poor stacey has been so tormented by having the top spot on some random girls blog for so long. my apologies to her and to you all. i have missed blogging greatly, though you’d never know it, right? well, i have.

currently, i have an almost-two-year-old who desires to be by my side more than anywhere (which i love) and a booming business with over 60 individuals on the current wait list (who knew!?). thankfully, i have a crock pot, a lovely and gracious husband who’s promised to do the cleaning around here AND take chloe for a few hours a day, and an extra set of hands that greatly lighten the goose grease work load. many may know, dave and kelly wallace have partnered with us in our home-based business efforts. they are a perfect counter-part to dailey and i and an absolute God-send. we have more to be thankful for than we can remember, but we try.

unfortunately, this update is not a re-entry into the blogging world, though i very much wish it were and thought of making a resolution to do so for a while… what’s a resolution anyway. maybe one day i’ll return to blogging, but for now i’ve decided to utilize a nifty little tool called twitter. i’m pretty far behind in the times… this has been in our crafting/blogging/friend circles for quite some time, but i don’t like to do something because everyone else is doing it. actually, i tend to not want to do something when everyone else is doing it. however, i believe this will be a happy medium for me.

twitter is this sweet little place where you can sum up what you’re doing, thinking, feeling, etc into a sentence or two and post it beside your name. people can follow you and you can follow people to see what’s going on. i just squeezed into the twitter scene a week or two ago and last night had the idea to use this to keep up with you all… if you’re willing.

it’s quite simple. just go to twitter.com and sign up for an account. all you need to do is pick a username (you should probably try your full name or business name so people know who you are) and then give your email address. so far i haven’t been spammed yet, which is a breath of fresh air! basically you’re in. go up to the top and click “find people”. try me! type michellecrafton (no spaces) and then when i pop up on your screen click on that little ‘follow’ button. when you’re on your home page my updates will feed into your screen. you can also have twitter search your email list to see if you have a friend on twitter. it doesn’t do anything weird, don’t worry. totally legit. BUT, if someone you’re following says something like, ‘check out with this funny blog said about you’ or something else that sounds like something they wouldn’t really say to you and asking you to click on something, don’t click on it. that’s a spammer. they’re scum of the earth. only Jesus could love them.

well, i guess that means i’m signing off of here for quite a while again. it’s quite sad to ’say’ it out loud. if i’m ever pregnant again, maybe i’ll come back. or if i have something really, really clever and witty to say, but that’s not likely to happen. we’ll continue to update daileyandmichelle.com with photos and videos and stories of our lives here in the city.

if you just don’t understand twitter or found this to be earth-shattering news, comment below and i’ll consider your argument. and then remind you of the 5.5 billion other blogs out there more worthy of your time and attention.

i do miss you all, but hope to see you at http://www.twitter.com/michellecrafton.

wonder what miss douglas is doing now.

this would look amazing on a bride if you ask me.

friend and fellow brooklynite, cary, seems to always be right there on the front page of etsy these days. and she has every right to be. her little wool lovelies are very simple and very, very sweet. i haven’t bought one yet largely in part because i can’t decide which one i want most. i mean, chloe wants most. actually, i think it best that chloe not be allowed to get her hands on these until she’s clear of her seek-and-destroy mindset.

it is national keep kids creative week. so, at least through saturday, find your nearest kid and encourage them in their creative efforts. teach them how to do something artsy that they’ve never done before, or have them write/tell you the most amazing story they can make up, or let them dress themselves, even if it means tutus and cowboy boots…i can already see that as a crafton kid wardrobe staple.

this was a really creative way to give annoying junk mail some usefulness.

well, it turns out that chloe is quite the talker. she’s often mistaken for being a quite kid because she just soaks up everything in a new situation. but when she’s through soaking, she’s a little cyclone. watch for videos on the family site, but let these little tid bits hold you over till i get them up…

she has a new sip cup that looks like a tumbler and that’s what we call it. she calls it ‘tampon’. she couldn’t say it more clearly even if that’s what we were calling it.

she has a book from aunt kimmy about a girl who has a cat named fluffy. ‘flushy’ rather.

she has become quite the professional at, umm, tooting. twice she’s done so, then pointed to papa and said ‘toot’. i don’t know if she means, ‘that reminded me of papa’ or ‘that wasn’t me, it was papa’.

she’s also taught me how to roll my eyes.

i try to get this stuff on video, but she’s wise to my game. let someone else’s kid suffice.

go vote for my four little etsy guys. monday’s the last day. you have to have an etsy account to vote though…their a bit snobish. ; )

so if your sick of hearing about these dang dolls, sorry. here’s one more. but this post is also about a vision. a vision about which i am very, very excited.

i suppose it started three years ago when we moved here to nyc without jobs only to learn that we were pregnant. i struggled with whether or not to seek full-time employment since i hoped to be a stay-at-home, though being a mom was not in my plans at all before learning of our pregnancy. upon first arriving, dailey pursued freelance work. i tried to help by looking and posting on craigslist for him. i also looked up and down on the internet for something i could do from home myself. i found a few teeny things here and there, but really nothing. well, i did make candles and body products for karla, and helped with her books a bit, but certainly not anything close to 40 hours a week. with that came the “inner demons” as they say. i didn’t struggle so much with fear over whether or not God would provide. i was too proud to worry. i hated the question that inevitably came up in any conversation with anyone. “so what exactly do you do all day?” pretty embarrassing to say “nothing” when we don’t have steady income or insurance or much money at all and $1200/month rent. then again that is fear…fear of man. i was also fearful of one other thing…getting a job in new york city. no thank you. i would have had bowel explosions every day for the next 8 months of my life…or however long the environment could have taken it before exploding itself.

so the answer to the dreaded question was “not much” for quite some time. until recently. then you know what came along. these dolls that i can hardly keep up with, unless i completely ignore my child at times, which i hate doing. also babysitting two days a week. (btw, we do miss henry and elliott and allison. they’re on vacation all month. can’t wait till they’re back.) even still, part of me cringes with pride/fear whenever someone asks me what i do all day. although i really don’t get that from other stay-at-home moms. wonder why? maybe because they know that something that should take an hour to do in actuality takes 3 hours, two meals and a nap time to complete.

i’ve had two friends in the last week mentioning similar non-employment struggles to me, without really knowing i experienced them myself. God has been working in my heart much lately in the area of encouraging and assisting women in general, and specifically women at williamsburg church and practically speaking, church moms working from home. He’s given me an amazing gift with this goosegrease thing. for some reason etsy has welcomed me with open arms. in fact, yesterday i received a request to sell wholesale to an online children’s shop. i know that all this is not by accident or all of my own doing. it too is a gift, and one that i am extremely excited to share with the women that God has also brought into my life.

so my vision is to expand the product line of goosegrease to include items that others can help make or make all on their own. this is the complete opposite of a gimmick. i am not asking anyone to pay for anything or do anything they don’t enjoy or want to do. this is not for money or recognition, since i have more than i can handle at the moment…well not more money than i can handle. ha. those things may be a by-product, but not my goal or in my vision at all. my goal is to purely help other women contribute financially to their home and even help them realize the creativity that they have deep down inside there. who knew i could paint pandas on little dolls? anyway, i have so many ideas rolling around in my mind that i can’t wait to get out here, but it will take much time and resources. if you’re a sister in Christ reading, feel free to pray for this endeavor as it comes to mind. it’s a work that He’s started and He will also complete.

and this is why there are no pictures or videos up of chloe, much to my chagrin. she knows her animals and their sounds. she also knows “booty” and reminds me every time i change her diaper. and last night i discovered that we’ve hit the age where we can’t say “dang” and “crap” anymore. oh, she’s a funny kid.

i’m truly honored and surprised to be listed among these other fantastic brooklyn artists.