It's hot and steamy in Florida

I wanted to be writing blog posts about my little darling a lot earlier than I am but I've found myself stranded in the middle of Florida (many miles from Athens, Georgia) now facing being a single mom. I'm reluctant to go into details, but I am rather broken hearted; after all, I'm supposed to be enjoying my little angel who smiles the biggest smiles instead of trying to figure out how to get back on my feet with a baby, a single source of income and no home.

I've haven't had much time for crafting and designing due to my new responsibilities, but Elizabeth is finally on a sleep and eat schedule and her colic seems to have gotten less, leaving me more time to get back to CraftyAlien business. She's two days shy of being an adorable two-month old with the hairline of a guy with male pattern baldness and gas that can only bring the movie "Blazing Saddles" to mind.

Sure, I've been promising a few new things here and there - way, way back in April. All that I can promise now is that I am working on it.

And maybe some baby things too.

A shy Shroomy and a bunny in a basket

Here's a few paintings that I did recently (okay, well, a couple of months ago) and will have prints available in the CraftyAlien store as soon as I determine if my scanner survived it's unfortunate crash to the ground last week. Eeeek!

Bigger and better

I've been dying to make larger versions of my patterns and when I started converting them to crochet from felted knit, I kept on crocheting on a much larger scale. This not-so-little unfinished gnome is about 8 inches tall without his gnome hat. I'm finishing him up now and a large Shroomy as well.

Sneak peek

I've been working on some new projects over the past month or so. I've been listening to a lot of requests and started working on converting my patterns into... CROCHET! I guess that means I've actually gone backwards! Here's a sneak peek at the first pattern I'll be releasing very shortly or maybe a little delayed if I go into labor. One never knows when that will happen.

Oh, and if you think I've just done one pattern, I have another to show you tomorrow!

Counting the days...

BabyAlien is due on April 27 and most, if not all, say that she'll be early. I'm not quite prepared (who ever is, really?) mentally OR physically.


On Saturday I went to the botanical gardens at UGA and got to see all the beautiful spring blooms, but was SO disappointed to find out that I had missed the spring plant sale by ONE week. At last fall's plant sale, we were fortunate enough to find a miniature pitcher plant to add to our carnivorous garden (okay, we have a venus fly trap that is pretty hurting since it almost flowered - so snip those buds quickly because it can be too stressful on the plant and the flowers are non-spectacular) and a trumpet honeysuckle to hopefully take over our wire fence. The day was lovely, the blooms were awesome (I took about 100 pictures) and I only got tired walking back to the car which was up a rather steep hill. I hope to return in early May... perhaps there will be more goodies to photograph.

Cankles and crafty things

It's just about baby time - my due date is April 27 and most people have the opinion that I'm not going to make it to the due date. We've been working to rearrange the house and get things neat and tidy and, well, just plain organized. I've been able to return to working on Crafty Alien things full time now, with a bunch of new items for the crafty as well as craft spectators. Right now, I'm still stuck in the gnome/shroomy theme and will have a few new patterns (and hopefully kits) for needlecrafters of several different crafty implements as well as paintings, prints, accessories and papercrafts. Now that the sun has returned, I can start taking some nice natural-light photos of everything!

Keep an eye out! Unless, of course, I go into labor...

Getting ready for BabyAlien (or not, as it seems!)

Today is housework day. I have WAY too much out of place here. We moved at the beginning of last month and haven't quite gotten the kitchen organized (I still have piles of dishes in the corner and on the counters... pots and pans, food, you name it!). My studio space is a mess. 

And my hard drives need to be moved from my older Mac to my newer Mac, which arrived yesterday from an eBay auction. I have a ton of packing peanuts to recycle for CraftyAlien shipping, although I don't ship anything that's breakable (yet, you never know!). It will be nice to be back up and running, with a little more power than before (I'm not scared of you anymore, Mr. Photoshop CS3).

I finished up some Shroomy charms, except for a little bit of gluing eye pins in them. It's nice out, so I can use the not-so-nice glue to adhere them. If only my snappy little camera wasn't broken, I'd have some quick pictures but I'm stuck lugging the big SLR outside for an impromptu teeny, tiny Shroomy photo shoot. Hopefully, the cats won't try to eat the Shroomies.

AND... I know everyone is going to yell at me, but we still haven't bought anything for babyAlien's arrival. I think Chris is waiting to see which one of our friends is throwing a baby shower, but I'm thinking time is running out REALLY fast. I'm due on April 27. And we know how due dates are - sometimes you'd have better accuracy throwing a dart at a calendar.

EEK!