Origami Flower Creations by MyBelovedAdoria

I suppose you could see this as just another product review and giveaway.  But to me it is much more.  You see, no one asked me to do this and I am not being compensated in any way.  I WANTED to show off these items because the person behind them is one of my very best friends.

But I'm not offering you this solely because I know her personally.  I also happen to LOVE each and every thing she has ever made and sold.  I would love her creations even if she wasn't also my friend.  Truly.  Every time she shows me something new I am giddy with delight.  I am continually surprised by the new and creative things she can make with her craft.  And yes, I am very proud of her.

She is Jessica who runs the Etsy shop MyBelovedAdoria.  When she first opened her shop less than a year ago, she listed items she had crocheted, thinking that was something people would like.  But when she took up Kusudama origami (Jessica is a real Renaissance woman!) the response was an unexpected pleasant surprise.  Not long after she listed her first paper flower bouquet, she got her first wedding order....

Peacock theme

Another wedding order...

And another...

Then a second peacock themed wedding order, even better than the first....

Amazing peacock boutonnieres!

Then some playing around with different ideas...

Since starting last spring, Jessica has done flowers for TEN weddings!  Not only that, but she has placed many individual items for sale in her Etsy shop.

Such as...

Wall flowers!
Isn't that the cutest play-on-words name for them?

In a MyBelovedAdoria blog post, she expressed:

"I'm not only getting better at making these, but I'm learning what materials work, what doesn't, and different tricks to make it all come together so much easier."

And some awesome feedback she received:

"Probably the smoothest, most positive experience I've ever had buying something that was custom made. She took the time to find out what I wanted, made suggestions when I had no idea and kept me updated the entire time. I can't wait to have a reason to buy from her again, and I'm telling EVERYONE!!" ~AmandaH

Now we have arrived at her first Holiday season as an origami flower crafter and she has jumped in head-first with NEW festive items!  Jessica first made an Advent wreath which I coveted and someone snapped up quicker than you could say "but I wanted that!"

Next came ornaments....

Holiday origami ornaments in classic red and green

Blue/white/silver flower "ball" ornaments

Red ornaments with snowflake centers

I love this wreath too!

Plaid and poinsettias holiday wreath with nesting red robins

OK, so!  Now that you can see just how talented and versatile Jessica is, you totally want some of these beautiful flowers, don't you?

You are in luck, my friends.  Jessica and I are excited to host a GIVEAWAY of a set of 4 handmade Holiday ornaments!

Mulit-color polka dot flowers with green centers and red hanging ribbon
Aren't they cute??

Mandatory entry

• Go to the MyBelovedAdoria Etsy shop, look around and comment below with which listed item you like best.

Additional entries

• Follow Jessica on Twitter @MyBelovedAdoria (leave separate comment with your twitter name)
• Like the MyBelovedAdoria Facebook page (leave separate comment with your Facebook name)
• Follow the MyBelovedAdoria Blog via GFC or RSS (leave separate comment that you did so)
• Tweet about this giveaway (one entry per day): I entered the @MyBelovedAdoria origami ornament GIVEAWAY via @JenAnnHall and you should too! Or something like that.  (leave separate comment with tweet URL)

The fine print

Giveaway will be open for 1 week, through next Tuesday, December 6.  A winner will be randomly selected and announced on December 7.  Winner will have 48 hours to respond.  If no response, I will redraw, and so on and so forth.  Jessica will ship the prize to the winner as soon as said winner responds with shipping info.

PS: In order to keep the comment count as accurate as possible, I do not plan to reply to them here.  So if you have anything you want to say about this post that's unrelated to entering the giveaway, please find me and/or Jessica on Twitter!

All I Want for Christmas

This week for Listicles our esteemed hostess bid us:

"Come and share ten of your favorite photos. They can be of you or perfect strangers, taken by you, pinned by you, seen by you, old or new. List of 10 photos. Easy peasy."

Thank you, Stasha, for giving me the opportunity to make a Christmas wish list!  :-D

I have no expectations of actually receiving any of this stuff because a) I haven't told anyone before doing this post that these are things I want, and b) money is so tight!  Therefor, it is strictly a WISH list.
Anyone know a genie?

In no particular order...

1.

A larger dining table.  I only want the table because the chairs are fine and they are color coordinated with my kitchen/dining motif.  But, I would take the chairs above because they're red!

2.

A tablet of some kind.  They're super cool and I don't like laptops because I can't get the screen close enough to my face without wrenching my neck!

source

3.

Landscaping for my little front and back yards, including a small veggie and herb garden.

 4.

Gold box chain necklace. Mark bought me one on our honeymoon, but it has broken (grabby babies) and been repaired one too many times and is just broken now.

5.

My second tattoo.

The word Thankful, much like the image above, with the u in the shape of a tulip. Several meanings.

6.

New eyeglasses because the ones I have are like 10 years old.  Yes, really.

7. 
An Ab Circle because I've had "jelly belly" ever since AJ was born.

8.
A new fridge with the freezer on the BOTTOM!

9.
Slip-on sneakers.  This is one of those things I never buy myself because when we go to the shoe store it's because my kids need shoes.  I don't NEED them; I only want them.

 
 10. 
A ladies electric shaver.
Because I often don't feel the need to take all the time and effort to do a super close shave in the shower, but I don't want my leg hair getting out-of-control long.


These are seriously things I want.  Absolutely no jokes here.
So don't laugh!

I'm a big dork and have apparently done my wish list a week early.
Don't mind me!

Announcement: Speaking of the Holidays, tomorrow I am hosting a GIVEAWAY of a super cool HANDMADE Holiday item.  So be sure to come back and enter!

Be honest, if you could ask for anything for the Holidays this year, what would it be?

Happy Thanksgiving!

It is Thanksgiving Day in America!



I love Thanksgiving.  For me it is not merely the "gateway holiday" to the "real holidays" of December.  It is not Black Friday Eve.  It is a special day all its own.

Sure, you can argue that it is a tradition mired in atrocities, that the story of the Pilgrims and Native Americans was a bloody one.  Even that the First Thanksgiving wasn't anything like we think it was and commemorate today.

Well I don't care about any of that!  Yes, I care that the Pilgrims were a-holes to the Natives.  But what I care about more is Gratitude.

On this day last year my friend Jessica and I both started daily Gratitude blogging for the Holidays.  We kept it up til the New Year.

I know how to be Grateful.

I have a lot I could be negative, pessimistic and just plain angry about.  But I choose not to.  I CHOOSE to see the good in my life.  I focus on the positive and I can laugh in the face of what might otherwise make me cry.

And honestly, I get a little impatient with people who don't, or won't.  I wonder, what the hell are you doing then?  Are you going to be able to SEE what life is really all about stuck there staring at your half empty glass?  Will you ever find peace and contentment?

I believe that life is a journey.  I believe we are meant to keep learning and growing until the day we die (and maybe beyond for that matter).  I know life is a roller coaster.  I know it's not all sunshine and roses.  Believe me, I know THAT!

BUT.  There is so much good.  There are things like a child's giggle, a pink sunset, fragrant roses, a purring cat and HUGGING.

So this Thanksgiving I am thankful for my ability to feel Gratitude.

(I'm not talking about those who are clinically depressed and struggle to see the good for that reason.  I am talking about those who are just plain old Negative Nellys.)

Bloggy Wisdom

I really hate to admit this because I practically bragged that NaBloPoMo should be easy for me since I often have to hold myself back from posting some days....but man, is it a lot of work!

Oh I have plenty of ideas of things to blog about.  And when I don't there are lots of places to go looking for inspiration.  So it's not so much not having enough to write about as it is just doing all the actual writing...and then the pimping that goes along with each post.  Oh the tweeting!

Right!  As if I hate tweeting.  I freaking love tweeting!

But that's not the point.

The point is I am staring at my computer screen writing, editing, choosing pictures, linking, tweeting, stumbling, facebooking and posting SO much I'm pretty sure I'm putting some serious strain on my eyes.

Oh, my tired eyes!  I ask so much of them.

(You know it's really only my EYE, right?  It's just that's so awkward to say, "my eye".)

But that's enough about my NaBloPoMo blues!

I also wanted to talk about blogging in general.

I think I've been pretty clear by now how much I love my blog and being a blogger.

I LOVE IT.

I feel like I've found a niche.  I mean, a niche other than secretary, or my personal niche of wife and mom.  I've always known I wanted to be a mom, but I never had anything else I KNEW I wanted to be.  You know, like a teacher or a lawyer or an astronaut, all of which I considered when I was a kid, but never got that "light bulb moment" feeling for any of those.  I was a pretty good student too, my best subjects being language arts and history/social studies.  I mean, I stumbled a little in high school (stupid geometry!), but I kind of think that's because I had no clear direction.  I knew I should go to college, but I had no clue what for.  I knew I should want to be "something" when I grew up, but I couldn't figure out what that should be.

source

And then I ended up with a disability and that tends to kind of derail a person from whatever path they may have thought they were on.  Don't even get me started on the insecurities!  I did, however, take several college courses and got some vocational training.  Turns out I have an aptitude for administrative tasks.  Not very glamorous, but someone's gotta do it, and I'm pretty good at it.

Still, raising a family has the strongest pull of anything I've ever been interested in, and it's something I can do regardless of physical (dis)ability.  So that's what I focus on, am fulfilled by.  It's where I really shine.  And I'm proud of it.

Sorry, feminists.

But now there's blogging and the community that exists therein.  And it's like my new baby.  I started this blog long before I discovered all there was to it and it pretty much blows my mind seeing what others are doing, and what I can do.

It has been a major confidence booster.  I'm learning tons.  I'm finding my voice.  I just added a page up there under my blog title, "Me, Elsewhere", because I have started putting even more of myself OUT THERE and I'm feeling pretty proud of it.

Proud of MYSELF?  What is that?

I so want this pajama set from Soge Shirts!

I need to say Thank You to YOU for this.  Thank you to all the wonderful, supportive and encouraging bloggers I've "met".  Thank you for every single comment, tweet, Facebook "like", responses to comments I leave....for every time you click a link to get here.

"Blogger" has become a new part of my identity and I am grateful for it all.

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Tweetness

Hopefully you recall that back on November 13 The Sarcasm Goddess published a guest post from me in which I used the words vagina, bacon and legwarmers, per her request.

If you don't recall, you can read it HERE.

But the topic of this post is what transpired in among the resulting blog comments and tweets.

I said in my guest post that I didn't understand why legwarmers were making a fashion comeback.  To which SG replied:

I asked:

Does she actually think I would lie?  I accepted the challenge!

One person was not a fan:

And another was simply confused:

OK.  See how @chicktuition mentioned colors?  This was my next question.

I tweeted SG, asking what color she thought the legwarmers should be.  She said pink and purple and tried to convince me she had held a twitter poll and that's what everyone decided.  We argued back and forth a bit, and then this:

Finally, SG stopped being ornery:

PUNK and purple?  That sounds fun!

Yesterday was the first opportunity I had to get to the craft store for yarn.  I went with Jessica who likes to say things to me on Twitter like:

I tweeted SG that I was on the job!

And this is what I bought!  Can you believe it?  There's pink, purple AND green there.  Am I good, or what?

By the way, Jessica wants it noted for the record that she would not make me use such obnoxious colors.  She's just sayin'.

This has been your first installment of the "Saga of the Legwarmers".  Stay tuned for the next update.

Oh, and if you'd like to witness every detail, go make sure you're following all the ladies mentioned herein...forthwith!