It's okay, I promise.

After a couple of very cute comments by some very lovely girls I feel the need to address the issues of ghosties in a new post.

To start, ghost hunters is a very mild show. It is a group of researchers who take gear with them to "haunted" places. I enjoy the show because I am skeptical. It makes me feel a bit less fearful because they are constantly de-bunking the ghostly anecdotes.

You see, I am super scared of ghosties too. The other night I slept with the light on because I was afraid of what I was reading in Spook (yep. READING). The funniest part? I was reading about the hallucinogenic affects of sound and electro-magnetism. There are theories that ghosts are really just figments of our imaginations that are brought on by sound or energy in our environments.

That was scarier to me. The idea of ghostie hallucinations seems worse than a real ghostie. All-in-all, I am extremely happy to be out of the spacious suburbs and into the cramped city. I just feel safer.

A big hug. xox=vv.

There Are Things To Share.

I promise. New things to share very, very soon. Later today, I hope. In the mean time, I am looking forward to tonight's new episode of ghost hunters. I really love this show.

I find the scientific topic of another existence extremely interesting. I just finished Spook by Mary Roach and it was a quick and delightful read.

I am having trouble uploading pictures. I am also swamped and sick and missing you all terribly. Hugs! xox=vv.

Journey.

I picked this lovely little book up at the Kinokuniya Bookstore in Seattle. I only had a few minutes to look and I could hardly tear myself away. Actually I couldn't. Simon had to have me forcibly removed from the store.

I can not wait to go back. I think it is my favorite place on Earth. I wish I could read all the books and understand all the instructions, but it is certainly not a deal breaker. Just look at these photos.

I am desperate for my gocco and a place to sew. A lot of my supplies are in storage and we still lack a table, chair or anyplace suitable to operate a sewing machine.

Oh well, I guess I should be cleaning anyway. I certainly have enough to do, but it is hard to ignore all of this new-found inspiration. Hugs. xox=vv.

Let It Snow.

Oooh hi there lovely and wonderful people! Did you know that we had six plus inches of snow this weekend and that it has stuck around for a few days now. We are expecting a bit more. It's crazy and early and delightful.

Of course, when you run out of milk before the snow comes, it is hard to wait for it to all melt before the siren song of Raisin Bran is to much to bear. So today we finally left the house for milk and I took this polaroid to share with you. I hope you like it.

Also, "Shy Monsters Coloring Sets" are re-stocked at Mahar Drygoods just in time for Christmas! We also resolved our scanner issues and the paintings in the previous post are now up-to-date.

I am still working to catch up with you and I am thinking of you all! Hugs! xox=vv.

Check It Out Update.

Oh hi there!! It is so nice of you to visit! We are still recovering and recuperating here (is that redundant?) which has given us a lot of opportunity to make the most of our local library. I am still very tired and kind of loopy (a life-long affliction) so today I will have to leave you with a partially illustrated list of my most recent borrowed beauties.

Sew Subversive - I think that this is a fun book with easy and stylish projects. I am not really sure that I will make any of the projects, but it sure is fun to read and peruse!

Photoshop CS2 Raw - First of all, look at this little girl. Could she be any cuter? I want one straight out of the catalogue that they got this one from. Cute. Cute. Cute. Now then, this book is surprisingly un-complicated compared to a lot of the photography and Adobe books that I have read and I would suggest it for any level of photographer (who owns a copy of Photoshop CS2).

Sew U - I doubt that I even have to say very much about this book. It is concise and lovely. It makes me want to throw out every item of clothing in my closet, to start all over again all on my own, and to have the skill of Wendy and the body of the illustrated models. This is my very favorite book of all.

Fashion Illustrator - This is a great book. I love it. Anyone who wants to improve their people drawing skills would benefit from this book. This definitely takes place as my second favorite book.

The History Of Love - This book is simply in a league of it's own. This is one of my favorite reads of all time. The characters are rich and well developed and I find myself engrossed in the lives of every single one. You can join in on Lovely Lisa's Online Book Club at the Ship Of Fools.

Well, last night's Rat City Rollergirl's Championship Bout was a bit disappointing because neither of my favorite teams won. The Derby Liberation Front was undefeated ALL season and then lost by 3 points to the Sockit Wenches. Sad. It was fun though. Oh yeah, I forgot, it was really uncomfortable this time. We sat cross-legged on a concrete floor for 6 hours. Have you ever heard anything so sad in all your life? We are not physically fit enough to SIT at a sports event. *giggles* I am going to blame flu-like muscle pains! Oh well, I guess I should go practice sitting for next season. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Hugs and hugs! xox=vv.

Check It Out.

Ooh hello everybody! I hope that all of you delightful people are having a delightful day!

Well, we had an okay day. There was some annoying medical red tape with some prescreption renewals and we had to take our sweet, lovable, grumpy old one-eyed cat to the vets due to some continued stomach problems. So that was not very fun.

I do have some fun news coming soon though! Yay!

In the meantime, I wanted to tell you about some of the 29 library books that we currently have checked out from the library. We also have 13 on hold. Did I mention that we are book junkies? *smile*

-Love Sick- -Design Your Self- -Daring Females Guide-

-Drawing From Life-

-Found Style- -Modern Country-

-Treehouses In Paradise- -Colorful World-

Well, there is 21 more library books around the house, but I will spare you the details. Oh I did however check out Blink. Thanks again for all of the book reviews! Hugs! xox=vv.

The Red Tree.

Hello! This is a quick post to tell you about my very favorite book The Red Tree by Shaun Tan. His description of this beautiful book is equally enthralling, "At the beginning she awakes to find blackened leaves falling from her bedroom ceiling, threatening to quietly overwhelm her. She wanders down a street, overshadowed by a huge fish that floats above her. She imagines herself trapped in a bottle washed up on a forgotten shore, or lost in a strange landscape. She's caught in a tiny boat between towering ships about to collide, then suddenly she's on stage before a mysterious audience, not knowing what to do. Just as all hope seems lost, the girl returns to her bedroom and finds a tiny red seedling growing in the middle of the floor. It quickly grows into a vivid red tree that fills her room with warm light."



I also cherish Shaun's final thought about the book, stating that "... everyone’s experience of ‘suffering’ or ‘hope’ is unique and personal." I hope you find it as inspiring as I have. xox=vv.

Shaun Tan's wonderful site.
The Red Tree at Shaun Tan's site.
The Red Tree at Amazon.com.

Attempting To Build A Blog 5.

Hello delightful people. I would like to tell you that the New & Improved Shy Monsters coloring, journaling, story books are finally here! Yay!

I am afraid that a machine malfunction and its required replacement at the printers took a little longer than expected. The coloring book was the first order to be filled with the new machinery. The printers are wonderful and fabulously helpful and I am very thankful for all their hard work. The coloring books and stickers are now available at my etsy shop. There is a reserved set of books and stickers for the people who asked to be on the mailing list. There will also be books and stickers available that are not reserved but the total amount of those books available will be based on the reserved sales. Huh? Yeah, that confused me. *smile* Hopefully, I will be all caught up here soon, which means that I can catch up with all of you dear wonderful people! xox=vv.

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Crushing.

Last week, I bought three books to study at Barnes & Noble for 85 dollars. When I went home I looked them up on Amazon and ordered them from there instead. Free 2 day shipping, I got EIGHT books for a hundred dollars. Five more books for just 15 dollars more. Crazy good prices! We returned those original three books today and when I saw this one, I had to have it. I wanted it right away and so I completely did not care that I was paying the Barnes & Noble price.

Am I the only one totally crushing on this book? Have you been holding out on me?

It is absolutely lovely and very well designed inside. The pictures of the projects are fabulous and the illustrations from vintage children’s books are incredible! This is the best book ever!! I love it so very completely. It is called See and Sew by Tina Davis. She has another book called Look and Cook which will have to go on my wish list! Please tell me that I am not the only one who drooled all over my keyboard!

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They Are Here.

Yippee Ka Doo! The coloring books came back from the printers today. I am very excited! I am still pretty nervous about the whole thing, as I have the frightening feeling that they will be here gathering dust for years to come.

I realized today, that if I was really trying to market the book, then I would have made the cover bright and fun and attractive. However, I was really hoping that people would color the cover in the colors that they love. Even if it is not all that exciting from a sales point of view. Ah well. I simply can not wait to get them up in the shop. I would like to maybe have a couple other things there too over the next few days!

I have a ton and a half of packages to get out. It’s on it’s way tomorrow, I promise! So I will address that first and then get together a miniature group of things for the official shop opening *eek*! I think that I will have a miniature “Grand Opening” party and send out tiny little flyers and virtual glasses of champagne! What do you think?

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Help Please.

Sorry about the delay on my pretty oddities and Panty O’ scopes (I will have to put them on hold till Monday). It is 4 o’clock in the afternoon here and I am still trying to catch up with all of you busy bloggers! I don’t know how you all do it! I am mostly caught up with e-mail (except for a few that I want to contemplate a tiny bit more) and I have earmarked 80 of your posts to comment on. I had better get going!

Anyway I have a quick question for you about the coloring book. Currently it is formatted at 8.5 x 5.5 inches. Do you think 8.5 x 11 would be preferable? Also, I am new to binding so do you have any ideas that would work well with 12 sheets of card stock, that could lie flat for coloring? I was thinking about even tying it with a ribbon (through punched holes) so that you could take it apart and work on a single page and then easily tie it back together.

Yesterday was a designated Monster day. I wrote all of the text and sent it off to Moms for editing. I work on some other little designs. I designed the activity book, the membership card, the secret monster code, a couple little stickers and some more mailing labels, some iron-on transfers and a paper doll. I guess I just went drawing crazy with the monsters to see what kind of fun things I could come up with. I called the printers and am pretty ready to go on that. So I just need to make a few last decisions and then I hope to get going. If you are interested in the idea of being notified when the coloring book is available please let me know!

Thank you all so incredibly much for your encouragement!! You may have created a “Monster” (still awfully shy though ... I am still worried about posting any drawings).

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B.F.F.

After Lisa’s comment yesterday that I better “REVEAL MORE!!!!!!!! [or else]” I thought I would share this with you.

Why? Well, first of all I don’t want to be on Lisa’s danger side (did you see the [or else]???) and secondly, I want to virtually send you all one of these. Although, we quickly decided that Lisa’s danger side was probably as fun and lovable as she is ALL the time and I know virtual necklaces aren’t easily wearable (just open this page, attach a chain or rope to your computer monitor or laptop and then simply wear around your neck ... not that difficult after all, I guess.)

Last July, I had the fabulous idea of making shrinky dink resin necklaces. Well, a year later and we are still hoping the resin will set ... brilliant huh? Not sure where to go with these today (an idea and design I still want to explore). So in the meantime, I send them to you virtually for all of your sweet, sweet comments about the coloring book! I am still shy and I am starting slow with this old drawing, but boy are you ever encouraging!! Thank you!

This is the drawing of my b.f.f. necklaces. Made in all sorts of colors each person would get a half heart in the colors of their choice. Since the shrinky dinks are already made you might see a bit more of these later!

However, you are all my b.f.f. now (whether you like it or not). I l.y.l.a.s. and I hope you k.i.t.!!

P.S. Translations ... b.f.f.= best friends forever and l.y.l.a.s. = love ya like a sister and k.i.t.= keep in touch. *smile* Oh, weekly Panty O’Scopes later today along with some beautiful oddities that I got yesterday! I continue work on “Shy Monsters” this week and hope to make them available very soon! ~TTFN! (ta ta for now!)

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Addendum.

First of all let me give the predictions for a few categories of panties that we missed yesterday.

Floral or Patterned Panties- You will realize that some thing important is amiss today.

Now then, as far as the lace debate goes The Random Panty Color Generator’s expert opinion is this, “Since wearing lace panties can add a layer of fun to any day simply add the words “in bed” to the end of your daily panty color prediction”. That being said here are today’s “Panty O’ Scopes” if you are wearing:

Red Panties- Today all your wishes might come true!

Orange Panties- All of the issues that arise today can be resolved with a change of scenery (or panties ... I recommend red).

Yellow Panties- Today you will meet someone new, again.

Green Panties- Today you may want to carry your wallet if you leave the house, it could play an important part in your future.

Blue Panties- Today you will eat something that you will wish you had not.

Purple Panties- Today is a good day for expressing your creativity. So go ahead and get out the macaroni and make yourself a necklace.

Black, Brown or White Panties- Today will not be as exciting as you hoped, but still possibly more exciting than yesterday.

Floral or Patterned Panties- You will feel relieved today as an important conflict has now been resolved.

Now then, I have been a bit swamped what with the stomach flu making everything hard, but I have been tagged for a few memes and received a fun swap and I have a couple of other things on the go which I hope to address some time soon. So, please bear with me and know that I am thinking of you all (I am behind on emails and comments too)! Thank you all for your kind, kind congratulations about the “Everyday Panties” win (see prize above) over at the whiplash competition. It was a very nice surprise as yesterday was the 1 year birthday of vegasandvenice.com (until a month or two ago it was just a site under construction that was not available for public consumption, but thank goodness I remedied that)! So now, one down ... five to go. Thanks for sharing the time with me.

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When You’ve Got It, Flaunt It.

Yeah baby. I’ve still got it. The stomach flu. Yep, pretty impressed aren’t you? Oh sure some people only get the stomach flu for 24 hours but mine has stuck around all week. I think it’s cause we just really, ya know, click. We are opposites so we just attract. I like long walks on the beach and he enjoys quick sprints to the ladies room. It was clearly meant to be, or so I thought.

He has been treating me bad lately. I have heard some of the other girls around here talking about him. Now, I am not sure he is being faithful. Some of my friends are saying I should kick him to the curb, but it’s just so hard. I think we should maybe just start with counseling. I feel like I can change him.

In the meantime, I am sorry the Random Panty Color Generator has also been out sick! We have GOT to stop sharing our drinks. When one of us gets sick, the other one follows quickly behind. I hope we can both update more often but we both get queasy just moving around (which means that taking photos can be really tough). I will also have to catch us up on the daily photo colors later. Until then I thought I would show you the bib that I was up till 3 am embroidering for Abby. The pattern is from Jenny Hart’s stitch-it-kit. It is my very favorite. I was hoping to come up with a new pattern, but I just was not up to it. I added the text “feed me” and it still needs a nice backing sewn on, but HE won’t ALLOW me to use my sewing machine right now!

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Junkies.

Yesterday, our morning started with the first step to recovery. We admitted we had a problem. A serious problem. We would trade the dog for a good book. If it is a reference book we will build you a dog house with our hands tied behind our backs. But that was the past. We had a new day ahead of us. A new start. We vowed to stop getting carried away with our book buying.

Later that day, we ran into our dealer/pimp in the most unexpected place. Yes, somehow she had snuck into Borders book store. She talked us into a small snort with a cheaply priced book about Leonardo Da Vinci. We were weak. Very weak. We wanted one last fix. We were ready to get Charlie’s leash and hand him over to her immediately. There was just one glitch. This particular book did not appeal to me as much as a book that contained all sorts of artistic wonders. We made a deal Da Vinci would be Si’s and The Little Big Art Book would be mine. We started on our way out and then our dealer mentioned that she had something very special for me indeed. She pointed to a tasty little book titled First Home with Style. I was a goner, I was already starting to experience withdrawal symptoms. I had to have it.

Si said we should grab it and then we should run. Run far, far away from the book store and never look back. Not to worry though. Today is a new day. We can stop buying books anytime we like. It’s not a habit, it’s just a bit of fun.

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