I am SO bad at this.

Well, I think it is pretty obvious, I am terrible at blogging. I can't remember to write it. I have little notes all over with ideas for postings, I have pictures ready to post & it just won't write itself! :( I am going to change the format a bit.... less talk, more picture... maybe this will help make it more manageable for me.

I have been working on the water bottle carrier & it should be for sale soon! Thanks for your patience!

This picture is of my cat, his name is Chewbacca, he is one year old. He weighs more than 12 lbs. He thinks it is fun to bite. I call him bad names. :) Isn't he cute lounging on the back of the sofa? :/

busy!

I am at a quilt/fabric/sewing show with my friend Melanie of www.aboveallfabric.com.

We are tired but having a great time!

I will update the blog after it is over! :)

can it get any better than this?

I am working on lots of projects & still cleaning up the mess from the yard sale & the mess from our storage room... blech!

I went to the laundry room a minute ago, because I realized with all the time I have been spending on sewing & cleaning, I have nothing clean to wear! I mean nothing! So, I am standing in the laundry room throwing clothes into the washer & it is running water & loud, but I thought I heard something, so I turned & there was my sweet 10 year old daughter.
She had a question for me.......

"Mommy, can I please do the dishes?"

hmmmmmm.... let me think about it......... YES!

What a great kid, or a very strange kid, or probably more likely, a combination of both.... all I know, is that I love her! She is AMAZING! :)

slow to update & Patty Young!

I never wanted to have a blog that is not updated at least every week! I hate that when I have a friend, or a sister :)- who will update a lot & then all of a sudden, they are gone for like two weeks! What is up with that? Are they on vacation? Did they think no one was reading? Did they forget? Or perhaps.... life go SO busy, they could not get everything done & the blog was on the cut list! I understand now... sometimes there is just too much going on. So, sorry if I have ever been upset with you for not updating on a regular basis... & sorry for not updating as often as I think I should!!! :)

My reasons for not updating as often as I think I should are many... it has been a crazy time at my house! The ceiling in my storage room (see post below) is almost half gone now... I am living with boxes all around me :( the termite man has come & gone & has to come out again, after we take a hammer to the affected boards & make all the termite poo fall out.... awesome.



So, since we have sorted all of this stuff out, we had a monster yard sale, I mean HUGE!!! Completely filled the garage with stuff & it spilled out onto the driveway all the way to the street, it was amazing. :) It took me most of a week to get it all, sorted, priced set up. My friend Stacey & her daughter came & helped. I got tables from two other great friends, my hubby & daughter helped with SO much!

As I was working on all of this, our cat had a seizure or concussion or something & had to be rushed to the e-vet in the middle of the night. The dog needed her rabies shot & the day I had to get to the bank for change, my car would not start! I try not to whine, but MAN! I could use a break! :)-



So the yard sale went really well! Phoebe & her friend Emily had a lemonade stand, all the money going to their school library & they made $19!!! Good food (thanks to Stacey!) cute kids, a good cause & generous people! Amazing!

Have I mentioned that my life is normally a very quite time? I mean, nothing goes on here! SOOOO quiet. So, imagine my surprise when I got into the car that would not start last week & it started up! I drove it part way to the bus stop, thinking how lucky I was that it was working again & the power steering failed. Yep...... one more thing.

All of these negative things were starting to build up & get me down... the yard sale was a great success, but I still had so much other stuff that was not in the positive column, I was starting to be a real bummer... & then it happened, the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me personally... besides my daughter & husband & all that gushy stuff, I mean in an accomplishment sort of way..... I was mentioned in Patty Young's blog!!!! Yes, I almost died, and or wet my pants! It is so AMAZING!!!!!


Now, if I could find enough time in the day to get my shop open, I would be all set! :)

slow going............

I was at Melanie's house on Saturday working on the cool scarves for one of her Caring Communities projects, it was really fun & I got to hold a baby! :)

Anyway, after I got back home my husband mentioned that the back room had a place where the drywall tape was getting lose... strange, I thought. We walked to the room, opened the door & discovered it was SO much worse. The drywall had come lose & there was water pouring in. awesome.

It quickly became apparent that we will have to open up the whole ceiling to find the leak from the inside & remove the wet drywall. Did I mention this is my storage room & it is full?

My back has not hurt this much since we moved in a year ago. We decided it was a good opportunity to clean out! I have been sorting stuff this whole week. Everything has to come out of the room so we can tear out the old & put up new drywall.

(Monster yard sale, coming soon!)

Several Christmas storage bins came out of there with some strange sand like stuff on them....... & we found a termite tube on the ceiling in another spot. We have had a constant termite problem at this house, but we have really great bug guys & they come right out & fix it each time. So, I called & they came out.... the one termite tube, no problem. The sand like pellets? Dry Wood Termites. We have to take down even more of the ceiling & worse case scenario..... replace the roof. Have I said 'awesome' yet?

I am so happy that nothing had been ruined when the leak happened & I am pleased we are sorting through all our junk & getting rid of stuff. I am trying to stay positive! I know it could be OH so much worse, I know this is all trivial... but could I catch a break already? SO, my shop is not up yet & though I am working on it all this is more important at the moment. On the plus side, I fixed my sewing machine (by myself!) & it is working great. My car is being fixed & I should have it back soon.

Have I mentioned I love that this thing has a spell checker? If only there was a grammar checker! :) I am struggling with the html stuff & other formatting, but I am learning & working on it...... I swear it will get better! Thanks for bearing with me. :)

GODZILLA!!!!!

Okay, maybe it isn't quite that bad... but I really HATE lizards! I know it is not a rational fear, but I can't help it! They totally freak me out.





We moved here to Arizona from Michigan two years ago. Michigan is not known for its lizard population & to be fair I had no idea I was phobic about them. I think for me, it is kind of like having a mouse in the house...total freak out irrational screaming jumping fear!

Here in Arizona, we have lizards. LOTS of them in fact. Our home was vacant for a time before we purchased it, we have bit of land... & more lizards than I can deal with! I have no issue with them, when they are not up close... but lately they have been up really close!


A few weeks ago, this monster showed up right outside the door... he is about 8" long. His girlfriend is about 6" long. That's right I said girlfriend, can you guess what we have now?




Yep..... the tall grass next to my back door seems to be a perfect baby Godzilla nursery. Awesome.







Then today.... this mini-Komodo monster showed up, two of them actually. They are SO creepy! One has already tried to get in the house, I am SO happy we have a cat!



If my sewing machine was not broken :( I would be sewing instead of freaking out about lizards... but that is a story for another day. I have to go watch & make sure Godzilla & family are not plotting to get in!

Happy to be home

My mom has been visiting us for a few weeks, today we took her up to the airport. She had to go back to Michigan. :(

We live in Tucson, the airport she had to go through is north of us in Phoenix. I know it is hot here, but it is nothing compared to Phoenix!

It was 111 degrees! I felt like I was melting.

The good news in all of it is.... IKEA! I got to go to Ikea & I love it there! They were out of the fabric I am desperate for, but otherwise.... a great trip!

I have to get to work now, that shop will not open itself! I got a bunch of hardware & other supplies yesterday (thanks Melanie!), so I can get a ton done now!

Have a great weekend!!!

short, sweet & to the point!

The power keeps going out... :(

so, nothing fancy to write about today!

I have written this post more than once & just when I am about to click POST,

the power goes out...

awesome.

I have been working hard to get my shop open.

I am trying to get more sewing done.....

and since I don't have a treadle machine anymore...

I am hoping the power stays on for a while!

:)

A better day!

Well, Monday was no good, & Tuesday was a wash-out, but today.... today has been great.

I got my business cards in the mail, they were not supposed to get here until the 21st! They look good & I am really happy they got here so soon.

I got my Trade Name Certification certificate in the mail too! It is so pretty & official looking, I might have to frame it! :)

I also got the title for my car! It is officially paid off! (probably why I got hit on Monday)

Now it is raining at my house! Fantastic!!! I really mean that, I live in Arizona & we have not had a good rain shower here for months!

I need to go and get some sewing done, hope you all have a wonderful day!

Spell Checker Fail!

Please disregard the PT Cruiser spelling below..... though I was not physically injured in the accident, clearly it did not help my spelling/proofreading abilities.... sheesh! :)-

A Yukon Denali, always beats a PT Curiser!

I woke up this morning with a headache. I should have known to stay home... I should have realized it was not a good plan to go out. But, today was my daughter's first day of baby sitting class. She is 10 & her best friend is about to have a baby sister & they are going to need some baby sitting skills! So, they are both taking the class & today was the first day.

I knew it was not going to go well when we got there & there was no indication of where we were supposed to go. I should have left then, I should have packed it up & run for home, but I knew this was important to her & let me be honest.... it cost $72 & I am too stubborn not to get my moneys worth. We find the correct way into the school & go to the room her class is supposed to be in. Not there. Again, I did not run.... it's possible there is a simple oversight, not letting the parents know of the room change, right? Let me skip ahead in this story & say, we found the room. By the time we got there I had a whole group of lost kids with me & a staff member telling me I was wrong. I am pretty sure there were some flames shooting out of my eyes.

I figured, why not be optimistic.... it can't get worse than this, right?

Wrong. I explain to my Mother, who has been waiting in the car all this time, what took so long, back my car out of it's parking spot, put it in drive & wham. I am hit by another parent backing out of her parking spot. Awesome. The good part, no one is hurt! The car will live, the back door no longer opens, but it's just a door. She has insurance. It will get fixed. I thought there was no possible way the day could get worse, it could only get better, we might as well go on with our day & enjoy it!



After we picked Phoebe up from her class, we took her out for lunch. They made her sandwich wrong. I should have heard the warning bells in my head... but no, I kept on with my day.

My favorite thrift store is about 40 minutes from my house we went last week but, the shop was closed for renovation, I had checked the web site for the hours...it said nothing about the construction. There is a huge sign up that said it would be open on the 12th. So, we had planned to make the trip (again) today. We got all the way there..... they had crossed out the 12th & wrote 19th.

That was it, I turned around & came home. What else would have happened if I just kept going today?!? Perhaps a flat tire, or a lost purse....or....I don't know & I am not willing to find out!

Well, I am home now & I plan to stay here! I have some sewing to get done anyway. I still have the headache, but now I have a door dent to match. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day! Although, I will probably have to deal with insurance... :(

I am going to go find some chocolate & be happy we came home before anything worse happened! :)

My Shop

Hi! My name is Ariel and my shop is
Tootsie Marie.

I love to sew & my family has been telling me for quite a long time to set up a shop & sell some things. I put it off & put it off, I was not convinced anyone would buy the stuff I was making.

I have a great friend, (one of my very, best friends in fact) named Melanie, she owns a fabric store, Above All Fabric.
I buy all of my fabric from her, she carries the best designers! We get together to sew & work on projects pretty often, we laugh a LOT & sew a little! :)

I brought my latest idea over to Melanie's house to have her look at it, a water bottle carrier made from Patty Young's fabric... Playdate, goldfish - teal.
She loved it & the rest is very recent history.

She Tweeted a picture of the water bottle carrier & sold two of them right then! I didn't have a blog or a shop or even a price yet! I freaked out a little & then got to work.

I could not have done this without her help. She has held my hand through everything, from my trademark name to teaching me about HTML code! Thank you Melanie! I would be a total wreck without you!

I also owe a huge thanks to my husband & parents for always encouraging me and to my daughter, for being so darn sweet. :)

I think 'water bottle carrier' is a bit of a long name, so I am calling it the 'Carey Jane'. I am working hard to have them available in my shop as soon as possible. I am also working on a Carey Jane pattern and a kit or two.

Thank you for reading this! I hope everything is spelled correctly! I am having some trouble with the formatting, but I promise to work on it! :)