Tag.. I'm it

I was tagged over here and here for this Meme (what does meme mean ?)

Four place I go over and over:
Hancock Fabrics
My sewing corner
The library
The kids schools (not for anything bad ;-) )


Four people who e-mail me (regularly):
Lian
Marc
Tracy
Kathy


Four places I would rather be right now:
Up in bed reading a book
Down at the beach
Southern CA
Up on the BlueRidge Parkway


Four TV shows/programs that I watch over and over:
I can't come up with 4, I really don't care for TV much

House
Criminal Minds


Four things I have for breakfast:
Toast w/ strawberry jam
Honey Nut Cheerios
Omelettes
Granola w/ yogurt


Four animals I like best:
Stuffed ones
Victoria's cat
wild birds (Do they count ? )
Rabbits


Four beaches I’ve been to:
Virginia Beach, VA
Ocean City, MD
Assateague, MD
St Ives, Cornwall, England

Tag 4 people
Bean
Lisa
Emily
Karin

CONGRATULATIONS

Go out to Emma, winner of the $25 Gift Certificate to my store.
Emma, check your Email, I have sent you all of the fun details.
Congratulations again, and to the rest of you thanks for playing along, I'll be doing more fun giveaways and sales in the upcoming months.

Closing tonight

If you haven't entered into my $25 store Gift certificate giveaway then you should go here and enter now, it closes tonight at midnight.

Good luck

The look of love

Reagan is totally smitten by her new bunny, never in a million years did I think a little 5 y/o girl could love a little furry creature so much.

Somebody save me

From my son. OMG, I know that sounds terrible, but bless his heart when he tells a story he'll put you to sleep. He has this really monotone way of describing things, I just want to shake him and say "Please spit it out, what do you want to tell me for the love of Pete." Usually he's a very animated little boy, but dear God have him tell you something about his day and you'll need a cup of Espresso just to get through it.
So for all you teachers out there, how the hell do I teach my son to relay news of his day without sending those in the room to sleep ?

Oh and the kicker, he wants to be a teacher one day. AAAGGGHHH, we've all had that one teacher with the monotone voice that just drives you to the brinks of hell, PLEEEEASE don't let that teacher be my son.

1 year Anniversary = Store Giveaway

1 year ago today I opened my Etsy store and have thoroughly enjoyed the ups and downs of owning and running a new business as well as all the great people I have met along the way.
I've being pondering all week as to what I should do as way of celebration.. should I give free shipping, a discount or pick an item and give it away ? I couldn't decide and so I have decided to give you all a chance to win a $25 Gift Certificate (includes S&H) to my store to purchase anything your little heart desires. For a chance to win all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me what your favorite item is in my store and why and what your least favorite item is and why.
Please be sure to leave me an email address that I can contact you at, if you don't you will be immediately disqualified.
So, what are you waiting for ? Go on over, browse around, come back and leave a comment, you have until midnight, Friday August 29th to enter. I will be picking a winner Saturday morning.
New items may or may not be added to the shop during the week, because of that I'm going to give you all 2 chances to win, just make sure your 2nd entry is AFTER the later listings.

Have fun ;-)

New clothespin/ accessory bags

Will be listed in the store within the next 24 hours.
If you don't like to hang your clothes out,(and why wouldn't you ? You not only help the environment but also your electricity bill.) You can use them as lingerie bags, free up draw space and hang your lingerie up in your closet, or use these bags to store your stockings and tights to avoid snags. These bags have numerous uses, just be creative.
If you choose to use them as a clothespin bag, they will hold at least 150 clothespins.

Stay tuned

It's the last week of Summer break (already) and so we are trying to spend the last days doing tons of fun stuff, such as visits to the beach, back to school shopping for both clothes and supplies and just generally try to get geared up for next week. I'm sooooo not looking forward to it, the end of Summer is just bittersweet and the idea that Fall and then Winter are just around the corner, quite frankly I find depressing.
In the next few days I hope to list 5 more clothespin bags and a couple more oven mitts, just need to take the ppics and make the listing. I'll be sure to post when I get around to doing these.
Until then, enjoy your week and do something fun with your loved ones.

Chocolate chip cake

This is the cake I made for Reagan's Birthday, it was wonderful, not too sweet and low in fat, at least until I smothered it in homemade Butter cream Frosting ;-)


3 oz Semi sweet chocolate chips, coarsely chopped
1 cup Cake flour
1 1/2 Cups sugar
13 large egg whites
1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1) Pre heat oven to 375 degrees
2) Pulse chocolate in a grinder until finely ground
3)Whisk together 3/4 cup of sugar and flour until combined
4)In a bowl mix egg whites, Cream of Tartar, and salt on low speed until frothy. Increase speed and beat until they hold peaks, stir in remaining 3/4 cup of sugar, beat the eggs at medium/ high speed until fluffy and just stiff.
5) Sift 1/3 of the flour mix over the eggs and fold in with a spatula until just blended
6) Add vanilla and fold in remaining flour in 2 batches.
7) Fold in ground chocolate and scrape batter into a 10 inch tube pan
8) Bake about 45 Min's
9) Invert pan and place tube opening over the neck of a bottle to suspend the cake. cool completely for at least 1hr, up to overnight.

In case you are wondering (Like I was) the reason you suspend the cake is to stop it from sinking. Thanks Marly I was really confused by that and wondered what in the world I had gotten myself into.

If you want to go nuts and turn this low fat treat into a sugar and fat laden confection add Butter cream frosting

2 1/2 sticks of butter at room temperature
5 cups of Confectioners sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract (If you plan on coloring the frosting or want it white I recommend using clear vanilla, otherwise you might end up with a funky color and you'll never get pure white )
1 - 2 tablespoons milk

1) Beat butter until creamy,
2) Add sugar 1 cup at a time and beat until smooth
3) Add vanilla and 1 tablespoon of milk
4)Beat at high speed until fluffy, adding the additional tablespoon of milk if necessary.

ENJOY !!!!

To my favorite 5 y/o

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl.
Every year you get sweeter and sassier than the one before.
I can't believe it's been 5 years since we welcomed you into the world, well almost 5years, you were born at 9:33pm and all day today you have told people how you won't be 5 until bedtime, you certainly didn't mind celebrating a few hours early though, did you ?
I wonder if you will always be so incredibly thankful for everything you are given ? I certainly hope so, so many times today I could see how you were so overcome with all of the wonderful things being bestowed upon you. Each time it got to be almost too much for you, you just hugged my legs and said "I love you Mommy" , oh how that touched my heart.
I don't know what your favorite thing was today, you just seemed to enjoy it all, from the bunnies waiting for you on the patio to the Birthday card of that cute little squirrel you saw last week.
You were such a gracious hostess at your party today, though I'm not so sure about eating 5 fruit kebobs and then snatching up the last, that wasn't too gracious, but it's your Birthday and today you can get away with it, don't do it again, piglet ;-)

You are such an incredible addition to our family, to say you were a surprise is an understatement, but you were the best surprise your Father and I could ever hope to have. You are a perfect combination of your brother and sister, you have the feistiness of your sister and the gentle heart of your brother and then you have your own very individual personality, strong, sensitive and as sassy as they come. You crack me up with some of the things you do and say, you are a very matter of fact little girl, wise beyond your years, you never cease to amaze us.

I thank God every day that he chose me to be your Mommy.

I love you all the way to the moon and back sweet girl and don't you ever forget it.
Smooches, Mommy xoxoxo

Like a kid in a candy store

Tomorrow my baby turns 5, I can't believe she's that old already. On the one hand it makes my heart sing to see how smart, sweet and sassy she is and to think we never thought after the first 2 we'd be able to have a 3rd. On the other hand it makes my heart hurt that she's growing up so quickly and is already a very independent young lady.
Right now we are in the throes of Birthday and Birthday party planning and I don't know who is more excited, Rea or me. I LOVE planning for Birthdays. My sewing machine has been buzzing the last week making her a special Birthday outfit, an apron so that she can stay nice and clean whilst helping with all of the cooking (her favorite thing to do) and placemats and napkins for her 4 little friends who are coming to help her celebrate tomorrow.
I wanted to make a much better effort this year than in the past and most of her gifts are hand made either by me or fellow Etsians, all the way down to her Birthday card, which she is going to flip over. Anna from AMomentAMemory28 makes these amazingly beautiful plantable photo greeting cards. Reagan saw a photo of a black squirrel in Anna's shop and fell in love. Anna made the photo into a Birthday card for Reagan and adhered the photo onto recycled paper that has catnip seeds embedded in to it, so instead of throwing the card away, we can take the photo off the paper and pin it up on Rea's message board and then plant the paper and grow a special treat for the cats, great idea huh ?

Here's a sneak peek of some of her gifts, shhhh, don't tell ok ?

Want to know what irks me ?

People that ask for advice and then get all pissy when the advice given them isn't what they want to hear, even if it is given to them by 30+ different people.
Don't ask for advice if you think you already have all the answers.

I have creative ADD

Ever have it when you have 1,000 projects running around inside your brain and you just don't have the time to get them all made ? That's me right now. Reagan has her Birthday and party coming up on Tuesday, I have her outfit 1/2 made, the party favors for her friends 1/2 made, the pattern for her apron cut out, an idea for her Birthday cake, an idea for a table runner to decorate the buffet to put her gifts on and then I have all of these ideas for my store, I know things are going to pick up over there soon, I can sense it. I have Halloween ideas, Breast cancer awareness month ideas, Domestic violence awareness month ideas, back to school ideas and then there's Christmas and all of the gifts I'm going to make and send. Already I have 1/2 the gifts that I'm going to purchase from fellow Etsian's lined up and then I have the gift list in my brain of things to make. My mind is in such overdrive right now that I walk around with pen and paper in my pocket the whole time and sleep with a pen and pad on my nightstand in order to write down all of the ideas that pop into my dreamscape.
The only thing preventing me from doing all of this right now is time. If I could only hire a Nanny, a gardener, a maid and chauffeur I'd be totally set.
Maybe in my next lifetime huh ?

Different and yet still the same

Remember when we were younger and we'd play 'House', 'Hospital' or ' Kings and Queens' ? Well I guess times have changed a little, as I sit here typing I am listening to a conversation between my 10 and soon to be 5 y/o.

Ben: "So what do you want to play ?

Reagan:"How about teenagers ?" *EEK*

Ben: " Ok, so you're dating a skater."

Reagan: "No, I don't want to date a skater"

Ben: "How about a movie star ?"

Reagan: "Yes, I'll date a movie star, my Dad can be a skater "

Ben: "Our Dad's not that cool."

Reagan: Sounding exasperated "We're just pretending, remember ? "

Ben: "Ok, our dad, is Tony Hawk"

Reagan: "No, he's Bam Margera"

And their game continues, talking about 1/2 pipes, skate parks and travelling to exotic places. The one thing that has stayed consistent is that despite Daddy being a skater and Rea dating a movie star, Daddy still works at the office and she still calls him up just to say "Hi" and "I love you" ... AWWWW

Winners and shout outs

Congratulations to the 3 winners of my first Giveaway. They are Reeva, Deal"icious Mom and Charlotte Ladies, please contact me (I've sent you all messages) no later than Tuesday August 5th to claim your prizes.

I also want to give a shout out to Karin,Chantel, Mindy and Charlotte for participating in Geri's good deed.