Aloha Friday, finally.

Wow, it seems as though I've been gone months! I have tons of blog reading to do, but before I begin, its time for Aloha Friday.

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that they take it easy and look forward to the weekend.

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and go to An Island Life and leave your link. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!


My question today:

If you have children at home for summer vacation, are you finding as much time for blogging or for your business as you would normally?

My answer:

Heck no, which is why there are few posts and very little reading other blogs, since summer vacation began. Sometimes it really frustrates me, until common sense kicks in and I realize, they come first!

If any of you have a way of organizing your time so you can get your blogging in, I'm all ears! Make that all eyes... since I moved my office, I don't have any sound coming out of my speakers, and I haven't had the time to investigate this silly problem! Oh well, after the pool and after the phone company comes to fix the phone that is not working and the tv that we can intermittently watch. But that's another story...

Life is back to normal, although my life is anything but normal.

You've probably noticed I haven't been around much lately, at least I hope you've noticed.

Two weeks ago, I thought I had poison ivy, not because I've been working in the yard. Noooooooo. I've never had poison ivy in all my years, surprisingly enough, but I've seen what others go through and I don't ever want to get this nasty, itchy, painful rash. I not because I've been working in the yard. I thought I got it from touching my husband's bath towel or his yard clothes, because he got poison ivy and gets it just about every time he works in the yard, which is every weekend! He is very susceptible to getting it. I've watched him suffer from contracting it and then, unknowingly, spreading it to many parts of his body, with his face being the worse. Poison ivy should be banned from the face of the earth!

I've never had poison ivy in all my years, surprisingly enough, but I've seen what others go through and I don't ever want to get this nasty, itchy, painful rash.

As I covered my rashy areas with calamine lotion, I couldn't take it anymore! The pain under my arm was really bothering me and several small areas on my shoulder blade were beginning to itch. I went to a "doc in the box" (a walk-in clinic) and was diagnosed with adult chicken pox (shingles). What? Are you kidding me? I'm not old enough to get this and why the hell do they call it shingles? Isn't that something roofers use? If it's adult chicken pox, just say adult chicken pox, for God's sake, don't use a stupid name like shingles.

Enough obsessing over the stupid name. I was so upset, I'd only known one person to get this and they were in their 60's. This can't be happening to me, a young chick with two small children. But the doctor (who had no bedside manners, no compassion and was the coldest doctor I had ever encountered in my young life) explained how as a kid I got chicken pox and it sat dormant in my spinal cord. Until, something like stress, brings it out in full force, hence my rash and the calamine lotion doing nothing to help the rashy areas. Stone faced doctor prescribed pain medicine, an anti viral medicine, and medicated patches that would relive the symptoms and hopefully, shorten the time I would have to endure this. Great doc, thanks for everything, now go work on your people skills before I report you to the head of doc in the box, because you are a heartless asshole who should be working in a laboratory, and not with people.

Then it hit me. Stress was taking over my life. Stress was causing me to keep pounds on that I clearly didn't need or want. Stress was causing me to get "shingles". Stress is not my friend but had taken up residence in my body and my life. But let's face it, everyone is dealing with stress in one form or another, but its how we deal with stress that makes a difference. I have been allowing it to take over, its time I give it the boot!

The adult chicken pox (I refuse to call it shingles because that doesn't make sense to me) is all but gone, thankfully, so now I will change my focus to reduce my stress. It won't happen overnight, but I will make small changes and make it happen. So who's with me???

Aloha Friday.

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that they take it easy and look forward to the weekend.

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and go to An Island Life and leave your link. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

My question for you today: In blogging, do you use your real name, as well as your family and friends names? If so, are you ever worried someone might think or react to something you've written in a negative way?

My answer: I use my real name simply because I have an online jewelry business and use my blog to give my customers, and potential customers, an opportunity to get to know me. My business goal, with this blog, is to build trust and confidence and show people there is a real person behind "Dee-Zigns", what inspires me, how I create my handmade jewelry, and running a one-person business.

My personal goal, with this blog, is to talk about things going on in my life, connect with people, and express my humor and laugh at myself. I have so many opportunities, that's for sure!

So there, I've put it out there! Your turn.

Under the Weather...

Hi all, I've been under the weather this last week, so haven't been around :( to blog or visit all your wonderful blogs. I hate feeling bad, especially when its beautiful and sunny outside. My kids have been pretty bored, as you'll see in these pictures.


Blake has been playing games on the computer, and Erika is running around with my camera driving Collins and Kitty crazy.


The look on Kitty's face seems to say "hurry up already!".


Collins puts up with anything, he's such a happy dog and very thankful to be a part of this family. Erika put clothes on him, fortunately for him, is was only this red bandanna :).



One thing the kids did for me recently, was to help me paint my new studio. Two walls are concrete and the floor is concrete, and at first I was freaking out about how they were painting and I was getting a bit nuts and fussing at them. I stopped myself, and thought, wait a darn minute, they want to do this and its the basement! Its okay if its messy! Let them have fun and feel proud they have painted "mommy's studio". Once I chilled, everyone was happy, including me! I used a beautiful shade of green, that is also in my foyer and hallways on the main floor.

My husband was stopping by Home Depot, so I asked him to pick up a light fixture for my studio. Immediately, he had that weird look on his face. You know the look men get when you ask them if the pants you just purchased make your butt look big? And they stand there, not sure what to say, because they don't know whether you want your butt to look like "Beyonce's" or if you want it to look skinny.


So, after describing what I wanted, he reluctantly went off with thoughts of despair, because he wanted to help me out, but didn't want to choose the wrong thing and come home to find out its not what I was talking about. Haven't you noticed you can describe in detail, draw pictures of what you want, and inevitably men come home with something different. At least, mine does. Is he not listening, or does he feel he knows best?

Naturally, he came home with different light fixture, but I'm going to give it a try and see how it looks installed and turned on. If it gives me what I want, I'll keep it and have a happy husband, because I do know that he tried to do the right thing :).


Once I'm feeling better, I want everything moved, so I can begin organizing (that's a laugh) and setting up my jewelry studio. My mom and sister are visiting in a few weeks, so hopefully I can get most of it done before they arrive!

I got another one! Award, that is.

This has been my lucky week as I've received another award! Thank you Recreational Art for honoring me with the coveted Kreativ Blogger Award. I will do everything in my power to continue to be creative.

Kauai, no its Aloha Friday!

In late 1980, I was fortunate enough to go to Kauai with a former boyfriend and stayed at the Westin Kauai. Fast forward to the early 90's after I married my husband, we went to Kauai, and surprisingly enough stayed at the same property, only this time, it was the Marriott Resort Kauai. It was an incentive trip with his company and I remember thinking, "I've been to Kauai, can't we go somewhere else?" It was so ridiculous of me to feel that way and not realize how incredibly lucky I was to go back to a majestic paradise as Kauai, with my husband! To be younger and foolish again...

Wish I was on the beaches of Kauai today (hell, any beach would be okay by me), but I'm not, so I'm dreaming about it and playing along with in An Island Life's Aloha Friday.

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that they take it easy and look forward to the weekend.

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and go to An Island Life and leave your link. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!


My question: Do you shop online? If so, what is the one thing that draws you into an online store? i.e. free shipping, a sale, pictures, free gift wrapping, etc.?

My answer: I love to shop online, I can cover a lot of ground and I can do it anytime I want, in the comfort of my home, in my favorite pajamas, drinking a cup of coffee! I did 90% of my Christmas shopping online. For all my out of town relatives and friends, its easier to shop, buy and ship it directly to them. I prefer shopping at other indie artist boutiques like mine (shameless plug for Dee-Zigns Handcrafted Jewelry), because they normally have one of a kind items and offer free gift wrapping, like me! Offering free gift wrapping is not a total deal breaker, though, because I've bought things at toys r us, shipped them to my sister-in-law's house and asked her to wrap them for me for my niece's birthday.

I'm a friendly blogger, who knew?

A week or so ago, Gaston Studio awarded me with two awards, The 2009 Friendly Blogger Award and the Uplifting Blogger Award. I suppose I wasn't deserving of the friendly one in 2008, so I'm taking this one and running with it!

These awards were not given to me because of nepotism (well, maybe) but if they were, so be it. I am very friendly and I am an uplifting person. Jane at Gaston Studio had every right to award me these two particular awards. So there.

(Nepotism is the showing of favoritism for relatives or friends based upon that relationship, rather than on an objective evaluation of ability or suitability.)

Regardless of how I acquired them, I am honored, so now it is my turn to bestow these awards onto other deserving bloggers.

For the 2009 Friendly Blogger Award and the Uplifting Blogger Award, I'm awarding the chosen ones below both awards, and please don't report me to whomever it may concern, its day 8 of summer vacation with the kids, and I'm so behind on blog reading, I don't know what's going on with all my peeps.

Life in Left Field
A Cup of Mimi
A Psych Mommy
Sane Without Drugs
Words of Wisdom from a Smart Mouth Broad
Country Mouse, City Mouse
Confessions of a Moody Mommy
Peanut Butter & Smelly's Dad

I visit so many wonderful bloggers that are friendly, uplifting, humorous, kind, cranky, obsessed, talented, moody, factual, different, whinny, encouraging, supportive, country, creative, furious, sane, not so sane, divas and smart mouths. It's always hard to choose because I love them all.