nytshad

So it's been a while since I've been on here, but I've got a valid excuse: I've been giving up a kidney.  It turns out I was a perfect match for my husband and last month I got myself good and gutted to make his life better.  

So far so good.

I'm not sure how much artiness I'm going to be engaging in over the next couple of months.  I've got big cosplay plans for Comic-Con Richmond next year as well as a Renaisance-Fairy wedding I'll be attending, so we'll see what kinda stuff my brain will come up with to distract me from those two projects.  Plus I'm supposed to be studying for a whole SLEW of exams I need to take for my new job and totally not getting distracted by playing Fire Emblem Awakening (squee).

In any event, one of my various distractions is I'm helping out with a fundraiser for The Children's Miracle Network via a non-profit organization called Extra Life.  It's a fundraising program aimed at us geeks and nerds and I would appreciate it if you folks would help me spread the word.  The big day is less than a month away and I really want to help my team meet their goal.

So if you're reading this, could you pretty please share this link on your Facebook and Twitter to get the word out there?  
www.extra-life.org/participant…
It's for the kids!

Thanks for your help <3

Huzzah!  I've finally gotten my etsy account up and running!  Many of the pieces seen here are available for purchace in my new shop at this www.etsy.com/shop/mysticegg

Happy shopping!

I'm going to paint you a picture with words.  The picture is now almost two decades old and still retains the rose-tinted warmth of the first glance at true romance, shining from someplace deep within the heart that can't quite be described but we all cling to like those last few blissful moments of sleep on a cold winter morning.  

In Septemeber of 1994, I met a boy in geometry class.  He said hi to me and I, polite but shy, brushed him off.  Two months later, I was attacked by three boys in the gym during group class.  I fought back because that what my daddy said I was allowed to do.  While I was chasing one of the assailants, my eyes met the boy's, sitting with his class, and I saw him debating whether he could get away with jumping into the fray at my defense.  Before he could reach a decision the police were there and it was over.  Fast forward 3 years; we were in some of the same clubs, ran in some of the same circles, both on prom committy and both dateless for the event we had worked so hard to assemble.  My girlfriends had been trying for weeks to not-so-subtly hint at me about him but I'd been in a few bad relationships and was happy single.  But, when I was leaning up against the lockers and he leaned beside me, watching the paint dry on the fake wishing well we'd just spent a hour painting, and he asked me to the prom as friends I couldn't see any reason to refuse.

Prom night came and the lack of romantic obligation made it a blast.  We were so exhausted from setting the damn thing up we were insane and wired the night whole through, but we danced and joked and laughed and talked and talked and talked.  The after prom party was at my house, since the school didn't throw one.  He spent the night rubbing my feet; we were both too exhausted to sleep.  The next morning we hit the 24 hour Aunt Sarah's for chocolate chip pancakes and I amazed him with my ability to pack some sugar away (and also my ability to sleep sitting up).  Back to my house, our friends abandoned us in what had been dubbed "the pool house" (it was supposed to be a play house but ended up being stuck behind the pool).  That's when our life began.

The last 14 years haven't been an easy reality for us.  We went to separate colleges, waiting until we both graduated to get married.  Neither of us have ever really been able to find a career-job and finacially we've always been strapped to the hilt.  But, even when I had heart trouble that resulted in a fall that led to 7 years of reconstructive surgery, or when I made a poor judgement call and cannonballed into the shallow end of swimming pool, breaking my leg and taking me out of work for 2 years, or when we moved back to his home town and both lost our jobs in the same week, we've never lost that rosey, fuzzy, warmth that we first found at the prom.  We've never fought, never snapped, never blamed each other.  We trusted that as long as we had each other (and our 2 insane kitties), somehow we'd always make it through, there was always a light at the end of the tunnel.

This time feels different.  Six weeks ago, my husband went to the emergancy room for dehydration.  They discovered his kidneys had failed.  While they were trying to suss out the reason, his lungs started to fail too, then his heart.  He was on a respiratory for a week, in ICU for two weeks, it was week 4 before he stopped coughing up blood.  He's still in the hospital.  They determined he has a rare form of vasculitis, a blood disorder with no know cause or cure.  It's controllable with medication but the damage to his organs has been done.  His lungs are recovering, but his heart is still dodgy and his kidneys are still in complete failure.  His time in the hospital has left him too weak to stand, so he has months of physical therapy ahead of him.  The medical bills have started to roll in and, while we do have insurance it's pretty uselss at this magnitude.  My family and friends have banded together to help us and I'm trying to find a better job so we won't lose our first house that we just bought in October if things go way south on us.  

So here's the bottom line: if you've ever come across something of mine that you liked, something that you considered commissioning, please consider it now.  Every little bit helps us out and is greatly appreciated.  All I ask is that you only order if you are genuinely interested in owning one of my works.  I'm not begging for charity here, I have my pride (such as it is).  Many of the peices displayed are no longer avaiabe, but I'm more than happy to make another.   

Thanks for reading, I know it was a bit of a novel but I felt the need to share the whole story (or at least, the summary).

Maybe it's the massive amount of hours I've been working over the last 4 months, or the severe stress-induced headaches that my job has driven me to but I feel it's time for a change.  When I came up with the name Nightstone (and by came up with I of course mean totally ripped off from Gargoyles as a kid) it seemed like a perfect fit.  Now that I'm over 30, desperately trying to find a new career and dealing with some serious health issues, I think it's time to stop clinging to the ideals of a teenage packrat, change my monicer and sell some of the stuff I've been making.  

So, that being said, I will no longer be using the name Nightstone.  It is now to be Mystic Egg Creations.  I've set up a facebook page, and Etsy account, and will eventually convert my ebay to fit into the skeme as well.  I would do the same with my amazon, but that's my hubbie's end of the business and he likes House of Dragon Scales better.

Commissions welcome!

Specifically those of you who were kind enough to Fav or Comment on some of my work in the last 12 months, THANK YOU!  

Last December/Januaryish my primary computer decided that the internet was not its cup of tea anymore and refused to go online.  My backup machine, a laptop my sister sent me from Australia, says "poop" to DeviantArt and wouldn't load it at all.  Occasionally I would be able to load a page or two from my DS, but mostly I've been DA-less all year.  But, now that the Dragon and I have moved into our first home *SQUEEE* I've been able to beat both my machines into submission, set up the craft studio the way I want it (with lots of natural light FINALLY) and get everyone to play nice with the interwebs.  Look to see more wonderful works from the Kitty, as well as a possible Etsy site in the coming months.

Again, thanks so much for your support and favs!  It was actually very heartwarming to come back to DA after so long and see my stuff it still loved.