Poor Brad and Janet

It's just not Halloween without a little Rocky Horror. Do you remember the first time you experienced this? I sure do - the midnight movie at the Crest Theater in downtown Sacramento. A few more years ago than I care to think about :)

Happy Halloween!

Happy Friday!

Seriously, one of the funniest movies of all time, perfect for the night before Halloween. Watch this through to the end! I was in tears laughing over the out takes!

My kind of Halloween

I loved scary movies when I was a kid. I loved scary and movies as a young adult. I've never enjoyed zombie movies (ugh!) and can't take slasher movies (sorry, Shana!). After working in a major trauma center, though, I can't take a whole lot of scary movies - I know what the end result of all that mayhem actually looks and feels like. :(

My kind of Halloween is full of nostalgia and classics, curled up with a coupla kitties in the comfort of my own home. (I worked in an ER/trauma center, remember? I avoid going out on Halloween at all costs!) Here's what I'm hoping to watch this year:

Mad Monster Party? (1967) a totally fun and not meant to be serious at all stop motion favorite

Frankenstein (1931) 78 (!!) years later, it's still the best!

Bride of Frankenstein (1935) 74 years later ... as a kid, I used to study how Elsa Lanchester's hair, makeup and costume was done (thank you, local libraries!)

Dracula (1931) with eleventy billion vampire movies to choose from, this still stands the test of time

Dracula (1979) Frank Langella redefined the Count for all time :)

Freaks (1932) Truly one of the creepiest movies. Ever.

And oh, how I wish I could see London After Midnight (1927) - the last surviving copy was destroyed in a fire years ago.

I live a pretty wild life, I know! I hope your Halloweens are full of fun and as much as scariness as you want or can handle.

Ode to small town America

Many of you know that I grew up in a teeny tiny little town up in the high desert of the Sierras. Population approx. 3,000 (maybe it was 3,300) when I was a kid. Tiny. The White Mountains with their famous Bristlecone pines on one side of the valley I lived it. The majestic granite of the Sierras on the other. Lots of sand and sage brush in between.

We had a Main Street (what tiny town doesn't?), lined with shops and stores that looked like they stepped right out of a movie set from the 40's or 50's. In fact, Main Street hadn't changed much from the time my Mom grew up in my teeny tiny little town. This was before strip malls strangled the charm out of towns, including the one I grew up in. There was the big stuffed bear at the sporting goods store at the main traffic light in town. And the theater that I saw the first Star Wars in. And two of my favorite places: Rexall and Ben Franklin's.

I know, what a geek, right?

Rexall still exists, I believe (don't know if it's still in my little town, though). That was where my BFF's and I would smell exotic fragrances and dabble with such sophisticated make up samples as sky blue eyeshadow (yes, it was the mid to late 70's). And kept me supplied in Bonne Bell 7-Up lipsmackers. Rexall somehow meant "there's a whole different world out there ... somewhere" to me.

Oh, and Ben Franklin's! The five and dime store. I loooove five and dime stores. Do you remember these? Do they still exist (not in the Silicon Valley!)?? When I was a kid, the whole family had something to look at. Magazines or paperback books. Comic books galore. Chocolate bars and candy, and my parents complaining that they cost 25 cents when they were a dime (or something) growing up. Sewing, knitting, crocheting patterns. Pillow cases and tableclothes stamped with designs for you to embroider or cross stitch over. Yarn and embroidery floss. Cake decorating supplies. Games, toys and puzzles. Postcards and greeting cards. Gag gifts that I didn't get (inappropriately placed where little kids could see them!). Mexican jumping beans. Maybe even goldfish or "sea monkeys" (brine shrimp). Silly things that were so exotic or fun or somehow engaging to the denizens of very teeny tiny little small towns.

I'm not sure what got me to thinking about five and dimes today. Maybe an email from my brother, who lives on the other side of the world, in Taiwan. Nostalgia? Or thinking about my lifelong love affair with yarn and embroidery floss. Or maybe just a twinge of longing for a simpler time, long before the interwebs and ebay and HDTV. None of which I can live without. Except HDTV.

Do you have fond memories of something long gone from your own childhood?

Glass treasures for squirrels and humans alike

I am absolutely fascinated by glass: fused, handblown, lampwork, you name it. Growing up in a t-i-n-y town in the high desert in the Sierra Nevadas, I really looked forward to the County Fair each summer, where my Mom and I could drool longingly over blown glass treasures that we wouldn't normally see or be able to afford.

These lovely glass acorns are amazing! Andre Nigoghossian, the artist, lives locally (Berkeley). I think my back yard squirrels might look longingly inside if I had these hanging near a window. :)

Set of six glass acorn ornaments from amnflamework at Etsy, $100

Ureshii: Fall 2009

Emily and Amanda of Ureshii were my first spotlight feature on Phydelle - and their new Fall line up is to DIE for. Although not specifically for Fall, I am loving this sleeveless hoodie - super cool and sexy, with the all forgiving ruching for those of us who enjoy the finer things of life (i.e., pizza...).






















AND, bless them, they have a gorgeous new skirt (above), which I fell head over heels in love with, then realized that they styled it with a Get Ready Set GO clutch and - yay - a Phydeaux cowl! (And I've ordered this skirt for myself, same color - I'll have to style it myself and share photos!)

Check out Ureshii's Fall line up right here. I love that their clothing is made individually to fit you, based on your measurements. Brilliant!

Work-life balance: lessons learned or learning

Another post on work-life balance, or lack thereof, is overdue! As many of you know, I'm in the midst of a medical leave, thanks to the effects of long term stress (but who doesn't have long term stress?) on the lupus that I've lived with for years and years, and the diabetes that I've lived with only recently. I've lived a VERY different life for the last two + weeks, and thought I'd share a few insights with you all.

1. No matter how much you take off your plate, your time will nearly immediately swell with things to fill the void. I've been very busy with my business, and not necessarily with filling orders. It's other things, like marketing and new accounts and redesigning patterns and etc. These are things that really needed to get done, but I jut haven't had the time to do them. It's also the invites from friends who say, "Now that you don't have anything to do, how about (going to lunch/dinner/the mall/whatever?" I so wish I had nothing to do. :) But I do love being able to catch up with friends.
2. The magic work/time phenomenon still exists. There's a workplace phenomenon that I've always found to be true. The time that it takes to complete a task or project will expand to fit all available time. If someone has an unstructured eight hours, that person will take eight hours to complete a 20-30 minute task. This isn't true of everyone! And it's not true 100% of the time. But it does tend to be true when you're trying something new (so you may be unsure of yourself), or you're not feeling very self motivated (happens to us all now and then), or it's a task or project that just keeps kicking your behind. And it just starts a cycle that has to be quickly broken of kvetching, taking too long to complete things, beating yourself up for the taking too long, requiring a treat to feel better, followed by reading your favorite blogs or websites, followed by a TV break, etc., etc. You see the problem there? I wasn't catching on at first, but the lightbulb went on one day early on, and thank goodness, I'm able to catch myself now, before it's too late!
3. You can only do so much in a 24 hour day, given the laws of space and time.
   No one has perfected a machine to give you more than 24 hours in a day, and you need a chunk of those hours for (a) sleeping, (b) eating, (c) etc. Since my little business is me, myself and I, I can't take on more than I can handle. Believe me, this is incredibly difficult for me to accept. I always take on more than I can handle, and then I manage to handle it. I'm in the midst of trying to complete the too many things I took on during the last two weeks! While my business is me, myself and I, taking on more than one person with limited time can actually accomplish ends up being counter productive. Tasks and projects take longer to complete. I'm at increased risk of forgetting something. I spend more time managing "the list," rather than doing the work. BUT ... if you run a super small business, you most likely want to grow! You probably want more wholesale accounts, new direct customers, more opportunities. Where's the balance between sustainable growth and too much? I don't have an answer for that, but what I, myself, am doing is taking on a couple of new accounts, working on getting them set up/fulfilling the orders, making them part of the routine. Then a couple more accounts, lather, rinse, repeat. I'd LOVE to hear what you all do to get work done in limited time without overwhelming yourself! Or if you do overwhelm yourself, how do you handle the overwhelment (is that a word?)?.

Those are more than enough for one post - there will be more, though! I'd truly love to hear about your experiences with these, and how you handle them (or don't!). Maybe we can learn together.

Phydeaux Giveaway, Part II!

Hope you'll visit June Shin's wonderful blog for a very fun interview and chance to win a pair of mitts from my shop!

And thank you, June!!!

Phydeaux Giveaway!

I am a lucky girl! There are two Phydeaux interviews with giveaways this week! Both are so different in nature that I'm not at all worried about having two at once. :)

The first is over at the wonderful The Sunshine Studio blog (thank you, Lory!) and it's ready for you to read and enter now to win one of my soft neckwarmers!

I'll share the second with you as soon as it's live, but the giveaway will be for one of my new knit mitts!

Hope you'll take the time to visit both of these blogs and even enter - thank you!

Smart People

I don't know why I resisted watching this movie for so long, but finally watched Smart People tonight and it was really a great little flick. (I may have to treat myself to the soundtrack - quirky, indie, folksie wonderfulness.)

I really love movies that are about healing - healing as a group, sometimes redefining family, and other times simply healing family members. (The Station Agent and The Visitor are both exceptional examples of the former category, and Smart People accomplishes both.) There are many incredibly uncomfortable moments in this film, but the end is so satisfying.

If you haven't seen Smart People, I highly recommend it!

Leaves are Falling

I'm in love with this beautiful necklace from the very talented Kim of Vision Quest! Brass, copper, sterling silver ... perfectly gorgeous for Autumn!

The Leaves are Falling necklace from Vision Quest, $75

For Strange Women

For Strange Women on Etsy has such beautifully photographed items! And such wonderful smelling items, as well. I tried out a selection of mini vials - Moss and Ivy is my favorite.

On a side note, the blog merge was a success! And totally easy. All the Phydelle posts, including comments are now on Phydeaux. The new combined blog has some more changes planned during the next couple of weeks, but this first step was crucial. Yay!

Blog changes

My second blog, Phydelle, has been languishing in need of attention, but attention takes time, and time is something I just don't have (who does?). I'm going to be merging both of my blogs - Phydelle and Phydeaux - over the course of the upcoming week. One blog is much easier to keep up with!

That is, I think I'm going to be merging them ... I think that's possible?

Stay tuned! Hopefully, I won't regret this!!!

Oh boy, today's the day

I was really torn over whether or not to apply for the Renegade Holiday show in San Francisco in December. But I succumbed at the last minute and applied. Here were the pros and cons:

Pros

• First holiday Renegade in San Francisco! Sure to be well attended with a lot of media attention.
• Renegade is such a fantastic show anyway, 'twould be an incredible opportunity and honor to participate as a vendor
• I don't have time, literally, to do shows, but would make the time (somehow ...) for Renegade
• And how many big name venues are here during scarf season (hint, not that many)?

Cons

• See #3 above - no time!
• In addition to the massive work involved in building up inventory specifically for the show, there's also figuring out set up and other logistics
• Both of which take time away from my regular business with holiday traffic

The pros definitely outweigh the cons for me.

Today's the day applicants find out if they've been accepted. I haven't worried very much about it, not knowing if I'm in or out. I'll breathe a sigh of relief either way!

10/16 2PM - update! I've been accepted!!!

Serendipity, karma or plain dumb luck

I've been go go going all day! Cut off a bunch of my hair this morning (now I have to make it pretty). Working on my very own website (and I'm pretty happy with it so far - stay tuned!). And had a GREAT trip to my very favorite local yarn shop, the Bobbin's Nest Studio!

Erin, the owner of Bobbin's Nest, is so great. It's always a pleasant surprise to be remembered when I walk through the door. :) I was hoping to pick up a few new things for knitting the fingerless mittens and gloves I'm experimenting with, maybe another bottle of Soak in Celebrate (the cleaning/blocking solution I use for my knitting ... smells soooo good), and pick up some more double point needles. I walked out with all of that, plus a new Soak scent that is to die for (yay!), new yarn in gooorgeous colorways by Wool Candy (sigh), a great book that I'll talk about tomorrow, and a plethora of incredible and invaluable business-related info and advice from Erin (thank you!!!).

So, I came home with a couple of the most gorgeous, non-pooling/non-striping yarns I've seen, from Wool Candy, which is located right here in the South San Francisco Bay Area. But what was really funny is that halfway through trying to not drool over the pretty wool, I realized I have a skein of Wool Candy at home. Which I picked up at Stitches West earlier this year. And that they sell on Etsy, too! Amazing. I can't wait to start knitting with this (the photo above isn't what I brought home, but I'll share pictures when I start working with it!)!

Very fruitful trip: invaluable information that I'm already acting on, a fantastic new Soak scent, a really great book, beautiful new yarns from a fellow Etsian, as well as the fact that it's great to hang out with Erin. :)

Hope you all have a great Friday!

Mitts!

I've been wanting to knit my own fingerless gloves or mittens for years but couldn't embrace knitting with double pointed needles. So I'd scour stores in search of them. Or cut the fingers off of my gloves in desperation (I'm still sad about mutilating a pair of my fave fleece gloves during a super cold day last Winter).






















One of my big goals this year was to not only embrace, but love, the double points. I'm embracing and in wary deep like right now. :) And have a couple of pairs of fingerless gloves in the shop!

Oh the agony

It's shoes like these that make me long for different toes - so so cute!






















Good thing for me that evil temptress Anthropologie has cute little flats too!

First week of Operation Health

So my focus this first week was to start learning how to relax and to ease into better, healthier habits: daily walking, better diet, this little thing called sleeping, cleaning and organizing and rebalancing. And quality time with my two fuzzy girls. Who, by the way, have been in h-e-a-v-e-n this week.

Let's see how I've done so far:

1. DONE - Daily walk (I even tackled one of the big steep hills today!)
   
2. DONE - Better eating (just enjoyed a half a roasted acorn squash, YUM)
3. DONE - Sleeeeeeep (getting a full eight hours a night)
4. DONE - Both girls are more content, less insecure, and they're fighting less (go figure)
   
5. DONE - Working in the back yard (I have several HUGE piles of leaves to compost)
6. DONE - Spending time with Unravelling and getting to know me
7. DONE - Working on new things for Phydeaux (fingerless gloves and mittens!)

That's a pretty good week, I have to say. :) Next week will be a lot of health-related appointments. AND ... I'm going to do something drastic with my hair. Don't know what yet. But I'm tired for long and blonde and boring.

Happy weekends to all!

Friday already???

Inconceivable! To celebrate Friday, here's one of my favorite bits from Princess Bride. Enjoy!

On Top of Your Day Job has MOVED

Our On Top of Your Day Job series is now a regular monthly column/feature on the fantastic Lillyella blog! AND, run over there right now, to read this month's featured artist! I promise, you won't be disappointed. One of my very favorite people and Etsy sellers. Yay! We'll still have spotlights on Phydelle, never fear!

Enhabiten: early American stencils

Enhabiten's Fall line of beautiful pillows uses designs based on early American (early 1800's) stencils. I love them!

Stencil pillow no 1 with organic cotton stuffing by Enhabiten, $38.00

New additions

I have even more shop updates, but am taking a little breather. :) Hope you enjoy!

Week one

So here I am facing my first week of leave. And I'm not scared at all! I have a bunch of health-related appointments to make. I'm going to try out accupuncture! And get a nice deep tissue massage.

I'm going to be cleaning and organizing my home. Downsizing. Simplifying. MORE shoes and lotsa clothes, etc. on eBay. My beautiful TV is going to my folks (they know and Mom is excited!), which will give me back my table that it's sitting on! Craigslist will be used too - I have some furniture to part with.

I'm deciding this week whether or not to apply for the Renegade Holiday Fair in San Francisco (early December). I would love to do it - such great exposure and what a perfect venue for scarves! But I want to be realistic about what I'm able to do. And it's a LOT of work. Deadline to apply is Friday.

I added lots of new scarves yesterday to my Etsy shop, most of which have been waiting to be photographed for some time. And this week, I have buttons to add to new cowls, and then they'll be added, too.

I'm starting week two of Unravelling, the workshop I mentioned previously. If you've been thinking about it for yourself, I have two words for you: do it!

Most of all, I have two kitties to spend quality time with, with a room full of yarn to knit. :)

What are you all doing this week?

October!

Oh, October, how I love you! Autumn leaves. Pumpkins. Knits, yay! Twinkly lights as night starts earlier and earlier.

I've missed out on my favorite month the last few years between work and school. Well, this year, October will be different, because I'll be on a leave from work all month.

Yep.

My health has gotten the best of me and I need a generous chunk of time to focus on me. I approached this with mixed feelings, but tonight, I just feel relief from immense pressure. In addition to quality knitting time :) , I'll be learning how to manage my diet, stress, health, etc.

I think the girls are already pretty psyched. They've both slept harder and longer than usual today. :)

I have a big pile of scarves and cowls that have been waiting to be photographed. Big shop update tomorrow!