I made my first Etsy treasury!

So fun and exciting, check it out to see a few of my favorite items!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=92189

Oh...HAI there. he...hehe. I am so bad at the bloggings.

Real quick. What I have been up to as of late.

-Started an etsy store with my friend Monica. It is going pretty well! A lot better than I thought it would after just a few months! We have some regular customers and are getting new one's pretty regularly. But really, more importantly...I am LOVING it. I am so obsessed with making jewelry that is isn't even funny. I am dying to learn new and awesome techniques and I just know that before you know it, I will be soldering and making all of my own findings and metal pieces. It's so exciting! Who knew that I was crafty...I sure as heck didn't!

-Am this close to making the photography thing happen. I have been doing some photography and graphics stuff for my church for the last few months and it has all been so well received and  I just could not be happier with the feedback that I am getting from people! I have done a couple of photoshoots for friends and have more and more people asking for sessions all the time. I just need to get the business side of it figured out...pricing, copywriting and whatnot. I know that there is a lot that goes into it, and that it is going to be a lot of hard work, but this is what I love...and people seem to like what I do, so I take that as a sign that I am headed in the right direction! So much still to learn and it all overwhelms me daily, but anything worth doing is going to be hard work, right? Right!
I started a photography blog, the button is at the top on the right. I am really going to post on this one...I swear. 

-also, started working at the GAP a few days a week. The people are all really cool, and I am getting more comfortable with it all. The first couple of days were rough, I ain't gonna lie. I even quit and then went back. The register confuses the crap outta me, ya'll. But I don't want to be a quitter, and it has gotten better already. I just need to remind myself to chill, breath, and CHILL SOME MORE! I am always convinced that I am the only person not "getting it" and that just adds to my anxiety and then..well, forget about it. I need to realize that I will not remember everything the first day, and that yeah, maybe it is a little harder for me, but it doesn't mean that I am stupid. Need to quit being so in my own head and hard on myself. But then also need to be harder on myself for other thingss....but that's for another post:)

-met with our travel agent last week and we have officially started the booking process for out European vacationalapalooza! Still so excited that I might just pee! It looks like we'll be leaving in late April, be gone for three weeks and MAY NEVER COME BACK!!!!!! Nah, we'll be back....but i'm sure it will be hard. The itinerary looks loosely like this:

• Paris-5 days
• Normandy-2 days
• Venice- 4 days
• Florence- 4 days (with day trips to Siena, Lucca)
• Cortona- 2 days
• Rome- 5 days

SQUEEEEE!!!!!!!! So excited:) Permasmile!!!!!

Anyway, that is what we've been up to....I think that is all-ish. Dane turned 33 on October 12th and I will be 30 (ahhhhh) in less than two months. Holy crap, everytime I think about it i"m all "doh!" Yeah, I know, I know...we're getting to that baby thing:)
Hope you are all well! Lovins xoxo

Random musings of the "DUH" variety

As I was driving home tonight, from our first life group meeting of the season, a thought occurred to me. Do you want to hear it? Are you ready for it? Really ready? It's pretty profound! Ok, Here it goes....the internet has changed things. Did you know that? Seriously, it has. After I got home and changed into my comfy clothes, aka, "grandpa sleepy pants" as Dane calls them (they are HOT) I went robotically and dutifully to my computer to...ok, this part is embarrassing...to LOOK UP THE NEW PEOPLE ON FACEBOOK! I know! So lame, but you know you all do it...don't you? Hey at least I don't google them...well not every time anyway, heh;) So yeah, social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook have forever changed the way we meet and get to know people. We will never again really HAVE to put in the work to familiarize ourselves with people, or to learn everyday facts about someone that we meet, (well unless they aren't online that is. Oh the horror) we can basically type their name into the little "search box of stalk" as I call it, and provided that person is in your network, you are immediately privy to an edited cliff notes version of their personality...heck, their diary in come cases. It's just weird! I know that this is not a new realization to 99.9% of the population, and it's not even really new to me. I guess you could just say that my overwhelmingly Pavlovian response to meeting new people tonight, for some reason, this time struck me as odd. I wonder how this is all going to ultimately play out? Are we dumbing ourselves down, while simultaneously sharpening our instincts and honing our research skills? Ha! Yeah, we kind of are! I am an A+++ internet researcher. I am just good, ya'll. I don't toot my own horn very often, but when it comes to internet researching, I will admit that I excel almost to an obsessive fault. I have been known to stay up until 5 or 6 am reading about travel locations, and sorting through restaurant reviews for any given destination. Need a new computer (why yes, I do) I will read pages upon pages of geeky forums and cross-examine c.net with mac rumors like a police detective searching for that much needed final clue to the case. Have a twitch in your finger? Oh Lawd, don't even get me started on medical stuff. I could probably tell you more about multiple sclerosis than you ever wanted to know.... So again, I ask....really just to myself I suppose, is this a beneficial way of getting to know a person? Probably not. I think that is has allowed us to superficially get to know people. We feel like we know them because we read that they love sushi and go to the farmers market every Saturday morning. They do not like country music, and could read Sylvia Plath for hours on end....but what about the little things? What does their face look like when they get mad, or what makes them laugh till they pee? I don't know, because I haven't seen you in person in ten years, or I've only met you once and we exchanged two words, but we go to the same church and both like indie music, so we must be "friends", it's just funny. This whole little essay is really quite pointless, I know...I was just feeling contemplative and haven't written in awhile. Because sites like facebook DO exist and because texting has all but taken over the way we communicate with each other, I think that it is SO very important to not loose the ability to relate to people on a personal level and to not get impatient about the time that it actually requires to get to know a person, I know It's so easy to do, and I am as bad as anyone else, i'll admit that wholeheartedly. I hate talking on the phone, but I make myself do it because I do NOT want to turn into an alien who just cocks it's head side to side when presented with certain scenarios and mutters "does not compute." I used to write letters to people and I have always thought that letter writing was a wonderful, but lost art that we needed to really fight to keep alive! I need to start doing it again. I am getting tired and can't really remember where I was hoping to go with all of this, so i'll wrap it up, but I will say that I am going to make a concerted effort to meet people, really MEET them, get to know them and give it time. I'll let it take a natural course and pretend that I CAN'T simply cyber stalk them to find out their marital status, political leanings and which "Sex and the City character they would be", all in a matter of minutes, cause ya'll when I write it out loud, that just sounds crazy!

Slow cook Saturdays

There is just something so amazingly relaxing and almost indulgent about making a big breakfast for you and only you. Dane is camping for the weekend I am left to my own devices. So this morning ok, it was closer to 1pm, I prepared myself a nice big, late breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast and coffee...all for me:) It was divine.....and just now I spilled come of that divine coffee into my laptop keyboard, oy!

*is it politically incorrect for me to say oy?

New Hobby alert...yeah, like I need more of those!

So, in the spirit of actually DOING some of the things that I listed on my mini bucket list, I have decided to just go for it and start an etsy store. The main inspiration for it was to have somewhere to maybe sell some of my photography, but then I decided that it would be fun to try to start making jewelry as well...because there aren't nearly enough people selling fabulous handmade jewelry one etsy...no, not as all:) But what the heck. I made some the other day and it was tons of fun, and I am a fashionable chica with some pretty good style, so why not give it a shot? My friend Monica spent the afternoon teaching me some of her extensive jewelry crafting brilliance and while I certainly have A LOT left to learn, I feel like I may just be a natural! And again, like I said...it's just FUN ya'll! I am addicted to BEADS, help me!

I will be slowly adding some stuff to the shop....trying to get Mon on board to do a store together! How fun would that be? We mainly want to focus on handmade items, such as jewelry and scarves (she crochets) and cool stuff that we find in vintage stores, and then some of my photography. I am very excited. It's a much needed creative outlet, and Hey....we just might make some extra money, and that's always a good thing! So stay tuned.

Oh, also, I am doing a photo shoot for my churches women's ministry on Thursday. If all goes well, my pictures will be used for the invites, ads etc. for our upcoming Fall women's conference! I am super excited, but nervous! I just got my new lens and I think it will be a great one for this shoot! It has a great depth of field and gives amazing bokeh, mmmmmm, bokeh........sorry, went into a bokeh trance there for a second. So anyway, lots going on, it's pretty exciting! Please Lord, give me strength and confidence!

Here is a pic of the first three necklaces that I made. Taken with the new lens, by the way.....What do you think?

stupid economy with it's stupid crap housing market......

I want to move. Closer to "town". This is not a good time to try to sell a house, though....I know this, but I still want to move. I love my house. Well, I like it a whole lot, at least. It was never my first choice, to buy a new construction house, I had always wanted a cool old house. But, we were kind of low on time and there isn't really a great concentration of great older homes in this area, at least none that don't fall into either the "seriously busted", or "crazy renovated and way out of our price range", categories. I wish that we had bought a smaller, less expensive (not that ours was all that pricey), and older house. Hindsight, you annoying little fart-blossom, why must you always be hind and not ever, um...fore? So we're kind of stuck here for now...not that this is a BAD place to be stuck, our home is perfectly lovely and we are blessed and lucky to have it, but it's just not MY ideal location or type of home...not to mention i'd love to have a smaller payment and be able to save more. Dane loves it out here is Bella Vista, and I will admit that we have a pretty sweet lot...but I just feel so isolated and far away from all of our friends. It's not conveniently located to anything and no one ever comes over, because it's just far enough from town to be a pain. I know I sound like a bratty, unappreciative baby, but hey, it's MY blog! I find it rally hard to decorate here because everything that I like looks weird in a new house with new everything and stainless steel and granite and all that. I like more vintage/retro types of decor and I feel like I can't pull that off here. Ahhh, well. Just venting. If nothing else, this is a lesson in resourcefulness and patience!

grace in small things (hey remember those?) 19, or something

1. cool days at the end of july....hey, thanks God, we so need that break!

2. jewelry, it just make me so darn tootin happy!

3. thrift stores, a new discovery and LOVE already!

4. my new little yellow glass bird friend.