Who Knew- The Sand Trade

Well...... I learned something new this week.... Did you know it is against the law to ship 'dirt' which includes sand. :( I can't even begin to tell you how annoyed I am with this! I finally come up with a good idea, and I can't do it! It's something to do with the 'bacteria' that could be transported.

So.....I've been trying to come up with an alternate idea..... and .... well.... I'm just not thinking of anything good. And it's quite frustrating! I was excited about this trade- Dang it!

And then on top of that.... my outside cat came home the other day with what looks like a bite mark behind his ear. So he was coned and I've been cleaning out the wound 3 times a day.... And believe me when I saw he Hates being inside.... All he does is cry, cry, cry....... And of course the other cats want to check him out, and he doesn't want them anywhere near him- There's been lots of growing and hissing- noise as I call it.... Needless to say.... He's keeping me busy, and making me mental!

Oh.... and the washing machine died..... It almost deserves it own blog post. We bought it from East Coast Appliance- And I can honestly say that we will Never buy anything from them again. When we bought it, we also bought a 3 year warranty.... But Man do they give you the run around about that..... Took us a whole day of phone calls just to get someone out here to look at it. Then while the guy was here, he left the front door open, and a lot of the cats got out. Took the bf an hour to convince Otis he needed to come out from under the trailer. Our washer needed a part... and that was last Tuesday.... Today is Wednesday.... and if the bf hadn't of called them numerous times yesterday, I don't think we would of heard anything until the guy came back. The lady that the bf talked to yesterday.... said that the guy was off Wednesday and Thursday last week, so the part didn't get ordered until Friday. And they're still waiting on the part. Nice.... I worked in customer service for a long time, so I feel like I have the right to say there's sucks!!! When the bf first called, the lady he spoke with tried to walk him through trouble shooting the problem....and as he said.... why did we pay for a warranty if they expected us to fix it?! When it was delivered the guy told us, that if it broke down, don't touch it or it would void out warranty.... and that if we had any problems, to call them and they'd just bring us a new one.... Yeah Right!!! I'm 2 weeks deep into the laundry pile and it's not getting any smaller....... so yeah.... I'm stressed!

Well.... I'm off to see if I can't get at least one thing done around here........ If I don't choke the cat first...... *sigh*

Until Next Time....

The sand trade update...

If I read it right, there are 8 of us(including me)
*Plushpussycat
*Lataina- See Lataina, You need a blog for me to link back to.
*Jollie
*Ana
*Susanne
*Margriet
*Sans (she doesn't know shes particpating yet, lol.... but she sent me sand when I first asked, so she's included!!)
*and little ole Me:)

that want to particpate... So.. this is how this will go. If you email me, I will give you my address.... All sand needs to be in the mail by August 1... And I will have them ready to be shipped back out by September 1st. If everyone can send me about a half a cup of sand, I will divide it up, and rebag it, and that way all of us will have some sand from all over the world. I don't know about you.... But I'm excited:)

(If I'm missing anything... just ask, please! I want to make sure this works for everyone:)

See.... I have the beach on my mind.. All of these are listed in my Etsy shop...


Drew and I went back down to the beach again last night, we LIVE about 10 minutes away from it. I wanted more shells, and my son wanted to try out his new skateboard on the boardwalk. Poor kid.... Came home all kinds of banged up. We really got to work on his balance issues, lol.

These are the shells I was looking for... There's not a lot of them, and you really have to walk the beach to find them... I still need a few more, but I'll worry about that next time. Some of these are soooo tiny.


I also brought home these shells. These are easier to find, and are really pretty! And there's a few that are so tiny, you can barely see them. I do plan on sending a few of these out with my sand samples, too:)

I hope I've included everything you need to know.... My brain is a little duh today, and I feel like I'm forgetting something! Thanks again to everyone who left a comment:)

So Until Next Time....

The International Sand Trade

Awhile back.... I had talked about doing a sand trade. I'm not really sure how to go about doing it, so if anyone has any suggestions, I will glady listen:) But I would also like to know if anyone is interested??

At the end of summer, my family is going to be staying at a beach house in North Carolina, and I plan on getting sand from there, too.... So there is No rush here... And don't stress if your not near a beach and want to be a part of this... I'm sure there's something around you that you can collect a 'sample' from.... lake, river, dirt... a playground...

After I brought it up the first time..... Sans sent me some sand from a playground in Singapore... and some sand from the beach in Sir Lanka... I put them in a couple of bottles, and put some labels on them.... and I still have 2 whole bags of sand left:) My labels are starting to come off... so I need to figure out a better way to do that... But I still love them:) Thanks again Sans!!!

And then this past weekend, my parents came down and stayed at the ocean front... so while the kids were dipping their toes in the water (Why is it when you tell your kids the water is too cold to go swimming, they never believe you.... Until they get in the water, lol... Mine lasted 5 minutes, before they were back out, shivering mind you, asking if they could go swimming in the hotel pool instead..Duh!) .... I was bent over, searching for the tiniest shells I could find:) And this is what I did with them.... Each jar has some sand... and some tiny, tiny shells...

I still can't believe how freaking small some of the shells we found were, my youngest even found some:)

And.... I still have a whole bag of sand... and more shells:) I even found some odd pieces... a tiny green bear, the top to one of those safety pins that you use for cloth diapers... And my Dad found a Barbie:) The kids brought it back to me for parts:) LOL

oh... and Cora found a big rock.... Which I put in my purse.... Later in the day, I had asked my bf to hand me my purse, and he said... 'My god, what do you have in here, Bricks?' .....took me a minute to realize I still had the rock in there....lol

Do you see how tiny these shells are?! Perfect for miniatures!

So.... anyone interested in trading sand?? If a couple of people are... I will find a way for everyone to get sand from everyone that participates.

And while I'm talking about Virginia Beach.... I got an interesting email this morning:)

Do you remember the post about the murals.. the kind of mural I want on the side of the skateshop... Well, I got an email from one of the artists today. He just wanted to thank me for the post and sent me a link to his website where there are better pictures. I was so shocked that he emailed me:) His work is just amazing! If you get a chance, you should check it out:)

Well, I think I've included everything..... Except for plugging my Etsy store:) You will see some beachy themed things going up due to the fact that summer is almost here..... Hopefully this year, I can actually go the the beach and enjoy it!!

So..... Until Next Time.....