ormolu

july special

July special is up (a little late I know). Choose 3 sets of packaging tags for $10. This special will be up throughout July or maybe later... until I figure out what the special for August will be. 

I took a little longer figuring out this special mainly because this week I started running out of product. I knew I was a little low on some items but did not realize how quickly I would run out until Ali's giveaway a couple Saturdays ago. So, I quickly reordered everything but still have some orders in limbo waiting for some tags to be ready for pick up. Crossing my fingers that happens today... 

Reiley was a huge help with getting orders ready to go for me. The even greater thing is I don't even ask her to help- she just knows I need help and asks what I need. A few years back she helped me on huge kit club order and I told her I would pay her. She was expecting maybe $20...but she helped me so much on it I gave her a $50 bill. 

"I didn't even know fifty dollars existed" she said. 

happy fourth!

Today I am happy. Happy that we live in a beautiful country that grants us much opportunity. Happy that today, my family gets to relax and hang out together. Happy that last night I was able to squeeze in some time to pick up and clean (yes, I am happy when the house is clean). Happy that this morning when we went to check our garden we saw some growth. Happy that I am catching up on some crazy orders this week. Happy that I managed to throw something together to make it look like I was ready for the fourth. That made Reiley very happy too. 

We are headed out to the lake tonight to watch fireworks with the rest of the city ;) 

Lucky for us Justin's grandparents live just across the street from the lake so we are guaranteed parking and lots of food!

I hope you have a great fourth of July!

hello there?

Hey everyone- 

I am buried under orders right now...

I am working very hard to catch up so I can have everyone's orders out as fast as possible... 

I am still honoring the 4 journaling cards with your order if you found my shop through Ali's blog... 

I am getting back to work- 

Hopefully I will have some fun stuff to blog about by the end of the week 

Thank you everyone for your support and understanding!

giveaway on AE this weekend

This weekend I am doing a giveaway over on Ali's blog. 

Also, July's kit is up over at Q Tea kits and ormolu was very happy to be a part of it! If you have a love for horses this kit is for you!

Otherwise-not too much going on over here...

I had a busy week with teaching class and I still have a pile of kits I have to work on for people who could not make it. Hopefully I will be able to tackle that soon!

Have a great weekend!

I am not a cook who comes up with my own concoctions by any means. In fact, when my mother learned I would be moving out onto my own she joked for several months (more like an entire year) that Reiley was going to be eating out all the time with my cooking record (or lack there of). It isn't because I did not like to cook. It was because I simply had not cooked since I had lived at home while finishing college. My mom likes to cook and bake (and is good at both) so why should I fight her? To my mother's surprise- I can follow recipes, I cook nearly every night and... I even have stopped measuring everything *gasp*! 

My aunt gave us recipe books she put together for Christmas two years ago. One great thing about these recipes is I know people in my family have tried them- and like them enough to share them. So, I use these all the time. It is a combination of all of our families favorite recipes and stories about them. One of our favorites is my aunt Teresa's broccoli potato soup. Last night I went a little heavy handed on the cheese and cream and renamed it. Reiley loved it so much she actually finished it after eating two mini cupcakes (that she sneaked). 

I thought I would share. 

Download Broccoli_cheese_potato_soup- use the smaller amounts of cream and cheese to make it not so heavy, use the higher quantities to make it creamier and cheesier (yum!). 

A while back I came across two cupcake recipes. I liked how easy one was- I liked the ingredients in the other. If you remember about a month ago the strawberry mascarpone cupcakes (that was the easy recipe). So, with some coaching from my mother, I decided to combine aspects of both to come up with these little guys. They are so yummy... 

Download Choc_chip_cupcakes

Reiley wanted to name the cupcakes. So, I let her. Basically she added the double in front of the already presumed title. 

I made mini cupcakes (in hopes they might last longer) but you can make adjustments with oven temperature and time to make regular sized ones (325 degrees F for 20-25 minutes). The paper liners really help when coating them (as I found out after I ran out). 

Enjoy!

I was looking at girly rooms on Pottery Barn the other day. When we moved into this house I was so excited to decorate Reiley's room. I had a plan- a vision. But- so did Reiley. And because it was her room I let her plan and vision take over. Every once in a while though I see things that I know I love and could work into her room though. In honor of my friend, Christy, who overheard as a teenager someone state inside a dressing room..."Butterflies are sooo in right now!" I explored some options for room decor with butterflies... here are my findings. 

All of these ideas "seem" like super easy do-it-yourself types of projects and would be great for not only a little girl's room- but a summer party or decor. The butterfly chandelier is from PBkids-but I think with a butterfly punch and some string you could make it in an afternoon. The wall butterflies are also from PBkids-and with a few templates and patterned paper would be easy to make. The butterfly decorated lanterns are a project from Martha Stewart, as are the butterfly table cards on the wine glasses (the template is available for download). I think I will have to try my hand at a few of these in the next few weeks to keep us busy during the summer... 

I also used some butteflies within my centerpieces for my wedding. I wanted to keep it simple and inexpensive- I had Justin cut and stain wood squares to ground my centerpieces. Then I ordered these little notecards from Compendium (which I had, had my eye on for several years). Next, I picked up a few olive branches and placed them in a terra cotta pot wrapped in burlap. After all of that I thought it needed something else so I threw down some butterfly confetti I had made. Simple and inexpensive. 

So, if you are in the mood for some butterflies- or have a party coming up (or a little girls birthday party even)...

I did up this template for the wall butterflies if anyone wants to give it a go also- the smaller ones I am going to use the template on the Martha Stewart site (found on the table cards). 

Download Butterfly template 

so glad that is over with...

A few months ago our girl scout troop decided to sign the girls up for a day camp. Seeing as I was not working in the summer- and I could get Reiley in for free - I decided to volunteer. I volunteered to lead our group, along with two others, which included our girls and seven others. By the end of last week- I was exhausted! 

All of our girls had so much fun though. It got off to a slow start because most of our activities were toward the end of the week- which in some ways was good because the first day we had an evacuation because of a nearby tornado and overall a slow start helped us get adjusted. 

Reiley got to go canoeing, fishing, make a lot of crafts, do nature hikes and since the theme was "island" we had a beach party. 

They also got to go wading and catch little creatures...and I do mean little. This was a snail Reiley caught. She also caught a crawdad which was the size of a quarter. 

So, we are back...clean...catching up on sleep- and hopefully I will be catching up on orders. I am also teaching a class at the local scrapbooking store on Wednesday night which I am unprepared for. I hope to get all of that sorted out tomorrow. 

spotlight post & giveaway

Check out Crystal's blog here for some great ideas on using the tags from the shop and a great giveaway today. Crystal has a great blog showcasing products every Friday and techniques- just added it to my blog list :) 

experiment #1: the snack bowl

I have been experimenting with many different things while getting adjusted to married/ home life and I thought I would start sharing some of those "experiments" to break up all of the scrapbooking and shop posts here. I am not going to use scientific terms though...because I was never good with that sort of thing. Today we are starting it off with the best experiment I have had to date. 

_________________________________________________________________

Background info:

With many children in the house, my mom used to get constantly frustrated with everyone going in and grabbing a bag of chips, popcorn or other bag/boxed snack and carrying it with them around the house. The issue with this is first- that children (and sometimes adults) end up seeing the bag as a never ending supply of snacks and eating more than they need to  and second- if you have children you understand that their hands might not have been in best places during the day... 

So, my mom always made us pour our snacks into bowls. She did not like having too many hands grabbing out of a bag. 

Problem:

When we moved into this house I was finding bags of half eaten chips everywhere. I was tired of finding empty bags of chips everywhere. I did not even want to eat out of these bags because I was not certain the last person was as concerned about the transfer of germs as I was (to put it nicely). 

Implementation:

So, I was on the hunt for several months for some cute little orange bowls to place on the end of my counter next to the pantry. The first several months I used some bowls of Reiley's that have a summer motif on them. But I was on a mission to find cute, plastic, stackable orange bowls to take their place. 

I picked up these at Target- they are part of the Orla Kiely collection (a larger bowl of hers might have made it into my basket also...).

Conclusion:

 I love these little bowls! I love that they match, that they are conveniently placed next to the pantry and that I don't need to worry about germs or too many people in my house (and maybe their friends) digging around in a bag of chips (no offense family and friends). It has worked fairly well all in all. With only three of us we never need any more - and I see the bowls in use more and more often. I think the key is placing them out in the open right next to the pantry. Plus it doesn't hurt that they are so cute so Reiley likes to use them. 

 

YART sale

It's etsy's 2nd annual YART sale today through the Sunday the 14th! 

Yard+art= YART...

I had to actually do some research because I did not know exactly what it was...and I am a little late to the party anyway. 

So, any orders placed in the shop from yesterday through this Sunday gets a limited edition set of 6 journaling cards( i know that image shows 5...but I meant 6). The journaling cards are the same images used in the journaling notebooks- but they are printed on heavy cardstock and won't be bound. 

Images will vary- but I will make sure everyone receives a good selection :)