Museum Grack

New Addiction

2011-02-07T06:38:00.000-08:00

As if yarn stashing wasn't already a problem I received a sewing machine as a gift last year... thus a new stash has been born... a fabric stash!

I am named after two quilters (my dad's mother and sister) and now I am determined that I need to follow in their footsteps and I am learning how to quilt! Yay for new projects and again another stash to house and love and sort thru.

Part of this new stashy addiction comes with following and reading various quilting blogs, which are fabulous but only aid in my addiction to the pretty colored fabrics. One such blog that I follow

has launched a giveaway with Pink Chalk Fabrics that you should definitely go check out.

A peak at the Pink Chalk goodness?

Double Features...

2010-06-15T08:58:00.000-07:00

On Friday I attended my first monster movie double feature... well... I tried to. We decided that instead of watching the second movie that we would go for dinner instead. When two classic films only costs $4 bucks, I didn't feel terrible about leaving for more social environments. At least the first of the monster movies was one of my favorites, Frankenstein. (Sorry Wolfman... better luck next year).

The theatre was opulent. It was my first ever visit to this particular land of gold leaf and red velvet. It was, in all honesty, the perfect environment to watch a 1930s movie. They even played an organ during the opening credits!

At any rate, once I got over the initial excitement of the venue and the overwhelming sense of historical connection watching a movie in such a grand space as it would have originally been shown, I felt my own sense of nostalgia. You see, Frankenstein is one of my favorite books.

Now this often sounds strange to people, I have even been mocked. Yes, I understand that its not actually a scary thing to read. Yes, I do recognize that once the monster learns to talk he speaks in the exact same manner and vocabulary as Frankenstein himself. ALL the characters sound exactly the same! These factors don't dissuade me from the nature of this book.

Frankenstein was a cathartic creation for its author on so many levels. Students the world over are pushed and prodded to read this Gothic piece, never really recognizing the fact that they were reading an autobiography. Sounds crazy, no? Its true. I took a Romantic Era English class in college. (Why? I have no idea. I was not an English major, but I had one more English requirement and I worried that I'd be bored in the required course as I had already tested out of the first year class.) In this class I was subjected to more poetry than I would have ever imagined, and hated just about every moment of it. I also encountered Mary's husband, Percy Shelley, and another of her own works, The Last Man. Not as good as Frankenstein, which I had read in high school, but learning about the author during this class was illuminating.

Mary Shelley was born in 1797 to politically extreme parents, and a majority of her childhood was spent on the outskirts of mainstream society because of their beliefs. She later began a relationship with a married man, Percy Shelley. Percy embodied her parents' political ambitions and, for that period, revolutionary ideas. As a mistress to a political radical, Mary found herself once again just outside of "decent" society. During this period of time she falls pregnant, as does Percy's wife. Late 1814, Harriet Shelley is born much to Percy's joy; however, early in 1815 Mary miscarries. While dealing with her own grief she is forced to endure her lover's joy... and wandering eye. A believer in "free love," though it was not so labeled at the time, Percy was known to have regular "outings" with their landlord, and often encouraged Mary to engage in affairs with several of his female friends.

This miscarriage was devestating to Mary, and sadly, it was not her last. In her life she had multiple miscarriages and lost three birthed children. Now I know many of you have never personally experienced the pain associated with infertility. I haven't had to experience it first hand. But in my life I have had many friends who have struggled with the utter heartbreak of miscarriage. They are among the strongest women I have ever known. Thanks to modern medicine we are able to understand the complications, the risks, the reasons and even overcome our own nature in order to conceive and carry to term. Mary wasn't blessed with these advances. She just had loss. And while she lost, Percy's progeny were springing up before her eyes and even lived with one of his other mistresses and his child.

Eventually she and Percy did marry; however, the legalizing of their union could not wash clean their reputation socially. After his death she attempted to enter into a culture that she never belonged to, trying to create a space for herself in the society functions of European life with little success.

As I have said before, Frankenstein is an autobiography in a two fold manifestation. In a story of science playing God, Mary purged her own pain. While Frankenstein created life in the monster, she faced her own inability to create life in her own body. Furthermore, in the novel we see Mary's view of her own lot in life. You see, Mary is the monster. A creation that can never be accepted, never welcomed.

Its heart wrenching but beautiful in its execution. No movie could grasp the pure and honest emotion that this book contains, none would even try. To most of the world, Frankenstein was concieved by a woman competing in a scary story contest while on vacation. Movies attempt to highlight the gruesome and grotesque, making the monster less and less human while anyone who has read the book will tell you that the monster was not lacking in eloquence. Robert DeNiro played a good monster. He was a monster that brought out compassion in his audience, though not quite the same compassion I feel when reading through the pages of the original novel.

And thus ends my Lunch time Lesson... better get back to writing label copy. I apologize for the random literary-ness of this post, I just couldn't get this out of my head after watching Boris Karloff lumber about the screen.

Moving, marketing, and the end of a long term relationship

2010-06-05T19:41:00.001-07:00

So things have been a little crazy in my life, but when aren't they??

My attempts to find a new apartment have been successful! Which would be better news if my lease didn't start a month and a half before my current lease ends. Oops. The new place though looks amazing! Its in the exact part of town I was hoping to move into, in a divided building that was constructed in 1929.

Look at the awesomeness of the arches and the decorative fireplace, not the random college guys bad furniture. The overlap in my lease will give me a chance to clean and paint before moving things over. Anyone want to suggest some paint colors? I'm open. Also... anyone who wants to help move I will bribe you with beer, and not PBRs.

SpinZone is prospering and looking forward to its new shipping location and the future abundance of natural light for photographing the merchandise. (I cannot wait for all of those windows! I feel like I live in a cave right now) We've made 24 sales from our etsy site, which has introduced us to some really amazing people. I love my customers! We are also oh so close to a milestone. We are only 10 people away from having 50 favorites!!! I'm just a teeny bit excited about that.

Dad is working on some awesome new spindles, but production has slowed a little with his upcoming business trip to Brazil (where hopefully he will pick up a copy of the magazine I was interviewed for about my thesis research) and problems he is having with his sciatic nerve. First it was his finger almost falling off now he's leg is going numb! My father is falling apart.

Now to the saddest news, the end of an era. A five year relationship is done. Well it would have been six but I didn't get on board until season two. That's right LOST. All done... bye bye... tears were shed and life is now moving on. I think that this will hit me more next year when the season premiere would typically begin. In honor of the series finale I participated in a LOST knitting swap. This is where knitters all over the world participate in a themed secret santa type exchange. While the show was ending, I thought back to its beginning and themed my gift from the first season.

My package contained a fun variety of objects from a hand knit Dharma polar bear, liquid smoke monster, Oceanic Airline pens, sunscreen, travel backgammon (oh yeah don't you remember the early version of the black rock/white rock island games?), a copy of Watership Down, and oh so much more! It was so much fun to put together. In return I got an awesome gift from a lovely woman in England! After seeing (via my blog) that I moved from the sunny and warm Texas to "there's nothing wrong with Ohio 'cept the snow and the rain," she sent me a Dharma recruit cold weather kit! This included a Dharma hot pad for baking fish biscuits (which she included a recipe and a cookie cutter which is good because the one Amy gave me dissappeared somewhere between Texas and Ohio :( ), a fish biscuit colored cowl, hot drinks, and even a Dharma chocolate bar!

Shop is up and running!

2010-04-27T12:03:00.000-07:00

So Sunday saw the launch of SpinZone on etsy. We started with a stock of 17 spindles and in just 48 hours we have sold 14 of them!

I spent some time last night boxing up the first round of shipments, with the exception of two sales that had multiple spindles as I need to find larger boxes. Dad was so excited he ran out and bought some more wood today! Black and White Ebony will make a reappearance and look forward to some Purpleheart!

Excitement while work blogging

2010-03-03T08:43:00.000-08:00

So at work, the curators got together to create a list of the Top Ten Most Embarrassing Moments in Ohio History. Posting began today with Number Ten. It spiked our page hits from 15 views to 203 views in just two hours! Problem is, not one comment :( This makes me very sad faced. So if you get a chance go check out the start to our count down and leave a comment!

And the countdown begins with 10

A literal spinster

2010-01-21T10:40:00.000-08:00

Since I have moved north to the frozen north of Ohio, I have come to depend on my hand crocheted objects. For the first time in my life I have actually made things and kept them for myself! I've also picked up a few new hobbies. I actually finished a knit object. While I have had a basic understanding of knits and purls, I could never stick with it through a whole project. As it stands I've made three of these cowls, which are great for cold, windy days.

Notice all the snow outside... that's because it snowed for DAYS!

Also, as I have mentioned before, I decided that because I was a single woman living alone in a city with a cat, why not take up spinning? Make my spinsterhood official! Well, its more addicting than it sounds I promise. I love doing this. For Christmas, I tried to teach my mother but the posture required was just too much for her back so she asked me to make her yarn from the fiber that I bought her. It was my first full skein that I Navajo plied. I'm pretty stinking proud of it. See the pretty?

Yay I love new fiber addictions!

Work blogging

2010-01-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

So just got a comment on my first big work blog post, it made me happy. Better than that, it made a big boss happy. Plus our numbers jumped from 3 views a day previously to 90 the day I posted it! Yay!
Check it out and comment, but pretend like you don't know me :D
Ohio's Camera

Ohio and Texas

2009-12-22T10:30:00.000-08:00

In honor of my upcoming trip back to the great state of Texas I give you.... Bowling for Soup!!!!

Roadtrippin.... also known as 'It's only Wednesday?'

2009-12-09T11:29:00.000-08:00

So this week has already been a full one, and its only Wednesday! Not just Wednesday, but a Wednesday on my very last six day week! So excited about that one... let me tell you.

So what has made this week so full already? Travel.

Monday, I traveled to Cincinnati with two of the manuscript curators in order to preview a few lots at the Cowan's auction that we were interested in. 4 hours in a car with the guy who compares me to Hitler because I'm politically conservative (makes so much sense... right?!) and a lovely older gentleman who looks like he could blow over in a strong wind while telling stories about his biker ex-girlfriend. Interesting trip, needless to say. On the plus side, while we were there looking at broadsides and inmate carved canes, Wes Cowan came to introduce himself to us. Apparently it had been awhile since the co-host of History Detectives and occasional appraiser on Antiques Road Show had seen someone from the museum in the auction house (try 5 or 10 years). There are worse contacts to make in this state I think. Got back to work just in time to not be able to do any real work and felt highly unproductive as I did cleanup work.

Yesterday, I traveled with two ladies who work on a collections grant project to Marion, OH. Whats in Marion? Oh yes, another inventory site... The Harding Home. Not a terrible little site, the collections are in good shape so the work shouldn't be too terrible except that the holdings are quite numerous and not entirely catalogued. Yay.... The visit yesterday was just to get the lay of the land, but starting the first week of January I will be going for two days every other week (while others have to go every week, finally one benefit to doing four different jobs... yes thats right, my time is so divided thanks to restructuring I feel like a schizophrenic... I literally have 4 supervisors on any given day!). On the way back from Marion, we decided to stop in at G&R Tavern in Waldo, OH - Home of the World Famous Bologna Sandwich. How could we resist a sign boasting such claims in this teeny speck of a town off of 23? So I was brave enough to hazzard the fried bologna sandwich that landed this place slots on both CBS and Food Network..

Can you say MASSIVE? I think I'm incredibly lucky to still be alive after ingesting that!

Today was the auction. We bid online which should have been no big deal except that due to high winds in Columbus, our power keeps cutting out and kicking us out of the auction. We missed out on an awesome piece but landed two others for low cost... yay us! So, that has been my busy week. Tonight I have to make a quick batch of brownies before knit night and pray I have enough steam to make through the many meetings and public service shifts between now and Saturday at 5!

Domestic Skills

2009-11-28T05:36:00.000-08:00

So to further my decent into fiber related fun and frolic, my friend yarnchef let me borrow a drop spindle and taught me some spinning basics. I should in fact say she provided a new form of fiber narcotics to a junky, but borrow works just as well. Armed with some beautifully dyed hanks of fleece, I spun. I spun and I spun and got covered with little bits of wool until I came up with this....

I made yarn! Its single ply and kind of lumpy... but darn it, its yarn. Can you tell I'm just a bit proud of myself at this moment? Next, convincing my dad to make a few of these bad boys!

Red Scarf Project

2009-11-27T10:21:00.000-08:00

So I saw this on my friend's blog... well I take that back, first she told me about it over an awesome Thanksgiving dinner with her future in-laws and then she blogged about it. Anyway, the Red Scarf Project is an charity project for children who have grown to old for the foster care system and are now off to college. There are a few stipulations regarding the nature of the scarves, but it is a great program that is sadly below the needed number. They still need 1500 scarves by December 15th! So if you have a spare moment to knit or crochet a unisex scarf, check out the Red Scarf Project and give a little back this Christmas and potentially rid yourself of some stash you had lying around.

Here are some more details:

Scarf Size: Approximately 60″ long and 5″ to 8″ wide. Scarves should be long enough to be wrapped around the neck, with tails long enough to be tied in the front.

Style: Think unisex collegiate. Ask yourself if your son, brother, and/or husband would enjoy receiving the scarf. Fringes are optional. Your scarf should drape and tie easily.

Yarn: Preferably DK, double fingering-weight, worsted weight, or light bully yarns. No laceweight, super-chunky, or mohair yarns as there are many people who find mohair too itchy. The yarn should be soft.

Color: Red! However, this could mean burgundy, cherry, russet, red stripes with other colors, or multicolor hues including red. Other unisex colors, including black, navy, teal, olive or gold are also welcome.

Finished and tagged: Yarn ends should be securely sewn in. For a personal touch, attach a tag saying “Handmade for You” with your first name, city, and group affiliation, if any. Donors have also included washing instructions, messages of encouragement, gift cards, burger bucks, books of stamps, etc.

Random humor...

2009-11-25T12:29:00.001-08:00

Couldn't resist sharing this. My cubicle neighbor saw this on her New Yorker desk calendar for today.

Infinite blog loop

2009-11-25T08:34:00.000-08:00

Ok so today I posted a blog for work so I'm recycling. Yes, I am in fact linking to a blog post I made on another blog.

This way for NASA objects bloggy goodness!

Also... don't forget to go buy Kris Allen's album.

Also, also... I miss my Gracks

Lets here it for the boy

2009-11-23T10:26:00.000-08:00

Lets give the boy a hand... a helping hand that is.

As you may or may not recall I supported Kris Allen's run for American Idol. He is in fact Kick Awesome. Well his album was released on Tuesday, and its not doing so hot.

So lets get out there and support him. Voting may be over, but now its time to talk with our wallets instead of our phones.

It sound more pop focused than Kris from Idol days but it is still a great album. If he can make it to Gold with this one chances are the next album will be the Kris Allen we all know and love!

Possible repeat... Lolcats

2009-11-18T07:50:00.000-08:00

Some people have seen this while others have not... but its just too awesome not to share again. My aged, tail chasing cat has allergies. Always has. They cause her to pull her own hair out, poor dear. My friends in grad school thought this would be an appropriate photo to turn into a lolcat. I happen to think its quite funny.

She never got on the front page cus she doesn't have enough votes... hint?

Visit's end and solo movie going

2009-11-17T06:22:00.000-08:00

My mother's visit has come to an end. While I am relieved to once again have my space to myself, I hate to see her go. We don't always get along, but it was really nice to have my mom around for a few days. We put up my Christmas tree, hit up several local restaurants, and generally tried to show my mom that I am, in fact, ok up here in Ohio. Not an easy feat. She worries about me being to cold so she knit me a sweater while I was at work. Not just a little cardigan but a super thick ski sweater that makes me sweat when I put it on indoors. Gotta love moms yeah?

Between her visit and my dad helping me move in I have learned one thing... I absolutely hate dropping my parents off at the airport. Its depressing, and both parties will usually end up in tears.

A guy is coming out to fix my dryer Saturday morning. Hopefully it will just be something simple. DVD player will sit there in a state of brokenness for the foreseeable future. Kitty has not attacked her tail in a few days, though not for lack of trying. Have to keep reminding her that a) it is attached to her body and b) if she continues to attack it so fiercely that it causes her to bleed I will assume that she dislikes it and have it removed.

A big downer for me this week is that three movies will launch in my city this Friday and I have no one to go with :( I'm not big on doing things by myself, but I'm going to have to. I may be able to put off seeing Blindside and Precious in the theatre, but not New Moon. I can't believe I haven't met any one here that will admit to watching or reading the Twilight Series... losers ;)

When it rains...

2009-11-14T06:56:00.000-08:00

Oh goodness, if only the cat's vicious attacking of her tail and subsequent bleeding frenzy were the worst part of my week. Yeah, I'm still fairly convinced that Ohio hates me... or that the third Friday the 13th of the year will result in multiple days of catastrophe. So cat's tail thrice bled, bad. The situation that landed me at a dermatologist's office every other week for months on end... potentially a problem again... joy. Mom decided to do my laundry while she was visiting (yay right?) and washed a silk blend sweater that is now faded beyond recognition (I only got to wear it once). Also she pulled off all of my bedding and threw it in the washer at 9 at night. At 11 we discovered that though the dryer turned, it would not heat. Dryer = broken. Repair men are coming in a week to fix it. Mom checked her email on my lap top and now it gives me error messages whenever I try to boot it. In fact, it takes three attempts and a system repair just to get the **** thing to turn on right now. Yay. Oh yeah, and last night I decided I wanted to watch an old favorite kind of movie to cheer me up from my week of BLAH... the DVD player now refuses to work.

I am just ready for this week to be done, but unfortunately I am at work today... blah. Let's hear it for January and a closer to normal work week!

Fake Thanksgiving and finished projects.

2009-11-12T07:10:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was Veteran's Day, and in the midst of patriotic broadcasts on my day off my mother and I made Fakesgiving dinner. Oh yes, we did. Since I wont be able to travel home for the holiday and my mother was in town visiting we decided to celebrate the holiday a little early. There was turkey, stuffing, yams, the whole nine yards really. It didn't quite feel like Thanksgiving should but it was a very sweet thought on my mother's part. The only downer of the day was that the cat started bleeding again. After fifteen years, I dont think I am ever going to convince the cat that her tail is, in fact, attached to her body. Le sigh....
Oh a slightly more positive note, I finished my gloves for work! They are keeping my hands warm as I type and it is awesome.

The hat I had been making to wear at work and trap my body heat in this icebox is going to be re purposed. I was walking out of CVS and saw the saddest Christmas Charity tree ever. It was for senior citizens who asked for items like socks and underwear. I saw Miss Mary's ornament and had to pick it up. Miss Mary asked for a warm hat and scarf so my purple lattice work hat will be re purposed and a matching scarf made. Yay Christmas!

Emergencies are never fun

2009-11-09T07:17:00.000-08:00

So, last night there was an emergency at my house. As some of you may know my cat likes to chase her tail... yes it is strange but she's been doing it for about a decade and its the only thing my 15 year old cat will actually do to get her heart rate up. Last night I look over to see her propped up on the back of my white couch and there is a three inch gash down starting at the tip of her tail. She bled all over the couch and the wall before I caught it. Rushed to the drug store to get some ointment to hopefully stop the bleeding as my mother (who was randomly in town visiting when this happens YAY) tries to calm the cat (who is in pain) and clean the stain off of my white couch. When I get back the cat is sitting on the tiled entry way flicking her bleeding tail, effectively flinging blood all over the hallway... yes it was on the tile, on the carpeted stairs, even on my coat that was hanging by the door. Poor thing. Put the ointment on, got the bleeding to stop... she licked it all off and irritated the wound causing it to start bleeding again. Poor thing was so scared, probably feeding off of my fear and freak outs. I almost took her to an all night vet but we set her up on the guest bed with the bad sheets and let her rest in a dark quiet place and within 15 minutes the bleeding had stopped.

Poor Tiddles :(

Frustrations and New Yarn (though not mutually exclusvive)

2009-11-06T11:44:00.000-08:00

Lets go backwards and start with my new yarn. Went with LittleWit to the Yarn Market showroom last night (www.yarnmarket.com and ended up talking myself into buying yarn . Come on I was surrounded! So I had been eyeing this: Lorna's Laces worsted online and even at $18 a skein I was unable to resist purchasing once it was right in front of my face. So I bought one skein... come on it was 18 bucks!. At 225 yards I'm not quite sure what to do with it... its gotta be something good though since it cost me a pretty penny.

I also wound up purchasing two, 100 yard skeins of this absolutely awesome Merino worsted from Yarn Market's new line:

"The Abbey Collection." It instantly reminded me of a field of bluebonnets. The only problem is again 200 yards and a need to do something somewhat important with it. Argh!

Sadly, this is not my biggest frustration. At work we are now RESTRUCTURING. Oh yes, I have been here two months and everything will change and I will no longer report to my supervisor who I enjoy working for but someone else entirely.

I wish I could vent more about that but as this is a public outlet, I'll just have to say that I may hope for the best with this new structure but I ain't holdin my breath.

Sweet, sweet warmth...

2009-11-04T07:00:00.001-08:00

As I have complained before... my cubicle is COLD. I work in a cement building on a cement over hang in a windy area of Ohio. So needless to say my cubicle has thus far hovered around 65-67 degrees during the day, and the temperatures are only going to be dropping. This is why I am making the lovely Firecracker Gloves.

Also I have purchased a 32 oz thermos to fill with hot tea every morning.

This is my first morning bundled up with my sweatshirt, wool socks, and my new source of ever hot beverage. I think I may be in love!

Thumb Gussets... Warm and cozy or the spawn of satan?

2009-11-03T11:16:00.001-08:00

So last night I was working on these Firecracker Gloves with a lovely skein of wash day wool. Everything was going fine and dandy until the thumb gusset. Maybe it was because I started the gusset at a ridiculously late hour or perhaps the fact that I have never even attempted a glove or gusset in my life... but by golly I've been crocheting for nearly two decades... this shouldn't be that hard! Grrrr!!!!

Its a Small World After All

2009-11-01T18:26:00.000-08:00

So one of my coworkers was asking me how I was doing and if my knitting circle was working out. As we got to talking she revealed that she grew up with the founder of Eat Sleep Knit! I've shopped on this website before, but never really thought about it. Apparently, the woman who started the whole thing was born without a jaw bone, though she had surgery as a child to replace the missing piece with a rib! She had a successful job when she began www.eatsleepknit.com but the site just took off in popularity and orders. She now operates the site full time!

Its a neat website with lots of fun hand painted yarns. They do have a giveaway program, called the yarnathon

Every milestone you meet (listed on their website) has a prize of either some sort of goodie bag or gift certificate. There are power boost yarns that give you extra points and you earn points when you buy yarn in "sweater" quantitites (6 skeins).

Anyway, check them out!

Introductory...

2009-11-01T17:20:00.000-08:00

So this is something that I have been considering since considering taking on a job thousands of miles from home. Why? The knowledge that I would likely end up with a whole lot of nothing to do and an occasional need to feel like I was reaching out to another human being in some fashion.

Two months into my grand adventure I finally get around to making my first blog post. So lets begin...

Ohio is the best of times and the worst of times. Perhaps more accurately, Ohio has been a fairly mediocre time punctuated with moments of excitement and far more moments of unnecessary frustration. It took a week for my clothes to get to Ohio, and half of my furniture. It took 6 weeks for all of my furniture to arrive. By the way, my couch has seen Chicago before I have! Work fluctuates between exciting new tasks and discoveries and dealings with a forced mentor who treats me more like a student than a colleague and coworkers who are unwilling to reach out of their own comfort zones to welcome a new person (with a few exceptions thank goodness or I may have run back to Texas on foot!) And of course, the cold that lasted for three weeks and turned to Bronchitis!

Though before I sound like a whiny little brat, good things have happened and over all I am enjoying my time. My job is full of freedom. I get to decide what I want it to be, what I want to research, what collections to take in. The coworkers who aren't cold and/or rude have been incredibly welcoming and easy to get along with. I still haven't managed to find a church but I did get connected with a local knitting circle that is full of really fun people who welcomed me in instantly and made me feel like I was making friends in my new home!

So that is my tale thus far, more will be forthcoming. Don't worry Amber, I haven't completely disregarded your idea of "Adventures of a Shiksa."