I really love mother jewelry or mommy jewelry or family jewelry or whatever it is that you happen to call it. I get so hooked looking at all of the different styles and jewelers are getting really creative now with them, because, a lot of women don’t like the typical ‘mommy jewelry’. They want a memento of their kids, etc, but without looking like they are wearing ‘mommy jewelry’. They would like their jewelry to be more sophisticated than that. While I don’t mind, and even like mommy jewelry, the great thing that’s come out of this demand for sophistication is lots of creativity! And that is one thing that I absolutely love when it comes to jewelry – artistic expression! I don’t always want to wear ‘the thing that everyone’s wearing’, I’d like to wear something unique. So I, therefore, am actually a customer for both styles – the more unique and the typical mommy jewelry! Flexible like that, I am.

The two pieces that I have are fairly typical ‘mother jewelry’, but, I love them both. The first one I have is a necklace that my brother and his wife bought me when my youngest was only about a month old. And we all knew that I was done having children – not that more couldn’t have been added, were that not the case, but, anyway… Right, so I had my two boys and my girl. They are September, September, and November. So that’s two blues and an orange. (Not so good with birthstones, can you tell?)

Anyway, it’s a necklace with three cute little children on it and they each have their birthstones on their clothes. They are so adorable. One of them, I think the little girl, is missing a stone. They each have three stones, I believe. (I actually still have it put up from when I went out of town. Do you put your jewelry up when you go out of town? But I digress…) I really want to get that stone replaced, because, it’s one of my favorite necklaces!

Now, I said that my jewelry is ‘fairly’ typical, because my second piece seems to be part of the new wave of mother jewelry that came about not too long ago. It’s a mother’s ring. There are pieces that are far more sophisticated, but, this ring seems to me to be the first wave of people and jewelers getting a little bit ‘away from’ the “mommy jewelry” craze. But like I said, I like them all, so it’s all good. This ring is very pretty and I was very surprised when it was given to me. My parents, my brothers and their wives chipped in together and bought it for me, maybe about six years ago. It’s really pretty and it even has me on it, too. I thought that was a sweet touch.

I will try to get some pictures of my necklace and my ring so that I can show them to you here. I know they will be hard to photograph, but, I learned a neat photography trick that I will try and it will be a fun experiment!

It’s interesting to hear the variation of opinions on mother jewelry from moms and I found a good sampling of ideas here on this MomsLikeMe.com Beauty and Fashion message board thread. I even learned that some moms get what they call a ‘pushing prize’ or a ‘push prize’ – for working so hard to get that baby born! I’ve seen this referenced a few times now. Interesting.

Also interesting, is that it seems the mother’s jewelry tradition began with Helzberg’s Jewelers. If you look up Mother’s ring on Wikipedia, it links to a book by one of the Helzberg’s and he talks about when the tradition for mother jewelry got started – by their company. I wonder if there was anything at all like it prior to that.

Well, whoever started it, I’m so glad they did, because, it’s some of my very favorite jewelry!

Macy’s was the one department store in Dallas that I actually liked. I mean, of the fancy ones, that is. I always felt like a fish out of water in fancy department stores, but, Macy’s had a ‘fun’ edge to it, for some reason. I really have no idea why or what in particular about it made me feel a little comfortable, a little bit welcome, there. And of course, it was always fun to go to the Galleria Mall, though there were not a lot of stores in there that I liked, either. Almost all of the small stores felt like mini fancy department stores. Or boutiques, if you will. Now I like boutiques that have some flair, some personality, maybe even some eccentricity to them. But fancy-foo-foo just isn’t my cup of tea. The structure, the design, of the mall was cool, though. And it was fun driving up in the parking garage in circle after circle after circle…

Yes, I’m a dork.

The trippy part is that now there are Macy’s Coupons! So strange to think about using a coupon at a nice department store. When I was growing up, I don’t think anybody would have walked into a store like that with a coupon. Today, though, saving – and frugality – are cool. It’s about time! Duh! Do you know that growing up, we never even went to the big discount stores. I mean – never. Not at all. I was married and out of the house before I went to one. I’ve always been a cheapskate, pretty much, but, grew up in an era of snobbery and people just didn’t do that. And to think all the wonderful thrift store shopping we missed out on! Thrift stores are amazing!

Getting back to Macy’s, you can now shop online from their store. That’s really cool. I guess I just don’t think of stores like that having online ordering available. But they do and not only that, there are Macy’s Coupon Codes and Macy’s Promo Codes that you can use, too!

When I discovered that, I figured it would be kind of like some of the grocery coupons. You know how it’s often cheaper to get the generic cereal than the name brand cereal using the coupon? That drives me crazy! So I was thinking Macy’s stuff would still be outrageous, price-wise. We’re a cash-strapped family with three teenagers, worried about getting them through college, we’re not going to be buying super mondo expensive stuff, you know?

I went and looked through the plus-size section since I’m a plus-size (now…) and they really had some decent prices in there and some cute things. So many plus-size sections have ‘grandma clothes’. It’s like, “Um – hello? I’m fat, not geriatric!!” And truth be told, they did have a few pieces that screamed ‘grandma’, but, they also had a ton of really nice-looking stuff.

And GUESS WHAT!!!

Their plus-sized clothes were modeled by plus-size models!!!! Now that right there is downright amazing! Way to go, Macy’s! One more reason for me to like you!

Happy, groovy fat chick signing out,

You see I couldn’t get too mushy on ya there! And I know ya’ll catch me in the mornings sometimes complainin’ about my crew on Twitter and Facebook. They won’t get up or one of the four of them is grumpy or whatnot. (And yes, I’ve even seen the girl complainin’ about the old man and I on Facebook. She’s venting and getting support – it’s cool. I get that.) Families are just like the valentines day flowers I wanna talk to you about today, right? Well, the roses, anyway. You’ve got that beautiful flower, but, you also gotta deal with those darn thorns. And let me tell ya, the thorns on my rosebushes outside, man! They hurt and itch and just YEOWTCH! But I just adore my three rosebushes. Two of them are from Mark’s sweet Granny E and one of them is from my lovely momma, Judi.

And this post is brought to you by 1800flowers.com. I’ve been doing some window shopping over there and having a blast picking out this and that and everydarnthing else! Since money has been rather tight around here the last year, I’m just having a blast choosing whatever I want to for everybody, pretending I can get whatever I want. Have you ever done that? At an ecommerce site – go there and just select whatever you want! Throw out that nagging worry in your chest, or gut – or wherever your worry manifests itself in your human vehicle and decide what you’d get for everyone! Dude, seriously – it’s so freeing and so much fun. I guess I could just be a dork that way.

So let me just be totally and completely selfish and start with me. Sounds groovy. I love, love, love looking at flower arrangements. I really do. And there are several I would pick for me if I were my man. ["If I were my man..." weirdness...] I really love the square vases, those are so pretty and the unique, different vases. And I love when they JAM a bunch of roses in together and make it look like one big, giant BALL of roses. Very cool. But I’ve really gotten to prefer when people buy me plants. In fact, that rose bush from my mom that I told you about that I have outside is one she bought me in a set for a gift. It was one big basket and it had four different plants in it and the rosebush was one of them. I think it was for Easter. So I’m really partial to plants – that last.

My favorite plant they have on their main Valentines page is the pretty rose topiary. I think it would look awesome in my office and it would really make a cheery atmosphere in here!

Moving on to Mark, I see that 1800flowers has cheesecake. Oh man. Score! Mark loves cheesecake! The only tricky part is picking which one he would prefer – they have a few different ones. For the most part, though, that was easy!

Now the kiddos – this is fun and easy, too. They have candy-covered Oreos – YUMMM! And they have candy-coated rice krispie treats – oh how delicious! And they also have candy-coated (or maybe that’s icing) brownies. Super delicious mega score there, too!

Oh, another thing that I really liked, also – was the GIGANTO fortune cookie. That thing is really cute. And you can put a special, personalized message on the ‘fortune’. That is totally unique and different – I love it!

And hey – while we’re at it, why don’t we pick a few for the grandparents. We have two grandmas and a grandpa. Grandpa would maybe like the brownies, though, I’m not sure he’d be too keen on the candy/icing coating. We’d have to think on that one for a while. And for the two grandmas, I think I’d get them each one of those Pamper Her Spa Towers. Those look awesome! These four pretty boxes are filled up with spa goodies, chocolates and more!

I gotta tell ya, shopping like this is FUN! You should totally go try it!

Have a SUPER GROOVY DAY!

My mother-in-law likes to do a lot of shopping. She and her sister both do. They will go to all these cool antique shops and gift shops and also they can garage sale shop like no one can! LOL One thing my mother-in-law found recently that really piqued my interest was a Himalayan salt lamp. They are so pretty. The light they give off just gives a warm feeling to the air.

Salt Lamps are said to give off healthy negative ions and that’s really good for you, but, I don’t really understand what that’s all about. I’ve heard it compared to the air at the sea and the air after a good rain. All I know is I really like the looks of them and the peaceful feeling that they give me. My favorite ones are the ones like I have pictured here, just kind of a blob. They do, however, come in all kinds of shapes – spheres, cats, crosses, you name it, basically. I love the rough look and natural feel of the ‘blob’ ones, though. And they come in pinks, oranges, and reds.

I think I might have to do a little shopping of my own! It would be really nice to have one on my desk, to keep me feeling peaceful and unworried through the day. Or maybe when I want to take a break, I could just sit back and stare at it! You know how people always say to count to 10 when you’re upset to help you calm down? I could count to ten while staring at my salt lamp. That might just do the trick when I get all wound up about something!

1. They’re fun! You can cater them to the person’s likes and hobbies.

2. They’re easy! You just go to the site and put them all together – or choose one that’s already put together for you!

3. Someone else is putting all the stuff together for you!

4. You don’t have to mess with the shipping – they do that for you, too!

5. I love receiving gift baskets! And I bet lots and lots of other people feel the same way!

My two favorite gift baskets that I’ve received have both been from my mother. The first one was years ago when I had to work on Easter Sunday – I was so terribly bummed about it!! I was going to get off in the afternoon and get to spend time with the family, but, I was missing all of the fun morning stuff. So my mom decided to cheer me up! It was the funniest thing ever! Not the gift basket itself but the delivery dude! He was dressed as a bunny and was just the most hysterical dude! I was working as a receptionist and so there was a tall desk in between myself and the bunny man. He did something close to ‘jazz hands’ and said, “If there wasn’t this desk here between us, I would just hug you!!!” It was absolutely hysterical! Whenever I happen to see the guy that I was working with that morning, we still laugh about that – and it was over 20 years ago!! The only thing that I remember being in the basket was this cute little duck with a straw hat on – and I still have it. The best part, though, was definitely the delivery! My mom – and ‘Bunny Dude’ – definitely made my day!

My other favorite was a gift basket she sent me in May for my 40th birthday. It was a big, short basket with four different plants in it. Even after leaving the plants for a month to go to Dallas, I still have three of them alive and strong! I just love it when I get plants that I can keep for presents! I think it is absolutely the coolest thing! Flowers – like roses – are fun to get and all…. but, I would so rather have something that I can keep! And four plants in one – well, that was just totally cool!!

We have our first game tonight and this morning, I checked to make sure my band parent shirt was hanging up nicely so it wouldn’t be wrinkled. But I wasn’t in the mood to try it on. I haven’t exactly been so good between last football season and this, so I hope it still fits okay. I was thinking, though, that it would be kind of cool if it didn’t. Why? Because I could order myself a custom-made one from CafePress. I love buying stuff from them! And I could make it a regular t-shirt, as ours are polos, and that freakin’ collar makes me too hot! It’s stiff and uncomfortable and drives me crazy!

And, I could “pirate-ize” my shirt, as that is our show this year. It’s a pirate-themed show, mostly based on Pirates of the Carribean. And the kids’ t-shirts (what they wear on non-uniform days or under their uniforms) have skull and crossbones on them and they are so cool! And the custom t-shirts from Cafepress are so much fun to make! My daughter’s friend has one that her dad made for her and it is so super cute! It has her name on it, her instrument, the band name, and some other stuff. Way cute!

And it would be awesome to custom-make posters, too! It’s my daughter’s first year to march so that would be a really neat gift to make for her I think! And I’m sure the boys would like one, too! It would be really awesome to create several of them and hang them up downstairs in our cool, kid-hang-out basement!

And another thing that I would love for me, and for a gift for the band director (cuz he ROCKS!!) would be band coffee mugs. We could put some ‘pirate-y’ stuff on there and the year and they would make great mementos and a nice spirit item to have on our desk every single day! I’m pretty sure he drinks coffee…hmm…

Well, I know I do!

This is a sponsored post, but, who among us has not always had a childlike wonder about wall beds?

I’ve always had a keen interest in wall beds, I think since seeing one on Laverne and Shirley when I was a little kid. I have always thought they were so cool! This murphy bed is seventeen hundred times cooler than that old thing that flopped down from the wall on Laverne and Shirley so many years ago!

Before deciding to give up my office to my oldest son so the boys can each have their own rooms, I had considered something like this for the office. I had been looking at Futons that folded out into beds. I have the perfect space for it and I thought that it would be great in here, because, when the kids want to come in here and talk and hang out with me, they would have something to sit on. And then when we have out of town guests, like my mom or my dad, the office could double as a guest room. That would definitely be cool. And holy macaronis, if I could afford this Murphy Bed – that would just totally rock!

These things are really cool! You should go to the site and watch the video to see how easily they convert back and forth between bed and couch, couch and bed. It’s really neat. It would definitely make my dream office, that’s for sure!!

I say ‘your’ car, because, I have a minivan. And this invention isn’t really needed in my minivan. I did need it this summer (several times!) when driving my mom’s car, though!! How many times have you dropped something in between the seat and the console and hurt the back of your hand or your wrist trying to fish it out? I know! Me too! I hate it when that happens! And sometimes you can’t even actually get the ‘whatever you dropped’ out! It’s like the car just swallowed it up completely. You stop the car, get out, crouch on the ground to see underneath the seat and you still can’t see the durn thing!

Well, the answer to your hand-hurting prayers is the Drop Stop – a super cool little doohickey invented by two guys who wanted to make all our lives just a little bit easier! Marc Newburger and Jeffrey Simon put their heads together to create this helpful addition to your car after Marc had a very close call with a pole!

With all of the cool stuff in the auto parts section of the giant discount stores or all of the cool things at auto parts stores – you would think someone would have thought of making this car wedge sooner! It’s so strange that someone just now came up with this! What is wrong with us? Didn’t we learn anything from all these years of scratching up the back of our hands? Thank goodness Marc and Jeffrey did! You can read all about the journey from concept to completion and all about their team on the site. Just scroll down to the bottom of the page and click, ‘About The Inventors’.

I love the way they surprised people in the video – that’s so funny that no one picked out what they had put in their cars! I can’t say that I would have noticed it, that’s for sure!

I’ve often thought about buying one of those consoles that you can put in minivans that you can buy in the auto parts section. (I’m torn, because, then no one can crawl through – well, not very easily.) I wonder, though, if I did – if it would work with that kind of console, too. If not, maybe that could be their next product invention. They could call it “Drop Stop II”. Until then, though, my mom’s gotta order Drop Stop for her car so next summer I won’t have so much trouble losing things in her car!

P.S. They have a Thanksgiving offer right now for 15% off!

These adorable pretend play kitchens are so completely cute and awesome! I love them! There are many different styles and sizes from which you can choose! I love toys like these that really encourage imaginative play. So many toys just ‘do the playing’ for the kids! And in my experience, the children actually tire of those toys so much faster. The thing that I really noticed with my own kids is the ‘more’ the toy does for you, the quicker that toy gets put off to the side, never to be picked up again.

Sammie did have a toy kitchen when she was little and we did really love it and got lots and lots of play time out of it. Hers was plastic, though – and these wooden ones remind me so much of the ones that were around when I was a kid. They are like the 1970s versions with a whole lot more pizazz!

Call me a child of the 70′s, but, there is just something magical about wooden toys. They just seem like a springboard for lots of fun ideas and interactive play to blossom. The Pretend Play Kitchens Shop has quite a variety of kitchens from which to choose – they are in all kinds of different sizes and styles. And they come in a lot of different color schemes, too!

Man, I’m telling you, I just love munchkin toys and I’m so bummed that my kids are so old and we don’t get to shop for this stuff anymore. I’ve actually been thinking of starting a site and/or blog just devoted to my love of munchkin toys.

The kitchen that I like best at the Pretend Play Kitchens Shop is the Grand Gourmet Corner Kitchen. It is the one that I have pictured here and I just be any one of my four nieces would just love it and have many hours of fun with it! Yep, it’s the most expensive one they have! But I am telling you – it is awesome! And it has a pink color scheme and even has pink curtains that open and close! I don’t know, though, the Pink Retro Kitchen is pretty cool! It has a separate refrigerator and because the pieces are separate, it really reminds me of the set that my cousins had when we were kids. Man, I loved their kitchen! I was so jealous of it! Hehe.

And if you have limited space available, there is even a kitchenette – and even it comes with all kinds of cool stuff!

Any one of these would make a great Christmas gift for the little one in your life! I’m just sad that we’re past that stage in this house! You should totally check out how cute these are, though!

This post was sponsored by PretendPlayKitchenShop.com and I’ve had so much fun looking at all of their cute kitchens!

Ok, I’m not in the UK, but, can I just say? I love the Office Supermarket website! Yes, it is a retail website – but, it is a helpful retail website! I have been thinking about what all I want to do with my home office, in terms of decorating and organizing, a lot lately. It is my ‘space in this world’, if you will – and I want to make it, not only, all my own, but also, an easy place to accomplish all the things that I want to do. And that list of things I want to do is long, let me tell you! So it has seemed an overwhelming task, trying to figure out how to incorporate all the home office furniture and space for the many things I want to do and have it look kind of nice!

There are two pieces of furniture on which I get stuck making decisions all the time! The first one is my desk. I just love my “desk”. I put that in quotes, because, it is not really a desk. It is a piece of furniture that my husband got off a job about twenty years ago. He said it was being used as a dining room table. It actually looks neither like a desk nor a dining room table! It has this odd, sawhorse-type frame underneath made of wood and metal and the surface is just a giant piece of really thick glass. I absolutely love this hideous thing. Of course, I loved my ’79 Delta 88, too. A lot can be said for my taste – or maybe, of my taste. It has such a wonderfully large surface, though, that I have avoided giving it up for a very long time. The really cool thing about Office Supermarket is that, for those of us looking for office desks, they offer a office desk buying guide. It’s actually really simple, but, it helps me to map out the choices in my mind. It neatly puts them in sections for me. I love it! Choice can be really overwhelming to this ADD-girl, so this kind of help is priceless!


The other thing that confuses me when thinking of what kind I want is my office chair. There are so many to choose from, in so many different styles. I’ve known that I needed a new one for some time now, as this one is just about smushed out of all its stuffing. And ever since Lynn Terry had her back trouble and got her cool ‘recline-y’ type office chair, that threw yet another wrench in my decision-making process! I just can’t get her comfortable-looking chair out of my head. I’m not sure, however, if I really can sit up and be productive in a chair like that. I have so much trouble motivating myself as it is. Not to worry, though – Office Supermarket has a ‘map’ for this, too! That’s right – they have a buying guide for office chairs, too! I’m definitely going to bookmark those two pages for help with my shopping.

Another really cool thing they provide is a phone number for expert advice, if you’re really getting stuck. They offer this from Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm. If they truly offer advice, and don’t try to hard sell you while on the call, that would be an awesome deal! I haven’t tried calling it, but, if you do, I’d love to hear how the call went!

I’ve had a post in my head all day (I know, I know, posts don’t do anybody any good stuck in my head!) about not losing your voice. I’m not talking about from laryngitis, either. I’m talking about being true to yourself, and not shrinking into yourself, or quieting the you that is YOU – for any reason! There are many reasons we all do that from time to time, but, waking up from it is great! And I seemed to have ‘woken up’ just this morning. Well, fixing up MY OFFICE (yes, Patrick, you crazy teenager – it is MINE!) will play a LARGE part of my ‘hearing my own voice’ again. Looking at this Office Supermarket website is getting me all excited about that, too!!