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!!!!

You Make My Day!

Look at what I got awarded! This was so cool. Thank you Amy from Handmade and Homebaked for awarding me the "You Make My Day" award. I really appreciate it! She actually awarded me this last month and I embarrassingly have not payed-it-forward yet. Here are the rules for the "You Make My Day" award. You award this to blogs that inspire you and always bring a smile to your face. Once you award it. The awardee simply passes it on to five of their faves. This one is going to be hard. Have you seen how long my blog role is? They are really all my favorites, but I do have a few that make me grin when they have posted something new. Here they are in no particular order of greatness:
Sweet Jessie - I love reading this one and I am totally coveting the beautiful quilt that she made for her mom.

Bitter Betty - She always has cool WIP's and the cutest kitty that looks like my old Mrs. Cat.

Candice Carpenter- Because she has the best kits and scrapbooking savvy and I am hoping to one day be honored enough to take a class from her.

Kristen Beason Designs - Her designs include two of my favorite items - Halloween and Folk Art a great combo and an incredible artist to check out!

Nimmers Thoughts - Because she is my best buddy in the whole world and the coolest Mom on the block with her new blog!

Thank you all for having such wonderful blogs to read and for inspiring me in so many ways!

And the Winner is.....................................

Ha Ha! Its all of you! I had five wonderful comments on my Pay-It-Forward Contest and I can't choose just three. Yes, Melissa, even your a winner too! So I will be mailing out five original crafty surprises from Pink Petunia Designs. I am still working on them, so give me about a week or so. I promise they will be great! Thank you for all of the great comments about what you would do to Pay-It-Forward. You are all incredible women with huge hearts. I wish that I could award someone $1,000 so that they could pay-it-forward how they choose, but that's for the big wigs like Oprah to give away. LOL. Winners please send me your name and mailing address to my email at debietrotti@yahoo.com and I will get your prizes to you! Please type in Pink Petunia in the subject line so that it doesn't go in my spam box. Thanks for playing and remember to pay-it-forward again!