Just Ducky

I am by no means a 'designer', although I do make accessories and sell them, I don't see myself as a creative person.

I usually just make things I would like to wear and go from there.

But the other night I was watching some old reels of football games from the 20's and the word 'Varsity' kept popping in my head. Blue and Gold, Purple and Silver, Green and White....helmets, cheerleaders, pom poms, things that are now considered novelty but are also ultra-cute.

So here's the two designs I came up with, please totally disregard the photos of me and their incredibly embarrassing content, my camera is for the birds and it's early in the morning (ok, not all that early, but give a sister a break).





I did a custom order last week, which is mainly what I do. I'm assuming people just don't like what's in my inventory. A get some orders through my blog and people who don't want to use etsy, which confuses me, but alas. Money is money. I wish I could say that phrase in french, it would be much more convincing and cool.

Here's Rose modeling the custom order for me. The custom order was for an adult size, she just has a giant head:



That post ended up much longer than I had originally planned, so I'll save all of my useless banner for tomorrow or next week.

I hope everyone has a ducky weekend. Just ducky.

Come on In, Take out the garbage on the way out!

A little while ago Mr. Condescending posted a cute little 'game' about being welcomed into his home and then 'tagged' some people for them to do the same thing. I wasn't tagged, by the way, but decided to do it anyways.

So I'm supposed to list things like what I'll be serving for dinner, what I'll have to drink, what's on your favorite bookshelf and dvd shelf....

Well around these parts har har we ain't so gar dum fancy...

We have a dozen bookshelves in the house, so I just picked one at random, mostly because Antony and Cleopatra is on it:


And this is my most confused bookshelf...poor confused bookshelf, how did you get this way? What can I do to help?:


I have mostly all digital movies so our DVD shelf is pretty sparse:

You can help yourselves to anything in our fridge, or you can stay for dinner. Tonight we're having turkey hot dogs and spinach salads. Wed. we're having chicken tacos and veggies. Thurs. is fried rice and Fri....I have no idea. We'll probably order pizza. I'll let you pick one topping.


I like how it looks like the drawers in my fridge are busted. You might notice veggies on the bottom shelf, mostly because the two drawers are always packed full to the brim with fruit and vegetables. From here I can see zuccini, green onions, cilantro, green peppers...

Now I'm hungry.

Discrimination and Hamster Puppies

Soooooo Jeremiah and I are going out on the town. Not exactly out on the town since we're like 75 year old inbred hamster puppies....

What?

Well, anyways Jeremiah and I are leaving our precious angel with Grandma T and we're going to do grown up stuff.
Not just that people! Get your head out of the proverbial gutter! Just because Jeremiah is probably the most excellent looking man I've ever known in my life doesn't mean that all I think about is sex.
It does mean that I think about it 75% of the time though.

Just keeeding Mom! Or Grandma! Or any person that is made uncomfortable by me talking about sexing it up.

So as promised, here are photos of Jeremiah's fro and Elijah is a snow white get up.


You'd think that Elijah would have been dressed up a million times before, but it is mostly forbidden in our household to mess with the baby just because he's a boy. We don't want any discrimination in our household.

The president might call us 'stupid' during a press conference.


Oh and I made this bunny. There's also a blue and purple armless bear laying around here somewhere that I started to make for Max and never finished. Jeremiah says it's creepy...and just because of that I think I might just leave it armless.

Staycation?

Jeremiah's on vacation, so I guess that pretty much sums up my absence from blogging the last couple days. We didn't plan a big trip this year to save money, so we've been making little days trips with Elijah while the younger two girls are on vacation with their daddy and Rosey is on her first 'big girl' vacation with her best friend's family.
She called yesterday from in front of Thomas Edison's house. Sounds like one super exciting vacation...

So far Jeremiah, Elijah and I have gone on a 15 mile bike ride, played in a creek, gone on a date for Japanese and to see Harry Potter and unsuccessfully looked for a bike at a flea market an hour and a half away from here that turns out isn't in existence. I'll never live that one down. Just like the time I put tons of cinnamon in Jeremiah's starbucks instead of chocolate and he couldn't even drink it. I'm stupid AND wasteful!

Now I'm trying to come up with a few more day trips for the rest of the week...

In the interim, please enjoy a few pics of our date to see Harry Potter (which I have to thank Jeremiah for taking me to see it, considering he cringed when I jumped in excitement at the release date), a not so flattering photo of me on my bike and a couple shots of our darling boy playing with a dirty stick in a creek. EXCITING!


Tune in next time for photos of Jeremiah's fro and Elijah in Snow White's dress!

Boogers and Etsy Loves

In case everyone in the whole universe not directly in contact with me doesn't know this already, I have a cold.
I've had this cold since Sunday night and I think that it might be the worst I've ever had. I completely realize that I say this every time I'm sick, but we all work together as a family to deal with my crazy idiosyncrasies, don't we?

ANYWAYS, yesterday I got a custom order at my etsy shop, so I feel the need to promote etsy and some sellers today. It's one of those days I guess.

I'll link you up to three of my favorite sellers and then we'll have a discussion about their stuff and giggle a lot...eat nachos on my parents gameroom floor, talk about how cute our 11th grade sociology teacher is? Right?

Mis Nopales Art I love the t-shirts and keep saying to myself that I'm going to order Jeremiah a t-shirt...but in actuality I would really love to order myself three or four and not get him anything!!! Of course every time I go to do that I feel like the world's biggest jerk and then over compensate and end up buying him things and not anything for myself.

Lotusflwrs This happens to be my best friends shop, so of course I'll throw it in here even though she's a complete and total turd. Ha! Take that Mindi!
There are lots of things in her shop I'd like to scoop up. But then I'd be stealing from her, cause there's no way I'd pay her for anything and then we'd probably fight about it and she'd try to give me the stuff for free anyways and I'll never take it then cause I'm stubborn and ridiculous.

Rob And Lean I just love their rings, I think the idea of wood inlay or wood rings is just absolutely gorgeous. If Jeremiah and I ever decide to get married we will definitely be ordering from Rob and Lean!

Now I must get to work on my custom order, this hat in adult size.

Smoke Filled the Uterus and I Was Pissed

I'm still in shock at how incredibly mild this summer has been for us here in Western PA. Now, I know what you're thinking, isn't the summer always mild in Western PA? And the answer is no. Which you probably already gathered by my first sentence....cause why would I be surprised at mild weather if the weather was always mild?

Summers here are usually close to unbearable, humid and sticky and downright gross. Growing up in a house with no air-conditioning, sometimes I felt like I was going to die, or flip out and lock myself in our freezer. Everyday was filled with swimming, hoses, sprinklers or just downright begging my parents for a day at the lake.

There has only been a handful of days this summer where I was uncomfortable, which I should be thankful for, but on the flip side the girls have been complaining about the lack of swimming weather. We ended up using the baby pool a few times when the sun warmed up the day to a respectable 80 degrees, but in the shade or when the wind blows Max whines and whines about being cold.

We took the baby to the lake this weekend while the girls were with their dad at the pool. I guess we could have gone to the pool too, but Jeremiah and I prefer not to 'hang out' with the girls and their dad on the weekend...we're afraid it's confusing for the baby and also taking time away from their dad's time with them. We took Elijah on a bike trail and then took him in the lake, but it was still not all that hot. I was sweaty and gross after the bike ride though, so a dip in the lake was appreciated.

THEN I NEARLY LOST IT. This freaking fat ugly white trash turd head was hugely pregnant with three little kids running all around the place unattended. The jerk was chain smoking in the middle of a very crowded beach. She was practically blowing smoke in her kids faces, and we know she was actually blowing smoke in her unborn babies face. I was so ticked. I told Jeremiah I was going to confront her, I guess my idea was the she was ignorant of the dangers of smoking while pregnant AND the dangers of second hand smoke. Some researchers think that asthma and chronic ear infections may be caused by it! Hello! It's like an epidemic!

Jeremiah, who is incredibly smart and excellent disarmed the ticking time bomb in my mouth and reminded me that nobody is unaware of the risks of smoking during pregnancy...she just doesn't care. This made me even more upset, but made my premise for approaching completely negated. I was going to make her aware so maybe she'd at least stop smoking in public around at least 30-40 other children, including her own. Ugh. I'm still upset. Obviously I didn't say anything cause I would probably have a bloody lip right now...we all know white trash pieces of dog turds don't know have to have intelligent conversations, so she probably would have kicked my ass.

Regardless, here's some summer photos of my darling angels, who weren't pummeled by nicotine and carcinogens for nine months...or ever for that matter.

A Not so Funny Story about My Grandma

This morning while I was eating cherries and drinking coffee I skimmed through blogs for a half hour before my lovely children attacked me with their ridiculous demands of attention and nutritional benefits.
Everything I read today was funny, or at least lighthearted...so I really hate to dim the lights and get serious. But alas, this was what was on my mind.
My grandmother has been sick, and is now recovering, but during the beginning days of her illness I was afraid I was going to lose her and started to write down memories of my life with her so I could share them with my children later in our lives.

I spent countless weekends in her care, being spoiled out of my mind, getting the 'peace and quiet' my parents wanted me to have away from my younger siblings.

The 'quiet' part must have been some kind of joke on their parts because anyone that knows my grandma also knows that it is impossible for her to stay quiet for very long. She'd talk during movies, t.v. shows and even the news. She'd yell up the stairs, down the stairs, from outside on the porch, into the next room,

"Erin! Honey! Love of My Life! Do you need a drink? Ready for a snack? What can grandma get you???"
"Erin! Ask your Pappy what he wants in his salad!"
"Erin Marie! My Dear Child! Bring me the nail polish from my dresser. The peach that's sitting in front of the others..."

What could have been silence was instead filled with opinionated (and often one-sided) conversations, information about her past or her family, stories about people I didn't know, or talk about what she was going to make for dinner or what Pappy needed to pick up at the store.

Night would fall and you could tell she was getting tired from a long day of having a quick step, of cooking, cleaning and caring. She would bathe me, powder me and more often than not put rag 'curlers' in my hair. Silence would finally fall in her house, winning the battle by default at the end of a ceaseless day as my grandma would prepare for bed. She'd set out my our church clothes, then go into Pappy's room and set out his. She'd put lotion on her hands and go into the bathroom to brush her teeth. She'd tuck me in so snug and tight no one was ever able to replicate her technique fully, smoothing the satin comforter down over my body, making a purple cocoon.
Then she would take my face in her hands and tears would well up in her eyes. No matter how many times she tucked me in over so many years, she would nearly cry every single time, as if she was saying, " I have to make this time count...".
She'd smooth my hair away from my face and tell me,

" I love you Erin Marie." Then she would close her eyes and continue, "Thank You God for giving me her mother and Thank You God for giving her mother her father and Thank You God for giving her to me..."

There Was An Old Lady...

Ok, so I was mainly kidding about exploiting my baby as a child star and taking all his money and running...

But then I was inspecting some video of the red headed one, Olivia...I think I might have to rethink my original definition of 'exploitation'...


(I know that this video is long...bear with me, it's well worth it)

Someday he will run with Drug Smuggling Guatemalan Refugees

Our Fourth of July was generally calm and collected. We spent the day with Jeremiah's family about on hour away from our house, then around 7 we came home, put the baby to bed, Jeremiah played his guitar and I read a book. I heard the fireworks from afar and watched our asshole neighbors almost catch their naked dirty kids on fire...but that was as close to 'exciting' as our evening could get.

The only new thing that occurred this weekend was that Elijah has decided he doesn't want his photo taken anymore. As soon as the camera is brought out he whines, grunts angrily and then permanently fixes his chin to his chest and then stubbornly waits till he is absolutely sure we're not going to take his photo.

So there goes all the expectations I had of him to be a multimillionaire exploited child star....

And also here goes all the chances I would have to look back on photos of him as an adorable almost two year old....before you know it he'll be a teenager, never home, thinking about girls all the time and running around with Drug Smuggling Guatemalan Refugees.

This is the last photo I got of him before he either turns his back on me, yells, or puts his chin to his chest.

This is How a Blog War Starts Yo!

Trodo McPooperson got her junk and was also not in the least pleased with it. What part of 'random junk I was going to throw away' don't you people get!?

Anyways, I had forgot about what I sent her and now that I see the post I still am not sure what those things are. She says they're Pokemon, but I'm only familiar with the yellow cute thing Pikachu...nobody better be hating on me for not knowing any freaking pokemon either!

She claims that I have to watch my back, but I'm not sure I'm very afraid of retaliation by her. Hello! She lives in CANADA! By the time she figured out a way to obtain transportation, equip herself for the stark wilderness, travel thousands of miles braving dangers untold, I'll be 60 or 70. Not just old, but also one of those totally cool old people that aren't fazed by anything at all, certainly not raving lunatic Cannucks. (Which, I'm told, is a person from Canada...but since I've never met anyone from up there before...who knows)

TAKE THAT MCPOOPERSON!

I Will Saturate You and You Will Love It!

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes for my grandma's recovery and comments about my brother's girlfriend's gigantic fun bags.
Yesterday sucked but the day ended on a higher note cause we got to hang out with Jeremiah's brother Kirk and his family. They're here in our area visiting from Florida and we also get to see them on Saturday too! Yay!

The girls are going to their aunt's wedding on Sat. and I don't know all that much about it, but I'm supposed to dress them for it...
It's a picnic wedding at the aunt's house in a wooded area.
So I'm a little confused, should I dress them up or not?

In Other News...we went back to the dreaded Animal Park last weekend with my parents. Max had the time of her life, it was amazing to see her usual ticked off self delightful and giggly. She loves animals and is fearless with them.

Jeremiah and the older girls broke off and explored with the baby in the stroller (when should I stop calling him a baby? He's 22 months old now) so Max and I were on our own. She adored the river otters and the one seemed enamored with her as well...
I wasn't going to show a ton of photos, but now I feel it's completely necessary to saturate you with glorious tons upon tons.

This is the dangerous albino kangaroo...it's been known to attack and eat babies, cute chipmunks and those adorable tree frogs that are always on the front page of environmental magazines.


My mom was making faces at this donkey and I kept missing the perfect photo of her doing something embarrassing and awesome. Oh well. My sister was a little nervous getting on the camel, but here in this photo it actually looks like she has a killer hemorrhoid or something. I might just have to have a talk with her about that...