Thursday, February 17, 2011

birds and butterflies

Today was cold here ... lots of wind and rain all day.  The little girls and I stayed inside and I decided to rebel against the weather by creating some spring goodness. 
Lots of birds and butterflies. 
My craft room re-organization is finally complete and it was nice to sit in there and create - and to be able to find things!!

{butterfly tags}





{journal #23}








Wednesday, February 9, 2011

a little before {and after}

does your paperwork
and mail take over your space?

one of my goals for 2011
is to have a
clean desk.

this is how it looked this morning...




and after some filing
and clean up
and general organization...




taa daa!!

now to keep it up...

my plan is to do a little cleaning up every night
and put my paperwork where it belongs.
since moving to the new house,
 i've put the computer desk
in the family room/t.v. room
so my honey and I can still be together
while i'm trying to get things done
in the evening.

next, the craft room
needs a complete
organizational re-do!!


Tuesday, February 8, 2011

basket love

i love baskets and i use them all over my house
for organizing things.

i've been looking for some really nice
LIDDED
baskets
and came upon these recently...




i love these because they have LIDS and will hold lots of things
in the bathroom, craftroom, office...
really anywhere you need a little
{stylish}
organizational help!


i ordered these from McMaster & Storm
{a petite department store}.
if you haven't been there yet,
do visit them online

or their etsy site


Some of my other favorite things
from their shop...







isn't it fun to discover
new places
for a little
retail therapy?!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

the pretend boutique

i've been avoiding this post.
because it's a little embarrassing.

but then i decided
it has a good
moral to it.

so here goes.

a little while before Christmas,
a couple of my girlfriends and I were
having one of our "girl nights" and we
came up with the idea to have
a Christmas boutique.
robin is a super talented photographer, but
she is so humble and not sure about
marketing or selling her
framed photos.
{we're still trying to get her on etsy}.

christine is just the nicest
person you'd ever meet,
and, by her own admission,
not super "crafty",
but she's always up for a fun gathering.
and she is the most supportive friend.
she decided she would help us.
she'd be the official greeter and
server of apple cider to the
crowds of customers
flocking to
our
boutique.




robin's beautiful angel photos.



we didn't have much time to pull this off.
we decided to have it at my house
and robin and i both
worked frantically to get
our items made and ready for display
and sale.
{christine spent the whole week before
at a science camp in the rain with
5th graders. brave girl.}




and we were ready.
the displays looked great.
i had my calculator, notepad, and
little stamped brown bags ready.
robin was all set to
go with her inventory book near by.
she also brought her sister-in-law,
who came with really cute
"quiet books" that she
hand makes for little ones.



of course we had to have food
for us.
and drinks.
we had cheese and deli meats,
crackers, nuts,
fresh fruit,
yummy sweets,
tea, coffee, bubbly water.
wine.
baileys.
rum.

our advertising was comprised of
face book shout-outs,
word of mouth,
a nice sign at the top of my street,
and a craig's list ad.
oh, and a cute "boutique" banner strung
across the front porch.


so there we were,
all ready to go.
and no one showed up.
no. one.
i'm pretty sure no one
was even home in my neighborhood
that day.

we were all feeling pretty discouraged
at that point.
christine was drinking baileys with her coffee
and nursing a cold {remember the rainy science camp?}
robin and i decided to spike the apple cider
with the rum.
and soon we just started to laugh at ourselves.
not because of the liquor.
just because there we were with all of
our high hopes
and dreams of this super successful boutique.

at one point robin decided that
we needed more advertising out front.
so the four of us lugged this life size
carved santa from my front porch to the sidewalk
and propped another sign on him.
the whole thing just got us to laughing,
the kind of laughing where you feel
like you might pee your pants.
i commented that my neighbor
across the street
{mind you i've only lived here a couple months
and don't know anyone that well yet}
was probably watching us from her
upstairs window,
making comments like,
"look at those silly girls, they
are pretending to have a store today..."
that just made us all laugh even more.


later on, inside, we had a little meeting
about what had gone wrong.
and robin took notes.
we decided that our wares are
fabulous,
we just lacked customers.
which is kind of important when you're having a boutique.

not to be discouraged,
we decided that we will not give up.
next time we just need to start a little
earlier on the advertising.
and robin suggested we do it at her
house because she lives in a busier neighborhood.
the idea that we came up with is to
do a spring or summer boutique
and try to invite more local
vendors.
and really advertise better.

i suggested that we needed a name for our event.
robin's sister-in-law said,
"well, why don't you just call it the
pretend boutique?"
which made us all laugh again.
but we decided that we really do
like that name.

the point is that
it all worked out
because we ended up having such
a good time together
visiting and laughing and just
being silly girls.
and we encouraged each other.
which is what friendship is really all about.

sometime
this summer or spring,
we will be having
the pretend boutique
in robin's backyard.




the first of many, i hope.

p.s. you're invited; please come!


p.p.s. robin's site isn't up yet,
but you can email her at

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

little dog girls

Meet the little girls who keep me company every day and bring so much joy to my life.


shelby

Such a sweet, loving, loyal, sensitive doggie girl. Her ears never came up like a typical chihuahua, except for a 12 hour period after she got into some hot tamale candy once.

Sweet things to know about her:
1. She gives hugs.
2. She once fell asleep in a shoebox.
3. She runs as fast as the wind.
4. Nickname: baby girl


tiffany
Such a mama's girl and a funny, nervous little dog. She has a small circle of trust and really would prefer that no one ever came to visit. She loves to play and gets into mischief on a regular basis.

Sweet things to know about her:
1. She loves to help with the laundry.
2. She wears a lovely pair of white gloves on her front paws.
3. She snores.
4. She loves baths.



sugar
{pictured here with her cousin, sierra}
Just the cutest little dog ever. We rescued her from a shelter after someone found her wandering...just a little hobo dog. She weighed only two pounds and had dirty fur and nails, which is quite embarrassing to her now. We don't know much about her past because she won't talk about it, so we just focus on giving her all she needs now. Recently I've had to take away her toys because she is partial to eating their ears and toes.

Sweet things to know about her:
1. She loves corn tortillas and really anything sweet.
2. She never eats before noon.
3. She takes a long nap every morning after she gets up.
4. She sneaks up and gives really quick kisses.
5. Current weight: 4 pounds.
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