Possible prizes would include art and snail mail gifts. This is still just a thought though, so y'all tell me what you think. I'm also interested in hearing of specific prizes that might draw interest

Edit edit: It stopped raining, so I think it's done for today. Let's hope this doesn't happen again this week

EDIT: My block's on the news!

All right, if I dissapear, it's because it's gahd dang flooding buckets again, but worse today, my house is slowly getting water in it, every other house next to me is already so flooded the neighbors are sloshing through the puddles of what used to be their rooms, only the fact I'm at the top of a hill is keeping my house from being underwater too. I seriously piss you not, five houses down from me, the water inside their house is up to their knees. The opposite half of the block has lost all their power, there's still power on this side, and the police have shut down all the roads so it's house arrest for the rest of the day or until it stops raining.

Just driving home today, I passed over a dozen cars completely submerged in their own driveways. Thank gahd for my boosted dodge ram, or I wouldn't even BE home right now.

I have no fcking clue how my roommate is going to get home, and he doesn't have a cell phone.

This is a picture of one of the houses on my street when it started raining. When I just looked outside a minute ago, the water had already risen halfway up the white panel of the door

http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/sharrastuff/?action=view&current=flood013.jpg

....Razr's!! AHahaha..my brain makes up the most retarded stuff XD

I just downloaded it, and other than the binoculars in the bottom left hand corner, is there ANY way to get a navigator window that you can drag around like the navigator in photoshop or illustrator? I can't work with this lame binocular method and the magnifying glass takes too long

Today we freaking NUTS

So right after church, it started pouring. Just massively dumping buckets of water. And because the ground has been so saturated with all the rainfall, it made for a flash flood that I got stuck right in the middle of. The storm drains and rivers wound up overflowing the roads, and the car RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME got swept off the road. It bobbed completely underwater, then popped up from floating, and whoosh, there it went. I managed to turn back in time from avoiding the same dang thing from happening, but if I had been five seconds ahead of myself, I would have gotten bumrushed off the road, too.

The roads by my house were totally messed up, so I went to my brothers house for awhile and ate sushi with him. When I got back home, total carnage. My house was fine, but my neighbors house, omg. My house is on an incline, and their house is at the bottom of a slope, and so their place was completely flooded up the butt. They've been sandbagging their place all week but it wasn't enough to keep them from getting flooded all through their house.

I really felt like God was protecting me all day. With a baby in the car, if something had happened, oh man. But everything is fine, (Except now my internet connection is horrible. Guh.) and now the skies are clear. I just feel so dang sorry for my neighbors and for the car in front of me. They weren't as lucky.

Here's a picture of the car getting knocked off the road. Look at underneath where the tree is.
http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/sharrastuff/?action=view&current=cardamage.jpg

http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/sharrastuff/?action=view&current=stormnuts006.jpg
This was right before the river overflowed

http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/sharrastuff/?action=view&current=stormnuts007.jpg
This was as it started overflowing.

Once it overflowed, I didn't get any shots, I was too busy paying attention to the road.

Current snail mail WIP status (not including completes):

Writing back  tuffyt
Already sent a postcard to  hunterxv
Sending out a card to  panthros
Rewriting a letter to  bigevilogre
Sending out something to  guyver47

Except for those above, who hasn't yet gotten anything from me or wants something?

Be greedy all you want! Even if you've already gotten a postcard or letter or gift, I can still send another!

Also I think there was someone else who noted me their address but FA isn't letting me go far back in my notes, if it was you, speak up so I can get your addy again!

Yep, like the title says, I'm thinking of selling some t-shirts of some of my art. Any size, any color shirts, with any of my images. The thing is, I know my current images aren't so much designed to be on a shirt, so I'm thinking of making an image of Zephyr, Felicia, and Eira in a sexy, smashing pin-up all together, and if I did this, would anyone be interested in buying the shirt, or should I make the image first so you can decide then?

The design I have in mind is INCREDIBLE, and would be perfect for a shirt. The sketch I have roughed out is so bloody enticing.

Also, what would be a reasonable price for a tshirt? If you were serious about buying one, what would you pay?

A long time ago I asked Erin what her life goal was, and admittedly I asked it to such an extent that it frustrated her, but I have an avid curiousity whenever it comes to peoples goals and dreams.

In this case, specifically their life dreams. So I'm curious enough to ask of you all. Forget realistic notions, forget typical situations. If you could achieve ANY ultimate dream in life, what would it be?

I don't just mean "I want a house of my own" That's a means to an end, because then it would lead to the question of what would you do once you had a house. So saying being rich wouldn't count either, because money is also a means to an end. Think deeper than that, and it can be interpreted in any way. Whether within the confines of this reality or any other one you might have dreamt up for yourself.

Just wonderin' =3

Welp, I just finished the last of my commissions. Right now the only two projects on my plate are finishing up a piece for  neonie and finishing my half of a trade with :sighthoundlady: both of which are close to being completed. As in, within the next few days. Whee.

So if anyone wants anymore commissions, just let me know!
$20 for a digital full colored piece with background, 40 for two characters.
Everything else, I'm pretty flexible with prices, so if you're interested, drop a note or comment here ^_^

And as always, my turn time is a week tops.

I'm actually going to make a post about this. My family's been involved with this group for awhile, and last year my brother went to Africa to work in an AIDS relief camp for orphans.

Please turn off all political/religious goggles for a moment. This has nothing to do with either one.

Over in Zambia, an African child cannot be allowed into the public school system unless they have a pencil. The government over there is corrupt, and most teachers will steal items from children for their own personal gain. If a kid doesn't have a pencil, or loses his pencil, they're doomed to never recieve an education. Think about that. if you weren't allowed to go to school because you didn't own an item we toss around like it's nothing.

Now no matter what religion you follow, I don't think any of us want an orphan, with or without AIDS, to be predestined to a life of misery just because of one small thing.

So what I'm asking all of you is to mail one small thing to the address on this website. This organization is legitimate, they don't take anything for themselves, and whatever you give them WILL make it into the hands of a little African child. I've met the people who go over there, a worker will bring suitcases with them with only a few personal items of clothing and pack the rest with donated supplies that they give to the kids first hand.

Even if your broke, you can go to a local bennigans or chiles or what have you and ask them for a package of crayons and mail it to this address. But most of all, if you could mail them a box of pencils, YOU would PERSONALLY be ensuring that a group of children get to go to school.

Wouldn't you like to wake up knowing that you made that kind of difference in the world?

http://www.legacymissions.org/donate.htm

Edit: This is NOT a chain mail or anything else. This is something I personally wrote, from my personal experience with this group. It isn't just spam or clutter

Do you want to know why FA ran out of server space a few days ago? Do you want to know why websites like myspace and livejournal are cluttered with sponsor ads? Because HD space IS NOT CHEAP. Bandwidth costs literal, real life dollars. And when people swamp the uploads with mass crap, those real life dollars get spent fast.

I've uploaded perhaps a grand total of four personal photographs of myself to FA over the whole time I've been here, two of which I took down, leaving two uploads as they pertained to furry things. The most recent one of myself and Erin: 1. furry ears, 2. fellow furry get together. The one of the maid outfit: I made an offer if someone bought it for me I would draw them a picture and post a photo, also pertaining.

But this random..junk.
No, I do not want to see pictures of your cat wearing a sweater, sitting on a toilet, with cat pee all over the floor.
No, I do not want to see seven shots of you sucking on a lollipop because you think it's a cocktease that will get you "yiffy murr" IM's or comments.
No, I do NOT want to see your dirty tennis shoes
I don't want to see nine shots of your dogs butt, your cats butt, your horses butt, or ANY butt for that matter, unless said butt belongs to Darth Maul, in which case you can message me personally.
I don't want to see the firewood pile in your parents backyard.
If you've taken GOOD nature photography, bring it on! But the old ball in your backyard your dog chewed up 3 weeks ago is not nature photography.

YES, it's okay to upload photographs of yourself, if they are well taken, if they are clear, and have a purpose, and of quality. People LIKE seeing the artist behind the work - but here's the thing. The accounts that exist of nothing but webcam after webcam shot that has no art in it, no stories in it, nothing at all even remotely creative or well thought..argh!

And if you absolutely CAN'T afford a decent digital camera, then for the love of anything, at least take pictures that have some artistic reason behind it! Paint your face, style your hair, make the picture have a purpose. If I can make an animated slide show just because you have so many uploads of almost the exact same thing - you don't need to be putting that crap up.

Close-up's of the inside of your nose, six zoom-in's of your pierced ear that you think is so utterly cool, pictures of your INGROWN TOENAIL?! WTF!

I don't rant often, but when 7/8 of the uploads on the front page are poor quality shots you took of yourself holding a webcam in front of a mirror, gah!

Does this bother anyone else, or am I just a raving lunatic right now?

Today is my son's first birthday, and boy do I have a TON of things I'm going to do for him today!

To think that this time last year he was just a little crinkled bundle that fit into the crook of my elbow, blinking his eyes and taking his first look at the big, wide world..! ;-;!! Oh, I'm totally going to cry at least once today XD Probably more, haha...*sniff* totally not crying right now, either *wipes her nose on her sleeve*

I love my baby, wish me well on his busy and happy day!
And thank you to those who have already left a happy birthday for him on here ^_^

Including these cute pieces!
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/598337/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/600714/

I was looking at their deviant account, the guy and his sister who made it, and they had a link up to this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Epotterpuppetpals%2Ecom%2Findex%2Ehtml

XD oh gahd, it will be in my head for WEEKS

Has anyone else noticed that if someone makes a comment on a submission, and they're responding to another persons comment, FA doesn't give you a message about it? That bothers me a bit, hrm.

Over the last few weeks I've had alot of dicussions with people who have gotten chinsed on trades and commissions, and it's led me to yet another public musing post.

My worst example of getting jipped in a trade was on the VCL forums. Four (maybe five by now?) years ago I entered into a trade with an artist named Akeyla. They had an incredibly strange fursona that was based off a real life sculpture they had done of the character, and so I did a real media piece for me that was a painstaking amount of detail and in realism. Looking back at it now, I've improved so much it's ridiculous, but at the time it was one of the best pieces I'd ever done, and I was quite proud to give it to them, and anxious to see what I would get in return. Well to this day I never got anything back, after months of emailing once every two weeks, and more recently, back in September when they made a post to an LJ community begging for commissions. I brought up the matter in a comment, and she wrote that assuredly she would get right on it, and then after more emails from me to her, there was never any further response.

Anyways! That's not an emo rant or anything, it's just a lead up.

 Hyd made a post the other day about how people don't give back trade pieces, and I liked her post. This isn't a duplicate, this is an extension off it.

There's two things that presently boggle my brain.

1. Those who take on trades, don't return a piece, and yet they KNOW they owe art. Time passes on, and then they're too "embaressed" to talk to the other person at all, even if just to say "sorry, I just can't do this," because of how much time has gone by. Wouldn't it be less embaressing to admit to it, rather than to have people see you chat up other artists on a daily basis and know that you're ignoring whoever you owe a piece to? You would get a monkey off your back, and keep yourself from being labeled a deadbeat.

But here's the main thing I don't understand.

2. People who take on so many commissions that they have a list of 30-40 people that they take the money from, and then make them wait months, to years, to get their pieces back. And then they still take on more trades, join communities, etc, while oweing that amount of art.


Now, I can understand that there are certain artists who are VERY good. I also know that in order to be VERY good, you have to invest time into each piece, and give yourself room so you don't get burnt out. Hey, c'mon, I'm an artist too, I get that. And I know if there's someone I idolize, heck, I'd wait months to for a piece, IF I knew it was being worked on actively, even if only in small bits at a time.

But what I DON'T understand, nor condone, is accepting money from people when you have such long lines, excepting of course in the case of an emergency (which I mentally still think, eh, to, but it's at least more understandable)

Shouldn't you say okay, I'll put you on my wait list, but reserve payment until I get back with you?

Now there are artists who CAN handle having a huge amount of people in queue for art on their commissions.

 guyver47 for example. Alicia ROCKS. Every single dang badge, piece, even chibi art that comes from that woman is awesome, and in fact, if anything, her art gets BETTER with each badge, not worse from having alot to do. If you see her with a stack of badges to complete, you KNOW yours is going to get done, it's going to be done RIGHT, and it's going to be killer.
 Tamen Here's another chica that if you give her money, you KNOW you're getting back a piece promptly.

But then there's other folks. I can think of a few specific names, but I'm not here to start drama, only to muse.

These are the people who know they're swamped. They already owe art to quite a few people who have already paid, and yet if someone says "hey you open for commissions?" they'll say yes and eagerly take the cash. They won't even take the character description most of the time, they say hold onto it for now and I'll get back to you when I need it.

What's even WORSE, ugh, is the ones who take the commission, then say "YOU are responsible for the information I have. I know you already GAVE me a description once, but I lost it. Therefore, I'm making a post saying I don't know who I owe art to. If you don't respond to this, you don't get anything back. PERIOD."

This is very bad business practice. Yes, I consider people who commission me as customers making a business transaction. They're giving me money that they earned and worked hard for, and expect something in return. I'm aghast if I make a person wait even a week from the date I recieve their payment to when I give them a finished piece. 80% of the time, I finish a persons commission before they even make a payment to me. This keeps me from getting bogged down, and even if I only do a sketch before I recieve the payment, by the time the money is there, it means that I have less of a work load to finish their drawing.

And with me personally, if I tell someone, hey, your drawing will be done tonight. Then I don't get a chance to finish it, I send them a note and say "oh, I'm so sorry, it'll be tomorrow afternoon instead." People don't mind if it's a few hours longer - but they want to be updated. Telling them nothing of the product is non-optional, to me.

SO, discuss. What do you guys think of people who have 20+. 30+, whatever, queues of commissions they need to do? Would you commission someone if you knew they had that kind of line? Would you take money from people if you already owed a massive amount of art and felt overwhelmed?

Further, what do you think when someone is a GREAT artist, but they give you back something way below their skill level because they've taken so long on commissions they just want to "get it done"?

Well it's not new, per se, it's been around forever, but LOOK! SO COOL! I wish I could own one of these buggers (not that I would ever take such a creature out of its native environment and habitat, but it's fun to lust since I own reptiles and frogs and snakes anyways..)

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070604/.....r920947152.jpg

Stupid gold miners threatening it >(
Just like gold mining is ruining the amazon river. Ode to the greed of humankind. If we all lived longer, people wouldn't be as abusive to the world, since it's the same planet they'd be stuck on for the next two generations instead of having their instant gratification and then dying.

And no mentioning of global warming or anything like that in this journal, lol, just don't!

So! When I sent out Christmas cards, I think that went really well. Also, for those of you who gave me your address, you'll have found that I randomnly send letters and presents to people, because I have a habit to write letters whenever I have to go to the post office to mail bills. I looove writing people. Since communication is so instaneous on here, I usually don't write anything pertaining to news or current events, it's all just random. Doodles, stories, nonsense, etc.

Thing is, I need more people to include on my snail mail list! So if you trust lil ole me, and you want to get a bonafied letter from me in the mail, comment here and I'll note you for your address! ^_^

On a side note, belly buttons freak me out. Always have, always will XD

First off, my friend Anne  yatenstar is trying to get commissions to get a cigarette holder! For anyone willing to commission her for a mere 36 dollars of your monies, you could promote sexiness in its classiest form and help her get something her sweet little heart desires = D
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/133624/

So anyways! I've had alot of new watchers on here lately, and I don't like missing out on a single one of you! You're all very important to me on here, so please, tell me a bit about yourself! I'd like to know your name and anything you care to say. You guys have been so generous with your comments and favorites and watches, what more would you like to see here?

I also thought I'd mention a bit about myself for those of you who are interested. Who am I?
I go by Sharra, which is obvious, as my real name is complicated and long and difficult to remember ;D
I'm Hebrew by ethnicity, which is why it's so crazy, lol. I don't follow the Jewish religion, actually I'm a non-judgemental Christian that believes in loving everyone for who they are, WHATEVER that is, and never offering condemnation. My door is always open to people who have personal problems and would like someone to talk to that will listen without interrupting, genuinely care, and hear you out on anything you have to say.

My interests are reading and writing, drawing and observing art. Gardening and horticulture, herbal remedies and relishing relics of the past that can still be used today (I'm learning how to make soap!)

I watch anime, collect anime and manga, gashapon and anime figurines (with a collection that would make your heart stop) I also collect western style comics, including DC, Marvel, Vertigo, and anything having to do with Gaiman. Further interests include equestrian (I haven't ridden since I had a baby, but I used to several times a week) study of ancient history, and languages. I'm a daily cook and believe that food can be one of the ultimate devices in spoiling a person (I've got a weapon and I'm not afraid to use it!)

I'm a movie nut (another thing I collect by the hundreds) I love sculpture, heck, all forms of art, nature, wildlife, and especially the medieval era.

I also think this world would be a lot better place if people kept arguing over the little things and took some time to just try to understand each other and do the best they can to live life to its fullest and help others who need it along the way. I believe that reaching a goal isn't the pinnacle of success, but reaching your goals with others beside you is where true happiness lays.

Um there's alot more to me, but I'll leave it at that so we don't get any tl;dr

;D

So I'm talking to Tamen right now, and we're having a conversation about sexy things she's going to be doing, and I gave her a link to Trashy.com

Well, I went browsing through it, and lo, they have this awesome outfit on sale XD
The last rounds of commissions when I get all the payments in will be enough to get a scanner (thanks guys! Mav, I'm almost done with yours!)

Buuut
http://shop.trashy.com/index.php?s=product&set_id=9378

I set up this offer. Anyone who buys me this outfit (40 dollars!) not only gets art, but will get pictures of me wearing it XD LOL

Edit: Anne pointed it out, the art is two character CG!

To  tuffyt and  hyd and me ;D all the other fellow mommies out there, happy spawning something the size of a watermelon and raising it to adulthood day!

I felt compelled today to read Post Secret even though I haven't in months, and lo and behold, my ex Tabby (not Gabriel's daddy, my first love) had a post card on there, directed at me.

http://bp3.blogger.com/_a7jkcMVp5Vg.....0-h/sorryy.jpg

My mind keeps bogging at what to think about it. But I'm notorious for that.

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/515182/

Artists this good neeeeeeeed more attention and watches!

I'm going out this week to interview tattoo artists again to see if I can find one up to my standards to get my dream tattoo. My ex offered to buy it for me yesterday, so my goal is to find someone who will be able to do it, and have it done by the end of May. Swimsuit season would be fantastic with that design covering my entire back.

For those of you with my livejournal, you've seen the pictures of when I had an artist draw it onto me for consideration ;D

Wish me luck! I NEED to find someone willing to work with my skin condition (I scar) and have it done by then. It'd make me the happiest person alive.

so in another one of my idle wonderings, i shall ask you all for your opinion. Do you guys look at porn/smut/art porn on here/whatever just as a way to get off, or do you submerge yourself in a story world of characters to fill a void if you don't have romance in real life? is it the love connection of the characters you look for, or do you just want to see money shots?

and if you just like it for nothing but an erotic kick, what does it do for you and why? I've never been into porn myself, and in the rare instances I look at it for anything but lulz, it would only be if there was a substantial meaning there behind the image or a tender pose

I just got beaned in the head trying to move all my plants and get the Subaru covered up in time. My poor ford isn't covered though, and I don't want to go out there again..

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y2.....ff/hail003.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y2.....ff/hail001.jpg

These are some LITTLE pieces I grabbed. the bigger ones are tennis/baseball sized