Mischievous Kitty

What a Week!

2012-01-28T12:51:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, I went to see Tony n' Tina's Wedding with my husband, parents, in-laws, and my in-laws' neighbors. Truthfully, it's not the sort of show Glen or I would normally go to see, but the production that happened to be in town starred two of our friends from college, so we had to check it out.

Fun fact: These guys are married in real life, too. Adorable, right?

On Monday night, I did the work thing during the day, went to band rehearsal at night. We're playing more Broadway stuff than usual this season, which is exciting for me. I love playing in pit bands, but I haven't done it in years. Playing showtunes in concert band isn't quite the same, but in the meantime I'll take it. ;-)

Glen opened for Myq Kaplan at the Allentown Brew Works on Tuesday night, but first Myq stopped by our place to film a pre-taped segment for Glen's show, and I had to keep Elvis out of the den and reasonably quiet.

We didn't get home until fairly late (for a work night, anyway), so Wednesday was a much-needed lazy day once I got home from work. I managed to go to the gym, but after that I parked my butt in front of the TV for the night. Did anyone catch the two-part interview Stephen Colbert did with Maurice Sendak? Amazing. Here's part one:

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The part about In the Night Kitchen made me laugh so hard I cried!

Thursday was a library day (read: 12 hours at work, fun!), and I got my hair cut during lunch. While I was at the salon, I decided to pick up some new shampoo and conditioner:

I am seriously obsessed with this stuff. (The shampoo smells like grapefruit!) I generally don't splurge on beauty products, but as of right now, shampoo/conditioner and mascara are exceptions.

Last night was another lazy evening (well, except for the 3 loads of laundry I did, but I had originally intended to clean the whole house!). I made the mistake of drinking coffee before my 5-9 library shift the night before. Big mistake. I slept horribly and barely made it through the day at work.

On the bright side, I did come across this video on YouTube:

I read about this event awhile back, and lamented the fact that (a) I didn't know about it until after it happened and (b) it happened all the way on the other side of the country, so I couldn't have attended anyway. Watching it on my computer was the next best thing, and it totally made my day.

I'm hoping to use my little Before and After series as motivation to get at least one room in the house thoroughly cleaned this weekend. In the meantime, I will leave you with this adorableness:

Elvis loves snugglin'!

Before and After: The Bathroom

2012-01-19T19:31:00.002-05:00

My husband and I moved into our house nearly 3 years ago. It was a diamond in the rough, to say the least. I've never seen so much wallpaper in my life.

Since I knew we'd be putting a lot of work into the place, I thought it would be fun to document the before, during and after, and make an album on Shutterfly or something, to document all the work we put into the place. Well, I did a decent enough job of documenting before and during, but not so much the after. I got as far as taking pictures of the bathroom and stopped.

I decided it might be fun to do a series of "Before and After" posts for each room of the house, but I won't lie, I have two ulterior motives:

This will force me to clean up each room, and put on the finishing touches that we never quite got to, like the baseboards (or lack thereof) in the kitchen.
I will have to take the rest of those photos, and maybe I'll finally make that album!

So without further ado:

Before

I actually haven't looked at these photos in awhile. This first one actually isn't as bad as I remember, it's just REALLY not our style.

Really, really not our style. Also, that wallpaper? It's not even on drywall, it was on these weird, plastic panels attached to the wall. More on that later.

But this? This is just scary:

During *

Want to know what was behind that weird plastic paneling? THIS:

Nice, huh? And what's even nicer? When there's water damage behind the tub. Thank goodness we decided to gut the bathroom, or we wouldn't have found it.

This meant we had to rip out the drywall on the other side of the tub. Here's the view from Glen's office:

New drywall:

And in the spirit of today's post on Budgets Are Sexy, I opted to refurbish the vanity and cabinet, instead of replacing them:

After

Our color scheme was white with black trim and chrome hardware. Here's the new door and trim:

Clearly, the hardware in the tub had to be replaced, as did the tub surround:

Here's the refurbished vanity, with a coat of black paint, new hardware, and a new faucet:

We replaced the mirror and lighting with a bit more stylish:

In the photos the difference in lighting isn't very dramatic, but the main difference is that the finish is much shiner on the metal and the shades are much sleeker. The old shades we frilly and hideous.

Here's the view looking in from the hallway:

We still need to replace the floor. The grout is in bad shape and tiles periodically pop up and stick to our feet. Not cool. The plan is to wait until we remodel the laundry room, which also needs a new floor, and hopefully get them both taken care of in one day.

* This remodel would not have been possible without my extremely handy father-in-law, who was responsible for gutting the bathroom, putting up the new drywall and tub surround, and installing the new faucets. He helped us out a lot with fixing up other areas of the house, too, but he is almost single-handedly responsible for the bathroom remodel!

Sushi and Shoes

2012-01-16T23:06:00.001-05:00

I may or may not have mentioned this previously, but Texas is stealing my college roommates. Over the course of a single year, three of my nearest and dearest friends/former roommates have moved to that state for one reason or another. It's a big change from having them live within an hour and a half of me, and a HUGE change from them living in the same apartment as me.

However, one of those lovely ladies (whose wedding I was in this past summer) is in NJ visiting her parents this week. I had the day off from work, so we got together for lunch and shopping.

We gorged ourselves with delicious sushi at East Japanese:

Sadly, all the seats at the conveyor belt were taken, so our dining experience wasn't quite as adventurous as it could have been, but everything was still very tasty.

And big news: After months of searching, I FINALLY found a pair of brown pumps:

Not the greatest picture, but they were on clearance at Macy's and I couldn't find this pair on their website anymore. But they are super cute, super comfortable, and were marked down from $75 to $31. I'm a happy camper. :-)

Apart from the ridiculous traffic on Route 4 and almost getting rear-ended by a speeding bus in the parking lot of the Garden State Plaza, it was a wonderful afternoon!

Hopefully the joy of those new shoes will be the happy thought that sustains me as I start working on the tax return for my jewelry business this week. I always dread doing inventory, but once I get that done, I'm planning to finally add some listings to my much-neglected Etsy shop. Wish me luck!

Oh Good, an Extra Mortgage!

2012-01-12T19:44:00.000-05:00

First and foremost, I have to thank femmefrugality for commenting on my blog, which resulted in my checking out her blog, specifically this post.

I've been wanting to check my credit report for awhile - I haven't checked it since I applied for a mortgage almost 3 years ago. I've been toying around with the idea of replacing my car later this year, which would probably necessitate taking out a small loan. The above-referenced post was the kick in the pants I needed to actually follow through on checking my credit report.

Well, my credit reports on Experian and TransUnion looked good, but lo and behold, Equifax thought I had not one, but TWO mortgages. Not just two mortgages, but two IDENTICAL mortgages, with two different banks.

Needless to say, I filed a dispute in no time flat. As it turns out, nothing nefarious was going on, no one was stealing my identity or anything of that nature. The bank that holds my mortgage recently merged with another bank under the same parent company, and they forgot to remove the mortgage under the old bank name after they added it under the new name.

I have to give a LOT of credit to my bank for how quickly they responded to the dispute and how nice and helpful the woman I spoke to was. I just have to fax them a copy of the credit report with the error and they're going to remove the mortgage with the old information from my Equifax report.

Moral of the story: Check your credit report regularly. And DEFINITELY check it if you think you might be taking out a loan in the near future!

Happy (Belated) New Year!

2012-01-05T19:29:00.001-05:00

Yup, I'm still alive. My original intent was to just take the week between Christmas and New Years off from blogging, but I accidentally added an extra 5 days. Sorry about that!

Anyway, I did spend plenty of time relaxing and reading. Last week I read Fathers and Sons, Sleeping Arrangements, and My Life as a Furry, Red Monster. Yes, that's Turgenev, chick lit, and an autobiography by a Muppeteer. I'm very well-rounded. ;-)

Anyway, here's a quick recap of my break:

Our fireplace was pretty great even when it was broken...

But it was even better after we got it fixed!!!

I got to spend lots of time with these handsome guys.


Unfortunately, this little guy (Sery) passed away a couple of days after Christmas. He was getting up there in age (most rats only live 2-3 years, he was 2 years and 8 months) so it wasn't entirely unexpected, but I will still miss him very much.

As usual, we spent New Years Eve in Wildwood with some friends from college. This was the view from our balcony.

So pretty. :-)

Oh, and Glen was interviewed about our dog Elvis on Coffee with a Canine, check it out!

I hope 2012 is treating everyone well so far! How did you ring in the new year??

How I'll Spend My Christmas Vacation

2011-12-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

I saved up enough vacation time this year to take off the entire week between Christmas and New Year's. I have a half day today, and don't return to work until January 3. AMAZING. :-)

This is pretty much how I plan to spend my time:

Wine, books and music, curled up on a comfy recliner in my den... To be interrupted only by our traditional New Year's Eve trip to Wildwood with some friends from college for some late-night water sliding.

What are your plans for the holidays?

Halfway Out of the Dark

2011-12-21T19:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Winter Solstice, everyone!

Depending on where you live, the winter solstice is either today (if you live in or west of CST) or tomorrow (if you live east of CST). The article I linked to above shows you how to determine the approximate time the solstice occurs for you. I live in EST, so for me it's 12:30am on December 22.

Photo by Andrew Dunn

This is probably not a big surprise seeing as I am a bit of a nerd who throws parties in honor of things like the Perseid meteor shower, but I really like that tradtions such as adorning our houses with Christmas lights and candles and burning a Yule log originated from the fact that winter solstice (a function of the earth's axial tilt and its position in relation to the sun) marks when the nights start to get shorter and the days get longer. I'm also a fan of the fact that using evergreens to decorate the home symbolizes the persistence of life in the dead of winter.

So much of the imagery and symbolism behind this season is just so hopeful and optimistic, and because much of it is actually rooted in astronomy just makes it that cooler!

Last year's Doctor Who Christmas special (if you haven't watched it, you should!) used the term "halfway out of the dark" to describe this time of year. Personally, I think that's a fantastic description, both from a literal and metaphorical perspective. :-)

(Speaking of which, 4 days til this year's Christmas special! Is anyone else going through Doctor Who withdrawal??)

All Wrapped Up

2011-12-20T21:11:00.000-05:00

I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping - just one more thing on my list!

In the meantime, I've started wrapping the gifts I do have.

This year I decided to use brown kraft paper and ribbon (along with adorable handmade tags I bought at a craft show!) instead of my usual printed wrapping paper and bows.

I'm pretty happy with the results so far:

I absolutely LOVE that I was able to get a 30" x 40' roll of the kraft paper for $5. MUCH more cost effective than traditional wrapping paper, and I think I was able to give the gifts a bit more personality this way. (Although I suspect most of my wrapping paper savings will go towards buying piles and piles of fun ribbon...)

What do you think about kraft paper for wrapping gifts? Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Deck the Halls

2011-12-18T00:06:00.002-05:00

I got a bit of a late start on Christmas decorating this year. We didn't get our tree until last week, and it's probably the fattest tree we've had so far:

Note Elvis's doggy bed to the right of the tree. \Probably not the best placement, but amazingly, we haven't had any ornament casualties so far.

Our fireplace is a testament to how obsessed we are with our pets:

The elaborate stockings on either end of the fireplace are actually ours, my mom made mine for me when I was little and made one for Glen after we got married. But naturally, Elvis has the biggest stocking. Our rats, Nory and Sery, and our degus, Barnum and Bailey, each have their own tiny green stocking. Call us crazy, but I think it's adorable. :-)

And of course, we have some greenery and candles on the mantel:

I don't even remember where I bought that, but I love it. As I type this, I'm snuggled up on the couch with Elvis, with the candles flickering and the tree lit up, and it's so cozy!

We don't have a ton of decorations in the den, but this one is really cute:

Glen's parents bought it for us a few years back, when we were still in the apartment. I break it out around Christmas, and I leave it out pretty much all winter.

And here's a sneak peak of the dining room table (we're hosting Christmas dinner this year, so expect photos of the place settings in a week or so!):

The centerpiece is made from live greenery, my mom picked it up for me when we went to Christkindlmarkt last weekend. So pretty. :-) Apparently if I remember to water it a couple of times a week it should last well into January.

Have any of you posted photos of your holiday decor? If so, share the link in the comments - I'd love to check it out!

P.S. Have you seen this photo on Bookshelf Porn?

I don't think I could forgo a live tree altogether, but I kind of want to try a miniature version of this next year!

Sinatra Night 2011

2011-12-14T17:15:00.000-05:00

If you've been reading this blog for at least a year, you know that Glen and I have a tradition of celebrating Frank Sinatra's birthday by getting dressed up and inviting our friends over for booze, food and Rat Pack music.

Frank's birthday fell on a Monday this year, so we celebrated two days early.

Please forgive the glare in that picture... It didn't occur to me at the time that we were standing right in front of a window. Oops!

By the way, that's the dress my parents got me for my birthday. It's the first piece of clothing I've gotten from ModCloth and I'm kind of in love. I think I may be addicted now...

One of the highlights of my night was getting to spend time with these lovely ladies! We all went to high school together, and I've known each of them for anywhere from 14 to all of my 29 years!

This may very well be my favorite photo of the evening. Right in the middle of the party, Elvis decided it was nap time. He climbed right on Glen's lap, curled up, and went to sleep.

As always, we had a wonderful time, and I'm already looking forward to next year's party! :-)

Just One Person

2011-12-08T18:13:00.001-05:00

The Muppets has been out for a couple of weeks now, but after reading some articles about it online yesterday, I found myself browsing YouTube and found some amazing, incredibly moving stuff from Jim Henson's memorial service, including:

-Big Bird singing "It's Not Easy Being Green":

(I got a little teary-eyed on this one, especially at the end.)

-Frank Oz giving a eulogy:

(I laughed an awful lot, but started crying a bit at the end.)

And this performance of the song "Just One Person":

(When the performers and their Muppets start pouring onto the stage after the first few verses I lost it. Totally. And. Completely. Lost. It.)

Mind you, all of this crying happened at my desk at work, during my lunch hour. Thank goodness I have my own office, with a door that closes, or I'd have completely humiliated myself.

It's really kind of ridiculous how I can still find myself grieving the death of someone I've never met, someone who died when I was only 7 years old, nearly 22 years ago. But the fact of the matter is that I grew up on Jim Henson's work (most notably Fraggle Rock), and it played a significant role in shaping my view of the world... and considering the following quote, I suppose that isn't such a bad thing!

When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little bit better for my having been here. -Jim Henson

Busiest. Weekend. Ever.

2011-12-05T13:39:00.000-05:00

How was your weekend?

Mine was incredibly busy, but also incredibly fun. And now I am incredibly tired.

I spent Friday night frantically trying to replenish inventory, since I managed to sell quite a bit of stuff at the open house on Sunday.

I was up bright and early on Saturday morning for my second-to-last craft show of the season, Crafts in the Warren Tech. I had to leave my house at 7:00, and the show ran from 9:00-4:00, the longest one I did this year. No sooner did I get home and unpacked than we had to leave for our friends' Chrismukkah party. (For the record: My friends and I started celebrating Chrismukkah before The O.C. made it cool.) We didn't get home until nearly 2:00 in the morning.

Up bright and early again on Sunday for my final craft show of the season, then went to my husband's show at SteelStacks. His guests were both folks we went to college with, both of whom I haven't seen in quite awhile, so it was great being able to hang out with them for a bit!

Here they are interviewing comic book journalist Jill Pantozzi of Has Boobs, Reads Comics and The Mary Sue:

And here they are interviewing Eric Smith, of Geekadelphia and ordering-custom-made-Master-Chief-armor-with-money-he-got-from-selling-his-cheating-ex-girlfriend's-engagement-ring fame:

Note: While Eric and I DID date for a few months about 10 years ago (ugh, typing that made me feel SO old), I am NOT the cheating ex-girlfriend. I am the girlfriend he dated to get to Glen. They were even roommates one year back in college, and Eric was a groomsman in our wedding! Now my husband and my ex-boyfriend do things like snuggle and go on road trips together. Not awkward at all. ;-)

And I couldn't possibly end this post without sharing a picture Eric took of me wearing the helmet from his costume:

Stylish, I know.

After about 5 hours of sleep last night (we didn't get home from dropping Eric off in Philly until around 1:30) I feel like I should be more tired than I am. Perhaps I was energized by such a fun weekend. It is equally likely that I've moved beyond tired into delirious. Probably the latter. But so worth it. :-)

Open House: Success!

2011-11-27T22:34:00.001-05:00

Today I hosted a holiday open house for myself and 5 other local crafters/vendors. This was the first time I've ever done anything like this and it was exhausting, nervewracking and fun.

I completely flaked out on taking any pictures of the event, but I was pretty impressed that my relatively small house was able to accomodate 6 crafters and vendors plus a bunch of guests without feeling too claustrophobic. I had to rearrange some furniture, but some things, including the fireplace and the piano, served quite nicely for people to display their wares.

In addition to making a nice little profit for the day, I also got some Christmas shopping done. I won't post pictures of any of the gifts I bought (don't want to ruin anyone's surprise!) but I did purchase a nice little piece of holiday decor from my friend Hannah, who just started making wreaths:

She doesn't have a website or online shop at this point, but if she does start one, I'll be sure to post the link here! :-)

Other wonderful crafters and vendors at this event included:

Krystyn of KameKnits, who makes gorgeous scarves, hats, gloves, blankets, and even stuffed animals!
Kristin, a Miche Bag rep (Check out her website for great Cyber Monday deals!)
Jo Marie, an Arbonne rep (Also check out her website. She's super nice, and I think I may now be an Arbonne convert!)
Sue, who doesn't have a website or online shop, but she designs BEAUTIFUL handmade greeting cards. If you live in the Lehigh Valley and would be interested in checking out her work, send me an email with your contact info and I'll pass it along to her.

It was definitely a nice way to close out my 4-day Thanksgiving weekend. Other festivities included not one, but TWO Thanksgiving dinners, a trip to the dog park, playing with the Easton Municipal Band at the Peace Candle lighting in downtown Easton, and a pre-birthday outing at The Bookstore.

Lilly (Kristin's dog), Molly (my "niece", who belongs to my older brother-in-law and his wife), and Elvis

At the candlelighting ceremony. It reminds me of something that would happen in Stars Hollow.

It generates quite a crowd!

New Living Room Decor

2011-11-22T22:31:00.001-05:00

When we first moved into our house 2 1/2 years ago, we put sooo much effort into tearing down wallpaper and painting that I couldn't bring myself to put many nails in the walls.

Which is why until last week, these were the only things on the wall in the living room:

The posters are Casablanca and His Girl Friday, we've had them since we lived in the apartment.

So until recently, the wall where the fireplace is was empty, and the only way to tell what time it was from the living room was to crane our necks to see through the archway to the kitchen and squint while we attempted to read the clock on the stove.

That's the rat cage on the right.
I really wish Nory and/or Sery were poking their little heads out when I took this!

But when a 50% off clock sale at Kohl's coincided with a 30% off coupon, I decided this one would be perfect above the mantel:

It's a really small change, but it's functional and helps to give at least a little more personality to the space. ;-)

Note that we have taken to protecting the couch from Elvis fur with a Spiderman blanket.
Next on the shopping list: a blanket that somewhat matches the couch. :-P

Tomorrow's my last day of work before a 4-day week, and I am SO ready for a break! This year I'll be eating two Thanksgiving dinners - one at my parents' place and one at my in-laws' place. Are you doing anything fun for Thanksgiving this year??

Another Openin', Another Show!

2011-11-18T15:00:00.000-05:00

Ok, actually it's just another craft show, this post has nothing to do with the theatre, but Sinatra Night 2011 is just around the corner and I've been listening to (and playing) a lot of Cole Porter pieces. ;-)

Anyway, I've officially added my 8th and final show for Fall 2011. I'll be at Holland Township School on December 4 from 1:00 til 4:00. If you're in the area, stop by and say hello!

And if you're in or near Lopatcong, NJ tonight, stop by the holiday bazaar at the middle school between 6:00 and 9:00!

I'm Gonna Need a Lot of Coffee...

2011-11-15T16:50:00.000-05:00

...if I expect to make it through the rest of this month!

This past weekend wasn't too bad, especially since I had Friday off from the day job. I did, however, have a holiday bazaar from 6-9 that night, and that went fairly well. I switched up the display just a little bit though. I've kind of starting to not really care for the acrylic easel-style displays I've been using for the past two years, as seen on the risers here:

I decided to swap them out with the velveteen easels that give the buyer a better idea of how the necklace will look on. I think it makes the display look less cluttered, as well:

Anyway, that show went well - I made a decent amount of sales, and I found out about a group on Facebook for local vendors and crafters, so hopefully that will help me find lots of shows to do next year! I worked at the library on Saturday, and Glen and I spent Sunday afternoon doing yard work. There was a solid layer of leaves covering our entire yard. It was pretty bad, I'm still kind of sore from all the raking.

My schedule for the next week and a half is pretty crazy. In addition to working, I'll be going to Glen's show tonight, I have another holiday bazaar Friday night, a craft show Saturday, possibly attending another of Glen's shows on Sunday, band rehearsal Monday, Thanksgiving, playing with the band at the Peace Candle lighting ceremony Friday, and I'll be hosting a holiday open house for some local crafters and vendors on Sunday the 27th.

I'm quite excited about that last one. It's a relatively small thing, just 4 crafters and 2 vendors, but between the 6 of us we should be able to get lots of friends and family to show up and do some Christmas shopping. I'm planning to serve coffee, hot chocolate, hot apple cider, and plenty of appetizers and desserts. And we recently inherited a LOT of old Christmas records, so perhaps I'll put some of those on.

Of course, Elvis will be banished that afternoon, possibly to play at the dog park. I'm sure he'd love to hang out with the visitors at the house, but I don't trust him to not knock over someone's display or steal people's food. ;-)

And speaking of the pup, we went to Petco the other day to pick up his food. We feed him the Synergy variety of Natural Balance because of the high protein content, it's the only way he can keep weight on. While Elvis and I made our way through the dog food section, I saw this:

Seriously, Natural Balance? SERIOUSLY?!?! I can't think of a single good reason for this. But then again, there are probably people who can't think of a single good reason to save bits of filet mignon for their dog, but Glen and I do that... So I guess to each his own?? ;-)

A Shiny, New Dog Park!

2011-11-07T21:15:00.000-05:00

Until this past weekend, the closest dog park was a 20-minute drive away. Elvis is absolutely insane in the car, so it was usually a very long 20 minutes!

So naturally, I was incredibly excited when a new dog park opened on Saturday, a mere 10 minutes from my house. The park is located next to the also newly-opened Karl Stirner Arts Trail, along the Bushkill Creek, and you have to walk a little ways along the trail to get to it - no problem for a high-energy guy like Elvis. ;-)

The park isn't huge, but it's certainly big enough for Elvis to run around like a maniac:

That's him on the right-hand side of the photo, near the rock.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of Elvis with his new friends, but he did make a bunch of them. One of his favorite games at home is for Glen or I to chase him in circles around the dining room table. Well, I think that game has been supplanted by getting chased in circles around the dog park by 5 of his new doggy friends. He had the biggest, goofiest grin on his face the whole time, with a hint of smugness because he knew he was faster than any of them. We even got a mention in the local paper, as did Elvis' new buddy Nemo. And for the record, Mr. Malone, Elvis is a black and white ball of energy, NOT a brown and white ball of energy. ;-)

I have to admit that at first I was annoyed by the lack of parking in close proximity to the dog park... but I guess if this is where I have to walk to get to the park, I can't be too mad about it:

How was your weekend? Did you get to enjoy the same wonderful, crisp fall weather we had here in the Lehigh Valley?

How Bazaar

2011-11-03T18:14:00.001-04:00

Do I win a prize for lamest blog post title ever??? ;-)

Seriously though, it looks like I'll be doing quite a number of holiday bazaars/shopping nights this year in addition to the usual Saturday craft shows. My show on November 11 is a holiday bazaar at an elementary school, and I just sent in an application for another one at a local middle school that's going to be held on November 18. And I just got another email about a third bazaar that's being held November 17, which I'd like to do as long as I can switch my usual library shift to another night that week. At this point, I'm really liking the whole holiday bazaar/shopping night thing because they only take up a few hours on a weeknight, as opposed to an entire Saturday.

If I am able to do both of those bazaars, I'll be up to a total of 4 shows in November alone, and 7 shows for the entire season. That's on top of my regular full-time job and my part-time job at the library. And it occurs to me that it might be a good idea to bulk up my inventory a bit, since I was only anticipating doing 4 or 5 shows. Plus I still haven't gotten around to posting any new items in my Etsy shop, which I would really, really like to do before Thanksgiving. Think I'll be tired by the time December rolls around??

Edit : I completely forgot about yet another tentative date for a holiday bazaar - I got an email about one that may be taking place on December 4. So make that a total of 8 shows this season. Eek!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T21:00:00.000-04:00

I know I said I'd have pictures of my Halloween costume up yesterday, but when we got home from the Halloween party, we came home to this:

Thanks, nor'easter in October!

We spent the morning (and part of the afternoon) turning that mess into this mess:

By the time evening rolled around I just wanted to sleep. ;-)

Anyway, here's my Amelia Pond costume in its entirety:

Just pretend my hair is the same color as what was on the box.

And here I am with my husband, the 11th Doctor (and his brand new sonic screwdriver):

Since I put so much effort into my costume, I decided to dress up again to hand out candy to the trick-or-

treaters tonight, but sadly not a single one knew who Amelia Pond is. :-(

Oh, and Glen was filming a segment tonight for his November show at SteelStacks, so this is the type of scene trick-or-treaters were likely to encounter:

Tyler and Mike, two of the show's writers/correspondents.

Something tells me this is going to negatively impact the number of trick-or-treaters we get next year. Or just completely change the demographic. ;-)\

Handmade Halloween: A Retrospective

2011-10-28T12:00:00.000-04:00

Ever since my first Halloween, I've had a long-standing tradition of wearing handmade costumes. This tradition was started by my very talented mother, who made all the costumes from my early years:

Me as a witch in 1984.

Me as She-Ra in 1986. One of my absolute favorite costumes ever.

Sometimes I'd make costumes completely on my own, with no intervention from my mother:

This is what happens when you leave a not-quite-8-year-old to her own devices. In case you couldn't guess, I was a Martian in 1990.

And sometimes, your Catholic school decides that the only way students are allowed to wear costumes for Halloween is if they dress up as saints:

Here I am as Kateri Tekakwitha in 1993.
I designed this costume based on illustrations from a biography of her, and my mom sewed it.

Fast-forward to fall of 2003, my junior year of college, and the She-Ra costume returned, this time made 100% by me.

That's my good friend Jency as Harry Potter on the left.
And that is definitely not an alcoholic beverage in my hand 1 month before my 21st birthday.

I kind of cheated in 2007. I didn't actually MAKE my costume so much as cobble it together from things I found in Halloween stores and things I already owned. The skirt and boots were already in my wardrobe. I bought the wig, pitchfork red fishnets and t-shirt.

You can't see it in this picture, but my t-shirt says "I feel a sin coming on." Classy, I know. ;-)

This year I've returned to the grand tradition of a proper handmade costume. The only element I purchased from a Halloween store was the hat, which was still modified. Everything else was thrifted, already in my closet, or made from scratch. Also, I returned to the grand tradition of asking my mom for help. Here's a little sneak preview:

Doctor Who fans will probably guess that my costume is Amelia Pond. My husband already dresses like The Doctor most of the time, so his costume mostly involved updating his sonic screwdriver to the 11th Doctor's, since until this week he only had the 10th Doctor's. We'll be attending a Halloween party this weekend, so expect pictures before Sunday's over. :-)

Are you going to any Halloween parties? What are you going as?

Cherry Truffle

2011-10-26T22:27:00.003-04:00

Usually when I dye my hair, I opt for Natural Instincts in Cinnaberry. My natural hair color is medium to dark brown with red highlights, and Cinnaberry gives those highlights a nice little boost without looking unnatural.

However, I needed to go a bit more red for my Halloween costume this year, so I went with a L'Oreal color called "cherry truffle."

Also, I switched brands without doing a patch test 48 hours before dyeing. I like to live dangerously.

My hair's still wet so I can't share the results just yet, but I'll definitely post photos of my new hair color (and my Halloween costume!) after this weekend.

Oh, and the craft show this past Saturday went pretty well! This one was well established and there was a decent crowd, so I made a pretty good profit for the day. And I processed my first credit card purchase! It's kind of silly how excited I was about it. My next show is November 11, so here's hoping I make lots more sales, credit card or otherwise! ;-)

UPDATE: While my hair is redder (more red?) than before,it's more mahogany than cherry truffle. I managed to take a quick picture between jobs tonight, and you can see that it's actually quite red where the light catches it.

I guess this means I'll have to spend a lot of time directly under bright lights during the party on Saturday?? ;-)

Historic Haunts

2011-10-21T17:00:00.000-04:00

Last night, Glen and I went on a Halloween-themed double date with some friends.

The Historic Haunts ghost tour departs from the Moravian Bookshop in Bethlehem, PA:

The tour guide took us to various historic sites around downtown Bethlehem and told us stories about ghosts that supposedly make appearances at those sites. Regardless of whether you believe there's any truth to those stories, the tour was full of interesting historical information, and we got to see some gorgeous old buildings.

Here's a photo of the tour outside the Sun Inn:

Please forgive my finger in the upper left-hand corner. I still haven't quite mastered taking pictures with my iPhone without blocking the lense. ;-)

Anyway, the Sun Inn is actually going going to be on Ghost Hunters later this year. Apparently the T.A.P.S. folks were there a few weeks ago. I've only seen a handful of episodes of this show, but I just may have to tune in to that one to see a local landmark!

The tour ended back at the bookshop, where there was hot apple cider. We ended the evening with dinner and pumpkin ale at the Bethlehem Brew Works.

Elvis is getting into the Halloween spirit, too. Here he is napping on the couch and snuggling the monster squeaky toy Glen got him this week:

What have you been doing this month to get into the Halloween spirit?

Shameless Promotion (and Elvis Update!)

2011-10-19T22:02:00.000-04:00

My second craft show of the season is this Saturday:

It's also the first craft show where I'll be able to accept credit card payments! If you're in the area, stop by and say hello. :-)

I'm also going to shamelessly promote my husband's monthly show at SteelStacks.
Here he is promoting the show on SteelStacks Live!

The next show is November 6 at 8:00pm. Also stop by this and say hello!

Last, and certainly not least, Elvis' blood work came back okay! He hasn't had anymore seizures, either. He did have a brief stint on Valium to prevent future seizures, but oddly enough it made him hyper. More hyper than usual, that is. He spent 1:30am - 4:30am Tuesday morning wandering aimlessly around the house and getting stuck on furniture. It was a long night. Needless to say, we discontinued the Valium after that. ;-)

One Sick Puppy

2011-10-17T20:49:00.002-04:00

Last night officially goes down in history as one of the scariest nights of my life.

Around 1:30 in the morning Elvis had a seizure. It took me a little bit to figure out what was going on. It couldn't have lasted more than a minute or two, but it felt like an eternity. :-\

Glen and I thought it might have something to do with the antibiotic he's on for a skin infection, since we normally give it to him every 12 hours, but due to his reluctance to eat his breakfast until 4:00 in the afternoon yesterday, he got two doses in 6 hours.

The vet was pretty insistent that two doses in 6 hours wouldn't cause an overdose, but either way we're going to be extra careful about evenly spacing his antibiotics for the remainder of the week.

Here he is in the waiting room at the vet's office with Glen this afternoon, waiting to get some blood work done, and looking handsome as ever:

This guy has cost us quite a bit of money over the past couple of months. He's lucky he's so cute!

We won't get the results until tomorrow, but I've been a nervous wreck all day and will probably continue to be so until we know what's going on. They're checking his liver and kidney function to make sure neither of those are what caused of the seizure. Apparently it's not terribly uncommon for dogs to have one or two seizures and then never have another one, with no indication that there's an underlying cause, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that this will be the case with Elvis.

I know he'd love it if you went on over to his Facebook page and sent lots of good thoughts his way!

Highs and Lows

2011-10-14T21:54:00.000-04:00

Fortunately, this past week has had more highs than lows, but it started on a bit of a low note. Namely a general lack of sales at the craft show, despite lots of compliments on my jewelry and lots of people taking my card. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. And who knows, maybe some of those folks will show up at my other craft shows later this season and decide they need to buy some Christmas gifts! ;-) Seriously, though, I have found that the closer a show is to Christmas, the better my sales seem to be, so hopefully that will hold true again this year.

Overall, I was pretty happy with my display, although I feel like it would look better with more of the busts for necklaces. The necklaces look so much nicer that way, and it seems a bit sparse with only three. I think I need to make it a point to pick up a couple more next week.

My big high note for the week was finding out today that I got accepted to that juried show I was talking about!

Other good stuff from this week included lots of hours at the library (including 4 more tomorrow afternoon!), finding out my dog is going to be interviewed at the super cute blog Coffee with a Canine, and my decision to finally join the 21st century and get an iPhone.

That last decision was prompted by the fact that with an iPhone I can accept credit card payments at shows using Square, which just takes a percentage of each sale, with no monthly fee. Since my business is pretty seasonal, it just didn't seem worth it to pay montly fees when I only do shows maybe 4 or 5 months out of the year. An added bonus is that going to get the phone this weekend will also give me a chance to finally take advantage of the discount my employer provides with AT&T.

I'm off to work on some much-needed signage for my jewelry display (including one saying I accept credit cards!). Tomorrow I'll be going to the farmers' market, working, and getting dressed up and going out for drinks with my husband. What are your plans for the weekend?

Let the Fun Begin!

2011-10-05T19:21:00.000-04:00

Craft show season kicks off for me this Saturday at the Alpha Volunteer Fire Company, 10:00am - 3:30pm!

I'm definitely excited to see what shoppers think of my new display, and hoping it helps me make lots of sales!

It's going to be a very busy couple of days leading up to the craft show, though. I'm spending Wednesday - Friday at a government auditing seminar (gotta get those CPE's!), and I'll be working at the library tomorrow night, which leaves not nearly enough time to prepare for the show. Wish me luck. ;-)

P.S. I went to DSW over the weekend. They didn't have those wonderful shoes in my size. I hate ordering shoes online, but I just may have to do it this once. I did, however, have better luck at Macy's last night, where I picked up a super cute pair of ballet flats marked down from $70 to $34.50. Plus I (ok, my mom) had a $10 coupon. So I guess I can't complain too much, huh?

Sidetracked

2011-09-26T16:15:00.000-04:00

Normally I'm really, really good about staying focused on my shopping list when it comes to buying clothing and accessories. The only shoes on my fall shopping list are a pair of brown pumps and a pair of black ballet flats, because my current pairs are falling apart, to the point that I don't think they can effectively be repaired.

Not too long ago a DSW opened up about 20 minutes from where I live, and I decided I want to check them out and see if I can find any good deals. I still haven't gone there in person, but during my lunch break today I decided to check out their website and get an idea of what I might find there.

And wouldn't you know, the shoes that caught my eye were nowhere near what I was looking for?

I have absolutely no immediate need for these shoes, but I can't help but feel that I would wear them an awful lot if they were in my closet! And while my plain brown pumps are on their last leg, I DO have a pair of brown, tweed pumps that have hints of white and orange, are still in perfect condition, and are perfect for fall...

So what do you think? Should I abandon my plan of buying boring, plain brown pumps and go for these instead??

P.S. I've decided to play around with my blog's layout a bit. Please don't be alarmed by frequent changes over the next few days! ;-)

Jewelry Display Sneak Peak

2011-09-20T13:05:00.002-04:00

Today I mailed out two more applications for craft shows. One of them is juried, it's only the second juried craft show I've applied for so far. I'm nervous!!!

Anyway, the application for that show requested photos not just of individual pieces, but also of our display.

As you'll recall, I picked up some new pieces for my display recently, including new jewelry stands and a new mirror. Also, last week my wonderful father-in-law built a couple of risers for me, which will work wonders in making my display more versatile.

But, this also means all the photos I have from previous shows are outdated. So yesterday I set up a somewhat scaled-back version of the new display in my dining room and had a little photo session.

Check it out:

I love that I can work more vertical display elements in beause of the risers!

Extreme close-up of the new mirror!

This shot mostly shows off the color scheme of my dining room.

And I just realized I need to straighten that picture. Oops.

So, what do you think? Any thoughts or suggestions??

Office Clean-up

2011-09-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

One of my biggest obstacles to productivity is a messy workspace, and recently my office has been getting out of control. (Well, by my standards, at least. The photos that follow don't show as dramatic a difference as I'd hoped, so maybe it was mostly in my head!)

BEFORE

Ok, so I'm sure most of you have seen worse, but this situation was starting to drive me crazy! I've had my laptop since June, but the old computer is still just sitting there under my desk, not doing anything but taking up precious space and creating a giant tangle of wires. Until recently, the old monitor was on top of the desk as well (also doing nothing but taking up space), but my husband borrowed it so he could edit some footage for an upcoming show. There were papers strewn about my desk, as well as 2 pairs of shoes, a sewing kit and a bag full of earring cards on the floor, and don't even get me started on the bookcase!

AFTER

I think moving the computer (which, for the moment at least, is just sitting up against the wall on the other side of the room, but is still out of my actual work space) made the biggest difference. Straightening up the stuff on the bookcase so it wasn't quite so haphazard was a big help, too. And I made slightly better use of the cork board by putting more papers up there.

Oh, and remember this post, where I talked about the things I wanted to add to my display, including a new mirror that was both cuter and takes up less space on the table than the old one? Well, I decided to go ahead and buy it, and it was 50% off! When it's not being used for shows, it will reside on my desk along side the dress form necklace stand and one of the centerpieces I made for a friend's bridal shower back in May.

Now here's hoping I can keep it looking this nice. ;-)

Grizzly Pear

2011-09-13T22:09:00.001-04:00

One of my absolute favorite restaurants in downtown Easton is the Third Street Cafe, and tonight I decided to attempt to recreate one of my favorite sandwiches: The Grizzly Pear.

I had to tweak it a bit, but it was still quite tasty.

At the restaurant they put the sandwich on a Portuguese roll, but they were out of those at the grocery store, so I substituted with bolillo rolls instead. I also opted to make my version of the sandwich open-faced.

After cutting the rolls in half, I sliced up some brie and a peeled Bartlett pear and arranged the cheese and pears on the rolls. Then I drizzled a little honey on top and added just a tiny bit of ground pepper. Then I put the sandwiches in the oven heated to 350 degrees for about 7 minutes.

Next time I make these, I'll leave them in the oven for a bit longer, maybe 10-12 minutes. And there will definitely be a next time. :-)

Of course, this isn't going to stop me from going to the Third Street Cafe on a fairly regular basis. The Grizzly Pear was easy to replicate, but I'm not even going to attempt to touch their sweet potato cake, because I know none of my efforts will even begin to measure up. Seriously, if you ever eat at the Third Street Cafe, do yourself a favor and leave room for a slive of that cake. ;-)

So Much to Do...

2011-09-05T15:47:00.006-04:00

... and for a change I actually feel like I have time to do it all!

Despite the fact that I didn't have much time to devote to the jewelry business over the summer, I've managed to get a relatively early start on the fall craft show season.

I already have 3 shows scheduled, you can find the details on my website. My goal is to do 2-3 shows per month between October and December. I want to make a decent amount of sales, but I also don't want to do a show every single weekend and end up too exhausted to enjoy the holidays, either!

I'm also giving a lot of thought to how I'm going to display everything. I think I may need to build some sort of a riser for the back of my table. Typically, my setup is something along these lines:

But I really think I'd like to have the necklace and earring stands along the back set up higher so I can get more creative with the stuff up front without worrying about blocking everything in the back.

I'm a big fan of this cute little dress form jewelry holder from Hobby Lobby:

I picked one up last week, and I think I may get another one. They be perfect for displaying necklaces like these, since they don't really need to lay flat for the customer to get an idea of what they look like.

While I was at Hobby Lobby, there was an incredibly cute little mirror that caught my eye. It would take up considerably less space than the one I've been using, and it better matches my jewelry's personality, if that makes sense. Unfortunately I can't seem to find a picture of it on the internet, but I will post some pictures if I decide to buy it!

I hope you're all having a wonderful Labor Day weekend! I'll be spending this evening at my parents' house for a little cookout, then it's back to the grind tomorrow morning. ;-)

Hurricane-Induced Insomnia

2011-08-29T06:07:00.004-04:00

It's a little after 6am right now, and I've been wide awake since 4:00.

This is what I get for taking a nap on Sunday afternoon. Which I needed after Saturday night.

Thankfully, the worst of the hurricane for us was a power outage, no damage to the house. But the wind was loud enough that I kept waking up all night.

My biggest concern was our dog, Elvis, who spends most storms hiding under the bed, barking his poor little head off:

However, it seems that spending the better part of Saturday afternoon and evening playing with a couple of other pups, along with a dose or two of Richard's Organics Pet Calm makes for a very relaxed Elvis. He barked only once in the middle of the night, and didn't even spend any time under the bed!

And despite the horrendous weather, I actually had quite an enjoyable weekend. We spent a lot of time hanging out with friends and family, drinking beer, playing board games, and laughing at the antics of our ridiculous dogs.

I hope all you East Coast folks were as lucky as we were with your Hurricane Irene experience! How did you spend this stormy weekend?

Hedgie Bath!

2011-08-25T18:46:00.002-04:00

My husband showed me this video a little while ago, and tonight I spotted it on Cute Overload.

I used to have a hedgehog, so naturally this made my heart melt a little, and I just had to share.

Note the Eskimo kisses at 1:15 and 1:50. :-)

Mood Lighting

2011-08-21T18:41:00.006-04:00

If you've been reading my blog for awhile now (or if you know me in person), you probably know that one of the highlights of the summer for me is the Perseid meteor shower in August.

You might also remember that back in June I mentioned that I got some cool ideas from the garden tour I went on with my mom.

One of the ideas I got on the garden tour was to use mason jars to make lanterns to hang near the firepit. I decided to check out a local thrift store for mason jars, but no luck. I did find some cute little glass containers that would work just as well though! I rigged them up with wire and tealights and hung them from the cherry tree in our back yard:

This year, the Perseids peaked August 12-13, Friday into Saturday, so naturally I decided to take advantage of the timing and throw a party. I think the lanterns hanging from the tree near the fire pit created some nice mood lighting for the event:

It was a clear night, and despite the bright moon we managed to spot some meteors! Definitely a welcome change from the last two exceedingly cloudy years.

Also, there were s'mores. Lots and lots of s'mores. :-)

Saturday in the Park with Elvis

2011-08-07T15:36:00.003-04:00

I spent yesterday afternoon hanging out at the park with Glen, Elvis, and a whole bunch of extended family for a family reunion. It rained, so a lot of time was spent inside the pavillion, but Elvis had a fantastic time putting his paws up on the wall and watching the birds fly around.

Yup, stole another picture from my husband!

This week is going to be a busy one. Playing a concert, extra library hours, hosting a party to watch the Perseids (keep your fingers crossed for clear skies this year!!), and another family reunion. Silly me, I thought my schedule would calm down once the wedding in Texas was over. ;-)

Garden Photos: Part VIII

2011-08-04T19:35:00.003-04:00

It's been awhile since I've shared photos from the garden, and the pond has some new additions!!

One of the ladies who works at the courthouse with me has a pond as well, and her water hyacinths were starting to take over so she gave some to me:

They help balance out the pond nicely, since there are a ton of water lilies on the bottom section, but nothing in the top.

And over the weekend I stop by Petco and picked up some new fishy friends!

We did have fish in the pond the first two years we were at the house, all named after Charles Dickens characters, but we learned our lesson the hard way: If you give you fish names like Smike and Little Nell, they WILL meet an untimely demise.

As of yet, these fish remain unnamed. ;-) Here they are settling into their new home:

And as I type this, there are some Japanese trapdoor snails en route to my house. They should help keep the pond water clean, they can survive the winter, AND they give birth to live young instead of laying eggs, which I think is adorable.

And moving to the other side of the back yard, here's a close-up of the vincas:

It's hard to believe that when I first bought them, they looked like this:

Needless to say, the vincas are definitely on my "buy it again next year" list!

And check out the daisies:

I wasn't sure how they'd do since I transplanted them from the front of the house, but I think their new home agrees with them, don't you? :-)

Tickling the Ivories

2011-08-01T18:08:00.005-04:00

My husband spent the day watching our nephews, and he took this incredibly sweet pictures of the two of them at our piano:

I just had to share. :-)

And I followed through on my plan to not neglect my business this past weekend. So far I've found 3 craft shows to do this fall!

Also, there are some new additions to our pond. But that's a story for another post. ;-)

Texas Nuptials

2011-07-28T17:57:00.004-04:00

I've been back from Texas since Sunday, but I am just now getting back into the swing of things. Despite there only being a 1-hour difference between Texas and NJ, I somehow wound up horribly jet-lagged. I found myself unable to fall asleep at night, then I'd go through my work day feeling sleep-deprived, and I'd pass out on the couch for an hour or two after dinner, which just perpetuated the whole can't-fall-asleep-at-night pattern.

On the bright side, I do have a few photos to share!

Here's a picture of me all dolled up and ready to watch my college roommate get hitched:

Needless to say, I had some (ok, a lot of) assistance putting on the sari, because I had NO CLUE what I was doing. ;-)

Here I am with the lovely bride and maid of honor, who was also one of my college roommates:

Glen was kind enough to join me on the trip even though he wasn't a fan of going to Texas at all, much less in the middle of the summer. I bribed him with a new seersucker suit:

He looked so handsome in his new suit that I couldn't resist stealing a kiss. ;-)

I don't think there are any pictures of the back of my head, but for what it's worth, I did go with style # 3 from my previous post, except with a side-swept bang instead of pulling everything straight back.

I have very little to do this weekend for a change, so I'm planning on catching up on gardening (so many weeds, ugh!!), finally getting fish for my pond, and finding craft shows to sign up for this fall. This summer has been so crazy, my poor jewelry business has been sorely neglected. :-\ But I am determined to turn that trend around, starting tomorrow!

Pick My Hairstyle!

2011-07-15T19:43:00.002-04:00

One of my best friends is getting married next week - yay!!!

And I'm in the bridal party! I get to wear this:

Gorgeous, right??

But the only guidance we have for our hair is that it has to be an updo of some sort. Right now my hair is on the shortish side (by my standards, at least - it's just below my shoulders). And it's got some layers in it, so anything that requires all hair to reach the nape of my neck is out.

I browsed around on The Knot and managed to narrow it down to 3 hairstyles that I think (hope!) my hais is long enough/thick enough to handle. Here they are:

Style #1:

Style #2:

Style #3

Which one do you think I should choose??

Lady Liberty

2011-07-11T23:08:00.007-04:00

Somehow, despite the fact that I've lived less than an hour and a half away from New York City for all of my 28 1/2 years, not once have I gone to see the Statue of Liberty.

Well, not unless you count looking through the binoculars at the Liberty Science Center once when I was in middle school.

So while my nieces were visiting from Colorado this past week, my mom and I decided that seeing Statue of Liberty would be a fun thing to do. We were originally going take the ferry that actually drops you off at the statue, but there was a 1 1/2 hour security line and they were out of tickets to enter the pedestal, so instead we did the Gateway to America cruise, which is a 1-hour cruise around the harbor - it doesn't let you off at the statue, but the line was shorter and spending an hour out on the water enjoying the cool breeze was wonderful on such a brutally hot day!

The closest I've ever gotten to the Statue of Liberty!

We also went around Governors Island:

Hi, Governors Island! I miss you! Let's hang out again soon. ;-)

And under the Brooklyn Bridge:

At this point, my older niece decided it would be fun to try to mess up my pictures. That's her hand. Teenagers, I tell ya. :-P I have a teenage niece. That makes me feel so old!

At this point I've more or less resigned myself to the fact that my jewelry business is going to have to take a back seat to my insanely busy schedule for the next couple of weeks. My plan is to focus on signing up for fall craft shows and hopefully schedule some parties. And also finally do something about those sweet little brass butterflies I bought at the bead show more than a month ago. ;-)

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T12:58:00.005-04:00

Elvis is showing his patriotism by wearing his flag bandanna and being terrified of fireworks.

Today I'm wearing this charm bracelet:

It belonged to my grandmother on my mom's side, the same one after whom I named my business. I completely forgot I had it for awhile there, this is the first time I've worn it in ages!

Hope you all have a safe and happy 4th of July! :-)

Garden Photos: Part VII

2011-06-30T19:51:00.003-04:00

After a week off, garden photos are back!!

I'm not going to bother sharing the state of my roses with you, it's become really sad. I'm fighting what feels like a never-ending battle with Black Spot. :-(

In happier news, the daisies are in full bloom:

And the clematis by the hydrangea is beyond ridiculous:

Crazy, right? If you look carefully, you can see where the hydrangea is finally starting to bloom.

And here's a close-up of the clematis:

I'm really looking forward to 4th of July weekend. I'm taking a half day at work tomorrow to spend time with some friends from college, going to see my husband perform in a comedy show on Sunday (if you live near Bethlehem, PA, you should go!!), and on July 4 my nieces arrive from Colorado to spend the week with my parents!! Also, there will be much reading, gardening, and spending time outside with Elvis.

What are your plans for the weekend??

All That Jazz

2011-06-26T21:22:00.005-04:00

First of all, let me apologize for the lack of garden photos this past Friday. I was just too darn busy to get them posted. I'll have them up this Friday, I promise. ;-)

This weekend was incredibly busy, but also lots of fun. The highlight of the weekend was attending the Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governors Island. Getting there was quite the adventure - we drove about an hour to Jersey City, took the PATH to World Trade Center, walked about a mile to the Battery Maritime Building, and took the ferry to Governors Island. It was about a 2 1/2 hour trek.

And naturally, when we passed an old abandoned library on Governors Island, I had to take a picture.

I still can't decide whether it was cool or just sad!

Here we are, all dressed up:

We packed a picnic lunch:

While we were hauling that thing from World Trade Center down to the ferry, buying lunch started to sound like a good idea. Then we found out that the line for food was 1 hour + long. Packing a picnic lunch? Best. idea. ever.

There were a bunch of cool old cars along the side of the park:

And live music and a dance floor:

It was a pretty amazing way to spend such a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. :-)

Solstice

2011-06-21T20:01:00.003-04:00

I can't believe it's already summer!!

After a very long, busy day that consisted of going to my day job, hitting the gym, watering the plants, doing dishes, dusting and vacuuming, I finally managed to fit in some time on the hammock with a book and a beer.

In case you were wondering, the book of the moment is Museum of Thieves by Lian Tanner.

Not a bad way to celebrate the summer solstice, huh?

Garden Photos: Part VI

2011-06-17T08:00:00.002-04:00

I can't believe I'm already 6 weeks into this whole garden series!

Here's some threadleaf coreopsis I got from my mother's garden, it just started to bloom this week:

Dianthus are to the left, impatiens are to the right.

The rozannes are getting huge!

Every day I have to push them off of the sidewalk. They should be easier to train as they get more vine-y.

Hey, remember all those weeks I kept promising gloriosa daisies, and then failed to deliver on that promise? Well they're finally here!!

And you can see the little vincas next to them are finally getting bigger. To the right, out of frame, is our out-of-commission hot tub. Unfortunately it blocks afternoon light, so the set of vincas to the left aren't growing quite as well. Hopefully we'll be rid of the hot tub soon though. Hopefully.

The clematis are getting out of control. I love it. :-)

I don't think I've shared this next plant yet. I didn't know what it was until I came across some for sale while buying a new fire pit cover at Lowe's yesterday:

It's called May Night Meadow Sage, or Salvia nemorosa. No, it is not the kind you can smoke. ;-)

(And if you look carefully, you can see a black and white blur that is Elvis, just beyond the salvia.)

The next area I want to tackle is the fire pit. Maybe next week? (The long wait for gloriosa daisies has taught me not to make promises!)

My Slightly Morbid Sunday Afternoon Field Trip

2011-06-15T20:21:00.005-04:00

So I may not have taken pictures of any of the residences on the garden tour my mom and I went on this past weekend... BUT one of the locations on the garden tour was the Easton Cemetery. We ran out of time on Saturday, but decided to check it out on Sunday and I DID take pictures of that.

Weird?

Maybe a little, but there was some pretty neat stuff there!

At the entrance to the cemetery, you could pick up little booklets with maps and information about graves/monuments/buildings of interest. The place is pretty massive, almost 100 acres with more than 29,000 graves!

Of course the librarian has to take pictures of the headstones that look like books:

George Taylor is buried here. Here's a photo of the monument, and a cute little chapel:

Here's the Grand Army of the Republic Cannon. Most of the grave stones immediately to the right are those of soldiers who fought in the Civil War:

A mausoleum, built in 1910:

This next one is pretty awesome, at least in my opinion. As you may already know, I play the clarinet in the Easton Municipal Band. Well, Thomas Coates (aka the "Father of Band Music in America"), who directed the Easton Band more than 150 years ago, is buried in the Easton Cemetery:

This next picture is from, rather than of, the cemetery. Just as we were leaving I realized I could see the cupola of the courthouse where I work from the cemetery entrance. It was a cloudy day, so it doesn't stand out against the sky as much as it would if the sky was clear, but still a pretty neat photo:

So tell me, have you ever spent the afternoon frolicking around a historic cemetery for fun, or are my mom and I the only weirdos?? ;-)

Sand Art

2011-06-14T16:30:00.003-04:00

As I'm sure you've figured out by now, one of the highlights of my week is my Saturday morning trip to my local farmers' market.

Well, as it turns out, the Crayola Factory is right off of Centre Square (where the farmers' market is held), and this happened during the previous weekend.

Which means that while I was shopping for produce I got to see this:

My mom and I did manage to check out the garden tour, and while I didn't take any pictures (oops), I did come up with some awesome ideas. (There will be more on that in a future post!)

Garden Photos: Part V

2011-06-10T08:00:00.001-04:00

Fewer pictures than usual to share this week, and still no daisies!

The clematis on the front corner of the patio is looking quite spectacular though:

Out of all our clematis, this is the one that grows the most aggressively. And the flowers are such a pretty, intense shade of pink!

Here's a close-up:

I'm not sure what variety this (or any of our clematis, for that matter) is, but the flowers actually maintain that shape instead of opening the rest of the way. They sort of remind me of tiny lilies. :-)

Oh, and remember that big pot in the front yard with coleus and alyssum in it? Well in just over 2 weeks it went from this:

To this:

I took that picture almost a week ago, it's looking even fuller now.

In sadder news, I'm pretty sure I killed 2 of the 3 mums that I transplanted this spring. Oops? But they're the only plants I've lost so far this year, and I've spent a grand total of $13.15 on plants this spring (in other words: a lot less than I spent on the 20 bags of mulch I've used so far!), so I suppose I can afford to buy a couple of new mums.

As long as the weather is reasonably nice, my mom and I are planning on checking out this garden tour tomorrow. This will have two possible effects: Either I will come home inspired and full of wonderful ideas for my gardens, or I will feel horribly inadequate and embarrassed of my novice gardening skills. ;-)

Garnet & Pearls

2011-06-07T21:57:00.002-04:00

As I mention in my last post, I spent this past Saturday afternoon at a bead expo.

There was a ton of cool stuff there, but sadly I could not find any more of the cute little carved coral roses that I used for this necklace and this necklace. *sigh* Maybe next time.

I did, however, find some really cool diamond-shaped garnet beads and some gorgeous cream-colored pearls, as well as seed beads in a dizzying array of colors. Since variations of this necklace seem to sell pretty well, I decided to use the aforementioned beads to make these:

I also finally picked up some lapis lazuli. It tends to be kind of expensive, and I was hesitant to buy it when I was first starting out. I didn't really know what I was doing, and this whole jewelry thing is really just a side business so I had no idea whether it would last. I already know exactly what I'm going to use the lapis lazuli for. It will involve butterflies and antiqued brass. :-)

And speaking of antiqued brass: Until now I've mostly been using steel in an antiqued brass finish, since it's inexpensive and it allowed me to experiment a bit without sinking a lot of money into supplies. On one hand, it's great because I can make these cute little bird necklaces and sell them for just $12.50.

If I made those same necklaces using brass instead of steel, I'd probably have to charge almost twice as much. But real brass looks nicer and will last longer, and of course I want to offer quality products!

So now I need to decide whether I want to offer both options, or just gradually abandon the steel altogether in favor of antiqued brass. If I go with the latter, it would certainly help keep my raw materials inventory under control, but the former has the advantage of offering products at various price points... Decisions, decisions.

Anyone out there want to offer their thoughts or experiences on the matter, either as a business owner or as a consumer???

Garden Photos: Part IV

2011-06-03T08:00:00.005-04:00

Memorial Day weekend was an incredibly productive time in my gardens, both on my part and that of my plants!

The clematis burst in the flower bed in front of the dining room window burst into bloom:

There are lots of roses on the rose bush to the right of the aforementioned clematis:

My rozannes finally started flowering:

I finally weeded and mulched around the hydrangea:

And the two big feats of the weekend-

My mom and I weeded, laid down weed fabric, and mulched around the cherry tree in the back yard:

(Now Elvis has a new favorite place to hunt bees!)

And my wonderful husband installed our new pond pump:

(No more malaria breeding ground!)

I definitely lied last week when I said I'd have gloriosa daisies to show you. They aren't blooming yet, but I think they will be soon! (I just won't make any promises as to when this time, I learned my lesson the hard way.)

Tomorrow I'll be checking out the Innovative Beads Expo in Allentown... I'm looking forward to it, but I have a pretty specific list of items I'm looking for. Here's hoping I can stick to that list! ;-)

Too Darn Hot

2011-05-31T18:09:00.006-04:00

Here in NJ it's been brutally hot for the past few days.

So hot, in fact, that my normally-hyperactive dog is currently content to sprawl out on the slate floor in our entryway.

Despite the heat, I had a fun and very busy holiday weekend. I hit the farmer's market Saturday morning and got my first fresh strawberries of the season, along with some strawberry jam, rocky top lettuce mix, honey, and a bunch of radishes.

Fun fact: I never really ate radishes, but decided to give them a second chance. This was due in part to my love of Fraggle Rock. Also, this happened when I was in my mid-20s, not when I was 5. That's not weird or anything, right?

The rest of the weekend was filled with gardening (photos coming later this week!), cookouts, and playing an outdoor concert in a park in 90+ degree weather while facing directly toward the setting sun.

And to sneak in a bit of jewelry-business-related content (you know, the reason I originally started this blog!), Here's a photo of me at my booth at the craft show I did a week and a half ago:

The past two shows were the first time I was able to use the new price tags and earring cards, and while I like the way they look, now I feel like I need to do something a bit better with my overall display!

Garden Photos: Part III

2011-05-27T08:00:00.002-04:00

So, do you like how my blog about starting a small business has somehow morphed into a blog about my gardens?? Oh well, it seems like everyone is enjoying the garden posts, and I enjoy taking the pictures and writing the posts, so I'll keep 'em coming! ;-)

Remember my last post, when I shared this atrocity with you?

Well, I decided to take Wednesday off, and after a full day of weeding (and with some help from my mom), here it is (albeit from a different angle):

No more weeds!! And there's mulch! Now we just need a working pond pump so our pond can stop being a breeding ground for mosquito-born illness. ;-)

And here's a close-up of the catmint by the pond:

The catmint is a transplant from my parents' house. Thanks, mom!

Here's the very first rose to bloom this year:

Between when I took this picture Wednesday evening and now, a LOT more roses have bloomed. But the rose bush is still lopsided. ;-)

Of course, there is even more clematis in bloom:

These guys are in the rear section of the patio area, around the corner from the clematis I showed you in this post.

And last, but not least, the very first of my teeny-tiny trailing vincas to get a flower:

It looks like next week I might have some gloriosa daisies to share with you, and the flowers on the rozannes are finally starting to bloom.

I'm hoping the weather will hold out this weekend so I can spend some time relaxing in the hammock and reading the latest installment of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! :-)

Garden Photos: Part II

2011-05-20T08:00:00.004-04:00

My gardens are still looking pretty good! Well, at least the ones in the front and side of my house are.

The plants in the front are rozannes. They haven't bloomed yet, but by next month they'll be even bigger and have a ton of gorgeous purple flowers. Behind them is creeping phlox. I neglected this garden pretty badly last year, and this year I paid the price - I spent something like 4 hours digging up the grass that had started growing there. Lesson learned. ;-)

Climbing the trellis on the left is yet another of our many varieties of clematis. Eventually, this one will have pale, pinkish-purple flowers. On the right is our lopsided, slightly sad-looking rose bush. It wasn't in great shape when we first moved in, and I'm doing my best to get it looking better, or at the very least keep it alive.

A look inside the pot in the front yard: coleus and alyssum. I was absolutely convinced when I first planted the alyssum that at least half of them would die. It really wasn't looking good. But about a week later they were still alive and kicking!

The first of the clematis to bloom! This is a close-up of the middle clematis from this post. It's really something once they're all in bloom and climbing all over the lattice around the patio.

It's been so rainy that I haven't been able to work on anything in the back yard yet. Once things clear up a bit next week, I think I might take a day off from work so I can tackle this mess:

A Happy Mistake

2011-05-18T20:58:00.003-04:00

Hey, 2 blog posts in as many days! I'm impressed with me. ;-)

Anyway, last week I ordered a bunch of supplies from Fire Mountain Gems, and the order arrived over the weekend. Among the items I ordered were some small, silver, cotton-filled gift boxes.

Imagine my surprise when instead of a bunch of these:

I saw these:

Originally I was going to return them both, since they obviously weren't what I ordered, but the more I looked at them, the more I started thinking about what I could make with them!

Now, both bags o' beads together amounted to more than 130 feet of beads. In other words, WAY more than I need of something I had no intention of buying in the first place. I'm still returning one bag (they're sending me a return shipping label along with the boxes that I didn't receive), but they let me purchase the other bag at the same discount level as my original order. Despite the mistake on my order, I have to give the folks at Fire Mountain Gems a lot of credit for having awesome customer service! Every time I've spoken with them, they've always been incredibly friendly and accommodating.

And really, how can I complain when I got an awesome deal on a product I otherwise wouldn't have found?

Now I'm off to dream up some designs for these beauties:

Last-Minute Library Shift

2011-05-17T18:11:00.002-04:00

I'm spending an unexpected evening at my library's reference desk. On one hand, it's a pleasant surprise since I really do enjoy this job, but on the other hand, my already-busy week just got even busier!

via Bookshelf Porn

This past Saturday was my first show of the season, and it was strictly a jewelry show. I was intrigued as to whether having only other jewelry vendors as my "competition" would be a detriment or an advantage. After all, EVERYONE else was essentially selling the same product as I was, but all the shoppers at the show were specifically looking to buy jewelry.

Things got off to a bit of a slow start, but around noon or so things really started picking up. The funny thing is that nearly half of my sales resulted from custom-made ankle bracelets that I created on the spot! Needless to say, I've decided that I need to make a sign for my table to advertise that I take orders for custom jewelry. ;-)

Garden Photos: Part I

2011-05-13T16:27:00.003-04:00

At the moment I'm attempting to simultaneously clean my house AND pack for tomorrow's jewelry show. One seems to be negating efforts at the other. I'll let you guess which is which. ;-)

And of course, in the process of packing I found a bunch of jewelry with old price tags, so now I have to put the new ones on, further delaying the packing.

But as promised, here are some photos from the gardens:

3 of our 7 clematis plants, climbing the fence around our patio. Also in this bed are gloriosa daisies and trailing vincas.

Blue flax! These guys are on either side of our front porch and they bloom almost all the way through the summer.

Teeny-tiny impatiens, also in the garden by the front porch. I've never had impatiens before... Here's hoping they live to see the summer!

Dianthus, also a first-time flower in the garden by the front porch, also in the teeny-tiny stage.

The beginnings of my herb garden - parsley, basil and dill. Today I made a grilled cheese sandwich with provolone cheese, fresh tomato slices, and a few basil leaves. So yummy!

Well, I'm off to finish packing, then hopefully indulge my introverted self in some down time so I can be well-rested and outgoing at tomorrow's show! If you live near Flemington, NJ, stop by my booth at the Elks Lodge on Rt. 31 between 9:00 and 2:00 and say hello! :-)

It's Farmer's Market Season!

2011-05-06T08:00:00.004-04:00

One of my absolute favorite things about spring is that the Easton Farmers' Market starts up again. I spend the better part of November - April lamenting its absence and desperately hoping that my stash of Dutch Hill Preserves Triple Berry Jam holds up.

(For the record, I think there is about 1/2 teaspoon in my last jar. I've been afraid to use it, because I'm afraid of eating it all and then desperately wanting it and not having any left. My husband has compared my behavior regarding this jam to that of a drug addict. He's probably right, but it's just SO GOOD.)

Anyway, according to the farmers' market website, tomorrow marks the beginning of its 259th season - it's the oldest open-air farmers' market in the country. Pretty cool, huh?

All of the vendors there are super nice, and I frequently run into people I know there, and there's just something about starting my weekend out in the sunshine buying all sorts of delicious, healthy, straight-from-the-farm produce (and knowing that I'm supporting small businesses and the local economy!) that puts me in an absurdly good mood. :-)

Getting My Hands Dirty

2011-05-04T18:58:00.002-04:00

Now that spring is here, I've been spending a lot of time digging around in the many gardens around my house. There are six separate garden areas, many of which were not very well maintained when I first moved in, and I've been trying to tackle them one at a time.

Unfortunately, one of them got pretty badly overrun with grass, and I'm still sore from digging it all up, which took about 3-4 hours. About half of the gardens now have mulch, and I transplanted a couple of perennials.

Yesterday it was time to pick up some annuals. My mom and I took a trip to Cierech's Greenhouse, and my purchases included:

Mediterranean Apricot Broadeye Trailing Vinca

Snow Crystals Alyssum

Accent White Impatiens

Elation Crimson Dianthus

I haven't had a chance to plant any of them just yet, but I'm planning to take Friday afternoon off to do so. Can't wait for them to join the Blue Flax, the Gloriosa Daisies, the Rozannes, and the many, many varieties of Clematis, among others.

I can't wait to share photos of my gardens once I have everything planted!

And no, it's absolutely no coincidence that so much of the jewelry I make involves flowers. ;-)

Do you enjoy gardening? What's your favorite flower??

Making Music

2011-04-26T22:08:00.002-04:00

As some of you may know, my Monday nights are spent rehearsing with the Easton Municipal Band. I've been playing the clarinet for almost 20 (!!!) years now - I started when I was 9 years old - and I can't imagine what it would be like to not play an instrument.

One of my favorite composers of all time is Gustav Holst, and one of the pieces we're working on right now is Second Suite in F for Military Band. It's funny, but even if I've had an awful day, if we play a piece by Holst at rehearsal it instantly puts me in a good mood. Here's the 4th movement from Second Suite in F:

Now doesn't that put a smile on your face??

Anyway, our first concert of the season, is this Sunday, May 1, at 2:00pm at the Hanover Community Center in Bethlehem, PA. It's the Sousa Concert, which we do every year with the Liberty Alumni Band, consisting primarily of Sousa marches (in case you hadn't already figured that out!), and it's pretty spectacular if I do say so myself. ;-) Also, admission is free, and there are always a ton of free refreshments! If you live in or near the Lehigh Valley, I highly recommend it.

Upcoming Craft Shows!

2011-04-19T16:30:00.001-04:00

Well, after this past weekend I can check one more of the many weddings I'm attending this year off my list. Congratulations to my brother-in-law Brian and his new wife Kathy!! :-)

And I've officially scheduled 2 spring craft shows amongst all of the wedding festivities.

On May 14, I'll be at the Flemington Elks Lodge from 9:00am - 2:00pm for a jewelry show that's being run by the Arc of Hunterdon County.

And on May 21, I'll be at the Riegelsville Public Library for an outdoor (I get to use my canopy!) craft show from 10:00am - 4:00pm.

Very excited for both of them, and if you live in the area I hope to see you there!

P.S. Check out the article my husband wrote for eHow about rescuing pointers! I can personally vouch for the fact that pointers make awesome pets. :-)

In the Kitchen

2011-04-06T18:10:00.002-04:00

What happens when I have an overabundance of mushrooms and spinach and I just bought a bunch of eggs from Klein Farms??

I make quiche, of course!!

This is this first quiche I've ever made, which is odd considering it's one of my favorite foods. It actually came out really well, except for the bits of spinach that were sticking up and wound up rather crispy.

On another culinary note, later tonight I'll probably be picking up a new cookware set! We've had a hard anodized aluminum set for about 5 years, but it's looking pretty worn out lately, to the point that I've started to question the safety of cooking with them. We decided we would gradually start replacing the set. But during lunch today I found this:

Hello, there, KitchenAid Gourmet Distinctions 10-piece cookware set that is currently 50% off at Kohls. :-)

I checked out some reviews, which were overwhelmingly positive, so tonight I'm off to check them out in person and probably buy them.

Very excited, but I definitely need to make sure that is ALL I buy. Does spring make anyone else out there want to buy lots of pretty new things for your home???

Dance Your Cares Away

2011-04-01T18:18:00.002-04:00

Now that I'm finally getting some shows lined up, I need to work on building up my inventory.

Since the husband has a comedy gig tonight, I'm on my own with the pup.

My plan tonight, after a stressful and exhausting couple of weeks is to make a whole lot of jewelry and having a Fraggle Rock marathon. I actually own the first 3 seasons, but the entire series is on Netflix. I wonder how many episodes I can watch in one night?? ;-)

Here's a song from one of my favorite episodes. The great Jim Henson himself performs the part of Cantus. Enjoy! :-)

Focusing on the Fun Stuff

2011-03-28T17:00:00.003-04:00

So this past week has been... interesting.

There was a lot of fun stuff, but also one really awful run in with the Jersey City Parking Authority that almost ended with me spending Tuesday night in my car on Columbus Blvd. But instead of dwelling on that, let's focus on the fun stuff that happened, shall we?

Tuesday night my husband performed at the new talent showcase at Gotham Comedy Club.

First we stopped by the New York Public Library to see the original stuffed animals that inspired A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories.

For all the time I spend in New York, and despite the fact that I'm a librarian, I'd never actually set foot in the NYPL until Tuesday afternoon. And I'm not ashamed to say that being there made me feel a little bit giddy.

So there they are: the "real-life" Winnie the Pooh and friends. In case any of you are wondering, Eeyore's tail really is held on by a pin. I thought that was adorable. Also, Piglet is SUPER tiny.

And there's my husband on the stage of Gotham Comedy Club! I believe this is actually the third time he's been there, but it's still pretty exciting. :-)

On Saturday night we had a bunch of people over, and friends of ours brought their 5-month-old boxer puppy, Lilly. So far she is the only dog I've known who can wear Elvis out.

There's Elvis, ready for a nap, and Lilly about to pounce. Needless to say, he was a tired boy yesterday!

As far as the jewelry business goes, custom orders continue to abound, and I'm trying to line up some craft shows for spring/summer (difficult when there seems to be some sort of wedding-related event every Saturday from now til the end of July, but I'm doing my best!). I need to send out some applications and I'll be sure to post dates and locations here as soon as everything is confirmed!

Pre-Flood Photos

2011-03-14T17:00:00.000-04:00

Since my sophomore year of high school, crossing the Delaware river has been a frequent part of my routine. Since then I have eithered lived in NJ and gone to high school in PA, lived in PA and gone to college in NJ, or lived in NJ and worked in PA.

So I tend to take for granted the fact that I haven't yet been stranded in one state or the other, though I came darn close on Friday.

This is where the Lehigh River meets the Delaware. Normally there's a huge drop from the Lehigh to the Delaware (right around the middle of this picture), but the two rivers are at the same level, and the Lehigh was almost to the top of the banks by lunchtime.

Here's the view looking upstream at the Lehigh River. On the far bank, the water looked like it was only a few feet away from flooding Route 611.

While I was stuck at a red light on the way home, I took this picture of the bridge I cross every day. The water is normally nowhere near this close to the bridge! It was a weird experience driving across with the water so high.
The river apparently only crested at 4 feet above flood stage, so that worst that happened was that some roads were closed overnight, and right now I'm feeling incredibly grateful that the worst of my worries was whether I'd be stuck on the wrong side of the Delaware for an evening.

Yikes

2011-03-08T16:00:00.000-05:00

I guess I just went 5 weeks without a single blog post.

I haven't really been reading many blogs lately either, which made for an interesting experience when I logged into Bloglovin for the first time in weeks.

Hopefully this will be the last time I manage to go more than a week without a post, but given my schedule this spring, I make no promises.

Right now I'm trying to get moving on finding some spring craft shows to do, but most of them are on Saturdays, and nearly all my Saturdays between now and July are filled with bridal showers, engagement parties, bachelorette parties and weddings. But if/when I find shows that I can actually participate in, I'll be sure to post the dates here.

Also: exciting news! We got a fancy new camera last month (Canon Rebel T2i) that I am terrified to use, but I fully intend to exploit my husband's photography skills for future listings on Etsy, as well as on future blog posts!

Tiny Brass Birds

2011-01-31T21:37:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago on my Facebook page, I mentioned that the new jewelry I was designing involves adorable little brass birds.

Well, over the weekend (which started off strong, but 3/4 of which involved me lying on the couch feeling sick, boo), I finally managed to get some pictures taken and some listings up on Etsy.

Since my asymmetrical flower necklaces have sold so well, I decided to do something similar, replacing the flower with a little bird. I used 4mm beads (instead of the 6mm or 8mm beads I used for the flowers) to make the necklace more delicate and feminine.

It's available in green aventurine, amethyst, shell, or red tiger's eye. And of course I made matching bracelets:

I also made earrings, which will hopefully be listed on Etsy soon.

Now I must get going. I need to protect Elvis from the impending snow. That dog is seriously afraid of everything. ;-)

Snowed In

2011-01-26T17:19:00.005-05:00

I very rarely get a snow day.

It doesn't happen in my day job unless the governor declares a state of emergency, which has not happened in the past 5 1/2 years I've worked there.

The library where I work part-time does periodically close for inclement weather, but it hasn't happened on a day I work in the nearly 5 years I've worked there.

Until tonight. I'd be upset if I didn't desperately need the time off to relax, since I could feel that I was on the verge of getting sick. I think the plan for tonight is to make more jewelry while I watch TV while I lounge around on...

My brand new living room furniture!

The pillows that came with the set just happened to match our color scheme of gray and red!

It's definitely a different look than the original set I was looking at, but it's incredibly comfortable, it's the right material, the right color, AND the sofa is actually a sleeper sofa, which was not an option available with the set I was originally looking at. Now I just need to find something to put on that poor, naked wall behind it.

Unfortunately I completely flaked out on doing a "before" picture. We had already dragged the old sofa out to the curb by the time I remembered, so instead my husband took a picture of my lounging on it in front of the house.

My arm's covering the damaged part of the cushion, but trust me, it wasn't pretty. ;-)

My Super-Busy Weekend

2011-01-24T16:30:00.001-05:00

I'm starting this week out exhausted already!

I spend all day Saturday wandering around NYC. I got together with two of my roommates from college with the intention of taking the ferry to the Statue of Liberty, but once we realized how brutally cold it was, we decided to wait until warmer weather.

We did spend a little time near the South Street Seaport, checking out the shops and looking at the Brooklyn Bridge.

We decided to add "walk across the Brooklyn Bridge" to our list of things to do - once it gets warmer.

And of course we took the obligatory self-portrait.

Faye, Jency and me, huddled together for warmth!

City Hall Park looked so picturesque as we walked to the subway station to go to SoHo for a little more window shopping.

Around this point, I just sort of stopped taking pictures. But once the former roomies and I parted ways, I met up with my husband and some other friends for pizza, followed by a taping of Wyatt Cenac's stand-up special for Comedy Central. We had amazing seats, in the 3rd row... So if you happen to catch the special on TV this spring or summer, keep an eye of for me! ;-)

On Sunday afternoon Glen and I went over to our friends' house. He was helping to bottle a batch of beer, and I was working on another custom order for a bridal party.

How sweet are those little daisy beads?

We spent the evening hanging out at the in-laws' house, watching football and eating junk food.

This week is looking equally busy: Band rehearsal, extra library shifts, a furniture delivery (I'll be sure to share before and after photos of the living room!) on top of my usual work schedule. Oh, and hopefully a few new Etsy listings to share if I can find the time!

Involuntary Redecorating

2011-01-20T16:30:00.000-05:00

Earlier last year, I introduced you to my sweet little rats, Nory and Sery.

Over the weekend, someone (and by someone I mean me) left their cage door open after feeding them. In the morning Glen noticed that the door was open and they weren't in the cage. Fortunately we knew just where to look.

Those little critters like nothing more than hiding underneath blankets, and there are blankets draped over the top of our sofa.

Their second favorite thing is chewing on stuff. Unfortunately in this case, "stuff" consisted of one of the couch cushions.

Thank goodness we were planning to replace our living room furniture soon. Considering we bought our sofa, loveseat, and recliner more than 5 years ago from a friend of a friend of my mother's for a mere $200, I'd say we got our money's worth. We'll probably just replace the sofa and loveseat, because our living room is not terribly big (17x13) and Elvis is the only one who sits on the recliner lately anyway. And we both agreed it would be silly to buy a recliner for our dog, no matter how much we love him. ;-)

I have a pretty specific idea of what I want (Glen's only criteria is "comfortable"), which actually makes it HARDER to find something. My criteria:

Medium to dark gray (our walls are light gray and the curtains and other accent pieces are red, so I like the way a darker gray with red throw pillows would look)

Microfiber (our recliners are microfiber and they are sooo easy to clean, since dog/rat/degu fur doesn't get embedded in them)

Modern style with clean lines (aesthetically speaking, I am not a fan of lumpy-looking couches, even if they are super comfortable)

We checked out Ashley Furniture, but they had a grand total of one sofa available in gray, and it was chenille. Not an ideal material when you have a shedding dog.
But I think this sofa from Raymour and Flanigan fits the criteria quite nicely.
And of course, the matching loveseat:
We're planning on checking out some other places over the next week or two, but I think I might officially be in love with this set. What do you think?

New Price Tags!

2011-01-10T12:39:00.003-05:00

I didn't get nearly as much done this weekend as I'd hoped.
I updated my spreadsheet somewhat, but I'm not quite sure how to go about updating my inventory of finished products, so I haven't tied in my new spreadsheet to the old one just yet. I think it's going to involve sitting down with all my finished products, making piles of similar styles, and separating out items that don't fit anymore so I can take them apart and reuse the pieces. Once I figure out what pieces still fit into my new, more focused vision for my jewelry, I'll assign the new inventory numbers.
I didn't reorganize my raw materials either. That's going to be an interesting experience, to say the least. But I really need to separate the parts that I'm unlikely to use this year and figure out what I'm going to do with them. Right now all they're doing is cluttering up my storage space and making it harder to motivate myself to sit down and make some jewelry.

But on a more positive note:
I DID clean most of my house, even if my office is still a mess. I'll take care of my office later this week, once I sort through my inventory.

On Saturday I finished up the custom order bracelets I was working on for a bridal party.

AND - I put together a TON of price tags last night. What do you think?

A mere fraction of my brand new price tags

I couldn't find plain silver ribbon, but I think I actually like the black ribbon with silver trim even better.
Also, I came up with a really, really cute idea for some necklaces and bracelets. Once I finish getting myself organized, I'll make a couple of pieces and post pictures here.
P.S. I know most of you are scattered all over the country, but on the off chance that anyone out there lives in the Lehigh Valley/North Jersey area and would like to host a jewelry party, please contact me for details! :-)

Weekend Jewelry Project

2011-01-07T20:15:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite things to do is custom jewelry orders, and a specific category of custom orders that kind of cropped up unsolicited is bridal party jewelry. I have a couple of sets to do for weddings this spring, and my plan for this weekend is to complete one of those sets.

I don't do a ton of wire wrapping, but the set of bracelets I'm working on requires it. It came our pretty nicely, I think, though:

One down, five more to go!

Also on the agenda:

This past week I reworked my inventory and sales spreadsheets, so now I need to tie those into my cash flow spreadsheet.
Finish putting together my new price tags and earring display cards. I'll share pictures of them when I'm done.
Re-organize raw materials inventory. Now that I'm planning to somewhat limit the styles of jewelry I make, I need to weed out the stuff that doesn't fit in anymore and find some use for it.
Clean my messy, messy (by my standards anyway) house!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! :-)

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T17:41:00.005-05:00

Glen and I just got back from spending New Year's Eve in Wildwood with some friends from college.

The view from our balcony this morning.

The place we stayed had an indoor pool with two water slides, one of which actually left the building before sending you back inside to the pool.

View of the water park from outside. That's the slide - OUTSIDE the building - on the left!

From about 1:00am til 2:00am we went down the slides over and over again. Seriously, there's nothing like water slides to help you get back in touch with your inner child!

Loot: Part 2

2010-12-29T18:16:00.003-05:00

Remember when I ooh-ed and ahh-ed over this tote bag?

I now have it in white AND red, thanks to my parents and my brother-in-law's fiancee! So excited!

And of course I got a bunch of books, including (but not limited to):

(from my husband)

(from my future sister-in-law)

(from my best friend)

I also got a gift card for Ann Taylor from my in-laws, and I'm very much looking forward to using it soon. :-)

By the way, Cory of Tealwater Designs had an excellent suggestion for my earring card dilemma - I had no idea you could buy plastic adapters for earring cards! I promptly placed an order, and they should arrive soon. Problem solved. Thanks, Cory! :-)

Loot: Part 1

2010-12-26T20:21:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite gifts this year came from my husband. Which I guess makes sense, but I was super excited about it.

When I first started making jewelry, I got a really cheap set of tools, just because I didn't know whether it was something I'd stick with. The idea was to upgrade as soon as it was clear that I'd be doing this for awhile, since my old tools were not exactly ergonomically designed.

I couldn't tell you why, but I just never bothered getting new tools. But I apparently complained about my old ones enough that my husband went out and bought me new ones! (He also bought me a copy of our good friend Eric's very first novel, Textual Healing - you should go order a copy!!)

I haven't had a chance to use them yet, but just holding them I can feel that they'll be a lot easier to work with.

I'm planning on giving them a go tonight, but first I'll be eating some leftover Christmas dinner.

I'll share some more photos from Christmas, as well a some of the other amazing gifts I received from the wonderful people in my life, later this week.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T08:00:00.002-05:00

I never thought I'd be the type of person who dresses up her dog, much less a dog that weighs more than 15 pounds, but Elvis gets cold easily and really seems to enjoy getting dressed up.

So how could I resist getting him a Christmas sweater??

Anyway, I hope everyone out there has a very merry Christmas!!

My family and Glen's family are both coming over for Christmas dinner today, so I'm off to get ready for that... Wish me luck! ;-)

Winding Down (and Back Up)

2010-12-22T19:38:00.003-05:00

Now that 2010 is winding down, I have some time to catch my breath and really start to focus on next year.

Here's my current list of goals for 2011:

As I've mentioned before, I'd really like to streamline my products a little bit. There are certain styles that sell over and over again, so it seems like it would be best to focus on doing variations of those styles. Hopefully then I can actually assign style numbers for groups of items, instead of item numbers for each individual piece, because as it stands right now my inventory spreadsheet has a row for every single piece of jewelry I make. Hopefully the end result will be less time spent on the administrative end of things (especially calulating the materials cost for each item!).
Which brings me to my next goal: I need to overhaul my inventory/sales spreadsheet, at least to some extent. It's become unwieldy, and I don't like it. My expense and cash flow spreadsheet are still working quite nicely though!
Try to schedule more jewelry parties. They're fun, they don't cost much to do compared to craft shows, and pretty much everyone who shows up buys at least one thing, so it's a good return on investment.
Come up with better displays for craft shows, especially my jewelry tags and earring cards. I've been using generic display products, and it just isn't cutting it anymore! I'll continue to use the silver and purple packaging I came up with for online orders, but I want to carry that color scheme into my earring cards and jewelry tags for shows.

I'm thinking that for the tags I'll use the same purple paper used for mailing products. My plan is to print my logo on the paper, then cut the tags out using victorian pattern edging scissors.

Instead of regular string, I'm going to use a thin, silver or gray ribbon. Same basic idea as what I'm currently doing for bracelets and necklaces, but a little more personality.
As for earrings: I'd like to use silver or gray earring display cards with my logo in purple, but I can decide whether I should buy them and print my logo on labels to stick on, or make my own from scratch.
The dilemma I'm facing is this: If I order pre-made hanging cards, they'll have a hole in the middle of the top, like this:

If I use clear labels, I can't put them on the top section, and if I put them on the bottom section the label will be partially covered. But I WOULD be able to use my current earring displays, which look like this:

If I make my own cards from scratch, they'd be completely flat and wouldn't be able to hang on the display racks I have. I'm trying to figure out the best way to display them at shows if I go this route, but I really don't know... Punch holes and push-pin them to a cork board maybe? Thoughts? Anyone??

Spreading Holiday Cheer

2010-12-15T17:19:00.002-05:00

As I sat down to write this, it occurred to me that I've been playing the clarinet for nearly 2 decades now - that's 2/3 of my life!

I've played in concert bands, marching bands, pit bands, and most recently, a municipal band.

photo via EastonBand.com

One of the things I find most enjoyable is playing Christmas music a nursing homes, which we did this past Monday.

When I was scanning through local news websites yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to come across a nice article on the Easton Patch website about the concert. If you look carefully, you can see me in a couple of the pictures - first row of clarinets, all the way on the right. :-)

Our last concert of the year is at 2:00 this Sunday, Dec. 19 at Lafayette College. Admission is free, so if you're in the Lehigh Valley area and want to listen to some Christmas music, stop on by!

Also, don't forget -‎10 more days left of free shipping on all orders from my Etsy shop! Plus 10% off orders of $20 or more with the coupon code "KITTY10" and 20% off orders of $40 or more with the coupon code "KITTY20"!

Happy Birthday, Frank!

2010-12-12T19:28:00.007-05:00

Last night, Glen and I threw a party to celebrate Frank Sinatra's birthday.

Glen came up with the idea back in 2003, our junior year of college, and it quickly became a tradition.

Now every year, on or about December 12, we invite our friends over for drinks, food and music. And since this year the party was the day before the big day, it included a midnight champagne toast in honor of Frank's birthday.

We made sure our bar was fully stocked.

We served some delicious food, including an appetizer wreath...

...and baked brie with walnuts, dried cranberries and cherries, and apricot syrup.

We dressed Elvis in a bow tie and cape...

...and partied the night away. :-)

Now I'm off to finish some laundry, then watch a movie and relax for the rest of the night before another busy work week.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! :-)

Geminids

2010-12-09T08:30:00.001-05:00

If you've been reading my blog for awhile now, you probably know that I love staring at the night sky. So far I've had absolutely no luck with the big meteor showers so far this year. It's been cloudy for the Perseids and the Leonids, so my year thus far has been sadly meteor-less.

But I have one last chance: the Geminids.

via Space.com

They're supposed to peak the this year the night of December 13 into the 14th, and I'm hoping the skies will be clear for a change.

I desperately want to stay up late and watch them, but considering it will be mid-December in the Northeast, it's a safe bet temperatures will be well below freezing.

I guess it'd be a good excuse to get out every blanket in the house and bundle up in my back yard with a big mug full of hot chocolate though, right?

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

2010-12-07T21:39:00.004-05:00

Our house is finally decorated for Christmas!

Yesterday after work I insisted we put up our Christmas lights in between the snow flurries. Glen climbed the ladder for most of it, but I put the lights on the top of the gable. Which is no small feat, since I developed a fear of heights after climbing to the top of the light house in Cape May when I was 14!

Tonight we bought and decorated our tree. This is the first time we've been able to put it right by a window, and I'm pretty excited about that. (Well, we could have done it last year, but I wanted to put the couch in that window nook. I should have followed Glen's advice and put it on the other side of the room. He was right, I was wrong. There, I said it.)

I also put up the stockings on our (currently non-working, but hopefully that will change soon) gas fireplace. Yes, our dog has the biggest stocking. And the little green stocking belong to each of our rodents. What can I say, we like to spoil our pets!

I've been doing a bunch of custom orders for Christmas lately. It's a little crazy trying to balance them with the day job and all the holiday stuff, but it's also a lot of fun! And I'm already coming up with some neat ideas for next year.

This weekend is our annual Sinatra Night - we invite our friends over, get all dressed up and have a big party in honor of Frank Sinatra's birthday. We play Rat Pack music on the record player, and now that my piano is finally in our home I will hopefully be able to play some Cole Porter tunes!

Possibly the best tote bag in the history of tote bags:

2010-12-01T17:49:00.004-05:00

I'm not generally one to say I "need" something like a canvas tote bag.

But seriously, I NEED this bag!!!

Also a fan of this one:

I think it's safe to say that just about everything in Book Fiend's Etsy shop is now officially on my Christmas list. :-)

Festivities (and a Sale!)

2010-11-30T16:30:00.001-05:00

How was everyone's Thanksgiving?

Mine involved waaay too much food (2 dinners!) but it was worth it.

Festivities continued on Friday night. I insisted on going to the Peace Candle lighting in Centre Square in Easton as a spectator this year. In the past I've played the clarinet at the candle lighting, and had to suffer through most of the evening with freezing, un-gloved fingers, so I wanted to enjoy it properly bundled up.

Afterward we spent a few hours at Pearly Baker's hanging out with friends, some of whom I haven't seen in months! (If you ever go there, I recommend the Aspen Brie Wedges, and the Boursin Duck Strudel - both were delicious!)

And... today is my birthday!

I brought bagels into work because I was too busy/lazy to bake any treats, and after work Glen and I heading over to my parents' house for dinner. My in-laws are coming too, including my youngest brother-in-law/birthday buddy. (Happy birthday, Keith!) Looking forward to it. :-)

Last, and certainly not least, as I promised in my last post:
Here are the details on the Michievous Kitty Jewelry Christmas sale!
The sale starts tomorrow, December 1, and runs through December 24.

If you spend $20 or more, use the coupon code KITTY10 and receive 10% off your total order.
If you spend $40 or more, use the coupon code KITTY20 and receive 20% off your total order.
Plus, shipping on all orders, no matter how much or how little, is free!

I'm hoping to add some listings to my shop over the next couple of days/weeks, and as always I'm willing to do custom orders! If you see something you like but want it in a different color, length, etc., or if you'd like an additional piece of jewelry to match something already in my shop, just send me an email and I will do my best to accomodate you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-23T17:00:00.000-05:00

Is everyone out there ready for Thanksgiving? I definitely am, although it helps that my husband and I aren't hosting this year. We'll be eating an early dinner at my parents' house, then eating a second dinner at his parents' house, but we don't have to worry about entertaining anyone, so for the most part we can just sit back and enjoy spending time with family.

Right now I am most thankful for my impending four-day weekend, which will allow me to relax after an absolutely insane 2 weeks!

I didn't actually mean to take a 2-week blogging break, but one jewelry demonstration, two craft shows, last-minute library shifts AND my regular work schedule? I didn't exactly have a lot of free time.

I finished all my craft shows for the season. Some went really well, some were kind of mediocre sales-wise, but I made a profit at all of them, and I'm significantly closer to my goal of buying a laptop to replace my dinosaur of a computer, so I really can't complain. For the rest of the holiday season I'll probably focus on bringing stuff in to either of my day jobs and bringing in custom orders for Christmas gifts.

Interesting thing I learned while doing craft shows this year: Uniqueness (or the perception thereof) really depends on context.

On Etsy, I feel like my work really doesn't stand out. Asymmetrical necklaces like those I am partial to making (especially those with a flower on the side) abound there. My jewelry is just one of many variations on the same theme.

But at local craft shows? Or at my day job(s)? I get endless compliments on how pretty and unique my jewelry is, and those asymmetical necklaces sell like hotcakes!

In fact, the ones with the antiqued brass finish, like this one?

I've had to make so many that I've run out of what previously seemed like an endless supply of that chain.
By the way, I will be running a sale both on my Etsy shop and in person during the month of December, details to follow! :-)

Cuteness!

2010-11-09T16:30:00.002-05:00

When I got into work this morning, I logged onto my computer, checked the news, and saw a link to this story:

Nipper the tiny flipper: Ten-day-old orphan dolphin is nursed back to health

I literally squealed when I saw how cute and tiny this little dolphin is!

I am also pretty sure my coworkers now think I am crazy.

Anyway, I did a jewelry demonstration last night, and I thought it went really well. Made a decent amount of sales, took orders for some custom pieces, and a few people expressed interest in hosting parties.

My sales struck the right balance between making the evening worthwhile, yet not depleting my inventory to a point that I'd be left scrambling to replenish it before my show this Saturday (at Easton Area High School from 9:00am - 2:00pm!!).

Which is good, because I got called in for a last-minute library shift this evening, which I was totally not part of my plan for today. But who can resist making extra money doing something they love, especially when it's almost Christmas shopping season? ;-)

Speaking of which, one of my resolutions for this year is to buy as many Christmas presents as I can either from other crafters, local businesses, or Etsy shops. And in some cases, of course, make the presents myself!

Before and After

2010-11-04T18:00:00.000-04:00

Well, it took me way longer than I would have liked, but I finally have before an after photos of my hair!

Here it is before I chopped off nearly a foot of it:

I didn't realize how red my (natural!) highlights were until I looked at this picture. (Also, my hair is crazy messy here. It was a long day and I didn't have the energy to fix it up before taking this picture.)

Here's a picture of Glen and me, all dressed up at this past weekend's wedding:

And here's a close-up of the new do:

It's funny, every time I chop off a lot of hair, every thinks I dyed it because it looks SO much darker.

And just for fun, here's a picture of Elvis, all dressed up for Halloween:

He was a big hit with the trick-or-treaters, and hopefully he made up for the fact that neither of us humans got dressed up.

The next couple of weeks are going to be kind of insane. I'm doing a jewelry demonstration this Monday, I have craft shows on November 13 and 20, plus I've been getting requests to bring my jewelry into work so folks can do some holiday shopping.

Add to that two orders for bridal party jewelry for this spring and some custom orders for Christmas, and I'm going to be a very busy bee these next couple of months!

Fortunately, I don't have much going on this weekend, so I'm going to work on making more jewelry so I'll have a decent amount of inventory for my upcoming shows.

Specific goals for the end of this year, profit-wise, include being able to buy a laptop with my Mischievous Kitty earnings (not sure how much longer my current computer is going to last!), contribute to funding two microloans on Kiva in January, and send another donation to the Dear Jack Foundation.

Here's hoping I don't neglect my blog too much for the rest of the year. ;-)

Craft Shows and Haircuts and Weddings, Oh My!

2010-10-27T18:23:00.004-04:00

So... The craft show on Saturday went well! It was at my grade school alma mater, Saints Philip and James School. (Except when I went there it was All Saints Regional!) I sold a decent amount of jewelry, and I got to see a bunch of folks I haven't seen in a long time. It was strange to realize that I can count on one hand the teachers who are still still there since I graduated.

The week before the craft show I decided to chop all my hair off. 10" of my hair is now on its way to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. This is the third time I've donated... I get bored easily with my hair, and this gives me the opportunity for a drastic change, plus I get to contribute to a good cause.

I'd love to say I have before and after pictures to show you... I do have a "before" picture, but I've been so busy for the past week and a half that I haven't taken an "after" picture yet.

However, Glen and I are in a wedding this weekend, so I should have an "after" picture by next week.

I do have a picture of my bridesmaid dress though!

Pretty, right?

I'm excited to wear it, but I have no idea what to do with my hair.

Guess I'd better stop writing and start looking for inspiration, huh? ;-)

Still Here

2010-10-17T22:01:00.003-04:00

Have I seriously gone more than 2 weeks without posting?

I am the worst.

During the week I've been working sooo much. Extra hours at the library, plus getting ready for fall craft shows. The first one is this weekend, I still don't feel quite ready!

Anyway, I don't have too much time right now, and my dog keeps whining at me to pay attention to him... So I'll just share this picture I took of the Empire State Building on my way home from NYC last Saturday, where I met up with some friends to go to MoMA, eat Thai food, and see my wonderful husband and our friend do stand-up at the Broadway Comedy Club!

Fall Craft Shows!

2010-09-28T19:03:00.004-04:00

Wow, a whole week without any posts. What can I say, I've been busy!

Anyway, I officially have 3 craft shows lined up for this fall!

10/23, 9am - 3:30pm @ Sts. Philip & James School, Phillipsburg, NJ

11/13, 9am - 2pm @ Easton Area High School, Easton, PA

11/20, 9am - 4pm @ Warren Hills High School, Washington, NJ

I'm debating doing a 4th craft show on December 11, but that evening my husband and I are throwing a party to celebrate this guy's birthday:

Yes, his birthday is actually Dec. 12, but that's a Sunday this year. Dec. 11 works better AND conveniently lends itself to a midnight birthday champagne toast!

So I am a bit worried that doing a craft show that would end mere hours before the party starts might be a bit much. But I do have at least one private demonstration set up, and I planning to set up some stuff at my day job for people to look at around the holidays, so I'm not sure I truly need (or can handle, for that matter) a 4th show, regardless of the date. ;-)

Watch the Sky

2010-09-21T23:18:00.005-04:00

It's past my bedtime. I was about to curl up in bed and read some more of Packing for Mars, but I decided to let Elvis out, and when I stepped outside I actually gasped when I saw how bright Jupiter was. My camera really can't do it justice, but I just had to share a picture.

Needless to say, the really bright object in the top right is the moon. Jupiter is near the bottom left. It's a lot more amazing in real life.

If you get a chance during the next few days, I recommend that you go outside at night and watch the sky.

(I'd nearly forgotten about the song I linked to above until I wrote that sentence. I just fell in love with it all over again.)

The Craft Show and the Introvert

2010-09-17T16:30:00.003-04:00

Earlier this week, Melissa from Oh, My Darling post a link to this article, entitled "Caring for Your Introvert."

I felt like I was reading my own life story. Especially this part:

"Many actors, I've read, are introverts, and many introverts, when socializing, feel like actors."

This couldn't be more true, at least for me. While I certainly don't mind being around other people, and most of the time I genuinely enjoy it, I do feel a bit like I am performing the entire time. It's exhausting, to say the least. I can handle it in small doses, but then I need some "me time" to recover.

One of the comments on that article linked to the The Introvert's Corner on the Psychology Today website. I found everything there very interesting, but this post, which is about how shyness and introversion are not the same, is what really resonated with me so far.

You see, I used to be not only introverted, but painfully shy. Ask my mom, she'll tell you about how I spent most of my first few days of nursery school hiding under a couch and crying because I was afraid of the other kids.

I starting coming out of my shell when I started doing theater in middle school, which probably contributes to the fact that I feel like I'm performing when I'm around other people. But despite my new confidence, I remain an introvert. I'm more willing to talk to strangers, but it still takes a lot out of me. I get incredibly nervous before an interview, or even making a phone call to someone I've never spoken to before, but I figured out that if I channel that nervous energy the same way I did before I'd get on stage back in middle school and high school, I could fool other people into thinking that I'm both confident and socially competent. ;-)

That presents quite the challenge when it comes to doing craft shows, since I spend ALL DAY talking to complete strangers and experience that nervous energy for hours on end. I've only done a handful of craft shows so far, but my experience with them was pretty varied. Sometimes I'd chat it up with all these new people with no problem whatsoever, but other times just a smile and a "hello" seemed to take a herculean effort.

After reading this article, I started thinking really carefully about what the difference between those shows might have been. It was how I spent the night before the show. Was I sitting quietly at home, relaxing and recharging, or was I out socializing? If it was the former, interacting with strangers the next day seemed a lot easier. If it was the latter, I felt tired and awkward and even a little cranky.

And you know what? The shows where I was able to easily interact with my customers were the shows where I made the most sales. Now, I'm sure there were other factors that affected my sales to some degree or another, such as the number of people attending the show, the time of year, etc. I doubt my demeanor wasn't the sole factor in how much or how little I sold, but it's probably a save bet that it played a role.

As of right now it looks like I'll have at least 4 shows lined up for October and November. With these new insights in mind, I'm going to make a point of spending the evening before at home. I'll get everything I need for the next day packed up and then I'll read a book or watch a movie, and make sure I can put my best face forward for all my potential customers.

Winner!

2010-09-11T13:09:00.003-04:00

And the lucky winner is...
Number 14, The Favour Shoppe!

Congratulations!!

Elvis and Dylan: BFFs

2010-09-10T17:30:00.002-04:00

My dog Elvis is best buddies with a big, long-haired German Shepherd named Dylan. Dylan's owners live right behind us, and Dylan comes over to play with Elvis almost every day.

And I don't mean Dylan's owners bring him over. Oh, no. Elvis and Dylan arrange their own play dates. They're independent like that.

Today I took Elvis to the vet for his yearly vaccines, and I intended to clean the house as soon as I got home. But Dylan came over and the two pups were being far too entertaining for me to focus on cleaning!

Here's a little clip of Elvis and Dylan playing their latest favorite game, "Elvis defends the front porch from a Dylan invasion."

Note how well my dog listens to me. When I tell Elvis to "Get him!" he decides it's time to lie down for a bit instead. ;-)

Guess now I should go get that cleaning done, huh?

Also, less than 7 hours left to enter the September giveaway!

And don't forget - if you use the coupon code "Kitty15" in my shop between now and September 20, you can get 15% off your total order in my Etsy shop! :-)

I'll announce the winner of the giveaway tomorrow. Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

My Pseudo-Vacation

2010-09-08T12:30:00.010-04:00

I mentioned in my previous post that I took some vacation time from my day job last week.

I didn't actually go anywhere, unless you count that Wedesday evening in New York, but it was still amazing.

Apart from working at the library Thursday night, I spent most of Thursday and Friday lounging around the house.

Had a farmers market date with my mother-in-law Saturday morning, and bought lots of yummy stuff! Just relaxed for the rest of the day. I really don't even remember specifically what I did, but I'm pretty sure the hammock and a book were involved.

Sunday was pretty exciting though, Glen won a comedy competition at the Allentown Fair! Yay, husband!! :-)

photo via allentownfair.org

Took Elvis to the dog park again on Monday, it took the dogs awhile to warm up to one another, but in the end they wound up chasing each other around the park until they were all exhausted. So cute. :-)

I definitely needed that break. So far this week I've been way more energetic than usual. Less trouble waking up for work in the morning, I don't feel like I need a nap afterward, and I even went to the gym last night!

Hopefully now that I'm back on a more normal schedule, with one night a week at the library (and the same night each week, no less!) I'll be able to get into a good routine to prepare for the craft shows I plan to do this fall.

Once I get confirmation for all the shows, I'll post them here - if you live in or near the Lehigh Valley, you should come say hi! :-)

Also, don't forget to enter to win this lovely copper leaf necklace! The giveaway is open until Friday night!

September Giveaway!

2010-09-06T11:36:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone!

As evidenced by my lack of blog posts (and comments on other blogs, sorry!!), I've been on a bit of a vacation for the past week. I didn't even go anywhere special, I just took Wednesday - Friday off from my day job so I could have a super-long Labor Day weekend.

It was delightful. Apart from going into NYC on Wednesday night to see my husband perform at Comix, I mostly stuck around the house, reading and making jewelry.

Which brings me to the important part: Among the jewelry I was making was a necklace for Mischievous Kitty Jewelry's September Giveaway!

How cool is this? It's a copper-plated leaf. An actual leaf. Chrysanthemum, to be precise. The green and peach beads are unakite, and the red beads are carnelian. I picked those colors because the combination made me think of how the trees look when the leaves first start to change.

Here's a picture of the whole necklace. It's 20" long and the chain is copper. Perfect for autumn, right?

So, here are the rules:

The contest is open until this Friday, September 10. All entries must be made by midnight, EST.
All you need to do is visit my Etsy shop, then come back here and leave a comment telling me what your favorite piece is.
You can get an extra entry by spreading the word about the giveaway. If you have a blog, you can include a link to the blog post in a separate comment below. If you post about it on Facebook, just remember to tag "Mischievous Kitty Jewelry" in your post and tell me about it in a separate comment on this blog.
I will select a winner on Saturday, September 11, using the random number generator on Random.org.

Good luck, and enjoy the rest of this beautiful Labor Day weekend!!

P.S. Just for stopping by, here's a coupon code, good for 15% off any purchase in my Etsy shop and good through September 20, 2010. Just enter "Kitty15" in the "notes to seller" during checkout, and I'll send you a revised invoice!

Purge

2010-08-30T21:45:00.001-04:00

Lately, the volume of clutter on my side of the closet has been bothering me.

My clothes were so squashed together that they were getting wrinkled just from being in there!

My poor husband only gets about 1/4 of our closet to himself.

So tonight I committed to a closet purge. I went through each and every piece of clothing in there (as well as the sweaters and jeans in my dresser), and decided to get rid of every piece that I didn't really, truly love and could see myself wearing multiple times within the next year. If I hadn't worn it in the past 12 months, it was automatically disqualified.

And you know what? I discovered that I actually like an awful lot of my clothes!

Keepers are on the left. There are a lot more on the left than on the right.
And yes, that is a Care Bear on my nightstand. Grumpy Bear, to be precise.

The left side of the closet hasn't been this empty since before we moved into the house!

Now, mind you, this only includes actual clothing: dresses, skirts, tops, pants, blazers, etc. Pajamas, undergarments, and shoes are not included in this count. (Not including shoes feels like cheating, but I got rid of a bunch of shoes a few months ago, so they weren't part of the problem.)

128: Total pieces of clothing I started out with.
35: Total pieces of clothing to donate/sell (32) or throw out (3).
3: Pieces in limbo. I need some time to think about these.
90: The amount of actual clothing left in my closet and dresser.

My goal was to hit 100 pieces or less, so I'm pretty pleased with myself. I managed to reduce the size of my wardrobe by more than 25%!

~75% of my clothing.

Oddly enough, my side of the closet still looks awfully full, albeit considerably less squished. The biggest difference, which isn't very apparent in this photo, is the big empty space in the bottom left side of the closet. As of right now I only plan to replace 2 pairs of tights and a couple of button-down shirts (I only have 3 left!) for the fall/winter. Apart from that, I will only buy something new if I was already planning to get rid of something I have.

I learned a couple of important things tonight.

I am awfully lucky. I may not be able to afford every single piece of clothing my heart desires, but I'm not exactly experienceing a clothing deficit.
I've had a lot of the clothing in my closet for quite awhile. And I still like nearly all of it. I've come a long way from picking stuff that either falls apart or I dislike after one season.
In spite of #2, there was still an awful lot of stuff in my closet that had no business being there.
I can no longer fit into a juniors size 3.
I'm ok with #4. :-)

Update: I just realized I had a couple of items in the hamper when I did this. Add 3 camis and 2 short-sleeved tops (all of which I love and intend to keep) to the final count. ;-)

Lost in a Good Book

2010-08-30T12:53:00.004-04:00

I have not been reading nearly enough lately.

Because of my ridiculously busy summer, it took me nearly 2 months to finish The Dew Breaker, by Edwidge Danticat.

I picked this book because I read The Farming of Bones by the same author for a class in college and really enjoyed it. I think I'd have enjoyed this one a bit more if I'd been able to sit down and read it for more than 20 minutes at a time. The narrator keeps changing, and it's really hard to keep track of who's speaking it's been a week since I last picked up the book. But even in spite of that fact, I found the ending of the book completely heartwrenching. I finished it while I was in a bowling alley bar waiting for a comedy open mic to start, and I nearly started crying.
Now I'm re-reading Ragtime.

It's one of my favorite E. L. Doctorow books, as well as one of my favorite Broadway musicals. I was listening to the original cast recording last week, and suddenly found myself overwhelmed with the desire to read the book again. I actually own two copies of it: a signed 1st edition, given to me as a wedding gift by my WONDERFUL bridesmaids nearly 4 1/2 years ago, and a regular hardcover edition for actually reading. I'm going to have off from work this Wednesday through Monday, so I plan on using part of that time to allow myself to get thoroughly lost in this book.

Have you read any good books lately??

P.S. This past weekend I got those jewelry supplies I was talking about in my last post, I'll be working on a piece for my autumn giveaway this week! :-)

Weekend Off

2010-08-24T18:29:00.008-04:00

I didn't really do much work related to any of my three jobs this past weekend. My extra hours at the library are done for the summer, and pretty soon I'll be focusing on doing fall craft shows, so having a little break was nice.

I had a bridal shower to go to Saturday afternoon, where I was promptly recruited to make the bow hat. I ran out of room on the plate for all the bows, so I also made a bow bouquet. Unfortunately, no pictures have materialized on Facebook yet, but apparently my handiwork wowed the other guests. ;-)

I spent that evening in New York watching my husband do stand-up at Comix. We drove in with Pat, who also had a show that night, at the Broadway Comedy Club. Two of my college roommates came out to see Glen, and we all got together after the show.

Faye, Jency and I pose with Pat

Toasting to a successful night of comedy

Sunday was rainy and gross and I had an awful sinus headache, but I played a concert at a retirement home with the community band because I am just that dedicated. ;-) We played some Sousa, some Sinatra, and medleys of songs by Duke Ellington and Leroy Anderson. I've had "The Syncopated Clock" stuck in my head for the last two days. :-P

But apart from the concert, I mostly just lounged around the house on Sunday with Glen and Elvis. Here they are hanging out on the futon in my office:

The full picture is funnier, but for propriety's sake I had to crop it, largely because Elvis likes to splay his legs out and it was kind of indecent.

By the way, I just ordered some more supplies, some of which will be perfect for autumn-themed necklaces. Keep your eyes peeled for new items in the shop (and a giveaway here!) next month!

P.S. Melissa of Oh, My Darling just opened a vintage clothing shop on Etsy. Stop by her blog to get a discount code for 10% off! :-)