Aloha Friday.

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that they take it easy and look forward to the weekend. Thanks Kailani at An Island Life for starting this Friday tradition. Although I'm beginning to feel that everyday needs to be Aloha Friday.

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and go to An Island Life and leave your link. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

My question for today:

Are you on Facebook, and if so, what do you use it for?

My answer:

Yes, I'm on Facebook. I signed up a while back because I wanted a business page for Dee-Zigns, but unfortunately, I didn't know any better and signed up for a personal account, then had to create a business page. UGH! This is NOT how I wanted it. I wanted it the other way around.

But, because of my snafu, I've reconnected with old friends from my sorted past, with the help of my dusty high school yearbook! I've discovered unlike myself, these old friends have incredible memories. Is my memory bad or is it selective? Hmmmm.

It's been great seeing how old friends are doing, how we've all changed, where everyone lives, and all the other interesting tidbits of their lives. I have other questions regarding facebook, but will leave those for another day...

Have a wonderful, but safe holiday weekend!
xoxo
Toni

Weevils, not weebles.

Although I like to think of myself as laid back, I am not. I don't do well with bugs in my house of any kind. But especially relentless bugs. What is a relentless bug? To me, its ants, roaches (thankfully, I don't have them!), mosquitoes, flies. Let's face it, these pests are hard to get rid of. Last summer it was ants in the bathroom shower, marching on to battle in one single line. Marching up the shower door or the corner of the shower stall. Where did they think they were going!?

Recently, weevils in my pantry. Here's how it went down.

When I come home after a shopping expedition, I usually give Collins a dog biscuit. Why? Because he's been patrolling the house and keeping it safe. Also, his reaction is so cute. He gets so excited, he takes the dog biscuit very gently and carefully, then tears off running like something is after him. Cracks me up every time!

So a few weeks ago, while fishing out a dog biscuit for Collins, I noticed they looked weird, there were tiny holes in the dog biscuit. By this time Collins is losing his patience as I examine his dog biscuits. Upon further investigation, I saw tiny black rice-like bugs on the counter, that moved!!! Damn things had dropped from the bottom of the box! Oh SHIT! Sorry, Collins, these are no good! Dumped the box in the trash, while spraying Raid in the trash can. What the hell? I went back to the pantry and grabbed an opened box of pasta. Crap, saw the same thing in the bottom of the box. Could this have happened because I was now only buying whole wheat pasta? I think not. I don't remember this happening to the "white" pasta. I'm just thinking out loud.

I phoned the exterminator to find out what these tiny, black rice-like bugs were. The girl said weevils. "Weebles?" I said. You mean like "weebles wobble, but they don't fall down", weebles? I questioned in my sarcastic tone. There was a pause, then I heard hysterical laughter on the phone, "no W-e-e-v-i-l-s", and there's nothing we can spray to get rid of them. After she regained her composure, she told me to take everything out and wipe down my pantry. Put flour, rice, pasta, etc. in airtight containers. Most everything was already in airtight containers, except dog biscuits. And the pasta!

At this point, I flipped out because I was so grossed out! I am a clean person and my house is clean. It might be messy, but its clean, I tell you!
I ran to the computer and googled weevils, then googled weevil images. Trust me when I say DON'T DO THIS. It gave me the heebie jeebies and nightmares for a week. I have chills just writing this post. Reminds me of my mom, Gaston Studio, writing about those damn cockroaches and posting that horrifying photo. Not to mention the snake post. Moving on...

I emptied the entire contents of the pantry out into the kitchen. I examined every box of pasta, crackers and every food item in the pantry. I was shocked to find these disgusting creatures in several items, even a package of opened paper napkins and sitting on top of a can of beans. My kids definitely thought I had gone over to the dark side, I was a mad woman, looking for airtight containers to store every item that was going back in that pantry. Shaking boxes, throwing food in the garbage disposal, take that! I took pleasure listening to the disposal grinding up anything resembling a black rice-like creature. Armed with a flashlight and clorox clean-up, I wiped down the walls, the corners and the shelves in that blasted pantry. This took hours as I needed sufficient time and couldn't be rushed. Do you rush the CSI people? I think not, otherwise they would never find the culprit.

As I was freaking out, I tried looking on the bright side and the end product, an extremely clean and organized pantry, no thanks to the weevils. I mean, really, what purpose do these despicable creature have?

Aloha Friday, finally.

Wow, it seems as though I've been gone months! I have tons of blog reading to do, but before I begin, its time for Aloha Friday.

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that they take it easy and look forward to the weekend.

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and go to An Island Life and leave your link. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!


My question today:

If you have children at home for summer vacation, are you finding as much time for blogging or for your business as you would normally?

My answer:

Heck no, which is why there are few posts and very little reading other blogs, since summer vacation began. Sometimes it really frustrates me, until common sense kicks in and I realize, they come first!

If any of you have a way of organizing your time so you can get your blogging in, I'm all ears! Make that all eyes... since I moved my office, I don't have any sound coming out of my speakers, and I haven't had the time to investigate this silly problem! Oh well, after the pool and after the phone company comes to fix the phone that is not working and the tv that we can intermittently watch. But that's another story...

Life is back to normal, although my life is anything but normal.

You've probably noticed I haven't been around much lately, at least I hope you've noticed.

Two weeks ago, I thought I had poison ivy, not because I've been working in the yard. Noooooooo. I've never had poison ivy in all my years, surprisingly enough, but I've seen what others go through and I don't ever want to get this nasty, itchy, painful rash. I not because I've been working in the yard. I thought I got it from touching my husband's bath towel or his yard clothes, because he got poison ivy and gets it just about every time he works in the yard, which is every weekend! He is very susceptible to getting it. I've watched him suffer from contracting it and then, unknowingly, spreading it to many parts of his body, with his face being the worse. Poison ivy should be banned from the face of the earth!

I've never had poison ivy in all my years, surprisingly enough, but I've seen what others go through and I don't ever want to get this nasty, itchy, painful rash.

As I covered my rashy areas with calamine lotion, I couldn't take it anymore! The pain under my arm was really bothering me and several small areas on my shoulder blade were beginning to itch. I went to a "doc in the box" (a walk-in clinic) and was diagnosed with adult chicken pox (shingles). What? Are you kidding me? I'm not old enough to get this and why the hell do they call it shingles? Isn't that something roofers use? If it's adult chicken pox, just say adult chicken pox, for God's sake, don't use a stupid name like shingles.

Enough obsessing over the stupid name. I was so upset, I'd only known one person to get this and they were in their 60's. This can't be happening to me, a young chick with two small children. But the doctor (who had no bedside manners, no compassion and was the coldest doctor I had ever encountered in my young life) explained how as a kid I got chicken pox and it sat dormant in my spinal cord. Until, something like stress, brings it out in full force, hence my rash and the calamine lotion doing nothing to help the rashy areas. Stone faced doctor prescribed pain medicine, an anti viral medicine, and medicated patches that would relive the symptoms and hopefully, shorten the time I would have to endure this. Great doc, thanks for everything, now go work on your people skills before I report you to the head of doc in the box, because you are a heartless asshole who should be working in a laboratory, and not with people.

Then it hit me. Stress was taking over my life. Stress was causing me to keep pounds on that I clearly didn't need or want. Stress was causing me to get "shingles". Stress is not my friend but had taken up residence in my body and my life. But let's face it, everyone is dealing with stress in one form or another, but its how we deal with stress that makes a difference. I have been allowing it to take over, its time I give it the boot!

The adult chicken pox (I refuse to call it shingles because that doesn't make sense to me) is all but gone, thankfully, so now I will change my focus to reduce my stress. It won't happen overnight, but I will make small changes and make it happen. So who's with me???

Aloha Friday.

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that they take it easy and look forward to the weekend.

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and go to An Island Life and leave your link. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

My question for you today: In blogging, do you use your real name, as well as your family and friends names? If so, are you ever worried someone might think or react to something you've written in a negative way?

My answer: I use my real name simply because I have an online jewelry business and use my blog to give my customers, and potential customers, an opportunity to get to know me. My business goal, with this blog, is to build trust and confidence and show people there is a real person behind "Dee-Zigns", what inspires me, how I create my handmade jewelry, and running a one-person business.

My personal goal, with this blog, is to talk about things going on in my life, connect with people, and express my humor and laugh at myself. I have so many opportunities, that's for sure!

So there, I've put it out there! Your turn.

Under the Weather...

Hi all, I've been under the weather this last week, so haven't been around :( to blog or visit all your wonderful blogs. I hate feeling bad, especially when its beautiful and sunny outside. My kids have been pretty bored, as you'll see in these pictures.


Blake has been playing games on the computer, and Erika is running around with my camera driving Collins and Kitty crazy.


The look on Kitty's face seems to say "hurry up already!".


Collins puts up with anything, he's such a happy dog and very thankful to be a part of this family. Erika put clothes on him, fortunately for him, is was only this red bandanna :).



One thing the kids did for me recently, was to help me paint my new studio. Two walls are concrete and the floor is concrete, and at first I was freaking out about how they were painting and I was getting a bit nuts and fussing at them. I stopped myself, and thought, wait a darn minute, they want to do this and its the basement! Its okay if its messy! Let them have fun and feel proud they have painted "mommy's studio". Once I chilled, everyone was happy, including me! I used a beautiful shade of green, that is also in my foyer and hallways on the main floor.

My husband was stopping by Home Depot, so I asked him to pick up a light fixture for my studio. Immediately, he had that weird look on his face. You know the look men get when you ask them if the pants you just purchased make your butt look big? And they stand there, not sure what to say, because they don't know whether you want your butt to look like "Beyonce's" or if you want it to look skinny.


So, after describing what I wanted, he reluctantly went off with thoughts of despair, because he wanted to help me out, but didn't want to choose the wrong thing and come home to find out its not what I was talking about. Haven't you noticed you can describe in detail, draw pictures of what you want, and inevitably men come home with something different. At least, mine does. Is he not listening, or does he feel he knows best?

Naturally, he came home with different light fixture, but I'm going to give it a try and see how it looks installed and turned on. If it gives me what I want, I'll keep it and have a happy husband, because I do know that he tried to do the right thing :).


Once I'm feeling better, I want everything moved, so I can begin organizing (that's a laugh) and setting up my jewelry studio. My mom and sister are visiting in a few weeks, so hopefully I can get most of it done before they arrive!

I got another one! Award, that is.

This has been my lucky week as I've received another award! Thank you Recreational Art for honoring me with the coveted Kreativ Blogger Award. I will do everything in my power to continue to be creative.