Turn Away

Disclaimer:
If you're not in the mood for a sunshiney, Caitlinesque post, now's the time to turn away because some "I could just hug the world" happiness is coming up.

I would like to start off by saying I'm starving, and all I've had today is coffee and a donut. Which has me a little excited but tired at the same time.

Next, I would like to say that choir practice this morning was da bomb. (allow me to channel my inner Randy Jackson for a moment.) There were still a couple rough spots, but we're gonna "blow it out da water" when the time comes. All for the glory of God, of course.

Also, I'm rather happy in general because my bestest-friend-in-the-whole-wide-world-for-as-long-as-I-can-remember is... **ahem**... in a relationship.

Or, to use a sometimes controversial/debatable term:
Courting.
**insert wide eyed gasp!**
And I'm, like, YAY!! Thrilled! (Yes, I sound stupid.)
So. Congratulations to my dear friend Katey and her nice fellow, Terry!
I think he's very lucky indeed.
Dunno what I'd do without my Katey. I know I've mentioned her quite a few times on this blog, and if you ever talk to me "in real life", I've probably mentioned her then too.
She's my anchor friend.
Other people come and go - that's just how life is - but Katey's always been there. And I guess I'll quit praising her so openly on my blog because that might make her uncomfortable.
( I know you're reading this. Hope you're ok with it. I'll take it down if you force me, but I thought everyone should know how great you are. lol)
See what a good friend I am?
Umm... Where was I? ...
Oh right. I've only met Terry a few times but I think he's great too. He makes a fantastic Earl Grey Latte.
May God bless their relationship and use it to bring them closer to Him!
So, yeah. I'm very happy for them, and looking forward to seeing how life is going to continue to surprise me...
:D

However, I would like to say that this has been FREAKY as well as cool.
Because, ... HELLO... this was supposed to happen in the future.
Who told the future it was time to show up?!
Rhetorical questions. Love em.

Tonight I'm going to hang out with more of my awesome friends and go eat horribly unhealthy, delicious food at the Varsity. Then we're going to the Atlanta Passion Play.
I love hot dogs.

The weather is terrible but I'm feeling so cheeryfull that it really doesn't matter.

I also got an email from my dear friend, Rae, who's getting married. It was pictures of her wedding dress and a status update on our bridesmaid dresses.
YAY!

Last night I succesfully reproduced this hat. Which I've been trying to do for ages.
And it already sold.
That's happy too!

Now I'm going to chillax, watch a movie with my family, and try to keep my feet warm.
Have a happy Saturday, dears.
<3
Caitlin

The Elfin Slipper Battle

The words "Finish Elfin Slippers" never made it onto paper yesterday.
The battle is over.
I defied the concrete importance of the written word for motivation.

**singsong**
Guess who feels accooooompliiiiished.
lol
**smug face**
Now to tweak my pattern so's I can make more of these without wanting to die.

P.S. I'm on Twitter now.

Life Lesson Monday

Today's Lesson is:

Set Goals

Sunday night, our pastor made note of how important it is to write your goals down on paper. It helps realize them. He cited some statistics saying people who clearly define and record their goals achieve exponentially more than those who do not.

I attempted a little research of my own just now and was unable to find any concrete statistics with which to impress you. However, I would have to agree that it's very helpful to make lists. There's something about a line of words on paper waiting to be "exed" off. (That's what I say. Exed. Like when you draw an X over something.)

Today, I had a mental goal:
To finish that stupid pair of slippers that has been haunting me this week.

Now I have a good explanation for not even attempting them today.
I didn't write it down.
Maybe I'll make a list tomorrow.

And now, I leave you with a picture of myself being sleepy and wearing my crooked glasses.

New Post!

I'm not read to write another post yet, but I didn't like knowing that grumpy post was the last one up.
I was still mostly grumpy til Saturday morning, but Saturday was lovely, as was today.

Current news:
Etsy sales are down. Way down.
I need a car. A lot.
Choir practice went well. The drama is soon.
I'm watching this documentary about a girl named Deborah.
I don't want to take a shower because it will undo all the hard work I did to straighten my hair.
This week is going to be CRAZY busy!!
I'm rather cheerful and optimistic. Probably because I haven't attempted to finish those troublesome slippers yet. Which I need to do before that dear customer gets upset.

I'm contemplating doing a giveaway, hoping it would promote sales.

Have a good week, people. :) I will be back for a life lesson tomorrow. If I can think of one. lol

Current Mood: Very Frustrated

Points of Frustration:

• I've been working on a pair of elfin slippers this week. (Why do I invent cool things that are hard to remake?!) I almost had them finished. I was very glad. Then I realized they're way too big.
• Disheartened, I began unraveling. After reworking one slipper, I found it much too small.
• I'm in the process of working this slipper for the third time. THIRD time. And by the time I've reworked something so many times, the tension of my stitches gets all wonky and then even if I get this slipper right, how will I ever get the second one right?!
• My eyes hurt. It feels like there's fuzz in my lenses.
• I'm seriously a caffeine addict. I need some caffeine. It's sad.
• We have to leave for choir practice in half an hour.
• I love choir practice, but I'm afraid I won't be able to kick off this discouragement and grumpiness, and it will make choir practice yucky too. Especially if I don't get a Coke or something.
• All my clothes are wrinkly. I need to change clothes and I don't want to iron anything.
• Last night I made a sale. I was so excited. Until I realized that I had listed the hat for $1.00 instead of $10.00.
• I took like 4 pictures on St. Patrick's Day before the camera died. I tried to upload the pics today. Gone. The card was blank. They disappeared.
• I need to go eat. I'm running out of time. I'm grumpy.

Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy.
**sigh** Be back when I'm feeling a little more chipper.

Life Lesson Monday

Today's Life Lesson:

If you order a small Earl Grey Latte, and end up with a large
because the barista messed up, be happy.
(not so very hard to do, obviously)

If you finish your large Earl Grey Latte and somebody gives you free pizza, be happy.
(also not so very hard to do.)

If you finish your pizza and want more Earl Grey Latte, be happy.
(hard to do. Because you really want more, since it was so delicious.)

If you go against your better judgment and decide to buy another small Earl Grey Latte,
and your sister picks that moment to pay you back for the drink you got her, be happy.
(again, not so very hard to do.)

If you get to the counter and the barista tells you not to pay because you can have their free drink for the day, be very happy.
(I don't even need to say that's not so very hard to do)

If you successfully consume this excessive amount of Earl Grey Latte within 2 hours,
you are probably going to have some side effects,
such as slight excitement and jitteriness.
This should enable your being-happy mechanism, and hopefully you can retain the joy throughout the rest of your day.

P.S. I love knowing the people who run Doug's Mugs! :D

Me at Doug's Mugs - only this picture is sort of a lie, because it's not from today.
It's from Saturday.
And Saturday I had an Apple Pie Steamer, and a Raspberry Cremosa.

The End.

This is Gimli

And me.
We wish you a happy week.

HelloGoodbye

Hello!
I'm leaving.
I'm going to spend some time with my favorite katies this evening.
I'm super excited.
And I'm wearing a purple shirt.
I'm having one of those "I think I could hug the world" moments.
I'm so lame.
And I love it.

I hope you have as good a day as I'm having.
Bye!
<3
me

Keepin' em and Breakin' em

Records!
I'm learning how to keep records. yay! I spent a couple hours today downloading CSV files (thank you, Etsy, for keeping track of my sales so I don't have to, and compiling the info into neat little files I can load into Excel!), fixin' up my spreadsheets, adding up receipts, totaling profits, and making sure things are in order. GO ME! When tax season comes next year, figuring out my Etsy stuff should be a breeze. Or let's hope so anyways.

As for breaking them, I've never had this many items in my shop at once.
31 as of right now.
Record broken. (not that I've actually been counting... )

Today I listed a couple of new beanies.

Oh, and I finished those black elfin slippers. And wrote the pattern down so I can make more.

And I guess that wraps up today's update. Just wanted to share my little triumphs of the day.
:)
Happy Wednesday!
Caitlin

Life Lesson Monday

Dear Readers,

Your lesson this Monday is very practical indeed. I wish you all to take to heart this bit of advice that will help you avoid potentially painful conflict in the future. Put it into practice at once and you will find your path clearer and your way unobstructed.

By now you are doubtless wondering what wisdom this is that I wish to impart to you this Monday evening. What I suggest to you with all earnestness is this:

Please, do try to ensure that you are without a doubt fully awake before exiting your bedroom.

Unless you happen to be gifted with that amazing ability to avoid obvious wall, doorframes, furniture, and other obstacles which inflict bodily injury when collided with while in a half conscious state of mind.

I do not happen to be one of those people, and I have experienced the wisdom of this life lesson many a time on the wrong end.

Awake enough to get out of bed, open the door, and speak coherently does not equate being awake enough to avoid the corner of the wall and hallway you are faced with upon exiting your room.

Thank you for listening. I have little hope of applying this principle consistently, myself, but I hope you may recall it in times of drowsiness and save yourself from the consequences.

Thank you,
Miss Caitlin

P.S. To those of you who, like me, think you are awake enough to function only to find yourself incorrect in that assumption, do not despair. There is hope. Usually the impact of hitting a large unmoving object (or stepping on a small, sharp object), is enough to call the mind into complete wakefulness.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel!

Ok, so I'm nowhere near Rapunzel, but my hair is growing!
And I'm so happy about it, that I decided to do a blog post and show off.

This is me in July, when my hair was red and the shortest it's ever been.
I loved it like that.
So fun!

This is me today, and my hair is blonde. And I need to color it again.
It's growiiiiing!!!
My roots are getting very long, and I want my hairs back to their natural color.
I look like a hobbit!
:D
And I'm wearing my favorite little bird earrings in both shots.


You could have seen these pics in vibrantly edited color, but alas!
Picnik would not behave.

On a totally random note, I'm eating a PB&J and some yogurt. Yum.
Grape jam! My favorite!
What's your favorite?

Last Weekend

Time for
...**drumroll**...
A picture post!

Obviously we didn't go to Six Flags on Saturday because of the weather.
They didn't open anways. :)
I had a wonderful productive weekend at home, making 9 hats and 2 pairs of slippers.
Behold! The fruits of my labor!

These are way cooler in person. Nine excellent, buttery soft cotton beanies.
Well, 8 beanies and one hat that was supposed to be a beanie, and turned out floppy instead.
Perfect for the upcoming spring and summer weather.
You know how I mentioned wanting to make a hat to wear to six flags? This is it.
Now I have to pick which one I want to keep.

I think I want the super amazing most colorful stripey one.
(the fifth picture)
:D

These aren't the slippers I made, but I've had them forever and finally got them listed:

Elfin Slippers!

I'm going to sit down with them tonight and give them a good lookin' over so I can figure out how I did that. Somebody in France wants a black pair, and I don't remember how I made them.

Now I thought perhaps you might like to see some of the pictures from Sunday.

Pine Needles

Dogwood Tree

Archway

Hungry Birds

Frozen Daffodil

Lovely, eh?
If you'd like to see the rest, try this link.

So! I think that's enough pictures for now.
Goodbye!

Ramblings on a Snowy Day

Hello friends!

At the moment, this blog post doesn't have a name. When I have a topic for a blog post, or it's Monday, I know what the title should be. This time, I'm just sitting down to write because I feel like rambling. Since I don't even know what I'm going to ramble about, it's hard to pick a title. Unless I just christen it "Ramblings" but I think I've done that before.

Please excuse me a moment while I fetch some hot cocoa.
Mmm... creamy, chocolatey goodness.
So perfect with the beautiful snow outside.

That's right. Snow! It's so cool! I've only seen big fluffy flakes falling like this once in my life before. How sad is that. (or at least, only once that I remember) All the other snow has been "Wait! there goes one! ..." "Well, the forecaster did say "chance of flurries!"
It's funny to have snow today. Yesterday I went for a walk in 70 degree sunshine and blue skies.
I'll bet the northerners have fun laughing at us Georgians for holing up as soon as any form of ice shows up on the weather channel. :D

Due to the weather, choir practice and evening service for tonight are cancelled. This makes me sad. However, I intend to fully enjoy this afternoon. If only I had another BBC drama to curl up and watch! It'd be even better if I could be with my crazy friends who love to watch BBC dramas with me. (such as like Katey and Katie...) We could practice our fake accents together. Sometimes when we're together, we just start talking in our Elizabeth Bennet accents and don't even realize we're doing it til Mrs. Lisa tells us to knock it off. Movie nights are the best.

My yellow lemon drop earrings are missing.

Yesterday I was sitting on the back porch watching the clouds. One of them looked like a heart.
And it's fun to think maybe God made that cloud look like a heart just to make me smile. He might not have, but it's possible. And whether or not it was just for me, it's still good to recognize pretty little things you might not have noticed, but did, and be thankful for them.

I noticed lately that when you look at things with God, He shows you lots of little stuff that you would have passed over if it were just you.

Well, I'm done with my cocoa, and the urge to ramble has been satiated, so I'm off to take some picture. I suppose those will be for my next post. :)

Have a pleasant Sunday.
me