Long Time, No Blog

Oh noes! My blog has gone stale!

But it's not my fault, I promise! Lack of internet, followed by my dad having his 8th heart attack and being in the hospital for 8 days is to blame. Thankfully Dad has no further damage from this scare and is back home now. August 20th I will be a real modern girl as I am getting cable internet at my home.

I also haven't had a chance to create anything in weeks. But I do have some things in the works including- Christmas Stockings (with FREE Monogramming), Trick or Treat Bags (with FREE monogramming!), Personalized pony tail holders, and a little something for the South Carolina Street Team Creative Challenge, all I can tell you about that is that the theme is Fall.

So here's me getting back on my proverbial horse.

Fun with Photoshop, Mcmama style.

Songs about Girls Named "Jenny"

My favorite at the moment. Especially "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" by the Killers and "Jenny and the Ess Dog" by Stephen Malkmus. But why aren't there any awesome songs about girls named Ashley? We're rad too. I mean, some of us are. And with the amount of girls that are named Ashley you would think that one of us had inspired a really great song by now.

For instance, I was going through my old myspace blog posts and one post from October '06 said, "Well I've never been much of an optimist, but today I'm going to focus on the positives.
Like, they can't eat me. Unless of course, "they" are cannibals, in which case I would probably make a pretty good meal. No, I would make a darn good meal. I would like to think I would be served with a side of potatoes and a dry red wine.
Ok, that isn't where I was going with this. Oh well. Pass the potatoes."

If that's not inspiring I don't know what is.

Enjoy the vid-aae-oes. Oh come on oh come on.

Vintage Ellery

The other night my mom found a couple of outfits she had saved from when I was a baby. So of course Ellery had to wear this cute halter top outfit. I also found some pictures of myself wearing the same outfit. So this post is for everyone who says that she looks JUST LIKE some guy named Kevin. (insert evil laugh here)

Look at those chubby legs!

My Brain = Mush

I have never been more forgetful in my life as I am right now. A couple of weeks ago my brain was like this creative river- flowing with all kinds of ideas. So many ideas, in fact, that I didn't have enough time to get the things that I wanted to get created. But if I ever take a break, everything shuts down. I drank BBQ sauce out of a bottle the other night at dinner. I was going for my sweet tea. I was looking at RocknRollMcBaby, who was being very loud and trying to eat the table (again), I picked up the BBQ sauce and put the bottle in my mouth. If I get some weird disease now, we'll all know where it came from.

I will remember that I've forgotten something, and say to myself "hey you better remember to do that" and a couple of days later, I'll remember it and the cycle starts over. I just remembered an email that I need to send. I wonder how long it will be before I forget again?

Maybe it's because my Some Guy Named Kevin is working 12 hour nights on 3rd shift again and RocknRollMcBaby thinks that sleeping is for squares, but I would really like to be bright and sharp again.

Wait, what was I talking about? Oh forget it, Let's just look at how cute the little bugger is...

I did the monogramming on that shirt, ;)

RocknRollMcBaby's Pick of the Day

Everyone knows how cute baby shoes are, but everyone who has a baby also know how totally impossible it can be to get shoes on baby's feet. Plus, soft booties are better for baby. So these booties kinda are the perfect thing! These booties are seriously so cute! They are made by kraftyladycreations and fit size 0-6 months. I wish I could get a pair to fit RocknRollMcBaby's huge size 4 baby feet!

Almost Crawling

It's so funny, when you have a baby it seems like you sit around and wait for them to do something new and every little thing you kind of freak out and it's like some sort of weird celebration because the kid looks at you or throws up on you or something. Then all of the sudden they start doing so many new things that you can't even keep up with it.
Ellery has got several new things right now. They are all exciting for me, but I guess the most exciting is that she's almost crawling. She's gotten to the point where she can get up on her knees and rock back and forth. I hear that it's only a matter of time until they are actually going somewhere from that point. But usually after a few rocks she gets frustrated and throws herself onto the floor and starts licking the carpet. My child is a licker- and a growler. She acts like she's part dog or something. And I've turned into a total germaphobe since having her so anytime she starts with the licking, I get so freaked out, it's not even funny.

Ellery's next new thing will probably be much debated since she's only 7 months old, but I swear that she's saying "Mama". I don't mean like jabbering either, she does do that and I hear stuff like "mamamamampppppbbbbbabababa" along with a lot of spitting, but this seems way more directed at me. If I walk through the room I hear "Mama! Mama!" And she says it as she's reaching for me. So if she doesn't realize what she's saying that's an awful big coincidence.

More new things- dancing, with help of course, but she's definitely going to be a music lover. We get to hear lots of squeals and see lots of bouncing when music comes on. Kissing- oh man, I don't know if she's kissing or trying to eat my head! No, I know that she's kissing but she will grab me by my hair and make an "Ahhhh" noise and plant one right on my head. It's so cute and funny. I also think that it's pretty cool that most of the time when I say "Gimme a kiss" that she'll do it. Not sleeping- this is not a good one. She used to go to bed really early and sleep like 12 hours and then take a few naps during the day. Lately she's been staying up until 1 am or later, waking up early in the morning and then only taking one nap a day. I'm exhausted. Especially considering I'm not a good sleeper to begin with. So many bloggings may be done with RocknrollmcBaby right here in my lap.

So excuse any typos. Lol.

TeamSC Pick of the Day

Did you know that South Carolina had an Etsy street team? Well it does (and I hear that their team leader is super awesome lol). I am constantly amazed at the talent that I find from local artisans, and so I will be featuring items and SC artists from time to time. Above is one of my favorite necklaces of all time. It is from Vandiva, made from Coral and Green Chalk Turquoise. Seriously, if I currently had more funds this would be MINE! Love it love it LOVE IT!

Cereal In My Pockets

"Hey fruity lips, you wanna come with me sugarbutt?" They used to play this show featuring sock puppets called Sifl and Olly on MTV in the late 90s. And it was hilarious. My favorite was Chester, with his little flower eyes (I guess those were flowers). I think this is what television needs today- more sock puppets and less reality t.v.

Awesome Commercial Flashback

I so love this commercial. I remember me and my home slice Susan used to hope that it would come on t.v. when we were in high school. And when it did, we were happy. I wish I had one of those little skeleton toys. And I wish I could've fit a car seat into my VW. Maybe I should've gotten a golf instead of a beetle. But you can't put babies where they put that chair so maybe that wouldn't have worked after all. I'm rambling. Da Da Da.

BATH NIGHT Pick of The Day

Being a new mom, I don't get a chance to do certain things as much as I did before I had a baby. Things like, I don't know, showering. So I want something that will get me squeaky clean. So my handmade pick of the day is this wonderful chocolate mint soap from crazytimescandles. I've had some of their vanilla soap before and it's really nice. Plus they are having a 20% off sale, you can't beat that!

Achieving More Professional Looking Pictures

When I ask for critiques of my etsy stores, I always hear that my pictures could be better. I've learned a lot about photographing items since I started selling in February; I've learned about macro mode for small items, and lighting. A few months ago when my primary craft was making jewelry I made a light box/macro studio from a tutorial I found on the web. It worked fairly well, definitely better that my first shots, but I was still having a hard time getting enough lighting into my photos.



So when I opened up my second store that focused on teeny tiny polymer clay jewelry, I wasn't sure how to photograph it. I started by going outside when there was a lot of light and taking pictures under natural sunlight. The problem with this is that I can't just drop everything and go take pictures when the sun is shining. By the time my husband wakes up to watch the baby for me, the sun has gone down. So I finally broke down and bought one of those studio in a box things that I've been looking at on the Internet for months.




I purchased the American Recorder Studio in a Box- on their web site it sells for $120, but I got it from amazon.com for just under $60. It comes with two lights, two backgrounds, a light box, tripod, and it all folds up neatly into a carrying case. I really like it. I don't have to edit my photos at all, just crop and I'm done. The only thing that I don't like about it are the background colors. You have a choice of cobalt blue and gray. The gray makes everything look horrid. The blue is what I'm using for most of my photos. I found that I could get white/black backgrounds from their web site for around $20, and I might do that later on.

They say that better photos will lead to more sales, and hopefully with my new camera and studio I can achieve that. We'll see.

Favorite Color Pick of the Day

Today's Handmade Pick of the Day features my favorite color- PINK! There was so much to choose from but I chose this "I heart mix tapes" pendant from tizzalicious because it took me back to high school when boys used to make mix tapes for me. And it also got me thinking- what do guys do now? Mix CD's? Trade flash drives? Hold Ipods over their heads while playing Peter Gabriel? I doubt it.

I got a new camera!

Today I got a nice surprise, my hubby said that we could (finally) go pick out a new digital camera! I got my last camera 6 years ago and while it was a very good camera in 2002, I'm so happy to have something better now that I have my daughter.

I got a Nikon Coolpix P80. So far I'm really pleased with it. I've played around with the different scene settings- portrait has face recognition which really makes clear photos of faces in pictures- perfect for photos of my little one. I also went outside and played with the macro mode a little bit and I'm pleased with that as well. It was dusk when I was outside and I still got some alright photos of flowers. I was reading in the user's manual that you can adjust the shutter speed if you're taking photos of water fountains and things like that. I can't wait to play around with it some more.

I also like that I can actually get the baby's expressions now before they change or she moves her head. My old camera was soooo sllooooowww. Plus I can use it for etsy. Hopefully I will be just as happy with my table-top studio that I should receive Monday, I'll keep you posted!

Girly Pick of the Day

It's Saturday and I started thinking about how I used to go out on Saturday nights- to go to dinner, maybe to go do karaoke or other things that didn't involve spit-up and 9 o'clock bedtimes. Anyways, this would totally be a bag that I would have carried! I found it from Janine King Designs and I love the fabric and the size.

Holiday Preview

These Holiday items will be coming soon to RocknRollMcMama Designs! The dresses pictured above fit children size 18months-3T as a dress or up to a size 6 as a shirt. They look adorable layered with turtlenecks and leggings. They will retail for $12 plus you get FREE MONOGRAMMING, any name of your choice. Also look for Christmas cookie earrings, candy corn earrings, and a plate of Santa cookies ring coming to my Yum Yum Creations store.

Also keep an eye out for my Christmas in July Sale going on in both of my shops, RockNRollMcMama Designs and Yum Yum Creations. Look for savings up to 50% off holiday and gift items.

Rock n' Roll McBaby's Pick of the Day

I love searching through the internets for different types of stuff for the baby. Today I ran across this super cool Elvis onesie by Bambina Mia. Elvis is made of a felt applique which I thought was super cool. Evidently Elvis has not left the building.

Ash VS. The Slip N Slide

It's a rainy afternoon in South Carolina and Ellery's parents- that would be 27-year-old ME and my 30-year-old husband are taking runny-goes, fully clothed into my nieces' slip n slide. Why would I do such a thing you ask? Well I went outside to ask my husband for the bank card so I can purchase a nice little photography studio for my etsy businesses and I see him soaking wet, shirt off, covered in grass. "What?" he says. "Did you do the slip n slide?" I ask. He grins. So then I ask the next most obvious question. "Well was it awesome!?"

By this point my sister-in-law, my sister, my mom, and all of my nieces and nephews are outside. I don't quite remember how the idea for me to get on t his thing happened but I do remember my sister clucking at me like a chicken. And like Marty from the Back to the Future movies- Nobody calls me chicken.

Dumb Mistake #1- Peep Show. I have on two tank tops, a white and a blue. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to take off the blue one before slipping and sliding. Less layers would make me go faster? Who knows. But as EVERYONE knows if you get white wet, it's see-through. Whoops. Where's that other tank top, I need it ASAP!

Dumb Mistake #2- Bad form. I could see that my husband was getting farther by doing a little jump as he got to the edge of the mat. I tried this, but it didn't work out so great. Something happened to my elbows. And my neck. And my back. But I did make it to the pool at the end, which by this time is full of grass.

So by this time I'm soaked and feeling a little bit, I don't know, OLD, so I go in to change clothes. I look down on the floor and OH NOES! My jeans have faded on my mom's carpet! Quick- must sneak carpet foam into the guest bedroom and clean this up! *scrub scrub scrub*

Crisis averted.

What a second, wasn't I doing something? Oh yeah I was ordering that new photo studio from amazon.com and I was going to get it over-nighted so I can take lots and lots of pictures of my food jewelry. But since I decided to play in the rain, on a slip n slide, in my clothes, I now won't get it until Monday.

Rats! I blame it all on my mom not letting me have one as a kid. Hmph!