Pink Hair is AWESOME!

So, for the first day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month I had already decided to pinkify my head hair. I also just wanted a change and it was a perfect convergence of planetary alignment and already purchased and waiting in my bathroom hair products.  I did have to buy some lightening product to get the job done, but I am a proud American and getting 'er done is my thang.

The final decision on whether to go with all pink, black and pink or auburn(natural) and pink was.....

TAAA DAAA.....auburn and pink!

As you can see I kept the auburn in the back and on the sides and did the outrageously cool Manic Panic New Rose on the crown.

"Come on," you say "that must be a result of overexposed picture taking. There's no way it's THAT bright."

Check this out.



In natural sunlight against my son's brown monkey-towel for contrast.  I know right?!!???

So, how I did it; first I had to lighten the part I wanted pink as much as possible in order for the pink to take. I used L'Oreal Paris Super Blonde Crème Lightening Kit .

Also known as the "OMG what have I done?" stage.



I could have added the step of a color extractor/corrector to remove any residual hair dye, but I skipped it as 1. I didn't want to spend the money. 2. I was curious as to how well the Super Blonde would work alone on my hair. and 3. I didn't want to spend the money.

Yes that is a nifty vintage house coat (check the turquoise and avocado flowers) that I inherited from grandma, but it suffered old stains and rips from days gone by so it's now my hair dye smock.



As you can see, the areas with residual hair dye have a bit of a golden tone to them while the roots are practically white.  I was extremely satisfied with this result.  As tempting as it was to leave it like this since it was already a drastic change (which satisfied my change Jones all by itself) I pushed past the urge and went one to the next step:



Using a disposable wooden handled paint brush I applied the Manic Panic New Rose by carefully separating the lightened hair with my fingers, brushing with the dye and piling it on top of my head until it was all covered. I have the sort of mirrors in my bathroom that fold out so I can see the back of my head so it was a bit slower than if I had help but it was doable. Oh yeah, that shine on my forehead is from Vaseline to keep my skin from getting pinkified.

This is one area where I am grateful to have baby fine hair which I also keep shorter.  If you have long or thick hair, this stage would involve clips and possibly rollers to keep it separated.  Remember: don't use metal stuff with hair dyes.

O.K. So, the thing about Manic Panic dyes is they are safe to leave on your head for a looooong time.  I left this on for about 4 or 5 hours as I worked (OK puttered) around the house.  Manic Panic is a semi-permanent dye, which means it WILL wash out a bit more with each shampoo than the regular permanent hair colors you might be used to.  Of course, they aren't really permanent either as they all eventually fade and our hair grows in anyway.  Where was I? Oh yeah, point is leave in the Manic Panic as long as you can. I recommend at least 3 or 4 hours.

Since this original dye a month has passed and I refreshed the fading pink by putting it on in the evening and wearing a shower cap and sleeping in it. Yes, sleeping in it. This is also how folks who don't have 3 or 4 hours to putter around the house in the daytime can accomplish this look. The shower cap keeps the dye from drying out and it didn't harm my hair at all.  The resulting color is deep and rich and I don't have to be as careful about fading as I would had I only kept it on for the short time on the package. I don't even remember what the package says, but my advice is IGNORE the package. It's lying to you.  3 hours! Got it? Good!



So how have people reacted? Since I didn't do this for "people" I was truly in somewhat of a state of denial over how folks would respond to my new look. Firstly, as we all have 'those people' in our lives who we know will be negative no matter what, you can probably imagine how 'those people' in my life behaved. Negatively, insensitively and somewhat like energy vampires. Did this matter to me? Nope! Moving along.

I was overwhelmingly greeted with positive and complimentary statements from folks that see me on the regular. Also, surprise of surprises, complete strangers have paid me a heart-warming series of compliments and well-wishes. A few even made the breast cancer connection without being told. One lady stopped driving in the middle of the road to shout to me as I was walking with my son how much she loved the color and how it was obviously in support of breast cancer awareness. I have had on three different occasions, three different little girls run up to me and start talking about my "beautiful" pink hair. The best of all, a special needs girl from one of the programs my son attends smiled and hugged me and played with my hair for several minutes. Priceless.

Blogging With a Fever...

Nope, can't do it. So here's a sickeningly cute video of a cat hugging a kitten who was having a nightmare. Hope that makes up for it. I'm going back to bed.

Motionless Mondays

On Mondays I recuperate.  When the neurotypical world greet each other merrily with sentiments of,  "TGIF".  I do not. If one of the straights, as I lovingly call them, expresses this 'Yay-it's-Friday' partiality toward me, I smile weakly and ascertain if it is worth it to try to explain.  Usually it isn't. Why break their good mood? 

Meanwhile, I gear up mentally and physically for a Weekend of Wubie.  With some exceptions it is a 66 hour mommy and son extravaganza. Jam packed with ankle deep toy and craft messes; food preparation and eating messes; multiple shower and toileting bathroom flood messes; multiple rides in the car (and messes); trips to parks, stores, and other locations to keep him engaged; playing; reading; teaching; crafting; wrestling; laundry; laundry; laundry; spam; laundry; dishes; dishes; laundry; bed-changing; medication balancing; and sanity stressing fun, and laundry.

Not a complaint. It's just as I put it more succinctly (yes, I can do that): Friday is when the real work starts. So, we are on a different schedule than most of the world.  The Wubie is happy. The momma deals. We're good.

So here's what happens when The Wubie gets tired of just hanging in the house with just the momma and ideas form in his head about, "what would happen if..."

No, it's not a Halloween ghostie. It is The Wubie in a sack of Styrofoam pellets.  I was in the bathroom and The Wubie wasted no time on the opportunity. This used to be his denim beanbag chair.  I had the outer cover stripped for...more laundry. He discovered the zipper on the inner liner and...well, a cunning plan ensued.

My weekend stress levels were already quite maxed out.  I had the brief initial thought to be very VERY upset. But, a funny thing happened on the way to a momma meltdown. I laughed. No, I guffawed. No, I howled. I have never heard such a belly laugh exiting my, er, belly. This was the sound of pent up stress and unmitigated humor all escaping in a roaring, rolling fit of mirth. Cathartic.

He's my greatest source of stress (no fault of his) and my greatest love.  It's an amazing dichotomy. I am immensely grateful.

Today it's Monday. I'm recuperating. 

Hair Color Schism

Pink polyester princess.

There it is. Au natural. Pre-gray "highlights". Yep, it's auburn. I think it's auburn. I was never really sure. No one told me when I was young what it was meant to be.  However, I did get a comment as a teen from a random guy. "That's a very unusual hair color." Yeah, I knew.  

I remember being asked to describe my hair-color on the phone once and using all three basic hair-color words I knew at the time.  "Well it's kinda brownish blonde with reddish tones."  I didn't learn for many years that "brownish blonde with reddish tones" is "auburn".  It's nice to finally understand myself.  Well, at least my hair anyway. 

Over the years I did the usual hair experiments (and while young several unusual ones).  There was blonde, white-blonde, golden, bright red, dark burgundy, and as a teen, many unnatural colors to do streaks and some overwashing in pinks and purples....and blues....and greens....well, you get the idea. 

I have found through trials and errors some lovely off-the-shelf colors that go very well with my skin tone, etc.  So I know if I ever want to go blond exactly which champagne blonde works.  I've also settled on a coppery auburn (after trying nearly every shade in that family) that is my go-to color for as close to natural as I can currently get while dealing with the little grays sprouting and giving back the luster that age takes from us "reddish toned" types. 

I'm good with those colors. Really I am.  

No make-up, but it's just between us friends, right? 

So here's where we are today. Sorry about the scary-eyes.  It was the sun making a weird little highlight.  I'm not going to zap you with my laser beams or anything.  Laser beam eyes, that would rawk...where was I?  Oh yeah, so I was trying to capture the color with the sun and it's pretty close. I do love this color,L'Oreal Preference Intense Red Copper and it make my grays (less than 10%) look like shimmery highlights. This pic is after about a month of fading and not being careful to wash my hair with cold water. Hey, I'm an autism mom give me a break. A warm shower is the only mini-vacay I get most days...where was I? Oh yeah, it's still a lovely color with shimmer, highlights and low-lights.  It's just a lighter shade now than I prefer. 

So it's time to re-dye.  Or is it....? Dun, dun, DUNNNNN. 

I must change it. I must, I must, I must.  It's not anything against it, but I need to change it or I'll go mad, MAD I tell you.  Sorry, I'll let go of your collar now. 

So, here's what I've been contimplating: Definitely some pink.  I've got a fresh jar of  Manic Panic New Rose just burning a hole in my bathroom shelf. But what with the pink?  Black and pink? Maybe.  Red (auburn) and pink? Sounds interesting.  All pink? Very tempting.  Decisions, decisions. So, I will make up my mind this weekend and get back to you. 

Stay tuned, this could get amusing. 

Mommy and Me Craft: Painted Thank You Cards

This post is slightly belated, but I wanted to shared with you how The Wubie and I came up with some nifty Thank-You cards for his two swimming instructors this year. These precious teens are swim team members who volunteer their time over the summer to teach special needs children basic swimming and water safety.

In projects like this I try to incorporate as many of The Wubie's skills as possible so that the gift is especially from him.

We started with a large (12"x16") sheet of Canson Canva-Paper.

I love this stuff because it is thick and textured and can take the harsh treatment of The Wubie's more aggressive scrubbing paint strokes.

We used acrylic paint in shades of blue and aqua to simulate water. We also used this as a teaching opportunity to learn more gentle and longer painting strokes.

After the paint dried (the next day) we created two cards by dividing the paper in half, cutting it and folding the two halves in the middle.  

Next we created two sets of 'swimming pool divider floats' using plastic beads and fine gauge wire. The Wubie is an expert beader. 

We attached the beads by cutting two notches in the approximately halfway down card and taped the loose wires on the inside.



The insides were decorated with stickers depicting sea creatures. This also served to hide the wires and cover some of the paint splatters.  

The Wubie LOVES stickers!



This project was the perfect use for some bad school pics from the end of the year.  They apparently had to put him in his backup clothes so his nice outfit wasn't in the picture. Nevertheless, the faces were usable so I cut out two circles.  I had the idea to make them resemble portholes of sorts. 

The Wubie used a glue stick (less messy) to attach the photos. Oh, and we added some sea creature stickers to the front and back of the cards as well.



We were on a time crunch. So instead of portholes exactly, we covered the raw edges of the photos with a bead of blue glitter glue. Life lesson: Everything's better with glitter glue!



The insides were finished with a handwritten note. I think those are more personal, even with a handmade card it's a nice touch. Then The Wubie signed his name. Which he is very good at.



The final step was gluing the "Thank You's" and names with the glue stick after printing a cool font in a matching shade of blue. This was a bit of a shortcut as well, but as you might have noticed The Wubie was already in his swim-shorts at this point and it was time to GO!

Step one: Drink Tons of Diet Coke™ . Step two: ???? Step three: PROFIT!!!

Oh yeah, and Fresca™  too. 

So ... I have a problem. I'm a Diet Coke™-aholic.  This is my dirty little secret. I know it's quite early in our relationship for me to be so self-revealing.  But that's just how I am. All my cans on the table. Take me or leave me. 

Meanwhile, I will continue my joyful consumption of my favorite beverage, neigh friend, Diet Coke™ . 

Although friends and family have made attempts to slow my pace with silly concerns about health and whatnot. I am undeterred. But to mitigate the situation for them I have fortunately found an upside. (Aside from the thousands of saved calories from years of finding "regular" sodas as appealing as drinking anti-freeze with urine cubes.)  I have discovered this neat little code inside of the 12-pack boxes that I regularly constantly bring home.  This wonderful code is also in the plastic caps on the bottles and apparently on the other Coca-Cola™ products (but who cares about them).  

So, you go to the My Coke Rewards website, register, and enter these codes in order to accumulate points. Then after you accumulate enough points (which should take you like, one or two days) you turn them in for gift certificates, magazine subscriptions, sweepstakes entries and various gifts including Coca-Cola™ logo-ed items (for you collectors). It is an awesome deal.  So, less calories plus free stuff. Bi-winning! 

Disclaimer: O.K. maybe it won't take YOU one or two days. Not everyone is as awesome as the queen. But don't fret my loyal subjects, at 10 points for the boxes and 3 points for the bottles you can score a tidy sum in a reasonable amount of time.  The magazines are frequently 133 points and up.  ( I even got one subscription for only 66 points during a special offer.) 

So now I have more magazines than I have coffee table! 

(Pay no attention to the Mardi Gras beads and the bits of torn up Lei on the floor. My son was home sick today and...well, he was home sick today. )

There will be another use for these cans to be revealed a bit latter this year.  Yes, it will involve "upcycling".  I love that word. 

It's not You. It's Me...I Don't Like You.

We once had a good thing. We understood each other. We didn't give each other drama or headaches. I never had to hang my head in shame when people found out that I was with you. You were dependable, reliable, and cute.

Now...well, you know how it's been. You freeze me out during the simplest of interactions. You use all of my stuff and leave none for me. You make me question my own sanity. My friends keep asking me why I still have you around. I guess I'm slow to accept reality. My fault.

Well, I've moved on. Firefox, we've had our time. Now I've found Chrome and we are getting along just fine. I'll always remember our better days. No hard feelings.

That being said, for all my techie and non-techie friends. I've done the research and while Google Chrome has been officially edging out Mozilla Firefox for the last several months on speed, ease of use and reduced add-on hassles; Firefox has been making strides to regain ground with quick release updates every 6 weeks or so. However, they have had conflicts with one of my favorite add-ons Google Tool-bar (coincidence? I think not.). I can't just type in "Google.com" in a browser window anymore. I have a reputation!

As with all internet techie stuff. YMMV. My system, which is a pretty spiffy Intel Dual Core, just doesn't care for Firefox anymore. You may not experience the problems I did. Try both. Especially if you have only ever tried factory installed IE. God help you.

It's not What you Know, It's Who you Know...and What they Know

Advice from my slightly younger brother once.  Go up to someone whom you admire for whatever reason and say, "Teach me everything you know."  You would be surprised how many gullible nice folks are willing to do just that.

This nice eBay-er Shipscript is just such a folk. You will find a plethora of eBay page making guides, free templates, free gizmos, doodads and whohas.  I just updated my auctions with this thingamajiggy and now I have a clickable scrolling list of my other auctions' thumbnail images.  *sniff  I've always wanted one of those. And it isn't even Christmas yet.  Bless you Shipscript. Bless us everyone.


xsell2

eBay (yes, that's how you spell it)

Weird huh? Little 'e', big 'B'; even at the beginning of a sentence. Pay no attention to your spellchecker, that's how it's done according to eBay's Trading Assistant Style Guide(the eBay Bible). That's not the only thing or two I know about eBay. Impressed? O.K., its not really that impressive, I know. Point is, this ain't rocket surgery.

Most of what I know about eBay and online auctions/sales is by experience, absorption and repetition.  I did once pop for an expensive "insider" ebook on the subject but honestly, it was huge and I was too bored with it to finish reading it.  I found the printout of it recently buried under my stack of bedside reading material and thought, "hmm, maybe there's something worthwhile still in there." So, I promise I will plow through it soon and let you know any tips that are of use if I haven't already covered them.  Most of it seems so obvious to me. "It's better if you add a picture to your auction." "It's better if your picture is good enough to actually see your item." "It's better if your dirty underwear are not showing in the background."

O.K., I just made those up. But, my point still remains. It's not hard. It's just using your common sense and moving forward despite your uncertainties.

That being said I will try to be sensitive to the fact that some people may be very new to the eBay experience.  So what is obvious to me (like don't show your hit counts on the actual listing) may not be at all obvious to you.  I have been an active member of eBay for 9 years (off and on). That's what you are called when you start your account; a "member".  You must have an account to buy or sell.  Usually, people buy first on eBay and that begins the learning process.  Completing a transaction from the buyer's point of view will give you an understanding that no advice really can. Also, it is a way to build up your feedback. On eBay your feedback is your reputation and universally your reputation is the core of your business.

This could easily turn into a step-by-step user guide as my mildly OCD nature kicks in.  But that isn't necessary.  eBay already has a getting started guide; even for buyers.  So go there like a good minion and the queen will not have to repeat definitions and basic how to's. I'll wait...

Good, you're back. In my last post I described this one as my "on-again, off-again, love/hate affair with eBay".  So here's a short (let's hope) explanation.  As I said, 9 years as a member.  That means that I've been around when eBay was a beloved  niche on the interwebs: imperfect, not universally known, but extremely useful and powerful when applied. It was my go-to place for finding my obsession of the moment.  Antiques, vintage clothing, collectables, that toy your parents never bought you when you were a poor kid and you knew that so you didn't even bother begging because you were so used to disappointment and...where was I?...oh yeah, eBay was a great single source for whatever pops up into your head. For the ADD crowd alone that is a tremendous service to provide.  Stuff pops into our heads at three times the speed of sound, I've clocked it.  That's why we interrupt you when you're talking...where was I?...oh yeah, eBay rawked!

Then came the,  "Hey, maybe I could sell stuff on here too." phase. I acted on that thought which was a good thing because it provided me the research time and small amount of selling experience that came in handy when I hit the next phase: the "I need money, NOW!" phase. 

Divorce happens. There is no motivation like an empty bank account, seriously behind mortgage payments, and unpaid utility bills with a special needs child in tow and no other way to earn income.  I had to become an expert, fast.

Around the same time, eBay was going through all kinds of management changes and the subsequent policy changes that led to their own divorce of sorts from many long-time sellers who were fed up with increasing fees and poor seller-eBay relations.  There are plenty of online blogging and forums that delve into the details so I won't expand on it here, but suffice it to say I was nervous. Yet had to do something so I continued to sell on eBay consistently for about a year during one of the most trying times of my life as that was my only source of income.

I came into selling in earnest and took the fee hits and other annoyances in stride as I didn't have the degree of experience selling in the previous version of eBay with which to compare.  I was pleased enough with the results to not dismiss eBay altogether despite the anti-eBay rhetoric still in my head from hours of discussion board absorption.  I still think "FeeBay" is funnay!

That being said I did withdraw from eBay for a while in search of alternative venues and other (non-retail) business opportunities.  The alternative auction site experience has been disappointing. They just do not yet have the traffic to bring people to your random garage sale type listings that eBay has. Some are better than others. I will save that for another post.

eBay continued making changes and continued ticking off the sellers, particularly the honest, small-time, mom and pop type sellers.  One of the recent changes that I will bother to complain about here is the new policy of charging the seller a percentage of the shipping charge in addition to the final value fee. This policy was obviously a result of the not so scrupulous sellers who would do auctions for a penny and jack up the shipping charges.  If eBay only got a percentage of the penny they would have gotten away with a serious reduction in their cost of selling on eBay. This was a miniscule percentage of sellers and it was generally frowned upon by the majority because the reputation of sellers on eBay is a touchy subject as your bad habits can harm the entire selling community.  (Hmm.. like life.)

But, eBay handled it poorly. Instead of implementing a way of curbing excessive shipping (and small auction prices) to recoup their losses they slapped a tax (of sorts) across the entire community.  Now we all have to pay a percentage of shipping.  The vast majority of sellers do not charge a handling fee and already have to take the loss of packaging, transporting and their time into account in the auction price.  eBay does not provide any service related to the cost or implementation of shipping. It is a service paid to and provided by USPS or UPS (or other services). They tried to market this change to sellers as a good thing for everyone, sort of like in my old computer programming days we would market a bug as a "feature".  Sellers aren't stupid.  This is a very very bad policy.

Another unsettling thing about eBay is that they own PayPal and only allow PayPal as a form of payment now. That is kind of creepy in and of itself, but it gets worse.  Many sellers have experienced mysterious account shut downs with PayPal and have had their funds held for months at a time while they desperately try to ascertain what is going on they have no access to their money and no way to sell; effectively putting them out of business. This happens to good sellers even those with great feedback that are truly attempting to keep within the rules (as they really need the income). No one is safe. This is a corporation, not your government. You have no rights, unless we are talking about lawsuits or the right to take your business elsewhere.

OTOH, since late April eBay has started to offer free listing and free "buy it now" upgrades for the first 50 auctions of the month (that includes relisting auctions that didn't sell during the allotted time and limit).  This is a good thing for small time operators in particular.  If you are at all serious about selling on eBay and you can't use up the 50 free listings, then you aren't at all serious about selling on eBay. 

So, my advice is to diversify. If you are in a niche market (which is probably the best way to sell online) then you can build a decent following on alternative auction and straight buy sites, on your own site, and with utilizing cross-marketing sites. eBay still remains the big dog for clearing out your house, selling off grandma's clutter, and to an extent reselling yard sale/thrift store finds.  But it's not the only dog and it's not as big as it used to be.  Also, work on diversifying your method of payment options.  PayPal does have competition (not on eBay) but competition none-the-less. Yes, you capitalize the second "p" in PayPal.  Impressed yet? No? Dern.

This was mostly an overview, more details and tips on the subject will follow in my subsequent posts.

"Hi folks!"

Sold this little 80's hand-puppet for $50 this week on eBay. Hope that he inspires you.

Multiple Streams of Cash Flow

I'm busy. Usually I'm juggling a basketful of tasks, chores, "must-dos" and a few"uh-oh's". Sometimes I even get to squeeze in a some"want to's"...leisure activities... mini-vacays if you will.  Like watching an episode of "Hoarders" online (AETV.com) while eating breakfast.  Yeah, I have an iron stomach. Point is I'm usually actively doing, thinking, researching, cleaning, creating, planning, fixing, and playing.  I am never. ever. bored.

To the casual observer my life may seem like a shiftless cacophony, a frustratingly disorganized approach, or a series of random stabs at ethereal targets. To myself, this life is a wonderfully exciting tapestry of color, texture and unexpected forms culminating in beautiful picture to be revealed at a later and more enlightened time.  I am never. ever. bored.

I do have my reasons folks.  I don't always share them all with the class, but reasons exist nonetheless. Here's one of them: profit.  I have found that nearly every experience, talent, story, and creation is a valuable asset that can be leveraged. Sometimes even for money.

Yes, there are things far more valuable than money. In fact, money isn't even valuable when subjected to the light of reality. As in, eternity an all.  However, for now, we have to deal with filthy lucre if we want to eat, stay sheltered, and stay legal: taxes, licenses, permits, fees, tags, rent, utilities, insurance, and fines if you mess up. (This is starting to sound like a George Carlin routine.)  Anyhoo, we need money.  More directly, I need money.

So this year, I started a series of goals.  One of them was to increase my income by $100 each month. I was able to achieve that (so far) as of July I earned over $600. Oh yeah, that's how I roll. If I had it all in one's I could make it rain (if I didn't already spend it on food, gas and electricity).

How did I earn this ginormous sum? A small graphic design job, some online auctions, Craigslist and hocking some old jewelry at a pawn shop. Some of these things were one time only deals, but everything is an experience that may be pulled later from my mental catalog. I have other irons in the fire.  I have also placed some items at a local consignment shop, started this blog and am working some other neato keen ideas.

I am not another single mom with a below poverty level income who will forever be at the mercy of the system and  the ability of my ex to pay his child support. Well, yes I am that for now, but I do not intend to remain that and it won't change by wishing. In the meantime, I will share with the class how I am taking these steps and what is working and what isn't.

Another desired thread in my tapestry; the ability to be useful to others.

Next post: my on-again off-again love/hate affair with eBay.

You Know What I Did Last Summer...er...This Summer

Yes, I made quite a hullabaloo about this being a "New Year" and all. Yes, The Wubie ™ has officially been in school for one week (we started a week early this year.)  Yes, I am ratcheting up for new and kewl things (to be announced). However, we are still technically, that is to say according to the old calender on the wall desktop experiencing Summer. Now I know it's still summer because it took me over 2 hours to mow the lawn this morning. Note to self: Next time wear my gloves. Blisters hurt.  Also, technically, that is to say officially Autumn begins on September 23rd.

So...Summer 2011 here in the Stuff and Giggles household is going well. The Wubie ™ had a wonderful summer camp experience with the good folks at Camp Able which is run by the A.R.C.  They went on daily field trips including parks, beaches, horseback riding, sailing, bowling, movies and other fun activities.  They had an end of summer production and carnival.  About 100 parents were in attendance.  The Wubie ™ played drums to B-I-N-G-O and danced the Cha Cha Slide with the group. I found out that his camp nickname was "Hollywood" and he has quite a reputation with the ladies. He's a big flirt.

There was also swim lessons on Saturdays, Soccer on Friday nights, a couple of overnight visits at Gammy's house and a new friend from carpooling...Jaaaasmine. There was hugging. I took pictures.

As for mom, I restarted my online auction business using eBay and Bonanza.com (more blogging on that later), made some decisions about other business and personal items  (more on that later as well), and...well...here I am, Blogging. Really, blogging in earnest and not that namby pamby social media stuff. This is the real deal, people. I am a blogger. Woohoos! 

Here are some pics from our summer:  

 

The Garden...So Far
This is the first year we have successfully started with seeds and got actual flowers!

 Strawberry Shortcake with Vanilla in Batter for Extra Yumminess

Summer Dishes
All Retro Aqua and Pink Goodness
I am ready for any emergency involving ice cream.

I don't know who he gets it from...

Was it worth it?
Oh yeah...

Cool, so very "me" sign I picked up this summer.
It greets me as I come home and helps me adjust my 'tude.


What did you do this summer?

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the official launch of "Stuff and Giggles" dedicated to home and garden, thrifty finds, kid stuff, cool grownup interests, all sorts of crafts and musings from like-minded folks!  Why "Happy New Year"? Because every parent knows the new year starts now, in late August.  New clothes, new teacher, new calendar, new holiday plans all begin now. So we are gearing up for the year and ready for new things in the Stuff and Giggles household.