& then...

& after a week of hell, tonight may be the moment of truth. after some more bad stuff came to light, there will be an intervention/confrontation tonight. it's sad when someone you've been attached at the hip with for almost 24 years becomes a stranger. maybe tonight can change that. if not, i'll mourn that loss forever, i've never had that kind of friend before or after our birth.


& after a few days of doubting myself about everything, i've re-affirmed my dreams to myself. i will be successful with what i want to do in life. i will be traveling summers after this year. i will find a place where i belong. & i'll have an amazing man next to me while i do it all.


& it's the weekend... that much i can be thankful for. let's just hope it all goes the way it should tonight. if it doesn't, i don't know where we'll be then... but it won't be good. not at all.

Conclusions.

what's going on?

• J cut off his dreads. I now look like even more of a cradle robber. He's 20, I'm 23; and now he looks 15 again. Not a bad change, just gonna take some getting used to. I loved those knots.
  


• BFF is not going to change. She's going to continue on the stupid path she's been on for the past year and a half. I'm going to have to learn to let go of her. For the first time in my life, it annoys me to even look at her. I feel bad even admitting that.
  


• My sister got to hear her baby's heartbeat today. So did my mom. I don't even like babies, and I'm excited to meet this one. Only 5 months to go, oh my! haha.
  


• My first paycheck on our new payroll system will direct deposit at midnight. It's been a rough week getting adjusted to bi-weekly pay (aka skipping a paycheck last Friday for the first time in over 5 years)
  


• Silly girl, aka ex bff, aka arch rival in hoop making has snagged a customer out from under me. The thing that bugs me about that is that she charges more, her tape jobs suck, she takes forever on customs, and somehow she stole one of my customers.... How?! Oh and the only reason I know all of that stuff is because a lot of her former customers have come to me about making hoops. We live in the same town, I can't wait to get out, I'm sick of the rivalry, I don't usually pay attention but when I notice someone who just ordered a hoop from me praising her skills, it rubs me the wrong way.
  


• I'm selling about $200 worth of hoops this evening, enough to make my next identi-tape order. *squeals*
  


• I bought some pretty new paint, and I'm excited to paint a picture. I bought J all kinds of painting supplies for Christmas, but he hasn't touched them since he got his DJ equipment, so I'll gladly take over. Art has never been my forte, but I think I'm good enough to paint some pictures for our house :)
  


• I'll end on a funny note....
  Today, I took a customer's car to get gas, and to grab my dad a pack of cigarettes. I ran in to pay & buy the cigs, and they refused me because I didn't have my ID. (acceptable, but this is a small town, the woman's sold to me numerous times & I don't even smoke!) I pay for the gas, and head out to pump it. The rest of the money was in my pocket. We've been having major wind today, and the whipping wind somehow ripped the money OUT OF MY POCKET sending the only $20 amid 6 $1 bills flying across the parking lot. I chased it, like an idiot, because it was my dad's and he needed cigs still. My saving grace was a puddle at the far end of the lot, which caught the bill and held it til I made it over there. I swear, 3-5 people were smiling & laughing as I walked back to the pump. Urgh...

Memory Lane

If there's one thing I've always been good at....
It's HAVING FUN!
In the demise of Myspace, I have decided it's time to go on there & retreive all of my memories, before they disappear into the great abyss. Here are some that I couldn't resist sharing....

WARNING: This post is VERY picture heavy & may cause you to laugh your ass off more than once... Just sayin ;) You're gonna see lots of hair colors, changes & possibly a few intoxicated moments.

Me, hooping it up last summer,
My favorite skirt & former favorite hoop!
2010

"The Girls" & I at my sister's grad party.
I am by far the oldest girl in this picture, boo.
2010

J and I at my sister's party :)
2010

My sister & I, mean muggin.
What can I say, I love her.
2008

Me & my Ruca girl, when she was only 6 months old
& before she turned greyish colored. lol
2009

Me & our rattie, Raleigh.
RIP little rattie, I miss you :)
2009

Pimps&Hoes
J, me, skank-ex, & my brother :)
Feb. 2010

Myself, with my cup of confetti
NYE, 2009/2010

Go insane, go insane
Throw some glitter,
Make it rain....
[in other words, you don't wanna know]
NLQP, June 2009

Everyone has a happy place,
This used to be mine
NLQP, 2009

I used to be skinny & loved pink.
Approx. 2004

Psychadelic Scarecrow,
part of the Wizard of Oz crew,
Halloween 2008

Mad Hatter Haley, (and friends)
Part of the Alice in Wonderland crew,
Halloween 2009

Gangsta Party
Myself, J & sister
2009

Sister, me, J
Pimps & Hoes, 2010

Me & BFF
Hookah show, 2009

BFF, me, J, Dre, ex BFF
Badfish, 2009

Pieces of my heart,
in my happy place
2008

Ex bff, me, BFF
Glowing fairies
Summer 2008

At my first festival, my first hoop in the back,
Lovin my 3D glasses & pigtails :)
Summer 2008

"The Bia Chair"
BFF, me, Kel, ex BFF
80's party, 2009

Dr Dreads & myself,
shortly after he twisted em up,
Summer 2007

So... I loved this picture, for all of 3 hours.
3 hours after this was taken, I came home from school & my life fell apart.
RIP MIKE
September, 2008

These 2 people complete my soul
J, me, BFF
2009

2 of my favorite cousins, me, J
Summer 2009

I just love my eyes & hair in this.
Summer 2006

I was so emo, but look at that hair,
Perfection. No stylist has ever been able to repeat that
& I did it myself, at the age of 17! lol
2004

PINK HAIR
2004

Not many people have photographic evidence of their first date,
Here's ours, 5.5 years ago
We're on top obviously :)

and yes, our first date involved underage drinking party!!!
2005

Blondie, I miss those hairs.
2006

Loved that hair tooooo!
2007

*Sorry if I bored you, this was kinda for my own relief from boredom!

:)

What I Won (&More)

Soooo, the long awaited post of what I got from the giveaway over at Camille's is finally here!!!!

A beautiful, multi colored necklace. I can't wait til it's tank top season, I'll be wearing this quite often :)

Beautiful little painting! This will be joining our gallery of paintings by friends & people we know... I'm absolutely in love with it. Love is a big thing for me.. I love my boyfriend, family & friends endlessly, and I believe in those words.

A really sweeet photography issue of Life Magazine, from the 1990s.
I've only had a chance to flip through it, but I'm lovin it so far!!!
& a beautiful, handpainted clutch!
*woops, that is my hair in the corner, this was a 6AM cell phone shot!

The Clutch.....
I seriously loooove it! I usually go for something bigger, but with my festie belt this summer, I think this will come in handy for the other stuff I need to carry! :)

Thanks Camille!
Seriously crazy how I found a random blog of a girl who hooped a few weeks ago, and now I think of her as someone I actually know. :) Hopefully someday we can meet up and hoop together!

**********

This picture is for anyone who thought fanny packs went out in the 90s...
I was inspired today when Camille posted her fanny pack thrift find, so I had to share mine.

This beautiful piece of work is called festival pockets! I saw them online and loved them, but I have a seamstress friend and I pitched her the idea. I think they're her best sellers now! :)

This is my first one, which has 2 hanging pockets (the one on the right side of the picture is hidden by the "belt" portion, but it's there), a long belt/sash that ties in the back or on the side, and even a padded pocket (for glassware). This one has jingles & small bird charms (i love birds!) in the front as well. I honestly can't wait for summertime, I got mine in January, and haven't had a chance to wear it to a show yet. It's easy to hoop with, though, and the best part is how freakin cute it is!

I also have another, more decorative one coming... Based off of a photo I may have shared here before & am in love with...
This beauty was going for $200+ on a vintage site. I couldn't afford that, but I enlisted my girl to make me something similar, something that I can add pieces too over time, to eventually look like this masterpiece... And she sent it out to me this morning! I can't wait to see it!!!!!!!!

Ahhhh! So there's my post for the day! Everyone have a good one!

Swaps&Such...

Hey, fellow readers,

I joined a book swap,
(click the button!),
at Andrea's blog.

* * * * * *

I had a lot of older clothes up for sale/trade on my Facebook shop, and I'm sick of them sitting around. I'm contemplating giving everything to Goodwill... but if any of you ladies are looking for stuff in a certain style, color, size, let me know in a comment & I'll take pictures to show you of anything I have with that description. If not, I think I'll just bag everything up & take it over to Goodwill sometime this week. I'm just sick of having an extra huge pile of clothes in our spare room that doesn't move. I gave a bunch of it away & traded what I could, so it's gotten smaller. Just still bugs me. So if you need/want anything, get at meeee

* * * * * *

I really did win a giveaway from Camille, I promise! I'm just apparently too lazy or absent minded to take pictures of my stuff & post it! Soon, I promise!!!!

* * * * * *

If any of you ladies are ever interested in purchasing a hoop (or hemp jewelry or tie dye clothing or anyyyyything else I happen to make) from me, just get ahold of me, and I'll send you to the proper place. All of my etsy listings just expired, and honestly, without a sale in 2 months, I'm not 100% sure about re-listing. I'm hoping to talk to a computer savvy friend and maybe just throw up a website instead of using etsy or artfire. We'll see....

Anyways, that was post #2 today, I'm on a roll!

Hoopy Day!

HOOOOOOOOOOOPS
*and meee!!

I spent hours Friday night working on hoops. Lots and lots and lots of hoops. Like, $200 worth of hoops :) The negative effect on my phone camera makes the hoop tape look crazy, in a good way!

* * * * * *

My weekend was soooo good! I caught up on almost everything for the shop, and now am just building inventory for my first gig of the season. Saturday evening, we went to a friend's and played outside!!! Us girls hooped, the boys drummed, then we played hacky sack & jumped on the trampoline; pretty fun! After it got dark, it started to storm, so we spent the rest of the night eating Easter candy, smoking hookahs, and playing Scribblish (so fun!). After a few hours of that, I made J drive home while I slept (they live about 20 minutes away), then I staggered into the house and passed out at the early hour of 11. Whooopsy!

On Easter Sunday, I woke up 30 minutes before J's work alarm, and made him a wonderful breakfast of eggs, biscuits, shredded hashbrowns, and turkey sausage (a new brand - YUCK)! It cheered him up about working 6 hours smack in the middle of a holiday, so I accomplished my goal. After he left for work, I cleaned, did laundry, and made a few necklaces.

I had a family dinner at 4:30, and another at 5:30, so I made sure I didn't eat much all day. It didn't help, I still had a fully stomach & was in pain by 6:00. lol. It was nice to spend time with my family members, we always have such hilarious conversations. One of my aunts just got engaged last week, so that was a big topic of conversation. By the time we got home at 9, I was exhausted. My mom and dad both got us baskets full of candy, so I couldn't help myself from eating just a little bit before bed :)

Other than that, all I've been doing is trying to plan as much as possible. We had a festival picked out for Memorial Day weekend, but now they're changing their ticket prices & line up, and that just bugs me. They actually have 2 different music schedules on 2 different sites, so I'm not even sure what day the bands we wanted to see are playing. I just like having a plan so we're not rushing around the entire week before the show trying to figure out what we're doing! I'm also trying to make J decide on our extra outings for the cruise. They need to be decided now so that we have time to pay for the extras when we go on the trip. He's all worried about getting kidnapped & whatnot, but we've already decided to go, so it's time for him to suck it up and help me decide!

I cannot wait to be in Jamaica.... Only 7 months to go. lol

Tree Hugger

Happy Day Mother Nature :)

I've been having a not-so-good day today. And I really don't like it.
Good news : the "day" portion is almost over
Bad news : only plans I have tonight involve the grocery store

first things first, wake up to an overdrawn bank account
(including a $29 fee)
oh wait, i have a balance of over $200...
so why the fuck am i being charged $29
and in the negative?
because checking & savings are seperate?
uhhh that's why i signed the paper stating if i overdrew & had money in savings it would be used.
after almost tears in the bank,
the fee was given back to me
and all was right in the banking world.

work was equally as bad
at 11, i drove 20 minutes away in a customer's car to have a new part programmed
get there, only to have the rudest front desk woman in the history of front desks,
rolling eyes, repeating the same phrase over & over, instead of answering my question.

after calling to have my boss/dad talk to her, she gives my cell phone to a different worker,
he walks away with it.
uhm hello? i'm sure they don't all have droids as a workplace phone.
jerks!
they ended up not programming the part, due to a miscommunication that could have easily been fixed, but instead they sent me on my way!
i slammed the door really hard (it was a car dealership glass door, so don't think i'm crazy, they probably didn't even notice) and left.
while it managed to take a big chunk of my day, it still annoyed me.

I keep trying to tell myself, hey be happy,
it's earth day and you love the earth!

I can't help but think...
last year, we were at our first festival this weekend
(it was cold & rainy... but still)
and why the heck is easter this late?!?!?

nevertheless,
it's the weekend.
i have plans (kinda)
-grocery shop (we have no food!)
-hang out, hookah, maybe cookout with friends tomorrow evening!
-grocery shopping & lunch with my papa in the morning :)
-sunday will be 3 family holidays...

including stepdads family who have barely acknowledged myself, my sister & brother since he died... i miss him. i hate holidays with his family without him. there's no barrier to hold back their rude & sometimes mean behavior towards my mom & others. i hate seeing my mom alone on holidays, because i can feel & see the sadness radiating off of her. i miss him. and sometimes, i just need a good cry. i think tonight might be one of those nights. every once in awhile, when i miss him to this point and i think about it often (i have been all week...), i have a dream about him. so maybe tonight will be the night. it's hard to say goodbye to a parent. every happy moment, i wish he was there, so it brings a little sadness. holidays just bring it out a little more. (sorry for whining, i promise i dont mean to sound like i want a pity party).

What I'm Lovin Lately...

My brain is feeling a little lagged today, I couldn't sleep very well last night for some reason. I think because J was playing with his new toy (midi mixer, to make music) and ended up passing out on the couch sometime. I had the bed allll to myself... But I was too lonely!

Anywhoodles, here's some generic, mind numbing info for y'all to read if you dare.

* * * * *

The 2 documentaries we watched last night...

How Weed Won the West

The Green Rush

In spirit with the "holiday" yesterday, we basically just sat around, smoked, ate a little too much, and watched movies. The plan was to see The Grateful Dead Movie, but it wasn't available on NetFlix for some reason.

How Weed Won the West was pretty good, basically just an overview of the pot culture in California and how it's changing & growing. We learned some new information from this one, even my friend who just moved back from another state that allows medical usage. =]

The Green Rush was better, in my opinion. This one followed a group of legal growers in Northern California. While none of them showed their face, it really gave a more personal look into the industry and the struggles these people face. Even though what they're doing is legal in their state, it's illegal federally. In the end, 2 of the grow groups were ripped off - one was an inside job ($70K lost), and the other they weren't sure of. That part was extremely sad, it was an older couple who put everything into their grow, and it was all gone. The wife was just devastated and I wanted to just hug her.

* * * * *

The growing excitement of my sister having a baby! At first I was more worried than anything, but she's handling it like a grown up and she seems pretty happy. I like the father, but I hope he can manage to grow up, just a tiny bit more, before the baby gets here. We have til November, so I'm sure he'll make some changes before then. I'm nervous about her possibility of moving away (since he's in the military), but reading so many military mom/wife blogs, I really have faith that she'll be okay if that does happen. =]

* * * * *

My best friend being HOME. There's a lot of drama surrounding it, and I'm still extremely worried, but when I'm with her I am so happy! I know that sounds corny and like I'm in love with her... But we've been best friends since birth, the last 8 months were intensely hard for both of us to be apart from each other. I'm just so thankful she made it back and I think she's on the path to changing things up for good. Let us hope & pray.

* * * * *

Festival season is COMING SOON!!! I wish we lived in a warmer state, so summer wasn't so short & fleeting, but if we did, would the season still be as magical? I really don't know for sure! We are 35 days out from our first festival of the year, and I just can't wait! The only thing I'm nervous about is the gas prices, because everything is at least a few hours away from us. I'm not sure if it's expected to continue rising, but I got gas yesterday morning for $3.73, after work it was $3.89. If I get it after we get groceries, we usually get 20 cents off a gallon, but that's still gonna be a huge chunk of our money. Urgh.

* * * * *

THIS ^^^^
A friend posted it on Face book earlier this week, and I asked where she found it. She said she saved it from online somewhere, didn't even know it was available. I am on a hunt to find it, first stop ~ Etsy. Cross your fingers for me!!!!

My Heart is Sad..

I've always been a very firm believer in KARMA & "everything happens for a reason", even though sometimes I can't seem to find reasons for everything. Everything that's ever happened to me or because of me has been a learning experience... I've lost a lot, so many people, but other than that -- I've been lucky.


Today, a friend told me a secret she has. My heart is breaking for her. She finally stood her ground, worked her ass off to get away from a horribly scary situation, only for the universe to take another route. The route that was chosen is a route that could very possibly take her right back into that situation, for a very long time. I believe in freedom. I believe in the ability of a person to make a choice, any choice, as long as it fits into their life, they have the phsyical, mental & financial ability to make that choice, and the choice doesn't hurt anyone. But today, I see someone backed into a corner, without the ability to make that choice for herself. I see someone who I love very much, with my whole heart, being pushed back into a bad place because she made a bad choice a year or so ago.

What can I do, besides sit, helpless, and watch her grasping for something to hold onto in the middle of the shit storm that her life has somehow turned into? I've been watching for a long time, putting out my hand when necessary, but nothing's really changed, and I feel like she's going to drown.


*In other news, I got a vending gig for 17 days from now! Woot woot to that. It's a new Cinco de Mayo block party type thing, so I'm hopefuly for it. I'm going to make lotsa kid's hoops because they sold like hot cakes last time. The guy who called me said "Oh, I hope you don't mind, but there will be lots of drinking!" I assured him I don't mind, since drunk people spend more money ;)

*I also got my giveaway package from Camille! If I ever remember to take pictures (I'll try tonight!), I'll have a post about it. This girl is like the yin to my yang, I loved everything she sent me! It was like a small taste of the swap coming up ;)

Beneath the Spin Light....

*APPARENTLY BLOGGER HATES ME... NO SPACES WHERE i WANT THEM & THE FONT IS NOW HUGE.... URGH!

"I need the smell of summer; I need it's noises in my ear" -brand new-

Seriously, last night, I hooped outside for 2 hours..... and woke up this morning with the ehh feeling of not wanting to go to work. Why would I want to go to work, when all across the country people are at different festivals!? It's festie season, and I'm stuck in my everyday life, until the end of MAY!!!!!! Tonight, I'll be home all alone, since J will be at work... I have to catch up on some hoop orders & I might possibly start my first handmade item for the Handmade for you Swaparoo! My partner is Camille, who you may remember from my post earlier in the week! :) I'm definitely happy with their choice of partner for me!

Here I Go....

First things first ~ I'm sorry my last post somehow turned into a jumbled mess. I promise you, I actually do write in paragraph form, apparently sometimes Blogger feels that I don't need spacing! Secondly ~ Hello to the new followers! While I have a relatively low amount, I noticed it jumped up 3 or 4 new people in the past few days! Hi all & thanks for deeming me worthy enough to follow =] Now that Hoop Day isn't consuming my entire life, I'll try to be posting more often & consistantly. I've spent the past 10 days recovering from Hoop Day! That also means now I have to start working on custom orders, as the list is growing and I haven't started one of them! Bad Haley! But tonight is the night! I also want to make myself a new hoop. I've been making hoops for a year now for everyone who orders, and still am using my hoops made by other people (and my LED of course!). In my recovery time, I've read 4 books. Oh my goodness, it feels good to be able to read again!!!! I finished Ominous (Private series), City of Fallen Angels (Mortal Instruments series), Happens Everyday (Isabel Gillies -- Stabler's wife on SVU) & am finishing up Schooled (not sure on author, but it's about a Manhattan private school teacher who tutors on the side & makes mad cash writing kid's papers for them). My bookshelf is already starting to overflow again, as I buy more and more books that look good and I just MUST read!!! If you saw my post the other day, you know I'm participating in the Handmade for You Swaparoo, and I'm soooo excited to find out who my partner is, so I can start creating! Entry has closed, but seriously keep an eye on it, because I have a feeling it's going to go over wonderfully and hopefully more will come with the same theme! I love handmade!!! I also won a secret giveaway from Camille. I'm pretty psyched, cuz we seem to have a lot in common. I've been blogging for a year, and most of that time, the blogs I read are funny & fun to read; but a lot of them are turning into mommy blogs. Not that there's anything wrong with it, it's just -- I'm not a mommy... And don't have any plans for it anytime soon! So I've been kinda branching out and finding people with more similar interests. It's been cool finding some fellow hoopers, and people who are closer to my age & lifestyle! Summer's coming & I'm getting excited for festival season! It's alllllmoooost here! We've got our tickets for our August fest, I'm going to one in July that is based on country music, with my aunt & sisters.... And I'm vending one in September. We're buying our tickets for our May fest this payday, and then we still need a new air mattress & we're set for summer.... =] A few last things..... Remember my BFF from back around the holidays, who was going through major issues with her husband and I was really, really worried about?! Well, I haven't talked about it anymore on here, in case things changed once again and I was let down, but, she is going to be home [for good] today. Finally got her head out of her ass, borrowed some money, got a friend to pack the truck with her, and rolled on home. I am sooooo freakin excited, haven't seen her since Christmas, and I'm so looking forward to spending spring & summer together, until she gets back on her feet, finds a job and home, and leaves me again (but for such a closer destination this time -- an hour away)!!! ....I'm going to try to start painting. J already paints, and I bought myself a tube of acrylic that I fell in love with (reminds me of a mermaid...) and a few hardback canvases. I'll post pictures if they turn out the way I'm envisioning them! A lot of my friends have been getting into painting and I know I have this artistic creativity flowing through my veins, and it just looks so fun! My walls are already becoming full of friends artwork, so I might as well make something worthy of going up on my own wall. I looooove acrylic paintings Anyways, I feel like I've jumped back on the blabber train, but it's been such a long time since I updated y'all on my life, so there it is!!!! How have you all been?! *Seriously, just published this and AGAIN no spaces.... WTF Blogger?!

Summary of Events...

Saturday, I woke up nervous.... I mean extremely nervous. I felt like I had so much left to do & so little time to do it. I took a shower, put on old clothes, and headed to the venue to start setting up. Unfortunately I was met with unwelcome faces & information that I wasn't aware of til that point. We had 5 people to MOVE 100+ tables with 8 chairs stacked on each of them. I was not a happy camper. I had been told that the tables would be down, stacked, and I could take them to use at my own will. I was also informed that before midnight I had to have the tables in that exact location again, with the chairs stacked on top. Oh and bonus, no dragging the tables, they have to be lifted off the floor so that we don't scrape. (at this point I started balling my eyes out). I sucked it up after a quick cry and we got everything done within an hour and a half, then I headed home to finish up a few small things and get started loading everything into my dad's truck! After unloading everything, back at the hall it was time to get ready! I decorated the Kid's Korner, which was a room off to the side with the duck pond game, plinko, arts & crafts, and lots of candy & prizes (woot woot)!!! Set up all 60 of the raffles and my vending booth! The sound guy came and started setting up the "stage" and we were almost good to go! :) At this point it was more of a nervous excitement, but more nervous than anything... Looking around the room, I had vendors with their tables setting up all kinds of colorful, beautiful wares, the tie dye guy hanging his tapestries around the room, and the cupcake girl setting up her amazing display of 200 cupcakes =] Within minutes of 4:00, the room was already filling up with people... I was sooo psyched! The first band started playing only 5 minutes late, and as soon as he started playing, the dance floor filled with people of all ages hooping -- it was perfect!!!! For the first 2 hours, I was extremely busy running around, attending to all the questions & concerns various volunteers and vendors had. We had a small music snafu, as the 6:00 musician was driving in from over 3 hours away, and his drummer had gotten caught up in a detour. Quick thinking and early arrival of the 7:00 band allowed me to just switch their spots, and things went off without a hitch! There were so many moments where I would just glance around the room and feel so touched. Then, my little cousin came up to me with her step-mom (who I don't know), and gave me a hug. She told me "thanks so much for doing this, because my baby sister is autistic and I'm glad you're helping her".... It absolutely melted my heart! First off, because her mom is such a piece of crap, I barely get to see her... but secondly, because she's so young and the baby sister is only 2, and she has a whole lifetime ahead of her, that will probably seem like a battle at times. I played with the baby for a few, and what a beautiful soul. She was all smiles and laughs, seemed like such a happy little girl. I loved it and was happy to see someone who actually has interactions with the program I was donating this money to. By 7:00, my sister came to me and told me she thought they had about $1800 from raffle ticket money, admission & 50/50 money. I was floored at that point, because my goal was $1500 total, including vendors, food, snacks, the author, etc. By the end of the night, I completely sold out of my hoops, and had an entire page full of custom orders. I sold almost every piece of jewelry I had there, and also had quite a few custom orders for jewelry as well. Some people insisted on paying on the spot, so that 50% would be donated, which I thought was awesome! I, personally, made $550 at my booth, and I donated $275 of that to the charity. The only disappointment I had was that most of the other vendors opted to only donate 25%. On top of that, I know for a 100% fact that at least one of them lied to me about how much she made, which means she lied about the donation as well. There were at least 20 little girls running around in a certain item she made & sold, and she told me she only sold $10 worth of stuff, and donated $5. That really burned me, but I smiled and just acted as if it was no big deal. I guess I'll keep that in mind next time...... Speaking of next time....... My cousin and a few friends were over last night and they think I should try my hand at putting together a small local festival. Which would put money in my pocket. Although I do think that it's a good idea, I won't even be thinking about it til next winter/spring. There's one festival that we used to have around our area that was thrown by a bunch of meth/pill addicts in our extended group of friends, but it's died down. I guess I could probably take it on, but I have a while to think and decide for sure. Anyways, this is long & boring, but that's my summary of the event Saturday.... Again, we raised over $3,000 and I'm so excited! I'm going to the bank today to give them all the cash and get a cashier's check to give to the program this weekend!!!!! We made enough to send THIRTY autistic children to summer camp! :)

Handmade for YOU Swaparoo!

Even the name sounds fun!!!! I met Angie through Mamarazzi's Pinktastic Swaptastic a few months ago, and we had soooo much in common! Every post she writes I feel like I can respond to or it gives me an idea about life! I'm sure you all have someone in BlogLand who you feel the same about.... Anyways, when she posted a few weeks back about a Handmade Swap I was soo excited to participate. Because, well duh, I love making things & I love swaps. Perfect combination. I signed up immediately!!!

You can check out Angie or Beth's blogs to join in & see all the rules, if you're interested!!!

I'm mainly just excited to see who my partner will be and hopefully expand my blog circle to even more great people!

Taste of Success

Sooo.... the event..... Now that I'm finally caught up on sleep (I think), I have time to show you guys some pictures & talk about the amazing, shocking, crazy, beautiful mess that was Saturday!

Most importantly.... Photo Evidence! (Big thanks to everyone who remembered their cameras, amidst the busy morning, I forgot mine...)

My headliners, my cousin (drummer) and his band... They formed at the first Hoop event back in October & I'm so proud of how far they've come in 6 short months!

Two girls who brighten up my day quite often, even if it's just on Facebook. :) Drawing names, We had 60 raffles.... :)

These 2 traveled over 3 hours for our day... Husband/wife team ~ they sell tie dyes & he plays pretty music. I now have a new tapestry from them hanging in my house :)

3 pretty girls; My brother's ex, my cousin & my sister I love them <3

Here I am with my hoops & necklaces, along with one of my good friend's daughters :)

Two of the artist's works... A mother/daughter duo, these guys AMAZE me, We bought 2 of their paintings for our house!

One of my customers, she bought a hoop & ordered a custom hoop. Very pretty girl & beautiful soul, Loved her wings!

A local cupcake maker generously donated 200 of these babies! Rainbow cupcakes with buttercream frosting & some kind of fruit puzzle pieces. YUM!

Some of another friend's works of art, Along with one of my own works of art Known as the sunset hoop.

More of my friend & her boyfriend's works of art, The things these 2 can collaborate blows my mind!

The man I love & myself.... I was sooo worn out at this point, but still couldn't stop smiling.

This was one end of the hall, during one of the busiest parts of the night!

Mother Nature's gift to me, on Hoop Day.... A double rainbow!

Three of my good friends playing their set!

I think the pictures are a pretty good explanation for today... Tomorrow I'll be back to give you guys a run down in words. Let me just say this... We raised over $3,000 for the autism program. That will fund 30 kids from our community to attend summer camp this year. That makes my heart swell & burst with pride in myself, my group of friends, and my community for coming together in this way!!!