Mama Drama Mondays

Taking a break from my usual snarkiness (it's okay, I'll be back); I just felt the need to share something very personal and heartbreaking over on the Mama Dramalogues. Please take a moment and join me over there....

"Take a Moment and Hug Your Kids a Little Tighter"

Feature Friday - Simply Sparkles

Q: Tell us a little about yourself; what makes you so special...
Wow, all of the answers I can come up with sound like I'm going to an AA meeting "Hi, my name is Alyssa and I'm weird". Is everyone clapping for me?? Anyone who knows me understands that I'm more than a little off, but that's...OK. At least that's what I tell myself. I'm originally from Hawaii, but have moved all over the US. Most recently I lived in Boston (and LOVED it) for 7 years, then got moved to Texas...where I'm trying to convince myself I can live without going completely insane. I'm a stay at home mom, with a 3 1/2 year old girl and a 1 1/2 year old boy who keep me on my toes and contribute to my need to be caffeinated at all times. I'm a lover of crafts o plenty and a part time Graduate certificate student at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston.

Q: What do you make/create?
I make some pretty funky jewelry. If you're looking for a theme in my store...you probably won't find it, except maybe that I like flowers and the color pink. You'll find a lot of stuff made with Swarovski crystals, polymer clay flowers and wire...lots and lots of wire of many colors. I like to create on a whim, so you never know what you're going to find in my store!

I also make sewn accessories...though I will admit, summer school and an unforeseen jewelry making frenzy sort of put my sewing on the back burner. I desperately need to bust out my sewing machine and get some things done before the Fall semester starts.

Now onto the really important questions...

Q: If you were an appliance, what kind of appliance would you be? Why?
My Oster blender. That's pretty much how my mind works...throw a bunch of random stuff in and hit "puree".

Q: Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
If you can believe it, my friend Gina in NYC...on Friday. What can I say, I don't talk on the phone that much!

Q: What's your most embarrassing moment?
Uh...life?
One of the MORE embarrassing moments was when I was in Grad School the first time. I was working full time and taking a summer school night class. The classroom was stadium seating style...you know, each row of tables and chairs were on a riser. I had a habit of sitting in the last chair in the row, towards the top tier. It was getting late (like 8:00 pm on a Friday) and I was exhausted after a long day. I nodded off in my seat and when I jerked awake I started to fall out of my seat and down the stair right next to my feet. My movement was so sudden that the professor stopped in his tracks...mid sentence...then asked if I was OK...which of course caused the ENTIRE class to turn around and look at me. I wanted to DIE.

Q: Movie star crush?
Gerard Butler, baby! I could listen to him talk all day. Oh yeah, and he's not to hard on the eyes either.

Q: Black and white or a hazy grey?
The haziest grey you can imagine. I live life in a fog :)

Q: Who's on your iPod/cd player?
If anyone needed proof of how schizo I am, just look at my iPod play list. I have some really embarrassing corny stuff like The Village People, The Monkees and Air Supply, I have some serious head banging metal stuff like Metallica and Corrosion of Conformity...some icky pop stuff like N'Sync (I know, please forgive me) and The Spice Girls...and a TON of nostalgic 80's and 90's dance music...from my high school dance and dance club days.

Q: If Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter dueled, who would win? Why?
I've said it before...and I'll say it again. Harry, I love you, but take away your wand and Mr. Skywalker will crush you with his Jedi mind tricks. Luke's lightsaber is far flashier than your holly and phoenix feather wand...and he has Han, Chewie and the Millennium Falcon backing him up. You never stood a chance.

Q: Best advice you ever received?
"Study hard so that you'll never have to rely on a man". My dad told me that when I was on my way to college...and what he meant was to learn all I could and make a life for myself so that I could stand on my own two feet, even if I ever found myself all alone. Of course, I've been married for 14 years, but the nice thing is, God forbid, if I ever found myself in the position where I had to take care of myself and the kids all by myself, I'd be able to do it.

Check out more of Alyssa's fun jewelry in her shop!

I Have a Dream

Call me crazy, but I'm looking forward to turning 30. Why? Because not only will I be looking fabulous, as previously mentioned due to all the weight I shall be losing, but because it feels like a fresh start. I've already had one friend ask me if I was dreading it and how scary the big 3-0 must be, but I just had to smile and say, "Nope, my 30's are going to be so much better than my 20's." Besides, having the right attitude is half the battle right?

Yeah, getting older kinda sucks, but there will always be someone younger than you, thinner than you, prettier than you, and what are you going to do about it? Sulk or embrace what you have and make the most it. I'm doing the latter. I want to look great on the outside and feel fab on the inside. I'm taking it a step further and planning to document my fabulousness. Samantha did it in "Sex and the City" and I think I'm up for it. That would be an au naturel photo session, except, I think I'll be taking the pictures and I probably won't be putting them up on the wall in my living room.

On my journey to fab, I'm going to need all of the motivation I can get. You'd think having an upcoming photoshoot and a birthday would be enough, but if I don't document my progress somehow, so that I'm held accountable, it's going to be harder to reach my goal of being fab once I hit 30. Here's the deal, my birthday is November 27th, my goal size is a 6 so I'm guesstimating my weight at about 125 to fit that. I'm currently 145 and a size 10. I need to work out at least 5 days a week. I'm adding a Fab@30 section to my sidebar to document where I'm at. I may be the only one who pays attention to it, but the fact that it's there and that someone else might see it, will make me want to show some progress.

So here I go! Wish me luck! :o)