One Tree, One Tear

Um, surprise tear jerker! I had written off One Tree Hill, as Dan was getting wacko and the plot kind of lame. Last night I forgot that it was Wednesday and that I was home and that it was 9:30pm, so I turned it on and saw who I first of all thought were professional basketball players, then I saw Haylee say she was having a boy (paleez, high school, and that's ok, but in One Tree it's normal) and I was just stuck standing there, watching the confetti and Payton look so happy which never happens. Then I kept trying to leave to turn the oven on for my dinner, and the out of the blue the accident happened! I don't even know who Dante is/was! And I really cried when whats his face came running out and they couldn't talk and then he fell over. Goosebumps right now.

David, meanwhile, was watching #1 Ohio State basketball against the Tar Heels in the other room, having his own emotional roller coaster. Needless to say, it was 10:15 by the time I was ready to break away and turn the oven on, so I had donuts for dinner.

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Free Wireless from Jet Blue at JFK

Honestly, there is nothing better than getting to the airport in one piece, if not severely disheveled and taken apart, only to come to the end of the airport rainbow and find a pot of wireless. Not sure if it's in other terminals, but JetBlue is so hooked up to computers right now, with about a bazillion kiosks that you must sign in at before handing your luggage off. It is worth the fricking $55 cab ride to feel like a real and civilized person, blogging and reading Elle.

Luggage-wise, the people here at JFK must not wear a thing. I'm seeing nearly flat carry-ons - with room. They don't look like they're going to baggage claim. It's Thanksgiving week, so they must be traveling for at least three days...how could they not have checked??

Before I left (and the taxi was coming in 10 minutes), I saw that I am starving poor Oliver. Didn't read the feeding instructions on the catfood, and so didn't see that I need to give him twice the amount Dinah is getting. That meant I was low on canned Merrick cat food and literally called on all of my days of not running this week in the morning, and sprinted the 5 blocks to the pet store to quickly stock up - and back. Which got me thinking. Oliver and Dinah need a very stylish cat carrier. Here's what I've found so far whil sitting in JFK listing to the wonderfullness of cheesy old love songs by Vanessa Williams in between boarding calls.



Ahh! Got to go...boarding all rows!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!

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Stop Me - Oliver on the Bike

Can't stop taking pictures of Oliver! He's too crazy. Not sure how long he was out in the world as an ophan, but he certainly is a scavenger! He's as bad as the worst begging dogs in Central Park. Just two nights ago, he just stole a chicken bone from my plate before I threw it away and was munching on it.

Here's the little acrobat:

More pictures of Oliver.
First pictures of Oliver.

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Bijou Me My Chi

While hearing the story of how my brother got engaged (as told to by my brother while we strolled through Union Square), I bought a pendant from a girl in Union Square market who was a metal-worker with arthritis in her hands. The pendant was to seriously align my chi and combined two stones for super alignment. She combined a piece from upstate New York and a piece that she dug up in Arizona that magnifies whatever it touches (and we all know how I love Arizona). She wound metal around it in swirly shapes, and secured the pieces together. But, it was just a pendant, and I have no patience or experience in making a necklace for it, and I wasn't about to just wear the generic black nylon cord that came with it.

So, I emailed my designer friend Lourdes at Bijou Boutique down in Florida and she jumped right onto the challenge! Our brains went through a bazillion ideas, keeping the focus on the pendant, making it not to difficult to use (since it needs to align my chi and keep the energy of chi-ness free flowing), and be a style that will last.

I was pickier than I realized, but Lourdes was always patient and coming up with new ideas. I couldn't decide if I wanted it short or long, so Lourdes proposed some leather cord - in baby blue and chocolate brown! - put some decorative silver beads around the clasps, and gave me a multi-level necklace. I can hook up the three cords any way I want, so can have it short or long, and in whichever color combination. Pictured here is just the blue cord, as it was a Friday work-day and I needed something simple.

More at BijouBoutique.com:

So, if you're like me and appreciate making necklaces but don't actually do it, go to Bijou Boutique and see what she can custom design for you!! And look for Christmas presents while you're at it! She's got some new pieces in there!

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Ikea Wardrobe and Dysons

Am relaxing and watching Gray's, and see two products I must discuss. The Ikea wardrobe in George's father's hospital room was once in my room, then it became a TV closet, and then probably firewood. But I also have the matching half-wardrobe with shelves, and it rocks even more. It has become my linen closet now that I have two closets in my bedroom (and David gets one of them) and a front hall closet that is stuffed and overflowing with umbrellas and rollerblades. Love it.

Then, the Dyson commercial. I loved the Dyson, for a long time at first at least, because of the accent from guy who invented it! I loved the way he said: "It never loses sUction." Something about how he said it in his accent just convinced me that the giant piece of plastic would not lose suction. For $400, and now $500, and who knows when the price will rise again, I almost bought it just for his accent! So, if Dyson people are scanning blogs for what we're saying, hear this: Bring the inventor with the prototypes and the accent back. I don't trust this generic guy, and I'm more happy with my Eureka.

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Announcing...Oliver

After one Saturday of lounging, pawing, hissing and trouncing, we have decided to keep the new kitten. As he is quite good at stalking Dinah on his hind legs with his forepaws outstretched and ready to grab, we have named him Oliver the Terrible. We can't even catch on camera the times he spread eagles and flies from the couch to trounce Dinah!

This is a picture-fest of Oliver, but Dinah is forever my muse.






Of course, we would not keep Oliver if Dinah was unhappy. Truth is, she is consistantly curious about him, plays with him, and came right over when we were clipping his nails (he meowed-and-meant it for the first time) to make sure he was ok.













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LWL Post: A Wannabe "Mompreneur"

Originally posted on the Ladies Who Launch Blog. The blog topic of the week was "Launching Moms" and this is my post for it. Not being a mom of human children, my own love bugs are to the left, and a great inspiration.
Ladies Who Launch, Ladies Who Launch Blog

I grew up knowing I wanted and needed my own business while I raised children, which is why I borrowed the "mompreneur" term from Michelle Rubin of Willow Creek Baby. I had no visions of a wedding dress or a huge diamond. Just me working somewhere, doing something I loved. My mother raised us directly (with the help of our dad) while carrying out different jobs, like selling children’s educational toys (that was a fun one), selling Sunbeam things, and for the past 15 years has been a rep for lines of clothing, most recently Doncaster and Elana.

So I grew up with her always doing something, and being there for us at the same time (even if that meant picking us up late from basketball practice!). I also loved money - counting money, saving money for a bike or Cabbage Patch Kid - and was taught that if I wanted the money, I had to work for the money. I also didn't want to depend on a man or a marriage to have that money, just in case he wouldn't be there the whole time, which brings us to today. I'm a 29 year old mother of a super smart German Shepherd/Chow named Gerdy (that a former fiance of mine abandoned due to our breakup! so glad to get that out of the way!), a regal cat named Dinah, and now a new kitten named Oliver the Terrible who just had to run in front of me as I walked home from the subway the other night. They are true inspirations to me, and two products so far have been developed for them - the Chow Chow dog treat bag and the FashionMista (a fashion mouse for cats).

I only know how to do what I love and what makes me happy. It took a little while to figure out what that was, but I'm learning the combination and it's filling me with joy. At my mom's encouragement, I took a class in fashion design at FIT which turned into an accessories business called Katie James, which is expanding into website design, and then there's the FashionMista blog which has its own plans of a redesign and boutique of unique designs.

So my 'plan' is falling into place, which is to have a business set up so that when I have children (if I'm so blessed), a system will be set up for me to work in. For my 9-5 day job, I manage the website of a nonprofit specializing in educating women and health professionals about the best maternity care, so I'm set. I've also recognized, as was testimony from so many of these launching moms, that being a mompreneur makes you plan your time and actually get things done instead of procrastinating...something I always suspected. I also suspect, though, then when I become a mom, all of these plans will fly out the window and a new situation will present itself. So I eagerly look forward to the day when I am balancing both and gaining new inspirations.

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Uh, oh...Found a Kitten...

...and took it home. It leapt across my path Tuesday night to play in some ivy at the base of a tree plotted in a sidewalk in between Broadway and Amsterdam at W. 104th. I stopped, turned, and looked at a woman standing behind me who had also stopped. We looked at each other, and that was it. I bent down and scooped up the kitty after it fearlessly sniffed my hand.



Gerdy and I walked back the scene later and taped signs all over the area, but no one has called. The kitten is litter box trained, and knows all of the good things that come out of the kitchen and from a can of food. And he loves the sparkly tail on the FashionMista.

But, Dinah and I had a talk, and she told me that she'd like to be the only queen of the house.



Plus, I think this little thing is a guy kitten, and I've temporarily named him Jazper, because he's got a lot of pizzaz and thinks he's already a prince around the house, challenging everyone to swatting duels.



Gerdy just stares at him when he does it, and Dinah is not amused.



So...I'm looking for a good NYC home for Jazper! Write back if interested! Or comment!

But look out...he/she is a bit crazy...






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Ladies Who Launch LIVE Event

, by FashionMista

first published on the Ladies Who Launch blog

Is it too late to blog about an event that happened a week and a half ago? Yes, I'm going to vote as usual and try not to do much damage in the booth, but am the most excited about the potential ban in NYC on trans fat in restaurants. Don't think that's an issue for the ballet, but I'm a fan of the ban. Hopefully the next one will be nutrasweet. Anyway, my to-do list was so long the weekend after the event, that my blogging fell off of it! I was to cross everything off in one Saturday, and got about 7 of the maybe 22 things, so everything else went on hold.

So now that it's Halloween, I've reinstated the Incubator's mantra of "Do one nice thing for yourself each day" and indulged in some mini milky ways and turned on Gilmore Girls, (which was a reapeat of maybe the first show of this season, but I've so far missed them all so it's fine).

It was like Christmas morning when I got home after the LIVE Event. I had a bag full of goodies (free pair of Naturalizer shoes, Jonathan hair shine, a face peel from md skincare, and gobs more of little deals at womens' businesses), new business cards to file and websites to visit, and new dates to put into my Google calendar (LOVing the Google calendar).

Not only did we get goody bags and hear from the varied experiences of valuable speakers, but my brain was overflowing with new ideas and insights from other women. I had the pleasure of picking Wedding Bee's brain on blog advertising and generating traffic (write, write, write), to Glam or not to Glam with Chicks and Giggles, the new world and future website for Reel Invitations (dvd wedding invitations), and more Katie James strategic alliances with The Matchstick Group.

In between the fabulous speakers, we could indulge in chair massages compliments of State Farm, and go shopping in the Ladies Who Launch marketplace downstairs, where everyone had the cutest displays and polished designs. I held off from participating as a vendor, but now that I've done my first market down in Soho, I'm ready for another challenge. Here are a couple highlights from the LIVE event marketplace:

Ichiche
Definitely unique, beautiful designs of jewelry. Put one of these necklaces on and you're transported to another culture.

Bleach Letterpress Designs by Smith Banfield
I'm a sucker for letterpress cards, and Smith's are gorgeous. Even the card she gave away with her information on it was beautiful.

One of the fun parts about Ladies Who Launch is that there are these surprise women who are a part of it. As I was talking to my dyn-o-mite PR friend at Red Branch PR, I spotted a high school classmate who I hadn't seen in 5 years! I dashed over to her and we chatted and chatted. I can't wait for the next event, and I think there is an Incubator event coming up, oh, and I've got an acupuncture session tomorrow with Acupuncture Remedies...ta ta for now!

PS: just ordered my free Naturalizer shoes...yay!

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