bird

I love emilie friday's etsy shop. I have had my eye on her little birds and flowers for awhile now. I think they would be cute hung in the windows of the girls room.

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Just a few more days of summer left.

business

I have been feeling rather discouraged about Clear Pink the past few weeks. Sales on etsy stopped and it is no secret that I have had zero motivation to work the past two months. I have spent the past few weeks wondering if doing this card thing was a dumb idea, maybe nobody really likes them.

Yesterday I got two checks ($140) in the mail from my sister-in-law in Pittsburgh (I had brought a box of sets to the beach for her). I called to thank her and she told me that she had only sold all those cards to just two people and has a bunch more people to show them to, how exciting. Then, later in the afternoon I finally had a sale on etsy.

I think this is just what I needed to feel good about all of this again. Business is an awful roller coaster ride.

knit part two

Maybe it is because of the fall like mornings, or maybe not, but knitting has been on my mind. I am a huge fan of Maggie Pace. I just got an e-mail update from her company, Pick Up Sticks that they are having a sale on all of their PDF patterns. I took a look and now have a few projects in mind.

knit

I found this great yarn by manos. Now I need to find a great pattern. I am trying to not make a scarf, any ideas?

gnome

I have a huge collection of scarves. I wear them almost everyday, all day long when it is cold to keep me sorta warm (I am never warm in the winter or spring).

I found the cute gnome scarf by skyo on etsy. It would be perfect for the fall when you only need a light scarf.

back to work

Alright, I need to get back to work making some cards. I am still having trouble getting motivated, so perhaps a contest will help. Leave a comment and I will pick a winner this Friday to receive a pack of the handprinted note cards shown above. For more information about the set, or other sets, take a look at my etsy shop.

Good luck!

darn dolls

The girls are now proud owners of american girl dolls. I thought this day would never come, but somehow my mother and godmother got them going on the dolls. Up until this point the two have never wanted or played with dolls and now they have very expensive dolls with very expensive accessories, good thing their grandmother treated!

The trip into NYC was a hit. We walked their poor little feet off. Since the girls got the dolls we took the boys up to FAO and they got to pick something. They are very, very spoiled by my parents, but I guess that is what grandparents are for.

Of couse I never made it to Kate's, but I am back in the city this Friday to take my son in to meet my husband so the two of them can go to a yankee game. I will take the other three to do something special. Then it is back in on Saturday morning (sans four children). We will head down to SOHO and I am going to try and shop (I usually wind up with nothing and my husband somehow gets a ton of stuff, go figure). Then we are off to the open in the evening and then a very late night dinner at Blue Ribbon. It is a much needed date, the last time we went out alone was back in December!

scraps

I have a huge stash of fabric scraps. I have been waiting for the perfect project and found it several months ago on the Spool blog.

I love the little birds that they made using scraps of fabric (you can download a free pdf pattern on the blog). I thought it would be great to make tons of them and hang them from the ceiling in the girls room.

I am still hoping to get to the shop. I seem to be the city when it is closed, but I am going in tomorrow, so perhaps I can get there, we'll see.

picture by Spool.

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Summer flew by. It is hard to believe that it is almost over. Next week will be the last full week for the kids. I have a busy week planned for them; a trip to the zoo, tennis camp, pool swimming, nyc and perhaps the please touch.

busy

It has been a busy week. I took the kids to the beach one day, today we spent the entire day at a friends pool near the beach today and tomorrow we have a trip into NYC planned for after tennis camp.

It is going to be a day of gross excess tomorrow. Their grandmother has promised to take them to American Girl (a new experience, the girls have never liked baby dolls), Hershey and M&M Worlds, and maybe to Dylan's Candy Bar.

I am thinking that perhaps I can squeeze in a trip to Kate's Paperie and pick up some new paper. I have not worked in weeks and need to get inspired again, perhps that will be the kick that I need. Things have come to a halt, and I am feeling like perhaps I should have never started making the cards and just set myself up for failure.

change

I am feeling bored and restless.

I need a change.

In response to this need for change I thought I would repaint my downstairs. Our room off of the living room, where the computer is along with tons and tons of books is currently hunter green. I am sick of hunter green. I am going to paint it blue sage. Our living room is white with a red wall where the fireplace is. I am over the red as well. I am going to paint that graphite and paint the fireplace stone. All of the colors that I am using are from Restoration Hardware. My entryway, hallways, bedroom and sitting room are all Restoration colors.

I am thinking white plantation shutters in the blue sage room and silk curtains in blue sage for the living room.

I hope this helps!

tomato

Our tomato production is at its peak. We look forward to this time of year when every dinner seems to be based on the tomato. Lots of meals that are only good with garden tomatoes like fresh tomato pasta sauces, tomato sandwiches, bacon and tomato sandwiches, and mozzerella, tomato and pesto panini.

cake

When my oldest daughter was a little over three she was up late one night with us. We happened to be watching Ina on TV make a cake, a flag cake. CBJ turned to us and said that she would like the flag cake for her birthday (it was still a long time until her next birthday). Closer to her fourth birthday I asked her what cake she wanted and she remember that she wanted the flag cake. She has since requested the flag cake for three of the last four birthdays. Silly girl.

smarter

Last winter I missed the boat on buying clothes. I didn't find much that I liked and then just waited to long and before I knew it all the winter clothes were gone. I said fine, I'll just get some new great stuff for summer. Well, I missed out on summer clothes as well. All I got were two skirts and a few weeks ago I decided to give up on gettting clothes for summer and just try again for winter.

Every few weeks I get a catalog from Anthropologie. I spotted the snuggery cardigan and put it on my wish list. I stopped into Anthropologie this week to see if they had anything, and the sweater was there. The new, smarter me grabbed it.

photograph by anthropologie

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slumber party

We had our first slumber party last night. Two good friends came over for a birthday celebration. I had them paint bird houses for a craft. They all turned out great, fun to see what everyone does. While waiting for the paint to dry we had a make-your-own sunday bar and opened the presents. Then off to bed for a bit of chit-chat. They are still so little, so at least they were not up all night talking and I got some sleep.

The girls (and boys) all had a good time.

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Every year we spend an afternoon building a big village. This year is the best to date, it had seven bridges!

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I do not like much, but I do love the beach in the evening.

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Our oldest daughter turns seven today. Time flies.

patterns

I found these great bag patterns by melly & me over at Pink Chalk Fabrics. If I could get my act together to make them, the girls would love them.

picture from pink chalk fabric

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The kids had a great time at the beach this year. I am happy to be home!

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Just back from our week beach trip, more later...

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From our backyard firework show.

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