La dee dah...

Finally got my fall swap package mailed off today! It was supposed to have gone out Monday! >_<
I wonder who has me... I haven't gotten a sneak peek or anything... ?

So, I keep thinking to myself that I have all this time as a stay-at-home mom now, I should be able to do more crafting... but I don't. Amber's part of it, just when I think we've got a bit of a routine & I'll have some time I can do something, she grows & things change. I used to be able to do stuff while she nursed, but now she grabs at everything and/or kicks!
Then, I finally got her to take a longer nap in the afternoon; I'd have at least a half-hour to myself! The last few days, though, she hasn't been as good about it. We drove down to Grandma's yesterday though and ended up spending the whole day there, so that may have thrown things off further than what they were. Amber got to visit my grandpa, her great-grandpa. He was thrilled to see her, but kept forgetting she was a girl, or what her name was & once, even what her relationship to me was! *sigh* Dementia is such a horrible thing to watch someone suffer from!



But I digress... I think the main thing eating up my time, after Amber, is the house. It's not just the usual house cleaning... I have some of the tendencies of a hoarder. My main saving grace is that I don't buy too much, and, for the most part, I don't acquire too much for free (gifts are my only real weakness here)... but when my dad passed away, I inherited all of his Earthly possessions. He, too, had the hoarding tendencies... so his worldly possessions were quite numerous!
To make matters worse, when he passed away, he was going through his second divorce & I had to settle it (I think if you go into my old entries you can find more on that)... but part of that was that I had to clear everything out of his house in a hurry! My family, friends & I got everything out in two weeks flat! The result of that, unfortunately, is that there's not much rhyme or reason to the packing... and so, three years later, I'm still slowly sorting through everything.
I've been making much more progress since I quit my job, with the help of a new therapist, but it's tough... a long process... and it's driving Paul nuts. :(
I wish I could be on one of those clean house TV shows where, for the low price of being potentially publicly humiliated by revealing your mess on national TV, you get free help sorting and organizing your possessions!
A girl can dream...

Being a bride again... sorta

It's not our anniversary, we're not renewing our vows & we're certainly not leaving the relation ship or anything... no, I get to re-live being a bride as I reminisce for my friend Rachel on her new blog about her dress-making business. She made my bridal gown, my bridesmaids' dresses and one of my prom gowns! She's also made dresses for some of my friends' weddings, proms, etc. as I recommend her to everyone in the area!
I was already featured a while back for OffBeatBride in this article. That was exciting too. :)
So, I have to figure out what I'm going to say.

In other news, I'm already almost done with my package for the Fall Swaperoo (see below) and excited about sending that off!
Here's the sneak peek I gave my recipient:


Amber started crawling on my birthday! (8/27) and she's all over the place now! She certainly keeps me busy!



There are about a zillion other things I could write about, but I'll stop here for now... ;)

It's that time again!

I've been waiting for it, and preparing too... It's time for another Swaperoo!



I felt woefully unprepared for my last one & afterwards felt silly, because it is a seasonal swap, so I should expect one for each season... Why didn't I plan ahead a little? So, now I am planning ahead & have fall AND winter items already set aside for my swaps! Of course, I still will wait & see what my swap partner likes & make some items tailored for her(I think we're all female...) and her family(when applicable)! :)

More "Free" Time?

Doesn't seem like it! I've been a stay-at-home mom now for two weeks, and things seem just as busy as before!
I'm not all that surprised by it. Heck, I'm pretty sure I could keep just as busy without the baby!
I got a commission to make some autism awareness bracelets. I'm having Calindy work with me to make some puzzle-piece and ribbon charms. :) I also am making one with my bead loom. I don't think I'll want to make a bunch of these because they're so time consuming, but it's kinda fun to figure out the pattern.
Well, Amber's awake again.... later!

Later: So, I was kinda wondering how other stay-at-home moms get anything done... and I'm discovering that a big part of it is that other kids nap for more than 30 minutes at a time... we may have to work on that... She's back down for the time being & I'm getting my lunch & wondering if there's anything I can get done before she wakes up again....

Updates

Here's my friend in all her jewelry and accessories, ready to get married!


...and getting married!


Paul, Amber & I at the wedding;


First dance!


Bracelet


Earrings


Necklace!


Amber with the completed bow that goes with that one dress I made & posted before;


Amber with an entirely different sort of bow, standing in for her aunt Lizzie's birthday/welcome to college gift;


In other news... one of our cats is getting sick again. This has been a recurring problem for waay too long now. :/ We don't know what to do.

My mom & sister (afore mentioned aunt Lizzie) are coming up today and are going to watch Amber while I go to work.

Quit Your Day Job

I don't know how many e-mails from Etsy have had something about this, but I don't want to quit my day job. I like it. I'm worried that if I'm a stay-at-home mom I'll be like I was when on maternity leave & stay in PJs all day and still not get much of anything done.
Unfortunately, the choice isn't entirely mine. There are so many circumstantial issues affecting it. I am afraid it's come to that... I'm going to have to quit. I can't afford the daycare with my current pay-rate and hours and I'm looking at getting my hours cut if I stay. I keep thinking I've found another child care solution and then it falls through.
I've started to come to terms with it though, now that I've said it out loud to a few people. I figured out why it bothers me so much to be a stay-at-home mom. I totally respect those who are, but I just never envisioned myself as one. At least not without a master's degree or higher to help guarantee future employment.
I'm not really earning much after paying childcare & everything, so we won't really be hurting without the income, but it's nice to get out of the house and away from Amber for a while. Love her dearly, but, as is intrinsically the case with babies, she's demanding!
On the other hand though, I find the thought of quitting somewhat relieving. I won't have to worry about finding affordable childcare. I won't have to worry about the aspects of work that can be stressful. I'll have more time to get things done at home. Work on my much-neglected Etsy shop more... Won't have to worry about missing any of Amber's milestones. It'll be much easier to schedule dr.'s appointments and such.

Update

On the craft front: Commission from my mother-in-law to make her a necklace for next 4th of July... (here's the work-in-progress)


... a necklace based off of a pendant my friend Calindy gave me (here's her Etsy shop; http://www.spritzy.etsy.com) that has these colors and a kinda damask pattern in a tear-drop shape:

Figurines by Alessi
Floor Lamps by Leucos

...
then I'm also working on jewelry and a hairpiece for my friend Sonja's wedding. Here's the flower that's the centerpiece of the hair thingy:

To go with her wedding gown:


Oh & the necklace style she likes that I'm using as inspiration (but it'll be purples, cream, crystal & silver)


and I made a diaper cover and headband/bow for a dress I made Amber out of one of my skirts (I didn't get the bow done before the pictures) and we had a friend do family portraits for us. These first two are pics I took at home and then a few she took with my camera...







And some of the pics she took with her camera & edited already:




Which brings me to news on the family front... I don't think I shared about our new childcare arrangement. We weren't breaking even with the daycare, so we asked around & ended up working something out with one of my co-workers. She has two kids & one on the way and Amber's loved being at their house! I wish we could keep this up, but she's going to continue working on her master's degree this fall and the baby's due in October, so we're going to need to find something new. Another promising lead seems to have fallen through, so we're pretty much back to square one and I'm getting more and more tempted to just give up & stay at home! I love my job, and there's promising developments, but the emotional roller coaster of trying to find affordable childcare is just about too much. :/
Anyway, in more fun news, my co-worker was sick last Friday (well, that part's not fun) and Amber got to stay with the neighbors while I went to work. When Paul got off work & went to get Amber, their three-year-old son asked "Can we keep her forever?" Awww! They also have a son who's exactly 40 weeks older than Amber and the neighbors on the other side have a son a couple months older than him, so ... we're in trouble! lol!
Our freezer & fridge crapped out the other day, so we got a new one yesterday. Our plan to get Kindles as an anniversary gift to ourselves and a reward for getting the guest room is not going to happen. Between that and the tax audit that's costing us another $1,800, we just can't justify the expense. Maybe for Christmas. :/ ... but yay new fridge! It's black! :D