Thursday, July 31, 2008

Mr. Pretties Forgot To Obtain Batteries...

I make one request, please pick me up some camera-food so I can take some pictures for my list-a-thon I've scheduled for today. No problem. Hey Mr. Pretties, where for art my batteries? Ahh... still at the store... I see... I can see how they wouldn't be a priority. Oh wait, no I can't. Now, hypothetical situation, say The Little Boy Person had made his appearance this afternoon (By the way, don't count on him making his appearance anytime in the near, or not-so-near future, we're in it for the long haul now!) how many of his first moments would I have missed because of this error in judgement? Fortunate LBP is sitting tight or Mr. Pretties really could have been in for it. Honestly. Who forgets batteries that are written on the list in your hand, on the last day of the BOGO sale for batteries? I digress...

I read my own blog, everyday after I post in it. I have a horrible habit of things making sense in my head while I'm typing them, but when I go back and read it it makes zero sense at all or the words are all wrong or something. So if you read a post and end up shaking your head and thinking I must be into the Black Ice a little early, come back and read it again in an hour, it just may make more sense then ;) So because I have no pictures to share I would personally skip my own post today. Some how it's just not the same, but I can't just not post today... that wouldn't feel right either and we all know how I feel about 'right'. So maybe I'll dig out some links instead.

I got my new no-slip grips this morning, woohoo! They feel really great (Yeah, I took them out of their envi and rubbed them, very, very nice) and I bet they work marvelously. I'm going to test them out on the Little Pretties tonight and hopefully they're not only compareable to the old ones, but are much, much better. I like things that're better. Not only that, but the seller who sells them (How lazy am I, I had my no-slip grips cut for me... sue me, it takes forever to cut those suckers!) is super duper nice and she lives in Canada so shipping is speedy fast which I also love! Speaking of speedy shipping, or not, my flat plate bobby pins are still not here. I took my envi out of the mail this morning and couldn't figure out why the package was so bendy and non-bobby pin feeling. Then I discovered they weren't bobby pins. They better be here tomorrow, I'm getting annoyed. In addition, I just received an email from USPS that the premade corkers I ordered on the 16th were shipped. Yesterday. Yeah... so they sat around for two weeks before even hitting the mail for another two. I'm not really happy about that. At all. That almost deserves negative feedback. Not only did they not ship until yesterday, but the seller did not take the time to see my name in the payment info and instead took the last name from my PayPal info (Mr. Pretties) and Meaghan from the shop's name. Wait, I believe it was Meghan (not spelled right) at that. So, if this package should for some reason end up at the post office I wont be able to pick it up. I am not Meghan ******, and with the spelling that person does not even exist. In all my time buying on Etsy (I have another 'buyers' account not related to Meaghan-Marie) I have never encountered this problem. I hate leaving negative things, especially since she made an effort to ship it to Canada (Although it did take her a week to make a listing reflecting this... and it's totally not that hard to do, like it would take 30 seconds) but I'm just annoyed. I treat my $3 sales as well as my $30 sales and others should too. Not saying I'm the perfect seller or anything like that, in the past two weeks I've had my fair share of postal issues and supply issues that've needed some patching up but I'm hoping that's something we'll avoid with time. So, we wont be seeing fun corkers in the shop anytime soon. Sorry about that. Really sorry be cause that means I'll have to make them now, and that requires using the oven and heating my house far warmer than I like.

While I was opening my envi from the slip-grip lady I found she had this really adorable 'mini card' tucked in there with her logo, name, tagline, and email. Sounds pretty boring, but it is so sweet! It's really high quality and something I'll totally hang onto because it's so cute and fun, way cooler than a business card! She even gave me the website she bought them on. It's www.Moo.Com they've got some great designs premade or you can upload your own (Or not, as i my case where my files are not working correctly...). I think I'll have a super cute logo created and then have some printed up. These put business cards to shame, these are just so perfect, and tiny and kind of feel like a little present even though they're clearly an advertisement. Moo even lets you print several different prints in one order, and the prices are pretty reasonable. 100 mini cards for $20 + shipping. Not bad! I love ordering from Etsy just to see what neat things sellers tuck into their packages, and I never cease to be amazed! Must be that over flowing creativity they (not me) possess.

I did felt some balls lastnight, but only four. I'm going to try to make some more tonight. I think not having the pins to put them on, combined with the fact that they aren't big sellers on Etsy has kind of dampened my motivation. Not that I couldn't sell them as felt beads too. I just don't want to make all these fuzzy cuties and then have them sitting around the house feeling all bad because no one wants them. Then I'll either have to package them for the mom sales or use them, and I'm more likely to use them because I feel bad for them. Poor babies. Maybe they're happier as roving? They actually look really sweet sitting in little glass containers in the kitchen too, so I could use them as decor too ;) I'll think of something.

I'm going to go do something blog worthy now, and then come back and blog about it when my camera is working. I really dislike this camera. Alot.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

It's Wednesday and I Have No Pictures To Share...

Today was another excellent mail day :) Remember that really cute picture of different coloured roving with the bunny? That arrived this morning. As did my Ikea catalog. No bills accompanied either. These things all together make me very happy! I was really hoping the roving would arrive with the flat plate bobby pins I ordered on the same day though... that would have put me right off the chart of happiness because I could have started making and listing my felt ball pins today. Technically I could felt the balls today and then adhere them tomorrow, but it's just not the same. It's probably better actually, since the felty balls need atleast 24 hours to dry... genius, glad I thought of it! This afternoon along with boiling bottles, washing my bedding, and complaining about my back which feels like it may be dislocated, I will felt some rainbow balls. I'd love to promise pictures will follow but I'm out of food for the camera (Read: Batteries) until tomorrow when Mr. Pretties goes out to obtain some for me.

This has been a super slow Etsy week and I can't say I'm sorry for it. I've got orders done, I've ordered new supplies, I have one more order to do, and I've got a fat stack of mail to take out in the morning, and I'm done. Hopefully until after The Little Boy Person gets here. That's a funny think to wish, eh? 'Gee I hope I don't make any sales this week!' I'd obviously be stoked if I did, but for right now I'm just going to list things I've got made already and take no customs because I can't promise they'll be out in a timely fashion for atleast the next few weeks. Clippies that I just need to package I can promise will be out and on time. I also have three sets of freebies to send out and once I get 15 replies to my Facebook group I'll have to send out another 30. If I don't hear back from more than, say, two people I'm not sending any out, it really defeats the purpose. I also have to start stocking up for the fall Mom2Mom sales I attend as well as for Little Sprouts Turnabouts. I'm still patiently waiting for my clip cards too... I'm also regretting getting them in pink and brown. I know, I can't believe I just said that either. But it occurred to me during my 3am bathroom break that when I make my clip cards I use cardstock and paper that match or accent the clips and makes them look purdy. Pink and brown is no going to accent, or match most colour combos I sell. This could make them look ugly, and then I wont use them and I'll be back to making my own. Damn it. Well, we'll give it a try, but I can really see myself purchasing new solid coloured cards in a light, light green and light, light pink which are Meaghan-Marie's other colours and tend to match most of what's going on.

I've added a 'vintage' section to Etsy as well. I'm going to see how it goes but I'll probably end up opening a shop especially for fun housy stuff and vintage items. Some how they don't seem to 'flow' with little girl pretties... But I've got so many vintage goodies that could really use some loving elsewhere that it only seems to be the humane thing to do. I may keep some of my housy funs on MMPretties, but only ones that can be used in a baby nursery, or kiddie room. Don't really need a big 'beard' garland in grown up colours cluttering up the rainbow of hair clippies. Just doesn't make sense or look all that cute. I'd love to list my vintage haves today, but again, need to get me some batteries. Or find one of the Little Pretties toys that doesn't need them... Hmm... that's a good idea too, although it may not be profitable because I try to limit the amount of annoying noisy things that require batteries coming into the house... Crap, I actually don't think there is anything that already has batteries that work. Well, tomorrow and Friday we'll be having a list-a-thon, even if I have to take the pictures from my hospital bed ;) That should be fun!

Mr. Pretties promised that if I hadn't had The Little Boy Person by tomorrow I could go to the cheap-o nail place (Not the love-me-some-pink-and-brown spa from my birthday events) and have them remove and reapply my nail polish. I was very excited about this prospect as my toes now look like someone took extra special care to only paint the top halves of them. They aren't chipped or anything, just super grown out. And I spilled white paint on two of them when I was painting my mantel thingies white. I can't get it off. But it appears that Mr. Pretties has now decided he's going on a grocery shopping spree instead. Like we need groceries! Apparently he doesn't understand that I'm on a time line here... he can still go grocery shopping after The Little Boy Person gets here, I on the other hand could go to the toe place, but wont because the amount of complaining and whining I would receive from Mr. Pretties when I got home would undo any good the toe painting would have done for me. Plus, it would pretty well defeat the purpose, I need nice toes so the nice nurses at the hospital have something interesting to look at during delivery ;) I'm sure they've seen more hoo-haws than they'd like to discuss, but how many fun toe nail paintings have they seen? Probably not nearly as many! I was planning on having fun flowers painted on them and everything just for added effect. I think I'll have to rediscuss this situation with Mr. Pretties this evening. He must've over looked these important details when he thought he needed to grocery shop.

PS. If anyone out there loves me, I could really use the Creative Homes magazine, as well as that one that's about prettying flea market finds, and things of that nature. They'd be fab for easy hospital reads, but, I'm not about to spend $7 on a 1.5mm magazine. Sorry. I'm stingy like that... so if anyone has them laying around just let me know. Unless you're in the US or the likes, then don't let me know because it'll make me cry that you have them and I can't come get them. Thanks. I remember when magazines were $3.50 and that was expensive. $7, that's just ridiculous!

Off to felt some balls and find a chiropractor (or hot bathtub) to do something about this back situation.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Sweet, Sweet Garland...

Okay, prepare your eyes for the worst pictures known to humanity. Seriously. My livingroom seems to have the worst lighting situation. Ever. We have a veranda in the front that blocks out most of the light, there's only one window, and the paint is dark. It's very cave like and with no ceiling light it's very hard to get a decent picture in there. Even with all four lamps sans shades, and the diningroom light on. Combine that with the severe suckingness of my camera and you've got yourself some pretty horrific pictures, almost to the point of being pointless.

But I promised there would be pictures, and there shall. This is the mantel before:

I'm actually really embarassed I let it sit this way for so long. Notice the black paint on the mirror, it used to be covered in black and white scrapbooking paper when it was in the then black and white hallway. I tried to use paint to make the paper stick because I didn't want to haul out my blue gun... yeah it didn't work.


-->Please insert blushing and horribly embarrassed smiley here<-- That's even a water wing on the mantel there, and my outdoor bunnies awaiting their paint job. Could it be any uglier? This was taken lastnight after the majority was done, again, really crappy pictures/lighting but you get the idea.
Now this is without the garland. I like the new whiteness of all of it. Since I couldn't get a close-up without it being black I'll describe for you ;) To the left is my outdoor cement bunnies, now white. They have chocolate brown and light green neckties. In the center is an antique tin that used to have horrible ugly vintage fruits on it. I painted it white and added the same chocolate brown satin ribbon and light green swiss dot ribbon around it and added some flowers. To the right is a full place setting of solid white dishes with the same ribbon spilling out. It sounds stupid but IRL it looks really cute.




This is this afternoon after I tied my little hands off making this garland. The green isn't the right colour, but when you're shopping WalMart's remnants section (Ps. WalMart in Canada has all of it's fabric 50% off currently as it's doing away with the fabric section FYI) so it's comprised of green sheer, chocolate brown sheer, chocolate brown minky, white linen, white flannel, white satin ribbon, green swiss dot ribbon, black and white ribbon, and moss green roving (Have you noticed this roving is working into WAY too many projects now? Me too... but I just love it...)


This is the best picture I could get, this with four lamps shadeless, the hall light on, the dining room light on, and my camera set to night mode. It's also still daylight here... All I can say is, wow. How crappy can one camera be?! So you can't even really appreciate how sweet i looks since you can't see that the paper in the white frames is the same coloured stripes as the garland and everything else. It's really sharp IRL. This garland ways a freakin' ton too. The cement bunnies and place setting full of rocks and roving are barely doing the job, I have to figure out a way to keep it up there safely. It's also easily 5' long, oh how I love ragamuffins!

These are the colours up close:
Considering the green isn't what I wanted and I ran out of brown half way through I think it turned out pretty good. You also can't see that the pukey green chair and black telephone table are beside the fireplace and the chair is the exact colour of the green fabric so it does look fab. I don't usually do garlands that's all solid fabrics so this is different than my other ones. Mr. Pretties even encouraged the garland for the fireplace after the first bit was done. He thought the transformation, even though small, looked nice and cute and he may now consider sitting in the living room. I'll sit in the living room simply to admire the garland because I love them. I'm going to make one for the Little Boy Person's area in our room too. That will require a stop at the thrift store though because I want to use some old blue and green plaid shirts and possibly some denim as well, and those are things we do not have in this house. Especially not to rip up. This garland cost me two king sized flannel pillow cases (That had that really yummy flannel smell), one vintage linen crib sheet (Really shouldn't have ripped that one up...), 1.25 yards of brown, and 2.5 yards of green. Then several rolls of ribbon. This is by far the biggest garland I own now. I even found some more black and white patterned material as well as another small piece of toile that I can stuff into the little one in the kitchen since I still think it needs something. I might also use the rest of the left overs from the garlands in the Little Pretties' room and make another one for Etsy. We'll see how this whole Little Boy Person exiting situation goes. Then again, maybe I'm the only person goofy enough to love these little cuties. I'm glad I don't have loads of money because I'd buy every single ragamuffin garland that The Nester makes, and then I'd be out of space for sure.



I had my *LAST* (Do you hear me Little Boy Person?!) obstetrics appointment this morning. I really hate these appointments. With the Big Little Pretty they were so exciting and made the time go by so much quicker! With the Little Little Pretty they were exciting to begin with, but after going 12 days late they quickly got old.

Dr: 'Have you had any contractions?'
Me: 'No'
Dr: 'Any weird discharge?'
Me: 'No'
Dr: 'Any questions?'
Me: 'No'
Dr: 'Wow, you're having a boring pregnancy!'
Me: 'Thanks'

You can only have that conversation so many times before it loses the hilarity. This time we even have a new Dr and are using a different hospital, so they should be exciting again, right? Wrong. Accept this time the waiting chairs are always full (Not always by pregnant people either... jerks...) and you have to stand in the cement hall. Usually for an hour before being seen for your 30 second appointment. There is one bathroom in this area where patients from three different OBs need to pee in a cup, as well as anyone else in the hospital who also needs to pee. This causes a fair bit of chaos. And annoyance. Then I proceed to have the same conversation as above. I'm not even due for another three days and there's already talk of induction. No thanks. Also if I don't deliver by this weekend I'll have to have a completely different Dr. Essentially that is fine, accept that we chose this hospital and this Dr for the purpose of seeing the same person and knowing who was going to deliver, versus with the other two having no idea. So it's not that we haven't gone this route before, we just didn't plan to this time. I even researched this Dr. to make sure it would be a good match, and for what? So someone else can deliver anyway? What was the point?! I suppose I'm being hormonal and overreacting, but still. Aunt Pretty is also moving this weekend making The Little Boy Person's arrival on the weekend a little inconvenient for most as the Little Pretties need to go to Aunt Pretties so Mr. Pretties can come with me. Although I could really go myself, Mr. Pretties almost missed it the last two times anyway... So I asked the Dr. if The Little Boy Person was in position and ready to make his way out and he said... 'Who can really tell?' Great. Who knows. I stood in a non- air conditioned hallway for an hour, listening to a newborn scream because the mom is 'putting her on a schedule' (That is the worst sound to hear, breaks my heart!), to hear 'Who knows!'. He could have lied. He could have said 'Any minute now! Watch for signs because I can just tell he's practically knocking at the door!' and that would have made me happy. Even if it wasn't true and wasn't going to happen. Saying 'Who knows' and discussing induction dates with me is not conducive to a happy person. Having to book an appointment with a different Dr. for next week also does not make me a happy person. The prospect of still being pregnant in two weeks having an induction makes me really unhappy. I think I'll just skip next weeks appointment and save myself the swollen legs and disappointment.

Mr. Pretties came home from work and I was stoked to show him the ragamuffin sweetie, even though I may not keep her (If she doesn't sell she's always welcome here ;) ) I still think she's darling and full of whimsy and character. He looked at it, put on his serious face and barely croaked out 'Yeah that looks nice' before falling into hysterical laughter. Which only became worse the more angry I got. Apparently, the garland is too 'bushy' and makes the fireplace look like it has a beard. I should take half of the fabric out and make a second one since this one is so full. Right. Like he's a knowledgeable source about whether or not my garland is too fluffy or bushy or whatever. I think I'm a better source of trendy info. How rude. Does he not understand that I will be suffering from severe arthritis or something from ripping all that fabric and tying all those knots? Probably not...

Monday, July 28, 2008

Okay So Updates Will Have to Wait Until Tomorrow...

... Sorry about that. The mantel is mostly done, I just need to find some white/sage/brown fabric/ribbon to make another garland for the mantel. It absolutely needs one and I just don't have the white/sage to do it. Frig I hate that. It would be SO done other wise. Also, my house is now a disaster. The laundry is still wet. And there is a sink full of dishes... some how crafting puts everything else on the back burner. In addition to this I'm getting the icky bloated/crampy/achy feeling that I'm hoping is not The Little Boy Person planning to make his arrival because I still have stuff to do!

Mr. Pretties will be home from work in approximately six minutes to clean up this disaster. He wont be happy. I don't even think the beauty of the mantel will erase the images of spilled paint in the kitchen courtesy of The Little Pretty. Nope, I really don't think so.

Off to put the wet curtains in the dryer since I'm not really a huge fan of people outside my house watching me sleep... Mr. Pretties likely wouldn't be thrilled either... Can't someone else be doing this?!

I Should Be Painting Outdoor Rabbits...

I have about 5001 things to be doing right now... so what am I doing? I'm blogging about doing them... perhaps that will motivate me to get them done. Or not. I am suffering from an exhaustion unlike no other right now, I don't know if The Little Boy Person is thinking about making his way out or what but even typing this blog is requiring copious quantities of energy that weren't restored during my nap this afternoon. Yes, that's right, I took a nap. I have a secret love affair with napping and it will be a sad, sad day when I can no longer convince the Little Pretties that they do too.

So on this evenings agenda (I have a love/hate affair with procrastination too...) I need to break out the paint and paint five mirrors for over my mantel because my mantel is butt ugly right now, probably has been for the last two years... and I need to do something about it. I tried just avoiding the living room altogether but it's not as easy as it sounds. So after I paint these mirrors, I need to hang them. I have zero patience for hanging things, we'll see how that plays out. Then I need to shop my basement for several accenty type things that can have a coat of white paint slapped on them and stuck on the mantel and pretend they belong there and were always white. So far I have out door rabbits. White rabbits can be sort of shabby chic/country/elegant, right? We'll see. I keep imagining these great white bottles with puke green candles in them for one side, but I don't have the bottles, or the candles, or puke green paint, and I don't think simply imagining them will make them appear. Crap. I'll see what I can dig up. I have to do laundry too... like I do five times a day, every. single. day. But I figure if the living room stops looking like garbage Mr. Pretties wont even notice the laundry that he'll have to take care of tomorrow before *hopefully* my last obstetrics appt. Mr. Pretties also has a hate-on for the living room, but doesn't have the ability to make it not ugly so that falls into my lap. I put it off for, oh, about six months now, telling him that I need a piece of baseboard to re frame the big mirror with to make it bigger, as well as some crackle medium, cream paint, antiquing medium, and a mitre saw. These supplies have yet to arrive... now I have no choice but to do a half rear ended job just with what I have. Trust me, it will not look even in the same realm of goodness that it would have if I'd had these very important supplies. I'll still take some after pictures, provided the camera hasn't already eaten the batteries I found for it yesterday.

I also have a really cool idea for new clippies involving candy wrappers (Trust me, it's cute) that I'll be working as soon as Mr. Pretties brings me some candy... I'll post about it. Then I'll put it on Etsy. I swear with all the stuff I'm giving away lately I'll have nothing on Etsy soon. That's actually okay though, I enjoy giving stuff away. Most of the time.

I purchased new clip-gripper yesterday, I had it custom cut and everything so it'll save me loads of time. Maybe now I'll be able to go to bed at 3:45 instead of 4am! Yessss! But I'm excited to try it out and see how it compares to the old gripper. I'm hoping this stuff is atleast comparable if not better so I can switch over. It just looks nicer and easier to work with. I hate working with the gripper I have now, it's a nightmare. This will be added to my magnet experiment as well. I may just have both of them be an option on Etsy since different things will work for different people ;) I also purchased custom clip cards. Woohoo! For those who have never received a package from me you wont know that I make all my shipping envelopes as well as my clip cards, thank you cards, and sometimes the tissue paper. This means that each order takes me a long time to assemble. These clip cards are ofcourse pink and brown ;) And will match my business cards whenever I order them (Did I already order them? Who knows!) and they'll be super cute and all I'll have to do is slice them down the sides for the clips to go in. I can even do this with my pink and brown paper cutter. I'm very excited about that. I was going to post a picture of them, but, I'm an idiot and I deleted it already. I hate it when I'm all efficient like that, it usually bites me in the rear end.

This post is crappy, but I'll be back in a couple hours (Hopefully) with pictures and fun stories of all the dumb things I did while I was trying to make my living room non-craptastic!

Friday, July 25, 2008

I Think We Passed Family Time 101...

Well we gave that whole 'family thing' a try again today when Mr. Pretties woke up from night shift. I think we actually passed as an average family enjoying eachother's company this time! That's progress people! We took The Pretties to Port Dover:
It was super packed because of summer holidays and parking was brutal (The only time ever I've considered paying $10 to park anywhere) but eventually we made it to the beach. The water was nice, albeit quite sea weedy and gross... We escaped with only two complete melt downs courtesy of The Big Little Pretty. It was the perfect day to go, there could not be a more perfect day ever. I wish we could have stayed all day/evening. We may actually go back tomorrow... no doubt it wont work out as well as today did. Who knows, maybe we'll meet The Little Boy Person tonight instead. Or not.
I hit the hay at 4am this morning. I think I have a problem... fortunately I didn't attempt anything too creative so I have no barf-esque items to share with you today (Big sigh of relief). I did finish 28 clippies, 12 clip cards, and 3 envelopes. I also decided it would be smart to put my glue gun down on my bare leg. I believe it was at this point I decided I needed to go to bed for my own safety. I got to take all that pretty mail to the post office this morning and impress the mail clerk again ;) She was so thrilled with my envis last time that when one of them has still yet to show up over a week later, I'm thinking I know where it went... I hate the postal service. Unless it's bringing me something I ordered, then it's okay.
A really nice person suggested I start a Facebook group for Meaghan-Marie. I hadn't thought of that... so for anyone interested the new group is called Meaghan-Marie Pretties in the search thing. Anyone can join. I think I'll be posting clippie parties on it as soon as we move. I've had quite a few requests for one of these, I simply don't have the room right now. What will happen is I'll have both a rear-end load of clippies already made, ready to take. As well as a promo book with clippies that can be available, and custom order forms. We'll have decadent snacks, drinks, and pick out clippies. I may incorporate some other items at this time too... we'll see how it goes after the move. I usually not a 'selling party' type of person, but it might be fun and there's been a demand. I'll list events like that in this group. It's also got current pictures of what's available in Etsy, just incase typing http://www.meaghanmariepretties.etsy.com/ is too much work ;) I know how that can be. Even though you should have it book marked... Kidding. Sort of.
Have you guys been over to Nester's Nesting Place Blog? I think you should. I love this blog. I've linked it before too, but I think I need to do it again. I love the ideas she has for super cheap/simple/great looking home decor. Honestly, it should be illegal for one person to have all these great ideas, it doesn't leave much for the rest of us (Read: Me). Her blog is down the side or if you don't feel like scrolling down it's http://www.nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/ and she's got a really great Etsy shop at http://www.nestingplace.etsy.com/ check out how adorable those ragamuffin garlands are! She's totally into using her ideas so I have two pink/white/cream ones in The Little Pretty's bedroom made of their old baby blankets, clothes, etc... and a black/white/toile/scarlet one in my kitchen from a kit I actually bought from The Nester. I really love them, they're just so cute and foofy and great. There's like a million and one uses for one! Mine aren't nearly as nice as the Nester's but this is the one in my kitchen (I'd planned to have pics from the Pretties room but my camera ate three sets of batteries to get one picture... Yeah it's crap)


I really love it. I could be bigger. Way bigger. But it's the right size to hang on that little shelf in the kitchen. No that's not a string going across the top of the shelf rungs, it's a dried up rose that looks a lot more appealing in person ;)












Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Cupcakes, Roving, and Sales - Oh My!

We should all be so proud. My cupcakes arrived as I said, and I made them into clips ;) Only two though. We'll see how they go on Etsy because I spruce up the other two. I think they're cute... but I'm not buying them so my opinion is neither here nor there. While I was in create mode at 3am this morning (Mr. Pretties is working nights and I cannot make myself go to bed at night, it's becoming a problem) I thought I'd try to felt an alligator clip. Why you ask? Who knows. It was one of those random thoughts like 'Hey... if I felted this here alligator clip I bet it'd look all cute and felty like! We could pretend it's 'earthy''. So I break out the hot water and dish soap and I try to cover this thing in moss green roving. Do you know what it looked like when it was 'done' (Read: When I was tired of trying to make it look cute and earthy)? This: No. That is not a hair ball regurgitated by Wilma (aka 'The Boss'). She's too good for things like that, didn't you know? No, it's actually a funky/earthy hair clip, can't you tell?! Yeah, just looking at the picture is making me feel a little nauseous. Both because it's a really bad picture (Have you come to the conclusion my camera sucks yet?!) and because it's super ugly. It does however smell like lavender dish soap... possibly the only thing going for it at this point. Note to self: No more 'creative' thinking past, say, 1am. The results are not pretty. I sort of feel bad for it, and kind of responsible for it's grotesque appearance so I can't seem to throw it away...



I have this old window/mirror frame (Not really sure... if anyone knows drop me a line)


and again, if anyone knows how to fix this sideways picture issue, other than expecting me to remember not take pictures this way, let me know. So, I have this old mirror/window frame. It had no glass or mirror. It's only about 2'x2.5' and was $5.00 at a flea market a few months ago. I had no use for it and nowhere to hang it, but I just couldn't leave it behind. It's been moved around my house numerous times since then, never finding a spot that felt 'right', several places that felt 'mildly acceptable until further notice' but just not 'right'. 'Right' is important.




I was discussing this piece on the Etsy chat lastnight and there's a shop owner there who sells really cute vintage/antique stuff like this at http://www.mountainvintage.etsy.com/ :




Honestly, how cute is that?! I could marry it! Anywho... she had this great idea to use it has a bulletin board! Did you hear that?! What a great idea, why didn't I think of it?! It'll be so easy too and very unspendy. I just need some cardboard, foam/batting, staples, some black satin ribbon, and some black and cream toile. It will be stunning and then it will go in my kitchen and serve a purpose. I haven't done it yet, I need to obtain myself some black and cream toile first, but I just know it will look 'right' and I'll be able to sigh a sigh of relief. I really hate it when I have cute things that don't seem to work anywhere. I tried to explain this bulletin board concept to Mr. Pretties. You can pretty much imagine how that went. Something to this effect. I love it because you can really feel the love.

Me: 'A girl on Etsy gave me this fantastic idea about what to do with that old frame on the mantel'

Mr. Pretties: 'Throw it out?'

Me: 'Uh... No. Don't be rude. She said I should make it into a bulletin board! I could cover it with black and cream toile!'

Mr. Pretties: 'What's toile?'

Me: 'It's fabric don't worry about it. but-'

Mr. Pretties: '- I don't have time to go to the fabric store today! I have to sleep you know, I have to work tonight!'

Me: 'Did I say we were going to the fabric store today?! At what point did I say that?! And you have to work? Do you know how much work Etsy is?! Do you!? Pshh... never mind, when you wonder why I stop telling you things this is why!'

Mr. Pretties: 'You're going to stop telling me? Why didn't I think of this before! I'm a genius!'

Uh huh. Whatever, that's what I was thinking. As I said, it's all about the love. Some how Mr. Pretties has a brain wire malfunction that we're working on that makes him think when I say something it means we need to be doing it immediately this second or the world will come to an end. It's a little bit annoyingish. But we're working on it. But, my bulletin board will be fabbity fab, I can tell because I can see it in my head ;)

I added more new clips to Etsy lastnight and this morning and out of that came 15 sales! FIFTEEN. I'm so glad it's for clippies I already had made and just have to make the packaging and cards (Have I told you I really wish my clip cards were here already?!) tonight and send them out in the morning which is awesome! I'm so glad customers liked my new clips as much as I did. I have to say I'm a little bit sad about the pink and brown scrapbook series going. I sort of had a personal attachment to them. I'm sure their new owner will love them as much as I did. She bought all of my pink and brown clips in fact, atleast I know she appreciates the whole pink and brown thing as much as I do :) That's sort of important. I personally like these new shiny ones:



I still have to make clippies tonight, I was wrong. I bought a whole whack of new stuff to incorporate into some OOAK clippies. I tried to get some really fun pictures but my camera is having major attitude and didn't want to. That's okay, it'll look cuter when I'm done. As a preview I have tiny pink glass tiles with initials (think monogrammed clippies), silver tiles with initials that look really fancy, bees, flowers, blue rhinestones, and some new ribbon. I have a vision for the pink tiles (Both for a furniture project as well as a clippie!) and I'm anxious to get on it. That wont be happening until Mr. Pretties is off to work and The Little Pretties are off to bed. So, let's say sometime tomorrow. Or never. I'll work something out. I'll try to stop crafting before 1am though. No one should have to suffer like that again...






Monday, July 21, 2008

Who Needs More Old Furniture?

Certainly not me. But, since when does need matter? I scored some pretty great old stuff this weekend, but we'll get to that in a little while.
I want to share a couple shops I came across today that I thought were really nice. This first one http://www.tannerglass.etsy.com/ really cheered me up this morning! I wasn't my normal cheery-silly self while I was lurking the Etsy forums and came across this shop. There's something about these vases that just make me want to smile. They're just so sweet and cheery, I can picture them sitting on my window sill in my kitchen making me smile all day long. Well, not all day long... despite popular belief I do not spend all day eating. I know that idea may not be easy to dispel after letting you all know that I split my pants. Trust me though, it's really only like 3/4 of my day.... Suzanne also makes the cutest blown glass Christmas/window ornaments, you know, the ones that look like witch balls (Not to be confused with felty balls, totally different feeling) or friendship balls, or whatever. They're just so pretty and whimsical and give you that cutey-sweet feeling all over. Love them. I will show Mr. Pretties her shop at Christmas time and let him know he can pick anything from there. He will then pick something entirely different from an entirely different shop (non-Etsy at that) that I've never in my life expressed an interest in. Men.

Another shop that made me smile today was http://www.signsbydiane.etsy.com/ Her stuff is so shabby chic, it's just exactly my style. If I had my way I'd have one of these signs in every space in my house. Okay, we all know I have no spaces in my house. But I would make one. I love things like this. I don't know what my attraction is to things that look old and worn, but they just feel 'right' and cozy. I could look at something like this everyday and never get tired of it. I think I get tired of new shiny things way too easy because they have no charm, no story, nothing. They came off a conveyor belt in China and sat on a shelf. That doesn't really sound like something that deserves a lot of attention or appreciation to me. I think you need to at least sit around for 80-100 years, get all cruddy looking, peel a bit, fall apart a bit, and then can you be appreciated. If you can't manage that, then at least pretend and go for the 'shabby' look. I can handle that.

So as I was saying. Remember that garage sale the land people were having at that ungodly hour? The one I was cursing? Yeah. Well it didn't really go so good. It went so poorly in fact that they were so fed up of carting this same stuff back and forth to the antique market that they were either chucking, or donating a lot of this stuff. Have I mentioned I like donations? I really do. Alot. So this sweet little baby has parked herself in my dining room now (I'm an idiot, if anyone knows how I can flip these pictures without photoshop or anything, please, do us all a favor and let me know). It's really beautiful and much shabbier in person. I even need to epoxy the drawer pulls because they're striped. Love it. The mirror is all nice and filmy from being old like. Who needs to see themselves?! It's actually not quite that bad. She's such a beauty... not to mention a free beauty. That makes me love her so much more. Not to mention I loved her last year at the antique market and almost bought her for $60 then which was a great deal. But I didn't. Thankfully no one else did either ;) Mr. Pretties brought her in from the rain on Saturday (Garage sale got rained on) and I just stood in the kitchen and stared in appreciation. Both of the fact that she's such a beaut, as well as the fact that I got her for free. What a great feeling!



Saturday we were supposed to be on a mission to obtain another window shaker. We got two blocks away and spotted a street sale. We pretty much stopped garage saling when we got the Buick (No, not a nice Buick. An 11 year old Buick Park Ave that's like a really big luxury thorn in my side). For some reason the Buick makers (Yes, I said Buick makers because I'm not looking up who makes them, you can though) are under the impression that persons who drive Buicks do not 'do' garage sales. Or flea markets. Or antique shows. It does however have a very nice peek-through hole thing in the back seat that would be splendid for, say, skis, or golf clubs... apparently we are not well matched with our vehicle. But, to get back on track here, we went to this street sale. As soon as we turned the corner I saw this: complete with this:












This cute pair had no price tag to be found. I do not ask prices at garage sales, it's part of my person-phobia or something. I just assume it's too expensive and move on. Mr. Pretties was feeling generous and said he'd go ask for me. Sweet. The man told him they got it from his wife's grandfather and that it was... $25. With the chair. Are you kidding me?! You had me at 'my wife's grandfather' but for a mere $25?! Clearly we need this. I especially love that it's that great pukey green colour! We of course, being the knobs we are, had no cash on hand. For some reason garage sale people don't accept debit. So we made out way up the way too crowded street to the bank where I probably walked as fast as I have in the past three months. I got my monies and we sped back to the sale. I see the man putting a sticker on it. Crap. It's sold. I was just going to walk away and assume it had been sold. I'm ambitious like that. Mr. Pretties insisted I go check. Totally not sold! Just a price tag! But there is a woman admiring it and waving over the man. Oh no. She's concerned that it appears that this piece should have a mirror on the back and doesn't... she'd give him $10 for the damaged goods with the chair since he's clearly going to have to haul it to the dump otherwise. Who is this woman?! Obviously she has no taste at all. So I pipe up with 'I have the $25, I'll take my set right now!' to which the man was very happy about and the woman gave me dirty looks. Sucks to be her. She only wishes she has this extra piece of furniture taking up valuable space in her house! My 'swank' tv stand is going to Aunt Pretty's this month so I'm going to use it as a tv stand. It'll be cute and it'll match the rest of the decor that Mr. Pretties hates so much. Love it.

I also got this really pretty satiny pale blue fabric from the land people. It's at least vintage, if not nearing antique (ignore Little Pretty's feet, they're neither vintage nor antique, although they are pretty cute). I'm not entirely sure what I will do with it. There's a fair bit there, like, five or six yards. Sweet. I think I might make some fancy pillow case dresses. Hmm... something about fancy and pillow case dresses in the same thought doesn't go well... They'd be super cute though, and I'd have to line them. I do not like lining. I'd also have to use my sewing machine because of this... on second thought I might rip it up and make some blue and brown ragamuffin flip flops instead, those would be cute. Did I mention this fabric was also free? Yup, I cleaned house this weekend. I feel so proud! I also feel so cramped since I have three large pieces of furniture dominating a very small room that already is housing a fireplace, a small wardrobe, and an arm chair. Notice this is my dining room and I have yet to mention a table or chairs. They're currently hanging in the basement. I have no room in my dining room for dining apparel currently... I can't figure out why... I wish Mr. Pretties would stop insisting we allow all these pieces of antiquated art live with us... he's such a soft heart!

I got my cupcakes today!!! Yay!!! I like that kind of mail (You know, the kind that doesn't come with the opening line 'you have a balance owing...'). I also completed three new sets of clips that I'm pretty partial too. The pictures are really bad. My camera was running out of batteries and simply did a half-rear-ended job. Then died before I could do the third set. Or get pictures of them in actual hair. I listed them anyway, I'll change the pictures later. They're actually pretty in real life.

They're both pink grosgrain on a wide chocolate brown satin ribbon. The one on the left says 'Cherish' on a shiny silver plate with clear rhinestones and the one of the right says 'Princess' on a silver metal heart with a pink rhinestone. Can't wait to get better pictures because they look really garbagy here while they're actually so cute. They're part of my 'scrapbooking' theme. I have a nice purple set too that's neat, but we'll have to wait for them. Wow. I can't believe how horrible these pictures are. They didn't look this bad when I uploaded them to Etsy. Maybe they did and I was in denial. Stupid batteries!

I didn't make cupcake clips today like I intended. It was crafting time (aka nap time) when Mr. Pretties showed back up at home... an hour after he left for work. What the?! He was supposed to work nights this week (God help us all) but switched for afternoons because he does not do nights. Plus with being in the two week wait of birthing the Little Boy Person I don't like being home alone at night (I have middle of the night babies) and the thought of bringing a newborn home while trying to keep two toddlers quiet so Mr. Pretties can sleep is even less appealing than ripping out my own toe nails. Plus, Mr. Pretties isn't so... pretty? when he works nights. In fact it's been discussed that he should remain in a hotel for the entire week since he makes the rest of us horribly miserable. So. He had switched so we could avoid this whole issue. He went to work for 2pm. Work changed the schedule and 'forgot' to inform Mr. Pretties and he is in fact on nights. Oh.My.God. So he's trying to get a few hours sleep before heading into work for the night. The Little Boy Person has been strictly informed that he absolutely cannot make his debue this week at. all. I hope he doesn't take it personally. It just wouldn't work. Mr. Pretties hasn't worked nights in over a year. We are not used to this and it has not been pleasant so far. The pretties do not understand the concept of 'quiet'.











Sunday, July 20, 2008

Attention Winners

Could the two winners I haven't heard from yet please contact me about where to send your clippies? I need info from Megan and Michele, I've sent either emails or blog contacts to both Thursday but haven't heard back yet.

Thank you!

If I haven't heard back by Friday I'll have Big Little Pretty draw more numbers :)

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Allow Me To Share...

Yesterday I may have experienced the most embarrassing moment - ever. When you've had two kids you don't really have a lot of shame anymore so it's pretty hard to top. Mr. Pretties and I took the Pretties out to do some last minute baby shopping. We split up because I wanted to see what was left of the Old Navy 50% off sale. Not much. But still, some good digging could turn up some cute things no doubt. Now let's take a moment here to remember that I'm 9 months pregnant. I am not a big person normally, on a non-pregnant day I easily weigh in at 105lbs and 5'2". During this pregnancy I am currently sitting at 145lbs. Yeah. Not so small anymore. And my maternity clothes are uncomfortable. So are my maternity underwear, so I skipped them. Let's leave it at that for now. So I take the Little Pretty and Mr.Pretties takes the big one. We're good to go. I have to walk the LP because someone (That would not be me) forgot the stroller at home. We're browsing around the store and LP is politely telling me 'No thank you Mommy!' to everything I show her (She'll be two in September). We're in the 50% off the already reduced section, where every other mom in search of a good deal is lurking. LM is proudly proclaiming 'Hi Guys!' making everyone look and comment on her adorableness. Then I see it. A pink terry towel dress. Really cute and I'd been meaning to buy LP one for the beach when we attempt those family things. I carefully crouch over, ever so slowly (Because now a days, that's how I roll) and *RRRIIIIIPPPPPP*. My pants have split. Not just a little split. No. From the front zipper alllllllllll the way to the top of the back of my pants where the crotch seam ends. Oh. My. God. And do you remember what I said about maternity underwear a little while back? Not wearing them. With split pants. I am in Old Navy on a Friday night, which is packed with LP yelling 'Hi Guys!' with my rear end and other thing unmentionables hanging out for the world to see. I stood there momentarily not sure what to do. How often does one have to deal with a situation like this in life? This was not in my brain back long of 'just incases'. At. All. So, because I'm an idiot I first decide to leave the store and wait in the car for Mr. Pretties and TBP. So I try to sneak out of the store and mall unnoticed with LP yelling 'Bye bye guys!'. We make it. I don't have the bloody car keys. Standing in a busy parking lot is not much better than a busy store. So I think. Then I think maybe since Old Navy was right near the entrance to the mall, maybe I could go back and buy new pants quickly and no one would notice. So I grabbed TLP and we make a dash for Old Navy. At this point I'm holding her with one hand and my shirt over my rear end with the other. Gee, that doesn't draw attention at all I'm sure. So after searching for the longest 10 minutes ever invented I finally find a pair of black and white pajama pants that will do (I have a pajama pants fetish) and they'll make good hospital jammies for The Little Boy Person's impending arrival. Perfect. We rush to the change rooms and get put in right away with minimal people snickering. I take the offending pants off and step into the saviors as TLP opens the change room door. We are in the change rooms right in front of where the change room clerk is, as well as all the other people waiting. Great. Icing. On. The. Cake. So I rip the tags off the new pants, fold the old ones, and head out. The change room lady is not digging this. She is not grasping the concept that this ripping off of the tag and wearing the pants out is absolutely necessary. Not to mention I've done this before (Not because of ripped pants) with no problem. She finally radioed cash to let them know I was on my way with my offending pants and a tag. The cashier was much more understanding and wanted to know if I'd like my garbage pants folded and put in a bag. No thanks. At this point I think a garbage bag would be too good for them. LP and I then proceeded to walk the mall in my black and white pj bottoms with a nicely clashing black and white shirt for all to see. All of this because of this:

If you see this, do not, I repeat, do not bend over to pick it up. You'll regret it, it's a set up Old Navy has going to get you to purchase pants you do not need. I've warned you. And do you know what Mr. Pretties said? 'It's not that big of a deal!'. Not that big of a deal? We'll see what's not a big deal when some how the seam in his work pants comes loose suddenly when he's going commando. Mr. Pretties works in a factory, his fellow employees would love this. So would I. Just watch your rear end Mr. Pretties... you wont know when, you wont know how... but your 'boys' will certainly know what it's like to hang in the breeze...

And in case you've seen this post's time stamp, and see it's before 7am, on a Saturday, and I am not a morning person and you're wondering why on earth I am up early on possibly my last Saturday to sleep in (How'd you like that run on sentence?) it's because our landpeople are having a garage sale to clear out some of their antique market stash. Outside my bedroom window. Starting at 6:30am. This is in fact entirely unacceptable. Especially since I cannot go out there and purchase the tiny antique washstand with mirror that I've had my eye on since last summer. Now some moron will buy it to see at the market to someone else who will never love it like I would. There's even a small space exactly it's size to fit in my kitchen. Oh the good times we could share... It might already have been sold. I haven't checked. I debated sneaking out the front door to do a grab and run but a few things stopped me. 1) I'm too fat to run 2) I'm too fat to carry a cupboard complete with a mirror 3) I'm too fat to run, carrying a cupboard with a mirror, up the front steps and now draw attention by any of the other 4 people manning the garage sale. I guess I'm SOL. They don't have kids so I can't pay with hair clippies either. Oh the humanity.

Here is a set one of three OOAK clips that were done this morning. I want to keep them. I used a felty ball.

By the way, I purchased a felting needle yesterday on clearance at Michael's. Also some green roving, some adorable jewel embellis, some ribbon for a custom, and some cute soap. The soap is because I'm so lame. I was looking at the little soaps in these cute little primitive wrappers and I read a black one with red cherries all over it 'Life is a chair of bowlies' Yup. I'm such a dork I laughed out load in the aisle. Then I bought, laughed in the car again and showed Mr. Pretties. He gave me that look again, you know the one, where perhaps I was dropped off from another planet? He just didn't get it, with it's little primitive chair full of little primitive bowlies... Okay maybe I'm the only one who gets it. I also think the word 'bowlies' is cute...

Thursday, July 17, 2008

And The Winners Are...

The Bag...
The Draw...
And The First Winner...
~*Megan *~
The Second Winner...
~*Michele*~
And The Third Winner...
~*Bar-B*~

Congratulations winners!! I hope this was fun. I have to take the kids to a farm or something now... don't ask... but I'll be in touch with the winners this afternoon to get shipping info and basic preferences :)

We'll have to do this again soon, maybe when I have my felt ball pins done! That could be fun ;)














Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Can't Someone Else Think Up The Titles...

... and I'll just write the posts? No, eh? I see. I'll try harder tomorrow. I promise.


For those who're here for the giveaway, that post is below this one ;) I'm a little bit surprised by the fact that we're having a huge amounts of hits on the blog but only a few who want to win? Does that speak volumes for my hair pretties? Maybe people are all like 'I totally want to win something *click* Oh... this? And I have to type a comment to enter? No thanks... '. That's kind of the way I'm thinking right now LoL I know it's not a huge prize, but it's cute, there's three of them, and I promise to package it all pretty like? It's okay actually, the comments I've gotten are all really sweet and I'd be happy to giveaway to any (or all) of them.


I packaged my first sale lastnight. Not my first sale I've made, I mean my first sale that I've had this cute packaging for. Let me preface by saying I was really disappointed that this wasn't an Etsy sale and I couldn't ship it in a super fun envelope. But, I did use a smaller version of my hand crafted sweet envelopes that I posted about already. I managed to make clip cards until my custom ordered ones come in. The cards are pretty adorable too. And some how I was able to find polka-dot paper for the cards and the envelopes (not the same polka dots, but similar colours so it's cool) in addition to the fact that I purchased fuchsia and green small boutique-style polka dot bags last month from another Etsy shop who had changed their design (Score!). My only regret is that I don't have white/pink/green/etc... tissue paper laying around. How don't I?! I was sure I did. But, I don't. And it sucks. I really wanted to tissue paper it up. Don't you all know how fragile hair clips are? Yeah, I guess it's a good thing they're not. But now instead of dreading having someone come to my house to pick up their purchase I'm excited to show them. Hopefully she's not like 'Umm... yeah... can you just keep this garbage part here, I don't really want to have to throw it out at home...' because I might cry or take my clips back or something. I will be taking pictures of this packaging job, not to worry. Then sometime in the next, oh, 2-3 weeks when my .99 digital card reader arrives all the way from Hong Kong (Thank you Ebay!) I'll post them. Unless I happen to upload them elsewhere first. It could happen, but I don't want you to get your hopes up.

I have a stray cat. His name is Ralphie. Ralphie randomly showed up on our door step about a month ago. My cats wanted to beat him to a bloody pulp. He just wanted something to eat. Mr. Pretties just wanted him to get run over by a truck. I let him in. He's orange. I think I love him a little. He must've been someone's pet because he is oh so very loveable, he lets the kids beat the snot out of him and purrs all the while. He likes to snuggle in bed. Those are not things you learn on the streets my friend. No sirree. Ralphie has since forgotten to go home at night, or where every he came from. He used to show up first thing in the morning for some breakfast and then hit the road until 9pm to catch a late dinner. My cats stopped trying to beat on him. Ralphie moved in. Ralphie didn't come home lastnight. Ralphie did not show up for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I was convinced Ralphie had remembered where he lived, or he had met an unfortunate end. Then Ralphie walked around the corner. What a relief... until I noticed one eye swollen completely shut, the other eye half way shut, a broken tooth and a limp. Crap. Ralphie is going to cost me a fortune at the vets tomorrow. The picture at left is ofcourse not Ralphie, but almost identical. Isn't he cute? He can be see at http://purr-angels.blogspot.com/ which I believe is a US 'find a home' blog. They also have a neat Ebay store that helps support the animals http://stores.ebay.com/CAT-MOON-BAY . I was so glad to see Ralphie that I think we have to stop referring to him as the stray cat, when a stray cat doesn't come back to your house you say 'thank god!' not 'dear god no!'.I guess he's sort of family now, what's one more? I'm so glad Ralphie is home. Mr. Pretties still wishes he'd been run over by a truck. After our trip to the vets tomorrow and the fat bill that will undoubtedly follow, Mr. Pretties may actually rent a truck and run him over himself. For some reason Ralphie doesn't give him the same warm fuzzies he gives me. But I'm a sucker like that. Sometimes when Mr. Pretties is insensitive like that I could run him over with a truck myself...

I just remembered. I purchased some new roving yesterday. Do you remember what I told you that was? Cute fuzzy wool for me to make more felty balls with! Woohoo! I bought the bobby pins too, but that's not all that exciting, it doesn't even deserve a picture. If you need to see a picture of a silver plated bobby pin with a plate check two posts down. But this roving I bought it all adorable colours and will make some uber cute felty balls for sure! The seller even made an exception and shipped it to Canada! It was meant to be. I just wish shipping didn't take a life time. It's a little scary that The Little Boy Person will likely be here before my roving!! Then when I do get it I'll be like 'What the hell is this fluffy stuff in an envelope?! Why is someone sending me this weird stuff?!' because I'll be suffering from post partum brain and lack of sleep. But isn't that picture adorable?! With the bunny and all? This bunch of fluffy sweetness came from http://www.jen8anne.etsy.com/I wish it was here now...

I also bought this bag of cuteness:

I usually make my own corkers, but it's like 40 degrees here and our air condition leaves much to desired. This makes running the oven at 450 degrees for hours not so great. Plus what's not fun about a grab bag of corkers? I'll still make my own, just not so many, I can throw some of these fancy funs in with mine and voila! Someone will love them. Plus they'll just be so neat to get in the mail. Provided they don't all jump out of the envi like those snakes in the tubes or anything... that wouldn't be fun and if the Little Boy Person hadn't made his arrival yet, he would at that moment. Let's avoid that whole situation, okay?

Today's pick up customer can't come until tomorrow. It's kind of like having a great Christmas present all wrapped and ready to give someone and then having to wait. I'm not good at that! That's why I don't wrap (Or buy anything for that matter...) until super close to Christmas. If I do either any earlier than that I'll end up telling you what I bought or just giving it to you. I simply can't contain myself. That's okay, maybe I'll be able to go out and get some tissue paper now ;) I'm sure Mr. Pretties wont mind making a special trip out of the house simply for this reason. He loves tissue paper as much as the next guy... I guess that wouldn't be very much, eh? Probably not. But indirectly he loves it... if he loves me, and I love tissue paper, wouldn't that mean he loves tissue paper too? And Ralphie? I think I'll go with that thought process. I'm glad Mr. Pretties doesn't read the blog or he'd be disillusioning me left and right - I think I get enough of that in real life, I can do without.

I'll be back this afternoon if I come upon anything fun to type about. This hasn't been a genius blogging day let me tell you. I think all this envelope making is eating my charm or something. Maybe it's the fact that I didn't get to bed until 2am because I was too involved in packaging, filling orders, making envelopes, editing Etsy, starting this post for the blog (Yes, I drafted it at 2am) and other such hair clip related things. That reminds me I have to make an appt. at Melonhead (http://www.melonhead.ca/) for the Big Little Pretty to have her hair cut and thinned out (It's like a bush, it's crazy) and conveniently that beauty supplier who supplies my alligator clips is in the same plaza. Sweet. I need me some clips bad as I'm already out of the 200 I bought a couple weeks ago!

PS. I shh.... shoot you not my digital card reader just arrived from Hong Kong!! That shipping was faster than anything I've ever gotten from the US! Woohoo!!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

~* Meaghan-Marie Pretties - Clip Giveaway! *~


Meaghan-Marie Pretties Giveaway!!!


I've never done a Blog giveaway before so I figured it's high time we get some traffic and give away some hair clip sets to some lucky little pretties!!!
What do you have to do? Leave me a comment! That is it, it can be about anything at all. Just make sure there is some way for me to get in contact with you if you're the winner (Ie. no anonymous commenters, I can't reply to those).
*** Please Note: This is not to gain a mailing list or anything else, infact, if you're a blogger member I wont even see your email, I'm surprised how many people have asked, I wont be spamming anytime soon;) ***
What do you get? I'll be giving away 3 sets of 3 no-slip hair clips/bows. Thursday morning I'll count all the comments and I'll have my the Big Little Pretty draw three numbers out of a hat and those numbers will be the winners! I will contact you and you can let me know which 3 clips you'd like and where to send them!

You can view hair clips:
or
by clicking the 'Etsy Mini' link on the right at the bottom.

Monday, July 14, 2008

I think I'm Becoming More Bazaar Everyday...


A cute felty ball fetish is fairly normal... Well by my standards it is so let's just go with that for this discussion. Okay. But what about when someone gets way too excited about fancy roving (aka. wool used for felting for those of you who haven't researched this and become obsessed) that they can buy to create yet more felty balls? (Picture at right is from the Etsy store http://www.copperpot.etsy.com/ ) or maybe because it just look so pretty I could fill fancy jars with it around the house... I already have my dark pink and light pink felty balls from this afternoon in cute little glass cups in my kitchen. I'm 'drying' them... I will adhere them to my fancy silver plated bobby pins soon, when I'm quite sure they're plenty dry... and then I will in fact list them on Etsy. Should I become concerned that my dreams now incorporate random felt and roving thoughts? Sprinkled with the odd felty ball? I woke up to go to the bathroom at 5am when Mr. Pretties was getting ready to leave for work and I think the only thing I muttered at him before going back to bed was 'There's felty balls in my dreams...' Yeah...


So I left the computer on lastnight because I'm getting tired of it taking 10+ to boot up in the mornings (Yes, clearly leaving it on 24/7 will solve that problem!), I did this day before yesterday too. I heard the power click on and off early this morning and thought 'Crap, I hope that wasn't enough to shut the computer down...' so I was happy to see when I got up that the light was still on and humming away. I turned the monitor on and wiggled my mouse... only to see my entire desktop is enormous. This has happened before and I was equally impressed then. I'm talking HUGE, MSN is the size of the entire screen. It makes it very difficult to do anything. Mr. Pretties fixed it last time (And screwed up the colour some how, but I need to see more than I need proper colours) but he's at work. My only hope is that he'll phone on his lunch in an hour and remember how he fixed this. This is a big hope, Mr. Pretties doesn't remember too much after he does it. He'll probably have to come home and tinker with it, which means I'm stuck trying to do Etsy, reply to emails, make labels and pin cards with a screen that's twice as large as would it should be. This really relates back to the whole pink Dell situation. If anyone has one they'd like to donate to the Clippie Cause right about now that would be super. Think of all the fun stories I could have about a pink laptop? Think how much improvement there'd be on the Blog, and there's no doubt it would increase my creativity on Etsy as well. A pink laptop for me would benefit everyone all the way around! So... you know... if you've just got one sitting around and didn't want to offend me by offering it a few days ago, go ahead, I have no pride ;)


Does someone want to explain to me why those bobby pins with the little plates on them are so flippin spendy? Is it just because they're silver plated? Or because they have the tiny extra piece of whatever on the end? Or because it's known that I have really adorable felty balls that need to be adhered to them with some e6000 and everyone is afraid of how absolutely adorable they're going to be? I was checking this situation out yesterday and it would seem that a 24 pack is like $6.50 with shipping... now $6.50 itself isn't that much, I know that. But alligator clips are far less spendy and yet so much more involved... It must be the silver plating. I guess that's trendy or something. personally I don't see anything wrong with the fancy brown ones with the globby ends they sell at the dollar store... but that's just me and obviously I am not trendy and happening. I guess I'll bite the bullet and purchase 24 pins and test out this felty ball situation. Worst case scenario I have 24 really cute felty ball bobby pins to utilize. I'd be okay with that. Guess what everyone'll be getting for Christmas? The clips people sell with felty balls on them seem to be really spendy as well. I was browsing prices to get an idea of what was out there and what they were selling for. Three bobby pins, $10.50. What?! I'll sell my felty ball pins 3 for $6.50 just because the pins are a little spendy and I actually had to roll all those little balls myself and make them all cute and felty like. Then when they go to the consignment shop for sale as well I'll still make $2.75 after they take their 50%. I'm also going to purchase a felting needle and foam thing. I'm going to felt me some cool shapes too. This could be a lot of fun! I keep forgetting we're having the Little Boy Person though, and that might become time consuming in the next couple weeks... you know how babies sort of need stuff and all... I'll work something out. Do you think they'll let me bring my glue gun and felting needles to the hospital?


I think that'll be my closing thought for now. Trying to function with this great bloody huge desktop is cramping my style and my sense of humour today. It also made me forget all the fun things I had planned to blog about lastnight when I was trying to sleep. Hopefully all appears normal I'll be back with something remotely witty and/or funny. We'll see.










Is It Wrong To Think Felty Balls Are Adorable?!

That sort of sounds odd... and if you just tuned into us here at Meaghan-Marie you may currently be under the wrong impression... Have you seen these felted wool balls? These are from http://www.handbehg.etsy.com/ and she makes these adorable little balls of cuteness. There's just something about them that makes me want to squeal with delight! So much in fact that I purchased the felting wool stuff lastnight and am going to attempt fuzzy ball making this afternoon. I'm so excited about this that when I woke up at 5am this morning I really had to fight the urge to run and get my felting supplies and run to the bathroom to make me some fuzzy balls. I want to make some clips featuring these sweethearts but, I'm afraid after all the hard work of felting combined with their sheer loveability I may not be able to part with them. They're made out of wool, which came from a sheep, so to think of them as a small adorable, round pet isn't all that wrong, is it? I didn't think so either. Some people are so judgemental about things like that. Mr. Pretties is for sure. He came to the conclusion lastnight that he must be the only person insane (according to him he must infact be insane at this point) enough to marry and stay with me. Sure thing Mr. Pretties you just keep on thinking that, there are loads of people who would think my felty ball obsession is completely adorable and a sign of high intelligence. But whatever. Why am I taking offense from someone who doesn't know what a hair clip is or where you put it? I'm not.

Also on my shopping excursion (Read: Trip to Walmart *gag*) I noticed they are clearancing out their fabric section, which in itself makes no difference to me because I have yet to make a fabric purchase there... until lastnight! As I've mentioned, we repainted the kitchen recently. It's light tan with dark brown accent walls. Originally black and white combos were to be the accessory accent. Then I realized how gross it looked and how little it was doing for that room. I then decided we were still going to use the black (Where else would my windup clock go?!) and the cream accents with some chocolate brown. So lastnight I happen to be browsing through the precut pieces for fabric and came across the most gorgeous piece of chocolate brown taffeta. I did infact walk around WalMart petting it because it just felt so good. I have a window mistreatment - the picture is Nester's sisters house with the type of mistreatment I have already (To read more about window mistreating, how to hang currents with a high heel, and how to use your glue gun for almost everything imaginable just out the Nester's Blog http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/search?q=sister+mistreatment) but it sort of when wrong when I dyed it. Instead of black it's a rather dismal shade of grey. Very, very, ugly. But I hung it anyway because I was determined it would not look ugly when it was hung. Yeah, it still looked ugly. But by then I really didn't want to go get the hammer again, remove all the upholstery tacks and admit defeat. So I pretend I loved it and that Mr. Pretties was a knob for not being able to see it's greatness. But, now that I have this amazing taffeta I'm ripping that sucker down and retacking this metre long hank of gorgeousness. I plan to hot glue the edges (As in I am not sewing it at. all.) and then purchase some trim (I had some in my hand at Walmart, where the flip did it go?!) and jazz it up - with my glue gun. Nester explains how it is perfectly acceptable to use your glue gun for things like this, and I'm greatful for that since I have two sewing machines both with more attitude than me. Thus, they stay in the closet. One has been grounded in there since the spring of 2006. The other one slightly less, but I think it's on it's way to perma-grounding (aka. the garbage) because it is just too useless. So new, gorgeous window treatments are on today's agenda. Along with recovering the lamp shade in the kitchen with the remaining taffeta (There will be some remaining damnit!) right along with felting some fuzzy balls. Excellent.


I replaced my glue gun lastnight. That's a big deal for me. My old glue gun has been at my side for many important things... scrapbooking, altering BLP some 'Ragamuffin' flip flops, (again, picture courtesy of www.NestingPlaceNC.Blogspot.Com, these are hers, but mine are small, pink & brown and furry. BLP loves hers to death) I lined the insides of the flip flop part (The cheap plastic part) and the toe thinger with chocolate brown minky so they'd be comfy and she always puts them on and says 'Ohhh nice and cozy and wwaarrrmmm...' so I made myself a pair too in black and white and lined mine with black velour. Totally cozy! Love them! Have you noticed yet that I do not come up with original ideas myself? No, no. I wait for someone else to come up with a genius idea and then I figure out how to make it too. Different ofcourse, and to fit my needs. But once in a while it would be good of me to come up with my own genius half-assed idea to share with everyone. One day. I'll work on that, I promise. Anyways... so I bought a new glue gun. It is pink. My old one was also pink. It was imperative that my glue gun be pink, a pink glue gun is conducive with allowing optimum craftability. In addition to that important aspect, it also has to match my pink and brown scissors, my pink and brown paper cutter, and my many, many other pink crafting tools. If it's not pink it just doesn't feel right, and therefore probably doesn't work right. I only replaced the OGG because it was copping some serious attitude about this hair clip brigade I started. It didn't want to put the glue sticks through, it didn't want to melt them, it wanted to get too hot, and then it wanted to melt a whole glue stick at one time pouring the entire molten glue glob all over whatever important hair piece I was working on. That kind of crap is not going to fly around here. Not at all. Not to mention the 50,000 third degree burns I've acquired from this glue gone in the past few months. Most of them my own fault, but still. The time had some where I was concerned that it was getting so hot it was planning to simply melt itself and be done with it all. I did the kind thing and threw it in the garbage. That's a big deal for me too, I don't part with things very often because I feel sorry for them. I did give it a little kiss and a pat on the barrel as a farewell when no one was looking though. I even managed not to get teary eyed. I am making some serious progress here! Although I'm a little concerned that the only reason I'm not such a wuss anymore is because of this little ball of testosterone I'm carrying around, once the Little Boy Person gets here I'm afraid I'll go right back to a sobbing little weiner that feels terminally bad for the little desk lamp at the side of the road on the old Ikea commercial. Yeah. It makes me teary-eyed. Poor, poor little lamp, what did it do to anyone?! You can only hope that doesn't happen or this blog could get pretty disgusting! Just a warning.


I'm off to felt me some balls now (?) but I'll be back later to report how that went. In my head I have images of making these perfect little round balls on the first try. Frequently those images are horribly wrong. I may end up with little felt blobs instead... I need to go find that felting page again and review this process... it involves hot water, soap, and lots of rolling, doesn't sound too hard, eh? We'll see...


I totally forgot an imporant thing! See this adorable little consignment shop? (http://www.littlesproutsturnabouts.com/) The owner has decided to take come of my hair clips on consignment! That means taking a hit on what they're worth when they sell, but since I'm going to be taking some of the Little Pretties clothes in anyway, it would be a great way to pass around the word in an up and coming little shop (It only carries that name brand stuff so it's way better than Once Upon a Child). So that's a fun little tidbit of info that I'm excited about. And don't worry, I'm not even going to mention it to Mr. Pretties (Until I require him to drive me an hour to Hagersville...) so that we don't have to relive the 'That's Nice' debadacle again. Twice in one week will not be tolerated, but since Mr. Pretties doesn't understand that concept I'll just save myself the aggervation and not mention it. All-in-all Mr. Pretties is a good guy, don't get me wrong now, sometimes he just 'doesn't get it', that's all. He is a man after all.

Did someone order a bowl of the most adorable pink and magenta felty balls you've ever seen? That's right, I didn't have to because I made my own! I can't wait to get my card reader for the camera so I can post my own pics everyday. Let me just tell you, those wee little felty balls are adorable and easy to make! A little time consuming I guess, it took me an hour to make like 18 of them, but that's like what 3 minutes each? That's not so bad. My hands feel a little 'rolled out' but that's a small price to pay! Never mind the pride I feel about this. Think of how often this will come up in a conversation! 'I just got my masters degree, I'm so proud of myself!' followed by 'I know exactly what you mean! I just figured out how to make really adorable felty balls!' Uh huh... this might be one of those pridey things I keep for the blog ;)

*To the super nice commenter yesterday I left you a comment in yesterdays box because I couldn't reply via email. If you'd like to contact me through http://www.meaghanmariepretties.etsy.com/ or at MMPretties@hotmail.com that would be super!*

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