Henry VIII es mas macho!

Since nothing exciting is happening around here, here's what I've been reading and watching....

--Books

"The Autobiography of Henry VIII
with notes by his fool, Will Somers"

This was pretty good, it was written like Henry VIII's journal, so it's Henry's way of explaining a few things like...

-Why its okay to chop the head off a couple of wives.

-Marry a wife while the other wives head is still rolling on the ground.

-Convince your self that a really really fat man is really quite attractive.( I'm thinking Rush Limbaugh can somehow trace his roots to Henry! )

Funny how Henry looks at things totally different!

I also read "Fearless Fourteen" by Janet Evanovich. These are always such fun reads! The problem is, I can never remember what they were about a week later just that it was funny!

--Movies

I think I've only seen one, "Duplicity" with Clive Owen and Julia Roberts. It's a bit confusing. Don't see it if you don't want to sit there and pay attention, and it's a bit slow. My neighbor almost fell asleep..... then Clive took his shirt off!



--Treadmill

I'm watching HBO's "Rome" again on the treadmill. This time with one of the special features on, sort of like "pop-up" Rome. Just little windows come up explaining this or that, for example....

It was okay for a husband have sex with their slave.

Totally understandable to kill your wife and children if the wife had an affair.

Cows were okay to sacrifice, but not to eat.

You know, things like this that would help you in every day life!


Spring has sprung here, it has been nothing but blue skies and beautiful warm days. Which for us means.... dirt and mulch! So you can see why I'd rather talk books and movies.

Elton and Billy....

Okay you all know me, and you know I don't really "do" concerts. I'd rather listen to people on a nice clear CD. Boring I know, but that's me.

But, I've always regretted not seeing Elton John and Billy Joel in concert about ten years ago in South Bend. So I was determined to go this time when they started touring. So I joined Elton John's fan club so I could get good tickets, and the first date that popped up that was doable for us was March in Cincinnati.

That was two days ago. Last concert I was at was Billy Joels farewell concert about fifteen years ago. That's a guess I dont know how long ago it was.

The stage looked like this......



That's about the distance we were back, but up about ten rows on Billy Joels side.

Billy Joel's piano rotated when he alone, Elton's didnt. Billy Joel seemed more concerned about connecting with the fans, and he introduced members of his band, and talked a bit between songs. Elton didn't really say anything, just got up and bowed after every song.... a bit of a diva, but you knew that. Billy Joel was a lot more physical, Elton really looked subdued compared to Billy Joel.

Then they talked about their ages... Billy just turned sixty, and Elton will be sixty-two. Funny about concerts when you get older and depending on the band.

-We sat more than we stood.

-The only boobs you see shaking are usually on the middle aged men going up and down the stairs.

-I saw more beer guts on women than men.

-The woman next to me clutched her purse in her lap the whole time.

-The woman in front of me must of watched too much Seinfeld and thought Elaine was a good dancer.

-For some reason older woman think they look cool in a solid shiny silver top that makes them look like an anorexic baked potato, which dances like Elaine from Seinfeld by the way.

-Canes, have never been to a concert that I have seen so many canes! I take that back, when I went to Bobby Vinton with my mom.

-Older men go to the bathroom a LOT, get an aisle seat dude!

-At one time the video screen was tinted blue and Billy Joel now looks like Mr. Freeze

All that to say, it was a great concert! Billy and Elton play first together, rotating verses on each others songs. Then Elton solo, and then Billy solo, then they got back together again and they end with Piano Man. It was over three hours long.

Worth every penny!

The dogs have their collars all is right with the world...

Okay, I'm anal about dog collars. It started with Lieber, she had to have a red one!


Even when she had bone cancer in her leg, and we brought a special harness collar so we could help her walk up and down stairs, we made sure it was red.


Montana our only boy, he of course was always blue. It went with his green eyes.


Okay, then puppies had to be pink!

Lego


Lola


When the puppy develops a personality then it's time to pick a grown up collar. Lego, was a bit feisty, a little wild... so when I saw the leopard collar it was all Lego! Look how well it went with her Minnie Mouse ears on Halloween.


Now, she's 7 and she went through two leopard collars. But then I couldn't find that leopard collar any more and hers was getting a bit... gross. But it wasn't as gross as the orange polka dot one we replaced it with. Ian said she looked fat in it! :-)


And then there was the rainbow phase. Lego is confident in her sexuality so that wasn't the issue, it was just too... you know, unicorn, rainbows, fairies... too cutsie. I'm not into cutsie.


Meanwhile... Lola was in her own collar Hell. Her pretty pink ribbon one, was not very good for playing with the dog next door, it would be in shreds by the end of playtime. So we tried the dreaded orange polka dot in a pinch, it nearly killed her.


While out shopping a few months ago at Sears of all places, we found a leopard collar! Lego was freed of her imposed Fairyland crapola collar, and Lego was back to her spotted leopard self.


We still hadn't found one for Lola yet, let's try Lavender. We did, and it didn't say "Lola"


Then today at Target (Target has the funnest/cheapest dog collars) there it was... a pink collar with a ribbon of pink and orange paisley print. It said "Lola" all over it, you know, the whole nice girl who likes to party but stays aways from the bad boys type of girl... dog.

She didn't exactly party after I put it on her, but it is so her!

And... just in case you are wondering... Lego's Aunt Maggie wears green!

M

My Bad!

Man, I have been bad at updating, been a bit busy.

There have been some new products added to the jewelry line...

A little how this works. Some items of Diana Gabaldon's are taken directly from a description in the book, like the ring or Brianna's Bracelet. The Running Stag brooch is a take on a piece of cover art from "Fiery Cross", another variation of the brooch from a book description will come later.

Here's some "before" pics



I work with a great guy named Bob at DeSignet and he makes all the final grahics you see.

As far as the Running Stag he made about three different versions and I picked what I liked from each and he combined it all, and.......




and the cute little "Da Mi Basia Mille" pendant, I drew a rough sketch of what I wanted and he decifers *g* that and makes a final design.


The Celtic Dragonfly, I sent him pictures of features I liked on others I've seen and he made it into what you see.


With the new items, I had to redo the whole Gabaldon page on The Author's Attic site...

I also made a You Tube of the Outlandish jewelry, to post on things like Facebook, and .... You Tube. :-) The music is from Emma Beaton, I made her website, and the pictures are from Marcie, who I met up with (along with Chirre) in Scotland a couple of years ago. These things are just so much fun to make!




I'm very happy to say, that the DeSignet was very happy with the sales so far, and we will hopefully have even more new stuff soon! This is so much fun. I basically work with two people, Bob a designer, and Marie who does everything!

So if it seems like I'm on the puter a lot.... I am! :-) But did read a book... "The Many Lives and Sorrows of Josephine B" It was pretty good, it's a historical fiction of Neopoleon's wife Josephine. It ends right when she marries Neopoleon. I have always basically read historical fiction related to England, and this was my first one with French history. The French are always the bad guys when I'm reading. I did find it interesting, I thought the French women could at least have an opinion.

Saw couple of movies...

"Slumdog Millionaire" Very good!

"The Reader" Very very good!

If I had to pick one for the Oscar, I would of went with "The Reader". Also saw "Confessions of a Shopaholic", it was cute. Oh, and I had a colonoscopy, which could of been a comedy in itself.

That's all she wrote!

M