Had friends over, had a family emergency that made us think one was giving up the fight for good, andvisiting with more friends… and sewing little pincushions for SCA gifties for artisan folks in coming months. Wasn’t even something I did until I saw some on flickr. Damn you flickr! Went out and spent $30 on felt (10 for $1 on sale!) and supplies, so I should be good for a very very long time. Anyway, take a look at what I left you hanging for.

A couple of weeks ago it was BusinessWeek and now it’s local!

My crack network of sources (OH IKEA commentors, as well as my own mom) tell me that the article I interviewed with a “Cincinnati Magazine” writer a few times for about the city trying to lure destination retailers - and that Cincinnatian’s are crying out for an IKEA - is in the December issue of Cincinnati Magazine (The signature “Best of Cincinnati” issue!).

It’s just hitting newsstands right now, even I don’t have a copy and I live here! i’ll be hitting Kroger’s all week trying to get my own copy now.

My “ave Katie” Space Invaders shirt is now newly available in black and also has a “Xenu Kills” mate in the VBB store.

My cool new job - "trained sensory panelist"
Originally uploaded by verybigjen.

This is our daily companion, the solutions tray.

Each row is a control sample of each of the basic four taste characteristics - sweet, sour, salty and bitter - in different percentage solutions with water.

We use a scale from 1 to 15 in each quality panelling food samples for a company’s new products or recipes. Crunchiness, chewiness, texture, smell, aromatics and other factors are tested as well, we just haven’t gotten there yet in training.

It’s extremely part time work, but so far very interesting to think about things differently.

(I also have a few cool new pics as well of the cups that I liked very much. Tell me which of the three you like best)

My patts can now be found here as removeable decal cases for ipods!

Lid decals for ‘books and Minis might be coming too!

Brand yourself with my my personal political statement.

RetroJane.com is the latest site I’ve done for a client.

I’d like to brag on the completely Movable Type powered online shop. I have the power!!! Be sure to check the credits page for the tools and tutorials I used to do it.

And supadupa thanks to Rengirl for some php coding kungfu in making the client a code generator to give her finished paypal shopping cart code to put in her entries. She’s the bestest code pal a gal could have.

Motivated, I present the beginnings of OH, IKEA! - your Ohio/IKEA news source! (or just rampant rumor-mongering and outright begging, if that works to get us one.)

I added the nice waterpainty version of one of my tulip shots the other day. Click pic above to get there.

Not retro I know, so sue me.

I picked some wacky curly stemed tulips from out front, and brought them in for some photo experiments.

I’m asking around - What are your favorite five pics?

I took one and photshopped it bit and got a neat water color look. I might release it as a desktop set. It’s what I’m using now. The full size version is just killer.

ADDENDUM: And because I can’t leave well enough alone… I decided to work on a couple of them in photoshop

ALMOST done with my article for August issue of Beadwork Magazine, all reuslts in from non-beady, and non-medieval folks are really good.

Supposed to be 1000 words, and I’m gonna go over, I expect them to edit it down. It fedexes out tommorrow, then I can get to web work again.

Now, I just have to finish this article… I figure writing “crew Flanders” 100 times will about do it.

Bryce National Park

Zion National Park - Look ma! No Neo!

various Vegas shots - mostly from our room at the MOnte Carlo

I shot over 250 pictures last week, so I hope you like the ones I picked at the elite few. Took some time to weedle them down.

And as an aside, can someone tell me what is with Utah and bees and beehives? it seems to be the “thing” as it’s on a bunch of souvenirs, their roadsigns are beehives, the magic underwear is made by the church under the name of “Beehive Clothing” etc… I just can’t figure out what the meaning is, and somehow I don’t think it breaks down to “Utah = Mormon = hivemind”.

First trip picture.

I loved this sign. I have three different shots, none stink.

So, today (when I should have been writing, of course) I went “My blog girl should have an iPod” (since it always bugged me that hand was always empty), I do stuff with her over there during the holidays but why just the holidays? So I did that and put that up.

I then went “you know, what would be funny…” and then the next thing I know I have t-shirts in 12 colors made and am making up some for use with different graphics for the next few weeks. To your left is the leading contender for permanent placement. Black is so slimming for anorexic mock-blog icons. (You guys know I look NOTHING like that right? I have red hair that’s about it)

I’m not sure she’ll always wear a shirt, but she will always have the ipod, at least on the front page. Expect shirts to change at my whim.

The Weblog Review has finally reviewed VBB! - both reviewers gave this ol’blog surprisingly high marks (4.75 avg out of 5.00).

At last my understated blog and true comedic genius are recognized! HA!

If you came from the review, welcome to this humble weblog of self-aggrandized splendor! I promise to try my best to be worth the average 3.5 seconds you will spend here! (I have trackers and I’m not afraid to use them!)

BTW, the first reviewer said the twinkly menu to the left was flash, it’s not, it’s just good old fashioned javascript with animated gifs and rollovers. So retro, eh?

Moby is having a contest and since bald heads are SO much easier to cut out, I said what the heck I’d go for it.

Here’s my latest medieval pixel portrait for that contest - “Mobius” aka Moby starring as Charles I of France, circa 1345.

My lightboxing match is online…

I’m one of the first to battle with pixels ala Lightboxing!

I’ve been assigned an opponent, and we’ve been given our Graphics we have to choose from now to figure out what to do with them that won’t suck and get it in this week.

I haven’t had to do a design like this for liek… ever. Wish me luck.

Coudal Partners has linked my snowdome site, over inthe right side “Fresh Signals” sidebar.

Now, Since I am the tracker junkie I am, I have to go watch my hits, buhbye.