I Shaved Your Wife

The weekend was pretty stressful due to getting Mollusc off to college and all.  With the flurry of last minute buying, one of the things that struck me was how FREAKING expensive razor blade cartridges are! O_O  I always used to use Venus, but I just couldn't justify spending that much anymore, so I switched to Soleil.  To be honest, the shave isn't as nice can be brutal (Wolverine victim cosplay, anyone?), and the blades are hard to find.  Adding insult to (actual) injury, they're not even that much cheaper, but I'm too stubborn to cave and go back to Venus.  Plus, there's no breathable atmosphere.

Today I was browsing Pinterest and sipping my ginger tea (as one does) and I came across the ad for Shave Club.  I'd seen their page before, had been intrigued by their whole smart, straightforward outlook, and just generally liked the concept of going Rogue (see what I did thar?), so today I clicked on the pin to check it out in detail.  First of all, the ad cracked me up:

As someone with an advertising degree, I'm pretty jaded about most commercials.  I usually find something to critique, and consequently spend more time thinking about what's wrong with the ad than what the actual product was.  So when I see one that really makes me like a product, I do take notice.

Then, when I looked at what it would cost, I was sold!  The girls and I will split the first package (I did order an extra handle) to see how we like them.  And I think we'll end up changing frequency to less often than once per month because I'm cheap thrifty and try to squeeze every last dying breath out of my razors.  I also added a bottle of repair serum because Sluggie gets razor burn on her legs (possibly because of my thriftiness) and my old toner trick hasn't worked for her.  I'll let you know how it goes when our package arrives!

If you decide to try it, you can click the link below to shower me with money!  Actually, it will give me and the girls a $5 credit, so think of it as shaving a needy college student if you like.  Wow.  That's a bit disturbing.  Forget I said that.  Yeah, I've been reduced to whoring out my blog for free razors.  What was in that tea?

Shave me from myshelf!

Ticcing Away

My baby has Tourette Syndrome.  OK, so she's not a baby, she's 13, but she's my youngest.

It took me a long time to post about this.  Why?  Maybe because writing it down makes it concrete.  Makes it real.  Makes we want to cry, not for me, but for her.  I know she has a lot ahead of her.  And I don't want any of my kids to walk in on me crying at the computer, (so of course one just did) but damn if it doesn't just suck.

I think any time parents are faced with something like this, we all ask ourselves, "What did I do wrong?  What could I have changed?  How could I have prevented this?"  God knows I've asked myself those questions about Mollusc's Sensory Processing Disorder, about Sluggie's digestive issues, about Fishy's speech issues (though he's grown out of all but a slight lisp), and about this.  And I guess the answer is "nothing."  But a niggling voice inside of me says that it's like the Romans dying of lead poisoning due to lead plumbing pipes - it was from something they did.  They just didn't know any better at the time.

For my kiddo, her tics manifest (currently - they change a bit over time) as facial grimacing and vocal squealing or grunting.  Mostly she disguises this as enthusiasm over something, and I must say her BFF is really awesome about it, because, man, I hate to admit it, but the noises can really drive you bat-guano crazy sometimes.  So I have that to feel guilty about as well.

Why?  That's what I'd like to know.  Just. . . why? 

Once Sluggie's done with her acupuncture, I plan to have the doc check out Prawn.  I've heard that quite a few people get good results with acupuncture for TS.  It's just too pricey to add her until then.  There's also habit-reversal therapy.  That might be covered by insurance.  I'm still looking into it.   In the meantime, what a blessing that we homeschool! 

Here are a few famous people with Tourette Syndrome: Tim Howard (US Men's National Soccer Team Goalie and Goalie for England's Everton club), Dan Aykroyd (Blues Brother and Ghostbuster extraordinaire), Dash Mihok (Actor type guy - apparently quite famous - I'm just not in the TV series loop at all), possibly Mozart (Musician Most Marvelous), and possibly Dr. Samuel Johnson (Mr. Dictionary), Michael Wolff (Jazz pianist), Mahmoud Abdul-Raouf (Basketball player), Jim Eisenreich (Baseball player), and Steve Wallace (NASCAR driver).

Almost all of those guys have really demanding jobs where they're under close scrutiny, or where they have to have extraordinary physical control, or both.  And look what they've done!  So that's cool.

For now, I need to talk to her about what she'd like to say when people mistake her grimace for something else.  Because people aren't always bashful about making comments when they don't know better.  "Wow!  That face!" is the most common one.  I suppose they think she's being a "typical teenager" and sneering at something.  Maybe she can tell them, "It's just a tic."  Or maybe she doesn't need to tell them anything at all. 

It's in the Bag!

Now that it's back to school time, I thought some kawaii bags were in order, so I made a bunch of cute star bags for 1/4 and 1/6 size BJDs.  I got some adorable plastic chain to use for the straps, though some of them will also have really cool anodized aluminum chain.  I used sterling silver jump rings to attach the straps to the bags.  These were super fun to make! 

Wow, I really need to decide on a name for my sweet girl.  

I spent most of yesterday tearing apart the BILLY bookcases in the living room and rearranging everything.  Dags helped me disassemble and reassemble one that MuNKi and I had put together partly upside-down years ago. :-/  Although you could only tell by looking at it from the stairs or loft, it's good to finally have it fixed, LOL!

And now that it's Fall-ish, I've restarted the Harry Potter series AGAIN.  Love, love, LOVE that world!  

I'm still fixing up a shelf for the doll's home.  It's really coming along nicely!  And my use of The Secret for bringing in cash has bagged me another birthday party gig at the dojang.  Huzzah!  Now to sell some star bags! ^_^

Pin-Up Girls

I was tired of only finding oversized (for my taste) hair clips for BJDs, so I made some adorable little hairclips with sweets on them.  So far, I've only listed the biscuits, but I really love how they turned out.  The clips are only 2 cm long, and with the added embellishments, they still come in under 2.5 cm!  They're lightweight, too, so they don't weigh down the dolls' hair.  I'm really tickled with them!  The others have little cakes, doughnuts, popsicles and waffles.  I'm hoping to get some pics and get them listed tomorrow.  The biscuit clips (pictured) come in Candyfloss, Chocolate, Lemon, Grape, and Mint.  Pippa and her friend really like them. :)  Yeah, the little one badly needs a name.  I just love her to bits.  I haven't settled on her eye colour though.  She came with violet, but I may switch them out.  In fact, she may get Pippa's, and Pippa might get green. Or brown.  Or. . . ^_^

In other news, it's time for finalizing loans for Mollusc for the remainder of her tuition.  Gulp!  And we need to get a wee laptop for Gordo to use for note-taking, and make sure that he and Kacey have everything they need for school.  Orientation is THIS FRIDAY! O_O

I recently listened to the Ruby Red trilogy (by Kerstin Geir) and now I'm listening to Book 2 of the Dust Lands Trilogy.

We're also watching Fullmetal Alchemist.  I've read up through book 22, but I'd better finish before we catch up on the vids!

Sisterly Singing Success!

So my sister, who is an incredibly talented musician, is going to be heading out to Montana to sing at Gabrielle Anwar's wedding!  How cool is that?  I guess she's a fan of Loreena McKennitt's music, and not a lot of singers are capable of performing that style of music, but my sis landed the job after sending a demo. Huzzah!  Go, Sheila!  You rock!

In other news, Fish and Sluggie start back to school on Friday for orientation, and Mollusc's move-in day is the following weekend. O_O  Fishy and Sluggie are dual enrolled, and this is Sluggie's final year.  She'll graduate with a hefty # of college credits under her belt, all free of charge!  I'm really pleased with the program.  It ranked 3rd in the nation in a recent study.  Cool!  This will be Fishy's first year at an institutional school, but it's nothing like public high school.  I'm really glad we had this option.  On his entrance Compass test, he already achieved the scores he needs to graduate, LOL!  I'm confident he'll do just fine. ^_^

This weekend, however, is going to be a lot of soccer, as Prawnie has a tournament in Hamburg.  The girls lost some players this year, and have a lot of new players.  This should be a nice way to get them solidified as a team before the season starts.

Have a great weekend, everyone! :-)

Have Your Cake and Wear it, Too

I just partnered with Pixie Faire™ so that I can make things from their patterns to sell in my Etsy shop!  They have some really adorable patterns, and I've already listed this Chocolate Cupcake Beret that I modified from one of the patts on their site.

I love how the white yarn has confetti sprinkles already worked into it. :)  I had a hard time getting the doll to pose for me, but she finally cooperated when I offered her a cookie. ^_^

In other news, I came up with this IKEA SCRAPBOOKING HACK:

 

These are all things from IKEA's kitchen section!  They are: A packet of grid-lined paper lunch bags, a roll of date stickers (fill in the last 2 of the year, circle the month and day), and a set of tags.  I'm using them to make some paper bag albums for the grandmas. :) #Winning!

And HEY!  It's Fishy's 16th birthday today!  Can you believe it?  Here's a pic of him and Mollusc from our WI trip:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GOGO!!!!

Roar, Roar, Gryffindor!!

I'm about to start re-reading the Harry Potter books for the umpteenth time.  There's something about this time of year that make me just love living in that world.  OK, OK, I always love living there. Add to that that GuTTer MuNKi's mom gave us an American Girl doll when we visited last week (she used to work there before Mattel bought it), and THEN I found this adorable pattern on NyanPon.com, and I just HAD to make this:

 

Fun!  It's a great way to show Gryffindor pride at a Quidditch match, don'tcha think?  It's for sale now in my Etsy shop - just in time for Back-to-school!  Huzzah!  And I decided to offer a surprise dolly freebie if someone orders it before the end of August.  Does that seem like a decent idea?  We'll see.

In other news, we had a GREAT time visiting our families in Wisconsin, and miss them all like crazy.  Also, we went to Yue Wah (my fave Asian market in Madison) on our way out of town, and I tried Ramune for the first time (melon flavour.)  I am FASCINATED by it.  It's so tasty, and I love popping the glass ball down for that sparkling FIZZZZZZzzzzzzz!

Sooooo gooooood!  Can't wait to get another one. :)  I'm going to have to go to One World, soon!

The One With All the Shameless Plugs

July was a month of creating and rewriting.  Though I missed the June mark on my self-imposed writing deadline, I did finally finish up the rewrite in July.  After some reader comments, there are a few things for me to consider, but I'm actually very happy with the book as it stands. :)

I've just returned from Wisconsin, where we visited our families for a glorious week.  It was there that I procured my copy of Bellatopia, the newest CD from The Getaway Drivers.  It.  Is.  Awesome!  I think it's my favourite album so far.  Bob and Sheila were over the moon to learn that it had been accepted by Pandora in under 24 hours, as the process can take up to 2 weeks, and many bands are turned down outright.

 


I also finished up a BJD afghan I've been working on for my Etsy store.  Here it is with my new Doll-Love Yoyo.  She came right before we left on our trip, and she still needs a name, but she is ADORABLE!  She's a great poser, too!

 

I made her a sweater (which you can sort of see here) and some bloomers as well, which I'll have to take some nice pics of later.  I LOVE the sweater pattern so much!  I'll definitely be making more!

And last, but by no means least, when we came home and sorted through all the mail, Mollusc found that she'd gotten a very nice intro letter from her college's new department head for Entertainment Arts, Tim Flattery.  Pretty cool, eh?