I have surfaced from an Etsy coma

For the past three evenings I've spent a total of 14 or so hours updating my Etsy shop. I took all new photos for my listings, plus added a bunch of new ones. I currently have a total of 79 items for sale! I did have 80, but someone purchased my Jack pendant tonight. I made new 'sections' for my shop to help get it organized. There are now 10 sections:

* Pendants with Dimension (16) - pendants with decorative papers

* Pendants with Design (17) - pendants with candy sprinkles, glitter, etc.

* Pendants with Vintage Images (4) - more Curly Girl pendants!

* Very Special Pendants (3) - these are my Infertility Awareness pendants

* Earrings (4) - the earrings are dainty and glittery!

* Hair Clips (5) - Arlene is my model for the hair clip photos!

* Pins (7) - the tie tacks are included in this category

* Magnets (6) - I have one solo magnet for sale, the rest are in sets

* Chain and Ribbon (10) - I added some new cording options

Check out my shop if you have a minute to see what's new!

My Two Stars bracelet

I bought a hammered sterling silver bracelet from Etsy for my birthday and keep forgetting to take a picture of it! It's my favorite piece of jewelry right now (which says a lot since I make jewelry!) It says "My Two Stars ~ Arlene Elizabeth & Lydia May"

They're growing!

Just shoot me now

Aside from our fun little date on Saturday night, we basically busted our asses all weekend long cleaning and prepping our house for our Open House on Sunday. We bought flowers and mulch and upped the curb appeal - the house looked fantastic, it was a gorgeous day, alas, no one came to the open house. No one. Zilch. Zero. SO glad that we wasted our weekend for NOTHING! We were pissed, to say the least. We had told our realtor earlier in the week that we wanted more marketing to boost the hype about the open house, and he told us that he was marketing it on the web site and that was enough to drive traffic. Yep, that worked grrrrreat didn't it? We haven't had but four people through the house and it's been on the market 72 days now. It's really just out of our hands at this point ... we are getting depressed about it. The house has to sell this year, it just has to!

We decided to put a little faith into this house-selling effort. Last year, we had buried a St. Joseph statue in our flower garden. We dutifully said the St. Joseph prayer for a couple of days, but then just forgot about it. So we unearthed St. Joe this weekend and 'planted' him in our backyard garden, right by the base of the rosebush from Mike's grandmother. We said our novena Sunday morning and have a set of prayers to say for the next nine days. Even if doing the St. Joe routine doesn't have any impact in selling our house, it's good for us as a family to gather in the backyard in prayer every day - the neighbors probably wonder what in the heck we are doing, but at this point we do not care!

Whistle lollipops!

We went to Dave & Busters on a double date with friends this Saturday night (way fun!) and had a blast playing skeeball and basketball and water races, racking up the tickets. Although, we were the old fuddy duddies there with a measly amount of tickets (there were youngsters running around with buckets packed full of tickets; ours fit into the palm of my hand!) so our pickings were slim when it came to cash them in in the "Winners Circle." But we found the GEMS: whistle pops! I used to LOVE these when I was a kid! I was all excited to serenade Mike with my whistle pop skillz, but he let the cat out of the bag when we got home and told the girls about them, drat! (I was not planning on sharing!) but, being a good little mommy, I gave them to the girls. They had fun trying to play songs and they even let me whistle out a few tunes too.

I don't have allergies!

Oh yes I do, so I have discovered this week. We have a beautiful flowering tree in our backyard, but it's been giving me a horrible allergic reaction - itchy red eyes and congestion. I finally got smart tonight and got some Benedryl. Cleared it all up immediately. I have never had allergies, this is a little weird!

Wooden dolls

I just bought these:















To make something like these:















(I'm going to paint a P family!)

The cutest shoes ever

I wish I had little feet. We got these shoes for Arlene last night. They are soooo adorable.

I. Am. Mean.

I have to preface this story with a bit of back info: the girls' bedtime is typically around 8 or 8:30 p.m. All winter, they were in bed by 8:30 at the latest, tuckered out, and fell asleep. Since it has gotten warmer, and it's staying lighter later, the little stinkers never go to bed. We'll put them to bed at about 8:30 and they seem to be settled, but just as we're sitting down to watch TV and to relax, we hear them messing around: jumping on their beds, playing with toys, etc. All this past weekend they were going to bed at 8:30 but playing around until about 10:30 or later. WELL, we had HAD ENOUGH. On Monday night we threatened them with everything we could think of - Do they want to go to the park tomorrow? well then they need to sleep. Do they want us to take their woobie's away? (woobie = fav blanket) well then go to sleep. If I have to come up here one more time you'll get a spankin'! I mean it! (that never works because they know we won't spank them.) After going up and down the steps to yell at them to go to bed about 20 times, we finally just give in and turn up the TV louder so we don't have to hear their shenanigans ... and eventually they give in to sleep. Which brings us to TONIGHT: we put them to bed at 8:30 and I told them that they HAD BETTER go to sleep, or I was going to pop their balloons! Yeah, that's right! We went to GoldStar to eat dinner and because it was Kids' Night, they got balloons. They wanted to go to sleep with their balloons, so I tied them to the ends of their beds. Sure enough after we had put them down, they were turning on their light and messing around. I hadn't gone downstairs yet so I scolded them twice and put them back in bed with the same threat: "If I have to come up here once I'm going to pop your balloons!" But sure enough, I go downstairs, sit down to relax, and I hear them at it again. I grabbed a pair of scissors (Mike told me I was evil) and I stormed upstairs and as soon as I rounded the corner and started walking down the hall I hear Arlene say to Lydia "Lydia, I told you to be quiet, mommy's going to pop our balloons!" Then Lydia starts freaking out - "No mooooooomy, nooooooo! Don't pop my balloon! Don't do it! Please, I promise to sleep!" I got into their room and Arlene had started crying and screaming "nooooo Mommy!" I showed them the scissors and said, "Do you want me to pop your balloons?!" "Nooooooo Mommy!" "Okay, then you need to close. your. eyes. and. go. to. SLEEP!" "We proooooooooomise!" They went to sleep after crying their eyes out (probably scarred for life of the sight of me brandishing a pair of scissors!) but, they didn't get out of their beds again - not another peep!

I really can't believe I was that horrible, but what else was there to do?! I really was going to pop their balloons to "teach them a lesson" but once I got to their room I knew I couldn't do it - that would have devestated them.

I hope they don't remember this popped balloon threat, but they most likely will (their minds are like steel traps) and they'll be telling their friends at pre-school that their mommy threatens them with sharp scissors. Good grief.

Have you heard about MOO?

I am in love with this (new to me) online print company called MOO. I got a free offer to get 10 of their "mini cards" for free and they turned out so cute. Couldn't have been easier to choose the photos, upload them to their site, and get them printed out. The cards I got were pics of the girls - they are a really great quality - crisp, clear images and the paper is heavier than card stock - it's almost like a business card stock. Etsy has just partnered with MOO to offer discounts to sellers. I'm going to order greeting cards or postcards in the next couple weeks to help market my shop. What fun! Check them out: http://www.moo.com/

The toe-walking continues ...

***If you've landed on my blog from searching the 'net for info on tip toe walking or serial casting or AFO braces, hello. This particular post here is one in a number I wrote about my daughter's tip toe walking. I encourage you to start with this post instead. It encapsulates our journey more succinctly.***

We are still taking Lydia to physical therapy for her tip-toe walking. It's been back and forth what we've been told will work for her ... braces, splints, exercizes, squeaker shoes, casts. We were originally told she'd need to wear braces during the day for about six weeks ... but then our physical therapist wanted to go a different route. So we bought her squeaker shoes. The novelty of those wore off quick - Lydia walks in them and squeaks, but then if she's not concentrating, she's back to walking up on her toes. Last week the PT asked us to make a decision between doing serial casts on Lydia, or to get her braces that she'd wear at night. Lydia would need either of the treatments for her to gain more motion in her feet. Her tendons are tight, which causes her to walk on her toes. I agonized over the decision because the serial casts are the quick fix (you can read about them here if you're interested) but they are also the most severe form of treatment, in our opinion. She'd have to wear the casts, on both feet, for a minimum of three weeks. She'd be restricted in her movement, and wouldn't be able to get them wet. The PT was recommending this option, because she said it would be the best way to stretch her tendons out the quickest. But I just couldn't do that to Lydia! We went to her PT appointment last night and talked more about it and decided instead to try night braces. The braces will be worn just at night (or while she's resting watching a movie) and will slowly stretch out her tendons. It will take six weeks or more, and constant work on our part to get her to do her exercises during the day, but we preferred this option above the casts. She gets fitted for the braces in two weeks and they will take a few weeks to be made. If the night-bracing doesn't work, we can do the casting, but I would wait to do it until the winter time. I just hope the night bracing and our exercises will work for her!

Feelin' the name

The name of this dear blog has perfectly described my life in the last few days. I need a couple more hours in the day! If I had just two more hours at work, then I'd be able to finish up the newsletter and annual report that was due two weeks ago and if I had a couple more hours at home I'd be able to get some laundry done, organize the girls' closet, and get some pictures of the new pendants that I want to put up on my Etsy shop. I'm in a sour mood because I feel like I can't get anything done.

Big shop update coming soon

I'm working on a huge batch of pendants and magnets - stay tuned!

Embroidery project

Here is a picture of the embroidery project that I'm working on. I am stitching the girls' drawings onto linen. I'm doing a series of them and I'm going to frame them - I'll take a picture of them when they're all finished!

We can't leave Arlene out

Arlene insisted on being on camera too once I had videotaped Lydia. So here she is:

Lydia's favorite things

I got requests to take a video of Lydia saying her list of what she likes - it's what she names her dollies and such. Here is the post. And below is the video:

The best news of the day!

I got the BEST email today. In February, I got the request to make an infertility pendant for a girl I went to high school with. I got this email today: the subject was "Good News" and it read, "I wanted to let you know that your necklace brought me good luck. I found out that I am pregnant a few weeks ago and I'm due at the end of November." YAY! I am soooooooooo happy I can't even tell you how happy I am for her!! CONGRATS!

Can properly use scissors

I am so proud! Today when I dropped the girls off at preschool their teacher gave me an evaluation sheet for each of them. She said that the girls' evaluations were the easiest to do and that they are the "most advanced" in the class! WOW! I have to share the specifics of their evaluations: the teacher wrote: "Lydia is very curious, which is great. She has lots of questions and a vivid imagination. Lydia will do great next year. She is already interested in writing her name and learning her ABC's, shapes and colors." And for Arlene: "Arlene is very independent. She is my helper. She sets a gerat example for her peers. She is one of the children in class that can properly use scissors. Arlene is very advanced, very friendly, and works well with peers to help them remember the class rules." OMG! I mean of COURSE we knew the girls were the smartest little peas in the pod, but here is proof!

Spring has sprung

And it's ice cream time! The weather finally turned and got nice and sunny yesterday. We took the girls to our favorite ice cream parlor after Mike finished mowing the lawn.

Another man's trash ...

... is the girls' treasure! We were driving home last night from getting ice cream and saw this picnic table sitting on top of someone's trash cans. I made Mike stop and get it! It was really dirty, but he cleaned it up with Mr. Clean and it's fine! I have wanted to get them a toddler picnic table forever. How fun!

Plant the seeds, let it grow

The girls are interested in gardening! I found these cute little dixie-cup seed starter kits for them. Arlene chose pumpkin; Lydia chose watermelon. They came with a Jiffy soil pellet (which is the greatest invention in the world - have you seen them?) and a few seeds. We "planted" them in the cup last night and set them on the window sill to sprout and grow. I anxious to see if they take so the girls can transplant them into our garden!

The return of the eye lash curler

Last summer, I had a horrible accident with an eyelash curler. The curler got stuck on my lashes, the mechanism slipped, and out came half of my eyelashes - down to the root. They got stuck to the curler and were pulled out. Yikes. I was devestated and scared that they wouldn't grow back! Well, they did. I vowed never to use an eyelash curler again, but I missed having curled lashes. So I bought one yesterday. And I was veeeeeerrrrry careful this morning. I have curled lashes. I hope I remain accident-free.

The yummiest snack

I absolutely love Chex Mix Dark Chocolate. It is very yummy-licious! I highly recommend it. Although it is chocolate, I don't feel quite so guilty eating it, because it's mostly Chex. As a side note: does anyone have a good easy recipe for Puppy Chow? I remember eating it at Girl Scout meetings when I was in sixth grade - that's probably the last time I had it. Mike is telling me that there's no such thing as a human snack mix named Puppy Chow, but really, that's what we called it!

The dolls

Here's pix of the doll that I made. Aren't they adorable? They are from a pattern by Emily Martin (I just put a link to her blog "black apple" in my list of blogs). She is the artist that I'm currently in love with. Oh and she's also the single-most successful Etsy seller ever! She was on the Martha Stewart Show and gave a tutorial on how to make the dolls, then the pattern was available for free. They were sooo much fun to make! These are the "Foster" and "Logan" dolls, for their namesakes. Foster got his for his birthday and I couldn't resist, I had to make one for Logan too. I made a "Wendy" doll that the girls get a big kick out of. "Wendy doll" sits downstairs all day by my sewing stash and stiches little hearts into red felt lapel pins. I am going to be making more dolls ... Lydia and Arlene will get one and maybe a few friends too - if you want one, let me know!

Second IKEA shopping trip!

On Sunday Arlene and I went to IKEA, and I don't know what everyone is carrying on about - the store wasn't a zoo! It was busy, but we were able to navigate it just fine. I had been fearful about going on the weekend because we have heard horror stories about having to wait in a line to get in and having to wait half hour to check out. It wasn't bad at all - we got right in, got our stuff and only had to wait five minutes to check out. We have our first official piece of IKEA furniture! I had been wanting a chair for our living room FOR.EVER. and we got a little IKEA club chair and a footstool. It is so cute. Arlene loved IKEA ... she was very happy in the children's department and we bought new plastic silverware - an 18 piece set for $1.99 - you can't beat that deal. I discovered that IKEA has a fabric department! WATCH OUT! Talk about dangerous! I bought pillow forms and a mini bolt of fabric to make pillows for the new chair. The fabric is sticking out of our bag in the picture - it's pink, green and white striped. I just love that store. I should wear a bib in there because I drool over everything.

Isn't this cute?

Ever since I ordered my print from Emily Martin's Etsy shop, I've been addicted to art prints. There are 857 prints that I want to buy from Etsy. Well, that is a slight exaggeration. Maybe.

----> This little one here from an artist called Calobee is so cute!

(This is my last post of the night, I promise. I've broken into the girls' Easter candy and I've eaten the ears off Arlene's chocolate bunny. I'd say it's time for me to go to bed.)

Crafty crafty crafty

I have been working on some really cool craft projects, but I haven't had a chance to take pictures or post them here. I made three rag dolls that are just too cute for words, and I have started on a super cool project: I'm embroidering the girls' drawings onto muslin fabric. I'm going to frame them when I'm done. A few are going to be for gifts so if I post pictures it might ruin the surprise, but they are too cute to not share! I also need to update my Etsy shop ... I have pendants I haven't posted yet, and it's time to take new photos and update all of my listings. This weekend, perhaps!

Everything should be in HD

The Reds are in HD tonight for the first time of the season. It's a crime for baseball games to be broadcast in anything other than HD.

Wrestling Kitties, you need these shoes

I got a Journey's catalog today and immediately thought of you when I saw those shoes!

Open house this weekend

We have an open house this Sunday - wish us luck wish us luck wish us luck! I hope at least one person comes through the house. We'll be busy cleaning on Saturday. That sounds like so much fun I just won't be able to contain myself.

Our builder has moved back our dig date for the new place to April 21, which is okay because that gives us a wee bit more time to sell our current house. If it's sunny on Sunday we're going to the new 'hood to get pictures of our lot.

I'm getting a lift

I find this a little strange, but I'm going with it. I bought a new pair of shoes for our Annual Dinner at work at the beginning of March. I got the cutest pair of heels. I have never owned a pair of heels. I own two pairs of shoes that have a bit of lift in the back, but they are chunky heels, not pencil heels. I walked a little wobbly at the Dinner, but I got the hang of it. I only half slipped once, and I quickly corrected myself and I don't think anyone noticed. I found another super cute pair of patent leather black heels at Kohls Wednesday for $10 on clearance and I wore them to work today. I felt a bit dressed up at first but by the end of the day I really was liking wearing them. As I said, I find this strange, this little shoe development I'm going through, but whatever, I'm going with it ...

* P.S. I will never wear heels with jeans as pictured here. It was the only G rated picture of "heels" that I found when I google imaged "heels" to illustrate my post.

ThisIsWhatLydiaLikes

Whenever Arlene names a doll or stuffed animal, it's name is "Hannah" after her favorite part-time pop star, of course. Lydia's got a different take. All of her creatures are named "TinkerbellIncrediblesPrincessesPizzaTomatoesMarshmellowsBlueberriesMacaroni" because those are her fav things. It's hilarious hearing her rattle it off.

I am a finger licker cleaner

I caught myself doing it today - Lydia had toothpaste crusted around her mouth so I licked my finger and wiped it off! Ewww! When did I become one of those finger-licker-cleaner moms?!

BAN!

OMG I am so peeved! I have two Starbucks that I frequent ... one is a drive-through that is totally convinient when I'm dropping the girls off at my mom's house. The other is a walk-in that is close to my office. The people at the walk-in one are snotty and don't put sleeves on the cups, which really offends me for some reason! I'm paying $4.05 for my Grande Cinnamon Dolce Latte, the least the barista could do is put a sleeve on it and serve it with a smile! The drive-through Starbucks people are awesome and very very friendly. And I always get a sleeve on my cup. And, they know my name. Sweets. WELL, today I went to the walk-in one. But I keep going back even though they annoy me. I am to the point where now I need a latte every morning, it's sad. Anyway, I got to my office, sipped it and almost spit it out!! It didn't have any syrup in it! ICK! I took a few more sips and considered just drinking it, but it was really nasty. So I marched BACK to Starbucks and told them it was awful. Did they say sorry? No. I told them it was made without syrup and they acteed like they didn't believe me. They made me a new one, but weren't aplogetic at all. I AM BANNING MYSELF FROM THAT STARBUCKS! I'll drive the extra few miles to go to the drive-through one every day!! GEEZ!

I WENT TO IKEA!

The IKEA Gods were shining down on me today! We had a freak power outage at work that happened right before noon. So we were told to take an extra long lunch break - the electric would be back on at 2 p.m.! I immediately thought - IKEA! I have been wanting to go during the day during the week, so this was perfect. I found a close parking spot, was able to walk around freely without bumping into busy crowds, and I was just in awe. I. LOVE. THAT. PLACE. I knew I would love it, but I didn't realize I would love it so much. The entire store is exactly my style. I wanted everything! I was a good girl and only spent $16, but I got some awesome buys!

I got the most coolest watering can you've ever seen:

The cutest little candle holders and candles:

The wowest hanging dual-sided frame set (I haven't put it together yet, but this is a pic of what it will look like. I'm going to put the girls' artwork in it):

And of course, the IKEA reusable bag. The thing is HUGE.

I was so ecstatic. I was practically frothing at the mouth! I got a ton of great design ideas for the new house too. We'll be able to outfit the entire house without spending a bunch of dough.

The sight is burned into my retinas

Noooooooo! I don't know what is happening!!! In the past four days, I have seen THREE women wearing stirrup pants! WHY?! Why do they still have those wretched "pants" in their wardrobe?! One especially offending woman was actually wearing the classic outfit of the black stirrup pants and a long sweater covering her butt. She had to have found the sweater in the sale bin at Goodwill. No woman in their right, sane mind would have a sweater like that hanging in their closet. I was horrified. She was walking into the grocery store, I was driving out of the parking lot and almost got into an accident. The sight was forever etched into my brain and I can't get it out. I remember wearing stirrup pants in middle school and it was NOT A COOL TIME FOR ME! Stirrup pants and sweaters were so "comfy" but oh so wrong. When I wore the stirrup pants and sweater combo, I had a "spiral perm" and pink glasses and I used to curl my bangs into all sorts of unnatural frizzy contortions. I was wearing stirrup pants and wishing my leg hair would grow so that I could use the totally awesome electric shaver I got for Christmas. Stirrup pants mean pimples and greasy foreheads and brothers that farted in your face and scrunchie hair ties and wanting to "fill out" so I could wear little bras with pink bows.

I need to go wash my face now.

Fav music right now

Feist. Yes, she's the one that sings that catchy "1,2,3,4" song on the Ipod commercial. The rest of her album is pretty good though. Some songs are upbeat, some are mellow. It's a good mix. I am in music heaven in my office space because of my new Ipod dock. It's awesome. I was getting ready this morning and found myself looking forward to coming to work, just so I could use my new Ipod dock. teehee