Thanksgiving Weekend in Pictures:

Hey guys.

I've been noting how short on pictures I am in this blog. This weekend I made a special point to take lots of pictures to documant the good times had by all. Here they are!! Nothing terribly craftey this time. Like I said, I'm WAYYYY behind on listing stuff and getting stuff done and man, I don't wanna stress right now. Without further ado, the first 'This Day In Pictures' post:


November 27: Thanksgiving
This year was my family's year to go to Cousin Mary's for Thanksgiving Dinner. We had a lovely time with Grandma Kay, Grandpa Tom, Mary, Aunt Carrie, Uncle Ed, Cousin Rachael, her husband Jaben and their kids Elianna and Dylan. The food was splendid and the crocheting after dinner was just as good. Especially thanks to Elianna's entertaining antics. She's such a drama queen! Wonder where she get's THAT from. hee hee...must run in the family. Left to right: Festive place settings, bubba crocheting a pillow, Eliana telling a story, Grandma Kay in the kitchen.

November 28: My 17th Birthday & Black Friday Shopping

Grandma Beth, Tara, Bubba, Aunt Michelle and her two boys, and I all braved the stores on Black Friday. Or as Bubba calls it, Black and Blue Friday. Kohl's wasn't so bad when we went at 10 am. Got some good deals and such. After shopping we stopped at Grandma's for Turkey Day leftovers and I made myself a little Birthday Treat...candle-lit mashed potatoes. Yummmmmyyy! Left to Right: The sales, my potatoes, and making a wish.

November 29: (Today) Babysitting & Minty Hippo

This morning I woke up bright and early to go with Tara and babysit for our cousins (Rachael's kids, Elianna and Dylan) in Rockford. It was quite a blessing to have some peace and quiet while the kids napped. Plus I was a super sneak and got this cute shot:

My friends and I like to do strange, surprising, wierd celebration-type things to each other on our birthdays. I thought I had escaped my 17th unscathed but...I was wrong. This evening, about an hour ago, I was 'Belated Birthday Kidnapped' by my friends Kera and Sammi. They showed up at my house (wearing masks) and forcably escorted me to a car. They then drove me down my road, turned around, and took me home for frozen strawberry pie. Yum. My parents were in on the whole thing, of course. Earlier today, it was dubbed: Opperation Minty Hippo. Left to Right: My pie, Kera cutting my pie, and Sammi decorating my kitchen after the kidnapping.

Whew! What a weekend! Hope you guys are less tired than I am!!!

All my love,
Carolyn Michelle.

[Edit-The pics are really poorly aligned because SOMETHING is messed up. I dunno what it is. Rawr, computers.]

My head in a tube, Turkey Day, and something splendid

Last night was my MRI and it was pretty intense. I've been in quite a mood lately. You know how sometimes you are in a really really really bad mood and you are totally aware of it? Yeah. That was me. Not pleasent. I didn't even want to be around myself. ANYWAYS. Went in for the MRI at 7 pm. Yeah pm. Kinda awkward, but oh well, right? They do the talking thing, "blah blah blah sign this blah blah.." and we go down to radiology. I lay down (blindfolded because of my claustrophobia) and the scans begin. Twenty or so minutes later, they pull me out and inject the contrast (aka dye) through my hand. OUCH. I'm so so so bruised on that hand now. Gross.

Two more scans and I was done. I walk with the nurse out to the waiting area to meet up with Bubba. Well, apparently the nurse presiding over my MRI had been on the phone chatting away about lip balm, parties, and her friends in LA. Nice. Seriously, Bubba was so incredibly mad...she chewed the nurse a new one right there in the waiting room. I had no idea what was going on since I had spent the last half hour in a tube. When I finally figured it out I was pretty heated, too. Seriously? Personal calls while you are doing somebody's freaking MRI? What's with that??

I digress.

Tomorrow is my favorite holiday of all times, Thanksgiving. Mhmmm. The food, the weather, the people. It's just all so good. Bubba and Tara have been doing fall-colored crocheting lately. Both of them are using the same yarn: Incredible by Lion Brand in yummy maroon-brown verigated. Very autumnal of those two, indeed. It puts me in the mood to cozy up on the couch with them and make lots of scarves. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a ton of time between eating and improv games with my cousins to do some serious crocheting. The shop is soooooo far behind and oh-dear-goodness it's almost Black Friday.

And my 17th birthday, at that.

Ooooooohhhhh boy.

All I can say is:

!!!!!!!!!busy!!!!!!!!!


In keeping with my title, the 'something splendid' would be going to see Twilight in about...twenty minutes. I'm pretty stoaked, actually. Lately I've been so FED UP with hearing about squealing fan-girls, Edward, vampires, Twilight and (gah) Bella. I mean, come on! I read the book when it first came out and I was obsessed then. Now...it's so overdone and popular theat any desire for me to obsess about the film is all but gone. I've heard it wasn't very good. But at this point, I don't really care. I'm getting out of the HOUSE!!!!!! YAYYYY!!!!

I've gone a bit stir-crazy over the last week.

Maybe I'll take a project or two in my purse in case the movie really blows. Hahahaha. I think I will.

Okay,
Happy Turkey Day! Gotta go.

Love you guys,
Carolyn

Funny story...

I'm not at school today thanks to an odd misunderstanding with the MRI department at the hospital. Apparently I did not have one scheduled for today although we got a call saying that I did...I don't know. Who knows?

Regardless, I'm in Rockford all day with my Bubba..chilling and trying not to be mad at her for pulling me out of school for a non-existing MRI. Seriously, I keep telling myself it wasn't her fault. hahaha, it's actually kinda funny.

There are bigger problems in life right now. My girl Shelby is in the hospital again. Poor baby, she has a liver condition that is wreaking havoc on her body. I have no clue what's going on beside what her mom, Jen has posted on their blog. I've babysat for their family since...forever, pretty much. Those girls are my sisters.

I just. Don't know. They are so strong. Please, even though you may not know her, say a quick prayer for Shelby and her family. They really need it. Really.

Okay. I'm done.

Love you Shelby.
-Carolyn Michelle

The Flu

I. Hate. Being. Sick.

It's horrid, and yes, I'm ranting.

I hate the flu. As if having the worst head cold known to mankind wasn't enought, today I got the FLU. Yay. Joy. And that meant that I didn't get to go on the Spanish III&IV field trip to an art gallery and Dos Reales. What do you expect? I was violently ill...and I'm sure you don't want to hear all about it. So yeah. I digress...

I'm getting a bit behind on listing stuff in ye-olde-llhDesign shop. Mhmhm. I need to get on top of it, really. How does one go about balancing their personal holiday preparartions with the preparations for their business? Is that one of those questions you never really get the answer to? I hope not. Anybody? Anybody? Who has the magical answer?

Oh wait...it's time travel, isn't it? hahaha, shoulda known...

The joys of growing up. Hope you all stay SUPER SUPER healthy. Go take vitamin c. Right now. Do it.

All my love,
Carolyn

The finished hoodie

So, since I was feeling miserably sick and pathetic today, I stayed home....and finished the hoodie I've been working on for about forever and a half. It's DIVINE, my friends, divine. All done up in double crochet with 'Sky' 'homespun' yarn by Lion Brand and caron 'naturals' in lavender for the cutsey scalloped edging. Sooo soft, sooo warm. I just kind of made the pattern up as I went...not thinking to write it down. Can you say, duh?! What a foolish move. Regardless, this hoodie is epic-tastic. The pics really don't do it justice because my camera is crap and I am not allowed to use the oober nice one because I'm "sick." Uh-huh. Sure. I just think Tara doesn't wanna share. :P

Being sick is worthless. My nose feels like it's gonna 'splode off my face any second now. uggggggg. I'll be going to school tomorrow, though. I can't afford to miss Art III. We're doing our annual self-portraits in oils this year. If you get behind on the portrait you are SOL for the rest of the year. Seriously.

Shipped off the cuttlefish yesterday, can't wait for the lucky customer to get it!!!

Hope you guys don't get anything like I've got. *sneeze* It's not worth it.

Love,

CM

FIRST SALE!!!!!!

It happened, it finally happened!!!

It is official, dear readers: the Luck, Love, and Hedgehogs Design shop has made it's first sale ever.

Today (during school, slightly undercover, in my Consumer Economics class) I listed Paypal as a payment option for the shop. Later in the evening, while I was working on my oil painting after school, Bubba calls me:

"You sold something."

HORRAY!!! Let everybody rejoice. Haha.

The beige crocheted cuttlefish plushie is going to be shipped off to his new home. Yay!

In other news, I have a cold. But that is inconsequential compared to the joy of making my first sale.

I'm on my way to Etsy stardom!!

...Or at least mild non-anonymity, anyways.

Tell all your friends and family about the Luck, Love, and Hedgehogs Design shop!!!

Hope this weekend is restful and enjoyable for you,

Yours,
Carolyn Michelle

I Love:

Stitcher Scribbler

Masquerade.

Zakka Sewing

Roman Sock

Little Odd Forest (and hedgehogs in general)

Gleeful Things

The Needlings

Sewing Stars

LoveAndASandwich

I also love free online classified ads. For all of you who have online shops, I suggest you go post a classified or two on Walmart.com's free classifieds. It was super easy and (ta-da) I got to post pics with the listing. Same with the Myspace.com Classifieds. Hopefully this mild publicity will result in a first sale?? It's been so long since I started my shop...

Inspiration, glorious inspiration. I'm off to stitch myself silly.

All my love,

Carolyn Michelle

A story about my head, and MORE new items...

Last time I updated, I neglected to mention a slightly strange story about my head:

Monday I woke up with an odd, pounding sensation in my cranial region. I get frequent migraines, but this was quite different. Almost like I'd been bashed over the head, which I hadn't (to my knowledge). Hmm. Took some generic Advil, went to school. Pain and suffering. Complained a little to Bubba. More aspirin, went to bed. Tuesday...woke up, the pain was STILL THERE. Greeeeaaat. More pain killers and off to school. It was atrocious. Whenever I laughed, spoke loudly, turned my head, sat up, or yawned I got a ridiculous painful sensation in the right side of my head. That evening my dear friend Sammi drove me into Rockford and I went to Physician's Immediate Care. Fun fun. They gave me an injection for the pain (which, at that point, was very mild) and a prescription for ketorolac, aka toradol (aka tortellini, if you are me). Major pain killer. I picked up my prescription and went off to lalalaland. Wednesday came and went. School was out for the week, so I just chilled at home. Blah blah blah...the pain in my head continued through today, and now the toradol has stopped dulling the pain. My head doesn't hurt SUPER bad...it's just annoying. We'll see. I have a consultation with the pediatric neurologist coming up as well an MRI. Joy, joy.

In other news:

The two items I finished last night will be posted tonight...if all goes well. In addition to those new spiffies, we have a debute designer contributing her first work to the LLH Design shop! Give it up for Tara Lea! She is a well-versed fiber artist specializing in thread-crochet (ie- doily making) as well as a budding photographer. And, for the record, she's my sister. :D

Check out her first piece in the Luck, Love, and Hedgehogs Design shop later this evening!

Another wearable has been finished by yours truely, but that piece won't be listed until later tomorrow. Lil Miss Photographer needs to take some pics of it before I can list it.

Go look at the goodies!!!

All my love,
Carolyn Michelle

A few good days

It's quite nice to have time off from school, especially after such a huge massive controvesial event in history. It's probably for the best that I don't really have to be around all my peers who will no doubt be beside themselves with giddy joy about the president elect. It's just comforting to have a few days to gather my thoughts, relax, craft, and prepare myself for Monday. I'm not going to be bitter about the whole thing and this is not going to turn into a huge rant on woulda-coulda-shoulda politics. I'm just saying, I'm thankful for the "me time." Ignorance is bliss, however temporary it may be...

Today was very nice.

I wore one of my favorite outfits as a bit of a moral booster and spent the majority of the day perusing crafty blogs on the good old Internet. I also picked up the Lion Brand Homespun I needed to finish off the hoodie I'm crocheting. Hobby Lobby had some spectacular bamboo-blend yarn on sale so, what the heck? I got two lil skeins, justifying it as "edging for the hoodie." Ohhhh it's so lush.

Two new items have been finished since last night (I'm in hyper drive): A new plushie and a new wearable. Hopefully Miss Tara Lea can take some spiffy snapshots of them tonight and I'll get them listed by mid-day tomorrow. Hopefully. There's a few things I kinda have neglected to do...homework...dishes...make my bed...

Oh the joys of being a high schooler.

Hope you guys are all have splendid evenings!

Happy early Friday,
Carolyn Michelle

Welcome Back, LLH!

Yes, the shop died a little there for a while. It makes me incredibly sad to think about how dead it really was. But, but, but, BUT the high school play is done and I have a few goodies I've been neglecting to update, list, fix, tweak, make prettyful etc. That's my plan for the FIVE DAY WEEKEND (be jealous, go ahead), to update the Luck, Love, and Hedgehogs Design shop. It's going to be epic. Yes, epic.





In other news- I've been getting lots of requests around school for a certain hat. I made this puppy a while ago and it seems like just about everybody thinks it's the bee's knees:

Once I get all caught up on the requests from school, perhaps I'll make up a couple spiffy lil newsboy hats for the shop. Who knows?! I have so much time on my hands now...

Don't forget to check the shop for the spiff-tacular updates!

luckloveandhedgehogs.etsy.com

Thanks guys, hope to hear from you soon!

Yours,

Carolyn Michelle