…with a shopping cart, no less!

omalleysconfections.com

Go on, check it out!

Camera Lust:

This is the X10. It’s just about as good as the X100. ONLY it’s a lot cheaper.

According to my camera-friend at work, he says I would hardly notice the difference. Here are the specs, and here’s a link to the review.

This is what I want, now.

Maybe a gift to myself once I cut another debt?

Earlier I said that I had stickers.

Then I said that boxes were on their way, and I was excited.

There’s something you should know. I have absolutely no concept of spatial reasoning. None at all.

I didn’t understand that 1.5″x1.5″ was little.

As in, can only fit two caramels little.

So, I won’t quit my day job just yet. And I think I’ll be asking for a second opinion when I go online to buy things.

Wanna see?

Now, how about next to something else for comparison? Which the internet totally should have done.

HAHA.

What’s the solution?

My first thought is, no big deal, I’ll just make smaller stickers and people can take these when they’re just a bit hungry.

My second thought is, wow, this is a great way to make fifty cents!

What I lack now is customers.

However

Even though I have a business license

I don’t have a commercial kitchen

So

I don’t think I can actually sell caramels yet.

But!

If you’re reading this

It’s likely that you know me

{and love me already!}

Do you want caramels for Valentine’s Day?

Do I have your address?

Better make sure I do!

This is the Fujifilm x100 and it’s lovely. It looks old school, and I got to take a picture or two with one a few months ago, and I can’t get it out of my head.

It costs more than a month’s rent, and I have other debts to pay off, but this is a camera that I’d like to own one day.

Let me know if you see it for about half of what they’re asking.

Stranger things have happened!

Related articles

• Review: Fujifilm FinePix X10 (stuffmideast.com)
• Fujifilm X100 Black pictures and hands-on (pocket-lint.com)
• Hands-on with the X-Pro 1: Streamlined controls and bright lenses in the same stylish package (digitaltrends.com)

But then, today, something else came along. Ten questions that create success. And it blew me away. The author says to think of these things every day, and that it’s okay when the answer is “not today” but they’ll improve your life if you think of them every day.

They’re worth reprinting here, just for reference. They’re already in my journal.

1. Have I made certain that those I love feel loved?

2. Have I done something today that improved the world?

3. Have I conditioned my body to be more strong flexible and resilient?

4. Have I reviewed and honed my plans for the future?

5. Have I acted in private with the same integrity I exhibit in public?

6. Have I avoided unkind words and deeds?

7. Have I accomplished something worthwhile?

8. Have I helped someone less fortunate?

9. Have I collected some wonderful memories?

10. Have I felt grateful for the incredible gift of being alive?

Related articles

• 10 Questions to ask oneself each day (weidivv.wordpress.com)
• Questions That Bring Success (hrhead.wordpress.com)
• 10 questions to ask everyday (interconnecta.wordpress.com)

Thanks, Uncle Goofy!

She’s going to visit her special someone the weekend before that random Tuesday in February. So we discussed Valentine’s day (and gay marriage and abortion and religion!).

I like the ones that are just a tiny bit more subtle than "bee mine"

She seemed like she was starting to apologize, “but Valentine’s Day is arbitrary” or something deep and intellectual, when I blurted:

“I love Valentine’s Day.” She laughed, wasn’t sure if I was joking, perhaps hoping I was. But the secret was out, so I continued. “I love red, pink and white. I love hearts. I love heart-shaped everything. The candy is the best. Seeing an aisle of red in grocery stores makes me happy.”

She laughed. “It’s so comforting to be around someone who isn’t ashamed to like this day.”

It definitely sucks that guys are forced to buy some stupid thing and that there’s some bar that inevitably will leave some guys sleeping on the couch because he didn’t get the not-so-subtle hints in the days/weeks leading up to the day, and some girl ends up sulking when, hey, honestly, this is the one night a year (a year!) that is supposed to be a simple equation of buy flowers/get laid.

get it? GET IT?

Interesting side note: my birthday is precisely nine months after Valentine’s Day, give or take a few days. And you know what? I’ll never (EVER) ask, but I bet it’s not coincidence. It’s fun to remind other November birthdays of that fact, too, just to see them squirm. {Dad, thank goodness, hasn’t figured out how to leave a comment yet.}

ANYWAY, I just love it. Growing up, Mom always made sure that us girls got presents on Valentine’s Day. As a  kid, it was exciting! and fun! and chocolate before school! but by the time I turned 13, I realized how special it was. Let’s just say I was a late bloomer, so throughout the “painful years” my mom was my only Valentine. To this day, she goes out of her way to let us know that she loves us. One year, we were informed that we’d gotten a cookie basket. Sure, we had to drive 10 miles to go get it, but it was an adventure that netted us both some heart-shaped cookies that said “I love you” on them. The next year, Mom bought us matching panini presses (or was that Easter?).

So that’s my confession. Valentine’s day is one of my most favorite holidays. Especially now that I’m a grown up and I work in a small office mostly filled with dudes, which means that there aren’t competing giant! bouquets! of flowers!

corny, from 1920

Let’s go back to elementary school, when the idea was egalitarian: show everyone in class how much you love them. Pick out the valentines that said something a little more special for that crush sitting across the room. Agonize over this decision. Realize that there are three or four of the special valentines, and no, that creep with the boogers doesn’t have one yet either, and panic. Somehow, in your ten-year-old head, understand that your crush won’t understand the significance, but the booger boy will. Stay oblivious to this life lesson for another decade or two.

And let’s just say that this is the day to love more. Thanksgiving episode two. There’s a lot of love in this world. Let’s be a part of it!

As for my friend and me, we agreed that it was a fun excuse to wear pink, or red, or white, unapologetically.

For those of you interested, I like the heart-shaped Sprees and the red and white Nerds best of all. Oh, and salted caramels. O’Malley’s Handmade Confections can’t be beat!

Related articles

• Funny Valentine’s Day Quotes and Sayings (livelaugh2love.wordpress.com)
• Less than one month until Valentine’s Day…let the planning begin! (ctworkingmoms.com)
• Altered Valentine Candy Box with Mod Podge and Chipboard Letters (cathiefilian.blogspot.com)

• To my sister: the materials to make her very first sewing project (thanks, Pinterest!), the advent calendar, and this quarterly surprise present thing
• To my dad: a painted canvas that says “happy when skies are gray” which is a line from one of the songs he used to sing me, every night
• To my boyfriend: a “perfect Portland day” which ended up being a bunch of gift certificates to fun places in Portland. The idea is that we’ll go to brunch at Tasty n’ Sons, then ride the tram up the hill, then go to Powell’s books, then to Pok Pok for dinner and then the Doug Fir for dessert, drinks, and hipster watching.
• To my family and friends: way-too-salty salted caramels (my bad!), magnets and coasters. This was the fourth year of “Kathleen’s homemade Christmas” and I still love it. Every year, caramels will be included, but the other stuff is much more open for discussion, thought, contemplation, etc.

This was also the first year of the Kathleen Christmas letter, which I got a bit of feedback from, and none of it was negative, so I’ll continue that.

• I like the idea of sending non-perishables, because it significantly decreases the stress level of mailing things out. Caramels don’t go bad (especially when they’re essentially a salt lick), magnets are cute, and coasters were fun. Next year, I’ll still send Priority boxes, so if anyone has a particularly amazing idea, please let me know!

Related articles

• Christmas Gift Ideas made by you (tulsage.wordpress.com)
• Gift: DIY Tile Coasters with Tutorial (justclassics.wordpress.com)

More subtle.