Crafting is in their genes

As if I wasn't already head over heels in love with this little girl, she just steals my heart more and more by doing things like this

I have been working on this sign for the aprons that I sell at craft shows so this board has been on the counter for days. The other night Lily pulls out her colored pencils and went to work making one of her own. I wouldn't let her touch mine so she was running back and forth, from the counter to the table. She would run over and check this detail or that, making sure she had everything right. You can't tell from this picture, but she even has the little squiggly lines and things in the word 'kitschy'.
The next day I taught her how to do patchwork on the machine.
I'm so glad she is a crafter!

Eric just may be a crafter too. Today I was going to take Lily with me to a craft show while Eric & Ross stayed home to take a nap but he threw a fit when he found out he wasn't going. He cried and cried saying "craft show" so Ross got lucky to have the whole afternoon to himself in a quiet house. They had a kids craft table where they got to make Indian hats (I know there is a name for these things, just can't remember it)

And Eric wore his all day

Broken computer, saving money, loosing a job and Halloween 2011

Eric knocked over the tower to my computer a few weeks back and broke the hard drive completely, so I lost everything (this is why there aren't many pictures). I'm pretty impressed with my thrifty-ness in the repair of the computer. I talked a friend of mine (who happens to work in computers specializing in hardware) into fixing it for me and was able to pay him in Magners (that Ross got for free because of a labeling error over in Ireland). I needed to buy the new hard drive so I talked Office Depot into a price-match from $96 to an advertised $59 sale at Best Buy so that I could use my $20 reward (from turning in empty ink cartridges all year). So, basically I paid about forty bucks in all. Not bad huh?
I recently got laid off from Monstertixx so the need for extreme thrift is more of a necessity now than ever before. I'll be hired back when baseball season starts, or if the NBA decide to quit being greedy and come to an agreement or if people actually decide they would enjoy seeing the crappy Dolphins play, basically when/if ticket sales become more in-demand.

Halloween.
The weather tried its best to ruin it, it had been raining and raining and a tropical storm came through over that weekend, but it managed to stop raining long enough to trick or treat.
The Friday night before Halloween was the Boo Bash, an annual event hosted by the city for the kids. Every year this has been fun, but this year they didn't give any candy at all so the kids were pretty disappointed. They had bounce houses but you had to be 5 in order to get in them so that didn't work out so well for Eric. The following pictures are of Lily's costume:


She and I dressed like Jesse from Toy Story and Eric was Batman. I made mine & Lily's but I wasn't about to attempt a homemade Batman. We borrowed his from a friend.
We were supposed to go to a pumpkin carving party and then Trunk or Treat at the Y on Sunday, but Lily decided to stay up all night Saturday night pretending to be sick so we cancelled those fun events and carved our pumpkins at home.
Monday, actual Halloween, we went trick or treating in the rich people's neighborhood. In our neighborhood people don't answer the doors! It is pathetic. This other neighborhood, they throw parties in their yards and really go all out, so that is why we go there.
This last picture is from us playing at the field. It is our family workout that we like to do every now and then. We go to the baseball field at the neighboring school/church and run sprints and do drills and things while the kids just run around.

Eric loves being a baby

Eric doesn't want to be a big boy. He doesn't have any interest in getting big, gaining independence or using the potty. When we got a big bag of hand-me-downs from a friend and there were underpants in it, I couldn't even get him to try them on! If you ask him if he wants to try them on he says "Diapers!"
so, I guess I'm still clipping coupons for diapers for awhile.
If you ask him his name he'll tell you "Baby"
I may have babied him a little too much.

I'm sorry, truly sorry. I had no idea that the Komen foundation had lost sight of the goal

Right now I am so angry that I'm struggling with the right words to express it. As you probably know, every year I raise a bunch of money for the Susan G. Komen foundation's Race for the Cure. This race is coming up on Saturday and my fundraising efforts were currently in full swing. That is... until about an hour ago.

The Susan G. Komen foundation spent millions this year going after other charities for the use of the phrase "for the cure" or for using the color pink. It made the news back in August, but I missed it, had I seen it then, I'd have never asked for your donations to this organization.

I can't even describe how angry this makes me. I've raised thousands upon thousands of dollars for this organization over the years and I donate 10% of every handmade sale that I make. I buy the Susan G. Komen stamps, I pay more for products that donate a percentage, and I run the race. I was getting really excited that next year would have been an entire DECADE of supporting this charity. I feel like I've been cheated.

I understand that charities have business obligations and sometimes tough decisions need to be made, but lawsuits to other (smaller) charities is a loose-loose. It forces those charities to shift their money away from their causes and into hiring lawyers to defend themselves. When the Susan G. Komen foundation ends up with a few extra million, why not spend it on something that would be a closer fit to the cause? Why not increase the per-dollar amount that is actually used in research? Build a Hospital! Geez, anything other than suing another charity!

Going forward plan:

1. remove any Race related fundraising links I have on any of my sites
2. replace all of the tags on all of my handmade products (it states that I donate 10%)
3. draw a big black bar through the "Susan G. Komen foundation" script on my business cards where it says that I donate 10%
4. Revise all of the eBay auctions that I am currently running that I had set up to automatically donate anywhere from 10% to 100% to the Susan G. Komen Foundation (*update* eBay won't allow charity changes in active listings, so I'll have to let these ride and change the charity when I re-list)
5. Document this day in my sales records because I have a duty to make that 10% donation for the sales that I've made in the past year because otherwise I would be lying to my customers and that is just something I am not willing to do. I said I'd donate it, and I will. A percentage of future sales will go to another charity.
6. Send an apology email to everyone that I asked money from letting them know
7. write a message on my race day shirt tag. Not sure exactly how the wording will go, but it will honor my mom first then express my disappointment in the Susan G. Komen foundation
8. Write a letter to the Komen foundation letting them know about my disappointment. I know it probably won't matter to them, but it will matter to me
9. Research and find a better charity to support. I am proud that I, personally am able to donate hundreds of dollars and because of my awesome family and friends, usually able to pull that number over a thousand every year. I want to find a charity that hasn't lost sight of the goal and direct my money there instead.

2011 Race for the Cure

**REVISED on 10/12/11**

I removed the link to the Fundraising page for the Race for the Cure, see this blog post for explaination

--------------------------

I ran my first Race for the Cure 9 years ago and have participated every year since! This year's race is less than a month away and although I signed up for the race months ago, I haven't raised a dime or gotten a single person on my team yet. So, if you wanna help me catch up to my usual lofty goal of raising a grand, click here and donate. Click that same link if you'd like to join the team too.
I was actually considering not actually running this year and "sleeping in" for the cure instead. That means that I still pay my fee, get a t-shirt, raise money but sleep in instead of running (you can do that too folks... click that link up there) but because this is the first year that Brandi is gonna run it with me, I guess I'll do it.
Gotta run, need to go draft up an email begging everyone I know to donate some money :)

oh yeah, I should also mention that I donate 10% of the purchase price of every single handmade item that I sell all year long whether it be in my online shop, my other online shop or at local shows, so if you are thinking of buying handmade gifts this holiday, that is another way to support the Race for the Cure too.

Birthday

This year, it seemed like we were going to birthday parties every weekend (sometimes more than one on a Saturday) so we decided instead of throwing parties, we'd do a family day at the zoo for the kid's birthdays. Brandi gave Eric this Charlie Brown shirt and he loves it so much that I have to do laundry too often because he wants to wear it every day. I love that he will wear that FSU cap, but feel kinda bad for his big head 'cause it is an adult hat!


My dad got Lily the camera for her birthday and it was so sweet that she had it at the zoo. Remember all the sketching she did at Butterfly World? well the camera got the same attention and it was a good thing too because if we had to take the time to sketch every animal, we'd have never made it out of that place!
Both kids LOVED the Goats. Eric didn't really wanna feed them, I think the tongues scared him a little, but he really enjoyed brushing them.

Feeding the giraffes was the only thing that Lily remembered from our last trip to the zoo so she had been driving us nuts all day asking when we'd get to do that again. FINALLY, we got to the giraffes.
I have loads of pictures from the whole day up on flickr if you wanna check out more

Summer Summer Summer

047, a photo by by Shelley Faye on Flickr.

This pic is the face Eric makes every time you point a camera in his direction. Maybe he'll become a dentist.

Anyhoo...
We've had a busy summer so far. We've been having a blast going to sprinkler parks and swimming at the Y but of course, there never seems to be enough time in front of a computer to keep up with blogging as often as I'd like.
I am a gadget junkie though so I'm regularly posting pics on flickr (user id: by shelleyfaye but you'll need to add me as a friend in order to see the family pics... they are private so I have to approve you first. If you don't do this step, you'll only see pictures of the stuff I've sewn) and videos to youtube (user id: sirrossmitchell, just search that word... no spaces) so please, if you are craving more up-to-date pics, bookmark those sites.

Lily's Pre-School Graduation

The entrance to Lily's classroom
Eric waiting patiently for things to get started

Lily and her teacher Ms. Nancy


I cried. A lot.

Lily excited for fireworks

Lily usually doesn't do well when she stays up late but we've decided to let her stay up tonight to watch the fireworks from the roof (we can see 5 shows from there!) this video is of our excited little girl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrwtzGnKZF0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Grandma's funeral

A week ago yesterday, my Grandma passed away (above pic of her and Lily in the fall '06). Of course it is very sad and I'm heartbroken for the loss, but I'm happy that she is in a better place. She was very very sick and her quality of life was not good. It was really nice to get to see the family and even though the visit was quick, it was a refresher for me. I love my babies dearly, but it is so nice to have a whole day start to finish every now and then where I don't have to change a diaper, make sure someone is eating healthy or cleaning up toys.
I don't have much time to post because I have a mound of work to catch up on and because life seems to always throw things at you all at once, everyone in the house is sick!
I came home with a box of old pictures and I'm going to be scanning them over time and posting them to flickr. I have loads of pictures there that are public, but you won't be able to see most of the family stuff without logging in. If you log in (it is free) and connect with me, I can mark you as a family member and you will be able to see all of my pictures.
This link might work to take you to some pics from the 70s...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22026365@N02/sets/72157626876705560/

Lately

004, a photo by by Shelley Faye on Flickr.

It is full-on hot as hell around here (love it!) and we've been spending alot of time in the water. Eric completed swimming lessons and still cannot swim, but they both do really well in the water anyway.
So, in my relentless pursuit of figuring out a way to get us enough money to get a REAL pool, I've gotten really really into coupons. Inspired by Sherah, and encouraged by a local crafty friend who got me into her coupon group on facebook, I've saved a BOAT LOAD! It is insane! If you've seen that show Extreme Couponing, I'm no where near that level, but I've been saving so much and in only a few weeks of doing it. You already know how cheap I am, and we've been on a tight budget forever, but I've managed to cut even more! I started keeping track of it so I can see if it is all worth my time and if you are curious, this is the blog for that. As of today, I've spent $155.31 on $534.90 worth of food, cleaning supplies and toiletries. Pretty awesome huh?

Why

I'm not really sure how to type it out, but I'm sure that anyone reading this knows exactly how it sounds, a young kid asks for something, the parent says 'no' and the kids responds with a whiney "wwwhhhhyyyyyy?????" complete with the collapsing body language.
We've all seen it.
As much as I'd love to say that Lily doesn't do this, I can't. She doesn't do it often and we've been working on curbing it, but the real problem now is that Eric does it too! It is kinda funny because he has no idea what why means, she just knows that is what he is supposed to say when he doesn't get his way. It is a tricky thing because I can't use the same techniques to get him to stop doing it.
Another funny thing that he does is if he wants to run around in the store and doesn't want me to carry him he starts saying "ow, ow, ow, ow" so everyonat looks at me like I'm hurting him!

Yay....new iPad

If you are on Facebook, than you know how much I've been bitching about having to share a computer with Ross during the day. Well, I finally got my new iPad! I love it yet I'm disappointed that I can't upload pictures. There were two things that I was concerned about and uploading photos was one of them. Every person I asked told me that I could. Not just salespeople either, I asked iPad owners and they all said that you could. Well.... If it was possible, you'd see a pic on this post because I'm sitting on the patio right now with the kids playing in our new $10 blow up pool and I can take their picture, just can't upload it. I can upload to all the social networking sights but those don't make money for me. I was hoping to use this thing for work. So I'm kinda sad about that.
Ok enough bitching.
Yesterday was the spin a thon. Our team had to keep a bike spinning for 6 hours. We raised money for Kids in Distress. We ended up with a pretty big team and so we only had to spin for 27 or 28 minutes. I'm pretty proud of myself too because I raised $350.00 and did 45 minutes of spinning and didn't feel like I was going to die (we loaned some riders to a smaller team). I'm not looking the way I want to look, but health-wise, I'm in the best shape I've ever been in! It feels great.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is always a little sad for me. I love being able to have a day to celebrate, but it always makes me super sad that my mom isn't around any more. She was such a giver that she is the exact type of person that holidays like Mother's Day were invented. I hate that I didn't give her the appreciation that she deserved. I took so much for granted and just wish I had some way to turn back the clock just for one day to tell her how much I appreciate everything the did for us. My kids are so awesome and I'm so proud of them, I wish so badly that my mom could have known them.
There were alot of tears this weekend over that.
There were also two more big reminders of our mortality too. My boss, for whom I've worked for about 6 years now lost his sister on Friday to breast cancer. I don't know her exact age, but she is his younger sister and he is 44. She had a family... small kids! I am so sad for them, I know how hard it is not to have a mom and I didn't lose mine until I was an adult. I just can't imagine.
Then, Brandi's most recent ex-boyfriend died Saturday night in a motorcycle accident. I didn't really know him very well, but Brandi is pretty broken up about it.
It is heart breaking, but death is part of living, so although there are tears, it truly makes me more apt to pay attention to today.
So, on that note, I'll move on to tell you about what a fabulous day I had on Mother's Day with Lily. Moms get in free to Butterfly World on Mother's day and I took Lily last year. It is the first thing she talked about when she heard that Mother's day was coming up so I told her we'd certainly go again this year. Eric still naps and Butterfly World is kinda pricey so the boys stayed home and cooked dinner for us.
Lily was so excited for the day that she had been drawing pictures of us & butterflies for about a week. She even set out her butterfly underwear to make sure to wear them on Sunday! She woke me up at 6:55!! Ross is the one who gets up with the kids everyday because he is a morning person, I'm not, and... I do my web-work at night so I don't get a chance to get to bed early like he does. So, on a regular day, I get up at 8. Mother's Day, the day that moms are supposed to SLEEP IN.... Lily woke me up at 6:55. I grumbled that I was supposed to sleep in on Mother's Day and she started to cry telling me that it was a special day and she had something she wanted to give me. Even though I'd been out late at a party the night before, I dragged myself out of bed to receive their gifts. Lily had picked out some gummy fruit snacks for me and a spool of ribbon. She & Eric drew me a picture on a big piece of cardboard. Eric even sat up at the table while I looked at it pointing and saying "draw, draw" (this explains the mysterious green marker arms late last week). It was very sweet. I gave them bagels and snuck back to bed. A few minutes later Lily joined me (she usually has to be woken up for school, so 6:55 is early for her too).
After a little more beauty sleep, we got up and headed out to Butterfly World. Lily likes to sketch things so we stopped at the dollar store and bought two sketch pads, a pack of new crayons, a box of markers and treated ourselves to sodas.
Not long after being there, one of the workers told us that if we put our finger out slowly to a butterfly when it is on a leaf, it may crawl onto our hand. This picture is of how upset Lily got about that silly butterfly not wanting to crawl onto her hand. (Notice the finger still out and ready for the butterfly to climb on)

There was an annoyingly friendly little girl who managed to get one on her finger and she tried to hand it off to Lily
It didn't work, but after a minute of resting in the trees, it climbed onto her hand... just for a second
We bought the butterfly guide book and really took our time looking at each and every butterfly trying to identify them and checking them off in the book.
Then we had horrible pizza & chips for lunch. (*note to self: next year... pack a lunch.*)
Next up were the lorikeets. For a dollar, they give you a cup of juice that the birds are crazy for and they climb all over you. I don't care for birds climbing on me but one really liked me and landed on me twice even though I didn't have any juice. Lily loves them.
And as you can see... they love her too. I worried about her getting pooped on, but thankfully she didn't. Everyone around was taking pictures of her and she thought it was the funniest thing.
After a round of purell and a real soap & water handwash, we got ice cream
The whole day we stopped and sketched out the things we'd seen. Here is Lily drawing the millipede in the Bug Zoo.
And sketching the humming birds

She was really cute with the sketching. She made sure to get all the colors right. She'd see a bird that had a black spot on his eye, or a red feather on the tail or whatever and make sure to put that in her picture. Then she'd tuck her notepad under her arm and move on like some little scientist or something. It was very sweet. I'm holding the memories of this day very close to my heart.

Because Aunt Linda told me to

I talked to Aunt Linda yesterday and she reminded me that I haven't updated the blog in a long time so here goes. Toward the end of March I donated my hair again to Locks of Love. I hate having short hair, but as you can see from the photo, I really needed a haircut! Oh well... it is a renewable resource and even though I don't have alot of money to give to charities, I do have alot of hair!You can donate your hair too (I got a free haircut out of it too by going to Great Clips) information on how to do it is on their site http://www.locksoflove.org/
On the first, I finally went and got that tattoo that I've been talking about for years and years
I'd saved up and set aside the money years ago and bonus for me, inflation on tattoos wasn't nearly as high as I had expected. My last tattoo before this one was in the late 90s and it cost me about $200 so I figured I'd need about $300. Lucky me, it only cost me $150! But, as luck tends to always swing in both directions, the City of Hollywood caught me running a redlight via photo/video (oops) so I had to give them the rest of that money I'd set aside for tattoos.
it is a Flame Lily, the national flower of Zimbabwe.
Most of my time in the last 6 months or so has been spent working my booty off to organize the Odd Duck Bazaar. This was the second year of the show and I was so proud of the outcome. There was so much blood/sweat/tears put into this event and it really paid off.
we were written about pre-show in three newspapers, one local and two regional! Last year we were only featured post-show on the newspapers' websites. We had about 1500 attendees! Magners was one of our sponsors and set up a tasting booth at the event.
Ross's staff girl ended up getting sick and needing extra help, so he had to work part of the event. Brandi was originally volunteering at the show's admissions booth, but when Ross had to come up there, Brandi had to leave to take the kids home. Eric spent a few moments helping his dad. Sweet huh?
The other day we received a parcel from Zimbabwe with some love gifts from Granny & Grandpa.
The next picture is slightly out of order, but it was from the weekend before Odd Duck when I took Lily out on a girls day to go to a craft show in Boca. It was a combo, show promoting and spending some quality time with my girl. We shopped, ate handmade Popsicles, got a glitter tattoo from the henna artist and ate out for lunch.
I swear, these kids spend so much time in the dirt! I have so many pictures of them looking like this...

Now I really need to get back to work. SOMEBODY, who will remain name-less, allowed Lily to play with my laptop on the couch and she broke the screen so I'm working on finding things around here to sell so I can get an ipad.

Through the eyes of Lily

These photos are taken by Lily. She was playing a little too quietly the other day so when I checked on her she said she was doing a photo shoot. It is really funny to me to see the things she finds photo-worthy.
This is the slider that goes between the dining room and pool table room. It is one of those that opens completely out so most days it is open, mainly because having a sliding glass door in the middle of your house is strange, right? Well, it has this weird leaf pattern thing on it, presumably to keep people from walking into it. I never really thought I'd be blogging about it.My rocking chair. I've had this chair all my life, I have insisted on keeping it even though I have more reasons to let it go than to save it. I have no place to put it, it is too small for an adult, too big for a child and no one uses it but yet, here it is.
The really nasty fan over the pool table and the glorious popcorn ceiling above it.
Lily's boo-boo and spongebob bandaid

Lately Lily has really gotten into saying "lets pretend..." it just makes me smile to hear all of her big ideas.
Eric, finally has started to try and talk. He does several animal sounds but won't attempt the name of the animal yet. He says 'no' and 'uh-huh' (I know, terrible... I should insist on 'yes' but I'm still just happy he is saying something!) and 'ball' and 'shoes'
I'm gonna need to try and get him on video saying 'shoes' because it is really cute that sh sound.

New Year's resolution Fail

I was supposed to write a blog post once a week.... oops.
I did 4 in January, so I guess I'll try to play catch up and as long as I can squeeze in 4 a month, I won't beat myself up about it.

Happy Valentine's day!
Today I was invited to have snack at Lily's school with Lily for Valentine's day. It was really sweet. Lily introduced me to her best friend Derek (it used to be Logan, but now Derek). She came home with a load of candy so now I've been spending the day like a broken record telling her 'no' to eating it all in one day.
Eric is finally starting to show signs of learning to talk. He will say 'no' but he says it in such a funny way that no one but us knows that 'no' is what he is saying. I'm wondering if he really does have a speach issue. I keep telling myself not to worry and most days I don't, but I still do.

If I ever get organized enough to upload pictures to the same computer that I'm writing blog posts on, I'll get some pics to you.

Disney

Last Friday we loaded up Granny and the kids and rode up to Melbourne. We spent the night at Sandy's house and got up real early, traded our car for her van, added Allison to the group and headed over to Orlando.
I did check the weather ahead of time, and again that morning, but for some reason I really only paid attention to what the high was for the day and forgot to worry with the low. We took the ferry over to the Magic Kingdom and realized very early that we really weren't dressed appropriately. Everyone had long sleeves and jackets (except Ross, he was in shorts! but he is never cold) but we were cold almost the whole time.
This picture was taken while we were in line for our very first ride.
This super excited face would turn to tears very soon. We rode some Lilo and Stitch thing that was meant to be fun. Well, it wasn't. It plays out like you are expecting a scary alien and instead of a scary alien, Stitch arrives. Well, I guess Lily hasn't watched enough Lilo and Stitch to know that Stitch is a good alien so being in the dark, strapped into a seat and a scary alien on the loose was more than her little heart could handle. It of course broke mine too. She was crying and asking to get out but all I could do was try and tell her that it was all ok and hold her hand. We were very careful in picking our next ride and double checked that the Buzz Lightyear ride was in fact not scary before going on. It was great and even Eric loved it. So, all it took was one good ride for Lily to forget all about the awful beginning. Next we rode the teacups.
Then Lunch at Pinnochio's place and then rode Its a Small World. Eric really really loved that one. He liked being able to sit on the seat in the boat and not our laps. He just pointed and pointed. It was really sweet.
Next, I took my tired little man on a walk in the stroller so he could nap while Ross, Marje, Allison & Lily rode the Dumbo ride. Marje wasn't impressed with that one and I had a terrible crowd experience. Everywhere I turned on my walk they had things roped off for a parade. I just wanted to keep walking but ended up in some strange walkway with raised walls that was too narrow for the crowd. The walls were about shoulder height and I was in the middle of it when another family came through going the other direction with a double-wide stroller. The pathway wasn't wide enough for us both but there were so many people packed in all around us that neither of us could back up to get free. People were climbing over the strollers (with my sleeping child inside!) and climbing up the walls. It was insane and I lost it. I wouldn't let anyone climb over Eric and basically just caused a complete blockade until enough people realized that they weren't going to get through and finally backed up to let some of us out.
So, after I was free, and met back up with the family, we had some ice cream. Daddy sent us money for ice cream so even though it was really really cold, we had ice cream!
Next stop was the toon town fair so Lily & Allison had their faces painted.
Eric is just as entertained by the decorations as he is the rides. He was awesome. Not one melt down!
The sun started setting so we found ourselves a good spot to watch the parade and played there for awhile while Ross went off and found us some hot dogs to have for dinner. Everyone loved the parade. Marje bought the kids some light up toys to play with and it was so sweet. Lily had meltdown #2 when Puff the Magic dragon came through. She was really frightened. I guess we need to make it a point to catch up on our Disney movies because I know for sure, had she seen the movie, she would have never been scared of HIM!
After the parade we went to see the Carousel of Progress in order to squeeze in one more quick ride and warm up a little.
Lily was really struggling by the end. She was cold and very tired so we took turns carrying her. Lucky Duck Eric got to bundle up in the stroller for nap #2.
After leaving the park there was a really bad accident on the interstate and we were in dead-stop traffic for about half an hour. Lily & Allison passed out right away but Eric stayed awake watching a movie. (so cool to get to watch movies in the car. I'm jealous)
But, we finally made it back to Sandy's and the next morning she cooked us a big, fattening American breakfast and we headed back south.
Everyone was still a little pooped from our adventure.
Notes for next time: Wear clothing appropriate for the weather. Plan our rides in advance. Bring lots of snacks.