Pet names. The term for it is hypocorism. Most of us have them, and many of us use them. I’ve had pet names for my dogs as long as I can remember. When my children were born, they got pet names too. I’m saving the really embarrassing one for their teenage years as payback for all the times they threw tantrums in public and embarrassed me. But that’s another story.

I don’t have a problem with pet names between family members. Our family doesn’t use unique pet names for each member. Pet names are sort of a free for all around here, except for the names that are mutations of the real name. Generally, family pet names is where I draw the line.

I have friends that use pet names for me once in a while, but they’re usually based on some personal joke we have together. I don’t mind those. It’s those other names. The ones people use without permission that bug me.

Case in point: professionals who call their clients, customers, or patients by a pet name. Why do these women (and it’s always a woman) have no clue how unprofessional and just WRONG it is to call me hon, honey, sweetie, or sweetheart when I am their CUSTOMER? It’s so patronizing. Do they think people enjoy it? It used to be older women who used these terms for younger customers, but I’ve noticed a trend over the past few years of young women using the term with everyone.

Me: “I need to confirm the menu for the bridal shower.”
Her: “Sure thing, honey. Let me get your file.”

Her (in a voicemail message I received yesterday): “I’m sorry I didn’t call back sooner, sweetheart. I’ll fax that stuff over to you as soon as possible.”

I kid you not. She called me sweetheart. I know Valentine’s Day just passed and all, but SWEETHEART? How am I supposed to repond to that? Am I supposed to ignore it? See, I don’t think that’s right. But I don’t know how else to handle it. So I guess that’s why I come running to my blog to complain. Get the word out and let people know (indirectly) how unprofessional it is.

If you’re bothered by the use of pet names in a professional setting as much as I am, join the campaign! Speak out against hypocorism in the workplace. If you have co-workers or employees that do it, tell them to cut it out!

This week has been fun. Last weekend, my mom and I went out to get stuff for my sister’s upcoming bridal shower to be hosted by moi. It probably comes as no surprise to anyone that I’ve decided to make, not only the invitations, but many of the prizes and favors as well. Unfortunately, I can’t talk too much about it now since my sister happens to read my blog, and it’s supposed to be a surprise and all that.

Besides working on shower stuff, I’ve been spending the past few days rebuilding my website. At first, one might wonder why I chose this time to rebuild the website, with so much to do for the shower. Simply put, the dolphin pin I donated to the school fundraiser includes my contact information, which includes the website. And I just know someone from the school is going to check out the website.

My plan was to put together only the basic structure, the contact page, and the bio page. I ended up doing a bit more than that though. The big thing that isn’t finished is the online store, mostly because I really hate the picture taking part of the process. I figure I’ll get to it eventually. Or not. We’ll see. I also learned that I have very few pictures of myself, hence the use of the same extreme close-up I use for my blog.

So, yeah, it’s kinda stupid that I’ve built a site that can’t serve its main purpose. But I feel better knowing some of the information is out there now. And I feel hugely successful for figuring out how to write the code. (Which, by the way, has not been fully tested yet, so if it looks goofy, that’s why.)

So if you feel like checking out my online jewelry store that’s not really an online jewelry store because the online jewelry store part of it doesn’t work yet, here you go. Whimsy Chick

When I first make something, it often takes me some time to recognize whether it is trash or treasure. It doesn’t matter if it’s jewelry, ceramics, writing, sewing, knitting, painting, or whatever. I can’t see it right away.

One of my most recent creations was a piece of jewelry I made as a donation to the boys’ school fundraiser. I chose their mascot and school colors for inspiration and came up with this:

It’s a pin made with 14k gold-filled wire, fresh water pearls, lapis lazuli, garnet, and Austrian crystal. It took me a few days to be able to really see it without seeing that I made it. And now I’m very pleased with the result (though I wish I had a better photo for my collection.)

Picture a horse on roller skates. Got it? That’s how I felt last night at the boys’ school roller skating party.

I picked the boys up from school at 4:00, and took them straight to their tae kwon do class which started at 4:45. Class ended at 5:30. Once they changed their clothes, I drove them across the street to the roller skating place for the party which started at 6:00.

At first, I had no intention of skating with them. But then we got inside and I was hit with a wave of nostalgia. This was the very same building where my school had roller skating parties when I was a kid. And nothing had changed!

It didn’t take much coaxing for the boys to convince me to help them skate. And surprisingly, I didn’t hurt myself. In fact, I didn’t even fall, though, there were a few close calls.

At 8:00, the party ended. I packed them up, drove them home, and barely managed to get them fed and into bed by 9:00.

Yesterday left me with two thoughts. First, I don’t know how working mothers manage after school activities for multiple kids. I really don’t. And I don’t know how I am supposed to go back to work when, really, my life revolves around my boys. And I want it that way.

Second? I managed to roller skate for two hours without a trip to the emergency room. And that’s no less impressive than a horse performing the same feat.

I make stuff. I’ve always made stuff. When I was little and I complained about being bored, my mom would tell me to play outside or something. I didn’t want to play outside, though. I wanted to make stuff. What stuff? It didn’t really matter. Just… stuff.

As an adult, things are pretty much the same. I love buying cheap tables and bookshelfs because I love putting them together. I use the holidays as an excuse to make stuff too. That way, I can fulfill my urge to create without getting stuck with more stuff. Then there were all those art classes. So many art classes. I’m really more of a process person than a product person, so art classes were perfect. I was able to make stuff just for the sake of making stuff. I kept some of it. I threw some of it in the garbage. The important thing is that I got to make stuff.

When I finally decided to finish my degree in art, I told myself that I didn’t necessarily need to make a career out of making stuff. The more I search for jobs though, the more I realize I SHOULD be making a career out of making stuff. And I WANT to make a career out of making stuff. Because that’s what I do. I make stuff.

But how do I make a career out of making stuff? I’ve had more than a few jobs where I got to make stuff. They were my favorite jobs. They’re not the kind of jobs that would cover the cost for me to go back to work though.

Then there’s the selling stuff I make. I’ve tried that a few times, but it’s never good enough, you know? I mean, if I can make it, so can someone else. And then it’s not really that special, is it? And that’s my dilemma.

For now, I’ll have to settle for all the fun stuff I get to make for my sister’s upcoming wedding and shower.