Free Shipping and Free Gift Wrapping!

Last day to get Free Shipping and Free Gift Wrapping from my Handmade Whimzy and Pink Pear Designs store!

Shop both stores today, Saturday, November 29th and get free shipping with any purchase plus I will wrap the items in Christmas wrap complete with ribbon and tags. Small items will be wrapped in one of my handmade pillow boxes.

Tips for Turkey Day

17 Ways To Cook A Turkey

1. Go buy a turkey
2. Take a drink of whisky
3. Put turkey in the oven
4. Take another 2 drinks of whisky
5. Set the degree at 375 ovens
6. Take 3 more whiskys of drink
7. Turk the bastey
8. Whisky another bottle of get
9. Ponder the meat thermometer
10. Glass yourself a pour of whisky
11. Bake the whisky for 4 hours
12. Take the oven out of the turkey
13. Floor the turkey up off of the pick
14. Turk the carvey
15. Get yourself another scottle of botch
16. Tet the sable and pour yourself a glass of turkey
17. Bless the dinner and pass out

Happy Turkey Day!

Operation Christmas Box

Every year, my family tries to do something to "give back" during the holidays. We've participated in the local Fireman's Toy Drive for several years now. Most years we also pick an angel off of the Salvation Army Angel tree to buy gifts for - usually a boy who is my son's age at the time, so that it will be more meaningful for him. Sometimes we make donations to certain non-profits that we really like such as Country Ladies Rescue, which is where we got our precious dog, Mac (the best dog EVER) or to the local Humane Society of East Texas.


This year we chose to pack a shoe box with gifts for "Operation Christmas Child" through Samaritan's Purse. I saw a news story on a local channel about a girl who grew up in Russia. She was adopted by an American family when she was 11, but she still remembers the Christmas box that she received while she lived in the orphanage in Russia. She spoke about what a blessing it was for her and all the other children to get something that someone packed just for them and how it made her feel like someone was thinking about her and loved her. The story just made me cry.


So I said to my son and husband, "let's do Operation Christmas child this year". You could choose to pack a box for a girl or boy and of course, my son picked a boy. So we packed 2 shoe boxes. One for a boy aged 5-9 years and one for a boy aged 10-14 years.
We basically followed the guidelines given when buying items to fill the boxes. We bought socks, gum, school supplies, soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste, hair combs, and toys. For the toys, we bought metal race cars and a small football for the older boy. For the younger boy, we bought small plastic animals, a stuffed animal, and a small football.


We took our boxes to the drop off location on Friday and we were given two sweet, metal, Christmas tree ornaments as a thank you. They had a big semi trailer in the parking lot and it was almost full to the brim with packed boxes.


I don't know when our boxes will be delivered but our thoughts and prayers are with the children who receive them.
Feel free to click any of the above links and donate to these very worthy causes or get yourself a new pet for Christmas!

It's Christmas Time in Texas

GrandmaMarilyn currently has a treasury featuring Christmas items from our Etsy Texas Crafters team.
It's a beautiful treasury full of great Christmas items.


You can check it out here:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=33532

Thanks Marilyn!! for featuring Handmade Whimzy's nativity set in your great treasury!

Whimzy Supplies!

Whimzy Supplies is up and running! I've listed several Christmas pillow boxes in two different sizes. Perfect for a quick package wrap - all you need to do is add ribbon. My boxes come with matching tags. Here are some of the Christmas boxes listed:

This is the small size.
This is the medium size.

I'm going to list large and maybe extra large but I have to work up a pattern for them first.

Thankful for our Blessings

I snagged a treasury today on etsy from my Pink Pear Designs shop. Here is a link to the treasury: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=22021 I think it's only good for about 2 days, so click it while you can.

If you click the "somewhere special" link at the top of the page, it will take you to a Carrie Underwood video of the song "So Small", which I love!

Because sometimes, the mountain that we're climbing really is just a grain of sand. But it's hard to see that when you're half way up the mountain.

Catching up!

Oh, where does the time go?


First let me say that the ETC Monday promo for today is "ETC has Secrets". I have 2 secrets in Handmade Whimzy and 2 in Pink Pear Designs. Find the secret, buy the secret and get a free pair of Christmas earrings like the ones listed in my Pink Pear shop! Search on etsy for "teametsytx etc secrets" and see what other participating shops have secrets. You have until midnight tonight! Go - Look!

Also, I have started making my own Pillow boxes. I wanted to offer year round gift wrapping for Pink Pear Designs and I thought pillow boxes would be sweet and still fit into a bubble mailer nicely. So, what to do with all the extra pillow boxes I've been making? Why open up a supply store on etsy, of course.

So today I opened Whimzy Supplies, to sell my handmade pillow boxes and destash supplies.

Wish me luck and check out my new shops!

1st SALE!

Pink Pear Designs made it's first sale this past weekend. (First 2 sales, actually!) YAY! I'm so excited. Here is the gift packaging that I sent my first order in:





I'm working on making my own boxes, but I haven't quite perfected them.

Red, White, and Blue Festival in Bullard, Texas

Thanks Bullard, Texas and Darlene for organizing such a great festival! I'm from a small town and this really brought back memories of the yearly parade and festival that I grew up with.

Bullard is such an adorable little town. The festival was in celebration of Veteran's day and it was awesome. They had a parade, Miss Armed Forces contest, art contests for the kiddos, an arts and crafts fair, some yummy food and lots of performances by local folks.

My booth did fairly well considering it was a pretty small festival and it was my first time. I met a couple of etsy sellers that I didn't know and saw a couple of sellers that I did know. Betty over at Glassyboop who does awesome fused glass, sold me a really sweet Christmas tree ornament and is making me a custom piece that I will be giving as a gift. Can't say what it is because the giftee might peak and not be surprised.

I also saw AlexiaJean, who is one of my fellow Etsy Texas Crafters. She makes things for wee ones like little bows, dresses, things like that. I know she had a great weekend at the festival and seemed really happy at the end.

One last thing to mention, they had the most wonderful portable potties there that I had ever seen. They had heat and A/C, running water, soap, paper towels and a little bowl of mints. Everyone who used them was soooooo excited. Thanks Darlene for getting us those great toilets!!!!

Sweet Pea!!!

AH! The sweetest pea!

Pink Pear Designs Sweet Pea necklace is currently being featured in a treasury by volleyballgirl.

Click here to view the treasury!

Thank you volleyballgirl!!! I love your warm, fuzzy scarves!!

Pink Pear Designs in a Treasury!

Pink Pear Designs Amazon Flowers necklace is currently being featured in a treasury by AMIdesigns.

AMI makes gorgeous jewelry! I love this bracelet in her etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16303745 So pretty!!



Thank you so much for featuring my necklace, AMIdesigns!!

First Monday SALE!

It's time for ETC's monthly First Monday Sale!!

Both of my shops Handmade Whimzy and Pink Pear Designs are having 20% off sales!! I will combine shipping if you want to buy something for both stores!

Check out our Etsy forum thread http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5889005 for the list of all participating shops!! There are over 95 stores participating. Now is the time to buy for Christmas!

Pink Pear Designs in 2 Treasuries!!

Pink Pear Designs was in two more treasuries this weekend!!

The Flutterby Treasury from Earmark is a gorgeous use of plum and sweet butterflies!
Thanks Earmark!!

The Dragonflies treasury from mandreacarreiro is fun and makes me want to sit outside and listen to the birds in my backyard.

Thanks mandreacarreiro!

An Addiction to Earrings!

Thank you theearringjunkie for featuring my Sodalite Drop earrings in your treasury "My name is addiction..."!

I love the colors she used. They are just gorgeous!!

Halloween 2008!

Trick or Treat!

Mac's shirt says "Bad to the Bone".

My little (not so little) Clone Trooper!