Wow. It’s liberating watching 3 men for 3 hours dig an 8×8′ – yes FOOT – hole in my front yard. Occasionally a head will peep out but for the most part they’ve gone more than six feet under (and sometimes I wish they’d stay there). The best part out of all of this? It’s currently 3:34 in the am.

This is the second time in the last 14 months digging has happened (I won’t even start to count the single-hour outages that don’t require digging). Power outages in my rural subdivision, hours of freezing and bundling up in the house, what fun! Along with the new worry that our hundreds of dollars of insulin in the fridge will go bad if something doesn’t get done FAST, I have now found the joys of realizing that 1) I need to buy at least one of these and about 1,000 of these for emergencies:

And what’s with being pregnant, it being winter, and power outages are abound? I love that it’s close to 10 degrees outside and these poor men are stuck in my new hole with a now ripped up sprinkler system, reviving a 30 year old broken buried power line, in coveralls and sweatshirts.

The last time this happened you say? Thanksgiving 2007. I had 2 turkeys in the oven. I was told that they’d temporarily fix the line and come back in the spring to replace the whole line that extends the length of our 1 acre lot on the east side. They also said they’d replace our landscaping, and fix the sprinklers. Let’s just say our lawn dried up pretty fast last summer…and I gave up on that section of the yard for a season. Good thing, as I’d probably be more than close to crying to see all my hard work ripped up for the second time.

Why oh why can’t they just do what should have been done the first time? Tired, pregnant, winter, sick kids and power outages are not a good combination. Signing off at 4am, and they’re still not done!

I’ve never been on the Croc bandwagon until they came out with the prima ballet flats, which I LOVE! The rest I think are simply ugly, however the design team seems to be picking up a few new cues as you can see in these new flats: Olivia and Malindi

As you know, I’m expecting my third child. Along with the complications I’ve had with this pregnancy, I’ve been humbled as I’ve struggled to keep my business running smoothly with wacky health on top of regular motherhood responsibilities. Most accountants say that small businesses don’t make it past their 3rd year, and with the recession officially announced I’m constantly wondering if I’ll be the next to flop. I’m not writing to increase sales in my Etsy shop but to explain that if the shop closes or I end up not posting new product, it’s not for a lack of desire to continue but more because of a change of priorities. 

Thank you to everyone who I’ve been lucky enough to have done custom stationery and letterpress pieces for!

So I’ve been MIA. I regret to inform you that blogging will slow down significantly and I will not be taking any custom jobs until the spring due to the fact that I’m expecting. I am very ill and have had to turn away jobs until then to maintain strength needed to sustain the baby. I’ll spare you the gory details, but just know I’m not being a slacker, I’m just not taking to this pregnancy well. You can still purchase items in my Etsy shop that are pre-printed and I’ll have new product to launch in the spring to celebrate getting this baby out of me and into this lovely world! 

Hey guys! My website needs a desperate winter overhaul so I’ll be posting the winner for the giveaway tomorrow with next week’s giveaway as well. This giveaway will go through next Saturday to give everyone a fair chance. I might be posting here this week, I might not. Like I said, my website will be revisited this week and will be updated with MORE photography, a finalized collection, PDF catalogues for retail inquiries, line sheet inquiry info, ABOUT ME, and hopefully if I’m lucky some studio work (this part might be wishful thinking), as well as direct linkage from product on the site to the shop. 

I’ve applied to be a vendor at the PoppyTalk Handmade Marketplace for the October/November and the November/December slots. Wish me luck and check out the current showcase: Mix Tape over at PoppyTalk Handmade.

After giving 5, yes FIVE bags of clothing twice to the local second hand store last year, and a good portion of that clothing having been bought in the last 2 years, I was disgusted. Disgusted at my lack of better judgment that, “No, I do not need that shirt in 3 colors.” Often when I shop I just look at something, pay for it and move on. Most of those purchases have about the same attention span in my closet. I started to wonder why I always had so much laundry to do when I wear close to the same three-five things every day.

As I’ve said before, Thank YOU! You readers are what make me smile. Until recently (as you can scan my archive) I have avoided blogging for my business because of a lot of internal conflicts. The top two being:

Don’t ask, I’ll post all about it tomorrow. For today, I’ll be taking a break from the computer as there are a lot of things to get off the press and onto Etsy and my poor hand can only HANDle so much! 

I still haven’t heard from the winner from the cupcake cards, so below are both winners for this week and last week. If I do not hear from the winner within one week of announcing, then another winner will be generated.