And the Winner is....

Drum roll, please.....


LORENZSTUDIO!!

and be sure to check out her Etsy shop at http://www.lorenzstudio.etsy.com


Thanks everyone for participating in my Holiday Giveaway! Have a wonderful holiday season!

Give Thanks: Holiday Giveaway

I have a lot to be thankful for.

* I have a husband who selflessly uprooted himself from the country he loved, from his family and the life that he lived in order to be with me (and he only complained of homesickness for eight months!!). He supports me in everything I do and makes it a point to let me know how much he loves and appreciates me every day.

* I have have two healthy daughters, who are vibrant and full of life and who, most important of all, love each other more than anything.

* I have a mother who does her best to stand behind me and support the life-altering choices I am known to make.

* I have a wonderful and supportive family, including grandparents who do everything they can to help me, Will and the girls have an excellent quality of life. And while my Grampa has been battling with cancer (which has now spread to his blood) for the last ten years, I am thankful that he has been there to attend my highschool Father/Daughter dances, walk me down the aisle, and have a chance to know my husband and daughters (who affectionately call him "Beepa").

* I have wonderful life-long friends who I can count on (and who can count on me) through thick and thin. And although none of them live in the same state as me, we remain as close as always, especially me and Jenni.

I wanted to hold a giveaway this month. I love giveaways. I never end up winning them (in fact, I never end up winning anything with the exception of that can of shortening I won at the county fair when I was seven) . So here it is. Open to anyone with an Etsy shop (no matter where you live) because we sell- sell- sell and it would be nice, for once, to get something of our own for nothing!

This giveaway is all about giving thanks. It includes a set of four scrappy patchwork thank you gift tags/scrapbooking embellishments featuring the Freshcut fabrics by designer Heather Bailey, and a coordinating mini giftbag, embellished with love. I also wanted to include a healthy snack, so I have added a set of six large pretzels to the mix. And because pretzels are so boring on their own, I have hand dipped them Coney Island style in thick, rich Hershey's chocolate and covered them in autumn colored candy sprinkles.

This small gift makes a wonderful present to show your thanks and appreciation for someone in your life.

Or you can go ahead and hoard the chocolate and gift set for yourself (which is what I would do). Either way, you can't win this set unless you leave a comment below, letting everyone know just what you are thankful for this year.

On Sunday I will throw names in a hat and draw a winner, so be sure to check back to see if you have won (and also give me your address... you can send me an Etsy convo).

Go ahead and be thankful this holiday season!!

Thanks for the help, honey

When it comes to doing the laundry, my husband is an excellent helper. Here is how laundry goes down in our home:

1.) I sort the clothes, load the washing machine, run it.

2.) I put clothes into dryer, run it.

3.) My husband takes clothes out of dryer and puts in laundry basket and plastic garbage bags.

4.) I wonder where all the clean laundry has gone, and why our donation bags are always so full.

5.) I finally dig through said donation bags to discover all the clean laundry, now hideously wrinkled.

6.) I iron for hours.


You might wonder why I don't make Will do the ironing as punishment for being so such a pain... here is the answer. The iron burn mark in the middle of our living room floor (did I mention that we live in an apartment and the carpets were new when we moved in?).

A Work In Progress

I'm not sure how my shop looks to other people, but to me, it is a complete work in progress. I am excited to finally get my rear in gear with my grand visions for Tootsie and Grace, and hopefully it will show soon! Of course, I should have started before the holiday season, but... I got a little excited and jumped into making as many things as I could with as many fabrics as I could get my hands on!!!

When I first began designing Tootsie and Grace, I had planned on creating entire collections of baby items, each with a theme. I wanted there to be bib sets, security blankets and wash cloths, note cards and scrapbooking embellishments, tea cakes and soft baby books, as well as prints and original paintings to coordinate. Instead, I began making a mishmash of things, as well as trying to sell off the nursery canvases I had painted last winter, before I even started planning my shop.

I am finally starting to work on my collections and am going to be taking some of my paintings to a printer on Monday to have them professionally photographed and printed. YAY!! I am so excited. My next step: making my coordinating baby items beginning with bib sets and baby blankets.

I am finishing up a small collection of Christmas items called First Noel and am going to add them to my shop next week (after I finish my never ending list of tasks which include finishing the mural I am painting for Gracie's friend, making two custom bib sets, as well as eight tea cake and party plate sets. EIGHT!!! That is a lot of embroidery knot sprinkles!) . Then I am going to get to work on The Fairytale Collection, which is made from the GORGEOUS and sadly discontinued fabrics from Amy Butler's Ginger Bliss and Temple Flowers collections.

I will also soon have the Ooh La La Paris Collection completed (if I can only convince my husband that the $14.00 a yard Japanese import fabric featuring sweet little cafes and Parisian shops is a necessity, not a whim). You can see the first attempt at sketching out my artwork, which I will hopefully transfer from the sketch book to drawing paper this weekend.

Then I need to bust my behind on getting my boy collection finished. I can't decide if I should first do the Under the Big Top Collection which is vintage circus themed, or my Small Samurai Collection. What do you think?

Too much fun!!

Hopefully, before too long, my shop will no longer be a work in progress!

Happy Halloween

This year is Gracie’s third Halloween.

For her first, she was only six months old and she was a butterfly. She didn't do anything Halloween related except sit in her wings for a few minutes and shake a box of candy like a rattle.

Last year, Gracie decided to be a cow. She loved her cowbell necklace and ran around the house mooing from morning until night.

She didn’t understand the holiday. She didn’t seem to care, and was just in it for the cowbell and the Halloween stickers I bought for her.

But this year was different.

My two and a half year old discovered the joy of Halloween this year.

It started when I asked her what she want to be (a monster, a clown, a princess, a mermaid, a fairy… I finally put my foot down and she became a hula dancer-- I really like her hairbow!!), then she discovered Halloween story books.

The first trip to the Halloween section of Target had her shaking in her sneakers, but she wanted more. And last, she discovered the candy. Piles and piles, bags and bags. Gracie knew that Halloween was going to be fun.

My mom and I took Grace to Sweet Berry Farm for pony rides, goat feeding, hay rides, pumpkins, ice cream and a fun day with her best friends, Anabelle and Meredith.

The neighborhood Halloween festival this past weekend was the icing on the cake, as far as Gracie was concerned.

Her grandma and her godmother, Jenni were there, as well as all her friends dressed in costumes.

There were games she was big enough to play, face painting, arts and crafts and hot dogs.

Before the party was over, the kids began the Candy Trail, in which Grace ran from candy holding mama to candy holding mama shouting “TRICK OR TREAT!!!” at the top of her lungs (until the end, in which Gracie held her bag behind her back shouting, “Its MY candy!!” to all of the children walking near her).

Tonight we carved our pumpkin and Gracie was just thrilled when the candle was lit. It was magic to her.

She sat right down next to her jack-o-lantern and said, “Say cheese, Pumpkin.”

I can’t imagine what Christmas is going to be like for her!!

I wanted to capture the joy of a child’s first real Halloween in the two items I’m featuring tonight.

This darling little 1.5 inch button, from the shop Hearthside Cottage, is the epitome of a sweet season and a fun celebration for children. I just love that it is made from a vintage postcard! You can find this pin and so many others also with a vintage Halloween theme at http://www.hearthsidecottage.etsy.com

Owen and Emma Bows has these little Halloween play cookie sets that look good enough to eat. Each felt cookie is a one-of-a-kind creation measuring between 2.5" and 3" around. This set has black icing with orange and white sparkling "sprinkles.”

I just love that the cookies come in a bakery carry out container decked out for Halloween with an adorable spider on the front and orange organza ribbon on the sides! You can find this play set and more at http://www.owenandemmabows.etsy.com

Happy Haunting, everyone!!

Fifi's French Boudoir

I got my first (sort of) Treasury yesterday, and I was so excited!! I say 'sort of' because it was a Treasury West, which is Etsy's test treasury -- and it seems to be down just about all the time. But not before I was able to take a screen shot so I could show it off. I had never taken a screen shot before. I think it shows!


So here it is: Fifi's French Boudoir. I love all things Parisian, and wanted to show it off. As for Fifi, she is a character I am working on for a children's book (writing and illustrating is really what I am about. Tootsie and Grace is recreation and an excuse to get my hands on designer fabrics).

I love all of the items listed, but here are a few of my special favorites. I'll start with the charm bracelet by 2 Dy 4-- Art by a Drama Queen! I just love this bracelet, which is so girly and fun as it says, "She loved him down to her pink toes & back up again."

The vintage text is from a 1940's romance novel and is on a background of pink & white polka dots under a glass marble. You can find this bracelet as well as other pieces of re-purposed vintage jewelry at http://www.2dy4.etsy.com

I am passionately in love with the artwork from A Fanciful Twist's shop. I just can't get enough of it! Here is the set of postcards that I put in the treasury, but I can't stop there! I love all of these funky and -whimsical- (cringing, because I just HATE that word, but it really does describe the artwork perfectly!!).




You can find these and so many more beautiful card sets, original artwork and prints at http://www.afancifultwist.etsy.com

Shabby Cottage Studios' altered art cards and collages made with vintage labels are so beautiful! I love the one I featured in the treasury, but there are so many more. I am also partial to the vintage label collage sheets!!



You can find this shop at http://www.shabbycottagestudio.etsy.com

I just love the funky vintage finds in this next Etsy shop. June 22, has so many things I would love to get my hands on! The vintage 1970 fuchsia jacket with ruffles (I love ruffles) is so awesome! I also think the photography used really shows off her shop well! I would love very much to look stylish and hip in front on an old barn door! Here are a bunch of favorites from her shop.




You can find this shop at http://www.june22.etsy.com.

Appréciez et au revoir !

My tootsiegrace Space

I have seen a few work spaces of other Etsy artists, and thought it would be fun to show my "shop," aka the dining room of our very small apartment. My husband is a legend for letting me claim the entire dining room (well, sometimes the table is cleared off so we can eat there, but more often than not we have a picnic in the living room--its cozy that way!).

I love all things crafty. So does Gracie who is making herself a Barbie dress out of my Heather Bailey's Freshcut squares.

But I love that she feels comfortable crafting for herself and it is great that she always wants to get her hands on beautiful crafts of her own. Right now we are working on her actually asking first, but its all baby steps, isn't it?


I used to love hand painting flower pots and have kept some of my favorites, like the little alligator. You can also see one of my favorite books, Amy Butler's InStyle pattern book. It was that book which started my whole sewing frenzy. I still have not made anything. I don't know how to read a pattern yet, so I just design all my own stuff for the time being.


I love shopping on Etsy and you can see a few of the things I have bought lurking about. You can find the little blue pin cushion I bought from Sabrina's Creations at http://www.sabrinacreations.etsy.com tucked in next to a bin of fabric, my sewing box and some varnish. Sabrina asked me the other day if I use it.... You bet!

Here is Jimmy. Poor little guy hasn't been created yet from these Original Rockford red heel socks which I bought from TerBear at http://www.terbearco.etsy.com It is so sad seeing him like this! Good thing he will have a happy little smile soon.

I have about five or so bins of fabric like these. I am seriously addicted. I haven't even used a lot of them yet!


I bought these sweet little baby powder scented goat's milk soaps from A Breath of French Air at http://www.abreathoffrenchair.etsy.com. I am going to be introducing washcloths made from all of my beautiful fabrics soon, and am including two of these little rubber ducky soaps with each order. They smell just like a freshly powdered baby, which I just love. I gave one of them to Gracie and she spent about forty-five minutes compulsively washing her hands. But she loved it!!

I hope you enjoy my shop! I certainly love creating in it!