Tator Dude Returns

Tator Dude

This is Tator Dude.  He's a potato.  A Ruby Cresent to be exact, and I found him in May of 2008.

Unfortunately he's no longer with us.  During his short life in our refrigerator, he provided us with laugh out loud laughter - every time we opened the fridge.  We had lots of visitors during that time too.  Tator Dude was quite popular.

To see more pictures and find out more about Tator Dude from my original blog post, just click on him.  Go ahead, he won't mind.  Really.

Okay, if you don't want to touch him, here's the link:
http://rockisrocknbeads.blogspot.com/2008/05/weird-thats-all-i-can-say.html

WAIT!  If you want to find out what happened to Tator Dude, AFTER you read the blog post above, here's the final blog post:

http://www.rockisrocknbeads.blogspot.com/2008/05/ouch-they-really-can-break.html

Happy Friday!
Peace,
Rocki

Unbelievable - Perfect Balance!

Yesterday I was working on just a few ear wires (getting better!) and the most unbelievable thing happened - totally freaked me out! While looking through my huge lighted tabletop magnifying glass, holding my little gold hoop in one hand and filing it with the other, I lost my grip and it fell out of my hand.

I looked through the glass and nothing. Where did it go? I figured it landed somewhere on my bench or on the floor perhaps. So I moved away from the table and there it was - STANDING UP! FREAKED me out!

I was giddy with the thought of this perfect balancing act and trying to figure out how in the heck it happened. I started to get excited, even giggling and didn't want to move it, but I needed the space. I needed proof of this bizarre ear wire that fell onto my work board standing straight up!

Should I call Oprah, Ellen or David Letterman? Maybe Funniest Home Video's (are they even still on the air?) Where the heck is our video camera! Hmm, was I on Candid Camera perhaps? I was afraid to breathe, so I gently backed away from the table, picked up my cell phone and took a couple pictures.

I needed better photos, so I slowly got up to go get my camera from the other room. Came back and it was STILL STANDING! I swear, I was laughing out loud at this point because it was so weird! How did it do this? How could a single little ear wire fall out of my hands and land standing up like that? My board is polyurethane, not like it's velcro or has big divots in it. For the most part, it's fairly smooth.

After taking a few photos, I finally had to move the ear wire. All I did was barely touch it and poof, it fell over. Made me sad.

Funny thing about this strange happening is lately, due to my wrists, I've been trying to find balance. Balance that would continue to allow me to be productive with my work as well as have my own personal time. Is this a sign? If so, what the heck does it mean?

Happy Freaky Friday!

Rocki

p.s. The doctor's office called, it's NOT Carpal Tunnel! (does happy dance) Now more tests to see what's up, but I'll be back to work on the 11th!

Beat Still My Heart

If you have not seen Beat Black's shop, you must, I repeat, MUST go and check out her amazing polymer clay creations!

I "met" Sarah via blogging & Etsy and then became friends on MySpace. Who is Sarah? She is the fun creator behind Beat Black. Here's a quote from her profile that I just love: "I'm a 21 year old food junkie with a diploma in fashion design. I live in Toronto with my roommate and cactus whose name seems to change on a monthly basis (the cactus not the roommate)"

We can thank Sarah's mom for her amazing talent as her mom is an artist. Sarah has been creating things longer than she can even remember. In fact, before she knew about polymer clay, she would make little sculptures from her brothers "ball of a browny purple colour (clearly a mix of whatever he stole from school). It always had hair in it...ew". I agree Sarah... EWWWW!

Sarah's inspiration comes from many things, such as "weird colour combinations, the folds in a blanket, strange fairytale-ish movies, music, going through old sketchbooks, dreams, nature..."

When asked what her surroundings are like, this is what she had to say:"Pretty boring actually. I rent so I've never painted or put nails in my walls for artwork. Three of five light bulbs are burnt out in my chandelier. My futon looks like a lumpy monster and there's a microwave in my living room." Sarah my friend, you made this blog post very easy for me to write!

I really love her shop name, Beat Black. Sarah knew she wanted to use a black heart as her logo and after writing down several names, Beat Black stuck in her head. Speaking of heads, make sure you check out her 'brain' creations. Braaaaaaaains (zombie free, of course).

We know that Sarah has a thing for food. In fact, she has a tator fetish. Yes. I said tator, as in potato. Actually, I think my 'tator dude' is what brought Sarah & I together. What? You don't know who 'tator dude' is? Well in order for this to make any sense, you must read my "Weird. That's All I Can Say" post.

On top of her talent, funny humor, creativity & imagination, she opens up her heart and shares many unique fellow Etsian's shops on her fun to read blog: "In The Shadows".

Please visit her shop and blog. Oh, and tell her 'tator dude' says hello ;)

Beat still my heart,
Rocki

Ouch! They Really Can Break!

I have some sad news about tator dude... I really didn't mean to do it and it was a TOTAL accident! Honest! (if you don't know about tator dude, read my post here to get the whole story: Weird. That's all I can say and then again here on my MySpace blog titled "Pierced it")

No - I did not eat him.

As you may know from my previous blogs, the sticky in the sticky pad no longer worked and he was propped up on one of my soy pudding cups in the fridge. I had my last pudding cup last week so I propped him up against a container of Tofutti Sour Supreme.

The night before last while getting something out of the fridge I bumped tator dude.

(insert shocked look here)

He fell straight to the ground.

In horror Mark & I gasped at the sight! Mark said "wow, guess they really can break" (hmm, that would make a good blog)

Ouch!

I tried to see if I could repair him, but didn't think a torch would be the right tool to use.

So, it is with great sadness that I must tell you of his demise. I have never met a tator dude quite like this one before. They broke (oops, sorry about the pun) the mold when this dude sprouted.

I removed my old stud & cleaned it up real good - it's back in my jewelry box. Not sure if I'll ever where it again as the memory may be too painful.

Tator tot, um, I mean tator dude is still in the fridge. I know I need to let him go as he's pretty mashed up, but I have other plans for him.

Gotta go now, the water is boiling.

☼ Rocki

P.S. I'm on vacation as of now. We are going to San Diego with our good friends on a long deserved trip. We are going to have a blast and just go wild at Sea World! Yes. There will be pictures!

Weird. That's all I can say.

I went to the grocery store the other day to pick up a few things. While selecting my fresh veggies something strange caught my eye. I looked at it and then quickly turned away while barely pushing my cart. I stopped. I simply had to investigate this.

My first thought was that it looked like a, well, um… never mind. My second thought was that it looked like this huge deformed finger. I nonchalantly looked around to see if anyone was watching then carefully picked it up.


I wasn’t sure if I was on candid camera and being laughed while turning this thing all around in my hands while trying to figure out. Then a thought entered my mind “I wonder how this would work as a new ring display.” Then I noticed some other details of it that REALLY made it stand out. I started to giggle then set it back down. I tend to have a warped sense of humor and the way the past few weeks have been, well, this was a welcome bit of humor – even if I was the only one laughing.
The sign said “Ruby Crescent Potato”, but this sure didn’t look like any potato I’ve ever seen. Inside I started to sing “one of these things is not like the others…” I knew what I had to do, but no way was I going to bag this little guy up all by himself - that would surlely look strange. Again, I looked around and no one was looking, so I quickly grabbed a handful of them (normal ‘fingerling’ potatoes that is), stuffed them in the bag, carefully put it in my cart (didn't want to break him) and left the veggie isle so fast that I think I left tire marks.
To end this sick and twisted story… obviously I took photos of it (weird, I know), measured it (5 ½”, yes I know, REALLY weird) and then stuck it in the fridge. It’s still in there - standing up with the help of a little sticky pad I put it on. It’s kind of creepy when you open the fridge actually. Oh, we did eat the other ones - very tasty.
I wonder what this would go for on Ebay?
Happy Friday!
☼ Rocki

Have you seen Stanton?

I've been a bad girl lately! My blog has been beggin' for some lovin', but I've just been horribly busy and then some! So, thought I would put one of my newest creations up until I can do a decent blog come Monday!

Oh, and the cutie pie in the picture... that would be Stanton. You can see more of him in my shop if you would like to. I just LOVE him to pieces!

Happy Friday everyone and see you all Monday!

☼ Rocki