Excitement and Fears

In a few short weeks, I will be confronting one of my biggest fears.  Flying.  I know it may seem a bit silly to some, but it really is something that freaks me out a bit.  Not only does the entire concept weird me out, but it makes me physically ill.  I get terrible motion sickness, something that has gotten worse the older I get.

So why, if I despise flying so much, would I voluntarily get on a plane?  What brand of insanity has taken over the basic functions of my brain?  I get the chance to spend the weekend with one of my best friends.  Funny how I can say that and know that I’ve never met her in person before, yet it still be so completely true.  My husband and I will be flying out for a short weekend visit.  It isn’t nearly as long of a visit as I’d like, but that is all the time we have available right now.

I am incredibly excited about this trip.  It is something I have wanted to do for a long time now, but I just haven’t been able to convince myself to actually do it.  It hasn’t helped that my husband, being the total shit that he is, tends to like to tease me about it with comments like “You know that if the plane crashes, our kids will lose both their parents at once, don’t you?”  I know he isn’t being mean and it is his way of trying to laugh off his own dislike for flying, but it doesn’t make it any easier.

This fear is something I no longer care to live with.  It prevents me from doing many of the things that I’d really enjoy.  Taking this trip is one step in overcoming that fear.  Plus, I get to meet a fantastic and amazing lady in person!  What is not to love about that?

The Love of Cake

Making cakes is one of my many creative passions.  The last several years, though, I haven’t had much desire to do anything that pushed my creative abilities.  This year is different.

I decided to go all out and try some new things when I made my daughter’s birthday cake.  I bought some gum paste and played for the first time.  I’ve done some work with fondant along the same lines, but after playing with the gum paste, I’ve decided that I like the versatility of the gum paste better.

The fondant work I have done has been more along the lines of sculpting and accessorizing an iced cake, never as the complete covering.  I decided to try that for the first time on this project as well.

I was a little intimidated by my grand ideas and the plan I had in mind, but I was still pretty excited about the challenge.  I have to say, even though I made a few mistakes and I can see the areas I need to work on, improve and do differently next time, I am extremely pleased by how this cake turned out.

This is the front of the cake.  I have a lot to learn on getting the fondant smooth, but I think I did pretty well considering this was my first attempt.

Hat Cake by FoxChild 2009

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This is a side view of the cake. I had an arrangement of gum paste flowers that was just off center of the front of the cake and another arrangement on the center back.

Hat Cake by FoxChild 2009

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Not only did I play with the sculpting of the gum paste, but I did a little painting as well. This is the detail of the back of the cake.

Gum Paste Flower Detail by FoxChild 2009

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This is a close up of a couple of the gum paste flowers that were in the front side arrangement. I loved how the calla lilies came together. The roses I’d done before in fondant, but you can get the petals much thinner and more realistic in the gum paste.

Gum Paste Flower Detail by FoxChild 2009

Oh, No!

I am so in trouble now.  I managed to figure out how to mess with the code and the CSS files for my forum to create new themes for it.  I’ve spent the last several days playing around and created 4 new themes and I am nowhere near done yet.  I have ideas and plans for at least that many more.

I tell you, this stuff is totally addictive.  It’s not like all the themes I create are going to be liked or used, it is just really fun coming up with new ideas to spruce the place up a bit.  I was getting tired of the old theme and wanted a change.  Once I figured out that I could create a copy of my base theme with all the modifications I’d done to the code to get all the features I wanted and needed on it without losing those changes, then allow the users to choose their own theme, I was lost.

As much of a pain in the butt it is to try and figure out what parts of the CSS file are controlling what sections of the page, it is also an exciting challenge to see if I can end up with something that looks half way decent when it is all said and done.

Next thing you know, I’ll be off buying my own domain for my blog here and messing with its layout.  Beware the CSS addiction!

Removing a Limb Would be Less Painful

My server went down this morning. So, not only is my Shades site down, but so is the Lodge.  It is pure torture.

I do understand the situation that brought the server down (a lost air conditioning unit) and the need for it to stay down for a while.  It is still incredibly frustrating, especially after a couple of weeks of spotty outages because of server loads.  That is one of the biggest downsides to a shared hosting environment.  Unfortunately, a private server is insanely expensive.

I’m sure this period of disconnect from many of the things I hold dear will serve me well and that it won’t be long lived (hopefully), but it is no less painful knowing that.  I was so looking forward to getting online and chatting with the ladies this morning.  *sigh*  Maybe I should have just slept in.

I think the times I’ve lost my internet connection all together have been easier to handle simply because I couldn’t get anywhere.  Since it is just my sites I can’t access, it is like having your favorite candy dangled in front of your face, close enough you can smell the sweetness, but you are not allowed to have it.  It is absolutely cruel.

I guess in the mean time, I’ll go haunt a few other sites, maybe get some things done around the house that I’ve been procrastinating on, or I may just sit an whine and pout while endlessly checking to see if my sites have been revived.

No matter what it is I decide, it is going to be one long and boring morning.

*ETA: BlueHost is awesome!  The downtime didn’t last nearly as long as they predicted!  Everything is already back up and running.

Big Announcement!

In the past I have talked in rather vague terms about an online women’s group that I created.  I have kept it vague because it has been a very small, private group that was more about sharing, authenticity, acceptance, understanding and compassion than about the volume or rigid structure that define many other online groups.  This level of privacy has served it very well in creating the warm and friendly atmosphere that is the soul of this group.  It has been my desire and goal to see this become slightly larger, to offer its snarky humor and comfortable living room banter to more than just a small few.

This group, a handful of wonderfully amazing women, has agreed to help me to realize that vision.  So what started as a very small group of ladies is now growing and opening its arms to others that are looking for what it has to offer, a comfortable place to just hang out and BE.  While Paganism tends to be a common thread among our members, not all are pagan.  There is a wide range of personalities and backgrounds, making the discussions diverse and varied.

It is our intent to keep the group semi-private in an effort to maintain the current fun and close knit atmosphere, so there are a few safeguards in place to insure that doesn’t change.  My apologies to the men, but this is for women only.  You must register before you can sit in on the discussion, but it is fairly simple to do.  So, if you have any interest in being a part of such an open and laid back group of ladies, we would welcome you to come visit us at…

 

The Evil Behavior of Cats

I promised Andy a while back that I would share my cat story, so here it is.  This little incident happend about a week ago.  You will all be happy to know that Evil Kitty is happily keeping up the pretense of being innocent.

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PROOF!! I have proof of the evil behavior of cats!

This one is my “work room”, i.e. my dining room. This is what greeted me on coming downstairs this morning. You can tell I hardly had my eyes open since the picture is so blurry. See those pinkish lines running all over the place? That would be what is left of an amazingly soft and wonderful ball of yarn. One that was supposed to be used to create a scarf for one of my bears. Notice how it goes AROUND the chair legs?

See here? How that same yarn sprawls from the dining room and into the living room? Just off to the right is the kitchen. You can easily see the yarn has made it that far as well.

This one shows the continued damage to said ball of yarn. See how it once again travels in and out between the legs of the chairs? See how amazingly talented my cat is? If you look closely, you will see that the delicate strands of yarn continue off to the right. Well, that my friends is my dining room. That sweet little kitty managed to complete a circle around the lower level of my house with that pretty yarn. Isn’t she just the best damn kitty you have ever seen?

That cute, sweet little kitty is lucky I didn’t use that yarn to tie a noose bow around her neck.

*Cackles with wild laughter*

The Magic of Laughter

I do not believe there is anything much more potent or effective for transformation than laughter.  Any kind of laughter will really do, but the best of all is the full bodied, side splitting, rolling around on the floor, tears flowing, damn near hyperventilating, wishing like crazy you had gone pee earlier, kind of laughter. 

It is the kind that you can almost always get when you are in the company of good friends.  It is also something that we do not do near often enough.  In this day and age, some people would look at you as though you had lost your mind if you laughed like that in public. 

Have you ever seen someone in the throes of that kind of laughter, had no idea what they were laughing about and yet find yourself laughing along with them?  It is wonderfully contagious.  Sure, your sides may hurt, your shirt may be tear stained or you might be shoving people out of the way on your mad dash to make it to the bathroom by the time you are done, but you cannot help but walk around with a smile on your face after that.

We can surround ourselves with all the love and beauty in the world, but they are a bit dull without the laughter that allows them to shine and bubble.  If you really want to add some magic to your life, go rent a comedy to watch or hang out with some hilarious friends, do whatever it takes, but laugh until you can’t stand it anymore and then laugh some more.

Weekend Awesomeness

I had a really amazing weekend.  Things worked out just right so I was able to attend a bead show, my first ever.  I had fully intended to just go on Saturday so I would have it out of the way and have the rest of the weekend to get things done around the house.  Well, for a bead addict lover, that just wasn’t possible.

I had been really iffy on going since one of my sons had a baseball game on Saturday and I knew that if I did go, 1) I wouldn’t have a lot of time to really look and 2) I would probably end up spending a fortune.  Well, the game ended up getting canceled because the storms earlier in the week did some damage to the lights on the fields so that freed up my day and made my decision for me to go.  On a bit of a whim, I called a friend and fellow bead lover to see if there was anything she wanted me to look for and pick up while I was there.

Hubby and I dropped the kids at the grandparents and headed over to the show.  I don’t really know what I expected, but I was overjoyed at some of the booths.  Many had a wide range of beads, glass, lamp work, ceramic, on and on.  Some had mostly findings.  Then there were a few lovely booths that had nothing but strand after strand after strand of gemstones.  Needless to say, I was practically drooling over myself.  A couple of the booths were carrying the same things I could get anywhere and I wasn’t hugely interested in them, even though I did look and feel quite a bit.  Then there was the one booth that I couldn’t get out of.

This wonderful gentleman had an amazing selection of all kinds of stones, both common and more rare and hard to find.  To top it all off, his prices were pretty darn good, especially if you spent more than a certain amount because you would then get 50% off those already decent prices.  Poor hubby, he was bored out of his mind, especially since I spent half the time there on the phone with the friend I had gotten a list from constantly asking if she wanted some of this and that and oohing and aahhing over the selection. 

Of course, I didn’t make it out of there without breaking the bank, both mine and my friend’s.  I did manage to walk away with some pretty amazing stuff.  I realized after I got home the first day, that there were some things that I had wanted to go back and look at, but ran out of time before I could.  I decided to head back again on Sunday, this time leaving hubby at home, much to his joy.  I ended up doubling the total amount I had spent for myself the day before.  All in all, I got several strands of some really gorgeous beads, several new stones for pendulums and a couple of amazing stone pendants to put in necklaces, one of which is a piece of Amazonite in a beautiful shade that I don’t run across very often.

I was really itching to sit down and start putting some pieces together when I got home, but I had to go out and help hubby get some work done in the yard.  That and I realized that I needed a few more storage bins before I could break down the bead strands and get them ready to use.  I ended up getting out and getting a few more flower beds de-weeded and cleaned up instead.  Now all that is left is to work on the front and all of my existing beds are back in maintenance mode.  At some point I’ll need to go plant shopping to try and finish filling out the new bed, but that isn’t at the top of my list of things to do (that never ending, very long list).  I think between the new beads, the new design ideas and the flower beds, I am going to be very busy for a very long time.

ABC’s

You would think that by having a blog and posting all kinds of personal stuff on here that it would be easy to do this.  Eh, not really.  I will blame Grace at the Wild Pomegranate for tagging me for this meme and making me do some work!  Also, because it took me so long to do this I got tagged twice!  Carolyn at Goddess in a Teapot also tagged me.

So the leagal mumbo jumbo…

The instructions say that each player starts with some random facts/habits about himself/herself. As you are tagged you need to post the rules and your responses on your own blog. At the end of your post, you need to choose some people to tag, list their names and, of course, leave them a comment, telling they have been tagged and they need to read your blog for more information.

Okay, that wasn’t so hard, now…

A: Absolutely hate trying to come up with something fun and interesting about myself because I am actually really…
B: bashful and I don’t like talking about myself.
C: I love coffee.  I am addicted to coffee, but my body doesn’t like it much so I have to drink Folgers special blend for sensitive stomachs.
D: Love to dance.  Mostly when nobody is looking.
E: Emotional.  I always have been and usually am very expressive with those emotions.  I usually see this as being a good thing.
F: Well that one is a bit obvious, fox.  I have been connected to fox in one way or another since I was born.
G: Both my dad and my oldest son’s names start with G.
H: Hats.  Love them but have never had the courage to really ever wear some of the ones I think are the neatest.
I: Icing.  I love to make it and eat it (usually on cakes, but without will do in a pinch).
J: January is my birth month.
K: I can’t stand the way they are making the kids write this letter in school.  I have to make a conscious effort to change the way I write to use this letter in showing them how to write certain words.
L: Love, deeply, completely and wildly.  In love with my husband.
M: Mixed drinks are my favorites.  I don’t like strong, hard alcohol nor do I like beer.  Sweet and fruity all the way.
N: Numbers are not my strong point, probably one of the reasons I married a number geek.
O: Olives are nasty, but the oil is great.
P: Pasta, one of the staples of my life.  I couldn’t live without it.
Q: I didn’t get to go to my senior prom with the guy I was dating because he wanted to go to a Queensryche concert instead.
R: Reading is one of my many addictions.  Mostly fantasy, but anything with a really good story line that lets me completely into its world.
S: Shy, I know I’m cheating a bit here as it isn’t much different than bashful, but I am very shy until you get to know me, then you can’t shut me up.
T: My real name starts with this.
U: I don’t like ugly people, not people that look ugly, but people that FEEL ugly.
V: Vroom!  I love to drive fast in a little car, too bad I am now a minivan mom. Yuk!
W: One of the things that expresses extremes in me is water.  I love to swim but I am also scared of water.  If I can’t touch or see the bottom, I don’t want to be in it.
X: I’m cheating again, but I really don’t like my eX-husband.  He’s an ass.  Unfortunately my son looks just like him.
Y: I get my frustrations out by yelling.  Loudly.  Once I am done, I am usually fine.
Z:  Y and Z, now I’ve said my ABC’s next time won’t you sing with me?  Sorry, that just jumped in there! 

I tag spiritwolf, if you care to sing along!