Favorite {Photo} Friday--Cranberries

Our sweet neighbors Steve and Roxanne always invite over all the "misfits" they know who don't have anywhere else to go for Thanksgiving; isn't that so lovely? My parents often did that when I was growing up and now I get to experience it from the other side. :) And how convenient for us that it was right across the street! :)

We had a great group of ten of us and Roxanne cooked up a feast. Yummmmmm! Her friend Becky made this gorgeous dessert and I couldn't help playing with my 50 mm lens. It's not a fabulous photo, but I'm learning about my lens and I loooove cranberries and the color red, so this is so luscious to me!


I hadn't slept well the night before, so add in a big meal and some Tryptophan and I was falling asleep at the table after dessert! So I went over to the couch and fell asleep; Roxanne covered me up with a nice blanket and the kitties came to cuddle me... what is better than that, I ask you? I'm still laughing that I even did it because it's so unlike me, but it just goes to show how comfortable I am with all our neighbors!

I don't like shopping during the best of times, let alone during busy times; I'm also, ahem, not a morning person. In short, there's no way in hell you would catch me getting up at 4 a.m. to fight the hordes on Black Friday! When I rolled over and saw the time was 9 a.m. I laughed and thought, "Some crazy people have been shopping for four hours already, I'm so glad I was sleeping instead." Ha ha. :) :) How about you, did you score any deals that will make me wish I got out of bed on Friday? Or just have fun watching people act insanely? I'd love to hear about it! :) Leave me a comment! :)

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and are having a great long weekend!

Black Friday

My friend Erin wrote to me early this week to let me know that she'd be featuring me in a Handmade for the Holidays post and wanted to know if I'd be offering any Black Friday deals that she should mention. Well, I hadn't even thought about it, but since she mentioned it I decided to!

So I wanted to let my loyal blog readers know about it! :) I'll be offering free shipping, plus a free pair of earrings with any purchase of $65 or more. I want to post a photo of the earrings I'll be giving away, but my schedule today just got changed for me so I have to run and don't have time right now, so I'll add the photo to this post later this evening. Plus, I'll be discounting several of my currently listed items, and those will be first-come, first-served... once they are gone, they'll be gone! So shop early on Friday! :)

Some notes about the deals:

Free Shipping, part 1: It's a lot of work/time to go into every item and remove the shipping charges, so I'm going to *refund* the shipping charges to you... in other words, go ahead and make your purchase, pay for it, and then I will refund you the amount you paid for shipping.

Free Shipping, part 2: If you *really* don't want to do that, then send me an e-mail or convo on etsy before you order and I'll set up a special listing for you without the shipping charges.

Free Earrings: If your purchase amount (w/o shipping, obviously) is over $65, I will automatically include the free pair of earrings, you don't need to do anything.

Discounted Items: Prices for the items I'm going to discount will already be discounted, go ahead and purchase as normal.

Let me know if you have any questions, and I'll be back later to answer them and post a photo of the free earrings. :) Thanks so much!

Updated: I was too busy during the daylight hours today to take photos of the earrings so I'll put the photo up tomorrow before we head over to the neighbors'! :) Thanks!

Updated again: My camera is apparently annoyed with me today and I'm not getting what I want, but I need to go get ready to head over to the neighbors so here's the best I could get for now! :)


You can choose what, if anything, you'd like dangling from the fused circle. Shown from left to right are natural pearl, pink pearl, dark peacock pearl, gray pearl, crystal, and no dangle.


Indicate in "Notes to Seller" during checkout which pair you'd like. If you don't let me know you'll receive the plain loops with no dangle. These are fun little earrings that can go with anything! If you don't place a $65+ order and would just like to buy the earrings, I'll have them available on the site after this weekend for $16 per pair.

Thanks so much for looking and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Favorite {Photo} Friday--In Search of Photobooths

It seems like years ago that I went to Orlando to visit Lori and go to CHA, but it was only the end of July! The past week or so I've been itching to work on my mini-book for Orlando and then Anke posted some of her photos from that weekend on Facebook, so I decided to go through my photos and start to pare them down to edit and send them to print. Looking at the photos I was reminded of a funny common theme so I thought I'd post some of them for this week's Favorite {Photo} Friday!

[Note: I could go on and on and on about how I met Lori, how we became friends, how my trip to visit her was serendipitious in eight ways and totally needed in eight zillion ways not even known when we booked the trip, how much she means to me, how much I love her and her friend Anke, how I want to move into a cul-de-sac with them both as my neighbors, and how I'm already plotting my next visit with them... but it's 10 p.m. on Friday and I need to get this posted so I can spend some time with my husband! So here is the quick & dirty version, okay? :) Keeping in mind of course that I'm neither very quick nor very dirty, but we're speaking comparatively, okay?]

[Also note: click on any of the photos to view them larger.]

So: When we were in Orlando Lori took me to Cafe Tu Tu Tango. They had a photo booth and we thought it would be super fun to get our photos taken after dinner, so we scrounged up enough coins and sat down to take our photos and had a blast.

And then we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

No photos. We asked inside and they told us that it happens sometimes; they gave us our money back, but we were still disappointed.

So I decided that we should take our own photos in the photo booth! So we sat in the photo booth and I held up my little pocket camera about where the camera was and snapped four quick photos.

Tonight as I was going through the photos I found these four photos and decided to try to make my own photo strip with them, so a Google search came to the rescue and I found this post with a free Photoshop template and brief tutorial (assuming you 1) have Photoshop Elements and 2) sort of already know how to use it) to make a photo booth strip! Hooray!


Isn't this CUTE for a faked photo booth strip? [So yeah, I know I did something wrong and the proportions are a little off, but it makes us look thinner, so pretend you didn't notice, mmmm'kay? Thanks!]

Then we went to CHA and the DCWV booth had a photo booth! So of course we snapped up the chance to have our do-over and get our photo strip. But it didn't come out as a strip, and it had advertising in the middle.


So we were still excited, and the photos are cute, aren't they? And I love how the bottom corners of each photo are rounded, but the top corners are square... sort of random and cool! But it wasn't quite the same. We were banking on Photoshop to help us out when we got home.

And then, randomly, we decided to go back to Cafe Tu Tu Tango because Claudine had an hour or so to go out to lunch with us, and it was close by and yummy.

As we walked in, I happened to look down and spot this:


It printed out! Who knows how long after we left, and I'm actually surprised it was still there and didn't get thrown out or stapled to the abandoned photo wall (yes, they have an abandoned photo wall!).

In any event, I'm so glad that we have three different versions of photo booth photos! :)

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Lots and lots and lots and lots going on this weekend! My day tomorrow is full to overflowing and Sunday I need to catch up on a ton of Etsy orders--HOORAY! I have a TON to share (with photos, even!) and I'm hoping to fit it in at some point very soon. Fingers crossed.

Have a great weekend!

Gratitude Project 2009 Day 7

I am thankful for/that:

1. I had a great lunch date with my neighbors.
   
2. I learned about a restaurant in my town that we've never been to.
   
3. I found out about a very cute shop in my town that I didn't know about before that has really cute gift items.
4. I picked up a great gift for someone, which is a big relief because I had no idea what I was going to get for her!
5. Jeans. Especially ones that fit.
   
6. When John saw what I was making for dinner he asked Jason, "Hey, what did I just say that I was craving when we were at work?" And Jason said, "Cameron's curry chicken." I love that John actually craves what I cook! :)
7. Both Jason and John are super easy to cook for and happily eat whatever I make, and are appreciative, to boot!
8. New wire cutters that will save me a lot of time filing, hooray!
9. My stock of silver & jewelry supplies so that whenever I get an idea I can (usually) work on it right away rather than having to wait for an order to come in.
10. Checks arriving in the mail.
11. Brand names aren't a big deal to me.
12. My Moka stove-top espresso pot that allows me to make my own cappuccinos.
13. My creative confidence that allows me to look at something and think, "I can make that."
14. Actually making it! :)
15. And it's better than the original version!
16. My 50mm 1.4 lens. Yummmm.
17. I get to see John's wife and kids tomorrow when we all meet at their office for lunch; I haven't seen them in forever!
18. Plans for Saturday with fun, fun people.
19. Jason has a job he loves.
20. I have soooo much to be thankful for!!
    

Gratitude Project 2009 Day 6

I can't believe that today is already Day 6!! This has flown by... just one more example of 2009 being the fastest year ever for me. Zoooooooooom!

Thanks to everyone who sent me messages about my headache yesterday... I'm happy to say that I'm feeling much better! See my #1 on my list below. :)

I'm working on a ton of new jewelry designs, including a bunch of bracelets and some necklaces that are different than anything I've offered before. I'm hoping to have time on Thursday to take photos so look for new uploads to my Etsy this weekend!

I am thankful for/that:

1. After two muscle relaxers and ten hours of sleep, I woke up without a headache!
2. I have a doctor with whom I can communicate; when I first met him I brought in my entire medical history and he listened to me and asked questions and then prescribed me what I wanted (muscle relaxers, among other things). I do NOT abuse them but they are there when I really need them and I appreciate his trust in me. Being a military spouse, I've had a lot of different doctors, so I know when I've found a good one. :)
3. My 4x6" Epson photo printer. The quality is as good as any lab, and it's right here in my studio, ready whenever I need prints!
4. Jason might have just saved us $200 a month. My fingers are still crossed that it will actually happen!
5. I can buy whatever I want at the grocery store. Obviously I don't go crazy buying filet mignon and lobster or anything, but I really, really appreciate that I can buy whatever I want when I'm grocery shopping.
6. More and more people are joining the Gratitude Project! It's never too late... if you happen to see this post in a year and a half, feel free to join in!!! Any time is a good time to feel gratitude. :)
7. My analytical mind. I really love analyzing things and I may spend too much time doing so at times, but it's just because I love the process! I love thinking up ways to solve things, ways to measure things... I think I should have been a statistician. :)
8. We've been investing since before we were married when it was painful to invest. We're still investing now when our dollars are buying a lot more than they were a couple years ago. I'm so thankful that we've been able to do this and adjust our spending habits to continue to do it.
9. E-mail messages about how much people love the gifts they've received that I've created.
10. The tablecloth came clean! When we moved here from Italy our Italian packers (two brothers and their dad) packed some of our furniture in what they considered to be junk blankets. One of these "junk blankets" was actually a hand cross-stitched tablecloth with someone's initials on it! It was totally covered in grease and grime and had obviously been used to move many, many items previously; there are even some holes in it. But I just couldn't bear to part with it, since someone obviously spent a lot of time on it! So I spot-treated it, soaked it, and washed it in OxyClean, and you know what? It came clean! So I'm going to repair what I can and use it as a table cloth once again! I hope someone asks me about it, I can't wait to tell them. :)
11. Everyone who donates to the arts and enables children to experience and learn about art. I hope more and more people realize how important this is!!! It should be mandatory in schools.
    
12. Honesty over saving face.
13. Faith.
14. Scarves; big puffy scarves and thin silk scarves.
    
15. Deep, deep, deep breaths.
16. Friends who will go the distance.
17. A possible Love Bomb weekend--oh please, oh please!!!
18. The process of journaling.
    
19. Knowing my worth.
20. Not giving in just for the sake of giving in.

Gratitude Project 2009 Day 5

I have a killer headache today (going on eight hours), so this list is a little lame, and still it took me all day to come up with 20 things. But I guess the good news is that I spent the time focusing on what I'm thankful for instead of all the things I could be focused on instead. :)

Before I get to the list, here are a couple photos from the FDR Memorial, where we took my Dad on Saturday before we went to the airport. I love the FDR Memorial! It's not what you think of when you think of a normal memorial... it's set up as a series of rooms you walk through, each room representing one of his terms. There are sculptures in each room and FDR quotes engraved into the walls; it's very powerful, and all of the quotes are still applicable today.


And a cute little squirrel eating berries. :)


I'm thankful for/that:

1. Neither Bush is president anymore.
2. Tylenol.
3. I don't get headaches every day (or even very often).
4. I'm not really scared of bugs or spiders.
5. There are a lot of people I can call on when I need to cry, complain, or rant. (I call different people depending on which it is and what it's about, lol!)
6. Conversations that make me feel 10 times better and 100 times lighter than I did before.
7. Soft places to fall.
8. Our insurance's mail-order prescription company which is not only cheaper and easier than the local pharmacy, but they call to ask if I want to get my next shipment!
9. Crushed ice.
10. Honeycrisp apples.
11. Naps.
12. Not one but TWO planned outings with girlfriends this week!
13. Love Actually, which is quite possibly my favorite movie of all time. Just thinking about it makes me smile.
14. Making a joke that makes me laugh out loud and crack myself up! Even if I'm the only one laughing, LOL! :)
15. Watching Ellen give money away.
16. I don't have to worry about Jason getting deployed anymore.
17. Jason and John went to the store for me when they got home and found out I had a headache so I hadn't gone yet.
18. Muscle relaxers.
19. Digital cameras.
20. Photoshop.

Jilliene put Day 5 up and Cynthia decided to play along, too!

Gratitude Project 2009 Day 4

Wow, we have a logo now! Thanks to Paula! :)

I am thankful for/that:

1. My friend Kellie had her baby! Carli was born yesterday and mama and baby are safe and sound!
   
2. For once I'm caught up on my book clubs! One of my clubs doesn't meet in December and the other one will meet while I'm gone, so I don't have another club meeting until January, which means I get to read whatever I want for a while!!
3. Jason is off riding motorcycles with friends today, which means I get most of the day to myself, the perfect day for an introvert who just had a house guest! :)
4. Greek yogurt... it's sooooo good!
5. Cherry Coke Zero; I know I shouldn't, and I try not to drink much soda, but it's such a guilty pleasure!
6. Cycles can be broken, and knowing that it's a cycle is half the battle.
7. Learning from others' mistakes.
8. I don't have much bad food in the house, because if I did I'd eat it all today. I'm especially craving gummy bears and Doritos, neither of which I ever keep in the house. If I really really want to buy something but I don't, I think of it as "saving" money; the same applies to food I really really want to eat but don't--think of the calories I just "saved"! :)
   
9. Hummus.
10. Our house didn't flood during the recent storm (unlike some friends in Virginia Beach!). :(
11. I got to hear my niece on the phone today and she made me laugh--gwocka wocka wocka means gorilla, apparently. :)
12. Jason came home safely from his motorcycle ride and he had a great day.
13. Jason cuddles me every night as I go to sleep; even if I come in to bed after he's already asleep, he'll usually wake up enough to cuddle me. :)
14. I'm never bored. I have far too many interests to ever be bored, and my brain is too active. When I used to run I'd think up math problems to solve while I ran, just to keep myself occupied while I ran. See? Never bored.
    
15. The new vacuum that Jason got me, which is soooo much better than my old one.
16. Burt's Bees lip balms.
17. L.L. Bean Wicked Good Slippers.
    
18. Patience.
19. Hot baths.
20. Soft, fluffy towels.
    

In addition to the people I linked to yesterday, here are some new ones (either new people or new posts)! Click on the name for the main blog page, and each Day for a direct link to that post. Zanne (Day 1); Katherine (Day 1, Day 2); Sooz (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3); Jilliene put Day 3 up last night and Day 4 this morning; Katie posted Day 2 today.