New Resolutions for the New Year 2013!

Oh blog world I have missed you! We are finally getting over the plague and holiday rush plus sleep training and I hope to be back to semi-regular posts. So much I want to blurt out to the world...that coming up this week. 

Every year I like to go over the resolutions from the year before and see how I did and then make some new ones. I like to look at them as not only resolutions but almost like a mini business and life plans.

To look back here are my past lists:

List from 2010
List from 2011
List from 2012


List from 2012:

Non-blog centered:  

• Baby-proof the house now that mr. bee is starting to cruse around the house. (Ummm yeah we probably still have more to do now that squirrel is around.)
• Work on cleaning and cooking regularly- setting up a meal plan and cleaning schedule. Also clean out stuff we do not need! Simplify! Well I am cleaning out but no meal planning yet. Cooking is happening more, cleaning....not yet.
• Getting our budget set and look into CSA's for produce. Umm budget is ready to be set and I know what CSA to go with...does that count?
• As always make family a first priority, spend more time with my husband and do things for him without asking and to take care of my son without feeling like anyone owes me. I would say DONE to this one....staying home from work helps.
• Try to go to the gym at least once a week if not more. HA ok that never happened

Blog/business centered:

• Continue to post new items on Etsy DONE
• Sign up to do more craft shows and have my items in more local boutiques. DONE
• Be better about time management when I get time to work at night. DONE
• Work hard to have more back stock items. still working on this
• Continue to post three times a week and maybe try to add a post that is more personal or links up to other blogs. DONE most of the time
• Look into other blogs/shops to do giveaways with, either giving away my item or asking to giveaway theirs. DONE
• Promote my blog and maybe start linking up with other blogs to promote my business. Looking into this but I have started linking up for personal stuff not for the business yet
• Look into adds on my page to bring in a bit of income. I thought about this but have yet to take the plunge, any thoughts?

Once again why am I so driven with the business goals and not the personal ones?! There is always next year.

Image from here

 

So here is to a new year and new goals!

Non-blog centered:  

• Test out some babysitters so the hubby and I can have regular date nights.
• Work each day on cleaning and cooking. I have to always have this because I hate to cook. Cleaning I don't hate but it is harder to do when someone is always needing me.
• FINALLY get the budget set and live by it. No more buying things because they sound cool or I would like to have them.
• Clean out my clothes and work on my wardrobe (I want to still look and feel good about myself while staying at home, no lounging in pjs all day).
• Enjoy life as a stay at home mom. Enjoy playing with my kiddos, sometimes I think too much about tasks that need to be done and how they are in my way instead of enjoying the time I get to spend with them while they love me.  
• Try to get to the gym ONCE a month. Sad but that is the best I can do and we will see if I can do it.
• Spend more time in personal prayer, reading a religious book or just taking 15min to talk to God. This should really be up at the top!

Blog/business centered:

• Continue to post new items on Etsy
• Be better about time management when I get time to work.
• Start making all of the things I keep talking about making....DO IT.
• Continue to post at least three times a week and work on my photography skills.
• Promote my blog and maybe start linking up with other blogs to promote my business. Maybe doing a few "how did I" segments.
• Look into adds on my page to bring in a bit of income.
• Interact more with my peeps on Facebook.
• Silly but make a map with all of the locations that I have sent my items too. I would love that as inspiration when I work.

I love having a place on the internet tonshare what I create and share small parts of myself with those who check it out. It gives me something to look forward to on hard days with the kiddos, someone to "talk to". Thank you for being there for me, even if it my just be my two good friends who check this out every once in a while.

May God Bless all of you in 2013.

What I Wore Sunday #3

The plague has left our house and I am feeling better finally (I didn't make it to Mass last Sunday I was so sick). I pulled this outfit together and thought I looked pretty good until I looked at the picture. Yikes, baggy city!

 

I started out with this dress that has a low cut front, easy for breastfeeding, and layered a halftee (sort of like the new updated version of a dickey) under it to make it wearable outside of my house. I thought some grey tights would be cute under it, do you see them peeking out between the dress and boots? I put on my go to black boots to finish off the look. The dress is 3/4 length and I thought I would be cold so I put on this grey and black stripe sweater to pull the tights together with the dress. I don't mind the way the sweater looks but man doesn't it look like I am wearing a bag? :)

I went shopping a few weeks ago (at Target) and got some new skirts that I can not wait to wear in the coming weeks. First I have to find some tops to go with them.

Shirt: Halftees (LOVE THEM)
Dress: Old Navy Maternity, I think

Sweater: Gordmans?

Tights: ?? No idea

Boots: Way old from a store called Syms. Long gone

 

A Slew of Monkees

You have seen this design before but I wanted to show you all of the variations people have asked for.

First of all there is one that just didn't get enough ink, and got a spot on it as well from the ironing cloth. GRR. It is for sale 1/2 off on my Etsy site. It doesn't look too bad, maybe a little bit vintage?

Here is what it looked like after I did it a second time, much better! Sometimes those small onesies are hard to get the image on correctly.

 

Then I had an order for a brother and sister. The grandmother wanted red for the boy and purple for the girl. These were done on children's tee-shirts. They actually turned out pretty good.

 

 It seems like there are quite a few Monkees fans out there! I have noticed on the non-cable tv station that plays old tv shows that they have been playing old Monkees re-runs. Sometimes I sit and watch but most of the time I flip to KETC or THIS (old movie channel).

 

Dreaming up new retro designs this week, some being care bears, and rainbow bright. We will see what I can come up with.

Embroidery for Stockings

We are only a few weeks away from Christmas and I actually have a Christmas related project. Earlier in the summer I embroidered these six stockings for a client. We went with a smaller font because we had to fit a name between two stars on one of the blue stockings. I used the same font size for the rest of the stockings so that was the determining stocking. I used a few different colored threads, the dark blue stockings have white, the two stockings that have an aqua blue on them I used aqua and for the final two stockings I used a navy blue. The stocking colors were taken from that sweet blue and white nativity on the mantel.

 

 

Here is a closer shot of the embroidery, looking back I wish I could have made the names bigger but I think they are happy.


Then this client told a friend that I had done her stockings so I embroidered this family's stockings a month ago. She wanted the names large across the top of the stockings and we played with the font a bit until we got what she wanted. She was thinking of doing green on the red and red on the green but white thread looks much better. Stands out and unifies them.

These stockings had two layers and I had a hard time getting them to not pucker when I was sewing. I started and stopped a ton of times but couldn't get it to not pucker. I have a great machine that was expensive but it isn't as great as those really expensive machines.

One day I would love to have a fireplace and mantel to hang our stockings from, we don't have anything like that now so we have to hang them from the tv cabinet. HA I guess we could play the fireplace vhs that they used to have so that it looks like the tv is a fireplace. I also have not purchased stockings for my two kiddos and my husband uses an old stocking that we had left over at work. I need to figure out what to get. I love my crochet stocking from when I was a kid but I don't know who I would have do it. I could get more stockings like my husband but they are expensive! I do know that I want them all to match so maybe I can make my own. All I know for sure is that it will not be happening by Christmas. ;) Good thing they are too young to know any better.

What I Wore Sunday #2

Today is Gaudete Sunday and in honor of that I wanted to try to find something pink to wear to Mass. Let's see how I did...

Finding an outfit that is breastfeeding friendly in my closet is sometimes a challenge. I only have so many pink items of clothing so I started out with this button up shirt that was actually my mom's shirt! I paired that with brown slacks and because I thought I would be chilly I put on a brown sweater. It worked well for nursing during mass. I also have these awesome silver shoes with big pink flowers on them that were perfect to go with my outfit.

I didn't feel like I had enough pink on so I wore my pink jacket and finished off the outer wear with a ruffle scarf (I make some scarves just like this one).  Not my favorite outfit but I think it worked for what I was going for and I felt festive in my pink!

Scarf: Gift from France
Necklace: Bridesmaid gift from a friend

Shirt: Vintage from Mom

Sweater: NY and Co

Pants: Old Navy

Shoes: Clarks

Finally, I just today read about what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary school and was so sad to think about all of those little ones, not much older than some of my nieces and nephews and my own children. I think today, on the Sunday meant to give us hope, I have hope and am glad that this world is not all that is meant for us in life.

7 Quick Takes #2

1. I am sure you have heard but Pantone announced the color of the year for 2013, it is Emerald. I used to love the color green, and even my High School colors were green and white. I am excited  to add some green to my life this year. It might be an easier color for people to embrace than Tangerine Tango.



2. My baby squirrel (3 month old) is getting his first tooth. This makes for a cranky baby that cries himself to sleep even when being held, rocked, and shushed. I hope that this first tooth pops in pretty quickly. Baby bee got his first tooth at this same time and rumor has it that my aunt had 6 teeth by 6 months old! WOW It seems to run in the family.

3. Advent is underway and going much faster that I would like it to. I mean really is it really almost Gaudete Sunday!? I always loved the "pink candle Sunday" as a kid because it meant that Santa was almost on his way. This year it is a reminder to me to keep preparing for Christ to come in a few weeks. I have been doing very simple things this year for advent,  making the most of the time I am given each day, not yelling at my children when I am having a hard day, and doing what I can to have a meal ready when my hubby comes home (this is big for me I HATE TO COOK). ;) I am doing okay but am glad I have a few more weeks to work on these things, and to prepare my heart for Christ.

4. While cleaning my kitchen for the first time in a long time, I mean really cleaning it I remembered that I bought some Mr. Clean pads at the store a few months ago and decided to get one out. Man I should have pulled them out a while ago! They are great! I actually remember seeing on Pinterest a way to make your own?!  I am going to have to go check that out again and see what that is all about. I might have a new favorite cleaning tool.

5. While I sew sew sew to get Etsy orders out I like to watch movies. I went to the library last week and picked up a few for the week. I love old movies, romance movies, (I watch action and sci-fi with my husband) and comedies. So I picked up this movie that I thought for sure was going to be stupid and I really should have left at the library but I didn't. It was What to Expect When You are Expecting. Yes a movie based on the book. It wasn't the best movie but what I got from it was that I love my babies, I am proud of myself for getting through three pregnancies and two natural births, and I want to have more. :) I proceeded to tell my husband while he was asleep, lets have like 10 kids...his response was okay. haha

6. Went to the first Christmas party of the season last night and it was a lot of fun. I forget how great it is to gather with those that you know and love and to eat, drink and share your lives with them. Plus bee loved running around with all of the other little kiddos. That was the best, seeing him just step away from us and go, most of the time he wants us to go with him. I look forward to the next few gatherings that are coming up and hope that we all stay well so we can enjoy them.

7. Finally at seven....well this Christmas selling season as been a good one for me on Etsy. Constant orders and all of them custom. I love creating things for people that help them say "I am pregnant," "I love you," or just "I thought of you when I saw this." I am not the best gift giver but I love helping other people create presents and surprises for others. Now to finish my Christmas gifts and get everything wrapped. Only ten more days! WOW.

New Fabric/New Find Friday #118

This fabric has been in my stash and I am sorry I haven't shared it with you yet. I love Amy Butler fabric, and sadly I just buy it and keep it and hate cutting into it. A few months ago I picked this up at my local quilt shop when they were having a sale.

These are the new colors of the year, first of all grey has been big for a while and it doesn't seem like it is going away yet. It has become a great neutral to go with so many colors and patterns. I used to hate it but now (thanks to my grey loving husband) it is the color of my son's room! The green colors in the bottom two are not quite emerald green but they are close. These blue, turquoise, green colors are sliding their way to the new color of the year emerald.

The top two fabrics are such soft florals that would really make a beautiful skirts but would be even better as a breastfeeding cover, maybe I will make an exception and cut into them in the future.The middle fabric, the snail pattern  is not from Amy but I thought it was so cute, perfect for a little kiddo. Maybe a pair of kids pajama pants? The last two fabrics I just love the colors,  bold strong grey and green with pops of fresh blue.

I hope to get sewing a bit more now that my Christmas orders are over so be on the lookout for more posts with new products!