Last night I did the one thing I said I would never do...

I rear ended someone :(

I was rear ended about 3 years ago and have suffered back issues since, so I hoped and prayed that I would never do that to someone else. Last night on my way home from work, traffic was slow but my lane was moving. The guy in front of me stopped suddenly but when I hit my brakes, my car kept going. I can still see my hood crumple but then I don't remember the next few seconds -- the airbag deployed and knocked me out for a second. The only GOOD thing: my little mazda 3 hit a big nissan frontier pickup truck and he didn't have a scratch on him. My car however: totalled.

The guy was so sweet and understanding. He kept asking if I was okay and we kind of had to joke about the whole thing because I think he knew I wanted to cry. My poor baby only lived about 2 1/2 years..and I think hubs is a little scared I have to drive his car (nissan 350z he's suped up like crazy) haha. But I drive his car like a grandma because its so loud so nothing to worry about :)

I'm definitely sore but mostly sad about the whole thing. I kinda freaked out my dad when I called him but he's glad I'm okay. I'm sure its not easy to get a phone call from your daughter on a Friday night saying she's been in an accident and you're 600 miles away and cant do anything.

Anyways, I'm going to take it easy the rest of today but tomorrow I've got to do some major last minute christmas shopping. And it just so happens that the thing I want from hubs (nice thick sweater or jacket since I always freeze), is at one of the busiest stores ever..even when its not a holiday. So we'll see how that goes..

Dear Santa,

Dear Santa,

I've taken it upon myself to write you a letter to let you know what I want for Christmas. I've come to realize with years of being slightly dissapointed by some things I've received *cough*uglychristmassweater*cough* that you are not a mind reader. I think I've been pretty good this year. I'd like to ask you to please ignore the burrito I had to throw at that SUV after it almost sideswiped me and then cut me off and slammed on their brakes. Or at least balance out that incident with the donations to charity. Thank you!


1. A pony. Yes, I will ask for this until I get it.
2. Down blankie (down alternative acceptable). Hubs is a blaket hog so make it big!
3. World Domination. Yes, I will also ask for this until I get it.
4. A playhouse for kitty.
5. Pretty art. I'm flexable, but please submit a draft with possibilities for approval.
6. Did I mention a pony?
7. NEW KITCHEN!
8. Wii Fit
9. While you're at it, throw in Spongebob: Truth or Square for Wii too.
10. A stable for above asked for pony.

Thank you for taking the time to read this Santa. I'll leave a bucket of oats in the backyard for my pony, and milk and cookies by the TV.

The holidays are upon us!

Can you believe its almost 2010 already?! I can't! Where has this year gone?

I'm pretty excited for having the fam over for xmas. After stressing so bad (and being sick) for turkey day, this will be MUCH more low key. Since my mom passed away a year and a half ago, we've gotten a bit non-traditional with the celebration. This year on the Christmas menu: tacos! Yes, good old tacos (and quesadillas for my bro's vegetarian gf). For a white girl, I can whip up a mean batch of carne! My dad will be up north with my grandparents, and it'll just be us kids at my house. A house full of twenty-somethings, lots of food and maybe some eggnog..fun times :)

I sit and look at the tree this year and it makes me think of holidays at home. I've gotten the box of ornaments down from my dad's rafters and mixed them with my own. I've got brand new glass balls mixed with zoo ornaments from the 20's..lions, tigers and bears...and a pony :)
The only difference is all the gifts from my dad are wrapped in spongebob wrapping paper and tied with electrical tape instead of ribbon. Mom obviously did all of the wrapping back in the day haha.

This year should be fun, yet sad, but hopefully memorable. It'll be the first xmas I've spent as a married woman, the first with all us kids and our significant others, and the first in MY house. I can't wait..

Rain, rain DONT go away!

Print Via RosyMusic @ Etsy

I have been LOVING the rain So Cal has been having lately! I love the rain and for the longest time, had plans to move to Seattle until my mom got sick. Good thing those plans didn't work out or I wouldn't have met lovely hubs..but anyways! The rain has been fantastic. I am someone who loves just standing in the rain and watching it hit the trees, bounce of the leaves, and eventually hit the ground. The smell of rain dripping off the fresh flower petals is indescribable. And not to mention the butterflies in my tummy when I see the resulting rainbow.

Now I'm a little sad. It was absolutely pouring this morning when I woke up and now its sunny with puffy white clouds. Last night Hubs and I went to the grocery store for sugar cookie dough and rum (haha I know, I know!) and the river was about 1 1/2 from flooding over the top! As gorgeous as the river is, and as much as I love living near it, that was an absolute frightening sight! I spent the summer of Hurricane Katrina living in the lower Florida Keys and during Katrina (which we were trapped in the house during), I watched the canal in our backyard reach the top and flow over the grass, washing away everything in its path. Seeing the river as high as it was last night brought back flashbacks of that fun and terrifying summer.

Well I enjoyed it while it lasted! I think I'll spend the day making cookies. Maybe some home-made chocolate chip cookies. Yummm :)

FREE Earrings!

My dad went up north for the holidays so hubs and I got to open our xmas present from him early. It was a BB gun. Odd, yet rad, and totally fitting in with the weirdness of my family.

So anyways, it put me in the holiday spirit so I decided to do a little giveaway/promo. Make any purchase, put "blogger" in the message to seller, and receive a FREE pair of tourmalated quartz dangle earrings. This promo will run from today to Dec 16th so buy now!

EARLY BIRD BLACK FRIDAY SALE

Thats right, EARLY Black Friday sale!

I was on a bit of a roll this week with my shop and I'm totally in the holiday spirit so I've decided to have a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale. I'm offering FREE SHIPPING and if you send me a Convo on Etsy, saying you read my blog, you'll also get 10% off ALL items! Woo hoo!

Get your holiday shopping on lovelies! http://blackdahliadesigns.etsy.com

In the spirit of Thanksgiving..

Here are a few of my favorite Thanksgiving themed items from Etsy.com. Enjoy :)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SeaPinks

http://www.etsy.com/shop/mindseyecards

http://www.etsy.com/shop/GlitzGlitter

http://www.etsy.com/shop/modernjune

http://www.etsy.com/shop/momomadeit

http://www.etsy.com/shop/wonderplunder

Of course there are a gazillion and one AMAZING things on etsy. Happy Holidays everyone!

Turkey Day

One week until Thanksgiving!
Normally I would say 'WOO HOO' but one night about 2-3 weeks ago, I said we'd have turkey day at my house. Then my dad called me after I'd basically drank an entire bottle of wine. He asked me if my uncle could come too. The part of the conversation I missed was uncleS. So instead of about 6 people, I have 10-12 people showing up to eat. EEEEEKKK!
I've done Christmas before for 5 people..no biggie on cooking. But wow! To do a turkey, a ham, fish for my pescatarian family, salad, snacks, and potatoes ---sheesh! Luckally my family is bringing stuff too like side dishes and desserts and beer and whatnot..but I'm still freaking out a bit. There is so much to do to get the house ready and everything. I know I can handle it all but its nerve-wracking man!

But on better news: sears.com messed up pricing or something on their Sony Vaio laptops so I scored a widescreen Vaio for $108 after shipping. YES...one hundred and eight dollars! Woo hoo! I'd love to keep its lovely glory but that is one nice piece of profit to sell it :)


PS: johnny depp voted 'sexiest man alive' for the 2nd time. AMEN!

SALE/promo!

I'm currently running my "I WANT A SALE" sale from now until Halloween (Sat Oct 31st). All orders will receive 10% off all items in my shop. Woooot!

THE FIRST BUYER to take me up on this sale will receive a free pair of earrings :)http://blackdahliadesigns.etsy.com

open letter to my blog

Dear Blog,

I know it seems I have been ignoring you lately and truthfully, I have been.


But I promise: its not you, its me.


I have neglected you and for that I am sorry. I have been so busy creating, working, re-decorating, more creating, whatever...that I have not taken time to make you the best you can be. You're really not the prettiest thing right now, but thats completely my fault. I expect so much and when things don't turn out right, sometimes I lose hope. Blog, I promise to you right now that I will scope out the prettiest things and find the most interesting topics to converse on you. It may be a hard road, but I'll start today.

Please blog, forgive me!


-Amanda

How AMAZING is this headboard?

Literally, I CANNOT stop drooling over this puppy! Its called Sir Elton and it is made of 5mm arylic in either black or white. It immediately makes any bed look so much more romantic and luxe! I saw this on Kaboodle and have to think of a way to let hubby let me buy it :)

I've been looking for a great headboard and really, I think this is something that not only is totally modern and in-the-now, but it could stand the test of time and look just as relevant when I'm a little old lady. Check out its loveliness here: http://www.sheerhome.co.uk/productdetails.aspx?ref=504&m=5

am i the only one desperately waiting for 'where the wild things are?'

knotts scary farm/twilight

If anyone is in southern california, hopefully you've been to knotts berry farm. and even more hopefully you've been to knotts SCARY farm. its pretty much the best halloween attraction you can attend. tons of amazing (and terrifying per my sis-in-law haha) mazes, good shows, fun rides. One of their shows was called 'the hanging' where basically they hang someone. So this witch is discovered, they're gonna hang her...and stick with me on this one but captain kirk and spock and the dr dude appear and kinda save her I guess...but it turns out she's susan boyle from britain's got talent. a bunch of other people appear: heidi and spencer, harry potter, britney spears, taylor swift, octomom and jon & kate. yeah it was weird. but captain kirk is trying to find out who they need to hang to return to the future and fix earths timeline or whatever. then bella and edward from twilight come out, get sickly sweet with eachother. Then they hang edward. Okay so I read twilight and found it slightly amusing but edward getting hung was more amusing. Of course he doesnt die...vampires cant be hung :P

Scary farm is the best :)

my singer featherweight had a baby!

I know...terrible picture BUT....yes my antique sewing machine had a baby :)

My sister in law and I went to an estate sale a street over from where hubby was working at a friend's house. Hubs said if there was anything I wanted, to let him know and I could come pick up money. The sale had a lot of pretty cool stuff and I was admiring some silver tea sets, but nothing I was DYING to have. Then on our way out, I see the cutest little toy sewing machine and I show my SIL. She says 'oh thats not a toy..its a child's machine and they REALLY sew. Turn the handle.' So I do, and it sews! I don't usually carry cash so I call hubby and tell him I'm coming to get money. Once I hang up with him though, we realize it may not be there by the time we got back. The machine was marked $75 and my SIL said she had $70 so we ask the lady if she'd take $70....and she said we could have it for $50! TOTAL score since from what my SIL told me and the research I've done since I got home, these go for about $300! I have the original box and instruction booklets, but I realized while looking through the manuals I do not have the clamp that holds the machine to the table or the spool pin. So as with my featherweight, I'm missing a small but vital piece. Oh well...I'll just have to locate one :)

I know, I know..its been a while

With moving and getting situated, and not to mention not having cable and internet until today, I haven't done any posts!

Needless to say...I've been busy! We're about 90% situated..problem is the the 10% still needed to be completed is my craft room! When we moved in, we just thew everything into the front bedroom that is to be my craft room. Most of it is out except for hubby's baseball card collection, my antique bottle collection (which takes up soooo much space!), and my crafting supplies. My project for this week is to get that room cleaned out so I can just be in my own space and do my thing :)

Speaking of...I scored a custom order for a bridal party woo hooo! I am SO excited to do this order you have no idea! This girl is one of the loveliest I've come across -- so willing to trust my ideas but is clear about what she wants so I don't have to mind read. Not only that but since I just got married, I totally understand where she's coming from in that you want your day perfect, but you must stick with the budget! I am having so much fun looking for supplies and pretty gems that even if I only came out even on this project, I'd be happy. I know I am running a business here and am basically selling a service, but I'm just having fun. If you're not having fun, its not worth it right? I also think that out of the thousands of sellers on etsy my customer could have picked, she chose me. I better give the best damn service I possibly can so she has no regrets about her decision to go with me, and that I give her the best product I can create so her friends think she is the absolute best in the world.

Well I am off to bake a cake for a co-worker's birthday tomorrow and send my snoring hubby to bed so he doesn't snore all the way through my 'hoarders' watching :)

Have a happy tuesday all!

hair accessories on their way!

(image from blog.weddingpaperdivas.com I bought my fabulous wedding invitations from them)

Lately, I have wanted to get hair accessories made SO badly! I love little things you can stick in your hair that people stop and say "ooooh what is that?!" I wore a lovely silk hydrangea and feather fascinator at my wedding so I think I'm leaning more in that direction: wedding hair. But what is there for all the rest of your days?

What would you be interested in seeing/wearing?

Headbands, bobby pins, clips, combs, all of the above? I have been sketching ideas of things I like, but what do YOU like? We're finally moving this weekend and once I get my studio set up, I'll be posting the rest of my jewelry on Etsy (since I only have 22 of the 50+ finished pieces I have up) and then start the hair line. Oh and get around to painting sometime hehe. If you have any suggestions, questions, or just wanna say hi -- I'm here! :)

breakin out the canvas!

We're moving this weekend. FINALLY! I hate blank walls more than anything so I've been working on some paintings -- both old unfinished and new -- to hang on our walls. It was easy in the apartment: I just filled my walls with my abundance of kurt halsey and it all worked. But now with about 4x the wall space, kurt will most likely be retired to my studio and new art will have to fill the house. LET THE CREATING BEGIN!

meet my new baby :)

I am so in love!

Okay so I'm kinda a geek. During my top to bottom inspection, I discovered I don't have a bobbin case (and my machine is at the new house already so I cant see if it fits this lovely oldie) so I haven't been able to sew anything with it yet! Boo! :(
But soon...ohhh so sooooooooon :) :) :) :) :) :)

moving = boooo!

Its been a while since I've posted....

WE'VE BEEN MOVING!


I'm really excited to get out of our tiny apartment and into a big house! I'll get my own craft room to do my jewelry, my sewing (exciting news on that below), painting, new embroidery projects (more on that below), and all around crafting. So exciting!!

Yesterday hubby and I went to my dad's house so I could pack up the china cabinet, toss the things stored in a beautiful bird's eye maple dresser, and go through my mom's sewing desk (all of which I will be taking). The very expensive china and silverware were missing (grr!) from the china cabinet...Totally sucks! But, I did score some cool old books from the late 1800's- early 1900's (one of them is a music book from 1898 in PERFECT condition!) and the winner of the day: an antique Singer 221 Featherweight sewing machine woo-hoo! I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly what I have though. The manual, which I would assume to be original, has the last copyright date of 1941 (which would make me believe the machine dates 1941-1942). My machine has a plate on it called "Egyptian Scroll" which is found on the earlier machines but the later ones (like post-WWII) have a boring 'striped' plate. My serial number dated the machine to September 1956 (Per Singer. Though they couldn't explain why I had the Eqyptian plate or really...any more info than date and location of manufacture). All machines I have been able to find with the Eqyptian Scroll are either from the 1940s or the one I found from 51 or 52 I think. So from all the research I've done, my machine CANNOT be from 1956! I know the plate looks like it can probably be changed but I know for a fact it has not been. The previous owner is a friend of the family so I can confirm that not only was the machine hardly used, but nothing on it has been changed. I am pretty much pulling my hair out over this haha.

Anyways, I also found a stash of tons of embroidery thread my mom purchased sometime that I'll use for maybe some 'alternative embroidery.' Ya know...things a little edgier than "home sweet home" and all that mess. We'll see what I come up with :)

BUY ME

FREE US SHIPPING!

I'm offering free US shipping in honor of Labor Day (and my lovely 4 day weekend!) WOO HOO!!

I'm a sucker for aesthetics

Being that I live in a really sucky apartment (granted, its charming in its 50+year old, squeaky floor, tiny kitchen kind of way), I am totally envious of awesome spaces.

Theres something about a beautiful living space that just shows the character of a person, moreso than the clothes they wear on their backs. Clothing is a public item, very often tailored around the ideas of how someone else thinks you should dress. A home is a private place, decorated from the heart (yes, even if all your things are from ikea).

I literally spent hours pouring over http://apartmenttherapy.com/. They have so many pictures of REAL apartments that just make me wanna scream GIMME! Sure, some of these apartments have good bones to begin with (unlike mine), but others (like ME! hehe) have to work with what they have. I like to think I have some sort of decorating sense, but I would hire any of these people in a heartbeat to re-do my space.

*Sigh* I am moving soon (to a house..where I'll have my own private craft room WEEEE!) and am looking everywhere for decorating ideas. Its an older home so we have good details like a beamed vaulted ceiling and stone fireplace. BUT, we also have those lovely remnants of the past: WOOD PANELLING! There is a picture on ApartmentTherapy of some sexy wood panelling. 5% off in my etsy shop if you find it ;)


[picture via http://apartmenttherapy.com/

Meet kitty, my jewley shop assistant

Name: Liberace, aka Kitty
Age: 2
Occupation: Production and Photography Assistant, Professional Gemstone Warmer
Hobbies: sleeping, eating, cuddling, sleeping, chasing bugs and dust, hiding hair ties, sleeping, eating, speaking foreign languages, playing arm/lap/foot/neck/head warmer, socializing, sleeping.

Hi, I'm kitty! I'm a 2 year old siamese. My mommy adopted me when I was only 4 months old and to show my appreciation, I have been as helpful as I could be ever since! My mommy organizes her things silly so I reorganize them for her. For example: hair ties and clips seem to make much more sense stored under daddy's dresser. I mean helllooooo! There are so many less germs under the dresser than in the bathroom. Not to mention her bead sorting skills: In my opinion, all beads should go in the same compartment of the bead sorter in no certain order. This idea of sorting by color, size, and type is just silly. Save space and mix them up I say!

I also help in jewelry making. When mommy drops a bead, I pick it up. Sometimes I take the bead on a trip around the house a few times, and sometimes I store it for safekeeping under the dresser with aforementioned hair accessories. OOOH! I also lay on top of new creations to make sure they don't fall off the table. Sometimes they stick to my fur and I end up wearing said item for a while on my tummy, but thats okay...I'm a model. I am a good helper.

Anyways, I just wanted to introduce myself to the internets! I'm off to help Mommy cook BLT sammiches. If I'm lucky, she'll drop some mayo on the floor...yummy!

I'M LIVE!

I did it...my Etsy is live! I've only listed 6 items so far and I'm excited to do more :)

This is just a little preview of what can be found over at my Etsy shop blackdahliadesigns.

I'm going to try to list items every day, and create as much as possible. I received my ooh-la-la gems today so I'll get working on those ASAP. Black diamonds, yellow sapphires and multi colored tourmaline -- oh my!!

Check me out, leave me hearts, maybe buy something pretty. Most of all, enjoy!

I'm Amanda, and I like sparkly things :)

I have always enjoyed creating. Whether it be jewelry, painting, sewing, cooking...you name it, I like it. I have always loved jewelry and have often looked at pieces and said to myself "hey, I can do that!" After discovering jewelry creating is not as easy as I thought, I brushed up on my techniques and slowly developed my skills. I opened up an Etsy shop in the hopes that someone will love my creations as much as I do :)

I have a new camera coming in today so heres HOPING I have pictures up to share. I just have to make sure my darling kitty is not in the way (or that he's having an especially photogenic day so I can at least post pictures of him haha).