first item sold!

So happy!!!

I’ve finally sold an item on Etsy! How cool is that?
I’ve got to mail it out and all, but still – it’s awesome! I’ve wanted to sell things since I started the store in July of 2010 but hadn’t been lucky. I had really slacked on blogging and such with the store because I was totally discouraged. Luckily, I’ve been fortunate.

I attribute it to the item being placed in a few rainbow themed treasuries. Thanks to those people who did that! I’m so grateful!

And, totally cool, I’m twittering about the shop too! I’m super pumped about it! Check me out at @SpicyMouseShop !

Yahoo!
Lindsay

Pillars of the Earth – 1/5th of the way through

Hey all,

I’m currently reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.  I’m at about page 200 with 800 more to go.  This is by far not the longest thing I’ve read, but it’s not too short either.

I’ve read a few of the responses that people have had to reading this book.  It is almost split 50/50 between those who love and those who hate.  Apparently it can’t be both.  I was concerned as this is another book club book and I wanted to like it very much.  Luckily, I do.

I do so love reading about historical things.  This book satisfies that exactly.  I’ve been reading a bunch of books for the Forest of Reading 2011 contest and one gets a little impatient with ‘books for grown-ups’ after reading 100 page books that were written for 9 year olds.  PotE has reminded me of what it’s like to read books for people my age.  It’s nice.

So, at the moment, I’d recommend this text; we’ll see how I feel after the next 200 pages…

Oh Tess Gerritsen, how I love you!

Tess Gerritsen delivers yet another awesome book with her fourth of the Rizzoli and Isles series: Body Double.  If you want the gist of the book, check it out here at Goodreads.com.

In this book, you learn more about Maura Isles past and who her parents really are.  You are caused to wonder, how much of yourself is nature (based upon your DNA and who your family is) and how much is nurture (how you were raised).

My friend Katie and I were discussing this exact topic last night.  She was doing some reading about how important it is in a child’s first year to prepare them for life.  What they know and the attitudes they have and the emotional state they are in in that first year dictates the rest of their life, save big epiphanies.  As well, I’ve noticed a trend with the kids I see that if a parent has a learning difficulty or disability, the child tends to have one too.  Maybe not the same, maybe not as bad, but still there tends to be a trend.

I’ve not lived with my actual father much – mostly my step-father.  Still, after 25 years of not living with him and only seeing him a few times a year, Mum still notes how I do things that he does.  How I make a face at a comment, how I walk, how I hold something; it’s all like him.  Clearly these are things that I have inherited from him.  Things that I believe and do and how I behave, I believe are a direct result from my upbringing and the experiences that I’ve had.  The good and bad have shaped me into who I am today – and, a lot of my own hard work too.  I was at one point unsatisfied with an aspect of myself and life.  I work on it and have changed it – I grew as a person and am better for it.

Can you grow and move past what your inherited DNA gives you?  If your parents were killers, could you avoid living a similar life?  For Maura Isles in Body Double, I’d hope so.

Etsy purchase: Long Winter Farm

I’ve tried to sell things on Etsy under SpicyMouseShop and it’s not been too successful.  I then decided that I might as well see what others are selling and at least take advantage of the cool stuff available while I wait for people to buy my things…

I placed an order from Long Winter Farm.  The make lotions, soaps and lip balms.  Lots of rave reviews and they sell to Canadians.  (not everyone does, fools!)

I purchased the black currant hand and body cream.  It is nicely scented and is totally moisturizing without being greasy in the slightest.  I would have rathered a scent that wasn’t so sweet, but that’s my preference.  The quality of the cream and the volume you get is worth it.

I also purchased a 5-pack of lip balms.  They come in neat oval tubes and as they advertise, don’t melt in your pockets.  I’ve so far tried the Joe (mocha coffee), red currant, pumpkin cheesecake and coconut hot chocolate.  They are lovely too!  They smell excellent and don’t need reapplying as they last for a long time.  The balm is smooth and doesn’t leave your lips sticky at all.

All in all, good purchases.  If I need anything like this again, I’d buy from Long Winter Farm for sure.

Catching Fire by S. Collins book review

Well, hot damn!  If you’ve been living under a rock or just don’t care for ya fiction, you’ve clearly missed the shocking trilogy by Suzane Collins.  Push your rock aside, and peep this: *** spoilers ahead, sorry!***

It starts out with The Hunger Games.  In it, Katniss Everdeen is living in a world like our own/in the future/ever so slightly different than ours.  In it, two kids from each of 12 districts that surround the Capital are chosen to compete in the Hunger Games where they fight to the death.  Katniss makes a fool out of the Capital and the President.  He’s pissed!

Then, in book two, Catching Fire, Katniss is sent back into the games and finds it strange that people around Panem have adopted her Mockingjay symbol for themselves.  She catches wind of rebellion in other districts and feels the pressure from the Capital.  Just as things are heating up in the Games, everything goes to shit!  Explosions rock the arena and Katniss is taken away in a hovercraft.  She learns that she’s been the figurehead for a full-scale rebellion against the Capital – and she didn’t have a clue.  Now, Peetra is prisoner, District 12 is gone, and the book ends.  The biggest cliffhanger ever!

So, as soon as I finished book two, I got on the GPL website and requested a copy of Mockingjay.  I have to wait for 58 other people to finish their copies before I get one.  This could be a good thing as I’ve got other books out from the library and course work to do, and report card to write, and a new portable to set up, and a house to maintain.  So, not all bad, but man, what a crazy ending to a book!

To summarize: read this series!  It’s riveting and shocking and will pull you in without your knowing it.  Five stars!

Ah, the art of telling someone you didn’t like their book pick for bookclub…

So, I’m in a book club and love it.  It’s something I’ve wanted to do as an adult but haven’t had the opportunity (read: was too lazy to start my own/too snooty in my book choices/ couldn’t find anyone who read what I loved).

Luckily my lovely friend and I discovered that beyond both being teachers, pseudo-geeks, and lovers of geektastic men and their cats, we loved to read the same books.  Over the year and a bit that we’ve got to know each other more, we’ve become quite close.  We’ve also shared a great many cups of tea and novels.  We enjoy pretty much the same things which is great, we know what to recommend and what to discuss.

This is where the club comes in.  She also wanted to start a book club and found people to do it!  Yahoo!

Then, a book recommendation from one of the members.  I’ve read it early (because I’m keen like that).  I hated it.  I was angry while reading it.  Not because it was about angry things, no.  Because it was a book that I did not like.  (see previous blog about Such is my Beloved).

Last night at the meeting for The Book Thief, I was asked about SIMB.  I had to think a moment before responding because this book was chosen because it was her favourite book ever!  It was the best thing she could offer based upon her tastes.  So, I tactfully said it wasn’t my favourite and then avoided the discussion until more people had read it.  Why did I do that?  I thought about my politeness and avoidance later – I didn’t want to be mean and do to her what others do to me.  Just because she likes a strange or different or unique book, doesn’t mean I should bash her for her choices.  I can rant about them later or elsewhere, but not to her face because really, it’s what she likes and frankly, I hate when people bitch and complain about stuff I love!  Why go on and on about how shitty my book is when you’ve only read a little of it?  And, why can’t you give me a reason for your dislike in a way that won’t make me feel like shit?

So, to be a nice person, I’ll rant and rave here, and be nice in person, because it’s what I’d want back.  Hopefully it’ll karmaically (car-may-ick-lee) (I know, I know, not a real word) come back to me in later months when it’s my turn to pick the book again.  Fingers crossed.

Book review of: Callahan’s Such is My Beloved

Maury Callahan’s Such is My Beloved was a shitty book.

I’m realizing now that I do not like “literature” type books.  Does this make me feel like I must sound like a simpleton?  Absolutely!  I sound like all I want is my copy of Soap Opera Digest and a Coke Zero  but still, I didn’t like it and I don’t think I’m digging the genre either!

I had recently read Orwell’s 1984.  I didn’t dig that one either.  I’m a smart person!  I love reading and books and long novels and puzzles and other things that make me think, but I didn’t like them.

I have been bothered by this: Why don’t I like “books that I view are for ‘smart people’?”  I think that what it boils down to is that I feel I’m running out of time to do things that I enjoy before having children.  Listening to people with kids, it sounds like once I start a family, I’ll be unable to do ‘fun’ things like I do now, so I better get doing them.  This makes me angry at stupid books like Such is my Beloved because I felt it wasted my time. Stupid book.

Since finishing the stupid book, I picked up Tess Gerritsen’s The Sinner.  It’s a murder mystery/detective novel/forensic thing about a murdered nun who gave birth right before she died.  So far, so good!

It’s been so long!

So, clearly I’ve not been posting for a while.  I’ve also not done a whole lot with my Shop.  I was wondering why no one has been interested in anything I’ve made.  I think it’s because I’ve not added anything new since I started back to work and, since I’ve not bought anything from anyone else!

I had bought things with my old account but not with my new SpicyMouseShop one.  No one knew this vital info but me!  Etsy is clearly a place where people support each other.  I had failed.  Therefore, last night I fixed it.  I placed two orders with different sellers.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I had wanted to buy these things, I just hadn’t done so yet.  Money was changing with getting a contract and such.  I wanted to be cautious.  But now, I’m all kinds of excited!  I get to wait and watch the mailbox and see what comes and when!

This has also brought me back to wondering what to post next to Etsy and whether or not to have a sale…

Thoughts?

hand made iPhone cases

Hand made felt case by SpicyMouse

I’ve been making some rather clever felt iPhone cases and selling them on Etsy.

So far there are two (one is hot pink, the other is Double Rainbowed!), but a third is being stitched and a fourth is brewing in my brain.  There may be a garden gnome and possibly some kind of zombification.  You never know.  One minute I’m cute and pretty, the next I’m rather icky.

Hello world!

Hey all!  How exciting is this!  A blog!

A mere month after starting the SpicyMouse Shop with Etsy, a blog is formed to keep people up to date on all things Spicy!

Keep in touch!  Comment!  All that lovely stuff!  This blog will be updated as things develop and brew.