My Favorite Things - Newsletter

My Favorite Blog
May 16, 2005 9:49 pm - Two Halstead is officially closed. There is no more brick-and-mortar My Favorite Things. Mommy, Sunny, Max, Maxie, and Nick; you rock. A lot of people have asked me whether I'm sad, and I'm really not. I am free to do so many other things now, to explore and travel and take time off! Gary and I share our office, back to back, with kitties akimbo. We walk into town for breakfast every morning, enjoying the fresh air and sunlight. We intend to move soon, to be settled in by Halloween. Maybe Rye, or Tarrytown. Somewhere close to the water. It keeps me sane(r). Cos Cob looks nice too. Anyone know of a house to rent, at least 1000 square feet, in an ocean or river town? We're really nice people.
Click here to check out some awesome tshirts! I just bought "Flowers In The Attic," and no, I don't think it has anything to do with the book!

May 11, 2005 3:45 pm - 60.7 percent of eligible voters participated in the 2004 presidential election, the highest percentage in 36 years. However, more than 78 million did not vote. This means President Bush won re-election by receiving votes from less than 31% of all eligible voters in the United States.

More than 2,500 left-handed people are killed each year from using products that are made for right-handed people.

April 16, 2005 3:36 am - Ever wonder where your paper money goes? Here's a really frickin' cool way to find out! Go to Where's George? to register and track your bills and see how far and fast they travel the Earth! Coolest part? You get to stamp them! And no, that ISN'T illegal! I've been "Georging" since 2000, and I love it. It might be b/c I'm really anal retentive...or not...

March 4, 2005 4:08 pm - Join the Mother Bear Project! If you're even a beginning knitter, you can do this and make a difference in the life of a child with AIDS.

March 4, 2005 1:25 am - Martha is out of Alderson and on her way home to Bedford! Thank goodness. She's on her way back to doing what she does best, inspiring others and making the world a prettier, more comfortable place to live. I haven't told many people this, but she is the inspiration behind my company. I was home from work one morning, watching her show, and her friend, Ina Garten, "The Barefoot Contessa" was on. As I watched, my decision to get away from working for someone else, making money for someone else using my energy, intelligence, and talent, crystallized. I would become my own boss, do things my way, to learn at the helm. It has been a wonderfully exhilarating and sometimes nervewracking ride. And with the closing of Two Halstead and the opening of The Shop Online, it's just taken another careening turn for the better! Thank you, Martha.

March 1, 2005 12:23 pm - I'm still at the shop, trying to get everything in order. More Hero is here, and wonderful paper variety packs from The Paper Cut, all ready to go up online. Many thanks go to my mom, Sam & Priscille, Dolores, and Annie for helping out with inventory and packing away. It snowed all night last night, softly and quietly. I was up every few hours tending to Mouchie, our 17-year-old calico. She's been a little sick lately. I made a fort for her on the bed,; I set up a breakfast-in-bed tray on top of the down comforter, then pulled more of the comforter over the back and top. I put one of her fuzzies in there with her stuffed moose toy that Gary gave me. She snuggles right in. It keeps her safe from Pye, too. She can see Pye coming, and Pye has no other way in to get Mouchie. Pye just wants to play (yeah, uh huh) and Mouche is having none of it.
For Valentine's Day, Gary gave me the "Crazy For You Bear" from Vermont Teddy Bears. It's a sweet, handmade, fully jointed teddy bear, dressed in a straitjacket with an embroidered red heart. I love it! In addition, he added an accessory to the bear; a bouquet of fabric roses. A bouquet of flowers that will never die. Sigh. He is simply amazingly thoughtful. The weekend was wonderful, we had a great time. Got lots of schwag from LinuxWorld, too!

February 11, 2005 4:46 pm - Gary and I are going to the LinuxWorld conference in Boston for Valentine's Day. Well, we're going to the LinuxWorld conference in Boston, and staying in this beautiful B&B for Valentine's Day. We stayed in the same place when we went to my sister Carolynn's engagement party. I'm giving him this really cool thing that he's going to love…although I'm nervous about it, even though I KNOW he's going to love it…aauugghh!! I still have to make cards for him and wrap the things I got for him and mail out Valentine's cards to my friends and get to the storage place and do the laundry and ﬁll orders and…not enough hours in the day. I got to the shop late today, was feeling icky. I'm wearing my trusty Tux baseball hat to cover a bad hair day. And I'm wasting time (?) right now blogging. I feel nervous and uptight and like I'm having trouble breathing. Valentine's Day is always so, I don't know, TENSE. I've spent a lot of lonely ones, apathetic ones, especially with my loser ex-boyfriend (who shall remain nameless), but with Gary, they've all been wonderful. So why am I stressing? Chill out, Lysa!

January 22, 2005 1:09 pm - It is WICKED cold in here! The thermostat is struggling against the 7˚ weather outside. Seven. Degrees. Fahrenheit. -13.89˚ Celsius. 259.3 Kelvin. Oi. Inside the shop it is 63˚F. 17.22˚C. 290.4 K. Wow. While I can't actually see my breath, my fingernails are bluish. I'm not wearing polish, either. The snow is coming down really hard, and is sticking. I'm glad I only live three blocks away!

January 16, 2005 11:22 am - Well, it looks as if I won't be able to close the brick and mortar shop until mid-February. There's just WAY too much work that still needs to be done, and the internet shop is booming; it's taking a *lot* of my time. Not that there's anything wrong with that…So, get your last licks in now at Two Halstead, because things are starting to get packed up and out. If there's something that you want that has since moved to the warehouse, just let me know and I'll get it for you. You guys know the coolio display furniture that's in the shop. I know some of you have expressed a rabid interest in buying some. Well, I put it all up on shop.mftweb.com for you. I'm sending out an email to this effect soon, hopefully today. The paper racks will be up on the site soon.

January 1, 2005 1:06 pm - Happy New Year to everyone! I hope yours was healthy and safe. Here's a way you can help those who never had a chance at a happy New Year celebration: Donate to Mercy Corps, a great charity devoted to helping the tsunami and earthquake victims. The death toll is upwards of 150,000, an incomprehensible number. Imagine your entire town being wiped out, everyone you know, and the surrounding towns as well. Or ﬁll Giants' Stadium TWICE. It's a horrifying thought. There are some wonderful survivor's stories coming out of this, but some heartbreaking tales as well. Donate what you can, it's all appreciated.

December 23, 2004 11:09 am - We have a cool new item at The Shop. "Cultivate Peace" with a simple bracelet. This inspiring phrase is imprinted onto one side of the bracelet's sky-blue silicon band, while the opposite side reads "TheHungerSite.com". The Hunger Site is a really cool charity with a unique approach. All you have to do is visit their site every day, and click on the ""Give Free Food" button. Each free daily click gives food to the world's hungry. It works the same way on their sister sites: The Breast Cancer Site helps fund free mammograms for homeless, low-income women. The Child Health Site is for children in impoverished countries who get help. Last year, visitors' clicks touched the lives of more than 542,000 children. The Literacy Site brings the joy of reading to children in need. On January 2, visitors who clicked on the "Give Free Books" button helped 502.2 children get a free book of their own. The Rainforest Site helps save an area of rainforest land every day. Last year, visitors to The Rainforest Site preserved 344,872,210 square feet of land. Last, but most certainly not least is The Animal Rescue Site, where funding for nutritious food is paid for by site sponsors and goes to nonprofit animal welfare organizations who use it to feed animals living in their shelters and sanctuaries. The Animal Rescue Site was launched in July of 2002 and generated 22.9 million bowls of food for animals in its first year, and more than 28 million bowls in 2003! Last year, visitors' clicks at The Animal Rescue Site funded 23,968,850 bowls of food. These sites are all accessible from The Hunger Site. Besides clicking every day, the most effective way to help these sites save and improve life is to get the word out. They do no paid advertising -- you truly are the key to the success of this site! It's simple. The more people who visit these sites, the more clicks on the "Help…" buttons, and the more lives helped. Keep a bracelet for yourself, and share some more with friends, coworkers and family! Wear the bracelet as a reminder that peace must ﬁrst start within the individual, then spread to our community and world. Bracelets measure 8" L x 0.5" W (20 cm x 1 cm). I bought a set of 100 bracelets at retail to benefit The Hunger Site. I wear it along with my WEARYELLOW :: LIVESTRONG bracelet that I bought to help support cancer research. For every CULTIVATE PEACE Bracelet purchased, an extra 10 cups of food goes Mercy Corps' Darfur refugee fund, to provide relief to refugees of the Sudanese conflict in Darfur. In addition, The Hunger Site funds 25 cups of food for each CULTIVATE PEACE Bracelet, or set, purchased. Commit to clicking on the "Help" buttons of these charitable sites every day, it's the very least you can do.

December 22, 2004 12:08 pm - It seems that my landpeople haven't quite got the hang of adjusting the thermostat; as a result it's about 68° in here all the time. Great if you're wearing a winter coat, a little chilly when I'm sitting on my arse a lot of the time. Come on people, there's still a ton of quality stamping supplies here! An update on Pyewacket: Dr. Dougherty at Village Animal Hospital has prescribed an asthma inhaler with a aerosolizing chamber and mask for Pye. Administering the medicine is proving difficult, because you need to keep the mask on for 5-10 breaths. She doesn't like it at all; the "psst!" of the inhaler and the resulting blast in the face is disturbing to her. We're leaving the chamber around where she sleeps to let her get used to the sight of it. Hopefully, soon we'll be able to use it properly with her. Otherwise, it's back to Prednisone with its icky long term side effects.

December 18, 2004 4:30 pm - Wow! The sale is going like gangbusters! There is still a literal TON of stuff here; there's a lot of stuff that I'm bringing out of the back room, and I still have to go to my storage compartment to get even *more* stuff on Monday! Please remember that there are a few things that are NOT on sale, stamps from : Rubber Soul, Rubber Moon, Diffusion/Hampton, and A Muse, the new ATC book from Somerset, Dog Eared Magazine, the new House Mouse Stamp of the Month, and my sister's new cd, "livin' in a ball factory." I've been playing the cd in the store ever since I got it, and everyone loves it! I am so proud of my sister. She's awesome. "livin' in a ball factory" is only ten bucks, makes a perfect ChristmaChanuKwanzaakah gift. You even get a cool little sticker to put anywhere you'd like!

November 2, 2004 12:29 pm - I'm voting today after work. I'm not going to say who I'm voting for, but if it goes against me, I'm packing up and moving to Amsterdam. Or any country that doesn't have an animal quarantine. Okay, so this isn't really feasible, I mean, this really IS the best country in the world, even if there's an idiot "in charge."

October 15, 2004 5:01 pm - Pyewacket is now a fully-fledged member of our household. I say "our" because Gary and Cat are moving in with me, Mouchie, and Tigger! We're busy cleaning out my second bedroom (it's been in use as a storage room for the past, oh, eight years) to use as an office for the both of us. It is actually a really fun time for all of us. Everyone gets along famously. Pye chases everyone, everyone chases her, they love having a baby kitty in the house. We've made her official birthday Halloween. She'll be 1 year old. We've also found out that she's asthmatic. We're giving her Prednisone. Ahh, the trials and tribulations of living with furry creatures! We found a great new cat food that Michelle over at Groomingdales (next door to us) recommended. It's called "Solid Gold" and has no preservatives. The "kids" wolf it down, lick the plates clean, and then proceed to lick the cans clean. Amazo. You gotta try this stuff! I also like to give them baby food sometimes. Lamb, veal, chicken, it's a real treat for them. They lick the plate clean from the baby food too!

September 7, 2004 5:04 pm A stray cat found her little way to me. Laura, a customer, on Wednesday came back after she'd left saying that she found this cat in the road, just lying there. She thought the cat was dead. The cat came right over to her, and Laura put her in the car. She brought the cat to me because she knew I loved animals. I didn't know what to do, I hadn't seen her around, but she was very friendly. After Laura left, I put the cat down in my landlady's driveway and pushed her toward the back, telling her to go home. She just sat there. She followed me back towards the store, so I got some food and left a pile for her, then got Marbles' dish and filled it with water for her. She attacked the food. I told her I'd see her later. Gary and I stopped back by the store after we came back from Long Island (Gary's nephew Christopher's third birthday) and she was still there, by the food. I told her to be there tomorrow and I'd take care of her. I came back the next morning and she was waiting for me, as if she hadn't moved all night. I led her into the store, and she roamed around for a while, sniffing everything. I showed her where the food and water and litterbox were. She followed me around all day. She is very tiny and skinny, but I was sure she'd already had kittens. Her skin is all scabbed, possibly from flea bites (no fleas now), and her left pupil doesn't contract all the way, it's kind of misshapen. I went next door to Michelle's and told her about the kitty and she sold me some Frontline at cost

(it's a liquid flea thing that you apply between their shoulderblades once a month, it's expensive). I got some more dry food, since I was almost out. I went back to the store and she followed me all day. She curled up on my desk when I was on the computer, she sat on the table behind me, she curled up and fell asleep in my arms, nestling her head into my neck. She fell asleep on my lap. She ate a lot of dry food and water, then I gave her a package of tuna (I keep these no-drain pouches here to eat). She fell on that like she'd never eaten before. I made an appointment to take her to the vet the next day, to make sure she didn't have FIV (feline AIDS, what Celeste died from) or FeLV (feline leukemia). I left her in the store that night, telling her I'd see her in the morning. The next day, Gary and I took her to the vet, found out that she weighs 6 pounds, 14 ounces (Scaramouche weighs 15 pounds, Cat weighs 17 pounds, Tigger weighs 21), was disease-free, had had kittens, and wasn't spayed. We decided to keep her at the vet's over the weekend (we went to the State Fair in Syracuse from Friday through Monday and yes, we DID see the butter sculpture!) and that she'd be spayed today, and we'll be picking her up in about an hour. Gary and I discussed names, going through a zillion, and we're leaning toward the name Pyewacket (PIE-whack-it). If you've never seen the movie "Bell Book and Candle," go rent it. Kim Novak plays a witch, and Pyewacket is her familiar. Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, and Jimmy Stewart are in it, too.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Pictures will be sent soon. She is absolutely gorgeous, darkest, deepest brown with a brindle coat, like blonde highlights, great yellow eyes, very petite and ladylike.

August 11, 2004 5:20 pm Click here for a great site, anysoldier.com. It offers you a way to send cards, letters, and care packages to soldiers, airmen, sailors, and Marines. There are hundreds of groups to choose from, just click on "Where To Send" and you'll see the list on the left. They all say what they'd like to get, and there are a lot of troops who get little or no mail at all. I'd like for you all to bring in your handmade cards for me to send in to the troops, if you don't want to send them yourself. I'm offering a TEN PERCENT DISCOUNT to everyone who brings in handmade cards to send. Under the "What To Send" heading it gives a basic list of what the troops would like to have. There are certain restrictions, no homemade baked goods, no pork, no firearms (duh!), and other things. The stories that these troops tell are unbelievable. When I start thinking that my life is going really rough, I think about what they're going through and suddenly, life doesn't suck so much anymore. Giant spiders, people. In their tents. This morning I sent a box of stickers to one of the soldiers who requested them to put on their mail, and I sent off some cds too. Tomorrow I'm sending some women's magazines and some more cds. I've made and sent over 30 cards already. Even if you don't support the war, which I don't, you can still support our troops, which I do. They love to get stuff from Girl and Boy Scout troops, the least bit to tell them thank you, and that they're not forgotten. Visit the site and do your best. This was written by one of the soldiers helped by the AnySoldier movement: "To all whom this may concern, I would personally like to thank all of those who have recently contributed their time and efforts in what I believe to be an awe-inspiring and frankly quite dramatic display of support from the home-front. The correspondence and care packages have been coming in at an overwhelming and nearly monumental pace. The "Any Soldier" campaign has seen tears from some, given hope to most, and has been inspirational to us all. Your relentless support has provided the simple reminder that any one of us would proudly die for a grateful nation in our ongoing fight against terrorism. 'Freedom is not Free' SGT Brian Horn"

July 12, 2004 9:04 pm Yesterday I went to a voter registration party at my sister's sponsored by MoveOnPac.org. We called nearly 400 people to encourage them to register to vote, we sent out tons of forms for the callees to submit. I'm offering a TEN PERCENT DISCOUNT for any unregistered voter who comes in and fills out a voter registration form with me. We can do it over the phone, too, you'll get your discount the next time you come in. If you want to do it by yourself, just go to MoveOnPac.org and sign right up. It's simple, and takes about five minutes.

May 7, 2004 2:57 pm I want to thank everyone who came to my 36th birthday party and sale. Thanks also for the cards and gifts and flowers, you guys are so very thoughtful. I have to say, it was the best possible way to spend a birthday about which I'd been worrying. To have 47 people walk in the door and wish me "Happy Birthday" was amazing. I highly recommend it. Business has gotten better, it's improved over last year. Things here are still hard. There are the days when I spend all my time on the computer for lack of customers. I try really hard to find the most eclectic and precious things, I know you guys know it, because you tell me. Tell me how I can better reach you. Tell me what your ideas are. Tell me what you'd like to see. Help me to make your time here more valuable. I'm listening.

(some time ago...) Last year was very difficult for me and my little store. Business was bad, and there's only so much I can blame on the economy. I also stopped taking care of myself. I gained weight, a significant amount, something that I swore I would never do again. I stopped caring, and the decline in business seemed to mirror my emotional self. Looking back now, I thought I was trying really hard, but I see now that I wasn't. I wasn't putting the most important thing first, ME. Why I can see this today, this day, I don't know. What I do know is that I had to decide to make things better, nothing happens all by itself. My attitude has perked up, I basically smacked myself in the head and gave myself a wakeup call. Helloooo...is anyone in there? Today I sat down at my beloved purple computer and made a to do list, "How To Take Care Of Me." It includes things that might sound silly to anyone else, but to me, these are the things, no matter how trivial they may seem, that made me the happy person I used to be, the person I so desperately want back in my life. Things like "Use moisturizer, wash my face (I forget sometimes), don't obsess, go to the gym, be cute, drink water, drink more water, flirt, stop obsessing, be quiet and pay attention, think pink..." The list won't end there, I'm adding to it as I remember things. What I'm trying to say is, sometimes we need to be reminded that we are the most important person in our lives. Nothing happens unless you make it happen. There's such a whirlwind going on around us, so many things and people that need our attention, and they all seem to need it RIGHT NOW, that it feels as though we don't have any time for ourselves. Maybe it's the fact that I'm turning thirty-six in a little over nine weeks that's made me stop and realize that I need to be my own person with my own alone time and my own needs that must be met, maybe it's the position of Saturn in the sky, it doesn't matter. Just that I know that these needs are real and worthy. That what I want is real and worthy. There are so many things that I haven't yet done in my life, and for now, they aren't quite so pressing. I'll get there, I will, but for now, it's time to watch "Charmed" after work and go to the gym afterwards. And this is okay.