stream of consciousamaness

where did that fun and annoying habit come from, anyway? the one that compels me to insert "ama" somewhere between syllables in a word.

anyway, i have nothing planned for this entry except to write some sentences in english that generally follow proper english (american english, that is ;P ) grammar.

christmas was fun, but weird: 1) no snow. in fact, 2) i was in california, not new york. it rained, at least. 3) i received three presents, but had sent/given none (yet!), and none of them were from my family.

b and i did a lot of planning over the long weekend, especially yesterday. today, especially this morning, was fraught with mad plannings- bridesmaids dresses, apartments for rent, registry research, photographer-contacting, and some other stuff. eegads.

i like reading other people's blogs. they're comforting, for some reason. which reminds me (for some reason) that i should post three pictures of bart- pre-haircut, mid-haircut (re: mullet!), and post-haircut. and i set a new personal record for the cut- less than an hour! :)

that's enough for now. tomorrow i'm going to go christmas shopping! i've already ordered three presents. they are all awesome. oh yeah, here's a picture of the christmas tree we got from trader joe's. count 'em- four ornaments! and a picture of buuuddy, of course :)

picamatures

1. kitty! and like all good kitties, buuuddy likes to stretch out his arms while upside down so you can scratch his belly.


2. books for eleanor's grandkids (none of whom would have any reason to read this blog, so i think i'm safe in posting them). they were a lot of fun to make; i like the paper she chose for the covers. it was also fun to see pictures of her and her kids from the seventies and earlier.



the end!

1. things...2. stuff...

hi!

1. praise god for an abundance of work when i really needed and didn't at all expect it. i worked three days last week and every day the week before at the scripps college press, and will be able to work there more in january. (hopefully i'll be able to carpool by then- i had to take public transportation my last three days there, and though i love public transit, there aren't any good direct routes from pasadena to claremont, so the 30-minute car ride takes a whopping two hours by any combination of bus, metrolink, and light rail. blah.)

2. for my commissions, there was a) my landlady asked me to put together six small, very pretty photo books/albums for her grandchildren for christmas. the covers are made with chiyogami paper, and the pages are heavy tan arches coverweight paper. i will post pictures of them later- they should (and must) be finished today! b) two leather journals for the sons of some family friends. i used two of the leather books i had in my etsy shop, and wrote their respective initials (jab and lcb) on the title pages, with doodled embellisments. i think they turned out well! c) a larger version of the beady bags for a woman who contacted me through etsy. this project went pretty smoothly...after i'd tracked down more wool. i visited four thrift stores, some multiple times, to find a black sweater that was at least 60% wool. apparently, no one was donating black wool sweaters. i finally found a woman's black wool coat, and it worked very nicely.

3. holiday ornament swap- can't say i've been particularly impressed by the ornaments i've been getting, but it's always fun to get mail, and i guess i can't really expect everyone else in the swap to have spent 40+ hours finishing their ornaments...
here, finally, is a picture of all ten beady ornaments! (the one in the center hadn't been finished yet, but you get the idea.) mmmm...pretty...



4. invitations: sent! rsvp's* received so far: 3!

5. kitty! one of bart's housemates, alex, found an orange kitten after bible study about two weeks ago (i think). in his severely kitten-deprived state, he succumbed to the cuteness and brought it home. name: buuuddy ('hey buuuddy' and 'widdle buuuddy' are common variants). and he is nothing short of ridiculously adorable- more distracting and hilarious than television. unfortunately, one housemate is allergic, soooo...we'll see what happens.

6. it's been rainy! yay!

7. i have two christmas presents ready to be sent out. two. this is bad.**

8. time to go do something else. more pictures to be posted soon!


*sorry, bart. i had to put an apostrophe there. :)
**so bad that i had to break out the forbidden bold italic

BUSY

ok, ok, i know everyone is busy and so that's a terrible excuse to not be updating my blog, but the truth is...i'm really busy. 

1- i've been working in claremont all week, helping the typography students finish their semester's book. it's been a lot of fun to be back in there, and i love the repetetive tasks and working with my hands (and getting paid!). the students are fun, though it's hard to believe that they were freshmen and sophomores when i was a senior, if they were at claremont at all by that point. anyway, the book is about spices, and that's all i know because i haven't had a chance to actually look in it yet. all 110 or so copies are supposed to be finished by tomorrow but...ummm...not a chance (don't worry- that's how it almost always goes). luckily, that means more work for me :)

2- speaking of scripps- bart and i went out there two weekends ago to print our wedding invitations and the rsvp postcards, but after eight hours we'd (well, me, mainly) only managed to smash some type because we (that is, i) hadn't checked the number of sheets on the tympan, nor had i noticed or accounted for the 2-3 sheets of paper added on top of the tympan. then i added my own two sheets of paper to the roll when doing my test runs, and ....ouch. 

3- luckily, we were still allowed to go back and actually do the printing the following weekend. we started work at 10:30 am on saturday, and finished printing and cleaning up at 2:30 am sunday morning. but we managed to fit five print runs in there- and are extremely proud of the results. bart was amazing - i absolutely could not have done this without his help, sacrifice, and encouragement. i am a very lucky gal C:

i'm still in the process of trimming the invites...but supposedly they'll be sent out on monday, after i spend saturday addressing the envelopes. 

4- oh, and we still have to finish the map/hotel card, and get that printed (at kinkos) and cut. 

5- oh, and we still have to finish adding addresses to our giant file of guests.

6- things that are also still looming - the registry (we've compiled a list, but haven't registered anywhere), ...oh forget it. i don't even want to think about it ;P

7- i've also been working madly on commissions- three for this month, one due next month. yay commissions!

8- there's also this ornament swap thing that i signed up for- they (these ten beaded ornaments) were supposed to go out yesterday. oh well! they're going out tomorrow. hopefully the ones destined for iceland, japan, and the uk will still arrive in time. they look purty dang sweet, though, so even if they're late, hopefully they won't be too bummed. but i was kind of dumb because after i finished the beading part of the project, i took too long a break and didn't leave myself enough time for finishing off the ornaments with a black felt backing and silk cord loop, plus addressing the envelopes and writing a super short note for each. 

9- sorry for the dumb* post. happy friday!

*except for that part in #3- that wasn't dumb! :) hehehe

updatish

1- i have completed my ten ornaments for the holiday ornament swap! or rather, i should say, i have finished beading the ten shiny beadies that i am making for the swap. i still have to finish the edges and give them loops for hanging. but still- 90% of the work is done. done! hurrah! and with a week to go, too. i was going to post pictures, but my camera's connector cable is m.i.a. boo.

2- wuthering heights is sad. the chinese cinderella is sadder. eegads.

3- wedding planning! it's happening! and i got my ring resized. it's so comfortable and secure now that i almost don't even notice it (it was two sizes too big, so it felt like i was wearing something that wanted to escape), and it's super shiny again because they cleaned it, too. i'll spare you all the other weddingly details.

4- i have some (four, so far) small commissions for december! hooooray income! and i might be going to scripps to help finish the 'typography & the book arts' class finish their book (which is beautiful- bart and i got a sneak peek of it last weekend when we went to claremont for part one of our adventures in letterpress printing for the invitations).

5- tea, tea, i like tea. yum. the end.