Saturday, July 31, 2010

Dragging out an old short story:

I used to participate in Blogphilia on Myspace and we wrote a story each week that had to follow a theme and include key points in it so here's one that I did, hope you enjoy the read:

Topic:  Clairvoyance Experiment
Bonus points (hard, 2 points):  Include a commode planter in the front yard.
Bonus points (easy, 1 point): Reference a hockey movie.


As Desi drove through her neighborhood, she daydreamed about her life and how she wished it had been. When she stopped at the stop sign she had a moment of clairvoyance that granted her a bit of sight into what her future would have been had she followed the plans she thought that would always come to fruition.


The life she had desired as a child was one of not much luxury, but one of happiness and purpose. She had wanted to be an architect. But her mother had coaxed her out of that idea. Desi’s mother swore up and down that being an architect would render her penniless in the future, because where she was, there wasn’t much of a calling for them. Silently, Desi cursed herself for listening. What does a woman who’s prized daffodils reside in a planter made from a broken toilet know about architecture?


Desi glanced around and saw that no one was waiting on her to turn, so she allowed herself to daydream a bit longer. She imagined the house that she would have designed for herself and her husband. And their two children of course, had she followed her dream she would have been able to afford to adopt. Her eyes welled with tears at the thoughts she had repressed about her barrenness. She had always wanted children. Especially a little girl.
Desi is abruptly jarred out of her mind wandering by her cell phone going off. She groped around in her purse until her fingers met the hard plastic and she quickly answered it hoping it was someone calling about her resume. It wasn’t.


"Hey, my brothers are coming over tonight, and I figure you don’t wanna hang out here so I thought I’d give you a heads up." Jonah announced.


"I had some things I needed to do around the house, why didn’t you ask me before?"
"Its my house too, they’ll come over if they want, go spend the night at your mama’s or something. You don’t see her enough anyway."


"Alright, love you." Desi hung up the phone before Jonah could say another word. She was glad she had an out, she didn’t want to be around those ruffians anyway, when the five of them were together they reminded her of the Hanson Brothers, and not the pop group. And she was not in the mood for that sort of drama. 


Desi turned her car around and headed to the drama free zone of her mother’s. She wondered if she could talk to her mama about what she’d been feeling about Jonah lately, and if she would be able to offer any advice. 


"Its worth a shot, too bad I’m not really clairvoyant, I would’ve seen all this stuff happening eight years ago and avoided it." she said out loud to herself while laughing at the day dream she had envisioned earlier as though she could actually see what her future would have been. She sure could come up with some wild ideas, but she knew that her life would always take the path of least opposition and the one where she was successful isn’t a path that her life was going to take.

Baby Shower

Have a baby shower to go to this afternoon. My bestie since 5th grade is having a little girl. (Can't wait till she gets here, I'm gonna spoil her rotten!) Until the baby shower, tho, I've gotta get a shower, clean some, maybe do some laundry and hopefully make at least 1 piece of jewelry for my shop. I have 2.75 hrs to accomplish this in. So I guess I'd better get my butt off here and get hopping :) lol.

Oh, almost forgot, here's today's first dropper:
Beaded Tail: http://beadedtail.blogspot.com/
Go show their blog some love!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Neat Idea

I came across a really neat site: http://www.fantazya.ca/diary2011.html

You can get a free ad in their book by designing a page and submitting it to them.  And the book is made with recycled paper (right on!)  It looks like the next year is going to be full soon, but bookmark the site and send them something for 2012.  Or buy one, they look really snazzy.  I'm debating this as a gift for me!  LOL.


Diary 2011

First drop today: Stuff and Nonsense

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Long day

I just had an idea...to help spread a little blog love to all I'm going to try to post a link everyday to the first blog to drop on my entrecard for that day.  Just something to keep in mind kiddies :)

So today's first official drop was from:
BerryVox @ http://www.berryvox.com/

But for now I'm off to bed, work rolls around early...

..............................

Well, I had every intention of coming home and working on some more jewelry, but I came home and crashed, just woke up a bit ago, and had to go in search of food.  So now I feel as tho I wasted my whole afternoon.  Its unlike me to sleep like that in the middle of the day.  Hope I'm not getting sick as a few of the girls at the office have strep throat.  Yuck.  That's the last thing I want.  So hopefully, I'll get to work on some pieces this weekend.  Expect to see some Sunday (we hope).

New Listings

I have some new listings on my Etsy Shop.  Pics below:



























Check these pieces out at: http://www.crystalraen.etsy.com

Monday, July 26, 2010

Beauty in Nature

I was sitting on my back porch smoking (I need to quit I know) and a beautiful Fawn and its mother came trotting into our yard, they were very skittish the slightest noise causing them to pause and glance around.  Oh at this point I was cursing myself for not having my camera, but I knew if I went to get it, the screen door would have sent them running off, so I sat there and just enjoyed watching them instead.  They made their way over to our apple tree and had a tiny feast upon the apples that had fallen around it.  The mother would bite the apple so that it would burst into tiny pieces and the fawn was then able to enjoy some fruit as well.  Ah, what a beautiful sight, I'm never visiting my own back porch again without camera in hand.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Getting my shop up and running...

http://crystalraen.etsy.com Please stop by, check it out and come back and offer me some feedback on what I can do to make it better.

Thanks guys!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Eclectic Raen & Her Beading Adventures

Here's my banner for my shop, now just to get enough made and in stock to start my etsy shop back up:


What do you think?

Also I decided to give ya'll a fun article to read, know a lot of people do work on their homes during the summer, so here's an article I wrote on Updating a Mobile Home just click here.

I'm off to play with beads :D

Friday, July 16, 2010

Etsy

I've been throwing around the idea of getting back on Etsy and selling some of the jewelry I've been making and see how it goes.  I've got a few pieces that are ready to list, but I want to wait til I have a few more so that my shop doesn't look too empty.  So naturally I've been throwing around a few shop name ideas in my head....Need some help here.  I'm hoping to have some more quirky, different, brightly colored, and just fun jewelry along with a little steampunkish items (as The Boy, has def inspired me to start liking all things Steampunk and its a recent thing so I'm exploring it currently) So please see my ideas below, and help me out.

Which one do you like best?  Don't like any of them, please list a suggestion:
1. Raen's Rockin' Regalia
2. Raen's Chop Shop    (like to make new jewelry from old, and that entails chopping it up...so this popped into my head)
3. Eclectic Raen & Her Beads

Please please give me some feed back.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Ah to be young again...

I've gotten a few comments lately that I resemble, Amanda Seyfried (Dear John, Mamma Mia)  I wish, perhaps in my younger days.  Ah how I miss how I looked in my younger days:



                      Above right:  Me 2 years ago.


Above left: Amanda Seyfried
She is so beautiful. 


And me from high school (8 years ago):





Wish I could go back to being that thin and beautiful.  Am working on it though!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Toe Sucker?

Before I tell you the story relating to this blog's title, I want to invite you to read my book review on Lamb, by Christopher Moore; you can find it here.  Now, onto story time.

My mother has been trying her hand at Match.com dating.  She met this guy on the site, talked to him on the phone a few times, and just really hit it off with him.  So naturally they decided to meet up in person.  They had an early dinner at Rio Grande, a neat little restaurant in our town.  And in her words, the bullshit just started pouring out of TS's mouth.  The stories he told were not only unbelievable, but my mother said had these things happened to her, she doesn't know that she'd ever tell anyone, let alone tell someone on a first date.

Mom, being the nice woman that she is, decided not to let things deter their date, perhaps he was just nervous and trying to overcompensate, so they went to his truck to talk.  On the phone before they had discussed reflexology, pressure points, and massage therapy.  So when TS told my mother that he could show her something about her big toe that she didn't know, she assumed it was along those lines.  "Tell me what it is." she said to him.  "No, I have to show you for you to fully understand." was TS's reply.  So mom took off her flip flop and handed the unsuspecting foot to TS.  At this point TS grabs her foot with both hands, pops her big toe in his mouth and starts to suck away.  My mother screams at this point, tells TS he's nasty, shoves her flip-flop on her foot, and bolts out of his truck.

Needless to say, there was no second date.

In my opinion first impressions count.  TS definitely did not make one.  What are your thoughts?

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Conundrum

Yes that's what I'm in right now.  I've been in a jewelry making kick lately, and honestly I love it.  It still isn't sewing :/ But it is still that same sort of meditative relaxing feeling.  I also have been debating ways to make some extra cash since my hours are getting cut............


..........Yes I know first thing you think of is "Sell some of the jewelry you make"  but honestly I fall in love with it all.  And when I do have a piece that I think I can bear to part with, I worry about the quality since I'm still a beginner, and then I worry about how to price it etc.  *sigh*  I wish I was less of a clutterbug and more of a "okay, I made this its cute, lets sell it and find a new home" type. 

But, just because I love my jewelry doesn't mean other people will either....and I don't need to be losing money that I need to listing fees due to items that will not sell.  Any advice?

Friday, July 9, 2010

Video of Nonverbal Autistic Girl Shows Intelligence With Typing

Please click the link below to visit Autism Learning Felt's blog and watch this incredibly awe-inspiring video.  It touched my heart profoundly:

Video of Nonverbal Autistic Girl Shows Intelligence With Typing

No Surgery

Which is both good and bad.  The growths are too big too many and in too sensitive of an area so we are trying a cream that will alert my immune system to attack the area.  If the cream doesn't work, then we'll try a stronger version in shot form.  Then if that doesn't work the surgery will be a must, but they definitely want that as a last option.  So keep your fingers crossed for me that the cream works! 

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Getting ready to leave

But I thought I'd post a pic of my necklace before I go.

I am now off to the dermatologist to see if they will go ahead and do the minor surgery today.  Wish me luck, depending on how I feel I may update later.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Happy Wednesday

Tho not for much longer. I had a wonderfully dull day today. With the exception of being nervous about tomorrow. Possibly have a minor surgery on my heel, as long as they think there will be no complications they can do it the same day as my initial Dr.'s visit. So wish me luck there.

Went to Wal-mart a bit ago, mainly out of boredom (amazingly it was still 80 degrees outside) and I found the neatest thing for my DSi. A Portable Bookshelf w/100 classic books on it.  All of which happen to be books I've wanted to read.  How lucky is that?  I'm ecstatic over it, and it'll come in handy in the waiting room tomorrow.  Fun stuff.

Also I made a necklace and a pair of earrings, pictures of them will come later (when I locate my camera).  Well hope you all have a wonderful night.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

PMS rantings...

Lately it seems really hard just to get myself to focus. I need to find a way to achieve more of the things I keep telling myself that I'm going to do. Whether that is getting up earlier and exercising or taking 30 minutes a day to tackle my novel, poems, and short stories.

Somehow, I just keep letting time run away from me. How does one get it together when the mind is constantly scattered and jumping from one thing to the next? I love that I have finally been able to carve out some time for my blog, but for some reason I cannot seem to get my act together in regards to the rest.

All of this is starting to worry me a bit as far as my going back to school is concerned. I definitely cannot allow myself to slip behind in my work; especially with two of my classes being online, and that means as far as they are concerned it is up to keep myself properly paced in order to pass them. How do other people do this? It is a talent that I seem to have not been born with.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Time Flies...

I'm sitting here in shock realizing that it is nearly 10 o'clock, and I feel like my day just started...Back to work tomorrow :(

Today was a great day, went to visit my Grandpa w/The Boy, first meeting of those two. It went really well, my grandpa was telling about some of his past jobs, and just how much things have changed since he was young (1940's) Yup he's 87 now. And still going strong.

The Boy and I then went to do a little antiquing. He bought me these two really awesome vintage tin signs. And found an interesting knight's helmet flask (?) for himself. Not really sure what it is, need to post a pic of that one.

We then watched the new Alice movie, yet again. And now I'm doing some research on some writing contests and backlinks.

Well off to bed soon so I'm rested for the screaming kiddies in the A.M.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Family and the Fourth

So Dad's side of the family had a cookout today, me and the Lil Sis went had some good food, she took a nap, and I listened to the family drama. As it tends to always unroll at get togethers.

One of my younger cousins is up visiting her father and the family this summer. Today she had a major meltdown, her dad went through her phone and found some "dirty" texts from older boys. Obviously upset, he called these boys and told them not to text his daughter again etc. She felt that her privacy had been rudely violated.

With all the sexting problems facing our youth and their parents these days, should a child have privacy when it regards their phones? I know if it was my daughter (I know I don't have children yet, but I do want them and think of it often) I would want to know who she was texting and would also want to be privy to whether appropriate behavior was involved in their interactions or not.

What are your thoughts on this?

Friday, July 2, 2010

Long weekend

So I have a nice 3 day weekend ahead of me. Yet not quite sure what to do. The Boy works 12 hour shifts all weekend, Lil Sis has plans with her friends. Who knows what Mom is up to. Don't really need to be spending an $$$ since I just found out my hours are most likely getting cut...Kind of a bummer of a day. Need some ideas on how to earn some extra cash, so if you have any ideas PLEASE leave them in the comments. Unfortunately, getting another job isn't really feasible considering that our area really has nothing to offer job wise, I got really lucky getting the job I currently have.

:( Or if you don't have any good ideas on how to earn extra cash, post something happy. Make me smile!

Peace -Crystal Raen

Thursday, July 1, 2010

My top Droppers!

With it being the first of the month, I want to give a shout out to those people from a little site called entrecard.com who visited my site the most *drumroll*

The Horror Movie Show
Wood Burning Art Creations By Lucy
Let's Jump Together
Photography by KML
Mutual Love
slightlydrunk.com
Simple Yet Complicated
Crimsonsparkle.net
Denford Magora's Zimbabwe Blog
angelrhona






So show their blogs a little love and go check them out!