I give up for now guys…

I’ve been trying to get back into blogging but if its not one thing its another. As you may know my computer has been unusable because it overheated and needed a cleaning. I finally got it back a couple of days ago and was trying to sort things out on it so that it would work faster and blah blah. Well I kept noticing something weird about it. It gets hot on the completely other side of the keyboard now and there’s a constant humming. For days I thought it was just me, but no, I’ve used this thing enough to know that Best Buy Geek Squad has messed up my computer!!!  They put it back together wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am beyond pissed because its going to take an act of some higher power for me to get it fixed back around and those dillweeds better NOT expect payment for it!!!  I’m livid, if you can’t tell.  I haven’t been able to use my computer much because its slow and sluggish, probably from all the heat that is barely escaping because all the vents are ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COMPUTER and so the air is not getting out and my computer is just staying hot. Sorry, just frustrated by this on top of other things. And to make it more frustrating it’s Script Frenzy this month and I haven’t worked on it yet because I am reading through what I wrote last year to see where I left off.  Loving the story I wrote last year, btw. But now I may have to put it off for a few more days while the dillweeds that insist they know what they are doing fix my computer, AGAIN. Once again, sorry, just frustrated and this is just the tug that broke the doll’s neck. Ha, did you see what I did there…oh nevermind.

So basically, if I owe you an email, its coming, but probably not until hopefully this weekend but don’t count on it until next week. My email is muy backed up again and I was all set for a big cleanout when I finally got my computer back since my sister’s is kind of slow to do it and I thought my computer I’d whiz right through it. Yeah, not so much. So yeah, if you sent me something you will get a response next week at the latest. Sorry, but it is what it is. I’ll see what I can do from my sister’s computer, but honestly its only really good for watching things and not much else. So yeah, odds are I’ll be silent for a while, but I’ll be back as soon as those jokers get things fixed. Ugh! Dillweeds.

And so on that note, I’m off. I hope all of you have a wonderful Easter if you celebrate. If not, I hope you have an awesome weekend. I will talk to you lovely people later. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Wishing she knew how to fix her own computer,
A rather pissed off Michelle

Coming back full force in 2012!

So I just wanted to pop on to say I have not abandoned the blog, just taking time for myself at the end of this year. Can you believe by the end of tomorrow we’ve all just gone through another 365 days?  Crazy right?  Here’s to another 365!  Humm, there isn’t a leap year next year is there?  Well if there is, add one more day to my cheerful wish. 

But with that said, until I return I wanted to leave you with some entertainment.  The following video is an animated version of Wicked’s “Defying Gravity”.  The artist did it in an attempt to get the play done in animation instead of live action.  Seems it will be live action in the end, but I so wish I could see a full Wicked animation.  Oh and in case you were wondering, the artist who did this works for Disney.  It’s pretty awesome.  Take a look.

And on that note I will wish you all a Happy New Year, and I hope that this year ends on a good note for everyone.  See you in 2012!!!

Singing songs from famous Broadway plays,
Michelle

Merry Christmas everyone!

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I hope all of you had an awesome Christmas. Mine was ok. It ended up being mostly just another day for me.  I didn’t get my gifts done because I realized late in the game a lot of stuff had to be hand sewn and while I’m getting faster at it, one item can take one or more hours. So while its no sweat to have things be a few days late, I still feel bad about it.  But I am coming up with some cute things that I think they will like.  This whole process is giving me a lot to think about when it comes to making clothing for dolls.  As soon as gifts are done and given out I will be jumping right back in making stuff to sell finally.  I think I really needed to get over this fear of creating and making a mistake and wanting it perfect the first time out.  I made TONS of mistakes on the clothing I made and I’m learning two things.  One, it can usually be undone and redone again.  Two, it’s not the end of the world and usually the mistakes are only things I will see and I am being nitpicky about.  So yeah, this whole experience is turning out to be good for me.

And I know this place has become a ghost town but I will be back to blogging here really soon.  I’m going to be altering the focus of this blog a bit but I will tell you more about that in the new year.   Hey it’s only a couple of more days.  Can you believe that?  A couple of more days and that’s a wrap on 2011.  I don’t even know how to describe this year for me.  It’s had ups and downs, thankfully mostly ups.  I’m hoping next year will be a better year though.  I’m hoping everyone in my life gets into better health and that I can take BIG HUGE LARGE strides towards my future.  Fingers crossed tightly.

Silly thing, my mom is kind of sad that today was kind of a bust when it comes to Christmas.  She misses how it was and had planned an old fashioned Christmas but things just didn’t turn out that way. So she said she wants a do over and has chosen Valentine’s day to do it.  Don’t ask me why Valentine’s day, she just wants it.  So I guess I might have two Christmases next year.  Who knows.  She wants to pull out the top half of the tree and put presents under it and celebrate.  LOL!  So I guess we will see.

And well that’s all for now guys.  Blog posts will resume in the new year.  For now, for the next few days I will try to finish gifts, do some Winter Cleaning, and just close out the year on a hopefully good note.  So once again I hope you had a very Merry Christmas.  I’ll talk to you all soon.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Popping another piece of candy into her mouth,
Michelle

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum, wie treu sind deine Blätter?

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So I’m sure most of us learned as a child to sing a favorite Christmas carol, O Christmas Tree, I’ve heard it in both English and German many of times.  But it seems the years since that song was written that Christmas trees have been changing and getting quite, dare I say it, crafty.  As evident from the picture above of a crafty Christmas tree made out of Mountain Dew cans and topped with a Mountain Dew bottle, Christmas tress are a’changin’.  After seeing this picture I was curious what other crafty Christmas trees were out there so I googled Creative Christmas trees, and boy did I find some unique and creative ones.  And of course I had to come share my findings with you.    Have a look at these cool trees.  Click the “source” links under the pictures to go to the website these trees are hanging out on.

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Plywood tree.  I saw a miniature version of this tree as well.  Pretty cool, and you can actually hang ornaments on them or just leave them as is.

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Christmas ornaments hung on wall in the shape of a Christmas tree.  Love this idea.  Also made me think you could something like this with varying sizes of picture frames.

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This is more for outdoor decorating.  A Christmas tree made out of lighted balls.  Some of the trees made around the world will impress you.

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Get your kids in on the creative fun by having them make a tree and decorations out of Lego.

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A ladder dressed up as a Christmas tree.  Love the idea and even the look of it.  It just seems to fit for some weird reason.

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This is so cool.  It looks like an actual snow covered tree in a house.  Made easily with rolled cotton and snow glitter.

I do hope you’ve checked out the websites these pictures came from because these pictures are only scratching the surface of the cool stuff out there.  I hope, perhaps, that you have gotten some ideas on how to think outside of the…errr…um…tree box, and came up with some ideas on how to make your Christmas a little bit more unique this year.  I’m collecting these ideas to try out when I finally get a place of my own. 

And now that the Christmas season is in full swing, I’m hunting the web for unique and interesting items in the handmade community.  I will be sharing my cool finds with you in the coming days and weeks.  Hopefully you’ll find that thing you’ve always wanted from my searches and reveals.  Fingers crossed tight that you will.    For now I am off.  I’m wayyyy behind on Nanowrimo and I think I want to try typing some tonight.  *Looks at clock.*  Or maybe I’ll get some sleep instead and start catching up tomorrow.    Talk to you lovelies soon.  Be good and crafty until then.  Bye for now.

Yawning from looking at the little yawn emoticon,
Michelle

Happy Veteran’s Day

Thank you for your bravery and thank you for my freedom.

Proud to be an American,
Michelle

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween to all of your freaks and ghouls out there!    I hope you are all playing it safe and having a fun time tonight.  I’m doing my usual Halloween thing of spending the night in.  It’s raining something horrible out there so I don’t think there were any trick-or-treaters out tonight.  My friend even took her kids to the mall because we got hit with one of the coldest and wettest Halloweens in a long time. I remember Halloweens just a few years back where you had to wear short sleeve shirts because it was hot an muggy.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the cold, but the wind and rain make it extra brrrrrrr.  So I hope you are staying warm tonight if your neck of the woods is unseasonably cold too tonight.

Right now I am currently counting down the hours to the start of Nanorwrimo.  I am being a Nano Rebel this year by not writing a novel.  I’m going to be finishing up a script for the photostory I’ve been trying to finish for a long time now.  I think my time of Nanowrimo is coming to an end.  I don’t know if I’ll be doing it next year.  I do cherish the crazed writing during November, I just think I want to start making that an everyday thing than just a one month thing, so I don’t know about future Nanos.  But this year is my first as a Rebel and I’m kind of excited about it.  I don’t want to write a novel just to write a novel and waste time on something I’ll hate, so I will write the script which will hopefully help me write my story and get it done so I can start taking pictures in December and start putting it up next year.  Fingers crossed.

As for other things I am doing right now, I’m focusing on my health right now.  There are a lot of things I need to get done by the end of the year.  I have something I am dreading coming up in 28 days, and I don’t really want to talk about it right now because I’m that nervous about it.  It’s really silly to be nervous about it, but when I explain it…on the 28th or 29th of next month, then I’m sure it will be clearer why I dreaded it.  I’m working on inventory for my shop.  I finally found a place to put my shop.  I think that was another problem for me, where to put my shop, but I found a nice place for it to be that a lot of other doll sellers are on so it works.  And well, I guess that’s about it right now.  So the goals for the end of the month is to work on the immediate health issues at hand, get through that situation I’m dreading at the end of next month, and get the shop open.  I know I won’t make the Christmas rush with my shop, but that’s ok, as long as I get it open.  Oh, and yes I am still working on emails, comments, etc., etc. etc., you get the point.  I’m working on all that.  Now that some stress has been taken off of me with my parents health either doing better or being looked at, my mom still worries me some with her heart issues, I’m getting a little more calmer and I can focus better.  I’m hoping this next month will be busy and productive for me.  I’m ending this year on a good note, no matter what.  And NO Michelle, that isn’t jinxing it for you by saying it aloud.   

And on that crazy note, I will bring this post to a close.  I will talk to you lovelies soon.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Realizing she needs to get up and exercise some of this candy off,
Michelle

Something Like Summer

So while I should have been busy crafting today, I realized a book my sister loaned to me 2 weeks ago on my Nook was about to expire, so I had to finish it tonight. I just finished it and I must say I was impressed.  The book is called Something Like Summer, and it was a rather interesting read.

It’s a romance novel about two teenage boys, Ben and Tim, who meet one summer due to Ben’s crush on the mysterious new guy in town Tim.  Something happen that lead to Ben and Tim being together.  They had a hot and steamy love affair, but some issues caused them to have to split up.  What follows is 10 years of life, love, and chance meetings.  Some really sad things happen along the way that leads to a bittersweet ending.  I wouldn’t say this book was destined to be one of the great classics of our time, but it was a rather good read.

Some parts I felt were rushed in the story, but it flow non-stop so that was good.  The author, Jay Bell who is a gay man himself, told the story in such a way that you didn’t view the story as “a love story between two guys” but more as “a love story between two people”.  I will warn you now, some of the sex scenes are written in a slightly graphic way, but nothing to raunchy…nothing worse than what you’d find in your male/female romance novels.

But I think anyone could relate to this story.  Young love, first love, and even a love triangle, which is what our main characters find themselves in after a while.  So if you are into romance novels, pick this story up.  I really think you will like it.

Sadly though, in reading the book it has gotten to late to craft, so I guess I will watch some things online and call it a day and make better use of my time tomorrow.  Not that today was a total loss.  I got to spend time with a friend and finish a good book.  Win/win?  I’d say so.    Talk to you all later.  Be good until then.  Bye for now.

Dreaming about what tomorrow will bring,
Michelle

This Is Halloween

As the creepy  and cool holiday of Halloween nears, a lot of people are letting their creepy and cool sides hang out.  From cool decorations and costumes to awesome…Halloween lights?  Humm, I understand lights for Christmas, but Halloween?  I’d never seen a big Halloween light display, until today that is.  Seems this family Riverside, CA really likes Halloween.  On their Youtube channel they have videos dating back to 2008 of their Halloween extravaganzas.  Here’s their light show for this year.  It’s pretty awesome.

12 Years Ago Today

January 5, 1997-October 12, 1999

And I still can’t believe you are gone forever.  You are always in our hearts and thoughts.  We love you.

Love always,
Michelle

Maillardville Manor And Bathroom Transformations

So my friend has this problem.  She has to many bathrooms.  I know, anarchy right?  To many bathrooms.  She literally has two bathrooms in her master bedroom.  She has another in the house for her girls and guests to use, so she really doesn’t need another bathroom.  But one thing she could use is a craft room.  She uses a corner in her bedroom to craft in, but that bathroom is just calling out to her, and no not in a pee-pee dance sort of way.  She has visions of taking a sledgehammer to her garden tub and taking out the toilet and making the 7x7 room, with an additional walk-in closet, into her dream craft room.  But there is one tiny catch.  She want’s to leave it so if she decides to move she can quickly whip it back into a bathroom for those couples that demand their own bathrooms.  Totally makes sense, right?  Right. 

So, are you guys following me so far?  Or are you having some trouble envisioning this awesome bathroom space?  Troubled?  Never fear, I’ve come prepared thanks to my friend’s super drawing skills. 

Ok, so the black line at the bottom is the door into the bathroom.  On the right is the sink and counter area.  Go around the corner and you have a walk-in closet that my friend says you can easily have four people sitting down in there.  Awesome storage options!!!  Then in the upper right corner is the garden tub I can only imagine is itself awesome. Then to the left of that is the toilet.  I think  she said in between the toilet and tub is a window, there are some mirrors in the bathroom that look like windows.  I must go over there and see this room…but can I do it without being roped into manual labor, that is the question.    But my friend and I were looking around trying to find pictures of before and after bathroom transformations.  I couldn’t find any, but she found this crafty gal who managed to do so and it turned out…well…awesome.  LOL!  Sorry. 

Anyway, so this gal who writes the blog Maillardville Manor explains how in her last house her and her husband took a bathroom they barely used and changed it into an office/craft area.  It was small but it was functional.  Have a look.

They went from this:

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To this:

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I know, impossible to believe this was a bathroom in a former life.  And see what I mean, it’s small, but functional.  And my friend has more room than this to play with so she could have a pretty nice craft room.  You need to go check out the post on Maillardville Manor about this amazing transformation.  But do you want to hear the extra cool part about this transformation?  They wanted to leave the bathroom so if they move, which they did, they could whip it back into a bathroom, which they did.  They hid the pipes in the cabinetry by cutting holes for it and plugging them so it was a easy switcharoo.

So in the end they ended up with this:

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I promise you that’s the same room.  You can see it in this post on Maillardville Manor.  Who am I kidding, it’s still hard for me to believe it’s the same room.

But I love how even though she had so little room she still had everything in it’s place.  Her yarn, her scissors, her ribbons, and her office stuff.  So it just shows you that your only limitation is your mind.  I’m in such awe what this couple was able to accomplish and it just drives me to think outside of the box and really try to see my true vision in things.  Sometimes I think I have crafter’s block, but it really just is all a mind thing. If you think you have crafter’s block then you will because you think you do.  But if you just relax, take some deep breaths if needed, and let the creativity flow through you.  Sure you may not recreate a room, but I guarantee that whatever you do create will be, dare I say it, awesome. 

I’ll talk to you lovelies later.  Stay crafty.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Lazily day-dreaming about craft rooms and crafty things,
Michelle

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Part 2)

So a while back, about one or two years ago, on my doll blog I was pimping out this house across the street and to the left of my house that was just finished being built and for sale.  I was encouraging my hobby buddies to move in and be my neighbor.  That house was finally bought by a young guy in the military, his girlfriend, his baby, girlfriend’s mother, and his roommate.  Yep, packed house.  LOL!  But the same builder who built his house built the one directly in front of my house.  So now I’m offering this one to you.  LOL!  But I don’t know how excited you will be now knowing I keep such a watchful eye out.  LOL!  But look at it this way, you’d have the neighborhood watch right across the street from you.  What’s not to love???  You’re welcome. 

So I guess I should show you the house you will be buying then.    Here goes, here are some pictures of what it looked like while being built.

Sorry for the blurry picture, this is how it was on the site.  This is the house’s early beginnings.  Before this much was done we were trying to figure out which way the house would face.  This house is on a corner and could face either way.  Usually houses on the corner in this neighborhood faces the side street that connects with the main street.  But this house faces out onto the main street towards us.

 

Side view of the house from the street it connects with.  The garage is huge.  Much Bigger than ours.  And those windows on the side are I believe two of the three bedrooms.  Funny, these pictures were taken about a year ago.

 

 

Back view of the house.  This lot it is on used to be wooded, so a good bulk of the trees remain on it.  So what you are seeing is the back door and a living room window and kitchen window.

 

 

 

Ok, so the next pictures are the outside view after it was finished being built.

This is a distance picture of the house.  This past December or January my mom took an awesome picture of the port-a-potty covered with snow.  Just had to mention that.  I think it is horrible the relator decided to keep that in the picture.  Why didn’t they photoshop it out?  But I digress.  So this house is a heather gray color.

 

 

A little closer view.  The door has a little window next to it, two big windows up front from I believe the kitchen, don’t quote me on that, and a double garage.  And it has a security light in back.  Please don’t use it, it’s bright and annoying.  I might have to stop being your friend if you use it.

 

 

Now we pop inside the house.

Walking in from the door you can see the living room with a lovely fireplace.  Perfect for those cold autumn and winter nights.

 

 

 

 

The spacious and open living room, dining room, and kitchen area along with the back door.

 

 

 

 

Just look at that crown molding.  Gives a special look and class to the room, don’t you think?

 

 

 

 

Here’s the kitchen.  Big and open with plenty of storage space.  And so brightly lit in the daytime and opened into the living area so you can stay connected with the whole house.  Now if you’ll just follow me down the hall to the guest bathroom.

 

 

 

A good size bathroom for guests and the rest of the family to use.  You have a bathtub and shower combination, standard toilet, and sink with counter space for odds-n-ends.  Let me show you the master bathroom.

 

 

 

A double vanity. Isn’t that nice?  No fighting for the mirror or sink with your husband or wife, you’ve got your own space. 

 

 

 

And of course you have a toilet, and bathtub and shower combination.  Kind of wish it was a garden tub like the house next door and it doesn’t seem like it got the frosted glass like the house next door either. Bummer.  But still very nice. 

 

 

And then the umm…walk-in closet in the master bedroom?  Humm, doesn’t look like much does it?  Kind of a bummer also, but has room for tons of improvement, or you can maybe change it to a crafty nook if you have other closet options like a wardrobe.  Be creative. 

 

 

Thank you for touring the house and I hope you saw something of interest that makes you consider buying it.  What?  Oh you want to know the price?  Ummm…well umm…keep in mind it used to be $139,950.  The builder recently dropped it to $136,950.  Pretty awesome right?  Which means you only have a monthly payment of $805.    So, what do you think?  Want to be my neighbor?  Let me know in the comments and I’ll get the needed info to you asap. 

Ok, so I had to be playful today.  I was joking with friends today that they needed to come buy the house so I could stop wondering who will move in.  It’s been on the market for months now and I just want someone to move in already.  And it seems the builder feels the same way since he dropped the price in July.  They recently had an open house, and still no takers.  Who knows, maybe one day soon someone will move in and the mystery will be over.  But I swear, if they use that security light, there’ll be a price to pay!!!  *shakes fist in air*

And I’m off people.  I’ve got another house related post for you, but this one is actually craft related.  No, I’m serious.  Give me a bit and I’ll post it for you.  Trust me, you’ll be in awe.     Until then, be good.  Bye for now.

Still wondering who will move in,
Michelle