Door Couture

If you haven't got a chance to check out this fabulous website Door Couture, you need to. This website is dedicated to the decoration of your front door. A client of mine turned me on to this website where they have downloadable PDF's on how to make the different collections. She wants to me to make a crown swag for her shop. These ladies have such fantastic ideas for front doors, and it really starts a flurry of possibilities of how you can dress up that boring little door. Hope you enjoy!

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!

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!

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!

Look What I Got in the Mail!!!!!

I love getting mail especially when I receive an anticipated package. I received my Itsy Bitsy Giveaway gift and it is soooooo cool. If you haven't tuned in before, I won the Itsy Bitsy Giveaway from Lauren at Speckled Nest. Thank you so much Lauren, I LOVE IT!!!!!!! This is what came in the mail: The cutest little oil cloth zippered bag. Oil cloth is one of my favorite fabrics. You can wipe it down so easily, and with kids, that's a must! The bag was filled with a ton of super cool goodies. The first one is a cute round pincushion with two leaf stick pins, the second, a handy dandy Kleenex holder that is the coolest thing that I have ever seen. I have already put it to use in my purse! A set of fabric covered buttons that she has turned into magnets, also put to use immediately. It also came with a small bag of vintage style papers that have been punched to use for tags and an old sewing spool with the cutest flowered ribbon wrapped around. I was so surprised that that little pouch could hold so much stuff. Thanks again Lauren, I love it! Please check out her amazing shop at: http://speckledhen.etsy.com/

I Won!!!!

I was doing my usual bit of blog reading this afternoon and happen to check out one of my favorite blogs, Speckled Nest and found that I won the Itsy Bitsy Giveaway. I was so stunned to see Pink Petunia Designs on there, I about tipped over. I never win anything so you can imagine my surprise. Lauren of Speckled Hen, the author of Speckled Nest, is also a Craft Mafia sister of mine. She is a very talented seamstress and makes everything from handbags to aprons as well as many other great finds. I can't wait to get my little prize in the mail. I will take a pic and show it off when it arrives. Thanks Speckled Hen!!!!
Please check out her blog at:
http://www.specklednest.blogspot.com/ and http://speckledhen.etsy.com/

Craziness

Craziness!!!! I know.... No blogging for like a week straight. What up dog? Well, lots actually. The Peanut started Little League this last week and what fun!!!! The Peanut is only one of two girls on her team and she (to my surprise) is hustling and paying attention more than the boys out there. Most of the boys had even a few tears shed, but the Peanut, she just went out and had a great time playing. I think being in soccer this year really helped. It always amazes me how quickly kids can make friends with other kids. Adults can't even hold a small conversation with a stranger and kids just gather and in less than five minutes they have a game going and chatting it up with the other kids. Adults should take note.

On the craft front: The Sac Craft Mafia meeting was fabulous. It was a pretty small group due to a lot of the rampant illness flying around Sac town, but it was fun. I told you about our two challenges that we had. One, was to make a gavel for our current president Amy. Our Craft Mafia colors are pink and black so I definetly wanted to try to incorporate that into the challenge. I wanted to make it as crafty as possible so I headed to Michaels (I know I said that I was supposed to stay out of there, but it was for club business, so it was allowed) and picked up a few small wooden pots and a wooden thread spool. Painted them, super glued them together, added some ribbon and embellished with my favorite tool in the whole world - a Sharpee marker! It came out pretty cute. I am really not into to many wood crafts, but it came out o.k. I was surprised when they asked if anyone did the gavel challenge and I raised my hand, but nobody else did! Mine was the only one there and everybody said it turned out cute so I was pleased. Our second challenge of the night was not really a challenge, but more of a swap, a Valentine swap. It could be a card or a favor. Now, I really love anything paper, and my first reaction was to do a fantastic card, but I decided instead to do one of my paper topiaries on a small scale. I have made a few of these now, all of them rather large. They usually take me about three days to complete, but because this one was so small, I completed it in just one day. It came out cute. I still tried to use pink and black and of course hearts, its for Valentines Day. Here are a few pics. We chose names and swapped our items, so much fun. Guess what I got............. I got the most fabulous pair of heart earrings made by Craft Mafia sister Lorain of Rain's Embellishments: http://www.myspace.com/rainsembellishments & http://www.rainsembellishments.etsy.com/. Here is a pic. Aren't they awesome? Please check out her sites. She is one very talented jewelry designer! Thank you Rain!!!!!! I have worn them almost everyday since. Especially in the spirit of Valentines Day! Speaking of jewelry, the hubby gave me a huge surprise Valentines morning - a beautiful gold heart necklace with lots of bling. Wow! We usually just exchange cards with flowers or a coffee from Starbucks which I love, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw a little box next to my card. Thank you cute husband of mine!

On the scoping front: I finished my final, yea!!!!!!!!! And, I got a B. I was a little disappointed because the two questions that I missed, I second guessed myself and should have gone with my gut. I always do that on tests. But, I passed, and that is the most important thing. I already began the next class which is Transcript Production. I have been producing transcripts for reporters for over five years now so I thought this section would be a breeze, but so far, not the case. Its hard when you have to learn a different style of doing things than you are used to. So only nine chapters in this one. Hopefully, I will have it wiped out in two weeks or so.

On the personal front: I did it, I went out and chopped my hair. I have to do this every now and then. It makes me feel like I am a completely new person every time I cut my hair. My first idea was to cut it and give it either to Locks of Love or to the Pantene program for women with breast cancer, but no dice. I guess that I can't have color treated hair. It has to be au natural in order to donate, and sadly enough, I have to color mine because of my quickly becoming evident, premature graying. I know, I am only 31, but it is coming in fast and furious thanks to my great gene pool. I was bummed not to donate my hair. It seems like such a waste. I had close to nine inches taken off. Wow! So here are my before and after pics. None of them are great pics of me. It could be the light, and my lack of camera intelligence and the fact that I held the camera up and took it myself, but at least you get the idea. I brought in a picture of Jenny McCarthy. I covet her hairstyle. Isabel over at our local Ulta in Birdcage on Sunrise in Citrus Heights did a fantastic job on my cut. I have had several bobs, but this one is so nice because she thinned it out a ton so I don't look like my head exploded. Thank you Isabel at Ulta. Go visit her she is fantastic!

On the kiddo front: We finally made it to see our friends in Redding this weekend. Their daughter was turning the big 03 and the party was at a jumphouse place. Kids love it. Actually, the husband had more fun than the kids and even broke out into a full blown sweat. I was loosing my pants climbing under the poofy things on the obstacle course. So much fun. The party theme was Backyardigans. One of our daughters' fave cartoons. Here are the party masks that they passed out as favors.

We tried to avoid it, but its here, the Peanut has caught the coughing virus that is going around. I was hoping it was just hayfever, but the poor kid hasn't stopped coughing all week. I finally took her to the doctor today and they confirmed it wasn't anything to worry about. She hasn't run a fever but her chest and her throat are killing her. We sat on the couch most of the day and drank 7-up and watched about a billion Sponge Bob episodes On Demand(Thank You Comcast!!!) and then the movie Deck the Halls. Too cute. I love Danny DeVito.

O.k. so that is the week in a nut shell. On to the next one. I am really glad that tomorrow is a holiday and the office is closed and the hubby is off. I need a holiday! P.S. I am pretty sure that my spell check is not working. I know that my spelling can't be that fantastic that I don't have any misspelled words in my post, but when I hit the button nothing happens so bear with me.

The Hunt for the Perfect Pair

The hunt for the perfect jeans - every woman's adventure into retail land for the "perfect"pair and at the same time, every woman's nightmare! Now, I am a fairly small woman. Some call me petite, some small, some just short. I am sure, just like being somebody on the other end of the spectrum who is extremely tall, it is super hard to find great fitting jeans. I have been fortunate enough to find three pairs this last week. I wish I could buy them by the truckload, because I would. The first one is a brand (I am of course forgetting the name now, and I can't check because they are being altered) that I purchased at Ross. Not a place that I would normally shop for jeans, because it is usually a picked over mess, and I get too frustrated. I had a Christmas exchange to make and so I thought I would give it a look see. I took 6 pairs in the fitting room with me. One was Levi, the other Guess (which I haven't worn since junior high days - nor could I afford unless they were at Ross), the other Jordache (my thighs have always hated them), Duplex (cute, but a lot of stretch), and two pairs of the "forgot the name" brand. Of course I have to hold them up and just try to eye them to know what size I wear. At this point, I weigh about 118 pounds and can fit in anything starting at a size 0 all the way up to an 10. Ridiculous!!!! I really don't know who they use to make these things off of, but I really wish they had more consistency. Of course I love the fact that I can fit in the 0 that I own, but realisticlly lets just call it what it really is.... a mismarked 6-8. Ok. So the fitting room is not too bad today. I have the Scout perilously perched on the six inch deep bench that they give you, and not enough hooks to hang six articles of clothing plus the items that you are wearing, but, whatever. Suprisingly, all of the jeans fit in one way or the other. I must be watching "What Not to Wear" too much because I look at the Guess jeans, and although they were comfortable and seemed at first to fit well, they bunched up when I moved, right under the butt. Not so attractive. Had I not watched the show, I might not have known to look for that. Thanks Stacy and Clinton. The Jordaches still do not like my thighs, but I managed to squeeze in them and then peel them back off my person. The "forgot the name" jeans fit fantastic. One was one size to big, but the other soooo great. Long, but I'm used to it and have my alterations place on speed dial. The best part of the whole excursion was the jeans were only 12.99. I went back to look for one more only to be disappointed to find none. That's Ross for you. So tonight after I dropped off the Peanut at Daisy's and had an hour to kill, I ran over to Old Navy. They have their new line of jeans out offering mid-rise and classic rise. Yes, they even have low rise for all of you wild women out there. They also offer them in short, regular and long. I will take short please. Now mind you, the jeans I currently have on are Mossimo from Target. A long time favorite jean brand of mine, but the problem is, is that they are low rise. So while I am bending over at Old Navy trying to find my correct size on the ultra-low shelf they have them on, I realize that I am sporting half a butt crack, and I am right in front of the giant window at night giving everyone a rather not- so -flattering look see. That's the problem with low rise. I really don't know who they are built for, but they cause muffin-top (you know what I am talking about) on everyone. When I weighed 106 pounds I had muffin top. The girl down the street who couldn't get any skinnier has muffin top, my five year old who is a healthy looking kid has muffin top all due to crappy cut jeans! I am a Mom of two little girls and although I abhor "mommy jeans," I just really want something that looks nice and not like I am trying to be 18 again, because I am 31 for god sakes. You gotta love how the style of low rise became so popular with the ever so famous thong underwear that you pull up enough so you can see it above the jeans. Nasty! I can't believe somebody's mother would let them out of the house wearing that! O.k., I'm beginning to sound like my mother so I digress. So Thank You Old Navy for your excellent decision to make a mid-rise jean and classic rise jean for women who are not built like they are a ten year old boy, but who are curvy and have a little extra padding in the caboose. I think I can speak for most women out there when I say "It's About Time!"

What a Week

Hi All,

I'm back, but just for a second. I was going to bore all of you with the busy details of the past week in a half but I will save you from reading the book. Here it is in short:

A week ago Saturday:
Hubby went to snow run up at Lake Wildwood with Uncle and Dad. Scout had an earache so we didn't go, but instead went to Peanuts baseball clinic. She was one of two girls out of like two hundred boys. Some tears but she persevered in the end. Go get em girl! Later that day birthday party for someone in Peanuts class.

Sunday:
Grandma was here and went to visit. Guys came home from the run and Aunt came down from Forresthill and we went out to lunch. Yum.

Monday: Work, work, work, study a few chapters for my medical terminology class (boo!)

Tuesday: Work, work, work and took some time to create three different sets of note cards for my etsy shop. So cute..... check them out at http://www.pinkpetuniadesigns.etsy.com/. Hopefully I will post my handbags in the next day or two if my camera cooperates with me.

Wednesday: Work, work, work and then work at the Peanuts school the rest of the day.

Thursday: Work, work, work, meet my best friend Kimbalina for lunch at the Chilis. Got the wrong order twice (how can that happen?) Kim's cracking up right now. Had some kid less, well deserved fun with my old pal and went over some Pink Petunia business because she is creating some fantastic cards for my wares. She kicks butt at graphic design! Left Chilis and headed to Janell's Skin Spa on Marconi. Our good friend Cass owns the place. A local business that I heart. Had the eyebrows sugared and they look fantastic. Less painful than waxing. Kim and I agreed next month its a kid less trek for a mani/pedi! Later that night we had a Daisy meeting and final cookie sale paper work. Selling girl scout cookies is a lot of work. Glad to be done.

Friday: Crazy hair day at school. The Peanut decided we had to have butterfly clippies everywhere. We call it butterfly garden! The best one was a friend of Peanuts that came in with her hair completely ratted everywhere. Sooooo funny. LOL. Work, work, grocery store, Costco, study, study.

Saturday: Got my new photo printer working. Cool beans. And my new Adobe Photoshop Elements (that I bought at Costco with my $30.00 off coupon) somewhat figured out.

Sunday: Head to the inlaws, drive to the snow. Played for 10 minutes because it is so wet and snowing hard. The Peanuts hat came off and Scout was getting a cold, but it was fun. Drove to Alleghany (small mining town) deserted but cool to see. Took some pics. Saw Hell's 1/2 Acre and ended up eating pizza at Pizza Roundup in Loma Rica. Best pizza anywhere! Found out my new niece is coming home from the hospital on Friday! Yay!









Monday: Back to the grindstone. Work, work, work. Attempted to clean up my craft space. Scouts sick wanting me to hold her. Watched SuperBad. So funny but really bad language. Never heard the F-word so much in a movie before. I love McLovin!

Tuesday: Here we are! Work, work, work, laundry, laundry, laundry, sick Scout, Peanuts homework, study, study, study, two chapters to go and one test and I am done with my Medical Terminology class. (Hoorah!)

That was the week/week in a half. I guess it turned out to be a novel after all. I feel really bad with not keeping up with my blogging. It just was to hectic. Hopefully I will do a little bit better this week. Night night!

The Stamp Art Shoppe, Roseville, CA

As you all know I love to craft. I love all the crafts but have always been particularly drawn to papercrafts and stamps. I actually worked in a stamp store in Folsom during college. I sure loved that discount! Today I went to one of my favorite places to shop called The Stamp Art Shoppe in Roseville. The Stamp Art Shoppe offers a wide variety of wonderful rubber stamps, inks, papers and accesories for all of your crafty needs. They also have a huge selection of hard to find Asian themed rubber stamps. Today I just went in for two pieces of cardstock to finish my topiary project and of course ended up with some darling Christmas stamps that were 25% off today as well as Tim Holtz acid free Distress Ink. I have always wanted to try out these inks and it looks perfect for antiquing just about any project. The ladies at The Stamp Art Shoppe told me some great things about the Distress Inks and directed me to http://www.timholtz.com/ which has a really great blog that I will now subscribe to as well as some fun ideas for the holidays. When I come in to shop, they always have fantastic customer service and great ideas. The Stamp Art Shoppe also feature regular classes. I have been lucky enough to take a class there where I learned how to make hot glue into beautiful art necklaces. The class was loads of fun and I can't wait to take another. They display examples of the classes that they offer and they have one that I oggled over called Collage Masterpiece. So cool! So if you are in Roseville and want to take a gander, The Stamp Art Shoppe is located at 1000 Sunrise Avenue, Suite 3B, Roseville, CA 95661. Their website with a list of classes and events is: http://www.thestampartshoppe.com/.