Thankful and Blessed

The secret party for my husband was a HUGE success!! About 2 months ago I had set up an In-Home Wine Tasting event for my hubby's 32nd birthday. It's been a super secret up until the day before! The only reason I had to tell him was because our oldest has been sick and home from school, so I couldn't do any shopping for the hors d'ourves for the night. The only way to get the food and prepare it was to just tell him. He was beside himself. :) He was so touched that our friends were going to be here for him and celebrate his birthday. It was perfect.

The bottles of wine we tasted. We had 2 white wines (I'm not a fan of white, but the second white we tried was pretty delicious and went really well with the shrimp scampi I had made). Then we had 3 reds (hubby and I both love red wine). We finished the night off with a fabulous Moscato dessert wine. That was served with Angel Food cake with a home-made (secret) strawberry sauce. ;) What was great about the tasting was that.. it was a TASTING. Since we are firm believers in not 'getting drunk on wine' we were able to taste each wine without drinking a full glass. Each wine was about 2-3 sips.. perfect to taste and NOT over indulge.


I was busy preparing the hors d'ourves for about 5 hours straight.. I must say, they were delicious!


The table before the food.. yes, you can see pieces of paper on the plates. That was to remind me where to put each food, since I had a specific idea in mind.


All in all it was such a fabulous night. We had 5 couples all together and we all had a BLAST. It was the first wine tasting for almost everyone, so it was interesting to try different wine with different foods. It was pretty neat to taste the changes in the taste of the wine with each food.

In other news.. I'm SO blessed. I have a great Aunt (both GREAT! and second generation 'great') that is the number one reason why I am able to have my business. About 8 years ago she gave me a sewing machine that sat in a corner with dust on it for about 5 years. I was just too scared to attempt anything. I had no experience with sewing and this was before the internet was the automatic 'go-to' to learn anything.

When I started to make my Key-Fobs, I found that sewing wasn't as difficult as I had always feared it would be. My next project was curtains for my living room. That was a NIGHTMARE. And I ended up not even using the curtains or the color in that room. I think I used them in my sons room for a while before I painted it. Needless to say, they are in a drawer somewhere gathering dust.

In November of 2009, my awesome Aunt sent from NY (where she lives) an Embroidery sewing machine. I was *SO* grateful and excited. Within one month, I was able to offer monogrammed key-fobs. That blew my business up (in a good way)!! Aunt Kat always asks about my business and is constantly telling me how proud she is and what a great job I'm doing. She is wonderful.

Saturday I get a letter from her and it is telling me that she needs to start calling me 'Wonder Woman' because I keep going and going and my business keeps growing with the new things that I'm offering. Enclosed was a check for a significant amount of money.. something to 'help grow my business even more'. It feels so amazing to have someone so behind me. I'm a blessed lady, I tell ya.

I'm going to sew her something special with her name embroidered on it and *try* to show my thankfulness to her. Without her, my business would literally not exist. :)

Another dream?

I'm quite thankful that my hubby's bronchitis is on it's way out.. because my couch gives me WEIRD dreams! I had another one last night and woke up at the literal same minute as I did yesterday morning.. 6:28am. Bizarre. This was a dream that I won't share, but it was weird all the same. :)

Right now my tongue is burnt from eating some Tastefully Simple Creamy Wild Rice Soup. Let me tell you what.. I'm seriously considering eating the entire pot. WOW. Kicking myself for only getting one package. I'd like to make the beer bread too.. but I'm saving that for a VERY special and secret event tomorrow night. I'll brag about it tomorrow night or Saturday when I can upload the photos. I'm SUPER excited about it.

I wrote something on my FB last night as a status.. but I want to put it here so I can see it on the regular: "Parting is such sweet sorrow.. well, this time it's just sweet." On the way to making some changes in my life.. good changes. Healthy changes. Fun changes. :)

Nightmares!

For the last two nights I've had to sleep on our couch because my poor husband has a terrible case of Bronchitis. So when I woke up suddenly at 6:30 this morning from a nightmare I had to look around and remember where I was!

I actually had 2 nightmares (one was worse than the other..). The first one was that I dropped my MacBook Pro (GASP) and it split open and the screen was all crazy. I knew there was NO fixing it.. so yes, in my book that is a full-on nightmare! The second one was a little more serious.

I knew I was alone in my house. It was late afternoon and the neighborhood was bustling with kids on bikes, people outside chatting, etc. I heard some commotion outside of my front door, so I headed to the front window to peek. I noticed two 20- something ladies out on the front lawn looking around. My front door had a couple of more windows on it than it does in real life, so I was able to see who was standing at the door. I look out and notice a 20-something year old girl with dyed blond hair, dark brown roots, dark drawn on eyebrows and a Monroe piercing.

She knocked on the door and right at that moment I opened it. She proceeded to SHOVE me and I knew at that split second that I had to get OUT of the house right then or I would have died in the house. I knew they were coming in. In my head I just said "Oh please, Lord. No." I pushed my way out on the front lawn and tried to scream for help and my neighbors just ignored me. :( It was a heartbreaking and sinking feeling. It was like my only way to be saved was that SOMEONE in my neighborhood would hear me.. and they did. But they didn't come.

I honestly woke up stunned and scared. So confused and started to think about things going on in my life in a different way. It's time to cut some ties here, make some changes there. To spend more of my time and energy on everlasting things and not these temporal things that only stress me out.

On to better and brighter things in life.. after all, we only have one of them. :)

I got greedy.

I've noticed that when it comes to cleaning my house, I'm a bit of a child. I need some change in the room that I'm cleaning. Move a piece of furniture, change out some pictures, add a shelf, etc. This morning my half bath needed a good cleaning so I went searching for a shelf and found one.. from my office. I stole it and put it up in the bathroom. It looks great. Except now my ribbon had no home!

I went around the house searching for something that could hold ribbon and then.. I found it!

This was a makeup brush holder for me about a year ago (bought from Ikea), but when I moved my brushes to a vase the shelf was randomly placed in my pantry to hold extra flashlights. So I grabbed it and added my ribbon.. yippee! Bad news? I searched for it on Ikea.com and I can't find it.. so I'm thinking they don't sell them any more. :( It was only $4.99 too! I won't give up hope until I go to our local Ikea and check it out for myself. If they have more I'll be buying them up for sure.

Yesterday I did a deep cleaning on my kitchen and instead of stealing something from another room I had to lose a bookshelf. The kids have (HAD!) their books and coloring books and model magic and.. (you get the picture) in this bookshelf and it was a constant eye-soar, because face it - they don't know much about being OCD about that stuff. It was constantly a mess and not something I wanted to look at ever again. (Why I am blogging about this, I have no idea.. but it's what is on my mind at the moment so there ya go)

My exciting highlight of my weekend was starting and finishing the re-design of my biz website.
Check it out..

SweetLemonTree

I wanted to just add my new bags and such, but of course I had to do something different. That's just how I roll. And it came out great and I love it.

The wrench.

Why is it when I have actual plans, that is the day that one of my kiddo's decides to be sick? Well not really decides, but that's what it feels like! And on top of that my poor husband is as sick as a dog and HAS to work today (big wig visit at his store). What does 'sick as a dog' mean, anyway?

... off to search Google ...

According to worldwildwords.com, "There are several expressions of the form "sick as a ...", that date from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Sick as a dog is actually the oldest of them, recorded from 1705; it is probably no more than an attempt to give force to a strongly worded statement of physical unhappiness. It was attached to a dog, I would guess, because dogs often seem to have been linked to things considered unpleasant or undesirable; down the years they have had an incredibly bad press, linguistically speaking (think of dog tired, dog in the manger, dog's breakfast, go to the dogs, dog Latin - big dictionaries have long entries about all the ways that dog has been used in a negative sense)."

Anyway.. I was quite busy yesterday making a couple of things. I made 2 mini-duffel bags (for makeup, pens/pencils, etc) and one hipster bag. I got an email yesterday from someone wanting to buy the hipster - so yay! Sold a bag! And.. I'm going to be doing a custom hipster for someone for her camera lens while she is at events. Yay again! Another bag sold!

Not to totally jump to another subject, but.. I'm starting to realize what my favorite type of sermon is. The kind that breaks down a couple of scriptures and really dives deep into their meaning and history. The bible seriously comes alive right on the pages for me. Last night at service we went through Psalm 139. It was simply amazing! And really it wasn't anything I haven't heard before but last night I HEARD it. Does that make sense? I think it's interesting that there has been a lot of chatter about abortion on the local moms site and the second half of Psalm 139 is often cited when talking about why abortion isn't according to God's plan.

I need warm weather. (Wow.. I'm quite the subject hopper this morning) NEED IT. I'm over the cold, the snow, the ice, the heavy jackets, the gloves, the heavy bathrobes, the slippers. I want shorts, tanned skin, flip flops, sun, windows open, picnics at the park. The hubby and I have spoken about our ideal weather and it's a balmy 80 degrees and sunny. But moving to Hawaii is seriously out of the question. :D So we just have to enjoy the one month of perfect weather we have here in NC. I wonder what the weather is like in Southern Italy. Just to sit outside on the veranda and sip some Pinot Noir while eating some bread and soaking up the sun with my love. Ohhh, that sounds as close to heaven as possible!

Yes please:

(Photo courtesy of ItalyGuide.com)

Busy Bee.

I said I would make yesterday a sewing day.. and boy did I! I added a couple of new things to my inventory and now offer Makeup Roll Bags, Small Folded Wallets, Checkbook Covers and Checkbook Cover/Wallets. And the best part (for me)? I didn't follow a tutorial! That's huge for me. The biggest help of all was all that beautiful fabric I had gotten last week. The scraps are the perfect size to work on cute little things. And hey! It was free!

I sat down the other night and sketched a list with drawings of my new ideas. I had 13 new ideas and got 4 done.. I think that's pretty good. I need to pick up some clear vinyl to follow through with a few other ideas. And need my pretty little zippers to come in (ordered a couple of days ago..) so I can work on other things. I ordered them from ZipIt on Etsy. I should have them on Tuesday.

The hardest part about adding new inventory is getting it all on my website. So instead I've been slowly adding it to my Face Book Fan Page. Go ahead and add it to your favorites! I offer all of my specials through that page first. At some point I know I'll have to get it on the website.. otherwise people that happen upon me through Google (or wherever) won't know that I offer other things. I'd put them on Etsy, but the competition there is just intense that if you aren't a very very established member you are probably not going to get many sales.

Next week I'll be checking out a place called Peddler's Post in the NoDa district of Charlotte. They have different sizes of 'shop space' to offer and another mom based business friend of mine (The Lucky Butterfly) are thinking of sharing a small space to start out. You know, see how business goes and if we have a good amount of sales maybe we'll think about going to the next level. Then again, I've never been there.. that's why I'm checking it out. Hopefully it's a great place for local people to get their name and products out there.

An impromtu 'vacation'

I've lived on Hot Chocolate all week long. And for some reason, I must add the mini marshmallows every time. It just tastes better. Or it's all in my head. Either way, it's yummy and makes my tummy happy.

My kids have lived on it all week as well. Because of the lovely snow/ice/back roads not plowed because the state of NC doesn't really spend money on plows/sand/salt because it's not a regular occurrence, tomorrow will make the 5th school day that the schools are closed. Ordinarily no school would mean fun times, sleepovers with friends and plenty of outside time. Well.. the fun times end when you've played the Wii for the hundredth time, watched 4 movies in one day and can't get to your friends house because no one can drive.

Oy vey. Today the roads were clear enough to go to Plaster Creations and let the kids each paint a plaster thing. The boy chose a race car that I had to literally tell him to STOP painting, because it was about to be a big brown mess. Both of the girls chose to do the same 3 dolphin scene that can be hung on their wall. Keaghan (6), Kaleb (5) and Kyra (10). Kyra's done it before and pretty much knew what to do. Kaleb had to be told about 10 times that just because he is painting the WHOLE car blue (as a base color) it does not mean that he can't use other colors after you dry the blue. That was a fun conversation over and over and over and... Keaghan had to be her different self and paint eyelashes on her dolphins, haha. That girl just cracks me up.

I've decided to use tomorrow as a selfish day. I'm going to sew until my heart is content. I'm doing a vendor fair next month and would love to offer a few more things than I normally do. Even if I only get a couple of each new things. At least people will be able to see the other things I can do. I will say.. I miss designing (and selling) graphic-y things. I use to make invitations, cards, etc. And LOVED it. I still design stuff for myself and friends and *sometimes* take on business logo's as freelance work. I try not to overload my plate with that, though. I wish I could combine both of my loves.. sewing and graphics. I do offer embroidery (and can embroider ANYTHING I design).. but that is almost too many choices.

Oh. My mind. It's just too busy for it's own good.

Obligitory snow post

I wish I could fight the urge to post about our snow 'storm' here in NC, but.. I can't. Growing up in RI snow was a regular occurrence in the winter and it was usually welcomed. Now that we've moved to the Carolina's we don't really want the snow.. snow days aren't the same for parents as they are for kids! Most of the time, anyway.

Since snow isn't a regular thing down here, they don't have tons of plows running all night and day. So the roads are seriously not good to drive on. I'm sure that people who are used to driving in it would be fine, but why take the chance if you don't have to. Unfortunately, the hubby started his new position today so calling out wasn't an option.

All three kids were super excited to get out and play. The 5 and 6 year old lasted about an hour and the 10 year old stuck it out for 2 hours before asking to play IN side at a friends house. They tried to make a snowman, but said the snow was too 'fluffy'. I'm sure it'll be better tomorrow as we are supposed to get more snow and ice. Now the little ones are enjoying their hot cocoa.. as all children should after playing out in the snow. It's a requirement!!

Deliciousness even in January

I've had these 2 cans of Pumpkin sitting in my pantry and finally decided to use one.. with my hubby's Christmas present. He got a waffle iron from my sister and he was over the moon! He's wanted one for years, but it's not something you remember to buy when you're out at Target. So I took pancake mix and made it for waffles. Added some cinnamon, nutmeg and of course the pumpkin. That right there made 10 waffles!


Unfortunately for the hubby, I'm the worlds messiest cook. That's what he says, anyway. And it's unfortunate for him because it's his 'job' after dinner to clean up (minus the dishes). I don't think I'm too bad..



Ok, I will tell you that the above picture is like the cleanest 'mess' that I've made while cooking. For some reason my favorite part of making waffles is when you open it right when it's done and the smells just SMACKS you in the face. Oh Yum.


Since we have 5 people in our family it takes a little while to make enough for everyone, so I use my trusty oven and keep it at 180 degrees and just pile the waffles in. Breakfast for dinner.. you can't go wrong with it!

In progress..

As I type this, my husband and 2 out of my 3 children are playing 'Just Dance' for the Wii. It.is.a.trip. The very first song we did was Cotton Eyed Joe.. just me and the hubby. I was dying laughing. Apparently my dear hubs is not the greatest dancer. Then again, I haven't seen myself do it.

The other day I saw this blog post by This & That and decided that I HAD to cover Keaghan's ugly Dora chair.


I mean really. My 6 year old chickie is so not into Dora anymore. Hasn't been for about 3 years! But I didn't want to just throw it away. I was *so* excited when I got the idea to cover it. I had a couple of ideas based on the fabric that I had acquired..



I decided to do the second one, only because I didn't have enough of that gorgeous brown fabric to cover the entire thing. Since I have an embroidery machine I had to personalize the chair with a cute little K..

So this is where I'm at now.. I'm having trouble lining it up where I want.. so I'm going to have to wait until a Crafty time with friends so I can get some help. Otherwise I'll never finish it. I'm quite impressed with how far I got, since this is the first time doing anything even close to this!




There it is, my latest project. It's really nice doing something that I'm *not* getting paid for and can just do at my leisure. Wait.. is THIS a hobby?! Well.. will ya look at that. ;)

Fail.

I wanted this post to be a photo-filled post of my latest sewing project. But alas.. it's not finished and I'm stuck on one part. I may need to beg my fellow crafty mom friends to help me. :D

This post is a fail. For what I had wanted it to be, anyway.

I quite excited for tonight, I have Bunco! What is Bunco you ask? Well. I've tried to explain it to a couple dozen people and I never get it right. I make it sound so much more confusing than it really is. For me to learn, I just had to be there and learn as I went. You take a bunch of women, a few tables, some chairs, pens, 3 dice per 4 women, and scoresheets. You end up with a LOT of laughing and even win some money! We give $5 per person, so at the end there is money to give out as prizes.

Even reading that I'm confused. And I know how to play it!

My favorite Bunco nights are the ones where there is a theme.. we've had Breast Cancer Awareness night (PINK galore-see photo!). Halloween costume night, ornament exchange and tonight is a white elephant sort of thing. I still need to find my 'gift'.. hmm. I've been thinking about what I want my theme to be when it's my turn to host. I've been playing around with ideas like "A Goodwill Gala" where we all find a $5 dress from GW that is GAUDY and UGLY. That would be a hoot.. but I'm not sure if all of the girls would want to do that. ;)

So instead of finishing this post off with a story or an antidote, I must rush to my baking chicken so I can add some pasta to it and create a lovely Chicken Parm for the family.

You know what's gross?

Fruit flavored gum.

Ick.

Gum should be pepperminty or minty. Not watermelon. Or apple. Or lemonade. I'm chewing this gross Watermelon Extra and as much as I think I hate it I cannot spit it out. It's so.. flavorful. But I hate myself for chewing it. It goes against everything I believe about gum! Yet, I'm snapping bubble and chomping on it like a teenage girl.

So today I finally (read that: FINALLY) finished up a monster project/order. I made 22 duffel bags all with embroidered names on them. Am I crazy? I think I am. In all honesty though it wasn't as horrible as one would think. I watched A.LOT. of Netflix movies on the computer (Corrina, Corrina, Steel Magnolias, Driving Miss Daisy, Jack, Batman, Sister Act, Murder by Numbers, The Bodyguard, Sleeping with the Enemy, Super Size Me, The River Wild, The 'Burbs, Funny Farm). Yes.. all of those in 3 days. I was chained to my sewing machine. I knew if I procrastinated even for a day that I wouldn't finish (because.. well, that's how I roll). Sorry for the image quality.. when that photo was taken I was absolutely delirious from sewing for over 12 hours and that was only 19 out of the 22 that needed to be done. But yay.. I'm bringing them to one of the cheerleaders tonight so she can hand them out to the girls tomorrow. I can't wait to hear how much they love them. I know I do! I'm even going to make one for my little sister for Cross Country. I think I'll embroider her name and some running shoes on it.



Thankfully I have connections all over town. Listen to me.. I sound like a Mob Boss. These connections are mostly 'Mommies'. I capitalize it because we all belong to 'The Mommies Network'. Really. It's great (most of the time). So, back to why it's good I have connections. I was able to score a giant bag of beautiful scrap fabric. And that photo only shows the top layer. I'm so excited to start on another project (no, I'm not sharing but I will post pictures when I'm done.. it's not a big deal of a project).


Lastly, I'll leave you with a memory I had. Well.. not so much a memory as a 'hey, look at that' and BAM! My deceased Papa jumped in my mind. He used to run into this convenience store for his cigarettes and always come out with one of these candies. They were my favorite candy and even as an adult it still takes me back. He passed on when I was 5.. so the small amount of time we had together was so precious.I miss him.

Gotta be honest here.

The best way to start any relationship is with honesty, right?

I guess that goes for Blogs too. I will tell you that this is not my 1st blog. Or my 2nd. Or my 5th.

You catch my drift?

Although, this will be the first blog that is not all about my past, present and future drama (future drama?). It'll be my day-to-day stuff that pops in my head. So I'm warning you now.. I'm one of the most random people I know and it will be noticeable here on the blog.

Now.. with that out of the way.

I'm sitting here trying to write a blog and I'm being sucked into this ridiculous show called 'All Worked Up'. Basically it's a show that follows real people on the job that have to tick people off daily. First it's this guy with 90% of his body tattooed and his tow-truck is getting repo'ed. That was interesting. But my favorite so far is the Manhattanite getting served papers while she is out spending all of her ex-husbands money. She's all judgmental about the poor guy and his suit and sneakers, lol. She was just mad that he was telling her to stop shopping.. and then went after him with her really pointy umbrella. Oy vey.

Phew, it's a commercial. I can attempt to write my first blog entry. It has to be interesting, funny and unique.. right?

Let's see.

I'm a 30 year old mommy to three fabulously awesome kids. 2 girls and 1 boy. I'm biased, but they truly are amazing little souls. I'm happily (yes, really!) married to a guy that got me with his sense of humor and kept me with his love for me. We've been through the ringer (but what married couple hasn't!) and we are stronger for it.

I have no hobbies, only things that I turn into 'things I do'. To me a hobby is something someone does to relax and pass time. Well.. when I sew or design graphics I sure do pass time.. but relax? Oh my, no. I do own a business that I started in the summer of 2008 (www.SweetLemonTree.com) and it does take up a bit of my time. And no - I would not call it a hobby!

I've been a Christian (Christ follower, Believer, etc) since I was 14 years old.. but really began a real relationship with my Savior in 2004. It's not a fashion statement nor is it a moral pedestal that I stand upon when I choose to. It's the way I (try) to live my life. I'm heading to a greater place, sure. But while I'm here I want to live the life of a faithful follower of the greatest teacher known to man-kind. Do I fall? Of course! The question is.. do I get back up again with His help? Absolutely!

You know.. while sharing my heart about my faith that darn show came back on and all I can hear is "Dirty Dreadlocks!" "Who are you calling dirty dreadlocks?!"

Classy. So very classy.

So that's me.. in a nutshell.