Maybe I can do this more often . . .

• Day 1 of Trying Tea Instead Of Coffee: 50% successful. Tea this morning but coffee this afternoon.

• Today I had lunch with my BFF from Cowley dance team. It’s amazing how we’ve been through so much and so many of the same things together. Danced together, transferred to state universities, didn’t graduate. She moved to Chicago. We both got married, had babies (well, one of mine came before we got married). Then I moved to Chicago – together again! Then she divorced, remarried and moved back to KS. More babies for her, more babies for me. Hopefully no divorce and definitely no more babies for me – her 4th will be here in a few months. I miss her a lot. Thank God for the internet!

• I start a new class tomorrow night: Building Public and Financial Support. I.E. how to fundraise. There are 2 texts – one strictly about fundraising (I have to say that this seems like a part of non-profit work I am NOT interested in. Too bad for me, as it’s a major part of making a NPO work!) and the other already has me in love just from the title: “Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Manual for Activists”. You have to say it out loud with your fist in the air.

• Here’s some music for you:

This post will be a whole lot of random, please forgive me.

~ I love the feeling of security I get from grocery shopping. You might think I grew up hungry but I can't remember a time when I didn't have more than enough to eat. It just feels very comforting to have a full fridge and cupboard. I daydream about a separate freezer and the money for meat from some animal that has been raised all healthy-like.

~ I'm drinking a Mike's Hard Lemonade - Light. I don't recommend this purchase to anyone else, it's got a real disinfectant thing going on. Yet I continue drinking it! I guess if I drink enough of it I might not taste it anymore.

~ Who am I fooling? I don't have enough brain cells awake to write anything of substance. I'm going to just play Guitar Hero and go to bed.

~ Here's some music for you:

One of my items was featured on Etsy's front page - HOW COOL!!! My friend Ngan selected one of my items for her "treasury" (a grouping of items that have something in common - a color, season, use, feature, etc). Getting your treasury picked for the front page is great because it lets people know you exist (they go to your shop to check you out since you have such great taste) and all the people you've featured in your treasury get exposure on the front page.

My item -- the black and white coffee cozy at the bottom, called "Day and Night", has almost 250 views (people who clicked on it to look at it in detail) while my other items average between 10 & 30 views each. And the number of people who have listed my shop as one of their favorites went up by 30% in one day! So being featured in a treasury is a great thing for any Etsy shop, and I'm so thankful it happened to me!

Ryan Adams without the PMS

My friend Alicia came to town and introduced me to the Avett Brothers. I love them! I told someone they're like Ryan Adams without the PMS.

This weekend I made out with my sewing machine

This weekend I lived at the kitchen table with my sewing machine directly in front of me, a stereo for music and an ironing board on my right holding the iron and all my piecework. It was quite a scene. Family members flowed in & out of my little work station where I put in many, many hours of Holiday cozy creating.

I'm seeing a little cross-eyed today but it was worth it. Here are the first fruits of my labor:

These are listed at my Etsy shop, One In The Hand. More will be there soon!

It was my co-worker's birthday yesterday and her cubicle was decorated accordingly.

HELLO ZAC EFRON!

Is having this poster legal if you're over 18?

Photoshop cake for the birthday girl

to-do list

• learn to make stickers
• learn to make stencils
• learn to make stamps

i have so many ideas for so many things!!