MIA, stomach bug, and an elimination

oooo I've kind of been around, but not really.  Seems my time online has been limited.  Husband has been having company over a lot and then my Grandmother fell ill, not to mention I've been picking up overtime shifts (which really I don't usually do). NOW I finally have some time off work.. and maybe its a blessing in disguise but I've got a stomach bug.

Anyway I really need to get on my feet with life anyway.  I'm backing out of comps anyway... I need to work on my body.  I'm climbing up in weight.  Need to get my house in order, I'm trying to find a new job that doesn't have my body's clock completely out of whack.  I still really wanna host canvas C2, but it's going to take a while to get my bearings straight.  Want to be prepared so once I do start it it'll be smooth sailing.

I'd post comp pics, but I haven't really done any I've been proud of lately.  I liked my pic for inspiration except for the posing.  I worked hours and hours trying to find something... I just ended up giving up when my main model had something decent.  It ended up being my first ever elimination.  I've always either made it to the finale, the comp was cancelled, or like.. once or twice I dropped.  I guess I could post that then, since it's kinda special in an odd way lol:

But it was a deserved elimination.  I was up against some hard core talent and I can't wait to see what the rest have in store for us <3

Anyway going to attempt to work on SNTM, but if I feel any sicker I'm going to throw in the towel, take some phenergan and forget the next 9 hours because that stuff knocks me out cold lol.

LOVE MY CAMERA!!!!!

Sooo I loved my old camera, but it started having some probs like it would say the batteries were dead when they weren't.  I hated to replace it, because it was a gift from Mom, and still just a wonderful camera when the batteries would function, but I decided it was time to get a new one since I wanna start working on the Etsy more.  Sooo I told my hubby to do his research thing, and told him I wanted it to be easy to use and small, but decent.
This is what I ended up with:

 And it's marvelous!  Remember I couldn't get pics of my earrings?  Check these pics out:

It's a little dark, but it's not blurry at all and shows so much detail!

And if you thought that was a major improvement, look at this one:

Those were both done with the camera just on the automatic setting. :D :D  I don't know much about photography at all, but I'm kind of in love with the second pic even though the earring isn't quite positioned right xD   Yay Etsy here we come!




Edit:
Took some more, getting more used to the camera:

Blair told me I needed to update...(featuring some Generations picspam)

xD  Sorry kids, I haven't posted in a while.  Just figured no one wanted to see my picspam.   Not much else to talk about really.  Got some furniture, moved the house around.  I guess I could show my spiffy new office.  Luckily it's no longer in the Ninja Turtle green room.

Yay for having a geek hubby who saw my need and suggested dual monitors... and the fact that I would rather have a huge computer monitor for our one year anniversary than jewelry xD.  Yes we are meant to be. To the left you will see our bookcases featuring old nursing school books and Brads old RBG books xD.  TO the right you will see my shelves loaded full of beads.  This is where all the simming/beading action is happening xD.

What else can I bore you with?  My comps seem to be winding down and some are either over or were cancelled or whatever.. I won't last much longer in Masquerade, so I've actually been able to play just for the fun of it.  I'll admit, I think Generations makes that fun again.  It also makes playing different age groups tolerable to play.... which was a problem I had with the game before.  Here's some picspam from the family I've been playing:

This hottie here is Sun's sim Aedan which you can find in her studio, however I've kinda spiffed up his coloring and gave him some of the hair I actually liked from Generations.  His name is Aedan.

This is Toni, Aedan's wife.  I've decided this round I'm going to do things in game I don't normally do... break from the usual.  So she is a sculptor.  It's been pretty fun and if I keep at it she can make some killer moolah.  It also helps to hold on to the pieces a lil bit and let them appreciate before selling.

This is their first daughter Audrey.  I had a blast with her as a teen.  She got to go to prom, and even though it was a rabbithole kind of thing, I kept getting popups of things that were happening.  She got a new boyfriend, she actually made prom queen, and then asked to dance with her crush and was rejected.  When she came home she had a pretty nifty looking picture from prom in her inventory along with a crown:

That little gross looking thing was a little favor she brought back from a field trip to the restaurant.... yeah it looks like rotting food.  Idk what that's about, but isn't the prom pic awesome?

Also, check out these nifty little things that pop up when you're telling ghost stories.... not to mention the cool flashlight:

This lovely teen is Charlotte, the second born in this family and I just ADORE her.  She's so unique looking and already has kind of a personality.  She was my first teen with mood swings and tormented the household constantly with pranks, even though she had the "good" trait:

Graduation pic of Charlotte:

Audrey in labor:

(yah that was an eventful day)

Oh, almost forgot to introduce you to their younger brother Brian:

Yes, the pillow fighting facial expressions are hilarious.


Okay, sorry if you are tired of the picspam, but Kelle made me a special simmeh for Charlotte to make babeh's with, and here he is.... his name is Benjamin, and they are awesome together:

I'm not going to write a story or anything with them, but I really like them :D  Esp since they have genetics from two close friends' sims!!  Soo this family's gonna be pretty special to me!

I am a bead hoarder.

Warning:  Major Pic Spammage

Finally got a chance to do some more beading.  I apologize for the poor picture quality.  Was too lazy to dig out the camera so I used my phone.  Besides the phone can upload directly to photobucket which is major awesome.

Anyway this is what I've done tonight:

This necklace is one I had already made but it was too random and therefore laid funny, so I fixed it.  Not amazing but a little better:

Next on the list was the steampunk one I had bought findings for forever ago, and just couldn't figure out how to put it all together.

Some of the parts:

The necklace:

Yeah I know, it's rather weird but idk with just the right outfit it could be pretty nifty.

Anyway next I wanted something a little softer, so I went with some pastel pink and uuhh aqua? green? something...

I also made a set.... A rainbow mother of pearl set.  <3
I'm not like in love with the pendant, but I had already restrung it like twice due to technical difficulties and I do plan on actually making more of these.. whether rainbow or just two alternating colors:

And thats as far as I got, but here is some randomness:

I absolutely love this thing, and maybe one of these days if I have enough to sell at like a festival or maybe a flea market it can totally be used as a display.  Wish i'd gotten more lol.  It's like a coat hanger for jewelry.

I was going to post pics of all my beads int he containers that I had posted in chat, but realizing the pics didnt turn out so great and Kelle wanted me to label the beads but im too lazy at the moment.  Also not sure I'd ever have time to make what people suggested. lol.  But it was pretty uh.. almost disturbing how many I had lol.  Aannyyway hope you enjoyed and sorry for the massive amount of picspam.  Really though if I continue I might open up the etsy before too long.  Make some of this money back!

House plans

Coming to a decision today.  Hubby and I have been looking at some houses for sale, and one thing that we both have kind of realized is that we need to put a lot of work into this one.  Honestly I'm realizing I'm on here way too much anyway and I just need to start focusing on keeping up my home and my body.  We're either going to buy a new house and will need to clean this one up or we will stay here a while longer which will also involve us making an attempt to rearrange things in order not to feel so.. cramped.  (I am also sorta begining to think about starting a family.)  Why am I saying this?  Like I said I really need to cut back on my time here.  I'm not dropping anything, but I think I'm going to finish my assignments for this issue of Sensation and then resign.  I'll finish my comps, and I will still start Canvas, but other than what I'm finishing out, I'm only going to be a contestant in one comp at a time so I can focus on other things.  (My home, beading, my husband, and maybe getting fit.)  I love you guys to death, so just wanted to say don't take it personally if I'm not around *quite* as much.

The Economy....

Summed up in one picture I took at Kroger's:

I didn't even notice the lottery bit till I got home and looked at it.  xD

For Rusty Venture

Maybe it's the wine making me feel a bit sappy at the moment, but I just felt like I wanted to make a blog post dedicated to my dog.  Was going to say it's been a hard week, but honestly it's been a hard year.  My husband lost his grandmother, my mom and I lost a friend to murder, his grandfather was hospitalized, my grandfather was hospitalized and now my grandmother.  I'm probably missing something, but I can't seem to keep track anymore.

However there seems to be a constant for me and my husband that makes us smile and gives us warm fuzzies.  When we get home, this fuzzy little critter is on the back top of the couch in the window, waiting for us, and is always ever so happy to lick our hands... is incredibly stange and sometimes gross way of showing affection.  Ever grateful for as simple of a thing as a walk in a park, his happy little butt wiggles with excitement at any thing.  He loves people, and is just the cutest thing on the face of the earth.  So anyway, here is some picspam of the great Rusty Venture:

Donations

There are a lot of horrible things going on.. lots of tragedy and disaster.  Australia, New Zealand, Japan etc have all had absolute terror lately and they're in my thoughts as I'm sure they are yours.  Just wanted to spread the word/link around to the red cross donation page in case anyone is interested.  The American page is here.  I know you can allso text... I think redcross to 90999 to donate $10.

Relocation possibility

There is a small possibility that the hubby and I may be moving to NC toward the end of this year.  I'm really trying to get my hopes up, and I know I'm assuming that this is just going to be a fix-all to all of my problems.  (Really though I have my reasons..)

First of all I know someone who has worked in a hospital in the area and they did three 12 hour shifts there.  I've been wanting that for like.. ever.  Four days off a week?  Sign me up!  Also looking around at real estate it seems we might more bang for our buck there as much.  Why?  Despite the fact that no one wants to live here necessarily, decent flat land is hard to come by in these parts.  There just doesn't seem to be much for sale here in our price range anyway.

I'm also excited about living in a city or near one anyway.  It would be something totally new for me to actually be in a place with *gasp* public transportation and such things like that.  And exploring google maps street view has us loving the place as well.   As soon as I get some time off of work we're going to take a drive down there and check it out :D

Anyway, sorry about the RL stuffs.. just WAY excited.  It's not a definite, and maybe it's not going to be as cool as I think if it is, but I'm kind of feeling like if we get settled there and have a house with room for a nursery lol I might be more inclined to start a family *gasp!*