She just loves to perform!

This girl LOVES Hannah Montana!

A late Christmas present

I got a new car! Today we traded in my well-used Civic for this beauty - a "Green Tea" colored 2008 CRV. It's so cute and stylish! Plus it's SAFE! It's got side curtain air bags and all sorts of other safety features. And it has a moon roof. I have never had a car with a moon roof! I'm so excited, I just want to drive it around and around and around. The Civic treated us very well for eight years and 125,000 miles but the time had come to say goodbye. Goodbye Civic, hello CRV! Looking forward to 125,000+ miles with you good buddy!

Dan Zanes

Dan Zanes is a family-friendly musician and he's just so cute! Check out his hair. His music is catchy and fun too! He's online at www.danzanes.com - there are videos on his site of some of his more popular songs. The girls' favorite is "House Party." They like to dance to it. Rock out Dan Zanes!

Shine your light on me

Check this out! I got a photo light box for Christmas and now my photos on Etsy are gonna shine! Doesn't that picture look great?! Over the next few days I'm going to be photographing new pendants to list in the shop and I'm going to take new photos of the stuff that's in the shop now. Yay!

Did you get everything you wanted for Christmas?

Was Santa good to you this year? Santa was very good to the P family! Arlene got a singing Hannah Montana doll and a "pop pop maker" (aka a gumball machine) and Lydia got a princess baby and some Tinkerbell PJs! The girls got TONS of toys and have been very very busy the past two days playing with everything. Mike got a Wii cross-bow game and gun, and I got a light box for photographing my pendants! Yahoo! (I also got a craft light, yessss!) We had a great Christmas! Did you? What did you get?

20 things to make you go hmmmm .....

1.) "Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand. And "lollipop" is the longest word typed with your right hand.

2.) No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

3.) "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".?

4.) Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

5.) The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

6.) The words 'racecar,' 'kayak', and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).

7.) There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

8.) There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

9.) "TYPEWRITER" is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

10.) A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

11.) Almonds are a member of the peach family.

12.) If the population of China walked past you, 8 abreast, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

13.) Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors.

14.) Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite!

15.) Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

16.) The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

17.) The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

18.) The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

19.) There are more chickens than people in the world.

20.) Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Christmas cheer

Remember the good ol' days when you were just given gift boxes at Christmastime, whether you wanted them or not? I had to PURCHASE a gift box from Old Navy yesterday! $1.50!

For the soul ....

For those of you that know me well, you know that cooking is not my strong suite. But watch out, I'm getting GOOD! I made homemade chicken noodle soup yesterday! Noodles and all! It was sooooo tasty. It was absolutely delicious. And not that hard to do either! Mike kept saying that it was the "best meal ever." I was so proud of myself.

New pendants a comin'

The Two Stars workshop was in full gear yesterday. I made a bunch of new pendants for the shop and for Christams presents. I also made some magnets out of bottle caps. Those turned out pretty cute.

Shop news! The four remaining Christmas pendants are now 25% off! The two all-sterling-silver ones are now just $15.75 and the oval ones are $8.25. I hope to sell the pendants before Christmas so I don't have to keep them until next year!

Is this mean?

Lydia is in serious need of some motivation to be potty trained. She just doesn't care about it. But I care. I'm tired of changing messy pull-ups on her for cripes sake!! So, I had an idea. But I'm not sure if it's mean or not. I bought her some My Little Pony underwear. These would be *special* because Arlene doesn't have any Pony big girl panties. I thought about wrapping them up and putting them under the tree today, with a note from Santa saying basically that he hopes that Lydia can be a big girl and start using the panties so that she can get lots of presents on Christmas. I can't decide if that's cruel though - of course she's getting presents even if she's still in pull-ups on Christmas ... I wouldn't want this to freak her out and get her upset if she just can't do it, but on the other hand, I think she needs to be freaked out into finally just BEING potty trained. She knows exactly what to do, she just needs to do it. Hmm ...

Move over Harry, Sufjan's my fav

I used to looooove Harry Connick Jr.'s Christmas music and listen to it constantly, but I have a new favorite: Sufjan Stevens. He has a five-disc Christmas set that is excellent. It has all of the classics and a few of his own creations.

Let the countdown begin!

I finally finished the advent calendar last night! I am so pleased with how it turned out. We're starting on day 12, but that's okay. The girls were very excited this morning to get their goodies out. Don't tell them that I used their trick-or-treat candy!

Need I remind you? Buy handmade this holiday season!

How cool is this? On December 8, Etsy sold it's 2 millionth item! It was the felt chicken ornament pictured here. It took two years for Etsy to sell one million items, and only FOUR MONTHS to sell a million more. WOW. That is amazing! More and more people are buying homemade, and if you haven't already, buy something homemade this holiday season! And of course don't forget to check out your favorite bloggers Etsy shop!

I feel like a pretty princess

I am wearing a skirt to work today, one that I've worn before many times. When Lydia saw me coming out of the bathroom she said, "Wow mommy, you look just like a princess!" Then when Arlene saw me she said, "Mommy you look so pretty." Now that's a good way to start the day!

Exterior illumination

I have to admit it, I really hate icicle Christmas lights*. I think they look really awful during the day, and they honestly don't look much better at night. Don't people know that they're supposed to attempt to straighten them out so the "icicles" look like "real icicles"? Icicles do not form at 90 degree angles people! Just today I saw two different houses that had icicle lights strewn on their bushes. Icicles on bushes - come on! Get some creativity! If you're going to spend the extra money to buy the stupid things, at least make them look presentable.

* Sorry Mom and Dad. I do like your icicle Christmas lights.

A few of my favorite things

Inspired by the song, and maybe even Oprah, I've created a list of a few of my favorite things. These things make my life a whole heck of a lot happier, and I recommend them highly. And if I was Oprah and had tons of dough, I'd give you all free samples. But since I'm not Oprah and I don't have tons of dough, I'll just recommend them here in my little blog and you can check them out if you choose!

1.) Mary Kay Satin Hands set. This stuff is awesome. I get what I coin "winter hands" every November through March. My hands get super dry and crack and bleed. Ick! Well thanks to my cousin who now sells Mary Kay, I've discovered this little set of wonder. I use the scrub at night and it gets rid of the dry eeewy, then I follow up with the night cream. By morning my hands are sooo smooth. I use the lotion throughout the day.

2.) Sumotech. I've used this product on my hair for five years. I cannot live without it. It gives my hair volume, style, and spunk. It's $25 a tub at my salon, but well worth it. Thank you Bumble and Bumble.

3.) Playhouse Disney. This channel allows me to dust my house or do some other chore without the fear of the girls being little devils and licking paint off the walls. The shows are wholesome and cute, and it's all commercial free. I don't typically put the girls in front of the TV and have them zone out, but if I have to, to get something else done, I put Playhouse Disney on. If you have children or grandchildren or just know a busy mom with children, buy them a Playhouse Disney DVD. I highly recommend Higgly Town Heros, Mickey Mouse's Playhouse, or Tigger & Pooh Super Sleuth's.

4.) Method hand soaps. Try the Cinnamon Bark. It's new for this holiday season. I bought three at Target yesterday just so it would last.

5.) Sister Schubert's Frozen Yeast Rolls. I found these by accident and they are the BEST rolls I have ever tasted. And so easy. They're fully cooked, just need to be heated up. Get them out of the freezer, put a little butter on them (I used spray butter) and heat them up for eight minutes. Yum. Yum. Yum.

What are some of your favorite things?

A primer on posting comments

Hello, dear readers. I wanted to offer a primer on how to post comments onto my blog. I just love comments. Love them! Except hardly anyone leaves them. Boo. It's quite easy, so I'll tell you how:

1.) At the bottom of each post, there is a line that starts with "Posted by Kay at ..." You'll see toward the right end of that line it says "O comments". That's how many comments people have made. If you click on "O comments" it opens up another window for you leave your comment.

2.) In the comment window there is a box below "Leave your comment." You can type anything you'd like in the box.

3.) Now, there are a few ways for you to identify yourself. One, you can create a Google account and leave your mark that way. OR, if you wish to be anonymous, you can type your initials at the bottom of your comment, or just your first initial, or your nickname or whatever. I'd like some sort of hint as to who you are, but if you want to be ultra sneaky and coy, you can be completely anonymous.

4.) Once you're finished writing in your comment and leaving your initials, nickname or whatever, click on the "Anonymous" button, then click "Publish Your Comment."

5.) Wa-la, there you go! Now wasn't that easy!

(P.S. If you'd like to see samples of comments, just find posts that have comments in them, and read away. )

"This isn't the nutcracker!"

My mom and I took the girls to the Nutcracker Ballet this weekend and Lydia absolutely LOVED it. She is fascinated by ballerinas and was in awe of the show. When we first got to the theater we had to go to the restroom. The girls were dutifully following us. We got into the bathroom and as Grandma was opening a stall door, Lydia says, "This isn't the Nutcracker!" It was so funny how she said it - it was like she just realized, HEY! this isn't it! She didn't know where we were or that we were in the bathroom, I guess she thought we were heading to the play and it wasn't until she saw the toilet that she realized we weren't. Both girls did really good during the show. They sat still and were quiet. Lydia got scared of the rat king and was very relieved when he took off his mask. They were the youngest kids in the audience and I was very proud of them for doing so good!

Vintage prints are the way to go

When I was gathering materials to stock up my Etsy shop, I bought a few vintage children's book. My favorite was a 1935 children's song book. I made three pendants from the book. Two of the "Curly Girly" pendants have sold, and the "Moon Man" one remains. The first Curly Girly pendant sold within an hour of me posting it online. I'm thinking that vintage images are the way to go! I was kicking myself for not COPYING the images first. I put the originals into the pendant, which, at the time, I thought was a good idea because I billed them as truly "one-of-a-kind." Well, now I'm thinking that I want to make more of the same image if they are a big seller! I got onto Ebay and paid $9 to buy another copy of the same 1935 book (I paid $2 for the one I had, drats!) and when I get it, I'm going to scan every page so that I can make multiple pendants. They'll still be "one-of-a-kind", just not the only one in existence. I'll state that they are reproductions of the original. My other pendants are getting some action too ... Esty tracks how many visitors each listing gets. The most popular currently is the Santa pendant, he's had 45 views.

Bring out the salt trucks and buy bread

Snow is in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow, one to four inches accumulation. You'd think by the way people are freaking out that a blizzard is coming. When we were in Michigan this past weekend they got maybe 2 or 3 inches of snow, followed by a little freezing rain, and it was nothing. No one was acting like the world was coming to an end, they just drove in it, did their business, and went on with life. There weren't lines at Meijer to buy bread and eggs.

Tonight in Cincinnati all of the school kids (and my teacher husband!) will be staying up late hoping and praying for a snow day, and their parents and grandparents will be at Kroger buying up the staples just in case they get "snowed in" and can't leave the house. Geez!

I have to travel to Columbus tomorrow, and I was considering cancelling the trip, but then I came to my senses and realized that I was born in Michigan and lived in northern Ohio most of my life, so I can't be part of the freak out Cincinnati group who gets scared about a little wintry weather!

UPDATE: It took me three and a half hours to get up to Columbus (usually a 1.5 hour trip)!

"It's Christmas Eve"

We had a wonderful weekend visiting family in Michigan. We saw my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and their kids. We went to Bronners in Frankenmuth and saw Santa and his elves and bought some ornaments. (I found a super sweet pop-up camper ornament!)

On Saturday night about two inches of snow had fallen while we were at my aunt's house. We were in the car traveling back to my grandparents' house when in a sweet little voice Arlene said, "It's Christmas Eve!" She thought it was Christmas already because of the snow. It was so cute.

I put more pictures from our trip onto my Flickr site; click here.