Glad I am not.....

Glad I am not moving anytime soon. I have moved a couple times with full service when Jim was in the Navy. No packing, no driving a truck and getting it delivered and set in place for you at the new home. I am very glad as well that we did not have to pay for it because moving services are very expensive and one of our moves was from Guam back to the United States and involved bringing home a car. Every once in awhile we talk about moving on from here in Phoenix but the next place is going to have to be very special to go through the moving process again.

One of Those Days

Did you ever have one of those days? You know the kind. You check mail, read blogs, look around forums, and find silly little things to google. All of these silly little things that keep anything useful from getting done because you just don't feel ready to get to work? I have them and today is one of them.

The visual for the post today is brought to you by Ela & company.

Cool Fruity Goodness

Mini Bee's Knees provided your visual for my post today. The reason I chose it is for the pineapple which is my most loved smoothie flavor.

My favorite way to cool off which is something we need to do around here from April to October is to make smoothies. They are cold and I hope relatively nutritious and I have them many times when it is hot for a meal at breakfast or lunch.

My favorite smoothie uses about a cup of crushed ice, a small container of light vanilla yogurt, about a cup of pineapple-orange juice and frozen pineapple chunks. It all goes in the blender to make thick icy goodness that tastes so good. This makes a very big smoothie and you can share it and have a wonderful drink to go along with any breakfast or light lunch.

You don't need to stop there however. I alway start my smoothies with crushed ice and vanilla yogurt. The combinations of fruit and juice after that can be anything you like. For fruit you can use fresh bananas or frozen strawberries, mango, peaches, raspberries, blackberries or mixed of any of them. I think I use about 1/2 of fruit but I don't really measure. For juice I like to use orange or pineapple but I have used white grape, cranberry or anything blended with cranberry or any of the Welch's Orchard blends.

Have fun creating your own combinations!
Leave a comment and let me know what you come up with.

A Month of Fame

That is what A Keeper's Jackpot has for July - a month of fame. All active members of the EtsyBloggers Street Team will be spreading the word about this great artist. You can find her works for sale in her Etsy shop.

Here is an example-Doesn't the necklace above say cool summer night to you? I love the delicate color of the beads combined with the silver.


I could not describe this necklace and better than the artist did herself.

While having nothing to do with an ocean, the color of the beads and the design of the pendant remind me of a tropical ocean... The beautiful Murano style glass pendant has shades of periwinkle and ocean blue. With imagination you can see seaweed and coral. The shape of the pendant is like that of a fish and you can picture its silver scales.

I love blogs for giving me the ability to take a peek into the lives of those whose work I admire. Knowing more about the artist behind the work makes it more meaningful to me. If you feel that way too then you need to head over to A Keeper's Jackpot blog. This blog covers the useful in a section of Etsy Tutorials, what's new in her My Projects section and fun stuff about the region she is from in the Adirondacks section. In typical EtsyBlogger share the love fashion she also has a section of Featured Artists that may help you find a new shop and artist you are interested in.




If you like giveaways and are not an EtsyBlogger(really who doesn't?) you want to get to her blog and take a look at the rules in this post. You have a chance to win the earrings you see pictured here.

So go check out the shop and the blog and tell her Cozy sent you!

Getting Older

It always seems to go so fast! I have 6 grandkids, 4 boys and 2 girls. This gentleman is having his second birthday today!

It seems like such a short time ago that I was still in Utah taking care of his big sister when his mom and dad went to the hospital.

He is so much fun to be around. He love cars, trucks and dogs. One of his favorite things to do is call Grandpa on the phone.

Happy birthday Tristan!

Technorati Tags: birthday,grandkids

New Homes for Headbands

In the last couple weeks I have had the pleasure of sending two of my headbands to new homes. One of them went to Oregon and the other is on the way to Wisconsin.

The Blue Paisley headband was sold through my Etsy shop and since I made 4 of these another one has been relisted if you think it would be right for you.

The other headband that sold was the Bold and Beautiful headband. This sale was my first ever in my Silkfair shop. I only made two of these and the last one is listed on Etsy right now.

I have really enjoyed making these headbands. I believe they are different than what you can find anywhere else. They are a great way to keep your hair out of your face and with the ties they are adjustable for anyone. The ties could also be used to tie your hair in a ponytail to keep it off your neck and feel cooler during hot summer days. I have a few more designs to photo and list. Look for them in the next week.

I have made a policy of never putting the same item on more than one site. In fact I have separate boxes to hold the inventory for each store. This is to make sure that no single item can sell on two different sites at the same time leading to an unhappy buyer especially if they want something I can't reproduce. It also helps to keep me sane. If you see the same item in all three of my shops, Etsy, Silkfair and Ecrater it is because three or more of them exist. I keep the prices the same on all sites so folks can shop with the system they are the most comfortable.

Our Fourth of July

We had a quiet day that ended with a good meal of steaks, beans and potato salad. I fixed apple pie and ice cream for dessert. Of course I had to see the fireworks. Fortunately I just have to look over my back fence.

Minis are the Best!

I just love the Etsy mini and use it all the time as some of you may know. It is an easy way for me to put a couple current products on out EtsyBloggers team blog to say "Happy Birthday" to someone. For a more indepth article like our regular weekly Mini Monday featured artists I like to use the mini along with a couple pictures from the artists shop and some profile information to give a good idea of who our amazing members are.

I have two minis on this blog. One of them is in the sidebar and shows items in my shop. The other one is all the way down at the bottom and is a gallery of sorts of some of my favorites. These are things that make me say wow! I change and add to them all the time. I call it window shopping.

When I was the teams featured blogger for the month of May I used a mini here in posts to thank those who took the time to post about my blog and shop on their blogs. I know this is not the most read blog on the internets but I do hope that it did some good for their shops.

What I really love about this widget is the versatility. The pictures can be thumbnail or gallery size. You can do your own shop or someone elses. You can adjust the size of the grid from 1 by 1 to about 5 by 5 pictures. What it shows is always current and all clickable without having to set up any of the links on your own.

Want to see again what this little thing looks like? How about taking a look the store for our blog carnival host this week Storybeader.

Here is a peek at her favorite things-

See what I mean about versatility? A couple clicks, a number replaced and you have an instant mini shop front! I just love this thing!

Love Music?

My husband and I do. love music that is. All kinds of music in fact. I tend to enjoy folk, bluegrass and celtic the most. He will listen to almost anything and has built quite a collection. Away from home he uses one of his ipods to listen to his favorite tunes. He has a regular ipod and one of those tiny little shuffle ones. One or the other of them goes on every plane trip with him. Of course guess what he wants next? He keeps looking at the ipod touch. I must admit they are certainly a cool looking gadget but I just don't like wearing headphones or those little earplugs like he does.

I Wish I Had Known

When we were going through some home remodeling we got our hands on a kind of off brand tile saw. When the blade gave out the search began for replacements. No one seemed to carry them except for one place. That was Target.com. I was so surprised! The saw blades were available online only, not in the store or any other local store or home center that was in our area. When I placed the order I wish I had know about Target coupons because those saw blades were not cheap and I sure could have taken advantage of the deals offered.

Cute vs. Comfy

You may have noticed in previous posts that I was doing some writing with the intentions of chipping away at my current dental bill. Well I am done with that for the day I think and am back to speaking for myself.

Here is what I am pondering right now and it is about shoes. I recently bought some cute little canvas shoes for the summer. They seemed to fit just fine in the store. The first time I wore them for a day I got a blister on my heel. On other days I have worn them and by the end of the day my feet feel very tired I think from lack of support.








I have a pair of Crocs that I love. They never hurt, are light as air and yet provide all day support. Many people have a problem with their styling and see them as ugly. I kind of like how they look and wear them almost everywhere. They aren't exactly summer sandals or shoes but in much of Arizona places are to me over air conditioned and I get cold. I usually carry a hoodie or sweater to cover up the goose bumps!

Back to the topic at hand and my question.
Do you always wear cute no matter what it feels like?
Do you always go for comfort no matter what it looks like?
Do you live a life like me in a combination of both?

I would love to hear from anyone who cares to comment.