Thankful Thursday or I did not really cause Katrina... really

I am starting to like these thankful Thursdays now and feeling like a much better person

(glass half full, remember)

than the one who whined all the time.

And I have alot to be thankful for this week .

Gratitude 1: This amazing giveaway over on Lory's The Sunshine Studio blog where you can win your choice of one of my Polarity lockets

so hop over there and get yourself entered!

Gratitude 2: Polarity's soft launch on Uncommon Goods website

yup, THAT Uncommon Goods (and if you are asking what a soft launch is, I am not exactly sure, but it sounds..well... soft and kind of launchy)

I was totally going to do a big announcement for this in January - when I thought we would be making our debut, but somehow we are on their website now and I am a bit speechless...

well, not exactly (have been howling at the moon a bit over this actually)

I love Uncommon Goods and this is very exciting for me and 3 of the Polarity locket artists - Holly Ward Bimba (Gollybard), Jessica Doyle and Christy Zaragoza (Peppermint Daydreams) and I will chat more on this later when the Valentine's Day catalog comes out and yes, this is my first catalog, ever!

Gratitude 3: I am very thankful that I found my missing keys (that have been missing for almost a week)

at the bottom of my pocketbook

the pocketbook that I use everyday and had checked a few times - well, at least I thought I had checked it a few times, I mean who loses their keys and doesn't check their pocketbook, right?

Gratitude 4: I broke a major OCD habit today

well, maybe not so major because I have alot of them, but I had my little bag of peanut M&M's

(well ... actually a HUGE bag, why is everything else getting smaller while these damn bags of peanut M&Ms are getting super sized)

and instead of eating the colors in alphabetical- well, red first and then alphabetical order, I just ate them out of the bag, one by one, distractedly, without thinking about the color

I stared at the empty bag with shock and awe when I realized what I had done and then knocked on some wood that I hadn't just caused a major disaster somewhere in the world

(like Katrina- don't even ask me what I forgot to do that day)

Gratitude 5 - The security camera in our local video store is totally broken.

(now I had nothing to do with the actual breakage, but am happy that someone else out there had just had enough of this already, too)

I mean, have you ever seen yourself on a store security camera?

It is horrifying. You totally think you are having a good (looking) day and and then you see yourself on one of those, and you're like, "oh my God look at that sloth coming into the st-- wait, that's me."

then you feel like crap

or maybe that only happens to me.

Oh, and I am totally grateful that the customer who ordered the Mad Scientist cork necklace and discovered that I had reversed the last 2 letters of the word scientist, which kind of changes the meaning a bit if you see what I mean, was kind enough to tell me about it and not tell everyone else by putting it in my public feedback - of course I told her I would fix this problem immediately, but couldn't resist telling her that as far as the problem piece goes - I wantit back.

GIVEAWAY - Afra Gorgeous Arm Warmers!

CLOSED- WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED TODAY!

Afra is an art and craft atelier in İstanbul made up of two close friends- Aslı and Azra.

They love the handmade life and eclectic things. Afra designs are mostly inspired by different color and texture combinations. Their work is beautiful, warm and wonderful!

We are so lucky to have a wonderful piece of Asli and Azra's amazing work for our giveaway!


WHAT YOU GET:

One lucky winner will receive Afra's amazing brown chic arm warmers!







HOW TO WIN:

Visit Afra and leave a comment below letting Asli and Azra know which item is your favorite.

For additional entries:

(5) Twitter this post
(5) Blog about this contest; linking to this post
(5) Follow my blog

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries. This contest is open to everyone.

DRAWING:

MIDNIGHT on Sunday, December 6th! CLOSED

Recycled Christmas Countdown or saving your digits the old fashioned way

This is the 4th part of my weekly series on some recycled and repurposed Christmas gift ideas- things that are easy enough to make fairly quickly, but still look like you put the proper time and thought into them.

I don't know anyone's phone number anymore because they are all stored in my cellphone and when I forget to charge it

(all the time)

I am left wishing I had my memory back

(from before I lost it being a mom)

or that I had a wonderful old rolodex!

You will need: a can (cut out both ends- you can't do this with all cans these days, but there are still some out there), a magazine, index cards or cardboard and dividers (you can make these pretty easily, but I just happen to have some purple ones)


Step 1- Gather your supplies, cut both ends from your can and peel the label

Step 2- Find an interesting picture page in your magazine (the magazine can be new and part of the gift or you can recycle one of your old ones)

Step 3- Tightly roll it up and slide it into the can

Step 4- Trim your index cards to about 4" square (square just seems better somehow and it also stands up perfectly for some reason that I can't figure out)

Step 5- Slide your dividers and cards into the pages - instant modern, recycled rolodex!




Some simple wrap (Target giant lunch bag run through an inkjet) completes the gift!

Thankful Thursday or I will not whine, I will not whine, I will not whine

I thought instead of whining my way through the holidays, I would try something a little more positive and focus on things I am thankful for.

So do you guys want to hear something awesome?

Then you should probably go read another blog.

You are not going to believe what happened to me.

(just kidding... sort of)

Gratitude 1: A 2 Day local craft show last weekend that I have no idea why I signed up for (yes, I know I am dangling my participles and I also do know why I signed up, but I will take full responsibility for my own stupidity)

I was surrounded (on 2 of 3 sides) with buy/sell jewelry and yes, even though I befriended the very kind sellers of this junk, I totally knew it was buy/sell.

NOTE to buy/sell people at juried shows- EVERYONE knows you did not make your stuff when 1. You have 1000's of pieces with 1000's of different clasps, beads, settings, styles, etc and 2. You are selling necklaces for $10.00 that could not possibly be made for $10.00 (other than by six year old children in India)

(and oh yeah, also when you say that you "sell jewelry" because people who are not buy/sell do not say we "sell jewelry" - even though we try to - we say we "make jewelry")

And you make those of us who actually labor over our product look expensive and shows should be more careful - and they often aren't.

But, wait I am getting whiney, so let me say that I am actually very thankful that I did this show because now I am 100% certain I will never do another non-Indie show (and I've never done an Indie show, but they seem like more fun and no one is ripping Made In China stickers - unless they were the one in China actually making them - off the bottom of their stuff minutes before the show starts) again.

I am incredibly thankful that I did so poorly that I will never be tempted to do this again.

and that I got to meet this woman ---> (untouched photo I snapped as she was leaving and YES that is all her own hair)

who squealed when she saw my cork

(the kind of sound you would expect to hear if you punched a build-a-bear)

and of, course, I got her stylist's digits, because you know I just had to ask.

Gratitude 2: I was sick on Monday, but on Tuesday I was better. So I knew it was just a stomach thing and not the swine flu which I was convinced I had for a few hours there. Which, of course, is totally ridiculous because everyone who knows me knows I am like the last person to grab on to the latest fad. If I got swine flu now that would make me terribly in vogue, it's more likely that I'd have SARS.

Gratitude 3: I spent like 3 hours at Barnes and Noble trying to decide whether or not to purchase the new Stephen King.

(ie reading the first chapter while sipping spilled hot chocolate from my napkin - hey, it's a recession - and avoiding everything I was supposed to be doing ... like food shopping)

and I got to hear the best little quarrel I'd heard in a long time

(that I wasn't participating in)

Let me set the scene- they were an adorable twenty something couple- she had wide-set Bratz doll eyes and you just knew she would still look cute when she washed off all that eye make-up but you just couldn't hate her for it because she was just so damn adorable

and he kind of reminded me of that cute wannabe detective guy on the HBO series.

She was smacking the side of their table trying to get his attention.

"ANSWER ME"

She hit the table harder sending the Dean Koontz books he had been building into an elaborate pyramid crashing to the floor. "You spilled my Koontz," he whispered, calmly gathering the books and re-Jenga-ing them on top of each other. He looked sad. "Now, I've got dirty Koontz."

This sent my hot chocolate spewing and caused everyone to look at me.

"Sorry, asthma attack", I muttered, pounding my own chest.

"We are so broken up right now!" - she stomped off.

So, anyhoo, we have to be thankful for the little things (as Oprah says) and for some reason this little exchange (I did see them making out in the parking lot an hour later) somehow made me happy and had me thinking about young love and all the passion of it and then that made me a little bit sad and needing to see my own hubby.

So, I headed over to hubby's shop and he was wearing his 'crazy pilot from Mad Max' goggles and stopped dead in his tracks to say to me "damn, you look good"

(those goggles are a bit distorting)

and I thought, well, maybe old-love isn't so bad either ...

(of course, he burst my love-bubble by asking about the lines in the grocery store and about all the food I bought, which made me realize that I actually did have to hit the food store and not just the bookstore)

so I blew him a kiss and left him standing there with his saucer eyes and fraggle rock hair and went off to do my Thanksgiving duty.

Hoping everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and lots of amazing things to be thankful for!