New puppy, birthday girl, and my shocking green thumb

It has been a busy few weeks!  I have had quite the workload to keep me busy over at the shop, and it was eventful for the whole family as well.  We are complete gluttons for punishment and decided to add another member to the family....isn't she just the cutest ball of fur ever?!  The girls took a couple of days to name her, but finally narrowed it down.  So, say hello to Izzy!  She keeps us on our toes (along with trying to chew them off), but she has been a fun addition to the non-stop chaos around this house.

The day we brought her home:

And today, she's grown so much in the last  4 weeks!!

We also had an early weekend celebration for my youngest daughter's 6th birthday.  She's our little spitfire, but as sweet as honey when she wants to be.  We love her so much, and it's wonderful to watch her grow into such a smart and beautiful little girl (even when she tries my patience on a daily and sometimes hourly basis)!  So, Happy Birthday to my little cuddle-bug!

                                 1 yr old                                       to                                6 yrs old

Who knew I could grow something and actually keep it alive long enough to produce such fabulous veggies! Trust me, if you knew me, you would completely understand why I say that...I have killed just about every single plant that I've ever had within a month of bringing it home...You could say I have a bit of a black thumb haha.  Shockingly, our garden has taken off and soon we will have gobs and gobs of cucumbers, peppers, zucchini, and tomatoes.  I can't wait to fill our pantry with jars of pickles, salsa, tomato sauces, and more! And I also filled a couple of planters with some yummy herbs that have all done extremely well, so I think I deserve a pat on the back for keeping them all alive ;o)

Out with the old and in with new...pretty handmade flowers

I have been spending an obscene amount of time lately trying to decide if I want to update or change my flower accent options for all of my packaging.  I mean you would have thought it was a "life or death" situation with the time my brain was taking to make a decision. The chiffon flowers are just starting to fizzle out a bit, and they don't have the extra "something" that I want to see in my products.  SO, I have decided to change things up a bit!  There will be a couple of new options to choose from, and one will include a number of fabulous different color choices.  Here's a little sneak peek at what I've been working on, and full color range will be coming soon!

The start of a new obsession....chalk paint and upcycling

You guys, I have to admit I have a serious problem lately. I can't seem to stop covering every single piece of old (or even not that old) furniture, shelf, or decorative item in my house with a new, fabulous coat of colorful chalk paint...I really think there should be support groups because it is such an addiction once you get started!


This project is my second major one, and let me tell you, this desk was falling apart when I bought it. I mean it needed to be glued, nailed, and just generally hammered back together...like everywhere.  BUT I only paid $9 for it, so I can't truly complain too much.  My daughter had been wanting a different desk in her room for quite some time, and this one fit the bill for the size and style we were looking for.  So, I thought, "Do a little damage repair, throw some chalk paint on it, and we're set!" 

Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a good photo of the desk in it's true dirty and disgusting glory before I started the job, but this is close to the beginning.  You should have seen the amount of gross inside those drawers...which I cleaned and slammed some pretty contact paper over asap. This picture below is just after I glued and nailed it all back into one usable piece along with cleaning it.  Also, I had painted black in the cracks and the edges, which I inevitably regretted later.  The grand plan had been to sand it in those areas to make the black show through and give a vintage look...but I quickly realized I may have gotten a little ahead of myself (because we all know being my second piece of furniture re-finishing, I must be an expert by now, right?).  Needless to say, the sanded spots got repainted over, and we kept it a nice, pretty solid finish instead.

After getting all of the chalk paint finished and a nice coat of polycrylic added (highly recommend this over the usual wax they say to use for chalk paint), I decided spray-painting the metal on the legs and the drawer pulls would be the more logical option than attempting the mess of hand-painting them. 

And....are you ready??? We have the finished product! So $15 and a few hours of work got us this little gem, which my daughter loves by the way! See why I love this whole chalk paint, up-cycling thing so much now?  I'm a total sucker for turning junk into something awesome and beautiful!  Next time I will be more detailed on the specs of everything I did and used, but this was sort of a spur of the moment thing this time around!



On a mission to be a better blogger!

I used to love to write, and I swear I mean to keep up with blogging...but somehow I always manage to get bogged down in day-to-day life.  My ultimate goal is to be able to actually sit down 3-4 nights every week and just rattle on about my latest ideas, hobbies, up-cycling adventures, recipes, and whatever new crazy drama my kids have gotten themselves into. I love being able to get my thoughts on "paper," and it's an extra bonus to be able to share my latest finds and plans with all of you! 

So, a few things in this first post:

       #1:  I have a new fabric chart for my packaging line, so yay for that!!

 

#2:  I have become an up-cycling junkie! Here's my latest project for my daughter, and I plan to have a longer post dedicated to that little adventure soon.

#3:  And summer is in full swing around here!  We've been making it a point to have some fun checking out a bit of the local tourism available.  It's nice to see all the awesome places that you can find in your own backyard!