Bliss

One of my bookmark books was included in this wonderfully zen Collection on ArtFire - what's your Bliss?

Bliss

  Curated By: PrettyJewelry...

ArtFire.com

Thanksgiving without an oven

What does one do without a working oven for Thanksgiving? Improvise!

We don't do Turkey - no big oven needed anyway...So:

1. roast chicken in crock pot (turned out great - and since the meat literally falls off the bones - no carving needed!)
2. bake mini apple pies in the toaster oven
3. bake stuffing in the toaster oven
4. make mashed potatoes and vegetables on the stove (don't ever need an oven for that)
5. make sweet potato in microwave for vegetarian daughter's main course
6. stuff yourselves! (It's a good thing there's only three of us, hehe)

I have to say that the crock pot certainly made clean up easier, and making the mini pies was challenging but fun!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

drumroll please

and now...two years later.........................................................

blog neglect and news

Oh my poor, neglected blog! But I've been busy!!!

And I got rid of my kid!!!

Well, unfortunately, Holiday on Ice did not work out for my daughter - it ended up that they could not use her this season... So when she got that news, she sprang right into Plan B. Her other interest had been in teaching English in foreign countries. So she applied to take a CELTA course (creme de la creme of teaching certificates) in Prague. They wanted to take her, but the last two spots were already promised to others. Then, the Thursday before the course started, they contacted her and told her she was in if she wanted. So everything got thrown in the suitcase and she flew out the next day! It was totally crazy!

The next month was an extremely intensive course of study and teaching. She and her classmates were all exhausted, but she still thrived on it. She's a little strange that way - give her too much to do and she's happy as a clam - especially if it's challenging!

Now, she has been in Moscow for a week, and started teaching this week. Once again she is tired, but happy. She has been wanting to return to Moscow ever since she came home two years ago - so Moscow is where she wanted to teach. We were all very excited for her when she got the job.

And the best part is, I got rid of my kid! Oh, and I get her room now, hehe. I'll be spending time over the next month or so shifting my workroom to her room, which is larger and has more light. And then my room will become the guest bedroom which she'll use when she comes to visit.

So Cheers to getting my kid out of my house, and to her starting a new phase of her life - love ya, kid!

water, water everywhere

It decided to rain earlier. Let me rephrase that... it decided to flood earlier. We looked out our side windows, and saw puddles in our lawn. We decided that we'd better check out our downstairs (actually, I wasn't quite ready to, but hubby decided not to wait). Well, that turned out to be a good decision - water was just starting to get into the house.

So we decided to go outside to see if we could stop it (every time we think we have it licked, we're proven wrong, after a brief reprieve...). Cleaned leaves out from the drain, and hubby started bailing out the stairwell. Which only worked for a little bit. Meanwhile, the rain is coming down in torrents, with thunder and lightning attached. We kept trying to figure out how the water was getting into the stairwell, but nothing we did was successfully blocking it this time.

After a bit - I realized that I'd better check into what was happening in the basement. And I kicked myself when I got there for not having come inside sooner. The water had gotten past all the newspaper I had put down to absorb it... So I pulled out our trusty wet-vac, and spent the next hour? vacuuming up water. Luckily the rain finally slowed down, and even has stopped for a while - so hubby got to stop bailing, and I got to stop wet-vaccing.

So now my back and my arm hurt! And I doubt that hubby is in all that much better shape...

I really hate it when it rains too hard for the ground to absorb the water..............

Not what we thought we'd be doing today! I really think I need to find something fun to do now!!!

Edited to add: well, no wonder - just checked the Weather Channel, and there's Flash Flood warnings for the area... :-(

sorry for not posting...

so - I've been learning a lot about probate, estates, and trusts...

'nuf said?

~please excuse my exploding head~

byhand.me

I just spent the evening getting set up on this interesting website for handmade artisans. I knew a bit about it from the forums on ArtFire, and I've seen a few of the Artisan Spotlights that you can create there. Well, I found out it's quite a bit more than that.

I decided to join because I want to play around with making some Spotlights - I've done a few treasuries on Etsy, and it's fun showcasing other peoples' work. But there is so much to do and see on byhand that I didn't get around to setting up a Spotlight yet. First, I had to enter all my information. I love that you can so easily list everywhere you have a presence on the web.

I also discovered new people and their work - always fun to do! I may not be able to afford any of the things I see right now - but I definitely love looking!!

Something to check out - you can find out where on the web you can buy all kinds of wonderful things :-).

edited to add: Wow! byhand is definitely up there in the Google rankings - I had one Google Alert last night on my byhand listing, and another this morning. That's 2 Google Alerts in less than 16 hours. I do think that this may indeed help with my Google ranking...

50+ free promotional sites for crafters

I came across a great list of free promotional sites from a fellow ArtFire member's blog. She started her list with 50 sites, and people are adding to it in the comments - so be sure to check out the comments too! And her cute t-shirts as well!

Anise Mouette: 50 Free Promotional Sites for Crafters

Thank you Anise for sharing your list!

Taxes are DONE!!!

So maybe now I can get back to something a bit more fun and creative - like making new stuff? And actually finishing the redo on my website? (Boy, but it can take a while with shopping cart links and all...)

Enjoying today's nice weather, not enjoying listening to the cat asking over and over and over and over again for me to take her out - so she can eat grass, and throw up... Actually, that doesn't happen every time.

I guess I have a new after-doing-the-taxes resolution for the year - no new supplies until I sell more stuff! (Yeah, right - isn't that what we all swear we'll do?)

Off to take the cat outside - there is a nice side effect to that though - she gets really lovey - so I guess it's worth it ;-)

a good day

Today was a good day -

It started out well, it ran well, and it's ended well (please tell me I'm not jinxing myself by putting that in writing!).

Never had the feeling, "It's what time already?"
Woke up to an order (yay - a tiny bit of money! - I'll take it, I'll take it!)
Actually wasn't tired when I woke up, which is a lovely change of pace... (Me? I slept well? Such a rare occurrence...).
Cooked dinner, cleaned up the kitchen after (don't laugh! Those are accomplishments!!!).

Best of all, videotaped my daughter's audition tape for Holiday on Ice - she skated beautifully, I taped well, we had a good day at the same time - it's a nice feeling. I'm very proud of her and how she's pursuing the next phase of her life, which not coincidentally means I'll have my house back to myself (and hubby) at some foreseeable point in the future!

redos (redoes, redo’s)(I’ve found support for all three spellings!)

Can I start the year over again? Please? I'm not sure I even remember January, and February had so many things wrong in it (major health issue for a family member, food poisoning [did that one to myself – can't blame it on anyone else's kitchen, lol], did a good job on my back [couldn't drive for over a week, couldn't do much but lay in bed for a few days…], and I'm sure there's a few things I'm forgetting ;-)… And I'm also sure you're getting the picture by now….

Okay, so there's been a little blip at the beginning of March, but since it's related to February – I'm ignoring it. So here's my pronouncement: March is the new January. Hmm – good thing I didn't make any resolutions back then, hnhh?

My New Year Resolutions:

Finish the redesign of my website, turning it into a fully functioning ecommerce site. (I'm getting closer, making all the product pages takes time!)

Finish the redesign of the Pennies in Action website, so when we get our official 501(c)(3) status, I'll launch the tweaked version of that.

Keep up with things (okay, that's probably pushing it…)

Stop coming up with new designs, and actually execute the one's I've already dreamed up!

Stop sitting around on my butt? (okay, that one's probably not going to happen either…)

And hmmmm – maybe blog a little more regularly?

So – here's to starting the year over again. Anybody else game?

Have Something to Say About Cancer?

Then go to Your Two Cents and give us your thoughts on our questions!

The doctor whose research we are raising funds for wants to get non-medical people's thoughts on the state of breast cancer research and treatment, and general thoughts on breast cancer. He knows that someone may come up with an idea or thought that will spark his thoughts, and maybe lead him to a new idea in his research. He has already had success in the first trial of his breast cancer vaccine, which is one of the reasons we are fundraising for his next clinical trial. We want his research to keep moving forward, and so are trying to help him in any way we can.

I am not asking you to make a donation - I am simply asking you to share your thoughts - and to give everyone a possible voice in the cure and prevention of cancer.

(and please don't be shy - you can always leave your comments anonymously -we've heard from a few people that they don't want to be the first to post on the think tank)

Your Two Cents - a public think tank on breast cancer research
Pennies in Action

(and yes - I am a part of this cause - I am a member of the Board of Directors of the Pennies in Action Foundation, and the webmaster for penniesinaction.org - just thought I should let you know, in the interest of full disclosure!)

A little bit of useful fun

My newest experiment is my little bookmark books. They're small enough to mark your spot in a book without disturbing the pages, but big enough to hold lots of thoughts. They're available in my Etsy shop. I decided to use a closure like I use on my journals, that turns into a nice little tassel whenever you're using the book as a bookmark.

The Camera Chronicles, Part 2

My wonderful, sweet, patient, caring daughter (can you tell she's holding a cat {with claws} to my head?) says that I owe a new post about her camera ordeal. She was so patient and gracious about it at first – willing to wait until the day after her birthday to get it, so that I could get my printer with it. (Of course, waiting a day also meant that she would get a telephoto lens for free – remember - great sale?). Well – the lens didn't come in with their weekly shipment on Monday. It can take them all day to find out everything that's on the truck, so the manager had said he would call us the next morning to let us know if the lens had arrived.

We waited a bit Tuesday morning, and didn't hear anything. So we decided to head over to the store with fingers crossed that they had gotten the lenses in. Of course they hadn't, and the manager wasn't even coming in until the afternoon…grrrrrrrrr. So we went back home, disappointed, and perhaps more than mildly ticked off?

We knew we couldn't get another store to match the deal – it was too good, and besides which, we'd already tried on Sunday. (I tried to not have to make her wait – you know, one of those attempts at being a nice mom). Now, when we were at the store Tuesday morning, the person we talked to had checked to see if any of the other stores in the region had gotten in the lens. (We're not mad at him – he was helpful). None of the stores had received them – but the warehouse had 25. Obviously the warehouse got the shipment after they had sent the trucks off to the stores.

So we ended up ordering online through the store – and my poor baby had to wait until yesterday to get her birthday present. She of course thinks we just should have gone the online route in the first place… But she knows that we might not have been able to do that on Monday (meaning she might have gotten the camera on Tuesday instead of Wednesday) – since on Sunday they weren't in stock online either. And actually, I think the warehouse only got them on Tuesday anyway. Both of us had checked in the morning, without telling each other of course, and I got a shipping date of the 15^th for the lens, while she got a date of the 16^th. When we got home from the store though, and ordered – the lens was now magically available next day, along with the camera and printer.

Now, we truly ascribe to the theory that everything happens for a reason (it may be years until you know the reason, but, hey…). Waiting to order online until late Tuesday morning meant she got everything at once, and I got an extra bonus. I got an online coupon for the store on Monday – for $25 off any online or phone order over $75 (the camera/lens and the printer came to a bit more than that). (Whee – free money!!!).

So we ended up with a really great deal – but my poor, poor baby had to wait until late afternoon on Wednesday to get her hands on her new camera – which she is absolutely in love with.

(Umm, Kid? Could you please remove the cat from my head now?)

update: the manager did call, and told us to order online - he finally got word that they wouldn't be getting the lenses into the stores, and they would only be available online or by phone order... grrr - but not at him ;P

Camera shopping...

My husband decided to be extra-nice for our daughter's birthday this year. She is getting ever more into photography, and has taken absolutely amazing photographs with a good point and shoot digital camera. So he thought she might like a digital SLR to use instead.

The look on her face was absolutely priceless when he told her what her birthday (and Chanukah) present was going to be! (We gave her a week's warning before her birthday, so she could research). He asked her if she had a birthday/Chanukah list - and she sort of looked at him like he had two heads (it's been years since we've asked her what she wanted). Then he said, "how about a DSLR?" I think he sent her into shock - and now I really wish I'd thought to have a camera on me to capture her face then...

He had a great time with this - it was a lot of fun for him, and I think her reaction was quite gratifying :-).

She spent every available minute researching cameras, and while she lusts after the high-end models, she does understand our budgetary constraints. And so is willing to make some sacrafices. As she says, she didn't think this was something that was realistic for a couple of years. She has made her pick of camera, then next came choosing where to buy it.

This time of year is definitely a good time to be shopping for something like this - holiday sales can be great. We've checked around, and found a really great deal - not only can she get a good price on the camera - but she can get a second lens pretty much for free. And the deal gets sweeter - we can get a good printer for a steal by buying it with the camera and lens bundle.

She had to wait until the day after her birthday for this deal to start - and she was chomping at the bit for Sunday to come so she could get her new camera. (The printer is for me - and I admit - I'm salivating over it...). But she was nice and didn't drag me out the door first thing in the morning. Hubby did express surprise to her in the morning that we hadn't camped out at the store to be there as soon as it opened. So off we went to get her present (and mine!).

Now here's where I get to tell you what a great kid I have. The store hasn't gotten in the second lens yet that is in the bundle. There are other stores that probably have the lens in stock, and would price-match the first store. But in order to get me the printer (I want it sooo badly!), she is willing to wait until the store gets the lens in, and buy it from them.

I guess she's a good daughter ;-). Thanks kid!

(check out her blog, Reasons I Love Europe, and our Etsy Shop - prossackdesignstoo - to see her photographs)

By way of pictures, a little more introduction

Just thought I'd add a couple pics to show a little more about the artist/crafter side of me.

So I'm going to show off a few things:

like my journals,

and my bookmarks,

my photography,

and my digital art.







I believe I warned you in the first post that I'm a bit eclectic?

I love to create, and I find it impossible to do only one thing - and I refuse to apologize for that.

cat toys...

Who needs to spend money on fancy cat toys? I have found the simplest and best cat toy - is a strip of paper.

When our kitty is being her attention hungry self, and needs some distraction, I pick up a strip of paper, and twist it. That's all - just twist it. Then I watch her eyes grow biggggg, dangle it above her nose, let her get it away from me, and off she trots - happy as can be. Of course, our house is littered with strips of paper...

She's like me - easily amused! (just ask my husband and daughter)

First Post

Hello World - welcome to the newest little piece of the Internet that I've staked out.

I think I'll have my blog be as eclectic as my craft and art, and I hope you'll enjoy it. I'll be showing off my work and the work of others, talk about breast cancer research, and I'm sure I'll come up with other topics along the way.

Want to find out a bit about me? - then check out my website or visit my Etsy shops (they're over there in the sidebar ->)