I made swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes for dinner. I am so full right now. Also very satisfied and feeling extremely comforted. It was soooo good.
Someone contacted me the other day asking if I had earrings to match a necklace she had. I happened to have a pair that matched perfectly and sent her a picture. Her response: That will do.
Listen man, when people make their living off of art, whether it be music or paintings or underwater basketweaving, have some fucking respect for their creativity. If the best you can muster is a “this will do” you’re being an insulting insensitive asshole. You don’t have to like it. But the worst thing you can do is be indifferent.
Beautiful Herkimer Diamond Crystal Cluster with Breathtaking Golden Inclusions, Excellent Clarity, and Pristine Natural Terminations from Middleville, New York!
Message me Directly to Purchase the Authentic Herkimer Cluster in This Video!
Available Now at Northern Maine Minerals Rock & Gem Shop in Historic Downtown Greenville, Maine!
From Washington, D.C., the rings would only fill a portion of the sky, but appear striking nonetheless. Here, we see them at sunrise.
From Guatemala, only 14 degrees above the equator, the rings would begin to stretch across the horizon. Their reflected light would make the moon much brighter.
From Earth’s equator, Saturn’s rings would be viewed edge-on, appearing as a thin, bright line bisecting the sky.
At the March and September equinoxes, the Sun would be positioned directly over the rings, casting a dramatic shadow at the equator.
At midnight at the Tropic of Capricorn, which sits at 23 degrees south latitude, the Earth casts a shadow over the middle of the rings, while the outer portions remain lit.
Ive always thought of it as such a luxury. I was gifted two paintings by an artist I found thru tumblr. I felt ao fancy when I hung them. Im still proud!
Yes! and buying it yourself is way different from art you inherited through mom and dad. I can’t wait to get it and hang it up in my studio!!
Someone just sent me an image of another local artist’s work with an arrow pointing to one of their necklaces and said she would like me to “make something like that but in white and gold”.
Why would you do that? Why wouldn’t you just go to the other artist and have them make it?
First of all showing me someone else’s work and asking me to make something in their style is fucking insulting. That’s not my style. If you want my work buy my pieces. Also I don’t copy other people’s work. And last, I would never undercut another artist and take a sale from them that I felt was rightfully theirs.
I put a downpayment on the painting I commissioned today. It made me feel like such a grown up to be buying art.
We have a large collection of original art in my family home as my father’s work took him all over the world and he purchased pieces everywhere he went. Some of them were bought in markets and fairs and aren’t worth much. Some come from galleries by established artists. And a lot are sort of in the middle somewhere. Even when my parents had very little money my father bought art. I don’t think for him it was about investment, he just bought what he liked, but we do have some that are worth money.
I think I’ve always kind of taken it for granted in a way. Then when people would come over they would marvel at all the paintings and I realised that not everybody has art in their homes.
The piece I’m having done is small, the style is very illustrative. I don’t know if it will be worth money one day but I know the artist is about to take off. But that’s not why I’m buying it. I just love her style and her spirit and I want one of her pieces. I’m excited. I can’t wait to see what she does for me.
I did one of those facebook thingies where it’s like enhance your profile pic! and this was the result. They lightened my skin. Ugh. The makeup looks lovely though I have to admit. Never worn that much makeup but I should try it out one day. A friend of mine said I looked like Jasmine from Aladdin lol.
Check out my latest blog post and download this handy ring sizer!
Yesterday I commissioned someone to do a painting for me. Not a lot of money, but she’s an amazing artist and from the moment I saw her work I really fell in love with her style. Yesterday we (and she) found out that she’s going to be doing the official Christmas card of our new president. This is amazing because a) she is our first female president, b) she chose a female artist for her FIRST Christmas card and c) this card is going to heads of state all over the world.
This is the kind of break that happens once in a lifetime. I’m SO happy for her.
I am waiting for my big break to happen for me too. I don’t know if it will be quite so epic but I know at some point it will come.
But anyway, I just invested in my first piece of art.
This very moment may seem like any other. It may not seem very special. However, look back onto your life. All of those moments that are the most significant to you now once felt just like any other one as well.
I like watching Riverdale, it’s like watching Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys in the modern era. But one thing that struck me today is Luke Perry… he’s basically looked the same for the past 25 years. What must it be like to look middle aged when you’re in your twenties? I guess it’s working for him now.
A someone with a career in retail, you are exactly right. Handling bad customers with grace gains you a great reputation as someone worth working with and buying from.
I went to a marketing seminar today. It was free so I figured why not.
One of the topics that came up more than once was people dealing with shitty customers. Customers who don’t value their work, who claim someone else can do it for a lower price, who give the seller attitude. Most of the people who encountered these problems dealt with it by giving it right back to the customer.
I don’t have these kinds of problems with my business. And I don’t believe it necessarily has to do with the products that I sell. I think it is my attitude.
My friend C, sells jewelry as well and encounters issues like this. She sat with me at a market the other day (I was selling she was just keeping me company) and several times she commented on the nasty attitude of this person or how this person turned up her face when she looked at my pieces etc. I saw none of that. To her I am completely oblivious to it. But I think it may be that she is reading into things that have nothing to do with me or my products.
The bottom line is that I don’t take anything personally. If someone is shitty to me (I can’t recall it ever happening to be honest but sometimes people don’t respond with warmth to your approach, which for me is to be very friendly) then I figure it’s either their personality, or they’re having a bad day, they’re distracted…whatever. I just don’t make it about it me.
Also I do not have the expectation that I will have to defend my work or my prices. Ever. If it’s too expensive for you then you’re not my customer. Again, nothing personal. I don’t see it as my business to care about your feelings (like it is LITERALLY not my business). I approach every encounter from a neutral place. You like it? You wanna buy it? Cool. You don’t? Cool. Either way, I’m cool.
My job as I see it is to make beautiful pieces that you can’t resist and to give you a positive encounter in your purchasing process. It is not my job to assess your mood, tone of voice, or whether or not you like my work. Not everyone is going to like your work. And I get more than enough positive feedback that when someone wrinkles their nose and says it’s not their kind of thing, I’m very ok with that. Cause… it’s not their kind of thing. That is how I deal with people in my everyday life. Not everyone is going to like me. That’s fine. In business you have to divorce yourself emotionally from your work. And I saw today that a lot of people can’t do that. And they burn bridges because of it.
What I learnt most from this seminar is that I’m doing a lot of things right. And that was some really great positive reinforcement for me.
I got invited to do a small pop up tomorrow… I’m still tired from yesterday but I gotta make that dinero. I have a bunch of orders to fill this week too… And a market on Saturday. But hey busy is better than not.
Scientific fact, actually. Researchers at the University of Toronto Scarbrough found that White people’s neuron system fired less when viewing people of color performing actions, which indicates that they have an emotional disconnect when thinking about people of color; in essence they really don’t connect with us on a basic level of human empathy. (Source) The same people tested scored higher on a subtle racism test, as well.
Jesus
Reason why I don’t trust or fuck with white people proven by science.
There was actually a study done (if better science Tumblr wanna link the source that would be awesome) where they showed a Black person’s hand being tortured and a purple hand being tortured and measured the empathetic response and ppl actually had more empathy and a higher emotional response for a purple ass alien hand being tortured than a Black person’s hand smh
I have an episode of The Good Fight to watch and I am sort of saving it, a delicious delayed gratification. It’s one of my favourite shows on tv, especially because of all the fascinating, strong, complex female characters. Every episode is fantastic, it never disappoints.
Don’t be the reason someone feels insecure. Be the reason someone feels seen, heard and supported.
“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.”
I just saw a guy place a listing for four TT 1 cent coins on facebook. He is charging $5 for the four plus $2 shipping. Together they are worth less than 1 cent US. I need to get into this racket!
I keep thinking I need to get up and do something productive today. But then I remind myself that a) it’s Sunday and b) I worked hard yesterday and c) I can just relax.
“For years mental health professionals taught people that they could be psychologically healthy without social support, that ‘unless you love yourself, no one else will love you’ …The truth is, you cannot love yourself unless you have been loved and are loved. The capacity to love cannot be built in isolation.”
I think the worst thing about Kindle Unlimited is that there are so many books that I know I will never have time to read. And when you have to pay for them individually you can kind of accept that like ok it’s too expensive anyway I can deal with having to leave all of these unread, but when you have basically endless selections available your hearts starts to hurt for all the stories you will never have time to explore.
A list of women receiving recognition and acclaim for their work on Killing Eve:
Adapter, creator, showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who diversified the cast and flipped genders of characters and traditional narrative roles assigned to men and women. Her voice pretty much bleeds through every inappropriate laugh Killing Eve prompts from the audience.
Lead actress Sandra Oh who, at 46 and finally leading a show of her own, anchors the narrative with the grounded realism (and eccentricity and fanaticism) of protagonist Eve Polastri.
Second lead actress Jodie Comer, whose turn as an unpredictable, uninhibited yet endearing psychopath has led to descriptions of her performance being “revelatory.”
Costume designer Phoebe de Gay, responsible for giving Villanelle her distinctive Looks, particularly the choice to pair the boots with the poofy pink dress, (and for That Dress that Villanelle gives Eve).
BBC America president Sarah Barnett, who was among those who sought out Waller-Bridge to adapt the Luke Jennings novels and then threw the network’s weight behind the show by renewing it for a second season before it premiered.
🙂
This show is FANTASTIC! I’m a little late to the party, but got damn I’m glad I’m here!
Jesus these markets mess up my back so much. Right now between my shoulders is in knots I need to squeeze out some tension. It’s the one thing I hate about doing markets, the guaranteed back pain. I sat instead of stood when I was setting up my table, I took painkillers, and still my back is a MESS. Imagine if we could get new spines? I have a friend who has scoliosis and had rods put in her back and one of them was apparently too long and it sticks up under her skin. What kind of whack doctor would do that? Fucking Trinidad man. So yeah I would love a massage right now.
This year I decided to get really serious about my finances and in particular my credit card debt (it is not very high, but I do not like having a balance at all) and made a serious effort to pay it off by the end of the year.
The worst habit I have is that I get a new idea or find a new creative direction I HAVE to explore it and then go and invest money in it to experiment. Sometimes, like the resin, it pays off. Most times after I experiment I lose interest and it comes to nothing.
At this point I have my direction figured out for my line. It’s working really well for me. So I made up my mind this year that I was going to invest in new supplies for my existing line ONLY and not go wild with new ideas. It has taken a LOT of discipline. But I’ve stuck to it and finally my finances are reflecting this. By next month I should have 2/3 of my debt paid off. I can pay it all off, but we are entering a lean period where people don’t buy so I’m being cautious. But I’m really proud of my efforts. They’ll make an adult of me yet.
I did this market today that I almost cancelled going to because I felt the person putting it on was doing a shitty job or promoting it. But I had already paid my money and decided fuck it this will be the last one. But then miraculously it turned out well. I expected I would lose money.
My friends Camille and Andrew, and married couple, came and hung out with me for most of the day and that REALLY helped too. Andrew got tired and went to sleep in his truck and Camille, who also makes jewelry, and I had so much fun together talking shop. It’s so nice to have someone who shares my passion to talk to. All in all it was a really good day. And considering how low my expectations were, every part of it was a bonus.
Three times this week people recognized me because of my resemblance to my father. That’s a little unusual, well a lot unusual. But it felt nice. I don’t see the resemblance but I hear it enough to know that everyone sees him when they see me. Hiiiiiieeee dad!
I got a surprise phone call last night. One of my best friends, who has stopped speaking to me, through no fault of my own, called me and apologized for his behaviour.
I was really surprised but happy to hear from him. I’ve been worried about him. His mother has dementia and he has been taking care of her on his own. His waste of time brother will not even visit for mother’s day. I think he’s been going a little crazy from the stress and he was lashing out at everyone in a cry for help.
He does not have any family who will help him. His friends are all he has. I will make more of an effort moving forward to support him through this because I know he feels like he is drowning. If y’all have any experience in dealing with this and can throw me some advice I’d appreciate it.
When I was fresh out of college I briefly dated a guy who was fun and sweet but got way too serious about me way too fast. I’ll call him M.
After he acted in a manner that I felt was immature and inappropriate in front of my parents I realised he wasn’t right for me, even as a fling. My dog had also loudly voiced her disapproval by puking on him and then pointedly look straight at me. It was all I needed to know, and I broke up with him.
Shortly thereafter I woke up one night and found him standing outside my window calling my name. I was groggy and half asleep but felt my heart leap out of my chest when he asked me if I hadn’t heard him when he came by an hour ago. He had climbed the gate and come on to our property to get to my bedroom at the back of the house. I did not show my fear but simply brushed him off and told him I was sleepy and to leave, which he did. I gave him a stern talking to the next day, however.
Another night I had gone clubbing and stayed talking in the car with a friend’s boyfriend who had dropped me home. A white car sped past us up our dead end street and he commented that this had been the second time he had seen it. As it passed us on its way back I saw M in the car. Was he following me? Spying on me? Doing random drive by’s outside my house? That really creeped me out but I decided not to say anything to him fearing it make him act worse.
For years when I met knew people that knew him they’d give me that, “Ohhhhh YOU’RE Natasha. Yeah, I’ve head about you,” reaction. I would wonder what the fuck he was telling everyone. To me we had a fling of a few months. To him it sounded like he’d lost the love of his life. I still get some really dirty looks from certain people to this day.
Fast forward many years. He had migrated to Canada, married and divorced, had a kid, and he friended me on Facebook. I figured it was harmless to add him as he was far away Over time we would chat here and there and he seemed a little more balanced, more grown up. He came back to Trinidad a couple of times and we’d meet up with mutual friends and have drinks.
And then he started up again. He’d invite me over to his place. I’d decline. He’d try to entice me with the promise of sex not realising he was turning me off. I made it clear I just wanted to be friends. Over and over again. He’d make it known to everyone that he was still crazy about me, never once realising that I was responding with stony silence. It came to a head when he told me that he was convinced our story wasn’t over yet. That he KNEW we were going to get back together. I had recently gotten together with Chris, which he knew, but he would not respect my boundaries or that of my new relationship. I had had enough. I read him the riot act. I told him I was fed up, that since he refused to listen to me we could no longer be friends and to leave me alone. And cut him off of all social media.
I haven’t heard from him since. But knowing him, I am sure every time he comes back home he makes sure to let our many mutual friends and acquaintances know what a horrible person I am. I avoid him like the plague. I saw him once in the mall a year ago and ran the other direction.
Anyway the moral of the story is, I really should have listened to my dog.
Facebook did some bullshit last night where it made one of my business pages the manager over the other and I cannot post from it and it’s not appearing on my list. I am so fucking pissed right now. I have no idea how to change this.
Not to critique evolution, but I would think orange and black stripes wouldn’t be as good for camouflage in a forest as, say, green and black would.
It turns out a lot of animals can’t see the difference between orange and green! Elephants, for instance, have dichromatic vision (two types of cones, rather than three like most humans.)
Check out this diagram from ResearchGate. It deals with the color vision of horses, who are also generally dichromatic. (I think, though I’m not sure, that zebras would have the same color vision as horses.) See how orange and green look to them?
Not to critique evolution but I think prey animals should be better at telling when their predator is dressed like a traffic cone.
It doesn’t matter what zebras see, because tigers are not native to Africa and do not naturally hunt zebra. Tigers are Asian and mostly hunt animals like deer, elk, and buffalo. These aren’t animals with great color vision. They don’t need to have it because they don’t eat fruit and so don’t need to know when the berry is ripe vs when it’s not. Good color vision is too expensive to have if you don’t need it. Deer put their vision stats in a wide field of vision that is sensitive to motion, low light capabilities, and possibly seeing UV light. They don’t have great color and lack a lot of acuity, but have a great sense of smell and good hearing. That’s way more useful if you’re prey. Deer see well in the blue end of the color spectrum and less well in the red. This makes sense because deer are most active in the dawn and dusk periods, when there is more blue in the light. Tigers are taking advantage of deer eyesight by being orange.
We see tigers are being obviously colored because tigers are fruit colored to our tree ape brains.
I don’t know what the best part of this is: implying that deer chose their attributes on a character sheet, or the fact that we get to see tiger colors because they look like a snack.
Ok but like, I think you underestimate just how well they blend in when actually in the environment. Like, just using tigers as an example.
or how about a leopard?
It’s called ‘disruptive colouration’ because the markings help to break up the animal’s outline against the grasses or rocks. And the rosettes on leopards and jaguars? Sun spots shining through the trees and leaves on the ground.
And this is how hard it is to spot them WITH colour vision. Now imagine the above images but with the limited coloured mentioned above?
I’m sorry but there is not an animal in that first leopard picture
Are you, sure about that?
“Tigers are fruit colored” is my new favorite phrase.
Insane51 is a Greek mural artist and painter based in Athens, Greece. He started off as a graffiti writer in 2007 and currently is a student in Athens School of Fine Arts and has participated in various festivals in Europe.
I had the worst headache of my life last night. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was nauseous from the pain. I couldn’t find my excedrin so I took an anti histamine to knock me out but that didn’t even work. I eventually passed out watching a documentary. I woke up feeling exhausted. I’d take a sick day today but I can do some work on the computer so I should get working on my look book that I am inexplicably procrastinating on.
I cannot sell what I don’t have. I have people who will see pieces of jewelry, usually the druzy necklaces online and will message me about them and then go, “Ok great I’ll take that one in purple!” And I’ll have to explain that I don’t have it in purple, this is the colour it comes in. Then they’ll find another picture of a purple druzy pendant I have and tell me they want that one but in the size/shape of another one that I have. And again I’ll have to patiently explain that I have what I have, and then I have to tell them that I don’t cut these stones myself. I purchase them that way. And they’re all surprised. And it takes ten minutes of back and forth for them to understand that they can’t just order a stone. I’m not a magician. I can’t make it out of think air.
I had one of those this morning. Before I had my breakfast. I just can’t today.
“I don’t think people love me. They love versions of me I have spun for them, versions of me they have construed in their minds. The easy versions of me, the easy parts of me to love.”
I didn’t have breakfast, so was lunch breakfast and dinner (a small amount eaten at 8PM), lunch? If so, when do I eat dinner? A little snack would probably not hurt you.
I had lunch food for breakfast and soup for lunch but that was around 5…6? So i’m thinking yeah maybe something else to tide me over.
It’s called A Quiet Life In The Country by T E Kinsey. It’s apparently there’s a series of four books and they’re all available with Kindle Unlimited (audiobooks as well).
I was listening to an audiobook all day that was set in 1920′s England and the main character was a chipper older woman noblewoman turned sleuth. And now everything I’m reading I’m hearing it in her voice and it’s quite amusing!
I was talking to a guy who owns and optician business a few days ago. And we were discussing how after 40 your eyes change and for some people their vision actually gets better. I was telling him how I had found myself taking off my glasses because I could suddenly see clearer than with them on. And that I had gone to check my prescription and was told it was the same. And he shook his head and told me that no, it must have changed.
I used to wear them for graphics work, to see on my phone and when I’m doing detailed jewelry work. Now I rarely put them on at all. Even typing this on the computer, I put them on and took them off again because I was definitely seeing better without them.
So maybe what I need to do is go to HIS company and get my eyes tested. Although why bother right? It seems I don’t need glasses anymore.
An old friend of mine worked at a radio station in PR, so she was in charge of prizes etc. I went to so many free concerts/got so much free stuff when she worked there lol
Chris texted me this morning to tell me a friend of his had asked if we wanted comps for some reggae concert coming up and if he could send my contact info so I said yeah.
His friend just texted to say they’re announcing our names on air as the winners. So I guess friend works for a radio station and chose us as the winners. The moral of the story is if you thought these things were rigged the yes they are.
soulsistrin 