july

July was an awful month for sales.

I hope for a better August.

beach

I took the kids to the beach yesterday. They had a great time. We played in the water for along time, built sand castles and collected shells. It is nice to live kinda near the beach.

summer days

We had a fun summer day yesterday.

We got to the zoo early in the morning and went right away to meet Gus from Texas (pictured). We spent some time walking around the zoo and then went to the Reading Terminal for a fast lunch and ice cream treat. We had some time at home before our Brownie pool party and then were off again until late in the evening. The kids had a blast at the party and did a really good job playing with everyone. There were alseep before their heads hit the pillow.

Today we are off to the beach for the day.

busy

No tennis camp, brownie camp, ultimate camp or soccer camp this week. We have a week free, very exciting.

I have a busy week planned for the kids. Today we are going to head to the zoo and have lunch somewhere in the city. Perhaps I will be able to squeeze in a shop or two. Then we have an afternoon brownie pool party. The kids are very exited for the pool party.

Tomoorw a trip to the beach?

pittsburgh

I have been busy the past few days getting as many note cards sets together that I can. One of my sisters-in-law offered to have a house party. She lives in Pittsbugh, so it will be good to get the cards to another area. I found when doing shows or house parties, the more you have the better, so I figure that I should give her at least 75 different packs (i think I better go and count what have).

I have until Thursday to get it all done, I will be seeing her this weekend at the beach.

more reading

I got a lot of reading done this week. I finsihed The Guy Not Taken, good easy read. I also read The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elizabeth Robinson which I really liked. Now I am about a quarter of the way into the Liars' Club, I'll let you know what I think.

rules

We have a lot of rules in this household. I limit how much tv they watch each day, they must read a little each day, during the summer they must do workbooks each day, no fast food, not a lot of junk food, no gum, no talking back, early to bed, and more.

I was just thinking that a lot of these rules make my life a lot harder. How much easier would my life be if I just had them sit in front of the TV all day. How much less time would I spent cooking if we just ate fast food. I imagine a life much easier than the one that I have, but at what cost to my children. With a household of six, rules are needed to provide some structure, I think without them it would be pure chaos.

I hope that in the long run all of these rules that we make them better people.

movitated

I finally got myself movitated yesterday to print and list a new card.

When things are slow I find it hard to find inspiration.

blackberries

I went blackberry picking yesterday. There are wild blackberry bushes behind my parents house. There is only one problem, since they are wild they have thorns, tons and tons of really big thorns. I usually come away with several large scratches, torn out hair and a few stickers still left in me. It is never a pretty sight.

Over the course of the next few weeks I will get tons and tons of berries (I make my mom go out and pick them while we are away). Now I need to figure out what to do with them. I think I have made enough jam and muffins to last us a long time.

Maybe a pie or crisp?

fog

I feel like I am in a fog. I wake up feeling like there is a thin fog hanging over me and it seems to ungulf me by the end of the day.

summer cooking

During the summer months, when the garden is in full production, I tend to cook around the produce that we have. Last night I made some roasted beets and green and purple beans. They are simple to make, toss them with some olive oil, sea salt and fresh gound pepper. Put in a 550 degree oven for about 15 minutes. They are good either hot or room temperature.

happy father's day

Every year for father's day I send my husband and three of his college friends to play a round of golf. After golf they all come back for dinner. This year we grilled beef tenterloin steaks and shrimp, and I made a chimichurri sauce to go with them. I also made a caprese salad, honestly one of the easiest things to make in life, but one of my favorites. I also made a really good potato salad that is bobby flay's and from the food tv site. Usually when they come they do not eat dessert, but just in case I made some chocolate chip cookies and they were all gone.

Happy father's day!

more summer reading

I just finished reading Heat, it was a good read. I had trouble picking my next book but decided to go with Jennifer Weiner's The Guy Not Taken. I am a huge fan of her books. This one is a bit different then the others, it is a collection of short stories. I'll let you know what I think.

summer days

Yesterday was a lazy summer day. We went raspberry picking in the early afternoon and then out to lunch. I took the kids to a great puzzle store and we picked out a new 550 piece puzzle to work on. After the store we went for a swim at the pool to kill some time, these lazy days tend to drag on and on. On the way home we stopped at the local farmer's market to pick up some corn to have with dinner. I decided to use up the rest of the blueberries that we picked and made a double batch tri-berry muffins, all with fresh berries that we picked to have for dessert.

I hope we do not have to many more lazy days!

cool things

I love all the cool things you can find on etsy. I came across these paper wreaths by haru. I wish I had a spot for one.

trendy shoppes

I found another spot to sell my cards online, trendy shoppes. They have done a soft launch and will oficially launch at the end of the month. Take a look when you get a second.

hoboken

My husband recently started playing in an adult soccer league. Yesterday he had an early evening game, so I decided to take the kids up to Hoboken to watch him play. My oldest son, who is eight and planning to play professional soccer in europe when he is older, made a sign with my husbands name and team colors to hold up at the game. We had a lot of fun watching and will try to make it to at least one more early game.

sink or swim...

When you are child number four, you learn fast that it is either sink or swim if you want to keep up.

The kids had a blast at our friends swim and tennis club and they are waiting to be invited back...

scrap packs

I have been in a sales slump and feeling rather blue about it. The other day I was making up some scrap packs to add to the etsy shop and my two girls were hanging around asking questions about the scraps packs, like how much are they sold for, and could they buy them. I do not know which is worse, my custmoers are family, or that my customers are five and six!

tennis whites

I only wear sneakers to play tennis. The pair that I wear for tennis are Stan Smiths which I bought about twelve years ago. Last weekend after we played I realized I needed to get rid of them, I had finally wore a hole into the bottom. I needed something white and fast, we are on our way today to play at a friends tennis club and they require tennis whites. I am not a fan of all of the hi-tech sneakers which makes finding a pair a bit difficult. After a bit of seaching my husband found me these great tennis sneakers, maybe they will make me play better...

clear pink

Trying to start a business is not an easy thing. Most days I feel like giving up. The past few weeks have been a bit of a drag, and I am wondering if i is because my stuff stinks.

just like...

I think I have officially turned into, not my mother, but my grandmother.

My grandmother would come every summer to keep an eye and my brother (six years younger) while our parents were at work. My grandmother spent the day cleaning, cooking, doing laundry and I think for fun reading (she never watched tv). When I was in high school I played field hockey. We started our practices mid-August and she was still at our house then. I would often find my practice clothes ironed and folded on my bed every afternoon. I always felt bad that she was spending her time ironing a pair of boxers and a t-shirt that I was just going to sweat to death in, so I would try to pull them out of the basket before she could get to them.

Yesterday while I was ironing the kids clothes for the next day (yes, I iron everyday) I found myself ironing a pair of sport shorts and a t-shirt that my son was going to wear to ultimate camp the next day. All I could think was I have become Cecelia!

christmas

It is hard to believe that I have already started to work on stuff for christmas. Over the past few weeks I have been buying holiday prints. Last night I listed my first set of holiday cards in my etsy shop.

But, more exciting, I got my fist offical custom order for a family christmas card.

added

I added a few new packs of cards to my etsy shop. I think this print is one of my new favorites.

from the garden

Last night we had our first dinner that was almost all from the garden. The the first tomato was picked and used on top of burgers. I made a really good creamy cucumber salad with the cucumbers and dill. Lastly, I picked a ton of green and purple beans and roasted them with salt, pepper and olive oil.

I love this time of year!

oh deer

Last night the kids and I were giving a dinner guest a tour of the garden. While explaining what is what I realized that in the past day or two my garden was attacked by deer. This happened to me two years ago, so last year at the beginning of the season I put up a deer net. I was hoping to not have to use it this year (it is not very nice looking and it also makes it hard for the kids to pick stuff to eat while they are outside playing), but during the middle of the dinner party I had to get the netting out and the kids and I scrambled to get it up before it started to pour.

Honestly if you know where I live you realize just how gross it is that we have a deer problem.

paper

I have spent the past few days cutting and cutting all of my new paper (I got my first really bad paper related injury in years). I can not wait to start putting the cards together. I am going to need a ton of cards for a bunch of stuff that I will be doing in the fall. I have three house parties (so far), two craft fairs (so far), trove barn sale and whatever I put up on etsy, dawanda and a new site that I will be selling on.

another trip

Yesterday was another day spent at the beach.

working

Over the past few weeks I have been getting tons new paper. I am trying to get packs made up to list them. With four kids home all the time it has been a challenge trying to find time to work.

Last night I did list one new pack and a new scrap pack. The scrap packs seem to sell quickly. I wish everything would sell quickly and I had some motivation to get the stuff made. I work better under pressure.

sweet peas

Just when I thought that they would never bloom, I spotted the first flower on my sweet peas.

blueberries

I took the kids blueberry picking this morning. We came home with two quarts and 4 pints of blueberrries. I made a large batch of jam already. Tomorrow morning will be blueberry pancakes and I'll make blueberry scone at some point.

I think we will make one more trip to pickmore berries and freeze them for the winter.