For the love of crawfish bread...

It's that time of year again!!!

I love Jazz Fest. 

Good Music...

Lots of people....

Good Food....

My favorite is easily, crawfish bread. Bread stuffed with lots of cheese, crawfish and seasonings. In a word, it's amazing. Phenomenal. Genius.

Jazz Fest lasts two weekends every year. The last weekend in April and the first weekend in May. I try to make it as often as I can. This year, however, due to assignmnets for school and work and personal commitments I can not make it. I was pretty bummed about it, until....

Jazz fest came to me! I just recieved a crawfish bread delivery at school. 3 pieces of cheesey, delicious, crawfishy goodness right at my desk.

During my lunch break, I got to sit back at my desk, listen to Pandora, eat my crawfish bread and pretend that I was soaking up the sun at Jazz Fest.... beats grading papers any day :-)

ttfn,
Lyn

Adventures in procrastination

I have 3 huge projects due for UNO... in 3 days. HUGE projects. Final grade depends on the projects, projects.... so what do I do???

this...

Which turned into this...

A cute little gift, that my wonderful God Mother asked me to make. "No Rush" she said, "I don't need it soon." And of course, since I have soooo much work to do for school, it makes perfect sense that I make the blanket right away and put off doing my projects...

Everybody does that right????

Just me???

Oh, ok...

ttfn,

Lyn



Where I want to be....

Shortly after I wrote the last post, an opportunity was presented to me. An opportunity that, on paper, sounds great  (more money, better hours, doing what I went to school for...) but would take me away from where I am now.

I struggled with admitting I didn't want the opportunity.  Am I crazy?!?!? I could do this new opportunity in my sleep. But the fact remains that I am happy where I am. I have no desire to leave for more money, better hours or anything else they could throw at me.

Still, I felt guilty for not wanting to consider it. Then, while reading one of my favorite blogs, Quiltish by Allisa Jacobs, I ran across this...

Photo credit Love Sugar

I took it as a sign.....

What I do....

This is one of the things that I do... Along with being a teacher, I am also the atlethic trainer for the school. Here I am attempting to make an injured athlete smile...

Football was by far my busiest season. In every game someone got hurt. There were old injuries to contend with as well as trying to prevent new ones. Players not only got hurt at games but also at practice. It's a crazy, tiring season.

But we're not in football season, we're in baseball season. During baseball season, I sit in the dugout, eat peanuts and cheer on the team. Mabye there's an abrasion or two, possibly a jammed finger. No concussions, no broken ankles or fingers, no dislocated shoulders. Not that those injuries can't happen... they most certainly can, but they're not typical with our team.

Today is a baseball game against a very tough team, and I'm sure our boys will give it their all. Hopefully no one gets hurt... and if they don't, I will enjoy sitting in the dugout, eating peanuts, cheering on the team.

Where has the time gone???

It has been almost a year and a half since I last posted. That's crazy!!!

When I left you, it was almost Christmas 2010, and I had accepted a position as a high school math teacher. After accepting this position I realized that I could not keep up with sewing and teaching. Something had to give.

For a very long time I thought that creating things should be my career, and for a long time I tried to make that work. I was never satisfied though. There was always a hole; something missing.

I am pleased to say that I now feel as if I have landed where I need to be. I am teaching Sports Medicine at a fabulous high school and I am also the athletic trainer for the school. Of course, I still do personal training and may pick up a Pilates class during the summer. I am beyond busy, but I love my job, I love my students and I can not imagine anything else I would rather be doing. But..... where does this leave sewing??? I still sew, but only for family and friends. Maybe one day I will open the shop up again, but for now it will remain closed.

My life has evolved and I hoping the blog will too. I am planning to post more about my life, things I make, stuff I do around the house... It will probably be super boring to everyone but my mom, but it's worth a shot.

Here goes nothing...

ttfn
lyn

Holiday gifts on a budget....

This time of year, you can find "gifts for under $$$" lists in pretty much every magazine. There are sporty lists, eco-friendly lists, this-gift-looks-expensive-but-it's-actually-pretty-cheap lists... you name it there's a list for it, all in the name of helping you with your holiday shopping.

I, personally, do not use these lists. I do, however, look at them because they occupy every third page of the magazines I read. I figure, why fight it??? Just look at the list...

Today, I was reading a rather popular blog and came across a Holiday Shopping Guide for Gifts Under $100. I figured, what the hay... let's check out the guide and see what they suggest. Many of the gifts were cute... lamps, shoes, the usual gift guide options.... and then I came across a gift that had me a little puzzled.

A napkin ring.

Now, I am not normally puzzled by napkin rings. I understand their function. Heck, I even own a few... four to be exact. It was not the napkin ring itself, that had me puzzled. It was the fact that someone thought to put it in this guide that left me a little confused.

The guide is for gifts that are under $100, so technically the napkin ring can be on the list since it is priced at $75. But it's ONE napkin ring at $75.... when was the last time you gifted someone ONE napkin ring???

You probably haven't.

Know why?

Beacuse napkin rings are given as a set... Sometimes four, maybe six, often 8 for larger table settings. You simply don't buy one napkin ring, wrap it, and say "Merry Christmas... Hope somebody gets you the other three!" It's just not done.

Only after my mini-rant was complete, was I able to focus on the price. $75 for ONE napkin ring?!?!?! My first thought was..."you do realize this is a ring for your napkin and not your finger, right?" No wonder you're only buying one, you'd go broke buying all four. That's $300 on napkin rings.

$300 for napkin rings?!?! Geez Louise, how much did you spend on your napkins?!?! They must be pretty fancy to warrant $300 napkin rings.

Maybe I'm too old fashioned, or just flat out cheap... but I am not spending that much money on a napkin ring... or four. I am perfectly happy using my cheap-o napkin rings or *gasp* folding my napkins and laying them flat.

This is the reason I don't like to look at the gift guides in the first place... there is always some random gift that doesn't belong. An item that's sole purpose is to mcok you from its place on the glossy page or just behind the glare on your computer screen... To this gift, and its parent gift guide, I say...."My friends don't want napkins rings as a gift anyway!!!"

ttfn
~lyn

The BIG Announcement...

Yesterday I tweeted that I had a big announcement to make, and then I got busy and didn't make the announcement.

So, here it is. The BIG announcement.

I'm shutting down Paputsi.

Not permanently, of course, just until February. I know, it's crazy to shut down the shop during the holiday rush, but I need the break. Lots of things are changing in my life right now. I have way to many balls in the air at the moment. So, I've decided it would be best to shut down the shop for a bit, and focus on getting all of my other ducks in a row.

I've been so bogged down with what I "have" to do to survive, that I haven't been able do enjoy the things I want to do. I want Paputsi to be successful, but recently, it has been placed on the "have to do" list, and I have begun to shy away from it. This past month, I only went into my sewing room twice....

Twice!

That's crazy! I used to go in there everyday. Even if I didn't sew, I did something. Not in Novemebr though.... twice, that's it. When I realized this, I took a long loo at everything in my life... work, friends, family... everything. Something needed to change.

I have made many changes... from switching jobs to cutting out toxic individuals. One of those changes included temporairly closing Paputsi. For the next 2 months, I am not sewing with deadlines in mind. (other than Christmas gifts, of course) I am creating for fun. Making things I've always wanted to, but never got around to. I'll be painting and drawing more.

When Paputsi opens back up in February, it will be with fresh new products... and a new look.

I will continue to blog during my hiatus.... I will keep you all posted on the progress I am making with all of these exciting changes.

ttfn
~lyn