Flickr

well, i've just spent a couple of hours reading a rambling of various posts about Etsy shop tips, pimping my shop, promoting my shop, and photographing my wares. it has been ages since i joined the now-infamous flickr, and way back when you could have only a handful of photos without paying for the pimped version. so i didnt really bother. now, however, i have learned the woes of my ways and am jumping back in.

i updated my flickr account with the photos available on my laptop. given the fact that few photos are on my little wand i couldnt put in much. someday soon i will add additional photos of randomness, but seeing as how it is very cold in the room where my desktop is.. it will be a day not like this one.

so for now, here is the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sullenmonarch/

i've also added it to my facebook, which can be found here: Facebook me!

the sweet spot

so i'm sucker for any song with some sort of ba-da-ba or la-la-la or do-dee-da... or anything of the sort. my new addctions:

blue or gray by jaymay

panda much?

what started out as a little joke has now defined our lives. when we were just dating, i was driving him home during rush hour one day, stop and go, stop and go... we passed a Panda Express, and in his i've-had-three-red-bulls-in-the-last-20-minutes crazy state, he broke into angry chinaman voice and started ranting about us 'round-eye' always trying to eat panda. .. at the moment, it was hilarious, and i laughed so hard i had tears rolling down my cheeks and was mostly unable to drive.

by far, his angry chinaman voice is my favorite, and has continued to make me laugh throughout these last couple of years. we've enjoyed it so much, in fact, that we've started collecting little panda bits here and there, and he even plans to make his next tattoo some sort of panda. i found panda glasses for the kitchen, panda picture frames, t-shirts, and plush toys. "who's my panda?" "you're my panda" "love panda" .. well, you get the idea!

a few weekends ago, we found the ultimate panda - a real one. well, we didnt 'find' it per se, it was at the zoo, but we got to watch it for a while, take some pictures..

and now i'm obsessed with panda art. i've decided that i want to begin a small collection to support a few of my favorite things: pandas, my love, and handmade art.

so i've found a dozen or so panda art pieces on Etsy that I'm in love with, and think would make a wonderful wall of our home. and being so close to christmas and my birthday, i've so innocently and in no way intending to hint-hint, posted a few of them here :)

Panda Ball by blandysnorhal

Panda Girl by atwhim

Becky by aurelia27

Cheeky Panda by moonkooki

This is, by far, a short list, but you can find all of the prints I've hearted in my favorites on Etsy. (wink wink nudge nudge)

A few of them are ACEO's and I think this is a great way to start an ACEO collection. I have one, non-panda related, and would love to purchase more. ACEO's are like artist trading cards. Artist make small little cards (multimedia, prints of their original work, something off-the-wall), something to define them. sort of like a baseball card for artists. They are small, approx 2.5x3.5 and are an inexpensive way to collect original art by artists around the world.

find more at Etsy.com, just search for 'ACEO'

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

so lemme tell ya about my day...

The Plan:

Wake up early. Drink coffee. Get dressed.

Go to school. Make an appt for new student orientation. Visit the job center.

Go to Otay Ranch Town and Country and put in some applications.

Go to Plaza Bonita and put in some applications.

Go to Horton Plaza and put in some applications.

Go home. Finish candles. Make dinner. Eat garlic bread. Watch a movie with the hubbs and then go to bed, feeling accomplished and warm.

What really happened:

Woke up to the biscuit calling my name, lifting my head only to bash him in the nose as he was leaning down to kiss me goodbye, and sent him to school cussing.

Lay in bed for what felt like ten minutes, staring at the ceiling, getting my head straight, only to realize it had really been an hour and already I was behind schedule.

Get up to near-horizontal rain and wind that looked like it would break the trees outside.

Decide not to go to Horton Plaza or Town and Country because they are outdoor shopping centers. F that. Its cold.

Decide to call the school to make an appt instead of trying to rush there in the rain, but have to wait to 8am.

Check email... Oh shit, its 815am. Behind schedule again.

Call the school, make an appt for today at 1pm. Sweet! i dont have to leave, and i'm not going to 2 of the plazas, so I can take my time and leave at 1130 (early enough to leave plenty of time to drive slow in the rain and still make my appt by 1pm, go me for planning ahead!) I can then go to Plaza Bonita after school then finish the day as planned.

Get dressed. Put on make-up, feel good.

Check a billion websites and gather a bunch of interesting job postings from the SWC job center site so I have an idea what to talk about when I get to school. Get really frustrated because most of these jobs are for security guards or require you to be bilingual... Oh shit.. its 1140 and I havnt eaten anything. Behind schedule again.

Gather up all my paperwork for registration, organize my purse and find a bracelet I thought I had lost.

Get to the bottom of the stairs only to realize the dog has shit on the floor for the third time this week. Argh! WTF is her problem this week?! Clean it up and rush to the kitchen to make breakfast.

Bustle to warm up a cup of coffee, make a bagel and gather my coat, hat, scarf, etc and get ready to go. Its noon and I am going to be SO late.

Head to the stairs to head down into the garage, take a big step, miss my footing and fall down. Hands full, unable to catch myself, I spill coffee all over my coat and pants and land right on my ass four steps down, losing the breath in my chest and jarring my spine. My neck and back are throbbing. My jaw is now throbbing. Ok, still have my bagel, didnt drop my coffee. Cat get away from me!

Stand up. Slowly. Cant cancel, have to register for school.. Gather most of the things I did drop and head to the garage. Open the car door and toss things inside. Slowly walk back to the stairs to get the rest of the things I dropped. Open the door and goddammit cat get back inside! Chase Ellis behind the dryer. Yell at the top of my lungs. Throw the cat back inside. Toss the rest of the things into my car.

Insert key. zzzzzziiiiiiiiiiipppppppp. try again. zzzzzzzzzzziiiiiiiiiiippppppppppp. a third time. zzzzzzzzzziiiiiiiiiiipppppppppppp. car wont start. it somehow thinks its the pit crew at nascar and is making that tire-changing-sound.

grab purse and coffee and half eaten bagel. go back inside. yell at cat. call school to reschedule. send message to hubbs about car. phone fail. dammit i am not in mexico, let my f'ing signal go thru! stand nose-to-glass in front of the door and try again once i get a wittle itty bitty bar of service.

go upstairs. call mom. vent. hubbs calls. vent. cry. spend the next two hours searching for warranty information and service records, and the internet to find possible causes of pitcrew sound.

spend 45 minutes arguing with insurance guy. totally unrelated to the car, by the way.

search for more jobs.

then hubbs comes home. the sight of him makes me cry, though not his fault of course, and he hugs me and shakes a brand new fat plush panda in my face. then he takes me to change my battery. buys me dinner, including root beer and a cookie. and fixes my car.

biscuit love makes the day all better. sweetest guy ever.

we'll try again tomorrow :)

catch up...

well thanksgiving was very nice. we went to Sacramento and spent a few days with the hubb's clan. first time meeting everyone but his parents, and it was a lot of fun. big family with a contagious trend of three children each, we all had a good time. a lovely dinner, a talent show for the kids, and then Friday was followed up with a day in Old Sacramento shopping and another family dinner. the mole was excellent and we played games and had a good time. traffic home was not as horrid as it was on the way there, and the dog was filthy and exhausted when we picked her up which meant she had a good time too. she finally made some friends.

the last couple of weeks have been spent making candles and doing random bits around the house. i attended an orientation for a military spouse program and am getting funding for school for the next two years. which means i am going back to school full time and am now trying to find a part-time job. again, this is proving to be difficult. i put in several applications at the mall on Tuesday and plan to go to Horton plaza sometime soon. i am 'this close' to going to McDonald's and that scares me.


here's some pics from the holidays.


I wasn't expecting that...



Jon-Marks 'official' invitation to participate in the talent show with his 8yr old cousin.


The hubbs wrangling some kids.



Old Sacramento.

11/24/08

we witnessed the most spectacular sunset last night

was lucky enough to find a boarding facility for grainne for thanksgiving and i am super excited that she will get to play with other dogs. she doesnt seem to care.

new new new

new pics added to snapfish... see link in older post

new items added to new etsy shop.. check em out here

new id card this morning with my grover scarf and a stupid half smile makes me look like a marshmellow.

cold and cloudy today. preparing for rain. my feet have been numb all day. gonna be hella cold in sacramento this thanksgiving. not sure if I'm looking forward to that.

the dog is asleep.

a jet flew over a bit ago from the base nearby (in imperial beach - the air station) and holy cow it made the whole neighborhood shake. crazy feeling. like an earthquake that originated in the sky.

so far i've spent all day working on my shop. still have a ton of things to list. not sure i should wait until tomorrow.. cross your fingers and send me some good sales-vibes. :)

what a fine line.

tis almost the end of week four. i cannot believe i have been here so long already. next week is thanksgiving. unbelievable.

still... no job. no leads. no interviews. i'm getting a bit down about it really.

17 days without a cigarette. not so hard. no job, no one to take smoke breaks with.

azreal fell off the balcony the other night. we didnt even know he had gotten outside. just heard a cat screaming, looked outside, and there he was, on the ground, low to the grass with his ears flat and his eyes large and wild. i had to go downstairs (which also means around the whole the building) to get him and carry him back up.

we can see and hear navy seal training from here. sounded like world war three, yet no one was screaming. could see the flares and smoke and everything. really bizarre.

gizmo is getting depressed, i think. since petrie is gone, he hardly swims around anymore. just hangs out in the same spot at the back of the tank.

grainne is good. she got a little overzealous with her toy the other night and somehow got her leg stuck under the ottoman (that we currently use as a coffee table) when she tried to roll over and lifted up one end of the ottoman, sending our drinks to the floor. we kinda laughed but gave her the 'awe..grainne..' sort of sigh. she ran to her box, but didnt quite know if she was in trouble or not, so she stood there, half in and half out... looking at us through the window with her bum hanging out the door waiting for a conviction.

trying to make the best of this situation. its giving me a lot of time at home, but i seem to be incapable of getting anything done. i cant really work on my candle shop because i am out of wax, and without a job cant justify investing $200 into an order. (wax has gone way up with the gas price inflation this year. hoping it will come down really soon...) working on some other things but glass is proving very hard to photograph. saw a woman reccomend that you spray your items with hairspray first so they are not so reflective... gonna give that one a try today i believe.

in fact i should do that now. and i may give in and buy wax too. dont have the money to invest, but cant use it to make money if i dont invest in it.. here's to hoping that shop takes off and i can work from home making candles every day. that would be a dream come true.

beach dog, take 2

we took Grainne to the beach again saturday morning... oh how funny. she has decided that she doesnt like the edge of the water lapping up onto her feet. she either runs away from it, or jumps over the foamy edge. apparently its not the water she fears, for some reason just the approaching edge of it.


she loves seaweed. It was high tide this weekend, and there were gobs of it washed up all over the beaches. at any given chance she ran right into them:





I cant even begin to tell you how much I love these next two pictures. (for the record, I think I caught her in the middle of a sneeze, she really was not trying to eat me.. hmmm.. "I can haz fotografer?"..haha)



spending the day getting things sorted. trying once and for all to set up a functional craft space. spent a ton of time listing items in my new shop CurioBoudoir.etsy.com .. check it out :)

sunset

we walked along the beach right in front of our place. it was foggy. first pic without flash, second pic with flash - looks like two different days. took some pics and a little video:





stupid video wont load. i'll try again tomorrow..