Ten Days of Listings

What started as a plan to post an item a day for 7 days turned into 10 new items in my shop!
I skipped Sundays.
Here's how it went down:

Thursday, January 7th


Friday, January 8th



Saturday, January 9th


Monday, January 11th


Tuesday, January 12th


Wednesday, January 13th


Thursday, January 14th


Friday, January 15th
January 15th

Saturday, January 16th


Monday, January 18th

Thanks to good lighting on the 14th, I was able to take pictures of all the scarves I already had, subsequently allowing me to continue listing things without having to make anything new. ;-)

YAY!

Grass and Sticks

Yes, this post is about grass and sticks. Sort of. Since we took our Christmas decorations down, the walls and mantle have seemed really bare and sad. Mama put me in charge of making the mantle pretty again. She gave me a couple other things to do, too. The other things didn't get done til the last minute in the evening because I spent the WHOLE afternoon on this one project.

Benjamin and I went out in the woods and foraged for pretty things. Sweetgum balls, pretty sticks and grasses, curly vine things... It was a lot of fun. I filled a glass lamp base with the sweetgum balls, and made a pretty natural arrangement with grasses and star shaped seedpods in a mason jar. I would post a picture, but our living room is so dark I can't get a good shot of the mantle. Maybe I'll try again eventually.


After the lamp and the mason jar, I got a little overzealous and built this really tall arrangement in a gooorgeous glass jug. (That jug was on the porch when we moved in! It just needed some washing.) After meticulously arranging the whole thing, I went to put it on the mantle and discovered it was way too tall. Unless I wanted to smoosh it. Which I didn't. So now it has a lovely home on the piano.

Those berries were actually just sitting on the piano beside the pictures before I put them in the arrangement. I found them lying on the ground at the park last week!

Then I had the problem of a big open space on the mantle where I had been going to put that jug. The kids told me that we already owned a similar but smaller one somewhere. I went rummaging downstairs again and found it! As of yet it has nothing in it, I tied a satin ribbon around it and set it on top of some books. Books make everything nicer!

So... there's my bit of show and tell for the day. :) More coming soon, as I'll have to show you all the wonderful things I posted in my shop this week!

Happy Saturday!

Caiti

A One-Time Deal

It was a cold, dark evening. My stomach felt a little nervous as I zipped my hoodie up higher and hugged myself, trying to keep warm. Laura was driving. Alicia was in the backseat, keeping us company. We pulled into the parking lot and turned the car off.

It was time.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," I said. Laura laughed. "It's okay. Plus, I'm doing it with you."
Not helpful.

Abruptly, I jumped out and shut the car door, making my way to the sidewalk as quickly as possible. My heart sank as I scoped out the people inside. We were at the door. It was too late to turn back. We went inside.

After that initial glance I kept my eyes to the ground, shuffling quickly to the back of the establishment. Again I muttered, "I can't believe I'm doing this." Again, Laura laughed at me. I ignored her and ducked between two shelves where no one could see me. Dissatisfied with the surrounding selection, I darted across the aisle to survey the other goods. Still not finding what I was looking for, and afraid of being called out, I started to panic.

I was rapidly declining into nervous breakdown mode when Alicia strode across the floor towards me, triumphantly holding the coveted rectangular object we'd all been searching for.
A wave of relief swept over me as we made our way back towards the door. I had done the unthinkable. Maybe it wasn't so bad after all.

One thing is for sure - I'm never going to Blockbuster (or any other public place) in my pajamas again.

From the Library

Hallo!

Our internet provider is wonky this week, so I'm at the library.

I was unable to post my item-of-the-day on Etsy yesterday. (see above for why)

So, here I am, at the library, posting it now.

I guess I could just say I was sticking with the tradition of not working on Sunday and not count it as a loss. :) That works. So, now I say that they are Monday's item and we're all good.

While I'm here, I'll add that I'm unhappy the library won't let me get on Facebook. :(

However, I am happy that I can check out a George Winston CD. They have a sad selection of music here (actually, they have a sad selection of everything here. I am not impressed.), but I did discover George Winston and Wynton Marsalis thanks to them.

Now, If you have any ideas on how to make my Etsy shop more successful without my having to spend gobs of money, your advice is much appreciated. I suppose I'm off to not check my facebook.

Happy Monday, folks.

Caitlin

25 things plus One

My friends kept tagging me for this "25 things about yourself" thing on Facebook. So I did it.
And now I'm sharing the results for you people in blog/email world to see, too.

1. Due to my open personality and strong tendencies toward honesty and transparency, I feel I have very few interesting/random things to share.

2. In 2009 I struggled with wondering if it's okay to just let go of dying friendships. ... I might still be struggling with that, actually. It's amazing how you think you'll be friends with someone for forever, and then you just... aren't.

3. I've lately held that the photography is going to be the most important part of my wedding (besides the groom, obviously). As long as there are gorgeous pictures at the end of it all, I'll be happy. lol

4. I'm a perfectionist. Which means when I try something and fail, I beat myself up. If I try again and fail, I give up. Which is why I'm not good at playing the guitar and why I can't even properly play beginner level piano anymore. Practicing and failing was just too miserable.

5. One day when I'm rich, I'm going to get microdermabrasion done on my face. Maybe lasik surgery, too. (the spell check doesn't know those words. lol)

6. I read The Prince by Machiavelli and liked it. And I felt guilty because I totally agreed with him.

7. I love socks and hate flip flops.

8. I like my feet.

9. I've never been out of the United States. That's going to change, though.

10. If I were a boy, I would have a crazy huge collection of ties and cuff links. Cuff links are the awesomest.

11. One day I was singing and thought to myself "wow. I don't sing nearly as well as I thought I did." and then I was sad.

12. One day I had another sad realization. I used to think I was pretty well-read. Then I realized I'm only well read in childrens' books and classics from the 1800's.

13. I'm an excellent cook. Not to toot my own horn or anything... :P

14. My life has a hole in it without a bird. :(

15. I really really want to learn French, but I feel guilty because I'm sure it would be a useless endeavor... you know, in light of the fact that nobody here speaks French, and why would I ever need to use it?

16. I am most definitely biased in favor of little boys. They're way funner and way cuter. That's just how it is.

17. I have mad eye-twitching skillz.

18. One day I'm going to turn all of my blog posts into a book. I wonder when one day is.

19. I never want to be too old and mature to color with crayons, skip down a hallway and sing made up songs.

20. I wish I could sing like regina spektor and hayley westenra. Whose voices are totally different, by the way.

21. Sometimes I wish I looked like Audrey Hepburn... and somebody else, but I can't remember who. But, actually, I like the way I look pretty well. I wouldn't really change my face, given the chance. :)

22. I don't like painting my fingernails. I have tried, and having colored fingertips always catches me off guard. And then they chip, and then they have to be redone, and it's just way too much work. However, I love having red toenails. *shrug*

23. I almost always spell guard wrong. It's funny the words that throw me off. I can spell microdermabrasion no problem. But guard and piece always get me. I want to switch the vowels.

24. Sometimes I still feel like a stupid failure because I never finished algebra.

25. If I call you a weirdo, it's like compliment. Seriously. It basically means "You're an interesting person, and I rather like you" in Caitlinese.

WOW! I thought of 25 things! It took way too long. :)

The "plus One" would be the first installment of my resolution to post a new item in my Etsy shop every day for 7 consecutive days. Behold:


So there you have it!
Now if you'll excuse me, my cell phone is ringing. :)
Bye!

Thoughts for 2010

So, the new year came in with fun times at the Looneys' house. Coffee, Apples to Apples, fireworks, and the best friends ever.

Upon inspection of my cards, I realized I had an excellent description of the perfect boyfriend.

Upon inspection of her cards, Katie realized she had an excellent description of a typical girlfriend. In case you can't read them: Complicated, Fantastic, Naive, and Phony.

We girls have a mantra for the new year. A little rhyming nugget of inspiration, if you will:

-God will send men in 2010-

I know you're so impressed, aren't you? lol So, I guess we can't dictate what God's going to do, but we can have some active faith going on, right? And it makes us laugh, and laughing is good. :)

Furthermore, my blogworld friend Jess inspired me to make an inspiration board.

I have made a small list in my head of things I would like to do this year. I made a small cork board tonight that I am going to add my resolutions, goals, and inspirations to. I encourage you to make one for yourself as well. Organize your goals and resolutions into an artistic visual piece...put it on the wall in a place you will look at every day. I have mine placed to the left of me as I sit at my desk.

Now to procure a corkboard. Or maybe I'll improvise with an unused poster frame I have. Oh, and lest I forget - some goals to fill it would be nice, too.
Let's see...

• A book a month - plus review/synopsis
• Write random kind notes
• Save a couple thousand dollars
• Read my Bible
• Consistently practice the guitar
  
• Maybe learn some French
  
• Drink more water

What else? I need an Etsy goal. None of those are really "whoa! noteworthy!", but I'm trying to keep it realistic and doable, but something I'll have reason to be proud of at the end of the year.

Ideas, people?

In the meantime, keep an eye out on my shop. I'm going to try to add a new item every day this week! I've already got 3 things finished, so watch for them!

Here's some new things you might not have seen.

Nothing like a good, stripey beanie!


What do you plan on doing this year?
-Caitlin