New photos and nerdiness

We had a temporary slowdown for a couple of days of our Etsy sales which gave me some time to take some new pictures of stuff. I had been meaning to take some better pictures of these Sterling Silver Celtic Hearts and Swirls Earrings. While I was outside on our backporch taking pictures the kids came out. Henry starting picking flowers and laying them around them jewelry and said I should take the pictures with the flowers to "make the earrings more beautiful".Once again the boy was right. Usually I find these types of pictures too busy but I think it works! And it has gotten a lot more views than it used to with the old pictures.

What is this industrious man doing? Mixing up his peanut butter of course with his Ryobi cordless drill .

And why,you may ask as others have asked of late who have gone to into our bathroom, is this ancient calculator in there?

Well our nightlite bulb burnt out and we didn't have any replacements. So Nick pulled out this calculator from his collection of old calculators and plugged it in and put it on "88888888888888" to get maximum light. We have finally bought replacement bulbs but we kind of like it now and haven't removed it yet.

Nerds!

It's like a heat wave.....

We have had a few days of unusally hot weather for this time of year. The underzealous weathermen were completely wrong however about their Saturday prediction of it going down by 10 degrees to a more comfortable 80-85. So I was not quite prepared to be tortured at the Saturday Market yesterday . It reached a high of 95 in the shade. I know this because my reserved booth space is across the street from the time and temperature sign . It was brutal but luckily the crazy customers did a lot of shopping. So it was at least worth it to sweat like a pig and sit in a coma all day long.
We knew the heat was coming so I made the wise and exciting purchase of this silly rainbow double kiddie pool with slide (that I daydreamed about all day yesterday). Luckily my tool nut husband had the electric airpump to get that sucker blown up easily. The kids have been having lots of fun but I thought I'd share some golden moments of them fighting at the end of the day :

Henry gets in a good wack.

But don't worry Max got in a few good shots too! They were both crying and screaming hysterically while Nick and I watched as they worked it out.

And here they are back to playing peacefully side by side, their shiny black heads burning in the sun. I didn't fully realize that Legos can float and the potantial for kiddie pool fun that entails.

This is my new friend "The Lounge Chair". I intend to spend a lot of time with him.

I bought two and Max is enjoying lounging with his popsicle. Luckily they clean up easily. (Both chairs and kids.)

On a cooler day Max was enjoying the new used Bubble Mower we got for $1 at the thrift store.

Max really got into painting his favorite toy, the blue beatle. Sadly he is lost right now and we cannot find him anywhere.

The rhododendron I planted about 10 years ago i9n front of our house has finally bloomed for the first time ever. It's a boring pale white but I'm still happy to see it. I have done nothing to take care of it so I don't blame it for not blooming sooner.


The wild purple iris' are popping up all over our property now.

Messy Mayhem Mother's day

Life has been hectic. Pre Mother's Day sales have been pretty crazy the past two weeks. Our normally messy house reached some new levels of insanity.

Here are some examples:

Of course the kids don't care. Henry is happily playing with his Legos amidst the clutter.

Another view of the stuff all over the place.

Here is his "mummy car" that he insisted I photograph.

The past two weekends have been pretty successful at the Saturday Market. Lots of hanging vases were sold.They make a great Mother's day gift.

I saw a funny snarky T-shirt worn by a customer:

"If I want pointless conversation I'll let you know."

I made sure I did not say anything to the fellow.

We were so busy with the market and Etsy orders last weekend that I screwed up 3 orders.
Two international sales that I quoted First Class shipping rates on got packaged in Priority boxes. It was too late when I got to the Post Office and realized what I had done to go back home and repack and it wasn't worth the extra effort. So instead of a $7.20 rate it was $25.50. Oops. I'm going to have to reprimand the employees. (ME!!!)

But the biggest mistake was sending out an order to the customer instead of to her Mother as she requested and we said we would do. we received a very disappointed message from the customer when the package arrived at her home a few days before Mother's Day instead of at her Mother's home. I apologized profusely and sent out a new package with an extra free item in it and sent it express so that it could get there before Mother's Day. I told the customer to keep the earrings that went to her home too. Now they can have matching mother/daughter earrings. Not what she intended. She was very good about it all.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!

I love you MOM!

Market and those crazy kids...

Well I finally made it to the saturday market this past saturday for the first time this season. The weather was perfect. Cool ,clear and sunny. Sales were pretty good and it wasa great start to the new season. I sold a lot of these big glass pendants-




and a lot of the big aluminum earrings. The Celtic Budding Spiral Earrings were my best seller as usual. I finally raised a lot of our prices to be the same as they are on Etsy. I was a little nervous about it but everything sold fine. Our prices are still quite low but it's noce to be making a little more on everything.
I was astoundingly tired because for some reason there is a twisted law (I believe it is related to the Murphy's Law syndrome) that on Friday nights before the Saturday Market when I need to get as much sleep as possible my kids decide to go crazy and wake me up continually all night long for various ridiculous reasons. It culminated in the 5 am awakening when they had both managed to pee all over themselves.



This is what happens when I don't supervise Max eating avocado. He uses it as a hair conditioner.

Better take a shower.

What is this ?

It's organic Alfredo Mac-n-cheese with Spiderman mac n cheese (with the orange spiderman brand powdered cheese left out) made into sushi. It was all Henry's idea. I had serious doubts that he would eat it.

But he did!

Oh yeah...mmmmm......

Perfect! I think he should start a Mac n Cheese restaurant with all is variations on the theme including the mac n cheese burrito,pizza and now the sushi.

It's about time...

I finally had the time (and remembered) to make the Sterling Silver Treble Clef Pendant.

I don't know why I didn't do it years ago. The photo came out a little darker than I like but it still works.

Ta Da!

This weekend I have to go to the Eugene Saturday Market. We pay for our reserved space but in order to keep it you have to show up at least once a month. This weekend is the last weekend in April. You are allowed one month to miss all of them but I prefer to miss the last outdoor month which is in November when the weather is horrific and I am usually completely burned out by then. Luckily the weather guessers are saying it should be nice and dry. Not that they ever really know. Although they did get it right last weekend when they said it would be very cold with rain and hail. Apparently it did snow too. The lightening didn't show up however.

It better not show up this Saturday.

Cords and Pins

I added two new items to our Etsy shop today. This Aluminum Treble Clef Shawl Pin was a special request custom item from a lovely customer last July. I intended to make more and put it in our shop but things got busy and I forgot about it. Last week someone contacted us asking if we still make them. She did a google search and it popped up. Yay for Google! So here it is. The light weight of aluminum makes it especially nice for shawl pins. I buffed down the edges and points so that it doesn't catch on anything.

I also finally got around to adding the Black Satin Cord with Handmade Sterling Silver Clasp as a regular item in our shop. While the simple black cord that is just tied is a nice cheap quick and easy way to provide a simple way to wear our pendants, this gives a nice alternative . The end finding is silver plated. I use a dab of super glue and then fold over the crimps. It seems to hold well and I've been testing it all day.I can make them any length for the same price ($5).

This is one of those things I've been meaning to do for a long time and it's nice to finally get it done!

I'm still working on getting over this cough and cold thing but I see the light at the end of this phlegmy tunnel.

He loves me!

Grass grows really well in Oregon. Mowing is a constant struggle to keep up with if you care and want to be able to maintain any ability to enter your home or walk to the other buildings.If it was up to Nick he would let it go because he is a man of intellectual pursuits and cares naught for outward appearances. But I am an insecure nagging woman who has been sick for the past few days. The overgrown grass became a taunting symbol of my inadequacies and inability to achieve anything in my life. It represents all the loads of laundry and dishes that need to be done and all the home repairs and improvement projects that have yet to be tackled. It is the sound of all my neighbors and family and friends mocking me for messy home in my silly mind.
Irrational and extreme "black and white" thinking ? Yes! Partially a symptom of being exhausted and unable to do much because I have been sick with this flu like thing and just the usual demons that surface from time to time.
So who does the emotional woman take it out on and nag! The dear sweet husband.
So today he got the old rusty mower going that had been sitting out in the rain all winter long. I am amazed he even made it work. And he mowed and mowed and mowed.



and mowed...


and mowed. What a good man! He works so hard to make me happy. All is well in the world again.
Now I won't
bug him about his airgun obsession and I can hold off the mowing nagging for the next few weeks when it will come up again. Because the grass never stops growing and the crazy woman never really stops nagging.


The boys have been on bug hunts lately. Today we found this lovely snail. He is unfortunately now lost somewhere in the house.

We have been unable to locate a slimy trail from the windowsill he was left on.
I'm just going to let this one go....

View from my window

Henry picked this Daffodil and Fawn Lilly for me. Very sweet.
I am home on this beautiful warm sunny Saturday instead of at the Saturday Market because I am stricken by a nasty cold that has left me tired and useless and coughing a lot. I didn't go last weekend either because the weather was terrible which was a good decision.

This is the daffodil with his friends on the kitchen counter.

Max's 3rd birthday!

Our baby boy turned 3 on April 3rd. He is obsessed with fish and all things marine related. Hence the Nemo and Dory cake.

A fish head.

I ordered this great fishing rod with magnetic fish, tackle box, net and bucket that was a big hit.I also picked up a cheap magnetic fishing rod and fish at the dollar store. The dollar store one broke in minutes but can get put back together over and over again. The magnet also fell out of the rod though and needs to be glued back in. At least it has provided some extra fish for the good rod. Another example of the crap the dollar store has.

Here is big brother trying to fix the broken dollar store rod.


My Mom sent this awesome shirt to Henry as a big brother gift. Truer words were never written...

this wire ain't just for jewelry you know...

True Blue Swinging Vine Flower Earrings- Another new design. Yes, similar to some of the other flower designs. I got a little more poetic with the name this time.


Having all this wire around can really come in handy. I used my 9 gauge alumnimu wire that I use for all our aluminum earrings ,vases and mirrors to whip up these big bubble wands.

They worked great! I was quite surprised actually. I may have a new product to fall back on. Or maybe Henry can make them to sell at the market.

I am trying to remain calm as I get ready for this weekends first Eugene Saturday Market of the year. The weather should be good enough to go. We are not early risers her so getting up at 6:30 am is going to be brutal for me. Poor me, boo hoo hoo. Get out those tiny violins to show your sympathy.

Yesterday was Nick and my 21st anniversary of being together. We have been married 20 years on March 31st but being freaky hippies we don't really put much weight on the man's piece of paper to prove our love. April Fool's Day 1987 was the first full day we spent together when we met in Panajachel Guatemala. We've been codependantly in love ever since.

I love ya baby!

the egg hunt

Henry and our friend Ethan hunting for eggs in our front yard . Henry has our traditional Halloween /Easter basket. We really get our money's worth out of those plastic pumpkin buckets, eh?


This is Henry's idea of smiling for the camera.

Soaking wet from the rain Henry sits down to enjoy his catch.

Gratuitous cute baby shot. This is Olivia. She looks to me like a baby chick that was just hatched.

Mmmmmmm.....

Henry sneaking a jelly bean while Max is absorbed in inspecting his candy.

The empties-ready for next year...