encouraged, but i think it is a good idea. as i have mentioned before, i would really like to have a site in which to display all of my work in one place, rather than just a blog. i think i should work on doing this. i was also encouraged after seeing people's works. there were some pieces that i could not make, but there were quite a few that looked like something i could do (and i think i do a better job). that made me feel great. at some point, i might consider doing the jewelry certification program that they have there.
i signed up for a silver smithing class at the torpedo factory in alexandria. it is going to start in february, i am getting pretty excited about it.

seventyseven: worst blogger. ever.

i think this has been the longest amount of time i have gone without posting since i started this blog over a year ago. as i have vowed in almost all of my recent posting, i will start to update more often! i promise! i have been quite busy though, i moved since my last posting and i have only now been able to take photos of my recent creations. i don't really like these pictures, but i thought i would show what i have been up to recently.
the necklace is below is my favorite of the necklaces i have made. my boss bought some beads for me from new york, i used a lot of them here:
i had two necklaces that i never wore very much, they were long single-strands. i did not take pictures of them before i made the necklace below. i get a ton of compliments on this one when i wear it. i like it a lot. the green, pink, grey, and black make it a really versatile piece.
this is not finished. i can't decide how i feel about it. i go back and forth on whether or not i should finish it.

seventysix: sometimes i fix my mistakes

my sweater is finished. it looks good. can you tell where the hole was?

seventyfive: sometimes i do stupid things

while trying to take pills off of my cardigan with a disposable razor i accidentally cut a hole on the side of my sweater. i love my cardigan, so i have been trying to figure out what to do to fix my stupidity. i have started beading over the hole and on the side in order to cover my repair. i will post pictures once i have finished with it.

seventy four: cork + hot glue = happiness

i keep corks left over from my parents' wild wine nights, i have now saved up several hundred wine corks (over the past couple of years). i am always trying to figure out how i can use the corks as well as the other stuff i have in my crafts room. last week, i decided to cover the inside of a wine box with corks, to make a pseudo cork board for jewelry. it took me a while to cut all the corks and then to glue them, but i think the final product looks pretty good. i didn't like any of the push pins i had available, so i decided to make my own. i grabbed some mismatched beads and some old sewing needles and voila! i can't wait to start using this to keep all my earrings.
i made push pins using needles and leftover beads. i think they look really good. especially in the cork box.

seventythree: time wasters

so, i don't have much new news to report, i have not taken any new pictures, and i have not read/seen anything interesting. since i have very little to share, here are some of the new places i have found to waste my time on the computer:
***mtv's the real world is currently filming in dc. much of the city is against these newcomers, but i am fascinated by them. i think i have a not-so-secret desire to become a member of a future real world house. of course, i might be too old to be one of them. anyway, one of the neighbors of dc's real world house has started a blog: the anti-real world dc.
***spotted: dc summer interns is another great blog. different people contribute stories (most of them hilarious) about the escapades of young interns around town. i don't find the influx of interns in the summer quite as annoying as many of the posters, but i do appreciate their antics.
***for good celebrity gossip and other girly things i love going to the frisky.
***i heart the office and i super heart mindy kaling. she is really funny and has a really clever sense of humor. i wish she updated her blog things i bought that i love more often, but she doesn't.

seventytwo: new pics

seventyone: you shall above all things be glad and young

i love e.e. cummings. here is one of my favorite poems by him:

you shall above all things be glad and young
for if you're young, whatever life you wear

it will become you;and if you are glad
whatever's living will yourself become.
girlboys may nothing more than boygirls need:
i can entirely her only love

whose any mystery makes any man's
flesh put space on;and his mind take off time

that you should ever think,may god forbid
and (in this mercy) your true lover spare:
for that way knowledge lies,the foetal grave
called progress,and negation's dead undoom.

i'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.

-e.e. cummings

seventy: i have too many beads

i have not posted in a while, essentially because i have been busy watching 90210 reruns (that is what i am doing right now). i was never allowed to watch it when i was younger, so now i watch it whenever i get the chance. it is a not-so-guilty pleasure of mine.
earlier today i cleaned up my craft room and assessed my collection of beads. i love my beads and i love getting new ones, but i am beginning to think that i should stay away from purchasing any new beads in the near future. it took me quite a while to get everything properly organized (by color and/or size), but now that they are arranged i like to look at my great organizational accomplishment.

sixtynine: who's watching the watchmen?

i wrote this a while ago, but never got around to posting it:
i have never been much of a comic book fan, in fact, before reading this novel i don't think i have ever read a comic book or even had any interest in reading one. however, after hearing praise for watchmen and noting that it appears in times list of 100 best novels, i decided to give it a try. i enjoyed it for the most part, although it was hard to get into the pace of reading a graphic novel. i often got in the bad habit of reading the dialog and forgetting to look at the pictures, this caused some confusion for me later on. all in all, i am glad i read it, but wouldn't read it again. i do think though, that to truly appreciate this novel you would have to read it several times and actually look closely at the details in the drawings. i am look forward to seeing the movie, when that is released on DVD.

sixtyeight: egghead

sorry i have not posted in a while. i wrote this posting a couple weeks ago and forgot to publish it:
this weekend i made 4 dozen deviled eggs, which means that i made 96 halves (i think my math is correct). my cousin had a graduation party on saturday and i was asked to make up the eggs by my aunt. somehow, among my family members, i have managed to gain a reputation for my deviled eggs. even though, i am fairly certain none of my relatives (with the exception of my grandmother) have ever had my deviled eggs. anyway, i was happy to do it, although i was questioning my decision when i was piping the yolk mixture into the eggs. unfortunately, in all of the excitement, i forgot to take a picture of the 96 finished products. just know, that they looked and tasted delicious!

sixtyseven: vicky christina barcelona

i have started noticing a disturbing trend in modern day films. they do not have plots. or at least they don't have a storyline that keeps the viewer's interest. on friday, i saw vicky christina barcelona. i was interested to see it, as I have heard nothing but good things. i was sorely disappointed. the movie chronicles vicky (rebecca hall) and christina (scarlett johansson) and their summer in barcelona. of course, there is a handsome spaniard involved (javier bardem) and a neurotic ex-girlfriend thrown into the mix (penelope cruz). the problem i had with this movie was the same problem i had with rachel getting married - the characters were less than compelling and the plot was somewhat lacking. of course, both movies had great actors that performed well, i just wish they had put their energy into better films.

sixtysix: i'll be holding all the tickets and you'll be owning all the fines

i am obsessed with bon iver's album for emma, forever ago. obsessed. i have not stopped listening to the album, since i first got it a week ago. according to wikipedia, justin vernon, the band's leader, recorded most of the songs in a remote cabin in wisconsin. he went there after the end of a relationship (i assume that would be with 'emma'?), the break up of his band, and his recovery from mono.
this definitely feels like a breakup album, with most of the songs sounding ghostly and ominious. i don't always understand the meaning behind his lyrics, but i think the overall melody and the layered harmonies are more significant than the words he uses.
i have heard a few songs from his latest release, bloodbank. i think it hits more positive notes than his first album, but still has the same wonderful sound.

skinny love, re: stacks, and blindsided are my favorites. you should check them out.

sixtyfive: bleh

i have not been blogging in a while, instead i have been spending/wasting my time on the internet looking at several different sites:
fmylife - a message board where people write short notes about embarrassing/awkward/hilarious things that have happened to them. with each post you will either cringe or laugh out loud.
missed connections on craiglist - i am not sure why, but i have become obsessed with checking this (i pretty much do so daily).
rooms to rent on craigslist - i am really ready to move and i have given up on waiting for my friends that are looking for jobs. so, i have started looking at prices of rooms and figure out what is out there.
okcupid - i like to read people's 'self summaries'. stop the judging.
slate.com - i love this site. great articles.

sixtyfour: wired

as i mentioned in my previous post, i have become quite interested in wire work. since i am new to working with wire, i have only been doing fairly simple designs, but i think they still look quite sophisticated. i love the color of the copper, i think it gives a little quirkiness to a necklace that would otherwise be a bit too serious. all of the necklaces below are one strand and are fairly long.