new help

santos wants some new toys so he has
agreed to pull his weight around here.

wish list

I have seen this in the airport and thought it was probably a good idea. then I read about it today on designmom and I think it will be on my wish list for one of this month's expenses. I really want to get that laser printer but I think this will have to come first. these are my invoices for the past 6 months.


as you can see I have no system and I pretend to be organized because they are all in 1 slot so I know where they are. with the neat receipts you can have all the invoices/receipts in a pdf and even create an expense report. neat.

fiesta lovers

are you a fiestaware lover? I have several friends who love fiesta as much as me and if you are a fan, you will be happy to know that the IVORY is shipping in july. I normally purchase from amazon but they do not have preorders for some reason. you can preorder at mega china. only thing that stinks is their shipping is $$$. if you spend over $100 it is free.

sweet deal

so I have a love-hate relationship with starbucks. lately I have all love as they just started a new incentive program. if you buy a gift card (no minimum amount required) and you register that gift card (by july 14th) you
1. get a free drink coupon in the mail
2. you receive free soy milk on your purchases (this is 40 cents)
3. any syrup is free.


so I tried this out today. normally my drink is $4.38 and today it was $3.39. I think that is a great savings! happy sunday!

joann's

I LOVE this store. tonight I took advantage of a quiet evening and went there. can you tell how exciting my life is?
I love all of the fabrics they have.



if I could sew I would make lots of pillow covers.
so tonight I started planning on some fall goodies to add. this year I WILL have seasonal goods. why in the world did I NOT last year? I remember people calling last year and asking if I had any holiday items. I realized at the time how stupid it was that I didn't. so I am starting early this year, conquering all this before the season creeps up on me.
some things that will be coming to ts soon (hopefully):
*wishlist on our site
*burp cloths--still working on design and fabrics but I think I decided tonight after being in front of all that fabric!
*2 new pajama sets
*2 new colors. SO SO SO excited about this. if you could only see what is in my dye bath right now.
*new fall top
*holiday pillow
*new site features, more pictures, etc.

stayed tuned....

laser printer

how is it possible that a laser printer cost $90? seriously? that is amazing. I remember in 1999 my mean boyfriend (at the time) bought a b&w laser printer that was $$$$. it was so big we had to borrow my friend's geo metro to fit it in the back end because the seats folded down.

back home

sorry for the lack of blogging to all of you who read. finally back home for a bit. indy was great. loved seeing everyone and being with my niece and nephew. it is crazy how in such a little bit of time they grow and change. miss them already. right before I was leaving for indy my camera battery died so I was unable to take my camera. and for those of you who have written asking about my sister, thank you. how nice of all of you. so not only did my sister's incisions get infected but she also got poison ivy. she needs a nice long break...
my hubby and I went to miami for a few days and had a blast! so good to spend time just the 2 of us. my husband was a gitty-gitty-gumdrop the whole trip. this could be why:


baseball.


lots of baseball. we went to 2 games and the rays won both of them!
we stayed after one night to see the players get on the bus. bry was so excited when they were coming out. he couldn't get the camera to work (so he says) and was frantic. you can see how excited he was in this picture (note the thumbs up) with shawn riggans. this guy was so nice (and really cute). love that.


we stopped at cracker barrel on the way there and back. we got the old-fashioned cream sodas and candy sticks.


back home now, getting ready for dinner after giving 3 dogs a bath.
have a great night!

pressure

so I am feeling pressure today. I am leaving for indy tomorrow for 5 days. my poor sister had emergency surgery and I am going to visit and make her stay off her feet. (she is okay, by the way). I always get this way before I leave. this month has been so crazy busy for me, I am not sure why but I have stacks and stacks of orders waiting on me. I am not behind (yet) but if you are waiting on a growth chart, please be patient with me (they take me quite bit longer to embroider).


when they debuted I sold out of all of them and had back up ones made. now I am 1/4 way through those. and the door pillows are almost sold out and I am not sure when I will be able to have more made.


the sweet lady who makes them for me is having a baby and does not want to commit to any more which is completely understandable. sometimes when I feel too overwhelmed it prevents me from doing anything because I am so stressed. my husband is always encouraging me by telling me to do what I can. I started the day off with making a page of dye baths I had to complete before tomorrow. I started with rose because it is the hardest and the first batch didn't turn out. then I dyed cotton candy which is the easiest and it did not work either. sigh. good thing is today I received my products that I will be adding this fall. just when I feel I have too much on my plate, I always add more. I have to keep things fresh, new and with the seasons. and wait until you see the new web site stuff that is going to be added. so excited about it all. and when I get stressed I think about the beach and how much I love going there with our dogs and my husband. I love to look at pictures of the beach. so peaceful.


off to eat spaghetti and start on growth charts!

beach day

we got up early and took the dogs to the beach. they were so excited, I wish I had my camera out when we left them off their leashes. they ran so fast and so hard to get to the water. they were like little kids!

happiness

pocket camera

tonight we went for a late night dog walk. 12:45 a.m. we live right across the street from a park and it is so nice to walk late at night because it actually feels good out. tonight as we were walking I noticed something starring at me. or felt something was looking at me. you know when you get that weird feeling? I looked up at this sign and sitting on it was a baby owl.


if only I had a pocket camera that I could carry with me so on occasions like this I could snap a picture. that picture of the owl is kind of freaking me out.

rain. thunder. scared.

it has been raining quite a bit here which is so nice. it gives us a break from the heat and is a good reason to stay in! the other night it began thundering. for some reason sophie is frightened of it. we heard a loud thud but didn't know where it came from. I began looking around the house for her.
tub.
her room (our closet).
under our bed.
under guest bed.
porch.
behind couch.
WHERE IS SHE?
I walked back in our guest room to look under the guest bed and heard her in the office (guest room closet). this is what I found.


the loud thud was her climbing over the computer to get in the corner of the room. she made me laugh OUT LOUD and SO LOUD!

bye bye sweet dress

I love this sweet little cotton dress but the manufacturer discontinued them in the meantime as they are working on a better dress.


toddler sizes are sold out but I have a few baby sizes left in stock...

birthday girls

how sweet are these twins?

my mr. handyman

check out my sweet bath!
this is probably my favorite room of the house.
bry built me a little ledge shelf to put pictures on
and installed beadboard which is a favorite of mine.
he painted it the same wall color as before because I loved it.
and installed that cute towel holder.


love the window


the small pedestal & original lights.
I just can't find shades to fit them!


the original built-in and new tp holder


and to top it off, he hung a flag outside our house


home sweet home

another, another

all I have to say is O-M-G








and I love the midwest

almost 8 days

can't wait to get my hands on these cheeks in 8 days!


we are having guests!!! love having people stay at our house. my husband has a list of things he wants to accomplish before then. one of them being my brand new half-bath.

pictures hopefully tomorrow, it is almost finished!

more etsy finds

check these sweet things out on etsy!

teething ring


I love how on the bottom of the listing it says this: "NOTE: Patent Pending, TM ~ so please, don't try to rip the pattern/design off."

this little shop, for the record has the cutest stuff!


I love hand-embroidery. what I don't love is when someone builds an ENTIRE business ripping off my designs, ideas and products. someone contacted me yesterday asking if I was working for a company and sent me the link to their site. they even stole the backdrop from my website. whomever it is I have a feeling they won't succeed because in having your own business you have to be able to do a number of things and when the first thing you do is steal someone else's designs that is a good sign your business will fail!

customer photos

thanks to all of you who send me photos of your children in tiny sprouts!

sorry, 2 dogs is the max

I have heard this line over and over the past month. looking for a rental that will accept 3 dogs. wait, 3 BIG dogs. no one will. sigh. it is frustrating. if they only knew our dogs. lots of great lofts and fun places to live in indy but no fun and cool place that will take us. I found this great place tonight. takes pets because you own it.

I am really into brick buildings at the moment. this has it. circa 1925. 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, 1167 sq ft (almost as big as our house now), 10 ft ceilings, crown, first floor end unit.
vintage, modern, perfect.


great courtyard


vintage tile


lots of windows and light


nice sized bedrooms


archways


I don't think the perfect place exists out there, at least affordable. the downfall to this? community laundry. can you imagine me hand-dyeing clothes? HUGE positive? the mortgage would be $445 a month. score.

travel bug

I have the travel bug. I don't know why it has been so much this year but I just want to go and do things and see more parts of the united states. we are heading to miami in a few weeks and staying a few days. shortly after seeing "the bucket list" I asked my husband if he had anything he would have on his list. you know what he said? he would love to visit all the major league baseball stadiums. I thought it was real cute and such a great idea. baseball and hockey are two of the sports that I really do like watching and going to games. so while we are in miami we will visit their stadium. in july we are making a trip to kansas city and seeing the tampa bay rays play in kansas. the town is supposed to have a great downtown historic district and our hotel provides bikes so we can bike around the city. so excited. tonight we decided to add another to our list. BOSTON. I am so excited and really can't wait to see the beautiful leaves changing. we are going to make a trip out of it and hit all of new england. tonight I have been researching bed & breakfast and these are some of the choices.


one even has a dog named lily!


should be a great summer!

can I have you....please?

I want this chair. I know it would be ruined in a matter of months at our house because all 3 dogs would want to sleep in it.


and this sofette


it might not be a bad idea though. we would actually be able to stretch our legs at night since all 3 dogs sleep in our bed!

give, give, giveaway

48 hours and counting.
enter yourself in our $350 giveaway at DESIGN MOM.


good luck and thanks design mom!

new favorite

love, love, love this picture!


and this


and this

laundry?

every evening we give our dogs a bone. it is like their way of winding down for the evening. very rarely sophie chews hers. she will go in "her room" which is our closet and sit in there with it. when she knows we are getting ready for bed she will start growling-whining because she knows I am getting ready to take it from her. last night I went in the closet and found this:


aren't dogs funny?