get ready y'all, get ready

That's right people, you better be getting ready, because tonight is the night...that I very well may be listing new books! I know, the excitement is almost too much for you. Well, just put your head between your knees and breathe in to a paper bag and it'll be all right. Anyway, yes, I made some books yesterday, they're pretty cute, and tonight Steve and I will be taking pictures and with any luck I'll get them up on Etsy by tomorrow! Yay! February will be a whole new month in the land of Roska.
Also, the piece on Roska Handmade I promised you is now delivered! Click RIGHT HERE to view it yourself. Go, bathe in the warmth of my genius. Or, you know, in the tepidness of me making an ass of myself. Whichever. But you should really click up there because the blog in question belongs to Mr. JJMFinance, the purveyor of awesome excel spreadsheets to help you keep your business in business, and he is obviously a real smarty pants and you will want to know what he knows. Trust me.
Well, that is pretty much that. I am working at getting some interviews with some of my fave etsy sellers for your blogreading enjoyment, so look out for that. Wish me lots and lots of luck, because tonight I am taking the Jeopardy Contestant online test! Oh man, my stomach is turning into knots just thinking about it. Oh, also, you should check out my other blog, 1+1=400, because I am trying to bring it back from the dead and I think, if you like movies, you will like it. You should probably add it to your internet favorites because it has a very long address that you will probably find difficult to remember. I know I do.
mel

sweatpants and sweatpants

The ol' blog got a bit of a makeover today, in honor of that broken ruler (it was orange). Not. I just thought things were looking a little washed out, so these colors seem richer to me. Or, as Nina Garcia loves to say, it looks expensive. Not.
Anyway, I was poking around my favorites' favorites on etsy today and found this awesome shop Red Sweatpants Blue Sweatpants. I would love them for the name alone, it reminds of a really awesome blog someone I know had for about two seconds that I unfortunately cannot find a link for right now. But! I love them because they have A W E S O M E clothes that would totally make Steve throw up if i were to wear them. Like this

Steve would have a conniption fit. Because it is too awesome for him to understand. (jk!) This jacket is cute too

So, the gist is that these two kids from Connecticut love sweatpants (just like me) and screen print their totes cute designs on to thrifted gear. Or, I guess in some cases, ie the sweatshirt, they applique.

I just finished up a little questionnaire (that I should have done like last week) for another etsy sellers blog, so I will link to that when/if he publishes it. It, in conjunction with writing about Red Sweatpants Blue Sweatpants got me to thinking that I really should be attempting to interview the peeps I'm featuring on here like I promised long ago. I think that would be really cool. So, maybe some day I'll get around to it.

Oh, also, I am going to have to do a professional visitation for my graphic design class before march. I was looking around etsy today to see who I could call and I am pretty excited about my prospects. If you know anyone working in the graphic design industry who would be cool with me asking them some questions and visiting their place of work leave me a sweet little comment and I will be eternally grateful. and comment if you think the blog's new look sucks/is awesome/ could be better/whatevs.

mel

Leaving early

So you may have noticed (but probably not because i think my shop is being very unpopular lately) that i haven't added any new items to my shop in a while. last night i was finally getting ready to reverse this sitch, i was all set to make some new little books, i had my paper blocks already made, i thought to myself, "now i just need to measure out these pieces of matting that will become the covers." which is when i realized that my ruler had been run over by a computer chair and crushed to bitsy pieces. and also that i do not have another ruler. there is not a ruler in my house. sometimes i am really amazed by the things we do not have because they are things that i pretty much take for granted. like rulers. and formerly like staplers, but then it turned out that we actually have two. anyway, the point is that i will soon make new books, but first i am going to have to buy a ruler. preferrably one not made of brittle plastic that will crumble like a tortilla chip.
i am leaving for monterey in a matter of minutes. i hope it will be pretty there and i will take pictures and draw things for your enjoyment.
mel

the internet hates me

i was listening to my pandora internet radio again today and lately i have been really into merle haggard. it's been i guess over the last couple of months. there is this one hag song that comes on sometimes called I'm Always On a Mountain When I Fall, and oftentimes i will skip it without even letting it start because i can't remember what it is and, by the title alone, it sounds super lame. but today i let it play and it is awesome. so that set me wondering, why did i think this song sucked? what is it about the title that is so offputting? all i could think of was maybe it sounds a little like a gospel song. i am not averse to gospel music, i don't go out of my way to listen to it but i like it well enough, but i usually am especially apathetic when it is done by white people.

i have lately become addicted to this blog, ReadySteadyGo. i feel a kinship to the writer because she is my age and we seem to have very similar opinions on most things, except that she is mildly in love with bill buford and i hate him with all my being. she seems to be much more successful than i am in that her blog is nicer looking and i assume more popular and she has a job that sounds awesome that she loves. and she lives in new york city, which i kind of think of as the big sister of san francisco, in that san francisco is always trying on it's make up and stealing it's coolest shoes and wants to be JUST LIKE HER when it grows up.
in other news today i registered for the jeopardy online test. it is january 31st. it is my life goal to be on jeopardy. i need to be on jeopardy. i am so nervous just thinking about this test though. and i feel i have a right to be, it could be the impetus to the most important event of my entire life. and i think i will totally rock it out. i hope. this is helping me. and it is fun and totally addicting.
oh and i am sososososososo in love with this:

it comes in black and gold and white too, but i think i love orange the best. i wish someone would buy it for me, but it is 96pounds. a lot of money. sigh. it reminds me of a time when i told steve that he smells like dinosaurs.

mel

Very Helpful Lists

List #1: A non-comprehensive, off the top of my head, in no order top ten favorite beatles' songs:
1. I've Just Seen A Face
2. You Won't See Me
3. Do You Want to Know a Secret?
4. Back in the USSR
5. Wait
6. I'm Down
7. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
8. One After 909
9. Things We Said Today
10. Baby You're A Rich Man

List #2: steve's favorite beatles' songs:
1. Paperback Writer

List #3: top ten, in no order, my favorite pavement songs:
1. box elder
2. i love perth
3. spit on a stranger
4. fame throwa
5. range life
6. at&t
7. grave architecture
8. father to a sister of thought
9. here
10. gold soundz

List #4: my favorite soups:
1. pho
2. pho gai
3. hot and sour soup
4. sizzling rice soup
5. tom yum
6. beef barley
7. cream of broccoli
8. cream of asparagus
9. chicken noodle
10. vegetable
11. potato leek
12. italian wedding
13. matzoh ball
14. borscht
15. turkey barley
16. velvet lemon chicken with snow peas
17. tomato
18. chicken tortilla
19. black bean

List #5: my favorite albums of 2007:
1. Jens Lekman - Night Falls on Kortedala
2. whatever lil' mama's album was called

List #6: my favorite places to drink in san francisco:
1. jbc (rip)
2. victor's pizza
3. giorgio's pizza
4. edinburgh castle
5. mr. bing's
6. my house

mel

How To Be Calm

I am kind of sad because I went to this new-ish salon in my neighborhood and I was disappointed. I wanted to like it so much before I went because it looked nice, and so much more after I was there because everyone who worked there was so nice. But I was disappointed! I got a manicure and a pedicure and the actual processes were fine, they felt nice, but the results are less than stellar. My pedicure has chipped already, after only two days. Two days! That is not normal. And my manicure...where to begin. The paint doesn't go all the way to the edges of my nails, I can make out the layers of polish, you can see all these tiny airbubbles, and my nails are all different shapes. So, I am kind of sad. I probably won't go there again. I am trying to enjoy my manicure still, because it is white which is kind of fun. I think I might get blue next time. I'm trying to start a new color trend. Anyway, the point of all this jabber is that my new year's resolution is to try to relax. Some people (Steve) might laugh at this resolution because they think I am lazy. I mean more like stop worrying all the time, thinking too much while I'm trying to go to sleep, giving myself a stomache over things I can't control. That kind of relaxing. Not the making the house messy not making notebooks kind of relaxing. That kind of relaxing has got to go, stat.
mel

RIP Dan Pawson

Gosh darn it, I can't find a picture of my new favorite Jeopardy champ on the internet, so here is one of my other favorite winners:Yeah, that guy was awesome. And that picture is sooo totally creepy. I'm posting it because I am really sad about last night's game, in which the first contestant to win more than 5 consecutive games in 2 years (or something like that) lost last night. Dan Pawson (I think that was his name, isn't it cute? Makes me think of little puppy paws) was a really good champ, very gracious and only the teensiest bit asshole-y and, at times, painfully dorky. He will be missed. Maybe I'll find a picture to post soon, because he is pretty awesome looking. Like a bear. I hope it's not bad form to write RIP in the title there, since he's not actually dead. I just hope he'll be resting peacefully now that he has all that moolah. That's ok, right?

Well, I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year and all that. I have to say that I'm kind of glad all the hooplah is over. I'm looking forward to things getting back to normal. I haven't worked on my books in a long time! I have a bunch of books that I made for the big bust of a craft fair that I still haven't listed because I haven't made any sales since before Christmas so I'm thinking I need to get some different kinds of stuff up there. The books I have are mainly those map books, which I haven't sold one of yet, so I don't really want to put anymore of those up. I might work on some tonight, my sister got me some really pretty paper for Christmas and Steve's sister bought me this awesome glitter glue pack. 40 tubes of glitter glue! All different colors! Who ever thought you could need so many colors of glitter glue! Not only that, it comes with a battery operated glue squeezer! I could really have fun with that. Maybe I'll do some glitter glue collage book covers. The possibilities are now practically endless.

You know what else? I'm going to brag about some of my recent etsy purchases, and muse on some others that may be made in the future. Here is a fun fun fun necklace I bought, by bettydeath:

It's an elk! I wish I had a plain white tshirt to wear this with, because i think that's how it would look best. I think I need to go buy one. But you know, everytime I get a necklace I wish two things: 1) that i ever wore necklaces, and 2) that my neck were slimmer.

I also bought this pendant for my BFF for Christmas, by hapslappy:

Hello. It's a polymer clay pepperoni pizza slice pendant with GLOW IN THE DARK CHEESE! I think I need to also buy one for myself because it pretty much blows my mind with it's amazingness every time I think about it. Actually, you know what? I just did. Buy it, that is. I mean, come on, how could I not?

Hmm what else...ooh, these earrings:

These are all by featherwitch. The shop has all kinds of feathery things, like things for your hair and other things but I like the earrings the best. Which is kind of strange, because I didn't expect that I would be drawn to these kind of hippie-ish accessories, but, there you go. The pictures they have of the feathers against hair look really pretty. Oh, and also the store is based in San Francisco, which is also cool.

I'm also really into another kind of hippie-ish thing right now, tooled leather, like this purse by BeasBargains:

It's tough and western-y but girly at the same time. I think I've always been a tooled leather fan. Luckily, it's too expensive for me, because I think it would probably make Steve throw up.

mel