organized chaos

Apparently not everyone has heard of Etsy.com.

Since I finished the drawing for the winner of the Fall Drawing Giveaway a couple days ago, I decided it was time to part, and send it off. It was a bit painful, as is everytime I send off one of my babies. I get a little attached to them. Sniff, sniff.

But really, I was happy to send it to it’s rightful owner and move on. And there I was at the post office walking back and forth down the small counter trying to find the right tube, then a pen that worked, and hey! Where exactly do you write an address on a round tube? There’s no center!

All the while three gremlins and a baby threatened to rip every cute teddy bear off their pegs. Which begs the question, “Why do they sell teddy bears at the Post Office anyway?”

And Jackelope whined that he really wanted one of those new Star Wars stamps to put on his hand. And Socrates was forced to hold a heavy Cuteness while I scrambled around trying to figure out, on the fly, how exactly to send that drawing without inflicting any damage to it.

Finally, I got up to the counter all prepared and asked the nice lady postal worker if those tubes were indeed free on the website. (Something I had heard from a friend. You know who You are.) She confirmed that little nugget of gold. Yippers.

Then in a moment of nervous rambling I blurted out that I would love to get some free tubes because I was selling my drawings in my Etsy shop.

“Oh,” she said. “Your Etchy?”

I mumbled back, “Uh, no. That’s ETSy.”

She looked embarrassed and out of the loop and for some reason I felt really dumb just then, like some kind of internet freak trying to explain HTML to her 80 year old grandmother.

But when I left I thought, “Well, Etchy is close to Etch a Sketch, and maybe in her mind it was some kind of new fangled way of describing art?”

I’m all about giving folks the benefit of the doubt.

So now that the drawing is mailed off, I can now show you the results. The winner was very pleased with her preview and I’m pleased if she’s pleased.

I’ve included the photo I worked from, which pains me only because I just know someone out there will pick apart the differences. Mainly me. But that’s drawing. It’s not reproducing detail for detail. It’s capturing the essence and character of a person. And that’s what makes the likeness happen visually. That’s what I’m all about, capturing invisible things like rainbows and leprechauns and quiet moments.

And don’t forget, another giveaway is coming soon in commemoration of my turning another year older.

I feel a little badly about those of you who I scared the crap out of yesterday with this post. It was never my intention to give you nightmares.

Or to force you to swat at your legs in paranoia all day.

Or to break out the poisonous gases in an attempt to rid your own house of anything similarly heinous and evil.

Really, I didn’t. I just figured if I was going to have a full blown ugly cry panic attack over the whole ordeal of finding that hairy thing, it would be better to have the company of other like-minded folk. You know, Us against Him.

I won’t go into the whole long tale of woe, but just rest assured that I did not have to kill it. After a long battery of tests when I found him in the light fixture during a routine maintenance of light bulb changing, I did confirm him to be dead.

Dead, with a very spooky face. And a hairy body, and very thick legs.

So as an apology of sorts, I give you the cutest thing known to mankind.

The Cuteness. Because #1, I figured it had been awhile and some of you might be having withdraw.

#2, wrapped in a fluffy towel just out of the tub, he is at his most cute and cuddly

#3, if there’s anything that can erase this image, it’s that one up there.

Someone’s gonna have to get me one of these to drive, ’cause I just upgraded the memory in my laptop.

By myself.

With no screaming or pulling out of the hair.

Now, to be fair, I’ll tell you that my dad showed me a few weeks ago where it would go, once I got it. And can I just say that I was so freakin’ scared of wrecking My Precious by touching the memory card wrong, or shoving it too hard into the slot?

It only took me a couple tries, and whammo! I can finally use Photoshop. I can reboot my laptop in less than 5 minutes. In the words of Nacho Libre, “My life is goood. Really goood. It’s fantastic!”

And while I was attempting a nap this afternoon, which by the way didn’t happen, I got to thinking about how cool it would be to be able to install a memory upgrade in my brain. I may have mentioned that my own memory leaves much to be desired. But think about the speed and efficiency part of upgrading memory on a computer.

Everything runs so much smoother and faster. I’m a little like that when my Ritalin’s working. For about an hour after each dose, I am Wonder Woman. It’s like my brain wakes up and whoa!

The heavens open up.

The oceans roar.

My mind works with precision and clarity.

I don’t need to eat.

No thank you to sleep.

Hello good times.

Hallelujah and Amen, I can even form a complete sentence then speak it without forgetting what I was going to say or what that word was that I’ve spoken a million times, yet somehow it’s escaped my memory.

I like the Ritalin. Is that what everyone feels when they are truly awake? Is that what I’ve missed all my life due to narcolepsy? I think if I were awake (mentally) all the time, no one would be able to stand me. Either that, or I might get elected for President of All Things Good and Right.

But as it stands, mental fog is my thorn. And the only thing I’m a President of is Gremlin Central. Of which I’m not only the President, but also a member.

So I’m not going to lament. But in Heaven? Man, that’s going to totally rock.

WW HQ

This is The Cuteness’ laundry basket. I have one basket per gremlin for their clean clothes. It’s helped cut down on laundry room disorganization. A little. The floor is now covered with 4 of these white baskets, a rectangular yellow basket and a round blue one, respectively.

It’s a maze of epic laundry proportions.

And they sit there because I have a hard and fast rule about putting other people’s clothes away. When the gremlins were all smaller, excepting The Cuteness, I put away their gremlinly clothing. But since I hate laundry so much, I’ve insisted that their domestic training begin, and as a result most of their baskets sit with folded clothing on the laundry room floor until I remember to tell them to come get it.

Which happens, oh about once a month or so.

Now, the other day I asked The Cuteness if he would just put away his laundry already! It had been sitting there for weeks! But he was very engrossed in creating the next big hit.

Yes, that’s me sitting down with him. I have some major focus issues, if you must know. I promptly forgot about my request of clothing care. And I couldn’t resist the creative kinship of a gremlin who actually wanted to learn piano. I think we’re really going to mesh creatively.

Suffice it to say, his laundry did not get put away.

And this particular basket of clothing
has had the same clothes in it for longer than I care to admit to you.

Ok fine.

About two months.

Give or take.

Because for me to actually climb the stairs into the abyss that is Gremlin Central in order to put clothing away that will then force me to yet again climb the stairs into Gremlin Central every time I want to change the baby’s clothes?

Lunacy, I tell you, pure lunacy. Dressers are way overrated.

Just so you’re not freaked out, yes, you are at Gremlin Central. In case you’re new around here, let me clue you in:

My name is Carrie, and I’m a change-aholic. Not that most people care about templates and so forth, but apparently some people have psychotic breaks when they visit a blog and expect to see a certain thing, and it’s gone.

So for me, a new template is a grand thing. Most of you probably read this madness through a nifty feeder anyway, so nevermind to you. But the thing I love about this new template is:

• the search within the blog feature for when you’re looking for that one Letters From Your Friendly Cashier Letter,
• the custom header that I took my own little self out in my own little backyard that My Man so nicely vacuumed for me
• the relaxing sage green borders on my sidebar that remind me of this
• all my page tabs are right on top for easy access to all that extra info you’re just dying? to know
• and while I’m not much for tons of white space, I’m feeling a bit refreshed since, you know it is the first day of Fall

Wondering who won the giveaway?

For more of my changing antics, go here.

Comment #20–Sharon from http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momn4boys/! I’ll email you soon with your instructions. Hang tight!

Man! You guys warmed my heart with your excitement over my drawings. I had to fight off the temptation to tell everyone to forget the rules and why don’t I just draw one for everyone who took the time to enter. But alas, I have responsibilities. Like unclogging toilets and scraping peanut butter off the knives that should’ve been clean from a run in the dishwasher.

In case you’re wondering my process of choosing, go here. It was painfully quick. I felt a little like a cheater and had images of putting numbers in a hat and making one of the gremlins choose.

But wait! I have news.

Since so many people expressed interest in something I thought I’d never be able to pursue again, the drawing of portraits for a humble living, I decided to set up my very own Etsy shop. If you’re at all interested in this, hop on over there and check it out.

And never fear. This giveaway amused me greatly. There might just be another one on the horizon because I also feel generous on my birthday, which is about a month away.

So tune in for more madness around here, and you just might be glad you checked in!

“If I didn’t have a brain,

my head would be flat”

–Jackelope

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This is the last day to enter the giveaway! For all you blokes hem-hawing around on entering, there’s still time! But not much. Sometime around midnight central time, I’m taking your comment numbers over to the random picker and the powers that be will choose a winner. And if you’re just finding out about this today, just leave a comment and we’ll call it good.

I shouldn’t be telling you this because I want to win it. But 5 Minutes For Mom is having a little giveaway. That’s if you can handle one of these bad boys:

It’s only because I love you that I’m telling you. They’ll pick a winner October 1st. So hurry!

And scroll on down for your regularly scheduled dose of nonsense, please.

I don’t really know who other young girls in the eighties held high on the Music Pedestal. In fact, most of the music I listened to came straight from my little square lilac colored boom box. So I, to this day, am dreadfully ignorant of the names of all those rad vocalists who graced the airwaves.

In our double wide, we had a few records. You know; round, vinyl, black with ridges? And we had a few cassette tapes that piqued my interest for many a year. One of them had a song called “Sail Away” which I later learned was done by a band named Styx. I must have listened to that song hundreds of times, always wondering where those guys hoped to sail to and if maybe they would ever consider taking me from East Texas Hell.

Another cassette I found laying around and became totally enamored with was Lynyrd Skynyrd. Especially that one about giving him three steps, Mister and how he spun a tale of a place called The Jug where he found a girl named Linda Lou, who consequently could really cut a rug. For some reason I always pictured them dancing on this round blue and white area rug. I thought on these particular lyrics for hours at a time. Deep and profound.

Then there was our record of The Judds and I really got off on that one because they sang low enough for me to sing along and belt it out. I learned how to sing harmony with those two red heads that were so young and pretty I could hardly tell which one was the mother and which one was the daughter. I dreamed about what a girl’s night out would be like, ’cause Honey there ain’t no doubt, that I would dance every dance until the boys went home.

Then there was the album called The Doobie Brothers, and I didn’t listen to that one much, because on the inside cover there was a picture of the whole band plus some girls, naked with cowboy hats over most of their privates. It freaked me out a little to say the least.

But hands down, the album I listened to and obsessed over the most was My Precious. My crazy, eccentric pretend best friend, Cyndi Lauper. I don’t know how it started. Maybe I got that album as a Christmas gift or something. It was the one with Cyndi laying almost face down on a mirror with her multicolored hair all swept up. True Colors was the name of it. And it didn’t even include the all too famous “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” I got that later on an old cassette someone gave me.

I don’t know if other girls were as obsessed with her as I was, but she just spoke to my oddities in a way no one else ever had. The way she sang with that high baby voice that I would never be able to blend with. The way she wore mismatched clothing and danced around like a mad woman. If only there were girls like that at my school. Then we could’ve hung out in our funky black and white skirts paired with purple leather jackets and thumbed our noses at those preppies!

Then, at the height of my adoration, my mother did the impossible. She got tickets to The Concert in nearby Tyler. My stomach did flip flops. My throat dried out. My hair frizzed more than normal. We were going to see Cyndi Lauper in person. And she would sing all the songs on my album and she might even call me up on stage to dance the funky dance with her. Then she would take me to her fav salon the next day and pay to have my hair colored black, blue, red and maybe even a streak of purple.

But when we got there and she started doing her thang, a little something I like to call Concert Shock happened. You know, when the singer sounds nothing like they do on the record, and they sing off key a little, and you’re like, “Whoa! I can totally sing better than them!”

Then she went a step further and sang a whole slew of songs I didn’t even know. I only had that one album. We were poor. No more albums in sight. I didn’t like any of her new stuff anyway and was saddened that I wouldn’t be making that hair appointment the next day.

I still liked the old gal. I still listened to “Change of Heart” and “Iko, Iko” over and over. I still held her fashion choices up on a pedestal. And she shaped me to this day. Because of Cyndi Lauper, I don’t feel like such a freak.

Thanks, Cynd’s. Give me a call sometime, we could still make that hair appointment and I’d let you wear my orange and red striped capri’s.

copyright 2007 carrielouise

did you miss your weekly dose of this?

Me and crying don’t get along. It’s not that I’m insensitive, I’m just uncomfortable with displays of emotion that I have no control over. Actually, I feel things so deeply that I’m afraid once I start I won’t be able to stop.

We’ve sponsored two children through World Vision for as long as I can remember. Sometimes we barely have enough money to pay bills and get groceries, but we are so much richer than so many people in other countries and right here in the U. S.

Really, I could go on about this. For whatever reason, God has granted me a very soft heart toward people without enough. Enough to sustain life on. Just thinking about the state of some of these people’s lives and how they are forced to live is enough to bring me to tears. It’s very painful for me to consider such things. But I do what I can, and maybe someday God will grant me the resources to do more.

I found this new video by my very favorite songwriter, Sara Groves. I love this lady’s work. Her music is genuine and connective and I always love every CD she makes. She also seems to have a heart for struggling peoples and that’s the heart of this video. I hope you watch it.

I Saw What I Saw - Sara Groves

WW HQ

My mother in law lives in South Texas and she’s a peach. She sends us packages full of goodies like beef jerkey and paper plates and batteries. Man, do I need the batteries. She’s a little off center, so of course she fits right in around here when she comes to visit.

But talking to her on the phone can be a drag, albeit an entertaining drag, at times. It’s very hard to explain to other people why that is, so one day, right after I hung up with her, I recorded our conversation for all posterity. My Man warned me that no one else would find this amusing. I disagreed, but in the back of my mind wondered whether anyone else would find it amusing. You be the judge.

Oh yeah, and when you read her words, you have to imagine a mexican accent, since she’s you know, Hispanic and all.

Her: ?Que’ Paso, Caaaarrie? Caaarrie, I told you I have to get my molar pulled out? It broke. I don’t have any left!

Me: Uh-huh

Her: Now I’ll have to chew. Like the beaver. You know, chewing in the front.

Me: Hmmm.

Her: I like to chew.

Me: When you get here we could put all your food in the blender.

Her: No! I like to taste my food.

Me: You can still taste mashed food.

Her: I like to chew it. Like a cow. It will just be tasteless. Like a pudding.

Me: *loud burp from an extra long drink of Pepsi Jazz*

Her: Caaaaarrie! Everything ok?

Me: sorry.

Her: I’ll just have to eat in the corner of restaurants from now on. And chew like cows, you know. Back in the corner. Maybe I have two stomachs also.

Me: *imagines her with two stomachs and starts painting my nails with new polish*

Her: I already eat so slow. I’m the last one to finish. Charles gets a Whataburger and finishes in two minutes. Half an hour later, I’m still eating.

Me: Hmm…

Her: Charlie eats fast too. What’s the hurry?

Me: Everyone’s starving I guess.

Her: I’m hungry too. I just like to taste my food. Chewing and chewing like a cow.

Me: Well, I need to go now.

Her: Tell the kids to call me later.

Me: k, bye

Her: blah blah blah with the wrapping up of the conversation for the next five minutes

Me: k, bye

Me: k, bye

Me: yeah, yeah, k, bye

Her: bye, Caaaarrie!

BTW, Looking for this?

When the gremlins make their transition into Adult Gremlinhood, they have made a few things very clear to me and My Man. They just aren’t happy with the state of several areas of their lives these days and never fail to lodge their complaints to whoever will listen.

When they grow up:

• they all plan on living in the house we moved from two years ago. Not together mind you, they have fought with each other on a weekly basis for the last two years, over which one of them is going to move back there first. They’re all very nostalgic in the most impractical way. Our house now is WAY better than our previous one which I’ve shown you up there.

• they plan on eating unlimited chocolate. Ever since the dentist declared all three of the older gremlin’s mouths to be Cavity Central, I’ve been a witch and banned candy from our house. The only problem? Their Father, the Chocoholic. It’s not the woman of the house, the usual suspect; I’m more of a nacho sort of girl. So after dinner, My Man, being kind-hearted as he is, whips out his Hershey bar, because his body might actually go into shock if he doesn’t chase his dinner down with cacao bean. And the gremlins go into full Gremlin Mode with their rights being wronged and all that. And they declare that adulthood must hold a chocolate free-for-all.

• they will also drink all the pop, soda, fizzy, Coke, whatever you call it in your part of the earth, that they can possibly ingest. I’m very mean. I make them drink water.

• they will eat Fritos every day. My Man has a special shelf in the pantry for his lunch supplies. Being on a very low income, we have to guard his Precious Foods, so that they will last the week. Gremlins are notorious for pillaging other people’s food, but so far this method has worked. And it has caused one more thing to go on their lists of “When They Grow Up…”

So, while other children are planning their future vocations and what kind of spouse they might like, mine are plotting about the foods they will finally have unlimited access to. Can you see the pattern of food obsession? I’m sure the list could go on and on. I’m only writing all these down because someday I plan on using it for blackmail.

Just don’t tell them.

Sarah tagged me. But I’m going to break the rules and resist the urge to tag-on. I know that may come as a shock to you all, since I am such a fine upstanding citizen and all. The meme is to list 3 things you enjoy doing other than blogging. Is there anything left? I’m not sure. But she asked, and deep down I am a people pleaser, so here it goes.

And there’s a lot of things I’ve enjoyed in the past, that I still enjoy, but just don’t have time for right now. I’m in a very transitional phase in my life and so I like to keep my ME time simple and easy.

1. I do a lot of writing. NON-BLOG writing. (It does count, Tag Police!) I’ve actually written one fiction book that nobody wanted to publish, started another that I’ve set aside for the moment, and started a memoir about my time in East Texas as a kid. I just love to write. It amuses me.
2. When I am inspired, there’s nothing that I love more than to sit at the piano and write songs. There’s just something euphoric about the words and melody and chords all coming together into something that expresses worship to my Creator. I wish it happened more often. You can hear one here.
3. I love to watch good movies. Since the birth of The Cuteness, I’ve noticed some ugly ADD rearing it’s ugly head inside of my head. It’s very difficult for me to sit still very long, so anything I watch has got to be good from the start. The last great flick I watched was The Illusionist. I watched it three times.

So there’s my three things. Not very exciting, but now you know.

Don’t forget to scroll down if you haven’t heard about the Fall Drawing Giveaway or click on the button over on the sidebar!

I’m heading off to gather specimens for The Friendly Cashier. It’s only night #2, and boy have I already got some doozies!

***TIME’S UP!! Go here to see the winner!****

Hands down, fall is my favorite time of the year. I can breathe in the crisp morning air and feel like a new woman. I can listen to bickering with nary a twitch. I cook dinner with a smile on my face, or at least in my heart. Gosh darn it, I might even put away the freakin’ laundry!

Maybe it’s because I was born in the fall. And the color of fire all around me gives me a boost of energy that’s pretty much non-existent the other times of the year.

But lucky for you all, I’m feeling especially fun and generous, and want to give you something.

Yeah, you read that right. I’m doing a GIVEAWAY, but first let me tell you a little something. Fall also inspires me to break out my drawing pencils and do stuff like this:

That’s a portrait of The Cuteness in case you didn’t recognize him in pencil form. And that’s what I’m giving away. NOT The Cuteness or his drawing, silly!

I want to draw something for you. Someone, that is. I only do people.

So here’s how it will work.

1. Leave me a comment, saying you want a groovy pencil drawing of someone you like or even love.
2. Post a short blurb on your site about this giveaway and spread the word.
3. Wait anxiously for The Official Day of Fall, which is September 22. I will end the giveaway then and announce a winner that day using a random picker thingy.
4. If you don’t have a blog, NO WORRIES! I’m not prejudice! Just leave a comment.

Now, if you would like to use one of my drawings as a button of sorts in your post about the giveaway, then you can choose whichever one you like at My Art Gallery page. Or you can go to my Flickr account and get different sizes on the one you choose.

And here’s the fine print: I only draw people. Mostly faces. This giveaway will be a PENCIL drawing. I know I have some watercolors on My Art Gallery, but maybe another time for all that nonsense. If you win, you will send me a JPEG file of your subject. Hopefully it will be a good shot of them. Then I can print it off here to use for the drawing, so no one has to part with any precious photos. And I know many of you have several loved ones to choose from, but for the purpose of this giveaway the winner should only choose one. If it goes well, maybe I’ll do it again!

I’m so excited. For Fall to make it’s entrance and to give someone a drawing. Two of my favorite things wrapped up in one!

And if I forgot any pertinent details, be a peach and email me. Now go forth and enter

The Fall Drawing Giveaway

My man found this very short clip of this contortionist on YouTube. So naturally he thought of me, since I do this for guests and family all the time.

In fact this is me, in a disguise. My Man just thought it was high time I let you in on one of my hidden talents.

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And here’s some philosophy from Jackelope for you to chew on.

” If I wasn’t a person,

I would be dark.”

Now, go forth and think noble thoughts.

A tangle we had to cut out of my daughter’s hair.

Wordless Wednesday HQ

My only girl’s got some mad domestic skills. And I don’t necessarily mean the neat and tidy kind. I’m talking about creative thinking and all that.

She’s been bugging me for a very long time to come and visit her at her house. The one she built outside. Listen, I don’t really do heat and last Sunday was the first day cool enough to warrant taking a trip outside for anything other than running to the van to turn on the A/C really fast.

First let me tell you that she has moved two other times. She would want you to know that. Her other two “houses” were not as big as her present one and she is very proud. I took my camera for my visit out to the pit backyard.

Welcome to 7759 Walnut. That’s what Zoe says her street is called, but I beg to differ. Looney Lane would be more appropriate.

Once I got comfy at her little red table, she offered me some pickles. They grow right there on her floor, if you can believe it. I’ll never be able to eat pickles from a jar again. I’m a changed woman.

Then she spun quite a tale of something that happened in her last place of residence. Something about ants under her bed and baby spiders. She was mortified as I’m sure you would be too.

She must have sensed my skepticism. I’ll have to work on that.

Then she showed me her To Do List. It looked blank to me, but who am I to judge the way other women run their households?

Number one on the list: kick the neighbors cat off the fireplace. (That’s the brick construction with the sticks)

Number two: balance the tv.

She assured me this was quite the chore, as the tv is very heavy and never wants to stay on the skateboard. And I thought matching socks was annoying!

Number three: fill up the sink. It looks like a drag.

And as a side note, she’s been warned to empty it every night, due to the catastrophic mosquito population in Kansas this year.

Right in the middle of her recitation of the To Do List, we had a visitor. Zoe wasn’t too happy. But when Jackelope needs his mother, what can you do. He said his piece and was promptly kicked out.

I had a nice visit and learned a couple things about my daughter. She likes her couch the best, her basement still needs to be cleaned out, but it’s not a priority, and I really need to hang out with her more often. She’s the hostest with the mostest.

still looking for this?

then click that guy or scroll down a bit. Thanks.

“This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you’ve been awarded please pass it on to 7 others who you feel are deserving of this award.”

A new friend, Sarah, gave me this perty award. Really, she’s the nice one for thinkin’ of silly ol’ me and for saying that her life seems to parallel mine. It makes me feel a little less odd to know I’m not alone in the craziness.

And seven people? Really? I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings by leaving them out. And some of these folks might have gotten this already, but oh well, here goes:

Hallie: She is so nice, now she’s becoming a good fiend friend that writes back and forth with me through email. And she can shoot a handgun! Only nice people can do that and be pretty at the same time.

Cheryl: Another nice lady, and a fellow musician. I enjoy reading her nice thoughts.

Kathleen: Her “name” is Coffee Mom, and there is nothing nicer than coffee in my opinion. That alone has endeared me to her.

Karen: Her kids are mostly grown and she is always has an encouraging comment for me.

Sunydazy Days: Just one look around her blog and you’ll have no doubt of her niceness. A different nice than me,though, I can assure you.

And two real life fiends friends, because I’m so glad to have some flesh and blood people that I also know here in blogland.

Rachel: She’s about to have a baby, and that is nice. And she also trusted me to take over her worship team at church while having said baby. That was also nice of her.

Catastrophe Rising: She likes to be anonymous. I think that’s real nice. She makes me laugh at work and she writes some things that aren’t necessarily nice in the traditional sense, but thought provoking. And that’s nice. Ok??

And can I just say that every one of these nice gals and some that I didn’t mention (sorry!) have given me so much thought lately. Because I’ve never really had a lot of fiends friends, being an introvert and all. And I think it would be so nice and rad if we could all get together and party like muppets because it sounds like we all have more in common than I’ve ever experienced with people before.

Thanks Mr. Internet, for making nice friendships possible.

By the way, are you looking for this?

click the happy man if you are.