Chicken Scratch

A couple of months ago, I was using Pounce to find a new etsian that hadn't had a sale yet. I was lucky enough to come across Chicken Scratch. This lovely shop makes massage candles.

What's a massage candle you ask?

Well, I'll tell you. It's a soy candle, once you light it and let it burn for about a half hour, you can then pour the melted oil out into your hand and use it as a massage oil. It's a wonderful massage oil, very hydrating. And I was lucky enough to be her first sale on Etsy!

Definitely check out these candles!

Bah Humbug to you as well

Yesterday, I came across a blog post via Twitter that really made my blood boil. I immediately starting composing this post in my mind, planning on linking back to the post of evil. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that by linking back to it, I would really just be driving more traffic to the blogger.

So, I'm not going to link to it but I am going to talk about it.

Essentially, the blogger doesn't want her child to believe in Santa Claus. So, she told her daughter the "truth" about Santa when she was 2. This is not the problem that I had with the post. It's her prerogative if she doesn't want her child to believe. She's free to raise her child however she wants.

My problem came with this: the blogger says that her daughter knowing the "truth" wasn't a problem until the child got to kindergarten and spilled the beans to her classmates. The blogger says that some of the kids in class cried when they were informed of the "truth" (quotes are mine) by her daughter. Then the blogger went on to say that she wasn't upset that her kid had ruined it for the other children. In fact, she was proud and even a little boastful. The way she wrote it, she was happy that her daughter had been able to ruin Santa for so many other kids.

Really? You're proud that you made 5 year old cry?

Because that's what she did. Her daughter didn't do anything wrong. Kids talk and they don't really know what the consequences of their talk will be. But her mother did know the consequences and she shouldn't be proud of them.

She doesn't want her child to believe in Santa. Fine. But I do want my kids to believe. I want them to believe as long as possible.

And she does not have any right to take that belief away from my children. She should have been a responsible parent and explained to her child that while they don't believe in Santa, other families do and that she shouldn't tell the other kids in her class that he wasn't "real". That it would hurt the other kids and would make them sad. In other words, she should have taught her daughter to be compassionate.

The blogger mentioned people being scarred by their parents "lying" to them about Santa. What? I was never scarred. In fact, the year I found out, I was so excited to help keep the tradition alive for my little brother. I'm betting that that is the case for most people. I don't think I've ever met anyone walking around with psychological scars because their parents let them believe in Santa.

I was worried about this since my daughter starting kindergarten this year. But it's proved to be an unfounded fear. No one in her class has ruined it for her and this is, by far, the year she has been most excited about her upcoming visit from the man in red.

Kids are kids for such a short time. How can an adult take pleasure in making that time even shorter? Grow up.

So, to that blogger I have this to say:

Remember, even the Grinch and Scrooge had a change of heart.

My new love

I'd like to introduce you to my new obsession...I mean, love. Pink Bow Bath Boutique. Oh my. Can I just say, yum!?! I bought 4 items from Amy (the brains and hands behind Pink Bow) and they arrived the other day. Happy happy joy joy.

I want to eat them. But, I'll refrain. Or at least try.

First up,
Banana Buttercream Parfait Whipped Body Frosting.

Yes, it's that good. It's rich and thick. It smells like fresh banana pudding. If it wasn't for the fact that it didn't make me sticky, I would think that it was banana pudding. Seriously, I want to grab a box of Nilla wafers and dig in. I used it on my feet and hands before going to bed and woke up with a perfect manicure. Ok, not really but wouldn't that be cool? If anything could do it, it would be this body frosting.

I also bought
Banana Buttercream Parfait Whipped Cream Soap

I've bought whipped soap from a couple of sellers. One was great, the other was so-so. This one falls firmly in the great camp. It's smooth and creamy and makes fantastic bubbles. Again, it smells like banana pudding. Mmmmmm, pudding...........What? Oh, where was I? Oh yeah, so this, of course, goes great with the body frosting above. Yes, I like bananas. Wanna make something of it?

Next is

Pineapple Buttercream Cupcake Sugary Body Polish

This is a fantastic sugar scrub. It's not at all greasy. In fact, it's very smooth and almost moldable like playdough. Nice and thick, you can tell that there's no skimping on the sugar in this one. And it smells like cake! Can it get any better you ask? Why yes, it can. It also rinses off really easily. This is especially important when you are showering with a 1 year old who suddenly decides that he doesn't really want to get wet and then clings to your leg the whole time you are trying to rinse off. And you thought showering with another person was romantic.

My final purchase was
Lemon Marshmallow Cream Beautiful Body Butter

Like I said in my feedback, it's like a lemon and a marshmallow got married and had babies. The lemon is slightly more dominate (must be the female of the relationship). This body butter is fluffy and creamy. It absorbs really well and doesn't leave a greasy feel. It smells fantastic and I'm oh so tempted to put it on some toast. But, I won't. Because, well because it's body butter, not butter butter.

Hmmm, if I used everything I bought all at once, I'd smell like a tropical fruit salad.

Amy also included 3 very nice samples in my box. I love little samples. They make me happy. I'm pretty sure, in this case, that they are just Amy's way of making sure the addiction is complete. She wants to make sure I come back for more....and I will. Afterall, I must support my habit.

So, go on, treat yourself. Go, now. Have you gone yet?

Oh thank goodness, I thought they'd never leave.

CPSC regulations

While this legislation doesn't affect my products, it does affect a lot of other Etsians so I thought I'd mention it.

There is a law due to take effect on Feb 10, 2009 that requires anyone who produces children's products meant for 12 and under to test their products for lead. Sounds good, right? No one wants lead in things their kids are using. However, the way the law is written it blindly requires testing from everyone, no matter what they make. This means everyone who makes kids clothing or diapers or burp cloths. Most fabrics contain no lead whatsoever, yet it will still need to be tested. Not just the garment (diaper, burp cloth, etc) but each component will have to be tested separately. Meaning the zipper and the buttons and the lace and the fabric. Each test will have to be performed by a 3rd party lab at the cost up to $180 per item, per test.

This legislation will put a lot of small, homegrown businesses out of business. It needs to be rewritten. If this legislation will affect you, I urge you to write to your congressman and senators.

Here is a petition that you can sign: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/economicimpactsofCPSIA/index.html

And here's a forum thread on Etsy that is about this issue
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5935591&page=1

It just doesn't feel like Christmas

Until I hear this song several times




Warning: not for those of you who are scared of womens underware

Twilight

Saw the movie tonight. It was so good! I want to re-read the books again now. I thought they did a really good job in sticking with the story. Yes, there were things missing and yes, there were some changes. There pretty much have to be when condensing a large book down to an hour and a half movie. I was quite pleased with both Kristin and Robert, I thought they did excellent jobs with the roles of Bella and Edward. They certainly got the awkward teenage gee I think I like you down pat.

The only thing I wasn't too keen on was the actress who played Rosalie. She just didn't do it for me but I couldn't really tell you why.

Full holiday mode

I can't believe that tomorrow is the first of December! Where has the year gone!?! I've been busy lately so the blog has been ignored. Had a nice Thanksgiving with my family. One turkey down, at least 3 more to go. Luckily, I only cook 2 of them!

I was featured in this beautiful treasury for my East County team. We are a festive bunch! Lots of new Christmas cards in the shop, I'll post pictures later.

Thankful

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Where did this year go? It seems like each year goes faster and faster. I blinked and my daughter is 5 and in school. My baby boy is fast approaching 2. It's a hard job, being a parent. It's more work than you would ever expect. But it's so worth it. When they run up to you and throw their whole body at you to give you a hug. Or they give you an unexpected 'I love you'. Yes, it's hard work but it's work I'm so very thankful for. What are you thankful for?

A little late

I meant to post pictures of our Halloween decor last month but never got around to taking the pictures until right before we took everything down. This was the first year we did the graveyard and I was so pleased with the way it turned out.

Complete with dead flowers, rats, spiders and lots of bones!

thatissocute

How adorable are these birdhouses? These sweet little ornaments are from the Etsy shop thatissocute. I think the name of the shop says it all

Click on any of the pics to be taken to the listings

Little Black Box

Yay, my shop is listed as one of the promos in the November LBB! I had a bit of a fright earlier this week when I contacted Kim and she didn't think she had my samples. She found them though and then put up with my wondering when they were going to be on the site. And now they finally are!

I wasn't able to send in a huge number of samples, hopefully those people who do get them in their box like them!

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I received my October Little Black Box today and was so happy to find a soy melt from Moodwax was one of the samples. I can't wait to use it, it smells fantastic. Check out the scent options you can choose from, my goodness, what a list!

Lemon Pound Cake votives---Need I say more?

Citrus Fusion Soy Blend votives--Yum

Click on any of the pictures to be taken directly to the listing.

One Word

One Word

Fun game from Smilemonsters

The rules are that you can only answer each question with one word - not a simple as it sounds.Here we go.......


1. Where is your cell phone? Purse
2. Your significant other? Work
3. Your hair? Down
4. Your mother? Scotland
5. Your father? Work
6. Your favorite thing? Books
7. Your dream last night? Nope
8. Your favorite drink? Coke
9. Your dream/goal? Happiness
10. The room you're in? Cubical
11. Your fear? Clowns
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. What you're not? Confrontational
15. Muffins? Yes
16. One of your wish list items? Wallet
17. Where did you grow up? City
18. The last thing you did? Read
19. What are you wearing? Jeans
20. Your TV? Off
21. Your pet? Orange
22. Your computer? Rocks
23. Your life? Good
24. Your mood? Melancholy
25. Missing someone? Yes
26. Your car? Dirty
27. Something you're not wearing? Makeup
28. Favorite Store? Craft
29. Your summer ? Hades
30. Your favorite color? Purple
31. When is the last time you laughed? Today
32. Last time you cried? Today
33. Who will/would re-post this? Mystery

34. FOUR PLACES I GO OVER AND OVER
a. Work
b. Vons
c. WalMart
d. Costco

35. FOUR PEOPLE WHO E-MAIL ME:
a. Mom
b. Carol
c. Deanna
d. Sandy

36. FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS:
a. Mexican
b. Pasta
c. Brownies
d. Junk

37. FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW?
a. Home
b. Italy
c. Camping
d. Hawaii

So here's the tag part....if you feel inclined to post this little game on your blog please leave me the link to your blog in a comment so that I can get to know you too!

So pretty

Such pretty little pendants from MaJentaDesigns. I love the pattern and color choices.

Oh how I wish I knew how to knit

jilldrapermakesstuff

Shops like this make me wish I knew how to knit. Such pretty colors, I'd love to have some, just to have it. She who dies with the most stuff wins, right?


jilldrapermakesstuff is participating in the Blog A Day Giveway. You can click on the pics to be taken directly to the listing.

My first trade

I just completed my first trade and I must say, it was a great experience! I am now the proud owner of this stunning ornament from starless


Beautiful, right? I can't even begin to imagine the hours that go into creating something like this. It looks like the earth to me, I just love it. Starless got my quilted Christmas cards and a birthday card in the trade. I think I'm quite lucky that my very first Etsy trade worked out so nicely!

Here are a few other pretties from starless. Definitely check out her shop, you will not be disappointed!

Happy November!

I logged into a nice surprise this morning. I've been featured in a really cool retro treasury.

That's my Retro Congrats card there at the top.

Tallib is the curator of this beautiful treasury and she even featured it on her blog.

What a great lift, especially since I'm fighting off a stupid cold and I'm not feeling well.

Etsy fabulous find

I was lucky recently to have some money in my paypal account so, of course, I decided to spend it on etsy. Oh, but what to buy....I searched through all my favorites (all 19 pages of them!) and just couldn't make up my mind. There are so many things I want to buy, I was almost paralyzed with indecision.

I even started a forum thread about it, wondering how other people decide what to buy when there are so many choices available. A very wise etsian said that she would buy something with a higher price point (like the bag I've been coveting) because you can usually find the money to buy something smaller but it's not often that you have the money for the bigger ticket item. I decided she was right and went for the bag.

And I'm so glad I did! It's gorgeous and I'm completely in love!

This bag is from a relatively new etsy shop, HautTotes.

She has some amazing items! I had a hard time deciding which one I really wanted. I kept coming back to the ladies above and they finally won out. The bag is beautiful, huge and so well made. I can't wait to start using it for my lunch and my book everyday at work. I just know I'm going to get a lot of compliments on it!

Here are a few other bags in this wonderful etsy shop

7 things about me

Well, I’ve been tagged. Anna over at HalfanAcre put her paint covered hands on my blog and tagged me. So, now I’m supposed to share 7 facts about me. I suppose they have to be true…..although, it would be fun to claim that I once toured with New Kids On The Block, alas, it wouldn’t be true. So, here goes:


7 facts about me

* I absolutely ADORE giant animals gone amok movies. The campy-er the better. I love watching giant snakes, alligators, spiders terrorize people. They make me laugh. I love the serious ones, like Jaws but the really campy ones are the best. One of my all time favorites is Lake Placid. If you’ve never seen it, rent it!

* I hate getting stuck behind semi trucks with open beds, hauling pipes or steel rods or bricks. Basically, anything that you would need to haul on an open bed. It freaks me out because I always, morbidly, picture the chains holding the things in place breaking and the pipes/rods/bricks come hurtling at me. Now, I have never seen this happen. I’ve never even heard of this happening. But, in my mind, it happens a lot. I have to move out from behind them as soon as I can.

* I failed my driver’s test the first time I took it as a teenager and didn’t try again until I was 20. I passed (just in case you were wondering)

* I am scared of frogs and clowns. I don’t know why, it’s not a rational fear. No tragic frog incidents in my past. No scaring clown incidents either. And definitely nothing with froggy clowns. I guess a lot of people have the clown thing so it’s not that unusual. But the frog thing, yeah, I don’t know.

* I am a voracious reader. I probably have well over 1000 books. Most of them are packed away in tubs, in storage. That makes me sad. I would love to have a giant library some day. Like the one in Beauty and the Beast. That would make me so happy. I’m always reading but only one book at a time. I need to be able to give the book my full attention and I can’t do that if I’m trying to read more than one at a time. I’m a fast reader but can’t spend a lot of time reading at home because of the kids. Every job I’ve had as an adult has been working with books.

* I am addicted to TV. There, I said it. I have shows on pretty much every night of the week except for Friday and Saturday, those are the nights I work in the craft room because I can stay up later than on school nights. Every other night, I’m watching TV. I usually do something else while watching, reading a magazine, or working on a sudoku puzzle. I also cross stitch while watching and lately, I’ve been trying out needle felting. My DVR is usually full because there is invariably more than one program that I watch on at one time. I love my DVR, it’s one of the best things ever invented. My favorite TV show of all time is MASH.

* I am a San Diego native. I know, we’re rare. I left to go to college and ended up in Evansville, Indiana. I wanted seasons. I was tired of sunshine all the time. I got seasons, lovely Falls and snow in winter. It was fabulous. After graduation though, I came back home. Lucky I did to, since this is where my husband was living! Of course, I didn’t know it at the time : )



So, there you go. Seven facts about me, all of them true. I’m supposed to tag 7 other blogs but to be honest, I don’t think I read 7 other blogs and one of the ones I do read has already been tagged. Let me see which ones I can come up with……

Dog.Yarn.Knit.
Keeping Up With the Joneses
Liz Edgar
Twenty Pound Tabby

I guess that’s it. Oh well, that’s ok. This has been fun….kind of : )

Promos!

It's been promo madness around here lately. I'm getting ready to send out a whole bunch of promos in the next few weeks, trying to get more people into the shop.

I'm sending out these tags


to 4 different etsians to put into promo bags that they will give out at the craft fairs/shows they are doing this season. I cut the tags out using my Craft Robo. Man, I love that machine! Luckily, the tags are good TV watching work so I've been able to kill 2 birds with one stone. Getting promos done and clearing off some of the shows on my DVR!

The big promo are these little cuties

34 little bags with 2 of my mini thank you cards plus envelopes! I've been working on them for a couple of months now. It takes a lot of time to make 68 little cards! I would have loved to have done more but I just don't have the time. I've bagged each set in cute star cellophane bags, tied them off with one of my tags and a little bit of pretty fiber. And, of course, a business card in each one! Each card is stamped on the back with the shop info too so this promo has the potential to reach a lot of people.

These samples are going to be part of the Little Black Box for November! I'm really excited to be part of the LBB. I ordered one for myself this last month and it was so much fun looking through all the samples. I ended up with some really cute magnets, a great bath bomb and some other soap-y goodness. Lots of earrings too! If you've never gotten the LBB before or don't know what it is, I highly recommend checing out the website. But wait to order one until November and you may get some of my cards!

Front Page!!

Etsy Front Page 10/15/08 LBaccessories
Originally uploaded by Etsy Front Pagers

Wow, I made the front page of Etsy! I'm over the moon about it, even though I missed seeing it.

I noticed an increase in views and did a little investigative work. I never thought I would make the FP!

That's my Thoughts of You Retro card in the 3rd row