I made the switch to WordPress. Yay me! I’m still learning my way around the new system, so it may be a few days before I’m able to polish it up and fix all those little weird things that are happening. Right now, I need to work on the OTHER SITE which is really-seriously-for-real-I’m-not-kidding going to relaunch on June 1. That’s only two days away! Ack!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. Let me tell you why.

I found a new host for my site on May 20. One day after my last entry. Though I was happy with my previous host, they weren’t able to deliver the speed I needed for my new ecommerce website. The new one is SUPER fast. Which is good. Unfortunately, my new host and Blogger don’t work well together for reasons only the two of them understand. And, of course, each blames the other for the (literal) lack of communication.

I just now found something that worked, though I haven’t figured out how to make my sidebar blogs work within my main blog. But I’m not too worried about that right now. For the time being, I will remain with Blogger. However, I’m more than a little disappointed with the way they’ve handled my queries, so I may be switching to a new blogging tool soon.

In celebration of the June 1 launch of my new jewelry line and remodeled web site, I’m holding a contest to create a name for the new line. I’m looking for something cute and catchy, and of course, something that captures the personality of both the new line and its designer (that being, moi).

The Prize: Your choice of one Whimsy Chick pendant (valued at $75).

How You Enter: Submit one or more ideas for the name of the new line via email with the subject line “You Name It Contest.” The address is AT my site WHIMSYCHICK.COM and the “person” is CONTEST. Did you get that?

(If not, you can leave a comment here and I’ll try to clarify it for humans without giving it away to the spambots.)

Why should I enter? If I choose your idea, you win The Prize! In the event that no name is chosen from the entries, one winner will be selected at random.

But wait, there’s more! Just for entering, you will receive a 10% coupon good towards any Whimsy Chick item. (One discount per person please.)

What’s the new line?

(Copyright 2006 Whimsy Chick)

Contest Deadline: May 31, 2006. Though if you come up with some fabulous idea for the new line after the deadline and you think I won’t be able to pass it up, contact me and we’ll talk.
CMA: If I choose your idea, you agree to forfeit all rights of the winning idea to me. Blah, blah, blah, no future compensation, etc, etc. Okay?

If you’re a greedy, selfish person who will do anything to increase your chance of winning: Do not tell anyone else about this contest. Keep it to yourself. And congratulate yourself on your sneakiness before your bad karma catches up to you.

Otherwise, please pass this info along to anyone you know who might enjoy it.

Anything else?: If you have questions, you can email me at the contest address or leave a comment here.

I feel like I have so much to do, and so little time to do it all. Rob’s parents’ condo is so clean compared to the mess I left here before heading to Florida. Every time I decide to clean it, something else comes up that’s either more important or more interesting. Though it’s pretty easy to find something more interesting than cleaning, I guess.

I dropped the boys off at school, sorted through two weeks of mail and e-mail, showered, ate lunch, paid bills, bought 80 lbs. of dog food, picked up the dog, bought dog shampoo, bathed the dog THREE TIMES, picked the boys up from school, went home, started cleaning, went back out to get dinner (take-n-bake pizza, yum!), made dinner (okay, baked a pizza), and finally started cleaning again. I deserve a raise.

I worked on my office/studio first, but as soon as I cleaned off the desk, I pulled out all my new supplies and started making jewelry. Then I started playing around with names for the new line. Shame on me. BUT, one could say that making jewelry is important since I’m trying to get serious about this business thing, right? I told my web guru that I want to launch the finished site on June 1. I’m confident she’ll be ready, but not sure I’ll be. I know what I need to do, but I also know there’s a good chance I’ll find some excuse to avoid it again. Most likely, I’ll tell myself I’m spending too much time on Whimsy Chick, and that I need to stop and spend time cleaning or whatever. I think I need to find some motivational quotes to post up all around my house right now. You know, as reminders. If you know a good one that might help, lemme know!

Now that I’m feeling guilty about spending 15 minutes writing on my blog, I guess it’s time to grab some lunch while I sort through the rest of the mail.

We had a great trip to Florida, but we’re all very happy to be back home. Two weeks away from home is about a week too long for me. Even the boys are happy to be home, though not quite as happy to go back to school. My camera and I had an early disagreement about how the pictures should be taken during the trip, and we haven’t spoken since. When I get some pics from people who didn’t divorce their cameras, I’ll get a few of them up here.

Week One
We spent the first week with Rob’s parents in Naples, with frequent trips to Marco Island for wedding stuff. Their Naples condo is beautiful, spacious, and surprisingly comfortable for six people (though I’m sure they’re happy to have the place back to two people now!) The weather was cooperative. Hot, but not so hot that I melted. The wedding was on the beach and, of course, it was beautiful. It was a very small, very intimate ceremony and it was perfect.

This would be a picture of the beach wedding.

Tampa
On Sunday, we were supposed to travel with Rob’s mom to Tampa to visit Rob’s brother for a couple days before we headed to Disney World. An early morning trip to the emergency room for my brother-in-law’s partner changed those plans. While cleaning up the yard for our visit, he fell from a ladder and broke his hip. We were able to spend a little time with them on Monday night and Tuesday morning before we drove to the park, though we were disappointed they wouldn’t be joining us there.

The Boardwalk at Disney World
The hotel room at the park was a $1300 per night suite with two bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and three balconies, paid in full by my brother-in-law and Mr. Broken Hip. I have no pics of the room, so you’ll have to trust me when I say it was amazing. The boys were most impressed with the television in the master bathroom and didn’t argue much when it was time for their shower. I’m torn between the turn down service, the three dozen roses they sent to the room, and the extravagant “complimentary refreshments” they offered in the lounge daily. We could have had all our meals there if we hadn’t been in the parks during the day.

The Parks
Tuesday was EPCOT. It rained in the morning when we first checked into our room, but the rain had cleared up by the time we walked over to the park. We hit all the must-sees before sending the boys to an activity center for dinner while we dined at a very fancy, very expensive French restaurant. That’s probably the closest I’ll get to going to France for a while.

Wednesday was MGM. The Star Tours ride was a big hit with the boys, and Brendan was chosen to participate in a Jedi Training class.

This would be a picture of Brendan in a light sabre duel with Darth Vader.

Thursday was Animal Kingdom. It was a humid day, but since we were walking around in what was supposed to be a jungle/rainforest type thing, I almost didn’t mind it. It made it feel more real. We were pretty tired after two full days at the other parks, so the plan was to hit the highlights and head back to Tampa. The rain came just before we got to our last ride, and we decided to save it for our next trip. The highlight of Animal Kingdom was the ride Dinosaur. You ride in this car in the dark and around every turn some big predator appears out of nowhere. Like this:

Rollercoasters don’t make me scream. Dinosaurs roaring in my face? Yeah, I scream. And naturally, the lovely people at Disney with their lovely sense of humor take pictures of their guests screaming. And because I bought pictures those one or two times Rob screamed like a little girl on the roller coasters so many years ago, he thought it would only be fair to buy a POSTER SIZE print of me screaming my head off. I’ve cropped the image down to just the boys and me, for your amusement.

And, if you’re wondering, that is the top I was wearing when the downpour came later that day. Wearing a white top seemed like a good idea when I got dressed that morning.

Back to Tampa then Naples
Thursday night we headed back to my brother-in-law’s place. Mr. Broken Hip was home from the hospital, but was feeling well enough for us to stay the night. Their house is huge and gorgeous, and they’re both excellent hosts, so we felt like royalty. Friday morning we drove back to Naples and spent the last few days of our vacation relaxing before coming home to the cloudy, rainy, chilly Michigan spring weather. It’s so good to be home.

As nice as our visit in Naples/Tampa/Marco Island/Florida was, I wouldn’t ever want to live there.

A quickie pic of the new pendants I’ve been working on.

I’m working with 20mm pendants now, but I’ll be working with 30mm when I return from my trip. I over-editted this photo and lost some of the realness of the pendant. What you can’t see is that the “collage” is encased in a sterling silver pendant with a clear resin. I’m testing for wearability during the trip. Specifically, whether they’ll withstand being worn in multiples without being damaged. I’m currently wearing two together that don’t really match the outfit I’m wearing, but they still look darn good. Darn good.