Driving Miss Sasha or "Ruff" - Pick it up Mom

Most of you know we have 3 four-legged kids right along side our 4 two-legged kids. Yogi, Maelyn & Sasha. Yes, I admit our 4-legged kids may be a tad spoiled and have just a "few" more toys than the boys, but they are all loved the same - no matter what the boys say.

Above we're coming back from the day spa - pet groomer that is. No they do not go to a day spa, that's just what I call it for fun. Sasha loves to drive, but we do not let her go out on her own - can't afford the insurance.

Sasha, a Yorkie Maltese, is our youngest and well, is our little Princess. Okay, and maybe just a smidgen more spoiled than the rest. She has a very sweet personality, lovable, is VERY smart, smiles a lot, loves to play, rough house around with Maelyn, can give some nasty looks if not pleased, and has the CUTEST little bark. In fact, it is a "ruff", a cute and adorable sounding "ruff". She also has me wrapped around her little paw. Just a smidgen that is.

Yes, I know, the pic above looks simply innocent. Well, I have to tell you it is NOT. I'll TRY to sum this up... All 3 of the kids get their lunch & snack "cookies" at the same time each day. Mainly because Sasha comes to get me either with her cute little "ruff", her loving look or simply whines to let me know it is their snack time - and to hustle.

After we go through our routine, they all take off with their snack in different directions - Sasha goes down the hall to the back bedroom, where a few times a week the cookie, I thought, falls out of her mouth and she waits for me to pick it up again so she can take it out of my hand. She won't pick it up otherwise. Well. I THOUGHT the cookie "accidentally" fell out.

One day I just happened to look up while Sasha was trotting off with her goods and "poof", she spit out the cookie! I was floored, shocked more like it! She did it on purpose! She turned around and looked at me as if to say, "well, come on mom, pick it up for me, you know the drill." Then she just looks at the cookie until I do. I had to laugh at this and then called Mark to tell him. He finally witnessed this for himself. It cracks me up still today and YES, she still does it.

Oh and about the "nasty" looks... this is one of them. We returned from the "day spa" one afternoon in which a bow was in her hair. Sasha does NOT like bows in her hair. Well, it was sticking straight up like Pebbles, from the Flintstones and all I could do was laugh, but kept telling her how cute she was. She didn't buy it. When we got home I finally removed the bow and she let me know how happy she was NOT.

Is this little girl loved? Most definitely. Are all our kids loved. That's a big 10-4. Is this little girl spoiled beyond belief and has mom (and dad too no matter what he says) wrapped around her little paw. Maybe just a smidgen.

"ruff, ruff, RUFF!" What's that Sasha? Oh I'm sorry, mommy's on her way!

Happy ruff Monday!

Rocki

Double Bubble - twice the fun!

I was playing around with an idea for a double hoop earring using my Wild West Series as inspiration and this is what I came up with.

Double Bubble.

Go ahead, say it again: "Double Bubble". If you say it real fast, it's kind of like repeating "Rubber Baby Buggy Bumper" or "Sally Sold Sea Shells by the Sea Shore".

Currently I have 20g Copper & Sterling Silver Double Bubbles in my shop, but they will also be available in 14k Gold Filled and in 18g... Double Bubble.

I'm selling my new Double Bubble hoops as finished earrings, but they can also be embellished to your hearts content, such as wire wrapping stones or beads, add a dangle or two, etc.

All this bubble talk makes me want to grab my bubble wrap and start popping away. How about you? No problem, click below:

I must admit that I am enjoying wearing my new hoops. I don't know what I like more, the hoops themselves or saying Double Bubble!

Happy popping!

Rocki

Thursday's Chuckle

This morning Mark sent me this little funny story that he received at work. It made me chuckle so thought I would pass it on. Besides, we could all use a little humor!

The Buttocks

A married couple was in a terrible accident where the man's face was severely burned.

The doctor told the husband that they could not graft any skin from his body because he was too skinny.

So the wife offered to donate some of her own skin.

However, the only skin on her body that was suitable would have to come from her buttocks.

The husband and wife both agreed that they would tell no one about where the skin came from and they requested the doctor also honor their secret.

After all, this was a very delicate matter.

After the surgery was completed, everyone was astounded at the man's new face.

He looked more handsome than he ever had before!

All his friends and family went on and on about his youthful beauty.

One day, he was alone with his wife, and he was overcome with emotion at her sacrifice.

He said, "Dear, I just want to thank you for everything you did for me. How can I possibly repay you?"

"My darling," she replied, "I get all the thanks I ever need

every time I see your mother

kiss you on the cheek."

Tee hee hee,
Rocki

Can you feel the love? Alaina J Designs

Just about every day I would see these adorable, brightly colored handmade clay beads while relisting items. I became drawn to them like a magnet and decided to check them out. My goodness, this shop is soooo cute its like going to a pet store and looking at the adorable animals that are just begging you to take them home with you - and you do!

Elaine is the creator/owner of Alaina J Designs (etsy shop name is alanajay). Elaine had a desire to paint, however, as she states "I failed miserably at oil and acrylic painting, so I chose working with clay at the suggestion of my oldest daughter." Good move Elaine, your work is adorable!

Living a very quiet suburb life in the small town of Vicksburg, MS (not Mayberry, but not a big city either) Elaine creates her adorable handmade creations. She started out as an Etsy buyer long ago and eventually started selling her craft.

At first glance of the prices, you may wonder why they are so low. Well, Elaine is doing all this work for fun! She states: "I believe in giving customers the best prices possible... Because I actually don't work for profit. I craft for fun, then sell it." Not only does she sell her handmade crafts in her shop, but Elaine also sells commercial beads & findings.

The beads above are not commercial, these are her handmade FROTHEN SEA WATER Swirl Polymer Clay Beads. Oooh! I just love saying the name, sounds so earthy and fun!

I absolutely love this quote when asked if there was anything she would like people to know about her: "I am a very simple country gal, with a strong desire to run my online business with high morals, strong ethics, and a feeling so friendly, customers can just feel the love through the computer screen."

Most definitely Elaine, I feel the love! Please go and visit Elaine's shop to feel the love yourself!

Happy day!

Rocki

Peace & Inspiration - Marie Dodd

Our life journey offers us many opportunities to enhance our personal being along each of our paths. These opportunities present themselves in a variety of ways, such as in physical form, mental, emotional, imagined, created and so on. When we accept these opportunities with our whole heart, a new and exciting path is created.

Mary Jane, the Etsy Shop owner/creator of Mari Dodd "jewelry to feed your creative spirit", is one of my opportunities. Mary Jane, aka MJ, is one of those very kind hearted souls that can touch your life without even being there in person. I've been wanting to feature her shop for some time now and am honored to finally share her with you.

In short, MJ & I met months ago when she first started purchasing from me. Recently I got to know her a little more and discovered what a truly peace loving person she is. I admire her from many aspects and absolutely love her work! You can tell that MJ creates from the heart, the soul, the depth of her very spirit.

Each inspiring creation that she makes, has a fitting title for it and a description to match. The one above is call "seeing clearly" and I simply love the description as much as the piece itself. MJ also inspires me with my own work.

There is so much more I could say about Mary Jane, but I will leave you with this quote from her shop Profile, which you can read more when you visit her shop:

"in my very normal running-around-mom-lifestyle, working with great components brings me peace and inspiration... i love when things come together... you get a great feeling when you wear something that a person actually had their hands and imagination on..."

Besides traveling through her inspiring creative Etsy Shop, make sure to visit her inspiring blog. It will brighten your day - and your life.

Peace & love,

Rocki

I Finally got it! Groovy Baby, Yeah!

When I was in high school, Kaycee B, my best friend of many years, and I had big plans for when we graduated high school. Yep, we were going to buy a van, paint it in groovy love and peace colors, fix up the inside with love beads, curtains, cushions, etc. and travel the world. We even had a list of what all we wanted inside the van from color scheme, type of curtains, rugs, cushions - you name it and we probably had it listed. Not only that, but we had drawings of what our groovy hippie van would look like. It was a groovy van indeed.

High school came and went. We each got married and went our separate ways. Years later we caught up with each other and reminisced about our "groovy hippie van" and although we got a chuckle out of it, we truly wanted to see that dream through. It never happened... until the other day - well, sort of.

Mark has known about my "groovy hippie van" practically since the day we met. Most of my family and friends know about it as well. The closest I've come to having my love n peace van is with our utility trailer. While doing shows and such, Mark thought it would be fun for me to paint it like I would have with my van. Cool idea yes, but never had the time. That brings me to now...

Mark came home the other day and said he had a surprise for me. Yep, it was my groovy hippie van at last!

It is a very cool van indeed! Rather roomy inside and good on gas.

Plenty of trunk space for, um... traveling gear.

The only thing is I haven 't quite figured out how to fit my 5' 2" body inside this 5"x2" van. At least I don't have to pay insurance.

I love my groovy hippie van honey - thank you!

Groovy peace & love,

Rocki

Twitter Shop of the Week: RoseBush Designs

As a team member of Twitter I would like to introduce you to RoseBush Designs. Please enjoy this repost of one of our talented members!

Beth Wietrzykowski is the guiding light ( and hand! ) behind RoseBush Designs' beautiful cards, gift bags, journals and accessories. Beth's designs ship internationally as well as in the US, and offer the beauty and individuality of a hand-crafted card for any occasion, something many of us wish for when confronted by racks of mass-produced cards.

"All of what I make is something I would give to someone myself. I cut, stamp, color and put all these together by hand. I do not have any kind of printing machine or mass produce cards (wouldn't it be nice though!). All of my products are available in multiples and I'm happy to do custom orders or change colors if desired. "

A stay-at-home mom to two boys, Beth finds creating an outlet for her inner girl.

"Most of the time, we are playing outside getting sweaty and dirty so being able to play with ribbons and glitter is a nice treat for me.

My inspirations come from anywhere! I get ideas from nature, magazines, friends, anywhere really. I'm still learning every day about new techniques, ways to make my product better, ways to photograph and edit my pictures as well as new crafting products. It's a never ending lesson for me and I think that is what keeps me going and excited about my craft. "

Beth also has great tips for using Twitter as a means of promoting your work:

"I try to engage. I see it as a big room full of people who want to chat. When I see something that is funny, sad, inspirational, odd or whatever, I comment on it. I try to be fun and lighthearted. I don't see twitter as a forum to air my, or anyone else's, dirty laundry. I promote items that I buy, items I want, my fellow twits on the team and my own items. "

Follow Beth on Twitter @RoseBushDesigns
Read More on her Blog: http://rosebushdesigns.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday to my baby boy!

Jason, my youngest son turned 29 yesterday. Wow. Where on EARTH does time go?! It truly does feel like yesterday when he was just a little bundle wrapped in my arms. Now he's a big bundle, still wrapped in my arms.

The picture above is on Jason's MySpace with the caption "Hello Ladies" - he's so shy. He's actually a very good guy. Very helpful, opens doors for others and most who meet or know him say he's like the guy next door. He's always been there for me. When I was very sick years ago, he would take me to my doctor appointments and practically carry me - literally. The night my mom died at the mere age of 53, we were at Jason's Band Banquet where he won an award. It was such a special night for him. When we arrived home to many messages left by my dad and heard the unexpected news, Jason, at 17 years of age, was right there for me, picked me up off the floor, carried me to my room and comforted me right along side with Mark.

He's also my little comedian. Well, not so little, he works out and has been given several nick-name at work, such as "Buff, "Hulk", "Superman" and so on. But let me tell you, he can make you laugh in a heartbeat! He's in the process of becoming a Fire Fighter. He'll be taking an EMT course soon and will go from there. No matter what he does in life, I'm proud of him and always will be.

Jas works at Trader Joe's and has ever since he graduated from high school. He has a great deal of customers that know him well and many ask for him. In high school he and Jeremy worked at Dairy Queen, so he's pretty much worked ever since school. Like mother like son.

We celebrated his birthday yesterday at his choice of restaurants: Mimi's Cafe. He even got a special birthday pie and special birthday wishes. No singing though, bet he would have loved that.

There's is so much I would like to say about my baby boy, but I don't want to embarrass him with all the mushy stuff. He knows already because I tell him all the time. We're very close, he's my buddy and protector. My nick-name for him is "Bud." However, I will mention that every single school picture, he sports bumps, bruises, cuts, scrapes or a broken arm. He makes jokes about it of course and it is funny to look at them, but in every picture, he has that adorable smile.

I know most of you know this already, but I've been very blessed with my boys as both Jason & Jeremy make it easy to be their mom. I never had any problems with raising them, they were model students and... well, I just couldn't be more proud of them and who they are. I love them to pieces.

Happy Birthday Bud, I love you!

Mom

This studs for you!

Yippie, yahoo and all that jazz - it's FRIDAY!!! That makes me a little giddy because it's been a long hard week for me - a good one mind you, but a very busy one and I'm looking forward to the weekend. Plus it's Jason's birthday, my youngest son, and we're celebrating at Mimi's Cafe.

Anyway, back to the studs. Helloooooo, I'm down here. HELLLooooooo? Eyes down here please...

I truly have SO much that I want to blog about, fun stuff, cute stuff and just chit-chat stuff, but as I mentioned, I've been quite happily busy. So, thought I would share another item that.... hello? (clears throat) HELLOOOOO?! I'm down HERE everyone... eyes down here now.

Sheesh.

Sweet Studs is what came to mind when... excuuuuuuuse me? Can you reach over to the scroll button and hop on down here for a minute? The stud above isn't even real - I mean, come on, look at him! Errrr, never mind, just follow me.

Now this stud is rather cute and adorable, but not exactly something I could add to my shop. I did have a Buckskin Mare and a Shetland pony growing up though.

Studs? Car parts, boy toys, found in drawers all over the house, "can't have too many tools", etc. Nope. These are not the studs I'm referring to either.

Um, ladies? You're drooling all over your keyboards. That's not pretty.

Awe. Here we are! My new Sweet Studs. Yes, I know, these are nothing new. A stud is a stud is a stud. EYES DOWN HERE PEOPLE!

I love studs and wear them in at least one of my ear holes, usually the top. Sometimes in all of them. These studs have a cute round shiny ball and.... the earring studs people, come on now, grow up!

I better end it here because this post is going south. Now STOP it you guys!

Happy Sweet Friday,

Rocki

Chemical Element Cu

Bueller. Bueller... (work with me here. Have you seen the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off?)

Yes class, Cu is the symbol for Copper. Okay, school has been out a long time for me and I admit it - I had to look it up. But I honestly loved when we studied about Chemicals and their symbols in class.

Soooo, as you can see I've added a new metal to my shop. And what is is pray tell?

Put your hand down Petunia. Yes, I know you ALWAYS know the answer.

Class? Class? ClaaaaAAAAAssss!
(think Cheech and Chong here folks)

You guessed it. Copper! Pure natural copper.

I'll be creating several of my handcrafted findings that I already make (and then some) with Copper as well. It is so very pretty and can be as organic, rustic, southwestern or elegant as you want it to be. I did not realize how enjoyable it is to work with. Nice on my wrists and...

Johnny sit down and quit pulling Susie's pony tail!

Oh and yes, I'm playing around with different oxidizing techniques as well. Above is my Antiqued Finish and...

Barnaby! That is NOT where a test tube goes! Take that out of your nose right now young man!

Anyway, I have more oxidizing to play with and look forward to playing around with it.

Well, class is just about over and I'm turning gray here, so I'm going to dismiss class early and ....

Whoa!, watch out! Let me.... da du thump thump thump (being run over by students)

Happy Monday!
Rocki

My hubby, I'll convert him yet!

Mark is the love of my life, my best friend, my soulmate in life after life, my partner in crime, my rock and the best hubby anyone could ever ask for. He does dishes too.

The photo above is from a couple years ago at one of the local handmade craft shows. Yep, he did ALL the shows with me: packed the car, unloaded the car, set up the big stuff, helped with customers and even made food runs for those around us. He's a keeper.

He's an accountant/bookkeeper by day and a loving hubby & daddy all the time. He's also known as JOAT MON. (Jack of all trades master of none). Below is one of my favorite pictures when we went to pick out our first little girl: Maelyn. For those of you who do not know our story, I'll condense it...

Mark & I are one and the same and have been together in previous lives. We know this as we have WAY too much in common. We both have 2 boys each: Jeremy's & Jason's. Yep, 4 boys and 2 share the same name each. In fact 2 of them share the same middle name. If me & my ex would have had a little girl her name was going to be Jessica Mae. If Mark & his ex had a little girl her name was going to be Jessica Lynn. Since we couldn't have kids together, we decided to name our first 4-legged child "Maelyn" (by combining the middle names). Oh yes, there's more to this love story, but I'll save it for another time. He does laundry too.

Although Mark is very proud of my work, he lovingly refers to it as "car parts" - yes, he's a guy, what can I say. Oh, but let me tell you, he's picked up the lingo quite well. To hear him come off with "you have a convo honey, it's a transaction" or when he uses the exact term for my metalwork findings instead of "car parts", it melts my heart. Did I tell you he irons?

So the other day while at the hardware store he came up with an idea for earrings (above). Yes, I know the design in and of itself is not new, but hey, MY hubby, Mr. Car Parts, came up with it so I just had to honor him. I told him that he could name them. He came up with "Put a Hex on You!" We compromised with Spellbound. I just love them, but maybe a little more because of how they were created. Did I mention he still opens doors for me?

That got me thinking, so I have now added Sleepers to my shop. I'll have more styles to add as soon as Mr. Car Parts comes up with them. See... I TOLD you I'd convert him!

Happy day everyone!
Rocki

Hands down, Trekkie or not...

Star Trek ROCKS!

First off, I'm not an official Trekkie/Trekkor, but the new Star Trek movie is SO good that it just about brought me to tears, saluting the screen with the Live Long & Prosper sign and giving a standing ovation. Mark & I talked about it all weekend and can hardly wait until it comes out on DVD.

(hey hon, are the Klingon's coming over for dinner?)

Yes, I watched the original series. I wasn't glued to it or HAD to watch it, but I watched it all the same. Can't say I liked ALL the Star Trek series after the original one, except the series with Jean-Luc Picard. He was so very cool, plus I love saying his name... so romantic.

Really... I'm not a Trekkie (hides costumes).

The new Star Trek crew is amazing! Not only was the movie well written and thought out, but the actors were dead on with the original characters. From Bone's "Dammit Jim..." to Spock's eyebrow raise to Kirk's mannerisms, etc..

"Beam me up Scotty."

I also liked how they matched the younger crew to look like how the original would look like at a young age. Another excellent move. They obviously studied their characters. Oh and the special effects were awesome as well

(hon, have you seen my communicator!)

This movie more than surpassed our expectations. Mark & I knew it was going to be good, but we had NO idea it would be THAT good. We both agree that we recommend this movie to anyone who loves to be entertained by a well rounded movie. No, you don't have to be a Trekkie or even close to it.

"Space... the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before."

Live long & propser,

Rocki