What I Did on My Holiday Vacation ...

[texchan]

Eh, OK. Not really. I mean, I'm a stay-at-home mom, which means I don't get holidays ... or vacations, for that matter. But, for some reason this little title just popped into my head, and it's so geeky and cliched that ... well, I had to use it. *gigglesnicker*

I haven't been around LJ much lately. (Although it's likely no one noticed my absence. =P) And, actually, I've been pretty much a hermit in all my online activities. I'm not sure why. Thanksgiving was nice and quiet. We stayed here in Virginia, as opposed to traveling to San Antonio to be with our extended families. It was really wonderful and special to have the time with just my hubby and our daughter. We went to eat at a lovely (and very good) restaurant and, in general, had a quiet family weekend. An extended weekend, since hubby got to take off from the Wednesday before T-day to the Monday after. I was glad to have him around, since he's been working such crazy hours lately, and he needed the break.

Our holiday activities are in full swing ... but I'll probably post more about that later on.

But, even with the nice Thanksgiving holiday and the approach of Christmas, over which my kiddo is very, very excited, I find I've been in a rather ... well, "not nice" mood lately. I'm not sure I quite approach "BAH! HUMBUG!" standards, but I think I've been getting pretty close to sliding right down that slippery slope. Holiday "chores" are piling up. I can't seem to catch up on my housework. I am not sleeping. My dog is sick. My kiddo is sick. My hubby is sick. I have lists and lists of things to do for Christmas and neither the time nor the desire to do them. And, to top it all off, I have been engaged in one of the most ridiculously fool-hardy projects I've ever taken on.

All right -- that's probably going a bit too far. But, still, it was a monster of a project.

I'm talking about the "re-do" on my Rubberslug cel gallery. I closed down just before Thanksgiving and, really, did not expect to open up again until after Christmas. There were just a lot of piddly maintenance-type things I had intended to do for a long time -- things I kept putting off. Now, I realize I put them off with good reason. This is a lot of freaking work! >.O

Thanks to my ongoing insomnia and my frustration with my writing muses, I have been able to finish the redo ahead of schedule. At least something good came out of all that mental torture. *nervous laugh* I re-opened the gallery today -- well, around 6:30 this morning, my time ... which is when I finished the last of the changes. I think I managed to complete all of the cosmetic changes, although I remain nervous that something slipped past my notice. Pretty easy, actually, with a project this large. Still, I think I'm happy with the results, and I'm really happy I managed to finish so quickly. (Although I think that probably says a lot about my horribly obsessive-compulsive nature. *sweatdrop*)

I also added a few new things ... sort of a "re-do" celebration. *snicker*

New Arrivals (Everything in this section was added today, although I already blogged in here about the Orphen cel. *snuggles with growly Orphen plastik*)

Oh! And, a bit more postive-ness popped up late, late last night. Or, maybe it was early this morning. I forget. Anyhow ...

I've been thinking of writing a WK Christmas story. Sort of a little one-shot for the holidays-sort of thing. But, I couldn't come up with an idea for it. Well, thanks to Blade-chan's "accidentally goth" Aya drawing (which, I might add, I'm sure is just gorgeous -- no matter what bladedfan says ^.~), I now have an idea. Yes! A WK Christmas fic idea! Wheee!

Ooh! Oooh! And, I won a loverly Tactics rilezu of Haruka. Whoopee for "Buy It Now" on ebay! *ebilsnicker*

Maybe this is the end of the "November Doldrums" and the beginning of "Happy Happy Joy Joy Time" over in Tex's universe.

...

Uh, yeah, OK ... I know ... I shouldn't get carried away. *snicker*

Comments

[bladedfan.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about the almost-but-not-quite-bah-humbug mood. ^.^' But maybe your new Christmas fic will help to lighten things up, ne? ^_~

Oh, and about Aya... I looked at him just now for the first time since the mishap that made him go gothy and... I actually kinda like it. June seems to love him. She sniffed at my sketch pad, purred, and then tried to lick him. And I went from going " O.O " to yelling, "No, cat, you cannot lick Aya!" ^.^'

I guess bitchy kitties can recognize their own. Or something. Eh-heheheh. ^_^'

*GLOMS*

[bladedfan.livejournal.com]

Oh... I am adding some accessories to the drawing now that it seems to be "goth themed." I'm going to add a cross to his string-collar-whateveritis necklace thingy. The cross I was wearing today gave me the idea. It's black, and kinda goth looking and... something I could see Aya actually wearing. How weird is that? Still debating on that nail polish, too. Although Aya's giving me this, "Do that and see what happens," look. ^.^()

[tex-chan.livejournal.com]

Heh, heh. The fingernail polish makes me laugh. Which, in turn, makes Aya growl at me from the Bish Closet.

Still ... *gigglesnicker*

[bladedfan.livejournal.com]

LOL

[kmktr.livejournal.com]

*sniffle* Do I not get a chance to see gothy Ayan? 'Specially as that particular cross sounds a bit -- familiar, somehow?

Tex! *gloms* I wandered over to your gallery earlier today (I noticed you'd blogged on RS) and it looks fantastic! It was a lot of work, I can tell (the RS interface is nowhere near as smooth and useful as it could be) but, in my humble opinion, definitely worth it! Very cool!

I'm with you on the holiday blahs. Maybe we should get together and do the gift shopping thing? I really hate shopping on my own, so I'm dragging my feet.

[tex-chan.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked the redo. A few other people commented favorably on it, too, which was a relief. Not that it should matter -- I mean, what should matter most is how I feel about it. I know this, and, yet, I want others to like it, too. Because, somehow, it feels as if that will make the hard work "worth it". Very silly of me. *nervous laugh*

And, don't worry. I haven't seen "gothy Ayan", either. I saw him in his pre-goth form, but only heard about the "conversion". Still, I'm confident the drawing is just as gorgeous as ever. *nods*

Maybe we should get together for the holiday shopping thing. You could come over this way. We are near Tyson's Corner ... so we could have a big mall at our disposal. LOL!

[bladedfan.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is that cross. I'll email you the pre-goth pencil sketch later.

[tex-chan.livejournal.com]

See? I knew he didn't look as "awful" as you thought. But, yeah ... I know that sinking feeling of thinking you've messed up something you worked really hard on. I'm so glad you like him now, though. And, he even has the "June" seal of approval! Obviously, with that, it must be a fabulous drawing! *gloms*

[bladedfan.livejournal.com]

Nah, I don't think he looks so bad anymore. Actually, I really quite like it now. But the thing was that that night I was really, really off kilter. And, it was a mistake at the time, and not at all what I had in my head when I started this thing. It was a mistake while inking the lips, and... well, I just HATE mistakes I make while inking, more than any other kind. Because it's so very hard to fix a mistake when it's in black ink, and in such an obvious place, y'know?

But, after going a day and a half without looking at him, I flipped open my sketch book and though, "That's... not so bad." So I guess the fussing I did after the crying fit paid off. (At one point I just made myself stop, before I made it any "worse" and forced myself to go to bed.) So, I'm happy, and very relieved that all of that hard work didn't just go down the tubes.

As far as having the "June Seal" goes... I dunno... my kitty is very weird. ^.^()

[tex-chan.livejournal.com]

Goodness! I can totally understand feeling that way -- especially if you're already in a bad place, you know? That's the nice thing about writing -- it's a much more forgiving "medium". Just hit the "delete" key and watch your mistakes disappear. If only life was like that, for real. =P