Fun and Frolic With Long-Term Love

[Bluebird]

I finished the first box of cherry blossoms last night. I stuck them in the corner of my dining room for now. I have two more boxes of these to complete, so I will need to find another vase that will hold them all! I’m still in bed at the moment this morning, but when I get up to get some breakfast (prolly some yogurt) I am going to knock out a second box.

So far the cats are all doing okay without Milton. Everyone is now able to free roam the house and there haven’t been any instances of peeing outside of the litter box. There’s been a few little spats but overall everyone is coexisting well. Milton really didn’t like Lenny or Harry, and since he refused to be locked up, those two cats had to be contained in rooms instead. He really didn’t do well in a multi-cat household, poor baby.

DarkKnight is not doing well. He cries or gets teary every night when he comes home from work because Milton ALWAYS greeted him at the front door. He called him “my buddy” because of the old commercial for the child’s toy - wherever I go, he’s gonna go, my buddy - and it was really true! Milton had terrible separation anxiety and always wanted to be near DarkKnight.

Lenny discovered the cat highway yesterday when he saw ColePorter on it. He watched him like a hawk, but didn’t attempt to climb it yet himself that we’ve seen. We have been talking about expanding it a short way onto the right side wall of the sunroom, as the cats have issues with making the transition in that corner.

As seen in this photo, there’s only one step on the right wall currently, and the cats never use it or the small step below it. They just jump from the shelf directly down into the cat tree! It’s just a tad too far, so it’s always a huge thump that sets the whole tree shaking! So giving them a place to climb over to turn around makes sense.



Another photo from Lenny’s point of view:

 

[Bluebird]

Fucking A things are falling apart. Or rather, I am. I will go in chronological order of the week so far though shit hit the fan later on.

Tuesday I had a friend come over and we spent the entire afternoon organizing beads and I realized that I needed purchase more storage solutions, as well as get moving on the painting projects in the basement. You may recall my work last November in painting the one long wall in the craft room and setting up a station from IKEA for all of my scrapbook stuff. This is a picture from then:


The paneling takes a while to do - this took a week. First I scrubbed it down with bleach, then the next day was a coat of mold-restricting primer, then a day of painting and a day of touch-ups. Then all that followed with a day of building Kallax bookshelves and getting things out of moving boxes.

This is what things look like now, starting at the basement stairs, looking into the craft room:



I plan to paint the wooden storage solutions on the right this month - it’s for holding all of our wrapping paper and tissue paper and ribbon. Straight into the room are some of the 5-6 bins of beads that I am currently sorting.

The end of the room doors close off the gym. I need to paint the rest of the paneling - that is eating all of the light in the space. That’s not happening right now though. My goal is to use the right paneled wall for my floral stems and headpiece supplies.



Turning around, THIS is the wall I was supposed to be painting today. Things happened though, so now it looks like maybe I can do that on Sunday. The window looks into our sauna. I’m going to paint it the same sage green, with bright white trim. The window itself will be surrounded by Kallax bookshelves holding all of the bead trays.



Tuesday night, I convinced MisterMoonbeam to come to IKEA with me, so all the the Kallaxes have been purchased. They’re upstairs in my entryway. LittleMichigan was scheduled to come over and put them together as part of my birthday present this week - because of issues I had, she is coming to do that tomorrow! I do think I should be able to knock out this project on Sunday as planned, which will give me the next week to work on the paneling. Or, I might put that off a second week depending on how I feel.

Anyway, this space has plans and should be completed soon. Tuesday night was a fun jaunt and it was enjoyable! However, we JUST realized I forgot to get my weekly Mounjaro shot that night in the hubbub, so I just got that now. Oops!

Wednesday MisterMoonbeam was working from home, so the plan was for me to go to therapy in the afternoon with the car. That morning I was happy and excited, as I had been chatting with an online friend who ended up trading for some of my pricier garb pieces.

I mailed out my vixen with attached peplum and my mulled wine & gold vine vixen (the original - I just replaced this in my new smaller size) and in return I will be getting this cute set: a Vixen with removable peplum and sleeves in my size.



After that discussion and trip to the post office, I came home to discover I had some Amazon purchases to try out for my upcoming Emo Karaoke event. I decided to go full ho and embrace the sexy goth girl inside of me!



This is not the completed look - I have a different skirt and jewelry, and in this photo, my makeup is not complete. Still, damn. I know I look good!

Unfortunately, I also bought a fishnet body stocking. I will not be sharing those photos here. They worked to great effect, and MisterMoonbeam took a break from work to ravage me thoroughly. Perhaps too thoroughly. It was AMAZING. Until it wasn’t.

Things started feeling not so great. He’s fairy well endowed as it is, and this was our third attempt at penetrative sex since my surgery - I think? Definitely our most vigorous session! Near the end, I was starting to cramp and he immediately calmed down and took care of me. No worries!

I rested a bit, he went back to work, and I decided to go shopping. I had a big list. My friend that I had been chatting with all morning had directed me to a bra-fitting site, and it turns out, I actually now measure a 38DD! So the three new bras I recently purchased are not the best. So I went to the mall.

DarkKnight was off of work at this point and he met me at Torrid. They only had one bra in the entire store in that size. I’m definitely on borrowed time with being able to buy things from there! I was glad to have the one bra, but the thing is, I had $325 worth of torrid cash to spend. So I ended up snagging 3 cardigans and a cute dress in their size zero, which is a straight size 12.

I came home and ordered more on their website - 3 more bras and 3 more cardigans. Hey, it’s Fall! lol At this point I realized that the cramps were still kind of there. They were like my old period cramps, at a level 2 for pain. However, I also had some low-level nausea happening. Then, I went in to pee and saw that I was bleeding.

It wasn’t a huge amount, but it wasn’t a small amount either. It was all dark blood, like period blood. Only, like, I don’t have a uterus anymore, what the fuck? It wasn’t fresh red blood like scrapes and cuts. This was from *inside*.

I immediately was scared. I was worried that I had possibly caused my vaginal cuff to shift. I didn’t think it had torn, because I had read that was like MASSIVE pain. When I did my slight push to pee, like a muscle release?, it hurt much more than a level 2, but then it subsided. I told both of my guys what was happening but that I didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything yet.

Very quickly though, I realized things were ramping up and the blood was continuing. I did some quick reads on the internet, and the blood+cramping meant ER. So, at 6:35 pm I found myself checking into the waiting room. (Urgent Care wasn’t an option - they would have sent me to the ER to get images done, zero doubt.)

Starting a second entry shortly because this is long.

 

[Bluebird]

So, MisterMoonbeam drove me to the ER. Waiting time was estimated to be 6 hours! We were like, midnight isn’t terrible…but it was too late for DarkKnight. So he stayed home to go to sleep.

There were 50 patients waiting to be seen in the waiting room. I think there were at least 40 rooms in use once they took someone back. Later we heard it was the busiest night for the ER in all of 2024! Still, they triaged me pretty quickly, and took a urine sample. My blood pressure was normal at that point - 120/79. After a few minutes, I was called back for two vials of bloodwork. Then, we waited.

The room was slowly thinning, only to be filled again quickly. There were a lot of elderly who looked like they were actively dying for various reasons. I felt like though I was bleeding, it wasn’t visible, and my pain level was manageable. I wasn’t upset that I had to wait. I know how triage works, though I felt like I’d be quick - I needed someone to look at my cervix and confirm there wasn’t a visible tear and then to send me home with pain pills with a specialist follow up. At least, that’s what I thought would happen.

After about an hour or two, the health app told me that my urine was great and everything was normal. Also, my bloodwork was the BEST I had ever had. The metabolic panel was all green points and my blood glucose was a 94. Fuck yes! In retrospect, these didn’t help my case for moving up in the triage list.

At 1 am, MisterMoonbeam was concerned because my pain level was actually increasing. My blood flow had stopped and I wasn’t getting anything new on my toilet paper when wiping. He was told that I had less than 10 people in front of me, with around 40 people in the waiting room. At 2 am, they started re-triaging everyone, because a large number of the people had been waiting for 7-8 hours. Many people had left but more had come in as well. My blood pressure was now 137/90 - probably due to the pain and the stress.

After this, I started crying quietly. I was exhausted, in throbbing, cramping pain that was increasing, and it just seemed like sunk-cost at that point by staying any longer. I’m like, realistically, they aren’t going to admit me. I need to see a specialist. But I felt dumb - at this point MisterMoonbeam would be missing work and what if I did have a tear, and I left and it got infected? Fuck.

After 9 hours, I finally got called back into a room. My blood pressure was then 148/100. An RN asked for info, seemed a bit concerned, did some pressing on my abdomen and then left for like 45 minutes. MisterMoonbeam hunted me down a pair of heated blankets (I was shaking and freezing in spite of wearing jeans and a hoodie! Picture taken before I was hurting! Also, damn the hoodie is a size 16 and I’m a 12 now. Need to donate it!)



So yeah. A doctor came in an we did the entire rundown explanation and he said yeah, I was right to come in and not leave without being checked. Only he wasn’t going to look - he was sending me for an ultrasound. First I got a shot of Toradol for pain. Then within 15 minutes a tech showed up and did the scan. She was a little confused - I didn’t have any parts to look at in there! She said her opinion was I should have had a CT scan but whatever. She did a wand across my abdomen and then one inserted inside my vagina. There was some more blood on the vaginal wand, but hardly any. I had a little bit when I wiped.

There was no cuff tear evidenced, as well as no blood pooling inside of me, or unevenly knotted scar tissue. My external scar was actually complimented - she said for 4 months post op it was clear I had taken care of it. Inside was all good.

So what the fuck was going on?

At this point it was now 6 am. MisterMoonbeam texted DarkKnight, and they ended up trading off. MisterMoonbeam went home to sleep and DarkKnight brought me breakfast. Around 8 am we had a visit from the doctor and he said he was sending me home with a prescription for ultra strength Motrin and a follow up order to see a gynocologist for further investigation & expertise. His suggestion is that I need pelvic floor therapy.

Apparently it’s a common side effect of this sort of surgery. My pelvic floor has tightened up which can cause trigger pain and cramping. Though nothing looks abnormal, my stuff has got moved around and muscles have stretched and my vagina may have been shortened a bit which also doesn’t help matters. Anyway, he was sending me home, because the gynocologist will be much more versed in this. She will be able to forward me on further to a specialist.

Oh, and then he asked if I needed more bloodwork for my upcoming thyroidectomy and I said yes, lipids and A1C. He said he couldn’t order lipids but he could easily amend my previously collected bloodwork to give me a number.

DarkKnight and I came home, and he dropped me off and went to work. I fell asleep until 1 pm. My A1C results were pinging my health app.

Y’all, after all the stress and nonsense - I’m no longer testing as diabetic! My A1C is now 5.4.



So that was good news! To be clear, I am still diabetic, but my blood glucose is now controlled. I’m doing awesome!

MisterMoonbeam came in and gave me snuggles and both of us fell back asleep for a few hours. When I woke, I called the gyno and she can see me tomorrow. DarkKnight is going to take a half day of work and go along with me.

I asked LittleMichigan to skip coming over today and instead I will see her tomorrow afternoon. I don’t plan to do any painting - instead she will just construct the Kallax bookcases and maybe I will sit and sort more beads! My friend is coming over later in the day so we can have dinner together and get dressed for Emo Karaoke. I think I will be fine for that - I’m not singing, I’m just driving and supporting DarkKnight by cheering him on and being his arm candy. I have taken the prescription Motrin and I am feeling okay. Tired, but the sharp cramps are not in evidence.

Saturday the guys have plans to change the air filters in the house, and the car fountain filters as well. Our 12-foot skeleton will be constructed in our sunroom, and then DarkKnight and I are going to Rocky Horror. I plan to dress like Magenta, but I had planned to buy red lipstick at some point and that hasn’t happened yet. Maybe tomorrow after the gyno visit I can stop somewhere and look. I also don’t know about the hair. My hair does not curl crazy. But, I am okay with that if I just have an outfit. I have a black dress with a white shirt underneath for the collar and cuffs, and I have a white maid apron. Maybe with fishnets and my Docs? That should be fine.

I have a lot more garb trades and updates but I am tired again. I will share photos another time.

 

[Bluebird]

I got up this morning and was able to kiss MisterMoonbeam goodbye on his way to work. He said he’s still pretty tired. I won’t see him today, since I will be gone when he gets home and I am at Emo Karaoke in Winchester tonight. He was driving the van to Dulles which he hasn’t had to do in a while!

DarkKnight is coming home at 10 am so I need to get in the shower soon to start getting ready. He’s going with me to my gynocologist appointment. They literally just called me to say that they are switching me to a different provider within the practice, which is fine.

After the appointment, my youngest will be coming over so DarkKnight is going to spend some time with her while she builds my basement Kallax bookcases. TheEngineer is also coming over for a few hours, so he will be going with me to run errands. Here’s my to do list for the afternoon:

Vet: Pick up Milton’s cremains

UPS Store: MisterMoonbeam Amazon return

Post office: Mail out garb swap



I’m trading this dragon’s egg vixen crop that is too large for me, for an energy flow wench corset.

Bridal shop: Pick up warfront skirt

My friend has finished alterations on the skirt I traded for a while back!

Torrid at the mall: Pick up a yellow cardigan I ordered online.

Sephora: I still need red lipstick for Rocky Horror tomorrow.

Dollar store: I need two containers to use for making Boo Baskets for my metamour and my youngest daughter.

Hobby Lobby: I need at least two more earring holders, and I’d like to see what jewelry pieces they might have in stock that I can use to make some stuff for my upcoming visit to Ravenwood Faire. I also need flower stems to make a headpiece and a boutonnière for this same event!

I’m going to be wearing navy and silver to that Faire - a Damsel in this Dress petite wench (it’s shorter, with one less grommet) and a flocked velvet tulip skirt with a Moresca shimmer blouse as a base. MisterMoonbeam got a new navy kilt from Versatta in the mail yesterday, and I ordered a shirt from Zootzu that should arrive early next week!



Some other pieces I am waiting to receive in the mail:

I bought this scrap skirt - I’ve never owned one and I am super excited!



I traded a polka dot wench for a “Cara” vest, which is from the Star Wars Cantina Collection. I’m hoping this will look good with my warfront skirt!



I’m still waiting for this trade to complete itself - I mailed out the black & silver crop with pockets and I should get the Fast & the Furiosa crop by Monday!



Okay, I’m off to shower and get ready for my upcoming appointment!

 

[Bluebird]

Crazy corseting hourglass action!!







DarkKnight has been calling me his big tiddy goth girlfriend all night.

I’m not sure what he’s going to be singing but I’m sure it will be epic!

 

[Bluebird]

Wow - last night was crazy fun, and it made me forget all of the bullshit over the last few days! To backtrack though, here’s the update on my abdominal issue:

The gynocologist I saw was like 25 years old, OMG. He was very thorough though, and he asked me a ton of questions. He explained that he wasn’t a surgeon, but he felt like he could give me some insight as to what was happening. At first he said that he felt like the ER doctor had done me a disservice by not giving me a physical exam - that the ultrasound photos were great, but there was a decided lack of pictures of the cuff itself, and usually just using eyeballs to LOOK is the easiest thing in the world. “I’m not a surgeon, but just looking at the surgical site I feel confident I will be able see if something is not normal!”

He also guessed that I might actually be having issues not because of my pelvic floor, but because of vaginal dryness due to menopause. I discounted this immediately. I would know if I was dry, and I am not! He said that it was common to have to use an estrogen cream after a hysterectomy that removed the ovaries too.

So, well, he looked up in there with a speculum. He noted immediately that I wasn’t dry. Lolol He also said that there was a bit of blood on and near the cuff, even though I hadn’t reported any more - it wasn’t making its way down.

He seemed pretty exasperated after looking. He asked me when I had last seen my surgeon, and if we had discussed the timeline for resuming sex. I reported that it was when I had my stitches out at 2 weeks, and that I had been told I could resume activities at 12 weeks, but when I tried then, it hurt so bad, I stopped until the 3 month mark, since the internet had reported that would be better. Of course, I had some residual pain then, so here I was at 17 weeks, trying again, only to have this happen.

He said I still had undissolved sutures. I shouldn’t be having any sort of sex right now. More than likely, each time I tried to have sex, I disturbed them, which was actually prolonging the healing process. If anyone had taken the time to look, they would have told me to not even try yet.



So, no more penetrative sex for me until the end of the year. He said he absolutely believes I will be good to go then, but since I have my 6-month follow up then with the surgeon’s office, make sure they LOOK at me.

I don’t need creams and I don’t need pelvic floor therapy. I need to let my body heal.

I’m really relieved but I am a little pissed off too. As the gynocologist pointed out, I was lucky to get an appointment the very next day. If I had been required to wait a week or so to see him, I would have spent those days believing I needed therapy and worried about an issue that wasn’t. After waiting all of those hours at the ER, I should have demanded the attending doctor at least looked at the cuff, instead of just relying on the ultrasound pictures. I didn’t know they didn’t show a good view of the cuff. I also should have asked for a 3-month follow up even though my surgeon said it wasn’t necessary.

I’m angry at those guys, but I’m also angry at myself for not advocating more for my sexual health.

It’s good news though - I’m happy to know what is going on.

I’m still dealing with cramps this morning. I was told to definitely take the prescription Motrin on-schedule for the next few days as things calm down inside of me! I was definitely feeling okay last night though, and I had fun at the event. I’m going to rest most of the day today (the cats woke me up this morning!) and maybe go out to gather some more floral stems, as I didn’t get everything I needed yesterday for my navy/silver crown.

 

[Bluebird]

I’m painting the one wall in my basement craft room today, and I think I may need new paint clothes! I stole this shirt from DarkKnight 19 years ago in Texas.

I haven’t started yet as I spent the morning helping MisterMoonbeam clear out more of the garage. It’s coming along! My goal of being able to park one of the cars in here for winter is almost realized!



I think the empty shelves are going to end up in the basement storage room, and the center table (4’ x 8’) you can’t see, and that is going to be turned horizontally and put against the back wall. I’m confident I can finish that this month for sure! I need to message my son and see when he can come and assist me with the black & red totes in the left - that’s Halloween & Christmas decorations, and I need him to bring the Halloween ones inside. Maybe I will do that Tuesday after I do the pro life clinic escorting?

I guess I need to get moving on the painting project. The other thing I wanted to share is that I did finish the 3 boxes of cherry blossom Lego flowers I got for my birthday! Six stems!



I will start constructing one of the other flower bunches soon.

 

[Bluebird]

Last week:



I posted that pic earlier. Here’s what it looks like now:





I’m sooo happy to have this done. The freaking doors took 4 coats! Ugh. I’m planning on putting a lamp on top of the shorter Kallax on the left. I’m going to have to run the plug up through the drop ceiling, as there is no outlet on this wall.

TheEngineer is coming over on Tuesday to build out and repair the piece of furniture on the right. Here’s a better photo:



He’s going to build a panel along the front edge, and then install a piece of acrylic with a piano hinge to close the top, after removing the center support. I want to be able to hold all of my wrapping paper in it! The drawers are going to be for tissue, ribbon, gift bags, etc. This piece is original to the house and was in the first owner’s workshop! I really wanna repurpose it. I plan on painting it on Wednesday so it looks fresh and looks like it belongs in the space.

Tomorrow though, a friend is coming over to help me unpack all of the bead trays and get all of my supplies loaded up into the bookcases. I can’t wait for this space to be more useful!

 

[Bluebird]

Quick photo drop with updates:



A friend came over on Monday and helped me organize my bead storage. I got my scrap skirt in the mail that afternoon - love it!



On Tuesday, TheEngineer came over and made repairs to the furniture piece I want to use for storing wrapping paper and gift bags. I am painting that this afternoon, so I will post a photo later. While he was here, he mentioned that the Kallax inserts I’m using to store scrapbook paper would really bring things together for my bead trays, and I was SHOOK. MisterMoonbeam and I drove to IKEA that same night and I bought 5 of them!

I assembled 3 of them yesterday under Harry’s watchful eye:



I plan to finish the rest today. I also worked on creating two shadow boxes showcasing jewelry and bead creations made my MisterMoonbeam’s late wife, and he really liked them. I’m going to put them up over the sauna window downstairs. 75% of the beads I now own were hers, and I am nowhere near as amazeballs as she was at making jewelry! I feel like honoring her in this space makes sense.

Yesterday afternoon a friend texted me and was hyping up the Paranormal Cirque iii that is in town, so I bought two tickets and invited my youngest to go with me. She loves horror stuff!



The lighting was not condusive to photos. lol

I wore my newest cropped corset all day yesterday, and got lots of compliments while out and about running errands. That was nice. I still feel some sort of way about my ankles belonging to some other body though. Even with my weight loss, they’re still smaller than every other part of me.

 

[Bluebird]

I got my Kallax inserts put together and now my bead trays are easily accessible. That said, it’s a little weighted-looking to one side, so I may redistribute them. Not today though.

Ugh I was so depressed today. I put on paint clothes and managed to take all of the drawers out of the furniture piece that TheEngineer rebuilt for me. I wiped them down and removed the pulls. That’s about as far as I got. My throat was hurting so bad - I really can’t wait to get this thyroid out - and my abdomen was crampy AF as well. I laid down and cried for a bit. Yeah. I didn’t accomplish much of anything.

I finally just showered. Tomorrow I am hosting a Cocktails & Crafting thing at my house with a few friends. So that means I will spend some of the day cleaning and getting things set up. I have no idea how many people will actually show. I have 5 people who have RSVP’d but two of them are iffy because they’re unreliable for most events. Another person told me maybe. Honestly I will be happy if it’s just me and one other person! I plan on working on my headpiece for Ravenwood Faire next weekend.

I’m also hoping to have time tomorrow to start on budgeting for the rest of the year, and laying framework for our State of the Union at the end of the month.

 

[Bluebird]

Three people showed last night, which was fine with me! I got my flower crown almost complete but I need to buy ribbons to tie the back, and then close it with flowers there once it’s sized to my head. I think it’s looking good!

I bought two vests at the Las Vegas Ren Faire (via proxy) and I’m so excited now for them to appear in the mail. I was hoping for more to match with MisterMoonbeam, but nothing was in his size at all. However, they had a ton in DarkKnight’s size! I bought him a purple & black medallion so he can match up with the ones that MisterMoonbeam & I wore to Masks of Mischief, and when I told him he was super happy! I’m excited to have a group garb situation soon. The other is a light blonde leather-look vest that I will give him at Christmas.

Oh my god our credit cards are crying! I reconcile them every two weeks and make more than the minimum payment on all of them, making sure I have a running total and transfer when we get a new 0% card. But I have done them dirty this year and need to put even more in the sock drawer for safekeeping and sleep.

Anyway, I gave one a workout this morning because I saw one of my close friends wrote on Facebook that she had no food in the house and her grandfather had eaten beans three days in a row. Not on my fucking watch. She’s the same age as my youngest daughter, so I have always felt protective of her. Anyway, I had her meet me at the grocery store, and we spent $250 on paper products and canned goods, and then loaded up her car before going back inside and spending around $800 on bread, fresh produce and meat. I LOADED her fridge and freezer. She was in absolute shock and said she never in her life had that much food! I also surprised her with a $50 gift card to Chilis, which made her start crying. She said it was too much, but I said she deserved to go out and treat her grandfather.

So I was flying high happy this morning. I had told both DarkKnight & MisterMoonbeam that this was happening and they both gave an unequivocal yes - they know her as they play D&D with her too.

So it was a bit too much but it was a joyous feeling to know I helped. So fuck it. Credit cards can cry. I’m smiling!

I came home and MisterMoonbeam went and got a haircut. While he was gone I made deviled eggs for a get-together we are going to attend later today. There’s a polyclue who lives nearby that we met at Mythicon and they had an open invitation on Facebook to come spend the day at their farmette, just bring a side dish. I posted we were going and I am excited to see them and actually get to know them all better. The one guy has been in my DMs for a bit.

 

[Bluebird]

Photo drop from the last few:


Northern lights from my front yard



DarkKnight at Emo Karaoke

All of our Halloween totes in the entry hall:


Living room got clean yesterday:


Skelliot is up, with Albus & Harry in the sunroom:

 

[Bluebird]

Complete! I think.

 

[Bluebird]

I really enjoy making my headpieces! I’m going to make a smaller one using my leftover materials. One thing I feel I need to improve on is estimating how much I need to actually create one! I always overbuy a bunch. That said, I always seem to be wishing I had an additional flower stem of a different color. For this one I really needed more silver, but most locations I looked had more glittery, holiday looking flowers in silver.

I think the next event that I make for will be Pennsylvania Yuletide. Tickets aren’t on sale yet for that, but I keep checking! I think we will stay in a hotel when we go - I will need to travel to New York for Christmas to see my sister & nieces and nephews.

I bought some double-layer headbands to experiment with for headpieces, but I haven’t had time to mess with those yet. I need to finish painting in the craft room this week. The headpiece I finished yesterday was made in the dining room!

I’m home alone today so my plan is to focus on the furniture piece I should have painted last week, but I got too depressed to do anything that day. I’m not feeling down at all today. The only thing I have on my calendar this week is therapy on Wednesday. Well, and the Ravenwood Faire on Saturday.

TheEngineer is going to come visit on Tuesday. I bought some Hobby Lobby wooden craft kits - a trebuchet, a catapult and a helicopter - that we are going to attempt to put together. We did some Lego succulents a while back and that was a fun activity, and when I saw a Facebook Reel about the helicopter kit, I was on the hunt. I guess there are two other boxes for sale - a tank and a bridge - but they weren’t in my store. They’re all based on Leonardo DaVinci designs, so they look super cool.

 

[Magdlyn]

Since you're enjoying being crafty, maybe you could start a business making headpieces/hats for other people in the fantasy/Ren Faire community, and/or other floral design work. You said you wanted to get some paid work soon. Just an idea. I am a former florist and enjoyed the work, myself. I mostly worked with fresh flowers, but I've made my share of headpieces, hat decorations, cake toppers, wreaths, and of course, bouquets and corsages.

 

[Bluebird]

Since you're enjoying being crafty, maybe you could start a business making headpieces/hats for other people in the fantasy/Ren Faire community, and/or other floral design work. You said you wanted to get some paid work soon. Just an idea. I am a former florist and enjoyed the work, myself. I mostly worked with fresh flowers, but I've made my share of headpieces, hat decorations, cake toppers, wreaths, and of course, bouquets and corsages.

Oh girl I can talk at length about this topic!

I’ve thought about it and discussed it, but one thing I do NOT want, is a hobby business. It would need to be viable financially. Meaning, that I would need to be making at least $1000 profit each month. That’s the minimum I want to make, since my earnings will be going to pay down credit card debt. Anything over that will be going into a retirement account.

Too many times I see friends try to turn their fun hobbies into money-makers, and they don’t charge enough to cover their time. Or they are only estimating their expenses, and when written out, they’re losing so much! MisterMoonbeam’s late wife was the queen of MLMs and hobby businesses that never broke even. I’m not interested in following that path!

I do think it would be super fun to make and sell these, but I’m not sure if there’s a real market for them at the price points I would need to put them at to make the idea viable.

These usually take 2-3 hours to complete. My supply of flowers I buy when they’re 40-50% off at Hobby Lobby, but they usually cost $100 with that discount. I think I could probably purchase less, but for that $100 I can make a large and a small headpiece. At least, that’s been my experience when I’m not actually planning things out, and just grabbing what I like. That includes the grapevine or headband base, the hot glue (I use about one long stick), a roll of fabric tape, and all of the floral stems and greenery.

I have tried to decrease that number the last two times I made a headpiece, but the Dollar Store flowers are just blah. I did buy some spray paint because I saw some crafters using the cheap flowers and making them a completely different color. I also bought zip ties to try and replicate some crowns I saw online, but I haven’t made the time to focus on them.

My first crown cost me $80 in flowers, and I paid $15 for the lights. (They’re shaped like acorns!) I made it in a little over 2 hours.







I was able to make MisterMoonbeam a boutonnière as well.



This price was okay because we’ve been able to rewear these to several events.

I also made this smaller crown with the addition of a couple of stems from another project. It also took about 2 hours to complete. I made it for my friend’s teenage daughter, and she asked if she could keep it, so I know she liked it! I did give it to her.






So two crowns at a cost of about 4 hours of time, and $110 worth of materials. If I paid myself $25/hour that would be $210. I would definitely set the smaller crown cheaper - maybe $60? So the larger one would be $150. I’m not sure there’s a large market for people looking to pay those prices.

Then when you add in costs for a website, photographs, credit card fees and if I paid for booths at craft shows and put in my time for staffing those - even if it was just me - the prices go way up. I’d have to figure out taxes and pay for a business license.

Also, my skills are not the greatest. So far, the first crown I have pictured here has held up fine - I made it in October 2023, and it’s been worn at least 3 times - but I did take it and add more flowers in the back since then. I feel like I am learning about making these more stable and stronger each time I create one, but I don’t feel 100% confident that customers would treat them as gingerly as I do.

Sigh. I love the idea, but the idea just seems like it’s not viable. I am going to continue to make them for myself so my skills improve. I’m also now seeing if I can consistently make 2 crowns with the same single batch of flowers. Just one is definitely not a money-maker. If I can figure out a way to lower my price points and/or make them faster, I’d definitely look into trying to sell some. But right now **without factoring all the extra costs I listed,** after materials I am making $25/hour which is about $100. I’d have to sell 10 sets - 10 smalls and 10 larges each month to make the $1000 I want. If I made one set a day, that’s 10 days a month of work.

Substitute teaching in my county would pay me $110 a day, pre-tax. Broken down by hour, I’m making more on the headpieces, but with the substitute teaching, there’s no worry if I can find a buyer. Both would allow me the freedom to work as little or as much as I wanted though.

So…I’m thinking about it. But I’m skeptical. I have tables and chairs to start a booth but I’d need a tent and signage and decorations. I’d have to put out cash to build up stock at first. I wouldn’t want to sell at events I enjoy attending, because I want to enjoy the events! So I’d have to find new places to sell at. At least one show a month. Could I clear $1000 at one show? If I add in travel costs? I think I definitely would need to diversify a bit and add in really cheap versions for kids and adults so I could make some money even if the larger pieces didn’t sell.

I have time to think about it still. I’m not convinced the money is there though.

Thanks for bringing it up though, Mags. It is something I have thought about.

 

[Magdlyn]

I knew you'd shoot me down lol It's hard to make money as an artist. I worked in flower shops and had a steady income that way, along with the creative outlet.

You're just spending so much time and money on your flower wreaths, and buying, selling, trading clothes for you and the guys, and paying for events, I wondered if there was a way to earn some income instead of spending it, on doing something you love. You said your credit cards are crying. I'm glad you're smiling, and enjoying getting out and about now, despite your health issues, though.

 

[Bluebird]

I knew you'd shoot me down lol It's hard to make money as an artist. I worked in flower shops and had a steady income that way, along with the creative outlet.

You're just spending so much time and money on your flower wreaths, and buying, selling, trading clothes for you and the guys, and paying for events, I wondered if there was a way to earn some income instead of spending it, on doing something you love. You said your credit cards are crying. I'm glad you're smiling, and enjoying getting out and about now, despite your health issues, though.

I’m from the camp of it’s okay to have hobbies that are just for fun. Not everything needs to be monetized!

I am still mulling the idea around, but I won’t try unless I feel confident. MisterMoonbeam is going to be 50 next year. He told me again last night that he doesn’t care if I ever go back to work, but I very much want to contribute financially. And to me, contributing means to be net positive if it’s creating something to sell. We need to start thinking seriously about his retirement.

 

[Magdlyn]

I used to make floral head wreaths (and wall wreaths) in an hour or two. They weren't as large and elaborate as yours, but they were nice. I had to work fast because I was using fresh flowers. I think you could make more than one a day if you had a system and enough stock, etc. They could be somewhat customized, for special customers with the right amount of cash, but you could make standard ones as well. My daughters and I have been to Ren Faires, and seen and bought simple head wreaths, some with veils attached, or whatnot.

If you don't HAVE to work, because you are married to a guy with a great career, I can see being less motivated to make money yourself.

Yes, not ALL hobbies need to be monetized, but most people would prefer to make a living doing something they love.

 

[Bluebird]

I used to make floral head wreaths (and wall wreaths) in an hour or two. They weren't as large and elaborate as yours, but they were nice. I had to work fast because I was using fresh flowers. I think you could make more than one a day if you had a system and enough stock, etc. They could be somewhat customized, for special customers with the right amount of cash, but you could make standard ones as well. My daughters and I have been to Ren Faires, and seen and bought simple head wreaths, some with veils attached, or whatnot.

If you don't HAVE to work, because you are married to a guy with a great career, I can see being less motivated to make money yourself.

Yes, not ALL hobbies need to be monetized, but most people would prefer to make a living doing something they love.

Not sure where you got that I was less motivated? I literally said I very much wanted to contribute financially. I’m just not sure if I want to do so by making floral headpieces! I think they’re fun, but I wouldn’t say I love it lots and wanna do it for always. Especially not if there’s a risk I wouldn't make any money at it. It is an option, but I’m not sure yet. I have a lot of things to think about.