Introspection and Hope

I read this post last week, and became inspired to be more hopeful. I generally am not a particularly hopeful person. I prefer to be a realist, preparing myself for disappointment rather than to come slamming down when something doesn't go my way.

Besides, being hopeful has a history of backfiring on me. Without going into too much boring detail, I have a tendency to have rather devastating days (hours/weeks) after a particularly good mood or day (many times due to my own self-destructive tendencies; but on occasion through events out of my control).

Anyway, thanks to some particularly introspective mornings (I love the quiet drive home from Allen's school), I have recognized my habit of sabotaging my positive mental state, and am determined to be happy and in the moment, if not truly hopeful.

Speaking of being hopeful -- something I dared not be with regard to the Beaufort Gazette Reader's Choice Awards -- I'm shocked, awed, and honored to tell you that our little shop, Joli, won as Best Gift Shop. Not only that, but most other fabulous businesses in our Habersham Marketplace won as well.

Thank you for patiently reading this somewhat random post. Now onto more interesting things ...

xoxo,
AHC

They love me they really love me!

Guess what! Our shop, Joli Home & Events, has been nominated as the "Best Gift Shop" in our local paper's Reader's Choice Awards! I nearly wet myself this morning, I was so excited!

If you love me as much as your comments indicate that you do, would you please head on over and vote for us?

Thanks so much!

xoxo,
AHC

Alice in the pumpkin patch

Today was Allen's first field trip -- to go see Alice in Wonderland presented by the Children's Theatre of Beaufort. He was very excited. Excited to see his kids; excited that Mommy was going with him; excited about everything.

Since I have the minivan, I was able to take three children with me: Z, T, and M (Allen's special friend). Allen was giddy that these kids got to ride in the car with them. And they were all thrilled that we had the Backyardigans CD playing.

Everyone was very good on the ride there. They spoke very nicely to each other, sang along with the CD, and Allen started to tell them about "Bebby Hills Chihuahua."

When we were in line to go in, M saw her big brother J (who goes to the same school, but is older and in a different class). She ran to him and hugged him as Allen watched. J waved him over to join in the love ...

Once inside, Allen sat very quietly and patiently waited for the play to begin. Once the show started, Allen was riveted.

All four kids said they enjoyed the show. Allen liked the rabbit, and I forget who everyone else liked. I liked the caterpillar.

I thought Allen would want to leave with me right away, but instead I had to watch him in his classroom and then watch him play on the playground until I finally convinced him it was time to go to .... the pumpkin patch!

That's right. We were off to the pumpkin patch to get 50 -- yes 50 -- pumpkins. For the Harvest Festival on Saturday.

The pumpkin patch is on the site of Lowcountry Produce (which we carry in our shop), which has a little restaurant and some animals that you can visit with. Allen was very excited about all of it ...

And here are all the pumpkins ...

In other, more personal news, Joli launched its website last night. Please take a look and let me know what you think!

xoxo,

Word of the day

Since Allen is no longer going to "school" right now and Nana is back, we've decided to split days. I'm working mornings at the shop, and Nana works afternoons. Nana picks Allen and me up, and we go set up the shop (we're still having our sidewalk sale). Then Nana and Allen go off to do whatever.

Today Allen decided that he couldn't wait in the car while we set up; rather he needed to come in. Nana was bringing in some things from her car, and as she was carrying a box into the shop, she ran into the door. I asked if she was OK, and she replied, "Yes, I'm just an idiot."

A couple minutes later, Allen was running to greet a customer, and tripped and fell on the rug. We asked if he was OK, and he stood up and said, "Yes, I'm an idiot."

Tonight, Brian was watching the Stanley Cup game (yay Penguins), and as the players skated onto the ice, Allen starts yelling, "Go go go go go. Go you idiot!"

Grrreeaaat ...

xoxo,

Southern Supper Fundraiser

Brian and I are going to the Southern Supper and Live Auction for the Playhouse Palooza playhouses, hosted by Habersham, this week. Since Joli was a sponsor/designer of one of the playhouses, it's pretty much a given that we need to be there. Mom will be up in Pennsylvania packing up the house (yay), so we are the representatives for shop.

Being that it's a fundraiser, it's one of those cost-per-head events. I've never been to an event like this, and I started to panic about what I should wear. It doesn't occur to me that it will be overly fancy, but I don't think it's a jeans and a t-shirt event either.

So Mom and I went to Belk today, and I picked out this dress and these shoes. I think I'm going to wear this necklace that we have in the shop. What do ya'll think? Is it appropriate for a Southern Supper?

xoxo,

Almost famous

This is so exciting. Check out this video. Watch the whole thing, OK? Recognize anyone?

In this video, you can see our shop! It's starts about 1:40, so it's near the end.

xoxo,

This is for you, Kissy

I know how much you love this song, Kissy!

But seriously, thank you so much for promoting the Joli blog on your blog. You are definitely a powerful blogging woman! Yay for sisters and for blogs! Love you!

xoxo,

Progress report; Serenading at bedtime; Give-away!

We're very proud of Allen because since we implemented the "progress chart," Allen has slept all night in his bed FOUR times (woohooo Allen). If the stickers on the chart are any indication, I'm thinking Allen's going to be a non-conformist. He's not big on putting the stickers in the squares. It's enough to get them on the paper (the ones on the wall surrounding the chart are a result of one morning last week while I was in the shower). Though you can't tell, we've gotten two of those stickers two nights in a row, and we're working on three-in-a-row tonight.


As usual, we had a very amusing evening. I initially brought the camera upstairs for bath time so that I would have pictures for my blog. But, Allen is not one to disappoint, so we got a bonus video too. But first, here are the highlights of his post-bath dry-off.


Could my child get any cuter? I didn't think so either, until he started serenading us. I promise to send a gift from Joli to the person who can decipher the most words/phrases from this video. Oooh ... my first give-away -- how exciting. I'm not kidding either. Post your guesses in the comments, and I'll announce the winner next week.

Have a great week, and don't forget to enter to win my first give-away!!!

xoxo,

Did you miss me?

So, I started this next post almost two weeks ago. But life has been a little crazier than usual, so I haven't gotten to finish it until now. Some updates on our crazy life before I share the cuteness that is my son helping his Daddy put together furniture ...

• My business partner (a.k.a. Mom/Nana) got sick, so I was at the shop more than usual.
• She managed to recover and then leave for a week, so I continued to be at the shop more than usual.
• We hired a new babysitter -- Miss "S" -- who is absolutely awesome. However, it means that we're back to evenings in which Allen and Mommy are joined at the hip until bedtime (makes it hard to cook dinner/pay bills/use the bathroom).
• We "sprang" forward which messed Allen up a little bit with bedtime. We had one night of it taking two hours (one of mommy singing over and over) to get to bed, and a few in which he tried to bargain with us to stay up later (this involved agreeing to the "last" book, and then demanding another one once we were done). We seem to be over that now though.

Many of the nights the past few weeks, I have not even sat down until around 10:00, and as my husband pointed out, I don't exactly blog quickly ... so I decided it was in my best interests to wait until I could start a little earlier.

So now without further ado, my adorable son ...

Our house is a very (very very) fine house

While we don't have two cats in the yard, we do have three new light fixtures!!!

Here's the blessing/curse of owning a retail business. Sometimes you have customers who really really want something that you have to special-order, but you don't have anything else you need to order from the company to meet the minimum (for those unfamiliar with this, wholesalers usually have a dollar minimum you have to meet. So in order to obtain products from them, you have to spent $X.Get it?). Well, unless you count the gorgeous lighting they have that you would love to have in your house ...

Aren't they fabulous?!

xoxo,

Take your kid to work day

Today was "take your kid to work day" at the shop. Brian had some work to do at my Mom's, so Allen spent about half the day at the shop with Mommy and Nana. Of course, this was the one day that he didn't want to sit and watch Cars. Instead he pressed all the buttons on the DVD player, hid in the stock "room," threw sidewalk chalk around the shop, and threw a tantrum when he couldn't stay outside (it was really cold here today).

Finally, he started helping Nana stock a shelf with new merchandise. He would pick up an item and take it across the shop to her. She kept saying, "Thank you, sweetheart!" He was so happy to help her. I was standing where the merchandise was sitting on the floor, and I think I moved something, and Allen said, "Thank you sweetheart!" It was adorable. He also said, "Sugar Mama" right after I did (I say Sugar Mama instead of another choice word when I hurt myself). It's so much cuter when he says it though, because it sounds more like "Sugah."

Finally, Daddy came to the shop, and the three of us went to get "pizzie" across the street. We told him to say hi to Mister Bill, and he said, "Hi Sticker Bill!" I kind of like that, don't you?

That's all for the "working" post today. More to follow."





P.S. In case you're wondering what Allen is doing in the above picture, he is taking the lids off the candles and "sniffing" them to make sure they smell good. He would "sniff" and then say, "Mmmm!"

Stay Back, Stinky, Groucho

So, I have like a skillion pictures from our Pennsylvania trip to post, but it's already almost midnight as I begin this post, so we're going to have to do it in several parts. I hope to post them all by early in the week.

Before I get started, I am sad to say that we did NOT win the chili cook-off (although, I do think that our chili was the best there). On a very positive note, we had a record night at Joli (for those of you who are curious, we did better than we did on Oktoberfest), doubling our month's sales in one evening! Woohooo!!!

But I digress ... Back to the true subject of this blog, my hilarious son Allen. Before I begin the recap of our Pennsylvania trip, I'd like to share two cute stories from this weekend ...

While we are still obsessed with Cars (and the collection has grown exponentially over the past few weeks), we are also branching out to Madagascar. I thank McDonald's for that, since their happy meal toys are the characters from the movie (promoting Madagascar II, of course). So last night at Nana's, Allen watched part of cars and the decided he wanted to watch "Agasca" (Madagascar). Papa, Nana, Big Dude (aka Uncle Mark), and Ashell (aka Aunt Michelle) all sat down with him to watch. At one point, Alex (the lion), tells Marty (the zebra) to "Stay Back!" Allen decides to pick this up. "Stay back!" he starts to say to each of us.

A few moments later, Nana decided Allen needed is diaper changed. She stands up, and he starts backing away (he has this thing with walking backwards lately -- it looks like he's trying to Moonwalk), and he says, "Stay back, Nana, stay back!" Fabulous, eh?

Tonight as I was getting Allen changed for bed, he informed me that he had to go potty. So we went and sat on the potty and read the "Potty Book." We read the whole thing (it's actually pretty long), and when it got to the part about putting a sticker on the chart, he wanted to pick a sticker out. So we said, OK, stand up so we can see what sticker to put on (he gets a smaller flower sticker for sitting, and a big sticker that says various things like "Hooray for Pee" if he goes). Lo and behold, he went peepee in the potty! Good job, Allen.

After we flushed the peepee and washed his hands and brushed his teeth, he says to us, "Poopy is stinky!" Ain't that the truth!

Now onto the first part of our family trip recap.

On Thursday, Daddy and Allen got haircut. Allen sat in the chair for the first time without freaking out. Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me then (it wasn't really a planned haircut), but we did get a couple shots that evening before meeting. Note that he was NOT happy that we were going to meeting because it meant that the cars had to stay home.

Stay tuned for additional installments of the Pennsylvania Trip recap. Goodnight kids!

XOXO,

Not Forgotten

We're back from our trip, finally. We left a day late, and had a very long drive home, but we're here! I have not forgotten about my loyal readers (all, what ... 3 of you?). I'll be posting stories and photos soon, but I thought I'd share this one to hold you over ...

The Oyster Roast is tonight, and Joli has entered the Chili cook-off. I'll let you know tomorrow if we won (and yes, I did bribe our customers to vote for us).

More soon, I promise. Ciao!

Awesome Day for Philly Teams

We are celebrating in the Craig household this evening ... not only did the Eagles beat the Falcons (27-14), but the Phillies won game 3 of the World Series (10-2). We were speculating with our fellow Philadelphians about what will happen tomorrow night if the Phillies win the World Series in Philadelphia. We're thinking that all h-e-double-hockey-sticks will break loose :)

Anyway, I wish I had pictures of the Peanut with baby Cai tonight, but unfortunately I was holding both of them most of the time, so I couldn't. He was very sweet with him though. He was very concerned when Cai starting crying. "Cai's cying ... you OK?" He hugged him, gave him his binky, and kept asking if he was OK. He also showed him his various Cars toys. And he called Cai's Pop-pop "Steeb" or "Steben" instead of Steven.

Despite the fact that he had no nap today, he was really well behaved. The rest of the afternoon at the shop was uneventful. Tisha, Tasha, and Nyomi came to take him home, but he refused to go so he stayed with Mommy (I think he was worried that I couldn't handle all the people on my own).

He herded some more people into the shop, and then danced for them. It was all very cute and sweet. And then he did very well tonight with Steeben, Tasha, Sis-Ny (aka Sister Ny as Nyomi likes to be called), and Cai. He even kissed and hugged everyone goodnight and went right upstairs with Mommy and Daddy without one single complaint. Sometimes he's just so angelic ...

XOXO,

The Boss

The boss is at work with me this afternoon. We're usually not open on Sundays, but there is a House tour in the neighborhood this afternoon (which includes my parents' house), so we wanted to be open for the exposure to those outside of the neighborhood. We've had some good traffic so far, but it's quiet now that the tours are in full swing.

But, I digress ... Allen (aka the boss) is supervising me here. We have a nice little setup for him, and here he is enjoying it (and watching ... you guessed it! Cars)

Pretty clever, isn't it? Daddy thought of it, and it's working out fabulously ... though we have been outside quite a bit as well ... looking at the fire engine, chasing Orca (the black & white cat next door), and herding customers inside. He stood in the doorway of the shopped, gestured into the store, and said, "Inside!" It was a big hit!!

In other shop news, I was awakened last night at midnight by the alarm-monitoring company informing me that the burglary alarm was going off at the shop. Fortunately, there was no break-in and the police officer was standing right outside when it went off (there is a police annex at the fire station next door), so he responded quickly. And it only woke the upstairs tenant, not any other neighbors. So that was good. But boy, did it scare the bejeebers out of me!!

I'm sure I'll have more to post this evening, but I thought I would share this picture now.

XOXO!