PRIORITIES

I don't know how many of you scrapbook, but as jewelry becomes my work, scrapbooking is filling it's place as my hobby (ok not quite yet, but it will be soon!)  I love finding beautiful ways to celebrate our lives, our loved ones, the things that are important to us.  It's why I do what I do.

Any who, I follow the blog of a pretty amazing professional scrapbooker, Laura Kurz. I found her because of the scrapbooking, but stayed because her posts are quick, funny, and based on her family.  Recently she found out that she lost her contract with one of the major scrabooking brands, and wrote this post about it.

She talks about how her minimalist style of scrapbooking, doesn't help sell a lot of product, but that she never did it for the sales. Instead, she did it for her family. She wanted a beautiful way to celebrate them. Reading this made me so happy. Happy for her that she has her priorities in line, and happy for me that I think I do too.




I'm so excited for my future career.  I finally feel like I'm on the path that is right for me. I'm happy to say that my future career is based out of pure love and never greed.

Love for my family, by putting them first and making time for each other.

Love for your families, by sharing my abilities I help you celebrate, cherish, and remember the ones you love.

Love for my work, by following my dreams and doing something I'm passionate about.

I think this love comes through not only in the products I offer, but also the way that I run my business and treat my customers. Although sales are necessary, I've never been here just to make a pretty penny. In fact, my goal has never been to "go big" or even make enough to hire employees, but rather just to share something I love with others while making a moderate income so I too enjoy everyday.

DIY CHEVRON DOOR

OOOOOOOOOOOOO MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG !!!!!!!!!!

I am SO in love with this door! I don't really know where I got the idea, but really there isn't much that I don't want to paint gold these days.  I'm pretty sure that Dave's going to throw away all the gold paint in my house if I keep this up!

Here's what I did:

1.  The door was freshly painted white a few weeks ago when we redid the carpet so I got to skip this step, however I highly suggest it if it hasn't been done in awhile.

2. Lay out the tape.  I decided to do just 1 "zig" or "zag" depending on how you look at it. So I just divided the width in half. I used 2" wide blue tape and for ease I made my stripes that width.  On the first strip I measured 2" down from the top and then just used the corners of the top of the door to decide the angle. This worked well for me as the angle wasn't too sharp nor too strong, however you could easily adjust yours.  From there I measured 2" down from each of the sides and the middle.
*** Tip 1. MAKE SURE YOU ALSO MEASURE IN FROM THE SIDE EACH TIME. TO MAKE SURE IT'S EVEN.'
*** Tip 2. TAPE THE SIDES AS WELL AS THE STRIPE. I didn't do this even though I know I'm a horrible painter, and really should have. Touch up will be required on my door!
*** Tip 3. My door is pretty narrow so with a 2" stripe I didn't have to do another "zag" on each side. However with the average size door you'll either need to do a thicker strip or create another "zag" towards the edges to make the proportions right.

3. Paint! I used Martha Stewart's Golden Pearl. I am so in love with this color. It was perfect! It took 3 coats to really get it even and thick enough.
*** Tip 4.  If you are patient enough paint 1 coat of the white first and let dry.  This will create a seal at the tape edges making the edges crisper.  I of coarse did not do this! Touch up, Touch up, Touch up for me!
*** Tip 5. Pull the tape off when it's still damp. This also helps makes the lines crisp.

OH LOVE!  The jar of paint is still over 1/2 way full... I'm eying some chairs... a desk... pretty much everything that I think I might use it for! I mean it'd be such a waste if I didn't use it! ;)

Friday Favorites

Fabulous Finds from Etsy

1. Vintage Alarm Clock
2. Bulbosa Air Plant Pod - Copper
3. Gold Zag Tray
4. Vintage Globe
5. Vintage Wooden Balls
6. Vintage Glass Bottle
7. Woodland Deer Vase
8. Wall Installation
9. Leather iPad Case

KALEBISM

It's the little things in life that happen that make me smile. The little things I want to document. Some kids won't eat crust, others need it cut into triangles. This is how Kaleb eats his PB & J.

A few weeks ago I picked Kaleb up from school and he hadn't finished his PB & J so I let him eat it as his snack on the way home.  I was watching in the rearview mirror while he ate, and he was doing the strangest thing. He would squeeze the sandwich as hard as he could and then turn it and take a bite.  It had random bites all around it. So I asked him what he was doing. He said he squeezes it until jelly appears and then eats that bite!

So silly... so cute... so Kaleb! 

SUNCADIA 2012

We just walked in the door a few hours ago from our 2nd annual family trip to Suncadia. When I say family trip, I don't just mean Dave, Kaleb and me.... It's the entire side of my mother's family.  She has 6 sister's and 1 brother so with everyone it's around 50 of us! We had a blast.  Although I swore I would take a ton of pictures of the adventures we had, as always I got too busy and forgot! Here are a few we snapped on the way there before all the craziness ensued!

We had a great time! Swam a ton, went on long bike rides, walked the trails, and played lots of fun games! It was a nice break after such a long few weeks.

Now to gear up for the upcoming weeks... I have 4 physical stores to fill, a big show coming up in a few weeks, brochures and banners to order, new items to test (including new charm shapes: hearts, teardrop/leaves, and ovals), and of coarse orders to keep up with!