That is not dead which can eternal lie...

...and with strange aeons, even death may die!

Wow. So it has been two years give or take a few days since I last posted to this blog, with much upheaval in my life. Our houseguests whose apartment building caught on fire were here much longer than intended, to the tune of a few weeks turning into a few months, and unfortunately there was a lot of unpleasantness about responsibilities, attitudes and money. Suffice it to say, I've been burnt and it will be a very long time indeed before I let my charitable nature get the better of me. The relationship they had broke down and they parted ways shortly after moving into a new place and both of them have since returned to their home states, and frankly I couldn't be happier about it.

In any event, that all got me pretty run down for a long time, very stressed and not in any kind of mood to do anything. It's long been since cleared up though, and I've been busy since I picked up a second job again. Today is a rare day off that my other half and I share, and so we're trying to pull together an outing, and I'm not sure where we'll go yet, but I'm excited to go.

In the meanwhile, here's some pretty stuff to look at. I made thank you cards for some guys at my main job who have been instrumental in my development and actually in getting the position I enjoy now. I thought they turned out pretty neat, and I tried to make each one relevant to the recipient. One loves talking about kayaking and fishing, one's a filmmaker, and one's got a great eclectic, hipstery personal style, and I hope that came across.

If you care about that sort of thing, here's the stuff I used to make them.

Fish and Paisley: Bo Bunny's Lakeside Retreat from the Trail Mix collection, the green paisley from The Paper Company's Classics, Tim Holtz's Distress Ink in Stormy Sky, the greeting is from a stamp set by KI Expressions.

Tattered Ticket: Base card from My Mind's Eye, paper from DCWV's Tattered Time collection, stamps from Inkadinkado's Vintange Expressions and Graphic 45's Le Cirque. I used Tsukineko's Memento ink in Tuxedo Black, some white VersaMagic and the fine strips down either side are Martha Stewart Embossing Powder in Antique Gold.

Cluttered Thank You: Base card from My Mind's Eye, paper from Echo Park's For the Record collection. The stamp is from a Martha Steward collection, stamped in Tim Holtz Distress Ink color Salty Ocean. The grey and yellow washi tape come from My Mind's Eye, and the blue and pink are actually from Target's store brand office supplies.

Cornhenge and Indian Run Falls

 If you live in Central Ohio, chances are you probably know the exact place I am talking about when you read the word "cornhenge," even though that isn't its actual name. (It's actually Field of Corn.) I sure as heck knew where it was, as I have probably driven past this weird art installation/monument a thousand times in my life. For those of you lucky enough to not be stuck in Ohio, I took some photos both of the Field of Corn installation and the scenic nearby Indian Run Falls, which I had no idea existed. I thought the sights of these two were pretty cool, but we also picked up Spirit Stone Frog's "Haunted Heather Glen," CrazyGirlz's "Happy St. Patrick's Day" at another Dublin landmark, and jeeves' "Go! Fight! Win!" Photos after the jump!

Orchids and Creepy Baby Angels

I went through and uploaded some pieces to my long-neglected DeviantArt account. There's a lot more that needs to go up there, too, but I thought I'd share what I got up there here, too. These are some resized versions to fit nicely in the blog, but there's links to the individual deviations as well if you'd like to see them  larger. Everything interesting after the jump!

Green Lawn, Take Two; Silver Clay & More!

My PMC arrived in the mail! It's such a small packet, but I can't wait to start working with it--plan on doing pendants to start with. I have a friend who has tools for shaping rings, but I think I prefer to start with something where size is less important until I get a feel for the shrinkage. I've worked with polymer clay now and then as a replacement for ceramic clay--I'd done a few ceramic pieces in high school and loved the idea of fabricating jewelry pieces, but it's hard since I no longer have access to a kiln. The silver clay can be finished with a torch, so it's somewhat more convenient. Very exciting, and I can't wait to share the results.

Red Wolf and I went back to Green Lawn Cemetery on Sunday to pick up a few of the boxes we hadn't had time for last trip. They're technically only open from noon til four on Sundays, so we had kind of a narrow window, and I didn't fuss around taking as many pictures this time. We picked up all but two of the seven box series "A Royal Garden Party" by DrWatson; one is gone and the other is a bonus box, the clue to which takes some deciphering. We also got a couple of stand-alone boxes and picked up another hitchhiker; Wereallinthistogether's "Eve Was Framed." It was originally planted in 2007 as a mystery, and moved its way up from Florida (St. Cloud, near my old home town of Kissimmee!) through Ohio, so that was pretty amusing.

Speaking of which, there's a good chance that I will be going to Florida this summer with my in-laws, so I'm seriously considering carving up a hitchhiker to turn loose down the empire of the rat when I finish with the melon heads stamp. Green Lawn photos after the jump.

Green Lawn Cemetery, Take One

So, I don't know how much attention anyone pays to my AtlasQuest widget up there in the corner, but if you do, you may have noticed that my find count has shot up pretty dramatically over the past couple of days. "Why?" you might ask. The answer is the Green Lawn Park located here in Columbus, Ohio. It's a historical cemetery full of monuments, elaborate mausoleums, and a wonderful assortment of local flora and fauna. It's the resting place of several local figures like Eddie Rickenbacker, famous race car driver and WWI flying ace. We saw cardinals, blue jays, and goldfinches, enormous trees as well as a bridge and several monuments over a hundred years old.

The other wonderful thing about Green Lawn? It is absolutely chock -full of letterboxes. I found this out when I started to compile a list of new areas for us to visit. There are several single boxes and a number of series there too--so many in fact, that we only managed to get ten of them in one day. The park is just so huge and there are so many planted there that even with the plenty of time we allowed ourselves, there was no way to get every single one. We're going to have to go back on another one of those rare occasions we have a day off together. Unfortunately, the park is located close to downtown, and some people apparently have a hard time respecting the grounds, which has made me resolve to start packing a trash bag or two in with our usual kit. All in all though, it was a beautiful, overcast day to spent amongst the departed. I can't wait to go back and get the other half. Lots of photos after the jump!

First finds of 2011!

I've been waiting so long for the weather to not only turn warm but a little drier to get out and do some letterboxing. Well, yesterday was finally the day that both Red Wolf and I had free (after taking care of some necessary shopping and looking into a new apartment) so we headed out to a cemetery and one of the metroparks to see what we could find. A couple of photos, dealing with a park ranger and being denied clues after the jump.