The Daily Daisy Frog Blog

They have a name!

My new line of needle felted "dolls" were named The Lil' Felpers. A mini Lil' Felper will be going to Aik, who was the first to suggest a name even though I ended up not using the suggested name. I have since sold two of these Lil' Felpers, the green and the blue (this was also my first international sale!!). Still available are the red and yellow Felpers and the purple one is STILL in the works. I planned on making four special Holiday Felpers, two Halloween and two Christmas but seeing as Halloween is only weeks away I think I will only get the Christmas ones completed. I will definitely be getting the Halloween Felpers in shop by next Halloween season! I also plan on creating special animal Felpers! They will not have the look of the original Lil' Felpers but they will have a helping message on them. If you have any suggestions as to sayings, quotes, mottos that might be good on one of these Lil' Felpers, please suggest them to me by clicking on the Suggestions link. 

Name my newest creation line!!

I am so excited about my new line of needle felted creations that I just had to show everyone what I am working on!
They don't have a name yet, I have one in mind but I wanted to get suggestions on names.

So, help name them and you could WIN a FREE mini-version, in your chosen colors!! Mini-version will not come with a saying on it.

My blog will be open to suggestions until tomorrow at 5pm est. Leave your suggestion as a comment to this blog post. After that time I will pick a name and if I pick your name suggestion then you are the winner!! Therefore, you must come up with an original name suggestion and not just agree with a suggestion that has previously been made.

I want a name that is cute yet states their function, and that is to be of help to people giving advice on things to do in life, things not to do, and to give people something to think about. So anything having to do with being a helper, counselor, therapist, philosopher, friend, wisdom, inspiration, wool, felt, plush, etc.

By the way, my name suggestion is The Lil' Felpers. Felt + Helper. If you like this name, you can suggest that I pick this name. If I do pick this name then I will draw a winner from all those who agreed that this should be the chosen name.

As you can see, they are not finished. I work in a weird order haha no set of eyes gets completed at the same time, same goes for the feet. The first one of these I made that started it all is the purple one (ran out of purple wool to finish it though so this one won't be in store for awhile). I have gone through some tough times lately and thought how nice it would be to have some sort of reminder that "This Too Shall Pass", and so these were born....

Right now the Lime Green is my favorite one. It states "Life's a Garden. Dig it!
The Blue states "Playtime is Essential". The yellow states "Wish Upon a Star" and the Red one states "Play Your Cards Right". I will be making many more of these in the coming days. I just think they are very adorable and I believe everyone will fall in love! And who doesn't need a little pick me up saying or a gentle reminder of what's important in life?

Hard Times Bring Inspiration

Back around Thanksgiving time I had been put in the hospital for pneumonia and cellulitis. I was there for about a week. At the start of the New Year I had so many crafty plans in the works for my Etsy shops that I had not yet been able to start on that I could not wait to begin! But I had ongoing medical issues that were becoming more and more of a problem.

I have lymphedema in my legs which means that the lymphatic fluid does not circulate throughout my legs as they should and as a result, my legs swell uncontrollably unless they are wrapped up very tightly in many different layers of bandages. If this had been Halloween season I wouldn't have minded being wrapped up like a mummy, but it wasn't. It was at the start of Spring and temps were rising to the upper 80s and into the 90s. I personally did not think it a good idea to have my legs wrapped up so tightly in high temp weather (skin needs to breathe), but per doctor's orders the nurse kept on wrapping them up a few times a week and tending to a pressure sore that I had on my left leg...which now had the added pressure of the bandages around my leg! I never understood why they were putting pressure on a pressure sore!

As time went by the sore seemed to slowly be getting better and making great improvement, but one week in April the nurse unwrapped the bandage to find that the sore had gotten worse within the week and had gotten down to the bone! I am a paraplegic so I could not feel the pressure of the bandages on my legs and could not feel the sore getting worse so I had no clue. A couple days later I had an appointment to see my doctor. Little did I know that when I left home for that doctor's appointment that I would not return home for two months!

The doctor admitted me to the hospital that very day straight from his office. I stayed there for a week on complete bed rest and with a machine (wound vac) attached to my leg at the site of the sore. Later in the week the doctor discussed my options with me. I had the option of going home and being on complete bed rest in a hospital bed with my elderly grandmothers helping to take care of me, or I could go to a nursing home and be on complete bed rest there, or another possible option was amputation at the knees. I knew the first option was not a feasible option, and at this point I had had so many complications with my legs over many years that I was very frustrated with my legs and frankly did not see any good use to keeping them considering I am paraplegic and do not use them anyway. So I struggled with the idea of the amputation throughout the week going back and forth on whether I wanted to go through with it, could go through with it, or should go through with it. I did not want to do it out of frustration. If I did it I wanted it to be because of health reasons only.

Ultimately the doctor took the initiative to decide for me to go ahead with the nursing home option.
I let my doctor know that I could only handle the thought of being in a nursing home (at the age of 28) for no more than one month. He said it would be a month, but not months. I chose a nursing home where I knew a woman my age who is living there long term. Once there, I realized that I knew one of the CNAs, so I felt better about the care I would receive because I knew I would have someone looking out after me. The first few days were very emotional for me. The first night I did not want to be there alone without my family. I had heard, as I am sure most people have heard, stories about the poor care patients receive in some nursing homes. I was scared that I might end up with additional sores due to being on complete bed rest for so long and was afraid the nurses would not do their job of making sure additional sores would not develop. I had also heard stories of the old folks wandering the halls at night, screaming for help, and entering into rooms other than their own. These things did not happen those first few days, but they eventually did all happened. I slept plenty of nights in the beginning with one eye open. I was put in a four-bed room, two on each side of a divider wall. Luckily on my side there was no other person, just one lady on the other side of the wall who was supposedly hard of hearing and played her television way to loud! She was nothing I couldn't handle though.

So with no roommate on my side to adjust to having to room with, I only had to adjust to the way things were run around there. Breakfast was served at around 7:30 am. I am not a morning person nor a breakfast person. This did not matter. If breakfast was served and I wanted to set it aside and sleep a little longer the nurse would take it upon herself to raise the head of my bed up and to turn on the overhead light. As I said, I am not a breakfast person, and so I liked pretty much nothing they served me at least for the first few days until they learned what I liked and didn't like. At least I had a few meal options, but most days I ended up getting a family member to sneak me in some McD's or some other more appetizing food. After breakfast, there was no point in trying to go back to sleep. You know the drill, when you are in any type of place such as a nursing home or hospital you don't really get any rest. BP has to be checked, temp has to be checked, wounds have to be tended to, lunch was served, dinner was served, etc. Someone was always in and out of the room it seemed. It took only a few days of being sleep deprived for me to realize that the night owl in me would have to leave. This night owl started going to sleep by 11pm, which is still considered late to most morning people but to a night owl 11pm is early!

Finally after being there a good number of days, I had become use to their schedule and way of doing things and the mere thought of being in a nursing home wasn't bothering me as much.....until another roommate came in on the other side of the divided wall, and then a roommate came to join me on my side of the room. This is where it got interesting. Upon first impression my new roommate seemed like a very sweet old lady and she seemed to not have much of a hearing problem at all, which was good because I am very soft spoken. Later during that very first evening though I noticed her demeanor change. She became very disoriented, thinking that I was her daughter and that the heating/cooling unit was her dresser at her house and she was telling the nurse to go down this hall (which was not there) and go into her bedroom (which obviously wasn't there) and to get her clothes (that were back at her house). She got mad at the nurse when she tried to explain to her was she really was. Later when lights were out and the curtain pulled, I heard her speaking. I listened to determine if she was talking to me, or to herself, or talking in her dreams. I never quite figured it out, but it freaked me out a little nonetheless.

The next night she was worse. She pulled the divider curtain that I had closed earlier in the night and she rolled my bed tray (with a lot of my belongings on it) over to her bedside. I did not say anything to her, just laid there and watched curiously. She began looking at some of my books, taking out a puzzle book and pen. Later she went to the bathroom and while she was there I took the opportunity to have the nurse give me my tray and book back. The next night she was up and about all night long (with her oxygen off!). She wandered over onto my side of the room, looking through my things (again I just laid there and curiously observed). She even went through my closet! But took nothing. Finally I asked her if she needed any help looking for something. I think she was looking for socks...which she had on her feet already but I did not want her to react to me the way she did with the nurse the previous night. The next morning I woke up to find her walker on my side of the room, pillows on the floor that had been laying on a chair in the room, and my personal items such as toothpaste, toothbrush, hairbrush, deodorant, shampoo, powder, etc. all were tossed about onto the bottom of my bed.
Needless to say, the next day I had myself transferred into a different room.

My new room was a two-bed room but with no roommate and with no prospects of a roommate for the duration of the rest of my stay. From that point on I took my bed rest time as an opportunity to just be lazy, and sometimes crafty. I did learn how to knit while there! And I got the word out to people there about Etsy!

As I stated earlier, my doctor had originally said that I would only be in there for one month max. but after my two week follow-up appointment with him, he added a month onto my stay! I was very devastated and cried on my way back to the nursing home from the doctor's office and continued to shed some tears once back in my room. I could not fathom how I could survive a month more after the two week period that I had already been there had seemed to go by so very very slow. But a month eventually passed, and I eventually was sent home. I was sent home very weak and unable to do some things that I had been able to do before being put on bed rest for so long but I have been home for almost two weeks now and my strength is almost back to where it was and can do everything that I could do before. Soon after I got out of the nursing home though I found myself getting out of a long distance relationship which seemed to be going no where fast, but I being a hopeless romantic had hopes that someday soon things would all fall into place. I think most women (I definitely being one of them) secretly hope that life will turn out like the happily ever after fairy tales that were told to them as a child...but that topic is for a different post on a different day.

So, how does all of this lead to crafty inspriation? Well, throughout the whole ordeal I kept telling myself "This too shall pass." This one phrase, and all that I had been through lately, started me thinking about creating my newest needle felted items....which I will be posting a picture of sometime this week in my My Favorite Shop section on this site and I will be giving everyone a chance to come up with a fitting name for them and to win a mini version!!

Etsy Day

Most, if not all, of my blog readers already know about Etsy and have set up shop there. But, for anyone out there who doesn't yet know about Etsy I wanted to take the time to tell you about it. Etsy is a website for artist/crafters where they can set up there own shop, selling their handmade items! Etsy had been around for years unfortunately before I had ever even heard of it and ever since then I have gained a deeper passion for creating! I mention Etsy today because today, is Etsy Day! So please, if you love handmade items and want to support the work of artist/crafters, let everyone you know and anyone you come in contact with, know about Etsy!

New shop section: My Favorite Sale

I have added a new section to My Favorite Shop called My Favorite Sale (sticking with the theme of favorites). In this section you can find the item that I most favorite at the moment. This particular item will be offered at a 15% off discount for as long as it remains my favorite item in my shop. When I have an item in my shop that I favorite even more than mt current favorite item I will replace the old favorite with the new. My current favorite is the needle felted bunny that I had previously blogged about.

 

Etsy shop #2 NOW OPEN!!

I officially opened my second Etsy shop last week! I am very excited about this shop! In this shop I focus on jewelry.The shop's name is BNEjewelry , which stands for Bracelets, Necklaces, and Earrings although I will also be selling other items such as hair accessories and handbags / purses. I am including my purses in this shop because I use the same technique as in my jewelry pieces: weaving , and I also use the same material as in most of my jewelry: sari silk. I have fallen head over heels for sari silk! It is the most interesting yarn with its everchanging colors. All of my pieces come out looking very unique from the one before and the one after. My jewelry pieces are a combination of either (woven)sari silk and wool or (woven) yarn and wool. The pieces that are created from yarn have less randomness to them, therefore I am able to recreate the piece or create a very simliar piece with the color combination remaining the same.  All of my jewelry pieces (at the moment) are custom finished based on the buyer's choice of functionality of the piece. The customer can choose to have the piece made into a pendant, brooch, or a hair accessory: barrette, hair clip, hair combs. Options vary based on the shape and design of the piece. I have 10 pieces listed in my shop and hope to have double that by the end of the weekend!!

Don't Miss Out!

I have updated the page All About My Favorite Shop.
See my latest items and get information on how to get
SHOP DISCOUNTS!!

I love Monday Night televesion

     I want to try to blog every day if I can, and since I have done nothing of interest today I think I will dedicate this post to Monday night television! I don't watch a whole lot of tv anymore like I use to. I moved the tv out of my bedroom/craft room and I tend to spend most of my time at my craft table. Monday nights however are the exception. Tonight I, along with my craft supplies, will migrate to the living room to watch some much anticipated television. I am a big fan of reality tv. I love shows like The Bachelor (coming on tonight!), American Idol, The Apprentice, Top Chef, Top Design, Survivor (but I have been falling off that bandwagon lately), Rock of Love, and the newest True Beauty. I don't get into any tv series except House. I think it is the best show on tv right now! There are some other tv series that I like such as Scrubs, Monk, Psych, Family Guy, but I only watch episodes of these shows whenever they happen to be on when I have nothing better to do. "The Bachelor" is ending in the next couple of weeks, so after that I will be obssessed with American Idol instead, but for now I'm all about "The Bachelor"...even though the couple never ends up in Happily Ever After but oh well if it was a fullproof method to finding love then everyone would be applying to be on the show!

Time for Easter Crafting!

     I've been working on a needle felted bunny rabbit using some fiber that is new to me, icelandic wool. Actually I believe I have used it before, on my needle felted "Scared Kitty", but at the time I was unaware of the type of wool that I was using. The bunny is mainly felted from a wool batting made from a mixture of different kinds of wool. The gray icelandic wool is put on top of the cream colored batting and then more batting is placed on top of the gray wool in places that I feel need to be built up more. The new batting area is then recovered with gray wool. I can not wait for this to be completed and to be put in my shop! I think this is turning out to be my best needle felted work yet! I will take more photos of the work in progress and post them on my shop page for anyone who wants to monitor the progression of this item.

My Poor Dog

     I have a small 10lb papillon mix dog. Last Saturday night we took him outside to use the bathroom and minutes later we heard the most awful sound, the sounds of coyotes seeming to be celebrating a kill. They were attacking my dog! My mom was the first to hear the sounds. I could hear her screaming and crying and in hysterics telling my brother to go outside to rescue the dog. My brother got outside just in time to scare the coyotes away before some real life-threatening harm was done to my dog. He was rushed to the Emergency vet where he stayed overnight where they had to open up his wounds even deeper so to prevent infection and they had to put drainage tubes in the wounds. His wounds were on both sides of his body and the vet was worried that he may have punctured his lungs. Luckily his lungs are only bruised. It could have been a lot worse! There were four coyotes attacking him that night, each could have taken a leg in an instant or they could have gone for the neck!

     We called the game warden, as well as the police and the game warden basically told us that there was nothing they could do about the coyotes in our area unless or until a human was injured and that they are currently working on a deer problem in the city! A deer problem? Seriously?? Unless the scene in The Ring 2 is played out in real life where the deer are possessed and deliberately try to kill humans, then I think the coyote situation is a little more serious of an issue! Yes its true that coyotes mainly go for small animals but that means they go after our pets..and they have been known to go after children! I would hate to think that the city would wait until a child was harmed before they would take some action! Even if they never go after an adult, it still makes you feel as though there is some intelligent creature outside your window just watching and waiting and scheming against you.

Here is a picture of my dog. I'll spare you the pictures of his wounds.