Etsy Deals of the Week!

Today's Etsy Deals are all Valentine's Day items. They aren't overly Valentiny, but really just pink items. I had a very crafty week. I finished my pink scarf that I started working on over winter break. I've started on a pink & white dish rag, but I don't know how long it will take me to finish it. Maybe I'll have it done

Here are today's items:

This gift set of PINK magnets is a steal for just $3.75 on my Etsy site. They come in this silver, tin box that has a clear lid so you can see what's inside.

I really like these simple earrings. Jill named them "Pink Ladies". They are made of light pink tear-drop shaped beads and they are strung on silver pins and hooks. These are priced at just $5.00. Don't forget that with every purchase of jewelry on my site, you will get a free mystery pair of earrings made just for you!

Here's another one of these GREAT wire keychains! This one is heart-shaped (duh!) and has white/clear stones to hold it together. I know I said that today's items are pink, but this one is just Valentine's-themed. I made another new flower keychain and posted it today, but the pink color of the stones didn't show up that well. This one is priced at just $3.50.

As always ... if you see something on my site that you like, but you'd like different colors or sizes, please let me know! I take custom orders. Enjoy!

More Friend Time!

Apparently last night I was having too much fun to take any pictures. It started with dinner at El Patron. Mom and Dad gave Molly, Erik & I gift certificates to the restaurant for Christmas. The KC Star has rated them the best for their fish tacos (which Mitzi ordered) and their margaritas (that both Jill & Mitz enjoyed).

I do have one picture from the start of our evening at The Levee. Mitzi and Adam had the upstairs "patio" room reserved for the belated birthday party. We discovered that a "Reserved" sign on the door doesn't necessarily mean anything to people who need a seat at a crowded bar. We did our best to help people understand they were not part of our party. Can you read our hand-made sign on the window?

There was a great crowd. Amy and her fun beau, TJ, came between a wedding ceremony and the reception. It was a lot of fun to meet him finally. Elizabeth and her fun beau, Nick, came and it was great to meet him, too! Lots of other friends from work and outside showed and it was a great mix of people. The band that played was awesome and we wiggled out way through the crowd to find a teeny, tiny spot to dance the night away!

Thanks to Jill being our wonderful driver, we all got home safe and sound. It sounds like we all enjoyed sleeping in and getting ready to enjoy 2 more days of our weekend!

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Once I finally got up and moving around this morning, I went to Dean & Deluca for lunch with Julie, Becca & Megan. Even though the 3 of us live in town, we don't get to hang out as much as we'd like. When the Chicago girls or our Columbus girl come in town, it's always a great excuse to see each other. Love you girls! Thanks for the cookies, Bec.

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And now for "girls" craft night #834. Adam loves to be with his girls. :) Jill, Mitzi (and Minners) were doing some knitting. Adam enjoyed his new craft (from Mitzi) and I'm working on catching up on blogging, and new Valentine's items for Etsy. Next up tonight is my Etsy Deals of the Week blog. Check back with me!

See how hard Minnie is working!? Mitzi is working on her self-striping scarf and Jill is making a fun, new felted bag.

Here's Adam with his new craft. A special award goes to whoever can guess what he's made! The yellow one is easy ... I want you to guess what the red & blue one is! :)

Technically this is still Saturday for me

I haven't yet gone to bed, so I have not failed on my resolution of writing every "day".

Tonight was the Adam/Mitzi belated birthday party at The Levee! It was tons of fun. I'll have to see what sort of pictures turned out so I can do a real post tomorrow.

On a totally different note, can we talk about how cold it is!?!?! My car said 5 degrees on the drive home tonight. I think it felt like it was about 15 below 0! I bet my hands and toes won't fully warm up until tomorrow morning right before I head out again.

Off to hit the sack and turn off all alarms! Minnie gets included in that bunch since she's having a sleep-over at "Grandma & Grandpas"! Aren't they the best!?!?!

Good Friends

Today was the perfect day to remind me of just how lucky I am.

It started with me walking into school late and I walked in with my friend Chelsey. She is our school counselor and she has been a HUGE help to me in the last week or so with a few very special students.

Then at my plan time, I got to spend some time with my friend, Michelle. She was nice enough to do a little shopping from my Etsy items. We don't often make time to visit with other staff members during the school day, so it was nice to catch up with her. Earlier in the week, Michelle brought her little sweetie to visit me after school one day. Miss A is so precious and she's really becoming a little girl now. I loved seeing her debate with Mom over the cookie she wanted for a snack! :)

After that, I was reminded just how great our FABULOUS secretaries are at school. They aren't just women who answer phones and do paperwork for us. They really run the school and do it each day with a smile. Both Cindy and Joan helped me today with giving a student a new backpack to replace his that has been broken all year AND Joan ran home to find some unused gloves at her house to replace his sock-gloves he's been wearing to recess. Thanks ladies!

I don't know what I'd do without my teammates. They make me laugh and help me to get through each day. Brenda has been there for me this week and went above and beyond to help a student in my class this week. She reminded me today that even though we have a few students in our classrooms that have difficult lives and therefore are difficult in the classroom ... we are VERY lucky that we can actually make a difference with those few students and we aren't overwhelmed with a whole classroom of students like that. Brenda is THE person to go to if you want to be able to put things in perspective ... she's GREAT at it!

Now for Mitzi. I was SO overwhelmed with my messy desk. I didn't even know where to start to get organized. The last week I haven't been able to do anything productive for myself at school because I couldn't get my act together. Mitzi came in my room at indoor recess and saw how flustered I was. She knew I needed help and just started cleaning, filing and throwing away. By the end of the day I could actually see parts of the top of my desk. Woo Hoo!

At the end of the day, I had a chance to catch up with my other friend, Michele, at work. Michele was my mentor my first year at school. We spend countless hours together during the week and she was helpful to help me survive my first year. We talked and caught up for about an hour and it was really nice. Sometimes you just need someone to listen.

As we all got ready to go home for the 3-day weekend, a few of us realized that we had nothing to do on this snowy, cold night. Brenny was off to be a ski bunny and hit the slopes in Colorado ... lucky duck. Mitzi was off to run errands, but then didn't have anything to do. The Chittums weren't sure if they had plans and Amy said she was free since her beau had movie plans with friends.

I didn't have plans either, so I suggested that people come over for a game night. I ran to Mom & Dad's at the end of my long day to get my bag of games. I treated myself to FRIENDS Scene-It last year and hadn't played it yet. So, people came over when they could and we laughed and enjoyed all the FRIENDS clips!

Minnie made a new friend, too! I've never seen her so well behaved and quiet around a group of people! I'm pretty sure she would have gone home with Adam if she could have.

On Sunday I will get to hang out with my other bestests! Julie is in town to get some wedding planning done, so Becca, Megan and I are meeting her for lunch at Dean & Deluca. Woo Hoo! More fun catch-up time with friends.

Me, in the future ...

If you've spent any time with me, you know that I LOVE PURSES! I really don't think it's possible for any girl to have too many purses.

At last count, I had probably 40+. Some of them are for daily use; some of them are for special occasions (weddings, nights out, to the pool, etc); some of them are for show and have been given to me to add to the collection; and some of my very favorites are vintage (either purchased by me or handed down).

When I lived in my old apartment, I decorated a whole wall of my closet with my purses on hooks. I wish I had taken a picture of it, because it was really cool. I've collected several pictures from magazines that show exactly what I would like to do on a bedroom or closet wall when I get my own place. Of course, I couldn't find any of them online, but Martha does have a great closet organizing idea with a pegboard.

The other thing you might already know about me and my purses is that they are either teeny tiny for a Girls' Night Out or quite large. I'm pretty sure that I have neck, shoulder, and back pain due to my suitcase-like purses. When I go to restaurants, I'm pleased when there is an extra chair at the table for my purse to sit on. I won't even get into the problem of my purses and bathroom stalls again.

As I continue to get newer purses, they continue to get bigger and bigger. Once you start carrying stuff in your large purse, you have a hard time NOT having it with you at all times. I'm pretty sure this is my next step:

I am totally over Tom Cruise, but I continue to like parts of Katie Holmes more and more. I mean, I accept the fact that she's probably been brain-washed and has become a part of the Scientology cult ... but ... I like her her hair, couture wardrobe and this purse! It is a bit over the top, but when I win the lottery, one of my first purchases will be a Birkin bag. I'd love a vintage one, but I guess I'd also take a brand-new one if someone was dying to get rid of it! :)

Reason #9 Why a teacher's job is different from everyone else's job

I'm enjoying a snow day and you probably aren't!

My lovely roomie texted me this morning from downstairs just before my alarm was supposed to go off to say: "Tv says snow day". Then I turned on my TV and watched as 400 other closings scrolled on the bottom of my TV to first see Olathe then Shawnee Mission (which means BV was for sure closed), but had to wait to actually see Blue Valley School District! Then, just to make sure I called the BV Helpline (which had not been updated since before Winter Break) and finally my work voice-mail.

NO SCHOOL!

I had to text my teammates to share the good news, text Julie to brag that I was still in bed and she was probably watching kids walk in her classroom, and then finally go back to bed. Woke up at 9:45 and feel much better!

I looked out my window and thought this was another mistake snow day (like the last not-so-snow day), but when I went to take Miss Minners out, I knew that the powers that be made the right choice! It is bitterly cold out.

This picture isn't from today's snow, but I love this pic. If we are going to have a snow day, I almost wish there was a lot so the kids could at least enjoy it with some good old fort making and snow ball fights!

He wants to party all the time, party all the time, party all the tiiiiime!

For those of you that know me well ... you know that I am more than a bit obsessed with celebrity gossip. Lately I've been feeling bad about my obsession, because I think that the paparazzi stuff has gotten WAY OUT OF CONTROL, and I know that I contribute to that.

I can't wait for Friday to come, because I know that means that my US Weekly will be waiting for me in my mailbox. I come home at night to get caught up on my fav celeb smut blog, Oh No They Didn't. I love all things celebrity and like to impress people with how up-to-the-minute my celebrity knowledge is. I even made a celebrity inspired cookie at the Wagner Cookie Decorating Party this year and won the People's Choice Award.

See?


There is a picture from a few years ago that shocked me. It was a picture of Britney and Kevin (love the fact that I can use just first names and everyone knows who I am talking about) on the beach when they first started dating. One of the paps took a picture from behind them and you could see about 30 other photographers about 10 feet away from them. I don't know how celebrities deal with it. I couldn't find that picture, but here is one that is pretty close.



Today I got home and actually saw something that shocked me on Oh No They Didn't. Eddie Murphy and his new bride have ... wait for it ... decided to split! Apparently they lasted from New Year's Eve to Jan. 4th and the news is just now getting out. A 4 day marriage, woo hoo! I laughed out loud.

Who are these celebs kidding? You don't have to get married to prove that you have gotten over your ex. You don't have to get married to make us feel better about your baby bump. You don't have to get married just because you've spent the last 16 years of your life married to 4 other people. It's okay to just be. Look at the great celeb couples like Tim Robbins & Susan Sarandon, Goldie Hawn & Kurt Russell, Oprah & Gail, oh wait, I meant Stedman. None of them feel the need to get married, and they are probably better off that way.

Reason #412 why a teacher's job is different from everyone else's job

When you watch the weather man in the morning you don't really have to plan your outfit around what he says.

When I hear, "High of 38 degrees around 4pm, with a slight wind from the south and a cold front coming in" I have to plan accordingly.

To you, that may just mean make sure I have a coat, scarf and gloves for the drive to work. For me, I'm thinking that I need to bundle up for the drive to work, leave a heavy coat in my closet at work for recess duty, bring boots to change into for recess duty, and attempt to get out the door at school to enjoy the "high" for the day!

Tomorrow, I could probably plan on wearing heels to work ... with the temperature predicted to be super low and a chance of snow ... I'll be safe inside with indoor recess! :)

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Side note: I just turned on The Office on TBS. If you don't watch The Office, you are missing out! Tonight's episode was "The Merger". Here's the clip that just made me laugh out-loud and wake the dogs:

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Enjoy!