I'm selling stuff on ebay again. I somehow never fails to make me happy.
I'm selling some shot glasses, a scarf I never wore to the wedding and a photofram that A had bought sometime for no particular reason (that type of shopping happens alot with him I find) and some other random stuff I could find in my house.
The listing is free if the starting price is 99 pence, so hey what's to loose. Now I get all those Thai stone dealers that keep listing large amounts of gemstones for 99 pence and a 25 pound shipping cost...
I've not done that cause I'm not evil (and I just want to get rid of this stuff really)
anyway, better news to come later, as I'm going to the real world experiance that is the post office to post a b'day pressie for my sister J. ( 3 weeks late I know, but I wasn't able to finish the ring untill now)
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Fun fun fun.....homesickness
I’ve been trying to think about what to write in the last couple of days. My sister and dad was here on the weekend and it’s the last time I’ll be seeing my sister before I move to Australia. We did a lot of things, we did a walking tour in St Pauls Cathedral (well worth the money) and another walking tour (my sister really likes walking and architecture) of Oscar Wilde’s London which was also interesting, but not as good as the St Paul’s experience as the guide at St Paul’s was so great. She had a true dislike for the architectural style of “Brrrrutalism” which is the style that larges parts surrounding the cathedral used to be built in. It’s all being refurbished now.
I can’t think of much to write about this weekend without starting to cry. It really gets me sometimes that I live so far away from my family. I’m very rarely homesick, and only when I’m in Stockholm. I’m never homesick for Stockholm when I’m in London. I do however get homesick for London a lot.
I do not wish to live in Stockholm as such; if I did I’d move back. But I do miss my family, however nuts they all are (…you are nuts you lovely people, but in the best possible way).
So I’m not going to write about that, cause it makes me sad. I shall think about fun and exiting things to write about.
On Wednesday and Thursday it’s the G20 meeting in London and they are expecting riots around where I work as the demonstrators are congregating around Bank of England. This is very close to where I work…So I’ll go to work in my best riot gear methinks, flat shoes and put my ring mandrel (aprox 1 kg) in my handbag just so I can fit in.
Picture of ring Mandrel
I can’t think of much to write about this weekend without starting to cry. It really gets me sometimes that I live so far away from my family. I’m very rarely homesick, and only when I’m in Stockholm. I’m never homesick for Stockholm when I’m in London. I do however get homesick for London a lot.
I do not wish to live in Stockholm as such; if I did I’d move back. But I do miss my family, however nuts they all are (…you are nuts you lovely people, but in the best possible way).
So I’m not going to write about that, cause it makes me sad. I shall think about fun and exiting things to write about.
On Wednesday and Thursday it’s the G20 meeting in London and they are expecting riots around where I work as the demonstrators are congregating around Bank of England. This is very close to where I work…So I’ll go to work in my best riot gear methinks, flat shoes and put my ring mandrel (aprox 1 kg) in my handbag just so I can fit in.
Picture of ring Mandrel
Monday, 30 March 2009
new logo
I got my new logo from Allie and I've updated wy webpage with it. What do you think, was the new logo better or is the old one better???
I like them both...but I will have to choose one...
here is the new logo
www.Giertta.com
I like them both...but I will have to choose one...
here is the new logo
www.Giertta.com
Thursday, 26 March 2009
New Header
I got a new header today, I'm quite pleased with it.
Thank you Allie ( she made it for me)
Thank you Allie ( she made it for me)
Celebrations
My sister commented on our celebration yesterday, saying we should make yorkshire puddings and try to out and colonize a country. However tempting that sounded all we ended up doing was having dark chocolate ginger bisquits and watching gilmore girls (Recorded from day time tv).
I'm not so good at celebrating I've realised.
Things I need to improve:
1. Learn to celebrate good things.
2. Stop worrying so much.
3. Stop Concreting ( will explain the concept of concreting another day)
4. Do more of things I enjoy that aren't harmfull to me or society. ( picking flowers, breathing deep and foot massages and such things)
Number one will be practicing. I think i'm planning to excercising my celebration skills on the weekend when my older sister and dad is here.
I'm not so good at celebrating I've realised.
Things I need to improve:
1. Learn to celebrate good things.
2. Stop worrying so much.
3. Stop Concreting ( will explain the concept of concreting another day)
4. Do more of things I enjoy that aren't harmfull to me or society. ( picking flowers, breathing deep and foot massages and such things)
Number one will be practicing. I think i'm planning to excercising my celebration skills on the weekend when my older sister and dad is here.
Creative Business…
I’ve been reading Modish blogs Creative Business series.
Modish is a blog that show cases creative artist businesses and their products. The writer of the Modish blog (Jenna Coray) has written a handy starting a creative business series, outlining common pitfalls in the start up process of a one person business. The most interesting articles for me have been the ones about advertising and getting customers, i.e. getting people to know that your business exists.
Now I haven’t really started a business yet, but that is my plan. Just writing that makes me feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. And that is one of my major problems. I would love to be able to design and create jewellery and working with gemstones as my full time job; that would be my dream. But I’m a bit embarrassed to talk about it. Mainly cause I would be embarrassed to fail.
The fact that I do not want to talk about my jewellery would cause major problems if this was my main source of income. Since how would people know about your fantastic jewellery if you do not want to tell them about it?
Anyway, I’m going slowly in this process of planning and day dreaming. The first step I guess would be listing why I would like to have my own gemstone/jewellery business.
The main reason I can think of is that it would be fantastic to be allowed to work with something I really love to think about, talk about. I love to talk about jewellery and gemstones. With anyone that will listen. (Poor A gets to listen to hours of pros and cons of bezel vs. prong set jewellery)
So I guess the main reason I would want to have a business making jewellery is that I would love to work with something that I love, instead of something that I tolerate.
Anyway, I will have to strategise on how to make this a reality and not just a pipe dream.
Modish is a blog that show cases creative artist businesses and their products. The writer of the Modish blog (Jenna Coray) has written a handy starting a creative business series, outlining common pitfalls in the start up process of a one person business. The most interesting articles for me have been the ones about advertising and getting customers, i.e. getting people to know that your business exists.
Now I haven’t really started a business yet, but that is my plan. Just writing that makes me feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. And that is one of my major problems. I would love to be able to design and create jewellery and working with gemstones as my full time job; that would be my dream. But I’m a bit embarrassed to talk about it. Mainly cause I would be embarrassed to fail.
The fact that I do not want to talk about my jewellery would cause major problems if this was my main source of income. Since how would people know about your fantastic jewellery if you do not want to tell them about it?
Anyway, I’m going slowly in this process of planning and day dreaming. The first step I guess would be listing why I would like to have my own gemstone/jewellery business.
The main reason I can think of is that it would be fantastic to be allowed to work with something I really love to think about, talk about. I love to talk about jewellery and gemstones. With anyone that will listen. (Poor A gets to listen to hours of pros and cons of bezel vs. prong set jewellery)
So I guess the main reason I would want to have a business making jewellery is that I would love to work with something that I love, instead of something that I tolerate.
Anyway, I will have to strategise on how to make this a reality and not just a pipe dream.
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Celebrations are in order..
There are a few small things that has happened in the last few days that I think requires suitable celebrations.
The things that has happened are:
1. Today A passed his citizen test; he is now allowed to apply for citizenship in the UK.
2. They guy liked the pendant. And he was one design interested customer
3. I paid off my student load – debt free living, can’t fault it.
As he was reading me the text from the study book last night I wondered. How many British people knows how many Hindus (558342), Muslims (1 176 603) and Catholics (5 m in England) there are in the UK. How many percents of the immigration population live in London (45%). What you need to do register the birth of a child (unless you have a child of course).
It’s funny that it’s a requirement to know these numbers to be allowed to apply for citizenship. I do understand the importance of knowing how the voting system works, and how the parliament, House of Lords, House of Commons and the legal system is all set up.
But the percentage of different ethnic groups? I don’t know. Is it to make sure you don’t feel so lonely (You learn nothing about Swedes, so I assume that group is rather small). Also as you can’t apply for citizen ship until you lived here for over 5 years why does the book go through how to get a bank account. One would assume that you figure that out quite quickly.
It’s easy; they make it as complicated as possible, that is all you have to know. Bring all the paper you own stating who you are and where you live and they will not give you a bank account as you have no gas bill.
They will be totally ignoring the fact that you dont even have a stove. Then you can come back two days later wearing the shortest skirt you own, aim for the looser looking guy in the back and he will give you a bank account in seconds. That is how it worked for me anyway, as I said Easy Peasy Lemon Squezy.
Anyway… he passed his test. And now I shall to try to come up with suitable way of celebrating it….
The things that has happened are:
1. Today A passed his citizen test; he is now allowed to apply for citizenship in the UK.
2. They guy liked the pendant. And he was one design interested customer
3. I paid off my student load – debt free living, can’t fault it.
As he was reading me the text from the study book last night I wondered. How many British people knows how many Hindus (558342), Muslims (1 176 603) and Catholics (5 m in England) there are in the UK. How many percents of the immigration population live in London (45%). What you need to do register the birth of a child (unless you have a child of course).
It’s funny that it’s a requirement to know these numbers to be allowed to apply for citizenship. I do understand the importance of knowing how the voting system works, and how the parliament, House of Lords, House of Commons and the legal system is all set up.
But the percentage of different ethnic groups? I don’t know. Is it to make sure you don’t feel so lonely (You learn nothing about Swedes, so I assume that group is rather small). Also as you can’t apply for citizen ship until you lived here for over 5 years why does the book go through how to get a bank account. One would assume that you figure that out quite quickly.
It’s easy; they make it as complicated as possible, that is all you have to know. Bring all the paper you own stating who you are and where you live and they will not give you a bank account as you have no gas bill.
They will be totally ignoring the fact that you dont even have a stove. Then you can come back two days later wearing the shortest skirt you own, aim for the looser looking guy in the back and he will give you a bank account in seconds. That is how it worked for me anyway, as I said Easy Peasy Lemon Squezy.
Anyway… he passed his test. And now I shall to try to come up with suitable way of celebrating it….
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Soup Monday
Today is Soup Monday..
Mondays are great for soup as there is never anything in the cupboards as I do not do food shopping on the weekends.
Mainly cause food stores makes me aggresive, so I don't really do food shopping at all. I leave that to A. He is very good at it.
So today, in a very cold and rainy London it will be soup monday, and i'll make Spicy Tomato and Chickpea soup.
It's a very simple soup to make.
1. Take 1 tin chickpeas and 1 tin crushed tomatoes.
2. Chop loads of garlic, 1 onion, and some chilli, fry soft in a pot with a little olive oil. Put in herbs that you like. I do rosemary and/or thyme.
3. Throw in any random veg that is left over. Thinks that are looking a bit tired in the fridge for example and fry lightly.
4. Put in stock and water to cover.
5. Boil for about 20-25 min.
6. Blend with a imersion mixer.
Finished...
eat with parmesan cheese. Any leftovers can be eaten with a pasta...
It's very warming, very tasty, and very healthy and takes very little time.
All good on a monday...
Mondays are great for soup as there is never anything in the cupboards as I do not do food shopping on the weekends.
Mainly cause food stores makes me aggresive, so I don't really do food shopping at all. I leave that to A. He is very good at it.
So today, in a very cold and rainy London it will be soup monday, and i'll make Spicy Tomato and Chickpea soup.
It's a very simple soup to make.
1. Take 1 tin chickpeas and 1 tin crushed tomatoes.
2. Chop loads of garlic, 1 onion, and some chilli, fry soft in a pot with a little olive oil. Put in herbs that you like. I do rosemary and/or thyme.
3. Throw in any random veg that is left over. Thinks that are looking a bit tired in the fridge for example and fry lightly.
4. Put in stock and water to cover.
5. Boil for about 20-25 min.
6. Blend with a imersion mixer.
Finished...
eat with parmesan cheese. Any leftovers can be eaten with a pasta...
It's very warming, very tasty, and very healthy and takes very little time.
All good on a monday...
Monday, 23 March 2009
Pleased
The guy I made the heart pendant for was really pleased. So now I'm so happy. I love it when people like what I make.
I've now been asked to make another necklace. The same style as the handfastning necklace I made to use during our wedding ceremony. I love this necklace, and I wear it as often as I can get away with it.
This necklace is a lariat with three chains and a locking centre piece in the shape of a leaf. On each of the chain strands there are coloured briolette cut gemstones. On mine it's tourmalines but he wants to have stronger coloured stones. I think i'm going to make one with red and green jade.
Pictures to come.
I've now been asked to make another necklace. The same style as the handfastning necklace I made to use during our wedding ceremony. I love this necklace, and I wear it as often as I can get away with it.
This necklace is a lariat with three chains and a locking centre piece in the shape of a leaf. On each of the chain strands there are coloured briolette cut gemstones. On mine it's tourmalines but he wants to have stronger coloured stones. I think i'm going to make one with red and green jade.
Pictures to come.
A bit of creativity and loads of time...and some sheep
Look what these guys have been able to create with some creativity, time and a whole load of sheeps.
Dented Heart
I finished the Dented Heart pendand on Friday. It has been very a very challeging piece, and at times I have hated. I'm happy with the result. I love the shape, and the softness of the heart. I think the dent with the red spinel set into it is interesting.
This one was hard to make, first I cut out the front and back piece of the pendant from a 1mm sheet. Then I domed them, i had to create a butterfly shaped piece to fit at the top of the pendant as you are not able to dome the tops of he heart togethere. These front piece was then dented, and all the pieces was soldered together.
Then I made the collet for the stone from scratch and set that in the dent, and then I attached the chain, then the chain snapped and I Had to resolder that whole thing again.
Finally now it's finished, And I do hope that the guy want's it, and likes it....as always it feels like you sell more then just a piece of jewellery. It's hours of sanding and polishing in that one...
Anyway...I only have bad picture as my camera has run out of battery,..And this was the only picture where you could see the very red spinel. Since the pendant is soo big, and so shiny there is now way of taking the picture without showing me. SO you get to see me as well. In my favourite sweater that my sister L bought me 4 years ago. I worn it so much the actual printed silver dotts have been washed away.
Have a look
This one was hard to make, first I cut out the front and back piece of the pendant from a 1mm sheet. Then I domed them, i had to create a butterfly shaped piece to fit at the top of the pendant as you are not able to dome the tops of he heart togethere. These front piece was then dented, and all the pieces was soldered together.
Then I made the collet for the stone from scratch and set that in the dent, and then I attached the chain, then the chain snapped and I Had to resolder that whole thing again.
Finally now it's finished, And I do hope that the guy want's it, and likes it....as always it feels like you sell more then just a piece of jewellery. It's hours of sanding and polishing in that one...
Anyway...I only have bad picture as my camera has run out of battery,..And this was the only picture where you could see the very red spinel. Since the pendant is soo big, and so shiny there is now way of taking the picture without showing me. SO you get to see me as well. In my favourite sweater that my sister L bought me 4 years ago. I worn it so much the actual printed silver dotts have been washed away.
Have a look
Saturday, 21 March 2009
New Jewellery
I've been photographing a lot of the stuff I've been making lately. I've realised I will have to rebuild my webpage, as the optimal size for the pictures on the website really should be the same on on my website as the optimal size on etsy.
I've not updated my website or etsy as yet, but here are some previews of things I've worked on the last couple of weeks
Pink Tourmaline Cross Over Ring 
Pear Shaped Topaz Ring
Nightmares
I keep having very strange nightmares, it’s the same nightmare every night. I run around in a small thai village trying to find moisturizer and lip gloss. Apparently in my dream there is only one place where you can buy it, and that place keeps moving. And for some reason the importance of buying moisturizer is huge, in the dream it’s a life and death situation.
Something terrible will happen if I can’t get it; and the cause of death will be death due to skin dehydration.
Something terrible will happen if I can’t get it; and the cause of death will be death due to skin dehydration.
Friday, 20 March 2009
Toast Friday
In my effort to eat more varied food, ( I tend to get stuck on one meal and then eat it until I can’t stand the sight of it) I have deemed different days different breakfast days. My favourite is Toast Friday. I like it so much sometimes I even make it Toast Thursda. ( I know I’m sooo radical).
So today is Toast Friday, and I’ve had my toast with raspberry jam, which is such a treat. I and tend to get violently hyper from all the sugar and super efficient until at least 10.30 where I have a massive slump and start willing the chocolate vending machine closer to me so that I can make it new best friend.
Being Toast Friday makes it and automatically great day, or start of the day. Today the day was made even better as I missed my train, and therefore got to meet the singing cyclist.
Cyclist in London traffic are your kamikaze commuters, the dash in front of cars and they go through red lights and love to yell abuse at people walking in the street. I do always think that I’m going to see at least one fatal accident a day. But they all seem to survive to return another day.
Now this guy; all dressed in red, cycling along at an exceptionally slow speed on a very high gear. This made him look like he was at a spinning class but only moving at 1 km an hour. (Someone should teach him how to use his gears really; he had at least 20 of them). He was cycling slowly along, singing at the top of his lungs. Now I could not hear what it was that he was singing, and he was not singing along to anything as he didn’t have any headphones. He was just singing some random maybe made up song about nothing. He made me really happy; he obviously enjoyed the very slow but energetic cycling, and when he came to a high note his whole body would move and his bicycle would slowly steer out onto oncoming traffic.
I think I’m going to take the late train every day, so I get to see/hear him assuming that he lives to cycle another day.
So today is Toast Friday, and I’ve had my toast with raspberry jam, which is such a treat. I and tend to get violently hyper from all the sugar and super efficient until at least 10.30 where I have a massive slump and start willing the chocolate vending machine closer to me so that I can make it new best friend.
Being Toast Friday makes it and automatically great day, or start of the day. Today the day was made even better as I missed my train, and therefore got to meet the singing cyclist.
Cyclist in London traffic are your kamikaze commuters, the dash in front of cars and they go through red lights and love to yell abuse at people walking in the street. I do always think that I’m going to see at least one fatal accident a day. But they all seem to survive to return another day.
Now this guy; all dressed in red, cycling along at an exceptionally slow speed on a very high gear. This made him look like he was at a spinning class but only moving at 1 km an hour. (Someone should teach him how to use his gears really; he had at least 20 of them). He was cycling slowly along, singing at the top of his lungs. Now I could not hear what it was that he was singing, and he was not singing along to anything as he didn’t have any headphones. He was just singing some random maybe made up song about nothing. He made me really happy; he obviously enjoyed the very slow but energetic cycling, and when he came to a high note his whole body would move and his bicycle would slowly steer out onto oncoming traffic.
I think I’m going to take the late train every day, so I get to see/hear him assuming that he lives to cycle another day.
Burger and Chips...
My husband is taking me out for Burger and Chips and beer tonigth. Better rush so I wont miss the train, and the burger
Yum....
Yum....
Thursday, 19 March 2009
A little bit of sadness
The heart is not fully finished, I need to set the chain in. And I had promised it to be finsihed today and he came asking for it, and now I feel so bad that I didn't stay up last night to set the chain. But I was thinking at the time, that setting in a chain at 11 pm at night might cause trouble as I was so tired I saw double. So that I decided to wait untill tonight, so I would do a better jobb. And now i'm kind of regretting this....
I'm quite sad about this, I hate giving a deadline and missing it, even if it's one day, it's still a miss and i'm so dissapointed in myself. But then again, I guess I did cause I thought it would be better...but you know...
anyway, it's looking real nice.
The funny thing is, this matters to me, so much more then anything i've worked with before. I'm really stressing about him not liking it and such things...gives me trouble sleeping.
Maybe i'm not cut out for this making things for others..
I'll have to have a think
Anyway. Setting the chain tonight, and then I'll take photos. i'll be finished tonight...
I'm quite sad about this, I hate giving a deadline and missing it, even if it's one day, it's still a miss and i'm so dissapointed in myself. But then again, I guess I did cause I thought it would be better...but you know...
anyway, it's looking real nice.
The funny thing is, this matters to me, so much more then anything i've worked with before. I'm really stressing about him not liking it and such things...gives me trouble sleeping.
Maybe i'm not cut out for this making things for others..
I'll have to have a think
Anyway. Setting the chain tonight, and then I'll take photos. i'll be finished tonight...
Commision...or the story of the dented heart
I’ve been working on a commission for a guy at work, it’s a big hollow doomed heart pendant. It’s very heavy, and it’s taken forever to make. I’m at the stage where I hate it. I hope to finish it tonight, but wont get my hops up to far as just about everything that can go wrong has gone wrong with it, the chain has snapped, the solder due to the heat pressure has fissured, and it had horrible firemarks that took me at least 40 minutes to polish off.
I try to look at it the best possible light here, so I wont chuck it out the window. I have learned a lot from doing this.
1. Do not accept commissions on things that you do not know the steps, or if you do charge more then you would expect for your time. This pendant has probably taken me over 20 hours so far.
2. Make sure that if buyer change their mind about design half way through to explain better how much longer it would take.
3. Never ever do anything that has snake chains ever again.
So good lessons all in all, and ohh my lord if something happens, I break, scratch anything when I’m setting the stone tonight you will find me crying and pulling my hair out on Royal Hill tonight.
Pictures of pendant to come
I try to look at it the best possible light here, so I wont chuck it out the window. I have learned a lot from doing this.
1. Do not accept commissions on things that you do not know the steps, or if you do charge more then you would expect for your time. This pendant has probably taken me over 20 hours so far.
2. Make sure that if buyer change their mind about design half way through to explain better how much longer it would take.
3. Never ever do anything that has snake chains ever again.
So good lessons all in all, and ohh my lord if something happens, I break, scratch anything when I’m setting the stone tonight you will find me crying and pulling my hair out on Royal Hill tonight.
Pictures of pendant to come
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Sweeties for Swedes
London is a great place to live, here you can find most things you would ever want or need. You want a bagel with salmon and cr̬me cheese at 3.30 am in the morning- just go up to the bagel place at the end of Brick Lane, Sari fabric to make fabulous curtains Рupper street, Roast beef sandwich with mango mustard РBorough Market on Fridays,
random tat classified as art, any street market or according to some people just head towards Tate Modern.
You can find specialised supermarkets for all major ethnicities; just the high street in Deptford has 6 different butches catering for 6 different styles of meat. (Hallall, Vietnamese butcher, Kosher Butcher, Bog standard English butcher mainly selling sausages and a couple of other ones).
But here they are rubbish at candy. Especially sour sweeties, the sour candy you can buy in the supermarkets are most often Own brand Yuck (Yes M&S sour fishes qualifies) or Haribo (= Yuck). To get half decent candy (candy king= Godis Kungen) one has to go to the big cinemas. And then they only have the bad selection of what I know Candy King can supply, No pastel fiskar, Ferrari bilar , kokos prickar or ismurikar. Only yucky chocolate covered raisins and stale wine gums.
So this is a call out for Swedes travelling towards London this spring, that are to stay in my house…Any supplies of nice Swedish candy would be much much much appreciated.
Sugar High Here I come…..
random tat classified as art, any street market or according to some people just head towards Tate Modern.
You can find specialised supermarkets for all major ethnicities; just the high street in Deptford has 6 different butches catering for 6 different styles of meat. (Hallall, Vietnamese butcher, Kosher Butcher, Bog standard English butcher mainly selling sausages and a couple of other ones).
But here they are rubbish at candy. Especially sour sweeties, the sour candy you can buy in the supermarkets are most often Own brand Yuck (Yes M&S sour fishes qualifies) or Haribo (= Yuck). To get half decent candy (candy king= Godis Kungen) one has to go to the big cinemas. And then they only have the bad selection of what I know Candy King can supply, No pastel fiskar, Ferrari bilar , kokos prickar or ismurikar. Only yucky chocolate covered raisins and stale wine gums.
So this is a call out for Swedes travelling towards London this spring, that are to stay in my house…Any supplies of nice Swedish candy would be much much much appreciated.
Sugar High Here I come…..
Sweden
I spent the weekend in Sweden saying goodbye to the family members who haven’t planned to come and visit us in the next 5 weeks. And it was weird, not weird as bad, just weird.
Mainly because I deal with things that are new and scary and imminent buy diving head first into it and not thinking about it. I very rarely think about things that happen, or are planned to happen until afterwards. That way I don’t stress about them. On Saturday my mother and sister had planned a family lunch for the closest family, aunties, uncles and grand parents which was lovely. And everyone asked us questions about where we are to live (don’t know), about work (don’t have one yet, and do not know what I want to do) , when we are leaving (8:th of May and we are doing some travelling on the way there) and all other questions that one would normally ask someone when they move to another country.
I however react by getting very freaked out and hiding in the kitchen doing washing up leaving A to answer all the questions. I might need to get a new way of dealing with things that I find a bit scary as I am frequently getting asked the same questions at work, and there are very little washing up to do here.
Mainly because I deal with things that are new and scary and imminent buy diving head first into it and not thinking about it. I very rarely think about things that happen, or are planned to happen until afterwards. That way I don’t stress about them. On Saturday my mother and sister had planned a family lunch for the closest family, aunties, uncles and grand parents which was lovely. And everyone asked us questions about where we are to live (don’t know), about work (don’t have one yet, and do not know what I want to do) , when we are leaving (8:th of May and we are doing some travelling on the way there) and all other questions that one would normally ask someone when they move to another country.
I however react by getting very freaked out and hiding in the kitchen doing washing up leaving A to answer all the questions. I might need to get a new way of dealing with things that I find a bit scary as I am frequently getting asked the same questions at work, and there are very little washing up to do here.
Friday, 13 March 2009
We are going for sure.....
We booked our flights last night, so now it’s set, it’s becoming real. We are leaving and I have the print out to prove it. We are leaving on the 8:th of may, only 8 weeks away. We will be going first to Hong Kong for 4 days, then Thailand for little over a week, then to Sydney, and then up to visit A:s family for a week. Then finally back to Sydney to get started, setting up a new home and life I guess.
It’s becoming very real now, and I’m exited and scared at the same time. Exited because we have been talking about moving for years, and scared because there are so many unanswered questions, will I find a job, will I make new friends, will all my shoes disappear after a visit from the shoe stealing woman?
Most importantly the thing that I’m scared about is, what if I don’t like it. What if I don’t want to be there, then I’ve lost my goto place. Australia has been my goto place for years, when I’ve not liked it in London, the weather has been bad, work boring or something other sad thing happening. Then I would think, well the it’s sunnier in Australia, so that would be good, kind off. But what if I go there and my expectations are not met. Then I will have lost my goto dream place.
But then again, I could be above my expectations, I will never know I guess unless I do go, so I’m going. Now I just need to decide what books are good enough to bring with me, and what ones that have to be donated. I reckon Jemima J is on the first lists…always a sucker for great literature me J
It’s becoming very real now, and I’m exited and scared at the same time. Exited because we have been talking about moving for years, and scared because there are so many unanswered questions, will I find a job, will I make new friends, will all my shoes disappear after a visit from the shoe stealing woman?
Most importantly the thing that I’m scared about is, what if I don’t like it. What if I don’t want to be there, then I’ve lost my goto place. Australia has been my goto place for years, when I’ve not liked it in London, the weather has been bad, work boring or something other sad thing happening. Then I would think, well the it’s sunnier in Australia, so that would be good, kind off. But what if I go there and my expectations are not met. Then I will have lost my goto dream place.
But then again, I could be above my expectations, I will never know I guess unless I do go, so I’m going. Now I just need to decide what books are good enough to bring with me, and what ones that have to be donated. I reckon Jemima J is on the first lists…always a sucker for great literature me J
Thursday, 12 March 2009
more Ebay
I checked my feedback from the people that bought stuff from me, and they have all written such nice things. And that makes me ridiculously happy.
Well I guess all nice things said about me is good, but the fact that I get a warm feeling in my stomach when people say they like how I’ve packed their parcels probably mean I’m a little bad sad. And that I love package wrapping.
Well I guess all nice things said about me is good, but the fact that I get a warm feeling in my stomach when people say they like how I’ve packed their parcels probably mean I’m a little bad sad. And that I love package wrapping.
Ebay
I’m finally posting my last ebay sale today, and I think we’ve done a good job selling some of our stuff. I do find it funny what people want to buy thought. The chest of drawers that we sold was very popular, even thought people needed to come and pick the up. Whereas the small cute little candle holders that we sold, didn’t sell at all. They would have posted so easily. And I made them, So I feel a bit snubbed. J
Now, A is convinced that the sellers will find out that he is the one that has sent all the messages and texts, signing it off with my name. He thinks they think that he has made up a female Ebay alter ego, to have women come around to the house to pick up stuff. Women with an insatiable need for metal chest of drawers from argos, purchased 5 years ago.
Now, A is convinced that the sellers will find out that he is the one that has sent all the messages and texts, signing it off with my name. He thinks they think that he has made up a female Ebay alter ego, to have women come around to the house to pick up stuff. Women with an insatiable need for metal chest of drawers from argos, purchased 5 years ago.
First degree dumb nut - That is me
Sometimes I’m a first degree dumb nut. Why is this you say?
The main dumb nut issue is, training. I’m acutely aware that I’m currently is in recovery from an open hip surgery with a surgical dislocation of the hip joint. That is right, a nice surgeon ripped the hip out of it’s socket to reshape it, remove bone, add some stuff, and removed all the soft tissue in the joint. In the end it was all pinned together with 3 10 cm long metal spikes. I have a really lovely 30 cm scar stretching over my hip and but.
During my recover I’m suppose to do physio therapy and slowly slowly introduce running, increasing with 1 minute for each run. Now that is all good and well. I have been very dedicated to my knee bends and all the other strange movement the very strong welsh woman physio that I have has told me I need to do. ( she is the strongest woman I have ever met, and I think she enjoys giving pain to others, cause I’m always beaten black and blue by the time I leave. She is the best physio I’ve ever gone to, and I’ve probably had at least 10-20 of them)
The problem is the running, when I’m running I go into The Zone, and in The Zone I feel no pain, or I do feel the pain, but I’m totally disassociated from the pain, so It doesn’t hurt me. Until I get out of the shower when all of the pain floods in and I feel like someone is repeatedly stabbing my hip with a kitchen knife. I’m also exceptionally competitive and punishing for myself when I’m running.
For example, today, I was running and I came up to my end time, which is currently at 11 minutes. And I just couldn’t stop. Beoynce’s “put a ring on it”song came on, and that is a good running song…and then it was some bad song with some random rapper, and then more music, and all of a sudden I’ve been running more then twice my allowed time. As I step of the treadmill I can no longer walk. So I decide to punish myself for being stupid by doing 120 double knee bends.
So now, I can not walk without extreme pain shuddering through my left leg starting at my hip, and when I sit I can’t have a 90 degree bend in the hip, so I’m doing some strange half lying down kind of thing at my desk.
And I’m a bit worried I have back tracked my recovery, but I hope I haven’t. I’ll see tomorrow.
Other than that. Today is Wednesday, and It’s the best day, cause it’s class tonight, and I’m working on some really cute little rings with half drilled Amazonite gemstone beads on them. I hope I’ll get some finished so I can show pictures.
The main dumb nut issue is, training. I’m acutely aware that I’m currently is in recovery from an open hip surgery with a surgical dislocation of the hip joint. That is right, a nice surgeon ripped the hip out of it’s socket to reshape it, remove bone, add some stuff, and removed all the soft tissue in the joint. In the end it was all pinned together with 3 10 cm long metal spikes. I have a really lovely 30 cm scar stretching over my hip and but.
During my recover I’m suppose to do physio therapy and slowly slowly introduce running, increasing with 1 minute for each run. Now that is all good and well. I have been very dedicated to my knee bends and all the other strange movement the very strong welsh woman physio that I have has told me I need to do. ( she is the strongest woman I have ever met, and I think she enjoys giving pain to others, cause I’m always beaten black and blue by the time I leave. She is the best physio I’ve ever gone to, and I’ve probably had at least 10-20 of them)
The problem is the running, when I’m running I go into The Zone, and in The Zone I feel no pain, or I do feel the pain, but I’m totally disassociated from the pain, so It doesn’t hurt me. Until I get out of the shower when all of the pain floods in and I feel like someone is repeatedly stabbing my hip with a kitchen knife. I’m also exceptionally competitive and punishing for myself when I’m running.
For example, today, I was running and I came up to my end time, which is currently at 11 minutes. And I just couldn’t stop. Beoynce’s “put a ring on it”song came on, and that is a good running song…and then it was some bad song with some random rapper, and then more music, and all of a sudden I’ve been running more then twice my allowed time. As I step of the treadmill I can no longer walk. So I decide to punish myself for being stupid by doing 120 double knee bends.
So now, I can not walk without extreme pain shuddering through my left leg starting at my hip, and when I sit I can’t have a 90 degree bend in the hip, so I’m doing some strange half lying down kind of thing at my desk.
And I’m a bit worried I have back tracked my recovery, but I hope I haven’t. I’ll see tomorrow.
Other than that. Today is Wednesday, and It’s the best day, cause it’s class tonight, and I’m working on some really cute little rings with half drilled Amazonite gemstone beads on them. I hope I’ll get some finished so I can show pictures.
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
The Joy of Travelling
I have always thought I was a person who enjoyed travel, a person that really enjoyed new experiences, food and cities. But I realised I’m just a bog standard normal I like travelling, but better if I know what I’m getting traveller. And I don’t like smells, I hate the smell of cooking fat (that was my main issue with Hong Kong), I don’t really like it when people stare at me (Malaysia), and I hate it when people talk to me in shops (just about everywhere in the world except London)
I did enjoy going to Istanbul, mainly because I went with M, and she is always good to hang out with. Not because of Istanbul in itself. The city is ugly, except for the very beautiful Mosques. It’s dirty and a lot of people really seem to dislike soap and laundry of clothes.
However we did some fun things, and experienced some really scary and dark Taxi rides.
On the Friday we went to a Hammam (Turkish Bath) that they had at the hotel. For a fairly body conscious girl like me it does feel strange to lie half naked on a tile table, and being scrubbed and soaped up by a young woman only wearing a thing cotton towel.
Anyhow, once I got over the weirdness of having someone touch me that much, it was nice. And I did come out squeaky clean.
Other funny things, we went to the Old Grand Bazzaar, and it was as I have always imagined a bazzaar to be, loud noisy and loads of people trying to sell you stuff you really don’t need. I bought some gemstones, not at a bargain price, but the right colour I have been looking for. M bought a lovely necklace. And we avoided buying a carpet, however we had one carpet sales man who was very intent on taking M out for dinner and dancing. He did say very nicely, “and then when we dancing, I will pick you to do the dancing”. We had a narrow escape from that one.
One guy walked behind us and randomly yelled at us in German, of which I understand nothing. The best guy was the Beautiful Potato man. Every time we walked past him, he had a potato stand close to the hotel. He yelled out
-Hello Potato, beautiful potato. I love you potato.
We never did get any potato, but we did have quite a bit if hummus, and something I’m sure was brain tucked inside a hummus looking parcel, a little unpleasant that one.
Next time I’m travelling, I’m bringing porridge. I love you porridge, beautiful porridge
I did enjoy going to Istanbul, mainly because I went with M, and she is always good to hang out with. Not because of Istanbul in itself. The city is ugly, except for the very beautiful Mosques. It’s dirty and a lot of people really seem to dislike soap and laundry of clothes.
However we did some fun things, and experienced some really scary and dark Taxi rides.
On the Friday we went to a Hammam (Turkish Bath) that they had at the hotel. For a fairly body conscious girl like me it does feel strange to lie half naked on a tile table, and being scrubbed and soaped up by a young woman only wearing a thing cotton towel.
Anyhow, once I got over the weirdness of having someone touch me that much, it was nice. And I did come out squeaky clean.
Other funny things, we went to the Old Grand Bazzaar, and it was as I have always imagined a bazzaar to be, loud noisy and loads of people trying to sell you stuff you really don’t need. I bought some gemstones, not at a bargain price, but the right colour I have been looking for. M bought a lovely necklace. And we avoided buying a carpet, however we had one carpet sales man who was very intent on taking M out for dinner and dancing. He did say very nicely, “and then when we dancing, I will pick you to do the dancing”. We had a narrow escape from that one.
One guy walked behind us and randomly yelled at us in German, of which I understand nothing. The best guy was the Beautiful Potato man. Every time we walked past him, he had a potato stand close to the hotel. He yelled out
-Hello Potato, beautiful potato. I love you potato.
We never did get any potato, but we did have quite a bit if hummus, and something I’m sure was brain tucked inside a hummus looking parcel, a little unpleasant that one.
Next time I’m travelling, I’m bringing porridge. I love you porridge, beautiful porridge
Friday, 6 March 2009
Istanbul and hypocrysi
Tommorow morgning at 4.45 am the car will pick me up from my house, and I will go to Istanbul with my friend M.
I have something really embarrasing to tell, I have always said I would never ever go to turkey due to the countrys human right violations. And now I'm going, A says i'm a hypocrite. But it's more embarrasing than that. Men M suggested Istanbul, somehow it didn't occur to me that it was Turkey. Which displays a horrid knowledge of geography.
I mean I had an A in Geography, that and Religion, and Social Science where my best subjects in High School..
Anyway, I'm really exited about going to Istanbul, and i'm so exited to hang out with M as we don't hang out as much now we don't live next to each other anymore.
So it's over and out, and I will make sure to come home with a real minging Shisha pipe
I will now go and find myself an Atlas to update my geography.
I have something really embarrasing to tell, I have always said I would never ever go to turkey due to the countrys human right violations. And now I'm going, A says i'm a hypocrite. But it's more embarrasing than that. Men M suggested Istanbul, somehow it didn't occur to me that it was Turkey. Which displays a horrid knowledge of geography.
I mean I had an A in Geography, that and Religion, and Social Science where my best subjects in High School..
Anyway, I'm really exited about going to Istanbul, and i'm so exited to hang out with M as we don't hang out as much now we don't live next to each other anymore.
So it's over and out, and I will make sure to come home with a real minging Shisha pipe
I will now go and find myself an Atlas to update my geography.
Obsessing
Obsessing
I often obsess about things, things I’m making, eating, reading and particularly about decisions I need to make. I’ve never been a good decision maker, I don’t enjoy it, and the decisions never come fast.
I tend to make pro and con list, ask for opinions, get feedback from others, changing my minds back and forth, and left and right. In the end I’m usually so tired of the decision that I need to make that I just don’t care anymore.
Now this happens with just about every decision I take, even simple decisions like what type of tomatoes to buy. So what I have done to simplify my decision making process is to make the same decision every time.
Now this sometimes has unforeseen consequences, like I can no longer eat tuna fish, as I had tuna fish salad every day for a year cause making a new lunch decision every day just made me to indecisive, and I ended up being so hungry every day cause I couldn’t make a decision and just had the same thing I had the day before.
Now I have to make a lot of decisions, like where shall we travel to during our move to Australia ( I say Thailand, Bali, Fiji, Vietnam and maybe Hong Kong, A says Hong Kong, Shanhai and Tokyo). What shall I leave, what shall I ship, what shall I give away. I think in the end what will happen is.
I wont care where we are travelling, as long as I can wear my new swim suit with the little shorts I got for X-mas at least once.
I will just chuck everything I own in a bin bag outside the closest charity shop. I moved to London 9 years ago with only 16.7 kg of clothing, so I’m sure I could start all fresh in Sydney. Except the nice clothes in Australia is much more expensive then nice clothes in Europe. Funny that. They do however have much better mangos.
I believe Mangos are very important for humans.
I often obsess about things, things I’m making, eating, reading and particularly about decisions I need to make. I’ve never been a good decision maker, I don’t enjoy it, and the decisions never come fast.
I tend to make pro and con list, ask for opinions, get feedback from others, changing my minds back and forth, and left and right. In the end I’m usually so tired of the decision that I need to make that I just don’t care anymore.
Now this happens with just about every decision I take, even simple decisions like what type of tomatoes to buy. So what I have done to simplify my decision making process is to make the same decision every time.
Now this sometimes has unforeseen consequences, like I can no longer eat tuna fish, as I had tuna fish salad every day for a year cause making a new lunch decision every day just made me to indecisive, and I ended up being so hungry every day cause I couldn’t make a decision and just had the same thing I had the day before.
Now I have to make a lot of decisions, like where shall we travel to during our move to Australia ( I say Thailand, Bali, Fiji, Vietnam and maybe Hong Kong, A says Hong Kong, Shanhai and Tokyo). What shall I leave, what shall I ship, what shall I give away. I think in the end what will happen is.
I wont care where we are travelling, as long as I can wear my new swim suit with the little shorts I got for X-mas at least once.
I will just chuck everything I own in a bin bag outside the closest charity shop. I moved to London 9 years ago with only 16.7 kg of clothing, so I’m sure I could start all fresh in Sydney. Except the nice clothes in Australia is much more expensive then nice clothes in Europe. Funny that. They do however have much better mangos.
I believe Mangos are very important for humans.
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Sorting out my Photos
I've been taking Photos of my jewellery lately for my new shop at etsy
I've bought a new camera (Cannon 450 D), and it has taken me ages to learn how to use it.
Finaly I think i've gotten better at it...Unfortunately I've run out of space on my harddrive so I have to start using my External Memory. Luckily my dad bought me a Terrabyte of memory for X-mas
The Pearl Ring I made not so long ago
New Banner For my Shop and Website
I got my new banner from Allie the other day. It's on the left. Don't you like It.
I'm gonna use it for my Website and for my etsy shop. Once I get the shop sorted, I'm working on setting up my policies and shipping etc etc and all the other stuff one must have.
Now I just need to write a new profile, and I never know what to write. I'm nice, i make pretty things, Like me Like my stuff...pretty please :-)
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Happy Shop Visits
Happy Visits
Today at lunch I went stone shopping. I think that might be only shopping that I do out of pure love. Many of people I know go shopping to cheer themselves up, or just for something to do. When I go clothes shopping I always feel guilt, slightly sick and wasteful. So no enjoyment there. When I go food shopping I just get aggressive, as the shops are always full with people and I never know what I want to eat.
But stone shopping is pure enjoyment. I always imagine that working in a stone shop would be the most wonderful occupation, but I guess only if you love gemstones. If you are selling gemstones with the same interest as I was selling shoes at university (not much, especially not to the really rude posh old ladies in their mink stoles) then I guess it’s just working in another shop that sells something, whatever.
Anyway, I was there to get some bright red stone for commission that I’m doing for a guy at work. This commission has thought me something very important about commission work. Do Not accept commissions if you do not know the steps you are going to take in the beginning to get it finished. The piece is shaping up now, and it’s going to look lovely. I will take pictures once it’s finished. But it has included a previously unknown level of swearing.
I have also learned that doming curved areas to a perfect match is a sure way of slowly going insane and I’ve learned that you can do amazing things with hammers.
I bought some really bright red spinels, and half drilled beads for a ring project I have been thinking about for a very long time. Pictures to come once they are finished. I have at least 4 rings to set gemstones in before I can get to that.
Today at lunch I went stone shopping. I think that might be only shopping that I do out of pure love. Many of people I know go shopping to cheer themselves up, or just for something to do. When I go clothes shopping I always feel guilt, slightly sick and wasteful. So no enjoyment there. When I go food shopping I just get aggressive, as the shops are always full with people and I never know what I want to eat.
But stone shopping is pure enjoyment. I always imagine that working in a stone shop would be the most wonderful occupation, but I guess only if you love gemstones. If you are selling gemstones with the same interest as I was selling shoes at university (not much, especially not to the really rude posh old ladies in their mink stoles) then I guess it’s just working in another shop that sells something, whatever.
Anyway, I was there to get some bright red stone for commission that I’m doing for a guy at work. This commission has thought me something very important about commission work. Do Not accept commissions if you do not know the steps you are going to take in the beginning to get it finished. The piece is shaping up now, and it’s going to look lovely. I will take pictures once it’s finished. But it has included a previously unknown level of swearing.
I have also learned that doming curved areas to a perfect match is a sure way of slowly going insane and I’ve learned that you can do amazing things with hammers.
I bought some really bright red spinels, and half drilled beads for a ring project I have been thinking about for a very long time. Pictures to come once they are finished. I have at least 4 rings to set gemstones in before I can get to that.
Monday, 2 March 2009
A Quick Update on Everything
We are moving to Australia. It’s scaring me senseless. We have been on our way for many years so it does make me very happy to finally get going. But it stills scares me.
I am selling things on Ebay this week. Chest of drawers, lamps and other little things that I don’t want to ship all the way to Sydney. It’s strangely fascinating to check how many people have viewed the items that you are selling, and somehow upsetting when there are things that no one is really viewing. It’s almost like that would be an insult. But then I don’t want these things either, so why would anyone else one might ask. But I have noticed that people are way more interested in chest of drawers then in shot glasses. I’m the complete opposite in my Ebay purchases.
I hope everything sells thought.
I’ve been creating a list of things to ship, to sell, to give away this weekend. It’s was like playing favourites with my own flat. And believe me, the hardest things to give away so far has been my beads, fabric and other craft materials ( I know they are going to good home thought, S will take great care of them). The hardest things to throw away will as always be books.
I am selling things on Ebay this week. Chest of drawers, lamps and other little things that I don’t want to ship all the way to Sydney. It’s strangely fascinating to check how many people have viewed the items that you are selling, and somehow upsetting when there are things that no one is really viewing. It’s almost like that would be an insult. But then I don’t want these things either, so why would anyone else one might ask. But I have noticed that people are way more interested in chest of drawers then in shot glasses. I’m the complete opposite in my Ebay purchases.
I hope everything sells thought.
I’ve been creating a list of things to ship, to sell, to give away this weekend. It’s was like playing favourites with my own flat. And believe me, the hardest things to give away so far has been my beads, fabric and other craft materials ( I know they are going to good home thought, S will take great care of them). The hardest things to throw away will as always be books.
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