The Right Thing?

I am so dang stressed and I'm trying not to be. Why? A few reasons but probably at the top of the list is my car. And the guy that hit it. Sigh. Older fella, had his grandson in the truck with him and was going through the Mickey D's drive thru. It's one of those split drive thru concepts where I was on the outer ring and he the inner. As I pull up and stop behind someone waiting to pay, he pulls forward and pulls forward and crruunncchh. Into my drivers side back door.

It wouldn't be so bad if 1- it didn't go down through all layers of paint and 2 - if I had a color easier to blend. Both repair companies said the same thing. Ugh. 

He freaked out and jumps out, wanting me to settle outside of insurance. Ugh. I don't do stuff like that. But after an hour of him pacing and begging while we waited on the cops (I'll be honest, he intimidated me!) I said I'd consider it and call over the weekend. 

This was Friday afternoon. I gathered as much into as I could for a Friday afternoon but wasn't quite finished. I didn't call over the weekend (bad me, I know) but wasn't ready to make a decision. Monday (today) I was able to see another company for a second estimate and talk to my insurance agent (adore her!).  

Holy smokes this man showed up at my workplace and for another 30-45 minutes went to talking nonstop. He'd borrow the money. He has a friend that could fix it cheaper. He and his wife were on limited incomes. They were raising his grandson. Listed allll the ailments if every person. Admitted they would probably take his license because of all the wrecks he had while on painkillers. But then he found the Lord. And I was invited to his church. They have a great preacher! I mean, I was tired of hearing him talk. 

So I gave him a month to get together the money and no-I'm not accepting $50 at a time for $800+ of damage. Then he tried the tactic of - well, you probably have a $500 deductible ... Sir, my insurance isn't paying. Yours would. ... Oh yeah, well, I heard even if you aren't at fault your insurance could go up... No sir, my insurance will not go up. 

Can you see why I have a headache? I really want to file with insurance because I'm lazy. But I am trying to do the right thing for the little damage that was done. But I seriously feel like he's going to run out on this and try to leave me with the bill. And I told him I'd call back tonight with an estimate on rental cars. Ugh. 

So I left work early, came home and enjoyed a three hour hot bath. Not that it solved my problems but I swear, it helped. 

Any thoughts on this situation? Because I can tell you, my dad thinks I'm nuts and that I should file with insurance to be done with it. Man it would be so much easier or to do it that way. I'm not sure I'd ever agree to something like this again. 

Sigh. 

Let's look at happier, more fun times! Like a few of my coworkers and I went to conference in Myrtle Beach (let's not discuss how cold it is in January!!!) but it was fun. Really enjoyed my villa-mate. We are Hot Tamales!! Hahaha!!! 

This lady will crack you up! Had some great convo with her, as well. Love good talks. 

Came home to this sweet thing, that I missed so much while I was gone. She is what makes me home sick when I'm away from home! ❤️

My happiness meter was overflowing when I took half a day from work (on my first day back from conference) to babysit these cuties!!! 

Can we say TEETHING?! Poor fellas. But oh they are soooo snuggly! Growing so fast! I love every moment I get with them. 

Holy smokes, as I'm typing this, I just made a sale on Etsy!! That's two for today(which is unheard of). Wow, I'm excited! I sewed like a madwoman this past week, trying to up my stock. Looks like that was a good thing :) 

Some of my bibs in the store I sell them. Spent part of Saturday working on inventorying all I had for sale there to better track everything. 

Totally missed the super bowl and its commercials. That's another story that we'll just skip for now. But look at all these great times!! These blessed moments!  Life is good and I needed to take a moment to realize that. Thank You, Lord, for all You have given me. ❤️ 

Bday month of happiness

September is my birth month and I love to celebrate all month long. Any and every good thing that happens is due to my birthmonth celebration.

And while it's been years since I've felt like my birthmonth was a true celebration - or even my birthday, for that matter, but September 2016 is starting off well!! 

Through work I've presented at my old college and saw familiar faces I hadn't seen in 20 years. I felt like I did a decent job at it and represented my workplace fairl well. Two thumbs up for that! 

Had the opportunity to visit the sweet nephews mid-week and it melted my heart. Those two are sweeties, even when tired and sleepy. Such a good feeling to snuggle them. 

On my vacation day off this Labor Day weekend, I sewed and finally got the adult bibs up in the Etsy store. 

Saturday (today!) Mom, Dad, and Sweet Niece #2 headed to the mountains for some apple pickin' and to visit the kids museum up that way. Totally success! Beautiful blue-skies kind of day. 

The grocery store is always her favorite. Always.

Having family time is what restores my mind to handle the chaos at work. I've needed some good family time. 

Let's cover some other events: like Macy's first day of 4K. So cute! 

One day that first week I walked her into school and her sweet teacher offered to take a pic of us! 

Went to my state capital for a work meeting and this crazy painting is in one of the conference rooms of the state museum. No matter where you view the painting from in the room, the road follows you. Really neat. 

And that's about all I got. ;)  I hope the good vibes of September continue well past my birthday. I'm excited to be excited. 

Happy Birthday, Sweet Nice #2!

I am so excited to wish my baby sweet niece a happy (belated) birthday!  Little girl turned two on Saturday and we had a wonderful time at her birthday party.  Well... semi wonderful, what time she wasn't screaming about other kids playing with her favorite gift: the pink car. Regardless, it was great to see everyone and celebrate this beautiful blessing God gave to our family: Macy.

First of all, check out the invitation I made using Publisher.  I'm pretty excited about it! Publisher can be limiting, it's not really a heavy-hitting design program, but I manipulated what I could and liked the end result.  Then I took these to Office Depot for printing.  I may do a tutorial on how to create your own when I get a chance.

Obviously, it was a Hello Kitty theme (love!).

We created a fishing game that was easier than setting up cardboard and hiding someone behind it while kids tossed a hook over the edge.  This was SO much easier.  The pool was one of her presents and since all my fish were pink/orange/yellow, we put a blue plastic tablecloth in the bottom for "water." The fish were cut out two at a time from folded over colored paper and we drew fish details on each one.  We put a paper clip on each fish nose. Macy had a kiddie fishing rod that had never been used, so I threaded baker's twine through the loops and attached a pipe cleaner on one end, shaping it like a hook.  Add a strong magnet with some glue to the bottom of the hook and you are ready for some fishing!

As the kids "caught" fish, they redeemed them for prizes, which ended up being their goodie bags. Bracelets, candy, sunglasses, etc.  Fun stuff. No hiding behind a piece of cardboard.

The bubble machine was a huge hit.  Dancing in bubbles, what's not to love about that?!

A good ol' fashioned hay ride around the house, complete with quilts to keep little legs from being prickled by hay bits.  Sweet Niece #1 is always a HUGE help at toddler events!

This toy is what caused melt down 2.0.  Oh my, don't even think about getting in her car. OH no no! Yes, sharing is one of those things being worked on, but you know how it goes. No Nap + Birthday Excitement + Terrible Twos = MELTDOWN! *sigh*

Two super cool gifts - the handpainted chair, with West Virginia logo! - what a hit! Love it! and the handlettered and handpainted birthday card from Paulene at Leen Machine (go check out her work at Esty!)

At the end of the night, after dinner and smores, Aunt Donna and Macy chilling out, reading some books. We had a great afternoon, evening celebrating Macy and her 2nd birthday.  I thank God for both of my nieces, two wonderfully special adorable girls that I love so very much.

:)  Happy Birthday, Macy Mae.  Aunt Beth Loves You.

Friday's Letters!

Be exuberant! :) 

Does anyone ever click on these random things I post from Etsy?  Just curious. Because Etsy houses some really cool things and I love finding new treasures when I need an image.

Anyway, toady is Friday- whoo hoo! and this week really zoomed by me.  Not that I'm not ready for the weekend, but since I'm working some this weekend, it doesn't have quite the same appeal. But it's all good. Let's dive into Friday's letters, shall we? I think it's time.

DEAR GOD - You are AMAZING and I'm so thankful that you respond to my worries and fears even when I don't tell You about them.  AND when you answered my worry, you also delivered me four shirts with my company logo on them... which was great! So yes, I hear You and I'm sorry! I'll try to do better about talking to You about everything.

Dear Sara - Enjoyed dinner this week and catching up on the funness of your life. And learning what the X sounds like in Spanish.

Dear American Idol & The Voice - Wow.  AI, you are just having a horrible season.  And I blame the judges because they are the ones that put these people through to this level.  But The Voice seems to be doing well so far! Love Shakeria and Usher over Christina and Ceelo (I'm sure I'm misspelling all these names, sorry).  So I'm much more excited about The Voice.

Dear Project Life - Holy cow your stuff is expensive!  (Anyone getting rid of Project Life stuff??) I purchased the starter kit and I'm excited to start my own scrapbook.  To catch up on the past 38 years of life and hopefully stay caught up. Gracious, it's going to be a journey.

Dear Raynore - I don't know what's changed yet (I'm guessing I'll hear in a letter!!) but I'm SO VERY HAPPY FOR YOU!  Watch out, NC, here she comes!

Dear happiness - thank you for visiting me.  Maybe the lack of sleep is making me giddy but I'll take it. :)  It sure ain't the weather making me happy (the weatherman said if this rain were snow, it would be 30-40".  CRAZY!) So happiness, come back and visit with me any time!

So there.  My letters to begin my weekend.  Ya'll have a good one and I'll see you back here on Wednesday, if nothing else! :)

What's been keeping me busy?!

I wanted to show ya'll what I've been up to and what's been keeping me busy.  My Etsy store, Pressed Clovers, has been hopping with specialty orders.  Having the customer come up with the requests usually leads to GREAT ideas that I wouldn't have thought of on my own, but I then fall in love with - precisely what happened with these. I'm going to share a few pics from the recent books, but you can see more at the Pressed Clovers Blog, or PC Facebook page. Or heck, visit the store and make your own request for an awesome book!

This mother has taken a photo of herself on Mother's Day since her first son was born - and it was time to give him a book (which you know will be passed down to his daughter) of his mom on Mother's Day.

Want to see more of this book? Click here to see the PC Blog which will show you more!

The next request was from a mom in PA that keeps a scrapbook of her son each school year, which includes the holidays.  She wanted the ability to put more than one photo on each page, so I worked up 13 pages of cuteness for her son.

To see more of this book and the holidays included, Click Here for the blog post about it!

I had a close friend want a baby girl scrapbook for a special child that the parents have prayed for and wanted for many years.  Blessing has been granted and special delivery will be here soon!

Trust me, I know some of these pics are less than stellar, but sometimes I'm in such a rush to ship, I just need a few pics to get approval from the customer. No Internet at the house sometimes makes life difficult. :) 

Are you ready for the last book today?? It's an ADORABLE Halloween book, which just turned out C.U.T.E.  This mom is putting all her son's Halloween costume pics in one book, with journal pages to write about her memories of each one. Love this. 

See the rest of the book by Clicking Here. I really do love these ideas that folks have been coming up with, and plan on using what I've learned on my new projects.  So exciting!

What are your thoughts?  Ideas for books, likes/dislikes, recommendations??? Please share!

Day Dreaming.

I'm trying to find my groove again - beginning my morning with the ritual visit with Sweet Niece #2 definitely helped out.  I read "Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons" to her and it was a perfect start to my day.  If you don't know Pete the Cat, you need to meet him.




So now that you have met Pete, be sure to check out his other books.  Trust me when I say this is the perfect gift for children about four to six-years-old because they totally love Pete.

Anyway, it's pouring down rain here and I needed something to help me refocus and be happy again.  So I went to Etsy, of course, and day dreamed about items I wish I could run out and purchase right this minute.

1)  Soap from Soap For Your Soul.

              

I didn't make it to a Carolina Blogger get together but I did pay to have the gift pack mailed to me.  Included was a sample bar of soap from Soap for your Soul.  Oh my gosh, it smelled SO GOOD. Looks like they are having a sale, so you should check them out.


2)  Notecards from Leen Machine:

I love Paulene's stationary, but I'm really drooling over these.  How adoarble?!?! The ones that she made for Sweet Niece #2 - oh my gosh, they were darling little girl cards.  You gotta check her out. 

3)  Pottery from CatsPaw Pottery.   

I had a small square pottery plate with the edges that tiled up just a bit. I used it on my stove as an additional spoon rest or I put a cup in it to dip the grease out of ground beef and it helped keep my stove clean.  I broke it. I glued it back together.  Night before last, I pretty much destroyed it and will need to replace it.  Isn't this one cute?? So fancy. And when I saw the name of the company was Cats Paw Pottery - *love!!*

Ok, I've day dreamed on this pretty much all day.  And now it's time to day dream at home in a hot bubble bath with some soothing music and a trash novel.  I'm toast for today. So ya'll have a good one and maybe we'll meet back up here tomorrow?  

Friday's Letters

Dear Macy Mae, you are my sunshine every morning. I love visiting with you before work.  It's amazing to see how quickly you are learning and how smart you are!  Dear Spring, you have finally arrived!  I love driving to and from work and seeing green instead of dead brown. It makes the commute much more interesting. :)  Dear Sweet Frog owners, I wasn't kidding when I told you I was excited you were opening in my town. Hello, I was there on your FIRST DAY. I'm CRAZY with excitement! My wallet isn't, but I am.  Dear roses, what a treat to see you had bloomed when I wasn't watching you!  My first bloom of the season! I'm hoping for another lovely year of your beautiful flowers!  Dear Digital Scrapbook Papers, I'm learning how to best use you in my Pressed Clovers items. It's slowly occurring to me how cool you could be!  Dear weekend, for whatever reason, you are calling for rain rain and more rain.  I'd appreciate it if you'd make it rain at night or sometime I'm not out in it, please.  Many thanks!

How cute are these goulashes Thank You notes?  Find them here! 

Ok folks, I'm off to wrap up my work and head home for the night. I'm so looking forward to kicking up my feet and half dozing on the couch while Muffin snores in the room beside me. Ya'll have a great weekend. :)