Norajane

Hot Dog.

About a week ago, I was randomly looking at all the available dogs on our county's animal center website.  I found this yellow lab named Angel who looked so unbelievably depressed and lonely in her picture. We knew we were going to get a dog eventually since we moved into our own house, but we were planning to wait until after Sam started school and  were all used to the new routine. But after I saw this poor dog's picture all those plans went out the window.  

I called the shelter and they told me that Angel was on a stray hold (she had a microchip and they were in the process of contacting the previous owners to see if they wanted her back). Nobody ever responded to them and they put her up for adoption. We got her the first day she was available.

She is the perfect dog. I can't find anything bad to say about her. Nothing. And I don't think I have ever been around a dog that did not have at least one fault. She is so great with the kids, patient, doesn't bark, doesn't push past anyone on the stairs, doesn't stare at you while you eat....it's kind of weird how great she is.  The kids are also in love with her, of course. Sam walks her by himself and he is so proud that she is his dog. 

But here's the heartbreaking part: Last night I got an email from the shelter saying that Angel's previous owner got in touch and wants Angel back. The information on the microchip was not up to date when she went missing, which is why they did not claim her.  

I'm sick about it. Totally disgusted. Giving her back is the right thing to do, and that is what we will do, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't still  suck. I wish things had not worked out like this. We are crushed.

38,000

I spent an hour and a half at the DMV yesterday.  I thought two in the afternoon on a Wednesday would be slow. No way. There were at least 25 people waiting the whole time I was there. Some people were waiting before I got my number and they were still waiting when I walked out the door.  I asked the lady who took the picture for my license what day was best to come to the DMV. She said never. 

In other news, my Etsy shop went over 38,000 sales this week. I though about doing a blog post about it and my tips for other sellers (which is something a lot of people ask me), but I am not too sure I have anything to say that other sellers have not already said. 

It really is the basic stuff :

If you want to sell a lot on Etsy,  sell something that people WANT to buy.....something that different age groups and genders will all like. You can't expect to reach very many people if you are selling something like Debbie Gibson toothbrush holders. Or necklaces made out of dismantled GI Joes. (But I would also find those two examples interesting, so I'm not knocking them) 

Take good photos. (This is really hard for me and I have a love/hate relationship with it.  I have listings for stamps and pillows that have never made it on Etsy because I hated the photos I took. It can be really tough. I am sloooowly going through my exiting listings and updating photos that I am not happy with.)

Be nice to people. Seems obvious, but it is true. Even if someone is a complete jerk, I try to be as nice as possible. And really only a very small percent of customers I have dealt with on Etsy are jerks. (and ooohhhh, I have some stories).  But be nice to people and they will remember forever, and probably tell their friends. 

Join a treasury team. I have been a member of my team for over a year and a half and I love it. It's really a great way to make Etsy friends who you can relate to, and also a great way to get on the front page. 

So that's it. Actually, I will probably think of more tips that seem so obvious it's silly. Stay tuned. 

 

new for you.

He-Man and Teela pillow. I used to love Teela. I wanted to change my name to Teela when I was five. Now it just makes me think of Tila Tequila. 

How was your Memorial Day? Mine was spent on our porch, watching kids. Annie had an ant (the mean kind) crawl up her dress and sting her several times. Terrible. Ramona ran off and tried to hide in our neighbor's flower bed. Embarassing. But overall it was a nice weekend. 

Tomorrow I get to go to the DMV. Fantastic. 

Olive is four!

Olive turned four on May 20th. We had a small party on the 19th for her, and Brian's mom was able to come down from Erie to enjoy the festivities. My parents also attended, and it was the first time they had met Brian's mom (and Brian and I will be having our seventh wedding anniversary this year...it was long overdue). 

Olive had a Hello Kitty cake, of course. My personal opinion is that the best part of a cake is the frosting. Working in a bakery was my first full time job, and there was a big two gallon bucket of white butter-cream in the back room. I would wait until I was the only person there and then scoop out some in a cup and eat it like ice cream. Yeah, I have problems. 

The frosting on Olive's cake did not disappoint. We have been buying cakes from Harris Teeter the past couple birthdays and they just don't compare. Too full of chemicals and who knows what else.  We got this cake from Sweet Memories Bakery in Apex. I am sure we will be placing another order with them in August for Sam's birthday. 

 

 

 

Olive's pile of loot:

Now there are no birthdays on the schedule until August, and I can have a breather. My 31st birthday is the next one. Sam wants me to have a Star Wars party. I have not totally rejected the idea. 

In other news, pillows are coming back. (The no pillows thing didn't last very long, did it?) I have made two OOAK pillows this week and if I can get some pillow-forms sewn up I will have them listed in the shop this weekend. 

hello kitty obsession.

Olive is a Hello Kitty freak. She has curtains, a bedspread, an alarm clock, a bowling game, and a huge poster in her room. I decided to add to her collection by making this pillow for her. I found the fabric about a month ago and today was the first day I could work on it without being interrupted twelve million times. 

Olive turns four a week from tomorrow and we are having, you guessed it,  a Hello Kitty party. I'm just glad it isn't Barbie. 

have a seat.

Yesterday was another long day. But we made it. I'm hoping there will not be another 15 hour day in my future for at least a month. 

But anyway, I reupholstered chairs yesterday! We have had these chippendale chairs since 2007. They were originally my mom's but she was tired of them taking us space so she gave them to us. The upholstery was sort of dated and gross. It finally dawned on me that I could change that (i'm slow sometimes).

My staple gun was delivered yesterday and me and Sam went right to work. Here are the results:

Now I want to find more chairs in this style, but it is harder than I thought. We can't really afford to spend $140 per chair. Maybe some will pop up eventually. 

 

May 7th.

It was sort of a weird weekend. 

On Saturday we painted Olive's room. (Ballet slipper pink, of course). Anyway, I used the paint roller for two coats of paint. Doing so apparently killed my wrist because I was up all night in pain from carpel tunnel syndrome. That has never happened to me before. I had a touch of it when I was big and pregnant with the twins, but it just made my hand and wrist go numb and no pain was involved. Saturday night was pretty miserable. 

The babies got on my dresser and threw everything off of it, including my camera and half a box of the most perfumy carpet deodorizer in the history of the world. I am not sure if my camera was damaged. So far, so good. I just bought my lens a few months ago. Had to buy a new one because they broke the first one. Oy. 

Olive and Sam collided face to head and Olive ended up biting the inside of her lip all to pieces. Blood everywhere.  I thought for a minute she would need stitches, but it finally stopped. 

We found out that we will not get our security deposit back from our old apartment. The walls need to be repainted. Why anyone would use flat paint in every room of a house where they knew a lot of kids would be living is just nuts to me. The paint would come off when we used just water to clean, making cleaning impossible. But what is done is done. 

Ramona got some dishwashing liquid off of the kitchen counter and squirted it all over the carpet. (Sometimes I think they plan these things)

While I was brushing my hair the hairbrush broke with the brush part inside my hair and got caught in a huge tangle and it took me ten mintues to get the darn thing out.  (That's more funny than bad) 

First world problems, I know. But yesterday was kind of nuts. 

We did manage to get four really interesting retro chairs off of craigslist for $20 total, yesterday afternoon. That was a good thing. We have found some fantastic furniture off of craigslist. I am never buying brand new again. Or at least as long as have children under six. 

Today is going to be long. Brian is out of town for work and I have no idea what time he is coming back. Time to drink more coffee. 

 

sunday morning.

Brian is at the other house, cleaning crayon off the wall so we can show it to our landlord without feeling totally embarassed. Today should be the last day he goes there before the walk-through and it feels like we are almost on the other side. No more landlords. We can put nails in the wall and not feel as though we are going to get in trouble for it. 

And....I took all my pillows down. I was looking for a sign or something to push me off the fence on whether or not to quit pillows, and the other day someone emailed me asking me for a discount on her pillow order that she was going to place. That was it. I took them all down about ten mintues later. I do grant discounts occasionally, and I do have discount codes that I share on my Facebook page, but lately I have gotten tons of discount requests. Sometimes I feel as though a lot of Etsy sellers love the idea of handmade, but still want their Wal-Mart prices. And that really gets my goat.

I plan on making pillows again, just one of a kind ones, and sticking to that. That is how I started out and it so much less stressful than selling made to order items. I just need a pillow breather. And so far, I feel so free! 

And now I must go make breakfast for my girls. Have a great Sunday! 

 

 

 

So...uh.....yeah.

So, I think a little bit over a year is a pretty good break from blogging, don't you think? Let's not do that again, okay? 

Well, what has changed in a year for us? We moved again. Shocking, I know. This time we bought a house so it will probably be the last time we move in a very, very long time. (I hope). Our house has a lot more space than the previous place, plus a real yard with grass and everything! The kids and I have started sprouting seeds to plant. It's amazing how excited we can get over tiny sprouts. Also, our town has just approved residents raising chickens in their backyards, so we might jump on that. 

Sam starts kindergarten this year. He was technically supposed to start last year, but since his birthday was three days before the cut-off date, we decided to keep him home another year. Red shirted. It turned out to be a great decision. Last year I was so worried about him and how he was going to adjust to the seven hours of a long school day. This year, not so much. He is ready. 

During our move, I took down all my listings for pillows. I did not know how refreshing it would feel to do that. Currently, I have a love/hate relationship with my pillows. I like making new ones, but I hate feeling pressured to make them when I have so much other stuff going on with the kids. Right now I am thinking about taking them down forever, but I just don't know if that is the right decision. I have all this fabric. Tons and tons. I shoved two boxes in the closet just to get it out of my sight when we moved here. They are still in the closet. One one hand I would feel stupid and wasteful not to try and use that fabric, but on the other hand the thought of making pillows makes me want to jump out of a window. 

More to come later. And I don't mean a year later. 

This is a picture that was taken on Annie and Ramona's second birthday. Wow Wow Wubzy style. 

 

I spy on my neighbors.

Really, I do. But not in a stalker-ish sort of way. I just want to know who these people are. So far, I have not seen anything weird. Kind of disappointing, I know. Normal people. There are kids in this neighborhood, but not little ones like mine are. But that is okay.

The move is finally over. I still have boxes around that I want to shove into the crawl space.  (And that reminds me, I found a scrap of paper in the crawl space here with the address of someone in prison, complete with inmate ID #....that was pretty exciting)

When I get my sewing area set up, I will post pictures. For now, here is an updated one of the kids on the back deck.