New Year, New Attitude, New Adventures....

It's New Year's Eve.....

Have fun!
But be careful....it's a jungle out there!

Seriously, I have a great feeling about 2009. There are so many potentially great things swirling around in the air....
This would be the first for me....

The Winter issue of Somerset Life is available NOW and I was lucky enough to sign up for Lollishop's very first national ad, which appears very near the front of the issue (I think, haven't seen it in person yet)...

Here's a peek:

I'm way up there in the top row, very first picture to the left...
Here's a peek at the featured piece...

A sweet little Valentine's vignette, featuring a few of my favorite things.....

...stripes, Polka Dots, vintage linens and a sweet little puppy figurine...

...cupcakes, lollipops, and Valentine's conversation hearts....

...all whipped up into these note cards....

....and the icing on the cupcake-these sweet little "home sweet home" stickers...one comes with each note card...Right now the cards are available as singles or in sets of four (at a discount, of course), exclusively in my Lollishop ....

So there you have it, the first of my New Year's goodies.
There will be more to look forward to in the upcoming weeks, including news on the OneWorld/One Heart Giveaway, the return of Monkey in the Middle Mondays (I did promise!), and more importantly, the return of my Mr. Sunshine (about 36 days until he comes home on mid-tour leave! I'm warning you now- I will not be able to keep quiet about this one!).....

But for now, I'm off to enjoy a glass of sparkling apple-cranberry juice with boy-child...teenage girl child actually has a social life on New Year's Eve....

Until Next Time,

'Twas four Nights After Christmas...

And I must confess....
I owe all of you apologies, for I have been an absent blogger...
But (there's always a "but" isn't there?)...I'm sure you will all understand...
With Mr. Sunshine on the other side of the world, the kids and I needed to circle the wagons...concentrate on just US for a few days....and it worked.

We had a lovely Christmas, including an almost three hour web-cam session with our soldier. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, my husband got to watch his children open their gifts, even though he was thousands of miles and several time zones away...Thank you, Skype!

But before that....

Santa came sneaking in on Christmas Eve....

He brought my son art supplies..wasn't that thoughtful??

Most of you might think this twisted lump of silver reminds you of something (a toy, maybe?)...but can't quite put your finger on it....Slinky, anyone?

To my son, it was a sculptural palette for his own style of modern art....unintentional, of course....

I hope Santa brought you everything your heart desires!

Now that I am back, I have SO much to share...new inventory, new selling venues, even a new look for the blog....

2009 looks to be starting off with a bang!

Stay tuned...

Until Next Time,

Thoughts for December...

My Mom loved magazines, I have to think. That's one of those things from childhood that's kind of fuzzy for me. I remember them lying around often and boxes full of old issues that she never brought herself to part with out in the garage, but I didn't really pay that much attention. They were all boring "homemaker" type mags- Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, etc. (which I read today, btw).

Well ,when we were going through Mom's stuff, preparing her house for a new family, I found an old recipe journal. It must date back to the 50's, maybe early 60's and it's crammed full of clippings from those old magazines. Cooking tips, recipes, thoughts to ponder, etc.- all little golden nuggets, my own little time capsule of the woman that my Mother was .

I found a collection of "thoughts"...not sure what magazine they came from as they were cropped close, but there is a clipping for each month of the year. I was going to wait until January to start sharing, but decided I'd like to start with December (and I will scan and share each month throughout 2009).

So enjoy, and remember the true meaning of the season....

Until Next Time,

Artful Blogging, Lollishopping and Birthday Floggings...

OK , I will start with the last bit of this post's title.... and work my way back...
.
Believe it or not, they are all related....

Today is my birthday.

Wasn't going to mention it, but a whole swirl of very photogenic things just made it impossible to ignore (always thinking in blog-ese...some photo-ops just have to end up on these pages!)...and trust me, the elder peanuts in the gallery know exactly what I am talking about... ignore is something you try to do once you're past the big 2-9 (Ok...the huge 3-9)...

But seriously....

I got a few pretties over the weekend and today that I thought I would share. Mr. Sunshine sent me a bouquet of sweet white daisies and a box of oh-so-delicious, melt-in-your-mouth truffles. It's not the easiest thing in the world to do, coordinate flower delivery from a combat zone (a simple phone call is out of the question and many online sites are blocked over there for security reasons), so for this I am grateful. And aren't they just sweet? I love daisies.....

"Well Hello There Santa!"
by The Polka Dot Pixie

This little guy is a "to me, from me" gift....
and guess where I found him?

On Lollishops, of course! Just in case you haven't heard, Lollishops is up and running...
Experiencing a few little hiccups, but already I am loving the ease of listing and the look of the site. Pure indulgence for our frou-frou feminine sides...and ordering was easy peasy!

I got my lollishop set up over the weekend, just in case you'd like to take a peek...lots left to add, but I got some holiday stuff put up, just because time is running out for those holiday orders....



And last but not least, my other favorite b-day gift, from my wonderful in-laws....A subscription to my ultimate, "when I grow up I want to blog like them" guide book: Artful Blogging. I can page through this magazine time and time again, every issue. It's truly a keeper (and I am sure there's quite a few of you who already know that)!

So there goes it, my thankful to still be here, 40-something birthday post....
40 is the new 20, right? And just in case you were wondering, no flogging for my birthday (my kids can't catch me to dispense the birthday spankings) , just needed a word that went with blogging and lollishopping....

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Until next time,

Sneaking Up On some Milestones....

So much to be thankful for this week!

I am steadily approaching my 500th sale on Etsy and I am excited!

When I made the move from Ebay to Etsy in February of this year, I set a goal to make 500 sales before the end of the year.

Now before you get too impressed , most of the items in my shop are small ticket and customers usually order more than one set of tags at a time.

So it was much easier for me to hit that objective than it would be for higher ticket sellers.

Even so, I am stoked to be so close to the objective.

Extremely thankful for my Etsy customers too, and I want to celebrate! What do you think?

Here's what I am tossing around:

* maybe free shipping (over a set $$ purchase) over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend?

*A special Giveaway for my very special 500th sale?

What would you like to see?

Hopefully there will be another milestone this week:

Lollishops is in Beta Testing this week, shooting for a soft opening on November 28th...

Sounds like another reason to celebrate! I think my first customer over there will definitely feel the SunshineandRavioli Love!

I'll decide exactly what I'll be doing to celebrate within the next few days. I promise you'll be the first to know...

Until then,

Poppytalk Handmade...

Have you heard of Poppytalk Handmade ?

It's an awesome and  beautiful gift and home decorating marketplace run by Jan and Earl, which changes themes monthly. I have been participating for the past few months and December was to be no exception. Except that it started on November 17th and I not only forgot, it was never even on my radar! 

Again...Lists, must start keeping lists and quit relying on the noggin!

Anyway, I made up some brand new holiday  tags in honor of my forgetfulness...errr Poppytalk's Holiday and Gift themed Market... They are all also now available in my Etsy shop....

Go visit Poppytalk Handmade for your daily dose of eye candy...even if you think you've already had your quota for the day (and really, when can you ever get too much eye candy?). I promise you won't be sorry. 

I'd bet you will find a few new favorites in the process...I do, every single month!

Have a great weekend all!

Until Next Time,

Another "Just Because" Kind of Post

Things are so busy right now....

I am feverishly trying keep up with orders, and, you guessed it, that leaves very little time for old-fashioned creativity. And that little problem begets another...a good portion of the things I share with you here are new items or pictures of my kids, the weather, critters outside my door, etc (which I haven't been lucky enough to get good shots of lately)...
I try not to bore you with re-runs...

So what's a blogging girl to do?

Will you settle for some miscelaneous snaps of things that are inspiring me to at least think about being creative this Christmas?

I love this tinsel package ribbon. Looks enough like the old stuff to make me happy (but instead of being crinkly and stiff, it's soft and wired- fuzzy and controllable- a perfect combo)...

And while I may not get to craft with it for the upcoming holidays, I scooped it up anyway...Valentine's Day is coming hot on the heels of Christmas and I can realistically ponder making something sweet and Love inspired come January....I plan to have plans for this stuff (so organized, aren't I?)....

More vintage looking tinsel, this time from Bethany Lowe instead of Wallius Martius...paper flowers, vintage buttons, German Glass glitter , which I tend to "oooh and ahhh" over more than I use (but it does inspire me!). If it were fuzzy I might even pet it...and yes, I did actually pet my fuzzy tinsel, just a few times....

And my favorite find this year....

...this simple ( Hey, there's that word again. "Yes Virginia, sometimes the simplest things really are the best things.") Sugar 'n Cream Green Twist crochet thread...100% cotton...it reminds me of a faded wintergreen candy cane...perfect for tags...I have got to see if I can find these twists in other colors because they are, for some reason, calling my name....

Maybe it's that upcoming Lollishops opening that filling my brain with confectionary inspiration....

Until next time,

STEPH

Simple is Almost Always Better....

Simpler is almost always better...

I really have to keep telling myself that.

Case in point, I am not a scrapbooker, but I obviously have some serious paper addictions. It's the whole reason I started making gift tags...it was a justification for the growing rubber stamp/ card stock collection I was accumulating. Which leads indirectly, kinda sorta, to my next confession...I am a gadget junkie. I am the one the shamwow guy is talking to (I YI YI, did I say that out LOUD? And NO, I have not made that purchase....yet....).

So imagine my fascination with a certain large, bulky scrap booking gadget (rhymes with Crocodile-wink-wink-nudge-nudge), which in my house, has lovingly become known as the

$30 hole punch/paper weight ....

I won't show you my eyelet setting efforts with the pink handled monster, let's just say they rarely came out the way I liked. Having never used a traditional, old fashioned, and yes, comparatively cheap, eyelet setter (because I just blindly jumped all the way in and bought the most expensive gadget ever for such a simple task), I just thought that's the way the eyelet fell. That or my artistic "gifts" did not extend to squishing tiny little metal rings in to perfect little circles (my sister is the jewelry maker in our family)...shrug it off and move on....

And then I went to a gathering of all of the wives from Mr. Sunshine's unit. We were getting together to stuff stockings and filling goody boxes for our guys, who will be far from home this Christmas. One of the girls made the cutest little bookmarks and candy wrappers to put in the stockings (I am ashamed to admit that as crafty as I am, I did nothing like that). You guessed it...she rubber-stamped them all and used eyelets on the bookmarks.

I was fascinated (yet again)...her eyelets looked as good on the back as they did on the front. And what was this? They weren't lopsided. They were perfect little circles. How on earth did she achieve this?

You guess it again (you're good at this!)..an old-fashioned, metal eyelet setter and the ultimate old-school tool, a plain ol' hammer....

Now why didn't I think of that?

You can bet I high tailed it to Michael's and got myself the necessary equipment. I even had the hammer already(wooHoo!)...and it works like a charm....of course....I think I will be adding eyelets to more and more of my tags- I love the finished look it gives....

Not to mention the stress relief factor...forgot how fun it is to squish things with a hammer...much more fun than squeezing those giant pink handles together (which were too wide apart for my hand anyway)....

I'm sure it's a perfectly lovely tool if you have catcher's mitts for hands....but for me I will pull out my old mantra...Simpler is always better....simpler is always better....

Until next time

(which will come much sooner this time, promise!)....

STEPH

Remember Me

November 11- Veteran's Day...

Just a quick reminder to remember your favorite Soldier/Sailor/Marine or Airman...

And I will get back to regular posting this week- promise! Last week was crazy busy!

Snow Day...

Next time boy-child wants to do a snow dance remind me to do whatever it takes to stop him....

No school today- Yipeee!!

Remember that apple tree a few posts back? The one a certain doe would take a snack from once or twice a day? Kinda pretty covered in the frosty stuff, but I doubt my doe-friend feels that way....

The sweetest little Sheltie in the world, Miss Molly, is having fun though....note the bags of gravel she is standing next to. They were supposed to go in the bed of Mr. Sunshine's non-4wd Texas edition F150 before the first snow....shhhh....maybe he won't notice....

Speaking of Texas (Hook 'em Horns!)...one of these things just doesn't belong here....

The birds aren't real happy either....this blue jay actually yelled at me as I was taking his picture...hey, blame the boy-child, not me.....

And a few more shots, just because...

Girl-child built a snowman with a fashion-forward bandana instead of a hat....

And this is a shot from my back porch....Seriously, it's too early for this!

While the kids were outside frolicking, I was inside a warm toasty house, making more tags, because THIS tells me it's beginning to look allot like Christmas (at least until it melts by Halloween)....Just listed them in my Etsy shop....

Hope things are a little warmer in your neck of the woods!

Until next time,