Curse You 3rd Molars!

You are in imminent danger of being extracted from my face!

So, yesterday I went to the dentist, then was sent to the oral surgeon, and today I scheduled an appointment for surgery on Monday... And I'm really nervous! Not about having them taken out; during my childhood, almost every baby tooth had to be manually pulled out by the dentist. I'm actually afraid of being gassed and drugged! Ha I guess that's kind of funny, but I've never had it done before!

I've been told exactly how it's going to go by both the doc and my husband, yet there's still a lingering fear of the unknown. The unknown that is about to be known pretty soon! I only have four days left... I'm mostly worried about being allergic to the sedatives or something like that. ...

Ugh I worry about every little thing as usual... I should look on the bright side: All four of my stupid wisdom teeth will be gone. That'll be great!

Well anyways, besides that, I had some fun today in photoshop:

My First Finished Project!

Can you tell I'm excited about this?! Well, I've been wanting a panda hat for a long time, ever since I started sewing. I decided to take it a step further and make a panda scoodie! It's made out of good quality fleece so it's super soft and warm. I love the stitching around the edges, though I had some trouble with it. I think it's because the fabric was just too thick in some places. In a way, though, I kind of like the imperfections. It adds to it's unique, hand-made appearance. As you can tell, I'm not saying the hat looks like it's poorly done. I'm actually extremely anal, a big perfectionist, when it comes to the things I create. I've always been that way, since I was little. To the point of being a weird little kid.

Case in point: If I colored outside the lines in my coloring books, I would make my mom cut off those parts!! Who does that??!! I guess I just had a shaky hand, because I ended up hating coloring books and giving them up all together! Haha! I'm so strange...

Well, if I do start selling products then my customers will like that strangeness, because I'm all about working hard and producing quality work! At the same time, like I said earlier, I kind of like the messy look of the stitches, even though it was an accident. So I guess I'll have limited clientele XD. I also wanted to have each piece be unique in some way, so little imperfections add to that.

Possibly Going to Set Up Shop

Ok, So I've really been thinking seriously about selling on Etsy. Once I develop and perfect my products that is. I have lots of craft ideas to execute. I keep adding things to my 'little black book'. I think I'm going to focus on hats and dolls, but I may do some accessories as well, such as scarves and jewelry, and maybe artwork. I'm not sure about that, though.

Today I read all of Etsy's rules and regulations, looked up info about having a small craft business, and also looked at different postal services' pricing. I think I'm going to go with USPS.

I've had this idea for a while now, ever since I realized how much I like creating things, but I wasn't sure about it since I didn't have a sewing machine. Now I do! I really nice one, thanks to Billy. He is truly amazing :)

He doesn't like my idea though, since this isn't what I went to school for :/ We'll see how things go.

We Have Crappy Hearts

So I guess it's the Steinlein AND Kuyper side, which sucks. So many in my extended family have died young because of heart attacks. A few just dropped dead. What the heck...

I just got back home from being at a hospital in N.C. for my Uncle Andy, the youngest of the five siblings. He's been having chest pains, extreme fatigue and discomfort, so bad he had to go to the emergency room on Friday night. On the scan they saw an abnormality in the same exact spot they saw in my Uncle Paul's heart. Well, during the cath they discovered that one of his arteries is abnormally small.
Only 20% of the population have this condition. Oma has it also. Also, one artery had only 30% blockage, another only 20% blockage, so that's not that bad.

What's scary is that when the doc went to scope the abnormal artery his heart didn't like that very much and stopped beating. They had to shock him several times, and he has burn marks on his chest... Uncle Andy said he remembers not feeling any pain, and then, all of a sudden, the worst pain he's ever experienced. He said it felt like someone grabbed his heart and squeezed, and then suddenly all these people ran into the room and everyone was screaming. The doctor said that they were having a conversation and then Uncle Andy stopped talking. They shocked him several times and he came to and he continued talking, like nothing had happened. It's weird hearing the different perspectives.

The doctor said it might just be an infection of some sort, but they're not really sure why he's been experiencing the pain and fatigue. Too bad Dr. House is a fictional character...

Old Dogs & New Cosplay Plans

Jojo hasn't been looking so good lately :( Poor boy had to have surgery recently because his bowels twisted. They sewed his intestines onto his stomach to prevent it from happening again. It seems like that surgery aged him even more. I feel so bad for him and make sure I help him out in any way I can. He's such a stubborn dog, though. For instance, on one side of our deck there aren't stairs going down to the grass because we have a lower deck with a hot tub on it. Well, what side does the old dog always try to go up?! I even blocked it and he tried to shove the blockade over lol. So now I have to watch him when I let him out, because he's a bit beyond the age where he can go up that side, especially after that surgery. I don't want him straining to hard so that something tears.

Plans

Well, since we can probably only afford to go to one a year, I have a whole year to make this costume haha! I'm such a nerd. It hasn't even been a month since Nekocon, and I'm already planning another costume.. But anyways, her name is Kai and she's from the video game Heavenly Sword. She's a very petite character and very strange (to the point of being mentally..well, behind where she should be), so I thought this would be a good character for me to try lol. I've collected a TON of reference pictures, and I've only found one superb cosplay of here. The rest, I haven't been very impressed. I think I'm going to use a moleskin suede, leather cord, and metal buttons for her hat. I'm really not sure what kind of fabric to use for her clothing. Is it cotton or something else? I'm going to have to view more videos to see how it moves. What I also love about her costume is that everything looks like she made it, therefore nothing has to be perfect. I think I'm going to have fun with this one...

Making Hats & Plushies

Just started another moogle plush. This one is really tiny, and the little parts are so cute! I mean, look how small they are in relation to that sharpie marker XD I'll show you what it looks like when I'm done.

I think it would be really cool to have a booth at Nekocon next year. Some of my (former) classmates said they wanted to, but I'm not sure if they're serious or not. I'm not sure I would be able to make enough to have a booth on my own, but I guess I can try. If I don't end up doing it then I could open shop on etsy and sell my stuff. It just really sucks that I don't have a sewing machine, so I'm making everything by hand T.T If only I could afford one... But I made this hat by hand
and it turned out pretty good. It was my first time doing a hat+mask, so there are some kinks to work out.

November Nor'easter

I live in Hampton Roads, VA, therefore this weather has been crazy! Our house has just been shaking like crazy from the wind. Kind of eerie. We only lost power once, though, which was fortunate and seemingly rare from what I've heard. My cousins are all at my parents house, because it was so bad at their house. My husband's work has been cancelled two days in a row because the city's so flooded. Sadly, there have been at least three fatal accidents in the area as of last night.

Caffeine for the Creative Mind | How'd That Get There?

Exercise: Photograph 10 items that don't belong where they are.