We started the morning opening presents. He got an Xbox game and a DS game. He had lost his hand me down old-school DS last month, and so I told him that I'd forgotten he lost it and he'd just have to look for it. He was so gracious and thanked us anyway. He was soooo happy when he opened the last package and it was a brand new DS Lite.

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Then we went to the Mariner's/Red Sox game. We had dinner at the swanky restaurant where you can over look the field and watch the warm up.

Dorky partial family photo:
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The HUGE piece of cake they gave Nathan for his birthday. It was bigger than his head, and even though we all ate a chunk, half was left when we were done:
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His name in lights!
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With Aunt Karen (one of our closest friends, she's known Rick since they were 12). In this picture he had put a 3 dollar price tag on her and was shouting "Get you fresh hot Karen, only 3 dollars!!":
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With his giant foam finger that Aunt Karen bought him:
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With Rick's mom and Gizzly Adams... Oh I mean her husband, Grandpa John:
[IMG]http://i37.tinypic.com/2yuk6m8.jpg[/IMG]

It was an awesome, fun day! Thanks for looking!

Look what I got!

Isn't it the coolest? I want a tattoo very similar to this, but don't know where to put it. So I had incredibly talented Etsy seller MorganAnne make me a necklace. It's perfect for a commitment-phobe like me. Check out her shop!

A little bit of spring in February

Check out my newest Treasury (west): http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=2337

And make sure to visit the shops of all of those wonderful and talented sellers!

I deserve pie!

You do deserve pie! What a nice setiment. You should get it put on a shirt. Wait! It's already on a shirt!

You should buy one!

Thanks to Etsian tealtown for making me smile!

Oops I Did it Again!

I made a typo in the treasury title I created today. How embarrassing!

Anyway, I saw the cool ribbon barrettes and it made me wonder what else I could find that was inspired by the 80's. Etsy never fails to disappoint and I found everything from "Jem and the Holograms" necklaces to Care Bears pillowcase dresses. I picked my favorite (and the best photographed) to be featured in this treasury. Go check it out!

How cute is this?

I hope to feature shops/items that I think are swell as often as possible. I came across this adorable sock baby from chickabiddybaby and just had to show it to you all!

Click me to see the cute baby sock doll that Nate and Cate is currently obsessed with.

Show some Etsy love and blog about an item that *you* think is super cool!

Blogger is being difficult at the moment and won't let me add a picture, but trust me, it's freakin' cute. Go check it out. Go. Now. Do it!

Who are the People in your Neighborhood?

Okay, so it's a Treasury West which is like Treasury's fat cousin, but that's okay :)
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=1672

I decided to give some of the other rad Seattle Etsians out there a little love.

Seattle really is teeming with artistic talent. You can see it in every boutique, restaurant, farmer's market and public building around here. I find it really inspirational to be surrounded by so much creative energy everyday. Nothing is more encouraging than being surrounded by people who are constantly creating. It's really amazing, and I feel really lucky.

Here's a list of the artists I featured (and the alternates!) please visit their shops!

fibermama
babyhoot
imakecutestuff
boringsidney
scarywhitegirl
dancingmonkeyjewelry
lifeonthefrontporch
rekoj
troygua
glitzconcepts
moxieandoliver
laurabee
irenemachine
JennMaruskaDesign
jessitaylor

You like me, you really like me!

Thanks so much to Etsian nek2c for including my "Be Mine" tutu on her lovely Treasury! It can be seen here:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=28536

Please check out her shop at: nek2c.etsy.com

She makes little tiny sculpted babies, they are adorable!

"Metrics"

This tutu is 16.7% Orange

When did we start calling statistics "Metrics"? Was it the same time we started "thinking outside the box" or "shifting paradigms"? Was it when we started "pinging" people or "leveraging" our "deliverables".

I started making a good old fashioned paper chart of my some of my sales numbers and Rick asked what I was doing. I replied "Charting metrics". Hmmmm. It seems moving from the corporate world to the world of the handmade cottage industry hasn't been as seamless as I thought.

Oh, Rick wanted me to mention that statistics are not the same as metrics. He has some grand theory about it, but I don't know. Anyone care to comment?

Can you tell I'm new at this?

Duh...my shop is NateandCate.Etsy.com

Here we go!

So I make tutus. I started making tutus because I wanted Kitty, my February '07 baby, to have something special to wear for her first birthday. I started looking online and in all of the local shops here in my neighborhood, and I found tutus everywhere. Most of them were either flimsy, or single color, or waaaaay over-priced. I knew I could do better, and so I set out to make her the perfect tutu. The result can be seen on the left. I was so pleased with it that I thought that other moms and dads (and aunts, uncles, and friends) might like customizable, affordable tutus for the little girls in their lives. And Nate and Cate Designs was born!

I'm pretty new at this, and I thought I'd start this blog to keep everyone up to date on the shop, and to document how this whole "Hey, let's open a business!" thing is working out for me!