I know a lot of you are wondering where the heck am I? And what is going on with your stories?
Well, here is a sort of an answer. I am not abandoning anything. But there are complications.
M (aka Mr. Kittyinaz, but he wanted to be known as M), asked me to get a job to 1) have some money coming in from another source, and 2) to get me out of the house and make some friends. He had told me over and over that, for the most part, the money would be for me unless we needed it for bills. He only wanted a part-time job that would not aggravate anything to do with stress.
I did get that job in October, and it has been fun. It is at a quilt shop called AllBrands.com aka Sew Contempo. I have been learning tons of stuff and finally getting somewhat knowledgeable about my job, and comfortable with being there. Then I was thrown a loop in the middle of December, of being asked to become assistant manager of the location I am at. Basically, I would be handling the administrative side while the manager does what she is best at, selling machines. I am taking over the displays and so on while listening to the input of everyone who has worked there for a while.
It’s still part-time for now, (which I say since I can be bumped up to fulltime at any time) but it’s still fun. We are hammering out some details, but it is all settling down and we are moving forward on my plans and so on. It’s only a bit above minimum wage, but for me the discounts are awesome.
Which brings me to what is going on in my life. I am working on some quilts and display things, along with finishing some quilts and making me one for my bed since I had to retire my old one. No biggies, but when you work from 8-6, on your feet all day, it takes up a lot of time. I am starting to settle into what is going on, and maybe with no holidays and so on going on, I can move forward on getting things ready for me to return to my big love, writing!
I think of writing each day, and hopefully, after I finish some quilts for displays and so on, I can move back to balancing my RL and being able to indulge in writing again.
For the writing contest, I received only one entry, and I hope to work on the banner to the author since she well deserves it.
For now, please bear with me. I never expected a way for me to relax away from writing, turn into what it has, but the more it goes on, the more I am wanting to return to writing. It’s just now, M and I are starting to relax, sit down and start talking about what we can do for making the house the way we want, with the big renovation being making us a master suite. At the same time, we are also making it easier for me to work in my office/hobby room. Cutting tables are a huge plus!!!
So, I am off to work on the baby quilt so I can get that out of my way, and relax into making everything else I have. I hate having something hanging over me, but I do like the term that quilters use for these things, UFO’s. UnFinished Objects. I think I will adopt that for my stories as well. It seems to make it more fun, but at the same time, where I want no more UFO’s hanging about. They might kidnap me!
So for the month of July, I spent it as busy as hell, or sick. With the two juxtapositioning over each other sadly way too often.
In the middle of June, I was looking at the last week of the month, excited but at the same time worried. My parents, who lived with me at the time, were moving out the last week, with the last day planned for Saturday, with me having guests (in-laws) that following Monday. I also had a quilt due, as well as after they left after a week, I was going to have a couple of days down, then will be living at my brothers for a week and a half watching my three nephews.
I thought it would be tight, but hey, I can do this!
That last week, they closed on Monday, and we proceeded to show how much a Traverse could hold and move. They wanted to sleep in their new place after I showed them how much we moved in one day? Sure!! Mr. M (aka Mr. Kittyinaz) packed my mattress in the traverse (a queen, and holy cow!!) Then I spent that Thursday while everyone worked, packing the rest of my parent’s bedroom. (Yes, they were not done packing… ) Then we spent that evening, moving what we could there. And found more things that could fit in the Traverse that I never thought could. However, my hubby borrowed my brother’s truck and moved a lot also. The rest to be moved on Saturday. Which left Friday as me desperately cleaning, moving around my house. (At one point I had a couch in the kitchen stuck and had all the cats watching me clean around it, and move a dining room table from one end of the house to another by myself.
Remember, I had guests coming, and the house had been configured for two families only sharing the kitchen basically. And my mom and I sharing an office. So I was spreading the belongings of my side of the house to the rest of the house, as well as cleaning and washing so much stuff cause I was about to lose the washer and dryer. M came home to start laughing at me and the way I had chairs stuck in places as well as the before mentioned couch of my parents. (yeah not mine. That was staying in the front room now designated the living room only). He soon was working, and getting into the idea I had of trying to get everything gone and what could be cleaned as soon as possible, had us moving things outside to store in the garage at midnight only stopping at 3 am.
We then moved them the rest of the way with the help of my brother, his truck, and a trailer. And oh yeah. The aforementioned Traverse. We were done moving them out and then went home to work some more on the house.
There was a laundry list of things to be fixed, and we did them. Then I went to lie down with a headache, and then woke up to no sink in the main bathroom. I had asked him to fix the leak, and the pedestal sink (that I absolutely hated) cracked all the way. So we ended up having to replace the whole thing and went for one that was a vanity. There were other things that went wrong, and as M said, if it wasn’t for his bad luck, he wouldn’t have had any.
We get everything done in time and spent the following week showing them Houston. Only resting on Wednesday (7/4) cause of a storm. Somewhere, (maybe exhaustion?) I started to get sick on Friday, but pushed it off, as nothing big. I spent the following week cleaning and resting. Then went off to watch the boys. It was fun, and my family was reminded of how I made up games for everyone all the time. The boys loved it. And though I was sick and very exhausted, I loved it as well. They helped me with the cutting out of the hundreds of pieces I needed for the quilt and would work with me.
But I was seriously sick and was so bad I was on the BRAT diet. I came home sleeping and trying to better on Wednesday, and ended up with an infected tooth. I had a quilt class that Mom and I signed up for, and went to it, with my pain tolerance kicking in finally. I went to that each week and finally got to the dentist, only to have him tell me I am insane. Apparently, it was a very bad infection. He was worried cause I have VERY bad ringing in my ears, and wanted to make sure he didn’t make it worse cause he had been told that it can add to the pain I would be feeling. Somehow, my allergy to penicillin was missed. Luckily my Pharmacy caught it and it was fixed. I spent a weekend in bed sleeping with taking pills as needed.
Last week I finally got the root canal and would sleep irregularly, with my insomnia kicking up and finally kicking in completely Friday night. Which I had a class that morning, then I family party that I had to show up for a little bit to show I was alive. Especially since it was my cousin who figured out I was really sick and checked up on me the entire time. (The antibiotics had kicked whatever it was that had me so sick as well).
Which leads to now. The second day since that long ago day in June as feeling better mostly rested and pain-free. While I am LOVING having my own place with my pets and my hubby only, it had been a huge ride to get here. I am also working on the class stuff then I still have that quilt to finish as soon as I do the stuff I needed to this week for the class.
I REALLY want to write, and even have a plan ready. I am going to finish those fics that I started out on, to get them finished, then go back to the other stuff that I am still strongly inspired for. I am also going to try to edit things, and so on. However, I do plan to make quilts and sell them, as well as take orders. Something to help supplement the one income we are having in, while not working on my end.
And just for a last whatever, if anyone is interested in seeing what I am doing, I am posting the finished blocks, I am learning to make on the Kittyinaz’s Group. Now, I am going back to finish up the Ohio Star and the four after that one to finish my homework for this week.
I know, I know… It’s been MONTHS since I last touched base. The Facebook group gets me a little more often, but not much.
Let’s put it this way. There is a lot of Drama happening, and it has been taking up my attention. I have barely had any time to do quilts, much less anything else.
The good news is the muse is peeking out and pointing my attention to things. And I have been nodding and agreeing with her until something happens. I am also dealing with stress over other things.
I am still awaiting the seat cover material. And M is finding that people are really willing to pay for me to make them quilts. People at work are wanting to see what I have done, and he has someone asking if a Baby quilt can be done. This is great news. (and shocking for me. Remember, I am shocked when you guys read my stories!)
But… I am thinking of working Part Time for my mom’s boss and seeing what happens. We will be soon ready for the remodeling to happen, and having the extra income will mean that it will go faster. We have a bunch of things happening to the point I am unavailable for Grandma for a month starting Monday. I will be having family come from AZ to here, then I will be watching my nephews for a week or two. (I can’t remember now!)
The happy thing is that I am taking my laptop with me to work on stories since I can barely work with kittens on quilting. (especially Bobbie who thinks my brother’s quilt is his and you should see his face as I am finishing it!) When I get back here, I will be working to integrate everything, but the office will be mine. I will be rearranging to allow me to flow from place to place in my chair. You might think this odd, but my OCD tendencies have come with a vengeance. I literally can barely work unless I clean and have things my way. And if I do work, I am so easily distracted to be worth anything. A mess is my enemy.
After the upheavals end soon, I should be back to working as I can on what I can on the stories and so on I enjoy doing. I really want to get my Marvel stories done and work on my E/S stories. Besides the stories, I have done, and sequels, I am not posting anything new unless they have been started before now. I want to finish up some things. I need to work on my original Novel and just get things back on track. I don’t know how I am going to do that exactly, but I do know I am cutting out some things.
I am barely on Facebook, which will probably change when I am back to writing. But I am not going out on the main walls anymore. I am tired of fake news, being blasted for expressing opinions and so on. I am tired of drama and acting like I am back in High school.
Real Life is happening, and just last month, my sleepy town had its eyes blown open with a shooting literally down the road from me. Now before anyone says anything, I live in TX. I live in Santa Fe, TX, which is rural. Houston is an hour one way and Galveston is closer than you think for storm purposes. So down the road is a ten-minute drive I think. 7-10 minutes at 55mph. But I was peeled to the TV, seeing things that are happening right outside my street. There was no traffic on the streets, and everyone spoke softly for days afterward. I saw the Old Gym, was confused when they named it as what it REALLY is, but I have known it as the Old Gym the entire time. The reporter confused on what the schools were was felt by me as I knew the school he was in front of as the JR High and now it is a middle school. I watched as my neighbors were searching for their children, finding out if any of my family had in-laws or such in the High school. Sat there confused as they said one thing and then another. Horror struck as I recognized more and more of the places.
Harvey was bad enough, but it was down the street. (Literally 15 minutes another way for Dickinson). But this was happening in my town. I will tell I drive by the High School a lot, and seeing the crosses in front of it for those poor ten souls makes my heart ache each time.
I had more typed but realized it will do nothing to change anything. So I will end this just saying, I know I have slacked. I know that it may look like I am giving up on writing, and I am not. In fact, I am bored reading, and need to finish some of my own stories so I can see how they end!!!
So, Be patient for a bit longer. I will try to come back and start posting everything that is ready for you guys, I just need to make sure that I will have time to make sure I can keep doing it. For I have missed this, and you guys as well!!!
As the title has mentioned, life has been…interesting for lack of a better word.
I have been watching videos and reading on how to do things in the interest of finishing my brothers quilt.
During which, my body decided that I have not had enough of being sick and decided that I should be allowed the joy of knowing of what a kidney stone feels like, and then have another sitting there making my life painful in not fully dropping.
So I hate standing up since my kidney lets me know that it hasn’t forgotten me. How I wish for the days past!
Also, during this time there has been a mixup between the Drs, the pharmacy and my insurance. Resulting in me being off my depression medicine and my emotions being severely out of whack. I go from not feeling anything to crying at a drop of a hat for no apparent reason.
It doesn’t help to say the least.
And if all that hasn’t been enough, my cat has gone missing when the whole me being taken to the emergency room at 3 am because of the aforementioned kidney issue. Yesterday was the worst because both my dad and I heard a cat meowing. I have a pier beam house, so everyone has been looking underneath the house in case she is too hurt or sick to make her inside.
Then, to make things more fun…
For those who have tried something new, or pushed publish on their new stories know, there is that hesitation in doing so. I get it still, in fact.
Well, I’ve been practicing the quilting method I am going to use, and I keep repeating to myself that I should be perfectly imperfect as the many quilters I have been watching tells. That the mistakes show it is handmade, and that while I see them, others wouldn’t….
However, I have been able to see them on others. I also have that need to be perfect. All culminating in a huge hesitation to do the first stitch of many… along with the many reasons above.
I also need to finish this so I can work on the commissioned piece I have. Which is a seat cover that my mom and I still disagree about on how to do. Oi vey…..
I also want to write but find myself unable to concentrate.
In short, my life is a mess, and it’s not ending anytime soon. Hopefully today I will sit down and start working on the quilt. So I can get the seat done, and feel free to start on the many other quilts I have yet to do. Get the meds I need, along with dealing with the pain in my back (literally). And be able to sit down and write, with my Stormy watching from the cat tree.
I am working on the banners for the contest. I am also STILL fighting being sick. I was doing great until we hit the gas line…
For we were doing good things, planting trees. Many many trees. And had our lines marked before. And this line was NOT marked, and WAAAAAY too shallow. Like 8 inches down instead of the 18. We had been encountering roots for a tallow tree that we are going to cut down that ended up being the same size and color as our gas line to the house. on the last tree to the background, we hit it. It won’t be fixed until tomorrow. And we did this the weekend before the last. With the freezing temps, they are dealing with a lot of broken pipes.
So, fast forward to yesterday and today, with the temps in the single and teens wind chill, and below freezing since 2 yesterday, I believe. If not sooner. We just raised enough to hit the freezing temp but still having the wind chill factors in the 20’s. I’m in the office with my mom, drinking tea, with Tucker and Connor and a heater. The door is closed so we can be comfortable in layers. Luckily everyone in the house is from cooler temperatures. My family from Pittsburgh. M’s is from Michigan, but he lived in AZ where it gets much colder in the winter than people think. You can freeze in the fall and spring at night there. So it does not take long for the things to come up to stay warm. One thing is for sure, I am making more quilts for the house. They are the best for keeping you warm! (as long as you pick the right batting).
So I am writing to let you know I am still trucking on. I have three banners to finish. But The awesome bestest friend in the world, Robin, has let me know that our server will be down between 10Pm and 5 am tonight. We do have media to go… you can find it here:
Click on Eric for the downloads
Robin says she will update the folder when she gets home, so check back to see if there are more than listed. I am off to finish up the banners so I can get to editing. I am REALLY ready to edit some stories to send them out to the betas so they can work on them!
So I wrote out a long post on my iPad and now I find where on there it tells me it is loading the post, here on my desktop, it shows nothing,
This has been my life on the computer lately.
To be frank, I worked myself into being sick. Not helped by the fact that everyone around me has something that takes weeks to get over according to Dr’s. Right now, I am having massive sinus issues, so much they are causing other issues, but nowhere as bad as my mom, who has inhalers and those awful 6 a day then 5 a day and so on pills. And a nasty cough that sounds so bad. I have massive irritation causing other issues, not able to breathe, headaches from hell, and being all over yucky. My mom and her boss have the same thing and heard that it will take weeks to get over this.
I also spent all Thursday working to get my computer where I can use it. I went through 8 Microsoft techs, and was up after 2:30 in the morning, but I am slowly loading things onto the computer. Today I am going to work on the banners.
Yes, the banners for the contest. I am sorry, but my life became a train wreck that I could not seem t control at the end. I was trying to finish quilts, thinking I had mailed out things like Christmas cards on another day and then going OH SHIT!! I need to make cookies! to it being Christmas the following weekend. Only after all that, on Christmas Eve did I fall completely ill, sleeping the entire way home from my Brother’s. I got up to open presents and then later to make dinner which thankfully was just lasagna. And since then I have been sleeping and trying to get better.
It was only after Christmas that my mom and M was cleaning up and found Royal Ember’s shirt I made for her as well as some other things that I thought were done that I realized that Christmas cards didn’t go out nor other things I thought (Christmas Contest) were not done, and M had to calm me down from a minor Panic Attack. Minor only because I had no energy for a major one.
After that was when we realized how bad my desktop was and led us to what happened Thursday. Right now I am taking it easy. The contest entries are freaking awesome. I laughed and enjoyed them as I read them as I was bed bound. Right now, I am up for awhile, and plan to work on them. As Connor tries to give me some stuff he finds who knows where. I am gaining a pile of paper right now…
Also, I found out that Teavana is going away!!!! I am trying to find Spice of Life tea, which is my absolute favorite. And I was told to go to David’s tea for my loose leaf selection. Has anyone been there? They are in the northern parts of US and in Canada. I have no idea anything about them, so I am turning to you, my readers, to find out if they are any good. Tea is not to be taken lightly!
I wanted to let you guys know what is going on. The good news, is that I am taking a break from quilting for a month to start working here. Then it will be quilting on the weekends or whenever I hit a wall to help out. I needed something else to do to other than being on the computer 24/7. I will be starting a quilt page for this site, so showcase what I am doing. I am NOT perfect, but I am learning. As I was told at the International Quilt Show, there are no Quilt Police. Just work and do the best I can.
Maybe I need to think that way on writing and stop worrying myself to so much work? ::snorts:: As if it won’t sink in for quilts…..
It truly is amazing the stuff you can find on the internet. I searched Alexander Skarsgard leprechaun and the picture above is what popped up. I think it is fitting for today. Sorry I missed posting last week, but Daylight Savings in the USA screwed me up. Losing one hour completely wrecked my week. I…
Can someone please explain to me why I am seeing more snow in March than I did in the entire months of December and January???? I should be getting ready for spring, not worrying about shoveling 8 inches of snow. The only way snow in March is acceptable is if it this is part of…
Hello lovelies. I cannot guarantee I will be back to publishing weekly, but I will try. My dear beta, kleannhouse, is in high demand trying to juggle the stories of three writers. She is amazing and she makes me laugh with all of her comments on my stories. This one especially. I started this story…
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