The mystery is explained

I have missed Dove, haven't you? She has had a busy few months. And frankly, it is time that you knew why. She has been on a huge press tour. Not her own, mind you, but one near and dear to her heart. I've told her there is no shame in it. You should follow your bliss. She has been *stalk...*, I mean following the cast of "New Moon" from country to country, tv show to tv show, in an attempt to just meet them. I am not sure how successful she has been on that front but I do know that she and her daughters have had quite the adventure.



What about you guys, did you see New Moon yet? Would you take your pre-teen daughters? Team Edward or Team Jacob?

girlfriendy etsy

Here are some of my etsy loves for under $15 for girlfriendy gifts.




silla soup - I can't narrow it down too easily, this silla soup shop, so many great gifties for girls of every age. This blue one is sooo pretty.






Leesaland - lovely jewelry to give to your girls, super prices - I love it.







Happy Family - I am quite positive I will be posting about Happy Family again and will be getting a robot shirt for my boys. Their tote is a perfect gift for your girlfriend who will take it the grocery store or library or works for Cycle and Style.







flourish bath and body - I am not too much of a scent person unless it is something citrus-y or minty. I want to eat these sugar cubes, or just bathe in them. Don't get me started on citrus-y or minty lip balm.






elsita - You must know by now my deep love for all elsita's creations. I want to be surrounded by them. I bought these today and think you should too, before they all run out. But then you could buy something else she made.







pumphouse studios - I always need little dishes to puts coins, jewelry, pocket-y stuff. But I think this plate would also be dynamic on a wall. I like plates. For all sorts of functions. This shop's especially.

Etsy - counting the days

There are so many great artists on Etsy. And many great calendars. Here are a few of my favorites.



dozi - simple designs and portability make this jump on my list. I love wallet calendars, way too much.




Shalom's Cottage Home - This Modern Art calendar brings vibrant prettiness on your wall each month.




the sketched book - I love this calendar. All in one spot, one large spot. You see the whole year at a glance and your wall looks happily busy.




sweetbeets - I love this idea that you can print your own and the simple, pretty designs.





Turnaround Design - I love animals, brightly colored animals. This calendar is so cute and the animal picture itself can fit a 5 x 7 frame so you are getting twelve pieces of art on top of a calendar. Neato.


~mavis

How long did you think I could go?

Watch glee last night? I cried. A couple of times. Musical numbers make me emotional. It's weird. And next week looks even better.

Oh Puck.



Who do you like? Puck/Rachel? Puck/Cheating Quinn? Finn/Rachel? Finn/Kurt?




The volume one soundtrack is on iTunes now which I already bought but then I was at Target and they had the soundtrack plus THREE extra songs for $9.99! So go there first. And send me the three extra songs if you love me. *** I have listened to the soundtrack multiple times a day since I downloaded. My kids like it too. It is good getting dinner ready listening.

What was your favorite part of last night? Dove, are you watching?

Flashback

For some reason commercials from my childhood still make me smile. And some of them you can't get out of your head, even the annoying ones.



I especially love the old PSA commercials - catchy and important.


My kids need this one for their salt issues.



And I thought I would just add this one. I totally forgot he had his own action figure but the commercials is super rad.



Do you remember specific commercials? Maybe you shouldn't think about it, you might get their catchy tune in your noggin.

I like to ride my bicycle...

Some friends of mine have come together to celebrate women biking and biking women. They are doing a great job of talking road biking, mountain biking, casual biking as well as some fashionable biking. Biking is becoming more and more a sought after avenue for hardcore fitness and sociable fitness, if you haven't noticed. Head on over to Cycle and Style and tell me what you think. I think they need a button so that people can give them some blog link love.


I like biking. I have to say I have not done it for some time but the ladies have had me along on some photog ops and it has been fun to try it out again. Next Spring I plan to really put effort into it. They have a great post on buying a road bike (per my request) and luckily bike companies are targeting women so you get pretty bikes like the one below. It rode well, but the color made it ride even better I am sure. I loved it.




And I would like to know how many of you bike - and what kind of biking you do. Is that a question?

Halloween, the Birthday Girl and SYTYCD

I told you about my costume stuff for Halloween. It all turned out grand. E got his costume - he was so excited that the night before the school parade he was too hyped to sleep. That was good for my ego. My mom helped me out on Caroline's, but I did make the girl herself and her hat, which when I showed her she clamped her hand over her mouth and then gushed, "Oh! I love it!" My youngest on the other hand was a bit forgotten in the mix, refused to be a lion and chose his costume from last year, a bat.

Caroline had her birthday today and insisted that if we weren't doing a friend birthday party this year we needed to eat downtown. Ok. So after giving out Laffy Taffys to dance class and school class and after a soccer team party we headed downtown. She's a gem, we adore her. And she is such an appreciative gift receiver. (I have begun a new party protocol. Even years get friend parties, odd years are family. So far I like how it is working. How do you do parties?)

Tuesday nights are rough for my husband (so are Wednesdays for that matter) because SYTYCD is on and I really like to watch it. I pre-watch it for Caroline, because frankly sometimes Karen has a little too much Va-Voom in her, ya know what I mean? And Channing's girls were strategically placed in two hammock-like devices. In any case, I did do a quick watch of the first three and had Caroling watch the Bollywood with cute Nathan and Molly. Caroline begged to watch more. Dave begged for mercy. We'll watch the rest in our Wednesday morning lounge time. Maybe I watch too much t.v.

I hope your Halloween was swine flu free and I hope you all have a 5 year old as great as mine and I hope that you watched SYTYCD, because some of it was really good.

~mavis

I want to be this cool

I kind of can't get over these. I wish my brain could see grape vines, clown heads and peanuts like they do.




You can find more at eatPES.com.

Etsy - Get Your Holiday Make On

This week is crazy! Who knew Halloween was such an intense holiday? I got my costumes made and the kids are thrilled, which is lovely, but now I need to catch up on other things.

Friends are having babies left and right it seems and whenever I go to find something to give the new bundle and always think, "I could make that." The hard thing about that is a) I think I could but b) where do I fit it in? So I turn once again to Etsy. Etsy not only has fantastic goods in all sorts of categories but you can also find patterns to make something lovely. So while I am looking for baby gifts, I am also thinking ahead for Christmas gifts, or Thanksgiving gifts (poor forgotten holiday).

I'm loving the patterns in Bugga Bugs shop. If you have a pretend kitchen for your kids you have to look at the food patterns - even Chinese take-out! I am especially charmed by the barn and animals.



My knitting skills are sub-par unfortunately, but if they were better this owl from Amy Gaines would be first on my list. Love owls, love this shop.



Bit of Whimsy Dolls is killing me with their assortment of patterns for dolls - boys, girls, goats, gnomes... And if you don't want to make one, you can buy one finished.


All I really need from a scarf is for it to cover my neck where my hair and coat don't quite meet. Once again, I need to learn some knitting because all the patterns from BrightCraft look beautiful.


And I might as well show you a pattern of my mom's and mine - our nursing apron pattern. We saw many types when I was looking but never found exactly what I wanted. Enter my brilliant mom who made it exactly how I wanted. A nice collaboration. I make them for friends who are nursing, out of material I love. Check out Piccalilli too.

It's a Hardknock Life

I have mentioned that I have a daughter. She is about to turn 5. She is a tall almost 5 year old and hasn't worn pants in over 2 1/2 years. This gets a little tricky when she is actually a Head Stand Champion. Thank goodness for bloomers. But now we don't usually get bloomers complimentary with every purchase of a dress or skirt. She is fast outgrowing the toddler section of any store and I have to tell you the future options of dressing Caroline do not make me happy. I go from fairly modest, cute clothes (and yes, there is always the way too cutesy stuff out there) to full on teen-age, barely there styles. So, by the age of 6 girls have to choose between either going with the nice Pioneer/old-school Laura Ashley look or they have the selection they have in most department/box stores. Because this is where I shop friends. I truly think it is ridiculous to spend a lot of money on my quickly growing young kids when I can find great stuff for great prices. Except I am running out of great stuff. The pickings are slim. And I end up sewing more and more (which is great, don't get me wrong, but time-consuming - does this make me lazy?).

What is more, I feel like there is some strange, underground current that is washing age-inappropriate clothing ashore. Popular clothing lines and popular culture that think our daughters by the age of 8 should have a thong line available to them or have suggestive graphics or words on their clothing. It drives me bonkers. Not only for my own daughter's sake but because I am growing young boys too. Boys that are being taught that you treat girls/ladies/women with respect and dignity. I know there are many solutions to all this but I was reading a woman's blog the other day and loved her letter to a well-known clothier. With her permission, her is letter:


Abercrombie & Fitch: YAWN.

Sep 22, 09

Dear Abercrombie,

You bore me. Yawn, yawn, and double-yawn. Your latest attempt to clothe our girls in trashy t-shirts like the ones pictured above is so very, UNORIGINAL. Don’t you remember? You tried the trashy t-shirt campaign already, once before. Seems I remember it was right on the heels of the launch of your tho*ng underwear line to young girls. Who can forget the disturbing messages printed on the front like, “Wink, Wink” and “Eye Candy?” Probably not the dads of the girls you marketed the line to, I imagine.

All that to say, I’m not sure what led you to resurrect the old trashy t-shirt campaign, but I’m guessing it’s a last ditch attempt to get back in the news. Perhaps you are relying on your once loyal market demographic: Young women with zero self-esteem and zero self-respect. You know, the kind of girls who are so desperate for attention that they’re willing to settle for the wrong kind of attention. Because let’s be honest, the only person who would wear one of the t-shirts above is someone who doesn’t think they have anything else to offer other than well, their parts and services. But here’s where your thinking is severely flawed: Girls have become much more adept at identifying the real M.O. behind marketing schemes such as yours. They are tired of being portrayed as nothing more than objects for the male-viewing pleasure. In other words, the gig is up. I guess you didn’t get the memo. They’re onto you now.

Which leads me to ask…is that old-enough-to-be-a-gramp-pa, Michael Jeffries still running your company? Did anyone tell him that it’s no longer even considered fashionable to dress like a hoochie? It’s sooooo yesterday, as in Britney-what’s-her-name kinda yesterday. If you see Mr. Jeffries, tell him I have an idea for a radical marketing stunt: If he has a grand-daughter (and he very well may, since he’s in his mid-sixties), would he be willing to do a photo shoot with his little princess wearing one of the trashy tee’s above? Maybe he could stand next to her with his arm around her and do a cheesy thumb’s up sign. No? Just an idea…

My guess is that he’s feeling a bit desperate as of late, since net sales for the month of August, 2009, fell 23% from sales posted in August, 2008. Some analysts are even buzzing that A&F is past it’s company sell-by date and bankruptcy may be just around the corner. So sad. It must be very tense around there. I imagine you guys are chalking up the sales decline to the struggling economy. While that may be a major variable, another cause could be your over-the-top, “sex sells” campaigns. While I’m disappointed that you would once again attempt to resurrect the trashy-tee campaign, in a way, I’m also kind of glad. I personally see this as the final nail in your company coffin. Because hey, everyone knows that when sales are down, you go to desperate lengths to offend what little is left of your customer-base, right?

In the meantime, just know that moms like me will remain vigilant in equipping our daughters to identify marketing campaigns that prey on the insecurities of young women. And more importantly, we will encourage our girls to close their wallets to key offenders, such as your company. And for that reason, your days are numbered. Mark my words.

Sincerely,

Vicki Courtney


What do you think? I love it. But I do want to hear your opinions, solutions, rants. The original post is found here at Vicki Courtney's blog.

More Etsy Love and glee

Did you know that my daughter's name is Caroline? It is a lovely name and according to her, a song was written just for her. I showed her Puck's version and her response was, "Is there a Caroline sitting in those chairs or is he singing to me?"

And you know I am a bit over the moon for glee. So I will show you some of my picks for Miss C's birthday (which is terribly soon). Thanks Puck for being a strong leading man.

Caroline loves cupcakes, or "little cakes" as she calls them. She might be the girl who is in this print from Calobee Doodles.



How fitting for Caroline to have herself a doll named Caroline. I love the hair adornments and dolls from Sweet Pea Boutique.


She would more than lovely in this dress from 1 Crown and 3 Tiaras, she would twirl and love it.


Have I told you that Caroline is more in love with birds than I am? Here are a few she would love:

Whitebird Queen Perching Decoration from Royal Buffet.


Robin in Squash Yellow from Tumus.


And I think she might never take this off and have secret conversations and sing-a-longs with the blue bird on her shoulder in this costume from Little Lovely Ones.


I love etsy. I love glee. I love Caroline.

~mavis

Winner!

Thanks to all that entered. The lucky winner is #10 who said:
Jelina said...

I love the Mother of all Octogan Necklace. All of it is great, though. I'm definitely going to visit again...especially with Christmas coming up! And I'd LOVE to win. Those earrings would go perfect with a sweater I have. :)

So Jelina, you have until the Monday the 26th to claim your prize. Please email me at wechirp@gmail.com.

Thanks to Danielle of Swede Bead Design - you are wonderful and good luck with your fundraiser.

Thanks everyone for checking in, come back and see us, ya hear?

Yums

I tried this recipe out last week and the family loved it! Well, 4 out of 5 loved it and the 5th would have loved it if she hadn't whined for 45 minutes before eating it because that is what she does lately.


I found it at Sweet Life in the Valley and I hope she doesn't mind me using her image and recipe.

Corn Chowder

• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1 large onion
• 2 cups fresh cream
• 4 cups corn fresh, frozen or canned organic & fresh is always best
• 2 pounds russet potatoes
• salt & fresh pepper to taste

Chop potatoes with skins on into small chunks. Boil until tender but not mushy. While potatoes are cooking chop onion and saute in butter until onions are transparent. Add corn & cream to onions & potatoes. Salt & pepper to taste. Simmer until flavors are blended and cream thickens a little. Serve with fresh crusty artisan bread and fresh sweet cream butter.

** edit - I added another cup of cream, to make it soupier, which we liked.

Hope you love it!

~mav

And don't forget to enter the giveaway below!!!

Giveaway!!!

Remember those awesome Gold Digger earrings from Swede Bead Design? Well, Danielle, designer of Swede Bead Design, is offering up these Light Brown Wooden Floral Earrings And I must say that I am lovin' my Gold Digger earrings that she sent me - love them.

So, let's learn a little more about Danielle.

How did you get started in this jewelry biz?
I got started with jewelry about 8 or 9 years ago when one of my favorite necklaces broke. I sort of studied it to see if I could figure out how to fix it. It kind of snowballed from there. I have never taken any professional classes for jewelry making or wire wrapping, but I do come from a very artistic family. I would mess around with different crafts, although nothing held my attention that long, until I found jewelry making. When I was little we would visit my grandparents in Sweden for the entire summer. My grandmother also used to make jewelry and I would sit at her desk filled with hundreds of beads, and make jewelry (although they were probably not pretty!)Jewelry is my "fun" job- my "real" job is as a foster care caseworker for my county. It's tough most days, so making jewelry is so fun for me.



What are your top 5 movies?
My top 5 movies of all time- well, I don't know if they would be considered Top 5 for anyone else but for me it would have to be Shawshank Redemption, Goodfellas, Blow, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation and 16 Candles. I could watch these over and over again, and I have on several occasions!


What do you look forward to every day?
What I look forward to every day is my son! He just turned 2 in August and he is amazing. The best is when I go into his room in the morning after I hear him yelling "Mommy!" and as soon as I open the door he pops up and says "I awake!"


What is the nicest thing someone did for you last week?
The nicest thing that someone did for me last week- A great friend of mine that I have been working with for years, decided to quit and gave me a week of her sick time!


Favorite three Etsy shops that we should know about?
3 favorite etsy shops-
First shop I discovered on Etsy was a leather shop called hollyhawk -amazing leather cuffs and accessories (totally agree, I love this shop). Also I just discovered MIXKO-amazing jewelry and BIG felt butterfly rings which I love (Holy Bananas! I love this shop, I am so glad you showed us!!!), and thirdly I would say Allyson Hill (love this shop and have wanted to get my car garbage bag - is it so nice?). She makes accessories for your car. I just bought an awesome car litter bag at a great price!!

*****

She sounds awesome, right? The giveaway runs from today, Monday the 19th, until Thursday the 22nd at 2:30 MST because then her shop closes while she does a fundraiser with her wares for a great cause. Just the kind of person she is.

Okay, so enter this giveaway.

- One entry, go to Swede Bead Design and come back here and leave a comment telling me which piece is your favorite.

- Want two more? blog about this giveaway, leave your blog address in the comments and make sure we can access your bloggity blog

- One more entry? Do something nice for someone and leave a comment. You don't have to tell me what, just that you did.

Poor Forgotten Holiday

I had to run some errands tonight - costumes to make ya know? I have outsourced Caroline's witch costume to my mother. I made the mistake of taking Caroline with me to the fabric store to pic out some stuff for her costume. We left over an hour later and $42 poorer after she found that you can actually make things from a pattern and not just from my noggin. I had plans of making her a darling little witch but now she is going to be a well-planned and executedly-patterned witch.

Eli on the other hand wants to be Silver, you know, Sonic's silver friend. In any case, no costume to be found so I am going to have to use some serious crafty skills to make this happen. This is what I will be up to for the next little bit. Wish me luck and send me any suggestions you may have. And honeycrisp apples.

Back to my title. While hopping stores tonight I noticed holiday horrendousness! One aisle dedicated to the upcoming holiday, Halloween, which still doesn't happen for 16 days. Then, I turn the corner still looking for silver face paint but instead I get silver bells. And red, green and gold bells. And tinsel. Seriously, what gives? Poor Halloween who is just trying to keep its place in the retail sector getting pushed out by the massively pushy Christmas cheer. And don't even get me started on forgotten Thanksgiving that should remind us of all the things we should be grateful for. Poor Turkey day. Where is their aisle?

What are you going to be for Halloween? Do you like to make your costumes? Or let little elves do it for you?

~mav

Walking on Sunshine, with etsy, glee style

Really, I love that show. I can't get enough. I panicked a bit when somehow in my heart a knew it wasn't dvr'ing at home. I called home and I was right - so luckily my husband supports this habit and started the dvr right away. Sweet, sweet man. Thank goodness for hulu.com so I could see the first 10 minutes.

So we are going to look at some etsy faves and blend them with some glee love.

I love the mash ups from last week, so we will try there first.

Halo - I love this from Untamed Petals. I really want to wear one. Do you think I could pull it off?


Walking on sunshine - my feet feel happy just looking at these butter ballet flats from spirocreations.


The boys mash up I was not as fortunate but for confessions, I loved this bird confessing to his little friend from the wonderful Terese Bast.


Will Shuester, your re-creation of Kanye's Gold Digger could totally beat him at any award show. Especially if Taylor Swift was wearing these earrings from Swede Bead Design when she presented it to you.


Somebody to Love - I've been a big fan of Hide N Seek for so long and absolutely love this print of hers.


What did I loved best from this last episode? Hard to narrow it down but I think that Finn struggles as a dancer in his normal state but I loved that he really couldn't control his gangly self all hyped up on Vitamin D. I thought he was going to hurt himself or someone near him. And when did those two dance boys join? That and the Cheerios coach's journal entry.

~mav

Quotable Quotes

I receive quotes in my email box from time to time. Some are fantastic little inspirations, others confuse me and I wonder who really gets their meaning. This one spoke to me.

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." Oscar Wilde

I find myself every so often asking why I can't get it all done like Ms. A or why I can't dress like Ms. B or why I can't be effortless like Ms. C. Why don't I have the talent like Ms. D and why isn't dinner perfectly prepared each night like Ms. E. Such simple thoughts sabotage me and my talents that I do have and can share. They stifle the uniqueness that is me. I have things to offer. I am me. So thanks Mr. W for the reminder.


~mavis

gocco print found here, be happy poster found here

Monday Monday

As I typed that title for my post, the song rang through my head but then I got a sick feeling because, you know, it is The Mamas and the Papas. I love them. But now with that one daughter's book coming out about Mr. Papa and their relationship - horrible. And she is defending him. What a mess. But such a great group and the songs... So not what this post was going to be about.

Back on track. Sort of. It is almost lunch time. I have already fed my kids a healthy lunch of chicken nuggets and ... apples? I decided to feed them early because we are so out of milk and eggs and apples and bread - serious basics - so we need to head to the store. I thought if I feed them they will have no excuse to be hungry enough to ask and ask and ask again for the popcorn chicken that costs $.34 per savory little nugget when we pass the deli. But now I am letting them run around pretending Joey (2) is a monster and he is scary. They have been well entertained for a good 27 minutes. I decided that hopefully Joey will lay down for a nap (the last two days have been a bust, we have had Grandma and Papa at out house chillin' with us for my hubby's 40th birthday celebration and you wouldn't believe what a happy wrench that throws in the schedule of my babies) and I will take the 2 older ones with me for groceries. Don't fret, the Birthday Boy works from home and will be here. Really, resist calling Child Services.

Fall kills me a little bit. Especially a cold fall. It is harder for me to get going. I'm cold all the time. I want to lay in bed, my toes warm and just think of random things. Yesterday I thought about how I rarely sit down to read blogs anymore which is kind of rude because I really want people to read this one. During some downtime (while Joey was resisting his rejuvenating nap - doesn't he know how much he will want that back one day?) I decided to go through my google reader which hadn't been visited in far too long. I cleaned it out. Erased it all and start afresh. I figured that some of those blogs that I adore, if it was destined to be, would show up again in my sight.


I want inspiration both creatively and inspiration for my soul. One I did find and can't get enough of is Giver's Log. Have you seen it? Gift giving ideas, gift-making ideas, wrapping ideas... love it.

I need some new inspiration to get me motivated, in gear and ready for the upcoming holidays. Suggestions?

And friends, thanks for listening to my ramblings. I tell you, fall does a number on me.

~mavis

Yeah, I know. It is an obsession.

I'm talking about glee. I love it. Last night was classic with an over the top Kristin Chenoweth shows up. I want to pinch her cheeks. I can't get enough of the cheer coach and her little comments (like the one about Sandy wanting to write a part for himself as a queen...). Kurt showing up completely hammered. Poor Emma's longing and really great advice. Rachel and Finn. And Finn's horrible lack of any kind of dance rhythm.

Last week we great with a little Beyonce' action (the best video of all time, according to Kanye). First Kurt and his gals do a little dance. Then he "auditions" for the part of kicker. Then the whole football team learns the ring dance. I had Dave watch it with me and all he could say was, "What? No delay of game?" I think secretly he loved it. Plus he must not have seen Finn call a TO. Here is a clip. You may have to pause it to let the clip get ahead a bit so it doesn't keep buffering. See Kurt waving to his dad and then doing line kicks to warm up? So funny. The look on his dad's face when the team is dancing. So funny. There is just too much good stuff.



I think we should have a we chirp glee fan club. Really. I could rehash the show for hours and my husband so does not share my enthusiasm.

~mavis

image via kids craft weekly

I love it when moms create sites that help moms. I think we can all lose a little steam or run out of ideas once in a while (or in my case, 23 times a day). A friend from college recently started a blog that shows fun and kid friendly things to do in the Sacramento area. The site is SacTrippers and I really like what I see so far. So if you are that area or heading there, have a look at this new blog.


Another blog that I love is Kids Craft Weekly. Great activities that are kid-tested. In her own words, "My name is Amber and I'm crazy about kid's craft! Each week me and my two little craftmonkeys come up with new craft ideas that are cheap, educational, child-friendly and fun."

What about you? Are there little gems out there that all moms should know about? Do tell.

~mavis

BTW - Dove, here is your reminder about Glee - it is on tonight!!