Announcing the Charm City Craft Mafia!

It's brand new and still getting it's legs, but I'm happy to introduce you to the Charm City Craft Mafia, aka the Baltimore City Craft Mafia. Don't worry, I think the website will be jazzed up soon enough with a logo and more.
I'm really excited about finally have a group of crafty business types here in the city. Some people I already know and others I'll get to know soon enough. So look out Baltimore and beyond.

More Designers in the Neighborhood

I added a couple more links to my shop link page. As always I like to try to feature everyone here as well. It helps me to remember the cool people I add and I get to spread the word a bit.
So first up is Mod to Modern. Michelle is a fellow sweater cutter-upper and she makes some fun new sweaters. I've been lucky enough to see some in person at Doubledutch boutique in Baltimore, and these sweaters are really cute and sweet with little details. I wasn't quick enough to snag one of my favorite sweaters. So don't drag your feet if you want one.


I also just added Little Flower Designs. I first saw Linda's lovely ceramic work at the ArtStar show last summer. I coveted it from afar and didn't end up getting any that rainy weekend. I still want some though. It just has it's own style. Some ceramics are too cold and contemporary today. But Little Flower Designs is still contemporary but sweet and lively and very colorful.

Six Weird Things

I was tagged by Rebekka to reveal six weird things about myself. Will do--let's go.

1. My right hand pinkie finger is a little mutant. It's about half an inch shorter than my left hand pinkie finger and I never ever noticed until I was about 12 years old. One of the bones in my hand is shorter so the pinkie is a shrimp and my pinkie knuckle doesn't line up with all the other knuckles. It actually looks like I don't have a knuckle. You never would have noticed if I hadn't told you though.

2. Do "earbuds" headphones work for other people? Are my ears mutated too? Because they don't work for me. I see other people at the gym easily slip them into each ear with just one hand and go on to boogie and shake. I have to jam them into my ears and the left one falls out pretty much right away even if I'm not doing anything. And when it is in my ear I can't even hear though that "earbud" very well. Am I alone here because I feel weird. Why??

3. I don't like cream cheese or sour cream. Eh. No strong feelings there, I just don't like them. Although, add some sugar to the cream cheese and slap it on a carrot cake and I'll change my tune. Yum--mee!

4. I sing to my cats often. I make up little songs for them and serenade them often using crazy variations on their names. Somehow Moco became Moemie, which rhymes with bologna. That was then shortened to Moems Bologns--that's his mob name. Both my cats also look like aquatic mammals. Moco of course is the Orca, killer whale and Mr. Pink is the baby beluga. I could go on and on about the cats. I'll spare you.


5. My first word was not "Mom" or "Dad" or anything like that. In fact, I didn't bother to talk until I was about 3 years old. My two older brothers claim that my first words, in order were, "No, "Stop," and "Sit in rain." I suppose I had to defend myself from my brothers who once melted crayons and told me it was Jello to get me to eat it.

6. I like to watch the World's Strongest Mancompetitions. I can't look away. I came across these competitions in college, I think. And these men pulling trucks and airplanes and lifting refrigerators captivated me. It also helps that these men are massive and have crazy Scandinavian names with little teeny wives that yell at them from the sidelines in their native language. I also love that the competitions are in unlikely locales, I think the last one was in China. It's also been held in small African countries. Whenever it comes on ESPN I have to watch it. I'm proud to say an American won in 2006. Go Phil.

Pretty flowers in the winter

I haven't been updating very often. I feel like I'm in an "inhale" stage rather than an "exhale" stage. A friend of mine described it that way once--she might have been reference someone else as well. But I like the thought of those phases of interacting with the world. I've been reading and listening to lots of new music and reading some more. I've also been coming home with some weird things from work mostly--more about that later--but you really deserve photos so you'll have to wait. Let's just says there's some kooky stuff to be had in the sixth floor storage area of my building. Especially when they decide to throw it all away.
I have been tagged to reveal six weird things about myself and I promise I will get to that as well and tag a few people in the process.
A tiny bit of exhalation is up in the shop--new pins. I'm planning on some much larger and hopefully more life changing exhalations soon. I'll be huffing and puffing in no time.

2007

I'm not kicking off the New Year very well. George came home from this parent's house with a cold right before the new year and I had to stay in and nurse him back to health. So now fabulous ringing in of the new year there. We need to schedule a make up. And it didn't happen this weekend because now I have the cold. I really thought I wasn't going to get the cold because I was just plugging along feeling fine day after day. I even started my new workout plan and ran a mile on the treadmill. But then, the sore throat struck me. And today has been the worst, feverish and annoyed. Bleech!

But you can start the new year out better than I did. I'm having a sale in the shop! So help yourself to some deals and help me clear things out for the spring.

I did manage to enjoy a bit of the weekend before being felled later on. George and I went see Children of Men, here's link to a review. It was a very good film and yes, I cried. In a way it's the best baby propaganda movie ever. Reproduce--now! But it goes beyond that and it doesn't leave you depressed. I also got out in the abnormally warm weather we had here on Saturday, at least for a little while before I had to return home and rest myself.