I AM really bad at blogging

Well hi there. Another pretty long period without blogging. I don't even really have an excuse for it. I'm still out of work, still applying for jobs, only issue is there are not many places that are hiring right now. Dish Network has decided not to override their 6 month return policy and indeed has upped it to 12 months. So now, I can't reapply until I have been gone for a year. I was devastated when I got that email, but I'm starting to spring back. I just don't know what I'm going to do now. You wouldn't ever think it would be so difficult for someone with a college education to be able to find a job, but it is.
The only two positive things that have come out of this are that I have been able to spend a lot more quality time with my nieces, and I have been able to craft more. But I can only craft with what is in my stash since I can't buy anything new. My newest little obsession is those origami puffy stars. I can use old magazine, junk mail, cards, colored printer paper, anything! Yesterday I made 183 of them. I know it sounds like it's a lot, but each one only takes about 30 seconds, if that.
I also was able to make some presents for my friend Michelle, who is expecting any week now. I made her a chocolate strawbaby blanket (it was pink, chocolate brown and cream) with two matching bibs in chocolate & pink. The pattern I used was the Modern Baby Bib and they turned out soooo cute!! They almost look like little purses.
My aunt & I have started a catering business called The Aunts Catering and we have had a couple of jobs so far. It's not a steady source of income yet, so I definitely am still searching for another job. This week I'm planning on applying to Verizon and the Roanoke County & City school systems. Hopefully one of those will work out, but I'm not so sure. I'm kind of losing faith at this point, but I'm trying to just hold my head up. I can't begin to tell you how embarrassing it is to have to tell people that I am unemployed. I know I am not alone in this economy but it feels like it.
Well, that is enough pity party for now. I'll update my projects list & post some pics I took with my camera phone. My digital camera is still in storage 3 hours away, so the pics are going to suck. Sorry about that. But at least you can see how cute these bibs are!! :)



This chocolate brown baby bib has a strawberry button closure & an assymetric cabled neck.



This pretty little pink bib has the same cabled assymetric neck & a pastel pink button closure. Both are knit.


Blessed Be )O( Heather

The Adventures of the Unemployed

This whole being unemployed thing apparently only brings fulfillment if you are unemployed because you are a novelist, stay-at-home wife or mom. It is just not doing it for me.
It started out ok. As I think I mentioned before that I was trying to get back into school for the upcoming semester. At that time my unemployment had a definite end on the horizon and a purpose. At least, it had some upcoming event that gave me an excuse to content myself with the state of my life. Unfortunately, my financial aid did not come through in time and I was unable to return to school. I am now setting my sites on the fall semester at a cheaper school to finish out my bachelor's. I'll sink myself deeper in debt for my master's and go to a good school, even if it is far more expensive than the alternatives.
Normally, Echostar requires that a previous employee be gone for at least 6 months before they are eligible for rehire. I've been gone for a few weeks shy of 4 months, but am going to go ahead and reapply. They have made exceptions before and I left work on very good terms. In fact, the director of the center even sat down with me to try and figure out how he could save me as an employee. Unfortunately, my only concern is that none of the managers who have supervised my work (or know of my capabilities) are working there any longer. 2 have been reassigned to other centers and one was demoted. There are several of my peers and my direct supervisors who will probably go to bat for me, but one can never be sure of the perceptions of others.
On the positive side, since I've moved back in with my father I have been able to take care of him. He works so hard all the time and is not getting any younger. He doesn't have time to take care of himself. I've been cooking him 3 square a day and making little goodies for his lunch. And I've been able to take care of the animals; I'm there with them all day, so the dog gets lots of excercise and the cats get lots of love :) I've also been able to do some good knitting and writing but I don't have any income to be able to beef up my yarn stash. My digital camera is also in storage so I can't take or upload any pics. Boo to that. I'm working on the Monk's Travel Satchel right now in olive green, brown and a third undetermined accent color. Any ideas, ladies and gents?
Apart from that, everything is going ok. I have started my new diet. A week in and I lost 2.5 lbs. Not great, but every step forward, no matter how small, is at least not a step backward. I'll try and update more frequently but I have proven to be an inconsistent blogger at best. LOL. Hope is everyone is doing well. I'll post pics when I can.
Blessed be!

A short update

I will endeavor to keep this as short as I possibly can :) Last week, with DJ's help, I submitted my reaudition CD. I never got a straight answer on whether I needed a video format audition DVD or if an audio only CD would work. So, as a live accompanist was required & I knew none in the area who were free to help, I submitted an audio-only audition. Still live accompaniment, but they didn't have to see who it was :) Kinda sneaky I know, but if I hadn't done it that way, I never would have been able to get my audition in on time.

Now all that's left is to wait. And worry. This is the bad part about college... well this and the money worries. Haha. That comes after I know I'm accepted I suppose. We'll see how it goes. I may need to wait until next fall, but I hope I can get in this semester. I'll sign off now, more to come later. :)

Blessed be,
Heather

Still no new pictures I'm afraid

But I did submit my application & financial aid paperwork. It was a big step for me to do that all on my own. I became so reliant on the joint efforts that come as being part of a couple... now I'm starting to reinvent myself as a single & am learning to stand on my own two feet. Either once I'm back in school, or once I get a full time job if school falls through, I'll move out on my own & start that adventure.

I had my first performance in over 4 years on Sunday. It was a church choir performance, but any step toward a dream counts. On the 30th I'll have another small performance. I have also been given an open invitation to join a choir affiliated with my old college for the upcoming semester. Normally one would need to audition, but the director told me to "just register & come on out". Which is awesome, cause he's never heard me. He's working off of the word of my old professors & choir mates. It's a cool feeling to be remembered as a good choral voice. Even though I want to branch out & cut my teeth on solo performing, it's always been my passion. For pity's sake, I mean I want to be a choral conductor, of course choir would be my first vocal passion.

My fingers are starting to get back into shape on the piano front as well. Still not great, but working on getting better again. The Carpal Tunnel Syndrome keeps me from getting back to the level I was at before, but I'm becoming passably good once more. Now if only SU would call me & tell me they reaccepted me, and FAFSA could tell me how much aid I'll be getting, I could move on with everything else. I'm going to need to take out extra loans to live on when I go back, so I'd take them out this semester so I wouldn't have to take out extra for living expenses for the next semester. I dunno how that will work, I'll have to get with the loan people to see how much I will qualify for. I just hope financially I'll be able to make it all come together.

On a fun side, I went to a live show on Saturday night fell in love! With a band. The Dreamscapes Project. Kind of a folk rock kinda fusion band. They played a club in Vienna called Jammin' Java. It was an intimate performance that I thoroughly enjoyed. The lead singer/guitarist, Keith Center, is a charismatic & entertaining front man, while the bass & drum kit support the sound of the band nicely. The two musical "oddities" of the band add an interesting element to the overall sound of the group. The percussionist (bongo, cymbal, pretty much everything not the standard kit-already referenced in this post) added a depth of rhythmic structure to the set; while the cellist, Ben Guy (with whom I went to college ages ago), gives a beautiful, sometimes haunting, sometimes melodic, sometimes outright rocking additional point of melodic interest.

I went home & friended them on Facebook. I know, I'm becoming a Facebook junkie. But all is well if that is my only embarrassing vice :) For now, I'm signing off to vacuum.

@-v-- Heather

Lots of updates

Well, after four years being together, Brandon & I are no longer a couple. I have since moved to Winchester, VA because the house we bought is in his name, our car was in his name, so now I just have the F250, our computer was mostly his since I still had mine from college 4 1/2 yrs ago, and I had to quit my job since I didn't have a place to live. But on the positive side, I now know that I have friends who love me for me & not because I'm the lesser-known-half-of-a-couple. I'm currently living with my best friends Samm & DJ, and their two children Will, 4, and Sage, 2. I'm in the process of applying for readmission to college & financial aid. I'm really hoping to get everything squared away for the Spring semester of '09. Should be able to get it done by then if I can get my W2 from 2007 for the FAFSA. All in all I'm hoping this catastrophic event will work out for the best in the long run.

I've been going to a Universalist Unitarian Church up here & am in the choir. It's a good first step to getting me back in the swing of things. I also have a small performance coming up on November 30th. I'm doing one of two things: I'm either accompanying Samm, or I'm doing a duet with Samm. One or the other. The song selection is up to us, so it probably won't be decided for certain until about a week before the performance. But we'll pull it all together. Always do.

At the moment, my cat Aris is staying with my parents. Until I get an apartment of my own, I can't bring him up. Dropping him off & saying goodbye was really hard. What was also hard was driving the 4 hours from Pulaski to Winchester 6 times to bring all my stuff up to my storage unit. 8 hour round trips. Ick. Brandon said he wanted my stuff out as quickly as possible so he could get on with his life. I was reluctant to move absolutely everything because I still wanted something there so I would have a tie to him in some way. It was a sad thought & I see how it was a thought in error. Hard to see when you're in the middle of having your heart ripped out though.

On the crafting front, right now since I don't have a job, I've got plenty of time. I've started trying to draw.... well copy other drawings. I don't have the spacial perception to be able to create new art at the moment. Getting my "feet under me", so to speak, is the best thing I can do to work up to the point of creating original art. I've started a new scarf. It's going to be in stockinette stitch with a pocket on each end. On each pocket, I'll be duplicate stitching a broad maple leaf & scattered down the length of the scarf (and fading into the actual pocket) will be smaller leaves that I will embroider on. The scarf itself is a dark brown, the leaves will be dark green, wine, orange & a mustard yellow if I can find one. We'll see how it turns out. The embroidery & junk are originals so I don't know how they'll translate from my head to my stitching. I'll post pictures once I finish & have a computer of my own to use. I also finished an offering for my first ritual. I cross stitched the word rebirth in an ivy pattern. I backed it with music fabric & offered it in the fire during the Samhain ritual. That was a lot of fun & very enlightening for me. After the ritual we drank & sat around the fire. I tried my hand at drumming on the djembe. I found out that I drum like a pianist, haha. As the night went on, I got more into it & less self-conscious. I actually like drumming a lot. I might just have to get myself one & start doing it more often :) We'll see.

For now, I'm going to end this novella & pledge to blog again soon... seeing as how I don't have anything else to do, haha.

Blessed be,
Heather

A quick catch up

Here we are again. All too familiar territory. I have not blogged in a while. So here goes the requisite catch up.

Work: got a "promotion". It was actually a decrease in base-pay because I lost my shift differential, but I am off the phones... kind of. Now instead of being on the phones 10 hours a day taking normal calls, I am on the phones between 3 & 6 hours a day taking escalated calls. The rest of the time, I provide internal support for our agents via chat service. I love the new job. But the company is about to change the format for the internal agent support. I am apprehensive to say the least.

Home: Brandon & I are in negotiations for our first house together. It is in Pulaski, VA. The first place we went to get the loan, that was fun. WE qualified for the loan. PULASKI didn't. Yeah. They turned down the city. "Declining economic territory." Cute. Real Cute. But we are back on track & should (fingers crossed) close on the home at the end of July. If we close, you can be sure to have before & after photos to bring you right into our living room

Crafting: Not too much here. My hands & wrists have really been bothering me. It's hard to hold my knitting needles or crochet hooks right now. So no new projects, old projects are kind of on hiatus. But I did finish Ellie's baby blanket. It's a sugary sweet pink Disney princess quilt. All done by hand (piecing, backing, quilting, edging). My grandmother would be so proud!!

Animals: my dear fish, Koios passed away this past week. I went out of town to visit some very dear friends for several days & asked the bf to look after my babies. When he left for work the day I came home, both the cat & fish were fine. I picked him up from work, we came home & the fishy was dead. The water had turned this sickening shade of yellow. But he lived a happy fishy-life. Very active & interested in the world around his little watery home. I don't think I'll get any more fish. I loved him, but he was my first fish & I didn't truly enjoy the maintenance of cleaning & changing the water (even part of the water) every 2-3 days. Perhaps.... a chinchilla!! I'll have to try to talk my darling bf into that one. Oh, and I'll have to try & keep Aris from eating the cute little baby critter if I get one.

Long time, no update

So... it's been a while since I last updated. My CTS (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) has been kicking my ass & I havent' been able to hold my needles, let alone the weight of my current projects. But I'm beginning to feel a little better (Mineral Ice is my new best friend!).
So, here's the quick update. Brandon & I are buying a house!!! We close at the end of July & I cannot wait!!!! The cleaning/packing has already begun. Two bags are already filled & just waiting to go to Goodwill. And soon comes... DECORATING!!!! I have so many ideas flowing 'round my shortly shorn little head (oh yeah, did I mention, I got a truly horrible short haircut. Well, if I hadn't yet, I just did).
And as far as projects go, I am still working on the king-size basket-weave crocheted afghan, queen-size Phoenix Coyotes duplicate-stitch afghan (that one doesn't have to be done until next hockey season though, phew!), quilt for Ellie & Alexander (one Care Bear, the other Disney princesses), kimono shawl, and several other small projects.
Hopefully I'll have some project pics soon, but for now, pictures of the new house will have to suffice. P.S.-We're buying it from a cute Marine & his girlfriend. They're super nice, but have a very country style. It will look different after the decorating.


We're the house on the right. It's just these two houses on the lot (right now the other house is not occupied & won't be for some time. The owner is doing major repairs to the home, but doesn't seem to be in any hurry. They think it will become a Habitat for Humanity house once it's fixed up). The lot backs up to a dead-end street that can't be seen through the trees on our lot & on one side is an old bakery (again, not inhabited) and on the other side is an old bottling plant. The plant is also not occupied, but in theory, if Pulaski becomes a metropolis & has businesses just begging to come to town, it could be started up again. I think we're safe :)




The living room is right off the back entrance & porch. The door you see lead to the sunroom & off to the left is the dining room, which is pictured below.

This is our fun spacious kitchen & breakfast nook (foreground, but hardly visible). To the left is the hallway off the front entrance.

Upstairs is the bathroom, two bedrooms, study & this beautiful add-on excercise room (it will be partly excercise room, partly crafting room. Yay!!)

It's been...

a very long time. I know. I'm awful. But in my defense, life has been turned upside down & my darling boyfriend is trying to finish the first draft of his novel (160,000 words at the moment!!) and is monopolizing the computer.
So.... here goes a quick summation of life since my last post. Thanksgiving & Christmas celebrations for Brandon's side of the family were at our house this year. I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner all by myself. And the turkey turned out amazingly well!! (Though I did slice a large chunk off the side of my index finger off when trying to break down the leftover bird, ouch...) We also had homemade: stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, gravy, rolls, & whipped vanilla cream. I took a lot of pride in making everything from scratch. Next year, I won't have anything to prove, so I may just buy the rolls :) We put up the Christmas tree on Thankgiving night, as always. Christmas on Bran's side of the family was uneventful. The tree is still up (for shame), but I did manage to get all the decorations off on New Year's day like a good girl. Just never got around to taking down the tree.
On Christmas eve, my "niece" (my aunt's foster daughter that they are currently trying to adopt) was admitted to the hospital with severe bleeding problems, kidney & liver failure. They did not expect her to make it, but like the little 3 year old tropper that she is, she has finally regained consciousness. She is still in the pediatric intensive care unit at UVA, and has more severe brain damage than she had before (she was born to a mother addicted to drugs & has suffered from severe dibilitating seizures her entire life), but my aunt & uncle are ecstatic that she has regained as much of her old self as she has. She will never be able to talk; they don't think she'll be able to walk, but she is here :)
Then in January, my grandfather passed away very, very suddenly. He died of a heart attack in his driveway while my grandmother was in Shawville taking care of her other granddaughter (my 2 year old cousin Charlotte). She beat herself up for not being there with him for quite a while, but now seems to be doing as well as possible, all things considered.
Latest issue has been my mom. She's now doing a little better physically & mentally than she has been, but while she was in the hospital this last time, her credit card was stolen & long story short, she now owes the bank $5,000 in fraudulent charges. My family cannot afford a lawyer to fight this, so we have to eat the debt. And my bank has confiscated my paycheck to pay for my mother's debt. If my phone number hadn't been listed on my account, I never even would have been notified. They left a message on my cell phone for my mother, thinking it was her number, and then cleaned the account. Needless to say, I am up a creek. This is where my paychecks are automatically deposited, my bills are paid automatically from this act & it is the only money I have to buy food, gas, toiletries & all other necessities for getting through life. Thank goodness for Brandon. If not for him, I would be out on the street. I have had this bank account for 24 years (it was started for me by my family when my mother & father found out they were pregnant) & am going to be forced to close the account so as not to have my paychecks stolen to pay someone else's debt (since I should not need to assume her debt unless something happens to both her & my father).
But I have been doing a little something crafty to help calm my nerves. Mostly, I've been eating :) But I did make this little guy tonight. I call him Gus. He's for a woman at work who asked me to make her a turtle. I think he's a charming little fellow :)

"It's alive!"

So I have been eaten by holiday work-time. The day job is requiring a lot of extra time this year. What is not mandatory from management is mandatory by my immediate supervisor. Yes, I do get paid real honest-to-goodness overtime pay, but I cannot even being to describe my horror & stress at being in that building any longer than I have to. Too bad there's no other place around here that pays as well.
I must apologize for being so negligent in my blogging. But all in all, not too much to tell until this weekend. And then.... all hell broke loose at my house.
The bf & I did some ET on Sunday night, and then after that nearly 12-hour day, we come home to find our water heater has blown up & is drenching our kitchen. Yeah. Great. And all this on a work night. While both of us are on warnings for attendance at work, we had to take a personal day to get the thing repaired. And then, Repair-guy installed a new water heater, said wait an hour & try it. Flash forward one hour: no hot water... AND no water pressure in the kitchen. Worse off now than when the water heater was leaking. So, we try and call the repairman. No answer. Goodie. We were slated to leave the next morning to go to Charlotte, NC for a Charlotte Checkers game. And we were determined to go. So Brandon's mother graciously offered to come over to the house while the repairman was there if we had to leave before he was done. So flash forward again to 9am Tuesday: Repair-guy calls. Says he's coming right over. Well, I take off to pay the utilities & internet & get the oil changed in the car while repair-guy is on his way. At 10:30, Brandon texts me. Says still no repair-guy. Beauty. The day is starting out so well...
But before we leave, he is able to correct the hot water issue, and Bran's mom comes over so we can go. Repair-guy got other issue fixed after a couple more hours. And surprise! He even fixed the leaky faucet! Yay!!
And... cut to our drive to Charlotte. A little rainy. Brandon drove & I played navigator. Uneventful drive. It was easier to get there than I had anticipated. And then we get to the hotel. We had decided to try an adventurous little inn right in uptown Charlotte. Its claim to fame was themed suites. We got the "Romance Suite". Ha ha ha! A Queen size bed that has a heart-shaped jacuzzi directly beside it. Yep, in the same room. On a slightly raised platform, but if you played your cards right, you could step out of bed & into the jacuzzi. And it had very poorly applied "tropical" wallpaper. And cable tv. OMG, how crappy is cable? Seriously, I never knew until this. I've always had satellite & I suppose I am slightly spoiled. But jeez, we couldn't even watch the tv to relax.
After we checked in to the hotel, we had a couple of hours to kill. We decided to walk around town, see if there was anything "tourist-y" so pressing that we had to see it before the game. Nope. We did spot some cute little taverns/pubs & coffee shops. And we ate at this great restaraunt: Rock Bottom Brewery. They had great microbrewed beer. I had a beautiful Gorgonzola, pear, and grilled chicken salad & spicy tomato bisque. Brandon got a hickory smoked burger & fries. Suprise!! I got a "Growler" of beer to go. When the waitress mentioned it, I was expecting a Schooner with a lid. What I got was a gallon of beer in a brown glass bottle. I looked like a lush trying to carry that down S Tryon Street. I decided to stick it in my purse :)
The Charlotte Checkers v Augusta Lynx game was pretty cool. It was my first hockey game. Not quite NHL, but they are feeder/affiliate teams with the NHL. Brandon & I were right behind the home penalty box. Everytime a Charlotte player got a penalty, we were up on the Jumbotron screen. And after the game, one of the officials gave us an official game puck! That was pretty durned cool, if I do say so myself.
Cut to the drive home: Me behind the wheel, Bran asleep in the passenger street. It rained from about 10 minutes outside of Charlotte all the way into Radford. Rain, fog, roadwork. Still a relatively uneventful drive, just not a relaxing one. And after we got home, I cleaned up the kitchen, got rid of the moldy smell from the water leak, washed clothes/dishes & started a baby blanket for the sister-in-law who's due the week of Valentine's day. Anyone have a good pattern for a little boy that's not a blanket or a sweater??
Well, that's it. Next post will be shorter, I promise. Less to catch up on. And some pics of stuff recently started or finished! Blessed be, all!!

And this is the little princess

Brandon & Ellie earlier this month:

A Gatorade "junkie" (don't worry, the lid is on the bottle!) she's a ham for the camera...:

This is my favorite picture of her. This was actually taken last Halloween when I was taking her to Susana's church carnival. I promise, we didn't have her dressed up as a lion in November, the date was just wrong on Susana's camera.

Here be swatches...

Today, I ate at Arby's. Not an unusual thing (I have very little will power when it comes to curly fries) However, today, it made me very very ill. So... I left work early. And instead of sleeping, what did I do? Watched CSI & knitted. I started my Ravenclaw Fair Isle Bag and am now about 3/4 of the way through the knitting. My fair isle looks a little lumpy/squishy, but I'm hoping that blocking it will help.

I must confess... I have never blocked anything in my life. I don't even know how to go about it, but I will cross that hurdle once I've finished the execution step. And lining the bag is another story all-together. I can quilt with the best of them, but lining garments is actually very time consuming for me. I don't know what it is about doing that, but it takes me FOREVER! Alas, I think the bag may simply wind up being undergarment-less.

But in preparation for attempting to get my dearest boyfriend to purchase the Level I Master Knitter requirement/assignment pkg for me for Christmas, I have begun to knit swatches. Again, something I've never taken the time to do before. I've been mostly about quantity, not quality. I think it's time to change that. So far, I am using Caron Simply Soft (cause it's cheap & I'm poor) and my Suzanne's size 6 dpns. I'm hoping to branch out to some different needles/fibers soon, but here are my first few attempts:

Moss Stitch

Andalusian Stitch

I used this site as a resource for some stitch patterns. I cannot believe this resource was out there for so long & I never used it. Well, I am making up for lost time.

On the homefront, my niece, Ellie, had her first ear infection while she was with her father & his family this past week. The fever spiked so suddenly that she also had her first seizure. Bridgette (Brandon's sister, and Ellie's mom) was understandably shaken up. We had her over to make sure she stayed as calm as possible (she is now about 12 weeks pregnant with her first child w/ her new husband, Ben) and then Brandon's mom Susana & Ben, came over later. Our little house was very full. I had forgotten what it was like to have everyone there at once. Bridgette & Ben wound up driving up to PA to see Ellie the next day, which I am very glad of. I don't think either of them would have rested soundly had they not been able to see her before the next weekend when they were to have picked her up. It's a little bit of a shame that this is the first time her father has seen her in over a month & the visit was marred by this awful happening. But luckily, Ellie is doing quite well. On anitbiotics, and ornery as ever :) In all honesty, I was a seizure kid myself. When they told us her seizure only lasted about 10 seconds I breathed a sigh of relief. I am quite aware that even a seizure that short can do lasting damage, but it was a much better sign than if she had had a grand mal seizure. I just can't wait until we can see her again, and I can make sure for myself that she is the same littly punky we all know & love to bits. Keep our little punkin' in your thoughts, if you can... it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Blessed be. @-v- H.

Greetings, and blessed be!

So here we go, friends. A new and exciting journey into the digital age. Yes, until now I was sans camera. Now, watch out 'cause I'm armed with many UFO's and less than ample time to complete them...
As for me, my name is Heather, I'm 24-yrs old and I love all things fiber arts. I was a voice major in college, with a minor in piano accompaniment. Aaaaaand.... I now work in tech support for Echostar/ Dish Network. Way to use that 50-thousand-dollar education, huh? I currently live in the wonderful state of VA and I am a follower of an alternate spiritual path. I will attempt to make this blog pretty religion/politics free, but will not make promises. I will eventually slip up, and don't want to break my promise.
I am incredibly new to blogging and hope there will be at least one person who sees this blog, other than me of course :) So ladies, and gents, of all ages, welcome to the greatest show on earth!! (sorry couldn't resist, haha)