Bag Lady

I finally broke down and bought a grown-up bag. My sister and sister-in-law can vouch for me- I DETEST purse shopping. Sure, I like to shop for messenger bags for art things or because I have to carry my sketchbook with me but I've never EVER shopped for a purse.

The bag I was using before this bag was a messenger bag that I bought so I could carry my sketchbook and art things with me. It's time, however, for a regular purse.

I bought that cute bag from Kohls. They're having a 50% off sale and it seemed like the right time. It's actually the second bag I bought because the first one was too small and I had to exchange it for a bigger version. Still lovely and it fits my sketchbook, pen, planner, and wallet. It even has room for a book. The reason why I got this bag is I needed a purse that was smaller than my messenger bag which can fit a 11"x14" sketchbook. I throw waters and food and RH's books in my messenger bag. Receipts gather... its quite a mess. I'm hoping with a smaller bag, I can manage it better.

Also, I hate that with my messenger bag, I can never find my phone the first go. Or my sketching pen. This bag isn't very deep and I can find my phone instantly. *crosses fingers* Hope it stays that way.

Museum Trip

The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena has an awesome collection of Asian art which includes Indian sculptures. It was decided that yesterday, we would take a trip down and marvel at these beauties.

There were a couple Ganesha sculptures but this turned out to be one of my favorites. I always wondered why he only has one tusk and one of the descriptions gave a wonderful story as to how he lost his other tusk. Ganesha, remover of obstacles, is always depicted holding and/or eating sweets. He loves sweets. Well, one night, he ate so many sweets that his tummy exploded! The moon found this hilarious and laughed and laughed and laughed. Ganesha, enraged by the moon's merriment at his own expense, broke off one of his tusks and hurled it at the moon. This is why he only has one tusk.

Ganesha is turning out to be on of my favorite Hindu gods. I bought a little Ganesha statue (seriously, only slightly bigger than a quarter) and am keeping him with my beads and stuff. Maybe he can help me remove the obstacles that keep me from creating... even if those obstacles are ones I make myself.

Messy First Step

 Here's a peak into my bead stash. I pull this out every time I make jewelry.

I know. It's rather horrid. I had a freakout a few days ago because I KNEW I had copper crimp beads and couldn't find them in this mess (really, who could?). I sat on the floor crying, about ready to throw out all my beads and just start over when RH calmly pulled out the bags and said we just need to sort through the mess. Well, of course, there were no crimp beads. But, I decided it was time for a new system.

We went to the Container Store and found these awesome little boxes with tiny compartments. LOVE! We bought two of them and I've taken the first step toward a new bead storing system. I couldn't think of a way to organize and RH asked how my favorite bead store organizes their merchandise. They just do it by color! So, that's what I'm doing. Baby steps. I'll get there.

I like labeling my little beads too. Most beads are glass... this one is stone but I can't remember what kind! Brain fart...

Oh, and if you're curious as to what happened to the elephant charm from yesterday's post...

I made a pendant last night with some brass wire (brass wire is WAY stiffer than copper wire, btw). Used some wonderful new seed beads. I LOVE seed beads. Now... how should I string him???

Charming Elephant

Went charm shopping today. I was looking for charms that bring to mind India. One of the charms I picked up were these brass elephants.

Indian/Asian elephants typically have small ears and these do not, but the "saddle" reminds me of images I've seen of people riding elephants which in turn reminds me of India.

Do you know the story of Ganesha, the Indian god with an elephant's head? Ganesha, known as the remover of obstacles, is thought to be the son of Shiva and Parvati. Ganesha was born while Shiva was away. Parvati asked Shiva to guard her chambers while she bathed and Shiva came home demanding to see his wife. When Ganesha would not let him pass, Shiva killed him. After learning from Parvati that was his son, Shiva brought him back to life and replaced his head with the first thing he saw which was and elephant's head.

There are many versions of the story but that's the one I like best.

Tomorrow we're going to the Norton Simon Museum to look at Indian art. I promise tomorrow's blog will be posted sooner than 10 minutes before midnight.

What reminds you of India?

First Ear Wires

This wire wrapping thing was easier with smaller seed beads! Who woulda thunk? It was such a bear wrapping the beads around the pendant I made in this post. But the wraps on these earrings are nice and tight.

I love seed beads; they're like little gems and I'm loving wrapping them around wire shapes. For the earrings, I used some glass crackle beads I have in my stash. I also made my own ear wires! A first for me!

They're rather thin but the holes in my ears aren't very big so not a big deal. They hold up nicely even for 24 gauge wire. I suppose I should hammer them to harden but haven't done that yet. I added a piece of purple crystal for extra sparkle.

Rather late with this blog post but am still making the blog-a-day challenge for November. Tish led me to the site NaBloPoMo which stands for "National Blog Post Month." I joined up. Haven't had a chance to explore it yet (I'm on vacation :D) but it looks like a really cool community for bloggers!

It's been super hot here in SoCal. Today, the high was 99 degrees! Sigh. Hoping it will cool down soon. How's the weather been for you?

A Far Off Land

RH and I have decided we are going to go to India. There's no set date yet. There's no fleshed out plan. All we did was agree that in a few years, we will be in India.

I'm not entirely sure how this fascination got started. I do know that it's something we both share and I feel so blessed that he wants the same things I want. The word marriage was thrown around in our conversations. So was the idea of moving in together. Scary conversations, yes, but exciting nonetheless.

I found this pendant at a bead store in Dana Point. It's not a real coin. The owner said that the pendant was a reproduction. I'm wearing it now, strung on a simple black cord. I want to keep India fresh in my mind. I want to take it around with me as a constant reminder that I will get there one day. I've gotten in the habit of touching it before making a purchase. Like asking myself if I really need to be spending the money or if I could put it away for India. Hasn't happened yet, but hopefully I'll get better at the saving part :P

We tried Indian food for the first time last week. I LOVED it. It was a tiny little grocery store in the middle of Lake Forest. It had a tinier buffet. I tried a samosa, chicken tikka masala, some kind of veggie mush that was totally yummy but I can't remember the name of, lamb curry, and tandoori chicken... all with some rice, of course. They had garlic na'an which was HEAVEN. We had some left and I ate it later with some string cheese. RH liked the lamb curry and the rice (which meant something because he usually HATES rice) but not much else. We're going to give it another go soon. :)

Hello, November

Wow. November is already here!

It was RH's birthday on the 22nd of October. And because he's such a dear, he said he wanted to go to the San Diego Zoo (which is what I wanted to do for my birthday but we couldn't afford it).

I did quite a bit of sketching. Not enough photo-taking, I think. Last time we went to the zoo, I took about 800 pictures of the polar bear playing with some tree branches.

So many of the animals were fighting. The rhinos were fighting, the sun bears were fighting, and someone said that the polar bears were at it too. We didn't see the polar bears fighting, thank goodness. I love polar bears and probably would have been very upset to see them bloodied up.

Below are some sketches from my handy-dandy sketchbook. I'm not very good at cats but I certainly did try.

 Anyhoo... happy November, all! I read somewhere that November is Blog Month or something and some people are trying to write a blog a day for the entire month of November. Guess who's going to try and keep up with that challenge?