Grrrrr.

Today is not my day. Well, at least not my Sculpey day. My super cute idea for cupcake pins has been repeatedly thwarted. First, after baking them, I added real sprinkles to make them extra cute. And they were. Oh. So. Cute. Then I tried to seal them with Mod Podge and then with Sculpey sealer. Neither worked...they all ended up a nasty brown mess. Boo. I have tried at least five different ways of adding the sprinkles and none of them are working. So, tonight I will make more cupcake pins. And try again. Then I discovered that there are other cupcake pins on Etsy. Who knew?!? Boo again. When making new things, I try to avoid Etsy, as to avoid any known copying or creative influence on my behalf...then I will go search for what I just made...just to see. And there they were. So I am thinking that since they would only be a side item in my shop and I didn't copy them from her...that I will still sell them. What do you think? Is the line too fuzzy there? I don't want to be that girl. So, seriously, tell me what you think.

I didn't find houses like the cute one in the photo above however...though I have to find another way to make them cute because as previously mentioned...the sprinkles don't cut it. Here are my brown gooey messes. They have been banished from my sight.

So do you think it is weird that before I even put this little pint container, with blueberries, into my shopping cart that I already knew that I would do this? That is normal right?

And this is what it has come to in my house. One of Moses' newly learned skills is opening the doors. He especially likes to do this when the person that he has to talk to RIGHT NOW is in the bathroom. He was not pleased at me putting this on the handles of the doors that he loves to bypass...where else can a boy toilet fish?

On a cute note...Moses has been learning to say please and thank you. We try to remember to make him use it as often as possible so that it's ingrained in him...please is sticking. If he asks for something I will say..."and what do we say?" to which he replies "psssss mama". :) Makes a mama proud.

This is what I did for you today. Right after Doug left for work, I realized that my Nikon was in the glove compartment of his car. So I forced myself into the car and trekked to Target to retrieve it...because I promised you new cards and goodies in the shop today. :)

And because I don't have the giveaway ready. :) I hope to have it ready to post tomorrow morning...and I know what it will be now...so be sure to check back in the AM.

Kristi-I will reserve that card for you in the shop.
Bethany-If you let me know which one you wanted I will do the same for you.

And someone asked about the shelf life of a cupcake in a jar....I would estimate 5-7 days. Longer if you put in the fridge or freeze it. :)

Happy day to you!!!

I'm not one to be left behind!

So, you just know that as soon as I saw that Mrs. Janesays was playing with clay that I had to go buy me some right? She is cooler than cool and I have to be just like her. :) Well not just like her...like her in a funky way. So today as Moses and I killed time in Joannes a sign came down from heaven and it said 50% off of sculpey. That was all the encouragement I needed. And above is the result. Just look at those cute little cupcake push pins. Can't get any cuter can they?...or can they? Just you wait and see what I do with them next...you'll be begging for them...I hope. :)

And I did a little something different with my towels today...I call these "trees in a row" because I am so creative with names and all. The are single and available in the shop right now!

And
Happy Etsy-versary to me!!

Today marks a year exactly since I started my Etsy shop. :) Yay!!

Here is the first card I sold. I feel like I have come a long way and grown sooo much in my creativity, met some WONDERFUL people, made some great friends, paid some bills, got some great gifts for others and from others, started blogging, kept my sanity, got to be something other than mom and wife, bought lots of paper, learned some new techniques, made some people happy, encouraged others, was encouraged by others and all this because God nudged me to start an etsy shop. Yay!

To say thank you even further...I am going to have a giveaway!!! I will come up with something good to give away...so check back tomorrow!! :)

Yes, I still make cards. :)

Hello there friends!! :) Looky, looky what I got made last night!! Doug was closing so I got to piddle around with my card making goodies and since I am blessed with a TON of goodies at the moment I thought I would reflect that in some over embellished cards. LOVE them! They will start showing up in the shop on Monday. :)

I also decided that this pillow was lacking in buttons...better fix that, right?

AND I finally got a bib in the shop!! :) Cute!

And here is what happens when you try too hard to get your toddler to do something that he just learned for the camera. Like ten minutes before this photo Moses smiled on command...the cheesy "here are all my teeth" smile...not too different from the look above. At one point he was so annoyed with me that yelled "ma-ma!!" as if to say "enough!"

And to all you lovelies who commented on my last post. Thank you to those of you who can say what I believe in a way that sounds fluent and intelligent. It is nice to know that I am not alone in my "old-fashioned" way of thinking. I by NO means or in ANY way am trying to say that there is one way for all women...we indeed must each follow the path that we feel God is leading us down. :)

Happy weekend to you!

My other love...

is in the garden. I could spend hours out there, pulling weeds, planting, watering, digging, arranging...making it all just right. I have worked really hard on our garden here in C'ville. It hasn't been easy, I didn't have much to start with but today for the first time, I saw the start of where I wanted our yard to be...I still have some work to do....three more hostas and a few loads more of rock and stones but it will be beautiful this summer.
Here are some of my favorite spots...

I LOVE nasturtium. I plant packets and packets of them every year. They are hardy, viney and downright lovely. They are impossible to kill. I love that.

Here is the window box under my kitchen window. :) It just seems happy to be there.

My mini-boxwood. I LOVE boxwood. This is by our back door, welcoming the back door visitors.

I love viney, spreading things. I think that has to do with my lack of patience. I want things to grow. NOW.

This goes to our back door. We have added spreading plants and stones for a cottagey like look. We have a lot of work to do on the fence.

I do this every day after I blog. :)

I built this wall. It's not done yet but it has already transformed how the back looks. I moved the day lilies to this spot last fall.

And here is what has been on my heart lately. Being a Titus 2 woman. And all that encompasses. Hand in hand with that I have been wondering if those that have fought so hard for feminism have realized that for as much as it has done good for women, hasn't it hurt just as many? I feel like the race to be "equal" to men has made hard for those of us who are ok with being submissive. The push for women to be equal in the workplace makes it harder for women to stay home in the first place. The strive to "be independent" makes being taken care of by our husbands unattractive. Does anyone understand any of that? I would love to hear some feedback on this. Am I the only one who feels this way?

EDITED TO ADD: I am not anti-feminism in that I agree with Sara in that the feminist movement has done a lot to improve the way women are treated. I just want the right to stay home or to be anti-feminist to be fought for just as hard as the right to be paid the same as a man. I know that in my college experience, I was endlessly railed for knowing then that I wanted to be a SAHM mom. I was told that I would be wasting my degree, why was I even in college in the first place if I wasn't going to use my degree, why would I want to let a man take care of me, etc. You get the picture. That is my experience with feminism. :) Sorry if I offended anyone. That was not my intention. :)

And. I have a dilemma for you. We live on a loop. The street is pretty busy, cars speed through on a regular basis. There are ALWAYS young (2 and up)children playing IN THE STREET. Their parents are never watching them. The kids often refuse to move out of the way when people come through--like the cars have some nerve being in the street. I am terrified that a child is going to be hit by a car but I am certain that these are not the kind of neighbors that I can walk up to and discuss this with...I am sure I would get a "mind your own" business kind of response from them not to mention dirty looks. What would you do to help ensure that these unsupervised kids don't get hurt?

Oops my Neurosis is showing...

So I thought I would share some of my "tricks" (aka neurosis?) for getting things done. Although, I assume that everyone does this and that I am not a freak for doing them...if I am well..at least I am happy right? And if you are one too...well then keep a freak company!

Actually there is really only one "trick". I hardly ever do something without doing something else. In fact, I make a game of it. It goes like this...I start the toaster oven--now how many things can I get done before my toast is done...wipe down counters, sweep floor, load dishwasher, wipe down fridge...toast is done. Or I am uploading photos--how many of my blogs can I read while I am waiting or how many emails/convos can I reply to? I do this game while I wait for anything. I will even wipe down the inside of my car/file a nail/clean out a pocket, etc--while waiting at a red light, or in line somewhere. In my pre-dvr days I did this with commercials too--could I finish vacuuming before Dr. Phil came back on? I also work on something while watching TV in the evening...in fact I find it very hard to just sit there and watch...

All those little things add up...so do all those spare moments...what else am I supposed to do? Wait for the light to turn/microwave to countdown/toast to be done? There are 24 usable hours every single day and I don't like for them to go to waste.

and then there is this...

I am going upstairs/to the kitchen/to the bathroom/to Moses room---what needs to go there? I hate to make a special trip for one thing.

Here is my happy assistant and my bright idea of the day. Who knew that a little dry rice and a pan would entertain a toddler for 30-40 minutes while mommy sits nearby sewing?

And yes, I know that it is May but this is one of those ideas that was stuck in my head just begging to get OUT! I won't be making many of them and I can't promise that I will make them come Christmas time so get them while you can...and don't forget where you hid them when it is time to put them out!

Speaking of neurosis, I worked on this pillow for Mrs. H last night while watching American Idol, whose results I am not pleased with. It is still a work in progress. :)

And lastly, say a little prayer for Steven Curtis Chapman and his family today...his youngest daughter was hit in their driveway by an SUV driven by their son! Sadly she has gone to be with Jesus. We are going to start a family rule...no pulling out unless you KNOW where all the kiddos are!

Calzone a la Crystal

Here is the recipe for the calzone I made last night. I changed it so much from the recipe I started with that I think I can officially call it mine. :)

~1 1/2-2c Mozz
~1 1/2c Ricotta (I used the skim)
Mix these two together.

~3/4c Ham-I used the sliced sandwich kind, cut into little squares
~1c Italian sausage-sliced thin.
(You can substitute any ingredients you wish---peppers, sausage, etc)

Pizza crust in the can. I used Pillsbury brand.

On a cookie sheet lined with the non-stick foil, sprayed with Pam, unroll pizza dough, using your hands "roll" out dough to cover most of the pan, it will be rectangle. You are trying to make it uniformly thin.

In the center third of the dough put down a solid layer of ham, and a layer of sausage. Stay about an inch or so away from the ends. Spread cheese mixture onto the top of ham and sausage. Add remaining ham and sausage to the top.

Take one side of the pizza dough and pull it up and over the ingredients, pinching ends to seal. Do the same with the other side and pinch ends together. You should now have a log.

Brush the top with olive oil and sprinkle with Italian seasoning.

Bake at 400 for 18-20 or until it is uniformly golden brown. Cover with foil if it starts to become too dark. :)

Serve with Marinara or Pizza Sauce. :)

Enjoy friends!

My day in photos...

Cupcakes.

In a jar.

Painting a frame.

Altering a tu-tu.

Feeding a baby.

Laundry makes me want to puke.

Target.

Rounding out my flower beds.

I woke up this morning determined to take out my to-do list. I was sewing by 6:40am. It's working. Things are getting done and my child is still presentable to the world. :)

Doug recently taught Moses how to beat box. It may be the cutest thing I have ever seen.

Off to take out the rest of the list. :)

Heaven.

Do you think about Heaven everyday? I do. At least once a day I find myself imagining what that will be like. Everyone has some sort of concept of what they think that will look like...to some it is clouds and harps with angels all around, to others it is an endless banquet table full of all their favorite foods, to some it is a garden or painting or some beautiful thing that inspires what they think Heaven will be. I was unsure until recently. I bounced around from harps to clouds to foods and flowers but now I have settled down. After reading "This Beautiful Mess" I have forever changed my idea of Heaven. Here is what I have learned. The Bible tells us that Heaven will be a restored physical world that has never fallen under the curse of sin or death. Beauty all around for us to enjoy forever without the plague of worry, want, pain or agony. Just days to enjoy and spend with loved ones, days to follow God and worship Him. We will exist in a body that is raised in glory. Our days will still have purpose, excitement, joy and freedoms just without the worries that we live with today. I have always longed for these days but it wasn't until recently that I realized that this is what Heaven will be like. All the beauty and splendor that life has to offer but without the drag of being human and living with our sin. Can you imagine it?

Local attractions...

Here is Monticello...for those of you who will never see it. :) We didn't get to see much of the inside...it was a little confined and Moses doesn't care for those kind of spaces so we saw the foyer aaaannnd that was about it for the inside. So we wandered around the grounds which were in bloom and beautiful!

I love poppies and can't wait to have the right kind of yard to grow them in...

TJ (Thomas Jefferson)grew all of these species himself...you can buy plants that came from his at the gift shop...I have a bunch that I got last year...not surprisingly they grow better than anything else I have. We found it interesting that even though TJ found slavery to be an "abominable crime" in his whole life and death he only freed a small handful of slaves. Hmmm.... I'll take a garden this size please. :)

And no post would be complete without a cute Moses shot, right? Here he is trying on Doug's glasses. :)

Tonight for dinner I made my first calzone! It was SO easy...let me know if you want the recipe. I promise that you can make it too!

Sorry for what I feel like are boring posts lately...I am still crazy busy, trying to get ahead, spend time with family, travel, garden, house stuff, baby stuff, husband stuff, life stuff...I am desperate to play with all my new papers and goodies that I got from New Jersey in APRIL! Not to mention the new Amy Butler goodies that I recently got and haven't touched. :)

sigh...I am not complaining though! I am blessed by all of the business I have and would never have believed that I would have made it this far...about this time last year I was still toying with the idea of opening a shop...wow...a whole year gone by. Maybe we should celebrate my up coming Etsy-versary? Any ideas?

Hello-lo lo lo

We're back in Charlottesville...our little mini holiday was relaxing and it's not over...today we are going to Monticello and Michie Tavern, both of which are right down the road from us...but first here are a few shots of our weekend...Above is the view from out little cabin...which was uhhhhhh...rustic.

Doesn't look so bad on the outside...

This is where Moses likes to bathe while on vacation.

Doug got up early enough on Saturday to catch this...

The area was very pretty...I have been here a hundred times...it is near where I went to middle and high school...

Moses ran....A LOT.

We introduced him to play-doh.

And all it's squishy...

Moldable wonders. :)

We blew a lot of bubbles...Moses doesn't quite get the concept...here he is eating the wand.

He also had diaper rash issues and had to run around in the buff a while...which he didn't mind, so long as he had his faithful crocs. :) Well, we are off on another adventure today...hope your Monday is wonderful!