Davy Jones 1945-2012

I am a colossal fan of The Monkees. Last week when I heard that band member Davy Jones had passed away, I was in utter shock, and actually cried for several days. The Monkees have been an important part of my life for over 25 years, and I have attended every concert that I could(the photo above is from June 2011) It felt like I had lost a member of my family. The passing of Davy Jones essentially means the end of The Monkees. While there is talk of the surviving members performing in a tribute concert, it is unlikely they will tour under The Monkees name in the future.

I could write a long post about the impact Davy had on the music world and his fans, but there are quite a few well written, heartfelt articles already out there, and I don't feel that I could do justice. My favorite articles are at the Psycho Jello Monkees Fan Site and an interview former bandmate Michael Nesmith gave for Rolling Stone. They are both well worth reading.

Today there is a fan memorial in Beavertown, PA, and I wish very much that I could attend. Instead, I will be lighting a candle and remembering him here. Rest in Peace, Davy. You will be missed.

Upheaval, Making Changes, and Collies

So, it has been a loooooonnnngggg time since I've posted on this blog, due to a large amount of upheaval in my life. In the past year and a half, I've changed jobs twice, replaced my car, mourned the loss of a loved one, been fired and am currently unemployed(aside from my Etsy shops). Whew! (Or Ugh. Whichever you prefer.)

I'm currently taking a medical billing course to expand my job options, and working on my jewelry and vintage shops. (Unfortunately, the shops are not currently busy enough to be my sole support...working on it though!) I've also applied for, and will hopefully be vending at, several fairs and markets this year.

Not everything is gloomy, though. In the past year and a half, I have also adopted a darling, lovely, smooth Collie named Mia. Who is not supposed to be on the couch. :)

So, I'm hoping to get back into the swing of posting on this blog at least once a week, which I think is an attainable goal for me. :)

How cool are these?

Came across these at the flea market recently. If I had the cash (and somewhere to put them), I would totally have bought these vintage bumper cars from the now defunct Santa's Village.

I Love (hate) Love Ikea...

I have a serious love/hate relationship with Ikea. I recently (finally) decided on their Leirvik bed frame for my bedroom, since I have up until last month had my bed sitting in the middle of the floor in an unfinished room. Well, that and my dad kept asking me why my room looked like a crack den every time he stopped by. (Just kidding.)

Now, I have been raised to be a do-it-yourself kind of person, which is a really good thing, because if you've never had the pleasure of assembling an Ikea product, these are their instructions:

Yep.

There are no words, only pictures. You get to figure out what everything is and how exactly it goes together.

So, I shoved everything over to the side of the room and put down a blanket (because God forbid I accidentally dent the new floor) and started putting it together.

(Yes, that is the oldest phone jack known to man on the wall--I'm not even sure it works anymore)

Now, I understand that the instructions with the little blob people are telling me to NOT do this by myself, but really, who actually pays attention to instructions? (Let's just say that it was a REALLY good thing that I put down that blanket!)

I got it to this stage when I discovered a slight problem...

This stupid piece wouldn't screw into the other. Seems that there's a small piece of metal crud clogging up the threads. Hooray.

It all worked out okay though, because Ikea has a bin of spare parts by their return desk, and while I couldn't find the exact piece I needed, I did find one that did the job, and was able to finish putting the bed frame together:
Now, if I could only sit on the edge and actually have my feet touch the floor, life would be perfect...(turns out it's a very high bed.)

What I'm working on...

I'm currently working on an order for some bridal party jewelry (9 bridesmaids!), this is one of the sample bracelets I've created for her. I really love this particular design, so it will probably be making an appearance in my shop soon.

New in the Shop...

Some new earrings will be making an appearance in my shop this evening:

Sabine earrings

Verity earrings

I'm baaack....

Well, I've finally got my computer put back together, and can finally get online. Hooray!

So, anyway, I've moved from my hobbit-hole apartment....

To my sister's house, which is on possibly the quietest street with kids that I've ever seen.

Don't get too excited for me yet, because my sister decided that she wanted to put the new floors in at the same time as I was moving, so this is still what all of my stuff looks like:

Yep. Still living out of storage three weeks into my new digs. But at least I have a bed, and now that the floors are finally done, I can start moving some of this upstairs.

I hope.