Fun Quote

My friend MJ made me laugh with this one:

"Never argue with an idiot; they'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience."

Stephanie Sersich Necklace Class

I had the distinct pleasure of taking another class with Stephanie Sersich at UBead2 on Monday. TOTALLY worth the 2+ hour drive to Pennsylvania. Two years ago I took the Spinky Knotte Bracelet class with her at UBead2, and this time it was the Gypsy Necklace class. I learned some new tips and tricks and had a great time. Plus, UBead2 has some of the best beads, and they're so friendly!

Yesterday I just crashed, and read books in bed. I finished Jeffrey Archer's "False Impression" and a surprisingly wonderful book by Sara Gruen called "Water for Elephants". "Water for Elephants" was about circus life in the 1930's, and while a fiction book, was well researched, and had a lot of interesting photos the author got from various circus archives. An interesting read!

OK, now for more YouTube.... Rick pointed these out to me (apparently they didn't work all that hard one day at work!). "White and Nerdy" is by (who else) Weird Al Yankovic. I first watched the green-screen version, which has Al singing and Donny Osmond dancing in the background. Dancing. Um. He's just hilarious, and he's winging it the whole time, which makes it that much funnier to me for some reason..... That video is here:

White and Nerdy, Take 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWc6QQ9JlMc&mode=related&search=

And then, the final version, equally funny (and I was able to understand the words better) --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbVtbc_XzrI&mode=related&search=

Have fun!

New Necklace

I have to take another photo of this, probably outdoors in the sun, to get it right -- the glory that is Swarovski crystal can sometimes make photographing it difficult, particularly when using a coated crystal. The "normal" color is like the bottom stone -- it's called Volcano -- but the secondary color is coming out as Heliotrope and it's just all too confusing. But I love the style and I wanted to share! And of course, if you're interested in buying it or seeing what else I can do, email me or visit www.lorianderson.net

Give a Gift That Means Something

A terrific site that my friend Allegra pointed me to. I just gave some trees. Even 10.00 can help -- some of the items allow you to give a "share" of a larger gift. A very cool site.

http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.204586/

Card Trick

You don't need to know Japanese to be impressed with this one!

More fun videos

Everyone knows I love YouTube and I just ran across The Barenaked Ladies new video that incorporates some of the best YouTubers. The best thing, on the right hand side, you access the original videos!

http://snipurl.com/1aua3

Sound of Your Voice Stars:

Where The Hell Is Matt?
Barats & Bereta
Geriatric 1927
Eepybird
Numa Numa
Album Cover Battle
Brookers
Boh3m3
The Winekone
Winston Spear
Evolution Of Dance


Enjoy!

Cheeseball and Buddy

This cat MUST sit in all the boxes that arrive at this house. MUST. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't FIT in all of them. What you don't see is there is a SMALLER box inside of the box you CAN see. He spent the better part of an hour trying to figure out how to curl up inside.

And then out came Zack and he MUST have his picture taken, too -- what a cheeseball!

A cool site I found

This is neat -- you know how you find random stuff, and taken out of context, it can be funny, interesting, or downright scary? This site has all that!

http://www.foundmagazine.com/

The Mercy of Thin Air

What a week -- surgery and a root canal kept me in bed for most of it, but the beauty of that was I got to read quite a lot!

I just finished "The Mercy of Thin Air" by Ronlyn Domingue, a book I picked up on a whim. It took me a tiny bit to get into it and get my characters straight (but that could have been due to the pain killers!) but overall I enjoyed it. It covers two different stories, both told, more of less, by Raziela, a young woman who died in 1920. She's "between", and narrates the story of her lost love while viewing the relationship between Amy and Scott, two young marrieds whose house she "haunts". There's a lot to the book and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for something a little different.

Comments? Email me!

Come visit my jewelry website, www.lorianderson.net, and see what I've been up to!

Valentine's Day Is Here!

And I have something funny to share -- Zack loves greeting cards, and he took off with the one Rick gave me today, after he asked me to read it to him. Then he came back, and said he wanted to read it to ME. Very solemnly, with a finger pointing out each word, he read, "Valentines Day is here. And when Daddy is through working out, I get a present!"

Roses, Recovery, and Books

I'm sitting here absolutely surrounded by the wonderful smell of roses -- Rick treated me a day early!

Mmmmm, yummy.

Surgery went well, but I'm thankful for pain pills! I've been catching up on reading while recovering. I read another James Patterson book (and I said I wouldn't) but this one was actually decent -- "Judge and Jury". Then I tried reading "Paint It Black" by Janet Fitch but just couldn't get into it. I think I just couldn't relate at ALL to the characters. She wrote a super book in "White Oleander" but this one, not so much.

I'm now reading "Small World", which is Tabitha King's first. She's Stephen King's wife, ya know. Interesting, and I can see that those two are a match!!!

So did bad weather hit you? We got a fair amount of ice today, and I'm wondering if it will be enough for the dentist office to be closed tomorrow (!). I have to admit that I love this stuff as long as I don't have to get out in it, and Rick can stay at home (which he did).

Jewelry -- I'm taking a small break from making it, but have been updating the web site. I have to work my tail off for a while, as I have two huge shows in April (three days each, with big crowds) and so haven't had quite as much time to post as I would like. There's a big bead show coming up soon, and I'll stock up on some things and look out for some new stuff. I have a show next month, too, a fund-raiser for Ovarian Cancer, so need to make some awareness jewelry for that.

If you're interested, my show listing is here:

http://lorianderson.net/pages/shopping.php

and I'm still getting applications out and notices in, so it will get updated regularly.

'night, everyone!

Eye Candy

I have surgery tomorrow, and more dental work on Wednesday, so this week I imagine I'll not be doing too much! But I will leave you with some eye candy to look at. I haven't had time to price it out, but if you're interested in something, send me an email!

Amazing Paper Art

My friend Allegra just shared this site with me and I wanted to pass it along -- it's amazing what one can do with a sheet of paper!

http://www.petercallesen.com/index.html


Not only does he work with cutting paper, but he's talented in other ways, too -- take a look!

The Joys of Bubble Wrap

There's nothing quite as fun as popping bubbles in a huge sheet of bubble wrap.

Books and Beads

I just finished two books that are worth a look!

First, "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. It's a hilarious account of the End of the World, and I found myself laughing out loud at many spots. It takes place in England, and an Angel of Good and an Angel of Bad (mainly, the Eden Serpent, now a guy who has a penchant for fast cars and nice clothes) have misplaced the Anti-Christ. They want to stop Armageddon from happening because they've grown accustomed to living with all the trappings of modern life. If you liked Dave Barry's "Big Trouble", you'll probably like this one!

The other one is Amy Tan's latest, "Saving Fish From Drowning". I adore Amy Tan and this was a great read that I was sorry to see end. Bibi Chen plans a trip for 12 travelers to Myanmar (Burma) but has the misfortune of dying before the trip. The group still takes the trip, and Bibi travels along as the narrator of the book. Lots of interesting tidbits about Burma, and another great one from Amy Tan.





Beads -- I just got accepted into a new show for this year, the International Gem and Jewelry Show, or Intergem as it's commonly called. It's a HUGE show with a wholesale section that sells predominantly beads (I buy most of my gemstones at these shows) and an enormous retail section that sells beads and a lot of jewelry. At least in my area (Baltimore) I've noticed a lot of high end diamond jewelry and low end plated-made-in-China junk, but nothing in between, and no artisan jewelry. I thought it might be worth a try, but I'm still amazed I got in! It's either going to be an expensive mistake, or a fabulous experience, but either way, I'm excited, and now am spending more time on making things than I am on updating the web site -- I am still updating it but not as copiously as before. The show is April 20-22 at the Baltimore Convention Center. Email me if you want a ticket!