Back in apt, and henna update

So after it rained in my apartment, Zeb and I went to stay with my parents for a week. Now, I love my parents, but being back home with them made me realize just how much I love having my own space, my own kitchen, my own BED!! On one of the last nights there we had some yummy margaritas and lounged around outside under the almost full moon.

In the next pic you can see how my henna was doing. That was 12 days in and it had faded to a nice mellow orange. It seems like the lighter it got, the quicker it faded because it only lasted about 4 more days after this pic. I washed a ton of dishes after we got back to the apartment and did some good scrubbing and cleaning and it took the henna right off. Barely any was left after that.

But now we are home. The carpet still has to be cleaned so we can't move all of our stuff back into the bedroom yet, but it's still good to be home! I have taken my shop off of vacation mode and am going to be adding some more items soon.

It's raining in my apartment

So Zeb and I were gone for two and a half hours today. We came home to water dripping from our ceiling. It was streaming in through the fan in the ceiling in the bathroom, down the walls, and through the ceiling. It was coming in through the bathroom, the bedroom and it started to puddle under the ceiling paint in the livingroom but it never came through, thank goodness. Luckily, we weren't gone for long so none of our belongings were damaged as we were able to move things, or tarp them and put bowls around. As you can see in the picture the water is coming down as a nasty yellowy orange.
Apparently, the person on the third floor (we are on the bottom floor) left for work with their water running. Oh, and they had a candle lit too. The water soaked through the second floor apartment (who wasn't home) and then down into our apartment. I guess the person above us didn't have renter's insurance which is unfortuante because the water damaged their bed and computer and I'm sure other things.
So here's another part of the story. Earlier in the day the water to the building was turned off for about a half hour. I'm guessing for some kind of mainenance. So what I'm guessing happened, is that the person was in the shower when the water was shut off. What I assume happened is that they didn't actually turn the faucet off. Then they finished getting ready and left for work. When the water came on, their shower faucet must have still been on. That's my theory.
We don't have renter's insurance, which is fine this time since nothing of ours was damaged, but tomorrow our insurance agent is getting a call now that I know how irresponsible our upstairs neighbor is. :)

Henna, day one

So here's day one of the henna, well, after it was washed off that is. I mixed it with lemon juice and added some sugar and lavender oil. I let it sit over night and then some, so it was on for just under 12 hours. The pic was taken about 10 hours after I removed the paste. It's a nice dark rust orange/brown color and from what I've read it will darken over the next day. If I see a difference I'll take more pics and post them.
So I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Drawing is definitely not one of my strong points but all of the instructional videos I watched broke the steps down so the designs seemed managable. I think it turned out pretty decent. My leaves are a little wonky and there's other areas I could have done better, but it still makes me smile every time I look at it.
I will mention though that my skin feels a little dry. I'm assuming that it's from the lemon juice that I mixed in with the henna. Not to mention, after it dried a bit I put on a sugar and lemon juice mixture to protect it. But it's not bothersome, just something I thought I would note.
So I think in the next day or so I'll do one on my foot. I really enjoyed the actual process of "drawing" the henna on. It was slow and fluid, rather meditative. I could see myself coming home from a stressfull day, getting out my henna and drawing away. :)

Henna tattoo

So I watched some youtube videos about henna. They were by user Free Hand Mehndi. She has some really great videos where she does designs but she also has some awesome informational videos too that show you all you need to know to do your own henna tattoo. So I got inspired and decided I would try my hand at it, literally. lol. So, as it turns out, she has an Etsy shop, freehandmehndi, where she sells a complete starter kit for only $12. Good deal! So I got the kit, followed all the steps in her videos and now the henna is drying on my hand. I'm going to let it sit overnight and then I'll take it off tomorrow. I'll post an update pic tomorrow so you guys can see how it turned out. :)

A nice dose of somber gloom

So I stumbled across the video of this musician yesterday. Her name is Zoe Keating and she plays the cello. She creates beautiful masterpieces by recording herself playing and layering the recordings together. Amazing! Also, I thought the mood of the music went perfect with my new gothic cross necklace. Here's both.

Naturalistic Pantheism

So I'm not one that likes to debate religious beliefs. They are a personal choice and as such are not up for debate. What feels right to someone may not feel right to another. But the beauty of this is that there are as many different paths as there are people, and we are free to choose our own. With that being said, I am playing this video, not because I think it is "The Truth" or "The Correct Belief" but because I think it is beautiful and it stirred something in me.



Also, I realize that this is off-center and I can't get it to show right, so click here to watch it on youtube.

Spammy convo! Or is it?

So was in the Etsy forums and saw a post about someone who is being spammy and sending around convos saying "sorry you aren't included in my treasury but would you take the time to look at it anyway?". So a bunch of us etsians reply saying how low, annoying and disgusting that is. A few mins later I get a convo titled "You aren't in my treasury" and inside was a link to the treasury. I get a little mad and think, maybe I should go to the treasury and post a comment saying how I don't appreciate their spam. So I click the link and as I'm scrolling down to the comments, not even bothering to check out the treasury, my fingers are stopped in their scrolling tracks. My earrings? What?
Prankster! 42things took the first few people who posted in that forum thread and made a treasury with them. It was a good laugh, thought I'd share it.
Here's the treasury I'm NOT in. :-D

Interesting mythological info -Scarab

Hey guys! So I have always thought that scarabs were interesting and love jewelry that uses scarabs, but I've never known the history behind them. While writing up the listing for my scarab necklace, I thought it would be interesting to find out what it represents. Here's what I found.

In egyptian mythology the scarab was an important symbol of creation, transformation, renewal, coming into being and everlasting life. This was because of its association with Kephri, the god of the rising sun. It was believed that each morning Kephri would push the morning sun out of the darkness, into our world, and across the sky. The dung beetle, or scarab, was tied to this because of the way they prepared for their young. The dung beetles would lay their eggs into a ball of dung that they would roll across the ground for a while until they finally buried it in the ground. Once the larva hatched and matured into beetles, they would "spontaneously" emerge out of the ground.
The pushing of the ball of dung across the ground and the "spontaneous" emergence of the babies was tied into Kephri pulling the sun out of darkness and then pushing it across the sky. For this reason, scarab beetles are often depicted as pushing the sun, or an orb.
Scarabs were also used during egyptian funeral rights. Prior to burial, a scarab amulet would be placed over the heart of the deceased. This was referred to as a "heart scarab" and the purpose of this was to ensure the rebirth of the deceased in the afterlife.

Just a little tidbit for you guys. I thought it was interesting so I figured some of you would too. :)