A great weekend comes to a close

I just had a super fun weekend with my family - the extra day today was great! I'm really kind of sad to see it end, but I guess someone has to make some money around here so my hubby's back to work tomorrow. Saturday night, my friend Cait and I celebrated turning 30 this month with a party. The guys grilled up a mountain of chicken fajitas and shrimp, and even made homemade chips, guacamole, and salsa. It was delicious! I don't know what the big deal is about this b-day (for some), because I'm actually pretty excited about it. It's a milestone. I've finally made it as an adult! Of course, having 2 kids and being married for over 6 years may have already qualified me for that. Anyway, we spent Sunday evening taking the kids to a pumpkin patch and had a blast! All in all, it was a terrific weekend for family fun!

Another day and one tasty-looking cupcake recipe - YUM!

First things first, I was doing a little blog-hopping and came across an awesome recipe for Nutella cupcakes at Saurkraut Crafts. Seriously, judging by the pic she posted, I think I could live off of these things! I'm definitely going to make some in the very near future!

Here's what they look like (her pic):

Anyway, it was a productive day outside of the house. I, of course, accomplished nothing at home, however, I learned how to make some really cute Christmas ball ornaments. I'll post pics and a tutorial when I get around to doing my own, but the ones we made today are for a fundraiser. Which brings me to my next topic: IF YOU LIVE IN VEGAS, PLEASE COME TO THIS FALL BAZAAR --->

I'll be set up there, as will several other home-based business ladies. It's a great chance to do some early Christmas shopping! See you there!

Getting ready...

I've been working on bows and clips for an upcoming craft bazaar and trying to figure out some display options. My 2-year-old found this interesting metal dressform thing at Ross and thought it would be good. I'm not sure what's going on with the crazy "boob" area, but maybe it will draw some attention to my table and be a good conversation piece. Business is picking up a little with custom orders lately. I just mailed out some bows, a bowband, and an appliqued onesie, and I'm delivering another order tomorrow that includes an applique and a bottle cap bow made for a little girl to cheer on her brother's high school team. I posted pics of that one on my Facebook page and have someone else interested in a bow for a different local high school. Maybe next year I should make more football bows that have local teams (hmmm, note to self). Anyway, I've been hard at work cleaning up my disaster of a living room because my BIRTHDAY PARTY is this weekend. Hooray! My friend and I are both turning 30 this month, so we decided to have a big cookout together and celebrate. I must admit I'm pretty excited to have all of our friends over and party it up, but I'm kind of disappointed, too, that themed parties are frowned upon at this age. Think we could rent a bounce house and start a trend? I'm thinking a few of our friends woudl be pretty dang entertaining in that thing once they'd had a few! Then again, they might leave a special b-day surprise that I'd have to clean up later. Never mind!

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!

I DID IT! I finally posted a few items for sale in my Etsy store, Two Sweet Boutique. You can see it here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/brandilocks1029. I'm running a store opening special, too. If you buy $20 or more in hair accessories, you can get free shipping. I hate it when shipping costs make a great deal just an OK deal, so I'm hoping other moms do, too, and this may help generate some business. Here's one of the bows I have listed...

Picasa

OK, so I need some kind of editing software to shrink my pics down for Etsy use. Here's one I played around with in Picasa. It has a "blog it" feature to instantly upload the pics here, which is kind of cool, so I'm trying it out. :)

feeling creative

well, i still haven't listed anything in my etsy store, but i've been busy in my studio (a.k.a. the dining room!). i made a set of bows and hair clips for a friend whose daughter is starting school monday and has to wear uniforms. she wanted something fun to give her a bit of individuality so i made some cute minnie mouse bows, ladybug clippies, and black/red simple boutique bows for her. oh, and a ribbon flower. i also got on a sewing kick for a few days and made two little girls' outfits - one for my sweet abby and one for another friend's daughter whose first b-day party was this morning. if only i knew how to post pictures! i guess i should figure that out soon. :)

OK, here we go!

Hello, blog world! My name is Brandi and I'm a stay-at-home mom to two beautiful children, ages 3 months and 2 years. I'm a proud military wife and a former teacher (so I'm really, really bossy! haha!). As if my life didn't have enough going on already with my kids, my husband, and getting ready to start grad school again, I've decided to open an Etsy store and try to sell some of the cute stuff I make for my daughter. Let me start by saying that I have no idea how to run a business, but at least I'm good with bookkeeping so I'll know how much money I'm not making! LOL. Anyway, this blog is part of my little crafty project and I'll be journaling my progress. Here's hoping it goes well!

My Etsy shop is called Two Sweet Boutique and you can check it out at www.etsy.com/shop/brandilocks1029.