Etsy Favorites Wednesday - a smattering of stuff

I'm not going to lie, I've been feeling a bit BLAH about Etsy lately. I don't know exactly why ... but it seems like in the past few weeks whenever I go there I haven't been impressed with much of anything that I've found. Which is really weird because usually when I go about preparing to make these Etsy Favorite Wednesday lists it takes me all of five minutes to find five things that I absolutely adore. And at least two of the things I find are usually of the "gotta have it right now" variety. But this week? I began searching for this list on Monday, people, and I had to force myself to just finish it and get it posted today! Blarggggg. Anywho, here is this week's list.

Thimble Candles - Unpractical? Yes. They only burn for about 30 minutes. If I got them I wouldn't burn them, just display them. But then again, it's a little weird to display thimble-sized candles.

Vintage Needlebook - I think I might want to start collecting vintage needlebooks.

Spirograph Paper Cut - This looks like a doily. I like it.

Doiley Clock - This IS a doily clock. Cool.

Lamp shade - I saw this on the front page of Etsy and it intrigued me. It reminded me of a paper mache project. It made me wonder how it was made. It very well could have been made using the paper mache technique of wrapping a balloon with string and then using glue to stiffen it up. Interesting ...

Do YOU want to do an Etsy Favorites Wednesday list? You really should. It's very simple. Just send me an email with five of your favorite Etsy things, along with their links, and a brief sentence or two about why you like each thing. Your list can have a theme or not, it's up to you, it's your list. Easy peasy. Do it! If you don't have my email address leave a comment with your email address or accessible web site and I'll contact you.

Pink button cookies!

Today marks the occasion of my birth 32 years ago! It is a tradition in my office that the birthday honoree bring in a treat for everyone else. Even though that's a little backward, it's also a little fun.

I had spotted a tutorial from the Bakerella blog awhile ago about Coraline-inspired cookies and had favorited the link, knowing that sometime I would use it - and today's the day!

Feast your eyes upon the cuteness that is, my birthday button cookies!

They are the cutest little bites of sugar cookie goodness!

Bakerella used peanut butter cookies for their buttons. I'm not a big fan of PB cookies, so I improvised and made mine out of sugar cookie dough. I took it a couple steps further and put sugar on top and colored the dough pink. SUPER CUTE!

Super duper cute!

Five days of pizza

I love pizza. 'Tis true. I've always said that I could eat pizza for a week straight. Well, we're going to do (almost) that! Starting today, we'll be eating five days of pizza for dinner, from five different places. We're starting tonight and ending on Tuesday, my birthday! We had thought seriously about doing seven days of pizza - but thought that we very well could explode - so we cut it down to five.

Here's where we're going:

Day one: Richard's Pizza, a local pizza joint that we just recently discovered. It's super delicious.

Day two: Donatos, yum, Donatos. Those little pieces of pizza goodness.

Day three: LaRosa's, a Cincinnati tradition. I heart LaRosa's big big big time. If you have never had LaRosa's then you're seriously missing out.

Day four: Papa John's delivered to home. Thought we could use a night off from going out!

Day five: Dewey's Pizza, my all-time favorite pizza, to celebrate the day of my birth!

Yay! And a big hooray for not having to cook for five days! I hope we don't gain 20 gazillion pounds from this grand plan of ours! We'll have to go on a five-day salad plan after this, ha!

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - who wants to camp?

This edition of Etsy Favorites Wednesday comes again from Amber at Write Here Write Now.

She's compiled some really neato things on a camping theme! Here's what she has to say:

"I love camping! The sights. The sounds. The smells. The food. It doesn't get any better than a weekend away from it all. Since camping season is right around the corner, I thought it'd make a perfect Etsy Favorites Wednesday. Lucky for me, Wendy is once again allowing me the privilege of sharing my finds!

Camper Magnet - I stumbled across this magnet set purely by accident, but I think they'd be a great thing to have. Perhaps to post our camping schedule on the refrigerator?


Camping play set - I love toys that promote using your imagination. I think BB, Billy and I could have a lot of fun 'camping' with this set when we can't get out and do the real thing.


Camping sweatshirt - I have a camping sweatshirt. A ratty, super comfortable sweatshirt from college that I absolutely refuse to throw away. Unfortunately the only place I can get away with wearing it is around a campfire. So, I think BB needs a 'camping' shirt, too.


Camper stamp - Now that I'm finding a balance between work and home, I'm finding bits of time here and there to craft again. I could use this little stamp on cards, in scrapbooks, in our camping journal, etc., etc., etc.


Play s'mores - Finally, what camping trip would be complete without s'mores? None. These aren't edible (drat!), but they'd be fun to play with!"

{Wendy here - I have to add just one more! Check out this adorable Happy Camper print!}

See? Told you.

Ice cream DOES make everything better!

What?!

Flu shots are a good idea

Get your flu shot!

Oh. My. God. I am just now resurfacing into the land of the living after being totally out of it for 56 hours with the stomach flu. First the girls got sick, then the husband got it, then I got it. It was horrible. Awful. Horrible. Awful. First it was the nausea then it was coming out both ends then it was the body aches. Oh man. Even my teeth hurt.

I missed three days of work which made me a paranoid basketcase having to cancel meetings and what not, but life does go on, people covered for me and the world didn't end.

I really cannot remember the last time I was THAT sick. Might have been elementary school? Eeegads.

I am really really regretting not getting a flu shot. I will be first in line next year.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Look what I made for my pal, a gal who loves clovers!

I stitched the clover and put it inside a cute little frame that I had bought a month or so ago - I had blogged about them when I bought them. This was my first try at using a frame and I think it turned out pretty cute.

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - no pinching

For this week's Etsy Favorites Wednesday list I couldn't not do a St. Patty's Day edition! Check out these cute things I found!

Clover porcelain earrings - I like the shape of these and their warm color.

Green window pillow - I love this. A lot.

Green clover buttons - I think these would look lovely as embellishments to a cardigan sweater or a t-shirt.

Clover and photo keychain - So cute!

Clover letterpress cards - I'm drawn to repeated design like this.

Someone's got a case of the Mondays

I'm sure, years from now, Lydia will just love it that I posted that picture of her. But it illustrates my point, so sorry honey. (And OMG my five-year-old looks like she's 13! We are going to be in such trouble when she IS 13!)

We've ALL been a little, well, crabby, lately. I think it's maybe the weather? I know it's partly due to stress. There's a lot going on. We're a busy clan without the added crap of having our house on the market and keeping it picked up constantly. That's really, really annoying. But it's for the best, we want to move, so we just have to deal. Adding to the crabbiness is that everyone's been sick the last couple weeks. The girls both had bouts of puking and that is just not fun for anyone involved. Eww.

However, I'm thinking we're turning a corner, that everyone is feeling better and the weather is getting better. I think that our attitudes are changing. We're having fun again, I've stopped getting annoyed at everyone and the girls have stopped screaming at each other. Things are on the up and up.

It also helps a lot that our favorite ice cream joint is now open. Ice cream makes EVERYTHING better!

I really like tulips

Our house is on the market and I have decided that I want to always have a vase of fresh flowers around. I'd say this would be an effect aimed at potential buyers but really it's for me. I LOVE flowers - even the non-fragrant ones. Flowers make me smile. They're so pretty! My favorites are basically anything that is not a rose. I don't care for roses but every other flower I love. I'm especially fond of lillies and I cannot wait until the stores start selling Easer lillies! Ooo and hyacinth! Those babies fill the house with their spring-fresh scent!

This weekend I bought the most awesome flowers! Tulips! They were only $2.25 a bundle too! Just plain ol' tulips, but I am telling you, I will seriously cry when they wilt and I have to throw them away. They are gorgeous. I took pictures!

Organizational notepads

With my busy work schedule and even busier schedule at home, I need all the help I can get to keep stuff on track.

For home, I've been using this handy little notepad for over a year now to help plan meals:

It has a big magnet on the back and sticks to the fridge! I fill it out weekly before making a grocery store trip. It helps not only to plan out meals but helps me save at the grocery store because I know exactly what to buy. It's hard to see in the picture, but for each day there are three check boxes, "dine in" or "dine out" or "carry out" - that helps to plan the week too. It just takes all of the guess work out of everything! It's nice to know that on Thursday, we'll be eating spaghetti, and on Friday, eating out! And of course if something comes up, we just shift the meals around.

You can find your own little helpful dinner notepad here. The company that makes the pad, called Knock Knock, has a whole slew of organizational notepads and other fun stuff. Check them out here.

For work, I found at Michael's an organizational to-do list notepad that looks similar to this:

I've been using it all week and I'm finding myself more organized with my tasks and it helps to have them broken down by "to call" "to email" and "do" etc. For some reason, my to-do list doesn't seem so daunting when it's broken down like that!

Yay for organizational helpers!

Hi, my name is G

The other day in the car the girls were singing this "Hi my name is G" song that they learned in preschool during the letter G week and it was just too cute! I didn't realize it had body movements to go along with it - I just had to videotape them!! The song goes on and on from head to toe - I captured a small portion:

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - some bunnies for Arlene!

Last week's Etsy Favorites Wednesday was full of foxes for Lydia. This week, bunnies for Arlene!  Arlene loves bunnies and she's very very very very excited about Easter this year!  I am partial to bunnies also, I must say!

Bunny Tea Party Print - makes you wonder what they are discussing over their little tea party!

Bunny cup - so perfect for milk sipping!

Bunny necklace - so sweet! 

Bunny egg hat - I have a pattern for bunny egg hats like this and I'm going to make them!

Vintage bunny card - so very cute!

Easter eggs!

Easter eggs, already!  Not real eggs, they are decorated paper eggs! The girls and I, and the fabulous Jenn, created these gems last weekend!  Aren't they fun and cute?  Yes!

They're all different!

A worthy campaign

I produced this video and I'm very extremely proud of it. I'm proud of its message and I'm even more proud of the people IN the video, the people that this whole marketing campaign is for. It's their story and their campaign about a hurtful label that is thrown at them without regard.

To see it full screen, click here.

Sleepy eyes

I read at night to help me fall asleep. I've done it since I was in middle school. I used to be a pretty quick reader - sometimes reading an hour or more at night if I was really into a book. It got to the point where I was buying about two or three books a month. Which got a little pricey. (For the record, I buy books because I don't care for the selection at my local library.) 

Before Christmas I was debating if I wanted to ask for an Amazon Kindle, or an Ipod Touch which hosts all of the e-reader platforms. I wanted to be able to buy the newly released books for a cheaper price than I could get them on hardback at the store, to save money. I went back and forth and back and forth and finally settled on wanting to get the Ipod Touch because it was more than just an e-reader.  So, I got my Ipod touch for Christmas and I love, love, love it. I got the Amazon Kindle App and I was so excited to download a book. I got a new release for $9.99 which was less than half of its hardback price.

But, the problem is that it took me a loooong time to get through the book. I would read for five or ten minutes before falling asleep. It took me five weeks to read one book. I thought maybe it was just the book, so I got another book. Same deal. It's taking me fooooooorrrevvvvverrrr to get through it.  I start reading and I only get through about one or two pages. And these are really small, Ipod size pages!  I think maybe it's making me tired, faster, because I'm reading on a small, lit device?  I don't use a book light to read when I use the Ipod, I just use the Ipod's lit screen. Perhaps I am ruining in my eyes reading like this?  My eyes are working too hard to read the small, lit pages, so I'm getting tired faster?  Do you think?  I don't know. And I also don't know if this is neccesarily a bad thing, well, besides the potentially bad thing about me burning out my retinas reading in this fashion. I'm getting more sleep because I'm falling asleep quicker. My husband is happy that I'm not buying as many books. But I kind of miss not being involved with a good book. Hmmm ... I just don't know ... I know that I don't want to give up yet, I love reading on my Ipod, the little bit that I do.

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - some foxes for Lydia

Lydia has a little stuffed fox that she loves dearly. Mr. Foxy, he's called. She won Mr. Foxy from a Kings Island game when her grandparents took her and Arlene there for their birthday. I've been spotting some really cute fox things on Etsy lately. So here's this week's Etsy Favorites Wednesday list, foxes for Lydia!

A fox on a bike - I love how dapper and important this mister fox looks. And he's called the Duke of New York, teehee.

Foxy pins - So cute.

Fox and Girl on a bike - A fox in a bike basket!

Woodland button trio - I'd buy this set, give Lydia the fox, Arlene can have the little acorns and I'd take the owl!

Foxy Fiddler - haha I adore this little foxy fiddler!

Memmmmmoreeeees!

We keep all of our photos on an external hard-drive which is a good thing considering we have a ba-zillion of the girls. Except the problem is that whenever I go looking for one specific photo that I know is on the hard-drive, I end up spending three hours looking through old photos! But it's fun! I love seeing how much the girls have changed throughout the years as they've grown up. Check out this absolutely adorable photo!   

Lydia on the left; Arlene on the right. They are nine months old in this photo.

What we've been doing lately

A sign is in our front yard - our house is back on the market!  Wahooo!  We have high hopes - after three years of trying to sell - 2010 is the year we do! 

The last few weeks have been very busy as we've been prepping our house. New paint, new carpet and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of de-cluttering. Here are some before and after photos! 

The girls' room, before. Yikes!  The girls' room and the craft room had black carpet, for some odd reason. We inherited the black carpet from the previous homeowners. I despised it greatly.

The girls' room, after. All of their toys are in their closet now, no more clutter!  And the new carpet!  Makes the room look bigger.

The craft room, before:

The craft room, in progress - haha this picture is crazy!  While we were cleaning up the rest of the house we used this room as a catch-all.

The craft room, after - I think my little dollies look rather cute on the shelves! 

My sewing station - I hope I can keep it this nice and organized!

I put away into storage a LOT of our fun stuff, but I did keep this little shelf in my craft room of stuff I didn't want to part with.

Of course, Edward stayed (teehee!)

Our basement, before:

Our basement, after - the new carpet makes it seem much brighter! I know you're jealous of our fabulous 70s wood panelling! 

Living room, before:

Living room, after:

Another view of the living room, before:

After shot. The heart table cloth has to go, I know, but I have yet to find a table cloth that I like to replace it. I need to find a neutral vinyl table cloth (vinyl because I have messy eaters!) that I also can use for awhile - mostly what I've been finding are tablecloths with an Easter theme. The search continues! (I have a never-ending battle with this whole vinyl table cloth business - I've blogged aboout it before.) When we move the first thing we're going to buy is a table that doesn't require a table cloth.

View of kitchen/dining room, before:

Dining room/kitchen after:

After, hallway, with NEW art print on wall!

Remember my artwork poll?  I ended up putting just one of the photos on this wall, because it paired so nicely with the "We are all made of stars" print that I already had:

The bicycle print I put on the other end of the hallway!

Whew, now that all of our prep work is done, now we just wait for the potential buyers to come through!  After, of course, they kindly remove their shoes! We are so paranoid about the new carpet. It's all plush and cleeeeeeeeen!  I am very proud of all that we've been able to accomplish in the last few weeks - it's quite a lot and these pictures don't even do it all justice. 2010 is the year we sell our house!