Etsy Favorites Wednesday

It's Wednesday already again? How did that happen? Here's this week's Etsy Favorites Wednesday list.


Skull Clutch - the perfect accessory for the month of October, I say.


Cross Stitch Key Pattern - I'm going to buy this and then I'm going to cross stitch a bunch of keys.


Vintage camera silverware holders - I love the look of handprinted ceramics. I thought these cameras were very clever.


Embroidery Hoop Chalkboard - I must have it.


Zombies Love Brains! - perfect as a birthday gift to my husband!

BOOK REPORTERS!

I am so very pleased and excited to announce that Write Here Write Now and I have created a new blog, called Book Reporters. It's a blog about book recommendations! Check it out and become a book reporter! http://www.book-reporters.com/

We started it because we've noticed that a lot of our blogger friends often ask for book suggestions, so we thought this was a nice way of collecting suggestions into one place. There's a lot of super exciting features on the site including a Book Swap! Hooray!

Let us know if you'd like to be a Book Reporter and we'll get you set up. Or, shoot us an e-mail with your review and we'll post it for you. If you have any suggestions, questions or comments, let us know.

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - the fall eats edition

I've never actually purchased any edible items off Etsy, but I just might because the things I found in this week's Etsy Favorites Wednesday list look so incredibly tasty!

Carmel Apple Lollipops - a dentist's nightmare but man those look delicious!


Pumpkin Spice Truffle - pumpkin covered with white chocolate ... mmmmm!


Pumpkin Cinnamon Cookies - OMG! Cinnamon butter cream middles!


Pumpkin cookies with brown sugar frosting - don't you want to just reach into your computer screen, grab those cookies, and shove all three in your mouth? I sure do.


Chocolate pumpkin truffles - I've never tried pumpkin and chocolate together but I think I need to.

A childhood right of passage

Seeing the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile. Awww yeah! (Arlene refused to get her picture taken with it - I think she was scared - but Lydia was very happy to oblige.)

Great finds at the Country Living Fair

We went to the Country Living Fair in Columbus on Saturday ~ it was such a great time! There were hundreds of vendors there, selling art goods, crafts, and antiques. I found some pretty cool things!

The ice cream cone plush and the cupcake pillow are from a gal who has a shop on Etsy, called Art Goodies. Check her shop out here. I put the cupcake pillow on our couch and I'm keeping the ice cream cone up as a decoration. She had a bunch of super cute tea towels too. I was pained at having to make a choice between my plushies and some tea towels, but I chose the plushies, thinking that I'll order some of her tea towels from her shop later! I also got some patchouli scented beeswax soap, and a plushy owl. The red flower is vintage metal pin.

There was a lot more there at the fair that I wanted! It was amazing to see that many creative artisans in one spot.

The gal that ordered a bunch of my dolls was selling them at her booth at the fair. She has a shop called Homegirl with a blog here. I think my dolls did well for her - when I visited her booth a couple of little girls were picking out their favorites!

A Coraline-inspired doll

I received a custom order for a couple of Coraline dolls. I was quite pleased with how they turned out! Thinking that other fans of the movie might want their own doll, I'm offering the dolls as a custom order in my Shop.

Etsy Favorites Wednesday

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - a little bit of everything in this week's list!


Fiona's Quilt Watercolor - I love that little girl's look, all coy and secret.


Color it yourself screenprint - How fun would it be to color this?! This is from one of my favorite Etsy sellers, Summersville. I've purchased some of her fabric in the past. I love her style.


Mixed media embroidery - Sometimes I see things on Etsy and I say to myself, dang, I wish I would have thought of that!


Love Bites - I'm so sad that the second season of True Blood is over. I so looked forward to Sunday nights! I thought this necklace was quite clever.


Alice in Wonderland papercut - I need this. Now. In fact, I'm going to buy it. Going now ...

An Alice in Wonderland birthday party

I asked the girls what type of theme they wanted for their birthday - they chose Alice in Wonderland, and I'm telling you, I couldn't be any more ecstatic! I was worried they'd chose Barbie Mermaidia (if you don't know what that is, consider yourself lucky), Tinkerbell, or Sleeping Beauty or some other sort of frilly frill pinky princess theme. Not that I mind frilly princesses, I'm just a wee bit tired of them.

And by choosing Alice, that means I get to pretty much make all of the decorations! I'm not 100 percent sure what all we're going to do, but Arlene has told me she wants a forest of trees and signs and Lydia wants a tea party. Done, done and done! We could also do playing-card croquet and I am going to figure out something to do with the Cheshire Cat. Oh my mind is just buzzing with ideas!

I have more than a couple weeks (their birthday is October 2) so I have time to plot and plan. Today, I made the party invitations, and I am soooo pleased with how they turned out! Here's some photos! (click to make larger)

I added a fleur-di-lis wax stamp to the back of each envelope.

Each envelope front has a clock with the time of 6.

I found the Alice images online!

I love the rabbit!

DIY Halloween deco!

Check out this web site, called Value Village, where they have a whole slew of easy to make (and cheap, go to a thrift store to buy supplies!) Halloween decorations. I really dig the "Dolls of the Living Dead" - do you think the girls would be mad at me if I painted some of their Barbies white? Teehee. How cute are those glasses with google eyes stuck to them? Couldn't be easier, but they're so cute! I spotted these cool Halloween crafts from a blog I read called Wise Craft. Go to her blog to see the 'behind-the-scenes' photo shoot details.

Famous! In the newspaper!

A picture of the girls and my mom was in the newspaper Saturday! How cool! The girls now think they are definetely famous. Clicky click on the picture to make it larger (I blurred out last names because I was paraniod!)

Two years? That went by fast

Whoah, my two-year Blogiversary was Saturday! 717 posts total! It feels like I've been blogging for a lot longer than that, and at the same time, it feels like the two years have zipped by. I thought it would be fun to highlight some of my favorite posts from the past two years, and man ... it took a long time to go through my posts and I didn't even get through all of them. But here's some of the good ones I did find:

A conversation with Arlene about what she wants to be when she grows up.

A video of Lydia telling me the name of her doll.

First post about trying to sell our house ... I had completely forgotten that I had been to the ER! After that episode I had been on medication for my heart palpitations but stopped taking them a year later, and my heart paliptations never came back. And what's ironic (or scary, or stupid, or who knows? a good idea?) we're probably going to be going back on the market soon, to see if we can nab any last-minute buyers hoping to cash in on the $8k tax cred. I hope my heart palpitations don't come back.

My car friend Whooey! I still have him in my car! He's such a happy travel companion. Lydia loves him and tries to sneak him inside so she can sleep with him, but I catch her every time.

Halloween Greeting video!

The opening of my Etsy shop ... oh my goodness, I cringe at the sight of my first shop page. It has evolved over the years!

I had a Favorite Word Friday post every week early on, I guess. I had completely forgotten about that!

I've posted 63 Etsy Favorite Wednesday lists! I have a few favs: this list and this list.

Back in January of this year I was going a bit nutty - "I think I need an invervention" - about Twilight. teehee! I got over all of that. But, who can forget the epic My Day with Edward Cullen post?

My first craft show ... selling pendants and dolls.

And ah yes, the This is what happens when Lydia takes a nap post. HILARIOUS!

Desperately seeking a vinyl tablecloth

This here blogger is desperately seeking one non-gaudy vinyl Halloween-themed tablecloth. Actually I'd take gaudy if I could find it. The problem is I can't. You see, our dining room table is about 40 years old, it's my aunt's old table, I got it in college and we've been using it ever since. The chairs and table base are still quite sturdy after all of these years. The tabletop is a different story. It was made out of some laminate product, I think, and has cracked and chipped. It's unsightly, so I have to keep a tablecloth on it at all times. I have two youngsters, so I prefer to use a vinyl tablecloth that can be wiped up easily.

You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to find a cool vinyl tablecloth! It's been a struggle forever. I have luck every now and again, especially around the holidays. I've been able to find a suitable Easter/spring one, a Christmas/winter one, and in years past I've always been able to find a Halloween one, but not this year! And I'm sure some of you are now reading this thinking, hoo boy, your crazy lady! to blog about a tablecloth! But I'm telling you, it's NOT EASY finding a vinyl tablecloth with a pleasing non-tacky, non-gaudy, non-red and white plaid striped pattern! It's not! For the past few months I've been using cloth ones ... and that's just a headache, let me tell you. About once or twice a week something gets spilled on it and it has to go into the washer. That's just annoying, I've got better things to do with my time than wash, dry and iron a tablecloth!

So I'm on the hunt for a Halloween-themed vinyl tablecloth and I can't find one anywhere. Have you seen any? [And then next I'll be needing a fall/harvest/Thanksgiving one and then a Christmas/winter one!!] You know what I'm really thinking about doing?! Just buying a whole new dining room table so I don't have to worry about a stinking tablecloth anymore!!

First day of preschool!

The girls had their first day of preschool today! They've been in preschool for the past two years, but we always considered that more of a "playschool" than actual school. This year is for real, they're in the "Kindergarten Readiness" class!

Check out the major attitudes in this picture! Geez! Lydia fought with me about wearing those purple shoes. They're perfectly cute shoes! But noooo, she wanted to wear a different pair. I won the argument, but she wasn't too happy with me!

At the start of each class they do "work jobs" at their chairs, which are little puzzles or games. Cute!

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - Fall Jewelry

Soon the leaves will begin to fall! I adore this collection of jewelry that I found on Etsy.

Autumn Oak Bracelet - I love the coppery metal combination with the orange and caramel glass beads.

Fall Leaf Earrings - The yellow color of those leaves is very nice.

Tiny Silver Leaves - So dainty, so cute!

Silver Leaves - These are just simply pretty.

Pumpkin Earrings - I love the simple yet elegant design of these.

Not jewelry, but too cute not to be included! Paper Leaf Garland! I am waaaay too into fall/Halloween garland this year. Pretty soon my whole house will be covered in garland.

I've added a "reactions" section to my blog ... it seemed kind of neat so I'll give it a try. After each of my posts (see below) readers will be able to click on their reaction. I had to come up with your own reactions, so I picked "Clever!" and "Love it!" and "Uh, not for me" ... I might change them as time goes on, or just delete it all together, who knows, we'll see!

I can't believe my babies are almost 5!

Where does the time go?! In less than a month my two little babies will be five years old! I can't believe it! They're so smart and for the most part pretty well behaved little girls. They have their moments, believe you me, but their outbursts or moments where they totally frustrate us really are quite rare. They constantly crack us up and bring such great joy to our lives!! They start preschool on Wednesday! Next year, kindergarten, and then before we know it, they'll be graduating high school. Whew.

We went camping this weekend and I got some cute pictures, just had to share!

How cute is this picture?! (Lydia on right, Arlene on left - Arlene got her hair cut into a little bob!) Lydia looooves riding her bike. Arlene likes riding hers too, but she gets to the point in her day where she decides she's done with all physical activity and becomes a bit of a blob for the rest of the day. This was one of those days. It was 10:30 a.m. We did convince her to at least take a walk with us though.

Playing with candy corn ...

I swear I didn't pose this picture - Arlene loves her doll! Her and dolly were hanging out in the hammock.

Well that's a little difficult to explain to a four-year-old

So Arlene and I are driving to the grocery store this evening, and we come to a stop light. She says to me, "Mommy, what does that truck say? And there's a rainbow on it!" I look over, and hoo-boy! Um, awkward.

You can't really tell in the picture because I had to take it really quickly on my phone, but the truck said, in pink writing, "I love huge c*ck" and "pride" and then had a drawing of a rainbow with clouds. I kid you not. Umm ... Ahhhhh ... I told her, "It says that they love big rainbows!" and she replies, "Aww, how cute!" Yes, cute indeed. I don't know if it was a joke or what, or if that truck owner was just really proud of his love of big things, but whatever, to each his own! Let's all be thankful the picture was of a huge rainbow.

And just then, Funky Cold Medina comes on the radio, and the girls are now to the age where they listen closely to song lyrics, which is starting to get us into trouble, I'll have you know. So Arlene starts repeating the words the best she can "... heena was a man ..." and then she's asking me what the song means. I told her that the singer really likes a drink called Funky Cold Medina. She thought that was really hilarious, she belly laughed and actually snorted! And I'm laughing at the song now because it IS quite hilarious, "... I don't fool around with no Oscar Meyer wiener..." I was laughing so hard I almost had to pull off the side of the road.

Have you ever actually read the lyrics to Funky Cold Medina? They're quite funny, click here if you want to laugh.

A taste of fall

Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back at Starbucks! YESSSS!

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - the put it on a shelf edition

This is the "put it on a shelf and display it" version of Etsy Favorites Wednesday! I'd love to have these pretty things gracing a shelf in my house!

Spool Doll ... she's so dainty and colorful!

Tin flower ... I love the vintage/old look of this! I'd actually hang this in my kitchen; I know the perfect spot.


Orange wood camera ... this would also be cute to play with!

Four seasons doll pattern ... I looooove primitive looking dolls. How cute is that doll with pink hair?! I need to make one.

Humpty Dumpty and family wooden set ... very cute! The expression of the little egg on the left cracks me up. It looks a bit worried!