Is it too early to begin preparing for the holidays?

I know the answer to this is no. As a gift retailer, I have been planning for and purchasing for Christmas since June. The warehouse is stocked and getting more stocked as I write. Each week I am searching our just a few more things to add the the mix. And, just as Thanksgiving ends I will place an order or two for things that will work for Valentines Day.

However, there is a whole sub-culture that you may not know about and that would be the Haunters, or at least that's what Nina calls the people that really plan out their home Halloween displays all year and work each year to perfect their Haunt. Nina definitely falls into that category and I sort of tag along. Each year I say the same thing, "You know, I am not going to buy anymore Halloween stuff Nina." I always end up with a few new things each year, not really sure how that happens - its spooky!

Nina starts her planning at the beginning of summer. She decides how the house will be laid out - every room gets decorated, completely over the top. We have about 7 staging areas that get really decked out. Each year our party gets larger. Martha Stewart, eat your heart out! Actually, this year I am hoping to perfect my menu. As I write this Nina rattles off a list of foods that glow under black light.

I think pre-planing for other holidays is important too. Thanksgiving is totally over simplified and an overlooked holiday in my estimation. I find it really gets defined by what is served up on the table. This leaves the whole holiday in the dust. For me Thanksgiving is more of a spiritual holiday than a feast. I spend a lot of time journaling and really meditating on what I am grateful for throughout November. I look forward to that time of year when I really reflect about how grateful I am for all that I have experienced. If you have never done this - November is a great month to begin a Gratitude Journal, then you can finish out the month really celebrating Thanksgiving.

We are doing all we can to get geared up around here for all the Fall/Winter Holidays right now. In the next posts I will give you sneak peeks at the new goodies from the shop.

New Office Accesories

Here are a few pictures of my new office accessories collection. This design is called "Script" and is a little European in style. These are hand-made items and each one is a little different, We have desk trays, clip boards and paperweights. These are very limited we only make a few of each design. I have more in the wings waiting to be born so to speak. If you like these check out the Soul of the Rose Office Accessories along with other designs.

I can't just use a regular clip board when checking in merchandise - I've got to have style with function!

This tray is perfect for letters and little "get-to" things on my desk.

I hope you like them - I loved making them.

I Stand Corrected in my View of Twitter

In light of the events unfolding right now in Iran I stand corrected in my previous assessment of Twitter as being a benign e-technological bit of frivolity. Certainly – its true importance has been born out.

Matt’s Mother and Sister are here visiting. His sister left Iran on Election Day. Their family is safe although there are a lot of demonstrations not far from their home near the city. We have had some calls earlier in the week but we fear the lines are down today. We have watched CNN’s coverage off and on all day today. It is very different getting this from their prospective.

Tonight we are off to a party to celebrate their visit with family – it will be a gathering of mixed emotions I am sure. This is Shani’s first visit to the States and already I love her. She is so wonderful, talented, funny, sweet and smart.

Please if you can, pray for the highest good to prevail for Iran’s people. If you do not pray perhaps you can meditate on that. It is so very important.

A few of the goodies I have been making!

It took me a lot longer to upload all my new products than I thought it would. I began designing and creating these items in March and it has taken until now for me to get them on the site but here they are. I have a collection of pendants that are little works of art. Some of the designs are collage work under crystals and some are on bamboo tiles. I have a lot more that I am working on but this is the first batch. Check out the Soul of the Rose Jewelry Designs on the site for each individual design and for prices.

Revolutionary Collection

I made these little black and red crystal charm pendants and Nina and I decided they reminded us of the musical Les Miserables so I named each pendant after one of the female characters in the musical - how funny! We thought it was coincidental that Fantine should have a black ribbon because she just gets one song and dies at the beginning of the musical. If you don’t know this musical then the humor is totally lost but I hope you still like this collection!

Tweet?

Ok here goes – I am getting old. I don’t want to Tweet. I don’t want to be hyper-connected to my friends and I don’t wish that on my friends from me. No offence but I don’t want to know that Tiffany is walking the dog, hell, I don’t even want to know that Ashton Krutcher is washing his face or falling asleep watching a movie. Wow, that really sounds old – but I think he likes old chicks anyway.

Twitter, how much can we take? I’ll be honest, it is all I can do to run the web boutique, manage my other job, try to create goodies for the store, check in on Facebook and upload a blog post in between life. And can I just say that all of this activity has helped tremendously with excuses for why I don’t have time to cook dinner! But I really think I draw the line at Twitter. What sort of things would I Tweet anyway???

Just ate 5 cookies!

Am watching Godfather for the 1 millionth time.

Am cleaning cat barf yet again

It is not that my life is not interesting to me, I just don’t think that what can be said in a tweet can be that interesting to others. Ok some things could be great tweets I admit:

Just won Nobel Peace Prize!

Have finally lost those 100 lbs I was worried about

So that is what an orgasm is!

Now that would be interesting stuff, but until I can produce a stream of these types of riveting tweets consistently I am not going to sign up for twitter. And that is my final word – for now.