So you shared your face with us, but what makes you YOU?

[c0r3yr0s3]

Beautiful Car man pretty much my dream vehicle for one day. Growing up i had a 86 irock that had :cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r: tons of problems but opening up the T tops and cruising around was amazing.

I've been a Camaro lover for longer than I can remember. All my friends were fascinated with Lamborghinis and the camaro was my dream car. When I drove off the lot with it, I was waiting to wake up from a dream and I still look in amazement every time I see it. I am self diagnosed with P.T.S.D and this car is my medicine. I'm actually trying to motivate myself to get off my lazy butt and start my weekly therapy session and wash/wax it

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[hilabeans]

I’m an un-Civil Engineer, and a lifer with the State of Illinois, working in floodplain management. Dracos and I have a side business that started out making and selling leather goods like belts, pouches, etc. to medieval reenactors (SCA). With the changes mentioned above I’ve re-directed the business, doing more on Etsy and smaller one-day shows that I take less stuff to. I have waaayyy too many hobbies, currently making doll clothes and hand-bound books more than doing leatherworking. Partly because the dining/work room is a shambles.

Thank Dog for e-books, or our house would have imploded under the weight of all the books - all three of us humans are readers. The offspring still prefers paper, and there’s some things that I can’t get electronically and/or want in paper, so there’s still plenty of books around.

For extra personal-life excitement, I’m monogamous with a poly spouse. Adjusting to that was . . . Interesting. A good marriage counselor, therapist, and anti-depressants helped. Turns out that some of the relentless drive to Make All The Things was to shut up the internal monologue, which was getting more and more un-shut-uppable because of depression. Now it can be nice and quiet in my head, yay!



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I'm not sure what poly means in this sense, but I think I have an idea. I hope you're truly ok with it. Sounds like the adjustment was very hard on you. I hope you are in a safe space with your man to say you're not ok with it, if you're really not ok. For me, it would break my heart.

But it's none of my business and if it does work for you both, well then - hey, do your thang! Just please don't feel like what you want is less important.

My 2 cents. I'll shut up now.

Prognathodon,

I LOVE leather work. I love leather and all things made from natural materials, like wood work, leather, stone ...

I have to say, you are a strong person and you must have a lot of love for your husband, to live the lifestyle you do. I have to admit, I couldn't do it And I'm sure it wasn't easy to adjust to. I'm glad for you that you found peace with it.

I love leather work too!! I want to see prognathodon's Etsy shop!! I know there are a ton of members here who have Etsy shops, too. Do you think it's ok if we start a thread asking for everyone to post their Etsy pages? Is that a violation of the terms?

I'd really love to support our member's shops but don't want to get in trouble with the Mods. Deborah??

[Prognathodon]

Thanks everyone.

Poly=Polyamorous, which in practical terms means that he has a second, long-term partner. I don’t, and really don’t want one. It was a lot of work to figure out, and learn to live with, both ways. He struggled with trying to remain monogamous for many years, but never cheated on me. Poly relationships can vary widely, but the important thing is that it’s ethical - everybody involved knows what’s going on, who’s dating/married to who, etc. Like LGBT people are just wired that way, poly people are just wired that way. It isn’t about more sex partners, it’s about love and caring. It wasn’t an easy decision, but I decided I was happier with him and him having a poly relationship than without him.

In Dracos’ ideal world, all three of us (him, me, and my metamour (partner’s partner that I’m not romantically involved with) would share one big house, with two kitchens, because otherwise there would be warfare. In reality . . . not so much on the one house thing. He knows that I need to feel like the primary partner, even though he doesn’t think of us as primary/secondary. Fortunately, he’s content with the two of us, a third would make things *really* crazy! My metamour and I are friends.

In 20/20 hindsight I likely suffered from depression for many many years before the poly thing got more serious. Working through that just identified it.


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[Prognathodon]

On to the less emotionally-laden leatherworking.

I don’t do tooling, Dracos does that. We’ve made over a thousand belt pouches in 22 years, and pretty sure we’re near or over a thousand belts, too - but most of those are the kind where you cut a strip and rivet a ring on one end, so you can produce a lot very quickly.

I think most of the belt pouches have been hard, molded ones, stiffened with paraffin wax, with a back/flap piece laced on, lacing around the flap edge. Let’s see if I’ve got a picture . . . root root root . . . here we go:


That one is one of the fancier ones I’ve made, the two-tone lacing is slower than solid-color, as you do a stitch of one color, drop it, then do a stitch of the other, drop it, repeat. Single-color I’ve done so


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[Prognathodon]

Oops, too much time editing. To continue:

The pouch in the previous post is one of the fancier ones I’ve made, the two-tone lacing is slower than solid-color, as you do a stitch of one color, drop it, then do a stitch of the other, drop it, repeat. Single-color I’ve done so much that I can do it on auto-pilot, rarely drop the lace, and can read while doing it.

Let’s see, what else have I made? Purses, satchels, book covers, skirt hikes, jingle bell strips, belt frogs (to hang costume weapons from your belt), dog leashes, collars, and harnesses, Dracos has some chainmail jewelry, doll clothes and books, fox tails with swivels for people to wear, and I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting. But years and years of belts and pouches as the core business.

Here’s a shot of about a third of a full 10’ x 20’ booth, IIRC at Anime Central about three years ago:

That’s about half of the “One of Everything” assortment of belt styles/colors, and a fraction of other merchandise - the other pictures are blurry or have our sign in them.

I’d like to make tack for horses, and have several books about making tack. A few years ago I drooled over a 2-week course where you built a complete harness for a draft horse. Swoon. I have two McClellan (cavalry) saddles in storage that need to be stripped down to the trees and re-built (and one needs the tree repaired), and I started a saddle cantle bag, styled like one from the Civil War era, that I need to finish. Cavalry tack and accoutrements are so neat and could suck up all my time and energy.

Dracos going on the road as a truck driver has put a crimp in things in a couple ways: I kinda need him for the molding, as I just don’t have the upper-body strength to do a lot of it, as it requires stretching wet leather and setting big C-clamps really tight. Also, shortly after he left, we tore up the carpet in the dining room, which we’ve never dined in as it’s my work room. It’s still a disaster. Finally, setting up and running a 10’ x 20’ booth for an entire weekend requires him, me, his other partner, and ideally a couple-few other people for setup/teardown, plus hauling our small cargo trailer (I can go forward, haven’t learned to back it up), and the tetris game of loading it. Plus a lot of mental/emotional energy since I’m an introvert!

So I’ve switched to shorter events and Etsy. For the shorter events I only take what merchandise and gridwall I can fit into the pickup truck and bring in with a couple loads on the handtruck. We (my metamour and I) are doing a big craft fair at the local high school next month.

[Booper]

Wow, everyone else has such interesting lives! As I was once told, I am too young to complain about having an uninteresting life, but we'll see

I live in Somerset, UK which is a really nice county with a lot of green, and not much else lol. I didn't really have much to complain about, yeah I was the 'weird' kid at school (I once got listed as the 2nd most ugly person in the school, now that hurt!) but I had a good group of friends so it never bothered me too much, I worked hard and got pretty decent GCSEs. I went to a sixth-form at 16 (where I met my boyf), and after I turned 17 the amount of pressure put on me by my tutor and a select few of my teachers just wore me down, I was refused counselling, my tutor would call me in for meetings with my mum and talk shirtballs about me to her (he once said that I was failing because all I ever did was sit around on my boyf's lap... how inappropriate is that?? And also wrong, I was failing because every adult in that place told me I was a failure and refused to help) and eventually when I ended the year with two E grades I was done and left sixth form just shy of my 18th birthday.

I worked part-time at a supermarket (which was fun, if not full of drama; one of my boyf's exes worked the same department as me, and she tried to get me fired a few times, taking out of context things I had said about her years ago on texts and showing them to managers and the like.) Eventually I left to pursue an apprenticeship, and although I got accepted for interviews nothing really came of any of them.

Then, in the March after I had left college, I was watching the news and saw something about a college near by that would be offering uni courses. I knew then that I was ready to apply back to college, to try again to get my A-levels before it was too late (You have to pay if you're over 19 when the course starts, and it started a month before my birthday so I just had to!). So I applied, got accepted, and started college again. I am now coming up to my final exams (In June!!) and then, if I get Cs in them (Which looks likely!) I will be heading to university in September, studying Business Management as it's a passion of mine! I've always been trying to start up businesses; when I was about 5 I wanted to own a dog kennels Now I'm more aimed towards snakes but you never know!!

That's pretty much it really... apart from that, I am a lover of reading, writing, and cooking! Me and the boyf have been together for three years, we've have our ups and downs but we're going pretty strong And we have the snakes of course! It's been a bit of a bad week what with Peaches, but we'll work through it, we always do!

[zina10]

Wow, everyone else has such interesting lives! As I was once told, I am too young to complain about having an uninteresting life, but we'll see

I live in Somerset, UK which is a really nice county with a lot of green, and not much else lol. I didn't really have much to complain about, yeah I was the 'weird' kid at school (I once got listed as the 2nd most ugly person in the school, now that hurt!) but I had a good group of friends so it never bothered me too much, I worked hard and got pretty decent GCSEs. I went to a sixth-form at 16 (where I met my boyf), and after I turned 17 the amount of pressure put on me by my tutor and a select few of my teachers just wore me down, I was refused counselling, my tutor would call me in for meetings with my mum and talk shirtballs about me to her (he once said that I was failing because all I ever did was sit around on my boyf's lap... how inappropriate is that?? And also wrong, I was failing because every adult in that place told me I was a failure and refused to help) and eventually when I ended the year with two E grades I was done and left sixth form just shy of my 18th birthday.

I worked part-time at a supermarket (which was fun, if not full of drama; one of my boyf's exes worked the same department as me, and she tried to get me fired a few times, taking out of context things I had said about her years ago on texts and showing them to managers and the like.) Eventually I left to pursue an apprenticeship, and although I got accepted for interviews nothing really came of any of them.

Then, in the March after I had left college, I was watching the news and saw something about a college near by that would be offering uni courses. I knew then that I was ready to apply back to college, to try again to get my A-levels before it was too late (You have to pay if you're over 19 when the course starts, and it started a month before my birthday so I just had to!). So I applied, got accepted, and started college again. I am now coming up to my final exams (In June!!) and then, if I get Cs in them (Which looks likely!) I will be heading to university in September, studying Business Management as it's a passion of mine! I've always been trying to start up businesses; when I was about 5 I wanted to own a dog kennels Now I'm more aimed towards snakes but you never know!!

That's pretty much it really... apart from that, I am a lover of reading, writing, and cooking! Me and the boyf have been together for three years, we've have our ups and downs but we're going pretty strong And we have the snakes of course! It's been a bit of a bad week what with Peaches, but we'll work through it, we always do!

Whether long or short, every part of life matters, can be beautiful or sad, inspiring or depressing. And seem like a life time.

It seems to me that the pressures that were put upon you all but smothered you, but here you are. You emerged and you conquered. Its wonderful you get to study in the field you love, and I'm certain you will make a success out of it. You will have that business one day

Somerset !!!! Oh, the Beauty of it. To be able to actually live there and take walks in that beauty. I'm downright jealous. Your coast line is so dramatic and gorgeous. I think I would have to spend my days just sitting there, or walking there, staring out into the beautiful sea or landscape.

I loved the TV show "Broadchurch". Wasn't so sure while watching the first episode or two, but then it sucked me in and wow, what a great show it was. In part because of the beautiful scenery. I kept having my breath take away and I kept thinking to myself, how does anyone there get anything done? How I wish I could just sit there and stare...
Next time you look over the beautiful nature around you, think of me and how I wish I could do the same

About Peaches, things like this happen. It was a accident. Its quite apparent how much you two care about that snake. She will be alright. Kudos to you for doing the right thing and seeking a Vet to help you with this. I'm crossing fingers and toes that she will heal quickly and uneventfully.

[Zincubus]

Thanks everyone.

Poly=Polyamorous, which in practical terms means that he has a second, long-term partner. I don’t, and really don’t want one. It was a lot of work to figure out, and learn to live with, both ways. He struggled with trying to remain monogamous for many years, but never cheated on me. Poly relationships can vary widely, but the important thing is that it’s ethical - everybody involved knows what’s going on, who’s dating/married to who, etc. Like LGBT people are just wired that way, poly people are just wired that way. It isn’t about more sex partners, it’s about love and caring. It wasn’t an easy decision, but I decided I was happier with him and him having a poly relationship than without him.

In Dracos’ ideal world, all three of us (him, me, and my metamour (partner’s partner that I’m not romantically involved with) would share one big house, with two kitchens, because otherwise there would be warfare. In reality . . . not so much on the one house thing. He knows that I need to feel like the primary partner, even though he doesn’t think of us as primary/secondary. Fortunately, he’s content with the two of us, a third would make things *really* crazy! My metamour and I are friends.

In 20/20 hindsight I likely suffered from depression for many many years before the poly thing got more serious. Working through that just identified it.


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Wow - this is deep stuff !!!

The last part about depression.. are you saying that the whole business of sharing your fella 'caused' the depression or just emphasised it or neither ?!

I think he's a tremendously lucky guy to have such a loving , caring and understanding woman to tolerate him having another woman in his 'life' ...

I'd suggest that maybe most guys , me included , wouldn't mind sharing themselves with a few women partners

I'm also guessing that if I ran that idea past my wife I'd wake up in the morning a fully paid up eunuch !!



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[Prognathodon]

Wow - this is deep stuff !!!
The last part about depression.. are you saying that the whole business of sharing your fella 'caused' the depression or just emphasised it or neither ?!

Made me realize it was already there. There were also some much more mundane things going on that also caused stress when I realized I have depression. It wasn’t until I was on an appropriate dose of anti-depressants that I realized how bad for how long it had been.

For me, depression doesn’t seem to manifest as being unable to function. I get dwelling on issues/ideas/emotions/whatever, and so unconsciously I end up doing ALL THE THINGS in order to drown out the brain weasels - if I’m busy following this knitting pattern while reading it fills up the brain with un-depression-ish thoughts. So now I don’t make as many things, but I can also relax and goof off and the brain weasels aren’t yammering away.



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[Momokahn]

What makes me? Well first I'm an extrovert. I love being around people and feel very comfortable around strangers. I give a lot of presentations each year within and outside of the company I work for. Speaking to a crowd of 500 people actually puts me at ease.

I trust each and every person I meet and yes sometimes to a fault. When I have been burnt, forgiveness is not in my vocabulary.

At 56 I'm still very adventurous. I have no desire to ever retire. Working keeps me young I guess. Whether I'm teaching power plant fundamentals in a classroom, presenting at a conference, or climbing a 300 foot wind turbine tower, work is actually playtime for me.

As most of you have seen, I can get very passionate on some of my opinions and beliefs. Trust me, I'm still working on that part of me.

That's about it. I've really enjoyed the recent posts on the pictures of everyone and every picture I've seen is soooo beautiful. Between the beautiful ladies (yes everyone of you are a 10), the handsome gentlmen (now what happened to me I don't know LOL), and of course the gorgeous animals, how fun has this been?

Love you all and take care.