The Kira Nichols Etsy Shop

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Shell and Jewel Earrings

Earrings! It's been a pretty long while since I've made any jewelry that wasn't resin-oriented... This is a quickie little set of earrings I made with some of the jillions of beads I have in my crafting arsenal. I've done a liiittle bit more crafting this week, but I can't share yet, since they're for Christmas presents, and I'm pretty sure the recipients read my blog. Oh well, I'll be sending soon, and it'll give me a teeny backlog of things to post in mid December when I'll be doing ZERO crafting.

I've been feeling very blah and bummed lately... It's mostly because my painkillers just aren't cutting it at all. I'm wavering back and forth on calling the doctor and asking for a med change-up because I know everything will get mixed up in less than 3 weeks when I get my back surgery done. Bah, I spend probably 85% of my time in bed, and it's just getting depressing. I try to get up and eat, craft a little, run errands, etc. but most all vertical activities are followed by a pain spike and immediate regret. And I feel like a giant whiner. I don't want to be Debbie Downer, but yeah. My interaction with the outside world most days has generally been limited to my laptop.

So, it's my craft blog and I'll cry if I want to.

I do want to say a late happy Thanksgiving! And a genuine thank you and hi to new followers! And to old followers! Thank you for putting up with my lamenting and cry-babying. Much love, friends! Have a good week, and go do some jumping jacks for me :)
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Tiny Ocean House

Since I don't have a lot of crafting capacity right now, I thought it would be wise to finish up the little project I needed to make for the Craftster Tiny Fairy Tale House swap. It feels nice to have the pressure off, and I'm very pleased with how this Little Mermaid-inspired house turned out!
It's about 1.5"x1.5"x2", embellished all the way around with seashells and a responsible amount of glitter glue (because yes, there is such thing as too much glitter glue). The shells are sparkled up with some jaquard pigment powder... so subtle and shimmery!
My favorite part is the roof! I used my cricut to cut scallops, then painted the layers in different colors of that powdered pigment before gluing them down. It reminds me of fish scales, the way it's shiny, and well, the shape! I think I've got to make a similar fish ornament later on.
And what work of art is complete without a touch of sparkly microballs? Haha, I couldn't leave them out, because they look so much like little bubbles. Perfect for Little Mermaid-esque-ness. So there's just a touch.

Hey! Awesome news that made me so happy tonight! I reached 100 facebook 'likes' on the oopsicraftmypants.com fan page! So I've got a new link: http://facebook.com/oopsicraftmypants
If you haven't liked it yet, go for it to make me smile :)

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Bird Art Postcard

I made this postcard for Audio last week, and now it's arrived and I can share it! It's a kinda collagey type piece, using some little paper scraps and things. The falcon was cut out of a book, and the tags are punches.
You can kinda see that the little birds have fluffy tufts of feathers sticking up out of their crowns. I thought it was funny, they blow in the wind :)
Something was missing at the end, so I just had to add some sparkly microballs. Happy Sunday, everyone. I hope your weekend was super!
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Poppy Embroidery for the Hoopla Swap

I told you I'd have a swap project to share! This is the hoop I embroidered for the craftster hoopla swap and sent to barbolot. With all the nutsy things happening lately, I forgot to take pictures before I sent it off (bad craft blogger! bad!). Luckily, she has superb photography skills and these pictures are hers.
So, it's a poppy, and it tells you to be happy! I hadn't really accomplished much satin stitching before this piece, but I'm glad I got a little practice. It won't be so intimidating in the future.

So t-minus 29 days until the surgery!!! (it is going to be an ALIF. Click that to see a fun little movie!) I'm going to try to accomplish as many sketchbook project pages as possible before then, because I guess that recovery is going to be a real you-know-what! Happy Wednesday!

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Scrabble Tile Pendants and some GREAT news

I made a ton of scrabble tile pendants for the craft fair, and here's a little group shot :) I did a lot of robots and cupcakes, because they seem to be pretty popular... At least they are my favorite.

Anyway, I went to the surgeon yesterday, and he is going to fix my back!!!!!!!! I have surgery scheduled for December 16th!!!!!!! I can hardly believe it. I want to do a big ol' happy dance!! But I had better save the dancing for after the surgery, right? :D
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The Craft Fair!

Yesterday was my very first craft fair! My friend Jessica who makes awesome infant carseat covers offered to share a booth with me, and it went sooo well, for both of us. It was a HUGE fair, with I think they said 220 vendors. Tons of people were there, and we had a great booth location right at an entrance to a gym filled with more booths. (Emma, if you're reading this, do you recognize your bunting garland?! It was perfectly fantastic decoration!!!)
I learned a LOT... Mainly what sells and what doesn't. And that I think it pays to have colorful displays, but hey, you know me! Would I have anything but colorful? :) Oh, and I found a good final use for my halloween pumpkin. He made a great sign-holder.
Here's the display board I made for my shrinky earrings and scrabble tile pendants. It was my cricut to the rescue to make a lot of my display signs.

*Huge sigh of relief!* So it's all over! After a week of crazy crafting and ouch, I'd say it was worth it. I had a lot of fun, and I'll do it again (especially now I've got all the displays made)! And hopefully after I get my back fixed, because it's KILLING ME. Tomorrow's the day I get to see the spinal surgeon... Wish me luck.
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Blog Hiatus - UPDATE: Umm, just kidding.

UPDATE 11/06/10!!! 
Well, it looks like I spoke too soon... I just found out yesterday that I have the opportunity to do another craft fair a week from today. I couldn't turn it down, so it looks like I'm going to have to craft like a mad woman, so back pain be darned this week. This is going to be tough, but with Christmas coming up, I can't pass up the little bit of extra income. Anyway, I guess I won't be disappearing after all.

ORIGINAL POST:
Hey friends! As you have probably read before, my back issues have been especially oppressive lately. So I'm taking a break from my craft blog... I hope this doesn't sound nuts, but I love connecting with all you guys who read, and feel like I'm disappointing somebody, somewhere in the world when I don't have anything to share, especially after going for so long, posting a new project just about every day. Do any of you other bloggers feel any sort of imaginary obligation to blog? Even though you just do it because you love it? I dunno, maybe I'm just silly. You understand, right?

So, I won't be posting many projects very often, but when I have the stamina to hammer out a craft (I can't expect myself to NOT craft anything!), I promise I'll share it! I've got 2 swaps to finish at any rate, so there will be those projects :)

I've got an appointment with that spinal surgeon in less than two weeks, so hopefully he'll be willing to rescue me somehow. After 7 years of dealing with progressively worse pain, I've just GOT to have something done. I'll probably still keep posting on my personal blog, so if you care for an update on that front, head over.

Anyway, thank you guys so much for all of your kind words and support. I love you!
Much love,
Kira