New Etsy Shop - First Available Kit

The requests to make class kits available have become more and more steady in the past few months. After almost 2 years of contemplating I decided to open up an Etsy shop and offer select class kits. The link to my shop is located on the right column of my blog. First up is my Stitched Bits Necklace. I have listed 3 kits, one in turquoise, butter yellow and fuschia.

I spent a nice rainy day at my craft table working on a class for summer. I'll be back with a preview soon.

I Feel SO Much Better Now

OK, I'm pretty organized. I've always been organized. There's just one glitch. If I become even the slightest bit disorganized somewhere in the house it totally derails me in that area. At some point in time my closet became something I could not peek in without heart palpitations and cold sweats. This afternoon I was looking for something and my inner neat freak said now's the time to face this! Two hours, a mountain of clothes, bags and shoes later and I'd reclaimed my closet. Let's go over what I found that I thought I had lost:

1. My favorite sweatshirt with a kangaroo pocket in the front. Probably the oldest piece of clothing that I have and I love it. {Note: This sweatshirt will never see the light of day, I only feel comfortable wearing it within the confines of my home}.

2. Birth certificates for all 5 of us. Apparently I stashed them in a basket on a high shelf thinking I would remember where I put them. Unfortunately, thinking we'd lost them on our last cruise and needing my daughters for Kindergarten registration, my husband got copies two weeks ago for all of us. It cost us $130.00.

3. The fire safe that I bought to put the birth certificates in. We all know how that went.

4. My girl scout sash and handbook circa 1980. And since I'm on the subject I have to say, I sure rocked the scouting and I've got the badges to prove it sista.

5. My favorite black flip flop. Yes, singular. I threw the other one out during the last cleaning.

So there you have it. Cleaning can save you money, bring back memories and give you some peace!

Have You Had One of These?

Yes...those that know me well know that I've cut way back lately but I've been saving some calories for this new found fascination. Have you had one of these??? O'ma goodnezzzz....they are SO good. I found them at Whole Foods. I'm waiting for everybody to go to BED so that I can bust out a piece and eat it while I watch The Bachelor. I gotta go get this how on the road.

He's Here, Yeah!

Yesterday my youngest sister had her first baby. The entire family has been anxiously awaiting Ariel's arrival, and he made us wait an extra 5 days. Her husband, my Mother and the sisters were able to be present for the birth. Having had all c-sections all I have to say is WOW. It was absolutely amazing. My sister has long been known to have an extremely low pain threshhold so we were expecting lots of screaming and crying. Oh how wrong we were. It was as if she'd done it dozens of times before.

What I marveled at {and am still marveling at} is my sisters reaction to him when they handed him right up to her. You could just FEEL the love rush over you. The tenderness of meeting your baby face to face for the first time is something that only happens a few times in a lifetime and there's no greater moment in life. So much worry, planning and excitement comes together in that one moment. When it's happening to you you don't stop to really know that that process is happening, it just seems to whirl by so quickly. To see it happen to someone as close as a sister and being able to experience that joy through her is a powerful thing.

Ruffles

I know, I just posted about a pair of boots that I was able to find and that was exciting but not nearly as exciting as running across these beauts. I missed out on these last season and they were nowhere to be found. From time to time I've looked on eBay but I never saw any listed until last week. Something told me to check and a girl who never wore these decided to list them to get them out of her closet {and into mine!}. I literally bought them 2 minutes after she listed them. When they came at the end of last week I thought my husband would say they were "just like the other pair". To my surprise he offered up that he liked them both and if he were me it would be to hard to decide between them so he told me to keep them both. And that dear friends, is why I decided to keep HIM :)

Anxious To Start Planting

Every year at this time I start getting anxious to begin planting. See the fuzzy soft leaf in the picture above? I saw my first one ever last year in North Carolina, apparently it's called a Lambs Ear. Do we have these in CA? I'm soon to find out because I love how they look with a pretty bunch of blooms.

I also can't get enough of these vanilla strawberry hydrangeas that I saw on the Better Homes and Gardens website. I'm thinking about mail ordering some.

As I type this I'm certain my husband feels like a day of planting is looming in his future. That's because I'm fabulous at picking things out and paying for them but not so good at the planting part. Should I see a worm {in my mind, a tiny snake} I'd likely faint and fall on it. Yes, I'll leave the digging and planting to him.

I do have a winner for my give-a-way too, The Gypsy Magpie has been emailed so that I can get her Marmalade in the mail to her next week. Thanks to all who left a comment. I read each one.

Meyer Lemon Marmalade - Give-A-Way Time

My neighbor has the best Meyer lemon tree. If you've never had a Meyer lemon you've truly missed out. A Meyer is a cross between a lemon and a tangerine. They are VERY citrusy, we'll just make that a word. Just slicing one lemon open will fill your entire kitchen with a wonderful frangrance. We had a tree in our backyard when we bought our house but they can attact bees and attract them ours did. We ended up cutting it down. When I feel like cutting one up to salt and eat I just go to the fence and pick some that hang over our fence. I ran across a recipe for Meyer Lemon Marmalade and thought I'd give it a try.

I started with 5 lbs of lemons...

I halved them, taking out the seeds as I went...

I was able to pick up a bit of help for the juicing of the lemons...

5 lbs of lemons will give you way more juice than you need for the recipe so we stopped to make some lemonade with the excess. This is the best lemonade you'll ever have...

Once I sliced, boiled and simmered the pulp and peels, I canned them and added some sweet floral flannel fabric under each ring. If you've ever canned you know it's a big job. In fact, I've only given a few jars away so far and only to peeps that I love. SO...I've set one jar aside for a give-a-way this week. Leave a comment on this post and I will pick a winner on Tuesday.

This will be so delish on a hot from the oven scone and some fresh whipped cream don't you think?

Just Like Old Times

I've been wanting a bike for a while now. Not just any old bike though, I want a tri-cycle like I had when I was 12. They are SO cool. Mine was metallic olive green and I had a gigantic basket in the back, just like this one. It seems like yesterday that I would ride it to the corner store for an apple Jolly Rancher stick or a pack of Toffifay {remember those?}. Whew! Turning corners on that thing got a bit precarious when I was really jammin.

This one fits the bill and the color is "Dark Cherry", gotta love that! As I've mentioned before, my parents live one street away so I'll use it lots. The basket will come in handy when my Mom hands me the ever present bag of all the stuff my kids left behind the last time they were over.

You Only Know Me To Be...

the vintagey, recipe loving, home beautifying, crafty, lover of all things pretty but I do have another side that you might be surprised to know about. It's WAY less known but I'm also:

1. A PBR {Professional Bull Rider} fanatic. It's by far my favorite sport and I follow it the entire season. As I type I'm making a mental note to ask my Mama if she'll watch my kids so that I can go to the Fresno Invitational in March {go J.B. Mauney!}.

2. I played on a co-ed softball team for a few years and can hit a ball like there's no tomorrow. I'm scheduled to start again this spring on my brother in laws team.

3. Wanna go bowling? I'll pick up and go anytime. LOVE IT. High fives and all.

4. I love going to the gun range on my lunch hour with my boss of almost 18 years and I'm a pretty good shot.

5. I can tie my own flies for fly fishing.

I could go on but I'll stop there before you start picturing me crushing beer cans with my forehead {which I don't do by the way}.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! While I'm not big on resolutions I love the start of a new year. It holds so much promise and potential. I LOVE to have things to look forward to. I've always been this way. I enjoy looking at my calendar to see what my future holds, whether it be a concert, a play, a game night or a camping trip.

Tonight I picked up everything I needed to make Sloppy Joes on the way home from work and at the check out I saw, "What's your next chapter?", on the cover of Oprah's magazine. It got me thinking on my short drive home...what is my next chapter? What if I like the chapter I'm in? For right now I don't long to change anything major, but I'm completely open to improving what's already good.

To help me with my thoughts, checklists and goals I made a new journal. I jammed it up with tons of room to write and lots of inspiration.

A few reminders to be good...

and places to write important thoughts, dates and fun things we've planned for the future.

I hope the new year is treating you well!