The MAC Fair, and my New Year's Resolution... The 10th New Handmade Crafting Technique

so, i'm thinking that this baby (pardon the pun, LOL) counts as my 10th new crafting project for the year... our first baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the ultimate in handmade!

i'm about 14 weeks or so, and this is our first ultrasound. i've been feeling quite under the weather and have been sleeping so much that i've been neglecting my shop, my jewelry, and the blog! i am hoping that some of my energy will be back soon, because we will be in our first craft fair early in November!

McMaster University, my alma mater, had a call for submissions to their juried craft show... and muffintopdesigns was one they picked! this is my first show, so i've been worrying about what it's going to be like... but like everything else, i'm jumping in with two feet and hoping for the best! let's hope that i sell at least ONE item!!!!!

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"Love Is A Mix Tape" is a really good book!!!!!!

i've wanted to read this book since it came out. and finally, more than a year later, i bought myself a copy. Rob Sheffield, now an editor for Rolling Stone, recounts falling in love, marrying, and subsequently mourning the loss of his wife, Renee - all punctuated by the songs that marked these events.

call me hormonal (which i am) - but i read this book cover to cover in less than 24 hours (and would have been faster if it weren't for the need to sleep) and was sobbing by the end. i already loved many of the songs that were part of Rob and Renee's "life soundtrack" , and now have more reason to do so.

romance? check. dry, wry humour and wit? check. real life drama (without the overzealousness of today's reality tv shows)? check.

thank you, rob, for sharing your love, heartache, pain and joy with us mere mortals.

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i heart my tumbler!

so i saved up and took the plunge and bought a tumbler - a Thumbler's Tumbler, to be exact! now, i kind of felt like i was jumping the gun, given as how i don't think i'm at the point yet where i would need one. however, i couldn't resist!

it took a month for my stainless steel shot to come in, and the whole time i was waiting, the tumbler sat in the box. every once in a while, i'd take it out just to see if i could figure it out, but i'd get a little scared and back into the box it would go!

once the shot came, i finally took it out, set it up according to the picture from the "instruction manual" and filled the rubber "tumbler" with water and one drop of dishwashing liquid. i then dumped a load of fine silver pieces that i had just fired and let the whole thing roll for about a day.

talk about SHINE! this baby polishes like nobody's business! i'm so happy i got this - and it has been inspiring because now all i want to do is make stuff to throw in! it was a little squeaky before, but after a little WD-40, it sounds like a little rushing waterfall in my basement.

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Life, Death, and F*cking Taxes....

okay. so i was psyched about getting my business license for muffintop. huge step for me, right? well, in the process, i found out that i owe some back taxes. seriously. long story short, it turns out that i had forgotten to claim retail sales tax on some wedding videos we had made back in the day. so, the nest egg that i'd been saving up is pretty much kaput. oh well. just more incentive to start saving again, right? i should have expected that something like this would have happened to me, LOL!!!!!!



what do they say? there are only two things for certain in life, DEATH and TAXES.

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