I did something stupid.

I need a TV for my bedroom. Unfortunately, I left my other one in Portland (dumb, dumb, dumb). So this morning I'm browsing craigslist, and find a Sony 36" for $30. Uhhh.....YEAH. I call the lady, who's amazingly nice, and make arrangements to go pick it up. She tells me "It's super heavy, so you will need at least one more person to help you move it." I'm thinking "I got this." My dad and I have become experts at moving furniture and such, so I'm thinking no problem. We drive out there, the TV is beautiful, yadda yadda yadda. Then we try to pick it up.

Holy crap.

I have never EVER EVER felt a TV this heavy. Never in my life. I mean, it's got to weigh 200 pounds.  But because my dad and I are both too full of pride to ask for the money back and leave it where it sits, we *finally* manage to get it down off the entertainment center, onto a furniture dolly, and up (my god) into the back of my suv. That's where it still sits. Because once we were sitting in the car driving home, we both realized our backs didn't feel very good. Not good at all, actually.

So there's now an ad on craigslist for a 36" television that's stuck in the back of an SUV. Except I upped the price $10 so I can go buy Tylenol.

*sigh*

Obscura Antiques and Chili

I have a little cold. Just what I need. BUT as I was lying on the couch flipping through channels, I came across a gift, a godsend, an AMAZING piece of television that I have to share with you all. The show is called "Oddities" and it's all about this phenomenal store call "Obscura Antiques" out of NYC. I suppose it's better I'm on the other side of the country because I would be like a kid in a candy store - there would be no money left for rent or any other pesky bills. I would be living as a squatter in some abandoned warehouse surrounded by ventriloquist dummies, insects, bones, and taxidermy. Now that I mention it, doesn't seem so bad......... Anyway, please go visit their website and blog..... and don't forget to watch the show every Wednesday night @ 9pm on the Science Channel!!!

Obscura Antiques website
Obscura Antiques Blog

I want.....nay, NEED....to make some chili. I'm really tired of my recipe. Do any of you have one you'd like to share? It would be much appreciated!!!

That's all for now. I'm not quite back to myself. Maybe after these holidays are over, I can get back to normal life and begin to heal.

Love,  Lysa

THANK YOU

I just want to thank everyone for the love and support you've given me. I could not have made it through the last few weeks without it. I feel really fortunate and blessed to have you all in my life.

Now if I could only concentrate and quit screwing up, I'd be golden!

If you'd like to sign the guestbook for my mom, you can do that here

Debra Ann 1952-2010

My mom lost her battle with cancer today. She was surrounded by all of us who love her, and I hope she knew that and felt our love surround her. I am in shock still and waiting for the hurt and sadness to hit me like a ton of bricks.

Thank you to everyone for your kind words, phone calls, emails, and comments. Although this turmoil has weeded out the useless, it has also shown who is truly there for me and who truly loves me. I am very lucky.

For everyone local reading this:  At mom's request, we will not be having a funeral. She asked that we have people over to the house, just to hang out, eat some food, and say nice things about her ( for ONCE, she said!). She said she wanted a casual thing where people could come in their slippers if they so wished. I scoured the house last night for her "get well" cookie recipe, and they will be my contribution.

And I don't mean to offend anyone, but my mom's last words before she slipped into a coma were, "This fucking sucks."

My sweet, sweet mama...... I couldn't agree with you more.

Be well, everyone.

Love, Lysa

THE ONE-TWO PUNCH

I don't like to write about things that are TOO personal. I try to separate business and my personal life (aside from my posts about thrift store finds, etc). But at this point, I feel I owe everyone an explanation.

As most of you know, I had to pick up and move from Portland rather quickly. Let's just say that was a bad situation that is now in my past, where it will stay. But although it's in my past, it put a rather large dent in my business.... one I hope goes away at some point.

Unfortunately, right after moving to California, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. She is now losing the battle. We received some very bad news yesterday.... news I won't go into here. We as a family are facing some extraordinarily tough times ahead.

My mind has been so scattered - I go back and forth between anger, and the ever-present "Why US??" all while trying to maintain my business. Quite honestly, if it weren't for medical and everyday bills, I would probably close up shop completely right now. I must go on, though. I have a beautiful child to provide for and a house to maintain. The struggle is choosing to go on with life and be that provider, or stick close to my mom and let everything else fall my the wayside. I could not feel like LESS of an adult right now.

I'm struggling more than I can tell you. The thought of losing my mom - although inevitable - is unfathomable to me. I simply cannot imagine it. She is too young, too kind, and just way too awesome for this. She's my best friend.

Many of you have become my friends, and that is why I feel I must be honest about my situation. I'm finding it increasingly difficult to hide it.

Thank you for being there for me during the last few months. My life has been a whirlwind of drama, upset, and heartbreak. I've learned a lot about people and I've found strength I didn't know I had. I will be relying on that strength to get me through the next few months.

I will be working. It gets me through the pain and enables me to pay these ever-increasing bills.

Again, thank you for being a part of my life. My days are better because of it.

Love,  Lysa

The tattoo I got for Mom

BLACK FRIDAY

I sent out the newsletter - I hope you all get it okay!!! I forgot to mention, however, Black Friday starts NOW. Today. Right away. :-) I will be removing the coupon code at 11:59pm on Saturday.

Have a happy and safe holiday!!!!

ALLEGORY!!

The Christmas lip balms are on the website. I'm excited about Allegory. They are flavors I've wanted to do for a while. The Spiced Pear is sooooooooo good. :-)

Sugar Baby

I am putting the new line of kids lip balms on the website as we speak - of course they're not strictly for kids (grape is my favorite lip balm flavor EVER). And they're definitely kid approved.... Bella, my junior alchemist, helped me come up with all the flavors and the label design. Here's a preview. Should be in the shop within the half hour!

Newsletter

I'm trying the newsletter thing. :-)

Anyone interested, head over here.

Yay!!

Pain as Therapy

OFFICIAL

Okay, I've gotten everything out of the Etsy shop and into the official site. It's soooo much easier to navigate, and the great thing is, I never run out of anything! Stock is immediately replenished, so there's no waiting for me to relist. Uhhh....awesome. I am hoping business picks up over there, though - not sure how to advertise. Hmmmm.........

On another note, I've been doing a lot of Android photography. I LOVE my phone. I've decided to put together a book for my mom while she's in the hospital.. photos of her garden, which is pretty close to the top of important things in her world. Here are a few of the photos going in the book:

And here are some photos of my bath the other night. Heh. You may recognize Haunt and Product Body!

Moving - not physically this time

Hi guys. I'm moving everything over to the retail site - themorbidthemerrier.com

In the process right now. The Etsy will point everyone in that direction. I think it will be better for everyone.


Thanks!!!

4 NEW

4 new perfumes in the shop. More tomorrow. It's been a loooooong day.

SNEAK PEEK

Ok - here are a few of the new perfumes....more to come. Went and got the new memory card, then the camera battery died. Grrrr................

And here's the new lip balm:

Let me know what you think!

We hardly knew ye............

Halloween is gone today. Saucy Jack and The Saw is Family are no more.....ever. I feel really sad about that.

However............. Christmas enters the shop today. A few of them, anyway. As usual, more will be added daily (hopefully) until stock is complete. I'm on my way to Best Buy right now to buy a new memory card. I somehow lost mine in the move and there shall be no product photography until then. :-( I'm telling myself I'm in NO WAY going to look at the Sony blu ray player they have there. You know, the one that will allow me to use my Android as a remote control? I would never do that.

I'm pretty excited. I'm LOVING the new perfumes! And there will be a whole bunch of new lip balms!!!

Stay tuned!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Miss Bella Luna

Today is my sweet baby girl's birthday. I can't believe it's been nine years since I first looked into her little face and realized I'd been given the greatest gift I would ever receive. It seems like yesterday.

I'm busy in the kitchen today - she is demanding a three layer cake, each layer decorated differently. My goodness. I'm glad she thinks I can do anything, but this is a challenge for sure!!!

Feliz Cumpleaños, Sugar Baby. I love you more than anything.

Colossal Screw Up

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.

...that's me.

I don't want everyone mad at me. I've had a lot happening (moving out of state SUCKS, in case you didn't know...).

I'm totally on track now, but cleaning up my messes from *before* I loaded the Uhaul.

*sigh*

THE SHOP IS OPEN

Hi. Shop is open. My stock is really low right now while I prepare for Xmas. I have a *really* low supply on the GEIST lip balms....what's listed is what's there. I am working on getting the Christmas stuff ready to go, so the shop will be filling up soon. This move really depleted not only my products, but my energy!!! I'm sure everything will be changing pretty much daily as I move stuff around, add, and remove products.

Halloween perfumes will be continued until November 7th.

What do you guys think about extending the Sleepy Hollow perfumes through Xmas?

21 October, 2010

Hi everyone.

I made it safely to California and will try to open the shop up this weekend. Saturday, to be exact. I'm starting to set up the studio today, so we'll see how unpacking and organizing goes.

Thanks for your patience and I'll see you soon.

Lysa

UPDATE

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Not a very exciting update, I'm afraid. Got all my outstanding orders shipped. I'm asking anyone with order problems to please contact me directly to straighten anything out. I am VERY accommodating, and a resolution can always be reached. I think I feel a complete loss of control right now with my shop closed and just want to make sure everyone is taken care of. 

I'm thinking the shop re-opening will not be November 1st, but a bit sooner. But that's what I'm THINKING - not necessarily what will be reality.

I was battling with my insomnia last night and thinking about how incredible lucky I am to have people who care about me. I've met some truly incredible people through TMTM -- customers, blog readers, fellow soapers and perfumers who I feel have become friends.... These days, that is one incredibly special thing. The internet, with all its faults, at least has the power to make people feel a little less alone. Priceless, right?

Thank you.
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SHOP CLOSURE

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It sucks.

It was unexpected.

I will be reopening around November 1st (hopefully a wee bit sooner) and will have lots of surprises for you. I ask everyone to please be patient and understanding and I promise to update this blog every chance I get.

As mentioned on my shop page, all Halloween scents will be continued for an extra couple weeks to give people a chance to get stocked up. It's only fair since I'm closing a couple weeks early. I have some pretty awesome Xmas scents lined up, too, AND my anniversary perfume.

Please stay tuned everyone.

It's so hard to concentrate sometimes when my "guard dogs" are barking their fool heads off all day. They sit here and wait for someone..... ANYONE..... to walk by so they can show them who's boss.

Notice how they're both looking in different directions. It's like they said to each other, "Okay, you take THIS part of the street and I'll take THAT part of the street"

*sigh*

Guess what I got?? BLACK oval lip balm tubes. Ohhh yeeeeaaaahh........ All the Xmas packaging is going to be black. I'm SO excited!!!!

Okay, back to work...

Sorry for belated responses... life has been hectic (to say the least).

Thank you everyone for birthday wishes. I needed them so much and you all made me feel very, very special.

Rock on.

I've not been able to get candles in the shop yet. I've got all the supplies, but NO TIME!!!! ARGH!!! I'm working diligently, though... soon! I've had other people tell me lately they've been putting my oils on light bulbs and such. How awesome is that??

Stay tuned -- I SWEAR they're coming!!!

~Lysa

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

Just had to put it out there. I'm such a big baby. :-)

Everyone cross your fingers I make it to 3000 sales today - that would be the best birthday present EVER!!!

I hope you all are having a fantastic day!!!!

Psssst........ Guess what??

I'm making candles now.

They're 100% soy, so the burn time is pretty extraordinary. Should be in the shop by the weekend. I LOVE candles - burn them every single day of my life, so this seemed like a natural progression and I'm wondering why I didn't do it sooner.

I got a birthday gift in the mail today from one of my best friends. She's an amazing artist and I'm so lucky to receive gifts like these. It's a bowl, but I think I'm going to fill it full of wax so I can have my own candle. You can see her work at www.troutybean.com.

Oh, almost forgot - October 24th marks the one year anniversary  of my shop opening and I will be releasing a limited perfume to commemorate. More info about that coming soon. :-)

Business in the front, party in the back

Hi!

I put 5 new soaps in the shop yesterday. I've been kind of stuck in limbo because my Photoshop pooped on me, but I'm up and running now. I now have CS4 installed on 2 computers and I'm good to go! So yeah... 5 soaps that are, unfortunately, in limited supply (I never make enough).

I'm formulating Xmas soaps now, and will begin making them next week. I've had a lot of requests for really minty, fresh - you know, the kind of soap that gives you a little *zing* when you use it. So I've decided that will be the first one, called (appropriately enough) Ebenezer. Icy cold with a teeny-tiny warm heart. :-)

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Okay - business out of the way.... I'm probably SO late on this one, but.....

I LOVE Tool and I LOVE Queen, so when I saw this, I almost died:

Tool - Bohemian Rhapsody

Tool was, by far, the best concert I've ever been to.It was years and years ago, and I still remember it so vividly. I was mesmerized the entire time.

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It's overcast and raining here. Sooooo beautiful and relaxing. Good online shopping weather. Here are a few things I'm lusting over:

Basilisk Earrings - Sweet Clandestine - I highly recommend this shop. She is making a pair of custom earrings for me and she's super nice AND affordable!

 Tableau Noir Victorian Goth Broken Heart Necklace by MataHariJewelry

MarieClaire beaded embroidered cuff by AnotherCountry

Lady of Versailles Choker by LouiseBlack

Any other shopping suggestions? Let's go spend money. I call it "stimulating the economy" so I don't feel so bad. *wink*

IN AWE

I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite artist.

Having said that, Scott Radke  ranks up there among the highest. His work gives me butterflies in my tummy and an ache in my heart. Amazingly beautiful imagery that I NEVER get tired of looking at. Some of his sculpture is below, but please visit his web site (scottradke.com) and support what he does.