Yeah Heidi ~~~ Thanks for hosting this fun swap this month. You got us all started on a creative roll & the packages were awesome. Thanks again, Heidi! Spring is ramping up quickly here in WA, so I am going to be a lurker and probably not play for awhile. Any day it is milder & not too rainy I'm outside if at all possible before I work in the late afternoon. If I get ahead now it pays off all summer long not only in our gardens, but especially in the high visibility camp gardens that have a huge weed bank. Our mulching works as long as no one else digs in there. A water leak last month led to a backhoe digging & you can imagine that mess with our rocky soil. The mostly fist or bigger sized rocks are now back on top. I'm thinking I'm going to just let a groundcover spread over them after I meander them a bit. I had made a nice stack & edging for the bike parking... At home hubby mowed the lawn Sunday afternoon, so now it's an even bright green. Our son has taken advantage of the dry afternoons working on blowing the driveway of fir needles & cedar debris. That reduces the muddy gravel a lot if we can keep up. I went to a plant swap on Saturday & stuffed the Suburban with lots of plants for camp. Most exciting was the hen & chicks for my hubby's topiary project he saw in a library book I checked out for him. See, gardening is c-a-t-c-h-i-n-g. We have lots of moss for stuffing the wire frame! The native Indian plum is about to bloom. Once I smell that fragrance it's officially spring for me here & the race is on! Happy almost Spring, Corrine

rjinga, you're SO right! My gosh! and fori, what creeps me out on them is the little weird wings (see the pics below). They're totally vestigial and creepy (or maybe we've watched too much Dr. Who this past few weeks? LOL). The first one DD found didn't have wings, so maybe it's not a kewpie doll either. The other thing that creeps me out is the unforgettable saga of Rose O'Neill, honestly. She's such a figure of history, a crystallization of many womens' experiences in her era and yet someone who took hold of her fate and tried to do as much good with it as she could for the oppressed. Men and money kept taking her down, though. linda, here are the pics of the second find, with the mark in both orientations. This little guy is only about 4.5-5" tall, vs. around 11" tall for the 'toddler' one. dlm, THANKS for that link! Yes, the first one DD found is a toddler, for sure, but with *no* marks at all. It has glass eyes but they're just attached on, not whole things that roll inside sockets. Here is a link that might be useful: flickr link to second doll

Your things are really cute! I love the cats eye, I haven't used it, but I think it's so pretty, soft colors. Love that pink & blue pearl one also. The pacifiers are adorable, but they'd scare the bejeebers out of me, liability issue. I don't know if you use Swarovski flat backs, but you might want to check into the lead content of the crystals on the. I believe it's 32%, but I don't know how/when, it's dangerous. You might also want to add a break point on your children's bracelets. That way if they get their arm caught on something, the bracelet will open at the break point, like a heavy, but open, jump ring at the clasp. That saves the child from breaking a wrist or from the beads on the bracelet going all over the place should it break. All you'd have to replace to fix the bracelet is the jump ring. Also write up a little disclaimer about supervising children with jewelry, etc. And put it in the bag with the item.. Can you tell I'm paranoid???? I sell through my site, eBay & Etsy. Etsy is not so hot, but it's inexpensive. I do craft show, a TON of custom work, word of mouth, neighbors, etc. As for displaying your jewelry, if it's mostly children's stuff, that fun! I'm thinking white Teddy bear props, maybe some pastel wood cubes for risers. I'd use a white table cloth and displays. Nile corp is good for displays. Bring plenty of business cards too. I had a bowl of candy out for the kids also, they liked that Good luck!

You were VERY brave to do a time management study. As you discovered, there arent enough hours in a week. I made a list of things in my life that donÂt change. These total 137 hours: 56 hours sleeping 3.5 hours shower/hair/makeup/dress (30 minutes a day, to the minute) 50 hours at the office 7.5 hours commuting 4 hours at church 2 hours exercising 4 hours volunteer meetings (this is the minimum) 10 hours email (friends & family, volunteer projects) This leaves me 31 hours a week for everything else (which is why I donÂt like looking at time management by the hour). April-May will be the worstÂlast year I spent 17 hours a week at high school track meets! I donÂt watch much TV but I spend a lot of that "extra" time with my family. My house isnÂt as clean as it should be but the basics are done. My closest friends are involved with the same volunteer groups that I belong to and since theyÂre just as busy as I am, we call that our weekly "social" time. Email is often better than phone callsÂno getting sidetracked on long phone conversations. You spend more time on housework and cooking than I do, but perhaps youÂre better at both? I probably did 10 loads of laundry this week but if you asked me how much "time" I spent on laundry I would have guessed 10 minutesÂbut thatÂs obviously not true since it's all folded and put away! HereÂs how to fit MORE in your life: 1. Put it on your calendar. That really is the secret for me. If youÂre already a list-maker, you just need to schedule a specific day/time on your calendar. For example, my exercise time is definite. ItÂs on the calendar same day/time every week, no exceptions, everyone knows it. ItÂs just like blocking off the 4 hours for church and the Tues/Wed nights for meetings. 2. Make choices. I might enjoy more TV, but it would be at the expense of something else. I'm not ready to give up the "something else" at this time. You spent twice as much time as me in the shower... are you cleaner? LOL 3. Combine activities. As I cook, I clean the kitchen (while doing laundry). When I get out of the shower, I clean the bathroom. When I hang up my coat, I straighten the closet. I have to admit that a lot of my "house cleaning" is done while doing something else, so it would be hard to separate the minutes/hours. 4. Beware of "time saving services" that don't fit your personality. I would rather wash and iron 5 shirts on my own time than have to remember to drop them off and find time to fight traffic and pick them up later. I tried Once A Week Cooking once and HATED it--I gave up half a Sunday to cook (which I hate anyway) and a week later we were out of meals again--and I still had to spend time in the kitchen each night heating them up! It would have been far easier to have just cooked double meals each night and, for example, put half the spaghetti sauce in the freezer for later. Funny storyÂYES I DID get down on my belly and play legos on the floor with the kids and I would do it all over again I did NOT have kids to send them off to the other room to play! We built lego creations and zoomed matchbox cars and built forts out of blankets on rainy days and made snakes out of playdoh and had tea parties and danced around the house and hammered things out of wood & nails and colored with crayons and used lots of glue & glitter and played sports (who better than ever-patient mama to stand in the hockey net while he learns to lift a puck over a goalieÂs shoulder?) and took bike rides and hiked through the secret passages in the woods and made snowmen and went to museums & the zoo AND learned to play alone AND learned to play with other children AND learned to cook and clean, too (which impressed my oldest son's college roommates--plus he was the only one who could put up a tent in the dark LOL). DS-15 and I spent 3 of my 31 "extra" weekly hours yesterday reading a book out loud and discussing it (don't tell his friends--he would be embarrassed if they knew!) because even though he COULD read alone, we still enjoy reading together. We'll read more tonight when his homework is finished. In a couple years he'll be away at college and I can use my "extra" hours on a different activity--like organizing the camping equipment that seems to be bursting out of the storage area... it's a low priority and never gets to the top of the to-do list.