Yesterday was busy with yard work, then we ate dinner with my parents, grandmother and uncle. Then I was just very tired, and didn’t feel like doing this post yesterday. At least I did one this weekend! :)
Hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween today! Enjoy your trick or treating or any parties left to go to. It’s quite chilly here today, so hopefully it’s warmer wherever you are or you are able to keep warm tonight!
So, as much as I was against it before, last night for some reason I decided to sign up for Twitter. The name “Twitter” actually annoys me a little, and I always thought it was kind of ridiculous, especially since I have Facebook and really like that social network. But, I know so many bloggers who have Twitter accounts, so I thought maybe it was about time for me to give it a try too. Expand my horizons and such… I don’t really understand it all yet, and I don’t really know if I like it. I’m only following 4 “people” so far, one of which is Dr. Oz, lol! So, if you would like me to follow you, let me know how to find you, and if you’d like to follow me, you can find me @SSgherza.
I made today as productive as I could. I had to call my doctor to try to get them to order a blood test to check my thyroid. My hair seems to be falling out a lot more than my usual hair loss, or even my typical season changing hair loss (I swear, I’m like a cat!). Hubby says it didn’t really feel thinner to him at all, and I had a hair cut on Thursday last week, and my hairdresser didn’t seem to think it was much thinner, but when I told her I felt like I was losing a lot of it recently, she suggested I have my thyroid checked. I have definitely thought about it recently, and taking into consideration that thyroid issues run in my family (my mom had Grave’s Disease, and both her mom and brother are currently on thyroid meds), and my hairdresser even recommended what I had already been thinking about, I decided to call today and try to get the test ordered. I had it tested 2 or 3 years ago when it was brought into question then, along with diabetes testing, and everything came back normal then, but now I got a little worried about it again. So, hopefully I will find out tomorrow what’s going on with that, and hopefully there’s no problems! But after spending a good portion of the afternoon even trying to get through to the nurses due to their phone line issues, getting the blood test, and then stopping by my Grandmother and uncle’s house to drop off some cookies, I finally got home and got started on my to-do list for today. I got all my Halloween stuff up now (finally!), my kitchen floor all cleaned up, vacuumed the family room, and dealt with some laundry. I had some other things I wanted to accomplish today, and didn’t get to, but there’s always tomorrow, since it’s late now and I'm feeling pooped!
Jasper is finally feeling better today it seems. He sneezed a lot less today, and when he actually did sneeze, it was just once and done – no more sneezing fits of 10 in a row! His eyes were a lot less goopy and watery today too. He even got feisty with Dusty for the first time in a week, ran around the house, and played with a couple toys for a little! He still isn’t quite 100% yet, but he was definitely better today, and that made me feel a lot better. Looks like we won’t need to call the vet now anyway, thankfully.
I had a really good weekend. I know I totally skipped Scrapbook Saturday this week again, but I didn’t think to create it earlier in the week and schedule the post, and I was really busy this weekend, or when I wasn’t busy I was tired and didn’t feel like doing much. We went to the PA Renaissance Faire on Saturday with my dad. That always makes for a good day. The weather was a bit windy at first, but the sun was bright and warm, and when the wind died down it was beautiful. I froze after the sun went down though, and was getting very uncomfortable on the benches at the Globe Theater, so we had to leave before the finale in song was finished. We never stayed that late before either, so it was nice to see at least some/most of the finale for a change. The best act of the day: The Dandy Pirates. Two guys singing hilarious songs, some about “being a pirate sucks”, one about being gay (one of the pirates was supposedly gay, but was sleeping with the other pirate’s girl), one about a girlfriend who ended up being a guy…definitely not a show for the kiddies! They were the funniest act I ever saw at the Ren. Faire though! Another funny show was a new one this year – The Duo of Woo’s Quest for the Perfect Wife. Definitely another show not suitable for young ones! They did it like a game show and took 5 women from the audience as the contestants. The women had different things to do, and each “level” eliminated one until they had only 1 left – and she ended up with some gift certificates for some of the fair vendors totaling $35! We have been going free every year, courtesy of my dad’s employers. I look forward to laughing hysterically at the Dandy Pirates again next year!
Sunday was a performance for the baton group. The small group of girls I teach now (which started at 5, went down to 4, and now will be up at 6, possibly 7!) performed the routine I taught them for the very first time yesterday. It’s to the song “Fame” from the 2009 version of the movie. I was nervous for them, they were nervous, but overall it wasn’t too bad. They still have a lot of work to put into perfecting it more, and the routine isn’t even completely finished yet, so they have more to learn, but for a first time with some girls who have never twirled before this summer, it was pretty decent. I still have to review the recording, since I didn’t get to watch the entire show, so we’ll see what I find on playback. They have another show coming up in the beginning of November, so I’m hoping for an even better go at it then. I love being a part of this group – I joined as a member when I was 5, and they are like a second family to me, always have been. The group has changed somewhat over recent years, but it still feels great to be a part of it, and I absolutely love being able to teach now that I can’t really perform anymore. I also have picked up private lessons on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so I get to do what I love 3 evenings a week now! :) I’d love to post pictures, but I don’t really have their permission or parents permission, so I will refrain from upsetting anyone, just in case.
Hope you all had a great weekend too! Looks like we might have more rain tomorrow and Wednesday…wonderful.
(PS – I actually typed this post out much earlier today, but wanted to add the photos, so I didn’t post it right away, and now that I was ready to post it I had to change a lot to reflect on my day, not list what I wanted my day to be like. I also didn’t think Jasper was better earlier, and thought I was seriously going to have to call the vet today – but luckily that changed too!)
1. I have a sick kitty. :( He’s been having sneezing fits since yesterday, and you can just tell he doesn’t feel well. My poor baby, I feel bad for him. I don’t think it’s time to call the vet yet, since he’s still eating some and drinking, but once I see that he’s not eating, I will put out the wet food (they can smell it better and will eat more when they are sick) and call the vet to see if he needs any antibiotics. See, not feeling well:
Hubby put his blanket in the corner by the bookshelf in the office, and I know Jasper likes blankets, but this is a little unusual for him. It doesn’t help that it’s chilly, and and the heat hasn’t been on yet. 
3. Oh, and as I was typing this post, the heat did get turned on. Everyone is warming up, and so far I haven’t heard the clicking from the vent in the bedroom. I don’t think it’s quite cold enough for the clicking to start yet. Yet another stupid issue with our brand new house – the vent coming up through the garage/family room wall, running along the floor of our bedroom and coming to it’s opening in the back of the bedroom is made of aluminum, and expands and shrinks when we use the heat. So, the result is we hear a clicking/pinging sound on really cold days when the heat kicks on. When there’s no heat blowing, the vent “shrinks” since it runs through the one garage wall, and gets very cold, and then when the heat blows it starts to warm up the vent causing the metal to expand, which creates the noise. Kept me awake and irritated soooo many nights last winter. We were told that it sometimes is an issue in these houses, and they need to fix it by cutting into the garage wall, replacing the aluminum duct with a plastic flexible duct, and fix up the garage wall again. If it’s a known issue, why don’t they make these houses with the flexible duct in the first place??? But no, I have to deal with the noise and have them cut holes in my home to find the problem and fix it. My issue is that I don’t think the expansion problem is coming from the garage wall area, but where the duct runs between the family room ceiling and bedroom floor. If that’s the issue, they might have to cut open my whole family room ceiling! Really not looking forward to dealing with all that this winter…
4. Back to my sick kitty – if you’ll notice in the above pictures, he is quite a tubby cat. We have tried switching to light food, and now even strictly measure out his daily amount of food. We don’t regulate the food bowls overnight, because if we did, we wouldn’t sleep at all! But we are trying to get his weight down, and I don’t think we have been successful yet. So, I saw this fun little toy, and thought it would be a super success!:
5. I have things to do that I just don’t feel like doing. I have to hem a pair of costume pants for one of the girls in the baton group. I offered to do it so I knew it would get done and hopefully come out well, but I really never feel like hemming pants… It’s tedious and boring. I don’t want to fertilize the yard. It needs to be done, and seems pretty easy, but I just don’t want to do it. The basement and garage need some major cleaning, and I really don’t want to do that! I have some crafts I really want to finish up, but I’m at a tedious and boring part of the process for some of them, so I keep pushing it off.
6. Along the lines of crafts, I made these on Tuesday as well:
Swirly Blue Chandelier Earrings: I have not added these to my Artfire site yet, because I have to figure out their cost and selling price. There we go again with the tedious part of a craft that I really dislike to do! Hopefully by tomorrow I will have them priced and added. The ear wires are a different style for my typical selection, but I really like them and think they make this pair look more elegant. The blue beads are leftover from my Beachy Blue set, and I bought the swirly chandelier parts a while ago, but just got around to using them. Look for them there soon though!
7. I’m a little disappointed about some things. I have yet to make a sale from any of my shops, and I hate to admit that to anyone reading this, but I don’t get it. I think I make/create some cute stuff, and my jewelry and other crafts are priced right around what other people charge, if not less, but yet still no takers, no orders… The stuff on my Cafe Press shops are slightly expensive, but I promise I don’t mark them up a whole lot – most of the cost for them is Cafe Press’ base cost for the item. I even have my Breast Cancer Awareness items that I’m donating profits to the American Cancer Society, but sadly no takers on that stuff either… So, I hate to do this, but I’m going to be a little shameless here – go check out My Style Crafts on Artfire, My Style Crafts-Photography Gifts on Cafe Press, and My Style Designs on Cafe Press (currently all breast cancer awareness designs on this shop with ALL profits going to American Cancer Society – changed from a portion as stated before) – if you like anything, buy it! :) Christmas is coming. ;) If you have any questions or would like to make any special orders, feel free to contact me! I love to craft a whole variety of things, and I have some cute ideas for future projects, but struggling to get my dance business going, and not working otherwise, it gets hard for me to spend money on more supplies when I haven’t gotten any returns from previous projects. It just makes me feel disappointed that I can’t seem to get anywhere with this stuff, and I have no idea why. I know people are looking at it – if you have comments about anything, please send them to me! I don’t know how to better my products or services if I get no feedback!
I think that’s all for today…I’m very tired because I hardly slept last night. Jasper woke me up with a sneezing fit, and then there was just no going back to sleep after that. So, at 5pm, I say goodnight!
I said in yesterday’s post about my Cafe Press shop that I would have these posted either last night or today – didn’t happen until today, but they’re up and ready for orders at my Artfire site!
I made my first set of wine charms, in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month. During this month, ALL profits from the sales of each set will get donated to the American Cancer Society. I am taking custom orders for these too, where you can request a certain bead color in support of a different cancer awareness or change the lettering to someone’s name, nickname, initials, etc. instead of the word “hope”.
Here are my sample photos:
If you didn’t already know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Since I know people who have either conquered breast cancer or are currently fighting it, I decided I wanted to create things this month that I could donate profits from to the American Cancer Society. I am currently working on some wine charms that I hope to have finished and posted by the end of this evening or tomorrow, but for now I opened up another, different Cafe Press Shop where I can put designs I create on other merchandise. It is separate from my Photography Gifts site, and currently has 1 design related to breast cancer on a variety of products ranging from clothing to mugs to buttons/magnets. Depending on the item, I will donate anywhere from $0.25 to $1.00 for each item sold (amount depends on the item), so the more I sell, the more I can donate! I created this design using the obvious pink ribbon, the symbol for breast cancer awareness, but also with the yellow flowers because they were the closest looking flowers to Pear Blossoms, which is apparently the flower representing “hope”.
You can visit the shop here: http://www.cafepress.com/MyStyleDesigns
And here is a preview of what you’ll find in the shop:
So, hurry up and show your support for cancer research! Cafe Press currently has a sale through Oct. 13th – get 15% off all orders $60 or more – so while your checking out my shops, you might find some cool Halloween stuff while you’re there!
I would like to start creating more designs, so after October 31st, 2010, the items and designs are subject to change. I will most likely keep a few “Think Pink” items in the shop, but I will be working on other designs as well. Unfortunately, I only have a basic shop, so I can only have a product listed with one design, meaning I can’t have coffee mugs listed with 2 or more different designs (once a design is put on a coffee mug, you can’t create another coffee mug with a different design).
Check it out! :) More to come on those wine charms later…
Hi all! Hope you had a good Wednesday, whatever it is you ended up doing today. I finally got my rear in gear to clean up some things, and after I was finished I felt a lot better about how those areas of the house looked and I felt somewhat accomplished. I did not, by any means, cross off everything from my to-do list, so I will just pick up tomorrow where I left off today.
One thing I managed to cross off my list today was to go to the craft store. I have been wanting to create something that I could try to sell and give profits from the sale of that item or items to the American Cancer Society. I know people who have either conquered or are fighting breast cancer, and since this is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it prompted me to think of this. So today I headed to the craft store and bought some pink beads and some hoops for wine charms (along with a few other supplies). The weather here has been really dreary recently, as I mentioned before, so I haven’t felt like doing much, so I’m hoping tomorrow’s nicer weather and these new supplies kick starts me into crafting and getting quite a few other things crossed off my to-do list.
We never made it to Ocean City, NJ this past weekend because my mom’s legs are still bothering her, and it was probably a good thing in the end anyway since I started to not “feel well” Saturday morning. She would have been miserable and after the weekend I had, I might have been even more miserable than her! So, since I’m now feeling better and this weekend’s weather is supposed to be gorgeous (78 and sunny!), hubby and I will be going on our own without my parents. I like to go every year to walk the boardwalk, visit the shops, and eat junk I shouldn’t have. The one thing I look forward to the most is eating dinner at Ike’s Seafood. I saw them on a Food Network show once, so we decided to find them and try it out. Best crabcakes and fries/chips ever! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to eat there when we went last year because we got to them a lot earlier than they were opening for the day, and we couldn’t really sit around and wait for them to open. Since we’re going in the off season again this year, I’m anticipating a late opening of Ike’s again, so we will adjust our departure time and such so that we can actually eat there for dinner this year. And the weekend after that we’ll be going to the PA Renaissance Faire, as long as the weather holds out. That was going to be the Sunday activity this past weekend too, but then I wasn’t feeling well and the weather forecast kept changing, and again, my mom has a ticket to go too and wasn’t up to walking around.
So anyway, look for some new items coming – I’m hoping to make tomorrow a very productive day!
So, I was apparently wrong about my new blog design. In yesterday’s post announcing my new design I stated that it didn’t quite look like I thought it would. I also don’t have a widescreen monitor on my desktop computer, so when I looked at it on the laptop, it did look like it was supposed to! :) That made me very happy, because I really liked how the whole background looked, and was a little disappointed when I wasn’t seeing it on the other monitor. So, if you have a widescreen monitor, you will see the appropriate/full background design, otherwise you might only see a portion of it, which does not do it justice.
I linked up my Artfire shop and my blog today to this blog party/blog hop/whatever you want to call it (I get confused about what to call these types of things):
If you haven’t seen Sumo’s Sweet Stuff’s blog, check it out now. It’s really cute, and she does a lot of cool, creative stuff.
I did get in contact with my doctor’s office today, and I got started on some antibiotics, so hopefully it helps and gets rid of this issue quickly. I have never gone through this before, and really hope I never have to again! And the last update is that this crappy rainy weather here needs to go – my knees have been sooo stiff and achy since the beginning of last week, and it’s really getting to be bad. I know we needed the rain, but I think we got enough last week…now we have another 3 days of rain in store!
Hope all of you have nicer weather wherever you may be!
So, I finally picked, tested and applied a new design to my blog! If you’re reading through Google Reader, as I tend to do, go check it out! This one might not be permanent either, as I would really like to learn and figure out creating one from scratch on my own someday, but thanks to The Cutest Blog on the Block, I got this free background to pretty up my blog. I always love seashore/seashell stuff, so that’s why I picked it. It doesn’t quite look like it did in the sample they provided, which I really liked a lot, but some of it shows, enough to make it nicer than the kind of drab theme I had before.
I’ve had a pretty lazy weekend – but I haven’t been feeling my best, and even though today was much better than yesterday, I still need to call my doctor tomorrow. I won’t go into it much more than that on here, so if you really need to know TMI, feel free to ask (but leave your e-mail address, because I won’t explain in comments on here either)! I wanted to make these Caramel Apple Cookies this weekend, but that hasn’t happened yet, and probably won’t now until I get in touch with the doctor tomorrow and figure that whole issue out. I’m cutting down some of the calories though by making mine with the Splenda Brown Sugar Blend and regular granulated Splenda, as well as egg substitute, so when I do have them made and taste-tested, I will let you know how mine came out and will try to come up with the calorie counts. Thanks Smashed Peas and Carrots for sharing this recipe – they made my mouth water and I can’t wait to try them!
So, what do you think of the new design? And how about those cookies?? If that isn’t a fall recipe to love… :)
I didn’t get to do a Scrapbook Saturday post last week. Honestly, I don’t even know what happened to my day last weekend. I think I was just lazy and not on the computer much on Saturday, so I was going to do it Sunday, and then didn’t get the chance to then because we were at my grandmother’s a good portion of the morning/afternoon. But anyway, here’s my page for this week:
Not from me, but it caught your attention, didn’t it?!? But there seriously is a giveaway going on. I waited a little too long to do this post (mainly because I wanted to mention it in earlier posts, and I totally forgot – sorry!), so I’m not sure who will see it in enough time to be able to enter themselves, but if you don’t see it in enough time to enter, you should still check out her blog and her other sites (Avon, photography, Etsy shop)!
Laura, at Army Wife Life is hosting a giveaway featuring two different items. She is a great photographer, so one item up for grabs is a beautiful blossom print, photographed by herself, and she is also an Avon rep, so the other item to choose from is a new perfume pendant with Fergie’s new scent hidden inside. Both items are beautiful! She has a few ways to get entries into the giveaway (this method being one of them!), but the deadline to enter is midnight tonight, so hurry up – but again, if you see this too late, sorry! Still check out her other sites!
Giveaway post is linked here.
