It's Christmas!

I had just typed this whole lovely post, and went to add a picture, and it vanished. The whole thing. All brilliantly typed at the last minute before I was to go to bed. Gone. The page froze, and I waited and waited, hoping against hope it would come back to life. It was a good post.
Alas.

Tis gone.

But I had just been saying that Christmas eve was productive and relaxing. The annual viewing of It's A Wonderful Life was quite satisfactory. So was dinner.

Now, I post this beautiful song to serve as a reminder.

Start at the manger on a cold winter night
Look for the star in the sky
and follow its light
It leads to a Savior for a world that is lost
Start
at the manger, then go to to the cross

Start at the manger at the
child in the hay
The gift of our Father in heaven,
the price He would
pay
To save all His children no matter the cost
Start at the manger, then
go to the cross

Imagine that you own the wealth of the world
All
of its silver and gold
What good will it do when tomorrow arrives
And
your heart is empty and cold

Start at the manger where redemption
began
When Jesus stepped down from His throne to die as a man
All of our
riches we will count them as loss
If we start at the manger, then go to
the cross.

Youth choir's singing that this Sunday. It's going to be so pretty. How amazing that Jesus chose to come down here and live like us, and with us to show us how we can live like Him, and with Him. He came, he lived, he died, he rose, and he lives again! We have such cause to rejoice!

Speaking of rejoicing, one of my (lesser, but great) reasons is .... *drumroll* Six Flags season passes!! My favorite!! That's what this family's getting for Christmas. I can't wait til they open! I'm so excited!! **squee!!**

I'm also getting a set of super great period dramas - think Jane Eyre, and Pride and Prejudice. (I picked it out myself, but it's wrapped and under the tree, so I think I'll pretend to be surprised just for the fun of it. I'm a terrible actor, though.)

Anyways, I've rewritten most of my former post now. **yawn** It's Christmas day!! The tree is twinkling in the dark, and the metallic gift bows are sparkling underneath it. There's a balmy breeze blowing in through the open windows, and the sound of the gentle rainfall is making me drowsy. (nothing like a Georgia Christmas) I've already got a pot of coffee ready to be turned on in the morning, so I think it's time to snuggle down in my bed, and drift off to sleep with my Josh Groban christmas music playing... Visions of sugarplums and rollercoasters, Mr. Darcy, and all that sort of thing, you know. ;-)

Wherever you are, whoever you're with, and whatever you're doing, I wish you a very happy Christmas. We are so blessed!

Love, Caitlin

Christmas cheer, anyone?

Yay for Christmas! I'm so excited. It's almost here!!!
I've felt rather Christmasy for most of December. That's been lots of fun, especially with all the fun things I've been doing. Like our non-skating skating trip. That was a blast.
A couple of us broke off from the group and tooks some pictures with the gigantic tree in Atlanta.

I almost had a whole paragraph here about different stuff from that night, but it wasn't turning out like I wanted it to, so I cut it. I'll move on.

My business cards came, but not until after the Christmas rush of packages had been sent off. But it was so exciting to finally get them that it didn't much matter they were later than I hoped for.
I got a nifty little key ring holder so's I'll always have some with me. There are 43 different pics. Which means this photo only shows some of the awesomeness. ;-)

Back to more Christmasy things though: shopping! I've done way more shopping lately than I have in... likely ever. I think I spent around 65 dollars in Claire's alone in the past month or so. Blast all those sales and discounts! :D But most of it was Christmas presents. And, I say, I believe I'm quite done spending for some time now. Lack of funds aside, I think I've actually had enough shopping this month. Time to be saving. ... heh. Anyways, here's a pic from one of our shopping excursions.Do we look alike to you? I'm not seeing any resemblance. I think Alicia and I look more like sisters than my own sister and me.


Also fun was the church's roller skating fellowship. Not very eventful, but fun. I fell twice.
It was because I couldn't figure out how to stop, or how to get around the wall of people that was suddenly in front of me. I don't have any pictures from that, which is probably good. :D

Then there's choir practice, which I enjoy, as usual. The Christmas stuff is fun, but all of a sudden I feel like I don't know how to sing any of this stuff we've been working so hard on for weeks. I was oddly clueless during Thursday's practice for lots of stuff that I thought I had memorized. Bleh. BUT! There is hope! We have practice again tomorrow, and we're bound to start off on a good note - how can you not when coffee and donuts are provided? Exactly. (I don't want to hear anything from you coffee haters. **cough**Becca**cough**)

We had our little Christmas party at preschool Thursday morning. We made little christmas ornaments and picture frames for the mommies and daddies, and then had a super-extravagant snack with lots of apple slices and cheese puffs. I forgot to take the camera, of course. I was gonna show you pics, but they'll have to wait til another day - I ran out of time!

AND! My wonderful aunt and uncle and cousins are coming up for Christmas! How sweet is that!

To top everything off, the excitement won't end at Christmas. My dearest friends in the Whole Wide World are planning a New Year's Eve bash that I've been looking forward to since last year.

What are you doing this Christmas season? Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, I hope you're enjoying it as much as I am. :) Even if your Christmas season isn't full of optimistic sparkles, warm fuzzies, and christmas cheer in general, may God give you the eyes to see all the blessings around you. We have so much to be thankful for!!
Love,
Me

Life Lesson Monday

This one is in a little different format from the others, mostly because I can't think of anything story length. :)

Lessons Learned in Recent Days

From my S.S. class Christmas ice skating outing:

• Pointy heeled shoes leave funny little holes behind you when you walk in the grass. (aerating?)
• If you eat at the Olive Garden with a bunch of your friends, everyone had better be prepared to share. (hey, um... can I taste that?)
• Don't wear high heeled boots to choir practice if the leader is going to make you stand the whole time. (not that I knew ahead)
• Counting and talking simultaneously results in errors. (if you're crocheting, you'll probably end up having to pull out a couple rounds.)
• Provided with the right sort of company, you can still have fun if your ice skating party doesn't include ice skating. (and especially if it includes starbucks)

And one from preschool:

• Even cute dinosaurs can become scary in the hands of small children. (mostly 2 year old boys)

So. That was the best I could come up with for now. **sigh**

It's better than nothing, right? :D At least you know I've been having fun!

Updating

I feel terrible for not actually doing much life updating lately. You wouldn't believe how neglected my real journal is. I haven't even opened it in the past month because I don't want to see when the last entry is dated. Helpful, huh?

But I thought while I'm on checking Etsy stuff before I go to bed, I'd let you all know that I haven't died of that stupid cold yet. It still hasn't gone away. It's making me grumpy and uber tired. Yet I keep doing stuff. I went caroling yesterday. With a screechy voice. lol. But I hate to miss all the Christmas fun because I have a cold!! Of course, I think with all this activity and little rest, I'm prolonging it... ah well.

Here's a random picture for a little visual interest. I just dicovered Picnik.

An apology is in order for the neglect of Life Lesson Mondays. This sounds like a lame excuse, but I can't think of any good life lessons. I keep wishing something mildly bad and laughably funny would happen to me. No such luck. And the recesses of my memory aren't serving me well lately, either. I want to continue the series, but if there are no Life Lessons, there can't be a Life Lesson Monday. Unless I sway from my theme of obvious-yet-hilarious, or whatever.

In other news, I followed my better judgement over my heart and did NOT buy one of the adorable budgies on sale at PetSmart. (Vincent would have been SO mad.) My mother, on the other hand, gave into abouding cuteness and purchased the sweetest little red guinea pig. His name is Gimli. Thanks to me. **bows elegantly** We were tossing around names, and Abby went into Lord of the Rings characters. I told her if we were picking a name from LotR, Gimli would be the best guinea pig name. And it kinda fits his smallness and redness. Awesome.

Shopping for my preschoolers was fun. I raided the dollar store. I'm so glad they're all boys. I got dinosaurs, candy, and sugar donuts for everyone.Woo Hoo! And I got a collection of dinosaurs for my classroom. There are two in there now, but they're mean, ugly dinosaurs. I got cute ones. lol I'll have to show you some time. Remind me.

Random Bullets:

• We had a gingerbread house decorating party on Monday. It went really well.


• I went to the orthodontist today, and the Dr. said everything was going perfect, and I don't have to have any teefs pulled!


• Then I went to starbucks and when I ordered, I said my name was Caiti (I always say Caitlin...), and asked for carmel (I always say caramel). Just because I wanted to do something different.


• My eyes are bothering me right now.


• Two of my left contact lenses have ripped for no reason, and so now I don't have the same number of left ones as right one left. **Grumpy face**


• I still need to buy christmas presents for my brothers.


• Etsy is driving me crazy. I love crocheting, and I love making money, but I am so ready for a break. I can't keep up!



• I got a compliment on my Etsy banner today, and was asked if I ever considered going into graphics design.
  


• I can't wait for my business cards to come!! I'm so disappointed every day when I check the mail and there is no little box for me. :(


• Dinner and skating Saturday with my SS class is going to be so much fun!

There. I'd say that's a pretty good off-the-cuff blog post. At least now you know what's going on. :)

~Me

6, 7, 15

Hello again! It's December now.
Wow.

I was tagged 3 times in my absence.
Time to get to it!


Firstly, tagged by Mama Ant over at the Ant Farm, we have
6 Unspectacular things about myself:


1) Right now I have a cold. That's pretty unspectacular.
2) I eat whatever I want, and don't excersize regularly. HA! ...shame on me, I know. :P
3) My braces are here to stay for another year and a half. Maybe more.
4) I like to stay up too late reading.
6) I have cold feet. The rest of me can be roasting, and my feet will be cold and clammy.


Next, tagged by BB at the Ant Farm (hey girl! It's been too long. :P ), we have 7 random/interesting facts about my family.

The Rules are as follows-
1. Link the person who tagged you and post the rules on your
blog.
2. Share 7 random and/or interesting facts about you / your family.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include
links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a
comment on their blog.

Got it. Can do.

Fact 1 - my family has been homeschooled for about 13 years now (I don't remember when I started), and Mama is over halfway finished. If she keeps holding out with Ben, she's got 12 years left. I think that deserves some credit. Go Mommy!


Fact 2 - I wish I knew all of our geneology. I'm pretty sure we've got some mix of Welsh or Irish with some Cherokee or something, maybe some British Anglo-Saxon, and all sorts of other things going on. It would be fun to find out where our ancestors were from.

Fact 3 - My family never misses a new episode of Stargate Atlantis.


Fact 4 - We're reading Jotham's Journey for Advent this year. I love that story.


Fact 5 - All of us drink coffee.


Fact 6 -We enjoy listening to and singing with music from our favorite movies while riding in the van. Well, we children do anyways. I can't attest for Mama and Daddy.


Fact 7 - Our 8-person dining room table seems to be growing smaller... Ben won't fit in his high chair pretty soon, and we'll have to start pulling a random 9th chair up. :)


I tag Beth Dear, Beki, Crystal, Anne, Abby, Becca, and Deborah.

Speaking of Deb, she tagged me, too!
Now I must list 15 things I'm not afraid to admit on my blog.


1) I sing in the shower. A lot.

2) Sometimes I drool when I'm asleep. Sorry.

3) My greatest aspiration in life is to be a nice little wife and mommy. Seriously.

4) When I'm a mommy, I want to have little boys. They're my favorite.

5) I quit piano years ago because I hated practicing, because I hate doing things wrong.

6) I tried to take up guitar a couple years ago, but teaching myself hasn't been going so well.

7) This is a lot easier than the other one. Probably because I'm self centered.

8) I hold my pen wrong. On purpose.

9) I assume shy people are snobby. I try not to, but I do...

10) I'm scared of a lot of people. It's irrational, yes.

11) Movies make me cry.

12) I like most music, but I hardly listen to any music at all.

13) I should be crocheting yellow slippers right now.

14) I'm a coffee addict. And when I say addict, I mean addict.

15) At work, if any of the kids bring cupcakes for a birthday, I almost never fail at sniffing them out and taking one. Or three. Especially if chocolate frosting is involved.


And there you have it! Aren't you horrified now?
For this one, I was going to tag Laura, but Deborah beat me to it. Guess I'll tag Leslie. :)



I also recieved an award!

Thanks Deb!

I hereby pass this award on to Beth Dear, Beki, Crystal, and the lovely ladies at the Ant Farm.

And here's a random shout-out to sweet Rosalie. I know you're reading. LOL! It was so good to see you this weekend!

I'll be back. :)

Caiti

Dontcha hate it...

**schniffle**
I feel lousy today. I have a mean old cold.
But at least I don't have the stomach bug the rest of my family is down with.

Dontcha hate those days when there's so much to do, and you just can't bring yourself to do it?
You know you should. You wish you felt like it.
But you stand up, and then ... bluuuugh. You just want to sit back down.

But no! Scores of slippers are to be made! The Christmases of so many girls with cold feet rest in my little hook-wielding hands!

...But maybe it can wait til tomorrow?
**sneeze**

It's not Thanksgiving any more!

So, my thanksgiving post is late. But just because it's not thanksgiving any more doesn't mean we should stop being thankful. What if we all remembered to be thankful ALL the time?
Counting my blessings takes ages.

A - Awanas. Apple cider - which would be good right now. My throat hurts. Advent -which we're celebrating this year!
B - Boys (and I mean that in a totally innocuous way. Boys of all ages. They're fun!)
C - Church. Coffee. My name. Choir.
D - Daddy.
E - Evening time. Email
F - Friendship, Food, Fun
G - God's Grace
H - Holy Spirit. He has to remind me of so many things so often. Hugs.
I - Intercession. I love knowing that I can help my friends through prayer.
J - Joy.Real joy. Not circumstantial happiness. :)
K - Katey and Alicia. (they just go together like that)
L - Laughter, Love
M - Music. Mama. and my "other mothers," Marmee and Mom.
N - New friends!! I gained a couple of new friends this year. Yay! (Rae, Becca, and church peeps.)
O - Orthodontics. ... I WILL have pretty teef one day.
P - Popcorn. PEACE. Peace comes first, actually.
Q - Quiet.
R - Rain. Relatives. Random rambling. Reading.
S - Singing!! Sunshine, Stars, Siblings.
T - Tall shoes. Teaching.
U - Umbrellas. **I'm siiingin' in the rain, just siiingin' in the rain..."
V - Vincent, my crazy little green bird.
W- Walking. Waiting. Yes, I can be thankful for waiting.
X - X. I'm thankful for the letter X. ... mostly because I can't think of any X words. It's a nifty letter.
Y - Yogurt? I'm thankful for that. ... I can't think of many Y things either.
Z - Zippers. Where would we be without them? Zippers and Zeros.

Be thankful, people. :) I hope you had a great thanksgiving.
I'm looking forward to leftovers tomorrow.
<3

Life Lesson Monday

Going down the side of the mountain may seem like a foolproof shortcut.

It's not.

We had been hiking a fairly gentle mountain trail, enjoying the scenery, the company, and the general pleasantness of it all. After some time, the consensus was reached that, in everyone's best interest, it was time to head back.

As the unofficial leader of our expotition (those of you unacquainted with Pooh terminology, forgive me), I brought forth a brilliant, efficient plan for getting back to camp.

Start here, walk straight down, and camp will be somewhere at the bottom.

Simple and effective.

Why bother following the long, winding trail back the way we had come?

And so, with little objection from the weary party (ha!), our plan of action was decided.

My way put us getting there a lot faster, and with a lot less energy spent.

Or it was supposed to, anyways.

It ended up costing about the same amount of time, and a lot more energy.

Worry is more wearying than hiking up hills and around bends. :P

For one, there was some brush that was harder to deal with than I thought it would be.

Another thing - I seem to be directionally challenged. I thought I knew approximately what direction we should go in. Don't ask why I was so confident. I have no idea. But a couple minutes into the journey back, and we were all completely clueless.

"Uh, Caitlin, are you sure you know where we're going?"

"Um... nope."

"Oh. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea."

"Um... yeah. That's what I was thinking."

"Anybody see the trail?"

"Hey, I think that's the tree we saw earlier!"

"No, I think I've seen 3 trees like that."

It's just a little unnerving to be leading a group of your friends around the side of a mountain, none of you having any idea where you are.

Yeeeah.

Fortunately, it was a very smallish sort of mountain, and we finally did stumble onto part of the path we had been on earlier, thus following it back to the beginning.

And now I know.

There are times for straying off the beaten course.

Tramping the woods on an unfamiliar mountain is not one of those times.

15 Random Things

I read this on somebody's blog. At the end it says "your turn."
I took it literally. You should too.
lol

1. I just ate a large scoop of mayfield chocolate ice cream. Yum.
2. I still want to go to Starbucks. Caramel macchiato, please.
3. Spell check says "macchiato" is wrong. It suggests Machiavelli.
4. I read The Prince by Machiavelli and liked it.
5. I have ten orders to pack tonight, and ship tomorrow.
6. There is an amazing pair of silverware handle earrings making their way to my house.
7. I bought a ginormous salad at O'Charley's last night, and wish I hadn't. It was good, though.
8. Fried green tomatoes are delicous. Especially when you have the added satisfaction of cooking them yourself.
9. My Life Lesson Monday post was kind of lame, I think. I need better life lessons.
10. I don't include enough of God in my blog posts... If he's such a huge part of my life, you'd think He'd be more apparent in my blog. Bad me.
11. Yesterday the youth choir sang for the evening service. I heard we did awesome. Which was great news, because all I heard was me and Sadie singing alto. lol
12. Actually, our choir is "teens and twenties," but that's harder to say. It's a combination of the youth group and the College and Career class. And it's a lot of fun. yay!
13. Regular choir is fun too. I love being in choir.
14. My hair is blonde again. It's more like strawberry blonde, since we didn't take all the red out.
I'm gradually going back to my natural color.
15. Your turn.

Me in my blonder hair and Sparks uniform.

Life Lesson Monday

Check the roses for bugs before you go "drinking them in."

"I stopped by the barrens and picked these Mayflowers; I came through Violet-Vale; it's just a big bowlful of violets now -- the dear, sky-tinted things. Smell them, Marilla -- drink them in."

Marilla sniffed obligingly, but she was more interested in Anne than in drinking violets."

-Anne of the Island (L.M. Montgomery)

Once upon a time there was a vase of roses. We had cut them fresh from our rosebush, placed them in water, and set them on the dining room table, where they could be enjoyed. And enjoy them I did, until the incidence inspiring this life lesson.

Oh, they smelled so pretty! I paused to really focus on them, to truly appreciate their delicate scent.
Leaning forward, nose almost touching the frail, red petals, I inhaled deeply. Very deeply.
Then I ran shrieking to get a tissue.

Stupid tiny bugs.
In case you were wondering, it is a little unnerving to have a nose full of minuscule insects.
And I'm very sorry I don't have a picture of the incident.

Instead, here's a nice photo I took of a floral arrangement.

A New Post

I would love to have some pumpkin pie. Or maybe a pumpkin spice latte. Let's go to starbucks.

...Well, since that doesn't seem to be working out, I'll just sit here at the computer and tell you what's been going on lately!

Mrs. Dawn is now installed as my permanent helper, instead of floating between all three classes.
The reason for this? My class has grown from 5 little monkeys to 6. The 6th is certainly a cutie.
So, this is CJ. A little apprehensive at first. Who wouldn't be? He's the smallest and youngest, and, well, to be honest, some of the other guys come across pretty strong. But he's doing really well. His favorite part of the day is snacktime (I'm with him on that one). He really opens up, given enough teddy grahams.


Owen, Jesse, and Jake were just hanging out on the playground the other day... not doing much of anything. (which was AMAZING) Mrs. Dawn said we should teach them to sit there like that and do "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." Perhaps I should attempt it sometime. It'd make one amazing picture.
"rawr! I'm'onna eat your camra!"Mrs. Nancy told me today that I might have another addition to my class soon. We don't know for sure, though. Guess what? Another boy. I'd say I'm getting my fair share of practice. :D

Speaking of practice, I had an opportunity to practice losing at mini golf on Saturday. A couple of us went to Stone Mountain with some of Abby's friends from church for her birthday. It was a fun little trip. We rode the skylift, played mini golf, watched a 4 -D movie thing, a parade, and the Christmas laser show. It was nice and holiday-y. Great adjective, that.
Ha! Pictures of me with my siblings! Yay!


And the kids all had a blast on the best playground EVER while I ran around snapping pictures of them. Seriously. That is the best playground. Hang the rest of the park, give me a picnic at the playground! I couldn't play on that one, because I would have gotten lots of weird looks, but nothing kept me from climbing up the little plastic rock wall, and sliding down the other side at preschool today. Not even my dress, or my new boots. Which I did wear, thankyouverymuch. How could I resist "do it wif me, Miss Caitin!" ?! Exactly.

And I really thought there was something else I was going to say, but now I don't remember what it was. I've worked on this post on and off for the past couple hours. That method doesn't work well for me. Totally derails my train of thought.

So, have a happy day, and I'll be in touch again soon. ;-)
Caitlin

Feautured again!

I've got a giveaway going on over at Jaime's blog. I'm #9 in the lineup for her Christmas Wishlist Extravaganza. Today is the last day! (I was a little late jumping on the blogging bandwagon for this one. Oops.)
Check it out!

Life Lesson Monday

If you get dizzy easily, you probably shouldn't yell for the guys to spin the merry go round faster.

It's true. You might end up feeling sick for an hour or two.

Swinging on a playground swing makes me dizzy. I should have known.
But I hadn't so much as seen a merry go round for years, so instead of thinking, I climbed on. Holding tight, I waited for that feeling I remembered as a child. The exhilaration of spinning faster than you think possible, the pull of the centrifugal force,
the crazy, giddy swirl of colors and sounds.
But we weren't going fast enough. The girls just weren't cutting it.
Summons the strapping young men! I recall issuing a command to spin us faster.
And they did.
And then I remembered the feelings that come shortly after the exhilarating part.
The terrifying dread of being flung to the ground, of closing your eyes tightly,
shutting out the spinning images, and praying you won't be sick.

I believe I yelled something to the effect of, "please, stop this thing NOW or I'm going to be sick!"
It seemed to take ages for things to stop swirling, and I felt very sick and out of sorts for quite some time afterwards. I think my brain was addled. Haha...

So, now you know. And reliving the moment has made me feel yucky.
May you learn from my mistake.

Random Thoughts

I'm gonna have to get one of these so I can listen to these podcasts. I mean, I guess I could listen to them sitting at the computer, but I'm usually doing something... That would be perfect for when I'm ... doing something.

I went to update my facebook status, and there were so many things I wanted to put! Instead I just wrote "Caitlin has lots of ideas for status messages."
This is what they are:

• Caitlin is happy.
• Caitlin had a fun night with her friends.
• Caitlin wishes she could actually PLAY her guitar, instead of just messing around on it.
• Caitlin is going to Stone Mountain with a bunch of young girls tomorrow.
• Caitlin had a great day.
• Caitlin wants to crochet something new.
• Caitlin drank too much coffee.
• Caitlin still isn't satisfied with her profile pic.
• Caitlin is looking forward to Sunday.

Of course, I could come up with more.

And I've been getting NO comments at all on Caitlinesque lately.

For some reason, this is double spacing my lines all of a sudden.

Um... Well, this was totally random. And I hope you have a good weekend.

:D

Love, Me

New Things!

I finally got caught up on custom orders, so I've been able to do a little creating lately! Hooray!
I went to Michael's and bought 3 new colors for scarflings. Red, green, and blue.
I made two red ones and a green one already. Haven't gotten to the blue yet.
So pretty!
Yesterday I whipped up this lovely black beanie from that big ole bunch of yarn I bought and haven't used yet. I guess I've been scared to use it because it's wool. I like washable things, and I have no idea how to take care of wool. It says hand wash and lay flat to dry. But what if something terrible happens? What if you drop your gorgeous wool hat in a mud puddle? What then?!

Anyways, Today I finished this gorgeous green scarfling. It turned out shorter than the red one, even though it's the same number of stitches. I guess it wanted to be original.

I enjoy taking the photos. I'm not an expert, but I generally like how they turn out. Of course, I usually take at least 50 shots of one thing just to get 5 to post on Etsy.
Oh, and did you know that it's hard to tie a headband around a foam head wearing a wig? Really. It's harder than it ought to be. It has no ears, so placement is a little hard, and then the stupid wig wants to slip around, and the hair won't look right... It took forever to get the thing adjusted.

I also took pics of some blue slippers to make a listing for custom ones. And ALL of my slipper pics turned out bad. This was the best one. I had to adjust the color a lot, and then the background turned out super-funky-neon-green. That's not how it's supposed to be! Guess I'll try again. Whatever!
You know what?
This post seems really boring to me.
Maybe you will like it.

And if you don't, let me know, and I'll post one of those survey-question thingies that I filled out this evening. Although that's probably not any more interesting.

Oh! I just made a sale while I was typing this! Cool.
Have a happy day. :)
Caiti

Lessons from the Life of Caitlin

Monday is now Life Lessons day. (insert applause)
Every Monday, I will be sharing with you something I have learned from experience. And, please, this is Caitlinesque, don't expect anything too deep. Maybe I should start doing one serious post a week, too, or something.

But anyways, I'm not really liking my title for this weekly installment. I want it to be catchy... What do you think?

So! Life Lesson for Week #1:

~Strawberry shampoo does not taste as good as it smells~
It's true. As a matter of fact, it tastes pretty darn nasty. It just doesn't make sense for something to smell so amazing, and not be palatable.

As a small child, I loved strawberry shampoo. Oh, it smells so yummy. I knew I shouldn't taste it, because it wouldn't be good. I'd accidentally tasted soap before, and it was nasty. Then, someday when I was relatively older, quite old enough to resist the temptation (but not recently... I don't remember when), I just had to see what it did taste like. I knew it wouldn't be good. And it was nasty. Of course.

But now I know. And now you know.
No matter how good it smells, don't taste the strawberry shampoo.
And since I couldn't find a picture of Little Me taking a bubble bath, here's a picture of me looking scary in a floaty suit.

-Me

I bought lots of yarn today.
Now to find the time to use it!
That, and that other big box full of yarn still under my bed... lol

I'm making a red scarfling. It'll be cute. I'm gonna make a green one, too. For Christmas or whatever. And I need to make some sparkly metallic ones.

Somebody just won some of my slippers from a giveaway on this blog!
There's gonna be another giveaway including one of my products coming up soon on this blog.
And I googled my shop, and found my slippers somewhere. Sweet. I've done that a couple times. Those crazy lil slippers are a hit!

In other good news, I'm finally going to church tomorrow! ha! I've missed Sunday mornings at church 3 weeks in a row. Ready to be back. :D Yay!

I'm enjoying hanging out at my Mema's house this weekend. I'm not getting a lot done, and you know what? That's just fine.

I'm out of shipping envelopes.
Oh dear.

Um...
I have this feeling I was supposed to write something interesting.
Oh well!

Wait! I thought of something.
The reason I missed church last Sunday. To see these girls. God has given me the most amazing friends. I'm blessed that they're in my life, and so thankful I get to be a part of theirs. I LOVE YOU GIRLS!!

Bekka, Sarah, Becca, Quinn, Yours Truly

This has been a random, sporadic, totally irrelevant post from Caitlin.
Have a good night.
love,
me!

How about an update?

Okay, so maybe it's not that cool to you, but just check out all this praise! I've been featured on a super blog again, and ... well, there's just nothing quite like 100+ comments praising your work. Really.

And I get all that just for sending a cute hat to somebody! And then sending some slippers to one lucky person.

Of course, praise doesn't do much good unless I'm making sales, too. Which I am. Record breaking. Not earth-shattering, thankfully.

Breaking a small personal record is quite exciting enough for now, thanks.

I'm thinking about trying to take a break from custom orders for a little while, and build up some inventory. I don't know if that would slow sales too much, or help out in the long run. It would certainly ease a little stress for a while. You know, to have some time to just chill and create whatever I please. (I still have a huge stash of wool that I haven't done a thing with.) Not that I'm complaining about making 6 pairs of yellow slippers in a few days time. lol.

Enough Etsy ramble.

In case you're wondering, I still love my job at preschool.

I am very thankful that I didn't get what I wanted to begin with.
I wanted 4 days, and I got 2.
I was disappointed, but now I see that it's exactly what I needed. 2 days leaves me with enough time to work on etsy, and ... well, do whatever it is that I do.
And somehow, even those 2 little mornings are tiring. :P But see this cuteness? The frustration of flying wood chips, biting children, and smashed up goldfish is nothing in comparison.
...
Or comparatively insignificant, anyhow. ha!

Lest I sound too saintly here, I admit I got pretty fed up today. But the "bye bye, Miss Caitin! See you latah!" at noon really makes things a lot better.

A random thought :
I wonder if any of those parents ever walk in and see me, thinking, "That's the teacher? Why have they got a child watching my kids?!"


Well, there's been more going on, but that's all for now. :)
Hopefully I'll be back soon.
<3
Caiti

Life is crazy.

I feel like I'm being attacked by my life!
Or, more appropriately, bear-hugged, and suffocated in the process. I like bear hugs, but sometimes a girl needs some room to breathe! Tons of good things keep happening. Etsy sales, custom orders, opportunities to hang out with friends, that conference I went to all this past week that is finally over...

Oh, that conference made it hard to do other stuff. But it was so great. Turns out, I'm not emotionally damaged, but hopefully now I know how to help people who are. :P And I got to know Anna Leigh and Joe a lot better, which was awesome. There's nothing quite like playing hooky and eating cookies during a less-important session. And I only got one picture from all that time we spent goofing around and learning important stuff.




Commentary: as I write, I'm singing "Taylor the Latte Boy" in my head.

I have a little less than three hours til time to leave my comfy home for more craziness. Gotta pick Laura up from work, then we're heading to douglasville to visit some cool people (you know who you are!) and go to church with them tomorrow. I'm so excited! ... Although I forgot my excitement momentarily as I stood watching 50 dollars be drained out of my account into the van at the pump this morning. lol - but hey, I'm praising the Lord that gas prices are lower than they have been lately, and that I'm able to drive to do fun stuff to begin with. :D

So, I ought to be packing. Speaking of packing makes me think of clothes, which makes me remember that I'm annoyed with Chadwick's. Girls, when you shop at Chadwick's online, pay no attention to their sizing charts. They're WRONG. I had to exchange my whole order.
And in other girly news, I still haven't found any new boots for the season. But that's ok. Turns out, so far I'm doing fine without them. ha!
You know that bear hug I was talking about? It kept me from being able to babysit this precious guy today. I think I could use a little time just to chill and play with some Play-Doh.

And... I could probably keep blogging, but I need to go. Here's another picture for ya!
-Caiti

Top o' the Mornin' to You

Good morning, fellow human beings!
After a weekend of sickness, I finally feel like myself again. Hooray!

I don't believe I have ever begun a post that way before.

Anyways, I was sad to miss church yesterday, but I got my required rest, and am feeling much better today. Quite in good spirits, I assure you. I believe I'm going to have myself a cup of coffee while I update. After my update, I have tons of crocheting to tackle, and I'm looking forward to it.
So, let's do a recount of positive things so far this morning, shall we?
1) I'm well!
2) I started a post in an unusual sort of way. (I wasn't going to include that, but I changed my mind)
3) COFFEE! Finally. I didn't have any while I was sick. mmmm yum.
4) I'm in a cheerful sort of mood. That's always nice.
5) Blogging usually makes me happy somehow, too.
6) I have goals set for the day, and the motivation to accomplish them.
7) I read TONS of Calvin and Hobbes before I went to bed last night. Although I guess that really doesn't have a lot to do with today.

And now, for the icing on the cake. Sweet pampering of vanity! An awesome feature about me and my shop on the Wishing Willow blog. Check it out!

Wishing Willow is so great. It's a super blog, featuring all sorts of artists and crafters, run by the talented husband and wife team, Nate and Tara.

The creative labor behind Wishing Willow's unique look and feel is a team effort. While I oversee the product selection, correspondence with designers, layout and site management, my husband Nate handles the writing of the features themselves. My pleasure in this process comes not only from finding and featuring new artists and designers, but also from enjoying my husband's crafting of words on a daily basis. Wishing Willow, for me, is a showcase not only of your work, but of his as well.

Correspondence with Tara has been a delight, and her husband's way with words is beautiful to behold.

And so, I feel like I'm cutting what could end up to be a long, rambly post very short, but I must go. Dear little Ben is waiting to play his racing game. ;-) And this is random, but my other brothers are in their room singing "Don't Let Go" with Josh Groban. O_o haha!
Also - apologies for the lack of pictures. I know pictures make the post sometimes, but for today, words will have to suffice.

-Oh look! A random picture of me. Maybe that will partially make up for the lack of pictures. =P

**waves goodbye**

At Barbara's House

"Hello! I'm at Barbara's house! ... in a petticoat! ...
**giggles** ... hey, what is a petticoat?"

I hear the strangest bits of conversation around here sometimes. Above was issued by my 8 year old sister Emmie.

I am tired. And have lots to do. And am getting little of it done. Dear Etsy customers, forgive me. Life is gaining on me. I'm working on your stuffs, I promise, I am.

Guess what?
I made cute slippers a while back. (during a break from custom orders) Pixie slippers. Or at least, I like to call them pixie slippers. I made them rather biggish. Maybe someone out there with biggish feet will like them. I like them.

And then I decided to try my hand at a scarflette with the
remaining green yarn. It, too, turned out satisfactory, though also a little on the big side. Next time I'll make it a couple inches shorter.

M.S. (mid-script) I made my 100th Etsy sale today.

And I'm getting close to the end of To Kill a Mockingbird. 'S'good.
I could really use a cup of coffee and a brownie or something.

Tomorrow's going to be crazy busy, too.
Maybe Friday will be a little more low-key. I could use a little low-key after today.
I could also use some sleep.

Did you know I like my friends? I do. They're nice.
So is rest.
Good night. :)

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