Shop talk

It's "Show us what you make/sell" day over at Kelly's blog, so I figured I'd do a quick shop update and link up! I have some new goodies to show you, so let's get to it! (And if you landed over here from over there, then WELCOME! I have an etsy shop where I sell hair accessories, pillow covers, notecards, pennant banners, and Christmas stockings, as well as plenty of houndstooth/crimson goodies for my fellow Tide fans. You can see the items I currently have listed by clicking HERE.)

First off, I'm loving these hair accessories I made out of Matilda Jane garment bags! Each piece of clothing comes in a cute mesh bag, so I figured I'd try my hand at putting them to good use-

I currently have 10 different styles on a variety of hair clips and stretchy headbands. My model prefers the headbands-

 

Football season officially kicks off TOMORROW, so I'd thought I'd do a little collage of Roll Tide goodies I have on hand-

 

 

and a little something for the Auburn fans...

 

 

 Here's a few other items I have on hand (some are listed in the shop and some are custom pieces. If you have questions or would like to place a custom order, you can email me at funnygirl33180(at)aol(dot)com. And yes, I'm one of the last humans on earth to still have an aol account.)

 

Mini flower clips- $3

set of 6 notecards- $5

need an accessory to match a certain outfit? I do custom orders...

 

 The mini-cluster headband (above) also comes in 6 other colors...

I also make custom sashes for parties, showers, graduations, and Thursdays.
This is my seester who will soon be "Mrs. Clark"in the sash I made for her Bachelorette Weekend.

If you have any hair accessory, or sofa accessory, or mantel accessory needs, or perhaps you need monogrammed notecards, or a houndstooth clip for your lapel, then I'm your gal. Feel free to browse my shop & happy Friday!

Randoms, because that's all I seem to have time for

Well, it happened again.
I wrote out a blog schedule with a topic for each day of this week and even managed to take a few of the photos I'd need.

And then I lived my life and didn't have time for any of it.
And that's ok.

So tonight, after cleaning the kitchen and putting away the dishes, and tucking 3 kiddos into bed, and finishing a custom order, and making one heckuva good cup of hot tea, I have time to write. And it seems I'm not quite in the mood for anything I'd planned to write about, so I've got a few randoms for ya:

1. While driving home from rehearsal Tuesday night, I was playing with the buttons on the back of the steering wheel that control the volume of the radio. So nice of those Chrysler folks to think of what drivers truly want in a vehicle, like a way to turn down the volume of the Veggie Tales cd so you can yell at your kids sweetly remind your children to be nice to one another without even having to move your hand from the steering wheel. I knew the button on the right side was volume, and the one on the left would allow you to skip through tracks on a cd, but what would it do if you weren't listening to a cd? I was intrigued. So I tried it. And you know what?  After driving the swagger wagon for over 10 months, I discovered that the button on the left side of the back of the steering wheel, when pushed up or down when a cd is NOT playing, will scroll through cd/am & fm radio/aux and will also play SATELLITE RADIO.

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT I'M JUST FIGURING OUT THIS MINI VAN HAS SATELLITE RADIO? HOW? HOOOOWWWWWW?

There's an all 50's channel, all 60's, all 70's...
There's a Jimmy Buffet channel.
There's an Elvis channel.
There's an LA area traffic channel, as well as several Canadian sports channels, and quite a few channels in languages I don't understand.

I was mesmerized.
And shocked.

To think of all the Jimmy Buffet I've been missing...

And yet, as I looked at the dashboard and wondered why there wasn't a 'satelite radio' button, I realized there actually was.

I'd just never pushed it.

2. While cooking dinner last night, (and by cooking, I mean ripping open a bag of frozen pasta & veggies and tossing them into a hot pan) I went to retrieve a measuring cup. As I filled my 2/3 measuring cup with water, it dawned on me that I was still using the same 2/3 measuring cup I had in college. From a set I purchased at the Dollar Tree. In the year 2001, A.D.

And it's 2012.

Not to say that anything is wrong with the measuring cups. No, not a thing. They're black, and plastic, and they do their job of helping me to occasionally get domestic in my kitchen. But they were one of those items that got tossed into my green shopping basket in the Dollar Tree because measuring cups are one of those things on every girls list of college necessessities. You just need to have them so the drawers of your college apartment's kitchen won't be empty. Having been married for several years now, and having birthed 3 babes, and having a mortgage and whatnot, I feel I've earned the right to a nicer set of measuring cups. When I find the perfect ones, I'll let you know.

3. Sometime between drying my hair and making my coffee this morning, this happened:

Now, I'm not one to point fingers, but I do happen to know that only one other person in my house was awake at the time so I'm gonna go ahead and blame my new home screen background on the 7 year-old I live with.

4. We passed 3 of these as we entered school this morning...

Does it get more random than that?

Flashback Friday

With the start of a new school year and a new 2nd grader at our house, I started thinking back to my days in 2nd grade, and it hit me. This was the year something significant happened to me, and no I'm not just talking about getting in trouble for talking too much in class and having to sit out in the hallway as punishment.

I'm talking about glasses.

You see, when 2nd grade began, I was already well aware that I couldn't see a darn thing on the chalkboard in the front of the classroom, and it didn't matter where I was sitting. I could stand directly in front of words and it just looked like a messy blob of chalk. I guess it embarrassed me that I had problems with being able to see, because instead of telling anyone about it, I snuck binoculars to school in my backpack. Yup. Sho did. I'd pull them out discreetly in class, take a quick look at the board, and read enough of whatever it was that I was supposed to read to get by.

Those of you who went to public school know that not too far into the school year, these nice ladies would come around with their giant machines and we'd get out of class for a little thing called 'vision screening', and it was on one of these days, in the 2nd grade, that it was finally determined that my eyesight was completely and totally pitiful.

This is a 2nd grade MK, pre-vision screening-

(It even looks like I'm having trouble focusing on whoever was taking the picture. Or maybe my awesome popsicle stick art was weighing my head down.)

and this is a 2nd grade MK, post-vision screening-

Bless my heart.

And those massive frames.

And those turquoise sweatpants.

That don't match my sweatshirt.

And one of the most valuable Barbie's I've ever had that I TOOK OUT OF THE BOX, thus diminishing her value.

But I was 8, and when you're 8, only crazy people leave Barbie's in a box.

Fast-forward to spring-

I replaced the Barbie with a kitten.

And the red bow with a white one.

Shout-out to Maxwell Elementary.

I wish I knew where that t-shirt was...

And here's proof that all I did in this year of my life, besides get massive glasses, was pose for pictures with stuff in my hands.

***

So, to my brandspankin' new 2nd grader, I say this:

Have fun,

be kind,

learn lots,

and if you can't see a bloomin' thing,

tell us.

For goodness sakes.

Thanks, hubs, for snapping our pic as we headed to school on Monday.

And remember the morning my little man had?

Here's a pre-bathroom trip pic of him with his new teacher, and a post-bathroom trip pic.

What a difference a trip to the loo can make, am I right?

Things I learned on the first day of school

The first day back to work/school did such a number on me that I'm just getting around to posting this on the THIRD day of school.

Sheesh.

1. After looking forward to going back to school all summer, and after waking up super duper early, getting dressed, and throwing down his breakfast, my brandspankin' new 2nd grader will develop intense stomach cramps on the way to school and be in tears by the time we reach his classroom. Nervous gas? Anxious about a new classroom and new group of classmates? Who knows. By lunchtime and an extended trip to the loo, all will be well after an almost disastrous non-existent-because-we-had-to-go-home first day.

2. Kindergartners are crazy excited and wild on the first day of school. This was true of my child, and certainly true of the new crop of K students I've met this week. Their enthusiasm is infectious though, and I can't help but to be excited when I have a new class in my music room. Doesn't want to make me run around and jump off of the risers as some of them have done, but it helps to see their sweet smiles as I say, "sit on your bottoms, please" for the fifteenth time.

3. The mere mention of 'instruments' to a primary student causes excitement akin to that of the mention of 'Bieber' to a middle school student.

4. After typing a set of song lyrics in 45 seconds flat, it will take 2.5 hours to print them because my computer has forgotten how to recognize the printer it's connected to over the summer. I will have to un-install it, search in my desk drawer for the installation cd, re-install it, and after 2.5 hours, the blessed lyrics will finally print.

5. After staying at school an extra 2.5 hours, I will get stuck in 5 o'clock traffic going home. The trip will take a total of 30 minutes, giving me exactly 25 minutes at home with my family before I have to hop in my car and drive to rehearsal. It's days like this that make me glad I actually love the jobs that I do. I miss my family like crazy, but I love my jobs.

6. Really cute wedges will look great with your first-day-of-school dress, but will in fact make your feet want to kill you after standing in them for 9 hours. Never again shall I wear the cute wooden wedges to school. Never again.

7. After collapsing on the couch next to hubs at the end of an exhausting day, I will NOT be too tired to watch the next to last episode of the 3rd season of Breaking Bad. It also turns out that I will, in fact, not be too tired to watch the last episode of the 3rd season of Breaking Bad because Netflix is just too darn convenient. And SHEESH, what a season finale. Good gravy. I can't even...

8. After an 11.5 hour workday and two episodes of Breaking Bad, I will feel like I've been hit with a 2 x 4 on my second day of school. I know I couldn't have learned this on the 'first' day as the title says, but it's now the 'third' day. Now I know.

9. Saturdays during the school year will be known at the Mathews' house as the 'Day of Sleep'.

2nd grade

Hello, my name is Mary Kathryn and I have a 2nd grader.

It's back to school time for me and O today. If you're a teacher/work in a school, or if you have kiddos who are off to school today, I hope the first day of the '12-'13 year ROCKS.

p.s.- first day of first grade pics HERE as well as info on where I got the snazzy printable he's holding.

Happy Monday, friends!

Flashback Friday

Happy Friday to ya! Before I get to today's flashback, I must first state to the blogoshpere, and to the universe, that I am currently wearing a pair of white jeans that haven't seen the light of day in 6, yes SIX years because the faculty at my school is taking our annual photo today in black shirts and white jeans. I assumed that since I haven't purchased white jeans since Justin Beiber was still you-tubing that perhaps I'd have to stand in the back in a pair of khakis, which I was fine with. However, I knew I'd kept these babies around in the chance that someday I could shed those 70+ pregnancy pounds and once again flit about in a pair of white pants.

All of the pounds have definitely not been shed, but these things are on me and zipped with only minimal muffin toppage, so get ready.

I'm about to flit about.

In white jeans.

Moving on.

Today's flashback Friday post is a look back at the first time I had the privilege to do Into the Woods. The year was 1995 and I played Cinderella. My director was Linda Bonds (shout out to ya, Mrs. B, if you happen to be reading!) and I was a sophomore in high school. I loved this show. Correction, I still love this show. I was also heavily into traditional scrapbooking at the time, so without further adieu, I give you a glimpse into MK's scrapbook, circa 1996.

If you attended Hillcrest between the years of 1995-2011? then you're well aware that the Milky White from this production went on to roles in every single theatrical production after this one. Not quite sure when he stopped making appearances, which is why I have a question mark next to the year, but he's famous. Totally famous. And this was his first show.

Yes, I cut out a pic of Jack and stuck him in a beanstalk.

Yes, I totally cut those trees out by hand.

I also cut the letters by hand since this is pre-cricut invention.

Isotoner house shoes and a black Ironman watch.

Awesome.

School begins for us on Monday and rehearsals for Into the Woods, Jr have been underway for a week now. Good-bye Summer, hello crazy busy hectic Fall schedule. I hope that all of you had an awesomely wonderful week and that you have a fabulous start to the school year. If you're already IN school, then I hope it's going swimmingly!

Don't forget- my trunk show is tomorrow for the new line of Matilda Jane. If you'd like to see the goods in person, my trunk keeper will be here from 2-4, and if you're not local but would like to place an order, you can e-mail me at funnygirl33180(at)aol(dot)com. You can view the first release of this collection online now, and here are a few of my faves-

www.matildajaneclothing.com

Into the Woods, Jr. cast list

I can honestly say that I've never before had such a difficult time casting a show. Each of the 65 young adults/children who auditioned were incredibly talented and I only wish that I had 65 roles to hand out. Below is a final cast list, and please be aware that the first parent mtg and read-through of the script is tonight at 6:00 pm at University Church of Christ.

Role	Name
Narrator	Andrew Burdette
Jack	Alex Freeman
Baker	Matthew Dunkin
Cinderella	Brittany Johnson
Little Red	Kenleigh Benoit
Granny	Victoria Camp
Cinderella’s Stepmother	Gracie Avery
Florinda	Katelyn Lipscomb
Lucinda	Mackenzie Johnson
Cinderella’s Mother	Kelsey Bruce
Wolf	Andrew Livingston
Rapunzel	Ashley Alexander Lee
Cinderella’s Prince	Andrew Livingston
Rapunzel’s Prince	Landon Turner
Milky White	Emma Claire Patton
Milky White	Eva Miller
Witch	Kynnedi Porter
Jack’s Mother	Alexandra Smith
Mysterious Man	Dustin Gomez
Steward	Jake Williams
Baker’s Wife	Hannah Heinrich

I look forward to working with each one of you- see you soon!