In the Shop--Christmas Clearance!

My Etsy store is back up and running, yay! Just in time for folk to be thinking about Christmas presents. :-D

I just realized I've had my store for three years on Sunday. To celebrate, and with the upcoming Yuletide, I've added a new section to my shop, where I'm offering some of my jewelry at Clearance prices. These items are being redesigned and won't be restocked after December 29th, 2012, so get them while you can!

God bless, Gentle Readers, and Happy Shopping!
~"Tom"~

Birthday Blessings & Shop

As of today, I am officially the same age as Charlotte Lucas in Pride and Prejudice...'though I would hope I'd have more sense than to marry the first Tom, Dick or Jasper (or Collins!) who asked me, simply to secure a good home a keep from being an old maid! :-P

I don't have a lot of time to detail my quiet day at home--in fact, I really should be in bed *innocent whistle*--but perhaps tomorrow I'll have more time, as I'll be doing "sit-down-type of things" to give my poor lame leg a rest. But that's another story, too....
Suffice it to say that, despite the aforementioned bum leg, I had a lovely relaxing day with the family, watching P&P (which I suspect of becoming a tradition ;-) ), eating Chex Mix and ravioli in Alfredo-marinara sauce, drinking Italian blood-orange soda...and making truffles. :-D

From now until the 14th, I am having a sale in my Etsy shop. Enter the coupon code "BMINE" at the Checkout to receive 15% off anything in the shop! Spread the word! Share the Love!

Until next time, Gentle Readers,
God bless,
~"Tom"~

Introducing Miss Honey Bear

The first of my packages arrived yesterday, and in it was the newest member of my porcelain doll collection—Miss Honey Bear! Isn't she adorable?? (OK, so she's technically not a doll, per se, but she's under 6” tall and had porcelain parts, so Lord willing I can get those room-boxes built, she'll be having tea with my other miniature dolls.)

As I hinted at in my last entry, Mom gave me a bear just like this one when I was four or five years old. We were doing a Christmas pageant at church, and all the kids were supposed to pretend to open presents. The bear was supposed to be mine, but one day after rehearsal I was tossing her in the air in the foyer and trying to catch her (and we all know how hard it is for five-year-olds to catch anything), and she landed on the big brick hearth of the fireplace, and her head was smashed to smithereens. A few years later I tried to glue it back together, but one piece was missing, so I improvised a pompom head instead. It looked hideous, but at least my poor little bear had a head! But from then on it all went downhill—it seemed like her porcelain limbs were always cracking or breaking. I remember tying some twine around one paw because it was cracked, and putting a piece of rag where the poor bear's heel used to be. Eventually I had to throw her away. :'-( So you can imagine how amazed and happy I was last week when I saw Miss Honey on eBay! :-D

This picture shows Miss Honey with Clothespin Dolly, who is modeling Miss Honey's predecessor's dress, which I saved. Dolly arrived last October with several other toys I used to play with at my grandparents' house when I was little (and not so little ;-) hee). Thanks, Grandma! Dolly's original dress (seen in this picture) is currently waiting to be washed, as I doubt it's ever been in twenty-odd years. :-O Miss Honey's clothes could stand a bath, too, but unlike Dolly, she hasn't anything to wear in the meantime, so I'm waiting till washday to strip her. :-P

Well, what with rearranging, unpredictable weather and three “gigs” (as our friend Shawn would say) at the end of this month to practice for...I still haven't been able to get any pictures of “Wood Violet” and “Chinese Blue” in their completed states. So for now here are some of them nearly finished:

(Top: "Chinese Blue" before cuffs were added. Bottom: "Wood Violet" ready for collar--seen to left of blouse)

I'm thinking I'll just wait till Summer, when the weather is more cooperative, and bribe ask my dear, long-suffering and very obliging brother to help me do a whacking-great photo-shoot, Lord willing and the creek don't rise. Then y'all can see what these blouses look like all finished, and I can really organize Tom's Page....

The neighbor boy and his dad came by this past week and reseeded the back lawn and fertilized everything, and we've had some rain to water it in, so we're looking forward to green lawns again—yay!

And if you'd like to see what else I've been up to this week...check my Etsy shop. ^_^

Later, people.

God bless,

~“Tom”~

Spring and Shop Expansion

Well, the calendar may say it's Spring, but you'd never know it from the weather! Cold and gloomy and looking for all the world like it's still Winter. Blah. :-P Well, enjoy your little joke, Old Man Winter; you can't keep Spring away forever!

And at least we didn't get nine inches of snow like we did in California several years back...twice. :-P

I was going to wear my artificial wreath (see icon) to celebrate the First Day of Spring...but as always, I chickened out for fear of people giving me the eyebrow and disgracing the family with my silly antics. >Sigh< How does one balance being oneself and being dorky? How does one tell whether wearing ribbons or flowers in one's hair is part of one's personality, or just a silly, juvenile whim?

Twenty-six years old, and I still don't have a clue.

OK, enough whining....

While yesterday mayn't have been the happiest First Day of Spring ever, Mom did try to make it special by taking us to Costco for lunch (best pizza on the planet, Costco has), and after picking up a few things we needed, we headed across the parking lot to JAMMS for frozen yogurt. Mmmm.... :-D

And I beg a thousand pardons if this entry isn't exactly cheerful. I'm doing my God-aided best not to vent or mope, but it's hard. Part of it is the disappointing weather, but I think another part is the fact that my friend Grace C's memorial service was Saturday. I wish I could have been there, but flying back to California isn't in the budget just now. (Yes, this is the friend I mentioned in the Literary Heroine Blog Party who committed suicide in February.) Please pray for her family—especially her mother Anne (who is now doubly grieved because her best friend killed himself about two weeks after Grace did) and her brother Caleb (who found her). Please pray that somehow God will bring glory to Himself through this tragic situation, that the C family will be drawn close to Him and to each other, and that Grace's unsaved friends would accept and believe the Gospel message they heard at Grace's service.

On a more positive note....

In light of all the compliments I've gotten on my Earflap Stocking-cap, I've decided to take Mom's advice and offer them for sale on my Etsy shop. Since Etsy won't let me set up more than one per e-mail address, and I don't really want to go through the hassle of setting up a new one, I've decided to expand my current shop to include things besides jewelry. After all, “Wild Rose Designs” could refer to anything, really.

God bless,

~“Tom”~

*Sniffle!*

3/14

I write this from my bed, as I woke up in the middle of the night with a slight scratchy throat and a bit of congestion...which consequently has zapped my energy. So my long-suffering brother (who has been under the weather himself) very sweetly brought my laptop into my room so's I could do some computer work while taking it easy. Thanks, Bro! <3

You know how I've been talking about the McSpaddens of late? According to one article I read, they're an offshoot of the MacFaydens (I'd post the link, but last time I tried to look through the genealogy pages, I got a virus warning!). But the fellow near the bottom of this page says that's all hooey made up by kilt merchants, and that the McSpaddens were probably too poor to have a family crest or tartan, and that “the ancestors of the American McSpaddens were long gone from Scotland” before specific tartans became associated with clans and what-not. And I have a feeling he's right, as my great-grandmother (whose mother was a McSpadden) was from Oklahoma. Which might explain why it's been so difficult to find ANYTHING in what the other article described as the McSpadden tartan: “...deep red, with plaids of green and violet.”

So I've chosen this one instead. :-P

Garish? Perhaps. But hey, as The Pixie said last time—it's PURPLE! ;-) (And no, I haven't bought it; I just like it.)

On a more positive note, I sold two necklaces yesterday! PTL! Our church does this thing called Supper For Six or Seven, where three families gather once a month for three months in each other's homes for—duh—supper. We did it last Winter, and signed up again for the Spring rotation (they mix it up so people get to know several different folks). This time we're in a group with one old fellow and the music leader and his wife. Guess who took a fancy to my green-and-white necklace (“Woodland Princess”) for St. Patrick's Day? ;-) And then her husband suggested buying the blue-and-white one (“Lotus Blossom”) for her sister's birthday. Hurrah!

So I nipped over to Etsy this morning and deactivated those listings. :-P How awkward it would have been if someone had bought them during the night, after I'd sold them to this lady! Eek.

OK, methinks I take a nap now.

O! for some chicken soup....

Until next time, Gentle Readers,

God bless,

and keep well!

~“Tom”~

Setting Up Shop

Actually, the shop's all set up. More like "Restocking the Shop"! Yes, Gentle Readers, I have been adding things to my Etsy store. Lots of new goodies to oggle...and hopefully they won't be there long. :-D

Haven't done much else today of interest...unless you count hacking up raw meat for my famous minestrone! Thank goodness for rubber gloves! :-P Seriously, though, I'm looking forward to supper tonight. Homemade minestrone is my absolute favorite soup on the planet. Close second would be that Chicken Bean Stew with Alfredo sauce and LOTS of cumin. ;-)

Someday I need to figure out how to put multiple pages on this thang, like a Links page (unless there's a better way to have a direct link to my Etsy shop and website) and ones for sharing recipes and such. And smileys. Must have smileys. Surely there's a way to get smileys in here...?

Can you believe tomorrow is March First?! It seems like we just had New Year...of 2009. :-P But that means Spring is just around the corner! *Happy dance* I need to get going on my sewing, so's I'll actually have something to wear this Summer besides T-shirts and cut-off jeans. :-P

Oh, and I'm thinking of making meself a new Summer hat. That blog party post got my inner Costume Designer's creative juices flowing. The one I have is good, but like all hats, it really doesn't fit me very well because of me bangs. And I MUST have bangs; mine isn't the kind of forehead you can just expose. It's just too...severe. If Caroline Bingly (P&P 1995) had had blonde hair and light-brown eyebrows, that's what I look like sans bangs. :-P Unfortunately, your average hat is made for people who have "outgrown" bangs, and sits just above eyebrow-level. Which of course would squash my bangs and make me look dreadful should I ever remove my hat. So I usually wear it tilted back a a bit on my head, which looks OK except that makes the crown too tall. So my idea is to make something like this or this, only in canvas dyed either lavender, light denim-blue or deep green, and with a relatively short crown. Lavender would be my first choice, as it's my signature color, dontcha know, but it doesn't go with quite *everything.* Red, for example. Not that I wear a lot of red, but I don't want to have to have a whole 'nuther hat for when I do. 'Cos I'm cheap like that. :-P I consider green sort of a neutral because it's the color of flower-stems, and flowers come in every color of the rainbow. Denim-blue would be like a pair of jeans, which, IMHO, do go with everything, and therefore would be the most practical. Or I could just hack up alter my existing hat to fit, which would probably be cheaper. :-P

Not much else happening in Tom's World today. I may work on my purple blouse later. Pictures coming soon!

Until next time, Gentle Readers,

God bless,

~"Tom"~