I Fold.

I'm more or less obsessed with paper. Its true. If there were at Paper-aholics group I'd be the president. That said I've emassed quite the collection. Seriously, I'm a paper junkie!

I'm always looking for new and interesting things to do with paper and have started making and selling Origami paper boxes in my Etsy store.
I really think that these are neat and the countless uses for these are certainly appealing, because lets face it, no one ever has enough storage. These would make beautiful party favors or a sweet little box for gift giving. The possibilities are endless.... but my paper supply is not and there will be many more to come!

Larger amounts also available upon request!

Turning Two Shops Into One

I need more hours in the day. I think thats the mantra of all mothers and that especially holds true to me right now. I think that I am going to close my Etsy jewerly shop Twist This and just sell those pieces alongside my journals at This Old Hen House in the next few weeks. I can't find the time anymore to maintain two shops and keep balancing the rest of my life in the process so I need to downsize. I need thoughts and opinions on if the two products will mesh well together. What do you all think???

Etsy Picks

So within the next couple to weeks I'm getting my tax returns back (yay!) and thought that it would be fun to browse Etsy for some goodies to spend some cash on because I want to treat myself!! So here are a few of my favorites that I'm eyeing up:

This pendant from DancingMooney is beautiful! I'm seriously just amazed by the rich violet color and can already see different pieces in my wardrobe that would look awesome with this pendant hanging around my neck! And that design... lets just say I'm in love!


I promise that I will own a bag from gomonkeydesign very very soon!! (Hopefully this one!) I just love her granny bags and this one in particular is my absolute favorite! I love the bold design of the fabric and the eye popping yet earthy colors! I need this bag in my life!!

Anyone who knows me knows that when it comes to any kind of bath or candle... or just general scent knows that I love roses! This soap from LoteTree looks heavenly! I love how the makers of these wonderful B&B goodies strive to make an all natural product.


Ok, now honestly, how cool do these candles look from Crazy Times Candle & Bath Co.? I think that the chunky way that these babies are made is just awesome and I want one in ever color and scent! They *almost* look too gorgeous to burn!

Fantasy-esque!

My two newest Fantasy-esque journals! Made with a gorgeous combo of elegant colors and rich sparkling glitter accents. I'm really proud of these and think that they are some of my best work yet! What can I say, I was in a sort of fairytale mindset over the past few days and here are the results!

Sweet Fae Altered Journal

Happily Ever After Altered Journal

Feature of the Day: Rustic Rainbow

Feature of the Day: Rustic Rainbow

I've been a fan of polymer clay work for quite awhile now, and Rustic Rainbow Handmade Creations is a store that lives up to its reputation of quality craftmanship and excellent customer service. I'm not only a fan of Jennifers work, but I'm also proud to call her my friend so but of course who else would I choose as my first blog feature but her!

Bold, earthy tones, in chunky one of a kind pieces is what mades this jewelry unique!

Jennifers color molding is truely unique and eye-poping. These pendants resemble sweets made in a sugar confectionary and look good enough to eat!

Amazingly handcrafted pieces with brilliant bold patterns just begging to be hung off of the neck of a girl who should be noticed!


Why I love Rustic Rainbow Handmade Creations::
Awhile ago, completely on a whim I decided to pick up some polymer clay and try my hand at making my own beads and charms. I've seen all of these other amazing and beautiful creations while browsing through the handmade jewelry in a few Etsy shops. How hard could it be, I thought. I mean I have two little boys and I do consider myself a master in the fine art of Play-Doh, so polymer clay molding should be a piece of cake! Wrong!What you see in the corner there is what I came up with.... admitedly, the hot dog is kinda cute, but seriously my five year old son could have made either one of these. Bottom line: Jennifers creations are beautiful and are gorgeously handcrafted from the heart, a skill that can't just be aquired in an afternoon of one day. And trust me, she has a beautiful spirit to match :-) Go and see for yourself: Rustic Rainbow Handmade Creations

The Casualties of Spray Paint

Normally I hand paint the uncovered parts of my journals under and around the binding. Its tedious and time consuming and and all around pain the butt at times when you have 2 children screaming for my attention. So my husband, the innovative thinker that he is (and by innovative I mean that he has more common sense that I do) suggested that I should just spray paint them and save myself a myriad of time. So I got a fancy expensive can of spray paint and decided on doing the painting in my bathroom because it has an exhaust fan and that way the kids wouldnt have to breathe in any fumes. If it wouldnt have been 4 degrees I would have just gone outside. So I line my bathtub with newspaper and line out the front and back covers of two journals and begin to spray.

.... and as I was painting the teeny amount of force from the nozzle blew up my nicely laid out paper and a lovely black line now appeared on my previously white bath tub. Stupidly, I thought, hey its not dry yet, I can just wipe it off! So I grabbed a rag soaked with hot water and scrubed and in the process made the 2 inch black line a giant grey mess. Oh yeah... that fancy can of paint I used was Ultra Fast Drying. And of course it bubbled on the journals and they too were a total loss and are unusable.

With my tail between my legs I called my husband and made him promise not to be mad at me before I told him what happened.... luckily he just laughed and promised that we'd find someway to remove the black stain from the bottom of my tub.

I'll stick to hand-painting.

Its Craft Hub Mania

So I was a little embarassed and quite ashamed of the pictures in my previous Mommy's Mess post of the area where I do my crafting. So a trip to Value City, a $15.00 desk, and a newly cleaned off and repurposed book case later and I've got myself a new swanky little craft hub. I attempted to build the desk myself, but after a few hours, much frustation, and a set of instrustions obviously written by someone not familar with the English language, I gave up and let my husband take over the construction. Its not much, just the back corner of my bedroom, but its a place thats mine all mine with everything I need centrally located. To me it's perfect. I *almost* dont want to start a project now for fear of messing it up!


Tada! I finally have my own little spot!

Percy had to check it out too!

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~ wait for a revised invoice

Buy 25 6x9 Shipping Envelopes get 5 more FREE
Buy 50 6x9 Shipping Envelopes get 10 more FREE

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***Extended until Valentines Day for all Blog readers!! Just Put BlogSALE in note to seller when checking out :-)

Stanford

This is a great story. Short and sweet. And a lesson at the end....

A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly without an appointment into the Harvard University President's outer office. The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hickshad no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge. "We'd like to see the president," the man said softly. "He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped. "We'll wait," the lady replied. For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple wouldfinally become discouraged and go away. They didn't, and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted. "Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave," she said tohim! He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, and he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office. The president, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple. The lady told him, "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus. "The president wasn't touched. He was shocked. "Madam," he said, gruffly, "we can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery." "Oh, no," the lady explained quickly. "We don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard. "The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard. "For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe hecould get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it cost to start a university? Why don't we just start our own? "Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the university that bears their name, Stanford University, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about. You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them. ---- A TRUE STORY

Morals Over Money

Well my wholesale order fell through. It stinks, but I'm ok with it. The other person was only interested in purchasing 10 journals and only in certain designs and we just couldnt agree on a compromisable price. I would have had to order the supplies from an outside company for the designs she wanted, and because it was a wholesale order I was already offering a price break, and I refused to sell myself short. I stuck to my morals and my belief in the value of my products and chose those over the money. I know that I made the right decision.

RENT Curtain Call

This made me so sad! I've wanted to see Rent on Broadway for as long as I can remember! Its my absolute favorite musical and I doubt I'll make it there before June 1st.

For 'Rent,' Curtain to Close After 12 Years
NEW YORK (Jan. 16) - AP

"No show runs forever" was one of the more astute observations of Broadway director-choreographer Michael Bennett, the man behind "A Chorus Line," itself a model of longevity.

Bennett's theater truism was reenforced this week with the announcement that the pop-rock musical "Rent" will close June 1 after a 12-year run, 5,012 performances and an assortment of prizes and awards, including the Tony and Pulitzer - not to mentions grosses of over $280 million.

Inspired by the Puccini opera "La Boheme," Jonathan Larson's look at the counterculture residents of New York's East Village in the early 1990s was one of those shows you might have thought would always be around. It spoke to a generation, much like "Hair" did in the late 1960s and perhaps "Spring Awakening" does to the current crop of young theatergoers.

"Rent" was born in tragedy, with the 35-year-old Larson dying just before the show began performances at off-Broadway's New York Theatre Workshop. The musical received rave reviews and in April 1996 quickly moved to Broadway's Nederlander Theatre, where it became the theater's longest-running tenant."Rent" will end its engagement in seventh place on Broadway's long-run list, behind "The Phantom of the Opera," "Cats," "Les Miserables," "A Chorus Line," "Oh! Calcutta!" and "Beauty and the Beast."

And The Moral Of The Story Is...

An old man, a boy and a donkey were going to town. The boy rode on the donkey while the old man walked. As they went along they passed some people who remarked it was a shame the old man was walking and the boy was riding. The man and boy thought maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions. Then, later, they passed some people who remarked, "What a shame, he makes that little boy walk." So they then decided they'd both walk! Soon they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride. So, they both rode the donkey. Now they passed some people who shamed them by saying how awful to put such a load on a poor donkey. The boy and man figured they were probably right, so they decide to carry the donkey. As they crossed the bridge, they lost their grip on the animal and he fell into the river and drowned.

The moral of the story? If you try to please everyone, you might as well... Kiss your ass goodbye!

For Wholesale ~ Inquire Within

To my surprise I opened up my email this evening to be greeted by an inquiry about wholeselling my journals! This could be a very huge step for me and grant me alot of amazing exposure! Keeping my fingers crossed!

Mike ROCKS the Hawk

My husband Michael, the wonderful man that he is, asked me to give him a haircut last night, which I was more than happy to do seeing as it was getting a bit shaggy and sticking up in places. I've been cutting my husbands hair for around 3 or 4 years now, and am no stylist extrodinare by any means, but I can work a pair of clippers. Anyways, I buzzed him down... all but a very lovely stripe right down the center of his head. (earlier I had him convinced that I had shaved off part of his eyebrow also) I turned the clippers off and refused to cut anymore, thus giving my husband a rather awesome looking mohowk. Today is day two, and much to Mikes dismay and the laughter and giggles of everyone around him, I am still refusing to shave off the baby hawk :-)


The photos are a little blurry as I was laughing pretty hard :-)

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She Dances On The Sand

Sometimes it is the simplest acts that can create the biggest smiles!

My computer was recently wiped clean due to some major system board failures and Windows Vista being so crappy thus all of my pictures and music vanishing into what I can only assume is a techo waste dump somewhere in Tennessee.
My husband, Mike, and I decided to re-download some music onto the computer, and seeing as it was around midnight things of course got silly as they so ofter do during those late hours. And all I have to say is this::::

Michael Jackson is a musical GENIUS, screw his personal life and his pedophillia, Billie Jean was, is, and always will be one of my favorite songs!

Just because I know all of the words to Rio does not make me a nerd. Duran Duran is (or rather was) amazing!

I LIKE PRINCE... maybe I'll even buy a Raspberry Beret just to spite everyone!

So seriously, dont take yourself so seriously! Download all of those crazy songs that you may or may not want people to know you love, and laugh! Alot!
"Sometimes I feel I've got to... (ugh ugh) run away. I've got to (ugh ugh) get away" :-)

Todays Forecast: Creative

For the past couple of days its been in the mid to upper 60's here outside! I dont know what it is, Spring Fever, even though its only January, a longing desire to go outside without a 5 pound winter parka, or just my absolute disgust with all things snow and cold, but I've been quite upbeat and motivated lately. For my three newest journals I've picked out some fun, funky, and totally fresh designs!

Vines and Vices - for long walks around the lake at Shawnee State Park
Frequency - for driving with the sunroof open and the volume cranked up
Wild Streak - for day visits to the Pittsburgh Zoo

Tommorow when the skies turn grey again, the snow fluries fly, and my body shivers, it'll be nice to know that those moments of sunshine and warmth left their mark creativly!

Contact Me!

I love hearing from you!! Please email me any questions, comments, or concerns and I promise, provided that there is not a child perched on my lap or any unforeseen family illnesses, that I'll get back to you as soon as possible!