SuperWAHMz member Comfy Cozy, Inc. nominated for Shine a Light

9-11

What a sad day. I know there is not a one of us who do not remember where we were and what we were doing this morning 8 years ago. My heart hurts just as much now as it did then.

My love for my country, family and friends is ever growing. Please know that I value all of you in my life and my life is better because I know you.

Pray for Peace this day.

God Bless America.

It's been a long time

Been so long I almost forgot how to post to our blog. I say that with a sly smile on my face. Sorry for being MIA. Summers in AZ are so hot it is hard to wrap my mind around doing anything but hibernating. ;) Fall is quickly approaching though so there IS a light at the end of this tunnel.

Work has not been so good for D's Stitcheree.
I am hoping that the summer months have been better for all of you running your own business. The economy is tough, we all know that. I do have a question though for anyone who might like to chime in.

How is the economy effecting your OWNING your own business.

I just got a notice from my bank that effective Oct. 1 they will start charging a service charge of $15.00 a month on business accounts that carry under $1,000.00 daily balance. Since moving to AZ I have not had to pay a service charge with my bank and I have never held a daily balance of $1K. It is only $15.00 but in months where I might only make $100.00, that is a lot of money. I will see how the rest of this year goes then I am seriously considering closing my 17 1/2 year old business. I thought I would always work for myself but I may soon join the ever growing number of people unemployed.

LOVE

Today is my parents anniversary...58th!

It is a bittersweet day this year. The first that my mother isn't here to share it with my father. The first day in 58 years that my dad woke up on this day without my mom by his side.

My heart is heavy. My heart is full. I cried in the Hallmark store looking for a card. I thought it important to send one to my dad but it's very hard to find one that doesn't mention "all the rest of your lives together". Finally found one that celebrated their incredible love and didn't remind you (in the text) that there would be more time for them to be together.

So, today, love the one you're with. Love the ones that you share your life with. Love yourself and make the love you have in your heart meaningful to those around you.

Love lasts. My parents love was/is the strongest love I've ever seen. I thank them for sharing it with me.

Love....

Lynn's Crackle Piggy Bank

I was checking on my Etsy listings this morning and saw this new piggy bank by our very own Lynn:OMG! It's so cute! I just had to share!

The Power of Reinventing Yourself

I recently saw a film that just may have been the best movie I’ve ever seen. Better than Lord of the Rings, better than Star Wars, better than, oh dare I say it, The Princess Bride. Inconceivable!

The movie opens with a heart wrenching scene that left tears streaming down my face. I was searching through my purse looking for a tissue to wipe my tears and all I had was this butter stained napkin in my lap. So here I am dabbing the tears trying not to get popcorn salt in my eyes and the next thing I know I’m on the edge of my seat, gripping the handles, teeth gritted, unable to breathe. This movie was exciting. And it kept getting better. It had action, adventure, sword fighting, love, and romance… everything a woman wants in a film.

Any guesses on the movie?

Star Trek

I know what you are thinking. The only people that go see Star Trek are 40 year old men who live in their mother’s basements.

WRONG!

The theater was packed with people of all ages. Sure, there were a few single dudes but there were a lot more couples and even families.

As an aside, the movie is rated PG-13. We took our 10 year old daughter. There were some scenes where I had to cover her face.

When I walked out of Star Trek the first thing I said was: “Let’s see it again. Let’s see it again, now.”

It was that good.

I admit. I am a geek. And a Star Trek fan. My husband likes to tell people that he only married me for my Star Trek Christmas ornament collection. I once dated a man because he had a chirping Star Trek Communicator on his jacket. But I was never a huge fan of the original series. My favorite is Deep Space 9.

Well this new Star Trek movie is based on the characters from the original series: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Chekhov, Sulu and Uhura. And they are on the Enterprise. But that’s about where the similarities to the original television series end.

Director J.J. Abrams and the producers took this 40 year old franchise and turned it into something fresh, current, and new. They set the stage with this film to catapult the Star Trek franchise popularity for another 40 years. In the 2060’s there is going to be a Star Trek Centennial and people who aren’t alive today, are going to attend this big centennial celebration dressed up like Klingons and Romulans.

J.J. Abrams reinvented Star Trek. He gave it new life.

My daughter’s latest thing is tap her imaginary communication device saying “Beam me up Scotty, this planet sucks.”

Does YOUR planet suck?

Think about it, maybe it’s not your planet… maybe it YOU!

Just maybe, it’s time for YOU to reinvent YOURSELF?

You’re probably thinking: I CAN’T do that! I don’t know how.

Well here’s a question: Are you are married?

Think about your spouse the day BEFORE your wedding.

Now, think about your spouse the day AFTER your wedding. Are you married to the same person with whom you walked down the aisle?

No. The very act of getting married, changes a person. You go from being an individual to being half of a couple.

Are you a mother? Did becoming a mother change you? Yes! You went from being a woman, to being a mother.

Have you changed jobs? Did that change you? Probably.

What about joining the military? Does that redefine you? Absolutely!

That reminds me, have you heard the Klingon army motto?

Join the Klingon army.

Visit exotic planets, meet interesting people, and kill them!

Okay, maybe you need to be a Star Trek geek to get that one.

This concept of reinventing yourself is very powerful.

Becoming a mother redefined who I am. Becoming a mother is major life changing experience.

Can you reinvent yourself without a major life changing experience?

Think about J.K. Rowlings, the creator of the Harry Potter franchise. She outlined the series of stories on paper napkins sitting at café when she was a single mother living on welfare. She certainly isn’t on welfare today.

She had an idea, she believed in it and she made it real. She reinvented herself.

How do you go about reinventing yourself? According to Napolean Hill, the fist step is to get rid of indecision, doubt and fear. The rest, is up to you!

Here’s a good example:

This string walks into a bar and says: “Bartender, I’d like a drink.”

The bartender replies: “We don’t serve your kind in here.”

Dejected, the string walks outside. Then he decides, he not going to be treated that way. So he gets himself all twisted up and takes his ends and messes them all up. Then he walks back into the bar and demands: “Bartender, give me a drink!”

Bartender says: “Hey, aren’t you string?”

“Nope. Frayed knot.”

The string reinvented himself. And so can you!

Live long & prosper.

Race for the Cure!

This all started in February 2008. The short version of the long story is that I created a glow in the dark pillowcase for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure®. Specifically, the West Virginia and Northeastern Pennsylvania Affiliates.

That's me on the left below, with Rebecca Newhouse, President of the WV Affiliate.

I could ramble on about how this all came about, but it might be easier if you just clicked HERE, to read a recent article from the WV Gazette. The important thing is that I have never been "part" of something like this before. I've donated to children's hospitals, the Hole in the Wall Gang summer camp and other organizations, but this is the first on-going association. In addition to having this motivational and inspiring "I Promise" pillowcase being part of the "Sleep In for the Cure" goody bags, Comfy Cozy® has signed contracts with each Affiliate which enables us to offer the pillowcases for sale on comfycozy.com. For each "I Promise" pillowcase sold, Comfy Cozy® will donate 10% to the selected Affiliate in the race to cure breast cancer. We're hoping to donate quite a bit to each Affiliate and add more in the future.

Click HERE to go directly to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure® page on our web site.

Before any of this came about, I was always good about having my mammograms. Never whined or put them off:) Then, last June, my "your results are fine" letter said something quite different. It had words like "suspicious" and "second screening" and "biopsy". WHAT! There is no breast cancer in my family, anywhere. This can't be happening.

The short version of that long story is that by the grace of God I'm okay. But the surgical biopsy part was scary, painful and recovery was not fun. The fear was overwhelming. The mixed emotions of being upset for having to go thru it all "for nothing", the guilt for being upset and the joy that I was "ok". I have a new sense of gratitude and dedication to the women that have gone before me, the scientist researching and trying to cure breast cancer, the Komen organization for the voice it has given to survivors and everyone "up for the fight".

I hope this pillowcase brings joy and inspiration to those diagnosed with breast cancer and survivors. Encourage your female friends to have a mammogram. Hold their hands if their letter isn't what they expect and pray for and with them.

Yay!

I made my first Etsy sale this weekend. It's exciting because it's a new area for me. I know, I know, I already have a website, but my Etsy store puts me in direct competition with other piggy bank painters. My piggy banks are different and cost more, so I have kind of been holding my breath.

I have been hard at work redoing my images there. They are getting better, but I still have to get more familiar with photoshop. At least I think they look better.

Also this weekend my Zebra Piggy Bank was featured in an Etsy Treasury.  Thanks to judysnow for picking my piggy bank.

And check out ArtWhims blog where she picked my piggy banks as May Must Haves #1.

So, I have to say it was an exciting weekend for me. Plus I got to see my oldest DD play in 3 different concerts at college. Life is good : )

Slow and Slower

*sigh* Business is slow. Not entirely odd for this time of year, but a little odd for me. If I work really hard this week, I could get all my orders painted and shipped. And I would see the bottom of my to-paint pile.

And that is a little unnerving to me. And scary. I haven't been without orders for years. Really. Busy has been steadily steady and I have come to rely on that income. Which I suppose I really should not have done.

Now I have bills to pay and a budget I don't know if I will meet this month. I do have some money left from the holidays, but I am now thinking the new car I bought 2 months ago really should have waited. But that's water under the bridge...

While I have some free time, I am starting an Etsy store. Not sure if it will benefit me or not, but it certainly can't hurt. I am thinking I am going to make it my "in stock" shop. Anything posted on Etsy will be available for immediate shipping. What's listed now is NOT ready to ship. But as I paint orders, I am going to paint what I have listed. And get that stock in stock and ready to go : )

I am also going to try and get some stock on hand for the fall. Just having blank piggy banks and plates on hand is a HUGE time saver for me. All I have to do then is paint the design and fire away. It won't pay my bills right now, but it will be a huge stress reliever when I get slammed with holiday orders.

So those are my plans for this slow period.....although I am hoping to still get some orders coming in so I can pay my bills. If not, I guess I'll just have to ask Hubby to take over a few of the household bills that I pay. He can step up for a while : ) How do you spend your time when business is slow? Oh, and have any tips for promoting Etsy shops?  Or taking really great photographs of piggy banks?

National Garden Month!

April is National Garden Month! I love gardening. To me, it truly keeps me sane, calms when I'm stressed and I can never get enough of it. I'm not a great gardener - pretty good, but not and expert by any stretch. I learned my gardening skills from my mother:) It all started when I was younger, but trust me, it wasn't my choice to spend all that time pulling weeds. It was punishment for fighting with my brother or her solution to my saying "I'm bored" one too many times!

But from that, I'm happy to say that I learned a lot. I learned that weeds always come back, so unless I wanted to keep pulling them, my brother and I tried to fight less and we better not ever say we had nothing to do in the summer. My mother taught me that gardening should be a joy, not a chore - and not to take yourself too seriously. She taught me that a garden was more than flowers, it was an ever changing work in progress. If you planted something here and it came up over there, you could either accept it or move it, but don't expect it to stay there forever...maybe it was smarter than you and would grow better where it was!

My favorite advice was her theory on planting. When we moved into our home, I had a clean slate, a huge empty yard to plant in. Where would I put this, where would I plant that? Mom stood in front of my home and said, just put them in and let them grow. I can hear her say "just dig a hole and put it in the dirt". Easy enough. Then there is always the "dig it up and throw it over there" method. Trust me, it works!

It's just getting warm enough here in the northeast for my gardens to start coming alive. This year, that will take on a whole new meaning for me, as my mom passed away in March. She was my gardening inspiration. Most of the perennials in my gardens came all the way from her gardens in WV. The biggest emotional hurdle for me will be when my wysteria blooms. It was started from a seed from the wysteria at my parents home! It bloomed in 3 years when "statistically" wysteria takes at least 7 years to bloom.

We always talked about what was blooming, her plants always before mine. We'd share pictures of flowers and of course, our wysteria's. I'll miss those conversations dearly.

I guess it's fitting that April is Gardening Month - my mother's birthday is April 8th. The beginning of a month that takes us from the cold of winter to the beauty of spring.

Gardening is a 12 months a year hobby though! I created a set of calendars to help both novice and experienced gardeners stay on top of their gardening. Click here to see my entire "gardening" collection.

So, take some time to plant something; vegies, flowers, trees. Teach your kids the joy of gardening - and make them pull weeds every now and then, it builds character! Click here for Gardening with Kids tips.

If you just can't wait til your flowers bloom or want a garden of flowers all year long, order the Comfy Cozy "Magic Garden" glow in the dark Pillowcase. Order one for your mom or granma...trust me, she'll love it!

Happy National Garden Month!

Click on this link (http://www.quamada.com/months.html) to check out the complete list of "months".