It's Personal

Hi everybody! I'm knee deep in cuff link making this week so pardon the quick update. So many new babies have entered my personal world this year that babies have been on my brain! It came out this past week in the things I made. Continuing with my personalization kick (but in my own special batty way) I've created the following pieces:

It started with this one. I had this idea to do a piece that was sort of like a stork bundle being delivered but with a more modern feel...

It then made me think about doing an ornament!

What do you guys think?

Sleepy. Trippy. Decoraty. Winny.

SLEEPY. Hi everyone!!! Not much going on around here other than I'm sleepy. I have been trying my darnedest to be in bed at 10PM every night (totally going against my night owl tendencies) and yet I am still sleepy. Don't ask me how that happens.

TRIPPY. I have a new personalized piece coming down the pike next week. Why not this week Nina? Well because I'm waiting on a supply kiddies! hee hee! Also, I'm taking a mini-vacation this week.

DECORATY. In other news, Mr. Beads and I have been on a decorating kick this month. He painted the living room this wonderful earth tone orange with a neutral tan-nish accent wall. I picked out the colors in the "oops paint" section of Home Depot. If you don't know what oops paint is, you are sorely missing out on decorating on the cheap! Google it. Here is a quick shot. So you know, once you start these sorts of things it's hard to stop. I think we're going to go for a vaguely ethnic look in here. We'll see how it goes. My attention has been pulled towards mirrors, bookshelves, the little tchotkes that make the place look good (candles, throw pillows). We're out of control. But don't worry we are only as out of control as we have budgeted for! Once the money runs out, it's over! Which reminds me, go buy some stuff from me so the good times can continue to roll! heh heh.

Here are some things I either got or want:

How cute are these candles? From Kohl's. Saw these today. Going to get the orange I think.
IKEA Hemnes mirror for the mantle.
IKEA Expedit bookshelf. Got two of these bad boys.

IKEA Tullsta. Think I want two of these. We'll see. They are not as light colored in person. I might be late with this, but did you know there is this site Bemz that specializes in slipcovers for your IKEA furniture? How cool is that?!?!?
We are a bit IKEA heavy handed here I know. But what can I say? They fit the budget.

And finally we may go ahead and get a slip cover for our couch so we can have more versatility with the color scheme. What do you all think?


WINNY. No room makeover is complete without perusing Etsy for some things non? I found this cool decal shop called Janey Mac and I found her blog and I won some decals!!! SWEET. These will be great practice. Can't wait until they arrive!!!

Hope all is well with everyone else and in case I don't get back here this week, have a great one!

xoxo,
Nina

p.s. ooh I wrote a novel!!!

Sterling Silver Mini Drip!

A customer asked me to miniaturize the original drip and so here she is!

The Third Time WAS a Charm!!!

Young Master Beads woke up this morning only half-heartedly saying he didn't want to go to school. Then he did no crying in the car and as we pulled up to school he was a little bit excited!!! Joy of joys!!! :D

And apparently he got to feed the class rabbit a carrot. I think he made some deal with his teacher that he would be all smiles on Wednesday. Hey, I understand teach. Bribes work wonders.

Third Time's A Charm?

I know you all have been waiting with baited breath to hear how Young Master's second day of school went. Well, he woke up and came into my bedroom asking if he had school and then saying he didn't want to go. Thankfully there were no waterworks or throwing up due to said waterworks yesterday morning. He kept saying he didn't want to go but didn't cry until we pulled up to the school. That's progress my friends!!!!

And it was a full day (2.5 hours) as opposed to a half day on the first day of school. When I came to get him once again he was all smiles and telling me that school was great.

Maybe tomorrow he'll make it in there without crying? I'm not counting on it but perhaps the third time will indeed be a charm.

As for me, I indulged in my 2.5 hours of solitude by happily skipping through the aisles of Home Depot and Target! :D

AAAAARRRRGHHH! A-holes come in all colors.

DISCLAIMER: This post is about race and why it isn't in everything. If you don't want to have this conversation, don't read this post. Hell I didn't even want to have this conversation and somehow I was drawn in.

So by now because everything moves so fast on the internets we've heard about Serena and Kanye both flipping their wigs. I think Kanye acted like a complete a-hole. Serena was totally unprofessional. But I don't see why this has to be a race issue.

Someone on Facebook said Kanye should be banned from awards shows. I thought that was funny. One of their "friends" - don't know this person or how much of a friend they are vs. associate - had a comment that just needed replying to. Needed it.

Anyway, this person basically writes "I don't want to be labeled a racist but if it had been a white person doing that all hell would've broken loose!" Actually she said something to the effect of if it had been a black chick who'd won and a white entertainer had done that all hell would've broken loose.

My question is, why did you HAVE to take it there? Oh that's right. You didn't. Kanye is a butt. So I basically made the point that a-holes come in all colors and that being an a-hole is not about race. I also pointed out in her calling the one singer a chick and the other an entertainer people might feel she was being sexist. Not that I thought that, but my point was people judge what you say on the words that you use. Maybe that is naive of me but people sure as hell can't mistake when you interject race into the equation where it was not uttered before.

I was so annoyed! And then she writes back to say I haven't lived long enough because race is a factor blah blah blah.

So of course the friend deletes this post because it's getting contentious and he didn't mean for all that to happen. lol.

But she gets on another post talking about just for the record I'm not racist. I have a black brother in law and 80% of my daughter's school is black blah blah blah. Once again, I said it was about asshattery not race.

To which she replies:

"oh...sorry its never about race...please dont get me going on race..being left out/// shall I go on? everyone wants the world to be an equal place as do I.. BUT... Whites dont dare exclude you from Miss america or TV shows..YET you can exclude us from yours??? PLEASE.. where is the equality?"

NEWSFLASH: Kanye acted like an a-hole. Thank you. End of story. As much as other people want to talk about black people playing the race card, we aren't the only ones pulling it out...

I finally had to say "look. You want to have a race conversation. I'm not. I was having an a-hole conversation. If you have a bone to pick with a whole race of people, I'm not going to be able to help you."

So annoyed!!!! And Kanye - quit being a butt!

A little reflection and new beginnings

I was so wrapped up in Young Master Beads having his first official day of preschool today (I'm writing this at midnight EST. It's still yesterday's today on the west coast!) that I literally forgot it was TODAY. You know, today.

That is until I called my parent's house to talk to my mom about the big first day and my dad answered the phone. I was excited to tell him how the day went (starting with inconsolable tears all morning in anticipation of being dropped off and ended with happy smiles and waves upon being picked up and being told "it was great!") but surprised he was home. He said, "I usually take today off." Then it hit me. It's September 11th.

I'm not going to go into all the details from 8 years ago, but I was on my way into Manhattan when it happened, my dad was on his way to work at The World Trade Center, my older sister and boyfriend (now husband) were in DC and I had friends in Pittsburgh. They are all still here but if you are from NY I find it hard to believe that if you were not directly affected, you don't know of people who lost people. I do.

I am so grateful that my dad made it out that day though I didn't find out until waaaay later in the day and I was stuck in Manhattan. But talking to him about it today made me think about all those parents who did not get to see their children make it to the first day of school over these last eight years. It made me reflect on all that was lost to so many as well as all that was instantly cherished by the nation.

So as I reflect on Young Master not wanting to leave my side this morning and my knowing that he needed to, I also understand that hugging him a little tighter each day won't hurt. Then I kick his butt out the car to his new beginnings!

I worked on Labor Day

I can be a contrarian like that.

This made my morning

Pow! He made soapy boxing gloves when I sent him to wash his hands!

*smooooch!*

I finally got back into Self Portrait Thursday on Flickr. It's a lot harder to do an arm's length sp holding this camera. lol.

I'm back. Pow!

Hi everybody! *waves frantically!*

I'm back and feeling pretty darn good! I've spent the last couple of days playing with my camera and I no longer feel totally intimidated by it. And I LOVE IT!!!! I took some shots today of Young Master Beads and while I loved my little Canon Powershot there is not a chance in heck it matches up to this camera (Canon Rebel XSi). Pow!

I'm really into saying "Pow!" right now. I picked it up from one of celebrity gossip blogs and can't stop. Don't go trying to find what celeb blogs I follow. lol. I am a bit ashamed that I like to read about these other people's lives.

So I have a new piece to reveal tomorrow! Mostly I am excited that I took halfway decent shots of it with the new camera. :D Yay! Look for a pic tomorrow sometime or visit the shop and look under the "new this week" tab tomorrow. It will be there!

xoxo,
me