day #5: it's a fly day, so posting early. ANOTHER FREEBIE

tomorrow morning I will be flying to Boston to help Neil move out of his beautiful Cambridge place.

His blog (which you can & should read HERE) is full of his new year's resolve.

I love to read his social networking, but do agree that he will greatly benefit from a twitter break. @Neilhimself will be back at some point, I am sure.

adventures ahead! will keep you posted.

meanwhile, I am trying to get the bugs out of the way I am doing this one-thing-a-day-out-into-the-world. Any suggestions from you smart ones out there, please let me know. I am @Neverwear on twitter or neverwear@gaiman.net

here is item #5:

so much tour swag. I never really listened to Linkin Park (was it because i believe their name is a mistaken spelling? perhaps) Many of my friends were out on tour with them, we shared many a stage with the LP band/crew over the years. I really liked the strange logos on this hat, and someone gave it to me along the way. (i think it was you, Mark!)

Haven't really thought about LP much, but just today, Husband got a call about a job.

Linkin Park (along w/Bad Religion & the Offspring) will stage a benefit at Club Nokia here in LA to raise money for the storm-battered Philippines, and would Drew come do the lighting- yes, yes, he said he would. The lighting company is donating everything but the labor.

So to celebrate L. Park's kindness to a place we love, one free Linkin Park hat to the first person to make a comment in the comment section, saying they want it.

One size fits all fancy melons.

It can be in or out of the country as I'll ship this one anywhere.

day #4: FREE Anansi Boys laundry bag!

in the effort to get things under control in the Treehouse, one thing goes out a day.

today's thing is this Anansi Boys laundry bag.

Home-made out of a repurposed tshirt by the amazing sorceress Tabetha Wallace.

Tabetha is co-host & producer of the @EntertheBuzzSaw show, check out our wild seamstress.

I use my bag on tour and it stretches to fit SO MUCH LAUNDRY.

Send me your best reason for needing a laundry bag, and I will pick from the entries, comment on here or on my twitter feed, I'm @neverwear over at: www.twitter.com.

I'll throw in an Anansi Boys sticker in as well.

day #3 of my swallowing diamonds project, SPIDERMAN.

Oh Spidey, how we love ye.

This is a vintage style tee with mister Peter Parker, web slinging on the front, with stars on the 3/4 length sleeves- it's white, even though the photo makes it look a little pink, it's DEFINITELY not though. meh, pink. no.

Since no size is listed on the shirt, it looks to be a unisex size small-- can stretch to maybe medium, but it's fitted for certain.

man, i wish this fit me, i bought it while on tour in Canada, and it never really fit me, so sad...

Also with this shirt, I throw in one of my glass comic book magnets, where Spiderman is speculating about the mighty X-men.

I started making these tiny art pieces when I lost a bunch of comics in a flood and couldn't throw them all away. I dried them out and saved a few of my favorite panels. Now people are sending me their damaged comics, i love giving the panels new life. I am making Escape Pod Comics a batch of these magnets to sell. They are also selling at the lovely Rickert and Beagle Books in Pittsburgh. woOOOooooOOOoo!

CLICK FOR EBAY LINK HERE and tomorrow will be a free giveaway thing, hmmmm... how should i do that? tune in tomorrow, we will all find out.

Sorry to say that I am not shipping overseas on these auctions, as i can't replace the item if it goes missing in the post. Let me know if there are any questions. enjoy! Cat

item #2 in the swallowing diamonds project: so many BEADS/CHARMS

day 2 of my swallowing diamonds project:

I put myself through college by making jewelry, thank goodness I have no student loans!

The upshot is that I have LOADS of beads to get rid of, as I just don't have time to make the jewels so much these days.

From my travels, I have picked up charms and beads at flea markets, vintage shops, thrift shops, the world wide. Some pieces I can't recall where I got, but I have made a little list to describe as best as I can.

1 x faux amber circle charm

1 x faux amber bead bracelet

1 x carved horn pendant (India)

2 x vintage glass ball beads (1950’s)

1 x silver perfume holder charm on chain

2 x star fimo beads

1 x cameo charm

1 x metal skull charm

1 x carved bone skull bead

2 x rose quartz heart beads

1 x set of bindi stickers in round tin (India)

1 x faceted citrine bead

1 x jasper bead

1 x labrodrite bead

8 x small crystals with hole drilled in top for stringing

1 x lapis lazuli pendant (India)

2 x vintage clear glass chunky beads (Africa)

7 x letter beads

2 x handpulled red/gold glass beads (Africa?)

1 x Swarvoski blue crystal pendant (Austria)

11 x asst. Swarovski crystal beads (Austria)

9 x faceted grey smoke glass beads (Czech)

2 x carved wood pendants (China)

1 x brass anhk/star/moon charm

1 x bag of hematite grey glass beads (Japan)

1 x bag of butterfly wing iridescent glass seed beads (Japan)

1 x marcasite star pendant (I don't think this is from Tiffany's! but it came in this pouch)

12 x small goldtone apple charms

1 x bag of goldtone spacer beads

1 x bag of pearlescent white star beads

1 x fairy charm

1 x glass glob pendant

as always, the auction starts at 99 cents. sorry, no overseas shipping, as I can't replace if it gets lost in the post.

CLICK HERE FOR THE EBAY LINK!

item #1 is posted...the Swallowing Diamonds project has begun.

It's time to clean out the treehouse, selling/giving away/re-homing one thing a day for all of 2014.

First up is a tee from the Motley Crue tour 2005 Carnival of Sins. THIS ITEM WAS NEVER AVAILABLE FOR SALE.

This tee was swag from the tour catering company, now no longer in business, Culinary Underground. It is a men's small 100% cotton American Apparel tank tee, some call 'em wife beaters, but meh, no beating, 'kay guys? The front has the company logo, and the back has the company name and the tour below. Only a small amount of these were made. Man, i wish this fit me still. Time to let it go!

Click HERE for the EBAY LINK

We had so much fun on this 2005 Carnival of Sins tour, the stories...oh my. Made some friends for life on that run. One of the best tours ever...

a New Year's resolution for 2014

2013 has been a huge year of travel and new experience for me. from Japan to Australia, Argentina to Denmark, I have been seeing the world.

I write this from my childhood home, where I am visiting my beloved parents, and I re-found this blog that I started about my past.

"Swallowing Diamonds" was my first solo photo show, hung in a small Baltimore gallery, a couple months before I graduated college (UMBC) in 2001.

Shortly after graduation, I moved out west to California to start a new life, and began touring the world.

Now I am looking at a decade plus of accumulated items from my travels, a treehouse full of souvenirs, tour mementos, treasures that I have picked up along the way.

It's my New Year's resolution to post one thing a day here for the 365 days of 2014. Some days, i will sell them on ebay, some items I will post at a fixed selling price, on some days, I will give free to a good home. Time to share with the world, and clear a space for new things.

I will post on this Swallowing Diamonds blog spot, a photo with a little story about where the treasure o' the day came from. I have been photographing things from Japanese kimonos to rare guitar picks, getting ready to keep my resolution.

watch this space & happy new year to all-- xo Kitty

passport photo.

When my Dad and his sister Athena came over from Greece,
this was their passport photo, issued May 27, 1946.

*wolf whistle!
Not sure the actual dates of travel to America via ship. {Dad?}

I believe that this was taken shortly before they left Greece, in Piraeus.
Dad's the third from the right. (looking very much like DF.)

This photo must have taken soon after they arrived to United States.

it is dated: August 24, 1946 New York
Dad, Athena & Chris Alexandris.

UPDATES FROM MY DAD:
The Pireas photo was taken August 10 1946 in early afternoon. Top: Eleni [Gaveras} Lambropouloos, Bob Demetrelos a cousin, Eleni ? George Gaveras' girlfriend, JBM, Rena [Gaveras] Demetrelos, Front Row: Diamando Papaioannou, Popi [Sbarounis] Mihos, Eleni [Papaioannou] Damaskinou],

We arrived in New York City on August 21 1946 am. Marine Shark was the name of the ship, it was a US marine transporter, it was decommissioned shortly after and was cut up for scraps, We sailed for 10 days in a festive mood and with great hope for the new world that had too many promises. Plenty of food, good accommodations, great people mostly progressive politically, we published a newpaper while on the ship (which i still have somewhere) and plenty of sea sickness.

In the second photo , JBM, my father's cousin, Christos Alexandris and my sister Athena. Christos Alexandris was a waiter in some exclusive restaurant in NYC and he told us that many of the guests would tip him $10.00, which might equal to $200.00 today. He was a great dancer and a great clarinetist, he used to play in bands with my father. He met his wife Jill at the ballroom dances. New York to me was awesome, I can still remember the beauty of the people, the perfumes, (in the department stores) the beauty of New York City.

**me again: Dad! find that newspaper, i would love to see it!