First Mondays -- Support Artists!

Cynthia Newcomer Daniel posted a brilliant idea today -- On the first Monday of the month (like today!), treat yourself to something created by an artist. It can be small or large... purchase a single audio track or an original painting, whatever your budget can handle. I think this is a perfect idea because I have a big list of Etsy favorites that I'll purchase "someday." Well, why not make the first Monday that someday?

I'm not sure what I'll buy today. Probably something small because I just supported a couple of artists at the Ren Faire yesterday. Maybe I'll buy some music or an indie book, or a little something for my hair (I always need more hair things).

And of course, if the first Monday doesn't work for you, just honor the spirit. Choose that one day a month where you treat yourself and support the arts. And let me know what you buy so I can oooh and aaah appropriately!

Beading. And Shopping. But not shopping for beads. Yet.

I've spent the first half of this week doing housework. Since I know no one comes to this blog to read about housework, I won't bore you with the details. I'll only say that I was bored with the details. Too much domesticity does not do an artist's mind any good. I kept trying to set time aside for beading, and failing miserably, so last night I put my foot down. I delcared that today would be a day of no housework. It was a day for beading!

True to my word, I picked out beads for a project. I have this shell cameo that I picked up at Michael's on Thanksgiving, and I wanted to bezel it to make a neo-Victorian necklace to go with the steampunk outfit that I want to wear to next Thursday's dinner. I picked out some Delicas and size 15 seed beads and got to work. Of course, the first 15s turned out to be galvanized, and thus I knew they would flake all to heck. Ok, I picked out some Charlottes instead. Those proved to be too light. Then I picked out some other 15s, and they looked nice with the Delicas, but not necessarily with the cameo. I decided to soldier on anyway. Then I realized that the bezel was going to be much too wide for this super-thin cameo, so I scrapped it. Now the cameo is glued down to some felt, I have 4 colors of beads picked out (thus drawing out more of the colors of the shell), and all of the beading that I did this afternoon was for naught. Oh well, I've got plenty of time this evening!

And then there was shopping. Actually, there was shopping throughout the day. While I was working yesterday, I kept thinking about how I really wanted a pair of TotusMel's tatted cuffs to wear to gem show. So today I treated myself to a pair, as a reward for all of my hard work. But while I was logged on to Etsy, I also had to buy some cool carved wooden earrings, and a present for Chris (can't tell you what, because he reads my blog and wants to be surprised, but he can just not click on this link), and then later I had to go back and buy myself a hoodie, because I keep stealing Chris's hoodie that I bought for him as a present. And I had to buy socks, to go with my steampunk outfit (because neither of the two pairs of steampunk socks that I already had would look right).

After dinner, we had to go to Target, for important things like cat food and dog toys, and while there, I had to get pants, because skirts really aren't practical for cold weather or dog training. I got two pairs of practical jean-weight pants, and one pair of dressier navy blue slightly shiny wide leg indescribably cool pants, which probably don't go with anything I own, but I had to have them anyway. Plus we got three plain-colored dress shirts for Chris, so he can wear all of his stylin' pin-striped vests. Oh yeah!

Hey economy, you feeling stimulated yet? Or do I need to go buy more dog toys? (the dogs say: buy more toys!)