Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Bring on some sun!!  I promised my oldest when the sun comes out we will sort all his toys and have a garage sale.  If he sells enough toys, we will get him and his little brother new bikes.  :D  We're getting them anyway but he doesn't know that!   They do need some sun though.  The cold, wet is not nearly as fun for outdoor free time and they are dying to go to the park!  So am I! 

As most of you know, Ive decided to do an amazing giveaway for a 1000 fan celebration!  So excited!  I have so far 5 amazing prizes, and waiting on a few more to let me know if they are in, and still looking too! AND I'm planning ANOTHER giveaway already!  Just in my head but its there, and you wont want to miss out, I promise!  

I'm still  playing with the new graphics that I used on the winners of my quickie draw do develop some more PREMADE banner & avatar sets.  Stick around, if you don't see something you like yet, don't be afraid to let me know what you would like to see!  I can't promise I will always do them, but perhaps it will trigger a great one! You just never know.

Quicky Giveaway Winners

So I only had two entries for the banner & avatar giveaway!  I was going to choose 3 out of all the entries but with only 2 entries it was pretty easy to pick! ;)

Crystal from CT Designs, and Sarah from Tiny Teddies Boutique have got themselves a custom banner & avatar set using graphics that are designed for them, but will be featured in my other pre mades and available to use on future orders as well!

Here is Miss Sarah's banner set!  The teddy bears are drawn from her lovely crochet bears that she has for sale on her page! 

Banners and Avitars

If your a part of my FB fanpage, then you have seen my tiny little collection of banner and avatar sets that I started a few months ago.  I had done a few fro some friends and myself last year, but kinda sucky ones with no graphics!  Well, with any luck my credit card will be here by Wednesday so I will be getting a shop up and running, FINALLY and I am thinking I'm going to be needing a few more of these cute little sets!

Here's what I'm going to do!  If you have a shop that needs a fresh look, let me know here, and tomorrow afternoon I will use random.org to pick 3 commenter's to receive a set for free!  The final set will be yours to use, and will also go into my collection of customizable premade sets!  Though I wont use your colour scheme for the samples.   

Keep in mind these are NOT logos!  My logos are done using graphics that I DRAW just for you, and I never use the graphics again!  Which is the way I think a logo should be - One Of A Kind!  Its not really OOAK if you get a 'logo' with graphics from a freeware site, or purchased from another graphics site.  I also know how to properly re size a photo,  so you wont be getting one of your photos stretched out to cover your banner, EVER! 

Here are a couple of the logos I have done :) 

You've likely seen them all in my logo album but I thought I pop em in here anyway! :)

Good luck! ;)  ...and remember to follow my blog to be elegible!

In my Barbie world.

Slowly, Ive been working my way through my kitchen trying to rid my family of the massive amounts of plastic we use for our food.  I use Pyrex where ever I can, and have some smaller dishes to store smaller amounts of food and they work great for lunches.  But this process is slow and rather expensive.  If I could get a refund on all the plastic/Teflon/silicone items I have purchased in the last 15 years, I would have an AWESOME collection of GREAT stainless steel, and glass and plenty of change left over for the bank!   Do we even need to mention the fact that my donation to the landfills and the amount of leached cancer causing poisons I have put into my body would have been so would have been drastically reduced. 

I've mentioned before, my favourite pot; the 12 cup multi pot from Epicure Selections.  I love this pot.  I could tell you all the fancy stuff, like the wonderful stainless steel, the tempered glass lid, but bleh..  whatever.  Anyone who knows a good pot will know by holding it how awesome it is!  The shape of the handle makes it fell secure when I'm picking it up, its heavy and has cup measurement lines imprinted along the inside of the pot.  There's no awful screws anywhere ready to come loose every time I use it.  And I can strain things right out of the pot using the LID!!  I love this pot.  My favourite part about it?  When I boil water in it & there is no coating to flake off, and I can stab at a piece of food with a fork and scrub it, and not worry about a special coating.

I have a ton of pots and pans that I only use when I have to.  They are all non stick.  One is an $80 fry pan.  I hate them all!  Sure they work really well for about 2 weeks....  but eventually someone scratches it and the non stick Teflon starts coming off passing a pepper all through you food.  Not to mention that not one of them is even non stick anymore.  And they smell funny when cook with them. 



We finally got a few more pots!  They are not very expensive, but they are stainless steel with a nice glass lid and I love them!  I now have my big cast iron pan, my epicure pot, and 3 sauce pans (2 med, 1 large) and this week I am going to throw out my old non stick nasty ones.  My next adventure will be adding to my utensil collection!  New spatulas and spoons!  Its hard to invest so much money into something only to realize 10 years later we were completely wrong and now have to reinvent the way we go about our day as we try to get back to a healthier way of living!

I'm NOT an environmentalist.  But I do wonder about the way we live.  The way we are slowly poisoning ourselves with the things we freely bring into our homes and put into our mouths.  I'm slowly, bit by bit, trying to become less dependant on our throw away products, and hopefully teach my children that convenience often comes with a sacrifice. 

Pancakes Anyone?

The most creative thing I have ever done with my pancakes is a my husbands and my initials in the middle of a pink heart!  Ive never done anything beyond a plate full of mini toonie cakes for my boys!  But earlier today a friend of mine (find her blog here) posted a link to a website where this one talented father is making the COOLEST pancakes for his lovely daughter!  I'm overjoyed at the memories that this little lady is growing up with!  As most of you know, I have many fond memories in the kitchen and I think all kids should!  Its a wonderful place to work together and show your children how much you value them!

Check out the amazing thing this guy can do with his pancakes!  What is the most amazing thing you have done??  Stop by his fan page, and let him know you heard of him through my blog! ;)

**This photo is from jimspancakes.com**

On a side note...  Please remember to hit up my giveaway and get another entry in!   After almost one full day, I have 10 new followers on my blog,12 new fans, and 40 entries!  Keep it up and good luck everyone!

It's a sweet life!

Not that I'm not busy, because I really am, but out of boredom I got out my Epicure 12 cup multi pot (I LOVE THIS POT!)  and poured in about 1 1/2 cups of sugar a big egg size of butter and a bit of water...  boiled it till it started to brown; removed from the heat and added about 1/4c or so of whipping cream.  That's right. Caramel sauce.  What's it for???  My coffee.  It's so good!  If the kids were not sleeping I would be whipping some of the cream and topping the coffee with that and some more sauce drizzled on top and maybe some vanilla sugar too!  OH YEAH.  I'm that bad! 

I was looking over old photos of my babies from a few years ago on one of our trips to Dryden.  OMG... how they have grown.  From little babies to these boys I now have running me mad all day long!  I'm so proud of them!  These are from 2 summers ago. Oldest was 2 1/2 and my baby was just 1.

I'm all caught up on my crochet items!  Just doing some odds and ends for the restaurant logo, and then one other premade logo to do & a birth announcement and I am caught up! :)  Which is good because I finally got a CREDIT CARD!  I have had one in the past, but never renewed it because I never used it.  Now that I'm a SAHM, I cant get one, unless I get my husband to co-sign for me.  Boo.  Until my good friend directed me to Capital One where they guarantee you one.  They are sending it out and then I will find out my pre approved credit limit!  I'm excited!  I am finally opening a store on Etsy where I will have my Logo designs, photo cards, crocheted items, flowers and a couple other special things that I don't offer right now!  Hopefully it all goes well and I make some money off it!

In celebration of that and my pending 7 year anniversary, this week I will be starting a giveaway for a 'winners choice' of a selection of items/services.  If you have any idea's for the giveaway, leave a comment here!  If you win my giveaway there just might be a little extra something for you with your prize!

Anyway, off to enjoy another cup of my caramel coffee before I go to bed!   Good night!

Short n Sweet!

Oh what a busy week!  Actually, its been a pretty busy few months.  And I'm not complaining!  I love it!  Lots of logos, cards, and crochet items!  I have a bunch of orders to catch up on yet, but no worries! - I should be caught up by mid week.   

Micheals is so deadly for crafters.  You need blinders in the place, I tell ya.  I went in there for 3 balls of yarn for the trim on my bear cocoons....  $100 dollars later!  At least in their effort to save paper, they printed up a coupon for 50% off one item on my next visit.   Now I must go back there, right?  grrr!  I did get the trim though!  3 bear cocoons lined up waiting for their trim!  I just need a hammock, 2 hanging cocoons, and 2 lace cocoons to do over the weekend!   After that I picked up some stuff to make some sweet limited addition bears!  

Catching up and cleaning the house, cooking and playing with my boys...  whew!  And sleep too.  Speaking of which, GOODNIGHT!  Im going to finish my coffee and hit the hay!

Tamara, Ryan and "Miss P" - mini fam

Wednesday afternoon I had the pleasure of meeting this lovely young couple from Saskachewan, who came out for a mini family session.  The sun was hiding behind a think layer of clouds, so we got some really even lighting and no squinting!  It was also warm and not too windy, so really we had a pretty perfect day to this.  Little 'Miss P' is one year old and had just learned to walk not too long ago, so she has that adorable swagger that the toddlers are known for while trying to run away and discover a new 2 legged world!  She was very coopertive as long as she had that cluster of pink balloons too! 

Bathroom Talk!

Alright...  this is long overdue!  Just a warning, I'm about to talk about 'that time' of the month, mother natures visit, Auntie Flo's visit....  That's right!!!  I'm about to talk about MY PERIOD!!!  So at this point if your easily disgusted by such matters, then I would suggest you move on!  Otherwise, read away!  After all I'm not going to get too descriptive anyway!

My first visit was when I was 11.  I got my first period about 3 weeks after my sister got her first period.  She is 2 1/2 years older then me.  Apparently I developed early!  Not a big deal though.  It was during the summer and when I went back to school in the fall I remember a group of us girls sitting on the swings, twirling about, and one girl says 'So.  I got my period over the summer'.  Another says...  'Ya. Me too.'  and then I interjected my own, 'Me too.'  And that was that.

Since then I have tried, pads and tampons, put up with so many bad days of painful cramps.  Nothing was regular.  Not even remotely.  I never knew when it was going to happen or how long except for a feeling that it was coming.  Fast forward years later.  I'm married and as we are getting ready to try for babies, I come to the realization that I'm finally regular!  I don't know when it happened but I'm now 28 1/4 days.  Yes there is a quarter in there!  Then post babies, my cramps are now gone!!!  All those missed days of school spend in bed crying.  All those T3's...  that never seemed to work and now finally I'm happy.  Sorta.  Most of you moms know what having a couple kids does to your insides and now I can no longer use tampons effectively.  All I have left is these awful pads that fold up and stick to your sensitive hairs.  I get itchy from them, and they make me cranky.  But I'm regular and have no cramps, so really I cannot complain. 

So last summer in my quest to go a little greener, I learn about reusable cloth pads.  EW!!  Seriously???  Well I guess that's how they dealt with things before the invention of Always (or your brand) disposables!  And I guess we use cloth diapers on our babies!  hmmm......  I do hate store bought pads.  So I asked around a bit and wouldn't you know it; LOTS of women use cloth pads!  So I search online and on Etsy until I find a pad that I like.  And FINALLY made an order.   OMG.  Why are we not all using these?  I love them!  I expected some bulk (I mean they are layers of fabric!) but they really are not that bad at all!  I love the way the fabric feels on special parts too!  Much more natural and NO MORE STICKING!!!  Oh how i loathed that!  So if I could climb trees (which I'm saving, thank you very much!) or a roof top and shout out that every women NEEDS to try these I so would.  LOVE LOVE LOVE them!!!

My journey to become (and my struggle to remain!) a woman has been interesting.  Every woman has their own story, there own struggle.  And that was a small part of mine!  Personal, yes, but I think we need to be more open so that we let others know we are not alone.  Its surprising how much alike we all really are and if we can just let go of our fears of being judged and open up to others I think we would all be a bit happier!

And what started out as small insignificant purchase of some pads from a store called Randumosity on Etsy, has also turned into a wonderful internet friendship with Jami who is my official 'Pad Lady!'  And she and her little store have now become a small part of my life story of growing up! 

Terrific Tuesday!

Why is it terrific???  Well, it just is!  Mostly because, I am actually doing another entry on here!  AMAZING! 

Since I have last shared, I've actually been quite busy!  I've been selling some of my crochet props, making adorable flowers for headbands and clips, and doing a weee bit of photography too! 

This little man is so sweet!  Baby 'J' at 3 weeks old; he was a super sweet little model!  I had the blessing of being able to do some portraits of his mom and dad awaiting his arrival too.  The hat is one of the many things Ive whipped up the last while, and I'm so keeping it for my own stash!

Here is the birth announcment that I created for him! (included in the newborn sessions!)

Another little guy I had the pleasure of photographing!

This beautiful 2 day old baby 'D' belongs to a dear friend of mine, so he holds an extra special place in my heart!  He's a lucky man, as he has a big sister and a big brother to always lookout and take care of him!  Only just over 6 lbs when he came in for his photos, he loved being held and did not like being naked, despite the fact that we were all sweating, he was still a bit cool because he was so small!  Wrapped in one of the stork/hanging cocoons that I made, he seems quite happy here! The hat was one that won from another very talented crocheter I found here on Facebook.  Danyel of Crazy Socks Crochet Shop!  I also did a trade with her for a logo, and got myself some very nice props for my personal collection!  She uses a type of yarn that I don't like working with but love the results of, so it was an AWSOME trade for me!  I have to make up a birth announcment for this adorable boy!

I will leave you with one last photo!  Baby J when he was just a bump!  This is one of my favourite photos.  This mom-to-be is just so utterly beautiful, it was a great pleasure to photograph her and her growing family!