Saturday, July 28, 2012

Giveaway

I will update this post with pictures later. I've decided to give away 3 different things in my 800 posts giveaway.
Number 1 will be a long medium flat rate box of paper/craft supplies.

Number 2 will be a square medium flat rate priority mail box of thrifting items. Some I have already picked out are: buttons, jewelry, linens, vintage pictures.

Number 3 will be something I alter/make.

So, new thought, comment on this post and tell me what you prefer. That's all you have to do, comment. Feel free to tell your friends, the more the merrier.


This is now closed.

Friday, July 27, 2012

I'm losing my mind

I remember posting this, but I don't know where it went, so here it is again. I heard the other day that my Merry Unbirthday Cake Box partner received her cake, so here's what I sent to her:
 I had the hardest time figuring out what I was going to do with the box. I started out by painting it white and then covering it with green tissue paper. For the top I painted some dragonfly buttons with alcohol inks, and because my partner said she liked flowers, I covered it with flowers. There are tons of different flowers on her, paper, fabric, buttons, gems. I layered them with pretty much anything flower shaped.
Here's the side:
 I traced the line of where the lid would rest and then added three lines of trim with gems adorning them.

Here's what I sent inside the box:
She said she liked flowers, so I got her some flower pins, a present topper, and a magnet flower. She also said she liked whimsical doo dads, I wasn't entirely sure how to interpret that, I got her some F tags (her name is Fran), some ribbon, gems, and canvas tags.

Let's hope this one doesn't get lost. To see what I got from here, go here.

Garden tour and 800 Posts giveaway

Remember a few weeks ago, I said I'd take you on our garden tour, here it is. Please disregard the brown grass, we haven't had much rain in a long time with temperatures in the 90's and above.
Welcome to my house:
 Let's go around the back, and start the tour. Here's the southwest garden:

 The tomato plant
 Traveling more to the west, a pathway into my neighbor's yard.

 The biggest flower in the garden:

 A nice place to sit.
 Traveling north and more west.
 Some neat rocks from my collection
 More rocks
 Our rain gauge
 Now, we're next to the garage
 And coming out on the east side of the garage

 Our birdhouse collection
And that's the end.


This is my 800th post, to celebrate I'm doing a giveaway. I will be sending out a medium priority mail box (the big long one) full of paper to one of my commenters. I may decide to add something else later on.

Thanks for looking at/walking through my garden.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Very cool stuff

WARNING: This is a very picture heavy post.
Last night I went shopping with a friend, we started at Hobby Lobby, traveled to the Dollar Store and ended at Walmart. Here's some of the cool stuff I picked up:
 At Hobby Lobby, I picked up the snail pot (which got cut off at the top of the picture), and the cute little lady bugs. The "socks" are acutally coin purses afrom the Dollar Store. And the best purchase of the evening was the stickers, at the top are owls, and some hearts. They're steampunk from Walmart.

When I got home, I found a box from my Merry Unbirthday Cake Swap partner waiting for me:
 It's a 2 tiered cake with a cute pin cushion on top. My choice of colors was pastel, they aren't terrible pastel-y, but I like it anyway. The pink is ribbon, she added pom pom trim on top of that and decorated the sides with buttons. The top tier is sitting on some bead feet, as is the bottom under the doilies. Here's what was inside:
 a cute little matchbox, a bag of buttons, some flowers, and some string.
 A book full of free sewing project cards from Jo Ann's.
 More buttons, trim, some safety pins, thimbles and cards.
 Some hankies, and I'm not entirely sure what the round pieces are.
And some cute cards.

Today when I got home from work (which was a long annoying 4 hours), I found the box from my Hat Box swap partner waiting from me. This was the outside:
 What I saw when I opened the box:
 And what was actually in it:
 a tiny bucket, letters, string, antibacterial wash, wildflower seeds.
 Lots of cards, a book mark, tags, and an accordian scrapbook.
Here's the hat box:
 And what was inside:
 A giant doily, butterflies, flowers, thread, trim, a candle, keys, a starfish.
 Kleenex, more trim, glitter, some straight pins, and buttons.
Some more doilies and some cute hankies.
To see what I sent out for the Hat Box swap go here, and how I decorated it, go here.

I have to say it was well worth the wait for these two swaps. Thank you ladies.


Don't forget to come back tomorrow for my 800th post and giveaway.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

I hate this

Sorry if this offends anyone, but I think I get to vent.
I fell down my stairs Tues morning, called in sick and went to the dr. They said I fractured my tailbone and gave me Vicodin. I had a really bad reaction to that Tues night, and decided not to take any more of that, I don't even know if it took away the pain, I don't think it did.
I had the day off Wed because of earlier plans, I think I may have overdone it on Weds with walking around. So, Thurs, I go back to work, I tell my supervisor I can't bend, so he says don't do that, and then when I'm floating, he sends me to shelf-read (which is making sure books are in order and cleaning the shelves). Can't really do that without bending. I really felt like going home in the middle of that shift, but I made it.
Fri I stayed the whole shift, and felt much better than Thurs. Sat, I worked the afternoon shift to close, my supervisor was extremely helpful, and everyone else I was working with didn't seem annoyed with having to pick things up from the floor. I really can't bend down without pain, it's really fun. I'm curious to see how long it takes before people get annoyed. I've been taking ibuprofen before I go to work, but it's hard to know how much of the pain it takes away, I take more before I go to bed. And still don't get a ton of sleep because there are very few positions that are comfortable.
My dr said 3-6 weeks before I'm completely healed, I did get someone to take one of my shifts on Wed, since it's my 8 hr day. I'm just so tired after standing at work, with not my full 8 hrs sleep, I'm so sick of it.
I have pretty much 3 positions that don't hurt: standing, sitting bent very forward, and mostly but not all the way laying down. I can't really do anything except watch tv, and sit for short periods of time because I get sick of sitting hunched over. I get so bored at home.
I decided it's actually cheaper for me to go to the ER instead of the clinic, when I sliced my finger open, my insurance covered some (I have no idea how much), then I applied for financial aid, and what was left, I could afford. When i got my xray for my kidney stone, insurance didn't cover any of that, and I know that will be expensive, the dr's time and the meds I don't think will be that bad.
I HATE THIS!!!!!

Between this, job things and feeling like no one reads my blog, I'm really not liking my life right now. I very rarely get comments on here, so I wonder if anything I post is really interesting. Plus, no one's said if they're interested in a giveaway for my 800 posts, if I do one it will be craft supplies and most likely something I've made. I'm cleaning out my craft closet, so there's good stuff I just don't have room for, I've been putting things in flat rate priority mail boxes. I already have one full of paper.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Hat box swap

I got an email from my partner saying she received my hat box today. Here's what I sent here, to know how I decorated the box, go to my art blog here.
 She said she liked sewing, knitting, crochet, Americana, vintage, that she liked to go thrifting: doilies, lace, sewing notions, cooking, baking, odds & ends....
I hope she likes what I put in the box: an Americana-ish quiltlet, red, white and blue stars (which I cut off the branch, and put in the box, I thought they'd be easier to decorate with this way), 2 Americana-ish bandanas, some cute flowers, buttons bows, ribbon and an iron-on fleur-di-lis for sewing, the oven mitt for baking and cooking. I found the cute flower in the front at the Junkin' in June event, so I bought one each for my box partners.

I'm still waiting on my box to come, she said she'd mail it by today.

I have a bunch of things I'd like to vent about on here, but for one reason or another I can't. If anyone wants to let me vent, comment on here and I'll reply back to you if I can.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

OW!!!

Well, I can no longer say I haven't broken bones or gotten stitches.
This morning I was rushing out the door to get the garbage outside for the garbage man, and I fell down my stairs.
I called in sick to work and went to the Dr. Turns out I broke my butt. the dr. gave me some pain meds and said it would take 3-6 weeks to heal. I'm so excited, it really hurts when I'm walking fast, bending, or getting ready to stand or sit.

Hopefully it will heal fast so I don't have to worry about it.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Having Issues

I was so excited yesterday when I finally finished the card to send off with my hatbox. I got it all packaged up and in the mail today. Then I reread the blog post about the swap, I was supposed to make something for my partner. Well, I'll be doing that tonight and getting it in the mail, with extra fun for apologies.
This is the second time I've decided not to read carefully the blog post on a swap. The other day, I was reading the blog post for the Unbirthday cake swap, and learned I was only supposed to use Primary Bright colors OOPS. My base color is green, there's not a lot of primary colors, they are there, just not very prominent. I emailed my partner, and she's ok with it, but apparently I need to read better. (You'd think I'd pay attention to things at home, as much as I have to pay attention to details at work). Maybe my brain just shuts down after getting off work. I hope neither of my partners hold these mishaps against me, and hopefully the hostess's will let me join in future swaps.

In other news, my mother's taking me to a local zoo on Wed. The original plan was to go to Chicago Wed through Sun, but after I got someone to take my hours on Wed, dad calls and says they weren't going to leave til Thurs now. Well, since I used to have that so much with my ex (him changing plans after I got work off, that I couldn't afford to take off unless I wouldn't be around), I decided it wasn't worth it, to basically have 2 days in Chicago, and I knew what we would be doing for one. I only wanted to go to the zoo, I don't think my parents really wanted me to come anyway, as they had been planning it for awhile, and the only reason I was invited is because my aunt asked me.

What's going on with you all?

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Interesting stuff

Not a lot of exciting sales today, I planned on going to five sales, ended up going to 6, and not buying that much. At the first sale I bought the flower, the thimble, the candles and the melting plastic. My second sale was not to be found, I love when people advertise and then decide not to do it. The tiny little bottle was bought from the third sale, and the pig cup and fish were from the last sale.
 As I was leaving, my mom showed me this:
We decided he had just hatched, as we found a chrsallis nearby and he was just sitting there, I'll be interested to see if he's still there when I leave for work.

I'm kinda bummed about the sales this week. Last week, I decided it was too hot to be out, so I didn't go to any. I'm also kinda bummed that only 2 people wished me a happy birthday on here, I thought I had more readers than that.

Monday, is my mailing day for the Hatbox swap, I finally finished my hatbox last night. I was having a horribly hard time with decorating the lid, and now that it's done, the lid and box could be from two totally different things, but I like them and I hope my partner does too. I'll post pictures when I know she's received it.

Next Friday, is the mailing date for the Unbirthday cake swap. I love how the birthday cake turned out, especially the top. I will also post pictures when she gets it.

Wednesday, my mom's taking me to the zoo. I'm so excited. Originally, I was going to go with my parents and aunt and uncle Wed through Sun, then it was changed to Thurs through Sun. No one would take my hours at work, when I finally got the Wed hours taken, my parents changed the plan, so I gave up. I had that waay too many times when I was with my ex, we'd make plans, I'd take off work, then he'd change them, and I really can't afford to take off work for no reason.

I just realized in 6 more posts, I'll have 800 posts on here. I think I'll have a giveaway.

What's going on with all of you?

Monday, July 02, 2012

Summer Essentials Swap

I received my Summer Essentials Swap package today from Katie. She planned it perfectly. Here's what she sent me:
 Two really neat owls, a flower hair clip, some bug clips
 butterfly frames, dried pineapple, macadamia nut cookies, and chocolate covered macadamia nuts.
Katie nailed it on the head on what to get me, thank you so much. I had gone to Hawaii (where she lives) in late 2009, early 2010, and told her that. I love the hair clip, when I was in HI, I bought some earrings that had the same kind of flower on them, unfortunately I lost them some time after. I told her I collected owls, and bugs. I love the owls she got me, the clips are adorning some felt flowers of mine, the butterfly frames are hanging in my kitchen. And I will be eaiting, most likely not sharing, my food.

Thanks again, Katie.

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!

Sunday, July 01, 2012

Worst Night of my Life

I'm looking for advice today, no pictures, may be a long post.

Ok, to start, here's my background. When I was in college about 6-10 years ago, I drank a lot of pop, and never took care of my teeth. About 5 years ago, I noticed I was getting holes in my teeth on my top molars way in the back. Last January, I gave up pop, I had been brushing once a day since then. I admit I couldn't entirely give it up, I crave pop, I got through 3 months and then started having it randomly again. This year, I gave it up again, and failed again. In April, I started noticing a couple of my front teeth deteriorating, that's when I started to get worried. I always figured if no one could see my bad teeth, I was ok with it, but there's a person I work with that has pretty much no front teeth, I did not want to look like him. Granted, he smoked, so I'm pretty sure that had a factor.
Anyway, I made an appointment with my dentist, he told me, my back teeth were too far gone to deal with (by this time, I had half a tooth on one side and a pretty big hole on the other side). I don't have dental insurance, which is pretty much the reason I never went to the dentist before. Anyways, my dentist said I had two cavities in the front and that it would cost about $130 a piece to get them filled. He asked if there was a possibility that I might get insurance, there was, and I'm still hoping on that possibility. He said I could wait a few months to get them filled, wait until I got insurance. The possibility of me getting insurance is when they decide to add a clerk position at work where we get benefits, I've been told if I apply I would be high up on the list.
I asked my boss if she knew when the next position would come up, she didn't know, so I decided to just get them filled and taken care of. About a month later I went back, he filled the worst one and said to wait on the other. Also, it turned out to be less than what he estimated. He had told me at my first appointment that the only thing he could do with the back teeth was to take them out for about $900 a piece, and that would only be if the gums were swollen or if I was in a lot of pain. I figured, I'd had 2 kidney stones, I can handle pain.
I found out last night, I really can't handle that much pain. I have no idea what triggered it, or if anything did. I was watching a movie and about 9pm I got a little pain in my upper teeth, so I took 2 ibuprofen and went to bed, I slept about 2 hours and just kept waking up off and on in pain. About midnight, I woke up in the worst pain I've ever had, it was so intense, my mouth was watering and I couldn't do anything but lie there and stare at the ceiling, so I took 3 more ibuprofen and hoped it would get better. As I'm taking the meds, I'm reading on the bottle that I shouldn't take more than 6 in 24 hours, unless otherwise told. Sometime in the night my pain went away, and I'm incredibly happy for it. When I was in so much pain, I considered getting dressed and going to the ER for some better pain meds.
I'm afraid of what to do if the pain returns. Do I go to the Urgent Care clinic and ask for some stronger pain meds? I figure I need to get the tooth taken out, but I can't afford that, I really don't want to tell my parents, my mom has told me for years I was messing up my teeth, and she was right.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks