When Mindy Left And Mr. Kitty Stayed

If there is anything that creative people have in common, according to my observation, it is the love for animals and I notice especially a lot of feline friends among them. Myself included, I have 2 furry feline roommates of my own, Charlie, my beautiful black domestic male cat who is 8 years old and Mr. Kitty, my white/tabby/spotted feral friend, 2 years old.

Mr. Kitty, not liking the camera

They are my roommates, because that is just what and who they are. They have their own 'chair', their own 'bed', eat whenever they feel like it, sleep whenever they feel like it, they expect you to open the door when they want to get some fresh air (and let them back in when they have enough of being outside) and generally take over anything I try to read/type/write/eat or create.

Between these two, there is not much I can do without interference and their demand to acknowledge their presence. Charlie hates the jewelry making process. I will step away for 2 minutes, only to come back to him laying flat, stretched over all my wire, filigrees, tools and beads. How can that be remotely comfortable? It must poke him at all sides, but he doesn't seem to notice.... No, the fact that I have no choice but to notice HIM and not my jewelry supplies (as he believes I do not know where those supplies are now), that is the main goal.

Mr. Kitty couldn't care less about the jewelry making process, he is obsessed with the computer. I will step away for 2 minutes, only to come back to Mr. Kitty covering my laptop, giving himself a bath while all kinds of windows and help notices open on my computer screen, to the point where it will freeze for a few minutes... Charlie couldn't care less about the computer...

Charlie, about 2 years old here

Both love to sit right on top of the letters or paper I am reading, or the stack of papers I am trying to sort out.

When Charlie wants to go outside, he talks to me, very loud, impatiently, every 10 seconds, until I open the door, no matter if I am totally busy at the moment. When Mr. Kitty wants to go outside, he will climb on whatever furniture is closest to me, and will start to knock things off that furniture, until it hits the ground. Or if I am sleeping, he  likes to jump on my belly, not very gentle, until I sleepwalk to the door at 5 am, and let him out, because I can't stand it anymore.

But oh, how I adore them! Charlie came to me as a 6 week old kitten, right as I moved into the coolest place I lived in so far, here in Austin, TX. We lived there together 5 and a half years, then we had to move away. He is the sweetest and most loyal cat I have ever owned. I also know him very well and I can communicate with him, easy. He is amazing and I love him to pieces.

Mr. Kitty wasn't always Mr. Kitty. One evening I came upon Charlie hanging out with a tiny, ivory white, malnourished kitten, with a tabby tail and a few spots. He was part of a litter of feral cats in the neighborhood, and seemed unusual and was not afraid of me at all, when I met him, so weird, as he is afraid of all other human beings. Still, he will hide when friends come around. He was never afraid of me however. That was 4 days before I moved away from an apartment.

I locked the door of the empty apartment (I was sad that I had not seen the white kitten), but just as I stepped into the van, he came running up to me. I picked him up and put him in Charlie's carrier. He laid himself against Charlie and started purring like a motor boat.

Being born wild, the white kitten knew that whenever there was food around, to eat as much as he could, as he didn't know when he would eat again. I always have dry food in the cat's bowls. The very first day with me, he ate so much dry food! As I was sitting on the bed in our new place, he looked up at me, his tiny, skinny shoulders and hips connected by a huge, huge round balloon of a belly, full of dry cat food. He looked up at me and I fell totally in love, instantly.

Charlie washed him for the next couple of days, and the ivory kitten became snow white, with the cutest pink feet. As he was feral, he had barely a voice, just a whisper. He looked like a female, there were no testicles to detect, so I named him Mindy. Oddly enough, he didn't seem to listen to his name.

Two months later, on a lazy Saturday morning, Mindy was on my belly, turned around and to my big surprise I looked right at two white furry balls, right under his tail! By lack of a male name, he was temporarily Mr. Kitty. However, he listened to that name from the very start and still does to this day. Mr. Kitty is truly the most unusual cat, alpha male and fearless. He can be moody and demanding, but when tired, he wants to be as close to me as possible and fall asleep against me, as he feels most safe when I am around.

I love these two as if they were my own.

The Long And Winding Road...

In the past 18 months, I listed some jewelry at one point as I was working on my own online store and I wanted to have a place where I could show/sell new jewelry. This is all I have done in the last 18 months with my blog, so basically, shooting myself in the foot, I let a perfectly good blog suffer.... I truly neglected it. What, other then helping my business and telling the world my stories, has this blog done to deserve such appalling behavior on my side... I need to get more in touch with the inner blog in me, really! I need to let her out and do her thing!
Probably the biggest reason for this neglect is the fact that I very little had but any clue who I was anymore, in the past 18 months. This is no joke, I am afraid, nope, truly legit turn of events that all started one, way to early morning, back in late January of 2013.
I didn't see it (or rather: her) coming, I was completely blind sided and next thing I know, I can hear my brain slosh in my skull and my vision went out. I steadied myself by holding the wall and when my vision returned I was still in front of a roommate I was having a discussion with. On my left was also a roommate, however, this one was a shaking, crazed, fist still balled and crazy eyes burning of anger, unstable female, who had just punched me, with her fist full of all her pent up anger, nicely encased by her fingers. She hit me right on top of my left temple, and I mean hard! I don't think I have ever been punched that hard by anyone in my whole life! Me: "Why in the F... did you just hit me????", she: "You were mocking me." Simple as that. I was mocking her (which I hadn't, but easily could have as she is a walking mock-target. I will spare you the details). Since when is mocking someone a punishable offense? And why is the punishment so incredibly harsh? I mean, with that one blow, she messed up the next 14 months of my life GOOD. I mean, all the way, in every way. Truly unbelievable.
A heavy concussion is no picnic, but throw a hematoma in the mix and you really have a recipe for disaster.
At the time of the blow, House Of Joris Jewelry, my jewelry business was really taking off. I was working on my own website (moving away from Etsy was the main goal) and I had my first wholesale account with Foundation Gallery in New Orleans. I had visited stores in a popular area in Austin and quite a few were very interested in my work.
In early January 2013, I moved into a house with rooms for rent, nice and cheap so that I could make lots and lots of jewelry. The plan was to sell to stores and perhaps be a vendor on a popular market.
Well, all those nice plans vanished with the blow to my head. I started seeing double (and still my vision is not what is used to be, before the blow) for a few months, I got big black circles under my eyes and would have serious migraines about twice a week. My short-term memory became non-existent, I would call the same person 3 times in one day with the same message. I would repeat myself all the time, I couldn't find anything that I had just laid down somewhere. My dear friends urged me to go to the ER and indeed, it was bad and I was told to rest and not work for 8 to 12 months.
That meant no activity at all! No excitement, no nothing. And I was promised by the victim assistance program that I would be compensated nicely. Ha, what a joke that was. I received $1800 for a whole year.
Really, what a year 2013 was. I do not remember most of it, I had no idea who I was and that was a very scary feeling. My momentum with my jewelry faded away. I ran out of money totally and completely. I lived on a couch with friends. It was one big disaster.
So you see how I didn't feel like writing? I had nothing good to say, it was the hardest year of my life. Besides the physical troubles, I had some serious bad luck all around. It was just bad, bad, bad.
Things started looking up in February of this year, and slowly the seeds started growing and turning into prospects.
Now life is much better. And I have my jewelry business back. The hard thing about that is though, I have to start over all the way. I just recently re-opened my Etsy store, and I get a look here and there. I am a vendor on markets though, in the weekends. I have had good weekends, with money in my pocket and bad ones, with no penny at all. It is all again starting over. I did sit myself down and thought about this. Did I have it in me to do it allover again? Yes, I guess I do.
I just can not live without creativity in my life. I HAVE to create or I am seriously unhappy.
I did have to take on a part-time job, I mean, some money has to come in! But it is a right struggle. In fact, at this very moment money is so tight, I got into an eviction suit. I just moved here last May! And now I am at risk of losing my home due to a mistake by an organization that was suppose to pay my rent until I was back on my feet. The funding stopped after 3 months (and it took 2 months to get my belongings and jewelry supplies) and I wasn't notified. I just now am standing on the market, I had to make jewelry first. And for the online store, I had to take pictures of all pieces, choose 5 per jewelry item, write a description, come up with a name, a price, shipping, I mean it is a full-time job! One that I love though, so that is good.
But yes, I am a few hundred dollars short and could be losing my house here in the next couple of weeks. Please keep your fingers crossed for me, I need all the help I can get! In fact, out of sheer desperation, I am adding temporarily a donate button. If you can, please help me save my home! This is all happening so fast and I just got back on my feet, business starting to grow, if I lose my house now, I don't even want to think about it. If you can, please help me. I am burying my pride here, but sometimes you got to do what you gotta do. If you can not help, that's ok too, just thanks for visiting, I appreciate it!
Anyways, I will keep y'all up to date with what is happening and hope everyone is in great spirits, happy and healthy.
Next time there will be better news, glad I got this post out of the way, I wanted to explain what had happened to House Of Joris Jewelry and myself.
Till next time!

How did we become so Absinthe Minded...?

I had to give out this link, for anyone who is interested in reading some historical info on the Green Fairy. It is filmed, documented by Chris Buddy, this is an interview with him:



http://www.greenwichcitizen.com/news/article/Absinthe-minded-GHS-grad-explores-mystique-of-1172485.php

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes.....

Mmmmm, I know the year has gone by incredibly fast, but I see here that I have only published one story.... kind of pathetic, if you ask me..... I guess that will be changing too!

There are so many changes happening, 2012 was for me all about change. And today I have to move, and see here..... of course a blog entry is waaaay more important!

How I do not like moving, I despise it! And it seems to become a Holiday tradition, because last year, I was doing the exact same thing.

Yes, lots of changes! I will fill you in on all of it! As you can see, right next to me here on the right... No more Etsy store!
This doesn't mean House Of Joris Jewelry seizes to exist, not at all! It will be quiet for a little bit, as changes will come to life gradually. Personally, I liked the Etsy I signed up for, at the very end of 2010, and had great hopes and expectations. After a few months, things were indeed happening!

Etsy decided to become another large company, and to be honest with you, I think they have become a little too big for their bridges.... I was angry one too many times, and decided that was just it for me and Etsy. I wish them well, but really wished they would have stayed true to being cool, different, not greedy with great customer service, etc..... But hey, what can you do?

So indeed, no online store for right now, but not long. This blog will be the main focus for a while, it is here where you will find all the information you need, when it comes to House Of Joris Jewelry, or myself. And if you have any questions, comments, requests, ideas, or need somebody to talk to, just contact me! You can always email me at HouseOfJoris@gmail.com. Or post something on my Facebook page!

By the way, did you know that when you befriend House Of Joris Jewelry on Facebook, you will receive a discount code? For all jewelry available? Yes indeed, everybody gets one!

A new online shop will open soon, in the meantime, I will post pictures of new, OOAK jewelry, as well as some tried and true jewelry items, right here, on this blog page!

AFTER I move house that is. I will have to do this first :-(   Sigh.....

Check back in with me, right here, in a few days, and like I mentioned.... and really, do not hesitate to contact me! Have a great week everyone!!