Eclipse...meh

When I went to our local Hy-Vee grocery store to deliver a shirt I made a friend of mine I wondered if they were having a super sale or something because the parking lot was packed like it is when there is snow in the forecast!  After finding a parking space way in the back of the parking lot I went in and found a line snaking all the way around the grocery store.  Everyone was waiting in line for Eclipse glasses.  I just shook my head and delivered my shirt before I did my grocery shopping.

Close up of shirt...kind of hard to see...bit it's made with Cricut Glitter HTV

Shirt I made for a friend.  I created the design and it has her name on the back.  I use a cutting board to iron onto and the cabinet I use is a perfect height for me to work on.

Don't get me wrong, I think the Eclipse is kind of cool, I just don't plan on making a big deal about it.  As a matter of fact I unknowingly made a dental cleaning appointment and when I did find out that it was essentially at the same time that the Eclipse will be over my town I decided not to reschedule because I don't really need to see it in real life. I certainly don't want to go to St Joseph, the closest town where it is "best" to view it because it is going to be swamped with people.  Nope, no thanks!  I will go to my dental appointment and then come home and work on some crafty things before I need to work the concessions stand for the JV football game.  Yep, that's right, I am living the dream folks!  

Honestly, I am just struggling in general with direction and motivation right now and am just trying to keep my head above water so to speak.  I am doing my best to do what needs to be done around the house and I feel like I am always behind.  On my agenda this week is working on making some cards and doing some online training to get my business started properly.  

I did manage to take photos of my sons football game on this past Friday...and made myself a new shirt to wear as I watched it! 

On Saturday I also went out craft shopping with my good friend Mary and then came back and packed my craft bag so that it was ready for the Ladies Scrapbooking night that a local group puts on.  We did have some fun and enjoyed making some long over due Scrapbooks!  

My friend Mary and her granddaughter Millie who thoroughly enjoyed herself that evening!

Working on making this week not be meh...and actually enjoying the journey.  Not that  I did not have moments of enjoyment...I did...but joy seems to be more elusive lately and I am tying to change that!

Not how it was planned for my day to go

my life today...remnants of my rescue meds...and I did not crop out my messy bathroom counter...real life ya'll!

Well, yesterday, or rather this morning, I did not go to sleep until 3 am because I had a migraine yesterday and once I started feeling "better" I chose to stay up and keep working.  That was probably not the best plan considering the fact that I have been throwing up all day today.  I woke up to go to the bathroom after a few hours sleep after I heard my husband leave for work.  I knew then that I was not feeling right, but I just got an ice pack and decided to lay back down after taking a Zofran for nausea.  There really was no choice since anytime I moved I felt like throwing up and I could not walk straight.  

After a few more hours of fitful rest, I cannot really call it sleep since I was mainly just trying to keep the world from spinning, I got up and threw up.  Throwing up on an empty stomach with a migraine is not exactly fun let me tell you!  I decided to force myself to eat something since I knew it would at the very least give me something to throw up the next time and it might even make me feel better. Not really feeling like eating I chose a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Even in my feeble state I could handle that. I started watching a movie in the recliner in the living room. The sandwich was was actually pretty good and I managed to keep it in my system a whole 15 minutes or so...

Not wanting to throw up anymore I reached for my rescue meds that my neurologist gave me one of which is a one hit inhaler with migraine meds.  You know I am desperate if I voluntarily took the other...an anti nausea suppository!  After I administered these meds I went back to the recliner and finished my movie.  When that was over I started watching a new episode of a series I have been watching.  Midway through that episode I woke up and turned it off.  Still groggy but not really as nauseous I decided to head to the kitchen to make myself some soup.  

The only soup I had that was not tomato based and not in a can was chicken and noodle soup in an envelope.  Not trusting my ability to use the stove I chose to microwave it.  Then I came down to my craft room and decided to write a blog post, doesn't every one do that when they are feeling like crap?

I can hear the microwave now beeping at me telling me my soup is ready.  I can also hear all of the unfinished projects in my craft room calling me...but considering that fact that I cannot see straight (thank goodness I can touch type very well...incidentally this always freaks the kids out at home and at school when I worked...they would come in to talk to me and I would turn to look at them and still continue to type away, ha ha)  But I digress (more so than usual lol).  The soup and recliner will win today and I will go to bed at a normal time tonight and try again tomorrow to start my new adventure!

At some point during the day between throwing up sessions I took a shower.  And my shower I mean while I did wash my hair and body for the most part I cranked up the heat to high and stood in the shower letting the hot water attempt to give me some relief from pain.  Then I wrapped myself in a towel, grabbed another ice mask from my beside fridge (a gift from my kids for Christmas so that I can have a plentiful supply of ice masks available to me when I have a migraine) and fell asleep in a stupor.  

During the day I did check Facebook (even updated it a couple of times...), and checked emails as well.  (I should probably go back and make sure I did not say anything too blunt in my medicated/sick state of mind).  As I was listening to music in the shower (the album Young by the Overcoats...very good, you should buy it!) and laying there in bed I wondered if this was God's way of telling me I made the wrong choice in leaving work to pursue my craft business.  Then I decided that nope, that was Satan trying to make me think I was wrong.  

Yes, today did not go as planned, but I am still in control of my life right now and it looks pretty darn good!  With the meds my awesome doctor provided (she really listens to me and when I told her I had to go to the ER with bad migraines sometimes since I throw up the medicine she gave me meds that I can put into my system without going to the ER to get IV meds) I was able to get my migraine and throwing up under control.  My "to do list" is just a little longer for tomorrow...

Now I should go re-heat my soup I guess.  I just come down to my craft room to get my iPad, not sure what prompted me to write a blog post...

Back to school, migraines, and new adventures!

Custom bag I made for the football auction this past week.  I also had another auction item with a blank bag that the person who won it can have customized however they wanted.

It is currently 12:30 in the morning.  I am awake...and on the computer because I don't feel like sleeping right now since I am a little keyed up from having a migraine all day.  I always feel like I am so behind after I have a migraine since I just don't really feel like doing anything when I have one.  Today's migraine was not that bad, but it did make me nauseous and just blah.  I did manage to organize my craft room a little bit, mainly because it was in such disarray from all of the last minute things I finished up for the Friday Night Lights auction for my son's football team.  I was one of three moms who helped to organized the event.  We also had the head coach and several other staff members who also helped, but there were not very many of us so it was a little hectic this past week.

My youngest son, who is 16 starts school on Tuesday...the summer went by really really fast!  I am both excited and nervous about this school year.  This is the first time in several years that I am not starting the school year as well because I resigned as the library paraprofessional at the high school.  There are so many emotions I have about not going back this year.  Mostly I am just thankful that I have decided to take care of myself and my mental health.  There is an overwhelming sense of calm that I have knowing that I am no longer on someone else's schedule anymore.  Of course there is also an extreme sense of dread and uncertainty as well.  I have been up to the school for some things relating to the auction and talked to some of my former coworkers at the high school and I am really sad that I won't see them every day.  The people-pleaser in me is feeling bad that I won't be there to help them with their technology needs like I have in the past.  I feel especially guilty that the librarian is basically on her own now because the person they replaced me with is likely only doing "technology" things not library things like I also did.  I can't let that stop me from doing what makes me happy and brings me less stress though...even if that is going to be hard for me.  

Another thing I managed to do today was start designing a t-shirt for wearing to my son's opening varsity football game against our rivals this coming Friday!  Our football team is a big family and they share meals together on Thursday and Fridays during the season.  I took the word FAMILY and added the football stitching to the words and will cut out with my Cricut Expression using our team colors (purple and gold)...and I will probably use the glitter version as well!  I made my first iron-ons this week and am in love with it!  I am super excited about my new adventures in crafting and being able to focus on getting my business started now that school is starting.

Using Nuvo Mousse on a wood sign

The piece "in progress".  Waiting on the yellow Nuvo Mousse to dry.  

I bought this sign on clearance from Hobby Lobby and am customizing it for the Friday Night Lights Silent Auction for my son's football team.  I have actually had this one and several others (different ones) for a couple of months I think, but I have been focused on other things.  Since the auction is in just over a week I figured I had better get in gear!  

ACK...it ripped the paper off of the sign so I had to improvise!

Up close of the purple corner.  I am going to attach the clip to the sign and print out some of the football pictures I have taken and include them on the sign. (I think this will entice parents to buy!)

Here is a close up of what the bottom, gold corner might look like after I attach the clips.

Super up close shot of the "texture" in the gold section.

I also made a quick video and uploaded it to YouTube (I did not edit it...)

This short video shows the "in progress" piece a little more in depth...and my extremely messy craft table!  I really have to organize (again...) but that won't happen until next week AFTER the auction!


My previous video on my "old" channel

Mowing adventures

So the other day I mowed the lawn...for the second time this season.  I had managed to avoid it all season because my son or son in law would do it.  My husband bought a new mower this year so I did not know all of the details about how it worked. After I took a water break I started mowing again and noticed that there were two bars on the handle.  I squeezed the "new" one and lo and behold...the mower nearly shot out of my grasp! I had been mowing manually!  The second half of the yard was a lot easier to mow at least!  Not long after that I went to mow around the side of the house and came across a bunch of weeds growing around the water meter.  I figured I better weed them out so that if the water meter needed to be read then they could actually access the meter.  I just started pulling them since I had gloves on and I had tried to use the weed eater and it had like 78 instructions on the side and I was like...um, no, ain't nobody got time for that!   I forgot to take a before picture...but it so overgrown that you could not even see the meter or the side of the house even.  The bush/weed was taller than I was!  I started to break the branches off and then I found a meat cleaver on the ground...not sure where it came from (probably fell out of the trash?)

 

However it got there... the meat cleaver came in handy!  Oh..and I also discovered a snake in the yard while I was mowing! It was an adventure for sure!  

Changes

Lots of changes since I last posted an update! Here are some (in no particular order!)-

• My daughter, Cat married Brett!  Yay!
  
• I am no longer working full time!  YAY times infinity!!!
• I was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease called Salzmann’s nodular degeneration
• I found a second doctor who agreed with the diagnosis and HELPED me tremendously!
• I decided to start a crafting business (still unnamed!)
• To that end...I reclaimed the wreck room (yes, I meant to spell it that way, ha ha) as my craft space
  
  
  
  
• Maeghan ...and Chris graduated high school!
• There is probably a TON more...but I need to get some actual crafting done instead of watching Melody Lane "Twitch for the first time, or watching Jennifer McGuire Ink, or Prairie Paper & Ink or Daniels Krafts

But at least I am not adding anymore to my craft stash today...