Thankful Thursday - 4/7/11

I'm not sure why it is that Thursday always seems to sneak up on me. It's not quite the weekend, but we're well into the week, and I'm always surprised that we're already so close to Friday. NICE surprise!

I caught the Spring cleaning bug yesterday. Usually I am not a cleaner... not voluntarily anyway, haha! But I guess it's that time of year so might as well go with it. Plus, my printer has been giving me fits this week. I'm down to one of two solutions: a) buy a new printer, b) start replacing cords and see what happens, or c) throw this one out the window and beat it with a stick until it plagues me no more. Oh, I guess there was an extra option I threw in, oops! ;) Printer is a bummer because it puts a slight hold on my shipments. I don't live near a post office, so I usually do postal carrier pick-ups with my own printed labels but I may have to make a trip to the nearest P.O. this time. Oh yeah, also... my mouse broke. Annoying!

HOWEVER! The massive cleaning and house overhaul has made for an excellent way to work out my technological frustrations! With all this whining you wouldn't think this is the "Thankful Thursday" post, but I promise, it is! Here's my list of "little things" for this week:

1. I am ever-so-thankful for a clean house. I really hate cleaning, so I'm always happy when the mood strikes me unexpectedly. I actually found Christmas wrapping paper under the couch. Yikes. I'm not completely finished yet, but I'm seeing things shape up and I love it. Who doesn't love a clean house, right?

2. Sunshine and weather in the 70's! My goodness what a beautiful week we've had! Baby A and I took advantage of the lovely weather one afternoon and popped out for an impromptu spring photo shoot.

LOVE!

3. Remember last week, and how excited I was about our family weekend? IT. WAS. BLISS.

Baby A's first trip to the Aquarium

Did I mention she's a HUGE fish nut? I mean, for a 10 month old she is surprisingly aware of every single thing having to do with fish or the ocean. She LOVED it! We saw the fish, rode the train, visited the sharks, rode the carousel, saw the white tigers... it was a blast! This little cutie kept trying to grab the fish through the glass, and giggled and giggled at the tigers. What a day. :) Mommy & Daddy's hearts were FULL.

3,b. As part of super fun family weekend, hubby cooked! YES!! All-day smoked ribs with his secret sauce... YUM-O! See them just falling off the bone? I'm STILL drooling...

4. Hubby pulled 3 new contracts so that means more work for him (downside: not having him around as much), but we are thankful that there is more and more work coming in because it helps our mind rest easier when it comes to all the "boring" parts of being a grown-up.

5. Despite his busy schedule, my sweet and very talented hubby is working on a new line of onesie designs for my Etsy shop! I am trying to come up with a clever name for it, something like "The Husband Edition" or whatever... but not that lame. HAHA! Obviously, there will be lots of designs for the boys, but he has some great girl ideas too. I cannot wait to show you guys!! :)

6. I'm not sure if I've told you guys before, but I LOVE getting mail!! Love it! I have no idea where that comes from, but it's so exciting to me. This week, I got some yummy fabric in all kinds of spring-y colors from V&Co. {Vanessa has some of the best fabric-based tutorials on her blog, and her shop sells the fabric, patterns, and kits to make them!} Also, sweet Baby A got a cute new set of jammies from her GiGi {my mom}, and the new Bambi and Tangled Blue Ray sets from Grampa {my dad}. And of course, my mom always includes a big stack of diaper/wipes/Carter's/anything-she-thinks-I-need coupons for moi. Yay!

7. The Shape of a Mother. New site I found that celebrates all those parts of ourselves that are the tell tale signs of motherhood. If you're a mom, it's definitely worth checking out. I'll be posting more about it in detail later on.

8. SUPER excited for another giveaway coming up in 2 weeks... it's a secret for now, but lots of you have been asking for it, so you got it! :)

Our OCEANBELLE "Tree of Hope" Giveaway is still going on from now through Monday, 

so if you haven't entered yet, go now! 

I hope you all are having a wonderful week, 

and have lots to be thankful for yourselves!

XOXO

The Big Reveal!

Remember the last post where I left you with a colorful little "teaser"?

Okay, so you've probably already visited my shop at least once last week (right? of course you have...) and seen what all the commotion is about, but if not, here goes!!

Introducing my new line of...

Each burpie is tri-fold, extra padded cotton, {for cleaning up all those huge little baby messes!} and measures 15" wide by 19 1/2" long. Some sets have 3 burpies, and some have 4... it all depends on the fabric collection I chose. Speaking of which, I have been searching high and low for some super fun, colorful fabrics that I am just pumped to share with you all. :)

Right now it's a relatively small sampling, but I'm really enjoying the "ready-to-ship" aspect of these items. With my onesies, each and every order is made to spec for each buyer, so it's a constant stream of work, and creates a delay when it comes to delivery. So, it's nice to have some things on the shelf that I can help my last minute shoppers with!

PLUS as an added bonus, these little guys are perfect for the craft show circuit. A nice little grab-and-go gift with no waiting. Yay!

I would love some feedback if anyone would like to offer some, and there will be more designs added to my shop in the coming weeks so be sure to stop in once in awhile for a visit!


Have a great week!!


XOXO

A little-bitty, teeny-tiny hint...

Ahhh... it's a start to yet another week!! Where does the time go?? I hope you all had a wonderful weekend full of rest and rejuvenation. :) Mine was crazy, as seems to be the par these days, but hubby did take morning baby duty on Sunday and I got to sleep in until 9 AM!! 9 AM!! I don't even remember the last time that happened! So thanks hubby, it was so wonderful to just wake up when my body was ready. :)


So today I'm breaking from the trend of Merchandise Monday and letting you in on a little secret...


I'm finally gearing up to introduce my all new line of products to my etsy shop! YAY! I had some gifts going out from November through well, now, and some of them were from my new line. Since I didn't want to spoil the fun of the gifts in the mail to friends and family, I decided to wait until everyone had received them to introduce them to you.


Here's a little hint...

Any guesses? I'm really excited and have been having so much fun making them! It's been a little breath of fresh air in my day-to-day, and everyone needs that once in awhile, right?? Surprisingly, it's given me new inspiration for my little onesies, and I've really been searching for some of that with all the crazy busy-ness going on around here. :)


I'm still fleshing out my inventory and working on the details, but I hope to have everything up for a super fun debut by the first of next week. YAY again!




XOXO