And the winner is...

Miss Mallory decided on a late nap today but when she woke up she was ready to pick the winner ...



annalee said...
i love the fall smells... cinnamon, pumpkin, etc. and i love seeing each and every trick-or-treater decked out in their costume!

Congrats, email your monogram choice and your address to me at halffullmartini[at]comcast[dot]net and I will get this made and sent to you.

I truly enjoyed reading all of the comments thanks so much. Check back again, I have another giveaway in the works.

The Great Pumpkin Giveaway ends today

Don't forget to leave your comment by 5P today on the post below.

Photo Fun

This site , PhotoFunia, is a cool way to have some fun with your photos. I stumbled across it a few days ago.

Here are a few of my photos:

Fun fun!!

Don't forget the giveaway!

Aunt BeeJees again

I almost for got to mention I am an Aunt again. My brother and his wife just had their second child on Tuesday, another sweet little girl, Miss Taylor Morgan. I am still waiting on some real pictures, I only have the one he sent me on my cel phone right after she was born. I can't wait to get my hands on her. I hate being so far away from them. So if you are counting, my brother and I have 4 girls between us. Pink everywhere. I love it!!!!

Fabric and paper blah blah blah

I have been sewing several little peasant dresses for Mally and Lindsey even wanted me to make her one to match little sis. I have pants, jumpers and bibs cut out and ready to sew as well. I have also been working on some new paper designs for the shop. It has been a very productive week and that makes me all giddy inside. :) The girls are at school/MDO today and hubby took the rest of the week off from work to get some things done around the house/yard. One of which is building a new shed/barn for his *manly stuff*. I suppose I will go and give him a hand here in a minute. Even if we are sweating our rears off we can spend some time together doing it.

Don't forget the giveaway, I have enjoyed reading the comments thus far.

Don't forget the GIVEAWAY!

A cute little monogrammed pumpkin (see post below). Leave your comment by Friday 9/12/08 at 5P.

Sometimes things don't go as planned... and a GIVEAWAY!

Well my *layout a day* challenge was not a success, life happens. I only completed two layouts. The main distraction was Mallory's double ear infection and along with that a high fever. So after a trip to the doctor and the pharmacy, I just cuddled with her on the couch most of the time. Poor thing. She is feeling much better now, thank goodness. I hate it when the girls are sick, *hate it*. I had a lot of time to play out ideas in my head for the shop among other things ( I had my journal on the side table to jot as necessary) which brings me to this.....




Remember the Monogrammed Pumpkin post? Well... because Fall is my most favorite time of the year and it is the season of giving, I am giving away one Monogrammed Pumpkin. So leave me a comment about a favorite fall tradition you have or a memory you have of the season by 5P Friday September 12. The lovely Miss Mallory will pick a winner who will receive a medium size pumpkin with the monogram of his/her choice.

We Played...

Aside from helping our friend/neighbor with the animals over the weekend we just hung out, no real plans just spent time together. Lindsey hung out with some friends when she wasn't taking care of cats or playing with us. We took a family walk, goofed around the yard and then we painted with side walk chalk paint. We ran out of the store bought stuff and then I remembered a blog post from here and here about how to make your own (equal parts cornstarch and water and a couple of drops of food coloring) . So I headed to the kitchen while David and the girls finished off the last of the paint. They had a blast. David was getting a little uncomfortable with the mess, but he finally let go of the need to hose them down. If he only knew what happened around here while he is at work....oh boy.

We had fun watching them, esp. Mallory she was in *messy* heaven. I love watching her make art.

Today both girls are at school/MDO so I will be working. I have also challenged myself to create one layout per day this week. I have a stack of pictures and tons of paper. The goal is to make it quick and not think about it too much, just do it. I'll try to post those as I complete them.

Monogrammed Pumpkins

Now that fall is 23 days away, I have started trying to plan out my fall decorating. It is after all my favorite time of the year. A few years ago I painted these foam pumpkins with our monogram (the P was for my Mom)



Edited 9/2/08: I just got back from Michael's, the foam pumpkins are 40% off this week.
I bring this up now because the foam pumpkins are out at Garden Ridge, Michael's (save your Sunday sale flyer coupons) and a few other craft stores around town. I used outdoor patio paint to paint the ones above. I printed out a cute font in the size I wanted and used some carbon to trace the letter on the pumpkin then I just free handed the swirls and polka-dots (I may have too many, I never know when to quit with those :) ). Once the paint was dry, (I let it sit for about an hour but it was dry long before then) I sprayed a coat of clear sealant on the pumpkins. That's it, pretty simple. I use mine on our front entry table with one of my decoupaged candy buckets and some other fun Halloween/Fall decorations.

Sneak Peak...

Animals that need help

My friend and neighbor sent the below message:

My friend, Evelyn, from Animal Adoption Center in Poplarville MS is having to evacuate to Memphis because of the approaching storm. She previously evacuated from Katrina with the animals she could take and we sent her back with body bags for the rest. They lost everything. Her husband Pete is very sick. They got a room at Embassy Suites on Shady Grove last night about midnight. Embassy Suites is not pet friendly. We have about 18 cats and 10 dogs: pit bull, Boston terrier, pug and a pug mix, Boxer dachshund, lab and German shepherd mix, and more. I need foster homes for all these animals. The cats can be housed in their trailer which will be at my house. I will need volunteers to clean and feed and love. These animals will once again be so stressed. Please e-mail me at doggonegoodrealtor@comcast.net if you can help. We would appreciate donations as well.

I just talked with her on the phone and at this point she really needs cat litter and bottled water, if you are in the Memphis metro area and would like to donate items to help these animals please leave me a comment or email her at the above email address.

Fun stuff

Check this out....

Just because...

I love em' so dang much!

Back to work...

New stuff

Listing these in the shop:









More to come!

I've been tagged

Marci my super fabulous friend and neighbor tagged me. She is an amazing photographer and scrap artist extraordinaire. If you are in the Memphis area, do yourself a favor and call her for a family photo session. Seriously!

(1) The winner can put the logo on their blog.
(2) Link the person you received your award from.
(3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
(4) Put links of those on yours.
(5) Leave a message on the blogs you’ve nominated.

OK, so these are the blogs I try to read daily:

Michelle: She also lives close although we have never met, only through etsy. She is super talented. Maybe we will run into each other at our LSS one day ;)

Christy: Another local blogging friend.

Leonard: one of my old co-workers and a family friend. He is a hoot, he has lots of great stories to tell. I love to hear about his family vacations etc. something funny always happens.

Amy H. : Never met her but I love her designs. (It think she is in the Memphis area too??)

Beth: met through etsy.

April: Never met her but I love her blog and she has the cutest etsy shop.

Playing around with some digital layouts

I bookmarked this site a while back after seeing it in one of my scrap mags; so while my embroidery machine was running and Mallory was napping and Lindsey was at a friends house and David was working in the yard (whheewww) I got to play around with some digital layouts a bit. Don't get me wrong I still love my paper stash, but this was a fun change. Check em' out:




Scrapblog is so much fun, go check it out if you haven't already!

Bad blogger

Hey, sorry for the lack of posts as of late. These things have me busy right now:

*back to school for Lindsey

*tons of monogramming orders to complete

*a scrap album to complete for a friend

*custom etsy orders

*typical Mommy stuff

*working on some projects around the house

*meal planning for the month (some possible freezer cooking is in my future)

*and still searching for those few minutes to myself, has anyone seen those?

I will leave you with this for today:

Lindsey's first day of school was Monday, new school-new uniform. She is doing just fine, making lots of new friends and adjusting very well. I knew she was doing great when we arrived to school Wednesday and I heard from all directions "hey Lindsey".

I am thinking about taking the shop down for a mini-overhaul and getting the new stuff posted when I bring it back up. Still thinking about that....more to come. Gotta go monogram and do some painting with Miss Mallory.

Score!

Check out my yummy fabric score from my trip to Ohio (all on sale which makes it even *sweeter)...

I can't wait to get started making the girls some stuff with this fabric.

and this

I have already made some halloween candy buckets with this halloween fabric and I must say they turned out really cute.

I have a photo session planned for later in the week for all of the new stuff I have been making. I have a few more monogramming orders to fill and a scrapbook to finish for a friend and then I can get more focused on my shop.

Things I have been working on (trying to repurpose a lot of my crafting stash, it is shameful how much stuff I have...really) :

~magnets (wooden with some super cool embellishments)

~buckets

~halloween tags

~2009 calendar tags

~mini-albums (maybe not part of a kit this time, just the shell, still thinking on this one)

~burpies

~I dug out some buttons I used for another project a year or so ago, trying to see what to do with them.

But if you are interested in some super cute button tags and other fun stuff hurry and go here. Michelle has the cutest stuff, she is super talented and the best part is that she lives right here in Memphis. She even does custom orders, she made the coolest *button tree* tags for me, check them out below.

You know how I love *trees*. From her blog you can link to her etsy shop, or just click here ------>Luckychelle Boutique .

Gotta go finish up some stuff while I have some time to myself, that is the hard part about working at home, Mommy stuff comes first all else gets fit in where ever... as it should.

I'm back

Well we got back from Ohio late last Monday, and with this little sweetie:

Yep, my niece Ashlee got to come home with Aunt BeeJees for the week. I took a break from everything in order to spend time with her and the girls. SO MUCH FUN, I am so glad my brother let her come home with me it was her first time away from Mommy and Daddy for more than a night and so far away). So I have a pile of work to catch up on this week, stacks of monogramming, some table number requests and some new stuff for the shop. This is also Lindsey's last week of Summer vacation, school starts August 11. I am not at all ready for her to go back, *Third Grade* holy cow I started tearing up this morning thinking about how fast she is growing up. We finished up our back to school shopping about 3 weeks ago. All we have left is a new pair of shoes and a hair cut, I mean trim. (she is growing her hair out for Locks of Love, she has about two more inches to go).

I'm off to pick up a few items from my Grocery Game list then back home to get some work completed.

Hello from O-Hi-O

I just love visiting my family here in Ohio, my Mom, step-Dad, Brother, Sister-in-law and my niece are all here. Oh and I have another niece on the way, she is due to arrive Sept. 9. So excited. We have just been hanging out, made a quick (well not really quick) trip to Jo-Ann fabrics yesterday. It is the one place I *have* to visit every time I come here. The fabric selection is amazing. I can find things there that I can't in Memphis. I was able to score a nice variety of fabrics for buckets, mini-albums and some pj pants for the girls and I for the winter. I can't wait to get busy working on some of the ideas I have for stuff. We went to the Honda Homecoming parade last night and watched all of the motorcycles ride the parade route. OK, the girls are waking up so I am off to get ready and go find my brother, hopefully we can have some brother/sister time today. Surely the grandparents can handle three girls for a little while. :)

Taking a break..

I am taking a real quick break from the 75 wedding announcements I have been working on and I am happy to report they are about 98% complete. I have also been busy with monogramming orders and some other custom orders for buckets. I have been neglecting my etsy shop trying to get these orders filled and feel just terrible about that. I have so many pictures to take of the new stuff I have been working on, I hope to get on top of that when I return from Ohio. Mallory and I are headed there to get Big Sister on Thursday, David has a lot going on at work and can't make this trip. I think I said last year when I went by myself with Mallory (3mo. old) that I would never travel without him again, well she is a year older and has done pretty well in the car on our other vacations this summer. We will see. Heck there are a ton of Hampton Inns between here and there, we can always stop. OK back to work.

Bucket Love and other fun stuff

I made this bucket for a friend who was hosting a baby shower, she wanted something she could use for a centerpiece yet give to the Mom to use in the nursery. I think it turned out really cute.



And take a look at the bucket with the flower arrangement, so pretty. (Thanks for the pics Farrah!)

She also asked me to applique a onesie.

Did I mention that I am a monogrammer for hire?

Ok off to finish up the 75 wedding annoucements my neighbor ordered.

It's been one week Lulu...

pssst..it's me Mallory. Lulu are you reading Mommy's blog at J's house? I hope so, because I really miss you. You would not believe all of the mischief I have been getting myself into, well at least Mommy says its mischief, I say I am just having some fun. Like for instance, I don't know why she had a cow over this:

I didn't realize that climbing on the coffee table would be such a big deal.

You know she keeps that camera of hers close by at all times, she says it's for capturing memories but I say it is for evidence later on when I am older, but whatever.

Then I thought she would really appreciate me helping her organize then kitchen cabinets and drawers.

Not that they really needed organizing I mean Mommy and Daddy keep them organized, well you know how they are about things being neat. She didn't seem upset about me helping she laughed mostly. I think now she will take me with her when she is folding laundry in the bedroom. Thank goodness she hasn't gotten pics of everything I have been into these are enough.

Except me hitting redial on the phone and calling folks, no big deal.

See Lulu if you were here I know I would be able to keep myself out of trouble (maybe, can't make any promises), we could play our daily game of chase and hide and seek. OK gotta go, here comes Mommy. See you Thursday.

xoxoxox

Mallory