Check out my Etsy shop!

You can now purchase any of my items via Etsy at http://www.etsy.com/shop/tgdesignsbytraci.

{Holiday 2012}

Well we had a great show at the Ankeny Art Center sponsored Santa's North Pole vendor show! Here are a few of the holiday items that are either ready or can be replicated at your request!

You can contact me via my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/tgdesignsbytraci, commenting on the blog post or emailing me at tgdesignsbytraci{at}gmail{.}com.

Find me on Facebook!

Hey friends, find me on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/tgdesignsbytraci

My Opinion Monday - Runners on the left, walkers to the right...

please.

I found myself saying this a few times this weekend. I mean, I did participate in 2 5k's this weekend! Okay okay, the first one was just a walk but the second one, well, Val and I went balls to the wall and ran the whole damn thing. Yeah, we're pretty proud of ourselves. We celebrated with lots of booze and fried food...and by missing our morning workout today. I'll take credit for that, I sent the "I'm not going to make it" text. Whateves, we ran 3.2 miles and to us, it was like running a full marathon. We've only been "running" - I use that word loosely, I've been tripping and falling more than running - for a few weeks now but have managed to take a whole minute off our mile time. MILE, not 3.2 MILES. This is the furthest we've run together. And like we told the boys after the race, we always finish together. Novel idea, right boys?

Anyways, so my peeve this weekend was dealing with slow ass people in the left lanes of the race. I mean, if they read the 10 page packet they would know that they should scoot themselves to the right of the path to let those that are actually trying to finish the race running pass by without having to give them elbows and want to push them down. And even if they didn't read the packet, come on people - it's common sense. Pretend you're driving on the interstate. You pass on the left and drive super slow in the right lane. That same theory applies here too. 

I'm not an avid runner, but I was trying to prove to myboyfriendself that I could actually finish something and was kind of excited to see my boyfriend not show up to the finish line. I just felt like the people that gave me dirty looks for saying "excuse me" in the nicest possible way - I was at the happiest 5k on the planet - were being real assholes. I tried my best to be polite and I think I did do that. But I think the next time I plan to actually run the entire race, I'm going to get a shirt that says "If you're walking and I just had to dodge around you, move to the right." I might through a cuss word in there, people tend to respond to cursing quite well. 

Anyways, here's proof that Val and I finished The Color Run:

Yes, this photo is named lightenup.jpg. Not because I need
to lighten up, but because I lightened the picture up. 

So anyways, read the pre-race packets or just use some common sense and move over if you're walking. That way I don't have to get in a big tizzy about it. 

Gettin' busy...

in the craft room people, geesh. You know my mom reads this, I have to keep it pretty G rated. 

Look what I just received:

You'll notice the quality of this picture is much better than you're use to seeing. Also, it's from
my new CELL phone camera!! New camera AND new phone - whoop whoop!

These are about to be made into Christmas stockings, wreaths and pillows. Get excited!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well, not everywhere you go, but most places. If you walked into my house you'd see this hanging from the mantel:

Oh, did I mention, I got a new camera. I'm learning how to use it and make my pictures look better than they did on the cell phone. Work in progress people. But anyways, you'll be seeing more of these. I grabbed some gray and cream chevron fabric too, expect to see a few of those on the 'ol blog too. and wreaths, and pillows, and whatever else I can dream up!

My Opinion Monday - On raising a fish.

A year ago,  boyfriend and I got a fish. A beta to be exact. We named him Ron. Boyfriend liked to refer to him as "master" beta -(get it??) he's 28 folks. Anyways, we took care of Ron really well in the beginning. Changed his water regularly, (over)fed him, and had him right on the mantle so everyone could see him.

Fast forward a few months. We got rid of the rocks that were in his bowl, and the other things too. They were just gross to clean out when we actually did that. And by we, I mean me. Boys don't know how to do everything you know.  And then he set on our desk. Which was in the back of the living room, making it harder to remember that we actually had a fish.

Then Tyler's niece discovered Ron. She always fed him when she came over and made sure he was entertained. She asked to take him out of the bowl many times to play with him. Bless her heart. Mya was the last one to feed Ron and realize he was actually alive. 2 weeks ago.

Last night after we came home from having a few drinks with some friends, I suddenly remembered we had a fish. And poor Ron. He was not floating, but he had sunk to the bottom of his poorly cleaned bowl. Tyler said he sank because he was a treasure (he'd had a few drinks). We said our good-bye's and sent him off to be with Nemo (meaning we flushed him).

So now we have 2 fish bowls (because I bought him a new, smaller one a few weeks ago, put water in it and set it next to him...obviously never getting around to actually moving him over to cleaner water) and some fish food leftover.

Here is the only picture we have of Ron. May he rest in peace.

Ron. 9/2011-9/2012. 

And may we re-evaluate the whole getting married to have kids thing.