Rave - Behr & Sherwin Williams Paints

We have been busy working on our remodel here (which is why there has been no new posts) and the painting has started. Baby Girl's room is going to be a fairy theme. After going through hundreds and hundreds of paint chips we finally decided on the Walt Disney colors Atta Boy Blue and Pooh's Favorite Things in Behr paints. The paints had a very low odor and they went on so smooth.

Our hallway is going to be Monarch from Sherwin Williams. Martha Stewart use to have a line of colors at SW but they are no longer there. I love her colors. Our living room is painted Zest and Monarch. We have the first 2 coats up but we need about 4 more coats. That was the only thing wrong with the SW Martha Stewart paints. We needed 5-6 coats, but the end result is worth it.

Rave - A Muse Art Stamps

I discovered a new (at least to me) stamp store on Greenwood called A Muse. My sister-in-law who is a stamp-a-holic told me about it. I was in search of a pirate and penguin stamp. My sister-in-law who literally has thousands of stamps didn't have any pirate and the only penguin stamp she had was 'wintry' with a scarf.

So Baby Girl and I ventured down there and let me tell you this place is fabulous! The designs are simple but elegant and fun. I not only found a Pirate but a Pirate Ship and a Treasure Chest also. And I found a cute little baby penguin without any kind of winter garb.

Rave - American Made Artificial Christmas Trees

This is something I never even thought about, where is your Christmas Tree from? I'm talking the artificial kind. When I was a kid we always put up the same artificial Christmas Tree and I'm sure back then it was American Made. And now that I have a family of my own we also have a artificial Christmas Tree only ours is the aluminum kind. As I have bad allergies artificial trees are a must for me, not to mention I have a problem cutting down a perfectly good tree just for my enjoyment. To me when someone's says they are getting a live tree I correct them and say you are getting a dead or dying tree. Because in reality that is what it is. This year we will pull our aluminum tree out but probably next year we will be getting a real artificial tree. And I will be checking where those trees are made. As with this Christmas next year will also be a China Free Holiday.

If you are in need of a new Christmas Tree click on the Christmas Depot Banner to the right under the Buy American section.

Rave - Izilla Toys has "Not Made in China Dolls"

Run don't walk to Izilla Toys in Seattle. They have the Petitcollin baby dolls from France along with dolls for older children and they have Vinyl Dolls by Kathe Kruse from Germany.

Rave - More not made in China

Today I took a spin to Top Ten Toys here in Seattle. I wanted to see if I could find something for Baby Girl for Christmas. So far the only thing I had was my Vinyl Baby Doll made in France for her. Making your way around a toy store is not easy when one has a 16 month old in a stroller when all she wants to do is get out. After making my way around the store once I reluctantly let her out of the stroller.

While she was looking at the toy cars I was checking out the magnetic letters. She loves to play with the magnets on our fridge and I thought it might be a good stocking stuffer for her. But I could not find letter that were not made in China. But I did notice a display stand with magnetic play sets. They are called "Create a Scene" by Smethport and they are MADE IN USA. Some of the playsets they had were, Rainforest, Africian Adventure, Pirate Adventure, Doll House, Bugs & Farm. There were others but I can't remember them right now.



The ages are for 3+ but I thought since she likes our magnets so much as long as we play with it together it shouldn't be a problem.

Doing a quick search I found a few places that sell this toy.
Super Dairy Boy
Farm Goods For Kids


I also found another baby doll not made in China. It is the Diana Collection from The Doll Factory. Top Ten Toys had a white, black and asian baby doll. I did not get the chance to really look this doll over but from looking at their web site it looks like the babies are anatomically-correct. I called the number listed on their website and the woman told me that all of their anatomically-correct dolls are made in Spain. But before you buy check for yourself.

Rave - Dolls Made In America

Hold onto your hats, I found a vinyl doll manufacturer right here in the good old USA! The name is Apple Valley Doll Works! They sell doll kits that you put together. You pick out the head of your choice from 36 heads, 3 skin colors, 6 eye colors, 6 different body styles and 11 hair styles in various colors to make a 22" doll.

They also have a 12" elf kit on sale for 39.95.

Oh and if you clink on the Find a Dealer tab you can find a list of resellers of Apple Valley Dolls. There are other sizes of dolls but only the 22" and 12" elf are available directly from Apple Valley.

Rave - Baby Dolls

Well I received the vinyl dolls from Live and Learn and I must say they are fabulous! It seems there are other parents out there like me who do not want to take chances with toys for their children, because Live and Learn are sold out of the Petitcollin 10" Vinyl Baby Doll. I've been looking around for another website that carries this little beauty but so far I've only found European websites that are not in English. For those wanting to try to look for it themselves the name on the box is Ref. 622565 Leo 25cm " A La Creche".


The Corolle Vinyl Toddler Doll Ambre is adorable also and it seems Live and Learn are out of her too. But I did find her at a few other sites. But I would contact these sites BEFORE purchasing just to make sure the doll they have is made in Spain.


The Playful Penguin
Kazoo Toys
The Silly Wagon
Master Mind Toys

Rave - The first snow of the year.

So today is my 10 yr wedding anniversary and what better way to celebrate than with snow!

Rave - Vinyl Baby Dolls NOT MADE IN CHINA

I have been on the look out for a vinyl baby doll for my 15 month old. I was specifically looking for one with molded hair that we could change into pajamas at night time, we are trying to teach going to bed. Knowing she still puts things in her mouth I wanted a doll not made in China. Do you know how hard that is? It is just about impossible. I was ready to give up when I found this site. Live and Learn

They carry Petitcollin Dolls that are made in France. I ordered a very sweet 10" vinyl baby doll. They have a white and black baby doll. And the best part at under 28.00 it won't break your bank account.

I also ordered the Ambre Toddler Doll by Corolle Dolls made in Spain. This one I will wait till baby girl's 2 birthday or even Christmas of next year. It all depends on how she is with her dolls. But with this doll being made in Spain I had to snap it up before production of this little beauty is moved to China.

Rant - Wrong number

Within the past week we have gotten 3 phone calls at various times of the day. The latest one was tonight while we were out. Before listening to the message I checked the Caller ID and noticed it was 'them' again. The messages says it is a text to land line and then proceeds to forward the message in a computer voice. The messages are not fit for repeating here. Let me just say

Jessica Semore
405-501-0283

quit calling us!

Rave - Reindeer sightings

Dasher and Blitzen are visiting Swansons Nursery now till Dec 23rd when they need to get home to help Santa load his sleigh.




Technorati Profile

Rant - Unions

My husband belongs to a Union, not because he wants to but because he HAS to. At the end of 2008 the Union will be negotiating new contracts with the company. In the mail on Friday my husband received his latest newsletter from the Union with the headline 'Help Shape Your Contract'. There is a lovely photo of members who will be part of the negotiation committee and they are posing with a burn barrel. For those of you who do not know what a burn barrel is, it's a 55 gallon drum that holds firewood to keep people warm while they are striking.

So what kind of message is this sending the Union members and the Company.

Rant - Sony Imagestation is closing

Last year a cousin contacted me saying she wanted to put together a photobook for one of our Uncles who had recently lost his wife in a house fire. She wanted to gather photos from all of the relatives which is no small feat considering the size of our family. I immediately jumped on board to help her. We wanted the book to have photos off all of us, we also wanted to be able to work on it together. But the most important things were the number of photos and being able to have captions on all the photos. With 8 Uncles and wives, 4 Aunts and husbands, 29 Cousins & spouses and 40 1 Cousins once removed (Cousins kids) and the fact that many of us left New Jersey in the 70's so there are quite a few of us who have not seen each other since then. Not to mention 30 some odd years can change people we REALLY needed the ability to caption the photos.

So while my cousin put the call out for photos I started researching places to have our book made.

Snapfish was first. My cousin had set up a Group Room where we could all submit photos to use in the book. But when we went to create our book we found the layouts restricting and no capability of adding caption/text where ever we wanted. Plus you could not zoom in on a photo within the book making process.

Shutterfly while it has a number of layouts it again was restricting in allowing text where ever we wanted it. And you could not zoom in on the photos.

Since I am a Mac user I checked out the book making option in iLife but it too only had pre determined layouts with little or no captions.

Picaboo was next. While we were able to work on the book and send it to each other to review and comment, the pre determined layouts were very restricting and we could not put text where we wanted. After getting all the photos in that we wanted our book was priced at 117.00. Obviously this was too expensive.

My Publisher - You can zoom, flip, rotate and move the photo within the photo well but again you are limited to the layouts the company provides.

Sony Imagestation was a god send! Not only could we put photos where we wanted and what size we wanted but we could also put text where ever we wanted! We were actually able to get all the same photos we had in the Picaboo book PLUS many many others. Our book actually has 310 photos and 7 document images on 48 pages and cost us aprox 54.00 for the linen book. That is quite a difference in price compared to the one we did in Picaboo.

We had 1 to 2 pages for each Aunt or Uncle's family and pages for Communion, Wedding, Christmas, Halloween & Birthday photos.

Where the other companies are more concerned with layouts and background pages, Imagestation was more about the user having TOTAL control over the look and feel of their book.


sample of one of our Birthday photo pages


sample of a Wedding page


sample of a Family page



samples showing photos, images and text where WE wanted them

Since doing this book we lost a cousin to cancer so it is just that much more special to us. One of our other cousins was inspired by what we did that he has started scanning all his families photos.

We were hoping to do another book next year with updated photos of all of us, as some photos we had were very out of date. But with Imagestation closing we will have to wait longer till some other company offers the 'freestyle' format of putting things where you want them. If anyone knows if such a company exists please let me know.

Rant - Tying up 2 registers

Today I was at Aaron Brothers in Shoreline buying a photo album for my mother-in-law. Daddy was at work so I had baby girl with me. After deciding on the Kolo Catalina in mango, Baby Girl and I headed to the checkout. There was only 1 cashier and she was busy with a customer who had a number of things going on. Behind this woman was a man with a frame then me and someone behind me. After standing in line for a little while a second cashier came over to help out. She looked at me and said she could help me. I started to get in her line when the woman tying up the first register made a motion and said something about the guy standing behind her. I said to the man, "oh you are not together?" and gestured to him to go ahead. Now here I am with one album in my hand and my little girl in a stroller trying to keep her from making too much noise. So the man goes to the cashier and ties up that one along with the woman STILL at the first cashier.

My turn finally came and I bought my album while the man who was in front of me was standing off to the front of the registers. It turns out he WAS with the woman at the first register. How annoying!

Rave - The Pumpkin Gutter

A few days ago I told you about what great customer service I had when I ordered The Pumpkin Gutter. Well now I have to tell you I LOVE THE PUMPKIN GUTTER!! It worked wonderfully. Cleaning and scraping down the pumpkins took only a few minutes and saved our hands and time for carving our pumpkins. You NEVER have to touch the pumpkin guts, unless you want to save your seeds for roasting which we did. If you carve pumpkins for Halloween or Thanksgiving get one of these, you will not be disappointed!

Rave - Where are the pumpkins??

I wish I would have found this website earlier.
Pumpkin Patches and More
Not only do they list the States but they also have listings for
United Kingdom
Canada
Australia
New Zealand
South Africa

Rave - Great Customer Service Still Exists

On the pumpkin forum there was a post raving about The Pumpkin Gutter. Other members said it is the only way to clean out your pumpkins if you are carving more than two. Well with our annual Pumpkin Carving Party coming up this Saturday we thought this tool would be a great addition. But we didn't know if it would arrive on time. I called the phone number on the website and not only did an actual person answer the phone but it also was the inventors wife. She assured me that my Pumpkin Gutter would arrive in time for our party. And to top it off she stayed on the phone with me while I went through the paying process to make sure my order showed up on her end.

Well it arrived today and I can't wait to try it out. Friday we are carving our pumpkins so I'll be sure to let you all know how it works.

Rave - Halloween Stores

So this post is actually a week late. Last Friday the family had dinner at Taco Del Mar in Greenwood and after we decided to check out Spirit Halloween over by Northgate Mall. Usually by the time we make it to one of these stores it is completely picked over. Well how surprised were we when the store was packed with merchandise. We asked if it was busy and the employee said no, that it is really slow. He thought maybe people didn't know where they were. So if anyone is looking for Halloween costumes or decorations check them out.

Spirit Olympic Plaza
10722 5th Avenue Ne
Seattle, WA 98125

Rave - Pumpkins everywhere

I see Pumpkins! Pumpkins are everywhere! I have already collected 2 Jack-o-Lantern types, 3 sugar pie, 5 Wee-B-Little and 3 artificial pumpkins! Last year only my husband carved a pumpkin, with the baby being only 2 months I was too tired to do any. But this year I will be pulling out my patterns and pumpkin carving tools and making my own Jack-o-Lantern.

For a number of years I have been collecting Pumpkin Masters templates and have quite a few now, which comes in handy since we have a Pumpkin Carving Party for our friends with kids. Growing up with the mother I have we were not allowed to carve our pumpkins. My mother was and is a complete worry wart. You know don't play with knives, don't walk and eat at the same time, stay away from the stove it's hot. To this day I have a hard time cooking anything in the oven. Back to the pumpkins. Since my mom wouldn't let us carve them we painted our pumpkins instead.


Here I am with my sister and our masterpieces. Yes nothing says Halloween like a painted pumpkin!

I think that may be why I'm such a collector of pumpkin carving patterns now. You know depriving someone of something makes them want it more. Some may think it is a sickness but I've met many like me.

Here is a list of some favorite Halloween sites.

Jammin Pumpkins-Free & members only cut-out pumpkin pattern site
Zombie Pumpkins-Free & members only cut-out pumpkin patterns and forum
The Pumpkin Wizard-Free & members only shaded patterns and forum (if you are looking for a specific pattern the members on this forum will know if one exists. Many members create their own and share with other members)
Masterpiece Pumpkins-Sell their own patterns
SpookMaster Pumpkins-Free & members only patterns
Stoneykins-Free & members shaded patterns
Fantasy Pumpkins-Great ideas

Be sure to get yourself a pumpkin or two or three!

Rave - Fall has arrived

While I've been away from the blog Fall has arrived here in Seattle! This is my favorite time of the year. The leaves, colors, crispness of the air and days getting shorter!