*gasp* I lost 2 blog followers today LOL.. Hmm.. d'ya think they followed during OWOH and now that's its over and they saw my post and they didn't win that they stopped following? There's an idea! Although, I guess it's a legitimate thing to do! So I can't be too upset about it.


While I LOVE the concept of One World One Heart I'm afraid a few of the players were only in it for the giveaways. While we all love winning things (I won nothing.. *le sigh*) the chance to be introduced to people all over the world is far more exciting. Some people say that's because I'm nosey. I reply by asking them what my name is. Ya that's right. And curiosity hasn't killed me yet :)

Later on today I will be trekking down to the post office to send off the photographs for my 3 lovely winners, Top floor T, The Paper Princess, and PEA! I love PEA's name cause it's fun to yell hee hee.


I've really gotta make more time to blog these days, because I'm driving my hubs crazy. As soon as I pick him up for work I turn into Chatty Kathy and he's looking for my string so he can rip it out. Okay off topic, what I have to do within the next 10 minutes: print off business cards (YES I make my own, and the peeps that throw out homemade business cards can kiss my ass) get rid of my collection of Tim Hortons cups so I can stop knocking them over, and clean up my desk so I can actually work on it later on today. Okay good, I've written it down so now I HAVE to do it.

Oh, and just so everyone's clear, my blog title isn't saying "Getting back to NORMAL" because I never have been :) 

Alright my lovelies! This week I hope to do some much needed catching up on my wonderful EtsyBloggers, amazing MCC features and the rants you all so love. I have a lot of them by the way. Tons. Loads! But, as it always goes, I have all these issues I wanna get off my chest, but as soon as I open the blog window my mind goes blank. So I'll try to write them down, and *then* open blogger. That might help. (Y'know what would also help?? Psychiatric evaluation!) -Although if I do get onna those, my biggest fear might actually come to fruition. Being thrown into a mental ward!

OH! I just remembered one of the reasons I wanted to write a blog *snort* that's good. Something in there is working. Okay I was featured on a blog today! It was an absolutely fantastic surprise!! I recently met Monica through MyCraftCorner (like, this morning recently!) and she creates amazing jewellery and I hafta say, I love the way she photographs some of her jewellery! Anyhoodle, she had written a MCC blog post about her new blog, I went over to check it out and I loved it. She talks about not only her jewellery, but her personal life, and a post which broke my heart was this one: A Dictator's Horror.

Okay I'm off. Lots to do today and don't want the hubs to tsk tsk when he sees my lack of finished product lol. Alright he doesn't really do that, but thinking that keeps me motivated!

Have a fantasticular day my lovelies!

ps I need to get a paying job! And I realized today that I needed to do laundry because I was completely out of underwear.

Hello all my lovelies! I hope you're all having a wonderful Sunday night. I for one just want to go to bed. BUT since it's the last day of January, and I have yet to write my EtsyBloggers blog feature (I am SO behind this month!) I'm not yet going to bed. Which is probably a good idea, since it's not even 6pm.

So, I'd like everyone to meet Erika!!



Erika runs NicoDesigns on Etsy and has been a member since December 2008. Erika sews for sanity due to all the years being a Behaviour Specialist and Special Education Teacher! She makes darling dolls, adorable pin cushions, fashionable diaper bags and wonderful totes!



At Nico Designs, every product is created with design, style and functionality in mind! They strive to make products that are eco-friendly by utilizing a combination of new, repurposed, recycled or upcycled materials.




You can find Erika's wonderful blog at DesignsByNico and fan her fabulous Facebook FanPage!



With every purchase, Nico Designs donates a portion to her local Ronald McDonald house, and to the MD Anderson Cancer Hospital in Houston in memory of Chloe. Chloe, the daughter of Erika's close neighbours, died at the age of 7 due to cancer.


I hope everyone enjoyed seeing all the amazing products by NicoDesigns! Congrats Erika for being EtsyBloggers January Feature!

Is that no 2 are the same.

But really, who's to know that? Is there someone checking every single snowflake? I think not :) Even snowflakes can have a doppelganger!

So I'm finally resurfacing!! Isn't that amazing? hehe. I've been neglecting ze poor blog. But, luckily EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival is due tonite! And of course, I'm leaving it for the last minute hehe. And if you haven't guessed already, one of the questions pertains Snowflakes!

The question posed by Aliciamae is "Snowflakes - your favourite way to make them, or your favourite item on Etsy featuring them".

Since I don't exactly make snowflakes (unless it's a rude snowflake), I'm choosing to show my absolutely favourite snowflake items on etsy!! Are you ready?!



I couldn't choose. But they're all from the same artist, Urska aka Urssika. Urska and I met when she posted a question in the forums, although I have no clue what the forum was about! But I went to her shop and saw she was from Ljubljana, Slovenia!! My homeland! Well, not technically mine I suppose, since I wasn't born there, but most of my family was! We started talking immediately after that, and already have plans for her to be my Slovenian tour guide when I go visit my parents this summer! :)


So yes, Urska makes my absolutely favourite snowflake items on Etsy! All of her jewellery is gorgeous!

Good Friday Night Everyone!


Okay so, I'm really cutting it close for my EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival! It's been an extremely busy week! So, this blog carnival will be mighty short! (and yes, it will *actually* be short!)

This weeks Blog Carnival is hosted by the fabulous LindaB

The question I chose was:


I have to say, my fave colours change quite often. For example, I hated the colour pink for most of my life, but right now? I can't get enough of it! Hmm.. Also turquoise now that I think of it lol. But I wouldn't say putting those together would be my fave.


My fave colour combo these past few years have been a light aqua blue with brown! I adore it. So much so that these were the colours for my wedding :) I incorporated them pretty much everywhere (with the exception of me). But I can't say that I actually have created anything as of yet with these 2 colours in it! So I have nothing to show that I'm creating and selling with it. BUT since I created all of my centerpieces and decorations, I suppose that's something I created, yes??


Since I wanted these vases with blue filler, and the blue rocks would have cost me an arm and a leg, I used jelly beans! They came in very handy when the kids needed some snack foods other then the bacon wrapped scallops that were served before the reception!

I know I will be creating crochet pieces in the near future with these colours, so I guess you can say, stay tuned! :)


I know this is a really sucky blog carnival, I'd love to go on forever! BUT hubby is already in bed (we were up at 3am this morning because he had to work the early shift) and I spent the day cleaning and wrapping before my parents flew in, and we were at our best friends house for christmas dinner and just got home an hour ago. So we're exhausted, my parents are exhausted, even the dog is exhausted. So off to bed I go. I promise my next carnival entry will totally make up for this one :)

Good night!

Good Monday morning everyone! I must say, I had a veeerry interesting weekend hehe. I won't discuss it as of yet, because the "drama" may continue. I'm just laughing my butt off at it all really, because who exactly has this much time set aside for drama!!??


I for one don't have time for drama, because it's time for me to write my EtsyBloggers Feature this month on CalKat! CalKat is a shop run by 2 young women, Carrie and Kathy. And we're in for a treat, because they don't just have one shop! These 2 are quite ambitious and have a grand total of 4!! So sit back and relax this wonderful Monday morning, and feast your eyes on the incredible talents of Carrie and Kathy! All pictures are linked directly to their listings!


Carrie and Kathy currently reside in Las Vegas, NV, and have been making and designing OOAK pieces of jewellery for over 5 years. They both love making beautiful things that are shiny and complimentary! They use only quality sterling silver, gemstones, and Swarovski crystals in their designs. Each piece is handmade with love and extreme care! So check out their jewellery designs at CalKat!


Their second shop, Ametista's, is filled with ultra cute MonsterBoxes, bookmarks, bottles and polymer clay! They both share a passion for creating custom keepsakes - they love to discuss ideas with their customers, and just run with them! (Sometimes with scissors!) So for anything cute, and sometimes creepy-cute, head on over to Ametistas!!


Have you ever wanted to make your own clay creations?! Well, with the help of Carrie and Kathy you can! Their 3rd shop, TheClayShoppe, you can find all your supplies! There are loads of molds to choose from at very affordable prices, tools, clay, and tons of inks and pigments to gussy up your own creations! And as an added bonus, they're currently offering FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING now through New Year's Eve!



Do you Yoga? Love fairies? I know I do, and in Carrie and Kathy's 4th shop, that's exactly what you'll find! So check out these fairies doing all those poses you either love or hate at YogaFairies. And again, FREE Worldwide shipping now through New Year's Eve!

I hope you all enjoyed what you see, and make sure you check out each shop to see all the wonderful items I didn't have room to put pics of on ze blog! :) If you'd like to keep up to date on what these 2 are creating next, visit and follow their blog: CalKat The Jewelry Junkie.

As a brand spanking new EtsyBlogger (still so excited to be one!) I'm managing pretty well with figuring out all the requirements!! I finished my blog feature for Novembers Feature (which you can check out if you missed it! EB November Feature - TheFabMissB) and now I'm writing the Blog Carnival! For you not in the "know" (and I'm still not all the way in there yet! hee hee) A Blog Carnival pretty much runs like this: One Etsy Blogger hosts a "Blog Carnival" and comes up with 2 questions. All the rest of us EtsyBloggers choose one of those questions and blogs about it! Then enters the info into the "Blog Carnival" webhost thingy which I hope I can figure out, cause it'll be my first time tonight! Then the host will post (HA!) all the blog links to make for some awesome reading! This happens every 2 weeks, but it's only required to participate once a month. Since I completely missed the first one lol, I'm doing the second one, and my procrastinating self hadda go and leave it 'til the last day. Is that a shock to anyone? 'Cause it ain't one to me :)

This months Blog Carnival host is MysticWind! She has an awesome blog - I've been a follower for awhile now! The question I chose to write about is:

The Holiday season will soon be here. What's your favourite holiday movie or special? Why?

Now this is one tough question, because I love so many. Plus my fam is a little odd I think, because as a kid, we'd all cuddle up on Christmas day after opening all the presents and watch "Rocky Horror Picture Show".

I absolutely adore the old Christmas movies because they all had "morals" about how you should be nicer to people and my faves out of those are:


A Christmas Carol (the one with Alastair Sim!!! circa 1951) and of course the NOT coloured version. I hate when they colour old movies :) The main reason I love this one though, is because it's my mom's favourite movie and it's one the 2 of us will watch together every year.


It happened on 5th Avenue circa 1947. I was just recently introduced to this movie and I adored it! (It stares Alan Hale Jr... the skipper on Gilligan's Island!) My hubby, who's a nut for old black and white movies, almost pooped himself when he found this one for sale at Cinema 1. He's been looking for it for years as it's his favourite Christmas movie! At first I wasn't sure how it was a Christmas movie, because it's about a hobo who moves into a mansion whilst the family that owns it is away for the Christmas Holidays lol.


And of course, It's a Wonderful Life... That's a popular one! No explaining needed there. Although it does make me cry each and every time.


The movie I *have* to watch every year, and get upset when I don't, is The Christmas Story. My favourite ever part in it? Randy eating potatoes.


And my new favourite Christmas movie that I can watch any time of the year, is Elf. I can't help myself, I'm a little obsessed with Will Ferrell! It was the first Christmas movie in a looong time that I loved. And I have such a girl crush on Zooey Deschanel lol.


Oy, see, I could keep going! I can't possibly choose a favourite. How could I finish this post and not mention my fave as a kid?? All those ones with Rudolph and Burl Ives and The year without Santa Clause, and Heat Meiser looks exactly like my crazy uncle John out in Nova Scotia!

(Okay, so I apologize for this picture of Burl Ives, I didn't want to see him like this either. But when I did a search for the Burl Ives snowman, this is what I got.) 

Even though I wasn't very good at choosing *a* Holiday movie favourite, I hope this post was coherent enough for the "Blog Carnival" lol.

Okay, now I'm running off to watch Elf... You smell like beef and cheese!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Good Morning everyone!! This months featured Etsian for the EtsyBloggers is TheFabMissB!! So sit back and relax, take in all the wonderful information and eye candy, and click away at the pics as they're all linked to their listings!

Now, it's a little more difficult doing a feature when you don't get to ask questions! hehe. But I've taken as much pertinent information from her shops profiles and blog to let you know a bit more about TheFabMissB!!

TheFabMissB aka Becky Kazana has 2 Etsy shops which are both filled with amazing products! The name "Kazana" was actually adopted by Becky and her husband as their last name whilst travelling through Africa. It's a Swahili word that means "to make a home", and they fell in love with this philosophy. To them, home is not a physical place but rather their life together.  Becky and her husband love to travel and in the past 3 years have travelled through Africa, Europe, China and all over the U.S. They recently moved to The Big Island in Hawaii where they enjoy endless summers, which were denied to them growing up in Minnesota!

Other than crafting, painting and travelling, Becky is also a writer, loves to bake, read and ransack thrift stores!

TheFabMissB shop carries unique vintage items, cross stitch ornaments, framed inspirational posters and much more! Here are a few items from her shop that I absolutely love! Pictures are linked directly to their listings:



BeckyKazana shop carries everything from prints of her watercolour paintings, greeting cards and other paper crafts, as well as pipe cleaner creations and ornaments! Here are a few items I can't resist! These pictures are also linked to their listings:


Becky has quite a few promotional venues that you definitely need to check out, I personally love her blog as it's filled with the inspiration she finds around her every day!

Blog: thefabmissb.blogspot.com
Web page: beckykazana.com
Flickr: flickr.com/photos/thefabmissb
Facebook: facebook.com/people/Becky-Larson/1047722678
Twitter: twitter.com/BeckyKazana

Have a great Thursday everyone, and I hope everyone enjoyed my first EtsyBlogger feature on TheFabMissB!

So I finally found some time to check out the EtsyBloggers site and read through the requirements for being part of this amazing team! This morning I wrote a little "Introduction" for myself on the Newbie thread, then I was off to find out what it meant by "Blog Carnival"! Every Month, you're required to submit to the "Roll Call", and provide the links for your blog posts for "Blog Carnival" and "Blog Feature". The "Blog Feature" was pretty straight forward, as you write a feature on the chosen EtsyBlogger team member. But my, was I confused as to what a "Blog Carnival" was!

Twice a month, a member of the EtsyBloggers team hosts a "Blog Carnival", where they post 2 questions, and you're required to blog about one of those questions. You're able to participate twice a month, but only once a month is mandatory. Once you've written the blog post on the topic of your choice, you submit it to the "Blog Carnival", and you'll find a list on the hosts blog with everyone's posts who participated! And it's a good thing I decided to read up on this today as opposed to the end of the week as I had originally planned, because the last day for submission for the Blog Carnival is on the 20th! hehe.

So now I have an excuse to Blog more often.. Not that I don't want to on a regular basis, but I either can't think of anything worthwhile to say (but who knows, maybe what I already blog about isn't worthwhile to any of my readers!) or I get too busy to write it if I'm planning on having a really involved post. (For example, my how-to's which I have yet to do a real one!) You'll soon start to see more posts regarding the EtsyBloggers, so I hope no one minds :)
 In other news, I got stuck in my coat this morning.


I do have a question though for any fellow blogspotters out there. I recently made the switch to the new 'edit program' which, I have to say, LOVE, especially where links and pictures are concerned. Instead of downloading a few pictures at a time and having them all show up in the blog at once, it downloads them all in a separate pop up box, and you can add them one at a time to where ever you want them to be right off the bat. Then you just click on the picture link again, and it brings up the box again for you to choose which one's next. So much better! And where links are concerned, you click on a word or pic or whatever you're linking, a box pops up and you type in or copy in the link, and it lets you check it right there to make sure it works! Wonderful wonderful!! Because before when I was doing features on followers, it would take me sooo long to first off, put in all the pics (especially if I accidentally deleted one and had to download it all over again), but then I had to publish the post, and click on all the pics and links to make sure they were linking! Since I do these features at like, 5am, I'm sometimes not "all there" and link the wrong thing, or miss an important part like oh.. the 'http://' that's kind of important. But now, I know it all works before its published!!

Problem is... where the crap is my spell check!??! I don't normally have *too* many mistakes, but DAMN, sometimes I do. But there's no spell check.Why is there no spell check?! Am I missing something? Am I stupid? OR am I so amazingly smart I no longer need it? Well, truth be told, the latter is obviously not the answer. So now, every time I write a post, I need to copy and paste it into a word document to check the spelling. One thing that I cannot stand in blogs is spelling mistakes lol. It's one of my biggest pet peeves. Well, with the exceptions of words I make up that is.. onna, coulda, hafta, hobitty bop bop bop, eceteraaaa eceteraaa. Yes. I type like I speak. (So it's a good thing I no longer have that speech impediment, because then you'd be reading things like "oh this new edit pwogwam? I just WOOVE it!")

Last night I finished all the cards for my giveaway which ended on the 15th, and won by MiMi'sBabies! So I'll be shipping those out today, plus putting the lawn care bill in the mail that we just got because it ended up at the house down the street again - okay, so, if you were the replacement mailperson for the regular guy on this route, and there's one house that you've never had to walk up to and give mail to for an entire week, wouldn't you stop to think that maybe, just maybe you should double check that they actually do have mail, but you've been putting it in the wrong mailbox because you've failed to notice the difference between "5383" and "5483"???? Poor 70 year old man hasta walk down the street to deliver all our mail for crying out loud. And it's happened more than once in the past 2 months! Try 7 times! Including an express post package! Seriously!!!!

Okay I should stop now. But my main goal for that last paragraph was to state that once I finished all the cards for MiMi'sBabies, I made a whole crap load more which I'll be photographing and listing today! Yeah me!

Have a great day everyone! Off to copy and paste into word yet again. Oh, and if by chance you do the same thing, try not to put in all the pics and link everything BEFORE you copy it into word, or else your computer might fa-REAK-out like mine does and freeze for 20 minutes. Oh, and if this does happen, just press ESC. It's nice that I finally figured that out after accidentally doing it 13 times, and having my computer freeze for 20 mins 13 times. ESC is your friend. ALT CTRL DEL is an even better friend.

Signing off for now! (but you know I'll be back to rant some more.. I'm probably going to peek into the forums later today. Why I torture myself I don't know...)

I am so excited, I'm finally on a team! I've been looking for some teams to sign up with, since I've heard only good things about them. I really didn't know exactly what a "team" did, but I thought, what the hey! I'll give it a try. Well, about ooooh, 5 months ago? I wrote to a few teams asking for info, and how to sign up. Never heard a response. So I was sad. Fellow etsians informed me that sometimes teams are run by only one person, and that person gets busy and it takes a long time for them to respond. Also I've been told that not all teams are accepting new members. Well then! So I forgot about the whole "team" idea, and moved on.

Then one day, I saw in a thread on the forums that someone was talking about the Etsy Bloggers team, and I thought, ooooooo I'd love to be on that team!! Well, I applied, and I was approved!! I'm still trying to figure out all the ins and outs and what's required of me, but I'll do all that this week, and of course I'll BLOG about it! My first order of business is a feature on a fellow Etsy Blogger.. so I'll be doing that later on today!!

Yeah me!



Anyhoo, in other news... FaerieMoonCreations is having a November Chill Giveaway!! Head on over to her blog FaerieMoonCreations.blogspot.com to find out all the contest details! I met Theresa from Faerie Moon on my favourite ever in the world promotional website My Craft Corner. Like I've said, this site has a great and friendly community, and Theresa was one of the first fellow artisans that I met there. (You'll actually be reading all about her this coming Friday, as she's going to be my feature!!)

In even more news, I finished another card last night! Finally! Yeesh. Most of my cards are just of the main people, no backgrounds and such (with some exceptions) *but* this one required full detail and full colour. Oy. And plus I was working on Christmas presents (which I can't talk about because certain people like my Mom read my blog, so she'll find out and the surprise would be ruined I say!)



Due to technical difficulties last night (firstly my puppy barked so loud and out of the blue that I almost ruined the entire card as I was finishing up the inking, so mad! Secondly, my computer Fa-Reaked-Out and I had to restart the whole dang thing, then my printing program kept cutting off 1/3 of the drawing, so I had to resize it until the computer agreed with the size, and then my printer ran out of coloured ink halfway through the printing.) I wasn't able to actually make the cards last night. So instead, I'll just post the final pic, which is to be printed once I get new ink (There goes another $40 dollars I don't have! HA!)


Okay, more other news... This just down right pissed me off. So last night, there was a thread about business cards, and whether people put them in with their packages when they ship them to the customers. And also asking the question whether the people that receive these business cards actually kept them. So the general consensus was that most people will put atleast one in the package, and there were some buyers responding saying they love getting business cards, or they don't find it necessary. Well, I decided to throw in my 2 cents and said something along the lines of "I always put a business card in with the package. I make my own cards and they're slightly larger than the standard size, so I always use them to write a little note and a huge thank you on the back" So then what does someone write? (and I won't divulge names. And I'll also say at this time, that I have nothing against this person, the comment just *really* pissed me off LOL) She writes "I like getting business cards, nice ones, with texture and thick paper, they tend to stay with me longer. The home made ones... mmm bye bye!!!" Ya.. I responded to that one.



Normally I stay out of the forums and don't respond to anyone outright putting down what I say, or making off handed remarks, because this is supposed to be a business forum for business people, and everything that you write can be seen by *everyone*, even potential customers. So I normally just let it go.

The reason I got so mad at the comment? She has no clue WHY I make my own business cards. She doesn't know my current situation. She doesn't know how much money I have. She knows absolutely nothing about me. I can't afford to buy business cards. But does that mean I have to be put down for it? Isn't handmade better than none? (Funnily enough, we're talking about a site that sells *handmade*, yet handmade business cards are seen as garbage. Hmm.)

Okay yes, I could get the "free" ones from Zippy Print, but waiting 23 days for them to process my cards, and then spending 26$ on the shipping when they're located down the street? That's not very free to me. Plus I've had too many bad experiences with Zippy print, and vowed to never go back there!



Yes, I could probably find some sort of money lying around in the couch cushions to go to a print shop and get really cheap ones that I can't design for $25, but personally, I think that's even worse then making my own. And ya, I suppose I can skip on buying food for a week to run out and get those fancy textured embossed magical eye catching absolutely most amazing business cards EVER, but I'm moving in a year. I know I'm moving in a year. So why am I spending money on all these business cards to hand them out like crazy when I'm going to have to change the phone number? And yes, I don't *have* to put a phone number on it, but I'd prefer it, because I'm also trying to sell locally.

So okay, that chick really peeved me. But I've vented!! So I'm done now! Off to get on with my day. Way too many things to do lol.

Hope everyone else is having a fantastic day!! You'll hear from me again soon, because I hafta do my Etsy Blogger Feature! Again, Yeah me!