And We're on the Upswing!

As we are sitting here listening to Brad Paisley (and the boyfriend as beat boxing to it....) I feel accomplished today.  And a little bit more like Martha Stewart.  After crashing and sleeping for 12 hours, we actually got up and took on the world.  After making some necessary phone calls, we ran to Walmart to check out their sewing section.  Disappointment doesn't begin to explain the feeling we had.   Instead we came home and found shirts that we no longer use and decided we would use these for our first prototypes.  If we like the designs, of course we would buy actual fabric.

I relinquished the Mr. T shirt.... 

R.I.P. fine t-shirt, you brought me many years of use

I am hoping we can stick Mr. T on the front of the welding cap, who wouldn't want a Mr. T cap? I pity that fool.  Although I did realize how much better the boyfriend is at sewing than me, I refuse to let him take over the Martha roll.  I tried to one up him with my knitting, but failed.  I haven't been as admit about that as I have wanted to be the past few days... but the progress is still there. 

I am about half way through this square, then I only have about five more to make.  I know, I have taken off more than I can handle.  But I am determined none the less.  As for the sewing, the boyfriend is currently sewing together the newest of the products, the welding caps.  I am hoping this is a hot seller, I think he has the right market for it.  I can see the guys at his work buying them.  Also, earlier he made the purse size scent bag that I had mentioned in an earlier post. It was quite cute, however he tried a different technique than I had used and it didn't turn out quite right.  Hopefully we can stick to my technique and they will turn out a little better.  

Richie sewing up the purse size, and the comparison of the two bags side by side. 

I also decided to make up/modify my own version of dinner tonight.  I made a chopped salad, with tuna helper (okay, that isn't the impressive part), and loaded baked potato stuffed potato skins. I was quite happy with how these came out. I took four red potatoes and rubbed them in olive oil and sprinkled salt and pepper over them, then baked them for 45 minutes (at 475).  While those were baking I combined shredded about a cup or so of cheddar cheese, about half a cup of ham, a large spoonful of cream cheese, a handful of chopped onions, and a proportionate amount of season salt in a bowl.  I let this all sit to get room temperature while the potatoes baked.  When the potatoes were done, I halved them and scooped out the insides (adding them to the bowl of other things) to leave the shell.  I mashed everything in the bowl and then added them to the skins.  I left it piled high, out of the tops of the skins since the cheese would obviously melt once back in the oven.  After they were reassembled, I stuck them back in the oven for about 10 minutes.  They came out and were amazing!  The salt and pepper gave it an amazing taste on the outside, and the insides were to die for.  Hopefully I can recreate them.

Don't try and eat the screen.

Today was really amazing.  I have an interview with Teavana sometime this week.  Don't think I have forgotten about you Apple!  I would love to get either (or both) of these jobs.  Another good note, my car sold for more than I though and I only owe roughly $400 now.  Yea, things are starting to look up finally.  Like always, love y'all! Oh! I will upload pictures of the welding cap as soon as he is done!

I Love Y'all

I don't think I have expressed how much I love my family.  You are the rock that holds me grounded.  The past few days, I have realized what a good friend looks like, and who is really there to help me.  You are few and far between.  I don't know what I would do without y'all.  My life has been filled with craziness and hasn't ended up where I thought I was going to be.  I thought I would be finishing up my second year in my Radiology degree right now.  Thought I would have a nice house, and car and money saved up to pay my loans.  But I have none of that.  And some of that is my fault, others were out of my control.  And I know that I have a long way to go before I get there.  But throughout it all, the real people in my life have been there.  I don't know what my life would be without you.

I don;t know if I tell y'all enough, but I do love you.  And I know that things get hard with me, and I'm not always there and not always the most supportive, but I do want to be there.  I know I get wrapped up in Alzheimer's stuff, my suicide prevention stuff, my weight loss stuff and more... but you are always there for me.  When I need you, I can call you at three in the morning and you answer.  Just know that I appreciate all that you do.  And for those of you who are just my bloggers, I love you for reading this.  Everytime I log in and see more page views, my heart swells.  I love each and every one of you, and I may not know your names but I do.

Thank you for supporting me and pushing me through the hard times in my life.  I owe so much to so many people who I will never be able to repay.  Thank you, from the deepest part of my heart.  I really love you.

Early Release!!

I've decided to release these early. I haven't decided whether I want to make a new page for these or just sell them on etsy or what not. Seeing as it will be things both the boyfriend and I have made, I think I need to talk to him about it.

Here are two of the "scent bags" or so I'm calling them. They are little bags you can throw in your purse or your hamper or practically anywhere that needs to be freshened up! They have unlimited scent and are guaranteed to eliminate bad odors. They are small enough to be discreet, but make a big impact on smell. Ill be making a purse size soon, so your purse can always be fresh as well. They are going to sell for $5. The one with circles on it is rustic woods scented. The abstract lines one is peppermint. If you would like to purchase one of these, comment or reach me by email! Ill be making more soon with different fabric and designs. If you want a certain design/fabric/scent, let me know and I will be more than glad to make them for you! Don't forget I am still doing the feather hair extensions. Contact me for more information on that as well!!

Happy weekend y'all! Love y'all's!

Paint a Target on my Back

I really don't understand things anymore.  How can things go from being pretty good, to failing, to good, to failing, then good to up in the air so fast?  As you all know the current state of my relationship... it gets worse.

Today everything was hunky dory and went swimmingly well.  I really thought things were turning around and getting better and the boyfriend and me were going to be okay.  Now he was going to his hometown today to fix his Jeep, go to lunch with his dad, and out to the bars with the best friend.  The second he got into town he was MIA text wise.  To be expected since he was kinda busy.  I was slightly concerned when lyrics were posted on Facebook by a family member, but didn't let it get to me.  Since I have been kind of feeling out of the weather or however the phrase I'm looking for goes, I crashed out early, and fell asleep around midnight or so.

I wake up 6 hours later to my phone being slightly blown up.  The first 4 texts were cute and uplifting. Then, it all kinda crashed down.   Apparently there was an incident at the bar and it included his ex.  Now me and his ex were friends, and still used to talk occasionally   Never about anything specific, just about how our lives were going, her new boyfriend, my sewing and what not.  Never did I seek out and bitch about my boyfriend.  There was one time where I vented to her.  And apparently that was a glaring mistake.  I thought I had good friends, but hey I guess why be friends when being a shitty excuse for a friend is so much better.  You can be half as genuine and not be quite so invested.

But with everything going as swell as it has been lately for me, clearly things have to fall apart more.  More things have to fall apart for me, because it can't just be over and I be happy.  I can't just fix things with my amazing boyfriend and be in love.  I can't just feel the love that radiates from him and be just consumed and a feeling of overall euphoria.  Nah, that would be too nice.  And the world isn't nice.  Long story short, he text his ex and tried to ask if they could stop being pissy with each other and she just replied that yes they could, right after I stop texting her for advice.  Apparently I must blow her phone up begging for advice, when I talk to her maybe once every two weeks, but I'm begging for advice apparently.

 I am so done with people fucking with my relationship.  The KIK bitch never came through, just made the boyfriend wonder, but after everyone contacted him, it all proved my story right.  But everyone wants to put their two sense in and fuck with it.  I seriously have done everything I can think of to try and fix this, but I'm running out of ideas.  And now everything anyone says to him, he takes way out of context and it puts more strain on us.  Clearly the ex was pissed when she say this, and she was intoxicated, as was he.  So- that must be bullet proof evidence because she never said things she didn't mean to him, nor is it a proven fact we say things we don't mean when we are drunk or mad.  Nah, we are humans and are perfect and wouldn't do that.

Can I just have my fucking happy relationship back? Please? I just want that back.  I made a mistake and fucked up, I handled the situation horribly, but was trying to preserve our relationship.  It clearly back fired and blew up in my face, but I did it with the best of intentions.  I feel so much more relieved that he knows now.  I didn't know how to tell him about it but I did want to tell him.  Now that he knows I feel like I can breathe a bit better.  I want to work past this and be stronger.  Gah, I don't know how to fix this, and instead of being able to communicate about these things right, it's all via text. I just want to fix this, I have never felt so fondly of someone before.  He has helped me through my past and I have told him things people never even knew before.  He has reopened my eyes to my faith, and has made em reevaluate my life, for the better.  He pushes me in the right direction in my life, and he is all around amazing.  I just want to fix things and be happy with him....

They Call Us Martha Stewart

The boyfriend and I have embarked into the wonderful, magical journey that Martha Stewart would be proud of. It's full of patterns and prints and stitches oh my! As we all know, I've been working on a blanket for quite some time now. I was not very far into it when it got destroyed and I had to pull it all out and start over. Well now I'm full swing into it again. For those of you who don't know, I'm making a blanket that will be half crochet squares and half knitted squares. Which normally wouldn't be that hard, except it's been 4 years since I've crocheted last and I taught myself how to knit via YouTube. Oh and when I restarted the knitted square, I wasn't paying any attention and ended up knitting the first line 90 stitches long. It's huge now.

I've also further divulged myself into my feather hair extensions. Trying to make some money off of it, but it's not quite working too well as I keep getting asked if I know other hair techniques such as frosting and layers. Nope, just the feathers. Sorry, I never went to school for that.

Now about three days ago, the boyfriend and I went and found a sewing machine on Craigslist. It was cheap ad we were new at it so why not? Well that why not became very clear very fast. It wasn't catching the bobbin right and it might have been the tension or another 28,000 things wrong with it. Very quickly the boyfriend became frustrated and just bought a new one. So welcome to the family, brother xl-2600i. We plan on making clothes so we don't spend as much, as well as items that we can sell at fairs. He's into making welding caps and I'm going to stick to maxi skirts for now. Maybe purses. I'm hoping to figure out what's wrong with the old sewing machine so we can have two going at once. Also, he's going to make customized orders for bean bag sets. I think we could make a good chunk of change here.

As for everything yesterday... We are working through it and seem to be doing better. I suffered a loss yesterday of someone close to me and it hit me hard. I'm glad I had him there by my side through it all. Not sure he knows how I feel about him, but I'm glad he was there to hold me and wipe my tears away. I hope y'all have a splendid weekend, love y'all!

Bama-rama

Hey y'all.  So as some of you know, I am going to Alabama for the next week.  And even though I am going to be away, don't worry y'all I'm going to continue to post throughout the entire thing! I know its great isn't it ha ha.

This trip should prove to be interesting, to say the lease.  Hopefully things will get settled that need to be settled... if not, well it will be the same as the past year.

My grandparents live down in Scottsboro, which is close to Huntsville, if you know where that is at all.  I really would like to go to an Alabama game, but Tuscaloosa is 2 hours away! So that's a no go for me. Now for our trip to Alabama, we are taking a Jeep Wrangler.  So that means basically no room for breathing.  My legs will be pretzels by the end of this 13 hour drive.

But when I do get down to Alabama, I am hoping to get get some of my grandmothers recipes.  If it means I have to cook them all with my grandmother.  Which might mean I am going to come back about 30 pounds heavier.  But hey, it will be all in the name of the boyfriend so he can eat some actually good southern eats.

I feel like we just got done with the holidays and all the food that like to mess up my diet, and now I'm going to Bama where with every meal I'm going to have a side of lard.  I do feel like this is either going to be a great trip, or a horrible horrible experience.

I hope y'all are having a good day, sorry such a short one today.  Been a little busy.  Love y'all.

Our Big Announcement!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT DAY!! Yes, this really required caps lock.  Me and the boyfriend have some very big news! We have decided we are going to take the next step in this relationship.  I know a lot of you are going to say it's too soon and that we should wait.  But we feel we are mature enough to handle this.  It is a whole new list of responsibilities, and we are confident we can take them on.  I know some people are excited for us, while others will be disappointed we didn't wait longer.  Hopefully we can try for the next few days before I go to Alabama, then try more when I get home in a week.  Hopefully we will have great news soon after I get back from my trip, before he has a prior commitment next weekend.  We want to jump into this head first.  We are confident we are financially stable enough for this next step.  So without further adieu....

The big news is....



Wait for it...



Building suspense....



So how was everyone's weekend? The weather is quite nice today. Oh! How about them Cubbies?  I think I might teach y'all some quantum physics now; better yet, a step by step procedure of the correct ways to preform a cardiopulmonary resuscitation.  Okay, I'll tell you... we are getting a kitten! We are hoping to get one of two, both are little cuties.  One is a Maine Coon kitten about 10 weeks old, and the other is a tiger kitten about 8 weeks old.

This is the Maine Coon, sorry about the picture quality...

She's in Chicago

This is the tiger (obviously).

She's out in Elkhart

I am way too excited for these kittens to come into my life!  Our dog has been great, but she is too much of a trouble maker.  I will love and miss her dearly but I just can't keep a dog that ruins things on a daily basis.  I think the boyfriend might actually "accidentally" lose her if she eats the blinds again.  So, if you are interested in a 3/4 year old puggle, let me know haha.  But if not she is going to the Humane Society.  I took her in back in August since she was a stray and I just couldn't let her stay on the streets.  But maybe she didn't get lose... the owners just couldn't take care of her and turned her lose for the same reasons I am at my breaking point with her.  Whatever the case, I am excited to replace her because this house would be empty without a companion.  

Y'all didn't truly think we were talking about something else... did you? 

Love y'all!