Frustrated

I deleted my Giveaway post because ONE person had entered. ONE. (To that person who entered, if you would like a free bow, message me and I'll send you one.) How frustrating is that? I totally thought it would be a big hit. It was $10 to my shops, not bad! There's a lot of things for under $10 in my shop and you could definitely buy more than one thing! I feel like an ignored failure, and my confidence in my items has plummeted. This has never happened.

My shop is really slow going right now. It picked up a bit in the beginning of June, but that was only because I was running a sale through CafeMom, so a couple of moms took advantage of that. I just don't understand it. I think I have some really cute stuff up. I have several beanies, lots of korkers and simple clips. I have bug bows and pinwheel bows. There are just too many bow sellers on Etsy and I get lost on the crowd. I love Art Fire, but the client base just isn't the same as Etsy. I'm getting frustrated. I can't wait for the craft shows this late summer and fall. I know I'll be stressing to build my inventory but I know I'll love the outcome!

I've made a whole bunch new bows, so I'll have to take pictures and post them. They're all mini korkers and super cute!

I start my Monday-Thursday classes this Thursday. I have a good month of classes everyday, with four hours of classes Monday and Wednesday. This should be interesting...I had been planning on taking a look at my math book this weekend, but got sidetracked by the hair bows, so I didn't. I'll do it this next week and next weekend. I have plenty of time since my friend has gone down to the lower 48 for a couple of weeks. :)

I really don't have much else to say. It's been a little cloudy here lately. I've been waiting for a nice day to break out Brooke's pool, but no such luck. Every time we enter the garage she says, "My pool! My pool!" Poor kid. It's sitting there just teasing her.

Alright. I should get going!

Wow. What a weekend. Well, I should say what a Saturday night. My friends 25th birthday was this past week, so she wanted to celebrate this weekend. I was all for it! Boy, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Jenn ended up inviting her softball team, so there were eight of us heading out on the town. We all piled into Jenn's suburban and headed to Chilkoot Charlies. We had a blast there. There were games and food and of course drinks. At around 11 we went to Platinum Jaxx. I had one drink there and started chugging water. Jenn however, was three sheets to the wind. I tried cutting her off, but she wasn't listening. :) We got home around 2 P.M. and she all but poured herself into bed. I ended up going home around 4 A.M. because I couldn't fall asleep. All I kept thinking of was my huge comfy bed. Brooke and I slept until around 10 A.M. this morning, so if you do that math, I got about 5 hours of sleep. I am all but useless today. I called went and got Jenn this morning for a good greasy breakfast. Man did that hit the spot. I also didn't feel like cooking dinner so I just ordered delivery Mexican. YUM. My house also looks like a mini tornado went though. Yikes.

I was somewhat productive this afternoon while my daighter napped. I knew that if I took a nap, I would be even more tired than I already was. So I made some new clips and clips for an order I got. I love making mini korkers! I also made a mini mini korker and mounted it on a snap clip. I loved how it turned out, so I think I'm going to have to make more. :)




I think I will be going to bed early tonight. I am exhausted.

Toddlers...

Why don't toddlers stay by their parents unprompted? Ever since Brooke learned how to walk, I've noticed that baby animals in the wild always stay close to their mothers while mine runs wild. Why can't my child do this?

Old Navy Obsession...

I have an Old Navy Obsession...do that have an Old Navy Anonymous? I guess I can blame it on OldNavyWeekly.com. Coupons are the death of me. Especially the ones that are $50 off $100 purchase. I have gotten them two weeks in a row now. I have Old Navy clothes coming out of my years. But I am quite proud of my bargain today. I saved $179 on clothes, that's more than I spent! If I hadn't gotten a discount, the total would have been around $400. How did I save so much? Well, all of the mens items were 50% off and then if you add in my $50 off, that's about 70% in savings. I didn't pay over $11 for anything. I bought so many clothes I had to utilize my rippling muscles (or is it fat?) to carry all of my bargains out to the car. Eric, if you're reading this, your loving wife bought you 2 pairs of cargo shorts, 4 new pairs of jeans, a couple of polo shirts and numerous t-shirts. You have a whole new wardrobe. :) Love me even more? I went with Jenn, and she saved $125 on her lot. Pretty good eh?

I made new tutu! I did this last night when I should have been doing homework. I ran out of pink and black for my last tutu, so this is my first completed tutu, and it turned out tutu cute! I named it Blueberries and Chocolate.


So cute don't you think?

Ok, I'm off to make dinner!

Adorable Tutus!

What a weekend! We had a wonderful one.

We went to a carnival that was on post yesterday. It was smaller than I thought it was going to be, but Brooke got to ride a couple of rides. This was the first time she went on a ride by herself, and she did really well! She sat down the whole time and threw a fit when we left.



I started a new craft. TuTus! RibbonsAndBowsOhMy.com started carrying tulle, and they were having a 10% off introductory sale, so I thought I would buy a few spools and try it out. I could never understand why people charge so much for them, now I know why. They take forever! You have to measure it out, cut the strips, and then wrap it around the ribbon or elastic. Yikes. The pictures below is the of the first tutu I have ever made. It took me forever. I will NOT be selling this one...


I finally went online and took a look at a tutorial on YouTube and the way the lady described it on there made it seem a lot less complicated. So I tried again. I got 5/6 of the way done and I ran out of pink tulle! So now I have it hanging up in my closet waiting to be finished.

And then I had an epiphany! If the spools came 6 inches wide, did they come 3 inches wide??? They sure did! I found a supplier online, ordered a butt load and now I only have to cut them length wise! So much simplier. I'm so lazy.

I'm hoping to sell the tutus for a pretty reasonable price. I'm thinking around $15. I also want to have a good stock for the craft shows coming up, because what princess doesn't want a princess tutu???

And so the week beings tomorrow. Back to school. I have homework to turn in that I haven't finished. And I still need to take the garbage out. Crap.

Well guys, I'm off! Night!

A sick baby is a cranky baby...

My daughter has a cold. Or allergies. All I know is that she woke up with booger in her eyelids (not eye boogers, nose boogers), has had a runny nose all day, sneezing and her eyes are watering. I hope it's allergies. I gave her some allergy medicine, and her eyes have stopped watering. I hope she takes a good nap. She went swimming at daycare yesterday and one of our friends has a cold, so she may have gotten it from those things. Jeez I hope not. A sick Brooke is a cranky Brooke. And a cranky Brooke is a cranky mommy.

And on top of a sick toddler, my washing machine decided to be a brat. I threw a load of Brooke's darks in the washer last night. I noticed that the washing machine was making this weird buzzing noise, but I ignored it. Bad idea. I forgot to throw her stuff in the dryer last night, so when I went down this morning I found the water had not drained. So I thought that if I ran the washer again it may drain. Wrong. So after several attempts I finally have up and went and rinsed every item in the sink and rung them out before I threw them in the drier. Gah. So then I ran the washer with nothing in it to see if it would drain, and it did. So I don't know. I think I'll throw a few of my t-shirts in there to see if it happens again. I hope it doesn't. I mean, it isn't our washer, so I would have to call our landlord, and my house isn't the cleanest right now, so I don't want to call him over here. Ha. Eh.

Yesterday I went over to Jenn and Jasmine's for park time and dinner. Jenn made us shrimp alfredo and it was yummo! We also took the girls to the park and Brooke had a blast as usual. She went down the biggest slide and loved it! She sure loves to climb things. There was a curved ladder leading up to a platform, and she must have climbed that thing at least 20 times in a row. She's not so graceful on her feet, but she sure can maneuver up things like a pro.

This Saturday there's a carnival on post. Jenn and I are going to take the girls. There are free rides and such, so I think it will be a good time for all!

I finally made up a couple of adult slouch beanies. I bought a foam head off EBay to help model it. I wish they made kid sized foam heads, but they don't. Anyways, I thought it turned out cute. I would like to sell it, but I don't know about listing it in my Bows For Baby shop, since this isn't for a baby. Maybe I could do a "Mommy and Me" listing. I'm a little sad that the toddler version isn't selling better. I think they're super adorable. They have been hearted on Etsy a couple of times, but no bites!




Alright. I should get some lunch into my child and get her down for a nap. I have homework to do, and a washing machine to fix.

My daughter got in a fight with the coffee table and lost...big time.

It's a good thing we didn't name our daughter Grace, because she was born with NONE of it. I had told Eric that when our daughter was born, we would more than likely have to wrap her in bubble wrap and adorn her head with a football helmet, just to keep her from breaking. I was pretty much right on. She has had more than her share of spills, and this is the result from the last one. Brooke is a little dare devil, and sometimes she doesn't use her best judgment. This afternoon she was sitting on her super cool trike that daddy bought her for her birthday and started rocking. Bad idea. Next thing you know, she tips over sideways and all I can do is gasp. I can see her poor little face/neck/head heading towards the corner of our coffee table and I know that a booboo is inevitable. I was down on the floor before she hit (too far away to prevent said ouchie) and was right there to gather her in my arms and assess the damage. Her neck got the brunt of it, and it got it pretty good. She screamed for a good 2 minutes, wiped her boogers onto my shoulder and then walked away. I can say that this kid has about a 2 second rebound rate. Below are pictures of the damage. Poor kid.



I went to Old Navy today because I was lucky enough to snag one of the $50 off $100 coupons from their oldnavyweekly.com site. I had purchased these really cute brown shoes from Payless a couple of weeks ago and realized that I had NOTHING to wear them with. So I went to ON today with Jenn and brought her a 30% off $50 or more coupon. My bill went from $105 to $55. How nice is that? I got a brown skirt and a few t-shirts. I now have enough t-shirts to outfit a new ON. I still would like to gt a couple of brown dresses so I can wear my new shoes more often. :) BUT, I have an awesome summer wardrobe that I'm super excited about.

My Just Cavalli purse was due to arrive today, so while I was at ON I left a note on my front door, just in case they came to deliver when I was gone. My note read, "UPS-Please leave package at door. Thanks!" But they didn't come when I was gone. But they DID come right when Brooke woke up from her nap! The purse is A LOT bigger than I expected, but I love it! It will be perfect for going anywhere since there's enough room in it for everything we need. I mean, a $530 purse for $208?? Cheaper than Coach. :) There could be a few more pockets, but I'll deal. Haha :)


I went on a clip making spree yesterday. I really like the little ribbon tie added to the clip. It gives it just a little something extra. I really didn't feel like doing homework, so I created instead! I love the colors and plan on listing them over the next week or so. The first set I've listed in my Artfire Shop. They're very reasonable at only $3 for the set. Great for gifts in great summer colors!





I also wanted to remind you that my etsy Team, etsyBABY, is having a Customer Appreciation Sale. There are quite a few shops participating in this and it runs from June 1- June 15. I am participating as well. You can see the list of shops and discounts here.

Now I have to figure out what the heck I'm going to make for dinner. Suggestions anyone?