do not shrink me gypsy. i wish to look upon your treasures...

if you know me...then come on down! or over!

i seriously have NO idea where all this STUFF came from!
and there is so much i have tossed!!!

has this ever happened to anyone? people. I LIVE IN A SMALL HOUSE.
there is no way all this stuff fit in here with my two mini horses, me, my other
and the occasional dust bunny. plus all the STUFF i use on a daily basis.

i guarantee i have something you'll find worth making your own...

frank rocks!!!

as if i need another reason to love post secret...

challah atma yenta!!!

not to intentionally outdo herself...but. autumn, with copious amounts of toddy, insomnia & music (think white stripes, lcd soundsystem, tori amos & bjork) has indeed outdone herself!!!

i, among many other dedicated followers, cannot wait to get my hands on one of those 150 tote bags!!! (because a girl can never have enough shoes or purses...let alone strange folk totes. haha! try saying that three times fast!)

so...what can you do???
1) mark strange folk on your calendar...preferrably in big, bold letters written in red sharpie.
2) go to www.strangefolkfestival.com and steal a button for your blog/myspace/or other favorite time-wasting spot you frequent
3) get a good night's sleep september 21st
4) eat a hearty breakfast...but make sure to leave plenty o' room for copious amounts of coffee...
5) lace up your best walking shoes. or boots. or wedges. or flip-flops. you get the point. just get some damn shoes on your feet!
6) get your rear(and the rest of ya!) to o'fallon park bright and early! indie crafts come in limited quantities...you wanna make sure to get the best selection!!!
7) peruse the aisles and rows and circles...oh my! of vonderful vendor after vonderful vendor while you wring your wallet in desperate need of clarity of how to best spend your $$$.
8) rinse. repeat. (next year that is...)

and because i can get away with it...don't be a square! come to strange folk!!! :)

my first youtube!!!

a glimpse into my fourth of july. chris and i decided on a cast of 3 cheaply made barbie type dolls. we picked them up at the evil empire of america...walmart.

the video dumbs out for about the last 30 or so seconds. there is a very cool focusing thing that occurs though...

without further adieu...

'free'dom?

as we set out to enjoy the fourth of july festivities, please keep those in mind that are not 'free' to do the same. this is not a post on the war...just a look at the men and women serving our country. regardless of your thoughts on this war, please watch the following videos...and know. that no matter what we think, the soldiers overseas face hardships we will never know. forget about opinions for a minute. just observe the human factor in this. the soldiers...clearing houses. finding rubble of bodies and bricks. no comforts of home to return to at the end of the day. and doing so day after day because "it's an order." how does one return from that to life in america today? how does one live day in, day out, strapped with an assault rifle and several other weapons, in constant fear of their own mortality? and further...how does one assimilate back to life in these united states?

on this day, just take a moment to put your thoughts about the war aside and consider all the men and women separated from their families and friends...the sacrifices made by them. their spouses. children. parents. friends. days like today make this sacrifice harder to stomach. the next time you happen to run into a soldier that has returned home, take a moment to say "welcome home." in my humble opinion, don't thank them. they may not want to be thanked for what they've done...but they will always want to be welcomed home.

the following videos portray two sides. the first shows soldiers on a daily mission. the second...you may have seen by way of mass email forwarding. it was made by a 15 year old girl from columbus, ohio. very poignant. and hate to tell ya, but grab a tissue just in case.

happy fourth of july everyone! be safe!

all good things must come to an end...(or how my marathon tattoo day ended with a trip to the ER)

not my most flattering pose...but you get the idea. closeups coming soon! i'm still too swollen...

stats? wouldn't be a tattoo post without them...drumroll please!

• 4.5 hours (19 hours total)
• $250 work ($1295 total)
• $50 tip ($355 total...although he absolutely insisted i not tip him this time...)
• 1 goshen iced coffee...made with the fabulous toddy system. which by the way, autumn and i now have our hands on our very own toddy each. hehe. oh...back to stats! 1 four cheese, roma tomato, mushroom and rosemary individual pizza baked to perfection in a wood burning oven.
• 6 breaks. 1 break was spent with trevis disassembling his gun to clean out some sneaky yellow ink that threaded up the needle past where it should have...a 20 minute break for freehanding waves and planning the final portion of the tattoo. the other 4 were for him to smoke. by the time we were done, we were both spent!
• 40 miles (320 miles total)
• area worked on: remainder of koi body and tail fin. plus...another segment of water which he freehanded...the final balancing act of the tattoo so to speak
• colors used...blues, greens, white, black, yellows, oranges, reds...

and so how did i end up in the ER? wasn't 4 and a half hours of sitting enough? why would i think to spend 2 or more hours sitting in an ER? well...

anyone familiar with the tattoo process knows that application is sometimes a bitch. i spent the majority of the 19 hours sitting straight up, side saddle on his chair, leaned over to stretch the skin on my back taut. sometimes i would sit cross-legged and lean over the same way. keep in mind all the previous tattoo sessions have lasted no more than 2.5 hours. for the 4+ hours i was under the gun, i was mostly laying flat on my stomach. a portion of the tattoo required me to sit up and lean over. after 10 minutes of my legs hanging over the side, i decided to move into a modified lotus pose. big mistake. huge! i spent a comfortable 45 min to an hour like that. little did i realize that my feet fell fast asleep. i was after all leaned over against them for that amount of time. fast forward to paying, saying goodbye and driving the 20 miles home. sitting yet again...

i pull into the driveway. park. hop out of the vehicle. ouch! i seemed to have a strong, dull pain in my right groin. it hurt worse with every step i took. hm. palpating the area...it felt warm. swollen. a well defined lump. my first thought was DVT. especially after sitting so long. my medical background affords me some luxuries others have difficulty getting over the phone. i consulted with a friend that has plenty of experience with angiograms/pulmonary embolism studies and she thought the symptoms odd. i felt waiting this one out could prove dangerous.

so i headed to the ER. when? at about 2 am. after much mulling and consideration, i decided to put up with long wait times and stage my own ER waiting room germ warfare. no...i am not hiding WMD anywhere. i just popped an airborne! two hours later...i was on my way home. discharge papers in hand and a warm, fuzzy feeling to boot from the wonderful care i received while there. and 2 hours is a ridiculously short ER visit! my diagnosis? i irritated my round ligament. a few days of moist heat, some NSAIDS and 2 stretching exercises and i would be good as new. phew! so much for the small bag i packed for a short hospital stay! :)

self portrait failure

stay tuned! the backpiece is now complete!!! and with twice as many self portrait failed attempts as session #7, i give up. i am headed to the notorious coffeehouse for a bit of saturday night sexual harrasment (you'd have to be there...) and with a little sweet talking (it doesn't take much!!!) i'll get one of the girls to strategically photograph my tattoo so i can spare everyone a full moon! (now you know why i failed the self portrait. say no to crack!!!) hehe!

p.s. i promise to post it within 12 hours. promise.

i never thought i'd see the day

your eyes do not deceive you. that is me. wearing BOTH welt fantastic chevron striped socks knit with sunshine yarns in grapevine. i couldn't be happier to be finished with them! best of all?? it sparked my knitting groove again! now...don't expect me to churn out projects left and right! but, yes...i'm back.

if it weren't for my long arms

in several circles of friends, i am the go to person for group self portraits. either i'm really tall or i like having friends that are shorter. not short. just shorter. hey! i'm almost six foot ok??? that means each one of my arms is about two and a half feet long. but...that's not long enough when i'm making desperate after desperate attempt to self portrait my backpiece. this is what you get... a partially blurred yet quasi decent image of session #7.

stats? here ya goes!!! :)

• 2.5 hours (14.5 hours)
• $125 work ($1045)
• $55 tip ($305)
• 1 bottle fiji water and 1 bottle snapple iced earl grey tea...*swoooooon*
• 1 break for trevis to have a smoke...and again. no peeking!!! (my own rule of course)
• 40 miles (280 miles)
• area worked on: remainder of koi body. he stopped about 12 scales shy of completing the body...and the tail fin remains too!
• colors used: yellow, orange, red, black

trevis continues to amaze me! the tattoo is one or two sessions away from being finished. i'm getting teary-eyed thinking about it! and i would love thoughts or comments on this...but whadya think about me asking him to "sign" it in some fashion? well hidden and small. but something to mark it as his work. is that an odd request? or am i just basking in tattoo afterglow??? ;)

a change is coming...i can feel it.

the lack of posts. well. i can't make excuses. i have time to write. but i don't. and this has left me thinking that my blog needs a makeover. a redirection. more focus. there will be a number of changes you might notice. some more obvious than others. i don't know what direction this is going just yet...i have entertained the idea of a food blog. and even a vinegar blog (don't ask!!! it's a joke really...) my time off from work has afforded me a rare opportunity to realign my focus on my life...and this is an area i would like to shed some of that focus. an avenue for me to be more...me. and all that said, the past year has definitely been a blog focused on me. but this time, i want it to focus more on the internal issues and struggles with some of the more intimate, private catacombs of my world. one of the areas definitely in need of a once over is the title. knitting was and still is a wonderful, relaxing escape. however...i find myself not wanting to do it right now. and i assume that's pretty normal. i only learned to knit two years ago. i just don't feel very dedicated to fiber right now. and i don't feel having a blog named "random acts of knitness" denotes that i'm an avid knitter...but it does make it sound like i knit. and i haven't. yet...i'm still toting that damn second sock around...painfully working a row or two here and there. just call me linus. and that damn sock is my blanket. anyway...the ideas are brewing. i just need a little more time to decide on logistics and technicalities. any suggestions???