Baby steps

I actually MADE something! Woohoo! How sad is it that I'm excited over 6 little headpins? LOL!

A nice lady ordered these stitch markers last nite but needs them on larger rings. I do not have split rings in the larger size so I made xtra long headpins to use instead. Now I will change out the remaining beads, package up the goodies and head to the PO.

They are a tiny little accomplishment but still an accomplishment. This is the first time I've been to the Happy Room (and sold anything) in 3 weeks. Maybe it's the nudge I need. ....I certainly hope so. :)

BlogExplosion

Does anyone else use BlogExplosion? I signed up via a link on a friend's blog, thinking it would be a good way to bring traffic (and hopefully etsy traffic) to my blog.

I signed up on January 7th. 10 days later my account is still "waiting for approval" by administration. The website says it normally takes 2 or 3 days. So on January 16th I opened a support ticket and asked about it. Curious if it meant my blog was NOT approved. Today it is January 29th and my account has still not been approved and my support ticket has not been replied to!

So I'm wondering....are they always this useless and stupid? There's nothing quite as annoying as being totally ignored, ya know? I have 3 children that can do that for me. I don't need it from total strangers.

I'm still alive

My how time flies when you feel like crap. :) Remember me mentioning the "prozac for preggos"? Well it made me siiiiick. Like can not get off the couch I'm so nauseous kind of sick. Plus insomnia! All last week I could not function during the days and could not sleep at nite. It was greeeat. Needless to say, Saturday a.m. I had had ENOUGH. I called the after-hours nurse and asked if I could stop taking the meds. (You are supposed to be weined off SSRI meds.) Luckily I had only taken 5 so the doctor said just stop them. YAY!!
Saturday I started feeling better. By Sunday nite the grumpy bitch monster was back. BUT! I can function again and do the things I need to do each day.

I have not been in the happy room for about TWO weeks now. This is a picture of the last thing I worked on. I made 2 sets of my tile heart beads that got so much positive feedback. These new beads are a simpler version. No mica shift this time. I made pink/black and red/black. This picture is the red. (The picture stinks.) I took step-by-step pics in hopes of doing a narrated picture video tute. Alas, that didn't happen. The beads have been baked, partially sanded, and sit on my Happy Table collecting dust. So much for a timely Valentine's day addition to my etsy store. :o{

This picture makes me giggle. I did not realize, until after downloading the pictures, that I was holding the blade upside down. DOH! :)

Good doctor

I decided to try a new doctor this time. The doctor who delivered Lydia was a good doctor and I always felt medically safe in his care, but he was simply a grumpy old fart. Nearly every appointment (no joke...all but 2 probably) included him asking me if I wanted to schedule a tubal while I was in the hospital. No matter how many times I told him I wasn't sure I was done, no matter how many times we both told him Aaron was getting the "fixing", he always asked. He was so pushy about getting fixed. I felt like saying, "Dude...they aren't welfare babies. Get off my back!"
ANYWAY. This time I chose a lady doctor right across the hallway from Grumpy. And she turned out to be wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! I was instantly comfortable with her and totally at ease.

She did a quick ultrasound, and that's always fun. We got to see the little bean's heart beating. Aw! And we saw that it did NOT have a roommate. WOOHOOOOOOOO!!!! :)

She also gave me some meds for my out of control anger issues. (It's basically prozac for preggos.) She explained that my progesterone levels are extremely high right now and it's OK that I'm a maniac. But she also understood that I've been totally miserable and that is NOT ok.

She's just very accommodating and sweet. But also seems to be a smart cookie who knows her stuff. So I am just 110% happy with her. Yay! I just wanted to share that.

P.S. Today makes 10 days since I've been in the Happy Room. I hope the meds start working soon and this funk passes. I miss creating. I have been adding a few sketches to my idea book though. So hopefully some of these energy-less ideas will come to life someday.

Bulleted Friday

• It is sooo cold. I can't get warm. The gas stove hasn't been off HIGH for 2 days. All our little space heaters follow us around from room to room. I have burners going on the (gas) stovetop. It's just damn cold.
• I haven't stepped foot in the Happy Room all week. There has been no desire to do so. I have lots of ideas too! Just zero motivation or energy.
• Our trip to Ft. Worth this weekend has been canceled.
• We had a $335 gas bill to pay this month. OUCH. And they won't do "average billing" until we've lived here a year. Thanks natural gas people...you're a big help!
• They are laying people off at Aaron's work again. 8 people. He's not really in danger of being let go, but it still makes me anxious, ya know? Last time they laid off 3 people 2 days before xmas. Niiiice. (Luckily Aaron had heard rumors of it and helped 1 of the guys get another job.)
  
• I started hanging out at the Cagey Crafters message forum again this week. They are a nice bunch of people. I hope they can help me grow in my metal smithing and maybe I can share some clay knowledge in return.
• I have 2 ideas for new video tutes. But those things take days to complete. I want to make them, but like I said before, motivation is lacking.
• I am still a crazy mean ogre witch these days. The only reason my family has not voted me off the island is they will go hungry and be without clean clothes if I leave. Oh...and also because I'm pregnant. I'm about 7 weeks along and due Sept. 3rd-ish. (as I figure it)

Don't ya like how I just tossed that in there at the end? :) We are very excited and happy about it. We both wanted #4. And now we will be done. Nowadays we're big weirdos for having (and wanting!) 4. I don't understand why public opinion has changed so over the years. When our parents and their parents were kids, 6 siblings was no big deal. **big shrug** I dunno.
Anyway, so far this one is being really hard on me. I'm a wreck. Feel like caca. I go to the doctor for the 1st time Monday. Hopefully we'll get a clean bill of health and this hardest part will pass soon. Until then I'll try to resist the urge to publically rant and rave like a lunatic. :)

PSA

As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.
In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. coli) - bacteria found in feces. In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop.

However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer (or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.

Remember: Water = Poop, Wine = Health

Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of shit

There is no need to thank me for this valuable information: I'm doing it as a public service. :)

It's cold in here!

That's what we were all saying this a.m. The wind chills have been in the single digits today and this old house is drafty.

We all dressed warmly today. Not fashionably, warmly. I dressed Lydia first. She refuses to keep her shoes on during the day. She wants to put on shoes just so she can remove them and bring the shoes to me to put them back on.
Her laced tennis shoes and her furry boots are the only shoes she can't easily remove. The boots were nearby (and warm) so I put them on her today. I also dressed Emily in her furry boots just for the matchy-matchy factor. :)


They looked like a couple of little G-rated gangsters. When Lydia wears this hoodie I call her Pink Sidius, Darth Sidius's little sister. :)

Colorful new treasury

I've been trying and finally snagged a treasury spot today!
Once again featuring "fewbies". Which is my word for shops with few or no sales. (Newbie is not always an accurate word, ya know?)
Please visit it and click on the photos. It helps promote the shops. And who knows...you might see something you can't live without! :)

P.S...if YOU are a fewbie and would like to be featured please leave me a comment or send me and etsy convo. I'm always on the lookout!

The GIMP

No, I have not fallen and injured myself. I am referring to the graphic editing program.

Now that we have the new laptop, I can't use either of my antique editing programs (PhotoImpact 5, Paint Shop Pro 5). I was researching it yesterday and decided I wanted to try something free before spending $89.99 on a new version of the old favorites. So I downloaded GIMP. It appears to be one of the most downloaded and user preferred free programs out there. But man oh man...it's not like anything I've used before.

I spent probably 30 minutes last nite and then another 45 this morning just trying to edit ONE picture. OY! Now it's nearly 8am and my kiddos will start waking soon and I've not made it to the Happy Room yet. :( Anyway...back to GIMP. I think once I get my Gimpy groove on it will be a suitable program for me. Since I don't design web graphics anymore I only need it for editing photos. It crops, it adjusts colors, it sharpens, and it saves. That about covers it all for me! LOL!

Here's my first successful GIMP edit. A big, fun, chunky ring that will go in the Etsy store later. (as soon as I can edit 3 or 4 more pictures of it!)

Later taters! :)

Juliespace

Create Mosaic Pendant
Originally uploaded by juliespace

I mentioned um...weeks ago that I was going to blog about a newly discovered PC artist. Well here I am finally DOING it. I'm looking back at my flickr mail right now...I discovered Juliespace on December 5th. Boy I'm a slacker! LOL!

Anyway! I noticed Julie's mosaic jewelry first on flickr. I enjoy how she uses the clay WITH other types of items. Very nifty stuff.
She also makes these happy flower spirit sticks that make me smile. As well as! Recent additions of neptune and green man pendants. She doesn't have just one "style" which I always enjoy. I *heart* eclectic. :) I think you'll enjoy her flickr or her etsy shop.

Livin' in a box

I'm livin' in a cardboard box.

Well, not really. But I was thinking about thinking outside the box and that 80's song popped into my head. :) Anyway...on to more clay related issues.

I haven't been in a blogging mood lately b/c I haven't been in a talkative mood lately. Actually I've been in a grumpy funk for WEEKS now. My family is thinking about voting me off the island. Consequently my blogging is suffering as well. I have been uploading a few items to my Etsy shop though.

All stitch markers as you can see. I enjoy making these little tattered hearts and flower beads. But they don't really stretch my imagination and skill level, you know? BUT...the time I'm spending in my Happy Room is therapeutic even if it's not ground-breaking creative time. :)

I have made one bead set that is different from my norm. I chose to use acrylic paint for these.

The next time I make the striped spacer beads I will make the stripes begin AND end with black.

I have a few other bead sets 1/2 finished on the table right now. Hopefully this week will be another productive one. Sadly I have to trade a clean house for Happy Room time...but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do! ;)

Screw You Cupid!

Screw You Cupid!
Originally uploaded by ~Christie

I had a deeeliteful time assembling this treasury. I loooove winged hearts! And stitched or repaired hearts. And...hearts in general. :) There are some COOL items in it. Please go have a looksee.

Cracks! Cracks! Everywhere cracks!

Have you looked around your house lately and thought, "This room looks drab...I need to paint"? Well let me share some photos with you and make you feel a lot better about your own room. That's right....it's house renovation story time!

Remember when I gave you peek into the basement and the beginnings of Aaron's releveling job? It's been slowly progressing. He's replaced lots of floor supports, installed new support pillars, and has been releveling like mad. Before I share pics I need to tell you...a lot of GOOD has come of the releveling. Several doors close and latch that didn't before. The stairs and the upstairs hallway don't squeak anymore. And let me tell you...every freakin' stair and inch of it used to squeak and moan loudly. SO annoying!
Anyway. You know how it goes in home repair...you fix one problem and create 5 new problems. Well check these out! It's probably more like fix 1-create 11. :)

The front door area.


The living room. This is the biggie. OMG. In this corner the floors had sunk about 2 1/2"! Remember, this house appears to have not been leveled in 87 years.


Stairway landing. Basically beside and above the previous area.


Standing on the landing looking down to the front door. That overhead area is the closet area in Lydia's room.


Same overhead area. See how the crack goes ALL the way up? Yeah. I'm expecting Lydia's closet to relocate itself to the front door area any day now.


Dining room. Those cracks are under the staircase area.


Dining room. This floor-to-ceiling one is behind the 2 1/2" area in the living room.


2nd living room looking towards main living room. Again, attached to the 2 1/2" wall. You might be able to see yet another large crack back there above the tv armoire.

SO! Don't you feel better about your house now? LOL!
All the walls here are old-timey plaster. It will be a messy job when he replaces them with sheetrock. Fun fun! :)

Skull Bunny!

skull bunny parade
Originally uploaded by spooky daddy

Today I got to be an Etsy seller's first sale! Isn't that cool?!
Spookydaddy makes these cool plushies and I knew I had to have one. I'm thinking he will sit on my clay table and make me smile. (I chose the blue color in the foreground.)
Don't you want one too? Spookydaddy is super nice...go ahead...buy one...you know you want one! :)