~breathing easier, however. . .

I’ve been laying more than a bit low lately.

Not posting much OR working on many projects.

The reason is that I thought I had a bad cold or~sOMething.  AnD, besides a low grade fever,   I was getting these weird waves of nausea and dizziness.  ~Pro~bab~ly nOt a good idea to run any saws, so I cleaned and organized and sewed instead.

Really early lAst Wednesday morning, I was awakened by a severe pain at the very back-bottom of my head.  A bIG lump.  A sis-in-law wondered if I might have gotten a spider bite while sleeping–?  Hmmm-o-Kaaay-?

By Thursday it was getting biGGer and spreading upward aNd towards the back of my ear.  But I thought the “spider bite” suggestion sounded reasonable, and I didn’t want to hit the panic button.

Thursday night/Friday morning—I was awakened mAny times to a searing-hot pain, AnD mOre bumps/lumps, all over the right side of my head.    I called the doctor’s office, but they couldn’t get me in until this morning.

I admit I was scared and worried–but I didn’t think “the sky was falling!” enough to run to the ER.  I’m sure you can understand it’s been a lOng number of days.  And I didn’t want to reveal much to family, because, frankly–I didn’t want some speculation taking me down any bad paths.  The UNknown and mY crAzy imagination was acting enough like “mapquest” without any extra help, if you know what I mean.

The doctor says I’m in all the early phases of  -SHINGLES-.

But I don’t have the rash~yet.  Oh. joy.

You can get this on your hEAd??

I’ve only ever heard of people getting it on their bACk.

Obviously~I’m going to be plenty busy reading up on this.  But, pLEAse~

if any of you has any info to share,

it would be great to know what to expect so I don’t freak out over any more “symptoms!”

My HeaD hURts~but not like a headache.  Even my hair hurts.  But at least now I can -cAUtiously- get back to my power tools.  I’ve got big projects to do!

And just to explain this~ If you were to put your right thumb in your right ear, and pivot your hand from the bottom of your head up to the crown of your head—thAt’s where it is.  It’s messin’ with my ear and even my neck, but now I have an explanation for the dizziness and nausea too.

You guys are always such a wealth of info, I’m hoping to learn the REAL side of this that the Dr and internet don’t really tell.

And now I will   STop whining and cARRy oN. 

Catherine

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bloggers are the BEST!

Seriously,

Thanks

for all the emails with suggestions and help!

Especially La Verne and her son Peter!

Picasa problem solved!  YaY!

Can you imagine losing over 17K pictures?

~And I had a back up!  I just have a little repair work to do.  But I am nOt complaining!

 

Once again,

I can load the pictures of the projects

I’ve been busy working on~

I can SHARE again!

Back.  Up.  Your.  Pictures.

Regularly.

I was lax in this task, and could have lost sO many pictures.

Catherine

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hElp~

For the last week or so, I’ve been experiencing wEIRd stuff on my computer, and, more particularly, Picasa.

Initially, I was able to restore the previous version, and save everything to another source.  But that LAST time I could open Picasa, mANy of my pictures were completely distorted~I was able to UN-save, make corrections, and save again.

I’ve checked for updates, and seem to have the most current–Picasa 3.

I can SEE my pictures through my Library, but can’t capture any for my blog.

And now I can’t load any pictures or open Picasa at all.

*But I CAN capture images I’ve previously loaded to WP.

I keep getting an ERRORS LOADING PICASA DATA BASE message.

So~I have these projects to share

   but I can’t.

                                ¦:  /

Anyone have suggestions-?

*besides a BIGGER glass of wine~

Catherine

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Have you taken the Quiz?

I took the STYLESCOPE quiz—

a bunch of times, truth be told!

I keep coming up~

Really–??  O-kay.

Not completely what I was thinking—but not totally off the mark!

What does it say about YOU?

Take the quiz—and tell me what yours says!

Catherine

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I’ll celebrate later—

Yesterday. . . .

I spent most of the day all loopy from stripper and stain.  Not exactly how I imagined spending a birthday. 

Loopy on Margaritas or Martinis (or have you tried the hybrid Marg-a-tini?!  Ooooh, yummy!) would have been a w-a-y better plan, but– instead,     I focused on the last project for One Month to Win It.  Again–if you guys vote me through to the last round!

–Did you figure out which bunting was mine?!  ; D

Omgosh, can’t wait to show you this last project–it’s looking pretty fab!  Would really love to keep it, but it’s for one of my mom’s guest bedrooms.  At least I can enjoy it while I’m still here.

Well, while I’m sharing–

With the swelling finally GONE!

Remember last summer I told you I sprained both ankles?

←6 months ago I was doing this—because of this. ↓   :”(

Cheers to a healthier year!

Catherine

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I hope you like my Bunting!

The 3rd week projects are up, and

I can’t wait for you to see mine!

–You guys always have me figured out!–

You can see them now and vote!

A real challenge to come up with something unique–

but once I got an idea, I had soooo much fun with it!

Catherine

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A stair-cubbie!

Well, it happened.                We now have lasting snow.  Bummer.

Time to retrieve the winter boots–

-from under the stairs.  Really!

It’s a small’ish house– certainly can’t afford to waste potential storage space!

Speaking of small-house storage solutions. . . .

I think my niece’s family is getting great use of their Christmas present!  –And her husband wants to paint the kitchen cabinets to go with it!

Catherine

**The overload of coats is because of a family get-together.

 

**The trunk is all them!

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I’m still in it!

It has been a loooong, tough week— I’ve been in bed with the flu.

“But I’m in the One Month to Win It contest and need to finish my project for the 3rd week competition –if I get voted through.“  Thankfully, it was mostly done when that nasty bug sacked me.

Thank You, again, for your votes—  I’m still in it!

Two of my little nieces have claimed this for their bedroom!  But in the pink please!         –That was predictable!

I love chandelier crystals!

–Had a lot of fun playing with the glass paint.

–Stirred up other ideas and got me playing!  Here’s a little peek at one—

think Mercury Glass!

Catherine

I’m sharing this project with these fabulous blogs!

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OMTWI round 2 is up for voting!

I hope you’ll go check it out–

And vote!

Awww, my pictures got shrunken,

and presentation altered,

–I guess I did something sending it, you know I’m no master of tech-stuff–

but I hope you can still see

how really sweet

my project came out!

Catherine

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the lingerie chest–The Doors

Demo and construction—Done.

Extra work to create curved doors—Done.

The worst behind me—Ha ha ha.

To begin–I could not find the paint I wanted, and I’m kind of ocd-organized.  Then my second choice paint began reacting “funny” on top of the primer.  Oy.  Lots of painting, sanding, painting, sanding. .. but, 1 problem down.

You guys have done some incredible transfers.  I’ve looked on with great enthusiasm—but have not yet tried it myself.

So I read a lot of tutorials on your blogs and some web sites, and emailed back and forth with Kristy for any tips or advise she might have.  I know you’ve seen her B-EAU-tiful work!

Like her chocolate labeled table  and  her newest project, this dresser!

I was feeling pretty comfortable with what and how,

so I gave my doors a very light sanding for a “tooth,” clamped them together, and positioned my image.  Of all the methods I read—  I was most interested in trying the citra solv one.

The image I selected was circular and needed to be stretched out considerably to fit my doors appropriately–and–I remembered to reverse the image!

Per the instructions, I brushed the citra-solv lightly on the back of the paper, and then burnished.  Like crazy.  But nothing was “transferring–no matter how hard or vigorously I burnished.

*Remember, I was doing this for the OMTWI contest–with a deadline–omg!         I walked away for a bit (to re-compose).     I thought -maybe- I didn’t do something right. 

So I positioned a new image, taped it down, and lightly brushed the back of the paper with more citra-solv.  Thought my arm was gonna die for how vigorous I was burnishing. NOTHING. Still. Arrrgh!

Is it the paint?  I tried to transfer the image on to clean, raw wood–nothing.  In frustration, I covered the wet image with paper towels and tried to force the transfer with a very hot iron.  And resumed burnishing–again.

The  f-a-i-n-t-i-s-t image appeared.  So faint and blotchy–looked more like dirt.

The hot iron “dried” the image, so I got out some transfer/carbon paper and tried to hand-transfer the image.  Which still wouldn’t transfer, and I was pressing super hard!

I got my opaque projector out –

• but I couldn’t prop the doors at the right height
• I couldn’t get the image to line up
• the image was “distorted” because the doors were curved
• and it was a busy image to try to draw.

—More help, p-lea-se, Kristy!

We wrote back and forth some more trying to problem solve.  I told her all of the above.  *Although this is not how she has done hers–she suggested that it could be the printer ink, or that even the paper could be making a difference.  Clearly, she has had great success, and sometimes you really need someone to commiserate with.  HUge thanks, girl!

I re-printed the image on a different printer, with different paper–and got the same outcome.

So this, which you see–is basically all freehand.

Because I was able to get the ever-so-slightest, teeniest image to transfer—it gave me the faintest “something” to follow–

and I painted the doors by hand–with the image taped up in front of me for reference.

So–again, Big Thank You to Kristy and All of You who voted for my project–and I won!

**I’m either not doing this ever again, or I’ll be doing this until I finally figure it out.  Arrrrgh.

Catherine

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