Cancer (June 21-July 22)
"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life," said Pablo Picasso. That's certainly true for me. I can purify my system either by creating art myself or being in the presence of great art. How about you, Cancerian? What kinds of experiences cleanse you of the congested emotions that just naturally build up in all of us? What influences can you draw on to purge the repetitive thoughts that sometimes torment you? How do you go about making your imagination as fresh and free as a warm breeze on a sunny day? I urge you to make a study of all the things that work for you, and then use them to the max in the coming week.


....well damn, Rob, you've gotten me pegged hard these past few weeks, not to mention you knew my plans for today.

flat topped mint tins(decorate yo'self):13 (3 primed)

tiny flat tins:5(2 primed)

embossed topped mint tins(hidden in plain sight):14

tea tins: 4

viewing tins: 2 (upcycled from trader joe green tea mint tins)

4 other tins, various shapes, mostly round, two rectangular, one a former Maxwell House Cappucino packet tin(formerly a storage unit during highschool) and a snowman with a flag tin...these may be more candidates for the LARGER altar kits or the OOAK ones. We will see.

Step One
- Make a post (public, friends locked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

- If you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.

- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post (it'll be public) so that the holiday joy will spread.

Step Two
- Surf around your friendslist (or friends friends, or just random journals, or holiday_wishes/wish_list) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:

- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call.

There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

See, this kind of awesome is why I love y'all on my friends list.

1. Tell me your most memorable, or most favored holiday memory. I'm writing down in the traditional means, what memories I still have from long ago. But I wanna hear about other peoples, because hey, the smiles of nostalgia are awesome. The one I remember most cleary was when I was I think about seven or eight? We'd just opened our presents and I was squeeing over my little make-up kit (which didn't work for beans for coloring my face at all.) and Dad said to look at the ornaments on the tree. I didn't understand what he was talking about, and after about a minute of confusion, he chuckled and pointed...There on the tree hanging from a branch was a little crystal charm on a thin gold chain necklace...and in the middle of the charm was my first initial.

Looking back at it, Dad was awesome as heck. I was however, still young and wanted to know where the kitten I had asked Santa for was. This memory may be warped due to time.

2. Free repeater. I absolutely go into squee fits at getting christmas cards, or anything pretty in the mail. I won't post my address here, but note me or email me and you WILL get my address. I love getting them and they'll likely end up on my altar shelf by the time the season passes.

3. ...I think I need to spend a chunk of today working up an online wishlist, but really, any old comics, magazines or stock photo catalogues no one would mind getting demolished would make me a happy little collage artist. Art supplies, paints, funny finishes, an old container of pastel ends...

4. Artbooks and eye candy? I'd be giggling and twisting all over like a cat in the 'nip for some muse bait and food. I love animals, monsters, fantastic brightly colored landscapes, prehistoric beasts (thank you camwyn. I saw an elephant-camel figurine the other day and almost bought it.) are love. My favorite book in my collection has been "The Art of the Dark Crystal".

5. I love getting little fabric scraps, my best patches came from when people trimmed and resized their shirts or pants and gave me the cuffs. However, if you find some neat embroidery floss, I'm going to ask that you make sure it's DMC? I'm sorry, I'm just terribly picky about the floss because the other cotton brands break every 20 minutes. Also? I would not say no to a 4"x8" embroidery frame. or any embroidery frame really.

6. Mix cds? I live in the land of dialup currently, so I can't access very much in the way of MP3s and should someone suggest that I used radio to find new music I will growlingly point out how many times I'm heard Kesha's "Take it off" in the last freaking hour. I love old rock and roll, Three Dog Night, Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and Billy Joel are happy sounds. I know there are other artists out there, ones from this decade who go for a similar sound, small independants, so a mix cd of their music would be LOVE. I'd also like to hear some pagan music, though if you could find pagan ROCK I'd be giggling and happy like a cat at a sushi platter.

7. Der amazon wishlist is here!!

8. I'm a foodie. I love to cook, try new foods and flavors and stimulate my sense of taste and smell. I'd love to get cookies, teas, biscuits, savory chips, fruits (dried would probably work best for the mailing) spread mixes or spice blends, with one limiter. I can not eat bell peppers. So before you buy that lovely looking salsa or sauce, check the ingredients for me. I'm pretty well set for utensils, but if you happen to find a really NICE bento box set (green IS my happy color)on sale somewhere, or some really cute sauce bottles or reuseable plastic ice cubes... well *eyebrow waggle* send on my way sugar.

9. I'd love more things for the altar, while god/dess images and statues would be alright, I'd really like animal bones, teeth, skulls or fur. Monster or animal figurines would be loved to bits. So would any pretty or interesting stones, feathers, bits of wood, or scraps of metal.. I'm a friggin magpie. An icon for this subject would not go unloved, if you could find/make one to fit me.

10. Be a gift fairy. Seriously, while gifting to any of my milliways pups (tyler_marlocke or command_dot_com) would be a level of truly brilliant awesome, so would gifting a dollar or two to charity. Likely even more so for charity. Especially for charity.

Be awesome unto each other this holiday season.

email me: laughingmanticore (at) gmail (dot) com.

Known elves: wanderlustlover, cupenny

Edit: okay, Elves mean people who have the mailing address if you wanna get all sneaky with the mailing. Go forth and be a gift ninja!

Figure out what kinds are there waiting to be here.

Size and appraise them well.

Let them name themselves.

And don't forget to get the bakers dozen of other thoughts.