Thanksgiving Prep

Okay, so I know it is almost a week before Thanksgiving but I say that I am prepping for it because my parents are coming in to spend Thanksgiving here and are arriving today. I have mixed feelings about it when they come in general. For one my mother can be obnoxious and has a laundry list of ailments. They typically come out here and my dad doesn't like dealing with all the traffic so he won't drive or go anywhere and they sit around the house all day and by the 3rd day my mom is complaining about being bored. Yet, because of a lot of her medical issues she can't really get around that much so even if they DID go somewhere she couldn't really spend that much time up on her feet or walking around without being tired. So, I'm prepping myself now for the state my house will be in by the time Thanksgiving DOES come around. It will be interesting to see what they think of my nose piercing though. LOL.

Speaking of my piercing it is doing quite nicely after the whole debacle on Monday. The area right under where the stud sits is still a little bruised looking but it doesn't hurt at all and everything with it seems to be fine so I'm happy about that.

Craft wise I listed two new pendants yesterday, one Tiger Iron the other an Amethyst cluster or druzy. I need a better main photo of the amethyst but until I can take one this weekend with proper lighting I had to use what I had. I also have two awesome pendants to take photos of that are moonstone and larimar. My wreath and owl shawl pins have been pretty popular and I have an idea for a snowman and snowflake one to play with. I'm hoping this weekend I'll be able to get those together given they are seasonal and Christmas is approaching fast.

I officially hate Mondays more than Tuesdays

Mondays usually aren't that bad for me. It sucks going back to work after a weekend that almost always feels like it's gone by too fast, but other than that it's usually not bad. Today is and has been.

In my world there have been a lot of things going on. Dave has been out of work since the end of October with absolutely nothing promising any time soon so we decided to sell our corvette. It's a 96 model and paid for so it would be money to live off of while the job situation improves. I took today off since Dave was feeling a bit down about it and the situation we are in in general. Then, the bottom to everything felt like it feel out.

For the past 6 months Dave and his boss have been working on a side project that had been going well. Everything the customer had been asking for was done, made and they have been testing the software out in the field for some time. Things looked like they were finally looking up where this thing was going to take off into something larger with meetings and such going on that were all positive...and then today, today Dave got the e-mail from his boss that essentially everything has been shelved.

After going through all the emotions from total rejection to just pissed off we went out to run some errands. We had lunch and ran by the mall. I wanted to pick up a hoop and nose stud for my piercing since the stuff I had been using has cleared up my bump nicely. I found a nice 3 pack of studs at Claire's and decided to check the place where I got my nose pierced for a hoop. They had one and said they would put it in for me which was all grand and good. Or so I thought. I didn't have any issues with them taking the stud out or really putting the hoop in. It was after when she was done. She had put the hoop in but instead of putting the ball in between she just closed it together to the point it wouldn't come out I guess with the idea that if I wanted it changed I would just come back. Uh, no. I'm not going down to the piercer every time to have my jewelry changed out.

So we get home and the first thing I'm doing is taking the hoop out. It's way too big and my piercing is really a little to high/far back for a hoop. I try putting my original nose screw back in, no dice. Now I'm freaking out that I've totally messed up my piercing since I can't get the jewelry back in. So I put the hoop back partially back in and decide that maybe part of the problem is the screw part and the fact that my piercing is now extra sensitive from being messed with. I straighten out my original screw to an "L" type and manage to get it back in. Now of course I have to wait some time while this re-heals before I switch out the jewelry again. Damn I hate Mondays now.

The Dreaded Bump

For my birthday (back in September) I got my nose pierced. Everything has been great and grand with and it's been healing nicely. Then about a week ago I noticed what looked like a pimple that had come up beside it. I left it alone and it eventually popped on it's own. Well now I have a "bump". I know these are common to cartlidge piercings but I thought I was in the clear since it's been over a month since I had it done. Luckily it isn't that big nor is it that noticeable but today I'm off to find some Tea Tree Oil that is recomended to help dry it out and continue with some sea salt soaks. I think as soon as it clears up I'm heading to the mall to find a hoop and another stud to change this one out with.

On the crafting front I FINALLY got wire in this weekend so I'm hoping to get a chance to work on some of those beautiful new stones that I picked up. I've had a couple of bigger shawl pin orders the past couple of days so that has been keeping my evenings busy. Here is the newest design just in time for Christmas.

I did have enough wire to wrap one of the Tourmalines from the show in a two tone style with gold and silver. I absolutely love how it turned out.

Busy Busy

This past week has been hectic at work. I feel I've had time for little else being totally drained at the end of the day. It's the busy time of year for us, we're basically right in the middle of production season and have maps for all of our products for next year due now. It's definitely keeping me on my toes.

The days have a tendancy to drag on to what seems forever when you're looking at the same things over and over or just staring at your screen. To help pass the time I've been listing to music off a flash drive I bring to work with me. Usually it's something fast to keep me awake like techno music, the past week I discovered an old band I LOVED that came out in '96 that has been producing stuff independently. It's a band called Black Lab. Their first album was called Your Body Above Me. I loved the CD and could basically listen to the whole thing which was awesome.

I downloaded their latest, Passion Leaves a Trace, and a 30+ song collection called Give Us Sugar, which is their sountrack songs and songs that never made it to one of their albums from their website . They post alot of their videos and such on youtube and their website. Alot of their songs have that haunting type of melody and catchy riffs, which has been perfect for work.