Where in the world is Siouxsiequeue?

To answer that question, I have been right here, buried under projects and minor illness, and new jewelry cases!

On Wednesday Jeremy, Eric, & I went to book club, where I lead a wonderful discussion on J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit". I love that story, it is part of who I am, so I was so excited to be able to really talk about it with 15 other people! We have three librarians in our book club, so that also helps to make our meetings interesting. The three ladies are so well read and always have interesting tidbits about the story or the author, it is fantastic.

On Thursday the plan had been to join Greg & Co. for King Collab. Several people get together to help each other with their projects, discuss the creative process and fill the need we all have to sit around in a diner drinking coffee and eating pancakes all night. I have been having a lot of fun at Collab, but this week I had a touch of something and a fever so I didn't think the others would like to have me and my germs around. Greg and I are starting to put together a story of, well us, from high school, and tried to work via unreliable Internet connections and text messages, but it didn't work out quite as we had planned. This is a fantastic project, though I don't know exactly what medium it will ultimately take. It is freeing and healing to talk about it, to tell those stories again, and to look at the old photos. We carried so much baggage about that time, it feels like it is finally moving into the past, for me anyway.

On Friday I was expecting parcels full of beads and a new carrying case for my jewelry inventory; needless to say the day passed at a dead crawl and the UPS drive took his sweet time coming to the house. When Jeremy got home from work he helped me get everything organized in the case and it looks wonderful! We spent the rest of the evening watching t.v. and I worked on a few new pieces.

Yesterday we got the brilliant idea to go out shopping, but there were so many people in all the shops we became frustrated very quickly. We started at the Game Stop, where I picked up a copy of Beatles Rock Band only to find out later there are NO Rock Band band kits for the Wii available ANYWHERE in the whole world. I'm going to have to take the game back because we can't play it. From the Game Stop we went to Target where we bought Jeremy a new yoga mat and lamented the absence of Rock Band controllers for the Wii. Then we were off and running to the garden center where we purchased a new solar powered Japanese lantern and some herbs that I will grow in a box on the kitchen counter. Lastly we went by the supermarket and then home again. We're still waiting for more deliveries, furniture and jewelry supplies. I hope that the rash of snow storms doesn't delay these deliveries too much. I think the furniture will (finally) arrive toward the end of this week.

Okay, so enough of my weekend play by play let's get down to business. I have five, yes five, new bracelets to list this week, one of which is pictured at the beginning of this post. (If you click here or on the photo you can see all the items available in the shop.) I've also started planning a few pieces for St. Patrick's Day, we all know how I love a theme! I've also got a couple of sewing projects playing out in my head: I'm going to finish a project tote for a friend who knits and I would like to make totes for our yoga mats. If they turn out well we might be seeing them in my Etsy shop in the next few weeks.

And last but certainly not least, the all important shout outs and awesome links portion of this post. There are a lot of them, so please check them out, pass along the links and any information you may glean. First up, our Etsy shop of the week. Melfitz Handmade Accessories, beautiful knitted gloves & scarves! Love, love, love! I wish my knitting was this good. Next we've got Oscar's band, the gones, who are playing in Denver this weekend at the Lion's Lair. You can click here for details on the show and to check out some of their songs. "Killin' Me" is my favorite of their songs. Also playing in Denver this week is Tim's band, Pluyd. They are at Herman's Hideaway and you can click here for information about that show or here to buy their album.

As if all of that wasn't enough, I also have two little gems from the world of celebrity tweeting. Neil Gaiman (my favorite author) wrote a fun poem in honor of Valentine's day. You can find that here along with his whole blog. And finally, but certainly not least we have a fun and geeky link to a Jean-Luc Picard video that came to us via Chris Hardwick of Web Soup. Okay, I think that was everyone!

I do believe that gets everyone caught up! I hope that you are warm, wherever you are, and that you have a lovely evening.