Friday, November 30, 2007

Cookie Countdown!


Join me and my Pink friends at Make Mine Pink for a blogging good time with our Christmas Cookie Exchange!

Starting December 3rd and throughout the week, we will be posting our favorite cookie recipes, talk about our family traditions, share photos of our Christmas Cookies, Christmas Décor and visit with all who post comments. JOIN US, you don't have to be a Make Mine Pink member to join the fun. But once you see how much fun we have, you'll want to cross over to the PINK side!

Leave me a comment and I'll visit you too! Please have cookies ready :)

Monday, November 12, 2007

OMG I'm Addicted to Paper & Glitter

Is there a 12 Step Program for someone newly addicted to crafting with paper and glitter? Maybe I should start one if there isn't!

I am seriously having too much fun making tags to go on my orders and shipments. I always stayed away from scrapbooking for this very reason. I just knew if I got into it, it would consume me! LOL!

But making tags makes me feel like a little girl again ... how fun!! Who knew that cutting papers and gluing shapes and making it all glittery would be so cathartic and inspiring? Well, probably all those of you who've been doing it while I resisted. HA! I am now one of you!
I'm loving these Amy Butler papers and scrapping goodies from K& Company! Currently I'm just making them for my own pleasure and to give to my customers with their orders and to friends. But I can certainly see why many of my PINK friends are adding their paper crafts to their boutiques ... or building entire boutiques around their paper crafting!! If this addiction grows I may have to add my own line of paper goodies to support my habit!

Each one I've made is different... I just got so inspired by these Amy Butler papers (that I got for 50% at Michaels this past weekend!) just grab some paper and little things, buttons, ribbon, pinking shears, glue, yarn, and this huge jar of fabulous glitter I got at Michaels. I must hide this glitter from my kids! IT'S MINE.... ALL MINE!!

Check out these awesome paperie offerings from my Pink Sisters:

My Oh So Talented Pink Friend ROXIE, over at JorabeelsInk.com has created a new line of awesome Card Cozies - perfect for gifts, gift cards, money cards, to hold your business cards, and many many other uses!




Somebody else has been playing in the glitter too! Look at what Carrie at Sweet Magnolia Boutique has sparkling and ready to help you decorate for the Holidays!

Gotta run ... but I'll be back with more helpful Holiday Shopping links so keep checking back everyday! You never know who I'll showcase next or what I might decide to do for fun around here!

OXOX

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Let's Make or Buy Handmade for the Holidays!

In my recent dives into blogland I found this great site called BuyHandMade.org and I quickly joined in with my Pledge to Buy Handmade this season and to request that others do too! So here I am, encouraging all to buy or make handmade goodies to give this year during the holidays.

I love the new wave of interest in all things hand made, all the the Indie sites are amazing and so inspiring, Etsy is huge now and much more fun to shop than ebay. (and much more affordable both for shopping or selling!) Lots of my Pink Sisters now have Etsy shops, just take a look at my "hearts" list and you'll find their shops.

Lisa at The Domestic Diva's Disaster's blog was so kind to include my free "Pink October" tote pattern in her post on Monday in support of Sew Mama Sew's November event called Handmade Holidays.


You must visit this event on Sew Mama Sew's blog and see all the great ideas being posted all throughout November for handmade gifts. You could also win a gift certificate to the Sew Mama Sew online shop in one of their great drawings too!

And, the best place of all to shop handmade though of course, is MakeMinePink.com! The Little Pink Boutiques and Little Pink Plaza shops are beginning to fill up with the most gorgeous selections of Christmas and Holiday decor and gift items you've ever seen! Here's some sneak peaks...

From My Dear Friend Karen at Sweet Neccesi-Teas


And look at these beautiful heirloom stockings
from the very talented Carol at Clutter Bug Studio

Oh My!! Have you ever seen anything as adorable

as these Glittery Mittens from Ronda at Cherry Blossom Cottage?


I will post more of my Pink friends Christmas goodies throughout the month, so please visit their sites and shop handmade this year!

XOXO




Saturday, October 27, 2007

Overwhelmed in Blogland

I've been surfing blogs. I am overwhelmed. Anyone who spends time clicking from blog to blog like I have the past few days must know what I mean. It's like going SCUBA diving! There's this whole other world you enter and it's mind-blowing. I could easily disappear for days on end!

Occasionally when I come up for air, I find myself sitting here in an odd sort of daze ... alternating between being energized and motivated and then feeling like I'm somehow out of the loop over here! Does anyone know what I mean?

I mean ... I don't know how they do it! I see blogs that make me feel so inadequate!! I don't think I'll ever be able to even create the illusion of being one of these bloggers who seems to have it all pulled together! I mean, even when they post about how they are going to have to hire some help soon because their new hot product is stacked in boxes all over their foyer waiting to ship out to stores that will undoubtedly sell bazillions of their clever invention ... they pull that off sounding like it's just another day in the life, and that they just popped in to share about it and post some cool photos before heading off to do yoga and have a lunch date and cook a roast and create a new line of fabrics before the kids get home from school.

How do they find the time have that lifestyle and then to write about it in almost daily whimsical, interesting, clever posts that draw 9,436 comments, while attending the latest conferences and shows, and take umpteen thousand perfect photos of their cool decorated hardwood floor houses and totally organized studios, while whipping up scrumptous recipes (and posting said recipes complete with angled, artsy, magazine quality photos), while talking about their awesome spouses and adorable children, (OK, I do have the awesome spouse and adorable kids! YAY!), and meanwhile they seem to be on the cutting edge of everything creative and they are linked to everyone else who is part of this virtual who's who of creative living.

I don't mean to sound as if I'm being disrepectful of these amazing women, it's quite the opposite. I adore them, I worship them, I am inspired and in awe of all that they do, and I just want to know HOW they do it all?

That's all. Just tell me how you do it all AND find time to capture it in photos and write about it and be dressed all trendy and have makeup on everyday? I think I can actually pull off the doing of all the stuff, I've been doing that for a good while now. I have a lot of energy, I have been blessed with a talent for creative living too, with being a creative soul, I design and make stuff, I write articles that help people, I interview celebrity designers, I even juggle posting in my fav forums and IM'ing with my friends and returning emails as I keep up my home (ok, I don't do a great job of that but I am getting better at it ... I cleaned and shined my hardwood stairs to the basement yesterday!) So, I'm not that shabby at getting a lot done, but I am woefully missing the key or the secret to acheiving a composed enough balance of whatever it takes to be this composite Donna Reed / Supermom/ BusinessGuru /Photographer/ Designer/ MarketingGenius/ AND create a compelling blog about it all! LOL!

Just tell me what vitamins to take. Or maybe it's the yoga. Now, where are my yoga bricks? Maybe they are under all this fabric. Sigh. Anyone care to have a virtual latte and commisserate with me? Anyone?