School!

School has just started and I'm excited to be going back healthy. I have been working on several projects since I came back from Florida but I've been neglecting my blog and I'm sorry for that. I'm in a 2D and 3D Fabrics design class. I'll be learning croceht, knitting, felting and basketry. Super excited. I'll update soon with more pics of the things I've been working on.

Finally Updated Etsy!

Woo! So, I finally updated my Etsy. I added the owls previously mentioned. They're named Popsicle and Momo. On the left in the pink and blue is Popsicle. On the right is Momo in green and brown. They turned out so well. My lovely boyfriend took the pics for me. He did a good job. The pics look greally great.

Still on the house hunt. Lame. I hate looking at houses. Especially in the summer. It's too hot.

I've been rather craft lately. I decorated a birdhouse in scrapbook paper and modpodge for my mother, created three Mario themed perler bead costers (fourth one to follow), taken lots of pictures (check my flickr), and I cross stitched a Pikachu. Picture to follow once I frame it. Personally I feel super creative these days. Though... there are so many things I want to try I'm not sure I'll ever have the time to do it all... lol I want to try some glass etching, play with polymer clay, and make resin beads/jewelry.

I'll be going to Florida with my oldest brother in a couple weeks. I'll probably spend the ride down cross stitching and maybe do some cross stitching on the beach as well. I'm excited. Can't wait!

I need to get a gallery going on here so people can look through all my projects. Hmm we'll see about that. Anyway, it's late. Off to bed. <3

Rain :(

Sadly it's raining so I haven't been able to go outside and take some good pics of the stuff I want to put on etsy but here's a crappy pic of my owls anyway.

A life update.

So here's what's up. I'm healing nicely though I still have one more hand to be fixed and one of my incisions from my gallbladder removal isn't doing too well. I'm keeping an eye on it. If it doesn't start looking better soon, I'll have to go to the doctor and see I can do. I've recently decided that cross stitch is awesome depending on the subject matter and that I simply must become good at it. I have finished two owls and a purse to sell on Etsy. Tomorrow I hope to try and get some good pictures of them and show you guys what I've been working on.

I've been asked to make curtains for my brother/sister-in-law and also I have to start on a pirate softie for a friend of mine who is having a baby. I've had tons of ideas lately and I've been sketching a lot.

Loverboy and I have been looking at houses lately. Lots of houses. We found one that, though out of our price range a tad bit, is perfect for us. It's four bedrooms, two full baths and an attached garage. It has a screened in porch and a POOL. It also has a fairly nice sized kitchen as well as a dining room, living room, and family room. In short, it's huge and perfect for us to start a family. We haven't put an offer on it yet. Still weighing the pros and cons and trying to make sure we can afford it before we jump in and buy it. Hopefully everything works out because I'm simply tired of looking at houses.

Pics of my projects tomorrow hopefully. Meanwhile feel free to check out my flickr.

And hey I have a follower! Thanks for following! :)

Since I haven't shared any pictures in a while I figured I'd share this one of my niece Lainey with the stuffed Koala I made her for Christmas. I'd tell you the koala's name but she changes it every time you ask her. haha Plus it's always a weird name. I think she has her own made up language or something. She's three, four in July.

Souvenir Giveaway

Souvenir Giveaway: "Use your imagination ;)"

The Owl Barn is having a pretty sweet give away. Lots of really cool stuff. I'd like to win. :)

An update on what's going on with me. I've had carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand about two weeks ago. I had the stitches out on monday so I can finally do stuff. Still difficult to grip anything tightly. Still needs to do some healing but overall its going well. Last week on Tuesday I had my gallbladder removed because it was believed by my doctor that it was what was causing me the abdominal pain. I still have to have my left hand done but I'm recovering well and feeling much better. I have been sewing on and off though right now I'm actually working on a purse to sell.

Anyway I'm going to go lay down. I'm exhausted.

Ebay!

I’m excited. On eBay I’ve found a sewing machine I want. It’s a Viking Husqvarna Model 6430 Heavy Duty Sewing Machine. I’m pretty stoked. I’m currently the only bidder with 2 days left to go. Cross your fingers and hope I get it.

In the meantime, I should be at work right now but I’m not because my gallbladder hates me. I woke up today and got in the shower. By the time I got out of the shower, I was in pretty good amount of pain. Obviously I stayed home from work. I’m calling my doctor tomorrow and telling him to move up my tests. I can’t wait until the 3rd of May to get this figured out. This needs done immediately. It’s getting worse.

Life loves me I tell you.

Elephant!

 I have had this elephant cut out and ready to be sewn together for months but I ran into some problems. Basically the pattern that I got for the elephant was horrible. Nothing lines up properly and when you need it to line up that can cause some issues. Also there are darted seams to create the bottom of the elephant so he sits down but the pattern only told me to make ONE seam. My mother went over to our neighbor who just so happens to sew a lot and asked her about it and she fixed the seams for me. I have now sewn it together and it’s completely adorable. I knew it would be. I’m going to edit the pattern so it works properly.

Also after cleaning and oiling my sewing machine really really well, it seems to be working. My current plans are to finish up my owls as well as to make two purses. I’m being paid to make one purse for a friend and the other I plan to put on Etsy along with my elephant and owls. I’m also being paid to make a pig for a friend. Once I get the fabric she wants for that I’ll be starting on it. Of course this is all after I finish my current project.

After all that, I’m going to make my quilt. Yay!

Painting

I spent a chunk of my day today painting. I’m not sure if it’ll turn out well since I’ve never been that fantastic with acrylic paint but we shall see. I’m better with oil paints but I really don’t have the room to set up an easel and everything. I just have to make due with what I have.

Loverboy and I went to look at another house last week. It was a pretty nice house. Needed lots of cleaning but other than that it seemed to be in good shape. He’s going to have his parents check it out and see what they think before he makes any final decisions.

I finally got all of my health insurance issues straightened out. Yay! I’m glad. I was starting to worry. A lot of things are going wrong with my body at this point. I really don’t want to have to pay all my medical bills myself.

I had an allergy test on Monday to see if I had any food allergies causing inflammation around my kidneys. I don’t. I am, of course, extremely severely allergic to grass, tress, dust, mold, and weeds. I knew that though. I’m going to start taking allergy shots again. He asked if I wanted to have them and I figured what the hell why now.

I have a urologist appointment next week. Perhaps he can figure out why I haven’t passed this kidney stone and why I have inflammation.

Here’s hopin’.

Sew Troubling

My sewing machine is hating me right now. I’ve been wanting to buy a new one just to have a machine that has more stitch options but that’ll be a little while as I’ll have to save up a bit to get it. I have my eye on the Brother 6000i. From reading reviews, it seems to be a very good product for the price.

My sewing machine is currently breaking thread and losing the feed on the bottom thread. I thread it again and it just breaks again. I know it isn’t the thread. It’s good thread. I made sure of that because I was having this problem before. The thread sometimes gets caught within the machine.

Any ideas?

It gets pretty frustrating. I enjoy sewing but when I can’t get the machine to cooperate it makes me not want to sew much. Well, I still want to sew I just don’t want to deal with the frustration. Everything will be going fine but then the machine will screw up and I have to thread it again and again. I tried turning the tension down a bit. That helped for a little while until the bottom thread somehow stopped coming through.

I guess I shouldn’t expect much from the machine. I bought it at WalMart on Black Friday for 50 bucks. It’s not as if it’s a high quality machine. Companies tend to make cheap products to sell at rock bottom prices for that day. I just needed a bigger machine than what I had since I was using the Singer Pixie. The machine was working wonderfully for a while but now it wants to cause me problems.

Oh woe is me. On top of that, I’m sick and miserable. Lucky. Can’t even sew to take my mind off of the aching throat and inability to breathe. Poor me. haha

The abdomen pain turns out to be a kidney stone. Not only that but the CT scan showed inflammation in the tissue surrounding my organs likely caused by a chronic food allergy. So, now I get to go to a urologist and an allergy doctor. Yay!

I hope I’m not allergic to something good. lol

Shopping is awesome.

Today I went to Hobby Lobby as mentioned and bought the lovely owl fabric I had seen previously by Brother Sister Design Studio. I also spent a long time looking at markers with loverboy and eventually talking myself out of actually buying any. I have such expensive hobbies. It’s really quite unfair. I really want some Copic markers to use for drawing manga but they’re insanely expensive and every time I find some on eBay I get outbid. I never win on eBay. I have terrible luck it seems. They’d be so awesome to have.

I have some projects planned. Tomorrow I hope to finish up my owls. I’d also like to start on a bag and maybe some bed pockets for my mother and myself. I have issues sometimes with being able to sew at home. My brother recently started dating a girl whose mother doesn’t like him and my brother, for whatever reason, feels he has to see his girlfriend every day. This means, of course, that they’re here every night. It becomes a problem because sometimes I’ll come home from work and want to sew but they’re in the room I use for sewing. I like the girl. I just wish there was some way for them to hang out and for me to sew when I want to without problems.This is one reason I really want to find a house soon. I won’t have to worry about other people interfering so much with what I want to do. My father did mention possibly converting the extra bedroom to a sewing room for me. We’ll see what happens with that. Hopefully we’ll just find a house sooner rather than later. We have our eye on one that actually has a large amount of water damage. It would have to be gutted basically and redone but it’d be worth it if we got the house for cheap considering it’s in a fantastic neighborhood. I really just don’t want to live next to crazy trashy rednecks or crack heads. Call me picky.

The pain I’ve been having in my abdomen has been even worse today. I got a doctor’s appointment for Monday but I’m worried that I’m going to end up in the hospital before then. I’ve not been feeling very well today. I’ve been coughing a lot, my body aches, and I’ve been really tired. Add all that to the abdomen pain and I’m fairly miserable. I keep watching for symptoms. If I develop a fever, I may just go to the hospital as a precaution because abdomen pain plus a fever is not a good sign.

I’m going to go lay down again. It makes my abdomen hurt less.

Happy crafting!

My purse!

I did pretty well for my first time.

Finished Purse

So, I'd been working on a purse for a while but as is always the case when I try to follow directions from patterns I ran into some issues. Mostly the instructions aren't that well written and honestly I just kept thinking "WHY does it it want me to do it this way when I could do it this way?" I pretty much ended up throwing the directions away and doing it in a way that made sene to me. I'm very happy I did this. The purse came out really well considering it's my first time making one. I'll do better next time because next time I'll do it all my way.

Recently, I've been having pain in my abdomen on the right lower side as well as back pain on the right lower part of my back. Since I have my insurance back, I feel that it's important I get a doctor's appointment as soon as possible. It's possible I have a kidney infection or appendicitis. Two very bad things. In the morning, before class, I'll be calling to see what I can get set up. In the meantime, I should go to bed. Tomorrow should be a fun day of class and seeing loverboy. I just got paid so I'm making him take me to Hobby Lobby so I can buy fabric. lol Poor guy always gets so bored of sitting around waiting on me to pick out fabric. He'll live though. I get bored when he starts talking about cars or when he drags me all over Best Buy looking at DVDs. Relationships are give and take. lol

Good News!

Firstly, I have transferred my insurance coverage from my mother to myself which means instead of having to wait for open enrollment at work I am now covered. That makes me feel tons better. Especially since lately I've been having abdomen pain that I can't quite explain. Kidney stones? Appendicitis? I don't know but it's a bit scary. Anyway, I will be able to have my surgery thankfully. I wasn't really looking forward to meeting with a lawyer and forcing Walmart to pay, As greedy as they are they'd have dragged it out for months if they could.

Also I have finished one owl and made a cute striped elephant. Pictures will come later because I'm lazy. Haha I would have spent part of today finishing up my other owls but I'm out of fiberfill and with the snow all the roads except the highway suck. Unless it snows a bunch more it's back to class in the morning.

Just finished reading Percy Jackson and The Lightning Theif. Fantastic book. Read it. Bed time for moi.

Projects!

Currently I'm in the process of creating three more owls to put up for sale on my currently empty Etsy shop as well as an elephant. I just got a rather awesome valentines day present in the form of a book on turning socks into really awesomely cool stuffed animals. It's called Stray Sock Sewing, Too. Also I bought a book called One-Yard Wonders with lots of fun stuff for me to make.

Recently I was supposed to have carpal tunnel surgery on my hands but it looks like that won't be happening yet. Unfortunately my mother's insurance company has terminated my coverage since I turned 23. What that means is that I'm meeting with a lawyer on Tuesday in hopes of forcing Walmart to pay for my surgery. Walmart of course will try their hardest to get out of paying but I got carpal tunnel working there and I deserve workman's compensation. Stupid cash registers!

Anyway, I'm just beginning this craft selling business. Hopefully it all goes well.

Sewing Fool

Allister is so cute. I really should have taken more pictures of all the other things I've made. Now, I've given them away and I only have crappy cell phone pics of most of them. Hind sight is 20/20.