Day Six -- Earring Fail!

So I found this picture of a pair of earrings. I thought they were pretty so I wanted to make something similar. I've been working on it most of the day trying to figure out the best thread path and this is what I came up with:

I was going to try to not have beads invade this blog so soon and I suppose this should go on my Ooh Shiny! blog, but since it took a nice chunk of my day it’s going here. Frankly, I  am not very pleased with how it turned out. The pattern is great, but I’m not happy with the colors nor the way it lays. Sad to say, I’m going to have to take it apart. This was totally a spur of the moment thing and so I’m not TOO disappointed. That being said, I would've loved for what I worked on all day to have not been such a fail. It was definitely a learning experience. Now I know what I have to do. Next time I work on it, I’m going to have to take more time out in picking out the colors and size of the larger beads. I think they are a bit too big for the design. In the meantime, I’m going to work on something else that I've been meaning to get to. Hopefully it’ll be a quick little project...

So I paused writing this to work on that "quick little project". Apparently, I've forgotten how to do it since it’s been so long.  So on to the next project. I probably won’t get anything else started tonight since it’s kinda late and Rob and I have been enjoying episodes of Warehouse 13 all afternoon/evening. But I’m planning tomorrow to put on an audio-book and dive deep into some beads. 

Day 5 -- Nothing to see here...

I almost wanted to just skip the blog writing today. That’s how LITTLE has happened today.  I woke up with pain in both shoulder joints so I took some arthritis strength Tylenol, and wouldn’t you know it, it knocked me out.  I didn’t get up until after 1. The rest of the day has been a bit of a haze.

I did decide to watch Once Upon A Time from the beginning. Turns out I missed a lot more of it than I thought. But other than that, I did nothing today. Well, nothing of note.  I hate days like that but it happens and I guess it’s needed at times to just not do anything. Crap! I just remembered that I forgot to meditate. Oh well. 

Since this post is so small, I will share a picture. It's a flower called "Echinopsis Chamaecerus April Dawn". Yep, it's a flower with my name... and believe it or not, it's not the only one, but it's the one I'm sharing tonight. Pretty isn't it? Kinda like me... bright and prickly!  :-D

Day Four -- Introducing: Sissyboo.

Tonight’s blog is going to be kept short because I’m having stomach issues. Speaking of that, I ought to introduce you all to Sissyboo. Sissyboo is me, when I’m having stomach issues. One day, quite a few years ago, my stomach was upset, as it is today and Rob asked me if there was anything he could do to help. Out of the blue, I said, “You can rub my belly and call me ‘Sissyboo’.” (I don’t even know what strange nook or cranny of my mind that came from) He did and the term stuck! So on days like today, I’ll lie down and Rob will rub my belly and say “Awww, I love you Sissybooo…”  It actually does help a bit. SO today I’m having a Sissyboo moment so I’ll try not to linger even though most of the time taken here will be due to editing pictures…

Of my new hat!

 I thought I might be done by tomorrow, but I was done by just after noon, and that was only because of how many times I had unravel it to get it how I wanted it to be. Actually, last night I got up to the green band. I went to bed around 3, even though I said I wasn’t going to do that anymore. Old habits die hard. Though this time, I got up shortly after Rob left for work, so I’m guessing about 7:30 am and I felt just fine. I grabbed the hat and realized that it was WAY too big. So I unraveled it to the crown, I guess that’s what you call the flat top part, and got rid of the last ring so that it would have a smaller diameter. I had to wing it after that because the stitch count would be off for the rest of the hat. I also added another two rows, one single crochet, one double, because I wanted the hat to be less shallow.  No worries though. I managed it just fine. I’m a Crochet Goddess, remember? So now I have a really cool hat that everyone so far likes.

Rob modeling the hat

Well, I’m gonna go because sleep is trying to catch up to me, but mainly, Sissyboo wants to lie down. 

Day Three: I'm a Crochet Goddess!

Tonight’s Blog is delayed, but only about an hour and a half because I couldn't get my pictures on the computer because my phone wasn't connecting (I love that I can wirelessly send things from my phone to my computer!) and then I discovered that they were blurry so I had to take new pictures.  Anyway, they're done so now I get to share some cool pictures.

So, most of today was uneventful, which was cool. I discovered that going to bed at 1 am wasn't much better than going to bed at 3. Either that, or my bed is evil. I’m kinda leaning towards the latter these days, especially because of how I feel when I get up in the morning. If you are wondering if I got to my to-do list today, I haven’t even looked at it. I did meditate longer today, just because the first guided meditation I decided to try didn't help one bit. It got a bit weird and I kept zoning out at the exact same moment and rewinding to try to make it through. I had to give up on it after a bit. It kinda reminded me of the time I rode the It’s a Small World ride at Disneyland. I went into some weird trance and didn't remember most of the ride by the time I snapped out of it. Hmm, that ride might have to go on the “evil” list… but I digress. After a short search, I found this one thing where it’s just weird noises and is supposed to subliminally, or something, work on your pineal gland, whatever that’s for. It was 15 minutes long and I came out of it feeling very relaxed which is a good thing. It wasn't guided so I didn't feel so bad about my mind wandering. Wow, epiphany: maybe I should forget about the guided meditations and just do stuff like the weird noise stuff.  Gee, this blog is being helpful already!

Around 3 today, I texted Rob, asking if he wanted to go to Starbucks after he got off work. I got a resounding “Hell yes!” So that’s what we did. I thought about bringing some beading to work on, but instead opted to finish the belt that I was crocheting for my mom.  Well, I finished it and it turned out AWESOME! It’s probably the first non-scarf/blanket-like thing I've ever made. I know my mom is going to love it!

Full Belt

Lacing detail

 Now with more confidence in my crocheting skills, I started a hat before we left Starbucks. It’s a pattern that I found online.  I think I might be finished with it in a day or so, depending on how much time I devote to it tomorrow. Whether finished or not, I’ll show pics of my progress tomorrow night.

Day Two: That's some crazy looking fruit!!

Slow day today. I did my usual ignoring of my to-do list. I mean well, but this blog isn't called “True Adventures of the Easily Distracted” for nothing. I did take pictures of a bracelet that I recently made. I also took pictures of my babies, Shelly and Sheila. They are both over 4 years old …and turtles… but they are still my babies.  The bulk of my day went towards straightening my hair. I’m not happy with it at the moment but I’ll give it a day or two.

The babies say "Hi!"

I also tried meditating today; one of my occasional attempt to “meditate more” and even with a guided meditation (Deepak Chopra) my mind was ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE.  Maybe it was Deepak’s voice that wasn't working for me. Maybe I should’ve meditated after my shower instead of beforehand and I would've been more relaxed. And maybe, just maybe, I should realize that this was the first time I've tried meditating in a very long time and that I will improve with time and constancy.  Tomorrow, I’m going to check out YouTube to see if there’s anything on there that I vibe with better.

So there you have it. Nothing too exciting happened today, though Wednesdays won’t be very exciting for a while. I do know one thing though:  If I want to be productive in the mornings, it would probably be best to stop going to bed after 3 am as I did last night. 

Oh I forgot, something kinda exciting did happen tonight. I discovered some scary fruit while shopping for groceries tonight:

They call it Buddha Hand Citrus, I call it CTHULHU FRUIT!!! 

NOT a New Year's Resolution... But Something.

I was sitting here at my desk thinking about blogs and New Year’s challenges and random stuff like that. Then this came to mind: I wonder what would happen if I challenged myself to do a personal blog entry every day this year. Maybe I’ll start today. Okay, I’ll start today. I know myself though and while I’ll try to do it every day, I’ll be happy if I make it a few times a week. But if I end up skipping more than a week between entries, well, I’ll just have to spank myself or something.  Volunteers can inquire in the comments. ::She says, only half-jokingly::

On first thought, I was thinking that not enough happens in my life to make doing a daily blog worthwhile or interesting. Then I thought. Maybe my real goal should be to make every day something to blog about. Can I manage that? I’ll sure try. I’m not going to go be a ninja, a big game hunter or a tightrope walker or anything like that but I will try to take more risks and do more of what I want to do other than second guessing myself all the time or doing what I think is expected of me. 

…okay, maybe I’ll do a *little* ninja-ing. We’ll see.

Ready to ninja at a moment's notice...

late night Mani-bloggi

It's rather late at night and I'm up blogging? Why? Because I'm also doing my nails and I find that typing is the one thing I can do that keeps me out of the kind of trouble that usually messes them up. I bought new nail polish today... at the dollar tree. It was a purely frivolous purchase because I haven't bought anything like that for myself in quite a long time, due to having very little money. I needed something fun so I bought three colors: gold, black and a dark blue, all for less than the price of a single nail polish I was hoping to buy at Sally's. I decided to go with black tonight because I'm feeling a bit edgy. I don't have the highest hope for it because I've never used a black nail polish, of any brand, that didn't chip almost immediately. If this stuff lasts more than a day I will be totally shocked. It's okay though because according to an article I read a while back, chipped nail polish is in, especially if it's black.

Okay, I need to stop talking about nail polish now, but I did all that because I needed to warm up my brain for getting out the rest of my thoughts. I can't believe I waited this long to make a second entry to this new blog. Yes I can believe it. It's my M.O. really. It's also a habit I would like to grow out of. Consistency hasn't exactly been a keyword in my life so far and I'm turning forty this year. Maybe it's about time. Yes, I've let myself be at the mercy of outside forces, the main cause of the chaos I find myself in regularly and It would be nice to not let that happen anymore. It's going to take a lot of work but I'm not sure if I can do it this late in life. Ugh, I don't like using that term for myself. It makes me sound really old. Sometimes my body feels pretty old, but when it comes down to it, emotionally and mentally, I'm barely out of adolescence and tend to revert to toddlerhood now and then... a toddler with a VERY bad mouth :-D

Turns out I'm doing a couple of things right now to make major changes in my life. For almost a week and a half now, I've been on the Optifast program. It's a liquid diet that I hope will only be the jump-start to a new healthier lifestyle that I need to adopt. I really want to get off of all my medication, have my knees stop hurting so much and to be able to do so many things and maybe above all, be able to be judged by the type of person I am instead of on how I look first (says the girl with the bright red hair). I didn't really want to tell anyone about the diet because the last thing I need is for a bunch of people to feel the need to become the food police where I am concerned. I understand some people mean well, but they can really just fuck off. I have enough stress and issues with food that I don't need it coming from outside sources on top of it. That being said, so far I'm having an easy time of it. I haven't been feeling awfully hungry. I've also been getting in a good amount of exercise done with my Wii but I'd really like to find other exercises that I can enjoy to add to that. It will help me stick to it. I really want to and I know that trying to do it all strictly by will power doesn't work. I suppose I can write about it here because I feel like no one will be reading this blog anyway... at least not for a while.

Another thing I'm about to do is to finally start selling some of my jewelry online. I'm going to put some of the flower pins that I make on eBay to see if I can get a bit of money from them. I don't see why they shouldn't. They are beautiful. But I've always been a very reluctant salesperson and also worried about will I do things right when it comes to taxes and stuff. I need to just “woman up” and do it. I'm also going to check out other sites besides etsy like Artfire and this other site whose name escapes me at the moment. I would SO love to make an actual career out of my jewelry making. I want it to be my day job. It's the one thing that I'm most happy doing that could also make me money. I really do believe my work is good enough, more so now than ever.

On that note, I'm going to go to bed. My nails are dry, well, dry enough. They might be a hot, smushy mess by the time I wake up in the morning, but I'm really tired, so I can live with that.