Dresser Love - Status Complete

... Or cotton candy meets grunge.

The LP's dresser was completed (mostly, I still want to rub antique medium over the pink to age it a bit more) yesterday and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I promise it's not nearly as 'Barbie' in person, I think the flash makes the pink more vibrant or something. I'm thinking of putting some pink on one of the 'knobs' on the mirror cradle to pull the pink up, but we'll see. I also have to paste wax it, but you get the idea.

Before:

After (The original 'Dresser Love' is the inbetween):

The drawers are pink inside as well and will have pink toile paper podged to the bottoms, because, you know, everyone invests time looking in the bottom of their drawers, especially 2.5 year olds and 4 year olds...

Wow...

Did you know there's such a thing as a NetBook? Not a NoteBook computer, no no, a NetBook Wifi Computer. And if you were aware of this piece of totally cute technologies existance why didn't someone inform me?

I was all browsing the flyers this afternoon as Aunt Pretties has the two LPs for the afternoon and I found myself having five minutes to myself. So as I was browsing I came across the Staples ad. That's about as exciting to me as the Sobey's ad. Yippee. Total sarcasm by-the-way. But, I saw what I thought was a cheap notebook (I'm trying to talk Mr. Pretties into purchasing one so I can utilize our WiFi net capabilities, furthering my steps to moonlight blogging) and as I look closer I discover it's a NetBook. A computer specifically for the net! Have I ever told you that that is all I use my computer for? I never use it for word processing or the like because this computer is garbage, I do all that at Aunt Pretties. My favorite part? This:

It comes in pink. It's small, pink, and it can allow me to blog, research, and email. Fantastic. That's all I need. Now from my pitance of knowledge on the PDA horizon, this is really not any different than, say, a Black Berry, but for some reason I just want it 5,000 times more. Maybe it's because it's pink. I just think this is so cool. In two days I've come across two pieces of technology that would improve my life ten fold. I suppose I could read ebooks on my Netbook, but come on, who wants to miss out on the whole eInk experience? Surely not I.

Greatest. Invention. Ever.

Seriously.

I don't do technology for the most part. I don't own an mp3 player, and I don't want to. My cellphone is uncharged and dead somewhere, I wouldn't even know where to begin to look for it. And I don't care. We don't have a GPS. We've debated it, but, we like getting lost. It's sort of our thing. We don't have portable DVD players either. Infact, we don't even have cable *Insert shocked face here* but we usually don't for the summer because we're either never home, or never ever in the house to watch it. In the winter we're just like everyone else and obviously I'm a big fan of HGTV, Antiques Roadshow, and the like. Also, we all know I have an unquenchable need for a pink Dell laptop. Aside from that I thought I'd beaten technology for the most part (A computer is considered technology anymore, is it?)

Until today that is.

Meet my new best friend:

Group, say hello to the Sony eBook Reader.

I'd heard of Amazon's Kindle, but for $360 US+ I didn't look into it too closely. You also cannot use it in Canada. The Sony eBook Reader is a mere $200-$250 and does practically the same thing.

I'll give the Kindle thumbs up for it's totally cool wifi capabilities... but, for us 'poor' folks, I think I can handle plugging my Reader into my computer to download books, newspapers, oh, and most importantly, blogs. It can also store around 160 ebooks. Amazing. The Sony eBook preview store (You use the actual software to download your books) is fantastic. It has any book you could ever imagine, and even some that you couldn't! I could easily see why you would need space for 160 ebooks!

I'm a huge reader and am forever having to listen to Mr. Pretties complain because there's a 3' stack of books on my bedside table, dresser, on top of the fridge, on the mantel, in his drawers, etc... do you know how much time this would save him?! He'd have to find a whole entire other entity to complain about to fill the void this would create! You also save approx. 10% on your book purchases from the eBook store.

I knew you could download books, but sitting at the computer trying to read totally didn't appeal to me at. all. But, the Kindle and the Reader have 'paper technology' so that looking at the screen is almost identical to looking at a page and not a screen at all. I'm sorry, but how amazing is that? If you see the pictures online of the screen you'll see what I mean. It's seriously like looking at a piece of paper. I get migraines from reading too much on a screen and I think I could totally handle this. You can also adjust the size of the text so that it's just right for you (or me. Obviously). Fabbity fab I tell you!

This is truly what I want for this Christmas, Easter, my Anniversary, my Birthday, etc... Now if they could throw in a Black Berry so that I could blog during the night, that would be even better. I'm sure they can arrange that....

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.

Cupcakes, Roving, and Sales - Oh My!

We should all be so proud. My cupcakes arrived as I said, and I made them into clips ;) Only two though. We'll see how they go on Etsy because I spruce up the other two. I think they're cute... but I'm not buying them so my opinion is neither here nor there. While I was in create mode at 3am this morning (Mr. Pretties is working nights and I cannot make myself go to bed at night, it's becoming a problem) I thought I'd try to felt an alligator clip. Why you ask? Who knows. It was one of those random thoughts like 'Hey... if I felted this here alligator clip I bet it'd look all cute and felty like! We could pretend it's 'earthy''. So I break out the hot water and dish soap and I try to cover this thing in moss green roving. Do you know what it looked like when it was 'done' (Read: When I was tired of trying to make it look cute and earthy)? This: No. That is not a hair ball regurgitated by Wilma (aka 'The Boss'). She's too good for things like that, didn't you know? No, it's actually a funky/earthy hair clip, can't you tell?! Yeah, just looking at the picture is making me feel a little nauseous. Both because it's a really bad picture (Have you come to the conclusion my camera sucks yet?!) and because it's super ugly. It does however smell like lavender dish soap... possibly the only thing going for it at this point. Note to self: No more 'creative' thinking past, say, 1am. The results are not pretty. I sort of feel bad for it, and kind of responsible for it's grotesque appearance so I can't seem to throw it away...



I have this old window/mirror frame (Not really sure... if anyone knows drop me a line)

and again, if anyone knows how to fix this sideways picture issue, other than expecting me to remember not take pictures this way, let me know. So, I have this old mirror/window frame. It had no glass or mirror. It's only about 2'x2.5' and was $5.00 at a flea market a few months ago. I had no use for it and nowhere to hang it, but I just couldn't leave it behind. It's been moved around my house numerous times since then, never finding a spot that felt 'right', several places that felt 'mildly acceptable until further notice' but just not 'right'. 'Right' is important.




I was discussing this piece on the Etsy chat lastnight and there's a shop owner there who sells really cute vintage/antique stuff like this at http://www.mountainvintage.etsy.com/ :

Honestly, how cute is that?! I could marry it! Anywho... she had this great idea to use it has a bulletin board! Did you hear that?! What a great idea, why didn't I think of it?! It'll be so easy too and very unspendy. I just need some cardboard, foam/batting, staples, some black satin ribbon, and some black and cream toile. It will be stunning and then it will go in my kitchen and serve a purpose. I haven't done it yet, I need to obtain myself some black and cream toile first, but I just know it will look 'right' and I'll be able to sigh a sigh of relief. I really hate it when I have cute things that don't seem to work anywhere. I tried to explain this bulletin board concept to Mr. Pretties. You can pretty much imagine how that went. Something to this effect. I love it because you can really feel the love.

Me: 'A girl on Etsy gave me this fantastic idea about what to do with that old frame on the mantel'

Mr. Pretties: 'Throw it out?'

Me: 'Uh... No. Don't be rude. She said I should make it into a bulletin board! I could cover it with black and cream toile!'

Mr. Pretties: 'What's toile?'

Me: 'It's fabric don't worry about it. but-'

Mr. Pretties: '- I don't have time to go to the fabric store today! I have to sleep you know, I have to work tonight!'

Me: 'Did I say we were going to the fabric store today?! At what point did I say that?! And you have to work? Do you know how much work Etsy is?! Do you!? Pshh... never mind, when you wonder why I stop telling you things this is why!'

Mr. Pretties: 'You're going to stop telling me? Why didn't I think of this before! I'm a genius!'

Uh huh. Whatever, that's what I was thinking. As I said, it's all about the love. Some how Mr. Pretties has a brain wire malfunction that we're working on that makes him think when I say something it means we need to be doing it immediately this second or the world will come to an end. It's a little bit annoyingish. But we're working on it. But, my bulletin board will be fabbity fab, I can tell because I can see it in my head ;)

I added more new clips to Etsy lastnight and this morning and out of that came 15 sales! FIFTEEN. I'm so glad it's for clippies I already had made and just have to make the packaging and cards (Have I told you I really wish my clip cards were here already?!) tonight and send them out in the morning which is awesome! I'm so glad customers liked my new clips as much as I did. I have to say I'm a little bit sad about the pink and brown scrapbook series going. I sort of had a personal attachment to them. I'm sure their new owner will love them as much as I did. She bought all of my pink and brown clips in fact, atleast I know she appreciates the whole pink and brown thing as much as I do :) That's sort of important. I personally like these new shiny ones:

I still have to make clippies tonight, I was wrong. I bought a whole whack of new stuff to incorporate into some OOAK clippies. I tried to get some really fun pictures but my camera is having major attitude and didn't want to. That's okay, it'll look cuter when I'm done. As a preview I have tiny pink glass tiles with initials (think monogrammed clippies), silver tiles with initials that look really fancy, bees, flowers, blue rhinestones, and some new ribbon. I have a vision for the pink tiles (Both for a furniture project as well as a clippie!) and I'm anxious to get on it. That wont be happening until Mr. Pretties is off to work and The Little Pretties are off to bed. So, let's say sometime tomorrow. Or never. I'll work something out. I'll try to stop crafting before 1am though. No one should have to suffer like that again...

Who Needs More Old Furniture?

Certainly not me. But, since when does need matter? I scored some pretty great old stuff this weekend, but we'll get to that in a little while.

I want to share a couple shops I came across today that I thought were really nice. This first one http://www.tannerglass.etsy.com/ really cheered me up this morning! I wasn't my normal cheery-silly self while I was lurking the Etsy forums and came across this shop. There's something about these vases that just make me want to smile. They're just so sweet and cheery, I can picture them sitting on my window sill in my kitchen making me smile all day long. Well, not all day long... despite popular belief I do not spend all day eating. I know that idea may not be easy to dispel after letting you all know that I split my pants. Trust me though, it's really only like 3/4 of my day.... Suzanne also makes the cutest blown glass Christmas/window ornaments, you know, the ones that look like witch balls (Not to be confused with felty balls, totally different feeling) or friendship balls, or whatever. They're just so pretty and whimsical and give you that cutey-sweet feeling all over. Love them. I will show Mr. Pretties her shop at Christmas time and let him know he can pick anything from there. He will then pick something entirely different from an entirely different shop (non-Etsy at that) that I've never in my life expressed an interest in. Men.

Another shop that made me smile today was http://www.signsbydiane.etsy.com/ Her stuff is so shabby chic, it's just exactly my style. If I had my way I'd have one of these signs in every space in my house. Okay, we all know I have no spaces in my house. But I would make one. I love things like this. I don't know what my attraction is to things that look old and worn, but they just feel 'right' and cozy. I could look at something like this everyday and never get tired of it. I think I get tired of new shiny things way too easy because they have no charm, no story, nothing. They came off a conveyor belt in China and sat on a shelf. That doesn't really sound like something that deserves a lot of attention or appreciation to me. I think you need to at least sit around for 80-100 years, get all cruddy looking, peel a bit, fall apart a bit, and then can you be appreciated. If you can't manage that, then at least pretend and go for the 'shabby' look. I can handle that.

So as I was saying. Remember that garage sale the land people were having at that ungodly hour? The one I was cursing? Yeah. Well it didn't really go so good. It went so poorly in fact that they were so fed up of carting this same stuff back and forth to the antique market that they were either chucking, or donating a lot of this stuff. Have I mentioned I like donations? I really do. Alot. So this sweet little baby has parked herself in my dining room now (I'm an idiot, if anyone knows how I can flip these pictures without photoshop or anything, please, do us all a favor and let me know). It's really beautiful and much shabbier in person. I even need to epoxy the drawer pulls because they're striped. Love it. The mirror is all nice and filmy from being old like. Who needs to see themselves?! It's actually not quite that bad. She's such a beauty... not to mention a free beauty. That makes me love her so much more. Not to mention I loved her last year at the antique market and almost bought her for $60 then which was a great deal. But I didn't. Thankfully no one else did either ;) Mr. Pretties brought her in from the rain on Saturday (Garage sale got rained on) and I just stood in the kitchen and stared in appreciation. Both of the fact that she's such a beaut, as well as the fact that I got her for free. What a great feeling!

Saturday we were supposed to be on a mission to obtain another window shaker. We got two blocks away and spotted a street sale. We pretty much stopped garage saling when we got the Buick (No, not a nice Buick. An 11 year old Buick Park Ave that's like a really big luxury thorn in my side). For some reason the Buick makers (Yes, I said Buick makers because I'm not looking up who makes them, you can though) are under the impression that persons who drive Buicks do not 'do' garage sales. Or flea markets. Or antique shows. It does however have a very nice peek-through hole thing in the back seat that would be splendid for, say, skis, or golf clubs... apparently we are not well matched with our vehicle. But, to get back on track here, we went to this street sale. As soon as we turned the corner I saw this: complete with this:

This cute pair had no price tag to be found. I do not ask prices at garage sales, it's part of my person-phobia or something. I just assume it's too expensive and move on. Mr. Pretties was feeling generous and said he'd go ask for me. Sweet. The man told him they got it from his wife's grandfather and that it was... $25. With the chair. Are you kidding me?! You had me at 'my wife's grandfather' but for a mere $25?! Clearly we need this. I especially love that it's that great pukey green colour! We of course, being the knobs we are, had no cash on hand. For some reason garage sale people don't accept debit. So we made out way up the way too crowded street to the bank where I probably walked as fast as I have in the past three months. I got my monies and we sped back to the sale. I see the man putting a sticker on it. Crap. It's sold. I was just going to walk away and assume it had been sold. I'm ambitious like that. Mr. Pretties insisted I go check. Totally not sold! Just a price tag! But there is a woman admiring it and waving over the man. Oh no. She's concerned that it appears that this piece should have a mirror on the back and doesn't... she'd give him $10 for the damaged goods with the chair since he's clearly going to have to haul it to the dump otherwise. Who is this woman?! Obviously she has no taste at all. So I pipe up with 'I have the $25, I'll take my set right now!' to which the man was very happy about and the woman gave me dirty looks. Sucks to be her. She only wishes she has this extra piece of furniture taking up valuable space in her house! My 'swank' tv stand is going to Aunt Pretty's this month so I'm going to use it as a tv stand. It'll be cute and it'll match the rest of the decor that Mr. Pretties hates so much. Love it.

I also got this really pretty satiny pale blue fabric from the land people. It's at least vintage, if not nearing antique (ignore Little Pretty's feet, they're neither vintage nor antique, although they are pretty cute). I'm not entirely sure what I will do with it. There's a fair bit there, like, five or six yards. Sweet. I think I might make some fancy pillow case dresses. Hmm... something about fancy and pillow case dresses in the same thought doesn't go well... They'd be super cute though, and I'd have to line them. I do not like lining. I'd also have to use my sewing machine because of this... on second thought I might rip it up and make some blue and brown ragamuffin flip flops instead, those would be cute. Did I mention this fabric was also free? Yup, I cleaned house this weekend. I feel so proud! I also feel so cramped since I have three large pieces of furniture dominating a very small room that already is housing a fireplace, a small wardrobe, and an arm chair. Notice this is my dining room and I have yet to mention a table or chairs. They're currently hanging in the basement. I have no room in my dining room for dining apparel currently... I can't figure out why... I wish Mr. Pretties would stop insisting we allow all these pieces of antiquated art live with us... he's such a soft heart!

I got my cupcakes today!!! Yay!!! I like that kind of mail (You know, the kind that doesn't come with the opening line 'you have a balance owing...'). I also completed three new sets of clips that I'm pretty partial too. The pictures are really bad. My camera was running out of batteries and simply did a half-rear-ended job. Then died before I could do the third set. Or get pictures of them in actual hair. I listed them anyway, I'll change the pictures later. They're actually pretty in real life.

They're both pink grosgrain on a wide chocolate brown satin ribbon. The one on the left says 'Cherish' on a shiny silver plate with clear rhinestones and the one of the right says 'Princess' on a silver metal heart with a pink rhinestone. Can't wait to get better pictures because they look really garbagy here while they're actually so cute. They're part of my 'scrapbooking' theme. I have a nice purple set too that's neat, but we'll have to wait for them. Wow. I can't believe how horrible these pictures are. They didn't look this bad when I uploaded them to Etsy. Maybe they did and I was in denial. Stupid batteries!

I didn't make cupcake clips today like I intended. It was crafting time (aka nap time) when Mr. Pretties showed back up at home... an hour after he left for work. What the?! He was supposed to work nights this week (God help us all) but switched for afternoons because he does not do nights. Plus with being in the two week wait of birthing the Little Boy Person I don't like being home alone at night (I have middle of the night babies) and the thought of bringing a newborn home while trying to keep two toddlers quiet so Mr. Pretties can sleep is even less appealing than ripping out my own toe nails. Plus, Mr. Pretties isn't so... pretty? when he works nights. In fact it's been discussed that he should remain in a hotel for the entire week since he makes the rest of us horribly miserable. So. He had switched so we could avoid this whole issue. He went to work for 2pm. Work changed the schedule and 'forgot' to inform Mr. Pretties and he is in fact on nights. Oh.My.God. So he's trying to get a few hours sleep before heading into work for the night. The Little Boy Person has been strictly informed that he absolutely cannot make his debue this week at. all. I hope he doesn't take it personally. It just wouldn't work. Mr. Pretties hasn't worked nights in over a year. We are not used to this and it has not been pleasant so far. The pretties do not understand the concept of 'quiet'.

Allow Me To Share...

Yesterday I may have experienced the most embarrassing moment - ever. When you've had two kids you don't really have a lot of shame anymore so it's pretty hard to top. Mr. Pretties and I took the Pretties out to do some last minute baby shopping. We split up because I wanted to see what was left of the Old Navy 50% off sale. Not much. But still, some good digging could turn up some cute things no doubt. Now let's take a moment here to remember that I'm 9 months pregnant. I am not a big person normally, on a non-pregnant day I easily weigh in at 105lbs and 5'2". During this pregnancy I am currently sitting at 145lbs. Yeah. Not so small anymore. And my maternity clothes are uncomfortable. So are my maternity underwear, so I skipped them. Let's leave it at that for now. So I take the Little Pretty and Mr.Pretties takes the big one. We're good to go. I have to walk the LP because someone (That would not be me) forgot the stroller at home. We're browsing around the store and LP is politely telling me 'No thank you Mommy!' to everything I show her (She'll be two in September). We're in the 50% off the already reduced section, where every other mom in search of a good deal is lurking. LM is proudly proclaiming 'Hi Guys!' making everyone look and comment on her adorableness. Then I see it. A pink terry towel dress. Really cute and I'd been meaning to buy LP one for the beach when we attempt those family things. I carefully crouch over, ever so slowly (Because now a days, that's how I roll) and *RRRIIIIIPPPPPP*. My pants have split. Not just a little split. No. From the front zipper alllllllllll the way to the top of the back of my pants where the crotch seam ends. Oh. My. God. And do you remember what I said about maternity underwear a little while back? Not wearing them. With split pants. I am in Old Navy on a Friday night, which is packed with LP yelling 'Hi Guys!' with my rear end and other thing unmentionables hanging out for the world to see. I stood there momentarily not sure what to do. How often does one have to deal with a situation like this in life? This was not in my brain back long of 'just incases'. At. All. So, because I'm an idiot I first decide to leave the store and wait in the car for Mr. Pretties and TBP. So I try to sneak out of the store and mall unnoticed with LP yelling 'Bye bye guys!'. We make it. I don't have the bloody car keys. Standing in a busy parking lot is not much better than a busy store. So I think. Then I think maybe since Old Navy was right near the entrance to the mall, maybe I could go back and buy new pants quickly and no one would notice. So I grabbed TLP and we make a dash for Old Navy. At this point I'm holding her with one hand and my shirt over my rear end with the other. Gee, that doesn't draw attention at all I'm sure. So after searching for the longest 10 minutes ever invented I finally find a pair of black and white pajama pants that will do (I have a pajama pants fetish) and they'll make good hospital jammies for The Little Boy Person's impending arrival. Perfect. We rush to the change rooms and get put in right away with minimal people snickering. I take the offending pants off and step into the saviors as TLP opens the change room door. We are in the change rooms right in front of where the change room clerk is, as well as all the other people waiting. Great. Icing. On. The. Cake. So I rip the tags off the new pants, fold the old ones, and head out. The change room lady is not digging this. She is not grasping the concept that this ripping off of the tag and wearing the pants out is absolutely necessary. Not to mention I've done this before (Not because of ripped pants) with no problem. She finally radioed cash to let them know I was on my way with my offending pants and a tag. The cashier was much more understanding and wanted to know if I'd like my garbage pants folded and put in a bag. No thanks. At this point I think a garbage bag would be too good for them. LP and I then proceeded to walk the mall in my black and white pj bottoms with a nicely clashing black and white shirt for all to see. All of this because of this:

If you see this, do not, I repeat, do not bend over to pick it up. You'll regret it, it's a set up Old Navy has going to get you to purchase pants you do not need. I've warned you. And do you know what Mr. Pretties said? 'It's not that big of a deal!'. Not that big of a deal? We'll see what's not a big deal when some how the seam in his work pants comes loose suddenly when he's going commando. Mr. Pretties works in a factory, his fellow employees would love this. So would I. Just watch your rear end Mr. Pretties... you wont know when, you wont know how... but your 'boys' will certainly know what it's like to hang in the breeze...

And in case you've seen this post's time stamp, and see it's before 7am, on a Saturday, and I am not a morning person and you're wondering why on earth I am up early on possibly my last Saturday to sleep in (How'd you like that run on sentence?) it's because our landpeople are having a garage sale to clear out some of their antique market stash. Outside my bedroom window. Starting at 6:30am. This is in fact entirely unacceptable. Especially since I cannot go out there and purchase the tiny antique washstand with mirror that I've had my eye on since last summer. Now some moron will buy it to see at the market to someone else who will never love it like I would. There's even a small space exactly it's size to fit in my kitchen. Oh the good times we could share... It might already have been sold. I haven't checked. I debated sneaking out the front door to do a grab and run but a few things stopped me. 1) I'm too fat to run 2) I'm too fat to carry a cupboard complete with a mirror 3) I'm too fat to run, carrying a cupboard with a mirror, up the front steps and now draw attention by any of the other 4 people manning the garage sale. I guess I'm SOL. They don't have kids so I can't pay with hair clippies either. Oh the humanity.

Here is a set one of three OOAK clips that were done this morning. I want to keep them. I used a felty ball.

By the way, I purchased a felting needle yesterday on clearance at Michael's. Also some green roving, some adorable jewel embellis, some ribbon for a custom, and some cute soap. The soap is because I'm so lame. I was looking at the little soaps in these cute little primitive wrappers and I read a black one with red cherries all over it 'Life is a chair of bowlies' Yup. I'm such a dork I laughed out load in the aisle. Then I bought, laughed in the car again and showed Mr. Pretties. He gave me that look again, you know the one, where perhaps I was dropped off from another planet? He just didn't get it, with it's little primitive chair full of little primitive bowlies... Okay maybe I'm the only one who gets it. I also think the word 'bowlies' is cute...

I think I'm Becoming More Bazaar Everyday...

A cute felty ball fetish is fairly normal... Well by my standards it is so let's just go with that for this discussion. Okay. But what about when someone gets way too excited about fancy roving (aka. wool used for felting for those of you who haven't researched this and become obsessed) that they can buy to create yet more felty balls? (Picture at right is from the Etsy store http://www.copperpot.etsy.com/ ) or maybe because it just look so pretty I could fill fancy jars with it around the house... I already have my dark pink and light pink felty balls from this afternoon in cute little glass cups in my kitchen. I'm 'drying' them... I will adhere them to my fancy silver plated bobby pins soon, when I'm quite sure they're plenty dry... and then I will in fact list them on Etsy. Should I become concerned that my dreams now incorporate random felt and roving thoughts? Sprinkled with the odd felty ball? I woke up to go to the bathroom at 5am when Mr. Pretties was getting ready to leave for work and I think the only thing I muttered at him before going back to bed was 'There's felty balls in my dreams...' Yeah...

So I left the computer on lastnight because I'm getting tired of it taking 10+ to boot up in the mornings (Yes, clearly leaving it on 24/7 will solve that problem!), I did this day before yesterday too. I heard the power click on and off early this morning and thought 'Crap, I hope that wasn't enough to shut the computer down...' so I was happy to see when I got up that the light was still on and humming away. I turned the monitor on and wiggled my mouse... only to see my entire desktop is enormous. This has happened before and I was equally impressed then. I'm talking HUGE, MSN is the size of the entire screen. It makes it very difficult to do anything. Mr. Pretties fixed it last time (And screwed up the colour some how, but I need to see more than I need proper colours) but he's at work. My only hope is that he'll phone on his lunch in an hour and remember how he fixed this. This is a big hope, Mr. Pretties doesn't remember too much after he does it. He'll probably have to come home and tinker with it, which means I'm stuck trying to do Etsy, reply to emails, make labels and pin cards with a screen that's twice as large as would it should be. This really relates back to the whole pink Dell situation. If anyone has one they'd like to donate to the Clippie Cause right about now that would be super. Think of all the fun stories I could have about a pink laptop? Think how much improvement there'd be on the Blog, and there's no doubt it would increase my creativity on Etsy as well. A pink laptop for me would benefit everyone all the way around! So... you know... if you've just got one sitting around and didn't want to offend me by offering it a few days ago, go ahead, I have no pride ;)

Does someone want to explain to me why those bobby pins with the little plates on them are so flippin spendy? Is it just because they're silver plated? Or because they have the tiny extra piece of whatever on the end? Or because it's known that I have really adorable felty balls that need to be adhered to them with some e6000 and everyone is afraid of how absolutely adorable they're going to be? I was checking this situation out yesterday and it would seem that a 24 pack is like $6.50 with shipping... now $6.50 itself isn't that much, I know that. But alligator clips are far less spendy and yet so much more involved... It must be the silver plating. I guess that's trendy or something. personally I don't see anything wrong with the fancy brown ones with the globby ends they sell at the dollar store... but that's just me and obviously I am not trendy and happening. I guess I'll bite the bullet and purchase 24 pins and test out this felty ball situation. Worst case scenario I have 24 really cute felty ball bobby pins to utilize. I'd be okay with that. Guess what everyone'll be getting for Christmas? The clips people sell with felty balls on them seem to be really spendy as well. I was browsing prices to get an idea of what was out there and what they were selling for. Three bobby pins, $10.50. What?! I'll sell my felty ball pins 3 for $6.50 just because the pins are a little spendy and I actually had to roll all those little balls myself and make them all cute and felty like. Then when they go to the consignment shop for sale as well I'll still make $2.75 after they take their 50%. I'm also going to purchase a felting needle and foam thing. I'm going to felt me some cool shapes too. This could be a lot of fun! I keep forgetting we're having the Little Boy Person though, and that might become time consuming in the next couple weeks... you know how babies sort of need stuff and all... I'll work something out. Do you think they'll let me bring my glue gun and felting needles to the hospital?

I think that'll be my closing thought for now. Trying to function with this great bloody huge desktop is cramping my style and my sense of humour today. It also made me forget all the fun things I had planned to blog about lastnight when I was trying to sleep. Hopefully all appears normal I'll be back with something remotely witty and/or funny. We'll see.

Is It Wrong To Think Felty Balls Are Adorable?!

That sort of sounds odd... and if you just tuned into us here at Meaghan-Marie you may currently be under the wrong impression... Have you seen these felted wool balls? These are from http://www.handbehg.etsy.com/ and she makes these adorable little balls of cuteness. There's just something about them that makes me want to squeal with delight! So much in fact that I purchased the felting wool stuff lastnight and am going to attempt fuzzy ball making this afternoon. I'm so excited about this that when I woke up at 5am this morning I really had to fight the urge to run and get my felting supplies and run to the bathroom to make me some fuzzy balls. I want to make some clips featuring these sweethearts but, I'm afraid after all the hard work of felting combined with their sheer loveability I may not be able to part with them. They're made out of wool, which came from a sheep, so to think of them as a small adorable, round pet isn't all that wrong, is it? I didn't think so either. Some people are so judgemental about things like that. Mr. Pretties is for sure. He came to the conclusion lastnight that he must be the only person insane (according to him he must infact be insane at this point) enough to marry and stay with me. Sure thing Mr. Pretties you just keep on thinking that, there are loads of people who would think my felty ball obsession is completely adorable and a sign of high intelligence. But whatever. Why am I taking offense from someone who doesn't know what a hair clip is or where you put it? I'm not.

Also on my shopping excursion (Read: Trip to Walmart *gag*) I noticed they are clearancing out their fabric section, which in itself makes no difference to me because I have yet to make a fabric purchase there... until lastnight! As I've mentioned, we repainted the kitchen recently. It's light tan with dark brown accent walls. Originally black and white combos were to be the accessory accent. Then I realized how gross it looked and how little it was doing for that room. I then decided we were still going to use the black (Where else would my windup clock go?!) and the cream accents with some chocolate brown. So lastnight I happen to be browsing through the precut pieces for fabric and came across the most gorgeous piece of chocolate brown taffeta. I did infact walk around WalMart petting it because it just felt so good. I have a window mistreatment - the picture is Nester's sisters house with the type of mistreatment I have already (To read more about window mistreating, how to hang currents with a high heel, and how to use your glue gun for almost everything imaginable just out the Nester's Blog http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/search?q=sister+mistreatment) but it sort of when wrong when I dyed it. Instead of black it's a rather dismal shade of grey. Very, very, ugly. But I hung it anyway because I was determined it would not look ugly when it was hung. Yeah, it still looked ugly. But by then I really didn't want to go get the hammer again, remove all the upholstery tacks and admit defeat. So I pretend I loved it and that Mr. Pretties was a knob for not being able to see it's greatness. But, now that I have this amazing taffeta I'm ripping that sucker down and retacking this metre long hank of gorgeousness. I plan to hot glue the edges (As in I am not sewing it at. all.) and then purchase some trim (I had some in my hand at Walmart, where the flip did it go?!) and jazz it up - with my glue gun. Nester explains how it is perfectly acceptable to use your glue gun for things like this, and I'm greatful for that since I have two sewing machines both with more attitude than me. Thus, they stay in the closet. One has been grounded in there since the spring of 2006. The other one slightly less, but I think it's on it's way to perma-grounding (aka. the garbage) because it is just too useless. So new, gorgeous window treatments are on today's agenda. Along with recovering the lamp shade in the kitchen with the remaining taffeta (There will be some remaining damnit!) right along with felting some fuzzy balls. Excellent.


I replaced my glue gun lastnight. That's a big deal for me. My old glue gun has been at my side for many important things... scrapbooking, altering BLP some 'Ragamuffin' flip flops, (again, picture courtesy of www.NestingPlaceNC.Blogspot.Com, these are hers, but mine are small, pink & brown and furry. BLP loves hers to death) I lined the insides of the flip flop part (The cheap plastic part) and the toe thinger with chocolate brown minky so they'd be comfy and she always puts them on and says 'Ohhh nice and cozy and wwaarrrmmm...' so I made myself a pair too in black and white and lined mine with black velour. Totally cozy! Love them! Have you noticed yet that I do not come up with original ideas myself? No, no. I wait for someone else to come up with a genius idea and then I figure out how to make it too. Different ofcourse, and to fit my needs. But once in a while it would be good of me to come up with my own genius half-assed idea to share with everyone. One day. I'll work on that, I promise. Anyways... so I bought a new glue gun. It is pink. My old one was also pink. It was imperative that my glue gun be pink, a pink glue gun is conducive with allowing optimum craftability. In addition to that important aspect, it also has to match my pink and brown scissors, my pink and brown paper cutter, and my many, many other pink crafting tools. If it's not pink it just doesn't feel right, and therefore probably doesn't work right. I only replaced the OGG because it was copping some serious attitude about this hair clip brigade I started. It didn't want to put the glue sticks through, it didn't want to melt them, it wanted to get too hot, and then it wanted to melt a whole glue stick at one time pouring the entire molten glue glob all over whatever important hair piece I was working on. That kind of crap is not going to fly around here. Not at all. Not to mention the 50,000 third degree burns I've acquired from this glue gone in the past few months. Most of them my own fault, but still. The time had some where I was concerned that it was getting so hot it was planning to simply melt itself and be done with it all. I did the kind thing and threw it in the garbage. That's a big deal for me too, I don't part with things very often because I feel sorry for them. I did give it a little kiss and a pat on the barrel as a farewell when no one was looking though. I even managed not to get teary eyed. I am making some serious progress here! Although I'm a little concerned that the only reason I'm not such a wuss anymore is because of this little ball of testosterone I'm carrying around, once the Little Boy Person gets here I'm afraid I'll go right back to a sobbing little weiner that feels terminally bad for the little desk lamp at the side of the road on the old Ikea commercial. Yeah. It makes me teary-eyed. Poor, poor little lamp, what did it do to anyone?! You can only hope that doesn't happen or this blog could get pretty disgusting! Just a warning.


I'm off to felt me some balls now (?) but I'll be back later to report how that went. In my head I have images of making these perfect little round balls on the first try. Frequently those images are horribly wrong. I may end up with little felt blobs instead... I need to go find that felting page again and review this process... it involves hot water, soap, and lots of rolling, doesn't sound too hard, eh? We'll see...


I totally forgot an imporant thing! See this adorable little consignment shop? (http://www.littlesproutsturnabouts.com/) The owner has decided to take come of my hair clips on consignment! That means taking a hit on what they're worth when they sell, but since I'm going to be taking some of the Little Pretties clothes in anyway, it would be a great way to pass around the word in an up and coming little shop (It only carries that name brand stuff so it's way better than Once Upon a Child). So that's a fun little tidbit of info that I'm excited about. And don't worry, I'm not even going to mention it to Mr. Pretties (Until I require him to drive me an hour to Hagersville...) so that we don't have to relive the 'That's Nice' debadacle again. Twice in one week will not be tolerated, but since Mr. Pretties doesn't understand that concept I'll just save myself the aggervation and not mention it. All-in-all Mr. Pretties is a good guy, don't get me wrong now, sometimes he just 'doesn't get it', that's all. He is a man after all.

Did someone order a bowl of the most adorable pink and magenta felty balls you've ever seen? That's right, I didn't have to because I made my own! I can't wait to get my card reader for the camera so I can post my own pics everyday. Let me just tell you, those wee little felty balls are adorable and easy to make! A little time consuming I guess, it took me an hour to make like 18 of them, but that's like what 3 minutes each? That's not so bad. My hands feel a little 'rolled out' but that's a small price to pay! Never mind the pride I feel about this. Think of how often this will come up in a conversation! 'I just got my masters degree, I'm so proud of myself!' followed by 'I know exactly what you mean! I just figured out how to make really adorable felty balls!' Uh huh... this might be one of those pridey things I keep for the blog ;)

*To the super nice commenter yesterday I left you a comment in yesterdays box because I couldn't reply via email. If you'd like to contact me through http://www.meaghanmariepretties.etsy.com/ or at MMPretties@hotmail.com that would be super!*

So I can make an envelope...

I woke up this morning and low and behold, I had my first Etsy transaction! It's not like I haven't sold clips before, but it is just so much cooler to do it from my 'shop' and have an email sent to me about it. It's sort of like a virtual pat on the back... I did a little happy dance in front of the computer and went off to tell Mr. Pretties about this. I just knew he'd be as excited as I was, he'd probably do a happy dance as well and then tell me what a cute, smart, irreplaceable wife I am. MmmHmm... He said 'That's nice'. Yeah. And it wasn't you know 'That's Nice!' = 'Wow, I'm so proud of you, that's so awesome, you must feel really good about it! It must be because your store is so cute and your blog is all pink and brown and stuff' No it wasn't. It was more like 'Huh... I'm not really sure what Etsy is, or a hair clip for that matter, but will it benefit me? No? Oh... well... Huh...' . Sometimes I wonder... So I'll phone someone (Read: Email someone since I'm a phone-aphobe) that cares and it'll be all good.



After filling some hair clip orders (I still receive them mostly from email, can't everyone understand how much more fun it is to do it through Etsy?!) and when I'd filled the orders I could for the day I thought about how I had to ship them. Then it dawned on me that I was out of shipping envelopes. Crap. I suppose I could just hand them to the mailman and ask him to deliver them as is or, I could just go to the post office/Staples/Office Depot and purchase those ugly orange spongey ones (Like any normal person would). Then I remembered seeing some really awesome handmade envelopes on Etsy and I just so happen to have a life time supply of patterned cardstock... So I went to work and came out with something almost exactly like the ones to the side. They're all pink and purple ofcourse. And super cute. They actually bring a tear to my eye when I see them. I am SO stoked about them (more so than I should be) and thought about telling Mr. Pretties about them when he phones from work tonight. Then I came to my senses and decided to pop them on the blog instead. No one appreciating them is far better than someone not appreciating them. I think. I cannot wait to ship out a batch of hair clips on Monday in one of these cuties. It's like getting a present in the mail... albeit a present you paid for... but a present none the less. I wish I could be a fly on the wall when people open their mail and receive this beauty. I personally would be so excited about this envelope I'd forget what I even ordered, or that there was anything even in the envelope. For atleast 30 seconds anyway. I have to go buy labels now since I clearly cannot write on these envelopes because you'd never see the addresses. Did I mention that I also glued a few random pink rhinestones to them too? They'll fall off in the mailing process, but I'll know they were there. I'm also throwing in a thank-you business card to match. All this for a $2.25 purchase. Come. On.


I'm a little disappointed my cupcakes aren't here yet. I ordered my felt cupcakes last week and got an email that they just shipped from the US yesterday. Does anyone know how long it takes to get mail from the US?! We're talking 9-14 business days. Business days. That's like three normal people weeks. They better be here sooner or I'll have to make my own damn felt cupcakes, and after the envelope extravaganza I just might do it too! My friend told me about a really cool place that you can go to and cut out felt shapes, I really need to go, think of the things I could cut out?! I really want to get some flowers made and things like that. The unfortunate part of my weirdness though is that I do. not. drive. ever. I let my driver's license expire two years ago infact. So if I want to go somewhere Mr. Pretties has to transport me. Which usually isn't a problem, but I don't really think he wants to sit in the car with the little pretties while I have a hay day in the resource centre cutting out cutesy shapes and suffering bouts of giddy laughter at all these things I could do with felt shapes. I could utilize some public transportation but as I've mentioned I'm 37 weeks pregnant and to be honest, I walk like a really fat duck and I would be 40 weeks pregnant by the time I got myself to this place of wonders. Under normal circumstances I can out walk Mr. Pretties anyday, now his sslllooowwww stroll is like speed walking to me and it takes forever for me to get anywhere that's not two centimetres away. I'll think of something, it's imperative that I have these cupcakes. And flowers.



I also need to create some hair clip cards. I could purchase them. I should purchase them. But, as I've said, I have alot of cardstock. I also have a snazy pink and brown paper cutting thing that will zip said cardstock into perfect hair clip cards in no time. Will this be good enough for me? Hell no. Then I'll have to get a stamp/sticker/label with the MeaghanMarie logo on it to go on the top, and then I'll have to embellish it (Can you say 'If you give a mouse a cookie...') and then I'll hate myself and wish I'd just had them made. But I'm fun like that. Maybe I'll create them on the computer (Not mine ofcourse, mine is a real life piece of crap that does little other than make the internet work) and print them out? I could do that... it would be pushing my computer know-how but I think I could manage. If anyone wants to throw a new pink Dell laptop, 3-in-1 printer, MS Office, and Photoshop my way I wouldn't be all noble about it or anything...

My Feet Feel Like A Babies Bottom...

Ahhh... Sweet relaxation. I said I wouldn't share before/after pictures of my pedicure. I promised. I will keep that promise. But, I'll still going to tell you about it. Let me start by reminding you that the last time I received a pedicure not issued by Mr. Pretties (Who is not half bad, let me tell you!) was 5 or 6 years ago. Yes years, you know that grouping of 12 months at a time? 5 or 6 of those. That's a longish time. This wasn't one of those spas in a hair salon, or one of those really big spas you get lost in and have an agenda you have to stick to etc... etc... Nope this spa 'La Petite Spa' ( www.lapetitespa.ca ) was a little tiny... err... petite piece of decadence in the upper loft of a 100 year old building up town. You know how I feel about things that are old. If they had tried to rub my feet with a camels rear end I still would have thought it was fabulous (They didn't by the way). Besides the mass amounts of character this place exuded from it's antique wood work/ windows/doors/ceilings/lead paint... uhh... never mind... it was also painted the most devine chocolate brown on two walls, pink on a window wall, and had an amazing original rock and wood wall. This paired up with chocolate velvet curtains, antique and shabby chic pieces of furniture, and a pedicure 'throne' who I will soon be introducing as my boyfriend, equaled pure love. They even brought me my ice water in a champagne glass. Now that's class. All the accessories, including the nail polish remover were pink. Have I told you all how much I adore pink, especially when it's coupled with brown?

We'll need to have a post on that situation soon. Love it. I believe 30 seconds into my manicure my eyes glazed over and I mentally went to sleep. I'm sure my manicurist (Is that the right term?) thought I thought she was doing a crap job and was meerly trying to keep myself awake long enough to escape. I didn't even care anymore that I'm an excessive nail biter and that my hands look like someone chewed them up and spit them out. I now have hands that smell like grapefruits and legs and feet that smell like Fruit Loops. (I'm glad I had the fore sight to shave my legs too, that could have been ackward) So this was classified as the best birthday present ever, and affirmed my suspicions that my cousin loves me more than Mr. Pretties to issue such a wonderful gift.

As if that weren't productive enough I did infact get my Etsy and email pictures uploaded. It only took me an hour to figure out that my camera wasn't on therefore the computer would not recognize it, ergo, no pictures will upload. After that it was all gravy. I was in a hurry though because Mr. Pretties needed to be at work pronto, and I needed him to transport me home before he went there. So in my haste I emailed myself the 200 pictures I required (Out of the 740 I would have liked to have had) and patted myself on the back. From there I planned to upload them to Photobucket for safe keepings and future uploading extravaganzas. I got home all stoked to load the pictures to my Etsy listings (I'm so impatient I listed all my Etsy items already with no pictures, I'm shameless) and low and behold... no pictures. Crap. I forgot that Hotmail is not my friend and didn't like me trying to send 30MB of pictures to my inbox. It was so annoyed infact it didn't even bother to bounce the email back or tell me that it hadn't accepted them. I think it was being passive-aggressive. But my aunt came to my rescue and resent them all this evening and I got them uploaded to Etsy and emailed out to the group that wanted them. What a relief! Not to mention my Etsy listings look so much prettier when it doesn't look like I'm trying to sell a grey box. I laughed because even though there clearly were no pictures, people still clicked on the listing to see what was up. Maybe I should have temporarily listed them as 'invisible clips' and see how that went. Someone would probably order one to be a smartass though, and I'd have to come up with an invisible clip. Here's a small taste of some basic clips that were uploaded today through much time and effort:
There are more, but quite frankly this whole uploading/downloading/sideloading is tiring and I've done more of it than I care to discuss. If you want to see fruits of my hard labour (I mean the uploading part) they can be seen at http://www.meaghanmariepretties.etsy.com/

I'm off to answer some more emails now, send some pictures, and hopefully not mess up to many communications. Or maybe I'll wait until tomorrow, believe it or not, all that luxurious pampering managed to give me the first headache I've had in months. Must've hit the wrong 'trigger' in my foot, as long as they didn't hit the 'eject baby' button I'm okay with that...