The Anti-journal

stardust

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:17:50 GMT

i saw a shooting star. About an hour ago, on my way home from helping daecabhir sort our book collection, i was preparing to turn into the gas company parking lot to drop off the gas bill night drop. i just happened to look up and see what looked like a stray firework flashing across the sky, except it was arcing down rather than up, and there was no noise (i had my car window open). It lasted about a second, maybe a second and a half.

i looked online for images and this is the closest thing to what i saw (after i massaged it in Photoshop, that is):

Huge it was, just like a firework. And yet, it was silent. The moon will be officially full in about three hours. i think i found a bit of faerie tonight.

Anyone else seen something similar?

In which the blog lives up to its subname

Sat, 09 May 2009 05:05:06 GMT

Well! My baby's birthday was on Wednesday, she is officially six years old. Today she had her feet trimmed, which for a horse who isn't used to having her feet handled a lot, is a big deal, LOL. But first, isn't **this** the life?

Ravyn is showing her best side on the left, LOL, Gallant is sprawled out in the center, and Pepsi the quarter horse is visible on the right.

Because it's been so muddy, Sarah and Nathan decided to try and get Ravyn's feet cleaned off before starting the trimming. Needless to say she wasn't too pleased with that either, heh, and in the end Nathan ended up using a scrubbrush dunked in a bucket of water on her feet in lieu of the hose.

And when it came to the trimming, there was a lot of dancing about on three legs, yeesh, but with repetition she'll get used to it. Here she is supervising:

And here she stood still long enough for me to get a decent photo!

After she was done, Sarah put her back in the field. i didn't get a good photo of Gallant, the other PMU percheron baby (well, 6-year-old baby) but i will next time. Ravyn barely tops 15 hands, and Gallant has passed 18 hands, i swear he is a MOOSE. But in this photo you can't tell that, in fact you can barely tell there's a horse under all that forelock, LOL.

Since my horse allergy is acting up, i'll need to ease back into the routine of going to the farm, but it's definitely worth it :-)

Poppets On Tour: Birthday Edition!

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:42:10 GMT

My birthday was on Friday (and THANK YOU all for the birthday wishes!!!!!), and my good friend vandaluna drove up with her daughter to pay me a nice extended visit. They arrived late Thursday night and we kicked off the weekend with carryout Ledo's pizza, yum!

Friday was for some local running around, at places like Ikea, G Street Fabrics (oh yeah uh my willpower failed me and i did get a nice wool plaid reduced and on sale for $8/yd bad!) and had crabs and shrimp at a local crab house in Frederick for dinner, quite tasty :-)

Saturday was the first big adventure, we drove out to Fallingwater, one of the most famous Frank Lloyd Wright creations. Driving there straight from Frederick was only about 2.5 hours, which was surprisingly quick, considering it usually takes 3+ hours to drive to Deep Creek which is due south of Fallingwater. But it gave us some time to scout the gift shop early, heh. Fallingwater is a fantastic building, and if you've never seen it, it's definitely worth the trip. The regular tour is about $20, and places along the trails where you can take photos of the house from different vantage points.

Visitors aren't allowed to take photos inside the house, so we had to wait til after the tour to take some photos of the exterior. So Poppet had to wait til we were outside to get a peek:

Really, the big adventure came when we left Fallingwater. vandaluna had never been to Deep Creek (a popular lakeside resort in western MD) so i said why not go since it was so close by. So we put it into the GPS of her car and started off.

Those GPS units are funny. i don't know why it chose to send us off the larger road, to a smaller more twisty one, and even more, i don't understand why it kept us on that small twisty road when we crossed Route 40/National Hwy. My spider-sense started tingling then but i pushed it aside and went with the GPS, cause i wasn't familiar with this area, and i remember last time i was in the car going from Fallingwater to Deep Creek, the GPS sent us on some weird roads too. Uh, but nothing looked familiar.

Then, cause evidently this twisty little road wasn't obscure enough, the GPS sent us off that road onto something that looked like a driveway. An unpaved driveway, kinda like at the farm where i ride, but with larger holes and rocks in it. This driveway, according to the GPS (and Google Earth i found out when we got home) was County Highway 26. Really. There were times when i couldn't even go 5 miles an hour, cause of the holes and rocks, i mean good sized rocks, in the road. A huge hole ahead on the left made me instinctively lean to the right, far enough that vandaluna said,"Careful you'll scratch the car," while i'm thinking, HUGEFREAKINGHOLE here! Big field on the right, possibly one on the left, and all the while the light is fading cause it's late in the afternoon and the sun never really came out.

Well, it did come to an end, into a quasi-residential area, and we made it out, and got to the real highway (I-68), whereupon we saw a sign welcoming us to Garrett County MD. Whaaaaat? Due west from the furtherest-westerest county in MD is..... West Virginia, home of County Highway 26. It all made sense now. (and yes i know people who live in WVA and there are many areas in the state that are beautiful, BUT CO-HWY26 is NOT one of them, see above photo, and write your state highway administration pronto!)

Getting to Deep Creek was straightforward enough, but once we got to the lake, the fog had set in and vandaluna pretty much had to take my word for it that there was really a lake out there beyond the mist. Heh. So we turned around for home. i wasn't able to drive all the way home, i got drowsy somewhere in MD and she took over. We made it home and heated up our leftover crabs and shrimp (i never picked crabs as a kid so i'm very slow at it thus i didn't eat all my crabs the night before, LOL).

Sunday we had a bit of a lie-in, and went antiquing. i was looking for old keys, for steampunk costuming and whatnot. But it was pretty low-key and we couldn't spend all day at it cause places shut down at about 5pm on Sundays. But we had a long day ahead for Monday so we didn't want to be up late anyways.

Monday was a little on the cool side, but Sunday's thunderstorm cleared away most of the clouds, so it was perfect weather for checking out the cherry blossoms in DC. And miracle of miracles, they are supposed to peak between April 1st and 4th, so to be there on the 30th was pretty well timed. Also, we decided not to drive into town, given that there is even less parking than there used to be, yuck!. But we tried out the new station near where my folks live, and really, it's very convenient (well, if i still lived there, hehe).

We took the Metrorail to the Smithsonian station, which put us on the Mall, between the Washington Monument and the Capitol building. Now i am *not* Yoga Girl like vandaluna is, so i'm out of shape and not used to walking, but i had my cane with me, and that helped a lot. But i walked a LOT this weekend, heh. Anyways, i had Poppet with me, and for the cherry blossoms, i also brought Poppet and Foppet "Loves You" since they're PINK!

Here is Poppet inspecting the Washington Monument. This is a camera phone photo so it's a bit blurry, i've been experimenting with the different settings on my regular camera to find a good compromise between the diminutive Poppet and the larger backgrounds....

There were a few cherry trees around the Washington Monument, and a handy wall that Poppet and Foppet Loves You could pose on in front of them. Uh, doesn't it always happen that you take a picture and look at it later and see something sticking out of your cousin's head? Sheesh. Poor Foppet...

We walked around one side of the Washington Monument on our way to the Tidal Basin, and i snagged this photo:

Looks so peaceful doesn't it? You can't tell that i had to wait for a bunch of tour buses to clear the street first and hope i could snap my photo before more traffic appeared :-O

One of the trees near that section had a nice fork in the limbs, and Poppet Loves You fit in very nicely as she contemplated the cherry blossoms:

i think it's my favorite photo. Doesn't do the real thing justice though, with the breeze blowing the blossoms around (um and Poppet, too, she jumped out of the tree at one point, heh).

Foppet wanted to join in the fun, so i found another tree more suitable for Poppet's four-footed companion. And it was fun taking photos from below, as it were.

Here is a lovely old tree, arching over the railing on one side. vandaluna is on the far right side, taking a photo of me taking a photo. Funny looking!

This tree had buds on the trunk:

We didn't walk around the entire Tidal Basin. Uh, did i mention i'm out of shape and can't keep up with Yoga Girl? Heh. So we walked back the way we came, and this time i spied What looked like Charlie Brown's famous "Kite-eating" tree:

Note there is one kite in the very top and one in the bottom left of the tree. No they are not my kites :-)

We took a brief detour through the Museum of American History (very brief cause we were meeting my folks for dinner), but it was very nice. i need to go back. Crossing the mall on our way to the Metro station, Yoga Girl was inspired to do a pose in front of the Capitol building:

Metro is the way to go, especially when you're tired from walking all weekend. Let them do the driving, as they say. We met my folks for dinner at a nearby IHOP (yay Fruit Crepes!), and since there was a teeny bit of light left, we toured parts of the neighborhood where vandaluna and child used to live when they lived in MD.

She and her daughter left in the pre-dawn darkness Tuesday morning, kinda like a hurricane that tears through a town. And i say that with love :-)
</lj></lj></lj></lj></lj></lj></lj>

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:27:22 GMT

Happy Birthday daecabhir!!!!

Poppets On Tour: Balticon 42

Sat, 31 May 2008 13:35:43 GMT

It did feel a little weird, not running Balticon anymore, but it wasn't completely work-free, heh. i was sort of the con "ottoman" - when the Chair wasn't available, people put their feet on me, LOL. And by all accounts, our Guests of Honor had the best convention they'd had in a while.

Poppets were there, in the Art Show, and in the company of myself and a few others :-). Poppets let you know what they want. A year ago, i carried three in my purse. During Balticon last year, two of them disappeared, and i couldn't find them right away. Turns out, they preferred my car, 'cause i found them on the floor of the driver's side, almost under the seat. Now they ride in my car in the ashtray (clean since i don't smoke). The last poppet, who stayed in my purse, is now my "Ambassador" :-)

So to lead off the photo dump, here is my Poppet with our Ghost of Honor, Douglas Adams:

With our Guest of Honor, Connie Willis:

Our Filk Guests of Honor, Urban Tapestry:

And our Artist Guest of Honor, John Jude Palencar:

Oh and Choco Poppet and Choco Foppet (!) sneaked a photo with our Ghost of Honor:

Poppets love Balticon :-)

The Answer......

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:27:29 GMT

42!

(same as Balticon, hehe)

Thank you, everyone, for the birthday wishes! Life is good!

shameless plug :-)

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:43:44 GMT

Because, face it, it's all about the poppets.

The easter poppet sale is here! Get 'em before they're gone!

Zeitgeist Movie

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:28:50 GMT

Zeitgeist Movie.com.

Watch. Discuss. THINK.

Foppet and Poppet for St. Paddy's Day

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:45:14 GMT

Back from the Spring '08 Artist Boot Camp (TM), with happy foppet and poppet for St. Paddy's, and lots of ideas to come.

There are lots of new goodies in the Poppet Planet ebay store. Including a treat for you cat lovers out there, so check it out!

Poppets Love February

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:19:17 GMT

i am still Sick Girl, having had the worst January in a long time, yeesh. But not too sick to help out my friends who need to shop for their honies for Valentine's Day:

Have a look around, she has plenty of unique treats that i guarantee you will NOT find in your local card or candy shop <grin>.

i kan haz LOL? KTHXBAI

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:19:27 GMT

Argh i hate being sick. Especially when i lose my voice, though i'm sure those around me appreciate the silence more than they dare to say <cackle>.

i followed a link to the ongoing Greatestjournal drama and found some way cool LOLcats i hadn't seen before, and being the generous sort, i'd like to share them here :-D .

Two especially for daecabhir:

And my very most favorite FAIL macro:

Thank you and good evening! <cough cough cough>

Last minute holiday horsey goodness

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:50:42 GMT

i'm way overdue for an update, but it'll have to wait til later. Right now, i only have time for some Shameless Self Promotion(TM), i have sales going up on eBay today! These are three-day auctions so that i can mail them out before xmas. i'll update the links as the auctions go live. Enjoy!

Play In the Dark!!!!!

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:19:13 GMT

It's that time of the year, Halloween season. We loves it, Precioussssss. Poppets of the season abound in Lisa Snellings-Clark's Play In The Dark Sale. One of my contributions is here:

Artist Bootcamp TM - Summer in the Desert

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 05:59:27 GMT

The good thing about an early flight west is that i don't spend the full day traveling. The not so good thing about it is Oh-my-gawd-it's-early (thank you Robin Williams).

Yesterday was for planning and working on something i brought with me for a future Poppet Planet sale.

Today was for photography, in and out of the water. It is hot here. The heat is oppressive, reminding me of a week ago in Frederick where it went just over 100 but the humidity was fairly high. Here it's not so humid, but the heat still surrounds you, reminding you where you are. Um, inside a giant convection oven i think.

i saw a hummingbird get a snack at the feeder on Lisa's back porch. Then it landed on a nearby hanging plant. And it stayed there. Long minutes. i mean, more than 5 minutes. i had time to get my camera and take photos, that's how long that bird stayed on that plant.

Maybe it was so hot the bird didn't want to spend the energy to fly. i told Lisa it was too hot for a hummer. LOL. i think it wasn't even noon yet, here's how hot it was:

Lisa prepped some poppets for underwater photography, and in the afternoon we drove to Ben's place, with a quick detour to Tatooine to take some photos of me trying not to faint in the heat, LOL.

We took underwater photos with Lisa's digital camera inside a waterproof bag i brought with me, and also an underwater film camera of Lisa's. The digital photos, which are super cool, are here on Lisa's blog, i highly recommend you check them out :-D

Tomorrow is for art. Tuesday is more art. And more photography.

Wednesday is for home.

Looking for a good home....

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 03:15:55 GMT

Lisa Snellings-Clark has put this sweet Alice In Wonderland - costumed poppet on sale. Check her out, as well as some other lovely treats.....

Get some early gift shopping done <wink>.

Hyper-detailed repaint

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 03:13:57 GMT

i likes me a small canvas. Very small. LOL. Released this evidence of my insanity to eBay today:

Sneak Peak

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 05:46:31 GMT

In a little over 12 hours, these two lovelies will be up on ebay:

Try this search link, it should show my current listings. And don't forget Saturday is the last day of Lisa Snellings-Clark's Summer Solstice Sale. Little Red Poppets need homes!

Patriotic Ponies!!!!!1111ONE

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 02:57:31 GMT

i have a pair of Patriotic Ponies up on ebay now, aren't they cute..... :-)

And while you're browsing ebay, don't forget to check out Lisa Snellings-Clark's Summer Solstice Sale. Little Red Poppets, and the cool brand new Little Blue Poppets, Little Pinks, very cool Harlequin Candlesticks, this is the perfect place to do some gift shopping :-D .

poppets celebrate summer

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 20:53:22 GMT

Poppet Planet has kicked off its Summer Solstice Sale and goodies abound this time. Alice in Wonderland costumed Poppets, Poppets acting out A Midsummer Night's Dream, Little Red and Little Blue Poppets and more.

One of the offerings is a stunning handmade Poppet puppet, which Lisa captured on video....

Also, an original sculpture i've been working on this spring is making its debut: "Ocean's Amethyst"

And later today, i'll be putting some "patriotic ponies" up on ebay, hehe.

Poppets on Video

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 05:41:35 GMT

In case you haven't seen this on Lisa Snellings-Clark's blog, she shot some video of diving for poppets, which i then set to a very cool Hopeful Machines song. Yes, poppets are preparing to take over YouTube! There will be a "night" version, as soon as i've had some sleep and more time to play with the very cool night footage Lisa sent me...... Enjoy!

Here is the nighttime version, hot off the (You)Tube :-D

Shameless Self-Promotion: Post-Balticon

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 23:33:18 GMT

This one was left unsold at the Balticon Art Show, so i am putting him on ebay. More horsie-art-goodness is coming this summer, yay!

ANDREAS HELGSTRAND - WEG2006 Freestyle Final

Thu, 10 May 2007 07:17:48 GMT

OMG Dancing Pwnies!!!!!1111ONEONEONE

Fri, 04 May 2007 15:50:35 GMT

First though, i went up to the farm last night to see my baby and start weekly training up again. For a while though, it looks like i'll be focusing on building back my tolerance, asthma-wise, cause i wasn't even able to give her a complete grooming before i couldn't breathe. But that will change over time.

My baby girl horse was just great, though. i was able to lead her out of the field and tie her up at the fence to feed her dinner and groom her. She even picked up her front near foot for me, but by then i had no energy left so i just checked the one foot. Getting her back in the field was just as easy, though that was because Wendy distracted the other babies with their dinners, LOL.

So, i have no photos for you, so instead you should watch this video that i found on Cute Overload (a really good place to visit when you're feeling an AWWWWWW deficit, LOL). This is a Musical Freestyle Dressage performance from the 2006 World Equestrian Games:

ANDREAS HELGSTRAND on BLUE HORS MATINE

Watching this makes me want to work with Ravynesque even more, she is smart and has a lot of natural grace, we could do some cool things together :-)

Homecoming

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 19:17:11 GMT

My little diva is home! After..... wow six weeks in PA. i wasn't able to make the trip with her yesterday, and by the time i got to the farm she had had time to show how glad she was to be out in some open space. By rolling in the mud, LOL. Well, on one side at least, here is her "clean" side:

The graft is healing well. It will never completely go away, but, in this photo (sorry about the blurriness), it appears as a stripe down the front of the eye. A bit of the healthy cornea is visible on the inside front of the eye, which is good because it means most likely she will have at least a little forward vision.

Having been away from the "herd" for almost two months, she comes back in in the bottom of the pecking order, LOL. But Gallant was happy to see her, coming to the fence nearest the round pen and giving her kisses over the top of the fence. Awww how sweet. (well, she's in season, so it's really no surprise, LOL)

Now is the time for me to go up there every week and continue some training, to make the most of the two months of constant handling she's just had :-)

The Pink-eyed Percheron

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 05:47:31 GMT

Here's Ravyn's mug shot from p/r/i/s/o/n/recovery stall at the lay-up facility near the New Bolton Center. If you look you can see a pink eye on the left (her right) and a green eye on the right (her left). The green is just the reflection in her pupil of the camera flash, that's the "good" eye, LOL.

i drove up today, to see her and to bring her about three weeks' worth of dietary supplements that she normally gets when she's at home. The drive was uneventful and fairly quick, which is how we likes it, Precioussssss. Everyone who's seen her is so impressed with how easygoing she is. i will now quote Jack Sparrow (CAPTAIN! Jack Sparrow) and say,"There'll be no living with her now," hehe. But no, seriously, she is doing fine and not fussing about receiving medication in her eye..... four times a day now.

Here's the right side of her face, you can see the graft on her eye and the lavage tubing coming down from the top of her head, below and back up through the lower eyelid.

Click on this photo to see a much larger version, complete with labels :-) . Okay, here's the graft: Imagine that your horse has a blob of bubblegum stuck on her eye. Now imagine that the bubblegum is made from the inside of your eyelid. Yeap, that's about it. The green is the pupil reflecting the camera flash again. This photo shows the placement of the graft - it obscures nearly all of her forward vision, however, the back is clear and she has retained vision there. The doctor told me that if you stand directly behind her, she can see you on that side. (horses have 180 degree vision in their eyes).

If you look closely, especially at the enlargement photo, you will see the pink graft is laying over the top of the lower eyelid, just a little bit. What's going on here is that the top layer of the cornea is healing beneath the graft, and pushing it out of the way a bit. This is a good thing -- usually the cornea will heal up to the edge of the graft and stop there. In this case, they'll be able to snip off some of the graft. It's all good :-)

My little diva is being pampered (LOL) and cared for very well. She needs at least two more weeks of meds, and the lavage will stay in until they are sure she won't need any more treatment. But she seems to be healing well and dealing with her surroundings pretty calmly, which is a big relief.

i probably won't be able to go back up there until it's time to take her home, i just have too much work to finish before leaving for a week's vacation on the 18th. Yikes!!!!