Happy Halloween! (AND Yay Cardinals and Rams!)

St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa is retiring a few days after winning his 3rd World Series title. I knew it was a possibility that he would retire at this time, especially since he gets to go out as a winner.



On Sunday, before the World Series Championship Parade in downtown St. Louis, the Cardinal players were at the Edward Jones Dome before the Rams game against the New Orleans Saints.



My husband and I were at the Rams game. And they WON their first game of this season!! YAY! Go Rams!! Here is the view from our nosebleed seats. Seriously, we were in the 3rd row from the top.



After the Rams game, my husband and I walked over towards Busch Stadium to where the Cardinals Parade would be going by on it's way to the stadium. We managed to get kinda sorta close... okay, we were about 10 people deep. There were soooo many people out there lining the streets!!! Not to mention more than 35,000 people that were INSIDE Busch Stadium for the celebration.

We still had tons of fun. The crowds were happy and excited.

Matt Holliday:


Chris Carpenter:


Albert Pujols surrounded by his kids:

World Series Champions!

The St. Louis Cardinals won their 11th World Series title on Friday night.



Now, the Cardinals are the champions, defying all of the odds, and achieving what seemed to be impossible.



Hometown Hero David Freese walked off the field with the MVP award.




The Cardinals had a desperate rush to reach the postseason on the final day of the regular season. It was amazing that they were the NL Wild Card. Then they beat Philadelphia 3-2 in the first round of the NL playoffs. They then went on to beat Milwaukee 4-2 in the NL championship series.

The Cardinals were down 3-2 to the Texas Rangers coming back to St. Louis for Game 6 on Wednesday night, which was rained out and rescheduled for Thursday night. The Cardinals staged an amazing comeback, rallying (twice!) to win in the 11th inning by a score of 10-9. Carpenter started Game 7, and the Cardinals went on to win the World Series 6-2.

Review: Die for Me (Revenants #1) by Amy Plum

Warning: This Review is Spoilerific!!
Die for Me (Revenants #1) by Amy Plum
Library copy read by me on August 7, 2011

First, let me say how much I liked this book. Secondly, let me tell you just how much this book reminds me of Twilight. Okay, to be fair, it doesn't 'remind' me of Twilight. It almost IS Twilight. (And I like Twilight.) Just like Twilight, Die For Me is not literary genius, but it is very entertaining for the most part.

Die For Me follows almost all of the same plot points from Twilight. It's eerily similar. But not so eerie if you read the author's blog and realize how much she loves Twilight. So she wrote her own version of Twilight, but instead of a family of vampires she uses the term 'zombie' - which is just to say that they are undead.

Off the top of my head, here are the ways that Die For Me is like Twilight:
Teenage Kate moves to a new city - Paris to be precise.
Kate meets boy, Vincent, under mysterious circumstances and is attracted to him instantly.
Vincent falls for Kate for no reason.
Kate obsesses over Vincent's good looks while not believing herself pretty enough to be worthy of him.
Vincent stalks Kate.
Vincent doesn't sleep.
Vincent is a 100 year old virgin who has never been in love before Kate.
Vincent wants he and Kate to stay pure.
Vincent thinks Kate should stay away from him for her own good, but he is miserable without her.
Vincent's Family has been around for centuries undetected. But they immediately take a liking to Kate and let her in their family unit.
Kate has a special power that no other human has.
Bad guys go after Kate to get to Vincent's family.
There's more, but I'll stop the comparison here.

I still can't believe that I like this book. It's total ripoff! But I gave it 3 stars anyway. And honestly, if I had never read Twilight, I would think that Die For Me was so original and different.

I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series. Hopefully Amy Plum can come up with the rest of this story without copying Twilight. Who knows, maybe she CAN have an original thought.

I Made 2 New Wristlets (and I still hate Etsy...)

Etsy is driving me nuts. My shop and items have dropped off the face of the Earth. I have spent more hours redoing every single item description and tag in my shop than I have spent on actually working and making new items for my shop. It's pretty ridiculous right now. I am just tired of the changes that they are making - so I have been reloading my items on ArtFire. It's cheaper to NOT sell items on ArtFire than it is to NOT sell items on Etsy. Hmph.

I have 217 items in my Etsy shop. That is the most I have ever had. (If anyone is feeling the need to shop, come on over. You're more than welcome to buy anything and everything from me.) I am always taking custom orders. Contact me if you would like something made just for you.

AND if you are looking for a little something special LIKE THIS to take with you to view Breaking Dawn, you really need to contact me. Photo zipper pouches are approximately 4 inches x 6 inches and cost $9.00 each. I can also make wristlets that are approximately 5 inches x 9 inches, mainly depending on the dimensions of the photo.

Here are my 2 new wristlets and a little photo to get everyone warmed up for next month. Hee!!!

(And GO Cardinals!!!!!!!)

Happy Winds-day!

This is, of course, from my favorite quote ever. I'm sure everyone has seen Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. Pooh wishes everyone he encounters a Happy Winds-day. When Pooh wishes Owl a happy Winds-day, Owl says "I wouldn't go so far as to call it a Winds-day. Just a gentle Spring Zephyr." You can see this part HERE on YouTube at 4:55.

My husband tells me Happy Winds-day every Wednesday, and I reply "I wouldn't go so far as to call it a Winds-day. Just a gentle Spring Zephyr." The kids get tired of hearing it, but we still laugh about it. And today it really IS windy!! It's 46 degrees out with 20 MPH winds.... brrrrr. Great day to start the World Series in St. Louis!!!!



WooHoo I hope I don't jinx them!! I am beyond nervous. I can't believe after making it into the playoffs on THE last day of the regular season, The Cardinals are in the World Series. Gah. I just really have a feeling that this will be a tough series. I am making no claims that the Cardinals will walk all over the Rangers. I wish they would. I hope they can. I would love to see it.

I'm not a fair weather fan. My husband stopped watching the games when they were 10 1/2 games out. I, however, continued watching every single game. My husband has come back around since they made it into the playoffs, and NOW he is all pumped up about the World Series. I hope HE doesn't jinx them!

Pumpkins!!

It's pumpkin time again. A few weeks ago my husband bought some mums to put in the front of our house. That is the first time I have actually had mums since we moved here 8 years ago. They are very fall-ish and pretty. The kids wanted pumpkins to carve, so this past weekend we took a nice drive to a pick your own apples/pumpkins farm. Not any apples left to pick - they still had some for sale though, so we bought some of those. They are yummy! Then we took a little hay (HEY!) ride around the orchards. After that we walked out to the pumpkin patch. Both kids picked out their own pumpkin, then my daughter grabbed an extra one for me. They are now sitting on our front lawn/porch area by the mums.

Winner! Winner!

I know it's late, but I am here to announce the winner of my latest giveaway. Once again, my daughter set up and did the drawing for me.

Congratulations JonesEthiopia!! Be sure to send an email with your mailing address to PinkLadyDesigns[at]charter[dot]net

Surprise!!!!

I warned you another birthday was coming, and it's MINE!!!!
To celebrate turning 29 (yes, AGAIN) I am offering YOU a sale in my Etsy Shop.
Enter Coupon Code BDAY43 during checkout on Etsy to receive 43% off your entire order!!!

This coupon code will only be available on October 5, 2011.
(Sale will run a minimum of 24 hours from the time of this post.)

This is the biggest sale I have ever had in my 4 years on Etsy.
The only remaining sale this year will be on Black Friday, so don't miss your chance to receive a HUGE discount. Go NOW!!

AND check out the 2 new wristlets that I made today.
Aren't they just way too cute?

A New Bag

Don't forget this week's Giveaway is still going on.

I managed to make a new bag last week. I used some of the new fabrics from Sandi Henderson's Secret Garden line. I like the bright floral on the Khaki background. So cute!

Totally OT, but I am getting really tired with Etsy and their changes. They've supposedly change things to make it easier for buyers to find us while doing searches. All I know for sure that my sales are WAY down, most of the long time Etsy sellers are complaining, and I would really love to hear from buyers what they think about the changes. Oh, and the 'Ads' that Etsy are pushing are just another money making machine for them.

FYI - I am having a 1 Day Sale this week. It will be the only sale I have until, and except for, Black Friday. So you'll have to keep checking here for details.

Flea Market Fancy

The other day I cut into some of my Flea Market Fancy stash and I didn't spontaneously combust. Amazing, isn't it? I'm kind of getting tired of seeing it sit around, so I may as well use it.

I'm sure everyone has heard by now that Free Spirit will be reprinting a selection of Flea Market Fancy prints in early 2012. No word on which prints it will be.

Weekly Giveaway

This week's giveaway is this large Cosmetic Zipper Pouch. Exterior is Lime Daisies. Interior is Black Dandy Damask Laminated cotton which can be wiped clean with a damp cloth.

Dimensions:
Width - 10.5 inches across top
Width - 8.5 inches across bottom
Height - 5 inches
Depth - 2 inches

The winner will be randomly selected from all comments left on the blog for the week of October 1 to October 7. Comments from all posts, including this giveaway post, will be counted as an entry. (More posts means more entries.) Winner will be announced on October 8.