Shoes, what shoes?

I got my shoes from Zappos.com yesterday and I think Pudgie thought the package was for her. She squeezed her large self into the box as soon as I emptied it, and spent the rest of the afternoon in it. Tiny, on the other hand, was busy sleeping the afternoon away on top of our new patio bistro table. Ugh. I swear, this cat purposefully sleeps exactly where she is not supposed to. I even predicted this one.
Today is Tiny's birthday. Yup, she is a black cat and when we got her, we were told she was born right around Halloween. We got our other kitty, Pudgie, around Halloween last year too. They are both 4 yrs. old today.
Well, enjoy the pics...and Happy Halloween!

New Sterling Silver Cupcake Earrings...

In case anyone missed out on the last pair, I just listed 2 new pairs of cupcake earrings in my Etsy store today. I finally finished my large wholesale order as of 6:30 pm tonight, so now I will move on to taking care of more pieces for my store, and working on lip balms and tints that are low on stock. I can't believe tomorrow is Halloween already. I have a really hideous witch wig around here somewhere, and I teased Rob that I was going to wear it out to eat tomorrow night. Instead of looking like a witch though, I am would probably look like that girl from The Ring, since I am so short. LOL!
Well, have fun tomorrow. Be watchful for children running around in the dark, and don't eat too much candy! ....yeah right, huh?

Ladies and Gentlemen...

I just turned the heat on in our house! I have been waiting for this day to come. It was in the low 50'2 when I got up this morning. I took the garbage out as Rob was leaving for work and exclaimed with joy, "It feels like Minnesota! No more sweat! Yay!"

Keep in mind it was 90 degrees here on Sat. I let the kitties out on the screen porch like I do every morning, and they came back in after a short time. Apparently, their fur coats were not helping much. The house got cool last night and I woke up in a kitty sandwich. I had one cat on each side of me, laying nearly on top of me.

I am preparing for my trip up north next month and bought some gloves yesterday. I really need to get some socks and winter weather shoes. I can't really show up wearing sandals. Luckily, I kept my winter coat, and so did Rob.

Well, I have a busy day ahead working on a jewelry order and taking pics of new products. Have a super week!

Mom, you will appreciate this one...

Adios Elephant!

Whew! Thanks goodness I no longer have that elephant on my back. Friday it rained so I didn't go to the farmer's market in Vero, and Sat. was one of the most hellish days I have had in a long time. If I hadn't have had one of the gals from church helping me, I would probably lost my mind shortly before collapsing from heat exhaustion. It is supposed to be cooler this time of year, but instead, it was so humid my hair curled up like Shirley Temple, and I probably sweat a few buckets. It had to be at least 90 degrees. I am sure the heat index was higher. It was sunny, then it would rain. We kept having to cover the table. The other sellers were down right rude to me and made horrible comments like I didn't belong there. Apparantly, my packaging is TOO nice and they didn't think I hand made my stuff. I had a lot of grumpy old women who just didn't understand why anyone would want to smell like vanilla. Some of them didn't even know what a nail salve was, and one lady even asked where she was supposed to put perfume. As I kindly explained to her, I could tell she was one that would come up with as many negative comments as possible, as she was just a miserable person. I had one wonderful customer who was in her 20's who was very interested in my products and purchased our facial bar and a lemon cupcake scented perfume.
So, I am not going to be doing the farmer's markets. I think the area, the age group that attends, and the mean sellers just about did me in. I will concentrate on my Etsy shop. I will be adding the new perfumes over the next few days, along with some other new items, and restocking old favorites.
I am thinking I may have to recover by embarking on another cupcake binge. LOL!

Pardon me, is that an elephant sitting on your back?

I am still swamped with things to do, and my to do list is still looking scary. The farmer's market is tomorrow, and I will need to label a bunch of stuff and get everything packed up and ready to go. The bad part is....it may just rain the whole weekend. I will make the call on whether to cancel or not early tomorrow morning. It was supposed to storm today, and it has sprinkled a bit and then the sun came out. Florida weather is SO unpredictable.

Well, back to work. Hopefully after this weekend, this stupid elephant will get off my back and I will be able to BREATHE. Have a super weekend! Lori

Still pluggin' away!

It is nearly 11 PM, and I am still working. I now have 6 days to prepare for the two new Farmer's Markets I will be doing. The first is on Friday from 9-2 in Vero Beach at the Heritage Center, and the second is the one in Ft. Pierce. I had to really work on increasing my stock, so not only am I making a ton of stuff, but I am also busy making new labels, adding some new products, and getting my displays ready. I am also working on my two jewelry orders at the same time. Monday I will be working on some perfumes, and I am really excited about that. The bottles I found are absolutely adorable. I can't wait to reveal them!
So, in other words, like I said below...you probably still won't hear from me much for a while more as I am still suffering from "way too much to do" syndrome!

Oh, I almost forgot...I have been accepted to sell my jewelry and bath & body line on a new juried website launching next month called Lollishops! I am very excited. I still need to swing on over there and do a lot of reading and learning. It looks like a great marketplace.

Hope you all have a nice weekend. I will be busy labeling tomorrow. Exciting, huh?

If you don't hear from me for a while....

...it is because I am super busy. I am preparing for 2 back to back farmer's markets, and just got two large wholesale orders for my jewelry. There has not seemed to be enough time in the day lately to accomplish my to do list, and I will probably not be emailing or calling to chat till after all the craziness is over. So, I am not ignoring you if I haven't called or emailed. I am just feeling a bit like this Busy Bee.

Ny new "DO"

The humidity, hard water, and busy lifestyle I have been up against have taken a toll on my hair, so I broke down and went and got it cut today. I was growing it out, but the ends got to looking so disgusting. Long hair with frizzy split ends is not very nice looking, and I would rather have short, healthy looking hair. I told the lady I wanted it similar to Victoria Beckham's newest bob hair cut, except not as layered in the front. So, if you imagine this haircut, with no "bangs" or shorter wisps in the front, this is what it looks like. My hair is dark blonde/light brown though. I am going to be selling at the farmer's market in Ft. Pierce and Vero Beach, and seriously didn't want to deal with bad hair. I have to get up very early to do the market and need a streamlined morning. Maybe I will snap some pics of my own hair tomorrow.

I am a slacker...

I have been a blog slacker this week, but at least I wasn't a slacker in other areas. It's been busy at our house, and I have been doing inventory and making lists of stuff I need to buy for my businesses. On top of that there has been church stuff, house cleaning, and multiple long phone calls to my health insurance company, trying to figure out why their heads seem to be stuck up their behinds. Honestly, I am sure you have all had wacky insurance claims and know where I am coming from. Next week, there is a big bead show in Orlando I am hoping to go to. Well, I have the house builders coming this morning to go over any one year warranty repairs with me, since the landlord is out of town. I found out late last night and have been frantic getting the house straightened. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

The Halloween cupcakes I couldn't get enough of...

Finally, here is a pic of the cupcakes that probably added some extra love to my waistline. I didn't get too fancy schmancy with the frosting this time. I wish I had the time to do so. I saw some really cute ideas in some magazines. Here they are...Dark Chocolate Spice Cupcakes.

I just ate shark....

It is with great sadness, that I report that all the the addictive chocolate cake is gone. Rob and I both polished it off for breakfast this morning. Healthy, eh? I always tell the teens at church that being an adult is stressful and requires a lot of responsibility, but the best part is...I can eat cake for breakfast. No one can tell me not to!

So, tonight we tried something new. Shark was on sale at the grocery this week ($4.99 a pound), so after much discussion and a little bit of arguing and face making, Rob talked me into it. I prepared it tonight. I am not hugely into seafood, but have been known to enjoy a little haddock or deep fried calamari from time to time. Shark was uncharted territory. As I was frying it up in the skillet, it occurred to me that there was a slim possibility that this shark I was eating could have eaten a human. I gagged a little. It actually looked really yummy after I fried it. I served it with some mashed sweet potatoes, which ended up becoming our main dish. Unfortunately, the shark just didn't taste good. It looked like chicken, but was sort of rubbery. It didn't really taste like fish, more like bitter chicken. We tried putting mayonnaise on it to hide the taste. It didn't work. Next we tried lemon juice. Nada. Finally, Rob...who eats just about anything, conceded that it was just too gross to eat, and we should never bother with it again.

Thank goodness! It had become disgusting for me as soon as the thought of me eating something that could have eaten a person crept into my mind. Far fetched...I know. Sometimes I really have to try my hardest to not think about what I am eating...unless its chocolate cake!

Too much cake syndrome

Oh, if only the sweet tooth really did exist! I would have my husband (who just so happens to be a dentist) pull the dang thing right out of my mouth! Seriously, I have a serious sugar problem. I am finally over my illness from last night which resulted from eating too much chocolate cake, which led to a not so happy belly, and a night of insomnia. I even had one of those fun episodes where you are half asleep and you can't move your body or mouth. I laid in bed for what seemed like minutes trying to yell Rob's name, and all that came out was a gurgle. It was pretty terrifying. My kitty heard me and came to the rescue. LOL!

I didn't get a chance to post pictures of the offending cupcakes, but I will in a day or so. In the meantime, here is the recipe I used and it was the best cake I have made so far (not completely from scratch, mind you).
1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix ( I found one that was made with Splenda instead of sugar, and it was great)
Follow the normal instructions to add the Eggs (I used egg beaters), oil, and water.
I then added 1 heaping tablespoon of Hershey's Dark Cocoa Powder to the mix and
4 teaspoons of McCormick Pumpkin Pie Spice.
I mixed as instructed on the box, then folded in half a bag of Nestle Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips.
You can use whatever kind of icing you want, but I chose a whipped vanilla and topped them with Halloween sprinkles : Purple sugar sprinkles with Black & Orange little "ball" sprinkles on top.

Just don't do what I did and eat your self sick. There is still some sitting in the kitchen right now calling my name. Stupid cake.

Oh dearest belly...I apologize!

All I can say is this: I ate too much cake. If anyone sees me near any cake again, please restrain me!

Whoosh!

Just a quick fly by posting of some of my new jewelry on Etsy! I have been a busy bee today and am still not to the bottom of my To-Do List for the day. Tomorrow is cupcake making day! I am going to add some pumpkin pie spice to a yellow cake mix and decorate them in Halloween sprinkles. I will try to take some pics!