...and drumroll please!

i have a clean bill of health. at least from my thyroid operation. i had my blood drawn yesterday and i got the results today and everything is good! i was convinced that it wasn't. i guess that means that i'm exhausted cuz i'm staying up way too late making jewelry. and i'm fat cuz i've been eating lots of candy and snacking inappropriately. and i'm constipated cuz i haven't made granola in forever and need to up my fiber intake. and i'm scatterbrained cuz i'm a ditz. it would have been so much easier for it to all have been explained away by an under-active thyroid! :) well, i guess i just need to go back to work on myself and start writing everything down so that i can stop forgetting stuff! :)

but i have been working really hard on stuff for my upcoming show. it's at a retirement community, and i'm not sure if it's open to the public, or just residents. but i've got all of my displays. i ordered some online, and christopher is working on my necklace & bracelet displays. they're beautiful. he does such nice work. :) and i'm happy with the number of earrings i've got done, i just need to make some more necklaces and bracelets. but i don't know how many spots i'll have available on the displays chris is making. i'll hafta go count to make sure i have enough. i'm just waiting for my sign & earring cards to come in the mail, and then i'll be set! i'm getting really excited. i really love the stuff i've been making. it seems that working in the middle of the night really helps my creative juices flow. either that or the chocolate :)

my original plan was to simply duplicate a lot of the things i've already done and then augment that with some new designs, but instead pretty much everything is new! i've got a ton of pictures take already, but i've got a ton more left to do. it's rainy today, and that's usually a great day to take pics, so i'll see what i can get done today. something about the way the light difuses through the cloud cover makes for really great photos. we're also going up to our campsite, and i always get great photos up there. but we don't have electricity, so i don't know how i'll be able to recharge the camera. ever since i dropped it in the river, the battery just doesn't last as long. hopefully chris is planning on doing some work and will take the generator :)

toilet paper fetish

my daughter loves toilet paper. i don't know if it's a typical toddler thing, cuz alexander didn't do it, but isabelle loves to unroll toilet paper and tear it up. the first time she did it we were in youngstown at my mother-in-law's house. i was doubly horrified, 1st cuz she was doing it, & 2nd cuz christopher & my m-i-l were just standing there watching indulgently. my question to them was "how is she going to know not to do this at home if it's ok to do at grandma's?" the answer is, she doesn't!

i got the kids down for their naps this afternoon and was sitting on the sunporch working on a new necklace design. when i'd finished, i put it on to see how it looked and went upstairs to look in the bathroom mirror. what i saw horrified me! first off, isabelle was sound asleep, completly naked at the top of the stairs. but she was lying in a position that would indicate she'd fallen asleep in the process of going down the stairs. i'm not sure how that's possible.

but then i went 'round the corner and saw the bathroom. the sight that met my eyes was the stuff of nightmares! toilet paper EVERYWHERE.

i spend a lot of money on toilet paper and unfortunately, this isn't the first time that isabelle has unrolled a brand new roll of toilet paper. if christopher didn't complain about the really cheap stuff, i wouldn't worry about it, but once you start getting decent toilet paper, you're paying some decent money for it. and losing an entire roll just breaks my penny pinching heart! the last time she did this, i made her help me roll all the toilet paper back onto the roll, but i don't think that's possible this time. what a shame! but at least she just plays with it and doesn't eat it. then i'd have a whole different kettle of fish to worry about!

whew!

well, i guess making that list really did help. i feel much less overwhelmed, and i've been creating like there's no tomorrow! i got my fabulous earring displays in the mail yesterday from Wudl's Woodshop, and they are perfect. i was able to put all the earrings i've made on it, and found out that i've got an entire display filled! whoo hoo! so i spent last night making necklaces and bracelets that go with the earrings i've already got made. i think i'll make more necklaces and earrings tonight and then work on filling my other display tomorrow or friday so that i have time to make sure i've got enough necklaces and bracelets to go with the earrings. and i still need a necklace display. i found something really nifty on etsy, and i sent the picture to my husband to see if he could make something similar. we'll see what happens. he's almost done with school (tomorrow's the last day with the little whipper-snappers) and so he'll be a little less stressed, which is nice.

i also made a list last night after making my jewelry of the findings i needed so that i could get them ordered. i need them to get here before too long or i won't have anything to create with. that would be bad. and i ordered my earring cards, thank you cards, and my new sign from B Blonski Designs, so they should be here soon. she makes fabulous stuff for little etsy sellers like me, and i'm really excited to see my new sign. i was thinking about doing like a scrapbook thing, but i decided to go ahead and have something printed so it looks professional. and it'll match my earring cards and everything *smile*

i feel so much more in control of everything. of course, it's taken me forever to get pictures of all the stuff i've already made. most of it won't get listed in my etsy shop, but i want to have pictures anyway, just in case. some of it is stuff that i can re-make, so it doesn't matter if i sell it before the show, i can always make another. but the stuff that's one of a kind i'll definitely not list, but i still want a picture for posterity. i've already taken over 300 pics, and i haven't even taken pics of all the earrings i've already made. by the time i'm done with this show, i'll probably have over 2000 new photos on my computer. if i think it runs slow now, just wait until i'm done! :)

i seem to be having a severely ditzy moment :)

i've got so much to do, i don't know where to start! i've got a big craft show coming up in a couple of weeks, and i figured that it would be easier if i got started early instead of waiting until the last minute. but becuz i've got so much time to do everything, i don't want to get busy!

i was always the one pulling all-nighters in undergrad, freebasing jolt with no-doze to get my papers written. and they were always better that way! i don't know why i work so much better under pressure than if i plan it out and take my time.

my original plan was to simply make another pair of all the earrings i've already made, and an extra pair of the most popular. easy. simple. incredibly boring. i just couldn't bring myself to do it. i have a really hard time making the same things over and over again. i don't even like to make the same thing in different colors. i get bored so easily, and i think i allow that to distract me from my purpose and plan. well at least i still have a couple of weeks to make it happen!

and i did the important things already -- i ordered my earring displays and they should arrive tomorrow or wednesday, and i ordered my earring cards. they'll both arrive in plenty of time for me to be sure they're what i need and order more/different if i need to.

but i need to order supplies so that i can continue making stuff, for both this event & my shop. i haven't posted anything new in a couple of days (sorry, michelle! *smile*) and i really have no excuse, cuz i've made like 30 new pairs of earrings and 3 new necklaces in the past 3 days. i even have pics of 2 of the necklaces waiting to be uploaded onto my computer. but in order to do that, i have to shut down firefox & tweetdeck, cuz they don't play nicely with iphoto. iphoto kinda takes my computer hostage when it's working, which sucks.

things that i really need to do:
take a serious look at my findings and place an order with artbeads and/or lima beads SOON
make more gold earrings, cuz i only have 6 pairs.
make more necklaces
make some bracelets
take a look at my current inventory and duplicate some of it
figure out what i want for necklace/earring displays & either order it or get chris to make it
get tags on things so i can replenish my displays at crafted treasures & the salon

making the list really puts things into perspective. there's really not that much to do, outside of creating more jewelry. and unless i place my order, i won't be able to make anything, cuz i'll be out of daisy spacers and sterling headpins. i don't know why my stores don't carry enough 14k gold stuff. it's so hard to find and i don't understand why. it's much cheaper to get online, but it's easier to go down the street and get it. the one thing i don't need are beads :)

christopher blames my meds for my lack of decision making abilities, but i'm just a ditz. i'm scattered and very easily distracted. and easily tempted away from my main purpose by pretty baubles. which reminds me -- i need to check out maudies' shop to see if she's done any more pretty beads that i need :)

my baby's growing up!

i'm so excited! isabelle made it all night with panties on and kept them dry! she's been wanting to wear panties to bed for about a week now, but i was hesitant cuz her nighttime underwear was always wet in the morning. but she keeps taking it off during the night because "her bottom's itchy" as she says. so last night, after i found her bottom naked for the 2nd time, we talked about it, and she said that if she had on panties, she'd keep them dry all night, and she did! i was so excited this morning when we woke up and she was dry. now all we need is for alexander to do the same! :)

i know boys are different. he's always been a heavy sleeper and a heavy wetter. he's getting better, though. there have been nights when he's woken up at 2 or 3 to go potty. but those nights are few and far between. and doctors don't consider bed wetting a problem until they're 5 years old. we've got a couple of months to work on it with him. but if i only hafta buy nighttime underwear for one of them, that's a huge savings. since we used cloth diapers for both of them, this is a huge expense that we were totally not prepared for. but at least it's only 1 diaper a day instead of 10 to 20 :)