5:10

with no guarantees he'll do anything other than look at the broken tooth.

that's 4 more fucking hours in pain.

(i'm not complaining that they didn't get me in fast enough... heck no. they're super friendly and i love my dentist office).

but omg. it hurts so much that i'm literally shaking.

at least in four hours i'll have some help... even if it's just some painkillers.

ugh. i'm so pissy because i didn't sleep last night... i slept this morning... from about 7 until noon. and when i finally got up the house was a DISASTER!! john said he'd tidy up last night - i went upstairs alone yesterday evening because i didn't want to snap at the kids while i was hurting. but he didn't do a damn thing. ARG. so the kids have helped out. they're really great kids. they did a chunk of last night's dinner dishes for me and tidied up the coffee table. yep. thanks John.

oh my god. the pain.

my molar is broken. i can stick my tongue into a hole that goes up into my gum.

it hurts like a motherfucker. worse than that. times 1000.

a neighbour (whom i talked to today only because she yelled at one of my kids and i went over there to yell at her - hey, i was in pain and really really pissy and just itching to let it out on someone) commented that i looked terrible. yeah. thanks. and when i told her why the "your kid is a bigger brat" argument stopped and she found me one little marvelous painkiller she had left over from an episode with kidney stones or some such.

yes, it's a disfunctional friendship.

i don't even know what kind of painkiller it was... morphine perhaps? (yes, i was desperate enough to take an unknown painkiller...) it was certainly stronger than any painkiller i've ever taken. and i should have saved it for now.

i took it a few hours ago and had some lovely pain-free time. and now it's wearing off. and it's like the pain got that much worse. or i was just getting used to being almost pain free.

either way. shit. this hurts.

it hurts enough that i'm almost tempted to just ask John to go at it with a pair of fucking pliers!

if the dentist cannot fit me in for an emergency visit tomorrow i'm going to have to protest by sitting in the office crying so that they'll at least give me something to numb the pain until they can see me.

yeouch.

please cross whatever you can that the dentist can see me asap. and that it won't cost me an arm and a leg. i think i'm just going to request that he pull it... i can't afford any major work. and since it's in the back and you can't see it, even when i'm smiling, i think they can just take it.

maybe i'll bring it home and put it under my pillow. i heard the tooth fairy pays more for the ones that really hurt ;0 (i bet she runs around dressed in leather playing with a whip after hours too)

thanks for letting me vent/cry.

now here's an anomoly on my blog...

the RubySapphire socks are finally done!! i love love love them!! the yarn is so yummy. they feel really great on my feet... so smooth. i haven't washed them yet... so i don't know how they'll stand up to that, but otherwise i highly recommend RubySapphire's Luster Sock yarn. mmm mmmm good.

and now you can stop gaping... i know... it's really weird to see actual knitting on my knitting blog!

now i'm going to work on Jake's socks. while the kids are outside and there is no soap, or body butter, or lip balm OR solid fragrances to be made and before i have to start dinner!! (we made a solid fragrance with Monkey Farts... it makes me giggle every time someone says the name of it. LOL)

knitting?

no.

but i'm now covered when it comes to moisturizing:

lip balm, body butter and new scents... oh my!!

we made lip balm. strawberry. mmm. from SCRATCH! so freakin' fun! but it has no preservatives in it, so the 7 tubes we made are gonna have to be used within the next few months.

yes, they will be for sale in the Etsy shop shortly. just want to make sure there are no mistakes in the balm that haven't shown up yet. give it a week or so perhaps and if none of the tubes turn green or grow things or stop tasting like strawberry i'll get them up on Etsy.

AND i've got some body butter for our soapy venture. lovely thick and creamy body butter.

and new scents. Honeydew Melon (so fresh and sweet), Banana, Strawberry, Oatmeal Milk and Honey, Kiwi, Blackberry and the one that's gotten the most attention... Monkey Farts.

there's some goooood stuff coming to Victoria's Suds n Scents in the near future!!

wooohooo!

a little knitting and a lot of bath/body goodness

an inch or two above the heel on Jake's Regia sock:


and ready to turn the heel on the RubySapphire wonders. i've included a photo with the flash to show off the lovely sheen the Luster Sock has. so pretty!



and that is the extent of the knitting that has happened around here. most of it last night when the girls were over for SnB (although we laugh more than bitch... should we rename it SnL!?) Sharon brought me flowers for my birthday last night (thanks again!), and Josee brought the most delish home made cookies. it was a goooood night :D

i got a LOT of goodies in the mail today!

yes, some of them are soap. i know. i'm a terrible mother, buying soap when the kids make it. but, really, that's not exactly how it happened. i ordered three bars from Gudonya way back in January, before the kids started making soap. crap happens, we're all human and things got a little mixed up for Deb, the one-woman-wonder at Gudonya. i never got my soap. when i emailed her she had some trouble finding me in her stack of orders (i ordered from her outside of Etsy).

when she did find me she was super apologetic and shipped off my order pronto. and included some super extras! two lip balms... one that's Grape and the other (which the kids have already started to argue over) is Vanilla Mint. it smells like a high-end chocolate shop, that one. for those of you in the area... it smells EXACTLY like Deborah's Chocolate Shop on Broadway. DELISH!

and i ordered some whipped body butters from Alberta (yes, Canada Post sucked there too). the jars are small (2oz) but WOW, a little goes a LONG way!! and it isn't at all greasy!!

Maureen from Simple Pleasure Soapworks also sent some goodies along because she felt bad that Canada Post gauges people on shipping... she sent a lip balm (Orange, so bright and cheery and summery!) and a Mango Melon soap sample.

i'm seriously in love with handmade bath/body products right now... and the Body Butters from Simple Pleasures Soapworks are absolutely the best purchase i've made so far. (i ordered three of them because it cost the same to ship one-three. i got Creamsicle, Nag Champa and French Vanilla - which the kids have decided is exactly like cake icing... it's seriously yummy. i'm going to give one to my mum cuz i love her. we just don't know which scent we can part with!)

my house smells LOVELY right now.

even the kids are thrilled (i love kids... there's no such thing as "competition" to them... everyone is on even ground and they love handmade soap even if they didn't make it).

and now? i'm going to shower and then take photos of even more soap (the kids).

perhaps i'll get a chance to knit a little this afternoon. i have a good feeling it'll happen today (no evil post office trips scheduled so far).

SnB here tonight!

i'm really looking forward to it. gals, can you please pass it on for me... i'm not sure i'm going to have time to email everyone myself!

i wish i had some lovely finished sock photos to show you all. even some lovely not-quite-finished sock photos. but alas, i have nothing. again.

i had to spend more time than i care to admit fixing our shipping quotes in Etsy. why? because Canada Post sucks. and sucks ass. dirty stinky ass.

example: we go to the post office to mail ONE soap to Guelph (a city that's 30 minutes from us). it costs us almost $8!! but to send a HEAVIER package to Louisiana? $6. WTF?! so the kids made absolutely no profit on the soap they sold to Guelph.

so i go through Etsy and raise the shipping prices to reflect what Canada Post charges. i have to do this one. listing. at. a. time. ugh. pain in the ASS.

and then sales stop. cold. nothing.

of course, if i were shopping and i saw that it would cost me $4 to ship a friggin $4 bar of soap, i wouldn't buy it either.

so i go through them all AGAIN this morning to play some $ mind games. i up the prices of the soap by $1 each and lower the shipping cost by $1. it all evens out in the end, but looks better to see the lower shipping cost. or so i hope.

i have to say it again. Canada Post SUCKS. i get packages from the USA all the time that are approximately the same size as the packages we're shipping... and the cost for them? generally less than $2. why does Canada Post charge so much for basically the same service?! and why is it MORE expensive to send packages within our own country?! that it cost more to send something to friggin Guelph than it did to send something to LOUISIANA makes no gawdamn sense whatsoever.

ugh.

and now i'm going to shower, go to the (evil) post office and clean up around here for tonight.

i'm still alive!

just busy. seriously. this soap thing has picked up and it's taking over my knitting time!

the kids have made a few sales over at Etsy (yaaaay!), so there's been quite a few trips over to the post office (both to pick up and send packages). i've spent more time than i care to admit photographing soap. out of ten photos i find one that's decent. there's been a LOT of freakin' soap photos. thank the gods for digital cameras!! i've spent time measuring and weighing soaps. and too much time listing them on Etsy. (these kids better love me) ;)

and then there's the actual soap making.

i just want to spend some time knitting now.

i got a few rounds on my RubySapphire sock done this weekend while visiting my parents. but that's all the knitting i've managed to get in.

so since i have no knitting progress i'll have to leave you with another soap photo. yeah. i'm sick of them too. this is Jake's "Study in Contrasts" soap. the scent does not match the appearance at all... he wanted it to be a surprise. so he popped in Brown Sugar scent (omg... the brown sugar scent is absolutely delicious! our friend Maureen said it smells almost like fudge. it's seriously yummy).

Soapy O's and Apple Juice soaps!

while the kids are flaked out on the sofa i managed to get some photos of their newest soaps. i just love love love the Soapy O's. LOL. they're adorable!

the Soapy O's are up on Etsy... the Apple Juices are going up in a little while. both sets are available for custom orders in other scents.

food poisoning...

the only upside? it wasn't my cooking that did it!

omg. this is never ending. the kids go up and down... fine for a few hours, bad for a longer few hours. poor Jake had to have his sheets changed THREE times last night because icky stuff was oozing out of him.

and we've become one of "those" homeschooling families.

food poisoning? hrmm... i think we have an "edutainment" tv show somewhere about food poisoning and how your body deals and why you feel like crap during it. so while they're suffering the kids are dying to know why and have done a little research into it.

so, no knitting for me tonight. trust me, nobody wants to be here during this fun.

i have been knitting a little though! not much... i just turned the heel on Jake's first Regia sock and i just finished the toe (on a toe-up sock) of my second RubySapphire sock.



psst... i added an Etsy widget in the column to the right... is it showing up okay for everyone?

somebody shoot me

i don't usually complain much about real life here... do i?

but the last few days have sucked so much ass.

so... it all started on Friday. we've had a LOT of trouble with Butters the cat. she is such a sweetheart, cuddly, soft, a very lovable cat. but she kept pooping outside the litter box. we tried everything... we changed the litter, changed the food, moved the litter, had an extra litter box, got a bigger litter box, tried catching her "in the act" to startle her from doing it again... but every second day (at least), there was an awful smell and big pile of cat poo somewhere in the house.

and then on Wednesday i caught her squatting just beside the sofa, startled her (not scared her, just made it known i was there), she ran off. a while later there was a nice package in the basement for us.

that was the last straw for John. Butters went back to the shelter. :(

Juliet has been extremely upset. she really loves Butters.

she decided to stay home from my parents' house this weekend, which meant coming to the dentist with us. the kids sat through one heck of a long dentist appt. on Friday afternoon with much patience, although they didn't feel patient on the inside, they were very well behaved on the outside.

in the midst of Juliet being upset she got an upset tummy. no worries, right? probably just because she was so emotional.

wrong.

dude. it's not been fun. add Jake into the upset tummy mix and the house has been rather ucky. the kids rarely get sick like that, so it's drama-city when they do.

so the weekend was spent rubbing kids' backs, cuddling, getting up at all hours of the night to "mum... i think i might puke!"

blech. on an up note though... John and i seem to be fine! we both had a few hours of queasiness the other night, but nothing since! *crosses fingers*

the weekend finally comes to an end. the tummies are much better. not perfect, but the bad stuff seems to have passed.

but because life was on a roll...

the fucking car breaks down. so John takes the day off Monday and takes it in. $more-than-we-could-afford-later, the end result is that i had to call up my parents last night and ask to borrow $ until the end of the week.

hello. i'm almost 32 and borrowing money from my parents (my birthday is on the 13th. woooot!)

and just because she sucks, AF showed up on the weekend too.

goddamn it... i hope this is the end of the crap for a while.

so... yeah... no knitting content to share today. no new soaps either (no way i was letting them near the soap "studio" while they were ill).

we haven't seen the outdoors in days, i think we're going to try to take a little walk to get some fresh air now.

(to end this on a brighter note... John *did* get a new video card for his computer (before the car broke down), so i can play the Sims2 again! and he bought Juliet and i the new expansion pack... Seasons. wooot!)

one RubySapphire sock

and isn't she pretty...




here's one with the flash to sort of show you the sheen of the yarn... it's really pretty:

and... dudes... the kids have been making soap. loads and loads of soap. here's the latest (from yesterday... today we're going to work on "soapy-o's"! wait til you see these... they are adorable LifeSavers-looking little soaps! i say "we" because Jake needs help with his soaps, Juliet has her creations entirely under her control. my advice/help is no longer welcome, she knows what she's doing already!)

i know this is technically a knitting blog, but you have to understand two things: 1) i'm really proud of them. 2) their business loan was my stash money and i kinda want it back ;)

here's Juliet at work packaging some soaps the other day in her "studio" (our tiny kitchen/dining room table):

email frustration

so... trying to set up a new email address for the kids' soap stuff. heh. every freakin' thing we try is taken... frustration builds... John types in "stapled ass". ermm... yeah. we're now the proud owners of stapledass at symcrapico.

back to the business at hand. more soapy-type names are tried. the symcrapico website dies. we sign back in. we try again. not available. try again. website craps out AGAIN.

so AGAIN John gets frustrated enough to type in something obscene. now we're the proud owners of not just stapledass, but wankertot at symcrapico.

a lot of laughing and goofing after that one... and we finally resorted to trying out "soap" in different languages... strangely enough, it wasn't taken in French. so "savon" it is.

... and it's nice to know we have a couple of back-up addresses... just in case ;)

(pictures of the sock soon... i hope! John's got another dentist appointment tomorrow so he'll be passed out on the sofa all afternoon and probably Saturday too. Juliet is going to my parents' for the weekend, so i'll have to do a lot more "entertaining" with Jake. he gets very clingy when Juliet is gone.)

still alive! just a few quick things...

SnB at my house tonight if no other plans have been made. i haven't heard from anyone, and have been pretty busy and haven't been able to email anyone to find out what's going on.

so, weather permitting and all, come on by! :D

ACTUALLY - never mind... i'm cancelling... the weather is CRAP. just stay home and be safe gals!!

Jennie... i can't comment on your blog :( the comment window won't fully load. i want to say "you LUCKY chica!!" omg... i wish i had scored that STR!! i haven't ordered any because the shipping is outrageous... $10 US for ONE skein to Canada. insane and a total rip off if you ask me.

i'm almost done the first RubySapphire sock. woot!

there's more soaps in the kids' Etsy shop.

we've gone Etsy...

i'll probably add a couple more listings once i can properly edit my photos again!

COME SEE :D

this just cracked me up :D

i get an envelope in the mail today from Cafe Press. hrmmm. strange. i haven't used Cafe Press in YEARS! so i open it and find a cheque for $28.57 US. hrmmm. stranger.

way back in the day when i was selling my art online (via my now dead and gone website PeachKeenJellyBean.com), i opened a little Cafe Press store.

when i stopped selling i guess i forgot to close the Cafe Press account.

some of the links are broken (because the pictures were hosted on PeachyKeenJellyBean) but a few people are still buying! sweeeet! seems the Moon Goddess t-shirts have been popular ;)

i've been using the She Devil tote as my main knitting bag for years. it's holding up very well... it even got caught in the spokes of my bicycle tired while i was riding it one day and the bag survived intact and fine except for a big oily smear across it.

anyway. this just brightened my day.

pictures to go with last night's post...

(i just uploaded them to photobucket and then edited the size to 640x480. smaller than usual, but meh, it'll do for now.)

i turned the heel on the RubySapphire sock last night. lovin' it! i just decided to go with plain stockinette. i thought a pattern might get lost in the colours (Jaywalkers might work though), and i wasn't really sure how the yarn would knit up. i'm really tempted to buy another hank of their "luster sock" (50% merino, 50% tencel).

my sock yarn stash is getting bigger again... i just sold a bunch of it! Red Bird Knit's sock of the month club kit showed up late last week (thanks Sharon!)... it has two balls of yarn in it, enough for 2 pairs of socks OR the pattern that came along with the kit - isn't the sock pretty?!. of course, Juliet has claimed the kit as her own yet again ;) i guess since i'm ripping back the Yorkminster sock i might be able to accommodate her wishes... eventually!

it all makes me wish i could knit faster ;)

tomorrow is a big day... it's my brother's 30th birthday!!! and he still lives at home... mwa hahahahaa!! (i laugh, but he's going to school, so living at home is the only option at the moment) i saw the BEST t-shirt for him, but wouldn't you know it's sold out in his size. ARG. we'll probably head up to see him next weekend to do some celebrating! :)

i can't edit my photos!

i took some of the RubySapphire sock-in-progress (i'm really enjoying knitting with the yarn!), but for some dumb reason the program i'm very used to using to edit my photos will not work. guess i'm going to have to pester John to fix it when he gets home from work tomorrow.

i'm going to rip back the Yorkminster sock. while it fits, it's snug on me, but just a bit too snug on Juliet. i'm considering redoing the pattern, but going up a needle size.

and because this has become the house of one sock wonders, i've started yet another one... for Jake this time. in some funky variegated Regia. i have a photo of that too, but...

and i got a little tired of using scraps of yarn as stitch markers, so i pulled apart a bracelet i had and made 4 cute beaded ones, with small rings, specifically for my sock knitting.

so... the soap thing is going well. she's sold quite a few considering. we've discussed putting some up on Etsy.com along with making 100%, entirely, absolutely handmade soaps. i guess that should read that *i* would be making the 100% handmade soaps because there is no way i'm letting her mess around with lye. tomorrow we're going to check out some local stores for the ingredients needed IF the weather permits. (i have no objections to 100% homemade soaps... i really prefer them over store-bought soaps! :D )

alrighty... since i have no pictures i'm going to end this. abruptly. ;)

the soaps (for now)

picture heavy post ahead.

here are the basic shapes Juliet has available for sale right now (pardon the wrapping, she's planning on buying better wrapping as soon as she makes a little more money):

the cube:



the rectangle:



the circle:



the hexagon:



little heart shaped guest soaps with rose carvings:


and she also has some fun things to embed in her soap:





the regular sized bars are all between 80-100 grams (approx. 3.5 oz)... same size as your every day shower bar.

the little guest soaps are just that... little. only really suitable for sink-side use.

aren't they cute? the batch she did today she's calling her "Party Soaps"... they're drying now. they remind me of tie-dye. i can't wait to see the finished products.

her pricing is pretty straight forward...
- the regular sized bars are $4 each (Canadian funds) OR three for $10.
- the guest sized bars are $2 OR three for $5

there are some bars that didn't quite make the "regular" bar cut... they're still beautiful, just a little smaller than the regular bars... all approximately 3/4 the size of the regular bars. she's selling these for $3.

shipping of these items is a flat rate of $5 (Canada Post is a bitch) no matter how much you order.

she welcomes custom orders. here are the specs:

AVAILABLE SCENTS: pearberry (i love this one... a crisp pear with an undertone of tart berry), vanilla, lavender, honey almond, rose, unscented.

AVAILABLE COLOURS: red, green, blue, purple, yellow, orange, clear. colours can be solid, light or dark, swirled or blocked.

AVAILABLE BASE SOAPS: clear glycerin. honey, cocoa butter and goat's milk coming soon!

INSERTS (for bigger bars only):
- Easter themed mini shapes (egg, bunny, duck)
- mini baby ducks (see above)
- large lizards in either yellow, orange, blue or green (see above)
- fabric hearts in pastel colours (see above)
- plastic gems in pastel colours.
- soap chunks in colours of your choice (see above).
WARNING: some inserts may be a choking hazard for smaller children!!

if anyone is interested they can email me at artsyz AT sympatico DOT ca.

and now i think i can sneak in a little sock knitting ;)

Juliet's new "business"

my little girl isn't so little anymore. she's been talking about getting a job (like delivering the newspaper) for a while, but was rather hesitant to actually do it. she said she wants to have a job like her dad... work for herself, be the boss, have her very own business!

she finally came up with something and she is gung-ho about it. she's started her own little soap company. she's planning on selling soaps to begin with and then add lip balms and bath bombs to her line... and then maybe even more. she's made a commitment to at least keep going until she pays back her business loan (ie... my yarn money).

she's calling her little business Victoria's Suds n Soaps (Victoria is her middle name). i know she's my kid and i'm biased and all... but i think so far her soaps are turning out great! she's ordered new ingredients online and plans to make Cocoa Butter, Honey and Goat's Milk soap available in the near future, until then she's got some lovely clear glycerin soaps on hand in a small variety of scents.

of course we're counting this as a homeschooling project on top of everything else. she's keeping her own inventory/money in/money out. but i'm helping her find "clients" (her friends don't have that much extra money to spend, so she's hoping i can help her find some adults with more expendable income LOL).

i'm so proud of her though. even if she decides it's not for her after she pays back her loan, i'm proud she's taken the initiative to give it a go.

so watch this space for some of Victoria's Suds n Soaps in the very near future!