Monday, April 13, 2009

On Ikea, Etsy, Babies, and No Candy for Easter.

A long weekend is a glorious gift. A long weekend with a holiday? Even better.

My weekend, in bite-sized morsels:

- Ikea. Need I say more? The nearest Ikea is two hours and nine minutes away in Pittsburgh. Mike's parents are merely an hour away from an Ikea in Michigan, so we took a little trip up there on Saturday so I could satisfy my fabric obsession. We also stopped by Ann Arbor, a delightful little college town complete with cupcake shops, a fair trade coffee shop, and a gigantic paper store.

Yes, my first trip to a real, live, HUGE stationary and bookbinding store with an entire room with floor to ceiling shelves of paper.

Heaven. I may just learn how to bind some books, watch out.

- Etsy. I spent most of Thursday and Friday off work and sewing. Lots and lots of sewing. Most of it is up in my store now, including four little boxy pouches, a card wallet, and my proudest accomplishment - a hobo bag. (Look, Ma! No pattern!)

I also had my first pick up order last week - I met her at a coffee shop and we ended up talking for nearly two hours. Turns out we're both fairly new to Cleveland. I was afraid I was going to have to make a policy, "Shipments only, no local pick ups" if it turned out badly. Now, I think I will say, "Let's be friends! Come pick up your order!" Etsy is all kinds of wonderful.

Even though this has been a rather slow Etsy week for me, it's still quite exciting that when Mike and I are making plans for next year, I can seriously consider working less than 40 hours a week and supplement with my Etsy and design work. Amazing.

- Babies. At Ikea, every third woman was pregnant. Another other third were pushing strollers with adorable, mushy little babies. Pregnant bellies are amazing to me, and I try not to stare, but they are SO BEAUTIFUL. Mike had a dream where I was pregnant and then we played his adorable twin niece and nephew who are almost two-years-old. And THEN I started doing math in church (Sorry, God) about how old I could have baby before I'd feel like an Old Parent (as opposed to a hot, young mom in yoga pants.) (I hope you know I'm kidding - I'm not really that superficial.) (Mostly, anyway.)

So, we pretty much want a little squishy child of our own now to cuddle and kiss.

(Don't get too excited - we still have the reality of health insurance, grad school, and general poorness to face. But, yes, babies are cute. And, yes, we want one, eventually.)

- No Candy. That's right, my very first year without an Easter basket. Apparently I'm a grown up or something? Whatever. My mother-in-law apologized for the lack of Easter treats, but I brushed it off.

This is good,
I thought, I can focus on the real part of the holiday now. Candy, shmandy.

Two hours later we were at the grocery store, with Cadbury cream eggs, Reese's peanut butter eggs, Mounds, Jelly Bellys, and dark chocolate peanut M & Ms.

Guess I'm not ready to grow up.

Hope your Easter/Passover/weekend was fabulous and full of relaxation! (And...candy!)

20 comments:

  1. You're such a talented little thing, look at you go. I haven't had any Easter candy, but I might have to stop at the store on the way home to get some clearance candy. Woohoo!

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  2. Have you thought about rolling out those banners to blogs? I bet you'd have an audience for that!

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  3. you're so awesome...now teach ME how to use my sewing machine? lol! umm, I've owned my machine for about 6yrs and the handful of times that I've used it? My husband threaded the bobbin for me LOL! I swear, i'm THAT retarded sometimes.
    I actually ate no candy this easter, weird. I didn't really think about that until now! I only bought my boys a pkg of peeps and a choc bunny and they were NOT going to share so it was what it was ;D

    I am now CRAVING ikea thanks to you! (ok and some other twitter folks) i wanna goooooooo!

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  4. I'm with Nilsa. I bet there is a HUGE market for blog banners and things like that. Because you're REALLY good with that!

    It sounds like y'all had a lovely Easter weekend!

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  5. Oh, I wish we had an Ikea around here!

    That's awesome that you met a new friend while delivering on an etsy buy!

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  6. i'm agreeing with everyone else on here and say that if you added blog banners to your etsy, people (meaning ME) would be all over that!!

    another way to curb the baby fever is to read dooce's book. it definitely puts things in a whole other kind of light.

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  7. just because my mother refuses to send me an easter basket while i'm not living at home doesn't mean i don't get candy. and i get to pick it out myself. score!

    congrats on how well you're doing with etsy! that's really cool :)

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  8. ashley, it's been WAY too long! Thanks for the comment love. I have been way MIA but am hoping to get back in the swing now. I am so happy for your Etsy success and all the creative juices flowing! Yeah!
    I think I probably won't be doing Etsy any time soon- we still don't have a decent printer. But I did design one bumper sticker that I was pretty impressed with! :)

    As far as babies go, I am right there with you! And do NOT feel bad about doing baby math in church- I wrote out a whole baby planning spreadsheet on the back of my sermon notes one Sunday! I think we are going to start trying this summer. We used to be worried about being poor, but now we're over it. I know too many young families who don't have alot, but are so stinking happy. Yeah babies!

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  9. Have you ever been to Hollo's? http://www.geocities.com/hollospapercraft/ I am not sure how far away it is from where you are, but you might want to check it out. They sell paper by the pound and its really, really reasonable. I would always get excited to go there when visiting friends.

    And I agree, you should add blogs to your design work!

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  10. You're never too old for Easter candy ;) And the Etsy shop banners are a great idea! You're such a creative person!

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  11. I was Easter basket-less this year too! Which is just as well because I need to eat candy for breakfast like I need a hole in the neck.

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  13. Yep, Ikea is awesome. I want to wrap myself up in the fabrics but I might get escorted off the premises if I did that.

    The Etsy stuff is awesome, I bought one of your card wallets a few weeks back and I adore it! Keep up the great work.

    Oh and I agree with the comment above about blog banners!

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  14. Wow, you are really growing as a talented crafter! Loving the new stuff!

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  15. Some day soon I will need to pick up one of those coffee sleeves, there are too dang cute!

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  16. Oh god I want to eat babies with a spoon lately - and why is it that every one I see is pregs? I think this is the natural progression after married. It has to be because the ads in my sidebar on facebook all say "trying to conceive, try this gel!" What? I guess they're pushing me to do something...
    Also, I'm Jewish and I heart Easter candy.

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  17. Haha, you are so young, you'll totally be a hot mom! I'm 30 and maybe having a baby in few years, and I also don't want to be an old parent :) Silly, but a little vanity is not too bad, I don't think :)

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  18. OH MY GOODNESS, ASH!! I saw Mandy commented about Hollo's papercraft supply...it's in Brunswick and I literally JUST went there two weeks ago...I've been there a few times, but it's a dream shop with everything paper you could ever want :) I needed some supplies for school--lots of fun! ANyway, if you ever want to hit that up we can go sometime...it's pretty close to my school!!

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  19. This year, my dad very sweetly hid easter chocolate in my car. However, when I got in to drive home, apparently one of the eggs flew out of the door handle and landed on the seat. I arrived with chocolate-covered jeans. Not a good look.

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  20. I loove Ikea. You can get such fun kithen stuff so cheap! The problem is I usually spend a million dollars there anyway :)

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