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I just got my Moo cards in the mail today! Yay! I'm so excited! What are Moo cards, you ask? They are these extremely cool little cards that are half the size of regular business cards. They come 100 to a box printed on really heavy, slightly shiny cardstock with your images printed on them. You can upload up to 100 different images! Want some? Head to Moo.com and start uploading!
These first couple of weeks of work always kick my ass. This is my excuse for not blogging lately. As an introvert, the sheer amount of daily interaction in my job can be pretty overwhelming for me. I am exhausted when I get home and then I have crazy, high maintenance children to deal with. But I think everyone is finally settling into the routine, myself included.
So, here are some random thoughts and events from the past 10 days. First, I am once again an auntie! I was lucky enough to be able to attend the birth of my best friend's second daughter. As she is married to my brother, she is also my sister-in-law so I gained a new niece! Jordan Alexandra was born at 4:00 in the morning after Bridget was induced. Why do babies always come in the middle of the night? Here's a lovely picture of my brother and I snoozing during the birth:
I'm just too damned old to stay up all night anymore! It took me days to recover but it was totally worth it to be there to see Jordan come into the world. I felt so priveleged to witness the birth and also very, very glad that I never, ever have to do that again myself!
Isn't she a cutie? Aww!
And now for some random pictures of things around here. First up is this crazy watermelon that Maddy planted. It is actually growing a melon! In Oregon! It's never going to get big enough to eat, of course but it's still kind of cool.
The kids are having lots of fun in their treefort. They've been painting pictures on the wood and adding on to it. Here's a pic of Maddy and her best friend Emma hanging out up there. It's in one of the huge Redwoods on our property.
I let the kids have the camera yesterday for a while and it's always entertaining to see what kind of pictures they take. Here's a self-portrait of Rowan. I call it "crazy eye".
I was quite unhappy when I looked out the window last night to see a massive wall of smoke rolling across the field behind our house. They burned the field next door. I seriously hate that practice. It's unnecessary and pollutes horribly.
And, last but not least, a little Etsy love. There was a great thread on the Etsy forum last night about geeks, nerds and dorks. I don't know why it makes me so happy to know that there are other people out there just as hopelessly nerdy as I am. It's nice to fit in.
I LOVE this shirt from Dot the I's shop! I think I need one!
Check out my Etsy link in the sidebar to see my newest monkey pin!
I don't think I'm too great at first impressions. When I meet new people, I tend to babble and blather and generally overshare. I can't help it. I think, other than just chalking it all up to nerves (which some of it definitely is), I am genuinely trying to make connections with people. I am looking for common ground, shared interests, and similar perspectives. But I think I just come off as intense and kind of obnoxious.
I try to reign it in. I honestly do. But I suck at it. Because the more I think about how I'm talking too much, the more self-conscious I get and that just leads to more babbling. It's a vicious cycle. The crazy thing is that I'm an introvert and so all of that talking and interacting leaves me totally exhausted and yet, I feel compelled to do it. Why is that?
Then, in an attempt to salvage the budding relationship gone awry, I swing the other direction and clam up entirely. At that point, I've lost all hope of seeming cool and competent so I just revert to hermit status, convinced that everyone must hate me.
Lord, why is my head such a strange and annoying place to live?
The Bride of Frankenmonkey lives! Even the creations of mad scientists need love. A little felt, thread and beads and then just wait for the lightning. I'm rehearshing my insane cackle.
There's a lot of other fun Halloweeny kinds of goodness brewing on Etsy. Check these out:
These Edward Scissorhands clips and lots of other fun spooky stuff can be found at Troubled Images. I've also found many, many wonderful monsters that want to follow me home. Like these two cuties from Mint Conspiracy's shop.
Awwww!!!
And this Plutonian from Proto Pye Industries is too wonderful:
I definitely have some monster making in my future. I love monsters! What have you created lately?
I made my first sale on Etsy yesterday! Woo-hoo!!! Everyone do the happy dance with me. Frankenmonkey will be going to live in a new home. This has inspired me to design Bride of Frankenmonkey. I will try to get her finished up today. Right now she is only a sketch.
I love how everybody on the Etsy forums is so supportive of each other. We all cheer each other on when a sale is made. It's fun. Makes me think of that last line in Peter Pan, "I do believe in Etsy! I do! I do!"
Today is the final day of summer vacation. Deep sigh. This summer just flew by. I cannot believe another school year is starting up. And I really can't believe that the girls will be in 5th and 2nd grade! They are growing up so darn fast!
I wish I could say I had some spectacular end of summer excitement planned for today but it will probably be spent hanging out at home trying to get organized for school and work. Need to get school supplies in backpacks, outfits picked out, lunches prepared, iPod charged...
Ooh, speaking of the iPod, I got to play with an iPhone at the Apple store on Saturday! It is so very, very cool. I am in deep lust. That great big screen all touch sensitive and zippy. Nifty. But a little out of our current income bracket, I'm afraid. I do insist that I will get a cell phone this year though. I am the last person on earth who doesn't have one and I am feeling left out.
I am waiting for my best friend/sister-in-law to go into labor with her second child. I am hoping it won't be tomorrow because I don't think I can get away with calling in sick on my first day of work. I told her to please have the baby on the weekend. She didn't listen to me last time though. She had her first daughter on my younger daughter's birthday. Sheesh. Doesn't she know I have scheduling issues?
OK, I'm getting off of this computer now. I'm going to try and cram as much into this final day as I can!
