Barghest1031

This is the part where I confess I've never actually seen Les Miserables. (Nor is it remotely on my list.)

This is the part where we move on to the important stuff.

Back in December I started developing an excruciating burning pain in my right arm. I thought maybe it was just my tendonitis flaring in an odd way or muscles being tired due to the holiday push, so I ignored it until it got so bad that I was barely able to lift my arm. The doctor I was sent to at first diagnosed it as tendonitis, which completely ignored my telling him repeatedly that this didn't hurt like anything I'd ever felt before, and the pain seemed to be radiating from my shoulder. I spent my winter holiday dealing with an arm brace that was so poorly fitted I gave up and ripped it off one night after waking up sobbing because it was cutting circulation to my thumb off. The pain faded, I thought maybe the rest had just help, went back on full duty at work. Within less than a week the aching had started again. This time the doctor finally said it was probably something in my shoulder, but he didn't think it was a tear since I still had some strength. 4-5 months of therapy and 2 cortisone shots later with no improvement, L&I scheduled an appointment for me next week in Seattle. I'm hoping this is finally for an MRI, 'cause I'm getting quite tired of having no idea what's going on with my shoulder. (The pain is bouncing between intermittent, and occasionally settling in for several days if I do anything "strenuous". . .strenuous in this case can mean even flipping through the clothes rack at Goodwill.)

That being out of the way, I've been trying to focus on projects that don't require my arm to be as top form. A lot of my costume stuff has lagged; thankfully my boyfriend has picked it up and has been working on a lot of stuff for me. (Though I am still waiting for the Merida dress that was supposed to be finished in February to get sewn lol.)

First up on the project list was getting some of the groundwork done for the business I'd like to open. I've gotten all the pics of the current stuff I'm selling up, though I'm still going through and updating prices. The boyfriend is going to talk to some artists he knows about the logo since I can't draw at all, and he can't draw what it is we want. Right now the money I make from selling stuff is going to the purchase of a drivable car. Mine died last year, and since the boyfriend is likely to have work again in a couple of months it's become even more imperative that we not have to rely on just one (ie - his) car. I've already made roughly $270 more from selling stuff, so a HUGE thanks to everybody who has bought things. I'm hoping I'll be able to increase the handmade nerd crafts within the next month or so once money settles down.

To signal boost and buy stuff, here's my Facebook page for my shop (I do not sell on etsy at the moment as most of my stuff is consignment type things right now): Boneyard Scraps


My second project is a far longer term dream that myself, a friend, and my boyfriend have. (And I fully admit it is largely me driving said dream. lmao) For as long as I can remember I've been obsessed with horses. Last year I was finally able to get involved with jousting and medieval games with them (only as a squire for now, so just taking care of the horses and helping with weapons and armor). This has moved me one step closer towards my dream of a largely self sustaining farm that specializes in jousting and medieval game lessons. (We'd also like to be able to bring our horses to ren fairs and other events for people to ride.  .that part of the business we were going to call All the King's Horses.) I've even found a place I'm HIGHLY interested in, as it's almost 2 acres and has a detached work shop which would be awesome not only for building our own equipment and fences and what not, but would also be incredibly helpful for my boyfriend's costume work. The problem is that I don't know that I qualify for purchase on my own. (Boyfriend, friend, and I can all afford mortgage and basic utilities together, but I don't know that friend realizes how serious I am about wanting to look at buying this place yet.)

I see a lot of other people managing to get monetary help for their dreams via GoFundMe, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I know I've got the goal set high, but that's more to cover my butt with expenses I'm sure I'm not factoring in yet. And I'd only need $30,000 down on the house and land. (From there we'd be looking into grants for green energy set up plus farm grants.) So, you know, I'm doing something I hate doing. I'm asking people for help. Signal boost, buy my stuff, donate even a dollar. . . .everything helps. You'll have the added bonus of being able to tell people you supported honey badger farms Once we get the logo for that designed, we're also hoping to be able to sell it on some products here and there. (I mean, how many people get a heraldic honey badger? lol)
Mellivora Farms

I've got some pictures that I feel like I should upload. . .but I really haven't been feeling like sitting down and sorting through stuff lately. Haven't even gotten much costume work done for the past month or so, though that's largely because I've been stupid busy on weekends and working night shift during the week. For some reason I've also been on a "SELL ALL THE THINGS" binge lately with my stuff. Managed to sell off one lot of my Star Wars stuff I didn't want anymore plus a custom Sith mask I decided I didn't want to use after all. Had a yard sale with a friend last weekend and am continuing it this weekend (and probably random weekends until it's either all gone or picked over enough we feel like resorting to other means). Pulled some more Star Wars stuff to sell, but I keep wishing I had the rest of my stuff from TN out here because there's a lot there I'd like to get rid of, too. Got the Sage fly fishing reel I won from a drawing at work up on ebay; kind of hoping there's some hardcore fly fisher out there who wants it that bad since Sage is good stuff and I've got it for less than half of retail starting bid. (Hey, it didn't cost me anything so anything I get for it is money in the bank.)

Unfortunately since I'm on night shift at work now it means I've temporarily stopped bellydance lessons again. The lessons just aren't at times I can feasibly make it with work now (there are morning classes but I'm usually awake until 4 am so there's no way I'm making it to a 7 or 8 something class.) On the plus side, I FINALLY found a stable that offers riding lessons for a not stupid price out here (no, really, I'm not going to pay $85 an hour. . .that's laughable. . ). Looks like I'll be taking up western though since I'm not sure my knee can handle english anymore. Maybe I can mix it up enough that it won't be a problem. Also looking at bows again; got my eye on some Hungarian horse bows that will be sold at the ren fair next weekend, but if I don't like those (they are kinda pricey) I've got some long bow resources.

I feel a bit weird going to the ren fair without a straight up costume, but I'm going to try to at least go in quasi-ren fair esque clothing. I've never been to the Bonney Lake one before, so we'll see how it goes. (There are equestrian acrobatics. . .I'm pretty sure I'll be happy. lol) Also, I will ride a camel this time, dammit. It's been one of those stupid, pointless goals of mine for years now. And I shall make it happen. XD

On the costume front, I've got to figure out if I can logistically finish the barbarian before Halloween. It's not so much that there's a lot of work (there isn't; I'm basically converting old stuff into new stuff), but it's definitely just trying to sit down and work out the damn helmet. The mando beastmaster revamp needs new stomach wraps and the gaunts need to be finished, but I've been too lazy to even do that. Did manage to just score a helmet I've been wanting for a long time though, so hopefully going to be able to start that kit plus my brother's once both our helmets show up. Going to Rose City ComicCon in September, but I'm honestly not sure what costumes to bring yet. :/

And I've probably been playing with the features more than I should be. <_< >_> Look, I know some people have selective coloring with a passion; me, I think it can be kind of cool/pretty. So I apologize in advance for you guys probably getting flooded with selective color photos. lol New camera also has a "toy camera" setting and a color pop setting, so I've been messing with those some.

In other news, I also got a job earlier this week, so I'm hoping I'll actually be able to do more costume work than originally anticipated. And I'm planning on FINALLY purchasing some dance lessons from my favorite dance studio (I used to do some minor belly dance, I'm looking to get back into it and start up bollywood as well as maybe some hula). We may have been discussing doing some Star Wars and Doctor Who themed outfits/dances, too.

In summary, life is awesome, and I'm sorry if you're about to get spammed more regularly with silly photos. lol

The humidity in Orlando damaged my actual camera, and my boyfriend's camera has been slowly dying (also due to a water related incident sadly). His camera works, but the pictures often don't come out in the kind of quality they should be so, while it's ok for taking costume WIP shots, it's terrible for anything I actually want to upload. My mom is looking to see if she can afford a new one for me before Emerald City Comic Con in March, so I probably won't have any pictures to upload for a while yet. (I've got a couple pictures in a folder on my desktop that I haven't gotten around to uploading yet, but I'm just kinda "meh" about them so I'm in no rush.)

So, obviously I've been back for a while. Just been alternating between too busy to post and too lazy to post, so I haven't. If you think this is bad, you should see my poor blog. lol (Though I suppose I did at least manage two blog posts there recently.)

Anyway, life as goes on as usual. Still job hunting but not doing so bad selling prop stuff here and there. Got a new set of horns I need to finish up so I can mold 'em and start casting. Thinking the next costume I really sit down and work on may be a barbarian warrior, but we'll see how things go. Revamping my mandalorian beast master, but that's pretty easy since virtually all I need to do for it is fix up the helmet and make some new gauntlets and shoulder armor. (Using the Protector's chest plates for it since the original kit was painted green, too. Just may need to get another can of that green for the helmet.) Friends and I are still hoping to have our genderbent Avenger's at D*Con, but that's also in the "we'll see how things go" category since our Captain America isn't sure if she'll be able to make it to the con.

Other than playing a lot of Skyrim lately (borrowed it from a friend), back in October I also won a month free membership to Curves (entered into a bunch of raffles during the Oktoberfest). My mom (somehow) managed to scrape together enough for me to actually buy a membership so I can keep working out, so that's a big part of what I've been busy doing. So far I'm steadly burning between 360-390 calories a workout (3 times a week), though my goal is 400 and up. Had my monthly weigh and measuring, where I did find out that I've at least dropped a .5% in body fat and lost about an inch off both my hips and my thighs. So, yay? Mixed feelings I guess. Definitely glad to be getting in shape, but I'm so tired and depressed all the time it's hard to get too excited about it.

Hopefully my brother is coming up this weekend so we can finally go see the King Tut exhibit at PacSci. (I mean, that exhibit is the whole reason I renewed my membership for this year lol.) If we do then I'll be doing my usual "try to get some decent pictures" thing, so maybe there will be some more to upload. (Right now I've got just a couple more flower shots I need to get up, but sometimes I feel like those just get boring after a while, even if I like looking at colorful/pretty things.)