Pigs n' Space

Orange & black all over SF

2010-12-01T00:36:00.001-08:00

I was looking through all my pictures from 2010 recently. I noticed a LOT of them I took with the intention of posting them on this blog, and hardly any of them actually made it. I guess it isn't too early to start thinking about new year's resolutions...

Well, since we just had Thanksgiving, that must mean it's time for me to post pictures of Halloween decorations (from last year). I didn't even take pictures of Halloween this year bc the decorations were pretty much a repeat of 2009. So here are the '09 pictures. We went the homemade route, using whatever materials/paper we already had. I got some great inspiration from my idol. I thought it turned out pretty spooky!

1. Spooky ghosts in the hallway. 2. Rat infestation! 3. More ghosts and spiders in the stairway. 4. I tried to give my cat whiskers, but they turned out more like laser eyes. Ooooo.

One of the best things I love about our neighborhood is the amount of trick-or-treaters we get. 2009 topped the record so far: we gave out 17 bags of candy (one piece per kid). 2010 had a poorer showing, maybe rounding out to about 12 bags. I blame Sunday nights and the World Series. Nothing against the Giants, tho! Now I'm not a sports fan, but having the SF Giants win the World Series was pretty awesome. The city was just electric. I loved feeling the energy and excitement. At home, we have our own version of the... ORANGE & BLACK ATTACK!!!

The handy BF's manual labor day weekend

2010-09-13T21:58:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's because it's now Fall, which makes me feel like nestling in and staying at home. Or maybe it's because this is SF and only now (in September!) are we starting to get nice weather, which is giving me a belated spring-cleaning feeling. Whatever it is, I had a couple home projects that needed help.

I'm very lucky that the BF is handy. He can take my idea and actually make it happen. If this was the advertising world, I'd be the creative director who never got their hands dirty, and he'd be the lowly, sweating production grunt. I can say this bc in reality (in work life) I am the lowly, sweating production grunt. But luckily we're talking about home life...

A while ago we got a kitchen cart to house our small appliances and such. Now I just needed to free up some more cabinet space and find a new place for our wine glasses as well as a new place for the BF's cookbooks. Over the years, I have really grown to hate Ikea, so naturally we ended up there. One shelf cut in two + a couple of brackets + a bunch of holes in the wall = the After picture below.

BEFORE & AFTER:

Yes, I've started a couple fires in that toaster oven.

Now that the wine glasses had a fancy new pad, we couldn't just neglect the wine. They needed a new home, too, which (after the BF did a little hack job on the legs) fit rather nicely under the shelf in our pantry. Bye-bye, ugly boxes!!

BEFORE & AFTER:

Glug, glug. There's plenty of space in the new wine rack for a few more bottles.

Silly piggers

2010-06-16T21:47:00.000-07:00

After all these years as a Pig Mom, I'm still surprised (and always entertained) by just how much personality piggies have. Sure, they're small and classified as rodents, but they really do have some spunk and smarts. I just wish they'd use their powers for good...

Pig wigs up to their old tricks:

1. Got a closet eater. 2. I left a bag of spring mix unattended. Had a visitor. My bad. 3. Rusty's only interested if it's off limits. 4. No tricks here. Just enjoying lunch in the sun.

Jewelry biz makeover

2010-04-28T23:22:00.001-07:00

The Open Studios 2010 show is this weekend (May 1 & 2) and I've been better this year about getting myself organized ahead of time. No repeats of last year's procrastination, pls. One major change this year is the rebranding of my jewelry endeavors. I decided to do away with the SugarCube Jewelry name. I was never too fond of it and I didn't feel like it really represented me. Along with the name went the website, which I never updated. I was paying monthly service fees for essentially an outdated photo gallery. I needed an easier, simpler way to catalog my latest work. Hello, Flickr. Pleased to meet you!

My new venture is called Designed by Jess. Check it out, yo.

I plan to open a new Etsy shop soon, probably later this month. Stay tuned...

Beauty of public transit

2010-04-02T00:33:00.000-07:00

Now, the SF Muni system has its share of woes. But let's take a moment to look past the budget shortfalls, schedule delays, rising prices, stinky riders, and the overall petri-dish-of-bacteria feeling you get when you step onboard. I take public transit everywhere, commute on it every day to work, and rarely ever drive my car. It's pretty convenient actually. And the monthly passes are so pretty--too pretty to toss out--so I used them to decoupage a cheap table off of craigslist. Then I went to a glass place and had them cut and finish off a 16"-square piece of glass to go on top. I had enough passes to do the top tier of the table with a few left over. Who knows, maybe in another two years I'll have enough to do the bottom tier.

1. craigslist table, painted light gray; 2. Laying out four years of passes; 3. Good ol' Mod Podge! 4. Pretty colors.

Bedroom makeover

2010-03-16T23:33:00.000-07:00

The BF and I decided we needed to spice things up in the bedroom. Ok before you go there, I'm talking about our bedroom wall decor obviously! I found these fun vinyl wall decals that are removable, but not reuseable. So once they're up, they're up. The application process is a little tricky, but once you have a system down, it gets easier. Luckily with the vinyl, you've got a little bit of wiggle room to get your placement just right, so mistakes are easily corrected. Which was good for us because these suckers were 8 feet tall!

It took us about two evenings after work to finish this project. I'll admit that most of our time was spent because I was getting OCD about the placement of the branches, getting the overlapping just so, etc. Yep, the BF is a patient man.

1. Meh. The "before" shot; 2. Getting the placement of the trees perfect; 3. We made one branch turn the corner; 4. Placement is good. Jess is finally satisfied; 5. Time to transfer the decal and strip off the blue backing; 6. All done and ready to sleep under a canopy of trees. That's my kind of camping!

Two months off!? and a birthday!!

2009-11-30T22:50:00.000-08:00

OK, I've been lazy and set this blog on the back burner. But I've also been having memory/hard drive/space issues, so haven't been able to get the pictures off my camera and onto this blog. I know, enough excuses already. On to pigs!!

We celebrated Oliver's 4th birthday a little belatedly this year. Right around his bday, he wasn't doing too well with his teeth. He was off-food a bit...but luckily with another toothtrim and lots of TLC, he perked back up and is doing fine now. And he looked fine, too! Seems he couldn't decide between his party hat and his tiara.

1. A tasty bell pepper tower treat; 2. Brothers share; 3. He's the prettiest birthday boy! 4. Still calm and enjoying food; 5. And then a feeding frenzy tug-of-war! 6. Don't worry, they made up and had a nice cuddle.

Man oh mantel

2009-09-20T19:01:00.000-07:00

It took a lot of hard work and elbow grease, but we finally got the mantel restored. We managed to clean out all the nasty crusties (as best we could, considering all the fancy woodwork) with some skinny chisels and screwdrivers. The mantel has actually been completed for a while now. I'm just behind on this blog, go figure. Here are the After pictures. We did several coats using Formby's Tung Oil, which makes for a nice finish, as it turns out! Super easy to use, too. Just put some on a rag, rub it into the wood, and let dry.

1. Ahh, so much nicer! 2. Crusties be gone. 3. No more wine glass stain, yay. 4. Even Horse seems happy about his new home.

Say it ain't so

2009-07-27T22:56:00.000-07:00

Meet Gray Hair #3. I woke up one morning in late June 2009 and found this little guy. It's my third gray (and the second one I've found since becoming a homeowner), but it is the first one documented and snapped in the wild. My very first gray came shortly after I turned 30. During that time, I guess the stress of being unemployed, living rent-free at my brother and sister-in-law's house, eating all their food, and making a me-sized dent in their couch while I caught up on 6 years of CSI: reruns in 3 months finally took its toll on me.

They say if you pluck a gray hair, three friends will come to its funeral. Oh well.

PS. It is not easy taking a picture of a gray hair up against a gray wall.

Home Improvement, Episode 1

2009-05-27T22:33:00.000-07:00

I'm living in a Victorian that dates back to the mid-1880s. I wish I knew the stories behind this place. Who used to live here way back then? What were they like? How many different events, eras, styles has this ol' lady seen over the past 120+ years? "Ohhh if these walls could talk!" (Please envision campy early morning basic cable tv anchor now.)

[Editor's note: There used to be a hilarious rant here about the previous owners, but the BF thought it was too harsh. So I deleted it to be nice. Awww. Back to being Serious Me.]

One outstanding architectural detail is the fireplace mantel, which is beautifully crafted and original to the house. Unfortunately it's seen better days. A lot of the finish has been worn away, there are some bad stains and scratches and gouges, and I think someone painted it white at one time (egad). It's just sad to see. However, it's structurally solid and the wood is in good condition (as in, not rotting away!). So the BF and I set out to restore it to its original luster over Memorial Day weekend. What I thought was going to be a 2-day project turned into an ongoing one. We sanded and sanded and sanded some more. We suited up with some SARS masks and eye goggles but still managed to inhale about 2lbs of sawdust and stain our eyes a nice shade of bloodshot. As Mom so eloquently put it: We'll appreciate it all the more when it's done.

Check out the Before pix below. Stay tuned for the After.

(1. Ye olde mantel; 2. Grosso wine stain (for once not by me!) that is still there and a real pain to get out; 3. Nasty 120-year old crud; 4. Lingering white paint and more crud.)

The BF did get a new toy out of this project!

I joked that he should sup it up with a car battery like Tim the Tool Man Taylor, then realized I made a family-show-from-the-90s reference and felt stodgy and uncool. Happy Memorial Day Weekend!! (to be continued...)

2009 Open Studios show

2009-05-20T00:18:00.000-07:00

Over Mother's Day weekend, I had my 2nd successful (and fun!) Open Studios jewelry show, hosted again by the BF's family at their home/backyard. The weather was gorgeous and perfect and so many old friends, family, and neighbors stopped by. There were also a lot of new faces, people in the area checking out the other Open Studios going on. SugarCube Jewelry was a hit! I surpassed my sales from last year, even tho I slashed my prices. And my "not in this economy" cheapie earring rack was really hot. I was all about clearing out inventory this year and making room for the new. Isabelle did really well too, selling more paintings this year than last. Safe to say we'll be doing this again!

The only thing that could have gone better this weekend was if I had not been sleep-deprived. It's my own fault of course. I had this great idea to give each piece of jewelry a code on the back of the price tag, then match up the code with the file name of the jewelry's photo. That way, when a piece was sold, I simply would have to write down the code and could reference exactly which piece it was later. Sounds pretty straight-forward, right? Well, I'm an admitted neat-freak and I do love order, but as much as I adore Martha Stewart, my digital photos are a complete mess. Nothing is organized or sorted in any logical way. So this great idea turned into an even bigger nightmare--if you can have a nightmare without sleep. The BF and I were up til 6AM tying price tags and tagging photo file names. (Now that is love, folks.) We had just enough time for a one and a half hour "power nap" before packing up and being down in the South Bay by 9AM. (The show went from 11AM to 5PM.) By the end of the day, I was running on 100% caffeine fumes, but still managed to visit a friend's newborn baby after dinner that night before hitting up a backyard BBQ birthday party. Got into bed by 2AM to do it all over again on Sunday. Who says I'm old? I did less in my 20s!

Above are photos of my "shop". I changed up some of my displays. The handy BF made more frames. (He got a new set of power tools out of this project!) And to cover the tables, I used some free fabric from work that I actually like in that Miss-Marple's-living-room sort of way.

Some close-up shots of my work:

We're havin' a heat wave...

2009-04-27T22:36:00.000-07:00

... a tropical heat wave. Last week we had some serious highs--it was like living on the face of the sun! All right, so there was no humidity and it really never got above 90 in the city, but this is San Francisco and we can't take the heat. It was quite balmy though...

Bright sunshine and blue skies might make for great people watching at Dolores Park, but warm weather is not fun for pigs. It was 85 degrees inside and with no fans and no breeze, the poor little creatures were in the hot seat. Here they are relaxing (on our new couch!) with some frozen water bottles. (Better pix of the couch to come...)

Last pic: That's Rusty cooling down his backside while he noses into a paper bag. Silly, smart, or just plain gross?

We've been keeping a close watch on Oliver lately. He still goes into the vet for monthly toothtrims for his malocclusion. He also seems to have chronic breathing problems/wheeziness, which are related to his teeth and the way he eats. Dr. Herman believes that he aspirates bits of food from time to time, causing bacteria to develop in his lungs. He's had several bouts with pneumonia and fluid in his chest over the past year because of it. He's on a new kind of antibiotic called doxycyclene, as well as a diuretic (furosemide) and an anti-wheezer (aminophylline) when/if he needs it. Dr. Herman thinks Olive is a bit of a mystery, but she's practicing good medicine on him and the BF and I are very attentive Food Guy and Pig Mom, respectively. Being a Pig Mom is hard work, and part of that means I worry about him all the time. He's just the sweetest, gentlest pig. And for the most part, he's happy, energetic, has a good appetite and loves spending time with Russ. Rusty continues to entertain us with his spunk and to amaze us as a butternut squash on legs. His last weigh-in: 1435 grams, which means he actually lost about 25 g! (For perspective, Oliver is a slim 1140 g.)

Miles and a Milestone

2009-04-14T00:35:00.000-07:00

On March 15, I finally got off my pasty arse and ran my first race. It was the Emerald Across the Bay 12K (which is about 7.5 miles for us metrically challenged). The course was a fantastic tour-bus route around SF. It started across the bay at Fort Baker, went over the Golden Gate Bridge (epic!), through Chrissy Field, past Marina Green, and ended up at Aquatic Park/Ghiradelli Square. Pretty awesome. I felt great, had my iPod blaring, and soaked up the scenery... with "soaked" being the operative word. It rained the entire time! Everyone was drenched and freezing before we even boarded the buses to take us to the starting point. Puddles, mud, rain pelting you in the face--it was a soggy, sloshy mess and I had a blast! No pictures of me will be posted at this event, obvi. Thanks to the BF and fam for coming out to support me!

Happy birthday Mom!

April 4: It's not every day that yo mama turns 60. We all surprised her at dinner at an Italian restaurant, then went back to Steve's place for dessert. I wanted to make something special, but couldn't decide between something chocolatey/different and something fresh/fruity and seasonal. Since it was my mom's birthday, I thought it was appropos to employ one of the life lessons I learned from her when I was in my teens. [Picture this: you're at the mall and can't decide what to buy: the Hypercolor tee that changes color with body heat, or the fluorescent pink sweatshirt with "totally rad" on it. Mom's sage words of advice: Get them both.] Above are pics of the finished desserts. Spring cupcakes with lavender icing a la my hero Martha Stewart (left), and enormous individual strawberry shortcakes, recipe courtesy of celeb chef Michael Mina (right). I was a bit of a whirling dervish in the kitchen (naturally I overslept that day and was pressed for time!), but still managed to snap some pics of my progress:

1. Letting the shortcake dough rest; 2. Chopping; 3. Whipping; 4. Best part about whipping, licking the beaters; 5. Cooling; 6. Icing (and appropriately dressed in Culinary Academy apron!)

I heart Heart Day

2009-03-09T22:30:00.000-07:00

This year, like many years past, we celebrated Valentine's Day at home. The BF loves to cook and I love to eat, so you see, it's a perfect match. This year we (meaning he) made Chilean sea bass encrusted with walnuts. It was flaky and buttery and so delicious--probably the best fish I've ever had! On the side were brussel sprouts with bread crumbs, lemon and sage, and everyone's favorite ancient grain: kasha. For real, it was good! We deviated from our usual red wine and paired our dinner with a very tasty chardonnay (Husch 2007), followed by yummy desserts from Miette (banana creme tart, chocolate ganache heart-shaped minicake, and a chocolate fudge tart), which we polished off with a lovely port. (Thanks, Matt!) Needless to say, we had our elastic-waist pants on.

1-3. Food, glorious food! (and drink) 4. Even on Valentine's Day, Oliver gets all the lovin'!

P.S. Those are our new tables and rug (and, in the background, the lamp that we lugged all the way back from Morocco last year). Our rooms are starting to come together. Very. Slowly. More pics to come...

Highway to the Pigger Zone

2009-02-05T22:40:00.000-08:00

The holidays are over. It's February and I'm like the person who still has their Xmas lights up or something. Anyhow, here are some pix of how the piggies spent Xmas '08. Mostly they enjoyed eating the tree. And taking a doze under it. And then eating more of the tree. Oh and eating wrapping paper. As long as they weren't nibbling wires, I let them have their fun.

The top left pic is kinda cute of Oliver on the pig highway. When the BF saw me laying down the "road" (an old Mexican blanket and beach towels), he just shook his head and left the room. Ok Highway P.I.G. might be a bit much, but how else was Oliver going to get to that delicious noble fir? That dainty pig refuses to walk on our wood floors, preferring the carpeted hallway. He took right to the pig highway tho, zooming thru the living room and straight under the tree.

Rusty on the other hand (paw?) doesn't seem to mind the wood floors one bit. We always know where he is--we just listen for toenails.

Fa la la party

2009-01-02T13:38:00.000-08:00

We had friends and fam over for our first holiday party on Dec. 13th. It was a very fun night--a great mix of people, festive music (Thanks Karley and Monique!), lotsa booze and good times. We partied like rock stars til 5am. Luckily our new downstairs neighbors hadn't moved in yet!

The food:
The BF prepared everything except the cookies. I just found some of the recipes and said, "Hey, can you make this?" We went with slightly more palate-challenging apps than the usual chips and dips. The menu was a big hit. Our lovely friends brought empty tummies and open minds. Everything tasted great!

(1. Sausages w/ hot mustard; goat cheese cheeseball with scallions and parsley; 2. Bleu cheese cheeseball with walnuts; veggies & dip; 3. Bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with pistachios & apricot; 4. Baguette toasts with romesco sauce and carmelized onions & mushrooms (the BF's creation); my slightly overcooked (read: hard as rocks) chocolate chip cookies. You can't save 'em all, Hasselhoff!)

The decorations:
Here are some pics of our living/dining rooms before the party. You can't really tell in this picture, but the piggy cage is decorated with little LED twinkle lights. Heh. Yes, I need help.

The drinks:

In addition to the usual bar staples and mixers, we also served mocha nog and mulled wine. Well, I can't believe I didn't take pics of the drinks table! I must've put down the camera in exchange for a glass...

Santy's workshop

2008-12-22T22:09:00.001-08:00

For the past few years I've eschewed purchasing Xmas gifts, opting instead to make or create something personal and unique. I guess I'd rather spend time getting crafty than trying to tackle the malls. Plus free time is more precious than just about anything you can buy, right? As much as I enjoy doing this sort of thing, every year I bite off more than I can chew and end up working away until the wee hours of the night, finishing a stencil or baking cookies or creating jewelry. Admittedly I procrastinate until the very last oh-crap moment. This year was no different!

Everyone got a stencil (again) this Xmas. In an effort to go green, I stenciled a couple of ecobags for Les and Jeri. I couldn't find any images online that I liked (if you can believe that!), so I went free-hand and designed my own. For Ryan's baby tee (space invader) and Steve's long-sleeve tee (the Minister of Silly Walks) I used images off the Web, American Apparel tees, and Jacquard fabric paint.

Works in progress:

(Whew! Stencils drying; Les's bag in mid-peel)

(The befores and afters)

The finished products!

It's like Xmastime or somethin'

2008-12-22T21:24:00.000-08:00

Yay the holidays. Since it's our first year in our new condo, we were especially excited to set up a tree and decorate. So we went down to see our friends at Delancey Street, where we've gotten our Xmas tree for the past few years. As soon as we walked into the lot, I saw our tree:

"This one," I said, pointing.
The BF, a little hesitant, "Uh, it's nice, but it'll never fit."
It is 7'8" tall.
"If you can get it through the front door and haul it up the stairs, it'll be perfect."
And it is!

1. Our lonely tree in the lot; 2. Our naked tree at home.

This was a problem: a naked tree? We needed ornaments. Sure, we had some from years past, enough for a smaller tree, but they looked pretty skimpy once we put them up. We got a few boxes of new bulbs from a non-profit shop down the street. Still, we needed more. But with the recent purchase of our condo and the economy as it is, I decided it was time to get thrifty and creative. I went with some extremely simple, but festive ideas. No real explanation necessary for the candy cane ornaments. Everything came from Walgreens and probably cost me about $6 for 25 hanging canes. (Yes, I ate one!)

The next simple project involved our old clear bulbs from Target. I don't know WHY we bought these last year. They look kinda cool in the box, but completely disappear once you hang them on the tree. I mean, they're CLEAR. Duh. I needed something that was lightweight but full enough to fill up the bulbs. A smart and crafty coworker of mine suggested feathers. Thank god for smart friends! So I swung by our local Cliff's Variety and picked up a bag of red feathers (only $1.50!) and stuffed them inside the bulbs. They looked pretty cool up on the tree. At least, they were visible!

November flew by

2008-12-03T20:49:00.000-08:00

And not a blog post to be seen. This entry is dedicated to the dearly departed November (and the end of October).

First of all, we celebrated a couple of important birthdays: Rusty's and the BF's. Whose was more important, you ask? Ohh, you're not going to catch me answering that one! But I did only manage to take photos of RUSTY's party... The piggies weren't the only party animals. We had an awesome pre-Bootie birthday party for the BF and our friend Nortie. It was also a mini-housewarming slash come-up-and-see-the-new-pad for our old friends from the Coop. Good times!

(1. The birthday boy! 2. On the menu: raw-food, vegan lettuce wraps; 3. Oliver, always dapper in fancy hat; 4. Brothers share.)

Oh yeah, and in November there was this tiny, teensy thing called the Presidential Election. Ya mighta heard about it. I have to admit that I've kinda gotten into politics lately. I mean, I used to just watch the Daily Show and thought that was enough, you know? But now I'm habitually reading the Daily Kos and Huff Post (Mainstream and popular, yes I know.) But you have to understand that before this I considered "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Insider" as NEWS. (You are witnessing a serious, applause-worthy shift in priorities, people!)

So anyway, I kept hearing/reading that because this is such an historical election, people decades from now are going to look back and share stories about where they were on Election Night 2008. It's kinda like how in the Bay Area people ask, where were you during the '89 quake? (In high school. Working on a homecoming float.) Right. So. Seeing as how my Quake-of-89 story completely blows, I really wanted my Election-08 story to kick a$$. I was gearing up for it; I plastered our new pad with Obama/Biden and No on Prop 8 signs, and I just knew there'd be massive celebrating in SF--and I was going to be there, partying and celebrating, able to tell my grandnieces and grandnephews all about how crazy Auntie got back in '08.

And what ends up happening? Dude. I end up having to work TWO all-nighter shifts at the office on Sunday and Monday night for a campaign pitch. (As in, go to work at 8pm, leave work after the sun's already up and normal people are getting IN to work.) I got home Tuesday at around 10:30am, staggered across the street to my polling station, voted, then crashed. I woke up in time to see the polls closing and the results coming in. By then, I was in my jammies and curled up on the couch. And I could hear people celebrating in the streets outside my window, honking horns, whoo-hooing. There was even a big street party a few blocks from my place, and what did I do? I slept. I was too pooped to party (!?!), and anyone who knows me at ALL knows that that never happens. Sigh. Still, I was/am elated about Obama and enjoying this feeling of hope. Way to go people! Yes, we did! And for this I am thankful, which catches us up to last Thursday. (See how I did that, all nice and tidy-like?)

Orange you glad the room is blue now?

2008-10-30T21:57:00.001-07:00

October 19. Our first weekend in the new place! Home Improvement Project #1: repaint the front bedroom/office. We used Benjamin Moore Aura paint in Buxton Blue. Unlike most interior flat finish paints, this stuff is really thick and self-priming... and it dries. Super. Quickly. By the time you move the ladder, the place you were just painting is already tacky. Note to future Aura users, do not go back and touch up the paint. You've got a window of about 30 seconds before it starts to get funny on you and puckers up. The first coat was a royal pain in the 'tocks, but once we knew how to work the paint, the rest of the job was easy. And it turned out beautifully!

1. Junior and Senior hard at work; 2. How lovely! Don and Betty Draper would approve.

Last days at the old apt.

2008-10-30T21:19:00.000-07:00

Our last few days in the old apartment were pretty hectic. We did manage to pack up 67 boxes and about 5 suitcases worth of stuff. We got everything neatly labeled and wrapped up in packing paper... for the most part. There was, of course, the last-minute "sweep" where we just took all the straggling odds and ends and swept them up into a garbage bag. Not necessarily the recommended way of packing, but hey, the movers were coming in 20 minutes!

Many thanks to the trio of movers from Pat Ryan Moving. They showed up at 8:30am, loaded up the truck, drove to the new place, unloaded the truck (depositing each box and piece of furniture in the correct room), and were done and outta here by 1:30pm. Let me tell you this: I will NEVER move myself again. Hiring movers is more expensive than renting a U-Haul and coercing your friends to help you out, but it is so worth it. Those movers were working hard--my back hurt just watching them!

Ahhh. Watching our humans scramble around packing up really IS a lot of work. Time for a little doze in the sun...

Three little pigs

2008-10-06T00:06:00.000-07:00

I needed to escape my apartment. The packing, the boxes, the piles! Seriously, it looks like someone came into our apt and took everything off the walls and out of the closets and threw them in the middle of the room, and then threw himself on top of it, and then had a seizure. Being a complete neat freak, I. had. to. get. out.

What a perfect excuse to see my cutie-pie nephew! It's been a few weeks since I've seen Ryan. He's getting big now, cruising around pretty fast. And my what new teeth he has! We brought the pigs with us, of course. Ryan had a blast hanging out with his cousins; check out those smiles! Oliver was a little camera-shy, but Russ wasn't afraid to get up close and personal.

Pack it up, pack it in...

2008-09-27T22:47:00.000-07:00

The BF and I have been busy little bees. We've been trolling Craig's List for boxes and packing supplies. We could have easily gotten new boxes, but really felt that we should be reusing this stuff. And can I tell you, living in a green-minded city like SF, everyone else and their mother thinks the same way. I never would have guessed what a hot commodity moving boxes were! That is, until I got horn-swaggled like three times! Seriously, someone posts that they've got some boxes, I charge down there with my empty car like 30 minutes after they've posted, only to get there and see someone else carting away the boxes. You've gotta act fast!

We've managed to get enough packing supplies and are making good progress. Our apt. is getting less recognizable, little by little. Two weeks til the movers get here! The piggies enjoy checking out our progress. The boxes create a nice little maze for them to explore. Here, Oliver either does not want us to move, or finds cardboard very tasty indeed!

Next stop: homeownership

2008-09-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

Here she is, folks. She's a centenarian, but she's new to us!

The past two weeks have been a blur. Like a rollercoaster, it's been up and down, but through it all there's been the feeling of exhilaration. Just to give you a taste of our first four days: We saw the place for the first time on a Sunday, took a second look on Tuesday, placed an offer on Wednesday, and by Thursday we were in escrow! Since then it's been rapid-fire phone calls back and forth with our realtor (who is awesome btw), a slew of inspections, much faxing of paperwork, and then of course the inevitable signing away of lives and life savings. Ramen, anyone? (Actually, on top of all this, both of us were doing the cleanse! Not the best timing on our part.)

Seriously tho, this thing called homeownership has been a long time in the making. A dream realized. The BF and I have been working toward this moment for YEARS. (Ok maybe not all our 13 years together, but a good portion of it!) It's funny, sometimes the rollcoaster will come to a sudden stop, and we'll look at each other and say, "Can you believe we're actually doing this?!?" (followed by screams). We get the keys next week! GAHH!

Ketchup is not part of the cleanse

2008-09-18T23:12:00.001-07:00

For the past 9 days I've been on the Blessed Herb cleanse. I'm going to spare you the gross details. If you want gross, go to the web site and check out the photo testimonials.

What is it? The cleanse starts with a 3-day pre-cleanse where you slowly cut down portion size all while taking the powder and pills. Then comes the 5-day liquids-only fast where you consume only the powder mixed with apple juice (gritty, bloaty), the pills, water, and some vegetable broth. This is then followed by the 1-day post-cleanse to slowly introduce normal food back into your system.

So what's it feel like? I wasn't too hungry (surprisingly), got headaches the first few days (normal), felt bloated and slightly nauseated (also normal), but for the most part could go about my day as usual minus exercise (but I didn't do much of that before the cleanse). There was a pretty constant feeling of bloat and nausea, which is probably why you don't feel hungry--you are too disgusted to eat. I've done a couple of other cleanses in the past (read: I've had lots of disgusting powder drinks) and this drink isn't so bad at first. By Day 7, it made me gag. I'm on my last day of the cleanse and have thankfully returned to the world of chewing. In retrospect, I'm sure that the cleanse was good for overall digestive health, expelling toxins, out with the old, and so forth. But I've done other cleanses and have felt better both during and after. I think it's good to do a cleanse every now and again. We eat so much crap (and by "we" I mean ME), like junk food, trans fats, processed white flour, on and on, that it is a good idea to give your body a little refresh.

So why'd I do this one in particular? Partly to see if I could. Partly to see what would happen, to see if my "results" would be as ... uhhh, "impressive?" "disturbing?"... as the photo testimonials. Partly to simply clear out the ol' GI because, honestly, no one wants a John Wayne colon (supposedly it weighed 30 lbs when he died) and no one wants to go out like Elvis (which my brother lovingly calls the Dump of Death). And Elvis's was reportedly 60 lbs!! [Insert your own King/Throne joke here.] OK, this entry is getting a little TMI. I know blogging is a somewhat anonymous, removed way of communicating, but all my readers (all 4 of you) know who I am!! Plus, describing my BMs in detail, by any means, is overshare. I just can't do it. What I can say is that I've never thought so much about poop! I'm glad it is over and I can return to normal life! Now someone please pass me the take-out menu.

Ketchup and wine

2008-09-17T22:41:00.001-07:00

A lot has happened in the last month. I'm going to try and re-create it for you here in these next entries. Oh the joys of ketchup.

We gave ourselves a week to recover from Oliver's ragin' bday celebration. (Right.) So the BF, John, Kev, and I declared it Friday Ditch Day and went to Napa/Sonoma. Actually it was my last Summer Friday (and, sadly, those of you in the corporate world know how dearly we hold on to those--ugh, kill me). It was a good day and a good haul--way better than sitting in a lightless suckhole aka. my desk. We had the carefully planned out route of let's-stop-at-the-next-one-on-the-right. Cline, Trefethin (they had dogs roaming the grounds so of course that was my favorite), Miner, Ballentine, and... at least two more... I can't remember. And no, I wasn't looped. I was the DD. And I still managed to enjoy myself. Shocking, yes I know.

More ketchup (and ice cream)

2008-09-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

The following weekend, I volunteered to scoop ice cream at the Slow Food festival. Slow Food and the ideas behind slow food are pretty cool. There was an interesting article in San Francisco Magazine about how SF completely missed the boat on the purpose of slow food, making it elitist, yuppie and inaccessible. I dunno about all that. I'm not really into food. I mean, I like to eat, but I'm no foodie. That's more the BF's arena.

Ok, so back to volunteering. Here's the thing. It was fun and all, but the next time I'm anywhere where VOLUNTEERS are handing out food, I'm really going to think twice about eating it. Don't get me wrong. Volunteers are lovely people, yes, yes. And I try to volunteer at least once a month. It's awesome, can't say enough good things about volunteering (except that I don't do it often enough). Not only am I "doing good" (and contributing to something bigger), I meet tons of great people and I have fun in the process. THAT being said... at this event, some volunteers were simply lazy. Others were just plain gross. I could kinda handle the gross ones if they were earnestly trying. I get it: things can get a little hectic if there's a long line of people and ice cream is in demand. So they're slobs and have a messy workstation, so what--at least they have a good heart. Licking your fingers or the scoopers and then handing the ice cream over to a customer all while sweating profusely... now that's just straight up sick. Gross, right? Wait. It gets worse. So the booth had those typical ice cream freezers, the kind where you've gotta lean over a little ledge in order to reach the containers? One lady (a fellow scooper) was reaching into the freezer to scoop, and there were some already-scooped dishes of ice cream sitting on the ledge that she had to reach over. I swear her pits touched the top of the ice cream in those dishes. And she was wearing a tank top! Honest to god. You'd think I'd lose my appetite after that, but I still somehow scarfed down at least eight scoops (which I scooped myself thankyouverymuch!!)

1. Fort Mason, all prettied up. 2. The booth. 3. MMM pre-pit ice cream! 4. My blister from scooping.

Bon anniversaire Olivier!

2008-08-17T23:10:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we celebrated Oliver's 3rd bday. It was quite the gourmet, 2-course affair, complete with a tropical luau theme. The pigs even broke out the fancy dress.

How do I plan such a successful pig party of my own, you ask? Well, if you must know:

First, prepare the entree.

1. Go to the local farmer's market and pick up fresh veggies and fruits.

2. Weave some ong-choy (Chinese water spinach) into a lattice work base.

3. Vertically stack carrot "confetti" on the lattice, using a cookie cutter.

4. Place yellow pear tomatoes stuffed with dandelion greens around the carrots.

5. Top with 3 bell pepper "candles."

Next, set up the dessert platter.

1. Dice up some organic yellow nectarines and strawberries into pig bite-sized pieces.

2. Arrange in a pleasing pattern.

3. Get your straight jacket ready, someone is going to have you committed soon.

My etsy shop is open for bizness!

2008-08-14T19:38:00.000-07:00

Yes! I am finally up on etsy. Ok, so I only have two items up, but I did it. It's a funny feeling, putting yourself out there. Exhilaration. Relief. Fear. Accomplishment.

For those who don't know, etsy is a great online venue to sell/buy handmade goods. There's even some vintage on there, but most items are handcrafted by the seller. You can even shop locally and support your fellow local artists. Trolling etsy.com sucks up waaay too much of my work day, to be honest. Hopefully some jewelry-lovin' people out there will stumble upon my little shop. More items to come soon. Keep checking back!

Go to SugarCube Jewelry's etsy shop.

Droplet earrings

2008-08-06T23:22:00.000-07:00

As promised, new jewelry pix! I have to confess tho. These aren't really "new"--I made them months ago. What I really need to do is get more pictures up on the SugarCube web site. It's been ages since that site has been updated. Who's responsible for running this outfit anyway? In true CEO fashion, I'm going to lay the blame elsewhere: my IT department (aka. the BF). It's gotta be his fault, right? Because it can't possibly be me and my non-motivated self. Oh no. The only other options are Oliver and Russ and, well, the pigs are just too cute. And they aren't very savvy in DreamWeaver...

1. Amethyst briolette droplets; 2. Different colors of faceted tourmaline; 3. Cherry, champagne, and smokey quartz; 4. Pale pink freshwater pearls on Sterling silver.

Amazonite & Gold

2008-07-29T23:12:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a few new jewelry pieces over the summer. This one I made a few weeks ago. To me, it has a vintage-y feel to it, but the asymmetric design keeps it modern. The cloudy blue stones are amazonite, and that's a burgundy pearl in the back for a little interest. All the metal is 24k GF.

Oy. I'm using the decapitated neck display. I didn't want to get one of these at first--they're a little creepy to have around the apartment, if you know what I mean. But it actually worked really well for the May jewelry show, especially for pieces like this so you can see how it is supposed to hang. More new jewelry pix to come soon!

Hello Sunshine!

2008-07-25T15:31:00.000-07:00

A lovely and rare sunny day in the TP. Here, Oliver and Rusty enjoy warming up in the little rays of sunshine we get in our apartment. I love the first picture! It looks like Rusty's smiling and Oliver is goofing for the camera! On the right, Olive takes a little lie-down while Russ keeps a watchful eye out.

I'm really appreciative of the good times like these. Pigs are such delicate creatures. We got a pretty harsh reminder of this a few months ago. We found out that Oliver's back molars were overgrown due to malocclusion, which is when bottom and top molars don't line up. Since guinea pig teeth continuously grow, pigs need to be able to gnaw and chew in order to wear their teeth down. When they can't do it naturally, that's when the vets (and vet bills!) come in.

This all happened shortly after our San Diego trip. Oliver's appetite was down, and he was getting slim. He was also in obvious pain: his eyes were teary and he had an all-over sad, hunched demeanor. When we got him to the vet, it turned out that (on top of the tooth problems) Oliver had contracted pneumonia due to pain and stress. So we had to treat that first with antibiotics before the vet could anesthetize him for the tooth trim. Luckily we have a wonderful, smart, experienced exotic vet in SF, Dr. Herman. She said that Oliver's back teeth were so overgrown that they were touching in the middle and trapping his tongue underneath, which prevented him from swallowing. And, because his teeth weren't occluding, there were a few long, sharp points on his teeth that were poking him in the cheek and tongue, causing lacerations! Poor thing was in so much pain before the tooth trim.

So Dr. Herman got Oliver all treated and trimmed up, and a few days later we were able to bring him home. His recovery was slow. We were really worried about him--he wasn't bouncing back very well at all. He wasn't eating on his own and lost a LOT of weight. The BF and I were up til the wee hours every night and waking up at dawn every morning for two/three weeks so we could assist-feed him Critical Care (a powder from the vet that we mixed with water, formed into a mash, stuck into a needle-less syringe, and squirted down the pig's throat). It's messy and feels like you're torturing the poor thing, but it really was the only thing keeping him alive. We averaged about 50cc a day of Critical Care, and still Oliver was losing weight. He was down to about 860g and looked anorexic. And believe me, the Nicole Richie-look is NOT a good look for pigs!

Miraculously, Oliver started eating on his own again. He's had one tooth trim since May and is due for another one on Monday. He has to go to the vet's every month for a tooth trim. I always get a little (more like a lot!) worried whenever he's up for another trimming. I drop him off in the morning, and the vets keep him there for the day. I think I worry the most about the anesthesia, which is always a risk. But lately Oliver's feeling really good, he's happy, and his weight is way up (almost 1100g!). Rusty helps out by keeping Oliver company and scampering about the apartment together, not to mention he's put on some serious "sympathy grams" too. (Russ is up to 1250g and he's not even a year old!) They're buddies and are inseparable.

(Left: Rustopher Jones hangs out under the dining table, while M. Olivier gives us his best side; Right: Two pigs and a banana.)

And yes, Sting is still hot.

2008-07-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

Last night we saw Elvis Costello and The Police at Shoreline. It f'n rocked. If you can believe it, Elvis was the opener! It was a bit sad, actually, him up there playing while it was still daylight, people milling around, not taking their seats, chatting and eating nachos while up on stage it's ELVIS F'N COSTELLO! I mean, come on. He deserves better than that. Sting popped up on stage with him for a duet during "Alison," then Elvis finished up with "Peace, Love, and Understanding."

Once The Police got up on stage, all the uber fans started going apesh*t. Everyone (all 12,000 of us) were standing up and dancing around, even the peeps on the lawn (who I think end up having the most fun, if all the funny smoke wafting down was any indication). They played all their classic hits, including my faves "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "Every Little Thing She Does." Overall, a pretty MF epic concert. Weee oohhhhhh!

Happy 5th of July!

2008-07-05T22:58:00.000-07:00

Mmm. There is no tastier way to celebrate the 5th of July than with cherry pie. Emma made these gorgeous cherry pies from scratch. Twelve pies in three days (oh, all while taking care of her three-and-a-half-year-old son and three-month-old daughter). She's so fancy in the kitchen. Knowing better than to attempt this on my own, I stuck to what I'm good at: tasting. And man was it good! Thanks Em!! (As I write this, the BF is currently on his second piece...)

I will leave you with a shot of Ocean Beach taken today--surprisingly not foggy!

RyanBaby Turns One!

2008-07-02T00:14:00.000-07:00

My nephew Ryan celebrated his first bday last weekend. It was a good ol' fashioned bbq/picnic in the park. Lotsa other kids, friends, and eats makes for a good time! Here he is just before he decided to wear his birthday cake. Later, it was a dip in the pool to cool off. I don't mean to sound like some deranged, biased auntie, but Ryan really IS the cutest baby ever, don't you think?

OK, so to commemorate his passage into single-digits, I decided to stencil some tee shirts, you know, big boy tees. That's right--no more onesies! Since the whole fam loves soccer (and they have a foosball table), I decided to create a foosball stencil. I found an image of a little foosball player online and printed it out 3x to sort of hobble together a basic picture. From there I took some artistic liberties and created a stencil. As usual, I used shirts from American Apparel. Even got fancy with my crafty self and used three colors this time!

Now, birthdays are special moments worth celebrating, and this got me thinking, what does a baby wear on those more formal occasions? You know, like when he really needs to impress the ladies? Well, then it dawned on me: a stenciled tee with a gold chain and clock a la Flava Flav! Obviously.

In the same way that I created the foosball stencil, I found some examples of chains online and a picture of a clock. From there I put together my own drawing, making sure to draw the chain so that it fit around the neck hole. Of course, for the full effect, you can't forget to do the back of the shirt! So, am I crazy? Please fill out the poll!

Sprucing Up in the TP

2008-07-01T19:35:00.001-07:00

It takes a lot to get me out of bed before 9am on a Saturday. Hell, me being up before noon on any given weekend is just shy of a miracle. So if I'm going to get up, it had better be good. And for a good cause. And I'd better get a free bagel out of it too, dammit. Well, every so often, the unlikely happens and I wake up early. Through Hands on Bay Area, the BF and I get a chance to do good and spruce up our neighborhood. Twin Peaks is the second highest hill in SF, draws a lot of tourists at the lookout area up top, and is literally our backyard. HoBA volunteers team up with REI and the SF Recreation and Park Department to clean up and restore the hilltop, which is the indigenous home to lots of plants and wildlife, but most notably to the endangered Mission Blue Butterfly. Basically, we spend about 3-4 hours pulling weeds. The first time we did it, it was cold, wet, and extremely windy. My hands and feet were frozen and my knees were soaked and muddy. This last time was the polar opposite. It was unseasonably hot weather and, tugging at those roots, we were sweatin' big time. The BF even busted a shoe. It sounds miserable from the way I've described it, but it's actually a lot of fun. We learn a lot about the local animal, bird, and plant life, and we get to meet cool people who live in the area too. It's a pretty satisfying feeling--toiling away and then taking a look around you. You get to see how much you've accomplished and how different the landscape looks. Definitely worth getting up early for on a Saturday morning.

1. Snapped a few of the other volunteers; 2. Tugging at those pesky radishes; 3. Filet of sole (the BF's busted shoe); 4. Looking up the hillside.

Show Time

2008-06-09T00:06:00.000-07:00

Let's just get this out of the way first: Wow, I really suck at keeping a blog. A lot has happened in the last month. I'll be playing catch-up over the next few entries.

May 17-18: The jewelry show was a huge success. It took place at the BF's family residence where his mom also displayed her art work--she sold six paintings! And I sold about 20 pieces and got a couple of custom orders. The turn-out was pretty good and remained steady over both days. It was great to see so many familiar faces (and meet some new ones). Many thanks to the friends, family, and neighbors who stopped by on the hottest weekend in the history of the planet. I think we all know what it's like on the surface of the sun now. I really need to thank Isabelle and Greg Sr. for being great hosts and for providing such a beautiful venue, not to mention all the tasty eats and cold drinks! Thank you!! Below are a few pix of my jewelry at the show. The last pic is of a little work station I set up for some on-the-spot sizing and demonstrations.

We also finally launched the SugarCube web site (http://www.sugarcubejewelry.com/). And yes, there are typos in there, egad. I need to update that too. Sheesh, a blog and now a web site? How am I ever going to keep up?

Armed and handy

2008-05-08T15:59:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to get organized for the upcoming jewelry show. It's hard to believe it is little more than one week away! After months of procrastinating, I'm starting to feel the heat now. I have enough inventory as far as the jewelry goes. Too much. Hence the show. Now I'm concentrating on my set-up: how to display the pieces, how to dress up the table, business cards, mirrors, baggies, Zzzzz.

A couple weeks ago, I decided that I had to come up with a new way to display my jewelry--so I put the BF to work. It was swelteringly hot that day in the south bay--perfect time for some manual labor! With A LOT of help from the BF's fam, I was able to use some flea market frames and turn them into padded displays to hang jewelry off of. Here are some before, during, and after shots. Not bad for $30 and a liter of sweat. Thanks to the fam for the hard work, power tools, and brave faces when I was wielding the staple gun!

1. Ply wood and a flea market frame. 2. Cutting out the batting and linen. 3. Watch those fingers. 4. The fruits of our labor!

Just another day in paradise

2008-05-06T21:33:00.000-07:00

Oh boy. It's been WEEKS since my last posting. So I have a lot of catching up to do. A few weeks ago, the BF and I spent 4-5 days in San Diego. It was awesome seeing old friends, soaking in the sun, and visiting our old stomping grounds/watering holes. All that sun! I loved it. Just a few hours on the hotel patio and I was golden. The BF on the other hand... well, I think he managed to tone down his San Francisco glow without too much sunburn!

Now onto the REAL highlights (according to the BF anyway):

I mean, the sun, the beach, our friends...yeah they're all right too! But sadly one of the perks about going back to SD is the Mexican food. SF has the Mission and all, but the Mex food we've found up here really can't even compete with San Diego's. Perhaps food just tastes better on the beach and with old friends. Some gutbustin' good times from our trip include Pizza Port, Porkyland, Point Loma Seafoods, breakfast burritos from Taco Surf, and beers (lotsa beers) at Cass St. with our old regular crew of crusty alcoholics. See how happy it makes the BF?! At least Hefeweizen is served with a slice of lemon--a great source of Vitamin C. That night we easily got 100% of the RDA of Vitamin C...

Plagued

2008-04-05T11:56:00.000-07:00

For the past week, I've been out of commission with the flu. It all started Sunday when I felt like I was hit by a truck. Fevers, chills, hacking cough, body aches, oh my! Everything seems to take a Herculean amount of effort. I haven't been this sick EVER. And I even got a flu shot this year. Made me really wish I had one of these contraptions:

So I've been laid up in bed, missing work (Well, I wouldn't say I've been "missing" it, Bob.), and in general being a miserable slug. The worst is the cough, or the side effects of it. My rib cage feels completely sore on the inside and the muscles around it are sore, so every cough feels like someone is punching a bruise. Oh, the BF also noticed a funny symptom of this particular strain of flu: Whining. Ok I'll admit, I'm not the easiest patient to care for... Finally had the strength yesterday to go to the doctor, who didn't really do a whole lot but prescribe cough syrup with codeine. Nite nite!

Earrings for night owls

2008-03-20T00:29:00.000-07:00

I just made these tonight. It's almost 1 a.m., and I don't know why the hell I'm still up. But I am so I thought I'd snap some quick pix and share. I went to a bead faire (yes, with an e!) this past weekend, and since then it's been beadle mania. I got some 20-gauge gold-fill wire to experiment with. That's what makes up the main teardrop shape here. The stones are amethyst and green aventurine. I'm into this loopy wire-wrapping nowadays. If I end up doing a whole series of these, I guess that's what designers might define as a "collection." The Loopy Collection? Hmm, there's gotta be a better name out there. Anyhow, I like the overall look of it, but man does it destroy my fingers. All this is in preparation for my upcoming jewelry show in May. More on that later. Maybe when I'm not so sleepy.

DJ Buddha baby

2008-03-17T00:22:00.001-07:00

Our friends Pieter and Catarina are expecting their first baby in a few weeks. So you know what that means: more onesies! Pieter and Cat are fun, magnetic people. They love good times, good friends, and awesome music (Pieter's a House DJ during the wee hours). And they have this whole spiritual-vibe-thing going on, too, that's really warm and welcoming. So I wanted these onesies to reflect a little bit about both of them, their passions and hobbies, and just how cool they are and will be as parents.

Turntable and Buddha onesies shown in stages: 1. Ironing on the cut-out stencils; 2. Filling it in with paint; 3. Revealing the finished product!

Spa day

2008-03-16T23:41:00.000-07:00

Life as a GP can be tough. There's hay and pellets to eat, not to mention mounds of farmer's market veggies to munch on. And there's all the tunnels a pig needs to run through every day. And don't forget all the napping! That takes up a lot of time. And if ever the BF leaves his cookbooks lying on the floor, well, a pig has to eat them too.

With such a busy agenda, a pig deserves a little pampering once in a while, don't you think? Rusty got his first bath recently, and to top it off, he also got a mani/pedi! Sounds like a relaxing way to spend a Saturday morning, huh? Not to Russ. He complained and struggled throughout the whole ordeal. Poor boy! It ain't easy lookin' this good.

BBQ pigeon

2008-03-11T21:46:00.000-07:00

Boris and Doris are back! I've read that pigeons, having that built-in homing device, return to the same place to make their nest, laying one to two eggs. This is the third time Boris and Doris have tried to build a nest on our balcony. They always pick the same spot--IN our gas bbq. It's actually a pretty good place in San Francisco to build a nest: it's covered so at least it is partially protected from the wind, rain and predators. The BF, on the other hand, does not think it is such a good place, as he has just filled up the propane tank and was looking forward to bbq season. Uh oh, better luck next year babe!

Unfortunately, we've never had a hatchling. Part of the problem is that Boris and Doris are really crappy at building nests. This year is another winner. As you can see from this picture, all the twigs they've gathered have fallen thru the slats. Now Boris is just sitting there on an egg with no nest. We'll see how it goes.

Boris? On the nest, you ask? Yes, being a monogamous couple (at least during mating season) Boris and Doris take turns sitting on the egg. As far as I can tell, Doris sits during the day and does her food-finding at night. There is a Changing of the Guard each day around 4pm. OK I think I've gone on long enough about pigeons and their breeding habits. See what a little observation and a lot of Internet on a slow day at work can get ya?

Photog I am not

2008-02-27T23:57:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I fooled around a bit with the camera and tried out some different backgrounds for my jewelry pix. I really like the idea of using the map of SF and pairing it with the branch. But on the other hand, the colors and busy-ness of the map are a little distracting. Needless to say, many many many hundreds of photos were taken this weekend. Most of them dumpers. Maybe a dozen or two actually look decent. Thank god for digital. My uncle's a photographer and I always hoped that whatever artistic gene touched him also affected me. I may have an eye for some things, but lighting and shutter speed knowledge (not to mention steady hands) not so much...

Here's the latest piece I've made: cherry quartz wire-wrapped in gold-fill, about 2 inches long. This style of wire-wrapping is something new I'm trying out. This is only the second time I've done it. The wrapping is a little insane--my fingers and eyes hurt after a while! It was worth the pain though. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out actually!

So this next piece is what I'm going to refer to as the Holiday Party Necklace quite simply bc I wore it to my company holiday party. I'm deep. Faceted garnets asymmetrically lined up on gold-fill. I'm using a linen background--plain, but at least you get a good look at the necklace. I got a lot of compliments on it at the holiday party, too! But I feel compelled to mention that all my coworkers were probably sauced.

Love pigs

2008-02-18T17:40:00.000-08:00

Wow. This is a cry for help.
Here is how my boys spent Valentine's Day. On the menu: heart-shaped "lasagna" of lettuce, tomato, and shredded carrots.
There has got to be a 12-step program out there for me!

Super Quartzday

2008-02-05T20:49:00.000-08:00

Wait a second. No posts for weeks, and now two in one day? Get out! What can I say? I'm listening to the Super Tuesday results and, in the meantime, am on a roll with the blogging and picture taking. Here's a necklace I made fairly recently (a few months ago at least)--smokey quartz pendant, garnet, and amethyst tear drops wire-wrapped in gold-fill with a 3-inch extension. The zoomed-in pic shows off the colors a bit. It's another fave of mine--goes with nearly everything!

Labradorite & silver earrings

2008-02-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

It's taken a while, but you're finally looking at my first SugarCube Jewelry posting. These earrings are one of my favorites of the moment. They're made from labradorite, sterling silver and Swarovski crystal. Like all my jewelry pieces, they're handmade by yours truly! More jewelry pix to come for sure on the blog -- showcasing my jewelry was one of the main reasons for starting it. The BF is working on my Web site, which will be more of a gallery than a business site. It's slow-going, so stay tuned...

Cozy cousins

2008-01-14T18:01:00.000-08:00

This is from November 2007 when the cousins first met. Oliver looks petrified and Ryan Baby doesn't seem to know what to make of this black yam-shaped creature. At least Ryan is lookin' sweet in the Run DMC onesie I stencilled for him!! It was insane--it took me HOURS. I was off stencilling for a while after that...

Everyone got a stencil for xmas

2008-01-07T22:23:00.001-08:00

A few months ago, Elise told me about freezer paper stencils. Since then, I've gone a bit haywire with it. It's really a simple project (depending on your stencil!) and keeps me out of trouble for hours. Here's how: You find an image that you like, trace it onto freezer paper, cut it out with an x-acto, iron it onto a shirt and fill it in with fabric paint, making sure you iron on another piece of freezer paper to the reverse side of your stencil (the inside of the shirt) before you paint. You wait for the paint to dry, then rip off the freezer paper. And voila. The only bummer is that the freezer paper stencils are a one-time-use type of thing. So you only make them for people you really love!

Here are some cool onesies (sumo wrestler, guinea pig, Atari joystick) I made for Ryan Baby. I used onesies from American Apparel and Jacquard Textile paint.

Steve got a 21-window VW bus. Here it is in progress and the finished product. Oliver gives it a sniff of approval!

Gettin' to know you

2008-01-03T20:40:00.000-08:00

My first blog! I'll be posting pix of my piggies and other pet projects. My first post introduces our newest little boy, Rusty. Here, he and Oliver get to know each other and bond over some hay.