Blearrrgh!

^^ That is how I feel right now. I hope I get that surgery on my sinuses soon, because it is impossible for me to keep up at this rate. I've found that I will sleep nine or more hours a night, wake up sometime in the afternoon, and still be exhausted all day long. I'm dizzy, drowsy, and post nasal drip gives me stomach aches. I sit on my bed unless I have something else I have to do (like class or work) and watch tv and doze. I am of no use to anyone and I am so frustrated at having an active mind but fatigued body.

For those of you who do not know, I get a really bad sinus infection at around February every year, and this has happened since I can remember. It does not go away until maybe the end of summer, no matter what antibiotics I go on. I miss more school in my spring semesters than in fall, and do somewhat poorly in those classes. A doctor finally referred me to an ENT and I am supposed to have sinus surgery.

Why has this whole mess taken so long?
Well, honestly it's partially my fault.
I saw an ENT in Temple while I was at school in March. He ran a CT scan and realized that I had all these things wrong with my sinuses that it was ridiculous. He wanted to go ahead and schedule a pretty in-depth surgery (not just a balloon sinuplasty, but correction for a deviated septum and something involving removing bone...yeah) but one of my teachers (whom I love and is awesome) along with my parents suggested I wait until I have time to recover.
So, Mom found an ENT in Dallas and told me to send over the records...which I forgot to do. So, we had to send the release form on the day of my appointment in Dallas.
They got the report but not the CD of my CT scan. That was in May. We called back and forth a few times, and finally yesterday the ENT in Temple called me and said that they would send the release to Radiology and they would send the CT in to Dallas. They said if Dallas didn't get it in a FEW WEEKS to call them. Could they be more vague? Then we get to go back in to the ENT and evaluate the CT scan with him, schedule a surgery (which will take awhile) and only then will I achieve the happiness that is an absence of sinus congestion.
Sigh. I want this to happen NOW so I can have some energy again! I've threatened (with decreasing jocularity, mind you) to use a pipe cleaner and do the surgery myself if I could only get some relief!

What I've been doing the past week

I got a custom order to do a Link and Princess Zelda wedding cake topper out of polymer clay. I've been working with polymer clay for quite some time, but i've never taken on something quite so challenging. after about a week of work, I've finished Link. Zelda is VERY detailed so she might take a bit longer. I thought I'd share some pictures of the whole process. Link is all baked and I just have to glue on his sword and shield.



This was the first project I tackled: Making the triforce, sword, and shield. Here is a detail of the shield. Next I made wire frames for both Link and Zelda. Then I covered the frames with foil for the "muscles" of the body. I've since altered Zelda's foil placement a bit. I made everything for Link but his head. And then I made his head and baked him! After I glue his sword and shield on this is what he'll look like! Now on to Zelda!

look how beautiful this picture is

Locked in a tower for seven years for refusing to marry someone other than her love, the Maid Maleen and her servant chipped through the mortar until they could get out after their food ran out. They emerged from the tower to find the castle in ruins; the village burned to the ground. Look at the expressions on their faces. Maleen looks disoriented, but the servant seems shocked and about to cry. It's like it is just dawning on her that her family is gone, after she waited to see them for seven years for something she did not do. Absolute perfection.
Read this story (one of the Grimm brothers', I'm surprised) at Sur La Lune Fairy Tales, listed in my links!

All The Good Colors

Hahaha... so everyone on the blog voted for number two, but everyone who saw the design straight from my computer voted number one. I think that I will go with the yellow one. I've changed the font sizes to be a bit more reader-friendly. I really like how simple and fun it is, something that fits my shop a bit better, though I may change my mind and go for the other one once I see them in print.

Other news: My friend was kind enough to play model for my purses today, so I have new items to list on my etsy site! Check them all out on my flickr page.

Showcase on my newest item:

All the Good Colors Purse

This purse is made from yarn I had left over from my blanket that I made this past year (you can see a picture of it in my first entry). It is made with an allover triple crochet pattern to show off the colors and is not a mesh pattern like a lot of my other purses. I made the strap with the same yarn corded into a rope, and when it is bought I will cut it to the shoulder strap length of your choice. It should be noted that the strap stretches as things are placed in the purse.

I will only list one thing a day so I stay further up on the timeline (rather than posting all my items and having them lost under the next day's uploadings). Tomorrow I will list the Felted Vase. Also check out the new photos of Bowl of Cherries!

Business Cards

Okay, so I spent most of last night designing business cards for my etsy shop. I made five designs, and these are my two favorites. I need your help in deciding which ones to do! Obviously I got rid of my phone number on there.
So, what do you think? Number 1 or number 2?

I had THE best day.

I was up early on Sunday to drive Mom to the airport and decided to spend some quality Kate time. So, I went to one of my favorite places in the world: The Fort Worth Botannical Gardens. I have a lot of fond memories of exploring this place while my dad did a bridal or engagement portrait. I got a brand new skein of felting yarn (I'm kind of obsessed with felted purses, photos will follow), a couple peanut butter sandwiches, and my picnic blanket and explored a little before camping out at my favorite spot.

Words can hardly describe how I feel when I enter this area of the gardens. It is secluded by a grove of saplings, with overhanging branches everywhere. The day I went, when I walked through this tunnel of green, I actually took a sudden breath, not a gasp, something more solemn, more peaceful. It was like realizing a place is sacred.

I sat there crocheting to my heart's content, watching people pass by and read the plaque by the tree and making up stories about their lives and who they are, as people often inadvertently do and probably did with me that day as well, the young hippie smiling contentedly as she listened to her ipod on random and crocheted a huge pink, purple and orange bowl. One family came by, the man was American, but the wife and three children spoke a language I don't believe I've ever heard before. It did not sound oriental or germanic, I'm thinking it was middle eastern or Indian (as in India). It was one of the most beautiful languages I've ever heard. The eldest girl watched me as I crocheted, hovering behind her mother, obviously asking her questions and recieving answers in words I could not understand. I told her what I was doing, and she got the scared confused look children get when strangers talk to them, as if she were weighing wether I was safe or not.

I looked around often, stopped, and said "God, you MADE this!" I felt peace the entire time.

When I finished my purse and was sore from sitting for so long (I was at the gardens about three hours, and at least two hours of that were sitting!), I walked out into a wedding! An army man and his bride married right in front of the main fountain and their guests simply stood and watched, no chairs. A photographer in a very bad hawaiian print shirt ran about, getting nearly into their faces and blocking everyone's view for the majority of the vows.

Afterwards, I went to the Kimbell Art Museum to see the Asian exhibit on its last day in the museum. I was captivated by the screen paintings and the artists' creative use of negative space as positive space, especially noticeable in the paintings of gibbons and other monkeys. And of course I got to see some of my favorite paintings on permanent collection there, including Caravaggio's "Cardsharps."

Then, across the street to the Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art to revel in lines, contours, and amazing statements. My favorites were by Keifer, a German artist who grew up post-war, trying to resolve the nation's recovery from Nazi Germany in his own mind. His sculpture of a book with wings ("Book With Wings 2") was one I had to come back and look at again and again. If I had a photograph of it, I would stare at it constantly.

As I drove home, listening to a book on cd (which I rarely do, but my mother got me hooked on it) I was exhausted but felt so at peace and just happy. It was a very good day, I got a lot of good photographs, and I came back feeling like I had just had a nice long therapy session.