Patience is a Virtue

And it's a virtue that I don't have.  I thought that by now I must be all better.  I must be over all of the damage and fatigue from my celiac disease.  After all, I've gained back all of the weight I lost and I have gotten my strength back.  So when my boss asked me if I could work a full day yesterday, I said sure.  And then I did.  And then I came home, took a shower, ate dinner, and went to bed.  I was exhausted.  I'm still so tired today that after lunch I'm going to take a nap.  And I want to have all of my energy back.  I don't want to wait to be able to work full days, because, big news, I might be going back to college in the Fall.  And if I do, I am going to need extra money because I will only be able to work part-time, and my rent is increasing.  (It turns out that I still get to keep my scholarship and I have enough money left of it for 9 more quarters.)  So I am scrambling to try to figure out college stuff, my Etsy shop has really been taking off, and work has gotten swamped with orders.  I want to be able to do it all, but I know from experience that when I spread myself too thin, I get sick because my body makes me take it easy if my brain doesn't allow me to.  So I am trying to learn to say no.  No I can't work full days yet.  No I can't work this weekend when I've already worked 5 days this week.  I need my weekend to try to get the energy I'll need to do a good job at work the next week.  No I don't need to constantly work on my Etsy stuff.  I'm making enough money now that it can go on the back burner without worrying about how I'll pay my rent each month.

And at the risk of sounding cheesy, I need to start saying yes to myself.  I feel a need to constantly be doing something productive, which leads to eating while blogging, while making jewelry, and wearing myself out.  Sometimes it's okay to just watch a movie, without having to do something else at the same time.

So if I don't blog quite as often, I'm probably not dead.  I'm probably just trying to give myself a bit of a break.

Let's all Go to the Street Fair!

On Saturday I went to the University District Street Fair with my friend Kelsey.  It was super duper fun.  This is either the third or fourth year I've gone to it.  I've gone every year since I first got to Seattle.  This was the first year that I had money to spend on things.  Kelsey and went to the park to swing on the swings and to a pizza place before the street fair.  I'll tell you about the pizza place in a different post.  After we got pizza we went to the street fair and one of the first booths we saw was the henna tattoo booth.  I have wanted to get a henna tattoo at the street fair every single year, but didn't have money for it until this year, so I finally got one!  And I love it!

This photo is from the day I got it, when the paste was dried on.

This was from the next day when the paste was removed.

The lady took only a minute to do my henna tattoo. I asked her how long she's been doing them and she said 13 years.  She does them free-hand, without using a stencil.  It was only $12 and I had expected it to be around $20, so I was pleased.

Next to the henna tattoo booth was a booth selling monsters and I instantly fell in love with one of them.  I have some seriously awesome stuffed animals, including a Sonic the Hedgehog and a Yoshi, but they are all really small and not great for cuddling.  This monster was big and soft and adorable and only $10, so I bought it immediately.  Also, it was the only one made out of this super soft material, so it was basically fate.

There's a monster in my closet and I couldn't be happier :)

As you may have noticed, my bed is in my closet.  That's just what happens when I have very little space and a closet big enough to fit a bed in.  It's called maximizing space.

My third and final purchase of the day was at a booth with an overwhelming amount of bead strands and cool rocks.  I nearly bought a strand of quartz points but then I saw a box of big colorful smooth stones for $2 each, so I bought five of them.

Future awesome pendants (I'll edit this picture later so you can see the great colors but right now I'm just trying to post this stuff before I go to bed.)

Aside from that, there were a whole lot of amazing creative people including sculptors, jewelers, and artists.  And there was this.  I had to have my picture taken and Kelsey was less than into it but she was the Han Solo to my Chewbacca because that's what friends do.

I couldn't fit my face in properly because of my big hat.

And I also got business cards from all of the coolest booths, because their stuff was unique and wonderful and I have to share it on my blog sometime.  You guys, people are really cool.

And next week I'm going to Northwest Folklife Festival for the first time ever!  I'm excited because people hacky sack there and also because I'm hoping I'll be able to buy a hula hoop there.  Also, there was this guy performing at the street fair who is the best hack sacker I have seen in my entire life.  He can juggle two hacky sacks with one foot.  I put some money in his tip jar and then talked to him for a little bit.  Unfortunately he doesn't live around here or I would hacky sack with him sometime, in the hopes that some of his skills would rub off on me :)  I asked him how long he's been hacky sacking and he said 13 years.  I have been hacky sacking for 10 years, but there was that whole 9 months where I couldn't walk and then I had to relearn everything.  But once the weather gets nice, I'll go hacky sack in the park when I get off work again.  I'm out of practice.

Friday Fashion: Put a Blazer on It

Sometimes you get an awesome blazer at the Assistance League Thrift Store. Sometimes you get blue jeans at the same place, because you have tons of awesome jeans but no actual blue jeans.  Sometimes you wear these clothing items with a T-shirt that your parents bought you when they were in San Diego for your brother's graduation from Marine's boot camp.  Sometimes you wear it with your favoritest hat ever, which you bought at Wish.  Sometimes you photograph yourself in said outfit and then try to eat a flower and then you write a blog post.  Sometimes you go back to the Assistance League Thrift Store and find another awesome blazer, this time in green, and also a $2 t-shirt and then you make new jewelry and photograph it and post it on Google+, and then Tom Riddle likes it and you're not sure how to feel about that.  Sometimes you just feel like wearing a tee shirt and jeans and then you throw a blazer on over it and feel like it makes you look put-together/like a rockstar.  Sometimes you only have to try on one pair of jeans and they fit perfectly (sometimes this only happens once in your entire life but when it does you feel like you won the lottery!).  And sometimes those same jeans are like new and only cost $5.  And sometimes I tell you to have a great weekend and then I go to the annual street fair and also to gluten-free pizza with my friend.

Nifty Thrifty Thursday

Just so you know, this probably isn't going to become a weekly post series, because I don't thrift weekly.  This is on top of my dresser right now (in real life right now there are more shells and feathers and rocks that I added yesterday).

When you make jewelry faster than you sell it, you have to have a place to put it.  And if you make minimum wage, you might have to get creative.  Everything on top of my dresser (aside from the jewelry, which I either made or bought) is something I made, thrifted, was gifted, or purchased inexpensively (aside from the copper colored jewelry holder in the center on the right side, which I bought on eBay).  I made the picture frame jewelry holder from a Dollar Tree picture frame.  I made the wine bottle jewelry holder from a sparkling cider bottle my mom gave me and some wire that I bought on sale at the art supply store.  I made the two small blue clay dishes in art school in high school.  I also made the box on top of the wooden jewelry box on the right in high school art class.  I just hot glued together some cool tiles.  (I'll show you it and the clay dishes in greater detail in another post later on.)  The biggest wooden jewelry box, wooden mushroom, and little blue owl were all gifts.  The little jewelry box on top of the smaller wooden jewelry box is one I've had since I was a little kid.  All of the other dishes were thrifted, all for less than $5 each.  My latest finds are the oval sectioned dish with the gold handles and a white saucer with a black bird track pattern.  I'll dedicate an entire post at a later date to the cool patterned dishes I've thrifted, but not today.  I also have some other thrifted teacups that live on my shelf.  Some people might think this looks tacky or cluttered, but I love it (even more now that I have my shells, stones, and feathers).  My decorating sense is definitely eclectic.  (and soon there will be more proof when I share my ever-growing wall of art)