Wordless Wednesday-Baby Birdie

Sisters

Growing up, it was just me and my brother. We fought like cats and dogs, but in the end, we always made up :) We are almost 5 years apart in age but we've grown really close over the years. We've been through a lot together and have come out a stronger family for it :)

Even though having a brother is great...I've recently started yearning for a sister! When I made Jesse's cousin's scrapbook last year for her graduation, I was envious looking at all of the childhood photos of her and her sister who are only 2 years apart.

Then at my cousin's wedding last weekend, the bride's sister gave such a touching speech about sisterhood it almost made me cry!

Sisters just seem to have such a strong bond! All of the sisters I know are all very close and such great friends! I asked my parents at my cousin's wedding if I could have a sister...LOL! I'm not sure I'll be getting one anytime soon!

But I'm glad to be able to use my scrapbooking to display the love sisters have for one another :) I get to document those special relationships for them and share a little piece of that bond :)

New Baby Albums in Stock

WooHoo...New Listings!!! I always get excited when I get to list something new :) Over the weekend I took several pictures of new items that I will slowly be adding to my shop!!!

The first ones I chose to add are new 4"x6" Baby Photo Albums!

One for the boys...and one for the girls :)

Stop by the shop to see all the details!

They're HERE!!!

My parents arrived safely yesterday afternoon!!! I was surprised to hear a knock on my door and see them on the patio! Usually they call to let us know they are getting close, but they wanted to surprise us :)

Yesterday was also my brother's birthday, so we got to spend time as a family :) We went out to eat at a great Mexican restaurant and Jim got to wear a sombrero and have Happy Birthday sang to him in Spanish :)

I tried to get a picture, but my camera was kinda slow and he was pretty quick to take the sombrero off...LOL! At least he shared his fried ice cream they gave him as a birthday gift :)

After supper we went to my aunt and uncles and hung out on their patio and listened to them tell stories of the "good ol' days". I love hearing those stories of when my parents were young :)

I'm not yet sure what today holds, but here's a list of things I want to do with my parents while they are here:

• Go to a movie
• Go fishing with my dad
• Go to the casino
• Deliver my consignment albums and go wine tasting
• Go for an air boat ride (if the river ever gets low enough!)
• And give lots and lots of hugs!!!

Have a great Sunday :)

EtsyBloggers Weekly Treasury

This week's treasury is brought to us by Pam of MagdaleneJewels.

She titled this one Afternoon Delights...love it :)

Stop by and check out all the great items! And thanks Pam for including my Recipe Books :)

Friday Features-Let The Sun Shine!

I'm so glad summer finally decided to show its face here in Iowa :) The rain has been gone for a few days and I hope it stays that way! I hope to get outside quite a bit while my parents are here!!!

The sun is shining on Etsy as well :)

Catching Some Rays

by voneall

Checkbook Cover - Sunshine Rays

by owlsay

PHOTOGRAPH by my friend Greg Meredith . . . Title - Heaven

by ImJewelee

Sunshine Friend

by laurageorge

I hope the sun is shining in your neck of the woods today as well :)

New Business Card Designs

Thanks to the wonderful Patch of PatchFirstShop...I have new business card designs!!!

One of my goals for this year was to update my blog with a new design. I was happy to get this done early on and wanted to make my shop match as well. I just updated my Etsy Shop banner this past week and love it! Now it's time for new business cards :)

I need your opinions!!! Which design do you like best...and why? I would love any and all comments on this topic!

1)

2) 3) 4)

Note: The blurred area is where my phone number will be.

Thanks again Patch!!! These ROCK!

Wordless Wednesday-My Thoughts Exactly!

Featured EtsyBlogger-BeadedTail

I recently showed you the awesome earrings I got from Sharla of Beaded Tail as part of an Etsy trade we did in this post here.

Today I want to tell you a little more about Sharla, her shop, her blog and her beautiful furbabies :)

Sharla and her mom, Sheri, make both jewelry and collar covers for their BeadedTail shop and donate a portion of every sale to pet charities. Here are some of the charities they support:

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Senior Dog Rescue of Oregon Dogs for the Deaf Alley Cat Allies Chintimini Wildlife Rescue Kitty Angel Team

In 2008 they donated a total of $407 and in 2009 they donated $686.50. I hope 2010 is an even better year for them yet!!!

Sharla also runs a blog...or should I say that her furbabies run the blog :) Each day Sadie, Isabella and Angel take turns blogging for their mommy :)

Aren't they just adorable :)

Make sure you stop by Sharla's shop and blog to say hi and check out her awesome items. And help out pet charities in the process :)

SUMMER!!!

I'm so excited that it's the first day of summer!!! We've had some warm weather, but we've had SO much rain! I'm hoping that the change of the season brings a change in weather too!

We've been on the airboat twice, but had to wear sweatshirts both times. And we haven't had the canoe or ski boat out once yet! The river is too high now to put the airboat or canoe on, but I'm hoping that changes quickly!

My poor, pale skin is in need of some sun and water! And I'm hoping to get some fun summer pictures taken to fill a Flip Flop Scrapbook for myself :)

Happy Father's Day

Wishing a Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there :)

I am so excited to be spending this Father's Day with my dad!!!

A quick card I made for him

And a card I made for my cousin's wedding this weekend as well

Have a great Sunday everyone :)

EtsyBloggers in Pink Treasury

After my EtsyBloggers teammate Patch created this great team treasury last week, we decided that a weekly treasury would be great for our team!

I took the honors this week and created this awesome treasury in Pink :)

Each Friday a member of our team will put together a new treasury with the theme of their choice and I'll post about it here on Saturdays :) Look for another great treasury next week!

Friday Features-Fishing with Dad

I'm so excited that I get to spend Father's Day with my dad this year!!! It has been about 10 years since I've gotten to do this, so it's a wonderful occurrence :)

My parents will also be visiting for an entire week soon and one of the things my dad and I love to do together is go fishing! I can't wait to relax on the pond with a fishing pole in my hand, spending time with my dad!!!

Etsy sellers agree that fishing and dads go hand in hand :) Check out these great finds...

Fishing Set of Absorbent Tile Coasters

by lterrill9

Fisherman sign, father day, handpainted sign

by kpdreams

gone fishing card

by cardtrippin

Gone Fishing

by signsofaries

Custom Albums Coming Back Soon!

I recently had to remove all of my Custom Name and Word Album listings from my Etsy shop. As you've seen from all of the recent posts showing them off...I've been making them left and right :) I wanted to get caught up on current orders before I added them back to my shop.

Good news...Look for them the week of July 5th!!! My goal is to have everything caught up before my parents get here on June 26th so I can enjoy my time with them :) Then it's back to work!!!

So if you've been waiting for them, keep your eyes on my shop starting July 5th :)

Wordless Wednesday-Ready For My Close Up

Blog Carnival-My Goals

This week's blog carnival is hosted by RainyDayArt with the choice of these two topics:

1) It's graduation time, tell us about a recent accomplishment of yours. Did you graduate? Have a business success? Climb a mountain?

2) What are your goals? Short term, long term? It's up to you.

I am a list maker and goal setter by nature, so I always have a to do list or two running around in my head! I set goals I want to get done for the day, for the week and long term goals as well. As I started writing down my current goals, I noticed that most of them are for my scrapbooking and my Etsy shop.

• Get my Custom Albums back in my shop
• Get inventory ready for my fall shows
• Set up the new shelf and computer desk that I bought back in January!
• Take photos of all of my current inventory and get it in my shop
• Find a new job

All of these are fairly short-term goals that I hope to accomplish in the next one to three months. In fact, I think I'll get to working on a couple of these right now :)

Softball

At a bridal show I did back in January, I met up with a local photographer who loved my Name and Word Albums. She decided to buy some to sell in her studio and she added the Custom Albums to her order forms for weddings, seniors portraits, etc.

I got my first order from her a couple of weeks ago for a really fun album!

The team's uniforms are pink and black zebra stripes! How fun is that! Now if I could have worn a cool uniform like this, maybe I would have played softball too...LOL :)

Journal Swap

Back in March, the EtsyBloggers Team participated in a journal swap. (You can look back for several posts on the journal I made for my swap mate.)

Katrinna from Bijoux Rouge (which stands for Red Jewel) was my other swap mate and I received my journal from her this past week. Here's the cover she designed:

I used to have a bulletin board in my room growing up similar to this :)

Some things I found interesting or liked about Katrinna's journal:

• She listed "Finish Wedding Scrapbook" as a goal for 2010
• She is going to make me a GIF Blinkie for my blog!!!
• Like me, she grew up in very small town. She stated that the town didn't have many businesses, but had 3 bars. She said it was a drinking town with a fishing problem...LOL! I loved this line :)
• And I loved the page she made using her business card as the design:

Thank you Katrinna for sending my journal...I love it :)

EtsyBloggers BNR Treasury

Patch from PatchFirstShop on Etsy is a fellow EtsyBlogger and she has put together a great BNR Team Treasury!!!

click photo to be taken to the treasury

A BNR Treasury is for Buy And Replace. This means that if you buy anything from one of the featured shops, contact Patch and one of your items will replace the person's that your purchased from :) How fun!

Thanks Patch for including my Happy Home Address Book!!!

Friday Features-Wine

In honor of my latest consignment deal...I bring you Wine Finds :)

HummingBird and Flower Wine Goblets- Set of 2

by SwirlyGarden

(She's even an Iowa girl!)

Wine Bar Rack Recycled Record Albums-Sing Me A Country Song

by RetiredRecords

Handsculpted Glass Bottlestopper- Pink Twist

by tannerglass

VINO Scrabble tile Wine Glass Charms- DOUBLE SIDED (set of 4)

by mandyrae3883

Mmmmm...I'm off to find a glass of yummy wine now :)

My First Trade

I was recently asked by Sharla of BeadedTail to make some gift certificates for her shop. I was honored she thought of me to make these for her :)

I had recently seen a pair of earrings on her blog that I was dying to have! I asked her if she would be willing to work out a trade. She said yes...and the deal was on :)

Don't you love the paw print paper :) And the purple ribbon...Sharla's favorite color :) But being the super sweet person Sharla is...she didn't stop there! As I opened my package, I saw not one, but two pair of earrings! Sharla knows how much I love pink, so she made a pink pair for me as well :) I was smiling from ear to ear when I saw them!!!

It's no wonderful Sadie, Isabella and Angel always look so happy :) It's because they have such a great Mommy!!! Stop by Sharla's blog to see the girls and stop by her shop to get a pair of these awesome earrings for yourself!

Thank you so much Sharla!!!

Wordless Wednesday-I ♥ Paper Flowers

First Class Shipping and Paypal

First off...sorry for no post yesterday! Blogger was down and wouldn't let me add a new post :(

On to today's post...

Since I bought my shipping scale, I've been printing all of my postage at home and scheduling pick-ups with my mailman. And it's GREAT! The one problem I've run into is that the USPS website doesn't offer First Class shipping online. If my customer pays with paypal all is fine, but otherwise I'm stuck going to the post office again! I recently found a way around this and wanted to share the "back door" code with you!

You can use paypal's shipping feature even if your customer doesn't pay with paypal!!! Thanks to the wonderful people in the Etsy forums, I came across this code and wanted to share it with you:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now

This will take you to paypal where you can type in the shipping info without an invoice!!! This is so wonderful! I used it just the other day and it worked like a charm! And I can still have my mailman pick it up too :)

I hope you find this feature as helpful as I did :)

Winery Consignment

I went to a bridal shower for my cousin's fiance yesterday at a very cool winery. As I was looking around at their little shop area, I noticed that everything was tagged differently. I did more looking and found out that they do consignment! Luckily I had given the bride to be one of my Custom Name Albums so I could show it to the owner. She just loved it!!!

I'm going to sell some of my Family and Friends word albums and make some that say Wine and Vino. If anyone has other ideas that would sell well at a winery, I would LOVE to hear them :)

My tip for today: Don't be afraid to approach people about your work! It could turn out to be something wonderful :)

The Countdown Begins

In just two weeks...TWO WEEKS...I get to see my parents!!! They will be back for my cousin's wedding on the 19th. I haven't gotten to see or hug my parents since Christmas...and I have a huge bear hug saved up for each of them :) And I'll get to spend Father's Day with my dad for the first time in probably 10 years!

And the news gets even better! They will be back again the following weekend, that whole week and the weekend after!!! An entire week with my parents...YAY!!! I'll get to go fishing with my Dad :) I'll get to go shopping and to the movies with my Mom :) And we'll just get to relax and be together as a family!!! My brother's birthday also falls during that time as well as a huge family reunion! What a wonderful time we'll have :)

Two weeks and counting...

Friday Features-Green and Gray

Today's finds are all about green and gray! The latest Custom Album I made is a gift for my cousin and his fiance:) The shower is tomorrow and I wanted them to have a special way to record their big day! I used the same paper for the album as I did for their invitations...so they match exactly :)

Here are my green and gray finds:

Light Grey Rainy Day Circular Scarf

by trishafern

spring green bowl

by miesmama

Antiqued silver, olive green and gray bracelet

by dakrinaJewelry

Gray - green necklace with flower - crocheted and felted

by astash

A Unique Color Combo

I received an order for a custom album recently that requested a unique color combo. When I first read it, I thought..."How am I going to make this work! What a strange combination!"

But as I laid out the papers and started putting everything together, it really came together nicely! In fact, I think it's quite a pretty color combination actually :)

Grandma-Sage Green, Gold and Brick Red

It helps to step outside our norm sometimes and find inspiration in new things :) Where have you found inspiration lately?