A Two Stars GIVE-A-WAY!

Michaels has an awesome collection of jewelry findings now. There is a new brand called "Plaid Fresh" and they have all sorts of metal and mod designs. I picked up a birdie set and made a pair of earrings for myself tonight. I loved them so much and had a set of birds to spare, so I wanted to share! So, I am introducing the first Two Stars GIVE-A-WAY!

Here are some pictures of the earrings AND pendant that I'm giving away:

The birds are made out of silver plated metal, but the eye pin and the earring wires are made out of sterling silver.

This is the pendant that you'll get too, if you win. (just the pendant, not the chain) It coordinates with the birdie. It is stamped silver-plated metal. The pendant came in the pack with the birdies; I added the two sterling silver rings to the top of it.

This is how the give-a-way will work: Simply click on the "comments" link below this posting, and put your name in the comment box. You can use your real name or your blogger/online name. And it's okay if I don't know you! This give-a-way is open to everyone.

I'll pick a winner on Monday, August 4 at 8 p.m. I'll add up the total comments, and have one of the girls pick a number. That's about as random as it gets. I'll post the results on Monday night, and then I'll post directions on how the winner can receives the goodies.

Good luck!

New pendant style

I bought some new bezels (the silver frames for my pendants) awhile back and have been trying to decide what I wanted to do with them. The bezels have two loops on them, so they could be used made into a bracelet, I guess. Well, I put resin inside the bezel and was happy with how it turned out. I decided to add beads to the one loop so that it's more like a classy dangly pendant. I think I'm going to make more like it (I have a total of 25 bezels, I didn't realize I had that many until I got them out today and counted them!) and a few bracelets.

The empty bezels:

My pendant:

Aw, how thoughtful!

This week Mike has been attending a class to be 'highly qualified' to teach social studies this coming school year. Today, they took a field trip to Conner Prairie, a living history museum near Indianapolis. Well he came back with the most thoughtful gift for me! A pin cushion with stars on it (in honor of my Etsy shop's name)! The pin cushion it made out of an acorn!

I am scared, very scared!

Have you ever seen this show called "Yo Gabba Gabba!"? It's FREAKY. The girls sit entranced into this show, and it's like a trip on acid.

I couldn't help it ...

... I HAD to buy these! Got them on sale for $3.99 at disneystore.com. I have been really good about not buying Jack Skellington stuff (I have plenty) but these were too cool to pass up. AND, I found out that there is a new Nightmare Before Christmas box set DVD coming out at the end of August. The movie is in HD and you get a bust of Jack. Way cool. Of course I'll have to buy that too. But, I can justify that purchase: we lost my copy of the movie, so I need to replace it, right?

My IKEA furniture name

Me, a dresser! I'll call myself a bureau. Sounds nicer.

Get your own IKEA name and furniture piece here.

Etsy Favorites Wednesday

Hello there! Here are my Etsy Favorites for Wednesday! As always, you can click on the name of the item to see its listing on Etsy. Happy day!

Tiny Chicks Earrings by Joanna Rutter - $34

These are so dainty and cute! I'd wear them every day.

Bingo Bracelet by True Mirage - $75

This is way pricey so I'd never buy it for myself, but I think it's really unique. The artist stamped the back of the sterling circles with numbers - I love that extra special touch!

Mermaid Shadow Puppet by Isabella's Art - $19.50

I have seen this artist's shadow puppets pop up all over Etsy. They are so clever! Arlene is freaked out by shadows, but she looooves mermaids, so maybe she'd like this! The artist also sells stands for the puppets ... I think this mermaid would love lovely on a shelf, in day or night!

Steel Fire Pit by John Tunger - $800

Okay, if I was in the market for a fire pit, and my budget was $800, I'd so get this. Isn't it cool? There are a bunch of other stellar steel items in this seller's shop too. Check them out. I admire anyone that can work with metal like that!

Wood Grain Bowls by Fox & Clover - $69

I dig wood grain. Hand painted wood grain on cute little glass bowls? Absolutely adorable!

AN EXTRA FIND! (I couldn't help but put this extra find in this week, I love it so much!)

Starry Eyed Bird Bowl by Prince Design UK - $20

Love it! Love it! Love it! Want it! Want it! Want it!

I'm digging it ...

I want a terrarium. I've seen a few really cool ones on Etsy. Check this seller out here. I think a terrarium like the one pictured to the left, would look nice sitting on the kitchen window sill. And it seems pretty hardy. As in hard to kill. Hmm ... I think I need to buy one!

Don't you mess with me and my coffee!

MAJOR GRIPE! Okay, I'm a person that needs their morning cup of coffee. I stay up late almost every night because that's when I get most of my crafting done. That being said, I'm not a morning person. Pretty much everyone in my family knows to just leave me alone in the morning until I get fully awake. Early in our marriage Mike crossed me a few times in the morning and almost had his eyes gouged out with a spoon. He knows now to just ignore me and let me brood about the injustices of actually having to wake up and get ready and get on with my day. So anyway, in order to function in a social environment at work and be appropriately pleasant to my co-workers, I NEED coffee. Every morning. I need it. For some reason my office NEVER has any creamer. Not even the crap powdery stuff. So I'm forced (against my will, kicking and screaming) to get a Starbucks coffee most mornings. However, some mornings I just don't feel like shelling out $4.05 for that cup of cocaine, so I instead opt to drink office coffee. But there's never any creamer! Last week I was getting really irritated about it and made a few comments. Our secretary told me she was going to have to buy some. Well she didn't. So on Monday I brought in my own liquid creamer - Hazelnut Biscotti creamer. And let me tell you, it was delicious! I had three cups of coffee and I was in heaven. Well today, I go to pour myself a cup of coffee, get out my creamer, and I discover that it's ALMOST GONE!! SOMEONE HAS BEEN USING MY CREAMER!!! What the hell?! I know that we don't have creamer, that's why I BOUGHT MY OWN. So don't you go stealing it! I don't know who was using it, but I swear if I find out I'm going to have to beat them. Was said creamer-stealer just waiting for someone to buy creamer, so they could use it? It's not communal creamer, it's my creamer! And now it's almost gone! I am so mad. I got out my big thick sharpie and wrote WENDY'S four times on the creamer bottle. Just to make a point. So THERE, you stinking creamer stealer! HANDS OFF!

Embroidery is where it's at

It seems that either embroidery is getting really popular with the web sites I visit, or I'm just noticing it more because I'm getting really interested in it. I have seen many posts lately on the Craft Magazine blog about embroidery. Yesterday they had a tutorial on there about embroidered pillow cases. Today they have a link on there about learning to embroider. Link here. If you've ever wanted to get started, that tutorial is awesome. I learned how to make french knots! I have at home, waiting for me to find the time to actually work on it, a tea towel just waiting for me to embroider. I even have the design and the color picked out. Arlene had drawn a picture of a house and it's just too cute and will fit perfectly on the towel. I just need the time to do it!

Not stoppin' for the rain

This morning on my way to work it was raining. But I saw three peculiar sights: 1.) a guy at a car dealership was washing cars. Sudsing them up and rinsing them off. In the rain. Genious. 2.) Golfers were on the greens at the golf course, umbrella's up and rain coats on. How they were able to even see what they were doing, let alone have the arm range to swing a golf club while in a rubber rain coat, is beyond me. 3.) A house had not one, not two, but three spinklers going. While it was raining. Heavy rain.

The best deal!

I had been looking for a patio set for cheap to put on our back deck and I found it today! At Kroger, go figure! We got a NINE piece set (four chairs, a table, umbrella, two lounge chairs and a little table!) on sale for $139! What a deal! And it looks stellar on our deck.

More videos ...

Since I had the camera out, the girls decided they wanted to make music videos and such. If you go to my Flickr site you can see them. I also have on there the "energy" video from the post below.

If I could bottle up their energy and sell it ...

... I'd be so rich! The girls were INSANE all day today. I don't know why they had so much energy.

My birdie

I made my birdie - he turned out cute! I didn't add the caption or his feet. I think I'm going to make a whole little birdie family. I'll use thicker paper next time though. It was super easy - make your own birdie! Link here.

This is what I miss during the day

Mike sent me a text today that said, "We got creative, or bored, and made a box doll house." And sent me a picture. It looks like the top box says "kitchen" and the bottom two boxes say "Lydia's Room" and "Arlene's Room". He's so good!

Free design!

I found this free online design web site called "Design Freebies" through the "Decor8" blog - I have it linked on my Blog Roll now. There is a downloadable template for paper BIRDS! Hooray! I'm printing them out right now!

Coming through the fog

Today, I'm in a splendid mood. The past two days I've been in a funk, I don't know what was wrong with me. I am thinking that the busy weekend was catching up with me. On Monday I was horribly tired, and yesterday I was tired, but more grouchy than tired. I came home both Monday and Tuesday and took an hour nap - I just sort of CRASHED and slept soundly. Last night I got a decent night's sleep and I woke up all refreshed. I think it helps too that it was 66 degrees this morning with the promise of low humidity and temperatures in the low 80s this afternoon! Perfect for the fair!

The Blog roll....

I installed a new widget on my blog, to the right there ----> it's called a Blog Roll and it keeps track of the blogs that I read and organizes them by when they have last been updated. Genius! I go through all of those blogs at least twice a day, and now I can go through them based on if they've been updated or not. Yippee! (by the way, if you've never checked out that "Craft Magazine" blog, you might want to - they update a gillion times a day with all sorts of craft goodness. I've gotten so many craft ideas from that blog!!)

Etsy Favorites Wednesday

Etsy Favorites Wednesday again!

Birdie Clock - $26 by Reincarnations
This little birdie makes me smile - and the bottom of the clock is pretty swell too (click on the link to see more pictures of it.)

Pumpkin Vine Earrings - $21 by For The Cross Jewelry

Aren't these pretty?

Norman the Monster Change Purse - $13 by Zomb

I lost my change purse last week. It was super cute too - made out of vintagey fabric that had little candy on it. Drat. I think I need to buy this little guy to replace it. He can eat my change.

Sterling Stacking Ring - $21 by Sandy Simone

Wouldn't it be perfect if I bought two of these? I think so.

Cross Stitch Sampler - $25 by Aggressively Awesome

I think it's funny!

Plan B for Lydia's toe walking

***If you've landed on my blog from searching the 'net for info on tip toe walking or serial casting or AFO braces, hello. This particular post here is one in a number I wrote about my daughter's tip toe walking. I encourage you to start with this post instead. It encapsulates our journey more succinctly.***

We'll be trying something else to help Lydia's toe-walking. We went to phyiscal therapy yesterday and Lydia hasn't gained much movement in her ankles, depsite wearing the night braces. (read the entire story here) The braces were intended to keep her feet and ankles in the correct position (a 45 degree angle) while she slept, but also to stretch out her tendons so that she can walk correctly. That hasn't happened, so the phyiscal therapist wants us to get braces that Lydia will wear all day. She has made a few degrees of improvement, but not enough to be able to walk heel-to-toe comfortably. So the next step will be a big one: wear braces during the day for an entire year. We need to get her new braces because there is a difference between the night braces and the daytime braces. I'm not too crazy about her having to wear braces all of the time, but her toe-walking needs to stop. With the day braces on, she won't be able to walk on her toes at all, which will hopefully force her to get rid of the habit of doing it. The braces will also stretch out her tendons. I hope it works! She gets casted for the braces in a few weeks.

Home improvement weekend!

I am very happy to report that we were able accomplish almost all of the things that were on our list to do this weekend with the house. I am eternally grateful for my mom and dad and brother for helping me out. There is no way I could have gotten anything done if they hadn't helped! THANK YOU!

Here are some before and after pictures:

This is our half bath/laundry room in our basement. The walls in there had never been finished. They were yellowed drywall. This is an "in-progress" shot. My brother had already started skimming the wall.

The walls are now white! And notice the new shoe rack - courtesy of IKEA. Wonderful!

This is a picture of the house before our work (it's a small picture, sorry!)

After picture - the shutters are repainted and new flowers were planted.

I found yellow mums at Meijer for $1.96 a pot - what a deal! I also found two really pretty petunia hanging baskets that I hung by the windows - hard to see them in the picture though.

The only thing that we couldn't fix were the eaves ... we have slight rain damage. A pro will have to come out to fix those. Or, we may be forced to hire someone to fix them if a home inspector says they need to be fixed. We'll just cross that bridge when we come to it. I also didn't get a patio set for the back deck ... I couldn't find one that I liked that was on sale. I'm still looking though. I also didn't get my dolls done, but that's okay, the house ranks priority for now!

We had an open house on Sunday and wouldn't you know, no one came! We have another one scheduled for this weekend.

This is where Mike is

On Island 10 in upper upper Canada, six hours north of Toronto, on a fishing retreat with his dad and brother. We miss him a lot. He's called from the island phone a few times and he's having a great time. Fishing all day and catching some big ones! He comes back Sunday.

Zoooooooo!

The girls and I went to the zoo today with their cousins and Grandma. It was fun! I had never been to the Cincinnati Zoo before. I got a few cute pics:

Etsy Favorites Wednesday

Here you go! This week's Etsy Favorites Wednesday.

Crocheted Moustache - $6 from dottyral

Don't know what I'd use this for, but I want it. Moustaches are cool. Not on men. But in crafts.

Melting Clock - $60 by Pragmatic Effects

This would look super cool hanging off a mantel. How clever!

Embroidered Hanky - $12 by Stitch-a-do

My mom has a stack of hankies from her mom (or is it her grandmother, I don't know which.) I love them. I think there's something so down-to-earth and special about a hanky, which sounds weird, but that's just the feeling I get from them. When I was at the antiques stores awhile back I kept seeing some hankies that I wanted to buy. I think I might have to start my own collection.

Rose Leaf Earrings - $19 by Diffraction

The detail in these earrings is amazing. They are actually photographs. Check out the shop to see other jewelry pieces.

I will not stress out print - $18 by the Dreamy Giraffe

Perfect.

And look, I bought a purse! Cute huh?

Calling all handypersons and cleanerpersons & babysitters

Okay, so we need to get our house sold. Now. We have a showing Tuesday night. Good news. We have an open house on Sunday. I am determined to make the house as show-able as possible for the open house. Mike returns Sunday, I told him I'd sell the house while he was gone, and I intend to put every effort into it. Because our new house is two weeks from being completed! All hands on deck. I have a huge list of to-do's. Mister Handy Man himself, my dad, is going to help, and hopefully I can convince Mister Handy Man Jr., my brother, to help too.

Hey, if you're bored and want to come to Cincinnati to help the P. family out, please, by all means, come on down! I'll give you refreshments, food, and I'll make you a rhubarb pie!

This is our list of to-do's, which includes a lot of "buy" items that I need to get:

• Mulch flower bed and garden
• Mow lawn and trim
• Fix the eaves (slight rain damage)
• Paint/install new wood under the eave under the back deck (rain damage)
• Clean all windows and door glass
• Clean all shades and blinds (there's funky stuff in our blinds in our basement)
• Buy a couple decorative pots for plants for the front porch
• Possibly buy a table set & rug to "stage" the back deck
• Clean the foyer closet
• Buy a new shoe rack for the laundry room
• Buy balloons and fresh flowers, and possibly cookies and refreshments for the open house
• Clean the gutters
• Buy a new entry door rug
• Buy weed killer for the driveway and apply
• Spray paint the shutters and re-bolt them to the house
• Clean the sink in the laundry room
• Steam clean the carpets upstairs

The goal is to have all of the work done by Saturday night. And, I'm still planning on having those 14 dolls done by then too. Think I can do it all?

A., the dolls are in the shop!

A., your two custom dolls are in the shop now! Purchase whenever! I know the girlies will love them. Lydia does not want to let Miss Brown Polka Dots go. She loves her too much. (tee hee!)

I know I'm biased, but ...

... she's the cutest item on the Etsy Handmade Kids showcase page!

Introducing ...

... DOLLS to the Two Stars Etsy shop! Yay! As you know if you've been following my blog, I have been working on my doll pattern for quite some time. I am finally to the point where I can start listing the dolls on my Etsy site. I have one doll for sale now on the site, and I'll be listing two custom orders soon. I have 14 more dolls in the works. I worked all weekend on them in an assembly line and they will probably be finished by Thursday or Friday.

Click here to go to my shop to see the doll. Lydia helped me with taking pictures. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing and I think it turned out perfect. She was watching me take pictures of the dolls and asked if she could hold one. She sat right down and posed with it and looked so darn cute that I had to snap a picture. I think she's going to have to be my model from now on!

Etsy started today a special section called "Handmade Kids." Click here to see the showcase and see my dollie in the mix. I think her cheery face jumps off the page! I have that advertising spot for 24 hours today (Monday) and I booked another spot on the page this coming Saturday. I'll have all of the dolls done by then.

Doll arms all traced out on linen and ready to be sewn:

Doll heads:

I am purposefully keeping the doll bodies/legs a secret for now because they are super cute and I want to reveal them once they are all completed!

Arlene says hi