My mom’s birthday is this weekend. She’s been a good mom, which should be obvious to all of you because of how fantastic my sister and I turned out. But even if you don’t know my sister or me personally, you should know that we’re both bright, happily married people with clean criminal records who are about as well-adjusted as is possible in this messed up world. And that didn’t happen in a vacuum. So happy birthday, Mom!

If you know my mom and want to wish her happy birthday, please do so in the comments. If you don’t know my mom you can still wish her happy birthday in the comments, or you can say something nice about another mom you respect. Yay for moms!

“After the punter* left it [the payment] seemed like such a small amount. I would look at it, contemplate it, and then hide it somewhere in my house. It never got used for anything worthwhile, despite all my reasonings earlier in the day. It would disappear as fast as it got there, on air, seemingly, or I would leave it hidden and forget about it. I could never say for sure where it went. I would never have used it on anything worthwhile, or special or anything that I actually cared about because I couldn’t put that money into something good. I couldn’t put that money into something I really cared about. Sometimes it went towards my bills or rent; necessities. Once I had it, I had no use for it, except for how it made me feel for that … Read More »

Hey-yo. Recently added to my Etsy shop, a cute set of cards:

There are 3 different designs included, and you can see all 3 designs here.

Here are close ups of some things I’ve been working on lately. I’ll post more about them here when they’re done. Isn’t the anticipation fun?

Another Lincoln:

Itty bitty elephant:

Big ol’ flower:

I can’t remember when I watched Splendor in the Grass, but it must have been late high school, early college. In the movie, (Spoiler Warning*) Natalie Wood goes crazy trying not to have sex in a small Kansas town in the 1920s. She goes so crazy that she has to go to a mental hospital, where she gets to wear white clothes and paint pretty pictures. She eventually gets better and gets to leave the mental hospital, at which time she goes in search of the boy who led to her breakdown, Warren Beatty. But he’s now living in a little shack with a new wife, and it’s very sad.

I hadn’t thought about this movie in a long time, until the other day. Between my freshman and sophomore years of college I had a rough summer mentally, and was diagnosed … Read More »

I’ve mentioned before that when I’m working on new decoupage pieces I have a rotation of movies and TV shows on DVD playing in the background. I recently started wondering if the particular TV show/movie I’m watching has any influence on how the piece I’m working on at the time turns out.

Here’s a diptych I recently completed:

This was done while I watched Emma (the Kate Beckinsale version).* I think maybe I see Emma in the feminine butterflies, but this isn’t the first piece of mine to contain femininity or butterflies.

This is a partial-peek at the new blog header I’ve been working on for my sister’s blog:

I was watching Pushing Daisies while working on this. Pushing Daisies’ aesthetic is very saturated and kitschy, and while this header does feature some strong colors, I think it’s more modern and less kitschy. Also, … Read More »

I recently found a new blog that’s written by a former sex worker.* It’s not a fun or easy read, but it is so fascinating. The blog’s writer sold herself through a website that allowed clients to review the prostitutes, and a recent post discussed why giving the johns a chance to openly discuss and criticize the women was such a bad idea. (Not that she thinks any part of prostitution is a good idea, but in this post at least, she really had it out for the reviews in particular.)

In one review she singled out, the reviewer complained that the prostitute didn’t speak very good English and didn’t seem “interested” in what he’d paid her to do. The writer was really upset with this john (and, by extension, all johns who’d made similar comments in the Review section) because … Read More »

Hey! I have a new blog design. I think it’s super pretty and a little more sophisticated than my previous design, which was a place-holder design that was intended to be up for a couple of weeks but that I ended up using for two years.

The new layout includes new pages, including a Portfolio page with pictures of most of my collage and decoupage pieces. On the right sidebar there’s a link to my Etsy shop, and a list of locations where my pieces are available.

There’s also a picture of me with my cat, Toby.

And I updated the About page. Now with less snark, and a smidge more sincerity!

So please look around and take it all in. When you’re done with that please come back and tell me how much you like it so Todd won’t feel like he wasted … Read More »

…here are my thoughts on KONY 2012. (Here’s the video if you haven’t watched it yet. It’s interesting from a sociological standpoint, so I’d recommend watching it even if you know about Kony already or are totally against the video because of Facebook saturation.) And before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge that probably nothing I say here hasn’t already been said somewhere on the internet this week. But I’m going to say it anyway.

I had a number of problems with the video, the same as a lot of other people. I think what bothered me the most were the scenes with the narrator’s little boy. It felt like manipulation, both of the child and the audience. And I don’t think a little boy needs to hear about what Kony’s done.

What probably should have bothered me the most is what … Read More »

…so here’s a worthy cause from Compassion International’s blog:

Abdoul Fatao Kone is a 6-year-old boy living with his father, mother and nine siblings in Bobo Dioulasso (southwest Burkina Faso).

Fatao’s father is a security guard who struggles to make ends meet for his family. And Fatao’s mother sells fritters at the local market to help support the family.

When Fatao turned 1, his parents learned that he has a heart problem: a ventricular septal defect (VSD)—a hole in his heart.

Although his parents have known about Fatao’s condition for years, they’ve never been able to afford the necessary medical care. Instead, they tried traditional medicines and methods. But when these didn’t work, they had no other options until Fatao was registered in our sponsorship program in December 2010.

At his first medical checkup the following April, the doctor, Tamboura Hassane, prescribed numerous medications for Fatao: Furosemide, Captopril, … Read More »