Vee Dee

I've managed to get a few things stitched up.  I seem to have a little creative burst and here is what I have finished so far:







I have some more ideas and some are already in patterns. The above zombie valentines are doing fairly well. They take a lot longer to make then I thought but I like them. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum. Sometimes stitching all day means I don't get anything done around the house and the joints don't always care for it.

The weather is finally freezing and there is a bit of snow here and there. I took a couple photos around town in the last week or so. I've been fighting bronchitis and some aches and pains. It hasn't been much fun but it could be worse. I'll try to take some photos tomorrow when I drive up to The Plaza.



Sometimes I do get up and watch the sun rise.



Gas tanks?



We think those are natural gas derricks.



It's supposed to get ugly outside again tomorrow. I say "ugly" because, while normally I love snow storms, I hate them when I have to travel up to KC during rush hour. Maybe I'll get lucky and can get home before it's too terrible.

Tschus.

December re-cap

The end is nigh.  End of the year, anyways.  I hope everyone had a lovely holiday.   We really didn't do much as money is tight and family were unable to be with us. But it was a very nice Christmas and the first in our new house!

I thought I'd share some photos from the last few weeks.  I'll narrate here and there so it's not too terribly boring!Two rats are still with us. This might be it for small critters but I always say that, and then we get more. Anyways, they are fun to watch and play with. These two are super tame and love to be held and crawl all over you. The enjoy climbing into my cleavage and peeking out of my shirt. Scamps.



This is Ashley, albeit a bit blurry.



This is Samus and she is Ash's sister. They were enjoying some rat croissants. Yes, they are little croissant crackers for rats.



Here is my attempt at photographing Tobin in low light/Christmas tree lights. He won't sit still and you can't go near him without him trying to cover you in his saliva. He also has a whip-like tail and when he walks past the tree, he catches ornaments on his tail. Then he runs around the house, whipping everyone and everything with plastic ornaments. I tried to get pictures of that too but by the time I grab the camera, the ornament comes loose and launches through the air. It's very entertaining.



Normally this is what Tobin is doing, when he's not licking. Patton has taken to grabbing Tobin's neck and legs in his jaws. This inevitably leads to an ass kicking since Patton is half Tobin's size.





More common dog scenes in the house.







Horace, the big black lab/chow/retriever mix, came to spend the holidays with us. I got an email asking for a five day foster home and felt that we can handle one more just for a few days. Other than some mild dog aggression and marking a few spots in the house, he was pretty fun to have around. Since it was our first foster situation, we learned a lot. Horr'y is now at a prison in Missouri where he is being housed with and trained by an inmate. When he's done he is going to a retriever rescue in Colorado where he will hopefully find a new home soon. We might see Horr'y again when he comes back through on his way to CO. It was a rewarding experience but things got hectic at times. Luckily we have the fenced yard where everyone can go and I got some quiet time.



Christmas was good. Ron was happy to get some ham since I don't eat pork anymore. Here he is celebrating and coveting his pig meat. "Ron, come get some ham!!!"



This is normally what Sadie does while we cook.



We also exchanged gifts and Ron got me a topless pinup ornament. It's actually a nice, glass one. I had never heard of Pornaments before and thought it was pretty funny. Plus it fit in with all the pinup stuff I did all year.



I got Ron a Metalocolypse shirt to go with the first season on DVD.





It was also a good year for geek gifts. Ron got me a Bruce Campbell tshirt and a shirt and mug from blog of Hyperbole and a Half. (Thanks Andy for turning me onto that blog. I have laughed a lot while reading her posts!)

I also got Ron season 2 of Red vs Blue and Red Dead Redemption for the Xbox. We having played Red Dead yet but hopefully later today.



The last few weeks I've had an influx on orders through my Etsy site. I had a stroke of luck when someone received one of my pieces through her secret santa. She was so happy that she shared it on Reddit and I got orders from that. Thankfully due to those orders and some subversive ornaments I sold, I was able to order a low-priced sewing machine. Next up, geek pillows! (Once I figure out how to run a sewing machine.)

Annnnnnnnd I'm almost completely off my fibromyalgia medicine. I was supposed to get off it if I got pregnant. And well, that happened and we all know how that turned out. But since I had started tapering down, I thought I'd just keep going. I'm down to half a pill every other day. If I'm spaced out, crabby or in pain, that's why. I hope once I get used to not being on it again, things will even out. Right now I am having a hard time concentrating and have pain in my jaw, legs, back, etc. I have some pain meds but they make me dizzy and make concentrating even harder. I'll have to figure out if, after the withdrawal, I feel better or worse being on the pills. Trial and error I guess.

So LAST f'in thing and I'll quit typing. It's Sadie's birthday today! She's 14 years old. I have no idea how much longer she will keep going but she is such a big part of our lives. She's always been there for me during my first year away from home, a marriage, divorce, remarriage, all my surgeries and health woes, hiking camping, driving thousands of miles, moving to different states, etc. I hope she stays with us for as long as possible!



That's a lot to read and if you are still with me, thanks for going through this post. I suppose if I blog more often, there wouldn't be so much to post at one time. Anyways, have a lovely post holiday week!

Tschus!

Art therapy

This post is about a piece of art I created to help me heal from a miscarriage. If this subject bothers you, please stop reading now.

I'm not sure how to start this post so I'll just go through technical details first and see what happens.

I started this from a photo that Ron took of me the night we got our first positive pregnancy test. Seeing the word "Pregnant" on the stick was amazing. I always wondered how I'd really feel about it and I felt a rush of happiness. I've never seen such a wide smile on Ron's face before! We laughed, I cried, and then we just settled into a state of nerves and giddiness. Vowing not to tell hardly a soul, we ended up spilling the beans to some friends, his mother and a few coworkers.

As many of you know, that is the kiss of death on an early pregnancy. Why this is, I'm not sure. The happier you are and the more people you tell right away, the greater your chances are of losing it.

Anyways, you can read the miscarriage story here if you don't know it already.

I printed off the never-before shared photo from that night on a piece of fabric designed for computer printers. Then I found an image from good 'ol Google of an outline of the female form. I traced it onto the photo fabric and free-formed a very crude uterus and blood puddle.

This piece is about irony and grief. It's a juxtaposition of the happy, obligatory smiling face next to a positive pee stick and the blank, mute form of a woman, bleeding onto the ground.







To be honest, just manipulating the original photo and then stitching this up made me a little sick to my stomach. There were tears. I had to pause a few times and just do something else for a bit. However, it is finished and now the preoccupation I've had for several weeks over this project is laid to rest. When I look at this, I see happiness, pain and some peace. It's almost as if during the process of creating something, you take all those emotions out of your head and put it into your piece. I can visit the piece and go through the emotions if I choose to, or I can just reflect on it.

There you have it. Art therapy. Eventually I'll get some mounting board and frame it so it can join other pieces on my art wall.

Thanks for reading and looking at it. I appreciate comments but don't feel obligated. Tschus. :)

Shaun of the Dead, in Galaga form

My latest swap piece is finished. The theme this time is a horror mash-up: take something from the horror genre and put it with something seemingly unrelated, like Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter.

So if you've never played Galaga (seriously?!), then I suppose you need a frame of reference. Click on the hyperlink. It was an old arcade game that I used to play when spending hours at the mall. It was the only game in the scary, dark arcade that I played well. I'm still addicted to it and will happily play when it's available. The old game is pretty pixelated.

I had some help to come up with the pattern idea. Mr.X Stitch suggested using Shaun and Ed for the shooters when I threw my idea of a zombie/space shooter at him. Ron helped me with little details, such as including "red" on Shaun's shirt. I took my old Bruce Campbell pattern and changed the figures into Shaun, Ed, Mary the zombie and a generic zombie from an old Nintendo game. (I'm not sure which one but when I googled 'pixelated zombie' it came up.) I checked a bunch of screen shots from the movie to come up with basic colors to try and match the characters.



It didn't take terribly long once I made myself sit down and do it. I unfortunately didn't consider the size of it when finished so it was a weird dimension, like 8 inches by 7 inches. Not exactly frame-able. So I glued it to a thin piece of canvas and bordered it with some black ribbon. It is drying now. I think it could be popped into an 8 inch by ten inch frame if the person wants to hang it. I believe she lives in Germany so I will have another piece floating around Europe. Cool stuff! I like it. As soon as it is dry and I have some cash, I'll send it on over!

Have a good one, tschus!

“Fleeced” stitch

Didn't I post this yet? Ah well I'm sure you've seen it on my Facebook page. If not, this was the last stitch that I did. It's a quote from the tv series Deadwood. Al Swearengen is one of my faves and I had to finish this piece before I got to the actual town of Deadwood.

I want to make it into a pillow however I've never made a pillow in my life. So I'm considering a small sewing machine purchase and reading a crap load of tutorials. Any thoughts? I'd love some kitchy cowboy fabric for the back.



That's all for now. Pain, tired, looking at some life transition stuff....heh. No biggie!!!

Tschus.

Last couple of stitches

I just realized that I hadn't posted the last couple of stitches I did!  The griffin was from a very complicated pattern I bought.  The pattern numbers were odd so there were odd irregularities here and there.  Drove me crazy!  I had to compensate for some of that on my own so it's definitely not perfect.



That was given to my best friend from high school for Christmas.  I am completely late on her birthday present.  D'oh!

Bender was a pattern I put together in PCStitch about a year ago.  The Phat Quarter (on Flickr) swap theme this time was for a cartoon or comic with text.  I was ecstatic that I already had the basic pattern ready so it was a quick stitch.  I haven't received mine yet but I have no doubt that this time I will receive something during the swap.



If you have PCStitch and want to swap patterns, leave me a comment!  This is obviously not something I can ever sell due to copyright issues but I can definitely swap the pattern for free.

I bought some transfer pens and need to get some energy to work up a pattern on some muslin.  I'll be sure to put in a post after I do!

Catching up

Here is a quick recap:  We've kept somewhat busy on the weekends which can be both good and bad.  We finally used our free tickets to the KC Renaissance Festival and had a nice time eating a turkey leg and drinking Irish ale.  Also in the last couple of weeks we saw Zombieland and Paranormal Activity.  Both very awesome.  If you are looking for a laugh, I highly recommend Zombieland.  Speaking of zombies, Maul of the Dead is at the Coterie and Roxanne and I saw that last weekend.  It was pretty fun!  Great theatre group, everyone should go!  What else...oh!  A good friend from high school dropped in and it was awesome catching up with him.  I really miss familiar faces from home!

We are also still going through the home buyer's program.  Our counselor thinks we'll be in the purchasing phase soon.  I really hope that's true!  We'll see though.  We may hit a waiting period but that's ok.  I'm totally cool with moving in the spring rather then the winter.  Either way, we are hiring movers this time!  I can't physically help Ron lift half this stuff so we'll need a little help.  I'm so freakin' excited and scared.  Basically I'm scared of the realities of fixing everything yourself....and having to pay for it.  I think I can handle it though.

I recently had a really negative experience with some people I used to call friends.  However I did get something positive from the situation:  I've let my diseases and illnesses shut me off from people.  I'm really going to try to talk to people more often and get together with locals at least once a month or so.  It can be really tough sometimes...when I'm tired out, I just need to rest.  Sleep.  Recharge.  A lot of things like housework and socializing get neglected when you don't feel well.  Unfortunately these people, who I thought knew what was going on, took my absences personally.  As if I didn't like them and was using my health as a reason not to see them.  I think that's pretty silly and thought if a person felt upset, they would talk to me about it.  But whatever makes a person feel good about themselves...  It feels really, really wonderful to cut out negative people from my life.  No more stress on that front...what a relief!  Now if I can only get work to go a little better, I think things would be perfect!

Here are images of the last three projects I worked on.  I have some ideas of things I need and want to do soon.  Some of them involve Christmas presents.  I better get started on those!  November will probably go very quickly.


Come Get Some tote bag feature the almighty Bruce Campbell!



The first of the 1898 Antikamnia Calendar series.



This was a piece done to recognize domestic abuse.  Yes, it's a personal story.  No, not going to blog about it.  However you can check out Craftster if you want to know more about the piece.  Enough said on that.

Rowdy is shrieking at me to go outside so I'm cutting off the blog for now.  Expect some goofy Halloween pictures next week!

Mas besser

Things are better.  Why you ask?  Well I got a new endocrinologist who agreed to ramp up my Synthroid a bit.  Yes, my levels appeared normal but I didn't feel right.  Most docs at this point would argue it's all in my head, it's the RA, it's the fibro, I'm crazy, etc.  This one actually agreed to let me try a higher dose.  And guess what?  I feel better!  More energy, less depressed.  What a concept-listening to the patient.  Gnarly.

We also had our first one-on-one meeting with a NACA representative.  Although she is an ardent animal hater, we were happy with our session.  If all goes well, Ron and I will be in our first home together in around 6 months.  No money down, no closing costs, fixed rate, low mortgage.  No shit.  I was so happy to hear that, I had to do another self-evaluation of my priorities.  Is it more important for me to find my dream job right now?  Or is getting a home and being settled more important?  Unfortunately I'm putting my career second, or third.  I want to be happy with my job everyday but uprooting again and moving to a different state is going to be so hard.  I'm just starting to feel better and don't want to start over with doctors.  Therefore I decided to withdraw my applications for jobs out of state.  I'm really excited to be in my very first home!!

We've also got a lot to do this weekend.  It's cold though so that might limit how much we do.  Today is another Zombie Walk which starts at 3:00 on the Plaza.  The high is only 49 degrees today so I'm unsure if I really want to run around outside.  Speaking of zombies, we also really want to see Zombieland this weekend.  Perhaps we'll do that instead.  And tomorrow night we have tickets to see Lewis Black, one of Ron's favorite comedians.  We're pretty geeked about that!

Finally, here is my cross-stitch that I referred to in a previous post.  The recipient received it so I was able to make the photo public finally.  I kind of miss this piece.  It looked good sitting in our living room.



I did a piece yesterday for a Craftster challenge and I'll have that posted by Monday.  I'm also working on a piece I patterned after an obscure 1898 calendar.  Hopefully that will be done soon.  I've got to stitch something together to trade with a woman at work who makes and fixes jewelry.  I've got some things for her to fix!

That is about all I can think of for now.  This is a busy month so I'm sure there will be more blog posts to come.  Tschus!

Things to do to pass (waste) time

We hit the jackpot this weekend at Game Co.  It's like Game Stop only more vintage, and they pay a lot more for your games.  We got a nice credit with them and picked up several used games.  I was pretty geeked to find two Evil Dead games on XBox:



I haven't played A Fistful of Boomstick yet but I did play Regeneration for over an hour today.  It is HILARIOUS.  Ted Raimi does the voice of your midget Deadite sidekick and Bruce does Ash's voice, of course.  There are a lot of catchy one-liners and general hilarity.  The best part?  You can lock on your enemies and punt the Deadite to attack them.  I love it!    Since having an XBox is relatively new to me, I didn't pay much attention to these games before.  I now have all the ED games but not all the games with Bruce's voice.  Which is ok, as I'm not sure how much of a geek I want to allow myself to be.  Here is a link to the games: http://www.bruce-campbell.com/group.asp?grp=49

Crap, I just noticed this as well: http://www.bruce-campbell.com/pilot.asp?pg=action_figure It's a BC action figure.  Crap....$60?  I may be a geek,  but I'm a cheap geek.  Damn.

The other thing I did this weekend was finish up a book called Shadow of the Wind.  It is one of the best novels I have read since The Historian.  The author, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, writes very descriptively.  The setting is 1940's and 1950's Barcelona, set in the aftermath of Spain's civil war.  It's a mystery and very well woven.  I'm sure I could have figured out some of the twists and turns if I had let myself think about it, but I really enjoy just letting a story take me along.  I can't write a good review on it but you can find some great reviews on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Ruiz-Zafon/dp/1594200106  Apparently The Angel's Game is a prequel that just came out in English only a year ago.  I'll have to grab that up soon.



Long story short, read it.  I was dubious at first but I went from summer beach reading to this book.  You have to get your brain in the right mode to really let the story suck you in.   If you read it, let me know what you think!  I should really join a book club but am too damn lazy.

I also finished another cross stitch but will have to wait to unveil it until after I send it.  I made it for a swap for a photo group I participate in on Flickr called Phat Quarter.  After the recipient receives the piece, I'll post photos of it.  It's actually very lovely if I do say so myself!  I also finished an embroidery not long ago that is for a breast cancer awareness challenge on Craftster.  It's another photograph-to-embroidery piece:



This photo has over 12,000 hit on Flickr, but that's probably only because my boobs are partially showing.  I hate that pervs are looking at it but the photo has done some good.  I've had some people contact me to ask about the reconstructive part of mastectomies.  I personally feel better having talked to someone who has gone through this shit before me, no matter what it is.  So I keep the damn picture up for others to find, in case anyone else has questions.  The contest on Craftster starts in a couple weeks and I'm eager to sumbit this.

Rowdy is shrieking/whining for his supper so I better go.  Dogs do not like to wait for their supper!  Tschus!

Mr. X Stitch

It was posted today!  See the Stitchgasm on Facebook.  (I'm not sure where it is on the main site, so I have to link you to it on Facebook.)  I'm pretty excited and happy, etc etc etc and to be honest, having this happen and my first Etsy sale in one week is exactly what I needed.  I've been having a hard time keeping my spirits up and got all doom and gloom.  It's good to be reminded that there are good things going on too.

So!  If you are a crafter or looking to start, check out Mr. X Stitch blog about the 1st birthday of the Mr. X Stitch site.  They are having giveaways and other fun things.  Good stuff!  Check 'em out and start subscribing!

Craft-a-frickin-roonie!

Here is my little recap for the last week or so:

Last week was hell as far as health goes but this is a new week!  I was a shit-load of pain from endo and arthritis last week but thankfully, these things aren't an everyday problem for me.  Shit could always be worse!

Ma Burley came on Friday night and we chilled out together on Saturday and went to the Harrah's casino Saturday night.  What a culture shock!  I did see plenty of casinos in Vegas but it just seemed different because it was here in KC.  I lost $50 in the slots which sucked and the drinks were $5, not free like Vegas.  Casinos are fun for a few hours but after that, I've had my fill.  It's loud, reeks of smoke and there are people EVERYWHERE.  Not a great place for recluses like myself.  Her visit was too quick but it was really great to see her again.

My Etsy hasn't sold anything yet however I think I have a few interested in "Ass, the other Vagina."  I have a couple private requests also that I need to get started on.  I'm excited about that because it's fun to make these but even more fun to know that people are going to put it in their homes soon.  As soon as payday gets here, I am off to the crafy store again to get supplies.  I'm geeked!

Speaking of stitchery, I finished my first photo-to-embroidery project.  Here is the result and a comparison of the original photo to the cloth and thread result:





I felt pretty good about the overall end-product.  This has been a complete learning experience for me and I see what I need to work on now.  I have ideas for the next embroidery project already!  I like the idea of taking my photography and doing something more with it.  My ultimate goal is to get a gallery show.  I think I'm on my way as *enter drumroll* I'm going to be featured in the near future on Stitchgasm.  ACK!!!!  This is exciting to me although most of you probably don't know what the fuck I'm talking about.  See the following website: http://www.mrxstitch.com/  I am not sure what day it will be, but one of the people who works on this newsletter is a woman known as Beefrank.  She is a witty, creative genius and her work makes me laugh a lot!  You can see her work on Flickr by going to http://www.flickr.com/photos/beefranck/.  If you appreciate humor, talent and witicisms, please check out her stuff!  Also, subscribe to Mr. X Stitch via the site or Facebook.  (He is also megacool and a Brit!)  This stuff absolutely feeds me inspiration as well as making me laugh.  I can't believe how creative people can be and it is freakin' awesome to see so many talented people out there producing so much stuff.  Ok sorry, I got a little carried away!!

Add that to a confirmation email I received about enrollment in a free digital photography course and I'm about to implode!  Whoopee!

All right, enough of that crazy shit.  As always, I hope everyone is well.  Catch ya later, tschus!

Craftism

General brain befuddlement has prevented any new creativity as of late.  I did however crank out a couple of things about a week or so ago:





I have a set of Hitchcock stamps that I collected years ago that I want to frame.  That is what inspired the Hitchcock piece.  The Super Bitch came from a book of cutsey patterns I bought.  I also happened to find small frames at Wally World and this was an experimentation with small designs.  I'd really like to put it at my desk at work but don't think it would be wise.

Lately I've been looking at embroidery and wanted to try it.  Again I'm lost as to what to stitch.  However I woke up last night with an idea and spent the day looking at the internet for tutorials on how to make the images in my brain come to the fabric.  There are a few photographs I've snapped over the years that I really like and I've decided to make embroidery patterns out of them.  Thankfully there are people out there in the crafty world who blog and make how-to videos for the internet.  Here is part of the pattern I put together:



I'm afraid that I might start filling up the spare room with projects so I put up an Etsy store finally in the hopes of getting rid of some of them.  You can find the store here:  www.ndbex.etsy.com.  So far I haven't sold anything but there is still hope in me to get rid of some things.  I made them pretty cheap!

Double dosing with the new drug and the Cymbalta is still a hellacious experience.  I was laid up in front of my computer all day because of it.  I hope I can get this out of my system soon.  In order to get away from all the stress, Ron and I booked a cabin for the weekend down by Stockton Lake.  It's only a couple hours away, we can take the dogs and we've been there before.  If we can afford it, we might rent a pontoon and spend Saturday morning tooling around the lake.  We badly need to get out of town and have some fun.  I'm so excited to go!

That's my exciting life this week.  Tschus!!