AND THE WINNER IS…..

“Fear” by Daniel Rodriguez Age: 37 (click carving to enlarge)

CONGRATULATIONS, DANIEL!!!

Daniel won a $25 Gift Certificate from Amazon and an autographed copy of WordPress for Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson! Woohoo! Congrats!

I’m not eligible for prizes, of course, but I threw my two carvings into the contest for viewing:

Last Leaves

Glorious Sunset

Crown of Thorns

These are two of the three visions I doodled at Church on Sunday. Mark is going to do the third one.

Updated to add: Mark started the third one lastnight and I finished it up - the Crown of Thorns is another of the visions I had for my Pumpkin Carvings this year. :)

I’ve also modified the contest voting information to be more specific:

Deadline for pumpkin carving submissions: Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 5PM CST

Voting Info: The poll will open on Tuesday, October 30th around 6PM CST. Vote through 9PM on Wednesday, October 31st.

Voting starts TONIGHT at 6PM, after the last entries have been uploaded. There are about 45 entries to consider - so have a browse - they’re all so creative! TELL YOUR FRIENDS, because you only get one vote per person/computer. No clearing cookies or cache and voting again from the same computer/IP, that is disallowed automatically in the voting software.

Hi, God. It’s me again. I just wanted to check in and review the day yesterday, because I’m a little concerned that I’m not “getting it”. I’m sure there’s a lesson to be learned in here somewhere, so if you’d just kindly point that out along the way, I’d really appreciate that.

It started off with a miserable headache, which is normal for a Monday, so you didn’t really shock me with that one. You know how I am when you throw two girly girl voices whining and bickering at the crack of dawn with the “boom boom boom” you had going on in my head, so I think the short temper was warranted, don’t you? I was thinking I had a free pass on that one.

The girls completed 2 of our 6 pumpkins yesterday - Chickeymonkey made hers all by herself (I’m diggin’ the crazy face!) and Catybug entered hers into The Pumpkin Carving Contest.

I have to admit, I have visions of carvings dancing in my head. I shall be carving mine later today!

If you haven’t stopped by to browse the carvings yet - you really should. We’re up to 29 entries now, all of them are SO cool! Just 3 more carving days remaining before the poll opens up and you can vote on your favorite - I’m excited to see who wins this year!

Attention all carvers - with just a few days to go, we’re Googling like crazy over here to find a tool that will make our carving dreams easy this year. Lo and behold, we found the Pumpkin Shop Program - and this program has it all!

“Pumpkinshop is the first pumpkin carving program on the Internet to allow users to carve the most basic to the most elaborate patterns. It is a computer program that takes any image you want and transforms it into a pumpkin carving stencil. The stencil can then be taped onto a pumpkin and carved out. Have your friend’s face carved within an hour, or go all out and carve the coolest, most detailed pumpkin that will impress every trick-or-treater on the block!”

The program includes video tutorials, too! The best part - it’s only $12.95 and you’ll be able to use it year after year.

Weight Watchers Weekly Weigh-in #12!

This week, you get a fancy photo I took of myself last week (my sister requested demanded it) It seems awfully snotty to post a picture of myself, but man - I haven’t had the self esteem to post a “full body” shot online for a long time. I’m okay with it now, even though I’m not at my goal yet.

I guess my point in even showing you is to (hopefully) inspire you, or motivate you, or encourage you to keep going. It’s hard for me to believe that girl in the pic is me, that those abs are mine - even that my hair has grown that much! It does happen though, with persistence and knowledge and just treating yourself to a better meal, and better snacks. It’s not my intent to brag (to the point of arrogance, at least), so don’t be thinking that I think I’m “all that” - I don’t. I’m just at a place, finally, where I can accept myself and my weight and be comfortable in my own skin.

It’s not easy to accomplish, but the rewards - so worth it. As is my Monday ritual - here are my results thus far on the Weight Watchers Core plan:

And with that, I thank you for showing up and checking in on my progress! Have a good one. :)

I am an artist. I have a really great vision and eye for color coordination and details.

I DO NOT appreciate being micromanaged when hired BECAUSE of my creativity. I sometimes take projects outside of the scope of my Associate Designer’ship with EW because I’m nice like that, and I like to make the blogosphere a prettier place. HOWEVER, when in an attempt to make the blogosphere a prettier place a perfectly wonderful concept is trashed and - OMG now makes me want to vomit because of all the micromanaging and the “oh I value your opinion so much!” and without hesitation NOT TAKE IT and top it off with “change this color to this and wah wah wah” - forget it. I charge by the project, not by the hour - and I do NOT charge enough to keep modifying the theme to DEATH until it’s SO HORRIBLE I TAKE MY NAME OFF AS THE DESIGNER - BAH!!!

I am no longer accepting orders outside the scope of EW. If you want to micromanage my creativity until I become a meek and feeble girl in a sewing factory sweatshop, then take your stuff somewhere else and pay more for that kind of control. If you’re open to my creativity - you better really be open to it, or you’ll be getting a prompt refund. I’d rather be in my studio painting than be under someones thumb getting that LAST OUNCE of creative juice SQWISHED OUT OUT OF MY HEAD.

When it all boils down to a dollar an hour and an empty bottle of Advil, it’s just not worth it to me to freelance outside of EW.

/end rant, stomping and throwing my own little hissy fit.

Disclaimer: I’m totally entitled to change my mind, you know. I’m a girl.