This blog is getting a makeover! And we went to the circus!

Hello everyone,

I haven't been posting as frequently lately because I'm having a professional blog designer revamp the site to be more organized and beautiful! So all the time I would usually spend blogging has been spent gathering up inspiration for the new blog design.

Redesigning our blog is Shaina Longstreet, the owner of this lovely blogsite:

http://www.shadylaneblog.com/

Check her site out - I can't wait til this blog is as organized, readable and cute as that!




On a different topic, we went to Circus Vargas on Monday night when they were performing at the Roseville Galleria. 

The circus tent of course

Arabella got her face painted as a tiger.

It was awesome! Arabella's favorite parts were the trapeze and the clown, mine was the chick who could spin about 20 hula hoops at once and move them up and down her body (I still haven't mastered spinning one).  Things that really freaked Arabella out:  The motorcycles in the cage - as you all know, she hates loud noises.  The surprising thing that freaked her out but I thought was super cool was the guy balancing all sorts of huge items on his chin (a bike, a ladder, etc.).  




Circus Vargas moved down to Cal Expo today and I think they are there for about 4 more days before going to Tracy.  Local Roseville mom blogger Eileen at Uncovering Bliss has a 4-pack of tickets to give away - follow this link to her blog if you want to enter:

 http://uncoveringbliss.com/2012/08/circus-vargas/

She also took amazing photos of the performances so you can see all of the acts that are a lot of fun to thumb through.

Ciao for now! 

My new Wisemarkit shop!

(Not my shop, but here is a photo of two random Wisemarkit shops that I found on Google Images to illustrate)

OK, I know what you are thinking - what is Wisemarkit?  Well, it's kind of like Pinterest, but you can only pin 10 things in the "showroom" of your store. And if someone clicks through your pin to buy the item you get a commission. Right now, to start a "store" you have to have an invite - I had requested an invite over 2 months ago when I first read about Wisemarkit on FastCompany, but anyone can go in and look around at other people's stores and buy from them.  It's really hard to explain - I recommend just going to the site (www.wisemarkit.com) to check it out. To go directly to my shop:

 https://wisemarkit.com/street/gretchen-etzold/163

They limit the name of the store to 16 characters - right now my store name is Arabella's Likes which I really Don't Like.  If you can think of something catchier that would make you stop and say "Hmm. This looks like the perfect shop to go in to buy a present for that 3-8 year old girl child I need a birthday present for" please let me know in the comments! Since I was limited to 10 items, I decided to just go with things that Arabella really likes that would be good presents (except I also pinned 2 parenting books that I really love). 

Please stop by my store and let me know what you think of it, the Wisemarkit site in general, questions about how Wisemarkit works (90% sure I won't know the correct answer but I will try).   As always, I live to read your comments!

More MishMash

Since my adorable little content provider is still asleep, I thought I would do another mishmash post. That way I can surf the internet at random but feel that I am actually doing something productive. (Note I said   FEEL productive, to actually BE productive I could start now on the backlog of appraisals that need to be in before tomorrow morning).

Anyway, if you like Steampunk stuff I found the 3 photos below from the following link - there's over 20 different fully functional items showcased on the site; I just posted the photos of my 3 favorites.

http://oculoid.com/bizarre-stylish-steampunk-creations/

Ipod case.

Love the look of these goggles - Arabella could rock them.

A real functioning computer. 

2. Ok, normally you know I am 1001% about parents respecting their kids and their personal space, autonomy, blah, blah, blah, but this was so well executed I can't help but love it.

http://www.slightlywarped.com/crapfactory/curiosities/2011/august/stay_out_of_my_room.htm

The setup

Photo 1 of many of what then went on in the room.

(Don't be offput by the words crapfactory and slightly warped in the link - there is nothing gross at all in the linked post and I give it a G rating (but I take no responsibility for any other posts you make click on from that site))

Another MishMash Post

1. OK, hopefully the large cute picture of Arabella made you stop and look!  There's no Arabella in this post specifically, but I thought I would use her to reel you in to read this. 


Anyway, the inspirational blogging topic and composition fairy did not visit today, here's another mishmash post of things I found interesting today.


Found this page on Stumbleupon that has THE strategy for solving a Rubik's cube. Now I need to figure out where I can get my hands on one because I want to try this. (This will be much more emotionally satisfying than my previous method of removing the stickers and replacing them)  Does anyone know if toy stores or Target still sells Rubiks Cubes?


http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2NoQOR/:1wP24fii-:TePgo@c_/www.chessandpoker.com/rubiks-cube-solution.html/




2. Something else I have been working on (you know, besides the actual work that pays the mortgage) is Zulily's Pinterest Kid's Fall Essentials Challenge - they are giving away a $100 credit for the winning board.  If you have kids of your own or any kids that you ever shop for in any capacity you should join Zulily (zulily.com) - it's a flash sale site for kids' clothes and toys (plus often has clothes and accessories for home and moms).  If you want to set up your own board for the contest, the link to the rules is http://www.zulily.com/pinables-campaign . If you just want to ooh and ahh over the board I made for Arabella to try to win and comment how great you think it is, it's at 


http://pinterest.com/arabellajane/kids-fall-essentials/


If you decide to make your own boards for the contest, please let me know so I can make sure to check them out!


3. I went to the Los Cerritos Neighborhood Association meeting and it was way more interesting and eventful than I expected, although I don't necessarily want to blog about it!  But I am very excited that there is a plan for a community garden once a good site can be found.  Also, I signed up for a block in our neighborhood to distribute newsletters to, so Arabella and I will get to be mail carriers for a day - she is already super excited about it.  


4.  



Reminder for anyone that lives in Roseville (or just wants to drive out for this) - the next Movie in the Park is "Bee Movie" on Saturday August 11th at:


Fred Festersen Park
2150 Village Green Drive
Roseville, CA 95747


RCONA, the Roseville Coalition of Neighborhoods sponsors these movies in the park that run every other week in the summer time - go to www.rcona.org for a full schedule.


We are super excited about this one since they flashed the posters for the upcoming movies at the first movie 2 months ago - Arabella saw the Bee Movie one and got completely stuck on it.  Every day, she told us she wanted to see the Bee Movie, and when we went to see Brave she told us she wanted to see The Bee Movie so now that it is finally upon us, I hope that it lives up to her expectations.  (I still have never seen Bee Movie either even though it's over 10 years old) 

Hope we see you there!

What you should read today - A Mishmash post

First of all, what you should not read:


-The front page of ANY major newssite, as they will spoil your gymnastics viewing for tonight with an unavoidable spoiler photo and headline.




What you should read instead:


1. My shout out to Sue Wong! Thank you so much for the encouragement - it's cool to know that I'm reaching friends of family and friends!




2. http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/from-riches-to-rags-in/content?oid=6951274




I happened upon this article when I picked up the SN&R (Sacramento News and Review) at Campelli's Pizza yesterday -this is an awesome article by Corbyn Hightower, who is a local Roseville resident that has also been published in Huffington Post and the NY Times Motherlode Blog.  Until I saw this article, I had no idea she lived in Roseville.

I love her description of our Old Town/Downtown Roseville neighborhood. Read it!






3. http://envisioningtech.com/envisioningtech.pdf - This is a cool infographic I found on Fast Company predicting when we will actually get different technologies (organ printing in 2015?)  Plus it's very pretty - if you click the link you will get a much larger view that is actually readable.

That is all I got for now.

Campelli's Pizza

We went to Campelli's Pizza today for lunch. In the interest of full disclosure, I hadn't had time to eat breakfast and was ravenously hungry by the time we sat down there, so my opinion of the pizza may have been slightly elevated about normal due to that.  The pepperoni pizza was great - it was thicker crust (and I'm usually a thin crust girl) but it was worth the carbs with a perfectly chewy texture finished with a crisp bottom.  


One cool thing for people with kids - they have a shelf full of kids' games like Candyland available for customers.

Sorry for the glare. Good to know for local Rosevillians - anytime you order over $50 worth
they will donate 20% back to your choice.

Good idea - Gargoyles to guard the pizza

Pizza makes everything better - even the Mona Lisa

Our pesto crispers appetizer

The pepperoni pizza

Successful pizza transport

Our adorable pizza server

Campelli's is at 7480 Foothills Blvd Roseville, CA 94747.  

Blogger's Block

This photo of Arabella climbing has nothing to do with this post but I like it.

I haven't posted for a week and now I am having major blogger's block.  My goal for this month is a  post (or more) a day in August.  So I'm just going to treat this like my own personal journal for right now. We are going to our first Los Cerritos Neighborhood Association meeting tomorrow at the Fairgrounds. I know a Neighborhood Association meeting is a weird thing to be excited about, but I'm psyched!  With luck, it will be as eventful as a Star's Hollow Town Meeting run by Miss Patty and Taylor - ok, I'm about 99.5% sure it won't be, but I still can't wait to meet my neighbors (yes, I've lived in this house for 4.5 years and I only know our immediate neighbors on our block - no I don't have a good excuse why).  So I'm glad that the go-getters out there have fired the Neighborhood Association back up and hope they inspire other slackers like me to show up.