Paper Plus Supplier

Ventured out of my comfort zone this week and wehn into the industrial park that is on the way home from work. Have been seeing their sign about Paper Supplies and given the limited variety in the carft store, i figured now was the time to venture out. Especially since a potential customer wanted boxes in the right "blue" in the UK. ( I also sold something for the first time to a buyer in Rio De janero...woo hoo)
I go in thinking this will be an easy zip in an zip out errand...an hour later, i emerge with in depth knowledge about how the paper mills work, how not every paper in the same sample book is available in the same weight. How to gauge paper weight and how the mill has to start with white and work all the way down the color scale before coming back to white. I also left armed with sample books and a new friend at the paper store.
Am rather happy about my accomplishment, really feels like "i'm in business" So...here's to more paper and scissor-gami!
Click the title header to be directed to the Store i found!

Tomatoes: Before and After

Before: a bowl full of Roma Tomatoes that are starting to over-ripe...what to do?

After: I made sphagetti sauce. Throw in some garlic, parsley, olive oil and onion and voila! they passed the Nathaniel test and so that's always a good sign. If he eats it, it can't be too bad

And...the tomatoes just keep coming...i think i'll sun dry them next....stay tuned for more on Rachel's Roma Tomatoes

What i was doing 4 years ago

Four years ago, i got married yesterday and today would have been my first day of my honeymoon. It all just seems like yesterday though. Can scarely believe that i already have 2 kids and have moved 3 times since then to the home we now live in. Wow...where does the time go. I even have the floorplan of what it all looked like and how it was setup and planned. I have been so blessed with a wonderful husband and a pair of children. Wonder how much more will happen in the next 4 years that i can't fathom at this moment will be in store for the future.

The Lost Picture

So assuming you have a digital camera, have you ever had the most dreadful experience of mistakenly hitting the delete button and not only that the delete all button and even worse hitting the yes, delete all button? I did. This was when we had a regular digital camera that shook the picture with my unsteady hands. Before we got our intelligent digital SLR.

Well the one and worst experience that i had of the above was when i deleted Nathaniel's first christmas pictures...yes all of them. The gravity of my error was compounded many months later because it happened that that would be his grandfather's final Christmas before he passed away the following year. I could not have felt more bad! I even tried to run some sort of card recovery program on the card but was not successful in recovering anything. I assumed the pictures were lost...yes, forever.

Yesterday, my dad, who happened to take the old digital cards without my knowing, ran his program on them and he's retrieved a number of them. Here's the most precious one.

Yes it's blur, yes the background does not make sense but that picture says a great deal to me. We'll never be able to take this picture again. But i hope it will really contribute a great deal in our trying to bring across to Nathaniel who his grandfather was

Letter to Luis

writing a letter to a child i have been sponsoring in Bolvia...Think it would mean so much more to him if i were able to write him a letter in his language...Hoping the translator tools will be of help.

Dear Luis Alfredo,

Am always so happy to receive a handwritten letter from you. Am trying a new program that will allow me to translate my English words into your language. I do not know how this will work out but hope you will understand most of the letter.

I hope you keep warm during the winter. It is summer over here and is very hot. It is nice that you are interested and enjoy sports and basketball and are even on a team. Maybe someday soon, you will get to be on your city's team.

How is your family? I remember that you have a twin brother? I remember this because my husband also has a twin brother. Are you best friends?

I have 2 children now, Elizabeth was born last October and Nathaniel is now 3 years old. I hope you continue to grow strong and healthy and that you will continue to learn about God and His love for all of us.

Take care my friend. May God bless you.
love,

One of my first creations

The paper box. Simple, fundamental paper. I've had the chance to make hundreds of these since i opened Etsy. Did some for school functions but most for weddings. I hope to broaden the design capacities in the near future. Thing is, the more labor intensive they get, the most i will have to charge and right now, i'm pretty happy with the cost-price ratio, and so do my buyers so we'll see what happens...These are the small size.

I am an Alien

If you want to experience a really long application process, then look no further than filing an application with the USCIS aka the US immigration department. It's more complex then itemizing your taxes or taking your calculus exam. With all due respect, all the folks behind the glass have different answers to the exact same question. It's just so not fun, but thankfully everything happens ok in the end...just don't lose your alien number...ever

2 more holes

Do you have a recommendation? Do they offer this service at a clinic? Is there somewhere that you trust that you can go to? These were all our thoughts and questions in trying to find the right place to get Little's E's ears pierced. That was just a short 2 months ago. We ended up settling for Claire's near our house. Brian of course interrogated the poor man, a pretty young fella with at least 5 piercings in one ear. "How many have you done? Have you been doing this for awhile? How many babies' ears have you pierced?"
Well, we definitely wanted them done right and were rather worried about her sensitive skin and how it would react to the piercing. So we finally braced ourselves and with protective big brother Nathaniel by her side, Daddy holding her with apprehension and Mom just hoping it'll work, trying to make sure he pinpointed the exact spots correctly on the ears, Little E began her ear-piercing journey. He fired the first one.
Took about 2 seconds before Little E's face started to crumble. At that point Brian wanted the second one done and over with as soon as possible. We all them heaved a collective sigh of relief.
Thinking about my own ear piercing experience when i was 12, my first pair were sapphire colored earring studs my mom bought me as we went to a jewelery store for my ears. Like injections, i hate it when people try to tell you it "does not hurt" or "it hurts only a little" to try to get you to be less afraid in the anticipation of the procedure. My thought is, if it hurts, tell me it hurts so i'm not alarmed that i'm the only one on that feels a great deal of pain and that something must have gone wrong. I have to admit, after the first earring went through my ear and the stinging began in real earnest i had, at 12, to tell them to hold off for awhile and it took more mental preparation of my 2nd ear. To this day, i only have 1 set of ear holes. I don't think i will want to go through that again.

Caught in a net

For the first time this year, we took the kayak out on the lake by our house. Was lots of fun, got rather soaked and the kids loved going under the fountain on the lake. We saw a small dead fish and that was kinda gross but all in all we had a perfect day with friends. Have a ton of brownies and cupcakes left over though...what will we ever do with them?

Little E and Rachel got some time together staring at each other trying to figure the other out. A 9 month old staring at a 4 month old, it was a hoot. Didn't have batteries in Elefun though so the mommies took turns throwing the "butterflies" in the air and watch our boys squeal and yell, trying to catch them as they came down.

Another terrific day, another terrific memory.

Everybody Clean-Up

Mom loves to sing this song to Nathaniel on her visits with us to get him in the mood to clean up all his toys. Well today, that applied to me...only it wasn't toys but it was all my crafting stuff...yeah they are like toys to me i guess. Found the arbitrary knitting needle in a box that i didn't know i had, stamps galore, tiles, ink, glue, adhesive...i could open up my own craft store! oh wait, i already have...such a occupational hazard to be so prone to pack-ratting.
Brian picked up this huge Styrofoam casing today and asked me if i wanted it. To his shock i said throw it away and he even asked me again saying "C'mon, surely you can turn this into something can't you?"

You have to laugh, it crazy funny, there's no way i'll be able to get through all my supplies anytime soon. Pity is i'm not the type of person as you know that likes to stick to one form of crafting...so i have to take stock of what i have in sections, my sewing section of the room, my baking section, my clay section, my stamp and sticker section, my books section, my jewelry section...i really should go buy one of those funny signs from Etsy that says "i have officially bitten off more than i can chew"

Today is July 4th, America's Independence Day, am so thankful to be in this country, in my home with my family...What a blessing, what a life!

So that's where she got them...moo

I recently did a trade with another seller as she really wanted to taste the taffy. Along with a beautiful trade, she sent me really beautiful mini business cards that were really unique. Today i found them...www.moo.com
Seems like they are based in London and ship globally and have a new approach to business cards in that they are of a smaller unique size and each of the cards in the 100 pack are different. Their logic is to showcase each product by itself.
Having been the recipient of a card, i am really impressed by its quality despite its compact size it does draw the eye to the product. And of course, i cannot resist the cute holders that one can pair with these. Whether in plastic, felt or leather...

15 Random Things from my store

Just to give you a snap shot of 1/7 of my store. Working on more of course.... hehehee

what i want to learn next : amigurumi

Amigurumi means "knitted or crocheted doll" in Japanese. Ami apparently means friend in French
So it's back to crochet for me...let me tell you, i've tried to "start" crocheting many, many times, i'm successful, but i crochet so infrequently it's as though i start from learning step 1 all over again every time! It's pretty amazing what one can make out of yarn. I don't know what i would do with a cupcake doll but look at this!
Anyway, i'm off in search of the perfect pattern,,,wish me luck and if you any clues on where to find patterns for these treasures, please feel free to share.