Spoon Cute and other Colloquialisms

Today I received my first order from Hawaii! I have had orders from all over the Continental United States, England, and Australia. One of my favorite things in dealing with customers from outside of Pittsburgh is noticing their regional colloquialisms. Pause for an English teacher flashback--"a colloquialism is a conversational, informal type of speech. Colloquial  is often mistakenly used with a connotation of disapproval, as if it meant 'vulgar' or 'bad' or 'incorrect' usage, whereas it is merely a familiar style used in speaking and writing." (Dictionary.com)

Back to reality, Pittsburghers (yes, that is what we call ourselves), are notorious for some colloquialisms.  For example, every morning I ride my husband to to the bus stop.  What I really mean is that I give him a ride, in a car, to the bus stop, but Pittsburghers eliminate those pesky "unnecessary" words.  I will not even get started on Yinz (similar to the southern y'all) and pop (at least we are not alone on this one). We call it Pittsburghese and some of us refer to the speakers of Pittsburghese as Yinzers.  Check "aht" this site for a whole list of words spelled phonetically for your pronunciation pleasure. http://www.pittsburghese.com/

By the way, even though I was an English teacher and promoted more formal speech, there is still a place for all of the Yinzers.

The whole point of this ramble is that I was working with a customer from Georgia and when she sent me the pictures that she wanted included on her card they were soooo cute.  Since I was away from my computer, I used my phone to respond to her message and wanted to tell her how cute her pictures were. The only problem was that my phone "helped" me with the message and instead of "sooooo" it inserted "spoon."  The message read:  "Those pictures are spoon cute!"

The next day when I looked back at the message I noticed the error and wrote back explaining the error, neurotic English teacher that I am.  She replied that she thought it was just one of my sayings and that it was real!

Now, I must start using it.  Spread the word.  I want spoon cute to become a phenomenon.  Anthony joked that it must be real and that I did not make it up. He googled it and he came up with the picture above.  I like it. It definitely is spoon cute!

Have a lovely night!

Vroom! Vroom!

As you may have seen this week, I created a pedal car with a lovely sock monkey driver for a customer (see below). I also got a request for a car without the monkey--shocking, I know, considering the recent boom in sock monkey requests.

But now it is time to for me to buy my own new car. Somehow the end of the month snuck up on me and when I was planning to go to a dealership at the end of February, I was thinking next Friday not today or Monday.

I try to be a savy female car customer and use my feminine wiles to get a good deal. I go alone, without my husband, Anthony, to the dealership. This is partially because he almost lept over the desk at a salesman who was playing games with us a couple of years ago and partially because it plays into my plan.

The Plan
I go to the dealership within an hour or two of closing time so as to limit the amount of time that they have for their reindeer games.



I pretend to have no interest in the color (the first thing car salesmen asks a woman is not what model they would like, but what color!). 

I listen carefully to all of their pitches and ploys and feign apathy when they talk about all of the bells and whistles, pretending to only be interested in the price of the vehicle.



Then when the big moment comes and they ask if I will buy the car today, I revert to a meek housewife and tell them that I can't  make any decisions without my husband and he would be very angry if I bought the car without him (in reality he could car less). 

I leave them hanging and then they almost always throw something extra in or lower the price a little. Cue the maniacal laughter as they have given in to my master plan :)



We will see how well the plan works today.  I am thinking that I really want a red car and it has to have a few bells and whistles. Anthony has requested the radio buttons on the steering wheel--so we will see. 

Have a lovely day!



Click on invitations to visit my shop



Employee of the Month - Sock Monkey!

In my small, one person business, it might seem silly to talk about having an employee of the month, but truly the award goes to my sock monkeys.  

They have just been so popular lately.  I completely understand why with their cheery red smile and cute tail.  The other night I was discussing the design of a new invitation with my husband, Anthony, he complained that I kept on referring to the sock monkey as "him" instead of it.  I can't help myself...we have just become so close.

My interest in sock monkeys started a few years ago when I found must-have sock monkey underwear and pajama pants.  Then I moved on to wonderfully soft sock monkey t-shirt sheets from Target. One of my best friends, Steph, received a bounty of sock monkey gifts from me for her baby shower including books, a jack-in-the-box, a knitted cap, and onesies from Gymboree.



Available at Amazon.com



Photo courtesy of TerrierTrousers

 
Now, with the wide availibility of sock monkey fabric, you can purchase almost anything, from a wallet to a dog harness with the little guys on it at Etsy. 

I just love this harness from Terrier Trousers.  It would be perfect for Emmie and Charlotte, my two miniature weiner dogs. Although, Clarkie, the cute Boston Terrier in the picture seems much more behaved than my two weiners; they act like someone is torturing them when they have to wear a new collar or harness.  Yet somehow Deb  has a whole gallery of pictures with Clarkie in every different style. I wonder if training is included with the harness?

The last search that I did returned 7, 468 results! Wine bottle covers, eye glass cases, and even fabric feminine pads are also some of the products available. You can find sock monkey necklaces with lovely little scrabble tile pendants and bracelets with little sock monkey heads dangling from them (for the low price of $45.00), but who am I to judge?

Don't forget sock monkey art with paintings, prints, and drawings of all sizes and subjects. One of the paintings, entitled Dirty Socks features sock monkeys having sex--a little too much for my innocent eyes--so no picture for you.

Let's just stick to the warm and fuzzy sock monkey items. On Etsy, one of my favorite sources for sock monkey children and baby clothes is sockmonkeyshop. Tracey does the cutest things for little ones.The Sock Monkey Shop features different colors and styles of security blankets, burp cloths, bibs, onesies, t-shirts, and party hats for special occasions. She also accepts custom requests to make you outfit perfect! Here are just a few of her offerings.

Photos courtesy of sockmonkeyshop

Even adults adopted the trend such as Whoopi Goldberg wearing a sock monkey hat on The View on February 3. (I scoured the web for pictures and videos of this, but sadly there were none, so I found these lovely pictures.) Urban Outfitters showcased their version of the hat on this cutie and at ShopAnimalHat.com they even offer matching mittens!



Here are the most recent sock monkey invitations that I custom designed:

 Visit my shop to purchase these and other sock monkey designs and as always, I offer a plethora of coordinating products.  Have a lovely day!

Bee Themes - Buzzing with Happiness!

One of the noticeable trends in Baby Showers is a lovely Bee Theme. While shopping this weekend I found some perfect items to compliment this theme and I created my own Bee Invitation.

• Hand painted Honeybee Stoneware from Williams-Sonoma - The perfect serving pieces for a Shower.

• Shea Butter Bee Soap, Vintage Style Honey Sign, and precious little bee hives from Pottery Barn

• Honey and Honey Bee Glasses from Williams-Sonoma and a Bee Hive Drink Dispenser from Pier 1

Why Dance in the Lightning?

I love a quotation that I thought described my life: "Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it is about learning to dance in the rain."


Rain no longer cuts it.

In today's economic thunderstorm I feel like it is about learning to dance with lightning--something far more frightening, shocking, and illuminating.

Here I am ready to be illuminated and hoping that it won't be too scary.

I heard yesterday that 35 is the new 40 for mid-life crisis time. I have always been mature for my age and now at 32, I might as well be 40.

I quit my day job despite the guarantee of money, fame, and satisfaction. In the interest of full disclosure I was/am a high school English teacher. The money was not substantial but enough; the fame was annoying (I could never buy underwear in a 15 mile radius of my house for fear of running into students lurking somewhere); and the satisfaction was sporadic, like lightning causing the occasional light bulb to flicker above students' heads in my imaginary teacher world.

Now, instead of illuminating 150 students a day, I am waiting for my illumination moment. What am I supposed to do with the rest of my life and which direction should I go in?

Today's answers to that question include hosting a party supply store on Etsy, and reading books on the pursuit of happiness like The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.

I am ready to stop teaching and start learning.

Try not to get struck while dancing!