Come here. Right into my room! Can you smell that? Isn’t it delicious? It’s the Febreeze flameless luminary thingy. I got one several months ago to review, and this morning, DaBaby found it and opened it. The shade I have is Green Tea Citrus and it just smells sooooooo good. And it’s pretty. The base flickers so it looks like a real candle. You pick it up and set it down to turn it on and it “burns” for about 4 hours. The shades are a little spendy to me, but….I think I will end up buying more anyway. A pack of two costs about the same as a small candle and releases scent for about the same amount of time, and if I forget to blow it out before bed, it won’t burn the house down.

Hey, Father’s Day is coming up, and while this probably won’t make the top 10 gifts for fathers day lists for most people, it ranks pretty high in my book. And since I am the mom and the dad, around here…….yeah.

Way back last summer, when life was only halfway crazy, instead of completely exploded, Brandai’s public relations agency contacted me and asked me to review a new toy called Harumika. I’ve had it now for *ahem* 9 months. Sorry, Michael.

Now, this is a very neat toy. He sent me a starter kit, which includes a little mannequin which is roughly the size of a Barbie torso and three fabric swatches, along with a tool that you use to attach the swatches to the mannequin. There’s enough in the kit to keep a 3 or 4 year old busy for about an hour. BUT, over Christmas, we stocked the expansion kits at work, and with those, there is enough to keep ME busy for several hours at a stretch. The possibilities are not endless, unless you are a knitter. I think with sock yarn, you could make swatches that are thin enough to use with the mannequin base……do you see the possibilities here? Mmmm, hmmm. I thought you might.

I think I’d actually like to get some of this for Diva. At 14, she is very fashion conscious, and half crafty now, so I think she could be turned on to sewing with just a little bit of a push. And it would make a far more interesting present than even best acne treatment, considering how clear her complexion is.

Halloween will be here before you know it., so it’s a good idea to start looking for kid’s costumes, today. Selected themes and characters are limited in quantity and based on demand, could run out of stock very quickly. This is particular true with kids sizes 4-6 which is by far the most popular. Determine who you will be buying for; baby or toddler costumes, girls, boys and what their size is. What is your childs favorite character…is it a princess or a super hero? There are many different styles, sizes and accessories available now in stock. So if you don’t get a start on it now, your child will undoubtedly give you that frumpy look of dissatisfaction as they wear a costume two sizes too big.

Instead of purchasing the same old regular style costume, pick up a deluxe style costume package, which includes extra accessories such as tiaras and muscle chests, and make your child’s Halloween a day to remember. If your daughter likes Hannah Montana, there are several types of costumes for you to look at. Hannah Montana costumes including a gold metallic jacket with the Hannah Montana logo, a matching tunic top, black cropped leggings, and a glittery belt. Costumes come in different sizes ranging in sizes from 4-10. Stars Wars costumes are always a very popular year in and out for boys and girls, babies and toddlers. A Jedi Knight is great for the hero, but Darth Vader is by far the most popular for Halloween. Kids love the dark mask, as well the light saber accessories. Princess Leia is still a classic choice for all girls and little princesses. Star Wars costumes all are available to babies, too! http://HalloweenCostumes4Kids.com/

Ok, I don’t actually have a category called did you know, but I should. Except I already have a slew of categories, and don’t really want to make my blogging life even more complicated, but DID YOU KNOW that Mama is cleaning out her house? And DID YOU KNOW that way back in my sister’s old closet, she found the helmet we used to wear when we rode on the motorcycle with Daddy. Talk about a blast from the past. And DID YOU KNOW, she threw that unroadworthy thing away? Guess she’s haoping that will keep me from needing to shop for motorcycle accident attorneys further down the line.

Shhh. Don’t tell her that I know where the bike shop is now, and I can go buy a new one. In pink.

So, obviously, I have been quiet here. I have a lot going on, most of which will probably never make the face of this blog, but will eventually make it to my personal blog in one form or another. Today, though, I want to talk a little bit about how to set up a craft area in my room.

Right now, I have my storage bench in there to hold stuff (plus 2 big wicker baskets. And a three shelf rolling cart. Oh, and an old microwave cart. But, HEY! There is zero craft stuff in my living room. Unless you count hocks. And the yarn for same. Sigh. Oh well, back to my POINT!! Which is a craft area in my room. Right now, I have CF lights in the overhead, plus 2 lamps. The thing is, my curtains are heavy, and I get no actual sunlight in there. It’s great for sleeping, but not so much for crafting. Or putting on makeup for that matter. Should I get lighter curtains and rely on shutters to deal with the light when I don’t want it? I have long toyed with the idea of wood blinds, and here in hurricane alley, shutters actually serve a useful function, ykwim? I like these Charlotte Shutters from Inviting Home, but I’d want them for the whole house.

As for containing the stuff, aside from using it up and then not buying so much, I don’t know what to do. There’s only so much prettifying you can do, even with decorative hardware. But in order to use it up, I have to actually craft, which isn’t much happening for me lately. Sigh.

Yesterday, my mama and I spent several hours at the mall. Now, we have been to the mall *cough* more than once in the past week-ish, and it has been for the most part a great deal of fun for both of us. Crowds have been minimal, stress has been low, and we have laughed and giggled and had a good time. Until yesterday. When we were trying to find shirts for my three sons.

Now, my boys are 7, 9 and 10. They are hardly hardcore trouble, and yet, everywhere we looked we saw skulls and such on the clothes. Yes, even in sizes 4, 6 and 8, which is what they wear. Now, I could have understood this, if we were looking at UFC t-shirts, but we were at Sears, looking at CRB and TKS. Call me a fuddy-duddy, but I’d much rather have my kids in johnny cash t-shirts than skull and crossbones. Unless we are talking pirate wear, for which I make an exception.

Of course, my all time favorite is the stripe. Preferably in red or blues. I’m a sucker for a striped shirt. Or plaid. I love me some plaid. I love plaid better than the crazy hair guy on Seinfield. You know the one—he appeared in plaid shorts all the time? Of course, you don’t see very many seinfeld t-shirts in the kids department anymore. No room for them among all the macabre, I guess.

Or not. Usually, it boils down to customer service, at which my provider does not excel! Last week, I noticed that Virgin Mobile had charged me $20 three times, and I thought to myself, “well, this isn’t quite right”. I checked my account at the library and discovered that I was paying by the message, and honey, with no internet at home, I am all about the texts! I’d burned through about 40 bucks worth at ten cents per in 8 days, except that I had purchased a messaging pack. Or so I thought. Apparently, it didn’t go through, and the website says only press the button once, so I pressed it….once.

So, I called them. I wanted credit for all those texts! Since I thought I bought the messaging pack, and I followed the instructions online, I thought that it would be fair if they reversed the individual charges and just billed me for the pack I thought I had purchased. Let me tell you, it took 2 representatives and over an hour of my time to gain any ground, and even then, they only gave me one month of free unlimited texts. If I had one of those unlocked cell phones, I would so be on my parent’s plan now, because I totally threatened promised to leave them if they did not make this right.

So I am texting my little heart out, and so are all my kids. And I am still so very in love with the Kyocera Wildcard I bought last year. Too bad it only works with VM, because I cannot give up my qwerty keyboard.

So, I had mentioned that I needed a new saddle for my guitar, but I didn’t tell you about what happened when I went to get it, did I?

People, it was not a good experience! There were two teen aged boys helping customers an either they both thought I was a crazy old lady who was incapable of sliding a new saddle into the groove of the bridge, or they thought I was 12 and not worthy of their effort. The upshot was that after they told me they didn’t have what I needed—even thought I had the old part with me and showed it to them– and would have to bring my incredibly old and cheap guitar in for a $20 repair, I walked by a display and found exactly what I needed. For $3. And do you know, they didn’t even apologize?

Let me explain. I may be broke today, but you don’t know when I will have money. And the best way to make sure I don’t drop a load of it in your store when I have it is to treat me poorly when I am watching pennies. Unless of course, they really don’t know the difference between a guitar saddle and an english saddles. Which I find hard to believe since 1) they work in a store surrounded by guitars, and 2) I was led right past the correct saddles to a wall that contained carvable saddle blanks of the wrong size and shape.