I don’t know what it is exactly, but the desire to work on something, anything during financially unstable times is strong. The problem is that when cash is super tight, I get a wild hair to do something new. And it’s not like I know I can supplement our income with my creations. I’ve never made something that I could sell on Etsy. Or maybe I have and just don’t know it. Everything I make I look at and think, “this isn’t good enough, no one in their right mind would pay money for this.”

The last time Jason was laid off, I started making jewelry. I even sold quite a few items. I didn’t sell them online, but I ended up selling about $75 worth of stuff. Unfortunately it wasn’t until after Jason was employed and so that $75 didn’t do anything to help with the financial struggle that comes along with the only employed person being out of work.

Three months later and we’re back in the same boat, and he’s unemployed. And once again, I’ve got the strong desire to work on crafts. This time I want to try my hand at resin casting. Resin casting isn’t exactly cheap. First you have to get the resin, and the molds, and the wooden stir sticks, and the mixing cups, and then you have to know what you want to do with it. Well the only part covered there is what I want to do with it. However I’m not even sure what I want to do is something I could even try to make money on. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m obsessed with Twilight (we know, we know, shut UP about it already!) and I’d really like to do some themed pendents. However, I’m certain the book artwork is protected by copyright and so it’s not legal to use those images. And I highly doubt it’s legal to take stills from the movie and use them in something I want to ultimately sell. Plenty of people do just that, but I can’t exactly risk a lawsuit.

That leaves embedding other items into the resin which is cool its own right. But the problem is I don’t want to spend money on the supplies. I *think* I could do a good enough job that I could make a little money on it, but I’m not sure and so spending the cash on it seems irresponsible.

There’s just something about crafting during a crisis that comforts me. It makes me feel like I’m doing something, even though I’m really not. I guess it keeps my mind busy so I’m not jus tthinking about how scary life is at the time.

What kind of coping mechanisms do you have in place to help you through those dark days of instability, be it financial, health, whatever you may face?

Dearest Jason,

Thank you for being such an important part of my life. I love you more than anything. Happy 31st birthday my love. You mean the world to me.

And now for something completely different!

25 Things

(Times 5 and a day early)

It’s like the Friday 5, only BIGGER!

So there’s a meme going around Facebook and my girlfriend Kelly tagged me. I thought I’d go ahead and post it here since I haven’t had much to say lately.

25 Things You May Or May Not Know About Me

1. I’m obsessed with the entire Twilight Saga and unlike Kelly, I actually liked the movie, a lot.
2. I love brussel sprouts.
3. I haven’t maintained contact with any of my past boyfriends. (ex husband excluded because we have kids together)
4. I have over 40 shot glasses in my collection, and I won’t display any that I didn’t pick out myself.
5. Halloween is my favorite holiday and not because it’s my birthday.
6. I don’t have any tattoos.
7. American Idol makes me want to stab my ears with red hot pokers.
8. I drive a luxury vehicle and got it without the luxury sticker price
9. When we’re finally ready and able to buy a house, we hope to settle on the west coast of Washington State.
10. My oldest daughter has reached the point that I struggle when it comes to helping her with homework.
11. My favorite class in high school was Biology.
12. People say I have Flintstone feet, meaning they’re pretty squared off.
13. I’m 3 years and 3 months older than my husband.
14. I’m not a “let’s go to the movies” kind of girl.
15. I have something like 6 email addresses.
16. Out of every reading assignment I was given in high school, the only books I read cover to cover were The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck and Catcher In The Rye by J. D. Salinger.
17. I’ve never made zucchini bread even though it’s one of Jason’s favorite quick breads.
18. I can’t stand vanilla or cream cheese frosting.
19. Orange “flavored” (as in artificially flavored) drinks as well as orange creamcicles  totally gross me out.
20. I’d rather scrub toilets with a toothbrush (no, not MY toothbrush) than wash the dishes.
21. I’m a morning person. I wake up and it’s instant on.
22. I much prefer taking a bath over a shower.
23. Penguins are my favorite animal.
24. I used to want to be an astronaut until I discovered you had to be good at complex math.
25. My oldest child is attending the same Jr. High my mom and I both attended, and come September she’ll be at the same high school I went to.

Oh my gosh! That was crazy hard. I started it last night around 8 and gave up for the night after #7. Then I started it again around 6:30 and it’s now just after 8 a.m. Who knew it was so hard trying to come up with 25 things about me you may or may not know. Of course I tried to keep it interesting, but I know some of those probably fell short.

PLEASE please please feel free to leave a comment and let me know how many of those you already knew about me. I think *that* would be interesting. Also, were there any you didn’t know that surprised you? If so, do tell!

Since I’m in a fairly dark frame of mind right now, I didn’t want to get too deep with this week’s Friday Five.

So it’s all about describing where you live. This can be your state, city/town, or actual living space. If you play along, please try and keep to one word answers. Feel free to put (state) (city/town) or (living space) after each answer so we know what you’re specifically describing.

Where I Live – Whittier, CA (SoCal)

1. Sunny (State)
2. Expensive (State)
3. Suburban (City)
4. Small (Living Space)
5. Loud (Living Space)

I wish I could start this with something like, “I’m a positive person by nature,” but that’s not exactly the case. That’s not to say I see everything in a negative light, I see things for what they are most of the time. I’ve never looked at the past year and said it was particularly great or particularly bad. I’ve never looked at the upcoming year and said it would be a great one, or a bad one.

And then on January 1 this year, I was having a really horrible day. Most of it stemmed from having the older kids home for so long since they were on winter break. Caitlin is 14 and Christian is 12. They do not get along. At. All. It’s really rare when they do. Most of the time when they’re together, there’s tension in the room. I often have to break up fights or try and stop the nit-picking before it turns into a war.

I’d gone off by myself for a little while to purchase some books, and as I was leaving the bookstore, I got a phone call from Caitlin complaining about her brother being “annoying and stupid” or something. I lost it. I really lost it. I couldn’t even leave for an hour without getting a phone call from one of them complaining about their sibling? In the end, I said something pretty mean and Caitlin hung up on me. I didn’t go home right away because I needed to calm the heck down, but when I did, I was pretty much done with my entire family that day.

I didn’t really talk to any of them, Jason and Jess included. I even thought to myself if this is how 2009 was going to be, I was going back to bed until 2010. Of course I didn’t believe that one bad day would indicate a bad year coming.

Now? I’m not so sure. We’re 15 days in and things haven’t gotten much better. So far we’ve dealt with difficult kids (more than usual is seems), and a very uncomfortable child support/custody issue ripe with a lot of tension.

And then the sucker punch. For the second time in 6 months my husband was laid off. The first time back in August was scary. However, he was only out of work for 5 weeks. He also received a fairly decent severance package. This time, we’re not in as good of a position. He’d only been with this company for 3.5 months. Apparently the economy caused them to trim the fat, tighten the belt. I don’t know that I’m able to say anything else, so I guess I’ll leave it at that. It’s really unfortunate that the last person hired means first person out when layoff’s happen. There’s not anything that could have been done. It wasn’t because he’s a poor employee or slacking off. There’s just nothing that can be done. No way to save yourself when a company decides they need to save costs and you’re the lowest guy on the totem poll.

I’m hoping and praying that we’ve maxed out our trials for 2009. Maybe we can get the majority of the bad crap over with before February 1 and the rest of the year will be a dream. A good dream instead of the nightmare it’s shaping up to be.

The Friday Five

1) What is your favorite orange colored food?

2)What’s the best way to drink orange juice?

3) Which orange colored candy’s pieces taste the best?

4) What are your feelings about orange soda?

5) When did you last wear an orange item of clothing?