Finally A Meet-Up With My Tattoo Artist and Other Endeavors

It's Friday, which is always a lovely day, but I'm running a bit late today. Of course I've already had my two-mile fast-walk, and made my two cups of tea, figured out the day's schedule and done my daily solitaire games on my phone, so I guess I've been a bit busy. But better a bit late than never, so here we go. 

I haven't seen Rodney for over a year. I've totally settled 
into my tattoo - can't imagine myself without it, to be 
truthful. I do need some minor hieroglyphics added 
below the scarab, I'm thinking a minimal "false door" 
with the hieroglyphics going vertically. I'll see what 
he's got to say about that. The star has to be the scarab. 

I have a noon appointment with my tattoo artist. He's been wanting a photo session forever, and since he posted a video of my getting my tattoo on his Instagram, (https://www.instagram.com/rodneytaylorart/?hl=en) I was giving him a hard time about finishing the job - LOL. He needs some "after" photos to go along with the progress video, so today is finally the day after months of trying to get our schedules aligned. I'll be going to his newest place - Dinkytown Tattoo, which is located near the University of Minnesota in the Dinkytown neighborhood. I'm rather hopeless with that area of town, so I'm hoping Google won't do my wrong and that I'll have an easy time finding a parking spot. No guarantees. I'll try to build in plenty of time so that I can walk a few blocks if necessary. 

I've got my square Swarovski crystals on Etsy, but I want 
to add the rounds and the bicones because those are the 
categories that I have the most product available. Then 
I can start in on the specialty shapes, which I also have 
a lot of. I can't fall too far behind schedule here, but 
they take serious prep time before they can be uploaded. 

Of course I also have to go grocery shopping, and I'm hoping to spent the afternoon continuing to finalize the photo sheets for the next Swarovski crystal photos. I've been working on that on my Friday afternoons, and I really need to keep up with the pace for that. 

I love working with embossing powders. I have huge 
containers of the colors I use most frequently, and 
there's not a card in decades that I haven't used this 
technique for in some fashion or other. I decided that 
this year I would paint my cards, so embossing 
powder and paint are my focus right now. So much 
fun! 

I've been working on my Holiday Cards at the shop in the early mornings (when I should be washing the floors). I'll have my first "call out for cards" next week, then again two weeks later and maybe a third in early November. Ideally, I'd like my cards in the mail close to Thanksgiving, although Solstice is always my hard deadline. 

Keep your eyes open. I'll be announcing my first 
"Call Out for Cards" next week sometime. I only make 
a total of 50 cards which leaves me 49 to send out 
to friends and family members (and I have a large 
family). 

So, on that note, with things to do, places to go and people to see, I'm out of here. Have an excellent Friday and Slava Ukraini. I'll be back tomorrow.