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I've got some new shop items to share with you guys on this lovely Saturday morning. Oh wait, but they're not new, they just look new. Remember when I shared these beauties and I explained that I was trying to revamp my shop? Well I spent an entire afternoon shooting product photos for some listings that were in desperate need of a facelift. There are still many, many more that need the same treatment, but it'll have to wait for another day. A day in which I have some more natural light instead of these gray clouds.

Remember these pretty personalized note cards?
Or this fun rainy day set?
I love the colors of these, but had totally forgotten about them.
Such a summery color scheme.
Gotta love the arts and crafts look.
I know you remember all of these designs. Oh wait, you don't? That's ok. It's probably because their photos were crap and made them pretty forgettable. Well now that they look pretty, all is better. Instead of them looking like bad products just because of the photos, they now look pretty fabulous, which if I have to say so myself these bad boys are all super duper fabulous. Toot my own horn much?

Needless to say, I've been putting in a lot of hard work with my shop and it seems to be paying off a little as well. Have you been making any big changes in your shop or blog lately?

Now enjoy your lovely weekend while I skeedaddle up to Jersey City for a wedding!

I've got to let you all in on a little something. Most of you don't know this. I don't blame you, I'm pretty good at keeping it a secret. Even some of our closest friends don't know. I am an introvert. A complete introvert. If I could have my way, I'd be quite content to spend time by myself or just with Andrew most days. I'm not so lucky though.

Andrew is an extrovert. And when I say extrovert, I mean the kind of person that just spent an hour and a half talking to the neighbor across the street after we got back from our walk with Lilah last night. The kind of person that plans social events with other people seven out of ten days in a row. Yes, this happened once. I thought it was never going to end. It finally did when I begged Andrew to make it stop. I think I may have said something like, "I just want to sit in my house and not do anything and not have to talk to anyone for just one day."

via

Most of our friends don't even know this about me. While watching one of Andrew's softball games about a year ago, I was sitting off to the side away from others. A good friend of ours came up to me and said, "Heidi! How are you? Why don't you come over and hang out with everyone?" I replied, "I'm kind of an introvert and feeling anti-social." He responded, "No you're not! What are you talking about?" When he realized I was serious and it wasn't a joke, he couldn't believe it. This is the kind of thing that happens when you're engaged to an extrovert. If it weren't for Andrew and his extroverted ways, people would never know that I'm an introvert.

I got to thinking about this the other day because of something that happened at a softball game the other night. I got heckled for not being able to catch a bad throw to first base for what seemed like the five millionth time this season (yes, we have a crazy armed shortstop that everyone knows can get wild, so it really wasn't my fault). It was in good fun as always, but I shut down. I quit playing for the rest of the game and decided I didn't want anything to do with softball for the rest of the season. (See number two on the list above.)

To me, it was a complete blow to my confidence to have someone embarrass me that way. Andrew didn't get it. In fact, I think he thought I was crazy for not wanting to play and almost breaking down in tears about it later that night. Sometimes I have to remind even him. I am an introvert. Don't embarrass me or give me a hard time in front of 20 other people. I'm not extroverted enough to let it blow over or come up with a good comeback to say back to the heckler.

Last week I wanted to get out of the house. I don't mind going out. In fact, I love getting out of the house and doing things if it's just me and Andrew. Low key, no stress, little socialization with others. Andrew had a list of restaurants that he had in mind, but it took me an hour to get ready because I needed to know what I was getting into. So after googling the menus of each of the places, I was good to go. (See number six. I need to know in advance what is happening if I'm going to a new place that I'm unfamiliar with.)

I'm sure I could come up with a situation for each of those items on the list, but you get the point. Some people just need time or more private interactions. I think that is one of the reasons why I like social media as much as I do. I'm still able to communicate with people, but I don't have to interact in the same way. I'm able to have that distance that I need from people while still having the community aspect.

I'm not the person that is going to introduce myself to others at social gatherings. Andrew is terrible at forgetting to introduce me to people he knows because he's usually the first to introduce himself to people he doesn't know. Extrovert, exhibit #427. This is one thing that irks me most about our complete polar opposite personalities. So extroverts out there, if you have a partner that is introverted, do them a favor and remember to introduce them so they don't dig themselves further into an anti-social hole of standing there awkwardly with nothing to say. And by all means, don't leave them standing there after you haven't introduced them while you go to get another drink, only to get sucked into another extroverted twenty minute conversation with someone else. Eeeek! Introvert's nightmare right there! One that I've lived through all too often!

And lastly, if you know me in person and are happening to read this, next time you're at my house for a social function or to visit and I take off to a different room to read a book, hop on the computer, or work in my studio, don't take offense. I don't hate you. I just need a break.

Now what about you guys? Introvert or extrovert?

It's been a while since I've updated my shop with new card designs. I've had a lot of these cards waiting to be listed for quite some time. I get so lazy and don't want to have to edit photos and write up the listings for my shop. It always seems like such a chore compared to the rest of the things I get to do as part of owning this business. Anyway, here are a look at the new designs. Click through the photos and you'll land at the listing for the card if it's one that you've just got to snag up!

For when you're super duper sorry...


For your secret (or not so secret) crush...

For that awesometastic friend of yours...

An anniversary card...

And the Valentine's Day version too...

This birthday card was originally designed for Andrew's birthday a year ago. I like it enough that I decided to modify it and list it...

And for the long distance relationship or that person you really miss...

Now THAT is a lot of cards! Seven! I clearly felt like being a super productive person. And by felt like, I mean a bee tried to attack me while I was suntanning on my roof deck so I could not longer be lazy and needed something to do indoors. So I decided to take productive to a whole new level and start shooting new photos for some old cards. Here are a couple old, but new listings if that makes any sense. Old cards, new photos-- so they kind of feel new, you know?



I like. You like?

By the way, if you need some cards or stationery, you probably want to order soon. I'm going to be on vacay for a ridiculously long time in the near future. Ridiculously long = 16 days. I'll be putting my shop on vacation mode while I'm gone since I'll also be in the complete sticks at times with no way to communicate. (If I don't return by mid August, someone send help. A bear may have attacked me in the middle of the mountains). Freaking out a little about going on vacation mode since I've heard some bad things about doing that-- like that your shop pretty much falls off the radar and you have to start back from square one. I don't like the sounds of that. Anyone else had to do this before? Did you have problems or were you good to go upon your return?

I have this weird thing about music. It has to fit the weather, the time of day, my mood. Some people get me with this, some people don't. I have a difference between morning time music and music for other times of day. I actually have special playlists on my iPod that are strictly morning time music. (I also get made fun of for saying "morning time" instead of just "morning.") Some songs just help you off on the right foot and put you in a good mood.

The latest song that has been my go to for morning time music is Man on Fire by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. Soothing acoustic guitar and vocals start my morning off perfectly. The lyrics are most definitely uplifting and give me a positive feeling to start off my day. And if I feel like an extra positive boost, I just watch the video-- fantastic!


This is automatically a good day for me. Do you have any songs that help you to start your day off right?

First things first. Thank you all for your wonderful blog comments, tweets, and instagram comments about my sun addiction. It has confirmed that I am in fact a sun addict and may be the only person on this planet that uses SPF 4. Oh, except for my sister who commented on this instagram photo saying "I love that stuff!" Hmm. Go figure. As I said before, this is clearly a hereditary problem.

Second of all, back to the post for the day. Yes. The title tells all. The other day while I was partaking in my sun addiction on my roof deck, I had quite an interesting incident occur. One of the Baltimore Police helicopters flew by my deck, lowered its altitude, and changed its flight course to a perfect circle around the perimeter of my roof deck. It circled twice and then sped off. Twenty minutes later, the same exact thing happened.

Now I'm pretty sure that they should have been spending their time chasing down pot dealers or scoping out people that were breaking into houses rather than circling around my roof deck. At the same time, I can see how they might have thought I was doing one of two or both of those illegal activities. I mean, what pot dealer or burglar doesn't do those things in a light pink strapless bikini while laying on some swanky patio furniture. I was clearly a menace to society and needed to be checked out. Or maybe there really was a pot dealer or burglar right by my house and they were trying to protect me, but I sort of highly doubt that.

You may have seen my tweets about the incidents.
I even @BaltimorePolice'd those tweets. I thought surely that would let someone know of this ridiculous behavior. For all of the "Shooting on blah blah blah street" and "Gun arrest on blah blah blah block" tweets that I put up with from @BaltimorePolice, I felt sure that they would be willing to put up with my two tweets about me feeling violated by their helicopter cops. But no response.

After writing about my outrage on my personal facebook page, my aunt suggested that I make a really big sign on a poster board to put up there while I am suntanning. Quite frankly, I like her idea. And that is where you, my readers, come in. I need some help brainstorming.

What would you write on a sign to some rude helicopter cops that are trying to spy on you suntanning? Leave comments with your ideas and I'll choose at least one to use. The peep show attitude has got to stop!