Strawberry Shortcake

I had a couple of people request Strawberry Shortcake bows. After searching to no avail for printed ribbon to use, I decided to make some bottlecaps. I found some cute 1" circle images on Etsy and made bows to match the colors in the images, and here's the result...

I think it turned out pretty cute! Now on to my next feat of bottlecap greatness.... a necklace for a friend's daughter. I'll let you know how it turns out!

In other news, MARK YOUR CALENDARS LAS VEGAS FOLKS:

66th Spouses' Group Holiday Bazaar
October 16, 9AM-3PM @ the Aliante Library

Come out and support the vendors who support this fabulous group of military spouses. I'll be there peddling my wares, along with ladies selling Scentsy, Lia Sophia, tutus, Christmas ornaments, and much more! Come by, say hello, and get some early holiday shopping done. :)

Giveaway on Laken and Lila's FB page

Go to Laken and Lila's page on Facebook and enter for a chance to win a gift card. Her handmade designs are soooo stinkin' cute! I love the smocked dress she made with Alexander Henry's Mocca fabric - it would look so sweet with tights and boots and a long-sleeved shirt underneath this winter. Add a pair of bows from Two Sweet Boutique and you've got a fully accessorized, portrait-worthy ensemble.

Free shipping on the Two Sweet Boutique page!

I'm offering free shipping on any orders over $20 placed between now and tomorrow at 5PM PST. Also, $30 will get you free shipping, a 20% discount, and some awesome bows of course! Check out the details on the Two Sweet Boutique Facebook page. I'll also be adding some cute bottlecap bows to the inventory very soon!

In other news, check out this link to some awesome FREE scrapbooking stuff for Halloween. This designer posts some great graphics, and some of them are even available for commercial use!

Fabric flowers are fun!

I have a lot of scrap fabric and was in need of something to do with it, so I've been looking online for fabric flower tutes to try. Here are a few of the ones I made based on what I found...

This one is actually made from a template I found at Yoonie at Home. I just made a couple of the petals and then sewed a button in the middle and glued it all on a felt circle and attached it to a lined alligator clip.

This one is huge! I cut 18 circles that I made by tracing a roll of packaging tape (high tech, baby!), then I started on the outside of a large felt circle and worked my way in, folding each circle in half and stitching it near the crease. A few buttons in the center and, voila! You have a big honkin' flower that cab be clipped or pinned to just about anything!

This is just a ribbon flower that I saw somewhere and wanted to try. I used 3/8" ribbon and a scrapbooking brad in the center. It's sewn together on one continuous strand and tied. I glued the brad into the center and used wire snips to trim the part of the brad that stuck out of the back of the flower.

... and here are some more flowers you may like on The Domestic Diva. She has links to a bunch of tutorials!

Great giveaway opportunity - Check it out!

Check out this blog I stumbled across on Facebook. She reviews a ton of kids' products and often gives them away! You can't beat free stuff, especially when it's already been "mom approved".

Raising My 5 Sons

Just click the link to go to her blog and she has instructions there to get multiple entries into the giveaway. Good luck! Oh, but not better luck than me... LOL!

Hello again, my bloggy friends!

Most anyone who reads this doesn't know me IRL, but for the few of you who do, you know I am a licensed English teacher and a card carrying member of the grammar police. That being said, you know I *hate, hate, hate* when people type in all lower-case letters. In my own defense, if you see me posting in all lower-case letters, it's because my adorably fantastic 4-month-old son is in my arms and I'm typing with one hand. Sometimes he's having a bad day or I'm trying to feed him and blog at the same time (yay, multitasking!), and sometimes he's just too darn cute to put down while I'm on the computer.
In news that pertains more to what I generally talk about on here, the dining room has made a truimphant return to its former ribbon-strewn glory and the mountain of clothing that had accumulated is gone, for better or for worse! Hooray! I dropped off 100 items yesterday for consignment, most of which is marked for donation if it doesn't sell. Obviously, I'm hoping to recoup some of the money I'd spent on my daughter's fall/winter wardrobe from last year, but mostly I'm just glad to have that stuff gone. Of course, if I'm complaining Monday about how much money I didn't make, I apologize in advance.

what a mess!

so, between bow-making and getting a's old clothes ready for the as they grow consignment sale, this is the disaster that has eaten my dining room. my husband is a total neat freak, so many thanks to him for being nice enough to turn the other cheek and not say anything about this. seriously, i haven't seen my tabletop in a couple of weeks! in good news, the facebook page for two sweet boutique has 49 fans now. i already did my first giveaway and got a few orders from it. yay! if you're on facebook, look it up and check out all of the cute new bows i've been putting together for a craft sale next month. i'm not posting them on etsy until after the sale because i don't want anyone to order anything that i don't have ready to ship. not that anyone has ordered anything from me yet on etsy, but one never knows!

check out http://www.astheygrowlv.com/

I never learn

It's after 11 and I'm still up, in spite of the fact that I know my little guy is going to wake me in a few short hours. What can I say? This is my "me" time and I value it. Anyway, my friend T called me a few days ago and asked if I was interested in having a booth at a craft fair in a few weeks. I jumped at the opportunity, though I have no idea how much inventory to take with me or even how I want to set up my area. The jury's still out on the inventory question, but here's what I'm thinking for the display...

- a cute fabric tablecloth, of course
- instead of a boring bow board like everyone else uses, I'm going to take the ugly print out of a really cute antique-looking black frame that I have in the garage (yard sale leftover!), remove the glass, and glue some pretty ribbon across the open area to clip bows on
- for my clippies, I'm going to make a ribbon "collar" of sorts and put it on a small dress form, then have ribbon streamers hanging from the collar to display the various clips I like to make
- I'll also have 2 framed pieces of scrapbook paper with ribbons across them to use for my Halloween- and Christmas-themed bows and clips

What do you think? Am I getting in over my head? The plan is just to use materials that I already have to make bows and clips for this, so my only out of pocket expense is the booth fee. Exciting, yes? :)

Are you ready for some football?

Today marked the opening of the season for NCAA football and my husband was ecstatic. We had friends over and I made a Crock Pot full of turkey chili, because chili and football go hand-in-hand, in spite of the fact that it was 108 degrees outside. :) A good time was had by all. As the guys parked themselves in front of the big screen, each with a beer in hand, and talked trash about each other's favorite teams, the ladies sat around chatting and watching the older kids (a term I use loosely, since the older ones are still only 1, 2, and 3) splash around and play in the back yard. Once everyone left, I decided to make a few bows to post on Etsy tomorrow. I haven't sold anything yet, but I have a boatload of ribbon on hand and I figured I might as well do something with some of it. Besides, maybe adding some more variety in my boutique will help draw attention to it, right? Anyhoo, I'll post pics tomorrow. Nitey nite!