A Very Very Fine House

We began our search for our first home last week. We fell in love with a house online. An internet crush, if you will. We got to see it in the real world Sunday. We love it and are thinking about placing a bid.

This house has a lovely dining room that will accommodate our very large table, lots of closets (I think I counted about 8!), three bedrooms, a sunroom, a great yard, and a garage. The kitchen is a bit out dated but we might have it redone someday. It needs new appliances right away.

We don’t even have an agent yet! We did not expect to find something only into our second week of searching. Today and Tuesday bring appointments with realtors so we can pick one.

This has me doing all sorts of dreaming about what my studio space in one of the bedrooms will be like. I have studio space in our apartment, but my room will be bigger in the new house. (I’m speaking like we already own it.) The bedroom I already chose has southern exposure!! It’s all bright and sunny. Great for photographing my Etsy items. We’ll need to get more shelving for my supplies and maybe another table for sewing. Good heavens, I cannot wait!

Wish us luck!!

International Shipping

I finally got back to the box store for the right size boxes for international shipping. Now I am offering it in my Etsy shop!! Come on all you people from out of country!! I am ready for you!

Over A Billion

I just found a cool stat site for birthday information. I am over a billion seconds old!

My birthday is December 19, 1974:

I was born on a Thursday.
My star sign is Sagittarius.
The season was autumn.
I am 33 years, 3 months, 7 days old.
It is 268 days until my next Birthday.
I am 12,151 days old.
I am approximately 291,630 hours old.
I am approximately 1,049,869,194 seconds old.

I like numbers so I find this interesting. A billion is a lot of somethings.

My mom's birthday is December 8, 1947. We have some very weird coincidental number related happenings about our ages and birthdays. She was born in ’47 and I was born in ’74. When I turned 14, she had just turned 41. (It also happened when I turned 3 and she turned 30, but my zero is dropped.) This age-number-reversal happens every 11 years, so when she turns 63, I will turn 36. Also 4+7=11. And our birthday date numbers are 11 days apart. (Insert Twilight Zone music here.)

My lucky numbers are 4, 7, and 11 for the above reasons. Only a total math nerd would figure all this out. I love math!

Happy Easter!

Plans for today: eat chocolate bunnies until they are ALL gone!! Don’t forget to intermix the chocolate with jelly beans to aid in digestion.

The only funny tale of Easter hilarity in my family that I can recall in my Sunday afternoon sleep deprived state is the time my sister made us all an Easter card that said “Happy EATster!!” I think we were only in grade school at the time. My mother probably still has the card. I guess her spelling slip up hinted at her desire to eat on Easter. We tease her about it to this day. When I see her today I will say "Happy Eatster!" to her without a doubt. Then I will cluck like a chicken from that Cadbury egg commercial. Bok Bok!!

Candy, chocolate bunnies, Peeps, Cadbury eggs, malted milk ball robin eggs, and peanut butter cup eggs were always plentiful in our Easter baskets on Easter morning. My mom The Easter Bunny made sure we didn’t want for anything. It was a dentist’s nightmare. My parents would actually let us just eat candy for breakfast. The baskets had enough candy to last for weeks.

I hope you have your fill of candy, food, and family today. We’re going to my mom’s for ham and lamb, which I sincerely hope that she wrapped one around the other before she baked it. It will be the new Turducken! We'll call it Hamb.

Tokenblogger’s Custom Pendant

Around Christmas last year, I got a custom pendant request from Tokenblogger. Her original request was a design with pansies on it and the words “I AM”. We emailed a lot to nail down more details. Usually a custom pendant takes about two weeks of communicating and drafts to get right. This one took longer, and I didn’t mind one bit. I really wanted her to have exactly what she wanted without a doubt. That’s what custom pendants are for, right?

I really liked working on this project because it kept changing from the original request. She would send me new ideas and pictures weekly and I would find a way to incorporate the new pieces each time. I know some people may find this kind of work taxing, but I honestly liked the new additions she kept making. It forced me to rethink an idea each time keeping the work fresh and challenging.

She ultimately decided on a green background with two purple pansies on the front. I included the original “I AM” while adding real lace and a picture of her pet dog, a whippet named Emma. The back turned into a conglomerate of things that Tokenblogger holds dear: a piano, the star of David, a blue bicycle, a coffee mug, a container of Earl Grey tea, and a cello. Since she wanted so many images on the back we came to an agreement that it should be a digital collage to make it look best. I’m very happy with how it turned out. It’s better in person than I thought it would be.

She blogged about on at her blog. Check it out to see how I lovingly gift wrap every purchase!! She took pictures even!

Thank you, Tokenblogger, for allowing me to make something so personal for you. Again, I really enjoyed working on this. I am so glad you love it!