Our weekend, in pictures

What a relaxing holiday weekend! We so enjoyed having the extra time off work! We celebrated Thanksgiving, did a little shopping, and decorated the house! Here's some pictures:

The girls and I made cranberry cookies Wednesday night. I snapped this picture as Arlene was saying, "Talk to the mitt!"

Waiting by the oven for the cookies to come out.

Turkey Day!

Very proud of his turkey. Yes, my husband cooked the bird.


Lydia and Uncle Jason playing Guitar Hero.

I was attempting to get a good picture of the girls because they were dressed up so nicely. They were having fun posing:

Decorating the tree!


Arlene decided to "decorate" Lydia.

I made the girls their "countdown" calendar last year - I still love it! I used their Halloween candy to fill in the pockets.

The finished tree!

The girls made Fruit Loop garland for the pink tree that we put downstairs.

I told the girls that they could eat the Fruit Loops that wouldn't fit on their needle. They found a lot that "wouldn't fit." Lydia looks like a squirrel!

The finished tree! Fruit Loop garland, plus Gingerbread Men garland and ribbon, and the star ornaments that I made.

The mantle in the basement. I went with a "blue theme" this year, with the exception of the stockings.

The girls' stockings I made.

I stitched up this little holiday sampler to put on the mantle. Lydia drew the tall snowman and the snowflake. How cute!

Did I miss the memo?

I didn't realize that tonight was the "biggest party night of the year" because no one has to work tomorrow on Thanksgiving. I never partied on Wednesday night. I mean, I'm not much of a partier and have never been much of a partier - even in college - but you'd think I'd even at least hear about the parties going on. Hmmm. Is this a new thing? Or maybe I've been living under a rock?

Etsy Favorites Wednesday

Enjoy this week's Etsy Favorites Wednesday! Happy Thanksgiving!

Stocking House and Matryoshka Doll - $30 by Posh Plushies

I love the detail work in these items! The boot is just too cute!

Recycled Flower Brooch - $29 by Wearwolf

This is so pretty! I think it would look lovely on my red coat.

Felt Balls - $10.50 by HandBEHG

I love the emerging hand-felted craze that is coming onto the Etsy scene. I especially love these little felt balls. I've seen them strung into necklaces. I'd make a bracelet out of them. Check out this seller's work with felting.

Red Monkey - $28 by Abbydid

My crafter friend Abby made this little monkey, and he is soooo cute! She calls him Mr. Spunkity. His expression is adoreable. He's even cuter in person - I saw him at the last craft show that Abby and I did together. She makes such unique critters. We did a swap and I got a critter like this for one of my nephews for Christmas! I love that 'lil monster. He's sitting in my craft room now, keeping me company, and I am going to be sad when I have to wrap him up!

Pocket Mirror - $4 by Madison Craft

How cute, and what a good stocking stuffer idea!

This is really cool!

I saw this on the Craft: blog and just had to share! A change purse made from a recycled tape. The gal who made it blogged about it here. Super cool!

Blah, blah blah

I'm having one of those days. Where everything makes me mad, everyone annoys me. I don't know what my beef is, but it's a seriously large piece of stewing meat. I can't even really pinpoint what exactly is making me feel blah, but, I think it's just the culmination of everything in general. Hm. Take my job, for example: for the past month or so, I just have not been feeling it. I don't dread coming into work, but I don't exactly enjoy my time spent there either. I'm not inspired or excited by anything. I get irritated at the people here and their ways (my coffee creamer was stolen and used up yesterday!) and the way people don't respect me and my position because I'm the youngest person in the administration building. It's just so tiring to have to constantly fight for what you feel is the right thing to do, because it was how you were trained professionally, yet, because you're the "young one" your opinion doesn't rank that high. It's annoying and I'm finding myself just not wanting to fight the fight.

But enough of that. The other thing that's really making me feel just off is how unsettled and out of place I feel because of our whole house-selling, house-building situation. We've been at this two years total now. And for what? Nothing - nothing to show for it but a total of three realtors and a lot of frustration because no one can seem to sell our house. A lot of frustration. The new house is no longer "ours" - it's been listed for sale and put into the MLS system. I don't want to give up on that house, but we sort of have no choice now. If our current house sells, we can always go and buy that house if it's still on the market. But the chances of our house selling in this terrible economy is pretty much nill. Our house is still on the market - but we don't have much hope. We had decided in September to keep it on the market, trying a new realtor, to see what would happen. Nothing has happened. We've had a total of maybe three showings since September, but no leads. We have a showing scheduled for this weekend, but I'm not putting much hope into it.

I feel like we can't fully live and be settled and just be, because we're in this constant state of "if". "If" our house sells then maybe we can buy the new house "if" the new house isn't sold yet but "if" it is sold then we'll have to decide where else we want to live and "if" we can't get into another house right away then we're going to have to do a double move and live in an apartment but that's a pretty big "if" that our house will even sell in the next four months because it's winter, it's the holidays, it's gray and dark outside, our realtor isn't very good at marketing it, and we are just cursed to live in that house forever. Har-umph.

And another thing: I'm feeling a whole heaping load of GUILT about not being with the girls during the day. Ever so often I'm hit with the "working mom guilt" and I think what brought it up this time is that last week, I was home with the girls Mon-Wed and I had a great time. It was so easy. We relaxed, we played, we had fun. We were all sick, but we still had a good time. When I got back to work last Thursday it was a shock to my system and I really started questioning if I wanted to be a working mom anymore. Most days I do, but the culmination of not really enjoying said job and the fact that it would just be plain FUN to stay at home with the girls, makes me question if I want to still work. But I know that I do, and right now unless we did some serious dumping of some of our luxuries, we can't afford for me to stay at home. But it's days like these, where I am so unmotivated to do anything, that I can't help but want to just be at home, playing Little Einsteins Bingo and Barbies with the girls and making them peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches for lunch.

Etsy Favorites Wednesday

This week's Etsy Favorites Wednesday features prints from the fabulous artists that haunt Etsy. I wish I had a drawing/painting talent. But I don't. I think art prints are a great way to build up your art collection, plus they are cheap enough that you can buy a couple, put them in great frames, and wa-la, you're all set and lookin' hip. I had purchase a print from The Black Apple awhile back, and I love it immensely. I was worried how a print would look - would it look cheap or so unlike the original? But no, it looks great.

First of all, here is the print that I bought from the Black Apple. This print it delightfully disturbing (the whole ax thing). I hung it in our family room. I am waiting for The Black Apple to create a blond-headed girl painting that I like. The red haired girl in this painting resembles my red-headed girl.

Now onto the Etsy Fav Fives:

Owl Print by Jens Kelley - $12

This is a screen-printed print. Love it. I wish I could screen print. And draw. If I could screen print AND draw I'd be dangerous.

Upside Down print by Tummy Mountain - $25

Can these little kids be any cuter? Check out Tummy Mountain's whole line - it's like one big huge cute fest.

Snowman Print by Holli - $13

I am usually drawn (ha) to colorful artwork, but I really like this drawing. It's stark just like the winter season.

Miss Winter Coat by Anne Julie - $24.50

I must be thinking winter because this is the second winter scene here. I like the background color of this piece, plus the bird.

Now We'll Sleep Print by Mon Petit Fantome - $13

This is a print of a paper cutting piece of work. I guess paper cutting is popular. Who knew? Lydia LOVES to cut paper - I'll have to keep honing her cutting skills.

2009 Calendars - it is only 45 days away!

Today at work I ordered my boring, plain, write-in desk planner/calendar. So that got me to thinking that I needed to find a a cheerier calendar to hang on my wall, one with more personality. Look at the ones I found on Etsy! Can you believe that 2009 is only 45 days away? That is insane!

(click on the links for more info)

Owls for January

I love the simplicity and repetition of the designs.

Frames all Year
Cute and simple.

Watercolors

I love this whimsical look.

Happify

I would def be happified looking at these designs all year long.

Birds

Here I go with the birds again, but these are especially cool, because you can hang them!

Plain Jane Hanging Calendar

For hanging on your metal filing cabinets.

Cupcakes Make People Happy Calendar

True dat!

Folksy

I love this. If the design looks sorta familiar it's because I want to order my Christmas cards from this seller.

Crafty weekend recap

This weekend was a busy one! I had a craft show Friday night - it was a lot of fun! I sold a lot of pendants, lots of magnets, one doll, and two aromatherapy eye pillows! Plus, my crafter friend Abby was there so we had a great time chatting about crafts and doing shows, etc. I made some decent cash, I was happy! I had another show on Saturday that was a DUD. It was at a church about a block down from my house, and I had decided to do it just because it was so close. I shouldn't have! Hardly any buyers. I sold a few things, a pendant, an eye pillow and some magnets. My magnets are the most popular thing at my shows, no matter if people buy them or not. I get all sorts of "oh that's clever!" comments and a lot of "I didn't know bottle caps were still being made!" and some more of "where did you get all of these bottle caps?" (which they are implying, 'please tell me dear child that you did not consume the alcohol from which these 30 bottle caps came from'! To which I reply, 'wouldn't you know, I bought them online? oh that Internet, such a gem!")

I have 35 pendants left! I was really hoping to sell all of them at the four shows I was doing this season. I mean they are priced at an absolute STEAL, which no one realizes. The sterling silver chains alone retail at $12, and I'm selling the pendants AND the chains for $10 TOTAL! I have marked down all of my pendants on my Etsy site for $12 each ... I might go lower just to see if I can get rid of them. Etsy is so saturated with resin pendants right now ... it's really hard to stay on top of the pack and get noticed. I was thinking about offering them in packs of three - three pendants with one necklace, for like $15 or $20, and then selling off the extra chains later. I don't know ... I haven't decided. Do you think people would be more apt to buy three together? If I did that I don't know if I should offer a pre-packaged deal of three, or have people pick the three that they want? What do you think? At the shows this weekend I was offering 2 pendants for $15, three for $20. Most people bought 2.

I am glad to have the pressure off of doing the craft shows. I immensely enjoyed doing them (even the duds had their perks and pleasures) but the stress of making sure I had everything in order and my stock all ready was a bit tiresome. I'm glad now to have the time to work on crafts for Christmas and for myself!

Today Mike went to the Bengals game so the girls and I took a shopping trip to IKEA! I still love that place. I was a very good shopper - I only spent $25, even though at one point I had about a hundred more dollars of stock in my cart! I was going to buy a new comforter for our bed, but then decided to wait until I had Mike's opinion. I got a french press coffee maker for $12! I'm very anxious to try it out - plus I got some cute coffee mugs for 59 cents each. And plastic cups for the girls. And some BIRD ornaments! It was a fun trip. Arlene just loooooves IKEA, it's really funny. Lydia doesn't really care either way, and today, she was going for the honor of "most annoying child EVER in IKEA" and let me tell you, she won the prize!

I found these awesome stars there and I REALLY REALLY wanted to get them, but I wasn't sure how I'd hook them up. They hang from the ceiling, but I'd need to have an electric outlet in the ceiling to hang them. I don't know how I'd display them. But I know I want them. I should go back and get them. They are only $10.

All in all it was a great weekend, but it went by too quickly! The P family is finally getting over whatever horrible cold/flu bug hit us. We're all still sniffely and snotty, but we're managing!

Etsy Favorites Wednesday

The P girls have been sick - blah! - so I asked my bestest bud Amber to create this week's Etsy Favorites Wednesday. She did, and she did a wonderful job! Enjoy her favorites, I sure love her picks!

Amber says: "Giving handmade gifts, either things I've made myself or things I've purchased from Etsy or creative friends, has become a goal of mine. But taking the Handmade Pledge doesn't have to stop there! Below are some fun, handmade gift wrapping ideas and accessories to complete the package."

Upcycled Gift Bows - $9 by ara133

No gift is complete without a bow!

Christmas Stickers - $2.50 by DdJah

These stickers, perfect for envelope closures, combine modern Christmas trees with a vintage feel.

Gift Tags - $4.50 by ChelseaVanTol

I love the modern trees and glitter borders on these festive Christmas tree gift tags.

Christmas Tree Gift Tin - $20 by Giggles N Gifts

This package is a gift in itself! Throw in a collection of lotions or candles and you're all set.

Reusable Fabric Gift Bag - $3 by Ole Bag Lady

Who needs paper when this reusable gift bag does the job?

Many, many thanks Amber! I love it how these are things that I probably wouldn't have found on Etsy on my own, yet you did, and I love them ALL!