Valentine's Day is coming!

I've been watching all the Valentine's day hoopla now ever since Christmas week was over! The Santa's and reindeer were shoved to one corner in all of the stores to make room for all of the plush teddy bears and heart shaped boxes. The snowmen shaped chocolates were discounted and moved almost out of sight and out came the rose shaped chocolates and cupid paper wrapped gooey treats. The Valentine cards have been out almost as long as all of the other cute little items and the jewelry stores made over their commercials to catch your heart. Yep! Valentine's Day is definitely coming soon!!

Don't get me wrong. I am a romantic just like any other female on this planet. I love the chocolates, the teddy bears and jewelry. In fact, I MAKE and SELL jewelry! I am hoping with all I've got that someone will BUY my jewelry! That's not quite where I'm going here.

I feel as though the real romance has been lost on Valentine's Day. There is no need to think about it. The stores hand you the cards with the words you are to say to your sweetheart. Then they tell you here are some tempting chocolates and flowers (it must be roses). You might want to add a nice stuffed animal or an expensive piece of jewelry (watch TV for the special piece for this year). Tradition says you should then go to dinner (the more expensive you can afford, the better), dancing is optional. You will notice that this all sounds like the man is expected to do all the spending except for the card. If you are married, living together or have some other special arrangement, the woman might like to indulge in pretty lingerie to surprise her mate, but here again the man may be expected to do the purchasing in some relationships. I rarely see anything special laid out for woman to buy and do for men.

AND really, where IS the romance in all of this? The stores and the media and even our own society have brought us to the point that Valentine's Day has come with expectations. Every year its the same ones, too. How is that romantic? I find romance in the little things, the surprises and in doing for my husband.

Hey everyone! Why not plan a picnic in February? Go to your local zoo? Spend the night at home dancing in your living room to your favorite music and drinking Champagne? Go ice skating? How about hiking and hold hands for once in a long time? Why not try going to www.etsy.com to purchase handmade items which will be different than the standard store bought items? I'm sure everyone can think of things that they haven't done in a long time together or maybe never together that could be made into a romantic time. Romance isn't chocolate and jewelry or even a sexy encounter. It can be a quiet moment shared or time together that you wouldn't normally set aside because you have a busy life. It can be what the stores and traditions have made it, too.

Just remember to make it YOUR feeling, Your moment, YOUR romance!

Thanks for checking out my view from the sidecar!

Wendy

Family life, Etsy.com shop, Lupus, A Shout OUT

Things in my household seem to be a little better. Hubby definitely has contract work coming his way by the first week of August, so fears of not having money to pay bills has become less of a problem. The same company that is going to contract him, is planning to hire him, but there are some details to work out, because they want to open a new division in our area and they want him to run the place. We won't feel totally better until everything is in place and all the paperwork is done! We're a bit edgy in that area.

We've been working on a project that would make us our own business owner and we are moving ahead with that. Since it doesn't interfere with what hubby would be doing with the company that wants to hire him, we decided to move to the next stage. It won't cost us anything to continue, so why not? We can always drop out before putting a bunch of money into it if we feel it is too much for us to take on with hubby doing the other job.

I'm still working at making my jewelry shop on etsy more known. I've done some more research into that and now I have to take some time to implement it. I think I can do it without putting so much time into it that I'm not really making any money on my jewelry. I don't really expect to get rich on it, but I don't want to lose money either. I think of my jewelry as a form of art. I don't make it to be "in fashion". I make whatever I "see" as I'm working with the beads. That may be why I sell more when people see my jewelry in person. I don't think the pictures do it much justice. Here is a simple pair of earrings that I thought would sell rather quickly, but haven't. These pictures show better in my etsy shop than here.

I call these earrings BLACK-EYED JONQUIL EARRINGS WITH GOLD because they are made of 6mm round and 4mm bicone Jonquil AB Swarovksi crystals and black rondells set with Crystal AB Swarovski crystals. I thought of the flowers, Black-Eyed Susans and Jonquils, then mixed the names. The earhooks, headpins and links are 14k goldplated.

The other thing that surprises me about my etsy shop is my CHARITY section. Nothing in it has sold. I sell for 2 charities right now. The first one is the ELCA WORLD HUNGER APPEAL and the second one is THE LUPUS FOUNDATION OF AMERICA, INC. There are links to these charities in the right hand column under My Favorite Charities, so you can learn more about them. I give 100% of the sale, less the shipping, to the charities. I've had lots of views, but no takers. I had really hoped this would be a way I could give to these groups and draw some attention to them. I'm not sure if I have even drawn much real attention to them, but I hope so!

Speaking of Lupus, the Lupus Foundation has an Advocacy group which needs people's help all the time. Two things that they are working hard on right now are these:

Number ONE

Lupus REACH Amendments
The Lupus Research, Education, Awareness, Communications, and Healthcare (REACH) Amendments legislation, S.1359/H.R.1192, was introduced in the Senate by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT), and in the House of Representatives by Congressman Kendrick Meek (D-FL) and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).
We are working to get this bill passed in the 110th Congress. We are pleased that we have bi-partisan support with 84 cosponsors in the House and 16 in the Senate. The LFA government relations staff has been actively meeting with potential new cosponsors. Go to our Legislative Action Center to contact your Members of Congress! (http://capwiz.com/lfa/home/) You can learn more details about this bill, find out if your members of congress are on board with it and, if not, email them to join co-sponsorship.

Number TWO

Ban of Current Incandescent Light Bulbs
On December 19, 2007, President Bush signed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (Public Law No: 110-140). Under the new law, all light bulbs must use 25% to 30% less energy than today’s light bulbs by 2012-2014. Since today’s incandescent light bulbs do not fit the energy efficiency standard, there will be a phase-out of current incandescent light bulbs. The phase-out will start with 100-watt bulbs in January 2012 and end with 40-watt bulbs in January 2014. By 2020, bulbs on the market must meet the 70% efficiency standard.
Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) already meet the 70% efficiency standard, which means that most public spaces and homes are switching to CFLs. As you may know, some reports suggest that there may be enough UVB radiation in fluorescent light bulbs to cause photosensitivity in people with lupus.
The LFA government relations staff has been working with other groups affected by this legislation to form a coalition: Sjogren’s Syndrome Foundation, National Psoriasis Foundation, Epilepsy Foundation, MAGNUM, and American Academy of Neurology. The LFA government relations staff and this coalition have scheduled meetings on Capitol Hill and are working with the light bulb industry to determine whether a new incandescent light bulb will be released before January 2012.

SHOUT OUT

I'd like to send a shout out to 3 etsy shops that I heard about through the Business Marketing thread on Etsy.com. Here's the thread if you want to see it yourself - these sellers didn't start it: Etsy Sellers Popped Up Inside A Kit I Purchased At My Local Book Shop http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5699160 They are featured in a book!! The book is called, The Softies Kit Instructions and Tools for Creating 15 Plush Pals by Therese Laskey. The three etsy.com shops are

craftymommy http://www.craftymommy.etsy.com/

sweetestpea http://www.sweetestpea.etsy.com/

threewishesdesign http://www.threewishesdesign.etsy.com/

Way to go!! Best of luck! Hope more good things come your way!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wendy