Dreaming of the Front Page

Seems it is rare that I make the coveted front page of etsy but when I do it's almost always in the dead of night. I wake to a rush of traffic having sped thorugh my shop and eventually find myself somewhere on Flickr. Thanks to the lovely Miss Erika Price, I have a copy for myself.

Unsaved

Now, I don;t blog as often as I should and I am not computer savvy. The again, I'm not a computer idiot either. Yet, I am often the victim, especially lately, of the not saved.
GGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Pretty much sums it up. I love the autosave featue here at blogger. it helps me often. Imagine my excitement the first time I found it (and the post I thought was gone forever). Now, it hasn't always saved me but it is definitely batting like an all star.
Having stated my mediocre at best computer skills above, I don't know that a full blown explanation into my week with Photoshop is really necessary. Of course, a power outage most conveniently timed to coincide with the Inauguration didn't help either.
My last post was another victim of the not saved. Now, I knew I was on a roll and the words were flowing faster than my fingers could say them. I had one eye on the autosave throughout. Imagine my surprise at the autosave failed icon and warning triangle. One eye on dinner, one on the autosave and one on my fingers was just one more eye than I have. End result, boiled away water for the rice, a lost post and another big
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and a mediocre post in it's place.

What Cool Stuff!

Literally! Fresh peaches has a blog titled suchcoolstuff and thusly so. Tidbits of information, coupon announcements, links to great places and featured artists of all kinds. Even non-bloggers will find her posts interesting, helpful and insightful.

Back on the 15th, I was notified that my dear friend Karma had mentioned my shop amongst some of her favorites on etsy. I was flattered, to say the least. It seems that interview will be featured on the 26th, so stay tuned. Reading anything Karma has to say is guaranteed to be entertaining and/or controversial. She can't help it, it's who she is and exactly why I love her so.

So back to the topic at hand. Full of excitement, I was quick to express my gratitude to peaches. Next thing you know, I'm completing a survey myself and was notified just today that it will be featured on February 2nd. How gracious. Be sure to check it out. Who knows, you may find yourself mentioned. At the very least, you're sure to find some great stories. After all, it's such cool stuff!

Snow, Snow, Snow!

Blech! Enough already. Today, January 11th, Chicago will surpass it's average snowfall for the winter. 39 inches. It's not even mid January yet. We have been known to get snow as late as Mother's Day (on rare ocassion, but it has happened). A foot yesterday and more on the way tomorrow and several days this week.

After clearly marking our territory, Chicago style
(see the chair that says, don't even think about parking here. I earned this spot!)

I was relishing the excuse to stay indoors and make jewelry. Of course there's always bitchwork to be done, but I can multitask. I'm a mom, I am wired for multitasking. We could eat out of the freezer (a good hot bowl of homemade Chili) and we had some wine. No vodka, but some good red wine.

It worked. I made some cool, new favorites.




Ran a sale that wasn't as productive but that's okay. We still have plenty of time to shop and ship for Valentine's.


Now, if I could just get the kids to stop bickering. Why are they not out snowboarding, sledding and snowball fighting? UGH! Kids today!

The Follow Up that wasn't

At the end of my last post (if you canremember that far back) I mentioned a host of future posts. My head was spinning with ideas and not enough time for my fingers to express them all. Good thing this is a written and not oral venue or my fingers expressions could take a whole new meaning, eh?


The snow is piled high and I have no (urgent) need to leave the house today. I perused that list of ideas and though it brought a smile, no real story began to flow. Time must have rested my creative juices on those. I did crack a little gigggle at the Grandma kicks butt story though. How can you not love an 82 year old family matriarch that responds to questions with a sarcastic wit you thought had been stolen by her years and struggles. Ordinary conversastion can be difficult at best thanks to the devil that took her word retrieval, but ask her to comment on Christmas dinner or her desire for a cocktail and you might want to put on some body armour. I can only imagine the zingers that would have flown if we had had that bottle of bitters needed to make her a Manhattan.
She is one fantastic lady. The mark she has left on my life is deep and passionate. How lucky I am to have her. If I ever figure out how to extract some photos from the slideshow dvd of her 90th, I wills hare them here. It is chocked full of great ones.
So, I must move on with my day. The usual litany of bitchwork that with any glimmer of hope will be peppered with some jewelry creating. We will live with what we have in house becasue I am just not trekking to the grocery in this weather. Sledding hill maybe, grocery on a Saturday in a snowstorm, I think not. If push comes to shove maybe those meanagers of mine will hike to the Polish store for milk or bread.
If you too are looking for a diversion, you can always stop by etsy for the SNSs sale tonight too. I will have a few secrets to give away for the cost of shipping only as well as a great discount on my entire shop. There will be a multitude of other shops doing the same, so stop on bye and say hi! Mention you read about it here and get free shipping on your order.

Lucky Me!!!!!!!

I rarely, if ever win anything but today I am the lucky winner of these.
Now, I have stated the unnecessarriness of sending me this prize. I was just adding in my two cents as I always do. Sharing a thought and revelling in the creative juices of fellow etsians. Fuzzishu needed a little help with a mental block and everyone jumped in to help.
Her jewelry is amazing and she couldn't be nicer. Her shop has such variety and clever designs. I have to admit, I had a hard time deciding on my prize ( I got to choose!).
I encourage you all to take a minute and peruse her lovely shop and if you happen to see me running around town in these

you know where i got them.

Thanks Fuzz! Good luck with the new line!