A Bun In The Oven...

... Oh wait, it's just dowels full of ribbon ;) Yes indeed, I am baking ribbon to fashion some wonderful korkers tonight and tomorrow and they'll be all set for purchasing at Etsy Wednesday night!

I personally love korkers, they're my favorite. They look equally adorable on little girls with no hair as well as those with loads of it. LLP hardly has any hair as you can see. I put a teeny tiny pony tail in tree style on the top of her head with an ouchless clear elastic and then alligator clip a nice fluffy corker infront of it and it is adorableness personified!

I love to adhere fun buttons, felty balls, flowers, etc... in the middles because it just makes them more unique and wonderful. LLP was sporting a navy and baby blue super korker with one of those freakin' cute caboodles in the middle and it was to di(v)e for. Literally, one of the other little girls at LLPs play group tried to take her out to steal it... BLP has the same problem at preschool. I have to sew the korkers together super tight because if I don't they end up getting sabotaged when they're fighting over them! That's what BLP is taking for her Halloween treat at school. Korkers for the girls, and who knows what for the boys. (So yeah, if any of you have any great ideas for boys... LET ME KNOW!) I know we live in a what's good for girls is fine for boys too kind of world, and I see no problem in dolls/kitchens/etc... for little boys but I kind of feel hair clippies step over that line a little. Remember I said I had a hard time making mommy friends because I look meanish? Yeah... don't really need help in the deterring other people department...

I shall return, hopefully with some cute pictures of what's going on Etsy tonight/tomorrow. Then I have to make a colour co-ordinated bento for BLP for preschool tomorrow... Did I mention I also have to bake a grandparents day treat? Apparently they want me to issue food poisoning to the sweet dears if they're asking me bake something. I think I'll put that on Mr. Pretties things to do, he's actually an excellent baker/cook. I've already given him specific guidlines, they went like this:

*I want something that is better than everyone elses. I want everyone to see them and say 'Wow, LLP's mom is the best! She's practically Martha Stewart, but way younger and totally cuter!' It would also be really good if they actually wanted to be me... and maybe it could make all the other treats look crappy...*

Sounds easy enough, don't you think? Now I have to stress for the need to be understood, I would never want another mom to feel badly about something she brought. I've been there. So I was 110% kidding about that, I was just being me. In truth if someone actually said that I'd probably cry and then punch my self in the teeth for being such a knob. But you get the point, I want something totally good and impressive to take. If they think I'm a young/cute Martha, that's even better...

ETA: There will be no cute-irrific pictures tonight. My starch has failed me and made my corkers super crispy. *Alright, who ordered super crispy?!* They still look cute but they feel crunchy, like a bad 80's hair do. Not cool. These will not be for sale (Unless you have a crispy fetish, in which case email me). I will however make LLP wear one to her playdate tomorrow...

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.

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.

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!!