Vacation in PA!

I vacationed.

This is worthy of capital letters, but I'll make do with it prominently displayed at the top of the page in bold. I can certainly say that this is the first time that I've vacationed where the main point was to relax and do what I wanted. Who knew that that's what people normally do on vacations? 

I'm a part of a Christian team on Etsy (aka CAST) and I went to visit some friends from that team. Bear in mind that I have not only been on this team since 2009, but a couple years ago I met two of the team members I would be hanging with. 

I'd gone through a break-up six months previous, and as soon as that was "finalized" I started planning my trip to Pennsylvania. It had been so long since I'd done something solely for me. Not "for-me-because-someone-thinks-it's-what's-best" but just for me. My mom is like my bestie, and she lives with me (technically I live with her and dad but whatever), so she wanted in on the fun as soon as she heard. I was even more excited by that prospect! I went to work pretty fast looking at tickets, telling my entire team that I was going, contacting all the members in the area, and looking up places to stay. 

One of my castie friends, Sheila, had invited me numerous times to visit her. Over the years, since we'd both been on the team, we had exchanged many many emails and become close, so I was super excited about that prospect! She quickly offered to be our chauffeur and tour guide as well as opening her home up to us. She went grocery shopping with all the things that my mom and I liked in preparation-which was really sweet.

When the team found out I was going, three other members in the area offered places to stay or activities that they could take us to, while one-all the way in Indiana-decided she would drive ten hours to meet up with us! 

Meet Becky, Sheila, Angel (sleep-over at her house Sunday night), me on the end, and Kelly chillin' in our arms

Pennsylvania is a beautiful place, and for any lover of old barns (like me), it's the place to be. Our adventures included many visits to thrift stores, antique shops, specialty shops, sight and sound theatre with Becky, a smorgasbord (ham balls anyone), and a trip in the rain down a mountain and subsequent sleep-over at Angel's house.

Moses is the show we saw at Sight and Sound Theatre

Sheila, mom, and I in front of the fountain.

 Did you vacation this summer? If you did, I hope you had as much fun as I did! 

Cut! Cook! Decorate!

Did I promise you more shop highlights for Christmas? Well here we are; the best of the best. This week we are going to look at some shops with great little things for preparing your holiday meals and decorating your home for the hordes of people that will come traipsing in!

1. Berkshire bowls I was very impressed by this shop. I love wood, and the picture of the bowl with the wood shavings (go look) just drew me in. Also in this shop are some great little puzzles to keep people occupied between eating :-)

2. Show off designs. This shop has beautiful cutting boards as well as lovely shelves. I'm talking about real conversation pieces here...

4. Good Neighbor Candle Co. Admit it, you want your house to smell great just as much as anyone else. You're afraid that people will come in and smell that thing you burnt. I cannot express how amazing this woman's candle skills are. Every scent you have ever imagined! Go ahead, take a peek!


Elisabeth Arona

Meeting up with Etsy friends

Cinder the dog and I

This past week I went to Virginia and told all of my etsy/Christian Arist Street Team members that I was going to be in the DC area. Those who knew more about the area than me, knew that Bowie, Maryland was "right around the corner". Forty-five minutes isn't really that close, but in the greater scheme of things it is.

Fun Fact: D.C. is approximately 10 hours from where I live in GA. 


In actuality I was going to Virginia to visit a friend with a friend of mine (Tanee) from Thursday through Sunday. Everything was busy all the time, but I was only going to have free time on Saturday evening luckily.

I was so happy to hear that Angel of BamCraftyMommas would be close enough for me to see! The friend I rode to VA with wanted something fun to do and invited herself along and I needed a driver and agreed! After forty-five minutes of non-stop talking and a few mistaken exits, we made it to Angel's parent's house. I checked the mirror--yup, I still looked the same, then I called to say I'd arrived. I think I was too shy to go up to the door and knock.

Bammy/Angel came bounding out of the house and we did one of those slow motion running into each other's arms things...not really, but we did hug and squeal like we had known each other for a good 10 years (half of my lifetime.)

Let me use just a moment and insert that I actually did take a quick break to go look on youtube for an appropriate running into each other's arms video but couldn't find one...oh well.

I'd been at Angel's house and met her adorable daughters, as well as her parents, awesome husband, and other miscellaneous family members for about 2 hours maybe, when there was a knock at the door. She jumps up and goes "I'll get it!" I was like, "Wow, she must not have seen that family member for awhile!" She opened the door all dramatic and says "Well hello my special friend, it's so nice to see you!" I'm sitting calmly watching until I recognize my other etsy friend Sheila (of sewfaithful on etsy) that I email like at least several times a week...

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..........................................................................I would like to say that being the mature person I am, I stood gracefully and walked over and said hi. 

But I can't. 

I jumped up screaming and ran and almost squeezed the life out of her. Hey, I was living in the moment! Like a few teenagers, we took a picture and posted it to twitter right away (Click here to view).

Then we talked and talked and talked. There is nothing like meeting someone(s) you already have connected with online, and finding that they really are truly as special in person as they are in cyberspace.

Here is the first picture. I love it because we're all laughing and looking a lil crazy (check out my eyes lol)

Bammy's question: "Do I look like a dork?" Why yes you do, so do we all lol.

This picture is the best one of us all--we jokingly called these double oreo pics, but really it has to be one of those like sand-colored double oreos 

Left to right: Tanee, Sheila, Bammy/Angel, and me. 

And here I am again with Cinder the dog, who I joked loved me because someone else black was in the house and she felt less outta place:

Have you met up with a cyber friend? I would love to read about it. Post a comment with a link and I'll check it out.

Elisabeth Arona

The year in lessons

While this past year was rough in so many ways, I grew in so many more ways and learned a lot of grown-up lessons. Among these lessons were the following:
1. Big girls do cry sometimes. I cried a lot this year, this may have been one of the teariest years of my life lol. I went through a mini personal crisis which I explained in one of my posts as a reason that I stopped posting for awhile, and it turned out that it just helped me grow. I dealt with my mommy leaving me to be with my sister; I took over the house, and as a result I appreciate my mom so much more and realize that mothers that are like her are just plain awesome. Sadly, the year ended with me losing a friend of mine (and it wasn't a death,) so that was another bucket of tears. If God really does keep all the tears we cry, I suppose heaven is a swimming pool right now!
2. It's possible to "be the bigger person" almost all the time. I tried this, it wasn't easy, and I must say it's even quite painful a lot of the time. When you take the high road, you're sometimes alone :-/ As Anne of Green Gables said "If you only knew how many things I wanted to say and didn't."
3. You can accept yourself and still make everyone else happy-sorta. This year I've looked at myself and said "I need to lose weight" many times, but I think that's part of being a female. I've also said to myself "God made you, He made you with big hips, curly hair, and obvious skin problems and He said 'This is a good one!' and I can too!" In an attempt to make everyone happy I wore my hair curly all summer (to make myself happy,) and I'm planning to wear it all straight (mostly) for the winter for those who keep telling me to. I think that this year I heard more negative about my looks than ever, but I've also heard a lot positive--so I think everyone is just being more vocal in general.
4. Friends are blessings sent from above-just make sure they're friends. This year I made new friends. One of them was Taylor-my fellow crafty girl, and the one who introduced me to my latest love (sushi). I've also bonded with several bloggers (in a bloggy kinda way) and many of my fellow CAST team members on Etsy. I grew closer to some friends, and even rebuilt relationships with one or two. The most painful was letting go of someone close. You have to realize, I'm a collector (it's technically called input) and basically what this means is that for fear of needing something later, I instead keep it even if it's harming me (ex: taking up space, making me cry more than laugh, or generally being useless.) When you lose one of your "closest" friends, you feel vulnerable and like you can't trust yourself, but it's only for the best. When you are always needed, and you're never allowed to need, you know it's time to let go...
5. God is in control. I have struggled so much this year with letting go of control! Through it all God has been faithful. For those that aren't believers, this may seem ridiculous, but every time I felt things spiraling out of control I could reach out and embrace the knowledge that God was holding me up every time; I was stressing out thinking I was falling, but he was saying "I got ya baby girl!"

I am not ready  bracing for this coming year knowing that I have the tools I need to get through it successfully, and I hope you do too. In closing check out this cool blog...It was just what I needed, and it's way shorter than mine too :-) Just imagine! We were God's bright idea!

Happy YEAR People!

Elisabeth Arona