the plan for today:
1. sleep in (already did that until my husband called at 8:30 - i never sleep that long!)
2. exercise (check that off, thank goodness - even tho i do it 6 times a week only a masochist would enjoy it!)
3. twitter
4. finish the rosette i was working on last nite at 11 waiting for my children to get home
5. make another cat hat (i sold the last one, remember? right off my head)
so my son rob graduated! there was a drama (there always is with this household!) because we couldn't find his dress shoes. he ended up wearing combat boots! seriously, hey, they were black. it will be a funny story to tell his kids, right? i am a bad mom. and i am going to hell, but at least my friends will all be there!
have a great day!
p.s. tina - your hats are adorable. stop being such a perfectionist! the little imperfections in life make it worth living and plus the hats are handmade, they aren't supposed to look like they are from a factory!

Karen is my dear friend and will always come to my defense. But to clarify things, we do not have a hamster. He died a while ago. The rest is true and she did leave out the 5,000 fish we have. Anyway, my mom and sister come here today to see Eloise, the new pup. Not really to see me. I did try and clean up, but gave up when i realized it was hopeless. I made another hat yesterday and still feel inadequate in my hat making skills. Karen's hats are adorable! Mine look like high school sewing projects. But i will keep trying because one day one is bound to turn out! Have to go do the dishes now.

i just want to be clear: tina's house is not a slum. she is a lovely, charming witty woman and her house is a beautiful as she is. that said, she is challenged by the fact that she has 89 cats (okay, maybe only 9, but still....), 3 dogs, one of whom is a not-potty-trained-yet-and-has-worms puppy, a tortoise (outside), a turtle (in an aquarium) and i think (although i am not sure that it didn't go to that big cage in the sky), a hamster (personally, i find them rat-like and would probably feed them to a snake, if i had one - just kidding, tina:)). no, she doesn't have any snakes (at least not as of last weekend, but i give no guarantees...). anyway, needless to say, her sister's house only has 1 small rat-like dog and all of her kids have left home. so, of course her house is immaculate. also, she probably has a housekeeper who comes a few times a week because she's got disposable income! so, tina, give yourself a break! gotta go make dinner. tacos, if anyone is interested. and then, i pick up jon.

Complete digression from my ususal chatter, but what in the world is Phil Spector going to do about his hair when he is in jail for 19 years! I mean REALLY.. have you seen some of his hair surprises during the trial?? Anyway, I will finish the sling bag tonight (I promise Karen). I have to take our new puppy (Eloise) to the vet for her shots and to be de-wormed. Poor puppy. And, my mom and sister are coming up to see her on Sunday, so i hope my son is washing down the back so it doesn't look as slummy as it does now. My sister's house is beautiful, so anything I can do to try and improve the look of mine is pretty much a waste of time.. but give me an A for Effort. I have to get back to work now. Adios! rina

okay, so today rob comes back from grad nite at disneyland. was i ever that young? and please tell me i was not so rude! he has got to get a job this summer and (hopefully) learn how to converse with people in ways that do not include "uhn" and "huh"! but i digress.... so yesterday i got my hair done (looks fabulous, btw) and i happened to take some hats with me jic. and i sold 3! i am really hoping that hats become the new clothing must have. plus yesterday on good morning america they had a fashion segment and all the women were wearing hats with their outfits. so the movement is on! must make more hats.....must make more hats.... one of the hats i sold was sold right off my head! and i really loved that hat. i made it expressly for myself. but hey, if someone is willing to buy it off my head, who am i to say "hands off!" have a good day.
karen

so i found a new website that i absolutely love. www.thepioneerwoman.com . what a crack-up this woman is! and i have no idea how she has such a beautiful blog, raises 4 children (and home schools them) and cooks fabulous meals for her cowboy husband. she has got to be exhausted! just reading about her life made me want a nap. but the recipes.....i am thinking about trying her fried onion rings. they look yummy (she is a great photographer, too). i feel completely inadequate telling you all i got done today was to make rob a birthday cake (butter pound with chocolate chunks and milk chocolate icing - ymmm) and i finished a sling bag which turned out cute. but i only have 2 kids and one of them is gone for a week! have a great evening.

I can't believe we have a follower who is somebody we don't know! How exciting is that! Well, as I may have mentioned before, I work for both my husband and my father-in-law. I would not recommend this to anyone, but it works because they are flexible with emergencies which are frequent due to my disabled daughter. Molly is mentally handicapped and has some major pschiatric conditions going on beside the mental retardation. She is 23 years old, but processes like a 3 to 5 year old with major attitude. To say she is a handful would be a huge understatement. Anyway, because she frequently has some major drama at her program which requires me to either pick her up, call her doctor or beg forgiveness from all staff members at her program, i need to be able to stop what i am doing at a moments notice. Anyway, flexiblity is a must. So as one might imagine, my life requires some type of stress relief and sewing is my therapy. Well, sewing and buying fabric. Now it is just a matter of finding the time to do my therapy! I have to get back to my job now. Bye all, Tina

good evening. well, i finished a pocket tote today and started a sling bag which is going to be really cute. it has flip flops all over the outside material and men's ties on the inside. i guess that would be the informal and the formal sides! had to go to a football meeting for my soon-to-be high schooler. what a committment, and an expense, too! wow! i really hope he enjoys it, because it is costing a fortune! i am sure it is worth it though for the comraderie and getting to know people before school starts. i really like the school. well, i am fading fast so good night to all!

so what do you think of the changes to the blog? pretty festive, no?

okay, no one may be reading our blog (probably not even our loyal jessica), but at least we have twitter followers! who knew we were so interesting! today, jon left for his outdoor education trip to yosemite with school. he was excited not to be doing homework for a week. i think that was the big draw. we did have a drama last night because his braces broke and everyone was out of town. but a family friend who is a dentist fixed them temporarily for us. thanks terry! today i am trying desperately to finish the hat that i am (yes) making for myself. i figure i am good advertisement. they even make me look good! then i am going to try to work on another sling bag. i think they may be the bag of the future. (our future, hopefully). back to work, no more slacking! have a good day.

Good Evening everyone,

I had the opportunity to check out the featured Etsyblogger shop this evening which is Create A Thought. The words I would use to described the shop are happy and joyful! Just looking at the cards and journals made me want to write to my dearest friend or sit down and finally start that journal that I have always wanted to do. The jewelry is whimsical and fun. I think just wearing it would put me in a better mood! Please do yourself a favor and check out createathought.etsy.com!

Tina

Hi Everyone!

We are planning on a very busy summer. Karen and I have signed up to do our second craft show in July. It's the Red Rabbit Craft Market and it is going to be held at the L.A. Arboretum, which is a beautiful location here in Los Angeles. So we are very excited about it!

We are extremely excited about our next project which is to make our fabric hats with the rosettes for the children in the cancer ward at Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC). We have always wanted to find a way to give back to our community. A dear friend of Karen's, Mary Ann, planted this idea in our heads and we loved it! Through a friend of my sister's, I was able to get us a link into the hospital for approval of our hats. I can't express how exciting this project is to us! We love making our hats and we love even more seeing people wear them with smiles. If these hats can bring just a moment of happiness to these kids who are suffering far more than they should have to, then we will be thrilled!

Hi All,

Well, as Karen mentioned, we are starting to make hats to donate to Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) for their cancer ward. I am so excited about this! I think I am more excited to do this than make inventory for our shop and shows. But, we have to make money in order to fund this project. So tell all your friends to visit our shop and buy something so we can keeping making the hats for CHOC! A dear friend of my sister's, Susie Almquist, is a huge volunteer at this hospital and she is going to be our line into the ward. This is a dream I have always had to be able to make things that make a difference to somebody. Karen and I really love making the hats and we love seeing people enjoy them. We are thrilled to have this opportunity to share and hopefully bring a smile to a child who is enduring far more than any child should have to endure. We also have to thank Karen's friend, Mary Ann, for planting this idea and encouraging us to go forward with it.

good morning - good news! my son will be done with his camera class after tomorrow so i can confiscate his camera and i don't have to buy one. score! hopefully he will have learned enough in the class to show me how to use it. i asked him if it had autofocus and he said "dunno." yes, my son will be attending college next year, where hopefully, he will be taught to speak in full sentences. one can only hope! tina and i are excited about starting our program to send hats to kids with cancer and she got the ball rolling so we will be sending our first batch in a couple of weeks. i wish we could see the faces of the kids. maybe sometime they will let us visit when they give them out. that would be wonderful. today i am finishing my big head hat. it is going to be very cute. then i am starting a hat to give away. have a great day!

so i didn't get a new camera today. too exhausted after doing my errands. i must be really lame because i tried to use the camera tina lent me and it kept shutting itself off before i could get the picture. i think it knows i am not tina and doesn't like me....hmm, a haunted camera...it could happen! i did finish two new brooches and got to michaels for the stuff i needed for other projects but other than that i have been resting. hard to do, tho. there seems to be some interest in the hats on the website so that is good. whatever it takes! tomorrow is cleaning day so i won't get too much done, work-wise. plus i have to take the dog to the groomer. ttyl, karen

hello everyone! it's sunday nite and i just uploaded a whole bunch of new photos to flickr, then i organized them all into sets, then i checked our google analytics (all to get out of starting a new project). i finished another sling bag which turned out cute but they are alot of work (and alot of fabric) and i have a giant headache because my sinuses are clogged (complain, whine, etc.). i saw the new hat tina made and it is way elegant. yes, we are going to have to tone down the screaming loud hats that we love so much so that we appeal to everyone. i guess people are aloud to like elegance rather than cuteness. i made a couple of new ones too but i haven't taken the pictures yet. too lazy. and i think i am going to break down and buy myself a new camera since the expensive one my husband lent me is toast. he is still making me feel bad about that. which i do....but he said i could buy a new one so that is on the docket for this week. i want something a little bigger than the one tina so generously lent me, but not as big as the one i trashed. i like looking thru the little eyehole, not at the finished picture. i have trouble seeing that very well (i know, how lame is that). anyway, stay tuned. oh and, btw, i now have the hideous illness that passed thru tina's family. we share everything!

Hi Folks! It is Saturday afternoon and very hot. The hot days of summer are coming and it seems that I only got to wear sweaters for about two weeks! Anyway, I finished another hat.. This one is more neutral than the others. Karen and I decided that not everyone likes loud hats.. Unbelievable! Anyway, I have to go to my son's band banquet tonight. He is in the high school marching band and this is the end of year shindig. It lasts for about 15 hours .. or so it seems. Oh well, it is one of those events you do for your kids... although he wasn't even that excited to go! Well, there is always the hope that we can leave early.. one can only hope! Tina

Well, I have been very lazy about writing on this... I have been actually working really hard at work and just don't feel like typing when i get home... I took pictures of me in the new hat I made.. However, after taking about a zillion photos.. I think there are only about 3 that won't scare people. Oh to be young again. Which reminds me.. my sister had a face lift and she looks so good in photos now. Damn! Anyway, I have no money for face lifts so I will just have to keep snapping the camera in hopes that by some miracle, one will actually look ok! I am also back seriously on weight watchers and i am dying of hunger right now.. I have had way too many carrot sticks. Thanks Jessica for being our first follower.. now go do something fun!!!

hello there! well tina and i went to the hair grove (where i get my hair done) and we sold 3 hats! not bad for 2 hours of "work". one of the hats was picked up sunday by a guy buying it for his wife. it was really cute - had cows and hearts on it. mother's day was uneventful. my mother-in-law came for a late lunch of pizza cookery. monday i did about 80 errands, one of which was to pick up the broken (sob, sob) camera. however, i did get to go to michaels and picked up some raffi covered wire to make some more fabric bouquets. i gave the two away that we had on etsy as thank yous to billie (hair grove owner) and joyce (my hair girl who arranged everything for us cuz i was too chicken to ask!) anyway, i made a fabric bouquet today of 3 different red fabrics (2 roses each) and i think it looks good. i actually like making them all the same color. they seem more cohesive or something. anyway, tomorrow i am back to hats. my friend ginny wants her aprons, though so i will have to do them soon. and tina has a new bag pattern to try. can't wait to see it!
p.s. we have a follower! hi jessica and thanks for taking pity on us!

hello there - i finished a couple more hats and i am taking them all with me to the hairdresser today. hopefully everyone there will want one! they all seemed interested last time when i wore one. so i am optimistic. i would really like to sell a hat because we haven't sold one yet. and i am hoping the lapel pins start to sell too. they are really cute and versatile. i broke the camera (that's why nothing new has shown up on the website, from me at least). but thanks to tina, i have a new camera that (hopefully) is indestructible. i will try to put something on the madeitmyself website today after i come home looking truly fabulous (well, okay, i'll have good hair at least). have a good day!

Hi All!

I am finally getting over the mysterious bug that has infected my family for over 1 month. I hate being sick and i get extremely impatient when i can't do all that i want to do. I did make a new sling tote bag which i am going to list on Etsy this afternoon. I got to use my dog, Angus, as the model since the bag is made with dog fabric. He did such a good job! Nobody would know that he is actually "Destructo Dog"! I am in trouble again (no big surprise) with my in-laws because my father-in-law overheard me talking with Karen about how my mother-in-law screwed up the office computer. The man doesn't hear a word when i am talking to him, but he can overhear me whisper something on the phone! Well, it was all true.. she did screw up the computer and it did give me a massive migraine trying to fix it! Oh well, excited to list the new bag today... Have to get back to work now doing the April billing.. Yuck!

hello everyone -
i have been neglecting the blog. we had a sale yesterday and our first special order! and the special order was of the rosettes so that was exciting too. hopefully the word will get out and our flowers will be everywhere! i wish tina did not have to work so much. she works very hard and then goes home and works some more. i would really like it if she could make enough money on etsy to do it full time, cuz i am having the time of my life. i feel like i am finally a contributing member of society. and i know she wishes she could devote more time to sewing for our shop. the items she contributes are fabulous! maybe when we are old and gray she can stop working at her "real" job. one can only hope.
karen