New prices, new organization

Two Stars online craft store update: After much consideration, I've decided to list out my pendants seperately from the chain/ribbon. I also brought down the price of the pendants. You can now purchase a pendant for as low as $11 and a ribbon for $2. Whatta deal! Check out the shop here and let me know what you think of this new organiztion.

My totally expensive & unrealistic Christmas wish list

The Sirena Expresso Machine - $599.
Comes free with purchase:

a burr grinder ($60 value), an accessory kit ($30 value),

and a pound of espresso roast ($10 value).

Cinammon Dolce syrup with pump - $10.95

Gingerbread syrup with pump - $10.95

Hazelnut syrup with pump - $10.95

Chrome Travel Tumbler in mint green - $15.95

We wait. And wait. And wait.

This play CD player has been sitting on top of our fridge for W E E K S waiting for Lydia to get potty trained! Remember that Arlene got a toy for being a big girl (stories here and here and here) ... that was at the end of October. She's been a champ since. There's been a few accidents and a few intentional mess-ups, but overall she's been super good with it and she's so proud to wear her big girl panties! Anway, Lydia just isn't getting it. Every day I tell her to do good and "put your peepees and poopoos in the pot" and she'll get the toy! But nope, no such luck. I knew that she'd be harder to potty train than Arlene but this is proving to be quite difficult! Ho hum.

Pardon me please

I apologize to my readers for my lack of blogging! I have been knee deep, no, I'd say neck deep in all things CRAFT. I've been busy working on our Christmas cards (almost finished!) and of course opening up my ETSY shop! (wahoooo!) I've been pretty much obsessed with Etsy all week. Opening my shop was a bit of work because I had to build up my stock, then photograph all of the pendants in a cool way. I'm still not completely happy with my pictures in the shop, but they'll do for now. I've been updating the shop as I go along and checking out my competition too. I've made one sale, and people are looking at my stock, so I'm happy! I just ordered 90 bezels, which are the cup things I use in my pendants. I can't wait until they come in so I can get crafting! Don't forget to tell all of your friends about my shop! Oh and then there's Christmas gifts to work on! I started an advent calendar, I think it's going to be really cute. I have two crochet projects to do also ... but those can wait, for now. So as you can see, I've been a bit busy! I promise I will try to blog more consistently!

MY ESTY PAGE IS HERE!!!!

I FINALLY HAVE MY ETSY SHOP! It is here. I have 14 pendants for sale currently. I have already sold one within 40 minutes of listing the item! I am so ecstatic. I've wanted to sell my crafts for such a long, long time. Please check out my shop and tell your friends. Remember to buy homemade this holiday season - pendants make wonderful Christmas gifts!

I see Christmas

It's Christmas time! We put up the tree this weekend. It's funny how we have a house-full of decorations for Halloween, but we take the "minimalistic" approach with Christmas. Oh well. We have a tree, some deco on the mantle, and a few things here and there. The girls helped with the tree this year for the first time. I put a few more pictures from this weekend on my Flickr site - you can access them from the link on the top left of this page.

Movie recommendation

We saw The Mist this weekend. Very good. It's creepy and twisted like all things Stephen King, and the ending is dynamite. Go see it!

Let the crafting begin

Every year it seems like I make lofty goals for myself as far as what I want to make for gifts for Christmas. I am trying to be reasonable this year. Yet my list is still quite large. I can do it! I can do it! The name of my blog couldn't be truer right now ... if only I had "A Couple More Hours" to get stuff done! Here's what I have planned:

1.) Pendants: I'm going to be making pendants for specific people (many of which read this blog, so I'm not giving away any more information!) and also I have been able to find a good price on supplies, so I'm think I'll be able to build up a little stock of pendants to sell at my office and to whomever else wants to buy them. (side note: one of my New Years Resolutions for 2007 was to sell something on the craftster site Esty. My goal is to list some of my pendants on the site.)

2.) Crocheting: I hope I have time to finish all of what I have in mind! I want to make a certain little girl in our family a monkey purse (I started last night and it's turning out adorable!). I bought a pattern for little letters - pictured above - and I wanted to make a set for the girls and possibly for the other tikes in our family. I have not decided for sure how I will use them ... I thought I could make a set of the alphabet along with a bag for storage, but then I thought that I could put a magnet on the backs of them and they could be used for spelling practice on the fridge or on a cookie sheet ... hmmm ... any suggestions? The last crochet project is an easy one, I want to make cute little Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer pins!

3.) General crafting: I am going to make an advent calendar for us. I also plan to make all of the Christmas cards that we'll be sending out. And I also hope to make a few earrings to accompany the pendant gifts.

I think that's it. For now at least. I refuse to participate in the insane craziness that is "Day After Thanksgiving Shopping" so I'll be staying at home crafting all weekend!

Wanted: A Christmas story

I want to find a good Christmas novel to read this holiday season. Any suggestions?

Bad luck, stay away!

This was not a good weekend for my brothers. On Friday someone backed up into Jeremy while he was trying to pull out of a parking lot. It was a young driver who was obviously never schooled in the art of looking backward before you back up. The kid gunned it right into Jeremy. Then on Saturday Jason's catalytic converter got cut right from his car in broad daylight as he was at a bar watching the Michigan/Ohio game. It'll cost $800 to replace. And the no good thieves who stole it will melt it down for $80 worth of copper. Nice.

A great find

Okay, so maybe I'm spending way too much time just surfing the internet lately, but there hasn't been anything good on TV. I found this awesome site called "Found". It's here. It's along the same lines as Post Secrets, but almost a little cooler, because the stuff is totally random. Check it out. When you're on the site, there is an arrow pointing left below the "Find of the Day" picture. Click on that and you can see more and more and more and more and more ...

The King and I

I had mistakenly created some sort of mental block around Burger King. I just refused to eat there. Told myself I didn't like it, never ever considered it a choice in our fast food repertoire. I cannot honestly remember the last time that I ate there ... it has to be 10 years or more ago. Well the other night I wanted to go to Hobby Lobby but was under the gun to get there on time and give myself enough time to shop (how annoying are their store hours?! they close at 8 p.m.!). We also needed to eat, and there was a BK right next door. I thought, why not, let's try it. I absolutely LOVED IT! The girls LOVED it. Their chicken nuggets are tasty - better than McDonalds!! They both got crowns. LOVED THEM. It was a great dining experience!

The will of a three year old

While I embrace individuality and encourage the girls to try new things, these last few days have been a real test of patience! Mike is out of town being with his parents, so it's just me running the ship at home. Which is fine, the girls and I have been having fun. For the most part. There have been countless battles of will and lots of "I want to do it MYSELF!" screams. Arlene is the worse at wanting to do it HERSELF. She has a mean stubborn streak. Last night it took THIRTY FIVE MINUTES to get them dressed for bed. Why? Because Arlene wanted to put on her pj's herself. The pj's were the footed and zippered kind. Lydia tried to do it herself but then asked for help. Arlene refused help. She tried and tried and got mad and even more mad when they just wouldn't go on. Finally she gave up and did ask for help. She was all sweaty and exhausted and had given up, which is good because she had tired herself out and went straight to sleep! This morning it was much of the same thing as she tried to put on a hooded shirt herself. She couldn't get it figured out and was getting more and more frustrated! We were in a hurry to leave the house so I made the grave mistake of telling her "You can't do it yourself, let me help you!" That pretty much threw her over the edge. She had 10 minutes of flopping around on the floor and screaming and crying and only after I threatened to make her stay home today did she stop crying and begrudgingly let me help her get the stupid shirt on. She pouted all the way to Grandma's house and told me, "I can get my shirt on myself mommy, I'm a big girl!" I replied, "Sometimes even big girls need to ask for help sometimes." She said, "But you not need any help!" I said, "Sometimes I do!" Geez.

Awesome blogs, awesome books

I warn you, once you start reading the following blogs I'm about to recommend, you will be hooked, and before you know it, two hours will have passed!

Last night, I found a blog called To-Do List. It's here. The blog's author collected a whole bunch of to-do lists. Then it was turned into a book. I read the blog for an hour and a half last night. I just couldn't stop reading. And then I bought the book today! And THEN, I found this blog called Post Secret. The blog is here. Oh my goodness. I could spend days on this site. People send in their secrets on post cards. It's amazing. There are four books. I want them all! When you're on the blog site, scroll down to the "Post Secret Community" link. There are audio files of secrets that people have recorded.

What day is it?

I want time to slow down. I'm forgetting things. Ever so often I'll be hit with the stark reality that it's Monday again, yet it feels like it's only Wednesday. Or it'll be Monday, and I'll be wishing I could redo the weekend and make it last longer. The girls are three years old, yet I can remember bringing them home from the hospital like it was yesterday. I can't really call my "new job" my "new job" anymore because I've been there 11 months now. Mike and I have been married going on seven years, yet I can still remember when we were dating back in college, some nine or ten years ago, like it was just last week. I remember snippets of things from years past, but then there are gaps of time where events have gone by so quickly that I didn't have time to even absorb them into memory. Growing up in high school I couldn't wait to move onto the next big thing - I couldn't wait to graduate and go to college. But once I was in college I couldn't wait to graduate and get a job. Years in school went by like decades and seemed to take FOR-EVER, yet years as an "adult" in "real life" are going by at lightening speed. I'm worried that I'll wake up tomorrow and the girls will be in college and I'll be asking myself, what just happened? I want to be able to cherish these precious toddler years with the girls, but they're going by too fast. I'm glad I have this blog as some sort of record of life's events, but I think I should be doing more. We take tons of pictures of the girls, but I think I need to record narratives about the girls or about situations or events. I was even thinking about creating a "day in the life of" picture montage or video of them. I want to create some sort of record of our lives so that when I'm old and gray I can remember what it was like to be young and brunette and I can pull out a journal or DVD or photo album and say, "Ah, I remember that."

Let's go back

Funny: Arlene told Mike and I at dinner the other night that she wanted to "go back" and have her birthday all over again, but this time, she wants cupcakes.

I am scared

This show "Doodlebops" on Disney is frightening. But what's more frightening is how much the girls LOVE it. Both of them were screaming in delight when it came on - "It's DOODLEBOP time!!" Arlene told me she wanted the Doodlebops to come over and play today! Nooooo!

A few inches taller

Are stilts dangerous for three year olds? What do you think? I want to get the girls stilts for Christmas ... I saw these at Amazon.com - they're called "stompers" and they don't look dangerous. Hmm ... they also have a cute little pair that is shaped like dinosaur feet! Might have to buy those for our nephews!

Just us girls

Hooray for girl time! I don't have to work today (Monday) so the girls and I are going to do something special - just the three of us. Not sure exactly what yet ... maybe go out to lunch and do a little shopping! Yay!

Handmade Holidays

I took the pledge! Go here to pledge.

I hate viruses

I have had a sore throat and a general feeling of poopieness since Wednesday and it's really starting to get annoying. It's not strep, it's just a viral virus thingie that has to go away on it's own. Except it's taking it's good 'ol time! Grrrr......

Favorite Word Friday

Today's word of the day is:

grousing

Used as a verb, it basically means "complain." It was said at a staff meeting I had on Tuesday.

Wedgie-proof underwear

Have you seen this? Go here to see a YouTube video about twins who invented "Wedgie-Proof Underwear" - the invention itself is hilarious, but it's more funny watching the boys and how nervous they are on national TV. Watch their hands - they are nervously wringing their hands the entire time. Too funny!

Arlene's fascination with bb's

For some reason, Arlene is fascinated with boobies. I can't figure it out. I have a few ideas, but I'm still mystified. She loves Ariel, that is her chosen princess. (Lydia loves Cinderella, Tinker Bell and Sleeping Beauty, but Arlene is all things Ariel.) I don't know if it's because Ariel's "shells" are so pronounced or it's the fact that she doesn't have a shirt on, or what. It's almost a constant conversation with her. This past Friday, we were having lunch at LaRosa's, and she says to me, "Mommy, I have something to ask you." "Yes?" I reply. She says, "Does Ariel have big boobies?" I snicker, stop myself from laughing out loud, and say, "That's not something that we talk about at lunch in a restaurant." She's not satisfied, she says, "But Mommy, I think Ariel has big boobies, does she have big boobies?" I reply, "Yes, I guess so." She says, "When I grow up, I want to be like Ariel and have big boobies." I say, "Okay, just don't talk about it in a restaurant." This morning, we're getting dressed and ready for pre-school, and she tells me, "When I get bigger, I'm going to have big boobies like Ariel." Oooookay. I tell her, "That's fine honey. You can't talk like that at pre-school okay? Only at home."

Is this normal? What three year old is so intent on growing up and having big boobies? And, why is she so concerned that Ariel has "big" boobies? I don't get it!

Profile image

(I had to create this post to be able to add this image as my "profile" image. So now when I comment on other people's blogs, this image shows up. )

I am not a scrooge

I can't stand it, it's November 6, and the stores are acting like Christmas is next week! Maybe I just didn't notice it last year, but it seems like this year the Christmas deco came out WAY early! Halloween's gone, Christmas is here! Does no one do Thanksgiving anymore?! A lot of the towns around here already have wreaths up on the street poles. This past weekend my mother-in-law asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and what the girls wanted. I could think of nothing. I have a few ideas of what I'd like to make people for Christmas, but I can't bring myself to start those projects yet. Ho hum, rather, bah-humbug.

The Yeah Yeah song

Arlene's Yeah Yeah song ... her lyrics: "When I grow up, I want to be Ariel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah."

Ahhhh .... snuggly

It's cold now. The heater has been on, the girls are wearing footed-PJs, my hands are getting dry and cracked, and we put flannel sheets on the bed. I LOVE flannel sheets. I never want to get out of bed now. More so than usual! I am so cozy and warm and snuggly under the flannel sheets. Flannel sheets are the best. I love flannel sheets.

Favorite Word Friday

Lassitude

This word appears frequenty in the book I'm currently reading, The Ruins. It means: weariness of body or mind from strain, oppressive climate, etc.; lack of energy; listlessness; languor.

Interesting.

Halloween greeting

Trick or treat, smell my feet

We had an awesome time trick or treating last night! The girls did really good. I brought along the wagon in case they got tired, and they lasted longer than I thought. Toward the end Arlene rode in the wagon, but Lydia was a trooper. She was all about getting more candy and visiting all of the houses. They had a hard time remembering to say "thank you" but once I reminded them, they said it, even if they had to yell it from the sidewalk as we were walking away. Everyone thought that Lydia was a boy, which made me mad at first, but then I realized that I did have her dressed up like a boy skeleton, so it was easy to make that mistake. Except she had pink shoes on! Okay, it was dark, so it was hard to see her shoes. We covered a lot of ground and they got some good loot. I was surprised how many kids had really stupid costumes on. This one kid that we kept seeing had Mickey Mouse ears on. That's it. A girl had on ballet shoes. That's it. Where's their effort? Shame on their parents for letting them go out like that! The best costume we saw was the Grim Reaper with glowing red eyes, second best was a rather large woman that was dressed in a blow-up cow costume. Look at the rest of our pictures here at our Flickr site.