Dang!! It's been a while.But I've been NaNoWriMo ing

Here's an excerpt from the story that I'm writing. Enjoy and give me some criticism if you must.

Nila Olwen pushed back her newly hennaed hair and sighed. She
was absolutely finished with people! She couldn’t believe that after all hard
work and complaining that she had had to endure with her last client that the
woman had had the unmitigated GALL to paint the crappy 70’s ranch Pepto
Bismol Pink with Mint Green shutters and Venous Blood Purple railings!
She was definitely a reject from good taste class! Nila had chosen a classic
Barn Red with a complimentary Creamy White and it would’ve looked
awesome! She almost wished that her mother hens, Esther and Sarah hadn’t
stopped by her cramped pigeon hole in the basement of Welcome Home
Realty Company, but they HAD gotten her a lot of her work. Nila restored
old houses and made newer ones look fresher and brighter. Her job were
pretty seasonal and since she had a work force of one, she couldn’t be THAT
selective. She could tear down and put up drywall with the best of the guys
and wielded a pretty effective paint brush. Her clients had always praised her
use of colour and paper…except for this last one…She made it a matter of
pride that she frequented the local Mom and Pop shops in Weymouth,
Braintree, and Quincy for her supplies, sometimes wandering as far afield as
Dorchester and Southie if need be for a special order.
Right now, since she had finished with Mrs. Taste-in-her-Ass’s place,
she had no new projects on the near horizon. But with the economy swirling
the drain, everyone was hurting. Interest rates were bouncing like rubber
balls, and no one was looking for a new house or were too busy trying to
keep the one they HAD over their head. She could use that monthly
mystery check right about now. They had been coming for as long as she
could remember. They were always drawn on a big Boston bank and
forwarded to her at Welcome Home. More than once she had been down
to her last dollar and the check would show up and she’d be solvent once
again. And it wasn’t like she was an airhead when it came to money matters,
but living in a tight economy was just very hard for a single girl on her own.
Sometimes the check had been enough to cover her rent and other bills,
sometimes leeway, and sometimes a little extra to treat herself to takeout at
Panda Palace or La Paloma. Her parents had always made her save a part of
the checks even though they themselves didn’t believe in banks. Well they
were around in the 60’s and all…And Nila always thought it was strange that
her brother Kenny never got a mystery check. She had always assumed that it
came from grandparents that her parents had gotten into a fight with and
never forgave, but had always been close to the little girl anyways. Thinking of
her family always made Nila depressed…as strange as they had been, she
knew that they had loved their children. And now that they were gone, she was extremely conscious of what she was missing.
As she pondered, the office manager knocked on the door.
“Hi, John, come in.”
He was okay looking her books: brown hair and hazel eyes and he was always
nice to her. They had gone out a few times, but Nila had made it clear that
she wanted to be his friend and nothing more. He had readily agreed and
things had remained pleasant between them.
“Nice colour, Nila, but was it in your budget?” He indicated her new
hair colour.
“It was until my last client stiffed me her last payment”, she responded
bitterly.

“Taste-in-her-Ass woman, I presume.”
“Yep. None other.”
“Well then, I’ve got good news and bad news for you, friend. Which
would you like first?”
“Neither” she thought.
“Then I will decide! Bad news is no spring off for you this year, my girl.
And the good news is, da-da-daah! There’s a registered letter in my office for
a certain Nila Olwen, who comes highly recommended. The person wants
their house updated over on Old Town Way.”
Nila knew the one. It hadn’t been lived in for years and Esther and
Sarah couldn’t even give it away!
“It hasn’t fallen down yet?”
“No such luck, but that’s the one. AND, they want you to start next
week.”

Nila dutifully consulted her ever present Witches’ Date Book and said that she was clear until next year.
Nila spent the following two days closing the book on her previous
client. She was debating take her to small claims court, but decided against
the action. If the woman wanted to live in a house that someone could throw
up on and not notice a change, that was fine. Besides, she could always write
it off on her taxes as a business loss.

Saturday, Nila spent at the Town Hall, then at the Public Library,
taking pages and pages of notes. There hadn’t been an owner of record for
50 years, but the taxes had always been paid from an Estate account…
“Curious”, she thought, filing the fact away. The last owner on the list
had died during World War II in the Philippines and his body was never
found…Lots of bodies were just left by the wayside during the Death
Marches; 25% she recalled. The poor guy had been a philanthropist, and
had never married or had children. There was a yellowed picture in the microfiched archives. He was handsome, but his eyes were sad.
“Bummer”, she said out loud, looking quickly around to make sure no one heard her.
The house was over a hundred years old, she wrote in her notes, and the family had come from old, old, OLD Spanish money.

Can't believe a whole month has come and gone...

But I'm still crafting away...sorta...

I've traded for one DreamWeb: I Heart Dogs and sold another one just yesterday: Celestial, the one I put up for the Elemental Challenge for POEST!

Since I've written last, I've gone to a Chickenstock in Milford, NH and sold 3 DreamWebs and a Petroglyph Pendant...happy happy joy joy! And they want me back next Saturday!!

Autumn has caused overwhelming creativity!

I've been working my little fingers to the bone these past few days...

I've made 8 DreamWebs. I'm surprised my glue gun hasn't caught on fire. LOL

I did pretty well at the fair this year. I sold two CellPhone Charms, 2 Tshirts, and 4 DreamWebs! AND I entered the Woodland Poppet in the Specialty Doll Category and she won a Second Place Ribbon...she's very pleased with herself.

Here's my newest DreamWebs:

This one I made for my son's friend who wanted a Halloweenish one. I didn't have any Halloween fabric so I made do.

This one is called Petroglyphs. I bought the fabric because I thought it was really nice. Then a seller on Etsy posted to a thread about Mexican things...and she had the focal bead and I snagged it! It was PERFECT for the piece! And it all came together well.

I Heart Dogs!! I've had this fabric for a while...it's printed with pet names like Bubba and Fluffy and Spot and Kitty.
I Heart Cats!!! Same Fabric, just used Cat Scrapbooking Buttons...tell ya what though. Using the shapes is a bitch! I've ripped these out and started over at least 5 times on each of them.

That NewWhite Magick...sort of a play on the ancient song, "That Old Black Magic" This one is new for Halloween/Samhain '08. Michael's was having a 2for $3 on the Jesse James Scrapbooking Buttons and I went hogwild...The Stars and the Pony beads glow in the dark.

Trick or Treat!!! I bought Debbie Mumm fabric at Joann's because I think I had much left...This is a cute Halloween/Samhain one, new for 08.

Starlit Alchemy This was another hard one to make...I stumbled across "wizard school" scrapbooking buttons and got a brainstorm...
Cowgirl Up!! I go to a board where the folks are horse crazy so I couldn't resist.

What a slacker I am...

It's not that I haven't been doing things...I really and truly have...I just haven't posted anything...

Bad girl, no soup for me...

I was inspired, actually clubbed over the head by the inspiration to make like a simple doll...It was like being mauled by a rabid hybrid of an alligator and a Tasmanian Devil...just got me and wouldn't let go!!!

I also made some more DreamWebs:

Chicken Themed Ones:

The top one was going to be a raffle prize at this year's Chickenstock, but I managed to catch a bug and can't go...The feathers are from Jerry Remy, Tom Brunanski, (I can't believe I had any of her feathers) Slifer the Sky Dragon and Miss MoneyPenny: all of my dearly departed feather babies.

A Sleeping Greenman:

I had gotten a pair of ceramic green man faces when my DS and I has stayed with my SIL in NH and we went to a couple of rock shops...the feathers I used for him came from the annoying Quaker Parrots at my petshop.

A rich coloured Chocolate Brown/Teal one that I've labelled SemiSweet:

The fabric I had to buy because it jumped out at me and the bone beads and tagua nut beads I bought on that same rock shopping trip...The green beads are glass with blue flowers in them.

There's also a relative of this coming: Same material but different decorations. You'll love it...It's another rich looking dreamWeb.

Here is the piece that I had to make, was COMPELLED to make!

I call her a Woodlands Poppet. Her clothes are violet, with a print of butterflies and what might be ladyslippers and seed pods.

Doesn't she have such a cute face?

She's holding a bouquet of roses and there's a butterfly along for the ride.

I bit the bullet

I took my pendants to Greek Easter so my SIL could comment on them...She thinks they'll sell...I hope so. I put them up today on Etsy...I have cords/ribbons for them to go on...

I haven't made anything new this weekend, but just wanted to say that I'm having an EarthDay Sale!

Working my Toaster Oven to the Bone.

I've made some more Polymer Clay Scarabs...cute little devils...and some more Petroglyph Pendants. Wednesday I made Petroglyph Pendants that look like Rhodochrosite. Todays are Pistacite, pistachio nut coloured Epidote. My Scarabs from today are Sodalite-ish, blue, white and silver.

As for the pictures, the top left is the Pistacite, top right are Scarabs and a frog I made from moulds. The bottom left is the Rhodochrosite, bottom left are todays Scarabs and the one all by it's lonesome is the Scarabs I made the other day that look like Turquoise and Jade. They're all made by hand so they're all different. The clay is handrolled, no wussy pasta machine for me. LOL The colours are all blended and made into ball shapes, then flatten the bottoms and carved. After that I bake the Scarabs. In the case of the Pendants, I roll into balls, then flatten until they're wafer thin. The mould ones are more difficult for me anyways... I can't get all the little bits to show up well, but those Scarabs came out alright...The moulds came in a Make Your Own Egyptian Amulets set that I was given for Christmas a few years ago.

I also found out that my digital camera has loaded editting software on the computer...that helps my picture taking immensely...I can do all sorts of neat things with the pictures but the best thing is the cropping feature so that I can get close up pictures and more details. It's a marvelous thing...too bad I didn't think of it earlier. D'OH!

Shrinky Dinks...

These are a Tuxedo Cat and a Siamese Cat Cellphone IPod charms.

Yummy Pepperoni Pizza for your Cellphone or IPod.

These are Calico Cat Earrings.

These earrings are an Owl, and a Sun and Moon hanging off a tree. This is a Haida Raven Pendant.

This is my White Horse of Uffington Pendant.

These were my project for today. I used an idea suggested on an Etsy Techniques and Materials thread. It was about using embossing powder to seal your work. the items came out nicely, even though it was a bit messy...but these were just a trial to see how they did.

It's Monday...

Hi there again...I was working on some of my things last night and I asked for opinions on my items...the best thing I heard was that the littler ones looked like Gummy Bears...NOW THAT made me laugh...I know Bes, one of the Gods that I made would've LOVED that...I think I'll go with colours that are more natural...like a turquoise, jade, lapis, earthy shades, and metallics...so that they look more like the originals...I would LOVE to make Ushabtis...because they're cool. I also think that I'll do them more by hand than by using the moulds...I'm still thinking about things to do...ack...lots of ideas...so little time...then I got an coupon from Michael's for 20% off your whole order...ohboyohboyoboy!!! LOL

First Post in my brand new Blog...

Since this is an introduction...let me tell you a bit about myself...

I'm 43, married, have a kid, 2 pet hens and 2 tanks of fish.

I'm one of those people who love to do all sorts of crafts. My bread and butter ones are DreamWeb, my version of DreamCatchers, the most well known Native American craft and Tshirts. My Tshirts have logos on them, but not like "I'm with Stupid" or things like that...no cutesy things either, but if I got the right amount...then maybe. LOL My Shirts have cultural arts on them. Mayan Jaguars, Gods from Egypt, Keltic Symbols and of course, Chickens. Can't forget them.

I'm employed part-time at a chain petshop. I love animals...except dwarf hamsters, scorpions, quaker parrots, and tiger barbs. Scorpions just creep me out badly and I've never heard of a New Englander having to shake out their slippers for fear of scorpions...
I'm also allergic to everything with fur...stupid, huh? But I get my animal fix and come home with hardly any animals...I DO get fish, though. Rather low maintenace pets...

As of now, I haven't gotten any hours at my job, so I've been listing my items on Etsy, a handcrafters paradise...of course, I keep seeing things that I like...but I'm trying to be a good girl.

I also joined POEST, Pagans of Etsy Street Team, a collaborative of Pagans that make crafts on Etsy. Yes, I am a Pagan. I have YET to turn anyone into a toad or any other life form...but there are a few folks that would come up in the world being a lower life form.

The only other things I've been working on has been some pocket amulets and talismans. Having not worked with Polymer clay in a long time, I absolutely Chernobyl-easted the first batch that I made...DO NOT leave the stuff alone in the toaster oven...jes sayin' It will do some funky things if you burn it... I'm also working on some Shrink Plastic Pendants. I have a White Horse of Uffington and a Haida Raven...

That's about it from here. I'll write more soon...I hope.