Rita's Rainbows

Can you imagine looking at this sweet face every day?

Llama

Saturday, December 5, 2015 from 10-5 PM I'll be sitting at Grange Hall selling all manner of fancy things. The address is 2880 Broad Street, SLO.

I've been to fairs before, so I need to keep my guard up. There will be handmade items everywhere and Christmas is coming.

It is a difficult thing to buy items for people. You want to buy them something they do not already have and would probably not find elsewhere. You don't want to pay too much, but vendors have spent time on their goods and will not sell for too little.

My friend Daniel, who works with me at SMS Masterminds told me about this craft fair, because his mother is in charge of it. It's called Rita's Rainbows and after Rita died, her mother started organizing this craft fair in honor of her love of crafting. 100% of the proceeds go to kids and teens in need. My friends Holly, Kiwi, and I are vending ornaments, rings, and fancy animals.

This is my first experience of selling my fancy animals at any type of fair. As you know, I started an Etsy store, however, it is currently empty as I've been making fancy animals and using them for wedding and baby shower gifts. Since this fair's coming up, I thought I'd try my hand at it. If I have some leftover stock, I'll post them in my Etsy store.

Turtle

Thestral

Rings and things

Ornaments that can fit in the palm of your hand- who wouldn't want a tiny turtle or a little hoot to hang on their tree? Also, these are cool stocking stuffers.

Fancy animals to look forward to: 

Kangaroo

Thestral

Tiny owl

Big Eyebrowed Owl

Hippopotamus

Cat

Turtle

Stegosaurus

Seal

Old Hat

"Just pinch it between your two fingers like this"- Getting body ready for baby: IVF 101.

Finding out that you have to inject yourself every day for a month is kind of terrifying. I'll be honest, some days it is easier than other days. I'm grateful that I do not have to do that for the rest of my life as some people do- like those with diabetes. My friends who have to do it every day, I feel for you and am terribly sorry.

Fun fact: As your body figures out it is being punctured by foreign objects regularly, it actually begins to toughen and becomes more resistant to needle punctures. Translation: You have to push harder to get the needle into your body. To slow this process, they tell you to alternate sides. I noticed this toughening of my skin within the first week. Not cool, every changing body. Not cool.

After two weeks of injecting myself in the gut, Charles then had to inject me, for two weeks with a horse needle, into the cheek of my butt. So that is something to look forward to again. Woot woot.

To help me cope, Charles ingeniously thought up a prize program for me. Every day, after receiving an injection, he would give me my surprise. It was nice to get a prize for such a miserable daily occurrence. If you need prize ideas, here are a couple:

A fancy owl cup
See's Candy
Jamba Juice
In'N'Out
A shopping bag with my face emblazoned on it

The man's sweet. Since we're total cheapskates at our house, he used gift certificates we already had for half of the items and individual chocolates on the other days. It was so nice. I loved my sweet presents. I felt bad for him that he didn't get treats, but he said it wouldn't be fair if he got treats since he wasn't getting injections every day. Good point. Ha ha, get it. I said.. never mind.

This is a picture of the bruise on my belly button after the egg harvest. How did I get it? No idea.

Now that I'm old hat at stabbing myself, I didn't think I would be getting prizes anymore. Yesterday, when I got home, somebody at home told me to close my eyes and open my mouth. Thanks for the See's candy, Charles. It's nice to get treats, even when you're old hat.

https://www.generosity.com/fundraisers/starting-our-family--2

Terror-

Yesterday I clipped my very cool SMS Masterminds metal water bottle with carabiner to my pants. I had never done that before and probably won't do it again.

Reason 1- It is a metal bottle
Reason 2- I sway my hips when I walk
Reason 3- We have glass doors in the office
Reason 4- I am not so careful

With all those reasons combined, I give you my plan for- TADAH- shattered office doors anonymous. Oops.

The door didn't shatter, but it could have. Stan said the doors here are probably way stronger than my metal water bottle and you could punch one and do no damage. I'd like to play it safe and just say "As long as you don't have small children or breakable items anywhere in your vicinity, it is an ok idea to transfer that metal bottle to your belt. Otherwise, don't take any chances.

Also, tonight is the championship softball game for my coed work team. I'm the catcher- because I can throw, but I can't catch. However, I have figured out when to hit the ball. So there it is. Now you know my strengths and weaknesses. At least those in softball.

Thank you my dear readers for reading. If you are looking for more things to read or want to learn more about what's going on with my husband Charles and me, here is a link to pass along: https://www.generosity.com/fundraisers/starting-our-family--2

Blood and Ashes- A lesson in standard math

I said that today. It's a curse from the book series Wheel of Time. And I stopped myself in the middle, because I realized I was cursing- kind of.

We go through about 8 bags of coffee here at my work monthly. I buy the bags, make the coffee, and throw away the empty bags. One day, I noticed those bags had star stickers on them and decided to check out the rewards online. If I were not buying those bags of coffee, there would be no reason for me to ever visit the Starbucks website.

Anyhow, today I found out the 15 Starbucks stars I was supposed to receive on my Starbucks rewards card were not awarded because I did not buy, in 2 weeks time, 7 $15 bags of coffee from the Starbucks store. I bought them from Von's grocery store. Do I drink coffee? No. My coworkers drink loads of it however and I buy it for the office. I also happen to love free things. What do I get from Starbucks if someone gives me the choice? A frappuccino from Starbucks- which is pretty much a vanilla milk shake.

I am displeased with you Starbucks. Not only do I have to buy 30 bags of coffee to get any kind of reward, but the "free rewards" I was told I would be receiving were not awarded. Bad form. Now I have to buy another 12 bags of coffee for one $4 reward. To break it down for you, my company spent $630, and I get a free $4 milkshake and no "earned" special rewards. If I'd bought 42 $5 cups of coffee, I could've "earned" those 15 points and spent $210. So, it looks like someone needs to go back to math school, because that makes no sense to me.

Not a good week to mess with me Starbucks- I just started my second period of the month and I'm not feeling so awesome. Blood and bloody ashes.