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Dr. Literal, Mad Scientist

Raaaaaaaar!

Originally uploaded by CleverIndie

We are so used to Alex taking everything so extremely literal, or having a rather drawn out reaction (he’s a worrier) to things that are even slightly out of place that we really do what most folks would call “overthink” when it comes to daily activities, gifts, even clothes.

I’m guessing that most parents with kids with ASD or Asperger’s or anything under the PDD header go through this as well. I hear complaints about it and how it’s “abnormal” from my mother (her word not mine) but really, we don’t have much of a choice. It’s not that we spoil him so he always gets his way. We do take preventative measures with some things- we brief him before we do anything new.

I’m sure any parents of non-ASD kids make sure they have batteries for the toy they are giving their child as a gift, or else there could be some serious fallout (especially on Christmas morning, or if there is a sizable quantity of sugar involved).

We are that prepared for everything. It’s getting easier, as we have been working our behinds off with Alex, trying to improve his flexibility, self-soothing skills, and creative problem solving. He has come so very far- we can now crack the occasional joke and he will laugh or even if its not funny (joke delivery is not one of my well developed skills, I confess) he won’t break down into a full on freak out that takes over an hour to calm him.

Recently, he became the proud owner of an Easy Bake Oven (for use only with us, of course) -the image clearly shows a digital clock on the box- so I read every mm of that box for the words “simulated digital clock” or something similar. When we got home and unpacked it we found out it is a simulated clock, we braced ourselves, but Alex announced he could use my little kitchen timer instead. Phew. Big sign of relief. This is a kid who has been carrying around my old, broken cell phone for 2 years and until recently would not play telephone with it, but would follow me around trying to calmly explain that all it needed was to be charged up and as the grownup it was my job to plug it in, in complete denial that it was completely busted, and then would have a meltdown when we took it off the charger and it still didn’t work.  Recently though he started clipping it to his pants and paces around talking to various people on it. He is pretending, this is huge. He’s really into it- to the point where  he’ll say “shhh, I’m on the phone” with his hand over the mouth piece, if we are repeat offenders we get nasty looks and occasionally the suggestion that we will get a time out if this interrupting continues.  I’m so proud of how far he has come….

Just when I was thinking that we are out of the woods on maybe one little thing, we had another literal interpretation incident though that really drove home the recognition of what a strange place the world is, as a sum of all of it’s parts -particularly those with marketing and advertising people behind them.

From the bathroom I hear (Alex is an announcer. He narrates every moment of every day, repeating much of it a few times until someone acknowledges what he said by repeating it to him, at which point he will correct them or act angry as though we can no longer discuss the topic at hand.)

“I’m using the water to make the bubbles go away, but it keeps making more in my mouth”

Then he comes around the corner and he’s wiping out the inside of his mouth with a hand towel.

He announces “Oatmeal and Butter, I didn’t taste the butter, I don’t think there was butter in there. Is there butter in there?”

Our child, who approaches even edibles with great suspicion, apparently saw the new soap pump next to the basin and his brain interpreted the soap to also be a snack- one of “oatmeal & butter” which are two things that he really likes, so he squirted a bunch of the “oatmeal & shea butter liquid hand soap” in his mouth.

Yes, I realize we are very lucky that it wasn’t something toxic. He has been making great strides in reading and he is very rules based and a very cautious guy. We have had other tasty sounding soaps (milk & honey, almond, grapefruit, etc) that he never would have thought of tasting, so what made this one different? On the bottle it has a photo of a bowl of shea butter (all whipped up, could easily be seen as regular culinary butter) with a pile of dry oatmeal sprinkled around it. The other soaps we have had, that had culinary inspired fragrances, only had the names not the images- Alex reads very well, but as a kid who usually needs a visual reinforcement, the snacktime liquid soap from today really had him thinking he was in for a tasty treat that he could not resists (other household cleaning products don’t interest him at all- never had, they are locked away, of course… He has his own small spray bottle of water, vinegar, and lavender oil that he cleans his desk, snack tray thing, and step stools with).

By the way he said the soap didn’t taste so bad. Good to know.

From now on we will be using a refillable dispenser, and when shopping I now know to avoid anything non-edible with an image of foodstuffs!  Oddly enough, when I was very little I was threatened with having my mouth washed out with soap around the same time I learned the term “acquired taste”, so I would eat Ivory soap (and occasionally dove, depending on where I was in the house) a little fingernail sliver at a time.  I think I assumed that if my parents swore so much that I would someday speak like that as well, and I wanted to be prepared.  Imagine the horror on my mother’s face when she said she was actually going to wash my mouth out with soap and my response was to grab the bar and take a large bite out of it without flinching.

Anyway, hugs all around!

There are a few new pieces in my Etsy shop… Still on my crazy medical journey…And still getting the new blog just right so I can have a good and proper blog-warming!

xo

Bek

Smashing…

OK…Finally! I am updating my SmashingDarling.com boutique with some new treats…

It’s a pretty addictive site dedicated to indie fashion and up and coming indie brands…
Pretty nifty.

The specific pieces available on SmashingDarling are designs, or designs featuring finishes, that are exclusive to SmashingDarling.com…

To celebrate my new pieces at Smashing Darling, I would like to extend a 10% discount to my faithful readers! Just enter the code: DPWLE3 during checkout…Offer good only at my SmashingDarling.com boutique, on CleverGirl products… Expires 8/8/08 ….

What are you waiting for! Let’s get SMASHING!

You Rascal You…

Rascal

Originally uploaded by CleverGirlBek

Rascal, the ring…
Very, very old Bakelite (older than vintage, younger than antique, by definition)…
Had some scotties and some ring blanks and went to town….

Available in my little shop on the internet superhighway… or zip me a message for more information…

Always Be Clever…

xo

B

ps. I have that song stuck in my head (You Rascal You)…Boyo is forever on a Louis kick (lots of Armstrong and Prima)…Glad he is more into the tune than the lyrics…Yikes! I have to give this another listen! Not the nicest song in the world…But oh so catchy…Perhaps I’ll swap it out on his song mixes with The Music Goes Round and Round!

The Art….

The book….

Originally uploaded by CleverGirlBek

222 pages of my work…

222 pages of bright and candy colored macro shots….

I did this as a reminder of how far I have come and also as a gift for my dad to share with him how far I have come in the past year…

I this because on the really hard days when it seems like nobody is making progress anywhere I can look at this and say holy crap, this is where I spent the last year….

Feels good. Off to work on the subjects for volume 2.

Scottie…

Scottie…

Originally uploaded by CleverGirlBek

Finally finished this piece….

This spirited little guy took awhile- I made the setting (which was a bit more challenging than simple round settings, I admit) and then let him run about my computer for a bit (he has been resting against the screen)… Finally, eureka!

Vintage bakelite/catalin in a sterling silver setting (bezel and solid backing)….

Two types of chain (one for the collar, one for the leash/chain for your neck)….

Every few pieces I wind up with one that I don’t finish and share right away…. Usually, to someone else’s eye, the piece appears done and usually just needs some sort of length of chain to finish it….But not for me. When pieces are truly complete I get this amazing feeling inside- this sparkle… I feel like I’m sitting on one of those carnival attractions- where the person (or teacher-sometimes they are rented to schools) is sitting above a vat of water and the participants throw baseballs at a target-when they hit it just right the person plunges into the water….But in my version the water is a slightly cool temperature, and it’s seltzer water.

That’s how I feel when I piece is reaching completion and then ready to really share with the world.

There’s a little nervous anticipation, a little bit of a panic, and I feel so joyful- like I’m surrounded by millions of tiny little bubbles and laughter.

Ok. Now I sound a little more nuts than usual.

But that really is the only way I can describe it….

Hugs all around,

B

SALE into Spring….(EXPIRED)

This is from 2008 and that sale is long finished….

Click here to subscribe to Be Clever…A Clever Resource via email! All specials, sales, and new pieces are announced here first!

I’m having a little sale…

I usually don’t discount except for very large orders, so this is a rarity… All of the pieces are wonderful and fabulous, I’m just trying to make some room to help me focus… I need a nice fresh canvas!

(Sale pieces do not ship giftwrapped- that is the only difference… They are also not weird seasonal pieces, they are year round lovely pieces… Take a peek!)

Trying to make some room for some new pieces….

You can find the goodies here:

SALE into SPRING

Happy Friday!

B

Magic Hour.

Sunset

Originally uploaded by CleverGirlBek

In another lifetime I worked with film and I am still obsessive about the glow of magic hour…

I try to bring that sort of light to my metalwork, at every opportunity. I love contrast. I love making, by hand and with only a couple of tools, thrones for vintage plastic bits… Glass is lovely as well, and occasionally I do work with glass, but I’m forever in love with the jewels of our grandmothers and bringing them back into the light…

I love dark metal and vintage Lucite in various degrees of translucence… This piece is a matte finish deep tangerine. In this setting, with this contrast, it actually reflects light and appears to be lit, just a bit, from behind…

It glows.

Just like the earth during the warm flirtation of the sun’s angle at magic hour….

Magic Hour will arrive shortly, in my shop.…

Mixed Plate!

Yay!  My work was featured on Mixed Plate today!   Mixed Plate is a really wonderful resource… Lots of cool indie treats chosen by Miss Liana… Truly an honor…. Now what are you still doing here?!?!? Go visit! (p.s. I think a bot posted this post on Mixed Plate as a comment on the bit about my pieces…Anyone know anything about how this stuff works?)

Buy handmade.

Did you take the pledge? Here’s the link: Buyhandmade.org

Sign it. Live it.

and BUY IT on Etsy!

Ok. Now on to my birthday news… It was a tough one this year, lots of mixed feelings and mounting health problems….Blah blah blah..

I did wake up this morning to a little birthday treasure hunt that hubby invited boy to join in (which makes it even more fun)….

Turns out that the baldguy signed up for his very own etsy account and raided my favorites. Yup. My birthday was handmade this year and it all came from my Etsy favorites list!

Links to the treasures coming tomorrow, after some sleep which will renew my ability to put some pictures on here, hopefully…

The best gift, by far, was that the baldguy took the time to figure out the whole Etsy thing and he listened… And I’m thrilled to report that all of the sellers were hugely helpful in answering his questions, getting the packages out, and providing excellent customer service to someone new to the whole Etsy thing. Big round of applause for the artists of Etsy- for not only making awesome things but also balancing good business practices on top of it! Yay!*hugs*

Off to bed to burn off the last hour of this day as I have to catch up on work tomorrow.

Oh and I usually name my present, if we have the funds, and buy it myself around my birthday. That being said, every year since we have been married we have mourned the loss of a major appliance (or a technically minor one that we “need”) or welcomed a new major medical device(insulin pump, muscle stimulator, TENS unit…another insulin pump…) into our lives -always between October 31 and November 7th…. This year, it is our garbage disposal (garberator, or in this case the in-sink (garb)erator :-) BUT, it is covered, thankfully. And I squirreled some money away…Woohoo. SO I did splurge and I have a fabulous custom bag coming from MoxieAndOliver

(ok and a little coordinating case for business cards and my id n’ stuff)

I will, of course, share photos when it arrives! Caitlin is a sweetheart and so talented! She is the very same genius who made my cane straps for me- her work is beautiful and unique- I saw the cane strap and knew I needed a bag to match it! It feels so good to put a bit of my hard earned money into another artists work…To get a little snapshot of their creative spirit to treasure…. Sure I could have bought a bag at one of our local mass merchandise chains but these days I am enjoying buying handmade, direct from the maker – better products, unique products, better quality, and tons more fun.

Oh and I am having a little free shipping thing until midnight… I was hoping to get to my blog a bit sooner but Lexo the Great read me “The B Book” (because my name starts with B) and one of my most favorite kids books “My many colored days” by Dr. Seuss (link is to the hardcover version…we are still reading our gnawed board book version and loving it!) SO for my friendly blog readers, free shipping until midnight 11/8 (up to $5, free shipping will be given via a shipping refund from paypal…if you are paying with propay I will send you an invoice reflecting the discount, just put “beclever” in the notes to seller area)….

What are you still doing here! Shop! Shop! Shop!