Attention, Attention….

To all my many, many, abundant readers aka Rebekah lol  I’ve changed my blog.

I decided a change was in order.

My new blog is located here —- > http://fiberplusalgia.blogspot.com/

Sick but colorful

I have been so sick.  I think I have the black plague.  It just wont go away!  I have been sick since about the 2nd week of January.  I’ll have a day or so where I think, “hey, I think I’m getting better” and then usually that night I’ll get really insanely sick again and cough all night.  I’m not even sure I have any lungs now.  I’ve been coughing so hard my throat is raw and I sound like…..a frog…a really scary, craggy, next to dead frog.  I haven’t been able to do anything creative and I’ve been barely able to read or focus on anything for long.  I don’t want to try to make a card either because I don’t want to contaminate all my craft stuff and I really don’t think anyone would like a cute card laced with Black Plague cootie glitter.  But, I always seem to find a way to do something art/craft related.

I introduce you to Colourlovers.com

I found this a while back actually and didn’t realize it.  I have a twitter account that I still am not sure what to do with or why I have it at all…. but I was messing around with the design of my profile and they have this thing called Themeleon.  I clicked on that and was taken to this website which is part of the above mentioned “colourlovers” website.  They have some really cool designs to use as backgrounds and really nice color palettes.  That must have been in the fall because I had this neat fall leaves design going on.  I decided it was time to change that to something more springy but at the moment it seems to be broken. I hope they will fix it soon. Anyway, I ended up clicking the header that says “Colour Lovers” and went to the main website and there I stayed….. playing with digital paint for a very long time.

So there are these 5 blocks of gray.  I can play with the rainbow thing until I find a color I like and click to set it and move to the next square.  After I have five colors chosen for my palette I name it.  It is then available to use to color designs by me or anyone else that is a member.  People can “love” your palettes and your designs and leave you nice comments.  Also, if you happen to use a color that no one has named yet, you get to name it and it goes in a list of “your colors”  I have a ton of colors.

I really enjoy creating palettes and designs using inspiration around me like music or a pretty fabric bag.  I get creative with the names also.

I usually watch the Voice and American Idol but this whole week I have missed all shows because I’ve been so sick.  I was able to listen to the American Idol performances on Youtube and I was inspired by Jessica Meuse’s performance of Call Me by Blondie.

I really love her because of her COLOR.  The pink she has in her hair is a color I love.  Then she added some blue as a sign of her support for Autism Awareness and that is another color I love.  National Autism Awareness Month this year began on Tuesday, April 1 and ends on Wednesday, April 30.  Show your support by sporting some blue.

I don’t know how she pulls off those colors in her hair but she does.  I know if I tried it I would just look like a clown.

I designed this palette inspired by Jessica Meuse.

Color by COLOURlovers

And here is where I applied those colors to a striped pattern

Vector Patterns by COLOURlovers
I can create my own designs using shapes and lines they have available or I can color designs other people have made. I am so glad I found this creative outlet for times like this.

Oh, and I did enjoy her singing.  I have listened to that video about a hundred times.  Nearly all the performances from Wednesday night were very good and I keep playing them all.  I really think they should just quit right now and just make them all Idols.  I really hate the eliminations.  It always makes me cry.

Broken Hearted

The news is so full of pain.  I have been praying for the families of the people on the missing Malaysia plane.  My heart hurts for them and I wish I had the power to help them find their loved ones.  I just keep praying.  I made this graphic to show that these people are always in my thoughts and prayers and my heart is hurting right along with theirs.

Come home or let us know you are home.

I am using this as my facebook profile and anyone else that likes this image is welcome to use it.  It is just my little way of showing I care….. and I do care for every single one of the 239 passengers, regardless of their nationality, faith, or any damaging remarks made about their character by anyone.  I will continue praying and watching for news.

Making Cards

It is 20 below zero f and I am in a lot of pain.  I have not been fairing well this winter but I’m doing the best I can.  Most of my projects have been put on hold because my hands and arms hurt too much to move.  Although, whenever possible, I have been playing with paper.  When my body tells me I can’t do what I want to I just find something else that I can do.

Crocheting really is the thing that I love to do but whenever I just can’t do that I visit this group on facebook called The Craft Hole.  It is a group that is into all kinds of multimedia crafts and they are big on keeping only active members.  Anyway, I was having a really horrible, awful time with pain and feeling down because I couldn’t even hold my crochet hook and I popped into that group. Right away something caught my eye.  This lady had made these beautiful pop up box cards and she posted the video she used.  I couldn’t do anything else so I watched the video and as it was playing all kinds of wonderful ideas were popping into my head.  As soon as I was able I made one….. and then another.  I can’t get to all my rubber stamping stuff right now so I just used printed graphics and clip art.  They are so much fun to make!  I noticed several other people posting their versions of the card and that is when someone clued me in.  This card is the March card challenge for the group.  duh.  So I was able to add mine.  Too bad they already knew I was a big dummy or I could have just pretended I knew all along LOL

The first one I made is my favorite but I am not going to post a picture because it is in the mail and I don’t want to ruin the surprise. When I went in to find the event page for the challenge and read the rules I noticed they had picked three themes and mine didn’t really fit in any of them.  So, I went and made a vintage themed card.  I love vintage anything so that was easy.

This is what it looks like when it is laying flat.  This picture is showing the back panel which is for writing whatever you want to say to the recipient.

This can then be slipped into a large envelope or a mailer.  I made a custom sized envelope for the one I mailed out.  I think the card was 6.5″ by 5.5″.  The other side has the the decorative paper with the flowers on all the panels.  The back for writing on is the only part that is different and it also is the only side that doesn’t fold.

Below is what the card looks like open.  There are two strips of card stock that run across the inside of the box for adding images so the man, woman and the car are all on different sections so it looks more 3D.  It is really hard to see all the dimension in the photo.  I love the car the best.  It is affixed to the back panel with double sided tape only at the very front and then a little further back it has a double stacked foam square to pop it forward.  The rear of the car is not attached but it meets the level the lady is on.

Pardon the junk in the background.  I didn’t have another good spot with good light to take the picture.

One thing I used on the first card was a QR code sticker for stkr.it. I found a bunch of those on clearance at Joanns a while back. They were so so cheap that I just grabbed up a ton of them. I think they updated their stickers and the ones I got for cheap are the older version.  They still work though.  They are a fun way to make the card more interactive.  So the first card I sent out has a link to a cute song/video on youtube.  You can also link a picture or a document…. or just any link.  They would be great for Christmas cards because you could link to a photo of the family or even link your Christmas letter.  You just might have to educate your family members on how to use them.

After somebody that is pretty awesome receives their super cute card I will post some pictures of it.

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Okay, here is a picture of the first card I made for my cousin.

Year Long Endeavors

The past few years have not been that great for me.  With each year I’ve noticed my health getting worse (fibromyalgia).  Every year I have always made up a list of goals for the next year and never get far because I never feel well.  At the end of the year, any goals that I didn’t get to just get added to the next years list with my new goals.  Only, I am getting to the point where I can’t do much at all.  So this year I didn’t make any “new year goals.”   I just decided to do as much as I can, when I can.  Every day is a new day and whatever it brings I will just have to roll with it.  If I can’t get out of bed than that is all I can do.

I did start a few year long endeavors but nothing that will throw me off if I miss a day.

1. Temperature Scarf.  My oldest son Jared helped me with this a lot.  He went with me to Joann’s and helped me pick out 12 colors (including black).  Then we arranged them into a pleasing rainbow of sorts with the colors we deemed to be “cold colors” on one end and the “hot colors” on the other end.  Jared made my chart for me with a temperature range for each color.   I decided I wanted to show the extremes in temperature we get here so I divided the year into thirds.  The first 4 months I am checking the temperature each day and taking the low for the day I check my chart to find out what color to use.  I work one row a day based on the temperature.  After the first 4 months I’ll switch to the high temperature then back to the low temps for the last four – so it will be warm around my neck (where the middle is hehe)  I am almost finished  with January and I love how it looks already!  After the last day of January I’ll add a few rows of black.  I started with a few rows of black and I’ll end with a few rows of black and when it is all done I’ll add an edge of black.  That way it will look like a thermometer kinda.
2. I joined a CAL (crochet a long) on ravelry.com that is making a 12″ x 12″ block every month.  They also vote for an extra 12″ square and there is also a 6″ square each month for people wanting to make a baby blanket or whatever.
3. I joined another CAL (Official CCC Social group) that is doing a 12″ x 12″ block every WEEK!  (until Nov I think which leaves time to piece them together)  The last two pictures show the first two from this group.  They are so awesome!!!
4. I also joined another crochet group that has several different CAL’s planned throughout the year.  Creative Crochet Crew Group has to be the best crochet group I’ve seen on facebook.   Their first project is starting on Feb 4th I believe and they are making the Magnificent Moss Basket.  They even have the designer in this group in case anyone has any questions.  This group is totally focused on crochet so no random chit chat about other things or negativity of any sort.  No knitting or other off topic things either.  That makes it really nice because it is such a large group.  I find so many wonderful patterns or ideas in this group.  The group I linked in #3 above is the social group where chit chat is allowed but not the negativity.  Both groups are awesome!

This link is to my Ravelry Project page for my 2014 blanket!  I’ll be adding each square as I do them so if you check back you can see all the patterns (which are all free).

When I finished the purple flower with the green part it made me think of a water lily so I made the rest blue.

So all of these “endeavors” are crochet related.  That seems to be the one thing that keeps me going.  Last year I was really into knitting but lately I only want to crochet.  I’ve been crocheting for most of my life (my sister started teaching me when I was 5) but I haven’t been knitting all that long.  When I am in pain and have a hard time focusing I go for the thing that I can do on autopilot.  It helps to keep my mind focused on something – something not to hard but hard enough to keep my mind off of hurting.  This may sound silly but if I am in so much pain that I can’t crochet, I actually try to mentally form the stitches in my head as a way to distract myself.  I think everyone with fibromyalgia has their little tricks like that.

Oh, I should add, I am doing all of these things using only yarn that I already have.  I have a lot!  I picked out four colors to make a blanket for my room.  Purple – Green – Blue – Cream   But, I am using different yarns and different shades of those colors in my squares.  I may even make some 6″ squares and group 4 together into a larger square.

I got the bright idea to use green fun fur with the white for the center of this square. Then I had to give it a haircut because it looked like an overgrown lawn!

Making a blanket to fit my bed might be overwhelming but making a 12″ square can be done in an hour or so.  When I don’t feel well it takes me all day but I still find myself waiting impatiently for the next one to be posted in each group.  In no time at all I will have enough squares to make my blanket and I really doubt it will take a year.  I’ll probably make a blanket for every bed in the house.

The flower in this one is two shades of blue but the darker shade looks gray in the picture. There actually isn’t any gray in this.