I seem to have picked up some kind of con crud, and I wasn't all that outgoing, but I sold 7 pieces of jewelry at the art show (and made 2 more related etsy sales after the con) and really enjoyed the panels and events that I went to. So hooray. And having sold jewelry means I'll be able to afford more of my own tools sooner! Time to start excavating a workspace for myself in the basement.... should also list the most recent stuff on Etsy and do a bit of self-promotion online, and maybe I'll be able to get everything essential for a metalsmithing setup of my own in one go rather than over the course of a few months!

I was also recently reminded of the existence of metal clay, and once I have a torch setup, I totally want to play with some.

I have 29 things to bring to Arisia! Cool!

(OK, so 6 of them are old things that I'm really unlikely to ever make more of, and 3 others are also from the Pre-Metalsmithing Era, but still! I feel all accomplished and stuff. Though now I kinda wish I'd made some rings or bracelets or cufflinks rather than just earrings and necklaces.)

OK, so I am doing Arisia stuff instead of Mystery Hunt this year. Because I am in love with my bicycle and want to save money, I'm biking between home (Inman Square) and the hotel rather than having a hotel room. Which hopefully will be doable (ETA: weather forecast looks good--warmer and no snow! fingers crossed!), but: is anyone I know staying at the hotel who would be willing to let me stash stuff (art show related stuff, bicycle helmet, coat, stuff I buy while there, maybe a second outfit, etc.) in their room during the con? (I'd likely want to access my stuff randomly throughout the day until going home potentially as late as 1am or 2am--not something that would work for everyone, I know!) I'll figure out something if not, it would just be nice if I had a Place For Stuff and didn't need to tote everything from panel to panel to dance.

I don't really do New Year's resolutions, but it does seem nice to think about where things are going in life once in a while. So here are some things that I'm going to work on this year:

-Work: I'd like to improve my ability to focus and work effectively throughout the day, understand the existing codebase more thoroughly, and use better coding practices in the stuff I write. I want to more fully stop feeling like "the new kid".

-Home: Susannah and I have many plans for making our apartment The Best Thing Ever. I don't know when we're going to implement which things, but a lot of groundwork needs to happen soon--clearing the last of the boxes into the basement, painting the walls, setting up bookshelves, buying/building storage furniture and things. I think my goal of sorts is to get the groundwork done by no later than February. At that point, I'd feel comfortable having people over for social stuff, which would be nice! Though I could have people over to hang out in the common spaces of the house before then.

-Social: I want to see people more! I think I like the crafting afternoons/hackathons that people have been running more than parties, and would be especially interested in more of those (or even smaller and quieter things). I've gotten to the point where I have to grudgingly admit that I'm not a total introvert when left to my own devices, but am not always sure how to get myself to initiate social stuff.

-Jewelry stuff: I want to set up my own equipment in the corner of the basement with a worktable. This will require time and money and working stuff out with housemates, but I think it would be well worth it to not have to go to the studio Union Square to work on jewelry.

-Books: I like reading and want to make more time for it in my life. Possibly by switching from computering to reading at some point in the evening, which may or may not help me go to bed at saner hours.

-Body: I love love love bicycling and want to keep the relevant muscles in shape. When the snow is gone for good, I'm going to bike so much. I think that I'm eating pretty well with the co-op meals and the farm share and stuff, so yay!

-Knitting and other fiber arts: I hope to finish The Shawl That Doesn't End before the winter is over :) I am trying to learn more knitting techniques; I've decided that following a pattern is not the worst thing ever, but I'd like to do more complex stuff without patterns, or with drafting my own patterns/recipes (like the armwarmers I've been brainstorming). I'm not sure how much spinning I want to do... excitement for that stuff tends to come and go, and I think I'm OK with it.

-Other creativity: I keep having ideas about making adventure games (probably with Blender and Pipmak). I am unsure how real or mirage-like these ideas are. We will see :)

This was a late-Hanukkah-or-early-Xmas-or-whatever present for currentlee, whose cat's name is Prawn Salad.

I'm also knitting a shawl right now, so working on something tiiiiiny and relatively quick to complete was a fun diversion :)

I heard interesting things about Sleep No More, so I'm going on January 14, to the 7:40 entrance time. Let me know if you want to go at the same time :)

Also my brain is being eaten by weaselsplans for setting up a jewelry studio in the basement.

This morning, I had one of those dreams where my laptop was making this terrible beeping sound, and no matter which processes I killed or how much I fiddled with the volume or how many times I rebooted into another OS, it wouldn't stop. Then it sort of randomly stopped and I determined that I must have nudged a sketchily-soldered connection near the top right of the keyboard.

Of course, what had actually happened was that I'd slept through my alarm (which gives up after 10 minutes of no response to its beeping).

I had dreams that seemed to center around a trip I was taking on some sort of airplane/fancy passenger train/ocean liner. There was a gem show right there on the vehicle! I found all sorts of really pretty things, including these little beds of pointy crystals that were a sort of yellowy-amber color but opaque instead of clear, and some other crystals that were supposed to be fossilized honeycombs (but the individual chambers were very small, just a few millimeters). Man, I need to find a gem show like that in real life. I also realized that I'd forgotten to bring my knitting project, which was disappointing.

I have a headache :( Posting to LJ while I wait for the ibuprofen to kick in. Not much to say--just getting nervous about Open Studios... so, have some links and tidbits and whatnot.

-How do you sell an artsy board game? is an interesting read--part of me wants to play the game now, and part of me feels like I've already gotten all I need out of it by reading the description and seeing the images.

-Kate Beaton's comics are amazing

-Erika Moen, in addition to being a great comics-artist, made an amazing tentacled My Little Pony

-I'm still in full-on fangirl mode of Cat Valente's writing--fortunately for me, she writes a lot! You should read The Anachronist's Cookbook and The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew. (And if anyone has author/book suggestions that branch off of her writing style, please let me know!)

-The next time I'm in New York for a weekend or so, I'm totally going here and ordering decadent girly drinks.

-And now I want an elaborate grown-up sized treehouse with a very comfy bed at my imaginary mad scientist vacation home.

-I'm thinking of going to Arisia instead of doing Mystery Hunt this year. I don't know. We'll see.

-I haven't seen the Where The Wild Things Are movie yet. Should I? Terrible Yellow Eyes and this roundup of wild-things-related craft projects make me think I maybe should...

-1880's version of Stuff On My Cat?

-New webcomic in my RSS reader: The Meek (warning, non-sexual nudity in the first chapter). I can't quite tell what's going on yet, but it's pretty and the writing seems pretty good too!

Bicycle tire sterling earrings:


A copper pendant that's got a sort of alternate history precolumbian steampunk look:


So open studios! November 21 and 22, noon to 6pm. Here's a Google Maps link to the studio location. It's a bit tricky the first time you're looking for it, but they now have a bright yellow door and a sign saying "Joy Street Studios" and stuff. I'm upstairs in studio 19. I don't need my friends to show up and buy stuff, I need my friends to show up and keep me company and induce random open-studio-goers to at least look at my stuff (by making my studio look like the place where all the cool kids are ^_^)

Finally made it in, after missing it for various reasons for a couple of weeks running. And I'm going back on Tuesday :) Really really need to figure out how to bike back home from studio without getting lost.