Mickey mouse

Took the kids to see the mouse on ice today.  Before I forget I want to write it all down to remember it forever and ever because this is a special thing to me, kids grow up so fast these days and they are so precious when they are small, I want to make sure I remember these little tit bits forever.

A wouldn't get off my lap.  He figured out he could see much better while sitting on it. 

When D was watching the beast turn into a prince he looked over at me and said "I sure hope this works!" so so cute!

When Buzz Lightyear came out of the present box I got a "Mom, I love you" from my little D.

When the Chinese dragon came out during the Mulan number D. got so scared until M. told him not to be scared it's just people in costumes. 

A. said his favorite part was Mickey mouse.  Yep.  He's my son.

D. said his favorite part was Goofy and Toy story.  He about fell in love with the good fairy from Pinochio he couldn't take his eyes off of her and kept saying "wow" over and over.  To be fair she was probably the best skater at the show.

M. said her favorite part was Stitch and she even got a Stitch stuffed animal, even though she's never seen the movie I guess she really liked his character in the show.

All 3 were perfect little angels and listened and were so good I took them to Mc heart attacks for dinner.  It was a good day.  Here's hoping I get extra weekend days with them (when my ex was supposed to have them) more often.

Just another day in paradise

What's new party people?  I'm battling a head cold from hell so expect this to be brief.  3 weeks into school and my daughter already bambozled me into not going to school.  I really thought she was sick since I was sick, I took her to the doctor and everything.  Got the schpeel about how kids who go to school get sick and I need to get used to it.  Got told not to keep her home from school unless her temp is 101 or higher.  Really?  I run cold if I was 101 I'd be 4 degree's over my normal and she run's cold as well.  The school nurse said if she's 99.5 or  higher keep her home but if you get too many unexcused absences then they get all mad with you.  Now having sick kids is miserable but having sick kids when your sick that's just torture.  The more she goes to school the more and more this homeschooling idea is looking like a better idea.  She's already getting notes sent home for kicking other students and I'm getting calls from her teacher.  She's beyond bored and who can blame her, colors and shapes really?  Phonic's?  She's been doing that crap since she was 3.  It's crazy to me how quickly she's picking up her sight words.  And then I'm getting notes that kids in her class don't know phonic's and it seems like she's way ahead of the class.  It's hard to convince your kid that school is important and you should go when you yourself pretty much believe it's a waste of time and they would learn a lot more at home.  These days they have computer programs that do the lessons and check the lessons for you and all you got to do is help them if they get stuck.  But my ex doesn't want her to be the awkward home school kid who doesn't know how to socialize so here we go, one year of constantly getting sick and fighting with my 6 year old to get ready for school b/c she don't ever want to go.

On the good news side though YAY Disney on Ice is coming to town again and I get to take not only my daughter like I usually do the boys want to go too!!  Yeah its expensive I got 2nd row seats in the second section right in the middle, usually I got the side seats that were like 7 bucks less per seat but with it being the boys first time seeing the mouse I wanted to be sure to get good seats.  I shouldn't be this excited to go to an ice show but they really do go all out.  It's like being at Disney world for a couple of hours.  I really want to take them there too but I figure I should probably save for a better car and a better place to live first right?  Speaking of witch lets segway into me asking you to please BUY MY CRAP.  Yes there's a store on Etsy called buy my crap.  Here's a couple listings I don't care if you don't want them buy them anyways, give them to someone you don't like or something. . ..

 First up I am pimping out my purple ombre chains bucket hat.  Perfect for sunny days, accessorizing and other wise looking cool and showing your own style.  The chains are supposed to have spaces between them for your hair to poke threw and to keep your head cool while still blocking some of the sun off your face.  Perfect for your average headed woman teen or tween.  Yours for the low low price of 24.99. 

Next up I am pimping out this lovely mohair lace pink and brown shawl or scarf.  Perfect for a little pop of color to bring your outfit together.  The colors in this range from light pink to mauve to brown to black and the pattern gives you just the right amount of warmth while still letting your skin breathe.  Yours for the low low price of 37.99.







Let me end this by giving my loyal blog readers (all 3 of you) a coupon code for free domestic shipping on any order of $50.00 or more.  Just use coupon code SUNFLOWER at check out this code is good till November 30th so please someone take advantage of this wonderful offer so I can know if my coupon code actually works.  Yeah.  I been watching infomercials again. . . please pardon my speak.  Thanks for stopping by, hope it wasn't a total waste of time. 

Oh, was today a holiday?

Huh, Labor day.  Who knew?  I have been busy creating and cleaning and cutting toxic people out of my life.  Ya know it's a special kind of struggle with toxic family, you don't want to do it because they are family and I was struggling with so much guilt for so long it was really weighing me down but today, I feel better.  Bout time.  Something other single parents can relate to you kind of feel like you got the whole world on your shoulders and these amazing little people are counting on you for absolutely everything day in and day out and then when you have no support from your family or friends on top of that things can get kind of overwhelming.  Thankfully I do have an amazing community of (mostly) online friends who do support me and stick by me no matter what and it has made all the difference in the world.  Anyhow's. . . here's some of my new creations I hope you enjoy .. .

 Up first I have my Ombre chevron scarf yes boys and girls I have joined the trendy train and sold out and am giving my all to give these trendy hipster kids the kind's of products they crave.  Hopefully it will do the trick.  The more products you have on there the more chances you have for someone to see your stuff and want it so let's stock this store! 

Next up I have my blue ombre chevron infinity scarf now I know I have been living under a rock because till I started selling on Etsy I had no idea what an infinity scarf even was.  What an amazing idea!  I never really wear scarf's because I never really knew how to tie them and they'd always be falling off or otherwise a pain in my butt because accessorizing has never been my strong suit but this scarf is amazing.  It never falls off.  It always looks perfect.  And you can double it up for extra warmth if your going out in the blustering cold.  Sweet!!  My first ever infinity scarf and I think it's quite good.  I hope you do too.

Lastly we have my very first attempt at a beret.  Not bad for a first try right?  I had a purple beret a long long time ago in a land far far away and I loved that thing but ya know what, I never could remember to wear the darn thing so it too went by the way side.  These days kids are wearing these things in school, on dates, just because.  It's made with acrylic yarn so it is actually warm and the creme color goes with pretty much everything.  I know my little fake head is kinda scary but it was free so I don't look a free fake head in the mouth. . . or broken nose for that matter .. . maybe someday I'll invest in a good looking head but for now it will have to do.

So there's my 3 new inventions.  My shop is a little less bare.  I did get a special order that I'm working on now and that's kinda awesome with it's own new challenges.  It's just not enough for me to follow a pattern.  I'm an artist!  Got to make my own way and all that noise and challenge myself and do new and exciting things.  Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the show.

quick check in

I know I've been absent, I've been busy.  My car keeps busting although they did finally figure out what it was and got that fixed once and for all recently, and then my daughter started Kinder garden and now we are battling some kind of cold thing that's making the kiddo's a bit cranky.  Busy busy busy also I have been working on promoting the shop and making a couple new things.  You know it's crazy how much just having one kid in school changes the dynamic's of a household.  I went from having one child to three thanks to the blessing that is twins but now it's like for the first time I have only two children.  I kept telling myself twins wasn't that much work and what's the difference having one baby or two but yeah, I guess I was just telling myself those things because what else can ya do?  Not like you can give one back.  Anyways I totally appreciate having Molly around now when she's home and when she's not I find myself spending more time actually hanging with the twins.  Doing fun things (when they aren't sick anyways) like the park or going to play at their new buddy's house.  My house isn't a constant mess of yuck.  I love that little girl but all her little science experiments sure did make a mess.  Kind of funny how the twins are so much more behaved when she's gone.  Kind of makes me wonder if they were always this well behaved and I didn't notice because I was so flustered or if she stir's the pot.  I think she likes to stir. 

Now I am NOT a fan of full day Kinder Garden and I think they should stop doing that.  I know most parents throw their kids in daycare so they are used to having the kids gone all day but some parents don't do that and these kids are not used to it and I can see it's totally bumming my little girl out.  Maybe she'll get used to it but I say in a perfect world she wouldn't have to.  Kinder garden used to be fun.  You learned your colors and your numbers and your ABC's that was pretty much it.  Now they have them learning to read sight words and use the computer and internet and this is why children are growing up too soon.  We teach them and expect them to act like adults but we still treat them like children till they are 30.  Think there's something wrong there? 

Anyways.  Can they just stop growing up now please?  It really does go by way too fast.

August and Everything After .. .

I know I haven't been busy keeping up with my blog  .. . sorry.  I've been busy trying to fill gasp- orders!  I still have one to finish before I can make some new stuff but yay for orders!  It sure beats not having any orders.  So what's new?  My facebook page has swelled to 99 likes.  I have 904 followers on Twitter.  315 followers on Wanelo.  Whoo hoo!  Oh and Macklemore is following me on Twitter how cool is that?  But probably not really he's following thousands of people so he probably doesn't really pay attention to any of them, right?  My daughters kinder garden open house thing is tonight and I get to meet her teacher and she gets to meet her classmates.  That's exciting.  I am thinking its a really good school her teacher has already called me and she even sent my mini me a post card in the mail saying how she hopes she had a good summer and she can't wait to meet her on the first day of school witch is GASP Wednesday.  I'm so not ready for this. . .Anyways lets get on with the show a couple of projects I want to feature in my blog today, the first one is brand spankin new and I think it would make a beautiful addition to any girl's wardrobe.  This beautiful flower lace pattern wrap it's a wrap.  It's a shawl.  It's a scarf.  It's soft and not too warm and a pretty shade of purple.  Pictures speak a thousand words so heads up here's some pictures for ya. . .

As you can see it can even wrap around the top of your dress as a foe tube top.  The ways to wear it are truly endless.  Every woman should have one of these!










The next item I want to highlight is this sand dollar pattern black bamboo shawl it's bamboo, need I say more?  Great drape and endless wearing options await anyone who has one of these in their back pocket.  And yes when folded up its so small you could easily put it in your back pocket or purse.  It's not exceptionally warm or anything but its a great fashion statement and you could wear it again and again without anyone even noticing its the same shawl.  On with the pictures! 

These are just a few options.  I love to change my look on a whim so that's why I decided to make these pieces.  So you know if your running from the FBI or whatever you can change your look or put your shawl in your pocket and they will never suspect that your you.  Ha ha, but you get the idea ;) Thanks for stopping by I hope you enjoyed your visit to my little corner of the world. 

My experiance with section 8 housing

I don't even know where to start.  I am not the kind of person who asks for government help or help of any kind as I'd much rather make my own way.  However, due to a few bad choices I found myself in need of some assistance.  My little family of 4 lives far below the poverty line.  Now I know that in America so many people have this mentality of "I want I want" and keeping up with the Jones, and they feel entitled or obligated to have a level of comfort in this wonderful country that we call America, but all I was trying to do was get a 2 bed room apartment for my family that is up to code.  Where drinking the water won't make me vomit.  Where I don't smell gas every time I turn on the stove or oven and the fan actually works to get the nasty gas and smells out of the house.  Where we have a working smoke detector.  Where there's not holes in the carpet all the way down threw the padding where when I try and vacuum it breaks my vacuum cleaner and more of the carpet comes up every single time.  And a list of other things that make this place a terrible unsafe environment for children.  A place that I could afford as they recently raised my rent here to a level that I simply can't afford.  It was tight before, now it's impossible.  I don't want to pay an extra 50 dollars a month so they can afford to keep their hot tub on.  I'm sorry.  If your going to raise my rent at least fix things around here.  Anyways.

I got there at 8 pm as they told me that demand was high and to get there early in order to get a place in line.  There were already 11 people in line ahead of me, some of them had been there since 5 PM.  The office didn't open to take applications until 10 AM the following day.  There were no restrooms.  There was no garbage cans.  There was no place nearby to get things to eat or drink.  These people were all very nice people and you could tell just by looking at them that they too were in a very bad place.  Either they didn't have any home at all or they were being abused at home and needed to get out.  Some of them though were simply 18-20 year old girls who had gotten themselves knocked up and wanted to get out and start their own little family on the taxpayers dime.  The girl next to me told me flat out that she could easily stay at home with her parents and raise her baby but she just didn't want to.  It infuriates me that people like this abuse the system and then guess what, there's no help for the people who truly need it.  Anyways.  We stayed there all night.  Some people slept, I myself couldn't I was so worried and nervous that I wouldn't get the help that I needed.  Turns out I was right.  Closer to morning some ghetto fabulous people showed up and they decided they were just going to push their way up to the front of the line.  So now we are all standing waiting at the door for about 3 hours getting pushed to the front like we are at a concert.  There's women who are 8 months preggo and I'm just expecting someone to bust their water the way things were going.  The police were called.  They threatened to shut the whole thing down.  The residents from the apartment buildings who have to actually pay full price for their rent yelled insults at us and took pictures as they drove by.  The police threatened to arrest us all.  Now because I've had dealings with the police I know that would never happen because arresting 78 people is a lot of paperwork and that's just not going to happen.  But they too insulted us and basically told us we were a bunch of dirt bags for even applying for this.  So that was fun.  Way to not do your jobs and not keep people safe Valpariso's  finest. 

Anyhow after all that I finally get in there and I do have the majority of the information I needed for the application.  It would have been great if the applications were online or you could go ahead of time to get one so you knew all of the questions they were going to ask for.  But no.  They don't do that because they number the applications as you walk in the door (or rather get pushed in by the crazy crowd) and I guess they don't want people trying to say they were number whatever so you just have to kind of guess what they need and what they don't.  After all that.  I was number 15.  I was thinking things were alright and it was going to work out but no.  They give you a packet of what they look for to approve people and come to find out the fact that I have a foreclosure and a bankruptcy on my record made my credit too bad to approve me.  The fact that I lost my house and NEEDED a place to live was the very reason I couldn't get one.  Where is the logic in that?  Never mind the fact that even before the bankruptcy went threw I've always paid my rent on time in cash on the first of the month.  Never mind that since the bankruptcy I have done nothing but try and improve my credit.  None of it matters.  Not even the fact that I had to file bankruptcy because my at the time husband decided not to pay the bills- not because he couldn't afford to but because he wanted to run my good credit rating into the ground- and I was pregnant with his twins and no one would hire me- none of that mattered.  You know it would have been nice if they would have told me what the requirements were ahead of time so I'd know not to even try because they weren't going to help me. Whats worse is some of the people who were with me and waited patiently like decent human beings they too for whatever reason were denied.  It just breaks my heart that the people who really need this aren't getting the help that they need and people who defraud the system and lie their way in do.  Is this my world?  Is this the country that our military is fighting for?  Why? 

When people have no money isn't it just normal that the first thing to go is their credit rating?  That they use credit cards to pay for luxuries like food and shelter and to keep the gas on?  And then they end up defaulting because when you have nothing what else can you do?  You know it wouldn't be so bad if it was just me I really wouldn't care but this is about my kids.  My kids are suffering EVERY DAY for stupid decisions my ex husband made because he was mad at ME.  How is that fair?  He must really love them to have done these things to him but the funny part is he watched them overnight so I could go apply for this because he'd rather have his kids living in section 8 housing than where we are now because it truly is THAT BAD. 

Anyways before you go judging people for using things like section 8 or food stamps or whatever they may be using you should really stop and think and quit steryotyping people by what they look like or where they live.  You don't know what its like till you've walked a mile in their shoes.  That is all.

Back to school. . .not cool

It's that time again boys and girls, time for the kid's to go back to school.  I will have to take a break from my normal sleep to whenever routine and join the millions of half awake mom's getting their kids on the bus or taking my princess to school.  Yuck.  Where did the time go?  What happened to my little baby?  Who said she could grow up?  I don't like it.  Next thing ya know she's going to know about Santa and how to read and use the internet and she won't be a kid anymore.  Well anyways, lets take a look at some of my mega trendy tops that are not too cool for school and if you like what you see please take stop over at Crochet by Mel and check out my other super cool items. 

 This top is so awesome my model took it home with her as payment for being my model.  It is the black outer shell only so an under-layer is needed for wearing to school ha ha.  This one is made in black bamboo but if you'd like it in crochet cotton I will take 5 dollars off since cotton is cheaper than bamboo. No matter what fiber you get it in though this is a hand wash only in cool water shirt and lay flat to dry.  As you can see the front and back match exactly and I can make this in any size needed, this is a small/medium.  The best part about this shirt is the simplicity of the design however no 2 shirts would be exactly the same.  If you'd like a longer sleeve length I'd be happy to work with you on a custom order.  Just Click here to purchase.

 This pretty little yellow number was inspired by a sweater I saw Brittany wearing in season 2 of Glee.  If you take the ties off of the shoulder you get a slouchy shoulder bearing top like she wore with the orange floppy hat.  Leave the ties on and you get a cute keyhole detailing on the shoulder.  This is made with yellow acrylic yarn and has retro bell sleeves.  I can gladly make this in any color you wish.  Being acrylic the best part about that is it's totally washer and dryer safe.  Click here to purchase.

Now I'd love to sit here and talk about every single item in my shop right now but sadly time just doesn't allow for me to do that, there's dishes to wash and boo-boos to mend and you got the general idea.  Thanks so much for stopping by I hope it wasn't an epic waste of time :)