early Christmas music and other random thoughts *smile*

so, i turned on the radio the other day and was thrilled to find Christmas music! already! and it's not even thanksgiving! :) I'm so excited. i listen to Christmas music year-round anyway, so it's nice to be able to just turn on the radio and have it for my listening pleasure. what bothers me, though, is that the day after Christmas, it's nowhere to be found. couldn't they wean me off it slowly? i mean, in the stores, they've started adding it every 3 songs or so, but even they make me go cold turkey. it really sucks :)

but today is alexander's birthday. 4 years ago right now i pushed him into the world. amazing! i can't remember a time that he wasn't here with me. my life without him seems just a fond memory or like something i read in a book--similar to my life, but not really something i can relate to. but we had an awesome day. his nana, grandma and aunt amie sent him money, so he & daddy spent it all at big lots :). meanwhile isabelle and i went dress shopping. she's been on this dress kick lately, and we didn't really have any with sleeves, so we had to go shopping. when i was revamping their fall/winter wardrobe she wasn't into wearing dresses, so i made sure she had jeans that fit and long sleeved shirts, but no dresses. so now she has some, but she's wanted to wear a dress every day this week so far. we need to make a trip to once upon a child :)

so alexander's birthday party is tomorrow. he's SO excited. he's invited 7 kids, 6 of whom are coming, and christopher has really outdone himself thinking up games and activities. i just hope it turns out the way they hope and everyone has fun. with alexander's track record lately he'll spend his entire party in time out :)

and i made my first sale of the Christmas open house! i'm so excited! check out audrey's blog for all the info on how to enter the contest to win this beautiful red jasper & pearl bracelet, as well as 13 other beautiful prizes (including one from the quilted house!). for the open house, i'm offering buy one get one 1/2 price on everything, and with all orders of $15 or more (not including shipping) you get a beautiful keychain! you even get to specify the color! i've only got 2 for sale in my shop right now, but i've got many more in progress, and i'm having a great time playing with color combinations. :) i've added some beautiful sterling silver and 14k gold items to my shop, i've also got several special orders in the works, and we haven't figured out what we're doing for the laret family Christmas gift. we've been doing a handmade gift exchange for the past couple of years, but we haven't decided what it'll be this year. at this point, though, it had better be something quick and easy :)

life doesn't get any easier

well, i'm tired. that's really nothing new, cuz i'm always tired. but i've hit a new level of tiredness, cuz i'm trying to do so many things--play with my kids, feed them regular & nutritious meals in a timely fashion, take care of the house, work a little to pay my bills, take care of the house (do we really need clean clothes EVERY day?) and make jewelry in my spare time. there's not as much spare time as my many projects demand, so i've been stealing time from my other duties to do jewelry, which hasn't been going over well with my husband. oops *smile*. but i've got so many projects going on!

the holidays are coming up and i'm participating in a Christmas open house (check out the button on the right hand side of my blog). there's 13 other etsy shops participating and you can check out the particulars either on my other blog or on Audrey's Country Crafts. the open house doesn't start until november 15th, and audrey won't have all the info up until then, but each shop is have a special promotion during the open house (i'm offering 1/2 off your second item and a free gift for purchases over $15 *smile*). and we're each donating a giveaway prize, so everyone has 13 chances to win! my giveaway is this beautiful pearl & red jasper bracelet. who said that 13's an unlucky number? *smile*

so in addition to that, it's the holidays, so i'm trying to make sure i've got enough stuff in my shop to make some money this holiday season. plus i've got the stuff i'm doing for blossoms of verona. she's got her grand re-opening on saturday, 11/14, and so i'm trying to get another set of stuff ready for her, too. and it's different than the stuff i've got in my shop. so many design ideas floating through my head simultaneously!

and to top it all off, my husband expects the children to be dressed and fed every day! too bad they can't live on fruit snacks and sponge bob yogurt *smile*.

but i'm in my pj's and my snuggie, ready for another evening of creating while i do laundry. there really is no rest for the wicked. or is it weary? either way, if the shoe fits...*smile*

shopping with children--not for the faint of heart...

...at least not with my kids *smile*. my sister & mom can really appreciate this, since they've shopped with me recently, but alexander especially likes to push the envelope. he's almost 4 and likes to make sure that the boundaries are still firmly in place. i swear! but today was the icing on the cake. i just wanted the floor to open up and swallow me! *smile*

we had to go shopping today becuz they needed new pj's and isabelle needs pants (which is another story altogether *smile*). so we went to the mall with our friends kellie & clare & erin. gymboree was fine. children's place was okay. lunch was showing signs of needing a nap. so when we got to burlington i knew that i had no hope of keeping them in the stroller. fine. we found some jeans for isabelle and found some pj's for both of them and we're checking out. i know that my time is limited. even though i didn't force alexander to stay in the stroller the whole time, i knew that he was at the end of his rope, patience-wise. but he flips out while we're putting on our jackets to leave and knocks over my bottle of water, spilling water all over the place. i desperately wanted to thwack him in the back of the head, but i'm well aware of all the eyes on me. sheesh! i really just wanted the floor to open up and swallow me! when i was childless i used to look at those mothers with the uncontrollable children with pity and think about what poor mothers they were. clearly, if they were better mothers, they would have more control over their children and they'd be well behaved like my brother, sister and i were. how little did i know *smile*. but i was proud of myself, becuz even though i was embarrassed to the soles of my feet, i did what i would have done at home, and once he calmed down a bit, i took him out of the stroller and made him help me clean up the mess. i was so angry, but helping to clean up helped me to calm down, too, so that by the time we were done i wasn't afraid that i'd have to kill my child (don't call cys*smile*).

of course both of them are asleep now, and i have a moment to breathe before i have to deal with them again. thankfully there are still some things that isabelle doesn't follow in her brother's footsteps in. she flips out, but not as regularly and not as extremely. although until i saw her have a temper tantrum, i didn't think that children really threw themselves down on the ground kicking and screaming like you see on tv. the first time i saw her do that, i just looked at her and told her that when she was ready to settle down and behave like a sane, rational human being that i'd be in the living room. i had to leave cuz i was gonna laugh! amazing!