I get a lot of really hilarious spam on my blog.  I moderate it before it gets to the actual website, but sometimes I sort of wish I could keep it because the comments are so funny.  I think my favorite was the response to my birthday post–something like, “Oh well, there’s always next birthday to wish for some hair!”  Uh, thank you?  

The title of this post comes from a “response” I got today to one of my first posts on this blog.  It’s even funnier when you consider that the post being referenced was about purses/bags I like!

This is one of the plants in my yard, happy because it rained here in Austin yesterday!  I love rainy days and it has been forever since we had one.  It was actually gray and rainy all day, which is rare here.  I grew up in Beaumont, Texas, where it rains a lot.  In the summers, a lot of times we’d get nice big thunderstorms every afternoon.  It’s funny to me when people call this kind of thing “bad” weather; to me, bad weather is 100 degree heat beating down on you (33 of those days so far in Austin in 2008).  Days where the temperature drops 20 degrees and you can watch a storm from your porch swing, curled up in a blanket–that’s good weather to me!

I dropped off some pieces at the Austin Museum of Art today, including some brand new pieces!  While I was there a woman was giving a tour to a group of kids, and I overheard this funny conversation:

Tour guide: Say “Sol”

Kids: “SOL!”

Tour guide: Say “LeWitt”

Kids: “LEWITT”

Tour Guide: Say “Sol LeWitt”

Kids: something that only vaguely sounded like Sol LeWitt

It was pretty cute.  It reminded me of the stories my parents tell of trying to get my sister to say “hamburger” instead of “hampanger.”

Juju Gifts in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is now carrying Maneki jewelry!  

But I have been too busy making new pieces with all the great things I found there!  Soon, I promise!  But in the meantime, here are some of the items I put together with my Chicago finds.  All of these are up in the Etsy shop!

Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club and Craft Lab is doing a series of interviews on craftgossip.com.  Her column is called Artist Life and she features interviews with owners of craft-related businesses.  My interview went up this week!  Jen asks really good questions and she’s got a lot of great business owners lined up.  Check it out!

maneki on artistlife

And the birthday mystery package is from…Rebecca!  It was a pink lemonade scented gift set from Philosophy that smells so good that I’m pretty sure I’m going to need to make some actual pink lemonade immediately!  Thanks Rebecca!

I think this was probably my favorite birthday ever.  First, my boyfriend and I headed out to Krause Springs:

Then, we came home and I opened presents–I tell you what, I was spoiled this year!  Next, we headed to Sago to meet up with a bunch of friends.  That place is awesome (ignore all the bad reviews on Yelp; I have rarely read reviews that were so off the mark).

After that, we went home and had cake and ice cream (Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla, of course).

In other news, I’ve just put some new clockwork necklaces online in the maneki Etsy shop!  They’re made with vintage parts and vintage clock and watch parts!  

No, seriously!  We just saw Young at Heart and it was great.  For those who haven’t heard of it yet, it’s a documentary about a group of seniors who perform contemporary pop/rock/punk songs.  My boyfriend and I were afraid, especially after the first song was “I Wanna Be Sedated,” that the songs were mostly going to be silly–not so.  In fact, their stunning version of Coldplay’s “Fix You”  was one of the (many) moments in the movie that brought me to tears.  For those of you here in Austin, it’s playing at the Arbor.  Highly recommended! 

Today a delivery person knocked on my door and gave me a box with my name on it from Nordstrom.  I ruled out the three top guesses (my mother, my sister, and my boyfriend).  I have one more guess…I’ll have to wait until Thursday to see if I’m right (and find out what’s in the package)!

I’ll have a booth this Saturday (the market days are Sat-Sun, but I’ll only be there on Saturday).  Come say hi!