free time?

Ok, so when you lose your job you'd imagine that you'd have all sorts of free time, right? Hmmmm, not happening.
I'm done being sad for now (I think) and I'm not yet panic-stricken. I've been busy with oilcloth, doctor, dentist, etc. David actually loves having me home, there's a nice dinner every night, we aren't scrambling for clean clothes at 5:00 am, and I am just more relaxed. If only that paid as well as my old job.
I can't post without a picture so check out this manly lunch bag

And check out this etsy shop, I don't know what my fascination with nuns is but this stuff is great:
www.nunofakind.etsy.com
If you are on my Christmas list, you may be getting a sister!

So...

I lost my job yesterday.
Me an 3 others.
It sucks.
I'm sad.
The economy sucks.
George Bush is an asshole, pardon my french.
Not sure what I am going to do now.
It's been said that you have to hit rock bottom before things get better.
It was pretty low already.
I'm not in the mood to string full sentences together and make them flow.
My job paid for 3 tuitions.
Public schools in my city are a joke.
The thought of sending my girls there makes me ill.
Cops with guns, metal detectors, drugs, violence. no thank you.
I'm not going to worry until Monday, then I will go into full panic.
Until then, I'll sew, clean my house and bake cookies.

fall favors

We are celebrating the upcoming wedding of one of my coworkers on Friday so I got to play at work all day yesterday. I stayed behind to man the fort while the entire office went to NYC for advertising week festivities. It was fine by me because I got to make fun stuff for the surprise "shower" we are having Friday.

I dipped small pretzel rods in white chocolate, decorated with fall sprinkles and bagged them. Then I added a fake leaf and velvet ribbon and TA DA! We have pretty fall shower favors!
Did I show you my new Oilcloth Halloween Banner?

The rest of my life is just general busyness, oilcloth and the pursuit of not being dirt poor.
How about you?

Pressure!

Some people love to work under pressure. That kind of people is not me. I like to have some kind of a plan and an ample amount of time. I like to be finished with an assignment well before it is due. It helps me to sleep at night and also keeps me sane. This quilt needs to be finished by 2:00 next Sunday and is causing me a bit of anxiety! *breathes into a paper bag* This would be totally fine and it could be done if my world would stop for a few days.



On the other hand, I am glad that I won't have too much time with it because I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it already and I will have a hard time parting with it. After sewing oilcloth every day for a year, it gives me so much pleasure to sink my sewing machine needle into cotton...don't get me wrong, I still loves me some oilcloth but it's not cotton, Amy Butler cotton at that. ahhhhhhhhhhhhh


It was another busy week here at Rick Rack Central; lunch bags are selling, dance recital, softball, summer work party and xrays and doctors appt that I will fill you in on after Monday's visit.

Winston

This has been the saddest week at work. Our coworker "Winston" has passed away, he lived a wonderful 14 years but it is so devastating that he is gone. I can't even go near his owner because all we do is bawl.
*sigh*

So, I made this cool gift...

and I forgot to take a picture again, DOH!
I have a coworker who just turned 30. She's super-organized, very efficient and sends out greeting cards to all her friends and family (like it's her part-time job) for every holiday. She comes to work with a stack of cards, stamps and corresponding stickers and gets them all mailed out in time. It's very sweet. I was shocked when she told me that she throws out her extra cards and stickers because she doesn't have a system or place to keep them.
Sooooooooo, I found really pretty expandable file boxes at Target and set up the tabs by holiday using some pretty scrapbooking papers and a P-Touch Labeler. I filled it with some stickers, cards, stamps, etc. (pretend you can see a picture)
and also some of these handmade cards (that I did take a picture of)



I spent my long weekend cleaning my sewing room, it was long overdue and it was all spilling into our bedroom. I have a little more finishing up to do and maybe I'll snap a few pictures.
Have a good day :)

Ugly rant- Beware

I'm cranky.
I'm tired, run down and cranky.
This isn't a fun post, sorry.
I scored some good remnants from the bin:

But it didn't do a thing for my disposition.
I got this surprise assortment for next to nothing from fabric.com a few weeks ago:

and it barely excited me.
I got this fabric super cheap:

And all I can think about is how little time I can find to use it.
It's been a rough couple of weeks. Home life has been extremely busy, all of our schedules have been full and we are all on edge lately. I usually love my job but that has been a source of anxiety as well. I only work 5 hours a day but lately I have 8 hours worth of work to do.
Each day I get up at 5:00AM and spend 1 hour by myself; I have coffee, watch tivo'd Martha, check email, etc. Come 6:00AM, it's all about everyone else all day. My function at work is to make everyone's life easier and keep them going in the right direction...so I'm even the mom there! When I'm all done feeding, driving, doing laundry, etc. I sit at my sewing machine at night and try to get a business going because money is a constant issue that stresses me. At 9:00PM I am exhausted and cranky, all I have to look forward to is 5:00AM tomorrow morning. I don't have a day off unless you count Christmas and Easter and I'm not sure what I would do with a day off if I even had one.
I don't know what I think is fun anymore. I am a robot! I'm not trying to say my role is harder than anyone else's, I'm just having a tough time of right now.
I'm sorry to be so negative but I need an outlet and I really shouldn't drink wine at 7:30AM...I wouldn't have time to go to AA meetings if I became an alcoholic.

How's everyone holding up?

I'm doing ok here. I have successfully avoided a major nervous breakdown, I think I will make it to Christmas with my normal about of sanity in tact!
This week has been all about 16 hour days of work, shop, cook, drive, sew. Notice I didn't say anything about cleaning or laundry, that's today.
Here's a sampling of the handmade gifts that I have finished this week.



We had an awesome holiday work party on Thursday. 27 of us went to Chef Silvia's house http://www.chefsilvia.com/ where we learned to prepared a 5 course meal together while drinking wine and exchanging gifts. It was so much fun until we got stuck in 2 hours of traffic on the way home. When I got home Gabby was waiting at the door for me with basketball bag in hand...

Ugh, she had a game. It was a very long day. Great picture of her, huh?
OK, get back to work!

Ranting ahead...enter at your own risk

I am whiney, crabby, tired, over-worked, under-appreciated,in desperate need of a dye job and an eyebrow waxing.
My calendar sets me spiraling into a panic attack everytime I look at it.

I can only look at one day at a time or I may hyperventilate. This is my kid/school activity one, I have my planner in my purse that's even scarier...it's the mother of all calendars.
*shudder*
Here's where it's gonna get ugly, you may want to leave now, it's ok.
So, the reason I feel like a piece of crap is because:
1-I buy Christmas cards almost every year and never write them, address them or send them. And now because I fail at Christmas cards, I have been removed from almost everyone's Christmas card list. Serves me right. I used to love getting cards.
2-I lost my advent calendar thingy.
Julia is by far the sweetest and most sensitive of my daughters and she LOVES preparing for holidays. She started begging me to get started on it after Thanksgiving and I kept growling at her (from my calendar, no doubt) that I didn't have time yet. She very sweetly said that she understood "but could we at least do the advent calendar thingy on December 1st?" and she would be happy with that.
I lost the advent calendar thingy. I cry every time I think of this. I'm crying as I type this.
3-I missed my cat's yearly vet appointment in September and I haven't rescheduled.
4-Worse than that, is that I put off Sammy's doctor appointment after her scoliosis screening at school... and come to find out she has scoliosis, yep, a 17 degree curve going up her back. We have an appointment with an orthopaedic on Thursday. (It's on the calendar!)I suck.
5-My workload at my job is getting crazy, I'm becoming frazzled there too. It's review time, I'm not sure how that's going to go. I'm sure they would like it if I could work full time hours but HAVE YOU SEEN MY CALENDAR???????

OK, that has just scrached the surface. You guys aren't ready for any of the other layers, I'm not ready for any of the other layers!

Let's change the subject because I don't want anyone leaving here mopey. Has anyone ever done business with this company? http://www.ahmercantile.com/catalog/
I am getting a very bad feeling about an order I placed with them. They will not return my emails or or phone calls.

A much needed mental health day

I had a real crappy night's sleep and a migraine so I took the day off from my paying job yesterday. It wasn't really a sick day as much as it was a mental health day. It was very therapeutic
Did I curl up on the couch under a quilt with Dr. Phil or Harry Potter?
Nope.



I actually worked my tail off tackling the laundry mountain and organizing my sewing room for 5 hours BUT it was just what the doctor ordered. The kids were at school so I didn't have to settle arguments, listen to tattling, break up fights all day...that stuff really eats up your time. I love them dearly but I am never free from them, when I am home they are home...all the time...everyday there is at least one of them with me at all times. I needed a day off. I also know my life is out of control when my sewing room is as much of a disaster as the rest of the house. This is MY place that I can control.
Things have been bad.
I need to take a day off every now and then but I need the money so I save my days off for when the kids are sick or have some "teacher in service" day off from school so then I never have a day to myself.
This is a problem.



hmmmm, I started this post because I felt so much better after my mental health day and now I feel all whiney and pitiful again. I am becoming a terrible bore! Just look at the pretty pictures, I'll snap out of it, I'm pretty sure it's mostly PMS :/

B is for

Bad Ass Bridesmaids

What fun we had at work today!
One of the guys (The one with the veiled tiara) is flying off to an island for his fabulous wedding tomorrow, so we decided to have a little surprise, pre-wedding luncheon for him. Because he and the bride to be are not going to have any of the tacky, erm.... I mean traditional wedding music and festivities we thought we'd take care of it for him. I can't believe what good sports the other guys were by wearing tiaras, clip on earrings and ugly bouquets. We had a great lunch while listening to too many Lionel Ritchie love songs and doing The Chicken Dance and The Electric Slide. Good times.

Making a living

Remember William Hung from American Idol auditions a few seasons back? My big daughter, Sammy, got to meet him at a baseball game the other night.

He is such a cute little guy, I can't believe he is still singing "She Bangs" (he also does "Take me out to the ball game") and actually making a living doing it. Good for you William Hung!
While we are on the subject of making a living, my flickr friends may have noticed me crafting like a maniac lately. Well, I am trying to make more of a living......

........ trying desperately to not have to get a second job at night. Private high school is a struggle with one going in this year but in 2 years Gabby will be going too and that is going to kick our asses. Public school is not an option for us, this is what we are chosing and somehow we will get through it.
Selling at Etsy is not going to do it for me, I know this, but it's a start while I get some stock made. I know that people around here would buy this stuff like crazy but they just need to know about it. Hmmmmmmm, I need to figure this out especially because I am not very good at selling myself (that damn self esteem thing).
*sigh*
I'm sorry if you were looking for happy Carol today, instead you got hand-wringing-worried Carol........ she's no fun at all!
Check back tomorrow.
PS- Heads up........I may be changing my blog layout

I used to make stuff

*sigh*
I used to make things.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching a good game (or 5 a week!) of softball just as much as the next mom but my creativity is being stifled something awful. There just isn’t any time to get anything going.
*sigh*
Even work is busy.
I am the party planner at work and did have a good time planning May’s Agency Lunch and was able to squeeze in a teeny bit of crafting. We celebrated Quattro de Mayo out in the courtyard with burritos from a local Mexican take out joint. The boys wore sombreros and I made tissue paper flowers for the girls to wear. The tables were festive with colorful tablecloths and Guadalupe candles and the boss stuffed a piñata with money. Good times, good times.
This is how I found my desk the next morning.


Speaking of things I used to make, I wanted to show you something I made before I met you. I found this pattern in an old Workbasket envelope from a lot I won on Ebay. I have been hanging clothes out lately and enjoying this bag so thought I would share it. Cute, eh?

I'm still here....

I haven't made a single thing in weeks.
*sigh*
I feel a little cranky when I am not able to make things. There just hasn't been any time.
But how can you stay cranky when you get to work and find this?



The boss is a fun guy. He gets in early and does something nice just about everyday. He puts on coffee, or stops for bagels, puts Andrea Bocelli on really LOUD, sometimes puts candy on the our desks, etc. It's a surprise every time. Yesterday was the welcome sign in the snow with a twisted little path going through the courtyard that everyone actually followed. Quite amazing for such unique and creative people!

I think I may be able to spend a few hours with my sewing machine this weekend.... keep your fingers crossed.
Have a nice day!

3 more days!

I had a good time yesterday and managed to spend $478 in many stores within 3 hours. WHEW! I am exhausted. Malling is hard work, I tell ya.I bought more gifts and spent $100 on underwear and bras for myself, I would never do that with my own money....seriously you wouldn't believe how tattered my underwear are!
Did you ever have a favorite bra and the underwire pokes out and keeps stabbing you in the armpit or neck? This seems to happen to every bra I own, no matter the cost or brand! Well, I decided I wasn't going to take it anymore and got out my glue gun. I've tried sewing the holes shut but that wire keeps poking out, so now I put a blob of hot glue over the hole and no more stabbing. The glue only holds up for 3 or 4 washings but it's easy enough to re-do. It's not pretty but it works.
Where was I?
Oh, it's almost Christmas and I'm calm now.... life is good. I'll leave you with kid pictures. This was the best of the 500 that I took. We've got to work on this.

fa la la la la......

....... la la la
OK, I'm on track for Christmas now. That quilt was killing me! I baked some cupcakes for a class party:


cute, eh?
I put together a few gift buckets for the popular 13 year old to give to her friends:

These were cheap and fun; a cute bucket from Target's dollar spot, garland, a jumbo candy bar, a pack of microwave popcorn and a movie rental from Blockbuster- all for around $7.00.

Today is very exciting! I love my job!! I have been sitting on this office secret for weeks now and it was making me crazy. Being the office manager, I had to be in on the secret but I couldn't tell. Today is our office party...with a twist. We (24 of us) are meeting at a diner at 8:30 where we will have breakfast and everyone will be confused and more than a little pissed off thinking that this is the party. The boss will then hand out a very generous gift card to a big mall about 30 miles away. We will have until 1:30 to spend all of it before we meet for lunch at a mall restaurant. The boss will be randomly handing out money if he spots you in the mall and at lunch there will be prizes for the single largest purchase, the most receipts, etc. etc. and then we get to go home. No work today!
I love my job!