[M] was born in Brunswick, Georgia but only stayed there a short time in her life. She moved from there to Vietnam, California, Michigan, Ethiopia, Dominica, Montana and back to California again by the time she was 15. Her dad was in the Navy during the Vietnam war and later was a civil engineer which caused them to move quite a bit. Particularly to third world countries with bad roads. In fact if it wasn''t for the Vietnam war [M] wouldn''t be here since that''s where her parents met. [M''s] mother was born and raised in Vietnam, eventually coming to the United States in the early 70''s to give birth to [M] a first generation American (her dad was originally Canadian).
[M] spent her high school years in [the easty bay, way east], CA. After high school she moved all over the bay area finally ending up in Oakland, CA. She attended Mills College in Oakland, graduating with a BA in Political, Legal and Economic Analysis (emphasis on law) and a minor in Visual Communications (film).
After college [M] decided to forgo attending law school and instead got a job with a tech tradeshow company doing sales assistant work. This job lead into her teaching herself to build web sites and moving into the web division of the company. Tech really took off for her, which took her into the glory days of the dotcom era. She spent 5 more years building websites (and moving between Santa Cruz and Oakland) until the dotcom bubble burst. A few jobless months later she got a job at [the evil empire] testing software, almost two years after that she moved to [MV] and 5 years later she''s still there.
I wanted to get married in Greece originally but our families weren''t too excited about the trip. If we only knew now how much this thing was going to cost we may have done Greece after all! I''ve traveled a lot of places but it''s always been a dream of mine to lounge away the days in the meditteranean. I always have to go on these trips where I sightsee and learn stuff and walk around everywhere! I just want to lounge and do nothing in beautiful scenery... ok not totally lounge but more laid back would be nice.Date: 8/26/2008 9:57:52 PM
Author: musey
I care, I care!!
You seem to have had SUCH a full and interesting life. I''m very jealous of your honeymoon destination--I''ve always wanted to see Greece!
Okay let''s see... I used to be a huge shopaholic but not as much anymore. Trying to cut back on spending! I love to look at shoes and sometimes i buy cool ones but I tend to always buy black ones cause they go with everything. If I try to buy colored ones they don''t get worn as much. I have a lot of staplle black items like shoes, jackets and bags... I love to buy nice jeans, I just bought some paige denim and some hudsons... i wear joe''s as well but I haven''t bought any joe''s in awhile. I wear jeans a LOT like all the time. I rarely wear dresses, I can''t find any that i really like a lot of the time that aren''t super pricey. I do like to shop for pricey labeled items though and that can be very painful on the pocketbook so I try to restrain myself these days with all the wedding expenses. I''m more of a shopbop.com or Nordsroms shopper. I buy a lot of stuff there. Some at macy''s but mainly nordstrom''s.I want to hear some trivia. Do you have an affinity for any other shopping items, like shoes/handbags/jeans/etc.?
I love Ethiopian Food! LOVE IT! It''s so filling though but it''s such a treat when I get to eat it. And you have to eat the real authentic kind where you get a boiled egg with your Doro Watt and homemade cottage cheese. I love vietnamese food too of course but that''s just what I grew up with so I have an affinity for that kind of food and not just the Pho and vermicelli bowl stuff, like the chicken curry and french bread dishes and the roasted pork and boiled egg and all the seafood, yum!Favorite food(s) or meal(s)? Do you like to cook--if so, what''s your favorite thing to make?
Are you naturally tidy, naturally messy, or somewhere in-between?
Right now my place is a huge disaster of piles of stuff! I''m tidy actually but cluttered. I have a ton of knick knacks and books and things on my shelves everywhere that are fun to look at like old 1940s porcelain poodles or an old FM radio from the 40s or strange bits of glassware and piles of books and stuff everywhere! One day when we have more room it won''t be so bad. When my FI moves in we''re going to put a lot of stuff in storage!
What colors are your walls painted?
I can''t paint my walls here, so they are white. Boring... I would love a light blue or a mauve color... I live in an ''eichler'' style apartment. It has a large wood door that opens to a private courtyard with two trees in it... and some flower beds with high walls, no one can see over where the door/wall area is. Then there are two sliding glass doors one to the right that goes into the bedroom and one in front that goes to the living room. Wood plank ceilings with a big beam that goes across them. I have five skylights but only two small windows at the top of my bedroom. There''s no actually windows that open up.. just the doors but TOTAL privacy! I love it!
I used to make a lot of earrings, and some interesting wired necklaces... Lately I got into making rings with silver wire.. I haven''t made anything since last fall when I made a ring with matching earrings for a friend who got married. It is made from silver wire with seed pearls, amber chip, citrine and an olivine colored briolette stone. The stones are held in with 20g and 22g silver wire. I *think* the ring wire is 14g I can''t recall off the top of my head right now though. One of the Olivine stones from the earrings is wired into this ring to match. Anyways the ring is much more delicate and cool looking in person. I should have gotten a finger shot of it! I thought it turned out great, but as I said its an in person thing it looks bulky in the photos.Date: 8/26/2008 11:39:23 PM
Author: Miranda
Any pics of Olivia and Toby! Olivia is 15? Wow! That''s great! What kind of jewelry do you make?
Oh my gosh, those are sooooo cool! How did you learn to do that?Date: 8/27/2008 7:08:55 AM
Author: violet02
Here are the earrings I made her to match with the olivine briollettes that I used in the ring too.
Earrings are easy to make generally speaking. You buy the pieces... it''s the wiring i found hard to master. I taught myself how to wire briolettes and that pretty much helped me learn how to do a lot of other things. There are classes and books on it. You have to learn to not over bend the wire and to get it to twist ''just right'' to look nice when putting pieces together.Date: 8/27/2008 2:58:58 PM
Author: Skippy123
Oh my gosh, those are sooooo cool! How did you learn to do that?Date: 8/27/2008 7:08:55 AM
Author: violet02
Here are the earrings I made her to match with the olivine briollettes that I used in the ring too.![]()
Okay remind me when I''m less burnt out and I''ll post some photos.Date: 9/15/2008 5:21:32 PM
Author: Miscka
Violet, I would love to hear about your tattoos! I love tattoos and would love to see pics/hear the stories behind some of your gorgeous ones.
And your dog is too cute!