good fortune

Here's something I bet you didn't know about me: I used to be rich once.

About four years ago Sugar Daddy and his best friend, Andre, started a company training real estate agents. This was when the housing market was at it's peak. It was very successful. The money was rolling in. We were flush. We were dining out at the nicest places, shopping for furniture and living the high life. We were making big plans. Then the market crashed.

At this time we had just bought our current house and we put everything we had saved into it. We had banked on having plenty of cash to decorate the house and put in a killer yard. Like I said, we had big plans.

It is hardly a rags to riches (or riches to rags?) story because I still have a very nice lifestyle. I am not so skewed as to think that my life is anything like what some people go through. All my needs are being met and I feel very blessed. But, it was a little startling to go from nights out at Donovan's to cooking burgers on the grill. And I learned something about myself.

Last weekend we didn't go out. We stayed home and played with the boy. We put on our pajamas and had Vietnamese take out. Andre and Jenny came over and we sat around and talked and laughed at how our lives have changed. And at the end of the night, when I crawled into bed next to Ben and laid my head on his shoulder and wrapped my legs around his, it didn't matter that we hadn't gotten dressed up and gone out to some swanky place.


I am not any less happy now than I was then. Sure, I had a good time. We made some fun memories during our short stint of opulence. And I came this close to buying a really really great buffet for the dining room that I still dream about. Damn. But all in all, we are doing okay. Wealth is fleeting and can be taken away by the slightest of breezes. But I have Sugar Daddy, who is my rock, and Thom, who is my dream come true, and that, my dears, makes me feel like a Queen.

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Here are the winners of the Holly Golightly earplugs:

Mary Marsh of Meeting Street Designs

The cute flight attendant from Postcards and Coasters

Guinevere of The Fridge Door

Rene of Little Kiki's Blog

Tessa of How to Make Art

milk and other weighty matters

Here's the deal.


I'm 34 years old. I think that makes me generation X, or maybe Y, I'm not sure. Anyway, in my life time I have never seen the type of radical social upheaval that is currently blowing over America like a massive tornado. This is not to say that the 80's and 90's didn't have their fair share of turmoil. It's just that I was never of the age to feel in the least bit effected. We have already established that I grew up in town like Mayberry. I was the girl in the bubble.

But now I'm the one paying the bills, well, I guess technically that would be Ben, but you know what I mean. At twelve I couldn't tell you the cost of a gallon of gas to save my life. Today, I watch the price of oil like a heart monitor.

And things aren't so good. My friends are losing their jobs. My town has many empty houses and store fronts. My rock-n-roll life style has been cramped by the rising price of groceries. I mean how's a girl to afford high fashion when a carton of eggs costs $5.50? (I buy cage-free because I'm that type of person.)

My grandfather, who lived through the Depression, used to spank our bottoms if we didn't finish a can of soda, such was his feelings on wastefulness. As a child I was completely dumbfounded by this and attributed it to some kind of odd paranoia brought on by the ravages of World War II. I had no idea that for some years he had walked the streets of Chicago, hungry, with his navel rubbing against his back bone.

Last Wednesday I caught myself coming down on the boy for wasting a piece of cheese. Granted it was one of the fancy little cheeses that come wrapped in their own red wax, but still. A piece of cheese? Is this what it has come to?

Well, yes. It has. Times are hard and chances are, things are going to get worse. I may even be forced to give up my fresh squeezed orange juice if gas continues to go up. Sheesh. But my message isn't about doom and gloom. No, I am coming to you today with a dispatch of hope. Hope and certitude.


Have you noticed that as the economy gets worse people get nicer? I have. Pretenses are coming down. We are all feeling the pinch and it gives us something in common. Something to talk about.



I recently had a conversation in the Costco dairy freezer with a gentleman fifty years my senior. This is not something I am accustom to doing. First off, I hate to be cold and secondly, I am usually all business when I grocery shop. I suffer from a little known condition known as "cart rage" and so I rarely chit chat at the market.

But on this particular day, this man and I were both inclined to lament the rising price of milk. Dale, it turns out, loves 2% milk but it doesn't sit well on his stomach so he is forced to buy skim. His wife is completely lactose intolerant, which it too bad, but it does mean that he only has to buy one gallon of the cheapest type of milk.



I am hopeful. With the inauguration on Tuesday, I am looking forward to a fresh start. I believe in Americans. We have moxie and chutzpah. We have been through tough years before. This time around we have more tools at our disposal. We have more diversity and less intolerance. We have history to teach us. And we have my grandpa to remind us to be grateful for that can of soda, and by damn, don't waste it.


And if things get to heavy in real life, there is always Dog Beach, where everything is right with the world as long as you are off the leash, smelling butts and chasing balls.

Congratulations Bibi, of Bibs and Pieces. You won the hat giveaway!

for jenny

{Photo by sweetblue photography}

One of my best friends has asked me for years to make jewelry that is more in her price range. I don't want to say cheap, because I would never put out a product that I felt met that description. I guess I will call it "more economical". For a long time I have resisted. I like to use nice stones and components. I want to create without limitations or boundaries.

However, I feel that with the way things are today, women are less likely to spend on little luxury items. Essentially, people are buying gas, not jewelry. And I hate to see fashion suffer. Really I do. So, my fall collection includes some items that are affordable, yet still stylish. There will be more to come in the Winter collection.

Miss Havensham Earrings $6

Whatnots Necklace $15

I have decided to call this mini collection of less exspensive pieces "For a Song", which is a Bristish term for going cheap.
And now for the winners of Friday's Monster Mash! Thanks to all who entered to win a little monster. I am sure they will be going to good homes!

Cuthbert goes to Mine by Magpie from New York!
Angela goes to Heidi G of My Hiding Place in Cyberspace.
Harold goes to Heather Duncan of A little bit about us.

Congratulations! Please contact me with your shipping information.

Tune in Tuesday for another giveaway.