Weekend Adventure Time!

My fella and I have just spent a few days looking after the dog of some friends of his. First off, Penny (the pooch) is super smart and clever, really playful and cuddly. Second, Justin and I found out we're as ready for a pet as we thought...despite the fact that Penny-pants is really really good natured. When I would walk Penny, it would never occur to me to bring a bag - you guessed it - I the jerk who doesn't pick up after their dog. My defence: Penny is not my dog, and I've always had cats, cats relieve themselves in a box. So my "solution" is to have Penny-pants poo, then we go for a brisk jog, not looking back, and not returning the same way. The karma of this story is, Penny likes to eat poo, other dog's poo - then she goes in for a kiss - sorry babe, I saw you consume another animal's fecal matter, you just ended joyful puppy kisses, but I'll settle for hours of playing fetch and a tub full of hand sanitizer.

My week leading up to the weekend and the weekend itself was much more eventful and lively than it normally is - which is really good. I'm a creature of habbit, but I welcome the mix from time to time. This weekend I did a metal jewellery workshop! It was really fun; any time I work with my hands I'm at my most confident. Putting together furniture, or sewing a dress, and apparently using a torch come very easily to me. Speaking and conseptualizing shit in a "logical" day-to-day sense is actually really difficult and I get really easily frustrated.

Out of that day workshop I made two rings, one copper and one silver. I really like process oriented work. You can't easily see, and because it was my first attempt at stamping metal, I got the placement of the letters a bit wrong...but you know, live and learn. The silver ring says "M A G I C K" on the out side where you can see it, on the inside of the ring it reads: "S P E L L". I thought about putting my mine and Justin's initials, but then I puked a little in my mouth. I oxidized both rings a little bit as well, I still wanted the lusture of the silver to come through but I wanted the hammering and the lettering to pop out a little bit. Same with the copper ring, I embossed it with a leaf, copper will oxidize anyway, so it was just an experiment - for now it's still bronzey and shiny. They look nice on their own or stacked.

While we were dog sitting, we were staying at the home of Justin's friend which is in Newtown; Newtown is a really artsy area, you don't really see any boxed stores like you would in the Eastern Suburbs or in the CBD - which I really like. There are tons of really yummy places to eat (actually, that's all of Sydney, but Newtown in-particular, Thai and Pho). That said, I find Newtown to be really really oppressive, energetically speaking. I couldn't live there. It's really insular, and while there are parks, there is this weird sticky energetic film over Newtown. This sounds totally freakish, and I often feel like a bad person because of it, but I get physically ill and really upset when I'm around - what I call - intense drug use/drug abuse. Honestly, I don't care what others do, it's really that person's choice, so, far be it from me to dictate what someone else does...but I really don't enjoy feeling like blowing chunks when I walk by people or buildings that weird me out. But that's what a lot of Newtown feels like to me: vomit and crying. Obviously not all of Newtown (the place we were staying in was super cozy and safe feeling), but there are certain areas and pubs I feel really uncomfortable in. Also, while I was there it seemed everyone was "on" all the time, so many people were peacocking-looking for attention it was kind of exhausting. I'm a beach babe: I honestly didn't appreciate how renewing living by the wild ocean is. Sure OK, "wild ocean" I live in the 'burbs, but I can look out from my home in one direction and see nothing for miles - though lately I see whales tipping up for some air (bragging). What I'm really saying is: people who live by the beach are SO CHILL!









Dis ma 'hood --------------------------->









I went crystal shopping which is something I don't get to do as often as I'd like/used to do. I might rant on crystal shops/new age shops later, because that is kind of a doozey, and I don't want to say that I'm an expert, buuut I kind of am - when it comes to expectations of 1) customer service in new age shops and 2) product knowledge 3) communicating to the customer based on their needs. It just gets up my back, I've worked for the best, in my opinion when it comes to crystal retailers and new age/pagan goods.