Young Adult Urban Fantasy – Reverse Harem
Creatives will probably know what I mean (and most folks have one for bills), but I had enough energy this last week that I tackled THE Pile of Artwork (and hand written fiction) from my younger years. There was much groaning as I went through it because, wow, awful Fanfiction and Fanart galore! I started … Continue reading House Cleaning Is Like Tetris
I'm not much of a soap fan - I don't find the process very interesting, and there's a limited set of smells I like - cloves and mint being the big ones. I do like Zum soaps, especially their ends assorted boxes. Their soaps are pretty and smell strongly (a good thing!). My husband likes … Continue reading Interesting Things Just for You: Royalty Soaps
So this is kind of vague since I don't talk much about work, but I had to take an exam (on Halloween!) to renew my certification. I was SUPER nervous about it and have been studying nearly every day. I really needed to get it on the first try since it expired at the end … Continue reading Passed! But I’m Not Telling You What I Passed
Happy belated Halloween! We didn't think to buy any costume parts in advance since I hadn't felt like dressing up. But then, day of, I DEFINITELY felt like dressing up. So here's what I could piece together using construction paper and basic make up supplies - most of it eyeliner. We had ~150 kids/parents this … Continue reading Construction Paper and Eyeliner
Silly five minute post. My husband asked me to design a cute game character for him, and this is what I came up with. I sketched it out in advance, and then he had me use a pixel art program to draw it. I went with blue and green because blue his his favorite color, … Continue reading I Designed a Cute!
I was sick last Thursday, and I upchucked on myself. So I threw my shirt in the wash and then laid in the bathroom next to the toilet. Which was bad enough. But then the washer went to the spin cycle, and water came gushing up out of our drain and filling the shower and … Continue reading Because Everyone Love Moar Plumbing Disasters
Ehlers Danlos Syndrome is everywhere! I've run across two Youtubers who have EDS, which is always interesting, because all of our experiences with this disorder are different. The first is Jessica Kellgren-Fozard, who has quite a few complications in addition to having to deal with the British healthcare and disability system. (Did you know, that … Continue reading YouTube EDSers!
So, this was replaced a few days ago, but I hadn't gotten down into our muddy basement to take a photo of it yet. We have a... **drumroll**... NEW WATER HEATER! I love it, and I took a 45 minute shower before the water started to cool to something less than the surface of the … Continue reading Hot Water at Last
I've been watching a lot of watercolor Youtube videos, especially ones by Shayda Campbell found here. She does a LOT of leaves and florals, and really liked this video one a fall floral wreath. I decided to give it a go. This is the result: I was really liking it until I tried to use … Continue reading Practicing at Watercolor Painting – Florals
I've been laying out what I want for a cover to my current novel, and I finally sat down last week and tried to paint it for the first time. I expected to have to retry multiple times. It turned out wonderfully the first time. This is watercolor and colored pencil: I had to color … Continue reading First Peek at My Cover Illustration
I hadn't been posting a lot about my garden because I've just been exhausted balancing life and work and kind of let it go. The tomatoes went crazy with a bumper crop, but our flooding covered them so I didn't feel it was wise to eat them. Septics overflowed, water filled the sewers... the works. … Continue reading Last of the Garden
This year, NONE of our fruit trees flowered. We have apricot, cherry, and apple trees. Last year, the apples flowered and we had a few fruit. The apricots haven't yet, and neither have the cherries. It's kind of insulting though that NONE of them flowered. I mean, come on. Was it that bad of a … Continue reading If Only We Had Apples
Tundra was born in the fall of 2010, so we got to pick a birthday for him. We chose 10/10/2010 because we thought it was neat, and it's been a tradition to always bring him to the Kickapoo Valley Reserve for a hike for his birthday. It was cold and drizzly Sunday, but off we … Continue reading Happy Birthday Tundra!
Cleaning the kitchen most recently, I picked up one of those trays under the burner, and my finger punched through it. It was just a tad rusty. A tad. So, I went to the trusty I-don't-want-to-drive-anywhere shopping resource... Amazon. I was not only able to find the generic product, BUT I was able to find, … Continue reading Welp, Guess We’re Replacing Those – Am I an Adult Now?
My family on my mom's side has a history of aggressive colon cancer, striking some relatives very young. Yet I'd managed to avoid the dreaded colonoscopy until this year. I'm 35, which is early for a colonoscopy but late considering the risk in my family. I didn't find the drink to taste really bad - … Continue reading My Colon Appears Cancer-Free
Today, my mom's service dog, who had been declining in health, was unable to get up at all, even with help. They had been assisting her with a sling we used to use to carry wood, but today she couldn't do it. Every time Mom left the room she was in she whined and chuffed … Continue reading Goodbye, Mariah. You are loved.
Those moments when your paranoid end-of-the-world purchases do you good. We have successfully fixed our shower - the part was small, we ordered it off amazon, ten bucks. We borrowed the allen wrenches to get to it, got it fixed, success! All well and fine until my husband checked on the water in our basement … Continue reading When Paranoid End-of-the-World Purchases Do You Good
The Friday before I finished work, we had our monthly office meeting where we meet with partner agencies and get the scoop on what's going on in the Central Office. This time, due to me leaving, we had a taco luncheon. I love tacos, so this was a win-win situation. Get to gossip AND eat … Continue reading Little Bits of Kindness
Today is the last day of work at my job. I'm losing it because of politics and budgeting - my position was eliminated. I'm losing it through no fault of my own. My work was excellent, there was no office drama, and I loved what I was doing. Today I'll be cleaning out my desk … Continue reading Today Is My Last Day
Last Christmas, I looked at getting some pawpaw trees, but they were out of stock so I signed up for notifications for when they're back in stock. And they're back! These trees are native to the United States, and they have fruit that I've seen described as mango, banana, or 'tropical' flavored. (Whatever that might … Continue reading I Didn’t Spend Money on PawPaws But It Wasn’t For Lack of Coveting
I can't even. I got ready for my shower, stepped in, spun the knob... and then knob kept spinning. No water came out. There was COPIOUS swearing because I just DO NOT NEED another thing to fix and spend money on. So the GOOD news is that it broke with the water OFF. I washed … Continue reading I Broke My Shower
We called and had someone come out to check out and repair our furnace and air conditioner after all the, well, water. Water in them, water around them, water everywhere. As soon as we realized we were flooding, we turned them off and cut power, but when I opened them after the water went down, … Continue reading Furnace and Air Conditioner Survived!
My in-laws were hit by the same storm, and thankfully my father-in-law was in town, not at home, or he would have lost his vehicle and been trapped. All photos taken by my husband. They lost their driveway. Doesn't look impressive here: But from this angle? It's completely destroyed. This is the 'culvert' under it. … Continue reading In-Laws Were Hit By the Flooding Too
My parents... were hit HARD by the most recent flood. The good thing is they were hit in 2014 too, and EVERYTHING valuable was moved out of the basement into the ground floor. Their basement, with two sump pumps, held out with no more than 8 inches of water. This is a shot they took … Continue reading And My Parents REALLY Flooded
Thursday September 13th, Southwest Wisconsin was SLAMMED with a storm that flooded all sorts of places. One of them was our house - mildly flooded. The other was my parents' house - very flooded. Right now I'm just talking about our house. Here was our backyard: Pretty muddy water: Water rushing down the hill across … Continue reading So, We Flooded
And now for a lighter post. This last winter, I used my Christmas gift from Grandpa to buy several plants and a ton of seeds. I'll have to take photos of the basil and mint garden. Just walking past it is aromatic and delicious! Here are the potted ones! I introduce you to my Coffee, … Continue reading Coffee, Tea, and Stevia, Oh My!
On my previous post, you might have noticed that our grocery budget is RIDICULOUSLY small. Like, below the USDA Food Estimates by a lot. You can find them HERE. For clarity: On their cheapest plan, they expect us to spend $90 a week or $390 a month for both of us combined. But our budget … Continue reading Rice, Beans, and Paranoia
Since I'm losing my job on September 30th, my husband and I have cut back on our spending to fit within his budget. Yes, I TOTALLY get that we're privileged enough that we can get by on just his income. I've noticed that while there are a TON of how-to-cut-back-on-your-spending-you-heathen advice, not many people are … Continue reading Let’s Talk About Budgeting
I've been having a lot of work related nerves lately, but my husband sat me down. He pointed out that THIS IS MY CHANCE. Working part time and healthy, this is my chance to be a SERIOUS WRITER. Get that book finished and revised and PUBLISHED. I have a cheap content editor available. (Was part … Continue reading Being a Serious Writer
I've mentioned that my Job Has Been Eliminated, and so I'm looking for work. It's possible, at least for the near future, that I'll be working with my dad and husband in their business. Which is super exciting. And TERRIFYING. See, when I was at my sickest, I worked with my dad. And my work … Continue reading Nerves, All the Nerves
This is a book that was suggested in one of Ask a Mortician's YouTube videos. I was intrigued so bought a used copy from Amazon. 'Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures & Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs' This is NOT an affiliate link, just added for your convenience to find the book easily on Amazon. It came … Continue reading Book Rec Just for You: Interesting Bodies
So this is a mini rant. I don't think I've ever done one here, actually, but I was pretty steamed. Your favorite author releases a book. Great! Now, what do you do? Do you: Buy/borrow it, read it and leave glowing (or not) review about the contents of the book Not buy it and leave … Continue reading Rant: Don’t Be THAT Book Reviewer
I had the opportunity to guest post on Jami Gold's writing blog, and I was SUPER STOKED. So, I'm letting you know! The post is a rewrite of an old post a made - but after all the writing and editing they're barely recognizable as the same post. You can find it HERE. We talk about … Continue reading Guest Post on Jami Gold’s Blog
I've been playing more with the water color paints I just bought - I've decided that I prefer the Prang to the fancier ones because the fancier ones are grainy and don't always mix well. So boo at that set. Anyway, here she is! Color corrected on my computer because the scanner scans blueish: This … Continue reading New Artwork – The Dancer
We went to California last fall, and one of the things I bought was a sequoia kit for growing them at home. This spring, I set up the kit, stuck the seeds in the fridge for the required 21 days, and then transferred them under my grow light. Two of them sprouted. And they're growing! … Continue reading Growing Baby Sequoia!
I used to go to my grandparents' cabin, did this for two or three summers, and they had this painting on the wall that I would sit and stare at. I wanted this painting, but of course it was my grandparents. My grandfather passed a few months ago, and when I went to the interment, … Continue reading That Painting I’ve Always Wanted
I worked on a new watercolor with a reference photo to make it more realistic. The photo was nude, so I gave her some clothes. *smile* If you're interested in knowing what photo I used, I can dig that out. It was from a book of female nudes. Again, I had to color adjust because … Continue reading A More Realistic Watercolor
I hadn't talked about this before, just thought about what would be appropriate to post. I was definitely down the week I discovered this and didn't want to say something stupid or too down. I'll be losing my job in September. It was limited term employment, but they were expecting to renew. Instead, office politics … Continue reading Losing My Job
So, this is kind of my husband's story, but he gave me permission to post it on my blog. My husband was driving to work early last week, when he saw a deer at the side of the road stomping on something. He beeped his horn, the deer bolted, and he got out to check … Continue reading We Rescued A Kitten… From A Deer?
I got some bad news this last Friday, and I'm not doing so hot, so the next few posts are entertainment only, focusing on the YouTube channels I've been binging this weekend. The first is Ask a Mortician, and I've actually been watching her channel heavily for several weeks now. I absolutely love how direct … Continue reading Interesting Things Just for You: Ask a Mortician YouTube Channel
Originally written Jun 3, 2016, here's a post from my dad! Today was the last day for the ugly old red lawn tractor. In 14 years, I've replaced just about everything except the ignition key on it. The list of failing parts is epic, and I'd already decided to nurse it along and replace it … Continue reading The Grump: All Good Mowers Come to an End
I know it's common to give cash or useful gifts, but I'm a Downer. When my relatives graduate, I give them THIS BOOK. Dave Ramsey's Complete Guide to Money. (Not an affiliate link.) Why? Because NO ONE talks about money. After High School, you're just left to fumble around trying to pay your bills and … Continue reading What Do You Give Newly Grads?
We went to a relative's high school graduation party, and it seems like there were parties EVERYWHERE. Which makes me a bit nostalgic for the summer after High School Graduation where I was finally DONE with Day Care (I mean High School) and eagerly looking forward to college. I had no real responsibilities, and everything … Continue reading Just a Little Bit of Nostalgia
I follow various snow dog rescues, wolf dog rescues, and such, and I'm always looking at different dogs. I may like them, but I don't usually do more than gush about one and show my husband. Then I don't think anything more of it. But... I saw a dog at a shelter a reasonable drive … Continue reading We WERE Going to Adopt a Dog
UGH. I was doing SO WELL on the meds I was on, fairly stable, rarely swinging full manic and a livable amount of depression. But I made the mistake of mentioning, at my most recent psych appointment, that I was lactating from the Invega. My doctor immediately wanted to know for how long. Four years? … Continue reading Everything Was Stable So Time For New Medications: Let’s Talk About Weight Gain
This is a little older, but I wasn't able to get the photos my family took from it until now. I had a close friend, who is military, drop by my parents around Thanksgiving. She has been having a hard time, and I remembered that she loved making Gingerbread Houses, so I picked one up … Continue reading Puzzling the Neighbors – Gingerbread House Edition
You would think that, since every other nursery waits to ship, that the Camellia Forest Nursery would also wait until reasonable weather to ship their plants. Nope. It was 25 degrees yesterday when I found the notification that my tea was being delivered. I was at work. 45 minutes away from home. Cue frantic call … Continue reading Oh, Beauteous Day, My Tea Plant Is Here!
