Indigo Luna

Jonesing for Ink

When people see my tattoo, the first thing they often say is, "Wow, it's big!".  The second thing is often, "Did it hurt?"  To which I reply, "Not a bit!  It was like a 6 hour massage!"  Ha.  It hurt like Hell.  It felt like someone poking me repeatedly - and often in the same spot - with needles.  And yet, as soon as my beautiful bird was completed, I was planning the next bit of ink to adorn my body.

I actually have at least four more tattoos planned.  If I won the lottery, I would have so much ink!!  Gabe and I are planning to get matching ink on our hips of the blue feather from the cover of the book Illusions - the Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah.  A talented illustrator on my Etsy street team has agreed to design an ankle bracelet tattoo for me of Rowan branches with berries intertwined with Indigo flowers to represent the girls.  I want a phoenix on my left hip and thigh.  But the one I am really jonesing for right now, is a large lotus blossom with a spiral root and wings behind in that will go between my shoulder blades.  Eventually I think it would be amazing to have my whole back covered.  I'm thinking about putting a harvest moon behind the raven.

So, I have been researching artists and styles and drooling over tattoos for the last couple of days.  I am seriously considering making the trek to Seattle so I can have my tattoo done by Madame Lazonga.  Her color work is just so incredibly lush and gorgeous.  She is quite famous in the tattoo world so I'm sure it would be expensive but I don't think permanent body art is really something one should bargain hunt for.

I was looking at tattoos on Flickr and found this utterly amazing piece.  It doesn't even look real!  I can only imagine the incredible amount of hours in the chair that went into this tattoo!  Stunning!

Photo by Max Dolberg

So, I am plotting and planning and saving images and money.  If not over Spring Break, then definitely this summer I will be further decorating my canvas.  Maybe we'll have to get our matching feathers soon just to tide me over.  Why is ink so addictive??

I am also seriously considering getting my nose pierced - a fact which completely appalls my children (and I'm sure my mother wouldn't be too excited about it either).  They're not all that thrilled about the future tattoos either but at least most of those aren't readily visible.  How did my kids get to be so conservative?  Ha!  Please tell me they aren't going to grow up and be nice little preppy Republicans just to drive me completely out of my mind!  And they'll be embarrassed to bring home their nice churchgoing, NRA cardcarrying boyfriends to meet their tattoo covered, piereced, Doc Marten wearing mom.  Oy vey!  Isn't this supposed to be the other way around??

And the Winner is....

Today is the day that we announce the lucky winners for the One World, One Heart Giveaway!  I have really had a lot of fun with this project.  I have found a lot of very cool blogs and signed up for so many amazing goodies that generous creative souls are giving away.  It has reenergized my blogging and inspired me in so many ways.  On to the winners!

For the fiber art postcard, the winning name drawn is Angelina of Angelina's Trinkets!

And for the glass pendant I added as a second giveaway, the winning name is Devi of glasfaden.etsy.com!

Congratulations, ladies and thanks so much to everyone who came by to visit and to all who left such nice comments!  I hope you come back soon.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Birthday Wishes...I've Been Really, Really Good (REALLY)

I know what I want for my birthday and since it's a little pricey, I thought I would give everyone plenty of warning so they have time to save up.  I want - no, I NEED a print Gocco machine.  I cannot even begin to describe how many very, very cool and awesome things I could do if I only had a print Gocco.  It will change my life, I swear.  Here's a picture of it and here's the link to where you can buy it for me because you know if you did I would love you forever and ever and ever.

What is this mysterious looking mechanism, you ask?  It is rather like a portable screenprinter without the chemicals.  You can print on just about any surface including cloth.  I have amazingly wonderful ideas for t-shirts - a whole line of "Blessed are the Geek" t-shirts and another with a magpie that says "Distracted by Shiny Objects".  Not to mention cards, prints and all kinds of other goodies.  Can't you see why it is my destiny to own a print Gocco??  It will be mine.  Oh yes, it will be mine. (Picture me rubbing my hands together and cackling maniacally).

Artists are making some really wonderful prints with these fun little devices.  Like this cool print from the amazingly talented Wondercabinet.

And I absolutely ADORE everything, everything, everything in Ouou's Etsy Shop.  I want it all!!  SO cute!

If you would like to my my life a better place, I am accepting donations towards my new print Gocco.  My Paypal address is rachelk@rachelkitterman.com. ;-D  Did I mention that, with shipping, it costs about $420?  Eep.  Still, I know it is my destiny so I'm sure the Universe is sending extra funds my way as I write this.  And it is my birthday next month....Did I mention I've been good?

Fun With Felting

I just went back to work today for half a day after being sick for a week with this horrid stomach virus that seems to be raging through the entire state.  I still feel awful and at this point, I'm starting to despair that I will ever feel well again.  If I just lie about, it's not too bad so I have read a lot of books and watched a lot of DVDs.  I have cruised through several discs of Lost, Torchwood and Dexter (Just a small digression here to ask is to totally wrong to think Dexter is hot??  I mean, he is a sociopathic serial killer....but likeable.)

I certainly haven't felt much like going out to my studio to work but one thing I can do whilst lying about on the couch is crochet.  I got some lovely wool yarn in various colors from Craft Warehouse and I have been wanting to experiment with felting crocheted items.  I crocheted a little bowl from this pretty cerulean blue yarn and then wet felted it.  I hadn't wet felted anything in a very long time but it is quite a simple process.  Basically you throw the finished item in a tub with extremely hot water and lots of dishsoap and then rub the heck out of it.  When the bowl was sufficiently felted, I shaped it and let it dry.  It seemed to need a little more oomph so I needlefelted some vines and leaves around the outside of it.  I liked that but it still needed more so I added little clusters of blueberries, too.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.  I love creating 3-dimensional, sculptural objects and I love the tactile quality of the felted yarn.  The single crochet stitch gave it a nice thick texture.  It just fits in the palm of my hand and I think it would be lovely on an altar or tabletop.

It is listed in my Etsy shop if you would like to bring it home to live at your house.  I am planning on making more in different colors for different seasons and elements.  I really enjoy spiral crochet.  I find it to be very meditative and I love how simply adding and subtracting stitches changes the shape I am creating.  It flows very organically and intuitively.  Also, it can be done without getting up off of the couch.

Just the Highlights

I realize I have been neglecting this poor blog terribly.  Events have occurred and they have just gone by without any recognition at all.  Shocking! 

I think part of the issue is that I spend so much time chatting on Etsy and posting pictures on my Flickr account.  Chatting and linking to Flickr are so instant gratification - and you know how I feel about that!  They have been largely satisfying my need to connect and share my daily happenings and new creations.  So this blog has been languishing unloved.

But really, blogging scratches a different itch.  It's not about the instant gratification but about the process.  The process of mulling, imagining, composing and writing down my thoughts, daydreams, ideas, aggravations, loves and losses is ultimately very satisfying.  It must be or I wouldn't have kept in up for almost 2.5 years and 350 posts!  Sometimes I just forget how good it feels.

So, playing a little catch up here and then back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

We had snow!  OK, not what anyone on the East coast would consider snow  or even anyone in Eastern Oregon but still, it's exciting for us valley dwellers who hardly ever get a chance to see the strange white stuff falling from the sky. 

Gabe took the girls up to Silver Falls the next day where they had real snow and they had a big snowball fight with their friends.

On February 2nd, my baby turned 8 years old!  How the heck did that happen?!  Rowan had her two best buddies from school over for sundaes and presents.  She got Heelies from us which made her deleriously happy.  She told me every day for a week prior to her birthday that her birthday just "wouldn't be the same" if she didn't get Heelies.  She skated so much that day that she could barely get out of bed on Sunday!

We also celebrated my niece's birthday which is on the same day as Rowan's.  She is pretty darned funny at the age of three.  My favorite thing she says right now has got to be, "That's fascinating!"

And last but not least, I opened another Esty shop!  Because I am not even a little bit insane and have oodles of free time.  Uh-huh.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  I decided that my geeky alter-ego needed her own shop.  She kept demanding to come out and play and make all sorts of odd and quirky things that just didn't seem to fit in my Indigo Luna store.  Plus, I could not resist the name I picked out.  Hence, Blessed Are the Geek was born!  Stop by and see what my nerdy side is making these days.

One World, One Heart Blog Challenge

I have been wanting to rededicate myself to keeping up with this blog.  I have been searching for a direction that I want my writing to go in this year and thinking about the reasons why I blog in the first place.  A big part of my blogging journey has been about connection and community.  I like having a place to share my thoughts, my joys and triumphs, as well as my sorrows and petty grumpies.  I like the feeling I get from dropping my words into the stream of connected consciousness and watching the ripples spread outward to other hearts and minds. 

My lovely and extremely talented friend Morgen inspired me with this post on her blog to join the One World, One Heart Giveaway. 

What IS ONE World-ONE Heart?

It is a blog-wide giveaway event. The original idea behind this was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way. Last years event had nearly 100 participants and many connections were made because of it......friendships that are still going strong.

How do you become a participant?
To be a participant in the event all you have to do is offer up something to giveaway. It can be handmade, which is encouraged but not mandatory. You can offer up more than one item so there is more than one winner if you like. The giveaway item(s) are entirely up to you. Once you have determined what your giveaway will be you will must post pictures of whatever it is in a post on your blog. You will then come to this blog and in the comments leave the link to THAT post!

This art postcard is made from my hand-dyed fabrics and batiks fused to a Timtex base. Edged with variegated eyelash yarn. Machine stitched.  It comes with a little wooden easel for display purposes or you could send it to a friend in the mail!  To be entered in the drawing to win this postcard, simply leave a comment.  I would love to hear your thoughts about staying connected.

*UPDATE* Because I have gotten so many lovely comments and I am feeling so inspired by my fellow bloggers creativity, I am offering a second giveaway - one of my hand drawn glass pendants from my Blessed are the Geek etsy shop.

I will be drawing the winning names and announcing them on my blog on February 14th.  Make sure that you leave a link or a way to contact you in your comment or I will have to draw a new name.  Good luck!