I've been tagged!

Time to kill two birds with one stone.

... You know, thinking of it, I don't actually like that expression. The concept is great. But maybe we could kill something that wasn't birds. Maybe two flies with one swat... but that just sounds lame.
ANYWAYS.
Deborah tagged me, and there was some other thingy I wanted to do, too, so I'll just have at 'em both in one go-round.

Here are the rules:
~Link to the person who tagged you.
~Post the rules on your blog.
~Write six random things about yourself.
~Tag six or so people at the end of your post.
~Let each person know he or she has been tagged.
~Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

1. A long time ago, when I was quite small, I was matter of fact, and not modest at all. "You've beautiful curls!" the old ladies would cry. "Mm-hm, I know." was my shameless reply.

2. I love children's books, and Jillian Jiggs is one of my favorites. The above rhyme is modeled after the first lines of Jillian Jiggs. I can quote huge portions (if not all) of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? and Bear Wants More.

3. I'm rather fond of bears, too. Though I'd rather not meet one in the wild.

4. Remember Coke Blak?I liked it.

"Introduced to much fanfare in 2006, Coke Blak was Coca-Cola's attempt at mixing Coke with coffee. An eight-ounce bottle of Coca-Cola Blak contained 46 milligrams of caffeine.

In late August, after just one year on the market, it was announced that Coca-Cola will discontinue the drink once supplies run out."

That was some good stuff. Really. A little pricey for such a tiny bottle, though. And pretty much everyone thought I was crazy for liking it. Except Katey. Dear, beloved Katey. I gave her a bottle of it for her birthday. Alas. 'Tis gone. I wonder if they'll ever resurrect it?

5. I'm scared that I won't like my teeth once I'm done with my orthodontic treatment. I'm afraid they're too big, and that I'll end up with horse teeth.

6. I have a lot of etsy work to be doing, but I've been sitting at the computer for hours, calculating important stuff, ordering yarn, sorting out what I'm supposed to make for who, reading blogs, chatting with friends, and thinking of stupid random things to say about myself. And now there are 40 minutes left on this ebay auction, and I'm nervous that somebody's going to come in at the last minute and raise the bid to like 22 dollars, and there is NO way I'm paying that much + shipping for a pair of used shoes. But I really want them!

I tag: ... Can I please cheat? Thank you. I must say, though, I love seeing people's answers, so consider yourself tagged if you want to be, and not tagged if you don't.

And now! For the 6 Fours.

A) Four places I go over and over:
church, work, Michael's craft supply, the Looneys' house.

B) Four people who e-mail:
Katey, Keith, Rebecca, and automated messages from Etsy flooding my inbox.


C) Four of my favorite places to eat:
P.F. Chang's (thanks, Aunt Cindy), Chili's, the Looneys' house (lol), Longhorn
(I really love to eat anywhere, though...)


D) Other places I would rather be right now:
on vacation with the Looneys. (Think I might like them a little?) Camping in the mountains. Somewhere fun doing something fun with fun people. ... That's not 4 places, but I'm actually pretty content to be bumming around at home right now.

E) Four people I think will respond:
Katey and Alicia, Becca, and maybe a random blog reader?

F) Four TV shows I watch:
Iron Chef America, Stargate Atlantis, Diners Drive-Ins and Dives, What Not to Wear

Ok, it says forward this to a bunch of people with your own answers, and send it back to me. But you're under no such obligation.

Have a happy day. :)
Me

Headaches , Cupcakes, Coffee

There.
Rhyme and alliteration in one title. Boo ya!

Tom said that when he was leaving school today. "Boo ya, Miss Caitlin!"
His big brother taught him. What cuties! Wish I had a pic of them together.

Today was picture day at preschool. Half an hour before quittin' time, I was totally losing it.
I won't go into detail. :)
But I will tell you part of the problem - Miss Coffee Addict missed her morning fix. Ohhh not good. I had a pounding headache all afternoon. Don't try sugar-free caramel vanilla coffee mate powder when you run out of your regular creamer. It will render your coffee unfit for human consumption. Or any other sort of consumption, for that matter.

I bought a caribou coffee espresso drink thingy on the way to drop Laura off at school. I knew I should have gotten a Starbuck's frappuccino! Hang saving 75 cents. That thing was strange. And I drank every. last. drop. Figuring it would make my headache go away. Guess what? Didn't work. Funny thing about weird coffee drinks, though. Once you're past the first couple of sips, it's usually tolerable. It was definitely better than the caramel vanilla sludge I tried to drink this morning.

The title of this post was originally Books and Buttons. (more alliteration!) I changed it when the first two topics turned out to be headaches and coffee. So, the cupcakes really don't have much to do with this post. I just finished eating one, and I had one earlier. That's about it.


But, along the Books and Buttons theme, I feel compelled to rejoice aloud in my new Calvin and Hobbes collection. I should have taken a picture of it. Tis the Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes. I already had the Authoritative. Now to get my hands on the Essential. Did you know I love Calvin and Hobbes? I do. Swaptree, too. For that's how I got it. Who wants a boring old book about handbags when you can have a book full of the best comic strips ever?!

I returned lots of books to the library today, including House of the Seven Gables and The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. House of the Seven Gables I still plan to read. Just not yet. I just have other things on my priority list. Like Calvin and Hobbes. :P

Actually, I plan to read To Kill a Mockingbird. We'll see how that goes. I got it on Swaptree, too. The Ernest Hemingway stuff, however, I do not plan to read. Ever. I flipped through it the other night, and it was pretty vulgar. There's no point reading a bunch of distasteful stuff just because it's "classic" or well written.

I suppose I could keep rambling about the other books I've read recently, or the other ones I plan to read, but that's enough book talk for now. Time to move on to the buttons part.

I went shopping today to pick up some yarn. I needed buttons, too. Browsing the store, I was beginning to despair, for there were no buttons to be found. Which makes sense - it's a craft store, not a sewing/notions store. Anyways. Then I stumbled across "Grandma's button bags." Little baggies full of random buttons. Yay! Behold - what is this next to them? Vintage button bags! Sweet! They had plenty of buttons that would work for my slippers, and they were way cooler in general than the buttons in the other bag. (I mean, they're vintage. They've had a previous life. If that's not cool, then, ...well... it just is.)

I pulled out every bag and looked into them at all angles to decide which was the best. I never decided which was best, but I did decide which one I wanted, because it had a great big peachy button right in the front. See?

Nifty, huh? I already put some of them on these slippers.
And there are enough of that same kind to do another 2 pairs. Can't wait to see what the rest of them will come in handy for!
So. I need to get back to crocheting.

If anyone has any good book recommendations, let me know. Even though I can't seem to read what I've already got, I'm in the mood for tackling a reading list, so might as well add a few more as I scratch a couple off. :-)

Later!
Caitlin

Oh help!

And the orders keep coming.

This is amazing. And kind of scary.
I have to crochet like ALL the time now. Good thing I enjoy it.

I got up this morning, knowing I had 2 custom orders to work on this weekend. No big deal. I got it covered. So, I sit down at the computer to do my usual checking of the email and blog and shop and all that, and discover I have 3 more orders, and 3 more convos about custom orders. ... There went my leisurely weekend. lol

And so, it's super-cool and awesome and stuff, and it's a little overwhelming at the same time. It means I need to get serious about this, and actually devote the time to running this shop that it requires. No more putting off custom orders til the night before they're supposed to ship. I gotsta get my act together!

Which also means I need to be keeping track of ... stuff. Like how much profit I'm making after supplies and fees. Holy cow, the fees have racked up this month. But I'm pretty certain I've made close to what I make working at preschool on Etsy. Now that is nifty.

But you know what's grand about all this? (besides for the convos from total stranger that say "omg! I love your shop! so cute!!" lol) I'm going to go buy some cute clothes on super-sale from Chadwicks. That's what.

By the way, here's that supercute pumpkin hat I made. Isn't it adorable? It's so leetle... :D It actually doesn't look much like a hat like that... but the bottom is really stretchy.

Wouldn't it be so ironic if after this post, all sales suddenly stopped?
And then I would feel stupid for being excited/stressed in the first place. :D

Have a happy Saturday, y'all!
-Princess Caitlin

A Girly Shoe Post

I made a record number of sales yesterday.
That's pretty cool.
Not that I'm suddenly rich or anything, but I did sell 4 pairs of slippers yesterday.
And then some. Yay! Keep buying stuff, people! This is fun! lol

Guess what?
I want to buy some boots. I've been looking at boots all day.
It's fall now, and the boots I've worn with everything for the past 4 years or so are rather tired now. Considering my price range, I'm sticking with ebay and the like.
I've looked around Etsy, too.

Call me crazy - I thought I hated 80's fashion, but these ankle boots are so cool. These, and the pixie kind, with the little piratey fold-down cuff. (like these!!) Black boots are cool, but they're too dark for me. So, I'm leaning towards grey or taupe.
And chocolate brown.

Oh, 70's boots are good, too. Like these on the right.

I was looking for red mary janes the other day, and discovered that I LOVE Steve Madden shoes. Particularly these gorgeous red leather ones with the super-cute strap and button... ah.

But I can't afford Steve Madden, so I'm still looking. :D

So, if I have it my way, I'll have a nice pair of boots that go with everything, and a cute pair of red shoes to go with everything else. If I don't have it my way, I'll ... wear my scuffy old boots with everything, and wear my tennies with everything else. lol

I love shoes. :)

Happy Fall!

YAY! It's the first day of fall!!
The weather is amazing.
And because I'm so happy, I'm offering free shipping in my etsy shop til Wednesday!

I would enter a picture of the cute little pumpkin hat I made right here, but I haven't uploaded the pictures yet, so I can't. I can, however, show you a goofy picture of myself wearing my awesome little bird earrings.
Nicholas said, "hey, what are those earrings supposed to be anyways? Comets?"... I was like "uh, no. See the little beak? it's a bird."

In his defense, he has terrible vision.


I'm hoping my cool little scarflings will sell well. They're fun to make. I have a new black one up in my shop. So very cool! I like how they can be used for so many things.
I have a couple white ones from when I learned how to make them. Now I need to make a black one and a yellow one for myself. The only problem is, I can't wear them in my hair! It's still too short!

But, as a side note, I do plan on growing my hair back out. I don't know if I had mentioned that again or not. Yes, finally. I'll tell ya what persuaded me, and you'll laugh. (Actually, I had mostly decided to already) I was reading this book that said if I planned to get married, I should live like it. And I figured that since I want to have long hair for my wedding, I should go ahead and start growing it out. You've heard that story about the farmer who prayed for rain AND plowed his field in faith? Well, I'm growing my hair out in faith that I'll eventually have a wedding. And if I don't, well, I was going to grow it back out sometime or another. LOL

So, that was off-topic. This is supposed to be an Etsy post.

I'm actually here taking a break from crocheting.
I have lots of custom orders to work on today. Did I mention how I love custom orders? Especially when people are so nice to me. :)

I'm making some of these pink slippers in a grown-up size. Without the heart buttons. I'm not sure what buttons I'm going to use yet.
I'm also making another Mary Jane style pair in a ruby sort of color to donate for a giveaway a fellow etsian is doing. Yay! Methinks I should make lots of them and offer them more frequently in my shop.

So, I think that's enough Etsy talk for now. I haven't forgotten my next Suggested Writing post. :)
Happy Monday!
CaitiJo