*Journey of a WAHM*

So tomorrow is my birthday, not much to celebrate-just another year old. I’ll spend a majority of the day same as any other….boring huh? But today Amber watched her lil bro so me & hubby were able to go see the new 3d Alice In Wonderland movie. I loved it! Been taking advantage of the nice weather, working on the yard, started my veggie & herb seeds for this year. I have not gotten much sewn either this week(good bit cut out though). Last Monday night, my hubby’s cousin, Danielle, was in a horrible accident. Broken neck, back, ribs, pelvis, multiple bruising…she’s going to be operated on tomorrow. The doctors say for now she’s paralyzed from the chest down. All we can do is pray, think positive thoughts for her.

Oh, so much is going on, where to begin? I’m busy, busy, so this post will be short!
Well, 1st off, my son turns 4 this Saturday! Yesterday on daddy’s day off we went to the GA Aquarium in Atlanta in lieu of a party this year. I’ll try to share a few pics & details on that in a future post when I have time. Then in about a week & half is mine & hubby’s birthdays,2 days apart. SO, I’ll be busy I’m sure the next 2 weeks!
I’m aiming for a spring themed stocking in mid March, The 20th, which is the day it is officially spring! My favorite season, when everything just starts to grow & the GA heat isn’t unbearable yet. I plan on trying my best to unveil a new bag design which should be great for active springtime outings! And a few of my patchwork dresses.
I have been making things, but not to stock. For my sister-in-law, who is expecting her 1st little girl this May. Ahh…new life, that’s something that will be celebrated at our next stocking. As always stay tuned to our blog for updates! Thanks for reading!

Just before valentine’s day, we southerners got a treat- snow! A rare sight for adults and children, many kids had never seen any up close. It’s been 6-7 years since we had a good snow. Unfortunately,I slipped & slid down our icy steps, bruised up-sore back. But feeling a bit better ever day. My son gets his splint off in a week, I’ll be glad to see it gone. I haven’t done any sewing, as I am sore, and my mom & stepdad came in for a few days, I had a good time with them. But they are back on the road again, we should see them again in a few months, maybe even by May. But, here’s a couple photos: One of Kayden while the snow was falling, one of the field across the street the next day. I know it’s not much- and has already melted- but like I said, we don’t get this down here! Anyway,Kayden and mine, and hubby’s birthdays are only weeks away. I will try to get some work done, maybe a bit of felting until my back feels better.

So we had been pretty fortunate that my youngest has not had any bad injuries or illnesses. Until of course his arm fracture the week before last, and yesterday I spent the day taking him not only for the check upon his arm, but his pedi as well. So, good news is his arm is healing very well, splint is staying on for 2 more weeks. Bad news, somewhere during all those dr visits he got pinkeye…and is not too cooperative about the drops in his eye. But at least he should be all better by his birthday at the end of the month. And me, i need to get back to sewing soon,but partly I feel why bother when nothing is selling. *sigh* I’m going to work on something this week though, just haven’t decided what fabric I’m cutting into yet.

And I’m putting this out here-anybody interested in trading with me, please shoot me an email! lilgamoma @ jtribecreations.com . My sister-in-law is expecting her 1st little girl in May and I am looking for new newborn gifts, summer clothing in size 4 and mama tops in a size small..and of course, beautiful fibers, yarns,and fabrics are always considered . Thanks!

First off- I apologize if you came to my blog last week. I was HACKED! A big thank you to my server support crew for helping me solve this horrible problem and a big- bad karma is coming for you- yell to the hacker- oh..and get a dang life why don’t you! Thief, stealing my site….so here’s what happened.
My blog WAS alerting virus protection that “a threat was detected” (and not just me-sorry- but thanks to someone for letting me know). Literally hours online with my domain host-who had been just as confused as me, on to their “engineers”…But new problems- someone had made themselves admin (RigoberoMullins75) on my wordpress(.org by the way, not the .com with the freebie blogs). And my blog was now redirecting to some paid ad site. (primosearch) basically this is what it boiled down to…my theme (which I installed just a month ago) was the problem. As it was explained to me, basically there was a loophole in the coding of the theme, and that allows the hacker to sneak in and infect it by adding their own coding that was causing it to be redirected.

http://wefunction.com/2008/07/free-theme-outdoorsy/

This was the theme. Now tech support told me it was “probably theme” if not a recently installed plugin (which i haven’t installed any in a long while). And I am contacting the makers of this theme to let them know their coding has being infected-or allows this problem. I’m happy to say I have even more protection now, several new changes- back to my old theme though. And i think it’s here to stay for a while….

So good news and bad news! Good news first- I got a ride- yeah for tax time and craigslist. It’s a blue ‘97 jeep cherokee country. Needs a bit of work (front brakes & the the auto locks don’t work-along with 3 windows). But it’s in good shape, good tires, tranny- working 4×4. I love it, it’s sort of like our explorer,just smaller. So Wednesday- we get the jeep, go over to the insurance place-pay them, go pick up the jeep, drop it at house. Go downtown in the explorer since car seat was in it. Go to courthouse, get my tag & title transfer, we get outside- the truck won’t start. Dwane calls our buddy who was waiting on us to get home so they could jam together (d is off every other Wed.) He comes gets him, & they went home to get the battery out of the jeep, which fixed it (Since I haggled dude down 300 under his asking price- we had the extra for a new one- so problem there solved) Me & lil man enjoyed fresh goodies from the bakery downtown while waiting for this whole battery deal going down.
Okay- bad news (must be in the air) Kayden has a fractured elbow. It happened Thursday- I swear it looked like he was trying to be superman straight out of the swing. I thought he sprained his wrist, but he kinda hams things up with booboos, and said his foot hurt, his other arm, ya know…but the next morning I knew he’d forgotten what happened & after I saw he wasn’t using his arm, and holding his wrist, i knew it still hurt…so call the dr. Dr says, come in at 2. She thinks somethings going on with the arm, over to hospital for x-rays.Now I’d turned off my cell when I went in hospital. While sitting around waiting for the results, I go out to call Dwane to update since he wasted his entire lunch break at the dr office. His dr had called me- 20 minutes before, they’d called her with results, while we sat in the room waiting! I was to go over to the ER so they could immobilize and cast his arm. okay, get over there- they had no clue, so I let them listen to the voicemail & told them the dr name, another wait, then into the exam room, then another wait, they splinted it, got to call another dr on Mon. to get the cast put on. He’s hating it all! I have a awful headache,my poor little guy, his 1st big boo-boo, and a month before he turns 4! All said, I was home by 6:30 and he seemed a bit calmer. I ended up taking the splint off to loosen the ace bandage- his poor little hand was swollen up, it was way too tight! The dr the ER referred me to for the cast cannot see him for a few weeks…so we’re going to a different dr! Hopefully it will be back to business later this week.

I’ve been doing alot of changes, in my home and with my business. My hubby’s music studio is set up to be more functional now and I got my drafting table back. I set up a smaller studio area on one side of our living room. Being able to craft in the hub of the house seems best for right now. And I can finally get to everything better! I’ve been tweaking codes, new little look for my shop, new blog look. I’m even working on a new business card design. And yesterday I finally set up my HC Gallery- check it out HERE. There’s a 4 pic limit on each one, but i think it gives a good variety of some of my previous work and not as “tacky” as my slide.com slide show was. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was okay- just not as professional looking as my new gallery. But it’s still going to be viewable on my home site, along with all the attachment parenting information. I plan on updating the pages and links next month. Feel free to send me an email for banner exchange information- but be forewarned! You need to have a tasteful website, providing useful information or another small business owner of handmade products. NO paper diapers, milf dating sites, mass chain stores, etc. Sorry. So, my stocking did NOT go well, I didn’t sell a single thing yet. As much as I love HC, I feel I may need to expand over to artfire or etsy just to survive. I woke up today sick, so I am feeling pretty bad & crazy cause moms are not used to being sick! Let’s face it, when do SAHM/WAHM get breaks, much less sick days? That’s funny right? So here’s my fave item that stocked this week, I’ve had tons of compliments on it. I hope it’s not priced too high, I really try to keep my stuff affordable, but patchwork takes lots of planning AND time,time being the biggest factor. There’s so much on HC I’d love to have, but I just cannot afford…and I know I’m not the only one. I mean, that’s why I have the “talent” I do- I’ve been sewing, making patterns, and learning new crafts since I was a child! Talent is worthless if you do not use and perfect it. Oh, there I go again, lol, must be a southern thing, we just ramble on about everything & anything! Anyway, here’s the OOAK Rainbow Twirl Patchwork Skirt that everyone seems to like. I’ve actually had many ppl ask if it’s going to be available in adult sizes….well,I’m thinking about it but I can’t guarantee it, or that it will be soon.

I just had to rave about my friend Heather of Dragonfly Graphics. We already knew each other (before I even knew of Hyena Cart- can you imagine!?). She helped me tweak some coding which added a topbar under my logo for easier finding of my polices, my blog here, etc. You can check it out here at my SHOP which stocks tonight at 7pm! She was so nice & helped me with the coding…which I wanted to try on my own 1st…but I wasn’t doing something right…but now it’s all fixed & pretty cool. Ah, new year & new looks. I’m needing to dye my hair…maybe I need a new look too? Anyway, I highly recommend Dragonfly Graphics if you want a new look,or to add to an existing one. She offers cart, twitter & blog designs. She makes banners, business cards, really just about any graphic design service you could need for your business!

Hello there my dear reader! Thank you so much for being patient with me. Here’s my 1st announcement of my 1st stocking of 2010! I hope you will join me on Tuesday, January 19th at 7pm EST! There will be some brand new items including an OOAK (one of a kind) JTC original that took literally DAYS to make, plus a free for shipping drawing for an adorable peasant dress! I hope that you can make it for a bit of fun shopping! And I’d just like to add that you should become our fan on Facebook today for special discount codes! We’ve recently reached over 100 fans and hoping for more. Just check out the link in the side column of the blog. Previews will be up on Monday afternoon. Oh, and hope you like the new blog theme, I may change it again, or change it back, I’m not sure at this point, but I like it!

Hope everyone had good, but safe new years celebrations! I’m sure the positive mindset that I started the year with has some to do with my productivity. I admit that I have only done a bit of sewing,but there is a reason. My hubby got me a brand new Brother “Project Runway Edition” sewing machine and I LOVE it! But I am trying to familiarize myself the many many new functions it has, and the fact that it’s computerized. Wild…there are very few manual functions, thankfully tension is one of them. But, it sews like a dream, I’ve never had a new out of box sewer before. So I’m experiencing much bliss from it! I’ve made a few of my Posh Knitter’s Project Bags. Designed some new hang tags too, I’m very happy with the design and this will really help keep me CPSIA compliant, plus the look more professional to me. I’ve decided on a few video tutorials, crafty-but aimed more for small biz owners making handmade products, people like me. Hopefully this weekend I can get some of that planned video actually recorded!