Working

So JG's naps have been terrible this past week.  Not only is she fighting the afternoon nap as if it were a cloaked Romulan warbird  (yes, I am that kind of nerd), but when she does nap it's only for 30 minutes.

Suffice it to say, I have had very little time to work on anything.  Meaning my house is a mess and I have made one monster in the past two weeks.  One.  And I haven't even sewn him up completely.

In my head I'm working on some new patterns.  I'm planning on using some of my dad's old Levi's to make a soft denim monster, but what kind of monster I am unsure of.  I am in this creative space where I am lazy and know I should be making things, but instead am busy adding new photo's on facebook.

So.  Sad.

I should just give myself a date where I'm going to reopen the etsy store and go for it.  Give myself a friggin due date.  But my banner is old and I can't figure out how to make a new one.  (And it has the added bonus of giving me yet another excuse to not get things done.)

So.  Pathetic.

Plus, I have to deal with this:

Yeah, I think that's puss.

So.  Gross.

This was taken a couple of weeks ago, his foot is doing better now, but I'm a little sick of playing nurse to my gimpy cat.  The bigger/longer cone has made it so he can't reach his foot, so hopefully it will actually heal completely in the next two or so weeks.

Otherwise I'm going to amputate it.  Take that gimpy cat!

And, finally, the obligatory JG photo.  She really enjoys chewing on her sweaters.

It is Done

I did it.

I finally followed the crowd.

I joined facebook.


I know, you are all utterly amazed and can't believe it... or you don't really care.  Whatever.

I was thinking this last week about what an isolationist I am, how I spend so much time all by my lonesome (and JG), and how I am horrible at reaching out and being social.

Now, I realized that in today's day and age there is technology that can help to temper such an unhealthy way of living.  It's called social media, and I too can join the herd and connect with people I haven't talked to in years.

And I have!  Old best friends, ex-boyfriends (ok, just the one), people I went to school with.

But, I do have to say that I'm only acknowledging the people with names I recognize (and let me tell you, I am terrible with names).

It's so weird to talk the people I haven't known anything about for so long.  It's really nice to catchup and see how well they're doing.  No one that I know of has ended up in a crack house with some nasty monkey on their back.  And that is good.  All is good.

The sky hasn't fallen the way I thought it would if I signed up.  I'm actually pretty happy I did.

Bad Mommy

I had a bite of chocolate.

It was French.

It was smooth and creamy and crunchy and dammit it left my tongue wanting more.  Seriously, I have not had a piece of chocolate in six months.  Six months.  When I was pregnant I ate the stuff every day, so having to go without for so long has been... well, not that bad actually.  (I've learned to really love juice.)

Anyway.

Now, you may ask, why am I eating chocolate, when most chocolate has MILK in it?

What?

The doctor said JG has an INTOLERANCE, not an allergy, and I thought why not?  Alex was eating a French bar of the good stuff and for the first time I had the impulse to make myself happy, rather than making sure that JG doesn't bleed out of her butt... colon.

I had a bad mommy moment (and my dreams are filled with them, nightmares really, where I pig out on ice cream only to realize after my third milkshake that I can't eat the stuff - oh my poor baby girl!)

Was it a good choice?

No.

But at least it was only two days of screaming poop (because the intolerance causes a lot of pain, I imagine) with flecks of blood.  It used to be three days.  So her colon is slowly learning how to deal with the milk proteins, and hopefully in a couple of months there will be more improvements.

And then, and then, those milkshakes better be shaking in their boots because I'm gonna get so fat eating their offspring.

So. Fat.

Considerations

I am much better at making/creating things when I have due dates, or a reason.  I also don't like to have my creations staring at me for months, I like it better when they are gone.

Therefore, I am considering reopening my etsy shop.  Yes, I had one years ago, and for many reasons I closed it.

However, I feel I might do a better job of making toys if I knew I had to fill up a shop to get people interested, to get them to buy things.

And also to pay student loans.  Because I am doing such a good job of using my degree right now.

What do you think people would be interested in?  Monsters, dolls, Testy Chickens?  Or should I just start making and see what happens?

Eh?


Eh?


Eh?

Returning to say Hello

We had a nice weekend until our basement drainage pipe decided to call it quits.  Again.  This happens about once a year, when our feces come up to tell us where they've been.

"Hey!  You know how you flushed me three days ago!  Well, just thought you should know I've been hanging out in that pipe... until now... Hello!"

And this is the part when I gag and hate my drainage pipe with a burning rage.  Luckily we caught it before the puddle got too large, however once the drain says, "No more traffic allowed," we can't use the water.

Because if you do, the puddle just gets bigger.  The puddle filled with poo and Jesus knows what else.

(Hold on, gagging, holding vomit back)





So I called the Roto-Rooter guy out to run a snake down.  Again.

You should have seen the ball of roots he pulled out.

Imagine that a guinea pig took up residence in our drainage pipe and set up house, and got fat off of... I'll let you answer that.

But he pulled that guinea pig out (it was more sliced out, with this weird rotating blade) and now our pipe is clear.  Unfortunately, that damned guinea pig (giant balls of roots) will grow back and start this whole disgusting process over again.

However, if we want it to remain clear it would cost almost $7000 to rid our house of the problem.  Also, the solution would probably kill the shrubbery out front, and possibly break our awesome AC unit, because a bunch of plumbers would have to come and dig holes to access said evil pipe and burst it.

When the Roto guy pitched this to me he made it sound as if this decision would be made soon and we would have him right back to fix the problem.

Um, huh?  I was standing in my hallway, in my cow pajama's and worn old slippers holding JG.  What about me said I'm made out of money?

So, now I've got to devise a plan to douse my concrete floor with bleach to kill any poo particles still hanging on for dear life.  Sorry, poo, but I flushed you for a reason.

Now stay there.

New Years Funk

Without meaning to I fell into a bit of a funk.  I was on a forced creative high before Christmas, trying to get things done, but it only takes one failure (stupid doll dress) for me to throw my hands up in the air and say to hell with it.

For my sanity's sake, making things keeps me emotionally healthy and happy.  So, now that I'm not making anything, or haven't figured out what to do with myself while JG is napping, I'm watching far too much TV.

I'm losing my patience with it.

I am also losing my patience with reading.  It used to be that I could finish a book that I wasn't too crazy about, in hopes that it would improve at some point.  I wouldn't want to miss its redeeming qualities.  Now, if I read 30-70 pages and I'm just not into it, or say a kitten dies for no particular reason, I give up on finishing it.  You could say I'm either too tender hearted or entirely too slow of a reader.

I want every book to be the Hunger Games, fast paced, hard to put down, with characters I like.  So many books keep trying to make me swallow these exaggerated and irritating versions of human beings that I can't go along with the farce.

However, I should mention, that I don't even know if I would be able to read my favorite authors right now.  I'm not sure if I should blame it on the funk or if it's just how I am now that I have a baby.  Who knows.

So, today JG and I will venture out of the house (which we haven't been doing much of) and go look at fabric or something.  Fabric has so many redeeming qualities.

The sad thing is I have a stash of fabric I've been hoarding... and I cannot bring myself to actually use it.  It's a terrible compulsion.  I even have a bunch of it laying out in my craft room, I just love looking at it, but just thinking about using any of it brings on a slight anxiety attack.

Which is pathetic.  This is also the reason I try not to allow myself go look at fabric.  For example, I have several prints that I own multiple yards of (2-6 yards), and I can't think of why I spent the money on all of it if I can't bring myself to actually use it.

Booger.

Okay, I better find a reason to pull out of this mess.

I use far too many commas.  Lucky for me if you didn't notice.

2010

So far the year started off with a bang.

Alex and I went to bed at 9:30 Thursday night (seriously) but the dog was gracious enough to wake me at midnight so I could hear my neighbors celebrating with fireworks.  Even better, JG slept through the night in her very own crib and did not wake up until 8 AM the next morning, or if she did wake up earlier I don't know, because when I found her she was quietly playing in her crib.

Thanks be to Jesus.

However, she had to sleep with me last night, as she completely refused to be transferred to her crib.  You see, I nurse her to sleep in my bed and then move her to the crib before we go to bed.  This worked like a charm for months, however in the last month she has been more and more unwilling to sleep in her crib.

I should also mention that I am not good about letting her "cry it out."  It doesn't help that I don't believe in it, but I know that if I enforced the crib a bit better she would probably spend more time in it.  However, like Thursday night, she will sleep the whole night in the crib, so I think that she's been sleeping with us because she hasn't been feeling well.

Who knows.  Does anybody have any suggestions?

Anyway, 2010.  Goals.

--I need to figure out a way of getting out of the house without spending money.  Every time I leave the balance on my credit card increases, which is not good for a girl with no job and no income.  Hopefully the weather will start to improve and JG and I can think of something creative to do outdoors.

--I'm thinking of putting together a class on doll making.  I have no idea how that would work.  I've been pondering it for months.  Like, where would I start?  With the pattern?  Or have pieces sewn up and ready to stuff?  Or, let people design their own doll pattern with my help?

Also, I've been doing this for about six years, so does that make me knowledgeable enough to teach it?

--Find a teaching job for Fall 2010.

I think that's it... other than my obsession with how much cheese I will eat this next summer.  And ice cream, cake, doughnuts... anything I have not been able to eat for the last six months.  In five months JG will either be weaned or her protein-induced weirdness will have resolved itself.

Oh, sweet Jesus, thinking about cheese makes my mouth water.

And, happy new year to all you people.  Have a good one.