I do this when I swear I wouldn't. Disappear, and then reappear, and then apologize profusely, and then quite possibly vanish again without a trace.



Mental health has been on shaky ground, but I'm going to try not to blather on to you all about that. I realized that I've been obscenely negative for way too long, and I really dislike it. Shit happens, true, but you gotta get over it eventually, and deal with what you can. I go next week to see about trying some different medications, and I finally finished paying off my bills for my therapist. Being an adult sucks sometimes. Plus, I haven't checked my email in... oh gosh, months. I am afraid I have some really angry (and rightly so!) people sending me emails because I never got back with them about inquiries for commissions. I'm just not brave enough to dive into that yet. So if you've sent me an email and never heard back from me, here is my informal apology and I'll do my best to make you at least not hate me with a burning rage...

Change of topic... yeah! I was so excited that I had gotten my devwatch down to like 1,000 comments or something, and now, geeze, it's back up to almost 14,000 I just miss talking to you people - I realized I have very minimal contact with the world, especially you guys! Artists make me feel happy, especially here!



Next week is NoBrandCon again - we go when we can, and both ~kellin and I are judging cosplay again, as well as helping out with a few cosplaying panels. Plus, if you need some one on one "how the hell do I do this?" cosplay help, just lemme know and we can work out details and find some time.

I really wanted a Rarity outfit to wear while judging, but I just don't think I'm going to get it done. My sewing rooms are a complete disaster, and I'm in the process of going through TONS of fabric. I've hit 5 huge, clear bins, and I'm only at about a quarter of my larger fabric pieces gone through :\ So far I've stored away red, pink, dark jewel tones, and purple (I organize it all by color now, for ease of digging). So I have the rest of the rainbow to go, and I haven't even gotten to pull out all of my fun corsetry fabrics (silks galore, as well as a billion different fun prints) or Steampunk fabrics (mostly taffeta or brocade for bustles and the like). All of my leather is just wedged in a corner, too.

I (obviously) have an addition to buying fabric that I should rein in a bit. My theory though is that I rarely drink, don't smoke, don't do drugs, and don't waste my money on buying designer clothes or shoes or whatever it is I'm supposed to buy, so I am allowed to have my textile vice, right? Well, that and good food



On a somewhat unrelated but kinda not note, ya know that leather stuffs I've been posting slowly? Yeah, it's kinda the whole thing that occupies my time now, which is friggin' amazing if you ask me. For the first time ever I can look at my books and see that not only am I not in the red, but I'm getting pretty close to making what I'd make at a part-time "real" job.

This is huge for me - I've been trying for years, and ya know, cosplay is fun and all, but I never could make a living off of it. I'd be lucky to break even, to tell the truth. Now, however, I'm making at least minimum wage So exciting, it makes me not want to give up and quit. IT jobs still look good, and on bad days (this is a good one, btw - I'm actually proud of myself... for a few minutes, at least) I just want to start everything on fire and walk away, but still, it's a good sign I think. Especially since right before Christmas, my husband lost his job (which I'm totally not going to get into a rant about here, it'll just bring me down again). I don't feel like a drag on everyone, at the moment at least!



Hrm... lets see... oh! If you are friends with me on facebook you're probably are sick of being inundated with posts about it, but ~kellin got me back into playing Magic: the Gathering. He started up again a few months back, and I was trying to avoid joining in (I played a lot back in the day (like, 12 years ago!) but was never very good) but alas, I failed miserably.

So now, that's what we obsess over - getting leather stuffs done and shipped (with new designs, too!) and then Magic. I've even recently merged the two by making leather deck boxes that hold either two standard decks (in sleeves) + a sideboard or a full EDH (Commander) deck. They're friggin' awesome, and I'll post pics here soon, and I'm hoping to get them in a few local shops by consignment this summer, which would rock.

On top of that, tonight I just finished my first trial of casting stuffs that was not a complete and total failure! Woo! My EDH deck has dragon tokens in it, and I was getting sick of using dice, and I didn't want to buy token cards, so I made me some dragon tokens! Cast em out of resin with powdered pigment stuff that I had wanted to try for a while now but never had a chance. I'm just amazed they worked!

EDIT Okay! Just submitted the dragon tokens :3



Yeah... a little overboard, I'm sure, but oh well. It keeps me busy and somewhat sane, which is all that matters, right?

I'm not gonna say I won't disappear now, but I really am gonna try to hang out more often, I promise

you all so very much!!

`taeliac