Olive Takes a Bite Out of L.A.!

Some pics from Cali! Back from L.A. last night and I am on my way to Chicago tomorrow ... so I guess this makes me kind of a world traveler ... kind of ...

me and my brother Vinnie (not my cousin Vinnie, my brother Vinnie and no, everyone in New Jersey is not named Vinnie)

xo all - will try to write from the windy city

alive and kicking and flying to L.A. in the morning ....

I never, ever play hookey like this - really, truly - I was the girl who went to school every day even on picture day when I had somehow managed to slam my lower lip into a closing car door and had 6 stitches the size and color of a fuzzy caterpillar - the creepy, crawly, huge, black gypsy moth kind - across my face, got teased and ran into the girl's room in tears until my bestest friend painted a magic marker gypsy moth caterpillar on her own face to make me feel better.

I am flying to L.A. in the morning

(yes, I like the sound of that - it is so not me, to be flying to L.A. in the morning, maybe driving to Camden in the morning, that is more like me - but I admit I like the sound of it and I found many occasions to say it today, it is really quite amazing how often it came up

- at the post office - when the girl asked me if I was mailing anything hazardous, liquid or fragile

girl - "are you mailing anything hazardous, liquid or fragile?"
me - "no, but I am flying to L.A. in the morning."

- at the grocery store when the old lady accidentally banged into my ankle with her cart

old lady - "oops"
me - "I am flying to L.A. in the morning"

- to the pizza delivery boy while stopping Olive from knocking him off the front steps

pizza boy - " uh, does she bite?"
me - "no, but I am flying to L.A. in the morning"

it just sounds good, doesn't it and I think it only works with L.A. because next week I am going to Chicago and it doesn't have the same kind of bling about it, you know)

So tonight while I should be pouring shampoos and conditioners and liquid whatnots into little plastic bottles and then putting those little plastic bottles into a one quart clear bag which I am pretty certain I do not have anyway - I have spent the evening staring at my hairline and eating Bagel Bites, periodically opening the empty Bagel Bites carton to see if maybe more cheese stalactites were forming on the underside of the lid ... yum.

There is a little bit of a problem with my hairline - and by hairline I mean the "part" in my hair which I guess is not really my hairline, but it sounds less confusing than saying "part" somehow because I made the last minute decision to color my roots ... myself.

So, I bought one of those root touch up kits that actually GUARANTEES it will match your haircolor - how is this possible I wondered, but I knew they wouldn't say it if it weren't true, right - so I bought the medium blonde, brushed it onto my roots, waited 10 minutes, washed it out and I now have ... red roots, actually orange roots, I have orange roots, not medium blonde roots, orange roots ...

and I am flying to L.A. in the morning

Wish me luck folks - I will post pics from the California Gift Show - if you are in the neighborhood - I am in the Olive Bites booth, I will be the girl with the orange roots ....

xo all

forewarned is forearmed - a little heads up to the fish of the Atlantic Ocean

Nah, I haven't really gone fishing.

(you can exhale now Mr. Big Billy Bass)

I am getting ready for Beckman's Handmade Wholesale Shows in LA and Chicago and needing to exhale myself a bit before I head into that - yikes!

Have a great week all - enjoy your summer!

xo

*gone fishin screenprint by dmeyerdesigns

Happy 4th of July - from one firecracker to another ...

I am going to put the giveaways on hold for the summer and revive them after Labor Day! The final 2 winners are:

Cubit's Winner is (chosen at random.org):
True Random Number Generator
Min: 1 Max: 405 Result: 11 = Kaytee!

and the winner of the Inbook giveaway is:
True Random Number Generator
Min: 1 Max: 514 Result: 403 = Resolute Twig!

Congrats and thank you to everyone else who took the time to enter!

* photo by Grundlepuck

the last 168 hours ... - part ll

... sooo, I'm heading for Brooklyn and just about get to the Garden State Parkway which is about 10 minutes from my house when suddenly the skies turn black and a storm of pretty much Biblical proportions hits out of nowhere.

(a blinding rain, hail, end of the world type situation where sensible people pull over somewhere and wait it out, note - I am not a sensible person)

Actually pulling over is not really an option so I just inch along blindly with everyone else, hoping no one is dumb enough to actually stop and cause a 20 car pile up.

Within a few minutes either the skies have cleared or I have driven through the storm HALLELUJAH! - because the sun is shining again.

I relax.

I try to remember how long the Panera Bread ice tea in my console has been in my car and whether or not it is still safe to drink.

I recheck my mapquest directions and keep driving - thankful to be heading north when all the Friday traffic is heading south ...

until the traffic isn't anymore and I am inching along again.

I get on a highway somewhere at exit 5 or 7 and my mapquest directions tell me to get off at exit 28A, which I am thinking sounds pretty far since I am already passing a Welcome to Brooklyn sign but at least I'm in Brooklyn

(ex-home of the Dodgers, the bridge my great-grandfather once bought - for $17 and a pack of Lucky Strikes, Prospect Park, Coney Island, Junior's Cheesecake, Nathan's Hotdogs ... and Etsy)

so I feel some relief, but am still a little uneasy because the traffic looks endless and I have alot of exits to go before I hit 28A - by now it is about 6:00 (so much for girl math).

After another 30 minutes or so I am at about exit 15 and pass a Thanks for Visiting Brooklyn sign or a You Are Leaving Brooklyn sign or a Welcome to Queens sign or it may have just said You Have Gone Too Far Idiot - Turn Around NOW.

(if I was a cartoon, you would’ve heard the sound of a single percussive tinkle as I blinked at that sign)

I call my daughter and ask her to sign onto twitter and tweet the team that I will be late. I take the next exit, cursing out mapquest, pull into a parking lot and plug the Etsy address into my GPS.

(yes, I have a GPS and I know you are thinking, uh, why didn't you use that - well because #1. it screws up in cities and #2. it can't be programmed until the car is turned off - I guess the designers at Ford never stopped to think that one of their vehicles might have a person in them besides the driver who could safely program the thing while the car is moving, not that I had such a person, of course)

The good news is that I am out of the bumper to bumper stuff and moving along - the bad news is that sometimes my GPS is telling me to make a right when there is no right and sometimes it is telling me to make a left onto a oneway street going right and I have no phone number to call anyone and I am not exactly sure I am in Brooklyn anymore.

(where's Toto or wait Olive ... where's Olive ...)

I get stuck in traffic again at the Pace University graduation, where groups of tall, gorgeous women in blue graduation gowns are all over the street - if anyone knows where this would be let me know. Then I am in Chinatown, which even I know is not in Brooklyn, I think, and on Canal Street and seeing signs for the Holland Tunnel. It is 7:30.

I am now sitting in traffic for the tunnel and feel some strange sense of calmness surrounded by the other New Jersey license plates. I call my daughter and ask if anyone has tweeted her back (not that I thought anyone would be checking twitter messages). She says no so I tell her to just delete her tweet as I inch my way into the tunnel.

(back to New Jersey and into another traffic jam heading to the shore for the weekend)

I got home around 11:00. Hubby asked how the meeting went without glancing up from his book, which kind of annoyed me, so I just said fine, pretend strangled him behind his back and went to bed.

(plus I was a little pissed he hadn't insisted on playing Hoke to my version of Miss Daisy's declining years and prevented this entire fiasco)

So, that is the story of how Cat almost got to visit Etsy -

(and yes, I like to talk about myself in the 3rd person, except I usually say 'the Cat' ... drives Olive crazy)

the next day hubby had a breathing problem and chest pain at work and we ended up in the emergency room where he would spend the next 2 days - well, not in the emergency room although it felt like 2 days in the emergency room, but in the hospital, having every test in the book including a stress test that he totally aced - he is 100% OK thankfully - and being waited on hand and foot ... poor Olive ....

Have a wonderful weekend everyone - I will post the winner of the last 2 giveaways of the season on Monday morning! (to steal one from Sherry - kiss the ones you love)

xo

* wounded and abandoned umbrellas by cat eye photography
* traffic jam by lolas room
* let's find some beautiful place to get lost by I screen you screen

the last 168 hours ... AKA the girl math controversy - part l

yes, I'm still alive and kicking, all 112 lbs of me

(or was that what I weighed in 4th grade. high school, although I can still wear the same earrings I wore back then, please don't hate me, so that pretty much guarantees I am still the same size - I think this is called girl math)

anyhoo ...

Friday June 24th (picture me typing this on an old black Royal, pencil behind my ear, slugging back a nasty looking mug of black coffee) - I wake up thinking about team EcoEtsy's meet up -

(for those of you who are not so up on things like this, and if that is you, please get up on things like this because I can't keep stopping to explain things to you (smiles sweetly), this is a new way of saying "meeting" but without any actual meeting-like things going on, such as note-taking, yawning and daydreaming about the coffee and donuts at end of said meeting)

at Etsy headquarters at 6:00.

Since 2011 is my "year of deciding" I had decided to see just how last minute I could make my decision about whether or not to go to this meet up - I like to live on the edge.

(this is the same part of me that likes to go skydiving and mountain climbing and parasailing or wait, that's not me, that's some other girl, but that's how I kind of see myself)

A Friday late afternoon drive into Brooklyn (ok, who am I kidding, any drive into Brooklyn) followed by a Friday night, in the summer, drive back to the shore (if you've ever done this you can feel my pain, if you haven't just picture bumper to bumper traffic; cars stretched out in front of you as far as the eye can see with people who look slightly like Snookie and the Situation screaming obscenities at each other or making out on the hood of their car, not sure which would be worse) did not sound good.

Of course, the actual "meet-up" part in the middle of all this driving would make it all worth it - I would get to meet some amazing people, force myself out of my comfort zone and get to see the actual, physical Etsy.

Anyhoo, back to Friday morning

(and yes, this is going to be one of those long drawn out posts, grab a cup of tea or maybe one of those mega-caffeinated drinks to stay awake here)

I wake up feeling very sleepy positive. I check my morning email and there is a message from Tarot.com about a free one card tarot reading - I type in the words - "should I go to the meet up?"

(yes, this is how a year of deciding is done people)

Then I swish the cards around with my mouse and pick one.

Of course, I have forgotten what card comes up - maybe the 3 of cups? - whatever it is the meaning is a group of like minded people and the picture looks like they are having a party - so I'm thinking this is amazing, quickly favorite the site for more year of deciding decision making later on, and decide to go.

I mapquest the directions and try to figure out how many people will show up. The team has, I think, about 400 world-wide members so I take a guess at 15 (girl math again) and decide (without another Tarot reading because I couldn't get another free one until tomorrow plus I have to do some actual deciding on my own after all) to make 30 EcoEtsy cork necklaces - my thinking here is that since I didn't RSVP I better not show up empty handed.

Of course the hours are getting later, the skies grayer and I have to work fast. At about 2pm I am in my bathroom with a hairdryer hoping for some miracle dry-time results. Now, I am not claiming brain surgery here and this is a process I could likely teach to an 8 year old (and if I had one and a respirator to fit her, she would have been in that bathroom instead of me - extreme times call for extreme measures folks), but it takes time and this living by the seat of my pants lifestyle I have going on is challenging, again please don't hate me for this.

The necklaces are dry enough to go into the test tubes without sealing themselves to the glass like your grandma's dentures (which I hope for her sake ... and yours ... are in there pretty tight) and I finally get into my car at 4:00 - mapquest has told me I need 1 hour and 20 minutes to get there so (again using girl math) I quickly calculate an additional 40 minutes or 50% more time for traffic ...

it was something like this except I used my right index finger and the air in front of my face or maybe an abacus I am kind of old ---->

Well, the morning is flying and I have to get ready to watch the Casey Anthony trial to work so will finish this up tomorrow ... one heads up about the outcome - girl math sucks folks.