Alive, sans kickin'

Yeah, I'm still around. After losing what turned out to be TWINS, to my second ectopic rupture, I didn't feel much like posting anymore. I've now lost both of my fallopian tubes, and cannot get pregnant. Tragic, for sure. Currently, I'm waiting for yet another surgery, to take care of a scar tissue adhesion that is causing me pain, and a cyst on my ovary. Surgery is scheduled for August. Ugh.

I'm also having some problems with anxiety. My husband is going away to interrogator school on Feb 5, and will be gone for 5 months. Everyone keeps saying, "Oh, that's far away, you still have plenty of time..." yadda yadda. When you live the life we do, moving every 2-3 years, your concept of time changes. 6 months is a HUGE chunk of time. We're moving to Ft. Polk, LA, next July. Yes, it's a year away, but it feels like tomorrow. I'm not sleeping well, because I'm having disturbing dreams about moving by myself, custody issues, and struggling with the idea of being separated from my honey for half a year, only to be separated for a year and a half. Ft. Polk is where interrogators go to be prepared for deployment *sigh*

This summer has gone pretty well, so far, though. The kids have been pretty good, although my 9yr old son has entered the "I cannot tell the truth" phase. It's hard not being able to trust anything he says. I suppose, just like sleepless nights with a newborn, that this is all preparing me for the teenage years ;)

I have been crafting, mostly crochet. AND, I've been knitting! Much thanks to my wonderful mother<, who taught me more from two states away than all the knitting books I've read ;)

So, here are some pictures, just a sampling of some of the things I've been doing. I'm still doing swaps, a handful at a time, and I've really been enjoying sewing a lot more lately =]


Cherry stamp, carved for the "I <3 Cherries" swap on Swapbot


Little crochet mushroom, with hand-beaded straight pins.


Crochet coinpurse, with zipper, and little crocheted cherries (also for the "I <3 Cherries" swap on Swapbot)


Crochet beret, made from a pattern picked p at my LYS. I *love* this thing, and wear it all the time =]


My first finished knitted project, a sock for my iPhone. I really love this, it works better than any other iPhone "case" that I've had!


Wedding cake toppers (prototype). A good friend is getting married next spring, and asked me to make these for her.


Wire-wrapped jewelry sets, made for teacher gifts. (black is Swarovski crystal, blue is faceted sodalite)


Knitted fingerless loves. Again, I totally love these, and wear them a LOT, usually with the crocheted beret above.


Crocheting a super soft, fuzzy, scalloped scarf.

There you have it. I have been busy, despite pain that won't go away, and anxiety that has me jumpin' at the wind. I will make an effort to blog a whole lot more, although I must warn that my pictures may get crappier, as I have been seduced by the convienience of taking them with my iPhone, and uploading them immediately ;) I also tweet frequently over on Twitter!

Flight of the Busy Bee

Pictures are always great.


Matchbox with Mini ATCs. Theme was butterfly/dragonfly. Swapped.


May Carving. Someone is asking to buy one of my owl stamps...I haven't decided whether or not I want to do that, though.


A handful of ATCs I've created over the past couple weeks.

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*

Spring me right 'round, baby

It's official...Spring is here in my little pocket of the world ^_^

That's one of the lil' plum trees in front of my home. This was taken a week ago, and now, the two trees look like they've been covered in pink popcorn, they are so full of blossoms! It's been raining consistently the past couple days, but it looks like the flowers are hanging in there =]

I'm definitely ready for Spring:


I love the little posey stamp (the one slathered in bronze ink, hehe) ^.^

I am deathly ill with the flu right now =[ I can barely read, because my eyes start burning almost immediately (is that from fatigue, or fever, or what? My eyes always bother me when I have the flu). I can barely walk, because I'm so dizzy and tired, and I'm so hungry, but it seems the only thing I can get down is chicken broth. Lucky for me, I love chicken broth (with a lil' fresh green onions....mmmm.....). Charlie brought me some Theraflu this morning (one of the few cold meds I can take), and I vomited quite promptly after sipping it. Wouldn't you know, they've changed their formula to make it "better tasting"; this means that aspartame is now the first ingredient on the list. Blech. I can NOT stomach artificial sweeteners.I tried to covered it up with some fresh honey, and fresh lemons harvested from my father-in-law's tree, but nothing can cover up that sickening Sweet n' Low taste >_<

I'm thinking of dropping off Swap-bot for a while. I have so much fun with the swaps, and I have learned a lot of new things there, but I've fallen behind on a handful of swaps already. I know most people there are understanding that sometimes life happens, but it seems to happen to me too much [imo], considering my post office closes earlier than most, and I'm frequently (and without warning) being called into work...and now I'm sick. There have been a couple times that I was a day late sending my swaps because my dear hubby had either taken the car to work, or taken the debit card to work (wouldn't be a problem, if he was actually ever in his office, and I could go pick it up). I have one swap now, which I actually only sent a couple days late, and my partner has informed me hasn't arrived yet. So, I had been working my butt off trying to get together the swaps I need to send out this week, as well as a replacement package for her - insert freaking-out-exhusband requiring an un-planned trip an hour north to pick up my kids, an injured co-worker, needing me to open the bar for a couple hours so that she can see the doctor, scrambling to find a sitter, since I had to pick up the kids almost an entire day early, and then the flu, bringing it's mighty hammer of injustice down upon our household.....*sigh.....I'm not even sure where I am at anymore. Needless to say, I will likely be sending several replacement packages to this woman, for her patience!

Idk, maybe I should learn how to say, "No." But, then, would I have said no to my kids? Or to my job, when it really was an unavoidable emergency?

I should have shouted, "NO!" to the flu, methinks -_-

The cat says, "Meow!"

I drew and carved these three stamps while at work on a particularly slow Monday night (Jan 21).



They are carved with a standard Xacto knife, from 2 Stanford Magic Rub erasers. This is a new eraser for me, and I do not like it as much as I love the Staedtler Mars erasers, but I like it better than the Pink Pearl erasers. The Magic Rub erasers have a lot of bubbles in them, and are not quite as soft as the Mars erasers.

The kitty cat was made at the request of my husband, and I am so happy with it! I already have some nifty ideas for him =]

The lightbulb came from me trying to think of things that started with the letter L. It was the simplest of these three carvings.

The cupcake is one I have been meaning to do for a while. I'm not on the "OMGZ I LOVE CUPCAKES!!" bandwagon, but I knew that I would be able to use this in many ATCs. It was a total pain the the ass to carve X]

Give it to me baby

I want THIS. I need THIS.

Click click, bang bang

I joined a new group, and I intend to stick with it. It's the 365 Days group, at Flickr.

Basically, the idea is to take and upload a self-portrait every day, for one year.

I'm hoping to catch some important things in the upcoming year, such as getting pregnant (*fingers crossed*), quitting smoking, and...well, that's really all I can think of right now, lol X]

I think it will be interesting to see how my hobbies change throughout the year, as well. This year, I've gone from beadwork, to painting, to pencil drawing, to digital artwork, 3D texturing, to sewing clothing, t-shirt surgery, sewing hair-clips, making softies, little marble magnets, ATCs (Artist Trading Cards), and collages! I'm sure there has been more, actually....that's all I can think of that I have done in the past 3 months ;)

I have not quite decided when I want to start, tho...Perhaps today. I know I want to start this week, so I can be sure to catch the ATC (Army Training Conference) in Reno this weekend. My first formal event, the first time I have been to Reno at a "legal" age, and a lot of activity, new people, and hopefully, excitement!