How bored am I?

I'm so bored I can't even come up with a funny joke to describe how bored I am. 

My mother in law is coming to visit for two weeks in a few days. I should be cleaning and making ready.  But it is raining (and raining) and I just don't feel like it.  *bleh*

PS-I need more expressive smileys.  I am way more bored than mine shows. 

current mood: bored

I just wanted to take the opportunity to tell the universe goodbye to my cousin Darlene, who passed away late last week.  I hope she won't hate me for sharing this photo, but this is us one Easter sometime in the early 60's.  She's in yellow, and I'm the chubby one to her left in the puffy sailor pinafore.  I thought maybe she might like this one because her mom and dad are in it,  who both passed away some time ago: my Auntie Delores in the orange hat, and my Uncle Jimmy right of center.

I'm not exactly sure how much older than me she is, other than to say about 4 or 5 years.  (She only looks tall in the photo because everyone in my family, except my Dad, is so short lol.) I have lots of cousins, 20 to be exact, so it's kind of hard keeping track of everyone's exact ages.  And while she's not the first cousin I've lost, she's the first one lost in adulthood...heart disease.  Which I really didn't know much about.  The other two, who I'll mention because I don't want them to think I've forgotten them are Ronny, on my mother's side, who died at about four after being hit by a car outside his home, and Timmy, on my father's side, who died in a swimming accident as a teen.  And not to forget Uncle Ernie, Ronny's dad, and Granny and Grandpa, and Memere and Pepere.  I love and miss you all.

Darlene was alot older than me in kid years anyway, so we didn't spend much time together as children.  And since I've moved away from my family, I don't see any of them much anymore.  But many of them will be there  tomorrow at the funeral, including little Jamie her sister, the other little girl in the photo, who is now left alone immediate family wise...other than her children who are all wonderful and very healthy.  So I hope she is well and will come through all of this okay.

Anyway, sorry if this is kind of weird for me.  And for anyone reading, if you want to send your message to the universe regarding any lost loved ones of yours, please feel free. 

current mood: melancholy

Okay, so I listed two of the paintings at ebay http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZrawynd  The third I am thinking I will list either tonight or tomorrow.  I'm kind of hesitating because I'm wondering if I should list it at a penny or the same as the others.  Ebay is just so stressful for me...it's hard for me to list and just wait and wonder what will happen lol.  Sometimes it's easier for me just to do the painting part and forget all about even trying to sell.  But it's just one of those times where I really need the money for supplies etc., and well, I'm kind of at the point where I'm feeling like if I don't start making even a little bit of money, I'm going to have to give it up altogether. Which obviously I just don't want to do. 

Anyway, like I said yesterday, I'm trying to work a little bit smaller, which I'm hoping will help since the materials are cheaper, there is much less time involved, and they will be easier to ship...in case someone buys lol.  So I can afford to list them for lower.  And I'm hoping that if they do sell, I can make enough money to keep going with it...even if they only sell for the listing price.  I really would like to try the .01 listing price, because maybe it would be more fun for buyers and maybe I could get more people to bid.  But that's just so scary for me right now.  But I'm thinking of trying it for the third painting...which is why I haven't listed it yet.  I'm afraid that if I do I'll regret it tomorrow lol.  So we'll see how it goes!

current mood: determined

I've been working on some new paintings lately, and am really pleased with how they're coming along.  I've decided to go a little smaller and a little more realistic than what I've been doing, and I think so far its going great!  I'm thinking of listing them on ebay tomorrow, but here they are now...if you want to take a peek!

current mood: accomplished

I have been having so much fun...and wasting SOOOO much time hanging out at the Bravo TV message boards talking with people about my favorite show "Project Runway."

Once you're there, you'll quickly learn that you are either a Wendy hater, or a Wendy lover (otherwise known as Wendy Defendies) with very few people being able to stay in the middle lol. 

And some people actually do love Wendy Pepper...though God knows why.  So just in case she wins all tomorrow night, I thought I would create a line of my own at Cafepress that I hope will please those that enjoy her designs.  Not really.  I'm actually poking fun. 

So defendys...hey don't blame me!  You are duly warned and entering at your own risk.  Though hopefully you'll get a laugh out of it too.  Especially the official Wendy Defendy hooded sweatshirt specially designed to "get your game on."  Just like Wendy! 

http://www.cafepress.com/holdthepepper

current mood: giddy

Kind of a yucky day here.  Not a ton of snow, about a foot overall when all is said and done, but slippery wet and messy.  The trees are drooping out back and there are some power outages already.  Hopefully ours won't go out.  But at least they cancelled school today...our district is positively die hard and won't cancel for anything. So it's nice not to have to worry about that, or make my daughter play hooky again lol.  And we've had some really great springlike weather the last week or so, so it's hard to really complain. 

Have also been feeling kind of yucky...maybe fighting some kind of stomach thing off for the last week or so.  Or maybe it's from the cortisone shots?  I don't know. I'm due for another next week and really don't want to.  I'm already in debt up to my kneecaps from the MRI and the last one.  At least I have some medical coverage, but even the part I have to pay seems like alot.  Oh well, such is life. 

current mood: blah

Well, the fire finally went out.  Last Saturday I started a fire in one of my woodstoves and decided to challenge myself to see how long I could keep it going.  Sadly, I finally let it go out last night.  I really didn't want to, but we had a problem with the heater downstairs from using the woodstove down there a few days ago.  It's a forced hot water system, which is great in alot of ways.  But what's not so great about itis  when its not being used, the water in the pipes gets cold and can freeze, which is what happened downstairs.  We found out that we can actually have antifreeze pumped into it, which would be fine, but we have a small leak in one of the pipes from when they installed it this past summer...it was a friend, a barter deal between he and my husband blah blah blah...so they can't come til spring to fix it because they have to drain the whole thing etc.  So for the rest of the winter, we have to deal with it, which means making sure the heater runs every so often so the pipes in the attic and in the downstairs don't freeze.  Which kind of defeats the purpose of using the wood stoves to save on heating fuel, which is unbelievably expensive this year and which we are running low on.  Frustrating. 

On a more interesting note (I hope) I added a new painting to my website.  It's something I worked on while I was layed up with a herniated disk in my neck.  It was so painful for the first few weeks I couldn't do much of anything, so while lying in bed I got ahold of a small canvas and started working on it.  I was sort of playing around with underpainting, using a technique someone posted on the EBSQ boards (via Wetcanvas) using a charcoal sketch for the base of the underpainting..which I had never tried before.  A little different for me, reminiscent of the charcoal work I did in high school except for the color lol, but I kind of like it.  It's one of my "feng shui" paintings called Love Birds, and is meant to go in the relationship sector to bring good luck in relationships present or future. 

Oh, and I got the shot for the herniated disk (scary stuff) and am doing lots better.  Yay! 

current mood: calm

I just moved my computer desk in front of a set of double windows and aside from having a great view of the woods in our back yard, and so much more light than when the computer was facing a wall in a dark corner, there are all these icicles to look at hanging outside the window.  I swear there is one almost 4 feet long...you know, the kind you dream of being able to reach when you are a kid.  Assuming you grew up where they have winter and icicles, that is.  We just put in a new heating system which is in the attic, and I think alot of our heat is now escaping through the roof so we are probably going to have to insulate it...we've never had this many icicles before.  But aside from that, they're really pretty...and my daughter has all the icicles she could ever want to eat lol.  Just thought I'd share. 

PS-Happy Birthday, Maryanne!! 

current mood: silly