Another Art Show

I have been slacking big time on the blogging front.

A few weeks ago I found out that I got into the Columbus Riverfront Art Festival. Hooray! It is a three day event, get this, the weekend after the Dayton show I'm doing. That means twice the amount of work in the same amount of time. It's a bit intimidating. Especially because the only show I have ever done was the one day Hyde Park Square Art Show last October. I have been stocking up on materials and working on increasing inventory. Admittedly I have a long way to go, but I'm excited.

So that is the main thing in my brain right now. Working on clocks, clocks, clocks. I have had really good sales all summer but hit a bit of a slump this past week. I've had a sale each day for the last three days so that is encouraging. I spent all my money on booth fees and supplies, with still more supplies to buy so I hope the sales keep rolling in! Want to buy a clock, or better yet a table?

New High Tech Finishing Room

I work out of my dirty, dusty, messy basement. Clean it up, you say. Well, I try. I was having issues with little dust fibers and what not finding their way into the epoxy on my clocks, which would then make me have to pour additional coats of finish. Then I had a genius idea, with just two cheap drop cloths I fashioned a totally awesome pour room. Check out the photos. I turned the light on for you.


I feel a little Dexterish when I'm inside, which is creepy. Plus I use a propane torch during the finishing process so I have to be very aware of where that is pointing at all times. But so far it is working. The first batch of clocks were dust particle free. Don't be jealous now, not everyone can have such lavish work areas.

I realize it's June, but mark your calenders for September 23-25. That's when I'm going to be exhibiting at the Dayton Art Institute's Oktoberfest. It is official, I have paid the fee and have been assigned booth 123.

My First UFO Experience

Last week we spent a week in Surfside Beach with my husband's family. If your unfamiliar Surfside is right next to Myrtle Beach. My mother-in-law rented a wonderful beachfront house. It had a great balcony that overlooked the beach. I was sitting on said balcony with my husband at around 9:00 on Tuesday night when I saw a red light rising straight up in the sky from the horizon. I watched it rise about a quarter of the way into the sky and then the light went out. I commented to Nick that I thought that was strange. A plane wouldn't just blink out and not be seen again. He told me he had seen a red light just above the horizon line not long before my sighting. We discussed cloud cover and what not and then let it go, I didn't think anything more of it.

But on Wednesday night something truly amazing happened. Again I was sitting on the balcony with Nick when all of a sudden the same red/orange light appeared. This time is wasn't alone. Five more lights appeared forming a crescent line and they were closer than the previous night. I about fell over my chair trying to get to the door to knock on it and let everyone inside know what was going on.

Everyone came out and for the next hour we all watched the orange lights. They would appear in a line, sometimes alone, sometimes right next to each other. They would stay lit for 30 seconds or so and then fade out. They didn't move much while lit, maybe a little from side to side. After 45 minutes or so I noticed two tiny flashing white lights right next to each other in the sky. I thought it was an airplane high in the sky but as I watched the lights grew brighter and seperated moving farther and farther apart while they moved in land. We saw three pairs of lights move at the same rate of speed getting brighter and brighter as they moved in land. We lost sight of them as they passed over our house.

After seeing the white lights we saw the orange lights one more time only this time there were only about three instead of the seven we had seen before. Again we saw the twinkling/flashing white lights pair up and move over the house.

It was an amazing thing to watch. I put two and two together and realized that what Nick and I had seen on Tuesday night was the same lights we saw Wednesday so on Thursday we went outside at 9:3o and watched again. This time we sat on the walk way to the beach away from the lights of the pool and houses. Sure enough the orange lights appeared. First directly in front of me in a group of three. The light in the middle seemed slightly larger than the two on the sides. Then the lights appeared off to the left four or five more times. Each time they faded away they gave the impression of a disk or saucer, the lights faded out in a semi circle. I should also mention that Thursday night the orange lights were proceeded by random flashing white lights, tiny and star like, but they moved in erratic patterns.

I tried taking some pictures and at the time it looked to me like I wasn't getting anything so I gave up. Imagine my surprise when I put the pictures on my computer today and found that I had three images of the lights. The were just little specks in the photos but after zooming I found the three images below.



No they were not helicopters, lanterns, lasers, airplanes or fireworks. Which is another thing I should mention, there was a fireworks show going on down the beach several miles. The lights were out over the ocean and not near the fireworks.

I've done some searching around the internet and have found that these orange lights are quite common. I have always been one to look up in the sky just in case. You can be sure I'll be looking even more now.

Thanks for Dissing Me Hyde Park

So I didn't get into the Hyde Park Art Show this year. I think it's a little odd that someone can get in one year and have a packed tent the whole time but then not get in the next year. But, it's okay! I was pissed so I rebelled and applied to a much larger three day show, the Dayton Art Institute's Oktoberfest, and I got in. So thank you Hyde Park for rejecting me. Now I just need to pay the booth fee. Anyone want to buy a clock?

Speaking of which I've been a clock making fool lately. I am caught up with all but the two orders I got today. Plus I cut out 36 clocks on Monday and have sanded half of them. Gotta stock up!

If you haven't seen the new website check it out: www.meltingclocks.org.

It is so nice to have sunny warm weather finally! I was reading the forecast on May 27 and it said that in the 27 days so far in May it had rained 22 days. Bleh. My backyard is starting to look normal again and not so swamp like.

And my final thought, I don't care what anyone says, Lady Gaga rocks. She has created audible crack. Heavy Metal Lover, ScheiBe, Bloody Mary, Government Hooker,etc. Thank you Gaga for the new album. I made Nick listen to a few songs in the car. He suggested I try listening to something else for awhile. Um no.

Almost Success!

Check out my new website! Click Here

I'm going to make it private so it won't have any adds and I have more stuff to add like a gallery and store with shopping cart. But it's getting there! I think it looks way better than the old website. Well, the current one I guess, I also need to direct my domain names to the new site. Hopefully that will get done in the next couple of days.

Mother F@&^*#)$

I just dug myself a lovely hole. I got annoyed with my current website hosting service because they are charging me out the butt for hosting and for their website builder thing that I don't even like. So I got all rebellious and signed up with a new hosting service. The catch is I don't know squat about creating a website or computer stuff in general. It's like reading Chinese to me. It is a miracle that I somehow stumbled through the last five years running my own site. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm on the verge or self pity tears right now so I'm going to bed. I will tackle it tomorrow.

Hopefully a wonderful new website is in the near future. I may have to get my husband to translate the foreign language for me (computer jargon). Either that or I will be annoying the shit out of the live chat help guys. I'll just tell myself that surely duller crayons than me have pestered them for help in the past. At the very least my dumb questions will give them something to complain/laugh about over the water cooler.

Rain Rain Go Away

The rain just doesn't want to stop! This April was the wettest April in history with Cincinnati getting more rainfall than ever before. I feel like I live in a tropical climate during rainy season only we don't have the tropical heat to go along with the rain.

Our basement which often leaks a bit during rain has had a constant puddle. The puddle has turned into a lake several times causing me some problems. The basement is where I work and when my molds are flooded it's hard to get work done!

I should buy some ducks. Basement ducks. If they get bored in the basement they could go swim around in one of the many large ponds that have formed in our backyard. If it was warmer I would be worried about alligators because the backyard is more of a wetlands/marsh than anything else.

The plants sure look happy, though. Everything is very green. I'm looking forward to one day (probably in June) when it dries out enough for me to plant a very large garden in the back. I'm wising up this year and building a raised garden. It will be six to eight inches higher than the rest of the yard. Last year my garden got off to a decent start and then all my plants drowned. Very sad.