Decluttering my brain

Come what May...

2010-04-28T23:02:00.002-04:00

Not only is this my current life theme but it is also a beautiful Etsy Treasury. With so much hanging in the balance for my family right now, I just have to remember that we will get through it "come what May" (literally and figuratively). Meanwhile, I'm thinking I am going to add baby blue and/or minty green to the color palette of my red accented living room. Thanks maclancy!

Beauty and the Beast

2010-04-16T21:56:00.003-04:00

Which Disney Princess are you? I know you have taken the online quiz. Just admit it. I'm Belle. The quiz summary couldn't be a more accurate summation of myself...

...And I will indeed be setting out on a new exciting adventure soon. We are transplanting our lives from East to West. Final location is yet to be determined. As such, the closure of my shop (again hopefully only temporary but who knows!) is drawing close. I have set a date. The last day I will be accepting orders is May 8th. Things are clearing out of my shop rapidly, so grab anything you have your eye on because I don't have much more to post.

In the meantime, I will direct you to THIS TREASURY, which reminded me of my "princess" qualities. I love the color scheme of this treasury and will definitely be feeding off it to help my little sis plan a bridal shower.

P.S. Check out my last post if you haven't yet.

Death and taxes

2010-04-16T21:23:00.001-04:00

I thought surely my taxes would be the death of me these last few weeks. Trying to compute expenses while my toddler was climbing around me and typing in miscellaneous entries was a treat. Luckily it's the weekend. My taxes are done. There are sales galore, so let the shopping begin!

Thanks to LUNIACSTYLE for pointing me in a few fabulous directions (and for highlighting one of my current Etsy promotions). Check out her finds HERE.

Feeling Generous?

2010-04-11T20:51:00.004-04:00

I have donated two gift certificates to a silent auction. Proceeds will go to the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. So if you are feeling generous, visit THIS BLOG and place a bid. Instructions for the auction can be found in THIS POST.

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT!

2010-03-19T13:57:00.000-04:00

ATTENTION...YOU WILL WANT TO READ THIS! I AM GOING TO BE CLOSING SHOP. Three things:

1) If you would like to be notified if I reopen my shop (most likely late summer/early fall), please Convo me your email address.

2) If you have wanted something from my shop, now is the time! I have indicate in the title if the item is the "LAST ONE" or a "ONE OF A KIND" item that will not appear again.

3) I will still be accepting requests for custom orders and will try to accommodate them the best I can.

Happy shopping! Final closing date is TBD but it will most likely be sometime at the end of April.

**P.S. In case you are curious, I am selling a house, moving cross country (hopefully), and planning a major birthday party for my grandma (90 years this summer!). Here is my inspiration board for my Grandma's 90th birthday. If you have any pink/gold ideas, send them my way!!!

Springtime

2010-03-12T17:03:00.004-05:00

Spring is here! The snow is gone! The grass is almost dry....time to play outside and enjoy colors like THIS.

GIVEAWAY reminder

2010-03-11T20:42:00.000-05:00

Hey loyal blog readers...all two of you:) Don't forget to enter my giveaway HERE tomorrow.

Sunshine!

2010-03-08T16:57:00.003-05:00

The sun is shining today and the snow is rapidly melting. A good day indeed. However, if that isn't enough to brighten your day, feast your eyes on this treasury featuring my Rainbow Sherbet clips.

SALE! and a GIVE AWAY!

2010-03-06T23:00:00.000-05:00

It's late. Of course:) But I had to end my weekend with a couple of positive announcements. 1) I reduced the price of several items in my shop and deeply discounted others (sale section), and 2) I am being featured on Give Away Today again on March 12th. Be sure to stop by and enter for a chance to win some goods.

Oh, and I am working on an inspiration board for my grandmother's 90th birthday. I started one this summer, but have had several ideas of late. Feedback and suggestions will be much appreciated this time. So check back in a couple of days for the finished product.

Blog Land

2010-02-28T21:02:00.001-05:00

I've been blogged about on a few sites recently and thought you might want to check out these creative ladies. Some of them own their own cute Etsy shops too. If you know of any other posts, leave me a comment:)

Memory Bean Designs

Design A-Peele

P.S. If you follow this blog, today is your lucky day:) I am currently offering a 15% discount to anyone who mentions PGHSTYLE at checkout.

New family post

2010-02-22T23:58:00.000-05:00

Some rambling by myself and cute pics of my little bug are up on my private blog. Stay warm! And if you are already warm, I'm jealous. Melt snow! Melt!

Vanilla skies

2010-02-21T00:06:00.000-05:00

This lovely Treasury featuring my ivory & turquoise Amy clip is making me kind of like the 2+ feet of snow outside of my window...kind of:) So wintery!

"Orange" you glad you stopped by...

2010-02-17T03:32:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite color combinations is the inspiration for this spunky treasury. Be sure to stop by here to explore all the shops being featured and the procurer of the Treasury.

Chocolate Fudge

2010-02-17T03:04:00.001-05:00

Something for you to drool over here.

Houndstooth Fairy

2010-02-12T22:39:00.001-05:00

My "Cookies & Cream" headband is being featured in a treasury right now. Check it out here.

Birthday Bash

2010-02-04T11:41:00.004-05:00

These last two months have flown by! As I started prepping pics to post, I couldn't believe that it is already almost Valentine's Day. Oh well, better late than never. So here are my inspirations from this post translated into reality. Even with my husband being out of town the night before, I felt like things came together nicely without a lot of stress (which is kind of a big deal to me).

Dessert table goods

light & dark pink M&M's (totally lucked out here because they were sold in the normal grocery store for breast cancer awareness)
Hershey Bliss chocolates with purple wrappers
Smores pops (I don't remember where I saw this idea but there are tons of posts about them)
purple wrapped Hershey "Kisses from Madi"
Mini chocolate cupcakes with pink non-pariels
Large chocolate cupcakes with bunny chocolates (I made the chocolates myself and only a handful turned out, and the frosting was hard to tint the color I wanted. I needed Abby and Jamie something fierce that morning.)

Food...the pics of the food were lost when my hard drive crashed:( I kept it pretty simple anyway.

Black forest ham & swiss sandwiches
Field greens with vinegarette
White grape juice with owl stir sticks (no particular reason for this choice other than if it spilled it would be easy to clean up)

Decorations 

tissue paper puffs....thank you Martha Stewart
table backdrop Michael Miller Pet Deer Fabric
favor bags and a sign for the entryway created using Cocoa Studio Forest Friends clipart
birthday banner with epoxy chipboard from the "Friendly Forest" line by Colorbok
butterfly mobile (fishing wire and cut-outs...super easy!)

Activities 

The kids all made paper antler "party hats" by tracing their hands and cutting them out. I cut out the headband portion and glued the chipboard letters from the Friendly Forest collection onto them the night before. I figured with eight kids (the majority under four) and their parents, one small activity for the whole group would be plenty.
The cake smashing...she was hesitant, confused, and then ultimately crazy excited about the whole thing.

*Special thanks to Libby Jones for the pics. MORE PHOTOS on my private blog.

Shocking I know...

2010-01-25T14:51:00.003-05:00

...there is a new post on my family blog already. Maybe there will be more blogging after all. It is a great way to procrastinate the 5,000 things I need to get done in the next few months.

"Color my life"

2010-01-22T09:00:00.006-05:00

My new earrings are being featured in a Treasury right now titled, "Color my life" by Sterling Roses Design (also blogged about here). For more details about each item, visit the interactive Treasury interface, click around, and leave a comment. Or not:)

P.S. New post on my private blog. 

Another step into the world of Etsy...

2010-01-18T22:23:00.006-05:00

After unsuccessfully trying to create an Etsy Treasury (it is kind of tricky...read the linked instructions at the bottom of the Treasury if you are curious), I finally created one of my own. It's titled, "Stop youre making me BLUSH!" and is serving as my inspiration for my grandma's 90th birthday. Yes, I do know how to spell. Apparently Etsy does not recognize apostrophes. Nonetheless, stop by. Click around. Leave a comment. Much love!

P.S. New post on my family blog on Wednesday:) 

Just a few announcements

2010-01-11T17:04:00.002-05:00

This Wednesday January 13th, I will be featured with ten other companies on the popular blog, My Give Away Today. Be sure to stop by to enter the giveaway. I also will be participating in two other giveaways in the next 60 days, so there are several opportunities to get some freebies. However, my supplies aren't unlimited, so if you are interested in something, you might want to snag it sooner than later. Also, come May I might wrap-up boldminimalist as we prepare to move cross country, get a new job...dramatically alter our lives. That's all:)

P.S. This blog in the future will also be used as a "front page" for my private blog. 

Just when you think its over...

2009-12-14T21:23:00.002-05:00

Running my Etsy shop has been like a really long movie. When you think its about to end, there is something that keeps fueling the storyline. Today I was featured in a Treasury by paleorama who sells some great vintage finds. It was just the little boost I needed. 

To visit the Treasury. Click on the pic below. If you click on my item (the Amy clip in latte), it looks like I'm popular:)

Hard drive crashing = not fun

2009-12-14T01:28:00.003-05:00

I rarely read any portion of anyone's blog post unless it has at least one picture. Here is a teaser pic of the birthday invites. My friend is editing the rest of the pics taken at the party and I hope to share them with you soon. 
 

The inside said..."Come celebrate with our little 'deer'..."

Now onto the babbling...

It's late (again)...really late (again). My laptop hard drive crashed earlier this week and I have been spending every night recovering files on my desktop. Needless to say, we bought a portable hard drive that will be my best friend from here on out. Fortunately, I lost very little due to my somewhat dilligent "backing-up" and several lucky saves to some memory cards. Take home message of the day: Back up your hard drive. Tomorrow! 

Anyway, I did a major rethink about my Etsy shop last night. It may or may not have involved a few tears. Who am I kidding? It did involve tears. I'm a developmental biologist and for crying out loud. What am I doing running an Etsy shop? I was feeling (and still feel) pretty out of my league. And it is crazy hard work, especially if you have a family to take care of. The decision of the night was to stay with it for awhile longer. It is frustrating and rewarding all at the same time. If nothing else I am learning about small business, photography, and marketing. All things I didn't know much about before.  

24 hours after my "rethink," I am feeling overwhelmed with gratitude. I have a multiplicity of family and friends who have supported me in my little endeavor. Including my husband and little munchkin. Anyone who reads my private blog knows I rarely drool over my family, so that little sentence is kind of a big deal.

Well, my mom and sister will probably kill me if I spend much longer on this blog since they are patiently awaiting a family post.

Regal Purple

2009-12-08T16:42:00.006-05:00

The birthday party was a success! I finished everything just in time to throw my little miss in her dress as the first guests arrived. Pictures soon to come.

In the meantime, here are some pretty purple things to ogle over. I was featured in another Treasury title, "Regal Purple" created by summeresque. Click on the photo to view the Treasury live and leave a comment if you so desire;)

This Treasury was also featured on a blog called S and O Productions. Every Tuesday they pull eight Treasuries they love and feature them on their site. I am excited to keep following their blog and let someone else comb through the hundreds of Treasuries. They have pretty great taste;)

Birthday Inspirations and Etsy Giveaway

2009-11-16T01:31:00.013-05:00

Yes, it is almost 1:30 EST. I took a three hour nap after I put my daughter to bed tonight and cannot shutdown this brain of mine. I have a giant "To-do" list for two things: 1) my daughter's birthday party, and 2) my Etsy site holiday inventory. So it only makes sense for me to blog about it instead of work on it. Right?

#1 My little girl is turning one in just a few weeks. I have tossed around about 100 ideas for her party. I have really enjoy the theoretical part of planning her party. Now that I am actually starting to work on things, I am realizing why so many parents book the local Chuck-E-Cheese. I will skip the greasy pizza and swine flu ridden play equipment this year:) Instead, I am going to have a little party at home with a girly woodland forest theme. My inspirations:

Baby GAP dress
owl stir sticks
Michael Miller Pet Deer Fabric
Cocoa Studio Forest Friends clipart

I am trying to keep things simple so the day is about my little girl and not just a party. Wish me luck! I think the first birthday party for your first child is a little overboard no matter what you do.

#2 By Black Friday I hope to triple my Etsy site holiday inventory. To get things rolling, I thought I would have my second shop giveaway. In honor of "Turkey Day" I am giving away this pheasant feather headband:

To enter, leave me a message telling me about your favorite item(s) or what you would like to see on my site. You can either leave a comment here or use the Convo feature on my Etsy site. I will randomly select the winner the day before I stuff myself with pumpkin pie smothered in real whipped cream.

Etsy Shop Announcement

2009-11-13T09:58:00.000-05:00

Just a note to check out my Etsy shop today: permanently reduced shipping (to Canada & Australia now too) and temporarily reduced prices on most items.

New outlet

2009-10-31T10:26:00.006-04:00

Yes, I abandoned this blog for awhile. Why? I started decluttering my brain by making crafts for an Etsy site. It has been therapeutic. I have added a link to my site on the right.

Recently, I was featured in an Etsy treasury (second row, second column) created by this awesome blogger seller. Check out the full thing here. Leave a comment if you like her Treasury and maybe it will make it to the front page of Etsy.

This was the other Treasury I was featured in (third row, first column) that has since expired, but I wanted to post it for those who missed it.

And so blog...I will try to maintain you better with my inspirations. and Etsy