Grand Opening - My Etsy Shop

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Pamela2Heaven

I just re-opened my etsy shop this weekend - right now I am concentrating on baby & children items - leg warmers, headbands, diaper covers & bibs - but plan to expand a little at a time. I have several good sewing and craft ideas  - just have to take the time to get them together and on inventory. I am excited and hope to have some fun with it!

Stop by & check it out!

Shrimps, Snails & Puppy Dog Tails

My newest venture with

"Pamela's Fish Gallery" -

(will explain that further into todays blog)

  - an addition of Red Cherry Shrimp and Mystery Snails - breeding, of course!

I am so excited that one of my Golden Mystery Snails FINALLY laid her first clutch of eggs (two actually!!) and they have hatched! What started out as a little pale peach color glob of a blob attached to the top of my aquarium has hatched into dozens upon dozens of teeny tiny litte snail beings. So small you would need a magnifying glass to see and then couldn't tell if they were even moving.
As of today they are little more than a week old out of the hatch and you can now see them crawl all over the little birthing net that I have them in. They are adorable! (seriously! :-) I also have purple, ivory and blue mystery snails - hoping to breed - waiting on the next batch of eggs to be laid. So exciting!

I started out with six little red cherry shrimp - I don't even know how many I have now. They are funny little creatures. They carry their little eggs under their bodies - protecting them so carefully - and then when they hatch the little guys have to run like crazy to their hiding places until big enough to escape being eaten by anything in the tank that can grab them, including their own mama! I have good hiding for them so many many many survive!

I just put in my first ad on craigslist for these little cuties. Now along with baby fish, I am in the shrimpin' and snail business.

About that "Pamela's Fish Gallery" - last night my husband comes in with this 3 foot x 5 inch nice piece of wood and wants to make a sign to hang on the wall where all my aquariums are - and that is what he came up with! I thought that was pretty sweet - so he had me write it out in my fancy handwriting and he is using all his cool tools to make it look nice.

My Top Ten "Annoying" List

There are things in my every day life that just get on my nerves. Some things are big, some are little, some I can't do a thing about and some that are just plain annoying! I made a list of my top 10 things that fall on my "annoying" list...just for the heck of it! ha!

1. Lint on my clothes
2. Drawstring in my sweatpants
3. Socks that slide down in my shoes
4. Chipped Nail Polish
5. Dry lips
6. Shoes that won't stay tied
7. An itch I can't reach
8. Finding an empty carton or jar in the fridge.
9. My coffee getting cold before I get to the bottom of the cup

and my #10 most annoying thing:

10. Being awaken with "Are you asleep?" aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I did it! I overcame my short hair scare

If you read my last blog post then you know that I was contemplating cutting my hair. Well, I did it! I bit the bullet and overcame my anxiety. First, I arrived 30 minutes early for my appointment so I could casually (yea, right) go through the hairstyle books. I already had the hairstyle picked out with pictures on my phone to show my stylist, but I wanted to find big photos in the books to make me more comfortable that these were "dos" she had possibly cut before (of couse she has, it is a simple straightforward cut, but still....this is MY hair we are talking about.) I found the style in the short hair books on several pages and bookmarked them all. (overkill?) Anyway, when it was finally time for my appointment and I have about 12 pictures to show her - she gasped in awe that I was actually even thinking about it - she had NO idea...and she knows how crazy even talking about this makes me. Then the other 2 stylists had to come over and check it out - along with their gasps of "OMG - no way!!" That almost sent me running out the back door, but I steadied myself - my mind was really really made up this time! I put on my smock - and we were ready to rock. My stylist (Nora) offered me a bottle of water - *should have been something a little stronger, I think* - and away we went. She started chopping - and there was no turning back. When she was done - it was a choppy, uneven, crazy looking mess! Oops - I didn't realize she was just getting some of the length out of the way to do the highlites and THEN we do the REAL cut...whewwwwwww. I was about to have a runaway!! Once we started the highlites I was back in familiar territory and almost forgot that my hair was even being cut. I got all into a magazine so I was pretty calm by then. Ok, time to wash/rinse and then put on a good heated conditioner - sit under the dryer for a few minutes - and back to the chair - time to do the REAL cut...

I got a little anxious a time or two when I would see Nora studying the photo in the book - thinking "Ok, she said this is a simple cut, easy as pie, why are we STILL looking in the book????" I just shut my eyes and thought, "well, it is done now - you can't go back, just gotta hope for the best".

She put those shears down - starting blow drying and walahhh - swung me around in the chair to see the finished product and I LOVE IT! I absolutely love it! Funny thing is - it is almost as short as when I was 10 years old and the hair cutting trauma began! wow - who would have thought?
Best of all, my hubby loves it, too. My daughter loves it, my mom loves it, my friends love it - so I am so glad I did it!! :-)

My Before Pic

Changing Hairstyle Trauma

I want to change my hairstyle. I want to, but it is just not that easy for me. It sounds crazy, I know - and believe me - when I hear myself talk about it - I know it is ridiculous. I envy those girls who can just walk in to a salon and pick a new do. First, I have to think about it, then I have to look at about 100 styles, think about it some more, get a gazillion opinions, think about it some more, then IF I actually get as far as making an appointment - I pretty much scare the poor soul who is about to cut my hair half to death with my wild eyed look and my hyperventilation.
I know where my drama - stress comes from - I can pinpoint it to the exact moment! I was 10 years old. I had long, pretty hair. My mom worked night shift. My dad had to get my sister and I off to school. Dad gets tired of dealing with 2 girls with long, tangling hair in the mornings. Dad takes  girls to get hair cut. Problem solved - and I looked like a BOY! Not just a little bit - a lotta bit! All the way off - like as in Mia Farrow in RoseMary's Baby off! Pair that with a flat chest, no make-up age - BOY! I had to wear a headband every day just to be able to half way look like a girl. UGH! Trauma - I was NOT cute at all. :-(

Sooooooo...Right now I have been in the "thinking" stage for about a week. I have looked at 100's of hairstyles...I have the hairstyle I want. I love it.
- NOW all I have to do is make that appointment! My heart is pounding.....

Another Obsession??

Yep, another one...it's like I woke up one morning and said "I think I will get a fish". So I buy a Betta, a really pretty red Betta. I buy the pretty vase and some rocks and plop him right in...2 days later - I decided he needs a bigger home - so in comes the 2 gallon tank. I figured I may as well read up on them online - and before you know it I am at Petsmart buying a 10 gallon tank - some Dalmation Mollies and Mickey Mouse Platys. Obviously I didn't read "enough" online - I put those poor little guys right in - didn't even know the meaning of the word "cycle". I guess someone was looking out for the poor defenseless fishies because somehow they made it through the cycle - not only did they make it - but one of the Mollies (Dolly) had babies! So I run to Walmart and buy another tank - with filter - and make a nursery for the little guys. OH, HOW CUTE! I saved 6 of the little cutie pies. Well, as if that wasn't enough - I bring home a 37 gallon tank ( seriously).
Now...as of this writing (typing) I have accumulated the following:

2 gallon - Red Betta - Noah
10 gallon - Blue Betta - Betty, White Betta - Wilma, Blue Betta - Sapphire, Blue/Green Betta - Emerald, Red Betta - Ruby. So 5 beautiful females.

37 gallon - 2 Dalmation Mollies - Dolly & Dahmer - 2 Ballon Belly Mollies - Lucy & Ricardo, 2 Mickey Mouse Platys - Minnie & Mickey, 1 Red Wag Platy - Cletus (hubby named him) 2 Sun Burst Platys  - Sunny & Hunny, 3 Cory Cats - Larry, Curly & Mo (hubby named them, too) and 2 Mystery Snails - Goldie & Hawn

Then my little 1.8 gallon nursery with 6 cute as can be Dalmation Mollie babies - soon will have to move to a bigger tank. REAL soon! they are growing like crazy!!

So that is a total of 26!
I love feeding them, I even love cleaning the tanks. I can watch them for hours. They can be so personable.

Here are a couple of pics of my little guys & gals.

My First Official Upcycle

I am sure I have been "upcycling" for ever,  but never even realized it. Today I specifically set out to take one shirt and not waste a single stitch of it. I succeeded! I made a cute pillow cover from everything except the sleeves and I didn't let those go to waste either! It took me all of 5 seconds to come up with an idea for them. I knew I had a couple of old clear vases under the sink that haven't seen the light of day in years. I just spray painted them the olive green and then sewed up the sides to make little slipcovers to dress them up. I am in the process of decorating my "new" sewing/craft room and my dominant colors are black licorice, chocolate, olive and sea breeze blue. (Colors sound so much prettier with edible names, don't they?)

Lovin' Fimo

I am really getting into this fimo stuff.

From wikipedia:

Fimo is a name for a brand of polymer clay made by German company STAEDTLER (STAEDTLER Mars GmbH & Co. KG). Fimo is sold worldwide. Its main U.S. competitor is the American brand Sculpey. The material comes in many different colors; there are many finishes to choose from, and even a softener to use with it because it can be hard to work. It is used for making many things, including jewelery, accessories, and small trinkets. Once shaped, Fimo is baked in a standard or toaster oven for about 30 minutes at 110°C (230°F) to harden it. Once baked, it can be cut, drilled, painted, sanded, and sliced thinly.