I saw this a few days ago and I think he’s really cute.

Check it out here at the Etsy DarkSide Team LJ community There are some cute photos of the little guy and while you’re there why not check out what else the community are making. There’s a cute little pink monster that’s just adorable.

Arrived yesterday. Not sure what I’m going to do with it but it’s a great colour and really supersoft. Kitty coats? A Michelin man suit for me to protect against the cold?  A range of quilted bags?  Still undecided at this point.  I will have to mull it over and keep looking at it some more.  Of course that tends to happen and then I run out of time to make anything.

Other fabric arrived yesterday.  Had to pay customs handling charges for it and wait an additional three days for delivery which made me a bit less enthusiastic about it, but the fabric is great.  I got 8 yds of fabric from fabric.com which btw has a 30% sale on now on fabrics that they only have 20yds or less of, so a great time to pick up a bargain.  Just remember the costs if you are ordering from outside the US.

I spent some frustrating hours last night working on a new purse.  The frustrating part was caused by the fact that it’s tiny and very fiddly and if I charged by the hour the purse would be unaffordable.  After breakfast I’m going up to finish it off but I’m already hating it and I have two more of the little buggers to do today.

At least I stopped to watch Come Dine With Me, Gordon Ramsay’s Christmas Cookalong (with Gok Wan pashing on with Gordy) and the IT Crowd.  Quality stuff.

Day 5 in the big blood eye house.

Ellie is turning into a vampire

Yup I can actually feel when it’s bleeding now, and it seems to bleed a little more every night.  Hmm usually after talking to Jack *wonders if there’s a connection* *eye starts twitching*

Went a bit mad last night on a fabric shop that someone from Etsy linked me to because I wanted to know what fabric she had used on something that I ended up buying.  OMG the shop had a sale and shipped internationally.  Many dollars, a seven page wishlist and some hours later, I logged out and went to bed dreaming of all the prettiness and ruby slippers.

This morning the postman delivered some parcels but still not enough (!) and also a card demanding more money for customs charges for something they haven’t/won’t deliver until I pay *sigh*  I think it’s probably my sexy topless men fabric.  I hope they didn’t open it or they may think I’m some kind of pervert.  I guess I can look forward to at least another 3-4 similar cards for all the rest of the stuff that is on its way

On the bright side, I did the rest of my Christmas shopping online this morning and it should all arrive this week.  Then it’s only a matter of me making the rest of the things I want to give people - once the supplies arrive from the four corners of the globe.  Hopefully I am not cutting it as fine as I think I might be.

Also thinking of throwing in free tablet with orders on Etsy once I get organised and make stuff to sell there.  So far it’s only book covers and mousepads.  It should be many other things which should be easier now I can see the room I’m supposed to be working in, but probably too late for Christmas orders.  Timely for January sales though!

Oh and later I will post some photos of the new improved sewing room now that I can see it lol

So my eye has been bleeding again. It seems to bleed at night when I’m sitting down doing nothing and not exerting myself, sneezing or being stressed - unless of course it’s just a delayed reaction to what I’ve been doing during the day!  I took more photos of it this morning, it’s looking more vampiric by the day and the good news is I will probably still have it at Christmas and I will be able to scare small children and repulse people while they’re eating their Christmas dinner - see everything has an upside!  I made another batch of Tablet last night but I’m not eating it, nuh huh.  I will have to hide it from my sister though lol

When I stocked up my Zazzle shop a few weeks ago (3 almost) I set myself a little test target just to see if anyone would want to buy anything that I created, and also because statistically less people know about Zazzle than Cafepress.  Well I exceeded the target I set for the month in just under three weeks, so thank you everyone who bought anything from the shop and especially to all the crazy Twilight obsessed fans who are just buying everything I have.  Thank you all!  I’m really surprised at the popularity of keychains btw, I guess they make good stocking fillers.

It might be a bit of procrastination on my part but I am still trying to reorganise my sewing/craft room workspace instead of doing any actual sewing.  I’m taking a break for lunch (even though it’s 3pm) as I just managed to dig my way out of mountains of fabric. Remind me why I think I need more fabric?  Speaking of more fabric I am fretting quite a bit that some things I ordered at least 2-3 weeks ago have still not arrived from the US, whereas a beautiful bracelet (a present and unfortunately not for me) I ordered via Etsy arrived today, also from the US.  I just hope they aren’t holding my fabric up in customs as I REALLY NEED IT and it’s very sexy.

Still also waiting for my recent ebay purchases but since some of them are from Saturday I know I’m being unreasonable.  I just want them now. (like I don’t have enough fabric lol)

Photos of the new and improved sewing room will be posted - maybe a before, during and after makeover lol.  I found stuff up there buried deep within the depths of the spare room that I forgot I even had, but also I found fabric that I bought in Glasgow last Christmas and that reminded me that the shop (Mandors) will be having another sale this Christmas so I definitely need to put that on my to-do list.  I seem to remember last year having to enlist the help of a couple of family members to carry everything I bought.  Fabric is heavy you know.

Book Group

Just a quick mention about the book group since this isn’t the book group blog!  1984 - George Orwell and Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer are the books for this month, and in the Paranormal Social Club we are reading Pleasure Unbound - Larrissa Ione.  And of course you can read whatever you want and come talk about it with us.  Virgin Suicides and Time Traveler’s Wife discussions are still going if anyone wants to jump in.  Plus also we have very sexy Rules of Book Club designs on a bunch of items on both Cafepress and Zazzle.

I’m a little depressed this morning as my eye has been bleeding more and Jack freaked me out last night with medical nightmare stories once he heard that my nose was also bleeding.  According to him I should have rushed off to the A & E at midnight last night or woke up my BIL to drive me there.  The subjunctival hematoma that I think I have was bleeding more last night which is what set off his panic attack.  I’ve never had this before but I thought that once it bled that was it, and then it would just eventually go away.  I didnt know that it would keep bleeding/bleed again.  Jack btw of course thinks it looks “cool as hell” and he wants one (or two) so he can “freak people at work out”.  Apparently there is a character in a David Gemmell book called Blood Eye who has eyes like mine and a streak of white hair (I’m still working on the hair). He also thinks I look like a vampire which is kinda cool and it does look freaky but if I wanted to pretend to be a vampire then I would have to wear a patch over the good eye since it’s not red.  I also have a bit of a headache on that side, behind the eye and temple, and went to bed last night wondering if perhaps I should get a doc to look at it just in case or whether I would wake up covered in blood (yes my mind works that way).  Causes for this include coughing and sneezing, heavy lifting, and high blood pressure.  I have all of those.  My Barry White voice bug, moving furniture around in the sewing room during the week, and my blood pressure was 146/84. The 84 is the good bit but the 146 isn’t so.  It was worse, it was over 90 so at least that’s improved.

Anyway to cheer myself up I bought stuff on ebay yesterday instead of writing my Jane Eyre essay which is due today!  I did think about asking for an extension due to bleeding eye but I can see ok so I haven’t yet.  If this headache doesn’t improve I might have to.

The first is vintage japanese kimono silk. I just loved the colours. The second is black stretch lace I bid for on a whim.  Who knows, maybe everyone will get black lace panties for Crimbo!  And the third is some blue organza mainly for making little bags - heh maybe to put the black lace knickers in!

If anyone wants to see the freaky eye, then it’s behind the cut. This was taken yesterday morning - it’s the one I posted on the forum yesterday - but it’s spread more now so I need to take more photos.
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Out of curiosity, requested an invitation to Ravelry.

You’ve been added to the invitation list!

You were added to the list on December 6, 2008 at 05:35 PM
When it is time, we’ll send your invite email to xxxxxxxxxx

There are 4969 people ahead of you in line. Your invitation should be sent in about 4 days.

Like wow, that’s a lot of people interested in a knitting and crochet site right?

* * * * *

I had some success on ebay today.  I generally don’t like to bid, I prefer to buy things that have a “buy now” price, mainly because I don’t have time to fart around with bidding and because I want it now!  However, I did place some bids last night (during the whole bleeding eye incident) to distract me from the whole bleeding eye incident, and today I was successful.  Yes I bought more fabric.  I was in a fabric frenzy so I can’t remember what I actually bought lol.  *racks brain*  Oh yes, some organza (a bugger to sew), some black stretch lace (have plans for that!) and some kimono silk.  I got pipped at the post for some tartan fabric but then I got a second chance offer from the seller so I’m mulling that over.  More kimono silk later tonight, hope I get that one as I love the colours.  Then I bought some yarn that I needed to complete some presents and now I think it’s time for tea.

Of course I should be studying today and that’s not been going very well.

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Oh and I keep meaning to post this but forgetting.  I wonder if that cat is really pissed off or just a little?

I am not amused

Looks great with the cat though, very matchy matchy.

Just a reminder that today is the final posting day for overseas mail that is “guaranteed” to get there for Christmas (of course it doesn’t mean that if you post after today that it won’t get there but it’s not guaranteed)

Consequently Zazzle has free postage offers for today and Cafepress are giving free postage on their FLIP mini camcorders.

There are also lots of sales on Etsy today and this weekend, so now’s your chance to pick up something special at a discount. Remember too you can filter your browsing results by locality which is great if you want something in a hurry - order from someone close to where you live! I’ve been buying a few things there this week and it occurred to me that if anyone came up with handmade things for teenage BOYS they would make a fortune because there isn’t anything and they are so hard to buy for. I checked the gift guides on Etsy and not only is there nothing for teenage boys, men are not really catered for either. I guess it’s a girl thing huh? Wanting to have pretty shiny handmade things lol

*goes into man bag production overdrive*

Speaking of men, I was shopping in the men’s underwear section of Tesco last night because I’ sick of freezing (I’m tempted to say “nuts off” considering what I bought) and decided to invest in some thermal underwear! I bought some men’s long johns in attractive white with handy little pouch for storing things or keeping your mobile phone handy. I may have to dye them purple or something though as I don’t like white. Next week I’m going to get the matching t-shirt, also thermal

I bought the object of my fabric lust yesterday btw. There was never any doubt that I would buy it but I’m still short on ideas what to do with it when it arrives. It is very pretty though. I keep thinking moulin rouge and corsets. I don’t know why.

Only Vampires Love You Forever design remains my top seller on Zazzle. It’s now available in four colour options and it’s selling like hotcakes. Keychains in all designs are also flying off the shelves. I also added some embroidered hats, totes and t-shirts in two new forum related designs - 100% Book Addict and Paranormal Social Club. Probably doesn’t make a lot of sense now but it’s all part of my not so cunning plan.