Magic Wand

A couple of weeks ago, I found out that I had won 2nd place in the EMCA (Etsy Mom Curator Award) contest for the EtsyMom team.  My prize came from AppleNAmos which is a store on etsy owned by a cool EtsyMom.  She sells wooden toys made for baby and children.  Such cute stuff!  Wish I had had some of her cool toys when my son was little.

My prize was a beautiful magic wand.  I told my son that it was a REAL magic wand.  He rolled his eyes at me and grunted.  He's so not fun.

Thanks AppleNAmos!  I love my magic wand!  Your shop is awesome!

Summer Fun Giveaway from Etsymoms Team!

My team, EtsyMoms, is having a summer fun giveaway on our blog. The etsy shop - ShopAnnaVirginia is hosting the giveaway and the prize is a sweet, crocheted flower for your hair.

All you have to do to enter to win, is visit Anna Virginia's shop and leave a comment on the EtsyMoms blog with your favorite item you've found in her shop. It's pretty hard to choose as she's got some cute stuff.

This was my favorite item - lemon yellow shoes for baby. Those are so cute, I could just cry.

There are many other ways to win so just visit our team blog to find out how. Tomorrow is the last day to enter - June 9th - so don't delay!

The more times you enter, the higher your chances of winning!

Thanks ShopAnnaVirginia for supporting EtsyMoms!

What we did for Mother's Day weekend

Every year on Mother's Day weekend, here in Tyler, they have the Susan Komen Race for the Cure. It's always the Saturday before Mother's Day.

This is the second time my whole small family (my hubby, me and our son) has done the 5k together. I tell my son all the time that men can get breast cancer just like women, they just have less of a chance. Most men don't realize that they have breast tissue too. They think of breast cancer as a women's disease.

So here is a pic of me and my son after the race (we walked instead of running). DH is taking the picture. It really makes you feel like you've accomplished something to finish. I wonder how the people who do the 3 day race feel? Pretty good I'll bet.

When you look at this pic, remember that the camera adds 10 lbs. Plus, there's the other 10 that I'm trying to lose (I gained it this winter). So I'm really 20 lbs lighter than it looks in the picture. LOL

I'm glad that you can't see the red Gatorade that both me and my son spilled down the front of our race shirts. Isn't that sad? Neither one of us can walk and drink Gatorade at the same time.

I also want to give a shout out to Andrea of SmallMuse for featuring my Pink Pear Designs shop on her Cre8tiveJuice blog. Thanks so much for your nice compliments, Andrea!!

Simply Lovely

A beautiful treasury by boriginals has been created here and features my White Dove necklace from Pink Pear Designs.

Thanks so much boriginals for featuring my necklace!!

Check out boriginals shop for photo cards, birth announcements, etsy banner graphics and more!

My Weekly Featured Etsy Artist!

My first ever, weekly, featured etsy artist is (drum roll!!!!!) Jaime at Scrapbooking Made Simple (http://sjrr4.etsy.com/).

I first found Jaime's shop using the "shop local" feature on etsy. I was really just wondering around, looking to see if there were many other etsians in my area. (Jaime lives in Longview, Texas which is only about 1 hour away from where I live in Tyler.)

She has the most adorable paper bag scrapbook albums in her shop. So I bought one that was done with beautiful bright papers to give to my in laws for Christmas in 2007. Jaime customized it for us with fishing quotes, grandparent quotes, and a special title on the front. I have to say, out of the 18 years I have known my Mother in law, that was the only present I have ever given her that she actually liked! And the album was sooooo well made, very neat and tidy yet whimsical and fun!

Jamie carries many more things in her shop now. She still has the paperbag albums, but she also carries magnet sets, altered tin refrigerator scrapbooks, custom glass tile photo pendants and much, much more!

Jaime got started selling her scrapbooks in November of 2006 when she was encouraged by a friend to sell her items in the friends booth at a local craft fair. She took 10 albums and sold them all! She says she gets her inspiration from the paper. "I am always on the look out for fun, different papers. After I find the papers, I decide on coordinating cardstock (solid colors) and I'm set. From there, it's like an assembly line as I cut papers to size, round corners and then assemble it all together. Sometimes I add stickers or 3D embellishments, depending on the scrapbook. For the magnets, I use the scraps from my scrapbooks. For the photo pendants, as well as photo magnets, it's all about the pictures I am sent in by the buyer. I have the pleasure of cropping them and turning them into precious necklaces or magnets."

Jaime of Scrapbooking Made Simple is a SAHM of 2 boys and one sweet hubby :).

Check out Jaime's shop - I know you'll find something you like!!!

Thanks Jaime!!

My Clean Workroom

Well, during the Christmas break, I accidentally started cleaning up my workroom. I think I was just moving things around and then one thing lead to another and when I was finished, it was all clean. I even set up a "shipping center" in our game room where I also have my little tiny desk and printer.

Notice how I've never gotten around to painting the walls or putting up any kind of window treatments. The walls are still white. But look at my cool floor. It's just painted concrete but when we moved into the house 5 1/2 years ago, my son helped me paint it. He was 4 at the time. We stenciled "rocks" on the concrete and then painted flowers between the rocks. you can't see the flowers in the pictures but they're there. My son called them Truffala Trees (sp?) after the trees in The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.

The blanket on the floor is for our dog. He likes to watch me work. The artwork is courtesy of my son over the years.

So, there it is - my special work space. "Mom's room".

New feature on my blog

I've been thinking about what I could do to make my blog more interesting. Since I started the blog to promote my etsy shops, I thought maybe I should start promoting other etsy shops as well.

I've been trying to do this for shops who feature me in one of their treasuries but now I'm thinking that I need to branch out more. So my goal is to feature one etsy seller a week. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up with that. LOL

So watch for the first feature shop - coming soon! I'd like to do my features on Wednesdays. So I've decided on someone to feature and I'm going to contact them and see what they think about it.

Don't forget to check back next Wednesday to see how it's going!

And, check out my latest listing at Pink Pear Designs!

Blushing Bride Antiqued Brass Filigree ring: