Laughing at the Public Restroom "experience"

I'm a bit brain numb today. I've spent the whole day trying to come up with a subject for today's post. (That's not ALL I did, but it was on my mind while I did all that other stuff.)

Then, tonight, I stopped by Christine's Posh Wash Soap blog. She hasn't posted in a while (since June) but I took time to read through several pages of her varied posts. She made me laugh - a lot.

I laughed hysterically at this one. It made me think of a plaque I've seen that says "I laughed so hard, it ran down my legs." I hope Christine doesn't mind me reprinting it here. (I think she got it from a chain e-mail.)****Let me preface this with the fact that we visited our local casino on Friday night. It was the most crowded we've ever seen it as there were numerous promotions going on that night. Late that evening, I went to the bathroom then proceeded to walk across the casino to the doors leading outside where there is a generous amount of seating available. After chatting with some folks out there for about 45 minutes, The Big Guy came to get me as he was finally finished for the evening. I called goodbye to my new friends and strolled out on his arm (back into the main casino, that is.) A good ways across the casino, a woman ran up behind me and whispered in my ear, "You have toilet paper hanging out of your waistband." Yep, I had a trailing tail of TP about 15 inches long dangling down over the seat of my black slacks. Do you think anybody else noticed? (That was sarcasm, you know.)

**********Here is the post that cracked me up tonight:

"A good friend of mine sent this to me... every woman will understand this one. This explains that unanswered question men have of why women go to the bathroom in pairs or groups.

When you have to visit a public bathroom, you usually find a line of women, so you smile politely and take your place. Once it's your turn, you check for feet under the stall doors. Every stall is occupied.Finally, a door opens and you dash in, nearly knocking down the woman leaving the stall. You get in to find the door won't latch. It doesn't matter, the wait has been so long you are about to wet your pants! The dispenser for the modern "seat covers" (invented by someone's Mom, no doubt) is handy, but empty. You would hang your purse on the door hook, if there was one, but there isn't - so you carefully, but quickly drape it around your neck, (Mom would turn over in her grave if you put it on the FLOOR!), yank down your pants, and assume " The Stance."

In this position your aging, toneless thigh muscles begin to shake. You'd love to sit down, but you certainly hadn't taken time to wipe the seat or lay toilet paper on it, so you hold "The Stance." To take your mind off your trembling thighs, you reach for what you discover to be the empty toilet paper dispenser. In your mind, you can hear your mother's voice saying, "Honey, if you had tried to clean the seat, you would have KNOWN there was no toilet paper!" Your thighs shake more. You remember the tiny tissue that you blew your nose on yesterday - the one that's still in your purse. (Oh yeah, the purse around your neck, that now, you have to hold up trying not to strangle yourself at the same time). That would have to do. You crumple it in the puffiest way possible. It's still smaller than your thumbnail.

Someone pushes your door open because the latch doesn't work. The door hits your purse, which is hanging around your neck in front of your chest, and you and your purse topple backward against the tank of the toilet. "Occupied!" you scream, as you reach for the door, dropping your precious, tiny, crumpled tissue in a puddle on the floor, lose your footing altogether, and slide down directly onto the TOILET SEAT. It is wet of course. You bolt up, knowing all too well that it's too late. Your bare bottom has made contact with every imaginable germ and life form on the uncovered seat because YOU never laid down toilet paper - not that there was any, even if you had taken time to try. You know that your mother would be utterly appalled if she knew, because, you're certain her bare bottom never touched a public toilet seat because, frankly, dear, "You just don't KNOW what kind of diseases you could get."

By this time, the automatic sensor on the back of the toilet is so confused that it flushes, propelling a stream of water like a fire hose against the inside of the bowl that sprays a fine mist of water that covers your butt and runs down your legs and into your shoes. The flush somehow sucks everything down with such force that you grab onto the empty toilet paper dispenser for fear of being dragged in too. At this point, you give up. You're soaked by the spewing water and the wet toilet seat. You're exhausted. You try to wipe with a gum wrapper you found in your pocket and then slink out inconspicuously to the sinks.

You can't figure out how to operate the faucets with the automatic sensors, so you wipe your hands with spit and a dry paper towel and walk past the line of women still waiting. You are no longer able to smile politely to them. A kind soul at the very end of the line points out a piece of toilet paper trailing from your shoe. (Where was that when you NEEDED it?) You yank the paper from your shoe, plunk it in the woman's hand and tell her warmly, "Here, you just might need this."As you exit, you spot your hubby, who has long since entered, used, and left the men's restroom. Annoyed, he asks, "What took you so long, and why is your purse hanging around your neck?" This is dedicated to women everywhere who deal with a public restrooms (rest? you've GOT to be kidding!).

It finally explains to the men what really does take us so long. It also answers their other commonly asked questions about why women go to the restroom in pairs. It's so the other gal can hold the door, hang onto your purse and hand you Kleenex under the door."

Thanks for the smiles, Christine!

*****I hope she comes back to the blog world soon. I want more of this - lots and lots more!!

"Signs, signs - everywhere a sign"

We had some business about 50 miles up the road today and, for a change, The Big Guy did the driving. That meant I got a chance to simply admire the scenery - the gray, damp, sloppy scenery. Yep, it finally rained here. It's been a while and we really need the rain.

I love to look for unusual signs and such when we're out driving and today I found a few of interest. --

The Cecil County Health Dept. has a program known as the Healthy Marriage Initiative to encourage solid family lifestyles. As part of the campaign, they post billboards along the highway with cutesy little sayings about marriage. They change these every few months and I've mentioned some here before.
Today, I noticed these:

"Like a good wine, marriage improves with age,
once you learn to put a cork in it."

"The best way to get the last word is to apologize."

"It's never too late to live happily ever after."

And, this one accompanied a cartoon-like picture of Mr. and Mrs. Penguin guarding their egg:

"If penguins can do it, why can't we?"

Then, while stopped at a traffic light tonight on the trip home, I noticed this one for a cleaners/tailoring shop:

"Diets don't work, alterations do."

I hope these made you smile like they did me.

O.K.,, I can't always pick 'em!!

Another busy weekend! (So, what else is new?)

Lately, we've been making a big night of it on Fridays. This is unusual for us. Normally, we're settled in the house by about 8 p.m. on Friday evenings. I think I like this new wild lifestyle!!

So, after that late night on Friday, Saturday dawned a gorgeous day. The temps had moderated back into the mid 80s (We came close to 100 degrees on Friday!) and the humidity was low (a rarity around here). The sun was shining and there was just the slightest breeze blowing. It was just too beautiful to stay home all day. Of course, we both had a bit of trouble waking up and getting moving in the morning!! (That'll teach us to "trip the light fantastic" on Friday night!)

After a bit of discussion, we decided to head to Spring Grove, PA for a day of music at the first annual Roosterpalooza. The event was a fund raiser for breast cancer awareness and was headlined by two bands we were familiar with - Tom Larsen, known for his hard rocking blues, and Kashmir, a Led Zepplin tribute band. We were not familiar with any of the other groups listed on the flier. Altogether there were 18 or 19 bands involved.

The band that was playing when we arrived was Headshot and did some great covers of some good solid rock. They sounded good and we were quite pleased.

The park was a fantastic venue with a nice pavilion with a solid concrete stage and wiring which made set-up easy for the bands. There were plenty of picnic tables, both in the pavilion and spread around the lawns which were well shaded by some humongous oak trees.



The bands changed every hour. We had missed the first two completely as we did get a slow start. The next band came on and was the epitome of an 80's hair band. They call themselves Grind (not THE Grind, but they did pattern themselves after them.) While not our choice in music, they performed it well with lots of loud screaming and a truly choreographed stage performance. They were extremely high energy and made quite a few leaps from the stage. They then proceeded to traipse around the table tops between our food and drinks.




The lead singer liked pouring a bottle of water over his head and then flopping his hair at folks as he trotted among the crowd. (This I could have done without. We had several things on our table we'd have preferred to keep dry.)

Well, my tolerance for this sort of performance runs to an hour or two (at most). The Big Guy can appreciate it for about four songs or so. We were glad to see their time run out.

Or so we thought.

Turns out the next four bands were all trying to be wild hair bands from the 80s. Most did their thing fairly well but screamed lyrics quickly became screeched lyrics. We moved a little further from the stage area. We eventually discovered the acoustic stage and did enjoy some of the music there for a while.

Turns out the bands we actually knew and wanted to see, were the last two to play. We had a long trip home and ended up leaving before Tom took the stage at all.

On the up side, it was a beautiful day with fantastic scenery. We met and chatted with quite a few really nice folks. The food vendors were excellent and very reasonably priced. While we found out coolers were allowed into the event, we never bothered walking back to the car to get ours. Beverages were cheap enough. There were REAL bathrooms, well stocked with paper goods and soap and with running water (always a plus in my book!)


There were a few crafters present but I don't think any sold very much. I know one sold absolutely nothing. She had a variety of items for sale, ranging from fabric dolls and animals with colorful yarn hair, potholders, aprons and fabric purses as well as quite a bit of crocheted merchandise.I felt bad for her as her work was great and reasonably priced but it just wasn't that kind of crowd. She did close early and packed it in.

I did see a jeweler sell a number of inexpensive earrings and pendants. I was not close enough to the others to see how their sales were going but I did not see folks carrying any of the merchandise around. The tattoo artist (real tats, not airbrushed) and body piercing stand did do fairly well.

Oh well, I can't pick a winning experience EVERY time out!! (No offense to you readers who do enjoy this style of music, please. It just wasn't our style. My age must be showing.)

I figured I'd have trouble selling The Big Guy on another "new event" today, so we simply went to breakfast and then came home to watch the football game. At least the Ravens won!

Hope y'all had a good one.

Busy, busy, busy - and a word (or several) about Licensed Characters

It's been a busy last few days. I had some orders to complete and some designing and creating of new items on the agenda, too. Oh yeah, there were mundane things like grocery shopping, laundry and housecleaning to be done. (I think those good fairies that are supposed to come in and do those things while you sleep must've gotten lost.)

The Big Guy is off from work for the next two weeks and that so throws my routine off. I feel like I need to prepare for these weeks much like prepping for vacation because things just don't seem to get done while he's underfoot. He does cramp my production style!!

These are a few of this week's productions:

These Halloween baby booties are probably the only thing from this week's work that will make it into my Etsy shop. I hope to get them photographed and listed over the weekend.


It IS obvious I just took quick shots of these for this blog post. No time to edit and clean-up the pics tonight.





This little denim jumper was created especially for a special family baby coming into the world within the next few weeks. I'm busy putting together my "gift box." I feel bad because the new mama is far from friends and family and has just recently started a new job. There's nobody there to throw or attend a baby shower. A number of us back home are making an effort to get our packages there within a few days of each other to simulate the spoils of a good shower!


I really like the way this design turned out but I don't have a good, affordable and reliable source for the jumpers so I can't add it to my shop stock.






Finally, the new mama LOVES Winnie the Pooh, so I had to do something with Pooh bear. I like painting Pooh as he gets so much personality from a very simple facial design.

Pooh can't go into the shop because he is a LICENSED character. Unless you are a licensed vendor, you CANNOT make a profit from the character. You can paint a version of it for your own use but you cannot charge for any reproductions. Disney (the owner of Winnie-the-Pooh), Nickelodeon, BBC and the NFL are all entities (among others) that actively pursue their licensing rights. They DO go after the "little guy" who may just be doing local craft shows at churches, schools, etc.

I have addressed this issue a number of times in my blog. (See this post) If it something new to you and you are attempting to sell anything featuring such characters, perhaps you should research licensing and copyright laws before you find yourself facing a Cease and Desist Order that can be enforced immediately at a craft show that you may have paid quite a bit to participate in. Most show promoters, if made aware of such an order being served at their show will not only have you remove the offending products but will ask you to leave the show immediately. These companies usually also follow such an order with a law suit requesting payment for products already sold featuring their characters. Just for the record, ignorance of the law is NOT a defense acceptable by most Courts.

I have noticed quite a few items at "little" craft shows featuring Dora, Cars characters and, most recently, Marmaduke. Yes, people are sure to be interested in these items for the holidays but is it worth risking ALL of your sales?

On that note, I need to say "Good Night" and get some sleep!

Another trip around the world of my blog followers...

I sat down last night with intentions of posting here and then I got way-laid. SORRY!!

Once again, I'm beginning a trek through my list of Followers.
Every so often, I do take time to go through and check out who is following my blog and where each of you are coming from and what you that have blogs or websites are up to. I must say, I am always pleasantly surprised at what I come across in these adventures.

This time, I am beginning my journey with the newest of my Followers. I hope to come across quite a few items of interest to share with the rest of you. At least once a week, I plan to take a day and tell you about the great folks I've discovered among my Followers. There are a lot of you and when I venture into your blog world, I sometimes get really into it and read through several months worth of postings so this'll take a while but I'll get to you eventually. Please just leave a little light on for me 'cuz I tend to bump into things and make lots of noise when I fumble around in the dark!.

First up is "Jen". Jen has two blogs. At Haute Whimsy she shares a little of this and a bit of that, describing it as "whimsy, fashion, capricious adventures, prose and love." Today, she shared a dress she hopes to wear in celebrating her upcoming birthday.

On the other blog, Beachy Keen, Jen joins her close friend, Crystal, to tag team it with "the rambling prose and banter of two silly, hardcore Californians who have been best friends since high school... [a] world of periodic glitz and glamour, misadventures and ponderings."

This blog is done in a little different style than what most of us are used to. They share the writing. Some postings are commentary on current events and are done in a sort of point-counter point style with each of them weighing in on the subject. I found this a really refreshing approach. They also alternate in doing some very enthusiastic features on various Etsy shops they've found and like. Other posts include humorous stories and annecdotes and even a book review that they've also both related back to their own lives. Be sure to stop in and check both blogs out.

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Swimming on, I met "Vicky!" All I can say is "Wow!! You go, girl!"

Vicky is new to blogging, a wife, mother and recent empty nester who just recently turned 50. Having reached such a milestone, Vicky promised herself she'd "create and maintain a blog through her 50th year." Also, she set goals of doing 50 things this year - "things which were either interesting or fun, creative or hard, challenging or odd, outside of [her] comfort zone or simply something [she] hadn't done before." She's already tried kayaking on the Delaware and has gotten her act together to run a 5K this weekend! You can check out her blog here. I'm hooked and have become a Follower.

Vicky has opened a brick and mortar retail paint store and an Etsy shop, Fresh Urban Vintage, where she sells "upcycled, recycled, vintage and handmade originals." The b&m store sells paint as in wall and house paint but she has cultivated her craft whims through it by setting up Craft Wednesdays where she has a group of crafters come into the shop in the evening to work on a craft together - maybe learning new techniques or a whole new craft and sharing their friendships.

Some of you haven't given me a lot to go on in your profiles. Maybe you just want to watch from afar. That's okay. I appreciate you stopping by anyway. I'm just trying to get to know those who want to be known.

Like I said, leave a light on, you never know when I'll come by.

New stuff for Fall and Halloween!!

It's Fall!!

That means it's time for pumpkins, candy corn, ghosts, witches, black cats, bats and trick or treat!!!

I've been busy adding Halloween items to my etsy shop, Splashin. (That's why I haven't been able to stop by and post much this week. I'm also in the throes of Fall housecleaning. Now, there's a drag on one's time!!)

I just wanted to show you what I've been up to:

This baby hat is straight out of my personal pumpkin patch.









And don't you just love candy corn? Who can resist it?


Little ones don't need hats? Then how about a completely safe, squeezable (and machine washable) Halloween toy. There's absolutely nothing here to break or pull off, making them safe for even the tiniest baby.
Of course, there are Halloween onesies there for the little ones, too.


















Maybe you just want something to show off the pretty Autumn colors. This angel both hangs or sits, so she is equally at home hanging on your door or wall as she is just sitting on a bookshelf.









I've got so much more to add this week, so please stop by the shop and see what's new.

Oh, No!!!

Seems I've lost the rest of the week, too!!!!

I think someone stole it. Have any of you noticed it missing? I mean, what happened? I must have turned my back or gotten distracted because it's already Friday night!! Late Friday night to be exact.

Day-to-day life has just gotten in the way this week. (Good things, though, for the most part.)

I promise (REALLY) I'll get back to posting tomorrow.