Ever Shopped Till Your Shoes Dropped?

pic courtesy of insidesocial.com

Oh yes I did…shopped till my shoes dropped.  Actually, the shoes literally came apart at the stitching; one of my favorite pair of Clarks, too.  That’s a lot of shopping!

What brought this on?  I recently met up with a friend who knows how to shop!  Who, you ask?  Why, my Twitter, blogging buddy, and the best jewelry designer ever… Sueanne Shirzay!

I have wanted to meet this delightful lady in person for the longest time.  Recently, our schedules allowed us to get together for brunching, gabbing, and some Christmas shopping.  We truly were shopping for others…it wasn’t our fault those items for us jumped into shopping bags and followed us to the car.

There aren’t very many people I would drive several hours through a monsoon for.  And, while I rarely do promos on my blog, I’m making an exception here to showcase my friend.  I highly recommend her jewelry and have bought a few pieces myself, have a jewelry box designated just for Sueanne Shirzay pieces. Really.  With Christmas coming up soon, what fashionista doesn’t want jewelry?? This year don’t deck the halls, deck out your special lady in a design by Sueanne.

Here…see for yourself!  Oh, Sue?  mwah!!!

Residing on the south shore of Long Island for the past 23 years, Sueanne Shirzay’s love for color and jewelry led her to found  Sueanne Shirzay Jewelry, an artisan company in 2008. In July of 2011, Sueanne introduced What We Did 4 Love, an artisan boutique benefitting the National Domestic Violence Hotline. 10% of each purchase goes to the hotline and features jewelry, soap, bags, and art. Sueanne serves on the board of Social Media Club Long Island, is a contributor for Herald de Paris and writes three blogs. Killer Social, Does This Look Good On Me? and Yeah, that’s Random. Her business facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sueanne-Shirzay-Artisan-Jewelry/85742938299 and her Google Plus Business page is https://plus.google.com/113882616122483863897/posts . Sueanne is also a Social Media Consultant with her company, Killer Social. http://killersocial.com

Let’s see…earrings, necklace, bracelet…what to choose, what to choose…sigh…

What Would We Do Without Friends?

Once again I have been given a lovely award by our buddy Delaney and I’m just blown away by the friendship and kindness I have found while being a blogger. I started this blogging journey when I retired (okay truthfully I just quit that crappy job) and I was searching for an outlet for my love of writing silly stuff, my often bizarre take on the world and my sarcastic opinions in general.  I never imagined I would make so many wonderful friends and have such a blast doing this.  Now, if only I was paid for having this much fun  (hmmm, note to Linda:  work on that).

So today I’ll keep it brief and follow Delaney’s instructions to pass this along – I’m picking three of my buddies (thanks Delaney for leaving me a few) (isn’t it cool how so many of us are all on each others’ blogrolls?  I love it)  Then there’s Twitter, but I digress.

So I present this friendship award to:

Chris at Listen 2 Auntie who also has another blog Dog Girl which you also need to check out.

Janie at Midlife Slices

And last but not least Smart Mouth Broad – she plays a mean game of SmartA$$ on Twitter!

Congrats ladies – and thanks to all of you for being my friends.  And Delaney – thanks for the shoutout to my new blog Crap on a Crutch – it’s alot of fun.

The Ick Factor

Just when I think I’ve seen it all, along comes someone who messes with my particular life paradigm.  Yesterday evening my model of friendship was sorely tested and at a bible study, no less.

Let me back up.  A few weeks ago a friend from church, a good friend, joined Devoted Spouse, trusty canine companion, and me for a bit of birdwatching and a bite of breakfast on the deck.  I had made a delightful albeit fattening breakfast casserole (courtesy of my bff Paula Deen).  The recipe made much more than any of us could possibly consume; even EmmaLou the Golden Destroyer had her fill with one tiny doggie serving.  I divvied up the remaining casserole into two Tupperware-like containers (okay they’re Rubbermaid); one for my friend and one to remain here. 

Last night my friend joined me at the bible class we’ve both been attending for the past 3 weeks.  In her hand was my pseudo-Tupperware container.  Now, I don’t usually expect folks to return containers to me; that’s why I use el cheapo Rubbermaid.  I thought it was a nice gesture of our friendship that she brought this container back.  There was only one slight problem.

I looked down at the container she had placed in my hand and while it was indeed my container, there was something horribly wrong.  Attached to the side of this container —   I’m not making this up — was a previously-chewed piece of gum.  In abject horror, I looked up at my friend and said something extremely witty and obviously Bible-driven like “What the hell is this?”  I think I punctuated my question with an appropriate sound such as “Ewwww.”  My friend replied, “It’s okay, that’s just my gum.”  Whereupon I countered with, “Just your gum?? Just your gum??”  So I scraped off the gum with my perfectly-manicured and paid-for nail and handed the gum to my friend in case she wished to keep it for future reference. 

Now, I love this lady dearly.  We’ve been friends for some time and we’ve just recently started doing things together.  But, I have questions.  And, I’m afraid of the answers.  Questions such as:  If you store your used gum on Tupperware containers, where do you keep other important items when you finish with them like your dental floss, or perhaps a Q-tip or two?  I’m just a tad concerned here.

I can tell you with certainty; I’ll be sending food home with her in aluminum foil from now on.