One More week!!!

One more week until I move into my new house. I am excited! I hate packing, but will be doing lots of packing this week in anticipation. I got to tour my house last week and man am I happy we got this house. It is huge and I hope to post photos when we get in and decorated. I don't have enough furniture to fill it!

I am hoping that the sunny weather continues and I can have a fruitful garden. I have purchased basil, thyme, rosemary, chives, green onions, tomatoes, peppers, snap peas, zuccini, lettuce, mint and cat nip to plant this year. *cross fingers* it goes well.

Ill be updating and blogging more after I get in my new house. Sorry for the lack of comments and posts until then! I hope you all understand!

What makes a great Guild/Team

Isn't that the question everyone wants to know? How to become a successful guild or team is a new series on Handmade News.

Part one of the article:

http://www.handmadenews.org/article/index.php?id=993

Choosing the Perfect Guild or Team

I have written an article for HandmadeNews.org discussing how you should choose the perfect guild or team on handmade venues.

Please go check it out by clicking this link:

 http://www.handmadenews.org/article/index.php?id=953

Artfire Cafemom Team!

A selection from our guild. Search Artfire Cafemom Team to find more items from our talented ladies!

Surgery Center

Thank you all for the warm Mother's Day wishes! Jasmine and I enjoyed our day out to brunch. I have been MIA trying to pack and prepare for our move!

Here is some laughter for the day, courtesy SNL:

Video Recaps Full Episodes Webisodes

Happy Mother's Day!!!!! I love you Jasmine! You make Mommy's Life so spectacular!

Going to treat myself to brunch with other mommys whose hubby's are gone. So its mommy and daughter day! Hooray! Hope everyone else has a wonderful Moms Day!

Finished Daughter' s Summer Dress!

Thank you all for the lovely comments yesterday! I really do feel as though I have grown so much in the past year. I will be posting about my trip to Alaska with photos soon! So stay tuned!

Finally heard from the hubby after a few days and he is in a funk. You feel so helpless when your hubby is thousand of miles away and you can hear the emotion in his voice of his sadness. You know a hug be the world for him and you can't. I mean, how do you give a hug over the phone? If ya'll figure it out I would love to know!

I finished my Daughters Summer Dress and loved it soo much! It is such a pretty pattern and the ribbons and buttons really make the dress stand out. The ribbon is sewn on with a machine so it doesn't come off and ties in the back. The ribbons at the top allow the dress to grow with my DD- so when she hits a growth spurt and gets taller, the ribbons tie and adjust to the new height.

The second dress I made after that was of white cotton and had the prettiest floral ribbon. I decided to list it.

I am not sure if you can tell- but my model was completly uncooperative with the photo taking process so I wasn't able to get a good shot of the white dress. I made some tweeks to the pattern and I like how it turned out. These are so beautiful and much easier than a blanket to whip up!

Jazzy Jemz

Im not sure why, but I am moving back into a crochet mood. I think its because I need a change from all the ACU purses I have been doing. I got another order in last nite and I hope that is all for a bit!

I got my embroidery machine fixed!!!! Super excited to start embroidery again. Apparently the machine was not level. LOL.-- Didn't realize the machine had level sensors.

Yesterday I got two phone calls. One from Housing at Ft Richardson. My house is almost done and they scheduled a day for me to do a walk through and get the keys. They also said I could borrow a set of keys and go check out my new house! So that is on the to-do list next week. Ill take photos for ya'll to check it out!

The second phone call made me mad. My landlord called to see if I could have potential renters do a walkthrough . UM- NO! I still live here and frankly haven't cleaned and its a disaster and I still live here. She pushed and said that I wouldn't have to be home and she can just walk them around and they can see if they like the house enough to rent in June.

Hmmm-- what about the lack of insulation in the attic , the windows that still need to be fixed and the kitchn tiles that are bowing and coming off. Don't you need to fix that before hand? I may be moving out- but I have paid to rent the place out until May 31. Why should she invade my privacy by trying to get in before the end of the month?

She still has our security deposit and we are moving out a month before our lease is up -- per a military clause. Do I have any rights to say No. I feel like I do- but she is so darn perisistent it just wore me down. 5 minutes of nos and she still kept insisting that renters need to see the house. I broke down and said yes, only if we are home. I can't wait to get out of this house!!

Looking back...

It has been one very wild ride this past year. I can't believe where I have come from in such a short period of time.

May was a turning point in my life. An end of old ways and the beginning of new ones.

I had just had my first daughter in Feb. I moved back home with my parents while Scott was in BOLC II and III and then Airborne. He was never in one place long enough that the Army would pay to move us, so we went 5 months without living together.

May was the month that would bring him back into our lives for awhile. May also was when I formally announced I would not return to work after my maternity leave was over. I decided not to go back to the world of counseling drug addicts and the mentally ill. It was not a tough choice, as how could I help others when we were preparing to move across the country! After never living more than 10 minutes from my parents house, even all through college- I was preparing to move across the North America with my newborn and two cats.

Moving to Alaska was the best trip we every had! We drove about 6 hours a day and stopped to view the sights. It took two weeks, and it was wonderful! Even with a teething baby and two cats mewing the whole time! Scott and I got to reconnect after 5 months, and having a baby without him. It was awesome. I will have to blog about that trip and show off the magnificent photos.

Scott and I arrived to Anchorage and he started making his way back into Army life and his new career. Long hours were something new to me. He was working 16-18 hour days and hardly home. I was stuck in Alaska without friends and family, all alone. That truly is tough. I forced myself to make friends and these friendships will last a lifetime! After making friends, I was no longer longly and homesick.

Soon summer ended and made way to fall. Fall in Alaska is tough. The days are dark and long. It is very sad and depressing. To make matters worse, Scott had to leave for NTC for another month to prepare for deployment which was fast approaching.

It was during the fall that I really kick started myself to sew & crochet and make more out of my hobby. I started selling at craft shows and online. This gave me some purpose. I am a busy body and staying at home with my daughter- while wonderful -- was keeping me in idle. Since I couldn't go back to school, making a business is what I started to do.

Scott came back from NTC on Thanksgiving. The rest of the year was a whirlwind of holidays, birthday parties and then the dreaded deployment. The tears, the goodbyes, the anxiety, the irritable husband, the irrational wife, the lack of cuddles and love. The mental seperation before the deployment. The fears.

I underestimated myself. I honestly thought I was going to be sooo depressed. So sad that I would be moving my butt back to Maryland. That so far has not happened. Three months in, i am still going strong. Thanks in part to my deployment buddies and literally keeping myself involved in as many volunteer and business endeavors as possible. I am more than thriving, I am surviving this deployment.

This past year, I think I have shown incredible strength through all the life changes we have gone through as a family. This is my way of patting myself on the back. Everytime I thought something would break me, it didn't. I know now that my marriage can survive my husband being gone more months out of the year than not. Heck, I didn't think I could survive childbirth and the first few months of her life without him. The move to Alaska scared me half to death to loose all my support system due to distance. My niave thoughts are no more. I have grown so much and am grateful to have learned so very much about myself this past year.

Giveaway!!!

Artfire Cafemom Team is having a 15 item giveaway at their blog!!! Go check them out:

http://artfirecafemomteam.blogspot.com/2009/05/major-giveaway.html

Also their sale is still going on: http://artfirecafemomteam.blogspot.com/2009/05/come-shop-in-our-open-house.html


Today I have a big day of events going on. I am in charge of fundraising for our Battalion. Since they awarded me with a huge plaque and a ceremony announcing me Volunteer of the Month, I feel kickstarted to really work on fundraising. We hope to have a ball and homecoming party for the guys early next year so that is a lot of $$ we need to raise.

This week, we are having two fundraisers- t-shirt sales and a car wash. Talk about a lot of time and energy preparing for these. Our next fundraiser is the ever fun cookbook. Guess who gets to collect and type and prepare a cookbook? Muah.

Yup, lots of fun fundraisers.... Got any good ideas for fundraisers ? I would love to hear them!!!

Leashes and Kids?

As Jasmine has learned to walk we are constantly playing a game of tag. I try to keep her with me. When I don't have her in a cart when shopping she rarely goes more than 5 feet ahead of me.

I have been talking to my friends as they give their horror stories about run-away kids and how to keep them in line. Most swear by the leash method.

I don't get it. A leash for your child? Its like your child is a dog that can't be kept in line.

Yes, I understand the practicalities of keeping your child tethered to you. You can always have the child near you. No one will kidnap the child and he or she will not get lost. If you have more than one toddler or pre-K , then its easier to handle when they are leashed to you.

What I don't get is why Moms today can't modify their child's tendency to run away. It would be easier on the child and the mom to have the child behave properly. My mom did it, my grandma did it- they certainly didn't have leashes. Call me old fashioned.

I see leashes two fold. While practical for all right safety reasons, it allows moms to let their guard down too much. Kids want freedom, but need to be taught that freedom is allowed inside their home or outdoors on the playground. I think that if Moms use leashes, they are allowing themselves to partially ignore their children.

I know I will get a lot of crap for this post. The bottom line IMO is that if you teach your child to behave properly and stand beside you when shopping that goes a lot further in life than a leash will. Are you going to hone your behavior modification skills now with a 2 year old, or wait until they are 16 and too big for a leash?

I found you!!! Hide and Seek

One of the events I am coordinating this week for the Artfire Cafemom Team Open House is the Hide and Seek Challenge.

What you do: Browse through our members shops. Each participating shop has a photo of a letter hidden in one of their item listings. Write down each letter. Find all the letters and you will unscramble them to have a phrase. Each day we will give another clue to let you know if you have found all the letters!

What you get: Correctly figure out the phrase and you are entered to win one of 3 $10 gift certificates for use in any participating shop!!! How fun!

Get your seek on! Bet you can't find the letter in my shop ;)

http://artfirecafemomteam.blogspot.com/2009/05/hide-and-seek-time.html

Artfire Cafemom Team Open House

This week I am coordinating my guild on Artfire's Open House. Many shops will have a sale going on in their shops. We have lots of talented ladies in our guild and make a variety of items from baby to glass to jewelry to paper goods to original artwork.

Please support other moms (and grandmas) by browsing their shops and supporting handmade mamas!

Here is a list of shops on sale. Feel free to grab the list and help us promote this awesome sale. Goes on until Saturday May 9th!

Jemz – 20% off , free shipping on orders over $30
www.jazzyjemz.artfire.com

Bows for Baby: 15% off items in store, not on custom orders. Free shipping on orders over $20 before shipping.
www.bowsforbaby.artfire.com

Stitch’N Love : 10% off all orders
www.stitchNlove.artfire.com

Spirit Essence Art: 20% off all items, Free shipping on orders over $30
www.spiritessenceart.artfire.com

Creations with Heart: 15% off all items
www.creationswithheart.artfire.com

JewelrybyJanzia: 15% off all items
www.jewelrybyjanzia.artfire.com

Chantilly Lace: 15% off all items
www.chantillylace.artfire.com

Totally Tyra: 15% off all items
www.totallytyra.artfire.com

Diecutz: 50% off all items
www.diecutz.artfire.com

Bittersweet Design Studio: Free Shipping
www.bittersweetdesignstudio.artfire.com

Francisbel Boutique: Free Shipping
www.francisbelboutique.artfire.com

Waters Girls Crafts: 15% off all items
www.watersgirls.artfire.com

By Coco: 15% off all items
www.bycoco.artfire.com

SW Designs: 20% off all items
www.swdesigns.artfire.com

Eddy’s Pressies: Free shipping on all goods over $25 to UK, US and worldwide
www.eddyspressies.artfire.com

Soft Shell Body Shop: 15% off all items, free shipping on orders over $30.00, after discount
www.softshellbodyshop.artfire.com

DJ Storeroom: Free international shipping, international airmail, delivery confirmation and insurance for all items.
www.djstoreroom.artfire.com

Vestque Creations: 50% off all items
www.vestque.artfire.com

SubEarthan Cottage: 10% off all items
www.subearthancottage.artfire.com

Handmade with Love: 20% off items in her store
www.handmadewithlove.artfire.com

Go Blogger Awards!

My very FIRST blogger award was bestowed upon me yesterday by the very gracious, very sarcastic, very loveable The Obnoxious SAHM. Her blog is a daily read I enjoy and she graciously gave me the Blogger Buddy Award.

Gee I am so honored!

It is an award that goes to blogging friends who you find truly awesome. So I am going to pass on the torch to my blogging friends.

Bows For Baby is one who really roped me into the blogging scene.
Creations with Heart is a regular follower and a fellow crafter.
Boylerpf: you are so awesome and we share a passion for jewelry
Girl in the Glasses- I love your Would you Weds feature
Julia's Sew Sweet- You are great at what you do and I look forward to seeing your creations every day.

Congrats on your awards! Look forward to more interesting posts from you ladies!

Drum roll..... 37 bags

For those of you who took part in Thursdays Blog asking how many bags it took to rake up my back yard, the answer is 37 filled to the brim bags.

That is a lot of bags for a small yard. I now understand why some people take the lazy way out and buy leaf blowers. Seriously, how tempting would it be just to blow them all into another persons yard?

So yesterday I went over to my new house with some friends to show them where I will be living. Obviously we don't have the keys yet so I couldn't give them a tour of my new larger house.

With my new neighbors watching, we went out and about like peeping toms and peered into the windows. The place is HUGE! I personally love the bay window. I know my Brownie and Raven will love it too.

Speaking of Brownie and Raven...... Jasmine is now saying both of their names. Although she sounds adorable, apparently only mom knows what she is saying.

"Bow - knee caaaat"

How adorable. Then she ruins the moment by pulling "Bow-nee caaaat's" tail. But I figure that is just the torture he needs for the attempted homicide of my camera.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!! And if you haven't voted in the artfire cafemom team challenge- please check it out www.artfirecafemomteam.blogspot.com

Weekly Contest: Flowers

ACT's Weekly contest this week had some great floral entries! Please check it out and vote for your favorite!

http://artfirecafemomteam.blogspot.com/2009/05/weekly-contest-flowers.html