Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day!!!

I just want to thank all of our service men and women who have served this great country! Without you, we would not have the freedoms and privileges we have today! Freedom is not free and I hope everyone takes time today to remember that and remember those who gave their lives to give us what we have!

Photo of my grandpa on leave while serving in WWII

And at 87, he still loves telling war stories :)

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Wake

Everything went absolutely amazing yesterday! We could not have asked for better weather! The sun was shining, there was a nice breeze and everyone was all smiles :)

Our dresses looked great too. After the disaster we had earlier in the week with getting dresses at the last minute, we were a little worried. But they looked great and the bride looked absolutely beautiful!

The service was lovely and the reception was lots of fun :) I am so happy for Zach and Melanie and was honored to be a part of their big day :)

Featured!!!

Linda of lindab142http://www.etsy.com/shop/lindab142 on Etsy was kind enough to feature me on her blog yesterday!!! And along with the feature, she does a voting game where the person with the most votes gets a dedicated blog feature just for them!!!

Click the photo to be taken to Linda's blog to vote :) And if you'd like to be part of Linda's Friday Top 5 Etsy Finds check out the rules and you might be feature next Friday!!!

Thanks in advance to everyone who votes :)

Friday Features-Coral

As you saw from the dress I showed yesterday, the color for the wedding I am in tomorrow is coral. It's such a pretty color and can look more orange or pink depending on the shade.

Of course Etsy has lots of coral pretties as well...

Red Coral Scarf

by prettypanda

Finch in a Birdcage Paper Cutting

by Louveteau

Sparrow and Flower Necklace

by liliswan

Pink Blossoms. . . Fabric Push Pins

by PaperPumpkin

Wedding Crisis and New Dresses

I am feeling a little less stressed today :) Thank you to everyone who left uplifting comments! Luckily one of my stressors got resolved :)

Over the weekend, the lady making our bridesmaid's dresses had a stroke! They brought her home and we thought everything was going to be okay until she got put back in the hospital again on Sunday! This created a little bit of a crisis as the dresses weren't done yet!!! And the wedding is this weekend!!! We found a new seamstress, but she said the dresses were such a mess and the measurements weren't even close to being right that she would have to almost totally redo them!

We all went and tried on our dresses to see if they could be salvaged while the bride ran to the city to find possible replacements! Unfortunately there just wasn't any way to make them work in the time we had. The good news is...we got new dresses :) And they're great!

Here's a picture of what mine was supposed to look like:

And here are the dresses we got:

Perfect, right!!! I was so excited when I saw the new dresses and how they fit :) What could have been a major disaster turned out to be better than we had planned :) And I'm glad it's one less thing the bride has to worry about now!

Wordless Wednesday-Ready for Summer

Stressed?

I've been a little stressed lately! With moving to a new department at work, working overtime, getting caught up on custom orders, a wedding this weekend that we're not sure we have dresses for and some things that Jesse and I have going on as well...time seems to be slipping away!

And to be honest, my mind is at a total blank today for blog posts! But instead of rant...I decided to see what fun "Stress" items Etsy had. Browsing through Etsy's great items can help relieve my stress any day :)

Hand Painted Wooden Sign. Stressed is Just Desserts Spelled Backwards

by KreationswithaK

High On Stress shirt

by repchi

Stress is when you wake up Screaming Funny Wood Sign

by CountryWorkshop

Stress Is Bad 8.5 X 11 Art Print

by thedreamygiraffe

I hope this helped relieve a little stress from your day as well :)

New Flip Flop Albums!!!

I'm so excited to finally have some new items in my Etsy Store!!! I finished and photo'd 3 new flip flop albums and am starting to get them listed!

Surfer Girl Flip Flop Album (Listed Sunday)

Pink Flip Flop Album (Listed Today)

Blue and Brown Flip Flop Album (In Store Tues. or Wed.)

Convo if you'd like this one before it hits my shop :)

I have a few others started that I hope to get finished in the next couple of weeks and listed...keep watch :)

What's for Dinner

I don't usually share recipes on my blog mainly because I'm not a very good cook...LOL :) We eat lots of casseroles so we have leftovers and I don't have to cook everyday! But the other day I found a new recipe that I just had to try :) I love chicken and am always looking for new ways to use it.

Applesauce Barbecue Chicken

The recipe says to brown the chicken in a skillet, but I prefer to use my oven when I can. So I put the chicken in a glass baking dish and baked it for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. I then mixed together all of the other ingredients, spread it on the chicken and baked for another 8 minutes. It was so tender and juicy!!! Not dry at all!!! And the best part...Jesse liked it too :)

So if you're looking for a quick, easy and tasty recipe...check this one out :)

Roadside Beauty

I love living and driving in the country for many reasons. The top on my list right now is to see all the beauty along the road! The ditches are full of wild flowers in the spring and summer :)

Here are a couple of pictures I got yesterday on my drive home from an appointment:

Now...if I could just figure out how to get these to grow in my flowerbed the way they grow in the ditches :)

Friday Features-Cupcakes

I had lots of wonderful comments about my cupcake book I showed yesterday :) Thank you to my readers for leaving such uplifting words :) Cupcakes are super popular right now...and why wouldn't they be...they're so cute!!!

I did a little searching around Etsy to see what other cupcake items I could find and found that my fellow EtsyBloggers teammates had some great cupcake items too!!!

MONSTER CUPCAKE DRESS

by joeyandaleethea

Miniature Confetti Cupcake drop earrings

by AthenaWorkman

Cupcake Party Festive Fabric Dog or Cat Collar Cover

by BeadedTail

Cute Cupcake Handmade Notebook

by memoriesforlifesb

Mmmmmm...now I'm off to find something sweet to eat :) All that cupcake searching made me hungry!!!

Being Productive Makes Me Happy :)

On Tuesday I showed you what was on my todo list. Well...today I am happy to tell you that they all got done!!! I love being productive!!!

Cupcake Notebook

Small Address Book

Flip Flop Book

All of these are headed to the post office this morning :) And I even made another sale on Etsy that's headed out with them...Thanks Theresa :)

I hope the weekend can be just as productive!!!

Wordless Wednesday-A Sign of Old Age???

What I'm Working On Today

Along with 6 of my Name Albums, I am working on some other custom projects as well.

Today I'm working on a Flip Flop Album, an Address Book and another Cupcake Book :)

Between today and tomorrow, I'm hoping to get these three projects completed and in the mail and get started on the Name Albums so I can get those added back to my shop!

So...What are you working on today?

A Wonderful Weekend

This past weekend was so great! I had so much fun getting to hang out with my best friend ALL weekend!!! The shower went great with lots of guests and nice gifts.

The spa was amazing! We all had different services and decided that we need to go back so we can try the others that we didn't get to do :) I'm getting a facial next time!!! And of course another massage :)

The bachelorette party was so much fun! We started with dinner and ended back at a near by town where the bride works. There were tons of people there to help her celebrate! She was all smiles all night :)

Here she is ready to take on the night!

I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures from the day and night!

Now it's time to get back into scrapbook mode. I still have lots of custom albums to work on!!!

Congratulations Emma!

Jesse's cousin graduates today and her sister-in-law wanted to get her one of my Name Albums to set out on her table. We worked together to get all the pictures for the album so it would be all ready to go for her :) I think it turned out great!

We got a picture from each grade K-12 and filled the rest of the spaces with all of her senior pictures.

And isn't she a beautiful girl!!!

This is an option I have thought about adding to my albums...the progression style. What do you think? It could be for a baby...1-12 months, for birthdays or anniversaries 1yr-X yrs and graduation albums like this. I'd love to hear what you think :)

Congratulations Emma!!!

A Day of Pampering and Partying!!!

Last night we had my best friend's couple's shower. They got lots of nice things and everyone had a great time! The best part was the Newlywed Game...lots of interesting answers...LOL :)

Today we are off to a day of pampering. The bride is taking all of us girls involved in the wedding to a day at the spa!!! I'm getting a manicure, pedicure and massage! Maybe I can just spend my whole time getting a massage :)

Then tonight we are having her bachelorette party! We'll meet up with the rest of the girls for dinner and then the fun begins :) I'm so happy and honored to be a part of this event :) It's like my sister is getting married and she has asked me to be such a big part of her special day :)

Have a wonderful Saturday everyone!!!

Friday Features-On Saturday

Better late than never, right? I had to rush my computer to the ER on Thursday with a virus and am just now able to get back online! I hate how reliant I am on the internet...but isn't it such a wonderful tool :) Without an further adieu...here are Friday's Features.

With many graduations going on this weekend and in weeks to come, Etsy is the place to go for everything graduation! You'll find great invitations, party favors, gifts and much more!!!

Here are my top finds for the grad :)

Graduation, Class of 2010 cookie favors set

by FunFavors

5 Traditional Graduation Large Cap and Tassle Favor Box

by EspeciallyInvited

Graduation Card Hat's Off To the Graduate Unique Spinning Design Cap Spins Across Front

by QueenBeeInspirations

2010 Graduation CONVERSATION Sterling Silver Necklace

By MadisonCraftStudio

Congrats to all the grads out there :)

It's Here!!!

The new cutter I've been wanting finally became available through my wholesaler!!! And I ordered it the minute I could! It arrived this week and I've been dying to play with it!

I told myself I have to finish the two albums I'm working on before I can take it out of the box and play with it. So I better get to work...

I'll definitely let you know how it works and how much I love it when I finally get to play with it :)

Wordless Wednesday-Tweet Tweet

May's Featured EtsyBlogger-Handmade by Sandi

Congrats to Sandi of Handmade by Sandi for being our featured EtsyBlogger for the month of May!!!

Sandi is such a lovely, friendly and talented member of our team! She has been an EtsyBlogger since March of 2009. She is a wonderful and supportive teammate and you'll find her on our teammates blogs, popping into our weekly forum thread, and she also does a fantastic job of volunteering and handling team events! Sandi is the one who posts for our team and wishes us all a Happy Birthday on our team blog!

Not only does Sandi blog, she also runs two Etsy shops!

Check out these lovelies from her HandmadebySandi shop:

And this great fabric from her sandists shop:

Stop by her blog and tell her congrats on being the featured blogger for May!!!

Custom Crazy

This past weekend I worked like crazy on Custom Albums!!! Many graduations are next weekend and we are in full swing for wedding season and the word is getting out that my Custom Name Albums make great gifts :)

Here is my latest batch ready to be shipped out tomorrow!!!

Wedding Name Albums

Graduation Albums

I am also working on a surprise album for one of Jesse's cousins that I'll have to wait to show you :) It's turning out really cute...can't wait for her to see it!

Hope everyone has a productive weekend :)