Thursday, May 29, 2008

By any other name...

Awesome fun little doodad over HERE! This will spell your name out with photos from Flickr


Kay - Especially for Ari Y Pastry Cutter L A

I read somewhere online today that in typography, it is not necessary to put 2 spaces after a period. I'm not sure I like knowing that.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

I Etsy, therefore I am

It's taken me a while...there are so many amazing things on Etsy. I was hesitant to buy, because I wasn't really sure what to expect. There are many artists on the internet, and, to be honest, I haven't always been happy with the hand-crafted goods I have bought online before.

There is a difference between looking hand-crafted, and looking hand-made.



Then, there was Emma.
trinlayk.etsy.com

I found Emma on the Amigurumi group on Flickr. Followed some links, and joined Etsy, so that I could make dear little Emma mine! I am still in love with her ^_^

I'm addicted to Etsy now, although I don't buy as much as I would like to, simply because I don't have enough $$ for all that ;) I've got some tiny plush monsters, and some supplies...for now, I have a huge watch-list, wish-list...future purchase list...whatever ;)

LaurenAlexander.Etsy.comChelle.Etsy.comjmaccknit.Etsy.com
Lupin.Etsy.comSassyApron.Etsy.comLiiLii.Etsy.com
JorgensenStudio.Etsy.comaNGrYGiRLGear.Etsy.comLishLash.Etsy.com

*♥**♥**♥**♥**♥**♥**♥**♥**♥**♥**♥**♥**♥**♥**♥**♥**♥**♥**♥**♥*




I have noticed that I am incredibly wary of Etsy shops that only have a handful of items in stock. When shopping from individuals, I prefer to buy from those that appear to be extremely dedicated to their business, rather than just trying to make money off of something they already do. Business is not convenient, it's work, and I appreciate those that put a lot of work into things like packaging, shop design, and stock. It makes me feel more confident that my entire transaction will be handled professionally, from quality, to timely shipping, etc. Just my $0.02.

©All images are the sole property of the individual sellers. Please click the photos to go directly to the sellers' homepage. Do not steal images. Do not hotlink! These images will expire after a time; however, the links will still work.©

Friday, May 16, 2008

An Apple a day



Visitors to my blog using OSX are double those that are using Vista. It's true, Xp has the MAJOR majority, but as long as Vista isn't beating out Mac, I'm happy ^_^



I choose to ignore the fact that these numbers may be greatly skewed due to the fact that I myself use OSX. It's my blog. I can do that. Just like I can say "the fact" twice in one sentence. It's good to be me.

Monday, May 12, 2008

It is a success to be one...

Mother's Day cards:

I made these from cardstock, and a little apple stamp I carved myself =]



Pretty lil' ornament:

The makings of an ornament for the Feltbots: Christmas Ornament #2 - Trees swap. I didn't even think to take a pic of the finiisshed ornament =[



Stamps!


I bought some new carving material, Speedball Speedy-Carve. It's pink, and carves very nicely. It's stiffer, so it's not as much like carving butter, but it also doesn't crumble or break as easily as the Mastercarve and the other erasers I've used. I carved these over Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Charles drew the little mushroom, and requested I make it into a stamp. I <3 it so much! ^_^



Thrifty!

This is my booty from my recent yard-sale pillaging! RAWR! I spent less than $6 on all this. *love* that pink & green velvent ribbon!!



My 1st center-pull ball:

I finally learned how to wind my yarn into center-pull balls! This is my first one =]



Organization:

This is about halfway through my manic cleaning & re-organization of my crafting area. I bought the black plastic trays, & the set of small plastic drawers. I needed to make room for my new printer!!

This is when I decided I was done. It's not really DONE, but I'm done messing with it for now. I have to clean up the area around the floor, so that we can put up the shelves we bought at Home Depot (more Mother's Day luvin' for me!). My new printer fits nicely there on the bottom shelf of my desk =]

I think that's it for today (2 blog posts after 10pm!). I can't wait to get these shelves up, and fill them with pretty decoupaged photo boxes, and my ever-growing collection of softies ^_^

Mary, Mary...

I chose Home Depot for Mother's Day ^_^

I have seeds germinating: anaheim peppers, California poppies, peppermint, some sort of round red tomato, strawberries, chives, zinnias, and lavender.

I got myself a yellow pear tomato plant. Last year, I got tons of fruit, that NEVER ripened! I ended up with two yellow tomatoes, sometime around December? Idk, I blogged it somewhere 'round here. I hope I have better luck this year!

The hydrangea were a gift from one of my customers at the bar. They are the most delicious shade of purple, with bright baby blue centers. Now, I have never really been fond of hydrangea; I'm used to the big bushy bushes, with half-browned blossoms playing home to a horde of icky bugs & spiders. But this little potted plant here, oh, I love this pretty little thing ^_^

My geranium there, that's the king of my patio garden. That plant has had flowers on it EVERY DAY since I brought it home. It bloomed all throughout the winter, the summer, every single freakin' day!

And, finally, my poor little tree...I think its a poplar, but I'm not 100% sure (it says on the tag somewhere...). Charles bought it for me at Christmas time, because I was so sad watching all my other plants die. He went to the nursery, and asked for something that will stay green and grow through the winter. How sweet is that? He even decorated it with Christmas ornaments before he brought it home to me ^_^ Anyway, this little tree is looking so droopy and it's starting to get a little browned at some of the tips =[ My heart is breaking! I had it on top of the t.v., where it only got direct sunlight for an hour or two a day, but it was always bright. I had to move it, because the cats kept knocking it down. I moved it to the kitchen, but it doesn't get much light there. So, now it sits there under the bbq. Not a lot of direct light, and the direct light it gets is first thing in the morning. I also put it in a bigger pot...the roots didn't look too bound up, but I figured it couldn't hurt *shrug*

Friday, May 09, 2008

Another one bites the dust

I'm not pregnant anymore.

Since 1998: 18 miscarriages, 1 ectopic pregnancy, and 2 healthy live births.
That averages to almost 2 miscarriages a year my entire adult life.

Not sure why I am even trying anymore.

Happy freakin' Mother's Day.

Monday, May 05, 2008

I see pregnant people

I am pregnant.

Yes, finally, after 21mos of charting my temps, inspecting my toilet paper, mourning my 17 miscarriages (and one ectopic!), and hounding my calendar, I am finally pregnant!

Ok, long time, no post, I know. I don't even have anything crafty this time. I should, I have been crafting my little head off! I've been on bedrest for several days at a time. I've been crocheting a lot, because everyone and their brother (okay, my brother's SO) is pregnant. I am in dire need of YARN. Nothing fancy, some sport or worsted wool, or cotton...whatever is soft, and relatively smooth. I have three baby blankets, and two baby hoodies to make by October. I am also in the process of making this purse for myself (in pink), and my daughter is begging me for this sweater (also in pink, but I like her better in yellow, personally).

My daughter is getting on my last nerve, btw. She has this major Pretty Pretty Princess complex, and she is a royal pain in the ass! Charles and I have taken to singing, "Daddy, I want a goose that lays golden eggs!" quite frequently (she doesn't get it, altho she has seen the movie). Charles about had an aneurism at Borders yesterday, when she turned her back on us, and put her fingers in her ears, when we were explaining that we were at the bookstore for reading material, and not Beanie Babies.

Anyway, back to pregnancy and crochet. I have been spending my time hunting patterns, lazily working up blocks of this afghan, and winding my yarn into center-pulls balls with flat bottoms (all my 8 skeins of yarn, lol). I find that I frequently apologize to my mom in this blog. Today's apology: I'm sorry, mom. I really love granny squares. Seriously, this blanket makes the deepest parts of my soul smile :D

Charles seems to be quite fixated on baby names already. I don't mean fixated like it's all he thinks about; fixated like he brings it up more often than I am thinking about it, lol. We're pretty happy with the name Victor for a boy, so far. We've been talking for several months about naming a baby girl Caitlin, after my best friend of 10 years. I'm not sure, though...I don't quite know how I feel about naming a child after someone else =X My friend, Lyndsay, due in November, found out this week that she is having a boy. She is naming him Tristan. That's cool; I like that name, but I wouldn't use it for my child, so now we don't have to worry about naming conflicts ;) Lyndsay's baby is getting a blanket of this pattern (scroll to bottom), but in these much less obnoxious colors: . It's perfect, really. Lyndsay is going to give birth to a little rockstar ;)

My sister-in-law is pregnant, too. Well, not really in-LAW, since they aren't married, but, whatever. I haven't actually heard from her or my brother. I heard the news from my dad (who is doing better health-wise, worse life-wise). I think my SIL is kinda wrapped up in my nephew (recently diagnosed with autism), and the pg. I think my bro is just BUSY, with a full-time job, and being a full-time student...and having a crazy pregnant wife, and a small child ;) LOL Good lord, I don't know how he does it X]

I have two other friends that are pregnant right now, but they are both due within the next month.

I have been journalling. I haven't kept a journal since I was a teenager. When I was about 18, the diary I had kept since I was 8yrs old fell into the wrong hands. I still cringe when I think back to the embarrassment that caused. I still wanna cry when I think back to all those thoughts and memories I lost. Now, journals just make me feel vulnerable, but I am determined to document this pregnancy, and *Heaven forbid* should it end badly, our continued effort to breed.

Good things come to those who mate.


I had an ob appt today. It was un-eventful, but amusing. I ended up waiting there for almost 2 hours. I fell asleep a couple times, heh. There was a woman there that was pg, and she had a set of 19mo old twin boys named Finnegan and Oliver, and a 3yr old ds named Valentino. Super cute family; they made me happy (and briefly consider tubal ligation after this baby ;) Oliver bit Finnegan's toe, and there was much screaming. Probably wouldn't have been so bad had Finnegan had his shoes on, but alas, they were confiscated by mama about 20min earlier, when he kicked Oliver in the ribs.

I get Progesterone (sticky-baby hormone) shots every Monday. I mentioned to my dr that I've been itchy *down there* for the past couple days. She "assured" me that it was a common side-effect of the Progesterone. Hooray! I get to practice discreetly scratching my crotch for the next 5wks! ~.^

My dr is feeling very confident about this pg now. I apologized for my unkempt-ness; explained that I just can't seem to wake up the past couple days, that most of my bras are horribly uncomfortable now, and that the taste of my toothpaste makes me wretch. She was unnaturally happy to hear of my issues, lol. But, it's encouraging that she's so confident that I am actually pg =]

Perhaps the most exciting news to come from my appt today was that my dr gave us the green light to *get busy* again ;)

We went to dinner at Marie Callender's. I had a bowl of potato cheese soup, salad bar, cornbread, and a huge slice of double cream blueberry pie. Charles had a piece of meatloaf, and some mashed taters. Oh, I had some of his meatloaf, too. Then I came home, and polished off a box of Little Debbie's strawberry roll things.

Old wives say that if you crave sweets in your pregnancy, you should expect a girl.

I have determined that I need one of those silver allergy bracelets for my latex allergy. I myself forget about it at least once a day. I talked with the tech at the lab about that; about how I always forget, even though I have a fairly severe allergy. She said that it's really common in people that don't have instant allergic reactions. Something about the connection between the pain and the allergen not being subconscious, or instinct, or whatever. Idk. I just know that I've got an awesome husband, that always reminds me before every appt that I am allergic, and always makes big "latex allergy" signs for my door when I am in the hosp =]

I think I'm going to fall asleep now *yawn*