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Some years I make resolutions, some I don't.  I've thought of a few that I need to accomplish. The biggest? I need to work on my hand writing. Yep. It is the WORST.  If you've ever ordered anything from me, I'll bet you can't read the note on the back of the business card, can you?

So, #1- Handwriting.

#2? Re-housebreaking.  Ugh. 

These were winter pups, and I let them use pee pads in the house too much because I was too cold to go out in the snow.  They need to get out of that habit and it's said that there are no bad dogs, only bad owners- my bad, not theirs.

  For a while in 2013, I kept them on leashes when they weren't in the pen with the dog door to the fenced yard.  It was a hassle, but it worked. I need to make myself do that again. No pupeesh running loose in the house. I will take them out to pee and convince them that the pee pads are not the best way to go.

#3- I want to do more workshops at the studio.  Not big ones, just a few seasonal things like the Valentine and Christmas parties I had here. 

#4- I'd love to do a swap. In 2013, I didn't host one at all.  This Fairy Book Swap from 2012 was such a delight for me, I really need to do another one. 

Hmmmmm, now I need an equally fun theme……

#5- LIST THE CRAP I HAVE PILED UP TO SELL. Not the kid, the dress. I took a lot of photos of her in old dresses and never listed them.  Those dresses and  a couple of tubs of things that need to be photographed and sold got stacked away and forgotten. 

(Shoulda put that one first, really, but was reminded by #4 that I have a stack of fairy book kits left over that I have never added to my shop. And those are from 2012, that is lazy!)

Please wish me luck. I'm pretty good about resolutions, but I've never tried 5 at once.

I've been away for a bit, lots going on here at the Cottage.  Luckily, everyone is fine, but it's not been easy. I'm appreciating my family and being with them right now. 

I'll return with the drawing winners soon. 

Hope you are having a festive day!

It has been so long since I’ve actually “worked”, that I’m getting used to a life of leisure. After Birdsong, I had house guests to play with, then a gum surgery that became infected twice and kept me laid low. (Which wasn’t a highlight of my time off) Then, I took a few days off to hang with the grand fairy.

I was itchin and ready to get back to work. So, I announced a 30% off sale in my boutique to do a little clearing out before I started adding new items. But then….

My wireless went wonky.

AT&T was out here with four new modems in one week. (Which meant hours on the phone, and more hours of waiting around for that 12-4 or 6-8 window where they might show up to bring another non working modem.

Which wasn’t the problem, the issue was a port in the main box blocks from our house.

So once that was fixed, the hard drive on my pc died.

Every day, the Best Buy Geek Squad almost has it ready to pick up in a couple of hours. Key word there is almost.

Anyway, even though they are now saying it will be ready in a couple if hours, I decided to do a quickie blog post from my iPad instead of waiting to get it back. But NOT to go back to “work” yet. I’m off to the garden to search for buried treasure with a mermaid. It’s where we have been most of the morning and I kind of like it out there.

I’ll go back to work in a couple hours or so. In the mean time, I’m enjoying this new life of doing whatever, whenever as a lady of leisure and pirate captain.

Last week, I swept up some of the Grand Fairies to go to Disney on Ice. Or as I told them to refer to it, Grammie's Day of Fun. 

We all dressed in our finery and set off for KC while watching movies in the car on the way.
 Poor Clover wasn't feeling her best, but had plenty of smiles during the program.

Sugarwings had so much fun, she couldn't stop hugging, kissing, squeezing and loving on anyone near her. And her smile never left her face.

While Fin isn't as big of a princess fan as the rest of the crew, he still enjoyed the show. And when it got too syrupy, he took a few bathroom breaks to get up and move around. 

I think he'll make a fine boyfriend/husband for a lucky girl someday. Not only is he cute as a bug, he is sensitive and can enjoy a day out with the girls.
And is smart enough to know when he needs a little break from girly stuff, but polite enough to get away for a few moments without complaining or causing a fuss.

We arrived a bit early and spent some time wandering around, enjoying the crowds and looking at the Disney merchandise.  Not that we bought any, geesh.  The prices were not tempting (well to me, at least) to heavy shopping. The snacks too. Heck, I thought movie theater popcorn was high, but at least that comes with a free refill.  At this place, it was $12 for a bucket. 

I'd brought some snacks for us, and was glad that I did.

We had fun without buying cheap plastic toys without cheap price tags. We took photos of each other, and rode the escalator.  It was one of the tallest ones I've ever seen.  You could tell we live in a town without big buildings, we were very entertained by riding up and down like country hicks while waiting for the show.

The show itself was a lot of fun, I'll definately go back for another one some day. 

Afterwards, we made a stop at TRex for an exciting lunch to make up for Grammie being too thrifty to buy the $12 popcorn at the show.

And after that was a stop for chocolates and jelly beans at Russel Stover, and then home to dye Easter Eggs.

I'm not sure who had the best time that day, but I think it might have been me.

Sometimes I forget what I mention on Facebook and what I say on my blog. Or what I told a friend, or simply what I was thinking to myself, even.  I try to not be repetitive, but since some folks read the blog itself, and some read it on FB, and some don't read it at all, they only read FB posts, I try to repeat some photos or stories in different places.

I don't think that I talked about this issue of Somerset Apprentice on my blog yet.  but who knows what I have yammered on about here or there…. 

 

It's always an honor to be involved in one of Stampington's issues. I don't do as many articles as I used to. Writing for decorating or craft magazines has always been a little side hobby, never a job, and I've rarely pursued them much. It's just a fun little thing to do.  I get a kick out of it, and appreciate each opportunity. 

Anyway, this issue is on the stands now, and I'm thrilled to be in it!

And speaking of how hard it is to keep up with blogs, and tyring to figure out the best place to read them, did you hear that Google Reader is being closed down in a few months?

We were able to use Google Friend Connect on Typepad for a short time, and it was taken down a while back.  It was an easy way to connect a blog you wanted to read to Google Reader.  When Friend Connect left,  I added some connections to other blog reading sites to my side bar. 

Now that Google Reader is disapearing, you might want to explore those other sites and and chose one to transfer your favorite blogs to.

Blog Lovin seems to have gotten popular, I've had a few new followers on that every day lately.  And NetWorked Blogs is a good one too. These buttons are on my side bar, if you'd like to check them out.

What do you use for blog gazing? Do you have another site better than these? I'd appreciate any reccomendations.  Thanks!

Before  the babies left, I gave them their first real bath. They'd been washed up and tidied plenty of times, but this was the first time they'd been tossed in the tub together.

And they weren't quite sure if they liked it!

Mom jumped in with them, she loves baths.  And they decided to climb up on top of her to escape.

They just weren't quite big enough to scamper out, no matter how hard they tried.

It took a while to get everyone cleaned up, since there was a whole hoard of them to get through, and they weren't exactly patient with me.  I got a lot of accusatory stares from the group.

Afterwards, they were treated to bedding warm from the dryer and bowls of yogurt mixed up with hot water.  Kind of a puppy version of hot cocoa.

I discovered that my sweet little, Dorothy Rosebud, might be a grudge holder. She refused to even look at me after the experience.

The other guys soon forgave me. Maybe they will enjoy baths as much as Twinkle does.  She was such a good mama during the scrubbing. She jumped in and out of the tub with each pup as I took it out to dry it off.  Of course, my bathroom floor was swamped.

Tiny little Dorothy Rosebud is healing, thanks for your concern. And since Beth offered to dog sit both pups when we travel, we are thrilled to be keeping her big brother, Albie.  How could we give up a puppy that taught himself to ride a toy rocking horse?? (photos to come, its pretty cute)

I'll leave you with some photos of what's new in the Boutique.

(There is more too, this is just a few. Mostly vintage jewels and old booklets)

I thought about calling this post, "Crap that Beth Gives Me".  But I didn't want it to sound like I didn't like the crap. Its good stuff!

And its good to have a friend who sees stuff like this, knows that I'd love fixing it up, and doesn't think it's trash.

She is always bringing me goodies, like this Pyrex measuring cup for my kitchen, and a stack of old letters to craft with.

And a bagful of mini ruby slippers in glittery, red plastic.

The other day, she filled a bag with ephemera for me.  Good stuff straight from her stash. I can't wait to make something with these.

If you want to make something too, I'll share.  Here is a page of scanned cards from  the pile she gave to me, click on it to open in a larger window, save to your computer and print from that.

Thanks, Beth!

I have another thanks to say too,

Fleur sent this deligthful book that she made for the grand fairies! I look forward to flipping though the pages with them.  Thanks, Fleur!

Its so thoughtful and personal.

Its my week for gifties, apparently!  This cute set came from the Guncles down in Jacksonville.  Guncle Kevin is an avid garage saler and found this for me.  I've already filled it with glitters, ready for our Romantic Gothic Ghost class that Guncle Randy is coming to on Oct. 6th. Both of my sisters will be here too.

I can't wait for my family to meet some of my friends.

Yep, its been quite a week.  My Handsome Husband surprised me with an over night getaway for our anniversary on the 10th.  He said to pack a dress and plan to be home Saturday afternoon, and wouldn't tell me where we were going.

  I didn't even ask. I didn't even try to guess. I just happily went along.  And was just very glad when he drove East toward KC instead of West toward Topeka.

I'd have been thrilled with a free night at a Hyatt Place using his travel points, but instead he pulled up in front of the Raphael

It was pure luxury. He had lots of little romantic details too. 

Best anniversary ever.

 

 

 

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Before I left for our weekend getaway, I whipped up a couple of fairy pages for the swap.  Some people had asked for examples.

I wanted to show that its okay for ribbons. lace, etc to trail down and over the edges.

And you don't have to make all of your pages the same (unless they want to). All 8 go to 8 different people. 

Sorry, no promises that you won't get one of your own pages back.

Please, keep all 3-D goodies away from the left hand side, I'm not sure exactly how I'm binding it yet, but don't want anything in the way for hole punches.

And the color theme is totally up to you. When I assemble the books, I'll chose pages that look pretty togehter, but there will be a wide range of colors and styles.

I'll have more examples to show when I get back from my little trip. If you want info on how to join the swap, please click on the button at the top of my side bar.

I can't wait to see what everyone creates!!