Tattered Saints

Slogging Along And Some Useful Tips...

Bleah.  I don't feel too perky today.  Here I am, in the most beautiful city and I don't feel like doing anything.  What a party pooper.  Super duper party pooper, that's me.  I'm even too lazy to drag my butt out to the studio to take pictures of the progress I've made out there.  Yeah, it actually IS improving...slightly.  Eventually, it will be so amazing and fantastic it will probably be featured in one of those magazines about artist's studios...you know...Where Women Create or whatever.  Yeah, right.  And if you believe THAT one I have a bridge in New York I'd like to sell you.  No one is going to feature anything about me anywhere in this lifetime...unless there's a magazine out there called "Don't Let This Happen To You".  Then I would be the freakin' COVER GIRL!!!  Anyhoo...thought I would post a few useful tips I came across while unpacking, sorting and rearranging.  Some of these are old news, but some I've not heard of before...here you go:

1.  Wrap celery in aluminum foil and put it in the fridge and it will keep for weeks.  (btw, I hate celery)

2.  To easily remove burnt on food from a skillet, add a drop or two of dish soap and enough water to cover the bottom of the pan and bring it to a boil on the stovetop.

3.  To clean artificial flowers, pour some salt into a paper bag and add the flowers.  Shake vigorously.  The salt will absorb all the dust and dirt.  Supposedly works like a charm.

4.  Use air-freshener to clean mirrors.

5.  Use Alka-Seltzer to clean a toilet.  Drop in two tablets and wait 20 minutes then brush and flush.  (is this cost effective?)

6.  Also use good old Alka-Seltzer to unclog a drain.  Drop three tablets down the drain followed by a cup of white vinegar.  Wait a few minutes and then run hot water down the drain.

7.  Bothered by flies or bees?  Spray them with hairspray.

8.  Feel the need to read someone else's mail?  Take the sealed envelope and put it in the freezer for a few hours then slide a knife under the flap.  The envelope can then be resealed.  (probably doesn't work with emails)

Pictures of the studio tomorrow, if I feel better.

Buh-bye.

The Name Game...

Remember that dumb arse song from  years ago? "Let's do SAM...Sam, Sam bo-bam, banana-fanna something something..."  Dumb.  Anyway back to the point of this post.  I now have ten bjd's (ball-jointed dolls) and honest to Abe, I've been having trouble remembering what company made each one and what-the-Sam-Hill-I-named-them.  Ah, give me a break...I've been busy moving and packing and unpacking and I'm OLD for Pete's sake.  So, I sat down and made a list...it may not be interesting to most people but I don't give a fat rat's tushy, here they are regardless and in no particular order...company name first, then their given name:

1.  Volks SD 13 Kira -  Kyan Jai Filicia

2.  Luts Mini Fee No. 7 Head - Kelsey Bleu

3.  Hybrid Luts Chiwoo Head and Elfdoll Wu body - Maks

4.  D.I.M. Archernar - Greyton Poe

5.  D.I.M. Bellosse - Tessa

6.  Kaye Wiggs Tiny Sage - Boo

7.  TinyBear Moona - Cayce

8.  Volks Yo SD Kun - Nic Nack

9.  Hybrid Alice in Labyrinth Alice Head and Volks SD10 Body - Mania

10.  Peakswood Skiya - Justine La Rue

Next, I'll prolly take pictures of each doll to match up with each name and description.  Think I don't have enough to do???  I have plenty to do...I just don't want to do it.  I think I deserve some play time...don't you??

Lost And Found And Lessons Learned...

I'm slowly plowing through the boxes in my studio and it really is a big mess.  I simply must find some sort of shelves or some kind of storage for all of the stuff.  I finally found my IPod yesterday...and a bathmat that I was looking for high and low.  I learned one very important lesson in moving...be more concise when marking the boxes.  Keep similar things together instead of throwing stuff from the bathroom in with stuff from the art studio. It will make life easier when you unpack.  The poor packing job wasn't entirely my fault, however.  A box that was packed by the so-called "professionals" had my monkey buffet lamp mixed in with Christmas decorations.  I was going nuts looking for that lamp and just by pure accident found it...I had thought it was gone for sure...nope, just poorly packed.  Another lesson learned...don't freak out until you know for sure there is a reason to freak out.                                       

 

 

New Girl...

The new girl arrived yesterday...I just love her face!  Her face-up is by SDink on Den of Angels and she does an amazing job.  The other new girl should arrive later today...that's the one from Haute Doll.  I'm struggling with names...In the past I've always found a name before I even found a doll, but now...it's different.  I may recycle a name or two from dolls I no longer have...we'll see. 

In the meantime...here is Miss No Name:

Back To The Frivolity...

I should know better than to post about politics or religion.  Geez people, keep your hair on...it was supposed to be funny.  Forget it...back to blogging about the silly things...

1.  What was the best thing before sliced bread?

2.  Would a fly without wings be called a "walk"?

3.  If a parsley farmer is sued, can they garnish his wages?

4.  What if there were no hypothetical questions?

5.  I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where is the self-help section?"  She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose. 

6.  Why is it called tourist season if we can't shoot at them?

7.  Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?

And now, back to ME.  I spent some time yesterday hanging pictures.  I'm trying to keep from making the walls look like Swiss cheese...I have so many hangable things it's ridiculous...but I did put my favorite John William Waterhouse print above the bed.

 

I've also been a very bad girl...yes, again!  I bought two more dolls this past week...YIKES.  I just bought a couple right before we moved and haven't even had time to do much of anything with them and now I have two more coming.  One is the Haute Doll exclusive that my friend Val Zeitler did for the magazine and I really, really wanted that doll and some of the outfits back when it came out but the prices were just too high.  Well, Haute Doll magazine has put the items on sale...I was able to get a doll, a pair of shoes and the one really expensive outfit for about $100.00 less than what the doll alone cost in the beginning...so actually, it was a bargain...right?!?!  Anyway...that's it for dolls for quite a while...I promise, cross my heart and stick a needle in my eye.  Pinky swear.  Spit and shake hands.  Sealed with a kiss.  Honest Abe.  Here's a picture of the guy I bought right before we moved:

 

I'm still dithering about his name.  I need to start writing down all the names of my dolls because I'm having trouble in my old age remembering what they are. 

 

This is my future "Doll Room".  Eventually, one of these days I'll have it fixed up with all of the furniture and doll related stuff.  Hope everyone has a nice weekend...

TTV Redux...

Since several people have emailed or posted with questions about the previous ttv pictures, I thought I would bring back the original post from last November...without further ado, I give you:

Obsession...

Everytime I think I've seen it all, done it all and can't possibly find another hobby or art form to indulge in...I find another one after all.  It all started last Sunday after a leisurely drive to Indiana to eat.  After a fine meal, we wandered down the street to an antique mall.  While browsing around, I found an old Kodak Duaflex camera.  I grabbed it, because I thought it was the right camera for something I had read about sometime back.  Called TTV for "Through The Viewfinder" it's a fascinating way of taking pictures using an old camera and a digital camera.  There are a bunch of places on the web to read about it.  Photojojo has a good one...better than I can describe anyway.  Go here to check it out.  Another great site is by Russ Morris. There is also a Flickr group devoted to TTV (of course...there's a Flickr group for everything)  Anyway...here is my Duaflex and contraption:

   

And my first efforts...

 

 

 

I'm loving this.  Photography takes me back to my creative roots.  It's one of the first artsy hobbies I really got into back in the day.  Back then, I used a 35mm Minolta which I still have...I really love the vintage look of these ttv shots.  The Duaflex camera I bought at the antique store has just the right amount of "dirt" on the lens to make a very cool looking picture.  My $15.00 investment was well worth it, in my opinion.  (What I'm not mentioning is that I had to go out and buy a macro lens for my digital camera...five hundred plus dollars...shhhhh...don't tell anyone!)  Eh, I needed the macro anyway, not just for the ttv stuff.  Anyhoo, I'll be giving you a break on the fabric designs for awhile and overloading you with ttv shots!  You've been warned...

  

Everytime I think I've seen it all, done it all and can't possibly find another hobby or art form to indulge in...I find another one after all.  It all started last Sunday after a leisurely drive to Indiana to eat.  After a fine meal, we wandered down the street to an antique mall.  While browsing around, I found an old Kodak Duaflex camera.  I grabbed it, because I thought it was the right camera for something I had read about sometime back.  Called TTV for "Through The Viewfinder" it's a fascinating way of taking pictures using an old camera and a digital camera.  There are a bunch of places on the web to read about it.  Photojojo has a good one...better than I can describe anyway.  Go here to check it out.  Another great site is by Russ Morris. There is also a Flickr group devoted to TTV (of course...there's a Flickr group for everything)  Anyway...here is my Duaflex and contraption:

   

And my first efforts...

 

 

 

I'm loving this.  Photography takes me back to my creative roots.  It's one of the first artsy hobbies I really got into back in the day.  Back then, I used a 35mm Minolta which I still have...I really love the vintage look of these ttv shots.  The Duaflex camera I bought at the antique store has just the right amount of "dirt" on the lens to make a very cool looking picture.  My $15.00 investment was well worth it, in my opinion.  (What I'm not mentioning is that I had to go out and buy a macro lens for my digital camera...five hundred plus dollars...shhhhh...don't tell anyone!)  Eh, I needed the macro anyway, not just for the ttv stuff.  Anyhoo, I'll be giving you a break on the fabric designs for awhile and overloading you with ttv shots!  You've been warned...

  

I Think I Might...

Get a t-shirt with this on it:

 

I don't know...I like it...what do you think?

Slowing Down...

Yeah, I'm still here.  I finally got all of the boxes in the house unpacked.  Really!  I am amazed.  What I really need to do next is get something to use to hang pictures and shelves...then I can get stuff put away and this might actually start to look like a normal house.  Maybe.  The next big project will be my studio which is still looks like a disaster area.  I've opened a bunch of boxes out there and pawed through some stuff but I have no way to organize or store anything at the present time, so that's on hold for now.  I really need to decide what kind of storage I want out there.  I'll look at some magazines for inspiration.  I so want to start creating again...I miss it.  Here's a quick and easy project that I might try later today: 

http://www.livingcreatively.com.au/projects/create_now_project.php?v=40

Looks simple enough, and no sewing which is good considering my sewing machine is buried somewhere. 

Have fun...

Peculiarly Haunting...

Finally got to take some ttv pictures in a cemetery...one of my favorite "haunts"  heh heh heh:

 

 

 

 

And a couple of non-ttv...just regular old photos:

 

 

 

I'm vastly pleased with myself.  *bows*  Thank you.

Wishes...

Light a match and make a wish.  If the match burns as long as you can hold it without breaking off, you will get your wish.  If two persons begin to speak on the same subject at the same time, they link their little fingers and whoever names an author first and makes a wish will have his/her wish granted.  If you find a fallen eyelash, place it on the back of your hand and make a wish.  Then turn the hand upside down three times, and if the eyelash stays on, you will get your wish.  Children can make a wish when they see a white horse.  The first time you kiss a new baby, make a wish and it will come true.