A New Chapter

Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life. As I sit here in the airport waiting for my flight, it seems like any other trip. I've been on so many. But tomorrow I will be in a new state, as a single woman, re-inventing myself and forging a new path that is radically different from any I've followed thus far. This last week I have congratulated myself on every major symbolic step forward that I've noticed myself making, and reflected that I am that much closer to freedom. The freedom is of many levels and is hard to put into words.

I've learned a lot about the man I was married to over the last month. This divorce has been long overdue and it is a relief to put it behind me, although I still feel the anger and frustration when I think about all he's done that is still seemingly of little or no consequence to him, granted it's starting to become more of an annoyance and topic of complaint than source of rage. Everyone assures me that he will get his due sooner or later. I can't help but feel like I need to write a letter to his commander to give it a final kick in the butt.

But enough of that. I'm ready to start out fresh! Clean slate! Gonna go visit with some long lost friends in beautiful Sacramento, CA. Maybe do a little sight seeing down in San Fran. Gonna look into whether I have a claim for unemployment compensation because my summer job was a government position (happy surprise because it was a seasonal part time position). Gonna apply for some new jobs and look at some new apartments, and gonna get a new haircut and maybe dye it a new color. Lots of new things! Lots of new chances to get things right and do things my way for a change, instead of rooting out every possible loophole to my situation and figuring out the best possible compromises all the time.

However, I have found myself a nice comfortable leather couch in a secluded part of this completely empty airport, and as my next flight leaves in about 5 hours, I'm going to take a little nap now. See you in Sacramento!

Homemade Camping Stove

Sorry for not posting for a while. It's been an emotional few weeks. I'm finally starting to look forward to the future and see that I can do with it what I please. I'm no longer bound by anything. No rules. I've only begun to realize the limits I had put on myself before, and I've finally realized that I can throw them in the trash.

So, I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but I do not own a car right now. I've been car free since the middle of April, and I've started to really enjoy it in the last month or two. I bought a cheap Walmart bike because that was all I could afford. Because I was using it as my transportation, I rode it into the ground in just a month or two. So I turned it back in and got another Walmart bike, this time with included rack and fenders and 21 speeds instead of just 7. It could go twice as fast and I could stop wearing my backpack which made me so sweaty and tired. Alas, it is still a Walmart bike. I got my first clues today that I might have started to ride this one to the ground already as well. Oh well. My next bike will hopefully be a good one from a real bike shop meant to and able to handle the abuse, and have quality parts actually capable of being properly adjusted and maintained. But that's a whole different rant. They are serving their purpose just fine, and if I wasn't riding them about 20 miles every day, then they probably would last at least a year with minimal protest.

I've liked using my bike to get me around so much, and I'm so cheap, that I've started fantasizing about long term traveling by bike (bike touring). Not having to pay rent, car payments or gas, airfare, water or electricity bills, etc sounds good to me. Why can't I live off my bike and go where ever I feel like it whenever I feel like it? It started out as a crazy idea, but it became more serious the more I researched it and read the blogs of people who were doing it. I made a list of everything I would need. I searched for the cheapest smallest tents, sleeping bags, etc. Anyway, somewhere along the way I found a tutorial for making a super small, super light camp stove using two soda cans. I don't drink soda, but there are tons of soda and beer cans littering the roadsides here. So I picked some up on one of my rides, and made a stove.

My first attempt is with an interior wall and a big hole in the center:
Being the first one I made, it understandably is not as nice as I would have liked. It was a learning process. A hammer was involved to make the two halves fit together. It took me about an hour.

My second one though, is much better in my opinion, and it took about half the time. I decided to try the "penny stove" design, which does not have an interior sidewall and only a little hole in the middle as opposed to cutting off the whole bottom. It's a pressure stove: you put a penny over the hole and if the pressure gets to be too great the penny will flap around, ideally preventing explosive pressures from building up.
I have not had the chance to test either of these stoves out yet, and probably will not in the near future either. They are indeed very tiny and lightweight and, assuming they work, would be ideal for inclusion in my pack for touring, if I ever get up the guts to do it.

Here are some links to tutorials. There seems to be at least a dozen or so variations.
http://www.thesodacanstove.com/stove/
http://ygingras.net/b/2007/6/a-better-soda-can-stove

Meltdown

After my mom left, I was thrown harshly back into the realities of my life here in Great Falls, Montana. No car, back to doing laundry in the tub, no one to talk to when I get home, no more awesome adventurous trips out of town, and no desire to get back to the jewelry making I had been so focused on before. Add on to this the fact that I got served my divorce papers Monday evening. What a nice surprise it was to be woken from an after-work nap by a sheriff repeatedly ringing my doorbell. Enter: drama, of the legal kind. I have only 20 days to answer this petition. Without going into anything too specific, I'm not very happy with the way things are going right now. And because I have such an active imagination, I have been playing out every possible outcome I can come up with in my mind. Let me just say one thing: he owes me. I have the bank statements from 2008 and 2009 to prove it. Unfortunately, it appears as though all the courts here are interested in is division of material property. And that's just not what I have in mind. Praying that the military will hold him accountable in some way that I can find acceptable. I have no hope for the civilian world giving me any sort of justice.

Yellowstone National Park

I've been out and about roaming around this great country of ours for the past few days. My mom decided it was a good idea to wake us all up at 3:50 am to start out. I was not a happy camper. At all. In fact, it wouldn't be too inaccurate to say I reverted back into a two year old and had a straight tantrum. (I thought we were waking up at 6 or so.)

Anywho... drama aside, we made it to the park about 9 am and immediately saw a herd of elk camped out where all the picnic tables were behind a "don't approach the wildlife" sign. There was one that walked right on up to this old Asian lady sitting at a picnic table in the shade minding her own business, and licked her in the face 4-6 times. It was really funny.

We saw a ton of animals over the two days we were there. It felt like we were on a safari. We saw lots of elk, lots of bison, some pronghorn sheep, some deer, some prairie dogs, what we think was a marmot, an otter, a coyote, and a bear!!! (who was happily nomming on some purple flowers). The only thing we didn't see that we wanted to was a moose.























Another major reason people visit Yellowstone is for all of it's unique geologic features. It's a very active area. Boiling ponds of acid, rainbow colored hot springs, steaming vents, bubbling mud puddles, exploding geysers. We found a vent that had opened up right in the middle of a parking area. And of course there is the incredible natural beauty: waterfalls, streams and rivers, mountains, cliffs, rolling grassy hills...

Glacier National Park

Today we all woke up around 4:15 am so we could leave the house at 4:45 am so we could drop my aunt off at the airport. Then it was back to the house because I forgot my coat (very important). Then it was off to Glacier National Park!!!

About an hour in, our car started making a noise that we thought was the fan belt so we stopped and smoke/steam started bellowing out of the engine, and all of the antifreeze and radiator fluid dropped out. Not good. It was barely after 6, so nothing was open, although we did happen to break down in the right part of town; there were about 4 car fix-it places on that block. About 4 hours, one water pump, and $300 later, we were back on the road!

We took a wrong turn that ended up being a beautiful mistake. We were rewarded with mountainous breathtaking views where the scale of how huge the span was was near incomprehensible.

After finally getting into the park, we drove up to and worked our way around Saint Mary's Lake. All I can say is, if you ever get the chance to go to Glacier, St. Mary's lake is highly recommended. Here's some pictures:


Another really cool thing was when we were coming back through this tunnel, there was a bighorn sheep that we got to see go over the edge of the road!!! We even got a picture!

Family Time!

My family made it in tonight. We've already had a good time catching up, with them checking out my apartment and setting up camp in the living room. They've been driving across the country for about 2 weeks or so now, so as soon as they unloaded all of their stuff, we piled into the car and went to the laundromat. We chose to do one giant industrial sized load, instead of 3 regular sized ones. Then back into the car for a quickie tour of the city and the pool where I work. Quick drive back enjoying the beautiful sunset on the way, put clothes in the industrial sized dryer, and run to Arby's before they close. It was so good. I hadn't had fast food in over 3 months, and I'd only eaten at a regular restaurant twice in the last 3 months. I have to watch my salt, so I prefer to cook for myself for that reason, but it's also because I'm usually ridiculously broke. My mom being here means I get to completely re-stock my pantry! I'm so excited. I only had about 2 days worth of food left, and it was only random things like oatmeal, celery, and cheese. I've had to get super creative with my lunches for work, but I know I'm doing a good job because people always want to know where I went because it smells so good. Score.

Well, that's about all for tonight. I probably won't have much in the way of crafting to blog about in the next week, but I might have some amazing pictures of Yellowstone or Glacier to post!

Night-time Creating

My creativity flows at night. Every night it seems that as soon as I think it's time to go to bed, and I actually get up to go, I see my craft table and just sit down to straighten up for a second, pick up something that catches my eye and end up working on some project till the sun comes up. I'm always super proud of what I create, and I want to share it with the world, but what is a good craft blog without pictures? And the best pictures are in daylight. However, when I finally get up, I have other more pressing things to take care of, like cooking myself something to eat or going to work. So, too often I put off posting about my latest works, ideas, and projects because I don't have pictures. I've come up with several new earring ideas, a bracelet idea, and a hair comb idea, as well as nearly finishing my patriotic kusudama earrings, and some colorful rainbow kusudama earrings. Well, I want to report what I've been up to, so sorry for the crappy pictures.

I give you bracelet:

Hair comb (this was just to get the idea out of my head, I know it's excessively rough):

Crane and butterfly earrings:
Kusadama earrings and future earrings:

I've had a few different people ask me about clip on earrings, because they like what I've been making but they don't have pierced ears. Believe it or not I'm in the same boat. My ears are not pierced. And, yes, it's ironic and creates several problems with knowing what hardware is most preferred, how long to make them dangle, as well as testing what I make first. I really need to get to the craft store and buy some clip on findings. Besides, what better way to generate interest in what you do than wear your creations?

We have a lot of down time at my job, so I've been taking little containers of papers in to fold. It had gotten to the point where I'd had several projects worth of paper folded and I didn't want to start another one before finishing those, so I sucked it up and took my bottle of glue and the contraption I invented to help the gluing of the folded papers into petals go unthinkably faster than having to hold each one of 120 individually closed, waiting for it to dry. I surprised even myself when I could have taken them to total completion if I had brought the rest of my stuff. And I still had 2 hours of "work" left! Thankfully I've taken to always carrying around another container of paper I've been using for my 1000 crane project, so I was not left without anything productive to do.

I've been completely obsessed with looking at beautiful delicate intricate hair pieces on Etsy lately, and if I was rich I'm sure I would have bought about $1000 worth by now. Finally I decided to sit down and see what I could make on my own, and that's where the hair comb idea comes from. I feel like it has potential, but I'm starting to think I need to find and take a genuine jewelry making class so that I can stop making it up as I go along based on what I see other people doing on Etsy, or how I think they do it anyway, lol.

Some of my family will be coming in either tomorrow night or Tuesday, and I really need to clean! This place is a total disaster area. I'm looking forward to the visit though. They are going to be taking me along to Yellowstone and Glacier, and I can't wait to take them biking along the river trail. I've completely fallen in love with the river that runs through town, I can't even tell you.

Well, off to bed with me. Good night!

Success!

Today I went to the miniatures shop with my teeny tiny cranes and the mobiles I had made from teeny tiny cranes. The are so cute!!! I really hope they sell because I would love for this to be a regular outlet for my origami. The pictures aren't very good because I took them in the parking lot before I sold them. I will have to make another set and take better pictures and put them on Etsy. It's so exciting! I've had countless false-starts over the years. I've always been clueless on the marketing and sales aspect. I really hope this gets me some exposure.

I also got another special request from a friend for some Halloween earrings, such as an origami bat. I would have never thought to make Halloween inspired things yet: I thought it was a little out of season. But I love custom orders and making something special for someone, so I'm off to find a good bat pattern. =D

Happy 4th of July!!!

Today was close to perfect. Absolutely perfect. I slept in till 10:30, walked a block down to the park where there was a festival going on with live music and classic grilled food for sale. I got a cheeseburger, chips, watermelon, bottled water for $4.50 and sat under this giant circus sized tent and just enjoyed what seemed like the entire neighborhood out enjoying themselves.

Then I biked to Michaels and spent way too much time and money picking out beads and findings to finish some kusudama ball earrings for my friend, and to make a bracelet I was inspired to create. It's still in my head, I'll have to see how it goes. It will include some beautiful random-shaped green and turquoise colored beads and flashy metal tags. I wanted to get some charms for it too, but I stopped myself from getting too carried away.

On my way back home with my loot, I stopped by the park again and got a popsicle.

I've been promising to send my friend these earrings for about a week now, but I had hit a creative block on what beads to use to finish them after the flower balls themselves were done. The fact that she wants to use them for a photo shoot on the 11th forced me to just get it done. So when i got home I immediately set about finishing the earrings and making complimentary boxes for them.
I took some pics about an hour before the sun set, and then went out to enjoy some fireworks!!! And man, was I in for a real treat. I was originally going to camp out on one of the bridges that crosses the river here in Great Falls, but decided instead to keep going towards the park. People were already setting off their personal stash, and it was a sight to behold. All along the other bank was fireworks, a completely 180 degree panoramic experience. There was also an RV parked on the side of the road that had a speacker system set up and was tuned in to a local radio station that was playing tons of patriotic music and giving updates as to when to expect the city display. As it got darker, more and more fireworks filled the skies all around. I could have left satisfied with just this. About 10:30 the city started, and it was simply amazing. The sound bounced off the cliffs and hills that surround this area making a noise somewhere between thunder and avalanche. The finale, of course, received huge amounts of cheers and hollers.

The traffic afterward was horrendous, fortunately, I don't have a car. I cheerfully rode past all the gridlocked cars and decided to stop in the middle of the bridge on my way home to watch the fireworks that were still going strong from all everywhere. On the bridge I felt completely surrounded by beautiful shows of colorful if short lived lights. I ended up staying there for at least half an hour more.

Yep, today was pretty darn awesome. If every day could be this great, life would probably be perfect.

Miniatures and the 1000 crane project

I stopped into a miniatures gallery the other day. I've passed by it many times before, but never had the time to check it out. I went inside and immediately saw some circus themed fimo clay animals for $750 a piece!!! I couldn't believe it! I mentioned in passing to the owner how I needed to get back into fimo and make some of these to sell, and then we got into a conversation about my origami. I happened to be carrying around some 1.5 inch paper that I'm using for my 1000 crane project, which I will talk about in a minute. I showed her a crane, and made her a butterfly. She loved it! I told her about how I'd only gone down to an inch paper at that time, and she explained how people generally do miniatures, about inch, half inch, and quarter inch scale. She invited me to look around and get a feel for what people might be looking for. As soon as I got home I cut out an inch, 3/4 inch, and 1/2 inch piece of origami paper.

I'd done an inch before. It requires a bit more concentration but is not all that difficult. The 3/4 inch paper was very difficult, but I managed to do it with just my hands. Then I got to the 1/2 inch paper. This would make a genuine inch scale model, or as if it had been folded with a normal 6 inch piece of origami paper. It required tweezers and a great deal of concentration. But I did it.


I plan on buying some toothpicks and making some tiny origami crane mobiles, I think they would work well in a nursery themed room. I hope I don't have too much trouble getting them to balance, or I might give up this idea. I'm just excited to have another place to get my stuff out there besides Etsy.

The other project I'm working on is a major art instillation/mobile/sculpture that will have 1000 cranes in rainbow colors. I'm only about 125-150 cranes in, so I'm still deciding on the specifics. At the rate I've been going, I estimate I will have all of them folded in about a month.

New Blog!

I've started a new business! And so, a new blog. This blog will keep track of my works in progress as well as projects I've finished that will be put in my Etsy shop. I hope that I can build relationships with those that are interested in my work, and get feedback on how to make it better, and therefore have a more successful business.

I suppose I should tell how it started this time. I've always been into arts and crafts. I've tried just about every single standard classical art form out there: oil painting, watercolors, acrylics, pastels, black and white pencil, colored pencil, charcoal, clay sculptures, found object sculptures, plaster sculptures, pointillism, etc, as well as ventured into the less common disciplines of pysanky eggs, origami, polymer clay, quilting, knitting, sewing, beading, jewelry making, wood working, and more. I was my high school art teacher's pride and joy, and I have left a legacy there for the students who would follow me. 6 years after I've graduated, students I've never met know my name. They have been told of my skills. I am a legend, and once every few years when I go visit her, every face in the room stares at me, unblinking, burning my face into their minds to go with all the stories they've heard. I always wonder if I am what they imagined me to be.


I got married in college after I found out my newly air-forced husband was getting sent to Italy. This is when I dabbled in knitting and earned the nickname "old lady." A made some beaded ornaments in here as well, but other than that, my art was put on the back burner. I was constantly traveling between Italy and the states for school, and after he got stationed in North Carolina, we bought a house. I was desperate for money to pay my student loans, but because the economy was in it's lowest point at this time there were no jobs to be had. Then the earthquake in Haiti happened. It seemed like hundreds of soldiers were deployed overnight, leaving their families ill prepared for their absence. The unfortunate event in Haiti led me to become a very successful babysitter. Once the summer came I started working as a lead lifeguard, which kept me very busy as well. In the fall, my husband got stationed in Montana, and I signed up for a tax class with a well known tax preparing company. It was the most brain-coma inducing thing I think I've ever done. I passed and got a job preparing taxes in the spring. Half way through the season, after three and a half years of marriage, my husband told me he wanted a divorce.

So, I packed up and moved to Montana.

At this point it had been years since I've really created anything other than a delicious meal. I didn't realize how badly I needed it. One night a friend of mine introduced me to stumbled upon. It immediately sent me to some origami type sites. My first project was a kusudama flower ball made out of wrapping paper I picked up from the dollar store. I also bought a single page of pretty blue scrapbook paper, and started folding cranes with it. They turned out beautiful! I decided to fold a slightly smaller one and it turned out to be just the cutest thing I'd ever seen. So I folded yet a smaller one. Feeling inspired, I decided to do a little searching of my own. I found the work of two artists: http://thepapercraneorigami.com/home/ and http://stacietamaki.com/origami_cranes_gestures.html and I decided that I would make origami ornaments to sell while working on a grand sculpture of tiny cranes to put in an art museum. Unfortunately, I couldn't find glass bulb ornaments anywhere in town. How I missed Hobby Lobby with their permanent Christmas section and "everything is on sale all the time" attitude. Silently cursing the universe from keeping me from my intended path of Christmas ornament making, I began looking at the cranes I had made, and realized they were so cute I had to do something with them. I would make earrings! I bought some glass pearls, ear wires, silver beads and beading wire and made a crude yet gorgeous pair of earrings. I posted a picture on my Facebook and was immediately bombarded with supportive comments and requests for custom pairs. Lady Grace Crafts was born!