When Good Costumes Go Bad

What happens when you wear 3 different Halloween costumes all at the same time, add a mullet wig, a toy saw & drill, and alot of attitude? If you're me, you get a free hour to cook dinner in peace.

Who's Your Daddy?

They say a good man is hard to find. Not so, I say. I found one 12 years ago, and according to Casey, "He's the best!". I know this is a day late, but I hope all the dads out there had a great Father's Day yesterday. Keep up the good work, gentlemen.

Butterflies are Free

Actually, they cost $5 for shipping and handling. But now our butterflies are free in the "Great God Almighty, free at last!" way. Casey received a butterfly habitat from his Nana for Christmas last year, and I promised him when the weather was good enough we would order the butterflies. He reminded me last month it was warm enough, so we sent off for and received our live caterpillars in the mail. We watched them turn into chrysalis', and then hatch into painted lady butterflies. We released them yesterday, and were all surprised at how fast they flew out of the tent - I was only able to catch this one little guy with my camera. We really enjoyed this project, and all the supplies came from Insect Lore. Looking around on their site it appears they have some neat stuff (except the spider kit, which I think should be outlawed. Aren't we all trying to keep spiders out of our house? Ick.), and I'm considering ordering some more.

Some random business:

*Thank you to everyone who has offered sweet comments to me about my etsy shop. It is so hard to tell if what I'm doing is any good (I like it, but that doesn't mean anyone else on the planet will!), so hearing that you like it too makes me feel good. And I lied about not being able to do yarnwork in the summer. I made a baby cardigan over the weekend that will up in the shop this week. So cute. If you are expecting a baby you should beware. 

*We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary last week, and look - Momma got new bling! I was so surprised by his beautiful and thoughtful gift that I almost fell out of my chair at the restaurant when he gave it to me. Ten diamonds (one for each year!) set in white gold. Sigh. He's a good man. I think I'll stay married to him for at least another 10. :)

Etsy Bitsy Shop

You may have noticed the little square of pictures on the left side of my blog and wondered, "What the heck is Etsy?". Etsy is a wonderful website that allows creative folks to sell their handmade items to folks who like to buy handmade items. I like to think of it as a craft fair you can browse in the middle of the night in your pajamas. I had been hovering around Etsy for awhile, just looking at all the cool stuff other people were making and selling, and then I finally decided to open my own shop. I've been reluctant to really promote my shop because I didn't have that much for sale, and also because I didn't have a whole lot of confidence in my work. A few recent sales, such as the purse in the above photo that sold in less than 24 hours, have rebuilt my lacking confidence. 

My store is still "itsy bitsy" compared to some others who have hundreds of items in their inventory, but I hope to add things as I sell them, and I'm open to making custom orders and so I try to keep myself available for that. Right now my shop mainly consists of items I have sewn, but I plan on adding some of my knit and crochet work in the future (I have trouble doing yarnwork in the warm months - it has always felt like a cold-weather activity to me). I am really enjoying designing my own items, like handbags, and then making them come to life. And its funny because I'm finding that my photography skills are heavily influencing my designing - like I see how I want the item to look in a photo and that provides the basis for the design. 

If you're looking for a unique gift for yourself or someone else, please check out Etsy. Even if you don't buy from me (Especially if you don't buy from me, because if you're reading my blog I probably know you and would feel weird selling you something instead of gifting you with it for your next birthday. But if you wanted to pass the word on to friends I don't know...) I think it's really nice to support a community like Etsy that is providing a space for people to market their talents. 

Summer Begins

It is rainy and gloomy here today, which is providing an opportunity for us to catch our breath a bit from a busy weekend. My parents came in on Friday afternoon and met us at the annual neighborhood camp-out. Scheduled on the last day of school every year, the neighborhood association sponsors the camp-out on the soccer fields in the neighborhood, and it's a big party complete with games, food from local restaurants, a DJ, fire truck tours, and a "camp-in" movie projected on a big screen after dark. Families are encouraged to pitch a tent on the field and spend the night. We had a blast, and Casey & Rob braved the night in our tent (Casey reportedly slept like a rock, snoring all night in the tent). 76 families participated this year, making it a huge success. 

We spent the rest of the weekend having a great visit with Nannie & Grandaddy. Riley showed off her newest tricks, which include bringing you a book, holding her arms up to be placed in your lap, and allowing you to read her two pages of the book before swinging her legs off your lap and taking her book to another lap. I'm not sure why she does this, but it usually takes 6 or 7 turns to get through a book, and it's pretty funny. 

The only problem with starting summer off on such a high note is it leaves me trying to live up to it for the rest of the season. I've got a long 3 months ahead of me trying to come up with fun activities to occupy our time that compare to this past weekend  - maybe I'll just put up the tent in the backyard, plug in the iPod, and let the kids paint each others' faces.