Blame it on the munchkins...........

for my absence, that is.

I couldn't think of a better reason for not having enough time to blog though:)

We had a wonderful Easter. The sun was shining and the kids had so much fun finding eggs, hiding them and finding them again, and just being able to run and play. We spent the day with all of our extended family and the kids od'd on the candy until they passed out. It took two days for them to recover from the sugar hang over, but it was still fun.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter too.

I am up to my ears in Ginger Blossom and I love it. As you may have noticed above, my girls are all wearing it!

Several months ago, some of my long time friends in Couture Society and I decided we wanted to honor our sweet friend Sandi by organizing a launch with some of the most fabulous designers on eBay using her debut fabric. So we started the Ginger Blossom group on eBay.

The fruits of our labors can be seen here here until April 1st!

We ended up having such a huge interest in the launch, that I started another group for a launch on Etsy. There were so many members with so many wonderful items to showcase, we decided to break the launch in two events.

So here we are at the end of March, the earth is beginning to show signs of Spring and what better way to jump in Spring and Summer, than with some Ginger Blossom of your own!

With over 80 members participating in this launch, you are sure to find many delectable items. This launch lasts for a whole month, so be sure to check in frequently and see what's new!

Now for the prize giveaway! My random number generator tells me post number 3 is the lucky winner! So if you will email me and let me know your address and stuff, I will send out your super sweet Ginger Blossom surprise.

I have more news to share, but I will wait for another post to tell you all about that, because it deserves a post of it's own.

I'm still here.....

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and nope, I haven't dropped of the face of the earth. Just blogland for a while. I had a wonderful holiday season and had planned to post some pictures of my family as they thouroughly enjoyed their holidays, but it seems that every time I would try to post, something would happen and prevent me from posting. I'm sorry.

For those of you who may still be around, I hope to get in here and post more often than the past couple months. And I will bombard you now with some pictures to get caught up.

For the whole month of December our town hosts a festival of lights. This is one of the floats that were on display in the park.

We've gotten a bunch of snow this year already. Snowbarding and sledding have been fun. Many of the days in December, the streets were so covered with snow that you could pull the sled around on the street.

Between the snow and the wind one day, it created some really fun drifts. I have had a lot of fun with my camera this season. This is the first winter I have really played with photography and I am having so much fun.

In fact, I have started listing a bunch of my photos for sale online. Click here if you would like to visit my gallery. Today is the last day for free shipping! Just enter code STYLE2008 on all orders over $15.00.

I have a bunch of things in my Etsy store and some great listings on Ebay. Some of my Ebay listings starting at 99 cents with no reserve!

This little set is inspired by the 7&co's

"Box of Chocolates" launch. Click here to see all of the auctions.

I know that some of links on this blog are dead now and need to be updated. I will try doing this today too and giving this blog a facelift.

Thanks for your patients.

The Pitter Patter

of little feet again. It seems like yesterday when my first child was learning to walk and here I am five kids later still brought to tears when I see my baby take her first steps.

It's actually been a couple months since she took her first step and it was so adorable in a bittersweet way. It's always cute to see them grow up, but the next stage is always harder than the previous. I don't push my children now, I just try to enjoy each moment, because tomorrow may be worse.

Which brings me to the reason, or shall I say reasons for my blog absence. Kids 1 and 2 have so much homework after school that I think most days I am back in school. Who's the student here? I distinctly remember doing my time in school and gladly left that behind, but now it haunts me through my children.

Kids 3 and 4 fight constantly and kid 4 uses a blood curling scream as her defense mechanism when kid 3 is bullying her for the pen or notebook, which is the constant battle here.

Then there is kid 5.... She went from taking her first step to running through the house like a tornado ripping things out of place, eating everything in sight, ripping papers to bits, and demanding I spend every waking moment focused on her.

I do know this too will pass and soon I will have so much time to blog, you will be sick of me. So until then, stick with me and I will try to post as often as I can.

Mandy

Wordless Wednesday.... Christmas Portraits

More Wordless Wednesday

Just when I wasn't looking

I fell into love with photography all over again.

I stumbled onto this really cool style of photography. No, I didn't find a pause button for my kids or hire a maid, but I did find something new to love and another reason for people to look at me funny as I take pictures of random things. My kids love it too. They always ask when we can go out and find something cool to shoot.

All of a sudden completely boring things are brought into a completely different light.

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Thinking ahead....

I am already thinking Spring, but with the holidays quickly approaching, I have been thinking about the dreaded Christmas cards. Now don't get me wrong, I love to receive Christmas cards. In fact, the more the merrier, but when it comes time for me to send out our family Christmas card, this means gathering ALL 5 of my rambunxios little children together for photos.

Last week I took them out for some picture taking and the poor dolls really tried, but I only ended up with one that actually had all 5 looking in the same direction at the same time! And we took over 200 shots. Now they weren't posing in all of these shots, many were just pictures of them playing and just being kids, but the ones we tried to pose for turned out as I had expected.

Oh well, I did end up with some great outtakes and one good photo, but I can't show them yet. You will have to wait for Christmas:)

It did inspire me to create a set for a little girl with some very cute vintage fabrics that I aquired from a very sweet lady and some of my vintage trims that I told you about this summer.

It turned out so cute that I almost don't want to part with it. It's a size 24 month/2-3T or a small 4. I have all the details posted in the auction on ebay. This is one of a kind and will never be reproduced by me, so please bid accordingly.

It is ready to ship so you will have plenty of time for Christmas portraits of your precious angel.

Click on the photo to see the auction.

I jinxed the tooth fairy.....

The other day, I was reading a post on this blog. I laughed and even commented on how funny that was. I guess I must have jinxed it, because the next day my daughter lost a tooth. She was so excited and immediately placed her tooth under her pillow. I made a red flagged mental note, (they all seem to have red flags these days though) to remember to notify the tooth fairy.

The next morning, when I woke her up for school, she came out sobbing and telling me the tooth fairy had forgotten to come. My heart sank as I wracked my tired brain for an excuse that would sooth her broken heart.

I told her that maybe since it was so late last night when she lost it, the tooth fairy had to put her on the next night. This seemed to go over ok. I made another mental note with two red flags.

After school she ran straight to her room and looked under her pillow. Not only had the tooth fairy forgotten AGAIN, but the tooth was lost. All that remained was the empty bag that it had been in. By now I am screaming to myself, "What kind of mother forgets something like that TWICE!!!!"

I ran to my purse only to see my sweet husband already there. He grabbed the dollar bills and dashed to her room. We both knew if we could find the tooth before her, we could slip the money in and hide the tooth. Sheets flying, pillows being thrown, and there it was on the matress. He grabbed it and dropped the dollars on the bed just as she jumped on the bed and asked "Did you find my tooth?"

She saw the money and looked a little confused. After a little explaining that the Tooth Fairy must have come after she went to school and had taken the tooth, she accepted that answer and forgot that she had ever felt the painful ping of being forgotten.

Instantly she was dreaming up just what she would buy with her new dollars, but I was still feeling awful.

A change of pace......

Well, the fair went well. It was busy busy, but I did get a chance to check out some of the items entered. It was exciting to see how many talented locals there are around here. Even the children are spewing talent.

There were some spectacular photos and art exhibits, as well as veggie art and the quilting exhibits were tdf! Lots of wood works and even a skate park made out of Legos.

I took home one first place and on second place ribbon on my photos. I was excited and reassured. Thanks to all of the kinds words and support in my steps toward growth.

School started today and we always try to get away before school starts, so we took the the camper out for a few days of quiet time. We waited for the weekend to end and most of the campers had to go back to work. So we had the place all to ourselves for 3 whole days! The kids played in the creek until they couldn't stand it any longer, we lounged enjoying the cool breeze as it renewed our tired souls. I can't tell you how nice it was to get out of this heat and enjoy some cool refreshing air. We even had to turn on the heater one night, because it got chilly.

And my little one has officially joined the terrible two's, although, I think she joined them several months ago. We just had a birthday to make it official. We are still on our journey down the potty training road, but making progress. She speaks in sentences. She actually talks so fast, it makes it very hard to understand her and then you add her accent into the mix and she has her own language. She gets so frustrated when we don't know what the heck she is talking about.

I've also been slowly adding to my Etsy store again and I am working on some new things for fall and winter. Now that school is in, I have so many more hours in a day, my creative juices are flowing again and my state of mind is on the rise again! Yay!