Wordless Wednesday

MINE! PURPLE!!(My friend gave my daughter this coat/snowpants set last week. It may not look big in the pictures, but it's a 4t and Lily is wearing a 2t. She had to put it on immediately and kept walking around saying "mine" and "purple". Oh yeah, there is a spring coat (also from my friend) under the winter coat. Lily is hilarious with clothes.)

For more Wordless Wednesday go check out 5 minutes for mom!

Grosgrain: Sugar Cookie Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

My daughter would look adorable in this. I really hope I win.

Sugar Cookie Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

SMILE!

I had to share. I found this over on My Charmed Life's blog.

Merry Christmas!

From My family to Yours,

Hope you have a fabulous Christmas!!

Stockings

As a child my mother created stockings for me and my sister. On Christmas Eve we would put our stockings at the foot of our bed. That night Santa would come and fill them with lots of goodies. Christmas morning I would wake up and go through my stocking on my bed. Then I would go into my sister's room and we would compare our goodies. Then when we couldn't wait any longer we would wake up my parents. We were not aloud to go downstairs until my parents went down first so they could take our picture at the bottom of the stairs holding our stockings.

We are now carrying on the same tradition with my children. My mother created special stockings for each one of us. All of these stockings have sayings on them that are beaded. Our names are also beaded on the back of the stocking. All of the embellishments are hand sewn on....my mom LOVES embellishments.

My stocking has a snowman and says Cold Hands Warm Heart.

I am not sure if you can see it, but she has put clear beads all over the snowman.

My husband's has a Santa and it says Dear Santa, I want it all.

My son's has a reindeer and it says Feed me reindeer treats.

My daughter's has an angel and it says Angels are with you.

Another Winter Storm

So we got hit by another snow storm on Sunday. It was SUPER windy. My husband decided that we really should get a snowblower. After discussing it, we decided on an electric one. Yea, sounds a bit silly because of where we live, but we live in a really small house with no garage. We had to figure out where we were going to store it. We could either but in the shed in the back yard or in our Florida room. I felt comfortable with an electric one in the Florida room.

Before I went to bed at around 10pm, this was what my Florida room looked like. I had to shove the door shut and lock it. While doing this my bathrobe stuck to the door because the inside of the door was full of ice. And I got a call at 9:45pm that school was closed on Monday.Thank the heavens we bought that snowblower...this is what was at my back door. Turns out the suburb of Buffalo I live in got 15.5 inches of snow.

The snow had blown around so much it had stuck to the side of everything. I couldn't see out half my windows.

This is what the inside of my door looked like.
Pardon these picks, but it wasn't light out and these were taken with out a flash. When I used the flash all you could see was it snowing. By the way, that snowblower ROCKS! It may sound like my vacuum cleaner, but it cut though that snow fantastic!!
The snow came out this afternoon. My in laws live south of me and they are still getting hammered with the white stuff.

Psssst....yep I still went out to 'clean up' the driveway with my shovel.

SNOW!!!!

We were like most of the country and got hit with lots of the white stuff on Friday. All of the schools in this area were closed on Friday because they didn't want to have trouble getting the kids home. They were comparing this storm to the one that hit here in the afternoon at the end of Nov. 2000. I got stuck at work that day/night. It wasn't pretty. Our parking lot at work looked like a bomb had gone off. There were cars littered everywhere. That was a VERY long night! After hearing that and seeing how much snow had been dumped everywhere else in the country, it was a smart idea the kids stayed home.

I went out to shovel at around 11 am and holey moley lots of snow already! That's when I let the kids, my son and the girl I babysit, out to play. They had a ball.... And then it was time to come in....freezing!! BRRRRR cold!I went out a couple more times and it was a mess! When the plow finally went by we were plowed in. I have to share a funny thing about me. I am the person who shovels in my family. I am anal about going out and getting the driveway clean. My friends make fun of me. I will not mow my lawn, but I LOVE to shovel. I am not a fan of the cold, but I LOVE to shovel. I am MY father's daughter. As a child I have many memories of my dad going out and shoveling all the time. The funny thing is I never really went out to help him. When I moved out 15 years ago my father gave me a shovel. He put my name on the handle and put polyurethane on it. He told me to keep it in the trunk of my car. One of the BEST pieces of advice he ever gave me. I was one of a couple people who had a shovel that day in Nov 2000....it ended up being one busy shovel. I had that same shovel until 3 years ago when it finally broke.

Thank YOU!!

This is my favorite time of year. I LOVE making Christmas Ornaments and presents for people. Thanks to all of you out there who have bought from me. I have a hit a fabulous milestone on etsy. I have 101 items sold....I have made & sold many more ornaments than that, but I have had 101 etsy sales. All I can say is WOW...I had only hit 50 sales at the middle of November! I have been really blessed and hope everyone loves their ornaments for many years to come. Here are just a few more of my custom creations I have made for Customers....

A pregnant woman...A family ornament with 2 adults, 3 cats and 2 dogs. Funny story goes along with this one. She received her ornament and loved it, went to work the next day and her dog ATE half the ornament. I have made her another and the second ornament was my 100th sale. One customer asked me to commemorate the fact her son learned how to read this year. For Melanie from Sweet Pickles Pottery I made a sock monkey bracelet.

Another customer told me they call her youngest peanut, so she wanted a little girl holding a peanut.

One customer loved my snowman & babies, but wanted them in different colors.I just strung this yesterday for a good friends Sister. She is going to give it to a 16 year old girl who LOVES Hello Kitty. I think I am going to have to make one of these for my niece. =D

I did make a friend for Sherbert. This snowman didn't make it into my shop, but it will next fall.

I have lots of ideas for Valentines Day & Spring. Hoping for some sneak peaks in the beginning of January.

Mice With Wings & Other Things

I want to share one of favorites from Lollishops. Jennifer is the owner of Mice with Wings & other Things. I have been following her blog and couldn't wait to see the items she filled her lollishop with. Her artwork is beautiful!This ornament is titled Hello. How sweet!! And it's only $5.00!! What a steal!

Oh and it gets even better...she is running a mega sale through the 20th!

* FREE shipping on ALL orders


* 2 FREE gifts with EVERY order

* Make her an Offer on ALL Originals!How about the "Peppermint Stick Fairy" Note Card set? I couldn't help myself. I bought an ornament for my mother...and an ornament for myself...

Thank you Jennifer for the beautiful ornaments!! LOVE THEM!

Help Save Handmade!

I am not a person who usually gets political, but this is an issue that will effect many people, even me. I will have to stop selling my bracelets or make sure that I say they are only for children over 12. I have also been talking about going into business with my mother to sell her embellished clothes for children (remember these). If this goes into effect that will never be able to happen. I do not have the money to have the items tested or the money to pay the fine.

The New CPSIA Regulations - Everyone Please Take Note!

As of February 10, 2009 anything intended for children 12 and under HAS to be tested by a third party for lead. While this may sound good, especially with the issues we have seen with lead found in toys recently, the impact on retail will be huge. This law will effect all people that sell anything for children. This includes e-bay resells, salvation army (yep no more donating children's old clothes), craigslist and people who have small businesses that make things for children.

I found this article over at Happy Panda interesting and helpful regarding this issue. This article over at Cool Mom Picks & this article at Mammalicious Finds also has more helpful information.

Please sign this petition to the Consumer Products Safety Commission.

Thank you!

Happy Birthday Lily!!

Today is my daughter's second birthday. Happy Birthday Sweetie!

This set was a present from me & her daddy. I won this personalized tutu & hat along with a personalized t-shirt from ItsyBitsyBunny. I can not tell you how GORGEOUS this set is! It's absolutely beautiful! Lily's name is embroidered on the pink ribbon on the tutu. She did a fabulous job. I am taking Lily to get her professional pictures taken in this after the first of the year.

Grosgrain - Tree Lighting Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Once again she has out done herself!

Tree Lighting Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

GIVEAWAY

I am one of 15 vendors sponsoring a big giveaway over on Oh! How Lovely! Come on over and check out the fantastic prizes you can win. You have until Saturday December 20th at 11:59PM to enter.

Present Tutorial

I have decided to take part in the Birdie "Know-it-All" Tutorial Contest. I have never written a tutorial before. Here is how to make a polymer clay present.

You will need a 3/4 inch square Kemper Tool, tissue blade, pasta machine, red clay and white clay.

First I condition the clay in my pasta machine.After rolling it out on the largest thickness, I fold my clay in half twice and the add one more layer. You should have 5 layers total.Take the square kemper tool and cut out your square.Then take your white polymer clay and condition it. Then roll it out on a thinner setting. I used my 4.Then I cut 3 strips about 1/8 inch wide. (I cut 4 just to have an extra, just in case.)Lay one of the strips across the top of the square. And cut the white strip at the base of the present.Then lay another strip going in the opposite direction. Then cut at the base again.Next make the bow. Cut one piece at an angle. This will be the tails of the bow.To make the loops of the bow fold a small strip in on each side.Then place them on the top of the present and you have a finished present. Now you just have to bake it at the manufactors instructions. If you want to make this an ornament. All you have to do is take floral wire and cut a small length. Then you twist it on itself and place it in the middle of the bow.