Surreally Gorey

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Having been stuck in bed for several days fighting off bronchitis, I’ve been forced to turn to my collection of Gorey books to ward off insanity. Or maybe just to feel sane in comparison to the absolute and utter insanity that is Edward Gorey.

If you’ve not read Gorey, you’ve missed out on a truly oddball alternate universe. I suppose his most popular book is The Gashlycrumb Tinies, where he kills off a series of small children in alphabetical order. “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs. B is for Basil assaulted by bears…” The front cover shows the children lined up with their “nanny”, the back cover shows all 26 headstones, and the book takes you on the tragic journey between the two. And it’s all utterly fabulous.

My favorite Gorey book is The Object-Lesson. I don’t even know how to describe it, although apparently it’s been classified as surrealist art. It has an incredibly twisting plot, which seems logical as you follow it, yet makes absolutely no sense at all. It starts out with “It was already Thursday, but his lordship’s artificial limb could not be found…” I can see you’re desperate to know what happens next, but I refuse to ruin the plot(ish). You’ll just have to read it for yourself. And not in the multi-book reprint (the Amphigorey). You need the original small books to get the real effect. So go on, get out of here, go forth and read some Gorey. Go! Scat! And watch out for bears. Particularly if your name is Basil.

Living in the Beach

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The floor is gritty with sand, and my feet are covered in it. And I’m just going to have to get used to it. You see, we’ve decided to take the girls to dog beach every weekend this summer. How can we not? Could you say no to a face like that?

So the dogs shed sand all over the house for a few days. So what? We’ll just have to vacuum mid-week. And live in a light dusting of sand. What the heck, we can pretend we’re living on a beach in the Bahamas. Let it never be said that my imagination let me down.

I burst out laughing yesterday, for no apparent reason, to Andy’s confusion. One of the dogs had been lying on the floor. When she got up and walked away, she left behind… a perfect silhouette in sand. Sparkling away in the sun. Like the tape outline of a body at a crime scene. Fantastic.

This, by the way, is Ditto, who is 10. Not that we’ve ever told her how old she is. She wouldn’t believe us anyway.

Why I Love People Watching

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I popped out the side door of our building yesterday, dogs in tow, running late as usual. And immediately slammed to a halt to avoid running into… Three guys. Big, tough, muscular guys. Probably in their early 20s. And the one nearest me had, tucked in his arm… this fluffy little white dog. They, in all their hipster glory, were heading for the dog park. All three of them. With their fluffy little white dog.

One of the things I love about living in the city is people watching. And the opportunity for random entertainment to occur at any moment. I remember walking to the grocery store a few years back. I was all of a half block from my place. And just ahead of me, crossing the street, was a guy wearing his boxers. Just his boxers. No shoes, no shirt, no pants. But he was mincing along in his invisible high heels, carrying his invisible handbag, and probably wearing some fabulous invisible designer gown. Gotta love it.

Captured in Amber

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Today I’m making Tokyo Amber earrings, which I sold out of last week, and Tokyo Sunrise earrings in silver, for a wholesale order. I thought I’d take a few photos of the process for the curious out there.

The Tokyo Amber earrings start out as a coil of gold-filled wire and a pile of small amber beads.



First I cut the wire from the coil. I straighten the wire out a bit and hand-file the ends until they’re perfectly smooth. Then I hammer out one end until the amber beads sit at the correct height. I work hard to make both earrings in a pair match. I’m pretty picky about my earrings matching.



The next step is to carefully bend the earrings to the correct shape, after which I hammer them again from the side to fix the curves and strengthen the earrings. This is particularly important for this design, which is made from a fairly fine gauge of wire.

The last step is to correct the curves where necessary (hammering can straighten or curve the earrings a bit). Then I bag them up, and see what else I need to stock up on. Or I take some photos. Or I play with new designs. Or blog. Or maybe I have some chai. Whatever I’m in the mood for. It’s a pretty good life.

Salty Dogs

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For me, one of the best things about living near the ocean is dog beach. It’s a beach. Just for dogs. What’s cooler than that?

I love my dogs. They’re the coolest dogs on the beach. Half the size of any other retrievers - they’re all of 40 lbs each - they’re out in the bigs waves fetching the bumper for an hour or so at a time. Nothing fazes them. They know how to body surf, how to jump the leading edge of the wave, where the bumper goes when a wave hits it. And they’re willing to dive headfirst into anything, risk life and limb, to be the one that comes back with the bumper. They can even execute the fake, the double fake, and the steal to grab the bumper from each other. Fantastic!

The bumper, by the way, is that orange thing. It floats. And it’s the most desirable object in the world. Just ask any retriever.



Don’t my dogs rock? They’re Welsh Springer Spaniels. And no, you’ve probably never seen one. But they’re very cool. You’ll just have to take my word on it.

Yes Man

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I went out to dinner last night. Now I know this may not sound exciting to a lot of you, but it’s a big deal to me. You see, I have a confession to make. I’m a bona fide introvert. I’d make a wonderful hermit. I like nothing better than to sit alone at home and enjoy the quiet. Maybe with the dogs. And a cup of chai. In a cottage in the middle of the woods, in front of a wood burning stove. Of course I’m writing this while sitting in my condo in the middle of the city. Hey, at least I’m alone with the dogs. You can’t win them all.

I read this crazy book about a year ago. Andy bought it originally, and I picked it up in a moment of boredom. It’s by a British bloke named Danny Wallace. He’s a pretty funny guy. I read his previous book where he accidentally started a cult. So I thought this one showed a lot of promise.

After a chance conversation on a bus, Danny decided to say yes to whatever people asked him to do for a year. A lot of crazy things happened. But a lot of amazing things happened, too. Interesting things. Opportunities. Experiences.

Now, I have no intention of saying yes to everything. But I decided to run a little experiment of my own. Instead of just reflexively saying no to things, I’d say yes. Unless I could think of a good reason why I shouldn’t. And you know, I’ve met some pretty cool people. And gone to some interesting places. And done really wild things, like, you know, going out to dinner on a weekday. You should try it some time.

Call of the Wild

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I miss working with wolves. And tigers. And cougars. I suppose that’s not something you hear every day, but there you go. I do. Back a few years ago, when we lived in the mountains, I worked at a couple of different wildlife refuges. One was just 1/2 mile down the road from me. It’s not really glamorous work - mostly you’re feeding the animals, and shoveling poo in shapes you’ve never seen before. Did you know that llamas poo little pellets, like rabbits?

Not so many wildlife refuges in the city. I miss the wild places. I’m going to start a “back to the mountains” revolution in my own house one of these days.



But for now, let me introduce you to Erie, a wolf I took care of for a few months. No one else at my local refuge was trained to handle wolves, so he was all mine! He’s a really sweet boy. I used to go down and take naps with him at lunchtime, not something I’d recommend with any other wolf I’ve met. As you can tell, he can look really cuddly, or all wolf, depending on his mood. And yes, that really is me! Just back a few years, and wearing my slobby slobbies.

What’s So Blue About London?

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I’ve recently realized that while a lot of my silver and gold earrings are quite delicate, most of my designs with color and crystal are pretty large. So I started looking around for some more delicate stones to design with. But I’m really picky. So it’s taken me a while to find what I want.

I love this shade of blue, and I love this “long teardrop” cut. But I’m still trying to figure out why this color is called London Blue. Andy’s British, so I’ve spent quite a bit of time in London. But neither of us can figure out what’s so London about this blue. Don’t get me wrong, I like London. But let’s be honest - the River Thames is more murky-polluted than Caribbean-blue.



I photographed these on a sand dollar I found on the beach. I just love the contrast of colors and textures. The edge of the sand dollar is particularly interesting, with all those little holes. It just adds that little somethin’ to the photo.