Just a quick update about my art work. Today I logged into DeviantART and to my confusion I had 300 feedback messages (if you don't use DA- feedback is when someone comments, favorites your work, or follows your page) which is a buttload for me. I thought this seemed fishy so I read through all of the comments and everyone was congratulating me on my Daily Deviation. I was like, "What the math is a Daily Deviation?" It turns out that on DeviantART, each day staff members or volunteers pick about 22 pieces to be featured that day on the Daily Deviations page. Out of the millions of amazing pieces on DA, my itty bitty sloth hoop was chosen (left). I'm very excited and honored to have my work featured. I've already gotten several messages asking me to remake this piece :)
In other news, I got an order for a different sloth design (yes, sloths are very popular right now) and I went down to Joann's to restock on hoops. I get there and they had NO 6 or 7 inch hoops! I was pretty pretty pretty mad. When I got home I called every craft store in Phoenix (and a few in Chandler and Peoria) and NO ONE HAD ANY! What the hell? So then I went online and looked at a crap-ton of online stores so I could order some hoops in bulk. There were only 3 stores online that had them in the size I needed. I could NOT believe it. This craft has gone completely NUTZO! I tried to get them directly from Darice, the manufacturer, and they didn't even have any that size in stock. Retarded. I did manage to find a shop that had quite a few for a fair price so I stocked up. It was super scary to think I might not be able to get my hands on any hoops for weeks. I hate telling my customers that I don't have enough supplies and they have to wait. Time is money, man! Okay, that's the end of my craft rant. Here's some new hoops I've done recently:
All of these hoops are currently up for grabs! Find them here: www.iggystarpup.etsy.com
Yesterday was a crazy day but crazy fun too. First me and a few girlfriends went to a jewelry party. Since I'm perpetually broke I didn't buy anything but chatted a lot. We started talking about how by never having kids or getting married that we're going to be able to retire early and have a buttload of savings to travel with (I think that it costs about 300k to raise a child to the age of 18 in the United States these days). I then mentioned how I had seen this story on Inside Edition (yes, I occasionally watch Inside Edition) about this group of single lady friends who were renting a fabulous foreclosed mansion and living the good life. I proposed that if all of us stayed single that we should consider pulling our money together and getting a Spinster Mansion. Everyone was really keen on this idea. It was really funny ^_____^
After the jewelry party we had planned on going to see a band called Harry and the Potters at the Burton Barr Library (we're all huge HP fans). I had never heard this group's music but the show was free and I thought it might be fun. We all dressed in our Harry Potter gear and were really excited. Here's us when we first got there:
We felt a little awkward being the oldest people there (who didn't have children) but whatever. We're all young at heart and being huge dorks makes us happy. There was a pretty big turn out and we got spots really close to the stage. All the kids were super funny and at one point in the show one of the band members came out into the crowd and wanted the kids to shout "SPEW" into the microphone. All the little kids kept introducing themselves when the mic was in front of them instead of shouting "spew" and one kid said, "My name's Sage--AAHHHHHHH!!!" and screeched into the microphone! It was horrifying!
A dude that I had met in Seattle when I lived there was playing drums for the band but I was too shy to say hello to him because I figured that he wouldn't remember me since we only met once and it was over a year ago. However, he kept looking at me like he knew who I was. Since all of my friends had such a good time at the library show we decided to go to the second show at the Trunk Space afterwards. While we were waiting for Harry and the Potters to play that dude came up to me and was like, "Hey Courtney!" and I was like, "Oh, hey! I didn't think you'd remember me since we met like a year ago." and he said, "Of course I remember you!" So that was cool :)
Since we had gone from one show to the next we didn't have time to eat dinner so we were all DYING the whole night. Also, none of us had worn comfortable shoes too (we wound up standing for nearly 5 hours) so that part sucked. Near the end of the show Heather said, "We're just going to stand until we die." The band turned out to be the headliner and played last so we totally would have had time to eat first so that was a bummer. We were all totally out of it yesterday and none of our brains were working. I kept seeing people I knew at Trunk Space since all of the same people go to all the shows there so it was funny how my friends were like, "You know EVERYONE!" I really don't, it's just that Phoenix has a pretty close-knit music community so if you go to a few local shows you're bound to see the same people.
The last song the guys played was about love and how that's the greatest power of all and during that song Heather turns to me and said, "We don't need love. We have Spinster Mansion." and I totally laughed out loud like a freak. I was so tired and light headed from not eating that I couldn't stop laughing. Spinster Mansion, haha! After the show we all looked at the Super Moon, which was crazy bright and really beautiful. We all had to cram into Jackie's car and poor Hayley had to sit in the trunk. I felt bad for her but she was a good sport about it. So yeah, if Harry and the Potters come to your city, you should for sure go check them out! I guarantee you'll have a killer time!
Always.
Today I went on an ADVENTURE!
For the first time in nearly 20 years I tubed the Salt River with all me mates and it was great fun! The last time I went I was 9 or 10 and I remember it being very frightening; I was always the one who would float away or end up in the reeds. But I had this Saturday off from work and I figured it might be cool to do something that I don't normally do. I asked my dad for some ideas of stuff we might do and he suggested tubing. I wasn't sure if my friends would be interested but I asked anyway and everyone was super stoked!
So we all met up this morning and after packing up the cooler and applying waaaay more sunscreen than was necessary, we were on our way! When we got there we couldn't believe how many people were there. It had to have been THOUSANDS. The shuttle over to the river was pretty intense too! The speed limit kept shifting between 35-40mph but it felt like our driver was going at least 60mph and when you're not buckled in and going up hills and around corners that feels hella fast! Good grief!
Jackie had had the good sense to bring rope to tie all of our tubes together, if she hadn't one of us would've floated away for sure (and it most likely would've been me). We put the cooler in between all of us for easy snack access and also to make sure it didn't flip over or anything. The water was cold but since it was hot as ballz outside we didn't mind. At the first rough patch of water, Michelle fell out of her tube! Poor thing! There was kind of a pile up at that spot and people were falling out right and left and the girl ahead of her thought she was her friend and said, "Don't worry! I'll save you!" then when she realized Michelle wasn't her friend she was like, "Wait! I don't know you!" It was funny ^___^
For the most part the river was pretty smooth and relaxing and there were lots of laughs had. However, it did get pretty rough again and we floated over to the edge of the river and had to dodge a bunch of tree branches. I almost got sucked under water at one point and being the drama queen that I am, I kept yelling, "WE'RE ALL GUNNA DIE!" But luckily, none of us did. I think Michelle and Maddie fell out of their tubes a few more times but nobody drowned, which is good. We heard quite a lot of funny comments from fellow tubers throughout the journey but my personal favorites were:
"That rock just poked me in my butthole!"
and
"Hand jobs aren't really that great."
and
"One time I fell asleep tubing and woke up at an Indian reservation and there were lesbians everywhere."
Suffice to say, tubing attracts an interesting array of people. I saw way more skin than I cared to see and some of the world's worst tattoos too. But we had a blast and will most likely be making another trip to the river sometime later this summer. Here's a commemorative photo! Oh, and amazingly, no one got sun burned! Cheers!
