Craftacular me!

I have been a very, very busy girl.... But before I plug my stuff I would like you all to check out Blue Fairie. She is having a give away on her blog, Dancing with a Spatula Wand , of this AMAZINGLY CUTE crochet toad as part of her Practical Magic entry. He's is so adorable, and it's no secret that I LUST after all things yarn, crochet, and knit. That seems to be the only craft stuff I completely fail at. And besides her always amazing recipes, she pwns the crochet hook. Go, look, visit, cook, and love the toad as I have!

So, I have been very busy making swap packages the past few months. It's become an addiction I must say. And in a later post I will highlight some of my favorite things I've made for others, but this post is all about ME! I never make myself anything and last week I got the urge to craft. So I made myself this:

Cute right? I found the fabric at a Joann's

and I couldn't resist it. It's a corduroy I think.

And the little Acorn closure is made of felt.

Inside! I left the post-its in so you could see the inside zipper pocket.

It's almost like a Mary Poppins purse.

It fits my a handful of pins, sun glasses, makeup,

keys, ipod, phone, post-its, lotion, and my giant

Nikon CoolPix Camera. But wait, is there something more???

A wallet!! It's a pattern in progress. But not

too shabby for mostly winging it. Under the change

part is a tiny slot for my check book and money.

It has 4 card slots, it was supposed to be 6 but you can

tell that didn't work out. I didn't measure properly so oh well.

The lot together.

I'm extremely happy with it. I love the fall, outdoorsy, child like humor of it. It's very, very me. YAY!! I hope to get on here later and post a few more things I have been working on. Have a crafty day!!

Mabon, where did you go?

BLESSED MABON!!!

Ok, so I know... I'm like a week late.... I haven't posted in a while and I know I completely missed Mabon. I hope everyone had a wonderful day and gave many a thanks to the Earth. I spent The weekend before Mabon at the local Mabon/Pagan Pride event.... it.was.awesome! I've been active in my local community for a over a year now! Happy any to me! I got there kind of late since I was finishing up a hat for a friend of mine I was meeting there. When I got there they had just started the chanting workshop.... mmmm, chanting. I love it! I learned a few new chants and now I have forgotten them. But they were really nice, trust me. One day it will dawn on me and I'll write the words down. After that I did some window shopping while a local artist sang beautifully in the background. I stopped by the alter and placed some acorns on it as an offering. I was surprised to find that the alter this year was designated to the patron God of Virginia Beach.... can you guess who it is? Neptune of course! You have to love living by the beach! It was beautifully set up I wish i took a picture of it. They had stones sitting there that anyone could come up to and charge and place into a another dish filled with sand. They were released back into the ocean after the festival in order to help heal our oceans with everything that has been going on. My friend Julie, and I took her son to a children's drumming workshop which was really nice. Unfortunately not a lot of children showed up since they were required to bring their own drums. Julie and I discussed maybe setting up a children's tent next year so that the kids can come and do crafts and maybe make their own instruments while learning about some Pagan goodness related to mabon or paganism in general. If I don't vend next year I think I will try and arrange that. Next, we had a drum circle in the middle of the day (unheard of right? NOBODY DANCES IN THE LIGHT!! lol) But it was connected with other drum circles around the world taking place at the same time in order to promote global unity . We all circled up, people brought their drums, others of us just clapped, and a few people decided to get out there and dance. Somehow, this chick I was standing and clapping beside got the urge to dance. So she went out into the circle and started doing her thing. Next thing I know she has come back over to me, grabbed my hand, and led me out to the circle to dance too. I don't know her at all!! But I embraced it and got my dance on and somehow, I didn't feel paranoid or shy at all. I don't usually dance in the circles because, well, I find it just a bit relaxing and I don't feel the urge to dance. Not to mention sometime you just feel paranoid like others are looking at you like WTF is she doing! Which I know is never the Case, but I mean, come on, we're raised to think people are always going to look at us strange is we step out of line. But yeah, there I was, in broad daylight, dancing. I'm not gonna lie.... it was kind of awesome. After all that was done the local Pagan choir, The Inchantors, serenaded us with lovely music, harmonies, and drumming. After which the community came together and participated in a Mabon Ritual. It was a lot different from last year. Which is expected since every year someone different leads it. This year when you came in to the festival they handed you a mini baggie with 4 papers in it. Each saying something different, such as: Things continuing, Things to throw away, Things to start, and Things finished. We were to take time throughout the day and write things on these papers that corresponded with what each was saying. During the ritual the corner callers walked around at certain points with branches and we strung our papers on the branches. they looked almost like leaves. And then we took the one with Things to throw away on it and we placed it in a cauldron to be burned. After all of that was done we all sat in a circle and meditated and raised energy in order to do a Peace Spell while two very talented ladies played on the Tibetan singing bowls. Then a candle was passed around and we each put our energy into this candle which would be burned and the energy released. And finally we all got up, were given a piece of paper with a chant on it, and marched and stomped around the circle while chanting in order to bring down the circle or cone of power as we were calling it in the chant. It was one of the most active rituals I have been a part of this past year (minus dancing around the may pole). I left with a sense of accomplishment. After ritual a very popular and talented group by the name of Mystic Fire performed for us (I love them sooo much!!). And to close the entire day out we had a massive drum circle in a field. Best.Day.Ever... I'm sure that's what you're thinking. But it doesn't end yet. I was laying on my back looking up at the stars and letting my mind wonder with the drumming, when all of a sudden, there it was. A shooting star. I've never seen one in my life. Not in person. It was like some celestial sign. So I did what all people do and should do in the case of a shooting star. I made a wish. I wished for another job so that I could finally start making some money. I know, I know I shouldn't tell you what I wished for right? PISH POSH! That my friends is a bunch of hocus pocus! If I don't voice it out loud how will the universe know what it is I need. It's not a mind reader ya know! So, I came home, slept an amazing sleep and the next thing I know, my dad is calling me and telling em to fill out an application online at a store my non-blood-related-but-should-be Uncle works as at. He's going to get me a job!!! WHAT!??!!! Psh, Epic Win! I had an interview this Saturday morning and got the job. It's just a cashier position but it's money and I am in need of it. Student loans are no joke!

Long story short, after a very long year things are slowly taking a turn for the good. Let's hope this plane keeps on rising.

Children's Drumming Workshop

The Inchantors

(well, a select number of them shall we say)

Mystic Fire

My Friend Julie,

and wait what's that she's wearing...

why a hat I made ;)

Unexplainable

I don't know how to say it. The past two weeks are just... well... unexplainable. Furball is still keeping me up and waking me up, but he is feeling better. We revistied the vet Monday and I brought along mom who helped me keep my head on straight and we accomplished some good stuff. He now has meds for nausea and pain relief for his mouth. Too bad we had to be the ones to ask about it..... you tihk since they knew those symptoms were happening they would have said something about it first. We shouldn't have had to ask..... oh well. And they gave us an IV bag full of liquid so we can hydrate him once every two days. ok.... so you read that right? fluids in an IV bag... you know the only way to get them in his body?!? Hook him up to a needle for about 5 minutes.... NEEDLES!!!! Ya know for a woman who sews so much she is constantly pricked hundreds of times a day, I am deathly afraid of needles. Ironic? Pretty much. Funny? Slightly. Nerve racking? ABSOLUTELY! So, I gave him his first IV Wednesday.... it was insane. Easily done but it seriously took a lot in me to conquer my fears and do to him what I hate others doing to me. I mean needles are why I never finished signing up for nursing school. I took all the placement tests and was aquiring financial aid when I decided....shit... I can't do this. Needles and blood my friends..... freak.me.out! But atleast he is feeling better and hopefully we will have him grace us with a few more years. That would make me happy. But in the mean time, I am sooo exhausted. Oh well, on to business as usual. I'm not sure if it's the lack of sleep or knowing my cat is terribly sick but I've had the most dreadful feelings this week. Like something is about to happen and it's not going to be a good thing. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it's all just my sleep deprived mind going on a rampage and it's not really a warning.

Other than my current dose of the crazies (as stated above >_<) I've been doing a lot of crafting and a lot of thinking. I need to take a break from everything. I just need some time to myself. I lie, actually I realized this about a month or so ago and I have been putting it into effect since. I've slowly began a period of isolation from friends and family. The only people I talk to currently are online. Every few years I enter a period of isolation for a few months. It's extremely needed. It allows me to clear my head, reconsider my priorities, rearrange and change things in my life, and deal with whatever I have going on. I'm sure there is some shrink out there who is like, "Why, this isn't healthy!" to which I would reply, "Neither is spreading myself too thin!" long story short, this is my imagination and I just won that argument ;) I'll create a list later tonight or tomorrow when I finish crafting for these swaps and start to reorganize my life a little. I'll give myself a week to really lay it all down. Which is good because the local Mabon and Pagan Pride celebrations are this Saturday and hopefully I will have something to purge and throw in the fire.

And now, to change the subject. On the crafting front I am working on a new quilted duffel bag pattern and have just discovered that one... I suck at designing patterns .........and two, I despise clear vinyl. I think I will have to completely toss the bag I was working on and just try a regular rounded shaped duffel bag. I'm doing this for a swap and it needs to be water proof, hence the clear vinyl. My thought was to make it super water proof. Seriously, she could probably carry water in the duffel bag instead of clothes if she wanted. But I am having the hardest time with working out the zipper closure. Ilove to hate zippers. *sigh* Other than that disaster, I am also working on book binding for the first time. I'll be doing that tonight. I need to do two separate books. And I am finishing a beading project that I am slightly proud of. Pictures will hopefully follow their completion! Well, I've doddled long enough. Back to the craft room!! Wish me luck!

Sunday Funday!!

I love Sundays!!! With it being my only day off from the work force it's become an amazing day for me. But this Sunday I have slept most of it away. My kitty, Furball, has been really ill the past few months and he's been keeping me up at night and waking me up at like 3am and I'm getting now sleep at all. I'm so exhausted. He's been diagnosed with kidney disease and pretty much it's terminal. At first we were like it's ok, life is terminal, he'll be fine as long as we keep giving him meds. But now it's getting to the point where he isn't eating anything at all, but mostly due to there being a problem with his teeth and him being nauseous. I took him to the vet last week and they gave him an injection for dehydration but other than that they kind of twiddled their thumbs and shrugged their shoulders. They can't clean his teeth because he has a heart murmur and arrhythmia and because he's so old. I refuse to accept this, there is something that they can do. Give him meds for his nausea, at least look at his teeth for longer than 5 seconds, and suggest foods that would be safe for him to eat. Of course, I guess I twiddled my thumbs too since I failed to ask all this, but when you are there alone and have someone in your face telling you there is nothing that can be done..... all I can think of is how much longer do I have with him? So i will be taking him to the vet again this week and I will have a written list of questions and concerns. I still don't think it's fair that you have to pay everything upfront at the vet. If his treatment is $300 then that has to be paid right then and there. If they could bill me or something like a human doctor I could afford to get him hospitalized and on an IV and the works. And maybe then he wouldn't be so restless and starving. It makes me rethink the whole pet thing. I have always had pets throughout my life. More than I could count on my fingers and toes combined. But now I don't know if I will ever want another pet unless I working an amazing $40,000 a year job where I can afford to take him and get the works done. It's not fair that he has to suffer due to my financial disposition. But I guess it's the same with human doctors as well. People can't get treated or given the time of day without the the green to back it up. I don't have insurance right now. I haven't for over a year now. I know first hand how you get snubbed at the hospital or doctors because you're not covered, or how you can't go to get seen unless it's a life or death situation because the bills are unreasonable! I'm just so frustrated with life right now. *sigh* But what's a girl to do?

Well, I avoid life by crafting and getting lost in the sci fi/fantasy worlds written by so many talented authors. So this week I will be sending out two packages of the 3 that I am registered in. My Mabon package is near completion, I'm just wrapping up the very last thing on it. And I am angeling for a Fitness/Lose Weight swap, which I need to get started on crafting for. I know exactly what I am going to make her, I am just lacking materials. Funds have been kind of tight lately because of all the vet visits. But I only need to buy fabric and that shouldn't cost me but so much. I'll be going out later this afternoon or tomorrow morning to get the fabric so that I can get it all taken care of. My final swap doesn't get sent until Oct. 5. And I am slacking on that one. I have everything I want to do and most of the materials. I even have a few things crafted for it, but I am so bogged down with life I haven't been really inspired lately. Although, I'm not gonna lie, she's a cool lady and I can't wait to make everything for her. I had to research her style because I know nothing about wayward and rockabilly fashions. I think after these swaps though I will only be doing the WWP swaps from now on until after the holidays. I still haven't started crafting for Christmas. And that's a problem, because everything is homemade this year (again) and I need to get started now if I am ever going to make this deadline. I love Autumn and winter, and yet they stress me out the most. Stupid holidays. Alas, it is time to go. I must finish sketching up these things so I can go buy fabric (I love the fabric store! I don't know why they won't just hire me there!). G'day loves!