Genuine Emotions

As it creeps closer and closer to the gift giving holidays, I am reminded that gifts should be given with thought and care.  I realized that while I could easily find a gift on Etsy or Amazon for my brother, it would mean more if  I took the time to find something truly unique. Gifts with thought behind them make a bigger impact.

I want to find the perfect gift that make my brother’s brain scream.  I think I found the perfect venue to find the perfect bit of nightmare fuel, I mean gift for my brother.  That venue would be my local antique market.  I think that if he opened a box with any of the items below, that he is going to show a genuine emotion and the holidays are all about genuine emotions.

Option 1:  Everyone needs a little bit of seasoning in their life. I think this classic salt and pepper shaker bring about certain feelings.  At the moment the feeling of shaking my head in wonder, but if that is what I feel about them, I can only imagine the WTF feeling my brother would have if he unwrapped them.

Option 2: A doll that may or may not try to suck your soul out in the middle of the night.  Every house needs a creepy doll or two.  Also, I think I can guarantee that my brother would never expect this in a million years. So, that is another win. 

Option 3:  Giving my brother the bird for Christmas.  Okay, I think that I would be able to impress him if I were able to find a box to fit the ostrich in. It isn't the size of the bird that counts, but the thought behind it.  

Option 4: The Salt Water Taffy Barrel.  I am sure that this little bitty clown would be a welcome addition to the home and bring cheer for years to come. Right?  I am sure that my sister in law would surely forgive me for one small clown instead of getting a much larger and imposing clown to bring joy and laughter to her home, right? 

All of a sudden I am feeling much more optimistic about the holidays.  I sometimes wish there were duplicates of these wonderful gifts, because I think the look of shock and possibly awe could apply to more than one special individual in my life. 

Grandpa's Cheese Barn

When you say the Grandpa's Cheese Barn, you are either mentally conjuring up a dilapidated old red barn that might be missing a few boards, with a couple of cow roaming around outside and looking a little sketchy or you are thinking about one of the hidden gems of Ohio.

Not Sketchy and Not a Red Barn!

Grandpa's Cheese Barn is like someone read my diary and discovered the way to my heart was through tourist attractions, cheese products and fart jokes. Grandpa's Cheese Barn in Ashland, Ohio covers all three.  Their mascot might be my new favorite mouse mascot.   The facility is neat and orderly and full of humor and food.  There was a little something for everyone there, even if cheese isn't your thing. (I am not judging, we have some dairy intolerant individuals in my family.)  

Colby! Perfect mascot name!

There were samples of  most items, which is extremely effective in convincing a person to try something, and the prices were modest. My husband totally decided he needed to come home with teriyaki beef jerky after a single sample. One of my favorite sections aside from the cheese, tea, jerky, snack food and chocolates, is the gift shop. I love a good gift shop, and the cheesier the items the better.  Their gift shop has a wide variety of shirts and other sundry items.  The thing that stole the show for me were the post cards. 

Some lucky people are getting this postcard from me!

I know that sending physical mail is an archaic form of communication, but I love it.  I love sending mail, I love receiving mail. When a gift shop has post cards, that is one of the first things I check out.  Postcards are a wonderful souvenir to remember where you have been, and often times have a picture on it that is way better then I could have taken.   Grandpa's Cheese Barn did not fail me.  They had their signature joke on their postcard and a postcard with their mousey mascot. It was a double win for me.  I picked up at least half a dozen postcards to send, mixed in with the cheese curds I couldn't live without and tea, jerky, t-shirt and soap that needed to be rescued.  The only thing that I couldn't not find in the gift shop were magnets. They might have been there, but I honestly think I was a bit distracted with amount of excitement I had coursing through me.  Grandpa's Cheese Barn is a dream.  It is one of those places that you thought was made up for television and then realize that this is better than any TV fantasy. T

If you happen to be in Ohio and see and exit for Grandpa's Cheese Barn, I would recommend stopping. The cheesy goodness that oozes out of that place is beyond belief!

Lizard Men tried to Sell Me a Car

Lizard men tried to sell me a car. 

That isn’t the complete truth.  I have no verifiable proof they were Sleestaks in disguise, but I am one of those people that trusts their instincts.  

A month ago, I was on the verge of buying a vehicle from a lizard man.  In the beginning, I didn’t know he was a lizard man, he seemed human.  He did all the right things, took his time explaining the features of the vehicle to me, while letting me behind the wheel.  Some things I really liked about the vehicle.  My husband was practically bouncing in his seat, because I was warming up to the idea that a car can be utilitarian and luxury. 

Then it happened.  It was kind of like that episode of Land of the Lost, where they think they are home, and then the phone rings, and a voice from beyond the grave ruins the illusion.  The voice beyond the headrest completely ruined the interest I had in purchasing a vehicle. High pressure salesmen combined with over enthusiastically helpfulness to the point of talking down hits all of the buttons of disinterest in me. 

I think with a little bit of liquor, the inner monologue could have been an out monologue.  Sadly I am responsible and boozing up to test drive vehicles, isn’t exactly recommended, even if it would numb the pain of social awkwardness. 

I mean Seriously Dude! I am sure that lane assist is a useful feature, but frankly it isn’t a selling point for me. I would like to think I can stay in my own lane without the vehicle silently judging and correcting me.  Also only a creep would purposely try to distract the driver on a highway to show them features on the steering wheel in the dark.  Total Sleestak move.  Humans just don’t have that sort of night vision and need to pay attention to things such as speed limits and curves in the road.  I can’t be touching the steering wheel to change the dashboards screen while I am going sixty on a highway I have never been on.  It is just asking me to be a stereotype email driver. Not interested in being a stereotype. 

Needless to say, I didn’t buy the vehicle.  Especially after the callings, emailing and texts I received a the following week.  It was like a bad date, where the guy suddenly thinks you are soul mates, because you politely laughed at one dumb joke that wasn’t even funny.   Total Sleestak move.   

Eventually I did purchase a vehicle. It was from a totally different dealership that was super chill.   But chill in a good way, like some one you means dude as a compliment and drinks fancy coffee. Sometimes it is hard to remember you don’t have to commit to Sleestaks.  Just because the lizard man is there does not mean you have to be  romantically involved with them and you certainly don’t have to buy vehicles from them.   

My advice: Be chill and finds something at that makes you feel comfortable and then go one step further if at all possible.  You will thank you for being good to yourself. 

( Land of the Lost  episode is  called Dream Maker. 1992) 

Round 2: A Better Review

I am terrible at leaving Etsy reviews.  When I sit down to write a review my brain goes utterly blank. Then about a week later, inspiration will have struck and it is too late.  This is the unfortunate case of what happened with my last review. 

Recently I purchased some lovely soy sauce dishes from CeramaicsbyHitomi.  When it came time to write the review, I said something bland and it didn’t truly give a great description of the products I received.  I just used my purchase and thought that I should take the time to write a better review and give a little more back story as to why I was even looking for the dishes. Let’s call this my Ground Hog’s Day review do over. (I know it isn’t Ground Hogs Day, but we are close.)

I had been searching for some replacement soy sauce dishes for a while. I know it is not the intended purpose, but I find that soy sauce dishes are the perfect size dish for serving canned cat food to my spoiled rotten cats.  My cats get canned food as a treat and because they are a little round and the rear I portion control what I give them. Soy sauce dishes give them the right amount without it getting all over the place.  

I stumbled upon CeramicsbyHitomi by accident.  I was looking for a gift for my best friends birthday when the ceramics shop came up as a suggestion. It was love at first sight.  I loved the bright orange and the grey spots on the set of soy sauce dishes.  It is almost as if some one took two of my favorite colors and made something beautiful out of them.   

The entire process with the purchase was seamless.  The shop owner contacted me to verify I had received my purchase and that it arrived in  one piece. They are not perfect pieces.  If you know anything about pottery and glazing, they can be snags and pulls in the glaze that can ruin the beauty of the piece.  There are a couple of imperfections in the piece, that were notated by the creator, however the small pulls in the glaze don’t distract from the beauty and functionality of the dishes. 

One of the things that I look at when I purchase from any one on Etsy, is if I would purchase the item again.  I would whole heartedly agree to purchasing additional items from CeramicsbyHitomi.  They are exactly as described in honest detail, they arrive in a reasonable amount of time and the vendor is an absolute joy to work with.   If you are looking for something unique, functional and beautiful, check out CeramicsbyHitomi. 

Cat Hat or Pot Holder?

It is July.  It is time to start the Christmas shopping.  Call me crazy, but I like to get a head start of the holidays and piecemeal things together at the end.  It doesn't hurt my wallet as much and when it comes time to wrap, I am just as surprised as everyone else as to what I have acquired. 

I am developing a love for Etsy.  I like to support artists, and I love to give unique gifts.  Esty is for the most part a marriage between the two.  (Please remember that art takes very many forms.) 

On Etsy I found something absolutely perfect for one of my nieces.  I don't normally brag about the gifts before I give them, but the attention span of a 10 year old means, I can spill the beans and she will completely forget by the time she gets through the duck tape and ribbon. 

It is hard to impress the Dib.

I am going to turn my niece into a cat.  TheGeekyKnot has a decent number of items that are easily customizable.  I was leaning towards the unicorn hat, but then I realized the kitty ears on the hat was color customizable, I was sold.  My niece has probably seen every single episode of FairyTail, and Happy is one of her favorite characters.  It was my duty as her aunt to turn her into a blue cat.

The proprietor of TheGeekyKnot was prompt and courteous when I messaged her about my request. They even sent me a color sample of the yarn, to make sure it was the color that I wanted. I went with a variegated blue cat hat, since I feel it has more wearability and match ability to other clothing.  TheGeekyKnot had the hat out to me with in a week, which was pretty amazing to me.  

The one thing that I worry about when buying any sort of craft/ art, is if it is as advertised.  When I opened the package and looked at it for the first time, I worried that I had received a hot pad/ pot holder in error.  It looked like a blue square and not at all what I thought it would look like.   I think in my  head I thought it would look like a semi circle with obvious well define triangle points.  With a little bit of trepidation, I put the blue pot holder on my head and hopped for the best. 

It was magic. It went from pot holder to magic cat in a moment. It is a well stitched hat, that is comfortable and has cat ears.  If you customized it in black, it would almost look like Batman ears.  It is one of those cases that, looks can be deceiving and it totally worth the prize.  I think that my niece is going to love it, and now I have to decide if I want to get the lace fingerless gloves for my other niece.  

If you are looking for something uniquely customizable for a friend or family member, I would recommend checking out TheGeekyKnot for some customizable gift ideas. 

Friendship is Rare

Have you ever gotten a song stuck in you head? And you hear the same stanza over and over in your head and it won't stop.  You have tried playing the song to get it out of your head, and listening to other music to drown it out, but in moments of utter silence the words float about in your brain sort of song? I have one of those songs stuck in my head.  I figured the one way to really get it out of my head would be to write about it. For the past couple of days I have had Tenacious D stuck in my head, and thankfully it is a stanza that won't get me fired if heard muttering at work.


"Friendship is rare, Do you know what I'm sayin' to you? Friendship is rare. My derriere, When you find out much later That they don't really care. It's rare to me, can't you see? It's rare to me, can't you see? "

Of course after the the third hour of singing this, I begin to think about my friends, instead of how to get the song out of my head.  I started to think about who my best friend is and realize that there is no one person that is my best friend. If my friends are reading this, I am sure that some of them are a little surprised. They know my pretty well and would be willing to join me on some pretty stupid adventures. Here me out, before you pull the pitch forks out and start the march. 

Friendship is rare. It isn't easy to make friends. It isn't always easy to find some one that you click with and that understands aspects of you.  I think that when most people think of a best friend, they think of a person that understands you the best. That could be a sibling, spouse, coworker or muggle. 

What if there were multiple people that understood various aspects about you, would they all be considered equal in their level of friendship? Or is it the person that I see most often considered my best friend? If that were true, I would be considered best friends with a good majority of my co workers.  I like my co workers, but I am sure that some of them would not think twice about tripping me if it meant getting away from the zombie apocalypse or a bear. 

I believe that a person can have multiple best friends, because people are fulfilled at different levels. I can be the best friend to several people at once because I am fulfilling a need and they fulfill my needs. My best friend to bake cookies with is not the same best friend that I go shopping with, because those actions to mean the same thing to each person. 

While the rest of that Tenacious D song did not stick as much as that first stanza the lyrics, I think that it might have been the reminder that I needed to be thankful for the friends that I have, and that finding someone to connect with is a rare thing and should be cherished. Not every one will understand a friendship, and it is okay, because we all connect at different levels. 

Here is all of the song lyric, and good luck not getting it stuck in your head. 

                                                           "Friendship"

Friendship is rare, 
Do you know what I'm sayin' to you? 
Friendship is rare. 
My derriere, 
When you find out much later 
That they don't really care. 
It's rare to me, can't you see? 
It's rare to me, can't you see? 

Oh shit there's a bear, 
Could you hand me that shotgun buddy, 
Also that chair? 
We're fighting a bear 
Now your life's in grave danger 
And you don't even care. 
It's rare to me, can't you see? 
It's rare to me, can't you see? 
It's rare to me, 
Say a prayer for me, 
'Cause it's rare to be 
In Tenacious D. 

Friends will be friends 
They're running naked in the sand, 
Friends holding hands 
Will someday surely form a band, 
Friends will be friends 
They say that friends are friends 
To the bitter end. 
Long-as-there's-a-record-deal-we'll-always-be-friends! 
Long-as-there's-a-record-deal-we'll-always-be-friends! 

Friends will be friends 
They're running naked in the sand, 
Friends holding hands 
Will someday surely form a band, 
Friends will be friends 
They say that friends are friends 
To the bitter end. 
Long-as-there's-a-record-deal-we'll-always-be-friends! 
Long as there's a record deal we'll always be friends, yeah

Now that I have written about it, hopefully it will move on and make room for other songs to get stuck in my head.