A Grandson Turns Five

This gentleman is turning five years old today. He is so excited about it that he called me this morning. So far his day has a trip to an aquarium and a meal at McDonald's. This weekend the celebration extends to a camping trip which is one of his favorite things to do.

Here's something to make you say that's so cute. He told his mom this morning that now that he was turning 5 he would be starting kindergarten but don't worry because he would still be living at home.

Meanwhile his mom is wondering how this wonderful baby boy got to be 5 so fast!

My Favorite Poet

When I was just out of high school I discovered I liked the poetry of Rod McKuen. I bought several of his books back then. The line I remember from one particular poem was "Now I have the time, where are you?" Sad to say I don't have them any more. Through many moves in my life they we donated or given away as I thinned out my things getting ready to pack. I had moved on from thinking the deep thoughts of youth to marriage and children.

In thinking about this weeks topic of poetry for the EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival and knowing I have never written a poem worth sharing in my life I thought about sharing something of his instead. On a website dedicated to this man and his poetry I found a poem of his that calls to me again. It is called Age Is Better. If you are 40 or more I think you may enjoy it as well as I did. If you are younger than that take the time to explore the ideas and see that living long is worth it. A line from this poem sums up how I feel about my own birthdays which don't bother me at all. It is, "Age is proof you got from there to here."

Please follow the link to the poem and come back here and comment on it. I would love to hear from you.

This post is a part of a weekly event of the EtsyBloggers. This week our host is Create A Thought and by going to that blog you will see the links to all the other contributors to this carnival. You can find out more using the links for the carnival archives and current issue in the sidebar on the left.

Ten Bulls

This week the theme for the EtsyBloggers Carnival is bull. I love to use these themes to discover new artists or explore ideas I may never have found or thought about on my own. Many times when stumped on what to write for my carnival entry I turn to Etsy and go window shopping. It worked for this theme very well I believe.

I found a self published book by the artist Maria Lewis. This artist uses her own photography to illustrate the classic Zen story of Ten Bulls. Each bull in the story is following a step on the path to enlightenment. The steps begin with a search for a path to follow and end at the tenth by entering the world to spread enlightenment through all your contacts. The story and interpretations can be found in many places but none of them are as beautifully done as what the artist, Maria Lewis has done in this book.

Silkfair

I saw a mention of a site called Silkfair a short time ago in the forums on Etsy. In looking it over I decided to give it a try. This is online selling is getting to be like going from craft show to craft show. I think I have a good sense of where I want to go with my stuff. I keep evaluating site after site and finding this or that about them that I don't like. I know if I want to make a part time income from my handcrafted goodies it probably can't all be done on one site. I have, at least for now, settled on three. I will right away that the first major consideration for any site is how it looks. Is is easy to figure out how to navigate. Do the products stand out or is it the page itself? Is it pleasing to the eye?

I have decided to end listing on blujay. I am sorry. I am sure there are people who are great fans of Blujay and I wish you all well. The set up for selling is nice and easy to use. I just think the way the pages and stores are laid out is just ugly. I wouldn't want to shop there with the way it looks.

This now leaves me with Etsy which I think for now and maybe well into the future is one of the best sites for handcrafted goods. My Etsy mini is on the left and you can use it to go to my shop there and look around.

One other site I will keep a presence on is Ecrater. I like the way to stores look and the features they offer for setting up a shop. I just found out that they now have widgets. My Ecrater widget is in the sidebar on the left. You can use it to check out my items and go to the store.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post the newest place you can find A Cozy Life's hand crafted things is SilkFair. I started with some bandannas today and a blog post. (Yes every seller gets their own blog.) This place is doing a lot right and it will be fun to see how it grows and grow with it I hope. They don't have any cool gadgets or badges for blogs yet but when they do I will proudly put it on the left with the others. Below are my first listings on Silk Fair. Tomorrow I plan to add some headbands.

Great Breakfast

I want to share with you what is a secret of ours. There is a Mexican restaurant in Apache Junction called Los Gringos Locos. During the winter when this town's population doubles with snowbirds they start serving breakfast on the weekends. We go here for breakfast most weekends through the winter usually on Sunday.

The food is fantastic and includes burritos with chorizo or machaca, plates of eggs with those meats or made to order omelettes. While others who don't know better are across the parking lot lined up to eat at a greasy spoon that shall remain nameless we have a wonderful breakfast in an uncrowded place for about the same price. The season will be ending soon and we will have to find a new place for our weekend mornings but you can be sure we will be back as soon as they start serving breakfast again next fall.

For lunch and dinner I have never had anything on the menu I didn't like. My favorite if you made me choose is probably the fish tacos. The fish is grilled and then chopped. It is put together with mild cheese, shredded cabbage and a mango salsa. Sooooo good!

Just felt like sharing this with you. If you are ever in the Apache Junction area and hungry you will never have a bad meal at this place.

Memory Bouquet

The theme for this post was created and will be hosted in a blog carnival by Stormy Designs. The inspiration behind the theme is the song Pieces of April sung by Three Dog Night. I really was having a hard time figuring out what to write for this carnival until I looked up the lyrics to the song. Quite a few family events happened in April and after reading the lyrics I decided to share them with you in a memory bouquet.

So, here are my pieces of April some happy and some sad.

The 13th of this month was my mother in law's birthday. She had eight children and my husband was number four of that group. In the time between meeting my husband in 1975 and her death in 1997 three of those eight died. All three were younger than 25. I can not imagine her pain.

The 23rd I am pretty sure was the birthday of my mother's second husband. This is the man my children and my nieces and nephews called Grandpa Al. He died in 1998 and all the kids miss him. He had no children of his own but seemed to enjoy the five of us that he got when he married my mother at least most of the time. He supported my brothers through college and they are both engineers now because of that help.

The 30th has two events. It was the wedding anniversary of my mother and Al. They got married in 1983. This is also the day my grandson Hunter was born in 2003.

There is one other major thing that I have as part of my bouquet. This is kind of like the greenery or baby's breath that is put in bouquets to surround all the other flowers and make them look good. This month marks 25 years of sobriety for my husband. I am so proud of him. Who knows where we would be if he didn't make and keep the commitment to not drink. I am so thankful he has the strength to do this for himself, us and our family.

There you have it - my pieces of April that make up my memory bouquet.

For more information about the EtsyBloggers Street Team and out blog carnivals you can find the team blog here.

Some people......

Some people just amaze me. I got a comment on my post for Read Across America from the nephew of Sheryl who I wrote about on that day. She was such a huge part of the celebration at our school that day. She lost a battle with cancer a few years ago and the world is different without her. I was just so surprised that he found my little post and left a comment.

Someone in Utah contacted me last week with another surprise.

I used to do a craft show the first weekend in November in Spanish Fork, Utah. The last time I was in the show was 2005. The person who contacted me bought a crocheted baby blanket and got one of my business cards.

It seems that the blanket was lost recently on a family trip and the little guy it belonged to was sad. She wanted to know if I could make him a new blanket but maybe slightly larger this time.

What amazed me is the persistence she showed to get in touch with me. The home phone and email on that card are no good anymore. I did keep my cell number the same and that is how she found me. Not only that but she had the card after more than 2 years! Wow!

You can see what I came up with for him. I sent this picture to see if the blanket is alright. If so, I get to make a trip to the Post Office soon. I just love sending my work off to new homes.

Technorati Tags: crocheted,blanket,afghan,crafts,craft show,spanish fork,utah,business cards,sheryl,read across america,baby blanket

On the Patio

We have a sign of spring on our patio. Each year that we have lived here in Arizona we have had a pair of nesting doves. They use the hanging pots on the patio for laying eggs. This year has been no exception. The eggs were laid sometime around Kaycee's spring break visit. We now have 2 babies being watched over by very attentive parents. Sneaking up on the pot when the parents are away for a short time we can see 2 little ones without any real feathers yet. It will be fun to watch them grow and fly for the first time in the coming days and weeks.

Diamonds and Daisies

shellmitchell presents Diamonds and Daisies posted at Shell Mitchell Accessories and Design

Karen presents those yucky diamonds posted at faded willow.

Mothers Precious Gems presents Diamonds and Daisies Blog Carnival posted at ♥ Strings Attached ♥.

Kathy Johnston (Cozy) presents Diamonds and Daisies for April posted at A Cozy Life.

Katie presents D&D - Not what you think! posted at Doodlesprouts.

Dayna Williamson presents Daisies & Diamonds posted at Scottie Acres.

Athena Workman presents Blog Carnival: Diamonds and Daisies posted at the weblog of artist athena workman.

Ashley presents Contrasting Beauty posted at Wax Dribbles & Melt Pools.

CREATEaTHOUGHT presents Diamond in the rough posted at CREATEaTHOUGHT.

lazytcrochet presents Window Shopping posted at LazyTcrochet.

BeckyKay Designs presents A Love Story posted at purse-onality.

MostlyFlowers presents Dazzling with Sweetness - April Weddings posted at Mostly Flowers Esty Shop

Stormy Designs presents Diamonds and Daisies posted at Stormy Designs. (Our featured etsyblogger for the month of April)

Janet Reddick presents Diamonds and Daisies posted at Sky Girl Style.

Chocolate Lollipop presents Trendy Themes - "Daisies & Diamonds" posted at Trendy Tots.

Nora Demirjian presents Diamonds and Daisies posted at Nora's Blog

HomeMadeOriginals presents Is it true that diamonds are a girl's best friend? posted at Home Made Originals.

Staci Caporuscio presents Pink Pooch Designs: Diamonds and Daisies posted at Pink Pooch Designs.

joeyandaleethea presents diamonds and daisies posted at J o e y & A l e e t h e a

Jen (bfbeads) of Baby Friendly Beads presents Diamonds and Daisies posted at Mama's Magic.

Shannon D. Saylor presents rocks and plants, what more could we want? posted at ShannonSaylor.Etsy.com.

Kate Jones presents EtsyBlogger Street Team Blog Carnival posted at Om Shanti Handcrafts.

Jo Hoffacker presents Blue Daisy posted at Dogmaw Glass.

Paper Fields presents Serendipity Collections: April 7 Carnival posted at Serendipity Collections

Lilblackdog presents Diamonds & Daisies~~~ posted at Woof!!.

Maureen Blakeley Impawsible To Resist presents Diamonds and Daisies For the Month of April 2008 posted at Impawsible To Resist.

laurie beth beggin presents DIAMONDS AND DAISIES! posted at laurie beggin glass musings

That concludes this edition. We hope you have enjoyed reading all the contributions to this carnival. Comments on all our blogs are always welcome and let us know someone was there.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of etsybloggers using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: etsybloggers, blog carnival.

Diamonds and Daisies for April

I just knew there would be a shop where I could find both words represented in one item and I found it at Flower Girl Card Shop. In the description for her card she explains the symbolism behind each of these things.

The birth month flower for April is the Daisy, symbolizing innocence, youth, simplicity and modesty.

The birth month gemstone is the Diamond which symbolizes constancy, excellence, joy and purity.

I love all kinds of flowers. I don't always know the names of them but that doesn't take away from the joy of looking. It does seem that everyone knows what a daisy is though. A simple flower in yellow or white that makes me smile to see them. I try to have a life like that. A simple life with smiles from those I come in contact with each day.

Diamonds on the other hand are a long time in the making. They are difficult and dangerous to find. They need some work to look their best and as someone said in marketing them they are forever. At 52 I am becoming more diamond like in that I certainly need a lot of work to look my best. I don't worry about it too much since sparkling has never been what I am about.

I'll stick to the daisy style of life because it suits me. Simple and modest even if I have to give up on the innocence and youth part.