a post about jewelry...yes, you read that right

If you know me at all, I'm not the girliest of girls.  I'm more of a jeans & a t-shirt, whiskey by the fire, kind of girl.  BUT, as it usually is with siblings, my sister is just the opposite.  She has been in charge of all things feminine in my wardrobe since I was in high school, and now sells Stella & Dot jewelry.

As such, about twice a year, (or whenever my sister asks), I do the sisterly thing and host a trunk show.  I like the trunk shows for a couple of reasons: there is no presentation, just a display; I can earn free stuff; who doesn't love fun appetizers and drinks; there is also an online component, which is right up my ally.

I'm not going to bore you with a pitch, but I will show you some of my favorite things.  If you want to take a look at the rest of the line, you'll see that there's all sorts of price points, a good mix of classy & trendy items, and everything can be dressed up for dressed down.  I fall in the dressed down category.

If you see anything that you like, my trunk show runs for just 2 more days, through April 10th, and you can choose me as your hostess when you check out.  My sister and I both would appreciate it!

And now the pretty things.....

The first things I want to show you are part of an Autism Awareness "April Shop for a Cause" event. 20% of the April sales from pieces in this collection go to Autism Awareness.

Bring it Jewelry Roll $39

Tree of Life Necklace $69

Since I'm going back to Clemson this weekend for the Orange & White game, I'm going to show you what this not-a-girlie-girl has my eye on for football.  The nice thing about this orange is that it's a good Clemson Orange, but not so dark that it can't pass on gameday at Tennessee or Auburn.  Shipping with Stella & Dot is pretty fast, so if you order today, you should have presents in the mail for this weekend.

Soiree Studs - Coral $24

Vintage Twist Bracelet $39

Adina Necklace $59

Olivia Bib Necklace $118

These are also on my wish list, and fall in the more 'classic' category.

Sanibel Chandeliers $49

'The Slinky Bracelet' $49

Please take a look at my sister's website, Christy Fazio, and if you see anything that you like you can choose me, Emily, as your hostess.  My sister really appreciates it!! (She's also still booking trunk shows if you'd like to see the line in person.)

Edit 4/25/13 - My show is over, but if you see anything you like you can still support my sister.  All of the links on this page connect directly to her e-store. :)

my favorite use of twitter - #HOTNOW

So this is a little random, but yesterday was Fat Tuesday, and I didn't eat a single donut or dessert.  I'm not sure I can (or want to) hold out again today.

Since there is a Krispy Kreme donut in my future, I thought I'd share one of my favorite twitter gems,  @KKHotLight. You can tweet #HOTNOW + your zip code, and @KKHotLight will tell you if there is a Hot Now sign lit up near you.

There may not be a donut in my jump-in-the-car-right-now immediate future, but I'm not ashamed to admit that moment is coming.

If you're not on twitter, Krispy Kreme has other ways to keep up with the Hot Now Light in real time in the form of apps, search pages, and a desktop widget.

Click here for the website, not my blurry shrunken screen capture

It's like they know that sign pulls cars into the parking lot.

election day

Happy Election Day everyone!  First I want to thank everyone who has already voted (early voters & absentee voters, I'm looking at you too), and encourage everyone who is registered to vote today!  There's a lot on your ballot, and your chance to have your voice be heard on national and local choices.  You may not think your vote matters on a national scale, but it does.  Also, think about the impact you have on local issues.  School board choices, mayors, local resolutions, these are all things on your ballot that really could be decided by single digits, and have a direct impact on you and your neighbors.

If you are worried about long lines today, I encourage you to try and vote at an off peak time.  Try to take an early or a late lunch today, and plan on eating while you're standing in line. It's just a guess, but I imagine there will be quite a difference in wait times at 1:30pm vs 12:30 pm.

Here are a couple resources for anyone who is voting later today.  First, if you're not sure if you're registered, or need to know where to vote, you can Google the word vote, and you'll get some great information.  The old adage, when in doubt: Google, is extremely relevant on Election Day.

 

Second, if you encounter any problems when trying to vote today you can call the Election Protection hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE.  More information is available on their website, http://www.866ourvote.org/, and they have an app available as well.

Most importantly I encourage you to vote, I hear they're giving out stickers!

PS: Check back later for some tips on how to take in all the election coverage tonight.  Twitter's about to go bonkers, and there are a few things you can do to filter down all the noise, and get some really good information in real time :)

thanks y'all

I just wanted to say thanks to everybody who has given me reading recommendations. I've gotten suggestions here, on Facebook, from Goodreads, and via twitter. Y'all really know how to hook a girl up!

I just finished "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" series, and I'm really looking forward to checking out all your favorite books. It's going to take a while to get to everything, but I'm so grateful for your guidance as I dip my toes back into the sea of literature.

This is most of what has been reccemended to me so far, and if you have something to add to the list let me know. I'm looking for a little bit of everything, the only requirement is a good story!
 The Game of Thrones series

1. Cornelia Funke's Inkspell trilogy
2. Anything by Maeve Binchy, especially "Circle of Friends," "Quentins," "Scarlet Feather," "Evening Class," "Heart and Soul," "Tara Road"
3. The Bronze Horseman Trilogy
4. Anything by Ron Rash (Clemson Author), especially  "Serena" or "The World Made Straight"
5. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
6. Frank, Dorothea Benton, especially the Lowcountry Tales Series
7. And here is a link to my "To Read" shelf on Goodreads.  These are books Goodreads has recommended, and books that caught my eye when I looked over my friend's shelves! 

Edited 7/27/12, 12:27: format & typo 

#SCOTUS health care thoughts

This may be the first time I've brought up anything seriously political on my blog.  I feel like I might be crossing a line, so if you're a regular here and don't want to read this, I will not be offended.  But here I go crossing that line because, it's my blog, and I can do what I want to.

First off, I am not a political or legal or "ObamaCare" expert.  I understand the general principles of trying to cover everybody and that birth control will now be included in your insurance.  As a former self employed, and somewhat starving artist, these are the things that matter to me.

Second, so other than the two points I just mentioned, I don't want to talk about the details of healthcare reform.  That is for experts to hash out, and I am confident the final result will be acceptable to the majority of Americans.   And I am not an expert.

I just want to give my thoughts on the general concept, and the issues I have with the cost arguments/concerns.

1. Our government spends lots and lots of money.  I believe in a balanced budget, but I have no problems putting that money towards US citizens who need healthcare, and US doctors and hospitals that deserve to get paid rather than giving away free services.  Our war expenditures should be going down, why is it a bad thing to pay doctors, and heaven forbid, insurance companies here.  Our economy is struggling, why is it a bad idea to put money into our country in such a way thats its not even a bailout?
2. Preventative care is good for everybody.  This comes from both a human nature/ethical standpoint and a financial one as well.  If we can keep Americans healthy, then we should be able to prevent costly hospital stays, treat problems before they are out of control, all while improving quality of life and paying doctors for their services.  This seems like a natural extension of the programs we've had in place for decades.

In general I consider myself a libertarian.  I think people should be free to make their own choices, as long as they don't infringe on my personal rights, or cost me too much money.   Expanding Medicare/medicade/ObamaCare or whatever you want to call it may cost me money (or maybe not in the long term, we'll see) but I'm ok with that.  I pay taxes anyway, and the money might as well go towards raising the bar for quality of life for the people around me.  I'm a softie like that.

And now for some pretty pictures:

The rules on my blog are as follows:  discussion = cool, arrogance & fighting = not tolerated.  If you would like to leave a comment about my thoughts here please do.  If you have thoughts of your own I'd love to hear them.  I wrote this post to simply get my thoughts out there not to start a debate or fight.  Again, it's my blog and I'll do what I want to....including delete potentially nasty comments.

#RandomActOfKindness

A customer brought this by our office today, just to say thank you.  It is absolutely wonderful to see people taking time out to be nice, just because.  It completely made my day...and now we have cake!

one sentence saturday: march 17th

Happy St. Patty's Day!

www.clemsongirl.com - go there, it's awesome

Happy Meal Halloween

It's not the same as the Classic Pumpkin Trick-Or-Treat Happy Meal Bucket, but it is cool that McDonalds is still making kids Halloween with Happy Meal Trick-Or-Treat buckets.  This year they come with stickers, so you get to make your own pumpkin or monster face. This is a great example of "If it ain't broke don't fix it" marketing. If you want to know more about the Happy Meal Trick-or-Treat Buckets, or pails, as they are officially called check out this blog post.  It's incredibly thorough.




By the way, is anyone as surprised as I am that Halloween is coming up so soon??

(Re)Discover Chattanooga - Church Music

I had some friends visit me in Chattanooga this summer, and in my driving them around town they made the comment "Man, there are a lot of churches here." I hadn't given it much thought, but I did a quick search of 2010 Census Data, and the Religion rating for Chattanooga is 194, or 1.94 times higher than the national average. This is even a little higher than the TN State Rating of 188.

When I was little, I didn't think about the fact that my ballet classes weren't offered on Wednesday nights. I knew that it was 'Church Night', and a lot of kids were busy. It didn't bother me when they added Jazz classes on Wednesday nights, because I got to take Jazz. I was too young to make the connection that there was an assumption that the kids wanting to take Jazz wouldn't be the kids going to church on Wednesday nights. Well, I was one of those kids, and nope, I wasn't in church. (side note: my family was always a religious family, but my dad drove race cars out of town on Saturday nights, so Sunday mornings were more about sleeping in and eating chocolate chip cookies than getting dressed up for church)

The other thing I didn't think much about as a kid is the fact that when Dave & Dex came on the local country radio station, US 101, at 5:00 on Wednesdays, they played 'Church Music." I think there were a couple of songs that they played, but my favorite was "Shake a Snake." Considering that Sand Mountain is not too far away, and famous for their snake handling churches, this song was more than mildly entertaining.

Since I've been back in Chattanooga I have not gone back to my country music roots, and I have no idea if US 101 still plays this song (Dave has since passed away). BUT, I was out playing pool last week, and someone said the phrase 'shake a snake.' I haven't thought about this song in 10 years, and we of course found the video on youtube - a digital transfer of the Pinkard & Bowen song on 45. This song is too good not to share.


Happy Church Day Everybody!

Oops

I forgot to post my Bloody Mary recipe Saturday morning. There was too much football and I just forgot. Since the post was only halfway finished anyway, I'll finish it tonight, and go ahead and schedule it for this Friday.

All 3 of my teams won this weekend!! Clemson, Tennessee, & GaTech got wins, and UTC even put up 7 on Nebraska. How did your teams do?

Quick Update

I blog in spurts. I think I went from 3 posts in one week to none. Oops. Maybe I'll get better at scheduling posts, but if its on my mind I like to go ahead and get it out there. I'm impatient like that.

This weekend I went to Clemson, SC for the Backstreets staff Memorial Day Party. The weekend couldn't have started better. A good friend is a musician & I got to hear him play & hang out Friday night. Within the first full day I was in Clemson, I got to spend quality time with the few people I keep in touch with, and wanted to see, and after that everything was a blur. I'm incredibly lucky that my moving hasn't effected most of the friendships I made in Clemson. The party Sunday was great, but by the end of the trip I was glad to be home and in my space.

I love and miss the people in Clemson, and maybe its just the laid back attitude of a college town that bugged me, but this weekend reaffirmed that I made the right decision to move.

My Sister's Getting Married!!

Yay! It's such a good thing Will is cool, responsible, fun, & all the things a sister wants for her sister, because I'm really looking forward to my sisters wedding this month!! I just saw her engagement pictures, by Daisy Moffatt Photography and I think they show exactly why I'm so pumped for this wedding. If you like cool photography, and seeing people smile, take a look!
Click on "Photographer Favs" :)
(You may have to enter an e-mail address.)

Now all I have to do is finish getting my wardrobe together!

life gets in the way

So I'm struggling to post on this blog. Its not that I don't want to, but I keep running into roadblocks.

The first is that I really don't have much happy to post about right now, and I don't want this to turn into a whinny blog. That would be very uncool. The second thing is I don't have internet at my house right now, and my only reliable source is a local bar that is not very 'hip to blogging' (yes I just said that, and whats worse, I didn't delete it). So in the meantime I'm going to share a few videos that have made me smile lately.



Really Cool Music Video



Ridiculously Awful Microsoft Commercial

Things that make me smile

I was born in 1982. As a result, I was exposed to a wealth of classically 80's kids shows. One of my these shows was The Care Bears.

I watched the tv show, I had the books, and I still have a Tender Heart teddy bear that I keep in my room. (The only reason it is not on my bed, is b.c I just moved, and it is still in a box.) My AIM screen name is even a reference to Care Bear Convertible Cloud Cars. Its safe to say I was, and still am a fan. Its not something I talk about a lot, but I'm not ashamed to admit it. So needless to say, I was thrilled to hear the Care Bears Theme Song tonight when I was working on a stained glass bear for Backstreets Pub & Deli tonight. Here's a quick clip: