Inspired by Liz...the evolution of Notorious F.A.T.

So my friend Liz (who is awesome, btw, and you should definitely read her blog, Splendid Minta) just posted pics of herself on her blog. Not just any pics though, pics of herself slowly changing over the past few years. Her hope is that the pics of her will inspire her to start living healthier. Go here to read it.

Being totally unoriginal, I pretty much decided to copy her idea and do the same thing here, because (REAL TALK) I am fat. Seriously. Not chubby or plump, just straight up FAT. Now, I'm not one of those people who just suddenly got fat; I was a fat kid, a fat teenager, and a fat college student. Right after I graduated, I got my heart stomped on and my soul shat upon by a guy, and decided that I would make him sorry by getting skinny (how that made him sorry I'm not sure, but somehow in my constant post-college drunken stupor, I thought this was a GREAT IDEA). Long story short, it worked, in that I got skinny-ish. (Not in an unhealthy way, I just ran 3 or so miles every single day.) Skinny enough for me to feel super-hot and totally awesome. (The guy did feel sorry, and like a total piece of shit - which he sort of was - but not because I got skinny. More because I would get drunk and call him and scream at him like a psycho or send him threatening emails/IMs. Seriously. Don't you want to be friends with me now?)

Side note:

Who WOULDN'T want to be friends with/date me? HELLO, I'm wearing a "Fuck Me I'm Irish" t-shirt! If that doesn't scream class and sophistication then I don't know what does.

Anyway, during the time that I was skinny I went on more dates than I ever had in my entire life (seeing as I dated the same guy from the summer before freshman year to February of senior year that sort of makes sense, but I digress...), and I pretty much felt super-awesome about myself. During this time, I met Nick, fell in love, and eventually got married. But before we got married, we moved in together, and I started getting fat again. Slowly. Then, the year before our wedding I started getting fatter faster. I thought after the wedding/grad school/job stress was over I'd start losing weight again. WRONG. I kept getting fatter, and now I'm the biggest I've ever been, have a permanent double-chin, and I wear dresses every day because none of my pants fit. Literally. Not one pair. Zero.

I don't feel bad, per se, but I definitely don't feel great. Like, I could walk up a flight of stairs and have to catch my breath. Sad, seeing as I'm only 27. Plus, Type II Diabetes runs in my family, so I am setting myself up for some serious health problems if I don't get my shit together and get healthy. Here's my problem: I love to eat. I love to eat bad, fried, artery-clogging, delicious Southern food. And pasta. And pizza. And cake. God, I love cake. And Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I don't eat those things all the time, but I shouldn't eat them ever, at least until I get my weight under control again.

My other problem is that I've grown to hate exercising. HATE. I would rather roll across hot coals naked than go for a run. I would rather sleep on a bed of nails than get on the exercise bike on our porch. For reals. I wouldn't mind walking around our neighborhood, at least to get started, but there are all these seriously WASP-y, skinny ass bitches that power walk around the 'hood like it's going out of style, and I really don't so much enjoy huffing and puffing my fat ass around with them stalking the streets like a bunch of anorexic lab rats running in a maze. Plus, I am super pale and have curly hair, so when I exert myself my hair becomes even more of a frizzy afro and my face gets beet red. As much as I do enjoy looking like Bozo the fucking clown, it is just simply not a good time.

So how did I ever get to the point of running every single day and actually enjoying it? College. Seriously. I had HES (it's like PE) my senior year, so I had to workout at least every other day or risk failing, and really, how much of a fuck-up do you have to be to fail gym class? So I started there, and then one of my friends thought it would be a great idea for me to join the club lacrosse team. I'm not kidding. They needed more people and my friend swore to me that I didn't have to be athletically-inclined or anything, just as long as I was a warm body. That I was. So, in joining the lacrosse team I started going to practice a few days a week, joining in on a couple of team runs, and spazzing out during scrimmages and games on the regular. And I do mean spazzing out. I'll save those stories for another post.

So anyway, after I graduated, I was already in the habit of exercising most days, and I moved in with two of my college friends whose evenings were spent playing WoW (World of Warcraft - Google it) on the couch and watching whatever was on TV. I am not a video/computer game enthusiast, so I did not partake of the WoW fun, and they didn't really talk while they were WoW-ing (is that a word?), so I would get pretty bored after work. I started jogging a little in the neighborhood around our apartment complex, and found that it really made me feel good. Plus then the aforementioned guy did the soul-raping and heart-stomping, so I had yet another reason to run.

After a few weeks, I started to notice my clothes were getting looser, I was getting toned, and I had more energy. So it was all great, and I ran all the time and felt super. Until it got cold. Then I put my running shoes away until the next spring, because let's face it: I won't even go to the mailbox when the temp drops below 50 degrees, so there's pretty much no way in hell I would willingly spend time outside, breathing cold air and freezing my ass off running. The next spring, I moved in with some other friends from college. These friends' idea of fun was getting piss ass drunk pretty much every night for funsies. I don't think I need to explain why I stopped running. Or maybe I do. Let me spell it out for you: I was drunk. All the time. Well, not all the time, but most nights.

Then I met Nick, and we were super-glued together immediately. We would go out to dinner, go to movies (and eat popcorn and candy at said movies), and do other date-type things that didn't include exercising. When we moved in together, Nick cooked all the time, and I ate all the time. Thus began the slippery slope to fatness for reals.

Let's take a visual tour, shall we?

Halloween 2005 (the year I graduated from college) I was going to say something like, "Look, I was so confident I wore nothing but a leotard and fishnet tights in public!!!" but just keep scrolling.

Spring 2006 (I felt like the hotness in this Anthropologie dress, even though the size 10 (OMG) was literally falling off it was so big.)

Halloween 2006 (the fat is slowly creeping back on)

Fall 2007 (We just got engaged!) Notice the rounder face...

October 2008 (Our wedding day. Duh. I felt gorgeous in my dress, but literally a month before the wedding I had to have it let out because I had gained so much weight between since I bought it. Oops.)

March 2009 (WHOA MAMA. It was a Madonna-themed birthday party for one of my best friends from college. Notice that even at this size I was still wearing a leotard and leggings. Clearly I have no shame.)

Halloween 2009 (YIKES! Again, gold leggings and a gem sweater. NO. SHAME.)

December 2009 (EEEEEEK!!!! I saw this picture when it was posted on FB by a friend and immediately shit my pants from horror, then untagged myself ASAP. Horrifying. This is the reason I don't have any recent pics, and the reason I need to get serious about losing weight.

Help me, blog friends. Please don't let me forget this post and that I need to go from Notorious F.A.T. to Notorious H.O.T. Not only because I want to be skinny and for all my cute clothes to fit, but also because I don't want to get the diabeetus or other obesity-related diseases. Plus cankles are just so unattractive.

Peace.

I had to include this pic of me on Easter when I was 4 or 5. No, I am not wearing a wig. That is my real hair, that my mom cut herself. I am modeling my new bathing suit that the Easter Bunny brought me and wearing my hot house slippers, because I am the shit.

Some new hotness for your eyeballs

Check out the red hotness in the first Etsy treasury I've ever curated! Click here and prepare to be amazed. Or not. But do it anyway.

I peed a little

When I read this.

I found Bailey's blog through the rabbit hole of Google Reader recommendations, links, and other sorts of interwebs shenanigans. Anyway, I literally LOL'd when I read the above post. (Sidenote: I HATE it when people write "LOL" after everything they say. I know this is a pet peeve of tons of people, but I just wanted to get it on record that I officially hate and want to personally stop this abuse of aimspeak. That's right, peeps, I just referenced AIM (pronounced like the word, not spelled out a-i-m, unless you're a technological dinosaur, which I hope you aren't, otherwise how did you find my blog? Do you even know what a blog is? But I digress. The next time someone uses LOL when you know they are not actually LOL-ing, virtually slap them in public. Thank you.) (PS the proper pronunciation is "lull," not spelled out l-o-l, unless, again, you're one of those dinosaurs, or you just enjoy being tragically unhip. I am actually tragically unhip, but I don't enjoy it. So there.)

Cooter out.

Hi there!

Just popping in to say hello, and let you know I've got a promotion in the Etsy shop for this weekend! Just use the coupon code BLACKFRIDAY10 to get 10% off your total purchase! EVEN BETTER NEWS: No more waiting for adjusted PayPal invoices, because Etsy applies the coupon for you!

Also, my logo/branding ADD has kicked in again, and I made new business cards and a new banner. Thank God VistaPrint is so freaking cheap, otherwise I'd be stuck with the same old business cards forever! Anyway, here's the new look:

New card!

New banner!

Hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving!

I love Amy Sedaris

And you should, too! Check out her interview on Etsy here. She's whoring out her new book, Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People.

This pretty much sums it up:

That is all.

Pretty much the cutest thing I've seen in a while

An Awesome Book of Thanks! from Dallas Clayton on Vimeo.

Pretty much the funniest thing I've ever seen

Well, maybe not ever, but in a long time. You should go watch it, now.

Funny story

I changed my business cards again. Before the Indie Craft Parade. But I'm so glad I did. I'm really happy with them (for now). Especially because the horizontal ones incorporate my stamp from Primele! :)

And now on to the actual Indie Craft Parade. What an amazing experience!! There was so much great art, and so many creative people! It was wonderful to meet some "blog friends" in real life, and make some sweet new friends, of course. I was thrilled to meet Bonnie from Going Home to Roost, Bonnie from Carolina Postcard, and I was lucky enough to be beside the great peeps from Canoo, and next to them the sweet Kina from Joretta, who had her adorable baby with her!

I was of course thrilled that Sally from Sew Few and Elizabeth from Yellow Elm were there--great girls with great products!

I got some AWESOME stuff, mostly traded (which I love!), but I bought a kitty catnip squid from Canoo because they're just so freaking cute. The cats have hidden it somewhere...

Check out the goods!

Awesome grid notepads from Two Over Zero

Gorgeous pillow from Going Home to Roost!

Sweet bag from lightnest (I was too busy stuffing everything in it to get a picture of it by itself!)

My booth (view as you walk in the door--I was amazingly lucky and got Booth #1, right in front of the main entrance!)

My booth (view from the aisle)

So, yeah, the Indie Craft Parade was pretty much one of the coolest things I've ever been a part of! More pics are below if you want to take a virtual tour of my favorite vendors!

Top row: Tracie Kelly Designs, canoo, and Going Home to Roost; Middle row: Joretta Natural Hand Knits, , and Illyria Pottery; Bottom row: Pretty. Simple. Things. and Finkelstein's

 

 

 

Seeing as it's almost a week after the Indie Craft Parade actually happened, I'm clearly late. But all that matters is how awesome it was!!! I can't wait to do it again next year!

Once again, I've decided to change my business cards et al. I got this AWESOME stamp from Primele, and wanted to somehow incorporate it, but working full-time, making jewelry for the Indie Craft Parade, and making jewelry for two stores and two brides just doesn't leave me enough time to individually stamp 1,000 business cards! So I'm doing the easy thing and throwing some stuff together in Gimpshop, then sending it to VistaPrint. Here's what I'm thinking...for now:

Clearly that's the regular one. Here's the vertical one:

I'm sure I'll change my mind in five minutes and make a new one!

In other news, I am now the director of the non-profit child development center where I've been working on and off since high school!

I'm also gearing up for the Indie Craft Parade, and making lots of new pieces! I'm trying to come up with interesting ways of displaying my pieces and really making my booth stand out. I'll be in booth numero uno, which could be awesome or terrible, depending. People could be so stunned by my awesome stuff that they want to go ahead and spend money at my booth, or they could decide that they want to see what all's out there and skip me. Hmmm...not sure how that will go. Either way, I'll post lots of pictures from the ICP here after it's over.

Love and other indoor sports,

Jess

Sad face

I've been a bad, bad blogger. Sorry to all 2 people who actually read this!

But the good news is....I got into the Indie Craft Parade!!! Yup, I'll be peddling my wares September 10-11 at this Etsy-sponsored event. Yay me!

I've been trolling lots of design blogs lately, and it's made me antsy to do some redecorating. I repainted the front hallway. Again. This time I'm in LOVE with the color--we used Behr Premium Plus Granite Boulder, and only needed half a gallon. I'm telling you, this paint + primer action is awesome. I think I'm going to use the rest of it to paint the front living room. As soon as we get it cleared out....whenever that happens.

Nick and I also took a trip to Ikea, where I got some things for the craft room, which I will now be calling my "studio," because it's looking so professional lately! I swear I'll post pics as soon as I finish it....but I wouldn't hold your breath if I were you! In the meantime, here's some gorgeousness from some of my new favorite blogs. Enjoy!

i suwannee

bryn alexandra

Coincidentally, both Jamie from i suwannee and Bryn from Bryn Alexandra live and work in North Carolina! Go Southern ladies! Click on their pics or links to read their blogs and enjoy the beauteousness! Happy reading!

I did it!

I applied to be a participant in the Indie Craft Parade here in Greenville!!! I'll find out on or around June 28 if I'm accepted. ME = NERVOUS!!!

I already have lots of fun ideas for displays and my super-awesome friends Melissa and Chad (two amazing graphic designers who also happened to be married. To each other. Duh) are helping me revamp my branding kit! I'm so excited! Yay!

In other news, I'm currently the Interim CDC Director at the YWCA of Greenville. Again. But this time, I'm done with grad school and I am applying for the position, so hopefully I'll get it!

I don't have anything else to report. My jewelry is being sold at Talloni of Greenville, in the heart of downtown. I don't know if I've already posted that. Clearly my posting has been....spotty, at best. I'll be posting updates on branding, jewelry display ideas, and new pieces. Pinkie swear.

Out.

And I thought yesterday was a great day!

Well, today was even better? Why? Because when I checked my email this morning I had a message from Cathe Holden of Just Something I Made (one of my fav blogs), saying I HAD WON a giveaway!!! And just what was that giveaway, you ask? Only the Martha Stewart Faux Bois FLOR rug that I have been coveting FOR MONTHS!!! I'm SO EXCITED!! I have to clean up the front living room so I can put it in there.

Also, I just found out about the most amazing furniture company via Young House Love. It's Custom Sofa Design, and it is UH-MAZE-ING!! The pieces are identical to Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Crate & Barrel, Room & Board, etc., but for LESS THAN HALF the price!!! Can you tell I'm excited? I'm saving up for two couches, two chairs, and an ottoman. The cost of all of them will probably equal one sofa from Pottery Barn. SRSLY. In case you're wondering (which you probably aren't), I want the Voltaire Sofa, Cameron Sofa, Metropole Chair, and Hattiras chair and ottoman. I want the Trinity Chair, too, but I'll have to find somewhere to put it first!

Anyway, enough blathering for tonight. I have to get up early and drive far ass away to my mom's church.

Holler on your dollar. Peace in the East. And in the Sudan.

Woot!

Yesterday was a great day! Not only because I got to hang out with my friend Heidi and her sweet, adorable, precious twins, but also because I sold two prints and another was featured in a Treasury! Sweet

Anyway, here's a shot:


Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

O.M.Geezy

I'm back from New Jersey! (In case you didn't know, I went to Jersey for 8 days with my friend Heidi and her freaking adorable twins to visit her family.) It was a nice vacay, and I got to go into Manhattan twice! It was fun, especially because I'd never been there before. Now I'm back, and the real work begins!!

I've got a deadline--10 necklaces and as many earrings as my fat little fingers can make for a party this Saturday at Talloni of Greenville, a local shoe boutique where my wares are peddled. Plus, I'm donating a necklace for a charitable silent auction (that I still have to make), have a special choir rehearsal on Saturday from 10-12, am singing for a wedding in two weeks, and still need to find a "real" job for next school year!!! Eeeeeek!!

But I guess it's a good kind of crazy--the kind where I get paid. Always nice. I'm working on some new designs that I'm really excited about and some bridal jewelry for Mia Alexander Salon & Spa. Well, I'm actually watching Celebrity Fit Club right now, so....I should probably get to work on making baubles!!

Before I go, please keep my blog friend Shan from Design Gal & Her Handyman in your thoughts--she has recently been dealing with some tough things--her grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer and now her cat Kiki has also been diagnosed with cancer. Head over and give her some blog love.

Out.

REAL TALK: I'm famous

Not really, but apparently I'm front-page news in G-Vegas! I woke up this morning to a voicemail from my sweet mother-in-law, letting me know my visage was gracing the front page of the Greenville News. 1. I didn't realize it was going to run on the front page! Eeek! 2. I look a) fat and b) fat, but I guess them's the breaks!

Also, I have explosive diarrhea. I SAID REAL TALK, PEOPLE. This is what you get. So let's just say I'm not going to make it to church today. Not that they would want me there anyway; apparently there's a stomach bug going around.

Oh, here's the link to the story if you're so inclined: http://bit.ly/93CpbB

I'll be in the bathroom if anyone needs me.

Christ on a cracker

Ugh.....there is a reason I don't go out anymore. It's because I'm OLD, and I can't drink like I used to. It's 2:30 in the afternoon, and I just now feel well enough to get out of bed.

One of my best friends from college and her boyfriend came down from Philly for the weekend and we went out last night. I'm dumb, and was drinking as though I had actually eaten enough food to call a meal. WRONG. It's Friday, and I'm trying to be a good Catholic, so I fasted and didn't have any meat. Add alcohol into that mix and you get one drunk ass (me). I did eat one full meal, only like an idiot it was at lunchtime. Was I thinking ahead? No. Do I regret it? YES.

We had an awesome time, and I'm so glad we went out, but I am never drinking that much again. Stupid stupid stupid.

When we got home last night, I threw up in the sink. Yes, the sink. Then I threw up again this morning. The whole bathroom smells like vomit and I can't go in there without feeling like I want to hurl.

Yes, I am 27. I am not in college anymore.

There, I said it.

I'm going to put on a gas mask and rubber gloves so I can clean the sink and then hopefully take a shower without throwing up.

Hope everyone's having a better Saturday than me!

muchas gracias!

...to Bonnie of Going Home to Roost for featuring my Quiet Bird print! Click here to read the feature on shopping locally in my hometown, Greenville, SC.

Thanks for the love!

I'll be making lovely things all weekend for a jewelry party next week and for a local boutique (Talloni of Greenville, if you're wondering) where I've started consigning my jewelry (yay!). I will have a short break from creating because I'll be spending my Saturday afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese's for our 5-year-old niece's birthday party, then going to my mom's in NC for a quick visit before coming home to chain myself to my desk in the craft room.

I hope everyone has an AMAZING weekend!

I rocked it

I'm not trying to brag, but I had a job interview today and I'm pretty sure I did AWESOME!! It's for a teaching position in Spartanburg County (about 45 minutes away). I LOVE the school's philosophy, vision, and overall essence, but I don't love the drive. On one hand, it'll be very quiet at 6:30 in the morning, when I'm driving there, but on the other, I'LL BE DRIVING THERE AT 6:30 IN THE MORNING! I know lots of people commute for their jobs, so if I get it I'll just suck it up and deal. Plus, my friend Jessica said that her mom liked teaching so far from home because it gave her time to decompress on the way home.

Honestly, if they had offered me the job today I would have taken it! There are no school jobs in Greenville County (unless you're a high school coach), so I'm just excited that I had an interview! Plus, I didn't even apply for the job--they found my application on the state website and contacted me for the interview.

I've been uber-busy making wedding jewelry for some of my friends, plus I've got a jewelry party next Wednesday and I'm now selling in a local boutique, so I've got a lot on my plate! My Etsy shops are on the back burner for right now, but I will update them after next week is over and I can breathe easy again!

I'll have pics of the bridesmaids'/bridal jewelry next week. I hope everyone is having a great Thursday afternoon!

I'm off to the craft room!

The new Lonny is here!!!

I know, I almost crapped my pants, too. What are you still doing here? GO READ LONNY, NOW.

OMG

I am so talented!! I made an animated button for my blog!!!!SRLSYOMGWTF!!!!

That's how excited I am. Seeing as it's 1:00 am and I've been working on this since, oh, 11:00 pm, I'm happy that it's finally done!! It's too late to figure out how to do the whole "grab this button" thing, but I will figure that out tomorrow and then PRESTO you can have a sweet hawleywood animated gif!!!!!!!

I realize that I title probably 95% of my posts with some form of "OMG," but that's because I know of no other phrase that fully captures my EXCITEDNESS AND DISBELIEF when something awesome happens/I do something cool.

YOU ARE JEALOUS OF MY ANIMATED GIF DESIGNING SKILLS. ADMIT IT.

On a Granny note, she is doing fine. Her pills make her woozy, but she still feels well enough to read her "important literature," aka, the National Enquirer. She goes this Tuesday for her first IV treatment, so please keep her and the rest of my family in your thoughts and prayers.

And have a fabulous week!

Ugh

I am hesitant to post about this, because I am usually very tight-lipped about personal things that are actually important and/or meaningful, but I think Shan has the right idea.

Yesterday, I found out for sure that my grandmother's breast cancer has come back. Even though she had a double radical mastectomy over 10 years ago. It's come back in her bone marrow. Luckily, the doctor says it's easily treatable with pills and intravenous treatments (not chemo, but I don't know exactly what it is). So that's good news.

In case any of you are readers of my old Myspace blog (if you're not, don't worry, you didn't miss anything), this is Crazy Granny of "greasy twigs" fame, not Grandmommie who lives in the Retirement Castle. No, my Granny is not really crazy, just...ummmm...eccentric? She researches aliens and government conspiracies and totally, 100% believes almost everything she reads on the interwebs. She has a laptop and a printer, and goes to town printing articles on how the Hopi Indians reverse-engineered alien technology to build spaceships and other things like that.

My Granny is hilarious, and lives with my mom, whom Granny calls bossy at least five times a day. I have some awesome Granny stories, too many to put here, but I need to write them down somewhere before I forget. Here's just a few reasons why my Granny is so awesome:

Granny was a teacher for a million years, and taught elementary and junior high in BFE Georgia. She was married to my Grandaddy, who was the high school guidance counselor and a WWII veteran. Every summer, my parents would ship my sister and me off to their house in the mountains of North Georgia for a three-week vacation. Usually, our first cousins were there, too, and we would spend the whole time playing outside, running through the cornfields, stepping in cow pies (that's cow shit, in case you didn't know), and fighting with each other constantly. Granny usually had to paddle at least one of us every single day with her ping-pong paddle of butt destruction. Not pretty, but we were brats and totally deserved it.

Granny is the best cook ever. Don't even try to tell me anything different because I will call you a liar. She uses "seasoned oil" in everything. "Seasoned oil" is also known as "starter grease" to some, or drippings to others. You know that stuff you drain out of your meat after you cook it and throw away or pour down the drain? Yeah, that stuff. But ONLY fried chicken and bacon grease. None of that hamburger grease--it will not do. And I don't want to hear any of this crap about "clogging my arteries" or "Type 2 Diabetes." I will eat Granny's cooking as long as she is able to cook it, and that's all there is to it.

Granny taught my sister and me (and my cousins I suppose) to read when we were 3 or 4.

Granny used to play her guitar or the piano and teach us folk songs from when she was young. My favorite was The Happy Wanderer.

Granny and Grandaddy had two huge gardens, cows, crabapple trees, and a lot of pasture land where we would roam and play act to our little heart's desires. It was like a wonderland to us.

As my mama and my Granny would say, she is the salt of the earth. I love my Granny SO MUCH.

That is all.

Just a taste

Gorgeous flowers in the lobby (from Dahlia)

I took some photographs for the fabulous women at Mia Alexander Salon for their website, and I wanted to share a few of my favorites:

Kelley's feathers in the aesthetics room--facials, skin care, makeup artistry, and more!


Kelly V.'s hand-mixed massage oils. Yum!


Chandy


Bling


Potions


Love


Blue


Magic wand


Tool shed

So I guess that was technically more than just a taste, but it's fine.

Thanks to Kelley, Kelly, Kari, Morgan, Robin, and Lisa for letting me photograph your beautiful salon!

Giveaway from Children Inspire Design!

Okay, I know I haven't posted in a month of Sundays. I am lame. BUT I'm posting to give you a chance to win a beautimous piece of original art from Children Inspire Design! How nice am I? Really, I'm sort of selfish because I get another chance to win by blogging about it, BUT you also get a chance to win so go leave a comment!!

Exciting things are happening around these parts! I was interviewed by our local paper today about Etsy and the crafting movement in general. I'm not as famous or cool as Shan, but I'm excited nonetheless!!  Also, my jewelry is going to be sold at a local boutique here in Greenville, so I'm super-duper excited about that!

Yay!

The Greenville News people are coming to take pics of my craft room next week (EEEEEEKKKKKK), so I need to kick it into high gear and get it cleaned up ASAP!!!

Enough screeching...I hope everyone in Blogland is doing wonderfully! Nick and I are enjoying a "snow day" here at home, which is awesome. (FYI, in South Carolina, one inch of snow = snow day. Yessssss!)

That's all I have for now...still haven't heard from the school district about the job--I submitted my resume for a 4K job and haven't had a call back. Yikes! I know I'm only one of probably 8 million people that applied for it (seeing as it's the ONLY early childhood job open right now), but still, a call or email or anything would be nice! Send me a carrier pigeon, even!

Anyway, love and other indoor sports,
Jess

Oh, buddy!

I've been a busy little bee! I'm trying super-hard to list new items in my Etsy shop every day or at least every other day. My goal is to have 500 sales on Etsy in 2010. It's a huge goal, seeing as I haven't sold a blessed thing on Etsy so far this year, but I'm sticking to it! I purchased a new ad on CraftCult, I'm posting to FB and Twitter daily, and of course I'm handing out business cards like candy! I get tons of compliments on my jewelry, and have had a lot of success at boutiques/salons, but Etsy success is still evading me.

I read every single one of the Etsy Success newsletters, the "Quit Your Day Job" series, and have pored through every thread in the community on how to be successful on Etsy, but to no avail. Ugh. I'm just going to keep on truckin' and hope it works out!

In other news, I applied for a 4K job with the school district, which I REALLY hope I get. Insurance, benefits, and a salary are all things I a) want and b) need. In the meantime, I'm still helping my friend Heidi with her twins. We've been trolling thrift stores to get some accent pieces for their living room and we totally scored! I'm hoping to post some before and after photos of the room with the new pieces sometime next week.

I'm also still working on the craft room....slowly but surely it's coming along. I swear I will post pictures when it's finished. Whenever that is.

Nothing else interesting going on. I'm still boring as always.

Cooter out.

Shit My Dad Says

It's a page on Facebook. A 29-year-old guy lives with his 73-year-old dad and just writes down things he says. Hilarity ensues. Go there.
Wow, two posts in two days...crazy!

See? I AM crafty!!

Sooo, I had this basket, and it was kind of busted and ugly. And I also had this cute fabric that I haven't found a use for yet. I decided to put two and two together, and I got a super-cute storage basket! I thought about using Shan's awesome method (you can fast forward to about the 4:35 minute mark, or watch the whole thing for some more craftiness! Here's a link to her blog, too.) using a hot glue gun, but then I figured I've got a sewing machine and moderately decent sewing skillz so I decided to do it the real way. I should measure and all that jazz, but who has time for that? Not me. So now I've got a sort of wonky lined basket, but it's under the bed in the "guest room" (aka, the crap room, and the bed doesn't even have a mattress, just a box spring (springs?), so it's not as if anyone's actually sleeping in there. Or even going in there, other than Nick and me, but anyway...) so no one will really see the whole thing. Especially not with stuff in it. Anyway, here's pics:

Before: Meh


After: Cute!

It's not perfect by any means, but it does go with the eventual color scheme of the room, which is grey, mustard, and a mushroomy brown color. (With some blue and green accents here and there--much cuter than it sounds, I promise!)

And yes, that IS my AWESOME light box (thanks to my Mama, who got it for me for Christmas)!! It was only $99 from Hammacher Schlemmer, and it included the pop-up light box/tent, three different colors of backdrops (four if you include the white one), two tripod lights, and a tripod for your camera! I know, it's crazy! And the light tent is so big--it's almost as tall as me! I'd say it's probaby like 4'10 or so. I'm not going to bust out my measuring tape (as if I could find it anyway) and measure it or anything, but let's just go with that estimate. Here's a link. Well the description says 40 inches, so that's probably close to my estimate. I don't do math. Hmm, okay so apparently the 20-inch tabletop one is only $99, which is the one I actually wanted. I guess my mom thought I needed a bigger one for some reason... Well get one if you need/want one because they're awesome! (Feel free to reference the above pictures and pictures of my jewelry.)

Cooter out.

The best sites EVAH

I go to these religiously, every day. Sometimes 3-4 times a day. Seriously. Can you believe I have that much time on my hands? Me either.

Design Gal & Her Handyman - Shan has the coolest ideas and such awesome decor!
Life in the Fun Lane - Gorgeous furniture redos and fab interior shots
2Birds1Blog - Pure, unadulterated snark. LOVE.
TFLN - Don't ask, just go.
Young House Love - Again, just go there. You'll understand.
My Favorite and My Best - Snark + interior design/style commentary = priceless
Regretsy - A-MAZING
Lonny - Yes, it's the same issue, but I keep going there over and over again because it's THAT GOOD.
Better After - Love home and furniture updates/redos? Then you'll love Better After. 'Nuff said.

That is all.

And yes I know this is a lame post. Sue me.