wow. it's been a while. things have been busy, for sure.
but also september has been SPEEDING by. crazyweird. next weekend is the thing in falmouth, so i'm scrambling making as much work as i can for that. tiggam bought the orbit ring on etsy!! i'm so excited, and relieved that there are others out there with the same rockin good eye for design....;)! so i'm also working on sizing it up this week a bit. and then got another order off our our website so that feels amazing. i think -- hope -- a box of stuff made it to pdx to be photographed in a spread for the next issue of the livery (theliverymag.com)

OH and stripey went chrysallis last week!! it's very exciting. he has these beautiful irredescent flakes you can kind of see thru the cocoon. i had a dream last night that he finally emerged. we also have a BIG pumpkin growing in the garden. and we're getting lots of pinto beans! it's hard to time picking them, kind of. need to go look for more ready pods today.

ok. just a quick update.

oxo

wow! i'm on etsy.com 's front page right now. very cool. knock on wood rings. which rocks because i really love those rings.

and i am just figuring out all of the cool resources on etsy. i need to investigate further. there's a spot where you can list your fave picks and others check them out. this is probably old news to everyone ...but me. i also learned while cruising etsy lists that other...ahem... people are watching rockstar supernova and we're not freaks. i'm totally hooked. and could actually talk about it a lot.

on that note, if anyone has any cellular phone suggestions. we have a verizon contract...i guess it's up. but i know if i trade in my old gimpy phone for some new whizbang thing, i get a credit off the price, but also another two year commitment? any new verizon groovy phone recommendations?

so we have this caterpillar that started out super tiny and now is almost two and a half inches long. and eats a ton of milkweed. and while i'm sure there is milkweed closer to us than the middle school...that's the only place i KNOW there's milkweed so every two days i'm driving across town to pick a few leaves for stripey (named by chloe) with a VORACIOUS appetite. dang. he is cute, tho. or she. s/he is cute, tho. antennae waving around and all that. i know more about caterpillar poop than i ever thought i would.

and we got a drill press. i'm psyched. i set out to put it together myself. the directions were to macho nacho to just tell me how to put the bolt bits together so i had to wait until gil got home and ask him what i did with the weird little split black ring. he said it was a locking ...nut? or locking washer? i can't remember now. at any rate, i had it all headed the right direction so it would have worked out ok.

GIL is at the high school, teaching his first class!! drawing. very cool! he described to me what he'll be covering and it sounds like a really amazing class. very psyched and proud. i'm teaching a one shot class kind of thing at the portland studio tomorrow. to nine year old boys. six of them. the elected to learn how to make silver rings. i'm not sure what nine year old boys are like. either solo or in a group of six. i'll let you know how it went.

oxo

ok. so i've been looking for these bumper stickers for almost two years now. finally found them in a filing cabinet by the computer. looked there a millions times before but whatever. i don't want to put them on this car anymore, but hopefully we'll be able to trade in for a hybrid soon, and put them on there. i guess. i just really like them. i've never put bumper stickers on my car so it's all very exciting to me.

the mug in the photo is full of hot water, oranges and scotch. before that i had benedryll. before that, sudafed. intermixed in all of that, major doses of multi-vites and green tea. i'm totally sick and the mediation with the lawyer is tomorrow. i feel like i'm in a fish bowl. the timing is an outrage. or just related, i guess.

chloe did the most amazing drawing today. she drew a stick person...or a head with arms and legs. can most three year olds do that? i remember doing that when i was five. i was so excited i sprinted across the whole hog farm to tell gil. which made chloe even more proud.

it's a couple days later from when i started this posting...still have the cold but it's getting better. chloe rode with gil on the little tractor yesterday to help mow the lawn. she LOVES to drive. we have a crazy big yard, especially for being in town. kind of hate the fact that we have a sit mower...but it would be five hours of mowing otherwise. it is really funny to watch gil do the thing, tho. he puts it in it's highest gear and hauls tushie around the yard at high speeds. it's kind of a chaotic mowing experience.

starting to work on some hair accessories, and getting together a few items to send out for a photo shoot in pdx. just trying to update everything. and recover from the past couple weeks. i'll be teaching classes at portland pottery and metalsmithing in ...well, in portland. excited about that. not sure if the biddeford ed. class is going to go...which is fine either way. things are busy enough. gil will start teaching right after labor day. kind of crazy getting everything ready.

so more updated shots of the garden. it looks a lot lusher in person, with tons of sun flowers blooming now and marigolds and other random flowers from the seed mix. i haven't posted any work related shots in a while...but i'll get a few things done and here long enough to shoot. i thought i was going to write a lot more of relevance...if i remember, i'll write more later.