argh!

something is wrong.
my computer hates me.
i keep getting pop-up ads over and over.
and gmail and blogger are taking FOR EVER to work.
like an email takes 20 minutes to send.
lovely.

so along with this issue, blogger won't let me upload any pictures.
and i've been working my buns off just to show you some fabulous new products.
so you'll have to check them out for yourself.

i've added lots of new posy hair clips to the shop.
look closely at them.
some of the sets include a christmas posy hair clip!

and i also have new crayon rolls listed!
look closely at them, too.
they have a new closure.
instead of the ribbon tie they close with a button and elastic loop.
much easier for little hands to do independently.


so don't just take my word on all this, go check them out.
because they really are cute.
i just wish i could show you myself!

-linds

just an obvious hint:

bad blogger here.
i've been busy working on our halloween costumes i was previously procrastinating working on.
we'll be dressing up tonight for farmer's market (everyone does here),
so maybe you'll get some pictures tomorrow!

-lindsey

big fat greek fundraiser

have you heard me talk about my daughter's school before?

you may be confused, if not.
yes, i do home school, but only 3 days a week.
the other 2 days she is at a classical school in a regular classroom with 13 other kids.
even if you aren't in the area, check it out.
you may be able to find something near you like it.
and the website has a wealth of knowledge on it: essays, podcasts... so much good stuff about classical education.

one of the fun aspects about our school is we study a different period of history each year,
4 periods in all, then after 4 years we go back to the first period we studied 4 years earlier. this gives the kids a chance to learn something in a new way each time the study it.

so this year we are studying the ancient world, and are currently focused on egypt and greece and the various gods, etc. we also have a fundraiser each year and ours was yesterday.
it was called the big fat greek fundraiser.
i was on the committee for the table decorations and we had to keep it cheap. as in as close to free as possible.

and we got pretty close!
the wreathes were made from donated olive branches, the olive oil was also donated, the wine was made by parents of a student, and we only had to pay for the paper costs.
instead of numbering each table, we gave them a name of a greek god, and there was a little card with funny facts about each god.

each seat had a "charger". since the meal was served, the plates weren't on the table when the guests arrived. so to fill that space we made these "chargers" with cardstock printed with various mission statements from parents and teachers, then rimmed them with a gold marker.

and i just added a little tag to the olive oil bottles with our school name. i *love* the label on these bottles! they are so simple and pretty.


so here's where the funny part comes in:
as i'm leaving my house to go set up the tables yesterday, my friend calls and says one of their gods and goddesses had to cancel because of a sick child... and would i fill in? uh, not my cup of tea. so i said i'd think on it as a last resort.

we were the last resort.
childcare fell in place.
the costumes were delivered (which you can't see in this pic how amazing they really were).
we really wanted to attend, but just weren't able to commit to it financially this year (its a very fancy event). thankfully, it all worked out for the best and we were not only able to attend as the welcoming god and goddess, ares and athena, but our good friends had empty seats at their table and we sat with them!

it was an amazing night and the live auction was unforgettable!
thank you joy for pushing me out of my comfort zone!

done!

as daunting as it has been, i finally got my very own family rules canvas done!
and so have so many of you!
nearly everyday i get a new comment or email from one of you that has made your own.
you guys really have to go look at them all -
they are really inspiring and helpful if you haven't done your own yet.

yes, i stole some of your rules.

i began with my canvas,
painted it sloppily with random acrylic paints,
and started choosing my fabrics.
yes, i said fabric!
nicole made her's with paper, and so have many of you,
but i wanted to try it with fabric and iron-on transfer paper.

our house has very little wall space, so thankfully the canvas fit in the only place it could go.
and i love it here!
it's our tiny hallway by the kitchen,
between the bathroom and silas' room.
our kitchen is pretty white and this canvas it just the kick in the color pants it needed.

overall, i'm really happy with it.
but it may be that i'm more happy that i'm done with it than the actual finished product ;)

here's what my rules are:
thank God for this day, for this family, for this home
sing silly, dance crazy, hug often, snuggle up, say i love you
be creative at all times
use kind words - obey your parents - always tell the truth
share everything... except bad ideas
say what you are sorry for... forgiveness is mandatory
give your guest your best
husband love your wife - wife always be on his side
hands are for hugging not hitting
there is no "mine" in this house - it's all God's
encourage your siblings... share in their joy
too much t.v. is bad. too much reading is good.
act responsibly, be respectful, choose wisely
love the Lord your God

some of you have had trouble with the mod podge causing your paper to bubble and ripple.
i avoided that with the fabric, for the most part.
i was pretty happy with the transfer paper,
but it worked better on some fabric than on others.
you can see the outline of it on many of the fabrics,
but i gave up on perfection long ago.
just realize when you do this project that it probably won't be perfect.
enjoy that!
perfection is so much harder to achieve.

i also varied the edges of the fabrics with different cuts,
like a scallop, straight cut, and more decorative scallops.
i took scrapbook paper that had decorative edges and
traced it with a water soluble marker, then cut it out.

so now its your turn!

i'll try to do a post soon of a compilation of all of our family rules...

also, many of you have asked if nicole is going to sell these. for now, the answer is no. she just had her 4th baby and is busy enough with her little monkeys. but she is looking into getting them reproduced, so i'll definitely keep you all posted if this comes to fruition!

happy saturday!
i'm off to decorate for a big fat greek celebration (more on that later!).

-linds

how did i miss this?!

i have this pretty little pile of zippered pouches...
THAT I FORGOT ABOUT!
i made these a couple weeks ago and forgot to put them up in my shop.
whoops!
so here they are. now go get 'em.

-lindsey

petal pushers restocked!

they're baaaaack!

these little petal pushers sell out faster than i can make them!
i also made some dark chocolate ones,
but haven't had time to photograph them.
check my shop over the next few days for them.

-lindsey

pretty pretty!

becky, of sugar plum invitations, sent me this sweet gift!
i absolutely *love* these letterpress note cards,
especially the dark gray stitches - so cute!
thank you, becky!

and if you're in the mood for some wedding inspiration,
which i always am, go visit her blog she walks in beauty.

wishing you pretty treats in the mail,
lindsey

master bedroom redo, part 1

our master bedroom is the last room in the house i get to.

it's where i shove the things that don't have a home,
where leftover furniture migrates to,
where (up until this weekend) there were even some moving boxes.
we moved in over 3 years ago!

so i want to give my room a little love.
for free.
buuuut... i know that's not entirely possibly,
but i'm coming up with some plans to try to anyway (more on that later).

so where do i start?

fabric of course!

months back i fell in love with the arcadia line of fabric while i was choosing fabric for my (in)courage line.
it is funky and modern, but i think will mix well with vintage pieces, too.

i think i'm probably going to go neutral on the bedding, with crazy pillows on top, but as i was scouring the lovely target i couldn't help but gravitate towards the dwell studio line.
the options in store are great, but you have to go online to see them all.
from crib bedding to toddler bedding to child bedding to teen bedding to grownup bedding -
its all amazing!
and crazy affordable, especially when you compare it to the non-target version of dwell studio.

so for your viewing pleasure,
i present my favorites of the dwell line:

ahh! love it! i could stare at them all day! maybe i should choose one for my room?

-lindsey

fall posies!

i was busy this weekend - come check them out!

(most are on the 3rd page of the posies)

-lindsey

come see me here:

there's a giveaway!

-linds

cluttered house, cluttered mind

oh my.
this has been quite a day.
it's been one of those days where i just can handle everything going on.
i can't handle the heat (~90 degrees).
i can't handle the messes in my house - ev.er.y.where. i look.
i can't handle my 2 year old undoing and dumping everything.
and why does my husband have to be gone tonight?!

since my mind is so full of, well, everything,
i figured sometimes its just better to get it out there (to you poor readers)
and hopefully clear up some space for mothering.
and maybe cleaning.
maybe.

so here's what's cluttering my mind:
for work:
- i have about 75 fall posies waiting to be finished, almost done
- i have well over 60 (!) crayon rolls cut and ready to sew (if only i had the time)
- i still have a HUGE amount of tea towels to make for (in)courage
- btw, i've been waiting on my replacement order (1st order was partially unusable) of tea towels for over a month and a half! they came yesterday,
so now my house is stuffed with towels, once again
- i have so many ideas for fall and christmas tea towels that its killing me i haven't been able to start yet
- i can't make the petal pushers fast enough! the cream ones just sold out today
- i also have a pile of fabric for full aprons piled about 2 ft high, just waiting
- i'm running low on posy hair clips, so i need to get on that, too
- oh, and i am still running my sale. thank you all for supporting me so much! i am getting closer and closer to a new camera every day!

and on the personal side (not that my business isn't personal):
- i just got this fabric in the mail to make this top! i still need to choose the trim fabric
- i'm only partially done with our halloween costumes. must finish!
- i have my family rules canvas almost done. really, so close!
-and what has been exhausting me the most is this: my son. phew! that boy is buuuusy.
and right now, busy is the nicest word i can come up with. after a long day today, knowing my husband wouldn't be coming home to help with dinner and bedtime, i opted to eat drive thru (aka: kids are strapped in), and spend time walking (aka: spending too much money) around target. well, in the 5 minutes before we got out of the house i got silas dressed (because my kids are generally mostly unclothed by 3 o'clock). while i was taking care of something else, silas dumped out the huge jar of crayons. and jumped on them. breaking them. then he dumped out the big box of tiny legos. all of them. then he decided he had to go potty because his sisters were. he ran to the bathroom and tore off all his clothes (shirt, shorts, diaper, and shoes) that i had just put on him. he is wearing me out.
another of his antics happened tonight after i had put him to bed. this one made me laugh, because i was so shocked by it. i walked past his room and noticed his light was on. i went in to find his noise machine (how could i ever live w/o this?!) was turned off, and he had climbed up on the changing table. he was laying down. his diaper was off! and he said he had gone peepee and needed to change his diaper. aah! we really need to potty train this boy. but he's pretty much doing it himself, so maybe i should just stay out of it. but on the other hand, when i find poopy wipes in the wipes container (i'm serious), maybe i should be a little more in control, ya think?

thanks for listening.
i feel better now.
off to watch some shows and make some posies!
(notice i didn't say "clean my house"?)

-lindsey

posy hat

just another way to wear posies: on a hat!

my little lily is modeling my hat with last year's fall posies.
i always feel ultra casual when i wear a hat,
but this somehow dresses it up a bit.

this year's fall posies are in the works:
cut, stacked, piled, sorted, and ready to be assembled!
i really hope to get some out over the weekend...

-lindsey

deep raspberry petal pushers

love.
deep deep pink.
so deep its nearly red.
this would look incredible over the holidays as an alternative to traditional red.
but if you want traditional red, i've got just 2 of those, too.

can you believe i'm talking about the holidays?
fall has hit heavy here as we are being pummeled with rain.
today, i'm enjoying the change.
tomorrow may be a different take.

now go get yourself a petal pusher.

-lindsey

a fancy soiree

welcome to the fancy palace!

for lily's 4th birthday she requested a fancy nancy party (which i abbreviated to a fancy party).
the guests were greeted at the door with a really fancy entrance (curtains hung in a tension rod, with ribbons tied to the rod.

lily was all decked out with not 1, but 2 fancy skirts, a shirt made by me at the 11th hour, and a super fancy posy hair clip with lots of sparkle and feathers.

and if her sparkly gold shoes weren't enough, i added a set of posies to her shoes.

we had jewels dripping from every surface.
a friend had hosted a jewelry party a couple years ago and had picked up tons of beaded garland in fancy colors like hot pink, lavender, and aqua. i added some boas and vintage cut glass crystal garland sean and i scored years ago at a flea market.

an ultra girly birthday banner that the girls helped with.


i love doing a project with things on hand: ribbon, scrappy paper, glitter and glue.

even the birdcage and pumpkins got dressed up for the event.

while we waited for all the guests to arrive, the girls started by coloring a downloaded page of fancy nancy, and had a couple of her books there for inspiration.

don't they look posh?! the guests were asked to come dressed in their fanciest attire.

i *love* to decorate my chandelier! boas, beads, and chandelier crystals were just the right touch to make it completely over the top!

for the table top i just layered white table cloths, topped with random scraps of pink fabric i had.

the centerpiece was a compilation of everything fancy i had on hand, other than the borrowed tray. cake plates, silver cups, crystal serving dishes, pretty china... all on top of pink chiffon.

each place setting was different, with mismatched floral china i've been collecting over the years.

when all the girls had arrived and finished coloring, we went straight to the table for parfaits (ice cream sundaes - fancy nancy says everything sounds fancier in french).

a parfait for the birthday girl.

oddly, it took her like 10 tries to blow out the candles. maybe she was relishing the attention?

the fancy crew.

waiting off to the side i had everything we needed for our craft.

almost everything here was found at local thrift stores: silk flowers, tiaras, and boas (this was the perfect time of the year for the last two items since its so close to halloween).

and of course lots of straw hats. we were going to take these plain jane hats and make them "exquisite".

we scattered all the flowers and boas all over the table for the guests to dig into.
all the moms were so helpful! i had 4 hot glue guns at each corner that they were manning, helping each of the girls decorate their hats to their heart's desire.
(do you see tyler bella's hair above? she had dixie cups under there to add some extra volume! i think she'd make a great who from whoville!)

all the creations in a row.

next up - gifts and manicures.

after each girl's gift was opened, they stood in line for their manicures.

overall, i think it was a huge success!
and inexpensive, too. the only things i paid for were the ice cream and toppings, and the thrifted hats and hat decor. everything else i had on hand or borrowed. love that!


p.s. - i'm still having my sale! i'm half way to my new camera!

-lindsey