Is it bad to drink during lunch?

I mean, really.

Rules of parenting: Tips on feeding children

Children are such angels, aren't they?  Yeah, mine are, too.  And they eat everything I make for them!  How do I do it?  By following these no-fail tips on what to feed your sweet angel:

1)  Basically if it has parsley or any other tiny green, black, brown or red specks in it you might as well throw it in the garbage.  Because no one is going to eat it.

2)  Any kind of soup or sauce had better match the color of your toddler's shirt.  Trust me on this.

3)  If it's got any kind of string, leaf or seed in it, it will end up on the floor.   So if you think they are eating it, take a look under your child's chair.  As my great-grandfather used to say, "Now you see it, now you don't."  Oh, you'll see it.

4)  Chicken nuggets are a food group unto themselves.  So are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  And pizza.  If your kid doesn't like any of these then you'd better take him/her to the doctor because there is something very wrong.*


5)  Even a 'little bit of cheese' is too much.  A 'little bit of...'  well anything is also too much.  The exceptions are butter, salt and sugar.  Kids love these spices so don't be afraid to use them.  They're on the food pyramid somewhere.

6)  Bread and butter is a great dinnertime option.  Mommy needs to feel like you ate something today, sweetheart.

7) Macaroni and cheese is best when it's the boxed kind.  Don't bother to make it from scratch, you will end up crying alone in your room. 

8)  Don't make anything from scratch.  Only use pre-made, frozen, boxed or canned foods.  In fact it's best if you just have to add water and microwave the damn thing so you can feel like you've cooked something.  Kids love preservatives and it will make them live longer.**

9)  Kids love to go to Grandma and Grandpa's for mealtime.  So feel free to indulge them that one request.  The grandparents love this and will probably feed your kid something healthy like an ice cream sundae.  Win-win!

10)  When all else fails put the kids to bed and drink a few glasses of wine.  That's mommy's best medicine.  Oh, you thought it was hugs?

*I am not a doctor but I like to google things on the internet so I can pretend I am.
**See?

The importance of good craftsmanship

That is a really boring title.  But hopefully what I have to say is not boring.

My mom came to visit last week and was wearing a cute necklace by a mass manufacturer.  "Oh this?  I've had it forever, I just never wore it before."

By the end of the 2 hour visit, the glass heart in the center had fallen out.  I offered to fix it for her (what good is it to be a jeweler if you can't fix your mama's jewelry?) but she said, "Oh this wasn't expensive, don't worry about fixing it if you don't have time."

 Garden marker by MonkeysAlwaysLook

WHAT?!  No matter how little something costs, you should be able to expect to wear it a few times without it coming apart.  But it started me thinking about hand crafted work vs. mass manufactured work.

Once I started my own business selling jewelry made with my own hands, I started to seek out a higher quality of merchandise for myself and my family.  Whether it was a coffee table or a new rug, I found that instead of going for cheap and not caring if something broke I felt much better buying handmade, hand crafted, heirloom quality items.  I know it's a tough economy, and things are tight over here in Metaliciousland, but I'm finding that I don't have to replace things when I go for high quality from the beginning.  It costs more right now, but when I still have it in 5 years it is actually saving me money because I don't have to replace it each year, or every 2 years. 

Our coffee table from a large manufacturer lasted 6 months before the leg started to wobble so badly we needed a new table ASAP.  So I paid 2x the amount of that coffee table for a hand crafted, USA made, beautiful solid wood coffee table. AND we were able to work directly with the artist to get the size we needed.  He was super nice, delivered it in person and it made me feel good to support another artist's business.  A year and a half later and it's still beautiful and solid even though my 2 boys and 2 cats give it a daily workout.  It still holds up my feet at the end of the day, no wobbles.  I have no doubt it will last for years.

This is in our entryway from RecycledBrooklyn.

 

So reason #1 to buy handmade, high quality items?  It saves you money.

Reason #2 to buy handmade, high quality items?  You're supporting a real, live person.  And his/her family.  Who will in turn support their local people, and their families.  And so on... 

And reason #3 for buying handmade, high quality items?  Customization.  You can have whatever your heart desires if you just ask.  You get real person, who gets back to you in real time, who takes pride in and loves what they do and it will show in how your item is made, how they communicate with you and the longevity and quality of the piece.

So before you go to your big-box retailer please consider buying handmade first.  It's good for all of us!

9-11

Every year, for 10 years, this date still makes me catch my breath.  I worked about 20 blocks from the Twin Towers, and lived close enough to where I worked that I could walk there in 5 minutes.  That morning I stood in the middle of Varick Street staring South taking pictures of the first burning tower, as the 2nd plane hit.  Our boss told us to come inside where it was safe, we had no idea what it all meant, or what it would come to mean.  The panic, the bewilderment, the terror, the heartache all unfolded as the whole world watched those beautiful icons and the almost 3,000 people trapped inside crumble before our eyes.  My city, my country, the whole world had changed in the blink of one sunny September morning.  The heartache is still palpable, the people are still gone, the war is still going.

I've never written down what happened that day, it's not necessary, I'm alive and that is more than enough.  I still cringe whenever I hear a low flying plane, but was a horrific day for everyone, whether you were here in the city or not.  Everyone remembers where they were, wherever they were, when the towers were hit.  My heart goes out to people who lost loved ones in the attack, almost 3,000 brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandfathers, grandmothers died that day.  That grief will never ease.

We all lost something that day, and I, for one remain shaken.  I can't forget that day, and I can't forget the sacrifices of all the people who fought that day and are fighting still to this day.  I am forever thankful to everyone who has given their life, and continues to put their life on the line for me, for my country, for my children's future.  And amid the devastation I have learned that resilience is the single best thing about being human.

Writer's Block

If I could make my blog in metal, I would.  It's not that I don't like to write.  Or that I don't have anything to say.  But writing isn't my best medium of expression.  I will sit and stare at the blank screen and it's as blank as my mind.  But put me in front of a bench and I'll make you an entire encyclopedia in metal.

Photography also makes my blog more interesting.  But then I have to photograph stuff and upload it and edit it and then upload it to my blog... are you bored yet?  Yeah, that makes two of us (hi mom!).  If you really want to see what I'm up to more regularly make sure you 'like' Metalicious on Facebook by clicking HERE.

I think it's been a little harder because I've been out of my studio for almost 2 weeks.  That's like putting a muzzle on me.  I was able to do some work today, but it was sllllloooooowwwww because I wasn't able to bring all my tools with me.  My flex shaft in particular, it's like my right arm.

So I have 3 more weeks of working without my flex.  Oh and having my boys around all. the. time. kinda gets in the way of any work time, too.  But honestly I'm treasuring having them around, it's summer, we're chillaxin' and swimmin' and travelin' and it's a blast.  I'm so happy to have this time with them and my mom (who has been kind enough to allow me to take over her dining room and turn it into my temporary studio).  I feel like the luckiest gal, sans flex shaft.

Talk to me in 3 weeks.  We'll see how hunky-dory I'm feeling after 24-7-nonstop-mommy-all-the-time-barely-makin-jooray.  I'm sure my own mother will hate me by then.


Well, that's all my

What rhymes with bathroom?

I am a terrible person.  As I write this I'm eating only the red and purple Spree candies out of the tube. I pity the person who eats yellow after orange after green after orange in the hopes of finding just one red or purple one.  I don't play that way.  I pick the ones I want and I eat them, the rest go in the garbage if I can't pawn them off on my husband or son.

The topic for today is: bathroom renovation.  We live in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment in New York City.  That's right, I said ONE BATHROOM.  And guess what?  It doesn't have a tub.  Surprise!  The guy who lived here before us was in a wheelchair and had the tub removed, the sink lowered (with no storage underneath) and a neat wooden seat installed into a gigantic, 2-headed, roll-in shower.  Now I could think of about a hundred swingers who would love that kind of shower.  But I live with a 6 yr old and a 1 1/2 year old and the only swinging they do is from the monkey bars at the playground.  Did I just use dirty euphemisms regarding my children?  As I already said in my opening paragraph, I'm a terrible person.  But that's not the point.  My point is WE DON'T HAVE A TUB and what kind of parent deprives their child of that fairytale childhood event:  bath time!?  *pops purple Spree into mouth*  You betcha.

Up until now we've had the largest of the small kiddie tubs to bathe our older child in.  The first 3 years that was perfect, but now my 6 yr old's legs and head hang over the sides if he tries to 'float,' god bless him.  And we're using one of those tiny baby tubs for Chubbles (have I mentioned the size of his haunches) and the situation is at maximum capacity.

So it's time to renovate and put in a tub.  I have had to find alternate places to live for me and the little boys for the entire month of July.  I could bore you with the details of life at my mother's house in New Jersey, or I could lie and tell you we're spending the entire month in a beachfront hut in Tahiti.  You decide what you want to hear and go with it.

I'm heading out tomorrow after Asher's last day of Kindergarten (which I'm completely sublimating else I start welling up with mommy tears and apron string nonsense).  *sigh*  And I'm going to try to make it work, running my shop from an alternate location (and hopefully poolside).  Hope you like Hawaiian Punch with your Modern Rock studs, baby.

I'll be back in the Big Apple in August, hopefully with a lovely 6ft soaking tub to come home to.  Happy Summer, people!

I am love

Lately I have been SO into hearts.  Sterling hearts, pink gold hearts, tiny yellow gold hearts.  I think it has to do with the fact that my baby is already a year and a half old.  Not a baby anymore but a toddler.  I love my kids so much and my husband and I realize how lucky I am that they are in my life.

A few years ago I lost 2 babies at the end of my first trimester.  And it put me into such a depresson.  I carved this necklace as a way to heal from the miscarriages and I now smile whenever I wear it.

So now that I have 2 kids, and having gone through so much to have them I am thankful.  Just plain thankful.  And full of love for them.  So I went to work at my bench carving some hearts.  The first one started out like this just really simple and modern and soft:

It's also available with a customized hand stamped message like this one:

But then I wanted something smaller so I started carving again, here are some of the pictures of the process:

It's hard to keep it even, and can you see how tiny it is?  It kept flying out of my fingers as I carved it, but I finally finished it up and made this sweet 10k pink gold bracelet with it:

But then I wanted something in the middle.  I had one large and one small.  I needed a medium.  I know, I know, I'm never satisfied!!!  But it was all worth it because I made this personalized hand stamped necklace for all the moms out there.  I'll list it in my shop soon, I promise!

Until the next time, remember to love one another!