Help Your Neighbor's - Shop Local Saturday

Here we are, Black Friday.  The day retailers have been waiting for.  The day retailers have annoyingly over advertised for (I was particularly annoyed at the Wal-Mart ads this year featuring AC/DC's Black in Black.  Something about metal for Christmas rubs me the wrong way...but I digress).  But did you know tomorrow is Shop Local Saturday?

It's sponsored by American Express (I know, I know big bank, blah blah blah), but I think it's a great idea.  It encourages you to spend your Christmas dollars with local small businesses.  I personally think it's a great idea.  We all know the economy is bad.  Everyone is hurting, you just need to turn on the news to be reminded of it.  While local small businesses can be more expensive than Wal-Mart, I personally feel in the long run they may be cheaper.  We have become a disposable society.  Things are made to be used for a short while and then tossed.  I have an idea, why don't we buy things that are made to last?  I don't know about you, but I'd rather spend more to have the item last longer.

It is my opinion dear reader, that your local small business has higher quality items.  I would guess in most cases they procure their items from local craftsmen or they might even make the items themselves.  Which means you are investing your hard earned dollar back into the local economy, not some sweatshop in China (Don't we owe China enough money?  Why voluntarily send them more?).

Now, since I am a Small Business owner ( http://www.chrysalisjewelry.com ) this post may seem a little self-serving.  Admittedly, though I'd love to get a ton of jewelry orders tomorrow, that is not the purpose of this post.  I want to encourage you to shop your local small businesses.  If we all start helping each other, we all win.  It's quite simple: Keep the dollars here.  Help small businesses.  If small businesses grow, they add more jobs.  Local jobs.

So there you have it.  Shop your local businesses tomorrow.  This will help your local economy.  As for me, I will be by my phone ready to take jewelry orders - Melissa

The following may not be local, but I would like to recommend these craftsmen:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/maybeads?ref=seller_info

http://www.clockworkcouture.com/

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

http://silversmyth.bigcartel.com

http://www.daniellemillerjewelry.com

Week of Thanksgiving - Thursday AKA Thanksgiving Day.

Here we are, the fourth Thursday in November, which here in the United States means it's Thanksgiving.  Its a day where we cook up a feast, maybe drive to a family members house and break bread.  It was originally intended to be a day of thanksgiving for a successful harvest.  Some use it as a day to reflect on their blessings.  I am one of those people.

As a zoomed around the kitchen this morning preparing for our little feast (aided by my ever present sous chef, Aaron), and old hymn kept going through my head.  The lyrics follow, please feel free to sign along.

Count Your Blessings by Johnson Oatman, Jr.  Published 1897

1. When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
   When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
   Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
   And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.
   • Refrain:
     Count your blessings, name them one by one,
     Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
     Count your blessings, name them one by one,
     *Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
     [*And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.]
2. Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
   Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
   Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
   And you will keep singing as the days go by.
3. When you look at others with their lands and gold,
   Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold;
   Count your many blessings—wealth can never buy
   Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.
4. So, amid the conflict whether great or small,
   Do not be discouraged, God is over all;
   Count your many blessings, angels will attend,
   Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

*Alternate text.

On this Thanksgiving Day, I look around and see so many blessing.  To many blessing to list.  I hope you have had a wonderful thanksgiving.  Now my dear reader, I am about to partake in an activity I am extremely thankful for...a nap.  Melissa

Week of Thanksgiving - Wednesday

It's the day before Thanksgiving.  Like most women in America (and maybe some men), I am starting to cook what can be done up ahead of tomorrow's feast.  Time to make the pies, the cranberry sauce, salads that can be prepared now.

As I prepare to feed an army (well, I always make enough stuff for an army, it's only my husband and my brother...that's another story), I think of our Armed Forces.  There are brave men and women all over the world right now serving our country, protecting our freedoms.  These citizens volunteer for this duty, which makes them even more extraordinary.  They volunteer to be separated from their friends and family knowing that there is a possibility they might not come home.  Their protection is a very precious gift, one I am most thankful for.  They do their job, they call it duty, so I can do trivial things like make jewelry and write a blog.

Today I also think of their families.  Wives, husbands, children, mothers, fathers, all separated from the ones they love.  They sacrifice time with their families so we can enjoy our freedom.  I can not imagine what it must be like for a wife or mother to be separated right now from her husband or son.  The holidays are a time when you most want your family around (well, most of us do.  Maybe you have Clark Griswold in your family, in which case I understand...).  I am so thankful service members' families are willing to share their family with us, in defense of our nation.

As you sit down to the table tomorrow with your family and friends, please take a moment and think of our brave men and women overseas and at home.  Some are in very inhospitable areas.  If you are so inclined, whisper a prayer for their safe return home.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a turkey to stuff.  Til Tomorrow...Melissa

Week of Thanksgiving - Tuesday

Today I will continue my week long series of blogs for things I'm thankful for.  Yesterday I wrote about my thankfulness for my family traditions.  You missed it?  Well, I will wait a moment while you go catch up.....

Today I want to tell you about someone very special, someone I am very thankful to have in my life.  I am so thankful that I am married to a wonderful, loving man.  Aaron and I met while we were in college.  We had a class together and ended up working in the same group.  This group work made it so we had to exchange numbers and then call each other to coordinate work on the group project.  One evening Aaron called me up and asked what I was doing on Friday night (I believe it was a Tuesday).  Being slightly daft, not realizing this poor guy was trying to ask me out I replied, I'm not sure, I'm not there yet.  At that time, I had various responsibilities on campus and things would tend to pop up at the last minute.  Thankful Aaron persevered and asked me out.  We had a wonderful first date on that lovely April evening.  Over labor day weekend he asked me to marry him.

We were married about a year later, on August 14th.  We were both still in college.  This was one of the reasons we were given that we shouldn't get married.  We were to "young".  Can I tell you that our marriage has been easy, smooth sailing with no bumps?  Of course not.  Marriages are work and both partners must work together.  I feel so blessed that over 12 years later, I am still madly deeply in love with my husband.  I can not imagine what life would have been like without him.  God blessed me with a soul mate.  I am thankful he blessed me with this wonderful man.

On this Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I am thankful to have a caring loving husband who supports my ideas, hobbies, and goals.  Not every man would spend his summer break converting part of "his" garage into a dream jewelry studio.  Aaron did a beautiful job and I have a wonderful environment to design my jewelry.  Aaron, I am so thankful you are in my life.  I love so very much!

Week of Thanksgiving - Monday

Later this week, our nation will be sitting down to tables laden with turkey and all the trimming goodies.  We will stuff ourselves silly and then watch football in a tryptophan haze.  Some of us will begin our strategic plan for overindulgent gluttony of consumerism that is Black Friday.   We will stand in lines and then climb over our fellow man to obtain giant screen televisions or Tickle Me Elmos (or whatever the "it" toy is this year).

In my blog this week, I want to focus on things I am thankful for.  I think that no matter what situation you find yourself in, whether it be abundance or wanting, you have things in your life you can be thankful for.

Today I am thankful for my family traditions.  Growing up, I had no idea how very blessed I was.  I thought my family was normal.  I thought everyone had the life I did.  I had both my parents, not step parents, step siblings or half siblings.  I would be in high school before I realized how abnormal this is.

Before my father got a job in New York and moved the family half way across the country, holidays would be spent with cousins, aunts, uncles, and BOTH set of grandparents.  My parents dated in high school, getting married a few months after my mother graduated.  Since they were from the same town, my grandparents houses were only about a mile apart.  Holidays were split between the sides.  Christmas Eve and the Mizell's, Christmas day at the Creamer's.  Spending holidays with my family was really great.  It makes me wish there was a time machine, so I could go back to the early 80's and enjoy these family holidays once more.

I would love to experience Grandma Creamer's oyster stew again (I can make it, but it just isn't the same).  I would love to hear Grandpa Riley read the Christmas story from the family bible again with all the family gathered around listening.  I would love to sit at Grandma Mizell's dinning room table and listen to grandpa Riley say grace.  I would love to steal the mattress from the crib in the pink room and proceed to take turns riding it down the stairs with my cousins until the adults made us stop.

There is no time machine.  So I can't go back to enjoy these traditions once more.  However, I am thankful, so very thankful I was able to experience them in the first place.  My family is one of many things that I am thankful for.  In this Thanksgiving week, what are you thankful for?  I'd love for you to leave a comment and share with us.

I hope you have a wonderful day.  Until tomorrow....Melissa 

Knowledge Lost

In my post a couple days ago, I talked about my obsession with antiques.  It might be more appropriately stated as an addiction.  Some people go to the guy in the alley in the sketchy part of town to get their hit.  I just have to go to my antique dealer (her shop is quite refined and not sketchy at all).

In the world of antiques, there are many different things to be interested in.  Some people are into china, or quilts, or items from various eras (example: WWII).  As for me, I am all about the Victorian Period.  I love the fashion (God bless those corset wearing women), I love the furniture, I love the elegance of the period, but I also LOVE the books.  I can spend hours at my antique dealer's shop digging though a new cache of books.  Some are period stories, some are about medical knowledge or advice of the day (which can be quite comical when viewed through our advanced technological society lens), some can be books by authors we all know (Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, etc).

I have lots of lots of old books.  So many, I don't quite know where to put them all.  These book possess a lot of knowledge.  In this day of smart phones and Google, I have to wonder how much knowledge has been lost.  We have all kind of prescriptions that can cure this and that.  Are there herbs that can do the same?  People use to have to know what to keep in their gardens and what could be used to help what ailed you (mint for an upset stomach comes to mind).  I can't help but wonder, in gaining all the knowledge and know-how we have today, have we begun to loose some of the of wisdom?

One can tell by reading these old books that our language has certainly changed.  I don't think it's for the better.  How would you prefer to be greeted?  "Good day Mrs Smith, how are you today?" or "What up my nizzle?".  People's vocabulary is certainly lacking,

In a sad but true story, my husband, who is a high school teacher, overheard  a conversation a colleague was having with a student.  The fellow teacher had pulled an unruly student into the hall to have a little chat with her regarding her unexceptionable behavior.  He said "I need you to stop with these shenanigans".  The student then retorted "What did you call me?" and proceeded to get all upset.  This student was all offended because she had no clue what shenanigans were and thought it was a slight.  To this day, when ever my husband or myself use the word, we have an inside joke of "what did you call me?"

This high school child came off as very ignorant.  I would expect a high school junior to know what shenanigans are. It makes my heart heavy to think of the knowledge that is being lost.  Can everyone know everything? No, that is not my expectation.  I just worry about the fundamentals that are slipping through our fingers.

No one person can save the vast amount of knowledge the human race has amassed.  Will you join with me to learn what is new and what is old so we can pass this knowledge onto the next generation?  This way we will have knowledge gained, not lost.

Snap, Crackle, Pop

Snap, Crackle, Pop.  I’d love to tell you that is what I heard this morning as I poured the milk on my cereal (mmmmm….rice crispy treats.  Maybe a project for later?).  My cereal is not where these sounds are coming from.  It’s my joints.

It’s in my hands, my arms, my knees, my feet.  I thought you had to get old before you heard such sounds coming from your body.  I’m in my early thirties.  I’m not old.  If 60 is the new 40, I must be a teenie bopper.  I sure don’t feel like one today.

When did this happen?  It seems like yesterday that I was in high school.  Then I actually give it some thought and I realize that was 15 years ago.  No wonder most of my friends on Facebook have kids.  Has it really been that long?  This makes the snap, crackle, pop seem more reasonable (but I adamantly refuse to acknowledge it might be because I’m getting old.)

They say time flies when you're having fun.  I must be having a blast because I couldn't believe that next week is Thanksgiving already.  Where did 2011 go?  Does time go buy as you get older?  It sure must.  I need to figure out what to make for Thanksgiving and quick.  If I don't act soon, all the store shelves will be bare and I will end up with a dented can of cranberry sauce and a box of Twinkies from the corner gas station.

Snap, crackle, pop.  Upon further examination, I'm glad my body us letting me know time is going by.  I think it is my body's way of saying Hey!  You'd better pay attention!  You need to take time and smell the roses once in awhile.  Life is blowing by you while you weren't paying attention.  Sometime, we all need wake up calls.

Have a good Friday everyone.  Now where did I put that Bengay?