Trove Thursday- Into the Forest

I totally meant to make this post last night to start my "Trove Thursday" feature in my blog, but got distracted playing board games with my family. I may switch around the day for it anyway, so "Thursday" may mean whatever day it gets stuck on, lol. Anyway, the point of this entry it to feature some neat things (this time from members of my guilds and teams). I found so much to fit this theme, though, that I'll likely post the rest next week. :) I hope no one minds that I featured them! (I borrowed the byhand.me linking idea from my friend Ruthie.)

This week's theme is "Forest"- I found the items for it by searching "forest", "tree", and "leaf", as well as various guild/team tags.

1.) "Cinquefoil Pin" by Walkinthewoodsllc on Artfire.
2.) "Leafy Greens - crocheted wire necklace" by CindyCreativeCrochet on Etsy.
3.) "Fairie Ride" by DELdreamart on Etsy.
4.) "Aqua Blues . The Necklace" by vickiorion on Etsy.
5.) "Ivy and Vines" by HowlingCaterpillars on Etsy.
6.) "Spring Oak 1" by Carapace on Etsy.
7.) "Elvensoul -- Woven elf necklace with lots of leaves" by ErtheFae on Etsy.
8.) "Falling Leaves Earrings in Moss Green and Gold Findings" by 2goodclaymates on Artfire.
9.) "Forest Spirit Leather Mask for Those Forced to wear Glasses" by UpfromtheAshes on Etsy.

I was also going to feature this hobbit-y roving from wildhare on Etsy, but I couldn't resist buying it. I just love the colors!

I hope you enjoyed this feature- I had a lot of fun picking pretty things to post! Any particular theme you'd like to see in the future?

Yay, books!

The books I ordered from a sale on interweavestore.com showed up today! Hooray! I wanted a whole bunch of them, but I could only afford three:

One on beads, one on crocheting wire, and one with crochet patterns. The first two look very helpful, and the third has some really cute patterns (I really want to make a lot of them!). I'll try to post some reviews about them later once I test them out, but from reading through them they look really good! :) Now I just need to get some yarn to make the crochet things, and probably some more thin wire for the jewelry.

...and pardon my sneakers in the picture. Apparently my feet wanted in it. ;) (Edit later: I just realized that my copy of Emma that I'm currently reading is peeking out, too. Yeah, my thing for books is so strong that they spawn. ;) )

I also got some yarn, clay, and some leaf charms in the mail today, so yay for artsy things showing up! That always makes me happy. :)


Oh! And I wanted to share that I'm in a treasury filled with awesome art from the EAST (EarthPath Artisans) team. Thanks for including me, mysticwynd!

Need some ideas for interview questions

Hey, guys, got a question for you. I want to start running interviews on my blog (of artists in my teams/guilds or who I know online, because I want to pimp some talented people ;) ), but I'm having some trouble coming up with interesting questions. I don't want to bore people with this- I'd like this to be an interesting and fun feature.

What would be some funny, interesting, and unique questions to ask people about themselves and their art that would make for fun reading and answering?


And since I'm posting, I may as well share my latest finished/listed thing:

This is "Bardic Bravery", another beaded hemp necklace (this one is too long to work as an anklet, so it's a rare just-necklace), this time in purples and sepias. This is inspired by the same "Dungeons and Dragons" character my old "Aldalion's Ardor" necklace was- my Grey Elf Bard. He was a very unique Grey Elf who wanted to be little like the rest of his race. Grey Elves tend to be scholarly, aloof, and rather condescending; Aldal was cheerful, friendly, and rather lacking in the Wisdom department (his very high Charisma made up for it, though). He joined an adventuring party when barely out of his teens (or the Elven equivalent) with his lyre and lute at his side. He loved purple, probably because it matched his eyes, hence the inspiration for this necklace. :)

It's here on Etsy and here on Artfire.

Methinks I need to start making jewelry based on characters besides Aldal, but of all the ones I've played, he's tied for favorite. (The other favorite would inspire red jewelry, and I don't like red, lol.) Still, I could probably start a whole line of jewelry from D&D characters in the various campaigns; no one would get the inspiration references, but with jewelry that doesn't really matter as long as it's shiny and pretty, right? It would definitely inspire me to make new things, though! ...actually, I'm already getting ideas! I think I will do this! :D

Reminder about the radiothon and auction

First, a reminder about the 48 For Larry auction and radiothon going on at Blockhead Radio- it'll be going on until 6pm EST Sunday evening (July 26th). If you can spare some money to bid on things (there are some awesome items donated!) or donate directly to the site, that would be great! It's for a great cause and you can help save a man's life by donating. The info can be found here. I'm bidding on a few things myself (I wish I could go higher than I am, but I'm very broke), but I definitely won't mind being outbid because the most money made in this, the better! :D


If you're interested in helping Larry and snagging some of my jewelry, as well, please check out my two earrings up for auction (click the images to go to the auction pages).

Spring is in the Air Beaded Earrings


Orange and Blue Cartilage Chain Earring
I'm hoping they go for more because I want to help out as best I can!


I wanted to also share that my Createability teammate cindylouwho2 included me in a treasury. Well, she included Death. ;) Thanks for including us with those neat finds!


And while I'm sharing things, I got some awesome buttons from TagsAndButtons on Etsy.

The picture doesn't do they justice at all (I had to use my flash and it washed them out). They're very well made, shipped very quickly, and she was awesomely communicative and helpful- I definitely recommend her if you're looking for promo things (her shop is closing temporarily, though, so take advantage of her sale while you can!). You can't get any better than well-made, custom buttons for pretty darn inexpensive. :D


I'm thinking about doing weekly (or close enough- it depends on how I'm feeling, I guess) blog posts to make my blog more interesting- maybe a day where I feature people in my teams and guilds, and another day when I do book reviews (that'll get me to remember to actually write them, lol!), but do you guys have any other ideas? Anything else you'd like to see me blog about?

Please check out this radiothon and auction!

I'd like to spread the word about the 48 for Larry radiothon and silent auction that Blockhead Radio is doing starting tomorrow. There are 18 pages filled with awesome items from artists who want to help Larry out- please check them out! I'm definitely going to bid on some things, and I donated two things myself- these earrings and this cartilage earring that had previously been in my shops. I'm really hoping the goal will be met, but I think with so many people helping out, it will be! :)

So please, spread the word about this radiothon and auction and join in if you can!



And speaking of art helping others, I finished the charm for the Artisan Beader's fundraiser bracelet that we're putting together. The theme is "ocean/sea" and this is what I came up with:

This is actually the third or fourth try at a charm- everything else wouldn't work. First I tried making a clay star rune (using a clay cookie cutter), but it was too large. Then I tried handsculpting a smaller star- that was a disaster because I can't work that small and it fell apart. Then I tried making a little maille shape, but couldn't find my small blue rings (I still can't- where the heck did they vanish off to?), and the other rings were too large for this kind of thing.

I finally decided to just use one of the clay beads I made yesterday, a shell bead, a little seed bead, and a little teardrop glass bead (this is actually clear- I guess it reflected the bead?). Luckily this idea finally worked, lol! It's just about 1" tall, maybe a bit less.

I'll be mailing this off this weekend; I can't wait to see what the bracelet looks like with all the charms the team has made! I think we're going to be donating to RAINN, and that's really neat because that's one of the charities that the fandom auction site I contributed to in the past worked with. :) I'll definitely post about all this once the bracelet is done and ready to be auctioned off.


The last thing I want to share today is my most recent hemp necklace/anklet "Vampiric Vanity":

I'm not generally one for vampires or undead (maybe with the exception of Maladict in Discworld, who is actually pretty cool even with the whole coffee thing), but I couldn't think of a better name for it. Hey, vampires are popular now, right? I'm so out of the loop I'm coming around the other side, methinks. ;)

Anyway, the necklace is for sale in my Etsy and Artfire shops.


I actually got a new set of horns and some more hemp necklaces finished, but it's been raining or cloudy all day so I wasn't able to get pictures. Why is it that whenever I plan to take photos, the sun isn't out? Can I make it rain on cue? (It's a little known fact that Elflings can control the weather- and you thought we were only known for being cute with slightly fuzzy feet. But we also like to be silly, so who knows?) ;)

Book review- The Private Diary of Mr Darcy

Here's another review for a book I received from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program. If you're not on LibraryThing yet and you love books, I totally recommend the site! :) This time around the book I'm reviewing is The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy by Maya Slater.



Before reading The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy by Maya Slater, I decided that I was due for a reread of Pride and Prejudice so it would be fresh in my mind when I read this book. I think that helped me enjoy The Private Diary more than I would have had I not done a reread, but unfortunately it also brought to my attention more inconsistencies than I would have noticed had I not had Pride and Prejudice fresh in my mind.

The main problem I noticed was in Darcy himself; I found him to be quite different from Austen's Darcy. Slater's version just seemed like far too much of a pushover lacking in self-confidence; I can't imagine Austen's Darcy ever going along with things someone like Lord Byron plans (yes, he was a character in this version, which could have been interesting, but I just found his addition to be annoying, probably because I hated his character, but I digress) or frequenting brothels and prostitutes. Now, I can understand a man in his late twenty's not being a virgin until marriage, especially in that time period when those sorts of ladies were easy to be found, but I just could not see someone with Austen's Darcy's morality and confidence feeling the need to visit that type of woman so frequently (honestly, it just made me feel sorry for Elizabeth in case Darcy had acquired some sort of disease. Maybe I'm the only one who thought that, but maybe not). I also can't see Darcy as being so low in self-confidence as Slater wrote him to be, following behind Byron in his unsavory escapades, nor can I see him so blindly believing what cronies of Wickham (the man he very much despises) say about Elizabeth's sister, which is the main cause of a lot of Darcy's problems. Austen's Darcy seems more intelligent than to believe people he wouldn't trust or like.

For some information, while I think Austen's Darcy is an okay character, I'm not one of the women who are head over heels in love with him, and he's certainly not my favorite Austen character. You can take my opinion of Slater's Darcy as an unbiased opinion on that front, not as someone who can't bear to see him shown in a negative light; this is just the opinion of someone with knowledge of Austen's works who enjoys good characterization.

Don't get me wrong, The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy is a good book; it's well written and Slater definitely has a firm grasp on the culture and time period of the original. I enjoyed her version of the plot, and some of the changes to characters I did like; I found Darcy's sister Georgiana to be interesting. While different from Austen's, Georgiana was so little in Pride and Prejudice that there was room to change her character around creatively (for instance, not making her as meek as she appears in Pride and Prejudice, which I thought was a neat touch!). You can't really change around an already detailed character, though, without people getting somewhat annoyed or taking away the enjoyment of their reading. Really, I found the rest of the characters interesting and pretty accurate (except Byron who just got on my nerves, like I mentioned above), and, when I could get past Darcy's change, he was interesting, as well.

I think with just a little more consistency with Darcy, this could have been a great sequel to Pride and Prejudice; as it is, it was a book I would recommend to fans of Austen, but probably at the same time I tell them "don't expect this to be exactly Austen". I'd give this book 2.5 stars out of 5. I hate giving such a negative review to anything, but good (and accurate, in the case of someone writing someone else's characters) characterization is such an important factor to me that if it's in any way lacking, I'm inclined to not enjoy the book as much as I could have. Characters are what make a book, in my eyes.


To see more reviews from LibraryThing members, go here.

Hooray, my camera now has a home!

Still feeling pretty crummy and run down, but managed to finish the case I was crocheting for my camera (I had to finish it because I didn't want my camera to break!). Here it is:





Blarf (my camera) now has a home! I wanted it to be green, but didn't have enough green yarn for the whole thing (I was using up bits of yarn that I had in my stash, but I think that looks neat), so I used some black, too. Of course I gave it a leafy/foresty design. ;)

The inner black pouch comes out so I can easily remove the camera and keep it safe. The pouch on the side is for the cord that connects the camera to the computer, and the leaf on the front (it's kind of hard to see since it's green, too) is actually a pocket to hold extra batteries (hopefully this'll work- I made the hole at the top a bit too small, so it's a tight fit to get the batteries in and out). I made the strap purse length because I usually carry bags with the strap across my chest. There are ribbons tied on for color, a Celtic knot pendant over the part where it snaps shut, and random little leaf beads attached with jump rings.

I may give it a bit more embellishment in the future (like to paint veins on the leaf pocket so it stands out more), but I think it's cute. :D And hey, after seeing this, my mom wants me to make a larger purse with pockets for her. One of my friends also wants a case for her camera, but hers I'll make smaller (mine came out larger than I expected, but that's fine since I like larger bags) and with a wrist strap rather than a long strap. Oh, and smaller pockets for batteries that have a flap to keep them closed.


But I'm rambling. I also wanted to share the yarn that I finished about a week ago but finally got around to photographing the finished skein:

That's the Blue Skies yarn all skeined up. It's thick and thin yarn I spun up on one of my bottom whorl spindles using roving I got from Jazzturtle on Etsy. It's about 129 yards, and for all that it's thick and thin, at its widest point it's probably just worsted/medium. (The tag on the yarn is one of my leftovers from when I tagged things for a yard sale a few months ago- instead of throwing it away I wrote the length of the yarn on it- yay, recycling!)

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this yet- I have the other half of the roving still to spin so that'll probably be at least another hundred more yards, which would make it enough for a small clothing item (maybe gloves or a waist cincher or something). Or I'll use it for some art dolls. Or maybe the clothing first, then the art doll with leftovers. Who knows?


And last, I'd like to share the drawing I finished the other day:

I did this drawing for a contest one of my FAE teammates is running on deviantart (the contest can be found here). It's drawn in markers and colored pencils, touched up a bit in Paintshop (mostly to adjust the colors because they came out all weird when I took a photo of my drawing. I didn't feel up to figuring out my parents' scanner, but now the green background doesn't look even). Hopefully it still looks okay!

As soon as I saw this cute dragon I knew that I had to draw it- I picked the pond as the background because the colors of the dragon just said "pond" to me. :) Apparently he's friends with a frog and a turtle.

Unfortunately, I've never drawn a pond before (or many backgrounds for that matter), so it didn't come out as well as I wanted it to. I guess you can figure out what it is though, right? This is why I tend to crochet, sculpt, and make jewelry- my drawing skills aren't the best, lol! But hey, an opportunity to draw a dragon- like I'd pass on that. ;)


I'm hoping I feel better because I need to make my charm for the ABST charity bracelet thing, finish the stuff for my giveaway that I did a few weeks ago, and list a few more things (speaking of which I'm almost out of finished necklaces- I should make some more!).

I was featured! :D Oh, and look, a cute puppy!

I'm feeling crummy this week (SSRI withdrawal has to be the worst experience ever; "crummy" is very much an understatement), but I wanted to make an update before I forgot what it was I wanted to post about.

First, I finally have an Earth-themed necklace in my shops for my "Elemental" series:

This is "Dryad's Dwelling", another crocheted hemp (in this case hemp/wool) necklace/anklet. It can be found in both my Etsy and Artfire shops. I really like this necklace, but I think I'm out of those larger leaf charms, so I'll have to find some more before I can make one for myself. ;) As usual, Bluebell my shoulder-dragon is modeling it in this photo.


This necklace connects to another thing I wanted to share- I'm in two Etsy treasuries! The "Dryad's Dwelling" necklace can be found in this one, with lots of other lovely magical garden things, and my "Changing Leaves Chainmaille Necklace" is in this treasury with other neat Elven items from the Fantasy Artists (FAE) team. A big thanks for including me, gardenjewels and Hawkwolf!

I was also featured by one of my Artfire guildmates on her blog- I was so excited when I found out! Thanks so much, Bohemian Rose! Scinlaece and Death feel honored, too!

And after I posted this entry, I found out that one of my Createability teammates included my skull runestones in a skulls treasury! Thanks, cindylouwho2!


Lastly, I just wanted to share some cuteness. Chloe went to the groomers yesterday and came back with a new hairstyle and wearing bows and perfume:

I don't think I'd ever put a dog in bows or perfume (or even have a dog that would be prissy enough to need grooming, LOL!), but I have to admit that Chloe is such a sweet and wonderful puppy that I may want my own little fluffball later, in addition to the lab (and another cat or two) that I plan to adopt when I have my own house. I keep telling her that I'm actually a cat person who usually only loves large dogs, but she won't believe me. ;)

Inspiration Blog Party!

An art update is to come soon (I'm actually getting pretty far with my camera case! It just needs a strap of some sort and some embellishment), but I wanted to join in with this when I saw it on my friend Ruthie's blog.


For information and if you'd like to join in, go here. I'm looking forward to getting to share my inspiration and seeing what inspires other artists. :)

Undines and blue skies (maille and yarn, that is!)

Clara is still under the weather, but she is eating some (not nearly as much as I would like her to, though). The vet told me to stop with the ear drops until he can see her on Thursday. I hope she feels better soon!

I've got two things to share today- a necklace I finished last month but finally got around to photographing and listing, and yarn I finished tonight.

First, the necklace; here are three photos because I wanted to include one of the more creatively staged ones, lol.





This "Undine's Familiar" is another of my "Elemental Necklace Series", but this one is a different variation because it's chainmaille instead of hemp. The necklace actually followed the bottle charm; I made that first- it has a tiny clay fish, seaweed, and sanddollar in it (I rarely work that small; it took me far too long to make those little things, lol), and some yellow seed beads for "sand" and a metal star bead. I also painted the inside bottom blue and added some glued glitter to the sides for "water". I'm not sure if I'll make more bottle charms in the future; they're really hard to work with, so I may prefer to buy finished ones. The only downside with that is I can't put in them what my mind wants to, you know? Anyway, the necklace followed the charm, and as my FAE friend Julie pointed out, it looks like mermaid scales. :) I didn't even see that until she pointed it out, but I think she's right!
The necklace is in my Artfire and Etsy shops.


The other thing I wanted to share is the yarn I just finished spinning tonight:



That black glove thing is my arm brace. Yes, I'm prone to injury. ;) (And the background of the first is actually the beach chair where I sit outside most of the day, for more random info.) The pictures totally don't do all these blues justice; I'll get another picture after I skein the yarn up and set the twist and all.

This is thick and thin yarn I spun up on one of my bottom whorl spindles using roving I got from Jazzturtle on Etsy. It's this roving to be exact. As soon as I saw that roving I fell in love with it!


I'm sort of working on a crocheted case for my new camera; "sort of" as in I started the inside part, but haven't wanted to push using my left arm too much since I rely heavily on that one when I crochet. Hopefully I can finish that soon because I want my camera to have a safe spot to sleep (what? It has a name [Blarf]; it should get a personality, too). ;) ...and I just realized that smiley faces look weird when you type with semicolons regularly. Heh. Oh man, and I just remembered that I haven't been working on my "Wreck This Journal", either. I need to do that; maybe I should get one for my best friend so that would make me remember mine more if I saw her use hers.

LOL! And my dad just managed to turn on my tv from his room- my first thought was that the cat or dog had sat on my remote, but I guess the one for dad's tv works on mine from across the hall. Magic! XD

It's hard to type with an arm brace on!

Still chaos around here; Clarabell (my kitty) has been sick so I'm keeping an eye on her and giving her medicine for her ear- she has another vet appointment on Thursday. Please cross your fingers that she'll be feeling better; I love Clara with all my heart and want her healthy again! Also, I think I sprained my ankle and pulled some muscles in my (opposite) arm and wrist. The brace/wrap on my ankle is definitely helping, and I got a brace for my wrist today that I'm going to wear whenever I need to use that arm for something; I figure it can't hurt and will hopefully make it feel better.

I am so far behind with everything, though! I still need to make a charm for the ABST charm bracelet charity thing the team is doing, I owe ShesBatty on Plurk some bracelets for a sampler, I need to start my best friend's birthday presents, I'm behind on all my teams and guilds (and need to do the second half of a "Technique Tuesday" on chainmaille, but I can't weave maille while my arm is sore), and I'm painfully behind on listing things in my shops. I did just edit some photos to get things ready to list soon (tomorrow, I hope), so that's a start. I also started crocheting a case for my camera, but didn't get too far because I use my left arm far too much when I crochet (which I never noticed until I hurt said arm; go figure!).

I do want to share the present I made my sister for her birthday:



Amy picked out the yarn and her favorite bolero/shrug/sweater pattern (seriously, I gave her a pick of about a dozen) and this was the result. I'm super proud of it because it's my first sweater (and not counting sleeves and a shawl, my first clothing item) and it actually fits her perfectly! :D I don't usually make clothing, mostly because I hate following patterns but have no idea how to make my own shirt (yet). But now I have some extra pink yarn laying around so maybe I'll make something else for her with it later. :) My sister is to hot pink what I am to green (as you can tell by her hot pink walls in the photo). ;)

I know I have other things to blog about, but I can't think of them right now. How'd it get to be 1am, anyway?

More Elemental necklaces!

Ugh, when it rains it pours. On top of everything else that's been going on with my family and their health, I've been sick for a few days (I think I'm on another downcycle of my SSRI withdrawal rather than that I caught something), and I keep injuring myself. First I hurt my right foot/toe, and that's been bothering me, then I fell and hurt my left leg and arm. That one's feeling a bit better, but I'm going to make this entry short because my left arm/wrist is starting to hurt from being on the computer.

I wanted to share the bolero/sweater/shrug I made for my sister's birthday, but I still have to upload a photo of it off my camera- expect that soon. Today I'm just going to share my two latest necklaces; both are in the "Elemental" series that I'm working on (following my "Underwater Wyvern" necklace I talked about last month).

First up is my Air Elemental necklace "Sprightly Sylphs":



That's currently in both my Etsy and Artfire shops. For all that Air isn't my Element of choice, I do like it, probably because my two favorite D&D characters are related to it- one is caught on the Elemental Plane of Air (that's where the game stopped), and the other has spells in that sphere and has an Air Elemental of his own.

And the other recent necklace is the Fire one "Smaug's Ire":



That's in both my Etsy and Artfire shops, too. Fire is definitely not my Element; I avoid it whenever possible (as you can tell by the fact that I rarely work with reds and oranges). The funny thing is, I had actually made this necklace a month ago and had the photos all ready to go, then completely forgot about it and started listing newer necklaces instead. Oops? I didn't remember about it until I had listed Water and Air and got confused when I couldn't find Fire in my shops.

I'm not sure if I've finished one that will work for Earth or not; I'll have to go look through my finished pile.


And hey, one of my EAST teammates featured my "Sprightly Sylphs" necklace on her blog! Thanks so much for including me! :D

Customer love, new photography style, and meet Blaecwen

I apologize for not updating in the past few days. This has been a crazy month, the past week especially. I won't go into it here because I posted about it on Plurk and Twitter and my personal blog (love to all who have given me virtual hugs and support over there!) and I really don't want to think about the craziness that has been more often bad than good, but I will say that my dad is doing well, even though the vision hasn't come back in his one eye yet. *crosses fingers that it will soon*

But on the plus side, I've been selling a bunch of things lately, and I wanted to give a big thanks and a big hug to all those who have bought something from me! *big hugs!* Four of my hemp necklaces went to new homes, along with these runestones, this cartilage earring, this handflower, and this pair of Elf ears.

I also got to make another set of custom runes that I didn't have a chance to blog about when I finished them, so I'll do that now:

You can see more photos of them here. I love making runestones because it's so much fun to play in clay! :D These were a custom order for someone who wanted runestones like the skulls currently in my shop, but with the runes painted in red.

And since I sold those aforementioned Elf/Faerie ears, I decided to put a listing in both my Etsy and Artfire shops for a custom pair- this way if people want Elf ears, they can let me know their color preferences and I can make it for them. (I'd like to make more ready-made ones, but I'm in the middle of a couple of other projects I need to finish first- namely the sweater for my sister's birthday on the 9th).


Since I'm so far behind with my updates, I have two new items that I'd like to blog about that I haven't had a chance to give love to yet:



This is my "Goddess of the Moon" hemp necklace/anklet- it's in my Etsy and Artfire shops.

I'm trying out new styles of photography (mostly to make things look fantasy), as you can tell from the second photo. What do you guys think of using a dragon for a prop? Does it distract too much? That's Bluebell, my shoulder-dragon who wanted in on the shinies. ;)


The other new item is the doll I started last month for the EtsyFAST "Board Games" challenge. Considering that I think I finished the March challenge in May, this was right on time. ;)

One of my favorite board games is chess, so I decided to make one of my faerie dolls based on one of the pieces. The result was Blaecwen, the Black Queen- she's currently spending her time in both my Etsy and Artfire shops, as well. I'd like to make a White Queen to match (and so I can write down the pattern for the dress and hat- I forgot to do that), as well as maybe a Rook, Bishop, Pawn, Knight, and King. What can I say, I like chess. :)


I think I'm caught up now- I hope to post pictures of my sister's sweater/bolero/shrug thing in the next update (almost finished it!), and maybe some of my new finished jewelry or the yarn I've been working on. Who knows?

Reminder for winners, bday presents, and blog awards

Hey, winners TilT and My7kids (Theresa and Nikki), I need to hear back from you with what your item choice and color preferences are! (The info on what you could pick is here.)

I wanted to show off some other things I got for my birthday. ;) My best friend and her boyfriend (he's one of my friends now, too) came over last night to play the Order of the Stick game for a bit and to give me my presents and cake. I forgot to get a picture of the yummy awesome cake Care and her mom baked me (darnit! I'm so not used to having a camera handy!), but trust me, it was yummy. :D

They came in with balloons, which scared the crap out of the puppy (not literally, thank goodness!)

My favorite is the one you can't see in the picture- it has a dog on it and says "birthdays bite". ;)

And here are the presents Care got me- books! Yay, books!

One is a crochet pattern book to make cute little monsters, one is the quotation Discworld book, and the third is the new (non-Discworld) Terry Pratchett book. :D

Blog Awards
Unrelated to birthdays, but still awesome, two of my good beading friends Sue and Brenda gave me blog awards! :D Thanks, ladies!

For the "Premio Meme Award" from Sue, I have to give 7 facts about myself (I'm actually putting together a list of 100 things from another blog I read, so I'll steal from that unfinished list, lol!).
1.) I currently have a long-term temporary health problem (as in it'll last years, but not forever) in the oh-so-wonderful experience of medication withdrawal caused by being put on a SSRI for a stomach problem as a teenager (that's right- it wasn't even for a psychological reason that I'm going through this). It is NOT fun and messes with me mentally and physically, and makes it hard to do things- most days I'm not up to even leaving the house.
2.) My big irrational fear is spiders (I think it's because webs freak me out, but it could also be from having The Hobbit read to me when I was six).
3.) I love being outdoors and in nature, but I hate insects. It makes it hard being outside!
4.) I have never spent more than 10 minutes getting myself dressed and ready for the day. Usually it's more like 30 seconds- I'm lucky if I find a hairbrush (my hair is short, so wild works).
5.) I've always been jealous of my sister's appearance- not because I want to be thin so I fit the stereotype of beauty, but because if I were thin with small boobs it would be easier to pass myself as a boy on the days I want to be androgynous.
6.) I've been friends with my best friend for ten years now- I consider her my twin sister. :D
7.) My oddest roleplay characters were animals: a unicorn, a raven, and a dog; all three were sidekicks to my main characters and two out of those three could also talk. This oddness isn't even including the Orc I currently play in D&D, or my Elven Werepanther; at least those were humanoid. ;)

I have to tag 7 blogs for both, but I think I'll just tag 7 altogether. These are blogs that I enjoy reading of some talented artists:
1.) http://athenasarmoury.blogspot.com
2.) http://betzispins.blogspot.com
3.) http://mermaidencreations.blogspot.com
4.) http://erthefae.blogspot.com
5.) http://roseworksjewelry.blogspot.com
6.) http://shesbattydesigns.blogspot.com
7.) http://sarabee.wordpress.com

Oh geez, it's hard to pick only 7! I tried to pick people that weren't already tagged by the people who picked me, so that helped narrow it a bit, lol.


And my dad's in for eye surgery right now- please cross your fingers and think good healing thoughts for him!

Here are the winners!

Since it's the 1st, that means I get to announce the winners of my birthday sale drawing! I had 13 people in the running (I thought it was 14, but I had one on there twice, lol!), and I decided that instead of just doing one giveaway, I'll let three people win. :D I pulled out some of my trusty Dungeons and Dragons dice (a D10 and a percentage dice) and kept rolling until I got something 13% or under.

I lucked out on the first- rolled a 06%!

From my list, that means the winner is Ruthie, my Plurk buddy rosewksjewelry!

Then I rolled a 79, 48, 94, 57, 29, and finally a 09%!

That means the second winner is Theresa- TilT!

Next were a 41, 62, and last, a 07%

And that means the last winner is Nikki- My7kids!


Winners, please email me (merigreenleaf@gmail.com) your address and item and color preference from this entry. I'll try to finish these as soon as possible, but I haven't been feeling well this week so I'm not sure how soon the things will be done. I'll send you an email before I send them out, though!

This drawing was really fun, so I think I'll do them randomly every so often. :) So hey, if you didn't win now, you have a chance in the future!


And I wanted to share the AWESOME present my fiancé got me for my birthday. It came in this wrapping paper, and by "wrapping paper" I mean "drawing on the comics section of the paper", lol:

"Birthday" has now be changed to "Blarfday", in honor of Blarf, one of the goblins from Josh's webcomic. I've also declared that Blarf now shares my birthday of June 30th. ;)

And this was what was inside the box!

My own digital camera!!! I named it Blarf, in honor of the day. ;) I've never had a new digital camera before (in fact, my last new camera was a 35mm film one about a decade or more ago); the only digital ones I've had were busted hand-me-downs from my sister or borrowed my dad's or Josh's, and this one is even better than theirs! :D The zoom is just awesome! Josh did good! ;)


I think I had more to post about, but we just got a call as I was writing this entry from my dad (who is at the eye doctor) saying that he needs to have eye surgery, so I'm all distracted. Please cross your fingers for him! He's always so healthy (and only 54 or so) so hopefully he'll be fine once that's done! And my mom just told me that my neighbor has to go into surgery, too, so cross your fingers for him, too, please!

Edit: Oh geez, and as dad was coming home, he and my grandmother got into an accident (she was driving). They're okay, just shaken up. Hopefully the car isn't totaled, either!