Hoppy Easter !!

It has been a whirlwind month...busy with school functions and planning...playdates...fundraising for March of Dimes...cake pops, cake pops, cake pops...Earth Day fair at Mills College in Oaklandd (which is gorgeous and the people are super nice, we met a student that makes awesome jewelry using shrinky dinks)....spending a lot of time outdoors with my kiddos...quality time with my hubs....there are just never enough hours in the day, I swear. But I hear on discovery channel that the days will be longer eventually because of the earth slowing down or something...so maybe someday I will have an extra hour or two to get more done. Easter is almost here, I have a busy weekend with my kids and our family... Tomorrow is an egg hunt at the park which is orchestrated by the city, my middle son is more excited that they will be selling hotdogs than he is about the actual egg hunt (since last Saturday at his brothers elementary school he fell and skinned both knees during their egg hunt)... The boys saw the Easter bunny at bass pro shop last weekend, my youngest freaked out just like with Santa so I am in the picture. Good thing I was dressed nicely and actually did my hair that morning. Then I have to come home and make some deviled eggs and yams before heading to visit my dad (POP) at his rehab home (broke his hip a couple weeks ago) with all of the grandkids and my siblings so we can have Easter dinner in their living room area. Home in time for hubs to get home from work so we can dye all of the hardboiled eggs I made today. Come Sunday morning I should have everything ready for the boys Easter baskets and all of the plastic eggs filled in time for the bunny to hide. I bought plastic golden eggs for them to find with dollar bills in them. I think I am more excited for Sunday then they are...I love Easter...I love every holiday really, but it just seems so magical to do these things for my kids so they have something to believe in. It is so fun for me, I love being Santa on Christmas eve and putting everything out for them...I am looking forward to being the tooth fairy soon when my 5 year old loses his loose tooth. My kids even believe in leprechauns. This is why I had kids, I have looked forward to these events since I can remember. It is just so special for me. I hope they love it and remember these moments, if not I will have the pictures to show them. I hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed Easter weekend

Busy Busy Bee

It is that time of year...SPRING! My favorite!!! But with that comes more time spent outdoors and way less time crammed inside the house with the kids which means less time blogging, facebooking, card making and baking. So I have been neglecting this. The weather has been so nice for the past week. I also spent the weekend before my anniversary in Carmel with my husband, it was so beautiful and peaceful! Well April has made a quick start and it is full of activities and things needing to get done. My oldest started soccer yesterday which goes twice a week, my middle son starts soccer next week too...I have a cake pop order, bigger than my normal orders...cake pops to make for the earth fair on the 19th...oh and sampler village pops as well. I wish April would slow down a bit. So if you do not see me blogging much or facebooking a lot, you know why. I decided to move Freebie Friday to facebook, but no one seemed to want to participate. I want to know that people are actually paying attention to the site so I asked everyone to comment about one of my pictures and tell me which one they like the most. But no one participated in it. So for this month I am just going to take a break from Freebie Friday and get all of my orders ready to go. I bought a mold for Easter cake pops, I am going to make little bunny heads. Now taking orders for Easter :O)

I am neglecting my followers

Sorry have not posted in awhile. I feel like I have been super busy between school meetings and sick kids and cleaning...oh and internet issues. But I am back for today at least. I am leaving on a mini vacay with my hubs tomorrow for the weekend in beautiful Carmel California. It is supposed to rain which I am bummed about, but we will still make the best of it. Last week my sister and I went to the scrapbook expo and it was awesome. I was so excited and wished I could buy so many things. But a  lot of things are now on my wish list. It opened my eyes to so many ideas...I did take my camera, but a lot of places did not allow photos. So I only have a few.

 The lady at this booth was nice enough to show us how she made this paper flower. They are super easy and adorable.

 Making a glass pendant.

 This was so neat.

 My littlest man went with us and he was super good...eating a pbj

 One of the booths that actually allowed photos.

 This was at the brad and eyelet booth.

The eyes are eyelets..

 I want this desk someday...in white

 My dream workstation....so awesome.

 We did a make it and take it at this booth and I bought some tubes to play around with for favors.

Well that was my day last Friday. I braved the miserable cold and pouring rain and it took over an hour for my pants to dry from running inside from our far away parking spot. But it was so much fun.

It's a flavor revolution!!!

Happy Friday everyone!

While I want to get to what I came on here for, I first want to take a moment to reflect on the terrible tragedy going on in Japan right now. My heart goes out to everyone affected by the earthquake and tsunami! I cannot imagine the amount of fear, horror and loss so many people are going through right now. May God be with them in this terrible time.


So I am in the kitchen today, with my mini notebook computer...brainstorming and baking.  I have more than 68 cake pops to get ready...some of them are not due until middle  of the week so I am just getting my cakes baked and pops rolled so I can freeze them and dip them later in the week. Today marks the official start of spring break in my household, not that it really means much; except that my kids will drive me crazy for an extra four hours each day this coming week and lose structure in their routines. But for right now, my kids are still in their school day routine and taking a nap before we go out front to ride bikes and create noise and havoc on our neighborhood.

So I am announcing my experiment! I am going to try candy bar cake pops (maybe a butterfinger variety, snickers or something else), cookies n cream cake pops, (once I find the recipe) coconut chocolate cake pops (that in my vision taste like eating a mounds candy bar) and the flavor I will try today will be rocky road since I already bought the extra ingredients for that one. I also want to try cherry chip once I find a recipe for it and my own version of tiramisu once I find the ingredients I need to try that one. In addition to those flavors, I want to try something with caramel and maybe do a make your own flavor combo option.

Tell me what you think, do you have any flavor suggestions you would like to see?

It's that time again!

Welcome new followers! It is that time of the week again! Freebie Friday!! I have not heard from Starlette66 from last weeks win yet...I will choose a winner after 6pm today, so there is still time to tell your friends to follow me. I have a tall order this weekend! 68 cake pops to get done, just to go out to customers (and 30 of which are going to sampler village for March Yummilicious boxes). Then in addition to that I will be making some rocky road cake pops to allow my family to taste test for me, they are my guinea pigs. If they like it, it must be good since they all seem to be picky in one way or another. It appears to be shaping into a nice day outside today, so I know my kids will want to go to the park again after school...so it will be a long afternoon in the kitchen for me. But I look forward to it! I am also toying with the idea of cake pop of the month club, the idea has received some interest from recent customers...Just trying to work out the kinks in my head first. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, I will be out all day tomorrow with my kids at the annual St. Patrick's Day parade and festival in my hometown of Dublin and then dinner with family after. Hoping for a relaxing Sunday!!! Good luck in todays drawing!

Newness & Reflections

I just want to thank everyone that is a follower of my blog, it means a lot to me. I am still sick, I start to feel better then  do too much around the house and bam it hits me harder. Now all of the boys are coughing too which is no good. I have been slacking bad...I have not really worked on any cards, have only used my new gypsy once because frankly it intimidates me, I have been spending more time at the park with my kids this week, I spent an entire day cleaning to make up for all of my sleeping and downtime from being sick last week. So it is already almost Thursday and the week has not been much of an accomplishment, except for my kids. My oldest is in kindergarten, on Monday they sent them home with potatoes. Why you ask? They are potato babies for the week, the kids had to name them and decorate them. They must carry them around everywhere they go all week long, if they cannot take them somewhere they must find a babysitter. So his potato baby is Spongebob Potatohead. We decorated him on Monday afternoon...sadly in one day he has lost both hands, both feet and one tooth. My youngest tried to bite a chunk out of him and then threw him from the swing...and my oldest tried to make him the driver of his firetruck and it took five minutes of prying and pulling for my husband to get him out. So he is pretty bruised up already and it has been three days. He must journal his day with his baby every night and read his potato baby a story before bed time. I thought it would be neat, but my son is less than thrilled with it. The excitement wore off after the first night. It takes forever to journal because I must spell all of the words out for him...I cannot wait until he knows how to read!

Another new development is my oldest has a wiggly tooth...it kind of freaked me out when he told me. I feel like he  is still so young, a loose tooth already. I am not ready to be the tooth fairy too...it is a good thing he is a hard sleeper. I remember when I found my baby teeth in my dads drawer when I was probably 7 or 8 and I was puzzled how he got them from the tooth fairy...then I think my brother is the one that told me there was no such thing. I pride myself every year on trying to make my kids think there is an Easter Bunny and Santa. I go to great lengths to keep it real for them, it is fun for me...so now to add one more thing to the list. I am just not ready. But alas the tooth will come out, and I will keep it forever...add it with his baby book. Time just flies by so fast. In two months he will be graduating from kindergarten. I was at the park today, pushing my youngest on the swing, standing there watching all of these bigger kids running around playing freeze tag. It reminds me of how much fun it was to play as a kid..how carefree everything was..how simple things were entertainment. It made me realize, when I had my kids, I only imagined how they would be as babies. I never pictured them grown. I of course knew they would get bigger, but they amaze me everyday with the things they know and say, how grown they act sometimes. It just felt weird standing there seeing my oldest playing tag with his friends and realizing soon he will be going to school for a full day, he will be reading, learning to tie his shoes (hopefully sooner than later), spending the night at friends houses, wanting to hang out with friends after school, getting into trouble, eating more food than you can ever imagine one person could eat...all three boys will do these things and while they seem so young for now, before I know it BAM they will be teenagers. Makes me sad because I know I will look back on these days and miss them terribly...but in the moment they make me crazy. But for now I am just adjusting to the idea of my first born losing a tooth soon.

Outrageous

So I am still recovering from whatever bug I have had for over a week now...feeling good then feeling worse, it is a vicious cycle. Now I am addicted to words with friends on my android phone..a good game to play against other people when facebook has become boring. I was able to get some cards finished a few days ago, have a cake pop order I need to work on later  this week and another one for shamrocks next week. I loved getting all of the orders, but they have already tapered off which is a big bummer. I noticed when I left the house yesterday as I drove by the local gas stations...OUCH, seriously $3.49 was the cheapest I saw for one gallon of gas. My husband fills his tank at work every three days. I wont be able to take my boys anywhere with gas prices like this, we have been spending a lot of time at the park the past week (the non rainy days). This is ridiculous! How are people that were already struggling to get to work supposed to do it at this rate. Well I am happily allowing my husband to proceed with obtaining his motorcycle permit and then license. If prices continue to go up we will definitely need him to switch from his mustang to a more economic choice. California drivers are paying more per gallon of gas than any other state in the country...makes me miss Arizona prices. It is a good thing spring is headed our way so that the boys and I can walk to and from school and save our money. Hope everyone had a bearable Monday and that your week is pleasant.

March 4 Freebie Friday Winner

Sorry I have been mia for awhile, I have been sick...and as soon as I think I am getting better it hits me even worse. I spent much of the week in bed sleeping, I cannot remember the last time  I slept SO much..funny thing is the sleeping makes me feel worse. Any who...to all of you patient followers, this past weeks winner is STARLETTE66. Please  contact me with your info so I can get your card to you.

1. 3. starlette66
2. 13. lorena
3. 8. traci
4. 11. karen
5. 2. sumwe2
6. 1. jaye
7. 9. ann
8. 12. celina
9. 5. sarah
10. 14. beth
11. 6. rebecca
12. 7. justin
13. 4. jessica
14. 15. shawna
15. 10. tawny

Timestamp: 2011-03-06 18:54:40 UTC

Anyone have anything special planned for St Patrick's day? I had planned on having my kids wear green (as not to get pinched of course) and taking cupcakes to school..but apparently that week is their spring break. So we will be going to the St Patrick's Day parade and festival in my hometown of Dublin next Saturday. I found a cute little mold for Shamrocks to make my cake pops, I did a trial run the other day of them as well as some flowers. I am super excited for spring to get here already and be done with the rain for the most part. My kids are stir crazy and I want to get some projects done in the backyard. Hope everyone is having a nice weekend! 

Freebie Friday Winner 2/25

Yesterday was crazy with getting cake pops done for my nephews birthday party, some issues I had to handle on behalf of the PTC for my sons school and then driving out to my Dad's house so we could attend my nephews birthday party...I announced the winner on facebook just because it was quick and easy. But our winner this week is Jaye, she will be receiving the handmade kitty cat card below:

There were 14 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. jaye
2. sumwe2
3. starlette66
4. jessica
5. sarah
6. rebecca
7. justin
8. traci
9. ann
10. tawny
11. karen
12. celina
13. lorena
14. beth

Timestamp: 2011-02-25 23:29:27 UTC

Hope everyone is keeping warm and having a great weekend. If I did not have some cards I need to work on, I would be on the couch napping right now under a toasty warm blanket. 

New Goodies

So excited that I received the Cricut cartridges I won off of ebay as well as the Gypsy I won, well my mom won and I have to pay her for. I have yet to find time to actually work with it yet...the  same thing happened when I got my Cricut, I just kept pushing it off and off waiting for time to use it. Then last summer I planned a Cars birthday party for my 3 & 5 yr old sons and happened to have only one cartridge, being the Cars one. Well that was a bust, I am one of those people that gets impatient and never reads the manual. Then when I realized it did not turn out right or hit my highest level of frustration, I pull out that manual and go oh yeah there is where I went wrong...if only I had read this first. So I vow to read my Gypsy manual and not be intimidated by it like I was (and still am) with my Cricut. My sister in law using hers is what made me decide to use mine for my 2 yr old sons farm themed birthday party in January and the die cuts were adorable. I made all kinds of signs. I hope to make some really cool cards with my Gypsy and the new cartridges I have now, in the last few months my Mom has kind of gone crazy with ebay and we went from like 2 cartridges to over 20. Funny thing is using ebay we get about 5 of them for what 1 would cost us at Joann or Michael stores. I have hit an all time high this week with some back pain I have been dealing with for years, so had to go to the Dr for some medicines and xrays...so things slowed down a lot for me this week and I have not been able to work on anything which dampened my mood. But I am going to push through that and work on some soccer ball cake pops today for my nephews 7th birthday party tomorrow night at Chucke Cheese and hopefully get a card made for tomorrows Freebie Friday. Anyone have any ideas on how to get more followers on my blog? I have a lot of people liking me on facebook, but they just wont follow the blog. I am at a loss for ideas. Good Luck in tomorrows giveaway! :O)

Freebie Friday!!! 2/18

Just realized I have been SO busy this week  that I forgot to do Freebie Friday! Well here you go! Our winner generated via random.org is Sarah Folkner. Congratulations Sarah for being our winner for last week. I will be sending you a card this week.

Obsessed :O)

I think it is safe to say that I am now obsessed with sprinkles, I buy new ones almost every time I am at a store that carries them. Ross had some cool new St Patrick's Day ones and Easter ones, so I picked those up this past Friday. I have been keeping busy around the house this week, did some spring cleaning and our huge CAL King box spring is blocking the living room tv right now because between 10 and 1pm Sleep Train will be delivering our new and very comfy Queen size bed...The boys are also supposed to have a dentist appt this afternoon, but it is President's Day and I am unsure if they are actually open. I forgot all about this appointment. I have a bunch of new cricut cartridges headed my way and cannot wait to get them so I can get into making some new cards. Looking forward to another Freebie Friday giveaway, but need some more blog followers. Tell you friends! :O)

100 Cake Pops in the Mail!!!

I did it! I set out a goal, a very last minute goal yesterday. I only had to get 30 cake pops made and shipped by today. I made 100 last night all by myself...Then before retiring for the night managed to get all 100 wrapped and tied so they could be labeled today. I started on them at 9am this morning, I had 100 labels to cut out, stamp my info on and then 100 ingredient lists to write...well I started handwriting the  ingredient lists...but about 15 or 20 in I gave up on that because it took me about an hour with interruptions from my son. So I moved on to the computer, that took longer than I planned. My desktop was not cooperating at all...drove me crazy, then would no longer print wirelessly for some reason. So I emailed it to myself so I could print on my mini laptop, well what do you know...they run different operating systems and also have different word versions on them. So when I tried to open and print on my laptop it totally messed my document up...Plan B...I pulled the printer as far as I possible could toward my desktop and then moved the cpu as close to the printer as possible without unplugging from the wall...and tada I finally was able to print. It was pretty bizarre looking if you walked in on me while holding the cpu and reaching for the printer. But finally worked...then with the late help of my Mom, I was able to get the printed circles cut out and glued to my pink tags. Something simple turned into something very drawn out and irritating...Then to make matters worse, I had some issues printing out my two shipping labels. I had to send two packages because the one medium box would not fit all 100 of course, and neither would the large priority box I obtained this morning from the post office. Three computers later, that finally worked out and printed from my Mom's laptop. Thank goodness, whew...wiping the sweat from my brow..One hour before the post office closes, and my packages are dropped off. Yay! So sampler village should have them in their hands in two to three days. I hope everything gets there in once piece or I may die from annoyance. I wrapped those bad boys GOOD....So as long as no one plays hockey with the boxes or sits on them, they should be fine. I just realized I FORGOT to write fragile on them. DANG! I am praying.... crossing everything that can be crossed in hopes they arrive in Quakertown PA perfect!

I just listed some cake pops on etsy, overcame my shipping fear although this first experience was quite irritating and frightening. If they make it across the country to PA in one piece then they  can make it anywhere else. Please let them get there okay. Check out my listings...I am going to put my effort into cards the next couple of days.

Sampler Village

So facebook is a pretty good way to network and learn about things. I spent my morning on facebook rather than exercising because I was having some muscle woes... Let the "liking" begin... I had liked  a page a few weeks back called Village Sampler that I believe my sister in law found first. I did not really know what it was, but started looking. I found out they have all kinds of homemade sellers; from handmade soaps to candy, send them 30 of their samples each month (that they choose to participate) and then they distribute these items in boxes to potential customers. So some months there can be 100 people sending in their samples and then each box contains 15-20 (sometimes more) samples selected at random from the "villagers". Each  box is $25 for US & $35 for Canada...Pretty good deal in my opinion considering you get to try all of these things from all of these different fantastic sellers. So I took the plunge and signed up today, I do not pay anything except to ship my cake pops to PA which via priority mail is about $10 for 30 of my cake pops...so that is pretty darn good advertising a month in my opinion...Plus makes me feel like I am a part of something bigger than myself and I feel pretty good. Crazy thing is the deadline for them to be there is the 18th, but they told me the 19th would work for me too since I just decided to do this last minute. Well the pressure is on, my cakes are cooling and I am ready to bust out at least thirty of these bad boys. If I send in 100 I get a free sampler box in return...So we will see how ambitious I am this afternoon to get these little guys packaged and ready to ship tomorrow morning after I drop off the boys at school. So here is to hoping the boys take a long nap and cooperate for me at dinnertime, bathtime and bedtime. CROSSING MY FINGERS!

WARNING!
SAMPLER VILLAGE SAMPLICIOUS SAMPLER BOXES ARE HIGHLY ADDICTIVE!

SIDE EFFECTS INCLUDE..ELATION, EXCESSIVE BROWSING OF VILLAGER'S SHOPS & A DEEP YEARNING FOR ALL THINGS HANDMADE 

USE EXTREME CAUTION WHEN PURCHASING ♥

*Sampler Village is responsible for all side effects :)

Check out Sampler Village Here

Cake bites

Cake bites were my biggest hit this Valentine's Day. I sold more of them and made more of them then cake pops or cards. I was rather disappointed in how well my cards did, they started off well and then just hit a stand still. I am aiming to be  more ambitious for Easter and get all of my ducks in a row so I have  a larger variety of  cards to choose from on my etsy page.

I want to take time to thank all of my customers in the past month; friends, family, friends of family, acquaintances and people that just stumbled upon my store on etsy. I truly appreciate your support, it means SO much to me!

I have been going over pricing in my head, with my husband and with my sister in law. When I began this, I was not sure if I could even do it or if anyone would buy anything from me...I never think my stuff looks good. So I under priced my cake pops and really am not making much for my time, I am barely making up what I spent to start  it all. I truly enjoy making them, even though they are quite time consuming. So I will be raising my prices a bit to help cover my costs. So look for that to come soon, not too much though and I am still quite competitive with other sellers. So stick with me, please..
My cards all vary in price depending on my materials and how much time I spent gluing those pieces together as well as cutting them out. But they will still remain affordable!

I am looking into selling my cake bites and pops on etsy, it scares me a little with the idea of shipping because I would feel absolutely terrible if someone received an order of smushed or broken goodies. It would deflate their happiness as well as my own. So I am working on some trial runs to see how I need to package them and keep it affordable to my buyers.

Easter excites me because I absolutely adore spring...I love bright and happy colors, I love the weather and newness that spring brings. So I will be experimenting with colors and sprinkles and shapes for Easter...I cannot wait!

But seriously to all of my followers and customers. I adore you!

Following?

Are you following us, or stopping by and just blog stalking without leaving your footprint? We crave a larger audience. Only followers that have "followed" me on this blog and are listed under my "blog groupies" section will be entered into the weekly Freebie Friday card giveaways.

New cards will be available on etsy soon; I am working on St. Patty's Day, Spring cards, Birthday, Anniversary, Get Well...soon I will be working on Easter and Mothers Day cards as well as Fathers Day and so on...I take custom orders, so you can always send me a message and we can brainstorm together.

Happy Valentine's Day!

So it is late, I am tired and kind of do not feel great...It was a busy day with my husband off work this weekend. . . we were cleaning out the garage today and are not even close to being done.

I announce my Freebie Friday winner, Lorena a couple of days ago and hoping to get a hold of her to inform her of the winnings...

I am looking forward to Valentine's Day, even though I have a ptc meeting to attend at 4pm..I will be bringing a sampling of my cake bites to the meeting and try to draw in some prospective customers. I have a red blouse to wear, I am excited about that...my kids have school and they will be giving their teachers each a cake pop I made them and a card I made, can you say hello advertising... and all of the lollipop cards I made for each of them to handout. I love this day, and I love it even more now that I have school aged children, it is fun for me as a parent. I also enjoy flowers and candy and dressing up to go on a date like most other women. My husband however claims it to be a Hallmark holiday and uses this excuse often...Then listens to me complain about how I do not care what his thoughts on the holiday are...he still owes me some goodies.

I love to wear red...I enjoy baking...I enjoy crafting...what better day to use those likes then V-Day...

So to you single, coupled, married, or whatever you are...Happy Valentine's Day. Even if you do not have a date (my date includes my kiddos----making dinner  and going to an after school movie with Daddy too) this is also a great day to celebrate the love you have for your friends, co workers that you like, pets, children, and other family. Embrace the love people!!!

And on another note, I hope you are reading and telling your friends. I know I am not that interesting, but seriously, free stuff....What do I have to do to get some followers around here?!?!!!

Freebie Friday!!!

Sorry to not have done this earlier today, but I have been busy all day....

I am dissapointed that there are still only ten followers, I posted Freebie Friday on my facebook page but even though a ton of people "rsvp" yes, they still are not followers on the blog. It is SO easy to follow....

Well my sister in law advised me of a website other people are using to select winners...so I gave it a shot and entered everyone (except my hubby since he does not need to win) and this is how it came out.
There were 9 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. lorena
2. celina
3. jessica
4. rebecca
5. jaye
6. ann
7. sumwe
8. karen
9. sarah

Timestamp: 2011-02-12 05:17:20 UTC

Celina almost won again....

But CONGRATULATIONS to our winner LORENA!! You are the winner of the cupcake birthday card. I will send you a message. I will need your information to send you the card.
Please stay tuned, I will do a giveaway each week. 

Valentine's Day & Card Giveaway

I spent my evening making little Valentine's cards that hold lollipops for both of my sons to take to school next week. I still want to make a card for them to give to their teachers, and will possibly make them each six cake pops or cake bites to take as well...I think the little Valentine's evolved from a simple heart to something that turned out far more spectacular..I mean it is still simple, but it looks great to me. See below

I also finished the card for this Fridays' first Freebie Friday giveaway... Just waiting for the glue and glitter to dry.... But I think it turned out well.

Also offering a special this week, 6 cake bites in a Valentine's Day themed box for $5... Need a card for Valentine's Day? Check out my online store www.artsyalcie.etsy.com and use code alcie211 for 25% off of any Valentine's card.

So please keep following, tell your friends.

Monday, Monday, Monday...

Eh, it's Monday again...I woke up pretty chipper and managed to talk my husband into dropping the boys off at school today since he had to be up early any way to work the opening shift at work. Filed our taxes last night and very happy to report we will be paying off our truck! WHOOHOO!!!! That will ease our finances a bit and maybe the boys can participate in more sports, I cannot wait for Ryen to turn four this summer so he can play in the same pee wee sports through the rec center that his five year old brother plays. Then they can both be occupied while I walk laps around whatever park they play at.

This weekend felt like spring here and it was oh so wonderful!!!! I busted out my flip flops yesterday and painted polka dots on my toes! I wish it would continue, but the weather report calls for rain this weekend BOO!

I happily did not accomplish ANYTHING this past weekend and I did NOT watch the superbowl so I have no idea what anyone is talking about on facebook with the halftime show. I do not like football, really not into any sports...the only ones I will watch are baseball and hockey in person...

I did get to enjoy a wonderful night out with my husband and we saw No Strings Attached which was a wonderful movie, we laughed throughout the entire thing along with the other couples in the theater. We went to what apparently is a bit older theater because the seats reminded me of the kind we sat in as kids. It felt weird to actually have to support your own head up through the movie. I know I sound lazy, right...But seriously, I have come to enjoy not being able to see the back of someone's head in front of me and I felt weird knowing someone behind me was seeing my big head. Nonetheless, it was a great movie, we paid using Christmas gift certificates...but $5.25 for a liter sized bottle of water. COME ON!!! I will never do that again!

I also enjoyed a kid free 36 hour period this past weekend and it was wonderful and quiet...Not listening to whining and arguing or screaming...not having to make food for someone else or change a diaper. Glorious, mommies need these times more often. I feel recharged, refreshed, rejuvenated...Ahhhhhh, but back to the grind.

Also spent a nice afternoon and lunch with my sister in law, being the superbowl yesterday, no one was really out shopping or eating so it was nice and quiet and I think we had a good time. I would like to do things like that more often, kid free. It is nice to spend quality time with other adults in your life, especially family and it not feel awkward... I do not have that very often.

But this being the week before Valentine's Day, I have a couple of cake pop orders to start getting ready...as well as TWO playdates at the end of the week and my two school aged boys are off of school this Friday (for some odd ball reason). I plan to make the most of my time this week and will be counting down the days until that tax return money is in our bank account so I can tell our bank to piss off and we will be lienholder free!!!!

Happy Monday Peeps!!!!  Until tomorrow.....

My set up...

I just finished a card order and even though I am tired, I do not feel like crashing just yet. I was taking pictures of the last card of the night and decided to tidy up my workspace and photograph it. While I am certainly no Ansel Adams or even anyone that could take a purposely blurry photo...I do what I can, which is hope it turns out okay. But I took Justin's good ole Canon Rebel and photographed my workspace. My happiest place in the house, the place where time seems to stand still (to me even though it flies by in reality)...the colors I love, the patterns I adore, the mismatch of items that I think look great thrown together. I am a bright, chipper personality stuck inside this body and attitude. I love the office, how can you be depressed in such a bright room. It certainly glows!!!

My Dad buys old out of date parking meters from around the country and then takes them apart, restores them and refinishes them. He gave me this one, I loved the color and thought it was an awesome piece of history to have. I believe this particular one is from OK. Oh and it makes a perfect display for my Disney Princess Mickey Mouse Ears from our anniversary trip last year. 

 The card I just finished...I never know where to begin, it all starts with one simple idea, in this case it was a dog..which turned into two dogs and then a bunch of cut outs later I came up with this. I found these adorable alphabet stickers that incorporate flowers into the letters, I bought them a couple of nights ago at Walmart with no real intention in mind. They came in rather handy tonight. The Love blocks (turns into KISS< HUGS and XOXO) I found in the $ bins at Target last month to use on our mantle in the family room...well they have come in rather handy.

 I stole Justin's shelf that I had bought him for his pool table/game room that is currently housing the toy room and our couch... I will buy him a new one when we finally take the pool table out of storage. My yellow cricut fits in rather nicely with the green walls. I love it! My Mom bought me this cricut on clearance at Walmart last month...must have been last years model or something.

 Okay so it looks pretty pathetic at the moment, I have not watered it today... (ok I just did)...I think it will need to be moved to a sunnier room..But I LOVE hydrangeas, these were to be my wedding flowers of choice when we married almost 6 yrs ago, but we could not find them anywhere. My wedding color was this shade of blue. My Mom bought this for me at Savemart this week after I would not stop complaining about how I wanted one because they looked so awesome...

 My tools of choice...I love this pen, one side is fine the other is thicker...Works great for all kinds of things yet does not bleed like the sharpie fine tip marker. I have not received my business cards yet so I had to whip something up this morning to send with my orders today. Oh and you can see my adorable custom (affordable) stamp there too...

 I have a MOM calendar...has columns for husband and kids as well as MOM (me)... so I can keep track of everything. I am now writing my orders up there as well to keep track.

 I have had this piece of paper since I first worked at Chase bank. This kind of creepy guy on my team in the cube next to me dreamed of becoming a Disney Imagineer...He could draw anything. Well he drew this for me one day  because I am infatuated with all things Eeyore (The positive pessimist)....LOL I have kept this drawing since 2002, carried it throughout my career at Chase, then State Farm and as a stay at home mom. I love it!!! Cannot remember the guys name, but I will cherish this forever.

 

I bought this lamp a year ago...I cannot remember which came first, the paint color on the walls or the lamp. But I had a vision and they belonged with each other. I love this lamp..best $16.99 I ever spent at Target. It produces a lot of light for a little guy and it helps to fill in the light that the overhead lighting misses for my card photos. Makes all the difference! It even produces enough light to work by without the overhead...But when crafting I prefer all the light I can get. 

And finally...my little Eeyore statue up on the shelf looking over me everyday. It reads It seems I've got another case of the Mondays. Probably my favorite aspect...

Well there you have it, the place I hobby at... My little sanctuary when my kids are not crashing it. My own little eclectic mix of items all thrown together into one room. My desk was a freebie from a lady I met on freecycle in AZ and it has been moved 4x since I received it in 2008. I painted it white (not well)...it is older than I am and weighs a ton. But it is good to me!!! Well it is now officially the weekend! I am going to enjoy my kid free time and craft tomorrow!!! Happy weekend!!!

And the first winner is.......

Congratulations to my awesome groupie (ie. follower) Celina!!!! You are the winner, chosen at random via (the hat randomizer program) to receive a handmade card of your choice. I will shoot you a message to let you know. 

And if you do not already follow Celina in her blog, you should. She has had some awesome life experiences, and well she is all around an awesome lady...I have had the privilege of knowing her since at least 9th grade. Which means around 13+ years...She is a quirky woman with a wonderful sense of humor and has a great eloquence in her writing.   Check her out here: http://www.singlegirlinethiopia.com/

Today I have three orders going out! Yay!

One is to my husbands co-worker which also happens to be his sisters bestie- for one dozen cake pops and a handmade 30th birthday card. Thank you to my husband who will be "delivering" them to her at work today.

Two is a dual card order of my monkey card shipped to Campbell, Ca to a woman I met at good ole Wells Middle School...I hope she likes them <3

Three is a random order placed this morning from someone on etsy (yay to being the 2nd person I do not know to order from me :O) ....All the way in Northport, NY (wherever that may be).

So I am pretty sure it is Friday, or at least I hope it is because I am so looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. I hope everyone has a fantabulous weekend and congrats to our first winner...Lets get to 25 so I can do another one, with CAKE POPS!!!  

One last post before I crawl into bed.

I had to post pictures of the two cards I made tonight. I thought they turned out cute. One of my friends from facebook wanted an anniversary card for her husband, they have been married eight years. She also wanted cards for her daughter and son...well when I asked her what they like she said Pokemon and Legos...I explained I did not have any cartridges like that so do they have any other interests...well her son really only likes legos. So I freehanded my interpretation of a one dimensional lego card. Hope everyone else thinks it is as good as my more than exhausted mommy brain does.

An Awesome Day! What More Could I Ask For?!?

Regardless of the fact that I felt awful today with my back issues and this terrible migraine I have had for a month now (likely stems from the back pain)...I had an awesome day.
I came on here and what do you know...I have 10 followers now. Whoohoo! So that means a card giveaway, I will be using a program to randomly pick one of you ten this afternoon....then I will post it on here and notify you so you can let me know what kind of card you would like.

Another reason today was awesome, I got to hang out with some of my Mommy friends and make paper lanterns for Chinese New Year. They turned out really cute, I have not made them since elementary school. Logan did an awesome job cutting his own too.

Yet another reason today was awesome, I completed a few more cards and am one card away from completing a three card order. I made a lego card and I think it turned out pretty cool. Also made an anniversary card for someone I have known since the 6th grade and his wife whom I worked with at my first job (Target) in 1999.

Two final reasons, #1-I got to hang out with my sister in law. I think things are going great and it feels really nice to hang out and share a common interest. I enjoy spending time with her because she is in my age bracket and I feel so much younger than my own sister so we do not spend much time together.
#2 I FINISHED my 1ST cake pop order!!!! They taste fricken wonderful and they are adorable...not only in my opinion, but in the biased opinion of my Mom, Step Dad, Husband and Sister-in-Law. My kids enjoyed eating them for dessert tonight as well. They are tasti-licious!!! 

So all in all a wonderful day. It only gets better since it is now FRIDAY....annnnnnnddddd my kids will be going to Nana & Papa's on Saturday to spend the night. Can you say sleeping in....date night with hubby and going to go to lunch with my Sister-in-Law on Sunday. Shaping up to be fabulous. Hope everyone has a great weekend :O)

Oh here are some pictures of my finished product!