Tired. We are setting up for the Emancipation Village today. It’ll be five days of vending. I’ve been working my ass off making new stock for this event. It is beastly hot right now so I am taking refuge at my friend Rohan’s shop while he organizes his stuff. We will wait for the sun to go down before we got back out there. Thank god for AC.
I’ve wanted to work with resin for a long time time. Yesterday I cast three pendants using resin and pine. I coloured the resin blue and added some tiny pieces of seaweed to this one.
I sanded down the resin to give it a shape and some facets at the top using sandpaper from 100-2000 grit and then gave it a good polish.
This isn’t the best resin for this project, it doesn’t cure hard enough. After 24 hours there was still some bend in this piece but it was hard enough to sand and polish. It’s just a practice piece so I don’t mind and I’ve ordered another brand that’s more expensive but harder and clearer.
Regardless I’m pretty pleased considering the only tool I had was a rotary tool which I used to saw the wood and sand the piece after. I made some mistakes design-wise so I know what to do next time around. I have two other pieces to play with which I’ll get to probably next week. I’m excited to try out this new medium. It holds a lot of promise.
I have a bowl I always put them in but I was going directly into my studio and so put them on the shelf so I wouldn’t get them damaged by whatever I was working on and of course forgot that I put them there
I left some stuff polishing in the tumbler a while ago. I just went to empty it out and realised I forgot to put water in the tumbler so nothing got polished and it all looks like dull sludge. I just poured the end of a bottle of coke on the shot to get the residue off so it’ll be clean when I run it again later. Fuck today’s been a day.
I went back to the place that replaced my iphone screen last week to have them change out my battery. For the past month I’ve had to charge it up several times a day. So far percentage-wise it hasn’t budged in the past hour. Yay!
I bought one of those collapsible trolley carts and some bins to transport my jewelry stuff so I don’t have to keep lugging it around and killing my back. Since I’m doing markets every week now I think I need to go as easy on my body as I can.
I went to the grocery to pick up a couple of things and left with a new Magic Bullet (mini). I’ve wanted on for a long time but I was always reluctant to bring one in because of how much they might stick me with the duty charges. But the mini was the right price so while it was an impulse purchase in a sense it was long overdue. So I can stop paying through the nose now for smoothies and hummus.
I now have no money left in my budget for this week. But that’s ok I got some stuff taken care of that I really needed to see to. This weekend is Emancipation celebrations and I’ll be selling for five days straight. I’ll make it up for sure.
I learned in a Latin Studies class (with a chill white dude professor) that when the Europeans first saw Aztec cities they were stunned by the grid. The Aztecs had city planning and that there was no rational lay out to European cities at the time. No organization.
When the Spanish first arrived in Tenochtitlan (now downtown mexico city) they thought they were dreaming. They had arrived from incredibly unsanitary medieval Europe to a city five times the size of that century’s london with a working sewage system, artificial “floating gardens” (chinampas), a grid system, and aqueducts providing fresh water. Which wasn’t even for drinking! Water from the aqueducts was used for washing and bathing- they preferred using nearby mountain springs for drinking. Hygiene was a huge part if their culture, most people bathed twice a day while the king bathed at least four times a day.
Located on an island in the middle of a lake, they used advanced causeways to allow access to the mainland that could be cut off to let canoes through or to defend the city. The Spanish saw their buildings and towers and thought they were rising out of the water. The city was one of the most advanced societies at the time.
Anyone who thinks that Native Americans were the savages instead of the filthy, disease ridden colonizers who appeared on their land is a damn fool.
I bought some elf cosmetics the other day and I got some free stuff with my order. One of the items was this gel eyeliner and I have been really pleasantly surprised. I have very oily skin and Trinidad is a very humid place so makeup just tends to slip off my face, especially eyeliner. But this stuff really stays put… I got soaked in the rain the other day and it didn’t budge. For $3 a pop I think I might get all the other colours. I think half my makeup right now is elf… I’m hooked on their prices and the quality of their makeup. I’m just really happy I discovered this. I’m gonna throw out the rest of my eyeliners cause I’m over the raccoon eyes.
I’m at the market today and this woman comes over to look at my stuff and there’s a kid with her who is playing with a Rubik’s cube. I can tell that he’s a boss at it.
So I ask him how many faces he can do and he says, “All of them.” And he starts furiously working it as I look on and within about twenty seconds he had it all done. I was damn impressed. Sometimes kids make you feel stupid.
Girls with big noses are so fucking pretty and I’m not just saying this as a fake uwu positivity thing but genuinely… like I see girls with big bold noses and they looks so fucking regal like ROYALTY like holy shit… and like girls with hooked noses look so gorgeous and magical wow… girls with big noses are so special and UNIQUE and look Fantastic and I love them
I saw a post today that reminded me of the year I turned 22.
I don’t know how it stacks up in terms of the other really large life events that I’ve been through (divorce, death of a parent), but it was definitely one of the worst years of my life.
That year, in this order, my aunt died of cancer, my cousin committed suicide, and I found out, by accident mind you, about the existence of a half sister that had been hidden from us our entire lives. To say I was having a difficult year would be an understatement.
Then in September, one of my best friends from from high school in Caracas who was now at college with in Miami with me, died in a motorcycle accident. His kid brother, who was on the back of the bike, passed away five days later.
If I ever stared crazy in the face it was then. I think if one more thing had happened it would have pushed me over the edge. At 22 I did not have the tools that I have now to deal with these kinds of massive life events. Even so I would struggle today to deal with all of that.
22 was a very hard year. I was never so glad to see a year end.
This does happen to me. Sometimes I’ll see or hear something in a Romance language similar to Spanish (like Catalan or Italian) and it takes a little bit for my brain to say, “hey that’s not Spanish dummy”
Yes it’s usually romance languages for me too. Today it was French. They’re similar enough
Also, I cannot hear Spanish, or even a Spanish speaking person speaking English with an accent, and not have my mind switch over to Spanish. The thing is I think that’s a really normal thing when you speak more than one language. But people who don’t seem to get a real kick out of it and find it weird of funny which for some reason really irritates the heck out of me.
My half sister’s mother passed away yesterday. And my first thought was, “Sue’s an orphan now.”
Which may not technically be true, because she does have a dad who adopted her when he married her mom but I’m not sure he’s still alive.
Her mom had been ailing for a while so I know she was well prepared.
I was thinking back to how her arrival into our family’s life caused so much chaos in my parents’ marriage. She was born before our parents even met, and my mother always knew of her. But I think there was a silent agreement that she’d stay away. And when she did finally make contact with my Dad when I was 22, it sort of acted as a catalyst to bring all of the problems in their marriage to the surface. And things went from bad to worse and never got better after that.
I think my mom felt very threatened by her existence. Threatened by my dad’s relationship with her, and was protective too, of the family she had made with him. My father didn’t exactly handle it with grace either, he tried to force a relationship with them. And so my mother dug her heels in and refused to have anything to do with her.
It was only a few years ago that Sue finally made her way to Trinidad for the first time to meet her relatives. And she and my mom finally met and they got along fantastically. They still keep in touch to this day. And it really saddens me that our dad had to die before they could have a relationship.
My brother and sister don’t speak to her, for reasons of their own. So in a sense I’m happy that I can share that bond now with my mom. The truth is, I’m not in the least bit surprised that my mother took a liking to her. I knew she would. I just wish she would have given it a chance sooner. But I also wish my dad had been more sensitive to her feelings in the way he handled the situation. If wishes were horses though right?
I hope I see her again sometime soon. I’ll have to make my way to England, but I’m sure I can come up with a good excuse to do so. Until then, we always have Facebook.
I was just reading the instructions on something and it took me several minutes to realise I was reading it in a foreign language. That ever happen to you? Or you’re watching something on tv and it doesn’t register for a while that it’s not in English? It’s so weird man
So many of us work side hustles and I want to support everyone I can. If you have an Etsy/eBay/posh/lipsense/whatever…reblog with your info. I want everyone’s stuff in one spot.
I’ll start: Since November I have been a Shipt Shopper. I shop for and deliver groceries for people who don’t/can’t/won’t go to the store. I help those who are homebound, have small kids or just are so rich they can’t set foot in a store. I’ve met some great friends and learned about foods I wouldn’t have otherwise given a second glance. To see if Shipt is available in your area visit Shipt.com and enter your zip code (in some areas THEY DELIVER BOOZE TOO).
They are always running promos as well and if you use my code (ANDREAD) you’ll get a discount.
YOUR TURN!
Oh cool! My Etsy store here https://SundaraArtJewelry.etsy.com and my website www.sundarajewelry.com . I sell handmade jewelry in gold and silver made with semi precious gemstones. My tumblr friends have been wonderful customers and I’ve been very grateful!
I don’t understand why people who don’t watch GOT have to come out, vocally, all over social media, EVERY SEASON, to let the world know they don’t watch the show. Like, what is that about? Can you just not watch the show quietly?
Working a little late today gearing up for Emancipation Village at the end of the month. I’m doing some brass pieces and I have to say I really like this minimalist hammered ring. Think I’ll make one in gold filled 🙂 #pleaseexcusemyhands #theyrefilthy #imstillworking ##jewelershands
#Sundara #sundarajewelry #forher #artisanjewelry #jewelry #artjewelry #customjewelry #uniquejewelry #handmadejewelry #handmade #name #wirebent #brass #ring #personalized #caribbean #trinidad #buylocal #t&t
I’m taking a break from the studio right now because it stinks of kerosene (I was using it to rehydrate some patina wax).
The smell reminds me of the tail end of an adventurous night some years ago that I spent with two of my gay boys, Ritchie and Jean Marc.
We were coming back from the beach and wanted to wash our feet off so we stopped off at this corner where there was a standpipe on the side of the road. And old woman was filling up water bottles.
She offered us one of the bottles so Jean Marc and I started rinsing our feet and noticed the water had a slippery feel to it. Then the fumes hit me and I yelled, “It’s kerosene!”
We looked up to find the lady and in the space of five seconds she had completely disappeared. She was nowhere around, she wasn’t walking up the path, she was just gone. Now completely spooked we ran back into the car where Ritchie was lazily lighting a cigarette in the back seat.
Jean Marc screamed at him to put it out and a startled Ritchie dropped it on the floor.
“Find it! Find it! We’re gonna burst into flames!” he yelled as he held his legs up to his ears. Poor Ritchie dove to the floor asking what was going on. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t talk. My phone was ringing. Somewhere a dog was barking. It was chaos.
Eventually we calmed down and explained to Ritchie what happened and headed home. No one smoked. We all sat there in silence thinking about that old lady and how she vanished after handing us a bottle of kerosene to wash our feet.
I had to get my iPhone screen replaced today after it fell flat on its face and didn’t crack but shattered. After calling around to a bunch of places that were charging robbery prices, I found one place that was reasonable and promised to have it repaired within ten minutes.
I headed down there and true to their word, ten minutes later my phone was good as new. The thing that impressed me was that all the guys working there were youths, none of them looked older than 21. And their tiny business place was packed with people. They must be making a mint. In a country that’s riddled with crime where people are always lamenting that young people have no value for hard work, I was really glad to see these guys doing so well. I’m gonna leave them a good review on Facebook.
Things I know about healing: Speaking kindly to yourself helps a lot.
Flight attendant Shelia Frederick was making her rounds on an Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to San Francisco when she noticed something strange: a blonde teenager wearing wrinkled, old clothing was seated by a window, next to a well-dressed older man. The girl had a large bruise on her leg. When Shelia noticed her, the girl looked up.
“Her eyes just pierced my soul,” remembered Fredrick. “They fixed on me and I knew something was wrong and I needed to help her.”
Fredrick went to the nearest lavatory and placed a note for the girl where she could find it. She also left a pen.
When she returned to the young girl, the man seated next to her was eyeing a menu. Fredrick looked at the girl and mouthed “go to the bathroom.”
The girl followed Fredrick’s instructions. Sure enough, when Fredrick checked the note, she had written back:
“I need help.”
Fredrick called the captain, who arranged for police to be waiting in the terminal when the plane arrived in San Francisco. The teen was a victim in an incident of human trafficking. She had been kidnapped for over two months by the time she and Fredrick locked eyes.
“Traffickers use commercial airlines all the time because it keeps them anonymous,” said Nancy Rivard. Rivard was an American Airlines flight attendant before she founded Airline Ambassadors International in 2009.
Rivard identified multiple trafficking victims before becoming frustrated by the lack of training that she and her coworkers received in the area. She founded Airline Ambassadors to teach crew members how to spot victims. Airline Ambassadors now works alongside US Customs and Border Protection to stop human trafficking in its tracks.
“It’s incredible this isn’t industry-wide yet,” Rivard asserted. That said, more and more airlines are starting to implement similar training.
Fredrick identified the teen back in 2011. Since then, Frederick has become an Airline Ambassadors member and has received training in how to identify human trafficking incidents.
“I tell people to be aware of their surroundings,” said Fredrick. “There are so many warning signs. Look closely.”
A few months after the incident occurred, Fredrick was surprised to receive a phone call from the young girl she rescued. She called to “say thank you and that she was back with her family, in therapy,” Fredrick remembered.
Fredrick and the girl still keep in touch every so often. According to Fredrick, the girl is now attending college, working towards a brighter future.
You know – Ms. Fredrick didn’t just “see” the note – she orchestrated the whole thing. And I also notice that she’s not in that self-congratulatory 2nd photo.
You know you’ve really been through some shit when you’re constantly more worried about how someone will react to you presenting an issue you have with them than you are about the thing that upset you in the first place
I am a princess. All girls are! Even if they live in tiny old attics, even if they dress in rags, even if they aren’t pretty, or smart, or young, they’re still princesses – all of us!
I just saw the word bologna come up (in reference to sandwiches), which many Americans pronounce baloney and I was reminded that my aunt and cousin used to pronounce it bolog-na. I’m wondering if this is just a family thing or a Trinidadian thing.
60 year old historian Martin Bühler (who identified himself to the press, I do not identify activists without consent) appears to ‘photobomb’ a lot of media images of the G20 in Hamburg. In reality he is a long time observer documenting police brutality. In Hamburg he chose to cultivate the most non-activist ‘white bystander in a suit with a bike’ look he could manage and casually walked in front of police. As police slowed down or interrupted attacks and waited for the ‘bystander’ to get out of the way (being caught on camera trashing what look like bystanders is bad press after all), activists had time to regroup or retreat.
You know when dogs sit outside with their face turned towards the sun and their eyes closed and they look so relaxed and when you pet them they’re warm that’s how I want to feel always
With the arrival of the ominous poster above,
Netflix has announced that Stranger Things’ highly-anticipated second
season will premiere on Friday, October 27. Watch the teaser here, then adjust your Halloween plans accordingly!
Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten
Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin,
Noah Schnapp,
Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Cara Buono,
Matthew Modine, Joe Keery, Sadie Sink, Dacre Montgomery,
Paul Reiser, and Sean Astin star.
It’s 1984 and
the citizens of Hawkins, Indiana are still reeling from the horrors of
the Demogorgon and the secrets of Hawkins Lab. Will Byers has been
rescued from the Upside Down but a bigger, sinister entity still
threatens those who survived.
The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.
If someone ever tells you a certain song is important to them you should turn it up and lay on your bed and close your eyes and really listen to it even if its 10 minutes long because at the end you will know that person much better I think
Yes, by all means keep messaging me about business at 9am on a Sunday morning.
I learned the hard way that I cannot always count on others to respect my feelings, even if I respect theirs. Being a good person doesn’t guarantee that others will be good people. You only have control over yourself and how you choose to be as a person. As for others, you can only choose to accept them or walk away.
We will be making our debut at Green Market this Saturday! Come and partake of the fresh produce, delicious food and of course local handicraft ❤️ @greenmarketsantacruz
My buddy used to know this guy in high school that would watch porn before every wrestling match he was in. He didn’t beat the meat. Didn’t even play with it. Sat fully clothed and watched violent ass hardcore for like half an hour.
He won almost every match.
Turns out being sexually aroused with no satisfaction makes your testosterone go into overdrive and turns you into a fuckin beast for like 15 minutes.
I do it now everytime I go to the gym. Never had better workouts.
Imagine being the guy figuring this out for the first time.
if you dont nut you unlock superpowers kids
having a raging erection while wrestling is also a great form of psychological warfare
did everybody miss the part where he was watching violent ass hardcore porn and getting turned on by that? of was that just me
any relationship that could be “ruined” by having a conversation about feelings, standards, or expectations wasn’t really firm enough anyway, so there isn’t much to ruin
Validation: it’s ok that I hurt and want to feel better
Reassurance: I can handle this pain even though it hurts
Perspective taking: I’ve had bad days like this before and I’ve made it through them. I can remember my better days and know I’m not always hurting this much
I’ve been watching past seasons of one of those Real Housewives franchises lately (New York to be precise, because I need shit to pass the time when I’m working in the studio) and I’m amazed at how much alcohol these ladies put away. A lot of it seems vodka-based too. Vodka is my achilles heel where alcohol is concerned. It’s one, two, barf. I used to have a tolerance for it, when I was a teenager screwdrivers were my jam. But not anymore.
The last time I drank vodka was about five years ago. My friend Q, who runs a food blog, had discovered some new flavoured vodka and demanded I try it. I warned him it wouldn’t end well but he insisted that his concoction would be delicious and worth it and trotted over to my apartment to mix me some goodness.
By the middle of the second drink I was hopelessly drunk and he had to help me up the stairs to my bathroom where I proceeded to puke my guts out. When he left I was lying in a heap on the bed praying to die.
I reminded him of the incident the other day and we had a good laugh about it. He couldn’t believe that I, by all accounts a woman who can hold her own, had gotten so fucked up on so little. But there it is: I can’t hang when vodka is involved. So I guess I won’t be keeping company with any of the Housewives any time soon.
‘Petrichor’ is the soothing, earthy,
and wonderfully pleasant smell of
rain falling on dry ground. The term
is derived from the ancient Greek
words ‘petra,’ which means ‘stone,’
and ‘ichor,’ which is the fluid that
flows in the veins of the gods. Source
oohhhhhhh
Never trust your tongue when your heart is bitter.
I believe that kindness is the universal language. When someone does something kind it is understood despite language barriers or cultural differences. We should really communicate with kindness more often.
I spent the day making a shit-ton of necklaces. Earrings tomorrow. I’m tired and my back hurts and it’s too late to take pictures today.
I’m going to be trying out a new market on Saturday. I mean it’s new to me as a seller. The great thing about it is that it’s weekly rather than monthly so I’m hoping it can bring me some extra dough to supplement my in-between UpMarket days and online sales. That’s the good news. The bad news is I have to set up at 5:30am. So yeah like I’m gonna die basically cause I can never get to sleep before 1am.
Hazel Scott playing two pianos at the same damn time with ease
Hazel Scott was a musical sorcerer and a civil rights hero. She:
was admitted to Julliard at 8.
was performing in top venues by 16.
pioneered “swinging the classics” and made the equivalent of a million dollars a year doing it.
was the first person of color to have their own national TV show.
went to Hollywood but refused to be cast as a “singing maid.” Demanded and got control over her casting, her wardrobe, and how footage featuring her was cut.
refused to perform in segregated venues and led charges for integration in several northern cities, notably Spokane.
She was brought down by the House Committee on Unamerican Activities, and has been largely forgotten. But she was a sorcerer, and a hero.
soulsistrin 