packing heavy

Everyone is getting ready for our family vacation next week. Most of them have been packing for quite a while. Back in February, someone bought a couple of bulk packs of paper towels for the vacation. Same with toilet tissue...I think 48 rolls. And just last week my sister said that she thought she needed to buy another box of laundry detergent--she didn't think one box was enough for the week! Have they lost their minds? At least I know that if I forget something, someone in my family will have packed it!

wiggling, dark forces, and promises

Promises to children should always be kept, don't you think? My little friend, Matt (7) asked me a few weeks ago when we would have a day of fun. Busy as I am, I told him let's wait until school is out. 8 days before the last day of school, I got a call from my dear little friend. He wanted to hold me down to a date.

Today was the day...and boy did we ever have fun!

We went to see Star Wars. He was so excited. We got to the theater early so we decided to grab some pizza. He was not dazzled by the likes of "Spaghetti and Meatball Pizza" and "Barbecue Chicken Pizza" that appeared on the kiddy menu. Nope...just plain cheese would do for him. We colored-by-number in the book they gave us while we waited for our tiny pizza. When it came, I showed him how to fold the slice over and eat it that way. He really liked that idea a lot.

I am not entirely used to how 7 year olds act. I thought that maybe they sat up straight at the table while eating. Not my friend. He reclined sideways on the booth...at one point kicking his feet up into the air. He squirmed and wiggled. I did remind him that this wasn't particularly appropriate behavior for a restaurant. For about 2 minutes he sat up nice and straight. And then the wiggles got him again.

The wiggles attacked during the movie too. Especially during the slow parts. We made a game of drinking our soda with every mention of the word "force". Unfortunately, that meant a couple of mid-movie trips to the bathroom. I worried the whole time I waited outside the men's bathroom that he was okay in there. But not for long because he really wanted to get back to the movie. (I didn't hear any handwashing, that's for sure!)

He was so excited during parts of the movie that he squealed with joy. At other parts I looked over at my sweet friend's face so full of wonder that it looked like he could just bust wide open like a watermelon.

So, I played a little hooky today because I'd made that promise to my little friend...and I'm so glad I did.

please make up this room

When one is travelling, one takes certain things for granted. For instance, if one books a room in a national hotel chain, one might expect a reasonably clean room. It would be unreasonable to expect your bed to be turned down and a mint on your pillow for anything less than $175/night. But one would be reasonable to expect clean.

This was not the case for the room we reached after travelling by car 8 hours for a cousin's wedding.

First of all, it was not a hotel. It was most certainly a motel. I'm not a fan of the motel experience. But I was trying to keep an open mind. The lobby seemed tidy and clean. They gave us our room keys and directed us to our room. As we approached the room, even before we opened the door, we could smell cigarette smoke. The room was dark, smelly, and dirty. Moldy and mildewy and dirty. We could not sleep here. We called the front desk and told them such. They told us that this was the only room left and that we would indeed have to sleep in this ashtray. Luckily, a few minutes later they rang back to say that they indeed had one other room.

This new room was a little better. It was not an ashtray...just dirty and moldy. The ceiling had been patched up but not painted. Everything was old and dirty. I complained to my sweet husband. He complained to me.

And then we decided to drop it. I thought of it this way...I camp every year with his family and this is almost the same. I did not want his family to see me as some sort of diva so I decided then and there that I was happy to be in this stinky, dirty room. If anyone asked how I liked the room, I would smile pleasantly.

All night I felt things (imagined, perhaps) crawling all over me. I did not sleep well. We got up in the morning and got ready quickly. We were not comfortable. He had some sort of rash on his leg. I was tired and itchy.

We went for doughnuts and coffee at a nearby spot. While I was enjoying my coffee in the brightly lit coffee shop, my sweet husband tried to tell me in a nice way that I had over-applied my makeup. It was so dark in the bathroom that I couldn't see what I was doing. I ended up looking like Tammy Faye. Tammy Faye...motel. This is not who I am.

Now here's where the story sweetens. As we were out driving around the area, we got a call from his family asking if we would like to move with the rest of them to another hotel up the street. Yes! Yes! Yes...we would. So we did. And it was a clean and pretty smelling hotel. And the rest of the weekend went happily ever after.

Oh, and the wedding was nice.

me, a desperate housewife?

I order shipping boxes hundreds at a time. They are sent to me by truck...big trucks with 18 wheels. The boxes are bundled together on pallets. I usually help the driver to unload the boxes and put them in the garage.

Last summer an especially big shipment of boxes came. I met the driver in the driveway and he seemed very nice...very happy to see me. He just kept smiling at me and I could swear he even winked. I worked really hard helping him unload these big heavy bundles of boxes. When we were done, he left...smiling widely.

When I got back in, I remember pausing and thinking "what a very nice guy". On my way back to work on orders, I passed a mirror and, to my horror, discovered the secret to the trucker's smile. Somehow, my shirt was almost entirely unbuttoned. I don't mean just a button or two more than usual. I mean that the shirt was entirely open...exposing a very lacy, demi-cup bra, filled to the brim.

And remember, I was doing real work...bending, lifting, and heaving.

Can you imagine what this driver must have been thinking? I'm sure he returned with quite a story to tell of his trucking friends. He found his own desperate housewife. Now this was a very embarrassing moment for me. I do not go around exposing my chest to just anyone. But instead of dwelling on the embarrassment, I am going to try to remember the pure joy in that nice trucker's smile.

fragrance sample...

I have samples of the Tiramani, the extraordinary fragrance from Shelley Kyle. If you would like to add one to your order, free of charge, just let me know in your checkout form.

balloon day

In elementary school growing up, there was something called "balloon day" once a year. We would all gather on the blacktop on this day each with a helium-filled balloon tied to a postcard. The postcard would have our name and school's address as well as a letter telling about ourselves. On the count of three, the whole school released the hundreds of balloons with hopes of each balloon reaching the far corners of the world. The sky was polka-dot filled. It was such an exciting thing to see.

As I kept my eye on my particular balloon with the greatest of hopes for it to reach Lima, Peru or some other faraway land, every year I was instantly disappointed when the balloon's journey ended on the telephone lines 100 feet away. While others had balloons that got smaller and smaller until we really could no longer see them at all, mine was clearly in view for weeks after, punctuating my failure.

This was actually a contest. The letter on the postcard was supposed to ask the recipient to send a note back to the school telling about where the balloon's journey ended. The student whose balloon travelled the furtherest got a nice prize and school-wide recognition. One year I remember that someone's balloon went all the way to Maine. Maine! All the way from West Point, Virginia to Maine?! Remarkable.

Balloon Day ended abruptly when someone complained that since the balloons return to the earth eventually as litter and perhaps choke seagulls and sealife, Balloon Day was contributing to the pollution problem.

this little piggy

This little piggy went wee wee wee all the way home. These new piggy banks from the Cupcakes and Cartwheels line are wonderful! They just arrived and I think they make the best gifts for little ones and older ones alike! click here for more information

a bad scene

I used to commute into downtown everyday by train. Now, I know that some of you may romanticize this idea. I guess I did myself in the beginning. It sounds so nice to say that you take the train to work. But here's a story that will probably repaint that picture for you.

The unspoken rule for this commute, especially the morning part, is not to engage with other commuters. Don't talk out loud, make eye contact, or, goodness forbid, smile. People appreciate quiet. They like to read their newspapers and do the work necessary to switch into work mode.

Day in and day out of this will slowly squelch a positive spirit.

One particular morning, years into this commute, well after I'd adjusted to this atmosphere and accepted the commuter club's rules as law, something happened. I was reading my book, only aware enough of my surroundings to know how far away my stop was. The train was packed full but fortunately I had a seat.

Through the morning quiet a voice, small at first, said in a nice British accent "Madam...Madam?" And then again. And yet again. I stopped reading and considered "Could I be "madam"?" So, I looked up. The man said then, in his pretty and calm British accent mind you, "There is a cockroach on your shoulder."

Well, let me just tell you that I freaked out. I jumped out of my seat and screamed "Help me! Get it off of me! Somebody get it off me!"

After the nasty bug was knocked off my shoulder, I looked around at all of the faces of commuters that I had offended with my unlawful outburst. Some were tickled by what happened. Others were definitely not amused. I knew without a second thought what I had to do. I got off the train on the next stop to get on the next one and slip into comfortable anonymity. No one on this train knew me as the girl who freaked out.

re-re-re-re-redecorating

Last week I mentioned that I am a messy person. Yes, this is true. But once and a while, I do get the urge to clean like mad. And I do think I have a peculiar way to clean. I take everything out of the room...or at least pull everything to the center of the room...I vacuum and wash down everything...and then, piece by piece, I bring everything back in. And I always move things around and make new arrangements of things.

This picture shows the new summery display for my mantle. I went around the house searching for anything beachy and summery. The black and white photo is of my parents in '62. I sprinkled glass glitter in with the sand to make it magically sparkly. The old ironstone play tea pieces reminded me of shells and I thought about how much fun it would be to have a tea party on the shore.

I spotted the picture in the middle at a shop at the beach a couple of years ago. My sister-in-law noticed that I was eyeing it and that I seemed to love it so. She told my sweetie-pie and he went back to buy it for me. That makes me love it even more.

Ashley

Last summer my niece Ashley visited with us for a whole month helping me out with my store. We had so much fun. Ashley was fond of country music so that's what we listened to as we put together orders. After she was gone I missed her a little so I kept the dial on that country music station. And, a year later, I never turned it. I know all of the songs now. They replay the same handful of songs all day long. My favorite song is Keith Urban's Making Memories of Us. When I get tired of the country tunes, I switch it over to cds which presently range from IZ Kamakawiwo'ole to Doris Day.

I awoke today thinking of Ashley, realizing that it had been a year since she was here. She's settling into life as an "adult"...she has a house and a boyfriend and this fall will start her senior year in college. It's hard to believe this sweet little girl who was going into kindergarten as I was going into college is now 21.

oh my papa...

Here's a picture of my Daddy when he was a little boy. Do you see that joy? That joy is still found in his face, nearly 70 years after that photo was taken.

My father likes to watch baseball games this time of the year. In fact, I'm sure he's watching one right now. And if you ask my father which team he's rooting for, he's sure to tell you, as he's told me a thousand times, "I just like to watch a good game" That's how he is. He appreciates things like a baseball game for what they are. Oh, and he tells me lately that he likes to watch the rodeos. I don't even know what channel you turn to if you want to watch rodeos but I do know the answer if you ask him who it is that he's rooting for...the bull or the cowboy?

I love you, Daddy. Happy Father's Day!

p.s. the artwork around the photo was from my friend mo's digital scrapbooking doo dads. for more information, visit www.mojackson.com

No Comment

For the record, in case there is any doubt let me clear it up, I love comments. Let me further say...a blog without comments is not good. When I first started this blog, I checked regularly (and that's a nice way of saying every 2 minutes) to see if anyone left a comment. No one did. 0 Comments made me so sad everytime I saw it. So to spare myself from that hurt, I took off the comments.

First I got a few emails saying "how can I comment on your blog???" Then email after email came in saying "Please put comments back on your blog" Sooooo...they are back. But please, for the love of all that is holy and right, please leave comments. Even if it's just an "Amen sister" I promise that I will adore it. It will be like a gift to me and will make me very happy.

Comments?

New Serenity Angels

Just last week, I posted an update that new Serenity Angels had arrived...well, even more arrived yesterday.

Serenity Angel Pendants


Yellow Ribbon Angels


Serenity Angel Lapel Pins

meet me in the middle

My sweetie and I have a happy marriage. Very happy. Gleefully happy.

A true testiment to how solid a marriage we have is how we seem to have overcome a major difference between us. I am a messy, messy person. When I'm working on something, I leave masses of mess in my wake. While I do love it when my house is clean, I can exist quite contently in a sea of mess. I've always, always been this way. Ask my mother. And then ask my father. My sisters and brother will most likely testify of the same.

My sweet love on the other hand is someone who appreciates order. I don't want to call him a "neat freak" or anything mean like that. So I'll just give you an example so you'll see exactly what I mean. For Christmas or some other holiday, someone gave him a manicure set in a nice little leather case. There's a place for the manicure scissors, clippers, file, etc. You can be sure on any given day that this manicure set is in the neat drawer in his bedside table...and with all of the elements neatly tucked in their designated places. Now once and a while, I'll need those cute little scissors to cut a tag off a newly purchased article of clothing, for instance. I don't have to imagine where I might have put any of the dozens of scissors I have scattered around the house. I know with certainty where I can find a cute little pair of scissors. I try to remember to put them back but sometimes I set them down among my mess and forget to replace them. Let's take such an instance when I forgot to replace them. A couple of days later, my sweetie is preparing himself for bed when he sees that his nails need a little attention. He looks in his drawer for his little case...and there it is, open and with one thing missing. He does not like this. He lets me know. Since there is no one else living here he knows that it is my doing and I have to confess and return the little scissors. There is tension. But I tell him I will try to do better. And I do...try.

But here's the beauty of it all...We don't let this one difference come between us. I try to be less messy. He tries, very hard bless his soul, to not let it get to him. So we meet in the middle most times. There are messy places in the house...and there are perfectly orderly places in the house. Sometimes there are more of one than the other.

I bought this bracelet at a craft fair sometime ago. I adore it. It is made of bakelite buttons, layered and sewn to a simple elastic band. I love the colors and the bold size of this bracelet. It's so much fun. Since I bought it, I've been thinking about going through my button collections and making some myself. I thought I'd pass the idea along to you, too, in case you want to do the same.

Introducing...Tiramani!

I'm so happy to bring this lively and fresh fragrance to you. From the Shelley Kyle fragrance collections, Tiramani is "a floral bouquet of wild jasmine, enhanced by fresh citrus and cut grass on a background of musk" And the packaging is so nice! I hope you love it as much as I do. Choose from a candle, sachet, lotion, soap or parfum--or try them all! These make really special gifts.

my television summer

We had one television when I was little. The dial broke off and we had to use a wrench to turn the channel. Forget about remote control. When this set was struck by lightning, we went without a television for what seemed like years. Other children would talk about all the great things they'd seen on tv the night before and I'd just have to listen without contributing anything.

One summer though everything changed. Somehow I got my hands on a small black and white television. I cleaned out my closet...even took out the clothes. On one side of the closet, I put a beanbag chair. On the other side, the television on a little table. I found a fan that had belonged to my grandfather--the sort of fan with wide gaps in the cover inviting little fingers to be cut off. The fan went under the television table.

This was way before everyone had cable. I knew the exact configuration of the two antennae to get the best reception for all 8 channels. I knew when I need foil balls on the ends and when I didn't. I had to turn off the fan for some channels since it interfered with the reception.

There was a part of the newspaper called the "Green Section" which had a grid for all of the week's television schedules. Every week as soon as this section came, I studied it. I mapped out my entire days according to the schedule. My favorite things to watch were reruns of Gidget and Laverne and Shirley. I filled my days with all sorts of reruns, one after another.

There was a downtime when nothing was on but the evening news. This was usually dinnertime so I'd have to come down to eat anyway. If I happened to have 69 cents in my pocket, I would ask if I could walk to the grocery store (just a block away) and buy a box of Crunch N Munch or Fiddlefaddle (whichever was on sale for 69 cents that week). After dinner, I would return to my tv closet and eat my caramel coated popcorn and watch the primtime selections until bedtime.

I recall that my parents did not approve of the way I chose to spend this entire summer. But it lasted exactly one summer. And when I think back on it, I think of it as one of my best summers...spent drinking pepsi and milk with Laverne and Shirley and plotting crazy schemes with LaRue and Gidget.

New Serenity Angels just arrived today! There are so many really wonderful ones. To see all of the new ones, click here.

my fruitful youth

When I was little I spent my summer days, from dawn to dusk, doing whatever I pleased. I once took on the project of covering the apple tree with nails. I don't know why no one stopped me from doing this because I killed that poor tree. I also used all of my father's nails. After I nailed them all into the poor tree, I wound yarn and ribbon from one nail to the next. It was really a sight to see...and would have been an even better project if I hadn't killed the poor tree.

My friends and I were quite fond of eating the tiny sour fruit from this particular tree. We would always eat way too many and would roll around on the ground groaning with a stomach ache. Still, we were sad to see this tree die. There was another apple tree which bore "wine apples". We couldn't climb this tree and when the apples fell to the ground they were rotten and slimy. We'd slip on them all the time. My grandfather used to pluck them from the tree (he was taller, you see) and take out his whittlin' knife to cut chunks of apple for a little snack. They were sweet and we never once had a stomach ache from those beauties.

We children ate quite a bit from "the fat of the earth". If we were out playing and were in the alley behind Mr. Hancock's house we ate cherries from his tree...and cherry tomatoes from his garden! We suckled honeysuckle...I even once plucked a big tigerlily from Viola's garden and tried it as well. I didn't die so it must not be poisonous but it didn't taste nearly as nice as honeysuckle. If we were playing in the backyard and needed a snack, we'd pull radishes and carrots straight out of our garden, beat the dirt off using the side of our leg and maybe (just maybe) we'd rinse it off with the garden hose. I distinctly remember the grit of dirt between my teeth so I'm sure this sort of thorough cleaning happened only rarely.

Next I'll tell you about my television summer, lest you think I was purely a nature girl.

I played hooky today...

I've been working really hard lately and decided to fly the coop for a little while. I went to one of my favorite places and boy did I find a lot of great things.

Looky! Looky!









I love everything but especially the little child's size suitcase. I use suitcases to house my projects that I'm working on (and I'm always working on lots at once). This way, I can pack everything back into the suitcase when I need to get it out of the way...and then I stack them and stash them all around my family room. This little one will be good for my smaller projects.

I also love the pastel frosted glasses. Don't they look like just the thing for a tall glass of sweet tea? Actually, they look like something you might sip a mint julep from! The teacups are just exquisite...and were a real bargain. And I'm a sucker for old photographs. Oh, and the hatbox! Isn't it fabulous? How could I resist? Let me just say, I was not in the mood to resist!

What do you think? Didn't I get some great things?

Summertime...

and the living is easy! What I love most about summer is taking a vacation. And boy do I need one!

Rich and I are going on holiday for a week in July...my whole family (mother, father, siblings, nieces, nephews...and even my sister's mother-in-law and sister-in-law!) We're renting a big house at the same destination as always...the Outer Banks in North Carolina.

I'm planning on really making the most of this week. I am going to take naps, read good books, sip on lovely drinks with umbrellas sticking out, daydream, work on a jigsaw puzzle, and play with the little ones. "How beautiful it is to do nothing and then rest afterwards."

free!

Isn't that the loveliest word...free! Just for today (Wednesday, June 8) with every order that mentions this blog, you'll get a free little egg cup.



Just shop www.inspirecompany.com and add a message to the checkout form that lets me know you'd like an egg cup.

Spread the word! Who wouldn't like a free egg cup?

Have a happy day!

Amy

Oops...I missed this one...

When I posted new products, I forgot to show you these...



Aren't they just as sweet as can be? There are 6 different designs and we have plenty in stock.

a site to see...

I found this delightful little site last week and immediately placed an order for a half a dozen different things.

www.papiervalise.com

I'm especially excited about the little metal drawer.



I bought 6 of them but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet...I think it would be lovely to contrast the rough oldness of the outside with something pretty inside.

New product line

I'm excited about a new fragrance line that I will introduce next week. It's going to be featured in Bon Appetit magazine as the best food related fragrance ever! It has a top note of blood oranges...and it smells absolutely divine.

Also, here's a little Hollywood gossip...a big name Hollywood producer is having a party and is giving this fragrance to all of the female guests. Suffice it to say that all of the Jennifers will be there. Oh yes! You know who we mean!

They are sending me sample vials of the fragrance to give to customers who'd like to try the fragrance first. Please let me know if you'd like for me to add one to your order.

The packaging is so beautiful and I just know that you will love it. Think...fresh, light, clean...but with a hint of sultry.

I love Doris Day...

Oh how I love Doris Day! This brand new collection of 8 of her DVD's is wonderful. My favorite of these 8? "Please Don't Eat the Daisies"! It's just so kitschy and fun.

My all-time-favorite Doris Day film is "The Thrill of it All", with a close second of "Pillow Talk". I adore studying the fashions and decor especially in these two.

I also love listening to Doris Day. My favorite song is "Everybody Loves a Lover". It's such a happy song and I love walking around some mundane place like the grocery store with this tune stuck in my head.

jumping on the blog-wagon...

why not? I think it's a great way to communicate with our friends. I'm hoping that I will be good at it. There's nothing worse than a stale blog, abandoned for weeks or worse, all together! So I aim to post something rather regularly...even if just a blip here and there.