Random Roundup - August 3, 2011

• I won a two-week subscription to stock photo/image site Fotolia from Freebie Finding Mom. It entitles me to three downloads a day. Exciting! I haven't had time to activate it yet, but I'm hoping to use it next week. More images for my Etsy business, hooray!
• Speaking of Etsy, I've started really playing with fabric-covered (but still mylar-covered) pocket mirrors, bottle openers, and even one-inch buttons. A friend of mine gave me a bag of her quilting scraps and she has the CUTEST taste in fabric. Tikis! Cupcakes! Oranges! Kitties! My new circle cutter works well and I can see this all becoming very addictive. I actually can't decide between putting the stuff in my Etsy store and giving it to my offline vendors. 
• I would love to break off from Etsy, finally, and make buttonbabeboutique.com (which currently redirects to my shop) into a real, live store. I know a tiny bit of HTML (long ago I made marlatiara.com look all fancy, though I have no clue HOW anymore) but mostly I need some help. So if you want to trade web design for buttony things, let me know. 
• The kid has been back to preschool for two whole days. Last year, she went five days a week but only for four hours a day - attempts to extend that were made of fail for many reasons. This year, she's there 6.5 hours a day and so far, so good. That's the longest she's ever been away from both me and my husband, but her tantrums are more about how they don't let her eat crayons or she doesn't want to nap rather than about missing us. The teacher described one thing she was signing on the first day and we think it was "Daddy" and that she was saying that she wanted Daddy/was ready to go home now please. But I'm not sure. 
• She is on the cusp of walking, and I think school is going to push her to do it. She still can stand unassisted for seconds at a time, both with and without the SMOs. She can take a step or two. And she both loves using her walker - she seems to really be happy about the independence - and hates it, feels it's constraining. She also DESPISES the stroller now, so more often she uses her tricycle. It's interesting. I wish she'd still just go in the Ergo on my back.
• Pssst. I am fairly certain she has weaned. Four years of breastfeeding a child with cerebral palsy - not bad, if I do say so myself.
• I invented an awesome dessert. Take one 100-calorie pack of Trader Joe's chocolate chip cookies (they have actual ingredients AND they're delicious). Dump in bowl. Cover with lots of whipped cream (which honestly isn't that high in calories. mostly.). Sprinkle with TJs grinder of chocolate-sugar-coffee, which is my new obsession of deliciousness. Eat. Nom.
• I am currently reading the Wilder Life by Wendy McClure and I already sent her several tweets that were like "OMG I LOVE YOU SO MUCH" or something. The book really is that good though. The whole Laura Ingalls Wilder love? I get that. My beat-up many-times-read copies of the books are easily accessible, and I still re-read the Long Winter every so often. Also, I will put it here to avoid tweeting her again, but she remembers THAT Twilight Zone episode - the one I too remember about the boy who forges the psychic link with the girl who lived 100ish years ago. She notes the orange juice scene! I was THINKING about this episode in the first few pages of her book. Yeah, that's awesome.
• (I want to write a similar book about A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - except that was really really fiction and there's not much to do but say "Um, so I went to Brooklyn and there were trees, but no junk shop and no school with women who spank kids.")
• I am also reading Forever by Maggie Stiefvater. I got to see her speak the other night at my favorite little bookstore. She's funny and charming. The book...is slow going for me. I keep putting it down. I keep peeking a few pages ahead. I am antsy. This is why I rarely read fiction though.
• America's Got Talent is not inspiring me to blog this season. I'm sorry. I really like some of the acts but I am not in love with everything like last time around. I am obsessively watching though, and sometimes I tweet at Howie Mandel because, you know, I'm a dork.
• And finally, I wish I was fancy enough to go to BlogHer. Maybe someday it will be in Atlanta. I did make buttons for Special Needs Bloggers. I wish I could be there to see them being worn on lapels and shirts and purses.