New Shoes for Esmerelda...

I took my car, Esmerelda (she's green), to the shop to renew my inspection sticker. I was told I would be there less than an hour. I needed new wiper blades -- I seem to need those every year. Is this a scam cooked up by the inspectors and the wiper manufacturer?

AND I needed new tires! OUCH! Two hours and several hundred dollars later, I left the shop in my newly shoed, happy, inspected car that had just had a bath. She rode so much smoother than before -- the new tires and alignment really had made a difference and she was so twinkly and shiny in the sun. Ok, it sounded like a chunk of $$ for tires but it will affect the safety and gas mileage on my car and it was surely worth it.

Does your car have a name?

DinnerTimeChimes

I invite you to enjoy getting to know DinnerTimeChimes. I certainly did. Here's my interview with her...

Introduce yourself, please. (name, location, shop site, blog site, etc.) Hi, I'm Erin. The (wife) half of DinnerTimeChimes from a small town in North Carolina.

Is Etsy your primary "job"? If not, what else do you do?

Etsy and crafting in general is yet another way to keep me busy when I'm not working for my real job (medical coding for pharmaceutical clinical trials) or working in the flower gardens.

What is your favorite color and why? RED! It wasn't the collegiate team colors for my school, but I'll gladly claim the NCSU Wolfpack. I've always been drawn to the bright color. I love how it demands your attention.

What kinds of things do you do to get the creative juices flowing? A quick trip to a thrift store or a long day at a sunny flea market will make my head spin with ideas. I love finding things that are being discarded and creating new and exciting things with them.

If you could be a fruit, what kind would you be and why?

I'd love to be a watermelon, for us it's a wonderful symbol of summer fun!

How did you get started creating things and what is your best loved material to work with? I started making the wind chimes when I was in middle school as a way to earn extra spending money. My parents helped me find silverware at yard sales and such, and then my dad would help me make the chimes. I still love to work with the silver plate. To keep all of the polishing from being too mind numbing, I like to look at the intricate patterns, day dream about the people that used the silverware, and wonder about the hotels whose names are occasionally engraved on some of the pieces.

In ten years, I'd like to ... be happy, healthy and just as much in love. Hopefully, that will include crafting too...if I'm not too busy chasing kids around the house.

What I personally love about the DinnerTimeChimes shop is that the principal of  "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" has truly been taken to heart. I can't think of many other ways to recycle/give new life to old pots and pans let alone silverware and shoes. It takes a lot of creativity to see additional purposes for what otherwise would be called "trash." Congratulations, Erin on integrating your creativity and ecofriendliness together! Great job!