My Sweetheart Giveaway

Sorry it took me so long to get things done for this giveaway. I had posted almost 2 weeks ago about reaching a milestone on etsy...2300 sales and decided to do another giveaway to celebrate.

Anyway after much thinking and deciding, I have made a set of valentine blocks and a sweet Love you more sign.


Here are the rules:

1. You must be a follower of my blog.
2. You must leave a comment on this post only.
3. Everyone can enter. International folks(other than Canada) if you win, I will split the costs of shipping the prizes to you, that way I don't have to exclude you folks from my giveaway.
4. Tell me what are your favorite things about Valentines Day.
5. Post this giveaway on your blog.
6. For an extra chance pop on over to my etsy shoppe and tell me what your favorite sign is.

So there are 4 chances to win. Let me know how many chances you have when you comment. If you don't have a blog, please leave me an email address so I can contact you if you win.

Deadline for enteries will be February 7th. Winning name will be drawn on February 8th. Thanks everyone and good luck.

Winter Finally Arrived

Winter arrived yesterday with an all out assault. Yesterday morning started out with a few inches of snow, not much, just enough to cause driving problems and to close local schools. The weatherman was sure wrong on that part of the storm as it was suppose to be just rain til late in the day.



We did get a break mid-morning and it didn't start again til early afternoon, first as rain, then it changed to thunder snow. It started snowing like mad with over 2" an hour falling to the ground. In the middle of it all the dear son, decides he wants to go to his girlfriends house 25 miles away. The hubby goes with him to drop him off and they pick up Sean from work along the way. Well it takes them 3 hours to get to the girlfriends.

I hear about the adventure when the hubby returns homes, telling me of how the state highway snowplows were stuck in various places, tons of cars were off the side of the road, and you would think that would have been when some common sense would have kicked in and said, hmmm...maybe we shouldn't be out on the roads, that it's just too bad. Did it? Nope!


What I got from the hubby was that it was so neat to test out the dear sons 4 wheel drive truck. Hmmmm...guess he forgot it's not how he's driving but the other idiots out there as evidenced by all the accidents and cars off the road that they saw! I swear males lack common sense! So almost 4 1/2 hours after they left the hubby returned home to tell me his tale...of course that was after I yelled at him for his and the sons stupidity of even venturing out in the first place. GRRRRR!

We ended up with 12" of the white stuff...winter can now go on it's merry way and let spring come.

Go Check Out FromMyHeartPrimtives Giveaway, Giveaway Win

Ok gals...hurry on over to Sharon's blog to check out her first giveaway. Sharon and I have been friends forever...well some days it seems like it's been! Even though we live in 2 separate states, we manage our long distance relationship just fine spending many, many hours on the phone each day!

Sharon and I do some craft shows together and meet up a few times a year for some fun shopping in Lancaster. Anyway, be sure to tell Sharon when you stop by that I sent ya!



I also want to thank Patti at Primitive Treasure On Raspberry Lane for the sweet snowman pattern that I won in her giveaway. I'll have to drag the sewing machine out and see if I remember how the darn thing works! LOL! Sure hope mine turns out as well!

A new team, 2300 sales and update

There's a new team on etsy for primitive and folk artists and I am a new member. You can search all the wonderful creations that they have to offer by typing in pafa team or click the link. I still have many, many items to add the pafa team tag to and hope to remember to do so as things are listed. The button on my sidebar will take you to their blog. Please sign up to follow as there are many exciting things that will be shared there.

I also hit another milestone on etsy....2300 sales! So I thought I would do a giveaway in honor of my milestone....stay tuned as I will post in the next day or two.

Thanks everyone for the comments and well wishes regarding my latest health problem. Things are day to day right now. I am learning to eat differently and trying to feel better and most days I do. Hopefully things will stabilize and I will be back to normal soon. I've started back to walking again, so that's a good thing that has come from all this.

A trip tp the ER and a new diet

After feeling crappy most of the day lasting through the next, I thought a trip to the emergency room was in order the other day. I thought my blood sugar was too low and was getting really worried because I was having symptoms for more than 24 hours. So being the practical gal that I am, I googled searched my symptoms and after reading everything decided it was time to take the bull by the horns so to speak. So at 1 am I decided it was time for the hubby to take me to the hospital to get it all checked out.

After lots of blood tests, an ekg, a urine test and lots of lost sleep, the doctor told me I have a slightly elevated blood sugar level. I am borderline hyperglycemic. Of course, most of my symptoms disappeared once I was at the ER and didn't have access to food, as that what was triggering the higher blood sugar level.

Anyway, my hubby has had the opposite condition all his life, hypoglycemia. So, once I came home we decided to put me on a high protein diet, much like Atkins and eliminate sugar from my diet. Gone are my beloved Panera spinach artichoke cheese souffles. So are my cinnamon crunch bagels...sigh! But what's a gal to do?

So far, I've totally changed what I eat and I am very happy to report that for the past 2 days, my blood sugar symptoms have disappeared. It is hard to adjust to not having any sugar, but I will try this for awhile and see how things pan out. Don't really have much choice at this point in time anyway.

I do have to go have a glucose tolerance test in the next couple of weeks, and hopefully I won't have to go on any meds. I also need to start back to walking every day.

Anyway, wish me luck on my new way of life. Til next time.

Some new typography signs

I started playing around with making typography signs last fall and have been really bitten by the bug! The art of typography is defined as the art and technique of type, type design and type glyphs.



Typography is performed by typesetters, typographers, graphic designers and comic book artist. In traditional typography text is composed to create a readable, coherent and visually satisfying work through the choice of fonts. Typographers also use color, text layout and white space to create the visual effect. Legibility and readability are the 2 main focuses for typographers.





I made some for the upcoming spring holidays. It's a challenge to see how many words I can think of for the theme and just how they will fit on the chosen sign blank. Here's my Irish typography sign and I have already shared my Love typography one in a previous post.


I created this sign as a Christmas gift for Sean's boss, John at the Wild Bird Center. We presented this to John at the dinner party that we attended. John was very touched by the gift. It is now proudly hanging on the front of Wild Bird Centers checkout counter.




Of course I couldn't leave out our four legged friends with their wagging tails...see thought of another phrase I could have added!






And here's one for the purring fur babies....






What mancave shouldn't have it's own typography sign? Here again there were amny, many more words that I could have put on this sign. I will customize this sign to meet the needs of the "cave man" in your life.



These and many more to come can be found at my etsy and my website.

Getting on Track

How many people made a New Years resolution to get their business and life on track and less cluttered? I know I do every year and while I don't quite end up as I had envisioned, at years end, I have made improvements.

I was just reading a magazine article that talked about this very thing...how to get on track and stay focused. And the perfect time to start is now.

One of the first things that they discussed was Touch it Once. Either do it, delegate it, file it or ditch it. Some hard words to live by, but if you adopt this philosophy things can only get better.



Another important point that was made was in regards to bookkeeping. Set up a system where you do the paperwork needed for your business now and keep it current. Make sure to enter onto a spreadsheet all those expense and income now, while you go through the year. It will make next years tax preparation so much easier and you could see at a glance just where your business stands if you have good financial information at your finger tips. Also find an accounting system that is easy and the right fit cause if you don't then you won't probably use it.


Make an extensive list of things to do for the day. Accomplish the most difficult ones first, because you don't want it to stare you in the face all day, now do ya? Making list also has a concreteness about it. You can visually see what you would like to accomplish and when you do get something done nothing like seeing it crossed off that list to warm your heart. I am a big list maker and when I follow my list it helps to keep me on track and focused.


Be selective with your time. Limit outside interruptions. If you don't value your time don't expect anyone else to. This includes family and friends. How many times have you heard "She doesn't have a "real" job, cause she works from home"? Little do they know that we probably spend more time doing what we do than working at a 9-5 job entails.


Decompress. Do something just for you. Make appointments with yourself. If you workout make sure to schedule it just as you would any other appointment. Make yourself a priority.


And finally stay up with technology. Even if you upgraded your software/hardware in the last 5 years, it may be out of date. Stay abreast of the new features of the software/hardware you are using and evaluate whether updating is worth the expense. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.

Hopefully this will give both you and me some things to think about and make a plan to implement these ideas. The sooner, the better.

Still Waiting For Winter

Not that I'm complaining mind you! After last winters 90+ inches of snow, this one could just go skipping on by and I'd be a happy camper! By this time last year we had already had one major snow storm under our belts and were working our way to "snowmeggedeon" as it's being called here in Baltimore.

Anyway, this morning we woke up to a dusting of snow and a 2 hr school delay. It's been cold here, and we have had a few dustings of snow so far this winter but nothing major. Although according to the weather man all that can change next Tuesday.

Love Is In The Air

It feels good to be nice and rested. After the whirlwind of December sales, adjusting to the slower January pace has been difficult. We operated on overdrive most of December, having the best month ever for my online sale venues not to mention all the holiday preparations to attend to. I had lots of hope to share our trip to the Christmas tree farm and the decorated result, but that didn't happen.



I hope to have shared the pictures from Sean's workplace Christmas dinner. We ate a restaurant that served "continental" food. The first course started off with cold beet and apple soup served in the tiniest bowl, no bigger than what a lip gloss pot is. Then there were the appetizers...sample one or two which were tasty but saved room for the main entree...I had rockfish....oh my, was it delish. Sean had sliders...he's just like Wimpy from Popeye! Give him a hamburger and he's a happy camper. He also had french fries...well they were to die for. They were sprinkled with truffle salt and had pieces of finely grated truffles...oh my were they addictive! Anyway, wish you all could have been there to taste and sample.


Anyway, Christmas morning came the present opening lasted about 5 minutes! It's amazing how fast the boys can open their present and as they have gotten older their presents have gotten smaller and more costly.




Anyway, I finally got back to work this past Monday. I made these new Valentine's Day signs and a few St. Patrick's Day that I will share with you later. I think I love the Love Shack one the best as when I was painting it, I keep singing the song from the B-52's! As usual, you can find these in my etsy shoppe and on my website.