Update
Mood:  energetic
Topic: Crochet page update
Well, it's 2006, and I've made one resolution... to do some stuff for ME this year. I know that I'm constantly trying to sell stuff, in an effort to stay home and tend to my creative side. But that hasn't been working in recent months, due to a nasty bout of depression and season affective disorder. It's BAD this year. I'm in bad shape, but trying to get through it one day at a time. My Happyghan sisters are being incredibly supportive and wonderfully understanding.

While I wait for this to pass (I don't have insurance, so haven't been able to get medical help lately), I've been emersing myself in crochet projects... new designs that hopefully will find their way to a webpage or booklet someday soon. I've got one new one up already. If you haven't checked out the Going to the Playoffs Shawl, please do! I need to add pictures to it, but it's an insanely easy 2-row repeat pattern, and works up in no time. Like my other shawl, I tried to make it so that the pattern isn't dependent on how large you want the shawl to be... just start it and keep going till you're done. :) I really like designs that work that way, if possible.

So this shawl has been very well received by the folks who tested the pattern for me, which was nice. And hopefully, now that I've got it up on the page, others will make it and let me know what they think.

I get a big kick out of hearing from all of you, by the way. Sometimes, when I'm really down, and thinking that the world would be better off without me (did I mention that suicidal thoughts are part of my particular form of depression/SAD???), I get a letter from one of you wonderful people, letting me know how my little webpage, or my pattern/s have enriched your life. That reminds me, in no uncertain terms, that God's got a purpose for me here, and that my talents are NOT negligible. They're not something that I can allow myself to throw away.

And for the record, the only time I've EVER even thought SERIOUSLY about suicide was the night my entire world came crashing to a halt... lost an entire circle of friends because of one person's scheming, lost my boyfriend, my home, and was in line for a lawsuit, all over things I didn't do... my roommate was a lunatic, but a stealth looney... nobody but her parents knew exactly how crazy she was, and they didn't warn me. Sigh.

ANyhow... that night, I called my mom, asking if she had a knife sharp enough to carve "I don't give a *hit" into my arm. Understandably, when I told her what I wanted it for, she came and got me and took me home. My brothers moved all my stuff back home the next day. :P That was 15 years ago. Wow.

Since then, life has taken turns... highs and lows, that I never would have suspected. I can't change the past, and wouldn't if I could. I wouldn't be the same person I am today, and I wouldn't be where I am in my life (which, despite the depression, is a pretty sweete place to be). We're strapped for money, constantly stressed because of social, work, and familial obligations, but we love each other more each day. We've been together over 9 years now, and it just keeps getting better. If I changed anything at all in my past, we wouldn't be where we are now, and I wouldn't want to take the chance on changing that!

So... what does this have to do with crochet??? Well, not a lot, really, except that crocheting is one of the ways I'm working on my depression. If I'm creating something, I'm not thinking about the world being better off iwthout me. I'm still ignoring bills (which we have the money to pay... I just forget to do it), and still missing deadlines, but I'm keeping my head above water, mostly, and that's what's important right now.

Anyhow... I've got a lot of what I think are nifty projects in the works, and hopefully, they'll all find a home on one of my webpages in the near future. Keep checking back... not every day. Sheesh! What am I... a machine? :P But seriously... as I finish new designs, I'll either post them, or post directions on buying the booklets. (That probably won't happen any time very soon, but you never know... sometimes I get a burst of energy and a lot of stuff happens all at once)

Well, I should go find sime warm fuzzy socks, and get back to the Carolina Panthers poncho I'm working on. I'm almost done with it, and it will be a nifty 'go team' item to start the next season with. The cool thing is, any team's colors can be substituted, and it looks great! So start figuring out what colors you want your poncho (or your favorite teen's school colors) to be... I've got it made up for 3 colors, so keep that in mind when planning. I'll try to get that pattern up soon, so that you have time to make plenty of them for next fall's games! :)

Okay... I'm out! Hopefully, I'll be better about updating this blog this year than I have been up to now! :P

Recipe of the day:
I tried something sinful tonight, and oh so easy...

You'll need a brownie mix or recipe, and a bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Hearts, or Hershey's Kisses with Peanut Butter

**Make up a batch of your favorite brownies.
**Spoon the batter into mini-muffin pans, about 2/3 of the way full.
**Cook for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
**While it's cooking, unwrap enough Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to press into the brownie bites. For valentine's day, I'm using Reese's Hearts. Yum!
**As soon as you take the brownie bites out of hte oven, press an unwrapped Heart into the middle of each bite. Wait a minute or so, then go back and gently but firmly press STRAIGHT DOWN on the heart. The chocolate that has melted will form a little lighter-colored rim around the Heart, making it look almost like you went back and piped on some extra decorations. :)

So very yummy... so very easy, and BITE SIZE!

A new shawl...
Mood:  energetic
Topic: Crochet page update
Yay! It's finally done!

I've got another shawl made, and this one seems to be testing very well! It's called my Going to the Playoffs shawl, and I'm going to bundle it with the regular pattern for the Seraphina's Shawl. I've got it on my webpage, and they'll be ready to ship by friday of this week! Yay!

The link is at the top of the links list on my home page. :)

So far, everyone who's tested it has liked it, though there seem to be some issues with the thinner yarns, that I need to work out real quick. Fortunately, that won't take long.

Nothing else much happening in my world. We're going to try to get some things done around the house today, since Sal's off work. Wheee! I think I feel the need to paint a ceiling... or a bathroom. Either way, there's plenty of work to be had. :P

Hopefully, I'll have some more shawl designs soon!

Whew... long time no hear!
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Crochet page update
Wow! It's been awhile since I updated this page. Sorry about that, folks! :P

So... what's been going on? Too much to really get into. I have been severely set back in my book-writing, so hopefully, that will get done soon. I need to get all those pattern books together and ready to go! It's time for folks to start making winter gear, and I want 'em to have access to my Floopy hats, scarves, mittens, etc.

Also new... I've finally bitten the bullet and put some of my crocheted shawls (yes, THAT shawl!) up for auction on my E-bay site. Here's the URL for my store... browse around, if you are so inclined. I'm going to try my darndest to keep shawls and other nifty items up there from now on.

http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/craftydoni

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Sal and I have just celebrated our second anniversary in this house. We're so very happy here, but we're still going to be looking for a larger place, in a few years. We've still got some fixing-up to do here, before we even consider selling it, but with the new middle school going in right down the road, our realtor let us know that she wants the sale when we're ready. Apparently, having a brand new school in the area (this one's less than half a mile away), means property values go up a bit. Woohoo! It would be nice to make a wee bit of profit on this house. :)

We've still got so much to do to it, though. I'm going to be working on getting it patched, painted, and brought into the 21st century over the next few months. It should look very nice when it's done! :)

I've pretty much recovered from my surgery, but depression has had a firm hold on me for the last few months. Sigh. I hate it. And there's not much I can do about it, other than talk to Sal and my best friends, and keep myself busy. It's hard to get motivated some days, and there are still some days when I just give up and go back to bed. Easier that way. :( I do the healthy thing, though, and cry when I need to, laugh when I can, and try to make life as easy as I can get it right now. Every little set-back is magnified a thousand times when you have clinical depression, and I do. Sal's pretty much used to having me just start crying on him. He's a wonderful man, though, and instead of throwing up his arms in defeat, he actually asks if there's anything he can do to help. Sometimes, he can, and I tell him how. Sometimes, I just need to cry it out, and he's okay with that. He doesn't see it as a failing on his part, because he truly understands that it's a chemical imbalance, and not anything that either of us has control over.

If I had insurance, I could get some meds to help me out, but I don't, so I'm weathering the storm, so to speak.

So bear with me... as soon as this bout of depression breaks, I should be able to get things together, get the booklets made, and be more attentive to my blog! :)

In the meantime, keep crocheting/spranging/painting, or whatever you come to my site for! -grin- And keep your chin up. It's the only way to stay afloat, sometimes!

Thursday blues
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: What's next?
Topic: sprang stuff
Okay, so this past weekend really rocked!

I'm in the Society for Creative Anachronism. This is a medieval re-creation society, focusing on the best of the middle ages. We study their arts and sciences, do a little fighting... well, I don't fight, but there are lots of people who do. And we have kings, queens, etc, and it's all educational and fun and we get to wear nifty clothes a lot.

This past weekend, there was a war between the East Kingdom, and the Kingdom of Atlantia. I live in Atlantia. Atlantia won the war, but it was a very close thing. I believe that the A&S war point was the one that put us over the top. That's what I was told, anyhow.

So why am I so happy??? Because there was a tournament for the arts and sciences. It was the Laurels Prize Tourney. Basically, anyone interested in entering had to put out their display on the tables in the A&S hall. Between 1-3, we had to sit with our entries and answer questions from all those who asked, and generally show what we really knew about what we do. I got to sit beside a good friend of mine. I also got to answer a few questions about my stuff, but not that much. I was surprised at that.

So imagine my surprise when, during Atlantian Court that evening, they announced the winner of the tourney... and it was me!!! I still really can't believe it. There were so many other entries that far outshone mine, in my opinion. But the Laurels chose me. Who knew??

So anyway... I tell you that to lead into this...

I need to do more sprang. I'm going to be working on a few projects over the next few months, getting together my research, and generally ramping up my entry and documentation. The next project, I think, will be leggings. I have a plan (which I won't go into here) for the next year or so in the SCA, as far as entering or displaying my work. I'm hoping that the plan will actually happen... and I think it will. Though there's not a lot more actual book research I can do, there's a LOT of hands-on stuff that can be done, and that's the direction I'm going to take this in now. I'll keep adding sources to my bibliography, and revising my documentation as I find (or am sent) new pieces of information, but I believe, at this point, that my time can be better spent actually DOING what I'm researching, rather than spending countless hours in a library, trying to find snippets of information buried in weighty tomes about other subjects.

I've got several people who are now coming across references to sprang in the books on their subject, and they've promised to send me what info they can on it. That's all I can ask, as there's no way I can afford to go out and buy ten books on bobbin lace, just to get 2 pages' worth of documentation.

So that's the plan! Leggings next, then I'm going to work on larger pieces of material, such as for an altar cloth or household goods. there's so much that can be done, and so much that it makes sense it WOULD have been done... my job now is to narrow it down to what probably would have been done. Since there are very few extant examples, there's really a lot of wiggle room. Fortunately, Atlantia has some of the nicest and most open-minded laurels in the Known World (okay, so I'm biased -grin-), and they seem to like it when I experiment. As long as I'm trying to use period methods and materials, and as long as I don't present something undocumentable as 'period', they seem to be okay with that.

Check in periodically. I'm going to be working on this a bunch over the next few months! :)

Wonderful new yarn!!!
Mood:  energetic
Topic: Yarn finds
I picked up a skein of Red Heart Symphony yarn the other day, since it was there and I needed something new in my yarn stash. :)

WHAT A FIND!!!!

If you haven't used this yarn for anything, go get a ball of it and experiment! It's so light, fluffy, and rich!

I'm making a poncho in the gray Symphony, and it's coming out beautifully. I use a size P hook for this, and managed to get a panel and about a quarter for the poncho. (I'm doing a two rectangle poncho, which seems to be the rage right now... good thing... it's so easy and quick!)

Anyhow, you NEED to try this yarn. But be warned... if you need to tear someone out, be patient and take it slow, as the long 'mohair' like fibers tend to grab each other a lot.

I don't know yet how this will wash up, but I'm guessing that it should be done very carefully, with mild soap and very little agitation, to avoid matting or felting. I'll have to see if there's enough left over to do a washing test.

Just wanted to share that! If you haven't been to the yarn section of Walmart lately, go visit. They've got a lot more specialty yarns than I recall them ever having. I love seeing that, as the nearest yarn store or larger craft store is half an hour away, and Wally World is just 5 minutes away. 'Bout time they started getting in the good stuff! :)

have fun!

New Blog! Yay me. :)
Mood:  hug me
Topic: Crochet page update
Greetings to all who manage to get this far. :)

For those who've come here from my website, I wanted to let you know that the booklets are going to be ready very soon.

If you want to know why they've been delayed so long, please keep reading. Otherwise, skip ahead to the next section. -grin-

Right after I put up that the books would be ready soon, I started having a serious decline in my health, which hasn't been good in years now. That's a real shame, since I'm only just about to turn 34. Pathetic, really.

Anyhow, so I ended up spending last spring and summer just trying to get through the days without taking a nap or two. Turns out, I had chronic and acute anemia. Who knew?

So I'm now on meds, I'm going for a biopsy next week, and if all goes well with that, I should be back up to speed very soon.

I'm shooting to have the website updated, my booklets and kits done and ready to ship, and my holiday line of painted ornaments, shawls, and Floopy! wear ready to go within the next month or so. I've got several craft shows to do this fall, and I need to get all of the above done, so that I'm not scrambling to get it done the week before the shows. eeep!

So that should be done soon. Please e-mail me at donistuff @ charter.net, if you want to be added to the mailing list for when the booklets are sent out.
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NOTE TO THOSE WHO HAVE WRITTEN TO ME AT THE YAHOO ADDRESS AND HAVE NOT RECEIVED A REPLY!!!!!!

Having a website means that your e-mail addy gets harvested, and yahoo simply can't keep up with the amount of spam I was getting. Basically, if your letter got stuck in the bulk e-mail, it got to the point where I couldn't even go through that one, because I've been getting upwards of 400 e-mails a day, and probably less than 10 a day are having to do with the website. (I really really really don't need a breast enlargement. I really wish they'd stop offering!)

So if you have not heard from me, please e-mail me again. Hopefully, since I now have the new e-mail, I'll be able to get back to you much quicker. And PLEASE put the subject of your e-mail into the subject line! OTherwise, my spam filters WILL kick it out and I won't get to meet you. :)

And for the record, I LOVE hearing from all of you!!!!
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Look for my shawls and other items on e-bay soon. I'll be finished with about 5 of them in the very near future, and plan on putting them up on e-bay for sale. Again, please let me know if you'd like to be put on the list to be notified when I put one up! Make sure to put which list you want to be on, or I'll end up sending you mail for booklets, new e-bay, new pages, etc. :P

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That's about it for this time. Please be patient with me. I'm still having good days and bad, but I'm trying very hard to get over the hump and get back on my feet. This fall promises to be very busy, but I'm up to it. It should keep my mind off of my health, and keep me creating pretty stuff to share! :)