NY Bead Purchases

As you can see, I did a lot less bead shopping in NY this year than in previous years. I have an excess of beads waiting to be put away right now, so I didn't feel like making the problem too much worse. I only purchased things that caught my eye.

There's a strand of imported lampwork that reminded me of trade beads, some neat flowers that look almost like gears, some really cool faceted drop beads, some apatite (the strand was longer, i already used some. I'll post the necklace on Wednesday), a filigree stamping I liked, and two pretty strands of freshwater pearls.

The drops will definitely be part of my Wings of the Morrigan collar, which I'll have to start soon if I want to have it done in time to wear it to the February gem show.

Colorful Bellydancers

Chris snapped this picture for me at the NY Renaissance Faire. I'm posing with one of the two belly dancers, though I regret to say that I forgot her name. She had a great gypsy persona and I think that her aqua and purple costume really suits her.

I'm pretty sure she was doing gypsy-style belly dance as well, though I'm not very good at identifying the various styles of dance. There were some hand movements that were very different from anything I've seen in tribal or Egyptian, including bringing her fists together and making a chopping motion up her arm -- they really weren't as violent as I made them sound, just very energetic.

As for me, I'm wearing a very orange skirt. When I purchased that Gahwazee vest, I decided that I really needed to wear it with colors other than green -- the orange and yellow paisley pattern gave me a good opportunity to branch out a bit. The orange skirt was a lucky $5 find, and while it's not full and floofy like a good tribal skirt, it did easily fit in my suitcase ;)

Back from vacation

I know, I know, I didn't even tell you guys I was leaving! I've decided to be a little more cautious about sharing too many details of my personal life on my blog, since it is open for the public and has my full name and whatnot on it. So from now on, you probably won't hear about my vacations until after the fact.

I had planned to be tricky and pre-schedule a few posts ahead of time, so my blog wouldn't be silent for weeks, but preparing for my trip just took way too much of my time!

And where, pray tell, did I go? Well, of course we spent a week in NY with my mother-in-law and that half of Chris's family. We went up to Sterling Forest for the Renaissance Faire, visited an arboretum (not The Planting Fields, a smaller one that we found on accident while looking for something else), took a ferry to and from Fire Island, and went on a pizza tour of NYC. Among other things. There was a little bead shopping as well! I'll share pictures later this week.

After that, we spent five days in Aruba with members of the other side of Chris's family. It was our first time traveling abroad (well, Chris has been up to Canada, but before you needed a passport to cross the border), so it was a new and exciting experience for both of us. Most of our time was spent on the beach, and painfully white girl that I am, most of MY time was spent under a chickee (giant umbrella made of palm fronds) slathered in SPF100 in a failed attempt to avoid sunburn. We also visited a butterfly farm while we were there, which was all sorts of awesome. Unfortunately, my camera did not like the extreme humidity there, so the only pictures we have were taken by Chris's iPhone. I'll also be sharing those.

Now that I'm back home, it's time to get the house in order, get back to the gym, get back into dancing, and prepare for the September Best Bead Show this coming weekend!

New York Ren Faire

Here's a picture of me vamping it up a bit at the NY Renaissance Faire in Tuxedo, NY. If I look just a little rumpled, it's because this pic was taken at the end of the day and that top sash had taken several dives into the muddy ground, including one where I thought I'd lost it for good. Luckily a vendor saw it in the path and hung it on her booth, and we walked by and saw it.

My costume is pleasantly cobbled together from items that I brought from home and items that I bought while in NY. Oh yes, and I'm wearing elf ears! I wasn't going to get them, since I don't do faerie costuming as much any more, but everyone thought that I should try them on and they looked perfect on me, so my MIL gifted me with a pair. She also bought a pair for herself, to go with the horns she bought last year. She looked so cute with her elven ears! The vendor even poked a hole in them for her cartilage piercing, making them look even more natural.

Over all, the Faire was muddy but awesome. There was an incredibly light misty rain off and on throughout the day, but otherwise the weather was perfect. Neither too hot nor too cold for my costume, and the clouds kept me from adding to my collection of sunburns. I was a bit disappointed that I had to layer my white choli over my green tie-dye top, but I think it looked OK.

The nice thing was that my brother-in-law Pete and his girlfriend Lisa were able to join us for the day. We wouldn't have been able to see them otherwise, as Pete is going to school a couple of hours away from home.

We caught quite a few shows throughout the day. I was excited to see that Wolgemut was performing that weekend, as I'd heard good things about their music but hadn't yet picked up any CDs. We spent a few minutes watching an impromptu jam session with them and another musician (one of the guys from Karpathos, I think), in an attempt to earn some free beer, and then we caught their 4pm show. Unfortunately, in the middle of their second song, their bagpipers pipe broke, a victim to the humidity. It was repairable, but not immediately so, so they apologized profusely and said they'd only be able to play one more song, which didn't involve the bagpipes. Then they said that everyone should clap along or dance, and of course, I chose the latter option. I was the only one who did so, and then to my utter amazement, they waved me up onto the stage.

So, without any warming up or preparation or anything, I improv-ed a dance to the song, using only a few moves because almost everything else that I knew totally fled my mind -- ha ha. But it was awesome! Possibly the coolest thing that has happened to me so far this year. After the song, they thanked me for my dancing, and Chris and his family told me how cool they thought it was, and of course, we bought CDs to make up for only getting a few minutes of music.

I was also able to get my shimmy on with the belly dancers later, when one of them caught me bouncing my hips along to the last song and pulled me out (they'd been pulling girls in throughout the show, but I was standing in the back avoiding notice... he he). It was a lot of fun, even if we were dancing in a muddy, grassy field (they were dancing in golashes!).

Anyway, my luggage finally arrived earlier (hence my ability to pull pictures off of my camera), so I should really go do some laundry and put away all of my purchases, so I can get the suitcases out of the living room.

Home tomorrow

Today was utterly and completely awesome -- except the parts where we drove through New Jersey -- but I just spent the past 1 1/2 hours packing, and I have to be up in 5 hours to fly home, so you'll have to wait to hear about it.

Not a quiet day

Despite not having any major plans, I still managed to be occupied for most of the day. I'm going to have to wait and post about my adventures after I get back, at this rate.

Tonight we went to an Afghani restaurant and there was an amazing belly dancer who gave two performances with a variety of props, including wings of Isis and a veil fan.

Earlier in the day, we saw District 9, which I thought was good but needlessly gory. That doesn't always bother me, but today I was feeling overly sensitive to such things.

I am once again overly tired, and I have to get up early tomorrow to go to Ren Faire, where it will hopefully not be raining as much as it has been all day.

So tired, but I need to blog!

Damn my commitment to daily blog posts! I spent well over 10 hours in NYC today, 12 hours if you count the time on the train to get there and back. There was a lot of walking involved, and my feet are tired. Actually, scratch that, all of me is tired.

My stupid camera batteries died as soon as I turned my camera on, but luckily Chris's phone has a good camera and he got some nice shots. I'll share at least one in tomorrow's post... and I'll buy decent batteries before we go to the Ren Faire. Those rechargeable hybrids may be great for the environment, but they're lousy for my camera.

Anyway, everything today was awesome and I'll make a full trip report tomorrow, when I should hopefully have some down time to rest my poor tired feet and catch up on internet stuff.

Cthulhu hitches a ride.

Cthulhu hitched a ride in my purse today, accompanying me on a trip to Long Beach to meet a friend. It's hard to tell in this pictue, but I've finished the top of his head, finally. I didn't get a chance to work on him during my flight out, due to the tight space in the airplane, but I've stolen a few minutes here and there to work on him.

However, Cthulhu didn't get to come bead shopping with me today, because I didn't trust him not to escape my purse and wreak untold havoc on the sanity of the bead store employees.

We went to three stores today. Wherefore Art Thou, a small shop where I found nothing to buy, my usual standby of Ace Handicraft, where I bought a bunch of key pendants, some vintage beads, and a couple of neat focals, and Beads and Stitches, where I found some matte pearl Czech glass and other neat things.

Tomorrow we're off to NYC for shopping, site-seeing and Wicked!

The sun, it burns!

No pictures today, because I forgot my camera and Chris isn't here right now.

We went to the Nassau County Art Museum, except not really. We actually went to a museum on their grounds dedicated to miniatures, where they were having a rather disappointing Alice in Wonderland themed exhibit. Then we ate a picnic in their grassy field, visited their guest shop (where I got an awesome painted and embroidered scarf), and walked down one of their nature trails.

Once again, despite sunscreen, I managed to burn. It isn't a bad burn, doesn't hurt, but I don't like being red in the face. I fear it may be time to join the ranks of the hat-wearers, even though it drives me crazy to have a brim obstructing my view. I suspect that skin cancer would drive me even more crazy.

Also, we went to Utopia, the goth/hippie shop that we always visit. I almost bought myself a corset, but instead I just bought two faerie tanktops which were on clearance sale, and four packages of new scents of my favorite brand of incense.

Anyway, time to iron the things that got wrinkled in my suitcase.

A day in the garden

I arrived safely in NY last night, and am just now sitting down with a computer. My day of travel was a little harrowing, but I got in just a little behind schedule.

The picture above is one that Chris took on his phone, of some pretty orange mushrooms that we saw on a nature trail at the Planting Fields Arboretum, where we spent our afternoon. It was a lovely day: warm, a little humid, a mix of sun and clouds. We picnicked in the shade, read, and explored the grounds. All in all, very enjoyable.

Now I'm quite tired, after a day of walking and sunshine, and a very large dinner, so I'm going to veg out for a little until bed.

In the air, hopefully

Because I will probably be too tired today to blog after I land in NY, I am pre-writing this post and scheduling it to show up while I'm either in a plane or in an airport. I'll be spending at least 11 hours of my day tomorrow in planes and airports, and that's assuming they actually give me a seat in Atlanta, which they're trying not to do.

So check in Monday for the harrowing details of my two-layover trip from AZ to NY via GA and VA!

Too much to do!

Hello, internet. I'm so busy right now that I don't even have time to edit a cute puppy picture for this post. Despite getting up hours earlier than I normally do, I'm still behind on all I wanted to do today, and it's less than two hours before I have to take the dogs to the kennel. So I hope you'll forgive me if I'm not too chatty.

I'll be trying to keep up my daily blog schedule while I'm in NY, and this time I remembered to pack my camera, so there should be pictures, too!

Happy Daisy Dog!

I decided that since I took a bunch of pictures of the dogs, I'll use them on posts where I don't have any new Cthulhu or other bead-related pictures. So here's Daisy, being cute and happy. For some reason, she puts her ears back when she's happy. I think it makes her look kind of like a seal. This picture was taken between her bouncing up and down excitedly on the couch trying to get me to pet her (which I did) before running over to the other end of the couch to wrestle with Maggie.

Today I had another workout, and I got more advice on how to deal with my ridiculously short Achilles tendons, and I lifted 25lb bars, and I jumped around a lot, and I rowed 500m. Actually, I did that first, but whatever. I don't go back to the gym until the Tuesday after I get back from NY. I will get plenty of exercise while I'm gone though, as I'll spend at least one day walking around NYC and one day walking around a Ren Faire, and I'll probably dance a bit, and practice my squats. I will not be sedentary, that is for sure.

Busy, busy month!

Even though I'm very busy this month, I'd be more than happy to make you a Custom Crystal Bracelet, which is why they're today's Daily Special!

I guess I must have been bored, because suddenly I have a lot going on in my life. Not only do I have dance class, learning to drive, and beaded Cthulhu to work on, but next week I'm going to start going to my husband's gym, and a couple of weeks after that, I'm off for a week in NY.

The gym is partially because Chris has been nagging me to try it, and mostly because I would like better strength and stamina for dancing. My arms especially tend to get tired really fast, and I know it will be even worse if I'm trying to work with props, especially heavy ones like my sword or my fire fans. Plus, of course, more muscle tone will make me look better in my coin bra ;)

As for NY, it's my annual visit to my in-laws, and I will be putting my Etsy shop into Vacation mode during that time. I haven't decided if I'll take any of my jewelry along to NY. I usually do, because my mother-in-law likes to shop in person -- but tighter luggage restrictions mean I may have to leave my jewelry case at home in order to have enough luggage space left to bring home whatever I buy in NY. That said, if there's something you've had your eye on, you should probably buy it now just in case I take it to NY and sell it.

Anyway, right now it's back to housework and Cthulhu for me!

Caught up on an idea...

Any of you out there who are also creative types (and I have a feeling that's most of my readers!) have probably come across the same problem I'm having right now. You see, I have this nice idea for a necklace, using one of the pendants I bought at the bead show this past weekend. The only problem is, I need a specific shade of orange seed bead, and I don't have it! I can see it in my mind, and I somehow convinced myself that I do own it, but I've checked, and I don't. I tried an orange that I do have, and to be honest, it looked awful. So I'm stuck, unable to act upon this inspiration until the next time I order seed beads.

The problem is, now that I've been denied the chance to fulfill this inspiration, I'm totally caught up on the idea. The necklace is what I must make. And it's not like it's even the best idea that I've ever had, I'm just being stubborn. All the beads I have, all the techniques at my disposal, and yet I can't move past this one silly idea. Hopefully I'll get past it tomorrow, otherwise I won't be able to take something to work on during the game tomorrow.

Since beads are frustrating me, I've been working on my book tonight. Book 4 is plodding along slowly, because I'm not quite sure what I'm doing with it, I just missed my characters. It is going to be a fun experience to write about NY, though, drawing upon all my visits there and my feelings about the place. I just wish I had an excuse to send my characters to The Planting Fields; now that was a magical place. Just this week we received a package from my MIL with pictures from the trip, including one of Chris and I standing on a rock with a copse of trees behind us. Sure wish we'd taken a picture of the gateway to the faerie realm, though. Maybe Chris has one on his phone. Next time I'm bringing my camera, darn it.

Back to the book for me. I'm going to take pictures tomorrow before the game, or sometime Sunday afternoon, if I'm not at a party all day.

Home again, home again

I'm back in Arizona! My last few days in NY were far too busy for me to find any time to blog, and my first two days home were far too sick for me to find energy for anything other than sleep and Dr. Who. I'd felt this sickness coming for days, and although it's annoying to be under the weather when I should be unpacking and getting back into the daily grind, I'm glad that I managed to stave it off until I left NY. I wouldn't have wanted to miss out on all the fun, and the time with my in-laws. Oh, and the delicious food. Mmmm, Exotic Mango Chicken.

On Thursday, we went into New York City. I simply love NYC. Yeah, it's crowded, and dirty, and some parts of it smell funny, but it's still an awesome city. I love window shopping. I love people watching. I love looking at all the cool old buildings, with their frescos and other architectural niftiness. I love glancing at the menus of the restaurants I pass by, knowing that I'll never, ever eat there. Oh, and I love Chinatown, which was our main destination for the day.

In all fairness, I most disclose a certain amount of hypocrisy. Chris's stepfather didn't want to go spend all day shopping with us in NYC, but he did have breakfast with us before we left. There was a TV in the diner playing news about the toy recall, so naturally our conversation turned towards China and its business practices. We complained about poor quality control, bad employee treatment, how they're driving other countries' industries under, and how our country blithely goes along with it... and then we took off to Chinatown, where we purchased cheap goods from China... *sigh* Well, ok, a lot of what I bought actually came from Japan, but I am still a freakin' hypocrite.

My problem, of course, is that I want to like China. I enjoy learning Mandarin. I love Chinese food (and while I realize it's highly Americanized, the inspiration had to come from somewhere, right?). I'm a martial arts movie junkie. Etc etc. It's hard to accept that all of these things that I enjoy come from a country whose policies and actions I can't really support.

Moral quandaries aside, I really did have a good time in the city. It was a pretty nice day, with just a little rain, so we walked the entire way from Penn Station to the store we love, Pearl River. I'm not sure exactly how far we walked, but I believe it was something like a zillion blocks. In fact, the only way I can justify all the food that I eat while I'm in NY is by pointing out how much I walk while I'm in NY! Anyway, Pearl River is the only place we shop in Chinatown, because it's the only place we need to shop. They seriously have everything there. Clothes, food, dishes, knick-knacks, musical instruments, furnishings, housewares, everything. And not just imports from China, but also a lot of stuff from Japan, and maybe a couple of other Asian countries. All of this is held in a clean, bright, well-organized store. We must have spent a couple of hours there, getting things for ourselves and presents for our friends.

All that walking and shopping built up some hearty appetites, so we made our way over to Singapore Cafe. If you read last year's NY trip report, you'll remember that we absolutely loved that place. It was just as good this year. Delicious food, food service, and incredibly fast for a sit-down dinner. If you go there, definitely get the lemonade iced tea to drink! It is delicious and refreshing.

After dinner, it was time to make our way towards the theater for the Blue Man Group show. We arrived there with over an hour to spare, so we went around the block to Barnes and Noble, where Chris and I picked up some reading material for the flight home, and I also got a cute plush dragon, made out of that soft chenille fur. We got done right in time for the show. I really enjoy Blue Man Group's music, so I kind of wish that the show had been more music and less... stuff, but it was still a lot of fun. By the time the show was done, we were all tired enough to take the subway back to Penn Station, then we took the train back to Long Island and were home somewhere close to midnight.

Well, this post is getting way too long, so let's do a quick rundown of other things I did while in NY: We saw my sister-in-law's band, The Good Luck Affair, play at a local club. I don't have the exact URL, but you can find them on Myspace. They're a rock kind of band, but Grace plays violin, cello, and sax on some songs, which changes things up a bit. We walked the Brooklyn Bridge, which was kind of cool, except I was exhausted so I kept wondering if I could close my eyes and walk on auto-pilot. We went into Little Italy and ate delicious dessert. Coincidentally, we were in Brooklyn right when the fire at the Deutsche Bank fire started, so we saw a lot of fire trucks going by. Luckily we were not anywhere near the fire itself.

In a way, I'm glad to be back home, with my kitties, and my beads at hand, and my friends nearby, and the ability to just laze around in quiet... But I also can't help but miss NY, with all of the fun things to do, the great people to do them with, and the delicious food to eat when we're done.

Close to Nature...

I am so tired tonight! Today we went to The Planting Fields, which is an old estate from the early 20th century. The grounds are full of lawns, trees, and gardens of all sorts, not to mention greenhouses. All the buildings were closed while we were there, but that's ok -- as much as I wanted to see the inside of the Tudor-style mansion, the outdoors were amazing. I love to walk beneath the shade of the trees, admire all sorts of plants that we never see in the desert, and watch huge butterflies flit from flower to flower.

There were many cool moments which I'm simply too sleepy to describe right now. Suffice it to say that I found myself feeling very inspired (it's a shame that my book doesn't really take place in a natural setting, but at least I can use the inspiration for leafy jewelry!), and we've vowed to dedicate an entire day to the place next visit.

That said, I'm going to sleep now. We're going into NYC tomorrow and I need my energy for that!

Another day in NY...

It's funny, but I seem to blog more when I'm on vacation than when I'm home. I guess it's because there's less to distract me. I'm not on AIM (though I could be), I don't have most of my bookmarks, I hate playing video games on the laptop, and I only have a limited selection of beads and books to distract me. When people are home, I tend to be off the computer socializing, but when I'm alone, it's easy to grab a few minutes and post.

Of course, it also helps that I'm doing more of interest than I do at home...

Yesterday and today have been pretty peaceful. Yesterday we went to the store that my brother-in-law works at and ate some pizza from the great place two doors down. The funny thing is that they're in two different towns. I guess that at some point on that walk, I was standing in two different towns. Maybe the little street between them is the border? Anyway, although I'm generally not a fan of NY pizza (having lived out West my entire life), this place makes a delicious Sicilian, and their garlic knots are to die for. After dinner, we went to The Simpsons Movie, which was just as silly and pointless as we expected it to be. The theatre we saw it at was disgusting, though, and I doubt any of us will ever go back there. They hadn't even cleaned it before our showing -- there were still cups in the holders at a couple of seats!

Today we haven't done anything yet. Chris is out doing errands with his mother, whereas I decided to stay home and get a little beading done. I've made two of the crystal bracelets that I packed beads for, and I think I'll start the spiral necklace. We're going out for dinner tonight, though -- kebabs, I think. Mmmm. I love Middle Eastern food, and it's not too common in Tucson.

Back to the beads I go!

Site status and more NY fun.

First things first: my web host package is still active, it was just my domain name that was down. I've just paid to renew it, but since they're not open on the weekend, it probably won't be processed until tomorrow. Hopefully they'll be quick about it, I always hate having my site down!

In more pleasant news, I'm still having a great time in NY. On Friday we went to Ace Handicraft, where I got some more great beads. They always have the coolest glass! In addition to glass beads, I picked up some carved horn, an almost dzi-style pendant, and a carved stone knotwork pendant. Chris also got a few clasps for his maille bracelets. The people working there were as nice and friendly as ever, and really admired Chris's work (the conundrum weave bracelet that he always wears has garnered a lot of attention so far this trip).

Yesterday we went to a Renaissance Faire in upstate NY. We didn't know about it until we got out here, but luckily I had packed some dance clothes, so between that and what I bought at the Indian import store, I was able to cobble together a decent costume which was appropriate for the 80 degree weather. Chris had no such luck, but he's not as obsessed with such things as I am anyway.

We had a really fun day... Little traffic on the drive, and there was a lot of beautiful scenery along the way. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny with a little breeze to keep it pleasant. The Faire itself wasn't quite as large as the one in Arizona, but it was still big enough to keep us entertained until almost closing time! Several of the vendors and at least one performer also do the AZ faire, but mostly it was different shows and shops. It was held in a forested area, which was so wonderful, a lot more appropriate than our desert setting, and also less dusty! Our faire is always either dusty or muddy.

One of the performances we saw was Dextre Tripp, who also performs at the AZ Faire. We love his show and had to share it with my mother-and-law, who really enjoyed it. We also saw some belly dancers (not as good as Syrene from AZ), a band called Karpathios, a pretty cheezy illusion show (the tricks were nice, but the spiel was lame), and a kind of cool knife throwing and whip trick show.

Shopping was great. I love shopping at these events, but after 9 years at the AZ faire with some of the vendors never changing their wares, it's not as exciting as it used to be. Seeing all these new-to-me vendors was a ton of fun. There were different weapons, different musical instruments for Chris to admire, and lots of different clothes for me to drool over. Plus various artwork and jewelry. The artwork was great, the jewelry not so much. I ended up with an amazing two-layer handkerchief hem skirt of hand-dyed silk, and a matching top of hand-dyed silk and hand-dyed handmade felt. It's simply gorgeous, with a flowing, faerie-like look and feel to it. I can't wait to dance in it. Chris got a blue-glazed porcelain ocarina and a cool woven African hat with an Asian look. He wanted to get one at our faire, but they were all sold out, so he was really happy to find one out here.

There were a lot of people out in costume yesterday, even several wearing full armor. It was also nice to see entire families dressed up. Oh, and there was one cool guy in a 17th century courtier outfit, very nicely put together. He was at the hand-dyed silk booth at the same time as me, so I overheard part of his conversation with the gals there about his costuming. I didn't catch any details, but his enthusiasm was apparent. It was cool to see something a little different from the usual medieval-style and fantasy/gothic costumes that are so prevalent at faires -- not that I mind those at all, it's what I usually wear!

I'm hoping to maybe even be able to swing a visit to that faire every year that we're out here, since it spans the time that we tend to visit. Only going to ours once a year is just not enough!

Well, I've babbled on enough. After I clean out my purse and find all the business cards, I'll share links to some of the vendors we bought from or admired.

It's raining on my parade!

We hit Long Island yesterday, and almost immediately set out for some bead shopping. I revisited Bead Market in Farmingdale, where I once again went wild on vintage. They had so many cool things that I just couldn't resist. I can't wait to get home and design with them!

Next we hit Beads and Stitches, which my mother-in-law thought was new, but I know that I have some beads at home with their label on it, so I think they'd just moved to a new spot. It was a pretty nice spot, in an older house. Very spacious, well-lit, and what looked like a pretty nice class room area. I was initially excited to see that they still had a good assortment of seed beads, but I ended up being enticed by their stone beads! I got some sardonyx, some wood or maybe petrified wood, some sort of purple stone, and also some glass briolettes. You may have noticed that I don't normally use stone beads, but these really spoke to me for my Fall line. It should be fun to see what I can create with them.

After that we took a quick trip to a nearby mall which had an Indian import store, which means lots of belly dance clothes! I got all kinds of cute skirts and tops that can be worn for dancing, Ren Faires, or just looking great. I was all excited to be able to wear some today, because yesterday was beautiful so naturally I imagined that today would be, too! Oh, how disappointed I was to wake up to cold, rainy skies! I'm going to have to wear pants, or at least a heavy skirt.

Today we're planning to hit Ace Handicraft, my favorite Long Island bead stop. I'll post about that trip this weekend.