i’m steering clear of craft projects that involve duct tape, pets or turning humans into pets with tails (?), but so far here are some christmas crafting ideas that caught my eye:

sewing fonts! :: i am a big nerd and love fonts. this the thought of embroidering fonts inspired my newly craft-infatuated heart. my mom taught my little self to embroider; time to dust off that skill.

jewelry making :: this may still be beyond my craft skill level (which hasn’t ventured past the craft store since i was 10), but i aspire to be able to design and create beautiful jewelry. i also dream that i can run a marathon.

book making :: homemade journals and blank books sounded like a fun idea for all my friends who, like me, got screwed over the economy and are working at starbucks, a school or have sold their soul to marketing and no longer get to really write.

Going through all the craft sites has started the wheels turning. Given my tendency toward distraction and restlessness, I doubt I’ll ever had the discipline to really be a “craft warrior,” but there are a lot of people out there who could turn this into a pretty profitable side business? Etsy is proof of that, but beyond etsy…?

etsy businesses i love ::

sugarplum orphans :: adorable bows and hair stuff for little girls. proceeds go to help orphans worldwide.

teas and tapestries by abby :: the mother of my two favorite kids in the whole world, abby makes excellent tea blends

sarandipity sweets :: my friend, @skeddy77, makes the cutest – and most delicious – little cupcakes on a stick for every occasion imaginable. seriously, they’re nothing short of amazing, and you can order them in boxes of 10 so that you look like the hostess with the mostest.

Get great seats to any Kansas City Royals playoff game

Hey Kristin,

Be there alongside your Kansas City Royals as they chase baseball immortality. Go to StubHub, where you’ll find a fantastic selection of tickets to every playoff game – so you experience the championship chase live and in person. Check it out. Go to StubHub and get the seats you want today.

e-mail number two ::

Apologies from StubHub

Earlier today, an email promoting Kansas City Royals postseason tickets was sent to you. This, unfortunately, was a mistake. We regret the error and apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused.
]]> http://heytherejude.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/from-this-mornings-inbox/feed/ 0 nicolemehler http://heytherejude.wordpress.com/2009/09/24/gchat-is-down-so-i-blog/ http://heytherejude.wordpress.com/2009/09/24/gchat-is-down-so-i-blog/#comments Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:46:36 +0000 Kristin Mehler http://heytherejude.wordpress.com/?p=210 Continue reading →]]> my work-wife, gchat, is sick today. so i will blog about everything that has happened in my day to fill the void.

1. i talked to brad wood on facebook chat :: brad, with whom i worked back at the oaks, handles media for world impact – one of my favorite non-profits. great people like brad need great backers.

REASONS YOU SHOULD HELP SPONSOR BRAD… a) brad is random, b) brad climbs, making him a tremendous person, c) if i’m not mistaken, brad rides a bike, making him green – or environmentally friendly, if you will, d) brad once helped put out a fire in a burning building, e) brad is great at what he does, and he’s helping people every he goes to work.

you can help sponsor brad at http://worldimpactla.org/Wood or email him at bwood@worldimpact.org.

2. i actually read a fwd :: josh’s cousin sent around an email forward of a column written by a 90-year-old woman of 45 Life Lessons.  i am posting it here because gchat is still down, and you have nothing better to do with your time, either.

3. i read blogs :: this is my personal favorite today : http://emotionallyretardedbf.wordpress.com/. somehow it’s so soothing and reminds me not to be annoyed with my own boyfriend who is in germany and seems to have forgotten how to dial numbers on a telephone. today’s theme = passive aggressive. will be remedied tonight with gilmore girls, wine and sushi…again.

4. work :: i really do work. but social media, blogs and web nonsense IS my work. so here i am. hard at work.

and in the time it took to write this post, gchat is back!!

baby brooklynn :: sept 22, 2009. woot!

story to warm your hearts :: yesterday, i looked at my pitiful bank statement and was therefore depressed at how much of my paycheck is eaten by uncle sam. minutes later, @calvinday gets on gchat and tells me how he’s still up from partying the night before. calvin was invited to a “meet and greet,” which, turns out, was an all-you-can-eat steak, drinks and shots karaoke party for AIG directors. so calvin and his new  exec buddies drank shots and rounds of my tax dollars all night. he then projectile vomited my tax dollars on an executive. sweet justice.

“my mom recently had conferences with my little sister’s teacher. the lady was frustrated that none of the kids answered questions in class. my sympathetic mother felt bad for her. so my mom tells charlie that if she’ll pay her to answer questions. 5 cents for a right answer, 2 for a wrong. my ever industrius sister made $1.60 in an hour and a half long class. i love that kid.”

“me and my car have this love hate relationship. seriously, we need counseling or something. it went awol on me the other night. after some tweeks and aLOT of antifreeze i can drive it, kind of. so until i find time to fix the hose, i have to check the coolant level everyday. i’m considering getting a camel. i hear they drink alot of water, but water is so much cheaper than gas and it could eat grass while i’m in class. plus traffic would be better because it could just walk over the other cars.”

“i have changed around my schedule so many times, i hardly know what i’m taking now. i switched calc3 classes from a normal day class to a ridiculous 7pm class. no bueno. i missed the first day and went last night for the first time. frustration is inadequate here. my prof sounded like the mumbling guy on napolean dynamite (eating lunch after the egg farm) with a very thick chinese accent. i understood about 15 words he said all night. i could not follow a single proof he did. i was lost and so sick of him that everytime he would start a new sentence i thought i would vomit.

this morning i went to go buy the book for the class. i found the book that looked like the one all the other students had and was on my way to go pay for it when my eye caught the sign which said MATH 513. i had spent and hour and a half in conceptual algebra. my class is TU/THUR not M/W. brilliance.”

“i went rollerskating last night.

so my little amigo and i got to the skate east and lined up with all the other troubled youth in the lobby waiting for the rink to open. we stood next to two little girls that could not have been a moment over 6 years old. interestingly, both these girls were wearing more makeup than i was, had extremely short hoochie skirts on and spent the wait time practicing their pelvic thrusting “club dances”. hmmmm.

we gave our ticket to the rollerskate librarian and went to put them on. yeah, i forgot socks. gross. i could feel the athlete’s foot and podiatric stds osmosing through my the soles of my feet. pleasant. but at least they fit. the skate fitting was followed by the discovery that i suck at actually using said skates. monique and i decided to practice on the carpet first. a wise choice. after a bit of that, we graduated to the coned off end of the rink reserved for 5 year olds and under. monique was inspired by the blaring bow wow and we eventually were daring enough to get on the actual rink. ok, i was a wall hugger all night, but i didn’t break anything.

skate east is quite the sociological lab. there were the afore mentioned 6 year old showgirls, along with a plethora of middleschool girls with more eyeliner than KISS. these girls are followed around by pimply, groping, voice-cracking boys who apparently havn’t showered in, well, a while. there’s juan, the two foot tall hispanic child who gets back on his feet, only to take a step, trip, lunge, trip, fall, repeat ad nauseum around the rink time and time again. the wierd forty year old men who practice their fancy footwork at the ends and wink at you everytime you have to pass them on your cling-to-the-wall path. <cringe> and no trip to the rink is complete without the “hot” rink referee who all the eyeliner laden girls conveniently fall near in order to have him help them up and go home and cry themselves to sleep over later.

somehow, coming out the otherside of middleschool makes me feel so much better…”

www.xanga.com/rokchokjhok11

1. sidenotecal turns 5 :: my friend, caley, has been blogging for 5 years. to put that in perspective, it took me 5 years to get out of college. 5 years is 3.24 times longer than my longest relationship ever and 2.18 times longer than any cell phone i’ve had. she celebrated with fish and pie. www.cjconney.blogspot.com.

2. book club :: i recently talked about wanting to read more books. i feel a good strategy would be to join a book club. like the kind where they all sit around drinking wine and talking about highly intellectual themes and underlying psychological implications. back in my days with the wichita eagle, i did a wichitalk story on a book club like this and absolutely loved the concept. i have no such connections or leads up here.

i’m not really sure how i would have time for a book club. there’s a lot of other things going on in my life to keep me busy. perhaps i should form my own book club that reads books about traithlons, catholicism, the gmat and business school, non-profits and web design while drinking wine. and grocery shopping while we’re at it.

3. prairie home companion :: i really want to see garrison keillor this weekend at the mn state fair. my tightwad budget, however, will probably block this lifetime dream of mine.

4. pet peeve of the day :: people who broadcast their bipolarity through facebook and twitter updates.

5. lunch :: every time i microwave my soup at work, the carrots explode all over the microwave long before the soup actually heats up. frustrating.

6 random reading topic of the week :: the vatican council

7. aches and pains :: my foot hurts and i have something similar to whooping cough. below i have submitted an un-insured x-ray of where my foot hurts

pain has reached the point where i can barely walk, much less run my much anticipated tri this weekend. we’ll see….

even more than the people themselves, i am interested in who THEY are following. as a result of this new game, i am now following the economist, mo rocca, karl rove and woot. my pure delight in this may end up surpassing past addictions to facebook.

2. running/biking/swimming :: i have been training for a triathlon. the race is scheduled for the first weekend in sept. i am facing two major obstacles right now: achilles tendinitis and a lack of a bike.  both are what my father would call, “major bummers.” i have gone into official problem solving mode. i am physically ready for the race, but race rules would insist that i ride a bike for the biking portion. physiological rules would insist that my achilles may explode if i keep over working it. i have had my heart set on this for a while. but i can’t afford a road bike, and i am training for a the vegas rock and roll half marathon in december. sigh.

3. books :: i think i’ve all but given up on books. it really makes me quite sad.  i was raised on everything from nancy drew to the sugar creek gang to the boxcar children.  ramona quimby was essentially my best friend. but after so many years of book-it and high school lit and barnes and noble, i find myself only reading articles online. i really don’t understand it. books are more convenient and portable and have pretty covers.

i feel like i just need one good book to spark my interest again. just one hum-dinger of a good ending or riveting plot. so i puruse barnes and noble and sadly realize that books are far more expensive than online reading. they are also easier to lose and misplace. and you can’t open a new tab and google reference something you just read and possibly doubted.

…but the covers are so pretty.

4. dead aid :: not sad, but my newest online reading interest is dambisa moyo and her plea to end aid to africa over the next 5 years. she maintains that the conventional method of aid, in the form of money, food, medicine and supplies, is crippling the continent. she’s a little indignant that very caucasian bono and angelina joli have become the face for the effort to bring economic change to underdeveloped countries.

moyo, herself an african, would much rather see a conserted effort to nurture entrepreneurship and self-sustaining business concepts through micro-finance loans, similar to what my personal fav kiva has going on around the world. this, she feels, is the answer to the corruption and dependency on outside money, as well as the path to economic turnaround for the continent.

5. upcoming (but also not sad) :: the GMAT looms, RCIA starts Sept. 8, the Yankton Triathlon on labor day weekend…and winter

1. the mid-20′s :: of late i’ve come to realize that being out of college and in your mid-20′s is something like being in the middle school of adult life. you did the college thing and, between moving out and making some decidedly stupid decisions, kind of started figuring out the whole “grown up” thing. but after college and before you can get to the real deal of a legit career, family and a dog (which i will equate to high school, ha), you have to go through this passage that feels something like being in middle school all over again, very awkward and trying to maybe come across like you know what’s going on. instead of getting round squishy things growing out of your chest, you’re getting a taste of the real world and its basic disinterest in you and your well-being. i didn’t do those jr. high days very gracefully, and somedays i don’t feel i’m doing much better with the 20′s. i’m not, however, doing it with enormous glasses this time.

2. running crush ::  until now, i’ve never really had an appreciation for running and have generally avoided the activity with its side cramps, quad cramps and calf cramps. i was forced on a treadmill, however, a few weeks ago. it was the boy’s birthday wish that i run a 5k with him, and a week out i realized that i should probably give 3 miles a go before running through the streets of minneapolis. i don’t know what happened in those 35 minutes, but at the end of 3 miles, i was hooked. a week later i did my first real 5k and came to realize that i have developed a bona fide crush on running. i spend my day thinking about that afternoon’s run. i joined an online running log/forum. i ice my sore ankles, terrified that i won’t be able to run the next day. it’s doubtful that i could get laid by running itself – as it is a verb rather than a noun – but i’m quite sure that if i could, i would.

3. a cause to pimp :: The Sugarplum Boutique : Handmade infant and children’s hairbows, clips, bands, crochet bands and beanies, flowers, bow holders, and more! All proceeds benefit the plight of orphans worldwide. Custom orders are VERY welcome! www.sugarplumorphans.com

4. things i love today ::

- barney frank throws down like a champ :  http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/barney-frank-confronts-woman-with-obama-as-hitler-sign.php

- an excellent and very relevant blog :  www.conversiondiary.com

- as always, maureen dowd : http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/opinion/19dowd.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

- Michael Vick’s Contrition – Should We Forgive? : http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/catholicamerica/2009/08/michael_vick_and_the_act_of_contrition.html

Hey all,

Just a quick note to let you know that I have arrived, in one piece, in the DC suburb of Alexandria, VA. Among the trip’s highlights:

1. Elko, NV (“highlight” is used loosely here)
2. Staying with Todd Murphy’s parents in Loveland, CO, discovering his high school photo wall of fame in the basement, and hearing of his high school exploits from his father
3. Seeking shelter in a Wal-Mart in McPherson, KS to avoid driving into a tornado (actually, 4 of them. The storm kinda sprung up on me. I’ve missed Kansas.)
4. Father’s Day with my dad + family in Wichita, KS – complete with the requisite BBQ
5. Realizing yet again how long I-70 actually is
6. Allowing my GPS to loop me endlessly around downtown Cleveland, OH
7. Realizing that one can listen to all of David McCullough’s “1776″ bewteen St. Louis and Washington, PA. Even if one takes breaks for music and silent contemplation.
8. Being offered free drinks at a hotel bar in Washington, PA in exchange for a more expensive room (apparently the barter system is still a functional part of our economy)
9. Driving past the Alexandria, VA hospital in which Johanna Schaub was born, and realizing that I am staying but a stone’s throw from this hallowed place
10. Being sufficiently starved for mental stimulation after a week in the car as to comprise frivolous “Top 10″ lists for friends from the lobby of a local Starbucks.

At any rate, the main takeaway here is that I’m alive and well on the East Coast. There’s no particular intended recipient list here, just getting the word out. Thanks for all the calls, e-mails, and travel safety prayers/recommendations. I’ll be in touch.

Joel

i drank my recommended 8 glasses of water already today. yay life.

A while ago, I plugged a great organization called Kiva, a non-profit focusing on micro-finance loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries. While I really only moderately care about fair trade agreements conserving endangered plants and the environment (bad person, sorry), there’s a fire in my belly for organizations that fight for fair trade practices that help workers of under developed countries get a foot up on the economic ladder and make a better life for their families.

Large corporation tapped into the work force of these countries decades ago. I’m going to go out on a politically incorrect limb and say that while these workers made (make) pretty below-fair wages, it was a good thing at the time as these were, in many cases, the only jobs available to them – especially to women who had historically always been dependent on men, and gave them a means to support themselves. It’s no longer acceptable anymore, and we shouldn’t settle for keeping them on the bottom wrung of the ladder. Corporations may not be able to foot the bill of higher wages, but there’s a lot to be said for expanding the market for these peoples’ handmade goods, allowing them to sell to the world.

FreeSet Bags - These handcrafted and customizable bags are made from jute by Indian women trapped in an oppressive sex trade. By giving them a means to sell goods and make money, the organization helps the women buy their way out of their enslavement. Seriously, with all the girls out there that look the same with their Coach and Louis Vuitton bags, this is a way better use of your money. Shoot, you could be a whole shipment of them for what your wallet cost.  (good idea: a church up here in Minneapolis bought a bulk order of these bags and sold them to members of its congregation)

Tom’s Shoes – I covet a pair, and when I quit being such a poor pants, I’m getting them. Yes, their made in the states by Americans, but if you’ve ever seen the AT&T commercial, you know that for every pair purchased, Tom gives a pair to a kid out there who has sores all over their feet instead of shoes.

 Anni Designs – Ok, these are also made in America, but this is another great organization. They design great t-shirts to raise money to help loving families afford international adoption, giving lots of hurt kids a shot. See also: Shoahannah’s Hope

in other news, i have a new life plan: travel the world