Ahhh Spring- It's killing me...

Well not really perhaps.I'm being a little over dramatic.

The weather has been warm and sunny and wonderful here. (Don't believe the lies about it raining all the time in Oregon.) But this means that the trees and flowers have burst out with tons of pollen covering everything triggering an early allergy season for me. Today has been a little better and I just got my prescription filled for Flonase to take along with my generic Allegra (fexofenidine) so I should be a functioning human being again soon and not a snot covered, sniffing and snorting eye rubbing miserable wreck.

I have sold the past two weekends now at the Eugene Saturday Market. The first one was slow but last weekend was pretty good. We changed our display and made new display boards that have a white background instead of the same purple we had been using for the past 10 or more years. The white background seems to have helped make the colorful glass earrings really show up well and pop out of the display. I have finally been selling these cute glass flower earrings at the market that just never seemed to do well there before.

Max was sad to find out that he is too young to play T Ball on a team this summer. So we used some of Grandma's gift certificate for his birthday to get a T Ball set of his own to play with.He's going to be really good at it come next summer.

After stressing myself out trying to come up with camps and things for the kids to do this summer I've come to the conclusion that I'm just going to relax and enjoy spending time with the kids while they are so young and not book them up with activities. Max is too young to be in most programs available and Henry is a home body/mama's boy. So we'll be taking swimming classes and whatever convenient things come our way and make playdates and take it easy. Henry starts first gade in the Fall and will be gone all day at school. So I am going to try and remember to enjoy these special long days together.( Remind me of that when we are going crazy on one of those long days.)

Spring Flowers and Books

I've been making more earrings with the new Czech glass beads I got. These are some Pretty Little Pink Flowers and Leaves Earrings. It was fun coming up with these new designs.I'm hoping I have time to make some pendants too. They make me feel like spring is in the air.

Happy Little Orange Flowers and Leaves Earrings. I mistakenly ordered these orange flower beads but I'm glad I did.

This weekend was the Annual Friends of the Library Book Sale.We got lots of great kids books including a bunch of fish related books which is Max's latest obsession. Henry loaded up on Clifford books which is kind of a snore for me but if it keeps him interested in reading I'm happy. I have to say that until I became a parent I never realized that you could read a book out loud and actually be thinking about 10 million other things at the same time. I guess I'll call it multi-tasking.

"Tight" Jewelry

This past weekend was the Eugene Celebration. Sales vary greatly from year to year on this wekend. Many regular market vendors take the weekend off because they feel there is just too much competition with all the other stuff going on in town. Not to mention you have to set up an hour earlier than normal to get out of the way for the big annual parade that goes right past the market. But this year they wisely planned it on a weekend that there were no football games. (The 12:30 kickoff Ducks football games are usually the death of fall sales at the market. ) I did suprisingly well and sold more than the usual amount of these lovely Swirly Girly Princess Mirrors.
I was also reminded again of what an old fart I am. Apparently our jewelry is "tight". This phrase has been repeated quite a few times by the young hip kids who have come by the booth lately. I assume that they mean it is "cool", "sweet", "da kind","chronic" or very nice. When did "tight" become the new cool word? And is it like a tight joint? A tight music jam?A well formed buttocks? Or something from a scene in "High School Musical"?
I was also reminded of my old age when looking through a music magazine a few months ago. It had a photo of a rock show and all the people in the audience were holding up their glowing cell phones in the dark facing the band at the end of the show. In my day we held up our bic lighters to declare our delight and desire for an encore. (And we damn well liked it sonny.)

I digress...
Etsy continues to please us with constant regular sales and what appears to be the beginning of Christmas shopping. We sold a lot of these Cobalt Iridescent Blue Glass earrings.

and the matching Cobalt Blue Big Iridescent Pendant

and more of these Sterling Silver Celtic Budding Spiral Earrings which have become my favorite everyday earring lately.

This pendant has been selling really well too. The Celtic Budding Spiral Large Light Weight Aluminum Pendant. Do you see the matching earrings and pendant theme here?

In the meantime I have been trying to order supplies and keep up with all the maddness while stepping over the filthy debris scattered throughout my home and of course being a perfect mother to my little angels. My favorite new jewelry box supplier is http://www.fetpak.com/. Their prices are comprable to all the others but they have free shipping which really makes them a great deal. With the holidays coming up I felt like I need to have boxes for the more expensive items we well since so many of our things are gifts. My favorite bubble mailer supplier is http://www.royalmailers.com/ which also has totally free shipping with reasonable prices which makes their prices even better. Now to find a place to store all this stuff.

Speaking of being a perfect parent , I have been reading a book for the first time in a long time-

I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids: Reinventing Modern Motherhood

It's written in a large print easy to read ,short sections with large funny quotes perfect for 2 minutes in the bathroom at a time reading sessions. It's always nice to know that I am not the only insecure mentally ill woman out there who judges herself and others harshly. Of course I knew that already but still it's great to get that reinforcement. One of my favorite quotes came as I was having a little glass of wine and read -

"My girlfriends and I decided that 4pm is the "new 5" when it comes to pouring that first glass of wine everyday."

Nothing new and mindblowing. The typical Oprah/Dr. Phil/Rachel Ray type stuff, (in fact I remember seeing the women who wrote the book on Oprah)-take time for yourself, don't overschedule, learn to say no, communicate your needs, lighten up, be realistic blah blah blah.

I already knew all that. I'm perfect after all. And so are you.