Hey - POD'ers...Add Your Blog

This is for all of my Print-On-Demand friends. I created an aggregator for any blogs that have to do with the Print On Demand business at blog aggregators by FeedCluster.com. Just another way to get all of our blogs in one place, and hopefully up our traffic count. So, here's the address of what I created: podshirts.feedcluster.com. It's easy peasy to add your blog. Just click that link and on the right you'll see an option to add your blog (of course, you'll need to start an account). Once there are a few members, I'll add a widget on this blog that shows posts from members. There's also a badge you can put on your blog, too!

If you have other blogs, it was super easy to set this aggregator up. Let me know if you start one realted to a different topic, and I'll post it here!

Weekend Re-Cap

We had a fun weekend. Well, on the surface, anyway. It's hard to balance all the balls I have up in the air. Restaurant, kids, t-shirts, affiliate marketing, making the house look like it's not a pig sty. This weekend, we did a lot of stuff with the kids.

Saturday we went to breakfast with the Easter Bunny and an egg hunt. The girls had a great time. They had pancakes (their favorite), got to see their two cousins, and completely made out at the egg hunt. They each found three tickets, which entitled them to prizes. Chloe got a big and two small prizes, and Becca got 2 mediums and a small. The prizes were stuffed animals. My kids LOVE stuffed animals. There is a strange addiction there that I have yet to break. They were also very nice to their cousins. When I suggested that they each give one stuffed animal to their cousins (because they didn't get any tickets) they didn't even flinch. I was a proud mama. They were truly happy to make their cousins happy.

Then it happened.

We left the egg hunt and headed to the restaurant. We sat in a ton of traffic because of the inbound Parkway West closure this weekend. Becca started. "I'm jealous because Chloe got a bigger bunny than me!" Blah, blah, blah. Seems that every time we do something fun, the crabbies come out right after. We made it home, she complained some more, and eventually ended up on time out (I think it was for hitting her sister).

So, we wake up on Sunday and it's our day to go to the circus. The girls were excited. We all get ready and head down to the arena. They had fun watching Tony squirm as he saw the clowns outside mingling with the crowd. As we walked in and started going up the ramp to our seats, there was a vendor selling light up toys. Tony and I gave each other the "should we get these" look, and we bought one for each kid. The vendor says "twenty four." Twenty four? Dollars!?! I clutched my heart as Tony dished out the cash. We went in, found our seats, and walked around on the floor for a bit. They were offering elephant rides, pony rides and a big bouncy-slide thing. I entertained the thought of buying them tickets. I walked over to the ticket table and found it was SEVEN DOLLARS A TICKET! Pony ride for seven bucks? I don't think so. Big bouncy slide (the same one they have at many local festivals for $1 per ride)? No. I may have parted with fourteen bucks for the elephant ride, but the line was enormous. We bought a 'family pack' of tickets, which included a drink and hot dog for each person. We went and got our food (and those tickets were worth it, BTW), stopped by the cotton candy booth, plunked down 8 bucks for cotton candy, and headed to our seats.

The girls enjoyed the show. It seemed to drag a bit, but I'm glad we went. We bought more food. Pretzel, pop corn, peanuts and fries. As I emptied my wallet of cash, I was at least happy that we were all together, having fun. The girls were most excited about seeing Spider Man. He came out during the second half of the circus and did a little acrobatic ditty. They were happy, so I was, too. Spider Man made a second appearance with the clowns, but he was sort of like Elvis. Trim, muscular and svelte the first time you saw him. notsomuch the second time :)

Of course, as soon as we got in the car, Becca was complaining that she didn't get to go on the bouncy slide. Ugh. I about freaked out. I told her that I may not EVER take her to do anything fun ever again, because she just complains when it's over.

Yeah...that's my stellar mom moment of the weekend.

Tony could tell that I was just over this behavior. When we got home, he took the girls up the street for THREE HOURS!!! I had three hours to myself, and I was totally awake. I cleaned. Yeah, not the most exciting or relaxing thing to do, but it made me feel better, and I enjoyed it. I think Tony feels bad that it's going to be just me and the chicks for Easter vacation...and it looks like it's going to be too cold for them to play outside.

So, I had a full 'mommy' weekend. The restaurant was slower than usual because of the traffic situation. I have a clean-ish house (there was no scrubbing involved). I worked a little bit on my new affiliate site. It still has a long way to go, but I'll get there. And I had a request for a t-shirt design. I set up a store a while back, with all intentions of putting a bunch of designs in it. But then we, you know, bought a restaurant. So, I haven't worked on it much, but I have done a few special requests. Here's the one I did this weekend:

Peace, Love & Baseball Organic Toddler T-Shirt

I still haven't gotten it up on Zazzle, but maybe I'll do that now. OK...I think I've babbled enough for now. Next post? I think I'll touch on the fact that Becca is crying every morning because she doesn't want to go to school. Yeah. Fun.

Thought Soup

I usually don't post a lot of 'techie' stuff on this blog. I'm considering starting another blog for this type of thing. But I DID want to at least mention it.

Let me back up, first. I started blogging as a way to get the word out about the t-shirts and gifts that I design for CafePress and Zazzle. That was almost two years ago. I really didn't know too much about blogging and such, so I jumped in with a free blogger account. I've been pretty happy with it.

But, once I opened the restaurant, I got a blog started over there. And I used Wordpress. I love it! It's on my own domain, and it's much easier to tweak things. I have since used Wordpress to set up an affiliate site or two. And I'm getting better at it! I've learned so much...how to install wordpress, playing with themes, and so on. I recently did two things with Wordpress, and they've made me very happy.

First, I actually PURCHASED a theme. I purchased the Flexx theme from iThemes. I love it! It's very easy to change the layout, colors and pics. Easy peasy. I also found a plug in for automatic updating. I loved it so much, I actually donated to the author (which is something I can't afford to do as much as I would like). Here's the link to the plug in.

Now, am I going to break up with blogger? Nah, I don't think so. It's worked for me so far, and I guess I'm sort of attached. I have, however, re-directed links to my own site. So, you can also find this stuff at http://blog.brainlint.net.

Just a little mention of regular life: The new menu starts at Downey's House on Tuesday, so I've been busy! I'm printing them up today. It's been a crazy couple of weeks trying to get the menu together, programming it into our POS system, and making sure we have all our i's and t's dotted and crossed. On top of it all, the girls and I are headed down to Florida on Wednesday. Packing? Haven't even really thought about it yet.

I also (finally) finished reading Dead Until Dark. I really, really enjoyed it...even though it took me much longer than it should have to read it. I bought the next 2 books to read while we're in Florida. Hopefully I get enough 'me' time when we're there. If you watched True Blood, the book and the show are pretty similar. But I was surprised that there wasn't any mention of Tara (the bartender). I'm not going to spoil anything for anybody, so I'll just say that there WERE differences in the book versus the series. But I think that both are very good.

OK, the girls are complaining that everything is 'Booooorrrrriiiiinnnnnnnggggg!' How about an exciting trip to Staples, girls? (OH, that makes me thing of a quick side note: I have always loved the smell of office supply stores. I'm strange. I love the smell of toner and paper. It makes me happy. We walked into Staples yesterday and Becca, with a smile on her face, said 'Mom, mmmmmmm...it smells GOOD in here! Poor thing.)

Wow...this post really did go just about everywhere. Like I've mentioned before, sometimes I just can't focus :) Have a great day!

You: The Peeping Tom Seeing My Morning

I don't really know if my family and friends know what happens during a typical Heather morning. I can't imagine that they do know. So, just in case anybody cares (and to make myself feel a little better), here's how my morning went. Today was an easy one, because we didn't have to leave the house at all. Well, just a quick run to the bus stop. So, here it goes:

• 4:30 am - Wake up to see 3 year old in front of my face, asking for milk. Realize that I'm in Becca's bed, and fell asleep around 9:15.
• 5:00 am - Think that it's a good idea to wake up and get some stuff done. And I actually wake up.
• 5:00-5:45 - Spend some quality time with the husband, who has not gone to bed yet. He also thinks that it is currently still THURSDAY. I continue to correct him, telling him that it's FRIDAY.
• 5:45-6:00 - Watch 15 minutes of the news. Wish I looked as good as Sonni Abatta.
• 6:00-6:25 - Watch 'The Office.' Laugh. It was a good one.
• 6:25-7:00 - Make large pot of coffee. Check e-mail. Log in the numbers from the restaurant last night. Prepare deposit. Figure out the change order. Update our POS system for Friday specials.
• 7:00-7:05 - Drink more coffee. Smoke another cigarette
• 7:05-7:06 - Start vacuuming a plethora of nerds candy from the family room. Realize that it's 7:06, and decide I need to shower
• 7:06 - 7:35 - Wake Becca. Iron her outfit. Wake her again. Brush teeth, shower, greet crazy-haired Chloe, help Becca into her tights and dress. Come downstairs. Finish vacuuming aforementioned nerds.
  
• 7:36 - Yell upstairs for everybody to hurry - we have 19 minutes
• 7:36-7:55 - Pack a lunch, make a waffle, drink more coffee, have a smoke, find missing glove for Becca, brush Becca's hair, grab almost-forgotten library book for Becca. Pack one pretty-looking sweetheart and one bed-head, pajama-clad, slipper-wearing sweetheart into car for 1 block ride to bus stop (it was cold!)
• 8:05-8:10 - Turn show on for Chloe, sit down to write blog post for Downey's House
• 8:10-8:11 - Get Chloe a banana
• 8:11-8:30 - Finish blog post, check some forums and twitter. See that CafePress is down. Complain about it on twitter
• 8:30-8:31 - Put another television show on for Chloe
• 8:31-8:45 - Hang out with Chloe, tickling her until she begs me to stop
• 8:45-9:05 - Finish up with checking sales and stats online. Look up code numbers for the liquor I'm about to order
  
• 9:05-9:06 - Get Chloe some strawberries
• 9:06-9:15 - Order the liquor, enter amount into Quickbooks
• 9:15-9:45 - Help Chloe make Kool-Aid for her 'Lemonade Stand.' A lemonade stand where there are two customers: Me and a small stuffed bear. Play lemonade stand.
  
• 9:45-9:55 - Start dusting and cleaning the glass in the family room. Decide I'm not in the mood to really do much more cleaning right now.
  
• 9:55-10:05 - Spend 10 minutes searching for a copy of our new menu that Tony wrote revisions on. Finally give up, and hope I remember the revisions.
• 10:05-10:10 - Take phone call from the restaurant
  
• 10:10-10:11 - Start menu revisions
  
• 10:11-10:12 - Cut up an apple for Chloe
  
• 10:12-10:20 - Work on the revisions some more
• 10:20-10:22 - Help Chloe in the potty
• 10:22-10:30 - Finish with the revisions. Hope I got them all.
  
• 10:30-10:33 - Re-wash the laundry I left in the washing machine overnight. Freshen up clothes in dryer
• 10:33-11:00 - Print up a copy of the fixed menu. Remember that I also need employment apps printed up. Do that. Deal with my desktop and what my security scan found.
  
• 11:00-11:20 - Fold the laundry with Chloe. Yes, it takes that long.
• 11:20-11:23 - Sit down to sign our corporate tax returns
• 11:23-11:24 - Get Chloe some carrots
• 11:24-11:30 - Decide to boil some eggs. Smoke a cigarette
• 11:30-11:45 - Fart around on the internet. Still annoyed that CafePress is farked up.
  
• 11:45-11:50 - Sew up the back of Chloe's Build-A-Bear
• 11:50-12:00 - Get the eggs from the stove. Decide to write this post.
• 12:00-12:03 - Make toast for Chloe
• 12:03-12:10 - Continue with post
• 12:10-12:11 - Get a hard boiled egg for Chloe
• 12:11-12:16 - Continue with post
• 12:16-12:17 - Make witty remark on Twitter. Well, I thought it was witty
• 12:17-12:20 - More blog post
• 12:20-12:22 - Get Chloe some Kool-Aid
• 12:22-12:30 (now) more blog post.

So, there's my morning so far. The thrilling life of a work-at-home-business-owner-mom. You know, throughout this time line, there's the conversations I have with Chloe. Well, they're not really conversations. It's more like a question and answer period. That lasts, um, all day. These kinds of mornings are actually my favorite. I get some business stuff accomplished, get some housework (sort of) accomplished, I get to be social with my online friends, and I get to hang out with my Chloe.

Now, I'm gonna go and make myself some egg salad. I did sneak a granola bar in sometime around 8:00. But I'm hungry!

Want to follow me on twitter? I'm at twitter.com/hdowney

Free Shipping at CafePress this Weekend

Hey...if you need a gift and you're on the computer this weekend, I just got a free shipping code. It's only good for this weekend. Here are the details: Free shipping on $50 or more, use code FEMVAL1 . Ends February 8th at 11:59 PST (That's 2:59 AM on Monday the 9th for us East Coasters). Here are some of my Valentine's Day designs you might be interested in:

Hey...I won!

Hey, everybody! Well, right now I'm in the middle of school being canceled, a morning of no electricity at the restaurant and a honkin' messy house. But guess what? I got some good news on Monday night when I found out that I won a t-shirt design contest over at ashirtforeverything.com!!! You can see the post announcing that I won here, but I've also included a picture of my entry:

I was just tickled pink about winning! So, I get to judge the next contest (and pick the topic - which I have chosen, but Casey hasn't announced it yet). Such fun! It brightened up this otherwise icy and miserable week!

It was like workin' in a sweatshop!

Well, let me tell you about the past two weeks in regards to my t shirt shops. CafePress added some dark sweatshirts and hoodies. I was (and still am) very excited about it. The dark hoodies sell well on Zazzle, and I know they'll do well over at CP. I added them to my shops a couple of weeks ago. I have one, very large, job/occupation shop. I had to go in and tweak 2/3 of the designs I have for the sweatshirts. Then I added them to my other stores, Brainlintdotnet and PeaceLoveand( <--- that shop needs some love!). I worked on it whenever I could. At the mall when my kids were at the birthday parties. At home while they were watching a movie. After they went to bed and I stayed up until 1:30. Well, I'm finally done! Here are some of the sweatshirts:

Peace Love Candy Canes Hoodie (dark)


Off Duty Bitch Zip Hoodie (dark)


Bartender Barcode Zip Hoodie

So, now I can get back to adding all of my stuff on Zazzle. Which will definitely take me more than two weeks. Oh well, at least I'm never bored.

I think I may have a post coming up soon about the Onorato tax and the fact that they're lowering it. I just need to have more than 10 minutes to myself to do it! Have a great Monday!

OH, I just edited this to add that this is my 100th post!!! Yeah for me!

Quick CafePress Coupon

Wow, this one is a good deal, and great to get a bunch of Christmas shopping done! $30 of $100 for today only. Here's the link to the coupon. The code is DEMHOL12. Gotta go downtown today (really, me. I NEVER go downtown). I'll explain more about that later. I'm interested to see what happens today. I have an unemployment hearing (I'm the employer).

Later!

Drive by Posting

OK, I have to be quick today. Becca's home sick from school, I have a big honkin' sinus infection, and it's the busiest bar day of the year. I do have a free shipping coupon from Cafe Press for ya. The code is FEMHOL10 and it's good on purchases over $50 up until November 28th.

Lots of stuff to do on the Print-On-Demand projects, too. Zazzle just made a bulk add tool available (so I can FINALLY get all of my designs up there) and CafePress just added dark sweatshirts and zip up hoodies. Looks like I have projects to last me for a while. That's on top of all the birthday parties coming up, Christmas shopping, decorating, and general everyday life stuff. I need a clone. OOH, like that movie 'Multiplicity' with Michael Keaton. The kids sure would have fun with the 3rd clone (or was it the 4th?). You know, the one who was....well...let's say mentally challenged.

OK, gotta bolt! Happy Thanksgiving Eve!!!

Today's CafePress Deal

Hey! Today's CafePress deal is pretty sweet, especially if you're just ordering one or two things. $5 off $25. The code is DEMHOL7. Here's the link to the coupon. Happy shopping!!!!

New CafePress Coupon for Today

Today's coupon from CafePress is free shipping on orders over $50. Not bad, not bad at all. Here's the link to the coupon. The code is FEMHOL6.

More later :)

CafePress Coupon

Hey! CafePress has been sending out different daily coupons for t shirts and gifts. Today's coupon is $10 off $50 or more (which is a pretty good deal!) Here's the link to today's CafePress Coupon.
Really, I have more to write, but I've got to clean up this house a bit first. Pinkie swear I'll write more later today :)

I didn't fall asleep. Really.

Well, let's see.  Today is Saturday, and I said that I was going to write again on Thursday night, if I didn't fall asleep.  Well, the bad news is that I didn't write on Thursday (or, depending on whether or not you like to listen to my drivel - that might be the good news).  I did NOT, however, fall asleep with the girls.  I came downstairs and worked.  Yes, I worked and worked.  And not on restaurant stuff, either.  I worked on t shrits.  And it was fun.  I mada a couple of new designs, but this one is one of my not-so-famous quotes:

So, definitely not a wasted evening.  I stayed up until about 1:00 am.  The next night, however, is a different story.  Last night I didn't fall asleep in bed with Becca.  Came downstairs all ready to watch some grown up tv.  Ten minutes later...asleep.  Oh well.  

We went to the book fair at the primary school on Friday morning.  The girls really enjoyed picking out some books (of course they wanted more than the 3 each I let them get!).  As Chloe and I were in the car on the way there, we had an extreme 'Why?' moment.  If you are the parent of a three year old, I'm sure you know what this is.  Every. Single. Answer. Gets. A. Why.

Here's how the conversation basically went:

"Mom, can i feed Mackie (the fish) when we get home?"

"Sorry, Chlo.  I already fed Mackie today."

"Why?"

"Um, because he was hungry"

"Why?"

"Because everything needs to eat."

"Why?"

"Because if things don't eat, they'll die."

"Why?"

(deep calming breath) "I don't know Chlo.  Because."

Then it gets funny.  Really, Chloe just cracks me up.

'Mom, dead fish go in the potty."

"Right, Chlo"

"But not alive fish.  You can't put alive fish in the potty."

"No, Chloe.  You can't put alive fish in the potty."

"Yeah, because then they would get pee on them."

"Right, Chlo.  They would get pee on them."

Well that satisfied her.  We drive along, bee-bopping to the radio and enjoying the sunshine.  A few minutes later, I get this question.

"Mom, Do fish pee in the water?"

"Well, yeah, Chloe.  Fish pee in the water."

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!"

So, there is some Chloe conversation for ya.

Since this post touched on sleep a little bit, I'm going to share this really interesting stuff about polyphasic sleep.  Polyphasic sleep basically is sleeping for 20 minutes every four hours.  And that's it.  This gentleman actually slept this way for five months.  It was really interesting to read through how it went.  

OK, gotta snack before I go to bed!

Cafe Press makeover.

As you all know, have a few stores over at Cafe Press. Well, they've prettied themselves up. I think it looks great! Although there are a few minor adjustments that are needed, the navigation seems good, and I like the four products across. Once you log in there are changes, too. All the same stuff, but presented differently. Can't wait to go and play, but unfortunately I have to play restaurant owner right now!!!! More posts soon!

Chantix Sucks!

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since I posted. Let me fill you in on the Chantix. Um, it was absolutely positively no good. Here's how it went:

Friday (Sept 5th) I started taking the starter pack, which puts the drug into your system gradually. Monday (the 8th) I went to work, and I don't know what was up my @ss that day, but I wore heels. Later that afternoon my knees were hurtin' something fierce. I chalked it up to the heels and the cooler weather. Wednesday I woke up (at the lovely, regular time of 6:40!!) and opened my mouth to brush my teeth. This crazy pain shot into my jaw. Sort of like an ice pick going into my ear. I thought it was odd, but I had shit to do. I had to get the troops ready. As I was drinking my coffee (smoking my cig), I remembered to take my morning Chantix. Literally, as the pill was going down my throat, a light bulb went off in my head. "Huh, I wonder if this crazy pain that's happening every 10 minutes is related to this pill?"

So, I hop online and check the Chantix website. No mention of jaw pain as a side effect. Well, then I Google it. I read stories about joint pain and jaw pain, and one man who complained of jaw pain, walked out his front door and dropped dead. Needless to say, I stopped taking the Chantix. I called the doc and told them the story. They called me back with "We talked to the pharmacist and he read the insert. There's no mention of jaw pain." Wow, thanks. But did I not tell you that I can read, and I already know that it's not listed as a side effect? So, I bitched out politely told the nurse that I would either call her in 2 days and tell her that it WAS the Chantix, or I'd call her in 2 days to look at my frickin' jaw.

Then I talked to my father, who reminded me that jaw pain is a symptom of having a heart attack. Which completely freaked my out and I totally over reacted and contemplated the fact that I could drop dead at any second. I drank a ton of water, took some aspirin and clung to life.

So, the point is, I guess Chantix does work great for some. But if you get the funky symptoms that I got, get the hell off of it. Quickly.

In other news, we (the kids and I) went to Rock the Quarry (a fundraiser for the Panhandle Trail) on Saturday. The kids had a blast, even though we got rained on a little bit. My SIL won $200 in the duck race, and we all ate too many snow cones. But the cutest thing was Chloe. She SOOOOO wanted to work at the 'Beer Store' that Aunt Mary and Aunt Missy were at. She sat in a chair behind the table and was just itching to help. She kept asking me if I wanted a beer, and told me that I needed to be her 'cutomer.' She did end up helping, taking money from the customers and handing back change. She desperately wanted to pour a beer, and reached her fat little hand up when Mary would pour a draft. It was just really darn cute.

And here is the whole thing that really motivated me to write on this blog tonight.

Yet Another Bush Jr. Jersey T-Shirt

Um, is that t-shirt not just hysterical? I saw it on the CafePress blog in bumper sticker form. I really don't buy political stuff (Well, except for my Onorato's a Jagoff t shirt, but that's more personal). I think this one might get bought.

OK, happy day!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well, hello! I've been busy with a bunch of stuff for the restaurant, and a bunch of t-shirt stuff. But I've jumped in here for a few reasons, just to keep everybody in the loop

First, here's the scoop on Downey's House. Long story short, we put a bunch of money in escrow so that the PLCB could get tax clearance from the Dept of Revenue and the Dept of Labor and Industry. That was Tuesday. We asked if we might close on Friday (tomorrow), and we were told that Friday would be a miracle. But we're all shooting for early next week. Which would put our opening around Memorial Day.

Next, I actually did a new t shirt design. I've been updating the job/occupation store (www.cafepress.com/noshoptalk and www.zazzle.com/notworking), but I actually added a new one to Brainlint.net. So, here's the shirt (via Zazzle):

Sarcastic Comment by hdowney
Get this custom shirt at Zazzle

And here's the framed tile from CafePress:

Sarcastic Comment Framed Tile

Number 3 is a cool story:

I had Chloe (3) in the back seat of the car, and she decided to put the window down. We're driving along, enjoying the warm weather and fresh air. I was in a great state of mind. Riding high on the whole 'life is good vibe. All of the sudden, Chloe starts FREAKING OUT. I have no idea what happened. She is hysterical. I pull over and get her to calm down. Turns out, she was holding her sister's little stuffed Tigger out the window. Well, you know what happened. SO, I turn around and head back down the road (which is a 2 lane road, but pretty busy). I see it, pull over into a driveway, and try to cross the street. The whole time I'm watching cars drive over Tigger. Nobody actually ran it over---until---the big semi did. Well, I got Tigger. He's really no worse for the wear, and Chloe and I have decided to keep this a little secret.

She said that she'll never hold anything out the window again.

When we went to pick up Becca from preschool, Chloe didn't want to go. She said she didn't even want to see Becca. She sat in the car with her woobie (aka blanket) over her head. When Becca finally got in the car, Chloe totally kissed her ass. Becca was being silly, and Chloe said (in a sucking up kind of way) "Becca, you're SOOOOO funny!"

She hasn't told Becca what happened, and she probably won't find out until she learns how to read and finds this blog.

Happy Day!

Another website

Hello everybody! I'm getting ready to pack up the troops and head to warm, sunny Florida. But I did get a little bit of web work done last night. You can check out the newest collection of t-shirts and gifts from CafePress at waitstaffshirts.com. I just finished it up, and it's a collection of funny stuff for bartenders and servers. If you get a chance, go and check it out! Next time I write to you, I'll be sitting in much warmer weather :)

Hope You had a Happy Easter!

Well, Easter is over. So, when does the warm weather come? I know that I'll be experiencing some warm weather next week, when I take the girls to Cape Coral to see my folks. One whole week of 80+ degrees. Yippee!

Life has been a bit crazy (as usual), and I've been busting my hump to get everything ready for Downey's House. So, so many things. Micros system info (Jabby Joe's currently has cash registers), running CAT5 line, getting the menu together (and laying it out for print), we need a merchant account, two business checking accounts. I need to check out some quotes for signs and custom lettering on the awning. There's insurance. And an accountant. I need to get together an employee handbook...and some training. We need to set everything up with our entertainment vendor, our food purveyors, the liquor store and the beer distributor. Oh, I have to figure out who will do our payroll. And that's just the stuff I'm going to do in the next couple of weeks. AAARGH!!! I may have mentioned this already, but I think it's worth mentioning again. I got a simple website up at www.downeyshouse.com. If you (or anybody you know) would like to apply for a job, you can download the application there and send it to us.

UM, so the whole reason I REALLY decided to post was that there's a new free shipping coupon for CafePress.com It's a quickie, but not a bad coupon. So here's the details:



Use coupon code: EARTHSHIP75 Disclaimer:
*Free Economy or Standard shipping for purchases of $75 or more, excluding shipping charges and applicable sales tax.

Delivery address must be within the United States.

All orders will be Economy shipping unless the order is not eligible for Economy shipping (e.g., order exceeds Economy weight restrictions).

Coupon code must be entered at check out.

Promotion starts on March 25, 2008, at 12:00 a.m. (PST) and ends on March 29, 2008 at 11:59 p.m. (PST).

Cannot be combined with any other offers, discounts or coupons and this offer may change, be modified or cancelled at anytime without notice.

OK...have a happy day. At least it's sunny (for now).

ARRGH!

OK, I'm officially completely sick of winter. You're most likely not surprised. If you live around here, you're probably sick of it, too. I really hate to say it, but I called it on Monday (when it was 60-some degrees). Just felt one more snow. And it's coming today. Oh well, maybe this is the last one. But, Pittsburghers, if you do remember...it snowed last Easter. And it was in April.

I wanted to put this out there: If you've purchased any of my St. Patrick Day designs, or any other design for that matter, and you have a picture of yourself wearing your shirt (or drinking out of your mug, or wearing your hat), please send me a copy!!! I'd like to put a section up in my store with pictures of REAL people wearing the shirts I've designed. You can email them to info (at) brainlint.net. And I'll give a free shirt away every month to a random winner. You can take pictures of products from any of my stores, whether it be from Zazzle or CafePress. (www.noshoptalk.com, www.brainlint.net or www.peaceloveshirts.com). I can't wait to start getting some pictures!!!

Well, I'm sure that the grocery stores are crazy right now, because the snow hasn't started yet. We're heading to a birthday party for my 1 year old great nephew today, and a party for a neighbor at Chuckie Cheese tomorrow. So, I'm sure my kids will be sick again soon. Too many germs looming in Chuckie Cheese to avoid them. No matter how many times I put hand sanitizer on my kids' hands at Chuckie Cheese, they always get sick right after they've been there. Damn rat.

Crazy Life

Well, I definitely haven't kept up on blogging in a while. But I'll let you know what's going on. First of all, I'm trucking along with t-shirts and such at CafePress and Zazzle. Sales keep coming in (although February hasn't been as fantastic as December and January). I'm so glad I can do work there instead of having to leave the house! Thank God for the internet!!!

In other news, I think I may have already mentioned that we bought a bar/restaurant. Well, things are moving along. Our liquor license went up in the window a few weeks ago, and we had our interview with the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board on Tuesday. Our agent sort of hinted that everything probably won't go thru until May or so. But at least that gives us some time to get everything together. Going in, I knew there would be a lot of work to do, but something new always seems to pop up. I feel like I'm pregnant with a restaurant. You can do all you want to prepare, but you won't really know what life is going to be like until it's actually here. I'm working on setting up the website (slowly), and we will eventually have a blog there also. The site will be www.downeyshouse.com (but there's nothing there right now). I have, however, set up a page on myspace...so come and be our friend! Our profile is at http://www.myspace.com/downeyshouse

Oh, and this picture is from the day they posted our liquor license. Oh, by the way, I don't think I've mentioned the location....It's in Robinson Township in the West Way Shoppes on Route 60...where Jabby Joe's is now. More to come...