just saying.

i cant wait to tell my grandbabies how their twenty year old grandma sat in her unmade bed, alone, bald, bawling tears of joy because barack obama was elected 44th president.

ready for a long nap!

i've been MIA, haven't i? it's been kinda crazy lately. on top of the usual (school, walkin doggies, filling art orders), lots has been going on. of course, i haven't had the time to make anything new-- :( my favorite season is coming up and i have lots of ideas for it !

i had a short (but sweet)! getaway with ryan on the weekend of the 24th. we spent a day in salem, MA and a day (and a half?) in boston. our hotel was in lexington (i am partial to that area, plus it's a little cheaper and closeish to both salem AND boston)... more specifically, it was a totally hip new sheraton resort that was built over the classic sheraton i stayed at 4 years ago! anywho, it was super dreamy and wonderful. warmer than we hoped, but the leaves were changing so it was gorgeous.


last weekend was phillies insanity from them winning the world series (as was all of last week, now that i think of it) and halloween and stuff. i actually missed a lot of everything due to classes and poor timing... oh! and saturday morning i participated in my first craft fair thing, though it was SUPER small and SUPER last minute. it was outside of the whole foods at art museum-- the girl organizing it found/contacted me like 36 hours before, so i was running around getting packaging and pricing ready for that. it was like me and 10 other people, and i don't think anyone did terribly amazing- but i got to meet some people from etsy which was really fun! the weather was also super dreamy.

soooo that's been that. my weeks have also included the usual doctor's appts for this stupid alopecia areata... i had 45 more shots in the head, came off of my oral steroids, and am continuing my topical steroids. it's all falling out again just as bad when it first started, though. i made ryan run his hand through my hair tonight to see how easy it was, and he got a small handful. it's surreal. i have too little hair to hide my bald spots anymore. i think i am going to literally be 100% bald before it's finished, because i can't get to my doctor in time for a new prescription (work/class/voting tomorrow, i can't miss any more wednesdays for doctor's appts, so hopefully thurs! but it takes a few days)... even if i do get more oral steroids (which made me super nutty) they are only suppressants! there is no cure. so weird. i would say about 35-40% of my head is bald spots, and including the areas that have thinned i have lost 60% of my original hair mass. i went hat shopping but all of the hats for this season are that saggy beanie style for hipster girls with great big hair :( i am at a total loss at this point! i'm too scared to shave it off because i can't predict where will grow back, and it might be really gross to have a buzzed patchy head. yick. i guess it's really petty since my health itself is intact, but it's just been tough on top of some other things.

good news is, it's november. christmas is permeating the malls! the radios! tv ads! and i loooove it! i listen to christmas music year-round so this is my prime :)
okay well. hope everyone has nice weather for the long lines at voting tomorrow... please don't let a little rain change the course of history! i'm crossing my fingers (not to mention, shaking in my boots) for obama, and a group of us are going to get together to watch the count tomorrow night. i don't want to get political because i know everyone is tired of hearing about it, but i honestly don't know what will happen to this country without him. or more seriously, what will happen to the world and the animals in it.

chilly tuesday

weather's been sooo cool! i mean, i shouldn't be surprised since it is three weeks into october (wow!)- but i am loving wearing my trusty gray boots that ryan hates, lots of layers, and scarves... so happy :)



i think the best purchase i have made recently has to be that huge bag of birdseed. i guess the south philly birds finally all got the memo, and at any given time there are about ten little birdies and 1-2 pigeons on my roof! lilly loves it. it makes me so happy that she has birds to look at again, since it used to be like her favorite thing ever in my old apt. right now she is sitting on a pair of folded jeans on my radiator, peeking her head over the windowsill... i think she realized that all the noise she makes getting up and sitting in the windowsill scares most of the birds off! ha she is so fat and cute! it's just amazing considering i saw NO birds whatsoever in this neighborhood when i moved in, and now there are bunches!



i had a really fun (hallo)weekend-- i actually went to another haunted house, something i swore never to do again, and it wasn't terrible! i was a big baby and almost backed out, even after paying, but it was a few house walk-throughs, a forest walk through, and a haunted hayride. plus, it was a little trip to delaware so that was fun, too! i also got to help ryan make a pumpkin cheesecake from scratch, pick pumpkins with ryan (and bridget & dan) at linvilla orchards again, then got together with a huuuuuge group to carve them (and eat pumpkin seeds and drink pumpkin beer)! mine is the second picture, and it was from a template in a CVS carving kit. ha! it was messy and cute fun with everyone. and i actually got to bring my copies of hocus pocus & earnest scared stupid along! nobody but me likes the latter, though, eep- we turned it off 15 minutes in.


also! lastly! i finally scanned in all of my polaroids (that i could find) since i bought my camera, back when i was like 13... and i decided on a new way to display some of them, rather than hanging them on my art-clothesline. i am starting a new blog at http://polaroidsandnotes.blogspot.com that i'll start updating a little bit when i find time this week-- lots of homework, studying, work, and finally some orders trickling in. whew! busybusy.

i can't believe i'm a phillies fan.

let's see... quick update... midterms this week, one year anniversary with ryan this evening (although, he and i cannot agree whether it's today or tomorrow), trying to find time to start over on my loom, being very very broke ever since etsy sales went completely stagnant for the first time in months (sigh!)

i am very much hoping to get to boston/salem/lexington the weekend after this one, and have kept my eye out for super cheap last minute hotel deals... ryan and i went last year, and sort of want to make it a special tradition (and hello! salem at halloweentime is totally magical!), though i can't afford to pay for one of the night's right now... so if you've been thinking of buying from me, now is the time :) ha!

hope everyone is well. i am loving this warm, warm, light-sweater weather. lilly is faaaaast asleep next to me while i am finishing up some homework and trying to schedule time to craft this week... buh. here are some of the cute things i added to my shop last week-- lots of mailing labels/gift stickers & stuffed autumn ornaments (block printed on cloth with my original linocuts!)

warm monday!

i am in the best mood-- again! i love the transition into autumn. not to mention my room is sooo much brighter since ryan took out my huge clunky AC unit from my only little window in my bedroom, and i love having a real breeze slowly drift through. my old apartment had more windows than walls, and i really miss it! it also had a berry tree right outside of one of the windows, and lilly loved to sit all day and watch the birds feed. here in my new place (new? i've been here four months!) there really aren't too many birds that come around. so as a treat for lilly and me, i went and bought a huge 6 lb bag of bird seed and sprinkled it on the roof and windowsill! i have seen one or two, and i hope they tell their friends so that i can start listening to bird songs while i work, rather than distant city buzz. she has already perked up a bunch and has become even more snuggly than usual (as if that's possible!)

here are some finished gocco prints/handmade notebooks that i did last week. i am increasingly nervous about making new gocco screens since, apparently, the production has shut down for real this time. so now that i have a little scheduled craft time, i'm scared to use it! ack.





i am finally about to go use this great loom my aunt sent me-- it has some really wild and traditional plaid scarf patterns in it, and i cannooooot wait, i have been thinking about it all day! i loved using the small loom we made when i was a fibers student, and this one is 100x nicer! so i am going to pop in season one of big love and start watching that while i work- yayay! and then ryan is heading over after work/before going to NJ so that we can fry up these last two green tomatoes my new school friend brought to me! what a good monday! hope you are also in great spirits-- and don't forget to check out my etsy shop so i can afford a little weekend getaway to boston (hope hope!) for me and ryan's 1 year. :)