you can't turn around in this house without seeing a holiday decoration of some sort, mostly snowmen. the house is not exactly tiny, either. i don't help matters any buy buying my mom even more snowmen & general xmas paraphernalia. i'm an enabler.
xmas was good. our visit is nice. b & i spent most of today in the city taking photos in the west bottoms. i forgot the battery for my dslr, though, so i only shot film. what we noticed is that kansas city is sorely lacking in decent street art. i shot some 2-color pieces along the tracks, but nothing spectacular like you'll find in mpls. i forgot to take sfp stickers with me, so i haven't put any up yet. but i will. i had really hoped to feel inspired today, shooting in a different city, but mostly i was just hella fucking cranky. i don't know what it was. kansas city kind of puts me in that frame of mind, due to our sordid & painful history, but i think i just need to suck it up & walk it off. we've had good food, though, and that helps. a little.
b reading one of the books i gave to him for xmas. i was so lazy this xmas, i got him 3 books (one of which isn't arriving until next month) & that's it. he doesn't seem to mind. my parents gave him a better variety of gifts, not the least of which is a case & a half of guinness.
we're going to be here for another week.
we're going to be here for another week.
How do you take your tea or coffee?
Submitted by Vasquez.
i'm rarely a coffee drinker. i'm a coffee drink drinker. i am raspberry mocha & i take it decaf & nonfat, no whip. i also get it at starbucks because they use dark chocolate. now when i get a mocha anyplace else it sucks ass in comparison. i have my standards.
speaking of starbucks, i took down the b&w photos i had in there & replaced them with the meet me at the fair series. betsy said i can keep doing this indefinitely.
Show us someone you can't wait to see.
my mom. i'll see her saturday evening, after a 7 hour drive (made entirely by b since i don't drive).
also
our beloved amy lou. we'll see her sunday evening.
my favorite street artist. shot on fuji neopan ss.
by the by, i sold two of those fair photos today. i am trying not to think about the fact that the holidays will be over soon & my sales will likely drop to close to nothing. i've been uninspired for awhile & have only been taking snapshots of daily life types of things (like the new t-shirt, the earrings i bought for b's sisters, lydia meeting my new stuffed rat, etc.). i haven't taken my camera/s outside the house since the clockwork holiday party. not so much like me. hopefully kansas city will inspire me. it should at least be warmer down there.
regarding the heart monitor, i have called in several episodes, but not yet the type we're most worried about, the ones that take my breath away. i am a little more relaxed about it, but i still catch myself refusing to press the record button just so i won't have to call in the recording. sigh.
it poured rain then snowed a lot today. we leave for kansas city on saturday morning & are crossing our non-superstitious fingers for good weather. iowa is always a nightmare.
regarding the heart monitor, i have called in several episodes, but not yet the type we're most worried about, the ones that take my breath away. i am a little more relaxed about it, but i still catch myself refusing to press the record button just so i won't have to call in the recording. sigh.
it poured rain then snowed a lot today. we leave for kansas city on saturday morning & are crossing our non-superstitious fingers for good weather. iowa is always a nightmare.
i added this series to the shop yesterday. taken at the minnesota state fair last summer. i'm selling them separately, but they'd look fantastic as a triptych.
otherwise...
- we're leaving for kansas city next saturday & staying until after the new year. my mom called friday & was excited to learn this new development. b had just told me a few days before how long we'd be staying. i think he extended it for purely selfish reasons, he just loves visiting my family so much.
- except for b's dad our xmas shopping is done. we took care of my mom & b's sisters on etsy. my step-dad is easy because you can just go to the lake wobegon store at the moa, or to any bookstore for science or lefty politics. i took care of brian, but i feel like i didn't mix it up enough. framed photographs (mine, of course) are going to his mom & one of his sisters & her husband. the kids are sol. that was b's decision & i'm fine with it. the kids have plenty of toys & clothes & unfortunately i've never seen either of them crack a book. i treated myself to the threadless sale when i got the email that my favorite design had been reprinted.
- i've been having nothing but anxiety-related episodes since i've been on the heart monitor, which sucks. i'm hooked up to this thing for specific episodes, but those have yet to occur. the anxiety is a result of the fact that i have to call in each episode i record, and being that i am phone phobic the idea of it is stressful. i didn't know ahead of time that this would be the case, otherwise i would have said something. i keep hoping for an episode while b is around, but nothing so far. i just need to relax, i'm on this thing for a month after all.
- those of you who have bought something from the shop but haven't yet left feedback, please do so! it helps encourage others to support the shop, plus it makes me feel good :).
i'm on a 30-day heart monitor. though i don't have to wear it beyond 2 weeks if it records enough episodes.
we went to that holiday party i mentioned previously. it was great. i don't feel much different about the thing i was concerned about but at least i got some hella awesome food & free shwag. and i actually socialized. the lubrication was responsible for that. yay beer. even pale ales with a bitter aftertaste.
in other news: I SOLD THE SCARF!!!
in other news: I SOLD THE SCARF!!!
Scan of a contact sheet I made last night. I really, really want a decent negative scanner. Unfortunately they're seriously expensive.
Technical details: Shot with a Holga 120S on [expired] Ilford SFX using a red filter. Developed in D-76. Contact sheet made on Kentmere VC Select Fine Lustre. And as always, the filter in the enlarger is an Ilford 5.Show us a nice, warm scarf.
i love that i can keep posting/talking about this fucking scarf over & over again, for a year, and people praise it & heart it on etsy, but no one actually buys it! it's becoming quite comical.
I sold these photographs via special order the other day:
They are still available in the shop, however, because the order was for 4x6. The default size in the shop is 5x7. I offer all film photographs in sizes 4x6 to 11x14. And digital in 4x6 & 5x7, sometimes 8x10 (depends on whether or not I saved it at original size, which usually I don't). Anyhow, that was pretty great.
Last night we took care of Xmas gifts for my mom & B's sisters. Thank you, Etsy!
The communication postcards are going like hotcakes! How exciting! It definitely motivates me to make more Gocco'd items for the shop. I'll have to get more screens & bulbs this weekend. I'd love to do some more colorful prints, but since Gocco is on its way out the hoarding of supplies is commonplace. I'm thinking Limited Edition prints, as opposed to postcards. We'll see. We all know I'm a big talker.
We've been invited to a holiday party tomorrow evening but I'm still not sure we'll be going. I feel really weird about the invitation. Like why we were invited & by whom. We were invited by someone who gives me really mixed signals, in that she'll invite me to her birthday party or send me a really long email about her recent impending divorce & suggest we should get together for lunch sometime, but then she'll totally ignore my birthday or show absolutely no support for anything I do. I have seen her congratulate someone for the same exact thing I accomplished months earlier. It's really confusing & actually hurts my feelings a little bit. I don't know if she just likes being the center of attention, collecting acquaintances, is super flaky, or what. She knows I live with mental illnesses & anxiety disorders, so I feel like she can't be surprised if I happen to ask her about her behavior toward me, but I also prefer not to have to do that. I'm so tired of people being so flighty & insensitive. So, I figure we can go to this party & put on our happy faces & get some good food & spirits then see what happens. Or not.
B's procedure went fine, but they wouldn't let me be in the room with him. I was actually looking forward to seeing his innards! Oh well. Also, he ended up being just fine afterward & I didn't have to drive. Yay! He fasted for 2 days prior to the procedure so after leaving the hospital we went to Evergreen for dinner.
I have a doctor's appointment on Monday to find out what's up with my heart palpitations, which have gotten worse since I started exercising more & losing weight. I don't feel that my exercise is strenuous, it's just walking & bike riding. I've had heart "issues" since I was around 17 or 18 and did some drugs that really fucked me up. Actually, I did one drug that happened to include another drug that I happened to be unaware of. I don't talk about it because it's a little embarrassing. I ended up in the hospital & my parents sent a complete stranger to pick me up because they didn't want to leave the holiday party they were at. Nice. Anyhow. As usual I expect the dr to say something about my "obesity" & how of course that has everything to do with my heart doing funky things. Sigh.
