Beaded Toilet Paper Necklace

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Had to post this quick find from Etsy.  It’s a Beaded Toilet Paper Roll.  Isn’t it cute?  Ok, so some people may think it’s kind of “gross” but I think it’s adorable. I could see myself proudly wearing this around town.  LOL!  If you want to make one of these darling “loo rolls” yours click on over to the LiciaBeads shop and snatch one up while you can. 

Ok just had to share this.  I’m off again.  Talk to you guys soon.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Enjoying her quirky fashion sense,
Michelle

Coffee Joulies

Ok, so I don’t even drink coffee, but I want these things so bad.  Maybe they work good for hot cocoa.      Take a look at this video to find out what I’m talking about.

Pretty cool right?  And genius if you ask me.  Want some for yourself?  Check out the Coffee Joulies website and find out more about them and how to buy them. It just goes to show creativeness comes in all shapes and forms.  I can imagine having a nice hot cup of cocoa as I sit in  front of the window crafting and admiring the fall leaves.  Oh speaking of which, the dogwoods are starting to change colors.  Dogwoods are like the popular girl of the party.  They show up to the “blooming party” fashionably late and then they leave (turn colors and fall off) before everyone else does.  It’s super pretty but kind of funny to think they are last in first out.    I have to share with you the neighbor’s dogwood tree to show you what I mean.  I snapped a few quick pictures after I saw their tree was one of the first in the area changing.  Now I’m starting to feel Autumn is finally here. 

Beautiful, n'est pas?    Love autumn.   Ok well I just had to share these two things with you lovely people today.  I’m taking a mini blogging break to catch up on some things in my life so I can come back a little more full force here and on my doll blog.  I promise to come back with more interesting posts real soon.  Be good until next time we meet.    Bye for now.

Daydreaming of jumping into huge leaf piles,
Michelle

Hey Guys Guess What?

No, seriously.  I started the day, no the weekend off on a good foot.  I have been trying to clear out my email so I will know when I get comments on my blog as well as knowing when people email me.  I currently have over 2000 emails lurking in my inbox and delete box that has to be cleared before the space is considered mine again.  So I figured a goal for the weekend, besides getting my crafty area clear was to empty the email box.  Crafty area got cleaned, yay!  Email box, still sadly packed full of so much stuff!!!  And there is stuff I want to read and the rest is annoying notices about things I no longer care about or don’t want to know.  Ugh!  So I am rooting through all that, and I planned to get it done in an hour or two.  Umm yeah, about that.

Seriously.  On Saturday cleaning took a while, then I started on the email…and then I got bored so I hit some chatrooms that bored me some more so I just read some Tumblr blogs to find out what happened to a beloved blog that was closed down and that lead me to some interesting places.  Yeah, that email inbox didn’t have a chance.  But I decided to do it tomorrow (today).  Yeah that’s until I learned while cleaning and watching tv that QVC was going to have 24 hours of Christmas stuff all day Sunday. What?  I LOVE Christmas, and we don’t do a lot of decorating here, and I just love seeing the stuff that’s out there.  I so plan to decorate for holidays and seasons when I get my own place.  And Christmas I am going all out.  LOL!  I’m more for the interior decorations than exterior because I’ll see it more than the stuff outside, and yes I am selfish it’s all for me.

But I figured I could listen to QVC while cleaning my email.  Worked for a while until I suddenly remembered things I wanted to look up, so of course I did.  Then I had to join a new forum dealing around some personal stuff going on in my life to see how other people deal with it, and well of course I had to post, and then I had to read a few posts, and then I hit email for a few more minutes, but then my sister wanted to purchase a doll so of course I had to enable her to do that with a picture search, then the Extreme Home Makeover came on that was based in my city, so I had to watch that, then more QVC, then…well I think you get the idea.  So umm, yeah email cleaning was a bust.  I have so many emails I need to answer and get to but they are hidden in notices and emails about something on sale I don’t really want or need.  LOL!  Tomorrow I will do it.  I will only have my email open, put on some tunes, and take those emails out one page at a time.  By tomorrow night I hope to have all those emails taken care, emails needing responses answered, and a clean email box.  Yeahhhh!!!  No distractions.  I can do it…right?  Right!  Then I will hit my next to do that I’ve still not gotten to…you guys know what it is.  *sigh*  I’m such a bad blog owner as of late.  Sorry guys.  But yeah, tomorrow is another day.    I’ll update you tomorrow on my success of owning the email inbox, I’ll update you on my Bitty Bitsu that has finally told me her name, and I’ll let you know what doll my sister is getting.    Ok, talk to you lovelies later.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Giving the Internet the Evil-Eye,
Michelle

Happy Autumnal Equinox!!!

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So that’s a wrap on summer 2011.  And I couldn’t be happier!!!  Sure we’ll still have some summer layover weather but other than that it is cool temps for the rest of the year!!!  *does the happy dance*  So I want to wish you all a Happy Autumnal Equinox and Happy First Day of Autumn!  I hope you did something awesome today and managed to stay cool seeing that the date is the only thing that makes me think of Autumn today, well that and the rain.

So what are you all doing today?  Me?  Well I don’t plan on doing much, but I do plan to finally clean up my craft area and finish work on Estelle/Estella…working name for my Bitty Bitsu…a doll for those of you non-doll fans.  I wanted to give her hair time to set, I am trying something unique with her since she doesn’t have a wig and came to me bald.  I think the layers are done.  Now it’s time to do her face-up, which I am nervous about.  Granted I won’t have to do the dreaded eyes, I hate doing eyes, because she has acrylic eyes, but still I want to give her a soft childlike glow and feel so I am worried I will make her to adult looking.  Fingers crossed I’ll get it right.  Then I am going to work on some outfits for her and my Monster High Frankie Stein, if they work up right I will be reproducing some for sale.  So fingers crossed tight for that too. 

And that’s about it for this post.  I am off to have some crafty fun!    Hope your day is awesome times infinity and beyond.  Talk to you lovelies next time.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Lazily day-dreaming of fall colors on trees and crisp fall air,
Michelle

Not All News Is Bad News.

Hey guys and dolls!  So if you guys have read my blogs for a while or know me at all, then you’ll know when it comes to news I tend to take a head in the sand kind of stance on it because news never seems to be good these days.  But today I found three awesome bits of news that have renewed my faith in the news and makes me see that not all news is bad news.

So today I was surfing the web and found a super interesting article about this Navy officer that was doing some volunteer work picking up trash on a Hawaiian beach in observance of International Costal Cleanup Day.  While picking up trash he found a glass bottle with something inside.

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What was inside?  A letter from a Japanese school girl named Saki Arikawa.  There was also a picture of her school class as well as four origami flowers in the bottle. It seems that Saki was getting ready to graduate elementary school back in March of 2006 and her and her classmates dropped bottles into a nearby bay in celebration and remembrance of this event.  Pretty awesome right?  So the right US authorities contacted the right Japanese authorities and the Japanese authorities were delighted to learn the bottle had reached land and was discovered.  Very cool.  The Japanese authorities are trying to find the teacher and Saki to tell them of the discovery of the bottle.  I hope they find both of them, I know this will be so exciting for them to learn.

5 years ago a little Colorado kitty went missing.  The owners were hopeful they would find her because they had her micro-chipped, but they never found her.  However, the lucky family were soon to get a surprise 5 years later.  Watch the clips below to learn more.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Can you believe it?  Ok so a quick recap for those of you who can’t see the videos.  Willow, the cute calico kitten in question, disappeared 5 years ago and the owners after some time decided the poor thing must have become dinner for the owls or coyotes in the area.  Then they get a call 5 years later that there cat was found in, get this, Manhattan.  The family is shocked to learn that not only was their cat alive but she’s in Manhattan of all places.  They are shocked and don’t know how she has survived for so long.  I’m shocked too to learn she’s survived all these years in the wild on her own.  I hope she will be reunited with her family soon.  Happy ending to a long drawn out story for them.  It’s kind of interesting how both these stories initially started around the same time.  Well I hope Willow settles back into her home life with her family.

And one final story for you.  A Utah man riding his motorcycle was hit by a car and pinned under it by his blazing motorcycle that caught on fire due to the car hitting the gas tank.  He screamed when he noticed where he was and what was happening but soon passed out.  If left like that he would have surely passed away, but a few good Samaritans were not about to let that happen.  Watch the video below to find out what they did.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

So for those who can’t see the video, a group of good Samaritans tried to push the car off of Brandon, the young man pinned under the car, but at first they couldn’t do it because they didn’t have enough people.  They at first thought he was dead until a young woman got down on the ground and looked under the car and saw he was indeed breathing.  So the original people and several others that rushed to the scene worked hard to lift the car and one of them grabbed Brandon’s leg and pulled him out to safety.  These people could have been burned or the car, that was smoking, could have exploded, but they didn’t care and they saved Brandon’s life.  How amazing is that?  It’s so wonderful to see there are still good people in the world willing to risk their lives for yours.  So all is not lost in the world yet.  And as long as good stories like these continue to happen and be reported I may start pulling my head out of the sand more to keep up with current events and see what’s going on in the world. 

And that’s about all I wanted to post about today.  A lot of good going on in the world, can’t help but smile.  And now I am off to continue working on my craft area, my shop logos, new blog logos, etc.  Talk to you lovely people later.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Excitedly waiting for the next bit of good news to come her way,
Michelle

Ringer

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Hey guys and dolls!  So today while cleaning my crafting area I was watching the new CW show Ringer, you know the one starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.  I was curious just to see if I would like it.  Omg, my new favorite show!!!  I’m so excited about this show.  I’m looking forward to see how this show unfolds.  Take a look at the promo below.

This promo confused at excited me at the same time.  I hadn’t done much reading on the show so I all I understood was there were twins, but I assumed one of them ending up missing for some reason and the other twin took her place.  I was confused, but now I am well informed…as much as a first show can fill me in at least.  Now I look forward to the next one.  The show ending literally left me like with a hand covering the mouth.  LOL!  I must rewatch this episode when it comes on the CW website.  Still want some more info on the show, watch the next video below.  And if you haven’t watched the show yet, you may want to skip the next video.  The next video is a complete first episode spoiler, but it explains the show some more.

I had stopped watching tv a while ago, but the CW is making it impossible this fall with all the new shows coming out and the other ones returning.  I am looking forward to the witch one coming out and I need to get back into Vampire Diaries and 90210 again.  I feel like a teen again watching those shows.  LOL!  Ringer makes me feel my age though, but in a good way.  LOL!

And that’s about it for this post.  Just wanted to share with you all my new love.  I don’t know if I can possibly wait until next week to find out more.  I guess I have no choice, but ahhhhhhh, I can’t wait!!!  Well at least I will have ANTM and several other CW shows to keep me entertained until then.    Ok, I’m off to watch some stuff online before bed so I will talk to you lovelies later.  Be good until then. 

Glad she doesn’t have a trouble-making twin sister,
Michelle

Tinctory

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What is it?  A feather?  A leaf?  Carved stone?  Craved wood?  Neither of those.  It’s hand dyed silk that has been manipulated into this beautiful feather shape.  Eva, that crafty lady behind Tinctory, makes these beautiful works of art and sells them in her Big Cartel shop by the same name, Tinctory.

So what exactly is a Tinctory?  Well Eva assumes that it would mean a place where things are dyed since Tinctor is Latin for the word dyer.  Makes sense. 

I found Tinctory through a crafty newsletter I get in my email.  Looking through several of the links I found my way to her blog and was just in awe of her work.  Little delicate pieces of art that she is fully hands on with.  The piece above almost looks like flesh or flower petals, it’s just amazing.  The color is so vivid and it just looks so delicate.  I am truly in awe.

Eva’s work is made up of different shapes, colors, and embellishments.  She’s been known to make little sack charms, sew beads onto her work, and dye her work varied colors of the rainbow.  I’d love to own a piece of her work and maybe one day I will.  Until then I will settle for admiring and enjoying the pictures she shares on her blog, shop, and Flickr account that is, you guessed it, by the same name, Tinctory.  Be sure to check out all the links for some pretty impressive eye candy.  And if you are on Pinterest, you can search Tinctory on there and come up with more of her work that can’t be seen in her shop any more, because they were already purchased, can’t complain about that, I’ll all for her making money and sharing her gift with the world. 

And that’s about it for this post. I just wanted to share the world of Tinctory with you all.  I just knew when I learned about Eva and her wares I had to share them with you.    And so I am off.  I will talk to you all again soon.  Be good until then.  Bye for now.

Dreaming of delicate pleats of silk,
Michelle

I Encourage You To Drop It Like It’s Hot Today

Hey guys and gals!  After coming off a somber weekend that, for me personally, is going to lead into a stressful week, I thought perhaps we all need a quick laugh and an interesting way to start the day and week on.  Herein comes the part where I will now encourage you to drop it like it’s hot.

So yes people, grab your beverage of choice, mine would be water, and just get down with your funky self.  Don’t worry about who may be watching.  If they laugh, they are only jealous of your sweet moves.  Drop it, lock it, pop it, do whatever the heck you want with it, just as long as you are moving and having fun.  Life’s a party and we are all born to dance to the swingin’ tunes that are playing.  So no matter what is going to happen this week, known or unknown, just slap on a smile and drop it like it’s hot.  Perhaps your willing to just be free and enjoy life will be contagious and persuade someone else to join in on the fun, which in my book would be awesome.    So what are you waiting for?  Get out there and shake it!  And have an awesome Monday and beginning to your week. 

Drop it like it’s hotttt, drop it like it’s hotttt…

  See you guys in the next post.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Shaking her groove thing all over town,
Michelle

Art In The Most Unusual Of Places

Hey all!  So I”m surfing the web tonight and I came across some soap making videos on YouTube.  I’ve never really thought of soap making as art.  I did see it as a craft and some handmade soaps are just beautiful, but to be fully honest, I never thought about what went into making that beauty.  I guess I thought they naturally cured that way with some additions at the end from the maker.  But I never knew how intricate soap making can be.  That is until I found Sergio.  Sergio makes handmade soaps and shows how he makes them in videos.  At first I thought Sergio was a female, I just didn’t think soap making nowadays was a guy kind of thing, I stand fully corrected.  Sergio’s soap making is like an art form.  The way he has with his ingredients and pigments is just like a magic dance and in some cases like he is a painter.  Take a look at this video to see what I mean.

Beautiful, right?  Sergio has made several videos that just make a person ohh and ahh in amazement.  You can check out the rest of his videos on his YouTube channel SergioMasala.  You can also check out his blog Jabones: Alquimia De Las Plantas, it’s in Spanish, but if you are like me and sadly don’t know the language, have heart because the pictures alone will keep your attention.  I so need to learn some Spanish so I can understand what he writes.  I’m sure it would be very interesting.

But  this just goes to show you can find interesting art in the most unusual of places.  I’m going to keep my eyes more open from now on so as not to miss another artistic opportunity.  I hope you will too.    And on that note I will talk to you find ladies and gents later.  Be good until next we meet.  Bye for now. 

Tiny artistic soap bubbles,
Michelle

A Lot Can Happen In 10 Years…

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(Warning, if you do not want to read somber reflections about 9/11 and my thoughts and feelings about it then and now you may want to just skip this post and wait for my next update.  Thanks and have a great day.)

Do you remember where you were?  I do.  I was, surprise surprise, sleeping.  My boyfriend called me and told me that America was being attack.  I was confused as he told me what had happened.  I turned on the tv and watched in shock and horror as smoke billowed out of the Twin Towers.  I listened in shock as news came in about the Pentagon and Somerset County, PA.  I could only imagine the fear those people went through and were going through.  The tears wouldn’t stop flowing even when I wasn’t staring at the tv.  I was glued to my tv for days. It got to a point where my boyfriend told me to stop watching because I was depressed and upset all the time.  I think this was around the time I really stopped paying attention to the news, period.  Nothing good comes from it.

I’m still in shock today how two big beautiful buildings are just gone in a matter of minutes.  How so many lives ended in the blink of an eye.  How people can hate other people so much that they’d do something so horrible to them.  Yes, I’m of the camp that wishes we could all just get along.  Yes, I know that will never happen, but I still wish it.  Now this next paragraph is in reference to a incidence that happened this morning between me and a foreign acquaintance.  You are free to skip it, but I thought it was related to today so I am going to tell you about it.

So it’s kind of funny, sometimes I pop onto Yahoo chat to check out the chatrooms when I am bored, and I’ve made acquaintances with several people over the years.  Today one of those acquaintances attacked me out of the blue.  I hadn’t talked to him in about 6 months to a year and he left me an offline in Arabic picking on 9/11 and the people who suffered.  Well you know I went on the defense and messaged him back some not so nice words.  He responded in Arabic again.  This is when I knew my words weren’t getting through and he was one of the guys I usually just said hi to when he said hi and made quick small talk with because his English isn’t the best.  Usually I would just let this go and move on, but for some reason I couldn’t today.  This wasn’t some accidental insult because he didn’t know the language or my culture, this was a direct insult to me because he knew I was American.  I couldn’t stop asking myself “why attack me"?  I have always been nice to him, even if we couldn’t really carry on an in-depth conversation.  Simple fact, he attacked me because I’m American, and I’m sure he attacked me because I’m a female and he didn’t think I’d fight back.  Yeah, he doesn’t know me so well when I get bothered.  It may not have made sense but I went to Google Translate and I typed my words to him in Arabic and sent it to him.  I guess he caught on to what I was doing because he all of a sudden knew good English.  And so our conversation went back and forth like that.  Me in Arabic, him in English.  He apologized for what he had said and for “tenderly” calling me a fat ugly girl.  Yeah, when he said that, I couldn’t help thinking back to Elementary school where kids would call each other the obvious when they knew they didn’t have anything else to stand on.  *rolls eyes*  Yeah I told him I didn’t respect him any more and that I honestly saw him no better than being a terrorist and that I don’t speak to terrorists.  This must have struck a nerve in him and made him realize what he had done.  He apologized again and promised never to speak to me again.  This conversation had me wondering.  Were the ones who attacked us always bad?  Did they always have hatred in their heart?  Or were they like this guy who until today was very nice and then suddenly wasn’t.  What did it take for those men to give up their lives to cause such horror to others?  What were they promised in the afterlife?  If they weren’t promised that would they have done what they did?

So today is just a rather odd day.  It’s still clear and sunny as it was 10 years ago.  We’ve gone through many things as individuals, as a country, and as a planet as a whole.  We’re all 10 years older and 10 years wiser, hopefully.  And yet 9/11 still feels like it was just yesterday.  It’s something none of us will ever forget.  And I don’t care to hear about conspiracy theories that the president knew about it.  I have a friend who believes it and got mad at me when I told him I didn’t believe in that.  I am not up for debating what did or didn’t happen or who knew and didn’t know about what was happening.  Do I think Bush knew “something” was up?  Sure.  Do I think he knew the full extent of what was going to happen?  No, not really.  But this post was just to reflect and remember what happened.  Something I never though would happen in the US did and it could happen again.  It changed all our lives forever in more ways than one, and that just can’t be ignored.  And I’d like to also say that we need to remember it wasn’t just the Twin Towers attacked.  It took forever to find an image that reflected this.  Many lives were taken elsewhere as well.  Maybe it wasn’t as many as the towers, but in my eyes, any lives taken is one life to many.  So let’s remember them all.  Let’s remember the ones in the Pentagon.  Let’s remember the brave souls on the plane that saved the day.  Let’s remember the firefighters who bravely gave their lives to say others.  And of course let’s also remember all the lives lost overseas by the brave men and women who are fighting for us in hopes that we will never have to go through a 9/11 ever again.

I’ll see you in the next post.  Take care until then.  Bye for now.

Proud American To The Very End,
Michelle