I know it's a bit late but I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. It was rather icky and rainy here but I'm glad we didn't get the freezing rain and snow they had originally called for. My Christmas was pretty good, if a bit long.

I stayed up til 2:30 Christmas morning finishing up some of my xmas gifts and was woken up by my brother at 7 AM to open presents. Needless to say I was a little grumpy and I woke up not feeling too great (still don't feel very good). I got some nice stuff- a really pretty green sweater, some new games for my wii, my favourite gift was a brand new sewing machine. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet but hopefully in the next few days once all the Christmas stuff dies down.

After we opened presents, we went over to my grandparents house for our traditional Italian Christmas. We opened more presents. My granny gave me a beautiful hand-crafted wooden jewelry box and my uncle gave me one of those old fashioned wooden art boxes, the ones that open up into multiple tiers holding all the different paints (watercolour, oil, acrylic, gouache).

After presents, mom and me helped my granny make dinner. We had stuffed shells and tortha, roasted chicken, cranberry sauce (homemade!), and homemade italian bread and we had sparkling cider. Dinner was followed by some yummy Italian pastries and these little almond cookies covered in confectioner's sugar. God it was good. I ended up taking an impromptu nap on the couch between dinner and desert, I was so tired, and because the weather was bad, we left shortly after desert to come home.

Our internet was down yesterday so there wasn't a lot to do and I tried to work on some bead projects but I ran out of the particular coloured beads I needed so I had to put them on hold Mostly just laid around last night watching tv and was in bed by midnight I was so tired!

I finally managed to get my car out today and got to drive into town. It felt good to get away from the family for a little bit. I took a trip down to the local bead shop and to my delight, their doing their end-of-the-year clearance sale and I got some real pretty tubes of seed beads, as well as some Swarovski crystal beads, all of it on sale for 50% off. I'll hopefully resume the projects I currently have on hold here in the next few days.

Since my last post, a lot has happened. I got asked by Artbeads.com to be one of their DIY (Do It Yourself) craft bloggers, as well as a product tester for their website so every month I get $36 USD worth of free merchandise to play with. I only have to write a blog, reviewing the products I used and what I thought about them. I'm pretty stoked. The blogging thing doesn't pay but hey, you gotta start somewhere. I'm pretty excited and I'm currently waiting for my first package from them.

I also went to Michaels today. I needed more silver chain for one of my projects and while I was there, there happened to be a grandma and her granddaughter shopping the beads. The granddaughter had just learned to make jewelry so grandma wanted to get her the right stuff to keep it up and they had no idea what they were doing or looking for and I ended up in a conversation with them, an impromptu lesson, showing them how the different tools worked, how to make a loop, ear wires, the different between the different gauged wires and threads, and what not. After I had spent a good 20 mins helping them, another lady came up to me and was like "you seem to know what you're doing, could you help me too?" so I ended up repeating the whole process!!!

At this rate, I need to make some business cards to give people so they can contact me when they need help instead of writing my info down on a scrap of paper!!! I can't believe how quickly it seems things are taking off for me. Maybe I can pick up some extra money offering lessons or whatnot. I've taught myself a lot of what I know and I love to teach others new things too. I'm hoping to teach myself Peyote stitching this year. I have a lovely pattern that a Bead Society lady gave for a flower broach that uses peyote stitch but I've never been able to quite get it right so maybe this will be the year, riding on the tide of good fortune I've had of late.


I need to get some more of my Faber Castell PITT Artist Pens too. I got a really nice art box for Christmas from my uncle but other then that, I didn't even get a pad of paper I have a bunch of drawing projects on hold right now b/c I don't have any pens right now. I'm hoping to get a coupon in tomorrow's paper for Michaels so I can get my pens and get my projects back on track.

My grandmother's coming down tomorrow, supposed to stay for a few days. She's a seamstress by trade so I'm hoping she can show me a few tricks while she's here because I have an idea that's sort of nagging at me in the back of my head for a bead-trimmed throw blanket. I want to give it a try, even if it doesn't have any real practical use, it just seems like a pretty idea so I'm hoping she can teach me some embroidery stitches to make use of.


Want to know how I make some of the stuff I make? Check out my blog at: [link]

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So yeah, we had a fairly good sized snow storm here. . . in DECEMBER!?!?!? O.o Usually we don't get snow til mid/late January so this is quite unusual for us. It started snowing Friday afternoon, just after 3:30 PM and snowed all the way thru til 6 or 7 PM Saturday evening.

Around 9 AM on Saturday we lost power and the power company kept telling us power would be restored by that evening well that evening came and went and still no power so this morning, my dad dug out his pick up truck and got my mom, me, and my bro down to the road so we could go to my grandparents' house.

None of the backroads have been cleared and the main roads are a veritable obstacle course. For one, the roads are LINED w/abandoned cars and downed trees and even though they've been plowed, they're still covered in snow and ice and pretty much every stop light is out and people were just making their own lanes and traffic rules.

It took us an hour to dig our way down the driveway and another 2 hours to get to the other end of the county to my grandparents.

Since we couldn't take the most direct route of the backroads, we had to go down into town, up, over and cut across and when we got to my grandparents' we found that their road hadn't been plowed so my bro and I dug our way down to their house and pushed the truck up into the driveway and then they informed us that not 10 mins prior, they lost power!!! We had traveled 3 hours for a hot shower and food to end up having neither!!!

Well, we couldn't go home. For one, the roads were to bad to make it back up the mountain to our house and for another, the county had closed our road completely trying to restore power and for a third, aparently we lost power b/c when a tree fell, it's roots tore up the underground power lines so they had to bring in a backhoe to dig up the lines and now, at 8 PM we STILL don't have power at my house and it's not looking like it'll be restored any time soon.

Thankfully, right after 5 this evening my grandparents power was restored and we were able to have a hot shower, hot coffee and a hot meal, none of which we had had in 2 days

Of course, w/the roads the way they are, the mail's not running so neither my prescription nor my mom's was able to be delivered so we're gonna be some cranky moody bitches for the next few days xp

IDK when we'll go home either. And w/this weather, no one's able to get out to finish xmas shopping or hang w/friends. I was supposed to go to a party tonight and of course that's not happening. I shoulda known better then to actually buy a new outfit for the damn thing. That, right there, jinxed the whole damn affair.

I just hope they get the roads cleared soon. We have 29 inches of snow (about 2 1/2 feet) and as it melts and freezes, it's slowly turning into a sheet of ice. Today was sunny and clear and it got up to nearly 40 degrees but it's supposed to snow again tomorrow, though it's only about a 20% chance but then it's supposed to snow yet again on xmas!!! IDK what those chances are though, I haven't seen a recent weather report.

So, yeah, while it's shaping up to be a white xmas, it's also very frustrating, I have xmas gifts to finish making and no power means no sewing machine and no light to see by to do my own stitching by hand. I made a pretty bad ass necklace yesterday but I won't be able to post pics of it til we get power back and I can get online via my laptop

This weather's so odd for this time of year. I mean, I'm not so far south that I've never seen snow, but I am far enough south that it's a bit of a novelty and I can't remember the last time it snowed before January and I can't even remember the last time we got 2-4 feet of it either. The whole county's come to a complete stand still!!!



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cracked picture frames blood stains on the mattress
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bourbon buries all the memories

I woke up to the first snow of the season this year. In DECEMBER!!! Holy crap!!! LOL. I'm super excited, understandably. I love snow and I've been watching big fat white flakes fall all morning.

They said earlier this week we might get snow, like a 20% chance and I remember on Tuesday night coming back late from the grocery store and noting a halo around the full moon and saying to myself, "huh? clear sky but it acts like it wants to snow" well, Wednesday morning they changed the prediction to 50%, up from 20% and yesterday from 50% to 80%.

We kept watching the sky all day yesterday, it was grey and dull and very cold. It acted like it wanted to snow but nothing happened then as the day progressed the wind picked up and I started to catch a hint of that wet snow-smell on the breeze but when I went to bed at 2 AM nothing had happened yet.

But then low and behold, this morning I woke up to like a dozen text messages, all declaring the same thing: "Look out your window!!! It's snowing!!!!" and sure enough, at 9:30 this morning, we had a light dusting and it was coming down so hard I could barely see out the window and it was sticking. I went back to bed, my plans for IHOP totally nixed and now, at 1 PM, up for good, I'm stoked to see several inches of snow and it's still coming and my dad told me that there's more headed my way b/c this system is coming up out of the south and I live farther up north then my family so I'm pretty excited to get to play in the snow. . . in December!!!!



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cracked picture frames blood stains on the mattress
ashes to ashes - gas cans and matches
bourbon buries all the memories

So, yeah, it's Thanksgiving. That god awful day a year when you spend all day cooking and cleaning in preparation to see the relatives that you otherwise don't have anything to do with and don't particularly care for and I hate every minute of it.

Dad made arrangements for us to go to my grandma's today to have dinner w/her and his older brother and his family and we don't associate w/his older brother. Well, mom and I spent all last night cooking food to bring to help my grandma out and they showed up w/a bunch of uninvited guests and not so much as a 2-litre of soda, but I'll get to that.

I was up at 8 this morning, showered, dressed, and was downstairs by 9 and by 9:30 I had been yelled at a dozen times. Mom yelled at me for not doing something, Dad yelled at me for doing something wrong, they both yelled at me b/c I was in the way, I had both of them yelling at me while I was trying to talk on the phone to my uncle Rob and then I got yelled at b/c I didn't convey a message when, when I had Rob talking to me, my bro yelling at me, my dad yelling at me, and then my mom down the hall in the back room yelling at me to tell Rob something, can you blame me that I 1. didn't get the message and 2. couldn't hear a damn thing from anyone at all? And THEN I get yelled at for not listening. I was already fed up w/the damn fucking holiday before I'd even left the friggin' house!!!

Well we finally get on the road and have to turn around b/c my dad realized he didn't feed the cat so while my mom, me, and my bro sit in the car and he feeds the cat, my mom tells my brother to go into MY car and get MY ipod transmitter (w/o asking me if it's okay) so they can listen to music which he does and guess whose ipod gets plugged into MY transmitter? Not mine. I'm already annoyed at getting yelled at so this just pisses me off even more.

So after getting yelled at repeatedly this morning, having my mom and my bro commandeer my ipod transmitter (which IS mine, I bought it w/MY money), I had to sit cramped into the back of my dad's truck for 2 1/2 fucking hours and listen to hip hop. I HATE hip hop!!!!!!!

Well we finally get to granma's and I'm already fed up w/the whole damn day and I gotta deal w/the family. Now, my dad's older brother and his family don't ever acknowledge our existence. I don't think I've actually seen them in at least 4 years. They never call, never write, they never attend any majour family event (my granma had to threaten them w/disownment to get them to send me a CARD when I graduated high school), but on the flip side, they expect us to come and celebrate every time one of my cousin's bastard children takes a shit.

Now, we usually spend the holidays w/my mom's family b/c they actually care about us, but that's besides the point. While my mom and I spent all last evening cooking to help my granma, they show up w/o so much as a 2-litre of soda but w/a bunch of uninvited guests in tow, several of which, my granma didn't even know!!! Well, after the initial greetings, they went off into the den and did their own thing while my family just sat there and had to deal w/my cousin Diana's obnoxious bastard children.

She's got Taylor, whose 3 or 4, and Buddy, whose almost 2, I think, and she doesn't discipline them AT ALL!!! She completely ignores them unless they get right up in her face and they are loud and obnoxious and rambunctious. They chased my granma's poor cat, Cleo. At one point, Taylor jumped on the cat, at another point, we had to yell at her for climbing on top of the mantle and damaging a bunch of family heirlooms and where's her mother, Diana? In the kitchen, stuffing her face.

At one point, I got up to munch on some crackers while granma was finishing making dinner and my aunt Sandra comes up to me and I'm the 2nd oldest of the grandkids, Diana's 23, her brother Jeffrey and I are both 21 (we're only a few weeks apart and Jeffrey's in jail atm), and then my younger cousin, Crysta, is 19 and she showed up w/her 27 y/o bf.

Well, this is the first time since she got there that Sandra talks to me and what does she ask me? She wants to know if I'm driving yet!!!! I looked at her like "are you fucking serious?" and I was like "Sandra, I'm 21, you need to go ask my brother that question" and she was like "oh, you are? Wow. Well, time flies, don't it?" I told my mom and she was like "seriously?" and I was like "seriously" and needless to say, my mom didn't want to be there any more then I did and she was none to pleased.

Finally, after an excruciating wait, dinner is ready but there's no room at the dinner table for us, b/c of Jeff and his family and all their unwanted guests so where do we sit? Separate from everyone else, in the living room, around the fold-out table from the trunk of the car. Our chairs? White lawn chairs we brought from home. I couldn't believe that we had to bring our own table and chairs for dinner!!!! How fucked up is that?!?!?! My mom was like "might as well have brought my own table cloth and centerpiece as well".

After dinner, everyone sort of migrated to the living room where we were still set up around our little table and they sort-of talked to us, mostly b/c they were talking around us and couldn't avoid us interjecting into the conversation.

We finally called it a day and left around 3 to which I got to ride back home, cramped into the back of my dad's truck, and again, listening to my bro's ipod on MY transmitter and while I'm home now, it was an overall excruciatingly painful day and I have a splitting migraine from all the screaming and squalling and carrying on from the bastard children and just from the stress of all the shit today, it just seemed like one thing after another.

I refuse to do it again at Christmas. Fuck. That. Ba-hum-BUG!!!!



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cracked picture frames blood stains on the mattress
ashes to ashes - gas cans and matches
bourbon buries all the memories

yeah so does it make me seem like a bitch when I can't plaster a fake smile on my face and act like I'm happy for someone I care about when I really just wanna rip their throat out?



Blessed Be and Merry Meet
L.A. member

FOUNDER FOR
wanna chat or find someone to collab with, check us out at --> [link]
head honcho

cracked picture frames blood stains on the mattress
ashes to ashes - gas cans and matches
bourbon buries all the memories