And students, and everyone else in SoCal or the Riverside area, there are low-income programs to assist you.  I have been applying for all these programs recently (and used to be on them in Long Beach) as being an artist and a student sometimes just doesn’t translate to economically sustainable.  I was always a little perturbed that because I don’t have dependents, I don’t qualify for health care and other assistance as easily as people with children, but there are still things out there to help you childless citizens.  I have rounded them all up for you, one easy stop:

California Lifeline offers low-income assistance telephones.  I had to cancel my telephone service with Charter because they couldn’t get an application out to me, and kept giving me the corporate run-around, so I went with AT&T.

Riverside Public Utilities assists qualified low-income residential electric and water customers with their utility bills and deposits with their SHARE program.

Southern California Gas Company has the CARE program which offers income-qualified customers a discount of 20% or more off their monthly gas bill. Plus they have a one-time assistance of $100 starting in February 2010.

Also, I just found out that Bank of America, who has been steadily beefing up my Cash Advance balance every month with their sneaky 19.99% APR, is changing their policy the end of February, where now any amount you pay over your minimum balance will go directly to paying down the Cash Advance balance.  Before, it only payed your Purchases balance, which for me has a much more respectable APR.  So come March, pay those suckers down and get out of debt for reals!

No matter where you live, seek out assistance as it is there for income-qualified residents.  And if you’re an artist or a student, surviving on student loans and or credit cards, that is YOU!

I’ve been meaning to share my Garage Phenomenon photo which hopefully will be a fun little side-project series just because I run into these things and think they’re weird and funny. Are men born yearning for the garage, that promised land where men can drink cold beers, watch sports, and unabashedly hang posters of voluptuous women in bikinis above a well-stocked mini fridge? Is this space, banished from the comforts of the home, today’s man’s last and only frontier? Well, apart from divorce.

Well for the time being, it looks like my landlord is trying to work something out with the bank (the story first broke here) so I am hanging on until the next time something happens.  I only have 6 months until school is over and then I can really mooooove anywhere in the world that I want to.  Well in SoCal anyway.

In other news, my shop is featured in a sweet and colorful treasury by NightJar.

Oh and I darn nearly forgot!  But I opened up a new shop too! 

HiVintage is now open and selling off all the things that Brian doesn’t want to live with come graduation day.  Well, the things I’m willing to part with, that is.   My mom also opened up a shop, focusing on vintage and collectibles.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

It has been a very bakerly holiday for me, as I am taking a stab at year two of candy making.  I think it’s definitely my thing.

I love seeing my kitchen like a creative studio, filled with different stages of the baking process…..

I mostly made truffle-like things although there are some actual baking things, like Russian Tea Cookies which I added lemon and almonds to, which made them just extra yummy.

So this is sad, but I’m moving.  Like nearly everyone else in the country right now, the house I rent is in foreclosure and is getting auctioned in less than a week.  I’ve been busy trying to find a place to live but right around the holidays, it is no easy feat.  Reluctant to move, I am savoring my home now. Things like turning this room…

Into this room…

And turning this room…

Into my room…

It’s going to be so sad to leave this place, sooner than I expected.  Hopefully I will find home soon.

Well I guess I am taking more photos than writing, so here are some recent things.  Went to a wedding a few weekends ago and this was their sweet little present!  Inside the wrapped things were a haunted photo of the lucky couple at Knott’s Scary Farm and then Brian tossed in a nice camera.  The rest are things to keep them going and going.

Also, sometimes in the late part of the day I walk around my house with my camera. I think I really like right before dusk and dusk.  I love when everything starts to darken, but there is still enough light to see.  I love the grays and act of the day retiring into night.  When the sun is really low and warm hued it breaks inside the west-facing windows, and graffitis the wall with a little bit of itself.  I love watching light move I guess.