Black Apple Dolls

A couple of weeks ago the Scout came down with the creeping crud and my husband and the Peanut decided they would make our scheduled trip to the family cabin without us. We didn't want to risk the ear infection. Guess what, she got the ear infection anyway! So while the Scout and I sat at home a wee bit bored in front of the TV, I thought we might get the sewing machine out and whip out a couple of Black Apple Dolls. I had been watching Martha Stewart a few weeks before and saw my favorite crafty girl, Emily Martin of The Black Apple being interviewed. She showed the audience how to make these cute dollies and then put a free pattern on Martha's website. How sweet is that? So I ran in and hit the print button in a jiffy and was waiting till I had a bit of time to whip up these little darlings. I really wanted to do them in a Halloween print with some goth black hair. I have tons of Halloween scraps laying around since it happens to be one of my favorite holidays.

I think the dolls came out really cute and my girls were so excited to get a little gift for Halloween. I did fudge a bit on the faces. I didn't have any canvas but I did have some old muslin curtains that my mom was getting rid of that worked fantastic. I also want to suggest to NOT use a Sharpee marker for the faces as I did. Invest in a nice fabric marker like I should have.

Here is a link to Emily Martin's tutorial: Black Apple Dolls. I hope you enjoy it!

Be sure to stop by my other blog at Cowgirls and Cupcakes and leave us a comment or send us a recipe via email to get you qualified for our 2nd big giveaway!

Two Really Cool Blogs

I love to read other peoples blogs especially when I can find something that I have in common with the blog writer. The first one is: According to Kelly and is a must read if you are a mommy, wife, crafter extraordinaire. She has great postings and a really cool SWAP once a year that I just participated in. Please check out her blog if you get a chance as well as her etsy shop with her awesome jewelry.

The other blog I would love for you to check out if you haven't already is:
No Time For Flash Cards. This site has some amazing projects for kids. This site is so fantastic. I really wish that I could have found it earlier in the summer!

What Have I Been Busy Doing?

I know, no blog for weeks, but I do have a good excuse. I was creating a new blog. What? Another blog, you say? Yes, but this one is different then Pink Petunia Designs. This blog is called: Cowgirls and Cupcakes. It is written by yours truly and my BFF Kim. We have been in the plannings for this blog now for awhile and were able to finally launch it about a week ago. The premise for Cowgirls and Cupcakes is: Recipe sharing as well as tips and tricks for people that have food allergies or feeding a special needs child. We came up with the idea after getting frustrated with our same old meal routines. Our families get bored of eating the same old stuff night after night so we decided to do something about it. Kim and I have both been a part of recipe swaps online with our friends and family and we thought we would take it to the next level and post it on a site for everyone to share. Right now, Kim and I are both posting our own "tried and true" recipes but very soon (like this week) we will be opening it up to the public to send us your best recipes old or new and maybe a little history behind them or even a picture and a link to your site or blog if you have one. So please, please, check out the new site and I will try to be better about posting to little Pinky here.

Thank You Heather!

This is a little late due to a big family vacation, but wanted to say a HUGE THANK YOU to my wonderful SWAP partner for the "My Favorite Things SWAP" - Mrs. Heather Larson. The first time I read Heather's two blogs I knew that I was going to have the coolest partner - EVER! Her package arrived and I couldn't wait to bust right into it. Check out all of the cool color coordinated goods that she hooked me up with. Her theme was how to survive a summer pregnant. Although I am not prego, she is expecting her first little one in September and also lives in Arizona. I can't imagine dealing with 110 degree heat while having a swingbelly. I used to complain in the middle of June when it reached 95 and I had gained 70lbs (gulp) of a swingbelly. I can't imagine 110!!!!! Heather had it going on with all of her cool things to survive a pregnant summer. I am a handbag junkie so the cute little seahorse handbag was immediately put to use as well as those hot yellow sunglasses! I love all of the fun things in the package and have already used every single thing that was in there. Thank you Heather! One of my favorites was a mood magnet that she included. The hub checks it every day to see what my mood is and if he needs to proceed with caution. LOL. Thank you so much Heather for the fun package and I hope that you like what I sent! Check out Heather's digi blog. I wished that she lived closer so that she could teach me all about digital scrapbooking! It fascinates me!

Favorite Things Swap

Because you know that I love to get things in the mail ..... I had to do it..... I joined "My Favorite Things SWAP" over at According to Kelly. If you haven't checked out this blog yet, please do so. Kelly has great posts and well worth a look see. For this SWAP we will have to send our SWAP partner three (or more) of our favorite things. I have a few ideas already stirring around in my brain and have already purchased one small piece of a favorite collectible glass at the thrift store. I wont' reveal any more than that because I want it to stay a surprise for my partner. I will post pictures after the SWAP is complete at the end of June. Can't wait to open my mailbox!

My Cute Yard Bird

Have you seen my cute yard bird. I just wanted to share a picture of him! I think he has such personality. He is made out of all recycled parts and stands tall and proud while protecting our garden from its unwanted predators. I think you need one of these birds too! The price was fantastic! If you would like to order one of these fabulous guys for your yard and live in the Sacramento or surrounding areas, or don't mind driving to pick it up, please contact: sactowatt@aol.com.

Please type "Garden Bird" in the subject line! Sorry the cute kiddos are not included, but it does give you a good idea of how tall they stand. I am really thinking about getting another one so he has a buddy. Who needs gargoyles when you have yard birds?

A couple of things...

I have missed so much blogging and the only excuse I have for it is the Peanut catching a really bad virus that turned into croup. Lovely stuff. The humidifier, 7-up and SpongeBob have been running pretty much 24 hours a day around here. Now, I have the creeping crud too. What a bummer! Anyway, I will have to play a bit of catch-up now, so there will be quite a bit of info in this post.

First and foremost, I have to catch up by posting about the Jazz Festival. It was weeks ago now, but wanted to post about how much of a good time we had. We have family friends Matt and Sherri Colby-Bottel that play in the Blue Street Jazz Band at the Festival. I have seen Matt and Sherri perform on many occasions but have always wanted to see them play at the Jazz Festival. We didn't purchase tickets because we were unsure how long we would actually be able to stay at the festival with two small kids. We checked out the schedule the night before and knew they were playing at the Downtown Plaza Piazza, so we went to check it out. They have the Sacramento Brew Pub and Grill convenient placed across the way from the stage so we decided to break for a little lunch and see if we could snag a patio seat to watch the show. We were able to score a table outside and had a nice lunch. The band showed up and played. Sherri wasn't singing until the next venue, so we definitely wanted to stick around till the next show. All of the band members were fantastic, and as you can see by the pic above, there was a whole lot of dancing going on. The band is situated all over the United States. Matt and Sherri currently reside in Louisiana where Sherri is finishing up her doctorate program and Matt works out of their home as a computer program designer. Their music is described as "New Orleans jazz with a mix of swing, Mardi Gras, folk song, marches, waltzes, Latin music, and hymns." Truly an eclectic mix. I would highly recommend checking out their website for a look see and a listen too. I just noticed that they also have a myspace with one of my new favorite songs, "Creole Song," which is truly amazing to listen to. We made our way over to the Pizza Pavilion for their next show. We didn't buy tickets, but there were places on the street that you could see into the show. To our surprise, Sherri worked her magic and got us in to see their show. It was great, and the kids enjoyed dancing it up. I always enjoy watching people perform when you know they love what they do. Matt has been playing the banjo for as long as I can remember. His mom and my mom have been best friends since kindergarten so I have known him for many years. Sherri does all the vocals and has been singing with the band since she was thirteen. Here is a pic that the hub took after the show. The band will be celebrating their 25th year together this year! Congratulations to the band and a big Thanks to Matt and Sherri for a great time at the Jazz Festival!

That same weekend we took our first trip ever to our local farmers market. It was fun. A little more pricey than what I had expected, but it was still cool seeing all the fresh produce and flowers. I did have to break down and buy some fresh flowers for my kitchen. I couldn't resist. They also had a man there that had bottled his own olive oil. He was Italian of course, and greeted my daughter with a "Ciao Bella," he was probably in his sixties but I was in love. The accent gets me every time. If I went to Italy or Ireland I may never return. Ha Ha. Sorry cute husband of mine, you know that I am just kidding! So I am definitely going to return to buy some olive oil from him when I run out of the 50 gallons that I just recently purchased from Costco.

We were on a mission when we went to the Farmer's Market, we were on a strawberry mission! We planned to go home and bust out some yummy strawberry jam that afternoon. The prices were pretty high for strawberries, so we jumped in the car and ran down the street to the local strawberry stand where we scored a flat for only $18.00. A true bargain especially when they were just picked that morning. The car smelled like a giant strawberry shake by the time we got home. My husband has made jam on one other occasion and I, myself, have never made jam. My Grandma makes jelly and jam by the droves every year. She is truly and incredible woman, one that I will have to dedicate a whole post to. Like I said before, I have never made jam so the hub took over the jam making process with the girls and I shot the pics. Here are couple of the yummy ones:

The jam came out great. We ended up having eight large jars. My contribution was the pictures and the artsy labels. We have already given away seven of the eight jars so we will be bustin out some more pretty soon here.

Another thing that I have been meaning to blog about was a great new blog and website that is from the creative minds of a few of my Craft Mafia sisters. Its called Pimp Stitch. If you love embroidery as much as I do, you will definitely want to check out this site. They are offering a free pattern a week until their opening of their site late this month. So head on over and check out the creative brains of Amy Cluck of Peptogirl, Missy Balance of Mohair Circus, Tamie Snow of Roxycraft and Lauren Brandy of Goody Goody. Please go and "Pimp Your Stitch!"

And speaking of Mrs. Missy Balance. I received a fun package in the mail the other day that had such cool things inside. I had ordered one of her spool doll cell phone charms off of her etsy shop. It is so cute and looks quite good with her dark bobbed hair and my pink razor. She also included some super cute tags that say "Hey Cupcake" made with one of her Amuse stamps that she designed. This girl is multi-talented! I love the cupcake tags and am now going to have to purchase this cute stamp because we are having a cupcake party for the girls birthday and this stamp is just what I need. So thanks Missy!

Pink of Petunia's Peeps

Here is Pink of Petunia's Peeps. She's a fighter, a survivor, a hero. She helps fight breast cancer by wearing pink. Stacey of Bouton Blue, one of the winners of my pay-it-forward contest and long time friend, is now the proud owner of Miss Pink. Stacey graciously walked about a bazillion miles last year in the breast cancer walk. I so appreciated her dedication and willingness to support many of the women and men who have come face to face with breast cancer. Thank you Stacey, I hope you enjoy your peep!

Cooking Mayhem

A little while back I had finally succumbed to the fact that my bread maker was going to continue gathering dust in the cupboard and I really wasn't going to be making tons of bread for my family. I decided to ask my sister-in-law if she would like to have it. She said, "sure." So the bread maker went to her house. She baked us up some fabulous french bread a while back in my old bread maker and then I kinda got the urge to have a bread maker again so I could make my own yummy bread. I also thought it was a great alternative for the Scout. I am always looking for breads that have no milk or egg products, and this way I could totally control the contents. I was telling my Aunt Sharon of my longing to again be the owner of a bread maker and she said that she had one that she would give me because she never uses it anymore. Score! I was pumped this afternoon to bust out a loaf of french bread. I made a pot of soup and a key lime pie for dessert. We will be headed to the Jazz Jubilee tomorrow and thought this would be the perfect thing for when we got home late and I didn't feel like cooking. I followed the recipe that my sister-in-law had given me. It was easy. I followed the directions on the bread maker. O.k., no problem, good. I hit the button to start, and the bread maker took off kneading the dough. Excellent, I am three hours away from my hot french bread. And then I heard a loud knocking sound and suddenly the thing shut off. Hmmm. Maybe its starting to rise. No, the book says it has to knead the dough for 18 minutes and its only been 7. Uh oh, I smell the motor burning. Uh oh, its not working. Drat!!!!! So I call up my Uncle Tom and Aunt Sharon and shared my dilemma with them. Not like they would have been able to fix it when they are all the way in Napa, but I needed a consult. They said they didn't know what it could be, but that it was probably something that could be fixed. Now my Uncle Tom has been a fabulous baker most all of his adult life. He started working at Napa City Bakery when he was 14 sweeping the floors and eventually moved to Buttercream Bakery where he decorated beautiful cakes for everyone, and I mean everyone in Napa. His cake decorating was well known wherever he went. He told me "Punkin," this is what he has called me since I was born, "just throw it in your Kitchen-Aid and put the bread hook on and let it knead it for awhile. Then just let it raise where its warm and throw it in the oven." O.k. I will try it. I really had my doubts, not in his abilities, because I know his would turn out good, but I was worried about my ability to follow his directions properly. So I kneaded it with the bread hook in the Kitchen-Aid and then let it raise for about 45 minutes and then I threw it into the oven at 350 for about an hour. This was a total guess on my part. I just sat by and watched it. In the meantime I went to work on my key lime pie and the recipe called for me to whip the mixture until it formed soft peaks. I have made my own whip cream on several occasions and know it takes a while for it to form the soft peaks, but I whipped this thing with my mixer for over 20 minutes and then got frustrated and threw it in my Kitchen-Aid for another 10 and no soft peaks. It got a little bit foamy, but there was no peaks. My brother popped by at this time and I was so frustrated with cooking I was about to cry. The kitchen was a mess and the poor guy was trying to tell me about his day and all I could think about was my stupid bread maker not working and the dumb key lime pie not making those foamy peaks. Sorry bro, next time I promise to be a better listener, I was a little to preoccupied with my many mishaps. To make a long story short, the key lime pie came out o.k. minus the peaks and the bread came out of the oven and was "done to a T" as my Uncle Tom likes to say. Thanks Uncle Tom, you really helped me out with your great tutelage! The girls dug into the bread like it was the last thing on Earth to eat and I thought it was pretty great too!

Another Yummy Recipe

I am always looking for good alternatives for foods that I love, but now have to avoid due to food allergies. I found out a little over a year ago that I am allergic to soy. A lot of people with heavy duty peanut allergies (such as myself) are allergic to soy. I was lucky, because I got away with 30 years of being able to eat it without incident. I have found through researching labels, that it is in literally everything processed or store bought. So goes my quest for finding soy-free, but still yummy products. With that said, I was deeply saddened by the fact that I could not have my favorite ranch dressing anymore. You see, ranch dressing in the bottle is full of mayonaisse, which is made with vegetable oil, which is soybean oil, which is what I have to try to avoid. I can eat it, but then I begin paying for it with losing my voice and trouble breathing and heaviness in my throat. As much as I love it, its just not worth the feeling.



I happened to turn on Rachel Ray today, which is the Peanuts favorite show, (the girl loves to cook) and she was making homemade ranch. I was sure it was going to be loaded with mayonaisse, but then to my delight it didn't contain any soy products at all. Hallelujah! It is made with lots of buttermilk, which I thought was always heavier than cream, but found out it is made from skim milk and has way less calories than cream. Could that news get any better? So here is the recipe to make your own. I am hoping it turns out as good as it sounds.

Ranch-O-Rama

1cup buttermilk


1/4 cup sour cream (you can use light)


1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar


1 clove garlic, grated


2 tablespoons (about a palmful ) fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped


2 tablespoons (about a palmful) fresh dill, chopped


1 tablespoon (a small palmful) fresh chives, chopped


Salt and freshly ground black pepper


Yields 6 servings


In a medium-size bowl, mix together the buttermilk, sour cream, white wine vinegar, garlic, hot sauce, parsley, dill and chives. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix in any of your favorite ingredients to make it special

A Gift In The Mail

I love getting mail. I wish everyone would just stop emailing and go back to writing letters, it would make me so happy. I have always had an affinity for stationery and pens, stamps and sealing wax; so you can imagine my delight when I opened up the mail the other day and found the best present waiting for me. It was personalized stationery made for me by the very talented Melissa Haworth of Haworth Handmade. She is also a fellow Craft Mafia sister of mine. I didn't realize till I opened them, that there were many different designs that she had included. How awesome is that! I was a winner of her pay-it-forward contest on her blog and this was my prize! It is so fabulous, I can't wait to write a note and send it on. Thank you Melissa for my nice present and for spelling my name correctly!! I love them!

Scouts Big Girl Bedroom Renovation Part #2

The hubby, the Peanut and I headed out to IKEA yesterday to do a little shopping for the Scout's room renovation. We ended up buying her a dresser. I have been eyeing it for over a year now along with the bedding. Here is a sneak peak at the bedding that I just purchased last week at Target. Its called the Preppy Girl Collection. I bought two bedding sets. One in twin and the other in double. Sometimes I like to have the length of the double on a twin bed. I have had them where they are two short even with a bedskirt. So we will be returning one after we try it on for fit. Our plan is to put up white bead board on all four walls and in the closet along with new white baseboard and white crown moulding along the ceiling. The hubby is going to be scraping the ceiling first to get all the old nasty popcorn off. I was really hoping to have my hardwood floors installed before we did the Scouts room, but maybe next year! The hubby is making shelving for the closet and new hanging bars. I can't wait to see how everything will turn out. Back to the trip to IKEA, the place was dead because it was a weekday afternoon. It was so nice. We cruised around with our Starbucks coffees and tried out all the couches. I actually got to check out a lot of things that I never got to check out before. We looked at some new cabinets for the kitchen (YAY!- my kitchen has 70' retro cabinets right now) and a closet or wardrobe to replace ours in our bedroom. The hubby was driving one of those flatbed carts with the Peanut riding on top of the boxes. He thought it would be a brilliant idea to jump on the cart and ride it all the way up to the register. He is a rule breaker unlike his wife! He didn't make it too far because halfway through the warehouse the young and ambitious IKEA staff caught him and yelled at him to get down off the cart and to walk. He He! I just walked about fifty feet behind him and acted like I didn't know him. I am always having to do this because he is rebel and embarrasses me on a regular basis!

Petunia's Peeps

For a while now I have been calling my little "people" paintings by the title, "Little Folk Art Primitives." I decided that it sounded boring and needed to be kicked up a notch, so I settled on a new name for these little folky divas. I am now going to refer to them as "Petunia's Peeps!" I love it when people use the term "peeps!" So here are a few of the recent creations that went out to the pay-it-forward winners. I still am working on two more and almost have them complete. They are so much fun to paint and I really tried to capture the winners interests in my paintings.

Here are a few of Petunia's Peeps that are proudly displayed somewhere in America!

Secret Indulgences

I know the picture looks kinda gross, but let me tell you how good these sweet potato french fries are that I made last night. They are so good, that I might even give up chocolate for them. What?!? Yes, they are that good. Here is how I made them:

I purchased two sweet potatoes (not the yams but the sweet potatoes) at the store. They are both sweet potatoes of sorts, but the ones that you want are white in the middle, not the orange. Sweet potatoes have been found to be one of the most nutritious vegetables out there. They are super high in fiber, beta carotene, Vitamin B6 and Vitamin C.

Peel them or leave the skins on whichever you prefer. I peeled them, because you know how kids get with skins or crusts left on anything.

Cut them however you prefer your fries. I cut them in about 1/2" layers and then cut them into skinny fries and laid them out on a cookie sheet.

Next, I drizzled a little bit of extra light virgin olive oil over the top. I learned with the oil that less is more - see oil in picture.

Sprinkle a little bit of salt and pepper over the top to your liking.

Pop them into a 450 degree pre-heated oven for fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes use a spatula or tongs and flip them over and let them bake for another fifteen minutes. When you pull them out they should be pretty well done. If you want them a little more brown just pop them back in for a few more minutes.

They don't come out especially crispy, but Wowee, I ended up eating almost the whole cookie sheet.

While we are on the subject of secret indulgences, I have a confession to make - I snuck out of the house this afternoon while the hubby was still at home watching the kids play and cruised over to get my daily Starbucks vanilla latte and they had one of my favorite cookies of all time in the display case - Snickerdoodles!

I looked around and made sure there was nobody watching and when the barista asked me if I would like to have anything else, I smiled and did a jig and said, "One Snickerdoodle Please." I really would have preferred to order the whole case, but one will have to do for today. I couldn't go home with my huge delicious cookie in hand (there would have been some hurt feelings and big lips mainly from my husband for not getting him one) so I decided to indulge even further and eat the whole thing in my car in the parking lot. It tasted so good especially with my iced vanilla latte. Even though it was like 100 degrees in my car, I enjoyed every second of it. Its amazing how secret little indulgences like these can make a person so happy. Tomorrow I meet my personal trainer Jenn and there will be no more secret indulgences for awhile. Just thought I would get that little confession off my chest. Man, that cookie was good!

A Mama for Owen

Wanna read the cutest book ever? Check this one out, it's called "A Mama for Owen" by Marion Dane Bauer. Its about a baby hippo named Owen who gets lost from his Mama and adopts a 130 year old tortoise named Mzee (pronounced Mazay) to become his new mommy. This is actually based on a true story and is about the sweetest book I have ever read.

You Can Feel My Pain

Yesterday I saunter over to Wal-Mart with the Scout to pick up some rather unimportant items. I like to slither through my secret entrance in the garden department where I always find the shortest line and get super-close parking. So I am standing in the line in the garden department realizing that everyone else found out about my secret entrance and is now in line with me when the Scout (who up until this point has been strangely quiet) begins to speak...........

Scout: "Mama?"

Deb: "Yes, Scout."

Scout began to speak with the most clarity and tone that I have ever heard come out of her little mouth. Picture the President's Inaugural Address. Here it goes..................................................

Scout: "Mama, did you know that Poppy (grandpa) is a boy......................................................
so HE goes potty standing up!"

It was an epiphany that had been brewing the entire Wal-Mart trip.

Wal-Mart Customers & Employees in the Garden Department: (Uproarious Laughter)

Trying to maintain my composure. I really didn't know whether to burst out laughing or to drop to my knees and cry from embarrassment.

Deb: "You know Scout, you're right, he does go potty standing up!"

The woman behind the counter was very nice and scanned my stuff rather quickly with a huge smile on her face. I was hoping that she was a Mom and could feel my pain as I wanted to escape out of my secret entrance as fast as possible. I almost ran-over the greeter with my cart on the way out. Sorry guy!

Scouts Big Girl Bedroom Renovation Part #1

Craigslist is the best! I just purchased this "big girl" bed for the Scout for $100.00 on Craigslist. The footboard is not pictured here. Its just a little bit smaller then the headboard and oh so shabby chic. I have been literally looking for months for a wrought iron bed for the Scouts "big girl" room. I have been to antique stores, garage sales, combed ebay many times and finally found the perfect bed just waiting for me in Carmichael for $100.00. Such a steal when most of the places are charging $500-$600 for a brand new one minus the mattress and box spring. Can you tell I am a bargain shopper. I was a little worried when I saw the picture online that the bed was going to be smaller than what I had wanted, but I was pleasantly surprised when the lady opened up her garage door, and their stood the bed that I was looking for! Yipee! Right now the bed is a white enamel and I have big plans on painting it black. We have plans on gutting the Scouts room and starting over with bead board on the walls and crown molding along the ceiling, a new closet and new furniture. I will be adding a few of my own paintings to the walls and already have a few good ideas about what I will be doing. Right now we are tentatively scheduled for mid-June for the big project. It will be interesting with her moving into our room temporarily along with all of her clothes and belongings for the duration of the project.I will be keeping you posted on the upcoming renovations!

A Great Mother's Day

Its been a few days or a few weeks since I have posted. Life has just been so busy lately. I haven't even had time to catch up on my blog reading. I have been busy with the Peanuts school activities, Little League, family stuff and my school stuff. There is only three more weeks of school left for my big kindergartner and then she will be moving to the first grade. Oh my how time flies! I have been totally neglecting my Pink Petunia Designs, and for that, I apologize.

I hope all of my readers that are mommy's out there had a fantastic Mother's Day! Mine was perfect. I woke up in the morning to the Peanut bringing me toast (that she had toasted herself) and orange juice in bed. I then was taken by the hand by both the Scout and the Peanut out to the kitchen where I was dazzled by a fantastic white bag full of handmade BEAUTIFUL cards! It was the best gift a girl could get. The hubby and the girls also garnished me with a new I-tunes gift card (because I had used up all of my husband's a couple of days before. Sorry Sweetie!) I also am the proud new owner of a new pair of pink Crocs. My girls both have a pair and I really wanted a pair, so the hubby and the Scout went to every store in the mall to find them for me. They are probably the ugliest pair of shoes on Earth, but you should really try a pair, the comfort will overwhelm you, and you will quickly toss out your Manolo Blahniks for a new pair of Crocs. After I lavished in all of my beautiful gifts and cusine, we had our baths, packed up the good old gas saving Yaris, and threw in the kids for a fun-filled day at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. It was Girl Scout Day so the Peanut got in free and the Scout did too! Nice! The day was so fun. The girls loved the sea lion show and Thomas Town. The Peanut rode the big log ride with her Daddy (see pic above where the hubby is waiving) and had a great time. She's a daredevil like her Daddy. Her Mommy is a pansy ass and hates big rides that make you want to barf or pee your pants. I know, what a wus!

I have to say that Six Flags is seriously throwing back some cash. $15.00 to park and then you have to walk literally about a half of a mile to get in the park with not a porta-potty in sight and two kids that have just been in the car for over an hour. $25.00 for 1 drink, 1 order of chicken fingers and 1 order of french fries with onion rings. Is this just a little bit out of hand, or is it just me? There was a sign posted that no outside food was allowed, so being the "rule follower" that I am, I didn't bring in any snacks or anything for my milk/egg allergy kid into the park. My husband who likes to break the rules, told me to just stick it in the backpack. They were searching backpacks out in the front and I was afraid they would make me throw it out, and then we would be really screwed. They opened our backpack for two seconds and said, "o.k. you are good." Everywhere I looked, people had brought in their own food. I was frustrated and at lunch the only thing that the Scout could eat was french fries from Johnny Rockets. I wanted to cry because I was so mad at myself. Note to theme parks out there: Sometimes outside food is necessary, especially when dealing with little guys that have bad food allergies to everything you serve. Note to self: Break the rules! Sometimes, it's o.k.! We ended the day with a wonderful meal at Denny's where I lavished in the super-bird (that sucker hit the spot) and french fries and the Scout finally got her chicken nuggets, soy milk and animal crackers that she been pining for all day. Poor kid! All in all it was my favorite Mother's Day to date!

O.k. off to bed. Crafting coming sometime in the near future, I swear!

Big Girl Happenings

There is some big girl stuff going on around here and I thought that I would share it with you. Here is the Peanut riding her big girl bike minus the training wheels. Last night she asked my hubby if she could have them off, and he said "Sure!" I think that he was more excited then she was. He held on to the back of her bike for about two seconds and off she sailed. A huge grin on her face. It even brought a few tears to my eyes and I was wishing that I had charged the batteries for the video camera, but who knew?
Today we went on a five mile bike ride down our beautiful American River Bike Trail. She would have gone fifty miles if we would have let her. When she got home she wanted to get back on and ride again. I love how small things like riding a bike can make kids exponentially happy! Who needs a Wii when you have this (see above). Its just her and the open road - and maybe Mom, Dad and little sister too!

A Gripe

I just have to gripe for a second about something that struck me as odd. My Dad and my Grandma both save coins for our kids to put in their piggy banks. When the piggy banks get overloaded we take the coins out and roll them and deposit them into their bank accounts. So my husband had rolled all of their silver change and had it ready for me to take to the bank but had not rolled the pennies. There was a lot of pennies and the job was quite daunting! So I jumped in the car and headed to the bank to make the deposit. I waited in line and a cute blond girl of about 18 welcomes me and asks what she can do for me. I said, " I would like to make a deposit into my daughters' accounts. "O.k." she said. "But ma'am, ( I loved being called this when I am all of 31) we can't accept coins unless they are rolled. Sorry!" What? I thought. Is she joking? No, she sure was not joking. I looked at her kinda in awe and said, "But you're a bank." She said, "Sorry ma'am." There's that horrid word again. 'O.k. well, I guess my pennies aren't going to be deposited today,' I thought. I guess the thing is, is that they don't have a coin counting machine. Do you believe this? This is a well-known financial institution that has been around since the beginning of time and their banks do not have coin counters? Does this seem a little odd to anyone or is it just me? I know that this sounds ridiculous, but I'm just so in shock by a bank not accepting your money because its not rolled. Interesting.
All in all the girl was nice and of course I know it wasn't her fault, but I just think that if they have the ability to transfer money over the computer, you sure as hell should be able to take your hard earned pennies to the bank and have them accept them. Abraham Lincoln would have been appalled! My mom told me that her business banking is done at another fine financial institution that has also been around forever and they to do not have coin counters either. What the hey guys? What's so bad about coin counters? They are able to put them in grocery stores and then take a percentage of your hard earned cash, but they can't put them in the place that is designed to account for your monies. Again, interesting. Sorry for the gripe, I am just irked by this whole banking negligence!

What a Flirt

There is a whole lot of flirting going on at this baseball game and I am not sure if I like it. I am in trouble, big time!

Thank You Bouton Blue!

I just want to say a big THANK YOU to Stacey at Bouton Blue. I won her pay-it-forward contest. Yeah! I get to pick out something on her etsy shop and I am so excited. I have known Stacey since high school. Stacey and I have had many fun adventures together and I am so excited that she is also a Craft Mafia sister of mine. Stacey has the best vintage button rings around and she is an incredible knitter to boot. Please check out her etsy store and shop till you drop. Her button rings and knitted hats make great gifts or just a nice treat for yourself as well. You also might want to check out her great blog called Pill's Place. Thanks Stace!

Sayonara Sucker!!!

Oh yeah, I want to do the happy dance right now. Why you ask? Because I just said goodbye to diapers until I have grandchildren. Ha Ha. Super Cool! This (pictured above) is the last diaper from the final box of diapers that I purchased a few months ago. The Scout got potty trained over President's week and pretty much was trained over night. She is of course still using diapers at night or pull ups and big girl panties during the day. She has been doing great and no accidents during the day. But this here, is the last diaper ever! Just pull ups at night from now on. In a way, I am kind of saddened by the whole thing as strange as it may sound, to think that the baby part of my life is over. It is a strange feeling to come to that realization that your baby is not a baby anymore. Boo Hoo! Ok. I am over it. But I can tell you, on the other hand, how happy I am that we don't have to buy diapers anymore. Wahoo! Saving some cash and saving the environment, well not quite, we are still using pull ups, but soon, very soon we will be out of those too! So humor me for a bit while a celebrate this strange but relevant day in my life!

Scoping Update

I haven't done a scoping update in a while and wanted to give you a quick one. I passed my last class and have moved on to the second to the last class which is the intense computer training. So far, so good. I have had quite a bit of experience in this program before, but I am learning a lot of new things. I am on chapter three of twenty and really hoping to finish it by the end of this month. I should probably be working on it instead of blogging, but you know how it is, why work on something hard when you work on something fun! O.k. o.k. I'm going!

Earth Day Festival

I just sold some of my wares at the Earth Day Festival at Southside Park here in Sac-a-tomato and I have to say it went really well! Me and a few of my Craft Mafia sisters set up shop under the trees. It was a beautiful location but so super cold. Our noses were running and my teeth were chattering as I was talking to passerbys. I shared a table with Craft Mafia sister Sophia of Simply Strands. Sophia was the best selling partner ever. She has the coolest personality and is a super talented jewelry designer. She was the coolest too over not eating her peanut butter granola bar. I totally appreciate it Sophia. You saved me from a day of hives and asthma. She has the best fused glass necklaces, so be sure to check her out! Some of the other Mafia sisters that were there included Lorrain of Rain's Embellishments, Antoinette of Creatress Designs, Amy of Peptogirl Industries and Monica and Ruby of Puppybird. All of them very talented girls.

I wish I could say that I have great pictures from the event, but alas my camera died and my spare battery decided to have a malfunction so I only got a couple of pics of our table and they are both not very good. But Amy on the other had took some fabulous pics that you can check out on her flickr. Our table looks much nicer in her pictures.

A big thanks to my friends Kirsten and Bill for coming out to visit me at the Earth Day Festival! It was nice to see familiar faces and I got to meet their cute little boys.

I made it back home not totally frozen to the core and happy over the days successes. I am going to be busting out some more paintings over the next month or so. I did get some good suggestions from customers so I will make a note and try to implement them into my paintings. Thanks everyone for the advice!

Check Out My New Card

My best buddy Kim is a really great graphic artist and super talented in her Adobe Photoshop skills. I have a business card that I had printed when I started Pink Petunia Designs, but unfortunately when I ordered them, it was about 2 o'clock in the morning, and I was sleepily unaware of the fact that I had included my address on them. I know, not to smart, right. So my buddy Kim designed me some new cards with my little Pink Petunia pig on them and added some fun paper and "voila," my new cards were born. Here they are! I love them! Thanks Kim.

Marsupial Sue

"Marsupial Sue a young kangaroo, hated the hopping that kangaroos do..."

You see with the Peanut sick and SpongeBob becoming my least favorite sponge in the world, (there is only so many episodes a chick can handle) I have been doing a lot of reading over the past few days with the kiddos. This book is one of my all time favorites. Marsupial Sue by John Lithgow is the cutest book about a kangaroo named Sue that is in the throwes of an identity crisis. You will laugh, you will cry but mostly you will just laugh when you read it. I highly recommend it, so march on down to Barnes and Noble or Borders or Amazon and just pick it up!

I have a sick kiddo. The Peanut has been sick since Thursday afternoon and we have been house bound ever since. We have been watching numerous episodes of Sponge Bob and I think that we have caught his "Best of the West" special now about three times. Between the fevers and the throwing up, it has been a real fiesta around here. I took the girls out Saturday in the back yard for a little fresh air and sunshine. I am a firm believer that it can cure what ails you! The Scout played on the playset and the Peanut and I lounged in our Adirondack chairs (did I spell that right?). As much as I hate that she has been sick, our lives suddenly slowed down a little bit and I have to say it felt pretty nice to not be rushing around to baseball and girl scouts and school and meetings. I guess that I had not realized how really busy we were until we stopped for a few days. I actually got a handle on my housework and laundry and things that I meant to get to months ago that have been patiently waiting for me on my desk. I even got some paintings done for my Pay-It-Forward prizes. Three done, two to go. Peanut is finally beginning to feel better today. I kept her home from school today so that she doesn't expose any of her classmates. Their mothers will be bowing down and thanking me. I have to savor the last day of slowness until school lets out. Wait... wait... just another minute, please!

A Little Bit of Halloween in April

I dug this out of the trenches. This little painting is one of my Folk Art Primitives that I did last year before Halloween. I did a set of three Halloween paintings each depicting children in costume. The first one I did was a witch that was so cute, I had to give it to my Mom for her October birthday. The other is a ghost that is still in progress; and this one depicts a little girl dressed in a kitty costume and ready to trick or treat. You can check her out on my etsy shop.

Happy 50th blog post to me! I can believe I have posted 50 times!

Some Girl Scout S.W.A.P.S

Just wanted to post the S.W.A.P.S. that my little Peanut girl scout made for her S.W.A.P. and bingo party. We had to make a total of nine. I got out all the felt and the googly eyes. She told me what she wanted to make and I helped her cut them out. Some of them she cut out herself. She glued on the googly eyes and added the smiles. The mini popsicle sticks were stir sticks courtesy of Starbucks. She even sewed the little red flower all by herself. I am so proud. The hot coco came out looking a little wonky but what do you do? They had a great time at the S.W.A.P. and bingo. The one down-side to the whole thing was that the council had set out trail mix complete with peanuts. I try not to panic but my Peanut and I both are super allergic. We always carry our epi-pens and benadryl, but it still makes me a little panicky when I start to get asthma and have trouble breathing. Luckily, we have the BEST troop leader ever and she quickly removed the ones that were at our table and assisted my little Peanut in gathering her S.W.A.P.S from the other kids and promptly put them into a little baggy. I was sad that my little Peanut couldn't keep her S.W.A.P.S from the other kids but we both couldn't chance touching them after they had been touched with kids eating peanuts. She was o.k. with it though because she got to stay with her friends and play bingo. She also won a raffle prize of a cool paint set (right up her alley)! One of my favorite S.W.A.P.S. that the Peanut got that night was a thin mint Christmas ornament made of polymer clay with the troop number and the year. She also got a bingo dabber that one of the girls had made out of a pom-pom and foam. Very creative!

Kim & Deb's Adventures Numero Tres

It was that time of the month again. Time for Deb and her buddy Kim to get out on the town and have a little kid free time! We are such wild women! Here is what our date this month consisted of: A trip with three of the kiddos to visit Cass for our monthly eyebrow sugaring. My they look fantastic! Next, we went over to drop off Bubbas at Kim's parents house and got to see all of the exciting renovations going on. Her Dad is a fantastic craftsman and is making all of the cabinetry for their renovated kitchen. Wish he would come to my house! I spent many a day at Kim's parents house reeking havoc and eating all of her mom's fabulous food and Kim's chocolate chip cookies. Did I tell you that she makes the best ones! Anyway, back to the story, after we dropped off Bubbas we took Bear and Scout out to Chilis for lunch. Normally, I am not a huge fan of taking the little ones to lunch with us. It usually consists of a whole lot of me telling the Scout to sit down, quiet down, eat her lunch and behave, multiple potty trips (mainly just to see what the bathroom looks like - you know how 2 year olds are fascinated with this stuff) and not getting to enjoy my delicious lunch because I am too busy trying to reprimand my 2 year old. Let me tell you how pleasantly surprised Kim and I both were to have the most fabulous lunch ever. We actually stayed at Chilis for an hour and a half eating and talking. Bear and Scout have found the best of friends in each other and really had a great time entertaining one another. Scout found it quite hilarious that the triangle advertisement on the table seemed to fit just like a party hat and Bear had a great time eating the Chips minus the queso dip. It was so fun! Next, Kim dropped Bear back off at her folks house while I grabbed us some Starbucks and we were off to the Green Tangerine in Rocklin. Kim has been dying to take me there and I have been dying to go. I arrived and was even more in awe then I thought that I would be. This place is the Mecca of scrapbooking stores! Wowee! I couldn't wait to set my stuff down and check it out! This place has paper like you wouldn't believe. They have a digital workshop, a workshop with huge tables and a classroom as well. They even have scrappy nights on the weekend where they serve dinner and desserts. How awesome is that? During the week you can scrap in the workshop till 9 for free. Unfortunately, I could only stay two hours due to a girl scout meeting. It did take about an hour for me to take in everything in the store and to run up a $20.00 bar tab on paper. Did I tell you that the prices are really excellent. I have gone to quite a few scrapbooking stores and throwing Michael's in the list, the place is really well priced. The next hour I got to work on a rather quick (o.k. super quick) project that I have been meaning to take care of. Kim's friend Jenn showed up and was working on a really cool project for her parents anniversary. She was so nice and had a great eye for color. Kim and Jenn brought their new Cricut cutting machine that they had purchased together. This thing was so cool. I have never really seen one in action before. There were a few small mishaps with a coffee spilling and the Cricut machine not cooperating but other than that, the trip was a success. Kim is an awesome photographer and her pictures of her kids are really the best I have ever seen before. She crops and blows everything up to an 8x10 size for her layouts. The pictures are great because you can really see all the detail on Bubbas and Bear. I can't wait to see her pages all completed. So five o'clock came way to fast and I had to pack it up. Kim and Jenn were staying till 9pm that night. I have to say I was a bit envious, but girl scout duty calls. These once a month dates that Kim and I have been having, have really been so nice for both of us and I am always looking forward to the next one. We have been throwing around some good ideas for next months big adventure, so we shall see what happens! Here are a few of the pics from the Green Tangerine. Sorry the one of me is super blurry and I kinda look like a pirate with those scissors. Arrrh! Check out the size of the tables in the workshop. Great to spread out all of the goods! Here are a few of the lovely papers that I purchased!

Here is Jenn prepping for her little LOVE album for her parent's anniversary. She did a great job on it!

Kim preparing the Cricut for some serious cutting! Look at the size of the tables and the overly comfy chairs. They even have garbage cans right next to each chair. Very nice and convenient! I was impressed. If you check out my friend Kim's blog at nimmersthoughts.blogspot.com you will find her take on our adventure together and a rather old picture, circa 1992 of us in her parents hammock. Did I really dress like that? That picture was quite a surprise! Kim, this means war!!!!