A BIG CHANGE

My life has been a little upside down these last couple of weeks. In the past, I've read those articles that say things like "10 Things to Remember When Your Twenties Don't Go As Planned" and stuff like that, and I've always thought to myself, well hey, I must be the exception and not the rule because so far I am rocking my twenties! I am an adult! Yay and things!

And then recently there was some overly dramatic craziness which ended in me apparently being the bad guy. It's a new feeling for me - this ostracizing atmosphere where I felt like a leper or maybe an axe murderer and everyone just kind of looked at me like all of Pride Rock stared at Kovu in The Lion King II. You know what I mean?

It's crazy how all the good you can do, and how hard you can work, and how much effort you can put in, and that it can all be undone by some workplace gossip. I haven't maintained a lot of friendships with girls over the years because I don't enjoy the drama that they can bring. Sure, I have some really good girl friends, but as a general rule I've learned that girls can be really mean and petty and sometimes for no really good reason at all. And that's kind of what I'm taking away from this situation I currently find myself in. Girls are just mean, and sometimes they are mean just because they can be.

So I've had a lot of time for introspection lately. A chance to take a step back and really evaluate my priorities. What do I want to do with my life? Where do I want to go? Who do I want to be? And I've found some answers, some ways to use my God-given talents as an artist and designer.

It was my grandmother who introduced me to Spoonflower. She is an amazing quilter and knitter and author and fellow creative soul. She saw that Spoonflower was holding a fabric design contest and she encouraged me to be creative and enter. So I looked into it. And I created a couple of designs (that are now for sale!) and I entered a design in the Botanical Illustration Fabric8 contest.

It feels really good to be creating. It helps me calm down and relax when it feels like the rug has been pulled out from underneath me. It reminds me that this is what I was meant to do. And actually, I am pretty good at it.

So I've been applying to jobs in the design field. And I've been working on creating some awesome fabric prints in my Spoonflower shop:

 

So far I have just two designs up for sale, but I am definitely working on more. And if there's any designs that you are looking for and can't find, let me know and maybe we can work together to create the kind of fabric you might need.

One of my good friends said to me that when he was fired from one of his past jobs, his whole world opened up for the best. So here's to things maybe falling apart so that better things can fall together. I really don't know where the future will take me, but I am excited to see what happens.

You're Hot Then You're Cold, You're Yes Then You're No

So there's this thing called 'Arts and Crafts' and some of you may or may not have experienced this phenomenon once or twice in your life. I am all over the artsy side, but the crafty is a bit different for me.

I'm not a very crafty person, but on a whim Momma and I decided to make those hot/cold scented pads. You know, the ones you can buy in a mall or so and they go in the microwave or the freezer depending on how achey your muscles are?

Yeah, we thought we would undertake the task of creating one. Off to Hancock Fabrics we went to buy fabric and thread. All the fabric and thread has to be 100% cotton, and since we didn't have any of that just laying around the house, we jetted off to the store.

I picked out some blue fabric, because blue is my absolute favorite color. I couldn't decide between two of them, so I go both. We just got some fat quaters because it was cheaper.

The fat quarters we bought measured in at 18" by 22" so we cut them down to 18" by 9" for our intended size. Just big enough to span shoulders, stomach or back. You know, whatever strikes your fancy.

I got some blue cotton thread to match. Mom broke out her sewing machine and we double seamed the edges to be safe. Since we were filling them with a rice mixture, we didn't want one seam to break and then have a rice spill all over the place.

After we sewed the edges, it looked like this:


We sewed chambers to fill with rice. The tubes were filled 2/3 of the way with a mixture made from regular white rice and Bengal Spice Tea (which smells divine when heated).

After we filled the chambers with rice, we sewed the open end shut with another double seam.

We heated the new creation in the microwave for 3 min. It came out piping hot and nearly burned TheKeeper, who reacted by prancing around the kitchen as though he had ants in his pants.

Too bad I didn't get any video of that.

Anyway, I would advise only heating it for 2 to 2 and half minutes. It stays warm for a quite a while, smells good. It was only 5 dollars for the fabric, four for two spools of thread, and it took maybe only half a day to do.

I'm only guessing on the time because Momma left me for over an hour to take TheMechanic and DP to an orthodontist appointment.

TheKeeper enjoying the end product:

I had to take this picture while he was actually laughing. Otherwise you would have seen him throwing up a peace sign and making a weird face. Typical teenage boy. Ha, ha, ha.