Challenge Check In

I WAS going to chose a winner of the destash today, but after considering I decided to give everyone a couple more days to find the last post and get that last entry in, so I shall choose the winner on Tuesday the 31st instead. after all, I did say it was 'a month long' destash, so... we'll let it go the full month ;)

As for my challenges this week, for once I had them done BEFORE the last minute :D  In was going to show you my art challenge project as well, but went and deleted the pictures from my camera... so, I shall take new ones and post them on Tuesday since the art challenge is by the month rather then week ;)

Plus, not only did I get my three pieces of jewelry done, one of those pieces is for the ABS monthly challenge :) Whoohoo! Yay me...finally managed to complete one! lol

So here are some earrings I made this week. 

The top pair is 10mm faceted crackled Agate. The color in the shot sucks but they're a really pretty blue and brown mix with the rings being antiqued copper ( in appearance, anyhow...I can't say for sure what they're made of since they were recycled from a chain belt ;) ).  I love these..I wore them today :)

The others are just antiqued silver leaves hung from a small section of chain, with black and crystal faceted rounds. Can't say for sure what kind they are since they're recycled from other pieces.

And here is my bracelet for the "January ABS challenge. It's just some gold wire with loops formed between chunks of green and peach colored turquoise, with a antiqued copper clasp. The bird charm is from Starry Road Studio :) It actually wears fairly well, but I don't know if I'll keep it together. I'll mostly take it apart and reuse the beads and charm in other projects.   This wasn't the piece I had planned for the challenge... it wasn't even the second piece I planned out for it... both ideas kinda fell through when my bits and pieces either refused to be found among my stash ( I didn't get to the stringing materials in my cleaning  ;) ),  and when the second idea refused to work in RL as well as it did on paper >.< lol  If I were to do this again, I'd work on making my curls between beads more uniform and perhaps forgo the charm...

In addition to these, I have a couple magnetic pins and another set of earrings in the works, but I need to tear through my under desk storage in search of my other glue first... the stuff I have just takes too long to dry for what I need with these. Plus there's my stuffed cat... the second one >.<  I DID finish putting the one I showed you  together... and while doing so, made a small change to it... a small change that messed it up and made him look .. rather .. 'special' ...O.o lol  I have named him 'crooked' and he sits on top of my computer to remind me of what NOT to do with the second one lol I simplified the design and have the second cat about a third of the way done. His front is completely stitched and decorated and not I just have to make his tail, sew his stripes on his back then put him together. And this time, with Mr. Crooked watching over me to remind me, I will NOT alter my plans while putting him together lol

I DID manage to get out to the country and visit my parents today. I went for a walk around the trails... at first with the dogs, however they quickly abandoned me to trudge along on my own. For all of you southerners, I thought I'd share some wintery photos with you :)

Here are the girls who were SUPPOSED to be going for a walk WITH me...

And here are their tracks vanishing ahead of me and veering off the path into the trees... >.< ( the photo is right side up in the album, I swear )

A pile of dead fall that had been gathered together then forgotten about... the path along side this wasn't too bad for walking on... only a few inches deep. -->

<--... the path in THIS area though was over a foot deep and managed to get right inside my boots >.<

( again, the picture is upright in the album... not sure why it insists on being sideways here when it's not elsewhere >.< ) 

And one more ... for which I waded through knee deeps snow and skeletal shrubs to take. Totally worth it :)

( I did take a couple more and they're in the album if you care to go see them. Just click on the slide show link on the side bar then choose the photography album )

Don't forget to leave a comment on Friday's post for a last entry into the destash, and I'll post the winner either Tuesday night or Wednsday morning :)

~ Skye

F.F. winner & Final Destash !

Welcome to Friday :) for once I can enjoy Friday as it was meant to be enjoyed .. as the end of the work week. Yes, I have the weekend off! Wow, huh? An entire weekend! ( yeah, I'm waiting for the phone call to ruin it too ;) lol )  

Actually, there's no need to cheer too much, since I have quite a bit of time off this coming week >.< I got cut a shift, so I have the week end off, work Monday... then I'm off until Friday when I'll work straight through the weekend and into the next week. 

Down side - smaller paycheck... unless I get called in to cover which is a distinct possibility.

Upsides - 1- plenty of time to work on my challenges and get both my jewelry AND my art challenge finished, plus maybe even get the ABS January challenge done before the deadline..>.<

               2- If I feel like getting up before noon and braving the weather ( which is supposed to be all freezing rain/snow/ YUCK), I can go to the Farmer's Market on Saturday :)

               3 - If the weather isn't really crappy and I can hitch a ride, I can head to my parents for the day on Sunday... AND, if not, I can try to hitch a ride on Tuesday and spend a day or two with them instead... IF things work out. It never fails that when days line up for me to be able to take off for a bit, either the weather doesn't cooperate, I can't hook up a ride, the times doesn't work for where ever I want to go, or I have packages due to arrive. This time, I have packages due to arrive ( some yummy gemstone beads and things, plus a surprise from Anvil Artifacts for cracking her up with my comment on her blog.)  I can however ask my land lady to collect anything that arrives for me and leave it inside where it'll be safe... it just means I can't play with them until I get home :(  PLUS the weather  report does NOT bode well, at least over the weekend.  I'll just have to see what happens. Maybe I'll get working away on stuff and decide not to run away after all.

... huh...kinda went rambling there, didn't I? lol 

Anyways, Congrats go out to Shaiha of Shaiha's Ramblings . She won the bracelet from January's Freebie Friday. 

I would also like to take this opportunity to say that I flippin' LOVE using Rafflecopter ! It was super easy to set up and it ran itself :) I highly recommend it to any one doing a giveaway :)  I just signed up ( for free ), chose some pre-made lines, and added a couple of my own for the raffle form, set a end date, then copy and pasted the link onto my blog post. Rafflecopter kept track of every entry made, and when it hit the end date, locked it down. I went in and checked out the entries to make sure they were all valid, then clicked on the button and Rafflecopter chose a winner for me :) 

Alrighty, now onto the big one :)

This is the LAST EDITION to the destash giveaway !

Two pendants ( that enameled one is actually a very pretty blue.. the flash just kinda 'blahed' it ). That one is 45mm  x 35mm, so you get an idea of the size of them. 

And one big beautiful wooden bead that just screams 'focal' to me. I have a bunch of these, but have plans for them... I just figured I'd share one ;)

So this blog post is the last chance for my followers to get in one more entry. Make sure you take a look back at all the blog posts that feature destash items and check to see if you commented ;)

On Sunday I'll announce the winner, so you only have until ... oh we'll say 12 pm EST on Sunday. 

For a recap, one person will receive all of this..

 

...plus, you never know... since it'll be arriving in time for V-Day, I may just decide to toss in some extra little goodies while packing it all up ;)

In case any of you are bored, I did an extra blog post on Tuesday where, after I did some sleep-deprivation-inspired rambling, I posted a bit of my fiction. It's something different from my usual writing style, but for some reason that was the piece I decided to share first. You can just click HERE if you want to check it out.

It also has a bonus drawing of mine included ;)

I think maybe I'll try doing  something different here... I'll see if I can't get it rolling over this next week and if so, I'll try my hand at writing a special 'series' just for you ladies that I'll share a piece of each week. I'll just have to peel myself away from the supernatural side of things and see what my muses can come up with ;) Perhaps something fun, with a touch of romance, a bit of danger tossed in... and I think because most of us share a love of beads and jewelry, I'll have to find a way to work that in there too ;) If I can meet my challenges over the next few days, as well as complete two little projects that NEED to get done and in the mail, I shall turn the muses loose on your behalf :)

... crap... now suddenly I want to doodle comics again...  >.< lol WRONG MUSE!! lol

Alrighty, enough! I shall leave you all to your commenting and will post again on Sunday! :)

~ Skye

Random Rambling plus a Story...

First off, I shall apologize up front in case I ramble or make no sense... or my spelling is beyond atrocious even with spell check...it shouldn't be... but... one never knows.

I'm a wee bit tired, you see. Today was supposed to be my day off so I was up a bit late last night writing since I didn't have to get up too much before noon, and my plans for today, aside from an appointment at the bank, were strictly jewelry and sewing related.

Then...I awoke to the ringing of the phone and my managers voice asking my machine if I could possibly come in to work today... >.< Since things are slow and hours are less this time of year, I agreed. Extra pay is a good thing. I changed my appointment for Thursday without any problem, then headed into work. Now my jewelry and sewing plans are dead for the rest of the day since my eyeballs are so gritty and my eyelids are so heavy... and it's only six pm... I absolutely can NOT cave in and fall asleep until at least eight thirty... any earlier and I'll be awake an hour or so before I need to be and with a four thirty am wake up... you really don't want to be up any earlier then you absolutely need to be >.< I stopped on the walk home and got an extra large black coffee... aside from discovering that my usual three sugars is NOT enough for an extra large  NON-decaf black coffee, it really didn't do much for me, but then..I've never known coffee to keep me awake.... espresso makes me bounce off walls when combined with caramel, chocolate, sugar and whipped cream in a to-die-for-latte... but regular coffee... nope. Nada. Despite that, I have a pot on anyhow to at least pretend it'll help me make it to a decent hour.

So... my plans for sharing some in progress or even completed jewelry/sewing shots tomorrow are not gonna happen. Instead, I decided I'd write a blog tonight and whine about being tired like the big wimp I am, then share some of my fiction with you :)

I hemmed and hawed over what to share... did I share some work from my Hunter's Prey series...? and if so... did  I start at the beginning and share some of the background stories for the main characters... or jump right in and let you guys ask for more about whatever characters caught your attention..? Do I post bits and pieces then give a link to the rest of the story? .... Or do I make it an ongoing thing where each week I post a chapter and keep you hooked  ? ;) I'm rather liking that last one, but in order to do that, I need to pick one, do a massive spell check / edit.. then depending on which one it is, perhaps a bit of a rewrite. If any of these ideas strike a chord with you guys, let me know and I'll consider it :)

In the mean time, I decided I'd post my shortest complete ( non R-rated ;) ) story. I'll need to warn you, however, that this was an experiment in character development that took on a life of it's own. A couple of the girls that were in our little writing group found these little questionnaires and decided it would be 'fun' if the 'characters' filled them out. Any one who writes, I suggest trying stuff like this...it's a great way to flesh out characters and get a good feel for who they are as people :) Anyhow, one day... after I believe an all nighter of chatting and generally goofing off  with a bit of writing tossed in here and there, we struck upon the idea of writing little stories of the various characters being interviewed by some of our fans... which was fun to do. We hooked up over messenger, slipped into character and just WERE that character for the duration... which is REALLY fun for me because 90% of my characters are guys :D And a couple of them are real assholes or crazy and it is really a lot of fun to get to be an asshole or be crazy for an hour or so and not get crap over it :) 

...okay..I'm rambling... anyhow, THAT idea... and two days of running on about three hours sleep and two or three pots of coffee and way too much sugar, lead me to deciding that I would write a series of stories about my characters FROM their point of view. 

I did one.

Well okay...I did two on one of my female characters but neither got far. This one got finished :)

Before you go further, I write mostly a modern day mix of horror/fantasy/romance/action/comedy. My Hunter's Prey series is set in modern times and revolves around a company of 'monster hunters' called Chaos Incorporated ( or Chaos Inc.) lead by Lady Chaos. The cast contains a mix of  witches, demons,elves, faeries,vampires, werewolves ( and other were animals),  as well as humans and too many other types of critters to name.

During a bout of boredom, I added into the mix a spin off of the main series... with a team of dimension travelers... who are children of my main characters... just not from any match ups that occur in any of the stories up until that point.

Yeah, confusing, I know... trust me. It seemed like a fun idea at the time ;)

So that explained, I shall let one of these time/ dimension traveling characters of mine tell you about himself.. in his own words ( btw, he's a tad nuts and will probably ramble just like me :)  For those who want to know what he looks like, I'll post up a picture I drew of him first, then add the story beneath. )

~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

A Sneeze of Fate

You know those dreams you have.. those really weird disjointed things that are nothing more then crazy bits and pieces of really weird shit that in no way go together... that somehow do fit together and make perfect sense in the dream itself?

That dream where you're walking through a house that seems perfectly familiar but you know you've never seen before, then you open a door looking for something and instead find someone you know but don't know. The two of you are sitting in a garden having tea out of fancy paper cups with two other people you can't see but are absolutely familiar with and you feel completely at home... Then the cat tells you your pants are on fire, which makes no sense because you're not wearing pants... but you ARE wearing pants and you're walking up and down these stairs that lead in circles looking for the fire extinguisher and then you're on a boat with a pirate who's teaching you how to shoot the canon and you go to catch one of the canon balls as it rolls across the deck and you're running down the middle of main street in nothing but your underwear wondering where all the cars have gone...?

You know... those kind of dreams...?

Well.. I could say that my life is one of those. I could, but I won't. Because, while it IS true in a weird twisted sort of way, it would be even MORE true... (and weird and twisted ) to say that * I * am one of those dreams.

Well... okay... not literally, because I'm not a dream... I'm real. I think... but anyhow, like I was saying, I’m just like those dreams.

I'm made up of all these crazy, insane little bits that in no way fit or work together in any way that makes sense... yet they all do and it does.

And so you have me.

Dante.

Yeah yeah... I know what you're thinking. You're sitting there, rolling your eyes as you read this and thinking that I'm just another dumb fuck up of a kid who thinks he's different from every one else and all that shit... That I think I'm the only one who's ever felt this way because I'm weird; I'm different; I'm a freak... I'm special...


Well.... I am.

Well.. not the 'just another dumb fuck up of a kid ' part. I'm different. I AM special. And yeah... I'm definitely weird and a freak, but hey.. that's just part of my charm !

So what makes me so fucking special?

Well... Could just go with the fact that I'm half Faerie and half Demon... but.. there ARE others like that out there. Not many, true.. Faeries and Demons don't generally intermingle... but .. eh.. shit happens.

Could go with my being royalty on both sides of the family tree... dad's a Prince of two Fae Courts, which means so am I... And mom's the daughter of the Demon Lord Chaos... and gee.. I'm the only one of his bloodline who's come into his full powers and stayed sane, which makes me his heir. Well mostly... the 'stayed sane' part that is... some people find my sanity a subject of debate...

So, my being a royal demonic faerie and heir to a throne of hell makes me special right? Sure... except granddad, the current Lord Chaos.. is also a demonic faerie, so... the special part only goes so far...

Hey.. I'm also a time and dimension traveler. Definitely not too many demonic faeries princes running around the space time continuum, now are there?

See... THAT'S my point. That's where I'm special; where I'm truly a freak. I know for a fact, that there are no others like me out there. Any where.

I bet I'll bump into a couple hundred versions of you during my travels; same parents, different life choices, slightly different you...

Not me though. I'm a Freak of Fate. There are no other versions of me out there.

My parents, while having done the nasty in quite a few worlds, apparently, only hit pay dirt once. Only once did Fate sneeze at just the wrong moment and 'oops'... there I was.

Me.

Dante Macrory.

Son of Kay Macrory and Faal Dominic, aka Prince Ellander Errin.

In damn near every other world I've come across, mom's gone by the name Clarice LaHey, with the occasional change to Clarice or Kay Mordant.. and in every world except mine, she's also been Lady Chaos, the heir to the Chaos throne.

So what happened that things went so screwy in my world?

Told you ... my theory... Fate sneezed. Well... one of them anyhow... or at least one... Maybe the lot of them got the hiccups or something.

Things followed the exact same path as at least half the realms out there right up until my conception.... that's when the shit hit the fan, apparently.

Fate sneezed or hiccuped, that one little intruder made it past mom's defenses and bam... there I was. Time to change the world.

Don't laugh. I'm fucking serious over here!

Mom wasn't supposed to get knocked up during her little fling with the fae, alright! She was supposed to fade into a life long friendship with him while she got the hang of her newly emerging demon powers really slowly and hook up with a few bounty hunters to become a kick ass leader and take over the Chaos Throne.... I've heard that in some worlds there's some prophecy about her blood uniting the thrones or something like that... but prophecies are a bitch to follow. Don't get me wrong, they can be a fucking blast to watch... but to actually DO them... forget it.

Anyhow... like I was saying, I wasn't supposed to happen.

But I did.

And I... being me... completely fucked everything up and made it much more interesting! And that was before I was even born! See? Fucking special!!

Mom... being a demonic faerie herself, had been born while her mother was under a spell to conceal her faerie blood... and the spell fucked with moms genes, so to say. So despite the fact that she was half faerie, she never knew it. She grew up believing she was a human who happened to have a demon for a dad. Just another demon half breed... nothing special.

Then one day my Aunt Shada hit mom with a spell that stole five years worth of her memories, kidnapped her daughter and separated her from her hubbie. It also fucked with her suppressed faerie blood, setting in motion a ticking time bomb which started shit happening when she first came in contact with a full blooded Fae... that would be dad.

Dad, although he didn't know it at the time, was half faerie himself... a simple touch of his hand and mom was hit by a power surge that triggered her demon blood and turned her blue... the next fae brought forth her tail... and the next brought forth her wings. Turns out that all three of those fae had some faerie blood mixed in with their elven blood... Makes me wonder what would've happened if she'd first stumbled across a full blooded faerie. Oh well... I'm sure one of these days I'll find out. It must have happened that way at least once out there somewhere...

Gee... I'm off track... where was I... oh yeah.

So anyhow... that's what was SUPPOSED to happen... over the course of twenty or thirty years, mom eventually came into the majority of her power and gradually come to terms with her demonself.

Note I said 'supposed to'... but it didn't... because I changed it.

Mom met dad in the park and turned blue... the two of them hooked up in search of a way to change her back... became lovers... then I came along.

Being pregnant with a fae child provided a much more massive power boost than any old little hand holding could ever provide... only I was INSIDE ... so the changes I started were inside...

Yeah I know... little bastard... That's me.

So outwardly, mom's the same... still blue hiding behind dad's glamours... normally it would've been a few years before dad thought of an old friend and introduced her to the demon who would teach her to change on her own, which lead to her meeting the next fae to change her outward appearance... but ... yeah... ME again...

Mom started getting her demon abilities coming through fast and furious.. and completely uncontrollable. Thanks to me. Dad thought of his friend a lot sooner and the time table was moved up. So now mom has a tail as well as being blue, plus she has her powers going crazy and Brendan.. the half demon, can only teach her so much... so he panics and calls for help... At the same time, mom starts getting sick... big scary deal for someone who's never been sick before... so she calls her mom... who finds out about all the crazy stuff going on... who in turn calls... you got it... granddad.

Normal route... mom doesn't even meet 'Lord Chaos' until about thirty some odd years after she's started coming into her powers... by then she's already Lady Chaos and has her little company of monster hunters going strong and is about to find herself neck deep in prophecy induced mayhem.

But I changed that.

Thanks to me screwing with mom's powers... she learned the truth about granddad a few months after first coming into her powers... and because of the utter chaos ( pardon the pun) that I’d created with her powers, he took her to Hell with him to help get things under control and teach her himself. It was right around here that she changed her name from LaHey, which was granddad's human guise name.. to Macrory.. which is his real name... The change to 'Kay' came along later....


Dad still had no clue about me. Once mom was safely in the care of grandad, dad decided there was nothing more he could do... Well... okay, supposedly his friend, Callum, dragged him off and kept him busy so he wouldn't worry too much about mom... then he eventually moved on and that whole' friendship' part kicked in.

And mom wasn't in any shape to clue him in at the time. So dad went on his merry way, none the wiser that he was about to become a father. It was for the best, trust me. I shudder to think what might have happened if he'd known about me back then.

By the time I was born, mom was well on her way to having a handle on the whole demon thing. By the time I was two, mom decided that Hell was just NOT the place to raise me... apparently I was becoming a little terror.

Gee... go figure.

So she packed up and headed topside, deciding to look up her old demon friend Brendan and see about learning how to kick ass the bounty hunter way. And things SORT of followed along with the general path for a while... Mom worked with Bren for a while, then hooked up with a vampire hunter named Jaguar Rockefellar... damn I miss that guy... And then onto that fateful meeting with the MacDonnell brothers that led to Chaos Inc.... of course, it didn't all happen the same way since mom was way more in control of her shit, but the same chain happened... sort of.

Word eventually got back to dad about me and of course he just had to meet me. I was his only son of course... his only child. By this time I was eight and already coming into my demon powers.. much to everyone's dismay. Mom was beginning to rethink the whole leaving me in Hell thing. Apparently taking me out of Hell really didn't do much about curbing that 'little terror' thing I had going on.

So... enter dad.

Dad is thrilled to discover he's a dad. He wants to get to know me. Mom suggests he take it slow. They argue. They fight. Mom kicks dad's ass. Dad's friends step in...Fae friend gets a tad too close to mom triggering a 'growth spurt'.. Mom grows wings, thus ending her physical ascension and, seeing as how I've already seen to it that she's reached her full power ascension, bringing her into her full-demonhood.

The power backwash at this, nailed dad big time... and wound up seriously screwing with a spell that had apparently been laid on him when he was hardly more then a kid.

Spell removed... the hard way... it becomes known that dad is really the long lost Prince Ellander Errin...And... seeing as how mom is out for the count recovering from her ascension, Uncle Esthel, the Crown Prince of Ter Nah Nog, decides it would be for the best if 'Ellander' and his son return to Court to recover and get to know each other...

Oh yeah... wonderful idea. Fabulous plan.

I had SUCH fun at Court, let me tell you. I believe that even now, twenty two years later, the entire Elven realm is still traumatized by their young prince's visit.

Needless to say, there was no further debate over custody... two months later I was back with mom who was still on the road to recovery but still the more able parent where handling me was concerned.

Although I bet she still has the odd giggle fit over the memory of the day dad brought me home to her.

I was fifteen before I was allowed to visit Court again for my Uncle's wedding.... and I'm still not allowed back. Not that that stops me.

Oddly enough however, I'm still welcome at my great grandfather's court.. but then... I've always had a very strong connection to my Faerie side. Even if three quarters of the Seelie Court have petitioned their king to have me banished to the UnSeelie Court... but personally I think that has to do with my demon blood and nothing at all to do with me... but I could be wrong.

So anyhow... while dad was recovering from the trauma of his brief stint at raising me and mom was enjoying her bounty hunting days, building her contacts and connections with the paranormal world as well as the mortal world, I was busy learning all about bounty hunting and fighting and all the various monsters out there, as well as all about weapons. For those of you who think it was a mistake to let a kid learn this stuff, trust me... it was a needed balance; because at the same time, I was coming into both my demon and faerie abilities. They continued to pop up gradually over the years, but by the time I was twenty, there weren't many half demons out there that I couldn't beat.

So I turned my attention to the full demons instead.

Granddad was thrilled to have me come live with him for a while. Seriously. We got along great and he didn't bitch about the shit I got into. He'd give me the odd talk about thinking ahead and learning to control my impulses... usually after I killed someone or something I shouldn't have... but all in all, we got a long great.

I came into my full powers during my stay in Hell and Granddad named me his heir, then insisted I start training for my full ascension. Apparently, it wasn't normally the spontaneous thing it was with mom... or rather, it wasn't supposed to be. It was normally a very important and almost sacred thing that was formed into a rite of passage. First you trained until you felt you were ready, then you faced a series of grueling tests... then , assuming you survived the training and the tests... you underwent the ritual that either ended with you being brought into your full demonhood... or you died.

I got distracted during my training and went topside off and on, winding up meeting an other dimensional half sister of mine who enticed me into joining her in her travels. So for a few years I alternately dimension hopped with Lain and trained for my 'coming of age' deal... and basically just had a shit load of fun.

Over the course of that time, we picked up a few other 'travelers'... most of whom went to work at the castle Lain called home or started up another 'team' of travelers. But one stuck with us and the two of us became pretty good friends. Of course, she was cute as hell which didn't hurt, but I let myself get wrapped up by a stupid prophecy that completely threw me.

Anyhow... during our little jaunts I figured enough was enough and headed home to take my 'tests' and get the whole 'ascension' thing over with.

Yeah ... 'grueling' was an understatement. But hey... I did it... I passed with flying colors. I stepped up and 'Ascended'.

Now that was something else. Up until that point, my physical abilities were somewhat limited... like moms. I'd grown wings... demon wings but rather faerified versions of them... and when I shifted my skin went dark and hard like scale... plus I had a tail. But when I ascended... that went out the window. I changed. I mean I completely changed.

Now when I shift... I'm not a demonic looking human.... I'm not even a human looking demon. I still have the wings and scales and tail... but I’m a good seven feet tall if not taller and I'm not even remotely human looking. I'm all claws, muscled scales and teeth.

And I'm hungry.

Now... my culinary preferences have never been 'nice'. I've always liked my steaks extra rare... but now... you don't even have to cut them off the cow... I enjoy them still mooing... literally.

So... I take it you're starting to agree with the whole 'I'm a special weird freak' thing, now huh? Yeah... don't worry... it's something dad and his side of the family still tend to have a hard time coming to terms with... Of course... they all blame mom.

Mom... mom blames granddad.

Granddad... granddad just thinks its all shits and giggles.

So do I.

Like I said... we get along great.

So.... anyhow....

Here I am.... the son of a half faerie half elven long lost be-spelled prince... and a half demon half faerie be-spelled bounty hunter... who also happens to be the daughter of the half faerie half demon Demon Lord and a be-spelled faerie of the old blood...

... bits and pieces that shouldn't be together... but are.

Add in the fact that my dad's dad, once he learned of me, spent a great deal of time and effort trying to have me killed... as did several rivals to my granddad's throne... and of course my Aunt Shada... Plus all of mom's enemies...

... I mean, when you consider the odds... with all those people out to kill me from the day I was born... I really shouldn't have grown up at all. One of them should've gotten lucky along the way and offed me.

.... but... nope. I grew up. And came into my powers.

Which is another thing that shouldn't have happened.

Ever since my granddad ascended, only the males of the family have been strong enough to reach the potential to claim their full powers... and those that survive the training and tests.... go insane once they ascend.

Can't have crazy royalty running around of course, which means they die. And all of them trained a lot longer and harder than I did... and all of them were older than me...

....but I made it.

Somehow, this crazy little fucked up demonic faerie over came all of the massive odds stacked against him, was born, grew up, ascended and LIVED.

All because a Fate sneezed at the wrong time... the universe wound up with ....

Me.


Dante Macrory.


Heir to the Chaos Throne.




Booger of Fate...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

So, there you have it. Dante's life story as told by Dante ( through me :) ).  I actually wrote this a couple years ago, and I DO keep meaning to try this again with some of my other characters, especially my main guy ( and the one I refer to as my alter ego) Graves ( no he's not mentioned in the story above... although Dante DOES end up marrying his daughter... ;) ).  This is a different style of writing then I usually work, so anything else I share won't be first-person, or as 'jumpy' .. that's just the way Dante is :)  

I hope those of you who read it enjoyed it :)  If you're curious about what else I've written, here's my website  

Hunter's Prey.

~ Skye

 

Challenge Check In #3

*phew!*

Okay... once again I barely made my challenge! >.<

Seriously..I like JUST finished the third pair of earrings about ten minutes ago then took the photos.

Of course, in my defense, this week has been spent working with my writing muses... when not fighting with my sewing needle and the stupid 'not-yet-stuffed-almost-plush-cat' >.<


To prove this 'not-yet-cat' actually exists and isn't just an excuse....here ->

The face is stitched, the stripes are stitched on the back of the head, the tail and the ears are finished... and the rest of the red bits are the body and feet.


Alright... now that you've seen the stupid cat >.<  How about my challenge pieces for this week?

Blue shell beads glued onto star washers. They're about the size of a dime.

The red ones were supposed to be for a gift, but lately every time I aim for steampunk...I come up more goth O.o I have another pair coming that is sticking to more steampunky, but there's a lot of gluing involved so...maybe they'll end up finished next week... these are made from a pair of bead caps that I flattened and hung some dark red crystals from :)


The blue pair is the one I finished last minute >.< blue buttons & silver jump rings.





and there... managed to scrape through another week >.<  although this week I have two other pairs of earrings in the works...they just didn't get any where near finished ;)


For an extra treat, I decided to feature a very talented photographer over at DeviantArt . She's received very little notice  for her work and I think she deserves a  lot more :)  Pop in and take a peek at the pictures I've selected to show, or follow her link through to her own gallery to see more :)  Feature: Embersadrift

FF- another Destash update

Another Friday has snuck up on me  >.<

And for the record... once again I STILL don't have any jewelry made towards my challenge yet, despite plans and ideas. I DO however have tomorrow off, so assuming I don't get distracted and/or lazy again, I should be okay :)

I am still working on that stupid stuffed cat I had the *brilliant* ( extremely heavy sarcasm) idea to make for a gift exchange >.< I have the tail finished, the ears finished ... and the face sewn. Just gotta get it put together fully. Was going really good tonight until I suddenly stopped and realized...I had no clue how to get my ears where I needed them to be so they'd flip right when I turned everything right side out...*sigh* I know now, but...I don't wanna sew NOW >.< ( I was whining there... did you hear me? ;) )

Next time I get this urge to sew... please, please PLEASE some one tell to to at LEAST stick to something made of the fewest pieces possible? I mean...if I'd done this in two pieces, I have had NO trouble at all. But no... I had to be fancy >.<  Grr... if it didn't mean another trip to the store for more red felt, I'd totally start over and do it EASIER!! Hmm.... maybe tomorrow depending on the weather and how much I get accomplished jewelry wise.

Any how, apologies for the late post... even though it IS still Friday ;) I was going to post earlier this afternoon, but I got distracted, but hey ! I'm here now :)

And... here you go...

I believe these little tube beads mark the last of the beads for the destash. I'll be going through my pendants and charms next and will no doubt have a few to add in to the lot before I tally up all the comments and find out who I send them all to :)

Oh, and thanks to everyone for hoping my week got better. I'm happy to report that it definitely perked up :). While I'm sad to say it didn't perk up enough for me to win heaps of money and retire somewhere WARM, I'm over the crap; and while still prone to bouts of irritation over a certain young lady and her 'helping', that's reaaaaly nothing new ;)

I'm off to snuggle up under my warm fuzzy blankets and listen to music until I fall asleep :) I'll check in with you all again on Sunday :)

~ Skye

Challenge check in #2

Sunday again. And once again I barely made my challenge deadline >.< thanks the stars I left myself that easy out of earrings and other small stuff being alright or I'd have failed miserably by now *sigh*  I should just rename Saturday as 'Scramble-day' since that's when I rushed to make all three pieces for my challenge >.<

Is that not terrible? What should be a fairly ease thing for me to do with a whole week to get them done... and I still end up doing it last minute >.<  I had ideas for stuff, and indeed, I wanted to do a piece for the ABS monthly challenge, but :p, nope. Not this week anyhow.

I did decide to do something a bit different since I was going with just earrings. I followed a quick tutorial from Fanciful Devices on 'making' artisan ear wires *snicker* love this little cheat and I think they look so much better! As well, both Fanci and Sparrow Salvage post earrings I adore. And while I haven't even attempted to try my hand at stuff along their style ( although I love it and it looks like a crap load of fun to make ;) ) I decided to keep it low key this time and just try one little aspect of it... the mis-matched pair. 

I pulled out some lampwork and ceramic beads I've had for ages and never used and got to work. Oddly enough, the three pairs I chose were all in the same color range...

The top pair is the most of the mis-matched , with the order of the beads reversed.

The next just has the seed beads colors reversed for a more subtle difference. I rather liked the ceramic focals here... they're a coffee tone with orange.. the scribbles look almost like Japanese writing but I don't think it is.. just artsy scribbles
.

The bottom pair isn't mis-matched at all ...I don't know why I didn't... maybe because it's all mixed media? lol Ceramic focals, wooden spacers and gem stone chips lol

As for my art part of the challenge... still zip on that front. Unless you count the red cat plushie I have sitting here in pieces. I DID design it, make the pattern myself and have it all cut out ready to put together. The face and stripes are sewn on and everything. I just kinda hit a snag of forgetting the pipecleaners to make the tail and ears positionable back when I started sewing, and then by the time I bought them, the sewing urge had abandoned me >.< If I get it done soon and it looks as good as I hope it will, then maybe I'll count it this month, simply because I did design it from scratch.

As to WHY I haven't done anything creative this week? Well.. I DID do quite a bit of writing... just nothing else. For those who don't know I write and have a website dedicated to my 'world' and characters, I do :) lol Hunter's Prey  .

~ ~

Okay...after writing it all, I decided to zip back up here and post a warning. This marks the end of jewelry/rational stuff. 

The rest of this post is dedicated to a massive whine/rant/bitch fest that you are in no way expected to actually read. Please feel free to skip to the comment form concerning the challenge bit if you'd like or just leave all together :) I'm perfectly fine with that. If you do chose to continue, I apologize in advance. I did try to not swear but... sometimes there are no other words to fully express it.

 ~ begin rant ~

 'Hunter's Prey' began as one story about six or so years ago. I'd just kicked my hubby out and had dived back into doing all the stuff I loved that he'd ruined for me with his attitude. Some friends did some fun little group writing projects to fight off the boredom of school work and life crap so I decided to start one. I created a world and story base to jump from, peopled it with some characters lead by a remake of an old character I'd made years before but not gotten to use much, then they all joined in. The story exploded with new characters and twists appearing, and branched off into a multitude of back stories and side stories. 
Within a couple months I'd started a website to house all the work so others could enjoy it too.  The website was intended to be run by two of us, the main writers, since the others were immersed in schoolwork and had enough trouble finding time to write, let alone help with the editing and site work. However, over the years I have received very little in the way of help with it. Plenty of new writing and art work, but very little edited work to post and no site work at all. Tons of excuses though; everything from a computer that won't access the website, to various other computer and internet issues.

Finally I decided it was for the best since their versions of 'editing' and MY version of editing were two completely different creatures... and their spelling was scary >.< I have a massive back log of writing to just spell check before I can even begin to consider editing it to make it remotely readable. If you read any of the stuff on the site  you'll begin to see what I mean. Group stories are difficult to edit together into one work so I try to piece the various parts together and nail as many of the spelling errors as possible into a rough draft that is at least readable. Even so, a lot got past me in the early days of posting them up >.< You'll also be able to pick out the stuff that others 'edited' for me... the ones where every other paragraph is taking place with a different set of characters or a different location and your brain is kinda jumping around to keep track of it all >.< 

Last year I had reached the point where I was so extremely pissed off over it that I couldn't write and was ready to let the site die. The rest of the group had vanished so it was just the two of us for the most part, and I was told about all these 'fans' who loved the stuff and wanted more, and what great reviews our work got. Turns out, while I'm working my ass of trying to edit these stories into readable works before posting them on a website I'm paying for to host them... she's off tossing the rough work up on other sites to be read. I felt like she was completely screwing me over and wasting my time and money. We ended up coming to an agreement after I'd cooled off ( luckily I try to make it a point to fume and growl in private or in venues where the person pissing me off won't hear or see until I'm calm enough to approach them reasonably over it ) and it was decided that I would renew the website on a three month trial.. which would be renewed into another year IF she started helping spell checking everything and doing at least rough edits for me... and to stop undermining my work with the site by posting everything all over the place. She could post teasers to draw people into the site for the rest, but not post the full work.

Then nothing.
First she couldn't do anything because she was working two jobs to save money ( great... no problem with that since it was much needed and a long time coming for her! I was more then willing to continue carrying things for a while longer if that was the reason.) Then she mentioned a bus trip across the country to spend a week with some mutual friends and attend a convention... then I hear next to nothing from her for a month, then the next thing I know she's stranded because plans changed and her dad decided he'd drive her and visit family while she was there... and they ran out of money and gas >.< Okay... lack of writing help understandable again.  
Then a couple weeks later when they get money again and they've had their little vacation.. do they head back home? Nope.. they continue on with the traveling to go see his family.. and the same shit happens. By the time they get home, they hock the computer again for money to get through the rest of the month. During this time I get word that they're selling their place and moving to another State. Her parents were getting an apartment in a complex and she was going to stay with her cousin until she got a place of her own. Now they're staying with mutual friends, not even in the same State as they were moving too, because her parents are on a waiting list, and she claims she never planned on staying with her cousin. 

The whole family is completely irresponsible, both financially and personally... I'd thought she was breaking free of the crap they'd been doing to get by month to month and she WAS making a difference... but now she's dived head first into her fathers irresponsible attitude >.< The way she acts reminds me more and more of my ex ( whom she couldn't stand, btw ). 

This week I found myself getting pissed off  again. Every time I dropped into our work forum and saw her name listed as having been into the site, but seeing nothing added by her, It bugged me more and more. This kind of stuff will go on for a week or more, then she'll leave a few little bits, then vanish again for another week or so. I just got extremely ticked off over her vanishing acts and refusal to do so much as to leave a note or email or facebook message saying that she was busy or not feeling up to writing. And she never responds to emails either >.<  

I decided that enough was enough. Since the group no longer exists and it's just the two of us, the group name is coming off the site. I created an original world with original characters and almost everything in the stories revolves around them. Her characters are based off of game characters or movie characters and she's just changed them around a bit... and she keeps using story lines from movies and games as well...its driving me nuts. It's like she has no concept of the term 'original'. I'll still give credit where it's due, don't get me wrong, but I'm no longer sharing credit that's mine. I'm the one who doing all the editing and website work, I'm the one that created the entire concept, world and main cast of characters that started everything, and I'm the one paying for the damned domain and website.

All she wants to do is write, that's fine. She'll get credit for the writing on the works that she did. 

Yesterday she reappeared out of nowhere and began writing up a storm on the work forum again and is still there now. I'm willing to bet she'll vanish again by tomorrow- Tuesday at the latest. I love her like a sister, but more and more her shitty selfish attitude reminds me of my ex and pisses me off. ... which I guess is about average for little sisters, right? You love them but there are times you just are tempted to throttle the living shit out of them or to try and knock some sense into them >.< she's been my honorary little sis for over ten years now. That's gotta be the longest running friendship I have to date. I still enjoy her company and love writing with her, but damn *sigh* the urge to shake the shit out of her is becoming a monthly occurrence.

If we hit the point where she starts to destroy my love of writing with this crap like my ex did...I'll have to call it quits. Ten year friendship aside, I'm not letting that part of me go again without one hell of a fight. Until then I'll just start being a bit selfish myself and make sure that I pay more attention to what I want and like rather then what she'd like.

Oh, and a good thing out of it all... when I get that pissed off, I've found I can channel it into my creativity, whether it be a painting or writing... usually writing. I usually choose a character that my writing is usually fairly good too... then write a very dark storyline in which I get to torture the shit out of them. Or I'll take a character that has a dark past and explore that past more fully, usually making it a tad bit worse as I do. Not so nice for the poor character, but great for the story and great for my emotional well being :D

Anyhow, now that I've made those decisions I'm feeling better :) I'd even decided that once I finished with the dark pieces I was writing, that I'd look over the stuff we have ongoing on the work forum and see what stirs my interest for taking over solo. It was rather eerie...within an hour of my decided THAT, she appeared and began working on some of them again... lol  sometimes I think we're connected just well enough that she can tell when she's gone that bit too far and I'm getting pissed off, even if we haven't spoken in ages.

So, dark mood has passed, new goals and decisions have been made to help keep another one at bay ( aside from PMS moods...those are a whole 'nother ballgame ;)  ). 

If you actually stuck around and read all of that .. wow..I'm impressed by your attention span and apologize for all the bad words ( although I was trying not to use too many ) and  the endless, ranting, bitch fest.

If by some chance, a certain sister or two actually found their way here to read this ; 

D- relax and calm down, I'm fine now and I'm not planning on disowning her.. do not link her here, try to play middle man, or get depressed over it. I'm fine. I promise.  

A- I'm sorry but this shit eats at me and every now and then I gotta let it out or it'll explode all over your ass and we'll end up kissing the friendship goodbye. I don't want things to go that way. I love you hun, but you just irritate the fuck outta me sometimes and while I've tried to explain shit to you, and ask you not to do some of it, I've done so AFTER I've tried to calm down. >.<

 ... Mar, if you read this, same goes for what I said to D. Thanks but no thanks. :) some times a girls just gotta bitch. You're married... you SHOULD understand this by now ;)

*looks back up at the massive rant and cringes* Once again, I'm sorry to all of you. Don't feel like you have to comment on any of the ranting topics. I really am alright and no longer moody or depressed over it all, but I decided I'd write it out anyhow.

I'll try to see if I can't remember to get around to doing a BTW post this week. If I do, I'll catch you all then :) Hell, maybe I'll share a bit of my writing every now and then and see what you guys think of my solo work and the characters I enjoy tormenting through my bad days  ;)

~Skye

FF- Destash update

Friday again :)
Tons of stuff on my mind but no will power to type any of it up, really. Been an up and down week emotionally, but nothing big time or serious, so don't worry ;)  Maybe I'll tell you guys some of it on Sunday with my challenge check in post since... my challenge is on the verge of fail this week >.< lol Tomorrow will be an earring making day to make my deadline lol

Anyhow, I've picked up some new containers and have been sorting through my beads and stuff the past couple days. Care to see what I've selected to add to the destash this week?

..I mean, considering that's why you're reading this today, after all ... ;)

How about some flat backs and a selection of glass beads? The smallest of the beads is 8mm , and the biggest is about 20mm from end to end. The flat backs are 6mm.
That medium blue round bead in the middle there has white and black polka dots on the sides... but the silly thing rolled over on me when I was taking the picture >.< lol Actually, it's a white dot with a yellow dot inside it then the black dot inside that... rather like a weird little eye ball.. lol  again, I had plans for these when I first got them, but after having them this long and not following through on those plans... time to pass them on to someone else.

Again, only my followers are eligible to win the detash. Comments on each destash post count as entries.

Challenge Check up!

Alrighty :) It's Sunday.. and boy am I glad it's Sunday. Despite the fact that it means there's no buses running and I had to walk all the way home in the cold and I didn't wear my long johns today,.. and wow...reaaaaly could of used them today >.<  anyhow, as I was saying, really glad it's Sunday because that means tomorrow is Monday... and I have Monday OFF!! :D 

WHOOHOO!!!  

This has been a loooong week, peoples. Very very long. Way too many predawn wake ups in a row. We're down two people at work which doesn't sound like a lot, but they're both among our small selection of day staff. So we're trying to run regular two-person shifts with just one person whenever we can and I've even gone in for a few hours first thing in the morning on my last day off just to help past the rough spot so it could be handled as a one person job. I think the only way we're surviving is due to it being a slow time of year and production being a bit less then normal. If this had hit any other time of year we'd be SO screwed right now >.< And there's no end in sight ... the one is off for the next few weeks since she's out of the country, and the other may be needing surgery... so...*sigh* .. the pay checks will be a bit nicer for the next while, but I'll be either catching naps after work or going to bed early a few nights a week... and no doubt getting a bit crabby over it all. No worries though, I'm still good for chocolate ; 3/4's of a box of brandied cherries, a few Bailey's chocolates, half a box of After Eights and two chocolate creme eggs. I think between those and the three bottles of wine in my fridge I'll survive alright ;)

   But you know what the best part of tomorrow is? No alarm clock tomorrow !:) I don't have to get up before the sunrises. I probably will anyhow, but..I don't HAVE to and that makes ALL the difference in the world ! :) I'd proclaim it a jammie day and lounge around in my fuzzy pajamas all day but unfortunately I have to run some errands and do laundry >.< 


Okay, enough of my babbling. If I don't cut myself off right there and get down to business, I'll start bitching about stuff and I'm not in the mood to bitch right now ;)


So, how's my Productivity Challenge going? Touch and go for a bit this first week, but I got my three pieces done :)

The first one I did is one that's been niggling away at my brain since just before Christmas. I used two large glass 'pitted pearl' beads, along with some 8mm purple glass beads that have a satiny soft finish to them. The pretty focal is one I won from Wild Roses & Blackberries . I believe she made it herself and I am so lucky to have it since she doesn't sell the components she makes :) I've been hoarding my special little stashes for 'that perfect project' and for this one, this was it :)

It was Friday by the time I finished with the necklace and I knew I wasn't going to get enough time to get much more done, so I rounded out my three with a couple pairs of earrings. The left is crackled glass and little black lampwork with flowers. The others are also lampwork, but are a purple with a bit of green and gold swirl through them that the camera didn't pick up very well, but is the reason why I added the green glass bead and little gold beads to go with them ;)


As for my art segment of the challenge, nothing in the works yet, but that part has a month to get done so I'm still good ;)  How are you guys coming along with your  self-challenges?

Oh, and before I forget. I teased my followers on Friday about a kit to be added to the detash pot ;) Here it is. I found this back in the fall and tons of ideas came to mind, but ... nothing came of them and this has sat untouched on my shelf ever since >.<  I believe they're acrylic but someone ripped the top half of the tag off so I can't tell for sure >.< I also don't know how old the kit is. I haven't seen these in any of the stores in the region however...if any one knows, speak up!   Even if you're not into using these types of beads yourself, it's all in one little kit so you can always pass it on to someone else :) Perhaps you have a little beader in residence who would enjoy creating along side you ;)


As always, all comments on detash posts count as entries for Followers ;)




there. I've done my blogging obligation... now I should go warm up my fingers with a cup of coffee and clear off some space to see about making something for the ABS monthly challenge :)


                                            ~ Skye

Destash addition #1

 :) 

So how's everyone coming along in the new year so far? Still sticking with your resolutions or have your crashed already? 

Mine are a bit behind, but it's been a rather hectic week at work with being short staffed >.<  I know I can still meet my challenge and post proof on Sunday though.. just gotta get my butt in gear ! :D

I'm sorry there have been no BTW posts from me in a bit ( since I officially joined the flickr group, actually >.< lol) I'll try to get back on track with that, too ! 

Today's destash addition may look a bit small... but that's because I have more set aside to add in with my Sunday post ;) A whole kit worth of 'more' :D hehe ... yes yes, I'm a tease, I know :)  I might add in a bit more on Wednesday, too... you never know ;)

Alrighty... added to the destash pot this week ...

One little pouch jammed full to near bursting with a muddle of beads in a variety of sizes, shapes, styles and materials. Every time I clean up after a project I seem to miss some beads... so when I find them, I more often then not just chuck them into a baggy or dish rather then take the time to sort them out and put them back in the right places >.< I have found that these little baggies can be handy for playing with when bored or looking for inspiration. :)

As well I decided to share a taste of the soup mix Lori of Pretty Things sent me in the little beadsoup swap she held a little while ago. One baggy with a mix of glass beads (mostly purple since the greens are currently being picked through for a new project ;) ) and two imperial jasper :)

Like I said, I had more to add in but I'll save them for my next post ;)

Remember, you must be a follower of this blog to enter. I noticed an 'entry' on my last blog from a non-follower :p tsk tsk tsk. Curious as to whether they just saw the word 'giveaway' and commented without reading the rest, or whether they were planning on clicking the 'follow' button and just never got around to it ;)

Well I'm off to work on some of my jewelry pieces for my weekly challenge to meet my deadline. I have a very pretty necklace I'm loving that I'm almost done with... then I'll probably end up doing a couple pairs of earrings just to get my three projects in >.< lol

 ~ Skye

Happy New Year!

I'm actually writing this on New Year's Eve afternoon, thinking back over the year that has flown by so quickly and remembering just how much I've accomplished... and failed. Needless to say, the failures will be reattempted again this year in hopes of becoming successes and accomplishments to look back on NEXT year ;)

In just the last half of 2011 I've managed to reach a point in my jewelry making where I'm confident enough to consider actually selling some in the future. I look back at some of my older pieces, even just from the start of this year and cringe to think of having made and gifted them. I'm so proud of myself for having made such huge leaps in the quality of my work :)

I'm also proud of myself for having stuck with it as well as having stuck with this blog... although I haven't been as regular with posting as I'd originally intended.

While my quality in my work has improved, my productivity is just as lagging as ever >.<  To remedy this I've decided to set myself a challenge... and to share it with all of you.

This is an open and completely personal challenge. YOU decide what your challenge is and set your own limits, then just share your progress with me and anyone else interested :) I know some who think that a pair of earrings a day for a month is a great challenge, but for me that's just too many earrings to end up with since I don't have a shop yet to sell them in, plus a daily challenge just isn't right for me >.<

I've added a page just for my challenge where I'll keep a linkup of all my challenge entries, as well as links to anyone who joins me in challenging themselves to keep creatively productive no matter how busy their lives are :) 

Check out the 'challenge' tab at the top of my page :)
and with that, I'll leave you with a fabulous New Year's wish -

"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something...
So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next year and forever." ~ Neil Gaiman - http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2011/12/my-new-year-wish.html

~ Skye