Black Friday

I will never understand Black Friday. It's the most insane day of the year. But that's just my opinion. I do everything I can to avoid going out on Black Friday, even to go to the grocery store. I guess I am in a period of my life where "stuff" just isn't that important to me. The sales are ok but the "stuff" would have to be practically free to get me in those crowds. Here in my house, I am collecting a lot of our "stuff" to give away. We are going back to bare necessities because in my house it leads to happier children and happier parents especially me who loves to declutter.

So when I read this I get equally frustrated with days like this.

Decluttering Fool

It's that time of year again where I do my pre-New Year cleaning. You see, most people do "Spring Cleaning" but I don't because if I wait for Spring to come it is already too hot to be crawling around in my attic and garage. So I do mine during the cooler South Florida months and the best time is usually around Christmas. I figure I am crawling around in the attic anyway bringing down my Christmas decorations so I kill two birds with one stone.

But the decluttering that usually occurs in every room in my house is going to be spilling over to my home computer. It is in desperate need of decluttering. I am going to tackle a variety of categories on the computer.

First mission is email. While I keep a pretty clean inbox (no larger than a half page is my motto) I tend to build notes up in folders. So the folders are going through a massive cleanout.

Second mission is the favorites. I have accumulated a lot of favorites that are no longer valid bookmarks so out they all go. After they are all gone I will then organize them into folders, nice and neat.

Third mission is photos. I have a ton of photos on my hard drive. I have two systems for this. First, I upload all of my photos to ofoto.com. I love that server because if I need to order a picture it couldn't be easier and affordable too. Because I don't like to put all of my photos in only one spot, I am also going to utilize a flash drive and use that to backup my photos. A flashdrive case holds the drive and it gets put into my safe. The photos then get deleted off my hard drive. It frees up quite a bit of disk space.

Fourth mission is other files. Again, I utilize two flash drives for this so that one can backup the other and they get put away for safe keeping. This year I am toying with online servers such as gmail where you can upload documents but I am still concerned about hacking and safety so there will be more research into this. Once everything is uploaded and backed up, it all gets deleted off my hard drive.

Fifth mission is the desktop. My desktop tends to get cluttered because when I am actively working on a file, I tend to save it to my desktop so I can get right back to it easily. Sometimes I forget to take it off the desktop so this is what I have to clean up.

Once I am finished with decluttering my PC I go through a disk cleanup which cleans out all the old programs that I never or rarely use and then go through defragmenting.

When I am finished my computer feels like it just went through a spa treatment and is happy and working efficiently once again.

Make A Rue With Me

Last year I posted this and it has to do with making a rue. I think at the time I was doing some cooking posts and thought that learning how to make a rue was one of the better pieces of knowledge I had as a cook.

What I didn't know at the time was that this post would be BY FAR my most googled and hit on post. When I look at my page summaries this one comes up over any of the others combined. And all week I have been looking at my stats and it is off the charts this week. Of course, it is Thanksgiving week and probably a lot of people are looking for gravy recipes.

So I do a little experiment and I go to google and I type in "how to make a rue" and lo and behold, my post is the first hit to come up! No wonder so many people are hitting my blog.

Now if I could only figure out a way to get my jewelry blog to come up as much. Still figuring that one out.

In the meantime if you want to know how to make a rue, just come here.

Where Did My Boy Go?

I remember the day that I gave birth to my first child as if it was yesterday...every little detail and memory of that day. At the time I swore it was the happiest day of my life and it was. I have had 3 more happiest days since then and each one not happier than the other. I knew that time would fly the minute he was born because everyone told me it would. And it has. He has gone from being the quietest baby to the noisiest teenager. As a child he was never big on demands but as a teenager that's a whole different story. Way back then he was a real guy's guy. Now he is showing an interest in girls. When he was little he would go on the computer to learn how to read. Now he goes on the computer to send off emails or research a school project. I remember how cute he was in that car seat and now I am teaching him how to drive. He used to call me "mommy" and lately he has cut that short to just "mom".

It's such a shock. Each passing day is one day closer to him turning 18 and another day closer to college and I am about 99% certain that college will be a pretty long distance from home. There are days when I wonder if I am doing the best job I can do. I am sure I fail at times but then there are times when he does or says something and I know I am doing something good and right. A big part of me wants him to be independent and able to cope in life and another part of me wants to just hug him closer and stop time. I knew this would happen and I knew I would always feel this way wanting to make time stop and keep him small and young and always looking for more kisses from me.

I got a newsletter from his high school regarding graduation photos for the seniors. He is not there yet...just a sophomore. But when I saw the letter I fast-forwarded to 2 years from now where it will be ME who will be doing the graduation photos. It will be ME who will buy graduation announcements. It will be ME to help mail off those college applications. It will be ME who will have to figure out how I am going to get through his 18th birthday.

I am not sure how I will prepare for this but there is one thing I have learned and that is that no matter how hard I pray, time just isn't going to stop for me.

Jewelry Update

I ran across a snag in my latest necklace creation but I should have it fixed and into my etsy store by end of weekend. Check here to view the story.

Also, I will be doing all of my jewelry blogging here from now on so please please add me to your reader and join the fun. I could use the support and feedback. There will be lots of information there on new items in the store, craft fairs, and other fun and games.

See you there!

New Etsy Store - so exciting

So excited about my new etsy store. I just started uploading items to the store and it does take a bit of work to get it all there and accurate. Right now I have 4 bracelets uploaded with many more to come tonight. Check back for more news.

The Disney necklaces are coming very very soon...in the next 24 hours! So excited. All the girls at my daughter's school are fighting over them!

Oh So Cute Jewelry

Reason For H.O.P.E.

I was in church this morning and usually right before the holiday season kicks off we have a guest speaker who comes in to talk about an outreach center called H.O.P.E. that was first started by the pastor of our church that helps needy people in our community. The church collects food for the food bank regularly and I give regularly to the bank.

But today I felt the need to do more. So the guest speaker came up and talked about the Adopt-A-Family program that was kicking off just in time for the holidays. If you adopt a H.O.P.E. family you will do whatever you can to help make the holiday nice for that family. I decided that we were going to sign up. You do not know the family that you are choosing. All you know is how many children and adults are in that family. We got a family with one child and two adults.

When you open the envelope there is a piece of paper in there that describes the ages of the children, sex, and first name(s) along with anything that the family might be requesting. It turns out that the child in the family that we adopted is 2 months old and is a boy. The family says that it needs "anything."

When I saw that I was deeply touched in many ways. It touched me because I have 4 children of my own and I realize how blessed they are to have the comforts of life that they do have. Secondly it touched me because the parents didn't seem too demanding of any one thing in particular. Perhaps because they are so needy that they asked for anything that we could give. And last, it touched me because I never imagined that the luck of the draw would give me an infant that we could help. There is something really powerful about that thought given we are approaching the Christmas season.

My mind went into high gear as our family talked about what to do for this family. First thing is that we should get some baby essentials like basic clothing. We will also buy a few cases of diapers and wipes. For the family we are going to give them a Publix gift certificate for food. After we do all that we will start thinking about toys and books. I am looking forward to this week to start shopping and planning for this family. If all goes well and we have some money left over we may go back and adopt another family. After all, it's the season of giving thanks.

New Jewelry Sample Designs

I was toying today with some new jewelry designs. A good friend of mine gave me some really good business advice. I have been really struggling with developing a target jewelry market. But as I was telling him how my idea of a jewelry making business came about he saw how enthused I was in describing all of the jewelry I was making for my young daughter. I also told him I was inspired after last Christmas when I was shopping for my young nieces and could find nothing in the jewelry section that was age appropriate that didn't look cheap and didn't look hoochie-mama. Enter my young daughter. She is also coming to an age where she loves little girl jewelry and I cannot find anything that is unique enough to her personality. So I set my sights on learning how to make it my own and it has kind of taken on a life of its own.

So I told my friend how much I love to make jewelry for myself. He then noticed I was not sticking to a target audience...young girls....go further though and say young girls age 4-9. Make a line. Get a website. Give the jewelry away. Do shows. Create a buzz. So I am excited. Before anything I need to work on that line and I spent much of last week shopping for beads, supplies and things I think would be unique to my business.

I created some jewelry samples this weekend much to the liking of my daughter because she gets all the leftovers. That's double good for me because she will wear the stuff to school and one day I hope to keep creating a buzz. For now I am going to share a few of the samples with you. But remember that I am playing with beads and stringing materials. These are not finished products and things I will be selling because there is a bit more fine tuning I want to do to the product to make it look more finished. But you get a peek at my progress. Also I am posting this same post at my jewelry blog. I would sure love it if you would bookmark me and check my progress there too.













Here I am tinkering with memory wire. This stuff is great for kids for many reasons. First, you are not bothered by a clasp so the child can take it on or off at will. It doesn't fall off either because the memory wire conforms to the area and overlaps around the back. There is no sizing involved because, again, the wire conforms to the neck area. It cannot choke because it is open at the back. The only drawback to the memory wire is that you can only make short choker style necklaces with them so I will have to create other alternatives to this style.



Here I am playing with my multi-colored Hello Kitty beads. This is a stretchy cord bracelet for a little girl. I love all of the colors. Who knew that Hello Kitty can be found in all different colors.




More pink Hello Kitty beads on a memory wire choker. This is also so cute. Too bad the photo isn't so great because I was running out of natural sunlight. Will try again tomorrow.

Volunteer Hours

A few weeks ago when my teenager came home from his first night of CCD to kick off his last year he gave me a bunch of papers that describe what he is going to learn that will help him prepare for his upcoming Confirmation in March. I have been through this before with my oldest one. Part of the preparation is the requirement to do some volunteering at home, school and church. We talked about what he could do for the hours and some of his teachers recommendations. He tell me "my teacher says that every 5 hours of helping around the house gets 1 hour of volunteer time." I think that's all well and good and will get him to his requirement but is that REALLY volunteering? Is it really helping someone else out (other than me who gets the added benefit of extra help around the house)? While I could really use the help, I am not in desperate need of it and will he really learn something from that to prepare him for adulthood?

I ponder this thought and then listen to this where he speaks of something greater.."It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice. So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other."

Surely we can find more meaningful work for a 14 year old to do within the community. So I start digging on the computer and find a volunteer organization within the county that we live. They organize all sorts of smaller groups and volunteers and match people up with their skills and the communities needs. Perfect. I join and next week myself along with my two boys are going to an orientation class where we will be able to pick from all kinds of organizations to help our community.

We are going to start off at my older one's Catholic school where volunteer students gather once a month in the cafeteria to feed the homeless and then take ourselves to other shelters where they will need us to help. We will sign ourselves up for Special Olympics duties. My boys are so fortunate to be able to play any sport they want without having to suffer a handicap. Wouldn't it be so wonderful for them to be able to give of themselves in this capacity to someone who does suffer? We have already started to make rosaries for troops and pitching in every week for our church's food bank. But it's all new to us and I suspect that for every thing that we do together we not only get to that service hour requirement but hopefully touch lives and enrich our own.

To All People

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and always will be, the United States of America."

It's not the speech but the way the words inspire that makes it great.

More Jewelry In The Store

I am so excited to show some of my latest creations that are up and available in my store.

For Halloween I made a few different earrings.





A new ID lanyard. The green beads are so feminine.



Awareness jewelry is so beautiful and for a great cause. Donations to the awareness fund are made every time I purchase these beads.

Below are two different bracelets...



This one below is my absolute favorite.



and an awareness ID lanyard....I love this!



What do you think? I have so many new ideas for Christmas and projects on my table including more awareness jewelry, earrings, and pins.

Time To Brag

Thank goodness that my princess isn't like me at all when it comes to an artistic side. Up until recently I never had an artistic side and I always felt that this has limited me in certain aspects of life. But not my little girl. She LOVES to do anything with art whether it is coloring, pasting, watercolors, computer drawing and any variation of the above. She has now started to create books including her best attempts to write in sentences and spell words. She does her own illustrations. The only thing I help her with is binding the book together. Her recent creation was a book she wrote for her dad. In the book she writes the sentence "I will never give up on you." Where she got that saying I don't know. Maybe I have said it to her before and she has never forgotten it. Either way I believe she has a gift.

So this morning she was tucked in her room at her desk. She was pretty quiet and I decided to peek in on her to see what she was up to. She was cutting and pasting and coloring. There was a pretty big mess of paper scraps on the floor. I let her finish and when she came out of her room, she shared this with me. It's a creation she made for our entire family. The saying at the top of the paper is from a plaque she has hanging above her bed that says "I love God and God loves me. God bless my family and God bless me."

No Dining Out Allowed

My month long moratorium on dining out has proven to be quite successful in this first month that it has been implemented. I made the decision that in order to quickly pay off our vacation credit card charges I would have to implement a few spending moratoriums. The first one is on dining out. So this past month we have not dined out once and I was pleasantly surprised when the VISA bill came in to see how little we spent based on months past and how much more I could pay off because of this. I am feeling very optimistic that we will be debt free going into this holiday season.

But the moratorium took some really extensive planning on my part. It is quite difficult at time with my hectic schedule to continue to ensure that all dinners are made at home and in a timely manner. But I am an engineer by trade and a career analyst and process supervisor in my job. Certainly I can create a "meals at home" process from all that training at work.

I sat in front of my computer and created a calendar for each month. In that calendar for each day I chose the meal that I was going to prepare also based on the schedule of activities. So for days where we have baseball or dance planned the meal will be a fairly easy one such as spaghetti, salad and rolls. Sundays are reserved for the nicer, bigger meals like lagasna or turkey and trimmings. I also managed to incorporate some of my kids favorites. How I accomplished this was I took a survey with all of my kids and asked them to tell me their top 5-6 meals they really like for me to cook. I simply filled in the calendar days with some of the favorite meals.

I am still playing this game and loving it so after I pull up my shopping lists, I grab my weekly calendar with meals filled in and go about writing up a shopping list of what I need for my meal plan.

I build in one easy day a week for those inevitable times when we literally are running in and out. On those days we have frozen pizza and salad and everyone is happy including mom.

I had my doubts at first because it does take a bit of planning ahead and sticking to the plan but so far it's working out nicely.

Thrift Shops

I just read this story online regarding a rise in sales at Goodwill and thrift stores around the country and I have to chuckle to myself because the phenomenon is nothing new to me.

I have been a regular at these types of stores since I was a poor college student living on grants and student loans. Every dollar counted. I relished at finding awesome sales and cheap deals. And now that I have a decent job and salary to accompany it, I can certainly afford to buy an occasional item in a retail store. But I have been programmed to look first at the cheaper thrift stores. And if you find a high quality thrift or consignment store in your area, you have won the jackpot. I have found both and I frequent them a lot.

Case in point is a kids consignment store near my house that I have been going to for 15 years. They are so extremely picky about what they accept so I know that when I buy something there it will be odor-free, dirt-free, and spot-free. I have actually purchased stuff there with the original price tag on. But the other day I was there looking for discounted school uniforms when I stumbled upon Halloween costumes. I found a perfect $6 Thomas the Tank Engine costume for my little man. I snagged it and brought it home and he loves it. The exact same costume is going for $22 at the Party City down the street. I don't know who was more excited - me or him. Oh and while I was there I bought a couple of cute pajama sets for him at $4 each versus $10 at Target. Clean, spot free, and dirt free.

I don't stop at kids stores. I frequent the adult consignment stores for myself. I have found really amazing designer shoes and purses and jewelry and sunglasses along with clothes too. The key is to find a shop that has the quality and kind of merchandise that you like.

I know a lot of people have a problem with wearing previously worn clothes but when I buy my second hand clothes I wash them thoroughly and in some instances I will send them off to dryclean if the clothes are for me. If shoes or purses look a bit dirty I will go to my local shoe repair store to clean them up for like $5-$10.

There are certain things I don't buy used like underwear or bathing suits. But everything else is fair game.

One of the other reasons I love these shops so much is because all of the items are sorted by sizes and then by colors and since I have very limited time to shop I can go directly to the spot I want and look as opposed to department stores which have racks of clothes scattered over a large area and some sizes are not there which is a huge waste of my time.

So before you shake your head and say "this isn't for me" try it out and you might be glad you did. You might be surprised at what you will find.

New Jewelry Ideas

I am so excited to be coming up with a few new jewelry ideas by the end of this week. I will have everything posted by then and on my new blog. They will also be in my store as well.

This is a great time of the year with some really neat Halloween and Christmas gift ideas especially for the little girls. I also have some really beautiful pink pieces in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month. The best thing is that these pieces are all at very affordable prices and are going to make really nice gift ideas.

Stand by. I will have pictures for you all very soon.

Big Decision Coming Up

I have a big decision to make soon and, no, it has nothing to do with the upcoming election. It has to do with whether or not I want to commit myself to another half marathon.

I blogged this same time last year about a half marathon that I ran earlier this year on January 12. It was an amazing accomplishment and a feeling I won't soon forget. Since then a lot of people have asked me about the marathon. They ask me how hard it was, how much training I did, how tired I got, how did I motivate myself, how did I prepare?

When I explain what the hardest part was about the marathon my answer takes most people back a few steps. To most people it may seem like the actual 13.1 mile run is the hardest part when in fact that couldn't be further from the truth. What is the hardest part (at least for me) is the decision to actually do it. For me, once I make this big decision there is really no turning back. I am committed. Baring an injury or crisis of some kind, there is no quit in me.

And that is where I stand today. Looking at a marathon that will come in February 2009. Which means I have to start right now to get myself into shape and start to train for another great feat. But I haven't made the final decision. I teeter on it. Should I. Shouldn't I. Should I. Shouldn't I.

I am giving myself to the end of this week because if not I will never have enough time to train myself. I will let you know what I finally decide.

A Sad Text Message

I was at the store yesterday making a purchase when a text message came to my cell phone just as I was approaching the cashier. It was from a friend of mine who, over this past year, I have been developing a friendship with. Her daughter is in my son's daycare class and she works in the office at the day care. We have attended kids birthday parties together and other functions outside of day care. Our conversations are usually about kids or school or tv shows. We have never talked about politics or news.

So I get this text message and here is what it says:

"Can you believe Obama is screaming about change? Do U know what CHANGE means? It means Come Help A N*** (substitute the N word) Get Elected."

When I read it I thought it was spam of some kind. Until I looked at the sender and saw that it was my friend who sent it to me.

I was so upset and flustered that I didn't realize that the cashier at the store was asking me for payment. I was shaking so bad that I could barely get my money out of my purse. I fumbled through but as I left the store I couldn't contain the tears. I made my way back to the car where my husband and kids were and he asked me what was wrong.

"I am sick. Heart sick." I showed him the text message and he got as upset as me.

On the way back all I could think was that this friend of mine who I really liked is truly a RACIST and not very smart. First of all, she has no idea which political candidate I am supporting (which just happens to be Barack Obama) and had no thought that perhaps I was not in line with her. She made a bad assumption. Why would she assume that? After all, we have never even uttered a word ever about politics. Second of all, I suppose she assumed that I am a racist like her and that such a comment would not offend me. The latter point leads me to believe that she leads a fairly vacuous, intolerant life.

I am not naive to think that there aren't racists out there. What is shocking is the brazen attitude. There is just no excuse for it. As I get ready for church today, I will be sure to send some prayers her way and then try to prepare myself for tomorrow when I will see her again.

We Interrupt The Election Season...

to announce a historic moment that is going to occur this week.....

Bring on Must See Thursday night on NBC.

The Office

What Do I Know....

I'm just a baseball mom to 4 kids who works 40 hours a week. I intended today to speak of my joyful weekend where my little princess started her first season of soccer but instead decided to deviate a little. I hope you don't mind a little political intervention on my blog. I don't usually blog about politics and that is by choice. I don't really care for negative comments and I don't like shutting down comments and really everywhere you turn is someone's opinion on this election.

Today is a bit different and I am about to break my #1 rule of this election season which is never to talk bad about the person you are NOT going to vote for. After all, if you really support your guy (or girl) then you should be talking about how he (or she) is going to make your life better as opposed to how the other guy (or girl) will make your life more miserable.

This time is different because I feel strongly in defending my honor as a woman, wife, mother, and company worker. I also feel the need to write because everywhere I turn I keep hearing and reading about St. Sarah Palin...you know, the woman who has prompted even those working-mom naysayers who I frequently would run into after I had kids and went back to work to change their opinions and say "women CAN do it all!" I keep wondering why they aren't asking Sarah Palin if working so soon after having babies is really in the best interest of her children. I often fielded that question.

What I do feel for Sarah Palin is embarrassment at the selection. I feel embarrassed for her because she was used as a pawn in the political game and I am not sure if she realizes it. I had to turn away and cringe when she implied that she knew about Russia because you could see it from land in Alaska. I needed the smelling salts when Sen. McCain mouthed these same words. I feel embarrassed because she won't talk to the media and then uses it as a badge of honor to her base. I feel embarrassed because she repeats the same mantra over and over and never once changes the message. I feel embarrassed because she put herself in the same sentence as Hillary Clinton. In the spring Sen. Clinton is a “whiner” according to Gov. Palin for her complaints about sexism, in the fall when you want to get some of those 18-million-cracks-in-the-glass-ceiling-voters you have nothing but word of praise for Sen. Clinton even though your stance on the issues could not be farther from one another. I feel embarrassed because she still seems to think that the U.S. invaded Iraq to get the guys who did so much damage to Americans on 9-11. I feel embarrassed for her because she is being used to wage a sexist war against her opponents. She either doesn't care or doesn't seem to get it.

As a fellow working woman, I know how hard it is to work amongst men. I know what the perceptions are out there when a woman gets hired over a capable man. I just started a new job a few weeks ago and have been in new positions many times along my career. Each time I work extra hard in those first few months to prove myself. To show my boss and my compadres that the best person (not woman) for the job was chosen. I volunteer to speak at meetings. I volunteer to fill in for my boss. I do all that because I want to put myself out there that I deserved what was awarded to me. Where is Sarah Palin? Hiding behind a teleprompter. Hiding from interviews. Speaking words that are written for her.

I firmly believe that the election is not about whether Sarah Palin can do a job and have kids at the same time. Both women and men have been proving it true for many, many years. The election isn't even about whether I like her or her running mate. The election is about what they are going to do for this country on day 1, day 2, day 3, and so forth.

Sarah Palin would have done a lot of us a big service if she would have said "Thanks but no thanks" to that potential job in Washington. Just like she said "Thanks but no thanks" to that Bridge to Nowhere.

Getting Past A Fear

One (but not the only) fear I have is a fear of big needles. Well, really, any needle for that matter. I am not sure when it started though I think it had something to do with a bad experience I had 16 years ago when I was giving blood for a blood drive. One of the nurses who was administering the needle for my blood withdrawal really didn't know what she was doing and totally inserted it wrong. It was working for the first portion of the withdrawal but then as the bag started becoming full, the needle started hurting worse and worse until I could no longer take the pain and it had to be removed. Fortunately there was enough blood in the bag to be useful but the experience scarred me for life. I have never gone back to donate blood since then.

But lately I have been reflecting a lot on how small donations can mean a lot. I ramped up my grocery donations to my church's food bank and signed up to be a Special Olympics volunteer. Just then a notice came home from my son's daycare that the Red Cross would have the blood bank at the daycare on Sept 11 for anyone who wants to donate. I decided I was going to get past my 16 year fear and set aside an hour in my day to make a small donation. If I can do it, so can you.

I am very confident that things are going to go well this time and I am actually looking forward to it and making future donations.