i'm still here! just very behind...

april showers bring may flowers -- hooray! but april showers also bring arthritis and fibro flares -- boo! my right shoulder was wonky for most of april and still is off and on. march was a flare-up of abdominal pain, which thankfully is in remission now; i have a test for that at the end of may.

in april i really had to keep a close count of my spoons. no, i haven't developed an obsession with cutlery! the spoon theory is a great read for anyone with chronic illness or knows someone with one (or more), especially if you don't "look sick." i haven't talked about it much on this blog -- it's a catch22: if you talk about it, you come off as a complainer, but if you don't talk about it, you must feel fine. (i'd rather talk about animals and design anyway!) blogging is one of the many things that fell by the wayside; i have a hard time catching up and keeping up with computer/online projects when it's hard to type much. especially when you are a slow writer like me! and keep going off on tangents...it might only make sense to me :) if so, oh well -- you'll still get to see some cute pictures!

march and april were slow months for my etsy and dawanda shops and thus for my fundraising for animal charities: $1.50 raised in march and .30 in april. yes, that decimal point is in the right place, unfortunately! i've been raising money for Bowling Green-Warren County Humane Society. i will be posting receipts on my blog and adding old ones; it may take a while (see catching up and keeping up with computer/online projects above!), but i assure you the money gets to the charity!

this spring i have had lots of ideas for new designs. if i could choose a superpower, i would choose self-healing so that my fibro and arthritic physical self could keep up with my imagination! it's hard to have what feels sometimes like an old lady body with the mind of a five-year-old fascinated with everything! :) but i'm grateful for my imagination; it keeps life from getting boring! squirrel-stalking keeps life from getting boring too (i had to throw that in somewhere for a picture break; these guys are too cute and funny!):







the squirrels have overtaken this blog post, so catch the next one for new designs!