Sigh

Well things are starting to settle a bit now, though I still haven't had enough sleep, nor cleaned everything that needs to be cleaned. I have gotten back to my needles though. On the trip I made a great burgundy version of my Portrait necklace for the magazine feature I mentioned, but that was all I tatted. Yesterday I made another portrait necklace, this time in green as a custom order and I started on a second one, also a custom order in black and green. I'm sure that I have mentioned that I dislike working with two colors. It is just so cumbersome to have that extra long cut thread dangling around, tempting the cats every time I pull the thread through. Hopefully, I can get this one done today, because there is more to do.

I assumed that business in the etsy store would disappear for a bit after my return as a natural result of being unavailable for a week. I was wrong. No, I'm not complaining, I just didn't anticipate having to get right to the task of remaking sold pieces. I haven't even contemplated any new designs as of late. I even purchased some new yarns to try out, but I don't know when I'll get around to them either.

Let's see...oh, yes I am still sticking to the corset training. I had hoped to get a new smaller corset when I returned this week, but we spent a bit more on our trip than we meant to. It's crazy how much you can spend on gas and food for a week, not to mention the really expensive souvenir trip to Nintendo headquarters. This just means I'll be spending a few more weeks in the one I have, that is getting more and more comfortable. I can even slouch a bit in it now.

Last bit of news today is more non-news. We still haven't gotten any news from the second loan holder on the house we're trying to buy. If you're keeping track, it has been over a month since the process started. I know that if we get the house all the waiting will have been worth it, but I fear it falling apart and all that time will have been wasted. Well that's enough dwelling on that. I hope to get pictures uploaded by the weekend so I can share some of my vacation with you, but I'm not promising anything. Until tomorrow.

And The Winner Is....

Well, before we get onto the good stuff, I thought a little health update was in order. On Saturday I took a romantic trip to the Urgent Care with my husband to get prescribed antibiotics and pain killers for an apparent dental abscess. It seems that all my mouth issues have culminated in the murder of one of my teeth and in it's death throes it has chosen to infect my face. This resulted in a swollen and terribly attractive cheek. As you might imagine this put a bit of a damper on, well everything. Yesterday, the whole thing began to drain and I feel a bit better. I'll be going to the dentist later today to see how bad it really is, but I imagine that I shall be looking forward to a root canal, so probably right back to pain, yeah fun.

Okay, now to the reason you're probably reading this, the winner of the Very Vicious Valentine giveaway. As you're probably aware, this was my first giveaway and I'm really amazed with the turnout I got. When all the entries were tallied out, there were a total of 61. It was really awesome that so many people opted for extra entries and played the game with us and I am pleased as punch that I was able to help Diana get a little extra exposure for her amazing art and I hope that many of you will pick up a little something from her in the future.

Alright, I guess that's enough American Idol stalling. I used the random number generator at Random.org to spit out a number and that number belongs to

Valorie, of Battlemaiden.

Thanks so much to everyone for entering and if you're interested in doing a giveaway with me in the future, just let me know. I had a pretty good time with all this business, in fact I just might do one for my tatting in the future. You know, when my mouth isn't rebelling against me!

My Love Story

Yesterday I got a lovely idea for my personal reveal in my comments. But first a quick recap on what you've learned so far. First you discovered the meaning behind TotusMel, then I revealed what I wanted to be when I grew up and just last week I regaled you with the origin of my love affair with hair color. Today I shall reveal a love of another sort.

How Did You Meet Your Husband?

It was back in the fall of '95, my second year of college. I had green hair and had recently decided to take an entirely new tack in my love life. I usually hung out under a tree in front of the bookstore with a group of freaks, geeks and gamer nerds that were cleverly referred to as the tree people. I was not only comfortable there, but a bit of a queen bee as well. When a new fellow walked up to visit a friend of his that was visiting a tree person, I simply greeted him with "and your name is?" to which his friend responded, "Oh, that's Ubence. He's cool."

Over the next week, I continued to chat up this new guy hoping that this would not turn into yet another unrequited crush. On a Friday afternoon, in a bold and uncharacteristic move, I gave him my phone number. You see, I had never "dated" before, sure I had boyfriends, but no one had ever asked me out. When he called just a few hours later to ask me to coffee, I was quite taken back. Over the next couple of weeks we learned that we had far more in common than a few mutual acquaintances. We both played Nintendo, though his obsession was much greater, we both had pet rats, Apple computers before it was cool and liked our music industrial. I made him buy Magic cards, so we could play and he introduced me to Aphex Twin and KMFDM. Then one day we finished a sentence with the same off the wall word and I knew this was absolutely the one.

It was just a few months later that we moved in together with my best friend and another year or so before we were married. It was a small self financed affair at Lake Yosemite. I wore a silver dress my mother made for me from patterns we cobbled together. I even held off on my future arm tattoos and kept the hair normal for the family.

Our relationship hasn't been all sunshine and roses, but as we've often said, we may not be perfect, but we're perfect for each other. Our story isn't amazing or worthy of a movie script, but it began a relationship that has endured and created two wonderful children. A relationship from which I assure you there is no escape for either of us.

Very Vicious Valentine Giveaway

Valentines Day, the day hopeless romantics adore and the loveless abhor. A day to celebrate love, to test the gift giving prowess of beaus, to sell countless and disposable cards, candy and flowers. A day to wallow in self pity or loudly profess that you neither need or desire love in your life. Love it or hate it, not one of us is allowed to completely ignore it's passage. This Valentines Day, why not focus on Friday the 13th instead and win yourself a little something both beautiful and a little macabre.Win this set of one Death's Head Moth magnet and numbered 6/66 ACEO of 'Drawn' made by Diana Crites of PaynesGrey.

I have had the fortune of meeting many wonderful artists in the last few years and few of them have been as lovely and talented as Diana. She has an eye for finding the beauty in the odd making her work surreal and memorable. I have discovered through her blog that we also have more than a couple of things in common and her words are as compelling to read as her art is to see.

Here's a bit of bio for you: Diana Crites is a fine artist with a special interest in the dreadful. She has shown in California and throughout the Portland area, including the inaugural exhibition at Pi-Rem Gallery in the Pearl and has been a featured artist at Intown Works III at the historic Old Church in downtown. Her paintings are held in private collections in throughout the United States, Paris, and British Columbia. She also keeps a blog at http://amutedpalette.blogspot.com

Now The Rules:
-Visit http://paynesgrey.etsy.com, and peruse her amazing art.
-Pick your favorite item from her shop and then come back here to this blog post, and leave a comment telling us about what you liked.
-If you are not a blog user, make sure to leave your name and email so you may be contacted should you win.

Want more chances to win...read on

-For an additional entry, tell us a love story or anti-love story as a comment, whichever is your bag.
-For an additional entry, tweet this giveaway, then leave a comment to let us know you've done so.
-Finally, for an additional two entries, blog about this giveaway on your own blog (complete with links and pictures), and come back and leave a comment telling us you've done so.

-This contest is open to residents of the US only.

-Contest ends on Friday, February 13th (I know, ironic huh?). Winner will be announced the following Monday.