Archive for 2008

Batman is right because during our first encounter with Giant Moth, we were unsure whether or not it was of the blood-sucking-yet-crime-fighting species. Slightly disappointed, upon closer look we discovered that it sadly was not.

I’ve seen some big moths in my day, but this one was huge. I’m estimating that his wingspan was about five inches across.

Apparently Giant Moth has a certain fondness for our red door because he made more than one visit. Unfortunately, he decided to leave and discover brave new worlds before I was able to get a better photo of him.

Now you know how often I don’t wash my windows.

Notice Giant Moth’s torn wing. It kinda makes me wonder what kind of eeeevil villains he overcame that day.

What a hero, that Giant Moth.

It’s 4am on a week night. My husband is already gone to work for the day. I’m having one of my normal bouts of insomnia and am putting together an order online for some jewelry supplies.

My cellphone rings. I pick it up, slightly panicking, thinking it’s the man and something bad happened. The caller ID says “private”. I answer anyway, thinking there’s a possibility it could be the man calling from some other line to tell me something bad happened.

“Hello?”
“Are you awake?”

*confused silence*

“I’m sorry?”
“Did I wake you up?”
“I think you have the wrong number.”

*confused silence*

“Is this (fill in last 4 numbers here)?”
“Yes.”

*confused silence*

“So, yeah, I think you have the wrong number.”
“Is this a (fill in city name here) number?”
“Yes.”

*confused silence followed by my impatient silence*

“You’ve really… you really confused me just now.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So did I wake you up?”

*annoyed blood pressure rising*

“No.”
“You were awake already?”
“Yes.”
“Huh. So, you wanna chat for a while? I’m bored outta my mind.”
“Well, I’m kind of busy, so…”
“Huh?”

*louder and more firmly* “I’m kind of busy, so…”

*confused silence*

“Yeah, well, I hope you find who you are looking for. Have a good night.”
“Oh.”

*click*

I call my husband to tell him about this bizarre call, slightly freaked since I’m home alone. I double check all the locks on the doors and turn up the volume on my ears to make sure I hear anything out of place. Hubby reassures me it was nothing to worry about and gets back to work.

Ten minutes later, my cellphone rings. I jump out of my skin and right before having a heart attack, I see that it is only hubby calling.

Apparently Mr. Random has not found who he is looking for, because someone J-Diddy works with has just received the same phone call. Her number just so happens to be one digit different than mine.

People, please don’t do drugs. Please.

And please don’t chat with Mr. Random when he calls you at 4am. Bored as he may be, I don’t think he needs that type of encouragement.

… of the certain home goods store that shall forever and a day remain nameless.

Oh yes, bloggy buds. The story lives on. And on. And on. It never dies. It never sleeps, though it haunts me in mine.

This latest chapter in our little story does not include a package, however. Oh no. This time it includes a random online banking check-in (which I try to do often to keep up on the finances and such) and a credit to my card. A credit for the exact amount of my original purchase, for which I was charged but once.

So now the story reads:

One order
Of six items
Sent twelve times
With zero dollars out of my pocket

People, you cannot make this stuff up.

I’m not quite sure what to do at this point other than curl into a fetal position, crying and questioning my very existence on this insane planet. With the economy being in the toilet and all, is it really wise to both waste product and give away free cash? I’m thinking that’s a no.

I owe all of my jewelry customers a big apology. Never have I sent multiple products over and over again for free. I didn’t realize this was how retail worked. They don’t teach you these fine points of business sense in college, you know. If only all businesses operated backwards this way. Can you imagine?

One mortgage note
Twelve houses
Zero monthly mortgage payment

One full time job
Plus twelve hours overtime
Zero income

One Crystal
Twelve blogs
Zero sanity

I always liked math in school, but this has been a wee bit ridiculous, don’t you think? My brain hurts.

But someone’s gotta do it.

That someone is me and my mama. Those fingers in the photo belong to yours truly. Surprisingly, they are actually pretty clean for an afternoon at the bench. Those fingers usually walk away much dirtier than that, but it was a relatively small job and I had already washed them a few times in between.

That green stuff, if you’re wondering, is a safety tape that helps protect my tender little digits from burns while polishing metal. You’d be surprised at how quickly metal heats up to incredible ouchiness while being polished by a rotary tool at 22,000 RPM.

My poor little fingers. I abuse them so. You see the bandaid under the safety tape? That was from jamming the tip of an X-Acto knife into it while cleaning my bench. Cleaning is bad, bloggy buds, and trying to put a cover on an X-Acto knife when the cover belongs to your OTHER X-Acto knife, so it does not fit this one properly is even more bad. I jammed it in pretty good. Shhhh, don’t tell my doctor… I’m not exactly up to date on my tetanus shot.

Ah well. All the dirt, shmudge, cuts, bruises and burns are worth it cause those dirty and abused fingers make such pretty things.

Like this pair of tassel earrings:

Or this textured pendant made from metal clay:

How about some gorgeous pink coral stones from Hawaii?

Or another PMC pendant, this time with a Celtic knot:

Aren’t you glad we aren’t afraid of getting our hands a little (or a lot!) dirty?

I’m guessing we won’t qualify for a visit from Mike Rowe.

I think he’s my new hero.

Excerpt from YouTube:

“Jay Whaley, a goldsmith and university instructor from San Diego, demonstrates the process of making a silver bezel from rough-poured ingot through smooth-finished bezel.”

Dude does this in a mere 2 minutes, 35 seconds. Is that cool, or is that cool?! The big tool he uses to draw the wire is called a rolling mill, one of the three biggies on my wish list. Only his rolling mill is probably one of the ones that costs more than I make in a year.

The stuff heroes are made of. If you’re a metal head like yours truly, I mean. *wink*

I’m there, yo.

I’m pretty low maintenance when it comes to accessories, except for jewelry of course. I generally do not pay more than $20 for a purse, and that’s on the high end. I buy cheap and somehow they still last longer than I care for them to. My latest purse came from Target. If I ever spend big bucks on a bag, it will be a handmade one, a one-of, not a mass produced “designer” thing. But since I don’t pay more than $20 for a purse, that will likely not ever happen.

So as you see, I’m very frugal when it comes to accessories (except for jewelry, of course!), so winning a free bag is just my style.

Wish me luck! (And enter yourself here: http://www.handbagplanet.com/)

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life – a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And you make it as entertaining as possible. You may be guilty of over-sharing a bit on your blog, but you can’t help it. Your life is truly an open book. Or in this case, an open blog!

That’s the sound I heard early yesterday afternoon. Someone was at my door. Who could it be?

FedEx guy, of course. What was he delivering this time?

A box from a certain home goods store which shall, yet again, remain nameless.

And what was in that box from the certain home goods store which shall yet again remain nameless?

Five of the six original items that I ordered but once yet arrived eleven times already. What else could it be? I mean, these things are obviously drawn to me as if I’m emitting bamboo/wood-like photo prop item vibes. It’s only natural that this set arrive at the mother ship too. Heaven forbid they get left out.

Why five instead of six?

The tissue box cover is on back order.

What ever could have caused that? Surely not the fact that they sent their entire fleet of bamboo/wood-like photo prop tissue box covers to me already! Oh no. That can’t be it.

FedEx guy must think I’m insane. Just wait until he returns later, as I’m certain he will, with the back order.

Bamboo/wood-like tissue box cover, anyone? I’m not quite sure I’m calling them again. I’m not quite sure it will even matter. I fear that for every time I contact this company, they will send me even more random items from their inventory. Maybe they’re trying to unload before the end of the year for tax purposes. Maybe they want to have pieces “conveniently” go missing so they can have a big insurance claim. Maybe they think I’m cute. Maybe they read my blog and wanted some press.

Maybe I’ll start randomly mailing them things. A toothbrush, perhaps. A candy wrapper. A dog. My bills. Do you think that will stop the madness? Or am I forever stuck in a groundhog-day-esque nightmare of repeat tissue box cover shipments?!

Come quickly, Lord. The world has gone mad, the home goods store that shall yet again remain nameless is composed entirely of ding-dongs, and my house simply is not that big.

… a man and his gee-tar (yes, “geeee-tar” is how you properly pronounce “guitar”. Texan 101.).

And ooooh, the bokeh. Canon 50mm 1.8. *love*

*sigh*

*another sigh*

*daydreams about her future macro, for which she still has commitment issues*

*one more sigh*

I need your help, bloggy buds. I’d really like to move away from blogger and get my own domain name. However, I can’t figure out one I like that also sticks with the name of my blog. I don’t really want to change its name; I like its name.

Heyulp!

I’ll make it worth your while. If you help me pick a winner, and I actually purchase the name, I’ll throw in a little reward for you. What kind of reward? Well, I’m sure you can figure that out. I mean, what do I spend my days doing? Hmm? *grin*

Help me, help you. (Did I just quote Tom Cruise? Are the aliens going to come eat me now?) I’d really like to stick with a .com, and it can’t be incredibly long (as if 2bellesandabead.com isn’t long… but hey, it STICKS with ya, you know?).

So what do you say? Ideas?

You can check to see if your domain name ideas are available at GoDaddy.