LadyGypsy.net – the blog of Kimberly Dowd of New Jersey

I had five luxurious days off from work during which I:

–> Played the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion.
–> Made a bunch of earrings.
–> Cleaned up the kitchen. I mean really cleaned it up.
–> Changed all my passwords, thanks to the people who hacked Gawker/Lifehacker/Jezebel.

Cataclysm: My paladin’s level 84 and a third now and the level cap is 85. I try to spare you all the over-the-top game talk by putting it on a separate blog but I am having SUCH a good time. I won’t lie — I timed the days off to coincide with the first weekend of Cataclysm.

Earrings: I was struck by the creativity bug on Saturday, and I took my bead stash to Mom’s for some fun. Here’s some of the stuff I did.

Starbucks cups make for a so-so background.

Last night I made eight more pair. A bunch like the snowflake dangles (which will be part of a Pollyanna at work) and other brown & blue pretties that might end up in the mythical Etsy shop I keep resolving to open.

Kitchen: I started this because I simply wanted to know how much flour I have (answer: a little less than 5 lb) But one thing lead to another and before I knew it my Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and I were tearing the place apart. Upon going through the cabinet, I found to my shock and horror that I had FIFTEEN cans of tomato product. Crushed, sauce, paste, etc. I guess we’ll be having pasta for a while.

Eeek! A mouse!

And soup for lunch, too.

Passwords: Long story short: The Gawker network was hacked and my email/user/password was one of the ones released, albeit in encrypted form. Ain’t it grand to find out your email address was up on the Pirate Bay?

Eh, crap.

I have five passwords I use: one for World of Warcraft, one for money sites, one for this website, one for all work things and one for EVERYTHING else, including Gawker. This morning I awoke to an email saying someone was trying to reset my LinkedIn and World of Warcraft passwords.

So if you’re my LinkedIn buddy and see that I got a great job, I’ve been hacked.

I changed Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, eBay & PayPal immediately.

Sadly, I think I’m too behind to finish Reverb 10, plus almost everyone who wrote a question has a book they’re promoting. In many cases, the questions are directly related to the subject of the books. I understand that we all have our projects, but this seems a bit too “promotey” for me. No biggie.

Lunch is over. Back to work. Tonight? More changing passwords. :/

Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? (Author: Gretchen Rubin)

Last night I made dinner. It wasn’t high-falutin, but I don’t like to cook and I don’t think I’m very good at it. But I threw together chicken, canned tomatoes, frozen broccoli and pasta to make a passable meal. WM liked it. I thought it was — alright. Most of my meals end up soggy.

I want to make my silly Play-Doh sculptures again. I want to make more jewelry but I’m in a creative slump. It’s not as much time, but inspiration that keeps me from making. However, in my journal (yes, I actually keep a written journal too for thoughts and feelings that would upset people I know in real life if I put them on my blog) I vowed to make 10 pair of earrings this week. I’ll post a photo Sunday night of what I accomplished.

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This is part of the Reverb 10 project.

I have BlogHer ads here, as you may have noticed. The difference between the BlogHer ads and the Google ads is phenomenal. Meaning, I actually get money from BlogHer, as opposed to running the Google ads for nearly 2 years and not making enough money to have them disburse a check, thereby giving them FREE impressions.

Blah. Enough about that.

I don’t make enough money to pay for hosting the blog. I’m not in it for the money else I’d have quit this years ago. But the checks are a nice little gift, and I use them to buy beads.

Behold!

Christmas vomited on my desk.

I ordered a bunch of Swarovski crystals — it’s much cheaper to do this online than in person at Michael’s — and some sterling silver snowflake charms and oval jump rings. The wire swirls were created by me using some Parawire and some red, green and gold colored seed beads. My plan is to combine all of this sparkle into some holiday earrings.