Day 65: Friday, December 18

It’s late and I need to sleep, but I wanted to slip in a quick update.

Basically, the Handmade Arcade was AWESOME!  I ran into a lot of fellow crafters that I recognized, and even saw some pals from high school.  The crowd was massive and didn’t begin to taper until about 5:30 PM.  Cleared a lot of the inventory that I had posted on Etsy.

I stayed at my folks’ house for a few days afterward to visit and help to get some Christmas stuff together.  We baked cookies, wrote out cards, and decorated the Christmas tree.  Did some shopping, too.

I got back to Cleveland on Tuesday and spent my time up to this point preparing for my next show, which is tomorrow (December 19).

It’s called the Last Minute Market and it runs from 10-6 in Lakewood.  You should totally come.

Day 58: Friday, December 11

I’m driving home to Greensburg in about an hour or two, so I probably won’t pick up the blog again until Monday when I come back to Cleveland.

That means that this is my last opportunity to coerce you into attending the Handmade Arcade.

It’s tomorrow at the Hunt Armory in Pittsburgh from 11AM-8PM.  There will be lots of great indie crafters there (myself included) who make lots of cool items like jewelry and scarves and cards and prints and t-shirts.

I think I’m most excited, though, about finally getting to try some Dozen Cupcakes.  They look so tasty and word on the street is that they’ll have a booth at the show!

Hope to see you there!

Day 57: Thursday, December 10

Okay, so I did redeem myself in the craft department a bit today.

I was a little slow to get started, but once I sat down at the craft table, I think I worked for about 9 or 10 hours straight.

I’ve exhausted just about all 13 seasons of South Park episodes available free online.

And listened Pandora enough to repeat every song related to the GetUpKids and the Hold Steady like 30 times.

Basically, Pandora’s this free radio site where you type in a band or song that you like, and they will only play music related to your entry.  I’ve found some new music that way, however, if you listen long enough you begin to see a pattern emerge.

It’s funny how both Death Cab for Cutie and the Postal Service are related to the Get Up Kids.  Death Cab and the Postal Service have the same singer/songwriter so pretty much sound the same, so it makes sense.   But then that means you hear 2-3x more of that type of music than you hear from any other band.

I haven’t reached this point yet, but supposedly you can run out of free music time per month.

Let’s see how long it takes me to get there…

Day 56: Wednesday, December 9

A little disappointed in myself today.

I went to the grocery store and bank and things, but stayed up so late last night that I took a long nap in the afternoon.

Consequently, I didn’t really get any crafty things done.  Hence, the disappointment.

*****

Speaking of disappointment, I was hoping that at least a couple of folks would reply to my compelling restroom survey.

Grandma gets a gold star for the day for submitting her opinion.

Tsk tsk to everyone else.

Day 55: Tuesday, December 8

Today was pretty productive as well.

I cleaned up the paper crafts area and started organizing the totes that I always take to shows.

Finished labeling my greeting cards and necklaces, and updated my (somewhat primitive) inventory database.

Even talked to both my mom and sister on the phone (which some of you may know is a feat in itself).

*****

Earlier in the day I grabbed a granola bar then went into the bathroom to turn on the shower and warm up the water.  I finished eating the granola bar while in that portion of the house, but before I hopped in the shower.  Which got me to thinking about food in the bathroom.

I don’t make it a habit to eat all my meals in the bathroom, but sometimes urges come unexpectedly and at inopportune times.

At home it’s not such a big deal.  But sometimes trying to maneuver a food item in a public bathroom can be tricky.

I’m a pretty hygienic person, but I’m not Paranoid Percy when it comes to germs.  I mean, if we’re talking public spaces, I don’t think that restrooms are always that different from the cleanliness of fast food tables or bus seats. I’ve set a bottle of water or two on a sink ledge in my day.

Still, I’m very conscious of when/how I handle food in the bathroom.  I would say that I’m most concerned about germy surfaces, not necessarily about airborne toxins, but would not take an open plate of food into a restroom.

What are your thoughts?  I’ve created a little survey to see what the stigma is in your opinion.

You can see it by following this link:

Food in the Restroom?  A ground-breaking survey.

I’ll be interested to see the results!

Day 54: Monday, December 7

All right, I was a bit more productive today.

The Handmade Arcade is THIS WEEKEND(!) so I need to wrap up the different projects I’ve started and plan out my doings for the rest of this week.

So today I completed paper crafts time so that I could free up the kitchen table to be used for kitchen-related purposes.   In the past few days, I’ve actually finished dozens of greeting cards and gift tags for both personal and craft show use, so I’m pretty happy with that.

Here’s a preview:

Now I can go back to the craft table to work on jewelry items for the next few days.

Days 52-53: The Weekend of December 5

This weekend was a little crazy (in a hectic way, not a  “let’s eat ice cream for breakfast!” way).  Not much to say about it.  Everything’s okay, but I did have a headache.

Day 51: Friday, December 4

HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY TO ME!

*****

This morning Ryan made me breakfast in bed.  Rather, he made breakfast while I was still asleep, brought it to the bedside, and I carried it into the living room to eat so I wouldn’t make a mess.

Hooray for eggs, sausage, toast, and orange slices!

During the day I worked on some more crafts, and got plenty of birthday wishes via phone and Facebook.

When Ryan got home from work, he took me out to dinner at the Melting Pot, which was very fun, especially since I’ve never had fondue before.

I didn’t realize this beforehand, but you actually cook your own meat there. Seems like a liability, but whatever.  I’m up for a challenge.

Well, first, you get salads and an appetizer-type round where you can dip veggies and bread (and apples??) in the cheese of your choosing.  Everyone gets their own color of skewers to minimalize confusion, and there’s a burner built into each table to enhance the overall feeling of danger and bad-assery.

You get to choose your own cooking “scheme” or “style” or something, which is basically the spices and liquid base for the entree portion of the meal.  I think we chose some Carribbean garlic lemon something.

Anyway, they take away your cheese and give you a new pot of your Cooking Style-Flavored Sauce/Broth with your platter of raw meat.  They must pre-heat the sauce in the back because you only need to leave your meat chunks and veggies in the broth for about 2 minutes.  Oh, and they also provide a plethora of dipping sauces like butter, sour cream & chive, teriyaki, fruit chutney, curry sauce, and honey mustard.

For dessert, you can choose from a variety of chocolate sauces like peanut butter, s’mores, caramel, Oreo, etc.  You get a plate with little chunks of strawberries, pound cake, brownies, Rice Krispie treats, cheesecake, and bananas to dip.  I think the chocolate-covered chocolate brownie was the best!

I even tried a banana chunk upon Ryan’s insistence.  As you may know, I detest the sight, sound, smell, and texture of bananas over any other fruit, but never actually ate one before.  Now I know for sure that I don’t like the taste of bananas as well.  Ew.

The waitress was very nice and knew it was my birthday, so put a little candle in the sliver of cheesecake.  Earlier she had asked what brought us into the restaurant, and promised not to do an embarrassing song and dance routine for me.

Overall it was a very enjoyable dinner, but it does take some time to get through all of the courses.  I think we were there for about 2 hours.

Good thing I like to eat!

Day 50: Thursday, December 3

Today was pretty much a repeat of yesterday, so I will simply leave you with this:

Both Star Wars and Spiderman decals on a single set of cupcakes.  Classic.

*****

You know you’re at the crappy Giant Eagle when…

Day 49: Wednesday, December 2

Today was basically a continuation of yesterday’s kitchen-table-paper-fiasco.

I’ve been wanting to make more cards and paper products, so I figure that I should just take this week to get it out of my system so that I can put all of that stuff away and focus on jewelry stuff next week (in preparation for the Handmade Arcade – Dec. 12).

Someday I hope to have a home where I could have both a paper area and a jewelry area so I don’t have to rearrange my work space all the time.

I don’t think that’s asking too much.  I mean, I can do both in the same room but would just have separate tables or something for each.

Anyway, I finished quite a few gift tags just need to attach them to the appropriate gifts so that I know what I have left over.

I’m pretty excited that the Christmas gifts I give this year will look extra nice.  Well, at least that’s the hope…