Ever had on of "those days"?

ARGH! No, I'm not in a pirate kind of mood but it's been one heck of a day and I'm really cranky.

I was shopping at one of my favorite craft stores today and just happened to mosey on back to the "clearance wall"....one of my favorite places for serendipitous finds. I saw this little kit hanging on the wall. It had originally sold for $18.00 and there it was, on clearance for $6.49!
Eureka!!


Now, I've had this experience before. You think you've found a great buy only to get it home and find that someone has removed an essential item from the box and now you're stuck trying to find the correct replacement part. So, I happened to see a large box nearby (a shipping box that had yet to be opened) and decided to use it for a table. The kit had been opened already so I wanted to make sure everything was still there. I began taking the items out of the box and laying them out on the box.

It just so happened that I was standing right by the Manager's office. I saw him walk by, we exchanged quick hello's and I continued with my project. I heard the call go out for someone to come to the craft aisle. It didn't seem strike me as odd.

By this time I'd determined that all of the necessary items were still present and accounted for so I returned them to the kit box and put it in my basket. I turned around and there stood a Police Officer...slowly approaching me! Suddenly the Manager comes out of his office, looks in my basket, sees the kit is there, and casually greets the Officer and starts waving him back as if to say "never mind" or "go away NOW!". These two guys start talking like they just happened to run into each other on the very back aisle of the store.

Anyone will tell you I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer but, hello! I realized there were no other customers standing around, just me, and then I realized the manager had called this guy back because he thought I was going to shop lift "the kit". ARGH!!! I just looked at him and said, "Is everything alright?" He acted very nonchalant and made some comment about a misunderstanding. So, not being the type of person to keep my mouth shut, I looked at both of them and said, "Oh PLEASE! You thought I was going to steal something from your store?" He looked a little sheepish. He should have!

If I were even considering stealing something which goes completely against my character, I certainly wouldn't do it right in front of a video camera and right next door to the Manager's office! DUH! I shop there A LOT and it really ticked me off. I know, he was just doing his job, but good grief!

Then, I was driving to work and came to a place on the highway that has a real bottleneck where traffic tends to backup. I noticed a tractor trailer rig trying to bulldoze his way onto the highway. It happens all the time. Then I realized he was trying to force his way into the center lane and there was already a car in that spot. The driver of the car was honking his horn and the truck just kept coming. Now, I don't usually get all wigged out about these things but that car was trying desperately to get over and out of the way of that truck. The problem was that I was in the same spot the car was trying to move into. I started honking my horn. I had a very narrow shoulder framed by a guard rail....not much room and no options.

Long story short, I was run off the road. I managed to get my car out of the way and stopped, the poor car trying to escape the truck wasn't so lucky...he lost the right side door handles, mirror, etc.... Needless to say, traffic came to a screeching halt, and I mean that literally!

The highway patrol was called ( I could swear he looked just like the guy in the craft store) and wouldn't let me leave until he'd taken every one's statement. No one was injured thank heaven but I was shaking like a leaf. When I get stressed this poor old brain of mine turns my mouth into mush. My words get lost and I can't speak normally. NOW the patrolman thinks maybe I've been drinking. ARGH!!!! "No sir, I've not been drinking. I've just had the wits scared right out of me and my brain has gone on strike." I had to explain that I'm just a little brain damaged and after observing me and "chatting" with me until I calmed down a bit he decided to believe me.

Did I mention that I was on my way to pick up the girls at school on the other side of town? ARGH again! I knew I'd never make it on time to pick them up so, with the officer's permission, I called a friend who lives near the school and asked her to rescue them for me.

Suffice it to say it's been a tedious day. Now I get to look forward to a snow storm this weekend while I'm "babysitting" a preteen girl and maybe her teenage sister, not to mention my boss's three dogs. One of which will probably look like a squeaky toy to my Wire Fox Terrier, Mae, who likes to kill furry things that run around in my yard.

I think I'm ready to retire. For life. Now if I could just hang the "CLOSED" sign on my brain and get some sleep I'll probably feel differently tomorrow...I mean today...later today.

Okay, the mush brain thing is starting to kick in again so I'm moving toward my bed......we'll talk soon.

In the meantime ... Live Life Joyfully! You never know what tomorrow may bring.

Mosaic Chalcedony Earrings....YUMMY!

Oh I know....you just can't believe I blogged twice in one day huh? Well I just can't seem to keep my silly self inside on these nice days but night time does come around and I'm forced to come inside.

We've been doing the Spring Yard Cleaning this past week and cutting down trees was one of those projects. ARGH! Exhausting and sometimes painful it is still a huge improvement to our property. More to the point (finally), I just kind of felt sad to watch such majestic living things destroyed.

Yes, we'll use a great deal of those by products to mulch and conserve our land but as the limbs and branches began to pile up it started to look more and more like a mosaic of sorts. Yeah, I know. I see art everywhere, even in the rubbish of trees :)

It got me thinking and I remembered a pair of earrings I'd made a while ago that look like a mosaic but it's a natural gemstone. They are so earthy and elegant all at the same time. My kind of jewelry! Take a look at these and tell me what you think....

Spring is officially here!

Hey there! It's here! Finally!! Spring.....it always comes but it just seems to take longer to get here every year. Guess I'm getting impatient in my old age huh?

Well, I just listed a pretty pair of pale green gemstone earrings on Etsy today. Had to get into the spirit of the season right?

I hope you like them!

Hammering out my frustrations....

I've been frustrated lately. The dumb little ups and downs of my life have been getting a bit tedious and sometimes I just need to get physical without of course hurting anyone or anything.

I realized that this sometimes requires a bit of imagination and creativity on my part so I picked up a hammer and a couple of copper rings I had in my stash and bashed the heck out of them!

It felt really good and it looked really good :) This is the result of all that beating and banging...

I hope you like them. I sure do! I just listed them on http://www.chrissymarie.etsy.com .

Maybe I should try this technique more often. It's really quite therapeutic!

Whimsy

I just added a new necklace to my Etsy store! This is one of my favorite pieces. I hope you like it. Let me know what you think! I'd really like to get your opinions!!