fanciful devices: Giveaway.

A Stone Is Nobody's

A man ambushed a stone. Caught it.
Made it a prisoner.
Put it in a dark room and stood guard over it for the rest of his life.

His mother asked why.

He said, because it's held captive, because it is captured.

Look, the stone is asleep, she said, it does not know whether it's in a garden or not. Eternity and the stone
are mother and daughter; it is you who are getting old. The stone is only sleeping.

But I caught it, mother, it is mine by conquest, he said.

A stone is nobody's, not even its own. It is you who are conquered; you are minding the prisoner, which is yourself,
because you are afraid to go out, she said.

Yes yes, I am afraid, because you have never loved me, he said.

Which is true, because you have always been to me as the stone is to you, she said.

Russell Edson

FAQs

1. Are you a Southeast Asian dancing girl from the 1800s?

No, sorry to disappoint. My avatar and banner images are from an ancient book I found in the depths of my grandmother's cabinets. More on that here.

2. How do you make everything look so old?

First, you need a good oxidizer to brush on every bit of metal you can reach. I'll tell you all about it here.

Then there's this wax. I first mentioned it here. You'll have to scroll down a lot.

3. How can you be so productive?

I'm insanely obsessed and I have no offspring. I do nothing else- I don't have a day job, I don't clean my house or cook, I spend all day in pjs, often completely abandoning personal hygiene... I only interact with other humans when I walk my dog. And I like people! But I prefer dogs.

And I'm sloppy- but I make that sloppiness work for me.

4. Any tips you'd like to share?

No! Except for these 16 posts about techniques and this one about how to find your aesthetic.

5. Would you be offended if I took some inspiration from your designs?

Well, I'd be happier if you outright copied them.

No really, imitation is how we learn. I have enough ideas to go around. And even if I don't- please. No one's going to do this obsessively enough to threaten my business. (Probably.) I learned by copying others and I've seen others copy me as a step toward developing their own voice. So feel free. (I'd love if you tossed me a link in my comments, so I can feel like a proud momma.)

6. What do you look like?

Why, what have you heard? Really? Wow.

10/9/15

Giveaway.

Shipwreckdandy is giving away this lovely tea towel made by her friend Monique of the cool new shop Sailor's Mouth.

I'm partial to this tea towel:

The shop also has gorgeous pillow cases that I'd never lay my greasy head on. Check it out.

Leave Shipwreck a comment, like the shop, pin an item from it, blog or Facebook for chances to win.

In other news, I had to spend 24 hours in the emergency room because of an infected cat bite. Turns out cats mouths are made of poison. Here's a comparison of both hands so you can see what I mean.

And it got way more inflated before it got better. This is just the picture I texted my mom (who's a doctor) before she called me to yell, "GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM RIGHT NOW". And see that tiny dot in the middle of my hand, below the ring finger? That was the entire bite! I was messing with Blanquito and he wasn't having it. He had this huge eye booger though that I just had to get. Cuz I'm gross.
Anyways, tomorrow or so I'm coming back with a new batch of ten items so heads up.
Squirrel animated GIF

And here's some squirrels.
Bernese Mountian Dog Squirrel animated GIF

3 comments:

Juliette said...: haha! What on earth is that squirrel digging out of that poor dog, an acorn? Geeze, you'd think his owners would bathe him more often ;)

Wow, that's crazy about your hand. Glad you are better, though. I'll get it one of these days from Lapis, I dig for his eye boogers too, and one day he's going to not have it.

I love those tea towels! xo J; 10/9/15, 9:29 PM
Unknown said...: oh!!! I hpe you feel better. Cats are evil it seems? but you're more evil phew
can't wait for the new items!! xxxx; 10/10/15, 8:10 AM
darlene said...: Dang! Hope you're right a rain now. xoxo; 10/10/15, 8:45 AM