Romantic Trim Tags

Faithful Angel Trim Tags

Finally! I made some time for my favorite items to make for my Etsy shop. I made a collection of 5 trim tags sets with cute little themes. They are all available now in my shop

A Cinderella Story Trim Tags

Love Bird Trim Tags

Juliet Trim Tags


Funky Love Trim Tags

Brrr. It's Cold! Here in Saint Louis there is an Arctic Wave blowing through and it was 0 degrees today. But at 8:00 when I looked out my kitchen window I knew I would have to bundle up and go out a photograph how beautiful it was. It sure doesn't look cold does it? The photo below I thought looked like it could be 70 degrees.

Since the kids & I are all huddled inside we've been doing alot of school work and cleaning. I did an official scrub down of the kitchen. I like to keep it perky and upbeat around here but.... I Hate scrubbing stuff! The word at the top of my list today was Yuck! and can anyone tell me why I have a cheese puff in my toaster and jelly on the side of my fridge? How do these things happen? Kid's have an unusual way of organizing.

Swimming class~ Etsy Update

Well, I've reached a new level in motherhood. The busy errand runner, we have swim classes, library story times, post office runs for etsy, grocery shopping etc. Jaedin and Valencia just started Swimming lessons and they love it. The only problem is Valencia refusing to leave the pool when class is over. Jaedin has a good time watching the other kids but doesn't like to "get wet" we'll have to talk about how this will be a problem at swim class.

Jaedin has completed Karate and Tumbling & Valencia didn't enjoy her dance class very much so we decided we would try something else. She really loves to swim so this is perfect.

The reason I wanted to start them in Swimming this winter is to get them ready for this summer. I'm sure I'm not the only mother who worries alot about her kids in the water right?

So hopefully they will know enough to be ready for Swimming pool season. Valoria was a trooper watching her brother & sister get in but she had to watch on the sidelines. She found plenty to do.
I've been working hard to get my Etsy shop stocked with new & fun items. Here are some pretty items that are available now in my Etsy shop.

*NEW* Silky Crepe Paper Frills - these rolls crepe paper are the classic sewn crepe paper with some gorgeous silky looking seam binding ribbon. It's been alot of fun to choose color combinations for these but the seam binding ribbon goes quickly with this project.

I'm keeping the Etsy shop stocked with white and cream roses because no matter your decor style, you can't go wrong with these colors.

I found a new way to package the crepe paper rolls in these supply boxes. I print cartooches on bright colored paper and personalize the tops with the persons name or shop.

This order took a while but finally I had personalized with calligraphy 500 crown tags. & packaged with funky pink pops of color.

500 Personalized crown tags.
I believe in alot of aspects in life that you will reap what you sow. Therefore I've been putting alot of thought & time into making my shop what I want it to be and the payoff is great. There are so many new products I want to offer like a line of head jewelry like in this picture

What do you think? Would you have anywhere to wear something like this?

Birches

In a post I did a while ago I told you about my dad & I planting bulbs together. That night, my husband & I went for a short tour through what our garden will be like in Spring. While we admired our pretty flower bed we started talking about how much we enjoyed our small birch in front of our house. Matt mentioned to me how the bark of the tree that was peeling off looked like real paper. Instantly I thought of writing on it with a fancy feathered Calligraphy pen. Of course I don't have one of those and if I had $50 to spare I most certainly would have one. I do have a calligraphy tipped pen & a little bottle of ink and so I started experimenting.

It was alot of fun & I intend on including a few pieces of our trees bark in the kids home Scrapbook ages as well as a Valentine book I'll be making for my husband.

Tokens of Affection

Hello Friends! I have many Tokens of Affection to share with you today. My sweet & Lovely friend Jenny over at Fated Follies has sent me the most wonderful Christmas package.
Believe it or not ALL of the following photos are from that gift!




Each individual gift no matter how small was wrapped individually and with the utmost care.
I sat outside in the Freezing cold with wind to open and photograph the package. My sweet little mess maker Valoria helped. My photographer son who is 4 year old took some pictures of me with the presents.
This beautiful ornament was made out of a vintage thread spool, an angel image, vintage button and string. It's just so original and beautiful that it needs to be hung in a special place all year round.

I've been admiring some jewelry and accessories like this with scripture on them on a website so when I saw that Jenny gave me this bracelet with this scripture about love I was so excited.

Lucky Jenny got to attend Silver Bella this year & I couldn't be more thankful that she included some gifts she got from the event.

She even threw in some awsome items from her Etsy shop. Fated Follies

Really Jenny I can't thank you enough for this beautiful and very touching package. You are such a great friend!

REFRESHED

Ahhh.. Feels good to be freshened up. I changed the look of my Etsy shop and made a new blog banner. I was hesitant to change my blog banner because my Artful Blogging article will be coming out on Feb 1st 2009. I want everyone who comes & visits to recognize my blog but I had to have a change for a while. Like changing clothes on my sites I guess.

I also had a talented artists Lisa at the Menagerie make me a custom order block for etsy. I've been so blessed I've already got to use it twice!

Thank you for taking a chance

This New Years I'm thankful for so many things. One in particular I always remember on on New Years Day is the great big chance my loving and trusting parents took on my husband & I.


It was the beginning of Senior year in High school for me and I was bored out of my mind! I couldn't be more sick or uninterested in school. In fact many times I was suppose to be there I would sit in my car of go to the library instead. I'm sure this was not easy for my parents. Now that I have my own children I know just how much worrying can go into these things.


By September I found I was pregnant and I was engaged not too long after that. I assume this brought about much more worrying to my poor parents. Myself & my fiance only being 18 didn't help I'm sure!



It was time to start thinking about how we were going to start our little family off. It was time to start working full time & find some sort of apartment. My mom & I set off on an adventure to see what kind of deals we could find. It lay in the cards that the Realtor showing us around happened to have a friend with the need to sell her new Home. I walked into the home seeing the gorgeous large porch thinking I don't even want to see it because we can't afford this. We are too young with not enough credit and know how to go about getting a loan to purchase this.

After a meeting between my husband & I and my parents it was decided that my parents would purchase the gorgeous home for us and we would make payments to them. At the time I know I was grateful and overjoyed but I've learned so many other reasons this was a huge leap of faith for them.



I'm so thankful for the home we live in and every luxury is given to me here. I have a laundry room close to the bedrooms not tucked away in a basement. I have a huge garden tub in our master bath which is so hard to find in any home. We had enough room to bring our little family of 2 and expecting to a growing family of 5.


We have a great big field behind our home for our kids to play in. We are even blessed to have an amazing next door neighbor lady named Sandy who keeps her garden beautiful and send toys over to the kids every once in a while.


Since we've moved here exactly 4 years ago when it was back roads it has since been commercialized. I have every store I need within a couple mile radius.



I Love it here & can't give enough thanks to my Mom & Dad for the chance that two accomplished adults gave to two kids.