Blogger Blather

Tuesday night I had some writers at my house to plan a literary luncheon that’s taking place in Baton Rouge later this year. One of my guests asked to see what I had created in my altered book class. (See this blog post and this blog post for background info). I didn’t really have anything to show since I used the techniques I learned to make altered greeting cards (instead of altered books). But, I gave away the two cards I made since they were for specific people and events. But, I do have a couple of photos, so check it out…

This is the front of an altered greeting card I made for my mom for Mother’s Day. The textured background is masking tape that’s been treated and painted. The heart embellishment was made by putting layers of tissue paper on top of a rubber stamp and wetting it.

And this shows the front and inside of a “Happy Summer” card I made for a friend in Atlanta who likes tiki stuff. The “money” slides out and has a handwritten note on the other side of it. I drew the tiki and palm tree in photoshop and cut them out. The “pop-up” palm tree is a fun and simple technique.

I inherited an overgrown flowerbed of monkey grass and weeds when I bought this house. It’s been a growing source of embarrassment for me because you literally couldn’t get to my front door without being assaulted by branches. It was way too big of a job for me to tackle so I’ve been looking to hire a landscaper. This town is full of grass cutters and landscape architects, but very few hands-on, plant knowledgeable landscapers. After a YEAR of looking, I finally found a great resource – my mother’s neighbor! Her yard looked so wonderful I went over there to see who they used and found out she did the landscaping herself. She and her friend spent Saturday and Sunday working on my two front flowerbeds and the transformation was amazing.

Check out the before and after pics:

Jeff Corriveau is a cartoonist who recently had a trial run of his comic strip in the B.R. Advocate. The newspaper is holding an online contest to see which comic strips stay and which go. This is a brand new endeavor for him and I understand the difficulty of trying to catch a break when you are up against established (albeit stale) stuff.

So, if you have a minute and want to get a dose of good karma for the day, check out his comic “DeFlocked” at www.deflocked.com, and, if you like his sense of humor, put him in the top slot (or at least #2) at  www.2theadvocate.com/comicsurvey

I just did and it takes less than 1 minute. Voting ends Friday June 27th.

There’s nothing that will suck the dignity out of you like hawking your wares to a group of people who don’t want to buy what you are selling.

Up until now I’ve only sold my film, The Lady from Sockholm, on the Web. I realize that tens of thousands of people have looked at my film online — and only hundreds have bought it. But the rejection is not quite the same as being there to see someone bypass your product.

Last night I participated in the first in-person sale of my DVDs ($15). Plus, I had some bookmarks for sale ($5) and beaded paper clips ($1). The place was 16 miles from my house, so roundtrip was two tanks gallons of gas — about $8. My goal was to at least get my gas money back. Some writers I know were selling their books at the event, so I considered it a social gathering and didn’t factor in my time for the three hours I spent there.

So, what did I sell?

• 2 DVDs ($30)
• 2 paper clips ($2)

That’s it…

My goal of $8 was met, but it was still a little disappointing. Although I will say that the crowd wasn’t huge. Probably only 40 or so people looked at my table. Don’t get me wrong, it was a very nice little gathering — I’m just trying to frame what went down for all of you.

Most artists succeed because they understand emotion, can harness it and recreate it on canvas, the page, on screen. But after our artistic work is done we have to turn that emotion off and not take it personally when people dismiss our work — to our faces. (At least have the courtesy of talking about me behind my back.)

Photos courtesy of Connie Rachal – www.myspace.com/conniewriter

I want to do a couple more of these events before I decide if it’s worth it to continue perusing in-person sales. I didn’t have to pay a fee to participate last night and that was key to me making any money. There is an event next month that would be about $20 to enter and I may try that one.

Anyone have any experience with this kind of thing? My biggest moneymaker would be selling the DVDs since there is no new work associated with it.

I thought the paperclips would be scooped up because they were only $1 and people are always looking for inexpensive things to let their kids buy at these events. But the only child who showed interest ask for one for free. I was actually a little speechless since I had already given her sock puppet cards (that was my “free” item that people could take — and they’re cute). Sylvia, the writer sitting next to me, knew the girl’s grandmother and she handed her a dollar to get one. Made me look like a scrooge, but the kid had been around before with adults and no one was offering to buy her one so I didn’t think I needed to let her have something. That child needs to learn that NOTHING IS FREE and LIFE’S NOT FAIR!!! Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, so Sylvia gives her a dollar and I let her pick two of them — so she got one free and paid for one. I tried to give Sylvia her money back but she wouldn’t take it. How do you handle a situation like that?

Lastly, the bookmarks were a bust and take the most time. Maybe I’ll just make those as gifts?

I never buy pizza at the grocery store or have it delivered. Why? Because I can’t stop myself from getting the giganto-supreme size and then I can’t stop myself from eating it all. On Sunday we had pizza at my Mom’s house to celebrate Father’s Day. There was a large vegetarian there and I ate three pieces at lunch. I could have kept going but I made myself stop (had to save room for cake and ice cream). Normally I never take home leftovers but there was half a vegetarian pizza left and no one wanted it. So, I took it with me. Had two pieces for dinner that night and the remaining two pieces for dinner last night. Why is everything that’s fattening soooooo good?

I used to make a pseudo-pizza out of plain bagels, spaghetti sauce, mozzarella, and assorted toppings. I might have to try that again and see if I can tweak the fat out of the food while still getting my pizza fix.

My niece, Whitney, just graduated from high school. Check out the thank you note I received for the graduation gift I gave to her. Granted, it’s pretty funny… but also a wee bit scary.

Remember this post about the cats having fleas? Well, I gave them all flea medicine and got them flea collars. Plus, I’ve been brushing them with the flea comb and haven’t seen any fleas lately. Well, yesterday morning I was lounging in bed and Sweet Stuff came and crawled on my chest. I was petting him and all of a sudden I felt something on my cheek. I picked it off and it was a FLEA! Let me reiterate this … A FLEA LANDED ON MY FACE! Yuck! I squished it and immediately brushed him from head to toe. I found one on his tail but that was it. I brushed the other cats too but didn’t find any. But, they are still scratching at their necks a lot. I thought it was just them being annoyed by the flea collar, but it looks like I’m not done with this problem yet.

When I was very little my favorite ice cream was Baskin-Robbins “Bubble Gum” flavor. The ice cream tasted like bubble gum and contained little chiklet-sized gum pieces.

Then I remember being a “Rocky Road” fan during middle school because “Bubble Gum” was for babies.

In high school I was all about “Chocolate with Peanut Butter Swirl.” In fact, up until recently that was still one of my favorites. But, as I got older I branched out and came to love “White Chocolate Raspberry” and “Cherry Vanilla.”

Yesterday I surprised myself by buying a carton of “Butter Pecan.” I had a whole grocery aisle of ice cream in front of me, but for some reason that’s the flavor that seemed the most appealing. Let me state that I have never liked “Butter Pecan.” It seems like an old-fashioned old person’s flavor.

All I can say is hello AARP. Because I ate a big bowl of “Butter Pecan” last night and another bowl just now and it was good!

My house in Atlanta was in an “up and coming area” of town. That’s a nice way to say a ghetto. After 5 years on Berne St. I was on a first name basis with the 9*1*1 operators and had given at least a half-dozen statements to the police about various crimes on my street.

My little house in B.R. seems to be in a relatively safe area, but earlier this week I received a flyer stating that 2 houses were burglarized on my street. I talked to one of my neighbors about it and he said some things were stolen out of his garage at about the same time as the other thefts. Lovely.

Why couldn’t Atlanta’s diverse arts community or high paying jobs have followed me to B.R. No, I had to bring the crime with me.

I had such a great trip to Atlanta and Los Angeles. Even having to wake up at 2:30am to catch a 5:30am flight on Thursday didn’t dampen my mood. I stayed in Atlanta a day then on Friday morning we headed to L.A.

We were on one of Delta’s new planes that has “Delta on Demand.” All the passengers have their own television screen and the plane picks up cable television signals. You can flip channels the whole trip — plus it’s free. I was impressed. The flight is 4 hours, but it whizzed by since I had Bravo, CNN and The Food Network to watch while I read USA Today. It was just like being in my den.

Attending Book Expo America (BEA) was amazing and inspiring. After looking through so many books and meeting so many published authors it made me energized and left me feeling that I CAN DO IT TOO.

The trip went off without any problems. Really, it was just a perfect weekend. The only small glitch was getting stopped in Atlanta going through airport security. Hollis’ bag got rifled through and they confiscated a tube of toothpaste because it was over the 3 ounce limit. Pretty funny. Now Colgate is a weapon of mass destruction. I guess they were afraid we might hold the passengers hostage until everyone practiced good dental hygiene.

In addition to BEA we managed to make it to Santa Monica’s 3rd St. Promenade, Melrose for some thrift shopping, Redondo Beach for dinner on the water, and L.A.’s original Farmer’s Market in West Hollywood. Plus, our hotel (or should I say ‘motor lodge’), the Beverly Laurel, was so cute!

Here are a few pics of the weekend:

Hollis Gillespie and Lynn Lamousin in Santa Monica

Hollis Gillespie at Book Expo America with a poster advertising her upcoming book

Our retro motor lodge in West Hollywood, the Beverly Laurel

Just made it home from the airport about 30 minutes ago. What a great trip. I’ve got lots of photos and lots to write about, but I’m too time zoned out to elaborate now. Stay tuned till tomorrow…

Let’s hope the optimistic attitude I came home with sticks around for a while.