Moving sale at my Etsy Store; Carolyn's Collection

I'm going to be putting my store on Vacation mode soon so I can start packing since I'll be moving at the end of December.  But before I do that I'm going to give you one last opportunity to buy some of my lovely wares.  Here's the deal from the date of this posting until the store goes on vacation mode I will give you a 50% off your order using Etsy's new coupon codes. 

Once you put an item in your cart you will see a section for "Shop Coupon Code" on the right hand side.  Type in the code "Moving" and your discount will be applied automatically!

Go and buy something, not only will you get something good I will have less stuff to pack.  Its win win!

 You can have these.  Original price $4, but with the discount code you get them for $2.

Or this super cute bag.  Which you could get for $7.50.

Or this small quilt for $20!

Finding a notebook, part 2

Back in July I posted about my crazy ass looking for a notebook and how weirdly specific I am about it.

Original choice.

Shortly after posting that I found leslie hollins designs on etsy.  I had a little bit of a chat to her about my insanity and bought one of her notebooks.

Now a few months later I've placed an order for two more. 

Remember my list from the original post?

• Small, maybe 10-12 lines.
• Spiral bound.
• Lined.
• Not ugly.
• Hard covered.
• Thick but not too thick paper.
• Not too expensive.

New notebook 1

Its not lined which it turns out isn't as big a deal as I thought and the paper is a bit too thick for perfection but the think paper has other benefits like durability because I am not gentle with it.  Now as long as she swears not to ever shut down her store I should be ok.

New notebook 2

I thought I'd update you all because I know you were stressing about this constantly.

Popcorn on the cob

Every week the little girl I nanny for and I go to Ardenwood to help Ranger Ira feed the sheep or goats, our reward is a piece of popcorn on the cob.  Ranger Ira said we could take the kernels off and pop it in oil or an air popper but we could also pop it in the microwave right off the cob.  I decided to try it and here's what happened.  And how you can do it.


This only works with popcorn, other types of corn don't pop.  Amazon sells some popcorn cobs but you may also be able to buy them at farmers markets.  Or get them from Ranger Ira.

Place the ear of corn in a paper bag, this is a simple paper sandwich bag.  And fold down the top a few times.

Place the bag in the microwave, set the timer for 2 minutes.  It will take a little while for the popping to start but once it does the bag will start expanding.  Keep an eye on it and listen.  When it stops popping pull the bag out even if there is time left.

Open the bag CAREFULLY, it will be hot and steam may come out when you open it.  You probably want to have a look and see what happened but don't put your face over the bag when you open it.  That would be pretty stupid, I know because I did it the first time I made it.

Tip the bag into a big bowl, there will be a bunch of kernels and your cob, it will make a pretty big bowl of popcorn.

Your ear of corn will look like this.  Be careful when you pick it up it will still be pretty hot.  Most of the popcorn has come off but there is still some popped corn on the cob.

Add the topping of your choice.  This time we used some agave nectar and kept some wipes handy for sticky hands.










Very delicious and depending on what you put on the popcorn very healthy too.  Plus we get to help feed the animals.

Button Porn

My friend Chase (she of Oh The Cuteness) told me about a button store in El Cerrito which I decided to go and find last Saturday.  Its called Exclusive Buttons (but the sign on the building just says Buttons).

What I found was a tiny little shop that is only open Fridays and Saturdays run by a nice old lady.  She sells no plastic buttons and most of them are still on their original cards (sadly the no longer actually cost 25c).  Her husband sold buttons when he was alive and she is just running the store until she runs out of buttons (the only new buttons are the beautiful crystal ones from Europe).  Its not as if there are just a couple left there are thousands of buttons in this teeny tiny store.  It really reminded me of those pokey second hand bookstores run by slightly crazy old men, replace the books with buttons and the man with a woman and you have this store.

I've read on Yelp that the owner will help you if you are looking for something specific but as I wasn't and since I like mystery I picked the box of mixed buttons for $7.99.  Wanna see what's inside?

That's a lot of buttons!

Whoa!

Some big ones.

 

Pink ones.

A whole lot of black ones.

A whole lot of white ones.

There were some matching ones, but I got bored of sorting them into colours after about 4 colours.  There were a whole lot of them and I will look forward to using them.

On a side note if there actually is such a thing as button porn do me a favor and don't tell me about it because I don't want to know.

Bush decided he was pro-life when his mother showed him a fetus in a jar.

That's the gist of the headlines I read this morning.  Headlines that made me hope against hope that someone was making a very bad joke.

But nope:

The most startling anecdote he shared was the story of his mother's miscarriage during his teenage years, when he says he drove Barbara to the hospital while she held her unborn fetus in a jar.
Bush says he included the story "to show how my mom and I developed a relationship," but admits the jarring experience had a lifelong impact on his political beliefs.
"She says to her teenage kid, 'Here's a fetus,'" the pro-life President recounted to Lauer. "No question it — that affected me — my philosophy that we should respect life...There was a human life, a little brother or sister."

 George W Bush said that about his mother.  Barbara Bush.  The former First Lady and who I had thought of until now as a nice old lady.  There are so many many things wrong with this story, lets make a list shall we?

"Hello Deary, I've made you some raspberry jam."

1. Barbara Bush had a miscarriage and asked her teenage son to drive her to the hospital instead of calling for an ambulance.  This is actually the least odd part.
2. She put the fetus in a jar.
3. She put it in a clear jar, who the fuck wants to look at that?
4. She says to her son "Here's a fetus", lets hope he's paraphasing here and what she actually said was more like "Oh my God George, I just miscarried, the doctor says I have to bring it with me, I'm so devastaed, please help me, your father isn't here and I really need someone to help me right now."
5. That made him pro-life. What? It didn't make him feel ill? It didn't make him feel like maybe his mother was unbalanced? Google image search "dead fetus" and tell me if the first thing you think of is "wow, that's a human life".  People shouldn't have abortions because you saw your dead baby brother/sister in a jar?  That makes absolutely no sense although it is quite possibly the most original argument against abortion I've heard.
6. He says he put it in the book to show how he and his mother developed a relationship.  I can kind of see that, him and his mother shared something, he helped her in her hour of need and it created a bond between them that no one else shared.  And maybe that should have been kept private, but I assume it is written  in more detail and if it is a defining moment in his life it should be included in a memoir.  But, but, but do not use it when you are launching your book tour.  That is just disgusting.  He took something that was probably very painful to his mother and uses it when he launched his book tour.  And don't try to tell me that crack journalist Matt Lauer hounded him for answers.  Him or his people told him that this would get him a lot of press and sell more books. Abortion is quite possibly the most divisive issue in the US and he knew this would sell more books which quite possibly the most disgusting thing about it.

What Australia can learn about Elections from the USA

On Tuesday I voted for the first time in person in the USA having only voted postally before. And there is one thing and one thing only that Australia can take from the way the United States runs elections.

Stickers.

You vote, you get a sticker, everyone likes stickers and you get to show off to the world that you voted.

That is all.  The rest of the system is broken.  But stickers, yes.