As Promised...Black Friday Coupon Code!

Gleeful Holidays To You All!
 
It is that time of year when we start putting on the holiday music, pulling out all the favorite holiday decorations and starting to make our lists and check them twice. The best part is finding that perfect gift for someone on our list!

This year I am pledging to make it a handmade holiday as much as possible. I am busy working on handmade ornaments, making a cooking list and shopping all the amazing handmade artists I know! I hope that you will join me in making this a handmade holiday. By supporting a handmade artist you make a huge difference in that person’s life. I am not too sure the CEO of a big box store does a happy dance each time something gets purchased from the store. But, I can tell you from experience that each time you order or buy handmade someone out there on the other end is doing a happy dance, smiling a huge grin or feeling validated for all the hard work and time they put into making their goods. This year try and be the cause for as many happy moments as you can! I am sure you will all agree that it not only makes a difference to the artist it also makes a difference to the person on the receiving end of the gift.

So that you have a little memento from the happy dance you cause me when you order, I will be sending out a free gift with every order that uses the coupon code upon ordering.

The coupon code is good November 25th to November 28th. Hurry quick you won't want to miss out! 

Gleefully,
Nikki

All About You Interview

Last week I had an amazing opportunity to be on KSBI's All About You program. They had found me when I was exhibiting at The Girly Show. Not only is that show amazing, it has been the gift the just keeps giving! So a little thank you the The Girly's for putting on a amazing show for artists, is in order. Thanks!

The staff at KSBI was welcoming and so easy going. I wasn't very nervous and it just felt like friends chatting.  I was on a news show before but that was to promote Indie Emporium and not myself. It is a whole new ball game when you chat about yourself!

I am sure I could find a million things I could have done better but I will focus that I never fell on my face, went 'deer in the headlights', or started uncontrollably crying. So I will let this one go in the 'win' category.  As my girlfriends tell me, I have a tendency to be to hard on myself and I am trying to work on it. So I wont watch the video (except the one time on my phone where I could not see it very well), but here it is for you to watch it if you choose.

2011 Limited Edition Ornament

2011 Gleeful Peacock Ornament

 Since I love traditions and I even more so like creating new ones, I thought this year I would start a Gleeful Peacock tradition! This will be the first ever yearly ornament. I remember every year my mom would start months in advance making ornaments. Every year it seemed she completely changed her tree. I won't go that far, but I do like to add to my tree each year.

They come in two styles

This year it I made layered snowflakes in turquoise, sea green and white. They are hung on sweet lace ribbon and are 3" across. I think I could decorate my whole tree with them, but I will just keep one for myself. The rest are up for grabs. First come first serve. There are only 20 of them.. well 19 once I take mine out.

 
If you want one for your gleeful tree e-mail me at gleefulpeacock@gmail.com and I will get it reserved for you! They are $20 each with $2 shipping.

Now I just need to get my tree up!

<3 Nikki

A do nothing kind of day..

Snuggling with our cozy socks on.

On Sunday Rae and I decided that it needed to be a lazy day. But not just any ordinary kind of lazy day. It had to be an 'Official Day of Do Nothing'. We decided that we better go to breakfast to start the day off on the right lazy note. But we of course had to go without brushing our hair or doing nay make-up. Sweats were indeed the uniform for the entire day. After breakfast we filled the day with movie watching, junk food eating and laying around and chatting. We laughed, told jokes and pretty much accomplished nothing.. which of course was accomplishing the what the day was all about.

Rules for the 'Do Nothing Day'.
(I know it seems like there should not be rules on a day like this but when Rae is involved she just can't enjoy it without rules being in place)
1- Sweats or Pj's all day.
2- No 'getting ready' for anything at all.
3- No cooking or cleaning
4- No work
5- No whining (I added that one in since dealing with whining is work for me)
6- Relaxing and fun conversation only. No talking about stressful or work related topics.

These eyes full of excitement tell me it is all worth it!

Here is to getting nothing done but doing it spectacularly! We all have a lazy day, might as well turn it into a special event. <3 Nikki

Sign-Up for the Gleeful Peacock Newsletter

Hi Friends!

I am starting a newsletter, you will for sure want to sign-up for fun new information and in this latest issue a coupon code.

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Halloween Surprise

All three of us

Right now Rae is reading Harry Potter and is obsessed with all things Potter. She is currently on the fourth book and would be further but grounding her from leisure reading is our biggest tool the the parenting tool box. I know it seems crazy but this girl can go without video games and TV for weeks without even noticing, but take reading away (except for school assignments) and she is on task to win back her privileges and get her 'act cleaned up' as she puts it. 

Mik helped me make my robe (extra husband points for him)

So this year Rae wanted to be Herminone of course. I was super on board with this since I think she is a amazing female character for little girls. I will support her being a strong female in anyway that I can.

She was giddy with excitement about her costume. But the real surprise was that Mik and I were dressing up with her. She had absolutely no idea that we were dressing up let alone as Harry Potter characters. We decided to surprise her by picking her up from school on Halloween, fully dressed as Harry Potter and Professor Magonagal. The other kids got a kick out of our costumes and were excited to see parents dressed up when they came out of school. But the best part was when Rae saw us. She came running towards us and gave us the biggest hugs she could.

Best part.. no make up needed!

Rae was so excited and just said over and over 'Thank you so much for this experience' and 'This means so much to me!'. But best of all was when she sat in the back seat of the car with full contentment on her face just shaking her head and grinning a grin that was nothing short of pure happiness.

Rae still having fun after all the trick-or-treating

She is nine right now and I know that in just a few years her parents showing up to school fully dressed will not be the best day of her life rather it would be horrifying. Until then I will keep dressing up, snugging and soaking up every minute I have as her momma.

Hold Hands and Jump

Some of you may already know this, but over the last few months I have had more than my fair share of tragedy. It has taken me a while to be ready to share this with you since I am still grieving and coming to terms with how these things change my life and where I go from here.

In June my mom of only 52 went to sleep and never woke up. She went into a coma and never came out of it. After days by her side it was apparent that she never would walk or talk again. While in the coma she had massive heart attacks and seizures that left her brain dead and with a non-functioning heart. Although she had lived with Lupus for years we never expected something like this at her young age. As a family we made the heart wrenching decision to end life support. My mom had always been my best friend and my biggest fan. Losing her was devastating and I miss her every day of my life.

The last time I talked to my mother was on Mother’s Day. I had told her how much she meant to me and thankfully I made a point to let her know that I knew she deserved all the credit in the world for any good qualities or successes I might have. She never felt like she could take credit for any of my triumphs. I sometimes didn’t want to give her credit for them either. But in that last phone call with her I had matured to a point where I knew it was her that made up the bulk of my good qualities. I will forever have peace that I made sure to tell her it.

After my mom passed, watching my step-dad (although I refer to him as dad) try and go through the daily motions was so difficult. He loved her more than I have ever seen a man love a woman. His eyes lit up when she entered a room and everyday he would say ‘Isn’t your mom the most beautiful woman in the world?’. They had been married 25 years and he told me all the time that his life stated when he became a part of our family. He was lost and lonely and never seemed like himself once she was gone. Soon we would find out that it was more than grief that made my dad seem so different.

About six weeks after my mom passed we learned that my dad who had been having some bad headaches had a mass behind his eye. Within a week we had found out the prognosis that I could not even believe. He had stage four brain cancer. Treatments were not going to extend his life much and they gave us a life expectancy of four months. As a family we again made a difficult decision. We decided to let him go home and live the rest of his time in as much comfort as we could provide.

It only took 35 days from the time he was diagnosed until he passed. In that time I went home and spent a week caring for him. I spent hours listening to The Beatles and holding his hand. Sometimes he knew it was me and sometimes he thought I was my mom. I could always tell the difference by how his eyes would light up when he thought I was my mom. It was beautiful and tragic all at once. As his illness advanced he would stay awake and fidget all night long. I never slept so little in a week before. One night that is forever in etched in my mind, he lay in the bed next to mine and every fifteen minutes he woke me up to say ‘Oh spider monkey, I love you so much. Do you know that?’ I would smile and say ‘I do. Thank you for loving me so much’. He would smile, squeeze my hand and tell me to go back to sleep. It would all start again in a few minutes.

The last night I was there I could not control my sadness. I was leaving the home they shared together and I knew that I would probably never seem him again. Knowing I was losing him brought all the feeling of losing my mom to the surface. I sat next to him and cried huge sobbing body shaking tears. He put his arm around me told me it was going to be okay and wiped my tears. Even while he was so close to death he was trying to comfort and take care of me.

Growing up my mom and dad would always joke that they never wanted to live without each other. They were just going to ‘hold hands and jump’. I would just roll my eyes and laugh at them. They passed three months and one day apart from each other. They came pretty close to getting their wish.

I know this is a tragic story, but as I wade through the sadness I am left with a bunch of happiness too. I am lucky enough to have four amazing parents that I love. All four have taught me amazing lessons and have been role models in my life. My two parents that I grew up living with are both gone, but I have the privilege of having parents amazing enough to miss for the rest of my life. They taught me something with every opportunity they had.

At my mom’s funeral I shared a thought that I think about all the time. I know my mom (and now I know this about my dad) loved me so much. I know this because I feel less loved and admired now that they are not here with me. This may sound depressing. I find it to be a beautiful expression of how much space and love they took up in my life. There will forever be a void. I will forever miss them. But I will keep moving, keep working and keep loving. This I owe to them.

I want to share a little more of what I learned from each of them and will a little later. For now, for my own healing purposes I share what has happened in my life over the last few months and where I go from here is all up to me. For you, I hope you go hug a loved one and can give them credit for what they have brought into your life. Believe me when I say that it can be the best thing you will ever do.

Nikki