We skipped E's craft class because of a bead show downtown. Before we left, we checked the mail, and my books from
Microcosm were there. More on those in a bit.
The bead show was missing some of my favorite sellers, but I did manage to find entirely too much to spend money on.
Fish Lips and Bird Teeth had a couple wonderful poly clay pins, no magpies though! She said she would have some at the next show, after finding out that jays, while corbies, weren't my favorite. I like magpies. I got a pin from her that says "I'm not bossy, I'm just always right", Mike and the kids thought it was hilarious, and entirely too perfect for me.
Alaska Bead Company had a trunk show going with sparkly after market coated riviolis. Too shiny, too pretty, and too much. I spent a lot of money on 6 pretty crystals. One of them is triangle shaped and just incredible shine. Since I'm getting some gold beads from
Pamy, I think the triangle crystal will be my "Not a Christmas Party" necklace this year. I also got a pretty blown glass angel to hang from my window, she's holding a rose.
After that, E and I went for lunch at the
Brewhouse, yeah, I know, tight budget I totally blew yesterday, but it was fun. She had halibut fish and chips, and I had a garlic-y pasta/chicken dish I love. I did not have creme brulee. See? I was watching the budget.
We walked for a bit, and going by town square, we ran across
Eyes Wide Open, an exhibition done by
American Friends Service Committee. It was amazing. In the center of town square was a neat square marked off with American flags, filled with neat rows of combat boots representing a small part of the soldiers that have died in Iraq. Surrounding that, on the small hills around the center were pairs of regular shoes all marked with names and ages of Iraqis that have died in the war. They were everywhere, baby shoes, kids shoes, slippers for elderly women, all with names and ages. I started crying when I saw a pair of shoes that represented a 12 year old, with my 12 year old daughter next to me. There were a lot of people looking at the names in the section with the soldiers boots, but for me, it was the rest that was heartbreaking. The servicemen and women who died signed up for it, and even if they didn't really know what they were getting into, they knew there was a possibility they would be asked to fight for their country. A 6 month old, an 80 year old, a 12 year old, they don't ask for it. They weren't waging war. They were trying to live. I picked up literature about the exhibit for my son. I didn't realize until I'd gotten home I should have picked up extra copies for Mel. I'm sorry!
After that, we walked over to Nordstrom's for coffee. You know, when I was 16, it was 25ยข a cup, it's gone up to 2.50. E and I each had a cup of coffee, and split a piece of chocolate cake (it's really rich and dark chocolate, even sharing, we didn't finish it, E did NOT want to admit the cake had her beat). After you've seen an exhibition like that, and when your shopping bag is filled with catalogs from a place like Microcosm, you feel strongly like saying very rude things to people spending hundreds on dresses and shoes, you know that? I settled for leaving a couple catalogs in the ladies restroom lounge.
Then we walked to the hotel, and just when we were a block away, Mike called to say he was off work, so we waited for him by the door, and he picked us up. Then we went to get Wm.
About the books-
The cookbook,
Hot Damn and Hell Yeah/The Dirty South had a recipe in it for a mushroom gravy, that modified a bit, made a marvelous "safe to eat even when on a diet" gravy for Mike. So last night, he had leftover chicken instead of halibut with the rest of us with gravy on it. Since he hasn't had gravy in a month, he loved it.
( gravy recipe )Before bed last night, I read some of
Stolen Sharpie Revolution, which is as amazing as it sounds. I know at least one person on my flist has a zine, and I've considered starting one a few times. This book is absolutely chocked full of information. The real question is, who would be interested in a zine I was doing? It would be a lot like this blog, a mix of crafts, politics, ideas, and journalling, in print form.
Making Stuff and Doing Things is full of a lot of ideas I won't use, but it also has some great ones I will use. One of them is to make buttons using safety pins, bottle caps and can tabs. Which I had some of. So I tried it out.
( Bottle cap buttons )