Labor Day Weekend

Hope everyone had a fantastic Labor Day weekend! We are! Only one more day left!On Saturday we went to Evangola State Park to check out the Tomato Festival. We had never heard of it and thought we may just go check it out to see what it was about. The festival was pretty small, but the park was beautiful. I had never been (not that I can remember) there before and it had been a very long time since my husband had been there. It was a really nice park with a really long beach. We didn't hit the beach, but the kids had fun playing on the play ground that was in the sand. Ian, being as social as he is, had fun playing with the kids there. Lily HATES sand and it took her a bit to decide it would be ok to walk in it. She finally walked in it and had a fantastic time.

Jeff convinced Lily she should go down the slide...he carried her over to it and put her at the top. Ian tried to help her off the slide and show her the sand was ok and fun.

Lily finally decided to try and get off the slide on her own. Too funny to watch.

Lily had to show me she had sand on her hands.Ian loves sand and was having a fantastic time playing with the other kids.

On Sunday we went to Becker Farms. We have been here in the past and always have a great time. Ian & Lily had fun petting the animals and just walking around. It was all fun until Lily fell and smashed her nose on the concrete. We left shortly after that. We came home and had fun with the hose and a new kids sprayer that Ian gotten for his birthday. We had another milestone....Lily also HATES cold water. She usually sees water and runs the other way. Today she was having fun splashing in the puddles and playing in the spray of water.

Most of the time Lily wanted to play in the dirt and rocks.

Fall is just around the corner...

I can't believe my son is starting 2nd grade next Wed! Which means only 4 more days left of summer vacation. It just seems like yesterday he was going to preschool and learning his ABC's. My husband and I were remembering the other day when Ian was in preschool and one day he decided to share that 'Sunny's winning!'. We looked at each quizzically and then looked at him and asked him what he meant. He just kept repeating that sunny was winning and was a bit frustrated that we had no idea what he was talking about. We finally realized that they were doing a weather graph in school. Now he is doing subtraction in his head and continuing to surprise us. On another note, when Ian started preschool I forever became known as 'Ian's mommy' instead of Melanie.
I remember as a kid summer vacation feeling forever long. Time seems so different as a child. Fall and Halloween are just around the corner. This time of year is my favorite. Actually it seems like each holiday/season is my favorite, but I am partial to this time of year because my birthday is November 4th (election day this year) and my newest niece was born last year on October 30th. I can't wait to go apple picking, getting pumpkins and trick or treating with our friends.

Hope everyone has a great Labor Day Weekend!

Sweet & Yummy!

Who doesn't love cupcakes? Or at least the way they look? I do. I made this cupcake last night. It has glitter all over it so it is very sparkly. I know this is definitely something that is going to be in my lollishop. I couldn't wait to list it so I listed it on Etsy for now.

End Of Summer Fun

This week has been busy and fun.

Today was a warm one here in Buffalo. We were expected to tie the record for this date set back in 1877 of 87 degrees today. The kids enjoyed the sprinkler today. They were having such a fantastic time running through it and filling up squirt guns.

Lily was too funny today. She wanted to wear her hat that I had bought her for her first birthday. She was so proud of herself sitting in the chair and wearing it. It's too funny how she LOVES to be girly. Yesterday a friend of mine watched her and when we picked her up she was carrying around 4 purses and bags. It was too cute!

At the end of last week I was asked by a fellow FAM Team member, emcisaac, if I made my snowflakes in white. She wanted to buy them to put on Christmas cards for her family. I had never thought to make them all white before. I was afraid the little pieces I had place on them wouldn't show up. I made a set for her and they turned out fabulous! I am going to add the classic snowflakes shortly to my etsy shop. Also what a great idea to add them to the front of a handmade Christmas card!

I was asked to be a part of the Buffalo Indie Market this week. It was so exciting to wake up to an e-mail from a person that I don't know inviting me to take part in a monthly market for local independent artists at Pearl Street Grill & Brewery. I signed up to take part in the October, November and December shows. I have only done one craft show in the past and it wasn't the right venue for my creations. I'm a bit nervous and have lots of things to make, but I am very excited about doing it. My husband and I are going to check out the Sept one, can't wait to see what it's going to be like. I just have to remember to breath, relax and make lots of lists.


I also have another pretty exciting thing happen to me this week. I was accepted into Lollishops! LolliShops is a juried, online selling venue for talented artists, collectors of vintage and art supply vendors that will be opening before Christmas. LolliShops will appeal to those who love...Elegant Whimsy, Romantic Inspirations, Fanciful Creations. LolliShops patrons enjoy feeling like a kid in a Candy Store!LolliShops will be the froufrou friendly market place. I came across this sight during the bloggy giveaways, but never thought I would be accepted. For some reason I decided to apply...what does it hurt, right? Well, I was accepted in just a couple hours. **doing the happy dance** I am pretty excited to be among such great artists. Come check out their blog here. Bookmark the site it's going to be great! I am planning on a special new line of ornaments for my new lollishops site. Keep checking back for some sneak peaks.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

I Want One Of These

I would love this new camera strap from tanyBug's etsy shop. Most of my friends and family know how much I love to take pictures and scrapbook. As a child my father took lots of pictures of my sister and I with his Kodak 35 millimeter camera. When my son was born 7 years ago my parents came up and they let me use their camera. I took some beautiful pictures. After they left, I was stuck using my cheaper camera and boy there is a difference. I talked my husband into buying a nice 35 millimeter camera with an extra telephoto lens. Since then I have taken beautiful pictures of my family and even pictures for a wedding. I love taking my camera everywhere. Yes, I am still using film. I only use my digital camera for my blog/etsy site. My husband likes to call our outings photo ops. I still have the original camera strap that came in my camera kit. Oh yeah, my old camera strap has even been spit up on by my son.

Yippie They Are Here!!!!

So I have been waiting patiently (ok not so patiently) for these couple of things to arrive. I also had no intention of blogging about 2 silver designers at the same time, but they both came in the same week.

A couple of days ago I received these beautiful sterling silver hoop earrings from sarawestermark on etsy. I won these for being the 800th post in the forums. It was well worth staying up and trying to win these. Her work is beautiful.

Come check out her site....here are just a couple of her designs.

My second thing was what arrived today. I so love getting packages. I won a $50.00 gift certificate to Delias Studio, Inc.

I was so happy I picked out her Customized Secret Poetry Bangle in Sterling Silver. I agonized on what I should put on it, until one day my husband told me he loved the beginning song to Clifford Puppy Days. I found that strange and asked him why. He told me it has the best line ever, 'Love makes little things grow'. Well, that was it. I asked her to put my children's names on one side and that phrase on the other. I absolutely love it. It turned out beautiful.

Come check out her site...here are just a couple of her designs.

This fabric is beautiful....

This afternoon Bare Bottoms Boutique shared this fantastic giveaway with me. Chelsea Andersen of Pink Fig Fabrics/Vintage Chic is giving away a 4 yard sample pack of Heather Bailey's Pop Garden line. Ever since having my daughter I have fallen in love with fabric and custom clothes. I am not a sewer, but my mom is. So between the 2 of us we have come up with some fantastic custom outfits for my daughter. My mom loves to (and is good at it) embellish things with embroidery thread. I will share those beautiful creations another day.

Feeling Lucky

I have been very lucky lately. My father sent me an e-mail yesterday telling me I should buy a lottery ticket.


I have been entering many bloggy giveaways. I decided that it was my turn to giveaway something. I am giving away a set (your choice of color) of my snowflakes. Mommy Confessions is having 10 days of giveaways, my snowflakes are day 6. There is still time to enter them all. Just click here to enter.


I received this mini chocolate cake yesterday in the mail. My daughter immediately took it from me. This lovely cake was made by Sierra Pelona Crochet. You should check out her other items in her shop. I won this on Holly's Designs Blog. She is having another giveaway now and it looks like she has them weekly.

In the past few weeks I won a couple different sets of hair clippies, a fantastic customized birthday package from itsybitsybunny. If that wasn't enough, I was just selected to have a Fisher Price party by House Party. This is pretty amazing! They are sending me a party pack of ...

1 Laugh & Learn™ Smart Bounce & Spin Pony™
1 Laugh & Learn™ Fun with Friends™ Musical Table
1 Amazing Animals™ Spinnin’Around Musical Zoo
1 Go Baby Go Crawl & Cruise Musical Jungle™
10 Fisher-Price toys to share with your guests, including Poppity Pop™, Rock-A-Stack®, and Friendly Flip Phone™
10 Infant Product Guides
10 coupons for the Fisher-Price® online


I can't wait to get all of my great goodies!

I'm Finished!!!

Good Morning!!! I had to share a picture of that sunflower that was just opening in a previous posting. Simply beautiful....

Yippie, I am finally finished painting the last of three paintings for my friend. As a present for my friend's baby shower, I took her bedding and created 2 painting with 2 of the characters on them. When I gave her the paintings at the shower I told her I would paint a 3rd painting with her son's name on it when he was born (and she picked out a name). Well, I finished the 3rd last night. I am happy with how they all turned out.

Here is a picture of the bedding she picked.

Here are the paintings.

(Please excuse the lighting on the 3rd, took it last night and my computer is being tempramental this am and won't let me down load the new one I took.)

I did it again.

I found another new giveaway. Lila Tueller Designs is giving away 2 beautiful bags. Her work is beautiful. Come check out her blog & designs.

Beautiful

I have to share this gorgeous sunflower I have in my backyard. I planted several sunflowers this year and only 3 (2 are pictured here) came up. I have to say they are really pretty though.

Good morning sleepy head.....

Spirit of Silver

So I love getting mail. Who doesn't like to be surprised by something beautiful in a small package? I won these pair of earings last Saturday, yep it's only Friday and I already have them! I was so excited when I found out on Monday I won them. On Saturday I was showing my mom all of the neat prizes the black box, http://www.blackboxreviews.blogspot.com/, had in their Christmas in July sale. Every hour they were doing a giveaway and all the shops that participated had some sort of sale.

I won these beautiful earings. These are from the etsy shop Spirit of Silver, http://spiritofsilver.etsy.com/. They are Blue Chalcedony with a cluster of multi colored semiprecious stones dangling above. They hand wired Tanzanite, Iolite, Peridot, Citrine and Turquoise (with little sterling silver balls and glass tiny glass beads) to a sterling silver ring. The Blue Chalcedony stones are also hand wired to the ring that hangs from French hook earwires.They measure 1 3/4" long. The Blue Chalcedony stones are approx. 3/4" x 5/8" and are valued at $32.00.

SIMPLY GORGEOUS!

Here are some more beautiful items from this shop....