Hosting Squatters

Little ideas creep into my head sometimes. They make their beds and hang artwork and plant shrubs around their yards, and they decide to never ever leave because it's just such a warm and cozy place to live. I've become accustomed to these ideas. I'd even go as far as saying that I enjoy their company. They're always there when I need just one more thing to distract me, just one more project to start. If none of you get that same feeling - it's kind of like craving a certain food. You just can't enjoy any other meal until you get a big plate of that one thing you've been craving.

One such idea decided to take up residence with me last week while leaving an Arby's drive-thru. It started as a joke idea between my friend Angie and me because we LOVE the Arby's ladies. Cheery, sweet, funny, quick service, they call us darlin'!, etc... perfect drive-thru experiences every time. Let me just interject here and say that we get seriously giddy on our lunch breaks. It's like, our weight-lifting and exercise time in the prison yard wherein we get to smell the fresh air and pretend we're just like everyone else for just 30 minutes a day. So sometimes we act totally crazy and end up yelling things out the window, or screaming bad Kelly Clarkson songs at the top of our lungs. Anyway, the giddiness of that joke morphed into a serious idea. A small, nesting, squatter idea that wouldn't consider just passing through. So... here I am.... 4 days later, getting started on the logistics of manufacturing, selling, and the way the world will change because of this lovely idea. I've made a prototype on the computer, and I'm considering getting the idea printed and putting it through a trial run. It's not really a money making scheme and may not be appreciated by the masses the way I imagine it would.

But for now, I'm sitting here chatting with the sweet little guest while we have a cup of tea and talk strategy with one another.

Prayers for Haiti

Like many of you, I've been glued to the news in the past day. After the earthquake in Haiti, so many people have been tweeting information, sending out links, asking for prayer, and sending money to disaster relief efforts.

I've been watching news clips, reading headlines, and looking through some honestly devastating pictures of the aftermath.

Because I can't give much myself, I'd love to help you help the hurting people of Haiti. Through next Tuesday, I'll be donating 75% of all my sales on Etsy to Disaster Relief. If you'd like to help in this way, click on the link below and just place an order.

Thanks so much for your help.

The Teal Nightmare

Just since being married, Dave and I have had 7 vehicles... hardly ever 2 at once. But right now we do have 2 at once, and I cannot express to you how thankful I am for that luxury. I love not having to walk to work. I love not having to wake up at 5 am any longer to drive Dave 30 minutes the wrong direction to the studio, and then another hour to work. I love being able to leave the office for lunch breaks, and not have to sit in other people's pee on the bus.

That being said...

Since moving to Nashville, a mere 2 1/2 years ago, we have spent, not kidding here, at least $3,000 on car repairs. Brakes, mufflers, engines, tires, lights, seatbelts for crying out loud, exhaust systems, every type of fluid that can go into a car plus some that shouldn't, gauges, plugs, wires, cables, anyone else want to poke their eyes out, batteries, filters, wheels. If it weren't for the fact that I'd have to go back to sitting in other people's pee on the bus, I am often tempted to push my car off a very tall, very beautiful Tennessee cliff. My car is loud and smelly, it's teal, it's old, it's always sticky (how does that happen?), and it is currently sitting at my house, 30 minutes away from here because of its recent temper tantrum. My car has also been healed of some mighty demonic forces that have gripped it in the past. Sounds have suddenly disappeared though we've done nothing to fix them, overheating magically stopped one day, even though there is still a hole in the radiator, thus leaking coolant. Albeit, once the overheating stopped, it also froze three times. I guess at least freezing doesn't smell like burning oil.

But today. Today has driven me to a point of no return, I think. I'm pretty sure that my months of Financial Peace classes with the Dave Ramsey fan club (did you know that Dave Ramsey even goes to my church? Really, he does.) are about to be casually left on the side of the street in a burning mass of sticky teal metal. As I posted on facebook, here was my morning:
6:50 - turn car on, in hopes that it magically warms up in the next 10 minutes.
7:00 - get in the 10 degree car and ignore the chugging, as usual.
7:02 - Call sleeping husband to ask about a brand new noise - clunking.
7:04 - clunking stops. Good news.
7:04 - car dies. in the middle.of.the.road.
7:05 - car starts back up, chugging continues, clunking gone... along with power steering, heat, and alternator.
7:06 - drive home and do my very best pout-tantrum at Dave while telling him adamantly that I am NOT going to work after all that.
7:10 - get in Dave's truck and head to work.
8:00 - at work. 2 cups of coffee. don't mess with me.

On a completely unrelated note... anyone have a car they're giving away?

Christmas 2009