Of Mondays and Birthdays

So today was my Father's birthday... [Author's Note: For me that's sort of a loaded statement full of possible directions; I could talk about how his brothers and mother don't support him and how every holiday is a stark reminder of that, or how much fun we had walking around Kohls with a bunch of wierdos waiting for the restaurant we wanted to eat at to open, or how no matter how hard I try to make his birthday as special as possible, I never quite feel like I make it because his mind seems to always be on his aforementioned relatives. See? loaded.] I think that's all I'll say.

In other news, which is simultaneously annoying and exciting, the Mortal Plush deadline has been extended.. which means I can not only submit another entry but I can also have heart palpitations until June 22 when the official decision will be made.. So.. yes, it's exciting.. and, yes, totally terrifying as well. ::sigh:: At least I have some ideas.

In Lucy news, the voting begins on the 6th! As for the next challenge, I have some ideas for that as well... so we shall see. Glad it's only the beginning of the week - there's so much to be done!

Finished... sort of.

SO! The Mortal Plush submission went in yesterday and today I posted my Eggcellent Upcycling challenge entry... Here she is, Lucy, my sugar skull made from a plastic Easter egg..

Logically, I knew I didn't have a chance in hell of winning but there's always that little subversive voice in the back of your head going "You know, maybe you have a shot..."

That little voice shut up rather quickly once I saw that someone had made a 3 foot tall Dalek using the Easter eggs as the bumps. ::sigh:: Oh well, at least she's still fabulous. Can you believe she used to be an egg?!? Hell, I still can't.

And now we play the waiting game.. waiting to see if anyone is going to vote for Lucy and if I'm going to get into the Mortal Plush exhibit. The waiting is the worst part because there's absolutely nothing I can do but sit here and blog about it. And embroider.. at least that's taking my mind off of things. It's all too raunchy and scandelous for words. I should be posting the first of them tomorrow... I think I'm calling it "Excitable Embroidery." I'm also thinking of doing a give-away next week.. We'll see how neurotic I get over the aforementioned waiting and how much of a distraction I need. Again - ::sigh::

Contests.

I must be a glutton for punishment. The only thing I've ever won in my life was an afghan in a Chinese Auction when I was eight - nothing before that, nothing since - and this month, I've decided to dive head-first not only into the "Eggcellent Upcycling" challenge on Craftster but to throw my work, my Ginger, out there to be considered for the Mortal Plush exhibit (read more about that here: http://www.mortalplush.blogspot.com/). It's all so completely nerve-wracking.

I took another set of pictures of her today (making that the third). Here she is scouting for her next meal..

I hope she gets accepted. I think I may be crushed if she doesn't even though I know there are far more talented artists vying for the same slot I am. The only consolation I have is there isn't a set number of entries they're accepting.. I think it gives me a better shot. Or maybe I'm just telling myself that so I'll sleep tonight.

On top of that, I have my Eggcellent Upcycling challenge entry to finish tomorrow. The idea of the challenge is to take one of those dinky plastic Easter eggs and turn them into something fab. I think my entry's quite imaginative and cute - but, again, I haven't won anything since the afghan and I'm not holding out much hope that those Craftster people will like it. I've posted both Ginger and an homage to Tom Baker on there and I can count all the comments I've gotten on them on my two hands.. clearly they weren't very popular. And then, I look at some of the things that are popular with pages and pages of people saying things like "I'm hitting 'This Rocks' all over this project" and "You're super!" and I go "Really? Because I can't quite see it.." Maybe I'm just too far off. Either way, my entry is almost finished and I can't back out now even though I'm not sure which is more devastating - being too much of a coward to enter or going through with it and not getting a single vote.

I suppose what it comes down to is that I've never been a coward.. and I don't intend to start now.

Okie Dokie..

Enough with the moaning. Easter's over (thank god) and I've managed to be quite productive in the last two days. Monday I spent getting most of the custom order sock monkey done - who is to be named Fredrick, in case anyone was wondering - and baking a batch of unquestionably good cookies. Today, I listed the Jelly Babies in my Etsy shop...(I told you they were adorable!!)
... posted Ginger, the three-headed hydra that graced the pages of this blog about a month ago, on Craftster (check her out http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=301064.0), and worked on my entry for the Craftster Eggcellent Upcycling challenge which is making some serious progress.

Overall, I'd have to say I'm doing a fine job putting this Easter thing behind me and moving forward. There's alot of work to be done.. I just hope I have enough Caffine to do it...