Prelim Boba entry for Spoonflower

I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and work on this but I have been working on it for a couple of days...just an hour here or there tho. It will be my entry for the Spoonflower/Boba carrier contest.

Boba makes these great baby carriers and they are working in tandem with Spoonflower to come up with a center panel for it, using someone's winning design.

The rules are that the fabric design needs to appeal to both children and parents alike. That's a hard one. Especially since it feels like Boba appeals to a certain sensibility. Hip and socially/environmentally conscious. So I'm not sure if I've hit upon the right design. Here it is below. Ignore the white strip, it's a placeholder where the cross-strap is sewn across the back. Also ignore the 3 little white lines, that will be gone. I'll be adding things over the weekend so it's not really finished but it is finished enough to show where I'm going with this.



My feeling is parents will be able to point out animals all over the panel. My kids loved looking for things and mimicking the animal. I hope to put enough animals on it to make it fun.

Oh, btw, the print is very small at the moment. I'm working small since my pc doesn't like me to work large. The best thing about vector work is I can resize without any loss of quality so enlarging it once I'm done will be pretty easy.

Spoonflower Steampunk designs - so many choices!

Well, I have at least 3 different designs for the Steampunk design contest at Spoonflower. One I tossed right away, too detailed and didn't repeat very well because it's somewhat unbalanced for a repeat.



The second one is a gears and clock design that I think works well with the theme but it's also not as creative as I'd like it to be.



The third one is a portion of the first design. I removed the tethered birds, gave it a plain black background (and I have at least 4 different background versions) so the repeat is cleaner. But it's probably too specific for fabric. Better for a card or t-shirt design on the chest like the first one I did.



I'm leaning towards the gears version since I think that is much more usable as fabric. I have a few hours tonight to decide. I hate when I have multiple designs to choose from!

Recap of this week - sigh - so many things!

Sometimes it's really good when you've written a post and something happens and it disappears. It's my version of the powers that be telling you to let it go. So it's gone. Whew.

A lite version of my week recap:
1. Septoplasty results are still ever-changing. Monday I could breathe, Tue go forward I'm all stuffed up and my voice is not back yet. I am still having drainage down the back of my throat so I sound like I've been very sick with some kind of throat eating - she's got no uvula left - disease.

2. I went back to work on Tuesday after 2 weeks off due to the surgery. My work is crazy. They are insisting I MUST take family-leave even tho I do not qualify. What's more they are telling me every employee that takes leave is marked with FML when they go out for more than 1 week. This flies in the face of what is posted on the federal government site and on the state site.

3. My birthday came and went. Unremarkable, except that I got my splints out. Sigh.

4. My daughter was in an auto accident on Friday night - T-boned. She got a very slight neck sprain. Otherwise she is fine. The car she was riding in is smashed up.

5. Tues. she gets bit by a dog right above her cheek but below her eye. No stitches but she had to fill out paperwork about the incident. She knows the dog (since it was a puppy and now it's about 2 or 3). It's a Doxie. She went to kiss it and it bit her. This dog bit one of it's owners a week before, that wound required 4 stitches and was above the owners eye.

The owners are a little upset that because the daughter filled out the paperwork it's causing problems for the family. The dog is to be quarantined for 10 days and animal control is now involved. So far they haven't talked to me about the "causing problems" for them because for as much as I love them it's not her fault the dog took a bite out of 2 people in one week. It's not her fault she is required by law to fill out the paperwork. And it's not her fault they can't control their dog or take steps to minimize the havoc the dog has shown it can cause. And it's perfectly within my control and right to talk to their insurance company BUT I won't. Even tho the daughter will have a scar on her face. So the trouble isn't because of us or my daughter, it's their own negligence or ignorance about how dogs are treated by the law. I wasn't upset with them until I heard they were slightly upset at the daughter. Now I'm a little miffed and am waiting for one of them to say one word to me about it.

6. It's a 3 day weekend this weekend and I am glad. I want to mow the grass/weed in the front on Monday. But I need a lawn mower as ours is broken.

XO with Love to you from me

Yay, it's my birthday! And 2 weeks since I had my surgery to fix my darned septum. And the day I get the torturous splints out of my nose! The ENT doc says everything will be much better once the splints are removed. I know I'll be sighing a big sigh of relief once they come out. Who'd think that after breaking my nose last May I'd be giving myself a birthday present like getting splints out of ones nose is a gift? Who does that?

Yesterday I posted my 2 very blah Spoonflower Love contest entries. They were rather boring don't you think? The image below is the one I came up with yesterday after playing with a rose fill. I wanted something vibrant and something that symbolizes love and hearts just wasn't working for me. I wanted something highly graphic, and something fun. Here it is below:



It's called "XO with Love". The fill is roses. I loved the idea of a mandala within each hug and kiss and what better mandala than one made of the floral symbol for love? Mandalas signify a circle; completeness, unity, purity. The eXes and O's are a written form of our display of love and affection for one another. That they are on a black background shows how love springs from nothing into full-fledged bloom.

Bwhahahaha, not like anyone voting will be looking at all that underlying meaning but it is important to me.

So for my birthday I wish you all hugs, kisses and lots of love! xo

Teaser for the Love contest at Spoonflower

I have this design for the next contest and I really, really didn't like it. I was settling tho because I just wasn't inspired. Here it is:



It's rather pedestrian isn't it? I just wasn't feeling the Love. LOL, Love is the theme for this Spoonflower contest. Then I came up with this one:



mmmm, I didn't like that one either. Too, ummmm, cliche or something.

I started playing with some photos of roses because I wanted a flower fill to use for something. Maybe making a vector rose with roses as a fill? Nah, it looked terrible.

But tonight I came up with something. Yahoooo. I actually love it. :-) And nope, you can't see it tonight even tho I've uploaded it to my Spoonflower account. You'll just have to wait til tomorrow. hahahaha, I love a good teaser, even if I'm the only one who reads my blog!

Rainy thoughts

You know it's been raining cats and dogs here. We've had a lot of rain this season, it's great sorta/kinda. We always need it, although when we have lots of growth because of the rain, it means we'll have a big issue in the event of fire in the summer.

A couple of things due to rain:
1. The just-turned-18 year old daughter went to Disneyland yesterday. It's in another county so it's a drive. I hate when my kids drive around in bad weather, but they got there and returned ok so I was good once she called and said she was back in town.

Around 11 p.m. she called and said she'd been in a wreck. She was ok but her friends car was smashed. The other driver (a junior in high school) ran the light because when she put on the brakes the car kept going...into the intersection where it T-boned the car my daughter was in.

The roads in California get very slick when it rains. The oil on the pavement comes up to the top and becomes a very slick surface, you just glide on top of the road.

We drove over there, everyone was ok, all 6 kids (3 in each car). The daughter went to the ER, she complained of soreness. She's got a very slight neck sprain and she is a little sore. But she's good. I finally went to bed at 2:30 a.m.

2. This morning I put the puppy outside. Ok, he's 2 years old but he's still in that puppy stage. Anyway, he has to be on a lead cuz he's a runner. Not only is he a runner but he CLIMBS the fence. Yes, climbs it.

Because it was raining the lead is hooked to the carport. I want him to have somewhere dry to hang out if he's out there for more than a few mins. I put him out, I went to make coffee.

I went out to feed him as I walked out the door I saw him perched, yes perched on top of the fence - butt totally up in the air. I called to him and he jumped into the next yard. Dangerous yes. He's on a lead and he could strangle himself. It was pouring rain.

Well, it wasn't freezing out there so he was just going to have to stay out there til the rain slowed down. It did about 10 mins later and I went and retrieved him. Good thing the house next door is empty. But I was not happy with him. It didn't help that as I came up the driveway my head brushed against a tree branch and a bunch of water dumped on my head. I didn't talk to him for an hour. Not that he noticed, ya know.

3. Because of the rain and because I don't want to go out in it, I've been indoors for days. Hahaha, I'm always indoors. I love being at my house, inside my house more than going pretty much anywhere. I swear I must have some sort of form of Agoraphobia. Anyway, I've finally made a graphic that reflects the next fabric contest. I'm not terribly fond of it but it'll do. It's almost what I want but not. grrrr. This one frustrated me.

I go back to work on Tues. I am not looking forward to that. It's supposed to rain next week and really, I just want to win the lottery (I should actually break down and BUY a ticket or two) and stay home: live a life of leisure. Please?

My Dusty Floral Dark fabric

Yay, fun news! COLOURlovers.com featured Spoonflower in their blog yesterday. One of my fabrics is shown in their blog as an example of what you can see while visiting Spoonflower. Scroll down about 1/3 of the way down and check out my design. It's the first one in the set under Spoonflower.

COLOURlovers is a big enough site that it can have thousands of people logged on, see this note from this morning: "1,088 Active Lovers [Record: 2,316 on 5 March, 2009]"

There are thousands of fabric designs on Spoonflower - that someone found one of mine and loved the colors and design enough to use it in the blog post at COLOURlovers is way exciting. Below you can see the design (you'll have to go see the repeat in either the COLOURlovers link abvoe or here at my Spoonflower account.



I've worked on my Spoonflower Steampunk design for the past 2 days. I love the design, it's been great fun to do. It probably is better suited for a greeting card but unless I can come up with something cuter, it's what I'll enter. For sure I'll put it up on RedBubble, where I only have 2 things at the moment but will start uploading soon.

BTW, I just found the Spoonflower post that shows I placed 9th with my "Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My" fabric entry for the Children's Design contest. Out of 129 designs - that's not bad. It's not as high as I'd like to place (I am sooo competitive), but I will so take it. Maybe one day I'll hit upon the exact right combo of looseness and cuteness to up my game there. So far I've gotten 2nd, 20th and 9th (I think I might have gotten 10th on something, or I might be imagining that because I just can't exactly remember). I can say the more often my designs come up on peoples screens (no matter where I placed in a contest) the higher the percentages of sales and exposure. I'm so good with that!

It's Tuesday right?

Ugh, I got a text at 6 a.m. this morning. Asking how I felt and that they were thinking of me.

Every effective to get me to think about them and to ponder how I am...I'm awake now, that's how I am.

It hasn't been a problem for me to sleep in the morning now that most of the pain is gone and now it's all discomfort. It's actually easier for me to breathe if I lay down. All the snot (and yes, there is STILL snot) moves to the side so the nasal passages are a bit open. But once I get up, it's a sniffing snot and plugging up snot game.

Being off this week and feeling a bit better I needed something to do (well, not really DO, but something that passed the time). So I hooked up the tv I won at the television show taping. I want it on the tv stand but since there is a GIANT tv on the stand I couldn't put it there. (that giant tv has some kind of problem since it won't turn on). I asked the hub to move it but he said, "not tonight".

So it's sitting on top of a speaker, good thing it has a small base instead of the entire bottom of the tv being a base...cuz it actually fits there. Helps that it's a small tv.

I haven't watched tv in about 2 years. I mean not regularly. I will watch Glee but that's about it. I hate watching tv in the bedroom, the hub has control of that and I can't stand all the channel flipping and volume up and down he does. So tv hasn't been an option for me in a long time. Plus, like books, we have totally different tastes in tv watching so I don't bother.

Last night I watched about 2 hours of tv. 20 mins of Rachel Maddow, 30 mins of MSNBC something or other and I watched most of the Late Show. It wasn't all that exciting to sit around watching the tube. But at least I have it as an option for this week. My nose, where my glasses sit is killing me so I couldn't read and I was tired of playing on the computer.

I do love one show that I haven't seen in years. That is some craft show in HGTV. Since I was up early this morning I watched it and did enjoy that a lot. I do have to say it's weird having noise in a room that has been silent for a couple of years. It does intrude upon my need for silence.

That is another thing that is different about me and the rest of the family. My need for silence and their love of sound. All 3 of them have noise all the time: music or tv. Not me, it makes me crazy, all that noise.

I'm off to try and make a latte. I have no espresso beans ground at the right grind so it sorta tastes like warm milk.

one week later

I'm not sure if I have a doc appt or not. I have one card that says I do, at 3:00 today. But I have other paperwork that says I'm supposed to go on the 8th...but there is no time on the paper. Both say they are post-op appointments.

It's probably too much to ask that the splint comes out today. btw, I called and they have to call me back because the nurse is busy.

Every night I have something to drink on the table next to me. I am so parched from not being able to breathe thru my nose. This morning I woke, grabbed it and drank and drank and drank. I could practically HEAR my tissues getting re-hydrated. The heater was on (the hub was getting ready for work) so I was dessicated.

Another realization: I do not have very many button down shirts. I'm not supposed to wear anything that goes over the head (although I am sure I have some things that have large enough necklines that it won't be a problem. But so far I've been staying with the few button up things I have. Because I hate to iron so I stay away from button down unless it's wrinkle free material...which all seems to be summer things. All my cardigans are V-neck but too low to wear without looking like some kind of hoochie-mama. Do you know I don't have a single zip up sweatshirt? That's weird.

Everything is easing up. I am glad I didn't have to go to work today. I'm still stuffy, I still feel like I have a bad cold and just yesterday my nose started leaking slightly bloody mucus again. Lovely. I am sneezing a lot. I'm thinking now that I am getting some air in my nose I'm also getting dust in there and making me sneeze. My house is overly dusty and I definitely think I'm allergic. Maybe that's why I always get headaches? Speaking of which, I've had a low-level headache all week - it gets worse at night.

That's my one week later report.

Hmmmm, I called them at 8:50 a.m. Didn't hear from them so called them just now. My appt has been rescheduled for the 8th at 10:30. I guess they forgot to call me to tell me. Well, better than being called to say I'm late!