Changes are Happening

I've made some changes in the shop can you tell? I'm having a lot of fun adding earrings too. Right now I'm in love with these two, but I'd love to know what you think.



We had a wonderful Christmas, and I promise some pictures soon, including my Holidat table, which I have a kind of funny story about. Hope you are having a wonderful Holiday season!

Whats on my List...

I thought instead of boring you with all my prep work for hosting the Holidays at my home I'd show you what I'm wishing for. Of course I want for us to have a joy filled Holiday, and maybe all get to relax a bit...Oh who am I kidding it's Christmas right?!
I've been blessed with some small success on Etsy, and more than anything I've had a renewed desire to create things. Right now it's all done on my kitchen counters, and dining room table, not really conducive to drawn out projects. My process consists of thinking something up, whip everything out, work on the project, clean it all up before the kids come home or dinner, or between cleaning rooms, or...well you get the idea. So more than anything I want a workspace, my OWN space, and this is what I'm dreaming of:

I want a place to spread out, lay things out, and if need be leave them and walk away for a bit. I want to display pretty things that inspire me, surround myself with MY things. I would love to have an organized, efficient place to put everything. In the end it's would probably look a little like this, except less green and more oh maybe teals, pinks,reds and ivory, but shhhh don't tell my hubby since we'll share an office.

This set up belongs to Stampin' Lounge

Diamonds or Pearls

“Next to sound judgment, diamonds and pearls are the rarest things in the world”
Jean de la Bruyere


So what kind of girls are you? In the Shop now.

Making Merry

Okay so remember my post about company and doing things to my house? Well that's where I've been, thanks to a generous Christmas gift from my parents the hubby and I have been busy painting our house, our WHOLE house. That would be the entire first level, and second floor hall. We have a split level that is kind of open concept so it all needs to match. Maybe I'll post pictures when I can get some in better light. Anyway...
I've decided on my Holiday table. I'm going to do red and white. So I have to tell you I have NOTHING by way of table linens, so I had to start from scratch. Here are the core elements, I got hotel style white table cloth and napkins, and some red chargers from Target. This is what I'm going to build around:

I'm not doing anything too formal, because that's just not us, but I want it to be special. I'm thinking cottage style casual. I love the idea of natural elements and I'm sure I'm going to add some handmade touches. Here's some inspiration I found:

Pieces of My Heart

I have a confession to make about the things in my shop...
I made them all for ME! Everything you see in there is very much so loved by me. A lot of the pieces I actually at one time was going to keep. Some of them I still struggle with letting go. I do funny things like set deadlines; "if it doesn't sell by so and so I get to keep it". I try things on repeatedly, I oggle them as they sit waiting to be package, smile at them. So, just so you know, when you purchase something just know it really has a lot of love in it. They are all pieces of my heart.

Handmade Christmas Goodies

These little tags are going to be my gift tags this year, handmade by me. Although I meant them to look vintage, they might just look like they survived a house fire, hmmm...what do you think?

Ruffles, Ruffles, Ruffles

I've been very attracted to girly accessories lately. I find myself searching out ruffles in my wardrobe too. There's something romantic about them, something endearing. Inspiration for these, in the shop now.

It's Begining to Look A Lot like Christmas

Creative title huh? Well it's true. I started decorating for Christmas. Our new(er) tradition is to be home Christmas morning. It got really easy to enforce once we moved out of state the first time. It's nice for the kids to be able to stay in their pajamas most of the day, play with their new toys from Santa, and basically just soak up the day.
For last few years, my Brother-in-Law has been going to his girlfriend, now fiances family, also out of state from my In-Laws. So my In-Laws now come by us, which is nice too. Here's the thing, having company makes me compulsively want to do things to the house, paint, upgrade, buy furniture, decorate, etc. My poor husband, and our poor bank account can't take it. So this Christmas I'm trying to spruce up the decorations we already have, and just plan a BEAUTIFUL holiday dinner table, on a BUDGET. You'll probably see more posts about this in the weeks to come

New Markdowns!

Everyone seems to be loving purple right now. I marked down some clips and a headband in the shop today and I bet you can guess there's a theme...

A Symptom of the Disease

I am seriously addicted to Etsy; and it's more than just working on my shop. Just ask my husband, my nose is rarely out of my laptop anymore. My poor 3 year old thinks I grew a new appendage. I think I really proved it to myself last night.
You see I really think Etsy is a wonderful community. I've chatted with, and got lots of get advise from fellow "etsians". I've also been very lucky to be able to work some trades with great artisans for things that would have been added to my long list of favorites. So I popped into the chat section to see if I could find someone willing to do a trade; I was looking for some cute bobby pins for myself. Well none of the chatters really had what I was looking for, so back to searching. I found some that made my heart flutter:



But the crafter in me though "hmmm I wonder...", so what did I do? Search in SUPPLIES!
So now I will be attempting to make myself some bobby pins, strictly for me not for sale. I sure hope it works because what will I do with 24 of these?!


Photos courtesy of MiaBeads http://www.etsy.com/shop/miabeads and ATsupplies http://www.etsy.com/shop/ATsupplies

Winter Wonderland Inspired

It's December! Moving here I was not looking forward to Decembers in Wisconsin. One would think that growing up in Chicago, I'd be used to "winter", I'm not. However lately we've had some very pleasant days, that and the Holidays have me feeling more jovial about our upcoming winter.
I've made a few of these wool felt flower headbands and they really seem to whisper Winter to me. In a good way of course, invoking images of cozy sweaters and hot chocolate. I plan to add a few more to the shop very soon.

Here I go...

I thought since I'm actually putting some time and effort into Etsy, mabye it's time to get out there and Blog. Boy am I terrified! So this is the first post. I suppose it should be something monumental, but seeing as how it's the middle of the night and I've been home with my girls all day it won't be.
A little about me I guess is a good way to start. I'm a thirty something Mom to two girls, ages 10 and 3. Married to a wonderful man, most of the time; the wonderful part, not the married part. We just moved from one college town to another.
I hope to share with you some of the parts of me through this blog. You'll see my projects, my family, bit of my life. I hope some successes, probably some failures, and well just a little of everything.