Beware the wall of text!

I should probably post here more often. But since I haven't posted for a few months, here's a recap!

In October, I got to go to New Mexico for work. I went there several years back, and fell in love with the food there, particularly stuffed sopapillas. So I insisted that we go out to a Mexican place one of the nights we were there, and I got my stuffed sopapillas. Om nom nom.

Also in October, Jeremy's first novella, "Kensei," came out for e-readers! It's bundled with two other novellas as Cobalt City Rookies from Timid Pirate Publishing. All three of the novellas feature teenaged super hero protagonists. I have, of course, read his novella several times, and I finally got started reading the other two recently. So far, super awesome!

We spend November working on our novels for NaNoWriMo. This was the fourth year I attempted it, and once again, I did not finish. This time, it was because my laptop died a week before the end of November. Though I ended up buying a new laptop on Cyber Monday, and had it two days later, it was really a disheartening blow to my potential progress. I'd still like to finish the novel, but I haven't gotten back to it yet.

I also had the big EtsyRain holiday show in November, which was excellent! This was the first year the show was in McCaw Hall, and the new venue was spectacular! My sales were also great, and the new item I debuted, wrist warmers, proved quite popular.

A few weeks later, I sold my crocheted crafts at GeekFest, which was put on by Seattle Browncoat Charities. It was a ton of fun to finally do a show where I didn't have to try to explain things like Cthulhu. :) Also, Jeremy got to see Kirby Krackle, ended up buying all of their music on his phone while listening to their show, and then playing it for me. Yay, nerdy music! (Granted, we had seen the lead singer from Kirby Krackle about a week previous, which was part of the reason that Jeremy went to see them play at GeekFest.)

We spent Christmas proper in Seattle, but then left a couple of days later for a grand tour of the Midwest. We flew to St. Louis and spent one night there. The next morning, we loaded up the car with my mom and youngest sister, and drove to Kansas City, where we spent two nights at my middle sister's brand new house, which I refer to as the mansion. It has an indoor pool. That's really all that you need by way of explanation. I managed to pull a muscle in my leg from either swimming or going up and down the stairs the first day (possibly both), but I still went ice skating on the second day, which really didn't improve my leg any. But it eventually got better. We also got to watch Inception, Return of the Jedi, and Les Miserables while we were there.

After our two nights in Kansas City, we returned to St. Louis for another night, and did karaoke in my mom's living room. Because she found a karaoke machine at a yard sale for like $6, and it worked. The music selection was a bit slim, but that just meant we got to pick out ridiculous songs and sing them. Someone should have taped me and Megan trying to sing all five parts on a Spice Girls song. :)

We drove down to Carbondale for New Years Eve, where we played a ridiculous amount of Cards Against Humanity and hung out with my good friends there (except for Thor, who was sick). We went to lunch with my former boss's widow the next day, after I took Jeremy on a driving tour of Carbondale. I was a little surprised at how well I remembered how to get most places... but I guess I did live there for nine years!

Finally, we drove back up to St. Louis and stayed at my mom's for one more night, where we broke out the wine and played a wine-themed version of Monopoly. Much to his astonishment, Jeremy won the game after Mom and Megan decided to give up.

So now we're in 2013, and though I don't do resolutions or anything of the sort, I do at least have things in mind that I'm trying to do, like trying to budget and spend more carefully this year. I'm also trying to write more frequently (daily would be ideal) and keep my blogs more active. :) On the crafting front, I should probably figure out something new to start making this year. At the moment, I'm doing a bunch of custom work for friends and family, and then I need to restock all of the stuff that sold out at my shows. So it might take a while before I can start on new things. Or, depending on how some of the custom works goes, I might start making these things for my shop!

The sekrit revealed!

Okay, so now that my friends are married and their big reveal has happened, I can share with you the sekrit project that I talked about a bit. They asked me to make a blue shell from Mario Kart for them to toss in lieu of a garter at their wedding reception. And, as you can see, I did.

Of course, when they first asked me to make this, I had no idea what a blue shell from Mario Kart was. Console video games are not part of my geek universe. But they were able to find pictures, and I just guessed on the parts I couldn't see in said pictures. :)

The finished plushie is pretty sizable. The body is probably around the same size as a football. (When I asked the bride how big to make it, her point of reference was a standard size Quaffle. Geek girls rule. :) ) I don't have any pictures of me holding it for scale, but the wings alone are far bigger than my hands.

The wings also took the longest to design and put together. Each wing had eleven individual tubes of varying sizes, which I then stitched together in clusters to make up the wing shape. I only ended up stuffing the body portion, in an attempt to keep it from being too top heavy. The wings are heavy enough just with yarn content, so they didn't need any more weight!

I wrote down most of the pattern for this as I went, but I haven't typed it up to make it pretty yet. I've got some folks who have offered to beta test it for me, but I'm anxious about figuring out how to describe exactly how I did those wings. It makes sense to me, and I could reproduce them. I just don't know if my explanation will be clear or not.

Anyway, voila! Marvel in the awesome. (And as a shameless plug, when I say I can crochet pretty much anything, I mean it. Please feel free to contact me about weird crochet projects. I like the challenge!)

Ah, life!

Life means that this blog tends to come and go from time to time. Especially when I spend about 3 months working out of an archive with no internet, as opposed to in my office, where I can blog during my lunch break. :)

So let's see here. I spent most of December crocheting until I thought my fingers would fall off. I got a brief respite from that when we went down to California to visit Jeremy's family, but then I had more things to make when we got back. I haven't actually slowed down yet, either, as I'm working on a couple of custom orders.

Around February, when I think my actual production schedule should slow down a bit, I'm planning to work on some new stuff for Scary White Girl Designs. One of the things I'm hoping to branch into this year is crochet patterns. I've written up one already, and I'm halfway through writing up another one. I'm hoping to find someone who can beta test the patterns for me. My mom has offered, and I may take her up on it, but I have this sneaking suspicion that she'll finish making the items and then say "what did you just have me make?!" They're a wee bit on the super duper nerdy side. :)

I'm also planning on making some new products, many of which are just variations on things I already make. One thing that I know that I'll definitely be doing is both shorter AND longer arm warmers, as I've had requests for both. I've done one pair of shorter ones (wrist warmers) before, but longer (past the elbow) will be a new thing for me! But I'm excited about that one, because I wear a LOT of T-shirts that have very tiny sleeves, and having arm warmers that cover my whole arm would be epic! :) Also, I think that super duper long arm warmers in the style of the Fourth Doctor's scarf just seem RIGHT. :)

37 days and counting

Yup, I've reached the point where I start counting down to the wedding. :) And no, I haven't done a whole lot since my last post. Well, I made some leaves for the roses. That's a good start. :)

But I did pick up the rings last night, and they are spectacular! :) Mine matches up with the odd shape of the bottom half of my engagement ring perfectly, and it also looks neat even if I decide not to wear my engagement ring with it. So win on both counts! :) Thank you, Marlo!

Okay, to do list time:

• Finish all of the flowers
  
• Finish the tossing bouquet
  
• Stamp all the favors
  
• Get the last wedding party gift
  
• Get Costco membership
  
• Send UJ the headcount
  
• Buy all the picnic stuff
  
• Get the marriage license
  
• Make appointment for nails
  
• Make appointment for pictures (after the wedding)
  

I think that's all. :)

Two months and counting!

So I've finally gotten back in the swing of posting to Shop Etsy. There are new posts on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, which is a good start. Now, to see if I can get back into the swing of updating here...

Monday marked two months remaining until the wedding. Things are coming together quite nicely. We're going to see Marlo tonight to see the progress on our rings, and I'm picking up the flowers from Patty on Sunday. I still need to figure out what on earth I am going to do with my hair (I'm still not sure if I'm going to get it cut before then, or just grow it out for two more months), and I need to sit Jeremy down and get him to commit to what gifts he wants for his best man and our officiant.

I've also got some crafty work to do, like putting together the tossing bouquet. I have the pieces, I just haven't done anything with them. And I need to work on the favors. I got plantable paper flowers from Recycled Ideas, and a name/date stamp from Terbear Collectibles, but I still need to actually stamp all of the flowers. :) I keep telling myself "I still have two months," and then I go "TWO MONTHS?! That's crazy talk!" Yes, I really do often have conversations like this with myself. :)

The only other thing I'm still working on is someone who can make a small-ish gluten-free, vegan cake. My best woman is gluten-free, so I want to have cake for her to eat, because she won't be able to have the normal wedding cake. And I figure vegan because that way any vegans in attendance will also have something to eat. (I'm slightly willing to bend on the second point, because I don't know that anyone coming to the wedding is full vegan.) If you've got any thoughts on local gluten-free cake makers, drop me a line or leave me a comment!

A Very Etsy Wedding

So one of my goals for the wedding is to have as much as is possible be handmade. This means I've been scouting and picking things out already, to give everyone enough lead time to make their parts. Since after the beginning of the year is a slower time for a lot of crafters, it also means that I'm getting a lot of stuff well in advance of the wedding, and only have to remember where I put it to keep it safe until then. :)

There are a few things that I'm making myself, too. The first of those was the straps for my wedding dress. See, I picked out a dress that is made from crocheted fabric. It needed only a minor alteration, but in the process of working out the details for that, I took a close look at the edging on the dress and decided to replicate it to cover up the plain fabric of the straps. I've heard back from the dressmaker that the straps I made match the dress perfectly. :)

The other thing that I'm contributing to is the flowers. Patty from Full Blooms is going to do the bulk of the assembly work (and the centerpieces for the bouquets), but Kayce and I are making flowers for her to use in the finished pieces. So there will be silk roses, T-shirt flowers, and crocheted roses. Nice and eclectic, just like me. :)

There's lots more wedding stuff still to come from Etsy, which I'll talk about as the months progress and the wedding gets closer. As it is, we're less than 5 months away. But all of the planning has gone well so far, so I think we'll get it all done in plenty of time! :)

Recap of the recap

I decided a couple of weeks ago that when I start work early, take a short lunch, and leave the office at 4 instead of 5, I am a much more productive person. Since Jeremy has to be at his office at 7:15, and since I generally ride the same bus as him, this works out pretty well. It does mean that we don't take the same bus home any more, but I think this actually works better for us. Anyway, we still have one bus ride together. :)

Of course, shortened lunches mean not a lot of posting from me, since lunch is my prime posting time. So here's an update on things I was talking about a couple of weeks ago.

I got my skates, and have been skating 3 times since--twice at scrimmages, and once at an open skate. I am improving. I fell 3 times at my first scrimmage, but haven't fallen since then. I'm starting to learn how to stop. I'm starting to be able to notice penalties as I'm focusing on not running into the other refs. Still need to work on speed, stopping, and seeing more penalties. But it's coming along nicely.

I decided not to apply to vend at SteamCon this year. With roller derby added into my schedule, studio time is not likely to be frequent. I'm currently debating purging my sewing stuff, putting my machines in storage, and cramming my other stuff into the front hall closet, so as to get rid of the studio. But that's not decided quite yet.

Spent another week in Kansas City for work. Not much to report from this trip, other than that I was introduced to another great restaurant there. And it's a vegetarian restaurant, at that! :)

Finished up a couple of short stories and got those submitted. One has been accepted, the other is still pending. I suspect it won't get picked up, but we shall see! :) Got another idea in the works, but I have until the end of October to make it happen. So it's plausible. :)

We've got a busy month ahead of us. This weekend, we're going to hit the zoo early Saturday, and then we're taking the ferry up to Victoria on Sunday. It's just a day trip, but it will be my first time out of the United States! Pretty exciting! :)

The month in review

I've been ridiculously busy lately, which is why I can go for more than a month without updating. But there's plenty to talk about, so here's a nice little recap.

We did Go Play Northwest in the middle of June, which was a weekend of indie games. I ran a Best Friends game (The Girls of Hogwarts), which turned out to be utterly ridiculous. But that's my favorite sort of game to run. (Of course, I finally read books 3 and 4 of the Harry Potter series over the past week, and discovered that my major plot was similar to something that happened in the books!) I also got to play some games I had not played before, and generally enjoyed them.

The following weekend we had fun at a tapas party with some of our gamer friends. I made chocolate chip banana bread, which was very popular, but all of the food I tried was incredibly good. Lots of little dishes, and lots of chit chat. We also did a quick visit to the zoo, which we found is very nice first thing on a Sunday morning. It's not too crowded, it's still cool out, and it's a good way to get some exercise not at the gym. We're hoping to do this more often when our schedule permits, since we do have a zoo membership. :)

I had a long weekend for the Fourth of July, but that was also the weekend that I had to ship Jeremy off to Kansas for his writer's workshop. He left on the 4th, and I spent most of that day and the next day in my studio, working on sewing projects. I got some designs figured out, and also had fun with making handmade labels for my stuff. I'll have pictures of the new stuff after this coming weekend, when I've wrangled a couple of my teenaged friends (well, technically they're 20 now) into modeling for me. I need the pictures ASAP, so that I can apply to vend at SteamCon. *fingers crossed*

While Jeremy was off doing writer things, I got to spend some time crafting at Black Door Studio, and learning about referreeing for the Jet City Roller Girls. Yeah, I totally needed another hobby, I know. :) But they were looking for skating and non-skating officials, and I think I'm going to try to do the skating side of things. Wish me luck. :) I haven't skated in 5 years, but I'm picking out skates tomorrow night. The good news is that the season has already ended, so I will have some time to get my skating skills up to par before the new season starts next year. And if I discover that I am absolutely a wreck on skates, I can get involved with the non-skating side of things. :)

I spent last week in Kansas City for work, and got to spend some extra time with my sister and her family. I took my nephew to Steamboat Arabia, because he had been asking to go for a while. It ended up that I took him by myself, rather than with my sister and niece, but it worked out surprisingly well. I told him that since he did so well, we would try to do other things like that when I have extra time in KC. But we'll see if this is like the way that kids behave themselves the first time they get a new babysitter, and then start pushing the boundaries... my nephew is pretty well behaved though, so we may be okay. :)

After that, I headed out to Lawrence, where Jeremy had been staying, and got to meet some of the folks he had been workshopping with. It was REALLY hot in Lawrence, and I wasn't there much more than 12 hours before we had to head back to KC to fly home. We made it back safely, and had an apartment full of cats in need of love. But they're always in need of love. :) I got to spend yesterday at home to get caught up on chores and such, which was very nice. I even made a semi-elaborate dinner. I'm so domestic when I have time. :)

We've already got a bunch of stuff planned for this week, and then I'm off to Kansas City again on Sunday. No rest for the wicked. None at all.

Ah, long weekends :)

One of the hardest things for me is the fact that between January 1st and the end of May, the only paid holidays are those days--New Years Day, and then Memorial Day, whenever it falls near the end of May. That's a long stretch of working every day! Granted, I had a lot of vacation in March, but there's something about having a long weekend WITHOUT travel. :)

Our normal Saturday afternoon game was called off, so we did some running around and a lot of just chilling out. Sunday was Jeremy's not-a-birthday-barbeque, which our friends were kind enough to host for us. It ended up being a nice, small, low key party, which was wonderful. Everyone who showed up, save one person, was a gamer, and the non-gamer was plenty geeky to keep up with the rest of us. :)

We also made what sounds like a horrid atrocity, but ended up being "actually, it's not that bad. TM." Tangria. Yeah, it's what it sounds like. Sangria with Tang instead of orange juice. The recipe I ended up using was:

1 bottle of red wine (750 ml. Three Buck Chuck works GREAT for this.)
1 1/2 cups of Squirt soda (or another citrus-y soda)
2 cups of Tang
slices of oranges and lemons

Everyone was SO skeptical of this creation, so they would get their ice, pour a glass, and then say "actually, it's not that bad." Thaddeus added the "TM" (as in trademark) to the end of the catch phrase. :) As it turns out, if you let it sit for about 24 hours, it moves from "not that bad" to "hey, this is good!" Lesson learned. Make it a day ahead next time. :)

Yesterday was a day I had set aside to work in my studio, which ended up really being about 2 1/2 hours at the studio, retaking photos of some of my items (till the camera battery started running low), retagging some others, and generally getting ready for the Punk Rock Flea Market on Saturday, June 5th. I will have a mix of items from both of my shops, with some clearance prices on some items that I would like to phase out.



And then I went home, finished writing one story, and got another 200 words written on another. Yeah, it's big time writing month at Netherfield of the Northern Reaches... whee! :)

More Doctor Who Chatter (Possible Spoiler)

(Advance warning that there is a spoiler about "Victory of the Daleks" below. It's not a ZOMG spoiler, because the title implies the existence of Daleks in the episode, but the details are spoilery. You have been warned.)

We got done with Jeremy's birthday dinner at Red Robin last night early enough that we decided to watch "Victory of the Daleks" when we got home. (Side note: If you go to Red Robin for your birthday, they will NOT sing to you when they bring you your sundae if you're seated in the bar area. Just an FYI. Jeremy was crushed by this. We offered to sing to him, but it wasn't the same.)

So from the previews, it's pretty clear that there's something bizarre going on. Army green Daleks with WWII "vests"? Nifty. I want to make one already! (Though I need to find the right beads to use for the nubs on the lower half. Possibly even nubby buttons.) And of course there's more than just two Army green Daleks...

But seriously? Technicolor Daleks? My first response: "They've become iMacs!" My second response (laughing so hard I couldn't hardly speak): "It's the Rainbow Lanterns!" (Which is a comic book reference that I only understand from Jeremy complaining about how they ruined Green Lantern.) When it comes to the Daleks, it's hard to say if it's going to be a one-off thing, or if the future of the Daleks is that they come in red, orange, yellow, blue, and white. With gold light coming out of the eyestalk thingie. (I think I liked that last bit the least. It was weird.)

At any rate, I'm willing and able to make the brightly colored ones. You know, if anyone's interested. ;)

Whew.

We survived the month of too much travelling. Now I'm just staying put until work tells me I'm travelling again... but I think I've got at least 3 weeks at home, for which I am very grateful. :)

I wore my pair of Cthulhu bun covers for a few hours on Friday night, and discovered that as my hair has gotten longer, they're a little snug. So I think I'm going to be creating a slightly larger size for people with longer, thicker hair, like me. So I'll probably be making larger bun covers of all varieties, at least when I get the chance. So much to do, so little time! :)

This week's non-crafting project involves us trying to get a handle on our "office," which would probably be the dining room in most people's houses or apartments. But really, the little space where the computer lives would probably be too small for our dining room table, and the spot in the living room where the dining room table lives probably doesn't have any internet hookups. So we make due with what we've got. :) We're going to try to get the office slightly more functional as an office space, and hopefully open up a bit of closet space for more of my craft stuff. :)

And of course there's also the 8 billion other things that we need to get done. But the only way to tackle it is one at a time. And the office has been bad for too long. :)

Handmade Comedy show

No, it's not a craft show. It's a comedy show. But it's a comedy show where the audience is encouraged to bring their craft projects that are quiet, don't smell, and can be worked on in dim lighting. If I could make it, heck yeah, I'd be crocheting. :)

But I can't go, and instead, I've sent a couple of items in for the silent auction to benefit Friends of the Orphans. In fact, a portion of the ticket sales go to that cause as well, but a bunch of EtsyRain members will be donating items for a silent auction to be held before the show. So if you've had your eye on either of the items in this post, find a way to be there to bid on the silent auctions! :)

Oof...

Work has been running me down lately, mainly because I've been working 9 hour days, in order to have enough vacation time for my two trips in March. I'm very glad that today is the last 9 hour day, because I am completely useless when I get home at the end of a 9 hour day. I'm hoping I can persuade Jeremy to put together at least some of dinner tonight, since he is off work early today for a doctor's appointment, and thus will get home before I do.

I'm wishing I had more energy because my current project at home is trying to organize my craft supplies in the hall closet. I bought a few boxes and got started on Monday, but I think I need about 8 clear plastic tubs in varying sizes to finish up the rest of it. Then I may attempt to tackle the rest of that closet, and see how much space I can reclaim from it. It would be super awesome if I could make enough space to store more of my craft supplies at home, with a view toward gradually phasing out my studio.

Yeah, no matter what I do, I will likely always have to share the hall closet with coats and possibly the cats' dry food, but if I could make just a bit of space and do a serious destash of supplies, I could make this happen. Then the only question is how to find the time to do everything I need to make it happen... :)

Survived the weekend, barely

So the show on Saturday went very well. I was a lot more comfortable on stage this time, and I think it showed. Jeremy was terrified, but he still did awesome. :) There is video with passable sound this time, and I'll link to it as soon as I find out where it's posted. :)

Sunday was my Vampire game, which went okay. Once again, it felt like it was all about one character, to the exclusion of the rest of them. We tried to get the other folks involved, but they weren't really going for it. Apparently I need to push harder. :)

However, I also had a pretty bad headache through most of Sunday, which got worse after the game, and then lingered into Monday. It was an odd one that I want to call a migraine, but I'm not quite sure what might have triggered it. At any rate, it wiped me out pretty soundly. So I spent part of Monday sleeping, and then the rest of the day relaxing in front of the TV with a stack of unfinished crochet projects. I've now finished a bunch of rose pins and, the most exciting item, my crocheted TARDIS. (You can see additional shots of it on my Facebook Fan Page.) I've already got the next one in the works, with a few design modifications based on what I learned from the first one. My prototype is waiting to see what fun destination it will fly off to, and I'm pretty sure I've got a few more people lined up to buy the first ones to arrive in my Etsy shop. :)

And I'm back

The four day weekend was pretty much as awesome as advertised, with only a couple of exceptions. The theater we tried to see Sherlock Holmes at was packed to the gills, so that we ended up in the front row. By the time the previews were rolling, I was getting motion sickness. I thought maybe the quality would improve when the movie started, but I couldn't do it. :( Then either as a result of that, or just ongoing headache issues, I had a bad enough migraine on Saturday night that I had to ditch out of D&D.

Aside from that, it was a good weekend. The present haul was small but exciting this year. Jeremy's Seattle family got us a membership at the Pacific Science Center. I've actually never been there (though I did see Watchmen at their IMAX). Jeremy got me the first volume of the Absolute Sandman, which is a GORGEOUS reprinting of my favorite comic series ever. It's something that I would never buy for myself, because I already own all of the comics. But it's nice to have the fancy collector's version as well. :) (And he's a smart one, in that he's probably already figured out what to buy me for our next three Christmases as well. :) ) And really, that's about it. I'm not sure if I'll get anything from my dad this year, and we all agreed to just do presents for the little kids on Mom's side. But that's okay. I don't really need stuff. :)

I also managed to get in about four hours in the studio on Saturday, which had moments of awesome and moments of frustration. I got decent photos (but not great), I pulled a bit of stuff to destash (but I'm having trouble letting go of some stuff), and I worked on four sewing projects. Two of the sewing projects turned out fine, while the other two had challenges. Still, I'm not gonna get better at this by just letting my machine sit in the studio. :)

So one of my goals for the upcoming year is going to be to try to find one day a week (or one every two weeks, if need be) when I can get to the studio for a chunk of time. Some of that time will have to be spent doing photography and other exciting things, but the bulk of the time will hopefully be devoted to sewing stuff to sell in my Counting Stars shop. I've got one definite new line to work on that will be one of a kind items, but along a similar theme, and then the rest will probably be truly one of a kind stuff. The majority of it will be reconstructed clothing for now, though there is at least one item that I know how to make from scratch. But first, the overflowing fabric bin must be reduced... and I'm not quite willing to destash that just yet. :)

Another goal will be getting some of my items into shops. I've got a standing offer from Julia at Black Door Studio to keep her stocked with eyeball cat toys, so I'm trying to get those stocked up and delivered by the end of January. I think I've got another place where I could sell my Firefly-related stuff, but I need to talk to them about it. And then I need to look into places where I don't know the owner. :) I really should find a place that is interested in my crocheted roses, and I really should do that well in advance of Valentine's Day. :) And I should find some indie coffee shops that might be interested in the coffee cozies. And... my goal list is getting long. Time to start getting to work on that. :)

It's almost Christmas!

Today is my last day in the office until Monday. That's right, I get a whole four day weekend! It's a far cry from the days when I had the week between Christmas and New Years off (and then some), but I'll make do with what I've got.

Tonight, we're headed over to see what amounts to Jeremy's family in the Seattle area for Christmas. Not sure exactly what we'll be doing, but I know there will be dinner and probably either pool or video games, depending on his brother's preference. :)

Tomorrow, we're sleeping late, heading to the zoo for part of the afternoon, having a snack-y dinner and then snack-y treats as we observe a Christmas tradition that does not seem to have any presence on the internet. Must check with Jeremy and determine the origins of this tradition before I try to explain it. :)

Friday, we're also sleeping late, opening Christmas presents, lounging about aimlessly, and then going out for Chinese food and to see Sherlock Holmes. I have to say that the opening Christmas presents part of the event intrigues me greatly. We finally wrapped presents last night, and Jeremy commented on how heavy mine is. As I was getting my boots on this morning, one of my gifts to Jeremy fell off of the "mantle" (read: the top of our entertainment center), and I realized that his gift to me seemed to be sliding the Rock Band drum set over slowly, so I picked up the gift to move it to a more secure location. It is HEAVY. And solid. And I have no idea what it is, unless it's a slab of rock. Seriously.

Saturday, I have claimed to spend the day in my studio, taking pictures of all of the stuff I've made in recent weeks, working on a serious destash of the supplies I will never use (keep an eye on Counting Stars if you want to see what I'm getting rid of!), and maybe even getting some sewing in. I know, shocking! :) And then we've got D&D in the evening.

Sunday will be a day to get all of the usual chores done, but other than that, a lazy day.

Sometime in there, I need to work on my Vampire game, and I'm chomping at the bit to work more on Jeremy's family genealogy. I'm getting somewhere with the German side of his dad's family, which seems to have arrived in America and stayed in one place (Minnesota), until they eventually made their way to California. This was very thoughtful of them. :) It makes my life a lot easier. :)

Back in Seattle!

I spent the last week in the Kansas City area for work, and managed to not have a lot of time for the internet while I was there. Frequently this was related to having dinner with other folks from my company and other companies who were working out there, and one night was dinner at my sister's house, for a chance to spend some time with my niece and nephew.

My nephew recently told my sister that he wanted to be a pirate for Halloween, so of course she turned to me for advice on his Halloween costume. So the first thing I did, naturally, was to send her a link to my article on the topic. We also tried to ask Peter for his opinion on what he needed for his pirate costume, but he had a moment of shyness and didn't end up telling us what he wanted. (He seems to do this a lot when he's asked what he wants, which seems odd to me. Maybe I just have known a lot of opinionated kids. :) ) Sarah also thinks she might dress Lila up as a pirate this year, since Lila most definitely does not know what she wants to be for Halloween. Well, I suppose she could know, but she certainly can't tell anyone yet. :)

I think Peter got one of my pumpkin hats when he was itty bitty, or I'd send another one to my sister for Lila to wear. The little cutie in the picture above is the son of a friend, who was only about 3 months old for his first Halloween. The nice thing about the pumpkin hats, though, is that I bet Peter can still wear his... the cutie in the picture, however, has since grown a head full of curls, and I don't think his hat would fit over them any more... though I'd love to see a picture of him wearing it today. :)

I am so totally gearing up for Halloween in my brain. I've been telling myself no Halloween decorations in the apartment until October 1st, but we do already have a couple of special edition Halloween themed nutcrackers from Target, and I bought mini pumpkins for our desks last night. Going to take the latter to the studio tonight to paint faces on them, and then put off the rest of the Halloween decorations at least until after this weekend, if not until after we get back from St. Louis in 2 weeks. Especially since a visit to a big Halloween store is on the agenda for St. Louis, I think that may be when the Halloween stuff goes up. :)

Ah, Kansas...

With the super melty humidity. Really, thus far the temperatures haven't been too bad, but the humidity is killer.

So one week (and a day) in the cave are done, with only four more days to go. Work is progressing smoothly, which is good. I spent the weekend at my sister's house, and my mom came out for the weekend as well, so we had a lot of fun. Now I'm just trying to figure out how to get all of the stuff I bought back to Seattle. I think I may need to buy another bag and check my dirty laundry or something. :)

I've been getting a bit of crocheting done, too, making some new armwarmers in some super awesome color combinations. I'm struggling a little bit, though, because I really haven't had much time to devote to my Etsy shops lately, and it definitely shows. Being out of town (and having the shops closed since I'm gone for 2 full weeks) doesn't help matters any. It is discouraging, though, realizing that even when I was not really working too hard at my shops, I was still making a lot more stuff, listing more regularly, and the shops (well, mostly ScaryWhiteGirl Designs) were doing okay. The less time I have to put into them, the worse they tend to do. And me and free time are totally not friends right now. :)

This may only be a temporary lapse in my faith in my shop doing well. I certainly am still enjoying what crafting time I do have--I even made Peter a new blanket this weekend, and he would have gotten a new pillow, too, if I hadn't bent the needle on my sister's sewing machine. (She is not a serious enough crafter to keep spare needles on hand... for shame!) I think, though, that I am looking at the priorities in my life, and crafting as a business does seem to be falling by the wayside. I need to evaluate if that's where I want it to go, or if I want to try to refocus my energies on it.

I'm curious to hear from others who have gone through the same or similar things... have you decided to scale back your businesses, or have you found a way to recharge your interest?

Blergh...

Even though this is supposed to be a tame week, it seems to be getting crazier. It doesn't help matters any that my computer at home is acting up AND Jeremy's laptop is acting up. So we got to fight with mine for a while before our walk, and then fight with his for a while after our walk. Neither are fixed yet, either. :( So last night went from a "take a nice walk, then write" sort of night to a much crazier one. And that ends up bumping the crazy into the rest of the week, of course.

Of course, last night wasn't all bad. When we were in Michigan, I got to talking about genealogy with one of the other gamers, and Jeremy tentatively asked what he needed to do to get me to work on his. I laughed and said that all he had to do was ask, because I've been at a dead end on my family and Nathaniel's family for so long that I would welcome another family to work on. Of course, now it's a matter of getting back into the swing of things with this research, and coping with a lot of fairly common names, and researching states I've not dealt with before. But still, fun stuff. :)

As for crafts, on top of the usual, I'm waiting to hear back from one woman on a possible custom order, and I've got some research to do for another custom order. Both of these should be a lot of fun to do, though it means putting off some of my other crocheting. Again. :)

I'm already looking forward to this weekend, when we have nothing at all planned for Friday night and all day Saturday. Sunday, we have a birthday party to go to. Lazy weekend, get here faster already! :)

ZOMG busy...

Yeah, except busy barely describes it. I had to put "posting to my blog" on my to do list for the writer's group or it wasn't gonna happen today.

It doesn't help matters any that I spent 6 days only checking the internet with my phone, which meant E-mail and Facebook, and little else. But since I was in the midst of Ambercon US, I wasn't complaining too much, as I was having an utter blast. I haven't finished my write-up of the gaming yet, but when I do, I'll cross-post it over here, for all those people who are interested in gaming stuffs. :)

In crafty news, I've been getting some crocheting done finally, in preparation for a small show that I'm doing on May 7, at Comedy Underground, from 6-9 p.m. I'll mostly have Decapitated Dollies and other silly stuff that I make. There's a comedy show after the craft show, so you can stick around afterwards if you're interested. And there will be a few other local artists with amusing stuff selling there as well.

We've also got an EtsyRain show coming up on May 9, at SodoPop! This is the day before Mother's Day, so it's a great opportunity to pick up a last minute gift for your mom. We'll have about 30 EtsyRain artists selling at this event, so there are lots of options for gift giving.